2019 REVIEW
Industry city reps quickly
agreed, but then later submitted
his application on Oct. 28
without including Menchaca’s
requests — which is currently
under review from various
city agencies.
Artsy: District Attorney
Eric Gonzalez launched
a program that would allow
Brooklynites charged of misdemeanor
offenses to forfeit
their day in court and repent
for their crimes with classes
at the Brooklyn Museum. Under
the scheme, defendants
will undergo a two-hour group
course led by artists who specialize
in social justice-themed
work, where they will analyze
and discuss artistic installations
from the museum — and
then create their own art in response
to the experience.
November
Back on air: Listenerfunded
radio station WBAI
resumed broadcast on Nov.
7 after a month-long closure.
The Boerum Hill station
came back on the air after a
state judge ordered its parent
company — California-based
nonprofi t Pacifi ca Foundation
— to lay off its attempts
to silence the channel. Pacifi
ca executive John Vernile
ordered the station closed on
Oct. 7, claiming the non-forprofi
t could no longer support
WBAI and its multimilliondollar
debt, which led to protest
from hosts and listeners.
Broken water main: A
water main ruptured in Sunset
Park on Nov. 24, causing a
30-foot wide crater to open and
spewing massive amounts of
water throughout the nearby
roadways for several hours.
The northwest corner of Fifth
Avenue and 44th Street was
COURIER LIFE,12 DEC. 27, 2019-JAN. 2, 2020
swiftly swamped, and nearby
vehicles were submerged under
several feet of water —
forcing Police Department tow
trucks to move them to accommodate
fi rst responders’ attempts
coral the water main.
Seeing red: The Prospect
Park Zoo’s cutest new residents
made their public debut
in November, when the newest
batch of red panda cubs
strutted their stuff in the public
eye for the fi rst time. The
rouge tinted raccoons were
born over the summer and
cared for by their mother in
their indoor den until they
were ready to explore their
enclosure, and they did not
disappoint.
December
Pizza de résistance: A
Greenpoint pizzeria owner
cooked up a cheesy homage
to Maurizio Cattelan’s nowinfamous
piece “Comedian,”
which was literally a banana
duct taped to a wall that sold
for $120,000 at a Miami gallery
on Dec. 7. Fornino owner Michael
Ayoup duct-taped a margherita
pizza pie to his pizzeria’s
wall asking for a meager
$100,000 to make it yours.
Williamsburg beachfront:
Developers unveiled
plans on Dec. 12 for two massive
skyscrapers along with
new beaches and parkland
planned for the Williamsburg
waterfront. Two Trees Management
want to erect the
650- and 600-foot towers at a
former industrial fuel-oil-storage
once owned by Con Edison
which the fi rm had purchased
the day prior. The development
will house a YMCA featuring
a pool on its fi rst fl oor.
Of it’s 1,000 residential units,
250 will be reserved for apartment
seekers making between
40-60 percent of the city’s area
median income.
Both ways: US Congress
passed long-awaited legislation
to reinstate split tolls on the
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
on Dec. 17. The move will allow
the MTA — the agency governing
charges on the span — to
charge drivers head in both directions
along the span at half
the current rate. The bridge
has had a federally-mandated
one-way toll since the 1980s,
with the charge currently at
$19, with discounts for E-ZPass
users and residents of the
Rock. MTA chief Pat Foye estimates
this move will produce
between $10-15 million in additional
annual revenue for the
cash-strapped transit agency.
New Years Destitution:
Residents of a Bedford-Stuyvesant
homeless shelter were
forced to pack their bags and
move to other shelters in the
city’s system, after the shelter
was “fl ipped” to accommodate
homeless men with
mental health issues. Shelter
residents say it’s just another
chapter in the Department of
Homeless Services web of cruel
bureaucracy, while neighbors
and elected offi cials claim the
change was dropped on their
head with no warning, giving
them little time to prepare for
a new element in the neighborhood
and say goodbye to the
women of the shelter.
Continued from Page 10
Keiko Niccolini (far left) with her daughter Rayas, and Angela McCall. Niccolini
is petitioning for the changes to be called off.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
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