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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JANUARY 19, 2020
A male harlequin duck made an unlikely appearance in Sheepshead
Bay. Photo by Charles Tang
BY JESSICA PARKS
He’s an odd duck!
A duck native to the Pacifi
c Northwest has been
spotted bobbing in the waters
off Sheepshead Bay for
the past few days — marking
a rare fi nd for Brooklyn
bird watchers, according
to one enthusiast.
‘It is defi nitely rare,”
said Stanley Greenberg, a
member of the Brooklyn
Bird Club. “I have only
ever seen them on the West
Coast.”
The downy out-oftowner
is a harlequin duck
— a diminutive water fowl
known for its colorful coat
— which are typically
seen wading in the distant
Pacifi c Ocean, although
they’re sometimes spotted
along northern Atlantic
coasts off of Newfoundland
and Quebec.
Nature Photographer
Jennifer Kepler was one
of, if not the fi rst bird lover
to document the unusual
sighting on her blog Snapshot
of Nature, where she
posted images of the critter
paddling with a fl ock of
its native cousins.
“It still thinks it is a buffl
ehead as it keeps up with
a small group of them,”
wrote Kepler, referring to
one of North America’s
smallest diving sea ducks.
The young duck’s stay
in Sheepshead Bay mark’s
the fourth recorded sighting
of the bird in Kings
County, according to
Brooklyn Bird Club President
Dennis Hrehowsik.
Hrehowsik touted his
own roll in spotting the
county’s third recorded
harlequin duck sighting
in November off the shores
of Coney Island, where he
eyeballed the feathered
jester for just a few seconds,
before it took fl ight
and disappeared. Greenberg
suspects that bird and
the one in Sheepshead Bay
are one in the same.
“It is possible it’s the
same bird, they had a
scope to see it,” Greenberg
said. “But now you can see
it with the naked eye.”
Hrehowsik theorized
that the harlequin duck
made his way into Sheepshead
Bay earlier in the
week, when dense fogs that
descended on the borough
made navigation more diffi
cult for the bird.
BUILDING A CASE
Alicia Boyd (pictured here in September) claims developers are violating a restraining order by excavating soil. Photo by Aidan Graham
BY BEN VERDE
Anti-gentrifi cation activists
are demanding criminal
charges against the developers
behind a slew of
projects in Crown Heights,
claiming that the builders
are violating a courtordered
restraining order
to prevent building on the
sites.
“The city and the developers
are not above the
law,” said Alicia Boyd, who
is representing herself pro
se in a lawsuit challenging
the rezoning. “Criminal
charges of contempt
of court should be issued
against both the city and
the developers.”
In April, Brooklyn
Judge Reginald Boddie put
a temporary restraining order
on the property as the
court case plays out — but
developers are violating
that order by excavating
soil on the property at 931
Carroll St., according to the
activists.
Last week, Boyd and
four others were arrested
while trying to block dump
trucks from operating
at the site, according to
Gothamist. Protestors presented
police with the court
order halting construction
within the Crown Heights
rezoning area, but offi cers
still did not shut down the
construction.
A spokeswoman for
the Police Department described
the issue as a civil
matter, and said the cops
could not get involved. The
city’s Law Department said
that the court order should
be adhered to, but declined
to comment further. Representatives
for the builders
— Carroll Plaza Development
— could not be
reached for comment.
At the most recent
court hearing in December,
Judge Boddie blocked
the developer’s request to
move forward with soil excavation
— a move activists
say would have effectively
ended their case.
“If the cement is poured,
we will have lost the case,”
Boyd said in December.
The lawsuit is challenging
the rezoning of Franklin
Avenue, which was approved
by the City Council
in 2018 — before being stymied
by legal action antigentrifi
cation activists, who
claim that the city failed to
conduct a thorough environmental
impact review
before approving the zoning
change.
At the heart of the controversy
is the massive
1,578-unit tower planned
for 960 Franklin, which
activists say would cast
harmful shadows on the
nearby Brooklyn Botanical
Garden. The developers
have claimed those fears
are overblown, but garden
honchos maintain that
the tower would devastate
much of its plant life.
City offi cials have touted
the planned high-rises as a
solution to the city’s housing
woes, with hundreds of
so-called affordable units
slated for the developments.
Housing advocates
have blasted the units as
affordable in name only,
with rental prices still out
of reach for the average
Crown Heights resident.
WHAT THE DUCK!
Activists demand criminal charges for C’ Heights developers
West Coast waterfowl
makes a rare visit to BK
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