The two-week strike by unionized employees of Verizon offset all of the hiring that occurred last month in New York City and pushed the city’s unemployment rate up slightly, according to figures released Thursday by the State Department of Labor.

The city’s official unemployment rate rose to 8.7 percent in August from 8.6 percent in July, as the total number of jobs declined, the department reported. Even discounting the strike, the city’s job market remained weak at the end of the summer as fears of another recession spoiled some employers’ appetites for new workers.

Without the strike by 8,700 Verizon workers, the city’s private-sector employment would have fallen by 4,500 jobs, after adjustments for the usual seasonal trends in hiring and firing, said Barbara Byrne Denham, an economist with Eastern Consolidated, a real estate services firm in Manhattan. Countering those losses — in jobs, if not in incomes — was a gain of about 4,900 government jobs in the month, she said.

Source: NY Times Continue Reading This Article Here

The Rent Guidelines Board has approved a nearly 4 percent hike for rent-stabilized apartments in the city, affecting some 1.1 million apartments by 3.75 percent for one-year renewals and 7.25 percent for two-year contracts, the New York Daily News reported. The hikes will take effect October 1.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Jesse Duperon, who lives in a rent-stabilized unit in the East Village. “They’re turning their backs on the New Yorkers that stood through the crisis of 9/11.”

The increases are more substantial than those of the past two years, the Daily News said. Last October, the board approved increases of 2.25 percent for one-year lease renewals and 4.5 percent for two-year deals.

There some good news for tenants: The board vetoed a 1 percent surcharge for oil-heated buildings to compensate owners for rising prices.

Source: The Real Deal

The Rent Guidelines Board will hold a final vote tonight on how much the tenants of more than one million rent-regulated city apartments will pay this fall.

Board members are gathering at Cooper Union’s Great Hall at 5:30 p.m. to consider a hike of 3 to 5.75 percent for one-year lease renewals and an increase of 6 to 9 percent for two-year lease renewals.

Buildings heated by oil would be hit with an extra 1-percent surcharge.

The Rent Stabilization Association, which represents some 25,000 property owners in the city, says raising rents are necessary to help keep up with the higher costs of running a building, such as fuel oil and rising taxes.

“The value of buildings has actually dropped this year, but tax assessments continue to go up, tax rates continue to go up, and water and sewer costs are right behind them,” said said Frank Ricci of the Rent Stabilization Association.

Tenants’ rights advocates say if there is any increase, it should be on the lower end of the range being considered by the Rent Guidelines Board.

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After a long battle followed by days of protracted deal-making, the New York State Senate voted Friday night to legalize same-sex marriage in the Empire State.

The historic yet divisive measure passed by a narrow margin of 33 votes to 29.

The vote will make New York the sixth state – and the largest one to date – to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

It will become law 30 days after Governor Andrew Cuomo signs the bill.

In a series of emotional speeches on the Senate floor, lawmakers both for and against the measure spelled out the factors that led to their decision

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Governor Cuomo plans to meet with prominent gay activists in order to push for a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage in New York, sources tell NY1.

They say the governor will attend a brain storming session on Wednesday in order to put together a solid measure and introduce it by June.

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Well-connected New Yorkers have taken the unusual step of suing the city to remove a controversial bicycle lane in a wealthy neighborhood of Brooklyn, the most potent sign yet of opposition to the Bloomberg administration’s marquee campaign to remake the city’s streets.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, comes after a year of dueling petitions, pamphlets and rallies over a bike path installed by the city last summer along Prospect Park West.

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High water bills due to leaky pipes can drain one’s bank account, but new technology from the city Department of Environmental Protection could change that.

The DEP is using wireless water meters across the city and will contact residents if it sees their bills spiking.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in Douglaston, Queens today that the technology will save residents money and the city water.

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Mayor Bloomberg has yielded to Controller John Liu’s demand that the city rein in the skyrocketing cost of its 911 system modernization.

Liu refused in January to approve a new $286 million contract for defense giant Northrop Grumman to design and install computer software for a $650 million backup 911 call center the city is building in the Bronx as part of that modernization.

City Hall aides responded last week by submitting an amended Northrop Grumman contract to Liu – for just $94 million. In addition, they gave in to his demand that it be a fixed price contract that guards against cost overruns, instead of one that pays consultants by the hour.

Source: NY Daily News Continue reading the article here

A billboard that an anti-abortion group erected last Friday in SoHo, a half-mile from a Planned Parenthood center, claiming that “the most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb,” quickly stirred discussion and controversy.

“This billboard simply doesn’t belong in New York City,” Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, said in a statement. “The ad violates the values of New Yorkers and is grossly offensive to women and minorities.”

“A mix of intolerance and bad judgment put this ad up,” he added. “Common decency demands it be taken down.”

Source: NY Times Continue Reading This Article Here

Plans for building new city schools got slashed by 16,000 seats, Education Department officials announced Friday.

Neighborhoods – such as Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Riverdale, the Bronx; North Shore, Staten Island and Bayside, Queens – each will lose out on hundreds of seats that the agency had expected to build by 2014.

Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, alone will lose 1,570 previously planned spots for students.

City officials passed the buck, blaming the state for slashing their budget for new projects by 48%.

“Albany’s proposed cuts to our school construction efforts will mean more overcrowding, fewer new buildings and deteriorating conditions at our existing buildings,” said Chancellor Cathie Black in a statement.

Source: NY Daily News Continue Reading Here