Council Approved Rheingold Development with a 30 Percent Affordable Housing Requirement

 

Controversial Bushwick development project questioned on affordable housing goals in public hearings. On December 10, 2013, the full City Council voted 48-1 to rezone six blocks in Bushwick, Brooklyn, in order to allow the development of ten mixed-use developments. The rezoning area is bounded by Bushwick Avenue, Flushing Avenue, Melrose Street, Stanwix Street, and Forrest Street.  Council’s Committee on Land Use voted 18-1 and Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises unanimously voted 10-0 … <Read More>


City Planning Sends Greenpoint Waterfront Developments Proposals to the Council

Large Greenpoint Developments, if approved, would produce over 1,400 housing units. On October 30, 2013, the City Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve two major mixed-use developments in Greenpoint, Brooklyn: Greenpoint Landing and 77 Commercial Street. Both projects would allow the City to fulfill commitments to affordable housing and public open space that it made during the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning. The 2005 Rezoning of nearly 200 blocks authorized the transformation of Greenpoint’s low-density manufacturing … <Read More>


Sam Schwartz: Managing Traffic Through “Fair Pricing”

This week there has been a renewed interest in Sam Schwartz’s revised congestion pricing plan which is being pushed by a group called Move NY.  Read CityLaw’s great profile on Mr. Schwartz that details his plan.  This was originally published on April 18, 2013.

Sam Schwartz is the president and CEO of Sam Schwartz Engineering, a firm that specializes in transportation planning and engineering. Schwartz’s new congestion pricing proposal, “Move New York,” … <Read More>


Empowering Communities for Land Access: Paula Segal, Executive Director and Legal Director of 596 Acres

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 <Read More>


The Dinkins’ Autobiography: Filling in a Missing Chapter

 

Join us at the September 27th CityLaw Breakfast, featuring the Hon. David N. Dinkins, former New York City Mayor. This event is sponsored by the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School.  Click here to RSVP.

David N. Dinkins, New York City’s 106th mayor, now 86 years old, tells his story in his newly published autobiography, A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic (Public Affairs 2013).

Dinkins … <Read More>


Greenmarket and the Urbanscape

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” May that always be so, but it is equally true today that for many New Yorkers spring also turns thoughts to Greenmarket, a collection of producer-only farmers markets that now blanket the City.

The first Greenmarket opened in July 1976 in a lot on Second Avenue at the Manhattan end of the Queensboro Bridge. Seven farmers sold produce … <Read More>