Mayoral Hopefuls Vow (Mostly) United Front Against Adams and Cuomo

… and 4 more takeaways from the first major forum of the year, held last week at Brooklyn Law School.

State Senator Zellnor Myrie. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Law School

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

It’s shaping up to be a crowded mayoral race, and a forum in Brooklyn on Thursday gave candidates an early opportunity to set themselves apart from the pack.

Recent polling suggests that if the election happened today, voters would choose someone who hasn’t even joined the race, at least not officially: former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Per Politico, the embattled Cuomo — a pugilistic figure who has faced both sexual harassment allegations and questions over his failure to divulge the true scope of nursing home deaths during the pandemic — is supposedly weighing a February launch date for his campaign, and has been building his team behind the scenes. 

A poll from last October had Cuomo beating current Mayor Eric Adams handily in a head-to-head contest, and the latest survey was no different. Thirty two percent of respondents cited Cuomo as their top choice, versus 10% for ex-Comptroller Scott Stringer, 8% for current Comptroller Brad Lander, 7% for state Senator Jessica Ramos, 6% for Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani — and only 6% for Adams. 

But campaign ads have yet to start running, and most voters aren’t focused on the race. Analysts caution that polling this far in advance of an election is often simply a test of name recognition, which is borne out by the fact that Cuomo and Adams also drew the highest negative ratings of the pool. And since neither attended the NYC Democratic Mayoral Candidate Forum, it offered five of the lesser-known candidates a prime time slot to throw shade at the absentees while raising their own profiles.

The event, hosted by Brooklyn Law School, included Ramos, Lander, and Mamdani, along with state Senator Zellnor Myrie and former Bronx Assemblymember Michael Blake. The group agreed on many policy questions: they would each uphold the original timeline for climate goals, stop Adams from shifting retirees to a Medicare Advantage plan, and build tens of thousands of new housing units. Yet in subtle ways, the forum also revealed fault lines that may prove influential once the campaign starts in earnest. Here are a few takeaways:

 

Takeaway 1: An Olive Branch to Trump

 

The elephant in the room was the president-elect — all five candidates ribbed Adams relentlessly for flying to Mar-a-Lago, but were also circumspect about the need to establish a working dialogue with a figure who has long been anathema to most Democrats.

For Ramos, the closure of five hospitals in Queens in recent years demonstrated that the healthcare system was in ‘dire straits,’ and would probably need resources from the new Trump administration. 

“I’m known for being a fighter. I’m very loud, and I like to take names, right? But we also have to maintain a very professional relationship and know how to pick our battles,” she conceded. “The reality of the matter is that we depend on the federal government for a lot of funding when it comes to our infrastructure, including our transportation.”

Be that as it may, Ramos did lay out a bright line on sexual and reproductive health. “If [President Trump] tries to attack those things,” she told the audience, “you better believe I’m gonna fight.”

A packed crowd. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Law School

The state senator’s comments track with a larger trend sweeping the nation: Democrats in nearly every state are cautiously scaling back their scorched-earth approach to Trump in the wake of his inauguration, instead emphasizing collaboration. In fact, Ramos’ statement was remarkably similar to that of Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who said, “I won’t go looking for fights. I won’t back down from them, either.”

Myrie, Lander, and Blake expressed variations on this theme. But one notable counterpoint was Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, who initially broke ranks with his colleagues.

“We cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage by a federal administration,” he said. “We will have to find the funding within our city and our state, and I’m confident that we can as opposed to trying to curry favor [with Trump].”

Yet roughly ten minutes later, even Mamdani softened his opposition: “I would make it clear that New York values and laws are not up for negotiation. That doesn’t mean that I would reflexively say no to each and everything.”

 

Takeaway 2: Mamdani Means Business

 

Mamdani has been cast as the socialist candidate, the furthest left in a field with its fair share of progressives. Yet top members of the Democratic Socialist Party have criticized him for running as a ‘spoiler’ who might divert voters away from other leftists like Lander, Myrie, and Ramos, who are perceived as having broader appeal. These aren’t just murmurs of discontent, either: in October, Assemblymember Emily Gallagher said in a statement that Mamdani’s campaign was “unfair to [NYC-DSA’s] project as a whole and could be ruinous.”

At the forum, however, Mamdani made a point of stressing his caché with moderates, using very few buzzwords as he laid out a slate of policies that largely resembled those of his opponents. 

“Any candidate running for mayor,” he said in his opening remarks, “has to run with a platform that speaks to all 8.3 million people who call this city their home.”

Yet Mamdani did take a hard stance — aligning with NYC-DSA — on reforming the police department.

“I would treat the NYPD like every other city agency,” he said, explaining that he would place the department under civilian control, crack down on overtime, and reduce what he viewed as staffing bloat. “[It] does not need to have an 80-plus person communications department. I didn’t need to see a five minute video shot by drones of how the NYPD invaded Columbia University. We need one to two people to be able to share the basic facts.”

The bottom line is that Mamdani is hoping to be more than a spoiler, and his robust fundraising and social media presence may help. His campaign is almost neck-and-neck with Lander and Ramos in the polls, an early sign that other candidates may have to take his bid seriously as the race wears on. 

 

Takeaway 3: Rikers Isn’t Closing Anytime Soon

 

In November, a judge held the city in contempt for its handling of the Rikers Island jail complex, threatening to turn jurisdiction over to the federal government. New York is legally required to shutter the facility by 2027, but a plan to replace it with a distributed array of  borough-based jails has stalled. Just last week, the judge held a hearing on how a receivership might work, though the takeover is still up in the air.

So when moderators asked the candidates whether they would commit to closing Rikers on time, it was a question with newfound urgency. The response was the same across the board: yes, it would be shut down, but not by 2027 — and no one shared a specific plan for when and how they would accomplish a feat that has evaded city officials for over a decade.

State Senator Jessica Ramos. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Law School

“I would love to uphold the deadline,” said Ramos. “The truth is, I don’t know if I can, because nothing has been done by this current administration for the past three years.” 

The rest of the mayoral hopefuls were of similar minds. “We are facing some real administrative obstacles,” Myrie added, “and we have to be honest about that. But I’d be doing everything possible to get it closed on as close to that timeline as possible.”

 

Takeaway 4: Alliances Are On the Table

 

As is tradition, each candidate claimed to be uniquely qualified for the job. A former Obama staffer and small business owner, Blake said he alone had the local, state, and federal experience required to negotiate with Trump; Lander asserted that he was the only candidate in the race who was not taking contributions from real estate developers, and touted his track record of fighting corruption. Yet despite this jockeying, there was a consensus that infighting would have to be set aside if it detracted from the larger goal of defeating Adams and Cuomo. 

New York’s 2021 elections used a new system, ranked-choice voting, which was employed again for the second time in the 2024 cycle. The name says it all: instead of choosing one candidate, voters can rank up to five options. If a candidate takes more than half of first-choice votes, they win outright. If not, the voting continues through several rounds to decide a winner. The system was proposed as a solution to low turnout, but it also opens the door for candidates to benefit from higher rankings through alliances. 

Although no assurances were made — ”I am still willing to be swayed by my fellow colleagues,” said Ramos, “so I don’t have an exact order yet” — most of the candidates at the NYC Democratic Mayoral Candidate Forum seemed open to a concerted ballot strategy if it would topple the incumbents. 

”We have to get this right, because if Maya Wiley and Catherine Garcia had cross-ranked and cross-endorsed each other [in 2021], one of them would be mayor right now,” said Lander. “And our mayor would not be flying to Mar-a-Lago.”

A Dust Cloud Blows in Brooklyn

Residents of the Columbia Waterfront District say a nearby cement operation is making their air purifiers go ‘berserk.’ The DOT claims it’s under control.

