What’s News, Breaking: Thursday, January 19, 2023

January 19, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Share this:

NO CHARGES AGAINST POLICE WHO HIT CYCLIST WHILE RESPONDING TO EMERGENCY

WILLIAMSBURG — Criminal charges are not warranted against a police squad who in July 2020 struck and killed a motorcyclist in Williamsburg, State Attorney General Letitia James’ Office of Special Investigation has determined. Two officers responding to a shooting in Williamsburg, and who had their lights and sirens activated, had run a red light as law permits them to do when responding to emergencies. The police car had slowed down but hit the motorcyclist, who was thrown from his bike and died the next morning.

After the investigation, which included review of security camera videos, radio transmissions, eyewitness accounts, and crash reconstruction analysis, OSI concluded that criminal charges against the officers are not warranted in this case.

✰✰✰

COMMUNITY BOARD 7 AREA DESIGNATED AS A BANKING DEVELOPMENT DISTRICT

SUNSET PARK/WINDSOR TERRACE — Brooklyn Community District 7 (CD 7), covering the neighborhoods of Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, has been approved to become a Banking Development District, State Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris announced on Thursday, Jan. 19, continuing New York State’s efforts to expand and retain access to affordable financial services. DFS administers the Banking Development District Program, a public/private collaboration among DFS, local communities, and financial institutions that support the establishment of bank and credit union branches in areas where there is a demonstrated need for banking services. 

Moreover, Superintendent Harris approved Popular Bank’s Sunset Park Branch as a BDD branch, which has committed to a series of community lending and financial education initiatives that will foster financial empowerment and inclusion in the community.

✰✰✰

$44.2M AWARDED TO HOUSING PROJECT, WITH APARTMENTS RESERVED FOR HOMELESS

EAST NEW YORK — Brooklyn’s East New York section will be getting additional affordable housing, as $44.2 million has been awarded for the Shepherd Glenmore development, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Jan. 19. The seven-story building will offer 123 affordable homes with 74 apartments reserved for individuals experiencing homelessness due to criminal-justice involvement, substance-use disorders, or mental illness. The financing is made possible through New York State Homes and Community Renewal’s October and December 2022 bond issuances, with funding also through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Clean Energy Initiative.

Altogether, more than $390 million has been awarded through bonds and subsidies to create or preserve more than 1,600 affordable, sustainable, and supportive homes across the state.

✰✰✰

BILLS AIM TO CLOSE LOOPHOLE IN LOBBYING RULES

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — City Councilmember Lincoln Restler (D-33rd C.D.) was set on Thursday, Jan. 19, to introduce a package of legislation, with co-sponsorship from several Brooklyn colleagues, to close the loophole in lobbying rules for city employees. The first bill would significantly expand the existing post-employment restrictions for senior government officials, including agency heads and senior staff from the Mayor’s Office and City Council, who would be banned from appearing before any city agency for two years. The second bill in the anti-corruption package would create a two-year ban on elected officials appearing before city government in any capacity.

Brooklyn Councilmembers co-sponsoring the package include Julie Won, Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-34/northern Brooklyn), Kalman Yeger (D-44/Bensonhurst to Midwood), Chi Ossé (D-36), Alexa Avilés (D-38/several neighborhoods) and Shahana Hanif (D-39/Cobble Hill to Kensington), and others from Queens, Manhattan.

✰✰✰

GOVERNOR ANNOUNCES UTILITY-DEBT FORGIVENESS PROGRAM

STATEWIDE — Help is on the way for 478,000 residential customers and 56,000 small businesses in New York State who are in danger of having their utilities shut off, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday, Jan. 19. The aid, which the New York State Public Service Commission approved on Jan. 19, is the largest utility customer financial assistance program in state history and follows a series of policies announced last week to address energy affordability and emissions reductions as part of Governor Hochul’s State of the State address.

The approved debt-forgiveness program, which gives one-time credits to all residents who don’t qualify for low-income assistance, and to small-commercial customers, through May 1, will help avert a widespread statewide termination of service.

✰✰✰

PROSPECT PARK ALLIANCE’S REIMAGINE PROJECT EARNS $275K GRANT

PROSPECT PARK — The Prospect Park Alliance has received a prestigious $275,000 Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation to advance its ReImagine Lefferts initiative. ReImagine Lefferts aims to re-envision the mission and programming at the park’s historic house museum, recognizing its role as a site of dispossession and enslavement, and to explore the stories of the Indigenous people of Lenapehoking whose unceded ancestral lands the house rests upon and the Africans who were enslaved by the Lefferts family.

