“Every child must be safe as they get on and off the school bus. It could be anyone’s child at risk from drivers speeding by and worse yet drivers who have actually driven up on sidewalks," said Council Member Ben Kallos. "We are all in a rush to get where we are going, but there is no excuse to put our children at risk. Stop-arm cameras will catch reckless drivers and automatically issue tickets to keep our children safe." 

Parents in New York City have been shocked by a series of high profile instances of drivers around the City caught on video going around stopped school buses. The law will allow the city to install  cameras on all of the city's nearly 10,000 school buses with footage sent for review by the police who will issue violations to the owner of the vehicle. The law is set to sunset in 3 years, though when it works, it will likely be extended.

According to the NYS Association of School Pupil Transportation, in a study cited by the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee as part of Operation Safe Stop, last year an estimated 50,000 drivers throughout New York State illegally passed a stopped school bus every day. Additionally, a study by the National Safety Council showed that 70 percent of deaths related to school buses occur outside of the bus, and it's been found that more school-age pedestrians have been killed during the hour before and after school than any other time of day.

During a one-month (26 school day) pilot by the East Meadow School District in nearby Nassau County (conducted by BusPatrol and the Logan Bus Company), 10 school buses captured 615 violations for an average of about 2.3 violations per bus per day (615 violations on 10 buses over 26 school days). Using that violation rate in modeling the New York City school bus fleet, that has roughly 10,000 buses, we can expect to see an estimated 23,000 violations per day or 4.2 million violations per school year in the city.

While it’s already illegal in New York to pass a stopped school bus, it previously was required that a police officer had to witness the violation to issue a ticket. But the state earlier this year enacted a law that allows localities and school districts to install cameras on school bus arms that capture the license plates of cars that pass stopped buses.

The photos are sent to law enforcement, who determine whether a violation occurred. Tickets are then sent to the vehicle owner. Though the vehicle owners are fined, there are no moving violations or points issued. In other states that allow such technology, repeat offenders are virtually non-existent.

Kallos' bill would require the Department of Education and the Office of Pupil Transport to install stop-arm cameras on all nearly 10,000 school buses.

Under the legislation, the NYPD’s Parking Violation Bureau would enforce fines for first-time offenders ranging from $250 to $275 and $300 for second and third offenders. The bill also requires that some of the funds recouped from the fines be given to the New York City Department of Education. 

Once passed the legislation will take effect immediately, requiring the City to issue a Request for Proposal for vendors who could install the cameras most efficiently and cost-effectively.

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“Outdoor dining is a welcome change in our urban environment that is beautifying and activating streets that had gone empty for far too long. We are cutting the red tape to make it easier for restaurants to renew and new owners to take over sidewalk cafes,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it came right from a small business owner, as an example of a bureaucratic problem, that seemed stupid not to fix. Thank you to the New York Hospitality Alliance for hosting opportunities for small businesses to meet with elected officials so that we can work together to foster a better environment for small businesses to thrive.”

The legislation will require the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services and the Department of Small Business Services to expand the data in the quarterly Minority- and Women- Owned Business Enterprise (“M/WBE”) report to include the change in the number of certified M/WBE firms and certified Emerging Business Enterprise (“EBE”) firms in each industry classification since the most recent M/WBE disparity study and the percentage increase for such firms since the previous quarter.   The bill would also require the division’s updated vendor directory to be submitted to the Council at the same time it is sent to contracting agencies.

The policy will improve disparity analysis of the utilization of M/WBEs in New York City procurement activity which compare City relates to the availability of M/WBEs in the larger market area.

On June 20, 2019, Council Member Ben Kallos chaired a Contracts Committee hearing on the disparities study, highlighting that a decade ago, Asian Americans providing professional services were doing so well in getting subcontracts on city jobs that the 2012 City of New York Disparities Study found there was no longer a disparity and their inclusion in the city’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program was no longer necessitated.  As result the removal of Asian American-owned professional services was enacted as Local Law 1 of 2013. In the years the followed, Asian American-owned professional service lost their market share to the point that the 2018 City of New York Disparity Study found that for professional services “Asian American-owned firms were underutilized, with a substantial and statistically significant disparity index of 45.33.”

