Dear Friend,
With the holidays approaching, I wanted to take the time to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. May you have much to be thankful for and I hope you are able to celebrate tomorrow surrounded by those that you love and cherish. There are some updates over the past couple weeks from my office that I'd like to share:
1. Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaways
2. Early Rat Mitigation Success
3. Universal Childcare Bill Signing
4. Supporting Small Business Bodegas
5. Advocating for Healthcare Pricing Transparency
6. Art on the Ave Comes to the Upper East Side
7. York Ave Construction Beautification
8. East Midtown Partnership Annual Meeting
9. Constituent Service Corner
10. Community Events and Updates
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1. Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaways
In the holiday season, it's especially important to give back and to combat food insecurity. That's why I worked with New York Common Pantry and the Stanley Isaacs center to coordinate a turkey giveaway for NYCHA residents in our District. We had a successful giveaway of turkeys and fix-ins at the Center and then my team delivered more turkeys to residents at Lexington Houses and Robbins Plaza. I also joined Assemblyman-elect Alex Bores and Bravo's Andy Cohen to distribute turkeys at the Urban Outreach Center, a non-profit dedicated to fighting hunger in East Harlem. It was great to be out in the community meeting with constituents and distributing hundreds of turkeys and I look forward to partnering with community organizations for further events over the rest of the holiday season.
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2. Early Rat Mitigation Success
One of the top constituent complaints that I receive is the proliferation of rodents throughout the city. While the Council has advanced legislation to address that city-wide, I am proud that my office is piloting a unique initiative to tackle some of these rodent problems head on. As I have said, we are using a discretionary funding allocation for extermination services targeting rat burrows throughout tree pits in our District. Our exterminator has been around the neighborhood and I am thrilled that initial treatment has had successful results. According to the East 86th Street Association, on East 86th Street burrows are down over 90% since the pilot efforts there. This is an incredibly promising start and I will continue working with neighborhood leaders and pest management professionals to ensure our neighborhood is continuing to pilot effective ways to create a cleaner neighborhood and reduce the rodent population. Our extermination team is now visiting other blocks flagged by constituents and has begun coordinated treatment with the East 81st Street Yorkville block association as well. If you have tree pits you would like to flag, please email my office.
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3. Universal Childcare Bill Signing
As I have mentioned in previous updates, I have been working hard with my colleagues to bring Universal Childcare to New York City. I am thrilled to inform you that Mayor Adams has now signed my universal childcare bills into law and this firmly puts New York City on the path to being the first city in the United States with universal childcare. These bills were critical as so many women have been pushed out of the workforce due to the inability to find affordable childcare. Now, New York City can lead this charge and provide support for working families while also harnessing economic development. As a mother of four, I was proud to sponsor many of these bills and look forward to working with the Administration and my colleagues as this is implemented.
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4. Supporting Small Business Bodegas
In the shift to on-demand delivery apps, many bodegas and corner stores have been left out. These small businesses are staples of the neighborhood's fabric, but the creation of rapid delivery apps like GoPuff and Gorillas (which often operate in a way that creates dangerous conditions on our streets) has severely hurt these small businesses. Last week, the New York Post reported on a new partnership between bodegas and UberEats as UberEats rolls out thousands of bodegas to its platforms. I emphasized to the Post that this is important as same-day delivery apps backed by venture capital firms should not be creating an uneven playing field. With this, bodega small businesses will not have to pay a fee on deliveries offered on the apps and residents can place convenience store orders to their local bodegas.
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5. Advocating for Healthcare Price Transparency
As I have mentioned before, I am working on a package of bills to bring healthcare pricing transparency to New Yorkers. Currently, different hospitals can charge prices that differ by more than $10,000 for the exact same procedure. Last week, I joined 32BJ, the NYS Nurses Association, Health Committee Chair Lynn Schulman, and the Coalition for Affordable Hospitals to rally at New York Presbyterian Hospital, one of the city's many private hospitals that is being opaque with their costs to the detriment of consumers and to NYC taxpayers. These problematic hospital practices must be addressed and my bill package would bring actual transparency to consumers while also working to rein in NYC healthcare costs. The city currently spends almost $10 billion on healthcare costs and as we enter a difficult budgetary period it is critical to tackle these exorbitant costs. The legislation will soon be introduced and I will keep you informed as it moves through the legislative process.
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6. Art on the Ave Comes to the UES
As the Chair of the Council's Small Business Committee and a former small business owner myself, I enjoy supporting our neighborhood's small businesses and promoting the diverse range of dynamic and wonderful small businesses our community has to offer. That is why I am thrilled to support Art on the Ave's first Upper East Side exhibit "Beyond the Bricks," a collaboration with Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts. From now thru January 17th, Art on the Ave is featuring the work of local artists in storefronts across the neighborhood. The art is being displayed in both existing small businesses and in vacant spaces which creates a unique gallery walk experience throughout the neighborhood. I encourage you to read more about the exhibit in this Our Town feature story and to visit the many locations in our community with this beautiful artwork.
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7. York Ave Construction Project Beautification
In September, I announced that my office was partnering with the City's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) and P.S.183 to beautify the York Avenue Sewer Construction Project between 61st and 63rd. This project began in 2015 and has still not finished due to significant issues with ConEd. In addition to pushing for expedited completion, I am working with DDC and P.S. 183 to feature the artwork of 5th grade students printed onto new panels on the boundary of the project. This will be a major aesthetic improvement from the current situation. Last week, my office joined DDC Commissioner Thomas Foley to present almost 70 5th Graders a Council citation thanking them for their service to the community in submitting artwork. The artwork is currently being digitized and printed onto panels and I look forward to seeing the panels put up later in the winter.
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8. East Midtown Partnership Annual Meeting
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) serve a critical role in supporting the small businesses in our city while also working as partners in addressing issues like sanitation and public safety. In the wake of my advocacy, the Administration has pushed forward a significant increase in funding to BIDs, especially focusing on smaller and under-resourced BIDS that need technical and back office funding. Last week, it was great to join the East Midtown Partnership for its Annual Meeting. The Partnership does great work serving our community in Midtown East and I enjoyed speaking with the membership about my many initiatives as Small Business Chair and my continued collaboration with BIDs.
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9. Constituent Service Corner
This week, a constituent reached out to us that an e-bike had been abandoned chained to the tree pit in front of Victoria's Secret for months. This was preventing the neighborhood association from doing plantings and fixing the tree guard. My office worked with the NYPD to confirm the bike had indeed been abandoned and the 19th Precinct was then able to remove the bike so the Association could fix the tree pit. If you have any issues, you can always reach out to our office by phone, email, or even social media as well as visiting us in-person.
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10. Community Events and Updates
We have a few exciting events coming up that we wanted to flag as the holiday season kicks into high gear:
Sutton Area Community Tree Lighting, Thursday, December 1st at Sutton Place Park (57th St) at 6pm
Union Settlement El Barrio/East Harlem Holiday Tree Lighting, Friday, December 2nd at Franklin Plaza (106th and 3rd) at 630pm
Carl Schurz Park Conservancy Holiday Tree Lighting, Sunday, December 4th at Carl Schurz Park (86th and East End) at 5pm
NYC Open Data Class, December 7th at 12pm, sign up here
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Contact Us
Email us at district5@council.nyc.gov, call our office at 212-860-1950, or visit us at 444 East 75th Street #1B (75th and York Avenue)
Best,
Julie
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