Day: September 10, 2024

A roundup of Brooklyn’s cultural offerings this week, from comedy to theater to music to art, and what critics are saying about them.

The post What They’re Saying: live arts in Brooklyn this week, Sept. 10 appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

NYC commuters can purchase OMNY cards at dozens of subway stations throughout the city, as the MTA move to phase out MetroCards and introduce the new payment system continues.

Commuters can now buy OMNY cards from 201 machines activated in 87 train stations in every borough except Staten Island. This is a significant increase from the MTA’s pilot program that launched nearly a year ago, when only 10 machines sold the tappable cards in six stations.

The added machines are located in smaller stations and more bustling transportation hubs, including 34 Street/Penn Station, Grand Central, Times Square, Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center, 74 Street/Broadway, and many others.

A complete list of stations can be found at omny.info.

Customers can use cash, credit and debit cards, and digital wallets to purchase an OMNY card. Similar to MetroCards, an OMNY card costs $1, and the cards last up to five years, which is three years longer than newly issued MetroCards. Transit riders can also reload or check balances on their cards at the machines. Refilling OMNY can also be done online after registering a card.

(TIP: New to OMNY? Check out this short video from the MTA on how to use it.)

What New Yorkers are saying about OMNY

The MTA originally planned to outfit all 472 subway stations with OMNY through 2024, but a complete rollout is now scheduled by the middle of next year, an agency spokesperson said. 

Meanwhile, some New Yorkers are taking a liking to the new system.

NYC commuter Elena Quinones said she was skeptical of OMNY at first but is now a fan of the system.

“I finally got my OMNY,” she said. “I was apprehensive but got it. It’s always on me. I have it set to automatically refill when it’s low. It works for transfers. It’s good for me.”

Carolyn Ryden, another transit customer, agrees.

“I’ve been using the OMNY card for about a couple of months as a result of my MetroCard malfunctioning due to it getting bent,” she said. “OMNY is so much better for me as I can just scan the card easily and add value whenever I need to, day or night. I no longer have to rush to find a vending machine to add or pay for my rides.”

New Yorkers are also opting for the easy tap-and-go method. This is another convenient option commuters use by tapping their debit or credit card, or digital wallet, on readers installed on all turnstiles and buses since 2020.

MetroCards are still around

For anyone who loves nostalgia, the good news is that the MTA has yet to completely ditch MetroCards. MetroCard machines are still active, though customers have reported issues with machines not accepting cash or credit at the same time.

Currently, OMNY is unavailable on Staten Island, but commuters are finding ways to make due on their public transportation travels into the rest of the city.

“I have been using pay per ride MetroCards,” Dawn Paolillo, a Staten Island commuter, said. “I still have three I need to use. I do know about OMNY, but I may use tap and pay.”

NYC train stations with active OMNY vending machines include: The Port Authority Bus Terminal, Penn Station, Grand Central Station, 34 Street-Herald Square, Lexington Avenue/53 Street in Manhattan; Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike, Rockaway Avenue, 74 Street/Broadway, Jackson Heights/Roosevelt Avenue in Queens; Bay Ridge/95 Street, Jay Stree/MetroTech, Court Street in Brooklyn; and Fordham Road in the Bronx.

A ferry could finally be in the works for Coney Island.

It depends on whether the city council greenlights a bill introduced by Council Member Justin Brannan that would require city agencies to conduct a study on a potential ferry service in the nabe.

The proposed law would require Department of Transportation commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez to open a study and report on the feasibility of a Coney Island ferry, with help from the Department of Small Business Services and the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

“I’m officially resurrecting the push for an ocean side Coney ferry with service from Steeplechase Pier to Manhattan,” Brannan said on X. “I fought to bring an express ferry back to Bay Ridge and it’s been a game changer. Now it’s time to finally make the Coney ferry a reality.”

Brannan’s bill encourages the city to consider potential terminal sites in walkable locations for southern Brooklynites, whether by constructing a new facility or converting an existing facility. It further considers placing a terminal the Steeplechase Pier near West 16th Street and at other potential sites in the waters of the Coney Island Channel and on the ocean side of the peninsula.