If you own a business and may qualify as an MWBE, you can learn more here: https://www1.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/description/minority-and-womenowned-business-enterprise-certification-program-mwbe

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New York, NY – More than 37,000 New York City homes on Airbnb will have to be registered with the City thanks to a new law by Council Member Ben Kallos that passed the City Council, and which the Mayor is likely to sign. As the city seeks to recover from the pandemic, New York City hotels sat empty losing $4 billion in revenue while Airbnb posted its highest ever revenue of $2.2 billion, thanks in part to 37,274 listings in New York City. 19,782 of Airbnb’s listings are for entire homes, many of which may be illegal and are only exacerbating the affordable housing crisis. The legislation authored by Kallos with TenantsPAC would cover any short-term rental host as well as any platform that facilitates payments, including companies like Booking.com, HomeAway, FlipKey, and VRBO.

“Housing should be for New Yorkers. Hotels should be for tourists. We need every apartment being listed illegally on Airbnb back on the market to help our affordable housing crisis. At a time when hotels are closing or sitting there empty it is crazy to see apartments all over the city getting converted into illegal Airbnbs,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “Thank you to Tenants PAC and the Coalition Against Illegal Hotels for their expertise and assistance in getting this important legislation drafted and introduced.”

"The Coalition Against Illegal Hotels and our city and state legislative allies have worked for years on this bill. It's been a long time coming but once it goes into effect it will make it impossible for bad actor landlords to misuse our scarce rental housing for short-term profit. Once again we prevailed over Airbnb despite all its money. They will be back in Albany next year once again trying to weaken our rental housing laws, and we are prepared to do battle with them once again. So far Airbnb is batting zero," said Michael McKee, leader of Tenants PAC.

The nearly 20,000 “entire homes or apartments” listed on Airbnb might be illegal if they are in buildings with 3 or more apartments, according to state law. State law only allows short term rentals for less than 30 days, where the resident is home at the time. These laws are enforced in New York City by the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), however, due to various issues including legal challenges to the existing reporting requirements, it has been practically impossible to enforce this law in New York City.

Prior to the pandemic, reports surfaced of multi-million dollar short-term rental schemes by unscrupulous individuals who rented apartments to “tens of thousands of guests for 55,331 nights over three years across 35 different buildings.” This was one egregious case where the current law worked, but as the data reveals, these abuses remain a growing issue.

Under the law, homeowners and tenants would be required to register their homes or apartments with the city. Applicants would be required to certify that they are the owner or tenant, to designate an area for guests, certify that hosting does not violate the terms of their lease or the law, and provide the URL for any listings. All advertisements would be required to include a valid registration number.

For hosts, the city would confirm that the home is not in public housing, a rent regulated apartment, or city subsidized housing, or on the “prohibited buildings list” where the owners or management have forbidden short-term rentals. Upon receiving an application, the city would also notify the owners of record for the home. As referenced, building owners, condominium associations, and cooperative boards could put themselves on a “prohibited buildings list.” In addition, a list of all registration numbers, URLs, addresses, and expiration dates would be available in open data.

Platforms that list homes for registered hosts would also be required to register with the city, list registration numbers, verify registration numbers prior to processing transactions, and obtain a confirmation of verification for each transaction.

Fines for hosts would range from $1,000 to the lesser of $5,000 or three times revenue from illegal rentals. Fines for platforms would be limited to the higher of $1,500 or the total fees collected from illegal transactions.

This registration system is modeled on similar systems in other cities like San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, and most recently, Santa Monica.

“New York City – and its housing – belongs to New Yorkers. For too long, bad actors have robbed our housing stock of affordable units in order to turn a profit on illegal short-term rentals. In 2018, I worked with the Mayor on groundbreaking legislation to address this issue, finally bringing accountability to corporate tenants who haven’t been good neighbors, and returning affordable housing to the communities that need it most,” said co-prime sponsor Council Member Carlina Rivera. “Int. 2309 is our clear next step in addressing illegal short-term rentals. By requiring hosts to register short-term rentals with the City and submit their registration number to home sharing platforms before listing, this bill protects both our affordable housing and legal operators of short-term rentals.”

