Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand

The new agreement stresses the need for internet access. On November 24, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio announce efforts to tackle the digital divide in New York City by ensuring that Verizon builds out its FiOS footprint to 500,000 additional householders, making high-speed fiber broadband available to more New Yorkers. Verizon failed to meet the terms of its current cable franchise agreement made with the Bloomberg administration to build out its FiOS network. (more…)

Council Member Robert E. Cornegy. Image Credit: NY City Council

Proposed legislation would include requirements to provide information about how to respond to suspected deed fraud. On October 13, 2020, the City Council Committee of Housing and Buildings and the Committee on Finance held an oversight hearing examining the City’s deed theft and deed fraud crisis, and discussed two bills and a resolution aimed at combatting deed theft: Int 1913, Int 1919, and Res 1427. (more…)

The Open Streets initiative provides more open space for pedestrians by limiting vehicular traffic. Image Credit: CityLand

The Open Streets and the new Play Streets initiatives encourage New Yorkers to go outside. On July 24, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Play Streets, an initiative provided by the City, the Fresh Air Fund, Building Healthy Communities, and the Police Athletic League to provide children with fun, socially-distant outdoor activities on twelve Open Streets throughout the City. The Open Streets initiative provides more outdoor space for pedestrians and cyclists by limiting vehicular traffic on specified streets. Mayor de Blasio also announced some streets that will be added and removed from the Open Streets program. (more…)

Rhinelander Avenue in Morris Park, Bronx, one of many streets open to pedestrians and cyclists under the Open Streets program. Image Credit: CityLand

The plan will aim to add 100 miles of open streets, widened sidewalks and protected bike lanes. Note: This article has been updated to continuously reflect the added streets as those announcements are made. Please continue to check back for further updates.

On April 27, 2020, the Mayor’s Office announced a plan along with Council Speaker Corey Johnson to implement street closures, sidewalk widening, and the addition of bike lanes as part of the City’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The plan aims to close off streets to cars to provide more space for social distancing for pedestrians and cyclists as the weather gets warmer and more people are expected to go outside.  (more…)

Dean Sage Mansion. Image Credit: CityLand

The owners of the Dean Sage Mansion in Crown Heights North Historic District sought to build addition to the 1870’s mansion. In the mid-nineteenth century the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn underwent suburban development of freestanding villas. Today, only a few of the Sturgis villas remain, one of which is the Dean Sage Mansion at 839 St. Mark’s Avenue, a rare High Gothic style mansion built in 1870 by architect Russell Sturgis. The Mansion, which gained additional wings in the 1930s, is one of only a few of Sturgis’s designs in New York today. (more…)