Good Morning, Brooklyn: Friday, July 1, 2022

July 1, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES PROGRAM TRAINED TO DEAL WITH EMERGENCIES: Seven additional community networks representing all five boroughs have completed the Strengthening Communities program, the New York City Emergency Management Department announced yesterday. Local leaders, representing a wide range of community groups offer vital social services in areas most deeply affected by such emergencies as the COVID-19 pandemic and coastal storms, were taught how to build emergency preparedness plans to better support their communities before and after an emergency.

The training program focuses on five key areas to build an emergency plan specific to their communities: creating a needs assessment review, designing community maps of the area where they provide services, building a directory of resources for after an emergency, preparing a communications strategy to message their staff before, during, and after emergencies, and designing plans on how to manage donations and accept volunteers.

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NYC MOBILE TESTING UNITS LAUNCH: The launch of the nation’s first mobile testing units, managed by NYC Test & Trace Corps, began yesterday, with a joint announcement from Mayor Eric Adams, NYC Test & Trace Corps, NYC Health + Hospitals, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. Participating testing units now include a clinician on their team to provide instant access to prescriptions for no-cost, antiviral medications for eligible New Yorkers who test positive at these sites.

The initial Test to Treat units are partnering with local pharmacies to provide immediate distribution of medication from the prescription. The program will expand to over 30 units over the month of July.

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CENTRAL LAWN REOPENS AT FT. GREENE PARK: The Central Lawn at Fort Greene Park has reopened, just in time for the Fourth of July, but with different rules in two sections of the lawn. The Fort Greene Park Conservancy allows pets off-leash on Central Lawn North, but they must be leashed on Central Lawn South.

Tables and cleats (special athletic shoes geared for grass and mud) are prohibited in both sections of the park.

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‘HOUSEWIVES’ TAKE BALLFIELD FOR MAIMONIDES BENEFIT: Maimonides Health hosted its third annual “Battle for Brooklyn” charity softball game at Maimonides Park in Coney Island earlier this week, in a matchup between the cast of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, which was led by team captain Dolores Catania, and the Maimonides All-Stars, which comprises the hospital’s leading physicians and clinical staff, with team captain and leading oncologist, Dr. Patrick Borgen. More than 3,000 tickets (benefiting hospital’s Breast Center and its lifesaving efforts) were sold for the game, which was recorded as part of the upcoming season of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

For cast member and staunch women’s health advocate Dolores Catania, the relationship with Maimonides is personal and longstanding: she had a mammogram and biopsy performed at Maimonides on camera, using her platform to promote the importance of women’s health and routine screening to her fans. Following Catania’s lead, sister cast member Margaret Josephs is currently a Maimonides patient.

Famous actress, famous chaplain: Dolores Catania of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, who has some Italian ancestry, chats with New York City Police Chaplain Monsignor David Cassato, who threw out the first pitch of the game.
Photo courtesy Maimonides Medical Center

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VIRTUAL GRADUATION: St. Thomas Catholic Online Academy, which opened during the full pandemic lockdown in 2020 recently held its first graduation ceremony, where 12 students who completed the eighth-grade were awarded their diplomas. Math teacher Mr. James Mastricovo, a former NYPD Sergeant, encouraged the graduates to take risks as they reach for their goals. The graduation ceremony was conducted fully online, and family and friends were able to log in to share in the special event.

Brother Guy Consolmagno, Director of the Vatican Observatory, an astronomical research and educational institution established by the Holy See, also addressed the graduates. “The more you learn, the more you realize there is to learn.” He further encouraged the graduates, saying, “God devotes all of His attention to each of them, and so in their life, they should, “spend some of your attention on Him and His creation.”

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CAFFEINE APP FOR MOVIE SERIES: “Summer Movies Under the Stars,” hosted at Fort Greene Park in July and then in Prospect Park in August, will have a new Brooklyn-born culinary feature for coffee aficionados. Gowanus-based coffee roaster Abbotsford Road Coffee Specialists and their newly developed coffee subscription application, CoffeesUp, have partnered with Brooklyn Magazine to make specialty-made, barista-style coffee available. For Brooklyn Magazine’s summer film series, CoffeesUp and Abbottsford Road Coffee Specialists will be hosting a pop-up called “Showtime in the Park,” where moviegoers can download the app, talk to a trained barista about how it works, and enjoy free coffee with their favorite flicks — starting on July 7 with West Side Story (1961 or 2021 version was not clarified as of press time).

