On October 26, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city has now won around $4.2 million in three lawsuits against Daniel Ohebshalom, a/k/a Daniel Shalom, and his affiliates. This week, the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE) won $1.1 million in payments of penalties and fines from a settlement agreement. The city had sued Ohebshalom alleging that he was engaging in tenant harassment and illegal short-term rentals in three buildings in Midtown and Hell’s … <Read More>

On August 17, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick took significant steps toward building critical new housing across the City by devising a plan to convert vacant offices into housing and implementing procedures to ensure the plan’s success.

Sidewalk sheds stay up for an average of over 500 days, but some stay up for several years. On July 24, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams and Department of Buildings Commissioner Jimmy Oddo announced “Get Sheds Down,” an overhaul of the rules relating to sidewalk construction sheds (scaffolding). While the sheds are required for construction, facade inspections, and repairs, existing laws often enable property owners to leave up the construction sheds for a long time, and … <Read More>

On January 9, 2023, Mayor Eric Adams announced a set of recommendations from the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force for changes to state laws and city zoning requirements to make it easier for the conversion of underused office space to housing. The COVID-19 pandemic transformed how many companies operate, transitioning to work-from-home or hybrid structures that require less office space, while the city experiences an ongoing affordable housing crisis.