The New York Transit Museum’s Vintage Bus Festival returns next month, bringing a slew of historic jitneys to Brooklyn Bridge Park for transit fans to marvel at the past, present, and future of commuting in the Big Apple.
The 28th annual Bus Festival arrives at the station on Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. The Transit Museum will be showcasing nine buses from nearly a century of New York City commuting history, from a 1931 double-decker model to a brand new electric articulated bus.
“We are delighted to bring back this beloved tradition and show some bus love to our vintage fleet, against the incredible backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge,” said Concetta Bencivenga, director of the Transit Museum. “Come spend the day with us and learn about the past, present and future of New York’s surface transportation.”
The oldest buses set to be displayed long predate the MTA, having been ordered by the private bus companies that preceded the consolidated transit authority. The seniormost coach will be the double-decker Bus 1263, nicknamed “Betsy;” she was built by the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company in 1930 and ordered by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, which ran service in Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Betsy served riders from 1931 to 1953, and is the oldest bus in the Transit Museum’s archives.
Bus 3100 from 1956, one of America’s first air-conditioned buses.NY Transit MuseumAn RTS bus from 1993 under the Jamaica Buses livery.NY Transit Museum
Also on display will be Bus 2969 from 1948, also known as the “Jackie Gleason Bus.” Built by General Motors, this was the bus model Jackie Gleason’s character drove on The Honeymooners. The yellow-and-green Bus 3100, manufactured for Fifth Avenue Coach in 1956, was one of the nation’s first air-conditioned buses.
More modern buses will also be on display. They include a 1993 model “Rapid Transit Series” bus that operated under the Jamaica Buses livery, one of the private companies that still ran on Queens streets until the mid-2000s. Those buses were only retired in 2019, after about four decades in service, so will be a familiar sight for New Yorkers looking for a trip down memory lane.
Visitors can also check out an articulated electric bus that will be on New York’s streets for many years to come, as well as a bus tow truck that helps keep the transit system moving when problems arise.
Attendees will be able to board all of these buses and check out the interior, including the cab, seating, and old-timey advertisements. A scavenger hunt, fun for all ages, is also scheduled.
The festival takes place, rain or shine, on Sept. 8 at Emily Warren Roebling Plaza in Brooklyn Bridge Park, starting at 10 a.m.
On Monday, more than 30 volunteers joined Tell Every Amazing Lady About Ovarian Cancer (T.E.A.L.) to tie ribbons around trees along Fifth Avenue and North Flatbush corridors. The effort aimed to raise awareness for ovarian cancer and National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in September.
T.E.A.L. — also formally known as the Louisa M. McGregor Ovarian Cancer Foundation — partnered with the Park Slope 5th Avenue BID, the Brooklyn Lion’s Club-District 20-K1 and T.D. Bank to hang the ribbons, donated by Turn the Towns Teal.
Founded by Gail MacNeil in 2007 after her battle with ovarian cancer, Turn the Towns Teal is a national campaign that promotes awareness of ovarian cancer and its often subtle symptoms. Although MacNeil passed away in 2008, her family continued her legacy, and by 2015, the organization was registered in all 50 states.
Community volunteers in Park Slope help raise awareness for ovarian cancer by decorating trees with teal ribbons.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
T.E.A.L. Co-Founder and CEO Pamela Esposito-Amery, whose sister Louisa M. McGregor died of ovarian cancer in 2011, emphasized the importance of events like the ribbon-tying to raise awareness, given the lack of a screening test for the disease.
“This is one of the ways that we engage with the public to spread awareness and have everyone just stop for a moment and tell every amazing lady about ovarian cancer,” Esposito-Amery told Brooklyn Paper.
The ribbon-tying event precedes several September events planned by T.E.A.L., including the Parachute Jump Lighting at Luna Park in Coney Island on August 30 and September 1, and the 16th Annual Brooklyn T.E.A.L. Walk/Run Celebration in Prospect Park on Sept. 7.
“We’re looking to raise $250,000. It is so important to save our programs and to keep them running,” said Esposito-Amery. Her organization is the only community center of its kind in the United States with a mission to educate about ovarian cancer, raise awareness, and fund research for a screening test and cure.
Currently, there is no accurate screening test for ovarian cancer, which is often detected at a late stage. Symptoms include vague, persistent gastrointestinal discomfort, abdominal bloating or swelling, frequent urination, back pain, unexplained changes in bowel habits, and weight gain or loss.
