Council Member Jessica Lappin joined the sponsors of Intro 873, the new bed bug education bill in the New York City Council.
This is good news. 17 is great. But the 2006 bed bug bill had 21 sponsors.
And this reminds me that I wanted to respond to Unlucky in Bugs who apparently heard the WNYC Radio piece and wondered:
I’m curious to see if Eric Gioia, my city council rep is one of those pushing Intro 873 through.
Not yet, Unlucky.
But, check this out.
In fiscal year 2008, 311 logged 271 bed bug complaints in Queens Community District 1, which is Astoria/Long Island City. Queens Community District 2, Sunnyside/Woodside, got 237 complaints. That puts those community districts respectively at number 7 and 9 on our top 12 list of community districts with bed bug complaints (scroll to the end on that page).
Council Member Gioia‘s council district includes Woodside, Sunnyside, Long Island City, Astoria, and Maspeth.
I know we repeatedly say the stats are not the stats.
We don’t have good under-reporting indicators for NYC, just a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests very strongly that the 311 stats are the dot on the tip of the iceberg. (A member of New York vs Bed Bugs said that in his building in Manhattan, of some 22 infested apartments, 3 tenants had called 311. And we know that, unlike Boston, when HPD issues a bed bug violation in NYC, it does not direct the landlord to inspect the whole building.)
In Cincinnati, the under-reporting rate could be above 98%. When I applied this rate to our own statistics, I came up with a depressing number. But, we just don’t know, and what we want is reliable and solid analysis and for that our city needs its own surveys.
In any case, this letter writes itself, yes?
Dear Council Member Gioia!
If anyone wants to include statistics in communications with NYC council members about this bill, let me know and I’ll help you find what you need. We also hope to have a better picture of the HPD stats, perhaps as early as next week. Write to me at renee at newyorkvsbedbugs dot org. Thanks for making those calls and writing those letters. Find your council member here.
Oh, by the way? My favorite Unlucky in Bugs post is Day Six: My Bedbuggy Nights.
Updated 1/10/09: Unlucky’s letter to CM Gioia is awesome!
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