What’s News, Breaking: Tuesday, January 10, 2023

January 10, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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NEW PLAN WOULD INDEX MINIMUM WAGE TO INFLATION

STATEWIDE – A new plan to help low-wage New Yorkers aims to meet the rising cost of living by indexing New York’s minimum wage to inflation, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday. Under the proposal, the State’s minimum wage would increase each year at a rate determined by the Consumer Price Index for Wage Earners for the Northeast Region — the best regional measure of inflation, a proposal that is expected to benefit hundreds of thousands of minimum wage workers across New York State.

The Governor also unveiled a new suite of bold initiatives to both modernize and streamline the State’s proven workforce development infrastructure to ensure New Yorkers have the skills they need to thrive in today’s economy, as well as rebuild a modern public sector workforce.

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DELEGATION OF ELECTEDS CLAIM ‘SHORTCOMINGS’ IN GOVERNOR’S MEASURES

BOROUGHWIDE – Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State Address received strong criticism from a delegation of Democratic state legislators on Tuesday. Brooklyn electeds identifying as democratic socialists, State Senators Julia Salazar (SD-18) and Jabari Brisport (SD-25), alongside Assembly Members Phara Souffrant Forrest (AD-57), Marcela Mitaynes (AD-51) and Emily Gallagher (AD-50), joined others from Queens and the Hudson Valley to assert that, “While Governor Hochul’s State of the State address commits to crucial investments for New Yorkers, it does not go nearly far enough. Her remarks failed to acknowledge New York’s dire need for new revenue through increased taxes on the ultra-rich.”

The joint statement concludes in part, “As a unified movement of legislators, representing over a million constituents who have grown weary of ineffective solutions, we are prepared to push back against the shortcomings of Hochul’s uninspiring plan with bold solutions that address the crises faced by working class New Yorkers.”

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SEN. GILLIBRAND SECURES $130 MILLION TO BOLSTER HEALTHCARE IN NY

STATEWIDE – Perhaps responding in part to the nurses’ strike at two hospital systems in NYC, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on Tuesday, January 10 announced that she has secured more than $130 million in federal funding to help assist and revitalize New York’s overburdened health care system. Itemized: $42.3 million is appropriated for maternal health; $50 million authorized for bolstering the community health care workforce; $9.2 million for Academic Centers for Public Health Preparedness; and, $47 million for Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), one of which will be in Brooklyn, serving Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.

Funding of $33 million has also been allocated to support research, surveillance and prevention for Lyme and tick-borne diseases, the incidence of which have nearly doubled nationally since the early 1990s.

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DARING NYPD RESCUE OF MAN ON TRACKS AT SUBWAY’S HIGHEST STATION

GOWANUS – Officers from the 76th Precinct and a good Samaritan helped rescue a man who had fallen onto train tracks at the Smith-9th Street station in Gowanus, the precinct reported on Twitter. The NYPD credits Monday’s rescue, completed just before a train entered that track, to its strategic placement of officers throughout the transit system.

A video on Twitter showed the officer running up several flights to the elevated platform at the Smith-9th St. station, which at 87.5 feet (26.7 m) above ground level, is the highest rapid transit station in both the NYC transit system and the world.

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KINGS PLAZA GUNMAN GETS 9-YEAR SENTENCE

FLATBUSH – The man who opened fire inside the Kings Plaza Shopping Center mall in January 2022 has been sentenced to nine years in prison, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Tuesday, January 10. Timothy Briggs, age 20, of the Bronx, who had pleaded guilty in November, received the sentence from Brooklyn State Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, and will also be three-and-a-half years concurrent on another conviction of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

The investigation revealed that on January 31, 2022, the defendant and two co-defendants, having argued with a group of six teenage boys at the Laced Up sneaker store inside the Kings Plaza Shopping Center, pulled out a 40-caliber handgun and fired as many as 10 times at the group, injuring two.

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GOVERNOR TRIPLES AID TO 62 COUNTY DA OFFICES

STATEWIDE – The Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney’s Office and its 61 counterparts around New York State would receive triple the funding to prosecution grants, as part of a law enforcement investment that Governor Kathy Hochul announced in Tuesday’s State of the State Address. The governor also initiated major public safety initiatives and investments, expanding proven programs and services to further drive down gun violence and other violent crime, and is proposing a comprehensive plan to expand the number of New York State Police Community Stabilization Units, bolster trooper participation in federal task forces and increase the ranks of the State Police by offering an unprecedented four academy classes.

Governor Hochul is also proposing double funding for the State’s nationally recognized Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, and will also invest record funding in alternatives to incarceration and re-entry programs.