The Alliance, which is the nonprofit arm that sustains this beloved Brooklyn park in partnership with the City, will engage the public around this initiative with a Community Conversation on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, from 1-4 p.m., at the Prospect Park Boathouse. (RSVP and more info for this free event at Eventbrite.)

✰✰✰

ALEC BALDWIN CHARGED WITH INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER

NATIONAL — Oscar-nominee Alec Baldwin has been charged with involuntary manslaughter — in the accidental, but fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a film set in New Mexico, according to several news reports. Baldwin, who grew up in Nassau County and whose namesake father was from Brooklyn, was rehearsing with a prop gun – not knowing it was loaded – when it fired, also wounding Joel Souza.

Involuntary manslaughter is often defined as the unintended death of another person due to criminal negligence or impairment.

✰✰✰

JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIR: STATE SENATE WAS ‘WITHIN ITS POWERS’ TO REJECT CHIEF JUDGE NOMINATION

STATEWIDE — Calling Wednesday’s State Senate confirmation hearing for Chief Judge nominee Hector LaSalle “thorough” and “fair,” State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, chairman of that body’s Judiciary Committee, told NY1 News anchor Pat Kiernan that “Questions were raised and left unanswered.” Although Judge LaSalle held his ground on having to rule on his interpretation of the law as written, Hoylman-Sigal found many of the responses troubling. “I think it’s clear in the Constitution that the state Senate is within its powers – as is the state Assembly – to set its own rules on how we proceed with both legislation and nominations and we use a committee process, and that’s what we did yesterday,” he said. “The nominee was rejected, and the full Senate has, as a result, spoken.”

Hoylman said he hopes that Governor Kathy Hochul – a Democrat — selects a new nominee that will appeal to a cross section of Democrats.

✰✰✰

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS BLOCKS BOARD FROM JAIL FOOTAGE

CITYWIDE — Public officials and advocacy groups reacted with outrage on Wednesday as the Department of Corrections, led by the Adams administration, moved to block the NYC Board of Correction from retaining footage taken from security cameras in city jails, which City Council speaker Adrienne Adams and councilmember Carlina Rivera described as a “legally dubious” move that undermined safety for New Yorkers. Gothamist reports that while members of the board, which is supposed to be a watchdog for the corrections system, will still be able to view some footage upon request at selected locations, the city will no longer provide unfettered access to the camera recordings, which could impede the process of investigating deaths and violence in the city’s detention facilities, as well as reduce public awareness of such events.

“Viewing real-time video footage from the jails allows [the Board of Correction] to immediately dispatch field staff to address situations like impending riots, to investigate deaths in custody, and to monitor the conditions in the jails. The Mayor’s ham-fisted move serves no purpose except to hide the violence, chaos and mismanagement that pervades his jails and endangers our incarcerated clients every day,” said the Legal Aid Society in a press statement.

✰✰✰

CITY’S FIRST ELECTRIC SKYSCRAPER TOPS OUT IN DOWNTOWN BKLYN

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Alloy Development on Wednesday announced the topping out of the 44-story 100 Flatbush, the city’s first all-electric skyscraper, which will include 441 mixed-income residences and 30,000 square feet of retail space when completed in 2024. All functions within 100 Flatbush typically run by natural gas will run on electricity instead, with residential units featuring induction cooktops and heat pump dryers; as well as base-building systems like hot water heating and HVAC for the overall structure being completely electric, eliminating carbon emissions and helping to ensure that the building is carbon neutral upon completion.

The building is aligned with the standards of the “passive house” sustainability movement, of which Brooklyn is at the forefront.

✰✰✰

BROOKLYN MUSEUM CURATOR WINS FASHION AWARD

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Matthew Yokobosky, the Brooklyn Museum’s senior curator of fashion and material culture, was honored on Tuesday night with the Markopoulos Award, a prestigious prize granted to individuals who advance the field of visual merchandising, reports Women’s Wear Daily. Named after late retail executive Andrew Markopoulos, the award reflects Yokobosky’s decades of work in creating immersive exhibitions at the museum.

