Day: November 13, 2024

Less than a week removed from a heartbreaking overtime loss in Boston, the Brooklyn Nets will try to get a measure of revenge Wednesday night when they host the defending NBA champions at Downtown’s Barclays Center. Fresh off a 1-2 road trip that began with last Friday’s 108-104 defeat in Beantown, the Nets (5-6) hope […]

The post Nets set for rematch with champion Celtics appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Russia Launches Missiles Against Ukraine’s Capital  The New York Times

THE CITY COUNCIL is set to vote on Wednesday on Councilmember Chi Osse’s Fairness in Apartment Rentals Act.

The post Council set to vote on broker fee bill appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Days after a highly unusual brush fire broke out in Prospect Park, things seemed almost back to normal.

Brooklyn’s Backyard was full of visitors on Tuesday, and on first glance, the two-acre stretch of the park’s Ravine, where the fire started on Nov. 8, looks relatively unmarred.

On closer inspection, though, the hillside is full of burned logs and tree branches, and even the ground is scorched in some places. The fire was extinguished relatively quickly, and the damage was limited, said Morgan Monaco, president of the Prospect Park Alliance, but it’s a significant setback. 

“It could have been a lot worse,” she said. “But the damage does include … burning to some of our older, more mature trees, and all of our forest’s ground cover.” 

Healthy forests have multiple layers of vegetation, she said, including a layer of tiny, herbaceous plants and leaf litter on the forest floor, a “midstory” with larger shrubs and small trees, and the canopy, the upper layer made up of mature trees. 

“Those three things to work in unison to make a healthy forest, and unfortunately, we lost a lot of our ground cover and a lot of our midstory,” Monaco said. 

The first step toward recovery in the Ravine will be clearing out the burned debris, Monaco said, and stabilizing the area with wooden steps and soil fabric – the fire broke out on a steep slope, and the loss of plants and trees means soil erosion is more likely. 

Then, they’ll invest in a significant reforestation effort. It will take “many seasons” before the area is back to its pre-fire self, Monaco said. 

“We take a lot of care to think about the right species, planting the right trees in the right locations, and making sure that we have a mix of species so that we have diversity,” Monaco explained. “Because, when threats happen, we want to make sure one tree or one species isn’t completely lost and we don’t have a forest anymore.” 

Unprecedented drought brings unprecedented fires

Forest fires in New York City are nearly unprecedented. None have been recorded in Prospect Park in recent history, and while wildfires are part of the natural cycle in some parts of the country, they’re extremely uncommon in urban forests. 

Friday’s fire came days after Mayor Eric Adams declared a drought watch in New York City. October was the driest month on record in the city, and almost no rain has fallen in the five boroughs since the end of September.

 Fires often accompany drought. The New York City Fire Department said it has extinguished “hundreds” of brush fires in the past few weeks due to dry, windy conditions. Drought means lots of dry vegetation and stressed trees – perfect kindling for stray coals or embers from grills or even cigarette butts. 

On Nov. 9, another small fire started in Prospect Park. The FDNY has maintained a presence there since Friday, and firefighters quickly extinguished the flames, according to the Alliance. 

Officials are still investigating the cause of the Nov. 8 blaze, which a passerby saw and reported to 911. Almost all wildfires are started by humans, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, caused by burning debris, smoking, and other causes. 

Neighbors have said there are homeless encampments near the scene of the fire, and the New York Post found burnt litter and campsite items, including grills, in the area — though Brooklyn Paper observed no debris on Nov. 12. 

Monaco said there are encampments in Prospect Park, and that the Alliance works with the city’s Department of Homeless Services and with the nonprofit Breaking Ground to reach out to people living in Prospect Park. 

“They form relationships with folks over many seasons and periods, and people aren’t necessarily always in the same location, so it’s really not a one-size-fits-all solution to addressing a very complicated problem,” Monaco said. “But we’re grateful that the city has a response protocol in place to address encampments.”

Locals support the park, and worry about its future 

Rebecca Hume, a birder who has lived in the area for over 15 years and visits the park regularly, said she was “devastated” when she heard about the fire.

“Having a green place like this has been absolutely vital for me,” she said. “It feels awful not to be able to protect a place this important.” 

Wildfires in California and, more recently, Canada, make headlines every summer. But the eastern coast of the U.S. has largely been spared from that particular catastrophe.

“I think this was maybe not the way, we thought, in the city that we were first gonna experience [climate change,] Hume said. “We think, like, oh yeah, fires happen other places and not here. It’s alarming, but it’s also like, what did we expect? This is what we’re doing to the world, it’s going to hit everyone.” 

