Newsworthy Articles

News and Media Update April 14, 2022

This week's news and media update is coming one day early due to the holidays this weekend.

This has been a difficult and violent week in New York City. A mass shooting event in the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park left dozens injured; the suspect has been arrested, but many in New York City understandably remain on edge and anxious in the attack's aftermath. The same day, two Sikh men were assaulted in a hate crime in Richmond Hill, Queens, the second such attack at that intersection in a week.

At the same time, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faith communities are marking Ramadan, Passover, and Holy Week respectively. Houses of worship are making space for renewal and rebirth, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the face of violence and despair. (This week, the New York Times published a profile of faith leaders speaking to the ways that houses of worship have served their communities throughout the pandemic, navigating a time of great anxiety and uncertainty.)


Houses of Worship and Real Estate

In New York City, a proposed development on the site of an Adventist day school in Crown Heights is drawing controversy. Developers do not plan to touch the landmarked historic building, but some neighborhood residents are attempting to halt construction, saying that the new building will hurt their views and not be affordable to those in the immediate neighborhood.

In nationwide news, the clergy housing allowance has received recent press after the Supreme Court's rejection of a religious exemption case. The housing allowance is safe for now, though some leaders expressed worry.


Anti-Semitism, Religious Discrimination, and Faith Properties


Public officials and community members in Rockville Centre are decrying remarks made at a public town council hearing as anti-Semitic. A Rockville Centre resident called for a change to the zoning code to disallow new houses of worship being built in residential zones, specifically calling out synagogues that have been established in her neighborhood. The town's mayor did not address or condemn the comments as anti-Semitic, instead promising to look into legal avenues to prevent the establishment of new synagogues. The comments come at a time of rising anti-semitism locally and globally. In New York City, there were 86 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the first three months of 2022, fast outpacing 2019's numbers, which were themselves record-breaking. An article about Kansas City's Jewish community highlights the way that anti-Semitism shapes daily life in the community, both for individuals, who experience anti-Semitism at school and work, and at worship and community spaces like synagogues and JCCs. Attacks on synagogues are also increasingly common, and synagogues have taken steps to add security features to their buildings, though many struggle to fund the extent of improvements that they would like. (In addition to synagogues, other religious communities, such as Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Sikhs, amongst others, also face violence at their houses of worship, and are endeavoring to add security features, as highlighted in this San Diego Tribune article.)


A view from the Rockville Centre LIRR stop, where city officials have recently come under fire for anti-Semitic remarks during a city council meeting. Photo: Wikimedia Commons



Shifting Attendance

A new survey highlights trends in worship attendance and congregational membership. Most American congregations are small -- the median congregation size is 70 people. However, most Americans belong to large congregations -- the largest 9% of congregations serve half of churchgoers.

The decline in worship attendance has been sped by the coronavirus pandemic, where some people have ceased attending services entirely or moved online. This article highlights the ways that some Jewish communities worship online.


Affordable Housing and Urban Issues

The affordable housing crisis is being sped by many factors, including speculation on real estate purchases. New financial instruments are designed to help create profits off of housing. For the first time, shares in an apartment building -- located just south of 125th Street on Lenox Avenue in Harlem -- were sold on the New York stock exchange. And all over the country, house-flipping algorithms are helping corporations profit off of individual home sales, raising prices out of reach for working class people.

But finance's investment into housing is not solely to blame for rising unaffordability; an array of restrictive zoning covenants and laws also contribute to the problem. Some municipalities, instead of easing these restrictions to help expand affordable housing, are doubling down. Roswell, an Atlanta suburb, is considering banning standalone apartment development.

Even when municipalities attempt to build affordable housing, it can leave out populations who need it. Amazon promised to contribute to affordable housing stock in the DC suburbs when it announced its HQ2, but units are priced out of reach of the area's poorest residents -- only 6% of units are designated for "very low-income" renters.

As the rhythms of work and leisure have shifted with the rise of online shopping and the coronavirus pandemic, cities real estate developers are reimagining ways to use properties that are in less high demand than they once were. Some cities are considering turning office buildings into housing. Elsewhere, vacant shopping malls are being transformed into health centers.


An empty mall. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.



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