East Harlem Councilwomen Melissa Viverito On Track With Issues

Refreshing to see a Puerto Rican elected official “on target with the community”

Melissa hopes to move these forward during this term. There are also many more bills and resolutions to be introduced in the coming weeks and months. Here is the list of legislation introduced by Melissa yesterday:

Int 16: Requiring quarterly reports from the environmental control board on illegal vending.

Int 17: Launching a zero carbon emission building pilot program.

Int 18: Establishing a prevailing wage requirement for building service employees in buildings owned, or managed, in whole or in part by persons receiving financial assistance or rent derived in whole or in part from the city treasury.

Int 19: Freezing fees of those applying for J-51 benefits at the time of application.

Res 9: Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to approve, legislation creating a Mitchell-Lama-type program for the 21st Century for buildings to be built on vacant lots owned by the City of New York and for vacant City-owned buildings.

Res 10: Resolution calling upon the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, to retire number 21 in recognition of Roberto Clemente, a great baseball player and humanitarian.

Res 11: Resolution calling upon the New York State Legislature to amend section 399-dd of the General Business Law to allow municipalities to enact local laws regarding playground equipment, and to specifically allow the City of New York to legislate standards for such equipment for playgrounds owned and maintained by the New York City Housing Authority and further, for any city agency, included but not limited to the Department of Parks and Recreation, as well as the New York City Housing Authority, to perform a temperature test for all equipment installed in parks and playgrounds, including safety equipment and materials, and to prohibit such materials from being installed that pose a health or burn danger to exposed skin.

We encourage our readers to contact your elected officials and support these issues, especially Res. # 10 on getting the long awaited resolution to urge Commissioner Alan “Bud” Selig to retire Roberto Clemente’s #21. Something that has been done in 7 other cities and 5 municipalities in Puerto Rico, but has been bottled up here because of the weak and divisiveness of the Puerto Rican/Latino city council delegation.

Where is the so-called majority leader, Joel Rivera on this very simple issue? If he can’t use his majority power to help pass a simple, “non-binding” resolution that 99% of his very own constituents supports, how can we expect his to be a “leader” and help our communities on all the other important issues impeding our survival?