Audit determined the Department of Finance improperly gave abatements to condos and co-ops owned by corporations over a four-year period. On January 28, 2016 the Office of the City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report of an audit conducted of the Department of Finance. In the final report, the Comptroller’s Office found the Department of Finance wrongly gave out over $10 million worth of property tax abatements to corporate-owned condominums, co-ops, indoor parking spaces, … <Read More>
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Land Use Committee Approves New Two-Lot Wide Building on Controversial Site
Developers spent months engaging local representatives and neighborhood residents to garner their approval before formally initiating ULURP process. On January 28, 2016, the City Council Land Use Committee unanimously approved an application to construct a mixed-use building at 146–150 Wooster Street, located in Manhattan’s landmarked SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District. 150 Wooster LLC, the project developer and subsidiary of KUB real estate investment and design firm, is the second owner to attempt to build a … <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>
Elected Officials, Community Groups Rally Against Mayor’s Citywide Rezoning Plan
Speakers argued the plan eliminates residential zoning protections with little affordable housing benefit. On March 25, 2015 the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed citywide rezoning plan, “Zoning for Quality and Affordability”. According to the Department of City Planning, the plan was created in response to zoning barriers identified by DCP and the Department of … <Read More>
City Council Holds Oversight Hearing on 421-a Program
HPD Commissioner Been, others testify on effectiveness of the program. On January 29, 2015 the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings held an oversight hearing on the 421-a tax benefit program. The program, established in 1971 by the New York State Legislature, was designed to spur residential development of underused land by granting a property tax reduction to developers for a period of ten to twenty-five years, with an objective of increasing affordable housing … <Read More>
New York State’s New System for Tracking Prescription Drugs
On June 19, 2012, one lone gunman entered a small pharmacy in Medford, Long Island. Seven gunshots later, four people lay dead—killed at close range without signs of resistance. Three days later, David Laffer and his wife, Melinda Brady, were arrested. Laffer was charged with first-degree murder. Melinda Brady, driver of the getaway car, was charged with third-degree robbery.