The park has received an outpouring of love and support since Friday, Monaco said. Visitors tied notes of support to the fence beside the burnt forest, with messages like “Ouch! Get better soon. Thank you FDNY,” and “You will persevere. Please keep protecting us, Prospect Park!” 

Monaco asked supporters to donate to the recovery campaign online, and said that once the area is safe again, they’ll welcome volunteers to help with the replanting effort. For now, she urged Brooklynites to stay out of the area for their own safety. 

Bruno Grandsard and Mercedes Sanchez, who have lived near the park for 25 years and walk in the park almost daily, checked out the damage for the first time on Tuesday. 

Sanchez said she felt “panicked” when she heard about the fire, but was comforted somewhat by the relative lack of visible damage. 

But the fire, and the drought, are just another example of climate change in Brooklyn. Last fall, flooding devastated parts of Brooklyn and forced the Prospect Park Zoo to close for several months. This year, conditions are totally different.

“We’re lucky because here we have fire departments all around, and this could be extinguished pretty easily,” Grandsard said. “But what do you do when it’s in major forests? I don’t think we have a national, global plan for dealing with it.” 

As for girding Prospect Park against climate change, the Alliance will need to prepare for more droughts in the future, Monaco said, mostly with its plantings. Native plants and trees help protect the forest against catastrophes like fires and floods, and leaders in different sections of the park are responsible for choosing which plants go where, depending on what’s needed. 

Newly-planted flora are watered regularly in the spring and fall to make sure they have a good chance at survival, Monaco said. Drought conditions strain those new plants, and require more human effort to keep them alive.

“We know there could be droughts like this in the future,” she said. “This is something we’ve got to start planning for, and make sure that we’re building into our seasonal planting plans … we’ll be much more thoughtful and cognizant of what to do when there is another mass incident like this to rebuild and recover.”

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the 49th Colgate Women’s Games, the nation’s longest-running indoor Track & Field series for girls and women.

The post Registration is now open for Colgate Women’s Games appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump made significant gains across the country in the 2024 general election, including in deep blue New York City — where he made inroads in working-class communities of color across the five boroughs.

According to unofficial results from the city Board of Elections (BOE), Trump, who has previously not gained much support in the Big Apple, received 30% of the vote across the city, compared to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ 68%.

Even so, Trump improved his share of the vote by 7%—or 94,612 votes—compared to when he ran against President Biden in 2020. During that election, which Biden won, Trump received 23% of the vote within the five boroughs, compared to Biden’s 76%.

Pointing fingers

Mayor Eric Adams, during a Tuesday news conference, said it “doesn’t surprise me” that Trump’s performance in the city improved this cycle. The conservative Democrat, who often butts heads with the left flank of his party, blamed progressives for Harris losing ground in the city.

The mayor charged that the left is too consumed with “philosophical stuff” that he did not enumerate, instead of the pocketbook issues that working-class New Yorkers care about — such as public safety and affordability.

“Some of the things that you talk about is not what working-class people [are] talking about,” Adams said. “Working class people are concerned about the future for their families…So, when you’re not talking about those real issues, it does not surprise me that people are saying, ‘Listen, you’re not speaking on my behalf anymore.’”

That prompted Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, in a Tuesday statement, to argue that it is not the left but rather “fearmongering” around crime and immigration by officials like Adams that is hurting Democrats at the ballot box.

“Just as he did in 2022, the mayor is blaming progressives for not putting out the flames he fanned on issues of public safety and immigration, among others,” Williams said. “He correctly identifies problems that are top issues for our constituents, but rather than elevate the solutions available, he joined his fellow conservatives in fearmongering and scapegoating.”

Manhattan

Trump even saw a slight bump in the deepest blue borough: Manhattan. He gained roughly 5 percentage points, or 17,943 votes, among Manhattanites between 2020 and 2024 — a shift from 12% to 17% respectively.

At the same time, Harris lost about 5% of the Manhattan vote share last Tuesday compared to Biden in 2020. She came up with 80% of the vote this year, while Biden nabbed 85% in 2020.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said that while the borough had the highest vote for Harris out of any county in the state, a closer look at the way some neighborhoods trended shows a different picture.

“If you zoom in a bit neighborhood by neighborhood, you see a more nuanced story, where there was a pretty marked surge in Trump support in Latino, particularly Dominican areas, and to a lesser extent in Chinatown,” Levin said in an interview with amNewYork Metro.

