Kevin Riley closed out his run as chair of the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises with a short, clean session and a goodbye. Before the gavel, he and five colleagues moved two of the city's biggest street-level franchise deals one step closer to renewal, both on a 6-0 vote with no one opposed and no abstentions.
The first was LinkNYC, the citywide network of public communication structures that hand out free Wi-Fi on sidewalks. The mayor asked the Council to modify the existing agreement, and the resolution authorizes the administration to extend the franchise with CityBridge for up to five years. Once approved, the Office of Technology Innovation, known as OTI, would negotiate that extension and keep the free public Wi-Fi running and expanding. The second was the coordinated street furniture franchise, the contracts behind bus shelters, newsstands, and public toilets. That one extends the deal with JCDecaux for roughly three years and nine months, timed to expire alongside the LinkNYC agreement.
Riley laid out why the two clocks were being synced. Lining up both end dates lets the city study whether to combine the street furniture and LinkNYC franchises into one, which he said could pull more investment into city infrastructure and bring in more revenue. Both resolutions were approved as described and referred to the full Land Use Committee, the next stop before they reach the Council floor.
Then Riley took a moment. Calling it his last meeting as chair, he thanked his colleagues, the public, the land use and council staff, and the sergeant at arms, and singled out the committee counsel by name. "We have approved so much affordable housing within our city," he said, before adjourning. The substance now moves up the chain: full Land Use takes up both franchise extensions next, and the open question Riley framed, whether to merge LinkNYC and street furniture into a single franchise, lands on whoever chairs the subcommittee after him.