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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now we continue our series, 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks. As we welcome all 51 New York City council members in this year where most of them are new because of term limits and most are women for the first time ever. Today, it's Oswald Feliz from district 15 in the Bronx. The North and Central Bronx-ish running from roughly the Grand Concourse East to around White Plains Road, mostly north of the Cross Bronx Expressway.

This is the district that in includes the Twin Parks apartment complex, where that deadly fire was in January. Feliz has been active on issues relevant to that. He's a lifelong Bronx resident, a tenant lawyer before being elected to council, and has been an adjunct professor teaching reading and writing his bio says at Hostos Community College in the Bronx. He was first elected in a special election last April to fill the seat vacated by Richie Torres when Torres was elected to Congress.

Councilmember Feliz, thanks for joining our 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks series. Welcome back to WNYC.

Oswald Feliz: Brian, it is so good to join you this morning. Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Can I start with the Twin Parks fire? It's mostly fallen out of the news as it gets further back in time. What's the most important thing to say now about how the residents displaced or injured by the fire are doing and how well the city is providing for them?

Oswald Feliz: Thank you so much for the question. We're working around the clock to help affected families in every way possible. It was a 19-story high rise, over 120 families displaced from one second to the next, but we've been working around the clock to help every single affected family in every way possible, including help finding a new apartment, helping them purchase new furniture, and everything else.

We also recently introduced fire safety legislation, specifically legislation on the issue of self-closing doors. The recovery process has not been easy. We lack affordable housing and that has frustrated our ability to be able to find housing for every tenant from one day to the next, but we've been working around the clock, we've made a lot of progress but our work continues.

Brian Lehrer: Were there underlying issues that caused this fire in your opinion that need to be addressed on a policy level or is it mostly enforcement that either was or wasn't done sufficiently with respect to the stairwell door violations?

Oswald Feliz: I would say both. The first question, the fire started due to the use of a space heater, and the first question is why did this family in a very cold Sunday morning, why did this family feel the need to use a space heater? The answer is very simple, the landlord was not providing sufficient heat. That is a problem. The city of New York has to create a better system for enforcing heating laws. Currently, if a tenant calls 311 due to a lack of heating, the HPD would take approximately 48 hours to send an inspector and inspect the place of violation.

The problem with that is that in 48 hours, number one, the heat could be turned back on, or number two in 48 hours, the landlord might not even be required to provide heating. Let's say the temperature changes and it goes above 70°. We need a much better system of enforcement for our heating laws, and the same is true for other self-closing door inspections. My legislation does a lot, including giving landlords no more than 10 days to correct self-closing door violations. After those 10 days, HPD will be required to re-inspect to make sure that the violation was cured. If the violation wasn't cured, HPD would have to fix it themselves and send the bill to the landlord.

Brian Lehrer: Did that pass the City Council? Is that a reform that has already taken place?

Oswald Feliz: I actually introduced the legislation about a month ago. We had a hearing on it approximately two weeks ago. The next step is going to be getting the bill through the democratic conference and then having the housing committee vote on it and then having the entire state City Council vote on it. I am expecting it to pass hopefully in the next month or so.

Brian Lehrer: Now, pulling that-- [crosstalk] You're learning about that now that you're a legislator and not a tenant lawyer anymore, right? Is it frustrating?

Oswald Feliz: Absolutely. We have a lot of checks and I think the legislative process has different steps just to make sure that the procedures and the laws that we're passing are good laws, including giving the public sufficient time to comment on it and also to think about it and analyze it and give feedback to city government. It's a process. The City Council has been moving pretty fast to make sure that these steps are moving as fast as possible.

Brian Lehrer: Pulling back now and speaking generally about your district in the Bronx, can you paint a picture of your district today for people not from there? Who lives in District 15 demographically? Or anyway you'd like to describe who you feel you were elected to represent?

