BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

Traffic Cameras Source: Theron Trowbridge via Flickr

The war over the installation of speed enforcement cameras kicked into a higher gear as influential State Senate lawmakers reintroduced the legislation in direct opposition to Republicans who stripped it from the state budget, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

The contentious battle to place speed enforcement cameras across the city began in response to the growing number of hit-and-run tragedies that have plagued the city in recent months. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYPD Chief Ray Kelly and other key local New York politicians were all in favor of the program but senators including Marty Golden, Dean Skelos and Simcha Felder removed the cameras from the state budget, fearing that the cameras would cost policemen jobs.

In response to the actions of Golden, Skelos and Felder, Bloomberg held a press conference where he lashed out at the senators personally and demanded that constituents personally hold them responsible the next time someone dies in a speeding accident.

Bloomberg’s anger was not considered a stunt, according to a report in the New York Post.

“I’ve never seen the mayor this angry,” one insider told the Post. “He’s furious.”

Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson expanded on Bloomberg’s anger, describing all arguments against the cameras as laughable.

“This is a Republican conference that voted to raise taxes, to legalize marriage equality and to ban assault weapons, but they draw the line on speed cameras?” Wolfson asked. “It’s a joke.”

Source: The Library of Congress

Here’s hoping that all you intrepid commuters who observed Easter yesterday have some chocolate bunnies and marshmallow Peeps™ to sooth your subway-related headaches. And for those of you — I mean us — still munching on matzoh and coconut macaroons, well… our lower GI tract still has the rest of the year in which to recover, so there’s that.

D TRAIN

Nights

From 11:45 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., Monday to Friday, April 1-5, there will be no Coney Island-bound D trains at 7th Avenue, 47-50 Streets, 42nd Street-Bryant Park, and 34th Street-Herald Square.

Downtown D trains are being rerouted via the C line from 59th Street to West 4th Street. D train service operates in two sections:

• Between 205th Street and the 2nd Avenue (F station) — the last stop
• Between West 4th Street and Stillwell Avenue

To continue your trip, transfer at Broadway-Lafayette Street.

F TRAIN

F trains will be skipping the Smith-9th Street station in both directions. Use bus service to and from 4th Avenue-9th Street or Carroll Street instead.

Nights

From 9:45 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., Tuesday to Wednesday, April 2-3, Coney Island-bound F trains will be skipping Sutphin Boulevard, Van Wyck Boulevard, and 75th Avenue.

N TRAIN

Nights

From 11:45 p.m. to 5:00 a.m., Monday to Friday, April 1-5, Coney Island-bound N trains will be running express from 57th Street-7th Avenue to Canal Street.

Days

From 10:15 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Tuesday to Friday, April 2-5, Coney Island-bound N trains will be skipping 30th Avenue, Broadway, 36th Avenue, and 39th Avenue.

These service changes affect one or more ADA-accessible stations. Please call 511 for help with planning your trip. If you are deaf or hard of hearing, use your preferred relay service provider or the free 711 relay. For more information, visit mta.info.

Source: wallyg via Flickr

A man allegedly plunged to his death off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge early Friday morning in what the police suspect is a suicide, according to a report by SI Live.

Around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, witnesses claimed to have seen somebody jump off the bridge’s lower level but the NYPD still hasn’t recovered the body. On the bridge, the police found an abandoned Cadillac Escalade with an I.D. belonging to 58-year-old Angelo Biondo, an owner of a Park Slope dog training business.

Biondo’s landlord had nothing but kind words for the missing man.

Biondo’s landlord, who didn’t give her name, said he had moved into the apartment about three years ago. He lived there with his 2-year-old bulldog, Marble, she said.

“He loves her so much, so much,” she said of the dog, noting that he recently told a childhood friend, ‘If anything happened to me, you have to take care of her.’”

“I think he was planning this.”

The landlord said Biondo, who was divorced, ran a dog training business.

“He was so kind. He was normal,” she said.

Since 2011, the Verrazano has been the site of five suicides and five suicide attempts.

On September 11, 2001, a gang of terrorists hijacked four airplanes in the United States armed with box cutters. On April 25, 2013, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will allow small knives to be carried on planes again, in an apparent victory for stupidity. Congressman Michael Grimm, allied with Senator Charles Shumer, are fighting for legislation to prevent the TSA on their decision to allow for small knives to be carried on planes, according to a report by SI Live.

Grimm, who rightfully called the planned TSA reversal on knife policy “borderline idiotic,” has put forward the “No Knives Act” with fellow Congressman Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

The TSA decision would allow for small pocket knives with blades no longer than 2.36 inches and no more than half an inch wide to be carried on planes, so long as the knife doesn’t have a  fixed blade or a molded grip.

In the Senate, Chuck Shumer joined Grimm’s crusade to make sure the new TSA policy doesn’t go into effect.

“Congressman Grimm and I will be working diligently together to reverse this befuddling decision to allow knives on planes. Since September 11, all kinds of knives have been prohibited in carry-on luggage for good reason, and these dangerous weapons still pose a significant hazard to flight crew, pilots and passengers,” said Schumer.

For passengers who can’t bare the thought of traveling without a knife, Grimm noted that it is still legal to travel with one in checked luggage.

Source: thirdrail/Flickr

Everything seems all right in Brooklyn this weekend, at least for the subway lines that serve our area. But once those lines cross into Manhattan, it’s a whole different ballgame. Here are this weekend’s subway service advisories:

D Line

11:45 PM Fri to 5 AM Mon, Mar 29 – Apr 1
No downtown D trains at 7 Av, 47-50 Sts, 42 St-Bryant Pk, and 34 St-Herald Sq.