“Every illegal short-term rental in our city represents a unit of housing that is not available for real New Yorkers to live in, and in the middle of a global pandemic and an ongoing affordable housing crisis, the city must do everything it can to stop this harmful practice. Enforcement of our short-term rental laws is critical, but has been extraordinarily difficult in spite of the heroic efforts of the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. So I am very pleased that Council Member Kallos, Speaker Johnson, and Mayor de Blasio worked closely with residents and housing advocates to create a registration system that will provide vital information to identify and stop illegal rentals,”  said State Senator Liz Krueger (D-Upper East Side).

“The Coalition Against Illegal Hotels has been working for four years to write, introduce, and pass 2309. This legislation will preserve NYC’s affordable housing while at the same time protecting legal home sharing in the city,” said Tom Cayler, of Coalition Against Illegal Hotels & West Side Neighborhood Alliance.  “We applaud Councilman Kallos, the other Council sponsors, and all the neighborhood housing advocacy groups who work so hard to keep New Yorkers in their homes.”  

“As an activist fighting the impact of short-term rentals on residential communities and affordable housing around the world, I applaud the New York City Council for passing this important law that returns valuable housing back to the market and allows New York City to join the likes of Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam with world class legislation that affirms a commitment to the right to housing," said Murray Cox of Inside Airbnb.

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“John Jay Park is a neighborhood gem, and this reconstruction will make it even better with a greener and more vibrant sitting area,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Gabrielle Fialkoff. “Thanks to funding from Council Member Kallos, the new and improved sitting area will better serve as a community gathering space and make an enormous difference in the lives of Upper East Siders who enjoy the park daily.”  

John Jay Park’s sitting area will be completely renovated to provide a more welcoming space for the community. The project will transform the space with new pavement, benches, and drainage, and expand the amount of green space by converting asphalt areas to plant beds. Construction completion is anticipated for Fall 2022.  

The $650,000 project was fully funded by Council Member Ben Kallos. 

“I commend Council Member Kallos and Commissioner Fialkoff on today’s ground breaking to provide improvements to the sitting area in John Jay Park,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “I’m looking forward to enjoying this space and its amenities when construction is completed next year.” 

“The sound of shovels hitting the ground on this project is music to my ears,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “John Jay Park is a beloved piece of our neighborhood, and the $650,000 I allocated for a reconstruction of the pavement and the addition of new benches, drainage and expanded space for new plantings will make this park even more appealing to visitors. Thank you to the East 79th Street Neighborhood Association, especially its founder Betty Cooper Wallerstein, and to all the residents who participated in coming up with the improvements and to the Department of Parks & Recreation for doing a great job in design and getting us to this groundbreaking.”   

Situated on the East River, John Jay Park is named for New York jurist and statesman John Jay (1745-1829). The site’s pool opened between 1940 and 1942 as part of a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project. The park also features a large open area for basketball, tennis, and handball courts, a playground that was fully renovated in 2011, and two welded steel sculptures by artist Douglas Abdell.  

$1 million in funding for this project comes from Council Member Ben Kallos, which was allocated from participatory budgeting that the school won in 2015 and 2016 thanks to the advocacy of the Roosevelt Island Community. Borough President Brewer funded $250,000 and Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright contributed $500,000 to the project.

To win funding through participatory budgeting, the whole Roosevelt Island community worked together to turn out a winning number of votes. Community members that advocated for the project include the PS/IS 217 PTA, Girl Scout Troops 3001 and 3244, Roosevelt Island Garden Club, Roosevelt Island Parents’ Network, Sharon Bermon from the NYPL Roosevelt Island Branch, and community activist Christina Delfico.

“STEM education is a vital part of shaping our future generation of leaders,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “I am excited to celebrate the completion of PS/IS 217’s green roof, which will provide students with the opportunity to play and learn in new ways. I look forward to seeing all that the school is able to accomplish with this space.”

