NYC NOW - June 13, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Adjunct lecturer and former NYPD officer Jillian Snider reacts to the departure of NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating after three men vandalized pride flags outside of the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan, and three historic sites in the Bronx have officially become New York City landmarks. Finally, enforcement of Local Law 18, aimed at eliminating thousands of illegal short-term rentals in New York City, has been delayed twice by city officials. This has sparked concerns among some City Council members regarding the understaffing of the enforcement agency. WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with data reporter Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky who has followed this story.

NYC. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, June 13th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. New York City needs a new leader of the NYPD after police commissioner Kishant Sewell announced a resignation yesterday. Jillian Snyder is an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former NYPD officer. She credits Sewell for bringing morale up among officers, but says her authority over the NYPD was never made clear. Most of my students, they just automatically default to who's on television wearing the NYPD windbreaker when something happens. And that's always Eric Adams. Sewell did not give a reason for her departure after only a year and a half on the job.

In a statement, Mayor Adams thanked Sewell for her leadership. The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating after three men, Vandalized pride flags outside the Stonewall National Monument in Manhattan. Police say the group was walking past the monument in Christopher Park over the weekend when they began breaking pride flags attached to a fence. The monument sits across the street from the Stonewall Inn, the site of the 1969 uprisings that were a catalyst for the gay rights movement. City Council member Eric Botcher, who's gay and represents the lower Manhattan community, tweeted, if anyone thinks this is going to intimidate us or weaken our resolve, they're mistaken. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the NYPD's crime. Stoppers hotline. Three historic sites in the Bronx have officially become New York City

landmarks. The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously today to grant the Bronx Opera House, as well as a century-old firehouse in Belmont, and a fire alarm telegraph bureau landmark status. The Opera House in the South Bronx was a major center for the growing Latin music scene in the 1960s. It was built as a theater and restaurant in 1912 and showcased early Broadway acts along the subway circuit. Breathe easy today. The air quality well into the good range at 75 degrees WNYC. For WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. This summer was supposed to mark a turning point for Airbnb and other vacation

rentals in New York City. That's thanks to Local Law 18, a city rule that's supposed to eliminate thousands of illegal short-term rentals across the city. But city officials have now twice delayed the enforcement of the rule, and some members of the City Council are concerned the agency responsible for enforcing the new law doesn't have enough staff to do so. WNIC data reporter Jacqueline Jeffrey Willinsky has been following the story and she joins us now. Jacqueline, why are these short-term rentals thought to be a problem and how big of a problem is it?

So proponents of the law say that what Airbnb and other platforms like Verbo are doing is they take apartments from the full-time market and they basically turn them into hotel rooms. It's tough to know exactly how many illegal Airbnbs there are in the city, but officials say there could be as many as 10,000. So you've got 10,000 units that they say could be residential apartments but are instead being used for tourists. So what exactly is illegal when it comes to the short-term rental? Yeah, so under New York State's multiple dwelling law, in most cases, you can't just rent out your entire home or apartment for less than 30 days. in order to be legal, you have to be living in the residence as the host, and the guests and the host have to have access to all the spaces in the house. Like there can't be locks.

So if the apartments are already illegal, what's the point of the new law? Yeah, great question. The problem is that in the past, it's been really hard to enforce the multiple dwelling law. So the city's Office of Special Enforcement, or OSCE, they're responsible for identifying the hosts who break the law. they basically had to rely on complaints and the fines that they levied often didn't get paid. What Local Law 18 does is that it requires host to register their properties with the city in order for them and Airbnb to get paid. So in other words, if you're not registered, people literally won't be able to book the listing on Airbnb

and illegal rentals like those full apartments simply won't be able to register. Jacqueline, how has the registration process been gone so far? It's been pretty slow going, honestly. So the registration portal opened up in March, and they've gotten close to 800 applications, but only 13% have actually been fully reviewed by the staff at OSCE, and only 36 applications have actually been approved. And to put that into perspective, there are over 40,000 listings on Airbnb alone. Only 14,000 of them are active, but still, that's not including other sites like verbo and booking.com.

And one issue that's come up for several city council members, including the ones who co-sponsored the law and really supported it, is that there's a serious staff shortage at the Office of Special Enforcement. We're talking like 28 roles filled out of 60 budgeted. So that's a 50% vacancy rate compared to 8% citywide. And city officials are saying that's because some of the roles use a civil service hiring process, which is more time consuming. What does the Office of Special Enforcement have to say about? all this, Jacqueline? Honestly, not a lot. They really wouldn't answer questions about how staff levels might affect enforcement of the law. Jacqueline, when is this law set to take effect now? Great question.

The law was first delayed from May to July, and at the time, there was a ton of scrambling and confusion. Hosts were canceling listings. And then earlier this month, Airbnb and a couple of hosts actually sued the city. And then shortly after that, the city announced it was delaying enforcement again, until after the peak tourist season. Now it won't start until September 5th. But we're going to keep tabs on the situation and on the data as that enforcement deadline gets closer. WNYC data reporter, Jacqueline Jeffrey Wollenski,

reporting this morning on the city's efforts to enforce regulations on the Airbnb or short-term rental industry. Jacqueline, thank you. Thanks for having me. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every week.

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