Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, April 8, 2022

April 8, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK PANEL ON GUN VIOLENCE: The National Action Network (NAN), which the Rev. Al Sharpton founded, is responding to the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy in East Flatbush on March 31. NAN holds a panel discussion today, April 8, as part of its annual national convention, taking place in Manhattan with an urgent discussion planned about the surge in gun violence.

Guns Down Life Up Executive Director James Dobbins and Tiffany Williams, Life Camp Affiliate and COO at Girls for Gender Equity, will moderate the panel, whose participants will include social justice leaders and advocates as well as Eve Marie Hendricks — mother of 17-year-old Brandon Hendricks, who was shot and killed in 2020.

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STATEWIDE CAP ON DEVELOPMENT STAYS IN PLACE: Preservation advocates are applauding the exclusion from the 2023 state fiscal budget of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to lift the 60-year-old statewide limit on the allowable size of residential developments. Opposing the proposal was a coalition of neighborhood, housing/tenant and preservation organizations, including Village Preservation, which generated thousands of letters from New Yorkers to state officials urging them to reject the plan.

“This is a great victory for New Yorkers who want to prevent overdevelopment of their neighborhoods and overwhelming of our already overburdened infrastructure,” said Village Preservation Executive Director Andrew Berman. “The type of supersized, supertall buildings this would have resulted in would largely house sky-high multimillion-dollar condos for the super-rich, and real estate investments for overseas oligarchs.”

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NOBEL PEACE PRIZE SPEAKER AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE: Brooklyn College welcomes 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Roberta Gbowee to campus today, April 8, for a free talk on gender, law and transitional justice. and open to the public and will also be livestreamed on the college’s YouTube channel. Gbowee, the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, will discuss her life, activism and human rights. She will talk about her life as an activist whose leadership of a nonviolent women’s peace movement played a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s 14-year civil war. The event, which is free and open to the public begins at 11 a.m. in the Woody Tanger Auditorium and will also be livestreamed on the Brooklyn College YouTube page.

Co-sponsors are the college’s Women’s Center, the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, the Department of Africana Studies and the Department of History.

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PALM SUNDAY PROCESSION AT GRAND ARMY PLAZA: Bishop Robert Brennan will begin his first Holy Week as leader of the Diocese of Brooklyn with a special Palm Sunday procession beginning at noon, this Sunday, April 10, originating at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Heights. Following an opening prayer and blessing, those assembled and carrying blessed palm branches, will then begin to walk at approximately 12:30 p.m. down Vanderbilt Avenue to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph at 856 Pacific Street.

Joining Bishop Brennan will be Father Christopher Heanue, Rector of the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph. Following the procession, Bishop Brennan will celebrate the 1:30 p.m. Spanish Mass at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph.

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GODSQUAD MEETS WITH ISRAELI DELEGATION: The GodSquad met last week with Israeli Delegation & NYPD to prioritize public safety in East Flatbush. The group visited Brooklyn with the 67th Precinct Clergy Council, Inc. and learned about community work done by faith leaders to build bridges & trust.

GodSquad/67^th Precinct Community Council maintains a presence for families of shooting victims and works to end gun violence.

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SHAPE UP NYC FITNESS INSTRUCTIONS SOUGHT: NYC Parks is seeking exercise enthusiasts for multiple opportunities with Shape Up NYC – the free group fitness program with locations across the five boroughs. This summer, Shape Up NYC is looking for certified fitness professionals to teach classes in Bushwick (Brooklyn), Queensbridge (Queens), and Stapleton (Staten Island). These free, weekly one-hour classes will be open to the public and offered for a minimum of eight weeks. Volunteer instructors must be certified through a national fitness organization and will need to go through a virtual audition process. Applications are available on the NYC Service website.

For those who simply want to exercise, Shape Up NYC (nyc.gov/shapeup) is a free, drop-in fitness program with locations across the five boroughs, offering aerobics, yoga, Pilates, Zumba, and much more.

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SPOTIFY PLAYLIST CELEBRATES BIRD MIGRATION: To celebrate this year’s spring migration, NYC Parks is launching the agency’s newest Spotify playlist, “Good Migrations,” and offering free birding tours led by the expert Urban Park Rangers. NYC Parks has been celebrating the connection between greenspaces and music with its series of specially curated playlists, available on Spotify, and including these songs: “Good Migrations,” is a playful tribute to springtime migratory birds with hit songs including “Working My Way Back to You” by The Spinners, “Fly” by Nicki Minaj and Rihanna, “Fly Like an Eagle” by Seal, “I’m Like a Bird” by Nelly Furtado and, of course, “Welcome to New York” by Taylor Swift.

Additional NYC Parks playlists include “In Bloom” and “Wild Wildlife” which feature songs named for flowers and music inspired by many of the creatures that call New York City home.

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BIRD MIGRATION EVENT IN FT. GREENE PARK: NYC Parks’ Urban Park Rangers are offering guided tours at some of the best viewing spots to help New Yorkers locate and identify spring migratory birds in New York City. These birding programs are appropriate for all skill levels and beginners are welcome, but participants are asked to bring their own binoculars.

The next event takes place in Fort Greene Park on Sunday, April 17 (Easter), from 10-11:30 a.m.

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BRIDGE CLIMBER COAXED BACK TO LAND: A man trying to climb the Brooklyn Bridge Thursday morning brought rush-hour traffic to a halt as emergency responders coaxed him down, according to police. NYPD reported that two Brooklyn-bound lanes of the bridge were shut down about 7:30 a.m. as emergency responders rushed to the bridge; and subscribers to NOTIFY NYC received an alert to avoid the area.

The responders were able to convince the man, who was climbing up the bridge’s cables, to come down, an NYPD spokesperson said.

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REP. CLARKE CELEBRATES SCOTUS CONFIRMATION: U.S. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09/Flatbush) celebrated yesterday’s vote in the U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States: “These are the moments that make history. President Biden’s nomination of DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, is not just timely and necessary, it is a fulfilled promise that is instrumental to a healthy democracy,” said Rep. Clarke.

“Today, millions of young Black women and girls are endowed with a new understanding of what is possible in this nation. And that is reflective of the transformative power of representation,” said Clarke.

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A.G. JAMES HOLDS TRUMP IN CONTEMPT: New York Attorney General Letitia James yesterday took legal action to hold former President Donald J. Trump in contempt for his refusal to comply with a court order to produce documents in response to a subpoena served on him. The motion for contempt, filed in New York County State Supreme Court, seeks to impose a $10,000 fine on Mr. Trump for every day that he continues to violate the court’s order to produce these documents.

The subpoena is part of the OAG’s investigation of the former U.S. President’s financial dealings.