THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Wednesday, March 4, 2020 |A10A
signs of illness. He said he had
taken the patient’s children—
his grandchildren—out for
dinner at a restaurant Sunday
night, and they seemed fine,
although his grandson com-
plained of a mild cough.
The patient’s wife, son and
daughter have all been tested
for coronavirus and results are
pending, city officials said.
The patient’s daughter at-
tends SAR High School in the
Riverdale section of the Bronx
and has no symptoms. His son,
who has shown symptoms of
the virus, is an undergraduate
at Yeshiva University in Man-
hattan, the school said, adding
he hadn’t been on campus
since Feb. 27.
A student at Cardozo
School of Law, which is part of
Yeshiva, was in self-quarantine
as a precaution because of
contact with the patient’s law
firm, school officials said. Ye-
shiva said it was working withhealth and emergency officials
to disinfect relevant areas and
take precautions to keep its
community safe.
The patient, who has at-
tended the synagogue Young
Israel of New Rochelle, usually
went to Saturday services, his
father-in-law said. Young Is-
rael must halt services for the
foreseeable future because of
potential exposure tied to the
patient, Westchester County
health officials said on Tues-
day. The officials said people
who attended services at the
synagogue on Feb. 22, and a
funeral and a bat mitzvah on
Feb. 23, must self-quarantine
until at least March 8.
A woman who answered the
phone at the synagogue’s of-
fice declined to comment.
The patient and his wife
went to Bal Harbour, just
north of Miami, the weekend
of Feb. 15, his father-in-law
said. The father-in-law said hehoped the virus would be con-
tained, “but I’m worried.”
Mr. de Blasio said seven peo-
ple who work at the man’s law
firm were tested for coronavi-
rus. Their results are also
pending. Disease detectives for
the city’s Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene are tracing
contacts for people at SAR High
School and at the university.
Mr. de Blasio said the city
is tracking people who would
have had prolonged, consis-
tent contact with the patient.
The man didn’t have any
known travel to affected areas,
said Demetre Daskalakis, a
deputy commissioner at the
city’s health department. Mr.
de Blasio said the man had
also traveled to Israel.
SAR Academy, the lower
school, and its upper school,
SAR High School, closed Tues-
day morning.
Rabbi Binyamin Krauss,
principal of SAR Academy, re-GREATER NEW YORK
ferred a call for comment to
public-health officials.
School officials said in a
note to parents that the school
closed as a precautionary mea-
sure and met with the city’s
Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene and Office of
Emergency Management. SAR
Academy and High School will
remain closed on Wednesday,
officials said.
Becca Glassberg, director of
educational technology at SAR
Academy, said teachers were
trying to make sure students
could access lessons through
online portals and videoconfer-
encing in case the school stays
closed. The modern Orthodox
coeducational day school
serves some 1,400 students
and has some 300 faculty, ac-
cording to its website.
Mr. Cuomo said on Tuesday
that more cases are expected.
“You can’t contain the spread.
It is inevitable.”A Westchester County at-
torney became the second per-
son in New York to test posi-
tive for the new coronavirus,
officials said Tuesday, leading
to the closure of a Bronx pri-
vate school attended by one of
his children, the halt of ser-
vices at a synagogue and the
testing of several people at his
Midtown Manhattan law firm.
The new patient, 50 years
old, lives in New Rochelle, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said on Tues-
day. New York City health offi-
cials said the man works at
Lewis and Garbuz PC. Calls to
employees of the firm weren’t
returned.
The man first became ill on
Feb. 22, and was admitted to
NewYork-Presbyterian Law-
rence Hospital in Bronxville on
Feb. 27. On Monday, he was
transferred to NewYork-Pres-
byterian/Columbia University
Irving Medical Center in Man-
hattan so he could receive a
higher level of care, city offi-
cials said. He is in serious con-
dition, the officials said.
New York City Mayor Bill
de Blasio said at a Tuesday
press conference that the man
has had respiratory issues on
and off in the past month.
When the patient grew
sicker last week, the family
thought he had some form of
viral pneumonia, the patient’s
father-in-law, a retired doctor,
said in an interview.
The patient’s wife, son and
daughter are isolated at the
family’s home, he said. The
children “are worried about
their father,” he said. “They’re
very unhappy.”
The patient’s wife “is ex-
hausted, under a great deal of
stress, and seems to be doing
remarkably well,” he said, add-
ing that she had shown no
BYMELANIEGRAYCEWEST
ANDLESLIEBRODY
New York Has Second Virus Case
Attorney tests positive,
prompting closure of a
Bronx private school,
screening at law firm
The daughter of an attorney who tested positive for the coronavirus attends SAR High School in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERSALBANY—Gov. Andrew
Cuomo signed a law that ex-
pands his emergency manage-
ment powers, a move that
drew bipartisan criticism but
that the Democratic governor
said is justified by the current
coronavirus outbreak.
The new authority was
paired with the appropriation
of $40 million to help officials
contain the disease. As of
Tuesday, two people in New
York have tested positive for
coronavirus, which has infected
at least 100 people around the
country and resulted in nine
deaths in other states.
Mr. Cuomo requested the
funding last week but didn’t
release the bill until after sun-
down on Monday. Republican
and Democratic lawmakers
raised objections to the legisla-
tion in a debate that stretched
until midnight, but the mea-
sure was eventually approved
by a strong, bipartisan margin.
