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Occupiers Booted From East New York Foreclosure
Back in January, there was news about how the Occupy Wall Street-related takeover of a vacant house in foreclosure in East New York was just a publicity gimmick, and that the homeowner, Wise Ahadzi, who abandoned the house a couple years ago after foreclosure proceedings began, wanted his property back. The OWS group living in the house said they didn’t know that Ahadzi wanted his property back, and said that they were working with him. The latest news, then, is that the Post says the police came to the house and arrested the Occupy-related folks living in it: “Police arrested six Occupy Wall Street members squatting inside a Brooklyn home five months after the movement seized the property amid grand promises to ‘renovate’ it and move in ‘a homeless family.’ Instead, the group moved itself in, wrecked the place, and made a hard situation even worse for a single father who actually owned the East New York home and was trying to save it from foreclosure. Cops cuffed the occupiers after they allegedly smashed a window to get into 702 Vermont St. on April 1.” Ahadzi said he is extremely pleases that the occupiers have been removed from the premises. According to the article, the “bill to fix the damage is at least $12,000, a source said.”
Occupy Squatters Finally Flushed From B’klyn Home [NY Post]
Organizers Defend Occupation of ENY Foreclosure [Brownstoner]
Photo by Brennan Cavanaugh
04/30/2012 10:00 AM
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Closing Bell: Cobble Summer Camp Banner Stolen Again!
As of Monday morning, a banner that small business owner Michelle Thaler had put up on Court and Bergen advertising her summer camp Food Art for Kids had been stolen—marking the second time it had been thieved in a month. Michelle had this to say to us in an email: “So I waited a month, and on Saturday I hung a new banner, much smaller than the previous one at the same spot (corner of Court and Bergen). To my surprise, within less than 2 days, that banner went missing as well! Now, being a lawyer, I know that this form of advertisement does not require a permit or a license, as long as I get the permission of the owners of the lot (which, of course, I did). The banner, as you can see in the pic, is not an eye sore, and did not ‘uglyfy’ the street scenery in any way! There are many banners similar to mine in the neighborhood… religious institutions put them up on their fences all the time and so are other businesses … it just makes me wonder why mine is causing so much opposition!” Michelle is flummoxed by the the thefts and doesn’t suspect that it was teenagers since they usually get bored after pulling a stunt once and don’t do it again. Again, in her words: “I thought about going to the police but that actual damage is just the banner’s value ($200). I can’t even begin to describe the damage to the business side being that summer is close and I want as many families to know about my camp. I was a lawyer in my previous career, and I know that my banner was legal.” We’re filing this under news of the weird. Why would anyone steal a banner like this twice?
Summer Camp Banner Stolen on Court Street Last Night [Brownstoner]
04/25/2012 4:00 PM
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Upping Security in Flatbush, Fixing Bathrooms in the Slope
Last week we had a rundown on the projects in Councilmember Brad Lander’s district that received the most votes for funding via participatory budgeting, which will receive $1 million earmarked for them in the 2013 budget. This weekend the Times had a story on the subject that included news about the other Brooklyn district that was included in the participatory budgeting experiment, that of Councilmember Jumaane Williams, whose district runs from East Flatbush to Midwood. In contrast to Lander’s district (which includes the Slope and Carroll Gardens, among other neighborhoods), which had many proposals involving educational facilities, Williams’s district was most concerned with increasing levels of security in various ways. To wit: “Security was the primary concern for Mr. Williams’s district. …The proposal that drew the most votes was a $400,000 plan for security cameras at seven locations. Residents also voted to spend $450,000 on two proposals that would add lights to each of the district’s parks and the field behind the Tilden Educational Campus, where, among the shadows, classmates of Marcus Monfiston, 16, a student there, have been attacked.” In Lander’s district, the proposal that garnered the most votes was fixing the bathrooms at P.S. 124 in Park Slope.
