What’s Up at Borough Hall BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
ONE BROOKLYN | SUMMER 2019 27
On May 13, Borough President
Adams announced the impact of his
$1,155,000 capital budget investment in
participatory budgeting (PB) for Fiscal
Year 2020 (FY20). In the democratic
process, Brooklynites voted to determine
how millions of taxpayer dollars
would be allocated for FY20 capital
projects throughout Brooklyn, including
Borough President Adams’ annual
commitment to increasing constituent
input in the PB process. At locations
across the borough, including Brooklyn
Borough Hall, tens of thousands of
Brooklyn residents cast ballots during
the 2019-2020 PB cycle voting period,
which took place between Saturday,
March 30 and Sunday, April 7. Projects
that won funding include Real
Time Passenger Info (RTPI) bus countdown
clocks around the 45th Council
District, playground renovation at PS
58 The Carroll in Carroll Gardens,
upgrades to Harmony Park and the
Tompkins Houses Community Center
in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and a creative
lab at Automotive High School in Williamsburg
(visit brooklyn-usa.org for a
full list of awards).
Borough President Adams extended
his full support and allocated
$1,000,000 in capital funding toward the
development of Caton Flats, Flatbush’s
newest 100 percent affordable housing
and mixed-use redevelopment project,
which broke ground on Wednesday,
May 15. The 255-unit community is being
developed by BRP Companies, in
partnership with the New York City
Economic Development Corporation
(NYCEDC), the New York City Department
of Housing Preservation and Development
(HPD), and the New York
City Housing Development Corporation
(HCD). The complex, which will
be composed of 220,000 square feet of
residential space for very low- to middle
income households, and 16,000
square feet of space for business use,
including an expansion of the 20-yearold
Flatbush Caton Market, is slated
for completion in 2021.
On Monday, May 27, a day annually
set aside to honor those who
made the ultimate sacrifi ce in service
to our nation, Borough President
Adams participated in two Memorial
Day parades. In the morning,
he marched and joined other dignitaries
in bringing greetings at Bay
Ridge’s 152nd Brooklyn Memorial
Day Parade, sponsored by the United
Military Veterans of Kings County,
Inc. Later in the day, Borough President
Adams joined his Queens counterpart,
Borough President Melinda
Katz, to participate in the Little Neck
Douglaston Memorial Day Parade,
touted as the city’s largest procession
commemorating the service rendered
by the country’s servicemen
and women, past and present.
Borough President Adams paid tribute to our nation’s veterans
while marching in the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade
on May 27. Borough President’s offi ce/Stefan Ringel
BUS INES S , B ROOKLYN S T Y LE
Dr. Enrico Ascher provides the best vascular care
We don’t have to travel to Manhattan
to get the best vascular medical
care because we have Dr. Enrico
Ascher, Chief of Vascular and Endovascular
Surgery at NYU Langone
Hospital-Brooklyn, and founder of
the Vascular Institute of New York.
Dr. Ascher is an internationally
recognized vascular surgeon who pioneered
several techniques that are
now utilized worldwide. In addition
to being one of the most experienced
surgeons in this country with over
25,000 procedures and operations performed
over a 3 decade span he fi nds
time to author and co-author over 300
scientifi c articles in addition to be the
Chief-editor of a classic textbook in
vascular surgery. His enormous contributions
to the minimally invasive
management of vascular diseases
including aortic aneurysms, stroke
prevention, wound care, varicose
veins and angioplasty and stenting
for PAD have not gone unnoticed. Dr.
Ascher is the only surgeon in the tristate
region to be elected as President
of the Society for Vascular Surgery as
well as The World Federation of Vascular
Societies. During his tenure as
leader of these societies Dr. Ascher
was able to help shape the specialty
and reached out to the medical community
in a partnership to improve
the vascular health of the US population.
Dr. Ascher conceived and develop
the fi rst clinical guidelines for
the management of vascular diseases
and he is recognized by his peers as a
superb surgeon with tremendous talent.
As an example of one of his creative
contributions one can describe
his technique of performing balloon
angioplasty and stenting (in patients
who experience pain in the legs upon
walking) without the use of potentially
harmful contrast material and
with no exposure to radiation!
Dr. Ascher also developed the
mini-incision carotid surgery where
a life threatening plaque can be safely
removed from the artery via one inch
small cut instead of 5-7 inch incision
in the neck. “We have the lowest rate
of complications in the country since
I have not had a single major issue
with hundreds of patient treated with
this technique” - says Dr. Ascher
His groundbreaking techniques
have been adapted worldwide as they
causes less trauma to the patient.
Limb salvage is yet another fi eld
in which Dr. Ascher has earned acclaim.
“We are the fi rst to create a comprehensive
care plan that has vascular
medical specialists and surgeons
working together to treat patients,”
he says. For the most part, vascular
surgeons elsewhere work separately
from vascular medicine physicians,
he says. But by working as a team,
the patient is assured of optimum,
unbiased treatment.
Patients from New York City and
surrounding states have sought Dr.
Ascher’s services, after being told by
other institutions that their limbs
could not be salvaged, and that amputation
was the only option. Yet,
Dr. Ascher and his team were able
to transform their lives by utilizing
techniques they developed to save
the limbs.
“These patients are now walking
on their own two feet,” he says.
Research, studying, and learning
are Dr. Ascher’s passions. He
was the fi rst to perform bypass to the
plantar arteries of the foot, and this
is now widely considered standard
procedure for limb salvage.
Swelling of the legs is a common
problem that causes tremendous
pain, inhibiting lifestyles. This is
another area in which the Vascular
Institute can help, as Dr. Ascher has
published extensively on the subject
of varicose veins. He and his team of
board certifi ed vascular specialists
have performed more than 15,000
laser procedures for the treatment
of varicose veins and leg swelling,
offering several different devices to
customize treatment plans for the
patients who come to his Vascular
Center for relief of symptoms or
for aesthetic reasons. He notes that
swelling of the legs can be caused
by veins that are not visible, so a
thorough examination is really important
to detect the cause of these
problems and to fi x them to obtain a
meaningful result.
More than 20 years ago Dr. Ascher
was helping people with aortic
aneurysms — ballooning of the arteries
in the stomach or chest.
“We are so comfortable with
the new, modern techniques, we
are sending patients home the same
day. Just 5 years ago we were keeping
patients for at least 2 days in the
hospital,” he says. “They leave with
a small puncture in the groin, go
home with no pain, and have dinner
with their families.”
This potentially life-threatening
issue is more common than people
realize, he says, and is often found
accidentally when patients undergo
ultrasounds or CAT scans.
“When it becomes painful, these
aneurysms (ballooning of the arteries)
are ready to pop with critical
consequences. So it’s better to fi x
them when they achieve a certain
size,” he says.
Notably, the Vascular Institute
was the fi rst wound care center in
New York, and remains one of the
busiest wound care centers in the
area.D
r. Ascher’s esteemed staff includes
Dr. Anil Hingorani, Dr. Natalie
Marks, Dr. Sareh Rajaee, and
Eleanora Iadgarova, a nurse practitioner.
The practice is open every day,
including weekends, and the staff
can always fi nd an opening to accommodate
patients who need immediate
treatment, says the doctor.
Vascular Institute of New York
960 50th St.between Ninth and 10th
avenues in Borough Park, (718) 438–
3800, www.vascularnyc.com. Open
every day, 8 am – 5 pm. Additional
locations: 9920 Fourth Ave. in Bay
Ridge; 5801 Woodside Ave., Queens;
97-32 63rd Rd., Queens; 432 E. 149th
St. in the Bronx.
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