8 AWP Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 October 11–17, 2019
Ft. Greene trees face chop
Park steward: City must use axe to allow for new life
10-year-old cyclist killed
S POT L IGHT O N H E A LTH
Clinical Excellence
at Maimonides Breast Center
Leading the Fight against Breast Cancer in NY
Maimonides Medical Center will be recognizing
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
with several events in the coming weeks. On
Sunday, October 13th, the hospital will be
presenting its Annual Ride 2 Live motorcycle
tour through the streets of Brooklyn. Registration
begins at 9:00 a.m. at the Maimonides
Breast Center (745 64th Street), where riders
will make their way toward the Hudson River
Yacht Club (2101 Bergen Avenue). On Wednesday,
November 13th, Maimonides will hold
its triumphant Pink Runway fashion show at
Marquee New York to celebrate breast cancer
survivors at Maimonides. Proceeds from both
events will help to support the prestigious
Maimonides Breast Center.
During a special flag-raising ceremony
on October 4th, Maimonides staff, patients
and families came together to raise additional
awareness, including the importance
of screenings and treatments available at the
Breast Center. “Yearly mammograms and regular
doctor visits can make a big difference in
early detection and survival,” said Dr. Patrick
Borgen, Maimonides Chair of Surgery and Director
of the Maimonides Breast Center.
This past spring, the Breast Center was
honored by Susan G. Komen Greater New
York City with a 2019 Community Impact & Innovation
Award, recognizing extraordinary
achievements in education, outreach and research
in the fight against breast cancer.
“This award is a testament to the excellence
of the care provided at the Maimonides Breast
Center, combined with the dedication of our
doctors to the health of the entire Brooklyn
community,” said Kenneth D. Gibbs, President
and CEO of Maimonides Medical Center.
“Under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Borgen,
the most advanced protocols have been saving
and improving the lives of our breast cancer
patients, and we thank Komen for recognizing
the impact of this outstanding work.”
The honor is among many accolades the
Maimonides Breast Center and its physicians
have received in recent months. Dr. Borgen
led the 36th Annual Miami Breast Cancer
Conference earlier this year. The event, one
of the nation’s largest breast cancer conferences,
brings together leading oncology specialists
to share best practices in cutting-edge
treatments for all stages of breast cancer. Dr.
Borgen presented important protocols for surgeons
to combat the opioid crisis. He shared
encouraging statistics, including the news
that the Maimonides Breast Center has now
reached 100% opioid-free management of
breast surgery.
“Not only are we using effective alternatives
to opioids before and during surgery,
we’ve eliminated the need for opioids during
post-operative care,” explained Dr. Borgen.
“The ‘Enhanced Recovery After Surgery’
protocol is a game-changer that is now being
implemented across all surgical specialties at
Maimonides.”
Dr. Borgen was also recognized for his leadership
in ending the opioid crisis at a United
Hospital Fund event in May, along with other
prominent healthcare innovators. In addition,
Dr. Borgen presented an informative breast
cancer workshop at the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) District
IV, VII and XI Meeting in New Orleans
in September.
To speak with a breast cancer specialist or
to learn more about the Maimonides Breast
Center, call 888.MMC.DOCS (888.662.3627) or
visit www.maimonidesmed.org/breast. For
more information on Ride 2 Live and Pink
Runway, visit gopinkrunway.org.
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
These trees must die so that
others may live!
The leader of a non-profit
dedicated to maintaining Fort
Greene Park came out in favor
of a controversial scheme
hatched by the Parks Department
to chop down dozens
of trees at the beloved green
space, saying the trees targeted
for destruction are preventing
other, better plants from taking
root.
“Its roots and canopy are
so dense with the shade, that
things don’t grow underneath it.
So yes, we like trees, but these
types of trees are not friendly to
other types of plants and habitats,”
said Rosamond Fletcher,
the executive director of the Fort
Greene Conservancy, a nonprofit
that works closely with
the city on the park’s upkeep and
for hosting events there.
