Lunchtime stabbings and shootings in midtown

Robberies at gunpoint in broad daylight. Stabbings during business disputes in the Diamond District.

h/t Gothamist

Deja Vu, Part III

Uh-oh.

As construction costs soar, the MTA assured New Yorkers Wednesday its large projects like the Second Avenue Subway will move forward, but possibly at a slower pace.

Earlier this week, the Fulton Street Transit Center’s glorious glass building became the first victim of booming construction prices, and the MTA could be looking at $1 billion in cost overruns on other major projects.

While the agency is looking at cutting back on parts of its large projects, halting them is not an option, officials said.

…

Gene Russianoff, attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, said a delay is far easier to swallow that scrapping projects altogether.

“I don’t think we’re on the cusp of abandoning the Second Avenue Subway again like we did in the 70s,” he said.

Thanks to Ben for traveling forward in time to grab this newspaper. Condolences to all on the outcome of the upcoming election.

It was the economy, stupid

Giuliani didn’t clean up New York. If anything, maybe Dinkins deserves some credit for graffiti-proofing subway cars and staring the ball rolling on adding more police, but really the clean, tidy, safe New York of the last decade and a half was the product of a first gradually, then rapidly, improving regional and national economy going back to the late Koch years.

As goes the housing bubble goes the economy, and as goes the economy go the neighborhoods:

Thirty-four years worth of progress assembled street by street, block by block, house by house is crumbling before Cathy Mickens’ eyes.

“It’s hard to see the neighborhood being torn apart,” said Mickens, director of the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Jamaica, the gritty eastern edge of New York City.

Wander any of the side streets just off Jamaica Avenue, the neighborhood’s main drag, and her meaning is clear. Dozens of empty homes, ‘For Sale’ and ‘For Rent’ signs jammed into first floor windows, stand testament to an exploding housing crisis brought on by a flood of foreclosures tied to subprime mortgages.

…

Due to a high prevalence of single family homes, Queens has been slammed by the subprime mortgage meltdown more than any other New York borough. And Jamaica is taking the brunt of the hit, leading all city neighborhoods in foreclosures during the third quarter of 2007, according to PropertyShark.com.

Signs of life in Times Square

When Spotlight Live opened near Times Square last year, it seemed like just another soulless corporate tourist attraction. As unlikely as it sounds, though, it might turn out to be the starting point for a return of the old Times Square, serving as the backdrop for seven stabbings — one fatal — on Monday.