Public Park Land Grab?

Billionaire Looking to Privatize Queens Parkland?

Bill Pending in Albany Would Enable it

May 10, 2023 / Queens Neighborhoods / Queens Real Estate / News Analysis & Opinion / Queens Buzz / 1068.

NYS Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubrey has sponsored a bill to allow a billionaire to build a casino on Queens parkland.  Why can't the billionaire buy his own land to build the casino?  And why has Aubrey supported this public park land grab?

Click here to read the OpEd by the President of a local non-profit explaining the situation. Billionaire Steve Cohen appears to be making bid to essentially privatize Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens.

• CLICK here in the future for an update on Billionaire Steve Cohen Mets Owner Making a Public Park Land Grab with the help of Jeffrion Aubrey?

* NYC News Updates

China Operating a 'Secret Police' in Chinatown, Climate Change and NYS Springtime Forest Fires & Rupert Murdoch's Mendacious Media on Trial ... Again

April 18, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC / 472.

NYC Weather. The temperature highs will rise from about 60 on Tuesday, to the mid 60's Wednesday and Thursday, to the low to mid 70's on Friday and Saturday. The temperature lows will be in the mid 40's on Tuesday and Wednesday, rising to the mid 50's on Thursday and Friday. The winds will be about 10 - 15 mph on Tuesday and Wednesday, dropping to 5 - 10 mph on Thursday and Friday. The humidity will be about 40% on Tuesday and Wednesday, rising to 60 - 70% on Thursday and Friday. No rain is in the forecast all week long.

PRC [People's Republic of China] Caught Operating a 'Secret Police' in Chinatown in Manhattan

In October of 2022, the FBI obtained a search warrant to investigate an office on Broadway in Chinatown believed to be a 'secret police' station set up by dictator President Xi Jin Ping's Peoples Republic of China in order to control the behaviors of Chinese people living in the U.S. Two men were charged in the case. According to the Department of Justice, the two men who were arrested yesterday, are "... “Harry” Lu Jianwang, 61, of the Bronx, and Chen Jinping, 59, of Manhattan ...".

The 'secret police' office was closed after the two men discovered that the FBI was watching them. When conducting the search, the FBI reported that the memories of the two men's communications devices [aka evidence] were erased. The men are presumed innocent in this country until proven guilty. This is very much unlike the process we've seen in China, where one is guilty of whatever dictator president Xi Jin Ping decides they're guilty of.

I always marvel at the dishonesty of dictators who attempt to control what everyone thinks, because the truth can be deadly to them and their regimes. For example calling China the PRC - People's Republic of China - when the people have no say in who their leaders are, can be imprisoned or even terminated for speaking their minds, and can only own or operate a significant business if it's given a blessing by the dictator president. The PRC should be called the XDC - Xi's Dictatorship of China. Where everything is designed to suit one man, and nobody, and nothing else, matters. As dictator president Xi seems to say by his actions, "... It's all about Me, Me, Me, Me or Xi, Xi, Xi, Xi ...".

• CLICK here for our report on the Chinese operating a secret police in Manhattan NYC, Climate Change and NYS Springtime forest fires and Rupert Murdoch's mendacious media on trial again.

* Black History Month in NYC

This is a Look at Some of the Black History Events We've Covered Over the Years

February 17, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / Gotham Buzz NYC/ 471.

NYC Weather. The temperature high hit 61 degrees on Monday, and will fall to the mid to high 40's for the rest of the week. The temperature lows will range from the mid 30's to the low 40's until Friday, when the temperature drops into the mid 20's. The winds will range from 5 - 10 mph until Friday, when we'll experience a gusty 15 - 20 mph. The humidity will range between 60% - 70% through the week, before dropping to 40% on Friday. Less than a quarter inch of rain is expected on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The image at right is of Langston Hughes, a writer in the 1920's and 1930's of the Harlem Renaissance. It seems like African Americans are continuing the process of asserting their influence in American culture, a process that began going mainstream in the 1920's / 1930's.

Highlighting Black History Month in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens & Staten Island NYC with Reports about African American History and Culture

We've covered a number of interesting theatrical performances and art exhibits exploring African American history and the African American experience in the five boroughs over the years. Some of them feature the African American experience front and center, while others include or reference the African American experience. This is a compendium of most of them, with links to the full stories. Think of this as a work in progress as it is far from complete, and in some measure, reflects how long each of our web magazines has been open / covering events in each of the boroughs. At this time I have not included many of the black and brown events reflecting immigrants' cultures, vis a vis the African American cultural experience.

