Good Morning, Brooklyn: Wednesday, May 4, 2022

May 4, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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BOLSTERING WOMEN’S HEALTH EQUITY IN NEW YORK: Responding to a leaked Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the right to abortion guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation on Tuesday, strengthening women’s health equity in public health decision making. Legislation S.7628/A.8536 that stipulates an additional appointed member to the Public Health and Health Planning Council as a representative of women’s health service providers, ensuring that advisors have the appropriate expertise; until now, members were not required to have expertise in women’s health.

“We have seen the impact of powerful institutions lacking the expertise and empathy necessary to set policy around women’s health, and it has led to massive health disparities in our public health system along gender and racial lines,” said Gov. Hochul.

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GUILTY PLEA IN COVID-RELIEF FRAUD SCHEMESS: Former Brooklyn resident pleaded guilty yesterday in Brooklyn federal court to $3 million tax return and COVID-relief fraud schemes. Appearing before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy, the defendant, Patrick Poux pleaded guilty to filing false applications for hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 emergency relief loans in 2020 under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL).

Poux, who pleaded guilty also to fraudulently generating and submitting false tax return applications claiming millions of dollars in unearned tax refunds between 2016 and 2019, now faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.

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NEW COMMISSIONERS AT DEPT. OF BUILDINGS: Mayor Eric Adams has appointed Eric Ulrich as commissioner of the Department of Buildings (DOB) and Kazimir Vilenchik, P.E. as first deputy commissioner. As the leadership team at DOB, they will enforce the city’s construction codes and zoning resolution, as well as the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law, to protect workers and the public on construction sites and in the city’s nearly 1.1 million buildings, and will play a key role in advancing the city’s sustainability goals, including through the enforcement of Local Law 97.

Ulrich, a Queens resident is a graduate of St. Francis College. Vilenchik joined the Department of Buildings in October 2008 as deputy borough commissioner in Staten Island and served in Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn before becoming borough commissioner of Brooklyn in 2018, working with stakeholders to improve accountability and efficiency for construction processes in Brooklyn, while leading the borough office through the COVID-19 pandemic.

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NEW SHERIFF FOR NYC: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has announced the appointment of Anthony Miranda as sheriff of the City of New York. As sheriff, Miranda will oversee the Sheriff’s Office, which is the primary civil law enforcement agency for and responsible for a wide array of enforcement activities, which includes serving and enforcing mandates and orders issued from local or state courts, the federal government, foreign countries, the New York City Tax Tribunal, and the commissioner of the Department of Finance.

Miranda has served the NYPD since 1982 in various capacities, including in several Brooklyn North precincts. He is co-founder and executive chairman of the National Latino Officers Association.

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HOMICIDES DECREASE BUT THEFT CRIMES INCREASE: New York City’s rate of homicides and shootings declined by 38 percent for April, compared with the same month last year, according to the NYPD’s Crime Statistics report, released yesterday. However, the same report showed that the overall crime index increased by 34.2% in April 2022, compared to the same period a year ago, particularly grand larceny, robbery and burglaries, some by more than 40 percent compared to April 2021.

NYPD officers also made 49.6% more arrests across the seven major index crime categories. including 372 arrests for illegal gun possession – coming to146 more gun arrests than the same period last year, a 64.6% increase.

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REP. JEFFRIES DEMANDS BETTER ACCESS FOR REDISTRICTING TALKS: U.S. Rep Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), whose district stretches from northern to southern Brooklyn, joined members of the UNITY MAP COALITION at a press conference on behalf of millions of New Yorkers that he asserts are being denied representation in the redistricting process. Rep. Jeffries also released a letter he sent to Judge Patrick McAllister asking him to immediately schedule additional hearings on the process at sites accessible to all New Yorkers, pointing out that traveling to the designated site is not feasible for most working downstate New Yorkers.

