CityLaw Profile: Mark Davies, Executive Director of the Conflicts of Interest Board

After mayoral election, COIB Executive Director’s focus remains on prevention. Mark Davies is currently in his twentieth year as the Executive Director of the Conflicts of Interest Board. He is a native of Long Beach, California who moved to New York in 1968 to attend Columbia University, where he majored in German and English. Following his graduation in 1971, Davies studied Germanic Philology at Philipps-Universität in Marburg, Germany on a one year fellowship. Upon … <Read More>


Judge Judith S. Kaye: Juvenile Justice Reform: Now is Really the Moment

 

Judge Judith S. Kaye delivered these remarks at the CityLaw Breakfast on October 18, 2013.

A little more than three years ago—on August 27, 2010, to be precise—I had the privilege of standing before you as part of the CityLaw Breakfast Series. I began by complimenting all of you, as I do today, for arriving at the crack of dawn to chew on the subject of justice for breakfast.

On that beautiful summer day, I … <Read More>


BSA Approves Ohel Chabad Lubavitch Variances Over Community Opposition

BSA approval contingent upon several conditions, and restrictions of the hours of operation and access to gravesites. The Congregation Ohel Chabad Lubavitch owns the property at 226-10 Francis Lewis Boulevard, Queens adjacent to the Montefiore Cemetery where the Lubavitch spiritual leader Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson and his predecessor Rebbe Yosef J. Schneerson are buried. Daily visitors numbering in the several hundreds use the property to access the graves of the Lubavitch leaders.  In 1994 … <Read More>


Majority of Testimony Supported 287-Property Extension of Park Slope Historic District

Like the existing district, proposed extension would largely be characterized by 19th-century rowhouses, ecclesiastical structures, and 20th-century apartment buildings. On October 29, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the potential designation of the Park Slope Historic District Extension II. The proposed extension would lie to the north and west of the existing Park Slope Historic District, designated in 1973. A majority of the 287 properties to be incorporated into the extension … <Read More>


Approved Mixed Use Tower Will Cantilever Over Landmarked Art Students League

Skyscraper to be built as-of-right, but requires Landmarks to review and approve its impact on adjacent individual landmark. On October 22, 2013, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to issue a certificate of appropriateness to Extell Development, despite one dissenting vote,  to allow a portion of a new planned tower to cantilever over the individually landmarked American Fine Arts Society building, located at 215 West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The tower, which is … <Read More>


David Yassky: Shepherding In a New Era In Taxi Service

Taxi service in Manhattan has taken on a different look the past few years as the ubiquitous Crown Victoria cabs were gradually replaced by a variety of mostly smaller, sleeker and more efficient vehicles. There’s a new color too, green cabs are now popping up in the outer boroughs of the City. Taxi & Limousine Commissioner David Yassky has been at the helm of the changing taxi service landscape, and at times it has been … <Read More>