Day: July 17, 2026
The legacy of Canarsie’s own Bashar “Pop Smoke” Jackson will once again take center stage in the borough next week as thousands are expected to gather for two events honoring the late rapper while raising money for youth programs across Brooklyn.
Hosted by the Shoot for the Stars Foundation, the annual Pop Smoke Day will return to Canarsie Park on July 20, with a free community festival featuring a parade, youth basketball championship, live entertainment and dozens of local organizations offering resources for Brooklyn families.
The celebration continues July 21, with the Pop Smoke Fashion Gala: DISRUPTION at the Brooklyn Museum, an evening showcasing fashion, music and culture while raising funds for the foundation’s year-round community initiatives.
Now an annual tradition in the “Dior” singer’s home neighborhood, Pop Smoke Day aims to celebrate the artist’s life while connecting residents with educational, health and mentorship opportunities. The rapper died in 2020 during a home-invasion robbery at just 20 years old.
Festivities begin at 10 a.m. with a community parade stepping off from 80th Street and Flatlands Avenue before making its way to Canarsie Park, where the grounds will transform into a daylong festival.
The event will include the annual Pop Smoke Youth Basketball Championship, a community resource village, youth programming, family activities, games, food vendors, live entertainment, an open mic showcase for emerging artists, a community leader panel discussion, a Pop Smoke mural gathering, giveaways, exotic cars and appearances by special guests.
Organizers say the event is designed to connect neighborhood residents with organizations serving Brooklyn communities. Participating groups include Pop’s Place, The Flossy Org, Brookdale Hospital, South Brooklyn Health, Wyckoff Hospital Teen Program, Brooklyn Public Library and more.
Throughout the day, attendees will be able to access information on healthcare, education, youth development and family services available in the borough.
“Shar always represented Brooklyn with pride,” said Audrey “MahSmoke” Jackson, president of the Shoot for the Stars Foundation and the late rapper’s mother. “Our responsibility is to ensure his legacy continues creating opportunities for young people and bringing the community together. Pop Smoke Day is about family, service, culture and reminding our youth that greatness begins right here at home.”
The following evening will be the Pop Smoke Fashion Gala: DISRUPTION at the Brooklyn Museum. Presented by Black Smoke, the fashion brand founded by Audrey Jackson, the gala will debut the Black Smoke: DISRUPTION collection, inspired by Pop Smoke’s blend of luxury fashion and elevated streetwear.
The event will also feature hip-hop fashion pioneer Karl Kani, whose influence helped shape streetwear culture and whose appearance organizers describe as a tribute to Pop Smoke’s own impact on fashion. Additional designers scheduled to present collections include Maria Mootoo, Noni Styles, Scohe, Gangwani Collection and EMVĒ by Mackenzie Brown and Venicia Lamy.
“Black Smoke has always been about more than clothing,” Jackson said. “It’s about continuing Shar’s vision by creating opportunities for emerging creatives, celebrating our culture, and inspiring the next generation to dream bigger than they ever imagined.”
The black-tie gala will also feature SiriusXM’s Swaggy Sie as host, a live performance by Suckarie of reggae band Tribal Seeds, music by DJ AK and a performance from singer-songwriter Carlton Terrence Taylor. Guests can also expect a premium open bar, catered culinary experience and exclusive brand reveals throughout the evening.
Proceeds from both Pop Smoke Day and the Fashion Gala will benefit the Shoot for the Stars Foundation.
The Red Hook Pool will finally open on Saturday morning, three weeks after a mechanical issue forced it to close for the second consecutive summer.
“I’m so grateful to the Parks employees who worked tirelessly to make these repairs and get Red Hook Pool back open,” said Department of Parks and Recreation commish Tricia Shimamura. “We know how important this pool is to the Red Hook community, and we appreciate everyone’s support and patience as we worked to reopen the pool.”
On June 25, two days before the city’s public pools were set to open for the summer, workers discovered that the filtration plant at the Red Hook Pool was flooded, and its equipment damaged.
At the time, the parks department said the pool would reopen at the end of July, and that new four motors and electrical equipment had been ordered. But repairs appear to have wrapped up ahead of schedule.
The Olympic-sized pool will open at 11 a.m. on July 18.
And, Shimamura added, Adult Lap Swim will return on Monday at 7 a.m. The program has been lacking in the city since 2019, but returned this summer for five days a week at two pools in every borough.
Though the closure was shorter than expected, it left Red Hook residents without a nearby pool for the duration of two separate and brutal heat waves.
