The Center for New York City Law cordially invites you to a CityLaw Breakfast

presenting

Errol Louis
Guest Speaker, Inside City Hall

With a special presentation to
Ross Sandler, ABA Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award

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3rd Annual Civic Fame Awards

The Center offers special recognition for:

Hon. David N. Dinkins, the 106th Mayor of the City of New York

Wayne G. Hawley, retiring deputy executive director and general counsel
of the Conflicts of Interest Board

Susan M. Hinkson ’98, retiring member of the
Board of Standards & Appeals

Con Edison, a founding sponsor of the CityLaw Breakfast Series

Inside City Hall, 25th Anniversary of NY1’s nightly political news and opinion program

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Q&A with David N. Dinkins on September 27, 2013.  (From left to right) Ross Sandler, David N. Dinkins, Anthony Crowell. Image Credit: Sara Tiana Young.

On Friday, September 27, 2013 the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School hosted one of its City Law Breakfasts.  New York Law School and the Center were honored to have Honorable David N. Dinkins, former Mayor of New York City, as the guest speaker.

Mayor Dinkins was introduced by the Founder and Executive Chairman of Barnes and Noble, Leonard Riggio. For the first time in the City Law Breakfast series, the guest speaker was engaged in a question and answering session instead of addressing the audience directly. The Q & A with Mayor Dinkins was led by Ross Sandler, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for NYC Law, and Anthony W.  Crowell, Dean and President of New York Law School.

Mayor Dinkins spoke about his upbringing and education. He reflected fondly back at his time at Howard University, and the influence that his English Professor had on his views on the importance of language. The audience followed him to his journey to Brooklyn Law School and the beginnings of his political career when he first joined a political club. Afterwards, Mayor Dinkins detailed his assent through New York City politics, his race for Manhattan Borough President and election as Mayor of New York City. Mayor Dinkins reflected on his tenure as mayor, his relationship with the media, as well as some of the challenges his administration faced, including the Crown Heights Riots in August 1991. (read more…)

Ross Sandler

Join us at the September 27th CityLaw Breakfast, featuring the Hon. David N. Dinkins, former New York City Mayor. This event is sponsored by the Center for New York City Law at New York Law School.  Click here to RSVP.

David N. Dinkins, New York City’s 106th mayor, now 86 years old, tells his story in his newly published autobiography, A Mayor’s Life: Governing New York’s Gorgeous Mosaic (Public Affairs 2013).

Dinkins is justifiably proud of becoming the first African American mayor of New York City, and summarizes his policies as “attacking the problems, not the victims.” He suggests that the public misunderstood his “measured manner and precise diction” as a lack of mayoral fortitude. He says that his administration failed to receive sufficient public credit for the Safe Streets, Safe City crime reduction program, a program which many believe was the foundation for New York City’s stunning decline in crime. He attributes his 1993 reelection loss to Rudolph W. Giuliani to “racism, plain and simple.” Of the falloff of his African American support, he writes that the black community had expectations of him that were “elevated almost to the mythical,” and which could not be met because of economics and the requirement that he be mayor of all New York. (read more…)