Why was a Brooklyn School Refused a Traffic Light when a Store Can Get One Easily?

At the April 2018, Community Board 10 Meeting, Jaynemarie Capetanakis, Principal of PS 69 – The Vincent Grippo School described how frustrating it had been since PS 69 was refused a traffic light on 63rd Street and 9th Avenue. The school had to accept other strange alternatives to keep children safe. It begins around 1:52 on this video:

Yesterday, Marty Golden announced a new traffic light will be placed mid-block on 87th Street between 4th and 5th Avenue – outside of Century 21 Department store by October 31st.

Principal Capetanakis said that the school couldn’t get a light because although it’s busy in the morning and at dismissal, there wasn’t enough traffic outside of the school for a 24-hour period. Isn’t the same true for 87th Street?  What’s really strange is the study for the traffic light would have been done during a weekday and it’s not that busy during the week. On the weekend, 87th Street is very busy.

Parents on some streets in Bay Ridge can’t get a speed bump or light for children’s safety.  Yet,  a light is going to be installed in the middle of a block outside of a store.   #Strange

Let’s check the money behind this. You can go here and choose top donors on the left. 

Here’s what the store donated to Senator Golden’s campaign over the years.

You can see the yearly breakdown here. 

Senator Golden announced this light on the same day as parents held a 24-hour vigil outside of Senator Golden’s office. Make no mistake…..a press release was issued so that the story about the traffic light overshadows the story about the 24 hour vigil. We’ve seen this happen many times. 

I think it will be interesting to see how much traffic this will make on Fourth Avenue and how it will affect 86th Street too.

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Men’s Soccer in Bay Ridge – Free Starts July 11th

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Brooklyn City FC is proud to announce two men’s pickup slots in Brooklyn for the Summer Soccer Season.

Starting July 11th, there will be men’s game every Wednesday evening at The Dust Bowl at Leif Erickson Park – 65th Street and 8th Avenue
between 5:00 PM and 7:45 PM (starting 7/11) and Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 5 every Thursday (starting 7/5) from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.

Players are encouraged to come and go as their schedule allows. College, former college, club players, any man who loves soccer is  welcome to attend and get their kicks in this Summer with an eye towards forming a men’s team or two for Fall competitions.

Any questions dm here

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Bay Ridge Lawyer Moms Stand Up for Migrant Children

The people in the picture above are the quiet superheroes of Bay Ridge.

They are women (and men) who are standing up for strangers who have come here to America and are caught in the system. Today, Lawyer Moms and their friends went to Dan Donovan’s office in Dyker Heights to demand that Congressman Donovan take a stand and intervene on behalf of migrant children who have been separated from their parents. 

Thank you to all of my great neighbors for standing up for children!

Dan Donovan can’t hear them because he is sleeping. 

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Atlantic City Trip – July 12th

Leaving from Saint Finbar’s Church.

If you aren’t free on July 12th, but still want to go to Atlantic City, see here.

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Senator Golden’s Tweet to Those Outside His Office

Today some citizens are holding a 24-hour vigil outside of Senator Golden’s office. They are speaking with residents about Senator Golden’s failure to get the speed camera bill passed in the NY Senate.   Story: here

Marty Golden or his staff could have asked the peaceful group of people to come in the office for a cup of coffee. If Golden wasn’t available today, his chief-of-staff could have offered to take a message and been cordial to the protesters. 

Instead Senator Golden tweeted this message to the parents who lost children from driving accidents:

The tweet was deleted when people called Senator Golden out for being cruel. 

The “You People”  that Senator Golden was referring to was the mothers holding the 24 hour vigil outside of his office. One of the activists is Amy Cohen. Her 12-year-old  son, Sammy was killed by a man driving a van on Prospect Park West in 2014. After his death, Cohen has fought for safer streets ,so no other parent has to go through what she had/has to.  Telling the group they “can’t properly protest” just shows he doesn’t care.  In November, we will vote him out. 

Updated:

Journalist, Julianne McShane noted that minutes after Senator Golden’s tweet was deleted, another similar tweet appeared on an account being run by what appears to be Team Golden taking cheap jabs at people on Twitter. As the chairman of the NYS Technology Committee, Senator Golden should delete both his Twitter account and the South Brooklyn Red account because they are being used inappropriately.

Golden should have the decency and do the right thing.  Although some of the staff may be scared of losing their jobs. fake accounts and bothering residents who are protesting for a safety bill or don’t agree with Golden should not be acceptable. 

