Around Brooklyn: Wire basket falls, hurting passer-by

August 4, 2020 Editorial Staff

Here’s Manhattan Avenue at the corner of Kent Street. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Wire basket falls, hurting passer-by

One person was injured when a metal basket, meant to prevent debris from elevated subway lines from falling on passers-by below, itself fell in Brooklyn. The incident happened near the Alabama Avenue station on the J train. The MTA said workers doing maintenance work at the time of the incident failed to follow “several procedures and protocols.” Apparently, when they were moving a rubber mat, they knocked the basket loose, according to ABC 7.

Bullet grazes teen’s head in shooting

A 16-year-old boy was grazed in the head by a bullet on Sunday morning, police said. The teen was struck when gunfire blazed on Pacific Street near Buffalo and Rochester avenues in Crown Heights around 11:35 a.m. The youth was rushed to Maimonides Medical Center, where the wound was found to be non-life-threatening. Six shell casings were found at the scene, according to the New York Post.

Women give plants as gifts to seniors

Baila Dalfin and Nechama Hecht, two young Orthodox Jewish women from Crown Heights, decided to do something to lift the spirits of people who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. They started an initiative called planTogether, and since April they’ve given hundreds of plants to senior citizens who are quarantined at home and others who are living in nursing homes in Brooklyn and Queens.“We see how much it’s appreciated by them, they do feel like people are thinking about them and people care about them so that’s something that inspires us to continue moving forward,” Hecht told Fox 5.

Kent House opens for occupancy

Tenants have begun moving into the Kent House, a new seven-story building at 187 Kent Ave. in Williamsburg. The building, located between North Third and Metropolitan avenues, was developed by CW Realty Management and designed by Diego Aguilera Architects PC. Kent House has a red-brick exterior similar to many nearby industrial buildings, and contains 96 apartments. The building also contains retail space on the first and second floors and a 170-vehicle parking garage. Apartments come with such amenities as a gym, a virtual doorman, a game room, indoor and outdoor lounges, a media room and a bicycle room, according to New York YIMBY.

Felder bill helps those with Chron’s, colitis

State Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Borough park-Midwood) has sponsored legislation to implement and enforce the 2017 Crohn’s and Colitis Fairness Act. The act allows access to employee-only restrooms to individuals with these diseases during business hours. However, these rights have proven hard to access. Felder’s new bill would require that the NYS Health Department create identification cards for people with a qualifying gastrointestinal disease. It would also give state and local consumer protection departments the power and duty to address complaints from any individual about a violation of the Crohn’s and Colitis Fairness Act.

Rose’s mental health provisions pass House

U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-Southern Brooklyn-Staten Island) secured provisions in recently passed legislation in the House that secured a 50 percent increase in mental health funding for law enforcement, fire safety funding and accessibility to public housing. The provisions increase funding for law enforcement mental health programs by 50 percent, provide $25 million in grant funding to install fire sprinkler systems in public housing buildings, and require an assessment of the quantity of the accessible public housing stock and costs required to bring them up to code.

Adams: Don’t give up on B’klyn bus redesign

A draft of the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign, which was originally supposed to be released on June 30 but was put on hold because of COVID-19 related constraints, has finally been released. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said the MTA should solicit community feedback so that the project can proceed, especially at a time when buses are of critical importance, according to Bklyner. “I am concerned that the delayed project timeline will defer much-needed improvements to the Brooklyn bus network, which is often plagued by deficiencies and inefficiencies,” Adams said in a letter sent to the MTA this morning. “In many parts of the borough, particularly its densely populated eastern neighborhoods, buses are the primary means of transport for elderly and low-income individuals.”

Bed-Stuy residents want more trash cans

Bedford-Stuyvesant residents are urging the city to put more trash cans in their neighborhood. “I go to Williamsburg, and I see on their commercial block on every single corner, not only will there be one trash can, there actually will be up to two or three trash cans,” Bed-Stuy resident Cory Choy said, comparing that situation with her neighborhood. Choy said the Department of Sanitation removed several waste baskets in Bed-Stuy several years ago after residents began illegally dumping household trash into them. Choy said removing the bins did nothing to deter the trash problem, according to amNewYork.

‘Secret Rave’ draws hundreds in Greenpoint

A “secret rave” on Saturday, Aug. 1 drew hundreds to a location underneath the Kosciuszko Bridge in Greenpoint. Video posted on social media showed that some of the people were wearing masks, but very few people practiced social distancing. The party was organized by a group called Renegade, which had hosted a similar event at that location on July 4. At various times, it was advertised as a Black Lives Matter party and a fundraiser for the Legal Aid Society. While the party had a table handing out masks and hand sanitizer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized it at a press conference, saying, “It’s disrespectful, it violates all common decency,” according to Rolling Stone.

Cops gun down armed man in standoff

Body camera footage shows police gunning down an armed man, ending a standoff in Crown Heights. The video shows two minutes between the time cops found Tyquan Graves, 34, with a gun in his hand near the Kingsborough Houses and the moment 10 officers fired 62 gunshots in his direction. Graves was hit with 12 bullets and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Cops yelled at Graves to drop the gun and show his hands for about two minutes, but began to shoot when Graves stood up and began to “raise the firearm,” according to amNewYork.

House passes Velázquez amendments

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved two amendments written by U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-Brooklyn) aimed at preventing interference in scientific research conducted by federal agencies. Velázquez’s first amendment prevents funding from being used to reject grant applications that use the terms “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based”, or “science-based.” In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control provided explicit instructions to employees to not use these words in any official budget documents. Velázquez’s second amendment seeks to protect funding applications from rejection due to the use of the term “sea level rise,” referencing a precedent established at the Department of the Interior.

Child exposure to lead paint falls 21 percent

The Health Department last week revealed that the number of NYC children with elevated blood levels has fallen 54 percent since 2014. Of all children tested, there were 3,739 with blood lead levels of 5 mcg/dL or greater, which is a 21 percent decline from 2018. Among children who lived or spent time in NYCHA housing, there was almost a 25 percent decline. Still, said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, “A single child with an elevated blood level is one too many.”

B’klyn families upset by prison restrictions

Many Brooklyn families who visit relatives who are in prison upstate are unhappy about new coronavirus-related restrictions on prison visits. One family member, Carroll Harriot of Crown Heights, said prisoners’ family members often travel more than seven hours via bus to reach the prisons, an ordeal in itself. The new regulations include reduced capacity for visiting rooms, a minimum of physical contact, a limit of three people and one child per prisoner, and a requirement for prisoners and visitors to wear masks, according to BK Reader.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.