ping $300 million in annual
tax revenue over the coming
years, Cuomo previously
promised.
Guilty: A jury convicted
22-year-old Brooklyn man
Chanel Lewis of murdering
Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
on April 2. Lewis was
found guilty of brutally beating
and choking Vetrano who
went out for a run a few blocks
from her 84th Street home in
August of 2016 and cops arrested
Lewis six months later
after recovering his DNA
from the scene.
Out-house: Dozens of Sunset
Park families were left
without a home after a fi re
gutted the top fl oor of their
44th Street apartment complex
on April 3. Residents
were forced to wait for more
than a day to regain access
to their units, unsure of the
damage to their apartments
and property, and unaware
if their pets had escaped the
blaze as they awaited for fi refi
ghters and building inspectors
to allow them inside. The
blaze erupted from the sixstory
apartment building’s
top fl oor and injured 32 people
in all, including nearly two
dozen fi refi ghters who suffered
burns, sprains and debilitating
COURIER LIFE,6 DEC. 27, 2019-JAN. 2, 2020
smoke inhalation.
Measles outbreak: Mayor
Bill De Blasio declared a public
health emergency on April
9 at the Brooklyn Public Library’s
Williamsburg Branch
following an outbreak of the
measles virus in Brooklyn’s
Orthodox Jewish communities,
where nearly 300 people
fell ill. The mayor’s statement
required residents of
four Williamsburg zip codes
to seek vaccination or alternately
face Department of
Health violations and fi nes
costing as much as $1,000 per
unvaccinated person.
Steely span: Brooklyn
Bridge Park honchos unveiled
renderings in April
that show the future of the
embattled Squibb Bridge.
The span, connecting Brooklyn
Heights to the waterfront
lawn will one day be reborn
as a sturdy steel pathway,
with a $6.5 Million price tag.
The steel rebirth of the walkway
will be just another chapter
in its long, expensive saga.
The old wooden bridge, which
cost taxpayers $4 Million and
was long off-limits for safety
concerns, was demolished in
October to make way for its
hopefully safer second coming.
Cold cuts: Park Slope Key
Food butchers found themselves
locked out of work
amidst union negotiations
with the grocers corporate
overlords, who replaced the
unionized workers with scabs
while they picketed out front.
The workers were locked out
as punishment for picketing
during their lunch hour, after
grocery magnate Benjamin
Levine failed to show up to
the bargaining table with the
butchers’ union, United Food
and Commercial Workers Local
342.
May
Flooded with cash: The
city revealed plans to reconstruct
a huge portion of Gerritsen
Beach in May, seeking
to undo the damage done by
Hurricane Sandy in 2012 to
the neighborhoods already
pitted roads. The $6.6 Million
project would also enhance
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2019 REVIEW
Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of emergency on April 9 in response to an outbreak of the measles which
swept through Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish communities. Photo by Paul Martinka
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