16 FEBRUARY 9 - FEBRUARY 15, 2018 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP
EDITORIAL A LOOK BACK
A PROPER SWINDLE
The city’s real estate taxes have been inequitable for a
while, a situation that has only gotten worse as property
values have increased.
While it fills municipal coffers, the result is undue
stress on many homeowners of modest means while
wealthier homeowners in richer areas, whose properties
are worth far more, pay much less than their fair
share, in many cases.
Last year, faced with a lawsuit from Tax Equity Now,
Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would tackle the situation
but not till after the 2017 election.
That election is over, and it’s time to get serious about
property tax reform.
How bad is it? The mayor, to take one striking example,
paid $3,581 in 2017 in real estate taxes on his Park Slope
home whose market value is approximately $1,547,000.
That makes .20 percent his effective tax rate.
Go a few miles further south, into Flatbush, and the
owner of a home valued at $1,375,000 paid real estate
taxes of $9,315 in 2017, for a .70 percent effective tax rate
— more than two and a half times what the mayor paid,
on a home worth nearly $200,000 less.
The disparity is even more stark for Assemblymember
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP/file photo
14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 20 - MARCH 26,14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP GO BACK TO THE
1144 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUPB R• O MOAKRLCYHN 1M3E -D MIAA RGCRHO 1U9P,editorial A LOOK BACK Gary GO BACK TO THE
A LOOK BACK Compiled by Gary Nilsen
A LOOK BACK Compiled by Gary Nilsen
editorial A LOOK BACK Gary 14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12, 2014
Nilsen (USPS 248.800)
GOOD NEWS FOR
THE COMMUNITY
and Helen Klein
14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12, 2014
Nilsen (USPS 248.800)
ASKING FOR EQUITY
editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH editorial DRAWING BOARD
A LOOK BACK compiled by
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
▲
BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
editorial A LOOK BACK compiled Gary editorial A LOOK BACK compiled Gary With Nilsen and (USPS 248.800)
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island With LETTERS
Nilsen and Nicole Malliotakis, who’s started a petition drive
(USPS 248.800)
That’s something that Brooklyn need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president Professions, the union representing staff at SUNY’s 29 state-SUNY’s public teaching hospitals in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island the Photo by Gardiner Anderson
Frederick E. Kowal is president of Professions, the union representing 35,000 staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and the And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
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has provided “the goes Mad backdrop to… Bay Ridge, which
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“Matthew
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“Wind
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Then of She
honor at an early Bay Ridge St. Patrick’s Parade. Hizzoner seen home here Found Broderick,on with 88th Me,”members Street.
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and some of the stalwarts who nurtured the event in its formative
years Broderick,home outside on Hunter’s 88th was Street.
also Steak shot &inside Ale House,a historic
where the annual pre-parade brunch is held. Spotted in the
crowd home surrounding on 88th the Street.
former mayor are Monsignor (then-Father) Jamie Gigantiello, second from left;
Larry Morrish, to Giuliani’s right; and Auxiliary Police Chief Tony Christo, to Morrish’s right, front row.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of Professions, union representing 35,000 staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and ▲
calling for the city to form a commission to address the
issue.
Malliotakis paid $5,485 in 2017 on her Staten Island
home which is valued at $559,000, making her effective
tax rate .98 percent. While her home is worth slightly
more than a third of the value of de Blasio’s home, her
taxes were nearly $2,000 higher.
One of the drivers of the disparity is New York law,
which limits the increase in taxable value of any property
in one year to six percent (20 percent over five years),
meaning that property taxes assessed on individual
homes don’t necessarily accurately reflect their value,
and the owners of homes whose value has risen fastest
take the least hit, proportionately.
If that doesn’t seem fair to you, rest assured.
It doesn’t seem fair to us either.
Now, we’re not saying Mayor de Blasio created this
mess. He inherited it.
But, that doesn’t absolve him of responsibility for fixing
it — soon — by curbing runaway property taxes
(which have risen some 32 percent in the past six years).
We’re waiting, Mr. Mayor.
HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS
HOMEREPORTER THE AND BROOKLYN
SUNSET NEWS
(Estab. 1953)
AND SUNSET NEWS
HOMEREPORTER (Estab. 1953)
AND SUNSET NEWS
((Estab. Estab. 1953)
1953)
(Established 1933)
AND SUNSET NEWS
AND SUNSET NEWS
(Estab. 1953)
(Estab. 1953)
9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
Telephone 718-238-6600
Fax 718-238-6630
E-mail editorial@homereporter.com
Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement.
