I was motivated to respond to an article by Robert Kuttner on The American Prospect website that in general argued that a tax-subsidized project was facing impending collapse which could provide an opportunity for affordable housing. I have no problem with the author disliking Hudson Yards and he wouldn’t be the first or only one to do so. I believe, however, that the American Prospect piece contains misinformation on the Hudson Yards project. This article … <Read More>
Search Results for: Sales Tax
Reducing Racial Bias Embedded in Land Use Codes
Even though the Supreme Court struck down race-based land use controls over a hundred years ago in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) it has long been known that zoning continues to create or increase racial and economic segregation. Today communities across the U.S. are reexamining their zoning regulations to create more equal, equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities by removing requirements, limitations, or prohibitions that disproportionately and negatively impact individuals based on race … <Read More>
City Council Holds Hearing to Address Deed Fraud Crisis
Proposed legislation would include requirements to provide information about how to respond to suspected deed fraud. On October 13, 2020, the City Council Committee of Housing and Buildings and the Committee on Finance held an oversight hearing examining the City’s deed theft and deed fraud crisis, and discussed two bills and a resolution aimed at combatting deed theft: Int 1913, Int 1919, and Res 1427.
Council Subcommittee Hears Application for Affordable Homeownership Project in Bedford-Stuyvesant
HPD’s Open Door Program a key facet of Rochester Suydam application. On February 26, 2020, the City Council Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions heard the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and BJF Development’s application for the disposition of City owned property, the designation of an Urban Development Action Area and the approval of a property tax exemption under Article XI of the Private Housing Finance Law. The approval would facilitate the development … <Read More>
Comptroller Releases Retail Vacancy Report in Response to City Planning’s Report
Comptroller’s office analyzes other sources of data, concluding retail vacancy is citywide problem. On September 25, 2019, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer released a report regarding New York City’s retail vacancy crisis. Comptroller Stringer’s report is intended to fill a void in unexplored data from City Planning’s August 8, 2019, analysis of the same topic.
Public Health: Tobacco, Sugars, Trans Fats and Salt
In the twentieth century, primary causes of death and disability in America changed from communicable diseases to chronic diseases. This shift was in part due to the successes of public health as better sanitary conditions and immunizations reduced the burden of communicable diseases. The shift, however, was also due to changes in lifestyle and longer life expectancies that caused the rates of chronic diseases to increase.