City Announces Preliminary Plan for Upcoming School Year

The City’s plan offers three basic models schools can base their scheduling on to rotate students between in-person and remote learning. On July 8, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Department of Education Chancellor Richard Carranza announced the City’s preliminary plan to reopen public schools in September. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have physically been closed since mid-March and operated remotely for the remainder of the school year. The “blended learning” approach will allow … <Read More>


UPDATED: City to Implement Up to 100 Miles of Safe Streets

The plan will aim to add 100 miles of open streets, widened sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Note: This article has been updated to continuously reflect the added streets as those announcements are made. Please continue to check back for further updates.

On April 27, 2020, the Mayor’s Office announced a plan along with Council Speaker Corey Johnson to implement street closures, sidewalk widening, and the addition of bike lanes as part of the City’s <Read More>


CityLaw Profile: Caroline Harris – A Woman’s Journey to Land Use

Caroline Harris’s career as a land use attorney stems from an early interest in urban affairs and planning.  Harris was born in New York City and grew up in Peter Cooper Village. As a student at the then all-female Hunter College High School, she started the first student volunteer program for Head Start, earning Mayor Lindsay’s award for “Distinguished Volunteer Supervision.”  Harris spent five months in Israel before entering Trinity College, where she majored in … <Read More>


5Pointz: The Anti-Rebellion Message of the Graffiti Dispute

Graffiti has become much more than spray-painted tags and quickly disappearing pieces on train cars and underpasses. In some quarters it is now high art. Highly prized are works by Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the “Hope” poster Fairey made for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, Jean-Michel Basquiat, who began as a graffiti artist and whose works today command huge prices, and Banksy, whose street works are carefully preserved.  These dramatic changes in the nature and … <Read More>


City Planning Commission Holds Hearing on St. John Terminal Rezoning [UPDATE: City Planning Approves Application]

The proposed rezoning would permit the development of four mixed-use buildings and one commercial building across the street from Pier 40. On August 24, 2016, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application for a zoning text amendment, a zoning map change, four special permits, three authorizations, and one chairperson certification to facilitate the redevelopment of the commercial building at 550 Washington Street, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The project would create … <Read More>


South Village District Designation Warmly Embraced by Commission [Update: Council Land Use Committee Approves Unanimously]

See below for update.
See below for update.

See Below for Update.

Commissioners adopted recommendations of Landmarks’ Research Department to exclude a row of heavily altered buildings on West Houston from designation. On December 17, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the South Village Historic District, an area comprising approximately 250 buildings south of Washington Square Park.  The primarily residential district is bounded by Houston Street to the south, Sixth Avenue to the … <Read More>