After the rally, Amanda Zinoman and fellow residents block a DOT vehicle from entering the cement recycling facility. Photo: Jack Delaney

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

What you need to know:

  • Columbia St residents are calling for the closure of a cement recycling facility run by the city, which they say is causing both noise and air pollution.
  • The DOT says that the recycling is critical to reducing emissions, and claims it has introduced safety measures. However, local leaders have posted footage that suggests these measures have not been implemented consistently.
  • City officials reiterated that the site will remain open during a meeting last week, but area pols said they would visit soon to ensure that dust mitigation efforts are occurring.

Read on:

I’m shivering as I peer down at the man in the beanie’s phone, which shows a dramatic scene —it’s a video seemingly taken by a drone around sunset, in which a roughly fifty-foot tall cloud of dust blows off a mound of concrete rubble by the docks and billows ominously inland, toward the homes of Red Hook — when the rally takes a turn.

The public statements are over, and a clump of elected officials hangs back to answer questions. But local resident Amanda Zinoman, wearing a neon orange beanie of her own, is leading a group of protesters to the gates of the cement recycling plant on Columbia Street. They’ve spotted two newcomers: a pair of Department of Transportation workers is pulling up to their site in a truck, and Zinoman’s cohort is determined to stop them.

“We need a real solution — no more air pollution!” the residents chant, standing shoulder to shoulder to block the entry. “Shut it down!” A TV cameraman swoops in; soon an NYPD car arrives on the scene, and two officers step out to appraise the situation. A small crowd of protesters, including a man in a luchador mask, a local named Luke, cheers from the sidelines. For their part, the DOT employees seem more mystified than miffed.

The energy swells, and then — in an instant — dissipates. The officers calmly usher the picketers aside, the truck rolls ahead, and soon most of the rallygoers head home.

Yet discussions with parents and tenants who lingered for hours in the 30-degree weather suggest that local opposition to the recycling facility, which opened approximately one year ago in what was originally billed as a temporary relocation, is unlikely to subside anytime soon. 

Local legend John Leyva, pictured above, was the rally’s MC. Photo: Jack Delaney

At issue is whether SIM Municipal Recycling, which was moved to the current site to make way for offshore wind infrastructure at the South Brooklyn Terminal, poses a significant pollution risk to those living nearby. 

In theory, concrete recycling is a step towards sustainability: cement production alone accounts for 8% of global emissions, and when a French firm unveiled the world’s first housing complex to be built with 100% recycled concrete in 2022, developers in the U.S. took note —  it seemed like a promising path to meeting lofty climate goals.

On the local level, however, the crushed concrete produced by recycling facilities is still crystalline silica, which can be hazardous to humans if inhaled. The DOT has previously said that the Columbia Street site uses safety measures — mainly keeping the dust wet with sprinklers — that prevent it from becoming airborne.

“Concrete recycling is an important part of NYC DOT’s safety and accessibility work, and this plant was relocated temporarily to accommodate the city’s critical, climate-saving offshore wind operations. We are taking all the necessary steps to keep the public safe—though in response to community feedback, NYC DOT has taken new measures to decrease the size of the recycled material piles in this plant and further reduce dust and noise.” 

But residents at the rally questioned whether these measures were being consistently implemented, and shared stories of how the facility was impacting their wellbeing.

“I’ve had grey dust in my home daily since February 2024,” said local Geraldine Pope. “I needed to install air purifiers in every room. I wake up in the morning with a dusty cough. I cannot open my windows anymore because the air is now toxic to me.”

Rob Petrone, a resident who lives directly across from the site, had similar complaints. “I can’t open my garbage pail or hold my stair rail without getting gray toxic dust on my hands, I can’t open my window without my air purifier going berserk,” he said, noting that no neighbors were given advance notice of the relocation. “So many of us have kids, and this is what they breathe daily as they walk to school, as they go to parks, as they play sports.” 

Corroborating their claims, a man quietly pointed to the roof of a nearby car, which was — sure enough — covered in the much-discussed dust. 

Zinoman was frustrated that the DOT was, in her view, refusing to recognize a reality that was clear to those on the ground. “Why are my lungs feeling so shit? I live right here — of course that’s it,” she said. “Look at his car! You can see it in the air, it’s not abstract.”

Like Petrone, resident Ivan Martinovic felt particular urgency as a parent. “We have a concrete plant three blocks away from our school,” he said, referencing PS 29. “Let that sink in. I don’t know if I would be here if I didn’t have a son, but I am here, and I’m inclined to speak. I’m here for his classmates. I’m here for the kids in next year’s incoming class, the future. The community deserves better.”

A truck eventually passes through, as residents continue to chant. Photo: Jack Delaney

Another sticking point is the noise pollution, which several protesters said begins around 6 a.m. and ‘shakes the foundations’ of their homes. In December, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said that noise minimizers had been installed on nearly all of the site’s vehicles and equipment, yet concerns remain.

Local electeds have been taking note. Following a rally last November, Council Member Shahana Hanif, Congresmember Dan Goldman, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, and state Senator Andrew Gounardes sent a joint letter demanding that the facility be shut down by the end of 2024. The DOT demurred, promising last year that it would suspend operations on days when winds exceed 30 mph, adopt further mitigation strategies and look for a new site. But “these commitments have not been fulfilled,” the letter alleged. “Dust emissions persist, and operations continue despite high winds.”

At the event on Wednesday, officials said that the DOT response had outlined a plan for more water trucks and other tools to keep the piles of recycled concrete aggregate, or RCA, wet and therefore contained. But like residents, they were skeptical that the measures were being enacted. “We’ve seen enough footage from when that letter was sent to us up until now,” said CM Hanif, “to know that that’s not true.”

The day after the rally, Hanif and her colleagues met with Rodriguez and Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi to demand the ‘immediate closure’ of the facility. The results were mixed: a spokesperson for Hanif’s office said that the the duo declined, citing potential delays to other city projects. Instead, they shared progress on mitigation efforts, such as an irrigation system that Rodriguez had previously asserted would be rolled out in February.

Residents aren’t appeased. “Anytime there’s a dangerous situation, it gets shut down until you can figure everything out,” said John Leyva, as Zinoman stared down the DOT truck. “This can’t go on for another six months.” 

 

SFC Job Fair Offers ‘Warmer’ Alternative to Big Tech Platforms

Thousands of job seekers attended the event, which was headlined by local startup Bandana, and many left with promising leads. But some said that ageism and other barriers were making it difficult find stable work.

The Brooklyn Bridge to Employment job fair, hosted by St. Francis College, featured over 40 employers and more than 1000 attendees. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Zawadzinski

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

A Ukrainian refugee looking to work as a taekwondo instructor. A professor and his fashion designer sister. An ex-receptionist commuting all the way from Nassau. 

At a recent career fair in downtown Brooklyn, co-sponsored by the job aggregation platform Bandana and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, over one thousand unemployed New Yorkers came looking for an alternative to the ‘black hole’ of sending resumes online — and many left pleasantly surprised.

Economists say that some degree of unemployment is a sign of a healthy economy, but even as the city’s output grows, large swaths of its residents struggle to find work. Just over 216,000 people are currently unemployed in New York City, including roughly 118,000 Brooklynites, and searching for listings virtually can feel futile when the majority of applications are discarded by AI-based screening programs before they reach a human’s desk. 

The ‘Brooklyn Bridge to Employment’ fair, hosted by St. Francis College on January 9, assembled over 40 employers to speak with job seekers one-on-one, running the gamut from the Flatbush Food Coop to SUNY Downstate. A wide range of sectors were out in force: for three hours, a steady stream of attendees clumped around the tables of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn SolarWorks, banks like Chase and Wells Fargo, the FDNY, Maimonides Medical Center, New York Life, and The City Tudors, among others.

