Clip of the Week: NYC Councilmember Helen Rosenthal's First Town Hall

Welcome back to Clip of the Week!

Did you know that the City of New York will power-wash or repaint graffiti-vandalized walls for free? Or that taxi drivers may now have their taxi licenses revoked if they strike a pedestrian? That's just a snapshot of the useful information shared at Councilmember Helen Rosenthal's (Council District 6) first town hall meeting earlier this spring.

In this special edition of MNN's Civic Programming, we offered full coverage of the meeting, in which constituents of this Upper West Side district asked questions and voiced concerns via the councilmember's website and through the "Open Mic Q&A" session that capped the event.

The April 30th meeting at John Jay College of Criminal Justice brought together residents with elected officials along with representatives from city agencies and companies to discuss overcrowding in schools, utility costs, complaints against street vendors, development and more.

Councilmember Rosenthal talked about a recently passed bill that she sponsored, "Cooper's Law," which makes it possible to revoke the taxi license of a driver who strikes and critically injures or kills a pedestrian. The meeting also addressed the creation of affordable housing units; a new pre-kindergarten to accommodate additional residents; how to meet the needs of middle-income New Yorkers; action related to the neighborhood's ongoing rat infestation; hiked Con Edison bills, composting; cyclist safety; and what leaders are doing to make sure gas explosions, like the one that killed eight in East Harlem this year, don't happen again.

Watch our full coverage of Councilmember Rosenthal's town hall meeting - you'll learn a lot about the resources available to you in this huge city.

Watch Civic Programming every Sunday at 9:00 pm on MNN1 (TWC 34, RCN 82, FiOS 33) or stream it live on MNN.org.