Inez Barron holds hearing on admissions
City Councilmember Inez Barron (D-East New York), chair of the council’s Committee on Higher Education, recently held an oversight hearing on admissions policies at City University of New York (CUNY) Early College High Schools. Witnesses invited to testify included representatives from the CUNY Administration and CUNY early college high schools, the Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, the University Faculty Senate, the University Student Senate, student groups and organizations, student advocacy groups and other interested stakeholders.
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Bed-Stuy flower shop flourishes
Bed-Stuy entrepreneur LaParis Philips’ flower shop, Brooklyn Blooms on Nostrand Avenue, is thriving despite the coronavirus, and on Friday she opened a second location on Fulton Street. For Philips, business is coming up roses. “This is so surreal to me and certainly a dream come true,” Phillips told BK Reader. “I walked by this location for years and dreamed of having my shop located here, and now it is.” Philips moved here from St. Louis five years ago to pursue a career in fashion, but designed to go into floral design when she realized the fashion industry was too competitive.
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Apartment complex files for bankruptcy
Part of an apartment development in Bushwick, controlled by All Year Management, has filed for bankruptcy. Evergreen Gardens Mezz LLC sought Chapter 11 protection Monday in the Southern District of New York, according to a petition, listing assets and liabilities of $50 million to $100 million. The debtor is part of the 900-unit Denizen apartment complex developed on the former site of the Rheingold Brewery. Evergreen Gardens was part of the New York City affordable housing lottery, offering 183 units, with a 1-bedroom priced at just over $1,000 per month. Amenities at the award-winning complex include a beer and wine brewery, co-working space, rock climbing and a swimming pool, according to The Real Deal.
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Brooklyn office leasing picks up
Office leasing is taking off at one property in Downtown Brooklyn. Brookfield Properties has signed three new leases and several lease renewals at MetroTech Center, the former Forest City-Ratner development. The lease transactions total 132,000 square feet, according to Globe Street.
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Youth wounded at Flatlands Popeye’s
Police are investigating the shooting of a 16-year-old teen who was found wounded at a Popeye’s restaurant at Flatlands Avenue and East 82nd Street around 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning. The victim, who was shot at the chest, collapsed at the restaurants. Responding to a 911 call, EMT crews removed him to Brookdale University Hospital, where he’s listed in stable condition, according to published reports.
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78-year-old woman discovers burglar
Police say a 78-year-old woman discovered a burglar inside her Cypress Hill Home. The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 near Grant Avenue and O’Brien Place. After the woman came home, she saw the burglar, who ordered her into the kitchen and demanded cash. She made off with $50 in cash, a Dell laptop, an e-reader and $1,000 in rings, according to CBS News.
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Thieves attack deliverymen in Brooklyn Heights
A Brooklyn Heights resident on Feb. 16 observed a group of five teenagers who ran onto Henry Street between Remsen and Joralemon streets and began assaulting a delivery biker who was traveling in the bike lane, according to the Brooklyn Heights Blog. The teens knocked him off his bike by throwing objects such as a traffic cone, a full garbage bag and a bottle of water, but he was able to get away. The bystander then saw the same teens attack another bike delivery man nearby. This time, she summoned police and two of them were arrested.
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New seniors’ vax site opens in Red Hook
A new COVID-19 vaccine site has been established in the Red Hook Neighborhood Senior Center. “This is about equity. It is about creating recovery for all of us. When I say recovery for all of us, that means we are not here to just replace the status quo that was before the pandemic. We are here to change that. And that means making sure that something as precious as the vaccine goes to the communities hardest to get, making sure they get the priority they deserve,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said, according to published reports.
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Baby death ruled a homicide
The death of a baby found inside a dumpster at NYCHA’s Coney Island Houses on Wednesday has been ruled a homicide, police said. The infant’s mother, Jahmika Small, 27, has already been charged with reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child. Small called police around 4:50 a.m. Wednesday saying she had given birth to a child but didn’t know where the infant was. The infant died of a head injury, according to the New York Post.
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Video shows subway robbery
The NYPD has released a dramatic video of a woman being thrown to the ground and dragged around a Brooklyn subway station in an attempted robbery last Sunday. Police said the attack happened around 6:30 p.m. as the 60-year-old woman used a MetroCard machine at the 86th Street subway station along the N line in the Gravesend neighborhood. She was approached from behind by an unidentified woman who grabbed her bag and threw her to the floor of the station before punching and kicking her repeatedly. Surveillance video shows the female attacker dragging the woman around the station in a struggle to take her purse, according to PIX11.
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Schumer touts subway extension
Funds from a potential $4 trillion infrastructure package in Washington could pay for a subway expansion into southeastern Brooklyn, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said recently. “There’s some talk if we get the $4 trillion that we could build a subway line to southeast Brooklyn, which is a subway desert,” Schumer said in a Zoom conference with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. For years, a Utica Avenue subway line has been proposed, but it never got off the ground.
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Library branches get solar-powered backup
The Brooklyn Public Library system is putting solar-energy backup systems on the lights of four library branches in the southern half of the borough. Local nonprofit Solar One is installing solar panels on top of the Mill Basin, Kings Highway, Coney Island and Gerritsen Beach branches. The project, which costs almost $1 million, is being funded by the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery as part of initiative to help coastal areas prepare for emergency situations. In the event of a power outage, the Brooklyn Heights’ solar panels would disconnect from the power grid and use their battery system, according to published reports.
Compiled by Raanan Geberer.
