The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is conducting the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) on January 28, when they will survey to find a point-in-time estimate of the number of unsheltered homeless individuals in New York City. Here’s their call for volunteers:
With one week left until the count, we need your help!
DHS still needs volunteers to make HOPE 2013 a success and the participation of our past volunteers is very important. As a past volunteer, we are asking for your help again. Volunteers commit to assist us overnight on Monday, January 28, 2013 from 10:30 pm until 4:00 am. If you haven’t signed up for HOPE 2013, please consider helping us on this very important night.
HOPE is critical to helping DHS evaluate the effectiveness of our strategies to overcome street homelessness as well as developing appropriate housing resources for the most vulnerable New Yorkers currently living without shelter. HOPE’s methodology has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as the gold standard and I am proud to say that this is in large part due to your help.
Registration for HOPE, and the results from last year, can be found on the DHS homepage at www.nyc.gov/dhs or directly by clicking here. Questions regarding this event can also be sent to the HOPE Team at HOPE@dhs.nyc.gov or by calling 212-607-5366.
I hope that you will join us on this night in our efforts towards ending homelessness in New York City.
Let’s make it count!
Sincerely,
The HOPE Team
NYC Department of Homeless Services
Source: Mephell/Deviantart.com
According to a report by YouGov.com, a research and consulting organization, 64 percent of Americans are woefully unprepared for a major natural disaster, even after the events of Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and a series of other major natural disasters smacking us around in recent years.
The report finds that people making disaster-readiness plans has slightly increased from 31 percent to 36 percent since 2011, showing that the majority of Americans have failed to adequately prepare themselves in the event of another major disaster. This is the breakdown of YouGov’s numbers,
Of the 36 percent who said they were equipped for natural disasters, their preparations included the following:
- Emergency supplies (for example, flashlights or first-aid kits): 89 percent
- Food stocks: 74 percent
- Creating an evacuation or an emergency plan: 50 percent
- Disaster insurance: 22 percent
Of the 89 percent who had emergency supplies, their supplies included the following:
- Flashlights: 97 percent
- Water: 92 percent
- First-aid kits or medicine: 92 percent
- Sleeping bags or blankets: 83 percent
- Face masks: 18 percent
- Iodine pills: 15 percent
While general preparedness is low, concern and fear over another natural disaster has increased, especially across the Northeast, where 31 percent report that they are “very concerned” following Hurricane Sand, doubled from the previous year’s report of 17 percent concern in polling done after Tropical Storm Irene, the highest percentage in the country.
A lot of people have prognosticated in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that this was finally the storm that got everyone’s attention, and that in the future, people will be more prepared for the advent of another natural catastrophe. I’m not so sure. While Sandy’s devastation was massive and destabilizing, only time will tell how New Yorkers will prepare and respond, both personally, and politically, should another superstorm come to wreck our city.
Constructed in 1991, 130 Livingston Street was supposed to streamline MTA operations. Source: Google Maps
THE COMMUTE: In Part 1, I provided examples of MTA waste. Today I will detail the waste I personally observed while employed by the MTA.
During my nearly 25 years at the MTA, I witnessed many types of MTA waste. When I started, one of my employees had to supervise three months of extra work that had to be performed because approximately 50 temporary workers sabotaged data due to the MTA screwing them before I was hired. They did this by firing the workers on a Friday and rehiring them the following Monday. This was to avoid having to pay them sick and vacation benefits, which were required of temporary employees hired for longer than six months.
Five years later, I shared a floor with a half dozen employees that the MTA forgot to reassign after dismantling a department of 30. They were placed in a corner and given no assignments for three years, although they continued to get paid.
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370 Jay Street. Source: Google Maps
THE COMMUTE: In New York, MTA means Metropolitan Transportation Authority. In the 1970s and 80s, critics claimed it really meant “More Trouble Ahead” with frequent announcements of projects coming in over budget and behind schedule. In the years since, little has changed. More recently, we have been plagued with: fare and toll hikes, service cutbacks, and the state stealing money from the MTA.
