Policy

Over Thanksgiving weekend in 1966, the layer of smog that hung above New York City killed about 200 people. An estimated 300–405 people died during a two-week smog episode in 1963. In 1953, as many as 260 died from breathing the city's air over a six-day stretch. 6sqft reported recently on Donald Trump's proposed budget and subsequent concerns about the impact significant funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency totaling $2.6 billion or 31 percent–including staff reductions and program eliminations–might have on the city’s drinking water and air quality. A spokesman for Mayor de Blasio assured us that these federal cuts won't impact NYC’s high quality water supply. But what about the air?
But what about the air?

March 17, 2017

NYC schools, housing, and transit to lose hundreds of millions in federal aid under Trump’s budget

Under President Trump’s first budget proposal, New York City will lose hundreds of millions of dollars for schools, housing, transportation, homeland security, and other city agencies. According to the Daily News, city schools and afterschool programs can be expected to lose $140 million, homeland security grants will be cut $190 million, and NYCHA will lose $370 million, which is on top of the $76 million cut they were already expecting. Ironically, the budget also slashes transit projects by $2 billion, which means completing projects like the Second Avenue Subway and the Gateway trans-Hudson River tunnel may be on the chopping block, despite the fact that they were specifically called out in Trump's previous $1 trillion infrastructure plan to receive $14.2 billion and $12 billion respectively.
Find out more here

Policy

March 16, 2017

NYC’s drinking water may be at risk after Trump’s environmental cuts

President Trump released his budget proposal Thursday that lays out his plan to bulk up defense and homeland security spending, and thereby dramatically cut funds to the Environmental Protection Agency (as well as foreign aid, the arts, and public broadcasting). As reported by amNewYork, these proposed EPA cuts, which total $2.6 billion or 31 percent, include staff reductions and program eliminations, which may make the city’s drinking water and air quality vulnerable to pollution.
Find out more here

Policy

NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

Rendering of Mill Brook Terrace courtesy of NYCHA

March 15, 2017

NYCHA’s open space development plans move ahead with affordable senior housing in the South Bronx

As part of the New York City Housing Authority’s NextGen initiative--the controversial policy of partnering with private companies to develop housing on open space in existing public housing projects--an affordable senior development is coming to the South Bronx. As reported by NY Yimby, Mill Brook Terrace in Mott Haven will be a nine-story, 169-unit building at 570 East 137th Street and will be set aside for seniors who earn no more than 50 percent of the area media income, or less than $36,250. Designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, the building will include a 9,000-square-foot senior center on the ground floor, which will include a commercial kitchen, community space, activity room and an outdoor garden.
Find out more here

March 15, 2017

Governor Cuomo’s $1.4B Central Brooklyn plan stokes gentrification debate

Governor Cuomo announced a $1.4 billion initiative last week to bring resources like health care services and new jobs to Central Brooklyn. According to the governor, the plan, called “Vital Brooklyn,” will bring 7,600 jobs and more than 3,000 new affordable housing units to Brownsville, East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. And while Cuomo’s administration found these neighborhoods to be some of the most disadvantaged in the state, residents worry about the possible gentrification and displacement effects (h/t NY Times).
Learn more about Vital Brooklyn here

St. Patrick’s Cathedral’s new geothermal plant is up and running

Image courtesy Murphy Burnham and Buttrick Architects

March 15, 2017

St. Patrick’s Cathedral’s new geothermal plant is up and running

Nearly two years ago, St. Patrick's Cathedral removed the scaffolding that had been shrouding its neo-Gothic facade to reveal a restored landmark. The work was part of a larger four-year $177 million restoration and conservation that's also included an interior overhaul, renovation of the garden, and a new heating and cooling system. This last component is also now complete, as The Architect's Newspaper reports that the Cathedral has activated their new, state-of-the-art geothermal plant, just in time to warm things up for St. Patrick's Day. The system will cut the building’s energy consumption by more than 30 percent and reduce CO2 emissions by roughly 94,000 kilograms.
How did they accomplish this?

March 14, 2017

Fewer young foreigners traveling to NYC because of Trump

New York City expected tourism from foreigners to fall after President Trump’s chaotic announcement of his first executive order in January which banned travel from seven majority-Muslim countries because it was unclear which travelers would be allowed into the country. However, as reported by Crain’s, it’s not just money-spending travelers that have avoided the Big Apple; it’s student and youth groups that are canceling trips to the city.
Learn more here

March 9, 2017

As the Mayor weighs options for loss of public housing funding, Trump considers $6B in HUD cuts

Just two days after newly appointed Secretary of HUD (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) Ben Carson went along with plans to cut federal funding to NYCHA by at least $35 million, the Trump administration is reportedly considering decreasing HUD's total budget by a staggering $6 billion, or 14 percent, according to a leaked budget draft obtained by the Washington Post. Though it's not clear how the cuts will affect NYC specifically, previous estimates said cuts to NYCHA's federal aid could easily balloon to $150 million this year, and Mayor de Blasio was already weighing his options for how to deal with the blow. The Wall Street Journal reports that he said yesterday he plans to put aside city money to help fill the gap, but if the city is "cut on many, many fronts simultaneously," there won't be enough to cover the loss in federal funding.
What happens next?

