Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, August 27, 2021

August 27, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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HIGH HOLY DAYS FOOD DRIVE: City Harvest, NYC’s largest food rescue organization, will hold its annual High Holy Days Food Drive through September 20, to collect kosher food that will help feed Jewish families across New York City. As the city emerges from the pandemic lockdown, an increasing number of Jewish households are in need. All food collected during the High Holy Days Food Drive will be delivered to 24 kosher food programs across the five boroughs with which City Harvest partners.

Volunteers interested in participating in the High Holy Days Food Drive can run a traditional canned food drive by collecting non-perishable kosher foods such as tuna, salmon, sardines, peanut butter, and beans in a central location for pickup by one of City Harvest’s trucks, or run an online food drive through City Harvest partner #GiveHealthy, by building an online food drive page.

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PROTECTING THE ELECTRIC GRID: Revel and Electric Era have announced a partnership to deploy a groundbreaking new battery storage system at Revel’s Brooklyn Superhub in Bedford-Stuyvesant. This partnership’s objective is to ensure Revel’s depot doesn’t overstrain an already overburdened grid and is expected to reduce demand charges tied to the site’s power supply.

Revel is the first electric mobility company to use Electric Era’s revolutionary PowerNode Battery System to reduce its reliance on the grid and reduce operating costs.

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DRUG PLEA IN BROOKLYN FEDERAL COURT: United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. in federal court in Brooklyn, received a guilty plea on Thursday from Angelina Barini for distributing narcotics and causing the deaths of two victims. Specifically, Barini, from Queens, pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing narcotics that caused the deaths of a person; one count of distributing fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine; and one count of conspiring to distribute gamma-butyrolactone (GBL).

Barini faces a minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum term of life imprisonment when she is sentenced, which is expected to take place on October 26.

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CAPPING THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY FEES: Right after the New York City Council passed legislation that permanently caps third-party delivery platform fees and creates a licensing structure for the platforms, Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, issued this statement: “The City Council has taken a critically important step toward protecting New York City eateries by passing legislation to permanently cap the outrageous third-party delivery fees charged by these billion-dollar corporations, which follows a package of legislation passed last month regulating these platforms’ predatory practices.”

Urging Mayor de Blasio to sign the bills into law immediately, Rigie said, “These first-in-the-nation bills are common sense and widely supported because they create a more equitable marketplace for local businesses and rein in certain billion-dollar corporations that have hurt New York City’s restaurants and workers for too long.”

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PUBLIC MEETINGS ON CONGESTION PRICING: Public meetings to discuss what could be the nation’s first congestion pricing program will be held starting Thursday, Sept. 23. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), New York State Department of Transportation (NYS DOT) and New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) will hold 13 public meetings between Thursday, Sept. 23, and Wednesday, Oct. 13, on congesting pricing’s formal name, the proposed Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP). The meetings, all of which will be held virtually, will allow the public in a 28-county region in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey to learn more about the initiative and offer comments.

The Project Sponsors also today launched a website at new.mta.info/project/CBDTP devoted to sharing information about the program, the environmental review process, gathering public input, and allowing people to register to participate in the public meetings, including three that will focus on minority and/or low-income communities in the Study Area.

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PRISON SHIPS MONUMENT TRIBUTE: The 114th annual Commemoration and Memorial Tribute to the Martyrs of the Prison Ships, America’s first POW’s, on the 245th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, takes place this Saturday, Aug, 28, at the base of the 149-foot tall Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, on the hilltop in Fort Greene Park, DeKalb Avenue and Washington Park. Rosamond Fletcher. executive director of the Fort Greene Conservancy; Society of Old Brooklynites’ President George Broadhead, a decorated Marine Corps veteran; Brooklyn Historian Ronald Schweiger and Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Martin Maher will be speakers at the 10 a.m. program, which will include a symbolic maritime piping ceremony, FDNY Pipers and FDNY Ceremonial Color Guard, Taps, interpretive ballet dance of mourning, tolling of eight slow bells and a wreath laying.

The actual remains of 11,500 patriots who were imprisoned and perished aboard British Prison Ships during the American Revolution are entombed in a large crypt under the towering Prison Ship Martyrs Monument.

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WORK CONTINUES ON GRAND ST. BRIDGE: Overnight maintenance on the Grand Street Bridge over Newtown Creek in Greenpoint has been extended through mid-September. The NYCDOT Division of Bridges will continue conducting maintenance, necessitating full nighttime bridge closures from Sundays to Fridays from August 29 to September 17. between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night.

Metropolitan Avenue may be used as an alternate route.

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FAITH-BASED ‘VACCINE FOR ALL’ CAMPAIGN: Several houses of worship will join forces with the NYC Mayor’s Office this weekend to promote NYC’s “Vaccine For All” recovery efforts. Clergy leaders from Brooklyn and the other boroughs will simultaneously preach, teach, share, or host a vaccination clinic for the communities they serve.

Among the participating churches and mosques are the Christian Cultural Center on Flatlands Ave., three congregations in Bay Ridge, and several in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and East Flatbush. For a full list, visit https://www1.nyc.gov/site/trie/news/vaccine-weekend-of-faith-2021.page

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POSTAGE RATE INCREASE: Readers mailing a letter or package will have to pay more for postage, starting this Sunday, August 29. A First Class stamp will cost 58 cents, up from 55 cents. Rates for First Class, Marketing Mail and Special Services will rise by around 7 percent. Periodicals, Bound Printed Matter, Media Mail and Library Mail will increase by around 9 percent

“Non-market-dominant” services, like Priority Mail and First Class Package Services, are not covered by this increase, but will see holiday season rate increases that will be in effect from Oct. 3 through Dec. 26.

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CENTER FOR FICTION’S NEW BROOKLYN HOME: The Center for Fiction, now celebrating its 200th year, has reopened with a new home in Brooklyn. Following a 17-month hiatus, this literary nonprofit that was founded as the Mercantile Library of New York is now based in the heart of the BAM Cultural District at 15 Lafayette Ave., with an 18,000-square-foot facility. The coming season’s educational programming will include a free public event that is part of The Center’s KidsRead initiative, where young readers can virtually meet bestselling middle-grade author Alan Gratz, presented in partnership with The New York Society Library.

The Center will also be honoring several writers throughout the fall, including the next group of Emerging Writer Fellows, the winner of the Bridge Book Award, and the winner of the First Novel Prize, to be announced at a December 7 gala.