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City Council Targets Amazon with Delivery Protection Act

BQE Admin on April 16, 2026

Delivery workers and members of the Teamsters union rally in support of the Delivery Protection Act. (Photo via the NYC Central Labor Council.)

By Cole Sinanian | cole@queensledger.com

CITY HALL  — Amazon does not directly employ its delivery drivers, but that could be about to change thanks to a bill sponsored by Astoria City councilmember Tiffany Caban.

The New York City Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection convened Thursday to hear testimony regarding Intro 518, also known as the Delivery Protection Act. The bill, which would require last-mile delivery facilities to obtain licenses from the city, has been backed by unions and Mayor Mamdani, who’ve hailed it as a potential win for labor that would make Amazon accountable to its workers and improve street safety. Critics, however, have maintained that the bill would only cost consumers by adding unnecessary fees to the delivery process, and hurt the local “Delivery Service Partners” that Amazon contracts to complete deliveries.

Though they wear Amazon uniforms, drive Amazon vehicles, and deliver Amazon packages, Amazon delivery drivers are not technically Amazon employees. Instead, they are employed by the smaller, local companies that operate the last-mile warehouses, called Delivery Service Providers (DSP). Amazon pays workers salaries and sets their schedules and quotas, but if something goes wrong — a traffic accident, for example — it is the DSP that is liable, not Amazon.

As Caban explained in her introduction Thursday, high delivery quotas encourage drivers to move as fast as possible, increasing the risk of accidents. According to a 2025 report from the city comptroller’s office, rates of traffic accidents are on average 137% higher around last-mile facilities. In the streets around just one in Maspeth, Queens, crash rates rose by 53 percent.

“And when these accidents happen, the company who controls the van, the worker, and the route suddenly tells us that this worker is not their employee and that it’s the subcontractors who are to blame,” Caban said.

“My bill would make New Yorkers, including workers, safer,” she continued. “It would require licensing for last mile facilities, direct employment of drivers, protection against unfair termination and retaliation, real worker training, and we have an outpouring of support from workers, unions, environmental groups, and traffic safety organizations.”

If passed, the Delivery Protection Act would require DSPs to pay $500 for a city license. Carlos Ortiz, chief of staff and deputy commissioner of external affairs at the Department of Consumer and Worker Protections (DCWP), characterized the bill as necessary to holding corporations accountable for malpractice.

“This model externalizes costs as well as liabilities which can lead to labor violations and the exploitation of workers in unsafe working environments,” Ortiz said. “We can’t allow protections for New Yorkers to be held hostage to corporate threats.”

As lawmakers heard testimonies at City Hall, a group of delivery drivers convened by a coalition of trade groups called New York Delivers rallied outside against the Delivery Protection Act. Councilmember Caban, however, noted that she had received an email from a group of delivery drivers prior to the hearing which suggested that DSPs had paid their workers to show up to the hearing to protest the bill.

“Drivers were forced to attend,” Caban said in her introduction, quoting the email. “In mandatory meetings, management asked in front of everyone who was not going to go, and they made us raise our hands in front of our co-workers.”

One Amazon driver, a man named Jose Suerta who’s worked at the DBK1 warehouse in Woodside for four years, testified in support of the bill, criticizing the company’s apparent disregard for worker safety.

“I decided to focus on organizing after a particularly hot summer day when a co-worker fainted,” he said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “When she called the dispatcher, this was her response: ‘Sit down, drink some water, and then continue with your work route.’”

”The following week, the same thing happened to another woman,” Suerta said. “She received the exact same response when she called the dispatcher of Amazon.”

Manhattan Chamber of President Jessica Walker, meanwhile, criticized the bill, noting that while its intentions were good, it would add needless bureaucratic hurdles and contradict Mayor Mamdani’s affordability agenda.

”I support every goal this bill claims to address,” Walker said. “I want  delivery workers to be safe. I want them paid fairly. I want our streets safer. “What I oppose is the mechanism because the mechanism doesn’t achieve any of them and it imposes serious collateral damage on small businesses and consumers in the process.”

She continued: “This is the equivalent of putting a New York City tariff on every package that is brought into our city. 2.5 million packages a day. Every one would be more expensive.”

Manhattan City councilmember Harvey Epstein, who chairs the Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection, clapped back:

“There’s an agreement that we need to deal with the issues of additional crashes that are happening in our city, so the questions are, how do you resolve those problems? Sounds like you may disagree that that will resolve those problems, but we need tools to be able to resolve these issues in our city.”

Schwartz: What Mamdani Can Learn From La Guardia (And What He Really Shouldn’t)

BQE Admin on April 16, 2026

Mayor Mamdani has promised to deliver the “most ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia.”

By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com

From the campaign trail to his inauguration, Mayor Mamdani has promised to govern in the tradition of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, considered widely to be the greatest New York City mayor of all time.

