Press Coverage

Apartments should be offered for people making less than the average 60% of area median income — $46,620 for a family of three — currently targeted in the plan, says the 18-member group, which represents about a third of the Council.“We believe in having deeper levels of affordability,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), the vice chair for policy.

The mayor got a thumbs up from business leaders. "Mayor de Blasio focused on investing in the city 's future, ranging from building new centers of innovation and economic activity to developing a novel transit connector between Brooklyn and Queens and creating a network of health centers serving the South Bronx," said Partnership for NYC President and CEO Kathy Wylde in a statement. "These are priorities that the business community shares – practical and achievable. They will contribute to the city's vitality and stimulate private investment."

Meanwhile, progressive lawmakers and advocates are excited about the retirement savngs program, which the mayor will work on with City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Public Advocate Letitia James, Comptroller Scott Stringer, and others. City Council Member Ben Kallos, who helped develop the model for the program while working with liberal activist Bill Samuels at EffectiveNY, will introduce legislation so that "any New Yorker working at a business with ten or more employees to automatically enroll in a retirement plan."

The plan to devote a total of $400 million from Battery Park to NYCHA over 10 years needs approval by the mayor, the city controller and the governor.

This week Gov. Cuomo joined Controller Scott Stringer to support the plan, but Mayor de Blasio is balking.

“It’s deeply disappointing that the mayor came out against the Battery Park Authority proposal. It’s not progressive at all,” City Council Housing Committee Chairman Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) said at a rally outside City Hall Thursday.

Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) added, “Where is Mayor de Blasio? Can he please say yes to $400 million?”

A council bill would require any kids’ meal with an accompanying toy to be limited to no more than 500 calories and 600 milligrams of sodium, with no more than 35 percent of the calories from fat and no more than 10 percent from saturated fat or added sugar.

“We believe that restaurants will not be able to comply with, and the department will not be able to enforce, the bill’s requirements,’’ Angell testified.

Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), one of the bill’s sponsors, replied, “It’s hard for me to fathom that [the Health Department], which is in the business of doing this with sodium and trans fats . . . isn’t able to do this.”

The bill was first proposed in 2011. Since then, McDonald’s has spent more than $528,000 to lobby council members to block it.

A City Council proposal to regulate foods that come with toys split members of the health committee on Tuesday and raised broader issues over what the de Blasio administration can and should do to combat childhood obesity.

Ben Kallos, a Democrat from Manhattan, would like meals that are marketed to kids using toys or other promotional items include a serving of fruit, vegetables or whole grain. The so-called Happy Meals bill would also require that meals be limited to 500 calories, with fewer than 35 percent them coming from fat, fewer than 10 percent coming from saturated fat, fewer than 10 percent from added sugars and fewer than 600 milligrams of sodium.

Kallos cited a 2014 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which found more than one-in-five New York City children were obese, which the city’s health department believes leads to heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions.

“If we continue down this path, children in New York City will have shorter expected life spans than their parents,” Kallos said. “That’s not just depressing, that’s not acceptable.”

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.

The group submitted the plan with co-signers including Borough President Gale Brewer and councilmen Ben Kallos and Dan Garodnick — all of whom would have to sign off on the rezoning if it were to pass a land-use review process — and State Senator Liz Krueger.

The rezoning application came as a direct response to the planned Bauhouse tower, with the East River 50s Alliance going door to door to raise money to hire planners and lawyers in order to make the application airtight and guide it through the review process.

Although demolition has already started at the site of the East 58th Street tower, building permits have yet to be filed, city records show. According to critics the firm is still struggling to finance the project, and Kallos said the rezoning effort could stop it in its tracks.

“Anyone who is thinking of investing in this place would walk away from the deal,” Kallos said. “If Bauhouse didn’t believe us before, the proof is here, and we will succeed.”

A group of Sutton Place residents and politicians have filed plans for a rezoning drafted by urban planners that would block the development of supertall towers in that area of town. The East River Fifties Alliance has formally submitted their plan for a rezoning of the area bounded by First Avenue and the East River between 52nd and 59th streets to the Department of City Planning. The rezoning text is an effort between bigwigs like Senator Liz Krueger, City Councilmen Ben Kallos and Daniel Garodnick, Borough President Gale Brewer, and community stakeholders to thwart the encroachment of tall towers, like the 900-foot development Bauhouse Group has planned for East 58th Street between First Avenue and Sutton Place, on the neighborhood. "We are drawing a line on the march of superscrapers at billionaire's row to protect our city's residential neighborhoods," Kallos said in a statement.

“Billionaire’s Row keeps growing and we are drawing the line at a residential neighborhood,” said City Councilman Benjamin Kallos, who represents the neighborhood and backs the plan, which was delivered to the Department of City Planning.

“We don’t have enough parks in the district,” Kallos said. “We have some of the lowest numbers of parks space per capita. Any place we have park land, we need to be using it as park land for the entire community.”

According to a study done by a parks advocacy organization in 2013, Kallos’ District 5 ranked the fifth worst in the ratio of land area to parks space out of all 51 Council districts.

In the New Yorkers for Parks’ study, the district falls far short of the standards set out by the group, which call for 2.5 acres of total open space per 1,000 residents. Kallos’ district scored only 0.47 acres of open space per 1,000 residents.

The group’s study also noted that the balance between public use as a ball field and private use as tennis courts shifted in 2012 to the advantage of the courts’ operator, when it secured an additional six weeks of time that keeps the bubble in the park into June.

To combat what they deem a slow creep of private use, Kallos said he would be working with the community board by reviewing the current contract with Sutton East, making sure the contract isn’t renewed, and trying to secure city funds to revert the park into public space year-round.

“In order for this to work, we’re going to have to pay a lot of attention between now and 2017 and make sure this contract doesn’t get renewed,” Kallos said.

East side councilmember wants to meet every person in the district