What’s News, Breaking: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

July 12, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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DOCTORS REACH OUT TO PATIENTS ON HEALTH CARE ACCESS

CONEY ISLAND TO BUSHWICK — Health care access outreach is available to Brooklyn’s Asian community, with the release on Wednesday, July 12, of the “Doctor Public Service Announcement” video series. Part of NYC Health + Hospitals’ NYC Care health care access program, and completed in partnership with the Asian American Federation, the series features the public hospital system’s physicians speaking directly to New Yorkers to encourage enrollment, renewals, and primary care appointments. The series features NYC Care Executive Director and family physician Jonathan Jiménez, MD, MPH, from NYC Health + Hospitals/Gotham Health in East New York, and Michelle V. Soto, MD, from NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health. In conjunction with the release, NYC Care will kick off a “Health Care Weekend of Action” in Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island from Friday, July 14, to Sunday, July 16, including in Sunset Park, Coney Island and Bushwick.

The videos, which were recorded in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Bengali, along with subtitling in 13 languages, will be featured in a citywide marketing campaign, shared on social media and sent directly to NYC Care members.

From left: Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of Asian American Federation, Jonathan Jiménez, Executive Director of NYC Care, and Mohammad Razvi, CEO of the Brooklyn-based Council of Peoples Organization, pose with enlarged NYC Care sample membership cards. Photo: NYC Health + Hospitals.

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PATHWAYS IN TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM GETS FUNDING
TO BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOLERS WITH CAREERS

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Two Brooklyn public school projects have received funding for projects as part of the New York State Pathways in Technology program, which Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Wednesday, along with a total of $31.5 million in funding. This investment funds regional partnerships that respond to the greatest need for enhanced access to post-secondary opportunities primarily for academically and economically at-risk students, and works to strengthen the pipeline between local talent and industries with a favorable job outlook. The High School for Innovation in Advertising & Media in Canarsie will receive $2,656,158 in partnership with the NYC College of Technology in Downtown Brooklyn and the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Urban Assembly New York Harbor School on Governors Island receives $2,588,895 in partnership with SUNY Maritime College and the Billion Oyster Project, which the Eagle previously covered.

Each partnership will include K-12, higher education, and business/employer partners. The New York State Pathways in Technology Early College High School (NYS P-TECH) Program incorporates an integrated program between 4 and 6 years in duration that combines high school, college, and career training.

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NEW DIRECTOR OF EVENTS JOINS INDUSTRY CITY CAMPUS

Amanda Braddock, new director of events for Industry City. Photo courtesy of BerlinRosen.

SUNSET PARK — Industry City has appointed Amanda Braddock as the new Director of Events for its Brooklyn waterfront campus in Sunset Park. Braddock, who brings 15 years of experience as an events and hospitality leader, will develop and spearhead the strategic vision for both private events and public programming. She will manage the property’s multiple designated event spaces and oversee Industry City’s robust programming roster, including cultural festivals, trade shows, film screenings, professional talks, and salsa nights, among many creative ventures.

Braddock, who has lived in Brooklyn for 13 years, has also held Director of Events titles at Madison Square Garden and The William Vale and was a founding owner and operator of Purslane, a sustainable catering and events company. She began her career in 4-star dining at Le Bernardin.

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CITY’S PUBLIC HOSPITAL SYSTEM WINS AWARDS
FROM AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

BOROUGHWIDE — The American Heart Association has recognized all 11 facilities of the NYC Health + Hospitals system, including three in Brooklyn, with Get with the Guidelines and Mission: Lifeline Awards for their commitment to quality care in heart failure, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and resuscitation. Among the Brooklyn facilities: NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County won the Gold Plus Awards for Heart Failure and Stroke, the Gold Award for Adult Population in Resuscitation, plus several honor roll awards in those categories and diabetes. NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health (Ruth Bader Ginsberg) won Gold Plus Awards in the Stroke category and a Lifeline NSTEMI Silver Award. Woodhull Hospital received Gold Plus Awards in the Heart Failure and Stroke categories and Honor Roll in the diabetes category.

