Former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, speaking at a CityLaw Breakfast on January 23, 2019, powerfully argued that the time has come to close Rikers Island, New York City’s notorious jail located on an island in the East River. Judge Lippman’s remarks echoed the 2017 recommendations of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform which Judge Lippman chaired. Judge Lippman spoke at the breakfast in a question and … <Read More>
Search Results for: New Rules
Richard Briffault: Charting a Pragmatic Path to a Good Government
Richard Briffault, Chair of the Conflicts of Interest Board, brings a long record of public service to his current position. A product of the City public school system, Briffault graduated from Columbia University and obtained his law degree from Harvard. He was broadly interested in government as a young man and quickly entered public service, working from 1980 to 1982 as an assistant counsel to Governor Hugh Carey. The position gave him broad opportunity to … <Read More>
City Seeks To Manage TV & Movie Shoots
City processes encourages the numerous movie and TV shows using New York City as a backdrop. New York City is currently experiencing a golden age of television and movie-making. The advantages to such a booming industry seem undoubtedly positive, but some argue that daily life can be marred by the constant displacement due to filming on local streets. Residents of specific communities claim that the negatives outweigh the positives when films use a particular location … <Read More>
5Pointz: The Anti-Rebellion Message of the Graffiti Dispute
Graffiti has become much more than spray-painted tags and quickly disappearing pieces on train cars and underpasses. In some quarters it is now high art. Highly prized are works by Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the “Hope” poster Fairey made for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who began as a graffiti artist and whose works today command huge prices, and Banksy, whose street works are carefully preserved. These dramatic changes in the nature and … <Read More>
CityLaw Profile: Frederick Schaffer, Chair of the Campaign Finance Board
In February 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Frederick Schaffer as the Chair of the City’s Campaign Finance Board. The Board, which will be thirty years old next year, is responsible for enforcing New York City’s campaign finance law, monitoring campaign contributions and disclosures, overseeing the public matching funds program and enforcing the rules. Schaffer takes the reigns as the Board heads into the 2017 mayoral campaign.
Schaffer was born and raised in Brooklyn. One … <Read More>
Administrative Justice Coordinator David Goldin: A Life in Public Service
The 2005 City Charter Revision Commission proposed a Charter amendment to require the Mayor and the Chief Judge of the Office of the Administrative Trials and Hearings to create a code of ethics for the over 500 administrative law judges and hearing officers in the City’s administrative tribunals. At the time it was unclear to what extent the State Code of Judicial Conduct applied to and could be enforced against ALJs. The proposition passed, and … <Read More>