Oona Milliken, Author at Brooklyn Downtown Star

Brooklyn NYCHA Community Programs Receive $108k

Oona Milliken on November 1, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

During a breakfast meeting at the Red Hook Initiative on Friday, Oct. 25, the Brooklyn Borough President announced his decision to allocate $108,000 of discretionary funding to support community programs at NYCHA Tenants Associations in Brooklyn. Reynoso told a gathering of Brooklyn Tenant Association Presidents, alongside other public housing residents, over bagels, coffee and pastries that each NYCHA development would be given up to $3,000 to cover programming costs at their respective facilities. In total, 69 out of 74 housing developments will receive funding. In a press statement, Reynoso said he wished he could give more money but that it was a good start to give NYCHA community programs a boost.

“This is a very small amount of money, I know it is. I’m not saying I’m going to be changing the world with it, but this has never happened in Brooklyn,” Reynoso said in a press conference. “This is just a little breathing room here, give you guys a little more breathing room, gives you a couple of extra activities that you’re able to do throughout the year, closes the gap on maybe getting uniforms for kids in our basketball program, whatever it is, we’re going to have that.”

During the press conference, Reynoso thanked NYCHA for aiding the process and ensuring that the funding would come through. Leroy Williams, the Vice President of Resident Services for NYCHA, said the money has been allocated and is on its way to various developments across the borough. Williams also gave thanks to the TA Presidents for their hard work.

“I did make sure we already put in for the funds for you to receive it as soon as I got it, I made sure it was going out, so you should be receiving it very very shortly,” Williams said in the press conference. “I’ve been doing this type of work for a long time, and I just want to say, hats off to you. I know your jobs are hard.”

Antonio Reynoso during the press conference. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Borough President’s YoutTube.

Reynoso said that the Adams administration has disinvested from public housing, referring to recent budget cuts announced by the Mayor’s office in Sept. 2023. Reynoso thanked the TA President’s for dealing with the conditions of their developments and said he appreciated all the work that they did despite a shortage of funds.

“We’ve known the disinvestment and the neglect that years of the governorship and the mayoral team has made, which means we have undignified conditions in many of these places, folks dealing with mold, leaks,” Reynoso said. “In some cases, we have some NYCHA developments that went a whole winter without heat, the water goes out, the water is not able to get hot, gas.”

Francis Brown, TA President for Red Hook East, thanked Reynoso for the additional funds and urged Brooklynites to vote for the Borough President in the next election.

NYCHA residents and Tenant Association Presidents gathered for the breakfast press conference. Photo courtesy : Oona Milliken

“Last year, me and my husband, we spent $2,000 buying turkeys for the residents of Red Hook East, and we took it out of our pocket,” Brown said during the press conference. “This is for my community, it’s not about me, it’s about my community. I fight hard for my community.”

Arthur Warren, the Resident Association President for Long Island Baptist in East New York, said the funds could cover barbeques, tickets for children to go on outings as well as

“The money that we got from the borough president, we’re going to use that money to actually cater Thanksgiving for Long Island Baptist Housing, especially for the residents that don’t have gas,” Warren said during the press conference. “I give out turkeys every year. I can’t even give them turkeys, so that other building can get turkeys, and other people want to come, they will actually eat Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to the borough president.”

BRIC’s Ninth Annual JazzFest Keeps Brooklyn Grooving

Oona Milliken on October 30, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Jazz lovers flocked to Downtown Brooklyn for BRIC’s ninth annual “JazzFest” this Thursday Oct. 19 through Saturday Oct. 21 at their Fulton Street BRIC House. The three-day festival kicked off with a hip-hop & jazz panel on Thursday alongside performances from artists such as Isiah Collier, Terrace Martin and Endea Owens and the Cookout.

Musician Miki Yamanaka during her performance. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

The festival had performances in both the ballroom space of BRIC House as well as their main gallery stage. On Friday, the band Strings n Skins started off the evening in the gallery and finished off Georgia Ann Muldrow in the ballroom. Saturday rounded off the festival starting with Nite Bjuti feat. Candice Hoyes, Val Jeanty, and Mimi Jones alongside performances from B. Kool Aid and the Claudine Myers Trio. On the last night, attendees from all walks of life mingled at BRIC House to watch the various acts perform their sets.

Attendee Roxanne Young, a professional dancer, could be found in the ballroom dancing to Sarah Elizabeth Charles. Young said she loved the JazzFest because it allowed her to discover new artists.

“This is my third time coming to BRIC JazzFest, I find it very interesting the artists that they bring into this program, it’s all different every single time,” Young said. “It’s like a cuisine, cuisines of jazz, you get different flavors and you taste it and you’re like ‘Oh man, I didn’t know it could taste that way.’”

Beuford Smith, a prominent photographer in his early 80s, said he has been listening to jazz since he was 15 or 16 and has been photographing jazz musicians for decades. Smith, who is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio but came to New York 50 or 60 years ago, said BRIC was important to both the community and the world, because of their cultural events. Smith’s work, notorious for chronicling Black life in NYC during the 1960s, has been shown in MoMA and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. When asked if he liked jazz, Smith was offended by the question.