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LEGAL AID SOCIETY SPEAKS OUT ON TENANT RIGHTS, BAIL REFORM

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – The Legal Aid Society has responded to Governor Kathy Hochul’s points on housing and bail reform from her State of the State Address, delivered on January 10. While encouraged by the NY Housing Compact, which would prioritize new residential construction, Legal Aid Society said that “tenants need relief now. ‘Good Cause’ eviction legislation, along with the Housing Access Voucher Program, are two initiatives that would keep families, the majority of whom are from Black and Latinx neighborhoods, safely housed, off the street and out of the already burgeoning local shelter system.”

The Legal Aid Society also criticized Gov. Hochul’s call to eliminate a requirement that pretrial incarceration for bail-eligible charges be the ‘least restrictive’ option, which it points out sits “in tension with well-established United States Supreme Court precedent protecting the presumption of innocence.”

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TLC URGED TO RESOLVE LEGAL ‘TECHNICALITY’ BLOCKING LIVERY DRIVER PAY RAISES

STATEWIDE – Hours after State Supreme Court-New York County Judge Honorable Arthur F. Engoron ruled in favor of Uber to block a first-in-a-decade rate increase for livery drivers, the Independent Drivers Guild representing Uber and Lyft drivers responded, bringing forward the point of the judge’s dismay that the rideshare drivers’ “deserved raise is being held up by a legal technicality” as a result of Uber’s “faintly ridiculous” lawsuit. Judge Engoron, in his Tuesday, January 10 ruling, ordered the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission to take additional steps to explain the pay raise.

Brendan Sexton, President of the Independent Drivers Guild (a Machinists Union Affiliate representing more than 250,000 drivers), urged the TLC to resolve the legal technicality, saying, “Nine in ten rideshare drivers report they aren’t paid enough to survive and 50 percent of rideshare drivers struggle to afford food. The urgency here is real.”

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GOVERNOR: BUILD 800K HOMES WITHIN NEXT DECADE

STATEWIDE – A new statewide strategy aims to address New York’s housing crisis: build 800,000 new homes over the next decade to meet the historic shortage, and support New York renters and homeowners, Governor Kathy Hochul announced during her State of the State Address on Tuesday, January 10. The New York Housing Compact, which will call upon all levels of government to meet the ongoing housing crisis, will require all cities, towns and villages to achieve new home creation targets on a three-year cycle.

The plan will also require municipalities with MTA rail stations to locally rezone for higher density residential development.

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FORMER NORTHERN BROOKLYN REP. CAROLYN MALONEY APPOINTED TO PRESTIGIOUS POST AT HUNTER COLLEGE

Carolyn B. Maloney. Photo: Office of Carolyn B. Maloney.

NORTHERN BROOKLYN – Hunter College has appointed 30-year Congressional veteran Carolyn Maloney as the Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Leader in Residence at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute for the spring semester 2023, effective January 25. Ms. Maloney represented the 12th District, covering Northern Brooklyn, Queens, the Upper East Side — including Hunter College — and Roosevelt Island, in the House of Representatives from 1993 until 2022, when the district boundaries changed and she lost a primary election to a Democratic colleague.

Ms. Maloney, who began her professional career as a teacher and administrator for the New York City Board of Education, held dozens of community meetings, issued briefings and news conferences at Hunter College’s Roosevelt House during her terms in Congress.

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HOCHUL TO DELIVER STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

ALBANY – Governor Kathy Hochul will deliver the annual State of the State address at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at the New York State Capitol. While physical attendance is open only to credentialed members of the media as well as lawmakers, the speech will be livestreamed online and can be viewed on the governor’s official website.

The contents of the governor’s speech are unknown, but she is expected to discuss issues that have impacted New Yorkers in recent months, such as the coronavirus pandemic, inflation and the perception of rising crime.

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CORNELL WAGE ATLAS SHOWS DISPARITY IN BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN – A new “wage atlas” published by researchers at Cornell University has revealed startling disparities in earning power across the city, with fewer than 40 percent of New Yorkers earning what the researchers calculate to be the living wage for individual areas. Neighborhood-by-neighborhood data shows that Brooklyn struggles with income inequality — the average resident of an underprivileged area like Coney Island or East New York does not make the calculated living wage, while the average resident of a wealthier neighborhood like Brooklyn Heights or Cobble Hill makes nearly double that amount.

“We hope the wage atlas helps our partners in government and elsewhere better understand patterns of inequality,” said Russell Weaver, director of research at the project’s Buffalo Co-Lab.