The hospital system earned these awards by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure and stroke patients at a set level for a designated period, including measures for evaluation of the proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies.

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REP. CLARKE REINTRODUCES BILL TO HELP THOSE
SUFFERING FROM UTERINE FIBROIDS

FLATBUSH AND CAPITOL HILL — Rep. Yvette Clarke is reintroducing the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act into the 118th Congress, and has scheduled a press conference for Wednesday afternoon, July 12. The bill would establish $150 million in new research funding over five years through the National Institute of Health, expand the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services database on chronic conditions to include information on services provided to women and girls with fibroids, and other critical provisions.

The bill is named for Ohio Congressmember Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a close colleague of Rep. Clarke and the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Ohio. She represented much of Downtown Cleveland and east side suburbs. Tubbs Jones died in 2008 from a ruptured aneurysm and cerebral hemorrhage.

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COLTON ORGANIZES STREET CLEANING AT KINGS HIGHWAY

GRAVESEND — Saying that “Cleaner streets mean a better quality of life,” State Assemblymember William Colton (D-47) is again holding Neighborhood Cleanup events around his district, which includes Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights. Colton and a corps of volunteers completed one of these cleanups on Wednesday, July 12, on Kings Highway between West 12th and West 13th Streets, including at a catch basin (sewer drain) at W. 13th, which he said will prevent flooding on rainy days.

Colton, who has been mobilizing neighborhood cleanups for many years, said that the hot, humid weather was not a deterrent. No weather condition can stop me and my volunteers from doing a good deed for the community.”

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FINANCIAL LITERACY TRAINING COMING TO YOUTH IN SOME NYC PROGRAMS

CITYWIDE — Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday signed a bill sponsored by Councilmember Farah Louis (Flatbush, Midwood) which amends city code to allow financial education in NYC’s Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) Summer Youth Employment and Runaway and Homeless Youth programs. “As a young man, I never had information on how to save or how to be financially responsible. By signing this bill into law, we are helping our youth learn the skills they need to succeed financially,” Adams said in a press release.

“This bill shows our commitment to end intergenerational poverty to build a more inclusive economy — providing real economic opportunities for all,” Louis said. Youth will receive instruction on banking, budgeting, credit, debt, saving and taxes.

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BIG PLANS TO FINALLY RESTORE, REOPEN GORGEOUS BROOKLYN PARAMOUNT THEATER

FORT GREENE — Is Long Island University’s Brooklyn Paramount Theatre finally getting its makeover? Brownstoner reports that the gorgeous but defunct Fort Greene theatre, at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue, is being restored by the world’s largest live entertainment company and will reopen in 2024 as a “major live-act venue.” LIU at one time used the gilded music hall as a gym, and several heralded plans to reopen the storied venue have fallen through. The Rococo-style theatre once hosted performances by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Bing Crosby, Buddy Holly, and Chuck Berry, and was the first theatre in the world designed to show talking movies.

Live Nation, which operates Brooklyn Bowl and Irving Plaza, is prepping for a reopening in the first or second quarter of 2024, Brownstoner says.

Brooklyn Paramount Theatre in 1948. Photo courtesy of Long Island University.

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HUGE NEW MIGRANT SHELTER OPENS NEAR BROOKLYN NAVY YARD

CLINTON HILL — A new shelter for migrants that opened last week at 47 Hall St., near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, will become the largest dormitory-style shelter in the history of New York City, according to THE CITY. The site, about two blocks from Steiner Studios, will house close to 2,000 people across the two previously vacant buildings of the block-sized complex. A press release from City Hall went out on Tuesday after the publication inquired about the roughly 450 migrants who already moved into a previously undisclosed “respite center” at the site.

