Today in Odd Partnerships: Planters Peanuts has developed and paid for a new park that just opened in a public housing unit on Avenue D, called Planters Grove, that is shaped, appropriately, like a peanut. more ›

At least $350 million of federal stimulus money—and at least $65 million of annual subsidies—will be directed towards 21 New York City housing projects to pay for much-needed renovations. The major allocation of cash will allow workers to fix facades, roofs, heating systems, elevators and other problems in buildings where 20,000 New Yorkers reside, according to DNAinfo. Some tenants feared the stimulus money was a sign the buildings would shift away from low-income housing, but Mayor Bloomberg told the Daily News: "Nothing is going to change, except for the better." According to the Lo-Down, he added: "While other cities are blowing up public housing, we are preserving it." more ›

Police arrested 28 people—including three high school students—in a cocaine and crack bust in a housing project near Lincoln Center. The suspects are accused of selling drugs inside the Amsterdam Houses—a complex of 13 buildings between 61st and 65th streets, and Amsterdam and West End avenues, the Post reports. After Amsterdam Houses residents began complaining about seeing drug transactions and drug paraphernalia, officers launched an investigation and observed more than 50 drug deals in five different buildings since July. Officials told the tabloid that dealers used students who lived in the complex as "look-outs and dealers-in-training." According to the indictment [Word document], 12 of the suspects were charged with selling controlled substances near a school. more ›

A man found guilty of multiple rapes and robberies in Brownsville was sentenced to 430 years in prison today. Boker Thomas received the four-century sentence after being found guilty of trailing seven women as they walked into elevators, stairwells and apartments in public housing projects and raping them or robbing them, according to the Daily News. more ›

A fire ripped through a Bronx public housing project yesterday afternoon, forcing a woman to dangle a baby out of a fifth-story window while she waited for rescuers to arrive. The blaze broke out at around 2 pm inside a closet in an apartment in the Pelham Parkway Houses and quickly spread through the three-bedroom residence, sending victims to the windows gasping for air. more ›

Ever since construction work began in a nearby park, skunks have brought a noxious odor and a pervasive sense of fear to a Bronx public housing complex. It's gotten so bad that residents of the Throggs Neck Houses are horrified to leave their apartments after dark. "If it was just rats and roaches, I could take care of it myself," said Maxine Breeden, 44. "But these are wild animals. Lots of 'em." more ›

Back in heady days of 2007, real estate developers followed a simple algorithm: add the city's finite housing supply with the massive demand for housing and you could make money by building a condo on just about any property. Though the recession certainly changed that equation, seemingly out-of-place condo developments continue to pop up across the city as a result of that practice — and few seem more out of place than a luxury building in Gravesend at the corner of West 11th Street and Avenue V, just one block away from a housing project. more ›

Last night, three police officers were hit by bullet fragments when, WABC 7 reports, "they tried to thwart an attack by a pit bull terrier in a public housing complex on the Upper East Side." The pit bull's owner, who police say deliberately set the dogs on the cops, was also hit by a fragment. NYPD spokesman Deputy Commissioner Paul Brown said, "The bullets fragmented and shattered. They were in the hallway, a very confined space." more ›

The NY Times has a sad update about the family of the 5-year-old boy who fell to his death when a housing project elevator malfunctioned last year. The Times says, with the family of Jacob Neuman (pictured) is suing the Housing Authority for negligence, the HA wants to interview Jacob's brother, 9-year-old Israel who witnessed his brother fall from the 10th floor. However, his parents' lawyer has asked a judge to waive the testimony. The Neumans are worried about Israel's state of mind—"in play therapy, he drew an elevator shaft with red at the bottom," though he acts out against classmates, kids consider him a "rachmoonus" (pity) case— and a court-appointed psychologist wrote, "His defenses are so brittle that when thoughts regarding the incident reach or are introduced into his consciousness, he becomes despondent and he desperately defends against them. It is quite possible, given his present state, that serious mental decomposition may occur. That this will occur is not certain; if it does, it will be devastating indeed." The Housing Authority has a bad track record elevators; there are other lawsuits against the HA over elevator maintenance. more ›