“I am thrilled to be here at the opening of the new educational green roof at PS/IS 217,” said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. “Giving the next generation of leaders the tools to excel in STEM starts in the classroom, and I am proud that our City schools are at the cutting edge of ensuring just that. I thank Councilmember Kallos, Borough President Brewer, and Assemblywoman Seawright for our ongoing partnership in ensuring New York City’s students are at the forefront of learning.”

“I’m excited to be able to celebrate the completion of the green roof at PS/IS 217, a project that will provide educational space to learn about the importance of protecting our environment,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “I know that this space will benefit students for years to come by acting as a learning hub for 21st century skills and advancing scientific and environmental knowledge, in addition to supporting our city’s climate resiliency efforts by keeping the roof cooler, acting as an insulator, saving heating and cooling costs, helping to protect the school from environmental wear and tear, as well as reduce noise.”

“As a member of the Assembly Education Committee, proud public school parent and former PTA activist, I was please to award PS/IS 217 on Roosevelt Island with $500,000 for the creation of a Green Roof and construction of a STEM learning Hub. Our students deserve a safe place to learn and play. I commend Principal Mandana Beckman, school leadership, and PTA for seeing this through for the benefit of students and educations at PS/IS 217,” said Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright.

“This green roof provides flexible outdoor classroom space for educational gardening, theater and performing arts, and general student education, and recreation,” SCA President and CEO Nina Kubota said. “It’s a great example of the SCA’s steadfast commitment to provide enhanced educational services and better facilities for the City’s kids and the teachers and staff who serve them.”

“So many people had a small role in making a big impact,” says local sustainability advocate Christina Delfico. “This roof top project proves that community, schools, and government can create a sea of wide open green space to excite students in every subject of learning.”

PS/IS 217 is a New York Public School on Roosevelt Island located at 645 Main St, New York, NY 10044.

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$1.2 million in funding for this project comes from Council Member Ben Kallos, $500,000 of which was allocated from participatory budgeting, which the school won in 2015 thanks to the advocacy of the student and parent community. Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright contributed $125,000 to the project. The remaining funding was carried over from a previous capital project.

“As a parent in New York City, I understand the need for more green spaces for our children to run and play safely,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “That is why as a Council Member I have prioritized building green and play roofs and gymnasiums for our students. I am excited for students at YCS to have a safe space to get exercise and sunlight during the school day.”

“We are more than excited to have this new rooftop playground. Thanks to our elected officials and our community, it is coming to fruition. We are maximizing space and creating more outdoor play spaces for our children. They deserve this,” said Yorkville Community School Principal Samantha Kaplan.

“I am thrilled to join with Council Member Kallos in breaking ground on the PS 151,” said Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney. “The COVID-19 crisis made it clear just how important outdoor spaces are for New Yorkers stuck indoors. This new roof will provide an oasis for the students to play and be outdoors. I can’t wait to see the project come to completion next year.”

“As a member of the Assembly Education Committee, proud public school parents and former PTA activist I was please to award PS151 Yorkville Community School with $125,000 for the construction of a rooftop play space and garden. Our students deserve a safe space to learn and play. I commend Principal Samantha Kaplan, school leadership, and PTA for seeing this through for the Yorkville Community School community,” said Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright.

Yorkville Community School (P.S. 151) is a New York Public School located at 421 East 88^th St, New York, NY 10128.

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The funding for this public-school project comes from Council Member Ben Kallos. $500,000 will go to converting a section of a library into the maker space and $937,000 will turn a basement area into an art studio.

“The talented students at East Side Middle School are going to have new opportunities to explore their interests and exercise their creativity with the maker space and dance studio,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “When I was in school, my favorite part was learning about how technology works hands on, and I wish I had something like this maker space. The students at East Side Middle School never cease to amaze me, and I can’t wait to see how they use these new spaces.”