Photographer and jazz lover Beuford Smith. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

“Yes! You insulted me by asking me about that, I wasn’t kidding about that one,” Smith said. “The rhythm and truthfulness of it, the improvisation and the camaraderie of the musicians. I could go on and on.”

Much like Young, Sage Oss, a music producer, also came to JazzFest to discover new artists, but for a more professional reason. Oss, a music producer, said he was in an artistic rut and appreciated BRIC’s event because they showcased artists that he might not have heard of before.

“I’m a music producer, and I came today for some inspiration to get out of a writer’s block phase that I’m in,” Osse said. “[Jazz] pushes boundaries, it doesn’t have any rules, and it communicates emotion very effectively.”

The crowd in the gallery space at BRIC House. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

John Legum, swaying to the music of Miki Yamanaka’s “Origami Project” said he loved coming to BRIC because the music at the event was cutting edge.

“I like the improvisation aspect of it, the intuition, the in time being present and connecting in real-time,” Legum said. “[At BRIC] they’ll see the new talent, they won’t see the old. They’ll see the avant-garde, the cutting edge.”

Musician Nite Bjuti during her Saturday performance. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

Others just wanted to try something new. When asked why she was attending the event, Winnie Nelson, taking a break from dancing and standing by leaning up against a wall, said she came to the festival on a whim.

“[I came] because I get the emails and it sounded interesting,” Nelson said.

The BK Borough Based Jail is Moving Forward, But Where?

Oona Milliken on October 25, 2023

Ambiguity of what a post-Rikers NYC will look like complicates new plan

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

As many New Yorkers know, Rikers is set to close its doors by Aug. 2027 after former Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to shutter the jail after years of criticism of violence and poor living conditions. In its place, the plan is to construct four smaller borough-based jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens in order to create modern facilities and more humane conditions for incarcerated individuals.

At a meeting in front of Brooklyn’s Community Board 2 on Wednesday Oct. 18, the Department of Design and Construction and HOK, the architectural firm designing the building, presented their initial plan for the Brooklyn location before their submission to the Public Design Commission for review.

The jail is set to replace the existing Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn. However, with a growing jail population, a looming deadline to shut down the facility and Mayor Eric Adams asking for a “Plan B” to close Rikers, the future of prisoners in New York City is ambiguous.

Though Rikers is set to close in three years and ten months, it is unclear what will happen to those incarcerated at Rikers until the new borough jails are constructed. There were initially expected to be between 3,300 inmates at the four jails, according to the DDC’s website, lower than the 5,559 inmates at the Rikers facility as of 2022, as per the mayor’s annual report. Currently, all jails are expected to be expanded to a total of 4,160 beds across all four facilities according to Council Member Lincoln Restler, a number that still does not account for the discrepancy between beds and inmates.

On Wednesday, the DDC and architectural team outlined a plan that includes green landscaping, design choices that will match the architecture of the surrounding brownstones, soundproofing so that residents do not have to hear the inner goings of the jail as well as transportation for those coming in and out of the facility. Though this is their first time in front of the community board, the DDC hosted one introductory event and two design workshops with the local Brooklyn community in order to address the needs of local residents.

The Department of Design and Construction’s timeline of the Brooklyn Borough Jail facility. Photo courtesy of DDC.

The lead designer for the building, Ken Drucker, the Design Principal and the lead designer for HOK, said the firm was set to collaborate with the community in order to create a humanitarian building that is knitted into the fabric of the Brooklyn community.

“This is a normative building that creates equity and a civic building here in Brooklyn. It is important that we understand that we’re dealing with human needs, we’re dealing with community needs and we’re dealing with the fact that civic buildings create spaces that will be in existence for the next 50 to 100 years,” Drucker said in a meeting.

The main issues raised at the meeting pertained to the impact the jail would have on the surrounding area of Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn and Cobble Hill. Many attendees brought up concerns about adequate parking so as to not clog up the surrounding streets, as well as safe transportation of prisoners to and from the jail. The parking will only accommodate 100 spots, down from 300 parking spaces, which is not enough for all the workers of the jail and does not account for police officers and visitors visiting the location. One community board attendee said that the parking would spill onto the street and congest the area surrounding the jail.

“Just from a neighborhood perspective, and I’ll be quiet after this, but you know [police officers, jail visitors and staff] will park on the street. There’s been promises and promises for the city to provide parking for their agency staff and it’s not happening so it’s become a problem in the neighborhood,” the community member said.

Ian Michaels, Executive Director of Communications and Policy for the DDC, said the DDC is committed to moving forward with the borough-based jail plan and taking steps to improve the living conditions of those incarcerated at Rikers.

“Have you ever been to Rikers? One of the things they do, when you start building jails, is they make sure you go to Rikers to see what you’re trying to improve upon, so I’ve been there a couple of times,” Michaels said. “I know what we don’t want to build because I’ve seen it myself.”

The project in Brooklyn is anticipated to be completed in 2029. In July of this year, the city expanded the number of beds in the Brooklyn jail by about 150, reducing the number of therapeutic beds intended for those with mental health issues. Michaels and Restler both said the jail in Brooklyn, expected to cost around $3 billion, is further along than the other borough-based jails.

Mock-up of what the facade of the jail will look like. Photo courtesy of DDC.

