Urban Justice Center

New York's Condom Bait-and-Switch

Department of Health hands them out, NYPD arrests people for carrying them. Is this about improving public health—or arrest numbers?

New York's Condom Bait-and-Switch

Department of Health hands them out, NYPD arrests people for carrying them. Is this about improving public health—or arrest numbers?

A Look at the Winners: 2012 Vendy Awards

On Saturday, food lovers lined up on Governors Island for the Vendy Awards, an annual street-food celebration and benefit organized by the Urban Justice Center. The non-profit works to support city vendors, providing access to licenses and advocating for vendor rights. This year's judges included F ... More >>

The NYPD's Poor Judgment With the Mentally Ill

Shereese Francis was in mental distress. After police arrived, she was dead.

Maria Montealegre Finds Shelter (Sort of), Public Advocate, Councilmember Robert Jackson Say Help Is On Its Way (Update)

"The whole marshal encounter was surreal," Andres Mares Muro said about Maria Montealegre's eviction that went down late afternoon this past Monday. "She vomited afterwards, her kids wept lots." Muro, a former staff member of the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center in Hamilton Heights, h ... More >>

Maria Montealegre Evicted Today, a Lot of "Community," But Little Help

Maria Montealegre, the tenant at 1985 Amsterdam Avenue who was assaulted by her landlord and evicted after helping organize neighbors, has been evicted today. A marshal showed up roughly around 4 p.m. this afternoon, leaving 95 percent of her, and her family's, belongings on the sidewalk. A bevy o ... More >>

Maria Montealegre, On Way To Becoming Legal Immigrant, Still Faces Homelessness

A week since we reported on Maria Montealegre, an undocumented immigrant who faces eviction for making complaints against one of the worst landlords in Manhattan, she might be well on her way to becoming a legal immigrant. The Washington Heights resident, along with Andres Mares Muro (from the M ... More >>

I Fought the Landlord, and the Landlord Won

An unlikely person stands up for her rights—and pays the price

Report Says Excessive Fines for Street Vendors are Hurting the City (And Are Bad for Vendors, Too)

A report released today argues that the city is excessively fining street vendors and in doing so is actually losing out on revenue it would get with a fine system that's more fair. The report, called "Fining the Hand that Feeds You," from the University of Wisconsin, argues that high fines are les ... More >>

City's Methadone Clinics Plagued With Problems, New Report Says

​The state funded methadone clinics in New York City are poorly managed, inadequately equipped, and don't provide necessary services to keep recovering addicts from relapsing, according to a new report released today. The report also discloses a campaign of police harassment outside the clinic ... More >>

A New Report Says Cops Really Like Ticketing the Forsyth Street Produce Vendors

Urban Justice Center​If you thought the city was giving food-truck drivers a hard time, consider the plight of Forsyth Street's fruit and vegetable vendors.

City So Desperate to Collect Street Vendor Fines, It's Reducing Them

​Last month, the city's Independent Budget Office discovered that street vendors owe the city $15 million in unpaid fines for violations. The New York Post says the city council is so desperate to get vendors to pay up, it's considering a measure to reduce penalties for street vendors. The logic g ... More >>

Former Workers Sue Shanghai Café

Does the Shanghai Café's fuchsia glow camouflage unfair labor practices?​ In addition to having the city's studliest soup dumplings and niftiest Chinese noodles, the Shangai Café can now claim a lawsuit to its name.

Let's Play, "Who's My Landlord?"

The new game that's sweeping New York's crumbling rental rat-traps

Dead Boss Still Stiffing Bronx From Beyond the Grave?

​Poor dead George Steinbrenner doesn't even have a grave to spin in yet, and already he's being raked over the coals for his past sins. First came Jim Dwyer's recounting of The Boss's legacy of egotism and abuse in today's Times, which recalls how Steinbrenner shook hands with Ed Koch on a l ... More >>

When Hipsters Move in on Chinese: It's Ugly

A Delancey Street displacement drama, in which both sides—Chinese families and new tenants—seem pretty clueless about each other.

964 Reasons to Take Your Landlord to Court

As promised, tenants in a Bronx building near Fordham U. that's being run into the ground by Frank Palazzolo, one of the Voice's recently named "10 Worst Landlords", filed suit today in housing court to try to wrest the tenement from his hands. The suit, brought by the tenants of 2710 Bainbridge w ... More >>

Sean Basinski of the Street Vendor Project Takes Questions, Touts Street Food Vending 101 Class

joshstaiger/flickr​Sean Basinski, a lawyer and director of the Street Vendor Project at the Urban Justice Center, took questions on the Times' City Room blog about the dog-eat-dog world of street vending. Readers wanted to know everything from, "What are the safety regulations of vendors? Ofte ... More >>

City Busts Met Museum Vendors; Vendor Group Bites Back

​Chinatown bus companies aren't the only businesses, nor the smallest, that the city is cracking down on. This morning, the Times reports, cops descended on the pushcart vendors in front of the Metropolitan Museum and dished out tickets to six (or seven) of the nine vendors -- who also happene ... More >>

Trials and Hot Dog Tribulations in the Street-Vending Trade

An Unlikely Rescuer from the Jaws of Debt

The Bronx is Booming, But For Whom?

Letters 6.11.08

The State Adopts New Rules for LGBT Youths in Juvenile Detention

But mum's the word on the good treatment of transgendered kids

Freezing Tenants Put Heat on Landlord With Takeover Action

Nanny McFee

New York's baby-sitters want their fair share

Slumlord Showdown

Mayoral wannabe Chris Quinn treads cautiously in housing fight

Vendy Awards: Poor Dosa Man, Always a Bridesmaid

NYers to NYPD: 'I Do Not Consent to Being Searched'

School for Johns

Arrested for soliciting sex, men wind up in a Brooklyn classroom

Security on the Domestic Front

New legislation would end exclusion of housekeepers and nannies from basic labor laws

Wounded Pride

LGBT kids say city-funded shelter for the homeless breaks its covenant

The Suicide of Mr. A

A Mentally Ill Inmate Slips Through the Cracks—Into the Path of a Subway Train

Lost Legacy?

Gidone Busch's Death Unlikely to Bring NYPD Policy Change

Street Sweeping

Bloomberg Plan Sends Prostitutes Cycling From City Jails to Local Corners

Exposé Energizes Court Battle

Ashcroft Could Face Reckoning on Detainee Mistreatment

Hospital Holiday

Study Finds Poor Oversight of a Billion Health Care Dollars

How Does His Dole Grow?

Bloomberg Balances Needs—His and the Poor's

The Perils of Protest

The Anti-Globalization Movement Alters Its Strategy

Poverty Outlaws

The World’s Poor Gather in New York City

Pinching Pennies

City Agency Targets Elderly for Payback

System Failure

The Comptroller Says HS Systems Overcharged for Screening Disabled Welfare Recipients. So Why Did the Company Win a Fat New Contract?

Welfare Policy Relapse

City Just Says No to Poor Addicts

The Disappeared