Bed-Stuy experienced an unusually high number of shootings last month—over twice the number in May 2014. Because of this significant increase (a total of nine shootings occurred throughout May), neighborhood residents have demanded Mayor Bill de Blasio reconsider his opposition to a City Council plan to hire 1,000 new cops. Deandra Young, 47, told the Post, “It’s scary, all the shootings. You’re on the street late at night, and all of a sudden it’s pow, pow pow! . . . And you don’t know when you will randomly be hit by a stray bullet.” (New York Post)
New York University might be expanding another two million square feet over the next few decades. NYU told Crain’s it’s optimistic the state’s highest court will rule in favor of its massive expansion plan in Greenwich Village. The university claims it needs the extra $6 billion space to attract top scholars. A discussion between NYU lawyers, New York City, and groups opposing the plan took place outside the Court of Appeals Tuesday, but there’s no timeline for when the decision will be made. (Crain’s New York)
Who says you’re too young to ask for change? Eight 12-year-olds, each wearing yellow shirts with “Vision Zero” stickers on them, stood up before members of Community Board 7 to demand the protection of children walking and biking in the Upper West Side (kids over the age of 13 are prohibited from riding their bikes on the sidewalk). Following the January of 2014 death of Cooper Stock, 9, who was struck by a cab on 97th and West End, the sixth graders urged the Community Board to reactivate its Vision Zero Task Force, created by the mayor after Stock’s death. Vision Zero is a multi-national road traffic safety project first started in Sweden aimed to achieve a highway system with no injuries. (DNAinfo)
Sources have told CBS2 that the person pushed onto the tracks at Bleecker Street subway station, Monday, is transgender and may have been the victim of a hate crime. Police are looking for the culprit with help from surveillance videos. Before being pushed onto the tracks, the 28-year-old victim was hit with a bottle by the suspect. Despite the accident, they only suffered cuts and bruises according to police. (CBS New York)
A Williamsburg pastor will finally reopen a long-forgotten theater inside his church this weekend, after working on restoring the abandoned space for years. Pastor Ben McKelahan, head of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on S. Fifth Street at Rodney Street, said he felt the need to save the old playhouse for his community at large, since many of the neighborhood’s art venues have closed due to unaffordable rent increases. (Brooklyn Paper)
