NEWS STORIES OF 2019
FOLLOW THE RAINBOW: Marchers openly waved the rainbow fl ag at the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade for
the fi rst time on March 17. Brooklyn Irish LGBTQ Organization
COURIER LIFE, DEC. 27, 2019-JAN. 2, 2020 5
a personal media consultant.
What a drag: The parents
of an 11-year-old drag queen
suffered constant harassment
in the form of death threats
and near-daily visits by city
social workers after a video of
the youngster performing at
a Williamsburg gay bar went
viral. Coverage of the performance
by right-wing publications
spurred critics to fi le
more than 150 complaints of
child abuse with the city’s Administration
for Children’s
Services, which spurred the
visits from social workers.
February
That stinks: The city’s
neighborhood-wide rezoning
of Gowanus got off to a rough
start in February, when offi -
cials from the Department of
City Planning and other agencies
came under fi re for providing
a lackluster presentation
to concerned locals, who
were forced to wait in long
lines to obtain information
at booths setup at the auditorium
in PS 32. Frustrations
boiled over when attendees
burst into chants, demanding
the city make repairs to the
neighborhood’s crumbling
public housing complexes,
whose residents make up a
quarter of the community,
while environmental groups
called on offi cials to do more
to address the pollution along
the noxious Gowanus Canal.
Duck, duck, goose: Subway
riders on the Q-line were
unexpectedly diverted to an
express route between Prospect
Park and Kings Highway
on Feb. 4 because of a goose
shacking up on the tracks
near Parkside Avenue. The
feathered friend waddled onto
Coney Island-bound tracks
where it hung out for over an
hour before cops successfully
rescued the bird from possible
danger.
Close call: A young man
survived a bullet to the head
when he was shot outside a
Flatlands diner on the afternoon
of Feb. 17. The victim did
not see the shooter, who fl ed
from the scene in a white car,
according to an eyewitness.
Arrested development:
Construction of a new cultural
space at the base of Fort
Greene’s 32-story 300 Ashland
residential tower stalled on
Feb. 20, while the city’s Economic
Development Corporation
hashed out a deal with
developer Two Trees. As part
of plans the city approved in
2013 for the building, the former
publicly-owned parking
lot — bounded by Flatbush
and Lafayette avenues,
as well as Ashland and Hanson
places — was supposed to
house a branch of the Brooklyn
Public Library, a home
for the Museum of Contemporary
African Diasporan Arts,
space for African-arts group
651 Arts, and Brooklyn Academy
of Music cinemas, along
with commercial tenants
Whole Foods and the Apple
Store, which opened in 2017
and 2018 respectively.
Cold Case: The feds
opened an investigation into
the management of a federal
prison in Sunset Park after
over 1,600 inmates were left
without heat in the dead of
winter, sparking weeks of
protests outside the prison.
The federally operated detention
center was later sued by
the Federal Defenders of New
York for subjecting prisoners
to “inhumane” conditions
when it failed to restore heat
and power after a Jan. 27 electrical
outage.
Sail La Vie: Party boats
were offi cially banned from
docking in Sheepshead Bay
in February, as part of an effort
to eliminate the rowdy
crowds that took over the
sleepy seaside neighborhood
during the summer. Under
the new legislation, the unruly
watercraft can only dock
at Sheepshead piers while not
in use, not pick up or drop off
passengers.
March
Turning a corner: The
borough’s St. Patrick’s Day
parade formally welcomed
LGBTQ marchers for the fi rst
time in the march’s 44-year
history. The organizers’ decision
to permit a more queer
marchers came years after
leaders of the city’s St. Paddy’s
Day march through Manhattan
invited the Lavender
and Green Alliance, an LGBTQ
advocacy group, to join
that procession in 2015.
Whipped out of town:
Dominatrix Charlotte Taillor
chose to relocate her Bed-
Stuy pleasure dungeon after
an intolerant neighbor vilifi
ed her during a months-long
harassment campaign. Taillor
decided to pack up her
adults-only classroom, called
the Taillor Collective, after
her neighbor Laurie Miller attacked
the business and tried
to get the city to shut it down
out of an admitted prejudice
against practitioners of the
BDSM lifestyle. While Taillor
announced her intention to
move in March, she would actually
leave until the following
month, when the owner
of Lift NYC Movers offered
to transport the the sex educator’s
dungeon furntiture
free of charge. The dominatrix
found a new dungeon located
on a more tolerant block
somewhere in Brooklyn, but
asked that’s location not be
revealed.
On the lamb: Drivers on
the Gowanus Expressway
made room for a wayward
baby lamb that found her way
onto the Queens-bound side of
the highway in Sunset Park
on March 13 — likely fl eeing
a bloody death at the hands of
a butcher. The lost little lamb
was later transferred to an
animal sanctuary in New Jersey
to live out the rest of her
days grazing on green pastures
and rubbing cloven feet
with other four-legged asylum
seekers.
Clay it ain’t so: Beloved
Park Slope pottery store The
Clay Pot closed in March after
50 years in the neighborhood.
The shop had been a
Slope standby since 1969, but
was forced to close due to poor
sales that owner Tara Silberberg
ascribed to changing demographics.
Silberberg said
closing the Brooklyn location
would allow her to focus on
her like-named Manhattan
shop, and she hoped loyal customers
would follow her to the
distant isle.
April
Bad pot luck: The state
Legislature approved its $175
million budget without including
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
proposal to create a legal
weed market in New York
on April 1. The state’s chief
executive attributed the setback
to disagreements over
how the drug would be taxed,
where the money would go ,
and safety concerns raised
by law enforcement and constituents.
Marijuana legalization
would bring in a whop-
Continued on Page 6
State transit leaders diverted Q-train traffi c for almost two hours in February
after a goose wandered onto the tracks. Photo by Marc Hermann
Former District Attorney Charles
Hynes left behind a complicated
legacy following his death in January.
Photo by Steve Solomonson