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Press Releases
May 14, 2014
Council Members Lander, Kallos Intro Bill to Give Food Advocates a Seat at the Table
New York, New York (May 14, 2014) – Council Members Brad Lander and Ben Kallos today introduced Int 0329-2014, a bill to create a 17-member New York City Food Policy Council to tackle the most pressing food policy issues. The NYC Food Policy Council will apply grassroots organizing know-how and expertise to issues such as rising obesity rates, reforming the school lunch system, and bringing locally-grown, sustainable food to New York City. 1.4 million New Yorkers struggle with hunger, according to the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. More than half of adult New Yorkers are overweight or obese. According to the Food Empowerment Project, an estimated 750,000 New York City residents live in food deserts.
May 14, 2014
After key community improvements negotiated between Council Member Ben Kallos and The Rockefeller University, the City Council voted today to approve the university’s proposal for a new laboratory building over the FDR Drive. Rockefeller University and Council Member Ben Kallos, in whose Upper East Side district the project will be built, announced the improvements at the vote:
May 14, 2014
Following the announcement of the City Council's rules reforms, the following statement on technological reforms can be attributed to Council Member Ben Kallos (District Five):
May 14, 2014
Council Member Ben Kallos is introducing a resolution today to create a single, consolidated primary for New York State, saving taxpayers $50 million. Currently, New York has dual primaries – a federal primary in June and a state and local primary in September. A consolidated primary, long advocated for by good government groups, is currently the subject of a timing debate in the State Senate. The Council resolution calls on the governor to sign into law A.8198, the overwhelmingly passed Assembly bill sponsored by Speaker Silver to consolidate primaries, and for the Senate to pass and the governor to sign S.6204, the accompanying bill sponsored by Senate Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins in the State Senate. Consolidating primaries would save taxpayers $50 million, according to the New York Times, and many good government groups believe it will improve turnout and reduce confusion. The Senate G.O.P. has advocated for an August consolidated primary, when many New Yorkers are on vacation. If unresolved, New York defaults to a dual primary.
May 14, 2014
Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer and Council Members Ben Kallos and James Vacca are introducing an Open FOIL bill today to create a centralized, searchable database of Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests sent to City agencies.
May 9, 2014
New York, New York – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (NY-12), Council Member Ben Kallos (District Five) and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer today praised Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to invest $35 million in the East River Esplanade, a stretch of public, open space along the East River from 60th to 125th St. in dire need of restoration. The funding in the Mayor's Executive Budget Proposal represents a crucial start to the total of $115 million over ten years needed to repair the seawall to prevent spending $430 million on the repair later, according to the Parks Department. Maloney and Kallos co-chair the East River Esplanade Task Force, a group of community members and elected officials advocating for improvements to the park.
April 30, 2014
Council Member Ben Kallos introduced The Construction Safety Act at yesterday's stated meeting, two bills designed to ensure New York City maintains the most stringent construction safety regulations in the nation. The Construction Safety Act, Intro 298, co-sponsored by Council Members Costa Constantinides, Elizabeth Crowley, Vincent Gentile, Antonio Reynoso and Ruben Wills, and Intro 299, co-sponsored by Council Members Peter Koo, Rory I. Lancman, Stephen Levin, Mark Levine, Alan Maisel, I. Daneek Miller, Ydanis Rodriguez and Donovan Richards, will seek to maintain the high safety standards that improved significantly after two 2008 collapses. During the final months of the Bloomberg administration the Department of Buildings introduced new regulations to weaken these standards.
April 28, 2014
NEW YORK – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12) today joined City Council Members Mark Levine and Benjamin Kallos to highlight their efforts to secure reparations from SNCF, the French rail company that transported 76,000 Jews and thousands of others to concentration camps during World War II, and to hold accountable any company that profited from the Holocaust.
April 25, 2014
Last night, amid community concerns about safety along the Second Avenue Subway construction, Council Member Ben Kallos held a safety forum and walk, and re-launched “Light Up Second Avenue,” a program to improve lighting and increase safety.