Photo by Gardiner Anderson
And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
and television shows over the years, from
“Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to
“Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She
Found Me,” Photo starring by Gardiner Helen Hunt Anderson
and Bette
Midler, seen above in a September, 2006,
Home Reporter photo taken on location on
Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed
at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind
Beneath My Wings” during the awards
show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She
Found Me,”which also starred Matthew
Broderick, was also shot inside a historic
home on 88th Street.
Join the ght against
Tips for making smart
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
skyrocketing tolls
dietary choices
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
BY STATE BY CATHERINE SENATOR MARTY ABATE
GOLDEN
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which to control SUNY’s public hospitals; affiliate with an academic hospital. SUNY Downstate teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY the state to save dollars is shortsighted We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s lies in the “Brooklyn a UUP-backed initiative to care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve several financially unstable including Interfaith Medical Island College Hospital and Center. You can see http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.It calls for the creation of care centers, and would with 14 other Brooklyn be the network’s hub, educating and medical staff to the with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan will work.
New York has a responsibility the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
▲
9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
Telephone 718-238-6600
Fax 718-238-6630
postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
request.
TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
in the Executive Budget, which would to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one affiliate with an academic medical hospital. SUNY Downstate has teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate the state to save dollars is shortsighted We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY several financially unstable hospitals including Interfaith Medical Center, Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Center. You can see the proposal http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for the creation of a network care centers, and would be controlled with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. be the network’s hub, educating and and medical staff to the care with doctors at the other hospitals.
city deciding to move forward on most of the
co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
the local Community Education Councils, all of
contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
for co-locations, area education advocates say
both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
should not trump the needs of existing schools
existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
is put inside a public school, the process must
the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
city must go back to the drawing board and come
with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
where they are opposed.. The students who
those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
▲
▲
Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
(USPS 248.800)
9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
Telephone 718-238-6600
Fax 718-238-6630
E-mail editorial@homereporter.com
Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement.
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for creation of a network of satellite ambulatory
care centers, and would be controlled by and affiliated
with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would
be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians
and medical staff to the care centers and working
with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, will work.
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
Congratulations to law enforcement – the NYPD and
Brooklyn’s new District Attorney Ken Thompson – for
taking decisive action to combat the scourge of heroin
and opioid abuse that has been haunting southwest
Brooklyn
Thanks to good information from community
residents – who have kept up the push to get drug
dealers off their streets – cops have arrested six people
as a result of a protracted investigation, and charged
them with involvement in an illicit drug-peddling
scheme in which customers called in orders and
dealers delivered them to street corners and bars in Bay
Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Sunset Park.
Given the rising number of people who have fallen
victim to overdoses of the illicit substances – including
heroin, opiates, marijuana, ecstasy and Ketamine, a
horse tranquilizer known in street parlance as “Special
K” – it is truly critical that law enforcement stay on top
of the situation, and make sure that drug dealers know
that their activities will not be tolerated.
Sources say this is just the beginning, and that more
arrests are to come. While we understand that such
investigations are lengthy and delicate, and can’t be
rushed, we say, those arrests can’t come soon enough.
SENIORS DESERVE
SUPPORT
Each year, it seems, the budget dance in Albany
leaves seniors wondering, what’s in it for them?
This year is no different, and local elected offi cials
have taken a stand to push the governor to include an
extra $26 million in the state budget that would go to
help seniors, specifi cally those who are on a waiting
list for Meals on Wheels (some 7,000 statewide, as of
now) as well as those who use Access-a-Ride and other
services.
In addition, elected offi cials and senior advocates are
pushing for a raise in the income that seniors can have
and still qualify for SCRIE, a program that controls
increases in rent. The last time the income ceiling was
increased (to $29,000) was in 2009, meaning that an
increase is now overdue.
We join advocates in urging seniors and their
families to call their state elected offi cials and let them
know – the time has come to make it easier for seniors
to age with dignity.
Photo by Valerie Hodgson
The Tolls are Too Damn High!
That’s the unfortunate reality of trying to commute
by car inside the city of New York.
The cost to travel round trip across any of our tolled
crossing is $15 cash. The discounted EZ-Pass rate is
just under $11.
For trips into Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx,
we have several toll-free options which allow for easy
commuting between boroughs without facing this daily
expense.
However, there is no way to enter Staten Island
without being hit by this outrageous toll. For those that
work, go to school, or visit family in Staten Island, they
are paying $10.66 each time they cross the bridge, with
EZ-Pass. That is unsustainable, and unrealistic.
