Day: September 17, 2024

DESPITE SPENDING A RECORD-BREAKING $1 billion on police overtime, response times to the most serious crimes like shooting and assaults.

The post NYPD seeks man who removed knife from active crime scene in subway appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Over the course of the summer of 2024, viewed as the peak rental season, Queens and Brooklyn each experienced sharp increases in competition among renters compared to the same time in 2023 and Manhattan maintaining a high degree of such competition, according to a Rental Competitiveness Report by the real estate listing site RentCafe.

In the study, five relevant metrics in terms of rental competitiveness were applied to each city. These metrics were the number of days apartments were vacant and the percentage of apartments that were occupied by renters. the number of prospective renters competing for an apartment, the percentage of renters who renewed their leases and the share of new apartments completed recently. Based on the results from these metrics, a Rental Competitive Index score was calculated.

Manhattan was determined to have the ninth-hottest rental market across the United States in the summer of 2024, with a Rental Competitive Index score of 82.2. This is reflective of how challenging it is to get a rental apartment there. With so few units available, competition is fierce for the few that do enter the market. Apartment hunters in Manhattan faced a 65.8% lease renewal rate as virtually no new units opened there recently, leading to a high occupancy rate of 95.4% in peak season, up from 94.7% last summer. The few vacant apartments there are typically leased within 37 days, with nine renters competing for each available unit on average.

Queens and Brooklyn are facing growing challenges similar to those of Manhattan, including rising lease renewal rates amid limited new apartments. This is due in large part to the existing challenges in Manhattan, which are leading prospective renters to pivot to these nearby areas.

Brooklyn is ranked right behind Manhattan in the Rental Index score, at 82 – the tenth-highest in the nation. This marks a huge year-over-year increase, up 10.3 points from 2023. While the amount of new apartments in Brooklyn ended up increasing by 0.75% over this period of time, there was still a 3.3% jump in tenants renewing their leases, from 66.2% last year to 69.5% this year. Consequently, less than 4% of apartments in this borough are available for prospective renters, with an average of 14 people competing for each unit.

While the Rental Index score in Queens may not be as high as Manhattan or Brooklyn, this borough has seen the most significant boost in score among them, up 12.8 points from 58.7 in 2023 to 71.5 in 2024. The lease renewal rate has also gone up over this period of time, from 63.8% last year to 68.2% this year. That large increase has played a big part in apartments being highly sought after, with nine renters competing for each unit.

The notable increases in competitiveness across these boroughs and New York City as a whole can mainly be attributed to a combination of high lease renewal rates, limited new supply, and the city’s ongoing economic strength. While renters looking for more affordable options have been turning to Brooklyn and Queens more often, these areas have now become just as competitive as Manhattan.

Based on the study’s results, the national Rental Competitive Index score was 75.8. The average number of days that rentals were vacant increased from 37 last year to 39 this year, causing the average number of renters competing for each apartment to decrease from 10 to 9.

THE NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE OF SPECIAL INVESTIGATION (OSI) has opened an investigation into the death of Vilmond Jean-Baptiste.

The post Restler: Report shows turmoil at NYPD has ‘undermined city’s public safety’ appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

The city took one step closer to cleaner, greener package delivery on Tuesday as the Department of Transportation advanced a delivery “microhub” pilot program.

The hubs would give truck drivers a space to safely transfer their cargo from long-haul trucks to smaller, safer, and more sustainable methods of “last-mile delivery,” including handcarts, electric vans, and e-cargo bikes — hopefully reducing the environmental and street safety impacts of large trucks on city streets. 

“Microhubs will offer a more sustainable and efficient way to make deliveries and reduce the number of big delivery trucks on our streets,” said DOT commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez, in a statement. “These microhubs will make our streets greener and safer for all New Yorkers and we are excited to launch the first locations in Greenpoint, Clinton Hill, and the Upper West Side.” 

The program is part of the city’s overarching effort to bring down the number of delivery trucks traversing local streets. Before the pandemic, roughly 40% of all deliveries in New York City were being made directly to residential consumers, according to DOT. Now, that number is 80%, and almost all residential and commercial deliveries are made with trucks — which bring with them exhaust fumes and safety hazards.

Brooklynites in areas like Red Hook say the proliferation of delivery trucks has brought exhaust pollution and gridlock to their neighborhoods, and delivery trucks parked in bike lanes or double-parked on local streets create hazards for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians. Last year, the city announced plans to open new waterfront shipping hubs in an effort to replace short-haul truck deliveries with a combination of sail freight and eco-friendly last mile delivery, and in April, DOT authorized the use of cargo bikes for deliveries on city streets. 

Microhubs are set to open in Greenpoint, Clinton Hill, and on the Upper West Side as part of the three-year pilot program, with at least 20 more set to open during the first year. The rule proposed on Sept. 17 would officially allow the city to establish “microhub zones” on city streets and city property for the duration of the pilot. A public hearing on the rule is set for Oct. 17. 

Both hubs currently proposed in Brooklyn would be tucked beneath the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway: one in Greenpoint, on Meeker Avenue between Sutton and Kingsland avenues, and another on Park Avenue in Clinton Hill, between Washington and Hall streets.

The microhubs would be used and operated by interested local businesses, according to DOT, who would be required to transfer their deliveries to greener modes of last-mile transport within the hub itself — not on the street. Over the duration of the program, the city would gather data on the average daily use of the hubs, the types of sustainable last-mile transport used, the number of truck trips replaced by greener methods, and more. 

“This promising microhub pilot is part of our comprehensive plan to reducing truck traffic on city streets,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, in a statement. “Our focus is on fostering a safer, healthier environment for New Yorkers, while streamlining the massive surge in online deliveries with lower-impact vehicles. We expect this pilot to yield fewer double-parked trucks and ad-hoc unloading zones, resulting in a more organized curb.”