Good morning. It's Monday. We'll look at the latest chapter in the city's crackdown on unpaid water bills. We'll also find out about a plan to reopen a landmark movie theater on the Upper West Side.
Water, that most basic necessity, is not free: New York City charges property owners a little less than 5 cents per cubic foot — just short of seven and a half gallons' worth. Those who are billed — homeowners, landlords or co-op or condo boards — are supposed to pay up. But roughly one out of every nine of the city's water ratepayers is behind on payments. The city began a crackdown on water bill delinquents in March. This summer Dana Rubinstein, who covers city government for the Metro desk, reported on a hypocrisy: The biggest delinquent of all was New York State. And last week a lawsuit filed by Legal Services NYC accused the city of targeting homeowners who are aging, taking care of young children or coping with serious medical problems. The lawsuit said the city was defying regulations intended to protect vulnerable people. I asked Dana to explain the city's push to collect on overdue water bills. Mayor Eric Adams announced the crackdown in front of a boutique hotel that the city said owed $372,206 for water. But the city hasn't just targeted commercial property owners and large landlords, has it? No. In an unusually aggressive move, the city has also sent shut-off notices to homeowners, including those who have medical conditions, small children or both. These are homeowners who have somehow managed to rack up staggeringly huge water arrears that their lawyers say they have no ability to pay. One homeowner I spoke with, who makes weekly trips to food pantries, got a bill for $58,000. A lawyer for the homeowners in the lawsuit filed last week said that she didn't think the city really intended to shut off the water. She also said the ratepayers' interactions with the city felt like a shakedown. Why did the city go after residential customers? The city's water system is supposed to be self-sustaining. The water rates help to underwrite the operations of the city's Department of Environmental Protection, which every day provides one billion gallons of water to New York City and its environs. That is no small task. Nor is it the department's only assignment. The agency is also being asked to make the city more resilient to storm water in the age of climate-change-induced flash flooding. That will cost billions. The city clearly feels obligated to pursue water debt wherever it can find it. The bill for $58,000 went to a couple who own a two-family house in East Elmhurst, Queens. What happened then? Alarmingly for that couple, their mortgage servicer ended up paying off the debt, apparently to avoid that debt being sold to an investor who might then be able to interfere with any future foreclosure proceedings. The debt has not disappeared. It is now just in the hands of a different debt holder. The couple's lawyer expects the mortgage servicer to seek repayment through their monthly mortgage bills. The husband can't work because of medical problems, and his wife is job hunting. His lawyers said the huge water bill caused him so much anxiety that it sent him to the hospital. Given their financial situation, it seems unlikely they will be able to afford increases that are tacked on to their mortgage payments. Why is City Hall looking for money for the Department of Environmental Protection, which maintains the city's water and sewer systems? The department's ambitions are vast and expensive, and the demands on it have only increased with climate change. Flash flooding, which, of course, affects the department's wastewater system, is becoming more common in the age of climate change. Let's not forget that in 2021 11 New Yorkers drowned in their basements because of flash flooding tied to Hurricane Ida. And efforts to enable the wastewater system to absorb more runoff are extremely expensive. Further complicating matters are policy decisions by the mayor. He recently moved to divert more than $1.4 billion from the department to serve other purposes, which helped drive a 8.5 percent rate hike in water charges. The biggest delinquent on water bills is New York State. Is the state going to pay up? That's anyone's guess. Obviously, the amount the city says the state owes — more than $76 million — is substantial. Leading the list of nonpaying state agencies are the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority; Riverbank State Park on the West Side of Manhattan; and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bistate agency that manages the ports and airports in the region. The city has said that the M.T.A. and the Port Authority simply stopped paying their bills during the coronavirus pandemic. They dispute their deadbeat status for a variety of reasons. WEATHER Prepare for a chance of showers that will persist through the evening. Temperatures in the mid-80s during the day will drop to the low 70s in the evening. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B'Av). The latest New York news
Arts & Culture
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Will the Metro Theater finally be revived?
The charming Art Deco touches in the interior of the Metro Theater, which was built in the 1930s on the Upper West Side, disappeared when it closed in 2005 and was gutted. It has remained vacant and forlorn ever since, though its facade, which has been designated a landmark, survives. Now the Metro may be resurrected. The independent film producer Ira Deutchman is spearheading the project, along with Adeline Monzier, who is the U.S. representative of the French film promoter Unifrance and a programmer at the Metrograph, a theater on the Lower East Side. They have formed a nonprofit whose website lists the director Martin Scorsese and the actors Ethan Hawke and John Turturro as advisers. The plan is to call it the Metro Cinema Center and to turn it into a five-screen theater dedicated to art-house releases and classic films. The proposal hinges on persuading the estate of the longtime owner of the theater to accept the plan — and on finding funding. Deutchman indicated that estimates from a community group that were reported by Indie Wire and that put the sale price at $5 million to $10 million and restoration at $15 million to $25 million were generally accurate. METROPOLITAN DIARY At Pratt campus
Dear Diary: My husband died suddenly in 2022, and I planned to spread his ashes in several places that were important in his life, including Prospect Park, Ditmas Park, where we lived for many years, and Pratt Institute, which he graduated from in 1975. One beautiful spring weekend, I decided it was the perfect time to visit Pratt and leave some ashes there. As I headed through the gate onto the main campus, I was stopped by a security guard who told me I could not bring my dog with me. I explained the circumstances. The guard was kind but firm, explaining apologetically that he could not make an exception. Dejected, I walked away. Then I saw two young men coming toward me down the sidewalk. They looked friendly, so I approached them. "Excuse me, but you look approachable," I said. They smiled quizzically. I explained the situation and asked if they would hold my dog for a few minutes. Of course, they replied. What's her name? "Leela" I said. I was gone for a few more minutes than planned and did not see Leela or the young men when I exited the campus. Panicking momentarily, I crossed the street and searched up and down. Then I saw them, sitting on the sidewalk and playing with Leela. "Our pleasure," they said. Thank you, Max and Sam. — Cindy Harden Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: A deluge of unpaid water bills
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