What’s News, Breaking: Friday, May 10, 2024

DOT TELLS RESTLER: NO MAJOR BQE CANTILEVER WORK UNTIL 2028

MAJOR RECONSTRUCTION of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway’s deteriorated Triple Cantilever is not expected to commence until 2028 at the earliest, Department of Transportation officials confirmed on Wednesday. DOT executive deputy commissioner Paul Ochoa told Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint) that reconstruction work will likely not commence for another five years, following the federal government’s rejection of city grant applications to redesign the highway.

Without the federal funds, DOT has $174 million in its five-year capital plan for the BQE, not enough for full or partial reconstruction. That money is going towards interim repairs and environmental reviews.

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SAIL-FREIGHT SCHOONER APOLLONIA ARRIVES IN BROOKLYN THIS WEEK

BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK/RED HOOK — THE SCHOONER APOLLONIA, America’s only active sail freight ship, will make port calls open to the public in Brooklyn Bridge Park on Friday, May 10, and in Red Hook on Saturday, May 11. Apollonia will be unloading cargoes of malted barley (for beer makers), wholesale cargoes and individual cargoes of cider, subscription Boat Boxes of Hudson Valley goods and bottles of rye whiskey. The Apollonia crew works with local port partners to make sustainable first- and last-mile deliveries using a human-powered cargo bike with solar-powered e-assist (and the occasional horse-drawn wagon).

May 10: Brooklyn Bridge Park — meet at Estuary Brasserie at 6, 6:30, or 7 p.m. to board the vessel in Brooklyn One15 Marina. May 11: Red Hook – fun at Sail Freight Saturday, 6-7:30 p.m. Join the crew at the RETI Center Barge (courtesy of ~GBX Gowanus Bay Terminal) at 701 Columbia Street for music by the Barge Rat Band, beverages, cargo delivery and an informal visit aboard the schooner.

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NOAA INVESTIGATING DEATH OF ENDANGERED SEI WHALE FOUND ON BOW OF CRUISE SHIP

RED HOOK — AN ENDANGERED-SPECIES SEI WHALE was found dead last Saturday on the bow of a cruise ship at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook, with investigators now working to determine whether it was hit or had already died before making contact with the vessel, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the 44-foot whale was discovered dead on the front of the cruise ship MSC Meraviglia on May 4. A spokesperson for the cruise company explained the policies and training that officers and crew complete to protect marine life. Scientists are examining the evidence from a May 7 necropsy of the whale to determine its exact cause and moment of death.

Although sei whales are covered under the Endangered Species Act, and whaling is prohibited, these mammals still face other dangers including ship strikes and fishing nets. NOAA estimates the natural life of a sei whale to be about 50 to 70 years.

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BROOKLYN COLLEGE CELEBRATES EXPANDED SERVICES FOR ASIANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS

FLATBUSH — A CHINESE LION DANCE, MONGOL FOLK MUSIC and other performances were part of Brooklyn College’s May 7 celebration of pan-Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Associate Prof. Yung-Yi Diana Pan and the director of the Women’s Center Sau-fong Au are principals for a $1.97 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, allowing Brooklyn College to invest in mentoring, mental health and curriculum development to support students of Asian American, Native American and Pacific Islander ancestry. The grant is a “huge win” for AAPI students, Pan and Au said in a release.

The grant also led to the launching of the Brooklyn College AANAPISI Project, led by director Christopher Y. Won.

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NYC TO INSTALL 500 SECURE BIKE PARKING UNITS

CITYWIDE — THE ADAMS ADMINISTRATION is looking for a company to install a network of 500 secure bike parking locations across the city over the next five years, NYC DOT announced Thursday. NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement that the agency has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to “support continued growth in cycling by addressing a key barrier to bike ownership: the lack of access to secure bike storage.” DOT will prioritize locations near major transit hubs, with the ability to accommodate e-bikes and cargo bikes, and potentially incorporate e-bike charging. DOT envisions a variety of small and high-capacity designs, including enclosed and open-air units both at the curbside and off-street.

“It’s infrastructure like bike storage and protected bike lanes that are necessary to get more New Yorkers onto bikes,” Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso said.

