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Bagging Plastic Bags


It's the same situation for many New Yorkers. Lurking under your kitchen sink is a growing, almost uncontrollable number of plastic shopping bags. The environmentally conscious city dweller habitually hoards bags, because here, as in many places across the city and state, the bags are not recycled.

Now the City Council is aiming to reduce that accumulating pile. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Peter Vallone have introduced legislation that would require stores larger than 5,000 square feet to recycle plastic bags.

 

In addition to the plastic bag bill, members introduced several other pieces of legislation throughout October, from broadening the definition of tenant harassment to limiting engine idling.

Piling Up Plastic Bags

Plastic bags have not traditionally been recycled, because – unlike plastic water bottles - they are a blend of several plastics and are so relatively hard to handle. In fact, only 4 percent of bags are recycled in the country as opposed to 25 percent of plastic bottles.

Under the council's proposed legislation (Intro 640), stores over 5,000 square feet would have to provide large bins for reusable plastic bags in a visible place near the front of the store. They would also be required to use plastic bags that state, "Please return this bag to a participating store for recycling," and to also offer reusable bags for sale.

At least 700 businesses should be captured by the bill, said Quinn.

Plastic bags are not biodegradable, and Americans use about 84 billion of them annually. Producing these bags consumes an estimated 12 million barrels of oil annually.

"If the pilgrims had bought their turkeys with plastic bags, they would still be here today," said Vallone. "Not the pilgrims, the bags."

Bags collected would be sent back to the manufacturer or sold to a local contractor for recycling, where the used bags can then be turned into new ones or into plastic furniture.

"Plastic bags, which are made from non-renewable petroleum resources, are used for a matter of hours before they are discarded," said Eric Goldstein, the Natural Resources Defense Council urban program co-director. "But they create environmental burdens that last for hundreds of years."

According to the Department of Sanitation, plastic bags make up about 2.73 percent of the overall city waste stream, or about 91,830 tons a year.

Stores that are found in violation of the legislation would be subject to a $500 fine for the first violation, $800 for the second violation and a $1,000 penalty for a third or subsequent violation within the same year. Stores will also be required to report to the Department of Sanitation on the number of bags collected and the cost of compliance.

Quinn said complying with the legislation should not place an undue financial burden on any store, small or large.

The legislation has garnered support from myriad council members as well as the Progressive Bag Alliance, a nonprofit association of plastic bag manufacturers, the New York League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Quinn said she would like to move the bill quickly through the legislative process. There is already a hearing scheduled for November 13.

Protecting Tenants from Harassment

Currently, tenants can take their landlord to Housing Court only for the physical condition of the building or a failure to provide essential services. But under legislation (Intro 627) introduced by council members Daniel Garodnick, Melissa Mark Viverito and Quinn, residents would be empowered to take landlords to court for harassment.

Now, every violation, such as lack of hot water on multiple occasions, must be dealt with independently. But with this legislation, city officials said, an extra layer of protection is granted through a "harassment" clause.

It would protect against a landlord threatening a legal occupant, habitual interruptions of essential services, frivolous court proceedings to disrupt a tenant’s life, removing possessions from a unit or other intentional acts solely meant to disturb the tenant.

A violation of the proposal would come with a $1,000 to $5,000 penalty.

“Tenant harassment can come in many forms, and once we pass this legislation, we’ll have the legal framework to cover them all," Quinn said in a prepared statement. "This law will ensure no tenant is powerless when faced with an unscrupulous slumlord intent on getting them out of their home."

Some in the real estate industry have expressed opposition to the bill.

If approved by the full council, which is more than likely, it will go into effect immediately.

Idle Engines

It's a minute and counting under a bill (Intro 631) introduced by Councilmember John Liu of Queens last month. Liu is proposing to limit the time cars and buses can idle in front of schools. The time limit for idling anywhere in the city is currently three minutes.

The bill would apply to schools only with grades 12 and below.

Fines under the current law, which range from $200 to $3,000, would also apply to Liu's proposal.

License for the Bridal Shop

Councilmember Michael McMahon of Staten Island would like to make it mandatory for bridal shops and wedding photographers to be licensed under the Department of Consumer Affairs.

The proposed legislation (Intro 633) would require shops and photographers to keep records on daily operations and would allow the commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs to investigate a shop or photographer's business practices.

A license would be good for two years, and it would cost $125.

Substituting Salt

Because the use of salt can be corrosive to the city's infrastructure, Councilmember Helen Sears of Queens introduced legislation requiring the Department of Sanitation to use a substitute.

The bill (Intro 634) would require the department to use a substitute such as ash, sand, sawdust or some similar suitable material following a snowfall or ice storm.  

