Greenfield to advocate for Councilmembers | Queens is King | City Releases List of ‘Worst’ Buildings

February 7th 2014

Queens has seen multifamily property sales almost triple in the past four years. (Photo: WSJ)

  1. More land use input for council members.  David Greenfield, the new chairman of the City Council’s powerful land-use committee, would use his perch to give council members greater say about re-zonings in their home districts. Mr. Greenfield, a former corporate lawyer, said in a recent interview he would treat local representatives like clients whose interests he would help advocate for. [Wall Street Journal – 02/03/14]
  2. Restricting housing near transit won’t make NYC more affordable. Weeks into his first term on the City Council, Antonio Reynoso is beginning to negotiate the tricky politics of housing and development in the neighborhoods he represents. So far, it’s tough to decipher whether his office will support the construction of walkable, transit-accessible housing that New York needs in order to keep the cost of living from spiraling out of control. [Streetsblog – 02/03/14]
  3. Fight awaits de Blasio on opening Upper East Side trash transfer site. Among the many pressing issues Mayor Bill de Blasio will contend with in the coming four years is one that will be waiting practically outside his door. Since 2006, New York City has planned to revitalize an unused garbage transfer station on a bend in the East River, just three blocks north of Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side. It would cut the amount of Manhattan’s trash hauled to other boroughs for processing and use barges and reduce truck traffic in getting the waste to out-of-state landfills. [New York Times – 02/05/14]
  4. Airbnb under fie in New York City.  Airbnb, a mainstay of the “sharing economy” that connects hosts with guests for short-term apartment rentals, allegedly flouts city and state regulations across the United States, not just in San Francisco. Unlike our foggy city and sunny state, however, the state of New York has aggressively pursued the tech firm in what can almost be seen as a “tale of two Airbnbs. [San Francisco Bay Guardian – 02/03/14]
  5. A new day for NYCHA. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers live in these run down conditions in NYCHA apartments. A 2011 Census Bureau report revealed public housing units have four times as many roach infestations and three times as many leaks as private apartments. It’s no wonder the asthma rate in public housing is up to three times higher than in private rental buildings. But, after years of misery for NYCHA residents, there is hope. As a result of a recent settlement, NYCHA must address systemic failures such as protracted repair response time and inadequate repairs resulting in a proliferation of toxic mold. NYCHA is also required to address the root cause of the mold problem: water. [Huffington Post – 02/05/14]
  6. Weisbrod eyed for key de Blasio appointment.  Carl Weisbrod, the well-connected real estate consultant and co-chair of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s transition team, is under consideration to chair the City Planning Commission, according to multiple sources. Vicki Been, executive director of New York University’s Furman center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, is also in the running, but sources say that Mr. Weisbrod is likely to get the job. [Crain’s New York Business – 02/05/14]
  7. New York City’s Queens is the new king for multifamily investments. A New Jersey property investment firm spent $85.25 million last year to buy a 16-story apartment building in Rego Park, Queens. The firm, Treetop Development LLC, is spending another $7 million on upgrades to the building, called Saxon Hall. According to a report to be released today, Treetop has plenty of company in the booming market for apartment properties. Investors spent $1.36 billion to buy multifamily properties in Queens in 2013, more than double the amount in 2012 and almost 3.5 times the amount spent in 2011, according to the report from Ariel Property Advisors, a real-estate investment sales company. [Wall Street Journal – 02/04/14]
  8. Cuomo restores rent regulations for 28,000 apartments. State housing officials have restored rent protections to more than 28,000 apartments that were wrongly deregulated in and around New York City, Gov. Cuomo announced Tuesday. The protections were reinstated after audits by the Cuomo administration’s three year old Tenant Protection Unit found that many landlords had failed to properly register the apartments with the state. [New York Daily News – 02/05/14]
  9. It’s not all luxury condos: City’s ‘worst’ 187 buildings total 26,000 open violations. As more and more of New York is colonized by gleaming luxury towers and elegant condo conversions, the grim experience of rodent infestations, crumbling ceilings and broken boilers has become ever more remote to many New Yorkers, particularly the newly-minted variety who live in $2,100 a month studios paid for by their parents. But the 2,700 units added to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s 2014 Alternative Enforcement Program list is a testament to the ongoing reality of substandard housing in New York. [New York Observer – 02/04/14]
  10. Protest aside, Postal Service is taking steps to sell grand property in the Bronx. The Postal Service is moving forward with a plan to sell the historic Bronx building despite protests from many of its customers, community leaders and elected officials, who view it as a neighborhood institution, a place where people come to transact the daily business of their lives. The sprawling 1935 building, which anchors a corner of the Grand Concourse and East 149th Street, is a grand public space lined with 13 museum-worthy murals by the artists Ben Shahn and Bernarda Bryson Shahn. [New York Times – 02/05/14]
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