Good morning. It’s Thursday. We’ll find out why a think tank says plastic plumbing piping has something to do with government efficiency. We’ll also get details on plans for a City Council hearing on artificial intelligence.
Jonathan Bowles says that he could not fix a leak under the kitchen sink or in the shower. But he has spent considerable time studying the city’s plumbing code. It requires builders to use cast-iron pipes in the plumbing in large new residential buildings. Bowles — who runs a public policy research group, the Center for an Urban Future — says that is a “maddening bureaucratic hurdle.” He says the city should allow certain kinds of plastic pipe. Specifically, PVC pipe, which he says would lower construction costs, potentially spurring more projects in a city facing a housing crisis. “The many rules and regulations contribute to the high cost of building housing — it’s not just the cost of land or the cost of labor,” Bowles said. “Those costs are passed along. If we want to build more housing at lower rents, we should be taking a look at things like the PVC rule. It’s one of the more straightforward code changes that we can fix.” Bowles’s suggestions for revising the city’s plumbing regulations are one part of a report from his group about ways to smooth out government stumbling blocks. Among the other items targeted in the report are civil service rules that Bowles says make it difficult for the city to hire people with in-demand technology skills. Ballot proposals from COGE, not DOGEThe center’s report comes as the Mamdani administration is beginning a $1.6 million campaign to promote the five ballot proposals from the mayor’s Commission on Government Efficiency, or COGE. City Hall mischievously gave the panel a name with an acronym that rhymes with DOGE, for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was led by Elon Musk. Mamdani’s commission recommended the five changes to the City Charter that will be on the ballot in November, including speeding approvals for outdoor dining and creating new bus and bike lanes. Mamdani appears in a video as part of the campaign, called “Vote on Faster Government.” A City Hall spokesman said the administration is “always happy to discuss ways to make the city more efficient and affordable” and noted that a report on housing that the administration issued in May had taken note of the restrictions on plastic piping. That report said that a Department of Buildings task force would “identify opportunities to expand the use of cost-effective materials and methods where appropriate, while maintaining safety and performance.” PVC is currently limited to pipes that carry wastewater out of buildings from toilets, sinks, showers and dishwashers. The city changed the plumbing code in 2022 to permit PVC piping in residential buildings of up to five stories. But Bowles’s report says the city’s restrictions are more stringent than in nearly every other major jurisdiction. Most cities follow one of two model plumbing codes that “allow PVC piping more broadly,” according to Bowles’s report. New York’s code is its own; his report says most municipalities in New York State follow a uniform code for fire prevention and construction that is based on one of the national models. He acknowledged that the city has height restrictions on PVC piping because of fire-safety concerns. “PVC can burn or melt when exposed to fire, producing smoke and corrosive gases,” Bowles’s report says. “But building codes elsewhere address these risks,” with some requiring cast iron for the main plumbing pipes that run from floor to floor through a building and allowing PVC for the branch lines that connect to individual apartments. Not ‘keep-you-up-at-night noisy’The report said potential job losses for plumbers were a concern because PVC plumbing can be installed faster than cast-iron pipes. But addressing the city’s affordability crisis by spurring more housing construction is also a priority, Bowles said. The Master Plumbers Council of the City of New York, a trade association that represents more than 300 licensed master plumbers, did not immediately return a call seeking comment about Bowles’s recommendation. Reuben Tenam, who answered the phone number listed on the website theplumbernyc.com, agreed with Bowles that PVC pipes would be less expensive to install than cast-iron pipes. But he said PVC could be more expensive to repair. He also said that water sounds different when it rushes through PVC pipes. “PVC is what we call noisy pipe,” he said. “Cast iron is quiet pipe. You don’t hear water on cast iron. People are very, very sensitive to any type of sound.” But Bowles said the sound was not “keep-you-up-at-night noisy, or like being in a rock venue.” WEATHER Today will be mostly sunny with a high near 83. Expect mostly cloudy conditions, a chance of showers and a low around 71. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Monday (Yom Kippur). QUOTE OF THE DAY “There’s something about being in the heat, in the outdoors, with people.” — Crystal Moselle, an independent film director who frequented the Arverne Cinema, which has offered moviegoers in the Rockaways a drive-in feel since 2021. Now the landlord is considering doing something else with the outdoor space, and the cinema’s future is hazy. The latest New York news
We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. The City Council invites A.I. executives to a hearing
Everybody seems to be talking about artificial intelligence. The City Council plans to cover it at a special hearing on A.I. companies and their safety protocols. The Council speaker, Julie Menin, has invited officials from Anthropic and OpenAI to attend the session on Oct. 5. It was scheduled against the backdrop of what my colleagues Benjamin Oreskes and Theodore Schleifer called “a weeklong freakout among tech titans and politicos” over the potential dangers of A.I. President Trump has dismissed calls for regulation, describing the concerns expressed by industry executives as a “hoax,” and saying that his leadership was sufficient protection. “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” he said in a post on Monday. New York City leaders, including Menin and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, find that argument unpersuasive. “We’re talking about companies that are bringing up the end of humanity as a possible outcome of this technology,” Mamdani said on Tuesday during an unrelated news conference. He said a nationwide moratorium on data centers — called for by his political mentor, Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and their ally, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York — was important, but that it was only one element that the government should consider. Menin, in her letter inviting the top executives from Anthropic and OpenAI to the hearing, said that “warnings by A.I. insiders, whistle-blowers, and experts make self-evident the urgent need for the Council to consider effective and reasonable legislation.” As a sign of the importance she is placing on the hearing, she designated the session a “Committee of the Whole Hearing,” in which every council member is invited. METROPOLITAN DIARY Footloose
Dear Diary: I was waiting for the 6 train to take me home from work when I noticed a single shoe on the platform right where the subway doors open. I considered it cautiously. Had a fight occurred, causing someone to lose a shoe? Had it fallen out of someone’s gym bag? Was it a trap? A train pulled in. As soon as the door opened, a man standing on one foot with only a sock on the other reached out. “My sneaker!” he exclaimed. — Sarah Krauss Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. Davaughnia Wilson and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Do Buildings Need Cast-Iron Pipes, or Would Plastic Do?
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