Community
As a
third generation Upper East Sider, I am committed to maintaining our neighborhood's quality of life. I will support and work with our community centers such as cultural and religious institutions as well as neighborhood associations to ensure our neighborhood remains safe, clean and a wonderful place to live.
Last week, a bill was introduced to the New York City Council that would lower the required minimum age for Community Board members from 18 to 16.
By doing so, the bill's creator, the newly elected Councilman Ben Kallos, hopes to offset the low percentage of Millennials involved with their Community Boards: in Manhattan, only 6 percent of this year's applicants were between the ages of 18 and 24. Kallos believes it'll be a real-life civics lesson, providing exciting insight to unexciting meetings.
Last week, the newly elected Ben Kallos introduced a bill that would lower the minimum age for Community Board members from 18 years old to 16 years old. According to Kallos, allowing more teens the chance to sit on the governing bodies, which don't make laws but do advise the city on neighborhood matters such as zoning, traffic, liquor licenses, and budgets, will "lay the groundwork for a lifetime of civic engagement."
Upper East Side Residents of District 5 have just been handed a blank check.
Councilman Ben Kallos announced his office is taking part in an abbreviated participatory budgeting program with $1 million available to spend.
Under normal circumstances, a council member taking part in participatory budgeting – where constituents vote on how to spend a certain amount of money in the district – gets seven months to hear and vote on proposals from the community. Because Kallos took office in January, however, the process is being expedited.
