Results tagged “down”

Good news Williamburg: crime is down! In fact, you are one of the safest neighborhoods in New York City, surrounded by a shield of shiny luxury condos. But while the machete slashing may have cooled off for now, "police officers remain vigilant about incidents involving a roving homeless population." Could the Post be speaking of the gutter punks?

Since GMail and its Apps For Domain are both down, we recommend you go get a coffee or take a walk around the block so you don't drive yourself crazy with how annoying it is. (According to the Google Mail Status page, "We're aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail. We will provide an update by September 1, 2009 4:53:00 PM UTC-4 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.") Or you can look at this TechCrunch post about the downtime and enjoy the back and forth comments about how Google blew it and how people should stop their bitching because it's a free service.

NYC has kept its ranking as the metropolis with the lowest overall crime rate, as compared to 2008 stats from the 25 largest cities in America. The FBI’s Crime in the United States report asserts that violent crime decreased by four percent in NYC last year, outpacing a national decline. And according to NYPD Compstat data, crime was down an additional 12 percent citywide for the first five months of this year, compared to 2008 levels. Murders are down 21 percent, robberies are down 17 percent, and there have been 17 percent less rapes. But declines in felony assaults, while slightly down (1.6 percent) from 2008, have not kept pace with other reductions. Some downtown precincts, including those that police Greenwich Village, have reported a spike in assaults, and the NYPD has beefed up patrols in the area. Still, the report is great news for Mayor Bloomberg's third term hopes. In a statement, he praised the NYPD's "innovative policing strategies" and also attributed the decreased crime to his focus on getting guns off the streets.

Meet Janet Faello (and pop a Zoloft): The 53-year-old divorcee with two daughters in college has been trying since May 2007 to sell her and her ex's Long Island 6-bedroom home. Her initial asking price was $829,000, then $750,000, now $699,000. Care to guess how many offers she's gotten? If you said anything more than zero, you're not depressed enough. Faello, whose experience is emblematic of the current housing implosion, is stuck in the home, surrounded by memories of her failed marriage and steep property taxes. She tells the Times, "I’m not ashamed to say to you, I have had to borrow money from my father." The article paints a bleak portrait of NYC suburbanites who feel like hostages in homes they can't sell. Pending home sales in the Northeast fell 14.5% from December 2007 to December 2008, and are not expected to "hit rock bottom" for at least another year. As one frustrated Connecticut home seller puts it, "Sometimes dreams just blow away." For further reading, curl up with a bottle of pills and George Packer's disturbing article about Florida's housing apocalypse.

According to NYPD statistics, overall subway crime dropped by 3% in 2008, with murders down to two from four in 2007. There were an average 6.3 major felonies a day last year, compared with 7.4 in 2006 (there was an average of 17 in 1997). But robberies are on the rise: 823 occurred last year, up from 796 in '07. And there were three rapes reported last year, as opposed to just one in '07. Still, the NYPD's John Hall tells the Post crime is "so low that it's getting more and more difficult to keep it there," and attributes the stats to a crackdown on people walking between moving cars, which criminals do when trolling for victims.

The Dow and the S&P 500 both closed down about 5% today in a day of heavy losses. The Dow was down 443 points and closed below 9,000 amidst fears of a prolonged recession that even superhero President-elect Obama may be not be able to turn around. "Everything is so dismal right now, it's just an endless flow of bad news and no one wants to buy," despaired equity trader Dave Rovelli, who could really benefit by reading today's heartwarming good news about the Starbucks wedding proposal! CNN reports that investors are fearful about tomorrow's big monthly jobs report. Also, too, October retail sales from the chain stores were mostly "abysmal," the housing market is still collapsing, and even the recent dip in gas prices has not improved consumer spending. "People are realizing that the recession is going to drag on until at least the end of 2009," Rovelli whines. LA LA LA LA Can't hear you, Rovelli! Starbucks wedding proposal! Doggie costumes! Sasha and Malia get a puppy!

A reader sent in this photo of the imminent dismantling of artist Olafur Eliasson's Lower East Side waterfall at Pier 35. Within weeks, the scaffolding at all four locations will be but a distant memory, and in spring the leaves will (hopefully!) return to the trees without that salty East River mist to turn them freakishly brown for the sake of conceptual art.

The addition of Katie Holmes to the cast of the upcoming production of All My Sons has done zilch to boost advance ticket sales, according to the Post. "I bought 1,000 tickets to the show," says one broker. "I still have them." Another wonders, "Where are all the Scientologists? Don't they want to see her?" Sure they do, but who has money left for theater after all those expensive classes on the way to OT VIII? The Post also has it that the cast has been forced to sign confidentiality agreements to keep them from blabbing about Holmes’s behavior to evil SPs.