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But the rattling shook buildings in New York City and drove startled residents into the streets. Image The command room of New York City Emergency Management. Today’s earthquake Magnitude 4.8 Conn. Pa. 1964 4.5 1994 4.6 250-mile radius from New York City Md. 250-mile radius from New York City Del. While earthquakes in New York City are surprises to most, seismologists say the ground is not as stable as New Yorkers might believe.

Persons: “, Kathy Hochul, ” Gov, Philip D, Murphy, Con Edison, Eric Adams, ”, Adams, Zach Iscol, Dave Sanders, Ron Hamburger, Valorie Brennan, Ada Carrasco, The New York Times “ I’ve, Kristina Feeley, Feeley, Folarin, “ There’s, Kolawole, Lazaro Gamio, Riyad H, Mansour, Janti, Hamburger, Michael Kemper, Clara Dossetter, David Dossetter, Dossetter, ’ ”, Lola Fadulu, Gaya Gupta, Hurubie Meko, Michael Wilson, William J . Broad, Kenneth Chang, Emma Fitzsimmons, Sarah Maslin Nir, Erin Nolan, Mihir Zaveri, Maria Cramer, Grace Ashford, Camille Baker, Liset Cruz, Michael Paulson, Patrick McGeehan, Troy Closson Organizations: ”, United States Geological Survey, Police Department, Fire Department, Con, Gracie Mansion, The New York Times, Whitehouse, New York City Emergency Management, Credit, Lamont, Columbia University, Maine CANADA, New York City Del, Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, United Nations, Children U.S, Security, New York Police, United Airlines, Newark Liberty International Airport Locations: Newark, New Jersey, Manhattan, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, New York, Rockland County, Murphy of New Jersey, Whitehouse, N.J, California, Japan, Zach Iscol , New York, New, Northridge, Los Angeles, Califon, Marble, Ramapo, New York , New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Palisades, N.Y, N.H, Pa, New York City Md, Del, Va, Maine, R.I, Md, Palestinian, Gaza, East Coast, “, York, San Francisco, Gaya

☆ His Brownstone Is Worth $5.4 Million. Why Is His Tax Bill So Low?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | Camille Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

New York City is known for its pricey real estate, but some homeowners get an unexpected bargain: Property taxes on some of the fanciest, most coveted properties are often very low — at least relatively. Its annual property tax bill is around $12,000 — about 0.2 percent of the home’s overall worth. Now compare that with the $7,500 tax bill for a $780,000 home in the Bronx. The cheaper home has an effective property tax rate almost four times higher. Both bills are lower than in much of the suburbs, where property taxes for less valuable homes routinely top $25,000.

Locations: York City, Brooklyn’s Park, Bronx

☆ To Fix a Housing Crisis, New York Leaders Seek to Revive a 1950s Idea
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Grace Ashford | Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To address a growing housing crisis, leaders in New York’s State Senate are set to propose sweeping legislation on Monday that would encourage new construction, establish new tenant protections and also revive some older ideas for building affordable housing. Among them: the creation of a new public benefit corporation that would finance housing construction on state-owned land. Leaders are framing it as a successor to the popular midcentury program known as Mitchell-Lama. New York has faced rising rents and a homelessness crisis exacerbated by an influx of migrants. But leaders have struggled to find a compromise that could unite a fractious group of stakeholders behind a housing program that meets the state’s needs.

Persons: Mitchell, Lama Locations: New York’s State, Lama . New York

☆ Boxes, Tape, $10,000: What It Takes to Move Into an N.Y.C. Apartment
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-10 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hannah Brooks needed a new apartment and she was running out of time. It was last July — peak moving season — and Ms. Brooks, 29, had to move to New York City from Austin, Texas, before her boyfriend started a new job. “She said, ‘It’s first month, security deposit and broker’s fee, which comes out to $14,441 dollars,’” she recalled. Living in New York City is notoriously expensive, a consequence of there being too few homes for the number of people seeking them. That was the largest sum in more than a decade and nearly 30 percent above the prepandemic figure in 2019.