Now that Mayor Mamdani has reached his 100 day mark, the question stands: So far, how does Mayor Mamdani stack up against his political inspiration and many-years-earlier predecessor?

Stuff Mayor Mamdani Has Done Like La Guardia

Making significant investments in housing

Maybe he had to use some unconventional methods to get there, but the mayor’s Sunnyside Yard plan to create 12,000 new homes — half of which would be Mitchell-Lama apartments — would be the biggest investment in housing creation the city has seen in decades.

This fits squarely in the legacy of Mayor La Guardia, the creator of the New York City Housing Authority.

Stood with striking workers

When laundry workers went on strike, Mayor La Guardia stood with them by shutting off the water to two major laundromats, forcing owners to cave to the workers’ demands. So far, no strikes in New York City have come to this, but you can find Mayor Mamdani on the picket line with striking nurses and Starbucks workers.

Fulfilling his promise of“being outside”

In his inauguration address, Mayor Mamdani promised to, in the words of Jadakiss, “be outside.” Similar to how Mayor Mamdani can be found walking from City Hall to Gracie Mansion, or making Instagram reels to promote his policies, Mayor La Guardia was also “outside.” You could find La Guardia conducting an orchestra of the police, fire, and sanitation departments at Carnegie Hall, and he famously read the comics in his weekly Sunday radio show broadcast on WNYC.

A Few Things Mayor Mamdani Can Do to Be More Like La Guardia

Finish Bushwick Inlet Park

It’s what Mayor La Guardia, whose tenure saw the creation of almost 200 new playgrounds, would do. (When in doubt, ask WWMLDWTSTCOATNPD?)

Drink a beer in Congress

Yes, La Guardia was doing it in protest of Prohibition — which means that it was his own concoction made of a “near beer” and two-thirds of a bottle of malt tonic — and yes, Prohibition has long since been repealed. Does that mean it would be any less fun if Zohran found a reason to do it? We will let you answer that for yourself.

Appoint an official magician

It was the mid-1930s, the Great Depression was roaring, and Mayor La Guardia needed a way to boost the morale of the city’s children (or New York’s Cutest, as Mayor Mamdani calls them). His solution: To appoint Abraham Hurwitz as the city’s official magician. Hurwitz, a government employee with a PhD in educational guidance, used magic to help kids learn. One more thing to keep kids off their phones!

Some Stuff La Guardia Did That He Shouldn’t

Build an airport

I think this would cause more problems than fix them.

Smash all the city’s pinball machines

While it would make for a pretty good photo op, there’s really no longer any plausible deniability that pinball is endemic to gambling and racketeering.

Appoint a Robert Moses-like figure to power, setting off a chain of events that will allow an unelected official to wield power unlike the the city has ever seen before, bending it to their will and ensuring that current and future generations suffer from his decision to prioritize cars over people, public transit, and housing

Seems self-explanatory.

Lana Schwartz, a columnist for the Star, is a writer who was born and raised in Queens and today lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared on The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books “Build Your Own Romantic Comedy” and “Set Piece.”

Punk and Potlucks at Williamsburg’s P.I.T.

BQE Admin on April 16, 2026

New York punk band FOCO plays a set last week at P.IT., an eclectic venue-slash-bookshop at 411 South 5th St. (Photo: Adeline Daab)

By Adeline Daab | news@queensledger.com

SOUTH WILLIAMSBURG — To the casual passerby, P.I.T. appears to be just another one of Williamsburg’s vibrant book and record shops. Memoirs of revolutionaries, collections of queer poetry, and zines about guerilla gardening overflow from the shelves. But P.I.T. — which stands for Property is Theft — primarily defines themselves as a community space, venue, and info-shop. Book and record sales merely support the reading groups, mutual aid org meetings, shows, and more that animate the corner of 5th St. and Hewes multiple nights a week.

On a recent Wednesday evening, a group spanning almost every living generation perched on an equally eclectic array of plastic folding chairs in P.I.T.. Projected onto the screen in front of us was a grainy documentary with thick subtitles that carried a distinct 2000s charm. “Soma – An Anarchist Therapy” followed the emergence of Soma, a type of group movement therapy grounded in the principles of anarchy. The film makes a point of clarifying from the outset that anarchy is not chaos. “Anarchy is the highest order,” states Soma’s creator Roberto Freire, a Brazilian writer, therapist, and torture survivor. It is “a kind of harmony where everyone knows what they need to do.”

Heavily influenced by Capoeira Angola, a communally-practiced martial art that arose with enslaved peoples’ attempt to liberate themselves from slavery in Brazil, Soma centers around the goal of liberation from what Freire sees as a new form of slavery: neurosis. Freire understands authoritarianism as “the technique that produces the disease,” and anarchy as “the minimum you must know to be healthy and free.” Soma actively works to free people from the crushing influence that authoritarianism has on our social relations. Its philosophy builds on an understanding that we bring about a liberated society by first changing ourselves and the way we connect with others. Soma isn’t for everyone — “I can’t bear it,” one participant shared, “I want my neurosis back” — but those who stuck with it appeared to achieve genuine breakthroughs. Sometimes, these were as small as a participant deciding to hug their parents more often. But each small change, Freire says, matters within the larger movement.

