News

North Brooklyn Angels to Host Third Annual Thanksgiving Drive

Oona Milliken on November 16, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

The North Brooklyn Angels, a non-profit dedicated to providing free meals to the North Brooklyn community, are hosting their third annual Neighbors Giving Thanks event for Thanksgiving. Kendra Chiu, the Executive Director for North Brooklyn Angels, said the event is one of their biggest volunteer-driven events of the year.

This year, there will be three Thanksgiving day meals provided in Greenpoint, Williamsburg and East Williamsburg on Nov. 23 and one on Tuesday, Nov. 21 in Bushwick. Chiu said the drive began in 2020 and has grown from there.

“We’ve expanded this opportunity, which began during the pandemic because of how much the pandemic highlighted food insecurity, especially in North Brooklyn, and we’ve just kept the tradition up since,” Chiu said. “We decided ‘How can we provide a dignified Thanksgiving experience for our neighbors in need?’”

Neighbors Giving Thanks will provide 1,000 frozen turkeys for people to take home in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, and 630 warm meals on Tuesday and Thursday during Thanksgiving week. Chiu said there will be around 100 volunteers helping package and distribute the meals, which are catered by local restaurants.

Chiu said that the program is catered to those without a place to go during the holiday and that many senior citizens and homeless people from nearby shelters end up eating with the North Brooklyn Angels on Thanksgiving. This year, the North Brooklyn Angels are expecting an influx of migrants.

“The ideal audience would be the ones who don’t really have a place to go during Thanksgiving, and we can provide them a dignified experience. They may or may not have family to go to,” Chiu said. “I think we’re going to see an uptick in participation of families joining our meals, especially with the rise in migrants.”

During the first two years of operation, the North Brooklyn Angels hosted the Thanksgiving Day meal at the Brooklyn Exposition Center in Greenpoint, but have since partnered with various churches and community groups to geographically spread out the meals and make them more accessible to those in need. Chiu said that the volunteers are what make the whole event possible.

“Unsurprisingly, we continue to be wonderfully mobbed by people who want to volunteer,” Chiu said. “So what happens is the volunteers volunteer from the morning, and then we’re wrapped up and cleaned up by like 1:30-2 pm. This way they can go home and enjoy Thanksgiving with their families.”

The North Brooklyn Angels mission is for neighbors working with neighbors to “want to work together to fight hunger, food insecurity, and poverty,” according to their website. Chiu said the organization is focused on bridging the inequality gap between Brooklyn residents, which she said was particularly widened by the pandemic and the continuing effects of gentrification in the area. However, Chiu said the organization wanted to do so in a positive way.

“North Brooklyn Angels is around to highlight this great income disparity that does exist in our area without applying shame to it because it’s a macro-issue. What can a family do, what can volunteers do, what can young professionals do to build a community? By volunteering they have the ability to humanize and not live in a bubble,” Chiu said. “I think that’s part of our mission, to kind of remind and engage folks to understand and humanize what can easily be a very easily forgotten or neglected population.”

Brooklyn Dems Communications Director Moonlighting for Lobbying Firm

Matthew Fischetti on November 9, 2023

By Matthew Fischetti | mfischetti@queensledger.com

The communications director for both the Brooklyn Democratic Party and party boss Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn has a third job – as a “director” in the New York office for the powerful lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs.

But ethics experts say the simultaneous holding of these positions could be a serious conflict of interest.

James Christopher has worked with Bichotte Hermelyn since August 2022 where he had held dual positions as director of communications for the county party and as Director of communications & chief communications officer for majority whip, according to his LinkedIn page.

Last month, Christopher announced that he was accepting the position at the company where Bichotte Hermelyn’s husband, Edu Hermelyn serves as a Senior Vice President, while concurrently holding his current positions.

“Marrying his business and political knowledge allows James to help clients navigate today’s complex legislative environment while cutting through the noise to captivate audiences,” a description of his position on Mercury’s website reads.

Rachel Fauss, Senior Policy Advisor for Reinvent Albany, a watchdog group that advocates for transparency in government, said that Christopher’s multiple jobs were potential conflicts of interest.

“This appears to be a trifecta of conflicts of interest; there is no way that it is in the public’s interest for a legislative staffer to be holding positions simultaneously in a top lobbying firm and with a county democratic party while also being on the public payroll,” Fauss said.

Due to Christopher’s Albany job, he would have needed to get permission from the state’s Legislative Ethics Commission in order to take the outside employment. The body can not directly comment on guidances issued due to laws surrounding the Legislative Ethics Commission.