Oswald Feliz: Yes, absolutely. I represent the Central Bronx. My district is located in the middle of the Bronx. We have many important institutions, including the Bronx Zoo, the Bronx botanical garden. We also have Little Italy, AKA, Arthur Avenue, many vibrant neighborhoods, many diverse neighborhoods. My district demographically is mostly, I would say half-Hispanics, maybe about 40% African-American, and then approximately 10% other, including Asians, Whites, and many others.

Brian Lehrer: As a measure of what's urgent for people in your district, what have your constituents contacted you about the most since you took office in January? Let's say the Park Towers fire aside.

Oswald Feliz: Absolutely. The fire has taken up most of my focus for the last four months, since the beginning of the year but besides that by far, crime. Crime is crushing my district. I represent many of the busiest police precincts, including the 48th precincts 46th, and 52 and we've had way too many shootings. That's a problem affecting and crushing my district, but also affecting the entire Bronx and the entire city.

We've seen shootings everywhere, even in neighborhoods where you generally don't see shootings at. We're seeing them very often and it's a problem that's concerning everyone, but especially concerning my constituents who are unfortunately seeing a lot of gun violence in their neighborhoods.

Brian Lehrer: How supportive are you of Mayor Adams' anti-gun violence policies, including the bail reform proposals in the anti-crime neighborhood safety teams, as he calls them that are controversial?

Oswald Feliz: We're supportive of Mayor Adams and his public safety plan. The issue of public safety is not easy. No one wants to have a police officer in every corner of their neighborhood, but the next question is at least at this point, whether it's needed. When you have shootings and more shootings in broad daylight, I would say we have to support measures including additional protections, which includes that anti-crime unit, which is focused on the most high crime or the neighborhoods with the most gun violence. I'm very supportive.

I think at this time, Mayor Adams is the right mayor for the right time. He has the right plan for the right time as well, maybe in a year until we can scale back the plan if crime cools down, but for now, I think those measures that he's proposed are needed.

Brian Lehrer: Are you concerned about mass incarceration as a result of some of his policies and cracking down on the small quality of life violations as he's doing, as he wants to do more of turn in style jumping and things like that, as what he says as a way to prevent larger crimes? The other side of that argument, as you know, is that we're going to start jailing a lot of Black and Latino young people, like a lot of family members who live in your district, unnecessarily in order to get at the shootings.

Oswald Feliz: I think the big goal of the public safety plan is to deter people from carrying weapons, sending a very clear message that if you carry a weapon and you're putting others at risk, we will not tolerate that, but also sending a message in some neighborhoods a lot of gun violence-- At least in my district, in some parts, including proton Avenue and South Boulevard, and 107th Street, a lot of gun violence.

We do not want to get to the point where our children feel like they have to carry in order to be safe. I think the goal of the plan is deterring because if you don't deter, then that's exactly what you get. You get people committing violence, and then they'll have to go through a system. The big goal here is deterring so that we won't have violence or we won't have any incarceration.

Brian Lehrer: How about prevention?

Oswald Feliz: That is also a big part of the plan. We have to make sure that our schools have the tools that they need to prepare our children for the future. That's especially true in my district. I visited many schools, and many of them have conditions that are unacceptable. For example, in that same region, 180th and Southern Boulevard, there's a school that has a trailer classroom, students learning in trailers in the 21st Century, in 2022, and also in the wealthiest city on Earth.

That is unacceptable. We need prevention, we need to make sure that our schools have the tools they need to prepare the children for the future. If children are learning in trailers, I think that's sending a really bad message to our children. It's also a space that's not suitable for learning. The trailers with many problems, including conditions such as water leaks and et cetera. We need modern school buildings with all the tools to prepare our children for the future, and that is the biggest goal that I'll be working on in the City Council.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, my guest is City Councilmember Oswald Feliz from the Central Bronx, District 15. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692, in our series 51 Councilmembers in 52 Weeks, 212-433-9692 as we touch every neighborhood of New York City with its elected representative, most of them new this year, majority new City Council. 212-433-9692. Actually, you are not technically a freshman just because you got in on your special election, I guess, a year ago last week, right? It was April of 2021, after Ritchie Torres, who represented that district in City Council got elected to Congress.

