‘Dysfunction remains the reality’: Legal Aid makes final arguments for federal takeover of Rikers

‘Dysfunction remains the reality’: Legal Aid makes final arguments for federal takeover of Rikers

Despite the city’s instance that if given more time it can turn around its troubled jail complex on Rikers Island, the Legal Aid Society said in a Thursday court filing that enough was enough, and reiterated its call for a federal judge to strip control of the jail from the city and hand it over to a court-appointed authority.

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Queens tenants sue state agency over handling of notorious landlord

Queens tenants sue state agency over handling of notorious landlord

Tenants in three Queens neighborhoods are suing the state after it greenlit rent increases requested by their landlord, who the tenants say inflated the costs of building improvements to justify the allegedly unfair rent hikes.

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NYCFC finalizes Willets Point lease with city

 NYCFC finalizes Willets Point lease with city

A group of Queens officials last week unanimously agreed to hand over the keys to a city-owned plot of land in Willets Point to developers who plan to soon build atop it over 1,000 units of affordable housing and the city’s first-ever stadium dedicated to soccer.

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‘Unsustainable’: QPL head warns that cuts could bring further woes to Queens’ libraries

‘Unsustainable’: QPL head warns that cuts could bring further woes to Queens’ libraries

Double the wait times to check out books, over 100,000 potential Sunday visits lost and dozens of early closures or delayed openings – Queens' public libraries are in dire straits after struggling through several months of budget cuts, officials said on Tuesday during a City Council budget hearing.

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Jail programming suffers a year after DOC cut nonprofit contract

Jail programming suffers a year after DOC cut nonprofit contract

The city’s Department of Correction has continued to struggle to provide re-entry services, educational programs, life skills training and other programs to detainees on Rikers Island a year after the agency cut a contract with half a dozen nonprofits and opted to provide the programming themselves.

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