Press Releases

The City Council designated more than $12 million in Fiscal Year 2021 budget to support various housing initiatives, including tenant advocacy and eviction prevention programs as we battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath   

New York, NY – Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Housing and Buildings Committee Chair Robert Cornegy today announced that the City Council is funding several programs to provide relief to both renters and homeowners, which are now needed more than ever as we battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating financial impacts to New Yorkers.

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Council will also vote to track heat-related deaths and create a cooling plan

City Hall, NY – The New York City Council on Tuesday will vote on legislation to change the name of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, thereby officially expanding the Department’s mandate to enforce the City’s labor laws.

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Council will also vote to track heat-related deaths and create a cooling plan

City Hall, NY – The New York City Council on Thursday will vote on legislation to change the name of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, thereby officially expanding the Department’s mandate to enforce the City’s labor laws.

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“Six years ago today, Eric Garner’s life was tragically taken by an NYPD officer using a chokehold to arrest him. He was not the first Black person we’ve lost to unwarranted police violence, and he was certainly not the last. But on this day, to commemorate his life, it’s important to recognize exactly who we lost that day.

“Eric was a son, a father, a husband, a brother, a cousin, a grandfather, a friend, and a New Yorker.

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“The plan outlined by the Mayor and Chancellor to reopen schools this September does little to alleviate parents’ concerns about child care for students when they are not physically in school. Abbreviated schedules and no afterschool means many parents can’t work. Sadly, we know that this will disproportionately hurt women who are too often pushed out of the workforce because they must choose between watching children or working.

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The $88.19 billion budget reduces spending and restructures the NYPD while restoring $700 million in programs and initiatives that the de Blasio Administration had cut in the Executive Budget

City Hall, NY – Speaker Corey Johnson, Finance Committee Chair Daniel Dromm, and Capital Budget Subcommittee Chair Vanessa Gibson on Tuesday announced an agreement on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 budget. The Fiscal Year 2021 Adopted Budget includes $837 million in cuts and transfers to the New York Police Department (NYPD) expense budget.

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The New York City Council on Thursday will vote on bills to legalize the use of electric bikes and scooters throughout the City. The legislation will remove restrictions on three classes of electric bicycles with top speeds under 25 miles per hour and electric scooters with top speeds under 20 miles per hour. E-bikes and e-scooters were legalized statewide when the state budget was passed on April 1. The Council is now acting to remove the local law that prohibits them and adds measures designed to ensure that delivery cyclists are not subject to unequal crackdowns and summonses of their bikes by the New York City Police Department. 

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New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Oversight and Investigations Chair Ritchie Torres today announced that the Council will subpoena a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report that purportedly shows more police-involved deaths in New York City than has been previously reported. The existence of this report was disclosed in an op-ed by journalist Mara Gay in the New York Times on Friday afternoon. The Council will ask for the report referred to in the 

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New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson released the following statement calling for Juneteenth to be made a federal holiday and announcing that the New York City Council is observing Juneteenth as a holiday.  

“Juneteenth is celebrated as the true end to slavery in this country, though it came more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. June 19th signifies the ongoing fight for real equality for Black people in our country—which is always urgent, especially right now. 

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Call for removal comes on the eve of Juneteenth

NEW YORK, NY – Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Debi Rose, Council Member Inez Barron, and Co- Chairs of the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus (BLAC), Council Member Adrienne Adams and I. Daneek Miller, today called for the removal of the Thomas Jefferson statue, located in the Council Chambers in City Hall.

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