The event doubled as a promo for Bandana, a Williamsburg-based startup launched in 2024 which bills itself as a more user-friendly, local competitor to behemoths like Glassdoor and Indeed. A chief concern is transparency, so users can view postings on an interactive map with commute times, alongside estimated take-home pay and benefits. And in a testament to the company’s crowd-sourced ethic, several of the site’s features were culled from conversations with attendees at previous career fairs.

J.C. Campbell, a design professor, said the fair was both ‘warm’ and productive — he found two companies to follow up with. Photo: Jack Delaney

“Three job fairs ago, someone mentioned subways,” said Bandana CEO and co-founder Tim Makalinao, who was helping with the event’s pop-up photo booth. “So we added transportation filters.”

Makalinao said that the tool was gaining traction, in part due to savvy social media strategy — he hazarded that most of the attendees at the St. Francis College fair had been drawn from TikTok and Instagram. Bandana’s unconventional business model seems to be working, too: the platform displays all the jobs it receives from employers, eschewing the traditional model in which sites charge for each listing. Instead, employers can pay to boost their listing to the top of the scrum. 

In its latest update, the site has started to provide free tax assistance, and Makalinao indicated that more features were in the works. 

While he wasn’t very familiar with Bandana, J.C. Campbell, a graphic design professor who had recently resigned, was enthusiastic about the career fair itself. “I found two companies,” he said, “I’m definitely gonna be reaching out to the [People Helping People] nonprofit, because they have a similar mindset to me. They teach people financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and that’s something I’m big on.” 

Campbell’s sister had sent him an ad for the event on Instagram, and at first he’d dragged his feet. “Oh man, I’m going to another school job fair,” he joked. But he was glad he had come. “This doesn’t feel like a traditional job fair,” he said. “It’s very warm.”

Tim Cecere, president of St. Francis College, agreed with Campbell. “I couldn’t believe the turnout,” he said. “It wasn’t like these dull job fairs you see sometimes, where everyone looks lost. People were talking to one one another — there was this sense of community and belonging, which is wonderful.”

Although the overall atmosphere was one of excitement, the event also placed into sharp relief the barriers that many would-be workers face in trying to get a foot in the door. 

Stormy Gabriel, a Flatbush resident, was worried about how she would support herself once her time in a senior workforce development program ran out. Photo: Jack Delaney

“I’ve been applying for everything,” said Carolyn Nagin, who said she had been fired from her job as a baker at Liedl, the German-owned grocery chain, in December. “I apply for jobs on Indeed, and they never call me, and I feel like I have to do the instigating, I have to call them and say, ‘Hey, I applied for this position.’ And I feel like sometimes they can discriminate, because I’m an older woman.”

Stormy Gabriel, a 61-year-old Flatbush resident, agreed that ageism made the mountain of finding steady employment even harder to climb. She had joined the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), a workforce development initiative run by the disability advocacy organization Easterseals, right before the pandemic hit. For the past few years, it had provided her with financial support and relatively stable work.

But her term in the program was now timing out, and she was unsure whether the nonprofit in which she had been placed would move her to its payroll now that SCSEP’s sponsorship was ending, even as a part-time hire. She had begun to cast a wider net, she said, but it was hard to stay optimistic.

“I’ve been to quite a few job fairs,” Gabriel said, “and it seems that most of [them] are mainly for younger people.”

Yet despite the deck stacked against many job seekers, attendees were largely positive about their experience at the fair. Nagin stayed for two hours, and said that after her experience online she was grateful for the chance to talk to prospective employers in person. “Everybody was really nice and helpful,” she noted. “They should have more events.”

Mourning a Death, Reimagining a Street

The city finally redesigned this intersection on 9th St after a cyclist was killed in 2023. But at the victim’s vigil, both her family and transit advocates said the changes didn’t go far enough. 

Mourners placed candles at a shrine to Sarah Schick, the cyclist who was slain by a box truck on 9th St and 2nd Ave in 2023.

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

When Sarah Schick was hit and killed by a box truck two years ago while riding an e-bike at the intersection of Ninth Street and Second Avenue, the tragedy ignited a firestorm of local activism. A week later, nearly 100 people staged a mass ‘die-in’ at the crash site, sprawling in the street as vexed drivers jeered at them to clear the way. At the same event, advocates with all-caps posters confronted the Department of Transportation’s head, Ydanis Rodriguez, demanding to know why safety measures had been delayed despite years of community complaints, and skewering the agency’s “terrible track record.”

On Friday evening, at a vigil commemorating the second anniversary of Schick’s death, the scene was more muted. And it offered glimpses into the parallel stories of how families, neighborhoods, and the city itself engage with a tragedy as time wears on.

2023 marked a 24-year high for the number of bicyclist deaths, the majority of which involved e-bikes, even as the fatality rate has steadily decreased, an indicator that biking in the city has become safer on the whole.

In Northwest Brooklyn, Ninth Street is notorious for dangerous traffic — at its junction with Fifth Avenue, per public data, 15 cyclists and pedestrians have been injured by collisions with cars since 2011. In 2018, a driver with multiple sclerosis ran a red light at the same intersection, killing two children and causing the mother of one victim, the Tony Award-winning actor Ruthie Ann Blumenstein, to later miscarry.

In the wake of that incident, Rodriguez and the DOT took action, as the agency had in 2004, after two boys were struck and killed by a truck on Ninth Street and Third Avenue. Back then, the artery was redesigned to include a protected bike lane starting at Prospect Park West, but construction stopped short at Third Avenue, leaving the remainder of Ninth Street up to Smith Street unchanged.

The logic went like this: that stretch, a mostly grey swath of Gowanus, was less residential and therefore lower priority. Yet in the subsequent 2018 redesign, even as the area gentrified and its population rose, the gauntlet below Third Street was spurned again.

“We shouldn’t have to wait until the bridge is broken or someone falls before we fix the bridge,” said State Senator Andrew Gounardes, who shared at Schick’s memorial that his family had also lost someone to a crash, albeit 70 years ago. (“That pain still lives with us to this day, and we never forget it,” he said. “We just channel it to create a better place for us all.”)

A law called the NYC Streets Plan mandates that the city install at least 50 miles of protected bike lanes each year from 2023 to 2026, and a total of 250 miles from 2022 to 2026. Yet only 24 of the 50 were installed in 2024, leaving the DOT behind pace: it currently sits at a mere 85 of the 250 miles of protected lanes the law asks for by next year.

It took Schick’s death in 2023 to force the DOT’s hand on Ninth Street, creating enough public pressure to actualize the long-awaited extension of protected bike lanes down to Smith Street.

“The current design of this corridor is safer than it was before,” states a joint letter from Transportation Alternatives, Families for Safe Streets, CM Shahana Hanif, Brooklyn CB6, and Maxime Le Mounier, the widower of Schick, to Mayor Eric Adams and DOT Commissioner Rodriguez. “But there is room for improvement.”

What would it take to make Ninth Street safe in its entirety, then? The letter, which was distributed at the event, outlines over 20 targeted fixes. The primary suggestion is to beef up physical barriers to shield the lanes, which it notes were promised in the 2023 update but remain absent for about 75% of the corridor. Flimsy ‘flex-posts’ were earmarked for replacement during a public forum two years ago; that has yet to happen. The most effective change, the signees argue, would be to harden all barriers using metal bollards, jersey barriers, or planters.