The proposal breathed new life into the fight for a ferry for many Coney Islanders. Advocates have long petitioned for an oceanside ferry that could increase accessibility to Manhattan. Their fire was extinguished a bit in 2022 when plans for a ferry on the creekside were paused indefinitely. City officials had discovered a significant sand shift in the on the floor of the creek, which posed a safety and navigation risk, and said that constructing a ferry landing at any of the proposed sites would have cost at least five times as much as a standard ferry landing. 

Residents pushed back that same year, with cries like “We deserve a ferry.”

One of those cries came from Craig Hammerman, co-president of Coney Islanders for an Oceanside Ferry, a pro-ferry advocacy group. 

“The city has previously found that Coney Island is worthy of a ferry service and we’re in full agreement with the city. For all the same reasons that were justified on the creek side location, they’re just as justified for the oceanside project,” he told Brooklyn Paper.

If the law is passed, the city would also have to evaluate possible logistical challenges—existing channels, piers, and routes—that could interfere with introducing the Coney Island ferry and propose solutions to said challenges. Rodriguez would then have to submit the findings to Mayor Eric Adams and Speaker of the Council Adrienne Adams within a year of the law being passed.

Hammerman considers the law good news for locals. But he hopes the community can play a larger participatory role than in previous years, increasing their chance of actually enjoying a Coney Island ferry.

“This [law] is tremendous news because it’s really the only path forward we have,” Hammerman said. “There’s ample opportunity for the community to be involved moving forward. It’s time to start writing the next chapter for Coney Island.”

While the annual income needed to afford to purchase a home in New York City was still significantly higher than the national average in August 2024, there was a large decrease year-over-year, thanks in large part to mortgage rates declining, according to a report by the real estate listing site StreetEasy.

Based on U.S. Census data used in the study, the minimum income needed to buy a home in New York City was $211,970 in August 2024. While this number is nearly three times more than the national market, it still presents a significant improvement from a year ago. This new minimum income is over $10,000 less than the $222,595 needed in August 2023.

One of the biggest factors in such a large drop year-over-year in the needed minimum income is that the 30-year mortgage rate dropped to a 16-month low during the last week of August 2024, going just under 6.5%. Even with asking prices still being high, prospective buyers now have more power thanks to the drop in mortgage rates.

The report indicated that buyers will continue to gain more negotiating power in New York City in the coming months as more homes reach the market. Price cuts are much more common than last year, which is a sign that asking prices in New York City may have already reached their peak and will trend down.

When it comes to the income needed to afford a home in each borough, Manhattan had the highest median price, at $308,449. The next-highest was Brooklyn, at $212,375, closest to the city’s average among all boroughs. Staten Island was third, at $151,483. Queens was right behind Staten Island at $136,527. The Bronx had the lowest median price, at just $73,826.

Even after a $10,625 drop in the minimum income needed to buy a median-priced home in New York City, the cost is still very high. This also extends to the income needed for a home in the lower third of the city’s real estate market, at $94,861. This annual household income encompasses approximately 39% of all New York City households.

Staten Island had the highest median income needed among the boroughs for homes in the lower third of the real estate market, at $116,705, edging out second-place Manhattan’s $110,233. Brooklyn was right in the middle, at $95,063. As was the case for the overall median income needed, Queens and the Bronx had the lowest required income necessary to buy a home in the bottom third of the real estate market, at $79,893 and $56,229, respectively.

A mural honoring ancient and modern figures in medicine that has hung in the lobby of Pfizer’s Manhattan headquarters for more than 60 years could soon end up in pieces if conservationists can’t find a new home for it in the next few weeks. “Medical Research Through the Ages,” a massive metal and tile mosaic […]

The post Mural honoring scientists in Pfizer’s NYC lobby is now up for grabs appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

SEVEN MEMBERS OF the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples gang have been  indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District.

The post Back to School Party on Montague Street this Sunday appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.