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Press Releases
July 1, 2016
“The City Council has a responsibility to hold an oversight hearing on deed restrictions. I want to get to the bottom of what happened at Rivington, St. Nicholas, and other sites where developers bought out of their duty to serve the community,” said Council Member Ben Kallos, Chair of the Committee of Governmental Operations with oversight over the Department of Citywide Administrative Services which grants deed restrictions. “Now that they’ve finally turned over the list of deed restrictions that were pending or granted, we must publicly review the benefits communities could be losing.”
June 22, 2016
I am Council Member Ben Kallos, representing the Upper East Side, Midtown East, Roosevelt Island and El Barrio. That’s @BenKallos on Twitter and Instagram.
Good afternoon to the Rent Guidelines Board Chair Hon. Kathleen A. Roberts, Public Members Flax, Joza, Rahman and Schaub, Owner Members Walsh and Serafy, and Tenant Members Epstein and Garcia.
To New Yorkers here today, and especially tenants, thank you for attending this hearing. I am proud to stand with you today.
This year, I am calling on the Rent Guidelines Board to vote for a rent rollback.
Last year, the Board voted for a historic rent freeze for one-year leases, the first of its kind, and that began to correct for the disproportionately high increases of previous years.
June 19, 2016
I am Council Member Ben Kallos, representing the Upper East Side, Midtown East, Roosevelt Island and El Barrio. That’s @BenKallos on Twitter and Instagram.
Good afternoon to the Rent Guidelines Board Chair Hon. Kathleen A. Roberts, Public Members Flax, Joza, Rahman and Schaub, Owner Members Walsh and Serafy, and Tenant Members Epstein and Garcia.
To New Yorkers here today, and especially tenants, thank you for attending this hearing. I am proud to stand with you today.
This year, I am calling on the Rent Guidelines Board to vote for a rent rollback.
Last year, the Board voted for a historic rent freeze for one-year leases, the first of its kind, and that began to correct for the disproportionately high increases of previous years.
Year after year, as rent goes up, tenants have shouldered an undue burden. Meanwhile, income cannot keep pace, and only crept up by 2.3% between 2005 and 2013 in real terms. The approved rent increases each year were largely based upon the landlord’s operating costs, measured by the price index of operating cost (PIOC). This practice not only failed to consider tenants, but was also proven to be inaccurate: based upon data from the Department of Finance (DOF), the PIOC has overstated landlord costs by 11% since 2005. This miscalculation led to unfairly high rent increases in past years, which must be corrected with a rent rollback.
June 8, 2016
Currently members of the public usually must show up at day time public hearings at City Hall or 250 Broadway that can last hours with public testimony often limited to only two minutes thereby limiting input and engagement in the legislative process from the public.
“New Yorkers should be able to ‘like’ and comment on City Council legislation to make civic engagement as easy as Facebook,” said Council Member Ben Kallos, Chair of the Committee of Governmental Operations. “Government must engage residents where they are in the way they want to engage, which means updating our legislative rules so people can engage online.”
June 3, 2016
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May 25, 2016
New Yorkers have won a rare victory over developers by stopping a skyscraper in a residential neighborhood. Even when a Borough President, Council Member, Community Board, neighborhood association, and local residents pool resources, the odds may be against us, but together we can win. I am glad we stopped this loophole before it was too late.
May 23, 2016
Four Foot Lot Allowed Developer to Skirt Law
New York, NY — Foundations are getting poured for a 521 foot skyscraper at 180 East 88th Street that would be against the law, but for a determination by the Department of Buildings that by creating a 4 foot by 22 foot lot, the property does not front on East 88th Street despite its address so that it can ignore limitations that would lower the building’s height. Council Member Ben Kallos and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer are opposing the zoning determination with a letter and are seeking a reversal of the decision.
“The law must apply evenly to all New Yorkers including developers,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “Zoning laws were created to protect our residents from over-development and must not be eroded by creating new loopholes.”
“At first glance, this project looks like a prime example where the Department of Buildings has failed to enforce the law,” Manhattan Borough Presidents Gale Brewer said. “The zoning here is what it is, not what the developer wishes it were.”
May 18, 2016
Education, Giveaways and Enforcement by City Agencies and Non-Profits Enters Third Year of Improving Safety for Cyclists and Pedestrians
New York, NY — The Upper East Side’s “Bike Safety” program is expanding from 59th to 96th Street to Midtown East, bringing full coverage to the area from 30th Street to 96th Street. Council Members Ben Kallos and Dan Garodnick are funding and coordinating education, safety equipment giveaways, and increased enforcement.
Since the summer of 2015, the Bike Safety program has succeeded in its goal of helping pedestrians and cyclists safely enjoy city streets, as covered by CBS, NBC, Our Town and amNY. Following last year’s Bike Safety program in August, the NYPD’s 19th Precinct reported a year-to-date 15% decrease in bike and pedestrian collisions.
The expansion to the Bike Safety program is the result of work by Council Members Ben Kallos and Dan Garodnick, the New York Police Department’s 17th and 19th Precincts (NYPD), the NYPD Transportation Bureau, the Department of Transportation, Citi Bike (Motivate), Transportation Alternatives, and Bike New York.
May 17, 2016
New York, NY – Taxpayers will save $430 million in settlements and judgments that the city had planned to pay for lawsuits over the next five years following pressure from Council Member Ben Kallos.
The Law Department plans to expand a “Vertical Case Handling” pilot that assigns individual attorneys to cases from beginning to conclusion with an investment of $18 million. For the previous two years of questioning Governmental Operations Committee’s Chair Kallos challenged the Law Department’s assertion that despite a 2014 policy and funding decision to more aggressively fight frivolous lawsuits, the City expected to pay out ever-increasing amounts of money to settle lawsuits.
May 15, 2016
It has come to our attention that the above mentioned building planned and permitted for the west side of Third Avenue between 87th and 88th Street used a questionable subdivision strategy so that it could circumvent the explicit intent of the Zoning Resolution Section 12-10. The resultant building does not have the tower-on-base building form intended by zoning, leaves the City of New York with an unbuildable lot, and treats the development lot and unbuildable lot as separate despite single ownership thereby creating a precedent for a new and dangerous loophole. We request an immediate stop work order and reopening of determinations and approvals for errors and omissions.
