NYC Public Schools to Close Starting Thursday to Combat Second Covid-19 Wave
The inevitable finally became reality for New York City public schools during the second wave of COVID-19, as Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza informed principals that campuses would close Thursday, November 19, with all classes reverting to online instruction only.
De Blasio Permits 23 Schools in Covid-19 Red Zones to Reopen on Thursday
More than 20 schools previously located in Brooklyn red zones and now in state-designated COVID-19 yellow zones will be allowed to reopen on Thursday, officials announced on Monday.
Schools in Brooklyn’s Covid-19 Red Zones Not Yet Cleared for Reopening
Schools located in recently established red or orange COVID cluster zones in Brooklyn might have to wait until the end of the week before they can reopen, Mayor de Blasio said Monday.
New York City Schools Avert Strike With Delayed Start for in-Person Classes
City officials announced today that in-person classes will be pushed back until Monday, September 21.
Mayor Calls for Staffing Cuts, Some Brooklyn Community Boards Say No
Amid this year’s massive budget shortfalls, Mayor de Blasio’s office is asking the city’s community boards to voluntarily lay off some of their paid staff to help lighten the load.
Thousands Pack Cadman Plaza Park to Hear Terrence Floyd Speak at George Floyd Memorial
"I'm proud of the protest, but I'm not proud of the destruction," Terrence Floyd told the group.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Celebrating His Life and Legacy at BAM
Hundreds gathered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to commemorate and celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mayor de Blasio, Local Pols to Hold Bed Stuy Town Hall in March
Residents of Bed Stuy will get the chance to talk with Mayor Bill de Blasio and other elected officials representing their district about whatever issues they feel are most pressing in their community at an upcoming town hall meeting.
It’s No Teleporter, But the Mayor-Supported Streetcar Is Going to Be a Game Changer
Bummed the L train might not run for a year? Cursing the G train’s spotty service? The Mayor finally has some good transit news — he’s backing the Brooklyn Queens Connector, a high-profile proposal for a 16-mile waterfront streetcar line running from Sunset Park to Astoria.
If built, it will be a transportation breakthrough for Brooklyn. But hold onto your Metrocards, the trek to streetcar utopia won’t happen overnight.
Will Willets Point, and Similar Developments, Look Different Under a New Mayor?
City Limits published a long piece on the lessons of Willets Point and how it may look differently under a new mayor. The article points out the limits of ULURP, noting that under Bloomberg most negotiations took place before the public process even began. That meant, as City Limits puts it: “The public hearings become theater. People might turn out in droves to ask questions and to testify… but the plans don’t fundamentally change.” The three proposals for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park — the Major League Soccer stadium, an expansion of the National Tennis Center and the mega mall at Willets Point — all propose to take away parkland without replacing it, despite it being a requirement under state and federal laws. As for Willets Point, the new plans recently presented to the City Council scaled back on affordable housing, and the plans for the mega mall were not included in the ULURP process.
As urban planning professor Tom Angotti says of all the major development plans approved before Bloomberg’s departure, “It really does seem that Bloomberg is trying to make it difficult for the next mayor to take a different path.” Bill de Blasio looks likely to win on an anti-Bloomberg campaign, but he has supported many of the controversial rezonings and has significant ties to the real estate industry. City Limits wonders if the only way to guarantee more affordable housing from private developers will ultimately mean “drawing from the same well of tax breaks, free land, and other government giveaways that were a hallmark of the Bloomberg administration.” It’s also unclear how de Blasio envisions the community role in the ULRUP process, although he has promised to bring communities into the process early. Right now, neither the community boards nor the borough president have any official say in ULURP, and advocates for its reform say this may be a good step in a new direction.
Lessons of Willets: Will the Next Mayor Do Development Differently? [City Limits]