• CLICK here for our report on the Black history month and African American history in NYC - prior reporting recap / summary.

* Black History Month in NYC

Scratching the Surface of Our Ancestoral African Roots

February 7, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / Gotham Buzz NYC / 470.

Over the past few years I've come to enjoy a number of PBS programs that delve into our collective African American ancestoral roots. One of the shows is hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wherein he researches various celebrities' ancestoral roots, digging up photos, slave ownership records, and connections to other celebrities by tracing DNA trails. The journey can lead to any number of surprises, such as when Gates found that one of actress Carol Burnett's ancestors joined the Confederate Army, and then deserted a couple of years later. Or when Gates uncovered that TV Producer / Writer Larry David of Seinfeld is a distant cousin to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

But for my money, the treasure trove of programming on PBS may be found in its rich collection of documentaries - both old and new. And among those documentaries are a wide number of films exploring the contributions and history of African Americans.

PBS Documentaries During Black History Month in NYC

I'm only going to touch on one of them now, and at a later date will return to engage in a deeper conversation about others. The documentary I watched on PBS this month, was entitled, The Blinding of Isaac Woodard. It was about how an innocent African American veteran was attacked by a white southern police chief [Lynwood Shull] from South Carolina who beat out Woodard's eyes and permanently blinded him in February 1946, while Woodard was changing buses at a bus stop. That's a mighty nasty way to welcome a WWII veteran home and thank him for risking his life to defend us.

Nonetheless, eight years later, the search for justice was fulfilled ... in a way. Of course the all white South Carolina jury let off Police Chief Shull. But that action so enraged President Harry S. Truman, that he ordered a federal investigation into the case. And actor / radio host Orson Welles, took up the cause too, helping make it known what sorts of racial injustices were being perpetrated upon African Americans living and working in the south.

• CLICK here for our report on the Black history and the role of African Americans in pushing for civil rights.

NYC News Updates NYS

Office Workers & Employers Facing a Choice - Come Back to the Office or -

The UN is Back Live in Session, a look at the Argument for Democracies vs Dictatorships, & What's with the Royalist TV News Groupies?

September 19, 2022 / NYC Neighborhoods / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

NYC Weather. The temperature highs will be in the low 80's on Tuesday & Wednesday, dropping to the low 70's on Thursday and the mid 60's on Friday., The temperature lows will rise from the mid 60's on Monday & Tuesday to the low 70's on Wednesday, and then fall into the mid to low 50's on Thursday and Friday. The winds will be 10 - 15 mph all week. The humidity will be 55% - 65% all week, except on Friday when it falls to 45% - 55%. There's a small chance of a small amount of rain in Thursday, with the probability gone by mid afternoon.

NYC White Collar Office Workers Continue to Resist a Full Return to the Office

As we noted last week, in our update, people are returning to mass transit. While weekend ridership on the subways has reached about 90%, weekday ridership lags behind at about 65% of prepandemic levels. One of the main drivers of the lower weekday ridership is that folks haven't yet resumed embraced a full return to the office at anywhere near prepandemic levels.

For about the past six months, only about 10% of white collar office workers in Manhattan, go to the office daily. But the number of people in the office each day has risen from about 38% to 49%, according to Parnership for New York City, a non-profit dedicated to primarily promoting the economic interests of NYC. Also, the percentage of workers staying fully remote dropped from 28% to 16% over the same six month period [April - September]. Nearly four out of five employers [77%] indicated that the preferred business model [demanded per employees] is now ready to accommodate folks who only want to travel to the office three of the five days in a work week.

Nobody is yet saying this, but it's my guesstimate, that over time, employees who are in the office more frequently are going to win out over those who are working remotely. And because of that phenomenon, I also guesstimate that over time, more folks will start spending more time in the office. But this may take years to play out.

There's a flip side of the coin above, which is that employers who accommodate remote workers, especially women who want to spend time rearing their children, could, over time, attract and retain some of the best and the brightest, even if they don't pay top dollar. For some, including myself, money matters - but it isn't everything.