Teal ribbons adorn trees along Fifth Avenue as part of a community effort to support National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
One in 78 women is at risk of developing ovarian cancer, with approximately 21,980 new diagnoses annually in the United States. The five-year survival rate is 50.8%, but if detected and treated early, it exceeds 92%.
Amanda Flashner and Anne-Marie Lawrence, volunteers who participated in the ribbon-tying event, shared their personal connections to ovarian cancer. Flashner, whose mother died of a rare form of the disease in 2013, emphasized the importance of early detection.
“Had [the doctors] realized what it was sooner, she might still be here today,” Flashner said. “So raising awareness is something really important to me and my entire family.”
Flashner, who is BRCA positive — a genetic mutation that increases the risk of ovarian and breast cancer — underwent a prophylactic hysterectomy and urged women to communicate openly with their doctors.
“Things that you might write off as just a stomach bug, if it doesn’t go away, get it checked out,” Flashner said. “Don’t just sit there and wait.”
Lawrence, diagnosed with estrogen dominance in her mid-40s, experienced post-menopausal bleeding and was later diagnosed with endometrial cancer. She urged post-menopausal women to maintain regular OB/GYN check-ups, as reproductive cancers often lack distinctive symptoms.
“It’s like women often believe, as my mother did in her generation and even mine, that once you go through that change in life, you no longer need to see your GYN,” Lawrence told Brooklyn Paper. “That is when you need to go because with the influx of your hormones, it could wreak havoc, and you don’t even know it.”
Volunteers from T.E.A.L., the Park Slope 5th Avenue BID, the Brooklyn Lion’s Club, and T.D. Bank gather for a group photo after decorating trees with teal ribbons to raise awareness for ovarian cancer.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
The Brooklyn Lion’s Club, a longtime supporter of T.E.A.L., sent a crew of 15 volunteers. Club member Myra Crumpe, who died of ovarian cancer in 2022, was remembered by the club’s chairperson, Eileen Freeman, who stressed the importance of raising awareness.
“It’s a disease, and it’s not well known, and it’s a silent killer,” Freeman said. “We have to be aware of what’s going on and help those who might be facing the same disease.”
Joanna Tallantire, executive director of the Park Slope 5th Avenue BID, noted that raising awareness about ovarian cancer helps women ask the right questions during their check-ups.
“The more people see us [tying teal ribbons], the more awareness we’re raising, and the more exploring [women] will do about this issue,” Tallantire told Brooklyn Paper. “It’s everyone’s health. If we can look after women, we can look after the whole community.”
To help T.E.A.L. reach its $250,000 fundraising goal, register for the walk/run, or to learn more about T.E.A.L.’s mission, visit telleveryamazinglady.org.
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — POLICE ARE SEARCHING for a group of six female individuals in connection with an assault on a senior at the Rockaway Avenue A and C station this week. According to the NYPD, in the early hours of Monday, Aug. 26, a 76-year-old male victim was sitting on a bench on the station platform […]
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — THE FORMER POLICE OFFICER WHO SHOT A WOMAN INVOLVED IN A BROOKLYN LOVE TRIANGLE was sentenced on Wednesday, Aug. 28, to 27 years in prison, Attorney General Letitia James announced. Former NYPD officer Yvonne Wu, 34, of Staten Island was off duty when, in October 2021, she went to the Brooklyn home […]
Мэр Адамс и городской совет представили новаторский инвестиционный план на сумму 3 миллиарда долларов, усиленный дополнительными 100 миллионами долларов в бюджете на 2025 финансовый год, […]
Brooklynites are mourning. Leonard Riggio, who transformed Barnes & Noble into the country’s most powerful bookseller before his company was overtaken by the rise of Amazon.com, has died at age 83. Riggio died Tuesday “following a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s disease,” according to a statement issued by his family. He had stepped down as chairman […]
WILLIAMSBURG — MOON UNIT ZAPPA will join Molly Jong-Fast to celebrate the launch of Zappa’s memoir “Earth to Moon” at Oaks Church Brooklyn on Sept. 5 at 7 p.m. Moon Unit is the daughter of the legendary musical visionary Frank Zappa. At the age of fourteen, she appeared in her father’s music video, “Valley Girl,” […]
