Around Brooklyn: Pols hold anti-tax lien sale rally

November 16, 2020 Editorial Staff

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is so pretty in the March sunshine. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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Pols hold anti-tax lien sale rally

Assemblymember Latrice Walker (D-Brownsville), State Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Bushwick, Cypress Hills, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York) and City Councilmember Brad Lander (D-Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington) hosted a rally on Saturday calling on the City Council to abolish the NYC tax lien sale and for the state legislature to pass the NYS Small Homes Anti-Speculation Act. The event took place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at 486 Glenmore Ave. in Brownsville.

Clinton Hill toy store geared to creative kids

Clixo, a new toy store for curious kids, has opened at 109 Gates Ave. in Clinton Hill. It functions both as a toy store and a design space and has gadgets for kids ages 4 and up. At the store, kids can take classes, using materials to build their own creations and more. Safety protocols are in place, including reduced capacity, tracing waivers, mask requirements and sanitized play stations. “Throughout my career, I was always fascinated by the way kids think and how agile and flexible their minds are,” Toyish Labs CEO and creator of Clixo Assaf Eshet told Time Out New York. “I was really inspired to give them — and even us as adults — tools to channel this creativity, not in a forced way. My intention is to experiment and keep creating without self-judgment.”

Search for vaccine comes to Brooklyn

NYU Langone Hospital has opened two new vaccine center locations in Brooklyn and Long Island in order to expand enrollment in clinical trials of vaccines and experimental treatments for COVID-19. The Brooklyn location is at the hospital on 55th Street in Sunset Park. The expansion will help enroll the 30,000 total patients needed to try out an experimental vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. “The expansion of the vaccine center into Brooklyn is an enormous opportunity and will have a meaningful impact in the global effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Stephanie Sterling, a co-leader of the new Brooklyn research clinic, according to Patch.

BRIC announces recipients of art prize

BRIC, a well-known performing arts organization, has announced the 2010 recipients of the Colene Brown Art Prize, an unrestricted $100,000 grant awarded in amounts of $10,000 each to ten New York-based visual artists. The 2020 Colene Brown Art Prize recipients are: Caitlin Cherry (born in Chicago, IL; based in New York, NY), Zachary Fabri (born Miami, FL; based in Brooklyn, NY), Scherezade Garcia (born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; based in Brooklyn, NY), Nate Lewis (born in Beaver Falls, PA; based in New York, NY and Washington, D.C.), Joiri Minaya (born in New York, NY; based in New York, NY), Kambui Olujimi (born in Brooklyn, NY; based in Queens, NY), Erwin Redl (born in Gföhl, Austria; based in New York, NY and Bowling Green, OH), Christophe Roberts (born in Chicago, IL; based in Brooklyn, NY), Naomi Safran-Hon (born in Oxford, UK; based in New York, NY), and Michelle Segre (born in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel; based in New York, NY).

BP Adams questions need to shut schools

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams on Friday released a statement on potential school closures due to rising COVID-19 cases. “Before the City moves to shut down schools that are not experiencing any documented cases of the virus, it must explain why comprehensive testing and tracing to prevent outbreaks is either not available or effective. The last thing we should do is unnecessarily compromise the futures of our students by further overloading a remote learning system that has been a disaster — especially for Black and Latino and lower-income families,” he said.

Anniversary of Abe Reles’ fall in Coney Island

Nov. 12 was the anniversary of the famed 1941 incident in which turncoat Murder Inc. member Abe Relens, who was testifying for the government against his former compatriots, either fell from or was pushed from the Coney Island hotel room where the cops were hiding him. The Daily News recently spotlighted Michael Cannell’s “A Brotherhood Betrayed: The Man Behind the Rise and Fall of Murder Inc.” Reles grew up in Brownsville, where he soon became a hired goon for local gangsters. By age 30, he was the king of the rackets in that neighborhood. Then, New York’s syndicate bosses assigned him to the underworld’s assassination squad, known as Murder Inc. Eventually, with many murders under his belt, the law caught up with Reles and he was ready to make a deal, the Daily News reported.

Construction worker crushed between trucks

A construction worker who was standing between two trucks on Friday was crushed to death when one of the vehicles backed into him. Saqueo Mejia, 24, of Sunset Park, was crushed just after noon on Troy Avenue when a large dump truck backed up, pinning him against the second truck. The driver did not realize that Mejia was behind him until witnesses alerted him. Mejia was taken to Kings County Hospital, according to the New York Post.

Greenwood Heights tower divides residents

Neighbors are divided about whether a partly affordable apartment building proposed for 737 Fourth Ave. near 25th Street would help fix the area’s housing crisis or make it worse. The application, which proposes rezoning to build the 14-story building, had 46 speakers on both sides of the issue during its first public hearing at Community Board 7. Of the 135 apartments, 33 will be affordable. “This is exactly the time we should be supporting projects that commit to affordable housing, especially if the alternative is a parking lot,” said Sunset Park resident Craig Schoenbaum, according to Patch.

Catholic schools to stay open

Catholic schools in Brooklyn and Queens will stay open even if the city’s public schools go totally remote. “The superintendent of Catholic Schools for Brooklyn and Queens today has announced that all 69 schools and academies will remain open and continue to provide in-person learning, irrespective of any impending decision pertaining to the status of New York City public schools,’’ the Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes Queens, said in a statement on Sunday. A Diocese spokesman added, “Our children want to be in the classroom, and we want them to be there for as long as safely possible,” according to the New York Post.

Illegal party broken up

Sheriff’s deputies on Friday broke up an illegal party at Hearts of Love on Liberty Avenue in East New York. About 180 people were found not wearing masks and not social distancing. Security guard Julio Soto and employees Kevin Hunte and David Vaughn were all charged with violating COVID-related executive orders. Soto was hit with the most charges, including obstructing exits, running an unlicensed bottle club and illegally storing alcohol, according to the New York Post.

Runaway Brooklyn youths found in Iowa

A 14-year-old Midwood teen and his 11-year-old girlfriend were found speeding in his father’s car in Iowa on Sunday, police said. Kevin Figueroa and Amaya Arguelles were reported missing on Thursday. Cops pulled them over in Council Bluffs after they found Romeo speeding at the wheel of his dad’s minivan. They were taken to the Council Bluffs Juvenile Detention Center and their parents were notified, according to the New York Post.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.