“Millions and millions of voters, here in New York City, throughout downstate New York, are unable to have their voices heard in this redistricting process. That is unacceptable. That is unconscionable. That is un-American,” said Rep. Jeffries at the press conference. “

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FALLING IN LOVE WITH RIDING A BICYCLE: CYCLE Kids and Wafels & Dinges will host a bicycle build event for children at William Floyd Elementary School in Brooklyn. The event this Friday, May 6, is an inaugural event that takes place as CYCLE Kids programs launch at new locations – where 4th and 5th grade classes will participate in the bike build, with 85 pupils expected. CYCLE Kids is a program committed to working with schools in underserved, racially diverse communities to ensure the basic rights of children to a physically and emotionally healthy start in life, all through falling in love with riding a bicycle.

Wafels & Dinges, a New York based Belgian waffle concept, has joined CYCLE Kids in the mission, and will make annual cash donation to help support the cause. They will also bringing their yellow waffle truck to provide snacks for the kids.

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PROGRAM DOCUMENTS BROOKLYN’S CIVIL RIGHTS PUSH: The Center for Brooklyn History holds a virtual program this evening titled “Out of the Box: Brooklyn’s March Towards Civil Rights,” focusing a segment of the Civil Rights movement to invest in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the birth of Brooklyn CORE (The Congress of Racial Equality) and the Bedford-Stuyvesant organization, Youth in Action. Brian Purnell, author of Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings and Michael Woodsworth, author of Battle for Bed-Stuy: The Long War on Poverty in New York City will examine the movement movement and the materials that document it in the program starting at 6:30 p.m., (registration via https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/out-box-brooklyns-march-virtual-20220504).

During the early 1960s, the Brooklyn Chapter of CORE was one of the most dynamic civil rights organizations in New York City. Youth in Action’s job training, legal services, and programs supporting young mothers thrived.

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BORROW SEWING MACHINES FROM THE LIBRARY: Library goers can now borrow sewing machines and attend sewing classes at the Brooklyn Public Library, thanks to Sew Brooklyn, a BKLYN Incubator collaboration between the BPL and FABSCRAP that loans out sewing machines, fosters self-guided learning of the craft, and promotes sustainable habits. Brooklyn Public Library patrons with a young adult or adult library card can now borrow one sewing machine at a time for a period of three weeks, along with free materials, and free workshops for patrons interested in learning to sew by hand and/or machine!

Loans come with a voucher to claim up to 5 lbs. of free material from FABSCRAP, available at local branches. Visit for more information: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/event-series/sew-brooklyn

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‘CELEBRATE BROOKLYN’ LINEUP ANNOUNCED: BRIC, a Brooklyn-based leading arts and media institution, which recently announced the return of in-person events at the Lena Horne Bandshell at Prospect Park, released the festival lineup for Celebrate Brooklyn! 2022, taking place from Wednesday, June 8through Saturday, August 6. For the first time, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! introduces Smorgasburg, considered the largest weekly open-air food market in America, as this year’s food vendor.

For the past 44 years, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, presented in partnership with Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks, has been the summer-long outdoor concert and performance series that celebrates talent spanning global music icons to chart-topping indie bands, and includes benefit concerts, family days, and movie nights.

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POVERTY REPORT ON DISADVANTAGED ASIAN COMMUNITIES: Robin Hood, in collaboration with Columbia University, released its 4th Poverty Tracker Annual Report, “The State Of Poverty And Disadvantage In New York City,” which assesses rates of income poverty, material hardship, and disadvantage in New York City in 2020. For the first time, the Poverty Tracker report spotlights the experience of New York’s Asian American communities, which, similar to the city’s Black and Latinx communities, experience poverty at nearly double the rate of white New Yorkers. Robin Hood found that Asian Americans are among the most understudied and underestimated racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. in many data sources, including those that collect information on poverty and economic disadvantage.

The latest Poverty Tracker sample includes Asian New Yorkers from more than thirty countries of origin other than the United States, including China, Bangladesh, India, Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines, among others.

IPS NEWS: New York City Comptroller Brad Lander will host a series of townhalls this month on property tax inequities and sanitation conditions across the city. The Comptroller’s office also launched an online survey asking for resident feedback on sanitation services open to anyone in New York City. The five question survey asks constituents to rank and describe the quality of sanitation services (e.g. food scraps and yard waste composting) in their neighborhoods, and whether sanitation has improved or worsened in the last year.

For location information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/o/office-of-the-nyc-comptroller-5846846421