The city wants to destroy a
total of 83 trees, 52 to make
way for a grand paved plaza
at the Myrtle Avenue and St.
Edwards Street corner of Fort
Greene Park, and another 31 to
accommodate a redesign of the
park near Myrtle Avenue and
Washington Park.
But the plan hit a roadblock
after local residents and environmentalists
filed a lawsuit
Photo by Kevin Duggan
Fort Greene Park Conservancy Executive Director
Rosamond Fletcher points out a young Elm which
allows for understory gardens around its base.
against the city in state Supreme
Court in April , demanding
officials conduct an environmental
review of their plaza
scheme to determine whether
replacing trees with concrete
paving would create a hot zone
that could negatively affect surrounding
wildlife.
But the idea that the Parks
Department wants to replace a
crop of trees with nothing but
concrete is nonsense, according
to Fletcher, who said the
felled trees will be largely replaced
by a so-called “understory
garden” consisting of
younger trees, shurbs, and ferns
that will help prevent erosion
and provide a better habitat for
Brooklyn’s birds and bugs.
“They help other trees with
their roots, they help with habitats
for birds and pollinators and
all of that good stuff,” she said.
“When we think about the environmental
health of the park,
we’re not just thinking about the
health of the trees, we’re thinking
about everything.”
An attorney for the plaintiffs
accused Fletcher of trying to
help the city dodge a transparent
environmental review, saying
if the city was so interested in
creating an ecological wonderland,
their laywers might have
mentioned the vaunted understory
garden during oral arguments
held last month.
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
An unlicensed driver struck
and killed a 10-year-old boy in
Kensington on Saturday morning
.T
he driver of a 2002 Ford
SUV was turning left off Seton
Place onto Foster Avenue when
he struck Dalerjon Shahobiddinov
at 10:33 am, hitting the boy
as he cycled in the crosswalk,
according to police.
First responders rushed the
child to Maimonides Medical
Center, where he was pronounced
dead, according to
authorities.
Cops arrested the 29-yearold
motorist at the scene on
charges of failing to yield to
a bicyclist, operating a motor
vehicle without a license, and
failing to exercise due care, according
to authorities.
The tragic accident occurred
just steps from the boy’s home
on Foster Avenue between
Seton Place and E. Fifth Street,
according to police.
Shahobiddinov’s death
marks the 24th bicyclist killed
on city streets this year — far
outpacing the 10 cyclists slain
throughout all of 2018 — which
a spokesman for advocacy
group Transportation Alternatives
described as a “preventable
public health crisis”
in calling for additional streetsafety
measures.
“We press members of the
New York City Council, and
especially those in Brooklyn,
which has seen the most bicyclist
deaths this year, to pass
Speaker Corey Johnson’s
Streets Master Plan bill, which
would systematically address
streets across the city...that have
no accommodations for people
on bikes,” said Danny Harris.
Harris also demanded city
to accelerate Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
‘Green Wave’ proposal ,
which would vastly expand the
city’s bike lane network.
Hizzoner took to Twitter
on Saturday evening to announce
safety changes to the
intersection where the boy was
struck.
“The Department of Transportation
is already making
changes to the intersection by
clearing parking spots to improve
visibility, assessing the
need for speed humps, and
reviewing if there were any
prior incidents at Foster Avenue
and Seton Place,” de Blasio
wrote .
“They’re just coming up
with some rationale for what
they’re doing and they keep
thinking of reasons to support
their position to not do an environmental
review, which is untenable,”
said Richard Lippes.
“The undergrowth issue was
never made by the Parks Department
in their oral arguments.”
Instead, the city is really just
interested in ramming through
its chosen design regardless of
the environmental hazards, according
to Lippes, who noted a
previous lawsuit regarding the
plaza plan that revealed Parks
Department claim that the trees
were targeted due to poor health
was a bald-faced lie .
“You’ve got mature trees
that give excellent shade which
cannot be replaced for 30-40
years if you plant new trees,”
he said.
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