New York City Council Archives

City Council Holding Rent Line By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

null Wednesday, March 26, 1997

The City Council yesterday endured glares, chants and boos, but ultimately got cheers from tenants as it overwhelmingly approved largely symbolic action to continue laws that restrict rent hikes.

The 47-to-3 vote, which sets the stage for Mayor Giuliani to sign the bill before an April 1 reauthorization deadline, also makes it tougher for landlords to impose large rent hikes on luxury units that become vacant.
The decision came before a boisterous, heavily pro-tenant crowd of about 300 that packed the City Council hearing gallery and spilled over to the City Hall Public Hearing Room, where they heard the Council proceedings over speakers.

But the decision could be rendered essentially meaningless by the state Senate where Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has vowed to let the rent protections expire June 15 unless state lawmakers agree to a two-year phaseout of the half-century-old rent protection system.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) cited that threat after the vote. “We have sent about as clear and convincing a message as we could to the majority leader of the Senate,” he said.

March 26, 1997

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They Rent & Rave To Ax Hikes By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Wednesday, March 12, 1997

Facing an unprecedented loss of state rent protections, hundreds of tenants packed a municipal hearing yesterday and called on the City Council to preserve the regulations.

Carrying signs and shouting at landlord advocates, the tenants demanded that the Council meet an April 1 deadline for reauthorizing laws that restrict the size of rent hikes for more than 1 million city apartments.

Walter Gambin, 52, an upper West Side tenant, said renters are being pinched from all sides, including by politicians serving the interests of landlords. “They’ve got a lot,” Gambin said of the landlords. “We don’t. Why do they want to take more from us?”

The tenants jeered as Richard Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, defended state Senate plans to let the rent laws expire in three months.

Anderson said government rent regulations have depressed the city housing market to the point where developers have shied from constructing rental buildings.

The hearing, where one tenant was tossed out of City Hall for rowdiness, marked the latest skirmish in an emotionally charged battle over rent laws.

At yesterday’s hearing, the tenants demanded that the Council certify a recent survey that found the rental vacancy rate in the five boroughs remains below 5%, the official measure of a housing emergency.

The Council has until April 1 to vote on the issue.

Council members are expected to approve the politically sensitive emergency designation by an overwhelming margin, and Mayor Giuliani–facing reelection this year–is expected to sign it.

The focus then will shift to Albany, where State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer), a long-time foe of government rent regulations, has threatened to end the rent-protection system.

Bruno’s threat has taken on heightened importance because the GOP-controlled state Senate can simply let the rent laws expire June 15, despite opposition from the Democratic-run Assembly.

Gearing up for the battle, tenants yesterday warned City Council members not to reverse their long-standing support for the rent laws. Some advocates showed up at the hearing with lists showing honor and dishonor rolls of Council members who in the past have voted to curb the protections.

“I don’t think City Council members running for reelection want to get caught on the side of landlords,” said Jenny Laurie of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, a tenant group.

March 12, 1997

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Don’t Pass The Ammunition; Mayor holds off on new bullets

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

March 5, 1997

by BOB LIFF, MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JOHN MARZULLI, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani put the brakes on the police plan to arm cops with controversial hollow-point bullets yesterday — demanding to see studies on the expanding rounds before approving the change.

Giuliani summoned Police Commissioner Howard Safir and his top brass to City Hall to brief him on the switch, which would replace the full metal jacket police bullet with a round that expands on impact and is less likely to ricochet.

The mayor said he believes the bullets would be safer for cops and civilians, but insisted he needs more time to study the sensitive issue.

“I asked them to see all the studies so that I can review them personally,” he said after meeting with police brass. “They went over some of them with me. They are going to get me more because I want to look into this issue carefully.”

“It is not a done deal until I finally approve it,” Giuliani said as City Council members prepared to grill Safir on the switch to hollow-points at a previously scheduled public safety hearing today.

Civil rights advocates have long criticized the snub-nose bullets, which create gruesome wounds but are more likely to stop a suspect. Elected city officials said yesterday they also want to hear more about the changeover before throwing their support behind it.

“Right now we in the Council have more questions than answers,” said Speaker Peter Vallone, (D-Queens).

Councilman Enoch Williams (D-Brooklyn) called the hollow-points “a license to kill.”

“It means that if someone makes a mistake out there . . . a youngster 15, 16 years old that maybe does something the police officer doesn’t like . . . and he shoots, that kid is finished,” Williams said.

“It should be disturbing to all elected leaders and citizens that the NYPD could just introduce these bullets without any briefing or public hearing about the implications,” said Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition.

Police officials argue that hollow-points do not ricochet and rarely pass through walls or the body of an intended target — lessening the risk to bystanders from stray bullets.

New York is virtually alone among major police departments and law enforcement agencies in using full metal jacket bullets.

Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Lou Matarazzo applauded the change, saying the advantages of the hollow-points “outweigh the risks” to cops and civilians.

Giuliani said he understands the potential benefits for police. He said the decision on hollow-points was made by then-Commissioner William Bratton before he resigned in April. The mayor said he did not disagree “at the time” with Bratton’s decision.

But Bratton told the Daily News he “did not recall” signing off on the new bullets before he left, although he would have approved the hollow-points.

Bratton, who had a stormy relationship with Giuliani during his last months as commissioner, said he believes the mayor was angry that Safir made the announcement Monday.

“The mayor doesn’t like media surprises, so he’ll hold off on it for a while to reinforce that he doesn’t like being surprised,” Bratton said.

Critics of the bullets have also said they pose a danger to cops who accidentally shoot themselves or their partners.

Since 1981, 51 officers have been wounded by so-called friendly fire.

