Frontus To Hold Mental Health Awareness Event
Assembly member Mathylde Frontus (D-Coney Island, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights)) will host a mental health awareness event today.
The event will be Frontus’ first official district workshop and is the first in a series of district-wide events the will focus on highlighting mental health in people’s daily lives.
The event is being co-sponsored by ThriveNYC, the mental health initiative launched by First Lady Chirlane McCray in Nov. 2015. The initiative aims to address the silent mental health crisis across the city.
According to the Department of Mental of Health and Mental Hygiene, at least one in five New Yorkers is likely to experience a mental illness in any given year and more than half the adults living with mental illness report not being able to access the treatment they need.
The event is slated for 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., today, Jan. 7, at the Coney Island YMCA, at 2980 West 29th Street in Coney Island.
Myrie, Richardson To Fight Against Rent Hikes In Crown Heights Building
State Senator Zellnor Myrie (D-Central Brooklyn) alongside Crown Heights tenants will rally together today against rent hikes as a landlord looks to push out longtime residents.
Longtime tenants in a rent stabilized building located at 560-570 Lefferts Avenue in Crown Heights are currently at risk for eviction. The current owners are advertising that current rents are less than half the potential in the market, and are renting recently vacant units for up to four-times more than longtime stabilized units.
According to the residents, the landlords are counting on weak rent laws to be able to force out tenants and increase the rent. In particular, the building has applied for rent increases totaling almost $200,000 a year through major capital improvements.
This year the NYS rent laws, or the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) will expire. As a result, tenants have been mobilizing throughout the state pushing for stronger rent laws and the expansion of tenant protections.
Zellnor alongside Assembly member Diana Richardson (D-Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Garden) will call for changing the state’s rent laws this year to prevent landlords like this from passing on the costs of major capital improvements.
The event is slated for 12-noon, today, Feb. 7, at 560-57- Lefferts Avenue in Crown Heights.
DA Gonzalez, Mosley To Rally For Parole Reform Bill
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez alongside Assembly member Walter T. Mosley (D-Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights) will rally in support of the ‘Less Is More: Community Supervision Revocation Reform Act’ (1343a) today.
The measure is a comprehensive new legislation that addresses the current problems of how technical violations in New York State’s parole system lead to re-incarceration. New York re-incarcerates more people on parole for technical violations – a missed appointment, broken curfew, or positive test for alcohol – than any state in the country except Illinois.
Of people on parole whom New York sent back to prison in 2016, over 65 percent were reincarcerated for technical parole violations. According to a report by the Columbia University Justice Lab, for every 10 people who successfully complete parole in New York, nine fail.
The bill aims to change these statistics through: incentivizing good behavior and allowing New Yorkers to earn accelerated release from parole; requiring fair hearings; creating maximum terms of re-incarceration for violations and eliminating incarceration as a sanction for certain technical violations; and saving taxpayers money.
On Thursday, the duo alongside a coalition of criminal justice reformers will call on Governor Andrew Cuomo and the State Legislature to pass the bill, then capture the savings that will result from the reform as reinvestment back into the communities most harmed by mass incarceration and crime.
The event is slated for 11 a.m., today, Feb. 7, at Brooklyn Law School, Subotnick Center, 11th Floor, at 250 Joralemon Street in Downtown Brooklyn.
CM Williams, Electeds To Unveil ‘Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way’
City Council Member Jumaane D. Williams (D-Flatbush, Eat Flatbush, Midwood) will partner with the Pakistani American Youth Organization to unveil the newly co-named ‘Muhammad Ali Jinnah Way’ this week.
The new co-name will be given to the street along Coney Island Avenue at a ceremony with elected officials, community groups, and local advocates on Friday.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah is considered the founder of modern Pakistan- this co-naming celebrates his contributions and the thriving Pakistani-American community in Brooklyn. The co-naming is a major step towards designating the surrounding neighborhood as ‘Little Pakistan.’
Other elected officials to be present at the event include Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, Assembly members Rodneyse Bichotte, Robert Carroll and City Council Member Mathieu Eugene.
The event is slated for 2:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 9, at 1043 Coney Island Avenue in Midwood.
Brooklyn Fed Lawmakers Demand Answers In MDC Heat, Power Outage
Congress member Jerrold Nadler (D-Western Brooklyn, Western Manhattan) and Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn, Queens, Lower Manhattan) have led 26 of their House and Senate colleagues this week in writing letters to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, seeking answers following heat and power outages at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.
In a letter to the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General, the lawmakers request an examination of MDC, including, among other issues, whether the institution followed its own emergency protocols during the outage, an examination of the facility’s chain of command, whether contractors lived up to the terms of their contracts in repairing the heating and ventilation systems and what medical care was provided during the crisis.
A second letter, addressed to the Acting Director of BOP, asks the agency a series of questions such as: whether the agency has experienced previous power and heat outages in recent years; details on the heating system’s inspection history; and whether BOP would consider appointing a special investigator or monitor to oversee changes at the troubled facility.
“When I visited MDC this past week, it was clear there was a humanitarian crisis unfolding, and that the leadership there had acted with complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of those inside. We want answers, accountability and, most importantly, an ironclad commitment this won’t happen again. Even before these most recent outrageous events, MDC has been a troubled institution, and I want to see the problems there rooted out once and for all,” said Velázquez, whose district includes the facility.
“Having toured the MDC facility twice over the weekend, it is painfully clear that the officials in charge did not see this crisis as an emergency, despite the clear risks to the lives of the detainees. All Americans, including prisoners, have a right to be treated with decency and respect, and this episode shows a complete failure of caring, planning and supervision at the facility,” said Nadler.