Abbotsford Road Coffee Specialists, winner of the 2017 Golden Bean Award, is a roastery, educational space, and café in Gowanus that produces and supplies high quality coffee to cafés across NYC and neighboring markets.

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CITY OF WATER DAY IN GOWANUS: A set of events centered around the Gowanus Canal will be part of the 15th annual City of Water Day coming to New York and New Jersey’s shores on July 16. City of Water Day aims to raise awareness about current and future impacts of climate change and sea level rise. In Brooklyn’s RETI Center, participants can build and launch a floating garden — that incorporates marsh grasses, mussels, oysters and kelp that’s built entirely of salvaged and sustainable materials like scaffolding planks, reclaimed fishing nets, wine corks, salvage steel — from the barge in Gowanus Bay.

Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club at the Gowanus Canal will also offer a shore walk to explore and understand the extent of Superstorm Sandy’s flooding around the canal and reflect on the past and future flows of water in the neighborhood.

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HEIGHTS PRIEST BEGINS DIOCESAN MINISTRY IN CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: The Rev. Katherine A. Salisbury, longtime Associate Rector at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church and Pro-Cathedral has been appointed Canon for Christian Education at Diocese of Long Island’s Cathedral of the Incarnation, in Garden City. She will lead the cathedral’s Fellowship in Faith and Family Ministry programs, coordinate inter-generational Christian formation events, curate the Dean’s Forum and participate fully in the liturgical life of the cathedral, with a special responsibility for Cathedral for Kids, a service for the young and the young-at-heart which is the centerpiece of children’s ministry at the cathedral.

For years, Salisbury has created original, faith-based curricula that incorporate love of God and the natural world, Biblical literacy, service work, and the arts. These include the recent Instruments of Peace puppet and songwriting series on the legacy of St. Francis.

The Rev. Canon Kate Salisbury, pictured with her family during an off-duty moment.
Photo courtesy of the Rev. Canon Kate Salisbury

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VOWS A FIGHT ON SCOTUS DECISION ON THE ENVIRONMENT: Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-12/northern Brooklyn), Chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, expressed dismay and alarm regarding the Supreme Court’s decision to curtail the Environment Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Vowing to continue the fight to save the environment, Maloney said, “Today’s radical decision by Republican appointees on the Supreme Court will have catastrophic consequences for our nation and our planet…The Supreme Court’s scorched-earth decision will have implications for generations to come.”

Chairperson Maloney, who has made tackling the climate crisis a priority of the Committee, last September joined Rep. Ro Khanna, Chair of the Subcommittee on the Environment, is launching an investigation into what they assert is the fossil fuel industry’s long history of climate disinformation.

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STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL DENOUNCES SCOTUS RULING ON EPA: Likewise, State Attorney General Letitia James called the SCOTUS decision in West Virginia v. EPA to restrict the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to limit carbon emissions from power plants “a dangerous and irresponsible restriction on federal agencies’ ability to carry out their functions.” She vowed, “We will work to end our nation’s reliance on fossil-fuel power plants that pollute our environment, and move towards clean, renewable, and affordable electricity.”

Back in January, Attorney General James led a coalition of 30 states and local governments in submitting a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in this case, providing a strong legal defense of the ability of EPA and states to set meaningful limits on climate change pollution from power plants under the Clean Air Act. And last year, she won a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over policy that had overridden the Clean Power Plan.

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IPS NEWS: PRAISING NEW SCOTUS JUSTICE: Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the first Black woman appointed to her role and to chair any political party in New York City, praised the new Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was sworn in yesterday, calling this “a monumental point in our history as the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. Finally, Black women, mothers, daughters and sisters alike, can, at last, see themselves in the Supreme Court.

Hermelyn added, “I’m certain this Justice will bring a sense of stability and fairness for all Americans, regardless of who they are, where they are from, or the color of their skin.”