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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2020 12 pages • Vol. 43, No. 5 Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint • January 31–February 6, 2020
Photo by Scott Lynch
North Brooklyn residents are seeking to reclaim East River State Park from the popular
open-air market Smorgasburg.
SAY NO SMORG!
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
These people are fed up!
Residents living around a Williamsburg
state park want to take
back the green space from the
country’s largest outdoor food
market, Smorgasburg, which they
say monopolizes the public space
at the expense of locals.
“The fact that we have a great
shortage of parkland in North
Brooklyn and that huge piece of
your park filled with little shacks
isn’t really a park use, that’s a
commercial food venture,” said
Community Board 1 member Tom
Burrows at the panel’s monthly
meeting on Jan. 14.
Smorgasburg reserves a slice
of the seven-acre East River State
Park located on Kent Avenue between
N. Seventh and N. Ninth
streets on Saturday from April
through October, bringing thousands
of visitors to the waterfront
lawn every weekend.
And while the event has grown
to become one of Brooklyn’s staple
fair-weather attractions, some
folks living around the park have
quietly petitioned officials to revoke
Smorgasburg’s permits during
either July or August, complaining
that locals should take
priority over visitors from out
of town.
“A good 85 to 90 percent of
Locals fume over Boerum Hill block littered with potholes
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Pacific Street in Boerum Hill
has devolved into a rutty mess, according
to locals, who say the city
is more concerned with inviting
developers to their block than taking
basic care of the roads.
“Our taxes are too high for our
streets to be looking like this —
that’s what you literally pay for,”
said Kenda Jackson. “You have
a pretty mall and all of that stuff
but the things that really matter,
that’s the problem.”
The stretch of the one-way
street between Third and Fourth
avenues has become scattered with
unsightly craters, including one
abyssal hole that plunged kneedeep
beneath the pavement.
Making matters worse, the
street is burdened by numerous
construction sites that jut into Pacific
Street and narrow the road,
such as a sidewalk shed erected
in 2015 projecting from a rising
12-story co-op at the corner of
Fourth Avenue, and a walled-off
container outside the Brooklyn
High School of the Arts.
As a result, the city is incapable
of preforming necessary work,
such as milling, that’s necessary
to fully repave the road, but that
shouldn’t stop officials from performing
a quick and dirty patch
job while waiting for the con-
Bushwick councilman resigns his seat
By Mark Hallum
for Brooklyn Paper
Bushwick Councilman Rafael
Espinal resigned from elected office
Sunday to work with a burgeoning
freelancer’s union.
The lawmaker sent his letter
of resignation to Council Speaker
Corey Johnson (D–Manhattan)
on Jan. 26 and will take up the
position of executive director at
the non-profit Freelancers Union
on March 2.
While the former politician
will defend the interests of independent
workers at this new
post, the decision to step down
leaves many of his longtime aides
destined for unemployment, with
some workers expressing dismay
that reporters announced the details
of Espinal’s resignation via
Twitter.
“We are all very unsure of what
is happening and our futures. We
have no idea about the resignation
letter,” according to a staffer, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I literally found out that he’s going
to the Freelancers Union today,
on Twitter. So I don’t know…
I barely know anything.”
NY1’s Gloria Pazmino divulged
that Espinal would accept a job
with the Freelancers Union via
Twitter, while the legislator’s selfserving
resignation letter focused
largely on his achievements over
his last six years in Council. The
letter did not hint at Espinal’s new
job, or offer any explanation for
his sudden exit.
Espinal wasted no time abandoning
his post representing the
37th Council District and resigned
effective immediately. A special
election is likely to occur around
May, when most of his staff can
expect to loose their jobs, with
the Council Speaker’s office assuming
management of the district
until voters can elect a replacement.
A group of council staffers
seeking to unionize under the
moniker Association of Legislative
employees called for reforms
to protect aides in the wake of Espinal’s
sudden resignation.
Like Espinal, most sitting
Council members are term-limited
in 2021 and many have been
busy jockeying for another elected
position, or governmental appointment.
Last year, Espinal was one
of dozens of candidates competing
in a special election for Public
Advocate after Letitia James resigned
to become the new state attorney
general; Jumaane Williams
won the job last February.
And just days ago, Espinal
dropped out of the Democratic
primary for Brooklyn borough
president.
Espinal’s district covers the
neighborhoods of Cypress Hills,
Bushwick, Brownsville, Ocean
Hill and East New York.
The Freelancers Union is a nonprofit
organization which bills itself
as “promoting the interests
of independent workers through
advocacy, education, and services.”
The fate of Fairway Market’s Red Hook branch hangs in the balance.
Fairway to heaven
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
They’re ready to check out.
After denying reports that it
would file for chapter 7 bankruptcy
on Wednesday, Fairway Market
filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on
Thursday, as the company struggles
to find a buyer for its Kings
County supermarkets.
Fairway put its 14 supermarkets
up for sale in September to
address debts totaling $174 million,
but the grocer has only managed
to sell its five Manhattan markets
to ShopRite owner Village
Super Market for $70 million, according
to Chief Executive Office
Abel Porter.
That leaves Fairway’s Red Hook
and Georgetown supermarkets —
along with seven other stores located
throughout Queens, Long
Island, Connecticut, New Jersey,
and upstate New York — swinging
in the wind, and a spokeswoman
for Fairway could only promise
that the stores would stay open
until bankruptcy proceedings
conclude.
A group of the company’s lenders
have also agreed to provide up
Some seek to reclaim park from food fest
ROUGH & TUMBLE
struction to wrap, according to
a local civic leader.
