Brooklyn Boro

Around Brooklyn: Clarke leads effort to close learning gap in schools

December 2, 2020 Editorial Staff
Riders on the G train practice social distancing on March 30. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle
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Clarke leads effort to close learning gap in schools

U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-Brownsville, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Park Slope, Midwood, Sheepshead Bay) last week led the way in writing a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit V. Pai pushing to reform the E-Rate program to accommodate distanced learning and do more to close the learning gap.” “As we await the rollout of coronavirus vaccines in the coming months, we must not lose sight of the immediate needs of students that have been hurt the most by this pandemic. Nearly 30% of all US households lack broadband access rising to over 40% for low-income households. While many schools went remote, these students have been effectively pushed out of school,” she said.

Brooklyn Museum awards UOVO Prize

The Brooklyn Museum has awarded Baseera Khan the second annual UOVO Prize, which recognizes the work of emerging Brooklyn-based artists. Khan’s work concentrates on performance, Islamic cultural and religious ephemera, sculpture, collage and video, and addresses issues of surveillance, otherness and the body. As the awardee, Khan will receive a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, a commission for a 50×50-foot public art installation on the façade of UOVO: BROOKLYN, located in Bushwick, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant. Their public installation and Museum exhibition will debut in fall of 2021. Khan was selected by a team of curators from the Brooklyn Museum. “I remember moving to Brooklyn in 2007, quite close to the Brooklyn Museum in fact, and I’ve lived close by ever since,” says Khan. “I am deeply moved that my first museum solo exhibition will happen in a space that provided me and others with so much comfort during the lockdown of COVID-19.”

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Palestinian restaurant opens in Bay Ridge

A new restaurant named Ayat, featuring Palestinian street food, recently opened on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge. Its food is the standard falafel, babaganoush, grape leaves and shawarma that is found throughout the Middle East. However, it has a steel dome with a hot surface that cooks thin flatbread, which is essential to Palestinian meals. The restaurant is named for co-owner Ayat Masoud, a lawyer who was born in Brooklyn of Palestinian parents. Her view of Palestinian cuisine comes from her family’s traditions, which overlap with those of cooks from the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, according to The New York Times.

Greenpoint store may close after $80K shipment is lost

A failed Fed Ex shipment containing $80,000 worth of material from China, destined for a shop in Greenpoint that sells custom-designed silk garments, may spell doom for the store. Wray Serna, owner of the boutique Wray, said she was counting on the material to be delivered on time for the holiday shopping season. However, after arriving in Queens, the shipment has gone completely missing. It was apparently lost in Fed Ex’s delivery process, although the delivery giant still says the shipment is “in transit,” according to NBC News.

Brooklyn College soccer coach dies

Joseph Andre, the head men’s soccer coach at Brooklyn College, recently died at home unexpectedly. Coach Andre joined the BC Men’s Soccer program in 2014 as an assistant coach. He was promoted to head coach in 2015. Under Coach Andre’s leadership, BC Men’s Soccer has qualified for the CUNYAC Championship tournament semifinals and eventually earned a bid to play in the Eastern College Athletic Association postseason tournament. During his tenure, Coach Andre helped mentor a CUNYAC Player of the Year, a CUNYAC and ECAC Rookie of the Year, a conference Sportsmanship Award winner, and a number of CUNYAC All-Stars and Scholar-Athlete Award recipients.

Savino, Weinstein protect rights of deceased

State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Coney Island, Staten Island) and Assemblymember Helene Weinstein (D-Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands, East Flatbush, Midwood, Canarsie) on Monday saw Gov. Andrew Cuomo sign their legislation (S5959D /A.5605-C) that establishes a “Right to Publicity” for deceased individuals to protect against the commercial exploitation, or unauthorized use, of their personal characteristics that have commercial value – their name, picture, voice or signature after their death. Additionally, these rights can be exercised by their descendants, giving performers’ estates the ability to control and protect their likeness or image after they have died.

Chef goes solo with bread bakery

In mid-March, with the coming of the COVID pandemic, chef Tyler Lee Steinbrenner was furloughed from his job at Aska, a Nordic restaurant in Williamsburg. Soon, he started to bake and began ACQ Brad Co. (that stands for Anti-Conquest) in Carroll Gardens. There, he began donating loaves of slow-fermented sourdough bread to protesters, hospital workers, community meetings, volunteers at community cleanups and others. Steinbrenner is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. No word on whether he’s related to George Steinbrenner.

Brooklyn cab driver honored for good deeds

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke, Brooklyn resident Syed Bukhari gave up his job driving a black-car limo because there was no business. However, he soon became one of the many livery drivers who delivered food as part of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s Emergency Food Delivery initiative. The TLC held its seventh annual Honor Roll to honor drivers who have helped city residents. Bukhari, a Pakistani immigrant, lives in Midwood and has been a TLC driver for more than 15 years, according to published reports.

Postal Service worker injured in car crash

A U.S. Postal Service worker was critically injured Tuesday afternoon after the car he was driving was struck by an allegedly speeding vehicle that went through a stop sign. The crash took place around 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 1 at the corner of East 105th Street and Avenue L. Police say a grey Mercedes Benz, traveling at high speeds along East 105th Street, broadsided the postal worker’s Subaru Forester, which was heading east on Avenue L. The impact caused the Subaru to smash into a parked Nissan pickup truck before flipping onto its side against a brick wall. It took rescue workers 20 minutes to cut the postal worker out of the Subaru, according to published reports.

Adams seeks nominations for ‘COVID heroes’

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is preparing to honor a third round of “COVID Heroes” who have stepped up during the pandemic, and he is seeking nominations from his fellow Brooklynites to choose who those heroes will be. The borough president first held a COVID heroes event in September and celebrated a second group earlier this month, which included top infectious disease expert and Brooklyn native Dr. Anthony Fauci. The third group will be honored sometime after Dec. 11, the deadline for nominations for the third round of candidates. The official date for the ceremony will be announced later, according to Patch.

Cops seek Brooklyn rapper

A Brooklyn rapper known as Casanova is wanted by the FBI. His real name is Caswell Senior, and the feds say he’s a member of a violent street gang. Casanova is one of 18 members charged with drug trafficking and racketeering in New York City and upstate. Federal agents believe he could be in Atlanta, since he has ties to that city. One of the other suspects is charged with murdering a Poughkeepsie teenager in September, according to CBS News.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.


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