Brooklyn Today April 19: Taxi Driver Holds Up Traffic to Snag Money Flying on Manhattan Bridge
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THE LEDE: Happy Thursday, Brooklyn! Protesters disrupt a Sean Penn talk inBrooklyn Heights, a Park Slope synagogue pulls its money from Chase Bank, and Tracy Morgan returns to Bushwick. Plus, gardeners are upset by a new high-rise, we tour Ditmas Park West, and Houston mourns the death ofBarbara Bush. Finally, tumbleweeds overrun a California town, an English World War II bomb is defused in Berlin, and Scotland may become the first country to give women free sanitary products.
IMPRINT: Beyonce’s sister Solange Knowles graces the spring/summercover of Dazed.
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The Rundown
~VICTIM OF EL CHAPO LEADS RALLY AGAINST SEAN PENN IN BROOKLYN HEIGHTS: Protesters disrupted an appearance by actor Sean Penn in Brooklyn Heights on Tuesday night, protesting the sometime journalist for interviewing drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for Rolling Stone in 2016 rather than helping authorities apprehend him. Many people held signs during Penn’s conversation with journalist Jon Lee Anderson at St. Ann’s Church, prompting the actor to interrupt his discussion. “Whether it’s Chapo, Hitler or Donald Trump … they are just people,” Penn said, defending his interview. “They’re not like us … we’re not mass murders,” a woman from the crowd yelled. At the time, some were impressed that Penn had landed an interview with a kingpin whose whereabouts were unknown to authorities. But others criticized the actor for giving Guzman a platform to defend himself against the charges against him — charges that will land him in a Brooklyn courtroom later this year. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
~DASH FOR CASH! TAXI DRIVER HOLDS UP TRAFFIC TO SNAG MONEY FLYING ON MANHATTAN BRIDGE: A sharp-eyed taxi driver briefly snarled midday traffic on the Manhattan Bridge on Wednesday — but for probably the only forgivable reason: He spotted cash flying around. “That looks like money!” Ahmed, the driver, told his passenger. “It looks real.” The driver jumped from the cab and ran through heavy traffic to reach the cash that was blowing around. At one point, he barely missed catching a couple of bills as they were whipped over the railing by the wind. He later got several handfuls of bills from the roadway itself. A motorcycle driver joined the action and got his payday, as well. Traffic came to a brief standstill; the chaos lasted only a minute or two. “One hundred and forty dollars!” he boasted. “I can’t believe it.” The driver claimed he would have given the money back if he had seen the vehicle from which it flew. State law requires that anyone finding $20 or more must bring it to a police station house within 10 days — or return it to the owner if he or she is known. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
~PARK SLOPE SYNAGOGUE CLEANS UP ITS PORTFOLIO BY DIVESTING FROM CHASE BANK: A Park Slope synagogue is taking scripture about God’s green earth literally. Congregation Kolot Chayeinu has pulled its money out of Chase Bank, the financial institution that helped underwrite the Dakota Access Pipeline. The divestment is part of a growing environmental movement designed to punish companies involved with the pipeline and the fossil fuel industry in general. “This is the first time our community has decided to use its financial power to make change,” said Rabbi Ellen Lippmann, founder of the Eighth Avenue congregation. “We are not a large nor a wealthy congregation, but we hope and believe this divestment will make a difference to Chase.” Kolot Chayeinu claims that it is the first Jewish congregation in the U.S. to divest from a bank over fossil fuel, which pollutes the air and contributes to global warming, according to virtually every scientist. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
~GARDENERS MIFFED AT 80 FLATBUSH DEVELOPER: Representatives of the planned 80 Flatbush high-rise development didn’t show up at a meeting with members of the Brooklyn Bears’ Rockwell Garden who are concerned about how shadows cast by the building would affect the amount of sunlightin their growing space, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The real estate project, which is being developed by Alloy Development, would include two towers of 74 and 34 stories that are planned to rise diagonally across the garden, which is bordered by Rockwell Place and Flatbush and Lafayette avenues. Some of the gardeners speculated that the builder backed out of the meeting, which took place on April 14, after the Brooklyn Bears publicized it with an announcement. Alloy spokesperson James Yolles denied that the firm backed out of the meeting, saying the get-together merely didn’t work out and that company execs are trying to set a new time and place to discuss the issue with the gardeners. (Brooklyn Paper via Brooklyn Eagle)
