Sparklers are prohibited in NYC. Image credit: Maxpixel.
All types of fireworks are illegal throughout New York City and any person who violates the law could be subject to fines and/or jail time. There is something special when a firework is lit and sent into the sky, exploding with a beautiful array of colors. Each firework is unpredictable. The noise can be too much to bear for some, but for others it is like you are a kid again when you see fireworks light up the sky in unimaginable ways. (more…)
City neighborhoods report threats to affordable housing. The Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development released its 2018 report on “How Is Affordable Housing Threatened in Your Neighborhood?” The report provided its findings in a chart on all neighborhoods in the five boroughs and indicators of threats to affordable housing. The Association is the umbrella organization of 100 non-profit affordable housing development groups, which serves low- and moderate-income residents in all five boroughs. (more…)
Landmarks Preservation Commission. Credit: LPC.
Wide support voiced for designation of Coney Island pumping Station; potential extension to Douglaston Historic District and individual designation of Queens Apartment complex and religious structures proved contentious. On October 8, 2015, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held the first of four hearings meant to address the backlog of items on the Commission’s calendar added prior to 2010. Twenty-nine items were considered, in three groupings of multiple items clustered by borough. Each speaker had three minutes to testify for each batch, rather than on individual items. At the meeting, Landmark heard testimony on one batch of items in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, and one in Queens. (more…)
- Mosley shown after renovations. Image: LPC
- Mosley show at the time of designation. Image: LPC
Contentious public hearing held on re-inclusion of private home into Queens historic district. Over a year after a court vacated Landmarks’ decision to include 41-45 240th Street into the Douglaston Hill Historic District, Landmarks held a public hearing on its re-inclusion on March 13, 2007.
Landmarks originally included 41-45 240th Street, a private home owned by Kevin and Diana Mosley, within its December 2004 designation. The Mosleys challenged their home’s inclusion and the designation of the entire district, arguing that the decision was arbitrary and Landmarks ignored evidence suggesting their home dated to the 1920s, not the 1870s as Landmarks claimed. In December 2005, a court upheld the designation of the Douglaston Historic District but removed the Mosleys’ home from the district, ordering Landmarks to hold a new hearing and consider the Mosleys’ evidence. 3 CityLand 15 (Feb. 15, 2006). (more…)