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JUDGE BLOCKS UBER AND LYFT PAY RAISE

CITYWIDE – The courts have ruled in favor of Uber in a lawsuit the ridesharing company filed to block a first-in-a-decade rate increase for livery drivers approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission in November, agreeing that the methodology the commission used to determine the size of the increase was vague and flawed. While the company argued that the rate increase would have lead to price hikes for passengers and would have harmed its reputation, drivers slammed the judgment, with Bhairavi Desai, executive director of The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, telling Engadget in a statement, “a few missing words in a Statement of Basis and Purpose does not justify denying a raise meant to help thousands of drivers pay their rent and put food on the table for their families.”

A protest last month organized by irate ridesharing drivers stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, in an effort to bring public attention to what the drivers call unlivably low pay rates.

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INSULIN FOR SENIORS CAPPED AT $35 A MONTH WITH NEW MEDICARE RULE

NATIONAL – Seniors with diabetes enrolled in Medicare Part D will now have the price of insulin capped for them at $35 a month, thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress last summer. CNN reports that Part D insulin users were paying $54 per insulin prescription in 2020, totaling $1 billion in spending on insulin alone within the program.

10.1 percent of Brooklyn adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, below the state average of 11 percent.

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BROWNSVILLE MAN FOUND SHOT

BROWNSVILLE – Police responding to a 911 call on the evening of Jan. 9 discovered an unresponsive man, later identified as Reginald Thawney, 50, lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest on a street in Brownsville. Paramedics transported Thawney to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

There have been no arrests made, and police say the investigation is ongoing.

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ADAMS ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF CLOUDBURST RESILIENCY PROGRAM

EAST NEW YORK – Mayor Eric Adams on Monday announced a $400 million dollar expansion of the city’s Cloudburst Program (which constructs clustered stormwater management projects in flood-prone communities) to four new neighborhoods including East New York, a major milestone in the city’s continued resiliency efforts to better prepare for intense rainfall events, like Hurricane Ida. The program incorporates grey and green infrastructure, as well as open spaces, to store excess stormwater until torrential rains pass and there is sufficient capacity in the neighborhood drainage system to better manage it.

The announcement delivers on a promise made by Mayor Adams and DEP Commissioner Aggarwala last September, on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, to select four locations for the Cloudburst program by the end of 2022.

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DUMBO RESIDENTS PETITION FOR MANHATTAN BRIDGE NOISE REDUCTION

DUMBO – A group of DUMBO locals are petitioning the MTA to include the neighborhood in its noise mitigation efforts by taking steps to reduce the volume of trains rattling over the Manhattan Bridge. The petitioners note both that DUMBO’s population has skyrocketed in recent years and is popular with young families, meaning that children are being exposed to dangerous noise levels, and that the authority has already approved similar mitigation efforts in Coney Island, providing a blueprint to work from.

The petition can be signed online, and more information can be found on the Brooklyn Bridge Parents website.

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HORROR AUTHOR TO HOST HAUNTED READING AT ST. ANN’S CHURCH

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – Bestselling horror author and NYC local Grady Hendrix will be holding a reading of his new novel “How to Sell a Haunted House” in St. Ann’s Church on January 16, hosted by Montague St. bookstore Books Are Magic. The event will not be a typical reading, and will also feature a discussion about the history of haunted houses, as well as puppetry by the author, a man of many talents.

The reading will take place at 7 p.m.

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REVEL’S NEW RED HOOK SITE, OPENING IN 2024, WILL INCLUDE COMMUNITY CENTER

RED HOOK/SOUTH BROOKLYN – Revel, a Brooklyn-based electric mobility and infrastructure company, will develop and open five new electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging Superhubs in New York City over the next year, including locations in South Williamsburg and Red Hook — but customers will have to wait until 2024 for the latter. Like Revel’s flagship Superhub in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the five new sites will be open 24/7, accessible to any brand of EV and will be equipped with ultrafast charging, capable of charging an EV in 10-20 minutes.

Revel’s Red Hook Superhub, also known as the Red Hook Recharge Zone, recently received a $7 million New York Clean Transportation Prizes Program award; it will be developed with community partners, including Green City Force and Empire Clean Cities, to include 20 charging stalls and a multi-use community center, which will provide green jobs training to local residents.

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REVEL HQ MOVES TO HISTORIC DIME BUILDING, WHERE IT WILL ADD SUPERHUB

SOUTH WILLIAMSBURG – Revel’s South Williamsburg Superhub, which is part of its project to add 136 public charging stalls to New York’s EV infrastructure landscape, will be in the historic Dime building, where Revel recently moved its headquarters. By the end of 2023, it will have 16 stalls accessible to the building’s residential and corporate tenants as well as the general public.

