It appears that 2018 proved a very busy year for Vincenzo Giurbino, a plumber with the New York City Housing Authority. The 65-year-old city worker’s payroll numbers indicated he put in an average 16-hour day every single day he worked — reaping him more than $300,000 in salary and overtime. According to data obtained by […]
Brooklyn
Posted inTransportation
Free Subway Transfers Prove One ‘L’ of an Idea in Brooklyn
No one is cheering the massive nights-and-weekends work on the L line. But the project is giving some Brooklyn riders what they’ve long asked for: free transfers between two Brownsville stations. Now passengers are hoping the link between Livonia Avenue on the L train and Junius Street on the No. 3 will become permanent — […]
Posted inGovernment
Making it Count: Immigration Advocates Seek Census Outreach Funding Boost
New Yorkers waged a battle to ensure an accurate 2020 Census count on two fronts Tuesday: the U.S. Supreme Court and City Hall. As the nation’s highest tribunal heard arguments on the Trump administration’s plan to include a question about citizenship on the Census, immigration advocates rallied in New York – calling for $60 million […]
Posted inCharter Schools
Success Academy ‘Dumped’ Elementary School Student at Precinct, Suit Charges
A Success Academy elementary school pushed out a Brooklyn student with special needs by repeatedly suspending him, calling child services on his mother, and even dropping him off at a police precinct, according to a federal lawsuit. The complaint, filed Monday on behalf of Tanwa Omolade and her son, alleges that the charter network engaged […]
Posted inBrooklyn
Brooklyn Pedestrians Say Broken Traffic Signal Has Been Ignored for Months
In February, a taxi knocked over a pedestrian signal at a busy Brooklyn intersection and residents say their calls for repairs went unheeded for weeks — until the THE CITY started asking questions. An orange cone now stands at the northwest corner of Fulton and Adelphi Streets in Fort Greene, hiding the broken mound of […]
Posted inBrooklyn
Brooklyn DA Vows: I Won’t Fight Parole in Most Cases
(This story was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization focused on the criminal justice system. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for their newsletter.) In 1996, when Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez was just starting out as a junior prosecutor, his younger brother was shot and killed […]
Posted inSpecial Report
Dialing 911 Daily: How Mental Health Crisis Strains Neighborhoods
At the far edge of Queens sits the imposing beige-brick Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, looming over surrounding suburban streets lined with matching red-brick co-op apartments with small green lawns and tidy white shutters. For the most part, this huge state-run facility keeps to itself. But lately, neighborhood residents have noted a growing number of men – […]
Posted inJustice
Locked Out: Borough Jails Critics Say They’ve Been Excluded From Post-Rikers Meetings
As a $10 billion plan to build four new jails across the city forges ahead, many residents and activists charge they’ve been locked out of the discussion for months. “They’re saying, ‘Oh there are so many opportunities for community engagement,’” said Nancy Kong, a Manhattan community activist. “No, you guys already made the decision. You […]
Posted inBrooklyn
Bye-Bye Bergen: Brooklyn School Sheds Slave-Owner Family Name
On Feb. 26, two votes took place at Public School 9 – a.k.a. the Teunis G. Bergen School, located just north of the Brooklyn Museum. In the gym, voters were electing the city’s next public advocate. In the auditorium across the hall, parents faced a different kind of choice: Would they remove the name of […]
Posted inInfrastructure
No Stamp of Approval for Brooklyn Post Office in IG Audit
Mail that never arrives. Long lines. And overflowing garbage bins. Those are just some of the more than 1,800 complaints against the Bushwick post office that were filed over a nearly six-month stretch last year, according to a recently released internal audit obtained by THE CITY. “This is the worst place in America,” said Brian […]