City Council

The City Council just passed a package of bills -- collectively known as the Criminal Justice Reform Act -- encouraging police officers to issue civil instead of criminal summonses for "quality-of-life" offenses like possessing an open container of alcohol or littering. Sidewalk biking wasn't one of the offenses included in the bills, but a reform NYPD made to its enforcement of sidewalk cycling appears to have served as a proof of concept for the rest of the package.

The de Blasio administration continues to resist the City Council's efforts to devote more resources to street redesigns that will save lives.

The City Council is proposing a significant increase in funding for street safety projects. Now it's up to Mayor de Blasio to decide whether to devote more resources to get the city closer to his Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths by 2024.

NYPD and DOT both support a bill to give pedestrians more legal protection under the city's Right of Way Law.

For the fifth year, New Yorkers can vote via participatory budgeting on which projects should receive discretionary funds earmarked for their City Council districts. This time around, a record 30 council members are asking constituents how to spend their discretionary budgets. Voting began this past weekend and runs through Sunday.

If the city hopes to dramatically decrease the number of traffic fatalities in New York City, DOT needs more resources to redesign the city’s most dangerous corridors and intersections.

Last week, City Hall's proposal to reduce parking minimums for subsidized housing near transit got a hearing in the City Council, and for the most part it wasn't pretty. Council members may say they want more affordable housing, but for many of them, that support gets shaky if it means requiring less parking in residential development.

On Tuesday, members of the City Council hammered the de Blasio administration for not guaranteeing enough housing units for low-income New Yorkers in new construction. But yesterday, when the topic turned to building more affordable housing by reducing parking requirements, several Council members lost their zeal for housing and worried more about car storage.

Last Friday, Brooklyn Council Member Carlos Menchaca introduced legislation that would allow cyclists to cross with leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs) that give people on foot a head-start on turning motorists at intersections.