Narrative:

Lga was landing RNAV GPS Y runway 22 approach circle to land runway 13 and departing runway 13. This is a difficult approach that requires extra spacing on final; and also includes a lot of extra verbiage which contributes to frequency congestion. I was instructed to work final and empyr combined. While working the combined positions I started running out of airspace and had to coordinate with nyack position for conditional airspace at 3;000 feet. Hpn was departing runway 16 and had to stop all of their departures at 2;000 feet. I turned aircraft X towards final and aircraft Y departed off of hpn. Hpn tower forgot to restrict aircraft Y to 2;000 feet and there was a loss of separation between both aircraft at 3;000 feet.if I were not working combined positions it would have been much easier to stay inside of my airspace without having to coordinate for more conditional airspace. The critical staffing in my building has created an environment where combined positions have become the status quo. Every single shift I work positions are combined up when they should not be. Although we make it work 99% of the time; it's the 1% of time when something goes wrong that we realize combining positions becomes a dangerous practice that puts the flying public at risk. The staffing crisis at N90 needs to be addressed immediately. It is imperative to attract qualified applicants to N90; and provide adequate pay and incentives to retain the very low amount of controllers who currently work at N90. Until this facility is fully staffed and positions are decombined the millions of people who fly in and out of the tri-state area are at risk.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An N90 TRACON Controller working combined sectors reported instructing a Tower Controller to restrict departures to 2;000 feet. The Tower Controller forgot to issue the restriction to a departure which climbed into a confliction with the TRACON Controllers' traffic.

Narrative: LGA was landing RNAV GPS Y Runway 22 Approach circle to land Runway 13 and departing Runway 13. This is a difficult approach that requires extra spacing on final; and also includes a lot of extra verbiage which contributes to frequency congestion. I was instructed to work final and EMPYR combined. While working the combined positions I started running out of airspace and had to coordinate with NYACK position for conditional airspace at 3;000 feet. HPN was departing Runway 16 and had to stop all of their departures at 2;000 feet. I turned aircraft X towards final and aircraft Y departed off of HPN. HPN Tower forgot to restrict aircraft Y to 2;000 feet and there was a loss of separation between both aircraft at 3;000 feet.If I were not working combined positions it would have been much easier to stay inside of my airspace without having to coordinate for more conditional airspace. The critical staffing in my building has created an environment where combined positions have become the status quo. Every single shift I work positions are combined up when they should not be. Although we make it work 99% of the time; it's the 1% of time when something goes wrong that we realize combining positions becomes a dangerous practice that puts the flying public at risk. The staffing crisis at N90 needs to be addressed immediately. It is imperative to attract qualified applicants to N90; and provide adequate pay and incentives to retain the very low amount of controllers who currently work at N90. Until this facility is fully staffed and positions are decombined the millions of people who fly in and out of the tri-state area are at risk.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.