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Ben Kallos has fought to root out patronage, de-privatize government, eliminate billions in waste, expand elections, and to use technology to improve access to government. He has become a leading advocate for education, affordable housing, public health, sustainable development and transportation improvements and safety.

Join us as he fights on behalf of New Yorkers in his campaign for Manhattan Borough President to finish what he's begun.

Annual Report: 7 Years as Your Council Member

Below is a re-post of my City Council office's 2021 Annual Report. For the original, click here.

Dear Neighbor,

As New York City begins its recovery from the pandemic accountability and transparency in government are of the utmost importance. Elected officials must be accessible and able to prove to New Yorkers that they are focused and working diligently to bring New York City back better than ever before.

Despite our physical office having to be closed, we have continued to serve you by phone and online. Our monthly newsletter never stopped, First Friday moved to Zoom, and we even held a virtual State of the District to keep residents informed. Just as we have done every year since I have been in office, we continue to report to you with a comprehensive list detailing over 100 issues we have worked with residents and local leaders to win over the last 7 and a half years and what we have still left to do.

Education

As a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and even before becoming a new father, education has always been a top priority. When the Mayor promised “universal pre-kindergarten” and didn’t give us any seats we worked together to add more than 1,000 seats. When we were surrounded by new construction with children turned away from schools and no new budget for school seats I wrote the law to force transparency and won funding for 824 new school seats. We've invested $6.5 million in STEM education, rebuilt our schools, and are building new gyms and green roofs for schools. We've helped schools open safely during the pandemic, and launched a new French dual language pre-kindergarten. We carried legislation that we passed into law for students to offer LGBT support in schools and parents to put GPS tracking on every school bus. With the digital divide exposed by the pandemic, we introduced legislation to guarantee every student a laptop with digital textbooks that aren’t racist and outdated and even proposed desegregating online learning. We won funding for Summer Youth Employment and are fighting for Universal Youth Jobs. We’ve renovated a century-old library where I first got my library card and even built a new library on Roosevelt Island. As a student who was too ashamed to stand on the poor lunch line, we moved breakfast after the bell, won free school lunch, and now I am fighting to end youth hunger by serving dinner as part of universal after school.

Jobs

Our recovery must be driven by jobs for one-in-five New Yorkers who lost them during the pandemic and raising wages for others. That starts with a universal Internet guarantee built on having won affordable high-speed internet for low-income New Yorkers. We will be growing jobs right here at a new biotech incubator at Rockefeller University that we’ve been working on since my first day in office. We also cut the ribbon on a new half-billion-dollar campus expansion of Rockefeller University and the brand new Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island.

In one of the wealthiest cities on the planet in a country where we pay farmers not to farm, hunger isn’t a question of resources, it is a question of information, which is why I continue to push my legislation to make government benefits barrier-free with Automatic Benefits. We can offer retirement accounts to workers who don’t have them at no cost to employers with Retirement Security for All legislation that Trump can no longer block.

When the pandemic shut businesses down, we fought for and won outdoor dining. I am proud to have co-sponsored the law to make outdoor dining permanent and even offer funding to help businesses retrofit for improved ventilation and accessibility.

Parks

Parks are more important than ever as we seek refuge from tiny apartments that weren’t built for a pandemic. Working alongside Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney as Co-Chair of the East River Esplanade we have now secured $874 Million for a resilient waterfront. This is on top of a $3.3 million renovation of Carl Schurz Playground, $1 million for a new pool and basketball courts at John Jay Park, a $2.9 million expansion of Sutton Place Park, $1.4 million in security cameras for hard to patrol parks, and having a new conservancy for almost every park. We even opened indoor tennis for free or low-cost year-round.

Affordable Housing & Over Development

As a lifelong tenant, I know that even with thousands of vacant apartments, the affordable housing crisis persists. We were able to build or preserve 1,000 affordable housing units in the neighborhood with 6,000 citywide as a land-use subcommittee chair. We’ve also won three rent freezes for one million rent-regulated tenants. When a whistleblower shared that real estate developers were getting billions in tax breaks without offering the affordable housing they promised I wrote the law to get hundreds of thousands of affordable homes back on the market. You can see what’s available and apply at HousingConnect.nyc.gov.

We continue to fight overdevelopment that is displacing rent-regulated affordable housing and threatening our communities. We managed to stop the march of supertall buildings for billionaires into residential neighborhoods by winning the first of its kind rezoning. Following that momentum, we closed the mechanical voids loophole in residential districts as we seek to make the voids illegal in commercial districts that include Billionaire’s Row. Then we beat the Jetson’s tower on stilts. I also wrote the law to turn down the volume on after-hours construction noise. After having their proposal for a tower that is illegal to build next to a park rejected 4 times, the New York Blood Center is back again with a proposal to build 334-foot tall commercial tower that would leave the only playground in the East 60s in shadows for much of the day and you must make your voice heard.

