Borough President Appearing on NY1 Tonight

Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. will be appear on NY1’s “Inside City Hall” tonight, where he'll discuss a variety of Bronx, city and state issues. The show is broadcast at 7 p.m. and repeated at 10 p.m.

Bronx Water Rate Hearing Today

The Water Board will hear testimony regarding the proposed 14% rate increase today at 2pm at the Bronx Library Center, 310 East Kingsbridge Road.

Contrary to what I posted last week the new Fiscal Year 2010 Blue Book wasn't posted until either last night or this morning. (The Blue Book is basically DEP's written justification to the Water Board for why they need to increase rates.)

If you can't make it to the hearing but would still like to complain about increasing water rates, call 311 and ask to register your complaint with the Mayor's office -- he loves to check those 311 statistics!

Also, check out NY1's coverage of the Queens hearing yesterday and read Comptroller Thompson's full testimony at the Staten Island hearing.

Espada on NY1 Tonight

State Senator-elect Pedro Espada is a guest tonight on Inside City Hall, the NY1 politics show hosted by Dominic Carter. The show runs from 7 to 8 p.m. It's shown again at ten.

Presumably, Espada will be talking about the Senate leadership race, the so-called Gang of Three, and Malcolm Smith, rather than his plans - whatever they might be - for the west Bronx and 33rd Senate District.

Foster Quiet on Term-Limits Issue

Council member Helen Foster is known for voicing her opinion - even when it makes her unpopular with her Bronx colleagues. But she's been oddly silent on the term-limits issue. Today, NY1 spoke to several of her constituents. One said: "She has to make up her mind."

Under current laws, Foster will be forced to step aside at the end of next year. Previously, she's expressed an interest in running for borough president.

Bronx Officials -- Well, Maybe Only Helen Foster -- Call for Yankees and City to Do Right Thing on Replacement Parks

NY1 has this report about "Bronx officials" calling for the city and the Yankees to hold up their ends of the deal on the delayed and diminished replacement parks that were promised in return for the taking of Mullaly and Macombs Dam Parks. But the only official quoted is Helen Foster.

Bronx Renters Shelling Out Highest Percent of Paycheck for Rent

In today's New York Times, Manny Fernandez takes a look at the recently released census data to confirm the trend that most of us already know about -- more Bronx renters pay half their income on rent than renters in the other boroughs.

The article, Housing Takes Bigger Bite of New Yorkers’ Incomes, Census Data Shows, reports that about 1/3 of all Bronx renters pay at least half of their income on rent. (2005 Housing and Vacancy Survey data shows that the percentages are much higher in the West Bronx.)

Fernandez does a good job at reporting on how this trend affects real families, in real ways like making the decisions to give up cable tv, or (much worse) cutting back on grocery shopping. He also cites the recent UNHP report that showed newcomers to the Bronx making less than current residents, according to the 2005 data. I've started taking a look at the 2006 data, and it shows that this trend is continuing, but also that all of the other boroughs except Brooklyn are experiencing an influx of lower-income families, albeit to a lesser degree than the Bronx.

The article also touches on the homeowners who are shouldering similar burdens. While it mentions Brooklyn having the highest percent of homeowners paying 50% of their income on mortgage costs at 31.0%, the Bronx is in a virtual tie at 30.7%. All of these numbers will most likely rise as adjustable mortages made in the past two or three years reset at higher rates.

Earlier in the week, City Limits went right at one of the main reasons renters are finding themselves in this squeeze in WHEN WALL ST. COMES TO 139TH ST., TENANTS WORRY. While profiling the plight of tenants in a Harlem building, the strategy of newer Wall Street-backed apartment building owners is having major effects throughout neighborhoods like the West Bronx, where owners look to raise rents through a variety of means. Since the demand is so high, they are still able to get away with this. But when you put two and two together (the Times article and the City Limits article), you have to wonder where all of this is going. Tenants will eventually reach a breaking point where they can't afford the rent increases, and then what happens?

On a similar theme, NY1 also has a piece on the housing crunch. According to their recent polling:

Nearly 80 percent of residents who've lived in the city 15 years or more say they're spending more of their income on rent than they did back in 1992, and the crunch is happening across the board.

At least two-thirds of every economic, racial and geographic group said they're giving up more of their paycheck to rent or mortgage. And more than 60 percent of New Yorkers saying it's chipping away at their overall quality of life.

Construction Worker Dies in Fall

A man died in a fall this morning while working on a construction site at 149th Street and River Avenue. According to these reports on the Newsday and NY1 Web sites, the man was operating a machine on a building roof at the time.
Tonight police identified him as Carlos Reinoso, 47. He lived at 50-39 103rd St., Queens. The investigation is ongoing.