Persons: Hannah Brooks, Brooks, “, ‘ It’s, ” Organizations: The New York Times Locations: New York City, Austin , Texas

☆ New York City’s Housing Crunch Is the Worst It Has Been in Over 50 Years
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-08 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

New York City’s housing crunch is the worst it has been in more than 50 years. It was the lowest vacancy rate since 1968 and shows just how drastically home construction lags behind the demand from people who want to live in the city. Housing experts often consider a “healthy” vacancy rate to be somewhere around 5 to 8 percent. A higher vacancy rate typically means it is easier for people to find apartments when they want to move. The data suggests New York City’s housing crisis is only getting worse, especially during the economic rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.

Persons: Eric Adams, ” Organizations: New Locations: York, New York

☆ GOP senator asks TikTok's CEO over and over if he's Chinese. He's Singaporean.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-31 | by ( Lauren Steussy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

During Wednesday's tense congressional testimony over online safety for children, Sen. Tom Cotton repeatedly asked Singaporean TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew if he's ever been a part of the Chinese Communist Party. An increasingly agitated Chew, who's no stranger to US politicians' prodding, tried repeatedly to shut down the line of questioning by telling the conservative senator that he's Singaporean. "Senator, I'm Singaporean, no," Chew responded. Chew was joined by four other social media companies' CEOs Wednesday for a combative hearing on protecting children online in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Zaveri put it this way:The rhetoric at times seemed to paint the Chinese people with a broad brush and conflated people of Chinese ancestry with the will of the CCP.

Persons: Sen, Tom Cotton, Shou Zi Chew, he's, Chew, Cotton, Jamie MacEwan, MacEwan, Paayal Zaveri, Zaveri, bungled Organizations: Chinese Communist Party, Business, Enders Analysis, Committee, Energy, Commerce, CCP Locations: China, Beijing

☆ The Tax Break New York Relied on to Build Housing Is Gone. What’s Next?
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-28 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly every debate about New York’s housing crisis involves a state program called “421a.”But what is it? On one level, it’s a simple idea: Give developers a property tax break to build housing in New York City that might otherwise be a drag on their bottom line. But left-leaning lawmakers have fought the program’s resurrection because they say it is a giveaway for developers. Mayor Eric Adams and many housing experts believe a new tax incentive is necessary to address the housing shortage at the root of the city’s affordability problems. Without more supply, they argue, demand for housing will continue to drive costs ever upward.

Persons: It’s, Eric Adams Locations: New York City

☆ New York City Has a Bold Plan to Fix Its Housing Crisis. Will It Work?
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | More About Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Upgrading basements and building up bodegas. The plan is a combination of different strategies. One component would also make it easier to build smaller apartments, like for single-room occupancy, that could be relatively cheap to rent. Other parts of the plan would apply only in less crowded areas outside of Manhattan, where a hodgepodge of zoning rules often prevent the development of anything other than single- or two-family homes. These changes, which could also increase the supply of lower-cost homes, include:● Allowing the construction of two- to four-stories of apartments above laundromats, shops and other businesses along certain commercial strips;● Allowing the construction of modest apartment buildings on big lots near subway, bus and other transit stations;

Locations: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens

☆ How 100,000 Apartments in New York City Disappeared
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | More About Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The rate of combinations ramped up in the 1990s as the city came out of an economic crisis. “I’m not trying to begrudge folks who are trying to build a larger apartment as their families grow,” said Adam Brodheim, a preservationist who did the research. “I’m trying to bring attention to the way these actions across the entire city make a meaningful impact on our housing crisis.”On some streets, many buildings that were built a century or more ago as single-family homes and split during the 1900s into multiple units have once again become single-family homes. In the rowhouses on West 88th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Columbus Avenue, there are about 173 units. That compares with more than 400 units on the same street in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Mr. Brodheim, who is also a member of Open New York, a nonprofit that advocates for more development.