The curator’s current exhibition on the work of designer Thierry Mugler is on show at the Brooklyn Museum until May 7.

✰✰✰

COATS GIVEN TO BKLYN KIDS BY OPERATION WARM AND NETS’ SIMMONS

Simmons helps a youngster try on a new jacket. Photo: Brooklyn Nets.

GOWANUS — Brooklyn Nets player Ben Simmons partnered with Operation Warm to gift new winter coats to more than 2,600 children through his annual Ben Simmons Coat Giveback, which took place this year on Friday, Jan. 13 at P.S. 124 in Gowanus. “A new coat creates an opportunity to empower a young person by giving them confidence, offering them warmth and helping students attend school and play with their friends,” said Simmons, who surprised the happy children at the event.

Since Simmons first partnered with Operation Warm, a national non-profit that manufactures new, high-quality coats and shoes for children in need, for the first Ben Simmons Coat Giveback event in 2017, he has helped provide more than 7,800 new coats for kids, all distributed through elementary schools and non-profits that support underserved communities.

✰✰✰

DOE FUND SECURES FINANCING FOR NEW TRANSITIONAL RESIDENCE

BED-STUY — The Doe Fund, a homeless services organization, on Wednesday announced it had closed on construction financing for its latest transitional residence at 510 Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, adjacent to an existing residential facility owned and operated by the group since 1990. When completed, the residence will provide 200 beds to men experiencing homelessness, who will have the opportunity to voluntarily participate in The Doe Fund’s nine-to-twelve-month Ready, Willing & Able program.

“Gates Avenue is where it all began for us — where we first proved to the world that when given the opportunity to work and earn a living, people experiencing homelessness would seize it. Since then, nearly 30,000 men have been given the gift of opportunity and the chance to transform their lives at our transitional residences through Ready, Willing & Able.” said John McDonald, interim president of The Doe Fund.

✰✰✰

GOLDMAN HOLDS SWEARING-IN CEREMONY AT BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL

BOERUM HILL — Newly elected Congressmember Dan Goldman (NY-10) on Wednesday held an in-district swearing-in ceremony at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts, led by Senator Chuck Schumer and attended by a host of Brooklyn politicians. Goldman at the ceremony spoke out against the actions of Congressional Republicans and vowed to represent the interests of his constituents while also fighting the conservative agenda in Washington.

“I’m going to pledge to you to be a zealous advocate in Washington. But I need a promise from everyone in this room, and everyone else who may see this as well: we need everyone to engage a little bit more. To do one more small thing beyond what you might otherwise do in your daily lives. To help a neighbor, to help your community. To help the city. To help our democracy,” said Goldman in a speech.

Goldman is sworn in by Schumer at the Brooklyn High School of the Arts. Photo: Dan Goldman.

✰✰✰

NYCHA RESIDENTS APPOINTED TO HOUSING AUTHORITY BOARD

WILLIAMSBURG — Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday appointed James McKoy of Brooklyn’s Williams Plaza and Raymond Miller of Manhattan’s Johnson Houses to the seven-seat New York City Housing Authority board. “NYCHA residents know better than anyone what is needed to fix their homes, which is why they play such a critical role on the NYCHA board,” said Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz of the appointment in a press statement.

“I am eager to continue my advocacy for the NYCHA community as a NYCHA board member. As a representative for NYCHA residents, my commitment is to ensure that their needs and requests are met. People need to know that you hear them and, most importantly, that you understand,” said McKoy, who has served as a member of the Williams Plaza Resident Association since 2011.

✰✰✰

INDICTMENT UNSEALED AGAINST MORTGAGE SCAMMER

BROOKLYN — An eight-count indictment was unsealed Wednesday, Jan. 18, in federal court in Brooklyn charging Marat Lerner, president of the Lerner Group, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to steal from clients of his mortgage loan modification business. Lerner allegedly used his access to his clients’ banking information to create checks that appeared to be monthly mortgage payments to a fake escrow agent secretly controlled by himself, while in actuality depositing the checks in his own bank account, in total misappropriating at least $550,000 from his clients.

“The defendant, as we allege today, funded his own lavish lifestyle by operating a lengthy scam exploiting his victims’ trust and fears in order to steal their money rather than fulfill his promise to modify their mortgages,” stated FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael Driscoll, who urged any other potential victims to contact the FBI for assistance.