This event was a part of a monthly series of potluck discussions organized by the P.I.T. Care Collective, a community of health workers building a vision toward a Healing Commons beyond institutional logic and boundaries. Following the film, we sat in a circle nibbling at a meal we’d all contributed to. With piles of Yemeni rice and lentils, wedges of orange blossom cake, warmly spiced empanadas, and grapes galore balanced on our laps, attendees mirrored principles of the “hot seat” practice within Soma. Documentary interviewees had described this practice as one of reflective inquiry and response, helping them question beliefs they’d never consciously pondered before. In Wednesday’s discussion circle, people vulnerably opened up about past experiences with violence, shared their disillusionments with individualized therapy and simultaneous fears around group therapy, and wondered how Soma might help people in their lives who are struggling with addiction. Each speaker was met with active listening, deep empathy, and occasionally compassionate pushback. P.I.T.’s heavily-postered walls held space for a form of emotional safety and care that I rarely encounter in environments where most of us are strangers to each other.

One participant reflected on how they’ve often found the type of freedom-through-connection that Soma strives to cultivate at dance clubs or in mosh pits at concerts. “Not every club or show,” they clarified. “Many lack the trust necessary to create this Soma-like experience, but I’ve been to shows here and a few other places that have felt like a form of therapy.”

I returned to P.I.T. two days later for a punk show, arriving between sets. People across the spectrum of punk aesthetics bled out onto the sidewalk, adhered in small clumps by lively conversation and cigarette smoke. The first-ever punk show hosted by mutual aid group Casa Gaza, “Land Back for Land Day” attracted people from around the city to celebrate Land Day with sets from local punk bands. Our sliding-scale donations to attend the show went to sustain Casa Gaza’s nearly two-year long commitment to a monthly donation of $500 to support a family from Gaza with living and medical expenses.

Separation between the musicians of NY-based band FOCO and the audience was ephemeral; the vocalist oscillated between the mic stand and the mosh pit. Drums, electric guitar, and passionate screams moved through the crowd like a gale through wind chimes. Bodies jumped and kicked and swayed and knocked into each other in a joyful expression of liberty and connection — a refreshing willingness to extend beyond individual bubbles and genuinely share space. The intention of the show, the messaging of the lyrics, the ideas swirling through audience conversation, the modes of interaction that emerged alongside the music: it was all about envisioning a freedom that started with us but extended far beyond. This was Soma in practice.

‘What I saw will stay with me for a long time:’ Mamdani visits Brooklyn housing court

BQE Admin on April 15, 2026

Tenant organizers rallying outside Brooklyn Housing Court. Photo by Luan Rogers.

BY LUAN ROGERS

DOWNTOWN  — Mayor Mamdani became the first sitting New York mayor to visit Housing Court when he came to the Brooklyn Civil Courthouse on Monday morning. After speaking with judges, lawyers, advocates and tenants, the mayor promised “to confront the concerns” he heard.

In a post on X, Mamdani said that “what I saw will stay with me for a long time.” He described seeing “families on the brink of losing their homes,” as well as tenants “searching for justice in an overwhelming system.”

While the Mayor was inside, tenant organizers and legal services workers led a rally for tenant protections outside the court house.

“We’re glad to see the mayor paying attention to the eviction crisis that New Yorkers are continuing to go through,” said Khadija Hussain, a campaign organizer with the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition. “We’re excited to work with the mayor’s office to protect tenants in housing court.”

Sabrina Simon, deputy director of the Flatbush Tenant Coalition, had hoped to get a chance to speak with the mayor. “We had arranged to participate in the walk through with the mayor but he ended up with the judges,” she said. “I thought he might come say hi, but he was rushed out of here.”

Other organizers were less than impressed with the mayor’s hasty departure from Housing Court. “He ran out on us,” said Rachel Cyprien, an activist with the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft. “Shame on him,” she added.

Deed theft, an issue that disproportionately affects Black homeowners in New York, occurs when property titles are changed without the owner’s consent. According to an investigation by CBS New York, there has been a 240% increase in deed theft complaints from 2023 to 2025.

“We hope he saw the dehumanization that goes on in these courts,” said Omar Hardy, an organizer with the People’s Coalition To Stop Deed Theft. “That’s the first step,” he added. “But we’ve got a lot more work to do.”

After the mayor left, some members of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants (MOPT) appeared with tenants outside. When asked whether the Right Counsel program will receive additional funding in the upcoming City budget, MOPT director, Cea Weaver, said that it was “too early to tell.”

Cea Wevaer, director of the Mayors Officer to Protect Tenants, speaks with Sherease Torain of the Peoples Coalition to Stop Deed Theft. Photo by Luan Rogers.