Another ask is to hold traffic and parking violators accountable on a more consistent basis. The letter calls out local business Ferrantino Fuel by name, which it says contributes to the chronic blocking of bike lanes. And in the long run, those present advocated for cracking down on cars parked in bikers’ throughways while working to connect the protected lanes as part of a larger, borough-wide network.

“We know that there are tools — high quality networks of protected bike lanes, daylighting, and adequate enforcement — that can keep tragedies like this from ever happening again,” said Ben Furnas, the newly-appointed executive director of Transportation Alternatives. “We’re calling on the city to take these steps to improve Ninth Street.”

The DOT signaled it was open to further discussion, without naming specifics. “Safety is our top priority, and we’re laser focused on making it easier for pedestrians and cyclists to get around our city,” said a spokesperson by email. “We will review Transportation Alternatives’ concerns and continue to monitor the success of the safety enhancements we have already made at this intersection.”

At the vigil, activists, elected officials, and family and friends formed a united front on the street corner outside a Tesla dealership, speaking to a small camera crew. Yet after the initial public statements, the gathering split into separate camps: officials and nonprofit reps talked shop, while mourners speaking French hovered by the candlelit shrine.

That division reflected the sometimes complementary, occasionally awkward nature of the event — both a rally for policy change, and a memorial for a person whose life and influence extended far beyond the tight-knit world of transportation advocacy.

“It has been two years since we have been living in slow motion: laughing on the outside but crying on the inside,” Schick’s father said, via a text read aloud by a family friend. “We still don’t have the words to express our immense grief.”

“Everywhere on this planet and throughout time,” the text continued, as trucks and bikers whizzed by the shrine, oblivious, “there are always stars shining in the night. Maybe they are not stars but rather openings in the sky where the love of our departed loved ones shines down on us to let us know they are happy.”

Timeline: Scooter Robberies, Biden’s Polling and other highlights from the Week of January 12th

Courtesy: Governor Newsom’s X Account

By Olivia Graffeo

Here’s your weekly recap of news from around the city, nation, and world:

1. Man Commits Eleven Robberies Aboard Scooter Wielding Knife

Over the months of November and December, a man riding a dark colored scooter robbed eleven men throughout Brooklyn and Queens. With most of the robberies taking place in the late-night or early-morning hours, the suspect rode up on a scooter, targeting victims for cash, cellphones, and jewelry. The crimes occurred in the Brooklyn areas of Bushwick and East New York, as well as Ridgewood in Queens. The man is said to wield a silver knife, which he uses to threaten his victims. While there have been no reports of injuries from the robber, he could be considered dangerous.

2. Poll Shows Nearly Half of Respondents Consider Biden a “Failed President”

In a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 44% of those surveyed said they believed history would consider Joe Biden a failed president. Another 27% said they would consider him a fair president, with even lower numbers considering him “good” or “great.” With Donald Trump about to take the White House for a second time next week, 44% of the survey’s respondents also reported that they believe history will view him as a failed president as well. Biden’s presidency has been rife with turmoil, with many citing disapproval of his handling of military pullout of Afghanistan as well as rising inflation rates. Biden’s approval rate dipped into the negatives in the fall of 2021, and never raised back into positives.

3. Hamas Accepts Draft Cease Agreement

After fifteen months of war and tens of thousands dead, a ceasefire deal might have finally been reached between the state of Israel and Hamas. Negotiators of all sides have confirmed that Hamas believes talks to be in “the final stage,” which would allow for a ceasefire. “I believe we will get a ceasefire,” “It’s right on the brink. It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could come within hours, or days,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The ceasefire would bring respite to Gaza, where 90% of the population has been displaced and at risk of starvation. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet would have to approve the agreement, world leaders are optimistic about this particular ceasefire. Civilians on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians, have been protesting fervently for a stop to the war.

4. Some Lawmakers Pushing for Delay in January 19th TikTok Ban

TikTok, the popular social media platform with over 150 million American users, is set to be banned in the United States on Sunday, January 19th. The decision to ban the app from being downloaded in the country was due to its Chinese owners, with many citing issues of foreign security. However, citizens and some lawmakers have spoken against the planned ban, declaring it an infringement on free speech. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey recently announced his plan to submit legal action to U.S. courts in order to delay the ban by another 270 days, allowing for more arguments to be heard. Not only do many believe a ban negates their first amendment rights, but it would also hurt thousands of content creators who use the app as a form of employment. While President-Elector Donald Trump was in favor of banning the app in his first term, he has now changed his tune and has called for a delay on the ban so his administration can solve the issue through compromise.

5. Los Angeles Wildfires Continue to Rage, 25 People Dead

The wildfires that have consumed Southern California have continued burning this week. The destruction has caused the deaths of 25 people as well as 60 miles of land. Los Angeles County firefighters have reported that they are bracing for the Santa Ana winds to reach the fires, which are expected to fan the flames and cause even more devastation. While forecasters believe this week’s fires won’t be as dangerous as last week’s, residents continue to worry. Experts have commented on the fires, noting that climate change could be making an impact in the large-scale wildfires. “Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States,” said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While firefighters work to stop the flames from growing, 88,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate. Many who have been displaced by the fires are facing further challenges in securing housing. Though illegal, some rents have increased since the emergency began, making housing even harder to acquire for those who need it most.

6. John F. Kennedy International Airport Invites Queens Businesses to Open Storefronts in Terminal 6

The Queens Economic Development Corporation has announced that John F. Kennedy Airport is inviting headquartered Queens businesses to open locations within Terminal 6. Businesses now have an opportunity to expand and open a kiosk or storefront in the new terminal. According to the QEDC, “The purpose of this program is to create meaningful opportunities for local businesses within the community of Queens. Businesses that participate will receive help with: outreach, procurement, day-to-day operations, marketing, funding for design, construction, and basic fixturing.” The deadline to submit an application is January 17th.

 

Bite-Sized Borough History: Two Labadists in Gowanus

Long before the canal was dug, two Dutch travelers in the 1670s wrote down their colorful impressions of a marshland called Gowanus. Here’s what they found.

W.H. Bartlett’s “View from Gowanus Heights, Brooklyn” is from 1839, but it offers a sense of how sparsely populated the neighborhood was until relatively recently.

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

The Gowanus didn’t always stink of sewage. Once upon a time, it stank of regular old swamp, and was lush enough that to two overseas travelers it seemed like a cornucopia.

In 1679, Jasper Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter set off from the Dutch island of Texel to find a place to establish a community for their religious sect of Labadism, a variety of Lutheranism. Their first stop was New Amsterdam, and the even newer settlements across the East River — the town of Breukelen, “which has a small and ugly little church standing in the middle of the road,” and a tiny and dispersed hamlet to its south called ‘Gouanes.’

For a brief sense of how heavily populated the area was in the 17th century, one can look to transportation infrastructure as a proxy, and specifically the state of the ferries. In 1642, the Dutch West India company greenlit a boat to run between South Street Seaport and DUMBO, in today’s terms, and entrusted the Brooklyn landing to a man named Cornell Dircksen. 

It wasn’t very high-tech, even by that era’s standards: in his book Gowanus, Joseph Alexiou writes that “travelers wishing to cross the river would go to the water’s edge, where a conch shell hung from the branch of an old tree. The conch call would summon [a] farmhand, who would leave his plough and retrieve a roughly hewn boat hidden under some nearby bushes.”

But back to the two Labadists, wandering through Gowanus a few decades after Dircksen launched the borough’s first ferry. Much of their observations centered on food, such as the milk, cider, fruit, tobacco, and especially the “miserable rum or brandy which had been brought from Barbados” and which local settlers — whose fortunes were in some cases made by forcing enslaved people to build tide mills along the creek — were hooked on. 

