NY Brooklyn news

• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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,
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• Mamdani administration skips pied-à-terre tax rollout hearing as Council members fume over unanswered questions

  18-08-2026 23:15 via amny.com
  
  Five days after Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was confident his officials could juggle a City Council hearing with an ongoing lawsuit over the pied-à-terre tax rollout, his administration declined to show up Tuesday, leaving lawmakers to air questions without anyone from City Hall there to answer them.In written testimony submitted instead, Department of Finance (DOF) Commissioner Richard Lee said the “pending and active litigation precludes me” from appearing in person and rev
  
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• Brooklyn Brewery prepares to move to Wythe Avenue, will bid farewell to original taproom on Aug. 29

  18-08-2026 22:12 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Brooklyn Brewery is preparing to leave its longtime home for greener pastures just a few blocks away.After 30 years on North 11th Street, the brewery is set to relocate to a larger, airier space on Wythe Avenue this fall, and will bid farewell to its original location with a rollicking goodbye party on Aug. 29. “We've spent thirty years building something special on North 11th Street, and now we have the chance to take everything we've learned — about beer, hospitality, and comm
  
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• NYers say Citi Bike has gotten too expensive, can a new advocate-led campaign make it cheaper?

  18-08-2026 21:30 via amny.com
  
  As Citi Bike has ballooned in popularity, it has also become dramatically more expensive, with the price of a 45-minute electric bike ride for members nearly tripling over the past five years.The transporation advocacy group Transportation Alternatives wants to change that.The group last week launched a campaign to cap the price of a Citi Bike member's 45-minute ride at just $3, equivilent to the cost of a subway or bus fare. The price of such a Citi Bike ride has shot up over the past five year
  
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• Atlantic Antic returns with music, food and fun on Sept. 27

  18-08-2026 20:54 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Brooklyn’s self-proclaimed largest and oldest street festival will return for its 51st year of music, food and fun next month. The Atlantic Antic will take over a 1.5 mile stretch of Atlantic Avenue on Sept. 27, with hundreds of vendors and thousands of people expected to fill the streets.A celebration of the neighborhood and its residents and cultures, the festival will offer a wide variety of activities and a chance to meet up with friends old and new. [caption id="attachment_2
  
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• Sand, sculptures and summer fun: Coney Island’s 34th annual competition crowns its winners

  18-08-2026 20:40 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Forget the hot dogs — Coney Island’s got sand on the menu.The infamous beach became a canvas on Saturday as sand sculptors of all ages gathered for the annual Coney Island Sand Sculpting Competition. The free community tradition, now in its 34th year,  drew competitors and curious beachgoers to the shoreline at West 12th Street on Aug. 15, where every mound of sand was claimed and transformed into a work of art.By the end of the afternoon, four winners had emerged across the com
  
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• Beyond hot flashes: Maimonides experts tackle the stigma around menopause

  18-08-2026 16:48 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Menopause is no longer something women are expected to simply suffer through in silence. As more people speak openly about the physical and emotional changes that come with midlife, Brooklyn Paper spoke with Sarah Zuercher, director of OB/GYN Clinical Programs and a Menopause Society-certified provider at Maimonides’ Menopause Center, and Dr. Emilyn Brodsky, a pelvic floor physical therapist at Maimonides, about what patients should know about perimenopause, menopause and life after menopa
  
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• In Bushwick, a gallery that comes alive in the dark

  18-08-2026 15:42 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  When the lights go out in Bushwick’s Aliume Art Gallery, the artwork is only just beginning.Paintings glow beneath ultraviolet light, colors appear to shift and kinetic sculptures spin into hypnotic geometric patterns. Then, when the lights are shut off completely, the work changes again, revealing an otherworldly landscape created from phosphorescent materials.A different way of seeingFor Alex Aliume, the Ukrainian-born artist behind the gallery, the transformation is the point. Located a
  
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• Woman stabbed to death in Brooklyn park, suspect at large

  18-08-2026 15:28 via amny.com
  
  Police are on the hunt for a killer after a woman was brutally stabbed to death inside a Brooklyn park early Tuesday morning.According to police sources, cops from the 77th Precinct were called to Lincoln Terrace Park at around 12:41 a.m. after a 911 caller reported an assault in progress. When cops arrived, they found a 30-year-old woman with stab wounds in her chest, back and head. EMS rushed the victim to Brookdale Hospital, where her wounds were too severe, and she was pronounced dead.
  
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• Historic Boerum Hill church headed for demolition as developer buys site for $28.25M

  18-08-2026 15:00 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  The days are numbered for an impressive Romanesque Revival church that has commanded the corner of Schermerhorn Street and Third Avenue Avenue in Boerum Hill since the late 1800s. Brooklyn developer Tankhouse is in contract to buy the site for $28.25 million and plans to tear down the fire-damaged structure, court documents show.Last week, the court approved the sale of Next Step Community Church (formerly First Baptist Church) at 360 Schermerhorn Street. Tankhouse founders Sam Al
  
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• From Greenpoint merchants to Chinatown lights: Where NYC’s $8.4M small-business grants are going

  17-08-2026 22:50 via amny.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 improve
  
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• Visitation Academy to be sold to group of real estate investors, developers

  17-08-2026 22:26 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Two years after Visitation Academy closed its doors, the school and attached monastery are set to be sold to developers for more than $42 million in a deal locals say was kept secret until the last minute.The Attorney General’s office last week approved the sale of the 7.5-acre campus from the nonprofit Sisters of the Visitation of Brooklyn to a group of real estate developers and investors, likely setting the stage for a large-scale redevelopment. The buyer, recently-founded 1137 91
  
