The Ocean Avenue News - oceanavenuenews.comBrooklyn man admits to smuggling $1.4M in protected turtles to Hong Kong, hiding them in boxes labeled as plastic animal toys.
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The 12:30 Club, one of the oldest civic organizations in Bay Ridge, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a gala held at Dyker Beach.
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An abandoned, 60-year-old, five-acre pier at the MADE Bush Terminal on Brooklyn’s waterfront in Sunset Park is coming to life again as a vibrant public green space.
Pier 6, once a bustling industrial hub, will be transformed into a recreational waterfront oasis for community residents and tenants of the MADE Bush Terminal Campus — MADE is an acronym for Manufacturers, Artisans, Designers and Entrepreneurs — offering striking views of downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty.
The $25 million project, slated for completion in 2027, includes stabilizing the aging pier to provide safe waterfront access and enhancing and protecting the diverse ecosystem of plants and wildlife, including naturally seeded vegetation. The redesigned pier will honor its industrial history by incorporating repurposed artifacts such as bollards.
At the Pier 6 groundbreaking on Aug. 12, Andrew Kimball, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), which manages MADE Bush Terminal, said community organizations such as Community Board 7, the Sunset Park Task Force and UPROSE had long advocated for waterfront access and more green space.
“[Pier 6] is part of a broader plan that EDC has to both redevelop buildings nearby for manufacturers and makers of a wide array, but also create better access to the waterfront and community programming,” Kimball said.
The groundbreaking coincided with the release of NYCEDC’s first Sunset Park Update Report, highlighting milestones for the waterfront neighborhood over the past year. The report outlines the district’s growth and underlines NYCEDC’s commitment to a working waterfront by creating and maintaining jobs, promoting innovative industries and connecting the surrounding community to these campuses.
Among the milestones: the historic groundbreaking in June 2024 of one of the nation’s largest offshore wind port facilities. Once completed, the 73-acre site will power 500,000 homes with green energy and create more than 1,000 jobs. Recently, NYCEDC opened Building A — one of the four main buildings at MADE Bush Terminal — with 140,000 square feet of leasable space for innovative manufacturing and 30,000 square feet of public gathering and event space.
“There’s over $2.3 billion of public and private investment happening in the 200 acres of the Sunset Park District. That is real impact, and that is impressive,” Kimball said.
Council Member Alexa Avilés and Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes, whose districts include Sunset Park, welcomed the opportunity for more community green space while stressing the importance of community integration and economic opportunities.
“I’m really delighted to be here for this opportunity for the groundbreaking for Pier 6,” Avilés said. “We’ll continue to push for supporting our green spaces sufficiently, we will continue to push to make sure that our economic opportunities actually benefit the very local community that sits just two blocks away, in addition to the climate resiliency elements that we want to be sure as part of every project that moves forward here.”
Mitaynes noted that the Pier 6 project represented years of advocacy and collaboration from residents, community organizations and city partners to create a public space for neighborhood residents.
“[Pier 6] is a reminder that every project that impacts our neighborhood must be shaped by the voices of the community and guided by transparency every step of the way,” she said. “That means honest updates, open conversations, and a real seat at the table for Sunset Park residents, and not just today, but throughout the future and beyond. Pier Six has the potential to reflect who we are, a neighborhood that values our environment, our history and each other.”
Kathy Park Price, director of advocacy and policy for New Yorkers for Parks, emphasized the importance of creating a public green space in Sunset Park, which she said lacks adequate quality green space and has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma.
“[Pier 6] is an investment in public health, in climate resilience, in our workforce and in the social fabric of Sunset Park,” Park Price said. “We know that open spaces like this don’t just improve quality of life. They create opportunities for kids to play, for neighbors to meet, for families to enjoy the waterfront and communities to grow stronger.”
Last month, former Gov. David Paterson urged all of the mayoral candidates besides Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani to coalesce behind one contender, in order to have the strongest chance of besting the democratic socialist frontrunner.
But on Wednesday, Paterson said that idea is now “moot” as he endorsed the second-lowest polling candidate in the race: incumbent Mayor Eric Adams.
Paterson — who supported former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary — cited his decades-long relationship with Adams and lauded the mayor’s management of the city over the past 3 1/2 years in making his endorsement.
“This afternoon, I’m here to stand for someone who has already run this city as mayor for nearly four years, and has made huge changes over the past administration, going back probably to the Bloomberg administration,” Paterson said of Adams during an Aug. 13 City Hall news conference. “He is an individual who is dynamic, articulate, receptive, courageous and outspoken, and he’s used all of those skills to bring the city to where it stands right now.”
Adams — a Democrat running as an independent after skipping the party’s primary — sung Paterson’s praises in return. He said an “endorsement of this magnitude is what I look for.”
“[Paterson is] a person who has known me. He knows my heart. He knows my commitment. He has worked with me,” Adams said. “He has been the architect of many of the changes that we have witnessed in government. He’s laid the foundation of smart, pragmatic approaches to dealing with the problems that working people face all the time.”
Paterson lent Adams his support despite the mayor’s fourth-place standing in the most recent polls — often coming behind Mamdani, a Queens Assembly member; Cuomo; and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. He does place above independent attorney Jim Walden, who has barely registered with voters.
