Brooklyn Today January 3: Should Tourists Pay to Cross the Brooklyn Bridge?

The Lede

Happy Thursday! New York City is now a three gender town, we welcome the new year at Domino Park, and cops are searching for teens who took a city bus on a joyride. Plus, we share photos from Coney Island’s Polar Bear Plunge, the borough sees its first killing of 2019, and one resident says tourists should pay to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, a Sunset Park biciclyst dies in a “dooring” crash, a Midwood senior has swastikas drawn on her door, and we recommend the best hangover dishes in the city.

Imprint

Comedian Bill Hader poses at a crime scene on the January cover of Variety.

The Rundown

NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW GENDER OPTION — ‘X’ — TO NYC

People born in New York City who don’t identify as either male or female can now change the gender on their birth certificates to “X.” The city’s Health Department said “non-binary” individuals will have an easier time with their documentation. Choices are now Male, Female and X. Transgender is a term for people whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. A survey of transgender individuals carried out by the NYC Comptroller’s Office found that 29 percent of respondents live in Brooklyn. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM WILLIAMSBURG’S DOMINO PARK

Here’s a sweet way to start 2019: Stroll around the scenic new park that surrounds the landmarked Domino Sugar Refinery. Weather.com predicts that starting today, Brooklyn’s going to have a significant stretch of 40-plus-degree weather, which is a treat this time of year. The prospect of warmish temps makes a walk on the East River’s shoreline sound like great fun. Six-acre Domino Park will keep your eyeballs engaged. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

CONEY ISLAND POLAR BEAR PLUNGE HELPED BY WARMER TEMPERATURES TO WELCOME 2019

Nearly 4,000 brave individuals helped welcome in 2019 by running into the cool surf in Coney Island on New Year’s Day. Thankfully, this year’s Polar Bear Plunge was decidedly warmer than last year’s frigid swim. In fact, the temperature was a balmy 59 degrees after the previous year’s frosty 37 degrees, and the water was a veritable sauna compared to 2018’s icy 17-degree temps. Some hardy souls were dressed in colorful swimsuits and headwear, while others brought their pets along for the plunge. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

BROOKLYN SEES FIRST KILLING OF 2019 AS 2018 STAT NEARS RECORD LOW

New York City may have ended 2018 with the fewest homicides in decades, but it didn’t take long into 2019 to register a sad statistic: the first killing of the new year. NYPD says it happened around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday in East New York. A 29-year-old man was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso in a fifth-floor hallway of a Stanley Avenue building in a public housing complex. (AP via Brooklyn Eagle)

NYPD SEEKS TEENS WHO TOOK A JOYRIDE IN NEW YORK CITY BUS

Police are asking for the public’s help finding three teenagers who took a midnight joyride in an empty New York City bus. The theft in Brooklyn happened the same day someone stole a different city bus in the Bronx and drove it to Queens and back, but police say there’s no indication the incidents are related. Police say a bus was taken from a MTA depot in Brooklyn around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and abandoned a mile and a half away. Police released bus security camera photos and video of three teens Saturday. (AP via Brooklyn Eagle)

BROOKLYNITE SAYS TOURISTS SHOULD PAY TO CROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

A Brooklyn resident, fed up with the “human traffic jam” of pedestrians and cyclists on the Brooklyn Bridge, says tourists should be forced to pay a small fee to use the bridge. On Saturday afternoon, there were so many people that nobody could move. Police couldn’t do anything about the situation, and it took Rosow 90 minutes to get to the Manhattan side. Last year, DOT released a report on the possibility of widening the overpass’ promenade, since pedestrian traffic on weekends increased 275 percent from 2008 to 2015, and bicycle traffic increased by 104 percent. (Gothamist via Brooklyn Eagle)

SUNSET PARK BIKE RIDER DIES IN NEW YEAR’S DAY ‘DOORING’ CRASH

The bizarre “dooring” crash that killed a man riding an e-bike in Sunset Park early New Year’s Day could have been prevented if the city had installed safety features on the street where the fatal smash-up took place, according to transportation advocates. Ellen McDermott, co-interim director of the group Transportation Alternatives, called for the installation of more protected bike lanes around the city in the wake of the horrific crash that took the life of Hugo Alexander Sinto Garcia on Third Avenue early Tuesday morning. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

MIDWOOD SENIOR HAS SWASTIKAS DRAWN ON HER APARTMENT DOOR

A 77-year-old Jewish woman whose husband survived the holocaust had swastikas drawn on her door on Saturday afternoon. Miryam Marc found two 12-inch red swastikas outside her apartment door while she was observing the Jewish Sabbath. “I am in a shock, in a shock and I’m like choking,” Marc said. “I cannot talk.” Police are currently searching for the culprits. Last year saw a 4 percent rise in hate crimes in New York City. (CBSNewYork via Brooklyn Eagle)

Staff Picks

LONG READ

Efforts to unionize at The New Yorker taught one employee that there’s more to life than work. Unionization, she said, brought “laughter” to the publication’s hallways and provided optimism. (via The Outline)

ANOTHER LONG READ

“I Was a Cable Guy. I Saw the Worst of America.”(via Huff Post)

SPORTS

The organizer of the Outback Bowl earns more than $1 million, yet his sole responsibility is to run a single college football game every year. (via WaPo)

EAT

Still feeling the effects of New Year’s Eve? Here are the 16 best hangover meals in New York City, including six dishes in Brooklyn. (via Eater)

NATIONAL BULLETIN

Chipotle creates options for dieters…Louis C.K.reaches a new low with Parkland shooting survivor comments…And TSA employees prefer floppy-ear dogs to pointed-ear ones. (via CNN and LA Times)  

FOREIGN FLASH

Actress Olivia Newton-John shuts down rumors that she’s near death…American soccer star Christian Pulisic signs a $73.1 million deal with Chelsea…And the “oldest woman” ever to live may have been a fraud(via news.com.au, ESPN and Mercury News)

ROYAL WATCH

“Inside the Markle Family Breakdown” (via Vanity Fair)

EAGLE SPORTS

Raiquan Clark refused to let the LIU-Brooklyn men’s basketball team enter the all-important conference portion of its schedule on a three-game losing streak. The senior slasher scored 19 of his team-high 23 points in the second half as the Blackbirds rallied from a 12-point deficit to upend Fordham, 60-57, in their final non-conference tilt before officially beginning defense of their Northeast Conference championship tonight at Sacred Heart. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

MILESTONES

Happy birthday to Joan Walsh Anglund, Nicole Beharie, Dabney Coleman, Erick Brian Colon, Mel Gibson, Bobby Hull, Eli Manning, Danica McKellar,Victoria Principal, Angela Yee and Stephen Stills!