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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 16 pages • Vol.Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint 42, No. 25 • June 21–27, 2019
Pols repeal religious loophole for vaccines amid outbreak NO EXCEPTIONS
Take two
CB2 rejects jail
expansion plan
More yeshivas shut
over measles vaccine
CHIN FASHION
Walt Whitman inspires local beard contest
Bearded Brooklynites Albert Vidal and Nayland Blake show
off their trophy-winning facial hair.
Subway saboteur!
Yes, looks like there’s another one
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Albany politicians passed a
package of bills repealing the religious
exemption for vaccines on
June 13, amid a measles outbreak
that has swept through Brooklyn’s
Orthodox Jewish communities
and infected almost 1,000
people statewide.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the
bills from both legislative chambers
into law, which will require
children across the state to get vaccinated
against a slate of illnesses
before they can attend schools at
all levels from day care to high
school, in order to stem the ongoing
epidemic caused by a spread
of fear-mongering and false information,
according to one of the
legislation’s lead sponsors.
“New York is at the center of
the worst measles outbreak in over
a quarter of a century,” Assemblyman
Jeff Dinowitz (D-Bronx)
said in a statement. “This outbreak
has spread because misinformation
and irresponsible rhetoric has
scared people away from vaccinating
their children. We need to
end the nonmedical exemptions
so preventable diseases will not
spread in New York again.”
Dinowitz’s bill, A2371 , along
with its sister bill in the Senate,
S2994 , by Manhattan lawmaker
Brad Hoylman, passed less than a
week ahead of the end of legislative
session on June 19 and will mandate
that all children in the state
who are medically able have to get
immunized against a host of illnesses,
including measles, mumps,
hepatitis B, and others.
The new bill will protect New
Yorkers who cannot get vaccinated
for medical reasons and send a
message that vaccines are safe and
effective in controlling the spread
of contagious diseases, according
to Hoylman.
“Today, the state Senate is sending
a strong message to New Yorkers
that vaccines are safe and effective,”
the pol said in a statement.
“We’re putting science ahead of
misinformation about vaccines
and standing up for the rights of
immunocompromised children
and adults, pregnant women and
infants who can’t be vaccinated
through no fault of their own.”
State law previously allowed
parents to opt their kids out of the
mandatory vaccinations using religious
exemptions, but lawmakers
sprang into action after one of the
largest measles epidemics in the
country swept across the Empire
State beginning last fall.
To date, 924 people statewide
have been infected with the highlycontagious
pathogen, with 571 of
those in Brooklyn, concentrated
primarily in the borough’s Orthodox
Jewish communities in Williamsburg
and Borough Park, according
to data by the city and state
departments of health.
Just this week , the city shut
down three Williamsburg yeshivas
— one of them a repeat offender
— for admitting unvaccinated
students and staff, despite
an April 9 order by Health Commissioner
Oxiris Barbot requiring
all people living, working, or
going to school in certain northern
Brooklyn postal codes to get
the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine
or face a $1,000 fine.
One legislator criticized the
new law, saying that it violated
the First Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution.
“I am in favor of, and continue
to advocate for widespread vaccination.
However, the separation of
Church and State as guaranteed by
the First Amendment is a cornerstone
of our Democracy,” said state
Sen. Simcha Felder, whose district
includes Borough Park, where city
health officials have confirmed
100 cases of the illness.
The legislator added in an
emailed statement to this paper
that the new law marked a slippery
slope, particularly in times of increased
hate crimes and rising anti-
Semitism across the state.
“Any detraction of religious liberty
by the state sets a dangerous
precedent. Especially in these
times, passing a law that eliminates
free exercise of religious
rights would set us down a slippery
slope. The state has many
tools available to manage this outbreak
that stop short of tampering
with religious freedom.”
The law previously met with opposition
by a small group of antivaxxers
who protested a rally held
by Hoylman and his colleagues
in support of the bill at City Hall
on May 29, with one anti-vaxxer
claiming that the small number of
religious exemptions did not impact
the spread of measles.
