Polishing Facts and Figures to Make Sure They Look Good

When not discussing his distaste for Microsoft Office games, Mayor Bloomberg revealed some of what will be in his annual Mayor's Management Report. Here are the highlights:

- Pest control complaints leveled off
- The proportion of working families living in public housing was higher
- Response time to child abuse reports increased
- Placements in permanent housing rose for homeless single adults but fell for families
- More students graduated from high school in four years or are still enrolled in school for a fifth year
- Traffic fatalities were up
- Civilian fire fatalities increased
- Response times to structural fires were slower
- Response times to maintenance complaints in public housing increased but were generally within targets

Do you like how with even the bad news, the city tries to spin it? Like with the on-time graduation rate going down by 1%, the city makes sure to say that the kids who didn't graduate are still enrolled or are doing a fifth year (see the NY Times article about this). Anyway, overall, the Mayor was positive, saying, "The early results contained in this report indicate that our agencies are continuing the excellent record of achievement seen over the past four years, including advances in education, public safety, quality of life, and the health and welfare of New Yorkers." Gothamist will spend the weekend sifting through the PDFs of the report and see if there are any gems. We'll leave you with a report that crime is higher in 2006 versus the same period in 2005 but the NYPD thinks it's just a blip.