Monday, February 24, 2014

A Tale of 2 Cities and Poverty




A Tale of Two Cities: The Haves and the Have Not Have Less 
While the state and city economies are modestly creating jobs, paychecks are stagnating or worse—with all too many New Yorkers facing a diminished standard of living for themselves and their children, the Daily Newswrites:  As Brooklyn Rents Have Gone Up 30% to 100% the average annual paycheck, when adjusted for inflation, stood at $43,724 in 2004. By 2013, it had shriveled to just $39,959 — a devastating 8.6% drop. The trend for working New Yorkers is undeniably bleak — and stands as an urgent call to action for Gov. Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and the rest of New York’s elected leaders. Huge forces are at work. Among them are the loss of manufacturing jobs due to globalization and automation, health-care costs that take an ever-bigger bite out of employers’ budgets and the concentration of job growth in low-paying sectors like retail and home health care. No mention of how rezoning has taken so many manufacturing jobs and turned many mixed used communities into a luxury brand.*  Despite considerable growth in the New York City economy over the past two decades, very little of that growth has trickled down to the average worker and his or her family, according to a report from theFiscal Policy Institute:


Shush . . . Income inequality is Increasing in NYC Because of Gentrification
De Blasio brought his message on income inequality to theinternational stage Wednesday with a speech in the U.K., further solidifying his position as a leader in the activist wing of the Democratic Party.


More Evidence of Pushing the Poor Out of New York City  
NYC Elected Leaders Who Vote for Every Tax Break to Luxury Developers Are Shocked That the Poor Are Being Pushed Out of the City 

While incomes of the lowest earners have stagnated, those of the wealthiest New Yorkers have soared, benefiting in part from the resurgence of the financial industry.

The Technical Definition of Middle Income has Become Wealthy 
Apartment building struggles to find middle-income tenants(NYP)In a city with an apartment ­vacancy rate of less than 2 percent, and where an average Manhattan one-bedroom is nearly $4,000 a month, the Gotham West complex has vacant one-bedrooms that cost $2,509.  To qualify for that one-bedroom, you have to make between $88,102 and $95,865 a year. There are also openings for studio and two- and three-bedroom units targeted for middle-income renters in the city-sponsored complex on West 45th and West 44th streets.Former IRS official says NYS leaves millions on the table bynot auditing large real estate concern:

Affordable Housing Has Become A Band-aid On A Cancer for Elected Officials to Protect Them From What They Are Doing to Our City With Their Tax Breaks to Developers 
Poor Door’ in a New York Tower Opens a Fight Over Affordable Housing(NYT)
As public housing becomes a relic, American cities have grown morereliant on developers, who say they can maximize their revenues and build more affordable units, by separating them from their luxury counterparts. * Real Estate Developers, Tax Breakes and Politics

How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
Airbnb Housing Market
Many of the high-ranking bureaucrats de Blasio has charged with correcting New York City’s “tale of two cities” income inequality problem are quite well off themselves. 


Homeless Growing Crisis and the Poor Bronx Home Owners
City wants emergency landlords for homeless families to cut rent(NYP)
Almost a fifth of Bronx homeowners owe on their mortgages(NYP)  Nearly one in five homeowners in the Bronx are underwater on their mortgages. The Bronx leads the city in homes that are worth less than their mortgages, meaning owners who sell would lose money. Brooklyn fared the best, with only 9% of homeowners in a similar situation. [Crain's New York Business] * New New York City Human Resources Administration Commissioner Steven Banks announced a set of changes that would remove some work requirements and other barriers to receiving public assistance, the New York Times writes: * Will de Blasio’s Plan to End Homelessness Go Far Enough?(NYO) *De Blasio administration proposes rental assistance programs for homeless families(NYDN)
More on the City's Homeless
A Tale of 2 Cities and Poverty

 

* The New York City Human Resources Association fails to comply with its own procedures for processing documents, according to an analysis by the Safety Net Project, which ends up costing taxpayers when welfare applicants take complaints to the courts and often win, the Daily News writes: http://goo.gl/TQZfOJ

 

As City’s Elderly Population Swells, Concerns Rise Over Lack of Access to Retirement Plans(NYT)
New York officials are being asked to consider creating a pooled pension fund for private sector workers, many of whom don’t have a retirement plan.

 

 

NYC poverty rate hit 21.4% in 2012: study(NYDN)

Real Tale of Two Cities Grows Wider . . . Mayor Powerless to Change
Rhetorical Ideological
Governing  Doomed
The real job(NYDN Ed) The city's wealth gap is getting wider, and harder to bridge. An analysis of tax returns by the Independent Budget Office shows that members of the city’s top 1% saw incomes surge by a more-than-healthy 17% between 2009 and 2011 as Wall Street bounced back from the Great Recession. Paychecks for the 90%, meanwhile, barely kept pace with inflation, growing 5% overall. * Woman sues Dep Mayor Buery for alleged firing over age while he was Children’s Aid Society CEO A woman who used to work under New York City Deputy Mayor for Strategic Policy Initiatives Richard Buery when he was Children’s Aid Society CEO is suing him for allegedly firing her because he thought she was too old, the Post writes

* De Blasio and the New York Center for Economic Opportunity submitted new data to the New York City Council showing poverty rates in the city have remained unchanged, despite modest recovery from the 2008 recession: http://goo.gl/UjQyt1

In non-Grimm news, “New York City’s share of poor people appears to have plateaued since the recession, at 21.4 percent, with more people working in 2012 than the year before, but at lower wages, according to a new city study,” The New York Times reports. “But under a broader definition of poverty that the city applies, the picture remains grim for a far larger number of New Yorkers.”
“We’re not unrealistic about what a city can do,” First Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris told the Times. “But after four years, we’ll be asking whether our interventions were effective in changing what would have been the course of poverty in New York. What would the city have looked like had we not made those interventions?”


NYC Growing Poorer

LOVETT: Activist for poor makes more than Gov. Cuomo(NYDN)A leading activist for the poor who has ripped Gov. Cuomo over the issue of income inequality actually makes more money than the governor. Michael Kink, executive director of the union-backed Strong Economy for All Coalition, pulls in at least $183,000 a year, sources close to him say.* Hard to stomach (NYDN Ed) New Yorkers are struggling for food and Washington is turning its back.* BITTER TASTE: In a city with 1.4 million using food pantries to survive, it's no longer just the unemployed and homeless who are going hungry in NY(NYDN) * Hamill: Hard-working families under more strain after $5B food stamp cuts(NYDN)

No End of A Tale of Two City's Here Will de Blasio Affordable Housing Be Any different Than Past Mayor Plans?
Why will de Blasio's affordable housing stop the rising of the rents in Brooklyn and Manhattan When Koch's and Bloomberg's have now?
    1. We have had height and affordable housing for a while yet the poor and middle class are being pushed out of the city.  Explain?

For New Yorkers, Ed Koch's legacy lies in the housing he championed for the poor(NYDN) Despite a tumultuous third term, Koch's political legacy will be linked to the pride he felt in building low-income housing in the city and the passion in which he championed a New York where all income levels could live comfortably.

Half Of New York City Is Living In Near Poverty

NYC poverty rate hit 21.4% in 2012: study - NY Daily News

 

Bill de Blasio's war for poverty | New York Post

Census shows NYC poverty rate up, inequality high - WSJ ...

 

In New York City, Poverty Defined In New Terms : NPR(2009)

NYC's Poverty Rate Goes Up for 3rd Straight Year - WNYC(2012)

True News (The Bund): Homless

 

True News (The Bund): unemployment

 


 50 years after LBJ launched the Great Society, which programs worked and which didn't?

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