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THE LEDE: We made it to the weekend, Brooklyn! You’ve no doubt heard that Brooklyn Heights’ own Joe Lhota is returning to the MTA…now, read how local pols are reacting to the news. Then, Green-Wood Cemetery adjusts to changing times and changing waistlines (yep, you read that right). Meanwhile, Brooklyn’s biggest tech company just laid off 15 percent of its staff. Want to leave a (scathing or raving) review of your landlord? There’s an app for that. Keep reading to learn about the horse-riding librarians who brought books to rural America in the 1930s, and browse photos of the personal libraries of some famous book hoarders. We’ll see you again on Monday!
      
IMPRINT: Something’s off about the Eiffel Tower on this cover of Tennis mag…

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The Rundown
  

~WELCOME BACK, JOE LHOTA: Brooklyn Heights resident Joe Lhota isback at the helm of the MTA, and several local pols are happy to have him back. Referring to Gov. Cuomo’s appointment of Lhota as a “great gift,” Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis said, “Joe Lhota has the experience, skills and guts to clean up the subway mess our mayor doesn’t want to touch.”New York Building Congress President and CEO Carlo Scissura said, “Joe Lhota is a true New Yorker who knows first-hand what it takes to successfully operate the country’s largest transportation agency,” referring to Lhota’s previous tenure at the MTA, when he got the subways back on the rails after Superstorm Sandy. However, Riders Alliance executive director John Raskinreminds that “The question remains, what is the governor’s plan to fix the subway, and will he give Chairman Lhota the funding he needs to get the job done?” (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
 
~15 PERCENT OF ETSY EMPLOYEES JUST LOST THEIR JOBS: Brooklyn’s biggest tech company, Etsy, announced a second round of layoffs this week, cutting 140 positions, or 15 percent of its staff. The DUMBO-based business, which was founded in 2005, had already dismissed 80 people in May to reduce costs. “We are moving forward with a more nimble structure that supports our current business needs and allows for faster execution so we can better serve creative entrepreneurs around the world,” said Etsy CEO Josh Silverman. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)  
 
~BRING OUT YOUR DEAD…BUT NOT UNTIL THE SALE GOES THROUGH: Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, which is crunched for space, is purchasing just shy of 4/10 of an acre from Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope…to make more room for dead bodies. The church has owned the plot of land since 1860, and the cemetery has buried more than 570,000 people since then, including Horace Greeley and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The space issue is only expected to worsen as baby boomers begin to expire. But there’s another factor that accounts for the lack of space—expanding waistlines. Americans have bigger bodies than ever before, and bigger bodies mean bigger graves. (via the NYT)
 
~HOW DO WE ENSURE EQUAL ACCESS TO G&T PROGRAMS?: That’s the question on the mind of BP Eric Adams. He partnered with Bronx BP Ruben Diaz Jr. to release a report on making admission to the city’s Gifted & Talented programs more equitable, as black and Latino students have been far less likely than white and Asian students to land a spot in the programs.“Access to gifted and talented programs and specialized high schools can no longer be allowed to be dictated by one’s ZIP code,” said Adams. Among other recommendations in the report: test all students in public pre-K programs for G&T, and use more than a single test to determine admission. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle) 
 
~CUOMO TO FEDS: FINE, WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES: When the federal government fails to respond to evidence of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, it’s time for the state to take matters into its own hands… that’s the gist of a recent release from Gov. Cuomo, who has directed the state Cyber Security Advisory Board to take a good, hard look at New York’s elections. Brooklynites may be particularly sensitive to the issue after roughly 120,000 Brooklyn voters were wrongly purged from the rolls ahead of the 2016 presidential primary. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)   
 
~DIOCESE OF BROOKLYN LAUNCHES FUND FOR SEX-ABUSE VICTIMS:The Roman Catholic diocese that includes Brooklyn will set up a fund to compensate people who were sexually abused by its clergy, even if it must take out a loan to cover all survivors. Church officials estimate that there are about 280 known victims in the Diocese of Brooklyn who would be eligible for compensation. While the compensation program is new, the Diocese of Brooklyn already had an existing outreach to victims of clergy sex abuse.(via the WSJ, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the AP) 
 