You've been in City Council exactly one year, and you've got more experience in City Council than a majority of the members. Is it a good thing, a bad thing, a mixed thing to have term limits in a way that leaves so many on the one side, fresh faces, fresh voices, fresh thinking, and on the other side, so little experience in a body as important as City Council?

Oswald Feliz: I'd say there's a lot of benefits to having term limits, but there's also a lot of downsides. Some of the benefits is exactly that. You'll get new voices, fresh eyes on the issues, but the downside is that no one assumes this position being an expert. You might be a great councilmember when you take office, but as the years pass, you become a much better councilmember because you've gone through the process, you have experience experiencing the different steps of the legislative process and the budget, and much more. The downside is that you lose a lot of experience.

I would say, term limits, they have their benefits, but I wouldn't be against giving members four full terms, which would be 16 years, 4, 4-year terms.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Four four-year terms instead of two.

Oswald Feliz: Or at least three-year terms. I think that'll be better. I think we want to keep experience in the City Council and in the city, and if you have eight years of experience in the City Council, I'm sure those final four years or final term, you'll be a much better legislator, you'll be able to get a lot done for our city because you'll understand the issues in a better way.

Brian Lehrer: You were a tenants' lawyer. What do you want in the new housing policy that would help your district from City Council as a matter of city policy, from the mayor, or from the state? I'm not sure the city can do this on its own.

Oswald Feliz: We have to create economically integrated neighborhoods. Unfortunately, our city has some of the most segregated housing, segregated in every way, including racially but also economically. It's the 21st century, we should be creating neighborhoods that are set up to succeed, neighborhoods that are economically integrated. It's a big problem that we can resolve, but we just have to make it our focus.

Brian Lehrer: How do you do that? There's always so much resistance to allowing poorer people into neighborhoods where better-off people live.

Oswald Feliz: Landlords get a lot of tax benefits and tax breaks when they're building affordable housing. When affordable housing buildings are being constructed, we have to make sure that they're allocating at least 20% to 30% for deep affordable housing; for those families that earn from $0 to, let's say, $60,000 to $70,000 a year. We need deep affordable housing. It is insulting for someone to call housing affordable but then require that they have an income of about $130,000, $140,000. That's insulting, that shouldn't be called affordable.

To answer your question, every single affordable housing building, including those that have wealthier AMI regions, they should be allocating a good percentage of their units for deep-affordable housing. Everyone should help resolve the homeless crisis and the housing crisis that we have that's affecting especially our low-income, vulnerable families.

Brian Lehrer: This is WNYC FM, HD, and AM New York, WNJT-FM 88.1 Trenton, WNJP 88.5 Sussex, WNJY 89.3 Netcong, and WNJO 90.3 Toms River. We are a New York and New Jersey public radio and live-streaming at wnyc.org, with City Councilmember Oswald Feliz from the Central Bronx for another few minutes. Sonia in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sonia.

Sonia: Hi, how are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good, how are you?

Sonia: I'm well, thank you.

Brian Lehrer: You have a question for our guest.

Sonia: Yes, I do. I live in Harlem, but I'm calling for my sister who is 90, soon to be 91. The building in which she lives, which is at 2385 Barker Avenue in the Bronx, 10457 is the ZIP, it is near Allerton. I don't know whether this gentleman represents her area, but I've been writing to the management asking for them to put a ramp so that she can get into the building. She uses a walker, and in order to get into the building, she has to go either down or up five steps to get into the building.

In addition, to get to the elevator, there are three steps she has to go up. She has to wait for someone to help her up, either the Access-A-Ride driver or someone. I've been after management to install a ramp, and I'm wondering whether his office would be able to help me secure that for her, at least to get it in the process.

Brian Lehrer: Councilman, does Sonia's sister live in your district at that address, and can you help her in any case?

