New Council Member Julie Menin (at podium) met with New York City Department of Sanitation officials on January 12 to announce the allocation of $120,000 in the city’s fiscal year budget to increase litter basket pickups in her district. Photo: Abigail Gruskin Julie Menin’s Early Days as Council Member On the second day of the new year, now-Council Member Julie Menin took to Twitter to announce that she and her 3-year-old... Home 20 Jan 2022 | 05:00
Photo: Eden, Janine and Jim, via Flickr Council Debates Use of Propane Heaters The outdoor dining scene to which New Yorkers became accustomed during the COVID-19 pandemic now hangs in the balance, as... Home 11 Dec 2021 | 06:05
Photo courtesy of Council Member Ben Kallos Kallos: ‘This Wasn’t Really About Blood’ Ben Kallos still wants to talk to the New York Blood Center. “I am still reaching out to them asking them to come to the table,”... News 18 Nov 2021 | 06:57
Street-level rendering of revised Blood Center, courtesy of Ennead. Blood Center: The Political Tide Turns The New York Blood Center lopped 116 feet off the new tower it is proposing to build on the East Side and that turned the... News 12 Nov 2021 | 11:49
City Council Member Keith Powers at the food-scrap drop-off event. Photo: John McCarten Powers Promotes Composting for Earth Day Council Member Keith Powers kicked off Earth Day activities early on Wednesday with the opening of a food scrap drop-off... News 21 Apr 2021 | 05:59
Design for building on East 62nd Street. Image via Rafael Vinoly Architects Scrapping the ‘Tower on Stilts’ Plans for a controversial Upper East Side “tower on stilts” have been completely scrapped, according to City Council Member... Home 14 Dec 2020 | 10:57
Council Member Keith Powers (left) and Assembly Member Dan Quart (right) on the East Side on July 29, 2020. (Photo: Assembly Member Dan Quart on Twitter, @AMDanQuart) Powers Pushes to Help Small Businesses As New Yorkers continue to struggle to get by during the pandemic and businesses are barely surviving, one elected official... News 02 Aug 2020 | 02:18
Anna Sacks is known online as “The Trash Walker” for saving items from people’s garbage collections. (Photo: Sami Roberts) The Future of Composting On July 1, the results of New York City’s fiscal budget meeting were in. Many New Yorkers were involved and interested, likely... News 23 Jul 2020 | 04:43
Council Member Ben Kallos told Our Town that he prefers people stay home and quarantine, but if they must go out, outdoor cafes are a viable option. ( Photo courtesy of Council Member Ben Kallos) Outdoor Cafes for Social Distancing After numerous people on the Upper East Side disobeyed social distancing last weekend and converged in front of bars, elected... News 22 May 2020 | 10:31
An architect's rendering shows the hospital tower, left, and the residential tower, right, that were part of the original proposal for the redevelopment of Lenox Hill Hospital. A new, alternative proposal does not include the residential tower. ( Rendering: Courtesy of Lenox Hill Hospital / Northwell Health) New Lenox Hill Task Force Gets Results “Everybody was upset about everything,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said, describing the months of turmoil that... News 17 Feb 2020 | 11:35
A rally at City Hall by grassroots group Close Rikers Build Communities before the hearing to close the prison complex last week. ( Photo: Emily Higginbotham) Jail Plans: All in the Details There seems to be little disagreement among city officials that shuttering Rikers Island is a necessary, long-overdue step... News 09 Sep 2019 | 01:14
Council Member Ben Kallos authored a bill that aims to put a spotlight on the outcomes of domestic violence survivors. ( Photo: Courtesy of NYC Council photographer William Alatriste) New bill targets domestic violence In response to an increase in domestic violence offenses in the city — despite a drop in most other crimes — a bill has been... News 02 Aug 2019 | 01:03
