In recognition of National Apprenticeship Week, Community Offshore Wind and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 9 hosted a free workshop for 400 Queens and Brooklyn high school students and young adults to teach them about the available opportunities in the organized finishing construction trades, including jobs working on offshore wind projects.

The day-long workshop, held on Nov. 20, featured hands-on demonstrations of the work that IUPAT District Council 9 members perform, panel discussions on the available career paths in these trades, educational sessions on the enrollment process for apprenticeship programs, and presentations on available union jobs for offshore wind projects.

“Offshore wind is going to create thousands of good, family-sustaining union jobs in New York. It is critical that we make sure New Yorkers are ready to seize the opportunities that the industry brings to communities across the state,” Community Offshore Wind President and Project Director Doug Perkins said. “Community Offshore Wind is committed to making sure every New Yorker who wants a career working on offshore wind has access to the training and support they need to do it. That’s why we’re working closely with IUPAT and labor partners across industries and trades to educate the next generation of New Yorkers about the opportunities available to them, and investing millions of dollars in training programs and facilities, workforce development and wraparound supports for workers in the offshore wind industry.”

New York is expected to see more than 10,000 high-quality jobs created via its offshore wind industry. These jobs include manufacturing, installation, research and development, and operations and maintenance.

Of the over 10,000 new jobs, almost 700 of them would be created from Community Offshore Wind’s most recent proposed project alone, with the developer committed to utilizing union labor. This project is expected to generate approximately $3 billion in economic activity, thus creating hundreds more jobs.

“Learning a trade is one of the best paths to a stable, long-term career. The opportunities that offshore wind will bring to New York in the years to come will create tremendous job growth, particularly for union workers, and we need to make sure the next generation of hardworking New Yorkers are ready to seize these new opportunities when they become available,” District Council 9 Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer Joseph Azzopardi said. “Community Offshore Wind continues to be a fantastic partner to us as we work to educate young people about the careers available in the trades. Their commitment to opening career pathways for more New Yorkers is what we need to ensure everyone feels the economic benefits offshore wind brings to our state.”

“This [workshop] gives kids from different high schools the opportunity to see what the trades do. Some kids go to college, which is great. others college isn’t for them. We’re letting them know that this is something you can do to earn a middle-class lifestyle and learn a skilled trade and get paid while you are going to school,” Azzopardi said.

Community Offshore Wind announced a $250 million investment in education, workforce development programs and services addressing barriers to New Yorkers from disadvantaged communities who have trouble accessing job opportunities. This investment is meant to provide more equitable access to the type of jobs they provide through several different initiatives.

One such initiative is through a partnership with the United Way of New York State to provide reduced-cost childcare services to every offshore wind worker and trainee in the state. This is meant to help address a big challenge faced by many working parents who have been held back from finding stable and well-paying careers.

Another initiative is a Wraparound/Barriers Fund, which is intended to get rid of barriers to participating in the workforce through partnerships with community organizations to address several key factors, including transportation gaps, enhancing language access through ESL resources and providing individuals with basic needs, including laundry services, business attire, warm clothing and pioneer legal aid for those interested in careers in clean energy.

Yet another big initiative from Community Offshore Wind is the Powering Up the Workforce Fund, which is developing a career-readiness curriculum meant to get participants ready for their union jobs. It also funds mentoring for those who are underemployed.

An Education Fund is one more initiative from Community Offshore Wind. This is meant to support K-12 STEM programming in Title 1 schools, focusing specifically on giving students creative, experiential learning opportunities that can help prepare them for working in offshore wind or other STEM-related career fields.

Each of these initiatives are meant to build upon the track record Community Offshore Wind has set for investing in programs that prepare New Yorkers for offshore wind jobs, as well as sparking an interest in the field among youths. Other past initiatives include working with the Brooklyn Public Library to give away 3,200 science-focused books to families in NYCHA housing, funding field trips to local museums for over 140 New York students and providing scholarships for Brooklyn girls aged 6-14 to attend Tools and Tiaras summer camp.

ЭЛМОНТ, Лонг-Айленд — Жителю Бруклина предъявлены обвинения в вождении в нетрезвом виде, незаконном проникновении на чужую территорию и безрассудном создании опасности после того, как, по […]

Brooklyn Assembly Member Monique Chandler-Waterman has joined in celebrating the late Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, fondly called by local Brooklynites as “Auntie Shirley.”

“We thank her for paving the way for women to enter politics like myself,” said Chandler-Waterman, the daughter of Barbadian and Jamaican immigrants, about Chisholm, the daughter of Barbadian and Guyanese immigrants.