“I think the Brooklyn community has been receptive to the facility, that’s not necessarily the case at every location that we’ve been trying to build,” Michaels said. “We’re actually farther along with this facility than we are with any of the other three.”

Restler, who has been heavily involved in the fight to close Rikers, said he was frustrated by Adams’s failure to take the borough-based jails project seriously. Restler said Adams’ administration has increased arrest, summons and number of incarcerated people, both amongst minors and adults, which would not work under the new system. Adams has recently expressed skepticism about the plan and said it was flawed from the beginning.

“These are policy decisions we can control. We can invest in preventative measures, we can invest in alternatives to incarceration, we can invest in supervised release,” Restler said. “We can invest in justice-involved supportive housing, or we can fill up our jails. Mayor Adams is choosing to do the latter.”

In the CB2 meeting, Kiumars Q. Amiri, the Executive Director of Capital Projects at the Mayor’s Office, in contrast with Restler’s comments, said the city was attempting to reduce the overall prison populace in order to address this discrepancy.

“The goal is to reduce the overall population with more smart policies that would sort of disrupt recidivism patterns, provide more stable programs for folks not to be caught in the system, alternatives to incarceration, electronic monitoring to constitute supervised released programs. There’s a whole host of programs that go hand in hand with this, this building, this borough-based jail program is one bubble of the bigger system,” Amiri said.

Restler said it was imperative to move forward with the borough-based plan despite any challenges. The council member acknowledged that the Brooklyn jail had some hurdles in order to be constructed, including figuring out a lack of parking and the removal of therapeutic beds, but said that Rikers was an unacceptable space for New York’s incarcerated population.

“[Rikers] is a despicable hell hole. It is an embarrassment for every resident of New York that we’ve sent people there to rot on a daily basis. We have, over the last 30 years, during the Giuliani, Bloomberg and De Blasio administrations safely reduced the number of people who are incarcerated in New York City while achieving record-low crime rates. We can continue to drive down crime, improve public safety and reduce incarceration if we have the political will to do it,” Restler said.

After the plan is submitted to the initial Public Design Commission for conceptual review, the plan will undergo further evaluation as well as a preliminary PDC review before it is resubmitted for final review to the PDC in the spring of 2023. The last step before launching construction of the jail will be a community presentation, also in the spring of 2024.

Despite Massive Flooding, Arts Gowanus’ 29th “Open Studios” Art Fair Prevailed

Oona Milliken on October 25, 2023

500 artists showcased their work in Brooklyn this weekend

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Arts Gowanus hosted their sprawling “Open Studios” art fair across Gowanus featuring more than 500 artists in 90 plus locations from 12-6 on Saturday, Oct. 21 and Sunday Oct. 22nd. Open Studios allows visitors to come into artist’s studios, view their work, see what their spaces look like and purchase pieces directly from the artist without going through a gallery or a museum. With artists showcasing work of all mediums, this year’s crop had a life-size clay doll, abstract paper art, glass oysters and artists from the Fulton Art Fair, which primarily consists of Black American artists. Gowanus is also hosting a fundraiser for artists whose studios were affected by the flooding on Sept. 29 at their headquarters at 540 President Street in Gowanus. Emily Chiavelli, the Programs Director for Arts Gowanus and a Brooklyn artist herself, said pulling off the festival, which grows every year, was always a feat. This year, Chiavelli said Arts Gowanus also wanted to support the artists whose work had been impacted by the rising floodwater.

“Gowanus always gets hit really badly by flooding, there’s the combined sewer and the canal and all this sort of stuff that bubbles up. 540 President Street where I mentioned our headquarters was hit very very badly and all the studios are below grade. There was just water pouring through the doors, like some artists had like 16 inches of water, 14 to 16 inches,” Chiavelli said. “A lot of people lost a lot of stuff. A lot of irreplaceable stuff, which is the most devastating part, completed work.”

Hannah Robinett, an artist whose studio sits in the basement of 540 President Street, is a conceptual artist whose screen printing, drawing and murals works were particularly damaged by the water. She said she had to get rid of around $2,000 worth of supplies that were ruined. In response, Robinett created a piece of art under her series “Order and Chaos” that was made from artworks that had been waterlogged.

“I had about 12 inches of water in my studio, so any supplies I had on the ground were ruined. It wasn’t just water, it smelled really bad, a bit like sewer water,” Robinett said. “I tried to use it for a lot of my work. I have a series called “Order and Chaos” where I create new works from old works that then come to fruition. I lost about 10 pieces in that flood, and I recreated a piece from it.”

Hannah Robinett in her studio. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

Robinett said she appreciated the camaraderie of Arts Gowanus and loved working in a space with so many creative people. Particularly, she said the Open Studios was an important event because it allowed people to see how artists worked on a daily basis.

“This space is so awesome because there are so many different creatives and artists in this space. I’m with artists in the community,” Robinett said. “Arts Gowanus puts on Open Studios every year which is especially great because people can actually come in and see what I’m working on, what other artists are working on, and it often leads to connections down the road and being able to see people face-to-face, not on Instagram.”

At another studio on 540 President Street, Michael Potecha, an artist who primarily makes glass and ceramic sea molluscs such as oysters and mussels, said he was inspired by the beauty of the creatures and wanted to recreate them. Potecha said he was also inspired by non-profits attempting to bring back oysters into the natural ecosystems of New York. Potecha’s studio also had a station with the real thing and was passing out oyster snacks to visitors.