“It’s outrageous to try and take
our religious exemptions away,
when we make up less than half
of 1 percent of the unvaccinated
population,” said Queens resident
Adreana Rodriguez told
this paper .
But a similar law which state
legislators passed in California last
year — which the New York bill
was modeled after — led to an
increase in immunization there
and Hoylman said at the May rally
that anti-vaxxers use the religious
exemption as a loophole, despite
their objections being rooted in
junk science — not faith.
“The religious exemption is
a loophole,” said the Manhattan
lawmaker.
One of the main claims by
anti-vaxxers is that vaccines
cause autism, which the Center
of Disease Control has proven to
be untrue.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
The city closed down two
more Williamsburg yeshivas
for letting unvaccinated kids
and staff into their schools,
the Department of Health announced
Thursday.
Officials shut the UTA of
Williamsburg/Yeshiva Torah
V’Yirah at 590 Bedford Ave.
— for the second time — for
not providing enough proof of
immunity for a child who was
at the school and for allowing
unvaccinated kids and staff
on site, despite a measles outbreak
that has swept through
Orthodox Jewish communities
in Brooklyn since last fall.
The Department of Health
also forced the closure of UTA
212 at 212 Williamsburg St.
for letting in 35 students who
were either unvaccinated or did
not have the required dosage
of the measles-mumps-rubella
vaccine, according to the department.
The city’s announcement
comes just two days after it
closed the Central UTA Boys
Division at 762 Wythe Ave.
and officials have now shut 11
schools since the April 9 order
by the commissioner for all residents
and people who work or
go to school in certain Williamsburg
postal codes to get
vaccinated against the highly
contagious malady.
Both learning facilities will
have to provide documentation
that all students and staff are
vaccinated or have immunity
before they can reopen and the
department’s chief said that
these closures send a message
that the city won’t stop until all
schools comply.
“The spread of measles may
be slowing down but we are
not,” said Health Commissioner
Oxiris Barbot. “This is a message
to all schools that have
been ordered to exclude unvaccinated
children — we will
not stop our enforcement until
the outbreak comes to an end.
School staff must do their part
to help us end this outbreak and
keep New Yorkers safe.”
Photos by Caroline Ourso
13-year-old Clementine Macleod and 9-year-old Malcolm Higgins did not let their youth
get in their way, taking home trophies in the Best Teen and Best Kid categories.
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
It was a hairy situation!
Follically gifted New Yorkers
went chin to chin at Fort
Greene Park for the Walt Whitman
Beard and Mustache Competition
on June 8.
Part of a series of events
hosted by the Brooklyn Public
Library, the contest was meant
to celebrate the 200th birthday
of the legendary Brooklyn bard,
who moonlighted as a staunch
beard-proponent.
“The beard is a great sanitary
protection to the throat —
for purposes of health it should
always be worn, just as much as
the hair of the head should be,”
Whitman once said.
Heading the advice of the
famed Brooklyn wordsmith,
unshaven competitors flocked
to the Fort Greene playground
to compete in eight facial hairrelated
categories, judged by
professional comedians Sue
Smith, Jordan Temple, and
Murf Meyer.
The event’s marquee honor, the
Good Gray Poet award for best in
show, was bestowed to Nayland
Blake for his Whitman-esque
whiskers.
“It was very exciting,” he said.
“I felt like I was doing some honor
to Whitman’s legacy.”
Blake, who had originally entered
the competition for ‘Best Natural
Beard’ before taking home the
event’s top honor as consolation,
said he had been training for this
moment for years.
“I’ve had a beard for most of my
adult life, but the last time I trimmed
this particular iteration was about
six years ago,” he said.
MEASLES
IN BROOKLYN
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
They’re giving it another go.
Community Board 2 put forward a
slate of changes they would like to see
in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s borough jails
plan while rejecting his overall project
at a June 12 meeting.
The Downtown board members overwhelmingly
passed a largely symbolic
motion at their monthly general meeting
not to approve Hizzoner’s request
to raze Boerum Hill’s House of Detention
and rebuild a larger jail in its stead
as part of his goal to close the Rikers Island
jail complex by 2027 — but nevertheless
attached a laundry list of stipulations
because the city’s plan does not
go far enough, according to one civic
honcho.
