Source: sszdl/Flickr
What? Another week with no service adjustments on the B line? And just minimal ones on the Q and F lines? Wowzer, maybe I didn’t see the pigs flying through all the fog over the weekend.
Q LINE
From 11:45 p.m. to 5 a.m., Tuesday to Friday, Coney Island-bound Q trains are rerouted via the R from Canal St to DeKalb Av.
F LINE
From 11:45 p.m. to 5 a.m., Monday to Friday, 179 St-bound F trains run express from W 4 St to 34 St-Herald Sq.
Source: trams aux fils/Flickr
Pretty smooth sailing for weekend subway trips. But, really, why would you leave the neighborhood when we have a parade on Saturday and Bayfest on Sunday? Stay and support local businesses!
Q LINE
From midnight tonight until 5 a.m. Monday, 57 St/7 Av-bound Q trains stop at 49 St.
F LINE
From 9:45 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, Jamaica-bound F trains are rerouted via the M from 47-50 Sts to Queens Plaza.
Additionally, from 11:45 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, Jamaica-bound F trains skip Fort Hamilton Pkwy, 15 St-Prospect Park, and 4 Av-9 St.
We first told you about Jumpin’ Bean, a new Mexican restaurant slated for 3081 Emmons Avenue, way back in early October. At the time, they had planned to open just a few weeks later.
Then Sandy hit. The entire interior needed to be redone, and all kitchen equipment replaced (the kitchen, mind you, is a few steps below street level).
It took some time, but the restaurant quietly opened its doors on Wednesday, and has asked us to spread the word to our readers.
On a related note, V & S Pizzeria on Emmons, and Munchinette and Delmar’s Pizzeria on Sheepshead Bay Road are all now open as well. Istanbul on Emmons Avenue should be opening any day now, if it’s not already.
I’m going to go get a margarita to celebrate the recovery!
Beachgoers beware: beginning this weekend, Manhattan Beach’s parking restrictions take effect, limiting where you can park if you plan a Saturday or Sunday trip to the neighborhood.
NYC Parking Regulations in Manhattan Beach prohibit parking your cars on the streets on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays through September 15.
Clockwise from top left: Theresa Scavo, Igor Oberman, Chaim Deutsch, Ari Kagan
It’s a crowded race to replace term-limited Councilman Michael Nelson of the 48th District, which, come next year, will represent almost all of Sheepshead Bay.
But, so far, it’s been quiet as the campaigns are just gearing up. But a good indicator of a campaign’s strength and public support is their fundraising, and yesterday the candidates submitted their finance disclosure forms to the Campaign Finance Board, revealing their fundraising success – or struggles – and giving a better idea of who’s in it to win it.
Roz Cohen with a portrait of her late husband, Norman.
Coney Island Hospital (2601 Ocean Parkway) and the Brooklyn Streetcar Artists’ Group dedicated a new exhibit space in the hospital to the memory of Norman Cohen, the late husband of Councilman Domenic Recchia staffer Roz Cohen.
Cohen, 83, passed away on January 29, 2013, at 11:45 p.m. with his family at his side, shortly after being diagnosed in October with acute leukemia. During that time, the hospital was still grappling with rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy and was in close communication with the councilman’s office. Upon learning of Roz’s loss, the hospital and the Brooklyn Streetcar Artists’ Group decided to dedicated the planned space in his memory.
Now the ninth floor waiting area of the hospital’s oncology department is a rotating art space, which will feature new pieces from the artists’ group once or twice a year and be the permanent home of a plaque and photo dedicated to Norman Cohen.
“He was a really good father, a good grandfather, a good husband,” Roz Cohen recalled. “He was very understanding.”
She remembers Norman, who retired after working in the stock market, helping her kids and grandchildren with their homework, as well as his sense of humor.
“He had a very good sense of humor. Very dry,” she said.
Norman and Roz celebrated 56 years of marriage before his passing. He is survived by Roz, his children Sharon and Howard, and five grandchildren, Matthew, Melissa, Jared, Chelsea and Ethan.
