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Newsletters
Dear Friend,
It has been three years, five months and seven days since I began serving as your City Council Member. I am deeply proud of the work we have accomplished together and excited for the road ahead.
I want to thank all whom I have already had a chance to meet and look forward to meeting you or seeing you again at my District Office at 244 East 93rd Street for First Friday, Brainstorm with Ben, monthly events (BenKallos.com/Events) or I can come to you if you gather ten neighbors for Ben In Your Building.
If you would like to compare my goals with actions over the past two years, please have a look at my 2013 Policy Book as well as my Inauguration and three States of the District, where we looked to the past and prepared for a bright future. I am proud of these achievements, but I know we have much more to do together. Thank you for your support over the past two years. I am looking forward to all we can accomplish in the remainder of my first term.
Sincerely,
Ben Kallos
Council Member
BY THE NUMBERS
Constituent Service Cases: 6,149 and counting
Legislation Authored: 98
Introductions Authored: 82
Introductions Heard: 23 (28%)
Introductions Enacted into Law: 19 (23%)
Resolutions Authored: 16
Resolutions Adopted: 6 (38%)
Land Use Matters Adopted: 6
Legislation Authored Adopted or Enacted: 25 (26%)
City Council Attendance: 99% (341 Committee Meetings)
Governmental Operations Committee Hearings Chaired: 48
Legislation Passed by Committee: 53 (43 Introductions, 10 Resolutions)
Legislation Sponsored: 714
Legislation Sponsored Adopted or Enacted: 464 (65%)
Ben in Your Building: More than three dozen
First Fridays & Brainstorm with Ben: More than three dozen
Mobile Hours: Hundreds
Free Legal Clinics: Hundreds
Community Meetings: Hundreds
Petitions Signed: 4,290 and counting
Reusable Bags Distributed: 3,500+
Participatory Budgeting Investments in Community: $6.9 Million
INVESTING IN EDUCATION
- Winning More Pre-Kindergarten Seats
- Better Planning for School Seats
- Supporting Arts Education with Annual Show at Sotheby's
- Feeding Hungry Students
- Investing in STEM Education
- Green Roofs
- Supporting Free City and State University
BETTER COMMUTES
- Opening the Second Avenue Subway
- Improving Bus Service with New Buses for the Upper East Side
- Improving Bus Service with Off-Board Fare Payment for M79 and M86
- New Ferry Service for the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island
- Roosevelt Island Tram Approved for Another 50 Years
- Focus on Safety for Our Most Dangerous Streets
- Extra Time for Pedestrians to Cross York Avenue
- New CitiBike Stations on the Upper East Side and Incentivized Safety Class
- Bike Safety Program Expansion to Entire Upper East Side and Midtown East
- Accessible Sidewalks for All
IMPROVING AND CREATING NEW PARKS
- Expanding and Rebuilding the East River Esplanade
- Opened a New Park on East 90th Street Pier
- Conservancies and Funding for Local Parks
- Revitalizing the Waterfront Management Advisory Board
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Cleaning Up the Upper East Side with 300+ New Trash Cans
- A Plan to Take Scaffolding Down
- Improved Quality of Life Enforcement
- Supporting the Homeless with ETHOS
PROTECTING TENANTS AND FIGHTING OVER DEVELOPMENT
- Rezoning to Stop Superscrapers
- Challenging Skyscrapers in Residential Neighborhoods
- Safer Construction with Law to Count Every Life
- Won Two Rent Freezes
- Freezing Rents for Senior and Disabled New Yorkers
- Ended Downsizing of Seniors into Studio Apartments
- Uncovered Hundreds of Thousands of Units of Affordable Housing
- Protected Quiet Side Streets on the Mid-Block from Overdevelopment
- Mandatory Affordable Housing for New Neighborhood Plans
- Protected Landmarks Citywide
- Landmarked the Wooden House on East 85th Street
- Recognized for Leading Preservation
- Tenant Blacklist Regulation Proposed
- Opening Up Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS)
- Fighting For Tenant Safety
- Reformed the Board of Standards and Appeals
MARINE TRANSFER STATION
GOOD GOVERNMENT REFORM AND TRANSPARENCY
- Eliminated Outside Income and Legal Bribery
- Weakening the Influence of Special Interests Money in Politics
- Voter Information Portal Law Enacted
- Won Affordable High-Speed Internet for Low-Income New Yorkers
- Millions for the Community Voted for by Residents in Participatory Budgeting
- Demanded Answers on the Rivington Nursing Home Scandal
- Get Big Money out of New York City Politics
- Focusing on Better Management
Quality Of Life Enforcement
Construction Safety
Protecting Neighborhood Planning From Overdevelopment
Ethics Reform
Campaign Finance Reform
Election Reforms
Transparency In Government
Coastal Resiliency For Climate Change
Women’s Issues
October 2013: Ready for the General Election
I was honored and thrilled to win the Democratic nomination to represent the neighborhood where I grew up in the City Council. As we prepare for the general election on November 5, I am excited to get the chance to discuss with more of you my progressive vision for our neighborhood – and hear from you on the issues you care about, like fighting the Marine Transfer Station, improving our schools and protecting our senior services.