Developer RXR, which donated $10,000 to Mayor Eric Adams’ former nonprofit One Brooklyn Fund, bought the property in 2018. Neither RXR, nor the Mayor’s Office would say how much the city is paying for rent, THE CITY said.

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BROOKLYN CONSERVATORY SELECTS TWO FOR WOMEN’S JAZZ FELLOWSHIP

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music on Monday announced the two recipients of its 2023 Jazz Leaders Fellowship, which highlights the achievements and advances the careers of Black women and nonbinary jazz performers, as Melanie Charles and Olithea Anglin, who performs as Miss Olithea. Charles is a Brooklyn-born eclectic innovator who frequently collaborates with genre-bending artists, like SZA, the Roots and the Gorillaz; while Anglin is a native New Yorker and vocal coach who by the age of 18 had performed in every major NYC concert hall, and now focuses on meditative, experimental music.

Both recipients will also receive opportunities to teach at the Conservatory as well as a $12,500 award and will be honored later this month at the kickoff reception for BKCM’s Midsummer Nights music festival.

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‘PUPPET SLAM’ AT BROOKLYN COMMONS

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A family-friendly “puppet slam” is coming to the Brooklyn Commons (formerly known as MetroTech) this Thursday, featuring “an inclusive line-up of marionettes, hand puppets, giant puppets and more,” according to event sponsor Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. The show is part of the Puppets Come Home! series hosted by Coney Island USA, which is designed to platform cutting-edge young puppeteers, as well as pay homage to Brooklyn’s history of puppeteering, which it also honored last year with a puppet parade down the Coney Island boardwalk.

The puppet show will take place on Thursday, July 17, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Brooklyn Commons; attendance is free and open to all ages.

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NEW LIDL SUPERMARKET COMING TO CROWN HEIGHTS

CROWN HEIGHTS — A branch of the supermarket chain Lidl will be coming to Crown Heights after commercial mortgage broker Eastern Union announced on Monday that it had secured a $62 million loan to construct the new mixed-use building that will house Lidl’s 33,000 square-foot space. The complex will also include 57 apartment units and areas for other retail tenants, as well as a large community space.

Lidl first inked the deal for the Bedford Avenue space in July of last year, representing the biggest retail leasing of 2022, according to the Real Deal; the second-place spot was also taken by Lidl for a Park Slope store, as the European chain seeks to break into the U.S. market.

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SHOOTING VICTIM REMEMBERED AT FUNERAL: ‘PILLAR OF THE CITY’

SUNSET PARK — Mourners gathered on Monday at the Beit El-Maqdis Islamic Center mosque in Sunset Park for the funeral of Hamod Saeidi, 87, the victim of a shooting rampage by a scooter-riding gunman over the weekend, reports the Daily News. Hundreds of relatives, friends, community members and politicians, including Mayor Adams, observed the solemn proceedings and spoke about both his life and legacy, and the violence that shocked the city and wounded three others.

“He killed the whole family. He killed us. My father was a peaceful man. He was a good man. I ask everybody to pray for everyone who got wounded. If my father was alive, he would most likely forgive him. I cannot forgive,” stated son Main Saeidi at the funeral, condemning the shooter, who was captured shortly after the incident; Saeidi is survived by six children, 30 grandchildren, 31 great-grandchildren, and his wife.

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FLATBUSH GANG MEMBER SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS FOR MURDER

CROWN HEIGHTS — Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez on Monday announced that Gymanni Carrington, 22, of Crown Heights, a member of the Martense Beverly Bosses gang based in East Flatbush, has been sentenced to 15 years to life for the murder of alleged gang rival Donavan Frazier, 20. According to the DA, Carrington shot Frazier in the chest with a handgun in the early hours of Sept. 16, 2017, as Frazier was leaving a deli in Crown Heights; Carrington was captured on surveillance video firing into the deli, claimed credit for the murder in calls recorded by the NYC Department of Corrections and on social media posts, and made admissions in emails to his mother just after the shooting, according to evidence presented by the prosecution.

