Day: October 21, 2024

The New York Liberty’s first-ever WNBA championship will be celebrated as only the Big Apple can with a ticker-tape parade this Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams announced.

Members of New York’s first championship professional basketball team in more than 50 years will be paraded down the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway in Lower Manhattan starting at 10 a.m. on Oct. 24, with the festivities concluding with a midday ceremony at City Hall.

The Liberty’s win is a historic moment in sports, as this is the team’s first WNBA title in its 28 years of shooting hoops.

“At a time when the rest of the country is finally acknowledging the endless talent in our WNBA, we are proud to have New York City bring home the trophy,” Adams said. “To our WNBA champions, thank you for being a role model to our city, and showcasing the values of grit, determination and hard work. Now, we can’t wait to celebrate off the court and throw you the parade you deserve down the Canyon of Heroes!”

In addition to a ticker-tape parade, which NYC has held for well over 100 years to honor athletes, politicians, military veterans and many other notable figures, local buildings will be aglow Monday night in the team’s signature seafoam green color.

The buildings to shine in celebration include City Hall, Brooklyn Borough Hall, the David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building, Queens Borough Hall and Staten Island Borough Hall.

‘Chasing this dream since 1997’

It was a long but victorious road for the Big Apple’s hometown team to reach number one. The athletes secured their third win to clinch the title after defeating the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA finals. 

“This moment means everything — not only to the Liberty organization, but to our fans and all of New York City,” Keia Clarke, CEO of the New York Liberty, said. “The Liberty have been chasing this dream since 1997 and after a strategic five-year turnaround, driven by ownership’s vision of rebuilding and regrowing this historic team, we are proud to get back to first and win this championship for New York.”

This year was a record-breaking one for the Liberty, clinching the overall number 1 seed in the WNBA Playoffs for a second time in franchise history, tying a franchise-best finish of 32-8, and becoming the first team in WNBA history with back-to-back 30+ win seasons, the mayor’s explained in a press release.

The greatest tribute NYC can provide

The Liberty is next in line of the city’s more than 200 ticker-tape parades in more than 100 years.

In a way, the team is going back to the celebration’s roots, when the first ticker-tape parade in NYC was held for another local icon with “Liberty” in her name — the Statue of Liberty.

The unique-style style of parade started when workers noticed that “ticker tape,” thin ribbons of paper traditionally used on machines to record telegraphed stock quotes, made an appealing cascading effect when thrown out of windows—similar to confetti.

“Contemporary accounts of the earliest ticker-tape parades describe the cascade of scrap paper as a spontaneous gesture on the part of spectators inspired by the festivities outside their windows,” the Alliance for Downtown New York notes on its website. “As the practice grew, city officials recognized the promotional value of ticker-tape parades and began to plan them as a function of municipal government.”

Ticker tape is obsolete today as financial information is transmitted in other technologically advanced ways, but the namesake parade lives on.

The New York Liberty joins a list of other sports icons who were honored with ticker tape in NYC, including the U.S. Olympic team in 1924, the New York Giants in 2008 and 2011, and the New York Yankees, most recently in 2009.

The Yankees, of course, are playing in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers beginning this Friday night — so it’s possible there might be another ticker-tape parade not long after the Liberty get their well-deserved tribute.

The New York Landmarks Conservancy has announced 16 Sacred Sites Grants, totaling $321,000, awarded to 15 historic religious properties throughout New York State. In Brooklyn, these include $45,000 to Flatbush-Tompkins Congregational Church in Ditmas Park to help fund masonry and roof flashing repairs; $30,000 to St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church in Sunset Park to help […]

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Police are looking for a knife-wielding suspect who allegedly stabbed a man in the eye on a subway platform in Bay Ridge last week.

The NYPD said the 30-year-old victim was waiting for an R train inside the Bay Ridge Avenue subway station shortly before 4:30 a.m. on Oct. 17 when a yet-to-be-identified individual approached him.

The suspect then stabbed the victim in the left eye before fleeing on a northbound R train. Police did not say whether an argument had occurred before the attack, but that the victim and perp did not know each other.

EMS responded to the scene and brought the victim to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn in stable condition.

Police on Monday released a photo of the suspect in which, he is shown wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a graphic, a blue Amazon vest, dark-colored sweatpants, and white sneakers.

Anyone with information regarding the assault can call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (for Spanish, dial 888-57-PISTA). You can also submit tips online at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, or on X (formerly Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.

In the 68th precinct, where the Oct. 17 assault occurred, transit crime down more than 30% year-over-year, according to the latest NYPD statistics. Separately, 95 assaults have been reported in the Bay Ridge area so far this year, but are down by 14% when compared to last year.

POLICE HAVE ARRESTED RUBEN RUIZ, 53, IN CONNECTION WITH A STRING OF HOME BURGLARIES involving tools that occurred.

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The home economics club at Brooklyn Dreams Charter school in Kensington threw its first fundraiser over the weekend, combining the skills kids are already learning with some they hope to pick up this year with “Muffins & Mufflers.”

Dozens of vintage car owners came to show off their vintage rides and careful handiwork, while members of the club handed out carefully-baked muffins and pastries for attendees to nosh on. 

The home economics club is open to all middle school students at Brooklyn Dreams, said teacher Michelle DeLuca, but kids can also bring along their younger siblings and relatives. Sometimes, up to 90 kids from kindergarten through eighth grade show up for meetings.

“We learn how to cook and bake, we do crafting skills, and we’re really hoping we can do some mechanics this year as well,” DeLuca said. 

The vintage car lovers at Saturday’s fundraiser just might be able to help out there. 

Car connoisseur David Chin showed off his 1969 Chevy Corvette. He bought the rig five years ago, he said, and as he’s been working on it, he’s tried to keep it “as original as possible, just for nostalgic reasons.”

Some attendees have gone a little further — working to make their cars even better than they were when they were first sold — like Paul DeLuca, who said he’s tinkered with his car little by little since he bought it in 2004 to “improve it a little more than it was when it was factory new.”

Brooklyn Dreams Charter School has just over 400 students and emphasizes good character and values as well as personal academic achievement, according to its website. The school offers dozens of sports and electives — home economics club, boys and girls sports, dance, poetry club, and more.