East Side Middle School (MS 114) is a New York City public school located at 331 East 91^st Street. Their mission statement includes: “We are also driven to create a school environment in which our students can pursue their talents and dreams and ambitions, their ‘element.’"

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Despite us not yet having reached a deal I could support, the Land Use Committee voted to approve a modified version of the project, which would be built in the district I represent. To pave the way for this vote, which bucked “member deference,” much was done to paint me as an unreasonable NIMBY and the blood supply as at risk.

My Community Board and I have never opposed a rezoning before. In fact we voted Yes In My Back Yard to a homeless shelter three blocks from where I live and multiple rezonings, including a four-city-block-long life sciences project at Rockefeller University and expanding Hospital for Special Surgery. We cut the ribbon on the Belfer Research Tower, Memorial Sloan Kettering Tower at 74th Street, and acres of space for Cornell Tech. We are building two new towers for the Hospital for Special Surgery on 79th Street and at 71st Street over the FDR Drive.

I have always been willing to build the Blood Center a new building and our blood supply has never been at risk, because they are only permitted by the FDA to test and distribute blood from its complexes in Long Island City just over a mile away and on Long Island — not from the Upper East Side. These sites are part of a vast network of buildings that allows the Blood Center to compete with the Red Cross across 17 states.

In fact, the final changes I was asking for on behalf of my constituents, which would have gotten us to a deal, only affected the commercial tower, which takes up two thirds of the new building.

That commercial space is being propped up by a 30-foot mechanical floor and ultra-luxury, double-height ceiling heights. Perhaps that’s because Longfellow’s trademark office service, Elevate, boasts of offering tenants “curated amenities” from spa treatments and yoga to free-flowing beer and wine, because in Longfellow’s words, “No one goes to work just to work anymore…”

The gap we could not cross in our negotiations was how high these money-making spaces would rise, not how many floors or how large the floors would be — all of that would be unchanged. We simply asked Longfellow to move 30 feet of mechanical equipment from the middle of the building to the roof and lower their ceiling heights from 18 feet to a more reasonable but still tall 14 feet. In exchange, they would be allowed an additional 50,000 square feet on top of the rezoning we are voting on today.

This generous offer was rejected because Longfellow wanted more valuable commercial space and because the Mayor and special interests wanted to prove a point: local Council Members don’t matter anymore and can no longer represent their communities.

I am grateful to the community members and colleagues who stood by me and helped us get the building down from 334 feet to 233 feet largely by reducing the height of empty spaces in the original 16-story building.

Though I remain frustrated that my community and I didn’t have a seat at the table as Mayor Bill de Blasio himself negotiated the project for developers represented by lobbyists, Kramer Levin, whom he owes more than $250,000 dollars for keeping him out of jail. The community has demanded investigations, the Mayor should have recused himself and still hasn’t answered if and when he will ever repay this five year old debt.

Only after the committee vote, we learned about the enormous bill this project is going to put on taxpayers. In addition to the 300,000 square feet of air rights for Longfellow, valued at $300 million, the Mayor is giving Longfellow, a Boston-based for-profit developer, $450 million in tax breaks, that’s $750 million in subsidies.

We still don’t have binding community benefit agreements and the promised restrictive declaration fails to do what the Mayor prmised.

The Council rejected Amazon over a $3 billion subsidy and this near billion-dollar giveaway to Longfellow for six floors of commercial space should get the same scrutiny.

The current project is only 12 stories, but it is 233 feet tall. That’s because more than half the building, 118 feet, comes from ceiling heights of 18, 20, and even 30 feet tall.

I led this Council in capping heights on mechanical floors in residential buildings at 20 feet. I don’t see how we can support a building with a 30-foot mechanical floor.

Approval from the full Council, would create a blueprint for deep-pocketed developers to get what they want. Don’t be fooled into thinking this will work for affordable housing developers, homeless services, faith-based groups, or non-profit providers.

The community filed a Protest whose sole purpose is to defeat spot zonings like this one that should force the full City Council to achieve a 75% majority of 39 yes votes to pass this rezoning. No matter the outcome, I am committed to working with the Blood Center on a new building.

