One year ago, in January 2020, the Expert Panel assigned by Mayor Bill de Blasio to study the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway issued its Final Report. Mayor de Blasio in 2019 appointed the seventeen-person Expert Panel* of which I was a member, following the angry rejection of New York City DOT’s plan for reconstructing the section of the BQE adjacent to Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. City DOT presented its plan publicly September 2019. The … <Read More>
Search Results for: Rent Regulation
Mayor Announces Zoning Proposals for Grocery Stores, Transit Accessibility, Small Businesses
The zoning proposals include allowing gyms and spas to open as-of-right. On March 9, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced several proposed zoning changes to support small businesses, create more groceries stores and improve accessibility across the city. The zoning proposals will enter the public review process later this year.
DOB Announces Facade & Scaffold Safety Blitz
The sweeps will focus on approximately 1,100 sites performing facade work across New York City. On February 18, 2021, the Department of Buildings (DOB) announced the launch of a seven-week long facade and scaffold safety blitz. The campaign includes educational outreach to construction workers and other industry professionals and inspection sweeps of facade work sites citywide.
Landlord loses eviction action
Landlord sued to evict tenants from six-unit building in order to provide apartment for son. Shlomo Karpen owns a six-unit, rent-stabilized building in Brooklyn comprised of two rented units on the first, second and third floors. In June 2018, Karpen notified the tenants in the rented apartments that he would not renew their leases and intended to take over the apartments to make a four-bedroom apartment for his son. In October 2018, Karpen commenced an … <Read More>
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>
DOB Launches Online Service Levels Tracker for Checking Wait Times
The tracker helps members of the public understand expected timelines. On October 14, 2020, the Department of Buildings launched an online Service Levels Tracker which allows New Yorkers to see average wait times for Department of Buildings Services. This tracker centralizes information that had previously been available to New Yorkers while also clearly setting forth the different Department of Buildings metrics allowing the public to better understand expected timelines for projects both citywide and by … <Read More>