The number of firefighters burned in firehouses is down by 60 percent. Street cave-ins are plummeting. The adoption rate for children in foster care is climbing even as the Adopt-a-Highway rate is in decline. The average city worker has 12 more square feet of office space than last year.
The annual avalanche of municipal metrics known as the Mayor’s Management Report dropped this week with its usual thud. Most of the highlights of the 2012 fiscal year were already fairly familiar to those who follow the news — crime, traffic deaths, noise complaints and New Yorkers on food stamps are up; infant mortality continues to drop.
At City Room, we combed through the 252 numbing pages of data in search of untrumpeted trends. Like all statistics, they can tell more than one story. An apparent increase in a crime, for example, can mean that the crime is happening more, or that it is being reported more of the time, or both.
We leave to others the hard work of uncovering meanings and reasons. Why does it take more than two months for the medical examiner’s office to do an autopsy now? Why are firefighters burned in firehouses at all (is it the four-alarm chili)? Without further ado or context, here is our data dump to you:
• Dog licenses issued: 92,700, down 5 percent from 2011.
• Hours of counterterrorism training given to the police: 336,552, up 61 percent from 2011.
• Assaults on jail workers per 1,000 inmates: up 14 percent from 2011 and 38 percent from 2009.
• Percentage of jail inmates with diagnosed mental-health issues: 34 percent, up seven percentage points from 2009.
• Attendance at historic house museums run by the parks department: 834,208, up 5 percent from 2011.
• Percentage of adults over age 50 who have had a colonoscopy in the last 10 years: 68.6, up from 61.7 in 2008.
• Wait for autopsy results: 69.5 days, up from 61.5 in 2011 and 48 days in 2009.
• Hours to resolve elevator failures in public-housing buildings: 3.8, the fastest time since at least 2008 (it was 13.1 hours in 2010).
• Percentage of gasoline pumps not complying with weights-and-measures law: 5, up for at least the third year in a row.
• Moving violations: 1.01 million, down 15 percent from 2011.
• Domestic-violence assault cases: 6,781, up 16 percent from 2011 and 42 percent from 2010.
• Total tort payout from Law Department: $506 million, down 15 percent in constant dollars from 2008.
• Percentage of eligible foster children adopted: up 11 percent from last year.
• Percentage of eligible highway miles adopted: down 4 percent from last year.
• Summonses for illegal street hails issued by the Taxi and Limousine Commission: 10,783, up 66 percent from 2011 and 988 percent (that’s not a typo) from 2009.
• Trees removed by the parks department: 16,248, up 15 percent from 2011.
• Percentage of adults who smoke: 14.8 percent, up from 14.0 percent in 2011.
• Condoms distributed: 36.1 million, the lowest figure since at least 2008.
• New adult AIDS cases: 2,129, down from 2,483 in 2011 and 3,522 in 2008.
• Children age 6 and under with elevated lead levels: down 21 percent from 2011 and 43 percent from 2008.
• Senior center lunches served: 6.33 million, down from 7.03 million in 2008.
• Firefighter burns suffered within quarters: 12, down from 30 in 2011.
• Average time spent by adult patients on primary-care visits at a city hospital or health clinic: 75 minutes, up from 61 minutes in 2011 and the highest figure since at least 2008.
• Violation and warning notices issued by watershed police, who safeguard the city’s upstate water supply: 1,057, up from 396 in 2011 and 165 in 2008.
• Sewer backup complaints: down for the fourth year in a row, to 13,933.
• Street cave-in complaints: 3,467, down 26 percent from 2011 and 82 percent from 2008.
• New-building and major-renovation projects filed with the Buildings Department: up 4 percent from 2011 but down 44 percent from 2008.
• Injuries from unsafe facade conditions or falling construction debris: 93, the highest figure since at least 2008, when there were 45.
• Square feet of office space per city employee: 280, up from 268 in 2011.
• Percentage of pay telephones inspected and deemed inoperable: 25, up from 23 in 2011 and 19 in 2010.
Perhaps we missed some interesting tidbits. Page through the report yourself and share your findings in the comment box below.