When James Christopher was originally reached out to for comment for this story, he declined to comment.

Jon Reinish, a partner at Mercury Public Affairs, said in a later statement that “This individual is employed in a part-time communications capacity and not involved in providing any government relations services, as cleared by the Legislative Ethics Commission.”

Regardless of the Legislative Ethics Commission’s decision, Fauss said that the appointments still raise concern.

“If the Legislative Ethics Commission approved this arrangement, it proves that they are not independent and should be abolished,” said Fauss.

After Oct. 4 Rollout, Marijuana Legislation Begins to Take Shape

Oona Milliken on November 8, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

The Office of Cannabis Management began its rollout of general marijuana licenses on Oct. 4. Currently, the Office is holding informational sessions across New York State to get the word out about their licenses, a total of five, and to ensure that information on how people can get started in the cannabis industry is readily available. At a meeting on Wednesday Nov. 1 at Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights, two OCM representatives, John Kagia, Director of Policy, and Jason Salmon, Director of External Affairs, gave a two-hour presentation, informational session and Q&A for those interested in acquiring a marijuana license. Though the application is open for everyone, Salmon said the OCM is trying to prioritize communities disproportionately impacted by arrests, convictions and police presence related to marijuana enforcement.

John Kagia discussing the rollout and the new cannabis licenses.

“What does that mean? That means that your arrest rate in your community is higher comparatively to other parts of the state. I’ll use myself as an example. I grew up in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene. From the time that I was born in ‘86 to about when I was 16, 17, I lived in a CDI [Community Disproportionately Impacted], I lived in an area that was targeted by the police that had a high number of arrests,” Salmon said.

The new licenses available to be applied for are Cultivator, Processor, Retail Dispensary, Distributor and Microbusiness, according to Kagia and Salmon. The first round of applications open for businesses with an existing store location will close on Nov. 17, and the second for those without an existing store location will close on Dec. 18. Kagia said he was excited about the future of the marijuana industry and was looking forward to getting more licenses out there. More importantly, Kagia said that creating the parameters of a new market meant making it as equitable and open as possible.

“The idea of social equity isn’t about being exclusionary to the groups that have historically been a significant part of this industry but it’s to provide opportunities for weaker diversity of stakeholders in this market. Generally, when you have greater diversity, the data is clear, you tend to have better consumer experiences,” Kagia said. “One of the things that’s most exciting to me is the idea that several years from now, we will be looking out at a market that is the most diverse in the country. And one that truly reflects the amazing cultural and socioeconomic diversity that is New York.”

A slide show featuring the different Adult-Use License types open for application.

Connie Chang, an attendee of the event who runs a food packaging business, said she was interested in a processing license. Chang said she was excited about the future of cannabis and wanted to partake in such a massive new market. Though Chang said the meeting was helpful, she said she still had a lot to learn about the process of obtaining an OCM license and starting her own business.

“I think if I could get [a license] then I would just be hitting the ground running, finding a space, getting insurance, getting a bunch of different things lined up, and that’s when it does start to feel overwhelming,” Chang said in an interview. “It’s cool, it’s just scary, but it’s exciting. Maybe this is what it felt like during the Gold Rush or something.”

Chang said she is a long-time cannabis user and has been tracking the developing legal cannabis market in different areas for a while.

“I’ve been a cannabis user throughout my life, and have always been kind of entrepreneurially minded, or consider myself to be, and I’ve watched the weed, cannabis space growing across the US, you know visited different states and countries where there’s different levels of adult recreational use happening and I’ve always just been curious what a business role for me in this space could look like,” Chang said. “I was really excited when the New York rollout started.”

A line of prospective licensees waiting to ask questions at the presentation.

Monique Chandler-Waterman, NY State Assembly Member for Brooklyn’s District 58 and the Chair of the Cannabis control board, said she was excited about the new legislation because her district, a majority Black and brown community, had historically been impacted by over-policing. Chandler-Waterman said she was excited to usher forward a new way of marijuana policy.

“Our premise at our office is that we know our community members who have been most impacted, justice impacted, making sure they have a seat at the table in opportunities like this. I’m happy to work in partnership with the Office of Cannabis Management to make sure we get information to our community members,” Chandler-Waterman said during the presentation.

