Around Brooklyn: Brooklyn Chamber to hold virtual annual meeting

November 3, 2020 Editorial Staff

Downtown Brooklyn's Barclays Center. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Brooklyn Chamber to hold virtual annual meeting

On Thursday night, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce will hold its 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Chamber President and CEO Randy Peers will present “2020: A Year of Resilience and Recovery,” telling the stories of Brooklyn’s small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and the key challenges and solutions for ensuring their survival. Greg David, fiscal and economics reporter of THE CITY and formerly of Crain’s New York business, will also speak. Those wishing to attend virtually can visit the Chamber’s website.

Brooklyn Museum, Netflix present ‘The Queen and the Crown’

From now until Dec. 13, the Brooklyn Museum, with the cooperation of Netflix, will be hosting “The Queen and the Crown,” a virtual costume exhibition showcasing costume designs from the award-winning drama series “The Crown.” You can explore the costumes and artwork in intimate detail and discover the visual aesthetics that help to bring these stories of strong, leading women in 20th Century America and Britain to life. Objects from the museums’ collection relating to key characters and visual themes in the series will be presented along with an interactive digital view of the costumes.

Kings Highway BID to hold annual meeting

Representatives of businesses within the Kings Highway Business Improvement District and others are invited to attend the BID’s annual meeting at 2 p.m. on Dec. 16. To vote for the board of directors, you must be a member or register for membership at www.shopkingshighwaybid.org. Councilmember Chaim Deutsch, State Sen. Simcha Felder, Councilmember Kalman Yeger and Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein are hosting a forum for small business owners with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. Participating business owners will have the opportunity to ask questions, according to the BID.

190 firefighters respond to massive fire

More than 190 firefighters responded to a massive fire at an auto shop in eastern Brooklyn on Saturday, and three of them were injured. The fire started around 7:30 a.m. at the corner of Atlantic and Autumn avenues in East New York. The FDNY requested hazmat crews due to chemicals at the scene. When firefighters arrived, heavy smoke that could be seen for miles around was pouring out of the building. Fire investigators say the blaze was fueled by a number of combustible materials inside, according to CBS New York.

Woman shot in ankle during robbery attempt

On Monday morning around 2:30 a.m., a young couple were walking on Maujer Street in East Williamsburg when an armed thief approached them and demanded money. Police said the male victim resisted and tried to get the gun out of the robber’s hand. This made the gun go off and accidentally hit the woman in the right ankle. The attacker then fled. The young woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she was reported to be in stable condition, police said.

Pols introduce bills to help small biz

State Sen. Simcha Felder (D-Borough Park-Midwood), Assemblymember Simcha Eisenstein (D-Borough Park-Midwood) and Councilmember Kalman Yeger (D-Borough Park-Bensonhurst-Midwood) on Monday introduced state and city legislation to help small businesses that have been given fines during the COVID pandemic outbreak. “Known as the Save Our Stores Act, the measure will target the ongoing senseless lockdowns and excessive fines in red zones,” the lawmakers said, alluding to neighborhoods where the city and state-imposed shutdowns due to increases in COVID cases.

Adams delivers plant-based shakes

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on Monday visited the Signature Senior Center in the “red zone” of Midwood to deliver packages of personal protective equipment as well as plant-based nutrition shakes to the residents and staff. The visit comes as the city prepares for a possible new wave of COVID-19 infections and the city and state consider reimposing lockdown measures to stem any emerging outbreaks. The center is located at 631 Foster Ave.

Head of anti-violence group receives award

Dr. Robert Gore, the founder and executive director of the Kings Against Violence Initiative in Brooklyn, has been honored by Teachers College of Columbia University with the Morton Deutsch Award for Social Justice in Practice. Gore is an attending physician and clinical assistant professor at Kings County Hospital-SUNY Downstate Department of Emergency Medicine. He leads KAVI, a nonprofit organization that seeks to remove the threat of interpersonal violence from young people’s lives. He has weekly workshops that focus on meditation, conflict resolution, skill development and more. He helps former patients who are the victims of violence get an ID card, a safe place to live, or a safe way to get from their house to the hospital for follow-up checkups.

12-year-old boy punched at random

A 12-year-old boy sitting on the curb waiting for a friend in Sheepshead Bay was punched in the face in a brutal assault that was caught on camera. The incident happened after 3 p.m. on Oct. 14 at the corner of East 13th Street and Avenue T. An unknown adult man approached the youth from behind, tapped him on the shoulder, then punched him in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. The victim suffered fractures to his facial bones, bleeding and bruising. He was taken to Coney Island Hospital in stable condition, according to Eyewitness News.

Private schools in ‘red zone’ allowed to open

Private and religious schools in New York’s red and orange zones will be able to reopen, under an agreement reached Friday with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. This affects yeshivas and Catholic schools in the southern Brooklyn red zone that has seen an upsurge in coronavirus cases. During a conference call, Cuomo said his office has been working with the private schools to find a way to safely reopen for students and staff. The new agreement requires initial testing of all students, followed by random testing of 25 percent of the student body every week. Any red or orange zone with 300 or more students and a positivity rate exceeding 2 percent would need to close and transition to online learning, according to published reports.

Two dead from carbon monoxide

Two people were killed on Monday after being poisoned by carbon monoxide in an apartment building in Bensonhurst. The two victims, both adult men, were affected by the gas in a basement apartment on Avenue O near West 4th Street around 7:30 p.m., according to police. Firefighters responded to the apartment and declared them dead at the scene. Four other people were treated at the scene but did not require hospitalization. A man who lives on the second floor of the building told the New York Post that “We were getting headaches from Saturday night overnight to Sunday.” The cause of the apparent leak is being investigated.

Man shot at basement club

Cops are seeking two gunmen who shot and seriously injured a man at a basement party in Park Slope on Sunday afternoon. The shooting happened around 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 1 inside the basement of 688 Union St. at the corner of 5th Avenue. Police received a 911 call about the shooting and found the victim, a 30-year-old man, shot in the stomach and chest. The man, who was unconscious at the time, was rushed to Methodist Hospital, where he is being treated. Witnesses said that two heavy-set Black men wearing all black with black masks shot the man in what may have been a robbery attempt. Residents were surprised to hear that a club may have been operating in the basement. One man said a “weed party” was going on at the time, according to published reports.

Seven-story building planned for Williamsburg

Permits have been filed for a seven-story residential building at 297 Wallabout St. in South Williamsburg. The site, now a vacant lot, is a block from the M and J train’s Lorimer Street subway station. Five residences are planned, most likely condos, as well as a rear yard and five enclosed parking spaces. Lazar Waldman is listed as the owner, and Jongmin Kim Architects is listed as the architect of record, according to New York YIMBY.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.