Image source: Councilman Gentile’s office.
It’s June – which means the return of that carefully choreographed annual drama New York pols and reporters cynically refer to as the Budget Dance.
And first up on the chopping block is, of course, an after school program. Continue reading »
Construction workers repair another sinkhole on 79th Street last year, which has since been sealed up (Image courtesy of David Tan).
After nearly a year of dealing with stinking sink holes, noisy construction, and the loss of parking spaces – not to mention the ruined roadway that Department of Environmental Protection workers left in the wake of emergency sewer repairs, 92nd Street residents were relieved to discover that the city will be resurfacing their scarred street from Fourth Avenue to Shore Road, notes Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Paper.
The Department of Transportation agreed to the repairs just weeks after DEP officials refused to do more than repave the center of the residential roadway following close to a year of construction. The sewer pipe replacement project had neighbors between Ridge Boulevard and Third Avenue pinching their noses from the foul odor of an open sewer and covering their ears from the roar of over-sized vehicles. Continue reading »
A flier from the Fourth Ave safety workshop. (Image source: NYCDOT).
While most of Community Board 10′s Traffic and Transportation committee agrees that traffic on Fourth Avenue needs to slow down, they seem to disapprove of enclosed spaces, notes Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Paper.
Although committee members approved the bulk of proposed DOT traffic-calming measures, they refused to sign off on a traffic island and pedestrian barrier fence, saying the two alterations don’t make sense outside of the most congested areas of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. Continue reading »
Image source: morebyless via Flickr.
In what Brooklyn Paper‘s Will Bredderman is describing as the world’s most awkward police report, a thief recently stole a package from a woman’s doorstep that contained “thousands of dollars” worth of sex toys, lingerie, and lubricants.
The anonymous victim said the delivery company noted that her package was left at the door of her 72nd Street apartment on June 5, at 1:30 p.m. while she was out.
When she returned to her home, which sits between Ridge Boulevard and Colonial Road, her provocative parcel – which contained “two marital aids, a body stocking, and 14 kinds of sensual lotion” – had vanished.
Image source: Google maps.
Bay Ridge’s I.S. 30 Mary White Ovington [415 Ovington Ave] will be among 20 city schools to tag an additional 2.5 hours onto the school day this September, according to Brooklyn Eagle‘s Mary Frost.
The $6 million experimental program is an expansion of the Middle School Quality Initiative [MSQI], a public-private partnership sponsored by the New York City Council, Robin Hood, The After School Corporation, and Harvard Ed Labs.
The plan’s stated goal is to “help at-risk middle school students stay on the track of success,” as well as “reach the new Common Core literacy standards.”
Participating schools were chosen randomly from a list of 130 institutions that requested to be part of the pilot program, announced by Chancellor Walcott in April. The extra time will reportedly allow students to work on their literacy skills.
If the initiative is seen as a success, organizers say they hope to introduce extended days to more schools.
While advocates of longer school days point to the high number of classroom hours logged by students in highly competitive Asian nations like South Korea, Japan, and China, critics of the plan argue that Finland – the country with most consistently high-performing schools in the world, has a shorter school day than the U.S. with virtually no standardized testing.
On the list of things I’m grateful for on a slow news day, user-made Youtube videos of Bay Ridge rank right at the top.
In the above video, Youtube user lugeyps3 takes viewers on a brief but fairly concise tour of this year’s Fifth Avenue Festival.
Fried Oreos, anyone?
8th graders Sarah Rodriguez and Jessica Sparacio displaying their Betty Kash Memorial Scholarship Awards, presented by the Narrows Community Theater. (Photo courtesy of Narrows Community Theater)
The following is a press release from the Narrows Community Theater.
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn – Narrows Community Theater is very happy to present this year’s Betty Kash Memorial Scholarship to two very deserving students. Jessica Sparacio and Sarah Rodriguez are the two graduating 8th graders who have been chosen from the students that submitted applications for this year’s awards. Continue reading »
The above image shows the starting line from last Saturday’s “Curing Kids’ Cancer” race on 12th Avenue in Dyker Heights.
The Dyker Heights Athletic Association and St. Bernadette Knights recruited over 500 children to run in order to raise funds for the Olivia Boccuzzi Foundation.
Local residents Enza and Frank Boccuzzi began the Foundation in August 2012, after their courageous daughter Olivia lost her 11-month battle with brain stem cancer.
Photo by Ken Brown.
Image source: manuel | MC via Flickr.
If idle time is the devil’s playtime, could idling cars be Satan’s transportation?
A thief managed to drive off in a car that was parked on 69th Street with the engine running last Friday, notes Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Paper.
The victim reportedly told police that he left his ride idling near Fourth Avenue in the minutes before 4:00 a.m. while stopping at a store.
When he came back out, the vehicle was gone – along with his wallet (Wasn’t he in a store?), and a socket wrench set.
Oh, the poor R-train! It seems so very long ago that transit watchdogs declared our loveable loser totally not at all the worst train in the subway system. Since then, the line has taken a sucker-punch from that short-tempered jerkface Sandy, and saw its East River tunnel restored to service long after all the others. After the 4/5, after the L, even after the freakin’ G, which only goes to Queens, didn’tcha know.
But since direct Brooklyn-to-Manhattan service was restored in December, things just haven’t been quite right. All sorts of delays, signal problems, other bad stuff. The line was restored, yes… but it wasn’t really fixed. Metals and delicate electronics that were subjected to an extended salt-water bath are breaking down at an accelerated pace, and no amount of FASTRACKs will allow the MTA to keep up. So the transit agency will close the Montague Tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan for 12 to 14 months, or 7 to 10 dog years, according to a report by Ted Mann of the Wall Street Journal. Continue reading »