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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, FEBRUARY 2, 2020
BY BEN VERDE
The fate of a recently
opened jazz club remains
up in the air after a fire
tore through the top floor
of its building in Park
Slope on Jan. 22, killing
two people and rendering
the structure uninhabitable.
Mikhael Brovkine, one
of the co-owners of Made
in New York Jazz Cafe
and Bar, which opened
just three months ago,
says the club suffered
extensive damage from
the thousands of gallons
of water that New York’s
Bravest poured onto the
fire, which they now believe
claimed most or all
of their instruments and
sound equipment. Fire
Marshalls have determined
that the fire was
likely caused by an extension
chord.
“It’s all gone,”
Brovkine said.
On top of that, the place
reeks of smoke, according
to Brokvine’s partner,
who suspects he’ll probably
end up having to tear
out the walls just to get
rid of the odor.
“It all smells like barbecue,”
co-owner Boris
Bangiyev said after surveying
the damage on
Wednesday.
Brovkine is cautiously
optimistic that he may be
able to salvage some of
his equipment, but said
that an investigation conduct
by the city’s Fire
Marshall has prevented
his team and his insurance
company from taking
a full inventory, and
said until he’s effectively
trapped in limbo until
their investigation is concluded.
Until then, the jazzman
couldn’t say definitely
whether he’ll reopen or
not in the wake of his
club’s inauspicious start.
For all his troubles,
Brovkine has his health,
and the musician said his
heart goes out to the two
real victims of Wednesday’s
fire, 22-year-old firefighter
in-training Steven
Munoz and his girlfriend
Destiny Marmolejo, who
lost their lives after the
fire erupted in their
fourth-floor apartment,
trapping them in their
bedroom.
“It’s crazy, but the family
on top of us has experienced
much more,” he
said. “People are dead,
and this is the worst thing
that can happen.” Smoke-eaters surveyed the damage the morning after the fre. Photo by Ben Verde
Carmine Carro’s handicap parking spaces pit parents against seniors
BY JESSICA PARKS
Its a war of petition!
Marine Park moms are
squaring off against local seniors
in a battle over three
handicap-parking spots the
city is installing at a senior
center located in Brooklyn’s
biggest green space.
Disabled seniors say
they need the spots to access
services at the Carmine
Carro Community Center
— which attracts thousands
of oldsters with free activities
and workshops — while
parents claim that inviting
traffi c through the park will
put their kids in danger, and
both sides have launched dueling
petitions in opposition
to one another!
“I started a petition that
reached over 100 signatures
in just hours,” said Marine
Park mom Brittany Nunez
about the petition launched
on Jan. 22. “With all the recent
injuries and deaths
of young children at the
hands of drivers, parents
of this community do not
understand why the parks
department would put our
children in such immediate
danger.”
The city is in the process
of installing three handicap
spots at a drop-off area
located inside Marine Park
at the Carmine Carro Community
Center, a response to
separate petition authored
by senior advocate Carl Fischer,
who cobbled together
about 100 signatures from
area elders.
The seniors complain
that the trek from the nearest
public parking spots on
Fillmore Avenue to the senior
center is arduous in
foul weather, and argued
that just a couple parking
spots would make a world of
difference.
“To walk up that hill, especially
in bad weather, became
very much of a problem,”
said Fischer.
However, once Nunez
discovered the city’s scheme
to accommodate disabled
oldsters, she launched her
own petition that quickly
outpaced Fischer’s. At the
time of publishing, the parental
appeal has garnered
more than 800 signatures,
a reaction to the apparent
danger of inviting motorists
down a path frequented
by youngsters, the mom
claims.
“This walkway is not
only the entrance into the
playground it is also the only
path for children to use to access
the bathrooms,” Nunez
said. “Without community
input the parks department
has approved driving access
into the park through
the walkway that is the entrance
to a playground that
hundreds of children play at
daily.”
It bears mentioning that
drivers are already permitted
to maneuver down the
paved walkway to the Carro
Center for pickups and drop
offs, and that the city only
plans to issue a meager 12
exclusive passes for the
three spots, which may get
axed anyway following a review
next year, according
to the borough’s chief parks
honcho.
“We are not inviting a
hundred cars in, we are not
creating a parking lot,” said
Brooklyn Parks Commissioner
Marty Maher .
The new handicap spots
will go into effect as part of
a yearlong pilot program beginning
Feb. 1 and concluding
Jan. 31, 2021.
Carl Fischer started a petition calling for handicap parking spaces
at Carmine Carro Community Center. Photo by Jessica Parks
RADIO SILENCE
Slope jazz club left in limbo after fatal fi re
Petition competition!