From left: rendering for NYU proposal and Columbia president Lee Bollinger with rendering for Columbia proposal

At a press conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the number of universities vying to develop a new graduate engineering school campus somewhere in the five boroughs — with the help of $100 million capital contribution from the city for construction grants and land — has been narrowed to four, DNAinfo reported.

Bloomberg then backtracked at a press conference, where he was announcing the opening of a playground, today in Queens. “I don’t know that the four is the right number, incidentally,” he said, according to DNAinfo.
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From left: City Council member Jessica Lappin, Assembly member Micah Kellner and Roosevelt IslandThough the submission process is over for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $100 million towards a new graduate science school, the lobbying process has just begun. Roosevelt Islander blog reported that City Council member Jessica Lappin and Assembly member Micah Kellner joined Roosevelt Island advocates at a press conference yesterday on the steps of City Hall pleading for Bloomberg to select a proposal that would build the campus on Roosevelt Island.

“I want Roosevelt Island to become Silicon Island,” Lappin said. She directed supporters to voice their support for Roosevelt Island on specified Economic Development Corporation social media outlets. [more]

There is no evidence to support the idea that an increase in the number of housing voucher holders, or federal rental housing assistance for low-income households, in a community leads to increases in crime, according to a study by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy which examined crime and housing data over 12 years in 10 U.S. cities, released today. Instead, voucher holders are more likely to move into areas where crime rates are increasing.

“We find that crime tends to be higher in neighborhoods with more voucher holders. However, we found no evidence that an increase in the number of voucher holders leads to more crime,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, faculty co-director of the Furman Center and a professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. — Katherine Clarke [more]

Clockwise from top left: 370 Jay Street, a rendering of NYU’s transformation of the building and a rendering of the interior lobby (source: NYU)

While the Bloomberg administration’s eye is on Roosevelt Island for a new applied science graduate school, New York University would prefer to open one in Downtown Brooklyn. Specifically, the New York Daily News reported the school wants to take over the former Metropolitan Transportation Authority headquarters at 370 Jay Street and transform it into its Center for Urban Science and Progress.

“It would make Brooklyn the urban center of the universe,” said Paul Horn, NYU’s senior vice provost for research. “There are a lot of advantages to being there as opposed to isolated somewhere.” [more]

From the October issue:

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Compiled by Russell Steinberg [more]

James Stuckey resigned from his post as the dean of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate earlier this month because of sexual harassment allegations, according to the New York Post.

At the time of his resignation, university spokespeople had said Stuckey quit for health reasons. But the Post said he had been pushed out when NYU officials confronted him with accusations that he sexually harassed women at the university. [more]

NYU rendering

In an attempt to assuage community opposition, New York University will be asking the city to designate as parkland the green spaces at the edge of the Washington Square Superblocks, strips along LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street in Greenwich Village, east and west of the Washington Square Village, NYU officials said at a media briefing today. In a statement the school later provided, NYU emphasizes that its revised proposals will allow the university to build almost entirely on its existing footprint in the neighborhood with no up-zoning and no displacement of tenants. The university’s ambitious city-wide expansion plan slated for completion in 2031 has prompted much community opposition particularly in Greenwich Village. [more]

HPD Commissioner Wambua
New York University’s Furman Center of Real Estate and Urban Policy has compiled the first known comprehensive database of the city’s affordable housing stock that links the units to the agencies that subsidize them. The Wall Street Journal reported that it is available on the Furman website beginning today.

By highlighting the origin of affordable housing subsidies, across the city, state and federal agencies that contributed data, the database provides a clearer picture of when the funding expires and the units can be converted to market rate. [more]

Public and private institutional investment in New York City remained strong even in the recession with new construction starts worth $11.4 billion from June 2008 to May 2011, according to a report released today by the American Building Congress. Even though the value of new construction starts fell $3.2 billion between June 2010 and May 2011, the report notes that that figure did not include several large projects that had not officially been recorded as of May 31. Those include the $680 million Whitney Museum project near the High Line and Fordham University $250 million multi-use facility near Lincoln Center.
– Miranda Neubauer [more]

New York City has issued an official request for proposals relating to Applied Sciences NYC, its initiative to build or expand a state-of-the-art engineering and applied sciences campus at one of three city sites, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and New York City Economic Development Corporation President Seth Pinsky announced today.

“Our offer is straightforward,” Bloomberg said of the proposal, initially unveiled in December. “We will provide prime New York real estate — at virtually no cost, plus up to $100 million in infrastructure upgrades, in exchange for a university’s commitment to build or expand a world-class science and engineering campus here in our city.”

The city is offering real estate at three possible locations, he said — Governors Island, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Roosevelt Island. – Katherine Clarke [more]