Speaker Corey Johnson Image Credit: CityLand
After modifications and a lengthy Stated Meeting, Borough Based Jails passed despite significant opposition. On October 17, 2019, the City Council voted to approve the City’s Borough Based Jails System application with modifications. The approved plan includes four jail facilities located at 124-125 White Street in Manhattan, 745 East 141st Street in the Bronx, 126-02 82nd Avenue in Queens and at 275 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and closure of the Rikers Island detention facility.
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Boerum Hill HD. Image Credit: LPC.
Composed of three distinct areas to the north, south and west of the existing historic district, proposed expansion shares a character and development history designated section of Boerum Hill. Landmarks voted to add an extension to the Boerum Hill Historic District to its calendar for consideration for designation on October 31, 2017. The extension, as calendared, would bring approximately 288 properties under Landmarks’ purview. The extension is not contiguous, but composed of three separate sections to the north, south and west of the existing historic district. (read more…)
Rendering of the approved Domino Development proposed by Two Trees Management. Image credit: SHoP Architects.
Local Williamsburg Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Stephen Levin led questioning of Two Trees Management on Domino Project. On April 1, 2014, the City Council Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises heard Two Tree Management’s application for special permits and a zoning text amendment to transform the Domino Sugar Refinery into a mixed-use development. The City Planning Commission voted unanimously in favor of the application on March 5, 2014 following Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement of Two Trees’ commitment to significantly increase the square footage of affordable housing. (read more…)
Stephen Levin, District 33 Council Member. (Official NYC Council Photo by William Alatriste)
District 33 – Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, parts of Williamsburg, Park Slope, Boerum Hill
Council Member Stephen Levin grew up just outside of New York City, in Plainfield, New Jersey. He knew he wanted to be in Brooklyn even while he was attending Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. To get there though, he dabbled with various jobs including working as a waiter (he was fired), a book store clerk, and an artist’s assistant. About a year after graduation from Brown, he was living in Bushwick, Brooklyn and starting his political career, although maybe he didn’t quite know it at the time. He got his first advocacy experience at the Lead Safe House Program in Brooklyn, which gets children with elevated lead levels out of danger and into a safe space. Levin ran the program and worked with families and building owners from across the borough, as well as State and City agencies. He also helped families tackle various other issues, such as education and health, during their stay at the Lead Safe House. Seeing families through a sometimes difficult bureaucratic process, he couldn’t help but make the connection between government policy and effective direct service. It was here that he first thought that if the opportunity to actually conceive and implement good policies presented itself, he would take it.
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