
Rendering of 399 Sands Street. Image credit: Steiner NYC.
Addition of manufacturing and creative space supports City goals to provide more middle-class jobs. On June 13, 2018, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, Alicia Glen, together with the Brooklyn Navy Yards and Steiner NYC, announced the beginning of construction at 399 Sands Street. The project will add manufacturing and creative office space at the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard, an urban manufacturing center, and is expected to bring manufacturing jobs to the area. The project is also part of Steiner’s Admirals Row Development, a six-acre site at the southwest corner of the Navy Yard being developed for commercial and industrial use. (read more…)

Mayor Bill de Blasio with Trevor Noah on the Daily Show. Image credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Following Mayor’s appearance on Daily Show, Deputy Mayor Glen calls on release of names of bad hosts. On March 7, 2016, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen requested that Airbnb provide the City with the names and addresses of the hosts illegally using its website. Deputy Mayor Glen’s letter was written in the wake Mayor Bill de Blasio’s March 3rd appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he discussed the pros and cons of the “sharing economy,” and months after a report was issued, which proves Airbnb’s ability to identify and eliminate illegal hosts on its site. For CityLand’s past coverage on this report, click here.
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The City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises hearing testimony from City Planning Chairman Carl Weisbrod, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, and Commissioner Vicki Been (from left to right). Image credit: CityLand
Hard-hitting questions from several Council members explored ways affordable housing could be provided at deeper levels of affordability. On February 9, 2016, the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing proposal. The hearing was held in the City Council Chambers in City Hall to accommodate the capacity audience.
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From Left to Right: Paul Selver, Jerold Kayden, Meenakshi Srinivasan, Kent Barwick. Image Credit: LPC
Speakers spoke of the different priorities of City government and other stakeholders, examined preservation strategies of municipalities nationwide, and considered changes in the legal landscape that could affect landmarking. On October 26, 2015, , Meenakshi Srinivasan, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and Jerold Kayden, Professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, co-hosted an event titled “History in the Making: The New York City Landmarks Law at 50.” The event held at the New York City Bar Association consisted of multiple addresses and panels intended to provoke and challenge common assumptions and perceptions regarding historic preservation as the City’s landmarks law enters the second half of its first century. (read more…)

Saving Place Exhibit. Image Credit: Museum of the City of New York.
Sometimes-contentious debate focused on the struggle to balance new development with historic preservation in New York City. On the evening of April 20, 2015, the Museum of the City of New York commenced a series of events and exhibitions commemorating the 50th anniversary of the City’s Landmarks Law with a symposium titled “Redefining Preservation for the 21st Century.” The Saving Place exhibit, intends to examine the “impact of a landmark preservation movement that has transformed the City and has been an engine of New York’s growth and success.” The exhibit is curated by the Museum’s Donald Albrecht and Columbia’s Andrew Dolkart, with Seri Worden, of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, serving as consulting curator. The Symposium took place at the New York Academy of Medicine’s Hosack Hall. (read more…)