Community Board 2 tonight is scheduled to vote tonight on a street co-naming for the late politically connected aide to Brooklyn Heights City Councilman Stephen Levin, who died from a lethal overdose of cocaine and the opiates fentanyl and oxycodone – known in street terms as a speedball.
Hope Reichbach, 22, died of the overdose on April 28, 2011 after she was found in her Schermerhorn Street apartment. She was the only daughter of the late Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Gustin Reichbach, and like Levin, was mentored by the late former Kings County Democratic Party Boss Vito Lopez.
Reichbach was so politically connected that the entire New York City media world, including the scandal heavy reportage of the New York Post, reported she died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.
But according to the New York City Medical Examiners autopsy report, the cause of death was the deadly combination of illegal cocaine and the legal opiates fentanyl and oxycodone. Other drugs contributing to her death were citalopram, zolpidem and norhydroxyzine.
The full board will vote tonight after the CB 2 Transportation Committee voted 10-2 with one abstention to approve the co-naming of Bond Street between Bergen and Dean streets for Reichbach. Resident Joanna Smith nominated the co-naming, and Levin wrote a letter of support for the move and had a staffer at the transportation committee meeting.
The motion for the co-naming comes just weeks after Community Board 2 rejected the co-naming of a portion of Putnam Avenue for the late Cecil Collymore, father of former Democratic District Leader Renee Collymore. Several community board members and local residents rejected the Collymore street co-naming on the grounds it was politically motivated.
But Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and Fort Greene City Council Member Laurie Cumbo argued the street co-naming was a well-deserved recognition of an African-American man of humble beginnings, who invested in Clinton Hill when everybody was leaving and helped make it into the vibrant gentrified neighborhood of today.
