Ben Kallos, Re-Elect to New York City Council in 2017 - Marine Transfer Station

lester shane

lester shane — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 23:59:08 +0000

Lester

Shane

My Issues:

Affordable Housing

Good Government

Marine Transfer Station

Community

Health

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Israel

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Environment

Statement: "Good money after bad on Solid Waste" in response to IBO report

Feed — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 11:29:57 +0000

Marine Transfer Station

Statement: "Good money after bad on Solid Waste" in response to IBO report

It is time to stop throwing good money after bad and the city over a billion dollars for garbage dumps that appear to be more symbolic than functional.

"New York City is on track to make the Marine Transfer Station at East 91st Street obsolete if we continue to reduce our waste and achieve 'zero waste' by 2030, according to today's report by the Independent Budget Office.

In 2006 the city approved a 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan. Today, past the halfway mark, the IBO has found that although the plan assumed an increase in waste, New Yorkers actually send less waste to landfill than we did 10 years ago, eliminating the need for additional transfer stations. Still, Marine Transfer Stations remain in construction.

It is time to stop throwing good money after bad and the city over a billion dollars for garbage dumps that appear to be more symbolic than functional.

Thank you to the Independent Budget Office for keeping an eye out for escalating costs in our waste management and continuing to provide an independent, honest evaluation of where the city is wasting tax dollars. Lawmakers must use this report to correct past mistakes and save billions."
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sandra forman

sandra forman — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:57:26 +0000

Sandra

Forman

Talk to My Neighbors

My Issues:

Affordable Housing

Good Government

Marine Transfer Station

Tax Reform

Community

Public Safety

Education

Second Avenue Subway Construction

ellen cohen

ellen cohen — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 21:45:17 +0000

Ellen

Cohen

My Issues:

Good Government

Marine Transfer Station

Tax Reform

Health

Public Safety

Transportation

Environment

New York Daily News NYC councilman pushing mandatory air quality tests near garbage stations through new bill by Erin Durkin

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 04:22:07 +0000

New York Daily News

NYC councilman pushing mandatory air quality tests near garbage stations through new bill

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-councilman-pushes-air-quality-tests-tras...

Erin Durkin

11/10/2015

"We're going to see hundreds of trucks coming into residential neighborhoods," he said. "We're looking at knowing [pollution levels] on an hour to hour, day to day basis because there are 35,000 children playing in a park near this garbage dump."

A Manhattan City Councilman wants new tests to make sure New Yorkers aren't breathing in dangerous toxins near the city's trash stations.

Legislation being introduced Tuesday by Councilman Ben Kallos would mandate air quality monitoring at marine waste transfer stations.

The bill is targeted at a controversial garbage station slated to open on the upper East Side, and would apply to six stations from Greenwich Village and Gowanus to Gravesend.

The city would have to install air quality monitors and take readings every hour for nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead and ozone.

Kallos said he's mostly worried about pollution spewed by trucks serving the E. 91st St. station, which locals have fought to stop for years but environmental justice advocates say is necessary so trash doesn't keep getting dumped on poor outer borough neighborhoods.

The planned station is near the Asphalt Greene recreation facility.

The city has pledged the station itself won't produce pollution, but Kallos said that should be monitored as well.

Under the legislation, officials would have to send a notification if any of the pollutants reach levels above the safe amount set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

A spokesman for the Sanitation Department said they haven't seen the bill.

Issue:

Marine Transfer Station

WasteDive NYC calls for mandatory air quality tests near garbage stations by Arlene Karidis

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 04:22:06 +0000

WasteDive

NYC calls for mandatory air quality tests near garbage stations

http://www.wastedive.com/news/nyc-calls-for-mandatory-air-quality-tests-near-gar...

Arlene Karidis

11/12/2015

New York City legislation to be introduced by Manhattan Councilman Ben Kallos would mandate air quality monitoring at marine waste transfer stations, applying to six stations in the region.

Driven by concerns about a controversial garbage station slated to open on the upper East Side, the law would require the city to install air quality monitors and take readings each hour for nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead and ozone.

