Fundraiser for the St. Paddy’s Day Parade 3/11

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Malliotakis’ Questioning Brings Answers About Covid

All of the information coming out about Covid is very sad.

Congresswoman Malliotakis’ questioning is fantastic.

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Ari Kagan is Having a Fundraiser 3/9. His Flyer is Funny!

I hope there will a debate soon so we can hear from all the candidates.

Ari obviously has a very good sense of humor.

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Jimmy Johnson from Narrows Botanical Gardens Was on Channel 1 News

Jimmy Johnson from Narrows Botanical Gardens was on Channel 1 Spectrum News. (See the video here)

It started with Johnson talking about the birdhouses that people can get for a donation. He explained that bird houses will encourage more birds to our area.

Then Johnson took them into the greenhouse, which was fantastic!

They have baby turtles (see here), bees and a lot of plants. Jimmy Johnson looked healthy and happy – so go spend some time at NBG to get some health and happiness.

Roger Clark also stopped into Bagel Schmagel last week. (See here)

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What Was That Huge Boom in Bay Ridge?

Did you hear that huge BOOM and wonder what it was??

A huge tree fell on the corner of 80th Street and Ridge Blvd. Bill shared pictures of the uprooted tree here.

We were two blocks away – it was loud and different than anything we’ve ever heard.

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64th Street and Ft. Hamilton Parkway

Jessie’s Video

Fort Hamilton Parkway and 64th Street is a mess!

Who represents this area?

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Teens Shot in Sunset Park – 36th St & 4th Avenue

Two 18-year-olds were shot around 2:30 pm today in Sunset Park. (News) “There was a fight yesterday and he came back to settle it,” the deli manager said of the shooter. (Source)

The young men were in a bodega on 4th Avenue and 36th Street. Both were shot in the shoulder and taken to NYU Langone Hospital in stable condition.

The young men attend PS 371, The Lillian L. Rashkis High School across from the store from the bodega.

This paper shared that the police have two people of interest in custody, yet the Daily News wrote that the surveillance video only showed one shooter. (Source)

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Hurt Raven In Bay Ridge At The Wild Bird Fund

A few days ago, there was a hurt Raven in Bay Ridge. He was brought to the Wild Bird Fund. I keep checking their Instagram to see how he is, but he hasn’t appeared on there yet. (See here)

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Why Didn’t Community Board 10 Tell Bay Ridge That People Would Be Making Money Using Our Street Parking?

Community Board 10 let GetAround Car Sharing present at a Community Board 10 meeting.

GetAround told CB 10 it would just be a few parking spots.

GetAround Car Sharing failed to mention that their App allows people to rent their extra cars, like people rent apartments through AirBnB.

We came across it accidently on the app this weekend, when some cars were listed in areas that weren’t on “the designated streets.”

A map is shown of the general area where the car is located, rather than the address:

This truck was one of the vehicles available to rent:

The truck’s owner made money for listing his vehicle on the app because they have sign up bonuses right now.

How much did that truck owner make through the signup bonus?

The 11209 area code has a $750 bonus:

Does Andrew Gounardes know that GetAround is doing this? YES, the information was in GetAround’s Summer press release – see here

Ironically, the head of the Transportation Committee was also the chair of the Youth Services Education Committee when the school at 88th Street and 5th Avenue was decided.

Don’t believe me, WATCH THE TWO MEETING VIDEOS (HERE AND HERE)

Other strange things Community Board 10 didn’t mention:

Bay Ridge already has two car sharing companies that are well-established in our area.

Why would we want another car sharing company to undercuts two established businesses in our community? (Info here)

Why didn’t CB 10 members from the Transportation Committee of CB 10 researched the California car sharing company?

Who was supposed to answer the question, why is only one car sharing company presenting in Bay Ridge?

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Kitten Brothers for Adoption at SCAR

Marzipan and Oreo are our four-month-old brothers available for adoption at SCAR.

Sean Casey Animal Rescue 153 East 3rd Street. They are open from 11 a.m. until 7 pm.

