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By Ralph Spielman
New bills to overhaul scaffolds that now cover 280 miles of sidewalks in New York City would force builders to make them taller, take them down faster, and illuminate them more brightly while they are standing.
Sheds near parks and playgrounds would have even stricter regulations, pushing the proposed height of a shed even higher.
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By Catherine Stoddard and Linda Schmidt
Scaffolding has been a part of New York City’s landscape for years.
And while they serve a functional purpose by protecting pedestrians from falling debris, they’re an eyesore to look at and it seems they stay up for – well – ever.
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By Samantha Maldonado
The City Council on Thursday passed a slate of bills in an effort to prevent lithium-ion battery fires.
Over the past two years, lithium-ion batteries have caused a record number of fires, with the batteries that power e-bikes and e-scooters the source of the vast majority of those incidents, according to the Fire Department.
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NEW YORK (WABC) — New York City Council members are voting Thursday on new legislation aimed at regulating lithium-ion batteries and reducing fires caused by the batteries.
Lithium-ion battery fires have been increasing at an alarming rate across the city, going from 44 fires in 2020 to 216 fires in 2022 and resulting in exponential increases in injuries and deaths.
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NEW YORK – There’s a new effort to put a stop to body size discrimination.
Manhattan Councilman Shaun Abreu introduced a bill Tuesday to ban discrimination on the basis of height or weight in employment, housing and access to public accommodation.
At a rally on the steps of City Hall, Abreu spoke about how such biases can be detrimental.
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By Sam Rabiyah
While thousands of tenants face eviction cases without a lawyer, the government office that administers New York City’s Right to Counsel law has scheduled its required annual public hearing from 6 to 9 p.m. this coming Friday — an unorthodox hour for public business.
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By Kenny Stancil
More than 7,000 unionized nurses at two of New York City’s largest hospitals began a strike on Monday morning “for fair contracts that improve patient care.”
“Nurses don’t want to strike,” the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) said late Sunday in a statement.
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By Michael Gartland
New York City’s government agencies may soon be required by law to conduct exit interviews with workers opting to leave municipal employment for greener pastures.
The proposal, which is laid out in legislation Councilman Shaun Abreu plans to introduce later this month, would impact hundreds, if not thousands, of municipal workers a year, given that the city employs more than 300,000 people.
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By Ethan Stark-Miller
Oh rats!
The City Council passed a package of bills Thursday aimed at combating the swarms of rodents running a muck on the city’s streets and in its subways.
The package, dubbed the Rat Action Plan, includes legislation that would designate more so-called “rat mitigation zones” – areas prone to rat infestations, direct the city health department to report annually on its efforts to curtail the rat problem in those zones, require buildings with several rodent-specific health violations place their trash in lidded containers and compel developers prove they retained a rodent exterminator in order to get a construction permit.
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NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — A first-of-its-kind bill will be introduced to New York City Council this week that would prohibit discriminating against people based on their tattoos.
Many employers in the city have rules banning tattoos from the workplace, and proponents say tattoo stigma has prevented some New Yorkers from getting access to services and housing.
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