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SAMMY’S LAW, NOW PASSED, WILL LET CITY REDUCE SPEED LIMITS, BUT SOME ROADS ARE EXEMPT

CITYWIDE — THE GOVERNOR AND CITY OFFICIALS CELEBRATED the passage of Sammy’s Law, and its inclusion in the Fiscal 2025 Budget Agreement on Thursday, May 9. Named for 12-year-old Sammy Cohen Eckstein, who in 2013 died after being hit by a driver in Park Slope, the law will allow New York City to lower its speed limit to 20 miles per hour on nearly every road, which will reduce the risk of death or life-threatening injury in a crash. The passage of Sammy’s Law authorizes the city to lower its speed limits via local law, with exception of major thoroughfares in the outer boroughs. Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams, New York City officials, and activists celebrated a decade of advocacy on passing this bill.

However, some of those major roads in the other four boroughs, including the Park Slope street where Sammy was hit and Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue, could be made safer with speed limit reductions. Just last year, 31-year-old pedestrian Katherine Harris lost her life to a speeding driver who ran a red light at Atlantic Ave. and Clinton St.

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FREE SUMMER YOUTH ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS IN NYC PARKS AND WATERWAYS

CITYWIDE — REGISTRATION FOR FREE AND LOW-COST ENVIRONMENTAL summer programs in NYC’s parks and coastlines has opened for students in 4th – 9th grade. Offered by the City Parks Foundation, the Coastal Classrooms and Learning Gardens programs focus on coastal waterways, food systems and the local urban environment. Coastal Classroom helps foster STEM learning through immersive lessons in NYC’s marine ecosystems. Learning Gardens, for students living in densely populated neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, offers hands-on lessons on growing food, identifying biodiversity in the urban environment and more. In Brooklyn, programs take place in Kaiser Park in Coney Island, Abib Newborn Learning Garden in Brownsville, and ENY Success Gardens in East New York.

“We look forward to students getting outside and having positive experiences that will shape their relationship to NYC Parks for the rest of their lives,” Chrissy Word, Director of Education at City Parks Foundation, said in a statement.

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CITY SUED FOR DENYING IVF COVERAGE TO GAY MEN

CITYWIDE — FORMER MANHATTAN ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY Corey Briskin and his partner Nicholas Maggipinto on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit against the city over alleged medical discrimination against gay men, reports Gothamist. The suit claims that the city’s public employee health plan’s definition of infertility, which requires couples seeking IVF to first attempt to conceive through either intercourse or artificial insemination, leaves gay men without the option of coverage. The couple in an interview said that they have spent $80,000 so far on IVF and are seeking the same benefits that other couples would receive, coverage for up to three rounds of treatment; while a spokesperson for City Hall claimed in a response that the city’s health plan offers equal benefits for all but does not cover surrogacy, Briskin and Maggipinto are not seeking surrogate coverage.

Briskin and Maggipinto also filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint in 2022, but say they have not been satisfied with the investigation’s progress so far.

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DINAPOLI: NYC’S GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE WILL INCREASE

CITYWIDE — THE CITY’S FULL-TIME GOVERNMENT WORKFORCE is expected to increase for the first time year-over-year since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. New York City is projected to end the 2024 Fiscal Year in June with at least 283,000 full-time employees, up from 281,917 workers in June 2023. While a general hiring freeze was in effect from October 2023 through February 2024 as part of the city’s Program to Eliminate the Gap, and the city’s vacancy rates were cut almost in half to reduce costs, some agencies, including the Department of Education, with 7,745 vacancies in 2023, now have insufficient staff to meet the state’s class size mandates. Other agencies that didn’t cut costs are still experiencing elevated vacancy rates when compared to pre-pandemic; for example, Environmental Protection has the highest vacancy rate by program area at 11.5% followed by the Department of Transportation (10%) and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (9.3%).

The city has been accelerating hiring since the pandemic to reduce vacancies and has increased civil service exams and outreach to potential applicants through the city’s online job hub.

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ASSEMBLYMEMBER COLTON HONORED FOR WORK ON ESTABLISHING LUNAR NEW YEAR HOLIDAY

ALBANY AND SOUTH BROOKLYN — BROOKLYN ASSEMBLYMEMBER WILLIAM COLTON was presented with a legislative achievement award from the Albany chapter of the Asian Pacific Islanders Public Affairs Association (APAPA), for championing the recognition of Lunar New Year as a school holiday across New York State. The ceremony, held last Sunday, May 5, at Albany’s Empire State Plaza to mark Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month during May, saluted Colton as the prime sponsor of the Lunar New Year legislation, signed into law in 2023. The law adds the first day of the Asian Lunar New Year to the state’s calendar of public school holidays for the state’s two million people of Asian heritage. “This is a very significant occasion for many of the state’s residents and now, across the state, those who celebrate will no longer have to choose between marking the holiday as a family and sending their children to school,” said Colton.