The Voters Speak: Yes to Bathrooms [NY Times]
Winners of Park Slope Funding Contest Announced [Brownstoner]
Screengrab via video on Tilden lighting proposal from JumaaneWilliams
04/09/2012 9:00 AM
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Summer Camp Banner Stolen on Court Street Last Night
Last night on Court Street someone decided to steal a banner advertising a cooking summer camp for kids. Here’s a message we received from the woman who runs the camp and has had the banner up for several months now: “I am Michelle Thaler, owner of Food Art for Kids, a cooking summer camp in Brooklyn Heights. For the past few months, I have been renting some fence space from Trezza Management, owners of the parking lot on Court St @ Bergen St. I use that space to hang my banner, as shown in the attached picture. It is a great corner with many pedestrians and cars passing by every day. It is my second year in business and I had a similar banner at the same spot last year, with no interruptions. As of this morning, the banner went missing! Per my investigation it was removed sometime after 8 pm last night… I know that because the owner of the parking garage was walking her dog at 8:15 pm last night and the banner was still there. Unfortunately there are no surveillance cameras installed at the surrounding businesses. At first, I suspected one of the production companies who are shooting on the street tomorrow but when I called them, they assured me that it was not them. I have no idea who can it be! but would like to get to the source of it, being that this is my time to advertise and those banner cost a lot of money to produce.” What an odd theft! If you have any info on the perp, get in touch with Michelle via her website.
03/20/2012 2:50 PM
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Boerum Hillers Not Psyched About House of D Reopening
When it reopens next week, the Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic will have one thing to boast over other jails: Proximity to $3 million townhouses. “It seems strange to have a jail in downtown Brooklyn,” a pizza chef on nearby Livingston Street told Crain’s. “I never would have agreed to buy this house for all this money had I known it was opening,” one woman who paid $3.4 million last summer for a house on State Street told The Times. “We took a gamble and lost on this neighborhood.” While some of the higher end restaurants don’t think the visitors to the 759-bed jail are going to do much for their businesses, the manager of the New St. Claire diner across the street is bullish. And while safety surely is a concern for some, like most contentious issues in New York City, this one also comes back to parking. The warden, though, has promised to limit the improper parking of official vehicles.
As Neighborhood Thrives, No Warm Welcome for a Reopened Jail [NY Times]
Sadly for Some, Brooklyn Gets Its Jail Back [Crain's]
02/06/2012 9:00 AM
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Robberies Rose in the Slope and Carroll Gardens Last Year
The NYPD reports that there was an increase last year in robberies in the 76th Precinct, which covers Carroll Gardens and Red Hook, and the 78th Precinct, which covers Park Slope, according to a story in the Post. There were 124 robberies in the 76th Precinct last year, compared to 100 in 2010, and a 32 percent increase in the 78th Precinct. The thieves are targeting “tipsy revelers, distracted shoppers and anyone with earbuds oblivious of his surroundings, police sources say.”
Thieves Getting Hip to Trendy Brooklyn Nabes [NY Post]
01/09/2012 11:00 AM
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A Look at Brownsville’s Entrenched Poverty
The Daily News has an article about Brownsville that uses the recent gang shooting of a mother outside a public school as a jumping-off point for examining the neighborhood’s poverty (half of its residents receive welfare, SSI, or Medicaid and thousands live in the projects) and violence (murders are up 50 percent from 2009). State Sen. Eric Adams says cuts in state funding are partially to blame for the violence, which means community centers have less to work with. Meanwhile, some nonprofits active in the area are trying to bring about change. The Brownsville Partnership is working to change dietary habits in the neighborhood, where two-thirds of adult residents are obese, but is encountering difficulties: “About 60 bodegas were asked to sell fresh produce, picked from upstate farms: Only three agreed.” Another, the Brownsville Community Justice Center, is modeled after the Red Hook Community Justice Center, and is looking to open a community center offering services such as mentoring to the neighborhood’s low-level criminals. McBrooklyn reports that a group of people marched over the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday carrying coffins to draw attention to the neighborhood’s poverty and concomitant culture of violence.
