Brooklyn Today: Smarter traffic control could be coming to NYC streets

May 7, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

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THE LEDE: Good morning! New York City is collaborating with a “smart transportation” consortium to find ways to connect drivers, traffic signals, pedestrian walk lights and even autonomous vehicles into a safer, quicker and more responsive network. One program tracks the amount of traffic on a busy street, the number and location of pedestrians, and other data in order to adjust the timing of traffic signals to speed up flow and increase safety. Flatbush Avenue is one of the sites being used in the research.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ BROOKLYN TENANTS DEMAND CITY STRENGTHEN RIGHT TO COUNSEL LAW: Tenants rights advocates rallied Monday outside BrooklynHousing Court, calling on the city to bolster a law that guarantees low-income tenants the right to an attorney in housing court proceedings.

~ PARTY WITHOUT PRETENSE: RED HOOK’S FUNKTION HOUSE REDEFINES THE ELECTRONIC MUSIC SCENE: Fed up with the current state of nightlife, which prioritizes high heels and higher cover fees, DJs Anthony Vitale and Michael Gentile set out to create an unassuming, intimate environment where music could take front and center.

~ SMARTER TRAFFIC CONTROL COULD BE COMING TO NYC STREETS: Research underway at NYU Tandon in Downtown Brooklyn was one of the cutting-edge areas of technology on display on Friday at the 2019 Research Expo.

~ NAMIBIA TO PROSPECT HEIGHTS: BROOKLYN DESIGNERS PAY HOMAGE TO CENTURY-OLD STYLES: Professional models walked down the runway in some homemade style Friday night, turning the Brooklyn Public Library’s central branch into a fashion show for a local class of aspiring designers.

~ WEEKSVILLE HERITAGE CENTER LAUNCHES FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN TO AVOID JULY CLOSURE: The house museum, which illuminates the history of one of pre-Civil War America’s largest free black communities, is seeking to raise $200,000 by June 30.

~ LEW FIDLER REMEMBERED AS FIGHTER, FAN AND FRIEND BY FORMER STAFFERS: Lewis A. Fidler, a former City Councilmember and Democratic district leader in southern Brooklyn, died on Sunday at the age of 62. He was found unresponsive in Queens on Friday evening.

~ THE CITY’S NEW POST-RIKERS ISLAND JAILS WILL BE SMALLER: The de Blasio administration promises to further reduce the size of its four planned borough-based jails — predicting a steeper drop in the inmate population, thanks to criminal justice reforms. (THE CITY)

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ Famed BBQ restaurant Hometown is opening another location in Industry City. (Eater)

~ Magellan Health is opening an office in Downtown Brooklyn. (Commercial Observer)

~ Brooklyn is among the most bikeable cities in the country, according to a new report. (Curbed)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “Men have no friends and women bear the burden” (Harper’s Bazaar)

~ EAT: Here are the 12 best restaurants for lunch in New York City right now, including two in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ LAUGH: Climate change confuses the trees. (The New Yorker)

~ LIVE: Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to give up trying to solve it entirely. (NYT)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

9:00AM – 5:00PM — 2019 Waterfront Conference at Hudson River Park. Details.

12:00PM – 2:00PM — The Spring Lunch: Science, Society and Our Environment at American Museum of Natural History. Details.

8:00PM — Upheaval with Jared Diamond at Pioneer Works. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1915, the Eagle reported, “The Cunard liner Lusitania, sailing from New York to Liverpool with 1,300 passengers on board, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine about ten miles off the Irish coast, South of Cork, at 2:33 this afternoon.”

IMPRINT
Actress Jennifer Aniston graces the latest cover of Harper’s Bazaar.

ROYAL WATCH
“Meghan is the duchess the royal family needs” (NYT)

SPORTS
Here are three things the Islanders have to focus on this off-season. (Eyes on Isles)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to J Balvin, Peter Carey, Amy Heckerling, Gary R. Herbert, Sydney Leroux, Alexander Ludwig, Shawn Marion and Peter Reckell

Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at scott@brooklyneagle.com.