Persons: “ I’m, ”, Adam Brodheim, Brodheim Organizations: Open Locations: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Amsterdam, Columbus, York

☆ In Yards, Offices and Basements, New York Hopes to Build 100,000 Homes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | More About Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mayor Eric Adams is proposing a major overhaul of New York City’s approach to development that his administration says could make way for as many as 100,000 additional homes in the coming years and ease the city’s severe housing crisis. The proposed reforms, which Mr. Adams is announcing on Thursday in remarks at Borough of Manhattan Community College, amount to his administration’s broadest and most ambitious attempt to tackle New York City’s housing shortage, which has been worsening for decades. Rules limiting growth have long made it difficult for enough homes to be built to accommodate everyone who wants to live here, driving up the cost of living. That, in turn, has raised a threat to the city’s economy as businesses struggle to keep workers and families have poured out of the city. The proposals could bring new housing development to nearly every corner of New York City and reflect a growing political consensus that the city must do everything it can to build.

Persons: Eric Adams, Adams Organizations: Manhattan Community College, New Locations: New York, New York City

☆ New York City Cracked Down on Airbnb. What Happens Next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | More About Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since 2018, Tricia Toliver, a freelance stage manager, has rented out the bottom floor of her Brooklyn townhouse through Airbnb, earning more than $3,000 a month by hosting visitors to New York City for a few days at a time. But after city officials last week started enforcing rules prohibiting short-term rentals in apartments like hers, Ms. Toliver, 64, had to figure out what she would do with the South Slope apartment. The new rules, which went into effect on Sept. 5, mean as many as 10,800 listings for short-term rentals will likely no longer be available, according to a city estimate from the end of March. City officials say the shift will force property owners to rent those homes to residents instead of visitors, helping to ease the city’s housing shortage. And some, like Ms. Toliver, are waiting, hoping that backlash to the enforcement scheme will change things so she can rent the apartment out again.

Persons: Tricia Toliver, Toliver, “, ” Locations: Brooklyn, Airbnb, New York City

In New York City, debates over affordability often center on the proliferation of opulent high-rise developments. But in the boroughs, deep-pocketed investors are buying up hundreds of smaller buildings, prompting a new set of concerns in the city’s deepening housing crisis. Over the past few years, private equity firms have quietly spent hundreds of millions of dollars buying apartments in neighborhoods like Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Ridgewood in Queens, property records show. Private equity firms — which typically invest money on behalf of pension funds, endowments or other large sources of wealth — focus on assets, like businesses or housing, that they can buy relatively cheaply but that have big profit potential. Their expansion into the housing market across the nation has prompted scrutiny in Congress about whether the trend is amplifying America’s affordability problems.

Locations: New York City, Bushwick, Bedford, Stuyvesant, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ridgewood, Queens, New York

☆ Almost $80 Billion Needed for Repairs to New York City’s Public Housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | More About Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Worsening living conditions in the city’s public housing system have vast implications. NYCHA’s developments are home to more than 330,000 people, a population larger than that of Orlando or Pittsburgh. Rents for public housing residents tend to be capped at 30 percent of their income, and the average rent is less than $560 per month. New York’s public housing system was once heralded as a progressive triumph. A new public benefit corporation, created by the state last year, could also give the access to more funds.

Persons: Eric Adams, Barack Obama, NYCHA, Adams, Lisa Bova, Hiatt, Jamie Rubin Locations: York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Chelsea

Such an explosion of migrants, which is estimated to cost $4.3 billion by July 2024, would test any American city. In New York, the arrivals were met by a system that had already been under pressure because of factors of the city’s own making. More homeless people compete for homes, until the shelter becomes the home. It was met by aid workers with blankets and the handshakes and cheers of a city that prided itself on stepping up. Shelters opened faster than pop-up restaurants, more than 170 since last spring, sometimes overnight.

