Adding some gas to a sputtering economic engine, Council Speaker Christine Quinn pledged Thursday to rev up technology startups, lobby for a tax break in Albany for small retailers and launch a program to get uneducated New Yorkers GEDs.
During her fifth state of the city address, Quinn said above all 2010 will be about job creation.
"This year I want to focus on just one thing, the thing that's on every New Yorker's mind -- jobs," said Quinn to a round of applause. In her past addresses, the speaker covered several areas of public policy -- from biotechnology to rent relief. "Or, to say it a little more plainly as another former president once did: 'It's the economy, stupid,'" the speaker said brashly.
In a 44-minute speech that was sprinkled with the redhead's specific brand of sarcasm and humor, Quinn pledged to boost technology in the five boroughs and ease up taxes and regulations on small businesses.
She said she would start by bringing financiers and technological innovators together under one group, called NYC High-Tech Connect. The organization, modeled after a similar initiative in San Diego, would give technology gurus the opportunity and the tools they need to start up, from investors to workspace, Quinn said.
Quinn pledged to throw open the doors of the city's office buildings to tech-friendly entrepreneurs to test their products before they hit the market -- think, a device that uses water pressure to create electricity piloted in the bathrooms of City Hall.
And her proposals won praise.
"The lack of a tech culture is a real big factor, and its one that previous economic development officials haven’t been focusing on," said Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future. "It may not sound like much, this High-Tech Connect. If it has some real teeth to it, I think it will fill a huge hole."
Quinn also announced a proposal to create a public market for regional foods at the Fulton Fish Market, which is already slated for redevelopment. She hopes the plan would bring hordes of tourists and thousands of jobs.
The speaker promised to assist small business owners by proposing a tax credit for retailers making less than $240,000 annually. She would need approval from Albany for the measure, which would affect about 19,000 retailers and cost $6.4 million.
The speech, which ended with a song from Coldplay blaring from the speakers overhead, will likely set the tone for her second term as speaker and could potentially be a preamble to a possible mayoral candidacy in 2013.
As most economists predict the worst of the recession is over, Quinn said, the city should prepare for a recovery, but also deal with its current problems.
That means preparing New Yorkers for the job market, and ensuring they have access to GED programs. In May, Quinn said the city would launch a new Web site that centralizes the GED system. Currently, said Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson, individuals have to sign up at individual test centers to guarantee a seat. The Web site, he said, would put that process in one place.
Quinn also said the city's job training centers would become a hub for GED sign ups, and the city would have individuals take a practice test before the real thing to assess their readiness. The GED programs would cost about $1.4 million to implement, according to the council.
"We need to give every New Yorker all the support we can -- whether it's getting their GED, starting a small business or critical tax relief," said Quinn.
The speaker also committed to bring a loan program from upstate down to the five boroughs, which would give small businesses that had been denied a loan a second chance at financing. Quinn also announced the expansion of a pilot program to give small manufacturers space in subdivided vacant warehouses -- a $10 million commitment in capital funding.
Much of Quinn's address was an attempt to reclaim the approximately 144,000 jobs lost statewide last year. Quinn, however, did not promise to create a specific number of positions -- she merely mentioned hundreds here or thousands there.
Nonetheless, the ideas, supporters said, were welcome.
"Clearly Chris is focusing on what most New Yorkers are talking about," said Jackson. "And that is jobs and employment opportunity."
The focus on small businesses, such as creating a small business bill of rights to avoid excessive ticketing, won significant praise from city officials.
"I think she very much learned a lesson from the November election, which is that New Yorkers don’t feel so prosperous, and they are tired of being taxed and ticketed to death," said Councilmember Lewis Fidler of Brooklyn.
With the exception of her proposal for tax relief for small retailers, almost all of the speaker's ideas have already been put into action or are not likely to receive significant opposition when they go before the full council.
Whether Thursday's address shed light on the speaker's mayoral prospects four years from now, though, attendees were less apt to opine on.
"It was a speech that was responding to the conditions we are all dealing with right now," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio -- another name floated in the 2013 mayoral contenders. "It was about the here and now."
In an attempt to rid New York City streets of gangs and reduce their ability to recruit new members, the City Council approved legislation on Thursday that creates a specific crime for gang initiation activity.
The problem, said opponents of the proposal, is the bill does the exact opposite.
Too broad and too vague, the bill will give the city’s police department another excuse to put innocent kids in jail, the critics charge, creating more tension between police and the communities they are trying to protect.
"I don't think it's going to deter one gang violation," said Councilmember Jumaane Williams. A bill like this, he added, would have sent him on the wrong path as a youth. "The collateral damage isn't worth it," said Williams.
Supporters of the legislation argue it will give prosecutors and police one more weapon to deter violent and harmful gang activity.
"We need to give our prosecutors tools that will aid in prosecuting individuals who engage in activities that put our communities at risk," said Councilmember Maria del Carmen Arroyo, the sponsor of the bill.