For two years now, Assemblymember Nicole
Malliotakis and I have been fi ghting for a reduced fare
for those who cross the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge
three or more times a month.
This discount would mirror that put in place by
the Port Authority, allowing for a 58 percent discount
from the cash price for crossing the bridge for those
who have residency in New York City and travel over
the bridge more than three times a month.
This would bring the price from $10.66 to That would be real savings for our families, real from the tolls.
Last week, we had a major victory in this fi ght.New York State Senate included a feasibility in its one house budget. This means our plan the way to becoming a reality. We need to keep pressure on.
We need to convince the Assembly and the governor
that this discount plan needs to be a priority.
Please join with us and sign a petition everyone know how important this issue is.
Visit www.TheTollsareTooDamnHigh.com and onto our petition to make this discount plan a reality.
Together we can achieve reasonable toll rates the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
State Senator Marty Golden represents the Senate District in Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge,Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Manhattan Beach,Gravesend, Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park portions of Sheepshead Bay, Midwood and Park.
VISIT HOMEREPORTER.COM
FOR THE LATEST LOCAL NEWS
DRAWING BOARD
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9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
Home Reporter and Sunset News
9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement.
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which to control SUNY’s public hospitals; affiliate with an academic medical hospital. SUNY Downstate teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY the state to save dollars is shortsighted We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s lies in the “Brooklyn a UUP-backed initiative to care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve several financially unstable including Interfaith Medical Island College Hospital and Center. You can see http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.care needs of its citizens. The Net Plan—our plan and the viable, workable option for Brooklyn.
the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
▲
E-mail editorial@homereporter.com
postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
Home Reporter and Sunset News
9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
request.
TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
in the Executive Budget, which would to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one affiliate with an academic medical hospital. SUNY Downstate has teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate the state to save dollars is shortsighted We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY several financially unstable hospitals including Interfaith Medical Center, centers It’s a simple, effective plan and, will work.
New York has a responsibility to provide care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Net Plan—our plan and the community’s viable, workable option for long-term Brooklyn.
city deciding to move forward on most of the
co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
the local Community Education Councils, all of
contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
for co-locations, area education advocates say
both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
should not trump the needs of existing schools
existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
is put inside a public school, the process must
the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
city must go back to the drawing board and come
with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
where they are opposed.. The students who
those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
GO BACK TO THE
DRAWING BOARD
▲
▲
Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
(USPS 248.800)
9733 FOURTH AVE. • BROOKLYN, NY 11209
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Periodical postage paid at Brooklyn, N.Y. Published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group, Inc.
Single copies, 50 cents. $35 per year by mail, $40 outside Brooklyn. On June 8, 1962, the Bay
Ridge Home Reporter (founded 1953) and the Brooklyn Sunset News, a continuation of the Bay
Ridge News (founded 1943) were merged into the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS.
Postmaster: Send Address Changes To:
Home Reporter and Sunset News
9733 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11209
Entire contents copyright 2014 by Home Reporter and Sunset News
All letters sent to the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS should be brief and are subject to condensing.
Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available,
as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld
on request.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, AS WELL AS OP-ED PIECES IN NO WAY REFLECT THE PAPER’S
POSITION. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising
beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to the HOME
REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed
unless paid prior to publication. Brooklyn Media Group, Inc. assumes no liability for the content or
reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser
agrees to hold the HOME REPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS and its employees harmless from all
cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording
placed by the advertiser or any reply to such advertisement.
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online the New York has a responsibility to provide for the health
care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety
Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—is viable, workable option for long-term health care Brooklyn.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately
need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University
Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
and parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
With the kickoff of a petition campaign to get the
MTA to offer toll discounts to Brooklyn drivers and
other city residents who use the Verrazano Narrows
Bridge at least three times a month, the time has come
for the residents of the other four boroughs to make
their voices heard.
The timing of the petition is no accident. It was
created in response to the announcement earlier this
year that Staten Island residents – who already pay
substantially less than other city residents to use bridge – will get an added discount, thanks to a recent
agreement brokered by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Right now, Brooklyn residents who use the bridge
pay $15 roundtrip ($10.66 with E-ZPass), while residents
of Staten Island now pay $6, and will pay just
$5.50 when the added discount takes effect.
The disparity is glaring, and it just isn’t right. We
understand that Staten Islanders have no other vehicular
access to the rest of the city besides the Verrazano,
but many residents of Brooklyn – and southwest
Brooklyn in particular – go to Staten Island and New
Jersey regularly, and those double-digit tolls add up
quickly.
