Good Morning, Brooklyn: Thursday, June 30, 2022

June 30, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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MOVIES WITH A VIEW… AND PRE-FILM ENTERTAINMENT: Brooklyn Heights enjoys a bird’s-eye view of Brooklyn Bridge Park. But now the Heights can get a closer view and enjoy the show on a big screen — picnic style — when the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s 2022 Movies With A View series kicks off on Thursday, July 7. But there’s an opening act, too: Ahead of the featured movie, guests can enjoy a DJ spinning music courtesy of Brooklyn Radio and sunset over the river, starting when doors for the lawn open at 6 p.m., with entrances at the top of Harbor View Lawn and along Pier 1 Promenade, and the movie starting at sundown. Film shots, selected by BAM Film, will be shown before each feature.

Guests can bring their own picnic or enjoy food and drink curated by Smorgasburg, opening at 5 p.m., along the Pier 1 Promenade, with vendors including Dylana’s Sweet Treats (Brooklyn local artisanal cakes, puddings and ice cream combos); Mao’s Bao (sheng jian bao – pan-fried & steamed buns); Burger Supreme Burger (smashburgers), Toastieland (Australian bakehouse and grilled cheese); Petisco Brazuca (Brazilian coxinha and empanadas); and Smorgasburg Bar offering local beer and wine on tap.

Crowds enjoyed Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Movies with a View in a recent year.
Photo credit: Rommel Tan

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NY ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES GUN DISTRIBUTORS: New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a nation-leading lawsuit against multiple gun distributors for what she maintains is fueling the gun violence crisis and endangering New Yorkers. She alleges that 10 gun distributors sold to New Yorkers tens of thousands of illegal, unfinished frames and receivers that were then converted into un-serialized, untraceable handguns and assault-style weapons, known as ghost guns. These gun distributors violated several laws, including New York’s licensing laws, by selling weapons to felons and others without a background check.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on New York’s gun laws, Attorney General James is invoking a newly enacted Public Nuisance statute to hold these gun distributors responsible.

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GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION TAKES EFFECT: U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mayor Eric Adams, New York Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell, and Senior Director of Community Safety Initiatives for Everytown Gun Safety, Michael-Sean Spence, joined forces to launch the passage of major provisions from her Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking and Crime Prevention Act. The measures passed as part of the historic gun safety bill signed by President Joe Biden, the most significant firearms legislation in nearly 30 years.

The recently announced bipartisan deal, which was reintroduced earlier this Congress, makes the trafficking of firearms a federal crime and establishes penalties for those who knowingly ship, transport or transfer firearms across state lines to individuals not legally allowed to possess a gun — a change Senator Gillibrand has been calling for since 2009.

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NEW YORK DATA RELEASED ON GUN INVESTIGATIONS: New York State’s exhaustive efforts and strategic investments to combat the gun violence epidemic are beginning to show signs of progress, with the indicators coming from data that Governor Kathy Hochul released yesterday on seizures, gun-tracing investigations, and gun-related crime. The data includes a substantial year-over-year increase in State Police gun and ghost gun seizures — both coinciding with the formation of the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns.

The Governor also highlighted the first discernible drop in New York City gun crime in more than two years — with a 12 percent reduction in shooting incidents over the last year.

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REGULATING DISPOSAL OF RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is not doing enough to ensure rechargeable batteries are recycled as required by law to protect the environment and public safety, warns an audit released that New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli released yesterday. The NYS Rechargeable Battery Law (Law), Article 27, Title 18 of the Environmental Conservation Law, which was signed into law on December 10, 2010, criminalizes the act of throwing rechargeable batteries in the trash, on the grounds that they create a danger.

Lithium-ion batteries, which can ignite or explode if they are damaged in the waste stream, were determined to be the cause of a six-alarm fire on a trash barge last December.

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NYU LANGONE EXPANDS SERVICE: NYU Langone Health extends its reach in Brooklyn with the opening of a new location and expanded services, in Greenpoint. NYU Langone Brooklyn Medical Associates — Kent Street, in the historic Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory, offers bariatric and orthopedic surgery consultations, gastroenterology and endoscopy services, on-site diagnostic imaging at NYU Langone Radiology —Greenpoint, and physical therapy through NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation.

New clinical services are also available at NYU Langone Brooklyn Medical Associates — Dyker Heights, including bariatric and general surgery consultations, gastroenterology, endocrinology, and pulmonology.

