Category: Linked

I haven’t run across the Mayor’s Citywide Performance Reporting system before. Its a neat idea – the system monitors the performance of City government overall and agency by agency (and given the Mayor’s wonkery and geek background, I’m sure this a exercise near and dear to his heart).

Overall, we’re doing pretty well. Citywide, 53% of the performance indicators are improving or stable, while just under 26% are declining[1]. As you’ll see in the screen cap above[2], one of the agencies dragging down the curve is DOB. Granted, DOB has a 50.0% improving/stable rate. But it also has 50.1% (must be rounding error) of its performance indicators on the decline.

The breakdown of the performance numbers is not flattering, either. In the fiscal year to date, the number of construction-related injuries is up over 21%. Fatalities, happily, are down to 9 from 12 (though its not clear if this data predates recent fatalities). Another area where the agency shows “improvement” is in the issuance of violations for after hours work. For the current fiscal year, the agency is issuing violations in 6% of inspections, up from only 1% last year[3]. Tellingly, the report does not indicate the number of complaints for after hours work (a number is included for most other complaint categories). Nor does it list a percentage of complaints inspected on the same day the complaint was made (which is the real problem – its hard to issue a violation for Sunday work when you inspect the complaint on a Monday).

On the heels of yesterday’s announcement that DOB will be bringing added scrutiny to self-certified applications, the CPR report indicates that the percentage of agency audits of self-certified apps is actually down, albeit very slightly. On the plus side, the percentage of audits that have resulted in revocation notices is up fairly substantially.

[1] Its not clear that “improving” is necessarily a good thing. If I earned a D last year and a C this year, that is an improvement. But it is still a pretty poor grade. Likewise, a drop from an A+ to an A is not necessarily a sign of failure.↩

[2] Direct links are not working, so you’ll have to go to the site and navigate to the data yourself (just click on the start using CPR link).↩

[3] See note 1. This is not an improvement, its just slightly less pathetic.↩

The Women’s Club of New York held a panel discussion on the state of the Mayor’s New Housing Marketplace plan to construct or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing. The panel discussion follows up on a recent study by the City’s Independent Budget Office, which found that the City was largely on target in meeting its goals for preserving housing, but not on creating it.

This matches what we have seen here in North Brooklyn: a lot of preservation of existing affordable housing stock (a good thing, certainly), but not so much in the way of new housing. This is particularly disappointing here, because the inclusionary housing program was supposed to generate new housing – and its not (at least not at the pace that was expected).

One would like to give DOB the benefit of the doubt and assume that the crack down on self-certification is good news. But this is an issue that has been front and center in North Brooklyn for years, with no discernible action from DOB.

Likewise on the issue of after hours and weekend work.

The department also is hiring 18 more inspectors and engineers to look for safety problems on low-rise construction sites and interior demolition jobs, as well as to hunt for construction work being done illegally before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

Maybe now they’ll have inspectors show up when the infraction is occurring. Its hard to cite someone for after hours work when your inspectors show up the next day. During regular business hours.

But Williamsburg is Clinton country.

Photo: Fred Conrad, NYT

One of my favorite Williamsburg rehabs get the Home & Garden treatment in today’s Times.

Via Eater, word that Pies ‘n’ Thighs is set to open new digs at South 4th and Driggs. CB1 approved the transfer of the liquor license last night, so all that remains is build the place.

Please build fast.

The race for David Yassky’s 33rd District Council seat gets more crowded (and the demographics more confusing) with the entry of Hasidic businessman and activist Isaac Abraham into the race.

Heckuva a job, Bushie:

After downplaying the risks for months, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will rush to move Gulf Coast hurricane victims out of roughly 35,000 government-issued trailers because tests found dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes… Louisiana has 25,162 occupied FEMA trailers and mobile homes, while Mississippi has 10,362, according to FEMA… At one point, FEMA had placed victims of the 2005 hurricanes in more than 144,000 trailers and mobile homes… Formaldehyde has been classified as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer…

Upholding the rule of law:

[Attorney General] Michael Mukasey said today that if Congress passed contempt citations against current and former White House officials based on their refusal to respond to subpoenas, the Justice Department would not enforce them, as federal law instructs.

[Emphasis added]

Fiscal conservatism:

The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year… The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004… So far this year, federal spending is 8.3 percent ahead of last year’s pace… that is far ahead of the 3.2 percent increase in revenues.