Upper East Side Patch

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side school that is largely starved of outdoor space will soon have some on its own roof, thanks to millions pledged by local lawmakers — and voted on by neighbors.

Officials gathered Monday at the Yorkville Community School/P.S. 151, where work began during the pandemic on a $2.5 million outdoor play space on top of the building. It will be completed next year.

About half of the funding came from Councilmember Ben Kallos's office, including $500,000 that was chosen by Kallos's constituents in 2015 through his participatory budgeting process.

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Upper East Side's popular John Jay Park soon will have its sitting area transformed, thanks to a $650,000 project that broke ground on Wednesday.

The project is the first major renovation effort at the FDR Drive park since 2011.

Council Member Ben Kallos and parks officials said the sitting area project — which began planning in 2018 — will bring it up to the level of its playground, outdoor sports open area and New Deal-era swimming pool.

Council Member Ben Kallos has proposed legislation to make sure sheds stand for no more than 90 days. And de Blasio on Wednesday said the city's Department of Buildings is doing more to enforce existing time limits.

Yet still, many remain even on city property such as NYCHA buildings.

What will ultimately matter is whether Kallos's Council colleagues defer to his wishes and vote against it in mid-November, or defy his preferences to support the project — a distinct possibility, according to some reports.

Wednesday's hearing offered few clues. The only other Council members who spoke at length were Manhattan member Keith Powers and Brooklyn lawmaker Antonio Reynoso, whose questions to the Blood Center team offered little indication of how they will ultimately vote.

Reynoso, though, suggested a possible path forward through negotiation.

"I hope that you and Councilmember Kallos can sit more," he told the Blood Center team, "and get to a place where we can all be happy."

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Council Member Ben Kallos made appearances at the mock anniversary and gave remarks. Brewer recently penned a letter to the Department of Buildings to apply pressure on Weinreb Management to take down the scaffolding, and Kallos has authored legislation not yet passed that would stop landlords from keeping scaffolding up for extended periods.

"We were livid. And we still are," one resident of 51 West 86th Street told Patch on the condition of anonymity. "The disregard for the concerns of tenants and for the city laws concerning facade inspections and repairs is staggering."

A new bill proposed Thursday by Council Member Ben Kallos would require all existing apartments to offer free broadband internet access within three years. Newly constructed apartments would also have to be wired for broadband under the bill.

Kallos said the bill will help close a "digital divide" among New Yorkers — 500,000 of whom don't have internet access and struggle to apply for food benefits, work remotely, do homework or book COVID-19 vaccine appointments. He said the internet should be considered a utility.

"I can't make internet a utility, only the FCC can, but I can make it required in everyone's apartment just like heat, electricity, hot water and phone service," he said.

The coronavirus pandemic put the internet's necessity into stark relief.

Find out what's happening in New York City with free, real-time updates from Patch.

MIDTOWN EAST, NY – An East Side police precinct cut the ribbon Wednesday on a new, state-of-the-art mobile command center, replacing the beaten-up van that the cops had formerly relied on.

The 17th Precinct, which patrols much of Midtown East between East 30th and 59th Streets, purchased the enormous vehicle thanks to a $500,000 allocation from City Councilmember Ben Kallos.

In a ceremony Wednesday morning, Kallos said he secured the funding for the 2019 city budget after the precinct's former commanding officer complained about their former command center: a run-down contraption that Kallos called "basically an over-glorified Winnebago, with chairs and not much else."

"My hope is that it will offer folks the tools they need for modern policing, to keep all of us safe," Kallos said, pointing to the 17th Precinct's recent responsibilities during the high-security UN General Assembly.

When Patch stopped by on Tuesday, four gas-powered cars were occupying the spots, joined by a single electric car: a Tesla SUV. But that Tesla, the neighbor said, has hogged one of the power cords for at least two straight days — far longer than its necessary charging time, and raising its own enforcement issues.

Reached for comment, City Councilmember Ben Kallos suggested that the NYPD may need to begin issuing fines to drivers who disobey the rules.

"As a City, we need to ingrain the concept that charging stations must be respected and that they are not just parking spots for any car," Kallos said in a statement. "I plan to work with the NYPD and the Department of Transportation to get this fixed asap."

Ben Kallos attends a ribbon-cutting on the East River Esplanade in April 2019. His monthly First Friday event will be held in-person this week for the first time since the pandemic began. (Jeffrey WZ Reed/New York City Council)

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — For the first time since the pandemic began, a local lawmaker's popular monthly forum will be held in-person again.

City Councilmember Ben Kallos's "First Friday" discussion — held, as the name suggests, at the start of each month — will return 8 a.m. Friday.

Rather than over Zoom, it will be held at Ruppert Park. (In case of rain, it will go virtual, but forecasts currently call for clear skies.)

To participate, residents must RSVP online. Questions can also be submitted in advance on the RSVP form, or by email to questions@benkallos.com.

Kallos has held the forums each month since he took office in 2014. Speaking to Patch earlier this winter, Kallos said he hoped whoever succeeds him — now likely to be Julie Menin — would continue the tradition.

"It smells putrid. It smells like trash here," said Kallos, whose district office is a few blocks away.

Kallos speculated that the trucks were heading to the East 91st Street Marine Transfer Station. But a spokesperson for the Department of Sanitation said this was not the case, and that the trucks were congregating for a different reason.