President-elect Obama has selected Shaun Donovan, the 42-year-old who leads the city’s housing agency, as his Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a powerful position that traditionally has gone to the politically connected.
The appointment was announced in Mr. Obama’s weekly radio address this morning (video here).
Mr. Donovan, commissioner Read More
Michael Bloomberg was in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn this morning, announcing $2.3 million in grants for nonprofit groups that help New Yorkers stave off home foreclosures.
At the press event, he was asked to react to a point raised in a New York Times op-ed criticizing the government for pushing Read More
Mayor Bloomberg and Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, today announced that the city’s 10-year plan [PDF] to build or preserve 165,000 units of below-market rate housing has hit is midpoint, with 82,500 units financed [press release here].
Among the stats the city highlighted was its strikingly low Read More
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has scored a victory against Bronx landlord Hamid Khan, responsible for more than 2,000 housing violations at one property, as a judge sentenced him late last month to nine days in jail and ordered him to pay $156,000 in penalties, according to HPD. The city agency announced Read More
Location: Why is affordable housing so important to New York’s economy?
Mr. Donovan: One of the central goals of the economic development agenda for the city under the Bloomberg administration has been to diversify the economy. If you look at New York’s economy, tourism has been a key sector, and the mayor has focused Read More
What was the Bloomberg adminstration thinking when it put developers and low-income housing advocates in a room together and asked them to hash out a plan to reform housing subsidies? Did wunderkind housing commissioner Shaun Donovan really think they would agree? Apparently, he doesn’t now, if he ever did. Metro’s Patrick Arden reports Read More
Crain’s reports that a city task force will likely recommend continuing the certificate program that allows Manhattan condo developers to get tax breaks.
The article quotes an unnamed member of the panel saying:
“We are united in wanting the program to continue, although we all agree that it needs to be fixed.”We noted Read More
Vito Lopez, the powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman, is spoiling for a fight with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and some of New York’s most powerful development interests.
The Assemblyman, who represents the Bushwick and Williamsburg neighborhoods of Brooklyn, is pressuring the Mayor to abandon a program that gives tax breaks to developers of pricey Manhattan apartments—breaks Read More
