I-Team on Restaurants Using False Identities on Food Delivery Websites

November 11, 2015October 28, 2016 katyusca Broadcast, Earned Media NBC News

screen-shot-2016-10-28-at-7-21-29-pm — SOURCE: NBC’s I-Team

I-Team: Restaurants Use False Identities on Food Delivery Websites
Chris Glorioso, Ann Givens, Evan Stulberger | NBC 4

Feel like delivery food tonight? If you order on the popular websites Seamless or GrubHub, the kitchen cooking your dinner may not be what it claims to be.

The I-Team checked 100 of New York City’s top customer-rated Seamless and GrubHub restaurants and found slightly more than 10 percent of the kitchens were ghosts, meaning they had names or addresses that failed to match any listing on the city’s database of restaurant inspection grades.

Julie Menin, the city’s Consumer Affairs Commissioner, said her office has also found ghost restaurants using unregistered names and false addresses. She believes some of the Seamless and GrubHub ads may actually be fronts for unregulated kitchens.

“Some people might be illegally operating from their apartment, from their home, and delivering to people in complete contravention to department of health regulation,” Menin said.

Click here for the full report.

Telemundo 47 Responde: Agencias de empleo

September 3, 2015November 3, 2016 katyusca Broadcast Immigrant Community, Spanish, Telemundo 47

Telemundo 47 Responde: Agencias de trabajo
Liz Gonzalez

I pitched a story on DCA’s announcement on the results of its multi-pronged approach to combating predatory employment agency practices. Liz Gonzalez, who covers Telemundo’s consumer protection segment interviewed DCA’s First Deputy Commissioner Alba Pico on the results of the investigation and what job seekers should know when using employment agencies.

Click the image above to watch the full report.

Click here to read the press release.

DCA Announces Results of Multipronged Approach to Combat Predatory Employment Agencies

September 2, 2015November 3, 2016 katyusca Press Releases NYC DCA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2015

LABOR RIGHTS WEEK: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS ANNOUNCES INITIAL RESULTS OF ITS MULTIPRONGED APPROACH TO COMBAT PREDATORY EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES

Consumer Affairs Releases Multilingual Job Hunter’s Bill of Rights

Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Julie Menin today announced the results of its multipronged and aggressive approach into predatory employment agencies as part of Mayor de Blasio’s commitment to reduce inequality in New York City. In the first year of the new approach, DCA initiated more than 225 investigations into licensed and unlicensed employment agencies, issued more than 400 violations, and secured more than $77,000 in restitution for 269 consumers who were charged illegal and predatory fees. The announcement coincides with Labor Rights Week, during which DCA has also released its new multilingual Job Hunter’s Bill of Rights, enabling New Yorkers looking for a job at an employment agency know their rights.

Read full press release: Predatory Employment Agencies Announcement

Click here to see media coverage.

Corinne Ramey at Wall Street Journal on the decrease in laundromats in NYC

August 3, 2015August 25, 2016 katyusca Earned Media, Print NYC DCA, Wall Street Journal

Laundromats Shrink From Parts of NYC
Do-it-yourself service becoming scarce in higher-rent areas such as the Upper West Side
Corinne Ramey | Wall Street Journal

Self-service laundromats appear to be a vanishing amenity in some New York City neighborhoods even as their numbers overall in the city have slightly increased.

In neighborhoods like the Upper West Side, where retail rents are higher compared with much of the city and many newer apartments have in-building laundries, residents say laundromats are becoming scarce.

On a recent Sunday, neighbors mourned the final day of operation of Laundry Room Plus on Columbus Avenue between West 85th and 86th streets.

“This was like the perfect laundromat, darn,” said Charles Addison,44 years old. The next laundromat “is a long walk from here.”

Jaylieen Camacho, 13, sat waiting with her mom. “I’m sad because we’re probably going to have to drive and that’s a lot of work,” she said.

In an attempt to save Laundry Room Plus, a handful of Upper West Side residents circulated a petition and brought the issue to the attention of local officials. “It’s really, really distressing for the community as a whole,” said Mimi Timell, 56, a laundromat regular, who tried to keep the business from closing. “A lot of people don’t really realize the magnitude of it.”

Click here to read the full article.

Nicole Levy at DNAinfo on the City’s A/C Law

August 3, 2015August 25, 2016 katyusca Earned Media DNAinfo

Enjoying That Refreshing Blast of Cool Air on the Sidewalk? It’s Illegal
Nicole Levy | DNAinfo

Walk along any commercial strip in New York City this summer (as we did) and you’re bound to pass an open door expelling a blast of cool air. It’s a smart strategy: a store that gives overheated passersby a brief respite from the heat is a store luring customers inside.

It’s also illegal.

In 2008, the New York City Council enacted a local law that prohibits chain stores and those larger than 4,000 square feet from keeping their outside doors propped open while operating an air conditioner or central cooling system.

The council had the city’s power grid and the environment in mind. The practice of leaving doors open while air conditioners are running can increase a building’s electricity usage by 20 to 25 percent, according to the Long Island Power Authority. During the summer months, that raises peak power demands and puts local utilities at greater risk of power shortages.

As for the environment, “10,000 square foot business that leaves just one door open can… release 2 tons of unnecessary carbon dioxide into the air,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said in a statement last week, citing a Con Edison number. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are one of several factors raising global temperatures and sea levels.

Brewer urged owners and managers of street-level businesses to keep their doors and windows closed while running air conditioners and called for the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) to intensify its enforcement of the law in light of last week’s heat wave. She did so a week after DCA Commissioner Julie Menin announced an education and outreach campaign encouraging businesses to “Shut the Front Door!”

Click here to read the full article on DNAinfo.

Josh Dawsey at Wall Street Journal and the City’s fine reduction

July 31, 2015August 25, 2016 katyusca Earned Media, Print Fine Reduction, NYC DCA, Wall Street Journal

Fines on Small Businesses Drop Sharply
Josh Dawsey | Wall Street Journal

New York City slashed the total amount of fines to small businesses by more than half in fiscal 2015, focusing on warnings instead and addressing a long-standing complaint that it had taken a too-strict approach in the enforcement of consumer laws.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the city wrote $15.7 million in fines, down from $32.5 million a year earlier. The city issued 11,923 violations in fiscal 2015, compared with 19,409 the previous year, according to city data.

As a candidate, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city should be more lenient in writing fines because it had been too aggressive in raising revenue off small businesses—particularly in outer boroughs—for what he characterized as trivial violations.

“If a bodega was selling peaches, and they didn’t have individual pricing on every single can, they were fined per can for a very large multitude of cans,” said Julie Menin, the Department of Consumer Affairs commissioner. “We’re trying to distinguish where there is consumer harm and where there isn’t. There were onerous fines for very minor infractions.”

Ms. Menin said the city, under Mr. de Blasio, has written more fines for violations such as selling cigarettes to minors and expired medicine.

Click here to read the full article.