Image credit: New York City Council.

On February 2, 2023, the City Council passed Introduction 92 of 2022.  The new law introduced by Council Member Diana Ayala will establish an advisory board to identify, report on, and advise on issues relating to accessibility at homeless shelters. Mayor Eric Adams signed the bill in Local Law 23 of 2023 on February 21. (more…)

On October 8, 2020, the Conflicts of Interest Board adopted new and important changes to its post-employment rules that restrict former City employees from contacting their former City agencies. The Board, in addition, on May 21, 2021, adopted rules relating to the acceptance of gifts by City employees in certain recurring situations. This article examines these new rules. (more…)

View of Co-Op City from the New England Thruway. Image Credit: Google Maps

Owner’s sought to install on a single pole a 9,000 square foot of billboard space capable of running 54 separate advertisements.  In February 2018, Baychester Retail III LLC filed applications with Buildings to install a 9,164 square foot LED billboard made of 27 two-sided panels mounted on one pole on a commercial property located near Co-op City, in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx near the New England Thruway. The large billboard would be capable of displaying 54 video screen advertisements, since each of the 27 panels could display advertisements on both sides. (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 of four boys, his father was a businessman and his mother a school teacher and then homemaker. Schaffer entered Harvard undergraduate in 1964, at the beginning of the era of public interest law. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history before going onto Harvard Law School. After receiving his J.D. in 1973, Schaffer worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in its civil litigation division for five years. (more…)

Board votes for rent freeze despite strong push for a rent rollback by City Council coalition. On June 27, 2016, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board held a final vote to set guidelines for 2016-2017. This vote took place one year after the Rent Guidelines Board made a historic decision to freeze one-year leases instead of raising them. (more…)