Oswald Feliz: Absolutely. Thank you so much for that question. Absolutely. My office number is 718-842-8100. Also, I just Google Mapped the building, the landlord is absolutely required to install a ramp. Landlords are required to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, which requires landlords to allow tenants to be able to safely enter and exit their building, and that includes installing a ramp for individuals that might use a wheelchair or have mobility complications, and much more. The landlord is legally required to do so. Reach out to my office, we've handled many of these cases. We'll gladly help your mom get the ramp installed.

[crosstalk]

Sonia: She's at 2385 Barker Avenue. That is your district, is that correct?

Oswald Feliz: Yes, absolutely.

Sonia: All right, thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: Sonia, do call and follow up, and definitely tell them that you spoke to him on the show in case you need that leverage. Rachel in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Rachel.

Rachel: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. I live in the Bronx, and actually, I'm between homes right now because I was harassed so much by my landlord that I wasn't able to sustain it. That is my issue. I think that this is really life and death. If you think of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, food, water, shelter. There are so many people. Those people who died in the Bronx, they did not die because, as Eric Adams said, "forgot to close the door when they are dealing with an acute crisis". They died because of the heat violations and lack of regulations because a lot of these politicians are actually receiving political donations. Look at what's happening with Brian Benjamin.

What are we really going to? We are literally held hostage. There's a rich high-rise building in Midtown Manhattan. They're paying $5,000 a month. No elevator and it's 30 floors high. It was a huge New York Times article. There was just one on Yahoo News yesterday about people who moved into condos and co-ops, and also rental buildings that are "luxury". Some of them 80/20 and they're falling apart. My building as well was literally falling apart. The elevator didn't work, the gym was falling apart.

A lot of these buildings are slick marketing and they get you on these leases. Then after that, they fall apart, and then it's this adversarial relationship with the landlord. They don't provide any services, they don't provide any discount and yet we are getting less services than what we pay for.

Brian Lehrer: Rachel, is there a policy proposal that would be at the top of your list to address some of what you're bringing up?

Rachel: I think from what he has stated, I like the way that's going because HPD is a waste of time. I call for an elevator issue, 40 days for the Department of Buildings to come. Then when they do come and the management fixes the elevator, then all of a sudden miraculously, there's a DoB inspector the next day to say the elevator's working. How? Clearly, something's wrong with the inspection process and why is it on the tenant that we have to spend our time calling, our time risking our relationship with our landlord to get the landlord in trouble, which really doesn't even happen. What are we doing about HPD regulation?

They need to be way more-- There's people without jobs. They need to train way more inspectors, maybe even put that into the schools like a job that children could aspire to and pay them well enough and give them benefits to do that. Because right now, to me, it's a house of cards. When you think about the violence, when you think about domestic violence, when you think about a lot of the issues that are child abuse, some of that has to do with people being stressed out, living in buildings, including NYCHA, that don't have the services that they need and people get stressed out and they become passive-aggressive, and they take it out on the most vulnerable person that is within proximity to them.

Brian Lehrer: Rachel, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you very much for putting all that on the table. We'll get to one more call from the district. Virginia in The Bronx. I think you said you're from the council member's district, right Virginia? You told our screen of that.

Virginia: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Hi there.

Virginia: Yes. I am. Hello. I'm calling because, in all of these conversations and talking about landlords, you're always talking about the landlords, the big buildings, and all these resources and the various problems, but I never ever hear discussion of landlords who basically are landlords just to pay the bills. I have a one-family house or in our case, my mother of 97 and I, it's a three-family house. The people who died in Queens during that flood, those were not big apartment buildings. They were private homes that also had tenants.

We are not that kind of landlord. We are living in the same place with the same conditions and when HPD comes, they talk about what that lady saying about being stressed out. I'm a black woman, Caribbean-American, and I have never felt discriminated against like I've felt in times when I have tried to be in touch with the city to get help for something that was going on if you know this. [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Virginia, what do you need on a policy level from the city that you're not getting to support small landlords like you?

Virginia: When I was looking into this, I was thinking, maybe a deputy mayor, but then in looking on the city website, I saw that there's such a thing as the office of the different things and on the office of immigration, there was resources from all the different city areas, and in a tone that was about helping people deal with things that cross all these different city areas. I think there needs to be an office of small landlords or-- [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: What's a particular issue that you have that hasn't been able to be addressed?