Stated Meeting: Con Edison Rates and Reporting on Pesticides


In its latest evidence of displeasure with Con Edison, the City Council approved a resolution endorsing Council Speaker Christine Quinn's efforts to become an active party in the debate over the utility's proposed rate hike. At its stated meeting on October 17, the council also approved stricter reporting standards on the city's use of pesticides, closed a tax exemption loophole for a housing program and approved several modifications to the budget.

Blasting Con Edison

In May, Con Edison proposed a rate increase that would bump up residential customers' bills by 17 percent and commercial customers' bills by 10.7 percent next year. The proposal is currently before the state Public Service Commission, which must approve the utility's rate hike.

By giving Quinn the go ahead to join the commission's proceedings, the council would be privy to hearings, notices and documents regarding the rate increase. The resolution doing just that (Res. 1059) was unanimously approved by a voice vote.

The council's decision to formally join discussions regarding Con Edison's rate proposal is just one more example of the clash between the council and the utility. Prior to the resolution's vote, Quinn responded to the recent suggestion that the utility company would sue the city, claiming it was responsible for a steam pipe explosion this summer. In a letter to Con Edison, Quinn and Consumer Affairs Committee Chairman Leroy Comrie questioned the utility's evidence suggesting that leaky water pipes might have caused the blast.

"We've seen over the past year and half some stunning failure on the part of Con Edison," said Quinn in a press conference prior to the meeting. "In response to those actions most people would put their nose to the grind and try to do a good job. Con Edison, instead, has requested a 17 percent rate increase from their customers."

Members of the council came out against the rate increase last month, stating Con Edison would have to detail its capital expenses and provide better service before it is rewarded.

Use of Pesticides

Following up on a bill passed in 2005 that limited the use of pesticides in the city, the City Council approved legislation (Intro 612) that would clarify how the chemicals' use is monitored and reported. The bill was approved by a vote of 49 to 0.

Currently, the law requires city agencies to summarize the use of pesticides within their department and provide that information to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the speaker of the City Council. The new legislation, which was sponsored by Councilmember James Gennaro, would also require the commissioner of the health department to submit an annual report summarizing pesticide use by all city agencies to the speaker.

"While the current law already prohibits the use of certain toxic chemicals by city agencies, today's legislation will allow the department of health to better and more efficiently evaluate agency use of pesticides in our communities," said Health Committee Chair Joel Rivera in a prepared statement.

Revising the Budget

As part of Quinn's budget transparency initiative, the council also released several revised budget documents that reveal the recipients of funding for large, citywide budget initiatives. The revisions (Res. 1090) were approved by a vote of 48 to 0.

When the budget was approved in June, the council released a list of member items – programs and initiatives that received grants in this year's budget – and included the name of the individual councilmember who proposed them. Gotham Gazette analyzed this list and revealed that programs proposed by Councilmember David Weprin had received the most funding. (For a full breakdown of who received the most, or the least, amount of funding in June click here.)

This new release details which organizations received city funding for broader initiatives, like a homeless prevention initiative proposed by Councilmember Annabel Palma. In June, the documents only listed the title of the citywide program and the amount of funding. Now, the document reveals which organizations will receive funding, how much they will receive and what councilmember proposed the initiative.

The council also released the names of organizations that received funding from the council members' discretionary funds dedicated to programs under the purview of the Department of the Aging and the Department of Youth and Community Development. Each member can dole out $151,714 for youth programs in his or her district and $108,750 for senior initiatives.

Closing A Tax Exempt Loophole

Under a program within the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, homes in poor condition can be purchased by the city, rehabilitated and sold to an individual who meets certain income restrictions. That owner would also receive a 10-year tax exemption.

Currently, if the owner were to resell the home, the second owner would also receive the tax exemption, regardless of income and assets. The council voted 49 to 0 to approve a rule change that closes this loophole. The tax exemption now terminates as soon as the home is sold to a second owner.

Public Plazas

The council also approved by a vote of 49 to 0 an amendment to a rezoning resolution (Res. 1103) that makes privately owned public plazas more inviting to the public. According to a City Council press release, the amendment will update design standards, including restrictions on size, seating, lighting and bike parking, and attempt to preserve and incorporate the character of the neighborhood.

Medical Examiner Redefined

To update the definition of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the City Council approved legislation (Intro 604) that includes responsibilities the position has acquired over time. As technology progresses, the office has taken on larger tasks that are not reflected in the City Charter, such as DNA and forensic testing. The legislation, sponsored by Rivera, reflects and updates the office's responsibilities.

 

 

 

Earth Day for the Internet


It was one of those moments when you get afk (away from keyboard) and meet irl (in real life).

On Saturday, September 22, a crowd of 150 or so people gathered in rain-soaked Washington Square Park to celebrate the Internet and raise awareness of the threats to its future.

