Day: April 22, 2025

THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT MUST BE RESTORED to a full staff sufficient to maintain the city’s green spaces, says Councilmember Chi Ossé.

The post Advocates push for restoration of City Parks funding and staff levels appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

They’re pouring over the evidence. An unsettling mystery is soaking up attention in trendy Williamsburg after several pedestrians were doused with unknown fluids and pelted with eggs as they walked by a notorious building. The splash-hole who is tossing liquids and other objects from the second-story of Edge Community Apartment on Kent Avenue has managed…

Three additional federal prosecutors who worked on Mayor Eric Adams’ now-dismissed corruption case chose to resign on Tuesday rather than express regret for refusing to comply with a Trump Justice Department (DOJ) objective to dismiss the charges, according to an email they sent a top DOJ official.

The three prosecutors — Celia Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, and Derek Wikstrom — said they are leaving the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York rather than follow Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s “precondition” for keeping their posts. They said Blanche had demanded that they “admit wrongdoing” in refusing a February order from another top DOJ official — Emil Bove — to drop Adams’ charges in order to be taken off of administrative leave and return to work.

“It is now clear that one of the preconditions that you placed on our returning to the office is that we must express regret and admit wrongdoing by the office in connection with the refusal to move to dismiss the case,” they said in the missive. “We will not confess wrongdoing when there was none.”

The prosecutors also charged that while both Democratic and Republican administrations they worked for understood their top priority was upholding the law, that is not the case with Trump’s second DOJ.

“The department has decided that obedience supercedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington,” they said. “This is wrong.”

The latest wave of resignations came on the same day that Trump’s newly appointed Manhattan US Attorney, Jay Clayton, took office in an interim capacity until he is confirmed by the US Senate.

With the departure of the three prosecutors, a total of 11 in both New York and Washington have now decided to step down over Bove’s order to scuttle Adams’ case.

Among those who resigned in protest were former interim SDNY US Attorney Danielle Sassoon, a Trump appointee, and former lead prosecutor on Adams’ case, Hagan Scotten.

Despite the string of departures, Trump’s DOJ succeeded in getting federal district Judge Dale Ho to rule in favor of dropping Adams’ case earlier this month. However, Ho found that there was “zero evidence” that federal prosecutors acted improperly in bringing the case against Adams, even though Trump’s DOJ used alleged prosecutorial misconduct as one of its reasons for tossing the charges.

Shortly after resigning, Sassoon sent a bombshell letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi alleging that Bove and Adams’ defense attorney, Alex Spiro, entered into a quid pro quo. She contended that Spiro exchanged Adams’ cooperation with implementing Trump’s immigration crackdown in the five boroughs for dismissing his case. 

Adams, Spiro, and top DOJ officials denied that there was any such deal.

Nevertheless, Ho appeared to agree with Sassoon in his decision, writing: “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”

Пресс-секретарь Белого дома Кэролайн Ливитт на встрече с журналистами ответила на вопросы о приоритетах администрации Трампа 22 апреля 2025 года пресс-секретарь Белого дома Каролин Ливитт […]

Religious and civic leaders serving Brooklyn have sent statements expressing their grief over the death of Pope Francis.

The post Religious and civic leaders reflect on Pope Francis’ legacy appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.

Council Member Chi Ossé, New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) and local park advocates rallied Monday at Herbert Von King Park in Bedford-Stuyvesant, calling on Mayor Eric Adams to restore funding for the city’s Parks Department and 800 parks-related jobs.

Park advocates say underfunding and understaffing have led to unsafe parks and playgrounds, dirtier bathrooms, un-mowed lawns, and untrimmed trees — significantly affecting quality of life for New Yorkers.

Adam Ganser, executive director of NY4P, told Brooklyn Paper that 800 essential park jobs have been lost over the past three years due to pay cuts and hiring freezes. Those losses, he said, have led to a “visible deterioration” of New Yorkers’ most cherished outdoor gathering spaces.

According to Parks Department Vital Parks data — which evaluates parks based on cleanliness, safety, resiliency, structural elements like play equipment, landscape features such as lawns and trees, and the condition of amenities — 62% of city parks score a 95. In Brooklyn, however, only 25% of parks reach that benchmark.

“These are really quality of life issues,” Ganser said. “And when you have your park spaces not feeling safe and not feeling clean and comfortable, people don’t want to be there, and that’s a real problem in New York, where everybody is really relying on these spaces.”

The Parks Department manages 1,700 city parks, more than 1,000 playgrounds, 161 miles of waterfront and beaches, 50 recreation centers, 65 pools and over 2 million trees. Yet the department has been chronically underfunded, with its budget hovering around 0.6% of the city’s total for the past 40 years.

Ganser said it’s unfortunate that the mayor has not fulfilled his 2021 campaign promise to allocate 1% of the city budget to NYC parks.

“You know we were coming out of COVID. It was clear and still is so clear, how important parks are in a dense urban environment like New York City. So coming in and committing to that 1% was a watershed moment for parks,” Ganser said. “This will potentially be the last budget that this mayor is negotiating, and it’s a real opportunity [for him] to step up and move towards fulfilling that commitment to our city’s parks.”

Council Member Ossé called New York City parks the “lifeblood” of the city.

“The fact that this mayor, consistently over the past four years, has denigrated and defunded our parks is dead wrong,” Ossé said. “We have the political power to make sure that we can make our parks well-funded like they should be. I’m here to advocate for 1% for parks.”

Morgan Monaco, president of the Prospect Park Alliance, said investing in New York City parks is crucial in the face of climate change.

“Climate change is happening right now in our city, and our parks are one of our biggest defenders against the impacts of climate change,” Monaco said.

Amy Andrieux, executive director of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, emphasized the importance of New York City parks in building community and serving as a sanctuary for residents.

“But parks don’t take care of themselves,” said Andrieux, vowing to stand with park employees. “We will stand with you and fight for you until every sense of funding is restored to our parks because we need our parks, and we need you. Because what is New York City without parks? It’s not very New York City at all.”

In a statement, the Adams administration said it continues to invest in city parks, working to make them safer and cleaner for all New Yorkers.

“At the start of this year alone, we invested more than $18 million to expand cleaning to 100 more areas that need it most at 64 parks, staff a new recreation center in East Flatbush, and expand the fight against rats,” a spokesperson for the mayor told Brooklyn Paper. “We remain dedicated to making meaningful investments to make sure our parks remain our city’s greatest backyards.”

Мэр Эрик Адамс отмечает День Земли, объявив о завершении проекта по инфраструктуре предотвращения наводнений стоимостью 42,3 млн долларов в Ист-Флэтбуше и Канарси, Бруклин. Проект включает […]