What’s News, Breaking: Monday, August 7, 2023

August 7, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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SILVER ALERT ISSUED FOR
MISSING BED-STUY MAN

BED-STUY — POLICE ARE ASKING THE PUBLIC’S HELP IN FINDING a person who has been missing since Saturday, Aug. 5. The man, a 64-year-old Black Hispanic, is identified as Hector Pacheco-Padilla of Marcus Garvey Blvd. in Bedford-Stuyvesant (79th Precinct). He was last seen in his residence around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Have you seen this man, described as Hispanic, with brown eyes, a gray beard, 5’7” in height, and approximately 210 lbs. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, black jean shorts, and blue Croc shoes. If so, please contact NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Photo: NYPD/CrimeStoppers

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PIPE REPLACEMENT ON WITHERS ST.
REQUIRES WATER TURNOFF ON TUESDAY

WILLIAMSBURG — RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES ON A STRETCH OF WITHERS STREET in Williamsburg are being alerted about a Temporary Water Shutoff scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 8, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., according to a notice that Community Board 1 distributed on Monday. The NYC Department of Design and Construction is replacing 100-year-old pipes that distribute water to the city with newer pipes that are more resistant to cracks and breaks. According to the department’s flyer, this work is being done on Withers Street between Lorimer Street and Union Avenue (just to the northwest of the BQE), as part of a multi-site and citywide Pedestrian Safety Improvements project.

The city urges property owners and residents to store in advance any water needed for cooking, cleaning or other uses, to shut off the main water valve to prevent plumbing problems and sediment from entering internal pipes and to turn off water-cooled systems such as central air conditioning.

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NEW EMERGENCY HUMANITARIAN RELIEF CENTER TO OPEN ON RANDALL’S ISLAND

RANDALL’S ISLAND – THE MAYOR ANNOUNCED TO THE PRESS ON MONDAY THAT RANDALL’S ISLAND WILL BE CONVERTED into a “Humanitarian Relief Center” shelter which will house 2,000 adult asylum seekers. As of Aug. 7, the number of asylum seekers in the city’s care has exceeded 57,200 people. Over 190 emergency shelters have been constructed in reaction to the migration influx that has occurred over the past year. New York state will reimburse the city for the associated costs of the site, including construction, maintenance and staffing. This humanitarian relief center will provide a range of services, in addition to ensuring asylum seekers can reach their desired destination, if not New York.

“As the number of asylum seekers in our care continues to grow by hundreds every day, stretching our system to its breaking point and beyond, it has become more and more of a Herculean effort to find enough beds every night,” said Mayor Adams.

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REPORT FROM THE CITY: YESHIVAS LACKING IN SECULAR EDUCATION FOR OVER FIVE YEARS

BOROUGHWIDE – RECORDS OBTAINED BY THE CITY, A LOCAL NEWS CONSORTIUM, INDICATE THAT SECULAR EDUCATION has been lacking in Yeshivas for over five years. The records obtained are internal communications between Department of Education officials. The NYC DOE allegedly knew about the lapsed curriculum when they surveyed 11 different religious schools in Brooklyn in 2018 and 2019. Seven of those schools got a clean bill of health, and four were categorized as “underdeveloped.” The schools included in the “underdeveloped” category include Yeshiva Kerem Shlomo in Borough Park and Yeshiva Bnei Shimon Yisroel of Sopron in Williamsburg. At those schools, DOE officials only witnessed classes in Jewish studies, which were all conducted in Yiddish.

Critics point out that Mayor Bill de Blasio glazed over investigations into the quality of Yeshiva education in 2018 and 2019, while Mayor Adams last May indicated that he believes many Yeshivas can offer quality education, going so far as to label them a “success” according to The City.

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COMPTROLLER LANDER: CITY RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OUTDID INVESTMENT RETURN TARGETS

CITYWIDE — THE NEW YORK CITY RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ACHIEVED a combined net return of 8% across all five pension funds, and with a value of $253.19 billion in assets, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said on Monday, Aug. 7. Funds surpassed the 7% actuarial target rate, meaning that the required City contributions are reduced by approximately $550 million over the next five years.

