Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alexander Kuravsky on Radiator Safety Inspections
1:27:14
·
134 sec
Alexander Kuravsky, who lost his baby, Benjamin Zachariah, due to a radiator accident, passionately argues for the necessity of Intro 925, emphasizing the failure of the current complaint-based system and the need for mandated inspections to prevent future tragedies. He criticizes the idea of educating tenants through pamphlets as an ineffective solution.
- Kuravsky stresses that human life and safety should take precedence over technical laws
- He expresses gratitude to council members supporting the bill, including Purina, Sanchez, and Farrah Lewis
- The speaker strongly opposes the suggestion of educating tenants with pamphlets, arguing that such materials are likely to be ignored
Alexander Kuravsky
1:27:14
Good morning, everyone.
1:27:15
Thank you so much for allowing us an opportunity to speak.
1:27:18
I'm really thankful to be here.
1:27:19
Really thankful for a lot of council members, especially Purina and Sanchez, as well as Farrah Lewis and many others that have very bravely and graciously supported us.
1:27:32
So thank you.
1:27:34
I also did wanna say mainly just 2 things.
1:27:37
1, the status quo is obviously an epic fail.
1:27:43
Relying on tenants to report issues is a failure because 3 children have died.
1:27:49
If the status quo would work, we will be with our baby boy in the park right now, not sitting with you here today.
1:27:56
Clearly, the current system failed.
1:27:59
And if we turn our head away and conveniently refer to it as a freak accident, that does nothing but further propagate future failures again, again, and again.
1:28:11
So what are we gonna do to stop it?
1:28:13
What action will we take to ensure that a 4th, a 5th, and a 10th child doesn't die.
1:28:20
Human life and the physical safety and the preservation of it takes precedence above all technical laws.
1:28:28
This is a human life law.
1:28:29
This is a common sense law.
1:28:31
It doesn't get any more important than human life.
1:28:37
I was out of respect for everyone here.
1:28:42
I was, to be quite frankly, with you, appalled by the response of one of the members when they said that they want to, quote, educate, tenants.
1:28:52
I'm not sure what kind of education they are talking about, but giving someone a pamphlet, a piece of paper like this today, and saying, oh, maybe your baby might die, so read this.
1:29:04
Is not an effective solution.
1:29:06
We don't want papers.
1:29:07
We don't want pamphlets.
1:29:09
No one is gonna digest, internalize, analyze, assess, whatever information is on that little pamphlet.
1:29:16
That pamphlet Everyone here knows is gonna go straight to the garbage.
1:29:20
We don't want pamphlets.
1:29:22
We want legal mandated laws to preserve and protect human life.
1:29:28
Thank you.