Brooklyn Today: February 1, 2012

February 1, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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Good morning. Today is the 32nd day of the year. On this day in 1960, four students from a black college in Greensboro, N.C., sat down at a lunch counter and ordered coffee. When they were refused service due to their skin color, they remained all day. In the following days, similar sit-ins took place at other lunch counters throughout the South. By the end of the week, the protestors were joined by white students. Eventually, more than 1,600 people were arrested for participating in sit-ins.

Well-known people who were born today include singer-musician Don Everly of the Everly Brothers, actor Sherman Hemlsey (“The Jeffersons”), singer Lisa Marie Presley and TV personality Lauren Conrad.

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Today at 7 p.m., Borough President Marty Markowitz will give his State of the Borough address at Brooklyn College. The speech will be broadcast on Brooklyn Cable Access Network, or BCAT, and re-broadcast on Feb. 3 and Feb. 6. Afterward, it will be available for viewing online at www.bricarts.media.org/bitspecials. ¼ Today at 6 p.m., Community Board 2 will hold its monthly Health Committee meeting at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, 121 DeKalb Ave. The committee will review several liquor license applications and renewals for recommendation to the New York State Liquor Authority. ¼ Today at 10:30 a.m. at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen St., a public hearing will be held on the new state redistricting plan.

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Today’s News

Fox News has profiled Cassy Rivera, a woman who lives in a housing project in Brooklyn who donates 50 percent of her disability check — her main source of income — to the needy. She has been doing so since 2009, when her sight was restored after she struggled with uveitis, a rare disease that blurs one’s vision. On Monday, she and her daughters packed boxes of stuffed animals for kids at a children’s hospital. She also receives private donations from New Yorkers who know her story.

According to the blog Brooklyn Speaks, Forest City Ratner’s transportation demand management plan, meant to reduce the number of cars traveling to planned events at the Barclays Center, has been delayed again. This was announced at a presentation at Borough hall by representatives of Sam Schwartz Engineering, traffic consultant for the Atlantic Yards project. The idea of such a plan dates to 2006. Now, after several delays, Forest City Ratner expects to release a draft plan in May, Brooklyn Speaks reports.

Sheepshead Bites reveals that former Missouri State Senator Jeff Smith, who was once incarcerated, appeared on the “Brooklyn Politics” cable TV show and gave some advice to disgraced former Brooklyn State Senator Carl Kruger, who will soon be sentenced for receiving bribes. “My main piece of advice for him would be to just go there and be positive and finds way he can help other inmates,” said Smith, who is now a professor at the New School. Smith also said Kruger should hope for a sentence of less than 10 years so he can go to a minimum-security prison.

Gothamist said that a “for sale” post on Craigslist offers more than two dozen white “ghost” bikes for sale. The poster, who is selling 30 of the bikes for $3,200, does not explicitly acknowledge that these bikes are memorials to cyclists who were killed in accident. Each such bike that is set up within the city, however, has a small plaque with the name of the biker who was killed. Multiple emails that Gothamist sent to the email given in the Craigslist post were not returned, suggesting that this might be a prank.