CLINTON HILL -- HUNDREDS OF CLINTON HILL LOCALS packed a community meeting on Monday night to air complaints over the high concentration of migrant shelters in the neighborhood, which now hosts around 4,000 recently arrived people, reports THE CITY. Some pointed fingers at Councilmember Crystal Hudson over a perceived lack of action on the issue; speakers at the meeting demanded that the city not renew the Hall Street shelter's lease next March. Tensions rose recently after the opening of a new shelter building on Hall Street in April, across from a previously existing one, housing hundreds more people; some meeting attendees raised complaints over quality-of-life issues like an increase in panhandling and a homeless encampment under the nearby BQE, while others expressed concerns over the conditions shelter residents are experiencing.
Hudson told THE CITY that she was unable to attend the town hall meeting due to a schedule conflict, but said she was working with City Hall to aid Clinton Hill, citing a recent open letter to the mayor requesting additional resources.
CITYWIDE -- THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS ON MONDAY released a new report highlighting a boom in post-pandemic building in Brooklyn, with new construction more than doubling between 2020 and 2023, from 10,343,000 square feet=plus to 22,498,000 square feet-plus, more than any other borough by a wide margin. The building boom, however, also comes with an attendant increase in construction-related injuries, with 222 injuries reported last year, up from 107 injuries in 2020. Advocates had raised concerns over construction accidents after six fatalities were reported in Brooklyn in 2022, although last year saw only two deaths; a press statement from the DOB indicated that safety conditions at worksites may be improving, and despite conducting more inspections, the department is "taking fewer enforcement actions."
Construction worker Juan Ildefonso Tamay Ganzhi was killed in February in a Borough Park building collapse, at a site previously fined for unsafe conditions.
CITYWIDE -- APARTMENTS NEAR CERTAIN SUBWAY STATIONS in Brooklyn experienced the largest rent hikes, according to a new report from RentHop. A site that organizes rental listings by quality, RentHop uses metrics from GIS data for subway stops compiled by CUNY/Baruch College and NYC Open Data. RentHop examined at least 20 non-duplicated rental listings within 800 meters (half a mile, or several city blocks) of a subway stop and then calculated the median rents. Brooklyn stations seeing large rent hike percentages were those where multiple neighborhoods intersect, including the Avenue P stop on the F line (17.44% rent hike), Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center in Boerum Hill (3.65%), and Broadway Junction (12.5%). Stations near newly renovated apartments, such as Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road, serving East Flatbush, Brownsville and Canarsie, saw rent hikes as well.
Not surprisingly, some existing tenants with below-average rents may have opted to stay put more often in the past year.
BOROUGHWIDE -- BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY'S MEDAR DE LA CRUZ, who provides library books to persons who are incarcerated, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary. Mr. de La Cruz is an artist who is also an integral part of the Brooklyn Public Library's Justice Initiatives program, which provides library services to persons who are incarcerated on Rikers Island. His illustrations, drawn from memory after returning home, were published in The New Yorker in May 2023. Because photos are not allowed on Rikers Island, the illustrations give witness to the people behind bars and the importance of books while incarcerated.
Brooklyn Public Library's Justice Initiatives program provides services to incarcerated New Yorkers and their families including library service in prisons. The program's Welcome Home series provides one-to-one support with the library's trained re-entry navigators and monthly dinners for previously incarcerated patrons.
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LEGAL AID SOCIETY DEMANDS THOROUGH REPORT ON NYPD CAMPUS PROTEST ACTIONS
CITYWIDE -- THE NYPD'S RESPONSE to the pro-Palestine campus protests is now the subject of an investigation with the Department of the Inspector General, according to an announcement made on Wednesday. DOI has launched a probe into NYPD officials' social media use as well. Earlier this week, the Legal Aid Society had urged the OIG-NYPD to review what is believed to be the police force's problematic crackdown of protests at local universities and colleges that led to widespread violations of protesters' constitutional and statutory rights. Legal Aid also urged OIG-NYPD to investigate reports of the NYPD slamming protesters to the ground, pushing others and throwing one protester down the stairs, as well as indiscriminately using pepper spray on protesters as well as legal observers and journalists. Legal Aid on Wednesday issued a statement that, while praising the investigation being opened, still "implores" them to "review the NYPD's disproportionate use of force during the crackdown, as well as to examine why New Yorkers charged with low-level crimes were illegally detained and processed through the system instead of receiving an appearance ticket."
The prolonged detention of demonstrators violated "New York's long-standing 24-hour arrest-to-arraignment requirement," the statement pointed out.
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BILL WITH AMENDED LANGUAGE ON PRESCRIPTION COSTS ADVANCES FROM CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE
CAPITOL HILL -- A BILL CHANGING LANGUAGE to lower prescription drug costs has advanced from the U.S. House of Representatives' Ways & Means Committee, Congressmember Nicole Malliotakis (R-11) announced on Wednesday. Malliotakis, who represents southwestern Brooklyn and sits on the House Committee on Ways and Means, introduced language to delink Pharmacy Benefit Manager compensation from the cost of medications and increase price transparency, thus protecting "mom-and-pop" pharmacies and lowering the cost of prescription drugs for consumers. The bill also increases telehealth services for mental health appointments passed out of the full committee with bipartisan support. The language, which received bipartisan support to clear the committee, will be included in Ways & Means' Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act.
This policy will save taxpayers roughly $700 million and help reduce seniors' out-of-pocket drug costs, Rep. Malliotakis' office said.