Homelessness

In New York City there are more homeless children in our shelters than single men, together with their families they make two-thirds of our homeless. That’s why I co-founded the Eastside Task Force for Homeless Outreach and Services (ETHOS) getting faith-based organizations, nonprofits and City agencies together to build and support more services for the homeless in the neighborhood. Together we’ve opened supportive housing for women and children, a new supermarket style food pantry, and won a near-unanimous resolution in support from Community Board 8 to build a new Safe Haven, all within blocks of where I live and I couldn’t be prouder. With more vacant apartments than homeless families, I’ve proposed renting or buying vacant apartments to end homelessness for families.

Good Government

Big money has had a stranglehold on politics leading to a corrupt government that has failed to serve the people, like saying it would do something about the affordable housing crisis while taking money from real estate developers. That’s why I think elected officials should follow my lead by refusing big money from real estate, corporations, and lobbyists and why I wrote the new full public matching campaign finance system that matches every small dollar you give with 8 public dollars so candidates can run the right way and win.

Our government was so corrupt when I started, that I had to w rite the laws to make it illegal for Council Members to earn outside income from people with business before them and to make the Speaker’s lulu slush fund used to buy Council Member loyalty illegal too. We amended the Charter not once, but twice, winning reforms at the ballot to pace the way on campaign finance along with term limits and urban planners for Community Boards, as well as limiting the revolving door for elected officials who become lobbyists. We even investigated the Rivington scandal.

We need to make it easier to vote. That’s why I authored laws to let you request your absentee ballot online and make sure it is counted which was finally implemented. I also wrote the law to let you register to vote online that was blocked by a corrupt Albany legislature.

You should know where your tax dollars are going which is why we’ve had participatory budgeting and why I wrote the law to put the budget online. I’ve even proposed $15 billion in fat to trim from the budget, savings we could use to f ully fund nonprofits serving youth and seniors.

Public Health & Safety

When the Covid-19 pandemic started, the first thing we did was try and help our City and state secure hospital beds which were in huge demand early on. We succeeded and were able to open 550 new hospital beds in the district. We were also able to launch a supply clearinghouse, and we continue distributing masks, sanitizer, and food. Over the years we've focused on public health with laws to take on Legionnaires' disease and make happy meals healthy, and we've worked to connect New Yorkers with the benefits they need automatically. We wrote the law to create the Office of Food Policy as we fight to adopt good food purchasing.

Better Commutes

Getting around our district has improved immensely over the last 7 and a half years. Thanks to the vigilance of Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney we finally opened the Second Avenue Subway. We also won new transit options including ferries, bike share, faster buses through Select Bus Service, and even renewed the tram. As part of Vision Zero, we invested in infrastructure to make our streets safer and launched a bike safety program that made it safer to be a pedestrian. We are now working to make the 59th Street bridge safe for pedestrians and cyclists to cross along with forcing the City to plow bike lanes and pedestrian intersections.

Environment

I believe in climate change and evidence-based governance. That's why I authored and passed a resolution making New York City the largest city on the planet to declare a climate emergency. The following year the Mayor adopted our ban on the sale of single-use plastic bottles in parks. Through Grow NYC we have funded Fresh Food Boxes and green markets, to offer locally sourced sustainable farm-fresh produce to thousands of residents in the district. I spent years fighting to expand composting, only to see it canceled by the Mayor, and I am committed to working with you to bring it back. We can reduce the carbon footprint of dirty buildings, build green energy infrastructure right here like Renewable Rikers and offshore wind for a recovery that puts climate first.

Quality of Life

Cleaning up doesn’t just mean corruption in government, it also applies to the neighborhood. We’re fighting hundreds of miles of scaffolding, some of it almost old enough to vote, with legislation to force repairs so it comes down quickly. We even put a new, covered trash can on every corner and are working with Wildcat to keep streets clean.

Every moment I get to work for you is a pleasure. I am so grateful for your support and partnership in accomplishing so very much. Please let me know what’s most important to you? Share your priorities at BenKallos.com/survey-2021

Yours in service,

Ben Kallos
Council Member
District 5

BY THE NUMBERS

Constituent Service Cases: 15,792
Introductions Authored: 137
Introductions Enacted into Law:42 (31%)
Resolutions Authored: 23
Resolutions Adopted: 9 (39%)
City Council Attendance (excluding Paternity Leave): 98.25%
Land Use Matters Adopted: 11
Rezonings to Stop Overdevelopment: 2
Lawsuits Against Overdevelopment: 2
Legislation Sponsored:1,804
Legislation Sponsored Adopted or Enacted:1,180 (65%)
Ben in Your Building: 65+
First Fridays & Brainstorm with Ben: 70+
Mobile Hours: Hundreds
Free Legal Clinics: Hundreds
Community Meetings: Hundreds
Event Registrations: 6,000+
Petitions Signed:10,000+
Reusable Bags Distributed: 4,900
Participatory Budgeting Investments in Community: $10.3 million