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Celebrations in Bay Ridge on June 30th

School’s Out Summer Jam Celebration at Shore Road Park on June 30th from 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Free. Everyone is invited by Councilman Brannan

The Party Continues from 4:00 -7:00 pm at Shore Road Park and 83rd Street – you must register here for this one.

Register for the Celebration here.

And the Party can continue into the evening with the Fourth of July Celebration at the Army Base – see here    BUT YOU HAVE TO REGISTER FOR THIS ONE.

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Mother’s 24 Hour Vigil for Speed Cameras

Update: Residents are outside Senator Golden’s office because speed cameras are needed near schools. Here’s the law that wasn’t  passed before the Senate adjourned.

New York City drivers have killed at least nine children in traffic crashes less than six months into 2018, the same number of children killed by drivers in all of last year. 

The messages are generally sincere just asking for the speed cameras, but I enjoyed the Brooklyn straight forward message of this one: 

Although this was a peaceful 24-hour vigil, a police officer was called to stand by so either Golden or one of his staff members must have felt afraid (hopefully Bay Ridge residents weren’t waiting for hours because no police officers were available).

Senator Golden’s office is closed, but the vigil went on.

So true:

Marty Golden did not speak to any of the protesters. At the end of their rally, they blocked the street.  (Don’t go crazy Bay Ridge, they are doing this for safer streets for kids). Four female protesters and Brad Lander were arrested for civil obedience (front row here). The police officers came with enough zip ties to contain 80 people. And if the point was to get them out of the street, why did the officers walk with the protesters in the street?

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Breakdancing Academy on Bath Avenue

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68th Precinct Community Policing Meeting October 29, 2018

Updated October 13th:

From the Summer:

The Community Policing (called NCO program) will be starting this Summer in Bay Ridge. NCO stands for Neighborhood Coordination Officers. The precinct will be divided into sectors and officers will be assigned to sectors every day. Residents will be given contact information for the NCO’s of their area.

The 68th Precinct will have a meeting on July 31st at 6:15 pm at  Xaverian High School to explain the program.

If you plan on attending you can RSVP: 718-439-4220 or e-mail: [email protected]

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The NYTs Highlights Golden’s Poor Driving Record

The title of the New York Times’ article is:

Caught on Speed Camera a Senator Who’d Like to Shut Them Down.

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Councilman Brannan’s Bill Becomes a Law

Councilman Brannan had his first bill become a law yesterday.

As his constituents we are very happy to see our Councilman has kept his promise and is doing something about the opiod epidemic. Educating children about the dangers of opiod use is a good place to start.

Brannan wrote: “Yesterday, the Mayor signed into law my first bill as an elected official. The law will address the ongoing opioid epidemic by requiring the NYC Dept of Health to develop & provide age-appropriate educational materials on drug and opioid awareness and prevention for NYC school kids.”

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Was Senator Golden Skydiving Just a Publicity Stunt?

So Marty Golden went skydiving for………..Veteran’s or Publicity?

When the event happened, I knew it was strange, but there wasn’t enough to prove it was a publicity stunt. Although it looked like Marty Golden’s typical ploy to get free press, money was being raised for veteran’s…..so who wants to question that. 

But we should because it’s Marty Golden and he really doesn’t do things unless they benefit Marty.

Proof that it was just a publicity event:

a) Strangely, a paper outside of our area, The Brooklyn Downtown Star had an article about the event that looked a lot different than the press around Bay Ridge did. In fact, the article barely mentioned Marty Golden at all in the article. The article focused on the military vets taking a jump Sergeant Marvin Jeffcoat, Sergeant James McClelland (Marty’s staffer) and Carlos Alvarez.

b) The Skydive for Vets site that advertised the event is no longer online – someone stopped paying the WIX bill. If it was real, other Vets would be signing up during these beautiful Summer months and doing more events! This site says it was the first event, but it also looks like it was its only event.  The site was suppose to list contributors and said something about tshirts too.

c) There is a real organization called Skydive for Veteran’s. I wonder if they minded that someone else was using their name?

d) The large check posed with at the end was from New York Right Now. James McClelland, one of Marty’s staffer is also a Board Member of New York Right Now…..which just seems to advertise Marty Golden.  Veteran’s in New Jersey received the check.

Why not raise money for Veteran’s in need in Bay Ridge or somewhere in Brooklyn?  If you glance as this (or anything Marty Golden does) quickly, it looks good. If you zoom in, you will see -> Something Isn’t Quite Right Here.

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