BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

An HCS-organized senior health fair earlier this month. (Source: HCS)

We told you on Tuesday about the Bensonhurst annex of the Homecrest Community Services senior center, and that it is now the first publicly-funded senior center focused on the unique needs of the Asian-American community. On Monday, State Senator Martin Golden, New York City Department for the Aging Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, and officials of Homecrest Community Services, held a press conference to celebrate the announcement.

Now a slew of Brooklyn-based City Council members responsible for obtaining the funding are celebrating the victory with a collective “Hoorah!”

Oh, and they’re dishing a little on Golden’s publicity-hogging press conference.

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Senator Golden with HCS clients and staff. (Source: Golden's office)

A Bensonhurst senior center offering specialized services to the area’s growing Asian population has been designated a NYC Neighborhood Senior Center, and will now receive public funding to continue its mission.

The center, located at 7907 New Utrecht Avenue, is a local annex of the Sheepshead Bay-based Homecrest Community Services, and has been operating since 2004 through donations and grants. The public funds will now ensure continued services for a booming population.

The city’s decision to fund this senior center recognizes Bensonhurst’s Asian boom. The Asian population of Community Board 11, which is comprised of Bensonhurst and Bath Beach, has swelled 10.5 percent since 2000, according to the 2012 Brooklyn Neighborhood Report of the Center of the Study of Brooklyn. Asian-Americans now account for 33.7 percent of Bensonhurst residents.

State Senator Martin Golden, New York City Department for the Aging Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, and officials of Homecrest Community Services, held a press conference on Monday to announce the public funding.

After the event,  Golden’s press secretary John Quaglione said that  the neighborhood now has the highest concentration of aging Asians in Brooklyn.

Quaglione added that although there are other senior centers in Bensonhurst, the Asians have additional barriers, such as language, which makes them in need of additional assistance. He said that this center is “Asian-run and Asian-attended,” which makes it easier for the Asian seniors to participate in activities and enjoy themselves.

According to Quaglione, the center will now be funded by the Office of the Mayor and the Department of Aging. He said that $369,000 will be needed each year to run the center adequately and efficiently. The senior center offers a day program to all seniors, consisting of meals, social activities, health care opportunities, citizenship assistance, case management and recreational activities.

Homecrest Community Services’ primary operation is based in the Homecrest Presbyterian Church located at 1413 Avenue T in Sheepshead Bay, where it has been serving that neighborhood’s Asian senior population since 1997.

“As a long time supporter of Homecrest Community Services, I am proud to be part of this historic announcement designating them as an official NYC Neighborhood Senior Center,” said Golden at the press conference. ” I know that this senior program will greatly advance the Asian American community in Southwest Brooklyn, and will support all senior citizens in need in  my community.”

As first reported by Sheepshead Bites, firefighters discovered the body of an apparent suicide victim while putting out a fire at 2281 Ocean Parkway in Gravesend.

An FDNY EMT on the scene said that the man may have lit the fire prior to shooting himself. NYPD has not yet confirmed the cause of death.

The man who was in his mid-40s lived above ABC Plus Day Care and a gastroenterologist’s office. No other civilians were harmed as both businesses were closed for the weekend.

(source: Brooklyn Graphic via Brooklyn Daily)

Newscorp website Brooklyn Daily is reporting that Councilman Vincent Gentile broke city campaign finance rules by spending too much on his 2009 reelection campaign. The Campaign Finance Board, which made the ruling on Thursday, fined Gentile just under $26,000.

The board censured the councilman for agreeing not to spend over $161,000 in his reelection bid against Bob Capano in exchange for $88,550 of public matching funds – then allegedly going $18,000 over budget.

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Bedford Avenue, near Avenue V (Source: Google Maps)

A man was found with a gunshot wound to the head yesterday in his basement apartment on Bedford Avenue near Avenue V in Sheepshead Bay.

The victim’s wife walked in on him lying face down, after she returned from an errand. The Daily News is reporting that the woman was sent on the errand by her husband.

Police are currently are trying to determine if the wound was self-inflicted or the work of an assailant. The man was reportedly rushed to Coney Island hospital and is in critical condition, although the News’ headline refers to the incident as a fatal shooting.

For more details, as well as any updates, please see our sister site Sheepshead Bites.

Here’s a great video that’s chock full of Southern Brooklyn – especially Bensonhurst – nostalgia.

It was posted on Youtube by tommyboombotz, who had the following to say:

Here is a great compilation that anyone who grew up in Brooklyn NY will relate to. Thanks to my dad for finding this and posting on my facebook page. Its not my video, I found it online and just wanted to share. 

Enjoy!

P.S. Because we always like to credit our sources, this video was first brought to our attention by a reader who saw it on our favorite hipster-hating site Diehipster.com.

Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursue Crime (oil-on-canvas by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon)

We’ve been meaning to report on Manhattan news site dnainfo.com‘s precinct-by-precinct per capita crime stat study for some time but, as they say, no news is good news and our street corners happen to be some of the safest in the city.

