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    U.S. Attorney Bharara Teaches the State a Civics Lesson

    By

    Percoco Commentary

    Ross Sandler

    The stunning 79-page federal complaint and arrest of Joseph Percoco and seven others by United States Attorney Preet Bharara focused on bribery and extortion, but the complaint also revealed a callous disregard of State conflicts of interest and procurement rules. These allegations were as serious as the federal criminal charges.

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    Tags : Ethics in City Government, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
    Date: 11/17/2016
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    The Nunez Federal Court Decree; Keep the Focus on Curing Violations

    By

    Ross Sandler

    Ross Sandler

    This issue of CityLaw contains an assessment of the 2015 Nunez consent decree aimed at curing excessive use of force at the City prisons. The City deserves credit for developing appropriate plans, rather than defending indefensible conditions in the jails. Yet the method adopted by the City – consenting to supervision by judges, outside experts and attorneys – harbors dangers: rigidity and loss of managerial flexibility that can interfere with achievement of the decree’s salutary objectives and undermine local democracy.

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    Tags : Department of Correction, Judge Laura Taylor Swain, United States Supreme Court
    Date: 09/15/2016
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    Say Hello to Mandatory Inclusionary Housing!

    By Howard Goldman

    Howard Goldman

    Howard Goldman

    Almost 55 percent of all renter households in New York City now pay more than 30 percent of their income towards housing costs, an increase of 11 percent since 2000. As a consequence, the City Planning Commission found that “many of the city’s neighborhoods are becoming less economically diverse, which poses a threat to the city’s economic competitiveness as well as to the opportunities available to lower-income New Yorkers.”

    Mandatory Inclusionary Housing is one of the city’s responses to the housing shortage.  Released as a study in 2015 and adopted as a zoning text amendment in 2016, Mandatory Inclusionary Housing requires that a percentage of the total number of dwelling units in a new building or conversion be set aside, or new or rehabilitated affordable units be provided off-site, whenever there is an associated zoning change or special permit that increases the underlying residential development potential.

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    Tags : Howard Goldman, Mandatory Inclusionary Housing
    Date: 04/21/2016
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    NYC Landmarks Law and Regulation of Open Space

    By Christopher Rizzo

    Christopher Rizzo

    Christopher Rizzo

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has jurisdiction over both buildings and landscape features on landmarks sites.   But the Commission rarely directly regulates changes to landscape features. For routine landscaping changes and in urban contexts, the landscape features are rarely a concern. In other cases the landscape takes on central importance. This is especially true where there where the existing landscaping and natural land features figure prominently in the beauty and importance of the site. In some cases the open space of the landmark site may be as important as the building itself, such as in Douglaston, Queens and Fieldston, Bronx. The Commission and its sister agencies should play a larger role in protecting the landscapes associated with the landmarked structures by acknowledging the importance of the landscaping at designation and later when new tax lots or proposed developments come before the Commission.

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    Tags : Christopher Rizzo
    Date: 04/11/2016
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    Airbnb Opposition Makes for Strange Bedfellows

    By Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal

    Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal

    Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal

    There are some things you can always count on here in New York: alternate side of the street parking, the subways always running (except when they’re not, like late nights and weekends), the Yankees making the playoffs (except when the Mets do) and landlords and tenants being diametrically opposed. Like Superman and Kryptonite, oil and water, landlords and tenants have always had one thing in common – a mutual distrust of one another.

    That is until now. For the first time in my memory, landlords and tenants are on the same side, working together, its mass hysteria. Or perhaps, it’s completely reasonable.

    What, you may ask, has brought these sworn enemies together? That answer is simple: Airbnb. Airbnb is the world’s largest online home sharing platform, allowing individuals to rent out their homes to strangers on a short-term basis.

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    Tags : Airbnb, Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal
    Date: 03/09/2016
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    A Property Tax Cap – What It Would Do and What It Would Not Do

    By George V. Sweeting

    George Sweeting, NYC Independent Budget Office.

    George Sweeting, NYC Independent Budget Office.

    Last month, at a State Legislature hearing in Albany on the Governor’s proposed budget, Mayor de Blasio faced repeated questions about why New York City is exempt from the cap on property tax increases that applies elsewhere in the state. The legislators cited a variety of reasons why the city should accept a cap, although few hold up to scrutiny – most notably the assertion that a cap was a “fix” for the city’s broken property tax system.

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    Tags : IBO, Medicaid, NYC Property Tax
    Date: 02/16/2016
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