AFTER THE
Brooklynites deal with the
Many Brooklynites were still waiting for the city to help more than a week after Tropical Storm Isaias blew through the borough.
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK &
ROSE ADAMS
One week after Tropical
Storm Isaias tore through
New York City, hundreds of
Brooklynites are still waiting
on city offi cials to pick up
downed trees.
Dyker Heights resident
Reyes Martinez, 50, said he
has been waiting for seven
days for the city to dispose of
a gigantic tree that toppled
onto his house during the
Aug. 4 storm.
“We’re concerned if it
rains again, the tree may
slip and go right on top of the
house,” he said.
The night of the storm,
Martinez said he heard a
crack against his 12th Avenue
house by 80th Street. He
ran to his bedroom and saw
INSIDE
28 to Oct 5, with organizations
such as Brooklyn Academy
of Music, Brooklyn Public Library,
PEN America, and the
Center For Black Literature at
Medgar Evers College, among
others.
The book gurus plan to
launch an online version of
their popular Literary Marketplace
on Aug. 15 to highlight
and help booksellers and
publishers sell their work during
the coming months.
“We felt that we could do
this for the struggling industry
to promote them in conjunction
with the festival,”
said Koch.
Brooklyn Book Festival,
Sept. 28-Oct 5., www.brooklynbookfestival.
org. Free.
OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
Brooklyn Book Fest returns
with all-virtual lineup
Read all about it — online!
The annual Brooklyn Book
Festival will return this fall
for an all-virtual weeklong
lineup of readings, author
talks, and workshops for the
borough’s bookworms on Sept.
28. While COVID-19 will force
this year’s event to look much
different from the typical
crowds that gather in Downtown
Brooklyn, the organizers
have used the remote experience
to draw more than 150
authors from around the globe
to participate in the free festival’s
online 15th anniversary.
“This really expanded the
opportunity to bring in audiences
from different time
zones, as well as authors for
whom in the past might have
been very difficult to travel to
the festival,” said Liz Koch,
one of the fest’s co-producers.
“Literally this year everyone
can have a front row seat to
this festival because they’re
right at their laptop.”
This year’s events will
come via livestream, Zoom,
or pre-recorded with a diverse
set of writers and moderators
on the weekend of Oct 3.
Saturday will be focused
on children’s and young adult
literature, while Sunday will
host the festival’s main day,
with the weekend boasting a
star-studded roster of writers
— including Lee Child,
Salman Rushdie, Ngugi wa
Thiong’o Cathy Park Hong,
R.L. Stine, and many more.
Some programming will be
specifically focused on how the
coronavirus has affected writers
and the literary industry,
according to the organizers.
Brooklyn author Lynn
Nottage will receive the Best
of Brooklyn Award, the first
playwright to do so.
Programming runs all day,
with four virtual events per
hour, featuring fiction, poetry,
non-fiction, comics and international
programming — and
festival attendees can watch
back any event they weren’t
able to catch live, according to
the festival hochos.
“One of the main complaints
we had gotten in the past is people
not seeing all the thing they
wanted to,” said co-producer
Carolyn Greer. “Now you can
see what you want and then go
back and see other things that
you couldn’t see at that time.”
In addition to the weekend
lineup, there will be virtual
partnering events throughout
the five boroughs from Sept.
Your entertainment
guide Page 17
Police Blotter ........................10
Op-Ed ....................................... 12
Letters ..................................... 13
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COURIER L 4 IFE, AUG. 14–20, 2020 PS
a tree had slammed into the
two-story building, breaking
shingles, smashing the
air conditioner, and cracking
several windows.
Martinez, who fi led a complaint
with the city about the
tree fi ve years ago, said he
called 311 close to 30 times to
remove the tree, but no one
responded for 72 hours.
“We were without power
for three days consistently
calling Con Edison, calling
311, until it came to the point
when we had to go to the local
politicians,” said Martinez.
Con Edison fi nally arrived
to his block on Aug. 7 to restore
power and clear some
fallen branches with the help
of the Parks Department. The
workers left the bulk of the
fallen tree in place, but still
told him later in an email that
his service request was closed
and that Parks “performed
the work necessary to correct
the condition,” he said.
The storm knocked out
power for more than 24,000
Brooklynites and downed
10,000 trees citywide. But
while Con Ed has restored
most of the outages, many residents
are still waiting on the
Parks Department to clear
the debris.
Fellow Dyker Heights native
John Armento, 68, told
Brooklyn Paper he’s been
stuck with a hefty insurance
bill after Isaias sent a tree
smashing into his car.
“I was hoping they would
work with me and know that I
cannot drive that car, there’s
no way to drive that car,” the
retired sanitation worker said
of his insurance company,
which he claims won’t let him
cancel his insurance yet. “I
just don’t feel it’s fair.”
Across the borough in Canarsie,
Conklin Avenue resident
Gailyen Bender had to
wait a full week for Parks to
chop up a downed tree that
landed on her family’s home
of 34 years, and for Con Ed
to get her electricity back up
and running. As of Aug. 12,
massive chunks of the felled
tree still littered her front
yard — but she was equally
frustrated with the delayed
response from her utility
company.
“Con Edison should either
be prepared for the next
storm or relinquish their duties
to the city,” Bender told
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