City Planning Wrapping Up Brownfield Recommendations in Flushing

City Planning presented to community board draft findings and recommendations for brownfield improvements in Queen’s Flushing neighborhood. In 2011, under the New York State Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, the Flushing-Willets Point-Corona Local Development Corporation received a $1.5 million state grant to plan for the clean-up and rezoning of the Flushing waterfront. The Program was created to transform brownfields—vacant or underutilized properties—from liabilities to community assets. This is the second phase of the Brownfield Opportunity Area … <Read More>



Hearings Held on Five Potential Landmarks as Part of Greater East Midtown Plan

Designations opposed by developers and hoteliers; transit advocates expressed concern that landmarking would prevent improved subway infrastructure and access. On July 19 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held hearings on the potential designations of five possible individual landmarks in the East Midtown area of Manhattan. Twelve items in total were identified by Landmarks as significant historic and architectural resources, as part of the mayoral administration’s Greater East Midtown plan. The plan to revitalize … <Read More>


City Relying on 1962 State Law to Combat Irresponsible Landlords

City forces eight landlords to fix building code violations in twelve buildings by threatening to stop paying rent for tenants on public assistance. On May 26, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Public Advocate Letitia James announced the use of the 1962 New York State Spiegel Law as a tool to compel landlords to fix violations for tenants receiving public assistance. Landlords who do not complete repairs quickly will lose out on rent payments.


Airbnb Opposition Makes for Strange Bedfellows

There are some things you can always count on here in New York: alternate side of the street parking, the subways always running (except when they’re not, like late nights and weekends), the Yankees making the playoffs (except when the Mets do) and landlords and tenants being diametrically opposed. Like Superman and Kryptonite, oil and water, landlords and tenants have always had one thing in common – a mutual distrust of one another.

That is … <Read More>


Commission Approves 29-Foot Elevation of Palace Theater, an Interior Landmark

Renovations will allow for better utilization of space, according to applicants, while preservationists expressed concerns about fragility of early-20th-century Baroque theater. On November 24, 2015, Landmarks approved an application to raise the Palace Theater, an interior landmark, 29 feet within its current footprint, as well as conduct restoration work and other associated renovations. The original building in which the theater stood was demolished, and a new hotel built over and around the theater … <Read More>