Virginia: [laughs] Oh, gosh.

Brian Lehrer: If that's a funny question do I have three weeks for your answer?

Virginia: No, it's not a funny question. It's that there are so many things, where do I start? [llaughs]

Brian Lehrer: Give me your top two.

Virginia: Sanitation and the violations about rats and things. When we, at the same time, don't get the sanitation services that we're supposed to get. They're very inconsistent. The whole first week of the year, we had low sanitation pick up. It's very inconsistent and then the rats build up and then we get the summonses for that. Sometimes they leave a mess and when you're not there when it happens, but the sanitation inspectors are there when it happens and you get all these summonses and things, and it's a Catch-22.

Then also when you come across a tenant who knows the system better than you do and is-- I won't even go into that one yet, but it has to do with trying to deal with the housing court, which is entirely, again, set up for our tenants and doesn't really provide helpful-- [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: It's interesting how easy it is to get tenants advocates who say it's all set up for landlords, and people like you, who say it's all set up for tenants. Virginia, let me get you a response. Thank you very much for your call.

Virginia: Come then for elders as well, because a lot of those owners are also senior citizens.

Brian Lehrer: Virginia, thank you. Please call us again. Councilmember, we're running out of time. I want you to answer those two last callers. You hear the tenant from The Bronx, the landlord from The Bronx who's in your district. How do you mail all of that as representing all the people? Then I have one final follow-up.

Oswald Feliz: Absolutely. On the first question on the issue of repairs and HPD, I completely agree with everything that was mentioned. Two things. First, we need more HPD inspectors, as the tenant mentioned. We could have the best laws in the city and the best imaginable laws and having them on paper is great. The second thing is making sure that we're enforcing them. In order to be able to efficiently and properly enforce them, we need inspectors. One thing that the City Council did was, in our budget proposal is, allocate more funding for HPD inspectors so that they could be able to carry out their jobs and do it more effectively in a better timeline and et cetera.

The second thing is building a system where does exactly what the tenant mentioned, which is the system is more proactive and not having to require that tenant consistently follow up and call 311 and then go to housing court, spend three months in housing court. Spending days in housing court days that they could be working, and earning an income, especially considering that many families in my district can't afford to do that. They work from paycheck to paycheck. They have three jobs. Creating a system that's more proactive and will do more and will require less from the tenant once we know that there's a violation.

Brian Lehrer: From the landlord's perspective?

Oswald Feliz: We live in one city. We're the city of New York. We have many different players, including tenants. We have small landlords and some small landlords actually need some help. Some small landlords are people like the people that I represent. They are low-income families. They were able to work really hard and they were able to achieve their dream. Purchasing a home, a three-family home. Now they live on the first floor and they rent out the two other floors just to be able to pay the mortgage and et cetera.

If they are being good landlords, we have to do everything to help them as well, whether it is helping them get sanitation services, and much more. We live in the city and if we have a good landlord, especially a small landlord who's doing everything right, our city should have their back.

Brian Lehrer: The last thing, we're inviting every member of City Council who comes on this series, which is every member of City Council, 51 council members in 52 weeks, we haven't figured out yet which week we're going to take off, to bring something from your district for show and tell, what did you bring for us?

Oswald Feliz: I brought a cup, actually. I brought a cup that I received from The Bronx Zoo. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Like a souvenir cup?

Oswald Feliz: Yes. I represent the 15th Council District, right in the center of The Bronx. The district includes The Bronx Zoo. We have many exotic animals. The zoo includes giraffes, seals. The last time I was there, I saw a tiger and a fox. I brought a cup, a souvenir provided by The Bronx Zoo in my district.

Brian Lehrer: The council member from The Bronx Zoo and all the people who live in District 15 in the Central Bronx, Oswald Feliz. Thank you so much for coming on with us. Look forward to talking to you again.

Oswald Feliz: It was an honor joining you this morning. Thank you so much for having me and thank you all for--

 

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