BP04242020 - Page 4

4 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 April 24–30, 2020 Sharing company comes to Williamsburg White Fox Scooters Coverage gaps Bureaucracy blamed for mask shortage Disabled at risk Major crimes fall 30% Group homes fi nd little help from state in hunt for supplies A Life’s Worc staffer and resident during the pandemic. Cops cuff man for alleged attack on ex-girlfriend in Fort Greene ANGELS... 1 Metrotech Center North, Third Floor, Brooklyn NY 11201 (718) 260–2500 Online at www.BrooklynPaper.com Brooklyn Paper incorporates the following newspapers: Brooklyn Heights Paper, Downtown News, Park Slope Paper, Sunset Park Paper, Windsor Terrace Paper, Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill Paper, Fort Greene–Clinton Hill Paper, Bay Ridge Paper, Bensonhurst Paper, Bushwick Paper, Greenpoint Paper, Williamsburg Paper Published weekly at PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Victoria Schneps-Yunis CEO AND CO-PUBLISHER Joshua Schneps EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Meaghan McGoldrick (718) 260–4505 DEPUTY EDITOR Aidan Graham (718) 260–4577 ARTS EDITOR Bill Roundy (718) 260–4507 STAFF REPORTERS Rose Adams (718) 260–8306 Kevin Duggan (718) 260–2511 Jessica Park (718) 260–2523 Ben Verde (718) 260–2525 ADVERTISING STAFF DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES Gayle H. Greenberg (718) 260–4585 Jay Pelc (718) 260–2570 Andrew Mark (718) 260–2578 PRODUCTION STAFF ART DIRECTOR Leah Mitch (718) 260–4510 WEB DEVELOPER & ILLUSTRATOR Sylvan Migdal (718) 260–4509 E-mail news and arts releases to newsroom@schnepsmedia.com E-mail calendar listings to calendar@schnepsmedia.com To e-mail a staff member, use first initial last name @schnepsmedia.com HOW TO CONTACT THE PAPER © Copyright 2020 Brooklyn Courier Life LLC. All Rights Reserved. Unsolicited submissions become the property of Brooklyn Courier Life LLC and may be used, copied, sublicensed, adapted, transmitted, distributed, publicly performed, published, displayed or deleted as Brooklyn Courier Life LLC sees fi t. Unless otherwise agreed in writing, Brooklyn Courier Life LLC will not give any PUBLISHER EMERITUS Ed Weintrob compensation, credit, or notice of its use of unsolicited submissions. Wheels For Wishes benefiting Make-A-Wish® Metro New York Your Car Donations Matter NOW More Than Ever! WheelsForWishes.org �� STAY INFORMED! Get daily updates on all the news in your neighborhood by signing up for our daily e-mails at BrooklynPaper.com/updates We’re still accepting donations and pick ups 100% Tax Deductible Minimal To No Human Contact Free Vehicle Pick Up ANYWHERE We Accept Most Vehicles Running or Not Call:(917)336-1254 Papagni said she heard from the owners of Williamsburg’s Barano and Greenpoint’s Paulie Gee’s, both offering their help. Meanwhile, the Angels are keeping up their regular efforts to feed those in need, after being designated an essential service by the governor. Volunteers are packing and passing out meals to those who need them from a table outside the Angelmobile, the group’s bright blue mobile soup kitchen. The Angelmobile helps the group distribute over a thousand meals a week at five locations across north Brooklyn. During the pandemic, the Angels say they have seen an overwhelming amount of support pour in from all corners of the community. A GoFundMe launched on April 8 has already raised over $30,000 for the group, a baseline for even stronger volunteer efforts in the future, according to Angels co-founder Neil Sheehan. Post-pandemic, Sheehan predicts a renaissance of organizing, with more and more neighbors looking to help out in more creative ways, beyond just providing food. “I think we’re going to be in a position where people will come up with other organic ideas about how to help neighbors, and we can be the platform for that,” Sheehan said. “We’re not a feeding program we’re a program that is about neighbors helping neighbors, you don’t have to limit it to feeding.” Continued from page 1 88TH PRECINCT Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Domestic violence Police arrested a man for allegedly attacking his girlfriend and stealing her phone at his Monument Walk apartment on April 13. The victim told police that she was arguing with her beau about him not returning her phone calls at the apartment near Myrtle Avenue at 5:15 pm, before the suspect allegedly slapped her face before grabbing her phone. Cops arrested the man the next