N Line

11:45 PM Fri to 5 AM Mon, Mar 29 – Apr 1
Downtown N trains run express from 34 St-Herald Sq to Canal St.

R Line 

6:30 AM to 12 midnight, Sat and Sun, Mar 30 – 31
Downtown R trains run express from 34 St-Herald Sq to Canal St.

6:30 AM to 12 midnight, Sat and Sun, Mar 30 – 31
71 Av-bound R trains run express from Queens Plaza to Roosevelt Av.

F Line

Station re-opens week of April 22, 2013
F trains skip Smith-9 Sts in both directions.
Use bus service to/from 4 Av-9 St or Carroll St instead.

Click to enlarge

CompStat reports are produced by the New York Police Department on a weekly basis. We publish the week’s statistics for the 62nd Precinct reports every Friday. The 62nd Precinct is the police command responsible for Bensonhurst and Bath Beach.

Mama mia, what a pizza!

We were looking for someplace new to grab a slice last week, so we turned to our Facebook and Twitter readers to find out what they thought the best pizzerias in the area are. We asked that they put aside L&B Spumoni Gardens, figuring the tried-and-true neighborhood staple was too easy a fall back. What we got back was scores of comments naming 18 pie-tossing locales as among the area’s best.

See the list.

The Supreme Court (Source: majunznk via flickr)

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who supports gay rights and marriage equality, attended the Supreme Court hearings on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and was optimistic with what he heard, according to a report by Capital New York.

Nadler, a long-time opponent of DOMA, had co-sponsored a bill that sought to repeal it on grounds of it being unconstitutional. Nadler also happens to be the congressional representative for Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the landmark case who is fighting the federal government for not recognizing her marriage to her late wife Thea Spyer.

According to Nadler, five justices expressed skepticism regarding federal government’s ability to deny benefits to married couples like Windsor and Spyer.

“At least five, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a sixth on federalism,” he said, referring to Chief Justice John Roberts.

Nadler said he didn’t expect the justices to dodge this case, despite the hour-long argument on the court’s jurisdiction, and said he was encouraged by the justices’ questions, particularly from Anthony Kennedy, the likely swing vote.

“The key argument was the Equal Protection argument,” Nadler said. “And there was no answer. They couldn’t answer it.”

Ever optimistic, Nadler predicts that the court would also strike down DOMA as being unconstitutional.

Only time will tell if Nadler is correct in Supreme Court prognosticating.

Pacifer Tree, Source: Retrofresh! via flickr

One of my earliest childhood memories is observing which kids in preschool still had pacifiers and which didn’t. I don’t remember if I ever brought my pacifier to school, but I do remember seeing other kids make fun of the kids who did. I made sure not to ever do it. That was one of my earliest memories of learning about shame and conformity. It was kind of cruel, but that’s what growing up is all about.

I have no idea what to make of the pacifier tree located at the Plymouth apartment complex (48th Street off 14th Avenue). On the one hand, it looks kinda cute to see all those innocent pacifiers hang off the tree like budding flowers. On the flip side, it might be kind of sad for children to walk by their favorite and most comforting accessory, well out of arm’s reach, day after day.

According to a report in the New York Times, the pacifier tree is a rite of passage for Borough Park youngsters. Rachel Rhine, who has a view of the tree from her apartment window, described the ritual first hand.

“I see mothers picking up their little kid and the kid actually puts it on and they say: ‘O.K., say goodbye, no more. You’re a big girl now,’” Ms. Rhine said. “It’s kind of a celebration to say, ‘That’s where it goes and that’s where it stays and that’s the end of it.’”

In countries like Denmark and Sweden, hanging pacifiers in trees has been a long standing practice. According to the Times, they hang thousands of pacifiers off single trees, nearly causing the branches to break.

Apparently, the tradition started in Borough Park when a former superintendent of the Plymouth just started hanging up all the pacifiers that kids would throw out of their carriages. Unless he was a Dane or a Swede, I guess he started hanging them up for parents to collect or maybe he was just being weird. Either way, the pacifier tree is here to stay and will now likely become another annoying Brooklyn trend once someone in Park Slope sees it and says, “Like, yah, cool art, man.”

Source: asterix611 via flickr

Mayor Michael Bloomberg directed serious heat towards State Senator Marty Golden and two other senators this week over their opposition to the installation of speed enforcement cameras, according to a report in the New York Times.

The issue of reckless driving and speeding has become an exploding issue across the city as a rash of hit-and-run tragedies have made front-page on an ever increasing basis. According to the Times, 274 people died in traffic fatalities across the city last year, the highest since 2008. To combat the rising tide of blood spilled on the roads, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and politicians like Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver have sent letters to Governor Andrew Cuomo pleading for room in the state budget to install speed enforcement cameras. According to the New York Daily News, the inclusion of speed enforcement cameras were recently stripped from the state budget by opponents of the measure.

In assigning blame for the exclusion of the cameras in the state’s budget, Bloomberg pointed his finger at Senators Golden, Simcha Felder and GOP Senate leader Dean Skelos, urging their constituents to call these politicians the next time a tragedy occurs.

“Maybe you want to give those phone numbers to the parents of the child when a child is killed,” the Times reported Bloomberg saying. “It would be useful so that the parents can know exactly who’s to blame.”

Golden, a former police officer with strong ties to the police officers’ union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, believes that hiring more police officers is the answer to combat dangerous speeding. He also called the cameras “unreliable,” and suggested that a comprehensive study be done on the cameras before going full steam ahead with a plan to install them.

Bloomberg insisted that in light of all the traffic deaths, waiting was no longer an option.

“We literally are having kids that are getting killed around our schools because people are speeding,” he said. “And they don’t want to let us use cameras to stop people from doing that.”