Some good news in the ongoing saga to save 1520 Sedgwick, better known as the Birthplace of Hip Hop. Today Senator Schumer, who has been lobbying on behalf of the tenants to preserve the building's affordability, announced that "the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development rejected the proposed sale to developer Mark Karasick because current rents could not be sustained if the sale had gone through." The move doesn't insure that the building’s owner......

In her State of the City address, City Council Speaker Quinn said that the Council would do its own belt-tightening given expectations the economy will slow. Still, she mentioned, per the Sun, "tax cuts, improved transportation, more pay for teachers, and affordable housing," saying, "Getting leaner does not have to mean getting meaner." Some of the proposals: suspending the city sales tax for one week; offering $300 rebate to renters; offering "bonuses of up to......

Photo: Food of the Future The East Williamsburg Moore Street Retail Market is one of four remaining city-run public markets built during the tail end of the Depression; opened by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in 1941, the Brooklyn market was created to clear the streets of unhygienic peddlers and monitor the scales for customers. Today the market is occupied by 13 vendors selling mostly tropical produce, roots and other ethnic foods to the local......

Michael Lappin, CEO of the managing company for what is being called the "New Domino", responded yesterday to our questions about the proposed project via email. The iconic Domino Sugar sign is not included in these renderings. [We photoshopped it back in, above.] Is there any plan to preserve that somewhere at the site? We are making every effort to save the sign. We are looking at different engineering solutions regarding the “where and......

Last year we visited 1520 Sedgwick Avenue's past and uncertain future. The "Birthplace of Hip Hop" was, and still is, in danger of losing its lifeblood when the landlord (BSR Management) announced they wanted to abandon the Mitchell-Lama program. Essentially buying out of the program and leaving the doors open for a rent increase. Then things got worse when BSR made it clear they would be selling the building to a real estate mogul Mark......

This past September, preservationists won a major victory when the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to give parts of the massive old Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Three of the buildings at the site will be preserved and renovated for residential use, including some affordable housing. These things move slowly, of course. In the meantime the old refinery has been given a sweet homage by a Flickr group named Powerhouse. All we know......

The NY State Division of Housing and Community Renewal finally closed a loophole in rent regulations that would have allowed owners and landlords leaving government-subsidized housing programs to increase rents to market rates by citing "unique and peculiar" circumstances. According to the NY Times, some tenants' rents would have skyrocketed from $981/month to $4,500/month for a two-bedroom on the Upper West Side and from $1,000/month to $5,275/month for a three-bedroom, also on the Upper West......

Housing activists and some City Council members believe that New York City needs a law prohibiting landlords from discriminating from potential tenants using federal rent vouchers. The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program gives low-income families the opportunity to rent apartments while paying only 30% of the rent; the remaining portion is covered by the vouchers. The Times explains that "Eligible households are those earning no more than 50 percent of the metropolitan area’s median......

Yesterday, the New School held a forum to discuss how New York City will save its public housing. The New York City Housing Authority, which is the city's primary sources of affordable housing to 400,000 residents, has an annual shortfall of $225 million. The Daily News reports that Sean Moss, the Regional Director for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the NY/NJ region, offered a suggestion that "prompted shocked murmurs." His idea: Sell......

With the stock of affordable housing in New York City shrinking, and requirements that some city workers reside within the five boroughs and nearby suburbs, some unions are entering the real estate market to directly provide or subsidize housing for their members. The firefighters union recently announced that it was considering using some of its $7.2 billion pension fund to invest in real estate that would be used to provide affordable housing for New York's......

This afternoon, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to give parts of the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg landmark status. Redevelopment plans for the old Domino location call for 2,200 apartments (about 660 will be affordable housing) on the entire 11.5 acre site. The Landmark status was specifically given to three buildings (the filter house, the pan house, and the finishing house). Even before the LPC acted, development of the site included some preservation......

The folks behind the video presenting an alternate plan for the Domino Sugar Factory site have launched a website that lays their idea out a little more clearly. The plan, as presented on dominosugar.org, is for the site to turn into a "global cultural center", regenerating the industrial site like the Tate Modern in London, which they say is "directly relevant and well documented." The website estimates that a cultural attraction at the Domino......

It's a mixed bag for Columbia today. The school was probably happy to find out that it ranked 9th in U.S News & World Report's latest top college ranking issues, but it's no fun to learn that its billion-dollar Manhattanville project was rejected by a community board committee. IvyGate got a hold of the embargoed "Annual Ranking of Best National Universities" information and found that Columbia ranks ahead of Dartmouth (#11), Cornell (12), and......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

The city and state have worked out their differences and will move forward on overhauling the 421-a tax abatement program for new development. The City Council had passed a version last year that would have increased the amount of affordable housing and limited how much of the subsidy could go towards luxury housing, but then the Legislature's version, passed in June, included more neighborhoods, more units available to people with even lower incomes, and $300......

The developer who plans to transform Brooklyn waterfront where the Domino Sugar factory stands unveiled the billion-dollar plans yesterday. According to the NY Sun, there will be 2,200 housing units, 120,000 square feet of retail space, and 100,000 square feet of community space. Thirty percent of the housing will be affordable: 530 will be rentals (100 units for families making $21,000; 330 for families making up to $40,000; "100 for seniors who make up......