Angel’s Cafe Announces New “Breakfast Blessing” Card

Oona Milliken on November 8, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

Though Angels Cafe in Williamsburg might seem like a regular bagel shop, it has a hidden secret: the cafe donates 40% of its profits to North Brooklyn Angels, a local non-profit that’s dedicated to providing meals to Brooklynites in need. The two North Brooklyn organizations have partnered since Angels Cafe opened its doors to the public in April 2022. Since then, Angels Cafe has committed to various ways of giving back to the community, both through North Brooklyn Angels and providing their own forms of charity.

Now, the cafe is creating a gift card system so that people in the community can give out a free meal to anyone who might be hungry. People can purchase an Angels Cafe gift card to take home and give to someone they know or they can put it in a box to be given out at a North Brooklyn Angels food drive where the card will go out to community members. Ana Maria Camejo, a co-founder of Angels Cafe, said that the program was a pivot from previous food drives at the cafe so that people could pick up a free meal from the cafe whenever they wanted.

The Breakfast Blessing Card box. The card can be given out to anyone that might want a free meal. Photo courtesy: Oona Milliken

“We launched that a month ago, and this is how it works. So online, or in the store, people buy this card. It’s only one price, $9.99,” Camejo said. “I give it to the customer, and I ask, ‘Do you want to keep it for yourself or give it to someone as a gift card? Or do you want to put it in this box?’”

In the month since the program has been launched, that box has accrued more than 61 gift cards that will be handed out by the Brooklyn Angels.

Angels Cafe was started by Francesco Tamburriello and Ana Maria Camejo, partners in the cafe and in life, because the pair wanted to find a way to connect with their neighborhood and give to those in need.

According to Camejo, her husband first started volunteering in the kitchen of North Brooklyn Angels and found himself wanting to get more involved from there. Camejo said the non-profit traditionally only does lunch services, so Camejo and Tamburriello started out by providing North Brooklynites with breakfast. The physical store, Angels Cafe, emerged as a result.

Patrons at the cafe can also “pay it forward” and provide a free meal for another customer who comes along. Camejo said the idea came from an old Italian tradition of paying for a stranger’s coffee. Her husband is from Italy, Camejo is Colombian and Italian, and she said that the pair thought it would be nice to incorporate it into their restaurant, alongside their partnership with the North Brooklyn Angels.

“We say, ‘Why not mix it up the both ideas?’ Instead of just a coffee, why not create a breakfast program that customers can pay for a breakfast and we partner with the North Brooklyn Angels, they are giving to people and they are helping us in the production and logistical aspects,” Camejo said. “Give us like a freewheel to go into communities and give breakfast to people.”

Workers behind the counter of the bagel shop. Photo courtesy: Oona Milliken

Neil Sheehan, the Chairperson and Co-Founder of the North Brooklyn Angels, said he was grateful for the partnership with North Brooklyn Angels and enjoyed seeing young people get involved in helping out their community.

“I think the demographic is important. If you look at some studies of younger people, people are looking for a way to do good, if they could find a way to do good and eat, I think they’re fine spending $15 or an extra $10 to feed someone,” Sheehan said.

Lawyer Michele Mirman Champions Women’s Rights

Oona Milliken on November 2, 2023

70-year old Michele Mirman is about as Brooklyn as it gets.

The lawyer, a practicing attorney for 45 years, was born and raised in East Flatbush and Mill Basin and said that her background has allowed her to connect with her clients due to their shared living experience.

“Having grown up in Brooklyn and lived here all my life, I use all the same services my clients do, subways, buses, the parks, the streets – I’m familiar with all the hospitals,” Mirman said. “Anything that my clients go through, I’m familiar with. It’s not a surprise to me, it’s not a shock.”

Mirman is the founding partner of the firm Mirman, Markovits & Landau, PC, established in 1977, whose practice deals with cases ranging from medical malpractice to worker’s compensation to personal injury cases of all kinds. She received an undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1973 and a law degree from Antioch University (now The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law) in 1976. Mirman said her law school, primarily focused on civil practice, inspired her to embed service into her everyday work.

“People are hurt everyday of the week by other people’s carelessness. It doesn’t rise to the level of crime, because it may not be intentional, but that does not mean the victim is not hurt,” Mirman said.

She said she became interested in public interest law from a young age, particularly from being raised during a politically active period. She said that there were opportunities to get involved with Freedom Schools down South, anti-war demonstrations opposing the Vietnam war, as well as President Nixon’s controversial presidency.

Mirman started practicing law at a time when there weren’t many women in her field. As a young trial lawyer in the civil courts of Kings County, she said her other colleagues didn’t take her seriously. Mirman said the idea was that women were thought of as temporary fixtures in the courthouse, on their way to get married, have kids and never come back to the lawyering lifestyle.