The city pledged that the new station itself, planned close to the Asphalt Greene recreation center, won't produce pollution, but Kallos said it should also be observed. If passed, the legislation would require that notifications be sent if pollutants hit levels over the safe amount as deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Dive Insight:

Kallos said he is pushing for this bill largely because of concerns about pollution from trucks serving the E. 91st St. station, which environmental justice advocates say is required as to not have poor outer borough neighborhoods riddled with garbage.

Issue:

Marine Transfer Station

DNAinfo.com Task Force Formed as Last-Ditch Effort to Block Marine Transfer Station by Shaye Weaver

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 04:12:11 +0000

DNAinfo.com

Task Force Formed as Last-Ditch Effort to Block Marine Transfer Station

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20151221/yorkville/task-force-formed-as-last-di...

Shaye Weaver

12/22/2015

UPPER EAST SIDE — A local community board is making a last-ditch attempt to control the impacts of a planned marine transfer station on East 91st Street and York Avenue — after years of opposition from residents failed to stop construction from starting altogether.

The Marine Transfer Station Task Force was created as an attempt to halt the project, which seems to being going full steam ahead despite much objection from the community, according to Community Board 8 chairman Jim Clynes.

If it can't be stopped altogether, there should at least be steps taken to mitigate any negative impacts to the neighborhood, he said.

"Just because it is being built doesn’t mean it has to open," Clynes told DNAinfo New York. "Although the position of Community Board 8 has always been that it should not be built and everyone has tried everything in the book and outside of the book to stop it, it doesn’t seem to be able to be stopped."

The group — which will meet on a monthly basis beginning in January — will be responsible for monitoring construction, listening to community concerns and finding ways to address them, he said.

The first meeting will take aim at noise coming from the construction site "at all hours of the night," Clynes said. The date for that meeting will be announced at a later time, he added.

Since the plan for the station was approved in 2006, several groups have attempted to stop construction from happening, citing concerns of potential pollution, congestion, and street safety.

This summer, Pledge 2 Protect submitted more than 15,000 letters to the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, urging the agency to reconsider renewing the permits needed by the City Department of Sanitation's to continue construction.

But ultimately, the permits were renewed. Construction of the station started in 2013.

Both agencies did not respond to requests for comment.

Councilmen Ben Kallos and Dan Garodnick, who've also opposed the project, have introduced a bill that would require the city to monitor the air quality surrounding marine transfer stations.

The 10-story transfer station, which will encompass three blocks, is expected to be completed by 2020. The station is designed to collect and transfer waste from four districts of Manhattan.

"Every time I walk by, I see more steel and concrete," Clynes said. "We're hoping for the best — that it doesn’t go forward, but we must prepare for the worst in the case it does move forward."

Issue:

Marine Transfer Station

Our Town Kallos’s State of the District by DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 04:12:09 +0000

Our Town

Kallos’s State of the District

http://www.ourtownny.com/local-news/20160112/kalloss-state-of-the-district

DANIEL FITZSIMMONS

01/12/2016

East side councilmember wants to meet every person in the district

Councilmember Ben Kallos touted his office’s work with constituents on housing issues in his recent state of the district address, and looked forward to several initiatives in 2016.

“As a constituent and advocate myself, then candidate, and now council member, I have always been frustrated with how government can be opaque, closed, unaccountable and broken,” said Kallos, addressing a room of community leaders and residents at Memorial Sloan Kettering on East 67th Street. “What if we started to change all that - empowering our community - what would that look like?”

Kallos said his constituent services team and roughly a dozen graduate students in social work have helped more than 4,000 people in his district, and that legal clinics supplied by his office have provided individual counsel to nearly 250 other constituents, “who are trying to stay in their homes or get heat back in their apartments.”

He also revealed a lofty goal: to personally meet all 168,413 people who live in his district.

Kallos said his team worked with constituents facing everything from poor conditions to evictions, with the goal of protecting housing in the district. “I grew up here; I want to raise a family and grow old here, too,” said Kallos. “We must protect our affordable and public housing, and combat the forces of overdevelopment.”

