Around Brooklyn: Will kids see animal sculptures again?

April 5, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Welcome to the Cobble Hill Historic District, which is full of eye-pleasing spots such as Verandah Place. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

Cobble Hill. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

Share this:

Will kids see animal sculptures again?

Some local residents throughout the city are at odds with the Parks Department’s plan to relocate concrete animal sculptures from playgrounds during renovations. Among them are a concrete dolphin sculpture in Cobble Hill Park, eagles in Fort Greene Park, and a metal dragon at the Imagination Playground in Prospect Park. The Parks Department did not say whether all the sculptures will be moved, where they will be moved, or when this would begin. A Parks spokesperson would not say whether all the sculptures would be returned to their original homes, or whether some would be relocated, according to published reports.
* *
NJ theater puts on Brooklyn Bridge play

Theater to Go, a Lawrence, New Jersey-based acting troupe, had planned last year to present a revival of its history play, “Roebling: The Story of the Brooklyn Bridge,” but the plans collapsed with the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the avoid the constraints of the continuing pandemic, the troupe is rewinding its clock five years. It has posted online, for on-demand viewing, a production of “Roebling” that it presented five years ago at Mercer Community College. The play tells the story of how the New Jersey-based family overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to build the famed structure that spans the East River, according to nj.com.
* *
Ferryboat named after Dorothy Day

A new Staten Island Ferry boat has been named for Dorothy Day, the Brooklyn-born radical activist and Catholic convert. Day lived a Greenwich Village-type bohemian lifestyle in her 20s, but in her 30s she embraced Roman Catholicism. She combined her faith with social-justice activism and founded the Catholic Worker movement, according to the Brooklyn Heights Blog.
* *
BPL introduces ‘Whispering Libraries’ program

Some of you may have heard of “Whispering Bells.” But now, the Brooklyn Public Library has a “Whispering Libraries” program in which music, poetry, oral history and spoken literature are played for the public after hours and at select times of day outside 10 local branches. The branches are Bay Ridge, Brownsville, Bushwick, Clarendon, Flatbush, Kensington, Kings Highway, New Utrecht, Park Slope and Sheepshead Bay. Among those whose works are being broadcast are John Lewis, Nicole Sealy, Edwidge Danticat, Lawrence Ferlinghtetti, Ranier, Maria Rilke, Tina Chang, Naomi Klein and others, according to the library system.
* *
Brooklyn man named in insider trading

A Brooklyn man indicted for an insider trading scheme used information from a Bloomberg News reporter about certain deals to trade, according to a review of the charging documents. On March 23, a federal grand jury indicted 38 year-old Jason Peltz for trading on “material nonpublic information” obtained from a company insider and a financial reporter. Peltz has been charged with securities fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, among other offenses. The indictment does not name the journalist or the media outlet, but Reuters and other media outlets have identified him as Ed Hammond, a deals reporter with Bloomberg in New York, according to Reuters.
* *
Union seeks change at juvie center

A union is calling for widespread changes at a Brooklyn juvenile detention center following a violent attack last week. A total of 17 staff members were injured after chaos broke out at the Crossroads Juvenile Center in Brownsville — and the union, SSEU Local 371, says this isn’t the first time its members have been hurt on the job due to violence, according to Brooklyn News 12. “Once the tour commander got to the hall to retrieve two residents — two residents and the rest of the group in the hall — approximately eight residents overpowered the tour commander,” says Derek Robinson, with grievances and legal services in SSEU Local 471. “Once they got through the door, they immediately started attacking staff in the area.”
* *

Girls spit at Jewish man in Williamsburg

Three young girls spat at a Jewish man in Williamsburg before one of them bit a cop who confronted them on Thursday night, police and sources said. The girls, a 13-year-old and two younger than her, threw garbage and spit at the man during an argument near Broadway and Gerry Street at about 7:30 p.m., according to cops and sources. Police were called and located the girls about three blocks away on Humboldt Street near Boerum Street When confronted by the officers, the 13-year-old girl bit one of them, according to the New York Post. She was taken into custody.

Compiled by Raanan Geberer.