NYC[x] Co-Labs challenge hopes to address housing rights of NYC’s most vulnerable communities. On November 12, 2020, the New York Mayor’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the NYC Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, and the communities of Inwood and Washington Heights announced the winners and the honorable mentions for the NYC[x] Co-Labs Housing Rights Challenge. This challenge invited innovative and tech-enabled solutions to address the housing rights of New York City’s most vulnerable communities. Submissions were solicited from startups, technologists, and innovators from across the globe. To read more about the competition, click here. The winners of the Housing Rights Challenge are Heat Seek and Justfix.nyc with an honorable mention going to 3×3. (more…)

Thomas McMahon grew up in Staten Island, attended St. Joseph Hill Academy and Monsignor Farrell High School, and graduated from SUNY New Paltz. McMahon knew from a young age that he wanted to have a career in government and public service, and he felt that the best path forward included a law degree. (more…)

Library was the first in the nation devoted solely to the needs of children. On April 7, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential individual landmark designation of the Stone Avenue Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at 581 Mother Gaston Boulevard in the Brownsville neighborhood. The Library completed in 1914, to designs by architect William B. Tubby, is one of 21 public libraries in Brooklyn whose development was funded by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in the early 20th century. (more…)

Support and opposition to landmarking reiterated at City Council level. On January 31, 2013, the City Council’s Land Use Committee voted to approve the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation of the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District in Manhattan. The district includes approximately 325 buildings, and is composed of two distinct sections on each side of First Avenue. On October 9, 2012, Landmarks approved the designation after modifying the boundaries of the proposal initially presented to the Commission. Landmarks found the area significant for its pre-Depression residential architecture and its social history as a home to successive waves of immigrant communities, as well as an epicenter of bohemian life. At Landmarks’ June 26, 2012 public hearing, the vast majority of speakers testified in support of designation, though some local religious institutions opposed, including the Catholic Worker, the St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic Church, and St. Mary’s Orthodox Church.

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Carol Clark, Assistant Commissioner for Land Use and Local Governmental Affairs with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, serves as one of the agency’s vital ambassadors to the City Council. The Council must review HPD’s affordable housing development initiatives that involve the disposition of City-owned properties or the grant of tax exemptions. Clark arrived at HPD ten years ago with an extensive background in architecture, historic preservation, planning, and real estate development.

Architectural base. Clark grew up in the suburbs outside Detroit, Michigan. As a child on family trips to the city, she was captivated by the architecture of downtown Detroit’s skyscrapers. Clark’s interest in architecture led her to study architectural history at the University of Michigan. As an undergraduate, Clark became aware of the emerging efforts to restore and adaptively reuse historic buildings. When Clark learned that Columbia University offered the nation’s first graduate program in historic preservation, she knew a move to New York City would soon follow. Columbia accepted Clark, and she moved to the City in 1975.  (more…)