“Growing up in New York, I’ve always eaten oysters. But the real interest came from thinking of them as socio-symbolic symbols,” Potecha said. “The Billion Oyster Project is a non-profit that’s trying to improve the ecosystem of the Hudson River area, using oysters as a natural filter feeder and clean [the Hudson] that way.”

At 197 Bond Street, the Fulston Art Fair was doing Open Studios a bit differently. A lot of the artists in the collective, primarily Black Americans, are based outside of Gowanus and decided to come together to showcase their work in a group show. Althea Sapp Jimenez, who has been a part of Arts Gowanus for about five to six years, said it was important to create communities of artists. Jimenez said the Fulton Art Fair was especially meaningful because it allowed Black artists to support each other in their work.

Michael Potecha in his studio. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

Potecha’s sample of glass moluscs. Photo credit: Oona Milliken“[The Fulton Art Fair] is an African-American Gallery group, it’s been around for 67 years, it’s influenced African-American people from all cultures, all backgrounds, we reach out from one side of Brooklyn to another,” Jimenez said.

Jimenez said her own work was inspired by the people she saw on a daily basis, the faces of people who were missing from the arts when she was growing up.

“Growing up, born and raised in Brooklyn, we never seen art of color, like we go to the museum and we see Van Gogh, but we never seen artists of color, really, unless you go out of your way to do that,” Jimenez said. “My inspiration is what I see every day, how it reflects every day.”

Aleathea Sapp Jimenez in front of her art pieces at 197 Bond Street. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

Syma Debbane, a ceramics artist whose studio at 184 Lorraine Street overlooked the location where she fired her art pieces, said she was inspired by ancient magical belief systems. One of Debanne’s largest works was a life-size clay replica of herself as a palm reader. When plugged in, Syma’s twin uttered prophecies for visitors to the studio.

“I’m inspired by ancient magical belief systems, mythologies and ancient artifacts,” Debanne said. “Egyptian, African, Mesopotamian…they really believed that if you could see it, if the artwork showed it and people looked at it, then it would come to be. Jewelry was not just body adornment, it was magical.”

Debanne said she wanted to preserve some of that magic in the modern world and hoped that her work reflected a sense of mythology. She said that the Open Studios event was an inspiration for her because it brought people to her work that might not otherwise come into her studio. Debanne also said appreciated Arts Gowanus for all the work that they did to support artists in the area.

Syma DeBanne’s pottery. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

DeBanne with a clay replica of her younger self. Photo credit Oona Milliken

“I think it’s important for us to be able to share our process. The questions people ask often lead me to new work, and sometimes answering questions helps me understand what I’m doing,” Debanne said. “Arts Gowanus, they help us so much connect with each other. They help us have a visibility, I think there’s a lot of myths about artists that can get rewritten, a lot of stories about artists that can be updated, and [Arts Gowanus] helps us do that.

Next year, Open Studios will return for its 30th time. Chiavelli said it was important to keep the fair going as it brought attention to all the artists in the area.

“Open Studios, our whole mission is to keep the neighborhood sort of equitable and accessible to artists and keep creatives here, especially ahead of the Gowanus rezoning,” Chiavelli said. “This is sort of a major way we get visibility for all the great work that’s happening here.”

St. Stanislaus Annual 5k Race Returns for 29th Year

Oona Milliken on October 23, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Under blue skies and in crisp fall weather, St. Stanislaus Kostka Catholic Academy held their 29th annual five kilometer race on Sunday Oct. 15. The day kicked off with a children’s races, ranging from three years old to 12-years old, in the morning at 10:30 a.m and the adults began their 5k run at 2 p.m. Logan Yu came in first this year with a 17 minute 31 second finish, while basketball player Travis Atson came in second only 24 seconds later. Third overall in the race, and the first woman to finish, was Suzie Clinchy at 19 minutes and 33 seconds.

Frank Carbone with the young racers. Photo credit: Oona Milliken

After almost 30 years of racing, the proceeds go to supporting St. Stan’s with any needs that they might have, according to Frank Carbone, President of the school. Carbone said good weather was the key to having a successful event.

“You’ve got a beautiful day, that’s the key to it. As you can see, it’s a massive production. A lot of pieces have to fall into play, but somehow every year we manage to pull it off,” Carbone said.

Carbone said it was important to hold fundraising events such as the race because St. Stan’s was a smaller private school. He also said he wanted to reach the broader community in hosting the race.

“For us to be a smaller school and a private school, I’d like to think we put on a nice job. We put on one of the best productions in the city. I’m not just trying to boast,” Carbone said. “It’s not just the school community but we’re opening the neighborhood.”

Gabrielle Sikorksi, a former student at St. Stan’s and a volunteer for the event, said she has been volunteering for the event for the past five years. She graduated from St. Stan’s in 2013 and said she loved volunteering because the school, and the Greenpoint neighborhood, has been important to her growing up.

“The school did a lot for me, all my siblings go here,” Sikroski said. “Greenpoint is an amazing neighborhood and I love living here.”