Tough Times Continue in Brownsville [NY Daily News]
‘Occupy Brownsville’ Marches Over Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall [McBrooklyn]
Photo by Atomische/Tom Giebel
11/07/2011 10:00 AM
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[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/#!/Brownstoner/status/127392497931522048"]
10/21/2011 10:37 AM
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Number of Sex Attacks Up to 20
The big, depressing news this weekend was that the number of possibly linked sexual assaults in Brooklyn since March has jumped to 20. The NYPD has added seven more cases to the official tally, six of which occurred at the 7th Avenue subway station in Park Slope. The most recent incident took place Thursday night, when a woman was attacked on 17th Street. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said that it’s likely there have been copycat crimes. While the cops arrested a man in conjunction with an attack in Sunset Park last week, they believe several men are responsible for the assaults.
Grope List Grows [NY Post]
Fear Grips Brooklyn as Number of Sex-Crimes Spikes [NY Daily News]
Copycat Crimes Possible In Brooklyn Sexual Assault Pattern [NY1]
Image via NY1
10/17/2011 9:00 AM
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Copper Thieves Hit Up Toll’s Dumbo Build
The Brooklyn Paper reports that thieves locked up a security guard at Toll Brothers’ 205 Water Street construction site a few days ago and tried to make off with a great deal of copper. According to the report, the robbers attempted to steal a 2,000-pound spool that would have been worth around $15,000 but ended up making off with a couple smaller rolls instead. The story notes that copper is a prime target for thieves that prey on construction sites because it’s “rarely secured” and has been rising in value. The article also makes the claim that copper theft has “become one of the most-common crimes in the borough.”
Copper Thieves Run Roughshod Over DUMBO Work Site [BK Paper]
10/05/2011 11:00 AM
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D.A.: More Gang Activity in Parks
The Daily News follows up on its stories about how groups of teens are causing trouble in Crown Heights’ Brower Park and the Park Slope Playground with a report that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ office says there’s been more evidence lately of gangs congregating at parks and playgrounds across the borough. A spokesman for the D.A.’s office says they “are definitely aware of the increase of gang activity in parks and playgrounds,” and cops say it’s difficult to “bust” the teens unless they find weapons or drugs. Examples this time around include Highbridge Park in East New York, the Parade Grounds and Dean Street Park. As with the earlier stories, it’s tough to determine the extent to which these anecdotes are of the selling-newspapers variety or if, in fact, a lot of residents are staying away from parks because they feel threatened by the teens.
Brooklyn DA Warns of Rise in Gang Presence in Borough Parks [NY Daily News]
Parents Complain About Rowdy Teens in Slope Playground [Brownstoner]
Gang Menacing Brower Park [Brownstoner]
Photo by Sugar Pond
09/26/2011 9:30 AM
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Another Sexual Assault in the South Slope
Via Community Board 7: “On Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at approx 9:15 pm at Prospect Ave between 4th Ave and 5th Ave, a female was approached by a male Hispanic that forcibly grabbed her breasts and ran. The female had just exited the Prospect Ave train station “R” line and was walking eastbound on Prospect Ave when she was approached by a male Hispanic, approximately 5’7″, thin build wearing dark shirt, baggy dark blue jeans and a baseball hat. After the male forcible touched the female he fled westbound on Prospect Ave toward 4th Ave. The female did not sustain any injuries. Investigation is continuing.” At this point the police have released three sketches of people wanted in connection with the string of sexual assaults that have occurred in Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights and the South Slope since March.
09/22/2011 11:17 AM
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Police: At Least 8 Sex Attacks Since March
The police say there have been a minimum of eight sexual assaults in the South Slope, Greenwood Heights, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge since March—one of which was a rape—and they’re unclear how many assailants are responsible for the crimes. At a community meeting last night the police said they’re investigating whether two or three men have been involved in the attacks and that the number of rapes in the area has increased 36 percent this year. Cops have released the two sketches above of men wanted in connection with the attacks. Meanwhile, an organization called Safe Slope is organizing a rally tonight in response to the violence.
