A Coney Island community health clinic is set to reopen in a new, permanent location in what NYC Health+Hospitals called a “significant milestone” for providing healthcare to the community.

Hospital leaders, doctors, and elected officials including U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries gathered on Surf Avenue on Tuesday cut the ribbon on the Ida G. Israel Community Health Center, which will offer primary care, family medicine, and more.

“This new location represents our unwavering commitment to meeting the healthcare needs of the Coney Island community,” said Svetlana Lipyanskaya, CEO of NYC Health+Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, in a statement. “By expanding and enhancing our facilities, we are strengthening access to vital services and ensuring that our patients receive the highest quality care in a welcoming and supportive environment.”

The clinic, like hundreds of other buildings in Coney Island, was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Three years later, with $7.5 million in FEMA funds, it re-opened in a temporary location on West 19th Street. 

In the coming weeks, it will officially open to patients, per Health+Hospitals, pending final inspections by the state Department of Health. 

At 1607 Surf Ave., the new Ida G. Israel Community Health Center will offer primary care, family medicine, pediatrics, and colorectal services. Around the corner at 2932 West 16th St., it will provide care for substance abuse disorder and chemical dependency. 

The clinic has been an “integral part of the community” for more than 25 years, said Dr. Omar Fattal, Deputy Chief Officer of Behavioral Health at Health+Hospitals, and he belives its new, modernized location will make it easier for patients to access care.

“Our goals are to start life-saving treatment, reduce risk, make our patients feel seen, and treat them with dignity,” Fattal said in a statement. “We are dedicated to addressing the substance use crisis, better understanding and treating patients living with this disease, providing education and continuing to build a strong sense of community and recovery.” 

After Sandy, Coney Islanders said rebuilding the health center was critically important, Jeffries said at the ribbon-cutting.  

“In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, we made clear that the Ida G. Israel Community Health Center would be rebuilt on the West End of Coney Island,” he said. “That was a promise to the people of this community. And today, thanks to New York City officials, community leaders and colleagues, that promise has been kept.”

But the clinic may face new challenges, he warned. Community health centers like Ida G. Israel are partially funded by the federal government.

Late last month, President Donald Trump froze all federal funding, and though the order was quickly reversed, some community health centers across the country were still unable to access their funds more than a week later. 

“Our view is that access to high quality and affordable health care is a right. That is what the community health center represents,” Jeffries said. “We will continue to work with the City of New York to ensure that the funding is available at the federal government level to meet the healthcare needs of the people of Coney Island, and the amazing communities that will be served by this community health center.”

The congressman also vowed to protect Medicaid funding, which Republicans are also seeking to slash. As much of 50% of community health center funding comes from Medicaid, he said, and cuts could be devastating. 

While some uncertainty looms, Lipyanskaya, said the clinic is in it for the long haul. 

“We’re very excited to be here in the west end of Coney Island and to be here for the long haul and to really care for this wonderful, wonderful vibrant community,” she told Brooklyn Paper. 

The Trump administration moved Wednesday to kill the state-run congestion pricing in Manhattan just six weeks into its run. 

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) penned a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday saying it will end congestion pricing, the controversial tolling program that charges vehicles to enter Manhattan below and including 60th Street. It was launched in January after the Biden administration approved its start via a USDOT pilot program.

“The Federal Highway Administration today terminated approval of the pilot for New York’s Central Business District Tolling Program,” a federal press release stated on Feb. 19.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cited several reasons in his letter to the governor for ending the program — alleging it provides no toll-free option for many drivers who want or need to travel by vehicle in the metro area. He also said the toll rate was set primarily to raise revenue for transit, rather than at an amount needed to reduce congestion.

“New York State’s congestion pricing plan is a slap in the face to working-class Americans and small business owners,” said Duffy in a statement. “Commuters using the highway system to enter New York City have already financed the construction and improvement of these highways through the payment of gas taxes and other taxes. But now the toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative, and instead, takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair.”

Duffy said the feds would work with local agencies to develop a timeline for ending the toll program.

Duffy’s statement comes despite the fact that congestion pricing — since it took effect on Jan. 5 after two decades of planning, debate and federal approval during the Biden administration — has helped reduce congestion on Manhattan streets and increase ridership on subways, buses and commuter trains.

It is unknown right now when the MTA will stop collecting congestion pricing tolls. Local transit groups, however, are prepared to fight back the Trump administration’s edict in court.

“Public transit riders won congestion relief and are now enjoying faster and more reliable bus service from throughout New York and New Jersey,” said Betsy Plum, executive director of the Riders Alliance. “We organized for a decade, held two governors accountable, and prevailed in court in three states after years of exhaustive environmental studies. We are committed to maintaining and expanding on our victory and will defend it with everything we have.”

This is a developing story; check back for updates. 

Flag-waving pro-Palestine and pro-Israel demonstrators clashed in Borough Park Tuesday night during a demonstration outside a real estate expo.

The pro-Palestine activists, led by the Pal-Awda group, gathered near several synagogues, shouting inflammatory slogans such as “Settlers, go back home!” and “Zionists, go to hell!” 

Children on their way home from local yeshivas looked on from bus windows as the protesters flashed obscene gestures and beat snare drums while chanting hateful rhetoric.  That led to dozens of Yeshiva students descending on the area to show support for their neighborhood and demand that the protesters leave.

The Feb. 18 protest occurred during an Israeli real estate expo at Brooklyn Center, 3611 14th Ave., in the predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. Due to concerns about the protest, it had been relocated there after being initially scheduled at 1358 50th St., the Yeshiva Jesode Hatorah.

Jerusalem-based real estate company The Getter Group, which hosted the expo, said the event would provide attendees “All the info you need about real estate in Israel.” The company’s website advertises properties in cities across Israel as well as in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Those settlements violate international law, and past events advertising land for sale in the territory have drawn criticism. 

Local leaders had demanded that the NYPD and Mayor’s Office take action against the demonstration, but it proceeded nonetheless.

Prominent pro-Israel figures, including former Councilman Ari Kagan, former Assemblyman Dov Hikind, advocates Stephanie Binshimol and Karen Lisa LichtBraun of Herut NYC, and activist and City Council candidate Heshy Tischler were present at the counter-protest. 

Hundreds of Jewish residents and supporters gathered, defiantly chanting “Am Yisrael Chai!” in response to the aggressive rhetoric of the pro-Palestine demonstrators.

The protest took a violent turn when a pro-Palestine protester allegedly attempted to ram his vehicle into a crowd at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 37th Street. The attacker was swiftly stopped by the NYPD and taken into custody. 

Additionally, Tischler was allegedly assaulted by a pro-Palestine protester, suffering a blow to the face that left him bloodied.

Meanwhile, Pal-Adwa claimed in an Instagram post that, “Protest attendees were spat on, kicked, harassed, maced and even physically struck … as they made their way to the protest and as they tried to go home.” 

They further alleged that the pro-Israel demonstrators engaged in anti-Islamic behavior, with “one counterprotester [holding] a lighter to a Quran, another made sexual gestures with a Quran, and others mocked our call to prayer.”

The protest comes in the wake of comments by President Donald Trump that he would seek to have Gaza, currently under Hamas control, taken over by the United States and transformed into a seaside resort. Under his proposal, the 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza would be resettled in other Middle East nations. 

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the proposal should be explored, other world powers — including China, Germany and Russia — rebuked the idea, Reuters reported. 

Meanwhile, a fragile ceasefire deal ending the Israel-Hamas War is still holding, with more Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being freed.