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Since 1978 • (718) 260–2500 • Brooklyn, NY • ©2019 12 pages • Vol.Serving Brownstone Brooklyn, Sunset Park, Williamsburg & Greenpoint 42, No. 31 • August 2–8, 2019
CRISIS OF CYCLIST DEATHS SHOCKS BORO, CITY
ANOTHER CYCLIST KILLED
A truck struck and killed a cyclist in Sunset
Park this morning, marking the 18th cyclist
death this year.
The 37-yearold
driver remained
on the
13 CYCLISTS KILLED
IN BROOKLYN IN 2019
18 IN CITY OVERALL
scene, and the investigation remains
ongoing, authorities say.
Police set up a crime scene surrounding
the fallen bike, which lay
on Third Avenue near a pool of
vomit. The white van that forced
the cyclist into the trucker’s path
Fighting for D’town history
Demonstrators rally to oppose demolition of abolitionist house
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By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
A truck driver struck and killed
a 30-year-old cyclist in Sunset Park
on Monday.
The victim, identified as Em
Samolewicz, was traveling north
along Third Avenue near 36th
Street when she
swerved into the
path of a massive
18-wheel Freightliner
truck traveling
behind her to
avoid a door of a
parked van at 9
a.m., cops said.
Emergency responders
rushed
the victim to
NYU Langone
Hospital-Brooklyn
where she was pronounced
dead, according to police.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
GET YOUR
VOTE
Mayor:
I have
a plan!
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
a sweeping, multimillion
dollar plan to vastly
expand the city’s bike lane network
in the wake of a bloody
year that’s already claimed the
lives of 17 cyclists, most of them
in Brooklyn.
De Blasio will funnel $58.4
million to the Department of
Transportation to construct 80
miles of protected bike lanes
by the time he leaves office in
2021, as part of a grand scheme
to lay out a connected network
of bike paths that span the Five
Boroughs, and hopefully prevent
future fatalities, according
to the mayor.
“The fact that this all happened
in such a small amount of
time — it’s a crisis and an emergency,”
de Blasio said at a press
conference at Bay Ridge’s PS
170. “We’ve got to see this end.
It cannot go on like this. These
last weeks have been something
that should never be repeated
in this city.”
Out of the 17 cyclist’s deaths,
12 occurred in Brooklyn, and the
borough routinely rates as the
deadliest place to bike in New
York, according to figures provided
by the DOT, which showed
that more cyclists have died in
Kings County than other boroughs
in all but four years since
2008.
So, it seems fitting that — in
addition to the 30 annual miles
of bike lanes — the mayor’s plan
calls for the construction of an
additional 75 miles of bicycling
infrastructure by in 10 priority
districts, seven of which are in
Kings County.
These priority zones include
parts of Bay Ridge, Borough
Park, Midwood, Sheepshead
Bay, Coney Island, East
Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant,
Bushwick, Brownsville, and East
New York.
The department will use most
of the funds to hire 80 new transportation
workers, adding to its
existing 110 staff members.
2020 IN TODAY!
remained barricaded behind police
caution tape, according to
witnesses.
The victim’s death marks New
York City’s 18th cyclist fatality in
2019, the 13th in Brooklyn, and
the first fatality since Mayor Bill
de Blasio announced an expansion
of the city’s bike lane network
last Thursday in response to
the mounting bike deaths.
“The fact that this all happened
in such a small amount of
time — it’s a crisis and an emergency,”
de Blasio said aduring
last Thursday’s presser.
Under the bike plan, the city
will install 80 miles of protected
bike paths, police will issue more
tickets to vehicles parked in bike
lanes, and transit officials will redesign
50 intersections.
The mayor’s plan would create
a two-way protected bike lane
on Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park.
Some cycling advocates think it’s
time to make Third Avenue more
bike-friendly, too.
“Third Avenue, which has eight
lanes for cars and zero for bikes,
is a product of a bygone era when
transportation decisions were made
with the sole intention of moving as
many vehicles as possible through
our neighborhoods, without regard
to the people living and working in
those neighborhoods,” said Ellen
McDermott the deputy director of
Transportation Alternatives.
The first cyclist killed in 2019
was struck only eight blocks from
Monday’s incident, McDermott
added.
Local politicians expressed their
sadness after Monday’s tragedy.
“This crisis is real and mounting,”
Councilman Carlos Menchaca (DSunset
Park) said on Twitter .
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
his new $58.4 million
bike safety plan, which
will start by adding 80 miles
of protected cycle lanes
across the five boroughs
by the end of 2021.
In Brooklyn, the first phase
of the bike lane expansion will
bridge the large gap in existing
cycling paths between Red Hook
and Bay Ridge, with new protected
bike lanes to create a continuous
route along the Kings
County waterfront by 2021, linking
Greenpoint via the borough’s
western and southern coasts to
the frontiers of East New York,
where riders can continue onto
existing Queens bike lanes to
distant Rockaway.
De Blasio also vowed to
speed up construction of an ongoing
Fourth Avenue bike lane
through Park Slope and Sunset
Park, connecting with existing
bike paths that will take riders
to Downtown Brooklyn, Prospect
Park, and Bay Ridge, in
addition to forging new eastbound
routes connecting with
Ocean Parkway.
Hizzoner also vowed to resist
pressure from bike-wary
community boards that shoot
down city proposals to install
bike lanes through their neighborhoods,
saying that, while he
valued their on-the-ground perspective,
that he would use his
executive mandate to roll out
the cycling infrastructure regardless
of any grassroots resistance.