The Parks Department turned the facility’s spray shower on and directed residents to head to the Douglass & DeGraw or Sunset Park pools instead, though locals have noted that the alternatives are too far for most families to access on hot summer days.
Last year, the pool suffered a near-identical setback when a broken pipe was discovered shortly before opening day, but repairs dragged on for weeks. In the end, the pool finally reopened in mid-August, just three weeks before the end of the season.
Public pools are inspected once at the end of the season and twice every summer, according to the parks department. Like many of the city’s swimming holes, the Red Hook Pool turned 90 years old this summer, and is set to undergo a $122 million renovation.
Design for the project is underway, and construction is expected to begin in 2028 — though it has already been delayed several times, and was initially slated to begin in 2022.
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Over half a year after the MTA switched to its OMNY tap-and-pay system, 98% of transit riders in New York City have adopted it. But who, if anyone, still uses the agency’s prior payment method: the MetroCard?
The MTA ended sales of the MetroCard, which had been in use for three decades, as soon as the calendar flipped to 2026. The agency framed the move as bidding farewell to the iconic yellow-and-blue plastic card and as marking the system’s full transition to OMNY after years of introducing straphangers to tap-and-ride.
The MTA, however, continues to accept MetroCard payments in the subway and on its buses to this day.
Riders who are still using the fare cards are spending down leftover balances on those that have yet to reach their expiration dates, said Brian Fritsch, associate director of the rider advocacy group the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA.
“I think the people that have been using them still have surplus value, accumulated in various cards for one reason or another, or have a stack of single-use cards,” Fritsch said. “I think we’re talking about fairly odd use cases at this point.”
The MTA also still takes coin payments on buses, which agency spokesperson Michael Cortez said accounts for many non-OMNY trips at this point.
Cortez said the MTA’s Government and Community Relations team has fanned out to various places where seniors — the primary group still using coins to pay for bus trips — gather to show them the OMNY ropes and answer any questions they have about the system. Those include senior centers, houses of worship, and hospitals.
According to Cortez, it is unclear exactly when the MTA will stop accepting payments other than OMNY, though officials said last year that the agency would stop accepting coin payments on buses in 2026.
Not only does the MTA no longer sell MetroCards, but it also removed all of the vending machines where riders could purchase and refill them by the end of last year, according to Cortez. It has also been removing the slots on fare gates for swiping MetroCards.
Nonetheless, those outlier cases Fritsch mentioned still exist.
Sonia Rosario, a 73-year-old resident of the Bronx’s Marble Hill Houses, told amNewYork that she still carries a senior citizen discount MetroCard with money on it, which has yet to expire, in her pocket.
But Rosario — who is on oxygen due to having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) — said that because she qualified for the MTA’s paratransit program Access-a-Ride, she has not used the card recently. She said she has tried to get the remaining balance back from the MTA to no avail.
“What happens is I have money on it, and I can’t get it back?” Rosario said. “I just have the money on the card, and I can’t do anything about it. So I can’t even let my son use it because it’s a senior citizen card.”
Rosario said she would use the card if she could because she has struggled with OMNY and loves taking public transit, particularly the subway. Before getting Access-a-Ride, Rosario said she would take the Bx7 bus to 207th Street in Inwood to catch the 1 train, because her 225th Street station is high above street level and does not have an elevator.
“I love taking the train here, there, and everywhere,” she said. “If I can’t get somewhere, I’ll jump on.”
amNewYork also observed a rider named Genna swipe a classic yellow MetroCard at the 4 Av-9 St F, G, and R station in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn. She said she got her card through participating in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program this year.
The city Department of Youth and Community Development, which runs the program, did not respond to a request for comment on whether every participant gets a MetroCard or why it had yet to switch to OMNY.
Fritsch said that the last large block of riders he knew of who were still using MetroCards were JFK Airport employees receiving discounts on the AirTrain. He said the delay arose from a lag that prevented the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from making the employee bulk discount available through OMNY right away.
Port Authority spokesperson Seth Stein, in a statement to amNewYork, said that while OMNY readers were installed on the AirTrain in 2023, bulk trip discounts for airport workers were not available via tap-and-pay until last month.
“OMNY readers have been in use for AirTrain JFK since 2023, and bulk trip discount products were made available on OMNY on June 11th of this year,” Stein said. “To support airport employees between the discontinuation of the MetroCard in January and activation of the bulk trip discount products on OMNY, we ensured MetroCards remained available for airport employees. MetroCards will continue to be accepted on AirTrain JFK as the MTA completes the transition to tap and ride.”
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