New York Today: Murder Milestone

Todd Heisler/The New York Times Police officers at a Brooklyn precinct.

The city’s murder rate keeps plummeting.

So far this year, it’s down 26 percent from last year, officials said.

If that trend holds, it would be the biggest one-year drop yet. And last year had the fewest murders in at least 50 years.

We asked the police bureau chief of The New York Times, Joseph Goldstein, to explain the decline.

Some credit goes to a focus by the police on informal youth gangs known as crews, Mr. Goldstein told us.

The police, he said, “make the point that murders attributable to street violence are down even more significantly.”

Last week, there were no murders at all.

The drop comes even as officers are doing only about half as many stop-and-frisks as they did at the beginning of last year.

Michael Jacobson, a former city correction commissioner and now a sociology professor at City University of New York, noted that the 419 murders last year was down from 2,245 in 1990.

“If you asked any criminologist 20 years ago, ‘Can it go from 2,200 to 400?’ they would have thought you were insane,” he said.

“But if it can go from 2,200 to 400, why can’t it go from 400 to 200?”

Here’s what else you need to know for Friday and the weekend.

WEATHER

Sunny, breezy and unusually dry.

Sounds nice, but it prompted the weather service to issue an advisory that conditions were perfect for the spread of fire. You can’t win. High of 68.

Clouding up tomorrow, with a high of 68 again and a shower possible at night. Sunny and breezy again Sunday. Don’t play with matches.

COMMUTE

Subways: The 2 and 5 trains are suspended south of President Street. Click for latest status.

Rails: No delays. Click for L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: O.K. Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.

Alternate-side parking is back in effect.

COMING UP TODAY

- Bill de Blasio is on WCBS-880 at 7:20 a.m. and attends a lunchtime rally in Chinatown.

- Joseph J. Lhota attends an Asian Americans for Lhota fundraiser in Queens and a Department of Correction scholarship dinner.

- Some New Jersey cities will begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses, despite an order telling them to wait till the State Supreme Court rules. [Star-Ledger]

- A day of financial-planning workshops at the public library branch at Madison Avenue and 34th Street. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Free] (Note: we mistakenly listed this on Thursday. Apologies to anyone who went. It really is happening today.)

- The CMJ Music Marathon continues through Saturday. Brooklyn Vegan has a helpful guide.

- “Sacred Visions,” a show of 19th-century biblical art, opens at the Museum of Biblical Art near Lincoln Center. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. [Free]

- Celebrate the harvest at a night market at the Union Square Greenmarket, featuring live jazz and many of your favorite fruits and vegetables. Plus a hard-cider bar. 4 p.m to 8 p.m.

IN THE NEWS

- The city’s proposed soda ban has been revived and sent to the state’s highest court. [New York Times]

- A 1950’s prostate-cancer study conducted on Bowery alcoholics has been condemned by medical ethicists. [New York Times]

- Rubber-band bracelets have been banned at an Upper West Side public school. [NY1]

- A proposal to name a Brooklyn street for Christopher Wallace, the slain rapper better known as Notorious B.I.G., is meeting resistance. [DNAinfo]

- A teenage girl suspected of shoplifting at a Victoria’s Secret had a dead fetus in her bag, the police say. [New York Times]

- The Greenwich Village Halloween parade is on, after its Kickstarter campaign raised $50,000. [Gothamist]

THE WEEKEND

Saturday

- Step right up and see the largest pumpkin in the world â€" ever, allegedly â€" get carved into a car-sized sized tableau of creepy creatures at the New York Botanical Garden. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Also Sunday (it’s that big).

- More harvest-festival fun at Battery Urban Farm on the south tip of Manhattan, with games for kids and live music. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. [Free]

- Meet ducks and gather honey at a harvest fair at the Weeksville Heritage Center, a black-history site in Bedford-Stuyvesant. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m [Free]

- A Korean food fair in Times Square. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Also Sunday. [Free]

Sunday

- Last call this year for free canoeing in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, courtesy of HarborLAB. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

Weekend Street Closings: Click for complete list.

Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till about noon.

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