The Port Authority gets it; for the past two years, it
has offered a 58 percent discount to drivers who utilize
crossings between Staten Island and New Jersey at
least three times a month.
It’s time for the MTA to follow suit, and for New
York State to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
The cost of offering a discount to drivers who use
the Verrazano three or more times a month is $30 million,
not insubstantial but in reality a small percentage
of the state’s $142 billion budget.
The petition can be found on line at
Thetollsaretoodamnhigh.com.
THE CONEY BOOM CONTINUES
With the groundbreaking for the new Thunderbolt
roller coaster, Coney Island has taken another step into
its own energized future.
The 21st century thrill ride, which should be completed
by May, salutes the area’s storied past as it builds
on the excitement and growth that have characterized
the amusement area over the past several years.
The continued progress is great news for Coney,
for Brooklyn and for the city as a whole, particularly
coming in the wake of the devastation wrought by
Superstorm Sandy, which in areas like Coney Island is
still a factor.
We hope it is a harbinger of more good things to
come.
Photo by Valerie Hodgson
The St. Patrick’s Parade is a Bay Ridge tradition stretching back over two decades. Replete with marching
bands and folk dancers, the parade – seen here in a vintage photo from this newspaper’s les -- traditionally
attracts both those of Irish heritage and those who just enjoy the event. Up until two years ago,the parade marched along Fifth Avenue as seen in this photo; last year, however, it was shifted to Third
Avenue, which will host the event again this year, on Sunday, March 23. Heading up the march, for 2014,will be NYPD Chief Joe Fox, now chief of transit, but well-known to many in the neighborhood as the former
commanding of cer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
and Helen Klein
Some welcome news came on the cusp of National
Nutrition Month. The Obama administration
announced signifi cant reforms of nutrition labeling to
educate consumers better so they know what they’re
putting in their bodies each day.
That announcement dovetailed with a federal report
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
showing a stunning reduction in the obesity rate
of young children. Both display encouraging news,
because addressing health and fi tness issues early on
produces a lifetime of benefi ts.
As a nonprofi t that provides access to primary care
for our city’s underserved communities, Community
Healthcare Network is on the frontlines of this unrelenting
war on obesity. We’re taking our efforts to the streets
this month to inform people as they shop – and eat.
An alarming proportion of unhealthy foods stock
the shelves of corner delis across our city. While these
small businesses are the lifeblood of vibrant neighborhoods,
the choices many folks make are packing on
the pounds.
This month, we encourage New Yorkers to put down
those salted Wise potato chips and instead make some
wise decisions about their health. Here’s our top 10 list
of the calorie culprits at the corner stores:
•Don’t saddle up to the breakfast bar. Breakfast
bars (granola, protein and energy bars) can have more
sugars than breakfast pastries and candy bars.
•Quenching your thirst. Gatorade and enhanced
vitamin drinks usually don’t have vitamins and contain
unnecessary salts and sugars.
•The low-down on “low fat.” It normally means
high salt and higher sugar.
•When the chips are down. No-cholesterol potato
chips are fried in vegetable oil; cholesterol is irrelevant.
•Don’t butta la pasta. Tri-color pasta doesn’t anything other than it’s dyed pasta.
•Separate wheat from the chaff. Make sure “wheat”bread contains “whole grains.”
•Fruitful? More like full of sweeteners. smoothies and fruit juice are loaded with sugar fattening yogurt.
•When Greek and regular yogurt are not Avoid with added fruit/fruit syrup. And, the kinds usually pack in more sugar and far less protein.
•Down the wrong trail. Avoid mixes with chocolates (which add in tons of extra calories sugar) and watch portions.
•Low price, but hidden costs. Processed foods easy to grab on-the-go, but boxed muffi ns and snacks,chicken nuggets and processed meats contain tons sodium, sugar and unhealthy preservatives.
Consumed over the years, the above ingredients the recipe for an unhealthy future. Seem overwhelming?
Not if you start with some simple changes.here are 10 healthier picks: sweet potatoes, avocados,plain Greek yogurt or regular plain yogurt, trail (without the add-ins!), whole grain bread, natural butter, light air-popped popcorn or pretzels, cottage
cheese, fruit and eggs.
We want to ensure that all New Yorkers have tools to develop better habits within their means.Starting with small changes, what they put on plates can make a huge difference.
Catherine Abate is the president/CEO of Community
Healthcare Network.
