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JUNE 2, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
Speed cams to expand citywide
Program will see new cameras installed at rate of 40 per month this year
BY BILL PARRY
Before departing on a presidential
campaign swing through
Nevada, Mayor Bill de Blasio
took care of some city business
Friday, announcing plans
for the rapid expansion of the
school zone speed camera program
which Gov. Andrew
Cuomo signed into law earlier
this month.
The city’s Department of
Transportation will begin installing
new cameras citywide
at a rate of 40 per month
through 2019, 60 per month in
2020, expecting to reach the
law’s maximum 750 school
zones by June 2020.
“Our streets are about to get
a lot safer for our children,”
de Blasio said. “We fought to
expand our speed camera program
and we won in Albany.
Now it’s time to rapidly scale
up our program to save lives
and keep our kids safe.”
Authorized by state law, the
school zone speed camera program
had been in place since
2014 with data showing that
speeding in areas with cameras
declines more than 60 percent,
with more than 80 percent
of violators not receiving
a second ticket.
Speed cameras will now operate
year-round on all weekdays
between 6 a.m. until 10
p.m. Previously, cameras operated
during the school’s active
hours. In the coming months,
the installations will be made
in the city’s most dangerous
areas where school kids are
zoned to cross.
“We’re going to be able to put
speed cameras at 750 schools,
protect our kids, protect their
lives, ensure they’re safe,” de
Blasio said on WNYC. “And
that’s an expenditure that will
be added to this budget that literally
is about life and death.”
The late Queens state Sen.
Jose Peralta carried the bill in
the upper chamber for years,
but Republicans blocked the
legislation calling it a cash
grab and allowed the program
to expire altogether in July
2018, forcing de Blasio and
Cuomo to make a rare collaboration
to reinstate the program
just before the start of
the school year.
“New York City has made
so much progress in reducing
traffic fatalities and so much
of that progress can be credited
to the use of speed cameras,
but there are still far too many
areas in the city that need measures
to make streets safer for
pedestrians,” City Councilman
Donavan Richards, the
chairman of the Committee on
Public Safety, said. “Every life
lost is a tragedy, which is why
it was critical that Albany renewed
and expanded the program
to protect New Yorkers
from the next tragic accident.
This rapid expansion is the
right approach to slow down
reckless drivers as soon as possible.”
The program will continue
to fine any motorist caught going
10 miles per hour over the
speed limit receiving a $50
summons. The new law also
mandates signage that alerts
drivers when they are entering
a school zone speed camera location.
READY, SET GO!: The Department of Transportation has begun installing new speed cameras in the city’s most dangerous
school zones, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. File photo by Michael Shain
Fort Hamilton kicks off 31st annual
Fleet Week with Salute to Ships
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
They’re sailing into another
Fleet Week.
Fort Hamilton Army Base
held an 11-gun salute on May 22,
welcoming nearly 3,000 service
members who poured into the
city aboard ships in New York
Harbor for the 31st annual Fleet
Week.
Brooklynites lined the Dyker
Heights shore, waving at incoming
Sailors, Marines, and Coast
Guardsmen at the Salute to Ships
event, offi cially kicking off the
beloved weeklong tradition.
More than 1,000 people attended
the early-morning ceremony,
watching the dozen ships pass
under the Verrazzano-Narrows
bridge, according to a Fort Hamilton
rep.
“Overall it was a great engagement
of the community,”
said Amanda Hay. “We had veterans,
schools kids, children,
and service members all coming
together to welcome these
ships to New York.”
Guests were serenaded by
the sounds of three high school
bands, from James Madison’s
marching band, Fort Hamilton’s
color guard, and Xaverian’s
multi-instrument ensemble,
which provided the musical
soundtrack for the kickoff ceremony.
Throughout the course of
Fleet Week, the ships dock in
Brooklyn, Manhattan, and
Staten Island, allowing deployed
service members to visit family
and friends, and take in the city’s
attractions.
New Yorkers will have the
opportunity to meet men and
women in uniform, as well as
tour some of the docked vessels,
getting an inside look at the buoyant
homes of American service
members during their seven-day
excursion in the northeast.
Ships in the aquatic parade
included the Naval destroyer
USS Jason Dunham, named for
the New York-born corporal who
was posthumously awarded the
Medal of Honor in 2006 for his service
in Iraq, and the Naval transport
ship USS New York, named
to honor the victims of 9/11.
FIRE: Fort Hamilton hosts an 11-gun salute to kick of the 31st annual Fleet
Week. Photo by Trey Pentecost