Yesterday, the city took important steps to hold landlords accountable and make our streets safer by passing legislation that will help with the crisis when it comes to affordable housing, and to protect pedestrians and cyclists who are the most vulnerable street users.
The City Council passed and the Mayor signed 2 pieces of legislation that was sponsored and introduced by Harlem City Council Transportation Chair Ydanis Rodriguez.
- Intro 823-A: will highlight where the majority of the violations of existing affordable housing that are illegally converted into short-term hotels for the use of tourists and others are occurring in our city in order to know who the landlords are of these buildings and where we must focus enforcement resources to hold them accountable.
- Intro 1285-A: will require the DOT to study and provide solutions to our most congested sidewalks in New York City. Harlem Chair Rodriguez was pleased to say that this has begun along 7th avenue in midtown, with plans to increase sidewalk space and ease some of this crowding. We are taking an innovative approach to this issue and I hope to see DOT go even further.
The City Council also passed and the Mayor signed 2 pieces of legislation that Harlem Chair Rodriguez colleagues and co-sponsored and introduced.
- Intro 1177-A: Co-sponsored by Council Members Helen Rosenthal, Mathieu Eugene and Harlem City Council Transportation Chair Ydanis Rodriguez. This legislation will establish more Barnes Dance crossings throughout our city, which will keep pedestrians safer than any other style of intersection because all cars are stopped. The use of this innovative crossing which allows pedestrians to cross in any direction at an intersection, will ease any danger and confusion when crossing. The Barnes crossing will makes our city more walkable and therefore more livable for all who to choose to live and work here.
- Intro 1117-A: Co-sponsored by Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and myself. This legislation is a commitment from our city to commercial and delivery cyclists that we care about your safety. As we know, only commercial cyclists that are employees are subject to a number of safety and record-keeping requirements. but now, this legislation will amend these laws to cover commercial cyclists that are classified as independent contractors, to make our city safer for all users.
Harlem Speaker Mark-Viverito was congratulated for her leadership and support and Mayor Bill de Blasio and his Administration for their collaboration and partnership.
