New York Issues.

Problems and Solutions.

NYCHA

The City should get out of the socialized housing business. Housing projects are no longer run for the tenants. They are run to support the unions and the bureaucrats. The tenants are an afterthought.

To that end I would propose that the city turnover ownership of the individual apartments in the buildings to the tenants who occupy them. Since I have no idea how much debt the Housing Authority has in outstanding bonds, some of that debt should be assigned to each apartment as a mortgage which the tenants will pay down.

The tenants would then go on to manage their own buildings, hire and fire contractors and the like. The City may want to install mentors to oversee the individual management boards to monitor for abuse. The tenants should also have the right to vote to remove any tenant they feel is not compatible with the building. Such tenants would be fairly compensated for their assets.

Going forward, the City should provide housing assistance in the form of vouchers similar to the current Section 8 vouchers.

Since NYCHA comprises a substantial portion of the current city budget, it’s elimination would eventually free up a substantial number of resources.

The MTA

This could actually fill a substantial book.

To begin with, it should be acknowledged that transportation is essential to the health and wellbeing of every city resident. Even those who do not use the system. The current state of the MTA is such that we have no idea where the vast number of resources they consume is going and whether or not it is being effectively spent. So, my first recommendation would be to hire an independent outside accounting firm to conduct a complete audit of the MTA finances and present it to the public in a form that each person could understand. Such as the real amount of money each ride actually costs.

Then some structural changes need to be made.

First, the MTA should be broken up.

The Mayor should be responsible for the subways and busses within city limits. If not the mayor, then an Authority that is solely responsible for them and can be held publicly accountable.

As anyone who has ever taken a train or a bus knows, the problem with all public transportation is not the actual transportation. It is waiting for the transportation to arrive. To that end, I would propose that instead of a ten car train arriving at a station every 15 minutes, that a 1 car train arrive every 1.5 minutes. This would require nine additional motormen, which would be prohibitively expensive. So, I propose eliminating all the motormen and automate the train. If Google can design a car that can drive itself in traffic, why would we need a person to drive a train that can only stop and go.

Next, I would eliminate the antiquated signal system completely and put the sensors on the cars themselves. I would have the cars communicate their location through cell phone network antennas that would be put in all the stations and tunnels free of charge by the cell phone companies. Then I would put sensors on the front and back of each subway car to sense proximity to anything in front or behind them. This is significantly cheaper than replacing the current signal system with an updated version of an antique system.

Busses should have similar modifications. All busses that run in dedicated bus lanes should be automated, smaller and more frequent. They are currently doing exactly that in Europe, so it is possible.

Next, the concept of “Stops” should be reconsidered. As people enter the system they should use their phone to tell the system where they are going. This way if no one on the single car train wants to stop at a given station, and there is no one waiting at the stop, the train bypasses the stop. No point in wasting everyone’s time.

Construction on the system should be modularized. That is, wherever possible sections should be preassembled and put in place as modules. This would reduce both the cost and the time associated with various construction projects. The assembly of these modules would be by private companies awarded the contract through a bidding process.

In the long run, the city should get out of the socialized transportation business. They should follow the proven business model that they already have with roads. They should maintain the tracks and get out of the train business altogether. They should allow any company that wants to run a train to do so provided they adhere to the standards of the system. If the cost of transportation got too expensive for lower income people, then the city could provide vouchers similar to the housing suggestion.

MTA Financing

As stated in the beginning, transportation is a benefit to everyone in the city. So everyone should pay. The system should be financed with a flat tax, call it a pre-paid ticket, on every single citizen over 18. Tourists and out of city commuters should also pay the tax. In exchange, the system would be required to operate within the boundaries of the tax collected. In the case of private vehicles…….

In summation, the MTA is providing a 19th Century solution to a 21st Century transportation problem. It is unsustainable and needs to be drastically rethought.

Homelessness

In surveying the homeless situation, I notice that there are basically 4 types of homeless people. 1) those who just caught a bad break and simply cannot afford a place. 2) those with substance abuse issues, alcoholism, drugs etc. 3) the mentally ill. 4) those who choose homelessness as a lifestyle. The first group is the easiest to help and is related to “affordable housing”. I will expound on that topic someplace else. But a few modifications to the current shelter system would make a big difference in these people’s lives very quickly. Namely, build bedrooms in the shelters to make them like dormitories and allow people to stay in them. This would require ending the current practice of kicking the homeless out every day and also locking the doors at 9 PM if they are not onsite. If this practice was implemented, someone who got an entry level retail job would at least have a place to call home while they saved up enough money to get a place of their own.

