Finn Square, Tribeca, Manhattan. Image Courtesy of Tribeca Trust.

Since sprouting up during the Bloomberg administration, new pedestrian -friendly public plazas have served as urban pit stops, places where time pressed New Yorkers can people-watch, grab a bite and have some down time before heading back to school, work, or a rigorous day of shopping.

Example of Garage Housing. Image Credit: Alexander Garvin.

Thousands of new affordable apartments can be created in a few months – maybe not 200,000, but more affordable apartments can be put on the market within one year than we have built in many years.

Indeed, thousands of new affordable apartments can be created in a few months – and without federal subsidies or public incentives of any kind!!

Ross Sandler

On Thursday, March 20, 2014, a lively audience filled the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College to discuss Mayor John V. Lindsay. The occasion was the publishing of Summer in the City, John Lindsay, New York and the American Dream, edited by Hunter College Professor Joseph P. Viteritti. The audience came to hear two star-studded panels, the first moderated by Sam Roberts of the New York Times with Richard Ravitch, Lilliam Barrios-Paoli and Vincent Cannato. The second moderated by Errol Louis of NY1 and featuring former close Lindsay aides, Sid Davidoff, Ronnie Eldridge, Peter Goldmark and Jay Kriegel. The audience was not disappointed.

David Gruber, Chair of Manhattan Community Board 2.

It is time to start a real conversation about a small store retail rent stabilization program.

Many neighborhoods , not only in Manhattan,  but  also in other high use commercial districts in all the  boroughs are being shred apart as small Mom and Pop’s just cannot fight back the tide of the enormous  run up of  commercial retail rents in recent years.

Ross Sandler

More and more tort cases involve bike riders. Three recent cases demonstrate that injured bike riders may have difficulty in court.

CityLaw reported a case, 19 CityLaw 100 (2013), involving a bike rider in Fort Washington Park who encountered Sanitation workers cleaning graffiti. The workers had coned off the area, and the biker, to avoid the cones, rode onto the grass where he fell and broke several teeth. The Appellate Division dismissed his claim against the City. The actions by the Sanitation workers were part of a discretionary governmental function and were, therefore, immune from liability. This is an established judicial precedent for traffic applied to a bike rider.

Dick Dadey, Executive Director of Citizen Union.

A runoff election held weeks after a primary election always results in depressingly low voter turnout.  Citizens Union supports instituting an instant runoff voting system where voters rank their preferred candidates on the day of the primary rather than needing to return to cast another ballot on a subsequent election day two to three weeks later.  This would ensure that the winning candidate enjoys broad electoral support, as well as avoiding the logistical and financial burdens of runoff elections that often yield low voter turnout.

Read these numbers associated with the October 1, 2013 run-off election for Public Advocate:  $13 million spent.  Only 202,000 voters voted out of a possible 3,140,000 voters.  The turnout was 6.5%.