As I look at what I've just written I see a potential lawsuit - discriminatory pay based on gender. But could it be discriminatory pay based on remote working? This discussion might have some parallels to the discussion below about dictatorships vs democracy and about valuing loyalty over talent.

Ultimately, time will tell, and it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. One thing is clear, many of us - if not all - are not going back to the status quo.

• CLICK to continue reading our report on NYC News Updates Office Workers Resist Full Return to Office, UN Reconvenes, Dictators vs Democracies, and Corporate Media Royalists in NYC.

News Update NYC

Entering the Post Pandemic New Normal in NYC

September 13, 2022 / NYC Neighborhoods / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

NYC Weather. The temperature highs will be in the high 70's and the temperature lows around 60. It will be sunny the rest of the week, with humidity ranging from 40% - 60%, which is fairly dry. Winds will be 5 - 10 mph, falling as the week wears on. No rain is expected between now and Friday evening, nor through the coming weekend.

So, a lot has happened since we last posted a news update. At right is a photo of one of the outer borough subway stations this summer. As you can see, mask wearing compliance has diminished.

MTA: Ridership Hits Post Pandemic High of 3.5 Million Weekday Riders on the First Day of the Reopening of NYC Public Schools & Governor Hochul Drops the MTA Mask Mandate

On Thursday, September 8th, the first day of the NYC public schools reopening, the MTA transported 3.6 million people. That's the highest ridership number since the pandemic began two and a half years ago in March of 2020.

In our August 9th report [see below] we suggested the MTA drop the mask mandate or enforce it. At the time we noticed that less than half of the passengers on the subway seemed to be adhering to the mask mandate. On September 7th, NYS Governor Hochul rescinded the mask mandate on the MTA, making masking optional, but still recommended that we continue masking on the MTA as we enter the colder months, when folks go indoors, where the probability of infection by airborne viruses like CoVid and the flu increases. The guidance is particularly relevant to those who are older or have underlying conditions, but it's also not unwise for everyone else too.

Shootings Down in NYC in August - In August 2022 There were 115 Shootings vs 165 in August 2021

This Follows the Passage of Federal Gun Restrictions by Congress in June, Biden's April Executive Order in Requiring Ghost Gun Sales be Handled in the Same Manner as Gun Sales & Mayor Adams & the NYPD's Effort to Remove Illegal Guns from NYC Streets

On June 25th, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This is legislation that passed both the Senate and Congress earlier in the month. A number of moderate Republicans crossed the aisle in both the House and Senate to vote with the Democrats, on reigning in the gun violence free-for-all that we've been witnessing the past couple of years.

The federal gun legislation was the first of its kind to pass both houses and be signed into law in about 30 years. Among other things it enhances background checks for younger gun owners [under 21], and provides law enforcement with additional authority and responsibility to thwart potential shooters by empowering them to curtail a gun owner's rights if there's reason to believe that person poses a risk to the general welfare of the community. Added funding was also provided to incent law enforcement to pay more attention to problematic gun owners.

The Biden Ghost Gun sale regulations went into effect on August 24, 2022, following a failed court challenge to block the President's April 2022 Executive Order requiring ghost gun sales to be treated the same as other firearm sales.

In addition to the actions taken at the federal level, Mayor Adams has been working with the NYPD to reduce shootings through changes in NYC law enforcement to take illegal guns off the street. Year to date [as of end of August 2022], the NYPD had removed 4,880 illegal guns from the streets of which 405 of them were removed in August.

Other NYC crime statistics rose 31%. And NYS Governor Hochul passed a number gun regulations in response to the Supreme Court ruling overturning a century old NYS gun law.

We'll have a few more items to add, including on NYC public schools, on Wednesday 9.14.22. In the meantime, I hope you're having a nice week.

Was the Staten Island Ferry Sale a Joke?

Did You Hear the One about a Staten Island Ferry, Two Comedians, an Architect & a Night Club Owner?

Updated January 26 from 1/24/2022 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC News / Staten Buzz NYC.

Weather. The temperature highs will be within about 5 degrees of 30 throughout the week, except on Tuesday when it will be in the low 40's. The temperature lows will be between 20 and 30 degrees, except on Wednesday, when it will drop to 12 degrees. The winds will be 5 - 10 mph Monday & Tuesday, rising to 10 - 15 mph on Wednesday, before falling back to 5 - 10 mph Thursday & Friday. Humidity will be 50% - 70% on Monday, dropping to 50% - 60% on Tuesday, and then 40% - 50% on Wednesday & Thursday, before rising back to 50% - 70% on Friday. No precipitation is in the forecast until Friday afternoon / evening at which time it looks like we're going to get several or more inches of snow.

