Day: February 25, 2025

THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM has canceled its very popular First Saturdays for March and April, citing financial difficulties, Hell Gate reports.

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DISGRACED FORMER U.S. REP. ANTHONY WEINER, who is running for City Council in the Lower East Side of Manhattan,

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To reach its target for the year, the MTA will have to pull in about $41.6M in net revenue a month on average.

The post Congestion Pricing on Track to Fill Transit Funding Gap, MTA Says appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Construction of a new multi-use community center in Brownsville is set to wrap up in 2026 after it was built in “record time,” city officials said last week. 

The city threw a “topping off ceremony” at the Brownsville Multi-Service Center on Feb. 18 after the last part of the center’s concrete frame was placed. While the structure doesn’t look like much now, it’s slated to become a 60,000-square-foot, four-story facility with various community spaces and amenities. 

“This $128 million facility will directly benefit the people of Brownsville with new sustainable community space built in record time,” said Thomas Foley, commissioner of the city’s Department of Design and Construction, in a statement. 

The 444 Boyland St. facility, built in place of an old city-owned community center, will offer several conference rooms, a teaching kitchen, and a 1,600-square-foot community garden, plus green roofs on the second, third, and fourth floors. 

It will also be equipped with solar panels as part of a sustainable pilot project in line with the city’s Climate Resiliency Guidelines, and is expected to be the new home of Brooklyn Community Board 16 — which was previously housed in the old community center.

The building and garden will be decorated with works by local artist Jazmine Haynes as part of the city’s Percent for Art Program. 

“With Jazmine Hayes’ extraordinary Percent for Art commission, ‘I Am Protected,’ the artist has worked with local community members to create multiple installations throughout this amazing new multi-service center, giving residents the opportunity to see themselves and their community represented in the artist’s dynamic vision,” said Laurie Cumbo, commissioner of NYC Cultural Affairs, in a statement.

Officials credited the expedited construction timeline – and $10 million in savings — to the city’s new Design-Build process.

Traditionally, the city awards two separate contracts for the design and construction of new projects — meaning more proposals, paperwork, and a longer timeline. With Design-Build, one contract is awarded for the entire project. If the Brownsville Multi-Service Center is finished in 2026, as planned, just three years will have passed between demolition of the old building and the unveiling of the new one. 

In a Feb. 20 statement, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi said the “milestone” was a mark of success for the entire program.

“Today’s major construction milestone at Brownsville Multi-Service Center demonstrates that with the right tools, announcing a project and waiting years to see progress can be a thing of the past,” Joshi said. “Design-build is already showing tremendous potential, shaving decades off capital projects at NYC DDC, NYCHA, and NYC H+H – and avoiding millions in unnecessary costs.”

Construction is slated to wrap in spring 2026, officials said. 

Aside from the Multi-Service Center, Brownsville is set to receive another new community center in the coming years, after Mayor Eric Adams allocated $160 million for the total demolition and reconstruction of the Brownsville Recreation Center last year. 

Massive federal cutbacks are proving to be great obstacles to local organizations that serve as the backbones of our communities

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“Forget the Alamo,” say workers of the popular cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse as they continue their strike outside the Brooklyn and Manhattan theaters, protesting the recent layoffs of 70 employees.

The strike, which began on Feb. 14, aims to push the company to reinstate the laid-off workers with back pay and return to the bargaining table to continue contract negotiations for the hourly workers.

Workers picketing outside the Downtown Brooklyn location argued that the layoffs were unnecessary and conducted without negotiating severance, paid time off, or sick leave compensation. Jordan Barouche, a member of the NYC Alamo United bargaining committee, criticized the company’s handling of the layoffs and ongoing staffing issues, which he said have long plagued the chain.

“We expect them to recognize their mistake and talk to us again about how to keep our workers afloat and their business afloat because I don’t think that the business would be doing well, even if we hadn’t gone on strike,” Barouche told Brooklyn Paper. “The official call is for everybody to be reinstated and get their back pay. If they don’t, if they’re not happy with that, they should consider giving us a proposal, calling us back to the table, and seeing if we can end the strike. Because we have to end it together.”

Barouche pointed to last August’s expansion of the Downtown Brooklyn location, which added five new screens but, he said, did not come with an increase in staff.

“It’s totally necessary that we need more bodies, more people,” he said, adding that Alamo cited a seasonal slowdown as the reason for the layoffs.

However, he noted that in previous years, the company had reduced staff hours rather than cutting jobs outright, leaving workers to question the shift since Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the chain in June 2024.

“They claim that Alamo operates mostly autonomously within the broader Sony umbrella. I can’t speak for that. I’m not in the boardroom meetings, but I will say, having been with the company for three years, this is the first year they’ve done layoffs during the slow season,” said Justin Saenger, an employee of three years who has worked at Alamo Drafthouse locations in both Texas and Brooklyn.

Saenger said the chronic understaffing also negatively impacts the customer experience.

“It shouldn’t take 20 minutes for somebody’s food or drink to come out, even if they ordered before the movie, but due to the material conditions of our workplace, we just don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with the demand,” he said. “These are not cheap tickets, and they used to be better. Usually, the modus operandi just cuts hours down significantly. Most of the people here have second jobs as is, but to lay off 70 workers without warning or severance is really just a very shocking blow, and it’s really drastically affected morale.”

Alamo’s staff voted to join the United Auto Workers — which also represents Nitehawk Cinema employees — on Sept. 29, 2023, and have been engaged in unsuccessful contract negotiations since. Saenger said NYC Alamo United classifies the layoffs as illegal, arguing that they violate the “status quo” mandate, which requires employers to maintain existing terms and conditions of employment for unionized workers during negotiations.

According to Barouche, the company has changed legal representatives multiple times and has not negotiated in good faith.

“We’re not happy or satisfied with how they discuss or even don’t discuss contract proposals or topics at the table with us,” he said. “We get it — bargaining is a give and take — but we have not seen healthy, productive discussion coming out of the talks, and we’ve been bargaining for over a year now.”

Despite Alamo Drafthouse’s lack of communication since the strike began, Barouche remains optimistic that their efforts are making an impact by discouraging customers from patronizing the theaters and canceling their season passes.

“There’s a sweet spot, but I don’t think Alamo is interested in finding that sweet spot. I think they’re interested in finding what makes them the most money,” he said.

The recent layoffs are part of a broader trend within the company. Earlier this year, Alamo Drafthouse reduced 25% of its hourly staff at non-unionized locations without prior notice. The company also laid off 15 corporate employees at the start of the year.

Representatives for Alamo Drafthouse did not respond to Brooklyn Paper’s repeated requests for comment at the time of publication.

The celebration of Black History Month resonates perhaps even more deeply this year than in the past as we reflect on the generations

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