The duo were treated to venison, oysters, and watermelons, and were struck by how bountiful the harbor was: Danckaerts saw “fish both large and small, whales, tunnies and porpoises, whole schools of innumerable other fish, which the eagles and other birds of prey swiftly seize in their talons.”

The Dutch travelers went on to meet the oldest European woman on the continent, or so her children said, who owned a peach orchard among the plantations farther inland in Gowanus. The diarist described a pack of wild hogs that feasted on fallen peaches while the proprietor, originally from the city of Liège in current-day Belgium, offered the travelers cider as she expertly blew “plumes of blue smoke around her guests” with her pipe. 

Danckaerts and Sluyter ricocheted about the bay, returned home to the Netherlands, and came back once more in 1680. It’s clear that they were taken with New York, yet they finally found luck for their designs in Maryland, where a local Dutch merchant granted them a plot of land. 

But their settlement never grew larger than 100 people, and it dissolved completely by 1720. Luckily, their diaries — and descriptions of a marshy Gowanus teeming with wildlife — have had a much longer afterlife. 

Have an idea for a intriguing person, place, or event in Brooklyn’s past? Email jdelaney@queensledger.com to have it featured in next week’s issue!

Timeline: Crime is down, Justin Trudeau resigns, and other highlights from the week of January 5th

Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tish gave a press conference celebrating the year-end crime statistics. Courtesy nyc.gov

By Olivia Graffeo

Here’s your weekly recap of news from around the city, nation, and world:

1. Murder and Shooting Rates in NYC Down 5% From Last Year

In a recent press conference with Mayor Eric Adams and new Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, it was reported that major crime, including shootings and murders, are down by 5%. While there were 391 murders in New York City in 2023, last year tracked only 377. In addition, 2023 showed almost 50 more people shot. “This translates to 3,362 fewer incidents of major crime last year compared to the year before — and these are not just numbers,” Tisch said. Despite the recent highly publicized acts of violence on the subway, a 5% decrease in major crimes was also found there. Tisch and Adams noted plans to increase police presence on New York City subways even more, with 200 officers rolled out this week. A new plan to increase police presence in certain high-crime “zones” is also being implemented, with reports of positive outcomes during a trial in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, rates of rapes, domestic violence, felony assaults, and stranger attacks have increased in the city. 

2. New Orleans Had Visited the City Twice Before to Conduct Surveillance

The alleged attacker who killed fourteen people at a New Years celebration on News Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street apparently visited the city to conduct surveillance. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a former U.S. Army soldier, drove his truck into a crowd of people that left over a dozen dead and even more injured. The truck was outfitted with technology to ignite two bombs he had previously placed, but they did not detonate. Afterwards, Jabbar exited his vehicle and shot at police before he was killed by the returning fire. FBI investigators reported that after Jabbar’s time in the military, he became inspired by the terrorist group ISIS, revealed through flags and other materials in his possession. As more information has come to light, officials have found that Jabbar had visited New Orleans (from his home in Houston) twice in the weeks prior to the attack. Records show that Jabbar rode around the city on a bicycle, recording his surroundings with “smart-glasses,” which he later used to map the area he would kill in. Investigators are still looking into any possible motives Jabbar could have had, and any accomplices domestic or foreign. New Orleans has expressed to the public they are working to beef up security measures, especially ahead of next month’s Super Bowl. Mourners have gathered throughout the city to pay respects for the fourteen people killed. 

3. Donald Trump Interested in Buying Greenland, Staff Visit This Week

This week, some of President-Elect Donald Trump’s staff, including his son Donald Jr. visited the country of Greenland. While Greenland is technically owned by the country of Denmark, it is governed autonomously. Trump first expressed interest in buying Greenland in his first term, noting possible strategic assets for America. He has touched on the idea again, saying controlling Greenland is “an absolute necessity.” However, Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte Egede, has made it very clear that he has no objective or intention to help broker such a deal. “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” Egede said. Greenland is not the only place Donald Trump has set his sights on acquiring. In recent statements, Trump noted that America could possibly take control of the Panama Canal, which was met with similarly negative sentiments from President Mulino. In addition, Trump said that Canada could possibly become America’s 51st state. 

4. Brazilian Woman Kills Family Members with Poisoned Cake

On December 23 in a small town in Brazil, three women died and three other family members hospitalized from what was found to be a poisoned cake. Brazilian police have arrested a woman, another member of the family, but have not released her identity. The woman allegedly poisoned the cake with arsenic, a highly toxic chemical, resulting in fatalities and injuries. “To give an idea, 35 micrograms are enough to cause the death of a person. In one of the victims there was a concentration 350 times higher,” said Marguet Mittman, Forensic police director of Rio Grande do Sul. Calls have now been made to exhume the body of another man in the family who had reportedly died in September from food poisoning. Brazilian authorities are looking into motives for the crime, but reports from family say relations were mostly “harmonious.”

5. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Resigns 

First elected as Leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation after nearly ten years in office. Calls for Trudeau to step down have been mounting for months, many from those in his own party. With Canadian federal elections eight months away, Liberal Party members do not believe Trudeau will be able to win the seat again. Polling shows conservative numbers only growing in Canada during a cost-of-living crisis. This has only been exacerbated by President-Elect Donald Trump’s threats to place a 25% tariff onto Canada. Until the Liberal Party chooses a replacement for Trudeau, he will remain Prime Minister. “… I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau said. “Removing me as the leader who will fight the next election for the party should decrease the polarization that we have right now,”

The City is About to Conduct its Annual Homelessness Survey. It Needs Your Help.

City officials speak at an event in 2023 about initiatives to address the city’s rising homeless population. Photo: NY City Council

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

What you need to know: 

  • The HOPE survey is an annual estimate of how many people in New York are homeless but living on the street, rather than in shelters.
  • The Department of Homeless Services relies on volunteers to carry out the citywide survey, which will take place on January 28.
  • Critics say the count is inaccurate and downplays the scale of the problem, while officials stress that the data remains vital for supporting those who are chronically unhoused.

Read on: 

In just a few weeks, thousands of volunteers will fan out across every borough to ask a simple question: “Do you have a place to sleep tonight?”

City agencies track the number of people staying overnight in shelters. But the purpose of the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) survey, now entering its 20th year, is to determine the size of another population: those in New York City who are currently sleeping in public spaces like streets and subway stations, eschewing the shelter system.

This year’s survey comes at an inflection point, as homelessness hits highs not seen since the Great Depression. As of October 2024, the last month on record, the Coalition for the Homeless estimates that around 350,000 New Yorkers were without homes. For reference, during the recession of the early 1990s, the city’s total population was just over 7 million, and about 6,000 people were using shelters each night. Today, with 8 million residents, that system is absorbing more than 130,000 people nightly. 

Searching for answers to explain this spike, economists have traced the problem back to the gradual loss of single occupancy rooms that began in the 1950s. Current pressures —  an historically low rental vacancy rate, a rise in asylum seekers, and a political atmosphere that makes non-punitive reform a poison pill — have exacerbated the issue. And while New York City is feeling the housing crisis acutely, it’s not an outlier. A nationwide point-in-time survey conducted last January by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that 771,480 people were homeless, which is the largest unhoused population the country has ever seen, up 13% from 2023. 

Last year’s HOPE census marshalled 1,181 volunteers, complemented by a small contingent of professional outreach staff. DHS reintroduced volunteers in 2023, after halting community involvement during the pandemic, and will continue to train volunteers virtually for the upcoming count.

But the survey, mandated by the federal government and organized by the city’s Department of Homeless Services (DHS), has not escaped controversy. On its website, the agency calls the initiative “one of the most methodologically rigorous efforts nationwide to estimate the number of individuals who are experiencing street homelessness” — yet it has drawn criticism in the past for allegedly lowballing the real figures.

