Combined with the 90 seats added by fellow Councilman Ben Kallos — whose district borders Garodnick’s on the Upper East Side — back in May, there has certainly been an improvement, but a 2014 WNYC report estimated that there are 2,118 four-year-olds in Kallos’ district, the majority of whom will have to go far outside their neighborhoods for pre-k.
The final piece of the funding puzzle that has been missing from the East River Esplanade project fell into place last month when the City Council approved roughly $2 million for several revitalization purposes. Combined with the $45 million rounded up by Councilman Ben Kallos from various sources in past years, funding for the project has reached just over $47 million, though that may not be the final tally.
“A lot of East Siders are envious of the West Side parks,” Kallos said. “When I came into office, the East River Esplanade was literally falling into the river and in some places still is.”
A group of families celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday by participating in a union strike at 1735 York Avenue and E. 90th Street.
Members of 32BJ who work at the building — along with their children, some of the tenants, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Ben Kallos — were there to protest their treatment by Bonjour Capital, which bought the building from Glenwood Management. The strike started last Thursday and ended Monday morning
Last week’s focus on cycling was also a collaboration with Councilmembers Ben Kallos’ and Dan Garodnick’s offices, which collectively represent the area from about East 92nd Street to about East 34th Street and have prioritized bike safety, and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Vision Zero program. The 19th Precinct first handed out pamphlets and then switched to handing out tickets. On Thursday afternoon, they estimated that they had issued around 100 tickets during the previous two days. The officers present declined to comment on the record, but expressed their understanding for and awareness of community concerns.
Kallos’ office has been prioritizing bike safety since he took office in 2014, and reports significant improvement. A recent press release announcing the expansion of the bike safety program to cover Midtown East touted a 15 percent decrease in bike and pedestrian collisions as of August 2015, and a 52 percent increase in enforcement.
“Please take your time, obey traffic laws, and wear safety vests so that residents know which restaurants have good drivers and which restaurants don’t,” Kallos told a crowd of delivery bike workers. “Starting soon doorman buildings may stop accepting deliveries from people without safety vests.”
News of the 80-story, 260,000 square foot proposal broke last April, and sent the comparatively squat and sleepy Sutton Place neighborhood into a panic. Community Board 6 voiced its objections, and Councilmember Ben Kallos came out strongly against the building’s height and social implications.
But it wasn’t just community opposition working against Bauhouse principal Joseph Beninati. Michael Stoler, a managing partner at the investment firm Madison Realty Capital, said Beninati’s background also played a role. Antares Investment Partners, the firm Beninati co-founded with a prep school classmate that at one point boasted $6 billion in assets, was accused of overleveraging investor capital. Beninati and his partner, James Cabrera, were sued for millions after the firm’s collapse, and Antares was stripped of most of its assets in the late-aughts.
If passed, the new zone would cover East 52nd Street to East 59th Street from First Avenue to the East River. The plan is a direct response, said Councilmember Ben Kallos, to a skyscraper currently in development on East 59th Street between First Avenue and Sutton Place. The development, which was first reported by this newspaper last April, is as-of-right and is being driven by the Bauhouse Group.
East side councilmember wants to meet every person in the district
Manhattan Parks Commissioner Bill Castro, Councilmember Ben Kallos, Rockefeller University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, Minna Elias (on behalf of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney), and Deputy Borough President Matthew Washington celebrate the repairs to the seawall near Rockefeller University and the revitalization project of the East River Esplanade.