As the new year begins to unfold, we encounter a mixed bag of news that has already made it out onto the public stage. Let's start with the purchase of a de-commissioned Staten Island Ferry, the JFK. The photo above right was taken in January 2020, likely near the end of the JFK's life of ferrying passengers to and from Staten Island. You can see the 'JFK' in the upper right corner of the photo below the black circle and with a bit of glare obfuscating part of the 'F'.

They may be Laughing Now, but ...

SNL Comedians Pete Davidson & Colin Jost, Architect Developer & Contractor Ron Castellano and Night Club Owner Paul Italia Buy the JFK Staten Island Ferry Boat

Last week, after several rounds of bidding, a consortium of investors, including SNL Comedians Pete Davidson & Colin Jost; Architect, Developer & Contractor Ron Castellano; and Night Club Owner Paul Italia purchased a 2,100 ton de-commissioned Staten Island ferry boat - the JFK - for $280,100. The purchase prices was only $100 above the next nearest bid, after the price doubled during the bidding process - up from $125,000 - after the starting bid had to be lowered from $250,000 because of a lack of early interest.

At right are Pete Davidson [left] and Colin Jost [right] announcing their new acquisition on SNL's News update. This project is likely to get a fair amount of publicity given the fame of these two owners and Jost's famous wife and Davidson's famous girlfriend.

• CLICK here for the rest of our report on the Sale of the Staten Island Ferry to Colin Jost & Pete Davidson - including a brief history of prior Staten Island Ferry Sales.

News Updates - De Blasio Announcement & NYC Crime Stats 2021

De Blasio Decides Not to Run for NYS Governor, Hochul's Fundraising Haul, NYC Violent Crime Up Slightly in 2021, but NYC Homicides Still Below the National Average & To Be or Not To Be - do we want to Politicize the Guns / Violent Crime Problem or Solve it?

January 18, 2022 / NYC Neighborhoods / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

This morning, January 18, 2022, former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he will not seek the Governor's office on Twitter.

De Blasio mentioned some of his accomplishments during his eight years as Mayor including Universal Pre-K, building hundreds of thousands affordable housing units, implementing some police reforms at the NYPD to make policing fairer, and efforts to transition NYC to cleaner energy. He didn't say what his future plans were, only that he would be announcing them from his neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Governor Kathy Hochul is well positioned for the NYS Governors race this year. Hochul received the very early endorsement of the NYS Democratic Party Chairman Jay Jacobs in October of 2021, and has raised $21.6 million since she announced her candidacy in August of 2021. It's a record for the five month period, and about the same amount of money that former Governor Andrew Cuomo had to ward off challengers in 2018. NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and 3rd District [Nassau County] Congressman Thomas Suozzi have announced their candidacies. In December of 2021, Attorney General Letitia James withdrew her candidacy, in favor of running for reelection in her current post.

On the Republican side of the race there's former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who is running against newcomer Andrew Giuliani, who's primary claim to fame is that he is the son of Rudy, the former NYC Mayor with the same surname and Lee Zeldin, a Congressman from Long Island.

In fundraising as well as in polling, Hochul seems to have all the advantages at this point in the campaign. Her nearest competitor in polling recently done by Siena would have been de Blasio, who had 12% of the vote versus Hochul's 46%. NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams was next with 11% and Suozzi with 6%. The Suozzi campaign has about $5 million in campaign funding, $2 million of which was transferred from his congressional campaign. Republican Astorino has about $1.3 million, and none of the other contestants released their funding.

A number of snide comments were made in the wake of Hochul's record haul and competitive fundraising position for the upcoming June primary. She was compared to Cuomo with allusions to the possibility of corruption, but nothing specific was provided to support those insinuations.

De Blasio's announcement came as I was working on an update report on NYC crime. Unfortunately, the NYPD doesn't publish a December monthly report, like they do every other month, so it's more challenging to do a year end tally. Hence, this report won't be as comprehensive as some of the others I've done the past couple of years, and will instead focus mostly on shootings and the murder rate.

