November 22, 2022 by Carlina Rivera

The City Council has not advanced the legislation to make the city’s temporary, Covid-era outdoor dining program permanent. We’ve covered the issue extensively, and now Council Member Carlina Rivera (D-East Village) is demanding a better process. Here’s her op-ed piece, exclusively for Streetsblog.

We are at an inflection point on outdoor dining, and as we consider its next phase, we have an opportunity to create an enduring program for restaurants and communities to thrive together.

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by Reuven Blau, published November 4, 2022

The city Department of Correction recently revealed it is moving to a digitized mail and package delivery system meant to curb contraband. Inmate advocates caution the switch will trample privacy rights — and that two other states that made similar changes have seen no decrease in overdoses or drug seizures. 

At an oversight hearing last week, DOC Commissioner Louis A.

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por NY1, Actualizado 03 Noviembre 2022

“El dueño de casa nos quiere desalojar”, dijo la inquilina Miriam Andrade.

Desde hace 22 años, Andrade, ecuatoriana de 50 años, vive en un edificio en Brooklyn y dice que su casero la quiere desalojar, algo que le parece ilógico e inhumano ya que asegura hay unidades vacías.

“Que somos familias que tenemos niños, que ¿adónde nos vamos a ir a vivir?, a lo menos a mí me tocara ir a vivir debajo de un puente porque yo no tengo donde.

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by Sam Rabiyah and Rachel Holliday Smith, published November 3, 2022

The pressure is on to open the city’s vacant apartments.

Since THE CITY reported that nearly 89,000 rent-stabilized apartments were vacant last year in New York City, tenant advocates and lawmakers have increased their calls for solutions as the city’s housing crisis deepens.

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por Verónica Romero, Actualizado 01 Noviembre 2022

Una horda de ‘propiedades zombis’ está aterrorizando la ciudad de Nueva York y el defensor del pueblo, Jumaane Williams, aprovechó el Halloween para liderar a una coalición de activistas y funcionarios electos para luchar contra ellas.

Y es que en una época en que la falta de vivienda tiene a Nueva York en una crisis de asequibilidad y desamparo cada vez peor, se estima que más de 88,000 unidades de alquiler estabilizado están vacantes en la Gran Manzana y caen dentro del rubro de ‘propiedades zombis’ que el Departamento de Desarrollo y Preservación de Vivienda (HPD), en su portal, define como pequeñas viviendas de-
socupadas y deterioradas cuyos propietarios están atrasados en los pagos de su hipoteca.

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by Max Parrott, published October 31, 2022

With the governor’s race heating up into a full-blown political war over criminal justice reforms, Councilmember Carlina Rivera has not ceased to propose new ideas on how the city can reshape its jail system. 

Rivera, chair of the Council Committee on Criminal Justice, introduced legislation on Thursday that would create a city program to identify incarcerated people awaiting trial who are safe to return to the community through alternative programs.

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by Dean Moses, Published October 31, 2022

New York City is “Zombieland” when it comes to the proliferation of apartments kept intentionally vacant by ghoulish landlords looking to scare up a big profit later on, elected officials charged on Halloween.

Dubbing the empty units “zombie apartments,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Manhattan City Council Member Carlina Rivera aptly gathered on Oct.

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by Greg B. Smith and Reuven Blau, Published October 25, 2022

The city Department of Correction has pulled the plug on a $5 million contract with the nonprofit Exodus Transitional Community after four of the group’s employees were caught in various bad acts on Rikers Island, including smuggling drugs and burner phones into the troubled jail, THE CITY has learned.

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By Ben Brachfeld, published October 27, 2022

The City Council approved a bill Thursday that would require New York to create a master plan for greenways for the first time in three decades, amid a boom in cycling instigated by the pandemic.

The bill requires the city to study and gather community input on locations where greenways are feasible, with a focus on low-income communities and neighborhoods of color which have historically seen less investment in bike infrastructure, and issue a final plan by December 2024, with an update in 2026 and every five years thereafter.

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Por: Edwin Martínez, Actualizado 27 Oct 2022

Justo cuando crecen las voces en Nueva York para que pronto se cierre la cárcel de Rikers Island, donde 17 presos, entre ellos varios latinos, han muerto bajo custodia de las autoridades penitenciarias, legisladoras de la Gran Manzana están impulsando un proyecto de ley que busca reducir 

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