Persons: ”, Adolfo Abreu, — Organizations: Vocal Locations: New York, Texas

☆ Public Garden vs. Affordable Housing: A Court Rules for Housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Elizabeth Street Garden in Manhattan is a popular space where people can do yoga, attend poetry readings or amble outdoors among roses and daffodils and sculptures of lions. It is also a rare, publicly-owned site that the city thinks is a perfect spot to put dozens of affordable apartments in one of the wealthiest parts of the city. A fight over whether to keep the garden or build the housing has dragged on for more than 10 years. But on Tuesday, the housing plan — at least for now — prevailed. Adolfo Carrión Jr., the city’s housing commissioner, called the ruling a “huge win.”“The fight over this land highlights how difficult it can be to build affordable housing, especially in neighborhoods that offer strong economic opportunities,” he said.

Persons: Elizabeth, Adolfo Carrión Jr, ” Locations: Manhattan, York

☆ Why Mark Ruffalo and Wendell Pierce Are Fighting for a Crumbling Church
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But the entry of Mr. Ruffalo and a number of celebrities — the actor Wendell Pierce, the comedian Amy Schumer, the rapper Common and more — into the fight over the church, more than two decades after it first began, has added an unusual twist to a common city conflict. Mr. Ruffalo even cornered Mayor Eric Adams at the Tribeca Film Festival this month to plead his case. All sides agree about the storied history of the church and its architectural significance. But around the same time, the church became a flashpoint in the city’s real estate battles. As early as the 1980s, West Park fought against preservationist regulations that would limit how it could use its property, arguing that it should be excluded from a historic district in the neighborhood.

Persons: Ruffalo, Wendell Pierce, Amy Schumer, Eric Adams, Maria Torres, Leaf Organizations: Tribeca, City, Springer, West Park Locations: New York, West

☆ Why Eric Adams Issued His Second-Ever Veto Over Housing Bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Emma G. Fitzsimmons | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Why It Matters: The mayor and the City Council have disagreed about how to address New York’s housing crisis. New York City is facing a housing crisis with soaring rents and record homelessness. Mr. Adams has received criticism from housing advocates for not moving quickly enough to create affordable housing, for supporting rent increases and for clearing homeless encampments. This one is the first by Mr. Adams since January 2022, when he vetoed a bill that would have increased penalties for zoning violations. But the mayor could sue the City Council to stop the laws — a tactic used by former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — or the City Council could sue the mayor if he chooses not to implement them.

Persons: Adams, Jonathan Westin, “, Mr, Bill de Blasio, Kathryn Wylde, ”, Michael R, Bloomberg —, Mihir Zaveri Organizations: City, Families Party, City Council, Mr, Partnership, New, Bloomberg Locations: New York City, New York, “

☆ Rents for 2 Million New Yorkers Set to Rise Again This Year
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | Olivia Bensimon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Wednesday, the city’s vast stock of rent-stabilized homes, which has come to be one of New York’s most important sources of lower-cost housing, is about to become a little more expensive. A New York City panel is set to let rents in the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartment rise for the second consecutive year, citing high inflation and ballooning costs for property owners. Last month, the panel, known as the Rent Guidelines Board, backed increases on one-year leases of between 2 and 5 percent and increases on two-year leases of between 4 and 7 percent, in a preliminary vote. Last year, the panel voted to raise rents on one-year leases by 3.25 percent in rent-stabilized homes, and on two-year leases by 5 percent. The Shirazis, who earn about $4,500 a month in retirement benefits, will find a way to manage, they said.

Persons: Eric Adams —, — Locations: York City, New York

☆ To Improve Public Housing, New York City Moves to Tear It Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tearing down public housing has become something of a national trend, except in New York, where the New York City Housing Authority has held onto its stock of aging buildings even as repair bills and tenant complaints mount. At Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea, more than 2,000 public housing apartments would be replaced. The plan also calls for the construction of new retail and commercial spaces and 3,500 mixed-income apartments, with around 1,000 restricted to people earning lower incomes and the rest renting at market rates. It would be only the third tear-down in the agency’s nearly 90-year history, and the first time new, mixed-income buildings would be built on NYCHA land. City officials said they hope to replicate the plan elsewhere as conditions in public housing worsen.