NYC Crime Statistics for 2021

Thefts Down Significantly / Murders Up Slightly & Still Below the National Average / Most Other Crimes up in Low to Mid Single Digits with Some Exceptions ...

The outlier in the year end crime stats, which were up slightly from 2020, was that thefts were down almost 19%. This may have something to do with the fact that fewer people are out and about, so thieves have fewer to prey upon and the victims have fewer distractions and events where thefts may occur.

As for other salient changes in the main categories, Grand Larceny was up about 12% while Grand Larceny Auto was up 14%, Other (than rape) Sex Crimes were up 30%, Misdemeanour Assault was up 10%, and Hate Crimes were up 93%. It's worth noting that only murders and hate crimes are counted in the hundreds - not thousands.

The murders in NYC were up slightly in 2021 versus 2020. Note that the graph at right is for the entire nation and in 2020 - not 2021. The purpose is so that you can have context in evaluating where we are and what's going on.

In 2021 the preliminary murder rate in the U.S. was about 6.6 per 100,000 people [21,750 / 330M], while the murder rate in NYC was 5.5 per 100,000 people [485 / 8.8M]. Prior to the pandemic, in 2018, the murder rate in the U.S. was 4.96 per 100,000 people [WorldPopulationReview.com], and the murder rate in NYC was 289 victims [8.4M population] or 3.4 per 100,000 people, which was the lowest on record. In 2012, during former Mayor Bloomberg's last year as NYC Mayor, the murder rate had fallen to 414 [8.2M] or about 5.0 per 100,000 people.

So with our larger population [8.8M vs 8.2M], NYC experienced a bit higher murder rate in former Mayor de Blasio's last year in office, versus former Mayor Bloomberg's last year in office. And for de Blasio this was in the midst of the pandemic amid record gun sales.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on NYC Crime Statistics NYPD for 2021, and how Murdoch mass media distorts the truth to divide the nation by selectively picking crime statistics and overlaying a label-ridden, self-enriching, propaganda narrative.

Black History Month to End Soon

PBS has been Airing Some Excellent Documentaries about African Americans Role in Our Nation's History

February 22, 2021 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC History / Gotham Buzz NYC.

Weather. There will be a small bit of rain today between 11 am - 4 pm. Thereafter the rest of the week should be dry. The temperature highs will be in the 40's all week and the temperature lows will be in the 30's. The winds will be 5 - 10 mph except on Wednesday, when it will be a drafty 13 mph. Humidity will be in the 70% range today, dropping into the 60% range on Tuesday & Wednesday, then down into the 50% range on Thursday and Friday.

All tolled, it looks like a pretty fair week.

PBS - Finding Your Roots - Histories

Last night I came upon one of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Finding Your Roots documentaries on PBS. For more info about this series see - https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/

As I watched, I recollected how in my youth, I had considered Black hisotry to be a superfluous extension of American history. That perspective was, of course, born of youthful ignorance. Since then, I have come to appreciate the importance of Black Studies in providing a more comprehensive view of American history over the centuries. In part, I have PBS to thank, because they have aired and I have watched, quite a number of documentaries - some or all of which they funded or produced - particularly since the CoVid pandemic began.

In the program I viewed last night, one of the people on Gates' Finding Your Roots series was being informed about her family's history. It struck me when Gates referenced her great, great, great, great grandfather on a bill of sale by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Over the past decade or so, I've become more interested in my own family's history. We knew a fair amount about those ancestors within temporal reach, going back to our great grandfathers, but little beyond. That was until a couple of summers ago when I found that one of the members of our extended family had a collection of scribbled notes and diagrams that recorded our lineage - some of which appears to date back to colonial times and the Revolutionary War. Up until this discovery, I had thought we had become Americans in the latter half of the 18th century.

But it occurred to me, based on Gates' reference to the great, great, great, great grandfather mentioned above, most African Americans' family histories date back at least a couple of centuries. Gates' documentary series delves into the histories of oftentimes, somewhat famous, African Americans who were descendants of slaves, or famous white Christian or Jewish Americans who are descendants of families that owned slaves.

Gates' geneological and genetic explorations also find interesting tidbits, like the fact that comedian Larry David and Senator Bernie Sanders are distantly related. PBS Producer Ken Burns is a descendant of a slave owner, but also related to Abraham Lincoln. And Brian Gumbel discovered he had some previously unknown Jewish ancestry.

