Ben Kallos, Re-Elect to New York City Council in 2017 - Second Avenue Subway Construction

sandra forman

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

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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.”

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Our Town Second Ave. businesses still struggling by Madeleine Thompson

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:32:06 +0000

Our Town

Second Ave. businesses still struggling

http://www.ourtownny.com/local-news/20161025/second-ave-businesses-still-struggl...

Madeleine Thompson

10/25/2016

Unless you’re standing right in front of Maz Mezcal, on E. 86th Street between First and Second Avenues, you’ll probably miss it. The restaurant is hidden from view from most directions, due to extensive fencing and machinery. That’s all part of the construction of the Second Avenue subway, which has had a negative impact on business.

“It’s been horrendous,” said Mary Silva, owner of Maz Mezcal. “Business – at least mine and most everyone’s that I’ve spoken to – has dropped anywhere from 30 to 50 percent.”

In order to offset the financial consequences Maz Mezcal and its peers are facing, the Department of Finance is offering them the opportunity to have any fines forgiven that they’ve racked up during the construction. Council Member Ben Kallos encouraged the community to take advantage of the program, which will allow Second Ave. business owners and buildings to have any penalties and interest voided for violations such as snow on the sidewalk, working without a permit, improper trash disposal and failure to conduct required inspections, among others.

“It’s an opportunity for them to get to square one ahead of some legislation I’ve introduced that would actually put their businesses at risk if they haven’t been good neighbors,” Kallos said.

At Kallos’ press conference last week, Finance Department Commissioner Jacques Jiha said almost 700,000 violations have gone into judgment since the construction on the subway began.

http://www.ourtownny.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=NP&Date=20161025&Cate...

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Second Avenue Subway Construction

New York Times Second Avenue Subway’s Arrival Brings Fear That Rents Will Soar by Emma G. Fitzsimmons

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:22:06 +0000

New York Times

Second Avenue Subway’s Arrival Brings Fear That Rents Will Soar

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/nyregion/second-avenue-subway-rent-worries.htm...

Emma G. Fitzsimmons

12/30/2016

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/12/29/nyregion/00SUBWAY4/00SUBWAY4-...

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/12/29/nyregion/00SUBWAY1/00SUBWAY1-...

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Second Avenue Subway Construction

Motherboard The Underground New Year's Party A Century In The Making by http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/second-avenue-subway-opening-party-photos

Feed — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:22:05 +0000

Motherboard

The Underground New Year's Party A Century In The Making

http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/second-avenue-subway-opening-party-photos

01/05/2017

The New York City subway is the lifeblood of the city, outgoing MTA chairman Thomas Prendergast said the other night—that is, the sort of circulatory system that people tend to move through, drift through like blood cells (5,650,610 each weekday, to be precise), not a place they move to. On New Year’s Eve, it was the opposite: six stories down was the figurative height of urban accomplishment, a gleaming destination unto itself. The crazy idea of launching the Second Avenue Subway at a New Year's Eve party inside a subway station—of launching the subway at all, on deadline—was Governor Cuomo's, said the governor, who was standing on a dais above a crowd of well-dressed revelers and not far from a black sign hanging on the wall that said, miraculously, in white Helvetica letters, “72 STREET. 24 HOUR BOOTH.”

“I said to my family, I said, ‘You know how about this for an idea? We have a New Year’s Eve party in the new subway station.’ And they gave me that look, like you know, ‘There’s crazy Dad again!’ But, I said, ‘This is unlike any subway station you’ve ever seen. You look at this mezzanine level, which subway stations normally don’t have. It’s open, it’s airy. You look at the public art that is in all these stations, it is amazing." Here, the walls were decorated with amusing, live-size mosaic portraits of everyday New Yorkers by artist Vic Muniz, including one of a couple of bulky, bearded Brooklynites holding hands. Cuomo did not mention that, nor did he acknowledge another obvious amazement: the station was litter-free, with not a rat in sight.

http://motherboard-images.vice.com/content-images/article/40925/14835143...

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Second Avenue Subway Construction

joshua orenstein

joshua orenstein — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 08:21:15 +0000

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emmanuel herron

emmanuel herron — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 22:34:21 +0000

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mark giordano

mark giordano — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 21:42:57 +0000

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Council Member Ben Kallos Statement on Second Avenue Construction Worker's Fall

Feed — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 11:21:28 +0000

Second Avenue Subway Construction

Council Member Ben Kallos Statement on Second Avenue Construction Worker's Fall

New York, NY— After reports of a Second Avenue construction worker falling and sustaining injuries, Council Member Ben Kallos, who represents the East Side and Roosevelt Island, released the following statement:

"I am deeply saddened to hear of a construction worker sustaining injuries after falling from a ladder while working on the Second Avenue Subway underground at 69th St. and Second Avenue this morning. My team is in touch with the relevant agencies and will continue to monitor the situation. Thanks to the FDNY for their incredible rescue effort and their bravery. We must do everything we can to ensure the safety of those who work on our critical infrastructure projects. My thoughts and prayers are with him, his family and loved ones, and I wish him a speedy recovery." ###

Crain's New York Doubts raised on Second Avenue subway. Can you believe it? by Erica Davies

Feed — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 16:32:18 +0000

Crain's New York

Doubts raised on Second Avenue subway. Can you believe it?

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20150701/TRANSPORTATION/150709982/doubts-ra...

Erica Davies

07/01/2015

A quartet of politicians—Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Councilmen Daniel Garodnick and Ben Kallos, and Assemblyman Dan Quart—held a press conference Wednesday to warn of five issues that could postpone completion of the first phase of the new subway line. In ascending order of worry, they listed the 69th Street entrance to the 72nd Street station, track installation, electrical work, the project's budget, and—their top concern—the 86th Street entrance.

The Second Avenue subway line has a few more stops before opening in 2016, and East Side elected officials are getting nervous that the oft-delayed project could be set back again.

Problems with the electrical work would delay other aspects and push back the completion date for the entire project, and work on the 86th Street entrance is severely behind schedule, the officials said. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has ordered an increase in manpower and extended work hours to double shifts and weekends for the entrance to open in August 2016 as planned.

Track installation for the subway line is on track, but previously delays have officials worried about a recurrence. An entrance to the 72nd Street station was relocated from a storefront at 301 E. 69th St. to the sidewalk because of technical issues; the entrance has a target completion date of September 2016. Finally, change orders and tight scheduling could increase costs to $45 million a month from $35 million, which would eat into the MTA's contingency funding.

The subway project, which originally was to be completed decades ago, has become infamous for false starts, cost overruns and missed deadlines.

To date, the project has generated $842 million in wages, created 16,000 jobs, and produced $2.87 billion in economic activity, according to Ms. Maloney's office. The first phase of the project will carry more than 200,000 riders daily and alleviate congestion on the Lexington Avenue line, the most overcrowded subway route in the nation.

Despite the red flags, Federal Transit Administration Executive Director Matthew Welbes believes that the MTA can make its December 2016 completion deadline. "Based on our data, the project is trending toward an opening sometime in 2017," he said. "If the MTA does the aggressive schedule management steps planned, they may very well achieve that December date."

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Second Avenue Subway Construction