In The Commute, I have highlighted where the MTA has not spent its limited funds wisely:
Expensive projects, such as East Side Access and the Fulton Transit Center, have also had its critics wondering if the work scope could be narrowed, thus enabling the work completed to be quicker and at lower costs. Former MTA Chairman Jay Walder was the first to admit that perhaps the MTA is not as efficient as it can be. He took steps to streamline administrative expenses instead of merely looking toward the fare, more borrowing and service cuts to plug the MTA’s budget problems. His motto was “making every dollar count.” He also pledged more accountability. Current MTA Chairman Joe Lhota claims to be continuing where Walder left off when he broke his contract last year, and hastily departed for more lucrative employment in the Far East.
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"Gridlock" Sam Schwartz's Congestion Pricing proposal.
THE COMMUTE: If the MTA has its way, fare and toll hikes in odd numbered years will be as certain as death and taxes. The next ones are scheduled for January 2013, with approval by the MTA Board in December after a series of citywide hearings to be held in the fall. Hearings should be for the purpose of obtaining public opinion, but in the MTA’s case, first the decision is made, then the hearings are held as a formality. Great way to improve the MTA’s credibility and image. That is why most people no longer attend these hearings, especially when they have to wait three or more hours to speak, after all the elected officials — the same elected officials guilty of cutting or not increasing MTA funding.
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THE COMMUTE: You can read yesterday’s “The Role of Buses and How to Make Them More Effective: Part I” here. Today we investigate the causes of bus bunching and discuss examples of the MTA being unresponsive as well as being responsive.
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Source: changeschanging / Flickr
THE COMMUTE: Given the choice, most people would choose to take a train rather than a bus, unless they have a problem with stairs or walking. That is because the train is more reliable and much quicker. However, in most situations, one does not have that choice. If it is a short distance, the choice is usually to take the bus or walk. For longer distances, it is bus or car service. Yes, there are those who bike or skateboard, but they are the exception rather than the rule. I am also referring to those without access to an automobile, since that will probably be your mode of choice, unless parking is limited at your destination or origin.
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Source: Poster Boy NYC / Flickr
THE COMMUTE: This was a busy week in MTA-related news.
Former MTA Chairman Jay Walder’s push for new technology will be felt for quite some time. A few days ago, New York 1 reported that the MTA intends to provide every subway station with a new emergency intercom system. The pilot cost is $300,000 per underground station. While currently there is no money for the program, the cost has been figured into the MTA’s Capital Plan.
The day before, the MTA also announced that it wants to install 47-inch interactive touch screen tablets in all stations to provide customers with directions and service status updates. The cost as of yet is unknown as the MTA is first exploring having corporate sponsors pick up the tab in exchange for receiving a portion of advertising revenue.
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THE COMMUTE: A system that is over 100 years old needs to be rebuilt and it also needs to be expanded. Since the MTA provides service 24 hours a day, maintaining the system is difficult. Several years ago, there were TV stories about how track workers were being paid for an eight hour shift and actually worked for only four hours a day. The reasons were several:
- It takes time to transport the workers to and from the job site;
- All work must take place during non-rush hours so work must stop at a certain time even if the job is incomplete, and
- Sometimes there are delays in delivering materials to the job site.
Recognizing these problems, the MTA recently started a program called FASTRACK, whereby an entire line is shut down for a week or so from 10:00 p.m. to about 6:00 a.m. to speed up the work to be done. They claimed that on the three subway lines — the Lexington, the Broadway-7th Avenue, and the Sixth Avenue — where it has already been tried, it has been a huge success.
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A mess of wires, somewhat representative of DOT signage. Source: HowardLake / Flickr
THE COMMUTE: The MTA financial situation could go from bad to worse. First we have the state stealing money from the MTA. Now we have the federal government trying to do something similar.
A proposed House bill ends the practice of linking the Highway Trust Fund, financed by the gas tax, to mass transit and reduces federal funding to transit. As MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota stated, without dedicated funding the MTA is in serious trouble:
“That billion dollars in funding is used to buy rail stock and switching and signaling equipment, critical to maintaining our system in a state of good repair.”
Republicans are now reworking that bill and there is also a competing Senate bill.
Read about some overdue problems that need fixing in our neighborhood.
