Around Brooklyn: City: You’d better stop your doggin’ around

April 8, 2020 Editorial Staff

Bergen Street takes you past lovely Crown Heights homes, like this cluster of landmarked residences on the corner of New York Avenue. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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City: You’d better stop your doggin’ around

New York City’s dog parks and dog runs have been shuttered amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to the New York Post. Dog owners applauded the move to close the 83 dog runs around the city, parks officials said. The decision was made after employees noted overcrowding at some areas around the five boroughs. “It’s not tragic that the dog runs are closed,” Marie Fetzer, a dog trainer in Astoria, told the Post. “You just need to find other stuff for your dog to do.”

City suspends its ‘open streets’ program

The Mayor’s Office announced Monday that it suspended its “open streets” pilot program that provided designated areas for New Yorkers to exercise amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to amNewYork. The spaces were not used to the level that justified the continued assignment of up to 80 police officers per location, city officials said. Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the pilot program last month after Gov. Andrew Cuomo complained about large crowds of people in parks. In Brooklyn, the program affected Bushwick Avenue between Johnson and Flushing avenues.

Suspect arrested in coronavirus-related slaying

Police on Thursday arrested a woman suspected of killing an 86-year-old woman at Woodhull Hospital because the older woman was not practicing social distancing, the Brooklyn Paper said. Cops charged Crown Heights resident Cassandra Lundy with manslaughter and assault for allegedly shoving Williamsburg senior Janie Marshall to the ground on March 28. Marshall was walking in the emergency room and stopped to hold on to Lundy’s intravenous pole when the younger woman got mad at her for not keeping a safe distance apart, police said. Neither of the women were in the hospital to be treated for coronavirus.

Groceries, deliverers go on hiring sprees

Restaurants across the country have closed or are concentrating only on takeout and delivery, according to New York Eater. But at retail stores and delivery services, business is growing. Lines at grocery stores sometimes stretch out the door, while Instacart app downloads grew by more than 200 percent from mid-February to mid-March. Some companies, like CVS, are working directly with restaurant groups to match their employees to temporary jobs. Kroger, which has hired more than 23,500 new employees, has partnered with Thunderdome Restaurant Group and Frisch’s, to place restaurant workers in jobs.

Hasidim hold another funeral despite dangers

Hundreds of Hasidic Jews again defied social distancing orders for a mass funeral in a Brooklyn street. The funeral, reportedly for Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Meislish, was held Sunday night on Hewes Street near Marcy Avenue in Williamsburg. The rabbi died of COVID-19 at the age of 80. The funeral sparked a massive police response by police officers, who tried to break up the crowds by using sirens and blaring social distancing messages from their cop cars. No one was arrested, however.

Downtown Brooklyn tower tops out

The 189-foot-tall, 22-story reinforced concrete edifice of 291 Livingston St. appears to have recently topped out, New York YIMBY reported. The building is set to become a 100-room hotel. Hello Living is the owner of the lot and is developing the project with Aview Equities. Gene Kaufman Architect is the architect of record. Currently, the entire superstructure is covered with black netting and scaffolding, according to New York YIMBY.

Masked gunmen wreak deadly havoc at party

Two masked gunmen crashed a Bedford-Stuyvesant house party early Monday, one killing the owner and the other robbing more than a dozen people, according to the Daily News. The victim, Kenny Mark, answered a 2 a.m. knock on the door of his three-story apartment building on Pulaski Street near Nostrand Avenue. While one of the thieves robbed the people and scooped money off a pool table, Mark tried to fight back and was shot by the other one, police said. The victim was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Brooklyn MD: Patients ‘dying every day’

A doctor at Wyckoff Medical Center told the New York Post that the hospital has been turned into a hospital for COVID-19 patients and “nothing else,” and that “patients are dying every day, every moment.” Even doctors who don’t normally practice medicine, such as psychiatrist, are helping, said Dr. Tarik Naser. He said his own brother, also a doctor, was hospitalized last week, and he’s afraid that he, too, might get the virus. Photos taken inside the hospital on Saturday show body bags lining the hallways, although Naser said he hadn’t seen them.

Rose hails naming of Russian group as terrorist

U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-Southwest Brooklyn-Staten Island) praised the U.S. Department of State’s decision to designate a foreign white supremacist group, the Russian Imperial Movement, as a foreign terrorist organization. “The threats these groups pose are real, global in nature, and this designation gives our law enforcement the tools necessary to protect our homeland,” a spokesperson for Rose said. Rose is currently deployed with the National Guard to help with Staten Island’s coronavirus response.

Here comes that rainy day, says BP Adams

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams sent a joint letter with Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope-Windsor Terrace-Kensington) to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to authorize the use of a “rainy day fund” that would allow the city to have a portion of its budget set aside to make up for lost revenue during economic downturns. “We’re not just in the middle of a rainstorm, we’re weathering a typhoon. The coronavirus has created twin public health and economic crises in our city, which will wreak havoc on our city’s budget,” Adams said.

Green-Wood Cemetery opens additional gates

A Kensington resident’s letter asking Green-Wood Cemetery to open additional entrances gained more than 100 signatures, prompting cemetery officials to open all four gates to fresh-air seekers, according to the Brooklyn Paper. On March 14, local resident Caroline Loomis wrote to the cemetery as well as several officials, asking that ore entrances be opened to accommodate shut-in visitors amid the coronavirus epidemic. While the cemetery typically keeps only its main entrance on Fifth Avenue and 25th Street and its Sunset Park entrance at Fourth Avenue and 35th Street open on weekends, it will now open all four gates. The other two entrances are at Prospect Park West and 20th Street in Windsor Terrace and Fort Hamilton Parkway and Micieli Place in Kensington.

Brooklyn man dies of virus, eleven days after symptoms

The Daily News has profiled Jorge Cruz, a Brooklyn restaurant manager and father of a 2-year-old boy, who recently died of coronavirus. Eleven days before his death, Cruz awoke with a headache and dizziness, and things deteriorated quickly. He was soon diagnosed with pneumonia and given antibiotics and a cough suppressant. When the antibiotics ran out in seven days, however, his condition became dire. Paramedics advised him to stay inside and avoid hospital waiting rooms because his pneumonia made him vulnerable to COVID-19, the Daily News said. After his death, his wife and son also began to show symptoms of the virus.

Bed-Stuy YMCA mourns popular employee

All the staff and members at the Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA knew employee Janice Rodman, who handed out balloons to children at parties, according to Buzzfeed. “Those kids just light up when they come in the door and see her,” said Sonia Atherly, executive director of Bedford-Stuyvesant YMCA. “She just loved up on everybody.” In mid-March, she started getting sick, but her doctor believed it was bronchitis, a disease she’s had regularly. However, hospital staff later told the family it was COVID-19. She was placed in a ventilator, but her lungs were already damaged from years of bronchitis, and she soon died, Buzzfeed said.

Group reschedules fundraiser, hopefully for June

IMPACCT Brooklyn reminds us that “New York on PAUSE” has been extended through April 29. Schools and non-essential businesses will remain closed. The organization plans to reschedule its annual IMPACCT Awards benefits with plans to launch virtually before June 30. IMPACCT Brooklyn is a self-help organization focusing on affordable housing, community organizing and homeowner services.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.