What’s News, Breaking: Thursday, May 9, 2024

May 9, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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BROOKLYN FASHION AT BPL PEOPLE’S BALL

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — HUNDREDS OF NEW YORKERS turned out on Sunday night for the Brooklyn Public Library’s fourth annual People’s Ball at the Central Branch at Grand Army Plaza. The event is a celebration of Brooklyn fashion held on the eve of the exclusive Met Gala, co-curated by producer Souleo and hosted by actress Delissa Reynolds and stylist Robert Verdi. The evening featured performances by drag legend Kevin Aviance and DJ Spinna, as well as a tribute to the New York Times style photographer Bill Cunningham, who would have turned 95 this year.

“This event celebrates the true spirit of democracy and reminds us that fashion and creativity belong to everyone, and you really don’t need much to be a relevant part of it — just imagination, inspiration, courage, and a zest for life,” said László Jakab Orsós, BPL’s vice president of arts and culture.

New Yorkers from all walks of life stormed the catwalk and posed for photos at the Brooklyn Public Library’s People’s Ball on Sunday.
Photo: Gregg Richards/Courtesy of BPL

The ball featured a celebration of the New York Times style photographer Bill Cunningham, with several of Cunningham’s muses in attendance as special guests, including Marilyn Kirschner, Lauren Ezersky, Jean Stone, Lana Turner, Tziporah Salamon, and Amy Fine Collins.
Photo: Gregg Richards/Courtesy of BPL

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TENSIONS OVER CLINTON HILL MEGA SHELTER

CLINTON HILL — HUNDREDS OF CLINTON HILL LOCALS packed a community meeting on Monday night to air complaints over the high concentration of migrant shelters in the neighborhood, which now hosts around 4,000 recently arrived people, reports THE CITY. Some pointed fingers at Councilmember Crystal Hudson over a perceived lack of action on the issue; speakers at the meeting demanded that the city not renew the Hall Street shelter’s lease next March. Tensions rose recently after the opening of a new shelter building on Hall Street in April, across from a previously existing one, housing hundreds more people; some meeting attendees raised complaints over quality-of-life issues like an increase in panhandling and a homeless encampment under the nearby BQE, while others expressed concerns over the conditions shelter residents are experiencing.

Hudson told THE CITY that she was unable to attend the town hall meeting due to a schedule conflict, but said she was working with City Hall to aid Clinton Hill, citing a recent open letter to the mayor requesting additional resources.

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BROOKLYN SEES SPIKE IN NEW CONSTRUCTION, ALONG WITH INJURIES

CITYWIDE — THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS ON MONDAY released a new report highlighting a boom in post-pandemic building in Brooklyn, with new construction more than doubling between 2020 and 2023, from 10,343,000 square feet=plus to 22,498,000 square feet-plus, more than any other borough by a wide margin. The building boom, however, also comes with an attendant increase in construction-related injuries, with 222 injuries reported last year, up from 107 injuries in 2020. Advocates had raised concerns over construction accidents after six fatalities were reported in Brooklyn in 2022, although last year saw only two deaths; a press statement from the DOB indicated that safety conditions at worksites may be improving, and despite conducting more inspections, the department is “taking fewer enforcement actions.”

Construction worker Juan Ildefonso Tamay Ganzhi was killed in February in a Borough Park building collapse, at a site previously fined for unsafe conditions.

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RENTAL MARKETS NEAR SUBWAY STOPS SEE PRICE SURGES: RENTHOP REPORT

CITYWIDE — APARTMENTS NEAR CERTAIN SUBWAY STATIONS in Brooklyn experienced the largest rent hikes, according to a new report from RentHop. A site that organizes rental listings by quality, RentHop uses metrics from GIS data for subway stops compiled by CUNY/Baruch College and NYC Open Data. RentHop examined at least 20 non-duplicated rental listings within 800 meters (half a mile, or several city blocks) of a subway stop and then calculated the median rents. Brooklyn stations seeing large rent hike percentages were those where multiple neighborhoods intersect, including the Avenue P stop on the F line (17.44% rent hike), Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center in Boerum Hill (3.65%), and Broadway Junction (12.5%). Stations near newly renovated apartments, such as Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road, serving East Flatbush, Brownsville and Canarsie, saw rent hikes as well.

Not surprisingly, some existing tenants with below-average rents may have opted to stay put more often in the past year.

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BPL LIBRARIAN WINS PULITZER PRIZE FOR ILLUSTRATED REPORTING

BOROUGHWIDE — BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY’S MEDAR DE LA CRUZ, who provides library books to persons who are incarcerated, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. Mr. de La Cruz is an artist who is also an integral part of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Justice Initiatives program, which provides library services to persons who are incarcerated on Rikers Island. His illustrations, drawn from memory after returning home, were published in The New Yorker in May 2023. Because photos are not allowed on Rikers Island, the illustrations give witness to the people behind bars and the importance of books while incarcerated.

Brooklyn Public Library’s Justice Initiatives program provides services to incarcerated New Yorkers and their families including library service in prisons. The program’s Welcome Home series provides one-to-one support with the library’s trained re-entry navigators and monthly dinners for previously incarcerated patrons.

This illustration by BPL staffer Medar de la Cruz, which New Yorker Magazine published last May, is part of a collection that won him a Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary.
Photo: Illustration by Medar de la Cruz/Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library

Medar de la Cruz
Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library

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LEGAL AID SOCIETY DEMANDS THOROUGH REPORT ON NYPD CAMPUS PROTEST ACTIONS

CITYWIDE — THE NYPD’S RESPONSE to the pro-Palestine campus protests is now the subject of an investigation with the Department of the Inspector General, according to an announcement made on Wednesday. DOI has launched a probe into NYPD officials’ social media use as well. Earlier this week, the Legal Aid Society had urged the OIG-NYPD to review what is believed to be the police force’s problematic crackdown of protests at local universities and colleges that led to widespread violations of protesters’ constitutional and statutory rights. Legal Aid also urged OIG-NYPD to investigate reports of the NYPD slamming protesters to the ground, pushing others and throwing one protester down the stairs, as well as indiscriminately using pepper spray on protesters as well as legal observers and journalists. Legal Aid on Wednesday issued a statement that, while praising the investigation being opened, still “implores” them to “review the NYPD’s disproportionate use of force during the crackdown, as well as to examine why New Yorkers charged with low-level crimes were illegally detained and processed through the system instead of receiving an appearance ticket.”

The prolonged detention of demonstrators violated “New York’s long-standing 24-hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement,” the statement pointed out.

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BILL WITH AMENDED LANGUAGE ON PRESCRIPTION COSTS ADVANCES FROM CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE

CAPITOL HILL — A BILL CHANGING LANGUAGE to lower prescription drug costs has advanced from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways & Means Committee, Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis (R-11) announced on Wednesday. Malliotakis, who represents southwestern Brooklyn and sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means, introduced language to delink Pharmacy Benefit Manager compensation from the cost of medications and increase price transparency, thus protecting “mom-and-pop” pharmacies and lowering the cost of prescription drugs for consumers. The bill also increases telehealth services for mental health appointments passed out of the full committee with bipartisan support. The language, which received bipartisan support to clear the committee, will be included in Ways & Means’ Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act.

This policy will save taxpayers roughly $700 million and help reduce seniors’ out-of-pocket drug costs, Rep. Malliotakis’ office said.