Brooklyn
Tenants Form Union to Fight Gentrification
Ian Marsh |
In the struggle to hold on to their places in neighborhoods where rents are rising rapidly, a group in Crown Heights is hoping there’s strength in numbers.
Housing and Homelessness
In Sunset Park, Demise of Affordable Units Feared
Norman Oder |
Hundreds of apartments covered by Section 8—key anchors in a neighborhood where affordability is threatened by gentrification—are slated to leave the program.
Housing and Homelessness
Churches Become Housing in Bushwick
Ian Marsh |
One former Lutheran church being converted to housing will include affordable units. It’s unclear whether another former house of worship will offer non-market apartments as well.
Brooklyn
Brownsville Board Says Home Runs Threaten Motorists
Makini Brice |
The local community board wants a higher fence at the Brownsville Rec Center to prevent softballs from striking cars on Linden Boulevard. But the center has a long list of other needs.
Education
State Grant Helps 2 Sunset Park After-School Sites
Norman Oder |
The community school model—in which schools are used as a hub to address a range of community needs—is already in use in the neighborhood.
Health and Environment
Report Sees Long-List of Post-Sandy Needs
Jarrett Murphy |
A report from the Brooklyn Recovery Fund makes neighborhood-specific and borough-wide recommendations—both for action needed now, and for planning that’s necessary before the next storm.
Government
Brooklyn Members Get Key Council Posts
Jarrett Murphy |
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito gave members from the borough control of 15 of the Council’s 37 committees, including the powerful Land Use panel.
Brooklyn
Frustration at Lack of Sites to Ease School Crowding in Sunset Park
Norman Oder |
Some parents are willing to look at locations on the west side of hazardous Third Avenue, while others want the city to consider using eminent domain.
Government
How Vito Lopez Changed Bushwick
Tobias Salinger |
Many think the former assemblyman and powerbroker is a creep. Some hail him as a hero. In Bushwick, his legacy—and the story of his downfall—are more complicated than either label suggests.
Health and Environment
EPA Wants Site on Brooklyn-Queens Border in Superfund
Jarrett Murphy |
The Wolff-Alpert Chemical Company imported sand containing thorium from the Belgian Congo in the 1940s. Now the feds believe lingering radioactivity warrant making the former factory the third active New York City Superfund site.
