On December 6, 2022, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Samuel Gompers Industrial High School as an individual landmark. The school, located at 455 Southern Boulevard in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, was the City’s first vocational high school and is one of the City’s most distinctive public school buildings. For CityLand’s prior coverage, click here.
Search Results for: Human Rights
Reducing Racial Bias Embedded in Land Use Codes
Even though the Supreme Court struck down race-based land use controls over a hundred years ago in Buchanan v. Warley, 245 U.S. 60 (1917) it has long been known that zoning continues to create or increase racial and economic segregation. Today communities across the U.S. are reexamining their zoning regulations to create more equal, equitable, inclusive, and resilient communities by removing requirements, limitations, or prohibitions that disproportionately and negatively impact individuals based on race … <Read More>
Closing Rikers Island: A Catalyst for Criminal Justice Reform
Former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, speaking at a CityLaw Breakfast on January 23, 2019, powerfully argued that the time has come to close Rikers Island, New York City’s notorious jail located on an island in the East River. Judge Lippman’s remarks echoed the 2017 recommendations of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform which Judge Lippman chaired. Judge Lippman spoke at the breakfast in a question and … <Read More>
Herb Sturz: The Legal Aid Society And Criminal Justice
The Legal Aid Society’s Annual Gala brought more than 800 people to Cipriani’s on 42nd Street in Manhattan on May 10, 2018. At the end of the evening the Legal Aid Society bestowed its Servant of Justice Award on Richard Davis, the chair of the Legal Aid Society and a longtime member of its Board, and on Herb Sturz.
Richard Briffault: Charting a Pragmatic Path to a Good Government
Richard Briffault, Chair of the Conflicts of Interest Board, brings a long record of public service to his current position. A product of the City public school system, Briffault graduated from Columbia University and obtained his law degree from Harvard. He was broadly interested in government as a young man and quickly entered public service, working from 1980 to 1982 as an assistant counsel to Governor Hugh Carey. The position gave him broad opportunity to … <Read More>
The Right To Counsel For Tenants Who Face Eviction
On August 11, 2017, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which guarantees legal representation for low-income tenants who face eviction. The new law has two major innovations with respect to eviction petitions brought in Housing Court.