Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, November 12, 2021

November 12, 2021 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Share this:

VETERANS DAY CEREMONY AT WAR MEMORIAL: A Veterans Day ceremony with color guard took place yesterday, Nov. 11, at Cadman Plaza Park’s Brooklyn War Memorial. It memorialized Norman Wasserman, a longtime Brooklyn Heights resident and writer. Wasserman was honored in 2012 with the French Legion of Honor medal for his valor during the bloody World War II Battle of the Bulge. The prestigious medal symbolizes “France’s infinite gratitude and appreciation.”

Guest speaker at the wreath-laying ceremony was Glomani Bravo-Lopez. Local elected officials participated.

✰✰✰

Jasmine Salazar, director of a new diocesan office to protect children and young people.
Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Brooklyn

NEW DIOCESAN OFFICE TO PROTECT CHILDREN: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has created the new Office for Protection of Children and Young People to enhance its strong safe environment protocols. This newly established office will oversee the Safe Environment Office, the Office of Victim Assistance Ministry, with Jasmine Salazar, LMSW, currently the Diocese of Brooklyn Victim Assistance Coordinator and Vice-Chancellor, named the director of the Office for Protection of Children and Young People. Her responsibilities include tracking all allegations of misconduct, ensuring their referral to the Diocesan Review Board for investigation, and tracking the progress and results of those investigations.

Salazar, who had since 2013 been the diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator, also serves as the liaison with the New York City Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, and oversees the 1722 Supervisor, who will be central in monitoring priests who have been removed from ministry.

✰✰✰

CHURCH BELLS RING OUT ON CLIMATE CHANGE: Members of the Oratory Parish of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church recently took part in Ring Out For Climate Change, as a warning of the climate emergency and to mark the start of the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Rev. Michael Callaghan, c.o., the Oratory Parish of Assumption’s pastor, reports that the assembly gathered on Cranberry Street to ring the church hand bells, concurrently the bells at sister St. Boniface Church in MetroTech. The evening Mass at Assumption had a focus on the environment in light of the Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si.

The youth confirmation class wrote some of the prayers for this Mass, Families and youth also made signs to hold and display on the fences of Assumption parish.

Posters and signs displayed at the Climate Change observance with the Oratory Assumption and St. Boniface parishes. Photos courtesy Oratory Parish of the Assumption
Photo courtesy Oratory Parish of the Assumption

✰✰✰

IPS NEWS: SUPPORT FOR AFRICAN BURIAL GROUND MEMORIAL— City Councilmember Mathieu Eugene has announced his support for the creation of a memorial at the site of the former African Burial Ground at the corner of Church and Bedford avenues in Flatbush. Councilmember Eugene, who has allocated $4 million to this project from his Fiscal Year 2022 Capital Budget, points out, “This section of land has been neglected for several years.”

He has worked with the Mayor’s Office and the City Economic Development Corp. to envision a memorial that will also serve as a vocational training center for youth and provide affordable housing.

✰✰✰

MAYOR’S RESOURCE FAIR COMES TO NAVY YARD: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s final Resource Fair before he leaves office takes place next Tuesday, November 16. The Resource Fair, which gives voters an opportunity to connect with the entire city government body all in one place, is being held at Madison Square Boys & Girls Club Navy Yard location, 240 Nassau St., from 2-6 p.m. Citizens can bring their concerns to representatives from more than 50 city agencies

Those wishing to attend should RSVP at [email protected] or call (332) 220-5622

✰✰✰

GREEN-WOOD HOSTS ARTISTRY RITUAL ON GRIEF: The Green-Wood Cemetery has extended its critically acclaimed site-specific installation, titled “After the End,” through Dec. 6. Artists Candy Chang and James A. Reeves created “After the End” held in Green-Wood’s Historic Chapel, as a public ritual to contemplate loss in all forms, as well as the practices that have helped people endure. Each attendee joins thousands before in sharing one’s experience on a paper scroll, which is then placed on an illuminated altar. Lit from within, each response becomes a devotional candle, part of an evolving field of light. Thousands have already shared their messages of loss and hope.

Those wishing to meet the artists and participating in open discussions about grief and ritual can sign up for “Death Cafe: After the End Edition” taking place on Nov. 15 or Dec. 6.

✰✰✰

SUBWAY STATION UNVEILING IN FLATBUSH: The Newkirk Ave. IRT subway station at the corner of Nostrand Ave. will gain a name next Thursday, Nov. 18, at an unveiling ceremony and press conference. Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn and State Senator Kevin Parker will lead an unveiling of the Newkirk Avenue — Little Haiti Subway station, starting with an 11 a.m. press conference in front of St. Jerome Catholic Church, at that intersection.

The celebration will feature live entertainment from Haiti Cultural Exchange and the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute, in the City Council-designated area of Little Haiti.

✰✰✰

SUPPORTIVE, AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPENS IN BROWNSVILLE: Van Dyke III, a supportive and affordable housing development in Brownsville, officially opened on Wednesday, Nov. 10, as a group of business, nonprofit, and community leaders joined NYCHA Chairman & CEO Greg Russ, HDC President Eric Enderlin and Trinity Financial for the ribbon cutting. The 100 percent affordable housing project includes 179 permanently affordable residential apartments for extremely low- and low-income households, as well as one superintendent’s unit.

The 12-story building was constructed on underutilized land at NYCHA’s Van Dyke campus on Dumont Avenue between Mother Gaston Boulevard and Powell St., with campus-wide landscape improvements and a public mural. The Van Dyke site will also include a daycare facility, community health clinic, and wellness center.

✰✰✰

CITY’S RAINY-DAY FUND: New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urged New York City officials to better prepare for financial downturns by evaluating the city’s rainy-day reserve fund. His report, released on Wednesday, advises the city to establish targets for how much should go into the fund each year and to set the conditions for withdrawals.

DiNapoli’s report found that the city’s reserve policies are not as robust as other large U.S. cities and, with recent changes in state and local law enabling the use of these funds, he called on the city to define how these resources are accumulated and used.

✰✰✰

RELEASE OF TRANSCRIPTS IN CUOMO CASE: The Office of Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday began the rolling release of transcripts and corresponding exhibits from its investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Though the independent investigators appointed by New York Attorney General Letitia James — led by Joon H. Kim and Anne L. Clark — released their report in August concerning the multiple allegations of sexual harassment by Cuomo, multiple district attorneys asked that the OAG refrain from publicly releasing transcripts and other evidence so that their offices could first investigate and determine whether to file criminal charges against Cuomo.

However, following the filing of a criminal complaint against Cuomo on October 28, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office informed the OAG that it would begin releasing evidence to Cuomo to comply with New York state’s discovery laws, which maintain that once someone is charged with a crime they must be furnished transcripts and other evidence in their case.

✰✰✰

‘TRY THE GREENPOINT Y: The Greenpoint Y invites the community to “give the Y a try” free for seven days between Sunday, Nov. 14 and Saturday, Nov. 20. Tours will be offered of the Y’s 99 Meserole Ave. facility and programs.

Visitors can also participate in fitness classes like yoga, adult ballet, total body conditioning.