~SEE MARY PICKFORD’S HOUSE AND OTHER FINE SIGHTS IN LANDMARK-WORTHY DITMAS PARK WEST: A century ago, when silent films were all the rage, America’s most famous actress almost became a Brooklyn resident. Executives at a Midwood film studio called Vitagraph built a house for Mary Pickford in nearby Ditmas Park West, which was then a new neighborhood. It’s a big, glamorous modified neo-Tudor house on a corner lot at 1320 Ditmas Ave. The high-profile celebrity of yesteryear didn’t ever move into the beautiful house. But to this day, film buffs, preservationists and neighborhood residents refer to 1320 Ditmas Ave. as Mary Pickford’s house. It’s one of the jewels of this landmark-worthy Victorian Flatbush micro-neighborhood. Ditmas Park West is full of eye-catching century-old houses. Most of them are made of wood. Many have porches and picturesque turrets. We recently spent the day there taking photos of the old-fashioned architectural eye candy that can be found at every turn. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
~TRACY MORGAN BRINGS ‘THE LAST O.G.’ BACK TO HIS NATIVE BUSHWICK: It was vintage Tracy Morgan. “I love you!” the famously needy former “Saturday Night Live” star shouted to a growing crowd of his formerBushwick neighbors on Tuesday. “I love you all! And there’s not a damned thing you can do about it! Except love back!” Morgan was on hand to formally open the renovated Marcy Playground near where he grew up before going on to fame and fortune, most recently as the star of the new TBS comedy, “The Last O.G.,” which donated $215,000 for the playground restoration. The series also stars Tiffany Haddish and Cedric the Entertainer. The brightly colored playground now sports a new asphalt surface with four new basketball hoops. During brief remarks that preceded the formal ribbon-cutting, Morgan became emotional, kneeling down and kissing the freshly painted surface. “You just got to keep on,” Morgan said. “I come back here because I want to remember where I’m from.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)
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Staff Picks:
LONG READ: In light of Barbara Bush’s death on Tuesday, here’s a 1992 profile of the former First Lady. (via Vanity Fair)
ANOTHER LONG READ: An 11-year-old girl was kidnapped in New Mexico, but police officers took an abnormally long time to begin to search for her.Here’s why. (via Esquire)
EAT: Here are the 15 best places to get pancakes in New York City, including eight spots in Brooklyn. (via Eater)
CARTOON: From the gold-billed Pruitt to the orange-cornered Tweeter, here are the endangered species of the Trump administration. (via The New Yorker)
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NATIONAL BULLETIN: Tumbleweeds overrun a California town…California contains eight of the 10 most polluted American cities…And Houston mournsthe death of Barbara Bush. (via Daily Press, USA Today and NYT)
FOREIGN FLASH: Puerto Rico experiences a new island-wide blackout…Scotland may become the first country to give women free sanitary products…And an English World War II bomb is defused in Berlin.(via NYT, USA Today and Reuters)
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ROYAL WATCH: In the event of an evacuation, here’s where the Royal Family would go. (via The Sun)
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BROOKLYN TONIGHT
8:00AM – 5:00PM — Architects of Creativity at Weeksville Heritage Center.Details.
9:30AM — International Economist Dambisa Moyo at St. Francis College – Founders Hall. Details.
11:00AM – 2:00PM — Free Downtown Brooklyn Stop ‘N’ Swap at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza. Details.
3:00PM – 6:00PM — Home Front at Old Stone House. Details.
6:00PM – 8:00PM — Bed Stuy Q & A Panel at Chez Oskar. Details.
6:00PM – 11:00PM — Wilderness- A Vegan Pop Up Event at The Old Henri Bar. Details.
7:00PM — Stretch Aerobics at Greenpoint Beacon Center. Details.
7:30PM — Metalachi at Knitting Factory Brooklyn. Details.
7:30PM — The Great Experiment: Questioning Democracy at BAM Fishman Space. Details.
8:00PM — The Jazz Epistles at BAM Gilman Opera House. Details.
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EAGLE SPORTS: The New York Islanders are stuck on the couch, watching wistfully as the Stanley Cup playoffs unfold. But five of the Brooklyn-based franchise’s NHLers, including Calder Trophy front-runner Mathew Barzal, will be back on the ice next month, chasing a gold medal as members of Team Canada at the 2018 International Ice Hockey World Championships in Denmark. Barzal and fellow Killer B’s Josh Bailey and Anthony Beauvillierwill be joined by Jordan Eberle and Ryan Pulock at the prestigious tournament, which runs from May 4-20 at Copenhagen and Herning. The five Isles, still licking their wounds following a woeful finish to the regular season that saw them miss out on the playoffs for a second straight campaign, represent more than one-fourth of the initial 18-man squad selected by co-general managers Martin Brodeur and Sean Burke. (via Brooklyn Eagle)
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MILESTONES
Happy birthday to Hayden Christensen, Tim Curry, Elinor Donahue, James Franco, Joanna Gaines, Kate Hudson, Ashley Judd, Tony Plana, Alan Price, Maria Sharapova and Al Unser Jr!
Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at[email protected].
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