Brooklyn Women Warned Of Expanding Pattern Of Sexual Attacks [NY1]
Park Slope on Edge Over Sex Attacks [MSNBC]
Brooklyn Rapist Strikes Again, 9 Incidents In All [WPIX]
South Slope Rallies [Patch]
09/14/2011 9:00 AM
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Is East New York Safer Than Brooklyn Heights?
The website DNAinfo released a crime and safety report that examines crime stats from the NYPD and the Census for 2010 and ranks the city’s neighborhoods in terms of overall safety. The Brooklyn rankings are shown above, and they’re a bit surprising: Bushwick and East New York are safer than the Heights, Boerum Hill and Dumbo? (The formula used for the rankings: “divide the number of reported crimes in a neighborhood by the number of people living there, for a per capita crime rate.”) In the citywide rankings, meanwhile, Brownsville comes in near the bottom, but it’s still listed as safer than Midtown and the Village! Then again, all types of crime are weighed equally, so East New York—which had 33 murders last year to Brooklyn Heights’ three—is classified as safer than the Heights since it has a much larger population and had comparatively lower rates of other crimes, like property crime.
Crime and Safety Report [DNAinfo]
09/13/2011 9:00 AM
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Closing Bell: Response to the Crown Heights Shootings
This evening at 6pm the Crow Hill Community Association is holding a press conference to address the shootings at and near the West Indian Day Parade on Monday. A fund has also been started for Denise Gay’s daughter, as Ms. Gay was an innocent bystander killed in the shootout. Any donations can be dropped off at HAD Associates, 737 Franklin Avenue. You can read more details about the press conference and ways to donate at I Love Franklin Avenue.
09/08/2011 4:00 PM
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Shootings Mar Parade During Violent Long Weekend
The big news this morning is how many people were shot in the city over the holiday weekend: According to the Daily News, the tally stands at “at least 48.” The Post, meanwhile, reports that nine of the shootings took place at or near the West Indian Day Parade yesterday, and that 15 out of 16 people shot yesterday in the city were in Brooklyn. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is quoted as saying the following: “Quite frankly, this is something that does happen with this parade. It’s gotten much better, but we’ve had some violence associated with it in the past.”
Two Cops Shot in Brooklyn Gun Battle [NY Daily News]
Gun Terror Rocks Carib Fest [NY Post]
Bloody Holiday Weekend Ends [NY1]
Photo by Jannelouise
09/06/2011 9:45 AM
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Another Assault in the South Slope
On Saturday a man attacked a woman on 17th Street and 7th Avenue, grabbing her from behind before she escaped, in the seventh assault in the area since March. The police have released a new sketch of the suspect at right, based on an attack a week and a half ago, but they’re not certain Saturday’s crime was committed by the same person. Local residents have been critical of the 72nd Precinct’s response to the attacks, with one telling the Brooklyn Paper that “crimes are being committed and little to nothing is being done by the police to solve them or to prevent further incidents.” Meanwhile, a community group called Safe Slope is organizing a Take Back the Night march on September 14th.
Safe Slope [Facebook]
South Slope Residents Rally to Keep Neighborhood Safe [Patch]
Police Release New Sketch Of Brooklyn Serial Rape Suspect [Gothamist]
Cops Track Another Attack by South Slope Sex Fiend [BK Paper]
09/06/2011 9:00 AM
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iCrime Wave in Fort Greene Continues
This is getting a little ridiculous…According to The Brooklyn Paper, another six iPhone muggings were reported in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill alone last week, including one that was snatched by a bicyclist and another that involved a victim getting punched in the face.
08/31/2011 9:45 AM
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iCrime Wave Continues in Fort Greene
This is getting ridonculous. The Brooklyn Paper reports five more iPhone-related muggings in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill last week. A couple of them were in broad daylight too.
08/24/2011 11:10 AM
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adam_dahill
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM