The New York City Council passed 28 bills Wednesday aimed at reining in greenhouse gas emissions, slashing the gender pay gap and even improving conditions for migratory birds whose paths cross the five boroughs.
For many Council members, it was their final act in office. Most city lawmakers, including Speaker Corey Johnson, are term-limited out of office, and will be replaced by a freshly-elected crop of lawmakers, more of whom are women and people of color than any other time in the city’s history.
“I am humbled by the work we have done collectively together,” Johnson said ahead of the final vote. He touted the 719 bills the Council had moved in his four years as speaker, as well as the improvements to parks and community centers the Council oversaw. “We even convinced the mayor to put a bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge,” he added.
But a lot was also left on the table. Johnson said members were unable to reach consensus on many key proposals; such as bills that would have banned the use of solitary confinement in city jails, prohibited landlords from asking about a person’s criminal record and capped city class size at 21 students.
“There’s a lot of bills that didn’t get done,” Johnson said. "That doesn’t mean those bills are never passing. You’re going to have a new Council, and new speaker, and a new mayor who are going to make decisions to get things done.”
Here are some of the highlights from the last stated meeting of this City Council:
Ban on New Gas Hookups Starting in 2024
The bill, sponsored by outgoing Council Member Alicka Ampry-Samuel bans new buildings less than seven stories high from hooking up to gas lines for cooking and heating. They’ll have to rely on electricity for both. Buildings over that height have until July of 2027 to make the switch. In the meantime, the city must conduct a study of its electrical grid to assure it will be able to handle the new load. Buildings across the five boroughs account for seventy-percent of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions. One study from the nonprofit think tank RMI found the new legislation would cut emissions by 2.1 million tons by 2040, or the equivalent of 450,000 cars.
NYC Employers Must Post Wages in Job Description
Council member Helen Rosenthal’s new legislation would require employers to post minimum and maximum salary for any position advertised in New York City. According to an analysis from the National Women’s Law Center, women make 86 cents to every dollar a man makes in New York state. The wage gap for Black and Latina women is even wider.
“It’s a step to address gender pay inequity that has been static for so long,” Rosenthal said Wednesday. Research has shown posting salaries has cut down on the gender pay gap. The federal government, for example, which lists salaries, shrunk its gender pay gap from 30 percent to 13 percent. States including Washington, Colorado and California have passed similar laws. Companies that don’t comply with the new laws can face fines or lawsuits. The law will go into effect next April, though the city’s Commission on Human Rights may need to write new regulations around it that could delay it’s implementation.
Establishing A Task Force to Study Vacant Commercial and Office Space
On the campaign trail, incoming Mayor Eric Adams talked about converting vacant office space for affordable housing. Now under the new legislation, the city will be required to create a task force dedicated to that proposition, which will deliver a report to the mayor and the City Council within two years. Office vacancies have surged as the COVID-19 pandemic as many employees continue to work remotely.
And lastly, save the migratory birds!
Each year, hundreds of thousands of migratory birds meet their doom when they fly into glassy walls and windows of New York City skyscrapers. The new bill wouldn’t exactly address that, as most bird collisions happen during the day. But it would require city buildings to shut off non-essential lighting overnight during peak bird migration. Migratory birds are lulled toward brightly lit buildings at night.
