Around Brooklyn: Spike Lee slams Kushner’s comments

November 2, 2020 Editorial Staff

Victorian Flatbush is a fine place for a stroll. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Spike Lee slams Kushner’s comments

Brooklyn-raised director and actor Spike Lee recently criticized Jared Kushner for a recent interview in which he said President Trump can’t help Black Americans be successful “more than they want to be successful.” Lee said, “It’s like there wasn’t 400 years of slavery, systematic racism. We want everything that all Americans want, but this thing has been set up so we can’t get there. Hey, let him come to Brooklyn talking that.” Former President Barack Obama also blasted Kushner for the remarks, according to Politico.

BPL beams Wi-Fi to communities surrounding branches

The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) announced a new initiative aimed at bridging the digital divide. The project is titled “Bklyn Reach: Expanding Wi-Fi Beyond the Branches.” By installing rooftop antennas at library branches in high-need neighborhoods, BPL will extend its free wireless internet signal 300 feet into the community. The new antennas are installed at the Brownsville, Bushwick, Coney Island, Red Hook and Stone Avenue Libraries. Over the next few weeks, antennas will be installed at an additional 14 locations — the Arlington, Bedford, Borough Park, Brighton Beach, Cypress Hills, Jamaica Bay, Kings Bay, Macon, Midwood, New Lots, Saratoga, Walt Whitman, Washington Irving and Flatbush Libraries.

Santander Bank opens ‘Work Café’ in Williamsburg

Santander Bank has chosen Williamsburg for its first work café in the United States. The work café, located at 85 North Sixth St., is an innovation hub for local businesses and the community to nurture new ideas and foster collaboration in a relaxed environment. In addition to banking services and access to a variety of specialists, free amenities also include fully equipped private meeting rooms, co-working spaces, charging outlets, Wi-Fi and 24/7 ATMs, according to Business Wire.

24-hour supermarket opens at Greenpoint Landing

Riverside Market, described as an international supermarket, has opened at Greenpoint Landing, an expanding residential complex on the North Brooklyn waterfront. The 24-hour market will occupy the lower levels of 7 Bell Slip between Newtown Creek and the East River. “As a center of activity in the neighborhood, Greenpoint Landing is the perfect location for Riverside Market,” said Bejad Musleh, one of the owners of Riverside Market. 7 Bell Slip was the first residential building to be completed within the 22-acre Greenpoint Landing development, according to New York YIMBY.

Adams testifies on women’s issues

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams released testimony that he delivered Thursday on two City Council bills, both introduced at his request, at a joint hearing held by the City Council’s Committee on Women and Gender Equity and Committee on Health and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in New York City. “I am proud to be supporting Intro 1662, a necessary complement to the groundbreaking legislation this Council passed in 2016 requiring lactation rooms in certain public buildings to ensure these rooms are safe and sanitary, and Intro 1828, which will proactively address the public health issue of female genital mutilation, which affects thousands of women throughout the U.S.,” he said.

Election watch party in Bed-Stuy

On Tuesday, Concerned Community 4 Change, Riders for Black Lives, Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corp and Brooklyn Community Board 3 plan to hold an election night watch event, to which the public is invited. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton St. The rally will be accompanied by political speakers, musical guests, and food and drinks. It will also include the unveiling of the Brooklyn Ball, similar to the Times Square Ball that is seen on New Year’s.

Four-story building planned for Bushwick

Permits have been filed for a four-story building 257 Evergreen Ave. in Bushwick. The lot, currently vacant, is located at the intersection of Evergreen Avenue and Stockholm Street and is two blocks from the M train’s Central Avenue subway station. Martin Pearl is listed as the owner, and Naresh Mahangu of NY Building Associates is listed as the architect of record. The building will have 13 apartments, most likely rentals, according to New York YIMBY.

Illegal party in Williamsburg warehouse raided

Deputy sheriffs raided an illegal party during the early morning of Halloween with nearly 400 people inside a Williamsburg warehouse. Nine people are facing misdemeanor charges and health violations for disregarding the city and state’s coronavirus regulations. At least 387 people, many without masks or face coverings, were inside the warehouse, the NYC Sheriff’s Office said. Party-goers were charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and violating executive orders that put a ban on mass gatherings, according to NBC News.

Auxiliary bishop resigns due to age

Pope Francis recently accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros of the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Cisneros, who was born in Cuba, was 75 years old, the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation to the pope. He was named auxiliary bishop in 2006. Cisneros will keep his other position, as pastor of the parishes of Holy Child Jesus and St. Benedict Joseph Labre in Richmond Hill, Queens. “I am grateful to Bishop Cisneros for his willingness to serve and was honored to ordain him and consecrate him as an auxiliary bishop,” Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said in a statement, according to Crux, a Catholic website. Cisneros was originally ordained as a priest by Brooklyn Bishop Mugavero in 1971.

New “Bushwick Generator” office building

New York-based architecture firm HWKN has introduced the plans for “Bushwick generator,” a new office campus in that neighborhood. “The generator is truly a campus, an amalgam of community, novelty and authenticity. It is the antithesis of the sterile silicon valley office park,” the firm says. The building would include 400,000 square feet of workspace. The building, based on an octagonal floor plate, would also include portions of existing industrial buildings on the site. Also included would be public spaces that can be used for exhibitions, performances and social events, according to Designboom, an architecture and design-oriented website. Most of the building is glass-and-steel, renderings suggest, but at the bottom there is a more traditional brick, rectangular structure.

Luncheonette fights for survival

Gertie, described as a “Jewish-American luncheonette” on Grand Street in Williamsburg, is one of many restaurants throughout the five boroughs fighting for survival in the era of COVID-19. It has several ventures now, including a soup kitchen in the morning, an outdoor restaurant three nights a week, and pickup and delivery. Last year, sales were $30,000 a week; now, the restaurant earns about $1,000 per day, according to the New York Times. While restaurants are now allowed to open indoors at 25 percent capacity, many of them, including Gertie, have yet to do so or are waiting for the state’s approval for 50 percent capacity.

Uber passenger shot, killed in Flatlands

An Uber passenger who requested a pit stop during his trip was shot and killed early Saturday, police said. At one point, Sheldon Nyack, 32, asked his driver to make a stop at Avenue H between East 53rd and East 54th streets. When Nyack got back in the car, he said he’d been shot, and the driver took him to Brookdale Hospital. He died in surgery just before 2 a.m., according to the New York Post. This was one of several shootings in the city last weekend.

Parker condemns Nigeria shootings

Sen. Kevin Parker (D-East Flatbush-Flatbush-Midwood-Kensington-Park Slope) recently released a statement on the shootings that killed 56 people in Nigeria since the “End SARS” protests began in early October. “Today I add my voice to the cries of the international community in denouncing the shooting of protestors in Nigeria at the hands of the local police. The reports coming out of the region of police randomly opening gunfire on peaceful protests are horrific,” he said.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.