Contestants starting the race. Photo credit Oona Milliken

Hippolito Almonte, an 86-year old contestant in the race, could be found stretching at various points throughout the day in preparation for the 5k event. Almonte said he felt fantastic about the race and had been training in Central Park to get ready. He said he did not have any children at St. Stan’s (Almonte is pushing 90) but loved racing in general. Almonte came in 23rd in the race with a 23 minute 4 second finish.

“Look at me. Kids? No, no kids,” Almonte said. “I love races.”

Carbone said the school was hoping to raise anywhere between $8,000 and $10,000 but would not know the final amount garnered until days after the race. He said the school had to be self-sufficient because they did not receive funding from the state like public schools. Instead, St. Stan’s looks to donations from the community, as well as support from sponsors, to cover costs throughout the school year.

Young boys running in the children’s races. Photo credit Oona Milliken

“We’re relying on our fundraising, we have to be self-sufficient,” Carbone said. “We couldn’t do it without our volunteers, we had about 50 volunteers that helped us in many ways, about 30 sponsors that help us, and of course, all the kids and families and everybody that just came out and had a great day.”

Pols, Governor and AG Introduce New Legislation to Protect Children Online

Oona Milliken on October 18, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Amongst a wave of teachers dressed in pink, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Governor Kathy Hochul, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, and Assemblymember Nily Rozic announced new legislation that seeks to protect children online at the United Federation of Teachers Headquarters. The two bills, the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation for Kids Act, also known as SAFE for Kids, as well as the New York Child Data Protection Act, are a part of the coalition’s efforts to put New York state at the forefront of data protection for children.

In a speech, Senator Gounardes, whose district stretches from Southwestern Brooklyn to Brooklyn Heights, said that the public could not rely on social media companies to protect children any longer and that they were expecting pushback from companies such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

“They’ve lied before, and they’re going to lie again…is this too strong for you guys? I’m sorry,” Gounardes said in the press conference. “They’re going to lie again, and we’re going to call them out on it, and we’re going to hold them accountable for what they’re doing.”

The SAFE for Kids Act proposes a chronological feed for all children under 18 years of age, therefore abolishing what the lawmakers called an “addictive feed,” allow for parents to block children’s social media access as well as all notifications from social media platform between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. and provide a space for parents or guardians to bring claims against social media companies.

The New York Child Data Protection Act will prohibit companies from collecting, sharing, storing or selling any data on those under the age of 18. Violations of these rules will result in a $5,000 fine per child everyday until the issue is resolved. Breaches of the proposed legislation would be pursued and handled by the NYS Attorney General’s Office.

Though speakers at the press conference denigrated social media as a major cause of mental illness amongst young people, other voices disagree. Critics of the legislation, such as Melanie Sage, former Meta employee and a professor of social work at the University of Buffalo specializing in child development, argue that there is little research that shows that social media by itself causes mental illness or suicidal ideation. Sage said that framing social media as the sole cause of the mental health crisis amongst young people was a convenient scapegoat but not necessarily the true root of the problem.

“I think the riskiest [thing] about this really is that it’s a simple answer saying that social media is a mental health problem and that’s clearly not the case, you know, even in terms of suicidality. During COVID, for large groups of adolescents, the rates of suicide or suicide attempts actually went down and technology use went up a lot,” Sage said. “If we’re going to make assumptions it might even be that school is a major cause of suicidality and we would never say that kids should not go to school because of that.”

According to Sage, the studies were quite mixed on effects of social usage amongst teens and pointed to a Clinical Psychological Science study that showed that social media had not increased mental health symptoms over the past decade. Sage said that depression or anxiety alongside heavy social media usage might be correlation amongst teens but urged legislators to instead expand insurance coverage and healthcare coverage for those young people. Still, other studies, such as ones cited in the Wall Street Journal, indicate that social media companies like Facebook are aware that their platforms are dangerous for young people.

Sage said she supported moving towards a chronological feed and limiting notifications for children but also worried that limiting access to social media might harm children at increased risk who might find a community online.

“There are kids who find solace, support, including mental health support, in having social media contacts particularly kids who are at risk in other ways such as LGBTQ kids who are looking for community,” Sage said. “I worry a little about any blanket statement that increases the sense of community blame on social media.”

The legislation comes at a time when multiple states across the country are pursuing stronger data protection acts, such as Utah, California, Colorado, Virginia and Connecticut, according to reporting by LexisNexis. The New York State bills are the first of its kind that seeks to protect children specifically since COPPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, established in 1998. Michael Mulgrow, president of the United Federation of Teachers, criticized other districts for dropping the ball on moving forward with legislation of this kind.

“And once again, it is New York leading the way. We’re not going to be Washington DC who keeps saying ‘We have gridlock.’ It’s not gridlock. It’s lobbyists stopping them,” Mulgrow said during the press conference. “But it’s one we’re gonna get done because the children of New York deserve protection when they’re on their phones.”

Greenpoint YMCA Hosts Community Builder’s Event

Oona Milliken on October 12, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

The Greenpoint YMCA held its sixth annual Spirit of Community service awards dinner and auction at Giando on the Water on Wednesday Oct. 4 to celebrate important community leaders within the neighborhood.