“They could close the street
and put asphalt into the potholes,
they can do that any time,” said
the head of the Boerum Hill Association
Howard Kolins.
The Department of Transportation
did not immediately provide
comment.
The constant construction
and nearby high school lead to
large work vehicles and school
busses frequenting the narrow
street, making a terrible racket
as they rumble across the pitted
asphalt.
And while the city won’t lift
a finger to repair the potholes, it
has no problem with fining residents
for failing to clean out the
garbage that collects in them, according
to one senior resident of
the block.
“I have to clean out the pothole
area, because it doesn’t
drain,” said Patricia Howard,
Jackson’s mother. “It looks nasty
and bad.”
And if there’s one silver lining
for Jackson, it’s the fact that she’s
got a all-terrain vehicle to able
to handle her rock road.
“I have a Jeep, so I’m ok, but
it’s still pretty rocky to go over
those, it’s like off-roading,” she
said. “Just fill them up or put in
some gravel or something.”
(Above) Boerum Hill resident
Kenda Jackson is fed
up with all the potholes
along Pacific Street between
Third and Fourth
avenues. (Left) Among the
crevices is an alarmingly
deep abyss found outside
the development of 561 Pacific
St.
Photos by Kevin Duggan
Photo by Mark Hallum
See SMORG on page 10
Councilman Rafael Espinal resigned to lead the Freelancers
Union.
Grocer fi les for bankruptcy, and
Brooklyn’s stores in jeopardy
to $25 million to help reorganize
Fairway Market, according to a
company press release.
Fairway previously filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016,
but reemerged under its current
ownership by investment firms
Brigade Capital Management and
Goldman Sachs Group — while
also closing one of its stores on
Long Island.
The chain, which began in 1933
as a Manhattan fruit and vegetable
stand, opened its first Brooklyn
store inside a 19th-century storage
warehouse on Red Hook’s Van
Brunt Street in 2006 — which it
had to shut down temporarily after
the ancient waterfront building
took a beating during Superstorm
Sandy in 2012, before reopening
the following year.
The company later opened
its second Brooklyn location at
the Ralph Avenue strip mall in
2017.
File photo by Max Jaeger
Who’s driving the bus now?
Byford’s departure threatens Bklyn bus redesign: Advocates
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Andy Byford — the city’s top
transit honcho — announced his
impending resignation on Thursday,
leaving local public-transportation
advocates fearful about the
fate of an upcoming borough-wide
redesign of Brooklyn’s bus network,
which is now expected to
move forward without its chief
proponent.
“We’re extremely concerned
about every borough bus redesign,”
said Jaqi Cohen, the campaign
director of Straphangers
Campaign. “For the last 50 years,
buses hadn’t been made a priority.
Andy was the first to champion
such change and the plans really
took root under him.”
Byford will officially leave his
post as President of the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority’s New
York City division on Feb. 21, but
the redesign of Kings County’s busses
only just got rolling — and its
success now hinges on his yet-unannounced
successor, according
to Cohen.
“It’s very contingent on who is at
the helm and leading this endeavor,”
she said. “The improvements could
be up for renegotiation.”
The ball is now in Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s court to ensure the
successful completion of the various
improvements that the transportation
guru set in motion — including
the bus redesign, according
to another advocate.
“The bus redesign is incredibly
important for Brooklyn, which
has some of the oldest routes dating
back to 19th-century trolley
lines,” said Danny Pearlstein, a
spokesman for the group Riders
Alliance. “The Governor has to
be held accountable that the plan
unfolds. He’s on the hook for the
plans.”
Officials launched the sweeping
bus overhaul in October to
redesign the borough’s 63 local
and nine express bus lines over
the coming year — which came
as part of Byford’s Fast Forward
plan to modernize the city’s ailing
public transportation.
The agency hosted several
public input sessions around the
borough, and plans to release a
report on the Brooklyn bus system’s
Photo by MTA NYC Transit / Marc Hermann
existing conditions by the
end of March — before developing
their redesign scheme by
the end of the year.
Among other priorities expected
to be addressed, planners
want to expand bus priority
lanes, modify routes to meet
today’s needs by cutting redundant
routes and simplifying circuitous
lines, and improve offpeak
service.
The push comes as ridership
has dropped 10-percent and
14-percent since 2016 for express
and local buses, respectively.
The average vehicle speeds
also ailes at a sluggish 7.7
miles-per-hour, according to
the agency.
Other borough bus redesigns
have drawn heated criticism from
residents and politicians — such as
the neighboring Queens revamp,
where local lawmakers slammed
the agency’s plans for cutting service
in transit-poor sections of the
borough.
In Brooklyn, cuts made to the
B38, B54, and the B46 — the borough’s
busiest route — have already
led to demonstrations from
angry straphangers ahead of the
revamp.
Lisa Daglian, the executive director
of the Permanent Citizens
Advisory Committee to the MTA,
said she was confident that the
Authority’s acting head of buses,
Craig Cipriano, will continue with
the bus revamp — but said that
officials have to keep the public
involved along the way.
“As far as we know, everything
points at all systems go,” said Daglian.
“We’re looking to keep our
eye on that the redesigns go forward
with as much public involvement
as possible.”
Daglian and the other advocates
said they will keep a close eye on
who the agency appoints to replace
Byford — noting that his successor
will have big shoes to fill.
“We’re living in a time of uncertainty,”
Daglian said. “He’s
put a great team into place and
we’re hopeful that someone from
his team will come on and take
over.”
Outgoing transit chief Andy Byford with the agency’s
acting head of buses Craig Cipriano (right).
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