Mayor Announces $50 Million Redevelopment of Orchard Beach Pavilion

Elected officials announced new investment into Bronx beach pavilion reconstruction. On May 26, 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio, alongside Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., announced a $50 million investment to redevelop the Bronx’s Orchard Beach pavilion in Pelham Bay Park. The money would go to restore the currently closed pavilion. The Mayor has committed $20 million in capital funding, and $10 million has been committed … <Read More>


Land Use Committee Hears Testimony on Proposed Capital Commitment Tracking System

The proposed system would keep track of the financial and infrastructure-related promises made by the Mayor’s office to neighborhoods being rezoned.  On June 7, 2016, the City Council Committee on Land Use held a public hearing on a legislative proposal to implement a tracking system, which would monitor the status of promises made to the public by the Administration  during the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process. The proposed bill, Intro 1132, is sponsored by … <Read More>


DCP Initiates Public Review Procedure for Proposed Rezoning of East New York

The proposal would create new affordable housing, public parks, and other community improvements.  On September 21, 2015, the City Planning Commission began the public review process for the Department of City Planning’s proposal to rezone several neighborhoods in Brooklyn.  The East New York Community Plan would invest in the improvement of the East New York, Ocean Hill, and Cypress Hills neighborhoods of Brooklyn—represented by Community Boards 5 and 16—by adding affordable housing and community … <Read More>


Mayor de Blasio Names Faith Rose as New Public Design Commission Chair

Appointee previously served as Director of the Design Excellence program. On October 7, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Faith Rose to serve as Executive Director of the Public Design Commission. Ms. Rose, a licensed architect and partner at O’Neill Rose Architects, earned her Masters of Architecture from Yale University and comes to the Commission from the Department of Design and Construction. As Director of the Department’s Design Excellence program, Ms. Rose oversaw … <Read More>


Tear Down the Chrysler Building?

Save our skyline. If not, tear down the Chrysler building and demolish the Empire State Building. If action isn’t taken these stars of the New York City skyline will be permanently eclipsed. If the public can’t see them, why preserve them? Even the preservation resistant Real Estate Board of New York would likely gasp at the notion of demolishing these two iconic New York landmarks. “The view of the New York skyline is nationally and … <Read More>


Mayor de Blasio’s Land Use Appointments Carousel Continues

Mayor de Blasio has re-structured the City’s land use administrative hierarchy to further his affordable housing agenda. On July 22, 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio nominated Margery Perlmutter to serve as Chair of the Board of Standards and Appeals. This was the Mayor’s latest appointment  to City land-use positions, all of which will bear heavily on the Mayor’s expansive affordable housing agenda, a ten-year plan designed to preserve some 200,000 units of affordable housing.