022014.NL5 .Kallos Spring-Summer NL-V4.Pdf

Summer Fellowship First Friday Spring/Summer 2014 Bulletin: New York City Council Member Join me for “First Friday” If you or someone you know would like to gain experience every month from in city government this summer, please consider joining my 8:00AM - 10:00AM at team. Our office is offering summer fellowships, an oppor- my office on 244 East 93rd tunity to learn firsthand how a City Council office functions. Ben Kallos Street. This is a chance for Fellows will work closely with senior staff, assisting in tasks Discussing important issues th me to meet you in person in our neighborhood at my such as community outreach and engagement; attending 5 district, MAnhattan Get Involved in Your Neighborhood inaugural First Friday event, to discuss what’s important which drew fifty people. community meetings, hearings, and press conferences; to you and how to make drafting correspondence; legislative research; and assisting our neighborhood a better with communications. They will also be encouraged to pur- place to live. The first event sue a project of their own choosing – because we believe Participatory Budgeting was a great success and I a fellowship is most valuable when it encourages creativity Dear Neighbor, look forward to many more. This year, I am bringing Participatory Budgeting (PB) to our and initiative. Please email [email protected] with You’ve given me a remarkable responsibility: to represent you in City Hall. community. PB empowers you to vote on how your tax dollars Contact our office to RSVP. a resume and cover letter to apply – and don’t forget to Under previous Council Member Jessica Lappin’s leadership, our community will be spent in the neighborhood. Other Council Districts pass the opportunity along. thrived — a legacy I will diligently continue. I am honored to now represent have piloted the program with resounding success. Whether the community where I grew up and where my mother still lives. My office you’re passionate about green space, safer streets or improv- will always accessible be and available to you and can be reached by ing senior centers, PB will help you to turn your vision for a NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL • 250 BROAD WAY • 30TH FLOOR • NY, NY 10007 calling 212-860-1950, visiting us at 244 East 93rd Street, or emailing Presorted better city into a reality. We will offer the community a Standard [email protected]. choice of a dozen projects and will implement the top U.S. Postage Spring/Summer 2014 Bulletin: New York City Council Member picks. Here’s where you can vote: PAID We have important work to do together. Every child should receive the same New York City world-class education that I did at Bronx High School of Science. We can work Council together to implement innovative solutions such as identifying new spaces March 30th - April 6th for schools in our neighborhood, making pre-k universally available to help Ben Kallos children get a fair start, and creating CUNY college loan forgiveness programs Monday, March 31st - Friday, April 5th: 8AM-6PM th 5 district, Manhattan Get Involved in Your Neighborhood to help our city’s economy thrive. District Office, 244 East 93rd Street Saturday, March 29th: 9AM-5PM Older New Yorkers and their caregivers must be supported so they can be Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Auditorium 5TH District, Manhattan healthy and independent. My mother is a senior who lives in the district, and I 331 East 70th Street (70th Street and 1st Avenue) 244 East 93rd Street am committed to keeping senior centers open and protecting vital services like Sunday, March 30th: 9AM-5PM New York, NY 10128 Meal on Wheels. District Office, 244 East 93rd Street Phone: 212-860-1950 Fax: 212-980-1828 We must protect and expand affordable housing. Those who made our neigh- Monday, March 31st: 11AM-3PM [email protected] borhood what it is today deserve to see the benefits of their lifetimes of hard Carter Burden Center for the Aging, Conference Room work. New development, which will come with the completion of the Second 1484 1st Avenue (between 77th & 78th Streets) Avenue Subway, must include affordable housing for middle-class New Yorkers. Monday, March 31st: 12PM-5PM New York Public Library, 67th Street Branch We also have standing battles to continue. I am a member of Asphalt Green’s 328 East 67th Street Triathlon Team and will continue to fight the Marine Transfer Station. I am working to build a broad coalition of elected officials and community leaders Tuesday, April 1st: 6AM-9PM Join a Policy Fighting the Marine in opposition to any dump in a residential neighborhood. It won’t be easy, District Office, 244 East 93rd Street Committee Transfer Station it won’t happen right away, and I will need your help — but together, we can Tuesday, April 1st: 2:30PM-5PM defeat it. Stanley Isaacs Senior Center, Room 6 415 East 93rd Street If you are looking to become more A new report from community activist group If we invest in each other — our time, energy and compassion — our govern- involved in the local community, please Wednesday, April 2nd: 10AM-3PM Pledge 2 Protect entitled “Talking Trash” has ment can work better for all of us. Please join me, so that together we can consider joining a District Five Policy 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue offered even more evidence that the Marine build a better city. Committee. We need residents who are Transfer Station at 91st Street will hurt our city. Thursday, April 3rd: 11AM-7PM interested in advancing progressive and I have long fought for a modern approach that Sincerely, Lexington Neighborhood Houses innovative agenda items with the experi- 1773 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10029 ence and enthusiasm to help formulate reduces costs, protects residential communities, city policy. Committees will meet on the and increases recycling for a greener city. Please Friday, April 4th: 3PM-7PM first Tuesday of each month at 6:30PM join Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Senator Carl Schurz Park, East 86th Street & East End Avenue and include education, youth, senior Liz Krueger, Council Member Dan Garodnick, Saturday, April 5th: 9AM – 5PM services, environment and more. For activists Bertha Lewis, organizers from New York Stanley Isaacs Senior Center, 415 East 93rd Street more information or to join a committee, Council Member Ben Kallos Communities for Change, Pledge 2 Protect and please contact our office. District Five: Upper East Side, Midtown East, El Barrio and Roosevelt Island  me to defeat the Marine Transfer Station. For more information contact our office. Supporting City Council Inauguration getting help Summer