Revel has also unveiled an interactive digital map of every public fast-charging station in New York City, including all existing sites and the five Revel sites currently under development.

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JENNIFER MITCHELL, WITH SOLID EXPERIENCE FREEING PEOPLE FROM HOMELESSNESS, NAMED DOE FUND’S PRESIDENT/CEO

Jennifer Mitchell. Photo: The Doe Fund.

CITYWIDE – The Doe Fund, a homeless services nonprofit best known for its Ready, Willing & Able reentry program and portfolio of transitional, affordable and supportive housing throughout New York City, welcomes Jennifer Mitchell’s return to the organization as its next president and CEO. Mitchell began her career at The Doe Fund over two decades ago and spent 12 years developing Ready, Willing & Able programs before leaving to become executive director of The HOPE Program, which provides training, skills development, adult education, industry certifications, hands-on learning, job placement and work wellness services, and which she leaves in a strong financial position.

Mitchell will officially rejoin The Doe Fund in April, succeeding president emeritus Harriet Karr-McDonald, who took over the presidency after the death in early 2021 of her husband and Doe Fund co-founder George McDonald.

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IN MEMORIAM: EDUCATOR, ACTIVIST NORM FRUCHTER

BAY RIDGE – The Bay Ridge pedestrian who was struck by the driver of a Hyundai Elantra on December 22 and who died on January 4 was prominent educator and activist Norm Fruchter, 85. A community organizer, school leader, novelist and academic, Fruchter was front and center during some of the most significant battles of the past 50 years, including the fights for parents to gain power in running schools and to desegregate city schools, according to an obituary published in Chalkbeat. Fruchter, who was also a civil rights activist, was instrumental in the founding of Brooklyn New School, a successful elementary school in District 15.

“The passion and commitment embodied by Norm Fruchter has been a source of inspiration to everyone at Yaffed,” stated Beatrice Weber, executive director of Yaffed, a non-profit with the mission of improving education for children of Hasidic and Haredi families, in a statement released on Monday, January 9.

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SERIAL BIZ BURGLAR TARGETS PARK SLOPE

PARK SLOPE – A Park Slope man has been sentenced to two to four years in prison for a string of commercial burglaries of businesses in his neighborhood and other parts of Brooklyn. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez identified the defendant as Charles Wold, 59, of Park Slope who, during the robberies spanning from October 5, 2021 to January 6, 2022, also caused thousands of dollars of damage to equipment: at Simply Sweet (2106A Avenue U) in Sheepshead Bay; Hipster Deli (168 7^th Ave.), Park Slope Ale House (356 6th Ave.), Just Salad (252 7th Ave.), Tava Turkish and Mediterranean Restaurant (318 5th Ave.) and 390 Social Bar and Restaurant (390 5th Ave.) in Park Slope; and, Blue Collar Burger (187 Court Street) in Cobble Hill.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Evelyn LaPorte sentenced Wold to six concurrent prison terms of two to four years following his November 2 guilty plea, although Gonzalez had urged a sentence of 9 to 18 years.

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EASING CONVERSION OF OFFICE SPACE INTO NEW HOUSING

CITYWIDE – Mayor Eric Adams on Monday, January 9 unveiled recommendations from a city-led task force to facilitate the conversion of underused office space into new housing for New Yorkers. The Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force crafted the report, which presents 11 concrete recommendations — under three main heading categories — that would make changes to state laws and city zoning requirements in an effort to extend the most flexible conversion regulations to an additional 136 million square feet of office space.

The three main recommendations, which would be implemented via amendments to New York State Multiple Dwelling Law and New York City Zoning resolution, are: expand the range of buildings eligible for the most flexible conversion regulations; make existing conversion regulations work better; and, provide financial incentives for affordable housing and childcare facilities.

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BROOKLYN SURROGATE COURT JUDGE RESIGNS

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – Brooklyn Surrogate Court Judge Harriet Thompson has resigned effective March 1, just days after her courthouse keys were returned to her, reported the New York Law Journal on Monday, January 9. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a statement indicating that Thompson resigned from the bench for medical reasons, and has agreed to never again seek public office.

The Surrogate Court handles probates, estates of decedents and adoptions.

