Crane Safety Working Group Releases Recommendations

Recommendations include increased accountability, updated technology, wind requirements, and training reform. On June 10, 2016, the Crane Safety Technical Working Group released a report with 23 recommendations regarding crane safety. The working group was formed by Mayor de Blasio and Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler following February’s crane collapse in Tribeca, which affected New York Law School.


City Officials Continue Push Against Airbnb Bad Actors

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 … <Read More>


Comptroller Releases Report Critical of East New York Rezoning Plan

The report predicts that almost 50,000 residents of the affected Brooklyn neighborhoods would be priced out of neighborhood.  On December 3, 2015, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer issued a report—Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and the East New York Rezoning: An Analysis—on the proposed East New York rezoning plan’s effect on housing affordability in the East New York and Cypress Hills neighborhoods of Brooklyn.  The report claims while supply of housing units in the rezoned areas … <Read More>


Votes by Community Boards Running Strongly Against de Blasio Affordable Housing Proposals [UPDATED]

CityLand creates comprehensive chart tracking every vote taken by community boards citywide on the ZQA and MIH text amendments. On September 21, 2015, the City Planning Commission referred for public review the Zoning for Quality and Affordability (ZQA) and Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) citywide text amendments. Since the public review process has begun, community boards across the city have met to discuss and vote on each of the two proposals. All 59 New York City … <Read More>


Rent Stabilization: Preserving Low and Middle-Income Housing

Rent regulation is not a new issue for New York City. But the headlines in June 2015 were far larger and the reactions more contentious than at any time in recent memory. For the first time in its 46-year history, the Rent Guidelines Board decided that there would be no increase in rents for one-year renewals on rent-stabilized apartments; it also limited increases on two year renewals to two-percent. Not surprisingly, tenants hailed the decision … <Read More>


CityLaw: Racial Disparity Persists in NYC’s Examination High Schools

(Editor’s Note:  The Department of Education recently released statistics on the first round of 2015 admissions for New York City’s examination high schools.  According to their report, offers to join the 2015-2016 incoming class at Stuyvesant High School counts just ten African-American and twenty Latino students.  The following by Professor Aaron Saiger of Fordham University’s School of Law was published in the January/February issue of CityLaw.)

New York City is experiencing one of its … <Read More>