Press Coverage

In a letter sent to city officials on Wednesday, lawyers for the union, Transport Workers Union Local 100, vowed to challenge the legislation in court should the council pass it.

The workers were joined by their lawyers, Ben Kallos and Arthur J. Schwartz, who will argue in their pending lawsuit that Romanch’s Law constitutes a violation of their Fifth Amendment rights; specifically, they believe that it represents a “taking” of their property without “just compensation.”

The Transport Workers Union says it is prepared to challenge the ban in federal court if it passes. 

TWU lawyer Ben Kallos said he believes a judge will overturn the legislation.

"They were supposed to figure out what the economic impact was. It's required by the city charter, and if you pull the economic impact analysis, it's blank," he said.

“Its impact will be felt the minute the City Council passes the bill in its current form, even if the Mayor waits to sign it. If Mayor Mamdani signs it, it will hit like a bomb, even if it is a year or more before it ‘takes effect,’” wrote Arthur Schquartz and Ben Kallos, counsel for TWU. 

“The bill, as it currently stands, is scheduled for a vote tomorrow,” attorneys Arthur Schwartz and Benjamin Kallos wrote on behalf of the Transport Workers Union in a letter to the city’s corporation counsel. “It includes a mess of Federal and State constitutional violations.”

A tony Upper East Side art gallery is pressing the city for permits that could potentially turn it into a hot spot that would put Studio 54 to shame.

The Frick Collection has filed an application to open up 17 new bars and hold events that could last until 4 a.m. — a proposal that angry neighbors say will transform the 88-year-old facility near Central Park on East 70th Street into a modern “high-class party space.”

...

“It is hard to fathom how many attendees would warrant 17 liquor service bars with 204 linear feet of bartenders,” East 70th Street Block Association attorney and former Upper East Side City Councilman Ben Kallos said in the letter obtained by the Post.

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The Frick Collection is fighting for their right to party, but neighbors say they're being left in the dark about what the museum actually plans to do...

In their new liquor license application reviewed by Patch, the museum would be allowed to have up to 17 bars slinging drinks, with up to 14 floors of the Frick — possibly even conservation areas — open to events, no stated event capacity limits, parties that could last until 4 a.m. and even bicycle deliveries...

"The Block Association was shocked to see a proposal for 17 liquor service bars," said the group's attorney and former Upper East Side City Council Member Ben Kallos at a Community Board 8 Street Life Committee meeting Tuesday night.

Kallos calculated, according to the Frick's application, that comes out to over 200 linear feet of bar service.

"It is hard to fathom how many attendees would warrant 17 liquor service bars with 204 linear feet of bartenders," Kallos said.