During the first two weekend in August, the C, E, F, and G trains will experience widespread diversions in Brooklyn.
The service changes will allow MTA workers to upgrade the Rutgers Tunnel, an aging piece of infrastructure under the East River that was badly damaged during Superstorm Sandy, and to install cables and WiFi equipment at the Jay Street/Metrotech, Borough Hall, and Hoyt-Schermerhorn stations.
Usually, service disruptions are a burden for New Yorkers. In this case, however, there is at least one silver lining.
The G, the snail-ish option for many Greenpoint commuters and the only subway line exclusive to the outer boroughs, will be extended to Coney Island for those two weekends.
Running on the F line, the modified G route will give the people of North Brooklyn unusually quick and easy access to the the iconic boardwalk and its beaches.
“We plan carefully to keep service disruptions to a minimum, but there are times when service changes can actually result in localized improvements for riders,” said New York City Transit acting vice president Demetrius Crichlow. “In this case, we are extending the G line by more than five miles and giving customers from Greenpoint and Williamsburg a direct route to Coney Island.”
The G train will stop at every station along the F line. A shuttle bus will substitute G train service between the Bedford-Nostrand Avenue and Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street stations, while F trains will be running along the C line.
The brief expansion of subway service is a welcome change during a summer in which North Brooklyn’s access to beaches has been crippled. In May, the Greenpoint stop of NYC Ferry suddenly closed due to a mechanical issue.
The ferry, which carried Greenpoint residents to the Rockaways in summers past, has been closed ever since.

After over a year and a half of near constant closures, restrictions, and other setbacks, New York City restaurants finally had a reason to celebrate this past week. NYC Restaurant Week has returned to the City, this time lasting for over a month (July 19th to August 22nd) to accommodate for the business lost during the pandemic.
Since its inaugural year back in 1992, Restaurant Week has grown into a tradition for locals, students, and other New Yorkers excited by the prospect of a quick, cheap, delicious meal.
Organized by the Mayor’s Office and hundreds of partnering restaurants, the celebration offers special $21, $39, and $125 menus that allow guests to sample new foods at a reasonable price.
“It’s extraordinary, the greatest restaurants in the world — an opportunity for you and me to go out there and experience them… even if you don’t have a lot of money, great, great, deals,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the start of Restaurant Week last month. “We know the restaurant community went through so much during the pandemic, but people fought back. The restaurant owners, the employees, they fought back, they kept their businesses going, and now Restaurant Week is going to give them more customers, and a whole lot more energy.”
A total of 511 restaurants are featured throughout the five boroughs during Restaurant Week. However, only 47 of those are in Brooklyn. Queens has even less, with only 33 eateries featured throughout the month.
Our paper caught up with the owner of one of these lucky restaurants to discuss their experience.
“It [Restaurant Week] has turbo-charged everything,” explained Bart Hubbuch, owner of Prospect Heights Korean BBQ fusion joint Memphis Seoul (569 Lincoln Place). “It has been unbelievably, mind-bogglingly successful.”
Hubbuch continued: “I am from Texas originally, but I am so honored to feel at home here in New York. It’s a prestigious thing to be honored in Restaurant Week.”
Multiple North Brooklyn favorites are also featured this restaurant week, including Domino Park Taqueria Tacocina (25 River Street), Williamsburg Mexican Restaurant De Mole (2 Hope Street), and the original Junior’s Cheesecake location in Downtown Brooklyn (386 Flatbush Ave).
Sean McCloskey, General Manager at De Mole, praised the City for making Restaurant Week even more accessible this year.
“The nice feature this time with restaurant week is NYC & COMPANY has decided to waive the normal fee that is associated with participation in Restaurant Week,” McCloskey explained. “Doing so has allowed the small mom & pop restaurants to participate, where in prior years they wouldn’t due to the fee.”
He continued: “Restaurant Week has played a major role in bringing people to the restaurants after the pandemic, as the pandemic has taken a devastating toll on the restaurant & hospitality industry in NYC. This year one of the nicer features that NYC & COMPANY has added is the signa Menu, which has been a draw for our customers, hopefully it is something they will consider offering from here on.”
In addition to in-person dining, many featured restaurants are offering take-out options this restaurant week to accommodate those who are still wary of large crowds.

