STATE CONSIDERS RESTRICTING PARKING TO RESIDENTS ONLY
CITYWIDE — The state is considering a plan to establish residents-only parking zones in NYC, reports Gothamist, with the state Senate’s budget proposal granting the City Council authority to implement a permit parking program for whatever areas it wants, potentially easing parking for frustrated drivers in congested areas. The plan comes with a catch, however — the city would also be allowed to charge up to $30 a month for these permits, which would be used to fund the MTA, generating up to $400 million a year, according to the Senate’s projections.
Drivers and business owners told CBS News it’s unclear whether this plan would help or hurt — the Council would have the authority to decide whether permit parking would apply by neighborhood, by borough, or for the whole city; meaning drivers who commute from the outer boroughs to Manhattan or waterfront Brooklyn and Queens might not qualify as residents under some possible implementations.
✰✰✰
NATIONAL GRID GETS DENIAL ON ITS GAS VAPORIZER PROJECT
GREENPOINT — The New York State Public Service Commission on Thursday, March 16, denied National Grid’s proposed gas vaporizers project in Greenpoint, as well as the energy company’s related rate-increase request. The Public Service Commission, agreeing with an independent expert assessment that the project is not needed for at least the next five years, also denied the company’s petition seeking $38.8 million in cost recovery for the project, but did allow Brooklyn Union Gas Company, a subsidiary of National Grid, to recover $10.5 million in design, engineering, permitting, and the costs of the independent consultant.
The PSC commissioners said that National Grid can return in a few years with another petition if demand increases and ask again, but will first be required to make creditable efforts to reduce demand for the product and become more energy-efficient to help meet climate goals.
✰✰✰
‘MAKE IT IN BROOKLYN CONTEST’ RETURNS WITH FIVE WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR FINALISTS
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Five women-founded startups with diverse backgrounds have been selected for the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s upcoming Make It in Brooklyn Female Founders Pitch Contest, revived after the pandemic-induced hiatus, and culminating next month. The finalists are: Sam Lee of Meili Technologies; Joy Fan of Re/tell; Joy Arrington-Hurd, Joyfriends; Tess Guttières, Landmark and Vandra Thorburn, of Vokashi. The finalists will pitch their ideas to a panel of expert judges on April 4 for the chance to win a $5,000 cash prize and in-kind legal services from BLIP at Brooklyn Law.
The DBP’s pitch contests over the years have awarded over $90,000 to local entrepreneurs, several of whom have gone on to scale their businesses and receive additional funding.
✰✰✰
MAYOR ADAMS SPEAKS OF NYC AS ‘A PLACE OF GOD,’ ECHOING EARLIER BLUR BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE
CITYWIDE — Mayor Eric Adams, speaking Thursday, March 16, at a faith-based summit on mental health. again blended religion and civic life, calling on New Yorkers to transform the city into “a place of God,” the Daily News has reported. Adams, who received criticism for a Feb. 28, keynote speech at his annual Prayer Breakfast in which he seemed to dismiss the Constitution’s inferred separation of church and state, has already launched his “Breaking Bread, Building Bonds” dinner series with New Yorkers. Earlier this week reportedly called on religious leaders to join a “major recruitment campaign” to attract young people to careers in the police force.
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, speaking after the Mayor’s Annual Interfaith Breakfast on Feb. 28, said that Adams’ remarks continued “to raise concerns that he doesn’t respect the separation of church and state.”
✰✰✰
NRA SEEKS TO REVERSE JUDGE’S DISMISSAL OF ITS COUNTERCLAIMS AGAINST NEW YORK
STATEWIDE — As part of the latest salvo in the protracted battle between New York Attorney General Letitia James and the National Rifle Association, the NRA has filed a 58-page appellate brief seeking to reverse Judge Joel Cohen’s June 10, 2022 dismissal of its First Amendment-based counterclaims. The NRA argued against the Brooklyn-born state attorney general’s case, saying, “the official policy of the State of New York is to crush the NRA,” and that direct evidence of animus “obviates the need for any additional showing of causation.”
According to a June 2022 news release from the AG’s Office, which the Brooklyn Eagle retained in archives, James responded to Judge Cohen’s dismissal of the NRA’s counterclaims: “Today, the court reaffirmed the legitimacy and viability of my office’s lawsuit against the NRA for its years of fraud, abuse and greed. For almost two years, the NRA has tried every trick in the book to avoid culpability for their actions, only to be repeatedly rejected by the courts.”
✰✰✰
AG JAMES ANNOUNCES TAKEDOWN OF DRUG AND GHOST GUN GANG
CITYWIDE — New York state Attorney General Letitia James, joined by Mayor Adams, police Commissioner Keechant Sewell and other law enforcement agents, announced at a press conference on Wednesday that an investigation had busted a ring of drug and “ghost gun” smugglers importing illegal goods into the city. James said that the investigation had recovered 19 firearms and half a kilogram of cocaine, and had led to charges for three men — one previously employed by gun manufacturer Smith and Wesson — who were allegedly importing cocaine and untraceable guns from Massachusetts and selling them out of a home in a residential Queens neighborhood.
“Ghost guns,” which AG James recently secured a court order to help fight, are firearms assembled by individuals instead of factories, frequently from kits that take advantage of a federal gun law loophole — as certain parts of firearms are only officially tracked and registered when fully built, guns sold mostly built and with instructions for completing them can be purchased without any background checks and used without any risk of tracing, making them very attractive to criminals.
