Talk Bronx New York

Citywide Performance Reporting Launced For NYC

02/14/2008

At a news conference in the Bronx this morning, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is announcing Citywide Performance Reporting, a new online tool intended to allow the public to track and monitor more than 500 indicators of municipal performance.

The tool emphasizes three themes — accountability, transparency and accessibility — and includes data from more than 40 city agencies and organizations, from July 2002 (the middle of Mayor Bloomberg’s first year in office) to the present.

The data will be updated monthly, quarterly or annually, depending on the measurement, and organized into eight broad themes: citywide administration, community services, economic development, education, infrastructure, legal affairs, public safety and social services.

Each of the more than 500 indicators has a color code indicating the direction that the indicator has been moving in so far during the fiscal year, which began on July 1: green if performance has been improving or stable; yellow if performance has been declining by 10 percent; and red if performance has declined by more than 10 percent.

Under citywide administration, for example, several areas need improvement. At the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the average time to process a purchase order has gone up.

At the Department of City Planning, the median times to refer land use applications and complete environmental review applications have gone up.

At the Department of Environmental Protection, the number of noise complaints has increased, as has the time to close out those complaints and to resolve complaints about sewer and catch basins.

Anyone going through this rich trove of data is likely to find an indicator where the city is not doing as well as it should — or perhaps, where the city is doing exceptionally well. Readers are invited to share their own findings.

SOURCE: Blogs.NYTimes.Com

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Mike Murphy Ditches Carion For Manhattan Development Corporation

Adolfo Carrion’s communications director, Mike Murphy, is leaving for a job with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

While it’s a loss for Carrion, it’s something of a win that Murphy wasn’t hired by another city comptroller candidate.

That’s more or less what happened with John Collins, who was hired by Anthony Weiner, a likely mayoral candidate.

Collins had recently worked for two possible mayoral candidates before going to Weiner: Christine Quinn and Betsy Gotbaum (who had been considered a longshot candidate until this interview put that notion to rest).

Here’s the email Murphy sent to friends:

Just wanted to let everyone know that I will be leaving The Borough
  President’s Office at the end of the week. It was a great year and a
  half!!!

I have accepted a job as the new Press Secretary for the Lower
  Manhattan Development Corporation. I look forward to working with
  everyone in my new capacity. I will start at LMDC on next Tuesday. I
  can be reached at this email ### (once I get my new
  email I will send it around) and on my cell 646-###-####. Thanks talk
  to you soon and remember only 48 more days to Opening Day of MLB….GO
  RED SOX!!!!

SOURCE: Observer.com

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Love & Peace! No Increase! Chants At Bronx Tenant Rally

Tenents and housing advocates held a “Love and Justice” rally at the Bronx office of landlord Jacob Selechnik, who has been listed on the Village Voice’s annual list of worst landlords in New York City.

The tenants from 2720 Grand Concourse in the Bronx were protesting what they describe as January rent hikes of 30 percent, instead of the six percent rent increases legally allowed under an approved major capital improvement increase.

Several tenants visited the landlord’s Riverdale office Wednesday to request a meeting, chanting chanting “Love and Peace! No increase!” There was no listing for Jacob Selechnik in New York City.

 SOURCE: NewsDay.com

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Carrión to Name Campaign Chairmen 

Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Bronx borough president and candidate for city comptroller, is expected to name two co-chairmen for his campaign: former State Comptroller H. Carl McCall and Leo J. Hindery Jr., a longtime media executive, according to advisers to Mr. Carrión.

Mr. McCall was the Democratic candidate for governor in 2002, losing to George E. Pataki. Mr. Hindery is a former chairman and chief executive of the YES Network. He also served as the finance chairman of the mayoral campaign of Mr. Carrión’s predecessor, former Borough President Fernando Ferrer, in 2005.

The presence in the campaign of two prominent names is intended to give added heft to Mr. Carrion’s effort to win citywide office in what is expected to be a crowded race for comptroller. Late last year, Mr. Carrión announced that he would not run for mayor — as he had long planned — but for comptroller instead.

Mr. Carrión’s decision to run for the lower position came after intense urging from many politicians in the Bronx and the rest of the city. They contended that Mr. Carrión was unlikely to prevail in a Democratic mayoral primary that also included William C. Thompson Jr., the current comptroller.

The politicians, mostly black and Hispanic elected officials, told Mr. Carrión that his effort to become New York City’s first Puerto Rican mayor would be crippled by dividing the minority vote between him and Mr. Thompson, New York’s only black elected official holding a citywide office. And they said that neither Mr. Thompson nor Mr. Carrión would have much of a chance without solid support from black and Hispanic voters.

Mr. McCall, who sought unsuccessfully to become the state’s first black governor, has remained active politically, endorsing various candidates for statewide and local office.

SOURCE: Blogs.NYTimes.com

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Bronx Community Wont Take City’s Word That School Site Is Safe.

Members of a Bronx community announced Tuesday that they’re conducting their own environmental review of the land where the city plans to build four new schools.

The city says the Mott Haven site, which once housed rail yards, is safe.

Neighborhood advocates argue the location is toxic. They’ve hired an independent team to review the city’s plans to manage contamination at the site.

“These sites have become very dangerous to our kids,” said local resident John Fielder. “They’re saying they’re going to clean up the sites and things like that, and they’re not doing a full complete job. We want them to focus on the fact that these sites need to be cleaned up on a continuous basis. They need to be monitored on a continuous basis, not just for a couple of years, but for the life of the school.”

Residents are hopeful that the city will implement the recommendations that come out of their review. The Department of Education has said that it will continue to provide the Bronx community with reports about the testing, construction and management of the site.

SOURCE: NY1.com

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