DISRUPTER: Assemblywoman Nicole
Malliotakis introduced legislation
to stop the DeBlasio administraion
from moving forward with
creating so-called safe-injection
sites in Brooklyn and other boroughs.
File photo by Tom Callan
— including one inside an existing
needle-exchange facility
on the Boerum Hill–Gowanus
border — in response to the
1,441 overdose deaths within
the fi ve boroughs in 2017, New
York City’s “deadliest year on
record,” according to a Health
Department study .
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez
— who already largely decriminalized
pot possession in
Brooklyn , and instituted policies
that offer convicted drug
BY COLIN MIXSON
Mayor DeBlasio’s plan to open a
local facility where drug users
can inject heroin under the supervision
of trained-overdose
technicians could collapse, if
state legislators approve a new
bill introduced by a Bay Ridge
state pol.
Republican Assemblywoman
Nicole Malliotakis —
whose Staten Island district
stretches to include parts of the
Ridge — on Feb. 11 introduced
the legislation in her chamber,
which if passed would create a
state-level check on the scheme
Hizzoner says will help Kings
County addicts .
A state law explicitly prohibiting
so-called safe-injection
centers would go beyond
existing federal statues used to
challenge such facilities, ensuring
there is no gray area when
it comes to debating their legality,
Malliotakis said.
“We have seen that Mayor
DeBlasio has a disregard for
our federal laws, so it’s necessary
to spell it out in state law
that his proposed injection
sites are illegal,” she said.
Last year, DeBlasio announced
a plan to open four of
the centers throughout the city
users alternatives to incarceration
— immediately pledged
his support for the proposed
facility, vowing to abstain from
prosecuting addicts who inject
at the site.
Proponents of safe-injection
sites in other United Sates cities,
however, have faced legal
challenges to their plans from
the Feds. This month, Department
of Justice offi cials sued a
do-good group over its scheme
to open a facility in Philadelphia,
claiming the center would
violate the Controlled Substances
act of 1970, which prohibits
the operation of any establishment
“for the purpose of
unlawfully using a controlled
substance,” according to a federal
complaint document.
Malliotakis, who unsuccessfully
ran against DeBlasio
in the 2017 mayoral election,
turned to the Feds in her own
effort to sabotage his safe-injection
site scheme, last year writing
to then Attorney General
Jeff Sessions to complain about
what she called Hizonner’s
“heroin-shooting galleries.”
Session’s staff subsequently
assured the assemblywoman
that federal agents stand ready
to crack down on any sanctioned
A dairy
good time!
Kunal Laheja, left, Dan Desai,
right, and 1-year-old Connor,
center, sampled different macand
cheese recipes prepared
by amateur chefs from across
Kings County during the 15th-annual
Mac ‘n’ Cheeze Takedown in
Bushwick on Feb. 17, where cooks
used their noodles to whip up
twists on the classic dish that included
varities with goat cheese,
chorizo, and even chocolate.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
the legislator, who said she
worked with Republican state
Sen. Fred Akshar, who represents
and introduce her bill as an
added measure to squash the
city’s scheme.
Instead of wasting time and
money on sites that promote
continued drug use, DeBlasio
should invest resources into
opening more treatment centers
their narcotics of choice, Malliotakis
“The DeBlasio administration
continues to enable dependency,
addiction with smaller treatment
Malliotakis’s bill is far from
a sure thing, however, now that
Democrats hold a majority in
the Legislature, and because
Gov. Cuomo already signaled
support for DeBlasio’s scheme,
directing state health offi cials
to fi nd solutions to the intricate
legal challenges that opening
such facilities poses, according
governor.
INSIDE
Span of time
Art exhibit revives a decades-old sculpture
By Kevin Duggan It’s the original bridge to nowhere!
A new interactive art installation
now stretching across Empire Fulton
Ferry Park is a revival of an almost halfcentury
old piece of public art. The
91-foot-long “Bridge Over Tree,” by
Iranian-American artist Siah Armajani,
does not span a ravine — instead, it sits
on the ground for most of its length, then
rises sharply over an evergreen tree at its
center. The sculpture’s lack of functionality
invites viewers to appreciate it in a new
way, according to its curator.
“It’s taking that idea of the bridge and
stripping away its functional necessity and
creating this poetic moment, a line that connects
two points, two people perhaps, that
invites you to think about what it means to
bridge and to cross,” said Nicholas Baume,
director of the Public Art Fund.
The bridge was first displayed in a
Minneapolis public park in 1970, when
the idea of interactive art was radically
new. The piece literally bridged the gap
between the general public and works of
art, according to Baume.
“Today we’re all about immersive experiences
and interactivity, but in 1970, artists
were not thinking about sculpture in
that way. A sculpture was an object on a
pedestal,” he said.
Armajani fled his native Iran in 1960
due to his pro-democracy stance, and the
political connotations of his piece — a
reminder to connect with others — are even
more relevant today, said Baume.
“In an era obsessed with walls and
fences, the bridge-building public work
of this Iranian exile is perhaps even more
urgent now than when first conceived in
1970,” he said.
With its trussed sides and shingled roof,
the structure stands in stark contrast to
the twin behemoths of the Brooklyn and
Manhattan bridges, which straddle either
side of the park.
On a recent Tuesday morning, children
climbed up and down the steep steps in the
middle, pausing to take in the vista of the
Manhattan skyline. In the half-century since
“Bridge Over Tree” debuted, the public has
grown closer to public art, and art become
more accessible to the public, Baume
Bridge under bridge: Siah Armajani’s
public artwork “Bridge over Tree”
opened in Dumbo’s Empire Fulton Ferry
Park almost 50 years after its original
installation in a Minneapolis public
park. Timothy Schenck
observed, especially in the Big Apple.
“I think it’s fascinating to see how the
public now responds so warmly, actually
does recognize that this is a work of art,
that this is something to be appreciated
and engaged with,” he said. “And I think
there’s a wonderful respect now and appreciation
in New York City by the general
public of what it means to have art as a
part of our daily lives, not just something
that you go to a museum once in a while to
experience, but something that’s free and
open and available.”
“Bridge over Tree” at Empire Fulton
Ferry Park 1 Water St. at Dock Street in
Dumbo. (718) 222–9939, www.brooklynbridgepark.
org. Open daily through Sept.
29. Free.
Your entertainment
guide Page 57
Police Blotter ..........................8
Camp Guide ..........................33
Letters ....................................44
Op-Ed ......................................46
Brownstoner ........................48
NY Works ............................... 49
Standing O ............................52
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER L 2 IFE, FEB. 22–28, 2019 M BR B G
drug use, according to
counties upstate, to craft
that provide bespoke programming
to get addicts off
instead of fi ghting to end
centers that give individualized
attention to people’s addiction,”
she said.
to a spokeswoman for the
said.
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She’s sticking it to him
Ridge state pol pushing bill to ban mayor’s safe-injection sites
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