Around Brooklyn: Diocese donates tablets to Catholic schools

March 26, 2020 Editorial Staff

Shore Road Park. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Diocese donates tablets to Catholic schools

To help the success of distance learning due to the spread of COVID-19, many schools in Brooklyn and Queens have received thousands of iPads and Chromebooks, courtesy of the DeSales Media Group of the Diocese of Brooklyn, according to the Brooklyn Reporter website. DeSales has equipped both faculty and 22,000 students throughout the two boroughs with the technology that will allow distance learning to work seamlessly. “The Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens are handling the new normal for learning, spared by the outbreak of the Coronavirus, in first-rate fashion,” said Msgr. Kiernan E. Harrington, chairman of the DeSales Media Group.

Museums send each other virtual bouquets

Museums nationwide have been sending each other virtual bouquets of flowers, according to Artnet. The trend began when the New York Historical Society began “sending” bouquets of flowers to other major art institutions. The first recipient was the Smithsonian American Art Museum. One item, sent by the Cooper Hewitt Museum on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was a replica of sweet peas illustrated by Henrietta aria Benson Homer and exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association in April 1876.

Crooks steal cash register at Brooklyn restaurant

Thieves broke open the door of a Bushwick restaurant and made off with a register stuffed with $560 around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the New York Post. The restaurant targeted was Zatar Café and Bistro at 1294 Myrtle Ave. A video released by the NYPD shows the men trying to open the door by force before they broke the lock with an unidentified tool. A manager of the restaurant told the Post that the crooks were emboldened by the coronavirus epidemic and the fact that so few people were on the street.

Green-Wood Cemetery gains new admirers

For those who think the city’s parks are too crowded and too much of a risk for coronavirus, there’s Green-Wood Cemetery, which has recently increased its hours, according to The New York Times. Its main entrance on Fifth Avenue and 25th Street in the South Slope is now open daily from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Green-Wood, which was opened in 1838, was designed to be a recreational space as well as a cemetery, since there were few parks in those days. Among the famous people who are buried there are Louis Comfort Tiffany, Leonard Bernstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and even Bill “The Butcher” Poole of “Gangs of New York” fame. “The cemetery prohibits any form of exercise other than walking, distinguishing it from Brooklyn’s other major green space, Prospect Park, which has been teeming with runners and bicyclists,” the Times said.

New York Eater lists takeout/delivery restaurants

New York Eater recently listed its favorite restaurants that are doing takeout and delivery service now, and to no one’s surprise, some of those restaurants are located in Brooklyn. They include Carmenta’s, a “red sauce” Italian restaurant in Bushwick; Archie’s Bar and Pizza, also in Bushwick; the well-known Yemen Café on Atlantic Avenue; Bar Camillo, a Roman-style restaurant in Bed-Stuy; Ugly Baby, a Thai restaurant in Cobble Hill; Al Di La Trattoria in Park Slope; Haenyeo, a Korean fusion restaurant in Cobble Hill; Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook; Peppa’s Jerk Chicken in Crown Heights; Silver Rice, a sushi parlor in Crown Heights; Kofte Piyaz, a Turkish spot in Sunset Park; and Mallenhe Mexican Grill in Flatbush.

Treyger expresses sympathy for hospitalized principal

Councilmember Mark Treyger (D-Coney Island-Bensonhurst-Gravesend) recently responded with sadness to the news that Principal Ronda Phillips of Kappa V. High School has been hospitalized for pneumonia. She worked in the same building as Principal Dezman Romain, another school leader who died from coronavirus, according to city officials. “We need to move from schools’ voluntarily notifying their staff and families to mandatory notification. We owe our school communities more than boilerplate guidance that every New Yorker should act as though they have been exposed under widespread community transmission,” he said.

Persaud buys meals for local police precincts

State Sen. Roxanne Persaud (D-Canarsie-East New York-Brownsville-Sheepshead Bay) is helping to bring healthy and nourishing meals to police precincts throughout her Brooklyn district. Last Friday, Persaud partnered with Nick’s Lobster House and attorney Ben Pinczewski to buy lunch for the 63rd and 69th Police Precinct members. Meals were also provided to PSA-2 and the 75th Precinct by Chief Samsir, owner of Bakewell Restaurant. Then on Monday, Persaud helped provide lunch from Nick’s Lobster House to PSA-1, 61st Precinct and 73rd Precinct members, thanking them for their service and helping to protect the community.

Coronavirus-inspired hate crime on subway

A 19-year-old man allegedly spat on an Asian man at the Atlantic Avenue subway station in the latest coronavirus-inspired hate crime, according to the New York Post. The victim was on the 2 and 3 train platform in Downtown Brooklyn at 10:40 a.m. when the suspect, Nicholas Theodore, allegedly spat in his face. According to police reports, he yelled “You f—ing Chinese spreading the coronavirus,” then unzipped his jacket and motioned that he had a weapon, saying, “You wanna do this?” The victim fled and flagged down two police officers, who then arrested Theodore.

Construction workers injured in Sheepshead Bay

Three workers were injured, one of them seriously, when a wall collapsed at a Sheepshead Bay construction side on Wednesday, according to the New York Post. The three were doing excavation work in back of a two-story brick building at 1921-1925 East 14th Street when the wall collapsed. One was pinned own by the rubble. After firefighters arrived, that worker was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center in serious but non-life-threatening condition, according to Fire Department sources. The other two were taken to New York Community Hospital. The workers were reportedly removing tree stumps.

Teacher with COVID-19 waited 8 days for test

Rana Zoe Mungin, a social studies teacher at Ascend Academy of Brooklyn, had an eight-day odyssey from her first fever to intubation with a ventilator pipe, according to PIX11. Along the way, she was treated for asthma, but she wasn’t tested for COVID-19 until she returned to the hospital a third time, barely breathing. During the second visit to Brookdale Hospital, she was told that her lungs were clear and the doctor wouldn’t give her a COVID-19 test. One attendant suggested she was having a panic attack, according to her sister, a nurse. She now has been admitted to Brookdale, but her family wants her to be transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital, which has more advanced technology.

Renderings released for Crown Heights building

Renderings have been released for 1515 Park Place, an eight-story apartment building under construction in Crown Heights, according to New York YIMBY. The building is being developed by Park and Prospect LLC and JIH Builders Group, and it was designed by S. Wieder Architect. The structure will contain 52 rental units as well as a rooftop garden, a fitness room, laundry facilities, a 36-vehicle garage and bike storage. While the building will be much taller than neighboring structures, its brick façade will help it blend in with its surroundings, New York YIMBY said.

Affordable housing lottery for new East NY building

An affordable housing lottery has opened for 10 units in an eight-story building at 2437 Pitkin Ave. in East New York, according to Brownstoner. Of the affordable apartments five are one-bedroom units and five have two bedrooms. Monthly rents start at $783 and top out at $1,799, Brownstoner reported. Eligible incomes range from $26,846 to $149,890. Joel Schwartz of Southside Associates is listed as the building owner. A one-story garage stood on the site until recently.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.