Brooklyn Today: What’s ahead for 2020?

January 2, 2020 Brooklyn Today

Gates Avenue starts here at this Clinton Hill intersection. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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THE LEDE: Happy New Year! We asked Brooklyn’s most prescient movers and shakers, creatives and others to give us their top prediction for Brooklyn in 2020.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ MTA LOOKS TO BRING WI-FI TO L TRAIN’S EAST RIVER TUNNEL: Let there be Wi-Fi. The MTA recently announced that it’s looking for a real estate license to bring broadband and wireless cell service to the L train’s tunnel under the East River.

~ WHAT’S AHEAD FOR 2020? BROOKLYN’S BIGWIGS PREDICT THE FUTURE: “The Brooklyn Nets will make the playoffs, Coney Island will continue to be the people’s playground, and the BQE will get some much-needed love and attention,” predicted Carlo Scissura, president of New York Building Congress and chair of the mayor’s special BQE panel.

~ WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM IN NEW YORK IN 2020: Criminal justice reform had a banner year in New York State. Here are 15 of the biggest legislative battles around criminal justice reform that we expect to see in 2020.

~ NEW YORK CITY’S PLAN TO ADDRESS SURGE OF ANTI-SEMITIC HATE CRIMES: The NYPD will immediately beef up its presence in Brooklyn’s Jewish communities as the city rolls out other initiatives in classrooms, on the streets and on social media to combat a “crisis” of anti-Semitic attacks, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Sunday.

~ A NEW FILM PAYS TRIBUTE TO ONE OF BROOKLYN’S OLDEST BARS: Windsor Terrace is less than a square mile in size, yet it’s a neighborhood known around the city for one reason: being home to one of Brooklyn’s oldest drinking spots, Farrell’s Bar and Grill.

~ STAFF PICKS: BROOKLYN’S BEST BOWL OF SOUP: From cheesy, melting, French Onion Soup in Cobble Hill, to ramen or Matzo ball soup, here are the soups the Brooklyn Eagle staff chose as the best in the borough.

~ WE ASKED, YOU ANSWERED: THE BEST AND WORST OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS OF 2019: Readers told us which Brooklyn restaurants they’ll miss the most in 2020 and those they’re looking forward to.

~ ASK A HISTORIAN: WHAT WAS THE WORST DAY IN BROOKLYN HISTORY?: Joe from Flatbush asks: “What was the worst day in Brooklyn history?”

~ BAIL REFORMERS WORRY PROSECUTORS WILL AMP UP CHARGES TO JAIL DEFENDANTS: When state bail reform laws take effect on New Year’s Day, champions of the change worry about at least one unintended consequence: prosecutors upping charges to avoid automatically freeing defendants. (THE CITY)

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ “How Cruise Ships Bring 1,200 Tons of Toxic Fumes to Brooklyn a Year” (NYT)

~ New York City’s first babies of 2020 arrived in Coney Island and Staten Island at the same time. (am New York)

~ “Should Walt Whitman’s House Be Landmarked? It’s Complicated” (NYT)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “The War Vet, the Dating Site, and the Phone Call From Hell” (Wired)

~ EAT: Here are the 18 best dishes for a hangover in New York City, including seven in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: A New Year’s party. (The New Yorker)

~ LISTEN: New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz discusses being obsessed with his work: “To this day I wake up early and I have to get to my desk to write almost immediately. I mean fast. Before the demons get me.”

BULLETIN BOARD

Spend an enchanting evening with The National Ballet of Odessa, as Kings Theatre will ring in the New Year with one of the most choreographed ballets of the last 60 years: “Romeo and Juliet.” SPONSORED

WHAT’S HAPPENING

10:00AM – 4:00PM — Visions of Nature 2019 at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Details.

6:30PM — What Music Says About Our Lives — A Celebration! at Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Details.

7:00PM — Twelve Holy Nights of Christmas at Anthroposophy NYC. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1900, the Brooklyn Eagle reported, “Stray bullets were sprinkled around recklessly on New Year’s night in Brooklyn. Two cases which came very near being serious have already been reported as a result of the celebration of the birth of the year 1900.”

📔 IMPRINT
Beyonce graces the latest cover of Elle France.

👑 ROYAL WATCH
“Kate Middleton Regretted Her Christmas Day Outfit and Told a Royal Fan Why” (Harper’s Bazaar)

🏀 SPORTS
Mikhail Prokhorov made around $2 billion in the sale of the Nets and Barclays Center. (NetsDaily)

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Jack Hanna, Christy Turlington, Taye Diggs, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kate Bosworth and Paz Vega!