BSR_p010

HOME REPORTER

10 JANUARY 6 - JANUARY 12, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP EDITORIAL PUT THE BRAKES ON It’s starting all over again. Barely had 2017 begun when a middle-aged man died in a collision in Gravesend, just hours after the ball dropped in Times Square. Two days later, a 29-year-old schoolteacher was struck by two vehicles and killed in the morning as she walked at Kings Highway and Nostrand Avenue at the edge of Marine Park. The new year has just begun and already two people have died in traffic accidents in Brooklyn. That’s two too many. In the first incident, cops suspect alcohol played a part. In both, lives were taken unnecessarily. Drivers have a huge responsibility to steer their vehicles safely because of the stakes involved. Knowing that some may abrogate that responsibility – either through recklessness or carelessness – government also has a responsibility to make streets as safe as possible. That responsibility was squarely acknowledged by Mayor de Blasio shortly after taking office in 2014. Indeed, the city’s Vision Zero website contains these words – “The City of New York must no longer regard traffic crashes as mere "accidents," but rather as preventable incidents that can be systematically addressed. No level of fatality on city streets is inevitable or acceptable.” With this in mind, over the past couple of years, dangerous thoroughfares and intersections have been redesigned, the speed limit has been lowered to 25 MPH and targeted enforcement and safety education have been increased. Nonetheless, more needs to be done. Enforcement needs to be stepped up further, particularly on nights such as New Year’s Eve when the temptation to drink and drive is increased. In addition, new legislation must look for ways to discourage reckless driving. The City Council is poised to consider a bill that would “provide for a reward for individuals who provide information leading to the apprehension, A LOOK BACK The Coney Island that welcomed huge crowds as 2016 faded into 2017 – with pyrotechnics, a light show at the Parachute Jump as well as free rides on popular seaside attractions – is very different, yet in some ways similar to the beachfront amusement area of yore. This vintage photo of one of Coney’s old rides – vastly different from today’s thrill rides that make up one aspect of the neighborhood’s attractiveness to visitors – harks back to the resort’s genteel origins. Note the hatted and suited men gathered in the photo’s foreground as just one example of how times and Coney have changed. Compiled by Helen Klein GUEST OP-ED 14 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP • MARCH 6 - MARCH 12,editorial A LOOK BACK compiled by GO BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD arrest, or conviction of an individual involved in a hit-and-run resulting in a serious physical injury,” potentially a key deterrent as so many hit-and-run drivers are never identified. While neither of the fatal accidents that occurred so far in 2017 involved hit-and-run drivers, we urge our elected officials to seriously consider the legislation, as well as to continue the search for solutions – including the innovative use of ever-advancing technology – to the deadly problem that continues to plague our streets. HOMEREPORTER AND SUNSET NEWS Change (Estab. 1953) to 2015 ▲ ▲ 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 [email protected] 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. 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. BY ASSEMBLYMEMBER FELIX ORTIZ 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 [email protected]. 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 affiliate with an academic medical institution or teaching hospital. SUNY Downstate has Brooklyn’s 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 several financially unstable hospitals in Brooklyn, including Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale, Island College Hospital and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. You can see the proposal online http://www.brooklynhospitalplan.org. It calls for the creation of a network of satellite ambulatory care centers, and would be controlled by and 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—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 Entire contents copyright 2016 by Home Reporter and Sunset News PREVENTING DISTRACTED DRIVING ACCIDENTS The new legislative session in Albany presents the opportunity to introduce important and innovative legislation. Since my earliest years in the legislature, I’ve championed efforts to promote better eating habits, fight child obesity, insure worker safety and develop better driving habits. One of my first priorities this month will be to reintroduce legislation to protect auto drivers and passengers from injury or possible death resulting from "distracted driving” and to enable police officers to examine phones at an accident site. This is a bill I sponsored with State Senator Terrence Murphy last year with the support of Distracted Operators Risk Casualties (DORCs), a group created by the families of people killed in auto accidents where use of cell phones may have been evident. My bill, “Evan’s Law," honors DORCs’ founder Ben Lieberman’s 19-year-old son Evan, who was killed in 2011 in a collision caused by a distracted driver. Lacking consistent protocols, police at the scene were not able to determine whether cell phone use might have cause the accident. For weeks after the accident, the phone was in a junkyard. Upon subpoenaing phone records in a civil lawsuit, Mr. Lieberman discovered that the driver was driving and texting, causing Evan’s death. Concerned about the lack of awareness indicating that people are causing the collisions, a key part of the legislation addresses new “Textalyzer” technology, similar to the breathalyzer that detects use of alcohol. The “Textalyzer” can detect whether devices were used during the time of a crash. Any conversations, contacts or content will remain as private. Drivers are unfortunately being reckless, texting or browsing on the phone while behind the wheel. We have to be especially careful driving during the holiday season when drivers attend parties and other events where alcohol may be served. Future accidents caused by this kind of careless action can be avoided. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. In addition, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that 67 percent of drivers still use their mobile phones while behind the wheel, despite these statistics. Positive change occurs when drivers are held accountable for drunk driving. It’s time to recognize that “distracted driving” is a similar impairment to be dealt with in the same way. Distracted driving is the direct cause of thousands of deaths each year. Better awareness of the risks of reckless driving can assist law enforcement officials to implement the rules of the road adequately. I’ll be working with my Assembly and Senate colleagues to enact this bill and others to make and keep our roads safe for drivers, passengers and pedestrians. Best wishes for a happy and successful new year. Assemblymember Felix Ortiz represents the 51st A.D. in Sunset Park and Red Hook.


HOME REPORTER
To see the actual publication please follow the link above