In 2016, City & State reported that activists were disputing that year’s HOPE results, which had suggested that street homelessness was declining. Critics like Mary Brosnahan, then-head of the Coalition for the Homeless, decried the fact that the survey only includes New Yorkers who have been on the street for more than a year, and argued that it was a means for city officials to downplay the scale of homelessness.

“Any rational person would agree,” said Brosnahan at the time, “that sending volunteers out on a single, bitterly-cold night in the dead of winter and attempting to count the heads of those who appear homeless is a preposterous way to accurately gauge the magnitude of the problem.” 

Officials countered that the count is not meant to be a “comprehensive survey of all homeless people living on the city’s streets,” but rather a snapshot of a smaller subset struggling with particularly chronic homelessness. 

In an email to community boards this month, a DHS spokesperson stressed the pivotal role that the resulting data plays in guiding the agency’s operations. “We depend on community leaders like you,” they wrote. “Just one night of your time will help us collect information that is critical to our efforts to move New Yorkers from the streets and into safe, stable environments.”

The HOPE survey is scheduled for January 28, and will run from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. If you’re interested in volunteering, you can find more information at https://hoperegistration.cityofnewyork.us/.

Congestion Pricing Launches, to Cheers and Boos

 

MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber holds a press conference on Sunday, in the hours before congestion pricing is rolled out. Courtesy of MTA

By Jack Delaney jdelaney@queensledger.com

What you need to know:

  • Congestion pricing took effect this week, charging drivers $9 to enter a ‘relief zone’ in Manhattan that starts at 60th Street.
  • The EZ Pass system crashed on the first workday, but the rollout was generally uneventful.
  • Traffic seemed better in the opening days, though the sample size is still small.
  • Outer borough politicians vowed to continue fighting the initiative, calling it a ‘scam.’
  • The MTA said it would use the $20 million generated by the toll to fund improvements to public transit.

Read on:

Congestion pricing launched last Sunday, one minute after midnight. The long-awaited — or long-dreaded, for some — initiative has been hotly contested, and was celebrated by a small crowd of public transportation enthusiasts, who amassed at the edge of the tolling zone to cheer on the earliest cars to pay the new fee. 

Yet after decades of tooth-and-nail fighting over whether the program would spell doom or deliverance for Manhattan, its first week has been surprisingly mundane. On Sunday, average travel speed for cars within the zone was initially higher than usual, which indicates that traffic was perhaps being reduced. But by later in the day it had slowed again, to below the benchmark from 2024, making it hard to gauge the toll’s impact on congestion.

The real test was Monday, a workday. Public data compiled by Joshua and Benjamin Moises into this visualiser (https://www.congestion-pricing-tracker.com/) shows that commute times were significantly faster during rush hour than previous weeks, though a major caveat is in order: a winter storm brought snow and icy conditions, so it’s difficult to establish congestion pricing as the cause. There were other hiccups, too. The EZ Pass system briefly crashed around noon, though it quickly came back online.

Janno Lieber, CEO of the MTA, cautioned against expecting instant results during a television spot that morning, and predicted that any disruptions would be temporary. He noted that despite the operation involving 1,400 cameras, over 110 detection points, over 800 signs and 400 lanes of traffic, sailing had been for the most part smooth. “We’re headed in the right direction,” he told NY1. “This is like everything in New York. We tend to argue about it in a very zero-sum way, and when it’s implemented, people adapt and move on.”

Others were less sage. City Council Member Bob Holden of Queens, who has sued the MTA over allegations that congestion pricing discriminates against the outer boroughs, predicted (perhaps wishfully) that it would soon be nixed again. Congressman Mike Lawler of Rockland County was of a similar mind, calling the toll a ‘scam’ and a “cash grab from hard-working, middle-class New Yorkers.” 

Sunday represented the culmination of a 70-year political rollercoaster ride, the outcome of which remained uncertain through the final stretch. Congestion pricing for the city was first floated in 1952 by young economist William Vickrey, who would later win a Nobel Prize, but it faced staunch opposition through the 70s despite support from Mayor John Lindsay. In 1980, a plan that would have prevented single-person cars from entering Manhattan was dropped, as was Mayor Ed Koch’s proposal in 1987 to charge drivers $10 to enter the borough. 

Congestion pricing gained real traction in the late 2010s, when Governor Andrew Cuomo sought to use it to shore up funding shortfalls. It was passed as part of the 2019 budget, with a timeline to be realized by 2021 — but it drew the ire of representatives from New Jersey and Staten Island, whose drivers were already absorbing high tolls from bridges and tunnels. Nonetheless, a $15 charge was greenlit in 2023. Yet Governor Hochul unexpectedly halted the rollout in June of last year, citing the need to recalibrate pricing, only to revive it in November. Even then, the saga continued. This past Friday, mere days before the toll was set to be rolled out, a judge denied a last-ditch attempt by the state of New Jersey to temporarily block it. And the imminent inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump, a vocal critic of the toll, leaves its future unclear.

The MTA expects the new tolls to rake in $20 billion per year, which it will use to fund improvements to public transportation (see graphic). Courtesy of MTA

New York is the first city in the country to enact a congestion pricing scheme of this scale. Evidence from other jurisdictions around the globe that have similar tolls in place, such as London, which introduced the policy in 2003 and now charges the equivalent of $18, suggest that changes may be uneven. London saw an immediate reduction in traffic that gradually leveled out, though according to some correlative studies it has cushioned the impact of congestion — reducing it by around 10% between 2000 and 2012 — as the city grows. Stockholm, Milan, and Singapore have analogous tolls; in Milan, a charge of 5 euros led to around a 30% drop in car usage, which was still true four years after implementation.

For many supporters, improving commute times is only one expected benefit of the new tolls. Another target is reducing emissions, which by some estimates could be cut by up to 20% within the relief zone. Just as central are the MTA’s chronic budget woes, which congestion pricing is meant to ameliorate both through the toll money itself, as well as by nudging more New Yorkers to use the public transportation system. 

“We want to encourage trucks to do more deliveries at night, we want improvements to vehicle speeds especially for buses, we want to make sure that emergency response vehicles can get where they are going faster,” said Lieber. “And I hope drivers will take another look at the speed and convenience of mass transit.”

As it stands in NYC, congestion pricing entails a $9 toll once per day for drivers entering the relief zone in Manhattan, which runs southwards starting at 60th Street. But that fee is variable: if you don’t use EZ Pass, for example, you’ll be charged $13.50. The full fare only takes effect during peak hours — 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends — so overnight trips will cost drivers $2.25 for the former window, and $3.30 for the latter. The rush-hour price will increase to $12 in 2028, before rising to $15 in 2031.

A range of exemptions and discounts also apply. Low income drivers may qualify for a half-price toll, which kicks in after the first 10 trips each month. New Yorkers with disabilities that prevent them from taking public transit may be exempted from the toll entirely. And for-hire drivers, whose passengers pay a roughly $2 congestion fee for traveling into Manhattan, will be spared the toll but will pass on an additional $1.50 to their riders. 

Over the past decade, both Uber and Lyft have spent millions lobbying for congestion pricing. Per the New York Post, from 2015 to 2019 Uber alone spent $2 million on advocacy to promote the initiative, which proponents have projected will reduce traffic by up to 20% within the relief zone, in the hopes that it will spur more commuters using their own cars to rely on rideshare apps instead.