I am asking you my colleagues to honor member deference and oppose the Longfellow Commercial Tower proposal from the Blood Center by voting NO on Land Use items 864, 865, and 866, and Resolutions 1815, 1816, and 1817.

During my time in office, I have been proud to support the expansion of the life-science sector in my district. 

I negotiated a 3 city block expansion of the Rockefeller University campus over the FDR Drive which has resulted in $50 million investment in a crumbling waterfront. I also helped secure $9 million to open a new biotech incubator we first thought of back on New Years Day 2014. I cut the ribbon on the Cornell Tech campus, the Belfer Research Building. We opened a new Memorial Sloan Kettering vertical campus on 74th Street, are expanding HSS over the FDR with a new 30-story medical tower on 79th Street and 1st Avenue, and a newly announced hospital building on 74th Street. Just to name a few and that’s not an exhaustive list. Each project involved working closely with the community whether as-of-right or through a discretionary process.

From the beginning of this process, we have agreed that we have an important opportunity to update and upgrade the New York Blood Center so it can continue to be a vital asset to our city. I have believed that the best way to achieve this vision would be through a significantly modified building from the Commercial Office Tower that the Blood Center proposed.

The developers made the unprecedented choice to skip working with the local community board, elected officials, and instead put all their efforts into overturning “member deference” now and forever.

This is the first rezoning where no changes were made at the Community Board or for the Borough President. The first change was offered at the first and only Zoning hearing just last month where more than one hundred residents came out in opposition, along with every single elected official Congress Member Carolyn Maloney, State Senator Liz Krueger, and Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright. 

After more than five separate requests, the developer finally came to the table this Monday. Only after skipping a meeting in the afternoon, did they show up to meet in the evening. We had two more meetings on Tuesday evening. In a Council where land-use projects are often negotiated to the last moment, the developer once again refused to negotiate. We had more conversations in 36 hours than we did in the preceding 36 months.

We came close to a win-win for both sides, but we haven’t gotten there. There remain modest changes to this building, moving a 30-foot mechanical void to the roof, lowering extra luxury 20-foot ceiling heights to something more reasonable, and a contextual height limit to protect against a 500-foot tower that can now be built as-of-right, all of which would have zero programmatic impact on the Blood Center and its partners while getting us to a building that would work for my constituents.

Ultimately, these remaining changes were rejected, and I have to vote “no” on this proposal.

Today’s outcome sets a troubling precedent for council members’ ability to win for the city and their constituents. With today’s vote, we become a City where real estate developers are only emboldened to sidestep the concerns of the communities in which they build.

The longstanding tradition of “member deference,” has been in place to give New Yorkers in 51 council districts across 5 boroughs a voice at the table with the developers who seek to reshape their neighborhoods. 

Thanks to a rarely invoked Charter 200(a)(3) protest filed by buildings included in this spot zoning, when this project comes to a vote of the full council, it will require a ¾ supermajority to pass. I urge my colleagues to consider the precedent we are setting and vote with their conscience. As I have said before, and I will say again, no matter the outcome of the vote, we will work with the Blood Center to build a new modern facility.

Council Member Ben Kallos is the author of the Retirement Security for All law covering New York City.

"After more than a decade of fighting for workers to have a right to retire, every worker in New York State will have access to a retirement account. Whether through a plan their employer already offers or when they get automatically enrolled in the Secure Choice plan just signed into law.

"When Governor Cuomo adopted 'Secure Choice' in the 2018 budget, it didn't include auto-enrollment, and it was no surprise that with fierce opposition from an industry filled with his donors, that even years later it was never implemented.

"When we passed my 'Retirement Security for All' law for New York City workers, we included the provision that if the state did the right thing our plan would sunset. After all, this is about helping as many New Yorkers as possible.

"Thank you to Kathy Hochul, it is refreshing to have a Governor who cares more about people than Wall Street. A special thank you to Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez who has been fighting for this program for years.

"The bottom line is this law is going to help lift the next generation of workers and their families out of poverty as they are able to save, and see their savings grow, and one day retire."

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