Good Morning, Brooklyn: Wednesday, June 22, 2022

June 22, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NYPD SEIZES BIKES NOT MEANT FOR CITY USE: The New York Police Department demolished nearly 100 seized dirt bikes, ATVs, and other illegal motorbikes at a departmental auto pound in Brooklyn on Tuesday – sending a strong message against the unlawful use of these hazardous vehicles on the city’s roadways. The bikes, which are constructed for off-road use and are not street-legal, generate numerous complaints from New York drivers and pedestrians who find themselves imperiled by these bikes’ lack of safety equipment, their maneuvers, loud engines, speeding, racing on sidewalks, and users’ failure to signal.

The vehicles seized by the NYPD are destroyed, rather than resold or donated, in order to prevent them from being returned to New York City’s streets.

Motor bike riders at the foot of Old Fulton St. in Fulton Ferry Landing.
Brooklyn Eagle Photo by Mary Frost

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SENTENCING IN TRAFFIC CRIME CASE: A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to five years in prison for fleeing police in a stolen car, speeding, and striking multiple vehicles in East New York. Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez identified the defendant as Justin Murrell, 20, of Brownsville, who had pleaded guilty to second-degree assault on March 28. Presiding over the Tuesday, June 21 sentencing was Kings County Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun.

The incident happened just over a year after the defendant was released from prison following an assault conviction that stemmed from dragging and seriously wounding an NYPD officer in another stolen car when Murrell was 15.

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VETERAN TO RECEIVE MEDALS AFTER 77-YEAR WAIT: The Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. James C. McConville, will present the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal to World War II veteran William “Willie” Kellerman next week, at a community event with the U.S. Army Garrison at Fort Hamilton. Kellerman, who served on active duty from Sept. 4, 1943 to Jan. 15, 1946, will be awarded the Prisoner of War Medal and the Purple Heart after 77 years; his awards were never processed due to an administrative oversight.

Kellerman, a member of the 79th Infantry, 315th Regiment, Company D, was 18 when he landed on Utah Beach, France five days after D-Day. In April 1945, he was wounded when his unit engaged in combat with the Germans.

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DiNAPOLI: TRANSPORTATION SECTOR REBOUNDING: New York City’s transportation and warehousing sector, as of April, regained 82 percent of its pandemic job losses, according to a report that State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released yesterday. Though NYC is shown trailing the nation, it fared better than the city’s private sector as a whole. The sector’s relatively strong job gains over the past two years were fueled by increased demand for moving goods rather than people during the pandemic.

The New York metropolitan area ranks first among the top 10 metropolitan areas in the nation for number of transportation, warehousing and utilities sector jobs (394,600), accounting for 4.7 percent of private sector employment.

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HOSPITALS COMMIT TO SPENDING WITH MINORITY & WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESSES: Leaders at Maimonides Health and One Brooklyn Health (OBH) have committed to 10 percent spending with minority- and women-owned businesses (MWBEs) by 2030. Currently, 1.12 percent of the Brooklyn-based hospital’s annual non-clinical spending goes to MWBEs, and even less to specifically local MWBEs.

From hospitals in Brooklyn alone, the opportunity of local procurement could equal up to $2 billion or more annually.

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NEW YORK’S VOTING RIGHT ACT SIGNED INTO LAW: State Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-20/Central Brooklyn) stood alongside Governor Hochul on Monday as she signed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York into law at a location within his district. The Voting Rights Act contains many important new provisions to help protect voting rights and ensure qualified voters are able to access the ballot, including the launch of a “pre-clearance” program that requires local governments with records of discrimination to prove, before they become effective, that certain voting changes won’t harm voters of color.

The VRA also provides new legal tools to fight discriminatory voting rules, expands linguistic assistance for voters who speak languages other than English, creates strong protections against voter intimidation, deception, or obstruction, and instructs state judges to interpret election laws to favor the rights of the voter whenever possible.

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HAPPY 95^TH BIRTHDAY, CONEY ISLAND CYCLONE!: The Coney Island Cyclone Roller Coaster’s 95th birthday will be hosted at Luna Park in Coney Island, this coming Sunday, June 26.The milestone celebration will kick-off with free Cyclone rides for the first 95 guests in line at the park’s 11 a.m. opening who will experience a day full of circus inspired entertainment, will culminate with a toast and cake-cutting ceremony with music, and appearances from local mascots King Henry and Sandy the Seagull.

Since its debut on June 26, 1927, the Coney Island Cyclone has been a core fixture of the Coney Island Amusement District and is one of Luna Park in Coney Island’s most cherished operating NYC landmarks.

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EDUCATING PUBLIC ON GOWANUS THROUGH DANCE: Gowanus-based Artichoke Dance Company presents The Brooklyn Utopias Interactive Performance Tours, which will bring audiences to multiple sites in the rapidly changing neighborhood of Gowanus. Through an immersive experience, audiences interact with and learn about the environmental justice issues impacting the neighborhood, community initiatives in relation to the impending rezoning of Gowanus, and the current remediation of the Gowanus Canal, New York City’s first-named superfund site due to decades of extreme toxicity.

Tickets for this event are nominally priced at $25 and are available, along with further information, via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brooklyn-utopias-interactive-performance-tour-of-gowanus-tickets-309928914727

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ADVOCATES URGE GOVERNOR TO SIGN BILL ON WATER DEBT REPORTAGE: Environmental, consumer rights, and legal aid organizations yesterday urged Governor Hochul to sign A7554-B/S5451-C, which the NYS Senate and Assembly passed at the end of the legislative session. The bill would, for the first time, require public water utilities to report data on the affordability of their utility service to the Public Service Commission, including information on the number of New Yorkers who are behind on their water bills and have faced a shut-off due to non-payment, and the amount of water debt that has built up across the state.

Last fall several environmental and legal aid organizations had attempted to secure this data from the state’s ten largest public water utilities through FOIL requests. Only four of the ten utilities responded

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WINGATE CONCERT REVIVED: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is reinstating the summer Wingate Concert. Held at Wingate Park in Central Brooklyn, the free, public concert running from 6 to 11 p.m., will be held next Tuesday, June 28, with performances by soca singer Patrice Roberts, reggae singer Gyptian, and other musical guests.

The Wingate Concert Series was first organized under former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s administration in the late 1970s when he was State Senator. The concerts were scaled back during the COVID-19 pandemic under former Brooklyn Borough President, now New York City Mayor, Eric Adams.