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Good Morning, Brooklyn: Thursday, September 29, 2022

September 29, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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RECORD INVESTMENT FOR NEW YORK’S ARTS PROGRAMMING: A record $150 million in capital funding will be available for arts and culture organizations through the New York State Council on the Arts’ Capital Projects Fund, Governor Kathy Hochul announced today. This unprecedented investment, representing the includes $100 million in new, multi-year funding to facilitate large-scale capital projects that prioritize community development and placemaking.

It is the State’s largest ever commitment to NYSCA for capital projects for the arts, following on already record-level funding for the arts in the FY 2023 Budget. Governor Hochul is expected to  discuss her commitment to supporting the arts at the Carnegie Hall 2022-2023 Season Opening later this evening.

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CATHOLIC CHARITIES HONORS LEADERS AT HUMANITARIAN AWARD DINNER: The president of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Wayne J. Riley, M.D., MPH, MBA, MACP, will receive the 2022 Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan Service Award tonight at the 2022 Bishop’s Humanitarian Award Dinner of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens. Also honored at the annual dinner, being held at Cipriani Wall Street, and which benefits Catholic Charities’ 160-plus programs and services, are Paul Capurso, NYC District Council of Carpenters; Dave T. Ferguson, E-J Electric Installation, Co.; and William J. Peterson, Neuberger Berman, who are receiving the  2022 Humanitarian Award.

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Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens will also present the 2022 John J. Farrell Award to employees who have reached 30 years of service.

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BROOKLYN COLLEGE JOINS HILLEL INTERNATIONAL’S INITIATIVE FOR FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM: Brooklyn College has joined six other CUNY campuses selected for Hillel International’s expansion of its national Campus Climate Initiative, part of an ongoing series of measures to confront the uptick in antisemitism globally, locally, and on campuses across the country Joining Hillel International will allow Brooklyn College and CUNY to be key partners in several areas, including the development of a system-wide web page for reporting campus incidents, including antisemitism, to facilitate and standardize reporting, and the allocation of $750,000 in new funding for events and programs that counter antisemitism and other forms of religious or ethnic bigotry, or for the expansion of diversity, equity, and inclusion training incorporating antisemitism.

Tanger Hillel is the largest Hillel facility at a New York campus that serves a diverse population of students, including Russian-speaking Jews, Israeli, Kavkazi, Bukharin, Orthodox, and American students.

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IMPROVING 311 CALL SERVICE: New York City Council voted today on legislation to ensure transparency and equal access at New York City’s 311 Customer Service Center that the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications operates. The Council’s legislation seeks to improve 311 by increasing transparency on wait times, efficiently identifying languages spoken by callers, and ensuring that the 311 Customer Service Center is proactively informed and equipped to address the need for new and updated service request/complaint types.

In addition, the Council will vote on the following legislation addressing storefront vacancies and supporting small businesses in the post-pandemic era

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JUDGE MANDATES NEW DISTRICT MAPS FOR STATE ASSEMBLY: The Independent Redistricting Commission must reconvene to submit new Assembly map lines, a State Supreme Court judge in New York County ruled today. According to the court documents published by City & State, the latest  development in the ongoing statewide redistricting saga is that the IRC must draw up new maps by April 2023 that will be in place for the 2024 cycle, ruled Justice Laurence L. Love.

The newly drawn, temporary Assembly district lines would still  be used for the 2022 election cycle, reports City & State.

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ADA ELEVATORS BEING REPLACED AT J & M STATION: The NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority will be fully replacing the two ADA elevators at the Flushing Avenue J and M station beginning this Monday, October 3. This project is currently scheduled to take nine to ten months to complete, with a scheduled completion date of Summer 2023.

This station will remain open at all times during the ADA elevator replacement project.

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TWO OF THREE ASSAILANTS IN CHURCH ROBBERY ARRESTED, ARRAIGNED IN COURT: Two men involved in an armed robbery at a church in Brooklyn have been arrested and are scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. Defendants identified as Juwan Anderson and Say-Quan Pollack a/k/a Say-Quan Pollock, as well as a third co-conspirator (still unapprehended), on July 24 entered a church where a worship service was in process, and snatched jewelry from the pastor and his wife.

Earlier today, US Attorney also asked the court to give permanent detention to Pollack on the grounds that he was considered dangerous and a flight risk.