Roz has served in Councilman Recchia’s district office for the last 12 years, as the senior constituent liaison. Friends and local leaders remember Norman as a quiet fixture at her side during community events and gatherings.
“We just want Coney Island Hospital to know how much we appreciate this in the community, but Norman most of all, for all the work that he has done,” said Recchia at the dedication of the exhibit space last week. “Behind the scenes, Norman was the man who made Roz what she is today. And she’s still going strong. Nothing’s holding her down.”
The Brooklyn Streetcar Artists’ Group also maintains a gallery on the second floor of Coney Island Hospital’s main building and can be seen during normal visiting hours.
Source: FTAA.org
Turkish-Americans celebrate their heritage this month with a week of restaurant discounts at participating eateries, a parade and festival, and an event at Borough Hall.
The 32nd Turkish Day Parade and Festival kicks off on Saturday, May 18, at noon. Organized by the Federation of Turkish American Associations, the parade takes place in Manhattan, with participants gathering at 56th Street and Madison Avenue and marching down to Dag Hammarskjold Park on 47th Street and 1st Avenue, where they’ll join with the festival.
The festival features Turkish music, folk dancers and more.
Here in Brooklyn, the organizations will celebrate with a taste of Turkish culture during the Brooklyn Turkish Cultural Celebration at Borough Hall (188 Montague Street). There will be complimentary Turkish food prepared by local restaurants, along with more folk dancers and music, to be enjoyed by Borough President Marty Markowitz, other dignitaries, and neighbors. The event is Thursday, May 16, at 5 p.m.
But all week long this week – lasting until Sunday – locals can also enjoy a discount at participating Turkish restaurants, including four in Southern Brooklyn. Coupons and a full list of participating restaurants around the Tri-State area can be seen here.
But here’s the list of local restaurants:
An attendee at the Be Proud Foundation’s Victory Day dinner last week.
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union celebrated Victory Day on May 9, honoring those who fought in the Great Patriotic War – better known to Americans as World War II – with uniformed veterans sipping vodka and chowing down at events throughout Brighton Beach.
Victory Day marks the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union on May 9, 1945, nearly four years after Adolf Hitler’s forces invaded during Operation Barbarossa. It remains an important holiday in Russia and the former Soviet states. Historians estimate that between 9 million and 14 million military personnel perished in the fighting, along with between 12 million to 17 million civilians – the highest count in both categories of all nations involved in World War II.
Organizations including the Be Proud Foundation and Shorefront Y of Brighton/Manhattan Beach held events in honor of the holiday last week, and auto clubs toured Southern Brooklyn neighborhoods honking horns and flying flags from former Soviet nations.
Coney Island Hospital nurses go Gangnam Style during Nurse Appreciation Week.
Coney Island Hospital nurses, now fully reunited after months of work to bring Coney Island Hospital back online, celebrated National Nurses Week with five days full of events to celebrate their contributions to the hospital community.
National Nurses Week kicks off on May 6, National Nurses Day, and lasts through May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. It’s a week to celebrate nurses and their caregiving. But while many New York City hospitals celebrate with just a luncheon, Coney Island Hospital has been going all-out for its nurses for years – and this year’s festivities carried special meaning in a hospital devastated by Superstorm Sandy.
“[Nurses Week at Coney Island Hospital] is a time to make sure that everybody finally gets to have some fun,” said Terry Mancher, the hospital’s nursing chief. “They love it. It’s good for nurse retention and morale.”
Mancher said that while most other hospitals celebrate their nurses with a luncheon, Coney Island Hospital celebrates with a week of events. This year they had service awards, a dance crew, a Broadway Comes to CIH event, and a cultural night when the nurses share their cultural heritage with their co-workers. The week caps off with the most boisterous, electric event of them all: the Record Label Review, when scores of nurses perform songs, dances and show off costumes from major music artists.