The MTA has announced that it will use the proceeds from the toll, which it projects will be $20 billion a year, to back bonds that will fund a range of transit upgrades. Eighty percent of the revenue generated will go to capital improvements on city subways and buses, 10% to the Metro-North Railroad, and 10% percent to the Long Island Rail Road. The initial projects will include signal modernization for the A and C trains in Brooklyn, plus new ramps for the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. 

“Congestion pricing will reduce traffic, improve our air quality, and increase street safety all while generating critical revenue to modernize the MTA’s subway and bus systems,” said Ydanis Rodriguez, commissioner of the Department of Transportation. “We are closely coordinating with the MTA on the rollout of congestion pricing this weekend and we continue to work to reimagine our streets, making it easier than ever to travel to and through Manhattan’s core without a car.”

Ultimately, the toll’s first week was a Rorschach test, as boosters and detractors alike claimed vindication. The former camp saw a miraculously uncongested city, hinting at a more climate-friendly status quo; the latter just saw snowy roads, and an unfair tax on drivers. Until more data arrives, the proverbial jury is out. 

What To Do About Myrtle and Broadway? Rez Have Thoughts.

The intersection of Myrtle Ave and Broadway has faced chronic problems, mainly public drug use and homelessness. At a town hall, Bushwick and Bed-Stuy residents told officials they want to see change — now. 

Assembly Member Maritza Davila (far left) teed up a report from Deputy Inspector David Poggioli (right, standing) on crime statistics for the Myrtle Ave and Broadway intersection. Photo: Jack Delaney

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

What you need to know:

  • Residents near the intersection of Myrtle and Broadway in Bushwick/Bed-Stuy, especially small biz owners, have complained for years about public drug use and unhoused people loitering on the street.
  • Local politicians hosted a town hall to update the community on what law enforcement, nonprofits, and their own offices are doing to address the problem, and to brainstorm new solutions.
  • Attendees agreed that a priority was better lighting in the corridor, while officials cited the way district maps are drawn as one reason why funding has been delayed.
  • One resident suggested that an overdose prevention center was needed, which divided the room — some shopkeepers were curious, but politicians remained wary.

Read on:

At a town hall on the Friday before Christmas, Bed-Stuy and Bushwick residents pressed local officials for a concrete plan of action to address substance abuse and homelessness around the long-fraught intersection of Myrtle Avenue and Broadway.

The complaints are familiar: in an article this October, the New York Times quoted a Bushwick resident who called the area “probably the worst intersection in the entire city.” Accurate or not, the connotation has been difficult to shake. In 2016 and 2018, respectively, spikes in the sale of laced K2 led to over 100 overdoses in the corridor alone. Along with drug use, housing insecurity has been persistent, even as the surrounding neighborhoods gentrify rapidly. In 2023, as glittering condos went up only blocks away, Bushwick Daily reported that hundreds of asylum seekers were being housed in “crowded rooms without access to showers or proper food,” in an empty building by the Myrtle Av/Broadway subway station. And on December 16, a large fire further damaged the intersection’s already iffy infrastructure.

No-Shows and Map Woes

The forum, which aimed to cover “sanitation issues, unhoused individuals, mental health, and substance abuse,” had an inauspicious start: four of the five elected officials who were slated to appear did not show, sending aides instead, and one—Council Member Chi Ossé—did not send any representative from his office whatsoever. Likewise, the MTA and Department of Sanitation (DSNY) were absent, merely passing along a written statement. 

The evening was emceed by the one prominent politician who did attend, Assembly Member Maritza Davila, whose district encompasses Bushwick and Williamsburg. Before opening the floor for input from residents, she summarized the problem at hand.

“We are here today,” Davila said, “because everyone obviously knows that we are having a lot of issues on the corridors of Broadway and Myrtle. We are aware that there are people who are homeless. We are aware that there are a lot of issues with drugs. Straphangers that take these trains are usually very afraid to go through these corridors, because they don’t feel safe.”

Yet Davila also hammered home a rationale for why progress had been slow in coming, a bugbear — or scapegoat, depending on one’s perspective — which would be reiterated again and again throughout the evening: district maps. 

“About four or five years ago, we tried to tackle it,” she explained, invoking the K2 epidemic. “We went out, we had press conferences, we got programs to come out. We did everything we could. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out because of the way [the corridors] are split up politically. We all try to get on the same page, but it doesn’t always work like that.”

Here is the issue: to the northeast, on the Bushwick side, there is City Council District 34, Assembly District 53, Senate District 18, and Congressional District 7. To the southwest, the Bed-Stuy contingent comprises City Council District 36, Assembly District 56, Senate District 25, and Congressional District 8. If the numbers start to swim, the upshot is that the intersection falls under the jurisdiction of eight different offices, which makes it difficult to wrangle which of them should take responsibility.

The headache worsens when you account for city agencies, which have their own logistical challenges. “Just to piggyback,” said Assistant Police Chief Scott Henderson, “you see it’s one area, right? But it’s actually three different precincts, so they have to think collaboratively and cooperate.”

Nevertheless, Davila struck a positive note as she shifted to fielding residents’ questions. “It takes a village,” she said. “We have the right people here today so that we can come up with a plan to move forward.”

A Matter of Lighting?

First up was Mr. Rivera, the owner of a 24-hour florist’s shop two blocks down from the intersection. After he introduced himself, he was briefly drowned out by a round of applause — since opening his store a year ago, other residents said, public drug use in its vicinity had decreased significantly. 

Via a translator, Rivera said that he had migrated to the U.S. in 2023, and noticed ‘a lot’ of panhandlers in the area who would physically harass passersby, as well as unhoused people who had pulled their pants down near families in the community. 

His main request was for more street-level lighting, which Davila immediately amplified. “Myrtle and Broadway has always been a dark area to walk,” she said, turning to Deputy Inspector Khandakar Abdullah of the NYPD’s 81st Precinct. “What can we do differently?” Abdullah replied that his office had received 11 calls in 2024 relating to homelessness, and that he would raise the issue of lighting with other agencies.

Myrtle and Broadway from above. At the town hall, almost everyone present agreed that insufficient lighting was contributing to safety issues. Photo: Google Earth

Rivera also wanted to see better dialogue between police and residents, since he said there was a lot of distrust. Specifically, he asked for more community events, to which the NYPD officers present responded that each patrol unit hosts quarterly ‘Build the Block’ meetings to solicit feedback.

The next question came from Jalisha Hunte, a Bed-Stuy resident who attends Community Board 3 meetings. Were political lines really enough to explain the dysfunction she had witnessed for years at the intersection?

Yes, said Alexis Rodriguez, deputy chief of staff for Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who seconded Davila’s earlier comments. Even if one elected official wanted to earmark funds for addiction services or better lighting, he or she could not guarantee that other crucial stakeholders would also prioritize the issue.

Hunte was dissatisfied with those explanations, however, and with the forum’s narrow framing as a whole. 

“I’ve lived in the neighborhood all my life,” she said. “I used to walk home [from school], and I had to walk through these streets, and it was terrible. It’s gotten a lot better, but the entire strip of Broadway is in trouble, right? I get that we’re having a meeting about Broadway and Myrtle, but there are other corners like Broadway and Flushing that are way worse — where people are laid out in the street coming from the psych ward, and don’t have help. This is a collective thing on Broadway, so what plans do you guys have to work together to fix that? Because if this is something I’ve been noticing all my life, that means it’s at least a 35-year-old issue.”

Davila pushed back, calling Hunte — jokingly, it seemed — a “whippersnapper” and flexing her local bona fides. She had been in Bushwick during the power outage of 1977, which many historians view as the neighborhood’s darkest hour, in this case literally. On July 13th of that year, a pair of lightning bolts downed a substation, two lines, and a critical plant, cutting electricity for the entire city. Soon looting broke out, and upwards of 60 stores were burned down over the course of a few days. Today’s problems were nothing in comparison to those of the past, Davila argued.

