Meetings like this City Planning Commission public hearing that were moved to safely accommodate a larger crowd are an example of how public bodies can adapt to safely hold in-person hearings post pandemic. Image Credit: CityLand
On June 23, 2021 Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state’s COVID-19 emergency orders, which are set to expire today will not be renewed. One of the provisions within the emergency order adjusted the requirements of the Open Meetings Law to allow public hearings to be held remotely via telephone or video conference or other similar service. As of Friday, June 25th, the Open Meetings Law will again require all meetings to be held in-person. (read more…)
Rendering of the proposed new building at 250 Water Street, which will replace a parking lot. Landmarks approved the certificate of appropriateness for the project on May 4th. Image Credit: NYC LPC
On Tuesday, May 4, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved by a 6-2 vote an application for a new residential tower at 250 Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. This was the third time the Howard Hughes Corporation had presented the project, and this time, after the architects at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill made a few tweaks to the design, the LPC determined that the building was appropriate. (read more…)
On June 1, 1988, while I was commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation the underside of the elevated FDR Drive fell to the roadway below and killed a Brooklyn dentist who was driving into Manhattan to pick up his wife. The next day on Friday, June 2, 1989, the New York Times reported his death: (read more…)
Ross Sandler, Center for New York City Law Director
A new book recalls the glory of Bryant Park before the Covid-19 shutdown: the movable chairs, the green grass, magazine racks and ping pong tables, shady paths and, most of all, the large numbers of people enjoying Bryant Park. (read more…)
The Roosevelt Memorial Sculpture outside the American Museum of Natural History. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/MacLachlan
The American Museum of Natural History has requested that the City of New York remove the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its front stoop. At a time when mobs in the street have vandalized public monuments across the nation, the museum and the city are engaging in their own act of civic vandalism. (read more…)
Professor Arthur S. Leonard.
The following is an op-ed in response to Professor Ross Sandler’s Commentary regarding mail-in ballots and the election. To read that piece, click here.
I think Ross Sandler makes some very good points in this editorial on mail-in ballots. I think, however, that we have an exceptional situation with this year’s election. Part of the problem in thinking about the mail-in ballot issue is that it takes a fair amount of time to undertake the steps necessary to conduct mail-in voting on a large scale, especially in a jurisdiction where it hasn’t been done in the past. We can’t know far enough in advance what the situation will be with the pandemic. (read more…)