The City Council introduced the landmark Right to Counsel program in 2017. The first of its kind in the nation, the program provides free legal assistance to low-income tenants facing eviction. Tenants’ household income must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty line to qualify. The city is contracted with public defenders who then represent the tenants in housing court.

As eviction filings increase, public defenders are struggling to meet tenants’ demands for representation. Christina Brown, a public defender with the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), explained how there are not enough lawyers to provide assistance. “Everyone who is qualified should get a lawyer in housing court,” she said. “We end up having to turn away eligible tenants.”

Brown identified issues with pro-landlord bias within the court. “Housing court really operates as an eviction bill and collection agency for landlords,” she said. An April 2025 report by the New York State Bar Association referred to the housing court process as “cattle-call justice” with each case receiving only limited individual attention because of the high volume of cases.

The City Council released the Preliminary Budget response last week, allocating $16.9 million for housing and domestic violence-related legal services. Meanwhile, advocates and public defenders have pushed for more funding amid ongoing budget negotiations.

“We have demanded that the city allocate at least $350 million for Right to Counsel in the budget,” said Hussain. “We hope that that’s what we get from the mayor.”

Indie Documentary Inspires Bed-Stuy Homecoming

BQE Admin on April 13, 2026

Edgar Guerra (left) films a segment with Tyrone Tillman (center) and Glenn Campbell outside Tompkins Houses in Bed-Stuy, where the trio grew up together. (Photo: Jack Delaney)

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com 

BED-STUY — It was a sunny morning in Bed-Stuy, and three old friends were settling into their folding chairs.

As he does every year, Edgar Guerra had come down from Springfield, Massachusetts, to visit his childhood stomping grounds at Tompkins Houses.

But this time was slightly different: Accompanying Guerra was Tony Bass, a producer and director whom he tapped to help create a documentary that profiles the former Brooklynite.

The movie, tentatively titled “Mission Possible,” centers on Guerra’s budding career in the entertainment industry, which has grown from ad spots for a local solar company to a new role as a detective on a show called “Cutting Ties.”

To tell that story, however, Bass wanted to go back to the beginning. That’s why Glen Campbell and Tyrone Tillman, two of Guerra’s friends from his Tompkins days, were sitting outside the front lobby of “Headquarters,” waiting for the camera to roll.

“We love Edgar,” Campbell started off. “He was a little, skinny guy. He was friendly, never had a problem, his family brought him up right. And most of all I really appreciate him due to the fact that he comes back to his neighborhood.”

Talk quickly turned to another one of their mutual friends. Campbell, 70, lived on the 11th floor; Tyrone, 67, was on the 8th; Guerra’s family, four boys and four girls, were on the 5th; and the comedian Tracy Morgan, 57, who rocketed to fame on “SNL” and “30Rock,” grew up one floor down, on the 4th.

But before Morgan made his name, there was a different star on the block: Mark Breland, a boxer with a 110-1 career record who won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics and posted five Golden Gloves, the most in the award’s history.

“One time I was sitting across the street with Tracy and little brother that passed away. When Mark came home from the Olympics, he was flooded by people on Park Avenue, so we went over there to congratulate him,” remembered Tillman.

Guerra tapped Tony Bass (left) to shoot and produce “Mission Possible.”

“Tracy looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to be bigger than Mark.’ I’ll never forget it. Me and my brother told him, Tracy, we’re not trying to hear that — Mark, this is his stage right now,” said Tillman. Then he smiled: “Well, as I come to find out, Tracy’s bigger than Mark. I haven’t seen him since when he became famous, in 20-something years.”

As a child, Guerra’s mother would dress him in the style of JFK, Jr., telling him that he was destined for greatness. But art and film fell by the wayside amid a string of big life changes: Guerra moved to Springfield in his teens to work at his uncle’s fish market, and his parents joined shortly after to start a restaurant in the area.

Now Guerra, 60, is looking to replicate Morgan’s rise to stardom, albeit on his own terms. For the past seven years, he has worked as a driver for a company that specializes in transporting passengers with disabilities, yet his mother’s passing five years ago reignited his interest in pursuing an acting career.

“This is what I always wanted to do, for years and years,” Guerra affirmed. “This is what my mother wanted me to do. It’s like what Tracy said — This is my time, it’s up to the man in heaven to make it happen.”

Guerra has found an ally in Bass, who left the IT department at Bear Stearns to launch a newsletter and entertainment magazine in Rhode Island called The City Beat. Eventually, he relocated to Springfield to start a business with his brother — who tragically passed away soon after they found an office. Bass stayed in town, where he has kept up his publication while running a recording studio and 24/7 radio station.

“I knew that communications in general was always going to be a big opportunity if you were able to get into it right and have good people around you,” said Bass, packing up his cameras.

