6 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 February 7–13, 2020
VIRAL INFLUENCE
Locals: Coronavirus scare threatens S’Park businesses
Match made in L by the transit crisis, including
Photo by Emmett Adler
Courtesy of Emmett Adler
Filmmakers behind the L train documentary “End
of the Line” are looking to raise $25,000 to finish
the film. (Below) Emmett Adler (right) with outgoing
New York City Transit President Andy Byford..
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By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
The widespread fears
over the deadly coronavirus
has sparked concerns
within Brooklyn’s Chinese
communities — threatening
immigrant businesses
and leaving many residents
homebound, according to
some residents.
“Before anyone dies, the
businesses are going to die,”
said Kenneth Chiu, a Sunset
Park resident and the president
of the New York City
Asian-American Democratic
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Club.
The respiratory illness,
which experts believe originated
in bats, spreads from
person-to-person and produces
symptoms with varying
severity — such a fever,
coughing, and shortness of
breath, according to the Center
for Disease Control.
The virus first surfaced in
humans during an outbreak in
China’s Wuhan City late last
year, and has since infected
more than 20,000 people
worldwide, and killed over
400 people thus far — with
most victims residing in Asia,
and only 11 confirmed cases
in the United States, according
to a Bloomberg report.
Two patients in New York
City who recently traveled
from mainland China are
being tested for the virus,
and are currently hospitalized
in Queens, according
to City Hall.
However, leaders in Brooklyn’s
Chinese communities say
that misinformation about the
illness has sewn excessive fear
among Chinese residents —
and took the spirit out of the
Lunar New Year holiday season.
“This should be a busy holi-
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
A team of documentary
filmmakers released a new
trailer for their silver-screen
investigation of the L-train
shutdown, which will explore
the narrowly averted transit
catastrophe with pulsepounding
synth tunes and
f lashy editing techniques
— as long as you can help
fund the production!
The filmmakers are seeking
$25,000 in donations
through a Kickstarter campaign
launched on Monday
in order to finish their documentary,
called “End of the
Line,” which follows the dramatic
events from when the
Metropolitan Transportation
Authority first announced the
closure in 2016 to Governor
Cuomo’s 11th-hour power
move to avert the dreaded
shutdown.
The film’s director, Emmett
Adler, lived off the L
train’s Montrose Avenue
stop in Williamsburg during
the events depicted in
his film.
“It was my total lifeline,”
said Adler. “I couldn’t imagine
how we were going to
adapt and what it was go-
Community leaders say that Chinese businesses are suffering amid the coronavirus
scare, since many locals are afraid to leave their house.
Photo by Zoe Freilich
day season. Around this time of
year, businesses are doing banquets
for the new year,” Chiu
said. “But people just want to
be safe rather than sorry and
it has affected catering halls,
restaurants, eateries.”
Businesses in Flushing,
Queens have been particularly
hard-hit, according to
Chiu, who claimed that revenue
has dropped by “half” as
locals are scared to even leave
their homes.
Last week, reps with the
Flushing Town Hall canceled
the venue’s famous Lunar New
Year Chinese Temple Bazaar
out of fear of the illness.
Stores in Sunset Park, which
boasts a large Chinese population,
have suffered smaller
losses because the area’s residents
mostly emigrated from
southern China — hundreds
of miles from where the disease
originated, according to
Chiu.
“Sunset Park seems a lot
better,” he said. “But it seems
that business is 25 to 30 percent
slower.”
Outside the community,
fear of the virus has fueled
racial misperceptions of Chinese
residents — such as the
idea that Chinese people who
wear medical face masks
may have contracted the virus
themselves, community
leaders said.
“Some people are trying
to target Chinese people who
wear the mask,” said Ansen
Tang, an employee at the
United Chinese Association
in Gravesend. “They just wear
them to prevent getting sick…
And now there’s a fear that
if you wear a mask that you
people will give you a look or
stay away from you.”
Sunset Park schools have
also had alarmist reactions to
the virus — sending Chinese
students home for wearing
face masks or showing faint
signs of illness, Chiu said.
“I hear parents complain to
me that the school or a teacher
sent their kid home because
they’re wearing a mask, or
they sneeze, or show minor
signs of illness,” he explained.
Rather than panic, Chiu encouraged
Brooklynites to go
about their routine and maintain
good hygiene.
“My advice is to keep calm,
stay informed, and follow best
practices,” he said.
Fundraiser launch for train documentary
local businesses and residents,
Councilman Antonio
Reynoso (D–Bushwick) due
to him being outspoken in favor
of progressive transportation
initiatives, and transit
scribe John Surico.
Cuomo’s decision to shutdown
the shutdown exposed
the dysfunction within the
Transit Authority, according
to Adler, and showed how
politics undercuts the need
to create better public transportation
across the country,
which the World Economic
Forum ranked at 16th place
internationally.
“We want to highlight
these issues and say, ‘Enough
it’s enough,’ it’s ridiculous
that we’re 16th in the world,”
he said. “We just want to
bring the public into this
and get all eyes on it so that
it can be fixed.”
Adler is still looking to sit
down with some transit experts
form the US Department
of Transportation and
high-ranking officials, including
Gov. Cuomo, outgoing
New York City Transit
President Andy Byford, and
Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the
documentarian believes the
film will help clarify the complex
machinations behind the
MTA’s struggles.
“We think that a cinematic
presentation can go a
long way in making it accessible
to the broader public,”
he said.
ing to do to the neighborhood.”
The film explores the
shutdown through footage
of press conferences and interviews
with people affected
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