Andrea Grymes

The City Council has passed a bill that would require homeowners and tenants who list their properties on websites like Airbnb to pay a fee and register with the city. That way, the city can confirm if it’s legal to rent out that address.

All advertisements would then be required to include a valid registration number.

Upper East Side councilman Ben Kallos introduced the legislation.

“We have hotels in places for a reason, and we have residential neighborhoods for a reason, and no one wants to move into a building and find themselves surrounded by hotel rooms,” he said.

Kallos notes for buildings with more than three apartments, state law only allows short-term rentals for less than 30 days when the resident renting it out is home at the same time.

Still, Councilman Ben Kallos, who represents the Upper East Side, said he is concerned.

“We need the Department of Environmental Protection, which manages our water supply, Con Ed working together to find any leaks underground, making sure that we’re not having any compromised spaces, and make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Kallos said.

Con Edison said gas and electric were not impacted in the area.

Kallos told CBS2 the DEP believes a 12-inch water main — or a 6-inch sewer main — may be the cause.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A new bike lane that snakes across the busy entrance to the 59th Street Bridge on Second Avenue is a safety concern for some people.

But others say once everyone gets used to it, the area will actually become safer for cyclists, CBS2’s Andrea Grymes reported Wednesday.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It’s the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere – the luxurious 432 Park rises more than 1,300 feet into the Manhattan skyline.

City councilman Ben Kallos says architect Rafael Vinoly got a quarter of this super-tall height by exploiting what’s known as the “mechanical voids loophole” and it was totally legal.

The overly tall residential building at 432 Park. (Credit: CBS2)

“They’re building these mechanical voids to prop up real estate so these billionaires can have multi-million dollar helicopter views, and that’s not why we should be building buildings,” Kallos said.

The councilman added the firm is trying to do the same thing with an empty lot on East 62nd Street – to offer better and more expensive views – and they’re not alone.