“Community boards’ voices
should always be heard, because
sometimes what a community
board offers is a perspective
on how to do it better,” he said.
“But you know, inaction is not acceptable.
That’s the standard I’ve
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
Protesters rallied last week in
opposition to a developer’s scheme
to raze a historic Downtown townhouse
formerly owned by prominent
abolitionists.
The June 25 gathering drew attention
to an effort to topple 227
Duffield St. — located between
Willoughby and Fulton streets —
after owners filed for permits to
demolish the mid-19th century
home to anti-slavery activists,
which may have served escaped
slaves as a stop along the Underground
Railroad, according to one
demonstrator.
“This was America’s first civil
rights movement. This was blacks
and whites working together to
end slavery — and in Brooklyn,”
said the Jacob Morris, director of
the Harlem Historical Society who
came from the distant isle of Manhattan
to join the demonstration.
“It’s very important to have this
consciousness. It’s so easy for
people to forget and for history
to get lost.”
Abolitionists Thomas and Harriet
Lee-Truesdell lived at the
three-story townhouse, which sits
atop a network of tunnels that once
likely hid black families fleeing
southern slave catchers, according
to Morris.
“Personally, I’m absolutely positive
there was an underground railroad
there,” said the historian, who
got the city to co-name two blocks
between Willoughby and Fulton
streets “Abolition Place” in 2007.
Current owner Samiel Hanasab
bought the property piecemeal
from the late Joy Chatel and her
family, known locally as “Mama
Joy,” who got the city to back down
from its plan to raze the structure
in 2007.
A contractor for the landlord
filed for permits to demolish the
building on June 5, and the owner
has been busy issuing eviction notices
to three tenants, but activists
and historians are holding to
hope that a review by the city’s
Landmarks Preservation Commission
will result in a special landmarking
designation that would
prevent its destruction, and dogooder
group Circle for Justice Innovations
Photo by Trey Pentecost
is asking locals to sign
an online petition supporting the
preservation effort.
A lawyer for Hanasab did not
return a request for comment by
press time.
A lot adjacent to the historic
house recently became home to
a temporary “pop-up” park being
managed by the Economic Development
Corporation, which the
organization plans to transform
into a fully fledged park over the
coming years.
The agency is also hosting a
competition to erect some sort of
abolitionist artwork to accompany
the new green space.
Protesters demanded the city preserve the historic townhouse 227 Duffield St., which used
to be owned by abolitionists and might have been a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Outrage, grief
mingle at vigil
See MAYOR on page 10
By Rose Adams
Brooklyn Paper
Mourners gathered on Tuesday
evening to hold vigil for a fallen
Brooklyn cyclist, whose life was
cut short by a tractor-trailer that
struck her on Third Avenue in Sunset
Park Monday.
“She was kind, she was generous,”
said a teary-eyed friend
of slain cyclist Em Samolewicz.
“We were both doored last week,
but she didn’t make it.”
Samolewicz, a 30-year-old Sunset
Park resident, was traveling
north along Third Avenue near
36th Street at 9 a.m. on July 29,
when she swerved into the path of
a massive Freightliner truck while
trying to avoid being doored by a
parked van, cops said.
Paramedics rushed the victim
to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn,
where she was pronounced
dead, according to police.
Samolewicz’s death marks
the 18th cyclist fatality citywide,
nearly double the 10 bikers who
died in 2018 — the safest year
on record. She’s the 13th cyclist
to die in Brooklyn, where more
cyclists have perished compared
to other boroughs in eight of the
last 12 years.
Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio
called the cyclists’ deaths “a crisis
and emergency,” and announced
his plan to dramatically expand the
city’s bike lane network , adding
80 miles of protected bike lanes
— including a two-way path along
Sunset Park’s Fourth Avenue. But
to many mourners at Samolewicz’s
vigil, the mayor’s plan is too little,
too late.
“The Fourth Avenue protected
bike lane was supposed to be
completed from Atlantic to 65th
Street last year,” Councilman Brad
Lander (D-Park Slope) told the
crowd. “We’ll never know if it had
been completed, if Em would’ve
been riding on that protected bike
lane instead of here.”
Councilman Brad Lander of Park Slope was one of three local pols — including Councilman
Carlos Menchaca and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez — to advocate for better bike
infrastructure during Samolewicz’s vigil on July 30.
Biking advocates blamed
elected officials for pandering
to motorists for the mounting
cyclist deaths.
“The parking culture that generations
of mayors and city council
have upheld are the reason for these
tragedies,” said Marco Conner, the
deputy director of Transportation
Alternatives, a nonprofit dedicated
to decreasing car usage.
Other mourners remembered
the life of Samolewicz, who hoped
to become a yoga teacher serving
transgender and impoverished
practitioners.
“She was about to start training
to become a teacher,” Lea Bender,
a friend of Samolewicz from her
yoga studio, said before reading
a statement Samolewicz had written
about her love for the meditative
practice, and her hope to become
a yoga teacher.
“There’s nothing quite like coming
off a beautiful class. I hope to
be able to offer that someday —
to use what I know in a healing
fashion to make space for transgender
and gender-non conforming
people in yoga, for poor people
in yoga, and for self-discovery,
because I have a lot to learn, and
I can’t actually imagine I could
ask for much more,” Samolewicz
had written.
ANOTHER CYCLIST
HOSPITALIZED
SEE PAGE 10
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