Richmond County Bank Ballpark. Image Credit: Google Maps

New ownership group will make improvements to venue and attract other events throughout the year to help boost economy for the North Shore of Staten Island. On July 23, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Staten Island Borough President James Oddo, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) announced an agreement with Staten Island Entertainment, LLC to bring professional baseball back to the north shore, replacing the departed Staten Island Yankees. Staten Island Entertainment will bring an independent Atlantic League team to play at Richmond County Bank Ballpark beginning in 2022.

Interior of 200 Madison Avenue lobby. Image Credit: LPC/George Comfort & Sons.

The lobby is a well-preserved example of the Neo-Renaissance style. On July 20, 2021, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar the first floor lobby interior of 200 Madison Avenue in Murray Hill, Manhattan. The T-shaped lobby has entrances on Madison Avenue, West 35th and West 36th Streets.

Artist’s rendering of the new Rego Park Branch of the Queens Public Library. Image Credit: DDC

The new library will be over double the size of the existing one. On July 28, 2021, Department of Design and Construction Commission Jamie Torres-Springer joined elected officials and the Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott to reveal the design for the new Rego Park Library. Located at 91-41 63rd Drive, the new library will replace the current one-story library that has operated since 1975. The Rego Park branch currently serves nearly 200,000 people a year and lends approximately 190,000 items annually, making it one of the busiest library branches in Queens. 

Mayor de Blasio, Deputy Mayor Vicki Been and others at ribbon cutting for a new affordable housing development in the Bronx, part of the City’s record year for creating affordable housing citywide. Image Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.

The City is on track to create and preserve 200,000 affordable homes by the end of Mayor de Blasio’s administration. On July 26, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Deputy Mayor Vicki Been announced that the City created and preserved 28,310 affordable homes in the 2021 fiscal year. 

Sandy Hornick. Image Credit: Sandy Hornick/Hornick Consulting, Inc.

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 is an attempt to put Hudson Yards into context and explain how this public/private venture is currently working.

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CityLand tracks these applications through the review process to a final decision. The majority of these decisions are available on the Center for New York City Law’s CityAdmin database (found at http://www.cityadmin.org/).