One of Kallos’ signature achievements occurred when he, Borough President Gale Brewer and State Senator Liz Krueger opposed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan, which called for adding height to the contextual height caps that allow for the East Side’s quiet side streets. “We opposed the measure…so developers wouldn’t tear down rent stabilized buildings to get more height,” said Kallos. “And the Department of City Planning heard us, and agreed to protect the midblock.”

Midblock buildings in the district are capped at 75 feet, Kallos said.

Fighting superscrapers has also been a theme for Kallos. When residents of the Sutton Place alerted his office to a proposed 90-story building in the neighborhood, he said, his office worked with local residents to form the East River Fifties Alliance.

“Under the leadership of President Alan Kersh, the alliance has worked with our office to organize the community behind an effort to rezone the neighborhood to draw the line on billionaires row at residential neighborhoods,” he said. “Integral to this community effort are Herndon Werth, the ‘Sage of Sutton,’ and Charles Fernandez, who have rejected buyouts and resisted harassment, and stayed in their apartments, saying the light and air and history of our neighborhood are too important to demolish for a superscraper.”

Kallos said all of these campaigns, whether they’re local or citywide, “are meant to address the issues that you have brought me and my team.”

But, Kallos noted, the best is yet to come.

He said he plans, as chair of the Committee on Governmental Operations, to continue to focus on improving democracy, transparency, and increasing access to government resources.

Kallos touted legislation he’s sponsoring that would provide government benefits to everybody who qualifies automatically, with no application or renewal required, using information the government already has to increase efficiency and reduce bureaucracy.

Kallos’ said in the meantime his office can already help residents get the benefits they’re entitled through a 25-minute screening process at his office or online at nyc.gov/ACCESSNYC.

“Whether or not you have a title, all of us in this room are leaders in some aspect of this neighborhood and city,” concluded Kallos. “Whether on the community board, your neighborhood association, your building, your PTA, or in your home, your experience and expertise in our community can bring value to the rest of us. Thank you for your partnership and I hope to see you over the next year as we work to make the Fifth Council District and New York City an even better place to live.”

Issue:

Affordable Housing

Community

Education

Elections

Environment

Good Government

Health

Israel

Jobs

Marine Transfer Station

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Roosevelt Island

Second Avenue Subway Construction

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Other

DNAinfo.com Friends of UES Woman Killed By Dump Truck Demand More Street Safety by Shaye Weaver

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 04:02:26 +0000

DNAinfo.com

Friends of UES Woman Killed By Dump Truck Demand More Street Safety

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160323/yorkville/friends-of-ues-woman-killed-...

Shaye Weaver

03/23/2016

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Councilman Ben Kallos, who both showed up to the vigil, spoke against the marine transfer station, saying it would only worsen the situation.

"People in the community pass on, but it should not happen because of bad public policy," Brewer said about the marine transfer station.

"The tragedy of all of this is that it won't be one private garbage truck, but hundreds an hour, driving through the side streets of the neighborhood, where they don't belong," Kallos added. "How many more deaths will it take? We need to make sure Jodi McGrath is the last person this happens to."

https://assets.dnainfo.com/generated/photo/2016/03/dsc6617-1458738883.jp...

Issue:

Marine Transfer Station

Our Town Waste Hauling Rules Could Change by Madeleine Thompson

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:42:05 +0000

Our Town

Waste Hauling Rules Could Change

http://www.nypress.com/local-news/20160907/waste-hauling-rules-could-change/1

Madeleine Thompson

09/07/2016

Councilman Ben Kallos said he has written a letter to DSNY Commissioner Kathryn Garcia requesting more information about the plan.

“The big concern that many constituents have is whether or not commercial carters as part of a franchising system would be required to dump in the neighborhoods that they pick up, or whether they might use this marine transfer station to force all the private carters who have franchises for Manhattan to dump on the Upper East Side,” Kallos said.

http://www.nypress.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=NP&Date=20160907&Catego...

Issue:

Marine Transfer Station