6 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 March 22–28, 2019
Not camera shy
Gov will sign bill for more speed cameras
Viral violation
More yeshivas defy orders,
allow unvaccinated pupils
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By Julianne McShane
Brooklyn Paper
As many as 750 speed cameras
will soon monitor drivers
in city school zones, according
to Gov. Cuomo, who on
March 19 said he will sign a
bill authorizing a massive expansion
of the cameras, and
the hours they operate, after
the state Senate and Assembly
each passed versions of
the legislation.
“I support the speed cameras.
I’ll sign it,” Cuomo said
at a press conference following
each chamber’s vote.
The lower chamber passed
Manhattan Assemblywoman
Deborah Glick’s version of the
bill before sending it off to the
state Senate, whose members
passed corresponding legislation
introduced by state Sen.
Andrew Gounardes (D–Bay
Ridge) by a vote of 43–18 .
The Legislature’s approval
of the bills came days after
Council on March 13 formally
requested that state pols vote
in favor of the legislation that
only affects the city, passing a
so-called Home Rule Request
by a vote of 44–3.
The bill now awaiting Cuomo’s
signature authorizes the
addition of up to 610 cameras
in fear of crossing the street
because of speeding traffic,”
he said. “This program slows
traffic and saves lives.”
Data shows that the already
in place speed cameras
work. In the two years after
officials first installed them
in 2014, there were 60-percent
fewer daily violations in
school zones with speed cameras,
according to a 2018 report
published by the Department
of Transportation. And
the majority of Gounardes’
constituents support adding
more cameras, according to
a 2018 poll commissioned by
street-safety group Transportation
Alternatives.
The state’s move to increase
the cameras and their operating
hours comes roughly eight
months after all of them temporarily
shut off last July, after
state Sen. Simcha Felder
(D–Midwood) blocked legislation
preserving and expanding
the program from
leaving the Cities Committee,
which he chaired at the
time, for a floor vote in the
upper chamber before it dispersed
in June.
Council then stepped in to
broker a deal between Mayor
DeBlasio and Gov. Cuomo,
who signed an executive order
to turn the tech back on before
school started in September,
and this year included a proposal
in his executive budget
that would reinstate the program
without the need for an
executive order.
Gov. Cuomo will sign a
bill that will more than
quintuple the amount of
the city’s school zonespeed
cameras.
Darren McGee
— which automatically photograph
the license plates of
cars driving 30 miles-per hour
or more in school zones, and
send those vehicles’ registered
owners $50 tickets — across
the city’s 2,300 school zones.
The legislation also:
• Lengthens the hours
the cameras are on, extending
their current operating
times from an hour before
and after school is in session
to between 6 am and 10 pm
on weekdays.
• Broadens the areas where
the cameras operate, allowing
officials to install them
within a quarter-mile radius of
schools, not just within a quarter
mile stretch of the same
street a given school is on as
current law allows.
• Requires the city to hang
signs in school zones with
speed cameras that warn
drivers of the technology’s
presence.
• Mandates local officials
prioritize placing the cameras
in school zones with
higher rates of speeding and
crashes.
• Requires the city to submit
annual reports to the governor
and leadership of both
chambers of the Legislature
with data including the total
amount of ticket revenue
that local officials spent on
traffic and pedestrian safety
measures, as well as “the effectiveness
and adequacy of
the expanded hours of operation.”
Gounardes cheered the
passage of the bill, which he
said would help make streets
safer.
“No parent, senior, or pedestrian
of any age should live
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
Department of Health officials
on March 14 announced
that leaders of five Williamsburg
yeshivas violated an
emergency order prohibiting
non-vaccinated students
from attending school amid a
growing outbreak of the measles,
which already infected at
least 21 youngsters at a sixth
yeshiva after educators let a
sick kid in class.
The city’s chief physician
reiterated the importance of
inoculating children against
the potentially fatal illness,
warning that the disease will
continue to claim new victims
while Kings County youngsters
remain unvaccinated.
“As the city’s doctor, and a
pediatrician, I am very concerned
that children without
the measles vaccination are
at unnecessary risk for serious,
and potentially fatal
symptoms related to measles,”
said Health Commissioner
Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “The
outbreak is not over, and we
will continue to see additional
cases as long as unvaccinated
students are not
properly excluded from attending
school.”
The five new offending yeshivas
include:
• Bnos Square of Williamsburg
at 382 Willoughby Ave.
between Bedford Avenue and
Spencer Street.
• Bnos Chayil at 712
Wythe Ave. between Keap
and Hooper streets.
• Bnos Chayil at 345 Hewes
St. between S. Fifth Street and
Broadway.
• Tuferes Bnos at 585 Marcy
Ave. between Myrtle and Vernon
avenues.
• Sieche Kinder at 808 Myrtle
Ave. between Marcy and
Nostrand avenues.
City health inspectors also
found kids infected with measles
in classrooms at three of
the five. Health Department
officials slapped all of the
schools with a commissioner’s
order, which could lead to
fines if the yeshivas’ staff do
not follow the so-called “exclusion
order” issued in December
to stem the spread of
the disease.
It is too early to tell whether
the schools’ indiscretions led to
any additional measles cases,
according to Health Department
spokesman Michael
Lanza, who said the audits that
uncovered the violations occurred
earlier this month.
The announcement came
weeks after health officials revealed
that educators at Williamsburg’s
Yeshiva Kehilath
Yakov allowed a mini outbreak
by permitting an unvaccinated,
pre-symptomatic
student infected with the virus
to attend class there.
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