Recently the City got some good news about Rikers Island, a change from the bad news of recent years. On August 2, 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio, together with Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte, announced that for the first six months of 2016 the frequencies with which staff used serious force on inmates and inmates seriously assaulted staff dropped by nearly half over the past year. Overall uses of force and assault numbers were also down … <Read More>
Search Results for: Lower Manhattan, Manhattan
City Council Rejects Proposed Rezoning of Inwood Site Needed for New Development with 50 Percent Affordable Housing
City Council rejected the first private application of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. On August 16, 2016, the City Council rejected a proposal to rezone a large corner lot in order to construct a new mixed-use development located at 4650 Broadway in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood. Currently a two-story commercial building operating as a parking garage and U-Haul truck rental facility occupies the site. The original proposal from the developer, Acadia Sherman Avenue LLC, was to build a … <Read More>
New, Eight-story Building Planned for Mid-block Site Along Columbus Avenue
Plan that will replace heavily altered three-story 1894 structure close to being approved; Commissioners asked to see some revisions. On July 19, 2016, Landmarks considered a proposal to redevelop a lot at 466 Columbus Avenue in the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District. The site is occupied by a commercial building constructed in 1894. The building was altered in 1961, and a third story added. Further alterations designed by Gruzen Samton were … <Read More>
City Council Subcommittee Hears Testimony on East Houston Street Rezoning
The proposal seeks to re-zone two and a half residential blocks from solely residential to mixed-use with ground floor commercial space. On August 9, 2016, the City Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises heard testimony on an application to re-zone residential space to provide for mixed residential and commercial space for two-and-a-half blocks on the south side of Houston Street, spanning from Norfolk Street to halfway between Clinton Street and Attorney Street, located on the … <Read More>
Comptroller Report Finds City Accountable for Failure to Stop the Sale of the Rivington House
In contrast to the DOI Report, the Comptroller’s Report places personal accountability on City Officials rather than the indoctrinated procedure for deed-modifications. On August 1, 2016, New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer issued a Report on the removal of deed restrictions from Rivington House. The Report is the product of a five-month-long investigation conducted by the Comptroller’s Office into the City’s actions in facilitating the sale of the Rivington House—a non-profit nursing home located … <Read More>
Appellate Court Orders Trial on Commercial Rental Income Dispute
Coops created by an HPD sale of City-owned buildings engaged in dispute over an obligation to share commercial space income. In 2003, the City conveyed 14 buildings, located on the West Side of Manhattan on 87th, 88th, 89th and 95th Streets. The buildings were to be converted Housing Development Fund Corporations (HDFCs), which are low-income residential cooperatives owned by tenant-shareholders . Three of the 14 buildings contained commercial space. Under the City’s conveyance, the … <Read More>