“The current plan that the city has
given us is not sufficient and it should be
really reconsidered for what we feel are
the future needs,” said Carlton Gordon,
Community Board 2 passed a
largely symbolic motion to reject
the mayor’s borough jail plan —
which will affect Downtown’s
House of Detention — while
attaching a host of recommendations
on how the city should
change its project.
the head of the board’s land use committee
which devised the demands.
The committee asked for adjustments
similar those the civic group previously
included in a motion to approve
the city proposal, which the full board
narrowly rejected at its heated May 8
general meeting that was frequently
interrupted by protesters opposing the
construction of any new jails.
At the comparatively quiet gathering
on Wednesday, the group once
again demanded the city cut the proposed
new Atlantic Avenue facility’s
size in half and reduce its capacity
from 1,437 to 875 beds, by taking
into account recent and future criminal
justice reforms in Albany, moving
some incarcerated individuals to
a new and separate location for mental
health and substance misuse treatment,
and by building a jail on Staten Island
— the only borough exempt from de
Blasio’s scheme.
Officials with the city’s Department
of Correction previously said that there
weren’t enough jailed Staten Islanders
to justify building a separate facility
there.
The land use committee fleshed out
its original proposal demanding the city
expand alternative sentencing programs
like the Red Hook Community Justice
Center, better train corrections officers,
improve conditions at Rikers Island
until its closure, and funnel some
of the funds for the project toward affordable
housing, education, and public
programs in the community.
The board missed its official — but
purely advisory — chance to vote on
the jail, as per the city’s Uniform Land
Use Review Process for the new build,
when it failed to pass that motion at last
month’s general meeting.
Chairman Lenny Singletary told the
board that he tapped the land use committee
to come up with another recommendation
after a conversation with a
rep from Borough President Eric Adams’
office. The Beep indicated at his
public hearing on the jails last week that
he wanted to hear from the board before
he plans makes his also purely advisory
recommendation on the lockup
on July 3.
One board member questioned the
effectiveness of making these demands
while at the same time rejecting the
city’s proposal.
“If you are invited to the party and
you don’t have a ticket to get into Coney
Island, you don’t get on any of the
rides. So you’re standing outside saying
no we’re not going in, for whatever
reason, and now we’re talking about
all the rides inside Coney Island,” said
John Dew. “If you’re voting no, what
you’re going to say underneath is going
to have less value.”
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
He’s off the rails!
Police are trying to track
down some wacko who they
say put straphangers in harm’s
way by throwing materials
on the rails at several Brooklyn
subway stations during
the last month.
The scofflaw threw various
objects on the tracks at four stops
along the R line from May 9 until June
9, causing one train to barrel over a fire
extinguisher and burst it, according to
the authorities.
The culprit, whom cops describe as a
man between 20 and 30 years-old, started
his spree by throwing debris on the Manhattan
bound D-train tracks at Atlantic
Avenue-Barclays Center in Boerum
Hill around, although nobody was hurt
as a result.
The delinquent disrupter then continued
on June 5, when he threw a fire extinguisher,
along with a bank of lights,
a bag of concrete mix, and a metal shim
on the Bay Ridge-bound Rtrain,
which a tube ran over,
destroying the extinguisher
and releasing its chemicals
into the Union Street station
in Gowanus at 2 a.m., according
to the authorities.
About 40 minutes later the
prankster put a shovel on the
tracks also heading south at
the 45th Street station in Sunset
Park and on June 9 — feeling festive
— he threw some Christmas lights on
the Manhattan-bound tracks of the Ntrain’s
Ninth Street station in Park Slope
at around 2:30 a.m., without causing
damage or harm in either cases.
He was last seen wearing a hoodie,
sunglasses, black pants, and dark-colored
boots and faces reckless endangerment
charges if the Boys in Blue get a hold of
him, according to authorities.
Anyone with information in regard
to this incident is asked to call the
NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at
1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish,
1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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