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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, DEC. 30, 2018
stations in Dyker Heights
were rescued and sent to
an upstate rescue farm —
thanks to the help of comedian
Jon Stewart, who took
custody of the animals following
their rescue.
September
Paper’s new faces:
Schneps Communications,
a local family-run business
owned by Victoria and
Joshua Schneps, acquired
Community News Group
and NYC Community Media.
Arsonist charged: Federal
prosecutors charged a
Flatlands man with damaging
more than 135 vehicles
owned by various local
car dealerships when he
allegedly intentionally set
a fi re that ripped through
the Kings Plaza Shopping
Center’s parking garage
on Sept. 17. The fi re raged
for more than three hours
in the garage — where the
dealerships stored their
rides on some fl oors — injuring
some 26 people, including
20 fi refi ghters, before
New York’s Bravest
put it out.
Promen-nada! Transit
leaders announced the
Brooklyn Heights Promenade
might become a speedway
for Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway traffi c in order
for the city to complete
its looming repair to the
roadway’s crumbling triple
cantilever. The plan to
turn the Promenade into a
six-lane speedway through
Brooklyn Heights for no
less than six years was one
of two offi cials announced
they are considering on
Sept. 20, with the other being
to refurbish the triple
cantilever on a lane-by-lane
basis and close the Promenade
for a shorter period
of time.
October
His two cents: Mayor
DeBlasio on Oct. 12 told
WNYC radio host Brian
Lehrer that he preferred
the plan to turn the Brooklyn
Heights Promenade
into a speedway for cars
and trucks during repairs
to the Brooklyn-Queens
Expressway’s triple cantilever,
worrying locals that
the city already decided
how to proceed with the
job even as other offi cials
claimed more options were
still on the table. DeBlasio,
who called his preferred
option the “Band-Aid approach,”
claimed it is the
most time-effi cient solution
in explaining his endorsement
on Lehrer’s program.
Feeling the heat: The
city’s Department of Buildings
on Oct. 11 issued violations
to the owners of Kings
Plaza Shopping Center for
illegally using its parking
garage to store cars for local
dealerships, a practice
brought to light when the
September fi re inside the
mall’s garage damaged
more than a hundred cars.
The parking garage only allows
for shoppers and mall
employees’ parking, and
not for vehicle storage, according
to the garage’s certifi
cate of occupancy.
Here comes L: Metropolitan
Transportation
Authority offi cials on Oct.
30 announced they will
stop Brooklyn–Manhattan
L-train service on April
27, 2019, to begin their
15-month repairs of the
subway’s East River–spanning
tube — roughly six
and a half years after the
infrastructure sustained
signifi cant damage during
superstorm Sandy.
November
Blue wave: The already
largely Democratic Brooklyn
turned even bluer on
Election Day, with voters
electing a handful of Dems
to seats long held by Republican
pols. Democratic
state Senate hopeful Andrew
Gounardes defeated
longtime GOP state Sen.
Marty Golden in a shocking
upset. Congressional
blue-party candidate Max
Rose also won in his race
against Rep. Dan Donovan
— who represents a
swath of Southern Brooklyn
and all of Staten Island
— knocking the city’s
lone House Republican out
of offi ce. Voters also chose
to send Fort Greene Councilwoman
Letitia “Tish”
James to Albany as New
York State’s fi rst black attorney
general.
Room to grow: Offi -
cials on Nov. 26 revealed
designs for a community
farm they want to plant
on a two-acre, overgrown
plot next door to a Bergen
Beach school. Plans for the
growing patch on Avenue
N between E. 71st and 72nd
streets call for creating a
greenhouse, several raised
beds for planting crops, a
kitchen and classroom, a
storage shed, restrooms,
an orchard, and a central
patch of artifi cial turf
where kids can roam. Work
on the farm is expected to
start next year, according
to planners.
Squeaky clean! Federal
offi cials on Nov. 27
announced a section of
the fetid Gowanus Canal
is now cleaner than it has
been in more than a century,
after workers in November
fi nally wrapped
a pilot dredging-and-capping
program as part of
the channel’s federally led
cleanup. The program in
the Fourth Street Turning
Basin kicked off in October
of 2017, and fi nished more
than six months after its
initial April 2018 deadline.
December
Closed for winter: The
Coney Island outpost of
Wahlburgers — the burger
chain owned by famous siblings
Mark, Donnie, and
Paul Wahlberg — temporarily
closed its doors this
winter for the second year
in a row on Dec. 2. The restaurant
will re-open sometime
in the spring under
the same management, according
to an executive at
the Massachusetts-based
parent company of the
burger joint.
Front-yard work:
Brooklyn Bridge Park leaders
on Dec. 5 announced
a slew of changes in store
for Brooklyn’s front yard,
including that they will
completely replace the beleaguered
Squibb Bridge
after closing it indefi nitely
for the second time in July;
that they will boot the
Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory
from its long-time location
inside the fi reboat
station at Fulton Ferry
Landing to make way for
a new outpost of Ample
Hills ; and that they will be
replacing a Pier 2 handball
court with a new squash
court . Park leaders hope to
have the new squash court
and Ample Hills location
up and running by next
summer, with the bridge
replacement open sometime
in 2020.
REVIEW
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