Paterson argued that Adams finds himself polling in a comparable place now to Mamdani at a similar point in the Democratic primary that he ultimately won. He said he believes Adams’ standing in the polls will improve after Labor Day, when more voters will begin tuning into the general election.
“Eric is kicking it into high gear. He is taking no prisoners. He’s moving forward,” Paterson said. “He is going to try to get to every borough and every inlet in this city to bring his message and to explain a lot that’s going on during this particular time.”
After Mamdani won the June Democratic primary, Paterson and other centrist political and business leaders last month suggested that all of his rivals come together behind the one with the best chance of defeating the Democratic nominee.
The former governor said Mamdani is unpalatable because he has not provided adequate details on how he would fund his affordability-focused agenda if Albany does not agree to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
While Cuomo, who has been polling second, suggested that whoever is not in second place to Mamdani by September drop out and support that person, neither Adams nor Sliwa agreed to get on board.
On Wednesday, Paterson said he has now abandoned pushing that strategy due to Adams’ and Sliwa’s apparent resistance to it.
“It was an idea to generate conversation,” Paterson said. “None of the candidates seemed particularly interested. So I consider the issue to be moot.”
Paterson said he is backing Adams over Cuomo, who currently has the best chance of overcoming Mamdani, because he believes the former governor did not rise to the challenge of defeating the Assembly member during the primary. He was referring to Mamdani’s upset, nearly 13-point victory over Cuomo.
“He was defeated in the primary by an upset that has ramifications that I think people are still trying to understand,” Paterson said. “And I don’t think that when that challenge was coming in the last weeks that he was addressing it and was as present as I thought he should have been during the campaign.”
However, Paterson made clear that he believes Cuomo should stay in the race.
Most of the institutional Democrats who supported Cuomo during the primary have either jumped ship or stayed quiet during the general.
Several have joined Mamdani, others have backed Adams, and many have yet to decide who to support.
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan) returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park on Aug. 13, a week after he and Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Adriano Espaillat were improperly turned away during an unannounced visit to the notorious prison and hours after the federal Borough of Prisons denied his official request to tour the facility.
The Department of Homeland Security is using a wing at MDC to house more than 100 immigrants who were detained by Immigration and Enforcement. A new agreement allows ICE to place detainees at eight BOP facilities, including MDC.
During the Aug. 6 visit, the congressional delegation intended to review the conditions detainees are facing at MDC, which has long been plagued by serious issues, including staff shortages, stabbings, and killings. But federal officers refused to allow them inside and briefly closed a gate behind them, locking them in. Later that day, BOP staff offered to accommodate a visit if the reps submitted a formal request.
On Aug. 8, Goldman sent an official request to the BOP, asking for a tour on Aug. 13 at 9:15 a.m., citing his statutory right as a member of Congress to conduct oversight of any facility used by DHS to “detain or otherwise house” immigrants without notice. However, in a late-night email on Aug. 12, Goldman’s request was denied without further explanation. Goldman’s office sent a response, demanding a clarification as to why the BOP would not accommodate Goldman’s advance request, but didn’t receive a reply.
“So I’m here now to try to understand better why the Bureau of Prisons is now playing along with the Department of Homeland Security’s unlawful, illegal, and unconstitutional efforts to prevent me from doing my congressional oversight,” Goldman told the press outside the facility. “It’s more urgent now, given that the Department of Homeland Security has been proven to have lied repeatedly about the detention facility at 26 Federal Plaza.”
After a brief conversation with an MDC security guard requesting to speak to a prison official, Goldman was told that an authorized MDC employee would talk to him at 10 a.m. after he had completed a training session. At 10:20 a.m., Goldman followed up, inquiring about the official’s whereabouts, and was told that the staffer was still in a training session until 10:30 a.m., and that he was in a different building.
Goldman, who has joined eleven members of Congress in a lawsuit demanding that the Trump Administration allow them access to immigration detention facilities, after they were repeatedly turned away, noted that he was “clearly” given the runaround.
“[BOP] has gone back on their word to accommodate my request,” Goldman noted. “The Bureau of Prisons is now complicit in the Department of Homeland Security’s unlawful, illegal denial of my right as a member of Congress, both by law and by the Constitution, to conduct oversight.”
Gaining access is even more critical now, Goldman said, after federal judge ruled on Aug. 12 that the conditions at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, where up to 90 immigrants were detained for more than two weeks at a time, were unacceptable and unconstitutional.
“The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly denied those facts, but when in court, under an obligation to tell the truth, the Trump administration’s lawyers admitted to those allegations,” Goldman said.
While Goldman was frustrated by illegally being denied access to immigration detention facilities like MDC and 26 Federal Plaza, he said he was more concerned about the well-being of the detainees.
While Goldman acknowledged that the immigration system needed to be reformed, he noted, “Most of these detainees are trying to come here lawfully to seek a better life. Eviscerating due process rights, eviscerating civil rights, moving forward in an illegal and unconstitutional way is not the way to do it, and the American people need to know that this administration is being held accountable.”
The Borough of Prisons did not immediately return request for comment.