Carrington and 17 others were named in a 2018 indictment in which they were charged in connection with eight separate shootings, including two fatalities; the co-defendants have since pleaded guilty to various charges, including conspiracy, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.

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YOUNG REPUBS SLAM CANDIDATE LABELLA OVER ‘GASLIGHTING CAMPAIGN’

SOUTHERN BROOKLYN — The NY Young Republicans Club issued a strident condemnation of City Council candidate Vito LaBella on Saturday, after LaBella refused to concede the Republican nomination in District 43 to fellow candidate and victor Ying Tan, despite earlier assurances that he would endorse the winner of last week’s primary in the general election. The club described his conduct as “dishonest, disingenuous and disrespectful,” and accused LaBella of running a “spirited gaslighting campaign” over a Twitter ultimatum demanding that “If Ying cares about adding another GOP councilmember, she has until tomorrow to decline the line and give it to me.”

The Young Republicans also endorsed Tan and chided other GOP local organizations over their silence on the issue, warning that LaBella, who is still on the ballot as a Conservative, was setting up to potentially split the Republican vote; Tan also released a statement pledging to remain in the race for the council seat, which after redistricting has no incumbent — current District 43 Councilmember Justin Brannan is running instead in District 47 versus incumbent Republican Councilmember Ari Kagan, another messy scuffle.

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SHOMRIM LEADER TO FACE TRIAL FOR CHARGES OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF MINOR

BOROUGH PARK — A leader of Borough Park’s Jewish Shomrim police force is set to stand trial this month over allegations that he sexually abused a 15-year-old girl, a community member who had turned to him for help after a conflict with her family, reports the Daily News. Jacob Daskal, 64, is accused of using his position to scare the teen into silence, at one point allegedly telling her, “It’s just going to ruin your life if you tell people.” The alleged abuse took place in 2017 and 2018, with Daskal following the girl to a retreat upstate, Chicago and even Israel in pursuit of a sexual relationship, but was exposed in May 2018 when the girl told a mentor after returning to NYC, who reported it to the police.

Because the case involved the crossing of state lines, Daskal is facing federal charges of coercion, enticement and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; Daskal is reportedly a well-known civic leader and a donor to state Sen. Simcha Felder and former Mayor de Blasio.

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SECOND IN ‘CITY OF YES’ BRIEFINGS WILL FOCUS ON NEED FOR ZONING REGULATION UPDATES

CITYWIDE — The second in Mayor Eric Adams’ “City of Yes” proposals will be the focus on a public briefing with the Department of City Planning, scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, at 7 p.m. Mayor Adams has proposed three Citywide zoning text amendments collectively titled the “City of Yes” proposals. The July 11 public information session, to be held virtually, will concentrate on “City of Yes for Economic Opportunity,” and the concomitant text amendment that aims to update zoning regulations affecting businesses across the city. The amendment means removing limitations on the categories of businesses allowed in commercial districts and will clarify and modernize zoning rules.

The Mayor’s Office points out that the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of flexibility in city zoning regulations, some of which have barely been updated since 1961.

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HOCHUL URGED TO BAN ‘DEEPFAKED’ AI PORNOGRAPHY

STATEWIDE — Lawmakers are urging Governor Hochul to sign a proposed ban on the use of AI technology to alter pornographic images or videos to appear to be other, nonconsenting people, such as celebrities and victims of sexual violence, reports Spectrum. The ability to quickly and seamlessly alter porn and other media by superimposing the faces of unrelated people over the bodies of those in the images, known as “deepfaking,” has exploded in recent years, as access to the AI tools needed becomes more widely available; the proposed ban would level a fine of up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail, as well as granting victims the right to pursue legal action against the fakers.

Experts have expressed concern over the possibility of AI’s usage in other situations as well: for example, videos could be altered to smear political rivals, as U.S. Rep. Clarke pointed out when introducing her DEEPFAKES Accountability Act in 2019, prior to the presidential election.