March 8, 2017

Watch a 3D-printed home get made in under 24 hours

While many of us living in New York City search for months before finding that perfect apartment, there's now a way to get a brand new home built in under 24 hours. As reported by engadget, the San Francisco-based startup Apis Cor used a mobile 3D-printer to print out the concrete walls, partitions, and building envelope for a 400 square-foot-home in just less than a day, all for the pretty reasonable price of $10,314 (not including the property, of course). And while NYC doesn't have much open space for free-standing homes, the technology could potentially be used for various residential components or tiny home configurations.
Watch the entire process in action and see inside the tiny home

Waldorf Astoria’s iconic interiors officially made a New York City landmark

By Diane Pham

In news that will come as a surprise to no one, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously this morning to designate the interiors of the famed Waldorf Astoria a New York City landmark. According to Curbed, the decision was made within minutes without hesitation from any of the board members. The announcement also comes hot on the heels of the hotel's closure just one week ago, as its new owners, Anbang Insurance Group, undertake what's expected to be a three-year renovation and conversion that will bring forth 840 updated hotel rooms and 321 luxury condos.
more details here

March 7, 2017

NYCHA’s federal funding cut by $35M

Just a day after Ben Carson's confirmation as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) penned a letter not only inviting him to tour the city's public housing stock (the largest in the country) but urging him not to support budget cuts that would ultimately affect its 400,000 residents. Roughly $2 billion of NYCHA's total $3.2 billion operating budget comes from HUD funding, which is immediately needed for the thousands of apartments in dire need of repairs. But their worst fears have come true, as the Wall Street Journal confirms that Trump's first budget cuts geared towards the city reduce NYCHA's support by $35 million, the agency's largest decrease in federal aid in five years, and this figure could very well grow to an unprecedented $150 million.
READ MORE

March 3, 2017

With Ben Carson’s confirmation as HUD Secretary, NYCHA plans next steps

Retired neurosurgeon and failed Republican presidential nominee Dr. Ben Carson is officially the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which will put him in charge of 8,000 federal employees and an agency with a $47 billion budget, tasked with overseeing most of the nation's affordable and public housing, enforcing fair housing laws, and providing low-income persons with mortgage insurance. The senate voted yesterday 58-41 to confirm his appointment; the relative lack of Democratic pushback was surprising considering Carson not only has no political experience, but no apparent knowledge of housing, development, or urban issues. Likely with this in mind, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has already extended an invitation for Carson to come tour the city's housing developments.
What's next for HUD?

February 28, 2017

Mayor de Blasio to unveil plan to open 90 new homeless shelters amid growing community opposition

The exact details of the mayor's proposal, to be announced Tuesday afternoon, are not yet known, but the focus will undoubtedly be the mayor's ongoing battle to significantly beef up the city's overwhelmed shelter system, according to the New York Times. New York–along with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C,– has experienced an increase in homelessness in recent years, though the number of homeless people has declined nationwide. The city's shelter infrastructure is over capacity to the point that, as 6sqft previously reported, around $400,000 a day is being spent on using hotel rooms as temporary shelters. Homelessness is one of the mayor's thorniest problems; the proposal will reportedly increase the number of shelters throughout the city by nearly one third.
Why the opposition?

City’s planned Garment District rezoning will reduce protections for fashion companies

Image via Wally Gobetz/Flickr CC

February 28, 2017

City’s planned Garment District rezoning will reduce protections for fashion companies

Just two weeks after the city announced that they'd spend $136 million to create the "Made in NYC Campus," a hub in Sunset Park that will provide affordable space for film and fashion companies, it's come to light that the de Blasio administration has been planning a rezoning of Manhattan's Garment District. As Crain's explains, this could potentially roll back rules that require landlords to rent a portion of their buildings to fashion companies, a clear push to drive these businesses toward lower cost space in Sunset Park.
More info ahead

Policy

Mayor pulls Theater District air rights plan after disputes with City Council over floor price

Image via Wiki Commons

February 28, 2017

Mayor pulls Theater District air rights plan after disputes with City Council over floor price

Image via Wiki Commons The de Blasio administration pulled the plug Monday on proposed legislation that would give the city a 20 percent cut of any air rights sales in midtown Manhattan's Theater District, according to Crain's. The reversal followed disputes with City Council members over a key element–a floor price for the sales. The proposal had been part of a long effort to get theater owners to up the amount they contribute to a fund used for venue maintenance and support for smaller theaters. There is now speculation as to whether the move could cast a shadow on the administration's Midtown East rezoning plan, which is a similar policy initiative.
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Policy

Image via Wiki Commons

February 22, 2017

125-year-old Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine finally declared a city landmark

