NY Brooklyn news

• NYC reports first West Nile case of the year amid increased mosquito activity

  19-08-2026 23:00 via amny.com
  
  New York City has reported its first case of West Nile virus this year amid increased virus activity in mosquitoes across all five boroughs, health officials said Wednesday.The city Health Department said the infected person lives in Manhattan and had spent time outdoors both in the city and at several locations outside of the five boroughs. The department did not say whether the infection occurred in NYC or elsewhere.The case comes as the Health Department has identified 1,284 mosquito pools te
  
  Read more

• MTA risks falling short of its 2040 zero-emission bus fleet goal, state comptroller audit finds

  19-08-2026 21:45 via amny.com
  
  The MTA risks falling short of its 2040 goal to make its bus fleet 100% zero emission, according to a new audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office released Wednesday.The audit found that the MTA's progress toward replacing its nearly 5,800 mostly-diesel bus fleet with entirely zero emission vehicles has hit a few notable snags. Chief among them, auditors say, were issues around green bus supply and the reliability of the vehicles already in service.Additionally, auditors found those
  
  Read more

• Ferry fast: Record breaking NYC Ferry run highlights Brooklyn’s waterfront connections

  19-08-2026 20:51 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Talk about making connections.
  A former Guinness World Records holder and his team raced across all 25 NYC Ferry stops earlier this month, using Brooklyn’s busy waterfront network — from the Brooklyn Army Terminal to North Brooklyn landings — as a key part of a record-breaking trip through New York Harbor.Ayush Maini, along with his friend Val He and his uncle Andy Chen, completed a journey through all 25 NYC Ferry stops on Aug. 4 in 6:53:35 — beating the current Guinness
  
  Read more

• Advocates urge action cyclist killed in Cypress Hills hit-and-run

  19-08-2026 20:40 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Advocates urged New Yorkers to support faster construction of street safety projects after two cyclists — one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx — were killed on Tuesday. Paulina Tec Choc, a 29-year-old Queens resident, was killed in a hit-and-run in Cypress Hills early on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 18. Police said she was stopped on her e-bike at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and Cypress Hills Street at 5:48 a.m. when the driver, who was headed west on Jamaica Avenue, stru
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Advocates urge action after cyclist killed in Cypress Hills hit-and-run

  19-08-2026 20:40 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Advocates urged New Yorkers to support faster construction of street safety projects after two cyclists — one in Brooklyn and one in the Bronx — were killed on Tuesday. Paulina Tec Choc, a 29-year-old Queens resident, was killed in a hit-and-run in Cypress Hills early on the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 18. Police said she was stopped on her e-bike at the intersection of Jamaica Avenue and Cypress Hills Street at 5:48 a.m. when the driver, who was headed west on Jamaica Avenue, stru
  
  Read more

• Brooklyn gets biggest share of $8.4M small-business grants

  19-08-2026 19:32 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Mayor Zohran Mamdani is allocating a large chunk of an $8.4 million small-business grant package toward strengthening merchant groups and business improvement districts, and, in some neighborhoods, laying the groundwork for new merchant organizations along New York City’s commercial corridors.The grants announced Monday by Mamdani and the Department of Small Business Services will also pay for street cleaning, lighting, public art, wayfinding, marketing and other neighborhood improvements
  
  Read more

• Trees grow in Brooklyn: NYC’s first Urban Forest Plan aims to expand tree canopy

  19-08-2026 17:00 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  As summers grow hotter due to the climate emergency, New York City is taking a crucial step toward addressing the devastating impacts of climate change on people and the ecosystem by designing its first Urban Forest Plan (UFP).The plan aims to expand the tree canopy — the land covered or shaded by trees — as part of the city’s long-term climate resiliency strategy, outlining ways to equitably increase tree canopy coverage to 30% by 2040 by adding an average of 700 acres per yea
  
  Read more

• Op-ed: The Battle of Brooklyn was 250 years ago. It still has lessons to teach us today.

  19-08-2026 16:28 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  It’s been said that “the Declaration of Independence was signed in ink at Philadelphia, and signed in blood at Brooklyn.”When most people think of the opening salvo of the American Revolution, they usually imagine the “shot heard ‘round the world” fired in Concord or the fighting at Bunker Hill. But the first — and biggest — major battle after the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place on the land right under our feet.In August 1776,
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 26 years later, Brooklyn coaches keep Conrad McRae’s legacy alive through free basketball summer camp

  19-08-2026 15:00 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Conrad McRae Skills & Development Basketball Camp, held at the Dean Playground basketball courts on Bergen Street in Prospect Heights, is a “home away from home” for young people ages 7 to 15 during the summer months, according to basketball coaches Troy Douglas and Patrick Alphonse.The duo launched the summer camp more than a decade ago in memory of their friend, the late professional basketball player Conrad McRae, a standout who played for Brooklyn Tech in high school and Syra
  
  Read more

• Op-Ed | What state test scores get wrong about our students

  19-08-2026 13:30 via amny.com
  
  Every summer, the prior spring’s state test scores are released, and it can seem like this one data point sums up everything about public school children in our city. As a longtime educator and the leader of the nation’s largest school system, I want to be clear: state tests are important, and they are not, and should not be, the only data point that we use to measure student achievement.This is a message our communities need to hear. Last week, school districts across New York
  
  Read more

Follow @NY_BrooklynNews on Twitter!