Shoveling snow. Image credit: Creative Commons Zero – CC0

Homeowner failed to remove snow from the sidewalk within the allotted four-hour time frame. Sanitation on March 15, 2017 at 10:49 p.m. charged Chen Nimchuk Jing with failing to remove snow and ice from the sidewalk in front of her premises. The summons stated that there was no attempt to salt, sand or shovel a path for pedestrians, and the snow storm had officially ended on March 14, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. The Administrative Code requires property owners to remove snow or ice from their adjacent sidewalks within four hours after the snow ceases to fall except when the snow ceases between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

Scale of Justice. Image credit: Laobc.

The Legal Aid Society’s Annual Gala brought more than 800 people to Cipriani’s on 42^nd Street in Manhattan on May 10, 2018. At the end of the evening the Legal Aid Society bestowed its Servant of Justice Award on Richard Davis, the chair of the Legal Aid Society and a longtime member of its Board, and on Herb Sturz.

Image credit: New York City Council.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council, in creating competing charter revision commissions, avoided endorsing the central reason why the City could benefit from charter revision: ending term limits for council members. Term limits arguably may have had a healthy impact on the mayoralty, but not so with the council. Two four-year terms for council members resulted in instability of council membership and leadership and a lack of institutional discipline that has produced a council weaker than it should be.

AT&T Building. Image credit: LPC.

Proponents of revitalization stressed need for adaptability in redeveloping currently vacant building, others lamented destruction of lobby, and urged Landmarks to maintain oversight of entire lot. On June 19, 2018, Landmarks held a public hearing on the potential designation of the former AT&T Corporate Headquarters at 550 Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The 37-foot-tall tower was completed in 1984 and designed by Philip Johnson, recipient of a 1979 Pritzker Prize, and John Burgee. An early significant work of postmodern architecture, in the Headquarters Johnson and Burgee, rejected the unadorned glass curtain walls of International Style modernism, exemplified in New York by the Seagram Building. The building is clad in masonry and employs historicist quotations, including its famous pediment recalling design motifs in Chippendale furniture. It possesses a monumental entrance arch on Madison Avenue that is flanked by more arches that originally opened to Italian Renaissance-inspired arcades beneath the tower, and covered pedestrian space between east 55th and 56th Streets. The arcades have since been filled in.

Street Trees in Brooklyn.  Image credit: thecityatlas.org

Trees are planted right into the backdrop of New York City. While there are only about 600,000 trees in the City, many of them occupy the sidewalks and streets in front of our homes. Given the dense population of the City, apartment buildings and houses are built right on top of each other. The trees planted on City streets and sidewalks need to be cared for otherwise, they can cause damage and problems for the surrounding residents and property owners. The Department of Parks and Recreation has procedures and guidelines for the care and maintenance of City trees.

Edward’s unenclosed sidewalk café restaurant located at 136 W Broadway in Manhattan. Image credit: CityLand.

Operating a sidewalk café requires a public review process and approval from the city. Summer is here and many restaurants open sidewalk cafés to give people a breath of fresh air while enjoying a meal. To operate a sidewalk café, the business must have a food service establishment permit and each year the business must pay consent fees, which are essentially a “lease” for use of the sidewalk space.