Ross Sandler, Center for New York City Law Director
If all the charitable foundations everywhere in the United States were lined up according to impact, the J.M. Kaplan Fund would be in the top ten. The J.M. Kaplan Fund was established in 1945 by Jacob M. Kaplan and was led for thirty years by J.M.’s daughter, Joan K. Davidson. Joan was a fixture in New York City’s political, charitable, and civic world, and she used her ideas and enthusiasms to make New York City a better place. The story is told in a new book by Roberta Brandes Gratz, It’s A Helluva Town: Joan K. Davidson, the J.M. Kaplan Fund, and the fight for a Better New York (Bold Type Books 2020). (more…)
Rendering of the proposed new building at 250 Water Street, which will replace a parking lot. Landmarks approved the certificate of appropriateness for the project on May 4th. Image Credit: NYC LPC
On Tuesday, May 4, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved by a 6-2 vote an application for a new residential tower at 250 Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. This was the third time the Howard Hughes Corporation had presented the project, and this time, after the architects at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill made a few tweaks to the design, the LPC determined that the building was appropriate. (more…)
On June 1, 1988, while I was commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation the underside of the elevated FDR Drive fell to the roadway below and killed a Brooklyn dentist who was driving into Manhattan to pick up his wife. The next day on Friday, June 2, 1989, the New York Times reported his death: (more…)
Ross Sandler, Center for New York City Law Director
A new book recalls the glory of Bryant Park before the Covid-19 shutdown: the movable chairs, the green grass, magazine racks and ping pong tables, shady paths and, most of all, the large numbers of people enjoying Bryant Park. (more…)
The Roosevelt Memorial Sculpture outside the American Museum of Natural History. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/MacLachlan
Jeffrey Kroessler’s view on the Teddy Roosevelt statue at the entrance to the Natural History Museum is clear and provocative, even if I have no certain answer to the questions it raises. (more…)
