September 16: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Turned down on the one hand by his Board of Aldermen and on the other by the federal government, Mayor [Fiorello] LaGuardia late yesterday cast about almost hopelessly for funds with which to feed New York’s 400,000 jobless, needy families. And while it seemed that nothing short of a miracle, comparable to Biblical loaves and fishes, would solve the harassed mayor’s dilemma, he declared he was determined to find a way out. ‘There will be no starvation while I am the mayor of New York,’ he said. … Friday, when the Board of Aldermen reported back to committee the mayor’s gross business income tax, with which he hoped to raise a $50,000,000 poor relief fund, [it was] immediately announced that no more checks would be mailed out. Within the hour, William Hodson, commissioner of public welfare, ordered all payments stopped — affecting upward of 1,000,000 New Yorkers. Saturday, in desperation, the mayor petitioned Harry L. Hopkins, federal administrator of relief funds, in the hope of obtaining the government’s share of 50 percent in advance of any relief expenditures by the city. Hopkins told him such a plan was impossible. Under the present arrangement, $17,500,000 is spent each month. Of that amount, the federal government reimburses the city 50 percent; the state 25 percent; the remainder is paid from municipal funds.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1952, the Eagle reported, “Mayor [Vincent] Impellitteri today promised more cops — and more of them ‘back on the beat’ — in an effort to cope with the rising tide of crime in the city. Heeding the pleas of Brooklynites for additional foot patrolmen throughout the borough, the mayor reported that ‘wherever possible,’ only one cop will ride a prowl car instead of the usual two. The other will be released for foot patrol duty, he indicated. Impellitteri promised that 400 policemen will be added to the force Oct. 1. He said a greater number were needed but that he is doing ‘all he could’ under budget limitations. ‘The more cops we have, the safer the streets will be,’ the mayor asserted. He has been gravely concerned with the crime problems in the city, he said, and has held several conferences with department heads and other city aides on the question. In these conferences, he declared, particular attention has been paid to the problem of protecting women against assaults. Even while the mayor was discussing the crime situation, a brazen bandit team staged a daylight bank robbery in the busy Hub section of the Bronx, fleeing with $15,000 from a Manufacturers Trust Company branch.”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.