The honorees at the event included Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Apple Bank’s Maureen Douglas, Executive Vice President, Debbie Hootam, Vice President, Business Relationship Manager and Monika Nowicka, Assistant Vice President, Branch Manager as well as those of the Greenpointers blog, Julia Moak and her team.

Tatiana Terzouli, Regional Director for Communications, Marketing and Fund Development at the Greenpoint YMCA, said the event was a chance to highlight another year of the YMCA’s goal of making a difference in the community.

“I thought this year’s Greenpoint Y’s ‘Spirit of Community’ Service Awards Dinner was another success, providing us with a great opportunity to come together, connect with old and new friends, celebrate, and fortify our commitment to another year of making a positive impact on the community we love. The event was filled with camaraderie, inspiration, and a shared sense of purpose as we gear up for another year of giving back,” Terzouli said in an email.

La-Asia Hundley, the co-master of ceremonies, said the honorees were exceptional, not only in their fields of work and passion but also in their commitment to providing for their communities.

“These honorees are not just exceptional leaders, and I will say they are exceptional in their own right, in their own fields, but they are role models for the young people at the Y. Their everyday actions aligned with the core values of the Y: respect, honesty, responsibility and caring. They are driven by a deep passion for serving others,” Hundley said.

Elaine Brodsky, the former co-founder of Citistorage, a Brooklyn-based archival storage and records-management company, the chair of the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and keynote speaker at the event, said the YMCA was an important part of her upbringing and wanted to give back to the organization.

“I was a little girl when I learned how to swim at the YMCA upstate in Elmira, New York. The was a central location for all activities back in the day, much as it is in Greenpoint now. We are so fortunate to have such a strong culture of diversity, acceptance, and solidarity in our neighborhood,” Brodsky said.

Terzuoli said it was important to hold community events in order to both recognize community members, bring people in the community together as well and inspire others to dedicate some of their time to service and helping others.

“First, it makes people feel valued and appreciated for the good things they do in our community. Recognizing and celebrating influential individuals acknowledges their efforts and motivates them to continue their support and involvement,” Terzouli said in an email. “Additionally, recognizing influential community members at these events can serve as an inspiration to others. When people see others getting involved with organizations like the YMCA, it encourages them to become actively engaged, volunteer, and contribute to causes they are passionate about, not just the Y. This means more support for essential community programs and services.”

Editor’s Note: Walter Sanchez is a board member of the Greenpoint YMCA

Park Church Fight Continues

Oona Milliken on October 10, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Park Church overlooking McGolrick Park in Greenpoint was all but set to be sold to the real-estate development firm GW Equities LLC despite the community’s rallying efforts to keep the church standing. After a hearing in front of Judge Richard Latin on Aug. 31, where community leaders, activists and politicians gave testimonies to why the church should stay, the building’s future is a little less certain.

Jamie Hook, a passionate Greenpointer who has led efforts to halt the sale, organized a community drive on Thursday Oct. 5 at the Greenpoint Library to propose a solution: have community members buy the church.

“Let’s say, we found 5,000 People in Greenpoint and wanted to each give us $1,000. You have $5 million in the bank” Hook said. “You can take this money and you can buy whatever the hell you want with it. In this case, real estate. You own, according to your share, a tiny little piece of that real estate.”

GW Equities LLC is buying the church for $4.7 million which led to Hook coming up with the “magic number” of $4.8 million in order to beat the offer from the development firm. Hook is partnering with the non-profit NYC-Real Estate Cooperative whose mission is to pool and crowdsource money to buy land for “local, cultural and cooperative uses.” The proposed goal, according to Hook, is finding at least 4,800 community members willing to purchase $1,000 worth of Park Church to meet the sale goal.

David Glick, a founding member of REIC as well as an architect and urban planner, said the organization’s mission is to save endangered real estate in the city by collecting community member funds and purchasing the property themselves.

“I like to describe it as a membership-based organization. It’s open to anybody in this city. It’s easy to join. And we link community organizing, and crowd investing, for the purpose of securing affordable space for small businesses, or cultural organizations that are under threat of displacement,” Glick said. “And we pool small individual investments from our members into a larger fund, or the purchase of property. And then we go a step further working with partners to ensure that there’s some kind of long-term affordability mechanism in place, such as a community land trust structure.”

The problem, according to Hook, is raising awareness and rallying community members to put their money into buying the church. The meeting on Thursday, which only gathered six interested community members and two local reporters, was filled with discussion on how to sell the idea to their neighbors.

Devin Young, a local parent and supporter of the church, said the plan needed to be simplified in order to make it appealing to other community members.

“We just need to make it simple and clear, and I’m so grateful that [Jaimie] got us this far, but the only way this works is if you kind of codify it now at a basic level so that people can give feedback and say ‘That sucks’ or ‘It’s great,’ but at least there’s something there…” Young said.

Krista Sammons, the principal and founder of Marathon Day, a multi-service design studio, was inspired by the recent hearing.

Sammons, who helped design plans for what the church could be if community members decided to buy the building, said she had lost hope that Park Church would be able to stay.

“I feel more hopeful than I did when we first started working on this honestly, much more hopeful. When we went into the design, we were kind of under the impression that this is a lost cause, you know, like, we’re gonna do this or we’re gonna do it to our best ability, but it’s probably not going to happen. So definitely more hopeful,” Sammons said.

