Day: December 16, 2024

Three bills supporting firefighters that State Senator Andrew Gounardes sponsored are now law.

The post New laws support firefighters, create equity in benefits appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

The MTA’s Transit and Bus Committee voted Monday to add more than 400 new R211 subway cars, including dozens of “open-gangway” cars, to its fleet of trains in NYC.

Transit authority officials said that by early 2025, at least two open-gangway trains, which allow passengers to walk between train cars, will launch on the G line through Brooklyn and Queens. Additionally, 355 traditional train cars with improved features will start rolling on the tracks by 2027.

“What is on the agenda today is actually hugely exciting for riders,” MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber explained at the start of the committee meeting. “And, part of the fun here is that we are really going into — in a big way — the open-gangway business. It’s going to be OG on the G!”

Lieber said trains with an open gangway, similar to an articulated bus, will help alleviate overcrowding because they allow passengers to move between cars safely. Open gangway trains debuted earlier this year on the C line in Manhattan. 

“Our friends in Greenpoint, people who ride the G and are passionate about transit, I know, are going to welcome getting new trains,” he said.

New railcars such as the R211 are a priority project in the MTA’s $68 billion capital plan for 2025-2029.

It is unclear if the new train procurement will be affected by future cuts or pauses in congestion pricing, which debuts on Jan. 5.

The purchase of the cars was based on pre-COVID costs, Lieber explained, before supply-chain issues increased price tags on a magnitude of goods and services around the country.

In January 2018, the MTA Board awarded Kawasaki Rail Car, Inc. a contract to design, build and deliver the new train stock to the city’s tracks and stations.

The R211s will replace all R44s on the Staten Island Railway and the current fleet of R46 subway cars, which have been in service on the A and C lines as well as the N, Q, R and W line for decades. The procurement allows the MTA to begin replacement of the R68s, which entered service in the mid-1980s and primarily operate on the B, D, N and W.

The R211 features security cameras in every car, more accessible seating, brighter lights, clearer signage, and 58-inch-wide door openings, eight inches wider than the standard door openings on the agency’s existing cars.

“These new train cars make the world of difference for transit riders, in both reliability and the customer experience with better amenities for passengers,” NYC Transit president Demetrius Crichlow said.

The choo-choo news has delighted straphangers and train buffs who attended the committee meeting.

Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA (PCAC), called Monday’s announcemed a “holiday gift” for passengers.

“The new subway cars that will soon be rolling in will help modernize our aging fleet, and though we’ll miss the conversational seating, we will welcome the technology and mechanical improvements,” she said.

The new RT11 trains will come installed with communications-based train control (CBTC), which is set to modernize the subways 1030s-era analog system with wireless technology that will allow more trains on the tracks and fewer delays.

A JUNIOR FOOTBALL team from Brownsville stormed to victory at the national Pop Warner Super Bowl in Orlando last week.

The post Brownsville’s Mo Better Jaguars win junior football championship appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a day after resigning from City Hall as Mayor Eric Adams’ long-time adviser, denied any wrongdoing Monday in an apparently brewing indictment that she and her attorney claimed might be unsealed this week in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Lewis-Martin and her legal representative, Arthur Aidala, held a Dec. 16 press conference seemingly to get out in front of what they say is an impending criminal indictment from a grand jury which Manhattan District Attorney’s office convened. The New York Times, citing sources familiar with the investigation, said that the grand jury was investigating corruption allegations against Lewis-Martin as well as her son, Glenn Martin II, and hotelier Mayank Dwivedi.

Taking a page out of Mayor Adams’ playbook following his criminal indictment in September, Lewis-Martin not only denied the impending charges Monday but also suggested the case was politically motivated.

“When you are being unjustly accused of something, you stand up for your rights. And that is exactly what I am doing today,” Lewis-Martin told reporters. “I am being falsely accused of something. I haven’t been told of what it is. I have never done anything wrong in my capacity in government.”

An American chaplain, Lewis-Martin served as Adams’ chief aide since he took office in 2022. Before that, she worked with Adams as his chief of staff in the NYS Senate and was his senior advisor during his two terms as Brooklyn borough president.

But her tenure was not without scandal. In September, she was served with a subpoena by federal authorities just as she landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport after a trip to Japan.

Federal agents also raided Lewis-Martin’s Brooklyn home, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office seized her phone. According to reports at the time, she was not home when the raid occurred, but her family was.

At Monday’s press conference, Lewis-Martin defended her reputation built over 35 years of service in all three levels of government, saying that she has never profited from any office which she held.

“During my tenure, I have never taken any gifts, money, anything,” she said. “I have not made any arrangements in advance to take any gifts or money, or to have any gifts or money given to a family member to do my job.”

As for Mayor Adams, Hizzoner deflected numerous questions from about his long-time adviser’s impending investigation during a Monday press conference at City Hall, instead offering words of support and encouragement for her. 

“This morning… I lifted her up in prayer. She not only has been constantly by my side throughout this entire journey, she’s not only a friend, but she’s my sister,” he said. “I just really ask God to give her strength in the days to come.”

A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg declined to comment on Lewis-Martin’s remarks Monday.

With reporting by Barbara Russo-Lennon

Citi Bike launched in 2013 with stations in Brooklyn north of Atlantic Avenue and west of Nostrand Avenue.

The post Citi Bike coming to Bay Ridge, Kensington, Brownsville and East New York next fall appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.