Cindy Rodriguez

New York, NY —

It's been a week since a five-year-old boy died after falling down an elevator shaft at a Brooklyn public housing complex, but residents in other buildings are still concerned about the safety of their elevators. Several of them lit candles for the boy in front ...

New York, NY —

A week after a 5-year-old Brooklyn boy died falling into a public housing elevator, residents are asking questions about the safety of elevators in their public housing buildings.

Anne Washington says it's hard to keep track of the elevator breakdowns in her complex — the Grant ...

New York, NY —

Budget woes have caused the New York City Housing Authority to delay major renovation projects throughout the five boroughs. One of those projects was to replace the elevators at a Brooklyn housing development, where a young boy fell to his death Monday.

Replacing the elevators at ...

New York, NY —

A probe by the New York State Labor Department has found widespread labor violations within the car wash industry.

A third of the car washes inspected were in New York City, and more than 78 percent of those failed to pay minimum wage and overtime.

Agency commissioner ...

New York, NY —

In New York City, police respond to more than 200,000 domestic violence calls a year. The majority of the perpetrators are by far men. Only a small fraction end up getting convicted for abusing their partners. An even smaller fraction serve jail time. The rest ...

New York, NY —

Crown Heights residents packed a community board hearing in Brooklyn last night to protest the relocation of an intake center for homeless men to their neighborhood.

A deputy commissioner from the Department of Homeless Services tried to alleviate their concerns. But Brooklyn city councilwoman Latisha James ...

New York, NY —

The city's largest shelter provider for homeless youth is trying to figure out what's causing a spike in the number of youth seeking a bed for the night. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: Covenant House says summertime is usually when shelter numbers fall. That's because warm ...

New York, NY —

On May 12, Immigration agents raided a major kosher meat plant in northern Iowa. Hundreds of undocumented immigrant workers were arrested. And the owners of the sprawling plant have been accused of exploiting them. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports the kosher plant has deep roots here ...

New York, NY —

Tenants of Starrett City in Brooklyn are praising the federal housing relief bill, which needs only President Bush's expected signature to become law. The legislation focuses mainly on alleviating the foreclosure crisis, but it also extends government subsidies for the sprawling complex on Jamaica Bay ...

New York, NY —

Housing officials say the federal housing bill poised to become law will help address more than just New York's foreclosure crisis. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: About $4 billion will be distributed nationwide to help localities buy and renovate foreclosed properties. The money will go to ...

New York, NY —

Bucking a national trend, the number of permits for constructing new residential buildings in the city more than doubled in June, compared to the same period last year. As WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports, developers trying to take advantage of a tax exemption program before it ...

New York, NY —

A new hotline is taking calls from low income tenants experiencing housing discrimination because they don't have a lot of money. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: A new law requires all but the smallest landlords to accept Section 8 and other government programs from low income ...

New York, NY —

Federal authorities have arrested three child welfare workers and two employees of a foster care agency. All are accused of scheming to defraud the Administration for Children's Services out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: The money was supposed to go ...

New York, NY —

The Department of Buildings says it ordered a crane be removed from a lower Manhattan job site after inspections showed it was structurally unsafe. The faulty equipment was a Kodiak crane - the same type that collapsed in May killing two workers. DOB commissioner Robert ...

New York, NY —

The city's been trying to place fewer foster kids in institutions, and their efforts appear to be working.

A report by the Center for New York City Affairs shows the number of kids sent to residential treatment centers and group homes went down from about 3,900 ...

New York, NY —

A group of residents in the South Bronx, fed up with the stench from two nearby sewage facilities, have sued to force the city and a private fertilizer company to take away the smell which neighbors describe as smelling like horse manure, rotten eggs or ...

New York, NY —

Colombians in Jackson Heights say they are proud of the way their government back home rescued 15 hostages including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three American military contractors. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: At Mi Colombia Bakery in Jackson Heights, Queens, several local residents stared up ...

New York, NY —

More than $1.5 million paid to city daycare providers was spent on things such as personal airplane tickets, cell phone bills and massages. That's according to the state comptroller’s audit of 55 state funded daycare centers.

Thomas Di Napoli is asking local prosecutors to investigate 19 ...