🍎 citymeetings.nyc #5
Hearings on 311, the Fair Workweek Law, and storefront vacancies.
Howdy!
I've amassed a large backlog of meetings to "chapterize" and publish.
The reason? The work I've done to automate this process using LLMs (discussed in great detail in this post) has not worked well enough or consistently enough recently.
The result is that it takes longer than I'd like to review and fix chapters so that they meet the quality bar I've set for citymeetings.nyc in terms of accuracy, skimmability, and completeness.
My eventual goal is to have a workflow where I can publish new meetings within an hour or two of them ending.
I'm confident that this is possible, but it'll take time and a more rigorous approach to how I measure and improve my automation for me to get there.
Until I make significant improvements, I'll be publishing a small sampling of meetings along with a newsletter every 1-2 weeks.
I anticipate seeing improved results in the next 2-3 months and I look forward to sharing everything I did that worked or didn't work much like I did here.
For a complete listing of published meetings, visit citymeetings.nyc.
Feedback? Comments? Questions? Reply to this newsletter or send me an email at vikram@citymeetings.nyc.
Hearing on improving 311's functionality and accessibility
This was the first city council meeting I attended in-person and it was weird! The experience in-person feels vastly different from what you see on camera.
- A great 5-minute dive into specific issues that residents face when they use 311. Link
- 2.5 minutes of Robert Holden expressing every day frustrations that anyone who has used 311 has had to deal with: inaccurately-closed complaints, over 2 minutes of front matter when calling 311, not being able to report many kinds of issues. Link
- It is not possible to get an address for City Hall in the 311 app. Link
- On the Google Play store, the 311 app states that they may share data with third parties. Link
- 311 appears to collect URLs of websites users are visiting prior to visiting 311. Link
- 311 receives over 55,000 calls a day on average. Link
Hearing on the enforcement of the Fair Workweek Law
The aim of the Fair Workweek Law is to force employers to give workers predictable work schedules.
It is documented for fast food employers, retail employers, and utility safety employers on the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP)'s website.
- Many testimonies regarding violations, primarily by Starbucks and Chipotle. Link
- DWCP has recovered $27MM in restitution for workers and $2M in penalties, including a $20MM settlement with Chipotle. In the past year, they've recovered over $7MM from companies like Paris Baguette and Panda Express. Link
- There were 200 Fair Workweek Law violation complaints in 2023, double the amount in 2022. Link
- The most common allegation is about employers failing to post and provide a work schedule. Link
- Starbucks has 56 open complaints from 76 complainants. Link
- In 2022 it took 345 days to resolve a Fair Workweek Law complaint. This is up from 64 days in 2018. Link
Hearing examining rising storefront vacancy rates in NYC
- The citywide storefront vacancy rate is 11.2% today, up from 4% in 2017. Link
- This amounts to 16,384 vacant storefronts. Link
- Manhattan's storefront vacancy rate was 15.7% in Q3 2023. Link
- Gale Brewer is keen on using art programs to activate vacate storefronts. Link
- Some reasons behind high vacancy rates cited by the Department of Small Business (SBS) Services include: Link
- Landlords holding out for higher rents.
- Locations lacking transit accessibility.
- A mismatch between the build-out of commercial spaces and what the market needs.
- SBS is keen on City of Yes for Economic Opportunity. Link
- Vickie Paladino is against the home-based business proposal in City of Yes for Economic Opportunity, while SBS views them as a pipeline to eventually occupy vacant commercial spaces as they grow. Link
- More on Vickie Paladino's opposition to City of Yes for Economic Opportunity. Link
- Comments from the Executive Director of The Bronx's 3rd Avenue BID regarding why there are so many commercial vacancies there -- theft, being at the center of NYC's opioid epidemic, and safety are the primary ones he cites. Link
Thanks for reading!
Comments, questions, or feedback? Reply to this email or shoot me a note at vikram@citymeetings.nyc