▲
BACK compiled by
Gary Nilsen and Helen Klein
Each day, thousands of people depend
on SUNY Downstate Medical Center for
emergency medical care and vital
health care services.
But this state-operated public hospital has been in
danger of being closed or privatized for more than two
years. Hundreds of jobs have been lost, and numerous
health care services have been cut or curtailed due to the
hospital’s ill-prepared “Sustainability Plan.”
Now, there is language in the 2014-15 proposed state
budget that would open the door to as many as five corporations
to operate SUNY’s public hospitals.
United University Professions, the union that represents
nearly 3,000 employees at SUNY Downstate, has been
fighting to keep SUNY Downstate a fully operational staterun
facility. However, UUP isn’t fighting the battle alone.
The SUNY Downstate Coalition of Faith, Labor and
Community Leaders has become an important ally. The
coalition has staged a number of rallies and protests over
the past 18 months to save health care services and jobs
at SUNY Downstate and keep it a public facility.
The latest such effort is a 48-hour interfaith fast. It
will begin Sunday, March 9, at 3 p.m., in front of
Downstate’s 470 Clarkson Avenue entrance. Interfaith
leaders and members of the community will participate
to show their strong support for this beacon in Brooklyn
and call attention to the threats it faces.
You can take part in the fast or find out more about it
by calling 718-270-1519, or sending an email to
Brooklyn@uupmail.org.
We strongly urge you to join our campaign. Take part in
the fast, or come out and show your support. Together, we
can deliver a strong message that SUNY Downstate must
remain a full-service, state-operated public hospital.
The threats facing SUNY Downstate are real. The
SUNY Board of Trustees has openly discussed the possibility
of closing SUNY Downstate. There is also language
in the Executive Budget, which would allow corporations
to control SUNY’s public hospitals; one corporation must
affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching
hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s only
teaching hospital.
Privatizing or closing SUNY Downstate as a way for
the state to save dollars is shortsighted and unnecessary.
We believe the answer to Brooklyn’s health care shortcomings
lies in the “Brooklyn Hospitals Safety Net Plan,”
a UUP-backed initiative to stabilize and deliver health
care throughout Brooklyn.
This plan would preserve SUNY Downstate and save
several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn,
including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Long
Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical
Center. You can see the proposal online at
http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org.
It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory
care centers, and would be controlled by and affiliated
with 14 other Brooklyn hospitals. Downstate would
be the network’s hub, educating and supplying physicians
and medical staff to the care centers and working
with doctors at the other hospitals.
It’s a simple, effective plan and, if given a chance, will work.
New York has a responsibility to provide for the health
care needs of its citizens. The Brooklyn Hospitals Safety
Net Plan—our plan and the community’s plan—is viable, workable option for long-term health care in
Brooklyn.
That’s something that Brooklyn residents desperately
need.
Frederick E. Kowal is president of United University
Professions, the union representing 35,000 faculty and professional
staff at SUNY’s 29 state-operated campuses, including
SUNY’s public teaching hospitals and health science centers
in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Long Island and Syracuse.
With the city deciding to move forward on most of the
school co-locations approved late last year, as Mayor
Bloomberg prepared to vacate City Hall, parents in
southwest Brooklyn are not only disappointed but angry.
While the Department of Education under Mayor de
Blasio wisely opted to back out of a planned co-location of
a new high school inside Gravesend’s John Dewey High
School, the DOE decided to move ahead with two others:
the co-location of a charter school inside Seth Low
Intermediate School in Bensonhurst and another inside
Joseph B. Cavallaro Intermediate School in Bath Beach.
These – like others in the borough and the city – are
both fiercely opposed by parents, educators, students
and the local Community Education Councils, all of
whom contend that the co-locations would steal necessary
space from students already attending the schools,
and those who will be going to them in the near future.
While the city has said it only considers under-utilized
schools for co-locations, area education advocates say
that both Cavallaro and Seth Low are well utilized, and
likely to become more crowded as students now in elementary
school in both District 20 and District 21 move
up to middle school.
Indeed, District 20 is one of the most crowded school
districts in the city, so much so that the city built a host
of new schools for it in the past decade, with more being
planned, meaning that public school students in both
District 20 and District 21 are likely to feel the squeeze
should they have to share space with students from a
charter school.
That strikes us as patently unfair. While some of the
charter schools poised to open in September, 2014 may be
worthy additions to the city’s educational offerings, their
needs should not trump the needs of existing schools
with existing students. And, indeed, when a charter
school is put inside a public school, the process must
involve the school communities at both educational institutions,
parents must also be involved.
