Newsletters

On July 1st, I marked six months in office. To mark the occasion, I asked you to reach out to me to share your ideas and feedback. Your responses have been illuminating. Many of you shared the issues that matter to you and your families. Many were kind enough to share positive experiences you have had with my office. Many offered ideas for neighborhood issues to address.

Now, we will move forward together:

• To fight the marine transfer station;
• To protect safe, clean and livable streets;
• To use technology to improve New Yorkers' daily lives;
• To promote a transparent, accountable government; 
• To protect tenants' rights and promote affordable housing, especially for seniors; 
• To improve our neighborhood infrastructure and open space; and
• To improve education and invest in our children.

I hope you will join me at First Friday on August 1st from 8AM-10AM at my District Office or Policy Night on Tuesday, August 12th, at 6:30PM at my District Office so we can work together to improve our neighborhood.

Sincerely,

Ben Kallos

This month, our community experienced tragedy in the form of a fatal traffic collision. In moments like these, we come together to mourn and demand action. 

On the East Side, I have piloted a "Livable Streets" program to solicit street information from nearly 60,000 households.  I also held a safety walk along Second Avenue Subway construction in April in order to empower residents to investigate and improve safety along the construction site. 

Last week, the Council passed an 11-bill street safety package, and I will keep working with colleagues and city agencies to make Vision Zero a reality.

Please join us at a Vision Zero forum on June 24 at 6:30PM at Hunter College's Lang Recital Hall co-sponsored with State Senator Liz Krueger and Council Member Dan Garodnick.

You can share dangerous intersections or other safe streets information you have by visiting BenKallos.com/Livable-Streets. If you are experiencing trauma as a result of the tragedies, please reach out to me at 212-860-1950 or bkallos@benkallos.com so our social work staff can assist you in finding the services you need.

New in this issue, you will find the "Legislative Corner," where you can chart the progress of laws to better our city. And I hope you can join me on this Friday for our monthly First Friday event.

Only through teamwork can we improve our neighborhood, our streets and our city as a whole.

Sincerely,

Ben Kallos

Marking 100 days of representing you in the City Council was a chance to take stock of the progress made and where we still have to go together. I'm proud of advances on key issues such as the fight against the Marine Transfer Station, bringing public pre-k funding to New York City, reforming community boards so they better represent neighborhoods, reforming the New York City Board of Elections to make them a more effective institution and allowing you to vote on how public money gets spent.

Many of these fights are long-entrenched and difficult to tackle, but we have seen movement in all of them in just the past few months. Only with your help and involvement can we continue making meaningful strides forward.

We are now in the budgeting season, where we decide how to allocate funding for a fairer, better city. I have been working with the Council to determine our budget priorities as a body, and distributing our own discretionary funds based on the community's voice.

I look forward to redoubling my efforts on your behalf in the next 100 days, and all the days after that.

Sincerely,

Ben Kallos

Recently, I was pleased to sponsor and vote for an expansion of Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE), and you or your neighbors may now be eligible for these important rent benefits. Int. 243, which was recently signed into law, raises the income eligibility for seniors receiving SCRIE benefits to $50,000 from $29,000.

New York City's budget was passed this week, and it is a budget that you can have confidence in. The progressive, compassionate budget puts residents first and brings more opportunity to our neighborhood and city. It was reached through a transparent negotiating process that took the voice of every Council Member and community into account in order to serve all New Yorkers.