Brooklyn Today: Heat/hot water outages plague NYCHA

August 15, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

This is the historic Reformed Church of South Bushwick. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

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THE LEDE: Good morning! More than a dozen Brooklyn NYCHA complexes experienced 10 or more unplanned heat or hot water outages during last year’s heat season, according to data obtained by the Legal Aid Society. This past heat season — lasting from Oct. 1 to May 31 — about 90 percent of NYCHA residents experienced outages.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ PROTESTS ERUPT FOLLOWING DEMOLITION PLANS FOR ABOLITIONIST HOUSE: Social justice advocates are trying to win city landmark designation for 227 Duffield St., where abolitionists Thomas and Harriet Truesdell lived.

~ AFFORDABLE-HOUSING DESIGN FOR EMPIRE STATE DAIRY SITE GETS THE GREEN LIGHT: Bushburg Properties can now move forward with an affordable-housing development that will cantilever over a historic East New York dairy.

~ 17 BROOKLYN NYCHA COMPLEXES FACED 10 OR MORE HEAT OR HOT WATER OUTAGES LAST YEAR: Issues with heat and hot water have plagued NYCHA for years, with 80 percent of residents facing heat or hot water outages during the winter of 2017-2018, according to the Daily News.

~ 55 CHILD ABUSE SUITS FILED IN BROOKLYN AS LOOKBACK WINDOW OPENS: Fifty-five survivors of childhood sexual abuse filed lawsuits in Brooklyn on Wednesday, marking the opening of a year-long window for New Yorkers of all ages to file civil lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions they say turned a blind eye.

~ NORTH BROOKLYN TENANTS LOOK FOR RELIEF FROM RATS, MOLD AND LEAD PAINT: Residents of 12 rent-stabilized northern Brooklyn buildings connected to a nonprofit run by one of the city’s worst slumlords requested in court Wednesday that an independent manager be put in charge of the properties, which they say have been neglected for decades.

~ NYPD INTELLIGENCE CHIEF PUSHES BACK ON SURVEILLANCE OVERSIGHT DURING PANEL: While the city does use license plate readers and monitors chat rooms, nobody is watched “until there’s the possibility of illegal activity,” said John Miller, deputy director of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the NYPD.

~ AFFORDABLE HOUSING LOTTERY OPENS FOR CLINTON HILL MIDDLE-INCOME RENTALS: The city’s affordable housing lottery opened on Wednesday for the 114 units of middle-income affordable housing developed in Clinton Hill as part of the deal to sell and redevelop the Brooklyn Heights Library.

~ LIKE HIS FATHER BEFORE HIM, BUSHWICK ASSEMBLYMAN TO FACE SOCIALIST CHALLENGER: Brooklyn Assemblymember Erik Martin Dilan is poised to face his first primary challenge since winning the office in 2014 in a possible rematch between the borough’s Democratic old guard and a growing Democratic Socialist base.

~ MIDWOOD CONTRACTOR CHARGED WITH COLLECTING $700K FOR WORK HE DIDN’T DO: The 55-count indictment charged Steven Crystal, the owner of House Doctor LLC, with larceny and forgery in an alleged fraud scheme that involved billing a local Brooklyn couple for work related to a series of home repairs, claiming additional costs to cut through bureaucratic red tape that didn’t exist.

~ COME SEE THE WILLIAMSBURG FERRY LANDINGS’ NEW GREEN SPACES: We recently toured the new public green space at NYC Ferry’s South Williamsburg stop. It belongs to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s company, which just constructed three gleaming glass-clad apartment buildings right beside the mini-park.

PODCAST

~ TO FIX SUNSET PARK’S THIRD AVENUE, OTHER CITIES OFFER SOLUTIONS: Could the dark, perilous and dirty underside of the Gowanus Expressway along Sunset Park’s Third Avenue be converted into a public park and urban trail? On this week’s episode, that’s what residents ask.

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ “Hundreds of NYCHA evictions raise questions about process” (City Limits)

~ Looking for something to do this weekend? How about riding horses in Bergen Beach? (NYT)

~ Coney Island wants residents to name its new rides. (am New York)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “America wasn’t a democracy, until black Americans made it one” (NYT)

~ EAT: Here are the 25 best fried chicken dishes in New York City, including six in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: Emma Lazarus’ poem on the Statue of Liberty gets revised. (The New Yorker)

~ LIVE: Not only are microplastics polluting the water, but they’re also contaminating the air, according to scientists. (The Guardian)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

6:00PM – 10:00PM — Movies With a View: “An America Trail” at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Details.

6:30PM – 8:30PM — Screening & Talkback: “Watched: Coming of Age Under Surveillance” at Brooklyn Historical Society. Details.

7:00PM – 9:00PM — Film: “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” at Brooklyn Museum. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY

In 1937, the Eagle reported, “Babe Ruth was ‘still critical’ last night. The greatest of the great baseball men fought on for his life in a bed of Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, on E. 68th St., Manhattan.”

📔 IMPRINT

Model Irina Shayk and comedian Celeste Barber appear on the latest covers of Vogue Portugal.

👑 ROYAL WATCH

“The royal family gets drawn deeper into the Brexit maelstrom”

🏀 SPORTS

Alibaba’s Joseph Tsai will buy the remaining 51 percent of the Brooklyn Nets. (New York Post)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Kathryn Whitmire, Ben Affleck, Kerri Walsh, Anthony Anderson, Debra Messing, Princess Anne of the UK, Jennifer Lawrence, Stephen Breyer, Vernon Jordan, Linda Ellerbee, Joe Jonas, Alejandro Iñárritu and Zeljko Ivanek!