Month: July 2026

On July 9, 1776, shortly after troops listened to the reading of the newly adopted Declaration of Independence at the Barracks in lower Manhattan, Oliver Brown, a 23-year-old captain-lieutenant from Massachusetts, mobilized a group of 40 sailors and soldiers to tear down a symbol of British rule and tyranny: the statue of King George III, erected at Bowling Green in 1770.

The group cut up the 4,000-pound lead equestrian monument, which was gilded in gold, severed the king’s head and paraded it through the streets on a pike. The lead was later melted down and made into more than 42,000 musket balls, which reportedly were used during the Battle of Brooklyn on Aug. 27, 1776.

On July 12, Brooklynites re-enacted the historic event at the Old Stone House in Park Slope by tearing down an exact papier-mâché replica of the statue, covered in gold origami paper, after a reading of the Declaration of Independence. To the delight of young visitors, the head was filled with candy.

Before the symbolic act of rebellion, visitors were invited to write the tyrannies they wanted to see abolished on the statue. Messages included ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), book banning, facial recognition, billionaires, attacks on Planned Parenthood and Super PACs.

Dylan Yeats, the Old Stone House’s scholar-in-residence and director of Lefferts Historic House, told Brooklyn Paper that the annual event, titled “Tear Down the King” and now in its fifth year, was inspired by the removal of Confederate statues during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue outside the American Museum of Natural History.

“It’s very much a part of how American democracy is supposed to go; it’s you take down the monuments to the tyrannies that are no longer operative,” Yeats said. “Sometimes it can feel like we have no agency or ability to fight back. And I think naming something that you don’t like and then destroying it can be very healing and can give us the strength to keep going.”

He noted that the act of defiance 250 years ago inspired the French Revolution in 1789.

“The idea of people tearing down a statue of someone that they were supposed to worship like a god became really a big viral news story that helped a lot of independence movements; it gave them the strength to keep going,” Yeats explained.

Tonya Hopkins, a culinary historian and the resident food and public history adviser at the Old Stone House, was among four people who read the Declaration of Independence. She told Brooklyn Paper that when the Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, they did so for white, wealthy men, intentionally excluding enslaved people, Indigenous people and women.

“The thing that touched me in that moment, as I was reading those words that literally were not intended for me as a woman, as a black woman, as a black person first, and as a woman. [I] literally wanted to ad lib and add a “W O” before each time I said men, because that’s what they meant, and they didn’t even mean all men. They meant men like them, white property-owning men, and that’s heartbreaking,” Hopkins said.

She noted that James Hemings, who was enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, was the first classically trained chef in America.

When Jefferson served as minister to France in Paris, Hemings accompanied him. During that time, Hemings trained as a French chef while simultaneously learning French.

Hopkins, who educates audiences about the forgotten and overlooked history and contributions of Black culinary professionals and food innovators, said Hemings introduced dishes such as macaroni and cheese, French fries, crème brûlée, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream to America after returning from France.

Hemings spent five years in Paris, where he also witnessed the storming of the Bastille, Hopkins noted.

“On July 14th, 1789, he’s shopping at the market, and the Bastille is being stormed. So here’s an enslaved person who witnessed both of the two most important revolutions in the Western Hemisphere. He’s a central character, but he himself doesn’t have his own freedom,” Hopkins said.

Kim Maier, executive director of the Old Stone House, said the event was more relevant than ever given the country’s current divisive political climate.

“Our history today is not that far from our founding history. Many of the grievances are the same, and many of the issues that people have with the current national leadership ring true,” Maier said.

Lori Cochran attended the event with her 7-year-old twins, Emma and Patrick. Cochran reflected on the symbolism of the event, which celebrated America’s 250th anniversary, as well as the current political climate.

“It would be something we would do anyway for the 250th to remember that time,” Cochran said. “For me personally, it is sort of unfortunate where we are as a country with this celebration because it does seem like many of the exact offenses that we alleged at that time seem to be recurring. So, that’s been a bit disappointing; not only are we not living up to our promise, we definitely seem to be going contrary to it.”

Emma wrote on the statue that she wanted independence from artificial intelligence, or AI, and from landfills because plastic particles end up in the ocean, affecting fish and the humans who consume them.

She and her brother were looking forward to tearing down the statue, partly because they thought it might be filled with candy and partly because they didn’t like kings.

“One of the adults said it’s maybe full of candy, and then I asked one of the adults that work here, and they said maybe, and I know adults are like trying to hide the secret. So I think there is,” Emma proclaimed.

The City Council has passed our annual budget – a milestone that occurs every year before the first of July. 

We started this process back in January, and after ensuring that we won’t raise property taxes nor will we raid the Rainy-Day fund, it all came to a head last week. 

After six months of negotiations, I’m extremely proud to share that the Council and the Mayor have agreed on a budget that supports our most vulnerable New Yorkers, strengthens the services they rely on and safeguards their financial future.

While maintaining our duty to deliver a balanced budget, we also secured the most ever capital and expense funding for the city, 

With that funding, we are creating a safer, more affordable, and more livable city, and helping our residents stay and thrive in the place that they love.  

Among the many transformative investments, there are three that we in the Council are particularly excited to highlight. 

First, to tackle the affordability crisis that is pushing people out of the five boroughs, we are expanding housing vouchers to help thousands of low-income New Yorkers stay in their homes and out of shelters. This stemmed from the settlement of a lawsuit between the Council and the Mayor regarding a rental assistance program called CityFHEPS. The settlement includes a new bill the Council passed that sets guardrails to contain costs in the long run, and, importantly, enables more families to stay in stable residences. 

But we know New Yorkers need more than a secure home – they need to be able to travel to and from them, a way of getting to school, the workplace, and the doctor. Yet the cost of doing so can often be a burden, and that’s why we’re expanding the Fair Fares program to offer half-priced transit rides to more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — marking the largest expansion of the program in its history. Our city has the best public transportation system in the nation, and all residents deserve access to the opportunities that it affords us. 

While these two programs will bring relief to New Yorkers as soon as this year, we have our eye on the long-term future as well. 

We secured funding for a program called NYC Kids RISE, which will provide a college savings account with $1,000 for every public-school kindergartener. As the nation’s largest universal college savings program, we’re investing both in our children and our city, and effectively combating income inequality.

The rest of the budget is also full of wins for New Yorkers. All eight and a half million of us will benefit from fully restored funding to parks – which we baselined at $14.4 million – and the additional investments into our acclaimed cultural institutions. More of our youngest New Yorkers will take swim safety lessons, and the oldest will receive meals at home. And we’ll all enjoy cleaner neighborhoods, having almost doubled the number of staff who clean vacant lots.

These, too, are just a few examples of many, and we’ll be making more announcements later this summer about all that’s included. 

But even with these life-changing investments for millions of New Yorkers, we made sure to be fiscally prudent, setting aside $350 million for the city’s reserves.

We were only able to achieve such a budget because of the hard work of countless people. My staff worked day and night to shape and then negotiate each provision, and I am extremely grateful for their tireless efforts.

Lastly, we couldn’t have done it without the collaboration of the Mayoral Administration. We came together in the shared interest of wanting the best for our city, for our people, for New Yorkers who deserve affordability, stability, and opportunity. And this is a budget that works to achieve all three.