Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced his strong opposition to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to sell three city-owned Lower Manhattan commercial buildings, citing the “need for public benefits,” in a press conference today outside 49-51 Chambers Street.

As head of the borough board, a body whose approval is required for sale of assets through the Economic Development Corporation, Stringer said he can and will avoid a vote on the sale of the buildings until he receives a “clear definition of public benefit,” from the Bloomberg administration, according to a statement from Stringer’s office today. [more]

After a long battle, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer brokered a deal between the St. Mark’s Bookshop and Cooper Union over rent reductions to keep the store in operation, the New York Times reported.

For months the bookstore has asked that its $20,000 monthly rent be reduced to $15,000 so that it could afford to stay open. However, citing financial difficulties of its own — including a proposal to charge tuition for the first time in its 152-year history — landlord Cooper Union said it couldn’t afford to oblige.
[more]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is banning underground
blasting along the Second Avenue Subway construction site in the night time after 7 p.m. starting
today, the New York Times reported, in response to noise complaints
from residents and community leaders.

The project’s contract
originally allowed the blasts until midnight, although MTA construction
chief Michael Horodniceanu said they usually stopped by 9 p.m. The
blasts (listen in video above) are necessary to remove underground rock for construction
of the three new stations that will serve the route, at 96th, 86th and 72nd streets. [more]

From left: Rendering of the Harlem Children Zone’s Academy and the DREAM Charter School in Harlem

As charter schools increase their presence in the city, they’re acquiring land from an unexpected source: the New York City Housing Authority. Crain’s reported the authority is selling the land in order to preserve public housing.

The agency has been cash-strapped since the Bush administration ceased allocation of federal subsidies to the authority, but still owns a “huge chunk” of the city’s valuable land. According to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer the agency operates at a $42 million to $64 million budget deficit, and so it has begun selling its land for money to preserve affordable housing. The agency said that in its efforts to pursue “financial returns, socioeconomic impact and environmental sustainability” it has sold some of the land to the charter schools [more]

Following recent Deutsche Bank fire case acquittals, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and State Senator Daniel Squadron have reiterated their call to address a legal loophole saying that state or federally-owned buildings, including the United National and federal courthouses, are exempt from city safety codes.

According to DNAinfo, more than 800 buildings, including the former Deutsche Bank building, which was completely destroyed, are not subject to safety inspections or to penalties for violations.

“It’s time we extend basic code protections for all New Yorkers to all of our buildings — so these tragedies become a thing of the past,” Stringer said. [more]

With the fiscally strapped state and city cutting financial
support for the development of new buildings, a number of
New York City and state higher education institutions are
working with business leaders to construct much needed
facility expansion and upgrades.

Over the last decade, schools and hospitals have found their
funding for new facilities through public-private partnerships.
Recently, the City University of New York, for example, is a
leader in the public-private partnership strategy. [more]

From left: Christine Quinn, Gary Barnett and Riverside Center

The New York City Council voted unanimously today to approve Extell Development’s controversial Riverside Center, a planned mixed-use complex slated for a swath of land extending between West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard and between 59th and 61st streets, according to a spokesperson for the developer, Gary Barnett. Riverside Center is expected to include 2,500 apartments, a 250-room hotel, 104,000 square feet of office space and a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school. TRD [more]

While Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is known as a devoted West Sider, nowadays he’s getting a taste of life in the wake of the Second Avenue Subway project. In this video from the New York Times, Stringer explains the challenges he’s faced after moving to a rental on the corner of 83rd Street and Second Avenue after a fire damaged his Upper West Side home. Along with the noise, dust and unsightly construction activity, Stringer expounds on “the collateral damage of the construction” — most notably the numerous shuttered retail locations. [more]

In an effort to assess its Homebase housing program, the city is denying assistance for two years to people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless. The city’s Department of Homeless Services said the study was necessary to determine whether the $23 million program is working effectively, the New York Times reported. However, some public officials and legal aid groups have denounced the study, calling it unethical and cruel, and demanding that the city help all the test subjects who had been denied assistance. “They should immediately stop this experiment,” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said. [more]

A new rezoning plan organized by the Department of City Planning and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is taking shape in West Harlem, where an expansion in Manhattanville by Columbia University is underway. “We had to create a balance between helping a university that will have such a positive impact for New York City, in terms of jobs and economic opportunities,” Stringer told the Observer. “At the same time, we have to make sure we return the favor to West Harlem and protect the people who have always been there.” [more]