A City of Renters?33.2: Percentage of New Yorkers who own their homes, a record high (compared to 28.7 in 1990).
68: Percentage of Americans who own their homes, proving that we’re still, all things considered, a city of renters.
40: Percentage of New York City homeowners who are foreign-born, further proving that locally grown New Yorkers tend to rent (or perhaps proving that we just happen to host a planet’s worth of pieds-à-terre).
47: Percentage of New York City homeowners who are women, which doesn’t prove anything; it’s just nice.
15,000: Projected number of foreclosure filings this year.
1: New York City neighborhood that actually registered a decline in home ownership from 1990 to 2005. (It’s Bushwick.)
In a City Known for Its Renters, a Record Number Now Own Their Homes [NYT]
numbers game
On the L Train, Survival of the ThinnestFinally, an evolutionary explanation for the overwhelming skinniness of the Williamsburg hipster, as identified through various statistics cited in “For Less Crowding on L Train, Think 2010, Report Says” in today’s Times:
• Riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in 2006: 4.99 million
• Riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in 1995: 2.09 million
• Increase in riders passing through the Bedford Street L station in that period: 139 percent
• Rank of the L train among 22 subways lines for likelihood of getting a seat at rush hour, according to the Straphangers Campaign’s annual report card: 20
numbers game
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Today’s metro-crime headline is that Eliot Spitzer wants to close some prisons, at least in part, because declining crime rates have led to a smaller inmate population. But Saturday’s metro-crime headline was quite different: Seems the NYPD’s stopping and frisking New Yorkers in unprecedented numbers these days — five times more people were stopped last year than in 2002 — and that those stops, overwhelmingly of black New Yorkers, are leading to more arrests and summonses. Some numbers:
Number of people stopped and frisked by the NYPD last year: 508,540
Number of people stopped and frisked by the NYPD in 2002: 97,296
Average number stopped per day in 2006: 1,393
Average number stopped per day in 2002: 266
numbers game
Poll: New Yorkers Support Their Overwhelmingly Reelected Senator
Today’s Daily News has blockbuster front-page news: In a poll of New York City residents, more would pick their own senator to be the Democratic presidential nominee than would pick a freshman Illinois senator with far lower name recognition. (Who’d have thunk it?) If there’s any interest to the poll, it’s in the demographic breakdowns.
• New York City voters who would pick Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nominee: 43 percent
• New York City voters who would pick Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nominee: 24 percent
numbers game
We Have Seen the Traffic, and It Is Us
If you’re like us, you’ve probably tried to reconcile your daily observations of forever-snarled Manhattan traffic with the fact that neither you, nor anyone you know, owns a car. Then, if you’re like us, you’ve assumed that it’s all suburban commuters’ fault. If so, the Times has some shocking revelations for you today. The data:
• Total number of daily car commuters in Manhattan: 263,000
• Number of those commuters who live within the five boroughs: 141,000
• Percentage of total commuters who live within the five boroughs: 53
• Number of those commuters who live in Queens: 51,300
• Percentage of total commuters who live in Queens: 19.5
• Number of those commuters who live in Manhattan: 23,900
• Percentage of total commuters who live in Manhattan: 9
• Percentage of total commuters who merely pass through Manhattan en route elsewhere: 20
• Percentage of government workers who drive to work: 35
• Amount those government workers pay for parking: $0
In Traffic’s Jam, Who’s Driving May Be Surprising [NYT]
numbers game
Dumpster Diving• Pounds of food waste the average New York City household produces each week: 7.1
• Pounds of food waste the average American household produces each week: 4.1
• Pounds of garbage the average New York City household produces each week: 40
• Pounds of garbage the average American household produces each week: 45
• Pounds of garbage “rich people in high-density neighborhoods” — e.g., Manhattanites — produce each week: 28.4
• Percentage of the city’s current waste that can be recycled: 36
• Percentage of the city’s waste that could be recycled in 1989: 45
• Tons of recyclables the Department of Sanitation is required to pick up daily, under a 1989 City Council law: 4,250
• Tons of recyclables the Department of Sanitation currently picks up each day: 2,000 to 2,200
• Tons of mixed paper — including junk mail — thrown out each year instead of recycled: 200,000
N.Y. Throws Away Heaps [NYP]
numbers game
NYPD Shocker: Recruiting Drive Plus Salary Slash Equals Bad Idea
• Number of new cops Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said they would put on the streets during 2006: 800
• Number they actually ended up adding to the force in 2006: 0
• Number by which NYPD’s ranks in fact shrunk in 2006: 307
• Starting pay for NYPD officers in 2005: $39,000
• Starting pay for NYPD officers in 2006: $25,100
• Last time starting pay for NYPD officers was $25,000: 1986
• The dropout rate among last year’s NYPD cadets, with whom the $25,100 salary went into effect: 16 percent
Cops Pay Big Price for 25G Salary [NYPD]
numbers game
Are Taxi Drivers Metering All the Way to the Bank?