Guerra and Bass have finished their initial round of filming. All that’s left is to follow Guerra as he throws himself into his latest TV role, and looks to make his mark as a professional actor.

“I want to give this a try,” said Guerra. “It’s been haunting me, and I can’t let this thing go by.”

Not-So-Green Point?

BQE Admin on April 9, 2026

The neighborhood still suffers from low park density, but there are more than enough lush springtime spots for those in the know. 

BY GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com

Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past

It is Spring, and my thoughts turn to flowers and gardens.

The enthusiastic, mirthful Peter J. McGuinness would always evoke laughter by referring to industrial Greenpoint as “The garden spot of Brooklyn,” or in one of his more enthusiastic outbursts as “The garden spot of the universe.” For late 19th and 20th century Greenpointers living in crowded tenements ringed by belching factories and foul, polluted air, calling our area “the garden spot” must have seemed like some kind of cruel, snarky joke, but for many years Greenpoint was a real garden spot and today it is still a home to many tiny, gorgeous gardens, often set in the unlikeliest of places.

Greenpoint was once a farming community, and every family had its own garden. There was once a huge hill running around the area of Franklin and Green Streets called Pottery Hill where wildflowers grew. The areas flowers were so pretty that courting couples sailed over from Manhattan to enjoy its beauty. However, the name Garden Spot derives from the Meserole Orchard, which once occupied a huge swath of land around Meserole Avenue. The garden was famous for its apples, and the beautiful apple blossoms each spring, but in what has become a familiar local story the real estate was too valuable and the orchard disappeared as lots were sold off for housing.

Greenpoint still lacks the park space that many other neighborhoods treasure. In 1889 State Senator Winthrop Jones helped secure Winthrop Park, which later became McGolrick Park. In the northwest corner of the park, there is the Paul Clinton garden, dedicated to a park worker. Under his supervision, the parks in this district won numerous awards including the “Greenest District Award.” Patrick McCarren had local streets and factories condemned to create the park that later would bear his name.

During World War I with millions of farmers sent off to fight there were food shortages and McCarren Park was planted as a huge victory garden, tended by local school kids.

After the end of the war, the city wanted to pull the plug on the victory gardens, but McGuinness realized that many kids loved the gardening and he threatened to bring busloads of local school children, rakes in hand, to the City Council to plead for further funding. His ploy worked and the gardens continued in the park for years after. During the sixties and seventies many buildings became abandoned and burned. One of these vacant lots at 61 Franklin Street became a small community garden, lovingly tended by local volunteers.

The Lentol Gardens is also a bucolic oasis on Bayard Street. The land for Lentol Garden was acquired by the city in 1946 during the creation of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and became parkland that same year. The Park was named for the father  of local Representative Joe Lentol, Edward Lentol who represented the area first in the Assembly and then in the State Senate for decades. In 1992, the park became known as the Lentol Gardens.

Today there is a new frontier for gardens: rooftops. Thanks to Broadway Stages our area has two unique gardens. The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is an internationally acclaimed greenroof and commercially operated vegetable farm atop a three-story warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. On the shoreline of the East River, with a sweeping view of the Manhattan skyline, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square foot green roof organic vegetable farm.

Even More dramatic than the Eagle Street Rooftop garden is Kingsland Wildflowers, an oasis of wildflowers and birds atop a former industrial building in the heart of a zone of very heavy local industry. Opened in 2016, the garden is the conception of Marni Majorelle, founder of Alive Structures. Marni brought together local businesses and nonprofit organizations. The NYC Audubon manages the project and oversees green roof wildlife monitoring through bat and bird microphones and swallow houses installed on the green roof. Newtown Creek Alliance conducts research into land use, policy, and economic factors of green roof installation in industrial areas.

Greenpoint has a new park coming online, Bushwick Inlet Park. The 1.89-acre, waterfront green space, with $7.5 million in mayoral funding, includes smooth paths, a forest grove, an elevated lawn, a water feature, a family gathering area, an overlook and a plaza with sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline.

“The Potential is There”: Brooklyn Orgs Tentative on New Office of Community Safety

BQE Admin on April 9, 2026

From left: Abraham Paulos, Rama Issa-Ibrahim, Ramik Williams, Danielle Sered, and Shneaqua Purvis. (Photo: Jack Delaney)

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

Last month, Mayor Mamdani made good on one of his central campaign promises by establishing a new Office of Community Safety, aiming to overhaul the city’s approach to mental health-related 911 calls by sending social workers instead of police officers.

But as the Mamdani administration moves to adopt alternate models for public safety, local nonprofits in Brooklyn are banding together to send a clear message: They’ve already ready been doing the work, and just need more — and more consistent — funding.

On March 24, the citywide outfit Common Justice joined leaders from other violence prevention organizations at Borough Hall for a forum called “Every Road to Healing: Building Safety Rooted in Community,” drawing an audience of more than fifty Brooklynites who were eager to hear what the freshly-created office might mean for their neighborhoods.

