Jean Brannum, Author at Brooklyn Downtown Star

Bike Lanes To Be Added on Bedford Ave

Jean Brannum on September 18, 2024

A portion of the Bedford Avenue redesign being implemented, starting this week. Credit: NYC DOT.

By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com

New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez announced Sept 10 that construction would begin this week on a new protected bicycle lane and other major safety improvements planned for Bedford Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Improvements include a 1.5-mile protected bike lane and the addition of pedestrian islands to reduce crossing distance. There will also be new loading zones to maintain curbside access for delivery vehicles.

The DOT noted that the City has seen a 15% decrease in crashes with injuries and a 21% decline in injuries after similar redesigns.

“The addition of a parking-protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue will create a critical cycling link in an area where bicycle ridership is booming, while making the road safer for everyone—whether you’re walking, biking, or traveling by car,” said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez.

Rodriguez mentioned that the decision came after outreach along the street.

The northern part of Bedford Ave between Dean St and Flushing Ave is known for speeding, and five pedestrian deaths since 2020.

“Biking along Bedford Avenue in Bed Stuy has been unsafe for too many years,” said Councilmember Lincoln Restler. “I’m elated that DOT has embraced a sustained campaign from community members and elected officials to install a protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue.”

At the same time, more people in the surrounding neighborhoods are cycling. Community Board 3 district is home to more than 4,000 Citi Bike annual members. In 2022, 494,000 trips began within the district’s boundaries.

During outreach over the past two years, the DOT identified and spoke with stakeholders along the corridor. The agency hosted several meetings, walkthroughs, and site visits to ensure that the Bedford Avenue project accommodates the street’s diverse needs.

DOT workers will begin removing the top road surface, a process called milling, of Bedford Avenue between Dean St and Lafayette Avenue this week. Streets typically remain milled for two to three weeks before being paved, a period in which utilities are strongly encouraged to do work that would otherwise require digging up the pavement. The DOT expects the entire redesign process along Bedford Avenue to be completed by the end of the year.

At more than 10 miles, Bedford Avenue is Brooklyn’s longest street, stretching from Sheepshead Bay to Williamsburg.

Enrollment Increases When Catholic School Adopts President/Principal Model

Jean Brannum on September 18, 2024

St. Stans President Frank Carbone visits a kindergarten class. Credit: Jean Brannum

By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com

The St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy buildings in Greenpoint are filled with the laughter and footsteps of children from 3K to 8th grade. Enrollment has been increasing since it moved to an administrative team model, led by President Frank Carbone, Principal Dr. Danielle Madden, and Director of Admissions Donna DeLuca.

The school, commonly referred to as St. Stans decided to divide up duties that would normally be for the principal. Carbone said he saw overwhelmed principals from the past juggling academics, admissions, finances and marketing. The principals were hardly able to focus on all three parts at once.

With the new model, Carbone estimates that enrollment has increased 7-10% over the last four years. Before the new administrative model, St. Stans had 195 students, now it has 250. Carbone said that a key component of outreach is social media, which has made the school more known to prospective families.

DeLuca posts many school events on the school’s Instagram and Facebook pages. One of the most recent Instagram posts showed students creating comic strips to show what they have learned about physics in movie special effects. She will go around the school looking for photo opportunities or teachers will let her know. Her goal is to get parents who want their children to do similar activities to check out the school’s website or contact admissions.

Meanwhile, Principal Madden focuses on academics and student behavior. It is Madden’s first year as a principal after teaching and taking time off when she had children. Her middle schooler pushed her to get back into education now that her other kids were in high school, and Carbone knew instantly that she was the right fit.

A kindergartener in the St. Stans uniform

As a social studies teacher at St. Edmund Preparatory High School in Sheepshead Bay, Madden coached varsity basketball, soccer, track and field, and cross country. When she left to be a mother, she worked in several after-school programs, including the Police Athletic League. She was also executive director of America Scores, a non-profit soccer league for children.

Madden received her Doctor of Education from Gwynedd Mercy University in Pennsylvania and her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Brooklyn College.

As president of the school, Carbone oversees public relations, alumni relationships, and the financial aspect of running the school. Carbone himself is a St. Stans alumna and former gym teacher.

In addition to these staff members, there are also other staff in charge of the Pre-K program and additional business staff. Sister Joanne Goscicki oversees the business side of the school and is the only religious sister on staff.

This is the first school in the diocese to move to this model, the President/Principal model has become increasingly popular among Catholic schools, according to a 2000 study from the Journal of Catholic Education. While the duties have been divided, the staff often work together to run the school. Carbone said this model allows the school to be “simply the best.”

“We do believe that in this (model), the way we kind of function together as not only a team but a family, that we really have been able to achieve success,” Carbone said.

St. Stanislaus Kostka was a Polish Bishop and is the patron saint of youth.

CB1 Meeting Heats Up On McGuinness Blvd Debacle

Jean Brannum on September 18, 2024

The advocacy group pushing for the DOT to remove a travel lane on McGuinness Blvd confronted the DOT over the alternative redesign.

By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com

At a community board meeting in Greenpoint, Make McGuinness Safe, and members of the board sparred with the Department of Transportation over a compromised plan to redesign McGuinness Blvd.

After a years-long battle between advocacy organizations and elected officials and the Mayor and the DOT, the DOT approved a plan to redesign McGuinness Blvd aiming to reduce collisions. Advocacy group, Make McGuinness Safe, has fought for a plan proposed by the DOT to remove one of the travel lanes into a parking lane and add protected bike lanes.

Initially, Mayor Eric Adams verbally agreed to the changes but walked back when an opposing group, Keep McGuinness Moving, spoke out against removing a travel lane. In a statement, the group said that McGuinness Blvd is an emergency route and the potential congestion would interfere with evacuation and local businesses that need the street for deliveries.

