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OCTOBER 6, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
BY ROSE ADAMS
He speaks against the
trees!
A longtime Dyker
Heights resident is going
door-to-door drumming
up opposition to a city
scheme to plant fl owers
and trees throughout the
neighborhood, and has
already collected a whopping
135 signatures for his
petition demanding the
city back off its gardening
scheme.
“It’s more work for the
homeowners is how I see
it,” said John DeAngelo
“People are going to let
their dogs go by and do
whatever.”
The Department of
Environmental Protection
plans to install rain
gardens on hundreds of
sidewalks within an area
roughly bounded by 11th
Avenue, 61st Street, Bay
Parkway, and 81st Street,
which are made to absorb
rainwater that would otherwise
spill into the sewers
and contaminate local
waterways during storms,
according to city planners.
The plan is to fi ll the
gardens with cheery perennials,
shrubbery, and
trees, but the cynical
Dyker Heights resident
envisions pits overfl owing
with mud, garbage, and
pests, saying the neighborhood
would be better
off with regular old slabs
of concrete.
“With the amount of
rain we get, all that the
water’s going to do is turn
the dirt to mud…I don’t
think they’ll be effective
at all.”
Reps for the Department
of Environmental
Protection rebutted
DeAngelo’s arguments
at a meeting of the Dyker
Heights Civic Association
earlier this month, saying
the gardens are designed
to drain in 48 hours or less
— meaning water won’t
be sitting long enough to
attract mosquitoes — and
claiming that city workers
will clean the enclosures
once a week. Residents
can also opt for a concrete
variant rather than a full
garden, where rain falls
through grates and onto
a stone bed, soaking into
the soil.
But DeAngelo doesn’t
want to see anything new
on his block — plants,
grates, or otherwise — and
the local offered photos of
poorly maintained gardens
throughout the city as evidence
the city will forget
the new infrastructure as
soon as it’s installed.
“You’ll clearly see
that the water sits there,
which brings mosquitoes”
said DeAngelo, referencing
photos of rain gardens
throughout the city.
“The water is still going
to sit there underneath the
grate.”
Many other residents
have warmed up to the
rain gardens, especially
after city planners explained
at a meeting of
Community Board 10 that
it wouldn’t install the enclosures
in front of houses
with handicapped residents,
which would block
them from their cars.
“There were some concerned
residents, but by
the end of the presentation
they seemed more receptive
to the proposal,” said
Josephine Beckmann, district
manager at Community
Board 10.
The agency says it will
begin installing hundreds
of the gardens throughout
the area in 2022.
A cop car responding to the MetroTech shooting smashed into an SUV, fl ipping it on its side, at DeKalb and Clinton avenues in Clinton Hill
on Sept. 26. Photo by Kevin Duggan
BY COLIN MIXSON AND
KEVIN DUGGAN
Police are hunting the
gunman who shot a man
in the butt at the Metro-
Tech Center in Downtown
Brooklyn Thursday, according
to police.
Multiple witnesses reported
hearing a single
gunshot from inside the
public plaza at the center
of the Downtown offi
ce complex at around
noon on Sept. 26, before
two men sprinted south
through the promenade.
One of the men was seen
cradling what appeared to
be a pistol in the pocket of
his yellow sweatshirt.
“I’ve never seen anyone
run so fast,” said Jeanne
Eisenhardt, a saleswoman
at Brooklyn Paper’s parent
company Schneps Media,
who was dining outside
Café Metro at the time.
Police arrested one
man following the shooting,
but cut him loose after
determining he was not
the gunman, cops said.
Police intially believed
no injuries resulted from
the shooting, but a 27-
year-old man reported he
was shot in the rear end
the following day.
The incident resulted
in further collateral damage
in nearby Clinton Hill,
where a police cruiser responding
to the Metro-
Tech shooting smashed
into an SUV at Dekalb and
Clinton avenues at 12:13
pm, injuring the two cops
in the squad car and a civilian
driver, according to
police.
The cop car was heading
west along Dekalb Avenue
when the offi cer behind
the wheel plunged
through a red light at Clinton
Avenue and struck the
civilian vehicle as it traveled
north along Clinton
Avenue, fl ipping the passenger
car, according to
witnesses.
“The other car had the
light and went through,
and the cop rammed the
car and the car went over,”
said Nick Gangone, a student
at nearby St. Joseph’s
College.
Police offi cers set up
a crime scene at Duffi eld
Street and Willoughby Avenue
near the shooting,
where one of the suspects
stashed a fi rearm in a city
garbage can, according
to an offi cer at the scene,
who noted the pistol may
be a replica.
- Additional reporting
by Chandler Kidd and
Aidan Graham.
SHRINKING SIDEWALKS:
DeAngelo points to a line demarking
the edge of a future
rain garden, which would
leave only a few feet of space
for passersby.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
Police setup a crime scene around a garbage can in Downtown Brooklyn, where a suspect in a shooting
at MetroTech Center may have stashed a pistol. Photo by Aidan Graham
Flower sour
Police seek gunman in
MetroTech butt shooting
Dyker Heights man drums up
opposition to new plants, trees