Around Brooklyn: Richardson to unveil signs for subway stations

September 23, 2020 Editorial Staff

Sunset Park’s Fourth Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Richardson to unveil signs for subway stations

Assemblymember Diana Richardson (D-Crown Heights-Prospect-Lefferts Gardens-Wingate-Flatbush) will be unveiling some new signage for the Franklin Avenue and President Street Subway Stations in honor of Medgar Evers College. “Following an outpouring of community concerns about the naming of two subway stations in our district, I introduced legislation that called for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to rename President Street subway station, ‘President Street – Medgar Evers College’ station and to rename the Franklin Avenue subway station, ‘Franklin Avenue – Medgar Evers College’ station,” she said. The event is slated to take place on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Ginsburg left lasting impression at Madison

Long before she became Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she was Ruth Bader, Madison High School class of 1950, who played in the school orchestra, wrote features for the school newspaper and was an academic star. Alumnus Jane Carbonaro, a real estate lawyer who graduated in 1986, met Justice Ginsburg in 1994 and said, “She was very personable. She was very down to earth.” Daniza Tazabekova, an 11th grader who wants to be a lawyer and possibly a judge just like Ginsburg, said she feels inspired when she walks her school hallways. “The fact that she went to Madison High School just makes everything a bit real,” she told NY1 News.

‘Open Streets’ barriers trashed in Williamsburg

Vandals stole Open Streets barriers in Williamsburg and threw them over a fence into a nearby lot, unofficially reopening the usually-closed Berry Street roadway to cars. Volunteers from the North Brooklyn Open Streets Community Coalition on Saturday morning noticed that all the Police Department-issued blue hurdles were missing from South First to North 12th streets. Local elected officials denounced the act, according to the Brooklyn Paper. “On a beautiful Saturday morning, some jerk decided their reckless entitlement, their belief that cars should dominate every public street, was the only thing that matters,” Democratic Assemblymember-elect Emily Gallagher said on Twitter.

Accidents on Verrazzano lead to traffic delays

Tuesday morning saw extensive delays on the Brooklyn-bound lanes of the Verrazzano Bridge. Two accidents were reported on the upper and lower levels of the bridge. A two-car collision on the upper level blocked the HOV lane at the Brooklyn tower, according to the MTA. A separate crash caused two lanes to be blocked on the lower level. One patient with minor injuries was transported to Staten Island University Hospital, according to the Staten Island Advance.

Cab driver shot in fare dispute

A cab driver was shot by a passenger in Brooklyn last Friday when he got into a dispute with two passengers in his green car. Police said the passengers asked to be let off at Graham and Bogart streets in Bushwick just after midnight. They got into an argument, and the male passenger allegedly stuck a gun through the safety partition and into the driver’s neck. The man fired, but because the cabbie moved his head, he was merely grazed by the bullet. He managed to drive three more blocks, then called for an ambulance.

Adams holds ‘COVID Heroes’ ceremony

Borough President Eric Adams on Tuesday held a special “COVID Heroes” ceremony paying tribute to people who have made a difference in their communities during the coronavirus pandemic, as part of his regular “Heroes of the Month” event series. Among the more than 80 honorees at the event were Leah Pavlov, a 12-year-old girl who used her own money to pack lunches for health care workers, and “Hamilton” star and Edward R. Murrow High School alum Javier Muñoz, who started an initiative called Broadway Relief Project, which gathered out-of-work costume and set designers to manufacture personal protective equipment.

Brooklyn Museum to hold John Edmonds exhibit

The Brooklyn Museum, starting on Oct. 23, will present “John Edmonds: A Sidelong Glance,” the artist’s first solo museum exhibition to date. Included will be his new and recent photographic portraits and still lifes of Central and West African sculptures that explore representation and Black identity in the African diaspora. For this exhibition, Edmonds engaged directly with the Museum’s Arts of Africa collection, photographing select objects donated to the Museum in 2015 from the estate of the late African American novelist Ralph Ellison. As the recipient of the UOVO Prize for an artist living or working in Brooklyn, Edmonds’s exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is presented in conjunction with his large-scale public art installation on the UOVO: BROOKLYN facility’s façade.

Cuomo adds five states to quarantine list

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced that Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island and Wyoming have been added to New York State’s COVID-19 travel advisory. No areas have been removed. The advisory requires individuals who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The governor also announced that New York State has now conducted 10 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests. “For a clear example of the continuing extent of the COVID crisis in America, look no further than New York’s travel advisory list,” he said.

Large townhouses dominate luxury deals

Spacious townhouses were responsible for most of the deals in Brooklyn’s luxury real estate market last week. There were 16 contracts signed for homes listed at $2 million or higher last week, according to Compass’ report on the borough’s luxury contracts, and all but three of those were for townhouses. The most expensive contract signed last week was for a 4,000-square-foot townhouse at 315 Adelphi St. in Fort Greene. The rowhouse was built in the late 1860s and comes with a landscaped 1,000-square-foot garden, complete with a reflecting pool, fountain and outdoor kitchen. The four-story home has been divided into a one-bedroom duplex unit on the ground and second floors, and two single-floor rental units on the upper levels, according to The Real Deal.

Revel motorbike goes up in flames

A new video posted on Reddit on Sunday shows a Revel rental moped going up in flames at the corner of Lafayette and Nostrand avenues in Bedford-Stuyvesant. A man in an FDNY uniform looks on as the motorbike burns. It wasn’t clear how the bike caught on fire. “We are aware that a Revel moped in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood was damaged by fire last night, and we are investigating the cause of the incident,” a Revel spokesperson told the New York Post on Monday. The app-based company returned to New York City in August after a pause spurred by three fatal crashes in 10 days.

Huge brush fire breaks out in Gravesend

A large brush fire broke out just south of the Belt Parkway near Bay 44th Street in Gravesend on Tuesday night, and it took firefighters about five hours to get the blaze under control. FDNY investigators say it burned through wooden debris and trees that had been cut down after Tropical Storm Isaias. FDNY Deputy Chief Phil Solimeo said that because there are no hydrants in the park, firefighters used three tower ladders and four lines of hose to surround the fire. Firefighters were able to keep the fire from spreading to a nearby sports complex, NY1 reported.

Teachers demand more COVID testing

Public school teachers marched through Downtown Brooklyn on Monday evening demanding more COVID-19 testing. The city began admitting public school students on Sept. 21, with Pre-K and special needs students beginning classes first. They will be followed first by elementary school students, and then middle and high school students. While the COVID-19 positivity rate is around 1.2 percent in the city, some areas have higher numbers. In Bensonhurst, for example, the positive infection rate has been around 3 percent for several weeks, according to the Brooklyn Paper.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.