✰✰✰

CHURCH FOUNDED IN 1654 SET TO INDUCT NEW MINISTER

PARK SLOPE — The congregation of Old First Reformed Church, one of three collegiate churches founded in 1654 when Brooklyn (then spelled Breukelen) was under Dutch leadership, will install its new senior minister, the Rev. Cheri Kroon, on Sunday, Jan. 29. Rev. Kroon, who with her family has lived in Park Slope for 20 years, was ordained by the United Church of Christ and has been serving the Reformed Church of America for the last ten years; first at Flatbush Reformed Church here in Brooklyn.

Rev. Kroon holds a master’s degree in divinity from Union Theological Seminary and a master’s degree in opera from the University of Maryland.

The Rev. Cheri Kroon of Old First Reformed Church. Photo: Courtesy of Ken Beer.

✰✰✰

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE GRILLS CHIEF JUDGE NOMINEE LASALLE

ALBANY — Judge Hector LaSalle, whom the New York State Senate’s Judiciary Committee had been questioning on Wednesday, Jan. 18, during his confirmation hearing, pointed out that none of the state senators interrogating him had asked certain questions that he expected, including on the reversal of convictions. State Senator Andrew Gounardes (D-22) of Bay Ridge had also earlier asked him how narrowly or broadly he interprets statutes, and whether he uses sources other than these documents, such as legal precedent, for his rulings. He also answered questions about the distinctions in Miranda rights for children and adults.

Judge LaSalle’s nomination by Gov. Kathy Hochul has engendered controversy among progressives who fear that the Democrat candidate is anti-abortion and anti-union based on some of his previous rulings.

✰✰✰

JUDGE LASALLE QUESTIONED ON CONSOLIDATING NEW YORK STATE COURTS

ALBANY — Answering questions from State Senator Kevin Thomas of Nassau County about the complexities of the New York Court System — albeit with the word “Unified” in its name — and whether he’s in favor of eliminating the county and local courts, instead putting them under the jurisdiction of the state Supreme court, LaSalle said that he would be willing to “talk with the stakeholders involved” on how the court system can be made more efficient. Also, defending his record on civil rights, abortion and labor, LaSalle insisted that the public should not infer from his record or personal views that he was conservative.

Justice LaSalle is the presiding justice of the Appellate Division of the Second Judicial Department, New York State Supreme Court, and handles civil and criminal appeals from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Westchester County and other counties in the Hudson Valley area.

✰✰✰

LASALLE CONFIRMATION HEARING: MORE ON COURT REFORM

ALBANY — During Wednesday’s State Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, State Sen. Thomas F. O’Mara, (R-58th S.D.) asked Chief Judge nominee Hector LaSalle how he would reform the courts. LaSalle replied that people need to have conversations with the Bar [associations and members], Bench and among the various courts (such as Family Court, Matrimonial Court), and gave as an example cases involving domestic abuse.

While LaSalle said he doesn’t disagree with the concept of consolidating the courts, he added there is no sense of what it would look like. He pointed out that such reforms would have to be implemented “with the eye of inclusion,” taking into consideration practitioners, public defenders, homemakers, and judges, who have aired concerns about the pitfalls of doing this.

✰✰✰

CHARGED WITH DEFRAUDING AND STEALING FROM HOMEOWNERS IN FORECLOSURE

MIDWOOD — A disbarred Midwood attorney has been charged with stealing the deeds to four properties, three of which were in foreclosure, for a total of approximately $2.3 million by defrauding homeowners, most of whom believed he was negotiating a short sale on their behalf. Sanford Solny, 65, of Midwood, Brooklyn, Albany Ave. Realty Inc., East 100 St. Realty Inc., Pleasant Pl. Realty Inc., and Bear Realty & Management Corp. were arraigned on Wednesday, Jan. 18 before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an 8-count indictment stemming from a real estate fraud scheme to steal deeds, possess those properties, and economically benefit from four residential properties in Brooklyn, targeting victims who owned properties that were in foreclosure.

The four properties are on Albany Avenue in East Flatbush, East 100th Street in Canarsie, Sutter Avenue in East New York and Pleasant Place in Ocean Hill.