The Brooklyn DA’s Office last week asked a judge in Brooklyn Criminal Court to dismiss 3,578 pening marijuana cases.
The DA’s Office also asked Judge Keisha Espinal to vacate any relevant arrest warrants, judgments of conviction and guilty pleas related to those cases.
“For too long, criminalization of marijuana has disproportionately impacted young people and communities of color whose members made up about 90 percent of those arrested,” said District Attorney Eric Gonzalez during a virtual town hall announcing the request. “These arrests ruined the lives of thousands of people over the years, saddling many with criminal convictions that prevented them from pursuing opportunities in life.”
If the judge grants the request, only eight criminal cases involving marijuana would remain active, and all of them involve allegations of driving while under the influence of the drug.
The request by the DA’s Office comes after the state voted on legislation to legalize recreational marijuana earlier this year. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill in March.
Gonzalez’s predecessor Ken Thompson stopped prosecuting marijuana possession cases in 2014, and later stopped prosecuting most cases involving the use of marijuana.
“Since its passage, my office has moved to dismiss open cases,” said Gonzalez. “I asked the court to dismiss over 3,500 warrant cases that remained in the system, effectively clearing the Brooklyn docket from these vestiges of previous models of policing and prosecution.”

Since COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings have been widely lifted, (at least for the time being), baseball season is in full swing and ballparks nationwide are operating at 100% capacity. Mets fans are not just returning to Citi Field, they are also hitting the road to support their team at away games.
Though traveling to see your favorite team is nothing new for baseball diehards, The 7 Line, a supporter group and Mets-centric clothing brand created in 2009, hosts a unique experience for fans traveling to support the team. The 7 Line, which acquired an official MLB license to produce merchandise in 2014 and has a kiosk at Citi Field, creates a unique ticket package that includes a t-shirt and a “special event” patch for each road game they attend as a group.
“We travel around and hit different ballparks, last year it wasn’t a thing, but now we’re back to full-strength trying to give our guys that home field advantage when they’re on the road,” said Darren Meenan, the owner and creator of The 7 Line. “We had about 1400 fans in Pittsburgh and we’re going to Philly in a couple of weeks with almost 900, and to Boston with 1400 people in September.”
On The 7 Line’s most recent road trip, to see a three-game set with the Pittsburgh Pirates from July 8-11, a total of 1409 fans converged on the “Steel City.”
“Our Taproom is located a little over a mile from PNC Park. I’m originally from Queens and a lifelong Mets fan,” said Adam Bey, owner of Pittsburgh’s 412 Brewery. “It was great having members of The 7 Line Army stop in before the games on Friday and Saturday, seeing a flood of Mets gear at PNC, and the loud cheers for the Mets, even if they did drop two of three games to the Pirates.”
The 7 Line began hosting group outings at Citi Field in 2012 and organizing road trips in 2013. Since then, they have visited almost every National League ballpark to support their beloved Amazin’s, bringing droves of Queens-based Mets fans with them. Meehan says “The 7 Line Army will check the final NL stadium off of their bucket list on August 21st when they visit Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where he’s already expecting a group in excess of 1,000.
Woodside resident, Angel Livreri, said her family loved traveling to Pittsburgh to watch the game with The 7 Line.
“My wife and I have been to Philly to see the Mets at away games but this was our first trip with The 7 Line,” Livreri said. “It’s a great excuse to get out to see a different area and stadium as a family and The 7 Line brings such excitement to the game, there’s really not much else like it.”
Livreri, an NYPD Sergeant, and her wife, Elia Cortes-Livreri, brought along their 4-year-old daughter, Leni Livreri.
“Leni absolutely loved it and we had an amazing time as a family. We’re thinking of going to see the Mets play in Boston with The 7 Line,” Livreri said. “It’s a great experience to bring kids with you. She had so many people stop and talk to her and they were genuinely happy to see her cheering on the Mets.”
Anthony Giordano, a Howard Beach native, and his wife Patrizia, were with The 7 Line Army for their Spring Training Outing in Port St. Lucie, Florida, in 2017. They decided to leave their kids home.
“There was lots of heavy drinking. They serve these rum buckets at the stadium (in Port St. Lucie,) and if I remember correctly there were over 350 of those buckets tied to the outfield fence after all was said and done,” Giordano said. “It was the first time The 7 Line went to Spring Training. I hear that the line of empty buckets of rum has gotten even longer now.”
Other Mets fans are finding their own path to road games.
Kathleen LaVeglia of Middle Village said she and her boyfriend attended the series in Pittsburgh without knowing The 7 Line Army would be in town. LaVeglia saw all three of the games of the series, using the between time to check out the city.
“We got to see a lot of Pittsburgh, had sandwiches at Primanti Brothers, took the Duquesne Incline to Mount Washington, and went to Southern Tier Brewery after the games,” LaVeglia said. “It’s cool that the Roberto Clemente Bridge into PNC Park and the streets around the stadium are closed to vehicular traffic. There was face painting and balloon twisting for kids, outdoor bars, and live music. I wish we had that at Citi.”