NYCHAs $465,000-a-year plumber is just a taste of its massive dysfunction
Want to make banker money without stepping foot on Wall Street? Try plumbing for the New York City Housing Authority.From July 2024 through June 2025, NYCHA plumber supervisor Jakub Markowski earned $465,000, including $332,000 for nearly 2,600 hours in overtime — more than the mayor and City Council speaker make combined.While he collected these checks, Markowski also operated two private plumbing companies.The Buildings Department is now investigating him.As the city’s ascendant socialist left pushes for more housing in public or nonprofit hands, NYCHA’s history presents a sordid tale of dysfunction and corruption, with Markowski the latest apparent example.Lest we forget, Shola Olatoye, NYCHA’s chairwoman under Mayor Bill de Blasio, lied for years under oath to the federal government about nonexistent lead-paint inspections and other safety failures.As part of the feds’ settlement with the city, since January 2019, an independent monitor has been in place to oversee NYCHA’s compliance.Yet federal oversight has not stopped the rot.In 2024, Damien Williams, the Biden-appointed US attorney for the Southern District of New York, charged 70 NYCHA current and former employees with bribery and extortion.The takedown represented the largest number of bribery charges brought in a single day in the Justice Department’s history.All 70 pleaded guilty or were convicted.Nor has public ownership delivered livable conditions for tenants.
In fact, they’re bad enough to qualify as a moral stain on this city.On July 6, the federal monitor released its latest quarterly report.Despite modest progress, it shows that NYCHA buildings are riddled with hazards.Under the federal agreement, NYCHA is supposed to ensure that no more than 15% of mold complaints involve visible mold of 10 square feet or more.
In the latest report, 86% did.Without acknowledging why city government has long proved such a poor landlord, Democratic Socialists want to put even more housing...