What We Read This Week: Jan. 5, 2018

Fort Greene Park by @franciscodaum/Flickr.

Photo by @franciscodaum/Flickr.

Happy New Year! Thank you to everyone who supported IMPACCT Brooklyn in 2017 and during our year-end fundraising campaign. Our work is made possible by community members like yourselves who value diverse, vibrant neighborhoods for residents and small businesses to flourish in. But it’s not too late to show your support!

We’re excited to see what we can do together in 2018!


New York Times: How Does Your Landlord Calculate Your Rent?

While the city’s larger, institutional landlords may use algorithms to set rents, informing tenants of increases by letter, for many smaller landlords, the process is not so impersonal. They may rent just a few units, often in the building where they live, relying on the income to make their mortgage payments.

Curbed NY: At De Blasio inauguration, calls for fairness, more affordable housing dominate

Still, “the most pressing issue in our city of this generation is affordable housing,” James said; she stated that in her second term, she would work to address that problem, whether through making “preferential rent” permanent (rather than something a landlord can change or remove at whim), or creating more housing, rather than shelters, for homeless New Yorkers.

The Nation: Mayor de Blasio Should Seize His Second Term to Make New York the ‘Fairest Big City in America’

As a first crucial corrective, the administration must rework this housing plan, funneling the majority of resources toward building deeply affordable housing—the kind that’s available to extremely low-income households—which is where the need and numbers are greatest.

BK Reader: Crime Rate Hits Historic Low in Central and East Brooklyn

Building on this trend, the DA’s Office plans to announce a reform-focused agenda in 2018 with a focus on driving down violent crime while finding new opportunities for diversion, transparency and efficiency and continuing efforts that were put in place already in 2017.

The Intercept: Puerto Rico Homeowners Brace for Another Disaster: Foreclosures

Ultimately, the expected wave of foreclosures could prove worse than what happened in the most hard-hit areas in the U.S. mainland during the Great Recession.

City Limits: Under Lingering Obama Initiative, NYC to Evaluate Fair Housing

In the coming year, the city will have an opportunity to take a new, citywide, and potentially more race-conscious approach: to deliberate whether its housing approach is “fair” — and what exactly “fair” means.

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