With federal judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, much has been made of her rise from the Bronxdale Houses public housing project in the South Bronx. The NY Times has map showing the housing projects where some other successful New Yorkers grew up—and an article speaking to some of them. Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar grew up in the Dyckman Houses (back then, he was Lew Alcindor). His family moved to an apartment in Building 3 there in 1950, from a shared apartment in Harlem, "[It] was really considered a step up. We had two bedrooms — for us. We didn’t have to share the kitchen or the bathroom." Writer Richard Price lived in the Parkside Houses in the Bronx and incoming Xerox CEO Ursula Burns lived at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side ("There were lots of Jewish immigrants, fewer Hispanics and African-Americans but the common denominator and great equalizer was poverty"). And Whoopi Goldberg described life at the Elliott-Chelsea Houses, "People were from Latvia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Africa., From everywhere. So you had to be able to say things like, ‘Hello, I’m so and so,’ and ‘May I use the bathroom?’ in every language." more ›

Four men are wanted in connection with two attacks at the Butler Houses in the Bronx. On April 3, the group attacked a 45-year-old man in front of a building around 11 p.m.; they also robbed him. Then, on April 18, they struck again at 2:30 a.m.—and the assault was caught on camera. WABC 7 reports, "Police said two men were assaulted as they entered the building. A 43-year-old victim was struck in the head with a bottle, pushed into an elevator and robbed. He needed stitches to his head. The other victim, a 46-year-old man, was pushed to the ground in the hallway and robbed." One suspect has been identified as Tyrone Hines; police are asking people with additional information about him and the other suspects to contact CrimeStoppers (800-577-TIPS or online). more ›

A group of tenants living in public housing is filing a federal class-action lawsuit against the city for its failure to maintain elevators. The NY Times reports that the lawsuit notes that the "widespread and systemic failure to maintain the elevators in its buildings in operable working condition" is a violation of disability and human rights laws. Scrutiny of the NYC Housing Authority's care of elevators came into greater focus after a child fatally fell from a malfunctioning elevator last year, but tenants have complained about malfunctioning elevators for years. The Times offers many harrowing anecdotes from tenants, including: "Phyllis Gonzalez, 61...refers to the times when both elevators go out in her building in the Chelsea Houses as 'double-headers.' Ms. Gonzalez, who lives in a 12th-floor apartment and uses a wheelchair because of arthritis and other health problems, recalled the day a few years ago when, during a double-header, she went down 12 flights of stairs, sitting on one step at a time." The tenants are not looking for monetary damages—just for the NYCHA to fix the elevators in a timely fashion and provide for help the disabled and wheelchair-bound tenants when the elevators are out. more ›

A study from NYU says that children in public housing are "more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to graduate in four years than those who do not live in public housing," the NY Times reports. You can read the policy brief (PDF) from the Furman Center. One hypothesis suggests the lack of resources and role models students from public housing have might be to blame, but the study its data "do not allow us to isolate the reason for the disparity" and "we do not claim that living in NYCHA housing causes students to perform differently from students living in other housing." And the NYC Housing Authority tells the Times the agency has "serious concerns and reservations" about the study, adding its data is "limited, dated and incomplete." more ›

A day after the city announced it would spend $112 million to improve elevators in public housing, a woman fell 10-12 feet down an empty elevator at the East River Houses in East Harlem. Jolanda Joyce, 28, told NY1 said, "I turned around to get my phone from a friend and I opened the elevator door and I took a step and I just fell. There was no elevator there." She also said to the Daily News, "I just didn't want the elevator to come down and kill me." Joyce has severe bruising all over her body and will need physical therapy; NY1 also notes her claim is being investigated: "Sources also cited witnesses who observed Joyce and her companion forcibly opening the elevator doors when the elevator was not present." The NYC Housing Authority refused to release the building's elevator maintenance records. In August, a 5-year-old trying to escape a stalled public housing elevator fell to his death. more ›