It is unclear if community members will be able to raise the money in time to halt the sale.

Several attendees of the event raised questions about the specifics of the project and what the feasibility of converting the idea into an actionable plan. Young said that he wanted to save the church but also wanted to slow down the process so that they could create something that would actually work. Hook, who has organized most of the efforts to stop the sale of the Park Church building, agreed with Young’s comment but said the efforts have been rushed only because the possibility of saving the church seemed unrealistic until recently. Hook also said the possibility of buying the church is more clear than ever and that he wants to keep trying, even if it does not work out.

“The key right now is just, it’s a clearer story than it’s ever been. And I think [the project] has a real target. I just need everybody’s help to try and spread it out. Because it’s perilously close to the 11th hour,” Hook said “If I only had foresight enough to imagine that this would have happened, I don’t think I would have been scrambling as hard to pick it up to here. But even if there’s not very many of us, it forced me to do this work. And now I’m ready to do it as many times as I need to.”

Antonio Reynoso Announces Diversion of Funds as Rumors of a Potential Mayoral Campaign Swirl

Oona Milliken on October 6, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

In the historic walls of Brooklyn’s Borough Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 27, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, the first Latino to be elected to the position, announced that his office would be redirecting funds toward aiding his constituents with support services rather than social events and large gatherings. The decision came at a time when Mayor Eric Adams announced this month that all city agencies must cut their budgets by 15 percent by April 2024. According to Reynoso, this is a necessary measure for dealing with a lack of funds across the city.

“Right now, there’s a lot of need in Brooklyn. As of today, I am announcing that moving forward, my office will direct Borough Hall funding and resources toward delivering aid to New Yorkers and alleviating the strain on city services,” Reynoso said. “I cannot in good conscience host parties and celebrations when so many Brooklynites are struggling. I’m committed to using the platform and resources that I have to deliver on behalf of those who need the most help because it’s the right thing to do.”

The Borough President did not go into the specifics of how the funding would be allocated but firmly stated that parties and celebrations at Borough Hall would come to an end as more than 110,000 migrants have come to the city and New Yorkers, both native and new, are fighting to make ends meet. In a recorded speech on Sept. 9, Adams said the city-wide cuts were in response to New York’s continuing migrant crisis. His statement came days after he was recorded saying that the migrant crisis will destroy New York City.

“As you know, we’re in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, a crisis that will cost our city $12 billion dollars over three fiscal years,” Adams said. “While I have worked closely with city agencies to reduce the impact that these cuts may have on New Yorkers who rely on our services, the truth is that longtime New Yorkers and asylum seekers will feel these potential cuts, and they will hurt.”

On Wednesday, Reynoso said that the mayor’s management report shows that the city is struggling to meet the basic needs of New Yorkers, and pointed to a decline in the quality of city services such as SNAP, cash assistance and NYCHA public housing.

“Homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression. The city’s rate for processing food stamps is the lowest it’s been since 2006. In fact, less than 40 percent of SNAP benefits were processed on time, down from 91.9 percent when Adams took office,” Reynoso said. “Not to mention that the average timeline for repairing a single vacant NYCHA unit has surged to 370 days. It takes one year to repair a single vacant NYCHA unit, and it is up from around 161 days the year before, nearly five times longer than it took to make repairs in 2019.”

Reynoso said that his announcement was not a retort against Adams, but a nod to the Mayor’s intention of cutting back costs. Despite this remark, Reynoso came out hard against the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts during the New York City Council Progressive Caucus rally on Sept. 19, also outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall. Members of the Caucus, which include representatives.

Lincoln Restler, Shahana Hanif, Jennifer Gutierrez and Carmen de la Rosa, proposed higher taxes on the rich, rather than cuts of social services, to cover the cost of dealing with the new influx of migrants. In a speech, Reynoso said he was disappointed with how the mayor’s office has dealt with the migrant crisis.

“It’s the first time a mayor has stood up and said ‘I give up. I throw my hands up.’ Who does that? Not in New York,” Reynoso said during the rally.

Hector Gonzalez, a Vietnam Veteran and an attendee of the event on Wednesday, said he was pleased that Reynoso was cutting back social gatherings in order to spread out city resources, especially as an immigrant from Puerto Rico.

“We learned that today is going to be the last time they’re going to get together because of the crisis that is going on. He wants to take advantage of the crisis to address what is really needed. I believe that’s a plus for everyone,” Gonzalez said. “This is the time that we have to contribute, in every sense, to try to better our society. The other thing that people forget is that 100 years ago, more than they, we also have immigrants, and they went through the same thing that is happening nowadays.”

As the 2025 Mayoral election creeps closer, there are rumors of who will challenge Adams. According to reporting by Politico, Reynoso’s name has been floated, but it is unsure if he will make a run for it. According to Gonzalez, Reynoso should focus on his constituents in Brooklyn before he makes the jump to another position.

“I believe that’s a little bit far nowadays, because he has so much work on his hands, and he wants to concentrate on what those needs are,” Gonzalez said. “When you start in one position, and you think of all the other ones and you don’t take care of what you’re doing, that is not proper. I believe the people have to be supported for what they voted, and when the time comes, then a decision could be made.”