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HOSPITAL SYSTEM MUST COMMIT TO HEALTH EQUITY IN BROOKLYN AND QUEENS, SAYS HEALTH DEPT: The New York State Health Department is requiring a hospital system to spend $50 million on health care in Brooklyn and Queens to open an $8.4 million heart transplant center in Manhattan. In what is considered a provocative flex of executive power, the health department outlined the requirement in a July 14 letter to NewYork-Presbyterian’s Weill Cornell Center, received through the Freedom of Information Act. Although the department’s Public Health and Health Planning Council had voted in June to recommend approval of the project subject to certain conditions, the July 14 approval letter added a major new condition: that NewYork-Presbyterian must demonstrate “its commitment to health equity in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens,” specifically by forming a partnership with the One Brooklyn Health hospital system or another local provider “to expand access to primary care and cardiology specialty care.”

The letter states NewYork-Presbyterian must also invest $50 million over five years “in primary care physician and advanced practice provider recruitment, program development and network expansion” in Brooklyn and Queens.

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INNOVATIVE SENSORY GYM OPENS FOR CHILDREN WITH LEARNING CHALLENGES: The Brooklyn Kindergarten Society along with members of the New York City Council, launched the first-of-its-kind sensory gym to help children in Central Brooklyn with learning differences and developmental delays, including Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Sensory Gym represents an exciting new therapeutic intervention that provides children from NYCHA housing developments and under-resourced communities access to occupational, physical, and speech therapies that focuses on supporting children with learning differences, and developmental delays, and help with the early identification of children on the Autism Spectrum for BKS’ pre-k students.

Brooklyn Kindergarten Society is a Community Based Organization that operates 7 early childhood educational centers throughout the Central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and Crown Heights and has provided high-quality early education and enriching experiences to families throughout Brooklyn for 131 years.

The Brooklyn Kindergarten Society’s new sensory gym is especially designed for children with autism and other learning challenges.
Photo credit: E.H. Wallop

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MATH SCORES SHOW LARGE DIP SINCE BEFORE PANDEMIC: The day after the Brooklyn Eagle reported on the Empire Center advocacy group’s appeal of a denied FOIL request for year 2022 state math scores, the New York City Department of Education is making them available via its website, https://infohub.nyced.org/reports/academics/test-results. Math proficiency scores for third through eighth graders dropped 7.6 percentage points overall compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The most significant drops were seen at the 8th, 6th, and 5th grade levels, with an 11- point drop among eighth-graders, a 9.9 point drop among sixth-graders, and an 8.4 percent drop among fifth-graders.

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PUBLIC ADVOCATE’S BILL WOULD BAN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT: Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, prime sponsor of the landmark legislation to ban solitary confinement in New York City, spoke in support of both his bill and protecting the safety of people on both sides of the bars at the City Council hearing of the Committee on Criminal Justice Wednesday. The legislation would prohibit the Department of Correction from placing an incarcerated individual in a cell, other than at night for sleep, for more than eight hours in any 24-hour period, or during the day for more than two hours in any 24-hour period, unless such confinement is necessary to de-escalate immediate conflict.

Although the United Nations defines solitary confinement as torture, it is still commonly used in jails in New York City.

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POLIO DECLARED AN IMMINENT THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH: New York State is taking additional steps to address evidence of the circulating poliovirus, after State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett yesterday declared poliovirus an imminent threat to public health. Her declaration expands the availability of funding and resources to support local health departments in establishing immunization clinics, deploying vaccine to health care partners, and conducting outreach to unvaccinated and under-vaccinated New Yorkers.

Working with the State Department of Health, local health departments continue to actively respond to polio in New York State through wastewater monitoring, clinical surveillance, and by conducting education outreach.

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FREELANCERS UNION HUB OPENS AT INDUSTRY CITY: The Freelancers Union, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), on Wednesday officially unveiled its new Freelancers Hub, a 4,143-square foot state-of-the-art facility located in Industry City, along the waterfront in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park. The new facility, made possible by $1.5 million in funding from the city, and which is dedicated to NYC’s freelance community across the five boroughs, is deemed the largest hub in the U.S. dedicated to independent workers, and features rooms to host workshops, isolated spaces for meetings, and a dedicated on-site Freelancers Union staff to help independent workers understand their rights and raise their concerns.

The space will be used to offer workshops and boot camps taught by freelance experts, ranging from legal clinics and branding to mental health and wellness, as well as peer-to-peer networking and mentorship.

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NEW MEDICAL STUDENTS RECEIVE THEIR WHITE COATS: Greenpoint resident Sumyia Razzak was recently among the new medical students in the Class of 2026 at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine to receive their first white coats. The white coat ceremony is a medical school rite of passage that marks the official start of a student’s education in this field.

The College has campuses in Old Westbury on Long Island, and in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

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FORT GREENE RESIDENT EARNS ECONOMICS DOCTORATE: Hyo Jung Kang of Fort Greene (11205) earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Economics, as part of the STEM program, from Georgia State University during the summer semester of 2022.

More than 2,000 students earned degrees and/or certificates at the associate’s, bachelor’s, and graduate program levels during the summer.


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