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ONCOLOGIST JOINS NYU-LANGONE’S QUENTIN RD. SITE: Swapna A. Ghanta, MD, a breast surgeon and oncologist at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center — Sunset Park, who specializes in advanced breast surgery and reconstruction techniques, has joined the medical team at NYU Langone Brooklyn Medical Associates, at 902 Quentin Road in Gravesend. Dr. Ghanta also sees patients at high risk of developing breast cancer.

She is a member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, the Society of Surgical Oncology, and the American College of Surgeons.

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SCHOOL WITHOUT WALLS HYBRID PROGRAM: Schools Chancellor David C. Banks yesterday announced a School Without Walls Program, a new NYCDOE high school initiative offering students a new way of learning through Hybrid and Virtual schooling pathways. All participating students will have access to these locations and to the vital resources available at brick-and-mortar schools, such as counseling services. Students will receive a laptop to use at home and can visit the school site to troubleshoot any technological issues, and will be given the option to participate in virtual and in-person extracurricular activities, including arts and music programming, sports and interest-based clubs and electives.

Applications to the School Without Walls Program, open for rising 9th graders through Wednesday, July 6, is accessible through families’ MySchools Accounts.

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TOWN HALL ON SAGA OF GOWANUS CANAL: The Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group (CAG) invites members of the greater Gowanus community to attend a Town Hall meeting taking place this evening, Thursday, June 30, to learn more about the cleanup of the canal under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund Program. Background will be provided on why the canal got so polluted in the first place; what the cleanup will change about the canal; progress on the cleanup activities currently underway; a preview of what the canal might look like when the cleanup is complete; and way in which the community can get involved in the cleanup.

The biggest part of the Town Hall will be about answering community members’ questions, though! RSVP ( https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-gowanus-canal-cleanup-a-community-town-hall-tickets-358461426777) for this event and share questions in advance at [email protected]

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DOT TO PRESENT PLANS FOR BERRY OPEN STREET: Improvement plans for the Berry Open Street and McGuinness Redesign will be presented at tonight’s Community Board 1 Transportation Committee meeting, being held virtually. The Department of Transportation will present its plans and begin to advance traffic calming measures on McGuinness Boulevard.

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MARCHING FOR FOOD ACCESS: The food sustainability advocacy group Seeds in the Middle is sponsoring the 2nd annual Healthy Food Day of Action this morning, with a march across the Brooklyn Bridge, starting at Borough Hall. A news conference following at City Hall Park.

The program, which got its name from fourth graders in central Brooklyn, inspires and empowers students, families, schools and communities, teaching them how to grow (gardens), how to market, how to access and prepare healthy food, how to exercise, how to engage in the arts.

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BIKES AND HELMETS DONATED TO CHILDREN OF PROMISE: Participants in the Children of Promise summer program in Bedford-Stuyvesant will be receiving 21 bikes and helmets from The Nigel Sylvester Foundation, in partnership with Oakley and SWFT. This donation will support the Children of Promise’s summer programming as well as their mission of supporting children and families impacted by mass incarceration.

The Nigel Sylvester Foundation will have officially donated 100 bikes in its inaugural year, furthering its mission of transforming the lives of underserved youth and uniting diverse communities through the power of cycling.

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CONCERTS IN THE PARK: Elected officials help their constituents in many ways, some of them fun. State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Peter Abbate, Councilmember Justin Brannan have teamed up with NIA Brooklyn, and Investors Bank to bring back, by popular demand, Concerts in the Park at Bay Shore Road. The 7 p.m. concerts, which are free and open to the public, begin next week, and run through August 30.

The concerts take place on Tuesdays, with an additional Saturday event on July 23.

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‘NONE SHALL BE AFRAID’ ESSAY CONTEST: The B’nai B’rith International 2022 None Shall Be Afraid Essay Contest invites students between the ages of 18 and 22 to try winning a $2,500 college scholarship. Students who have enrolled in college would write essays responding to the frequent attacks on Jews in the United States, Israel and around the world, online and in person, and offer suggestions on how a community can identify and stop this hatred. Winners will earn scholarship funds and have the opportunity to have their essays published. The deadline to submit an essay is July 10, 2022. More information: https://www.bnaibrith.org/none-shall-be-afraid-essay-contest/

None Shall Be Afraid was inspired by the 1790 letter from George Washington to the congregants of Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island, where he quoted Micah 4:4, “Everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”