Search Results for: Community Gardens

Reducing Racial Bias Embedded in Land Use Codes

Even though the Supreme Court struck down race-based land use controls over a hundred years ago in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) it has long been known that zoning continues to create or increase racial and economic segregation. Today communities across the U.S. are reexamining their zoning regulations to create more equal, equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities by removing requirements, limitations, or prohibitions that disproportionately and negatively impact individuals based on race … <Read More>

City-owned Parcel Ruled Not Parkland

City-owned land was used as an unlicensed community garden. The City of New York owns a parcel of real property at 3052 West 21st Street along the Coney Island Boardwalk. Between 1997 and 2004 the City licensed the site as community garden under the City’s “Green Thumb” program. In 1999 the City terminated the garden’s license in order to develop the site into a parking lot for a minor league baseball stadium. The City … <Read More>

London Terrace case remanded

Landlord classified rental apartments as being destabilized and charged tenants market rate rents despite receiving J-51 tax benefits. London Terrace Gardens, located along West 23rd Street in Manhattan and built in 1930, occupies an entire block and has 1700 apartments. After the enactment of the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1993, London Terrace Gardens began deregulating rent-stabilized apartments through high-rent vacancy decontrol. London Terrace Gardens subsequently received J-51 tax abatement and exemption benefits after … <Read More>

Approval of Alteration – UPDATE: Case on Appeal

The owners of the Dean Sage Mansion in Crown Heights North Historic District sought to build addition to the 1870’s mansion. In the mid-nineteenth century the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn underwent suburban development of freestanding villas. Today, only a few of the Sturgis villas remain, one of which is the Dean Sage Mansion at 839 St. Mark’s Avenue, a rare High Gothic style mansion built in 1870 by architect Russell Sturgis. The Mansion, which … <Read More>

CityLaw Profile: Jumaane Williams, Council Member and Chair of Housing and Buildings Committee

Jumaane Williams, with a strong background as a community organizer, was elected to the City Council in 2009 to represent the 45th Council District which covers the Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands, and parts of Midwood and Canarsie neighborhoods of Brooklyn. In his work prior to and as a City Council Member, Jumaane Williams has displayed a passion for community issues like combating gun violence, youth development, tenant advocacy and affordable housing. He plans to run … <Read More>

Judge Judith S. Kaye: Juvenile Justice Reform: Now is Really the Moment

 

Judge Judith S. Kaye delivered these remarks at the CityLaw Breakfast on October 18, 2013.

A little more than three years ago—on August 27, 2010, to be precise—I had the privilege of standing before you as part of the CityLaw Breakfast Series. I began by complimenting all of you, as I do today, for arriving at the crack of dawn to chew on the subject of justice for breakfast.

On that beautiful summer day, I … <Read More>