~IT’S LIKE YELP, BUT FOR LANDLORDS: College friends Ofo Ezeugwu andFelix Addison believe that “for bad landlords, there should be naming and shaming.” And, for stellar landlords, there should be a place to salute them. That’s why the pair founded Bed-Stuy-based Whose Your Landlord, a Yelp-like reviewing system for NYC landlords (and yes, it’s supposed to be “whose”–here’s why). The site has thus far attracted mostly young tenants–of the 250,000 active users, a whopping 70 percent are millennials. “If we can at least get landlords and renters to start talking more,” Ezeugwu told Curbed NY, “it’ll be a good first step.” (via Curbed NY)   
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Staff Picks:

READ: “When Totally Normal Books About Girls Turned Into ‘Beach Reads.’” (via Broadly) 
 
READ + LOOK: Think you own a lot of books? Not as many as these famous book hoarders (probably). (via Lit Hub) 
 
READ + LOOK AGAIN: “Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles.” (via Smithsonian) 
 
DRINK: ATTN: bartenders: Coney Island Brewery hosts a series ofIndustry Nights from 5-8pm every Monday through the summer, when card-carrying bartenders get happy hour pricing + some much-needed royal treatment. (via Brokelyn)       

 

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: Half a million immigration cases are backlogging courts across the country. One result? Truncated due process…Meanwhile, Florida debuts “express deportations”…New data shows that Americans favor social media for news more than other countries, and more young Americans are shelling out money for news…And, by the way, all that social media use? Contrary to popular theory, it appears to diversify our news diets. (via the New Yorker, the Miami Herald and Nieman Lab)
 
FOREIGN FLASH: As K-pop and Korean culture soar in popularity around the world, scientists try to globalize another Korean staple: kimchi. But first, they’re attempting to “engineer the smell out of” the pungent food…Rome’s annual summer struggle to keep tourists from jumping into Trevi Fountain is well underway…And for your feel-good news of the day, here’s adeeply moving video of two mama elephants staging a rescue of a drowning baby elephant at a zoo in Seoul. (via WaPo and the NYT)
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 ROYAL WATCH: Kate Middleton understands that when you find an item of clothing that works, you can never have it in too many colours.(via Harper’s Bazaar) 
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BROOKLYN TONIGHT  

 
Various times – Queer|Art|Pride Short Films at the Wythe Hotel. Details.
 
10:00am – 4:00pm – Brooklyn Eats at Brooklyn Bridge Marriott Hotel.Details.
 
7:00pm – Think Olio: Man’s Separation from Nature and Where to Go from Here at The Strand. Details.
 
7:00pm – Just Blaze in Association with MeanRed at Coffey Park. Details.
 
7:30pm – Postmen at Cobra Club. Details.
 
8:00pm – Palm, Palberta at Baby’s All Right. Details.  
 
8:30pm – Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Works by Vivaldi. Details.  

 
SATURDAY
 
Various times – BAM CinemaFest at BAM Rose Cinemas. Details.
 
10:00am – Kayaking at Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 2. Details.
 
11:00am – Kids’ Drawing and Poetry Workshop at Brooklyn Bridge Park.Details.
 
1:30pm – 2:30pm – Camping Gear and How to Use It at Fort Greene Park Visitor Center. Details.
 
4:00pm – Bargemusic at Fulton Ferry Landing. Details.
 
5:00pm – Denzel Curry at Coffey Park. Details.  

 
SUNDAY
 
10:00 – 4:00pm – Down to Earth Farmer’s Market at The Old Stone House.Details.
 
4:00pm – KRS-One / DJ Chuck Chillout at Coffey Park. Details.
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 ON THE PITCH: Happy Friday, footy fans! U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan recently welcomed a new addition to the family, and it’s not a dog. Say hello to Slate Bartell Donovan! 

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MILESTONES

Happy birthday to Randy Jackson, Jason Mraz, Selma Blair, Alan Turing,Joss Whedon, Ayana Taketatsu, Patrick Vieira, Michelle Jenneke andJohannes Gutenberg!

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