The city must go back to the drawing board and come
up with alternative arrangements for the charter schools
planned for Seth Low and Cavallaro as well as other
schools where they are opposed.. The students who
attend those schools deserve no less.
guest op-ed
Keep SUNY Downstate open and public
BY FREDERICK E. KOWAL
9733 Fourth Avenue, Bklyn, NY 11209
TEL 1-718-238-6600 Fax 1-718-238-6630
E-Mail: editorial@homereporter.com
Co-Publisher ... Victoria Schneps-Yunis
Co-Publisher ... Joshua A. Schneps
Editor in Chief ... Helen Klein
THE BROOKLYN SPECTATOR is published weekly by Brooklyn Media Group,
Inc., continuing THE BROOKLYN TIMES (established 1974) including Bay Record
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Entire contents copyright 2014 by Brooklyn Spectator.
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Photo by Gardiner Anderson
And the award goes to… Bay Ridge, which
has provided the backdrop for many movies
and television shows over the years, from
“Blue Bloods” and “Saturday Night Fever” to
“Mad Men” and, in 2006, to “Then She
Found Me,” starring Helen Hunt and Bette
Midler, seen above in a September, 2006,
Home Reporter photo taken on location on
Shore Road at 77th Street. Midler performed
at the most recent Oscars, singing “Wind
Beneath My Wings” during the awards
show’s In Memoriam segment. “Then She
Found Me,” which also starred Matthew
Broderick, was also shot inside a historic
home on 88th Street.
Entire contents copyright 2016 by Brooklyn Spectator
While today the
Brooklyn Army
Terminal is a
bustling hive of
activity, for many
years, it was
anything but.
After having been
the country’s
most extensive
military supply
base through
World War II, the
complex -- at First
Avenue and 58th
Street -- gradually
sank into
somnolence, as
seen in this photo
from the files of
this newspaper,
closing down as a
military outpost in
the 1970s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983,
having been purchased by the city two years earlier. Renovations began on
the 1919 structure in 1984, paving the way for its current renaissance.
Compiled by Helen Klein
MONEY MATTERS
Not with my tax money.
Though UFT sought and sanctioned, the
New York City "Central Education Department
Office of Administrative Duties" has outlived a
proper, fiscally responsible place (under many
circumstances).
A "Perv Teach" creep like the one just reported
to have again emotionally and sexually abused a
student in Queens should be fired, period. The
time it takes to investigate and make judgment
is far too long.
Additionally, there are many other examples of
fiscally irresponsible practices various city/state
unions sanction, approved by former and current
elected officials, that abuse our tax dollars at the
cost of the quality of life of the hard-working,
tax-paying electorate.
Barry Brothers
PASSING THE BUCK
Funding to solve the ongoing NYC Transit
subway crises is a four way dance between riders
who pay at the fare box along with funding from
City Hall, Albany and Washington.
Federal support for transportation has
remained consistent and growing over past decades.
When a crisis occurred, be it 9-11 in 2001 or
Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Washington was there
for us.
Additional billions in assistance above and beyond
yearly formula allocations from the Federal
Transit Administration were provided. In 2009,
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
provided billions more.
Most federal transportation grants require a
20 percent hard-cash local share. In most cases,
the Federal Transit Administration accepted toll
credits instead of hard cash for the local share.
This saved the MTA over $1 billion in the previous
2010-2014 Five Year Capital Program.
The same will be true with the 2015-2019 fiveyear
capital program. Washington provided over
$1.3 billion in 2017 Federal Transit Administration
formula funding for the MTA which helps pays
for its capital program. The same if not more
federal funding will be coming in 2018.
Mayor Bill de Blasio should come up with the
balance of $2.5 billion the city still owes toward
fully funding the $32 billion MTA 2015-2019 Five
Year Capital Program and provide several billion
more.
City Hall should match Albany dollar for dollar
in any increased assistance. Governor Andrew
Cuomo should deliver the outstanding $5.8 billion
balance toward his original $8.3 billion pledge
plus his most recent new commitment of an additional
$1 billion.
MTA can't afford to wait for both de Blasio and
Cuomo to make good on their respective promised
financial commitments. Neither can transit riders
and taxpayers who are looking for accountability,
efficient and timely completion for both capital
projects and routine maintenance to assure more
reliable and safe on time service.
Larry Penner
Larry Penner is a transportation historian and
advocate who worked 31 years for the US Department
of Transportation Federal Transit Administration
Region 2 NY Office.