The strong performance this fiscal year notwithstanding economic challenges such as record-high inflation and a volatile investment scenario is being credited to the retirement systems’ diversified asset allocation, portfolio construction, and risk assessment.

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CITYPARKS PUPPETMOBILE BRINGS BACK
URBAN RETELLING OF CLASSIC TALE

CROWN HEIGHTS — THE CITYPARKS PUPPETMOBILE FREE AND FAMILY-FRIENDLY ORIGINAL MARIONETTE PRODUCTION of Little Red’s Hood is back by popular demand with shows running through October. Little Red’s Hood is a fresh retelling of the classic “Little Red Riding Hood” tale updated with a modern sensibility that will appeal to children growing up in New York City. The traveling show (with performances in four boroughs, including Brooklyn), features a dozen hand-made marionettes from the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre’s expert puppeteers. The sole Brooklyn performance this month is on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at 1 p.m. at the St. John’s Recreation Center (in Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1251 Prospect Place between Troy and Schenectady avenues).

Little Red’s Hood spotlights Little Red, a smart, young city dweller who is obsessed with her smartphone and offers a comical lesson on the importance of disconnecting from digital lives to enjoy real-life moments with friends and family.

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NAMES REVEALED OF TOP NYPD OFFICIALS ORDERED TO RETIRE IMMEDIATELY

CITYWIDE — FOLLOWING FRIDAY’S announcement from NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban that he had accepted the resignations of several unnamed top police brass, the identities of these senior officials started coming to light over the weekend, according to several news media reports. Among the high-ranking and widely respected New York Police Department officials are James Essig, since 2021 the chief of detectives; Chief of Transportation Kim Royster, Assistant Chief Of Detectives Christopher McCormack, and Eugene Whyte, an executive director in the communications unit. These four, all with decades of experience in the NYPD, were ordered to leave their desks by Monday, August 7.

Essig, who was an appointee of Commissioner Dermot F. Shea and who stayed in during Commissioner Keechant Sewell’s leadership was well-liked among his colleagues and the news media, whom he regularly briefed on high-profile cases, the NY Times reported. Transportation Chief Kim Royster, a Bratton appointee who had held her position since 2015, and first Black woman in NYPD history to reach that rank, had also earned wide respect.

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BRIDGE AND TUNNEL TOLL INCREASES TAKE EFFECT

TRI-STATE AREA — TOLLS TO CROSS MTA BRIDGES and tunnels now cost more after increases took effect on Sunday, Aug. 6. Tolls on nine MTA bridges and tunnels, including the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge that connects Brooklyn and Staten Island, have risen an average of 5.5% and as much as 10% for drivers whose E-ZPass tags that were issued by other states, or who don’t have E-ZPass at all. Tolls on the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel between Red Hook and Lower Manhattan and on the Verrazzano Bridge rise to $6.94 for NYC E-ZPass holders, to $9.11 for Mid-Tier commuters and to$11.19 for holders of the Non-NYC-SC E-ZPass and those who get invoiced via Tolls by Mail.

Drivers using the Marine Parkway Bridge in southeastern Brooklyn will pay tolls ranging from $2.60 to $5.60 depending on whether they have a NYC-issued E-ZPass.

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NEW MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL COMING TO DOWNTOWN BK

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A NEW MONTESSORI-STYLE PRESCHOOL IS SETTING UP SHOP on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn, reports the Commercial Observer, after signing a 15-year lease for 10,000 square feet of space in a mixed-use building. The school, Changing Tomorrow Childcare Academy, already operates another facility near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, offering educational programs for children ages three months to five years.

Changing Tomorrow is joining several other schools that have recently opened or plan to open near bustling Fulton Mall, including a new art and design high school that will accept its first class this fall and an elementary school whose opening has been temporarily delayed.

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IN MEMORIAM: MYRON GOLDFINGER, 90. ARCHITECT KNOWN FOR HIS MODERNIST HOMES

PRATT INSTITUTE AND CONNECTICUT — MODERNIST ARCHITECT MYRON GOLDFINGER, famous for his geometrically shaped homes and a synagogue in Brighton Beach, died last month at age 90, according to a New York Times obituary by Clay Risen published on Aug. 3. Goldfinger’s homes can be found around the tri-state area — New Jersey to Connecticut — particularly in the Hamptons, and had a signature design: basic shapes like cylinders, half-circles, blocks and triangles that he transformed into dramatic houses with expansive use of space. Goldfinger also taught at Pratt Institute in Clinton Hill for a decade during the 1960s.

