Hot Dogs and Homeless and E-Bikes, Oh My! UWS Town Hall

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “town hall”? Most likely, you envision someone passing a microphone around to a bunch of angry locals pelting questions at politicians up on stage. But the event hosted by City Councilmember Gale Brewer at the John Jay auditorium Monday, March 23 was not that kind of town hall. It was a far more sedate panel discussion featuring an array of city officials (including two Commissioners) touting their accomplishments and later, fielding questions that had been submitted by audience members—on paper—on their way into the event.

For the most part, the event was, well, uneventful. But there were a few spikes of excitement, over four issues in particular: E-bikes, restaurant sheds, homeless encampments and—of all things—Grey’s Papaya.

After a short but delightful set from Julliard’s Duke Ellington Ensemble, Brewer introduced the evening’s speakers. First up was City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who talked about skyrocketing insurance costs and the need to “bring sunlight and transparency” so consumers are more informed about how much they’re paying for medical procedures and premiums.

“Hospitals are charging disparately,” Menin explained. “A colonoscopy can cost $13,000 at one hospital versus $2,000 at another.” In December, the NYS Health Department rolled out a health care comparison tool that allows users to–for lack of a better term– “shop around.” Menin intends to bring the same transparency to insurance premiums.

More speechifying followed: outgoing Rep. Jerrold Nadler on how he’s been standing up to President Trump, followed by Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who said he’d been in New Jersey earlier in the day, testifying on behalf of the Gateway Project. He’s fully on board, saying it will power our city, “bringing New Jersey residents here and bringing in construction jobs.”

Back in the boroughs...any New Yorker who walks—and that’s just about all of us—knows the streets have become far more dangerous over the last few years with the proliferation of E-bikes and third-party delivery services like GrubHub, Uber Eats and DoorDash. Danielle Zuckerman, Manhattan DOT Commissioner, discussed her agency’s multi-prong approach to making the streets safer, which includes wider bike lanes and online safety training courses.

NYPD Deputy Inspector Maggie Clump, who just moved over as commanding officer of the 20th Precinct on the West Side after several years running the 17th Pct on the East Side, was also on the panel, and addressed the e-bike issue. She said the NYPD has stepped up the number of summonses it is issuing to reckless e-bikers. As of Friday, March 27, those summonses will be considered civil offenses rather than criminal, now that Mayor Mamdani has lifted the Adams-era policy that allowed the NYPD to issue criminal summonses to cyclists and E-bike riders fo traffic violations such as running a red light or the wrong way on a one way street. Brewer said she is on board with the Mayor’s decision to relax the criminal portion of the enforcement effort.

In a follow-up conversation with “The Spirit,” Brewer mentioned The Worker’s Justice Project, an organization representing the city’s 12,000 NYC app delivery workers. Attorneys from WJP have worked with the city to launch safety education programs for E-bike deliveristas. Brewer thinks between the Mayor’s support and WJP’s efforts that workers will take the courses and our streets will be safer.

As long as we’re talking about the streets, how about those dreaded restaurant sheds? They’ve been a hot-button issue in Brewer’s district, with some local residents complaining about the noise factor, the rat factor, loss of parking spots, traffic obstruction, and the fact that in many cases, they’re just plain ugly. NYC Dept. of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani addressed the subject head-on, explaining that restaurant owners now have just 90 days (instead of a year) to report to DOB what they’re doing to remove the sheds. “You have to keep justifying why you have it up,” he said, “no more kicking the can down the road.”

There was a definite uptick in the collective energy level when Brewer relayed a question about homeless encampments. She noted four particularly problematic sites: 57^th Street just east of 9^th Avenue; Broadway between West 75^th and 76^th Streets; 76^th and Broadway (“just a mess”); and one on 75^th Street, where there’s “a man with a cat” who who’s been there so long (10 years!), “he even goes to block meetings.” A man in the audience shouted “What will you do about it?”

Erin Dalton, the city’s new DSS Commissioner, explained that she’s new to the job and wants to understand where the most serious issues are. Brewer blurted out, “Those four are it!” referring to the encampments she had just mentioned.

Dalton isn’t only new to the job; she’s new to New York City. From 2021 until 2026, she ran Allegheny County Department of Human Services. During her tenure, tents and homeless encampments along the Pittsburgh waterfront and downtown were reportedly 98 percent eradicated. As for NYC, she said the Department of Homeless Services is trying to build relationships with unhoused people on the street to try and help them get off the street. In our follow-up conversation about the encampment at 76^th and Broadway, Brewer said, “The city has sent people every day for a month and they refuse shelter and accommodations.” The area was cleared out on March 11^th but “they all came back.” The city plans to move them out again on April 2^nd.

Another problem spot is 72^nd and Broadway but for a different reason. The owner of the iconic Grey’s Papaya is not keeping his corner clean, several residents said and they are not happy about it. One of the panelists, Sanitation Department Deputy Chief Steven Giglio, said he’s assigned to Community Board 7 so “I’ll go check it out myself and issue a summons if I need to.” Someone in the audience shouted out a wise piece of advice for him while he’s there: “Get a hot dog too!” (Giglio did in fact follow up later in the week and issue summonses.)

Before it was all over, Councilmember Brewer yelled out “The pigeons are still on 96^th Street!” She was referring to a past problem which has been highlighted by The Spirit. We will certainly be following up on that, as well as several other issues that came up at Monday’s Town Hall.