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MAN WANTED IN STRING OF OVERNIGHT COMMERCIAL BURGLARIES

WILLIAMSBURG/GREENPOINT – A string of burglaries in Williamsburg and Greenpoint have police in the 90^th and 94^th Precincts, respectively, asking the public to help track down the perpetrator(s). The eight incidents, between December 20, 2022 and last Thursday, January 5, all involved commercial establishments in those precincts and took place between 2 and 7 a.m., with the assailant removing $10,000 from a safe at a Wythe Ave. business in the most recent burglary.

Anyone who recognizes this individual wanted in connection with eight burglaries, including incident 6, where surveillance cameras startled him on December 30, should contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

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POLICE SEARCH FOR MISSING SENIOR

CANARSIE – Police are asking the public to be on the lookout for Martin Pollack, 70, who was last seen leaving his house near the Paerdegat Basin on the morning of January 1. He is described as approximately 5’6″ tall and 150 pounds, and was last seen wearing a blue and white Brooklyn Cyclones hat, a blue jacket and blue jeans.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782); or, log onto the Crime Stoppers website or Tweet @NYPDTips.

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FUNDRAISER FOR BENSONHURST WOMAN STABBED BY SISTER NEARS GOAL

BENSONHURST – An online fundraiser for Liana Secondino, 20, who was gravely wounded two weeks ago by her sister in a shocking attack that also claimed her father’s life, has raised more than $84,000 for the young woman, as she remains in the hospital recovering from her injuries. Lucie Swann, the project’s organizer, wrote in an update on GoFundMe that Secondino “told me that she feels all of the love and support and wants to thank each and every person who has taken part in this incredible fundraiser.”

Ms. Secondino’s sister, Nikki Secondino, is being held in Rikers and has been charged with murder, attempted murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, after allegedly confessing to police that she “wanted them dead.”

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WILLIAMSBURG MAN FOUND DEAD NEAR BUSHWICK HOUSES

WILLIAMSBURG – In the early hours of January 3, police responding to a 911 call in Williamsburg discovered an unresponsive man, later identified as Daniel Ryan, 27, lying on the sidewalk across the street from the Bushwick Houses with stab wounds to his neck and torso. Ryan was transported by EMS to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

Police say that there have been no arrests at this time and that the investigation remains ongoing.

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SUBWAY STATION BATHROOMS TO REOPEN MONDAY

CITYWIDE – The MTA has announced that it will be reopening the bathrooms in nine subway stations around the city on Monday, January 9, after having closed them due to sanitation difficulties during the COVID pandemic. “When customers have got to go on the go, we’ve now got them covered at select stations,” said NYC Transit President Richard Davey in a press statement, which also noted that the bathrooms have been refurbished and updated with new paint, appliances and fixtures.

Brooklyn stations where bathrooms will reopen include the Jay St.-Metrotech station and the Kings Highway station.

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GROUP OF TEENS WANTED IN DELIVERY DRIVER ROBBERY

BROWNSVILLE – A delivery driver was robbed by a group of four teens on Tuesday, December 13, while delivering food to the Howard Houses, according to police, who say that the youths beat the driver with a weapon before stealing two iPhones, his wallet and $300 in cash and fleeing on foot. All of the group members are described as between 16 and 18 years old and have dark complexions.

If you recognize any of these teens, police ask that you reach out with any information you can share. All tips are strictly confidential.

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BQE SURVEY DEADLINE APPROACHES

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – The deadline is drawing close for members of the public to respond to a Department of Transportation survey and offer input on the proposed plans for the redevelopment of the 1.5-mile stretch of the BQE that runs between Atlantic Avenue and DUMBO, including under the Heights Promenade. The survey can be found online on the DOT’S city website, and comments can be submitted through January 15.

The DOT revealed its three proposal options in December to mixed opinions from the community.

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MISSING ELDER IN CANARSIE

CANARSIE – Police are looking for Kenneth Bruce of Canarsie, who has been missing since the evening of Saturday, January 7. He is described as approximately 6’0″ tall and 140 pounds, with brown eyes and short gray hair and a thin build, and was last seen wearing a gray sweater, blue jeans and brown shoes and operating a 2006 Subaru Tribeca.

Have you seen this man? Please help authorities find him.

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JEWISH MAN RAMMED BY CAR IN CROWN HEIGHTS

CROWN HEIGHTS – On Friday afternoon, an Orthodox Jewish man was struck by a car while crossing a street in Crown Heights in what police are describing as a potential bias attack. The Yeshiva World posted security footage of the event, in which a white sedan appears to accelerate into a turn, striking the man before driving away from the scene.

The victim was transported to a hospital by the Hatzolah ambulance services.