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Brooklyn Today December 4: Big Thinkers Propose MTA Stops Overnight Subway Service

December 4, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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THE LEDE: Happy Monday, Brooklyn! MTA could stop overnight subway service, Maimonides Medical Center is letting 200 employees go, and prosecutors want to take away Martin Shkreli’s Wu-Tang Clan album. Plus, we go inside China’s new 1.2-million book library, a New Hampshire teacher encourages her students to smoke pot, and President Trump’s staff complains about mice and roaches in the White House. Next, a 10-year-old girl kills herself after being bullied online, a Swiss town offers $70,000 to new residents, and a U.K. minister tells Christians to pray for Prince George to be gay. Finally, wish a happy birthday to Brooklynite Jay-Z. Have a great week.
 
IMPRINT: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gets ready for the holidays on thelatest cover of Entertainment Weekly.
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The Rundown
 

~LANDLORDS WHO HARASS TENANTS TO HAVE A HARDER TIME GETTING PERMITS: It’s illegal for landlords to harass tenants in order to drive them from their buildings, but in many cases this behavior is just part of business. Now, however, NYC has put a pilot program in place to put teeth into enforcing the law. On Thursday the City Council passed “Certification of No Harassment” legislation, which will require certain building owners seeking to demolish or make significant alterations to their building prove they have not engaged in harassment before they can get permits from the NYC Department of Buildings. If a landlord is found to have harassed tenants, they would not be able to obtain a COHN permit for five years — unless they make 20 to 25 percent of their building affordable to low-income families, with no public subsidy. Councilmember Brad Lander is the legislation’s prime sponsor. “Once a tenant is driven out, a landlord can make significant renovations, or demolish and rebuild, and then dramatically raise rents,” Lander said. “The Certification of No Harassment program is a strong new tool to fight that business model.”(via Brooklyn Eagle)
 
~BIG THINKERS PROPOSE NEW YORK STOPS OVERNIGHT SUBWAYS:The Regional Plan Association has come up with an idea that’s sure to be avoided by local politicians and spur outrage from nightly commuters: to stop running trains overnight during the week. If implemented, the proposal would close down the subway from 12:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on weeknights in order to clean the rails and repair the aging infrastructure significantly faster than MTA is doing now. The idea is nothing new for the majority of subway systems around the world, but with New York’s significant night-time economy, it’s expected to be met with criticism. The report also suggests installing glass doors at the edge of subway platforms to protect people from falling into the tracks, amongst other ideas to curb climate change. While it’s just a suggestion, the group has a history of seeing its proposals mostly realized. (via NYMag)
 
~LARGE LAYOFFS COMING AT MAIMONIDES MED CENTER: The newest in a series of large layoffs is expected to leave up to 200 Maimonides Medical Center employees without jobs. The Borough Park hospital was met with protests by the union 1199 after the announcement to dismiss roughly three percent of the 6,500 employees was made. “Patient care is sure to suffer with this downsizing, given the wide scope of job categories affected,” 1199 said in a statement. The positions affected include phlebotomists, radiology technicians, nurses and clerical staff. “Maimonides – like hospitals across the region and country – is working through the reality of our industry’s economics: flat or declining government reimbursement rates coupled with rising costs,” Maimonides said in a responsive statement. “The hospital is confident the layoffs will produce a “sound budget for 2018.” (via Crain’s New York Business)
 
~PROSECUTORS SEEK TO SEIZE ASSETS OF ‘PHARMA BRO’ SHKRELI:The government wants to seize Martin Shkreli’s one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album. The album that the jailed former pharmaceutical CEO has boasted he bought for $2 million is on a list of assets that prosecutors argue Shkreli should forfeit after his securities fraud conviction earlier this year. In a letter filed this week in Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors told a judge that Shkreli is on the hook for $7.3 million. Along with the Wu-Tang Clan album, they say he should give up $5 million in cash in a brokerage account, a Picasso painting and other valuables. Shkreli’s lawyer said on Friday that his client would fight the government’s demand. Dubbed “Pharma Bro,” Shkreli is perhaps best known for hiking up the price of a life-saving drug and for trolling his critics on social media. (AP via Brooklyn Eagle)

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Staff Picks:
   

LONG READ: Read the harrowing story of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a serial killer from California who targeted homeless people. (via Atavist)
 
ANOTHER LONG READ: America is ditching traditional warfare for special operations, but is it working? (via Time)
 
TOUR: Go inside China’s new 1.2-million book library. (via Fortune)
 
TRAVEL: “36 Hours in Shanghai” (via NYT)

 

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: President Trump’s staff complains of mice and roaches in the White House…A New Hampshire teacher encourages her students to smoke weed…And a 10-year-old girl in Colorado kills herselfafter being bullied online. (via NBC4, Time and USA Today)                 
 
FOREIGN FLASH: The Argentine Navy says its search for the missing submarine is no longer a rescue mission…China’s not at war, but parts of Beijing look like a war zone…And a Swiss town is offering families of four$70,000 to move there. (via NPR, NYT and USA Today)

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 ROYAL WATCH: A U.K. minister says Christians should pray that Prince George grows up to be gay. (via The Guardian)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT
   

8:00AM – 3:00PM — Coat & Canned Food Drive at Abraham Lincoln high School. Details.
 
8:00AM – 10:00PM — What Is It, Then, Between Us at BRIC Cafe. Details.
 
8:00AM – 11:00PM — Loss for Words at BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building.Details.
 
4:00PM — American Skulls and Flowers at Court Tree Collective. Details.
 
6:00PM – 8:00PM — Deportation World: The Challenges of a New Global Phenomenon at The New School. Details.
 
7:00PM — Getting to Zero: Zero Waste Design Guidelines at SVA Theatre.Details.
 
7:00PM — Global Culture, Civic Competition, Social Impact at NYU School of Law. Details.
 
7:00PM — Japan – A Nation in Search of a New Path at The Explorers Club.Details.
 
7:00PM — Judging Eichmann: The Banality of Evil at Museum of Jewish Heritage. Details.
 
7:00PM – 9:00PM — Soup Kitchen 2017 at Open Source Gallery. Details.
 
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 EAGLE SPORTS: “Nets showing progress as well as depth” (via Newsday)

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MILESTONES

 
Happy birthday to Fred Armisen, Max Baer Jr., Tyra Banks, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hillman, Jay-Z, Marisa Tomei, Patricia Wettig and Cassandra Wilson!


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