The taxi-fare increase — now it costs 40 cents for each minute in stopped or slow traffic — went into effect yesterday, and New Yorkers are incensed. Or at least so the Post would have you believe. Murdoch’s paper rounds up quotes from pissed-off passengers, like Lisa Navarro, who thinks it’s “horrible,” and Aisling McEvoy, who finds it “appalling.” Navarro explains: “I think [drivers] are rude. I don’t think they should get any more money.” So are the drivers raking it in now? Consider some stats:
• Amount of money a cabdriver takes home for every dollar of fare, according to Schaller Consulting’s 2006 Taxicab Fact Book: 57 cents
• Amount of money spent on maintenance and gas for ever dollar of fare: 24 cents
• A cabdriver’s average take-home pay for a ten-hour shift, before the fare increase: $158
• A cabdriver’s average take-home pay for a ten-hour shift, after the fare increase: $175.10
• A cabdriver’s average hourly pay, after the fare increase: $17.51
• A living hourly wage for someone living in Brooklyn with one school-age child, according to the Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement: $18.96
• A living hourly wage for someone residing in Queens with one school-age child: $20.54
• Percentage of cabdrivers who have health insurance, according to the New York Taxi Workers Alliance: 20
— Gabriel Thompson
Ticker Shock at Real Taxi Hike [NYP]
numbers game
Not So Different From You and Me?Andrew Beveridge, who does demographic analyses for the Times, has sifted through census data to come up with some trivia on a woefully undertaxonomized (and, some would say, undertaxed) cohort: the city’s idle rich, or, as he calls them in his Gotham Gazette study, “New Yorkers who don’t need to work.” The numbers are impressive. Per Beveridge:
Amount a person needs to earn annually in investment income to be counted as not needing to work: $60,000
Number of people in the tri-state area who “don’t need to work”: 140,000
Median personal income of these people: $191,200
Percentage of them who live in Manhattan: 16
Percentage who live in the suburbs: 40
Percentage who work, anyway, despite not needing to: 25
Percentage who went to college: only 60, surprisingly
The Idle Rich [Gotham Gazette]
numbers game
Hillary Clinton Runs Most Expensive Non-Campaign Possible
You think it’s cheap to run a sure-to-win cakewalk of a campaign? Hardly. Hillary Clinton managed to spend $36 million on her 30-point victory two weeks ago — about $1.2 million per percentage point. Hillary’s never-in-question victory cost her more than twice what New Jersey’s Bob Menendez spent to squeak out a win over Tom Kean Jr. and almost twice what Chuck Schumer spent to win an even bigger victory in 2004.
How was all that money spent? Some line items:
• $17 million for advertising, including at least $1.58 million to a Denver-based firm that helped hone her strategy.
• $2.5 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
• $1.1 million to pollster Mark Penn.
• $930,000 to media strategist Mandy Grunwald.
• $746,450 on catering, including $2,500 at a hot-dog shop.
• $200,000 to a subsidiary of the Grover Park Group, a political-consulting firm employing two Clinton advisers.
• $51,000 on professional photographers to document the fund-raiser grip-and-grins.
• $37,500 to Maggie Williams, a close friend (a payment Clinton’s staffers now call an error).
• $27,000 on valet parking.
• $13,000 on flowers.
And, let’s be honest, isn’t it the fresh bouquets that make all the difference?
