UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — New York City should explore utilizing storefronts and schools that have gone vacant during the coronavirus pandemic as emergency child care centers when public schools reopen in the fall, an Upper East Side City Councilman proposed this week.

Using vacant retail space and buildings of independent schools that have closed or won't offer in-person learning next year will help public school parents maintain their full-time jobs when schools reopen in the fall, City Councilmember Ben Kallos wrote in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and School Chancellor Richard Carranza. The New York Daily News first reported on Kallos' proposal.