Out of Gates' explorations into the past, we learn many things, not the least of which is that African Americans worked the fields, growing cotton and food that fed and clothed the nation, and provided their 'owners' with a tidy profit. It's worth noting that in the early 1800's about 75% of the nation worked in occupations related to agriculture [today it's about 10 - 11%]. But following the Civil War, African Americans' contribution to the nation went far beyond that, including serving our nation in two world wars, providing needed labor for the auto industry and significantly contributing to our culture and history.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report about Black History, Jazz Ambassadors and Henry Louis Gates Helps Folks Find Their Ancestral Roots.

George Floyd Protest Cinematography, Music & Narrative

June 12, 2020 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Social Issues & Crime / News Analysis & Opinion / Gotham Buzz NYC.

The video below is an interpretive depiction of a protest event in McCarren Park early last week. The piece is meant to be savored - like food, music and cinematography.

• CLICK here to read the rest of our report on the George Floyd Pink Floyd protests in Brooklyn, Manhattan & Bronx NYC and George Floyd protest videos.

NYC Marathon Comes Streaming Through Brooklyn

The 49th NYC Marathon Runners Receives Warm Brooklyn Welcome

November 4, 2019/8 / Brooklyn Neighborhoods NYC / Brooklyn Things To Do NYC / Brooklyn BLVD nyc. By Michael Wood.

I traveled over to Brooklyn Sunday to watch the NYC Marathon runners traverse the borough. Once again the race was fully populated with marathoners of all ages, genders and ethnicities. It's kind of a United Nations event.

But it's also a local community event too, as so many people who come to witness the run also know somebody running in the race. You can tell who they know by the wild screams of excitement and enthusiasm that come from some of the most calm looking people.

The audience / actor interactions provide a real feeling of something quite wonderous, as for a day, most of the city becomes engulfed in the five borough event.

I'll have more on some of the history of the NYC Marathon in Brooklyn at a later date.

Kings Theater Comes Alive in Flatbush Ditmas Park

The Beautiful Kings Theater was Built as a Loews Theater in 1929, Restored Beginning 2010 & Reopened in 2015

October 2019 / 2/18 / Flatbush Ditmas Park Neighborhood Brooklyn / Brooklyn Theater / Gotham Buzz NYC.

I took the subway down to Prospect Park South and began walking east toward the Flatbush Ditmas Park neighborhood in Brooklyn. I was on my way to the State of the City Address to be given by Mayor de Blasio.

The Prospect Park South neighborhood turned out to be an unexpected architectural surprise, as there were many large yards surrounding some very large homes in the neighborhood. When I arrived at Kings Theater there were protesters outside making their voices heard in wanting the Mayor to do more most specifically on prison reform.

I made my way inside and was kind of awe struck at the magnificent soaring celings of the Kings Theater. So I paused, after getting a quick briefing about what was happening on the main stage of the theater, to appreciate the great work done 90 years ago [completed 89 years ago] and what appeared to be the fine restoration of it.

I'll have more on the Kings Theater in the Flatbush Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn at a later date.

NYC Crime Continues To Drop, Breaking Records

Mayor de Blasio & NYPD Discuss City Safety & Ongoing Improvements

February 7, 2017 / Brooklyn Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Government / Brooklyn Blvd NYC..

This just came in on the heels of our coverage of the Public Safety discussion below. Mayor de Blasio and NY Police Commissioner O'Neill spoke in the Bronx regarding ongoing efforts and results in improving safety in the city. The following are some of the crime statistics noted in their meeting taken directly out of a press release sent by them.

Chief of Crime Control Strategies Dermot Shea, NYPD: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good afternoon, everyone. As you've heard, we have begun a strong start to 2017 in terms of overall crime reduction. Strategies that have been put in place to address repeat offenders, illegal gun possession and gangs are having the desired effect. We're building on the momentum of the last few years.

• So, some of the highlights for crime statistics from this January - overall index crime is down 0.2 percent for the month of January. When you carry it over to this morning, we are now down 2.7 percent in overall index crime in New York City.

• To note - with the overall index crime, January marks the tenth consecutive month of reduced index crime. That's the momentum we've been talking about. Currently, four out of five boroughs in New York City - all but Queens - are down to start the year.

