Latest news with #SandyNurse
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Vandals torch 11 NYPD vehicles near Brooklyn police precinct
Vandals torched 11 NYPD police cars in a Brooklyn parking lot down the street from a police stationhouse early Thursday, police said. The brazen act of vandalism happened just hours after protesters held a 'Speak Out' at the 83rd Precinct stationhouse on Knickerbocker Ave. and Bleecker St. in Bushwick, decrying the cops for their treatment of Puerto Rican Day Parade celebrants at after-parties in the neighborhood on Sunday night and Monday morning. The NYPD was aware of the Wednesday night demonstration, but it wasn't immediately clear if the two incidents were linked. The marked and unmarked NYPD vehicles were set ablaze inside the lot around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, cops said. The FDNY managed to put out the blaze within a few minutes. No injuries were reported, but the vehicles suffered extensive damage, officials said. Two men dressed in black were seen fleeing the scene. Investigators believe someone poured gasoline on the marked police cars before setting them on fire. A torch lighter was found on the scene. Vandals busted the windshields of some of the vehicles they didn't torch, a police source said. Palm-sized wads of kindling were found in the wheel wells of at least one car. Cops were scouring the area for surveillance video that captures the vandals walking to the lot, which is just down the block from the stationhouse. Community leaders called for calm as the vandalism stokes growing tensions between the NYPD and Brooklyn residents. City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, D-Bushwick, called the torching 'completely unacceptable.' 'Actions like this have no place in our neighborhood,' Nurse wrote on X Thursday. 'Our community is already under stress with ICE present. Now is the time to de-escalate, stand together and work through our challenges peacefully.' City Councilwoman Jen Gutiérrez, who also represents Bushwick, agreed with Nurse and called for cooler heads to prevail. 'We cannot stand up to this and any other threat with more violence,' Gutiérrez posted. 'We must de-escalate and keep our families safe.' Precinct officers are being accused on social media of having been heavy-handed as they broke up Puerto Rican Parade after-parties in Bushwick on Sunday. 'On Sunday evening, NYPD pigs from the 83rd Precinct launched a fascist offensive against the community of Bushwick, NYC, attacking Puerto Ricans and non-Puerto Ricans during peaceful celebrations during the Manhattan and Brooklyn Puerto Rican Day Parades,' one post noted. 'The first attack happened around the Bush Dyke Bar around 8 p.m. Victims of this unnecessary raid reported being slammed to the ground resulting in hospitalizations.' In a second incident, cops shut down an after-party at Mood Ring on Myrtle Ave. The incident resulted in at least one hospitalization, BKMag reported. An NYPD spokesman said cops were called to the venue around 12:20 a.m. Monday after getting a 311 call about a disorderly group outside. Officers tried to disperse the crowd, but several people refused to leave, the spokesman said, adding that at least one partier assaulted a cop trying to move the crowd along. Police took five people into custody. Three were hit with criminal charges, and two were given summonses for disorderly conduct, officials said. The criminal charges ranged from assault and resisting arrest to obstructing government administration and criminal mischief, cops said. 'The NYPD did not shut down the premises and no enforcement action was taken inside the establishment,' the NYPD spokesman added. 'The NYPD entered the establishment only to speak with management.' _____
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Landlords could be forced to identify rent-stabilized apartments in NYC
NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) – Building owners could soon be required to post signs informing tenants they have rent-stabilized apartments. The new bill, sponsored by Councilmember Sandy Nurse, was approved in the Housing and Buildings Committee on Wednesday, sending it forward to a final City Council vote. If passed, it will require signage at any building with over three households that contains at least one rent-stabilized unit. More Local News New York City keeps a database of buildings with rent-stabilized units, but it does not indicate which units are stabilized. It's up to the tenant to request apartment-specific information from the state. The sign, posted in English and Spanish, would inform tenants of how to get that information. As proposed, the sign would read: This building contains one or more units that are subject to the Rent Stabilization Law of 1969. To find out if your unit is registered as rent stabilized, contact the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Owners of such buildings must submit an annual filing to DHCR and provide each tenant with a copy of the information that pertains to their unit. Owners that fail to file may be subject to penalties. The sign will also include a phone number and website for DHCR. Nurse said the signs will be particularly helpful for tenants who don't know they're in rent-stabilized units and are being overcharged. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State 'Over two million people live in rent-stabilized homes and none of them should be charged more than the legal rent,' Nurse said in a statement. 'Tenants who are unaware that they live in rent-stabilized units can face illegal rent hikes, harassment, and eviction by bad landlords who seek to deregulate units.' If approved, the legislation will go into effect in seven months. 'The Rent Transparency Act will empower tenants by providing them with the right information to fight back against greedy, unscrupulous landlords who are breaking the law,' Nurse said. Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
PIX on Politics Daily: Rikers Island
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Welcome to PIX on Politics Daily with Dan Mannarino, where we break down the day's political news, headlines, and issues that matter most to you through in-depth conversation. Join us daily on PIX11+ streaming at 1 p.m. as we invite the newsmakers, lawmakers, and key players shaping policies that impact local communities. On Wednesday, Dan Mannarino speaks with New York City Council Member, Sandy Nurse, about the city no longer fully controlling its jail system, including the long-troubled Rikers Island complex, after a federal judge appointed a 'remediation manager' to restore order inside the jails. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bathrooms for all by 2035: NYC Council votes for more public bathrooms