Goldfinger’s one non-residential building was a synagogue in Brighton Beach, although the obituary did not name the congregation. One of Goldfinger’s signature houses is near that synagogue and at the end of Amherst Street, where Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach border.

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SCHOOL BUSES TO BE EQUIPPED WITH TRAFFIC SAFETY CAMS

CITYWIDE — MORE THAN 30 SCHOOL BUSES AROUND THE CITY ARE set to be equipped with automated traffic cameras this fall as part of a pilot program to record drivers who violate the law by illegally passing when the buses are stopped to pick up or drop off students, reports Streetsblog, over objections from the Adams administration, which has claimed that these drivers do not “cause many serious injuries.” While such drivers do not currently face fines, a proposal in front of the City Council would allow for the city to issue tickets starting at $250 for a first offense.

The city’s finance department is set to hold a virtual hearing on this new proposal on Aug. 31; instructions for attending the hearing, as well as more information on the program, can be found online on the City Record website.

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SIX CONVICTED FOR MORE THAN 200 THEFTS; ENGAGED POLICE IN HIGH-SPEED CHASES

BOROUGHWIDE — SIX MEMBERS OF A THEFT CREW HAVE BEEN CONVICTED for their roles in a series of more than 200 burglaries of car dealerships, cellular phone stores and ATM businesses in Brooklyn, other boroughs and surrounding regions, State Attorney General Letitia James announced on Friday, Aug. 4. New York Attorney General Letitia James disclosed the convictions of Willie Baines, Josepher Cartagena, Brandon Collazo-Rivera, Justin Herrera, Douglas Noble and Alexander Santiago, all of Bronx County, who allegedly stole cars, cellular phones, merchandise, and cash valued at more than $3 million, including at least 54 vehicles. The convictions, following guilty pleas from all, were the result of a 13-month joint investigation by the Office of the Attorney General’s Organized Crime Task Force, NYPD Auto Crime Unit and 29 local and county police departments. Sentence terms were not yet disclosed.

The burglars would typically engage in what law enforcement dubbed “Operation Redline” — waiting for the police to respond to a burglary alarm, and then engaging in dangerous high-speed chases (passing the speedometer’s red line) from the crime scene.

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BILL WOULD RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS TO FORMERLY-INCARCERATED AMERICANS

BROOKLYN AND NATIONWIDE — A NEW BILL INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS WOULD RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS to 4.6 million Americans who have completed custodial sentences for felonies. Brooklyn Congressman Rep. Dan Goldman (D-10), joining four of his colleagues in the House of Representatives, introduced the ‘Democracy Restoration Act (DRA) of 2023,” declaring that the legislation would end the permanent denial of voting rights nationwide for individuals with criminal convictions who have been released from incarceration and have completed their sentences and been released. The bill includes enforcement provisions and mandates that individuals be notified about the restoration of their voting rights.

As of October 2022, an estimated 4.6 million Americans are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. Among the adult African American population, 5.3% is disenfranchised compared to 1.5% of adults from other races and ethnicities.

Rep. Dan Goldman celebrated the 84th Precinct along with local organizations and nonprofits who are working together to improve the community, at Tuesday’s National Night Out Against Crime event in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Brooklyn Eagle photo by Mary Frost

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NEW TRANSIT APP DESIGNED TO HELP VISUALLY-IMPAIRED COMMUTERS

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A NEW APP that NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers have designed could help people with visual impairments navigate the New York City subway system more easily. Articles in the NYU Tandon newsletter, Tech Times and Engadget, explains that the new app, Commute Booster, “uses a smartphone camera to recognize relevant signs along a transit route, guiding the user to their destination while ignoring nonessential signs and posters.” The app showed an “impressive 97% success rate” in its test transit hubs, two of which are in Downtown Brooklyn — Jay Street-Metrotech and DeKalb Avenue.

Commute Booster is designed for the often-forgotten “middle mile,” where passengers deal with turnstiles, busy passageways and terminals to stay on the correct route.