Muni-Meters across the Sandy-damaged areas have been removed and replaced with traffic cones.
ONLY ON SHEEPSHEAD BITES: The Department of Transportation cut down and removed dozens of Muni-Meter machines this week. But instead of suspending parking regulations on affected streets, the agency is asking residents to walk several blocks to the nearest meter and pay.
“Bullet Points” is our format for Community Board 15 meeting coverage, providing takeaways we think are important. Information in Bullet Points is meant only to be a quick summary, and some issues may be more deeply explored in future articles.
Neighbors Demand Board Rescind Support For Drug Counseling Center: Residents of East 17th Street near Kings Highway rallied at last night’s Community Board 15 meeting, demanding the Board rescind a letter of support for a proposed drug treatment facility at 1670 East 17th Street.
Led by Madison-Marine-Homecrest Civic Association President Ed Jaworski, a group of residents took to the podium, claiming that the Board failed to inform the community that the issue would be discussed and voted on in December.
“The City Charter and the Community Board bylaws say that the Community Board should serve the community, should communicate within the community, should act as a liaison agency, should review services, should develop plans for the community. None of this was done regarding the drug center being located on East 17th Street,” Jaworski said. “What took place at the November meeting was a shortcut. It was cutting the community’s input.”
The center, One World Counseling, received a letter of support from Community Board 15 in November with a 31-4 vote. Dmitri Oster, a rep for One World, told the Board then that they intended to target immigrants in the Sheepshead Bay area who have turned to drugs to cope with cultural integration. They would offer only counseling and would not distribute medication.
Community Board 15 voted in favor of permitting one drug rehabilitation center in the neighborhood, but voted down another, saying that the owners’ attitudes made all the difference.
At the November 27 meeting, the Board gave the nod to One World Counseling, a newly-formed entity proposing to develop a drug and alcohol abuse treatment center at 1670 East 17th Street, just off Kings Highway. The Board’s 31-4 vote came just minutes after nixing plans of an existing center, First Steps to Recovery at 2990 Brighton 12th Street, to move to 2634 East 21st Street, with a no vote of 34-1.
During the hearing for First Steps, representatives for the outpatient addiction treatment clinic explained that they served “elderly” Eastern European patients who have turned to drugs or alcohol to cope with the struggles of integration. The clinic dispenses medications and has been operating in Brighton Beach since 2002. They were seeking to move to the 2634 East 21st Street location because their current space is too small.
A large police response has turned out for what initial reports indicate is a self-inflicted gunshot wound suffered by a retired NYPD officer at East 17th Street and Avenue Y.
Scanner reports indicate that the unidentified officer mistakenly shot himself herself in the leg. EMS has removed the victim from the scene and the Emergency Services Unit is now set up in the Petco parking lot on East 17th Street and Avenue Y. The 61st Precinct commander Captain John Chell is also on scene with community affairs, and police units from the 60th Precinct are also present.
We have no additional information at this time about the extent of the officer’s injury.
UPDATE (2:10 p.m.): The officer has been transported to Lutheran Hospital for treatment.
UPDATE (2:32 p.m.): The incident occurred shortly after 1:00 p.m. in the Petco parking lot, and two vehicles (seen above) are taped off in connection to the shooting. There is a small pool of blood near the rear driver’s side wheel of the white Volkswagon.
The victim is female, and expected to survive. The victim’s status as a police officer or retired police officer has not yet been confirmed.
Detectives are on the scene, investigating the circumstances around the firearm’s discharge. Officers are telling Petco customers to return in about an hour, when the store will reopen.
Emergency Services left the scene, and it appears the incident is wrapping up. NYPD’s press office does not yet have information about the incident.
This is a breaking news story and may contain inaccuracies. We will update it as more information becomes available. If anyone has more information or additional photos, please send them to tips (at) sheepsheadbites (dot) com.
There’s no shortage of interesting, odd and quirky things found curbside in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. But something about this one seemed especially appropriate. Especially since there didn’t appear to be any damage to the photo or frame – I think the owner just didn’t want to look at water anymore.
Seen on Avenue Z, near East 17th Street.
What weird things have you seen curbside since the hurricane?
SHEEPSHEAD BITES EXCLUSIVE: When a local fruit and vegetable market on East 16th Street near Avenue Z closed up shop last year, neighbors were relieved, saying the location often left smelly, rotting garbage at the curb. But they never imagined that the area would become the site of an even worse problem: illegal dumping of rotting produce and other waste, left to stew in the sun for days.