Reading Challenge Early Education My office is your office, and we are here to serve your needs. Please stop by Over 700 community members joined As a student, I was always more inclined to work with for all New York 244 East 93rd Street, call 212-960-1950, visit us at benkallos.com or email my inauguration ceremony on January 26 computers than to read books. In fact, because of [email protected] should you want assistance for any reason, whether City Children featuring Dances Patrelle, Asphalt Green- learning struggles, I faced challenges catching up with you’d like to know your rights as a tenant or need help applying for city services. Wave Gymnastics Team, The 92Y Gym Stars, my peers in reading and writing. When I discovered But that’s not enough — I’ll also be bringing my office to you. As a public school graduate and a child pianist Roy Eaton, the men’s ensemble at science fiction, I learned to love literature — and started of a single mother, I have been fighting for Talented Unlimited High School, Elsbeth My staff will be at the following locations from 4PM to 7PM to assist you: to spend lots of time at New York City’s world-class public the type of fully-funded pre-k and after Reimann of Stanley Isaacs Senior Center libraries. Now, I want to share that passion for books Roosevelt Island (RISA, 546 Main Street): First Wednesday of the month with you and your family. Join my summer reading school program that can make a real reading Pastor Martin Niemoller’s “First They Lexington Houses (1536 Lexington Avenue): Second Wednesday of the month challenge: Students who read five books from our list will difference for families like mine. I saw the Came…” and Jim Bates of the Roosevelt be honored at an end-of-summer ceremony and receive a sacrifices my mother made, and I know Island Disabled Association reading FDR’s Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center (415 E. 93rd Street): Fourth Tuesday of the month certificate from our office. Please contact my office or visit New York City will be better if we can make “Four Freedoms.” Thanks are also due to the Please contact my office if you have suggestions for mobile district office locations. BenKallos.com/ReadingChallenge for the full list. life easier for working parents. These pro- many elected officials and community leaders Attorney General Schneiderman administers the swearing-in, while my sister Chelsea Reed holds the We look forward to seeing you. grams also give every child a fair start and who attended and spoke: State Comptroller Chumash on which I was Bar Mitzvahed. build a foundation of protection for at-risk DiNapoli, State Senator Krueger, City Council children later in life. Over the summer, I Speaker Mark-Viverito, Congress Member Maloney, City Comptroller Stringer, Public Advocate James, ✁ marched outside City Hall to draw atten- Manhattan Borough President Brewer, Council Member Garodnick, Former Public Advocate Green, Safer Streets Tell us about yourself & what’s important to you tion to this pressing issue and, this year, Former Council Member Lappin, Former New York State Assembly Member Bing, Founder of New helped plan a successful joint hearing be- Roosevelt Bill Samuels, as well as Attorney General Schneiderman, who performed the swearing-in. I am pleased to launch a “Livable Streets” Name: tween the Women’s Issues Committee of You can watch the full video online: BenKallos.com/Inauguration initiative for a neighborhood where resi- the City Council, of which I am a member, dents can walk, bike, drive or take public Phone Number: Email: and the Education Committee. I have also transportation safely. A series of tragic been out in the community, sharing ideas traffic collisions in our neighborhood have Address: on early education with you — advocacy reinforced the importance of Vision Zero, a which was recently featured in the New city proposal, whose launch I participated in, York Times. A small investment in pre-k to eliminate traffic fatalities — because no  Join or lead a policy committee  Volunteer in office can reduce drop-out rates and crime later one should die from a preventable accident. Issue(s) I care about: in life, helping all New Yorkers thrive. Please report dangerous intersections and  Affordable Housing  Education corners to my office, so we can pass them  Environment / Parks  Good Government along to the relevant agencies. Please also report bus stops that need a shelter, side-  Health  Jobs / Economy Committee on walks where you would like to see benches  Marine Transfer Station  Public Safety The Men’s Ensemble from Talent Unlimited High School perform Ballet Dancers of Dances Patrelle or bike racks, corners that should be the National Anthem. perform Yorkville Nutcracker  Second Ave Subway  Transportation Governmental wheelchair and walker accessible, potholes Operations to fix, and any other concerns you have — so  Other we can all have livable streets. Please call or Livable Streets – Help us make your streets safer As newly appointed Chair of the Committee Recently Married email our office with as much detail as pos- Suggest locations for improvement: on Governmental Operations, my task is to sible or fill out the attached card and return it to my office. make our city seamlessly serve all New York- Dangerous Intersections: ers, so government works for you. I am work- ing to improve transparency, accountability Bus stop shelters: and efficiency in our city’s management. With oversight over eleven city commissions and Transportation City racks for bikes: agencies, some of our priorities include: Forums CityBench: Ü Working with the New York City Board of Elections to ensure smooth voting for Potholes: all New Yorkers. I will be holding three forums with the depart- ment of transportation as part of my “Livable Corners that should be wheelchair/walker accessible: Ü Working with the Campaign Finance Board Streets” initiative. The months and topics are and the Voter Assistance commission to as follows: expand and further empower public financing Share your solutions for a better city: of campaigns to ensure voters have access Ü April: Safety along the Second Avenue to the best candidates; and Subway construction Ü Reforming the Community Board system Ü May: Adopt-A-Planter in partnership with Manhattan Borough In December, I celebrated an important milestone: my marriage to a wonderful woman. As Please clip and mail back to: Council Member Kallos Ü June: Bike lanes President Gale Brewer to improve openness, I move ahead in the important work before me, I am thrilled to have Irene by my side. 244 East 93rd Street, New York, NY 10128 or email back to [email protected] transparency and accountability. Please contact my office for dates and times.