The Wall St.Journal 28Feb2020

A9A| Friday, February 28, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

James said it is the first one

filed by a New York state at-

torney general under the New

York City Childhood Lead Poi-

soning Prevention Act, which

went into effect in 2004.

“Every New Yorker de-

serves a peace of mind that

their landlord follows all laws

designed to protect residents

and most importantly protect

children,” she said.

Ms. James said she wasn’t

aware of any confirmed cases

of lead poisoning in children

who have lived in properties

managed by Chestnut, but she

called the firm’s alleged lack

from restaurants and food-de-

livery companies.

Grocery stores and delis still

can offer plastic bags for un-

packaged produce and prepared

foods. But they won’t be avail-

able at the checkout line, and

customers will have to use either

paper, reusable bags or totes.

Sean Mahar, chief of staff

for the New York State Depart-

ment of Environmental Con-

servation, said the new law

will help the state reduce plas-

tic pollution, including keep-

ing plastic bags out of tree

branches and waterways. The

department estimates that 23

billion plastic bags are used

annually statewide.

“We have a very robust

public-education campaign

that’s under way now to en-

courage all New Yorkers to be

prepared for this law,” he said.

Mr. Penta said he wants to

be environmentally friendly

but worries about what the

ban will do to his bottom line.

He recently spent about $2,

to buy roughly 92,500 plastic

bags, which will last him be-

tween 10 and 14 days. The

same number of paper bags

would cost $15,000, he said.

He worries that charging

for bags will discourage cus-

tomers from buying as many

groceries as they usually do.

“Will people be more likely to

shop online because they don’t

feel like carrying reusable

bags around?” he said.

Jessica Walker, president of

the Manhattan Chamber of

Commerce, said the group re-

cently surveyed business own-

ers in Harlem and Chinatown

and found many didn’t know

about the ban. She is con-

cerned about the reactions

they will face from customers.

“If consumers aren’t aware

of the law, it’s the business

saying ‘No, you can’t have a

plastic bag,’ ” she said. “It

comes off as a mean business

owner breaking the news to

them. It’s bad for business.”

Robert Schwartz, owner of

Eneslow Shoes & Orthotics,

which has three locations in

Manhattan and one in Queens,

said he buys plastic bags in bulk

and is sitting on 30,000 unused

bags that cost him about

$6,000. “What are you going to

do with all of them?” he said.

“Throw them in the landfills?”

Some owners say the plas-

tic-bag ban will increase the

cost of doing business in New

York because paper bags are

more expensive. New York

City, Suffolk and Tompkins

counties have passed laws re-

quiring retailers to charge cus-

tomers 5 cents for paper bags,

but businesses aren’t allowed

to keep those nickels. Per the

new state law, 3 cents goes to

the state’s environmental-pro-

tection fund and 2 cents stays

with local government.

Mr. Schwartz has ordered

1,000 plain brown shopping

bags with handles at double

the cost he paid for plastic.

Soukena Maar, a 38-year-

old home aide who lives in

Queens, lived through a plas-

tic-bag ban in her home coun-

try, Morocco, and said it

helped reduce litter. “It’s a

good idea,” she said. “When I

use the plastic bags, I take it

home and I throw it away in

the garbage. I don’t reuse it.”

Mike Hyler, manager of

Wilklow Orchards LLC in High-

land, N.Y., which sets up a pro-

duce stand at the farmers

market in Union Square on

Mondays, said he expects to

use up his plastic-bag inven-

tory before the ban takes ef-

fect. Customers will start

bringing their own reusable

bags, and Mr. Hyler said he

would supply small paper bags

for baked goods.

“I think people will get used

to it,” he said. “Initially there

will be some growing pains,

but in a month or two people

will get used to it.”

New York business owners

are bracing for confused and

angry customers after a state-

wide ban on single-use plastic

bags takes effect Sunday.

Phil Penta, managing partner

of the open-air produce market

3 Guys From Brooklyn, hung up

signs in four languages, in-

cluded notifications in his print

mailers and published remind-

ers on Facebook. But he is still

worried that some customers

won’t understand.

“I have my employees trying

to sell or push reusable bags to

every customer, so they’re not

surprised,” Mr. Penta said. “I

think there will be some disrup-

tion at the register for a while.”

