September 23, 2024

🍎 citymeetings.nyc #12

Citizens Air Complaint Program, Public Bathroom Access, RIOC, Unlicensed Cannabis Shops, NYCHA Rent Arrears, Civic Participation, and FDNY Search & Rescue Ops

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For a complete listing of published meetings, visit https://citymeetings.nyc.

This week's highlights are from hearings on:

• The Citizens Air Complaint Program
• On public bathroom access and various governmental operations issues
• Shutting down unlicensed cannabis shops
• Legislation encouraging more affordable housing development by HPD
• NYCHA's rent arrears
• Increasing civic participation by veterans and (in a separate hearing) CUNY students
• FDNY's search and rescue operations

Hearing on changes to the Citizens Air Complaint Program and idling violation penalties

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala gives testimony.

• The Citizens Air Complaint Program was established in 2019 to help enforce NYC's anti-idling laws. Citizens get a cut from collected fines through the program. Link
  • It's led to 170,000 idling cases brought before the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH).
• Complaint growth over time: 9K in 2019, 80K in 2023, 120K in 2024. Link
• DEP's commissioner explains the reporting process. 2,500 individuals have participated. Link
• On multiple occasions, idling complainants verbally harassed or assaulted govt. employees or gained unauthorized access of secure government spaces. Link
  • Some complainants submitted the same video evidence multiple times to try to generate multiple violations.
• Intro 941 allows the Department of Environment Protection (DEP) to remove complainants who violate a code of conduct.
  • It also doubles the duration of the review period for complaints from 45 to 90 days.
• Complainants receive 25% - 50% of collected fines from cases they report. Link
• DEP has 65 air and noise inspectors, with 15 dedicated to reviewing videos and preparing summonses. With the increase in complaints, more inspectors are desk-bound. Link
• Lincoln Restler suggests imposing a cap on the amount a complainant can generate in revenue annually so folks don't make a full-time job out of submitting air complaints. Link
• Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, who estimates he made $150K last year through the program testifies against the proposed legislation. Link
• Finally, unrelated to the program -- apparently DCAS received a $15MM grant from the US DOT to build the nation's largest curbside electric vehicle charging program. Link

Hearing on a kitchen sink of legislation around governmental operations and the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC)

Teddy Siegel of got2gonyc shares harrowing stories about finding bathrooms in NYC.

This hearing had it all, from repealing the mayor's elected officials engagement request form to:

• Public bathroom access
• Improvements to 311
• Requiring an archive of official govt. social media accounts
• ... and more!

The highlights:

• On the mayor's form: "What's clear is that some elected officials who are cozy with the administration don't need to submit the form, and other elected officials have been directed to submit." Link
  • Members of the council have submitted the form 450 times collectively.
  • Senators Schumer and Gillibrand have submitted the form zero times.
  • Governor Hochul has completed the form once.
  • Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Velasquez, Espaillat have completed the form once.
• Sandy Nurse's Intro 694 sets a goal of 1 toilet per 2,000 residents by 2035. Link
  • NYC ranks 93rd out of the 100 largest cities in public bathroom availability!
• Building public restrooms is ~$5MM per restroom and takes 3-4 years per restroom. Link
• Sandy Nurse suggests setting more ambitious public bathroom implementation goals. Link
• The internal working group to expand public bathroom access is called "Loo York". Link
  • The effort is publicly called "Ur in Luck". Link
• The city wants to work with Google to integrate bathroom information into GMaps. Link
• The founder of got2gonyc shares harrowing stories about people looking for bathrooms in NYC. Link
• The CTO of PeePass, a newly-launched mobile app helping users locate restrooms in NYC, testifies.
• Clifton Smith highlights challenges faced by those with medical conditions or disabilities when it comes to bathroom access. Link
• A professor at Columbia University highlights the urgent need for menstrual-friendly facilities. Link
• Gale Brewer's Intro 564 requires a searchable database of every post to a social media platform by any official government account. Link
• The Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) currently maintains an archive of over 31MM social media records from various platforms. Link
• Eric Dinowitz's Intro 162 requires some city-owned buildings to provide bicycle storage space for employees or visitors.

Finally -- overshadowed by all the public bathroom talk is a bunch of testimony by residents on Roosevelt Island regarding the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC).

RIOC's mission is to "plan, design, develop, operate, and maintain" Roosevelt Island and is effectively the island's governing body.

• Roosevelt Island is leased by NYC to New York State until 2068. Link
  • Residents do not get to vote for who is on the RIOC Board of Directors. The governor appoints them.
  • Residents run "plebiscites", not elections, which are only advisory.
  • (They are not allowed to call them elections.) Link
• Members on the RIOC Board of Directors have served 5, 10, and even 30 years -- there's a guy who's served for 30 years who calls into meetings and no one knows where he lives. Link
  • The island pays taxes to city and state but gets no funding from them.
  • The island is funded by itself (mostly ground leases) but the residents do not get a say in electing those who direct the funds.
• Penina Gold, a resident, sums up Roosevelt Island's governance and residents' issues. Link

Related -- one benefit of being island-funded-and-directed (in spite of the lack of representation on the island) is that money goes to things like this incredible pneumatic tube trash system.

Hearing on the city's efforts to shut down unlicensed cannabis shops

Alaina Turnquist at the Independent Budget Organization (IBO) walks us through tax revenue projections from the legal cannabis market.