The bill was approved by a vote of 38 to 9 with one abstention.
The bill (Intro 1) would create a misdemeanor charge for conducting a gang initiation.
Whether it's harassment, hazing or assault, activity associated with gang initiations is already illegal, said Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr., the chair of the council's Public Safety Committee. What the law does, officials said, is create an extra penalty if that illegal activity is part of a gang initiation. To convict someone of violating the new law, prosecutors would not have to prove that an injury took place during the gang initiation. That means a prosecutor would not need the testimony of any alleged victim to prove the crime occurred, according to city officials.
The bill, supporters said, will not result in innocent youth being targeted by police.
"You can't pull anyone off the corner with this law," said Vallone. "That’s ridiculous."
Advocates and civil liberties groups disagree. According to a letter to the council from a number of civil rights groups, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Peter Cicchino Youth Project at the Urban Justice Center, the bill does not tackle the root of gang activity. The bill, the letter charges, is too broadly defined. It defines a gang as an informal or formal group of three or more, where one of the primary purposes is criminal activity. The abuse of that definition would result in the arrest of black and Latino youth for lawful conduct, critics say.
"This law enforcement activity is unlikely to reach criminal gang activity, but will more likely sweep in groups of three or more young people with no gang affiliation," according to the letter to the council. "Parents who call the police out of concern that their kids are being solicited by gangs are likely to find that their children will be subject to police interrogation and, if admissions are made, will face arrest, inclusion in the NYPD's gang database, and quite possibly incarceration and a criminal rap sheet."
The letter urges the council to concentrate on prevention, intervention and educational programs to combat gangs.
In addition to the gang bill, the council unanimously approved legislation (Intro 5) tackling an obscure and often under-the-radar tool used by city landlords: the tenant blacklist.
Hundreds of companies comb through housing court violations every year to compile tenant-screening reports, which landlords have used to deny tenants apartments. But unlike credit reports, these companies compile their information by name, not social security number, making way for inaccuracies and errors, said council officials.
On Thursday, the council approved a bill to require landlords to disclose to tenants if they are using a tenant screening report in their selection process and what company they are using. The disclosure allows for tenants to correct any inaccuracies or errors and provide justification for any visit to housing court -- appearances that can be caused by deplorable conditions, not an inability to afford an apartment.
"We are making sure that tenants are fully empowered," said Quinn. "It is hard enough, ask anybody, to find an affordable good quality rental apartment in the City of New York. We don’t want to make it even harder."
Councilmember | Number of Bills Sponsored | Number of Bills Passed |
Alan J. Gerson | 84 | 7 |
David Weprin | 70 | 43 |
Tony Avella | 64 | 2 |
Gale Brewer | 63 | 6 |
Peter Vallone Jr. | 55 | 10 |
James Gennaro | 52 | 18 |
David Yassky | 44 | 7 |
Vincent Gentile | 40 | 5 |
Christine Quinn | 36 | 28 |
Leroy Comrie Jr. | 33 | 7 |
Letitia James | 32 | 7 |
Erik Martin Dilan | 32 | 18 |
Simcha Felder | 29 | 9 |
Lewis Fidler | 28 | 3 |
Jessica Lappin | 28 | 8 |
John Liu | 25 | 5 |
Daniel Garodnick | 25 | 8 |
Bill de Blasio | 23 | 6 |
James Oddo | 22 | 4 |
Michael Nelson | 21 | 2 |
G. Oliver Koppell | 20 | 3 |
James Vacca | 19 | 4 |
Eric Gioia | 17 | 2 |
Melinda Katz | 14 | 4 |
Helen Foster | 13 | 1 |
Joel Rivera | 13 | 2 |
Maria Baez | 13 | 2 |
Thomas White Jr. | 13 | 7 |
Melissa Mark Viverito | 12 | 4 |
Charles Barron | 11 | 0 |
Helen Sears | 11 | 1 |
Rosie Mendez | 11 | 1 |
Kendall Stewart | 11 | 2 |
Domenic Recchia Jr. | 10 | 2 |
Robert Jackson | 10 | 3 |
Annabel Palma | 9 | 2 |
Sara Gonzalez | 9 | 2 |
Inez Dickens | 8 | 3 |
Maria del Carmen Arroyo | 8 | 3 |
James Sanders | 7 | 2 |
Diana Reyna | 7 | 4 |
Al Vann | 6 | 2 |
Darlene Mealy | 3 | 1 |
Larry Seabrook | 3 | 1 |
This chart only includes members that served a full term from January of 2006 to December of 2009. Therefore, council members, like Vincent Ignizio, who joined in 2007, were not included. Nor were former members like Rep. Michael McMahon, who left the council mid-term.
All this data was gathered from the council's legislative database. The council sorts who is and who is not the first prime sponsor of the bill. A first prime sponsor is whoever is listed first on the legislation. This list does not give credit to members who co-sponsored legislation.