Phyllis Eckhaus

“Disability rights are human rights! The future is disabled!” Perhaps two hundred shouting and signing disability activists, many in wheelchairs, converged by the arch in Washington Square Park on Saturday July 26, both to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the landmark federal law, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and urgently to warn that hard-won […]

How much should landlords get to profit off rent regulated tenants? And do long-suffering tenants get any say about it? These are the questions underlying the plight of hundreds of East Villagers, whose current landlord—the $23 billion private equity firm Madison Realty Capital (MRC)—faces foreclosure on its East Village portfolio of fifteen rent-regulated buildings. According

A crowd of fired-up Villagers converged on the corner of Clarkson and Varick Streets to demand that their beloved and landmarked Tony Dapolito Recreation Center—closed since COVID, for five years—be repaired as promised, and not demolished, as the city now threatens to do. The June 1st rally, organized by Village Preservation and the grassroots Coalition

“A scam.” That’s how Manhattan District 1 Council Member Christopher Marte characterized the SoHo-NoHo-Chinatown rezoning plan, which he’d vehemently opposed, and which was enacted in December 2021, immediately prior to his taking office. Contrary to the promises of politicos and city planners, the downtown upzoning plan has thus far delivered less-than-nothing on the affordable housing

“Get a warrant.” That’s still official policy if agents from Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) show up at the school house door, District 2 Schools Superintendent Kelly McGuire assured the Community Board 2 (CB 2) Schools and Education Committee at its February 24th meeting. Alarmed by Mayor Adams’ January 13, 2025 memo to city workers—which

Ignoring vehement community objections and the more muted misgivings of local City Council Member Erik Bottcher, the city is proceeding with plans for a 60-story, 600-foot-tall luxury residential spire at the current site of the Gansevoort Meat Market, on Little West 12th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in the Meatpacking District. The city is