Around Brooklyn: Brooklyn Tech student wins Milken Scholarship

August 3, 2020 Editorial Staff

These similarly shaped Victorian houses are 8732 (at left) and 8730 20th Ave. in Bath Beach. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

These similarly shaped Victorian houses are 8732, left, and 8730 20th Ave. in Bath Beach. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Brooklyn Tech student wins Milken Scholarship

Bangladesh-born Avan Rahman, a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, is one of five students in New York City to win the prestigious Milken Scholarship, which awards $10,000. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Rahman started the Quaranteenage, an Instagram account that collects stories from teens across the country. He also is a member of Brooklyn Tech’s Key Club, whose members on Saturdays work at food banks and at planting vegetables at rooftop urban farms. Rahman also plays flute in Brooklyn Tech’s concert band, has studied architecture at Cooper Union and speaks three languages, according to India Times.

Civic leaders urge funding for do-good group

Members of Community Board 6 are alleging that City Council Speaker Corey Johnson has a vendetta against a Gowanus-Boerum Hill group that helps drug addicts and the homeless. They claim that Johnson pulled funding for Vocal New York from this year’s budget in retribution for the group’s participation in protests aimed at defunding the Police Department. In a July 30 letter to Johnson, CB6 members urged Johnson to reinstate funding for Vocal New York, which “has a history of helping and advocating for those who need help the most in our city,” the Brooklyn Paper reported.

New subway maps at 86th Street

The MTA is testing out several new designs for subway maps at the recently reopened 86th Street station in Bay Ridge. Starting this week, they added six maps to the station, including two neighborhood maps, two maps of the station and two system maps. The map of the station shows information such as accessibility features, while the neighborhood maps show what you can find within a 20-minute walk. One of the two system maps is based on a geographic map of the city, while the other is a variation on the popular 1972 Vignelli map, which is a non-geographic diagram of the system, according to Gothamist.

Brooklyn man sentenced for hate crime

A Brooklyn man was sentenced last week to 10 years in prison for a hate crime involving the stabbing of a middle-aged Black woman. Aleksejs Saveljeys was sentenced after pleading guilty to first-degree attempted assault. At a subway station in 2018, Savelyeus approached the victim from behind and stabbed her repeatedly in her shoulders and upper arms. When a witness asked why he was doing this, Saveljevs responded with racial slurs, according to CNN.

Burmese restaurant opens in Brooklyn

Myo Moe and her husband, Daniel Bendiy, have been one of the few purveyors of Burmese food in New York since they opened the Rangoon Noodle Lab pop-up in Bushwick. In March, they finally opened their own permanent restaurant, Rangoon, in Crown Heights. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit soon afterward, they reworked the menu to be more delivery-friendly and lowered prices. By April, they reopened as a delivery-only business. “Burmese cuisine is super-low key and simple, not as pungent compared to other Southeast Asian cuisines,” Myo said told Gothamist. “It’s a little like Thai, a little like Indian, a little like Chinese but it’s really its own.”

Bar Tabac has license pulled

Bar Tabac on the corner of Smith and Dean streets had its license suspended by the New York State Liquor Authority on Thursday. It was the latest in a crackdown on bars that didn’t follow pandemic-related restrictions. Two other Smith Street bars, Regular Visitors and Union Grounds, recently faced suspensions. Investigators visited Bar Tabac and found seven employees, including the bartender and four kitchen staff members, not wearing face coverings, according to Patch. More bar suspensions are likely in the works.

Manhole fire hits Clinton Hill

A huge manhole fire set a parked car on fire and cut power for three apartment buildings in Clinton Hill on Friday morning. Residents were awakened by blasts from the fires on Washington Avenue around 2:15 a.m. Firefighters soon responded to the scene, and the blaze went to two alarms as FNDY and Con Ed crews worked together to bring the situation under control, according to ABC7.

Construction wraps up on The Dime

Construction is nearing completion on The Dime, a 22-story building at 209 Havemeyer St. in South Williamsburg. The structure, also known as 275 South Fifth St., is designed by Fogarty Finger Architecture and is being developed by Charney Companies and Tavros Holdings. The building will include 177 rental units. Renovations have yet to begin on the historic Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh, which is directly adjacent to The Dime, according to New York YIMBY.

Thief breaks into church collection box

A thief was captured on surveillance video stealing the donations from a collection box at a Park Slope Catholic church. A nun who was sanitizing the church pews as a precaution due to the coronavirus pandemic discovered the crime on Friday afternoon at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. Camera footage reveals that the man pretended to pray, and then, after everyone else had left, cut open the box and stole the money, according to ABC7. “Many people have lost their jobs and need assistance, but this is not how to ask the church for help,” said Father Willy Kingsley Ndi of the church.

Teamsters allege harassment of shop steward

Members of Teamsters Local 804 demonstrated outside a Brooklyn UPS hub recently to protest what they call management’s harassment of a Black shop steward. Antoine Andrews has worked at this particular sorting and distribution hub, on Foster Avenue, for 24 years and has been the lead steward for four. After the coronavirus pandemic began and volume increased, he started filing more grievances against management. He asked for extra workers, but management refused to provide them. Moreover, they started to accuse him of favoring Black workers, a charge he denies, according to Labor Notes.

Brooklyn driver pleads guilty to seven-car pileup

A Brooklyn man last week pleaded guilty to causing a seven-car pileup in 2018 that caused the death of a 38-year-old man and his two dogs. Alex Elicer pleaded guilty on Thursday to aggravated vehicular homicide and other crimes. The crash happened on the Van Wyck Expressway in Queens, and Elicer was speeding and weaving back and forth between lanes at the time. Seven cars were damaged, including a TSA K-9 unit. Elicer was intoxicated at the time of the crash, according to the New York Post.

Weekend of violence in Brooklyn

There were several incidents of violence during the weekend. On Saturday morning at around 5:30 a.m., a 42-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man were standing outside on Bradford Street when an unidentified man approached them and shot at them. Both victims were taken to Brookdale Medical Center, where they were treated for their injuries. In East Flatbush, police responded to a shooting at 572 E. 29th St. at around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday. Police said two men in their early 20s were shot in the legs and taken to Kings County hospital. Finally, there was another shooting on Lexington Avenue in East Flatbush, at around the same time. A man in his 50s was walking when he was shot in the leg, according to News 12 Brooklyn.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.