Queens had the fewest number of cooling centers based on population density with only five for every 100,000 people, while Manhattan had seven, an analysis by City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office found. East Flatbush was the neighborhood with the worst access to cooling centers based on vulnerability.
Government
Want to Rezone in Western Queens? Here’s How to Win Over the Councilmember
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Councilmember Julie Won issued a list of “land use principles” she said she will apply to new projects in her district that require Council-approved changes to the city’s zoning code—including a controversial proposal to build a 3,000-unit complex in southern Astoria.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: We Need a Real Penn Station Plan, Not a Neighborhood Replacement Scheme
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“Our leaders seem blithely unaware that we have within our grasp a once-in-a-century opportunity to create a transit hub worthy of New York, which many of us still think of as ‘the greatest city on Earth.'”
Housing and Homelessness
Bronx Rental Complex Must Accept Housing Vouchers, Judge Rules
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The decision Friday marks the first time a New York court has ruled that minimum-income policies for people with full-rent subsidies violate city and state laws, said Housing Works senior attorney Armen Merjian, who represented the family trying to get into Parkchester Preservation Company’s apartments.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: NY’s Mitchell-Lama Housing Should Be Preserved, Not Dismantled
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“Dissolving our building’s Mitchell-Lama status would be a small but significant injustice in an already deeply unequal city. Shareholders who have long benefitted from the program would be autonomously divesting some of the city’s affordable housing stock, and profiting from the conversion.”
City Limits 46th Anniversary
Flashback Friday: NYC’s ‘Rebel’ Squatters, 1990
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“My whole crew is squatting,” Ronaldo Casanova told City Limits in April of 1990, when he was organizing fellow squatters on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. “We have no other choice or we’re out on the streets.”
City on the Edge: Climate Change and New York
Some Rikers Detainees Had No Air Conditioning During Heat Wave, Lawmakers Say
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In the week before the recent heatwave, Department of Correction officials testified at a hearing that nearly 200 individuals incarcerated at the jail with conditions that are exacerbated by heat were still without air conditioning.
housing events
New York City Housing Calendar, July 27 to August 3
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City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: The Penn Station Plan is a Job Well Done. It’s Time We Acknowledge That
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“The one thing that unites all New Yorkers is our collective disdain for the derelict old Penn Station. That’s why it makes no sense why some would come out against a plan to actually make it and the surrounding district better.”
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Supportive Housing is NYC’s Best Tool for Addressing Homelessness
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“Shelters are not a stand-alone solution and just because we remove homeless people from our subways and streets doesn’t mean they have found a home.”
Affordable Housing
NYC Evictions Have Increased Every Month This Year
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So far this year, city marshals have executed at least 1,527 residential evictions, according to statistics maintained by the Department of Investigation (DOI). The true number of legal evictions is likely higher because DOI updates its database only after a marshal reports an eviction, which can take days or weeks.