City Council’s Domenic Recchia on South Brooklyn’s Past, Present, and Future

New York City Council Member Domenic M. Recchia Jr. represents District 47, covering Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Coney Island, and Brighton Beach neighborhoods. He is Chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee. He graduated from Brooklyn’s John Dewey High School, played football and received his undergraduate degree at Kent State University, and earned his juris doctor from Atlanta Law School. Recchia also has a Brooklyn private practice specializing in medical malpractice and personal injury.

Brooklyn beginnings.… <Read More>

Remembering the City’s Legal Battle to Landmark Grand Central Terminal

The late Bernard Richland was Corporation Counsel when the City appealed the adverse 1975 New York Supreme Court decision in the Grand Central Terminal case. Federal Judge Nina Gershon wrote about Richland’s role in a memorial article about Richland in 2004. 48 N.Y.L. Sch. L. Rev. 411 (2004).

Gershon wrote that “there were some in the preservation community who questioned the city’s resolve to pursue, through appeal, the fight to preserve Grand Central Terminal … <Read More>

Controversial East Village/Lower East Side Historic District Approved by Council

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 … <Read More>

City Planning Commission Celebrates its 75th Anniversary

The country’s very first zoning resolution was adopted in New York City in 1916. Called the “Building Zone Plan,” the new regulations dictated building use and physical characteristics, such as set-backs, to organize development of a burgeoning City. In 1961, the zoning resolution was overhauled to what is today the primary land use document of the City. The new plan addressed the realities of population growth and encouraged public amenities, such as public plazas as … <Read More>

Alterations to the Former Gage & Tollner Restaurant Denied Legalization

The interior landmark, which had been converted to a fast-food chain with Landmarks’ oversight, was illegally converted to a retail store. On January 22, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and denied an application for the legalization of work already done to the former Gage & Tollner Restaurant, at 372 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The interior landmark occupies the Gage & Tollner building, also an individual City landmark. The interior is significant … <Read More>