“Her leadership paved the way for so many women in government, and I am honored to see so many reflections of her throughout my life as educators in early childhood, who value learning and are both Bajan decent,” added Chandler-Waterman, representative for the 58^th Assembly District in Brooklyn. “Finally, we both proudly served in the New York State Assembly.”

On Friday, Nov. 30, Chandler-Waterman honored the trailblazing Chisholm on what would have been her 100th birthday.

Chisholm was officially recognized by the New York City Council through a vote to declare Nov. 30 as “Shirley Chisholm Day.”

Chandler-Waterman said Chisholm was the first Black woman of Caribbean descent to represent New York State Assembly. Chisholm, a Democratic, was also the first Black woman to seek the nomination of a major party for the US presidency.

“I am extremely proud as a legislator to have a role model to look up to with similar background and political journey, who serves as an inspiration,” Chandler-Waterman said.

Proudly wearing a Chisholm pin, Chandler-Waterman said her road from running a daycare to Albany was made possible by Chisholm.

Soon, she noted a new community center in Chisholm’s name will be launched in East Flatbush.

The Assemblywoman said she was “proud to have been one of the advocates organizing with the East Flatbush Community under the leadership of former NYC Councilmember Jumaane D. Williams for the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center.

“We appreciate to see this project come to life with the final push from leadership, including the current Councilwoman (Farah) Louis and Assembly Member (Rodneyse) Bichotte Hermelyn, along with myself and local electeds,” she added. “I like to think her energy and what she embodied is instilled in all of us.”

Chandler-Waterman said she appreciates local organizations, like Little Caribbean in East Flatbush, for keeping “Auntie Shirley’s legacy through art: merchandise, jewelry, tote bags, pins and more.”

“Shirley Chisholm’s unwavering dedication to justice, equality and representation continues to inspire me,” said Shelley Worrell, the Trinidadian-American founder of I AM CARIBBEING/Little Caribbean.

“As a Caribbean American woman, I stand on the shoulders of giants like Congresswoman Chisholm, daughter of Caribbean immigrants, who paved the way for future generations of women in leadership,” she added. “Her legacy reminds us that our voices matter, our presence is powerful, and our collective action can create lasting change.”

Chandler-Waterman said Shirley Anita Chisholm (Nov. 30, 1924 – Jan. 1, 2005) was the first Black woman to be elected to the United States Congress.

She said Chisholm represented New York’s 12th congressional district, a district centered in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn for seven terms from 1969 to 1983.

In 1972, Chandler-Waterman said Chisholm became the first Black candidate for a major-party nomination for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

In 2015, Chisholm was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Chandler-Waterman noted.

НИЖНИЙ МАНХЭТТЕН  — Полиция опубликовала видео и фотографии трех мужчин, которые, по их словам, зарезали подростка-мигранта и ранили другого в Нижнем Манхэттене. Власти теперь полагают, […]

The painfully slow bus service in Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue is causing more problems than just a delayed commute, a new report released on Tuesday showed.

The Riders Alliance, an advocacy group for better public transit, rallied with local politicians and other transportation stakeholders at Times Plaza in Flatbush to announce the alarming findings of its Better Buses for Flatbush Avenue report, which surveyed 1,800 Brooklynites in the area throughout the summer.

The report found that bus delays cause a trickle-down effect of problems and stresses.

Notably, delays have hurt 91% of city bus riders in and around Flatbush. Two out of three riders have endured long waits in inclement weather, and half of those who responded to the survey admitted to paying for car service because the bus was too late.

Perhaps even more alarming, the report shows one of three riders said they have been fired, reprimanded or docked pay at work because of bus delays.

The reason for the delays, according to Danny Pearlstein of the Riders Alliance, is constant traffic and double parking that both he and other advocates say bus lanes would fix.

Pearlstein said he and his team conducted the study with researchers from the Pratt Center for Community Development. They wanted to collect as much real data as possible to help prompt change from city officials.

Some of that data includes what riders say they need from the city Department of Transportation (DOT). Approximately 87% of riders in the survey said they want bus lanes, and 85% said they would spend more money on Flatbush Avenue if the buses were more reliable — a likely silver lining for local businesses.

But opponents sometimes say “no” to bus lanes because of the possibility of less parking. They are also concerned traffic patterns will change, and not necessarily for the better.

Pearlstein suspects otherwise.

“We anticipate business would improve, and this is exactly what we’ve seen throughout the city,” he said.

The NYC DOT announced in June that it was planning to build a bus lane along the busy 9.9-mile street to speed up bus commutes. 

