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Fresh Food for Seniors expands into lower Manhattan
Hundreds of seniors across Manhattan have been taking advantage of my Fresh Food for Seniors program. They’re supporting local agriculture and eating healthier by ordering $8 bags of fresh fruit and vegetables (a $15 value). At the start of this season, I announced that we would be expanding into lower Manhattan and I’m pleased to share that deliveries in our new program area have begun at three locations: Southbridge Towers,… Read more Protecting the East Side from climate change
Climate change and sea level rise threaten the safety and prosperity of New York City. We have to think big—and act fast—if we’re to have any chance of blunting its effects. That’s why, after holding a public hearing in July and considering hours of community testimony, I supported the city’s East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project, with many conditions, in my formal ULURP recommendation.
Developed as part of a… Read more Illegal ticket hawkers at Battery Park
Staten Island Borough President James Oddo and I convened a meeting with the Mayor’s Office, city agencies, and community stakeholders to address the illegal ticket vending issue that has been plaguing the Battery, Peter Minuit Plaza, and the southern portion of Battery Park City for several years. Individual vendors, frequently using harassment and occasionally force, have continued to peddle ferry and boat tour tickets to Liberty Island, Ellis Island, and… Read more Victory on retail vacancies database
You can’t fix a problem when you can’t measure it. We’ve all noticed scores of empty storefronts in our daily travels around the city; many have been vacant for years.
That’s why my bill to create a city database of empty properties, co-sponsored with City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Member Helen Rosenthal and passed in July, is a great start in trying to solve this problem. The… Read more READ: My speech at City and State’s Manhattan Power 100 event
Delivered July 16, 2019.
I’m honored to be here tonight—not just because I’m a big fan of City & State, but because local journalism is important to our democracy—and our democracy has never needed journalism more.
I’m especially honored by Sheena Wright’s introduction. Her leadership of the United Way supports New Yorkers in so many ways—I’m humbled by her efforts and that of her staff and affiliates. And both of… Read more Help your neighborhood recycle more! Join the Manhattan Paper Recycling Challenge.
100% of the paper that Department of Sanitation trucks collect in Manhattan’s is barged to Pratt Industries’ recycling mill on Staten Island where the paper is “pulped” and then used by their corrugated plant nearby and fabricated into new paper products, resulting in a rare sustainable “closed loop.” (Approximately 15% of NYC pizza boxes are made right there!)
But the plants have excess capacity—so Pratt Industries, the plants’ owner, is… Read more Update on closing Rikers Island
In my official ULURP recommendation, I supported approving the Manhattan component of the city’s Borough-Based Jail System plan, with some conditions that are necessary to make sure local businesses and tenants are protected. The bottom line is this: Rikers Island must close. For too long the criminal justice system has disproportionately punished people in poverty, rather than being restorative and transformative.
Last year, I formed a Rikers Task Force… Read more July 17: Public Hearing on East Side Coastal Resiliency
The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project will fortify Manhattan’s coastline between Montgomery and 25th Streets from coastal flooding while making the waterfront more accessible to the public. The NYC Department of Design and Construction will present the plan, followed by testimony from all those interested. 
