Meng Announces Airbnb Canceled listing after Her Inquiry
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) on Saturday announced that the shared housing company Airbnb contacted her office and said that it has canceled all bookings for a Bayside, Queens site it has listed following a recent shooting at the site.
The Airbnb action follows a letter the lawmaker wrote the company last week posing several crucial questions concerning why and how the site has continuously been listed as a rental property despite it being vacant, and what the company is doing to correct the problem.
“I appreciate Airbnb’s prompt response to my office and its willingness to remedy this situation,” said Meng. “I look forward to continuing my conversations with the company and have a better understanding of what transpired and how we can ensure this does not happen again. As I’ve said, residents of this neighborhood must not have their safety put at risk and their quality of life disrupted, and State Senator John Liu, Assemblyman Ed Braunstein and I will continue to keep up this fight.”
Marte, Kavanagh, Niou protest Lack of Elevator Service at 56 Story Residential Building
Lower Manhattan Lawmakers including City Council Member Christopher Marte, State Senator Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou today will call attention to 20 Exchange Place, a 56-story building with rent-stabilized units, has been without consistent elevator service since October 2021.
ConEdison and the building management have consistently pointed fingers at each other, while residents suffer and are forced to climb dozens of stories of stairs on a daily basis. Tenants will rally with the three lawmakers demanding ConEdison take action to resolve the electrical issues, and building ownership meets tenants demands for accommodations and concessions .
Electrical issues, a lack of time efficiency from ConEdison, and a lack of transparency from management, have left residents with a lot of frustration and between 1 and 40 stories of stairs to climb. Those with disabilities and medical issues remain trapped in their apartments, and force them to miss vital doctors appointments due to their inability to leave the building.
The call to action is slated for 11 a.m., today, March 28 at the corner of William Street and Exchange Place in Lower Manhattan
Jeffries, Schumer, Gillibrand Secure $9.2 Million for the Brooklyn Hospital Center
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) announced yesterday that they secured $9.2 million in funding for The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) through the recently-passed government funding law.
Serving more than 70,000 patients per year in its Emergency Department, TBHC is the oldest hospital in Brooklyn and an independent, nonprofit, safety-net hospital that is neither government owned nor part of a larger health system. Upwards of 90% of the hospital’s patients are people of color, and 80% are on Medicaid, Medicare or other government insurance.
The federal money will fund TBHC’s Emergency Department Modernization project to construct new triage, exam and treatment rooms; additional space and flow for support services such as a radiology room, CT scan room, satellite pharmacy and discharge rooms; new waiting areas; a new entrance to the Emergency Department and quick registration areas.
Hudson To Unveil New Sign Renaming School To Honor Sarah Smith Garnet
City Council Member Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn) today will join Principal Fatimah Ali as well as the parents, students, and faculty of PS 9 to unveil the new sign honoring the school’s name change to The Sarah Smith Garnet School.
A native Brooklynite, Sarah Smith Garnet was a suffragette and educator who became the first Black female school principal in New York City. Mrs. Garnet was also the founder of the Brooklyn-based Equal Suffrage League and the superintendent for the National Association of Colored Women.
In 2019, PS 9, whose student population is 40 percent Black, voted to rename itself the Sarah Smith Garnet School as of the 2019-2020 school year.
The Unveiling is slated for 2 p.m., today, March 28 at PS 9 – The Sarah Smith Garnet School, 80 Underhill Avenue in Brooklyn.
