Community

For the first time since 2008, The New York Public Library will receive an increase in city operating funds. Thanks to Mayor Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and the New York City Council, the City's libraries will receive a $10 million increase in funding, of which $4.4 million will go to the NYPL. 

Thank you to the following elected officials who allocated capital funding for library projects in the FY15 budget.

• Mayor Bill de Blasio
• Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
• Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.
• Borough President Gale Brewer
• Borough President James Oddo
• Council Member Maria del Carmen Arroyo
• Council Member Margaret Chin
• Council Member Andrew Cohen
• Council Member Inez Dickens
• Council Member Corey Johnson
• Council Member Ben Kallos
• Council Member Andy King
• Council Member Mark Levine
• Council Member Steven Matteo
• Council Member James Vacca

On July 22, Council Member Ben Kallos visited the 67th Street Library to say hello to the children participating in the branch's Science Explorers program. Science Explorers is an afternoon of fun science exploration when children read stories and basic non-fiction text to learn about early science concepts. Following the reading, participants conduct experiments or create art relating to the week's topic. 

Last week, the newly elected Ben Kallos introduced a bill that would lower the minimum age for Community Board members from 18 years old to 16 years old. According to Kallos, allowing more teens the chance to sit on the governing bodies, which don't make laws but do advise the city on neighborhood matters such as zoning, traffic, liquor licenses, and budgets, will "lay the groundwork for a lifetime of civic engagement."

22 council members will now take part in participatory budgeting, up from 10 currently. Each council member will have at least $1 million to dole out to projects that their district votes for in next year’s budget. In total, more than $25 million will be spent on future projects, Ms. Mark-Viverito said.

Began in 2011 with just four council members (Ms. Mark-Viverito, not yet the speaker, was one of them), the program is now enticing many council members from the body’s liberal wing and even a handful of moderates. Many freshmen lawmakers are also getting involved, including Council members Andrew Cohen, Paul Vallone, Mark Levine, Carlos Menchaca, Daneek Miller, Ritchie Torres, Mark Treyger, Corey Johnson, Mark Treyger, Ben Kallos and Helen Rosenthal.

Newly elected Council Member Ben Kallos, who had also made such a pledge, joined the nine other districts with his own truncated PB process after taking office in January of 2014, making for ten total participating districts in FY2014.

The ten districts were those represented by repeaters Lander, Mark-Viverito, Williams, Ulrich, Weprin, Levin, Greenfield; and first-timers Kallos, Gonzalez (replaced by Menchaca), and Donovan Richards.

Now, as the FY2015 process is underway, Gotham Gazette has confirmed that the ten council districts in which council members dedicated funds to PB last year will again run the program, while at least ten other council members have committed to initiate the process. These new confirmations include Council Members Corey Johnson, Dan Garodnick, Helen Rosenthal, Mark Levine, Andrew Cohen, Ritchie Torres, Jimmy Van Bramer, Daneek Miller, Antonio Reynoso, and Mark Treyger.

Residents as young as 16 would be able to take seats on the city’s 59 community boards if a movement in the State Legislature to lower the age of eligibility is successful.

This week, the City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee voted unanimously to approve a resolution introduced by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side) at the suggestion of Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer that calls on the full council to support a bill in the State Legislature that would amend the state’s Public Officers Law and would allow for a change in the City Charter to allow young people to serve.

Aspiring policy wonks as young as 16 could serve on their local community boards under a resolution passed Wednesday by the City Council.

The Council is asking Albany to let 16- and 17-year-old serve on the local boards, which weigh in on zoning changes, liquor licenses, and sidewalk cafes in their neighborhoods.

Currently, the minimum age for the 51 local panels representing neighborhoods across the city is 18.

“Youth deserve a voice on their local community boards. These boards deal with issues that affect their daily lives and the neighborhoods that they live in,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), the sponsor of the resolution.

The City Council is considering a measure that would lower the minimum-age requirement -- from 18 to 16 -- for anyone serving on NYC's 59 community boards.

Sixteen-year-olds may have the unfortunate reputation of being too self-absorbed, even being troublemakers. At 16, I was definitely of the troublemaking variety.

Upper East Side Residents of District 5 have just been handed a blank check.

Councilman Ben Kallos announced his office is taking part in an abbreviated participatory budgeting program with $1 million available to spend.

Under normal circumstances, a council member taking part in participatory budgeting – where constituents vote on how to spend a certain amount of money in the district – gets seven months to hear and vote on proposals from the community. Because Kallos took office in January, however, the process is being expedited.

UPPER EAST SIDE — New playground equipment at theStanley Isaacs Houses, handrails that will help seniors navigate the steps at Carl Schurz Park, and an updated cooling system at the67th Street Library where many people take refuge during the hot summer months.

All of these proposals could go from wish list to reality through Councilman Ben Kallos’s participatory budgeting program.