Under the new law, which

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed

last April, all retailers that are

required to collect sales tax

are subject to the plastic-bag

ban. There are exceptions, in-

cluding for prepared food

BYKATEKING

Businesses in Knots Over Plastic-Bag Ban

Signs in four languages were posted at 3 Guys From Brooklyn alerting shoppers that plastic bags will be banned, but the market worries that some won’t understand.

CLAUDIO PAPAPIETRO FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

of compliance egregious, not-

ing that the property manager

repeatedly failed to cooperate

with investigative inquiries.

Chestnut’s alleged noncom-

pliance was discovered as part

of a probe into lead-paint regu-

lation compliance citywide, the

attorney general’s office said.

Housing Preservation and

Development Commissioner

Louise Carroll said the agency

has issued nearly 500 viola-

tions since it began conduct-

ing the audit in December.

More than two-thirds of the

property owners who were au-

dited by the agency weren’t in

compliance, city data show.

Chestnut Holdings could be

fined up to $10,000 for each

violation, said a spokesperson

for Ms. James.

The lawsuit alleges Chestnut

repeatedly certified in new

leases that it had complied with

the Childhood Lead Poisoning

Prevention Act, even though it

hadn’t. Mr. Weisbrot said the

firm offered the attorney gen-

eral thousands of pages of docu-

ments that prove its compliance.

A property manager over-

seeing more than 6,000 apart-

ment units in 134 buildings in

New York City has been non-

compliant with lead-paint regu-

lations, state Attorney General

Letitia James said Thursday.

In a lawsuit, Ms. James ac-

cusedChestnut Holdingsof fail-

ing to identify which apartments

house children under 6 years

old, as city law requires. The

property manager, which mostly

operates apartments in low- and

middle-income communities in

the Bronx, didn’t conduct annual

investigations of those apart-

ments for hazards that could

cause lead poisoning, such as

peeling paint, the suit alleges.

Nathaniel Ari Weisbrot, a

lawyer representing the prop-

erty- management company,

said: “Anytime Chestnut be-

comes aware of lead conditions,

they are immediately remedi-

ated. All laws and regulations

are followed to the letter.”

The lawsuit was filed in

state court in the Bronx. Ms.

BYTYLERBLINT-WELSH

Property Manager Sued Over Lead-Paint Compliance

Attorney General Letitia James sued Chestnut Holdings, which manages this Bronx building.

SARAH BLESENER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

GREATER NEW YORK

track tunnel under the Hud-

son, which would eliminate a

bottleneck in the Northeast

Corridor and allow Amtrak to

close existing passageways,

known as the North River Tun-

nels, for extensive repairs.

In testimony Thursday to

the House Appropriations

Committee, Transportation

Secretary Elaine Chao signaled

what Amtrak officials privately

have recognized for months:

Because of the poor and deteri-

orating condition of the tun-

nels, Amtrak can no longer

wait for new tunnels before be-

ginning repairs on the existing

tubes, even if that means sig-

nificant schedule disruptions

for Amtrak and NJ Transit, the

commuter rail service that also

relies on the tracks to reach

Penn Station in Manhattan.

“Given the time, cost, and

complexity of building an en-

tirely new tunnel, the depart-

ment is working with Amtrak to

design and validate a faster and

more cost-effective method to

improve safety and functional-

ity in this tunnel as the first or-

der of business,” Ms. Chao said.

It isn’t yet clear how rehabil-

itation work would affect train

schedules for Amtrak or NJ

Transit. A senior Amtrak official

said Ms. Chao and the Depart-

ment of Transportation have

been cooperative in the plan-

ning process, and that all sides

agreed the rehabilitation work

doesn’t obviate the need for the

new Hudson River tunnel.

Amtrak has long warned

that it needs to make major

repairs to the twin North

River Tunnels, which opened

to passenger service 110 years

ago as part of the Pennsylva-

nia Railroad. At that time the

Hudson was still frequently re-

ferred to as the North River, a

translation of the Dutch name

for the waterway.

More than 450 trains pass

through the existing tunnels

every weekday, according to

Amtrak.