“That really wasn’t my idea about my life. My idea was that I was going to work, I was going to try cases, I was going to try bigger cases, better cases. I also write, I wrote a lot of appeals. I really realized my dream,” Mirman said.

Mirman was only 23 when she started practicing, a result from skipping eighth grade and completing her undergraduate degree in three years. She said she was ready to begin her career and wanted to prove herself in a field that was male dominated at the time.

“I wanted to work, I wanted to get out there and actually work, so I was practicing at a fairly young age. Between being female and being young, I really got it from all sides. You know, what doesn’t kill you makes you tougher, right?”

Mirman said she has always supported women and has tried to counsel young women starting out in their career for as long as she’s been a lawyer. She said she also tried several sexual assault or rape cases at a time when it was not as common to take them on. More than anything, Mirman said all women should try to support other women in their respective fields.

“I also have to say that I’ve always promoted women. I’ve always mentored other women from taking young women in high school and teaching them how to be paralegals. Some of my women who have worked for me have gone on to college and have gone to law school and become lawyers,” Mirman said. “I think it’s something that we all should do.”

City Announces Free Tax-Filing Service for Freelancers

Oona Milliken on November 1, 2023

By Oona Milliken | omilliken@queensledger.com

The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, alongside the Freelancer’s Union, announced on Thursday, October 26 that New York City would provide free tax preparation for freelancers and self-employed filers. Vilda Vera Mayuga, the Commissioner of the Dept. of Consumer and Worker Protection, said she was proud to announce the new program in order to help self-employed filers who might not know how to navigate paying their taxes.

“We take a lot of pride in the services we are providing, our partners are serious organizations who are really committed to delivering a high quality service by having volunteers who are certified by the IRS to complete these tax returns,” Mayuga said during the press conference. “It’s all about supporting [freelancing and self-employed] New Yorkers who often face barriers to filing taxes and managing financial record keeping.”

Freelancers in New York can visit nyc.gov/taxprep or call 311 to be referred to the services and find an assistance station near them. The services will be offered in English, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. Rafel Espinal, the Executive Director for the Freelancers Union and a former city council member for the 37th District, said freelancers are particularly vulnerable and that offering free tax services is a way to help self-employed workers navigate the system.

“It’s a big deal. Taxes are probably one of the most complicated aspects of becoming a self-employed individual. Everything from paying a self-employment tax to understanding what aspects of your daily routines you can claim on your taxes as a business expense, to understanding how much money you’re gonna owe,” Espinal said in an interview. “One, the education and the access to the program is important just because of the financial implications freelancers can face to get their taxes on time. Two, is to ensure that they are making use of every tax break and every tax incentive that’s available to them and making sure that they’re aware of them.”

Eduardo Almonte said that he was a freelance web developer, a creative director and “seven other things, like everybody in the city.” Almonte said he started getting into freelance web developing around 2014 and did not understand the challenges of working for yourself at first. Almonte, a first-generation immigrant from Puerto Rico, raised in Douglas Houses on the Upper West Side, said he faced setbacks during his career as a freelancer and that any help from the government was appreciated.

“As I started to get older, I recognized that [freelancing] wasn’t as I first imagined, number one. Number two, the barrier of entry to a sustainable business, and the bureaucracy tied to it, it was kind of gargantuan,” Almonte said. “I suddenly recognized that I didn’t have as much social mobility as I thought I did.”

Almonte said he thought the city was doing the best they could but that a lot of freelancers have traditionally been figuring out how to navigate the system themselves.

“It’s nice that we’re bouncing back with the jobs that were lost [during the pandemic]. But a lot of people who are freelancers are really figuring it out by themselves. For example, I just filed my taxes, and I don’t remember the correct number, but there’s like $3,000 tax on top of what I needed to pay.” Almonte said. “That’s serious money for people like me.”

Espinal said he wanted to spread the word about the free tax service so that self-employed workers did not unnecessarily spend money on a certified accountant or misfile their taxes. Eduardo said the Dept. of Consumers and Workers Protection were attempting to target low-income freelancers that would most benefit from the service.

“The most important thing that they should know is that it’s a free resource. You know, hiring a CPA can cost hundreds of dollars, especially especially at a time when when the city’s cost of living continues to increase, this is this is another way in which a freelancer can save money and ensure that they are that they are receiving all of the all the benefits and resources they need when it comes to filing their taxes,” Espinal said.

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.”

Fill the Form for Events, Advertisement or Business Listing