“These are uncharted terri-
tories. Government has to re-
spond,” Mr. Cuomo said at a
press conference on Tuesday.
New York law already al-
lows the governor to suspend
provisions of any state or local
statute that would hinder or
delay in coping with a de-
clared disaster. The new mea-
sure broadens the definition of
a disaster, from a past occur-
rence or imminent threat to
something that is impending.
The new law specifically
added “disease outbreak” to a
list of triggering events along-
side epidemic, which accord-
ing to the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion suggests a wider geo-
graphic area.
The measure gives Mr.
Cuomo new power to issue di-
rectives “necessary to cope
with” a broad list of potential
disasters, including everything
from a fire or tornado to a “cy-
ber event” or volcanic eruption.
Assemblyman Richard Got-
tfried, a Democrat who chairs
the chamber’s health commit-
tee and has represented part
of Manhattan since 1971, said
existing laws were sufficient
as the state dealt with dis-
eases like Ebola and AIDS.
“I think it’s important to
ask why? What problem does
this bill solve?” Mr. Gottfried
said in explaining his vote
against the law.
Other lawmakers said the
new power was necessary. As-
semblyman Michael DenDekker,
a Democrat from Queens, said
it was “basically just emer-
gency management 101.”
Mr. Cuomo on Tuesday said
the additional power would let
him order quarantines, hy-
giene protocols and possibly
school closures. Assembly
Speaker Carl Heastie, a Demo-
crat from the Bronx, and Sen-
ate Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat
from Yonkers, thanked Mr.
Cuomo for acting quickly.
Thirty-five states give gover-
nors some power to suspend or
amend laws in the case of a nat-
ural disaster, but only North
Carolina allows its executive to
create new statutes and regula-
tions, according to a 2019 article
in the journal “Health Security.”
James Hodge, a professor at
Arizona State University’s law
school, said New York’s expan-
sion wasn’t abnormal and that
Mr. Cuomo already had the
ability to issue directives.
Several Republicans echoed
Mr. Gottfried’s worries about
the expansion of executive
power and lamented the fast-
track process by which the law
was enacted.BYJIMMYVIELKINDCuomo
Expands
Emergency
Powers
it is entitled to an automatic
stay of a ruling against it,
lawyers said.
The case will now be con-
sidered by an appellate panel
and could face a review by the
state’s highest court, the Court
of Appeals.
The ruling by Justice Franc
Perry of state Supreme Court
in Manhattan overturned a se-
ries of decisions by the city’s
buildings department, as well
as a review panel, the Board of
Standards and Appeals, thathad upheld the building per-
mit issued in 2017 to the de-
veloper, SJP Properties.
The 668-foot-tall building,
at 200 Amsterdam Ave., has
already topped out, and many
of the 112 condominiums there
are on the market. Construc-
tion on the site has been con-
tinuing, despite the threat of
partial demolition.
“We will continue to vigor-
ously appeal this ruling in part-
nership with the City and are
confident that the facts and jus-
tice will prevail,” said a spokes-
woman for SJP Properties.The real-estate community
was quick to criticize the
judge’s ruling.
“If a specious lawsuit can
reverse a nearly complete
project, developers and lend-
ers will lose faith that the
City’s regulatory framework
can actually be trusted,”
James Whelan, the president
of an industry group, the Real
Estate Board of New York.
The case turned on an ar-
cane issue in the zoning code:
how city tax lots can be com-
bined into larger zoning lots
that allow for the transfer of
building rights to a new con-
struction site.
Developers routinely hire
zoning consultants to research
past advisory opinions and in-
terpretations by the buildings
department to find ways to
maximize the height and bulk
of new buildings—along with
potential profits.
At 200 Amsterdam Ave., the
zoning lot was assembled from
a collection of partial tax lots
left out of other construction
projects on the same block. A
1977 buildings-department
memo allowed these partial
tax lots to be combined into a
single building site.
The permit application for
the Amsterdam Avenue build-
ing shows a spiderlike net-
work of skinny partial lots.
The combination allowed the
construction of a 370,000-
square foot building.New York City officials
Tuesday halted a judge’s order
that a developer stop con-
struction and demolish much
of a 55-story condominium
tower in Manhattan.
The February ruling said
the developer of the project
known as 200 Amsterdam had
to shrink the building because
it violated the city’s zoning
code.
Under the ruling, the build-
ing would have to shrink to
less than 80,000 square feet
and lose perhaps 40 stories in
height, said George Janes, a
zoning consultant, who worked
with opponents of the project.
The ruling sent shock waves
through the real-estate indus-
try. Developers worried it
could spark challenges to
other completed or nearly
completed buildings where de-
velopers had already spent
hundreds of millions of dollars.
New York’s real-estate com-
munity was already feeling it
hadbecomeatargetofNew
York City and state lawmakers,
who last year imposed higher
transfer taxes and passed new
tenant protection laws.
In this case, the city came
to one developer’s defense
when city lawyers notified the
court that they had filed an
appeal in the 200 Amsterdam
case. Under state law, when
New York City is a defendant,
BYJOSHBARBANEL
Shifting Story: City Halts
Order to Shrink a Tower
Many of the 112 condominiums in the new tower are on the market
as construction continues, despite a court ruling to stop building.JAMES SPRANKLE FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALThe 668-foot-tall
building at 200
Amsterdam Ave. has
already topped out.NY