The DOT approved an alternative plan and informed elected officials on Aug 20. The alternative plan includes a protected bike lane, one part-time travel lane that becomes a parking lane during off-peak hours, and a full-time travel lane. This plan was implemented in the northern part of the boulevard but will be extended to the southern part this year, DOT says.

This approval was met with protest from those on the side of Make McGuinness Safe at a Community Board 1 meeting where the DOT announced formal plans to implement the changes. Before the meeting, Bronwyn Breitner, one of the leaders of Make McGuinness Safe and a public member of the Transportation Committee, condemned the DOT’s reversal of the plan.

“We know that the plan that the DOT is here to present tonight is dangerous,” Breitner said. “We know, in many ways, it’s more dangerous than doing nothing on McGuinness Blvd.”

In a fiery match between DOT spokespeople and the community board, the DOT said it hoped to complete the redesign by the end of the year, weather permitting. Some members of the community board, like Kevin Costa, asked the DOT why they were discussing a plan that the community board never endorsed. Costa also questioned the DOT’s claim that it performed necessary outreach despite the petition for Make McGuinness Safe garnering 10,000 signatures.

The DOT responded that it performed outreach to people who disagreed with the community board’s endorsement.

Lincoln Restler, who came to the meeting to give updates on what his office was working on, briefly defended the DOT spokespeople and pointed the blame at the mayor.

“This was decided by Mayor Adams,” Restler said. “This was his decision to ignore the 10,000 people in our community.”

The Debate On Data

The discussion quickly turned into questioning the data the DOT and Make McGuinness Safe were using–or not using– to evaluate the effectiveness of the alternative redesign.

Breitner said that data on Crashmapper from the last year has not shown improvements in the already-redesigned north part of McGuinness. According to Crashmapper, the average number of collisions on McGuinness Blvd from Dupont St to Calyer from July to August year-over-year was 83. From July 2023 to August 2024, there were 35 crashes. It’s important to note that the median value is 100.

The DOT responded that it does not look at data until a design has been implemented for a year and that it will look at changes over multiple years rather than just one year. The DOT also mentioned that its own data collection is not complete for the first part and does not speculate on upcoming data.

However, those wanting the first redesign hammered on the point that nothing would change unless the second travel lane was gone.

Domestic Employers Honored at Care Heroes Awards

Jean Brannum on July 17, 2024

Julia Finegan hugs her nanny, Marguerita Aristide, who praised Finegan for going above and beyond as an employer.

By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com

Care Forward, among other organizations, honored outstanding employers of caregivers in Carroll Gardens on June 11.

Nannies, in-home caregivers, and housekeepers could nominate their employers for a Care Hero award. The awards highlight employers who have gone above and beyond to honor the legal rights of domestic workers and create a good work environment.

Care Forward is an organization that is part of the Carroll Gardens Association and includes other organizations such as Hand In Hand and We Rise. The organization unifies domestic workers and advocates for their fair treatment. The initiative was launched after the implementation of Intro 339, a law that gives domestic workers human rights protections.

Intro 339 was implemented in March 2022 and protects domestic workers against harassment, inquiries into salary and credit history, and discrimination. Previously, worker protection laws excluded domestic workers. Zhara Baksh, the city’s organizer for Hand in Hand said that this was due to a history of domestic workers being predominantly black, and because many slaves fulfilled these duties before the civil war.

Baksh’s points are echoed in a PBS interview with Kaitlyn Henderson from Oxfam, a global organization that fights poverty and injustice. Henderson pointed out that black people were excluded from labor protection laws under Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.

New York was the first state to have a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, which mandates sick leave and overtime pay among other rights.

Donna Schneiderman hired a nanny and a house cleaner to help with her household needs. She quickly recognized that her home was a workplace and wanted to hold herself to the same standards as employers at other companies. However, she had no idea how to do that and realized that at the time domestic workers were not entitled to many employee rights.

A timeline of the domestic worker’s rights movement.

“We benefit when there are standards in place,” Schneiderman said.

Schneiderman got involved in the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which later joined Hand in Hand. She continues to advocate for better protections.

Arianna Schindle, director of training and curriculum design at the Worker Institute of Cornell, started as a nanny for six children. She said she was sexually harassed while working for them and did not know her rights as a worker. Now she helps domestic workers by teaching them their rights as an employee, and advocates for employers to use contracts. A new goal of Care Forward is for the majority of domestic workers to have contracts.

Another nanny trainer, Doris Tapia, who also works for the Worker Institute, teaches caregivers about negotiating their salaries and the wages they are entitled to. She said that some of her clients realized through her classes that they were not being paid enough.

Doris Tapia receives an award for her work in training domestic workers to understand their rights and to negotiate with their employers.

Domestic workers nominated employers who not only upheld the legal protections but provided more.

Marguerita Aristide, a nanny, nominated her employer, Julia Finegan, for using a “strong contract” during her five-year employment and for being more than a boss. Aristide said that Finegan will provide ample time off if she is sick. Aristide joked that Finegan can even tell when she is sick before she knows.

“I don’t have to be afraid of asking for a day off,” Aristide said. She also said that it was important for her to know her rights as a caregiver.

Finegan said that Aristide had instant chemistry with her family. Her child was three years old at the time and she was expecting her second.

Another nanny named Claudette honored her employer, Caroline Prestone, for continuing to pay her and allow time off while her husband was in the hospital and after his death.

Other non-employers also won awards, such as children’s entertainer Hopalong Andrew.

New Jersey passed a similar domestic worker’s rights law on July 1. Other states have passed similar laws. An introduced Senate bill, if signed into law, will make the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights a federal law.

The Debate On Data

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