Mayor: House of D offi cially closed
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Brooklyn House of Detention
offi cially closed on Jan. 2, after the city
relocated all detainees at the Atlantic
Avenue holding facility to other lockups
around the city, according to the
city’s chief corrections offi cial.
“Thanks to exceptional work by our
staff, everyone has been safely moved
out of the Brooklyn Detention Complex,”
said Department of Corrections
Commissioner Cynthia Brann.
The Department of Corrections
started the process of vacating the jail’s
roughly 390 inmates to other facilities
on Nov. 18, with most prisoners going to
either the Manhattan Detention Complex
— also called The Tombs — or the
Vernon C. Bain Center in the Bronx,
according to offi cials with the Mayor’s
offi ce, who said that the jail has been
effectively out of commission since
mid-December, which is also when the
jail stopped taking in new detainees.
Offi cials plan to demolish and build
a taller jail as part of Mayor de Blasio’s
$8.7 billion plan to close the Rikers Island
complex by 2026, and move inmates
there to four new, or expanded
jails in all boroughs except Staten Island.
The city chose to shut the Kings
County facility fi rst due to lack of air
conditioning and programming space,
offi cials said.
Staff moved about 20 House of D
inmates to Rikers Island, all of whom
COURIER L 18 IFE, JANUARY 10-16, 2020
The Brooklyn House of Detention offi cally
closed, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on
Jan 2. Photo by Kevin Duggan
were over the age of 49-years old, and
who were assigned to housing units
specifi cally geared toward older detainees,
or those requiring higher security.
Corrections honchos have reassigned
almost all of the jail’s 535 employees
to other facilities as well.
The corrections agency and the
Mayor’s Offi ce of Criminal Justice will
solicit bids to demolish the current 11-story,
170-foot, 815-bed facility before the
end of March, and build an interim jail
to transfer detainees for court appearances
during the construction of the
new 29-story, 295-foot, 886-bed jail facility
in keeping with City Hall’s massive
land use application which Council approved
on Oct. 17.
Deno’s Wonder Wheel owners Dennis and Steve Vourdaris show off land that will host
their expanded amusement park come 2021. Photo by Corazon Aguirre
Deno’s Wonder Wheel expanding
BY JESSICA PARKS
The owners of Deno’s Wonder
Wheel Amusement Park have purchased
a run-down corner of Coney
Island’s amusement district, and the
thrill purveyors are currently planning
on how to reinvigorate the area
with new attractions — without stepping
on any toes.
“We are seeing what will be the best
fi t,” said Deno “DJ” Vourderis. “Something
that will complement our neighbors
and not compete with them.”
The lot along W. 12th Street between
Bowery Street and the Wonder
Wheel will roughly double the
size of Vourderis’s adult section of
the amusement park and is slated to
open during the 2021 season.
The parcel was formerly operated
by the aptly named 12th Street
Amusement, which shuttered
roughly two years ago, leaving the
rides there to rot, according to Vourderis,
who said that, while many of
the attraction have been destroyed,
he’ll try to salvage what he can.
“We will save whatever we can to
repurpose into our existing park,”
Vourderis said. “But a lot of it has to
go after we inspected them we saw a
lot was far too gone.”
PROSPECT PARK YMCA &
PARK SLOPE ARMORY YMCA
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE l *OFFER ENDS FEB 3
OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, January 11
11:00 AM - 3:00PM
NEW CUSTOMIZABLE
MEMBERSHIPS &
$0* JOINER’S FEE!