The Amtrak official said the

railroad has been conducting

engineering reviews for a

North River tunnel rehabilita-

tion since the fall. The railroad

hasn’t said how much the re-

pairs would cost, but Amtrak

has accumulated a large

amount of cash on its balance

sheet to be used for major

capital projects.

The decision to begin work

on the existing tunnels doesn’t

solve the standoff over the

Gateway Program, as the pro-

posal to expand the Northeast

Corridor crossings into New

York City is known.

Ms. Chao and the Trump

administration have blocked

federal funding for the new

tunnel, challenging the financ-

ing proposals put forward by

local governments in New

York and New Jersey.

Ultimately, Amtrak’s goal is

to have a four-track crossing

under the Hudson River—the

two century-old North River

tubes and a new two-track

tunnel. That would expand ca-

pacity, and improve redun-

dancy in the case of outages.

Ms. Chao noted Thursday

that other components of the

Gateway program are advanc-

ing. The Federal Railroad Ad-

ministration will release an

environmental assessment for

the replacement of the Saw-

tooth Bridges in Kearny, N.J.,

two aging rail overpasses that

act as bottlenecks in the

northbound approach to the

North River tunnels and New

York City.

WASHINGTON—Amtrak is

planning to begin major re-

pairs on the aging railroad

tunnels beneath the Hudson

River that link New Jersey and

New York, with officials saying

they can no longer wait for

new tunnels to be built.

The railroad and the re-

gional congressional delega-

tions have pushed for years for

the construction of a new two-

BYTEDMANN

Amtrak to Start Railroad Tunnel Repairs

Officials say they

can’t wait for new

construction under

the Hudson River

Companies in New York

City that use artificial intelli-

gence and other technology to

make hiring, compensation

and other human-resources

decisions would face tighter

restrictions under a bill intro-

duced Thursday.

Some lawmakers say they

want to make sure workers are

treated fairly as companies in-

creasingly use technology to

automate everything from

sorting through résumés to in-

terviewing potential hires. A

new bill proposed by Council-

woman Laurie Cumbo, a

Brooklyn Democrat, would ban

the sale of these automated

tools unless the software had

been audited for bias.

Elected officials and activ-

ists have become increasingly

concerned that bias is embed-

ded in many artificial-intelli-

gence technologies. A recent

government analysis of facial-

recognition algorithms by the

National Institute of Standards

and Technology, for example,

found that most are far more

likely to misidentify Asian-

and African-Americans com-

pared with white people.

Councilwoman Alicka Am-

pry-Samuel, a Democrat from

Brooklyn who is co-sponsoring

the bill, said discrimination in

the workforce isn’t a new prob-

lem, and lawmakers want to

make sure technology is help-

ing rather than exacerbating it.

“If companies are using this

type of technology, we want to

make sure that the tools that

they are using are used in a way

that really speaks directly to the

reduction of discrimination and

bias,” she said in an interview.

The proposed legislation

would prohibit the sale of auto-

mated tools used for hiring or

other employment decisions,

such as compensation, unless

they had passed an impartial

antibias test within the past

year. The bill also would re-

quire employers to notify job

applicants within 30 days if

their candidacies were assessed

using automated technology.

City officials say artificial

intelligence and other auto-

mated technology is becoming

more widely used across in-

dustries, including financial

services, health care and me-

dia. New York-based AI and

machine-learning firms re-

ceived $2.3 billion in venture-

capital funding last year, ac-

cording to data firm PitchBook.

AI developers need to think

about diversity and inclusion

from the very beginning, start-

ing with the data they use, said

Karen Bhatia, senior vice presi-

dent of initiatives at the New

York City Economic Develop-

ment Corp. If a tech company is

building an automated hiring

tool but only uses data compiled

from the résumés of white, male

tech employees, then the algo-

rithm could overlook women or

minorities as it sorts through

applications, she said.

Ms. Bhatia said job applicants

should be aware that artificial

intelligence is a factor in the hir-

ing process. “Oftentimes what

you see is these technologies are

being used, but those who are

ultimately being impacted by it

don’t even know,” she said.

The bill says rules and en-

forcement would be determined

by the city’s Commission on Hu-

man Rights or another agency

designated by the mayor. If

signed into law, the bill would

take effect in January 2022.

BYKATEKING

Bill Aims

To Oversee

AI Hiring

Technology

NY