Clinton Won Easily, but Bankroll Shows the Toll [NYT]
The Woman in the Bubble [NYM]
numbers game
MTA to UES: Excuse Us While We Lay Track Through Your ApartmentTo make an omelette, as they say, you’ve got to break some eggs. And to make a Second Avenue subway, it seems, you’ve got to break some leases. There’s news today about the East Side tenants who will eminent-domained out of their apartments, forced perpetually to stand clear of those closing doors. Some numbers to consider …
Number of Second Avenue apartments from which tenants will be removed so that the MTA can build entrances to the Second Avenue subway: 60
The original number of residential relocations requested by MTA: 127
Year these relocations will start: 2008
Number of blocks to be covered by first leg of Second Avenue subway: 33
When service is scheduled to begin on that leg: 2013
Maximum monthly subsidy available to a relocated tenant under eminent-domain law: $5,250
Number of months the subsidy will last: 42
Number of months from 2008 to 2013: 48
2nd Ave. Wary of Subway Plan [Newsday]
numbers game
It’s Giuliani Time!America’s Mayor — or New York’s former mayor, at least — has set up an exploratory committee for a presidential run, and, boy, are the tabs excited. We’ll happily grant that Rudy Giuliani’s 9/11 bona fides aren’t nothing, but we also wonder if his quest to become the standard-bearer of the family-values party might in fact be an uphill battle. Some numbers to consider …
Number of Republican presidential nominees since 1980: 4
Number who performed admirably on September 11 and 12, 2001, including the 2000 and 2004 nominee: 0
Number who were from the Northeast (remembering the George H.W. Bush was considered a Texas resident when he became president): 0
Number who were Roman Catholics: 0
Number who were pro-choice: 0
Number who were pro–gay rights: 0
Number who were divorced: 2
Number who were twice divorced: 0
Number who informed his wife of their impending divorce via press conference: 0
Number who moved in with his gay close friend and his gay close friend’s partner after being thrown out of his mayoral residence by wife, whom he had informed via press conference he would be divorcing her: 0
CORRECTION, Nov. 17: We are bad at counting, and this item originally claimed five GOP presidential nominees since 1980. And we have forgotten most of what we knew about Bob Dole, including that he was divorced; this item originally cited only one divorced nominee.
numbers game
‘Post’ Beats ‘News,’ FinallyThis morning Rupert Murdoch’s dream — well, one of Rupert Murdoch’s dreams — came true. The Audit Bureau of Circulations, the gang that measures sales of U.S. newspapers and magazines, released its latest numbers, and the Post has finally overtaken the Daily News in weekday circulation. (The News still kills on Sundays.) Some relevant numbers:
Average weekday circulation of the Daily News in the six-month period ending September 30, 2006, as announced today: 693,382
Average weekday circulation of the New York Post in the six-month period ending September 30, 2006, as announced today: 704,011
Average weekday circulation of the Daily News in the six-month period ending September 30, 2005, a year ago: 686,274
Average weekday circulation of the New York Post in the six-month period ending September 30, 2005, a year ago: 669,663
numbers game
Jared Paul Stern Sells Book. But Why?
Jared Paul Stern — the disgraced “Page Six”-er captured on videotape allegedly demanding money to stop negative coverage — finally sold his long-promised memoir yesterday, a gossip-world tell-all that Gawker assures us fetched someplace in the six figures. Times books reporter Julie Bosman today follows up by raising the question of why anyone would choose to spend, well, anything on it. Let’s take a look at unit sales for previous, similar works, as reported in the Times:
• Burning Down My Masters’ House, by Jayson Blair, Times fabulist and plagiarist: 4,000 copies
• The Fabulist, by Stephen Glass, New Republic plagiarist: 4,000 copies
• It!: 9 Secrets of the Rich and Famous That’ll Take You to the Top, by Paula Froelich, “Page Six” reporter: 9,000 copies
• Welcome to Yesterday, by Ian Spiegelman, fired “Page Six” reporter: 1,000 copies
• 4% Famous, by Deborah Schoeneman, former New York gossip reporter: 4,000 copies
Now let’s do a little math, shall we?
