Press Coverage

A group of New York politicians is lobbying Comcast to provide free broadband to all city public housing residents and expand other low-cost Internet offerings as a condition for the cable operator’s proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable.

Led by New York City’s public advocate, Letitia James, and City Councilman Ben Kallos, the group of state and local politicians is calling on Comcast to help bridge the so-called digital divide between people who have access to broadband connections and those who do not. About a third of New York City families do not have broadband, according to the Knight Foundation.

“With every second we wait, the digital divide is widening,” Mr. Kallos said. “What we have with the Internet is literally a portal to the world’s knowledge. One third of our city can’t get on the Internet and can’t learn whatever, whenever they want.”

City Councilman Ben Kallos has come a long way from his days at The Bronx High School of Science, though not so far from its rooftop greenhouse, where he tilled the soil as a teenager. The council member has been at the forefront of pushing New York City’s food agenda to new heights, from providing 1.1 million children with free lunches and dinners to making fresh fruits and vegetables available at NYCHA housing developments to cooking for his constituents at the Greenmarkets.

We caught up with Councilman Kallos to talk new initiatives, old favorite restaurants and where New York stands in terms of progressive food policy in America (hint: relatively speaking, we’re doing pretty well).

Look both ways before crossing this street — and then look again.

The intersection of East 57th Street and Second Avenue is the most dangerous in the area — with more than 130 crashes and 19 people injured in the past two years, according to a survey by City Councilman Benjamin Kallos.

That amounts to an average of more than five collisions every month.

Fifteen more city agencies will be required to distribute voter registration forms under a bill to be introduced in the City Council Tuesday. The bill sponsored by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) will require agencies like the NYPD, FDNY, the Human Resources Administration, which handles welfare benefits, and the Department for the Aging, which runs senior centers, to have the forms on hand at offices where they interact with the public.

A report written with extensive community input, titled Livable Streets, spotlights the 10 most treacherous intersections --including E. 57th St. and Second Ave., where there have been nearly six collisions per month and Second Ave. crossings at E. 63rd and E. 60th Sts., which each record roughly five collisions per month.

As this year’s historically low rent increase goes into effect Oct. 1, tenants, elected officials, and advocates are starting the campaign for rent reform, calling for a rent freeze for 2015.

Council member Ben Kallos said the increases set by the RGB years before have been higher than necessary, as the Price Index of Operating Costs—the metrics that determine inflation for building owners— often exceeds the inflation of consumer goods as shown on the consumer price index. 

The New York City Campaign Finance Board plans to release an updated online campaign donation platform in mid-2015, board members testified before the City Council's government operations committee hearing Monday.

The new tool will make it easier for candidates to receive credit card donations and will also allow them to place donation widgets on their websites to accept donations.

Committee chair Ben Kallos emphasized that the use of text messaging and feature phones could be especially important to lower-income communities.

The New York City Campaign Finance Board will ask the City Council on Monday for sweeping changes to the rules governing the city's system of publicly financing candidates.

Chief among the proposed reforms is permission for the board to accelerate payments of matching funds to qualifying candidates. Specifically, the board is recommending a single payment in June, no earlier than four business days after the June 10 deadline for candidates to join the matching funds program.

Currently, candidates must be on the ballot in order to receive the 6-to-1 match from the board. Because the law prohibits payouts until challenges to petitions are settled and ballots are determined, those running for office cannot get matching funds until five weeks before the primary.

It's a done deal: City Council Democrats have voted to approve the appointments of three new commissioners to the Board of Elections.

Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), who was among those who grilled the nominees at City Hall and had pushed for a transparent selection process, noted in a statement that the new commissioners had publicly agreed to pursue anti-nepotism reforms at the oft-criticized agency.

"All of this progress was only made possible by a public hearing of the Rules Committee under the leadership of Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and its Chair Brad Lander," Kallos said.

Ben Kallos @BenKallos: Join us tomorrow for a Tweet Chat on how to open up your local legislature: http://www.opengovfoundation.org/tomorrow-join-the-free-law-founders-tweet-chat-on-opening-your-state-local-legislature-2/ …

Though construction for the 91st St. Upper East Side garbage station is already underway and slated for completion by March 2016, city and state elected officials opposed to its existence are not letting up.

On Sunday, they gathered with local residents and anti-garbage-station groups in front of the construction site, calling for a public hearing to review the permits the city obtained from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). 

The permits, issued back in 2009, are due for renewal this October. U.S. representative Carolyn Maloney, state assemblywoman Deborah Glick, city councilman Ben Kallos, and others argue that since the permits were first issued, new federal standards have been established to improve resiliency post-Superstorm Sandy, which will now place the garbage station within a flood zone.

If you happen to visit New York City Council Member Ben Kallos' website on Wednesday you may notice a loading icon at the top of the page. No, he's not having website troubles and you are not experiencing internet problems. Kallos, who is also a software developer and chair of the council's government operations committee, is participating in the worldwide "Internet Slowdown" protest.

Kallos is joining the likes of reddit, Vimeo, and Wordpress (to name just a few of the many) who are protesting rules currently being proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would create tiered internet speeds. If passed, companies or citizens willing and able to pay more could use "fast lanes" whereas companies or citizens with more modest financial means would be relegated to using "slow lanes."

"Under possible new rules to be determined by the FCC, the sites that most New Yorkers enjoy would likely be slowed down," Kallos said in a statement. "Instead of a divided Internet, New York City and this country want one Internet that works."