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• Hermès nears opening in faux-old Williamsburg building

  17-08-2026 22:15 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Hermès is set to open any day now on the corner of North 6th and Berry Street in Williamsburg. Signage is up in the windows, and the storied French luxury brand recently advertised for a general manager ahead of its long-promised fall opening of the permanent Brooklyn flagship at 111 North 6th Street.While there is no actual “Hermès” shop sign, at least not yet, even from a distance larger-than-life images of its signature orange boxes tied with brown and white cotton r
  
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• ‘By community, for community’: Brooklyn hubs carve out spaces of their own

  17-08-2026 18:48 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Brooklyn’s network of small, community-run hubs has never been more important than now, their founders and directors say.These hyper-local hubs — stores, community centers and food banks — go beyond their traditional roles by serving a larger purpose. They often offer free resources, programming and workshops. They serve as a gathering space for the block. And they are united by a common goal: community sovereignty.By neighbors, for neighbors, they say.Now, amid nationwide poli
  
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• Brooklyn firefighters battle string of weekend blazes, including Fort Greene battery fire

  17-08-2026 16:13 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Firefighters across Brooklyn were kept busy over the weekend, battling a series of fires in apartments, homes and commercial buildings, including a blaze involving lithium-ion batteries at a Fort Greene storage facility.The most significant fire came early Saturday, when firefighters in Fort Greene responded to a report of a fire at a commercial building at 1 Carlton Ave. just after 4 a.m.Responding units were met by a burning lithium-ion battery outside a storage facility. After cutting through
  
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• At Brooklyn Navy Yard, Mamdani’s jobs agenda collides with his anti-ICE politics

  16-08-2026 15:00 via amny.com
  
  It’s business as usual at the Brooklyn Navy Yard — at least for now.Anti-ICE activists are vowing to continue campaigning to push Crye Precision out, but the tactical-apparel maker remains in place under Lindsay Greene, the Yard president and CEO,  whom Mayor Zohran Mamdani reappointed last month.The company sold cold-weather gear to U.S. Border Patrol this year, putting a fresh spotlight on the tenant as activists press Mamdani’s administration to act. Yet officials at th
  
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• Brooklyn lawmakers join privacy advocates in push to ‘Ban the Scan’ at MSG

  14-08-2026 22:35 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  A coalition of privacy advocates, local lawmakers and artists gathered outside Moynihan Train Hall, across from Madison Square Garden, on Aug. 14 to renew calls to end the use of biometric surveillance in places of public accommodation such as MSG. The group also urged the City Council to pass Council Member Shahana Hanif’s (D-Brooklyn) Ban the Scan, Int. 213, which would prohibit businesses open to the public from collecting or using customers’ biometric information for surveillance
  
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• Brooklyn man sentenced to 26 years to life for murder and dismemberment of girlfriend

  14-08-2026 21:00 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  A Brooklyn man was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years to life in prison for murdering and dismembering his girlfriend, then remaining in her East New York apartment for weeks while using her money and concealing her death in 2022, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.Justin Williams, 27, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun after being convicted in June of second-degree murder, concealment of a human corpse, fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree crim
  
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• The ‘SCOOP’ on poop: City Council approves bills aimed at getting New Yorkers to clean up after their dogs

  14-08-2026 19:05 via amny.com
  
  The City Council on Thursday took action to battle the scourge of dog owners not doing their "doo-ty" of cleaning up poop left on city streets and in parks by their canine pals with its passage of the " Safe and Clean Outdoor Ownership Practices (SCOOP) Act."The four-bill package is designed to encourage dog owners to pick up their animals' waste rather than let them do their business and leave the feces for unwitting pedestrians to step in.The measures would require the city to make dog waste b
  
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• Calling all bookworms! Brooklyn Book Festival returns with 9 days of literacy events across NYC

  14-08-2026 18:19 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  The acclaimed Brooklyn Book Festival will return next month with nine days of events featuring hundreds of authors, booksellers and literary organizations.Now in its 21st year,  the festival will run from Sept. 20 to Sept. 27, with programming spanning all five boroughs. The celebration will include Virtual Festival Day, Children’s Day, the flagship Festival Day and Literary Marketplace in Downtown Brooklyn, as well as more than 70 Bookend events hosted by cultural partners throughout
  
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• Things to do this weekend with the kids in Brooklyn

  14-08-2026 16:47 via newyorkfamily.com
  
  [caption id="attachment_426571" align="alignnone" width="568"] Courtesy of Jewish Children's Museum[/caption]Looking for something fun to do with the kids in Brooklyn this weekend? Between a Beatles sing-along, a Star Wars night at the ballpark, and free kayaking on the Gowanus, Brooklyn's got a lot going on this weekend. Whether you're looking for something free, something new, or just a way to tire the kids out before Monday, we've rounded up the best of it.And if you’re still looki
  
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• Changing gears: Bike Plant shifts into worker-owned model as Bed-Stuy shop keeps rolling

  13-08-2026 21:57 via brooklynpaper.com
  
  Zachary Flynn walked his purple and white single-speed bike up to Bike Plant hoping for good news. “I was biking up Bedford, and a delivery guy kind of cut in front without looking,” Flynn said. “Thankfully, we're both okay, but now my front wheel is not exactly moving.” After a quick look and brake adjustment from one of the mechanics, Flynn happily hopped back on the bike in less than three minutes.Flynn, who lives in Bed-Stuy near the Crown Heights border, is a re
  
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