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Could Your Home Have Lead Paint? This Map Aims to Help NYC Tenants Gauge Risk
New York City buildings constructed before 1960 are presumed to contain lead paint. While only proper testing can confirm its presence, a new tool allows users to enter an address and see when a property was built—what its creators say is a “starting point” for tenants and building owners to investigate further.
A lead paint testing tool. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography)
It’s been more than
In 2024, according to the city’s Health Department,
“Education around lead, and especially lead paint hazards, is something that still is really necessary,” said Kielbasa. “People think of it as something that’s been dealt with already, and there’s still about 5,000 kids a year who are poisoned in New York City. And we’re finding out more and more every day about how it’s bad for adult health, and that’s not really being tracked, honestly.”
The information is definitely intended to be a starting point. And you know the truth is, is that even buildings that are supposed to not have any lead paint in them that were built after 1960 turn up after being tested to have lead paint in them, because the national band was 1978 and New York State, I believe, was 1970 even so, oh, wow, yeah. So I think you have contractors that you know came in from or had stockpiles of the lead paint and just decided to use it. Might have had contractors working in other states, in New Jersey or Connecticut, who brought in whatever they had and just decided to use it.
the kind of rule of thumb that we use as advocates is, the older the building, the more there is typically, you know, because there’s stronger chance that it was used further back, and there might be more layers of it too
“friction surfaces” — window and door frames
even though, in many cases, if you have an old property where the paint is kept up, the friction surfaces are particularly dangerous, because over time that the abrasion that happens between the door and the door frame wear down the paint, and you can then expose the under layers of paint and create microscopic dust that, you know, basically gets, you know, sits down into the area below the door or window and then gets tracked through your old apartment. And, you know, it’s not the best scenario for anybody in the home, but if you have a child in the home, it’s particularly dangerous.
if you have a child in the age of six, landlord is already supposed to be doing an annual inspection of that unit, so coming in each year and looking at the painted surfaces, making sure they’re intact, to make sure there’s no chips appealing paint. So they should be doing that too
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Council Speaker Seeks to ‘Elevate the Role of Community Planning’ in Land Use Decisions
“The Council’s land use process could benefit from more thorough strategies to meaningfully engage communities and secure better development outcomes for New Yorkers,” Speaker—and mayoral hopeful—Adrienne Adams said in the intro to the newly-published Community Planning Framework.
The New York City Council wants more proactive planning.
Last week, the legislative body—whose members get a definitive vote in city land use decisions—unveiled a “Community Planning Framework” it says will bring more voices into the process and better consider the needs of communities when negotiating projects. “Without planning, land use changes can often be unpredictable and piecemeal,” the 37-page framework reads.
The document is “meant to guide Council Members, city agencies, potential applicants, and community-based organizations,” on how to be more “proactive” when it comes to development decisions, be it via neighborhood-wide rezonings or a specific developer’s one-lot proposal.
“The Council’s land use process could benefit from more thorough strategies to meaningfully engage communities and secure better development outcomes for New Yorkers,” Speaker Adrienne Adams—who’s among the crowded field of candidates competing in this month’s Democratic primary for mayor—said in the guide’s intro.
Its publication comes as two concurrent Charter Revision Commissions—one convened by Mayor Eric Adams and the other by the Council—are considering changes to city government processes on land use, an effort to speed up housing production. This includes potential reforms to the Uniform Land Use Procedure (ULURP), the city’s approval process for zoning changes, and how big of a role councilmembers and other stakeholders should play in it.
Among the Community Planning Framework’s recommendations: That each councilmember work with local groups and residents to develop a land use plan specific to their communities, “that identifies long-term priorities, goals, and strategies at the district level to inform future development.”
This can guide developers looking to build within a given district, so they can shape their project proposals to include resources and amenities the neighborhood has already identified as priorities, like open space or transportation upgrades.
Along the same lines, the Council’s guide recommends lawmakers start the public engagement process early—”especially before ULURP” kicks off, when a clock starts ticking and sets mandated time frames by which community boards, the borough president, City Planning Commissions and Council must weigh in.
When local sakeholders are brought into the
process early (especially before ULURP), input
can be especially helpful to vet changes to the
proposal before it’s too late.
“Early engagement allows potential applicants to submit a proposal that is more responsive to community preferences, and for community and elected representatives to use the feedback to reinforce desired project components. Waiting until after the environmental study is determined or after the start of public review can narrow the opportunities for public input to shape what is ultimately built.”
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Post Title
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) needs an estimated $78 billion in capital repairs over the next 20 years across its more than 2,500 buildings, according to its 2023 Physical Needs Assessment.
The hefty price tag—which increased by more than 70 percent since the previous assessment was conducted five years earlier, in 2017— “reflects deteriorating conditions of NYCHA’s infrastructure following decades of federal disinvestment and significant price escalation in the construction sector over the last few years,” housing authority officials said.
Those costs include needed lead-based paint and asbestos abatement, upgrades to heating and hot water systems, plumbing, building facades and windows, and renovations to individual apartment interiors.
In an effort to cover the costs, NYCHA has in recent years turned to alternative funding models, converting select properties from the federal Section 9 program to Section 8 under either the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program or the Public Housing Preservation Trust.
To help NYCHA tenants get a clearer sense of the conditions of their homes, City Limits created the following interactive graphics, which include repair needs information for public housing campuses across the five boroughs. We’ll update these when NYCHA releases its next Physical Needs Assessment, slated for 2028.
Click on the map or enter your development into the search bar in the chart below to learn more about a particular development. (Graphics by Patrick Spauster for City Limits)
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