SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

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.

The Carmine Carro Community Center

The next meeting of the Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association will be this Thursday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m. inside the new Carmine Carro Community Center in Marine Park, Fillmore Avenue between Madison Place and Marine Parkway (front entrance by flagpole).

Guest speaker Loretta E. Lynch, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY (Brooklyn), will be discussing “Confronting Public / Political Corruption.” She will likely have a  lot to discuss.

Representatives from the 61st Precinct will be on hand, and elected officials and candidates in the next election have also been invited.

Light refreshments will be served.

For further info, contact Ed Jaworski at (718) 375-9158 or (347) 661-6960 (cell).

Councilman Lew Fidler (Photo By Erica Sherman)

In the six months following the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, victims of the storm have been facing a slew of problems beyond the damage to their properties. The New York Daily News is reporting that one of the new hurdles confronting residents is the city’s yearly sale of tax liens to debt collectors.

Every year the city sells the tax liens, which include unpaid property taxes and water bills, to third party debt collectors. The collectors then jack up the interest fees, sometimes as high as nine percent on homes valued under $250,000. The increased fees force many homeowners to foreclose their homes.

This year, 720 Sandy-damaged homes, located in Brooklyn and Queens, are on the city’s lien list. Lawmakers, like Councilman Lew Fidler want the city to delay the sale of the liens another year.

“Sandy hit many homeowners like a brick bat and many have still not recovered. For the City to come along and whack them again with a lien sale is not only cruel but, in the end, it will be counter-productive. If our goal is to get people to pay what they owe without losing their homes, this is the exact wrong way to go about it. Allowing people some more time to recover from this disaster is both reasonable and compassionate.” Fidler said in a press release.

The city has taken the step of removing homes who have faced extreme damage from the tax lien list but has not yet taken any extra steps.

Alert Ambulette, an ambulette service located at 2702 Stillwell Avenue, is in big trouble with state auditors.

The company was audited by the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG) and the New York City Human Resources Administration (NYCHRA) and, according to a press release, was found to be violating a slew regulations that will force them to pay back taxpayers over $4 million.

According to the OMIG and NYCHA, Alert Ambulette had received over $5 million for 89,847 services rendered to 6,993 Medicaid recipients. The audit reviewed a random sampling of 100 services and 91 Medicaid enrollees and found that the service had committed a number of violations:

The auditors discovered practices ranging from improperly licensed and/or registered vehicles, inappropriate procedure codes used for billing, and inaccurate or missing information on claims. In more than 50 percent of the claims examined, license plate and/or driver’s license number information was missing. In more than one-third of the claims, drivers were unlicensed by the New York City Taxi & Livery Commission (TLC), a Medicaid as well as New York City requirement for ambulette drivers.

Pictured In Photo: Annetta Lee, Natasha Naveed, Noel Aly, Lisa La Spina, Selma Albin, Janet Kennedy, Assistant Principal, Jeanne Fish, Principal, Cherie Lang, Hillary Stackpole, Dell Coe (Photo Courtesy of Hillary Stackpole)

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz awarded a special commendation to the staff of Gerritsen Beach’s P.S. 277 (2529 Gerritsen Avenue) in a ceremony last week.

According to a press release, the school’s Parent’s Association wanted to recognize the staff for their efforts in providing relief to the children and community of Gerritsen Beach following Superstorm Sandy. So they reached out to the beep and asked him to surprise the school’s team at a morning assembly, and he honored them for their terrific work providing comfort to the community kids.

Sheepshead Bites would also like to extend a salute and warm-hearted congratulations to the staff of P.S. 277 for all their excellent work throughout the trying days of Superstorm Sandy.

Naturally the first thing that popped into my mind upon seeing this photo was “Beyoncé?”

Photo by Barbara Pearsons

Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes

Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn District Attorney, is being taken to court by DA candidate and Sheepshead native Abe George on the grounds of breaking election laws. George’s complaints stem from Hynes’s upcoming CBS reality show, which will  feature the activity of the DA’s office right before the election primary, according to a press release. Last March, we reported on the detailsof Hynes’s show, which will follow several high profile cases that Hynes and his team of lawyers are prosecuting. At the time, George blasted Hynes for the timing of the show, which he said will give Hynes an undue level of free publicity. George also alleged that Hynes used a political connection to ensure that the show would serve as a glossy political ad designed to paint him in a positive light right before the primary. George’s press release detailed the specifics of his lawsuit:

The lawsuit alleges that the incumbent Brooklyn District Attorney for the past 23 years has agreed to take an excessive campaign contribution from defendant CBS in violation of New York State election law during the final, critical months of his closely contested race for re-election this year. The contribution from CBS, which could amount to millions of dollars to Hynes, is under the guise of a reality television show called Brooklyn D.A. that CBS recently announced it will broadcast starting May 28 in six one-hour, weekly episodes starring Hynes and his office. It will far exceed the state limit for a corporate contribution, capped at $5,000 a year. In expending the time and resources of his office to coordinate with CBS in the production, filming, and promotion of the show, Hynes has also unlawfully used state money to further his own political campaign.

It is also worth noting that George’s lawsuit will be joined by the Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation of Justice, a group committed to the prevention and eradication of wrongful convictions, and a group representing families and victims of wrongful convictions they allege Charles Hynes’ office prosecuted.

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.

Source: Ephox Blog

Alternate side of the street parking regulations for street cleaning purposes will be suspended tomorrow and Thursday, May 15 and May 16 in observance of Shavuos (or Shavuot, depending upon whether you favor the Ashkenazi or Sephardic pronunciation). All other regulations, including parking meters, shall remain in effect.

You can download your own 2013 Alternate Side Parking Suspension calendar — in English, as well as in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian or Spanish (all PDFs) — from the NYC DOT’s website.