Photo: Food of the Future more ›

Yesterday, the New School held a forum to discuss how New York City will save its public housing. The New York City Housing Authority, which is the city's primary sources of affordable housing to 400,000 residents, has an annual shortfall of $225 million. more ›

Elected officials, including U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, are speaking out against the proposed expansion of Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus, directly south of the performing arts complex. The school wants to add 1.5 million square feet of building space to the midtown campus, which includes an undergraduate college and its law school, between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves., nearly tripling the complex's size from the current 800,000 square feet. Fordam gets to avoid complicated issues of eminent domain and displacing current residents, since it already owns all the property that it would like to build on. more ›

The NY Times weighs in on Bernard Tschumi’s Blue building at 105 Norfolk St. Fresh off reviews from New Orleans, Paris and Brazil, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff is back home with a piece on the 17-story blue-paneled, crystalline tower. more ›

"Hard Times in the Projects," an in-depth review of New York City's publicly subsidized housing program, reveals how living conditions have declined over the past few decades. Federal legislators have reduced funds while operating costs have soared. As a consequence, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) struggles to maintain its buildings, collect the trash, or respond to service calls. Residents have experienced rent hikes and service cuts, and face the possible closure of senior centers and community programs. While New York State and City governments also cut funding during the 1990s and 2000s, the administrations of Bloomberg and Spitzer have recently anounced the restoration of some subsidies. more ›

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver joined Sen. Schumer and said that the legislation was necessary to prevent the city from becoming too expensive for the firefighters, police, teachers, and nurses who work in New York, skillfully ingratiating himself with four unions in a single sentence. more ›

Alarming news to start the workweek: The Daily News exclusively reports that the authorities are looking for "64 fugitive rapists, perverts and molesters" who have lied about where they live. more ›

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A man was critically injured when he tried to escape a fire in his Bronx apartment building yesterday afternoon. The man had climbed out his fifth floor bathroom window and tried to make his way down a cable that broke. The fire was started by a lit cigarette on the lobby couch; the NY Times reports that the flammable paint on the building's walls caused it to spread. A firefighter said, "The paint on the stair corridor flashed pretty quickly," with flames on each of the building's six floors. more ›

City Councilman Eric Gioia will be demanding that the NYC Housing Authority explain why over 200 registered sex offenders are living in public housing. NYCHA policy - and federal law - prohibits sex offenders from residing in Post puts it, "they are filled with children and other vulnerable targets and in the past were havens for criminals." And the Daily News notes that this past week, a registered offender attacked a woman at the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City. more ›

When school officials alerted police that 9 year old Mariah Navarro hadn't been in school for two weeks, the police went to her apartment at the Frederick Douglass Houses on 55 West 100th Street, only to find Navarro and her mother Maria Rivera's decomposing bodies. The two bodies were wrapped in blankets and found in separate rooms - Rivera in a bedroom and Navarro in a closet, and police believe the pair were dead for a few days. The apartment's door did not seem to be forced (still locked when police arrived) and the Post reports a bloody hammer was found in the apartment as well. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg released the 2006 Fiscal Year Mayor's Management Report yesterday. The MMR is the Mayor's way of being accountable for city initiatives and agencies, and during the press conference, the Mayor felt that there was still work to be done, saying, "Two-thirds of the things are going in the right direction. A third aren't going as fast as I'd like, or in the right direction.": Like what? The quality of streets has declined (which the Department of Transportation says is due to construction projects), the Civilian Complaint Review Board received 16% more complaints about police officers, structural fire response times increased and pest control exterminations dropped by 39%. more ›

- Response times to maintenance complaints in public housing increased but were generally within targetsDo 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. more ›

Huh. We knew that the main reason that the city switched all 11,000 odd traffic lights and "Walk/Don't Walk" signs was because the LEDs they used were energy efficient. But we didn't realize how much more efficient (90 percent!), nor did we fully realize that it was part of a much larger plan on the part of the City to lead by example in energy efficiency. Not only that, but apparently, according to the grey lady, the plan is working. more ›