day on felony robbery charges, according to authorities. One order of crime A gang of goons robbed an e-biker on Dekalb Avenue on April 14. The victim told police that the six scoundrels surrounded him at St. James Place at around 8:45 pm before grabbing the bike and hightailing it. Four crooks, two wheels Four fiends beat up a delivery man and stole his phone on Park Avenue on April 17. The victim told police that the brutes pushed him off his bike and punched and kicked him at Waverly Avenue at 6:40 pm before stealing his phone. Cashing in Looters stole an ATM from a Fulton Street diner on the night of April 12. An employee told police that the pillagers broke the lock on the front door of the eatery at Vanderbilt Avenue between 6 pm and 4:45 am the next morning, before taking cash from the dispenser. Eat that! A bandit took off with a mountain bike from a Fulton Street restaurant on April 18. The victim told police that the purloiner got into the eatery between St. James Place and Grand Avenue at 9:16 am and tried to take the cash register, before leaving with just the bicycle. Wheely bad Some nogoodnik nabbed a guy’s e-bike at Ashland Place on April 13. The victim told police that the rascal took his bike between Willoughby Street and Myrtle Avenue at 6:40 pm, before wheeling away. Bag bandit A ne’er-do-well snatched a woman’s bag on Fulton Street on April 9. The victim told police that the malefactor came from behind her at Waverly Avenue at 10:45 am before swiping. Citibike swipe A thief nabbed a Citibike on Myrtle Avenue on April 14. The victim told police that he left the rental bike leaning against a tree between Clermont Avenue and Adelphi Street at 4 pm, and when he came back 25 minutes later he found it missing. What a tool! A raider bagged a bunch of tools from a N. Elliot Walk garage on April 19. The victim told police that someone broke into the storage facility near Myrtle Avenue around 2 pm and stole weed wackers, leaf blowers, and a wrench. Take a bike! Some freebooter stole a deliveryman’s e-bike on Classon Avenue on April 19. The victim told police that he was delivering pizza to a customer between Fulton Street and Putnam Avenue at 9:20 pm, when he saw the punk hop on his bike and zoom off northbound. — Kevin Duggan 76TH PRECINCT Carroll Gardens Cobble Hill–Red Hook Padlock punch Cops cuffed a woman for allegedly punching a man in the face and smacking him with a padlock on Bay 16th Street on April 18. The victim told police that he was staying at his friend’s house between Benson Avenue and 86th Street when the suspect allegedly punched him in the face at 4:30 am, and then hit him in the back with a padlock. Snack attack A thief stole a water bottle and an apple from a 66th Street hotel on April 18. An employee told police that the looter broke the lock on the hotel’s door on the corner of 18th Avenue at 4:30 am, before nabbing a water bottle and an apple. Rough robbery A brute violently punched a woman in the face and stole her phone on Avenue U on April 11. The victim told police that she got into an argument with the brute on the corner of E. Fifth Street at 2:55 pm when the good-for-nothing punched her in the face and fled westbound undetected on Avenue U. — Rose Adams POLICE BLOTTER Find more online every Wednesday at BrooklynPaper.com/blotter By Kevin Duggan Brooklyn Paper In the wake of New York State’s legalization of electric scooters, New Jersey-based company White Fox Scooters recently rolled out the borough’s first e-scooter sharing service in Williamsburg, offering dockable e-scooters for Brooklynites to get around without breaking a sweat, said the firm’s founder. “People want an easy commuting option that’s grab-andgo, less strenuous, but environmentally friendly,” said Siddharth Saxena, White Fox’s chief executive officer . Unlike dockless e-scooters that have popped up in other cities, White Fox requires riders to park the twowheelers at various docking ports around the borough — similar to the Citibike bike sharing program. The company opened its first New York docking station with four scooters at the luxe William Vale hotel on N. 12th Street in Williamsburg on April 14, and plans to add another at the Union Hotel on Degraw Street in Gowanus this week, Saxena said. By the end of the summer, Saxena says the firm plans to open up to 50 docks — which allow users 18-and-up to check out scooters with a tap on the company’s app. Individual rides cost a flat $1 fee to start, plus ¢15 for each minute. Users can also buy unlimited rides for a day for $20, or a month for $99. Scooters can travel up to 15 miles-per-hour, and their batteries can take you as far as 10 to 30 miles-per-charge, depending on the model, according to Saxena. The app doesn’t let you conclude rides unless the scooters are secured into a docking station, and users face fines between $15 and $25 for leaving them in the street. The company launched in Jersey City in August of 2019, and had been eager to scoot across the Hudson — which was finally made possible by a law change in the 2021 New York State budget, according to Saxena. The firm has been allowed to continue operations amid the coronavirus pandemic and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resulting stayat home order, as they are deemed an “essential” transportation company — and they’ve used that privilege to offer free rides to healthcare workers and emergency personnel, according to Saxena, who claimed staff will be sanitizing the scooters after every ride to reduce the risk of spreading the virus. And yet, while they are still operating, much of their potential paying clientele has resisted traveling during the pandemic, causing other escooter share companies to struggle with plummeting demand — although Saxena remained hopeful that the relatively low-risk of contagion while riding a two-wheeler would make the scooters an attractive option for concerned Brooklynites. “The demand that’s there is definitely not very profitable and lucrative right now, but we want to provide this transportation option because it’s safer than public transit and ride shares,” he said. “It’s one of the ways to get fresh air in a sociallydistant friendly ways while being non-strenuous, non sweating and it gets you out and about.” Scoot the place up White Fox Scooters launched its e-scooter rental service in Williamsburg on April 14. By Ben Verde Brooklyn Paper First responders are being denied life-saving medical equipment by a maze of bureaucratic red tape, according to a cadre of elected officials and labor leaders, who lamented that “essential workers” are forced to jump through unnecessary hoops to obtain basic face masks and rubber gloves — and often with deadly results. “We can’t be using a business as-usual model when there is urgency on the ground,” said Borough President Eric Adams. Some New Yorkers on the front lines of healthcare, transit, and law enforcement are forced to ration supplies — including reusing protective medical masks for seven continuous days, which stands in direct violation of guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control encouraging caregivers to change masks in between rooms of infected patients. Compounding the problem, some government bureaucrats have been reluctant to distribute supplies as-needed, for fear of running out later. A particularly egregious example came when MTA officials declined to provide face masks to bus drivers in Mid-march, who come in contact with hundreds of people daily — despite stockpiling over 15,000 face masks at the Flatbush Bus Depot in Marine Park, according to Transit Workers Union Local 100 Vice President JP Patafio. The union leaders filed an official grievance against the authority on March 23, and the agency eventually ordered masks for bus operators — but not enough to ensure proper precautions were met, even as the face mask stockpile remains at the Bus Depot, according to Patafio. “It was just bureaucracy getting in the way of sound safety and health policies in the time of a pandemic,” Patafio said. “I think because of that, more operators got sick than should have.” Transit bigwigs systemwide have been fearful of their mask supply running out, and have cited CDC guidance that only healthcare professionals needed to wear masks — despite the high foot traffic that train operators and bus drivers come in close contact with. MTA officials only decided to ignore those guidelines and distribute over 75,000 masks to front line workers after the agency’s chairman Pat Foye tested positive for the virus. In a statement, city bus czar Craig Cipriano pointed to the widespread availability of masks. “Bus operators have access to new surgical masks every day and to a new N95 mask every week, and through a herculean effort the MTA, which has more employees than any transportation system in North America, is steadily increasing supply of masks even in the face of worldwide shortages,” Cipriano