Technology

A Manhattan city councilman is looking to end the game of hide-and-seek that faces drivers whose cars are towed because of temporary parking restrictions.

A bill introduced Thursday by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side) would let owners find out where their car was moved by calling 311 or consulting the Department of Transportation’s website.

Councilman Ben Kallos is expected to introduce legislation today that would allow residents to get information on the locations of vehicles towed due to temporary parking restrictions by accessing the Department of Transportation's website or calling 311. 
Currently, according to Kallos, that is only possible for vehicles taken to impound lots for regular parking violations. When vehicles are moved to a surrounding block due to construction without the owners' knowledge, the police may have no record of it, Kallos said, and owners are told to search surrounding blocks or contact construction crews who may have left.

Kallos and James propose that Comcast fix the loopholes in Internet Essentials so that all low-income New Yorkers are eligible. But the most striking feature of their request is that Comcast should offer free broadband to all New York City public housing residents. Two weeks ago, California's equivalent of the PSC, the Public Utilities Commission, approved the merger with similar conditions such as expanding Internet Essentials to all low-income Californians and setting an enrollment quota for the program., Notably, California's conditions were lacking the requirement for free Internet in public housing. Even so, Comcast reeled at California's requirements, calling them intrusive and unrealistic.

"New York City is the landlord for nearly half a million New Yorkers living in 178,000 public housing units," says Kallos. "With the digital divide so big and income inequality being one of the primary causes, we need to make sure that every single New Yorker has access to the Internet. And that starts with our very low income living in public housing."

A Manhattan councilman is calling on Mayor de Blasio to do more to combat illegal hotels, saying they pose a threat to tourists and neighbors alike.

In a Feb. 16 letter to the city’s Department of Information Technology, Upper East Side Councilman Ben Kallos urged the agency to provide more public information on complaints about illegal hotels and apartment owners that use sites like Airbnb and requested that 311 create a specific category for people to lodge complaints.

With the data available these days, there is no shortage of app ideas and app makers. In cities like New York, which have a robust civic technology community, hacknights to dive into government data and solve civic problems are held on a regular basis.

While the creation of apps, and the push by civic technologists for even more data, is common, getting those apps picked up and used by cities and citizens is a different story. There are a variety of roadblocks, many involving government regulations not designed for the 21st century.

Bureaucracy is set up to say "no" to disruption. Often, mechanisms are in place to protect a city from fraud and corruption. But in a time when technological advances far outpace the speed of government, innovation can be stifled and frustration rampant.

So how do you prepare the next wave of civic innovators to deal with the "no" machine? Furthermore, how do you create and design a project that will not only benefit citizens, but also get a "yes" from government and its constituents?

Until recently those answers have been hard to come by for people without government experience. But the GovLab at NYU is working to change that. On March 2 the GovLab Academy will offer an eight-week course on civic tech for local elected officials and their staff members. The class will meet online every other Monday and include one-on-one coaching sessions.

Nueva York  -  Los taxistas amarillos de la Gran Manzana pronto podrán competir al mismo nivel con las compañías Uber y Lyft, gracias a una propuesta de ley para crear una aplicación de internet que permita a todos los neoyorquinos tener acceso a pedir cualquier taxi público, ya sea amarillo o verde, desde su celular.

La propuesta introducida este lunes por el concejal Ben Kallos crearía una aplicación universal gratis para solicitar cualquiera de los 13,637 taxis amarillos y los 6,000 verdes que actualmente operan en los cinco condados, similar a la que usan las compañías por internet Uber y Lyft. La idea es crear una “competencia justa” en una industria donde ambas partes se han acusado de crear un monopolio.

“Los taxis de la ciudad necesitan su propia aplicación para competir y los neoyorquinos necesitan poder pedir un taxi sin temor a una alza en los precios”, sostuvo Kallos, quien era programador de software antes de convertirse en concejal.

TLC mum on universal e-hail app

The Taxi and Limousine Commission is mum so far on Manhattan Councilman (and software designer) Ben Kallos' bill to create a universal e-hail app for yellow cabs. The bill would require the TLC to contract out the creation of the new app, which could allow popular apps like Uber and Lyft to extend their business to the city's coveted fleet of 13,437 yellow taxis.

Since last May, people have had the choice of hailing a cab by extending their hand or through their smartphones, and the traditional street hail overwhelmingly remains the preferred method.

But with competition from black car services through tech companies like Uber and Lyft, Council member Ben Kallos said it’s time the city created its own app for yellow cabs.

“New Yorkers should be able to get where they need to go in a New York minute in their most trusted transportation source,” Kallos said. This week, Kallos proposed a bill that would require the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) to create or contract out the making of a city-branded e-hail app.

There’s a new chapter in the ongoing drama between ridesharing services like Uber and New York City.

City Council member Ben Kallos announced a bill on Monday that would authorize the creation of a city-sponsored app allowing users to hail a ride from any of the city’s traditional cabs from the ease of their phone.

The bill would in effect create a massive new competitor for rideshare drivers in an attempt to level the playing field between independent drivers and the traditional taxicab system.

The latest challenge to car services like Uber came out of City Hall Monday when an Upper East Side council member introduced a bill to create a free city mobile app for yellow and green taxis.

The bill, introduced by Council Member Ben Kallos, would create a universal E-Hail App for the more than 13,000 yellow cabs and 6,000 green cabs throughout the city, he said in a statement.

"City taxis need an app of their own to compete, and New Yorkers should be able to e-hail a cab in the rain without having to worry about surge pricing," Kallos said, adding that the "city must modernize to be able to compete."