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Brooklyn Today April 3: Crisis Averted! NYS Senate Authorizes Faster, Cheaper BQE Fix

April 3, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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THE LEDE: Happy Tuesday, Brooklyn! The BQE receives some good news, magnolia trees are the talk of the town at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and cyclists get a head start on cars. Plus, a Williamsburg butcher has a new project, Donald Trump is rigging the census, and an 11-foot alligator is removed from a Florida pool. Finally, New York City’s proposed congestion pricing stalls again, a 27-year-old American becomes the fastest person to visit every country in the world, and North Korea issues a rare apology to the press.          
 
IMPRINT: Mindy Kaling, Oprah and Reese Witherspoon hold hands on the latest cover of Sunday Life.

 
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The Rundown
 

~CHAOS AVERTED! NYS SENATE AUTHORIZES FASTER, CHEAPER BQE FIX: After more than a year of intense advocacy by elected officials and organizations — notably the Brooklyn Heights Association — the NYS Senate passed a bill early Saturday authorizing a bidding method that will shave two years off the upcoming $1.9 billion Brooklyn-Queens Expressway rehabilitation. Officials said using the quicker, cheaper “design-build” bidding method will save the city roughly $113 million and keep hundreds of thousands of trucks from flooding local Brooklyn streets in 2026. The stretch of crumbling BQE includes the triple-cantilever roadway under the famed Brooklyn HeightsPromenade. The authorization is “a major victory,” state Sen. Brian Kavanagh said. Kavanagh and state Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon led design-build legislative efforts. BHA was praised for organizing a comprehensive advocacy campaign. “BHA’s role was to try to inform people of the importance of something apparently far off in the future, and make people understand it was an urgent matter that had to be dealt with right away. The community responded in an amazing way,” BHA Executive Director Peter Braysaid. BQE community workshops are coming up. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~MAGNOLIAS ARE THE EARLY SPRING STARS AT BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN: Oy vey. It was snowing yesterday. In April. Brooklynites are hungry for spring. Sorry about this temporary setback. To cheer you up, here are photos from this past Saturday, when the sun actually came out and the weather was warm-ish. Lots of people headed to Brooklyn Botanic Garden to feast their eyes on the flowers. The magnolia trees were the stars of the show. They were covered with long-petaled white flowers that drew photographers young and old. Some of the garden’s visitors posed for pix on the stairs of the century-old Tuscan Revival-style administration building. Did you know this building is a city-designated landmark? Other visitors snapped shots of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s stunning greenhouses, whose reflections were visible in the lily pools alongside them. People strolled all over the grounds of the 52-acre horticultural haven at the edge of Prospect Heights. Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s famed Sakura Matsuri cherry blossom festival doesn’t take place until the end of April. So just a few cherry trees had flowers on them.(via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~CYCLISTS GET HEAD START AT GREEN LIGHTS: Before horns start blowing at green lights, cyclists can now get a 10-second head start before cars at 19 Brooklyn intersections as part of a seven-month citywide pilot program to boost street safety. The extra time gives motorists an opportunity to see cyclists before they come buzzing by. “It allows someone on a bike to get into a driver’s field of vision,” said Eric McClure, head of Community Board 6’s Transportation Committee. “Just a significant improvement – gives pedestrians and bikers time before drivers head out.” At the intersections, the pedestrian walk signal appears shortly before the light turns green. The Department of Transportation is now installing “cyclists use pedestrian signal” signs at the junctions. (via Brooklyn Paper)
 
~WILLIAMSBURG BUTCHER HOPES TO OPEN TRANSPARENT MEAT COMPANY: Williamsburg’s The Meat Hook is raising funds through aKickstarter campaign to open what it calls the “first fully transparent meat company in the United States.” The line of sausages hoped to be distributed nationwide would be made with meat from humanely-raised animals on local sustainable farms. “Our dream is to create a nation-wide supply chain that treats farmers right, treats the land right, treats animals right and gives the consumer the best dang sausages they’ve ever tasted,” wrote Meat Hook owners Ben Turley and Brent Young on the campaign page. Young and Turley hope to collect $50,000 in a month with more than $8,400 donated so far. The money will go towards infrastructure, paying the company’s processor and helping farmers raise more animals. (via amNewYork)

 
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Staff Picks:   
 

LONG READ: “Hidden Figures: How Donald Trump Is Rigging the Census”(via Mother Jones)
 
ANOTHER LONG READ: In 2016, a Long Island teenager opened up to police about his MS-13 gang. His candid words, however, led to his deportation and put his life at risk. (via ProPublica)
 
HEALTH: Here are 20 unhealthy habits that you should kick before you turn 40. (via Time)
 
EAT: Pastrami sandwich, anyone? Here are the 19 best Jewish delis in the New York City area, including seven in Brooklyn. (via Eater)

 
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NATIONAL BULLETIN: An 11-foot alligator is removed from a Florida pool…New York City’s proposed congestion pricing stalls again…And the California SUV cliff crash may have been deliberate, police say. (via WFLA, NYT and USA Today)              
 
FOREIGN FLASH: President Trump invited Vladimir Putin to the White House…A 27-year-old American becomes the fastest person to visit every country in the world…And North Korea issues a rare apology to the press.(via WaPo, Travel + Leisure and NK News)                             
 
 
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 ROYAL WATCH: Here are some photos from the Royal Family’s Easter celebration. (via Elite Daily)

 
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BROOKLYN TONIGHT   
 

12:00PM – 6:00PM — And So Now: Speech Act Scores at BAM Fisher.Details.
 
12:00PM – 6:00PM — Deth P. Sun and Jen Tong Art Show at Grumpy Bert.Details.
 
1:00PM — Sea Shore Exploration at Salt Marsh Nature Center. Details.
 
6:00PM – 8:00PM — Women Changing Transportation: Overcoming Gender Bias in the Workplace at TransitCenter. Details.
 
6:30PM —”When Wall Street Was Unoccupied:” How Downtown Changed in the Decade Before and After 9/11 at The Skyscraper Museum. Details.
 
6:30PM — North Korea in the Age of Trump at New-York Historical Society.Details.
 
7:00PM — MVR 3.3 at Pioneer Books. Details.
 
7:00PM – 9:00PM — An Introduction to Sichuan Cuisine at Prospect Heights Brainery. Details.
 
7:30PM — Cecile Richards Presents Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out and Finding the Courage to Lead at Brooklyn Public Library. Details.
 
7:30PM — Unbound: Leslie Jamison at BAM Fisher. Details.  
 
 
 
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 EAGLE SPORTS: “Nets’ Joe Harris is no average Joe, nearing a hefty free-agent pay raise after his career was once ‘on the ropes'” (via The Athletic)

 
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MILESTONES
 
Happy birthday to Alec Baldwin, Jamie Bamber, Amanda Bynes, Doris Day, Max Frankel, Jennie Garth, Jane Goodall, Leona Lewis, Jonathan Lynn,Marsha Mason, Eddie Murphy, Wayne Newton, Tony Orlando, Bernie Parent, David Hyde Pierce, Adam Scott, Cobie Smulders and Picabo Street!
 
Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at[email protected]. 


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