As the race moves into July, my team and I are meeting community members across the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island – and it’s the best part of this race. Always feel free to email me at Ben
kallosforcouncil [dot] com (Benkallosforcouncil [dot] com) or call (212) 960-3440. I look forward to hearing from you.
As the days get hotter, so does the campaign! We celebrated the start of June with two key endorsements from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the League of Independent Theater, as well as the launch of petitioning to get on the ballot -- not to mention a move to our new office! We're rapidly gaining momentum as we move into summer, and we need supporters like you more than ever:
- Donate today to help us build a better City.
- Volunteer to join Team Ben.
- towsenkallosforcouncil [dot] com (subject: Host%20a%20House%20Party) (Host a House Party)
- Attend our Campaign Office Grand Opening on Wednesday, June 26 from 6-9 pm.
Read on for updates on the latest developments in our campaign:
Our campaign is fighting for a transparent and fair government – one that never stops working for you.
Our campaign is about results now, not about waiting until Election Day. We’ve been working tirelessly to improve everyday life here on the Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island. Our efforts are already paying off, garnering grassroots support and receiving strong media coverage.
This February our campaign for a better City moved forward by building great momentum with endorsements from national and statewide leaders as well as labor unions, while we fought to make our City safer, technologically accessible, sustainable, and took a break from the campaign to celebrate Black History Month.
Building Momentum:
- Endorsements for the "Progressive Candidate"
- Endorsements for the "Labor Candidate"
- Tagged as the "Tech Candidate"
Community Voice:
- Fighting to Keep Our Children Safe
- Roosevelt Island Public Safety
- Responsible Development on Roosevelt Island
- Celebrating Black History Month
Support Our Campaign For A Better City:
Please join former Public Advocate Mark Green at the home of Bill Samuels at 7PM on Monday, March 11, at what we hope will be our final fundraiser. We've already raised $55K and only need another $30K to reach our spending limit in time for the March 11 filing deadline.
Thank you for your financial support that kept us in the lead for 2013. We've once again outraised all of our opponents combined and could never have done it without your help. We've made it well past the halfway point for a fully funded City Council campaign by raising almost $50,000, with only $30,000 left to raise.
Happy New Year! 2012 was an amazing year, full of challenges to overcome, super storms and threats of apocolypse, unbridled success like the re-election of Barack Obama, landing the mars rover, discovering the Higgs Boson, and even sky diving faster than the speed of sound from space. We enter 2013 in a world where more is possible than the year before. What preconceived norms can we shatter in 2013? I would love to know your New Year's resolution for how you will make the world a better place in 2013.
- Engagement
- Endorsement
- Supporting Small Business on Roosevelt Island
- Join Your Community Board
- Seniors and Social Services
- Reinventing the Payphone
- Holiday Party Pictures
- New Year's Party Invitation
- First 2013 Filing
Following Sandy it was hard for many to return to normalcy, and some still haven't or never will. The outpouring of support from the community was both humbling and amazing. In my own volunteering I was struck by portions of the population displaced by Sandy as well as before by the economy or other factors. As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday please take a moment to pause and reflect on how lucky we are, give thanks, and lets figure out how to make things better for all of us.
- Supporting Israel
- Election Day Victory, Voter Protection, and Youth Voting
- Sandy Recovery and Emergency Preparedness
- Resources for Seniors with Lenox Hill
- Tech Tools for 2013
- Free Meet and Greets, Better Laws, and Investing in Youth
- Upcoming Events
- A New New York: The Constitutional Dimension
- Holiday Party
