New York City’s annual management report for fiscal year 2024, released Monday by Mayor Eric Adams, offers a detailed look at how city agencies have performed over the past year – showing progress in some areas while highlighting persistent challenges in others.
Emergency response times, for instance, have worsened. The report notes that it now takes an average of 15 minutes and 23 seconds for emergency services to arrive, compared to 14 minutes last year and 11 minutes in fiscal year 2020. For the most serious crimes, such as shootings and assaults, police response times have increased to over 9 minutes. Mayor Adams acknowledged the concerns during a press conference: “We have over 2,000 different indicators, so you always find one or two that we’re not where we want to be. But we’re moving forward.”
Public safety remains a key focus of the report, with the NYPD’s heightened presence leading to a surge in minor summonses. Infractions like fare evasion and open container violations have risen by 34% compared to the previous year, totaling 180,000 summonses. Since fiscal year 2021, summonses for public drinking alone have jumped by nearly 57,000. However, such increased enforcement has come with a cost: the NYPD paid out over $1 billion in overtime, a record figure.
On the positive side, the report shows a 15% drop in murders and an 18% reduction in shootings from last year. However, major felony crimes such as grand larceny auto and robbery remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Traffic fatalities, another critical issue, have reached their highest point since before the pandemic, with 275 deaths recorded in fiscal year 2024. A significant driver of this increase is a 53% rise in moped-related fatalities, while bicyclist deaths, including e-bikes, have decreased. In response, the Department of Transportation has expanded bike lane infrastructure, adding 64 miles of bike lanes, 33 of which are protected.
Housing affordability showed modest gains, with over 25,200 new affordable housing projects initiated—an increase of 1,000 from the previous year. Similarly, enrollment in subsidized child care programs rose by 25%, and 3-K program vacancies dropped by 10% – whereas the city’s education system continues to grapple with high absenteeism rates, and teacher hiring remains sluggish, raising concerns about the feasibility of meeting new class size caps.
While the city’s Parks Department planted over 42,000 trees—a notable increase from the previous year—other areas saw setbacks. The number of vacant lots cleaned fell by 63%, a reduction attributed to budget cuts that have only partially been restored.
During the press conference, Mayor Adams pushed back against suggestions that the increased attention to this year’s report was meant to deflect from ongoing federal investigations into his administration. “We have to write our own narrative,” Adams said. “We want to have folks pay attention to how successful this administration has been.”
