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In last month's Insider, we discussed the Department of Environmental Protection's accelerating phaseout of the dirtiest heating oils. The city's new regulations, issued in 2011, ban the heaviest heating oils—No. 4 and No. 6—that are still used in approximately 10,000 buildings and significantly contribute to air pollution.
FBI agents recently arrested five more people in a widening probe of corruption allegations involving New York City government housing preservation officials. One city official and a former city employee were among those arrested on a variety of corruption charges.
The five will be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court. The most recent arrests mark the expansion of an ongoing probe by the FBI and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office's anti-corruption squad in Brooklyn into wrongdoing at New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD).
The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), a nine-member panel that sets annual rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments, met on May 1 to vote on preliminary numbers for increasing rent-stabilized rents. The board voted for rent hikes of between 1.75 and 4 percent on new one-year leases and increases of between 3.5 percent and 6.75 percent for two-year renewal leases.
On May 4, the New York City Water Board approved a 7 percent rate increase in water rates that it had earlier proposed, in addition to raising fees for certain services. The increase, while the smallest in seven years, is the city's 16th annual hike for metered and unmetered water rates. The new rates for commercial and residential properties go into effect on July 1.
Owners of large apartment buildings in the city are bearing more of the property tax burden than owners of one- to three-family homes, according to a recent report released by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The report is titled “State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods 2011.”
The City Council is considering two new elevator safety bills. One would require certification for mechanics, and the other would require elevators to be equipped with extra safety mechanisms.
The proposed legislation is prompted by the tragic death of the advertising executive who was killed last December when the elevator she was entering at her Madison Avenue office building shot upward unexpectedly, with the doors still open.
The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) is mandated by law to establish yearly rent adjustments for rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. The board holds an annual series of public meetings and hearings to consider research from staff, and testimony from owners, tenants, advocacy groups, and industry experts.
MetLife Inc. recently agreed to settle a 2007 lawsuit by tenants of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village who claimed they were charged too much rent to live in Manhattan's largest apartment complex.
Cops raided a Bronx apartment building on Jan. 31 and found it had been turned into a pot farm. Acting on a tip, police broke down the door and discovered 600 marijuana-growing pots. They filled the top four floors of the five-story building.
Officials estimated there were 1,500 pounds of pot growing in the building, and at $5,000 a pound, it had a street value of about $7.5 million. Cops also found modifications to the ventilation of the building and other changes. Three suspects in their twenties were arrested on drug dealing and drug possession charges.
Maintenance work performed by Transel Elevator was the likely culprit in the Dec. 14 elevator accident that killed an advertising executive in Midtown, according to Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri. An advertising executive was killed when the elevator she was stepping into lurched upward, partly pinning her in the elevator shaft.
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