Unfortunately for our pals in picturesque Park Slope, the same could not be said for crime in their neck of the woods.

Crime, particularly burglaries and robberies, have risen in much of the increasingly wealthy ‘brownstone belt’ of Central and Northern Brooklyn, which may be a victim of its own success, real estate price-wise.

Its increasing popularity has also led to a widening disparity of income between longtime residents and wealthy newcomers – presenting plenty of targets for those who resort to crime to make ends meet.

Despite the rise of crime in Northern Brooklyn, Southern Brooklyn’s solidly Middle Class  neighborhoods – including Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, Borough Park and Sheepshead Bay – remained some of NYC’s safest areas.

Overall crime was down in Bensonhurst in 2010 – the year used in the study.

Although there was an increase in rapes to 13, up from 6 the year before, this could be an anomaly. While one rape is always too many, the percentage increase should be seen in the context of relatively low numbers for both years, as well as overall crime trends.

Neighboring Borough Park, along with Kensington, is served by the precinct with the lowest crime numbers in the borough.

Bay Ridge and Sheepshead Bay also had some of the lowest numbers in the city – though Sheepshead Bay has seen a significant increase so far this year.

One area of Southern Brooklyn dealing with high crime, according to the report, was Coney Island.

(image by Reliant for Home Reporter)

The bloody crime scene that greeted police on the night of Wednesday, August 17, while shocking, may just be the latest in a series of domestic violence cases in Southern Brooklyn that have ended in the worst possible way.

According to an article in the Home Reporter last Thursday, He Xiao-Bao, age 25, the suspect in the Dyker Heights murder, allegedly stabbed his 24-year-old girlfriend multiple times, killing her. The unidentified victim’s screams escaped the couple’s apartment at 935 71st Street, leading concerned neighbors to call 911.

He, the suspect’s family name, had reportedly slit his own wrists and brandished a knife as first responders arrived on the scene, but was fortunately disarmed and arrested by quick-thinking police officers.

From Home Reporter:

This incident was apparently just the latest in a series of escalating violence between the couple, who reportedly filed domestic violence complaints against one another as recently as March of this year, within the 72 precinct, which serves the communities of Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace. There is no word on what type of action was taken on those complaints.

According to Captain Richard de Blasio of the 68th Precinct, the suspect was disarmed at the scene by responding officers, who used “great tactics” to subdue and arrest him after he had apparently slashed his wrists. The weapon – a knife – was recovered at the scene and police “do have the right person arrested.”

He – the suspect’s last name – was taken to Lutheran Medical Center for treatment. According to the District Attorney’s office, he is currently awaiting arraignment on charges of second degree murder – which carries a penalty of 25 years to life in prison – and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree – a misdemeanor.

The most basic details of this case are eerily similar to at least two other domestic violence murders that have shocked Brooklynites this year. Click Here To Find Out More, Including What’s Being Done To Stop Domestic Violence

(image by Galasso/North Jersey Media Group via Daily News)

The Daily News says that the latest round of school budget cuts are hitting some areas worse than others, and that middle class neighborhoods like ours are being spared the deep cuts facing poorer school districts.

The News reported last Friday that close to 800 non-teaching public school employees, such as school aides, in the largest round of layoffs for any one agency since Bloomberg became mayor.

Under the plan, The upper Manhattan neighborhoods of Harlem and Washington Heights stand to lose close to 8% of school aides.

In Brooklyn, East New York, Brownsville and East Flatbush public schools would have their non-professional workers cut by 4.4%.

Meanwhile, Districts 20, 21 and 22 – covering the middle class areas of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Borough Park, Midwood, Dyker Heights, Mill Basin, Sheepshead Bay and Marine Park – would only have to do without around 1% of aides.

From Daily News:

Those who could lose their jobs are some of the lowest-paid workers in the city and overwhelmingly black and Hispanic. School aides, the biggest group targeted, average about $11,000 a year for part-time work. Even with health insurance and pension costs factored in, the city pays about $27,000 annually for each of these workers.

“We’ve been trying for weeks to meet with Chancellor Dennis Walcott, and each time they canceled . . . at the last moment,” said Santos Crespo, president of Local 372.

“On Monday, they just called us in and hit us with these cuts,” Crespo said. “They didn’t even want to discuss ways we could cooperate to reduce costs.”

At a time when the school system is spending hundreds of millions of dollars for more outside contractors and consultants, it’s crazy to cut the most vulnerable workers.

While a Board of Education spokesperson insists the final decision on who to let go were made by principals on a school-by-school basis, principals point back to BOE budget officials who they say encouraged cutting the number of school aides.

Juan Gonzales, the article’s author observed that those districts which face the worst cuts are, in many cases, the same neighborhoods where city council members have been vocal critics of Mayor Bloomberg.

Our sister site Sheepshead Bites, with the help of local Sheepshead Bay business Tete-a-Tete (2601 East 14th Street), have mounted a camera at the intersection of East 14th Street and Avenue Z. It’s currently broadcasting a live feed at the scene as Hurricane Irene hits (Although it appears to currently have the maximum amount of viewers).