✰✰✰
‘LAMP SHOW’ LIGHTS UP BROOKLYN BOOKSTORE
FORT GREENE — Fort Greene bookseller Head Hi is holding its fourth annual “Lamp Show” at its Navy Yard shop through April 8, reports Design Milk, exhibiting artistic lamps from professional designers, artists and amateurs alike. This year’s show features more than fifty lamps in a dizzying array of styles, ranging from a glowing egg placed in a bowl of rice to an illuminated, otherworldly obelisk with a bulb at its tip, and everything in between.
A full catalog of the lamps, which are for sale, can be found on Head Hi’s website, along with more information on the exhibition.
✰✰✰
SMALL-BUSINESS SAFETY FORUM SCHEDULED FOR NEXT WEEK
WILLIAMSBURG — Councilmembers Lincoln Restler and Jennifer Gutiérrez, Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, and restaurant owner groups ROAR and BABAR have organized a small-business safety forum for next Tuesday. The meetup will feature representatives from the 90th and 94th Precincts speaking on ways for business owners to prevent crimes, as well as opportunities to network with other small-business owners.
Interested business owners can register to attend online; the forum will be held at Williamsburg restaurant Lilia on March 21, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
✰✰✰
SECOND DOLLY PARTON-THEMED BAR TO OPEN IN WILLIAMSBURG
WILLIAMSBURG — Williamsburg’s Moxy Hotel is set to open its new Dolly Parton-themed bar and nightclub Jolene this weekend, reports Time Out, with “bold pink textures and decor pieces… including a painted ceiling and modular furniture” decking out the “high-energy sound room” in the country legend’s signature aesthetic. Jolene will be the second bar paying homage to Parton to come to Williamsburg in recent years, following the 2019 opening of comfort-food-oriented elevated dive bar Dolly’s Swing & Dive, which features a full gallery wall dedicated to the singer, just blocks away.
Tickets have sold out for Jolene’s opening weekend, featuring soulful house DJs Toribio and Seven Davis Jr.
✰✰✰
BROOKLYN GAINS NEW HOMES IN 2022, LEADS CITY: REPORT
BROOKLYN — Brooklyn had the greatest net gain in housing units across the five boroughs in 2022, reports the Real Deal, increasing its housing stock by a total of 3,246 units by the year’s end. Brooklyn also dominated the list of neighborhoods adding the most housing, taking up six of the top ten spots on the Real Deal’s rankings, with Fort Greene, in first place, adding more than a thousand homes, representing an 8.45% growth since 2021.
NYC overall appears to be struggling to add new homes, with an analysis of the city’s Primary Land Use Tax Lot Output — or PLUTO, for short — database revealing that the total citywide net gain in units was just 2,666, with Manhattan and Queens both having net losses.
✰✰✰
DEVELOPER CUTS BK HOUSING PROJECT AFTER COUNCIL OPPOSITION, CITING 421A LAPSE
HOMECREST — Real estate developer Plaza Realty announced on Tuesday that a planned housing project in Homecrest supported by Mayor Adams would not be financially viable without the now-expired 421a state tax break, but the Real Deal reports that opposition from the area’s City Councilmember, Kalman Yeger, may have been behind the demise of the 8-story building. The project, which would have had 231 units, of which 60 were planned to be affordable, would have represented the largest increase of affordable housing in the area in eight years, but was opposed by the councilmember on the grounds that the building would have been too tall for the neighborhood, which is largely comprised of single-family homes.
The developer wrote in a letter to the mayor and council that should the 421a rebate or a similar program be reinstituted, as proposed by Governor Hochul in her 2024 budget, the project may be back on the table.
✰✰✰
FREE EVENTS THIS WEEKEND TO CELEBRATE SPRING
BROOKLYN — Spring Arts Fair: PLG Arts is holding its inaugural indoor Spring Arts Fair, Saturday, March 18, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at BKLYN Commons in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, featuring over 25 local visual artists, family art making, live music and refreshments from Hibiscus Brew. Since 2005, PLG Arts has presented and produced free arts events and exhibitions for audiences of all ages to nurture a vibrant and diverse creative community in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and surrounding neighborhoods.
Maker’s Market: The All-Women’s Makers Show market returns to City Point in Downtown Brooklyn on March 17-19 and March 24-26, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with over 40 women-owned businesses set to bring their arts and crafts. Highlights of the Makers Show will include a live panel discussion on Breaking The Glass Ceiling and workshops for guests throughout each weekend.
Skating in Prospect Park: Bond With Brooklyn, in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance and Lakeside Brooklyn, is sponsoring a free community skate event to send off the winter at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park on Saturday, March 18, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., featuring complimentary admission, rentals, hot chocolate and a photo booth. Tickets for the event are first-come, first-serve and are rain or shine, and can be reserved online; walk-up attendance is also permitted as long as capacity permits.
NYC ghost gun trafficking ring busted
March 16 |
Robert Abruzzese
Our world in photos: March 16
March 16 |
Daniel Cody
Real estate racism exposed: Coldwell Banker settles for housing discrimination on Long Island
March 16 |
Robert Abruzzese
BBA sits down with Judge Kevin McClanahan, supervisor of the Housing Court
March 16 |
Robert Abruzzese