The number of New Yorkers who declared bankruptcy was up 31% over the first seven months of 2008, according to a new report. Crain’s New York Business found that 14,407 people waved the financial white flag from January to July, but only 11,026 did so during the corresponding period last year. Experts attributed the increase [...]
It’s tough to get a parking spot in Jackson Heights, Queens – unless you are City Councilwoman Helen Sears. Sears (D-Queens) has a reserved parking spot directly in front of her district office. There’s even a Department of Transportation sign warning drivers the spot is for “Council Vehicles” only during peak hours. While all Council [...]
New York City officials have demanded a ban on natural gas drilling near upstate reservoirs because they fear the drilling could contaminate the city’s drinking water. They’ve asked the state Department of Environmental Conservation to establish a one-mile protective perimeter around each of the city’s six major Catskill reservoirs and connecting infrastructure — a buffer [...]
In what amounts to congestion pricing for parking spaces, parking meter rates would double during heavy traffic periods in portions of Manhattan and Brooklyn as part of an experimental city program beginning this fall, officials said Wednesday. The program’s goal is to increase turnover in curbside parking spaces in the test areas — a section [...]
New York City taxi drivers want passengers to pay a $1 fuel surcharge. But the Taxi and Limousine Commission says it’s not going to happen. Commissioner and Chairman Matthew W. Daus says that “under no circumstances” will the TLC consider the gas surcharge sought by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Several other U.S. cities [...]
The effort to ban horse-drawn carriages from the streets near Central Park has hit full gallop, with animal-rights activists and celebs teaming up to try to put the industry out to pasture. Alec Baldwin, pop singer Pink and rocker Chrissie Hynde are among those charging that hansom cabs promote animal cruelty and endanger New Yorkers. [...]
Starting today, the fine for jumping a turnstile leaps to $100. The summons increase from $60 is likely to be the first step toward $200 fines for which NYC Transit is seeking state approval. The hike was enacted to protect a new off-bus payment system in use on the Bx12 bus route. The Bx12, which [...]
About 3.1 million New Yorkers are said to have trouble affording food, revealing a sharp increase in recent years, according to a study released Wednesday by the Food Bank for New York City. The study found the last five years saw a 55 percent increase of city residents having trouble affording food. Rising food prices, [...]
The city water board approved a 14.5 percent rate hike this morning – the second double digit increase in the last year. The Department of Environmental Protection says it needs the money to cover rising costs. Rates went up 11.5 percent just last year. In December, the City Council passed a law allowing the Department [...]
A draft report conducted on behalf of the Bloomberg administration says that there is no scientific evidence that synthetic turf fields in New York pose major health hazards for people playing on them. Critics, however, said the study by TRC Companies, an engineering, consulting and construction management company based in Connecticut, would not quell concerns [...]
