Brooklyn Today: Do you live in a flood zone?

October 31, 2019 Brooklyn Today

Red Hook. Eagle photo by Paul Frangipane

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THE LEDE: Happy Halloween! With roughly 50 percent of federal flood maps outdated and 75 percent of them older than five years, residents and potential homebuyers are increasingly being put at risk, according to flood experts.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ USE OF FORCE BY STAFF HAS TRIPLED AT BROOKLYN JAIL SINCE 2015, DESPITE REFORMS: With violent incidents on the rise throughout New York City’s jails, nowhere has the four-year spike been more pronounced than at the Brooklyn Detention Complex, according to a new report by the federal monitor of the city’s jails.

~ OUTDATED FEDERAL FLOOD MAPS LEAVE RESIDENTS AT RISK, EXPERTS SAY: Seven years after Superstorm Sandy, Brooklyn’s federal flood maps are still from 2007. Atlantic City, New Jersey, which was also heavily damaged during the storm, was last mapped in 1983.

~ CITY ADOPTS $1.7 BILLION STREET SAFETY PLAN AFTER UPTICK IN CYCLIST DEATHS: The City Council passed a $1.7 billion bike safety initiative dubbed the Streets Master Plan on Wednesday, following a deadly 10 months on the city’s streets.

~ ECO-FRIENDLY SHEEPSHEAD BAY TOWER STALLS OVER PARKING CONCERNS: A plan to bring a 14-story, carbon-dioxide-swallowing senior care facility to Sheepshead Bay is facing opposition from the neighborhood’s community board for the facility’s lack of parking.

~ HOUSING WORKS EMPLOYEES PROTEST, CLAIMING HARASSMENT AND UNION-BUSTING TACTICS: More than 100 workers from the nonprofit Housing Works walked off the job and rallied at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Tuesday to protest an adversarial workplace environment and to demand their employer “remain neutral” about their push to unionize.

~ THE TRIBORO LINE: A REAL POSSIBILITY, OR PIE-IN-THE-SKY? EXPERTS WEIGH IN.: Could a 24-mile rail line linking the Brooklyn Army Terminal to the Bronx work? That’s the question transit experts and lawmakers debated at Brooklyn Historical Society on Monday.

~ NEW YORK STATE MULLS STUDY OF SUNSET PARK AIR QUALITY: The air quality in Sunset Park and its impact on the health of residents could soon be coming under close scrutiny by New York State environmental experts.

~ STROLL DOWN BERGEN STREET FROM BOERUM HILL TO BROWNSVILLE | PART TWO: You can walk from Boerum Hill to Brownsville. What a splendid slice of Brooklyn’s built environment. If you move at a normal pace, you can complete this stroll in a single outing.

~ PHOTOS: BARNACLE PARADE 2019: It may have been cloudy and misty on Tuesday, but hundreds of people gathered at the corner of Pioneer and Van Brunt Street regardless to celebrate Red Hook’s Seventh Annual Barnacle Parade.

~ BAM TAKES IT TO THE STREET WITH NEW FILM INSTALLATION: If you’re passing by BAM’s Peter Jay Sharp Building some evening this week, you might notice a colorful display projected onto the building’s side. That’s not a rezoning protest, that’s an art installation — a comedic mini-opera by Irish filmmakers Brian Irvine and John McIlduff.

~ NYC MARATHON WILL CLOSE THESE BROOKLYN STREETS ON SUNDAY: The New York City Marathon is so big that it will close dozens of streets across the city this year, including in Brooklyn, where runners will complete miles three through 12. Here’s where you won’t be able to travel on Sunday.

PODCAST

~ SPOOKY STORIES FROM BROOKLYN’S PAST: Because this episode comes out on Halloween, we thought it would be fun to delve into our archives to see how Brooklynites historically celebrated the holiday, and what superstitions we may have forgotten.

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ Foie gras was banned in New York City on Wednesday. (NYT)

~ “Concerns raised over developer’s involvement in public projects” (am New York)

~ At Leo in Williamsburg, the kale lasagna and meatball pizza are all the rage. (Grub Street)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: Just in time for Halloween, here’s a true story about the time demons destroyed a Florida high school. (Medium)

~ DRINK: Here are the 35 best happy hour specials in New York City, including eight deals in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: Trick-or-treating for 2020. (The Week)

~ LIVE: “Why do people hate vegans?” (The Guardian)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

12:00PM – 8:00PM — Treasure Truck Pup Fest at Domino Park Dog Run. Details.

8:00PM — “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” Halloween Live Score and Party at National Sawdust. Details.

8:00PM – 10:00PM — Tarot Diary at The Poetry Project. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1870, the Brooklyn Eagle reported, “The [New York] Star industriously and successfully provides its increasing constituency with fresh and timely topics vigorously treated. In its illustrated edition yesterday it tells with thrilling effect the story of a human vampire who sumptuously feasted on the blood of his fellow boarders in a house on Twenty-fourth street.”

📔 IMPRINT
Robert De Niro graces the December cover of GQ U.K.

👑 ROYAL WATCH
“Prince Harry and Meghan are considering a very long trip to the United States” (Observer)

🏀 SPORTS
ESPN reporter Jackie MacMullan says Kyrie Irving is the happiest she has ever seen him. (NetsDaily)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Michael Collins, Jane Pauley, Joe West, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Peter Jackson, Rob Schneider, Piper Perabo, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Holly Taylor and Willow Smith!