✰✰✰

NY STATE SENATE REJECTS NOMINATION OF APPELLATE COURT’S HECTOR LASALLE AS CHIEF JUDGE

ALBANY — Saying “The nomination is lost,” State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, chair of the Judiciary Committee, announced that Appellate Court-2nd Department Judge Hector LaSalle was not confirmed, representing also a rejection of Governor Kathy Hochul’s choice for the state’s chief judicial post. The vote was 2 in favor, 10 opposing and 7 “without determination.”

Brooklyn State Senators Andrew Gounardes (D-22) and Zellnor Myrie (D-20) were among those who voted to oppose the confirmation of Judge Hector LaSalle. Judge LaSalle’s courthouse is on Monroe Place in Brooklyn Heights.

✰✰✰

BROOKLYN GETS $24M FROM CONGRESS FOR SOCIAL AND HEALTH CARE SERVICES

BOROUGHWIDE — Brooklyn will receive $24 million in new funding, thanks to New York’s two U.S. Senators and Brooklyn leaders in the House of Representatives. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, along with Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on Wednesday, Jan. 18 secured a total of $24,394,000 for projects across the borough as part of the final omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. Among the recipients are St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn; Churches United for Fair Housing; Kings County Hospital Center and Maimonides Medical Center for improvements to health care facilities; St. Nicks Alliance for its anti-violence initiatives; and CAMBA Inc. for its Career Navigation Initiative.

CAMBA received the highest amount of funding at $3,590,000 to create a program for meaningful career paths, and will house its program services at five nearby community centers, four of which are in NYCHA developments.

✰✰✰

FRANCIS COLLEGE TO USE $1.5M TO UPGRADE NURSING SIMULATION LAB

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — St. Francis College, which expanded and moved its main campus to Downtown Brooklyn, will receive $1.5 million from Congress as part of the final omnibus funding package for Fiscal Year 2023. The College, which opened its new home at 179 Livingston St. last September, will utilize the money to upgrade technology in its nursing simulation lab, which is used by both the school’s nursing students as well as community partners in health care and K-12 education.

The simulation lab improves the quality of SFC’s nursing education program and prepares future nurses to offer exceptional, compassionate care across New York City.

✰✰✰

NY STATE TAX RECEIPTS EXCEED LATEST PROJECTIONS

STATEWIDE — State tax receipts totaled $79.8 billion through the third quarter of State Fiscal Year 2022-23 (April 1-March 31) — exceeding the latest projections from the Division of the Budget’s Mid-Year Update to the State Financial Plan by nearly $7.7 billion, according to the monthly State Cash Report from State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The report showed that year-to-date consumption and use tax collections totaled $15.5 billion, including $14.3 billion from sales and use taxes, which were 4.6% ($679.5 million) higher than for the same period last year, and $85.7 million higher than the Budget Division anticipated.

Although business taxes totaled $19.3 billion, higher than by $1 billion (5.5%) more than for the prior fiscal year, they were $761.1 million below the Budget Division’s latest financial plan projections.

✰✰✰

BREAKING: AMBER ALERT

BROOKLYN — A Missing Child Alert has been issued for Alicia Adelegbe, an 18-year-old Brooklyn girl with medical conditions and who may be in imminent danger. Alicia is described as being 5’7″ tall, 235lbs, with black hair and black eyes, and was last seen on Williams Ave. in eastern Brooklyn around 10:10 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18. She was wearing a black jacket with a fur hood, black sweater, black pants, yellow and red beanie and wearing multi-colored sneakers.

Anyone seeing her is urged to call the NYCPD Missing Person Squad at 718-827-3511, or call 9-1-1.

✰✰✰

NY’S CONCEALED CARRY LAW CAN REMAIN IN EFFECT

NATIONAL — The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday, Jan. 18 ruled to allow New York’s Firearm Dealer Laws and Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) to remain in effect pending appeal. The Supreme Court declined to block a number of firearm dealer laws and provisions of the CCIA that were challenged in the case Gazzola v. Hochul.

This action by the Supreme Court follows another decision from last week to uphold a stay issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Antonyuk v. Nigrelli.

✰✰✰

BURGLARS MAKE OFF WITH CBD PRODUCTS AND CASH

WILLIAMSBURG — Police are seeking two perpetrators in an armed robbery in Williamsburg on Monday night. The men entered High Cloud Exotics located at 390 Broadway near Division Ave. around 11:45 p.m., where one displayed a silver firearm and both males proceeded to remove approximately $2,000 from the cash register, CBD products and store merchandise worth approximately $700.