Before the panel discussion, Common Justice played a clip from its recent documentary short featuring the decorated judge L. Priscilla Hall, whose commentary framed the conversation to come.

“The courts by themselves can’t make you safe. Police cannot make you safe. The only people who can really make you safe is your community,” said Hall. “What seems to me to be a real problem right now is the lack of attention that’s being paid to people with mental and emotional issues. When you put people in ghettos and you mistreat them, there’s always trauma to that person. If that trauma is not addressed, it flourishes.”

Each of the panelists was someone who had dedicated their career to healing or preventing such trauma, in many cases because gun violence had impacted them or their loved ones.

Shneaqua “Coco” Purvis, executive director of the Bed-Stuy-based outfit Both Sides of the Violence, said that she was driven to start the organization not simply after her sister was murdered, but 18 years later, when she finally spoke to the person who killed her and decided to mentor him.

Since then, Purvis has expanded her youth outreach initiatives from Brooklyn to the Bronx and Manhattan, with the mission to “create long-lasting solutions and resources to cure all types of violence for victims and perpetrators in our most vulnerable communities.”

“I work really hard with zero to no funding to do this work authentically,” said Purvis. “Because these kids know when you’re a fraud, and you have to look into yourself and see who you are in that mirror before you go tell somebody else what to do in their mirror.”

Ramik Williams, co-director of Kings Against Violence Initiative (KAVI) in Central Brooklyn, emphasized structural solutions to support community safety efforts.

“We have a trillion dollars coming into the city. How is there not enough money?” Williams asked the crowd. “It all comes back to capitalism and holding these entities responsible, just paying their share, giving back what they take.”

Daneille Sered, founder and executive director of Common Justice, seconded his sentiments.

“Neighbors are working, community-based organizations are working. We are keeping each other safe,” she said. “But Ramik is right. We’re not resourced, and it’s not for lack of money, right?”

Moderator Abraham Paulos, who helms the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), posed the hot-button question: Will the Office of Community Safety alleviate those woes?

Williams noted that the administration had contacted nonprofits shortly before the announcement to share that their programs would be overseen by the new body.

“The budgetary shift has happened. The money that was being allocated for all types of programs under DYCD is now going here, but there’s no talk about replacing it,” mused Williams. “The potential’s there, but we have to be mindful of the shiny object.”

“There is a good intention, and we shouldn’t disregard that,” added Rama Issa-Ibrahim, a Brooklynite who leads the Center for Anti Violence Education. “But there’s no money that’s been baselined for this office. The work that we’re all doing is still continuing to happen. It’s just going to be moved from one place to the other.”

The overall atmosphere of the event was a cautious — very cautious — optimism. “The NYPD still gets $6 billion every single year and increasing, but we haven’t been promised any additional money to do violence interruption or violence prevention,” said Issa-Ibrahim. “So until we see that, I don’t think that we can celebrate.”

For Purvis, the greatest barrier to effecting change is not only the lack of funding, but the fact that it’s often erratic. She recounted seeing tangible results from building relationships with young people on a particular block, until she was forced to stop when the money dried up.

“As bad as I want to serve these guys, I can’t if there’s no funding,” said Purvis. “Consistency — it’s so important. With that consistency comes trust. If we have consistent money, or we come together with other organizations that do the same work as an agency, then maybe we can have permanent funds. And if we can have this consistency, we can do the work that we’re meant to do.”

What the G Train Does With Its Time Off

BQE Admin on April 9, 2026

The G train is partially suspended on some weekends and nights through 2027. (Photo: MTA)

By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com

For months that feel like years, G train service has been partially suspended.

Most nights and weekends, it runs only between Church Avenue and Bedford Nostrand, cutting off North Brooklyn from the rest of the borough and severing Brooklyn’s only subway connection to Queens.

The MTA maintains that it’s making necessary signal upgrades, though for how long — and which weekends the G train will be down — is anyone’s guess.

Here is what I imagine the G train has been doing with its downtime:

Quiet quitting

After years of being slandered as “the worst subway,” ridiculed for its smaller number of train cars, and shamed for being late (as if every other train line is always so punctual), the G train is slowly transitioning away from being a subway at all. Maybe there’s a job opening with SEPTA?

Binging GIRLS

Finally, it understands the random massive influx of people getting off at Greenpoint Ave circa 2012 — and every year since.

Watching TikToks about “boundaries”

The G train doesn’t owe anyone anything.

Bragging about its open-gangway cars

One year ago, the MTA introduced two open-gangway cars to the G train line, making it only the second train line after the C train to possess these state-of-the-art R211 cars.

Even if the G train is incapable of the one thing it’s supposed to do (provide the necessary connective tissue between North and South Brooklyn), at least it looks pretty.

Exploring our other boroughs

92 years in New York and the G train gets to see the three boroughs it doesn’t serve — Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island — for the very first time. Although, generally speaking, that is about how long it takes most New Yorkers to finally get to Staten Island.

