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From
Crains:
The mayor's office on Monday unveiled a set of proposed rules that will force short-term rental sites such as Airbnb to disclose the identities of hosts and the types of listings they are offering. The new statues are the result of a law enacted earlier this year that's designed to aid city inspectors in cracking down on illegal home sharing—which they have done in grand fashion lately.
Absent certain exceptions, the new rules propose that booking services submit monthly reports to the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement through a yet-to-be-create web portal or face fines up to the larger of $1,500 or the annual income from the listing. The reports are to include a host's personal information, how much money changed hands, where to find advertising materials for listings and, most crucially, whether an entire apartment was being rented out and for how long.
Renting an empty unit for fewer than 30 days in larger buildings is considered a violation of the state's multiple dwelling law, and the mayor's office has invoked that statute to ding homeowners or building owners and then hit them with additional violations for not having exit signs, sprinklers and other safety measures required in hotels.
"This law provides the city with the critical information it needs to preserve our housing stock, keep visitors safe, and ensure residents feel secure in their homes and neighborhoods," Christian Klossner, executive director of the Office of Special Enforcement, said in a statement.
The administration is hosting a public hearing on the proposed rules Dec. 18, after which the mayor's office is likely to adopt them in some form. The effort is part of the city's opposition to illegal home sharing, a thorny issue involving a nebulous mix of housing economics, politics and pricey public relations campaigns.
From
Crains:
Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler announced stricter rules for construction sites Friday, including quadrupling fines for serious safety violations.
Despite advances in technology and new laws, working on a New York City construction site has become more dangerous during the past decade. After a string of accidents over the past two years, including a fatal crane collapse last week, the de Blasio administration has come under increasing pressure to address the problems.
"No building is worth a person's life," the mayor said in a statement outlining the new measures, which will be phased in during the next few months.
Penalties for serious safety lapses will quadruple to $10,000 from $2,400. Property owners with projects under 10 stories tall, where 70% of accidents happened in 2015, will be required to hire a construction superintendent for all major work (they already had to have one for new construction). The fine for failing to do so will rise to $25,000 from $5,000.
From the
Daily News:
The apartment-sharing website — which includes many listings that are illegal under state housing laws — agreed to sit down with officials to discuss sharing its data following a contentious City Council hearing Friday.
Christopher Lehane, head of public policy for Airbnb, told City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal that the company would meet with her before Thanksgiving to discuss what data they could share to crack down on illegal operators.
From
CBS:
Sen. Charles Schumer says the federal government needs to crack down on the problem of scrap metal theft.
Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday is calling for federal regulations on scrap metal sales, including a requirement that scrap yards and recyclers maintain detailed records on their purchases, and require those selling metal to provide documentation.
The senator is also calling for the creation of a new federal crime of stealing metal from critical infrastructure like railroads.
Schumer cited the recent theft of copper cable from New York City subway lines as one example of what he says is a national problem.
Scrap metal theft has risen over the past decade as thieves look to cash in on rising metal prices.
From
Capital New York:
New limits will be placed on visitors to Rikers Island in an effort to reduce the amount of drugs, weapons and other contraband being smuggled into the facility, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
The policy change, which the mayor announced during a visit to the jail, is part 14-point plan to decrease violence at the jail, tighten security and more closely monitor staff.
Under the new policy, inmates will be prevented from having prolonged physical contact with visitors and plexiglas partitions will be installed at visiting tables. Although the details were not entirely clear, the department also hopes to install a criminal background checking system for visitors at the facility's entrance.
“We are acting decisively to reduce violence. The polices that we announce today will have a profound impact on reducing the amount of violence that has been experienced here over many years,” said de Blasio, who was making his second visit to the jail in a year. “We know that many criminal gangs use the visitation process to pass weapons and pass drugs to their fellow gang members here in this facility.”
Since last July, 239 visitors have been arrested, 16 weapons have been confiscated and drugs have been seized from 44 visitors entering the jail, according to data provided by the Department of Correction.
From the
Queens Chronicle:
A revision of the New York City building codes sent dozens of architects scurrying to file applications with the Department of Buildings just before the new regulations went into effect New Year’s Eve.
In order to have permits and other construction plans reviewed under the 2008 Construction Codes, developers had to send in their applications by Dec. 30, with all filings submitted on or after Dec. 31 being scrutinized under the 2014 iteration of the city’s regulations.
Hundreds of architects from across the city flooded the DOB with filings in the days leading up to the changeover, with many of the applications in Queens involving the construction and/or demolition of smaller structures, between one and four stories high.
The change in building codes comes eight years after the previous edition was enacted, with many of the alterations having to do with safety inspections and standards, reorganizing and rearranging passages and new technology,
Requirements in the new codes include the installation of temporary fire hydrants near large construction sites, professionally designed monitoring plans for excavation work, and the banning of scaffolding work in sustained winds 30 mph or stronger.
From the
Daily News:
I hate to break it to you, New Yorkers, but you're not as rich as you think.
Your median family income of $56,000 looks decent on paper - ranking 19th in the country. But you're burning through those paychecks to cover some of the highest taxes, housing costs, energy bills, health premiums and grocery prices in the country.
Factor in that sky-high cost of living, and New York's real income drops below $41,000. That's the lowest in the country, behind Mississippi at $45,000.
And real income in the five boroughs ranks lower than Detroit's.
That's right, New Yorkers. You're living in the poorest big city in America.
