Author Archive

Ben Adler

is City & State’s senior editor.

News

Homelessness is a housing problem

But a few policy moves could make a big difference in the long term.

Opinion

New York

Jared Kushner lied to NYC because he could get away with it

The Kushner Cos. filing of false paperwork on rent-regulated units and efforts to expel tenants is a failure of not just the companys integrity, but of state and local law. With the incentive structure of state rent regulations and a two-tiered legal system in which corporations get a slap on the wrist for ripping off the public while the poor go to jail for drug possession, actions like Kushner’s are inevitable.

Opinion

New York City

Tagging someone’s property doesn’t actually make it yours

In January, Jason Williams, a Los Angeles-based artist whose tag is Revok, sent a cease-and-desist letter to clothing retailer H&M, complaining that the company had shot a commercial in front of a mural Williams had painted at a Brooklyn playground. In February, a group of spray can artists who had painted pieces on the famous 5Pointz building in Long Island City won a $6.7 million award owner Jerry Wolkoff ripped down his own building.Graffiti writers who sue anyone for using or destroying their work are ultimately damaging the future of their own art form.

Opinion

Brooklyn

Has Andrew Sullivan ever been to Brooklyn?

For someone who clearly knows nothing about Brooklyn, New York magazine’s Andrew Sullivan sure likes to throw shade at New York City’s largest borough.