Liz Krueger

Earlier this month, a fledgling organization of New York City apartment owners launched a modest website with an Olympic-sized ambition:

“The Alliance of Condo & Co-op Owners aims to help owners achieve fair play, transparency, and accountability in condo and co-op governance and operations.”

Intrigued, we caught up with the ACCO’s president--Larry Simms, a 59-year-old ex- condo board president who consults with co-ops and condos on fiscal planning, communications, governance and ‘problem avoidance’—to find out more about the grassroots movement and its tactics.

Q. How did the ACCO get started?

Opponents of natural gas drilling in the Southern Tier’s Marcellus Shale formation today are cheering the state Senate’s approval of a short-term moratorium late Tuesday night.

The measure sailed through the Senate, 48-9. If approved by the Assembly and Gov. David Paterson, permits to drill for natural gas in the formation would be delayed until May 15, 2011. Now focus turns to the Assembly, where supporters of the drilling moratorium believe it could be taken up soon.

Read more & watch Senator Liz Krueger speak on the floor.

In an attempt to curb bad bicycling behavior, a group of East Side elected officials want to pass a law that would shift the burden over to the city’s companies that employ bicyclists who ignore traffic laws.

Read more: http://ourtownny.com/2010/07/07/bad-bicycling-fine-businesses/

ALBANY - A bill passed by the Legislature would give the city greater power to crack down on illegal hotels being run out of apartment buildings.

The bill is designed to thwart a growing problem of landlords renting apartments as hotel rooms to get more money than rent laws allow. It has led to the removal of thousands of apartments "from an already tight housing market," said state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), the bill's sponsor.