As we mentioned, City Councilman Charles Barron held his press conference yesterday to announce his candidacy for the 2009 Brooklyn Borough Presidency. He told the crowds that his platform included affordable housing, health care accessibility, more jobs, standing up to developers who use eminent domain, ending mayor control of schools and more would help everyone. "Am I going to be a borough president for all the people? Absolutely. But I'm letting y'all know now, I'm......

A while back we reported on possible changes at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, more widely known as "the birthplace of hip hop." Tenants of the apartment complex, as well as its supporters, have been fighting to get the building landmarked. Just as important, they want to keep the apartments rent stabilized. At 9:30 this morning DJ Kool Herc, who is credited with inventing the genre in the building's rec room, rallied the troops......

Councilman Charles Barron stood on the steps of Brooklyn's Borough Hall yesterday and announced that he would be running to become the first African-Amercian Borough President in Brooklyn's history. The Daily News reports that Barron wasted no time in denigrating the current Beep Marty Markowitz. "We've had a cheerleader. Now we need a real leader in Brooklyn." Barron was referring to Markowitz's seemingly perpetual sunny disposition and love of public appearances while looking faintly ridiculous.......

This morning, Governor Eliot Spitzer is announcing the sale of the West Side Railyards. The NY Times reports that the state and MTA will "formally begin soliciting bids for the development rights." Boy, does this bring us back to 2005. Of course, developers will need a boatload of patience and a boatload of money - the land was appraised last September to be worth $1.5 billion and it's estimated to cost $1 billion to......

Starrett City, the subsidized housing development in Brooklyn, was sold for $1.3 billion in February, but for the second time, the Department of Housing and Urban Development rejected the deal. The February sale needed to be approved by HUD, because Starrett City is the country's largest subsidized development, and shortly after the sale was announced, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo got to work on blocking the sale. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson called Starrett City "an......

On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing about landmarks designation for the Domino Sugar Factory, a complex of buildings on the Brooklyn waterfront. Overall, preservationists, community members, and the developers agreed that preservation is important. The only question is how much should be preserved: While the main refinery building will almost certainly be landmarked given support, there's debate about the surrounding area. Some preservationists, though, want to expand the landmarks designation. However,......

Having fun yet, Governor Spitzer? The new governor slogged through his first Legislative session by having a fight with Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno stall many possible deals. Spitzer said that Bruno's was blocking many issues, such as congestion pricing, campaign reform, and expanding the criminal DNA database, because Bruno wanted a half-billion dollar package for capital projects. Spitzer said, "much of [the package], if not most of it, [was] pork. It was dripping fat;......

It's the countdown to the final meeting determining increases for rent stabilized apartments coming next week. City Comptroller William Thompson issued a letter asking the Rent Guidelines Board to either raise stabilized rents by the minimum or not to raise them at all, given last week's announced homeowner tax rebates and property tax cuts. Thompson's letter (here's a PDF) notes that the city has not kept up stock for low- and moderate-income housing and......

AM New York's cover feature is on the landmark debate amongst neighbors in Sunnyside, Queens. Some residents want the 77-acre area, made up of houses and park area, to be landmarked, while others are worried about the problems landmark status can cause. Sunnyside Gardens, created by the City Housing Corporation in the 1920s, was meant to be affordable housing (there's a nice write-up at Forgotten-NY). Residents who oppose landmark status worry about being able......

A federal judge dismissed an eminent domain lawsuit that would have stopped the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The lawsuit, brought by Daniel Goldstein of the vocal anti-AY group Develop - Don't Destroy Brooklyn, claimed that the multi-billion dollar project abused eminent domain, by not having much public benefit, only benefit for developer Bruce Ratner. Judge Nicholas Garaufis dismissed the case, writing, "Plaintiffs have not set forth facts supporting a plausible claim of an unconstitutional......

The Domino Sugar Refinery might be Brooklyn's signature building representing the borough's industrial history. Looking across the East River from Manhattan while below the Williamsburg Bridge, its presence on the Brooklyn waterfront is dominating. That Manhattan vantage point surrendered its industrial heritage of gasworks and docks more than a century ago, to tenements followed by high-rise apartment housing complexes. Now the factory is an icon of the battle to convert Brooklyn's waterfront from an......

So this is how borough presidents wield power: Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has flexed his BEEP muscles by dismissing five members of Brooklyn's Community Board 6 - and their common quality was that they were vocal opponents of the Atlantic Yards project. And City Council members David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio also didn't reappoint four other members who opposed the massive $4 billion project that has been the source of community tension. Gowanus Lounge......

Last night, the Rent Guidelines Board voted 5-4 to propose rent hikes for rent-stabilized apartments on the order of 2-4.5% for one-year leases and 4-7.5% for two-years leases. Loft rent increases would be 2-4% for one-year leases, 4-7% for two-year leases. The NY Times says these proposed increases "could mean smaller increases than last year’s," and the Post says the increases could fall in the "middle range" of about 3.25% and 5.75%. Last year, the......

A piece of Brooklyn property with a varied and interesting history is going to be turned into mixed-income housing by the city and developers. It is the former site of the Navy Brig in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Located between Flushing and Park Aves. and bounded by Clermont and Vanderbilt Aves., the one-time naval prison is across the street from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Brig was built in the early 1940s and served as a......