Trump picked up the most votes in Washington Heights and Inwood, according to data compiled by the CUNY Graduate Center. The president-elect improved his vote share the most in eight election districts in the predominantly Latino and working-class Upper Manhattan neighborhoods.

Between those eight districts, Trump boosted his vote share by an average of 19%.

Levine said Trump voters told him it was their perception that Democrats are failing to address issues like crime and the economy that motivated them to cast their ballots for the Republican standard-bearer over Harris.

“A lot of voters I heard from who went for Trump decided that they don’t trust the voters on public safety anymore; we’ve gotta address that,” he said. “Also, the economy’s a major concern. It’s a very entrepreneurial community, a lot of business owners, people who are concerned about Democrats not being as good for small business. Concerns about the cost of living. Concerns about the cost of housing.”

Shifts towards Trump were far bigger in the outer boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn.

The Bronx

Trump made his biggest gains in the Bronx, where he improved his performance by 11% between 2020 and this year, according to unofficial BOE results.

When he ran against President Biden four years ago, Trump nabbed just 16% of the vote in the Boogie Down. But he boosted his vote share in the borough to 27% this year, an increase of 23,802 votes.

Before this year, the Bronx was the deepest blue borough in the city — yet Trump, during his campaign, sought to put a few dents in the armor.

The president-elect visited the Bronx twice during his campaign, stopping by a barbershop just days before the election and holding a rally attended by hundreds of supporters in May. His goal was to increase his support among Black and Latino men.

While Harris still handily won the borough, Trump’s efforts appeared to work in getting more Bronxites to cast their ballots in his favor.

Bronx Republican and Conservative party leaders told the Bronx Times they see Trump’s improved performance in the borough as a sign that Republicans will have more electoral success there in the years to come.

“I think we’re in for a party reset,” said Mike Rendino, chair of the Bronx GOP. “The Republican party is finally the diverse, blue-collar party that I’ve always dreamed of and we worked for.”

While Trump improved his vote share across many parts of the borough, including in the tony area of Fieldston, he made the greatest gains in East Bronx neighborhoods, including Throggs Neck, Morris Park, Pelham Bay Park, and City Island. Rendino said that was mostly due to Latino voters who liked Trump’s messaging around issues like the cost of living and immigration.

Many of the same areas last year elected the borough’s first Republican City Council member — Kristy Marmorato — in two decades.

Queens

The World's Borough also shifted in Trump's favor last Tuesday.

The president-elect saw a 10.5% boost in Queens this year, according to unofficial BOE results. That equates to a rise from 26.8% in 2020 to 37.3% this year — 35,359 more votes.

Democratic Assembly Member Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas — who represents parts of heavily-Latino Queens neighborhoods including Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst — said she believes Trump won more votes in the borough because Democrats took Latino and Asian communities for granted, QNS reported. Many of the communities the Assembly member represents in Albany shifted toward Trump this year.

“We already know the issues Latinos care about and that is pocketbook issues," Gonzalez-Rojas told QNS in a statement. "But we cannot allow what the Republicans have done to overshadow what we did not do.”

The Assembly member argued that Latino and Asian voters who gravitated to Trump could be won back if Democrats embrace further left policies like raising taxes on the wealthy to fund better government programs.

“It is time for our state to increase revenue by taxing the rich to address the basic needs of Latino and Asian voters, including affordable housing, food prices, childcare access and more," she said. "We have more work to do and I’m ready to push our state to do it.”

Brooklyn

In Brooklyn, Trump secured 8% more votes this year than in 2020, increasing his vote share from 24% to 30%.

Trump performed strongest in southern Brooklyn, which has been trending more and more red over the past few election cycles. He improved his margins in neighborhoods, including Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Borough Park, Gravesend, and Bensonhurst.

Many of those areas have large East Asian, Orthodox Jewish and Russian populations.

In the predominantly Asian community of Bensonhurst, Trump earned 70% of the vote, Brooklyn Paper reported. That was an improvement of about 20% from four years ago.

Republicans flipped three Assembly seats in southern Brooklyn in 2022 and captured the 17th state Senate seat from Democrat Iwen Chu this year. The winner, Republican former NYPD officer Steve Chan, said he won because Chu, a progressive Democrat, did not align with the district she represented.

“Tonight we won, and it was easy, and I’ll tell you why,” Chan said last Tuesday. “It was easy for our community of 350,000 to realize that we did not have someone representing us well, and tonight they spoke.” 

With reporting by Emily Swanson, Shane O’Brien and Kirstyn Brendlen.