Brooklyn Council Races Blow Hot and Cold

City and state agencies are increasingly placing information that once required a FOIL request on their website. Before you initiative a formal FOIL request, you should prowl the agency's site to see what is there for the taking.

City zoning laws regulate what can and cannot be built on certain parcels of land. If zoning laws restrict your plans, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of your project. You can apply for a zoning variance.

You do not need to know the officer’s name or badge number to make a complaint. Investigators can usually use basic information about the time and location to identify the officer.

The official due dates for the next election have not yet been set, but petitions are typically due sometime in mid-July.

The dispute between a South Bronx landlord and a radical arts collective has become a rallying cry for supporters of the group, which combines youth development with political activism.

Ask people on Blake Avenue what's their No. 1 campaign concern, and they'll say "crime." But their worry seems to be less about violence and more about whether young people are on the wrong track.

Guns trump other concerns among diners at the Camaguey restaurant. Some see more cops—and others more programs—as the answer.

We open an election-year series with a trip to a restaurant in the South Bronx, where gun violence and wage inequality are what people are talking about—and where there's little confidence that politicians are listening.

In the first installment of our election-year series, a visit with the Bingo players at a senior center in Brownsville, where opinions on the mayor are all over the game board.

In June 1989, Ed Koch weighed-in on the city's housing crisis as an incumbent facing off against a crowded field of mayoral challengers.

Over his 22 years of post-mayoral life, Ed Koch proved he could transcend not only an electoral loss but a moral mistake, and rise, like his city, to a brighter morning.

An operable handgun or assault rifle will net you $200 if you bring it—in a plastic bag—to a gun buyback event in Vinegar Hill this weekend.

Federal officials are supposed to screen the apartments that receive Section 8 rent assistance. But their inspection results are often at odd with what residents find.

Dismissed as "Sal Who?", Sal Albanese notched a respectable third-place finish in the 1997 primary, then left public life. Now he's back, with a different set of policies tooled to a different kind of race.

A forum on public health drew only four of the 10 people now in the race for mayor. Those who did come put unique spins on similar ideas.

Compared to his 2008 performance, the president saw votes fall in some Kings County districts, but also swung some “red” areas to the blue column, according to newly released results.

FEMA. Occupy. SBA. The Brooklyn Recovery Fund. Red Cross. Rapid Repairs. Here are some quick facts about ways to get help after Hurricane Sandy.

In the wake of the Newtown massacre, some are calling for the city's pension funds to shed their gun-industry stocks. That might be harder to do than it sounds.

The shooting tragedy in Newtown has focused new attention on the issue of mental illness and guns. New York City and state have some of the toughest laws, but advocates still see flaws.

If it sometimes seems that advocates and opponents of gun control are speaking different languages, it's because they are—at least when it comes to guns like the one used in Newtown.