Image via Wiki Commons On Tuesday the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to designate the 125-year-old Cathedral Church of St. John The Divine, the world's largest cathedral; in addition, 115 neighboring buildings became the Morningside Heights Historic District. The designated district runs from West 109th to 119th streets between Riverside Drive and Amsterdam Avenue and includes the famously unfinished cathedral and surrounding campus. With the designation, calendared by the LPC in September, comes a 3-D online map that provides more information about the buildings in the district, most of which were constructed between 1900 and 1910, including townhouses dating back to the late 1800s as well as pre-war apartment buildings.
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February 21, 2017

New bill would calculate AMI for affordable housing based on zip code, not region

To set qualification guidelines for its affordable housing lotteries, the city turns to the set area median income (AMI), basing annual household income and rents off this figure. However, as The Real Deal explains, "the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates AMI regionally, "using a formula that lumps the five boroughs together with Putnam, Westchester, and Rockland counties." For 2016, this equated to $65,200 for a single person and $90,600 for a family of four, but a new bill proposed by Democratic State Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblymember Brian Barnwell would require developers of new 421-a projects to calculate AMI based on the specific zip code in which the building is going up.
More info ahead

February 17, 2017

More basement apartments would help ease the city’s housing crisis, says new study

A study released Thursday by the Citizens Housing and Planning Council (CHPC) suggests that Mayor Bill de Blasio's initiatives to ease the city's housing woes should include a program that would convert the 38,000 or so basements in the city's single-family homes without having to make big changes to city or state laws. As Crain's reports, the study is part of the CHPC’s Making Room initiative that explores how alternative housing typologies can better meet the needs of New York’s diverse households. The council introduced the study by stating their belief that "based on the ﬁndings we present here, that a basement conversion program in New York City would be an eﬃcient and exciting way to add residential density and expand housing choices in our expensive and highly constrained urban market."
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February 17, 2017

Port Authority approves $32.2B capital plan, will include new bus terminal and airport upgrades

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners yesterday approved a $32.2 billion, 10-year capital plan--the agency's largest ever. The major allocations include: $3.5 billion to begin the planning and construction of a new Port Authority Bus Terminal; $10 billion towards improving trans-Hudson commuting, including a $1.5 billion Goethals Bridge replacement, completion of the $1.6 billion Bayonne Bridge rebuilding, and a $2 billion rehab of the George Washington Bridge; $11.6 billion in major airport upgrades, which factors in $4 billion for the new LaGuardia Terminal B, a plan to extend the PATH train from Newark Penn Station to the Newark Airport, and the beginning of Cuomo's JFK overhaul; and $2.7 billion towards the Gateway rail tunnel project.
More details ahead

February 16, 2017

Homeless spending in NYC doubles over three years, likely to hit $2.3B

Back in November, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mayor de Blasio had spent a record $1.6 billion on homeless services since taking office three years prior, a 60 percent increase that came with 20 percent more New Yorkers in city shelters. Now, as shared by the Post, Comptroller Scott Stringer says that homeless spending will reach a whopping $2.3 billion when this fiscal year ends on June 30th, almost twice the $1.2 billion spent three years ago. "We have to pause and ask ourselves, are we seeing results?" he said.
Find out more on this growing crisis

Policy

February 15, 2017

Removing garbage cans in subway stations led to more trash and track fires

For those who thought removing subway station garbage cans as a means to decrease litter and rats seemed counterintuitive, you were right. The Post looks at how things have fared since the MTA took out cans in 39 stations in 2012, and since this tactic was nixed by the state Comptroller’s Office in 2015. Despite the latter attempt to course correct, a new state report shows that the situation is still just as bad in many stations, with the amount of litter on the upswing and an increased number of track fires.
What's the solution?

February 14, 2017

Repairs to New York state’s water infrastructure could cost $40B

New York City already has planned a $3.4 billion investment over the next five years to repair the decaying infrastructure of the century-old Catskill Aqueduct. As 6sqft previously explained, the 92-mile network of tunnels, dams and reservoirs brings the city's water supply from the Catskill/Delaware and Croton watersheds. If you think this figure is steep, consider the $40 billion that a report from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli estimates it would cost to repair and upgrade the entire state's aging water infrastructure over the next 20 years. As the Daily News explains, in NYC alone there were 562 water main breaks in 2015, and throughout the state, contamination is leading to concerns over clean drinking water.
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Policy

February 13, 2017

De Blasio’s 2017 affordable housing plan includes $1.9B for 10,000 new units and Elder Rent Assistance program

In preparation for his State of the City address this evening at the Apollo, the Mayor announced two major affordable housing initiatives. The first will allocate $1.9 billion for 10,000 new apartments reserved for households earning less than $40,000, 5,000 of which will be set aside for seniors and 500 for veterans. The second implements a new Elder Rent Assistance program to provide 25,000 seniors with monthly rental assistance of up to $1,3000, to be funded by the city's proposed Mansion Tax.
More details ahead

February 12, 2017

375,000 images now free from the Metropolitan Museum of Art