This was One Web Day in New York. Susan Crawford kicked it off by talking about the threats to the Internet posed by government censorship in countries like China and by unchecked telecom monopolies in the United States. Crawford is a law professor who sits on the board of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates addresses on the Internet. She founded One Web Day last year as "a global Earth Day for the Internet," as she puts it, "to make sure that everyone understands the threats to our shared online future."

In battling those dangers to the Internet, One Web Day's philosophy seems to be that a good offense is the best defense.

Earlier in the day, New York University's Home Interactive Telecommunications Program had offered free classes in how to use online tools like Wikipedia and ShiftSpac -- which lets users modify any webpage through their browser and share the modifications with other users, so people can use it to customize, contextualize or improve anything they find online. Later, there would be a party at For Your Imagination (FYI) with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, as the guest of honor. (The not-so-secret password for the event: IRL.)

A Worldwide Event for the Worldwide Web

There were related but autonomous celebrations around the world: In Ethiopia and Benin, cybercafes and universities offered free or discounted Internet access along with tutorials to get more people online. Many chapters of the Internet Society, an international professional membership association that establishes standards for the Internet, organized local events in Israel, India, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards released a statement in honor of the event emphasizing the need to close the digital divide and preserve the democratic nature of the Internet.

Probably the largest 2007 One Web Day event was in Berlin, where a reported 15,000 people marched to protest proposed government data retention policies. The new measures would shift Germany from being country with a constitutional right to “informational self-determination” to one with extremely aggressive surveillance measures, giving the government access to all communication and travel records, people’s biometric data and personal computers, even in the absence of a crime.

The policies are very broad, endangering doctors and journalists specifically, as well as the average German citizen. According to one of the few English language reports on the event, protesters chanted, "We are all 129a," referring to the expansive "Anti-Terror Paragraph" of the German Criminal Code. People held banners saying "Freiheit statt Angst" ("liberty instead of fear") and wore t-shirts with the face of Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister pushing the measures, over the phrase "Stasi 2.0," a reference to the old East German secret police.

One American observer described the German reaction to this kind of government overreaching as visceral. The protests against the measures, organized by the Working Group on Data Retention, have grown from just a couple of hundred at the first rallies a year and a half ago.

Promoting Awareness

Despite recent revelations about U.S. phone companies’ secretly collecting data on individuals at the federal government’s behest, things weren't quite so spirited back in overcast New York. Still, the speakers caught the attention of various passers-by.

While Dana Spiegel, executive director of NYCwireless, was speaking about his group’s efforts to hook up various city parks with wi-fi, an NYU student stopped to inquire what the event was about. She turned out to be a member of the campus chapter of Amnesty International, which is focusing on Internet censorship this semester. She had not heard of One Web Day before, but got instantly excited about it and starting collecting contact information.

Birju Pandya talked about his lighthearted efforts to promote goodwill with technology through Charityfocus.org. Andrew Baron spoke of the inspiration to start Rocketboom, one of the earliest video-blogs on the Web. I was there to announce the Digital Expansion Initiative, a community-led research effort to assess the barriers to Internet access in New York City.

There was nothing fancy about any of the speeches – no Powerpoint or flashing lights. But having it in the park definitely attracted attention. While Jimmy Wales was speaking, five women who appeared to be from three generations of the same family passed by. "That's the founder of Wikipedia," one of the younger women said. "You know Wikipedia?" The grandmother nodded.

Setting an Example

The city government has been holding public hearings into the state of Internet access for New Yorkers, with one in the Bronx in March, another in Brooklyn in May and additional ones planned for the other boroughs before the end of the year. They have had attracted a turnout comparable to that at the One Web Day event, but awareness of these Broadband Advisory Committee hearings across the city is appallingly low. (As part of the Digital Expansion Initiative’s citywide phone survey, researchers at NYU have been asking people if they've heard anything about it; so far not a single person has.)

Perhaps that's because the Broadband Advisory Committee has held the hearings in very official, but cloistered auditoriums during the day on weekdays. And the primary mode of announcing the events has been through email. In neither case are you likely to attract working folks who lack computers. The committee should be out in Washington Square Park (and Marcus Garvey Park and Maria Hernandez Park), especially considering that they're not just celebrating the Internet, but debating concrete proposals for local action to shape its future.

Crawford points out that Earth Day really took off because people had a picture of the Earth from space. One Web Day is trying to make the Web visible and tangible in the same way. "Being outside is important is because the point is to show that the Web is made of people," she says.

Crawford and her growing network of supporters and volunteers are already making plans for September 22, 2008. They hope to get schools and students more involved and to strengthen connections with groups like the Internet Society and the American Library Association. Like any good Web project, they are at once trying to strengthen the One Web Day organization and yet decentralize the organization's activities.

So, can we expect to see a 15,000-person protest march in New York City next year like the one in Berlin? Crawford says maybe: "We'll see things like that in the U.S. when we wake up."  



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