June 30, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
May 1–xx, 2016
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAG E 15
BLAST-OFF: Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Show will launch from the Brooklyn Bridge and from barges nearby for the fi rst time since 2014. Julienne Schaer
THE BIG BANGS!
The best places to watch fi reworks in Brooklyn on July 4
BY BILL ROUNDY
It will be a blast!
The skies of Brooklyn will be
ablaze next week when the Macy’s
Fourth of July Fireworks
extravaganza explodes with patriotic
pride over the East River.
Thousands of shells will launch
from the Brooklyn Bridge and
from four barges parked in the
river south of the span, while
a “waterfall” of fi reworks will
cascade from the sides of the
136-year-old bridge.
Technically, any place with
a clear view of the sky should
be fi ne to see the fi reworks —
but with all the towers that have
gone up in Downtown recently,
a clear view has been harder to
come by. So we have compiled a
list of some of the best places to
watch the action.
Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks
(www.macys.com/social/
fi reworks). July 4 at 9:20 p.m.
Free.
Park place
The best views in town are
going to be from inside Brooklyn
Bridge Park — all of the barges
will anchor between Piers One
and Five, so the green space
will be in high demand, said the
park’s president.
“Obviously the park is going
to be a prime viewing location,”
said Eric Landau. “There will be
amazing views of the fi reworks,
and the other landmarks — the
statue of Liberty, and the Manhattan
skyline.”
But he also noted that space
in the park is not unlimited.
“Based on past experience,
we had a lot more people trying
to get into the park than we
can handle,” he said. “We don’t
have the capacity for hundreds
of thousands of people.”
The ferry will stop running
on the East River at 2 p.m., and
access to the Park will be limited
to four entry points, where police
will check bags to ensure safety.
When the park reaches capacity,
the entry points will close —
which is likely to happen by late
afternoon.
Entry points will be located
at:
New Dock Street and Water
Street in Dumbo (at Empire Fulton
Ferry Park)
Furman Street and Old Fulton
Street in Dumbo (at Pier
One)
Furman Street and Joralemon
Street in Brooklyn
Heights (at Pier Five)
Atlantic Avenue and Bridge
Park Drive in Brooklyn Heights
(at Pier Six).
The two smaller parks fl anking
the Manhattan Bridge (Main
Street Park and John Street
Park) will be closed, as will portions
of Pier Five, which are
P’ Slopers
support
shelters
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
More than 2,538 people have
signed a petition supporting the
city’s plan to open two homeless
shelters in Park Slope, backing
the effort which has drawn fi erce
opposition from some locals since
it was announced in April.
“I felt that people in the neighborhood
were supportive of the
plan, but where’s the evidence to
back that up?” said Kathy Price,
who stated the petition on June
13 on behalf of the civic engagement
engagement group Citizen
Squirrel . “I wanted to show the receipts.”
When city offi cials unveiled
their proposal to open the two
neighboring shelters — located
at 535 and 555 Fourth avenues,
and offering a combined 253 housing
units — some Slope residents
blasted the plan as harmful to the
neighborhood.
In an effort to get the city to reconsider
the plan, one community
group launched an opposing petition
protesting the shelters, which
has gathered over 1,100 signatures
since its creation on May 26.
The pro-shelter effort came as
a direct response to that petition,
which Price said dramatically
overstated the anti-welfare sentiment
among Park Slopers.
“I was disappointed by that
petition when it was signed by
200 people,” she said. “When that
number climbed to 800, I felt that
it wasn’t refl ective of the neighborhood.”
Within days, the supportive
petition overtook its protesting
counterpart, which Price said
proved her presumption.
“I was relieved and happy
to see that what I felt about the
neighborhood was panning out
Continued on page 12 Continued on page 14
Vol. 8 No. 26 UPDATED EVERY DAY AT BROOKLYNPAPER.COM
/
/BROOKLYNPAPER.COM