Avoiding the L train at all costs

If the G train does happen to be running on nights and weekends, that means the L train will not be.

The two trains — which previously worked together in tandem to provide necessary transfers to subway riders — have been swapping weekends like divorced parents sharing custody of Williamsburg and Bushwick.

But what New Yorker hasn’t steered clear of entire neighborhoods in order to avoid seeing an ex?

Lana Schwartz is a writer who was born and raised in Queens and today lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared on The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books Build Your Own Romantic Comedy and Set Piece.

The Bloody Best: Brooklyn’s Bloody Mary Fest Returns

BQE Admin on April 2, 2026

Over 1,000 people attended this year’s event. Photo via @thebloodymaryfest on Instagram.

The fan-favorite Bloody Mary Fest was bigger and tastier than ever, offering local connoisseurs a chance to spotlight their creations.

BY CHRISTIAN SPENCER

PARK SLOPE — It is the only boozy annual event of its kind in the city. The Bloody Mary Festival returned to Brooklyn on March 21, and it was a culinary experience that mixes freshness and spiciness.

Hundreds of attendees gathered at BKLoft26 to sample creative takes on the classic brunch cocktail.

Local bars, restaurants, and spirits producers showcased their own versions of the Bloody Mary alongside food vendors and craft spirit makers. Evan Weiss, founder of the festival, said he started the event in 2014 after noticing a gap in the city’s brunch scene.

“We spent our weekends going brunching and we loved Bloody Marys, tasting different Bloody Marys around Brooklyn. And we realized that there were no large-scale events for Bloody Mary lovers. So we decided to create one,” Weiss said. “We rented out a restaurant in Williamsburg and just for fun, we invited our favorite bars from Brooklyn that made good Bloody Marys. That’s when the first Bloody Mary Festival New York City happened in April of 2014.”

The festival has grown steadily since its debut. The first event drew about 150 people. This year, nearly 1,000 attendees attended.

“Since the pandemic, people have really appreciated live events and we’ve seen growth,” Weiss said. “These curated drink and food experiences have really gained popularity. People in their 20s and 30s are spending more of their money on these types of experiences.”

Jono Moratis of Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue offered a smoky, barbecue-inspired take on the cocktail.

“Being a barbecue restaurant, we’ve got a lot of bold flavors and smokiness to our meats, and we try to infuse some of that into our cocktail,” Moratis said. “We garnish with pickles, cucumber, lemon, lime, an assortment of things to keep it interesting, fresh, and spicy.”

Moratis said the festival is a chance to bring more attention to the restaurant.

“We’re hoping that by being part of the festival, it lets people know that we are in Brooklyn. We want to be a destination place for people to come enjoy our food. There’s also a sense of camaraderie with other restaurants, and just hopefully create some new interest, new guests, and expose the restaurant to other people,” he said.

Andrew Thomas of Halftone Spirits said his approach brings out spice and flavor depth.

“A Bloody Mary can’t just be the traditional tomato juice and vodka with a piece of celery,” Thomas said. “We leaned heavy on spice, pickle juice, celery salt, and Worcestershire sauce. We do it two ways, one standard with vodka and one more intense using our aquavit, a Scandinavian spirit distilled with caraway seed and dill. It really enhances those deep, savory flavors.”

Thomas said the festival points out what the cocktail can do.

“I think the Bloody Mary is the perfect brunch beverage,” he said. “It has a rich body and texture that pairs well with savory breakfast dishes. What I hope the festival brings out is a deeper appreciation of the wide variety of what a Bloody Mary can be. It’s an incredible platform for bartenders and spirits producers to showcase their ability to craft flavor in a glass.”

Weiss said organizing the festival requires months of planning.

“It takes about three to four months to produce the event,” he said. “A lot of time is spent marketing the event, reaching out to local businesses to participate, and tasting Bloody Marys. That’s the fun part.”

The festival has expanded beyond bars and restaurants, now including spirits companies and food producers.

“The festival has evolved from being a Bloody Mary contest to a celebration of small local businesses. Now we invite a plethora of local businesses, spirit companies, and food products to sample their products to attendees. That’s what makes it great. It’s more than just Bloody Marys,” Weiss said.

The 2026 festival also functions as a competition, with attendees and judges scoring each entry on flavor, presentation, and creativity. The combined votes came down to the smallest details, from spice balance to garnish execution.

Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue won Best Traditional Bloody Mary for its smoky flavor, balanced spice, and just the right heat. Filthy Diamond in Bushwick took Best Original Bloody Mary for the inventive “Bloody Filthy.” Crif Dogs in Greenwich Village earned Best Garnish for a bacon-wrapped hot dog. Labonne’s Gameday Bloody Mary Mix from Connecticut was named Best Bottled Mix. The Drop Shot Bar at Rockaway Pickleball in Queens won the People’s Choice Award, while Sunday’s Bloody Mary Mix from Pennsylvania won People’s Choice for Best Bottled Mix.

