Brooklyn Today: “It’s targeting black and brown neighborhoods.”

July 15, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

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THE LEDE: Good morning! Yudy Ventura had owned her Bushwick apartment for more than 30 years when she learned her building was going to be seized by the city. The program through which her property was foreclosed upon is now the target of a City Council investigation, criticized by some for veering off course by seizing private residences for minor infractions.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ ”MUSICIAN TURNED PREDATOR” R. KELLY WILL BE TRIED IN BROOKLYN FEDERAL COURT: Now infamous R&B singer R. Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was arrested and charged in Chicago early Friday morning on five counts, including sexual exploitation of children and his trial will take place right here in Brooklyn.

~ HOW CHANGES TO A CITY HOUSING PROGRAM COULD SAVE VULNERABLE HOMEOWNERS: Local officials are calling for reform of Third Party Transfer, a program that allows the city to repossess and transfer ownership of homes away from longtime property owners.

~NATHAN’S FAMOUS BUYER SOLD PROPERTY TO CITY FOR TWICE THE PRICE: The buyer-turned-seller of a storied Nathan’s Famous made a pretty penny in the trade-off to the city’s School Construction Authority. The agency paid $25 million for the site.

~ BODY CAM BACKLOG: NYPD LAGS ON MAKING FOOTAGE PUBLIC, REPORT FINDS: A report by the Citizens Complaint Review Board found that around 40 percent of its requests to the NYPD for body camera footage were not fulfilled in 2019.

~ TEENAGER ACCUSED OF 2018 MURDER PLEADS NOT GUILTY: A Brooklyn teenager accused of murdering a man in the victim’s Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment in 2018 pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges.

~ GOWANUS NYCHA COMMUNITY CENTER WINS LONG-AWAITED FUNDS TO REOPEN: After 14 years of organizing, NYCHA tenants at the Gowanus Houses have secured the funds to reopen their community center – but their fight isn’t over yet.

~ 10-YEAR FIGHT CONTINUES: TREES VS. GARAGE AT HISTORIC RIVERSIDE HOUSES: Residents of the historic brick Riverside Houses at 24 Joralemon St. in Brooklyn Heights have started an online fundraising effort to fight their landlord’s plan to build a roughly 90-car underground commercial parking garage in their courtyard.

~ IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES IN BROOKLYN PREPARED FOR ICE RAIDS: Support networks for Brooklyn’s immigrant communities braced for raids on undocumented city residents set for the past weekend.

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ “Health Dept. Shuts Down 14 Restaurants in Brooklyn Food Hall” (Patch)

~ A new and expanded speed camera law goes into effect. (Bklyner)

~ The anticipated fall reopening of Greenpoint Library is on track. (Greenpointers)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “How Argentina is saving one of Earth’s most remote places“(National Geographic)

~ EAT: Here are the hottest restaurants in Brooklyn right now. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: Climate science deniers get flooded out. (The Week)

~ HEALTH: Dogs are playing a big role in the mission to end cancer. (Wired)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

5:00PM – 6:00PM — LogicLounge with Eva Galperin: Spouseware and Stalkerwar at The New School. Details.

6:30PM – 7:30PM — Salsa with Dodge YMCA at Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park.Details.

8:00PM – 10:00PM — Drunken Jenga at The Charleston. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1952, the Eagle reported, “The United States today curtly
ordered Russia to stop publication of all propaganda in this country in a major new blow in the cold war.”

IMPRINT
Camila Cabello poses on the cover of Clash.

ROYAL WATCH
“Meghan Markel effect helps Royal Family rake in record-breaking figure in just 12 months” (Express)

SPORTS
For a program that had won back-to-back Northeast Conference championships and four titles over the previous five years, the 2018 campaign was a sobering experience for the St. Francis Brooklyn men’s soccer team. (Brooklyn Eagle)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Willie Aames, Jesse Ventura, Clive Cussler, Forest Whitaker, Arianna Huffington, Adam Savage, Richard Russo, Angela Merkel, Lana Parrilla, Gabriel Iglesias, Terry O’Quinn, Damian Lillard andLinda Ronstadt!

Brooklyn Today’s editor is Scott Enman. Contact him at [email protected].