said. By Aidan Graham Brooklyn Paper Major crimes have fallen nearly 30 percent in the borough as Brooklynites take shelter indoors during the novel coronavirus outbreak. The NYPD’s seven major crime categories — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and car theft — recorded 1,397 criminal infractions during the 28-day period that ended on April 12, marking a sizable decrease from the 1,989 recorded crimes during the same period last year. Most substantially, there have been 67-percent less recorded rapes in Brooklyn, which have fallen from 57 to 19 — although NYPD brass speculate that some of the drop results from victims declining to file police reports, according to a department press release. Grand larceny was the crime category with the highest drop in reported crimes, having gone from 828 to 407 over the 28-day timeframe — marking a 51-percent decline. Three categories of major crimes, however, have seen an increase in Brooklyn during the pandemic compared with the same timeframe in 2019 — as murder has gone up from four to six, burglaries have risen from 222 to 256, and car thefts have climbed from 97 to 150. And on top of affecting crime rates, the pandemic has also impacted the enforcement of laws, policing, and the court system. On April 15, 6,274 uniformed NYPD officers — 17.3-percent of the entire police force — called out of work sick, and 4,080 members of the department had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to department stats. Mayor Bill de Blasio, however, contended that officers are typically young, making them less susceptible to becoming fatally sick. “So, the extent they’ve been exposed to the virus, they’re coming back rapidly, they’re coming back after, you know, somewhere between a week and two weeks,” he said at an April 6 press conference. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has also taken significant measures to avoid spreading the infection — including not prosecuting many low-level offenses. Since the crisis began, Brooklyn’s top cop has declined to prosecute around 300 cases, according to a spokesman for the Disdtrict Attonrey. For cases that do move forward, courts have gone to enormous lengths to avoid gathering people in person. Arraignments now take place over video conferences, and minimal staff are physically present in courthouses. By Ben Verde Brooklyn Paper Due to an oversight from the state government, group homes for the developmentally disabled are now forced to fend for themselves as they try to buy much-needed protective medical equipment — which are in short supply and rising in cost amid the novel coronavirus, according to advocates. Facilities that care for the developmentally disabled are not listed as priority recipients of personal protective equipment under state guidelines, which only prioritize hospitals, EMS operators, nursing homes, and dialysis centers — which leaves these homes scrambling to find medical supplies, such as face masks and rubber gloves. The lack of regulatory help from the state has forced financially well-off group homes to compete on the open market for supplies, while less cash-flush facilities have been forced to rely on donations and handmade replacements, according to advocates. “What should happen is that it is not based on the financial resources, but it is based upon the actual need of the particular facility throughout the state, so that those that need the PPE get it,” said Tim Clune, the executive director of Disability Rights New York. “All of these congregatecare facilities must have the necessary protective gear to prevent the spread of COVID-19.” DRNY filed a formal complaint on April 9 with the United States Department of Health and Human Services against Governor Andrew Cuomo for failure to prioritize group homes and other congregate care settings as priority recipients of protective equipment — but that has yet to yield positive results.. Janet Koch, the head of Life’s Worc, which operates group homes for the developmentally disabled throughout New York City and Long Island, said she and a cadre of other group homes on Long Island pooled together $30,000 each at the start of the pandemic through a “providers alliance” to buy protective medical supplies — allowing them to scoop up the equipment before it was all bought up. /www.BrooklynPaper.com /www.BrooklynPaper.com link link link /www.BrooklynPaper.com /www.BrooklynPaper.com /WheelsForWishes.org /updates /blotter link link