Around Brooklyn: Richardson resumes meetings, virtually

August 18, 2020 Editorial Staff

Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2, which is protected by roofs, has five acres of sports facilities. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 2. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Richardson resumes meetings, virtually

Assemblymember Diana Richardson (D-Crown Heights-Prospect-Lefferts Gardens) this month plans to resume her regular Saturday Civic Minded meetings, although they will now be held virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The next meeting, on Saturday, Aug. 22 from 2 to 4 p.m., will focus on the forthcoming Clarkson Estates development, including the Dr. Roy A. Hastick Sr. Community Hub. This affordable housing development is a part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Vital Brooklyn Initiative.

Ghislaine complains about lack of email in jail

Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion of the late Jeffrey Epstein who is accused of helping to procure underage girls for him, is complaining that she has no access to email at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, where she is currently being held. She also said she has been given only 30 minutes a month for personal phone calls, much less than the 500 minutes granted to other pre-trial detainees. She also has been denied access to the prison commissary for no apparent reason, her lawyers said, according to Bloomberg News. However, she has been given more time to work on her upcoming case.

De Blasio announces more Open Streets/Restaurants locations

Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced 21 more locations for outdoor dining options as part of a City initiative that combines the Open Streets and Open Restaurants programs, while adding more seating in more outer-borough pedestrian plazas. Of the 21, three are in Brooklyn, including the Park Slope 5th Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) along Fifth Avenue from Sterling Place to Berkley Place; Prospect Heights NDC along Vanderbilt Avenue from Pacific Street to Atlantic Avenue; and 99 Favor Taste on 61st Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in Bay Ridge. The administration is also adding four more locations in three boroughs for Play Streets, an initiative the city launched in July to provide children with safe, structured activities on Open Streets during summer weekdays.

Cops seek ex-girlfriend in man’s slaying

Police are seeking the ex-girlfriend of a young Brooklyn father who was shot outside the Flatbush home that he shared with his grandmother. Victim Jamel Copeland’s family members suspect his on-again, off-again former girlfriend, who is also the mother of his son, and police sources confirmed that she is a person of interest. Copeland, 32, was shot once in the torso near East 39th Street and Avenue D around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and later died at Kings County Hospital. “She was nuts, she was an aggressor. I don’t know what possessed him to fall in love with her over and over,” Copeland’s cousin, Christopher Copeland, told the Daily News.

Protesters trash Williamsburg chain stores

Dozens of protesters rampaged through Williamsburg this past weekend, trashing several major stores and writing anti-police graffiti. The group marched through the neighborhood Saturday night, with police receiving a 911 call around 8:30 p.m. At an Apple store on Bedford Avenue, they found broken windows and the letters “FTP.” The protesters also targeted a Whole Foods store in the area, tagging the building with the message “Murder Bezos.” Later that night, police found more broken windows and graffiti as well as the words “Die Yuppy” spray-painted on a real estate office. Footage from the scene shows about 75 people dressed in black and wearing hoods hurling objects, according to the New York Post.

MTA works to modernize F train tunnel

Despite financial problems, the MTA is still on track with several improvement projects, especially those involving the F train in Brooklyn. The transit agency has been installing new signaling and also partially closed the Rutgers Street Tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan to complete several Superstorm Sandy-related repairs. Now, for one week in late August and early September, F trains will only operate express between 18th Avenue and Avenue X. This move is due to the replacement of 70-year-old signals between Church Avenue and Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island with Communications-based train control, according to the Daily News. The Kings Highway interlocking system is also being eliminated.

Four shot in the leg in Brownsville

Four men were shot in the leg and wounded early Monday in Brownsville. The mayhem began when a gunman opened fire on Atlantic Avenue near Hinsdale Street around 2:25 a.m., fleeing in a car. One of the victims was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, another was taken to Kings County Hospital, and the two other victims were taken by private car to Interfaith Medical Center. All of them are expected to recover, according to the Daily News. From Friday to Sunday, 51 people were shot in 39 incidents around the city, police officials said.

Street fight in Manhattan results in Brooklynite’s death

A Brooklyn man who was celebrating a friend’s birthday in Greenwich Village last weekend was killed in a street fight. Police found Dashawn Bush, 31, unconscious early Saturday on Christopher Street. Tamara Bush, the victim’s sister, believes the perpetrator was someone he knew. “How long was he unconscious? Did he fight and he stopped fighting, because maybe he had a seizure and his heart stopped? We don’t know,” she said. She called on the attacker to turn himself in, according to CBS News.

National real estate firm expands into Brooklyn

The Moinian Group, a national real estate group, has been expanding into Brooklyn. Their first Brooklyn venture was PLG, a 26-story luxury apartment building at 123 Linden Blvd. in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Now, the group, which has been active in Manhattan for many years, is just bringing to market 1428 Fulton St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, an apartment building with an open-air courtyard, 132 residential units and 12,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. “Brooklyn is a thriving, eclectic borough that attracts some of the most creative minds and hardest workers,” Joseph Moinian, founder and CEO of The Moinian Group, told the Commercial Observer. “We have forged wonderful relationships throughout Brooklyn with communities who appreciate the quality of product we deliver and our commitment to every neighborhood we enter.”

Brooklyn luxury market sees strong activity

Brooklyn’s luxury real estate market saw strong activity despite a slip from the prior week. Last week, 15 deals went into contract for a combined valued of $39 million, according to Compass’ weekly luxury report on contract activity for properties asking $2 million or more. This was down from 18 deals valued at nearly $55 million during the first week of August. Last week’s deals consisted of 10 condos, four townhouses and one co-op unit. The median asking price for these properties was $2.65 million. The most expensive contract was for a three-bedroom condo at 429 Kent Ave. in Williamsburg, for $3.3 million, according to The Real Deal.

NYPD boss: gun problem is Brooklyn problem

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, interviewed on NY1 on Tuesday, said that the city’s problem of gun violence is mainly a Brooklyn problem. “Right now, about half of all the shootings in New York City, close to, are coming out of Brooklyn and that’s a big problem,” he said. He also said that in many cases, Brooklyn perpetrators commit violent crimes in other parts of the city. During the past four weeks, shooting incidents in New York City were nearly triple those during the same period last year, according to the Daily News.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.