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Brooklyn is Bernin’!
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders returned to his native borough on March 2 to host the fi rst
rally of his recently announced 2020 presidential campaign at Brooklyn College, which drew thousands
of supporters still feeling the Bern after the pol’s unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party line in the
2016 election. For more, see page 2. Photo by Caroline Ourso
DIFFICULT
DIAGNOSIS
Rehab center coming to Coney
regardless of community board’s
staunch opposition, director says
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
Coney Island civic leaders
overwhelmingly voted against
opening a new outpatient rehab
center in the neighborhood,
but leaders of the fi rm
behind the facility will forge
ahead with their plans regardless,
claiming not doing so
would be a disservice to the
area.
“I think that if we don’t
open, we will fail Coney Island,”
said Ertuania Jorge,
the program director for LSA
Recovery.
Community Board 13’s full
board on Feb. 27 voted 25–1
against issuing a formal letter
of support for the in-the-works
LSA Recovery Center, which
is set to occupy two fl oors of
a new Stillwell Avenue building
between Mermaid and
Neptune avenues, the board’s
District Manager Eddie Mark
said.
But the vote — which came
weeks after members of CB13’s
Health Committee also voted
not to pen a supportive letter
— is purely advisory, and offi
cials with the state’s offi ce of
Alcohol and Substance Abuse,
and the city’s Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene,
already approved permits for
rehab-center bigwigs to open
the spot, according to Jorge,
who requested the letter in an
attempt to generate community
backing for the scheme.
COMING SOON: LSA Recovery bigwigs
will proceed with opening a
new outpatient rehab center inside
this Stillwell Avenue building, despite
the local community board’s
recent vote not to issue the facility
a letter of support.
File photo by Steve Solomonson
CB13 Health Committee
members previously demanded
city and state offi cials
rescind their approvals for the
center when they voted not to
support it in writing, arguing
Coney’s two existing outpatient
facilities — Coney Island
Hospital’s Ida G. Israel Community
Health Center, and the
Merryland Health Center on
Mermaid Avenue at W. 17th
Street — already adequately
Continued on page 12
Pol, locals push for safer
streets in Southern Bklyn
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
He’s taking a walk on the
safer side.
A Southern Brooklyn pol
is turning to his constituents
in a bid to create safer
streets within his district.
Democratic state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes tapped more
than a dozen local leaders to
staff his offi ce’s new pedestrian
safety task force, hoping
their experiences navigating
the car-heavy and subwaystrapped
22nd state Senate
district will result in practical
proposals to improve conditions
on thoroughfares in
neighborhoods he represents,
including Bay Ridge, Dyker
Heights, Gravesend, Bensonhurst,
Bath Beach, Marine
Park, Manhattan Beach,
Gerritsen Beach, and parts
of Sheepshead Bay, Borough
Park, and Midwood.
“We have a lot of car volume,
and we have to change
this speeding culture that we
have,” Gounardes said. “We
want to brainstorm ways of
increasing awareness of the
importance of street safety.”
Gounardes on Feb. 28
held the group’s fi rst meeting
at Dyker Heights’ Norwegian
Christian Home, where
the force’s 15–20 members
Continued on page 12
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