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Brooklyn Today March 9: Brooklyn Citizen Lobbyists Trek to Albany to Push for Faster, Cheaper BQE Fix

March 9, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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THE LEDE: Happy Friday, Brooklyn! We travel to Albany with the Brooklyn Heights Association, residents have new concerns about a project near the BQE, and Zagat’s top-rated burger comes to Park Slope. Plus, Florida wants to stay in daylight saving time forever, the Kansas City Royals attend an anti-pornography seminar, and we have news about the iconic Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh building. Finally, Jared Kushner meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Syria is named the worst country for women, and a 14-year-old in California poses as a police officer and pulls people over. Have a great weekend.          
 
IMPRINT: Keira Knightley poses in white on the March cover of Elle France.

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The Rundown
 

~BROOKLYN CITIZEN LOBBYISTS TREK TO ALBANY TO PUSH FOR FASTER, CHEAPER BQE FIX: Volunteers from Brooklyn communities attempting to avert years of unnecessary traffic chaos piled onto a bus chartered by the Brooklyn Heights Association early Tuesday morning, headed for the state capitol in Albany. Stakeholders were making the trip to lobby for a quicker, cheaper method to carry out the upcoming $1.8 billion rehabilitation of a rapidly deteriorating length of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The stretch from Sand Street to Atlantic Avenue will no longer be able to bear the weight of trucks by 2026. To get the job done before traffic chaos erupts, Albany must authorize a fast-track contracting process, calleddesign-build, by the end of this month. But the city needs state approval to use design-build. Though the Assembly approved its use for the BQE last year, the Senate did not. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo has dragged his feet on backing authorization. In a whirlwind day of lobbying, the citizen lobbyists spoke to roughly 16 elected officials and received some good news — the governor has changed his mind and now backs the legislation. But they also learned that state Sen. Marty Golden has revised the bill with “add-ons,” adding uncertainty to its final outcome. BHA Executive Director Peter Bray said after the long day of lobbying, “We hope that reasonable minds prevail … and at the end of the day this legislation is enacted and the governor signs it.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~RESIDENTS PUSH BACK PLAN FOR HEIGHTS PARKING GARAGE: City officials gave the green light to a project that would tear up a courtyard behind a Brooklyn Heights building for a parking garage. The controversy comes, however, because the project would be leaning against the ailing Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Tenants of the nearby Riverside Apartments are demanding developer Joel Weiner halt construction until an environment study proves the project won’t impede repairs to the highway. “Of the utmost concern is the fact that the outer wall of our courtyard is the actual BQE triple cantilever bridge wall,” said Lenore Mitchell, head of the Riverside Tenants Association. “We are at a loss as to why [the Department of Transportation] has not acknowledged the risks posed by such a project.” A DOT spokesperson said the project should not impact the BQE rehabilitation. (via Brooklyn Paper)
 
~BLACK IRON BURGER IN PARK SLOPE: Voted the best burger in the city by Zagat, Black Iron Burger is opening a location in Park Slope this April. The spot at 234 Flatbush Ave. by Barclays Center will be the chain’s fourth location in the city, but the first in Brooklyn. “The sun, the stars, and the moon aligned for this deal,” said Joe Robinson, who arranged the deal. The Mediterranean-inspired burger joint will fill a 1,250-square-foot space with 65 seats. (via Patch)
 
~DIME SAVINGS BANK OF WILLIAMSBURGH BUILDING’S NEW OWNER CAN’T RENT OR SELL IT TO ANOTHER BANK: One thing’s for sure. The next occupant of the iconic Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh building will not be a bank. The new owner of 209 Havemeyer St. agreed to this stipulation when it purchased the historic building last year. The 110-year-old neo-Classical bank building in South Williamsburg is in the spotlight because there was a public hearing this week about designating it as a city landmark. Dime Community Bank, the building’s previous owner and occupant, sold 209 Havemeyer St. for $12.3 million to Havemeyer Owner LLC with Nicholas Silvers as authorized signatory. He’s a founder of Tavros Development Partners — which in tandem with Charney Construction & Development is incorporating the Dime building into a new 23-story tower that’s being constructed on adjacent land. According to an agreement Silvers signed in November 2017, the new owner of 209 Havemeyer St. will not sell or lease any portion of it to any U.S. or foreign bank or savings and loan. The property will not be used for a bank branch, banking offices “or otherwise for banking purposes,” the agreement says. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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Staff Picks:   
 

LONG READ: “For Two Months, I Got My News From Print Newspapers. Here’sWhat I Learned.” (via NYT)
 
ANOTHER LONG READ: Still in need of your Oscars fix? Here’s what “Oscar Night in Hollywood” was like in 1948. (via The Atlantic)
 
WATCH: In honor of Women’s History Month, here are eight documentariesabout inspirational females across the world. (via Al Jazeera)
 
EAT: Here are the 14 best Jewish bakeries in New York City, including five in Brooklyn. (via Eater)  

 
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NATIONAL BULLETIN: The Kansas City Royals attend an anti-pornography seminar…Florida wants to stay in daylight saving time forever…And a 14-year-old in California poses as a police officer and pulls people over. (via USA Today, NYT and Time)         
 
FOREIGN FLASH: Jared Kushner meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto…Russian police officers hand out flowers to female drivers on International Women’s Day…And  Syria is named the worst country for women. (via NYT, Miami Herald and INSIDER)            
 
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 ROYAL WATCH: 
“Weird royal birthing rules Kate Middleton MUST follow when she has her third child” (via The Sun)
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BROOKLYN TONIGHT   
 

10:00AM – 12:30PM — Our Greatest President: FDR and the Creation of Modern America at SUNY Global Center – Tiered Classroom. Details.
 
11:00AM – 6:00PM — (un)obscured echoes at FiveMyles. Details.  
 
1:00PM – 6:00PM — “David Bowie Is” at Brooklyn Museum. Details.
 
5:00PM – 9:00PM — Free Friday at Brooklyn Historical Society. Details.   
 
7:00PM — Ebb, Flow, Muck & Mire: A Sea Change in 3-D at Wild Embeddings.Details.
 
7:00PM — Madame Morbid’s Trolley Tour at North Ninth Street & Driggs Ave.Details.
 
7:30PM — Liaisons III: Britten & Shostakovich at The Old Stone House.Details.
 
7:30PM — StarTalk: Science Is Everywhere at Brooklyn Academy of Music.Details.
 
8:00PM — Elton John at Barclays Center. Details.
 
9:00PM – 11:00PM — Comedy at The Gallery at Richard Beavers Gallery.Details.
 
 
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 EAGLE SPORTS: After watching their male counterparts complete a storied run to the NCAA Tournament on Tuesday, the Long Island University Brooklyn women’s hoops squad began blazing its own path toward March Madness Wednesday night. Senior forward DeAngelique Waithe amassed game highs of 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Blackbirds edged neighborhood rival St. Francis College Brooklyn, 59-56, in the quarterfinal round of the Northeast Conference Tournament. The ladies still have two more hills to climb before they can get in on the Big Dance, beginning with Thursdaynight’s showdown with host and No. 2 seed Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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MILESTONES
 
Happy birthday to Juliette Binoche, Linda Fiorentino, Mickey Gilley, Oscar Isaac, David Hume Kennerly, Emmanuel LewisTerry Mulholland, Jeffrey Osborne, Benito Santiago, Trish Van Devere and Joyce Van Patten!
 
Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at[email protected].

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