Pei Pei Cheng-de Castro, the Director of Investigation and Enforcement at the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has had a diverse career in which public service has remained a constant. Education has also been at the core of Cheng-de Castro’s career—she taught legal writing at New York Law School, founded a charter school, and now works for an agency that educates public officials on ethics laws as part of its mission.
Cheng-de … <Read More>
The Court of Appeals, after 22 years of litigation, upheld the City’s adult use zoning rules and dismissed the complaint challenging the rules. In 1994 the City’s Department of City Planning completed a study of sexually focused businesses: adult video and bookstores, adult live or movie theaters, and topless or nude bars. The study led to the passage in 1995 of a zoning amendment barring adult establishments from residential and most commercial and manufacturing … <Read More>
In February 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Frederick Schaffer as the Chair of the City’s Campaign Finance Board. The Board, which will be thirty years old next year, is responsible for enforcing New York City’s campaign finance law, monitoring campaign contributions and disclosures, overseeing the public matching funds program and enforcing the rules. Schaffer takes the reigns as the Board heads into the 2017 mayoral campaign.
Schaffer was born and raised in Brooklyn. One … <Read More>
Hotel continued to operate transient use despite amendments to the Multiple Dwelling Law. The Royal Park Hotel, located at 258 West 97th St., Manhattan, operates as a transient use hotel. On July 5, 2012, Buildings issued a notice of violation to the Royal Park Hotel charging that it was operating as a transient hotel in violation of its 1964 certificate of occupancy. The 1964 certificate of occupancy classified the building as class A, a … <Read More>
In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Nisha Agarwal as the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. Agarwal has since pushed forward and implemented IDNYC, New York City’s municipal ID card, a program that ensures that all New York City residents have access to City services. More than 900,000 New York City residents have signed up in the two years the program has operated. Agarwal also supervises ActionNYC. ActionNYC connects New Yorkers with … <Read More>
Three years have passed since Eric Garner’s choking death at the hands of police officer Daniel Pantaleo, and the episode remains unresolved. The grand jury’s secrecy and its decision not to indict anyone, along with Comptroller Scott Stringer’s unusually swift civil settlement with the Garner Family, have left the public with insufficient answers and a sense that justice has been denied. Civil rights organizations and governmental investigators have made additional attempts to obtain information, but … <Read More>