TLCMKT News (09.28.20): NYC COVID Positivity Rate 1.9%, NYC Faces a Financial Abyss, State Extends Ban on COVID-related Evictions, NY Daily News Reader On Proposed Yellow Cab Bailout

Select TLCMKT news headlines for Monday, September 28th 2020.

Warnings Issued as Virus Cases Rise in New York (NY Times)

• Clusters of cases have emerged in Brooklyn and NYC’s northern suburbs.

• Rate of positive test results in the city reached 1.93%, an increase from the 1.5% reported by the city a week before.

• In the second of two news conferences Mr. Cuomo held on Monday, the governor said the spike in the new cases was largely confined to 20 ZIP codes, where the rate of positive tests went as high as 30%, in contrast with the rest of the state, where the rate remained around 1%.

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Photo Credit: Christopher Czermak

‘We’re at War’: New York City Faces a Financial Abyss (NY Times)

• The unemployment rate in NYC is 16%, twice as high as the rest of the country.

• In the last year, the New York metropolitan region’s leisure and hospitality sector has lost 44% of its jobs, with a devastating effect on the city’s tax revenue.

• Just 37% of hotel rooms were occupied in the second week of September compared with 90% in the same period of 2019 , according to STR.

  The Empire State Building has become a potent symbol of how the coronavirus pandemic has derailed the city’s economy.

  From its brand-new observatory on the 102nd floor, breathtaking views of New York City abound, but visitors are few: On a recent weekday afternoon, the aerie was strangely abandoned, save for a lone, masked building worker.

  The value of the company that owns the iconic skyscraper has fallen some 50 percent since the start of the year. On a recent earnings call, the chief executive of Empire State Realty Trust, Anthony E. Malkin, summed up the company’s challenge ahead.

  “We’re at war,” he said.

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State extends ban on Covid-related residential evictions until January 1st (Crain’s)

• New York will extend its moratorium on residential evictions for tenants suffering financially due to the pandemic until Jan. 1, 2021, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday.

  "As New York continues to fight the pandemic, we want to make sure New Yorkers who are still struggling financially will not be forced from their homes as a result of Covid."  - New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo

  “It's a very narrow measure that excluded a massive number of tenants from protection against eviction, because it unfairly requires undocumented workers and gig-economy workers paid in cash to prove financial hardship caused by Covid-19.” - Housing Justice for All and the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition joint statement 

• The residential ban was previously set to expire at the end of September.

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Reader sounds off on cab driver aid (NY Daily News)

“Much in the same way that larger industries were rescued from certain obliteration through government bailouts, it is time for the yellow cab industry, a hallmark of this city’s identity, to be afforded the same option. These essential workers deserve a helping hand during their darkest hour. Any economic recovery package for our city must include a bailout of the yellow cab industry. It is the right thing to do.”  - Candace Prince-Modeste, president, Jamaica Branch NAACP.

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The TLCMKT Newsletter is written by Dawood Mian, Founder & CEO of TLCMKT. I cover the NYC ridehailing industry and related news. Search TLCMKT for TLC cars, parts, service, accessories, professional services, reviews & more. Find great deals at TLCMKT.COM.