Our Town

Walking, driving or biking in the neighborhood, you may have noticed an increase in the number of safety vests worn by delivery bikers. This is in large part a result of my BikeSafe program, designed to empower residents through partnership to play a role in making their own neighborhood safer.

The steps of the BikeSafe program are as follows:

1. Educational Forum: We delivered free Safety Vests, bells and lights for the 80 stores that RSVPed and attended.

2. More Safety Vests: If you see or receive a bike delivery from a person with NO safety vest displaying business name and ID number, report it to the business, 311 and my office.

3. Report Unsafe Biking: If you see wrong way or unsafe biking, remember the business name and identification number from the safety vest then report it to the store, 311 and my office. Tell the store that you can wait longer for deliveries so bikes can be slower and safer for everyone.

4. Enforcement: When you call 311, DOT and NYPD will be notified and will take the appropriate steps to resolve the issue.

Second Avenue has long been a cause of strife for New Yorkers on the East side. From restaurant owners losing profits due to subway construction to pedestrians being forced onto the street thanks to closed sidewalks, the avenue has been the source of no shortage of headaches.

Now, a new problem has come into focus: taxi accidents.

Over the course of the past three years, from January 2012 to May 2014, accidents involving taxicabs on Second Avenue between 59th Street and 96th Street have risen by approximately 45 percent, according to an Our Town analysis. While accidents totaled 96 for the five-month period from January to May in 2012, they rose to a startling 139 during the same period in 2014.

Councilman Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side, said, “Every New Yorker should feel safe walking down the street, which is why traffic and safety issues are so important in our community,” he said. “Any trends that show collisions on the rise, from commercial or personal vehicles, must be closely watched by city government.”

Councilman Kallos urged residents to contact him via his web site if they are concerned about an unsafe intersection or a street issue they felt needed fixing.

Before he was appointed to Community Board 4, Austin Ochoa said more of his peers would be applying to serve if they knew they had a shot at getting on the board.

Ochoa, age 19, was appointed by Borough President Gale Brewer in April. She’s been working for the past four years to pass a bill allowing 16 and 17 year olds to serve on the board, and last week that work paid off with the passage of a state bill allowing it.

“These 16- and 17-year-olds are so intelligent, so grown up, and I don’t know if it’s because they’re in New York, but they can really keep up with the adults,” said Brewer. “Not all, but many. And anybody that says otherwise just doesn’t know this group of 16- and 17-year-olds.”

The bill was sponsored and passed at the state level by Senator Andrew Lanza and Assembly member Nily Rozic. City Council member Ben Kallos joined forces with Brewer to introduce a resolution calling for the measure at the city level, and Brewer credited council member Mark Levine with pushing for teens to be allowed to serve on community board when he was still a district leader.

“We’ve been working on this for about four years,” said Brewer.

Councilman Ben Kallos condemned the arrests and the city’s actions.

“We as a community joined together in a grassroots action to exercise our First Amendment rights,” said Kallos. “It’s a dark day for democracy when an administration is arresting seniors and NYCHA residents who are trying to protect a children’s playground from a garbage dump.”

Upper East Side Residents of District 5 have just been handed a blank check.

Councilman Ben Kallos announced his office is taking part in an abbreviated participatory budgeting program with $1 million available to spend.

Under normal circumstances, a council member taking part in participatory budgeting – where constituents vote on how to spend a certain amount of money in the district – gets seven months to hear and vote on proposals from the community. Because Kallos took office in January, however, the process is being expedited.

Freshman Councilman Ben Kallos, representing the Upper East Side, held a hearing Monday as chair of the Government Operations committee aimed at overhauling the application and appointment process to the city’s 59 community boards.

Kallos’ office reported about 1,500 spots were opening across the five boroughs, and that reforms in recent years had been achieved but never standardized.

A new report by a group opposing the construction of the waste transfer station on the Upper East Side claims that the city’s comprehensive waste management plan is deeply flawed –the latest salvo in a battle between local residents and a city that’s struggling to adequately deal with the trash it generates.

On Sunday, January 26, Benjamin Kallos was joined by over 700 Upper East Side leaders and residents as he took the oath of office for the city council, representing the Upper East Side’s 5th district.

With new leadership in city government we have an amazing opportunity for the East Side and the City as a whole to bring about fundamental changes and tangible results.

“I hope to work on Internet strategy to make sure many New York City citizens can share their ideas and the website can get out to as many people as possible,” Kallos said.

As an attorney, Kallos has a background in information technology, having developed a registered voter database online and assisted the New York County Lawyers Association to improve electronic case filing.

Kallos was recently chief of staff to Assembly Member Jonathan Bing. He left that position to mount a campaign for Council Member Jessica Lappin’s seat when she entertained the idea of running for public advocate.