APAPA also honored other state lawmakers on Sunday, including Senator Brian Kavanaugh who represented Senate District 26 covering Brooklyn Heights and several of the Downtown-area neighborhoods until redistricting changed his geographic scope.

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APPELLATE COURT UPHOLDS CUOMO ETHICS COMMISSION WIN

STATEWIDE — FORMER GOV. ANDREW CUOMO may be able to hold on to the $5 million he made from a book deal after a five-member appellate court on Thursday upheld a 2023 court decision that the state’s relatively new Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government (COELIG) is unconstitutional. According to court paperwork, Cuomo in 2020 received permission from the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics to publish a book on his handling of the COVID-19 epidemic. Despite this approval, Cuomo was later charged with an ethics violation. In 2022, the state legislature replaced the Joint Commission with COELIG and proceeded with the charges against Cuomo. But the legislature, even if well-intentioned, “violated the dictates of separation of powers” in creating the new commission, by revoking the governor’s enforcement powers with regards to ethics laws, the Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, ruled.

“This has been a three-year exercise to bend the law to fit the political will of those in charge and hopefully after this second — and unanimous — court decision, this partisan and baseless prosecution will finally end,” Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in a statement Thursday.

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SCHOOLS CHANCELLOR BANKS DEFENDS HIS RESPONSE TO ANTISEMITIC HATE INCIDENTS

CAPITOL HILL — SPEAKING AT A CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON Wednesday, May 8, NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks vigorously defended New York City’s response to antisemitic incidents in public schools and resisted efforts from Republicans to brand him as ignoring hate speech, according to Gothamist and the Daily News. Banks had to address both antisemitic speech and actions as well as another surge in Islamophobia and hate speech directed at Palestinian students and their allies. Banks also dismissed allegations from an organization called NYC Educators for Palestine, which plans to condemn Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as Banks’ failure to protect Pro-Palestinian teachers, students and parents. Banks said the city is designing new curricula to educate students on Jewish history and culture, and as part of a new partnership with the Museum of Jewish Heritage to create a new Holocaust education guide.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat representing New York (D-New York) emphasized that schools must combat Islamophobia just as strenuously as they battle antisemitism.

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AT&T, T-MOBILE & VERIZON FINED $10.2M FOR DECEPTIVE WIRELESS ADVERTISING

NATIONWIDE — AT&T, T-MOBILE & VERIZON HAVE BEEN PENALIZED $10.22M for deceptively marketing wireless service plans for years, NYS Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday. A multi-state investigation joined by multiple A.G.s found that the companies made false claims in advertisements in New York and across the nation, including misrepresentations about “unlimited” data plans that were in fact limited and had reduced quality and speed after a certain limit was reached by the user. The companies will pay $520,000 to New York and are required to change their advertising to ensure that wireless service plans are accurately and fairly explained.

“AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile lied to millions of consumers, making false promises of free phones and ‘unlimited’ data plans that were simply untrue,” James said in a statement. The penalized cell services also operate under the name Cricket Wireless, Cellco Partnership and TracFone.

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WHISTLEBLOWER AT BOEING’S SUPPLIER TELLS BBC, CBS OF EMPLOYEES’ ‘FEAR OF FLYING’

KANSAS AND NATIONWIDE — PLANE BODIES FROM BOEING’S LARGEST SUPPLIER regularly left the factory with serious defects, a former quality inspector at the manufacturing supplier Spirit AeroSystems told the BBC and the CBS news network in an exclusive interview (reported on both networks’ websites this week). The quality inspector, Santiago Paredes, said he often found up to 200 defects on parts being prepared for shipping to Boeing, during the time he worked at Spirit, from 2010-2022. Spirit Aerosystems, (unrelated to Spirit Airlines) was a subsidiary of Boeing and founded as its own company in 2005. Parades found “a lot of missing fasteners, a lot of bent parts, sometimes even missing parts,” and that while working at Spirit, “..met a lot of people who were afraid of flying — because they saw how they were building the fuselages.” He said, “They just wanted the product shipped out. They weren’t focused on the consequences of shipping bad fuselages.”

Boeing chose not to comment on Parades’ report, while Spirit stated they “strongly disagreed” with the allegations. Both companies are at the center of inquiries involving safety, and Spirit has seen its revenue plummet since January.