Mancher herself even did a little impromptu Gangnam Style during the event, and joined in on Alicia Keyes’ “Girl of Fire” – although she was certain to tell the audience to delete any photos of video they took of her performance.
Coney Island Hospital nurses played a key role in helping evacuate dozens of patients into upper-floors of the hospital as Sandy’s waters crashed into the building’s lobby, flooding the first floor and basement. The facility lost power from Con Edison, and as the water rose, they also had to shut down their generators to avoid damaging. The nurses stayed with their patients, providing comfort and solace until the hospital could be fully evacuated on October 30.
While the hospital remained offline for months, nurses were redeployed at facilities around the city. In the last few months, they’ve finally been reunited, as most of the hospital’s services have been restored.
And the return to familiarity has had a marked effect on the nurses, Mancher said, leading to one of the most meaningful Nurses Week since the extravagant celebrations began approximately 15 years ago.
“Everyone’s smiling all week and it makes it better than ever,” Mancher said. “Everyone felt more united, everyone came back, and we’re finally one big happy family again.”
Richard Landman and representatives from the Roma community unveiled the new stone honoring Roma and Sinti victims at a May 5 ceremony.
Salgado (Source: Erick Salgado for Mayor)
Long-shot mayoral candidate Erick Salgado is entering the fray over Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust Memorial Park, blasting the Parks Department for allowing the addition of stones memorializing non-Jewish victims.
A press release issued last week to Russian and Jewish news outlets but obtained by Sheepshead Bites quotes Salgado calling the installation of five new stones for non-Jewish victims “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”
The stones, which honor groups including the disabled, Roma, homosexuals and Jehovah’s Witnesses, were dedicated during a May 5 ceremony marred by a protest led by City Council candidate and Holocaust Memorial Committee member Ari Kagan. The protesters claimed that the group of activists who successfully pushed the new stones through had pulled an end-run around the committee, by going through the Parks Department.
Richard Landman, the gay son of Holocaust survivors who spearheaded the initiative for the stones, said that those allegations are phony, and that he had attempted to go through the committee and was repeatedly denied – with no explanation – over the course of 15 years. Landman, an attorney, complained to the city that the committee’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious,” and in violation of the state constitution. The Parks Department established an appeals process for the memorial as a result, and created a Blue Ribbon advisory panel to review Landman’s request – ultimately greenlighting it.
The stones were installed in June 2012, and dedicated on May 5, 2013.
But Salgado, a conservative reverend from Staten Island, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, sided with Kagan and the committee, claiming that the Parks Department should have ceded the decision on the stones to the local committee, in accordance with their Memorandum of Understanding.
“It is of great concern that a bureaucracy such as the Parks Department would take action that is counter to the community’s wishes, especially when it involves the memory of the six million who perished in the Holocaust and the thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families who visit the memorial each year,” Salgado said. “Was the proper decision pushed to the side by political concerns?”
Here’s the press release in full:
May 8, 2013
Mayoral Candidate Erick Salgado Blasts Parks Department’s Action
Controversial Memorial Stones Installed in Holocaust Memorial Park Without Community’s Approval
Mayoral Candidate Erick Salgado has termed the New York City Parks Department’s move to install five controversial memorial stones in Sheepshead Bay’s Holocaust Memorial Park, “a betrayal of the community and even worse, disrespectful to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.”
Salgado was referring to the Parks Department’s installation of large stones with inscriptions memorializing such groups as asocial elements (alcoholics and lesbians), political prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals. The inclusion of these stones was contrary to the wishes of the Board of the Holocaust Memorial Committee, which under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Parks Department has been administering the memorial since its dedication in 1997.
The five stones were installed unceremoniously last July, but an unveiling ceremony was held Sunday by several organizations from outside the community.
“It is of great concern that a bureaucracy such as the Parks Department would take action that is counter to the community’s wishes, especially when it involves the memory of the six million who perished in the Holocaust and the thousands of Holocaust survivors and their families who visit the memorial each year. Was the proper decision pushed to the side by political concerns?” Salgado asked.
