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 Bill de Blasio
Center for NYC Neighborhoods Hosts Panel on Affordable Homeownership
The keynote panel focused on the issues and challenges raised by affordable housing creation and preservation in New York City. On September 30, 2015, the Center for NYC Neighborhoods held its conference on the Future of Affordable Homeownership in NYC. The event was hosted at New York Law School and sponsored by NYLS, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, the Center for Real Estate Studies, the Center for New York City Law, and several other … <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 Profile – City Council Zoning Chair Donovan Richards on Improving Sustainability
Donovan Richards was elected to the City Council from the 31st District in February 2013. When you speak with City Council member Donovan Richards, two things become readily apparent: an encyclopedic knowledge of the needs of his Southeast Queens Council district and the drive to pursue solutions for each of those needs simultaneously.
Weisbrod Discusses the de Blasio Administration’s Affordable Housing Program, Now in Its “Toddler” Stage
At the CityLaw breakfast on August 28, 2015, Carl Weisbrod provided an update on the de Blasio Administration’s housing plan, which Weisbrod described as now in its “toddler” stage. The de Blasio program is the most ambitious of its kind in the country, and the biggest in New York since the Koch Administration. Today, the City is managing the problems of success: continued growth and a shortage of housing. Conversely, in the Koch era, … <Read More>
Rent Guidelines Board Holds Rents at Current Levels
Freeze vote first of its kind in Board history, applies to one-year leases in rent-regulated units. On June 29, 2015 the Rent Guidelines Board voted 7-2 to not increase rents on one-year leases, affecting 1.2 million tenants of New York City’s rent-regulated apartments. The vote marked the first occasion where the Board decided to freeze rents. The Board’s vote also increased rents on two-year leases by 2 percent, a historically-low rate. The new rents will … <Read More>