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Bay Ridge Businesses Are Been Undercut by GetAround (Supported by Andrew Gounardes)

In August 2016, I wrote about Cars2Go being allowed to drop their minicars all over our neighborhood. (See here)

Each blue dot on the map below represented a Zipcar on our streets waiting to be rented. It was terrible!

Back then, it was the then Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce head, Carlo Scissura and the Brooklyn Borough President who pushed for Cars2Go in Brooklyn.

Cars2Go didn’t pay for using NYC’s streets. Residents in every neighborhood wondered, “Why the heck are these little cars parked all over the place?” By 2019, Cars2Go left NY, merged with another company and went out of business in North America. (Info)

Over the years, Zipcar, Enterprise and other car rental companies settled in our neighborhoods and offered hourly car rentals, as well as long-term. But this time it was done right – they paid for their parking.

A Subaru Crosstrek could be rented for $15.15 an hour or $96.25 for the day.

Zipcar has two locations in our area.

a) 9109 – 4th Avenue – cars are $15 an hour.

Enterprise also has two locations in our area – their cars are around $20 an hour (but they have a lot more choices and luxury ones too).

Most of Enterprises cars are on 88th Street in Century’s old Parking Spot.

Why in 2023 is another Cars2Go type company in our community?

Why didn’t Justin Brannan and Andrew Gounardes speak out for the existing carshare companies in our neighborhood?

Andrew Gounardes never spoke to the community about his support for GetAway Car Sharing. Even when Community Board 10 asked, “Why are we only hearing a presentation from one company?”

How is it legal for elected leaders to support a private business like this? Since GetAway has no fees for parking or insurance (or anything else like a regular business does), GetAway rents their cars for less than half of our established car share places. That is undercutting their businesses.

Strangely, the existing Zipcar and Enterprise locations are not listed on pages 2-4 of locations for existing car sharing for NYC, but I called them and they are in business! (See here)

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Gounardes Pushed GetAround Car-Sharing on Bay Ridge And Was Silent About His Involvement

If you are looking for parking and can’t find a spot, you need to raise your voice towards Senator Andrew Gounardes. 718-238-6044

Community Board 10 only heard from one Car Sharing Company, GetAround Car Sharing, a California Company that had never done business in New York.

When Doris from CB 10 asked, “Why is there only one car-sharing company presenting? No one answered.

Watch this video:

Andrew Gounardes should have told Community 10 that he was working with GetAround Car Share. #SomethingIsNotRightHere

Gounardes said, “We should be encouraging more car share.” If that were true, then Gounardes would have spoken about car sharing to the community, shared it on his social media or in his newsletters.

Yes, car sharing is good, if the company’s that are car sharing pay for their parking spot. Our streets are not a free parking lots for businesses.

GetAround has put a lot of money into lobbying. (See here) GetAround has lobbied in both NYC and NYS.

Andrew Gounardes drives a car. He can’t be anti-car because his office is in walking distance of his home, yet he doesn’t walk to his office. Gounardes has also never spoken up for the environment or air quality, so something is strange about him presenting for a California car-sharing program, rather than a NY business.

GetAround Car Sharing must not know that Gounardes has accepted money from the The Greater New York Dealers Assocation.

This is a political action committee that represents dealerships in Bay Ridge.

That political action committee boasts about their powerful voice in Albany:

Gounardes also accepted donations from Bay Ridge Automotive:

Community Board 10 also didn’t tell us that there are more cars than were previously mentioned. (I will share that soon and put a link here soon.)

Andrew Gounardes had a responsibility to tell our community of his involvement with GetAround. A government officials should not be representing any individual corporation.

People in Queens have been leaving me messages because they GetAround is taking parking spaces in their community and parking on the sidewalk as well.

They posted this today:

This person wrote about GetAround’s stock going public. See it’s current market value here.

Why did Andrew Gounardes, who doesn’t have any experience in business think it was okay to push a California company on our community?

See pictures of Gounardes at GetAround‘s business event in Downtown Brooklyn, rather than representing someone or a business in our community. here.

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Finally, is anyone else tired of Councilman Brannan playing stupid when he is asked about lobbyist’s projects in our community?

We need new leaders in Bay Ridge – ones who aren’t interested in dancing for lobbyists or corruption. like this.

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