Three Potential Brooklyn Cannabis Stores Showcase the Uncertainty of Marijuana in New York State and City

Oona Milliken on September 20, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Brooklyn’s Community Board for District 2 made local weed history in their meeting on Wednesday Sept. 13 by bringing three marijuana stores up for approval and passing them all without any contest. However, despite the support from the community, there is still not a clear path toward licensing for any of the stores in front of the council due to a state-wide restraining order on all licenses pending a lawsuit against the Office of Cannabis Enforcement. Still, the hearings were indicative of one truth: legal marijuana is coming to New York, even though the specifics of how is not quite clear yet. In the community board, chairperson Lenny Singletary emphasized the importance of understanding how to deal with the new applications and predicted that there would be much more to come.

“The reason I wanted Mr. Smith [Health, Environment & Social Services Chair] to go through these is that these are the first cannabis applications that have come in and it’s important for us to understand how we process this,” Singletary said. “I would imagine that we’re going to see an increase in cannabis applications, especially given the state regulations where they’re going to heavily fine illegal applications, as well as passing monetary fines along to the owners of the buildings that are allowing this to take place.”

The Office of Cannabis Management is currently being sued due to OCM’s Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary program, a program that only permits licenses to those who fulfill two requirements: a prior cannabis conviction, or that of a close family member, and having owned a legitimate business for at least two years. With the lawsuit pending, New York Supreme Court Justice Kevin Bryant declared a temporary restraining order on all CAURD licenses in New York City in Aug. 2023. The three proposed locations, Pura Vita Enterprises Inc at 288 Flushing Avenue, Are We Good Enterprises Inc at 154 Vanderbilt, as well as YRM Dispensary LLC at 436 Albee Square W, are now in limbo. The owners are unable to continue moving forward with establishing their businesses, despite starting the process of working towards a license. According to Andrew Cooper, professor of the business and law of cannabis at Hofstra University, as well as a practicing cannabis, psychedelics and healthcare attorney, this leaves the owners of these stores in a deeply uncertain situation.

“These people committed everything. I mean, built teams, and they got people around them who could help them. They spent their time and days going around looking at space, talking to landlords, and negotiating with a lot of predatory lenders. We got plenty of those,” Cooper said. “Now they’re just stuck in this weird abyss.”

The production, distribution and recreational use of cannabis was legalized in New York State in 2021, with the passing of the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act. Later on, the OCM established the CAURD in order to prioritize those who had been harmed by the prohibition of cannabis in the state — now, four service-disabled veterans, represented by law firm Feuerstein Kulick, are suing the OCM because they believe that the conditions are too narrow and therefore unconstitutional.

According to a similar lawsuit filed against the marijuana legislative agency in March 2023, the original MRTA law passed in 2021 outlines that licenses should be open for all and that the CAURD program is in violation of that. That lawsuit was filed by the Coalition for Access to Regulated and Safe Cannabis, a group that seeks to expand access to all applicants and does not agree with the priority afforded to CAURD applicants.

“Rather than perform the tasks required by the MRTA – which would promote a safe and regulated cannabis industry for medical patients and adult-use consumers alike – CCB and OCM have improperly assumed the role of the Legislature to impose their own policies over those of New York’s elected officials and, by extension, their constituents. This unconstitutional overreach violates the separation of powers doctrine,” lawyers for CARSC wrote. “New York’s Legislature required CCB and OCM to open ‘the initial adult-use retail dispensary license application period. . . for all applicants at the same time.’”

All of the applicants under review by the community board had gone through the initial stages of the OCM’s CAURD application process. During the community board meeting for District 2, Brendan Smith, Health, Environment & Social Services committee chair, walked the board through the various steps that the applicants had to go through before coming in front of CB2, and are different from the unlicensed smoke shops that have exploded around the NYC area. Cannabis shop owners must have security details at their locations, and they must check the identification of anyone who enters the premises of their stores, according to information shared by Smith during the CB2 meeting. Furthermore, Smith said that the stores have already gone through stages of community discussion prior via the OCM application process.

“There has been an awareness at our committee about the prevalence of smoke shops about unlicensed illegal cannabis businesses throughout the community. What was important for this conversation was to focus the conversation on the applicants in front of us and their circumstances,” Smith said during the meeting. “Keeping in mind, these three applicants went through significant licensing processes with the Office of Cannabis Management to ensure that the protocols were adhered to and to ensure that they comply with different levels of compliance from the Office of Cannabis Management.”

Despite MRTA passing in 2021, the city has only managed to pass a handful of legal cannabis stores, though illegal ones have popped up like weeds on the corners of New York City. Currently, there are four legal marijuana dispensaries in New York City, and an estimated 2,500 illegal ones, though the number might be higher, according to numbers released by the state in April. Cooper said the reason that the cannabis rollout has taken so long is the stringent requirements that OCM has outlined in order to prioritize justice-involved individuals.

With pending lawsuits, the path forward for these three stores is uncertain, regardless of whether or not they have been approved by the community board or not. Until they receive a final walk-through from the OCM, the stores are unable to sell any of the marijuana that is piling up in warehouses in the state, according to Cooper. Since the identity of marijuana license applicants is kept private, none of the store owners were able to be reached for comment.

Fill the Form for Events, Advertisement or Business Listing