March 5, 1997

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Council Plunges Into Swimsuit Issue

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Friday, February 21, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

New Yorkers yearning to breathe free and stroll the city’s streets in bathing suits can take heart it may soon be legal.

As part of a legal spring cleaning, the City Council is eying repeal of outdated taboos in the city administrative code, including the bathing suit ban.

“We obviously don’t want anyone to be arrested for walking around in their bathing suit,” Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) said. “Although it may not be proper attire, it shouldn’t put you in prison.”

Nonetheless, Chapter 1, Section 10 of the administrative code stipulates that it is “unlawful” to wear a bathing suit on the street unless you are near a city park or beach.

Anyone found guilty of wearing a bathing suit without covering their torso from shoulders to midthigh faces a $ 10 fine, up to 10 days in jail, or both.

Although the Police Department crackdown on quality-of-life offenses has not targeted alleged swimsuit violators, Vallone said the Council wants to take the law off the books, just in case. Besides, other city rules already cover most common-sense bathing suit no-nos.

“You couldn’t walk into a restaurant and ask to be served,” Vallone said. “That would be a violation of the health code. That could also be covered under the indecent exposure law.”

Also up for possible repeal are three outdated city laws that govern medical services. They include a misdemeanor penalty for anyone found guilty of improperly transferring medical records from a defunct medical facility to another agency.

The Council is also expected to abolish the penalty for anyone convicted of placing an incorrect street number on his or her building. Offenders instead would be charged with a civil violation punishable by a $ 25 fine that increases by $ 5 per day if the sign isn’t corrected.

The Governmental Operations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the changes next week. If approved, as expected, the revisions would take effect by summer. The changes are part of an ongoing effort to weed out archaic laws that may have made sense in an earlier age, but don’t necessarily apply to the 1990s.

For instance, the Council is now hard at work researching a law that prohibits public bathing. That prohibition that may join the scrap heap along with previously repealed laws that barred women from baring their navels in public and barbers from using “powder puffs or neck dusters” on customers.

February 21, 1997

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Fifth May Hafta Stand Kiosks

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

November 15, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

Step aside, Saks Fifth Avenue. Move over, Bergdorf Goodman. And Tiffany’s, watch out. Newsstands may soon be coming to New York’s ritziest real estate.

The city plans to add 100 stands to the 330 already operating around Manhattan. And officials of the Municipal Arts Society said Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter told them that Fifth Ave. — home of some of the city’s toniest shops — won’t be held “sacred” when locations are picked.

Fifth Ave. merchants and esthetics experts look askance at the prospect of stands that might further congest the already heavily crowded sidewalks.

“We feel it’s inappropriate. Fifth Ave. has always been free of bus shelters and newspaper stands,” said Vanessa Gruen, special projects director for the Municipal Arts Society.

“My advice to the administration is not to go down that path,” agreed Tom Cusick, president of the Fifth Avenue Association.

Merchants along the avenue have traditionally resisted any sidewalk vendors. Their combined opposition — and heavyweight political clout — blocked any newsstands from springing up along Fifth Ave. between 42d St. and 57th Sts.

But the plan eyed by Mayor Giuliani’s administration and the City Council would replace the existing newsstands and open the new sites as part of a broader effort to open 30 automatic public toilets and 3,500 bus shelters.

City officials said all of the new fixtures would be carefully designed kiosks, probably with ads on the sides to help pay for installation and maintenance.

“We think it is going to be beautiful,” said Reiter, stressing that no locations have yet been selected.

In a bow to merchants’ fears, Reiter said any kiosks eventually designed for Fifth Ave. might be smaller, cylindrical structures that would take up less sidewalk.

The merchants weren’t appeased.

“Whether it is a square or rectangle or round shape, we don’t believe that newsstands makes sense,” complained Cusick.

But a sampling of Fifth Ave. strollers yesterday found support for the city plan. “I don’t think it will hurt if they regulate them — maybe keep them two blocks apart,” said James Morrison, 25, of Astoria, Queens.

November 15, 1996

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City XXX-pulsion Plan Put on Hold

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

October 25, 1996

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JAMES RUTENBERG, Daily News Staff Writers

Times Square sex shop owners yesterday said the red-light district would stay lit as a state appeals court temporarily blocked the city’s plan to start restricting X-rated businesses this weekend.

Smut shops advertising “Live Girls” and hawking such videos as “Slut Hunt III” continued to do a brisk business as managers and employees said they have no plans to move or change their inventory.

“We’re not going to go anywhere,” vowed a manager at the company that owns Show World and other porn establishments near Times Square. “We’re confident we’re going to get the relief we’re entitled to under the United States Constitution.”

The defiant boast came after the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court yesterday issued a stay blocking the city’s plans to start closing about 150 X-rated video shops, topless bars and other porn businesses under a zoning law that restricts the location of sex shops.

Yesterday’s court action temporarily overruled a Manhattan Supreme Court decision on Wednesday that upheld the zoning law — enacted by the city in a bid to disperse heavy concentrations of sex shops.

The appeals court set a Nov. 15 hearing on the legal stay, followed by December arguments on the zoning law itself.

Lawyers for the sex shops and the New York Civil Liberties Union declared victory after the appeals court issued the stay.

“There will be no closing of any of the adult establishments,” said Herald Price Fahringer, who represents a coalition of more than 100 X-rated businesses that claim the zoning law violates First Amendment rights of free speech.

But Mayor Giuliani and City Council leaders yesterday predicted the city eventually would win court backing to launch the shutdown plan.

“We are quite confident that we’ll prevail,” Giuliani said. “Not only did we prevail in the State Supreme Court already, but essentially throughout the country these kinds of provisions have been upheld by courts.”

October 25, 1996

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