The second group would obviously be helped by making more substance abuse treatment available.

The third group is perhaps the most dangerous. There is a desperate need for better treatment of those folks with mental issues. For those mentally ill folks who refuse medication and become violent, I think institutionalization is appropriate until they are certified well enough to live amongst society.

The fourth group is the hardest to deal with. If they are found to be of sound mind and body but still refuse any attempts to help them rejoin society, then that is their choice. I support their right to make that choice even if I don’t agree with it. But those that choose to live that way do not deserve any of the limited resources used to help out those who want help. They deserve simple basic shelter. Basically, the current system. Even that is open to debate.

Mental Health

The appalling lack of help for the mentally ill is one of the biggest crises facing society today that no one wants to talk about. I have no reasonable solution to this problem other than to suggest that the violently mentally ill should be institutionalized. Against their will via Court Order if necessary.

Bail Reform

The existing Bail Reform laws should be reformed to require cash bail for violent offenders or offenders deemed to be part of a criminal enterprise that engages in violence, such as street gangs. Offenders with multiple arrests within a specified period of time should also be required to post bail, as in revolving door offenders.

Court Reform

Bail Reform is of no value without Court Reform. Indeed, Bail Reform would not be necessary if it didn’t take years for a case to be brought to trial. More efforts need to be made to streamline the court system and remove the bottlenecks.

Business environment

Wherever possible, small to medium size business and individual entrepreneurship should be encouraged. This should take precedence over all existing quotas. Regulations that govern behaviors that should be negotiated by the employer/employee relationship should be relaxed for small to medium sized businesses.

Affordable Housing & Zoning

Does anyone even know what constitutes “Affordable Housing”? Everyone I know who tried to get one of these apartments was told they didn’t qualify. Either because they made too much or they made too little. Why is this even an issue? It’s a problem solved by simple economics. When the price of an asset rises too high, increase the supply and the price will come down. Simple. The reason housing prices are so high is because there are more people who want to live here than there are places for them to live. So, why don’t we build more places? Well, for lots of reasons. All of them political. In New York City, we are basically out of land, so the only way to build is to go up. So, why don’t we do that? Because unreasonable building codes require developers to spend too much money to build. But the main reason is zoning. No one wants to allow a multi-story building in their neighborhood of one family houses. There must be selective rezoning in the city to allow more multi-family developments.

Also, building codes must be changed to allow for a reduction in the cost to build a building. Pre-manufactured modular buildings can be made for considerably less cost than traditional building methods.

There should also be a move to allow smaller apartments. If the price per square foot is more than you can afford, you should be able to rent less square feet. No matter how small the apartment is, it’s better than living on the street.

Lastly, NYC is the biggest land owner in the city. Yet there is nothing done with that housing stock to make it available. I would suggest that if NYC cannot rehabilitate a property it owns within a given period of time, that it be required to auction that property off to someone who will do the job.

But the primary focus of housing should be changed from providing rental property to providing a path to ownership. You cannot expect someone to look at their surroundings as theirs unless they share ownership in it. Every effort should be made to encourage co-op and condominium situations over rentals. Especially at the lower end of the market.

Taxi Medallions

Sometimes government creates artificial problems that hurt real people. One such case is taxi medallions. In an effort to reduce traffic in Manhattan, NYC limited the number of medallions that could be issued to operate a taxi cab. This caused an artificial shortage as the demand for taxis increased but the supply did not. Several people rushed in to take advantage of this by buying large quantities of medallions thus limiting the supply even further and driving the price even higher. Then came ride sharing companies like Uber and Lyft and drastically increased the supply of taxis and blew up the market. Everyone holding a medallion got hurt as their prices fell. But some immigrant taxi drivers who bought a single medallion to try to better themselves got hurt particularly hard. I would propose that NYC find out exactly how many of these single medallion holders there are and how much debt they are holding. I would then compare that debt to what the debt would be if they had bought their medallions at the new lower prices. After subtracting the lower debt from the higher debt, you would have a per driver figure. The city should then issue NEW medallions at a price that would eliminate that debt and give relief to the owners of single medallions. Anyone who owns multiple medallions is doing so as an investment in an artificial shortage. Uber and Lyft changed that. Move on.