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Finding a public restroom in New York City has long been a challenge, but on Thursday, advocates celebrated a major step forward as the City Council passed legislation to address the shortage. The bill requires the city to develop a plan to build one public bathroom for every 2,000 residents by 2035, marking a significant effort to improve access to clean and safe facilities across the five boroughs. More Local News Outside City Hall, City Council members and supporters rallied with chants of 'Free to pee, free to pee!' hours before the vote. Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who spearheaded the initiative, expressed her excitement: 'Today, nature is calling, and we are answering it. We are so excited to finally pass this bathroom bill.' With only one public restroom for every 7,500 residents currently available, advocates say this legislation will help address inequities impacting vulnerable groups like delivery workers, the elderly, and people with disabilities. A delivery worker at the rally shared their struggles: 'This is especially important for delivery workers across the city, who have to work 12 or more hours a day without access to public bathrooms. And even when we go to pick up food from a public restaurant, we are often denied.' Advocates emphasized that restroom access is a universal need. 'Whether you are a low-income New Yorker, whether you are street homeless, whether you are a doctor or a lawyer, whether you are commuting to work like millions of people do in the city, you need a public restroom,' one advocate said. Among those celebrating was Teddy Siegel, founder of Got-To-Go NYC, a social media movement advocating for better restroom access. Siegel began her work after struggling to find a bathroom in Times Square years ago and has since created Google's largest map of public restrooms. 'It's a historic day for anyone who travels to or lives in NYC,' Siegel said. 'The fight for more bathrooms in the city is definitely not one I started, but I'm so proud to be part of this movement.' Now that the bill has passed, the city will begin planning where new restrooms will be built and how they will be maintained. Advocates hope this marks the start of making the city more inclusive and livable for all its residents and visitors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
New York City Council Approves Bill to Build More Public Bathrooms
After decades of complaints about a lack of public bathrooms in New York City, as well as the thousands of summonses for public urination, the City Council enacted a bill Thursday that aimed to double the number of public restrooms in the city by 2035. Though waiting in a long line for a public toilet is a common experience for most New Yorkers, the bill was conceived with a specific focus on the plight of delivery workers, homeless people, street vendors and other vulnerable groups who often can't afford to buy a $5 coffee to use a private business's facilities. New York has far fewer bathrooms, as a percentage of its population, than many other cities around the world. There are just 1,066 public toilets available for the city's 8.2 million residents, according to the bill's sponsor, Councilwoman Sandy Nurse. That's one facility for every 7,800 people. The new law, known as the Bathroom Bill, would increase the number of public restrooms in New York to 2,120 in 10 years. Adolfo Abreu, the director of housing campaigns for Vocal-NY, said that increasing public bathroom access was an important issue that his organization had been pushing for years. He was 'ecstatic' about the Council's vote, he said. Ms. Nurse said the law would satisfy a 'universal need' in the city while helping to address inequalities imposed on vulnerable populations. Homeless people 'were planning their entire day around where they would be able to access the bathroom,' Ms. Nurse said, adding that she'd hear 'horror stories' about how people were forced to urinate and defecate on themselves or else 'relieve themselves in very public settings.' Over 1,400 criminal summonses and 8,000 civil summonses were issued in 2024 alone, according to Ms. Nurse's office. And those tickets disproportionately affected people of color, the office said. Many homeless people try to deal with the lack of public restrooms by simply not drinking water, Mr. Abreu said, but that approach can cause health problems, including urinary tract infections. Having access to public bathrooms, he said, was a 'matter of survival.' New Yorkers are often forced to rely on private bathrooms when they're out and about, but those lavatories come with a price: Most businesses require people to buy something before they can use the toilet. Mohamed Attia grappled with that issue constantly while working as a street vendor in Manhattan between 2009 and 2018. He said he usually had to spend $20 on a sandwich at a fancy restaurant or $3 to buy a bottle of water he did not need just so he could relieve himself. Mr. Attia's experience is not uncommon. A 2021 survey by the Immigration Research Initiative found that some 63 percent of street vendors did not have access to public bathrooms. 'Given the affordability issues in the city, many can't afford to buy a cup of coffee or make a purchase at a business in order to use a bathroom,' said Alison Wilkey, director of governmental affairs and strategic campaigns at the Coalition for the Homeless. Under the new law, city agencies working to expand the network of public bathrooms have to consider neighborhood foot-traffic levels, street density and the equitable distribution of the facilities in underserved communities. The city is also required to develop a plan to establish more gender-neutral restrooms and to produce a digital map of all public bathrooms. Tax dollars will fund the project, but the city will have to come up with ideas on cutting costs and streamlining installations every four years. Sarah Kaufman, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University, said that although the bill was a step in the right direction, she wondered how the cleanliness and safety of the bathrooms would be maintained. Ms. Kaufman pointed to an automatic public toilet at Madison Square Park in Manhattan, which is self-cleaning and charges users a small fee, as a helpful innovation. (There are four other automatic toilets spread across the city.) Paying a nominal fee to use public restrooms is common in other cities around the world, she noted, and those fees would go toward helping maintain the facilities. New York still has plenty to do when it comes to restroom access, Ms. Kaufman said, but the Bathroom Bill is 'truly necessary for the livability of the city.' Councilwoman Nurse, who first proposed the bill in 2023, said that the city was initially reluctant to spend millions on bathrooms that would take years to install. But the law was given new life, she said, after demand for public restrooms grew and innovations in modular design made them cheaper to produce and faster to assemble. 'Everybody needs to go,' Ms. Nurse said, adding: 'We need to account for that in our planning processes, rather than emphasizing tickets and summonses.'