• The sheriff's office estimates that 2,600 unlicensed cannabis stores remain that have not been sealed. Link
• Over 5K inspections were conducted over 4 months. Link
  • 1K locations were sealed, $67MM in illicit products seized, and over $104MM in civil penalties issued.
• Sheriff Anthony Miranda supports Intro 557-A, which adds a 311 complaint category for unlicensed cannabis retailers.
• The sheriff does not support Intro 981, which mandates quarterly reporting on enforcement activities. Link
• Local Law 107 prohibits landlords from knowingly renting commercial space to unlicensed cannabis retailers. The sheriff's office issues warnings and landlords have been generally cooperative. Link
• Some shops operate only at night in order to evade inspectors, who work during they day. Link
• Ingrid Simonovic of the New York City Deputy Sheriff's Association shares that, for cannabis enforcement, deputies are working up to 12-hour days, work weeks have increase from 4 to 5 or 6 days including mandatory weekend shifts. Link
• Two new chiefs were hired for a combined salary of $375K. Simonovic argues that this money could have been used to hire at least 8 new deputies. Link
• The Independent Budget Office (IBO) estimates that NYC's legal cannabis market could yield between $33M and $200M in annual tax revenue at maturity. Link
  • The low-end estimate assumes low per capita sales at a low price. The high-end assumes high per capita sales at a high price. Link
• Sales at unlicensed cannabis shops have slowed tax growth of cannabis tax revenue. Link
• IBO notes that fluctuations in cannabis revenue are not a significant factor in closing budget gaps, with the highest projection of $200MM amounting to a 1/4 percent of city revenues. Link
• NYC collected $2.4MM in cannabis tax revenue in FY 2024. IBO predicts collections of $37MM by FY 2028. Link
• 50 licensed dispensaries have opened so far in 2024. Link
• Cannabis sales are subject to a 13% sales tax. 9% goes to the state, 4% goes to the city. Link

Hearing on legislation encouraging more affordable housing construction

Speaker Adrienne Adams introduces Intro 958.

• Intro 958 requires the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to double the rate of "affordable homeownership opportunity" construction to 6% of all units. Link
• Speaker Adams introduces her bill and provides a bunch of stats. Link
  • The median home price has doubled since 2000 and stands at > $700,000.
  • 42.5% of white households in NYC own their homes compared with 28.3% of black households and 16.7% of Latino households.
  • The city's black population has declined by nearly 200,000 people over 2 decades.
  • She called out Southeast Queens, Central Brooklyn, and the Bronx as "havens for homeownership that support closing wealth gaps"
• 43.1% of renter households are rent-burdened. 25% are severely so. Over 100K New Yorkers are in a DHS shelter. Link
• HPD has increased assistance for first-time home buyers to $100,000 from $40,000. Link
• In the last decade, just under 1,000 first time home buyers received assistance. Link
• The First Deputy Commissioner at HPD calls out City of Yes as a means to rely on more private action to help "build up the rental market and include regulated, required affordable housing". Link
• 94% of District 14's residents in the Bronx are renters. 98% of the district is Black and Latino with a medium income of $23K. Link
• Kim Darga, Deputy Commissioner of Development @ HPD, states that inflation has caused construction costs to increase dramatically and that it is taking longer to finance their projects. Link

And... the rest of the meetings

Fire Marshal Joseph DiGiacomo demonstrates a canine's abilities in ignitable liquid detection.

Last week was a busy week.

Here are a few selected highlights from hearings on:

• NYCHA rent arrears
• Increasing civic participation by veterans
• Increasing civic participation by CUNY students
• FNDY's search, rescue, and fire investigation procedures.

NYCHA rent arrears

• NYCHA rent arrears stands at $487MM, up 4x since 2019. About 68% of rent owed is collected. Link
• 70K households (almost half) are in arrears. The average rent billed is $651. The average rent collected is $399. Link
• NYCHA is facing an $80B capital gap and, according to NYCHA's COO " that's really the core of the conditions that you're seeing at our sites." Chair Banks pushes back. Link

Increasing civic participation by veterans

• Nationwide, only 34.3% of veterans identify themselves as such. In NY state it's 29.8% and in NYC it's 24.1%. Link
• 75% of veterans voted in 2020's presidential election, compared to 67% of non-veterans. Link
• Vickie Paladino's impassioned remarks on illegal immigrant vending in NYC in the context of veteran vendors receiving tickets. Link
• Council member Sandy Nurse refers to a new law coming up regarding community board term limits, but it's unclear if this is different from existing term limits coming into effect soon or if she is referring to new legislation. Link
  • Do you know what this is? If you do, please email me -- thank you!

Increasing civic participation by CUNY students

• Chair Dinowitz' office uses CUNY's mapping service so much that he feels like Steven Romalewski, who launched and directed the program, is a celebrity! Link
• Dinowitz pushes for CUNY to focus on turnout in primaries because those are the elections that usually determine who a representative will be in NYC. Link
• Salimatou Doumbouya, a CUNY student and the chairperson of the University Student Senate, testifies. Link
• Students and council members discuss how to integrate civic engagement in curricula. Link
• Dinowitz notes that the University Student Senate's talking points are very clear -- particularly regarding free MetroCards. Link

On FDNY's search, rescue, and fire investigation procedures

• FDNY has a robotics unit, where they use one of the Boston Dynamics robot dogs to enhance situational awareness. They also use drones. Link
• Fire marshals are basically fire detectives, which I did not know. They require 5 years of field experience and training on topics including fire science, chemistry, electrical systems, evidence collection, and legal procedures. Link 1 Link 2
• A fire marshal from the canine unit demonstrates a dog's abilities in ignitable liquid detection. Link

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