The winners received trophies, but for all the participating small businesses, the attention from the festival was rewarded enough.

That day, Bloody Marys lingered on Brooklyn’s taste buds.

When Greenpoint Shipwrights Chased Baseball Glory

BQE Admin on April 2, 2026

The Brooklyn Atlantics, one of the Eckford Club’s early rivals. Photo via Wikimedia.

Baseball fans in North Brooklyn might not realize that a team of amateur shipwrights from Greenpoint was once a title contender

GEOFFREY COBB | gcobb91839@Aol.com

Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past

Some people might feel it’s Spring when they see flowers bloom; others might feel that Passover or Easter signal the arrival of Spring, but for me the surest sign of Spring’s arrival is the start of the professional baseball season, which since 2023 is the last Thursday in March. Even baseball fans living in North Brooklyn probably do not realize that much of the early history of the development of baseball took place here in Brooklyn and that a team composed of amateur Greenpoint shipwrights, The Eckford Club, wrote one of the glorious chapters in the sport’s early history.

Though it’s the subject of intense debate, most baseball historians agree that the first game of what we would recognize as baseball was played in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846. Though it was born in New Jersey, the game really took off here in Brooklyn, which had more teams than anywhere else in the country.  Henry Chadwick, a Brooklyn resident known as the “Father of Baseball,” invented the box score and baseball statistics, while promoting the “fly rule” (catching the ball on the fly rather than one bounce) during the 1860s to improve the game’s skill level.

Most baseball players then were the sons of well-to-do families who could allow their sons the leisure to play the game. Greenpoint formed a team, but it was not composed of rich kids’ sons. It was made up of shipwrights, whose 60-to-72-hour workweek left them little time to practice. The grueling nature of their work, though, made them very strong and fit, making the team successful.

In 1860, The Eckfords were good enough to contend for the New York title against the champion Brooklyn Atlantics. The Eckfords were leading the first game of the three-game series going into the ninth inning when the Atlantics scored four in the ninth to win seventeen to fifteen. Fan interest grew and several thousand people showed up for the second game of the match. The Eckfords were losing nine to six in the fourth inning when their player coach said, “Now, boys just think that you are playing a common club and forget that those fellows are the Athletics.” The team went on to score four runs in the inning and won twenty to fifteen. Several thousand people came out to see the rubber game of the match, but the Eckfords sloppy fielding led to a twenty to eleven defeat. Even though they lost, the team had shown it could be a contender.

Henry Eckford helped build the navies of both the United States and the Ottoman Empire. Photo via Turnstile Tours.

Few teams played many baseball games in 1861 because of the outbreak of the Civil War, but in 1862 the Eckfords met the Athletics again for the championship. The series was held in the first-ever enclosed baseball ground, the Union Grounds in Williamsburg. The enclosed field allowed the owner to charge admission, but fan indignation led the owner to donate the proceeds to charity. The Eckfords won the first game of the October series twenty-four to fourteen, but lost the second game thirty-nine to five, setting up the decisive game of the series of October 18th. There was huge excitement surrounding the game and a record crowd showed up whose huge size frightened the heavily outnumbered police. The ten thousand fans that showed up were more than had ever watched a baseball game before. The police feared a riot that never occurred. The Eckfords won the championship game eight to three and a huge joyous crowd returned with the players to the Mansion House to celebrate their victory. The Greenpoint team won the championship the following year, but the huge crowds meant the beginning of the end of amateur baseball.

Players began to inexplicably jump from one team to another. In reality, they were lured by money under the table many teams now offered. The Eckfords made baseball history when their first baseman, Al Reach, jumped to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1864, openly admitting that he was paid to do so. He is considered the first acknowledged professional baseball player.

In 1865, the Eckfords would be involved in a scandal that would foreshadow the Black Sox scandal that nearly ruined professional baseball. The Brooklyn Daily Times reported that the Eckfords beat the Mutuals with the help of professional gamblers who paid some of the Mutuals a hundred dollars to throw the game.

It was merely a question of time until the game became fully professional, which occurred in 1869 when the National Association was formed, but even before the formation of the pro league many of the Eckford’s best players had left lured by teams offering money.

The Eckford’s entered the league with amateur players and despite their obvious handicap had great initial success. In 1869, they won the New York title before losing to another team in the national championship. Their best players, however, wanted money. One of their stars Jimmy Wood not only left for the Chicago White Sox but also enticed many of the top players to join him. By 1872, the team had folded.

Today there is a huge case of gilded baseballs won by the Eckford Club displayed in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. There is also a monument in Cooperstown to Reach, who would go on to partner with A.J Spalding starting one of America’s first sporting goods company and would also start the Philadelphia Phillies club and became of the hall’s first inductees.

Sadly, even here in Greenpoint, few fans realized that local ball players wrote a glorious chapter in the history of our nation’s pastime.

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