According to local businesses in the area, Metropolitan Recycling, a private waste carter that hauls off garbage from area businesses and construction sites, has for several weeks been illegally dumping a putrid stew of fetid waste, disgusting liquids and rancid filth on both blocks. And they provided video to prove it.
Bay Supply Corp., a plumbing and heating specialist located at 2460 East 17th Street, said they first noticed the problem approximately a month ago, when they came in to work and found foul-smelling trash directly in front of their building. When it happened again a few days later, they checked surveillance video, and were dumbfounded to see Metropolitan Recycling’s trucks leaving behind a heap of foul-smelling trash in front of their storefront after picking up some nearby construction debris.
See the video, and find out what the city’s doing about the problem.
THE BITE: Ah, the bourek, an unsung culinary character of Sheepshead Bay that’s probably as prevalent in this neighborhood as beef patties are to Flatbush, or roasted pork buns are to Sunset Park.
We owe thanks largely to the area’s dense population of Turkish Americans living in the area, but also to those whose cultures historically took well to this Turkish pastry, including Eastern Europeans and nations of the Caucasus regions – as well as to Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry.
For the uninitiated, a bourek – or, more traditional, a börek – is a baked or fried filled pastry made of phyllo dough. It comes in several shapes, sizes and stuffings, and is often finished off in the oven with a nice wash and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
It’s not even two hours since doors opened, and hundreds of people have already flocked to the new Marshalls at 1623 Avenue Y for the grand opening.
We’ve received several e-mails already from passers-by stunned at the long lines, as residents look for deals and giveaways for the clothing store’s opening celebration.
Reader Elaine L. sent in these photos, which show the line wrapping around the building, up East 17th Street, as security keeps watch and slowly let people in. Management, meanwhile, appears to be distributing raffle tickets to the crowd.
The celebration continues until 10:00 p.m.
Are you planning a visit to Marshalls today for the grand opening?
View the photos, as well as the lowdown from reader PayPaul.
For you budget-conscious fashionistas out there who’ve been e-mailing us – over and over and over again – about the opening of the new Marshalls on Avenue Y and East 17th Street, well, your day has come. The business will celebrate its grand opening this Thursday, August 23, 2012, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The public relations team informs us that there will be giveaways, gift card prizes “and more.”
The 27,336-square-foot location at 1623 Avenue Y has been under construction since September. Many in the area worried that the location would cause a parking and traffic nightmare, but Sheepshead Bites confirmed in December that the location will have a rooftop parking lot that will help ease that burden.
Sheepshead Bites was the first to report that Marshalls would come to the neighborhood, after four businesses on the property shuttered in early 2011: Golden Touch Car Wash, Gulf gas station, KR & S Auto Service and the fruit and vegetable market on East 16th Street.
Joe Reisman, real life superhero.
Local Sanitation workers, the head of Community Board 15 and Sheepshead Bites’ own tax columnist, Joseph Reisman, all went above and beyond the call of duty on Friday, mobilizing to secure hundreds of documents containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account information and other information coveted by identity thieves that were accidentally strewn across a busy Sheepshead Bay intersection.
The incident was sparked by a tip sent to us by Sheepshead Bites reader Penny, who informed us at approximatly 6:00 p.m. on Friday that hundreds of papers were blowing in the wind on Avenue Z, between East 16th Street and East 17th Street. Upon closer inspection, Penny wrote, the papers were tax records from a local accountant, and contained some of the most sensitive private information about clients – the kind of info that makes ID thieves drool.
We checked it out, and, indeed, it appeared hundreds, if not thousands, of individual’s identities were at risk.
First, we called the accountant listed on the papers, and even knocked on his office door. But no one was in.
Then we called our own tax guru, Reisman, to see if there was a city or state agency able to respond and quickly clean up the mess and possibly notify the accountant and his clients. Reisman wasn’t aware of any, and advised us to call the city.
We then called 311, but the uniqueness of the complaint baffled operators. After being transferred around a couple of times, an operator said all they could do was file a complaint, and, in time, the Sanitation Department would dispatch someone to check out the location and issue the accountant a fine for littering. However, it wasn’t clear if they could get someone to the location within 24 hours.
That wasn’t good enough. With so much personal information so easily accessible to passers-by, we knew every second it remained on the street, people’s credit and identities remained at risk.
