Results tagged “rising”

The new jobless numbers from the State Labor Department are not too good, not too good at all. New York City's unemployment rate increased to 9.5 percent in June (the highest level since July 1997), while the rate outside of NYC climbed to 8.2 percent, the highest since June 1983. Last month the number of unemployed state residents jumped to 854,200, the greatest number ever on record. Low-five? And the state's overall unemployment rate soared to 8.7 percent in June, its highest level since October 1992, the same month that Sinéad O'Connor ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. It wouldn't really be fair to blame all our problems on Sinéad this time, so let's just ramp up the class warfare and note that today also marked the announcement that JP Morgan's profits were up 36%, with second quarter earnings ballooning to $2.7 billion. Surely some of that largesse will be trickling down any day now!

Greenwich Village residents have been complaining about rising crime in their neighborhood in the wake of two violent assaults during the past week, and now the Post reports that they're not just imagining things: NYPD data shows that incidents of violent crime reported to the 6th Precinct, which includes the Village, are up almost 43 percent so far this year, compared with the same period in 2008. (There have been 40 assaults in the area so far this year, up from 28.) And violent crime rates have soared throughout downtown, with the East Village and the Lower East Side also seeing a big spike in street crime. Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne blames the boom on the neighborhoods' nightlife, which attracts large numbers of revelers who become targets and predators after enough drinks. G. Simon Chafik, a female photographer who has lived in Manhattan for 15 years, tells the Post, "I've never seen it like this before—never, ever. I'm a big New Yorker. New York is one of the safest cities. [But] I'm beginning to question that."

The number of homeless families with children entering New York City shelters has risen dramatically in recent months, hitting an all-time high in November, when 9,720 families were reported in the municipal shelter system. According to figures released by the Department of Homeless Services, 1,343 new families were accepted into the shelter system last month, a 43% increase over the 935 who moved into shelters in November 2007.

In response to a recent spate of violent muggings in the West Village, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has sent an email to constituents warning them to "remain alert." In the email, Quinn cites six violent muggings that have occurred in the neighborhood from November 15th to December 4th, explaining that "every time, the victim was approached from behind by two males, hit and then mugged. This past Monday, the 6th Precinct formally declared these muggings to be a pattern." (This contradicts the Post's earlier report, citing NYPD sources dismissing the notion a pattern was emerging.) In the most recent attack, a young woman's jaw was broken during a mugging near The Spotted Pig. Quinn's email details exactly where the crimes took place but does not include a description of the suspects. And she assures residents that the 6th Precinct's Anti-Crime Unit, in conjunction with the NYPD City Wide Robbery Squad, will beef up their presence in the area.

With the price of flour down so low that even PETA activists can afford to hurl the stuff at Lindsay Lohan, you might think bagel and pizza costs might drop a bit. But most pizzeria and bagel shop owners in NYC—who raised their prices earlier this year in response to skyrocketing flour cost—have not been passing the savings along to their customers. Vinny Camporeale, owner of the East Village pizzeria Vinny Vincenz, tells the Daily News, "Our rent goes up every year—customers aren't aware of that." Who knew!? Now Camporeale's "seriously thinking" about raising the price a third time this year, from $2.50 to $2.75. At least at Montague Street Bagels in Brooklyn Heights the bagel price has reverted to 90 cents, down from the summer price of $1. Assistant manager Preston Joseph declares, "It's the right thing to do. We're not con men." Hear that, Vinny, you rapacious pizza fleecer?

Is the economic free fall already leading to higher crime and degentrifying neighborhoods, as previously speculated? Brooklyn's 88th precinct, which includes Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, is reporting that so far this year robberies have spiked 7.6 percent and burglaries are up 18.6 percent. And a cardboard box of bloody human remains discovered on fancy Washington Park isn't exactly putting residents at ease; one of them tells The Brooklyn Paper, “This hasn’t happened since the 1970s. Back then, I came out of my building one morning and found a body hanging from a lightpost."

The Times went around fretfully asking experts and 'men on the street' whether the economic downturn is going to lead to higher crime. The consensus? Well, it couldn't hurt to get renter's insurance, and hide those iPod earbuds as you stroll home through your increasingly blighted neighborhood. While this isn't an exact science, the article does draw some persuasive parallels between today's meltdown and the crime explosion that followed the 1987 Wall Street crash, as well as the fiscal crisis of the 1970s that made New York a “hell on earth,” as former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton puts it. (He blames the high crime in those days on the city's decision to lay of thousands of cops.) Today budget cuts have left the NYPD with about 4,000 fewer officers then in 2000, and the department has been asked to cut another 2.5% of its budget. Mya Bee, a filmmaker in Bed Stuy, predicts, "When you can’t use your credit cards, it will get worse. When that happens, all hell will break loose."

The cost of tuition at Columbia and NYU has passed the $50,000 mark; a year at NYU now costs $50,182, including room and board, up 5.9% from last year. And Columbia now sets you back $51,866, the Sun reports. But according to NYU professor Amy Ellen Schwartz, it's actually a sweet deal when you look at the big picture: "What is true about understanding the college market, is that the economics are very complicated. In the more expensive universities the actual value of the education spending is even more than tuition. If you ask me, is it worth $50,000? You probably get $100,000 worth of education at somewhere like Yale." What a pity she's stuck slumming it at NYU.

The state-controlled price for a gallon of milk went up another 44 cents this morning, bringing the maximum amount that a retailer can charge to $4.37. But an investigation last month revealed that many retailers haven’t even heard of this law and charge whatever they want. The rising prices are due to high fuel costs, corn shortages and floods in the Midwest, according to WABC. And at $4.37 a gallon, inventors’ dreams for a milk-powered car are now cost-prohibitive. Time to switch to rat milk?

While skyrocketing food prices are sparking riots around the world, in New York the crisis is forcing restaurants like Good Enough to Eat to make due with frozen blueberries in their pancakes! The owner tells the Times the blueberries she gets shipped from Maine are now $38 per flat, up from $24 last summer. A five gallon jug of Canadian maple syrup is now $250, up from $200. And a 100-pound sack of flour costs $7 more.

The total annual cost (including room and board) of NYU has gone up 65% in the past decade and next year it will reach an all-time high of $50,182 – a 5.9% increase from last year. The Washington Square News notes that the university is cash poor, drawing 60 percent of its resources from tuition. In an attempt to soften the blow, NYU plans to increase need-based aid to "more than $150 million" total.

Charitable food banks are also suffering from the recent increases in the cost of food. Last year food banks were being squeezed by the increased demand from the city's hungry, who were finding that rising rents, fuel costs, and transportation costs were limiting the income they had to devote to food. More and more people were turning to New York's charitable food organizations to make ends meet.

The cost of rice has shot up dramatically in recent months, and some analysts say a domestic shortage is on the horizon. The price increase is part of an alarming trend that’s seen the cost of flour rise 13 percent, milk 10 percent, eggs 30 percent and soon – make sure you’re sitting down – beer 10-15 percent.

“It’s horrible. I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Arye Lewkowitz, owner of Daniel’s Bagels on Third Avenue, recently told Metro. “We’re going to have to sell a bagel for over $1.” Lewkowitz isn’t alone; bagel and bread prices are soaring nationwide due to the skyrocketing cost of wheat, which more than doubled in the past year in New York, from $5.31 a bushel to $14.22.