Weekly News Roundup – November 29, 2019

NYPD can claim subway crime is down because it only focuses on felony stats - New York Post

"Minor crimes on the rise this year over last include: Misdemeanor assault, up 15.9 percent to 1,132 incidents; Harassment, up 17.9 percent to 928; Groping, up 10.6 percent to 450"

Developers Show Renderings for New 23-Story Apartment Building with Micro-Units; Wins Support of Community Board Committee - West Side Rag

"Developer Fetner Properties previously described plans to make 80 of the 171 apartments into micro-units, which range from 290 to 340 square feet, and market them to seniors."

Public Housing Workers Tried To Fool The Feds On Building Repairs -The City

"NYCHA signed an agreement Jan. 31 promising, among other things, to end the longstanding tradition of deliberately misleading HUD. Now it’s happening again. In the last few weeks, NYCHA has quietly suspended three employees for submitting deceptive documentation during HUD inspections. The staffers allegedly falsely claimed that required repairs had been completed, THE CITY has learned."

Opinion:Hospital approvals: Is the fix in? - Daily News

"The {state] PHHPC [ Public Health and Health Planning Council] is run by Jeffrey Kraut, who is the executive vice president of strategy and analytics at Northwell Health, the parent company of Lenox Hill Hospital. (There is also another Northwell employee on the committee.) [...] Furthermore, having an executive from Northwell, the state’s largest hospital chain, chair the committee that issues CONs [Certificate of Need] flies in the face of the very issue that prompted states to require the issuance of these certificate in the first place..."

Stone Façades Near Completion On Beckford House And Tower, On Upper East Side - YIMBY

Lack Of Handicap Accessibility At Flashy New Hunters Point Library Sparks Lawsuit - Gothamist

"[Andrea Kozak-Oxnard, a staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates] said that public officials have made similar mistakes in recent years, including a state memorial in Roosevelt Island for Franklin D. Roosevelt called Four Freedoms Park that featured a sunken terrace that the late president himself would not have been able to use given his reliance on a wheelchair. In 2017, following a lawsuit brought by Disability Rights Advocates, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy and state officials agreed to install a lift."

Opinion: How to Shop Small This Holiday Season - Commissioner Gregg Bishop in Gotham Gaxette

Petition opposing Lenox Hill Hospital expansion gets over 1,500 signatures - The Villager

New York City Has Spent Nearly a Year Searching for a Taxi Commissioner - WSJ

Proposal Would Require Governor To Answer Legislator Questions Monthly - Spectrum

TRANSIT UNION DEMANDS MORE SUBWAY CLEANERS TO COMBAT FILTHY TRAINS - The City

East Midtown Greenway, $100M link in a connected Manhattan waterfront loop, breaks ground - 6sqft

How to rescue New Yorkers from Transit Deserts - City and State

Windy Forecast May Ground Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Balloons - Gothamist

New Report Shows Shockingly High Number of Injuries At Amazon's Staten Island Warehouse - Gothamist

Is East Side Access really going to happen this time? - City and State

Manhattan Borough President Wants Two Busways Launched Uptown - Capital Tonight

City's homeless get free health care and vet care for their pets - Capital Tonight