As congestion pricing is expected to be implemented in late 2023 at the earliest, I would like to share a survey conducted when I was Manhattan Borough President.

Read the survey here: https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/ParkingZoneWhitePaperFINAL.pdf

By Louis Finley, August 11

With congestion pricing on the horizon, Renee Baruch fears parking will become even more competitive in her neighborhood on the Upper West Side.

“Because spaces are so rare, people don’t want to leave,” Baruch said.

Drivers may begin paying a toll to get into the city as soon as late next year. 

…

READ MORE

​​”The sugar high might be wearing off for app-based rapid grocery delivery companies, at least in New York City, as venture capital dries up for the money-losing operations and regulators home in on them.

Three bills introduced in the City Council would place new regulations on advertising and limit the weight of deliveries for the app-based grocery companies operating within the five boroughs.

…

READ MORE

By Ginia Bellafante author of NYT’s “Big City” column, July 22, 2022.

“On the first morning of the week’s enervating heat wave, Gale Brewer, who represents much of Manhattan’s West Side in the City Council, was canvassing a stretch of upper Broadway, conducting a stealth experiment. For months now, she has been on a tear about the proliferation of mini-warehouses arriving in residential neighborhoods, committing sins against the city’s already precarious streetscape, and now she was on a mission to prove that they were violating the law.

…

READ MORE

by James Barron, July 19, 2022

“The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has designated more than 37,000 landmarks large and small, from Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan to a 120-year-old carousel in Forest Park, Queens, preserving them all.

Today it will hold a meeting about doing the opposite — allowing the demolition of a landmark building that, the owner claims, imposes a hardship.

…

READ MORE

July 18, 2022

“Some city leaders are calling for better oversight and enforcement over micro-fulfillment centers, also known as “dark stores,” as many believe they operate without any clear regulatory framework.

On the steps of City Hall last week, City Councilmember Gale Brewer and others sounded the alarm about how these stores are hurting consumers, workers and the neighborhoods they operate in.

…

READ MORE

by Susan Edelman, July 9, 2022

“After nearly two months, Schools Chancellor David Banks is moving forward on a pledge to create a budget task force, the Department of Education said Saturday.

Banks has not yet set up the “team” he promised to address complaints about the “Fair Student Funding” formula, which largely determines how much money schools get.

…

READ MORE

“This July, Project FIND, a nonprofit that provides seniors with affordable housing, and the Community Board 7 Senior Task Force are running a three-part virtual education series for older adults on how to find, keep, and enjoy affordable housing in the city. The sessions will take place over Zoom, phone, and in-person at Project FIND’s Hamilton Older Adult Center at 141 West 73rd Street.

…

READ MORE

by Arun Venugopal, July 9, 2022

“New York’s two-year-old law requiring local businesses to accept cash is seeing a new test, this time from the fast-delivery groceries that flooded neighborhoods in the pandemic age, city officials say.

The ban against cashless businesses was instituted in 2020 to counter restaurants and “fast casual” establishments like Sweetgreen, which lawmakers said at the time discriminated against low-income consumers, who are less likely to have a credit card or bank account.

…

READ MORE

by Stephan Russo, July 8, 2022

Walk into Ivan Pharmacy at 691 Columbus Avenue and you feel like you have entered a bygone era. Ivan Jourdain, who has been a pharmacist for 37 years and a small business owner for over thirty, stands tall behind the drug counter. He knows everyone who walks in – their names, their families and most importantly, their health issues which he guards with all the appropriate secrecy.

…

READ MORE