NEWS STORIES OF 2019
Follow the rainbow: Marchers openly waved the rainbow fl ag at the Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the
fi rst time on March 17. Brooklyn Irish LGBTQ Organization
COURIER LIFE, DEC. 27, 2019-JAN. 2, 2020 3
O’Hara for voter fraud, and allegations
that he used $219,000
in seized funds to pay a personal
media consultant.
What a drag: The parents
of an 11-year-old drag queen
suffered constant harassment
in the form of death threats
and near-daily visits by city
social workers after a video of
the youngster performing at
a Williamsburg gay bar went
viral. Coverage of the performance
by right-wing publications
spurred critics to fi le
more than 150 complaints of
child abuse with the city’s Administration
for Children’s
Services, which spurred the
visits from social workers.
February
Duck, duck, goose: Subway
riders on the Q-line were
unexpectedly diverted to an
express route between Prospect
Park and Kings Highway
on Feb. 4 because of a goose
shacking up on the tracks
near Parkside Avenue. The
feathered friend waddled onto
Coney Island-bound tracks
where it hung out for over an
hour before cops successfully
rescued the bird from possible
danger.
Close call: A young man
survived a bullet to the head
when he was shot outside a
Flatlands diner on the afternoon
of Feb. 17. The victim did
not see the shooter, who fl ed
from the scene in a white car,
according to an eyewitness.
Arrested development:
Construction of a new cultural
space at the base of Fort
Greene’s 32-story 300 Ashland
residential tower stalled on
Feb. 20, while the city’s Economic
Development Corporation
hashed out a deal with developer
Two Trees. As part of
plans the city approved in 2013
for the building, the former
publicly-owned parking lot
— bounded by Flatbush and
Lafayette avenues, as well as
Ashland and Hanson places
— was supposed to house a
branch of the Brooklyn Public
Library, a home for the
Museum of Contemporary African
Diasporan Arts, space
for African-arts group 651
Arts, and Brooklyn Academy
of Music cinemas, along with
commercial tenants Whole
Foods and the Apple Store,
which opened in 2017 and 2018
respectively.
Cold Case: The feds
opened an investigation into
the management of a federal
prison in Sunset Park after
over 1,600 inmates were left
without heat in the dead of
winter, sparking weeks of
protests outside the prison.
The federally operated detention
center was later sued by
the Federal Defenders of New
York for subjecting prisoners
to “inhumane” conditions
when it failed to restore heat
and power after a Jan. 27 electrical
outage.
March
Turning a corner: The
borough’s St. Patrick’s Day
parade formally welcomed
LGBTQ marchers for the fi rst
time in the march’s 44-year
history. The organizers’ decision
to permit a more queer
marchers came years after
leaders of the city’s St. Paddy’s
Day march through Manhattan
invited the Lavender
and Green Alliance, an LGBTQ
advocacy group, to join
that procession in 2015.
Whipped out of town:
Dominatrix Charlotte Taillor
chose to relocate her Bed-
Stuy pleasure dungeon after
an intolerant neighbor vilifi
ed her during a months-long
harassment campaign. Taillor
decided to pack up her
adults-only classroom, called
the Taillor Collective, after
her neighbor Laurie Miller attacked
the business and tried
to get the city to shut it down
out of an admitted prejudice
against practitioners of the
BDSM lifestyle. While Taillor
announced her intention to
move in March, she would actually
leave until the following
month, when the owner
of Lift NYC Movers offered
to transport the the sex educator’s
dungeon furntiture
free of charge. The dominatrix
found a new dungeon located
on a more tolerant block
somewhere in Brooklyn, but
asked that’s location not be revealed.
On the lamb: Drivers on
the Gowanus Expressway
made room for a wayward
baby lamb that found her way
onto the Queens-bound side of
the highway in Sunset Park
on March 13 — likely fl eeing
a bloody death at the hands of
a butcher. The lost little lamb
was later transferred to an animal
sanctuary in New Jersey
to live out the rest of her days
grazing on green pastures and
rubbing cloven feet with other
four-legged asylum seekers.
April
Bad pot luck: The state
Legislature approved its $175
million budget without including
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s
proposal to create a legal
weed market in New York on
April 1. The state’s chief executive
attributed the setback to
disagreements over how the
drug would be taxed, where
the money would go , and
safety concerns raised by law
enforcement and constituents.
Marijuana legalization would
bring in a whopping $300 million
in annual tax revenue
over the coming years, Cuomo
previously promised.
Guilty: A jury convicted
22-year-old Brooklyn man
Chanel Lewis of murdering
Queens jogger Karina Vetrano
on April 2. Lewis was
found guilty of brutally beating
and choking Vetrano who
went out for a run a few blocks
from her 84th Street home in
August of 2016 and cops arrested
Lewis six months later
after recovering his DNA
from the scene.
Out-house: Dozens of Sunset
Park families were left
without a home after a fi re
gutted the top fl oor of their
44th Street apartment complex
on April 3. Residents
were forced to wait for more
than a day to regain access
to their units, unsure of the
damage to their apartments
and property, and unaware
if their pets had escaped the
blaze as they awaited for fi refi
ghters and building inspectors
to allow them inside. The
blaze erupted from the sixstory
apartment building’s
top fl oor and injured 32 people
in all, including nearly two
dozen fi refi ghters who suffered
burns, sprains and debilitating
smoke inhalation.
Measles outbreak: Mayor
Bill De Blasio declared a public
health emergency on April
9 at the Brooklyn Public Library’s
Williamsburg Branch
following an outbreak of the
measles virus in Brooklyn’s
Orthodox Jewish communi-
Continued on Page 4
State transit leaders diverted Q-train traffi c for almost two hours in February
after a goose wandered onto the tracks. Photo by Marc Hermann
Former District Attorney Charles
Hynes left behind a complicated
legacy following his death in January.
Photo by Steve Solomonson