Person Place Thing

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harper's, The Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for Late Night With David Letterman, for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s TV Nation. He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote "The Ethicist," a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. In 2010, his first play, The Punishing Blow, ran at New York’s Clurman Theater. His most recent book, Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything, was published by Chronicle. He is currently the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program.

Joe Restuccia has been involved in the preservation and creation of affordable housing in the Clinton, Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea neighborhoods of Manhattan since 1980. He started as a tenant organizer at Housing Conservation Coordinators (HCC) before moving to Clinton Housing Development Company (CHDC) in 1983. He held various development and housing management positions until 1986 when he was appointed executive director. Under his leadership, CHDC has developed over 1200 units of affordable housing in 80 buildings on the Westside of Manhattan, and the company's net assets have grown from $250,000 to over $203,000,000 during his leadership.

He has been a member of the boards of the Task Force on City Owned Property, the Association of Neighborhood Housing and Development, the Clinton Mutual Housing Association, and the Enterprise Foundation Community Advisory Board. He is a past president of the Clinton Planning Council and has served on the boards of the Clinton Seed Fund, Clinton Housing Association, the Clinton Preservation Fund Advisory Committee, and the Clinton Urban Renewal Area Coordinating Committee. He has represented CHDC on the Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yards Alliance. He is a founding member of the Clinton Hell’s Kitchen South Coalition and is currently a Board Member of American Friends of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, a German social welfare volunteer organization.

A member of Manhattan Community Board #4 since 1982, Mr. Restuccia has served as its vice-chair, and at various times chaired Housing, Land Use, Clinton Steering, Clinton Preservation, & Housing, Health, & Human Services Committees. He has also chaired several community board Task Forces including Times Square Redevelopment, Covenant House Redevelopment, Clinton Special District, Clinton Urban Renewal, 34th Street Rezoning and Affordable Housing Development. In the above capacities, he has led community negotiations and settlements, which produced or preserved 1540 of affordable housing in 126 buildings.  The Times Square settlement resulted in a $25,000,000 city and state funding for affordable housing renovated and acquired in the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood. Mr. Restuccia is currently a member of the Board’s Port Authority Working Group, Port Authority’s Bi-State Working Group regarding the reconstruction of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, & the Garment Center Steering Committee.

Mr. Restuccia is a recognized expert on the Clinton Special Zoning District; he both consults and has testified as an expert witness on its regulations. He has been a key participant in the extensive discussions regarding the rezoning of Hell’s Kitchen/Hudson Yards, West Chelsea, the Western Railyards and the Garment Center.