Brooklyn Today: Brooklyn Detention Complex officially closed

January 3, 2020 Brooklyn Today

Old-fashioned street lamps rise above the Coney Island Boardwalk’s plywood cover. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

Old-fashioned street lamps rise above the Coney Island Boardwalk’s plywood cover. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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THE LEDE: Happy Friday! All detainees at the Brooklyn Detention Complex have been transferred out and no new detainees will be admitted, effectively shuttering the jail and paving the way for demolition and the construction of a larger facility, according to the Mayor’s Office.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ BLOCKING A BUS LANE? HEFTY FINES ARE IN EFFECT ON THIS BROOKLYN ROUTE: Motorists caught illegally blocking Brooklyn’s B44 Select Bus Service lane will now be hit with hefty fines reaching as high $250, the MTA recently announced.

~ BROOKLYN JAIL OFFICIALLY CLOSED, SETTING STAGE FOR DEMOLITION: The planned demolition is a key step in accomplishing the borough-based jail plan, which would establish a new jail facility in every borough but Staten Island as part of the city’s $8.7 billion initiative to shutter Rikers Island by 2026.

~ MALONEY CHALLENGER WANTS A FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK AND AFFORDABLE RENTS: Peter Harrison is part of a new generation of activists running for office in the footsteps of representatives like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Sen. Julia Salazar, two democratic socialists who beat long-term incumbents by championing working class issues.

~ SKATING AND STROLLING: 10 THINGS TO DO IN BROOKLYN THIS WEEKEND: With the temperatures dropping and snow on the forecast for Sunday, this weekend’s events are all about warming up. Whether ice skating on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper, dancing inside a club or going for a winter walk, all of these activities are bound to get your blood flowing.

~ SECURITY FOOTAGE SHOWS ALLEGED ATTACKERS IN PAIR OF HANUKKAH HATE CRIMES: Cops are seeking a group of assailants in connection to at least two of three alleged anti-Semitic attacks that took place in Crown Heights on Dec. 24, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

~ BRAVE BROOKLYNITES RING IN 2020 IN CHILLY CONEY WATERS: PHOTOS: Thousands of people held their breath and ran into the frigid Atlantic off Coney Island Wednesday afternoon to take part in the Polar Bear Plunge, a century-old tradition to ring in the new year.

~ INDUSTRY CITY WELCOMES STANDARD WORMWOOD DISTILLERY TO ITS CAMPUS: The New York-based distiller utilizes wormwood grown on the family farm in New York’s Hudson Valley. It will be moving its entire operation and production facility to a 2,900-square-foot space in the massive Sunset Park waterfront campus.

~ MEET BROOKLYN’S FIRST BABY OF 2020: Brooklyn rang in the New Year with one of the first babies born in 2020. Aidan Zobnin was born at Coney Island Hospital at 12 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. The baby weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and measured 20 inches.

~ AMID SPREE OF HATE CRIMES, CITY LOOKS TO PAST OFFENDERS FOR MENTORSHIP: The de Blasio administration is considering recruiting people who committed anti-Semitic violence or vandalism as teens to help educate youths in a bid to stem a rising tide of hate crimes against Jewish New Yorkers. (THE CITY)

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ An 11-year-old boy opened his own thrift shop in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. (FOX 5)

~ Meet the people on the front line of fighting homelessness in New York City. (City Limits)

~ “How a Hip-Hop Party Went From a Harlem Basement to Packing Barclays” (NYT)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: “Inside the U.S. military’s raid against its own security guards that left dozens of Afghan children dead” (USA Today)

~ DRINK: Here are the 12 hottest cocktail bars this month in New York City, including three spots in Brooklyn. (Eater)

~ CARTOON: President Trump’s New Year’s Resolutions. (The Week)

~ EAT: The Golden Globes will serve guests a 100 percent plant-based meal during the ceremony. (AP)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

6:00PM — Inside the Museum of the American Gangster & 1920s Speakeasy Remnants at 80 Saint Marks Place. Details.

6:00PM — Film Comment Talk: Varda by Filmmakers at Film at Lincoln Center. Details.

10:00PM — House of Yes 4 Year Anniversary at 2 Wyckoff Ave. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1870, the Brooklyn Eagle reported, “The hurricane, from the southwest, experienced Sunday night, at Bay Ridge, was the most violent within the memory of the oldest residents. It lifted and carried the large dock-building of the Bay Ridge Steamboat Company a distance of a hundred feet, and dashed it to atoms on the shore.”

📔 IMPRINT
Felicity Jones poses in pink pants on the latest cover of Shape.

👑 ROYAL WATCH
“Why the Queen is extending her Christmas holiday for another month” (Cosmopolitan)

🏀 SPORTS
One year of Brooklyn sports, from the highs to the lows

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Florence Pugh, Danica McKellar, Joan Walsh Anglund, Mel Gibson, Eli Manning, Dabney Coleman, Nicole Beharie, Stephen Stills, Victoria Principal, Bobby Hull and Ned Lamont!