“By redesigning Flatbush Avenue, we can speed up bus service to improve the lives of bus riders currently stuck on one of the most congested corridors in Brooklyn—while also enhancing pedestrian safety,” a DOT spokesperson said. “We look forward to continued public outreach, design refinement, and completing our traffic analysis in consultation with the community. This process will help inform the best way to make Flatbush Avenue work best for all New Yorkers using the corridor.”

Alexa Sledge, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Transportation Alternatives, said the avenue’s current design is not working for local bus riders.

“Everyone deserves the freedom to get around our city safely, quickly, and affordably, but the current street design on Flatbush Avenue is trapping bus riders in traffic and creating dangerous situations for pedestrians,” Sledge said. “More than 130,000 Brooklyn bus riders are riding on buses traveling less than 7 mph, stealing hours of our time and making us late to work, to school and to the doctor.”

She also said that redesigning Flatbush Avenue and implementing better bus service would improve pedestrian safety.

“We need faster buses and safer intersections on Flatbush Avenue, and that looks like dedicated bus lanes and pedestrian infrastructure,” she added. 

Flatbush Avenue: A busy Brooklyn corridor

More than 132,000 people board 12 MTA bus routes along Flatbush Avenue. The B41 alone serves over 28,000 average daily riders, according to city statistics.

Many of the nearly 1 million residents in Flatbush and nearby, specifically in Brooklyn Community Boards 2, 6, 8, 9, 14, 17 and 18, do not have private cars, making them heavily dependent on reliable public transportation.

For the survey, the researchers mostly spoke to people living in the main neighborhood of Flatbush.  

“But what we anticipate is that bus improvements will come in three phases,” Pearlstein explained. “The first one is north of Grand Army Plaza in Downtown Brooklyn, where the buses move the slowest. And the buses there are primarily serving people who live to the south, because people who live right in the neighborhood aren’t getting on the Flatbush Avenue buses.”

People coming into Downtown areas from the south — or leaving it to go south — are experiencing the worst delays, Pearlstein said.

“They’ll benefit the most from bus priority,” he added.

DOT officials said they are conducting outreach for bus priority on the corridor north of Grand Army Plaza, including presenting plans to community boards, which started in June and will continue. 

Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced Tuesday that the city will close the controversial migrant shelter at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Field, along with numerous other sites, over the next couple of months amid a rapid decline in new arrivals.

The 2,000-bed tent shelter, which sits on a decommissioned federal airfield in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, is set to close by Jan. 15, according to City Hall. The tents will be dismantled after the last migrants depart, and the city and state’s lease of the land with the federal government will expire in March.

The site has been online since last November and housed 1,840 individuals as of Nov. 24.

According to City Hall, the latest shelter closures were spurred by the migrant shelter census dropping to 57,000—the lowest it has been in 17 months—following a 22-week decline in the population.

The mayor attributed the decrease to his administration’s “smart management” of the migrant influx, which he said includes the city’s 30-and-60-day shelter limits, case management and buying newcomers plane tickets to other locations of their choice.

“Thanks to our smart management strategies, we’ve turned the corner, and this additional slate of shelter closures we’re announcing today is even more proof that we’re managing this crisis better than any other city in the nation,” Adams said. “We’re going to continue looking for more sites to consolidate and close, and more opportunities to save taxpayer money, as we continue to successfully manage this response.”

Adams added that President Biden’s June executive orders also helped reduce the shelter population by ebbing the flow of migrants arriving in the city.

The 25 shelters the city announced that have closed or will close mark the latest in a series of recent moves by the Adams administration to scale back its sprawling operation to house new arrivals. The list includes the previously revealed closure of the large-scale Randall’s Island shelter, which housed 3,000 single adults and will shutter in February.

The list includes 15 shelters in the five boroughs and another 10 upstate. According to mayoral spokesperson Liz Garcia, 11 of the city shelters have already closed.

Controversy over Floyd Bennett shelter

Since opening last year, Floyd Bennett has been marred by controversy. It sparked fierce protests from Republican lawmakers and area residents and criticism from immigrant advocates.

Even before the site officially opened, a group of mostly Republican pols sued to prevent the city from housing migrants on the decommissioned airfield. However, the suit was tossed by a state judge in Brooklyn earlier this year.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, turning our federal parks into encampments for unvetted migrants from all over the world is unfair to the surrounding community and taxpayers who have been forced to foot the bill for this madness,” US Rep. Nicole Mallitakis (R-Staten Island), who was a party to the lawsuit, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, advocates, such as the Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless, have long sounded alarm bells that the facility’s structure and location were unsafe for families with children. In a statement, the groups said that while they “welcome” Floyd Bennett’s closure, they are worried it could disrupt the families living there.