NEIGHBORHOODS

Mapleton

Bay Ridge community board leaders are considering going door to door to neighborhood hookah lounges and asking owners to install better ventilation systems amid complaints about secondhand smoke. … Full Article

Five Brooklyn council members are giving their constituents a chance to have a say in how their tax dollars are spent – including deciding which projects will get city funding – as part of the city’s 2014 participatory budgeting process. … Full Article

In the wake of the security breach at Target, in which hackers got their hands on credit card information belonging to millions of the chain store’s customers, lawmakers across the country are working on legislation to try to cut down on credit card fraud. … Full Article

The NYPD is investigating an assault on a Hasidic Jew visiting from England as a possible bias incident. They say the man was walking along McDonald Avenue in Borough Park around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday when a man approached him from behind and pushed him to the ground. … Full Article

The city deserves an “A” grade for its new rules on grading restaurants for cleanliness, according to two Brooklyn council members. … Full Article

It was a school trip that took longer than planned. Much longer. Students from Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge were stranded overnight by the side of the road on a Florida highway after their charter bus broke down. … Full Article

The state’s voters approved the expansion of casino gambling in New York in November and with the state’s Gaming Commission mulling where to build the new gambling facilities, one Brooklyn lawmaker has been outspoken as to where he doesn’t want to see the slot machines, blackjack tables and roule … Full Article

Everyone is Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day, but in Bay Ridge, people get to enjoy being Irish for a couple of weeks! … Full Article

The bandit who robbed a Bay Ridge bank on March 21 wasn’t wearing a mask, but tried to conceal his identity by wearing a fake beard, police said. … Full Article

Liam McCabe lost nearly all of his hair on Saturday, but he didn’t mind a bit. McCabe, an aide to U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-C-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Staten Island), agreed to have his boss shave his head to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a children’s cancer charity. … Full Article