From left: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio
City Council overrode Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s veto and passed the “living wage” bill yesterday, the New York Post reported. The bill guarantees a minimum pay of $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 per hour without for workers on projects that receive city subsidies. [more]
From left: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and REBNY's Steven Spinola
The contentious living wage bill, which the Hudson Yards is exempt from, will likely not affect more than 500 workers total in its current form, the New York Times reported. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced that she was done revising the measure this week, and figures from her office show the total number of workers affected — meaning they will have to be paid $10 per hour and receive benefits, or $11.50 per hour without — between 400 and 500. [more]
Partnership for NYC President Kathryn Wylde
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn removed a previously undisclosed loophole from the “living wage” bill that would allow the mayor’s office to waive the compensation requirements for workers whose companies receive subsidies from New York City, the New York Times reported.
As a result, the Partnership for New York City, a prominent business group that had pledged to support the bill, reversed course within minutes. [more]
A rendering of the proposed expansion of the Chelsea Market
The expansion proposal for the Chelsea Market was officially filed today with the Department of City Planning, a release from landlord Jamestown Properties said. This inaugurates a seven-month-long review and approval period for the plan, which would add 240,000 square feet of office space and a 90,000-square-foot hotel to the existing structure at 75 Ninth Avenue, between 15th and 16th streets. [more]
From left: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and 285 Madison Avenue
The tragic death in December of advertising executive Suzanne Hart has prompted two new bills on elevator inspection and safety, DNAinfo reported. The City Council will vote on the two bills, which will require certification for elevator mechanics and additional safety mechanisms in elevators. [more]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Hudson Yards
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is cutting the Related Companies a break from the living wage legislation.
The New York Times reported that Quinn has added an exemption to the living wage bill, which would require commercial projects that get city funding to pay employees a “living wage” of at least $10 per hour with benefits, that doesn’t require most of the Hudson Yards development to comply. [more]
From left: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Bill Rudin and St. Vincent's Hospital
The New York City Council voted to approve the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure actions required to move forward on Rudin Management’s residential development at the site of the former St. Vincent’s hospital in the West Village, according to a statement today from Rudin. [more]
From left: Christine Quinn and a rendering of the Chelsea Market expansion
Plans for the Chelsea Market expansion have pitted New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is also a mayoral aspirant, into choosing who to please: constituents in her district or the business community, DNAinfo reported.
If she wants to win the mayoral race next year, DNAinfo said, then she’ll have to strike a balance between two sides: the business community who supports Jamestown Properties’ upward expansion of Chelsea Market, which will add nine floors of office space and a 90,000-square-foot hotel on Ninth Avenue, and her constituents who oppose the plan. [more]
From left: Deputy Mayor Robert Steel and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
New York City officials are expanding a business program aimed at streamlining the process of opening a new restaurant to include the entire retail spectrum, officials announced today. The first step is the launch of a survey to collect information on obstacles that impede businesses opening in the city.
The program is based on the New Business Acceleration Team that Mayor Michael Bloomberg created in his 2010 State of the City speech. [more]
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has pronounced any new property taxes proposed by the Bloomberg administration for the next fiscal year “dead on arrival,” in a Monday interview with New York Post reporters.
As rumors swell that the city plans to increase property taxes to fill its projected $2 billion budget gap, the City Council Speaker wants Mayor Michael Bloomberg to know that a tax hike is not on the table. Sources told the Post that the mayor’s aides are trying to convince him raising property taxes is preferable to drastic cuts in services. [more]