Organizations: New, New York City Housing Authority, Fulton Houses, Elliott, Chelsea Houses Locations: New York, New York City, Manhattan, Fulton, Elliott, Chelsea

☆ A TikTok ban in Montana points to how a US ban would play out: messy and hard to enforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Montana is the first US state to ban TikTok, as US lawmakers discuss a federal ban. US lawmakers have been talking about a possible TikTok ban over its ties to China. Montana's law suggests a federal ban would be hard to enforce — and might not solve anything. Last week, Montana became the first US state to ban TikTok — and the rule's implementation could show just how hard it would be to enact a federal ban. Montana's TikTok ban is hard to enforce from a tech standpointWhile the ACLU and other civil rights groups are questioning the legality of Montana's TikTok ban, even if it did stand up to a court challenge, it's hard to actually enforce.

Persons: TikTok, it's, Montana's, that's, Evan Greer, Aaron Mendes, Banning TikTok, Mendes, Donald Trump's, Karen Gullo Organizations: ACLU, TikTok, Apple, Washington Post, Facebook, Electronic Frontier Foundation Locations: Montana, China, British, TikTok

☆ Rent for Millions of New Yorkers Could Increase by 2 to 5 Percent
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The NewsThe New York City panel charged with regulating rents across nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to some of the largest increases in years. The nine-member panel, the Rent Guidelines Board, voted to back increases on one-year leases of between 2 and 5 percent and increases on two-year leases of between 4 and 7 percent. To determine the level of increase, the board examined factors that affect renters, including employment trends and wages, and ones that affect landlords, including rising fuel and insurance costs. As in past years, the increases track inflation, which has been high during the rebound from the worst of the pandemic. Any increase would affect leases beginning on or after Oct. 1.

☆ The debate over banning TikTok has been poisoned by anti-Asian rhetoric
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The TikTok CEO's testimony to Congress in March highlighted the anti-Asian rhetoric around the app. And second: The discourse around those issues, particularly talk of banning the app entirely in the US, has been poisoned by a surge in anti-Asian rhetoric, making it difficult to have a national conversation around TikTok in good faith. But what set the hearing with TikTok's CEO apart was the tone and personal nature of the questions, Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups said. That paints a target on the back of Asian Americans, Chinese nationals living in the US, and, by extension, all other Asian populations, advocacy experts said. The rhetoric has consequences for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the US economyAll this has implications for the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US and the global Asian diaspora.

☆ Microsoft made a big bet with ChatGPT. Months later, it’s already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft bet billions on OpenAI — its gamble is already paying off. Some analysts said Microsoft's successful integration of AI signals that it has already pulled ahead of Google. They even projected that Microsoft's cloud service Azure could be on track to surpass long-dominant Amazon Web Services. My teammate Paayal Zaveri highlights how Microsoft's AI wager has made it a surprising leader in tech's hottest field. He hit $2 million by the end of 2020, and in 2022 alone, he sold $4 million worth of products.

☆ New York Officials Failed to Address the Housing Crisis. Now What?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Luis Ferré-Sadurní | Mihir Zaveri | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

ALBANY, N.Y. — It seemed like 2023 would be the year that New York would finally take the most consequential steps in decades to address the state’s dire housing shortage. Rising rents and homelessness had made housing a top issue for voters. Kathy Hochul had unveiled a grand plan, focused on cajoling communities to build more homes through new mandates, that was met with praise from housing experts and pro-development groups. And her fellow Democrats in control of the State Capitol had pledged to make housing a priority. The disintegration underscored Albany’s often dysfunctional policymaking process and marked a significant setback for a new governor who had made housing a top focus.

☆ Microsoft's bet on AI is still in its early days. But there are signs it's already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI has lead to a new wave of innovation in artificial intelligence. There are already early signs that the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is paying off, analysts say. Analysts say there is still work to be done, but "Microsoft is leading this tech AI arms race." Wall Street analysts took that as a sign that Microsoft's big bet on AI is already leading to financial gains. Ultimately, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said, "the AI story is still in the first inning," but, he said, "Microsoft is leading this tech AI arms race."

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