NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller
Comptroller audit finds that HPD’s controls to ensure that housing incentives were rewarded to qualified applicants were largely effective. On June 27, 2017, the Office of the city Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report of an audit of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. The audit sought to evaluate whether HPD had adequate controls to ensure that its housing incentive projects were properly awarded to property owners and developers that qualified for the program, had the ability to create or preserve the required affordable units and had a satisfactory record of performance to assure the business’ integrity. (more…)
Ross Sandler, Center for New York City Law Director
The election of Donald Trump deeply impacted students at New York Law School. The School sponsored public meetings at which several students described their personal and family fears about the new administration. Other students were far more hopeful, but they carefully respected the views of their fellow students. The students as a whole are newly energized. A new political generation is emerging.
These changes in the electoral environment have occurred just as the City of New York begins its municipal election cycle with the mayoral election set for November 7, 2017. The Center for New York City Law will play its special role during the year as an open forum and transparent window into the workings of municipal government. In anticipation of the election, during fall of 2016 the Center for New York City Law sponsored programs on the City’s readiness to address the Zika virus threat, reforms at Rikers Island, the changes in stop and frisk at the NYPD, and the role of the Public Advocate. Upcoming on December 16th the Center will host a program on the care of the City’s homeless population.
For the past 21 years the Center for New York City Law has provided tens of thousands of people with unbiased coverage of land use and administrative decisions. I ask that you consider financially supporting the Center for New York City Law as part of your yearend contributions. The Center for New York City Law needs financial gifts of $100, $200 or $500 to continue its important work. Your donation will be listed on our Financial Supporters page and the donation will insure that the Center for New York City Law’s publications, events and research web site will continue to flourish.
Please Click Here to Contribute (more…)
One of the buildings designated by the Department of Finance as a primarily residential Class 1 property. Image credit: Office of the New York City Comptroller
The audit report reveals that the misclassification of 140 properties has deprived the City of $1.7 million annually in lost property tax revenue. On February 18, 2016, the Office of the NYC Comptroller publicized the results from its audit of the New York City Department of Finance. The audit sought to investigate whether the Department of Finance had implemented procedures that adequately safeguard against the misclassification of Brooklyn property sites. The Comptroller’s Office and DOF ultimately seem to differ on the definition of “adequate.”
(more…)
Paula Segal, founder, Executive Director & Legal Director at 596 Acres. Photo credit: Lauren Silberman.
Paula Segal is the founder, Executive Director, and Legal Director of 596 Acres, a non-profit community land access program in New York City that supports and advocates the transformation of vacant public land into sustainable community institutions. The name 596 Acres refers to the amount of vacant land in Brooklyn as represented by the Department of City Planning when the organization began in 2010. Ms. Segal is a graduate of City University of New York Law School, where she was a Haywood Burns Fellow in Human and Civil Rights. She is a partner at Mohen & Segal, a law firm that provides legal services for entities working on shared sustainable economies. (more…)
Council authorized budget increases for BIDs in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens. On January 18, 2011, the City Council adopted a local law authorizing increases in the annual budgets of six business improvement districts in the City. The boards of directors of the Grand Central Partnership, the 24th Street Partnership and the 125th Street Partnership in Manhattan, the Fordham Road BID, and the Mosholu-Jerome-East Gun Hill Road BID in the Bronx, and the Bayside Village BID in Queens initiated the process by submitting proposed budgets reflecting increased property assessments to the City’s Department of Small Business Services. Pursuant to the administrative code, the boards of (more…)
