The Ocean Avenue News - oceanavenuenews.comMore than a dozen states and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, saying it is designed to be addictive to kids.
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What will be the next retail shop to join the list of believed Brooklyn establishments to close prematurely?
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There are 600,000 pieces of living history in Brooklyn: trees.
They fill the borough’s parks, line its streets, and shade its playgrounds and schoolyards, but their contributions often go unnoticed. In 1985, the city’s parks department set out to change that when it compiled the first list of the “Great Trees of New York City.” At that time, the department was in search of “trees of unusual size, species, form or historical association.”
But much has changed since then, and last year, the department decided it was time for an update. On Oct. 8 it updated the list for the first time since 1985.
Seventeen of the 61 new trees added to the list are in Brooklyn. Some were recognized for their enormous size or colorful leaves, others for their place in local history or how beloved they are by the neighborhood.
“New York City’s trees represent a critical part of the cultural and historical fabric of our neighborhoods and communities, and it is a joy to release the final product of hundreds of proud and engaged New Yorkers submitting their nominations for the trees they love,” said parks department commish Sue Donogue, in a statement. “When the original list was produced in 1985, New Yorkers could hardly imagine the changes we would see in our city, and through those many years our trees have served as neighborhood touchstones, historical reminders, and unique symbols of our diverse urban forest.”
A handful of the new trees represent decades of history — like a pair of Black Oaks in East Flatbush, which “predate residential development” in what’s now a densely-populate neighborhood. Once upon a time, according to the parks department, they were probably part of the Paerdegat Woods. The Paerdegat Woods — once referred to as “the last old-time ‘forest’ in Brooklyn” — were cut down in the 1940s for homes built by Fred C. Trump, according to the New York Times.
Another tree, an English Elm in Fort Greene Park, has been there since the park’s inception — it was planted as part of the park’s original design by famed landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. A Red Oak in Bed-Stuy’s Saratoga Park has likely stood since the area served as a circus ground.
A highlight of the newly-recognized trees in Brooklyn is the Gingko tree in front of the United Order of Tents at 87 MacDonough St. in Bed-Stuy. The United Order of Tents was founded in Virginia as a stop on the Underground Railroad in the 1800s, and to this day serves as a community service organization that cares for seniors, the dead, and all its neighbors.
The United Order of Tents in Bed-Stuy is the last remnant of the organization’s Eastern District, and have worked out of their MacDonough Street headquarters since 1945. The ancient Gingko tree is known for its bright yellow fall leaves and resistance to cold weather and snow.
“As one of the oldest living tree species in the world, this tree symbolically helps hold and preserve Black history in New York City,” the parks department wrote of the honored tree.
Some of the trees on the list are the stuff of local legends, like a colorful Eastern Redbud in McGolrick Park. The twisty tree has become beloved for its gnarled branches — a draw for kids who want to climb – and its beautiful pink leaves in the springtime.
“Legend has it that a former gardener for the park fostered a relationship with horticulturalists at Prospect Park, where they agreed to take the unwanted trees from their seasonal plan orders,” the parks department wrote of the tree. “A true underdog story!”
It’s not the only park to have been secreted out of Prospect Park. According to family lore, a former parks department employee smuggled a Red Oak sapling out of the park and planted it in front of his home in Kensington in 1958. More than 60 years later, the tree has watched the family grow, the neighborhood change, and, with a four-foot trunk diameter, is one of the largest trees in the area.
Brooklynites can be downright protective of their greenspaces, including trees, and their hard work and dedication is recognized on the Great Trees list. An American Elm on Quincy Street in Bed-Stuy shows “incredible signs of stewardship and community support,” per the parks department.
A set of twin Pin Oaks on 88th Street are two of the tallest trees in Bay Ridge — and the owners of the apartment building they grow in front of have always made sure their beds were clean and full of fresh mulch and colorful flowers.
Two “weeping” trees are also the fruits of community support. One, a Weeping Oak on Herbert Street in East Williamsburg, is one of few large trees in the industrial nabe, and locals fought hard to preserve it – earning it a spot on the Great Trees list. Another, a Weeping Willow in the 6/15 Community Garden in Park Slope, represents the community’s effort to clean up an abandoned lot in the 80s and turn it into the now-beloved garden.
“The longevity and majesty of these Great Tree Search winners might surprise a person unfamiliar with New York City’s urban forest!” said consulting arborist Jean Zimmerman of the New York State Urban Forestry Council. “Even as a historian and arborist I found the breadth of awardees astonishing … All trees are amazing. But NYC Parks has achieved something remarkable in calling to light the amazing venerable trees busy city dwellers might just overlook.”
The Federation of Italian American Organizations held its annual fundraising brunch, a prerequisite to the Brooklyn Columbus Day Parade.
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The Federation of Italian American Organizations (FIAO) held its annual fundraising brunch, prerequisite to the Brooklyn Columbus Day Parade.
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An MTA conductor was stabbed on the job Tuesday morning at a Brooklyn subway station, police reported.
Law enforcement sources said the male conductor got into a verbal dispute with a passenger at the Crown Heights-Utica Avenue station, the southern terminus of the 4 line in Brooklyn, when the individual refused to get off the train at about 10:49 a.m. on Oct. 8.
After the dispute intensified, cops said, the passenger stabbed the conductor in the leg and torso.
Officers from the 77th Precinct and NYPD Transit District 32 responded to the incident. The conductor was taken to Kings County Hospital where he is listed in stable condition.
The incident led to service disruptions Tuesday afternoon; southbound 4 trains ran local between Atlantic Avenue and Kingston Avenue, and both 3 and 4 trains bypassed the Utica Avenue stop.
Police have a person of interest in custody. Charges against them are pending the results of the ongoing investigation.
Tuesday’s stabbing occurred on the same day the NYPD announced an 8.7% decrease in transit crime during September.