Around Brooklyn: Rose bill condemning white supremacists passes House

October 2, 2020 Editorial Staff

The Gowanus Canal. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

Share this:

Rose bill condemning white supremacists passes House

U.S Rep. Max Rose (D-Southern Brooklyn-Staten Island) this week saw the House of Representatives pass his Transnational White Supremacist Extremism Review Act, which would direct the Department of Homeland Security to develop a terrorist threat assessment of foreign white supremacist groups. “The homeland security threat posed by white supremacist extremists is pervasive and it is persistent,” said Rose. “And extremists exploit such crises as we are in right now—often, this involves the targeting of the most vulnerable in society.”

Navy Yard art exhibit to benefit charities, artists

“Small Works for Big Change,” a virtual exhibit and fundraiser at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, has launched its second session with 10 new artists and more than 25 new offerings for sale, including works that were created during the pandemic. The exhibition, which benefits dozens of artists affected by COVID-19 as well as a variety of charities, has already raised thousands of dollars and is slated to run through Oct. 31. The initiative is part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation’s ongoing efforts to support its arts community and help its tenants recover from the ongoing pandemic. “Artists and innovators are essential to our ecosystem at the Yard,” said David Ehrenberg, President & CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation

Four injured in three-car crash

Four people were hurt on Thursday afternoon when three cars collided on the westbound Belt Parkway at the Stillwell Avenue viaduct over the MTA transit yard there. None of the injuries was considered life-threatening, and most of the injured were taken by EMS to NYU-Langone-Brooklyn. The crash took place around 12:30 p.m. when two cars collided, causing a third car to be damaged. The crash resulted in a Nissan Rogue losing control and overturning on the highway, blocking most of the lanes. The westbound highway was blocked for almost an hour, and the eastbound lanes suffered heavy delays as emergency vehicles responded to the scene, according to amNewYork.

App offers guided tours of Brooklyn neighborhoods

A Brooklyn-based company is offering audio tours of Brooklyn neighborhoods through their free app. Gesso, which specializes in creating audio guides for museums, switched to creating guided walks through New York City neighborhoods during the coronavirus pandemic. “We were asking ourselves what it’s like to be a travel company during these times when it’s so uncertain and no one can travel,” Gesso co-founder Henna Wang told the Brooklyn Paper. In Brooklyn, the app offers three guided audio tours for the Brooklyn Bridge, Williamsburg and Prospect Park.

Carroll asks de Blasio to end tax lien sale

Assemblymember Robert Carroll (D-Park Slope-Windsor Terrace-Kensington) send a letter recently to Mayor Bill de Blasio saying that the mayor should not only suspend the tax lien sale for 2020 in light of the current economic downturn, but should end it permanently. The tax lien sale was slated to take place on Sept. 25, but was delayed first by de Blasio and then by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Without further intervention, the sale will proceed on Oct. 4. “In the best of times, selling property tax warrants to private companies is an ugly practice. In this time of COVID-19, when homeowners are under extreme circumstances, it is reprehensible,” said Carroll.

Fort Greene Fling to be held online

This year, the Fort Greene Conservancy’s Fort Greene Fling will be held virtually on Oct. 17. It will feature music by DJ Sadiq Bellamy, who created Soul Summit, a dance party held in the same park for many years. The Fling will also include a tribute to Charles Jarden, the Conservancy past chair, and poetry readings from Girls Be Heard, a local organization promoting the voices of girls and young women.

Pizzeria offers ‘comforting words’

Vinnie’s Pizzeria in Williamsburg is offering its customers “positive reinforcement” by way of a “comforting words” add-on on its delivery app. The item was added to the pizzeria’s menu on Tuesday and was publicized by a tweet from the restaurant. The words will cost $1, and with them you get a delivery driver to “look you straight in the eyes and tell you, ‘Everything’s gonna be OK and you’re doing the best you can,’” according to Fox News.

Broccoli bar sprouts in Fort Greene

At 690 Fulton St. in Fort Greene, Brisket Brothers has given way to the Broccoli Bar, a branch of a business that’s already active in Burlington, Vermont. The broccoli-centric vegan restaurant is being opened by Trevon Sullivan, his partner Lisa Bergstrom and Brooklyn resident Jeremiah Vogelman. “My mission is to get more people than ever before turned on to vegan food,” Sullivan said, adding that New York City is a prime place to do that. “To me, New York is one of the gateways to the world,” he told Sevendaysvt, a Vermont-based lifestyle website.

NYU Langone-Brooklyn expands electrophysiology lab

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in New York City. This is a principal reason why NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn has built a state-of-the-art cardiac electrophysiology lab and appointed Dr. Robert J. Knotts as its site director. The lab increases access to the latest techniques used to treat abnormal heart rhythms, known as arrhythmias, which can lead to life-threatening conditions if left untreated. “The fields of cardiology and electrophysiology are constantly changing,” says Dr. Knotts. “Our ability to effectively identify and treat arrhythmias is greatly enhanced by cutting-edge technology. It’s really exciting to bring that to Brooklyn.”

Local theater co. to support Black theater groups

The Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn will lead The Black Seed, a new program to support Black U.S. theaters, kickstarted by a $5 million gift from the Mellon Foundation. There will be up to 50 grants, ranging from one to three years and $30,000 to $300,000. Selected theaters will be announced in December. “The Black Seed stands on the shoulders of Black theatre leaders who came before and centered the work by us, for us, about us, and near us,” said Indira Etwaroo, who conceived the project and serves as executive artistic director of the Billie Holiday Theater, according to Playbill.

Contact tracers go to Borough Park

Contact tracers from the city’s Test and Trace Corps hit the streets in Borough Park on Thursday and Friday, just prior to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and gave out boxes of masks, hand sanitizer, and literature, some of it in Yiddish warning the Orthodox Jewish community of the dangers of coronavirus. Borough Park now has a “positivity” rate after coronavirus tests of more than 5 percent. Contact tracers said the people in the neighborhood were receptive to the masks. One resident who asked not to be identified said, “I don’t see of people getting sick right now, but I guess better to not take too many chances,” according to amNewYork.

Six-story building planned in East Flatbush

Permits have been filed for a six-story residential building at 1529 Brooklyn Ave. in East Flatbush. The site, between Farragut and Glenwood roads, is now occupied by a single-family house and is near the 2 and 5 trains’ Newkirk Avenue station. The building is slated to have 17 apartments, most likely rentals, as well as a rear yard and nine enclosed parking spaces. Joseph Rubin is listed as the owner, and S. Wieder Architect is listed as the architect of record, according to New York YIMBY.

Staten Island not happy about return of deer

Many Staten Islanders are not happy about the return to their borough of a tagged deer who was captured after running around a residential Southern Brooklyn neighborhood. The Parks Department said deer are good swimmers and have been seen swimming from Staten Island to Brooklyn in the past. A Parks spokesperson also says Staten Island has an established deer population, while Brooklyn does not. This winter will mark the fifth year of a $6.5 million vasectomy program on the island, according to the Staten Island Advance.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.