New York City is becoming the shriveled Apple.
Three of Gotham’s five boroughs saw some of the largest population declines in America last fiscal year, with only Manhattan bucking the post-COVID trend, according to US Census data released Thursday.
The population of Queens County plummeted by 50,112 residents in the 12 months ending July 1, 2022 — the third largest raw drop of any county in the US, behind only Los Angeles County (90,704) and Chicago’s Cook County (68,314).
Right behind Queens on the list of declines was Kings County (Brooklyn), which lost 46,970 residents over the same period, and Bronx County, where the population dropped by 41,143 residents.
Richmond County — also known as Staten Island — saw its population drop by just 2,351 residents over the same one-year period.
By contrast, Manhattan — which lost nearly 100,000 residents in 2021 — was the only borough that reversed its decline, with the population increasing by 17,472 residents in fiscal year 2022.
The increase is largely down to foreign and domestic migration.
A string of deadly encounters that started with complaints over loud music or offensive noise highlights a growing problem across New York City: Complaints about noise have exploded since the pandemic.
Loud noise and music are common disturbances for New Yorkers — but the conflicts can turn deadly. At least four recent killings have been tied to disputes over noise, with the most recent episode involving a 27-year-old Bronx dad who was killed in a dispute over loud music with a neighbor last week.
The victim’s fiancée and mother of his two young children said they had made complaints to 311 and building management about the neighbor’s noise, but nothing changed. The couple had just put their 5-week-old infant to sleep when blasting loud music started to shake the walls of their apartment.
The victim got dressed, walked across the hall to confront the neighbor about the noise. As he walked away, the neighbor allegedly stabbed him in the back.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/K4FKA6ZK5FB4NBZVVJJEUKPACI.jpg)
There have been nearly 40,000 noise complaints called in to 311 this month, and roughly the same in the past few months, according to NYC Open Data. Noise complaints have boomed since the pandemic, with this year’s winter months seeing a roughly 40% rise in 311 noise complaints compared with the same time frame in 2019.
Arline Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist, said a variety of reasons may be to blame, including more time spent at home, working from home, outdoor dining, loud cars and helicopter noise.
“Noise can really drive people to be aggressive — have there been arguments? Yes. Are people pounding the ceilings until the noise comes down? Absolutely,” Bronzaft said.
“People react psychologically to sound that’s intrusive,” she said. “They get angry about the sound, they get upset. And then when you start showing those kinds of reactions, your heart beats faster, your pulse rate increases, circulation is altered.
“Psychologically, you’re stressed.”
“In New York City, neighbor noise is a serious problem, because we do have apartment buildings and people do live close to each other ... and things changed during COVID, when people started to work from home,” Bronzaft said.
Rachel Miller-Bradshaw, a board member of the Fordham Hill Owners Corp. and resident of City Council District 14, which logs among the highest numbers of 311 noise complaints in the city, said that she’s noticed more noise since the peak of COVID-19.
“It’s a major issue,” she said. “Every New Yorker, regardless of socioeconomic status or neighborhood you reside in, has a right to a serene living environment, at least outside of normal business hours, and after the pandemic things definitely did get worse.”
“It’s really declining the quality of life here,” Miller-Bradshaw added, noting that she knows people who’ve moved from the city because of noise.
The NYPD is beefing up its presence as newly indicted former President Donald Trump is expected to surrender in New York on Tuesday, according to his lawyers.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office — which filed an unprecedented indictment against Trump, 76, related to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels — wanted him arraigned Friday, sources said.
But Trump’s lawyers wouldn’t agree to that and instead, he’s expected to turn himself in Tuesday, his legal team said.
The ex-president will likely appear in court for his arraignment the same day, according his lawyers and a court administrator.
In a statement, Bragg said his office was in touch with Trump’s legal team on a surrender date.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan DA’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” the statement said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
For decades, Southeast Queens has been held up as a model of the
American Dream for those striving for a better life. Our communities in
Southeast Queens have more than 220,000 residents claiming African
American and Caribbean American heritage, many of whom themselves (or
their parents and grandparents) left other denser parts of the city –
often at greater cost and expense than most other ethnic groups in the
city – to have some breathing room, own their own home, a backyard,
grass and trees and to give their children a better life.
From
Hillside Avenue to JFK Airport, Lefferts Blvd. to the Nassau County
line, our mostly suburban neighborhoods have survived and thrived
despite systemic racism and redlining. We cherish our low-density
communities in Southeast Queens, and we have consistently defended our
detached one-family zoning in places like Addisleigh Park, Cambria
Heights, Hollis, Jamaica, Laurelton, Queens Village, Rosedale, St.
Albans, South Ozone Park, and Springfield Gardens. Additionally, over
60% of our residents own their own homes, more than double the citywide
average.
We want to be clear: we are united with all of our
neighbors in Queens, Staten Island, the rest of New York City, the
suburbs in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and beyond regardless of race,
ethnicity or economic background who oppose the “Housing Compact” which,
in our estimation, will be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off
in our communities.
Having the Governor mandate more development
in southeast Queens, increasing density by 500% within ½ mile of our
LIRR stations, forcing increases in housing if we don’t do it ourselves
by overriding local zoning, giving blanket amnesty to dangerous and
deadly basement and cellar apartments – these are extinction level
policies that will wipe out our neighborhoods, plain and simple. Most of
our elected officials from southeast Queens understand this.
Some
supporters of Gov. Hochul’s plan, such as Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher
of Brooklyn have equated single-family zones with Jim Crow practices,
and have deemed the governor's plan as necessary to achieve "racial
justice." While historically that is true, it does not apply to our
communities in Southeast Queens in 2023.
What we’ve achieved over the years is the ability to live the life we want, where we want and how we want.
The
governor's plan, far from bringing "racial justice" to our black and
brown communities in Southeast Queens and other areas, would bring
devastation throughout our neighborhoods if implemented.
The
financial and political gains that African Americans have made in our
city, our suburbs and across the State – our top elected officials
except for the Governor herself are African American in both the State
and the City – all of this will be lost if the “Housing Compact” becomes
law.
We are the civic leadership of Southeast Queens. We are
Black and we are 100% opposed to Governor Hochul’s “Housing Compact” and
the attempts to increase density exponentially in our communities. We
hope that the Governor and Legislature are listening very carefully.
Signed,
Addisleigh Park Civic Association
Alpha Street Civic Association
Brinkerhoff Action Association
Eastern Queens Alliance
Greater Triangle Civic Association
Queens Village Civic Association
St. Albans Civic Improvement Association
149th Street South Ozone Park Civic Association
221/222 Street Block Association
South Ozone Park Civic Association West
Sojourner Truth Democratic Club
United Coalition for Veterans & Community Rights (UCVCR)
United Neighbors Civic Association (UNCA)
Wayanda Civic Association
I'm going to leave this here too. This is a malignant thread from Manhattan Twitter, I mean Borough President Mark Levine that wants to destroy community boards as well so this housing compact can get rubber stamped and approved. Even though it still doesn't provide enough affordable housing for lower income working people.
Manhattan Borough "president" has no idea how democracy works but he sure thinks he knows how it should be run
— WE❤️NYC LLC (@ImpunityCity) March 29, 2023
By a caliphate of lobbyists he feels should influence laws and make all the decisions for communities.
Levine is a fascist https://t.co/2yUMhOYIiO pic.twitter.com/92Gj2RdVLJ