• Homicides - we recorded 20 homicides in January. That's down two from 22. That 20, as the Mayor alluded to, is the lowest January that we have ever recorded going back a minimum into the 1960s.

• Shooting incidents - down 1.7 percent in January. Last January we hit the modern mark with 59 shooting incidents. We came in with 58 this January.

• Talking about momentum again - nine of the last 13 months we've had a reduction in shooting incidents. Nine of the last 13.

• Three months in a row we've had a reduction in shooting incidents in New York City. We have now, when you look at New York City as a whole, we now have 24-hour periods where we do not record a shooting incident in New York City. That kind of thinking was impossible in the not too distant past.

• This is the new normal. We want to build on it and we feel that we will build on it but there's still plenty of work to do.

• Stabbings and slashings for January - down 7.2 percent.

• Robberies - down 7.5 percent. Lowest January robbery number we've seen.

• Felony assaults in New York City - down 5.4 percent.

• Burglaries tied the lowest mark set last year.

• Transit crime - down 1.4 percent.

• And housing crime - not to be outdone - down 1.9 percent.

• Clearly, a wide breath of crime across New York City - property and violent crime, down.
  
  But there is, I alluded to, there is still work to do - three categories we saw increases in January.

• Rape was up 8.9 percent.

• Grand larceny, specifically, credit card related skimming and forging of checks - those two drove grand larcenies. And grand larceny was up for the month of January 4.7 percent.

• And lastly, rounding out the crime totals - stolen vehicles which we have seen drop to unprecedented lows saw an increase of ten cars for January. So, that's 480 versus 470 - a two percent increase.

Commissioner O'Neill: Okay, thanks, Dermot. We'll take your questions.

Question: Do you think it's possible, really to keep driving crime down further at this point? And how could you achieve that?

O'Neill's response was yes, with some added context.

NYC Marathon Brooklyn: A Brief History

A Closer Look At The NYC Marathon Course & Runners

November 2, 2015 / NYC Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Blvd NYC.

Every year about 50,000 runners converge on New York City on the first weekend of November to run in the New York Marathon. The race begins at 8.30 am with the wheelchair division, is followed at 8.52 am by the athletes with disabilities and handcyclers. And then from 8.55 am until 11 am a horde of 50,000 runners passes the starting line on their 26 mile journey ending in Central Park.

The course has changed since the first NYC Marathon and now runs through all five boroughs, starting in Staten Island, coming up through western Brookyn, cutting through Long Island City between the Pulaski and Queensboro Bridges and then looping up along the Upper East Side before circling back around just north of the Harlem River in the Bronx and heading back south into Manhattan and terminating in Central Park.

The race lasts about eleven hours, as the official end time is 7.30 pm, but the reality is that it's mostly over by about 5 pm. The NYC Marathon began in 1970 and the first one was held entirely in Central Park by having the runners circle around the park on various roadways multiple times. And, of course, it was a much smaller group of runners.

NYC Marathon Runner Demographics by the NYT

The NYT published a report about the NYC Marathon demographics. In it they noted that about three quarters of the runners make it over the finish line, and that about 40% of the runners are now women, which is up significantly from none in the first NYC Marathon in 1970.

This year only 48% of the runners are Americans, while another 4.5% come from Canada and Mexico, France and Italy represent 14% of the runners [split about evenly], and Britain, Germany and the Netherlands are another 15% (contributing in descending order], other parts of Europe, Latin America, Japan & China, Austrailia and South Africa.

Age-wise the largest group is between 30 and 40, the 2nd largest between 40 and 50, and a good measure from the 20 to 30 and the 50 to 60 demographics. Apparently many reaching their 40th and 50th birthdays like to 'prove that they still have it'. You can find the full report on www.nytimes.com, including some fun graphs.

NYC Marathon Winners Past & Present

The last time an American won the Marathon was in 2009 [Meb Keflezighi - a 2004 Olympic silver medalist born in Eritrea], and the last American winner born in the United States was Bill Rodgers in 1979. This year Meb was the first place finisher among all Americans and he broke the record for Masters Runners.

This year the winner for men was Stanley Biwott of Kenya who ran the NYC Marathon in 2:10:34, the winner for women was Mary Keitany, also from Kenya, who ran the course in 2:24:25, making this her second win in as many years. In the Wheelchair division, Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa beat Josh George of USA by one second coming in at 1:30:54. In the women's wheelchair division, Tatyana McFadden a Russian-born American, broke the NYC Marathon course record by seven minutes. It's been quite a year for her as she also won the marathon in Boston, Chicago and London this year.