“Back in the 80s and 90s — horrible,” she asserted. “I would like to say that now the community has been uplifted. New businesses are coming in. The community is a melting pot. It wasn’t like that before.”

Evelyn Cruz, district director for Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, backed her colleague while taking a more conciliatory approach.

“We’ve come a long way from when Bushwick was in ashes,” she said, “but we also agree that we have a condition that’s chronic along these corridors.”

Cruz placed blame at the foot of the MTA, saying she was “personally distressed” by the agency’s failure to build more lighting even as it blocked street lamps with construction. Yet she also drew attention to good news: in the fall, Hochul had unveiled the Opioid Settlement Fund, a $55 million dollar payout from negotiations with drug manufacturers and distributors deemed responsible for the national painkiller epidemic, which will support efforts to mitigate and reduce substance abuse. 

“There are resources,” Cruz assured Hunte, “we just have to continue to keep our eye on the prize to get them allocated. And [that does] happen, it’s just that everything takes time.”

At this point, Robert Camacho, chairperson of Bushwick’s Community Board 4, rose. He agreed that the most urgent priority was to improve the lighting around Myrtle and Broadway. From his vantage, though, it was equally important to call out the lack of collaboration from the community board and representatives of Bed-Stuy. 

“We need to put a lot of pressure on the other side, to make sure that they come here,” Camacho stressed. “[Davila] can’t say it, but I can. This half of Broadway won’t get fixed if the other half isn’t, too.”

‘One Real Difference Between Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy’

In their own ways, Hunte and Camacho had expressed dissatisfaction with local officials, but it was Bed-Stuy resident Anderson Footman, also known as Hollywood Anderson, who gave the strongest indictment yet of their response to public safety issues along the corridor.

“The MTA, I see them spray everything in the city all the time,” he said. “They’re out there with trucks, they have the pressure washer going. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them out here, and I’ve been living in New York for 15 years. They clean the train stations in the Bronx more than they do down here — that’s crazy, you know what I’m saying?”

Gridlock was presented as the norm, Anderson noted. But the elephant in the room, he suggested, was gentrification: “I think what a lot of people really came here for today is not to hear y’all saying, ‘We’ve got stuff in motion.’ Like, give us some timelines. What’s actionable? You’re telling me that we can’t get the same action they’re getting over in Williamsburg? There’s only one real difference between a room over there and one over here. So how do we get the same treatment? I’m not really hearing real answers. I’m just hearing semantics and bureaucracy.”

Davila countered that there was real change afoot. “In the north part of Brooklyn, we all work together,” she said. “And we get a lot done.” She pointed to lead abatement on Myrtle Ave as proof that her office was working in concert with the other four that represent the area to improve conditions.

Cruz touched on Anderson’s deeper critique. “I cover Williamsburg,” she said. “Believe me, I’m born and raised in Williamsburg. We’ve been gentrified. It’s been a struggle for decades.” But she rejected the notion that a federal investigation was needed, as he had intimated, and pointed instead to the role of community boards in dictating how funds are spent. 

Zachary Henderson, a member of Community Board 4, argues for the creation of an overdose prevention center. Photo: Jack Delaney

Anderson had highlighted Bedford Ave and North 7th in Williamsburg as a foil to Myrtle and Broadway, an intersection in a now-wealthy neighborhood where improvements were actually implemented. Cruz’s riposte was that the accessibility elevators on North 7th were “federally funded because [they were] a high need, according to the community,” and painted them as evidence that local boards writ large can be effective.

Switching gears, Davila asked the police captains in attendance to brief the room on their statistics for Myrtle and Broadway. While acknowledging that problems still existed, the NYPD leaders — Abdullah, Poggioli, and Wernersbach — emphasized that crime was down across the board. In the 81st Precinct, it had dropped 18% from 2023 to 2024, matched by a 13% decrease in the 83rd, and a 9% dip in the 90th. 

David Bueno, who owns the Concrete Jungle coffee shop on Jefferson St., expressed his appreciation for the support of the NYPD and other agencies. He had been running his café for two and a half years, and his family has done business in Bushwick since 1998. Yet he implored officials to act soon.

“I have a front row seat to all the activity. Ever since this young gentleman opened this flower shop under the stairs,” Bueno said, referencing the event’s earlier speaker, “the conditions have improved — he pushed all of the people sleeping under there, out.” The construction of a new condo had also shunted unhoused Brooklynites further down the corridor, but he noted that in both cases the fixes amounted to reshuffling people without addressing the core issue.

“I don’t really blame any of the service people who work here,” he said. “But this is a chronic condition that has to be pulled out from the root.”

There it was, the question that everyone present had been carefully circling — what was the root of the problem, after all? And what would it mean to pull it out? 

Assembly Member Davila’s vision seemed to involve empowering local nonprofits with more funds to address addiction. At the town hall, she championed one in particular, StartCare, a medical services provider that has been located at 1149-55 Myrtle Avenue, just off Broadway, for almost 47 years. Davila praised its CEO, Jonnel Doris, who she said had been more proactive than past directors in engaging with the community.

“This is a medical issue,” said Doris, “and we’re addressing it as such.” He called attention to the fentanyl crisis — in 2023, NYC’s overdoses decreased for the first time in four years, but only by 1%, meaning they still claimed 3,046 lives. And he outlined his clinic’s holistic approach, which pairs medication with counseling and workforce training. StartCare also offers Narcan and anti-stigma education. 

A Bold (But Contentious) Fix

Zachary Hendrickson, the final resident to speak, floated a solution that was complementary to that of Davila and Doris, if more controversial.

“We’re talking a lot about the resources and services that are already here, which is good for folks to know,” said Hendrickson, a member of Community Board 4. “But I want to lift up something, Assembly Member [Davila], that you’ve already been a leader on — can you comment on the Safer Consumption Services Act?” 

That act, which has stalled in the State Senate, would legalize overdose prevention centers. Up until recently, there were only two centers authorized to operate in the U.S., both in Manhattan, which provide a secure location for drug use with the goal, true to their name, of avoiding overdoses due to tainted supplies and infected equipment. Another site opened late this year in Providence, Rhode Island.

“The minute someone is being robbed, the minute someone discards a needle into the street, the harm is already happening. The whole point is to avoid that, to go further upstream,” Hendrickson argued. “What we really need here is an overdose prevention center, a place different from a lot of other services, because people can actually go inside and use their drugs safely under monitor, so overdose is highly unlikely to happen.”

To bolster his case, Hendrickson cited a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found that 911 calls for medical emergencies near the overdose prevention centers in Manhattan decreased by nearly 50% after they were implemented, compared to 9% in similar areas without the centers.

Yet Davila, who made it clear that she was not a co-sponsor of the bill, was cautious. “We grew up in this neighborhood. We understand what it is to have family members that have been affected. I know mothers that have lost their children to all of these drugs. It’s getting worse, but there’s a critical part to this, and that’s the community — the community has to be the one to say, we want this.”

Footman, who had broached the topic of gentrification, came to Hendrickson’s defense, disputing the suggestion that residents would be automatically opposed to overdose prevention centers. “People may protest against it,” Footman said. “But if you lay out the facts and you tell this brother over here, who’s got the coffee shop, ‘Hey, bro, we put this thing down, and they won’t be outside your spot no more,’ I’m pretty sure he’ll be open to hearing about it.”

But the subject fizzled, and after a brief back-and-forth about social media outreach, Davila closed the forum. “I really want to thank everybody for the afternoon,” she said, and the officers filed out. 

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