The thieves, described as having medium builds, approximately 20-to-30 years of age, and wearing dark clothing, also removed the victim’s cell phone and wallet before fleeing westbound in a black vehicle, on Division Avenue.

✰✰✰

MAN DIES IN MYSTERY CANARSIE SHOOTING

CANARSIE – Police officers responding to a 911 call in Canarsie on the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 17, discovered an unresponsive 40-year-old man lying on the street with a gunshot wound to the torso. EMS personnel transported the man to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.

There have been no arrests in regard to this incident, say police, and identification of the deceased is pending family notification.

✰✰✰

CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD FINES BROOKLYN BP, OTHER OFFICIALS

CITYWIDE – NYC’s Campaign Finance Board voted on Tuesday to levy fines against some of New York’s elected officials for misdoings during the 2021 election cycle, including nearly $7,000 in penalties for Brooklyn BP Antonio Reynoso. The bulk of Reynoso’s fines were for the violation of accepting prohibited donations.

Also fined were City Council candidate Francisco Moya and Public Advocate candidate Vito Fossela, who were each assigned substantially lower penalty amounts.

✰✰✰

MAN SLASHED IN FACE DURING DISPUTE AT ‘DANGEROUS’ BUILDING

PROSPECT LEFFERTS GARDENS – A resident of an apartment building near Prospect Park was non-fatally slashed in the face during a dispute on Tuesday night, reports ABC News. According to tenants, such a bloody event is not out of character for the building, which one resident compared to a fake designer handbag: “It looks luxurious on the outside but on the inside, it’s really kind of scary.” A previous incident at the building just last month involved a violent robbery of thousands in cash and jewelry.

Tenants are now reportedly considering a rent strike until building safety improves.

✰✰✰

FLATBUSH FAMILIES DISPLACED AFTER FOUR-ALARM FIRE

FLATBUSH – Tenants of a Flatbush apartment building devastated by a December fire are now struggling to find housing after the blaze destroyed their homes, rendering them unlivable and in some cases claiming all their possessions. Gothamist reports that, while the city initially paid to put the thirteen affected families up in hotel rooms while the landlord repaired their units, funding has now run out and residents are on their own with no news as to when those repairs might be finished.

The tenants’ notorious landlord, Brian Ritter, came in second in last month’s landlord watchlist, and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development shows a shocking 426 open violations for the building in question.

✰✰✰

LAWMAKERS PUSH FOR REPARATIONS COMMISSION

ALBANY – Brooklyn state Senator Jabari Brisport, along with Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus Chair Michelle Solages, has backed a measure that would establish a commission to investigate the need for reparations to people whose ancestors were enslaved or impacted by racially based economic discrimination in New York, according to Spectrum News. The commission would hold hearings on the subject and make recommendations to the legislature on racial economic justice.

“This legislation will make our state a leader in a necessary national conversation about restitution, and create a path towards addressing centuries of racial harm,” said Brisport.

✰✰✰

BQE BEFORE AND AFTER: VIDEO SHOWS CHANGING BROOKLYN

BROOKLYN – A video showing a before-and-after of the track the BQE takes through Brooklyn has gone viral on Twitter, according to Brooklyn Magazine, highlighting what the account called Segregation by Design, describes urban planning choices that created economic disparities in communities of color. The video shows aerial images from 1924 and 1984 side-by-side and highlights the expressway’s route through what were previously residential areas.

The rebuilding plan for the section of the BQE that wraps around Brooklyn Heights has caused consternation in the local community after preliminary plans were released last month.

✰✰✰

SUNY APPOINTS BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL PROFESSOR TO JOIN LEADERSHIP TEAM

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – The Board of Trustees of the State University of New York has voted to appoint Brooklyn Law School adjunct professor Kapil Longani to SUNY Chancellor John B. King’s leadership team, effective immediately. Longani, who will serve as Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs & General Counsel, was previously Chief Counsel to the Mayor for Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“These exemplary leaders are passionate about student success, diversity and inclusion and have state and national experience in breaking down barriers for our most vulnerable populations, as well as leading policies to improve social mobility,” said Chancellor King of Longani and fellow appointees Donna Linderman and Ian Rosenblum.