Men's & Women's Marathon Times

As you can see by the times above, the best marathoners generally make the trip in a bit more than two hours, which means they ran at a pretty good clip of almost 13 miles per hour for over two hours. And it's worth mentioning that the gap between male and female NYC Marathon runners has been closing and at present is about 15 minutes.

Organizers & Sponsors of the NYC Marathon

New York Road Runners or NYRR is the organizer of the NYC Marathon and this year Tata Consultancy Services or TCS is the premier sponsor. TCS is an Indian software and IT services company based in Mumbai [formerly Bombay].

Century Bike Ride Brooklyn

September 14, 2015 / Brooklyn Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Blvd NYC.

The Sunday forecast included a high probability of scattered thunderstorms, but fortunately for the Century bike riders the weather appeared to favor them.

The Century Bike Ride is organized by Transportation Alternatives, an environmentally-friendly group that promotes non-carbon and low carbon 'transportation alternatives' to NYC residents. This is the bike ride they sponsor and the receipts go toward their efforts to ensure the various levels of government do what they can to help promote a safe and regenerative urban transportation environment.

The Century Bike Ride offers four biking alternatives that individuals and / or groups can pursue on their own during the most-of-the-day event. The first start time was at 5.30 am in Central Park [Manhattan] and at 6 am for a Prospect Park [Brooklyn] start and the last rest stops at the two parks closed at 6 pm.

The four bike routes included a 35 mile, 55 mile, 75 mile and 100 mile [hence the name century] loop.The 35 mile loop is called the East River Ride, which runs along the East River primarily in Brooklyn and Queens. The ride started at 7.30 am and was expected to last between 3.5 and 7.5 hours. The 55 mile loop is called the Waterfront Ride which includes the East River loop, but also the Verrazzanno Bridge, Coney Island and part of the Brooklyn Greenway. This ride started at 7 am / 7.30 am and was expected to take about 3.5 to 8.5 hours. The 75 mile loop is called the Rockaways Ride and it excludes the north / south run along the East River in Brooklyn / Queens in exchange for a haul out to the Fort Tilden Beach in the Rockaways then north through a number of Queens Greenways [parks] before turning westward back toward Manhattan. The Century Bike Ride, the 100 miler, starts at 6 am / 6.30 am and is expected to take between six and twelve hours.

The Century Bike Ride started in 1989 and is celebrating its 26th year.

MTA: Subway Fare Increases March 22

February 13, 2015 / NYC Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Blvd NYC.

The Board approved increasing the base fare for the subway, bus, and MTA Staten Island Railway by 25 cents to $2.75, while also more than doubling the bonus amount added to MetroCard® purchases of at least one round-trip.

The combination of the increased fare and the increased bonus creates an effective fare increase of 4.1%, or 10 cents, for the Bonus MetroCard, which is used for 43% of trips. The 30-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard, which is used for 29% of trips, will increase 4% to $116.50. The 7-Day Unlimited Ride MetroCard, which is used for 21% of trips, will increase 3.3% to $31. The remaining 7% of trips are made using non-bonus MetroCards, cash on buses or Single Ride Tickets, which are largely purchased near major tourist destinations.

Vision Zero Appears To Be Helping

Mayor de Blasio's Effort to Reduce Traffic Fatalities Appears To Have Some Success

December 22, 2014 / NYC Neighborhoods / Brooklyn Blvd NYC.

As of October 1, 2014 there were somewhere between 86 and 97 pedestrians killed by motorists in NYC, and 17 cyclists. In all of 2013 there were 177 pedestrians killed by motorists and 12 cyclists.

If the monthly average of deaths continues through to year end, then some progress will have been made in reducing motorist fatalities in NYC.

Communities have banded together to begin addressing the issue of traffic fatalities on New York City streets. Solutions included reducing the speed limit to 25 mph, continuing the effort to provide separate lanes for cyclists, and rearranging traffic patterns in order to protect pedestrians from death and motorists from ending up in jail.

To be sure, much more needs to be done to make our streets safe, but there was some small measure of encouragement in the 9 month fatality scorecard.