STANDING Brooklyn’s Biggest Booster
Coney Island Hospital tops out 11-story health center
BY DERRICK WATTERSON
Three cheers for Coney Island Hospital,
which held a ‘topping out’ ceremony
for their new 11-story tower on
Feb. 27, marking an important milestone
in the city’s efforts to transform
the hospital into a state-of-the-art medical
metropolis.
“Today’s construction milestone at
NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island
marks an important point in the journey,”
said Deputy Mayor for Health and
Human Services Dr. Raul Perea-Henze.
“The new tower will provide high-quality
services with state-of-the-art technology
to communities in Brooklyn
and beyond, and is central to our vision
of health care for every New Yorker.”
Hospital honchos had hoped to place
the fi nal beam atop the new tower, however,
abnormally strong winds halted
those plans out of safety concerns.
When winds subside, and the construction
can actually fi nish, the new
building will serve as the marque effort
to make the waterfront medical facility
fl ood and storm resistant, according to
the head of the NYC Health + Hospitals
system.
“This is an exciting moment for
the Coney Island community as we
continue to rebuild after Superstorm
Sandy,” said Mitchell Katz, MD.
In the seven years after the extreme
weather event, which fl ooded the
streets and cut power lines throughout
the area, the city has made a massive investment
into water-proofi ng the medical
campus — which served as a hub for
medical needs in Sandy’s aftermath.
The new building began construction
in 2018 with the help of federal
funding and will be able to house patients
in 2022.
On schedule and on budget with an
average of 216 on-site workers daily, the
residents of Coney Island can expect a
new stronger and resilient building for
the community.
Standing O! salutes Coney Island
Hospital for completion of the important
milestone!
COURIER L 30 IFE, MARCH 6-12, 2020
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A Greenpoint pizzeria celebrated
the grand opening of its new Norman
Avenue slice shop with a ribbon
cutting on Feb. 29.
Greenpoint Original Italian Pizza’s
new landlord said the family
behind the eatery have been dishing
up pies in the northern Brooklyn
neighborhood for three decades
and are eager to serve more Greenpointers.
“This is a family that sticks together
for making pizza,” said Elaine
Ioannou. “Making pizza is an art,
you have to love what you’re doing.”
The pizza shop’s owner Baldassare
Pantaleo learned the art of
slice making from his father-in-law,
who has run Italy Pizza on nearby
Manhattan Avenue for 30 years, according
to Ioannou.
The Saturday opening drew in
local pillars of the community, including
Father Kavungal Davy of
St. Anthony of Padua — St. Alphonsus
Roman Catholic Church, who
blessed the shop, and Assemblyman
Joe Lentol (D–Greenpoint), who cut
the ribbon.
The new location is just a block
away from the Nassau Avenue G
train station, making it easier for
tired straphangers to pick up a
Grandma, Sicilian, or White slice,
or a cannoli on their way home, according
to Ioannou.
“They opened it up for the convenience
of people of Greenpoint,” she
said.
BY JESSICA PARKS
Three cheers for the North
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce,
which gave away 1,000 reusable
bags on Sunday following the
state’s new ban on single-use plastic
bags!
“On the fi rst day of the bag
ban, people just graciously accepted
them,” said Paul Samulski.
“It took no more than a half-hour
to distribute the bags.”
The giveaway was made possible
with the help of a dozen volunteers
who were dispatched to
streets in Greenpoint, Williamsburg,
and Bushwick to distribute
the orange bags that were donated
by the city Department of Sanitation.
Samulski said the city’s garbage
men had initially given them
2,500 bags when the plastic bag
ban was fi rst announced, but the
business boosters and their volunteers
had already handed them
out by the time the actual ban
went into affect.
In an effort to make an immediate
impact on the borough’s plastic
bag usage, the volunteers tried
to focus on giving the bags only to
Brooklynites — not tourists!
“We wanted to try to keep them
local because the idea was to try
to change the way that northern
Brooklyn is using these bags,”
Samulski said.
In addition to the thousands of
reusable bags they have given out
over the past year, the chamber
has reached out to the sanitation
department for more bags to distribute
when they are made available.
“We have seen a lot of these orange
bags fl oating around and it
makes us happy to know that single
use plastic bags weren’t used
in that case,” said the chamber
president.
Standing O! Salutes the Chamber
for their generous efforts!
Linda Waid, Giuliano Aselone
and Maria Chaudhry received reusable
bags from the North Brooklyn
Chamber of Commerce.Photo
by Corazon Aguirre.
The owners of Greenpoint Original Italian Pizza and Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D–
Greenpoint) cut the ribbon on their new slice shop. Photo by Derrick Watterson
Pizza family opens second outpost
BK Chamber helps
locals prepare for
the bag ban
Svetlana Lipyanskaya, Dr. Mitchell Katz, Dr. Michael Radeos, Kenneth H. Hupart, and Dr.
Terance Brady, pose at the topping out ceremony (above). The fi nal beam on the state-ofthe
art 11-story building (left). Photos by Derrick Watterson