Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the map image showed where noise and traffic complaints come from. The caption has been corrected to say that the map shows where noise monitors and traffic guards are located.
By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com
The park under the former Kosciuszko Bridge doubles as an event space in the once-empty area. Throughout the year, people stroll through the seven-acre land, ride through the skate park, and flock to the concerts under the BQE.
However, according to the park’s neighbors, the space is also a source of noise pollution and traffic. Nearby residents complained to the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance staff of music blaring into their apartments until as late as 4 AM, and car horns waking them after the concerts conclude. Residents with young children say that the noise often wakes them up.
Greenpointer Lucy, who declined to give her last name, said that she hears music as late as 4 AM. She has sent multiple emails about the noise but said she has received few replies. Other members of the community affirmed that they had heard noise at the same time.
Katie Denny Horowitz, executive director of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance.
Katie Denny Horowitz, executive director of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance said that some official events go as late as 2 AM, but most events conclude around 10 PM. Noise later than that comes from park visitors who hang around afterward.
“Why can’t they end at a decent time? By 10:30 or 11 o’clock?” Greenpointer Michele Chesnicka said. Many residents at a public meeting voiced their agreement that events should conclude earlier.
If the noise from the park is disturbing, residents can call a hotline to request noise testing. Horowitz said that the response time is usually immediate and encourages residents to call them as soon as the noise becomes a disturbance.
The Parks Alliance’s policy is to keep noise in the park below 100 decibels, which is as loud as a train, according to a city noise code guide. For areas outside the park, Horowitz and her team try to keep noise at less than 50 decibels, or less loud than a normal conversation.
Katie Denny Horowitz and Lynn Del Sol from the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance show a map displaying where traffic guards and sound monitors are located.
Horowitz mentioned that since the park started hosting concerts, they only just started receiving noise and traffic complaints. Councilmember Lincoln Restler said that he has received a few emails about the noise from the park, but takes those complaints seriously.
Noise Beyond Control
Event space in the Under the ‘K’ Bridge Park
But the issue of late-night noise is—many times—beyond the park staff’s control, Horowitz said.
During a tour, we heard music from the other side of the skate park. On the street adjacent to the end of the park, a white car sat with all the doors open blasting music. The noise was so loud we had to end our tour before reaching Newtown Creek.
Horowitz said she normally calls the police for noise, but often the car partiers either come back to the site or move to another area to become someone else’s problem. The partiers are also on the street and technically off of park property.
Another source of noise is post-event traffic. Greenpointer Matt Maclean walks through the park with his three-year-old son daily but said the post-event car honking often wakes up his three-year-old son.
“The honking on Apollo St is bad enough during the day, but when it’s 2 AM wakes me up and wakes him up. That’s totally out of the ordinary,” said Maclean.
Eric Kun, another neighbor, said it would be better if the Parks Alliance worked with the community. Horowitz responded that the meeting was set up to work with residents, but Kun wants a follow-up meeting to keep the community involved in improvements. Horowitz also noted that the space started hosting larger events this past season.
“If people come together like this, we have the opportunity to have face-to-face time with you, this a little bit more empowering and it feels like there’s a connection, Kun said.
Balancing Act
While some suggested a complete shutdown of events, staff of North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, the nonprofit that designed the park, and Restler pointed out that the money from the concerts is reinvested in parks across Community District One. The nonprofit hires gardeners to maintain the grounds and provides much-needed maintenance to playgrounds and plazas.
The North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, which is registered as a nonprofit as Open Space Alliance for North Brooklyn, made $457,000 in 2022 from “Program Services”. This is significantly more than the $33,000 made the previous year before the nonprofit expanded programming in the Under the K Bridge Park. Program Services were about 34% of the total revenue. Contributions were 34% of income.
About $290,000 from the Parks Alliance goes towards staff salaries. The Parks Alliance spent $85,000 on park improvements in 2022.
Greenpointer Heidi Vanderlee said that if the city provides parks with more funding, then there would not be a need for concerts at Under The K and that District One residents are lucky to have another revenue stream for parks.
Greenpointer Kevin La Cherra said the Parks Alliance contributed supplies to clean up McGolrick Park in 2020 when mudslides occurred and funding was cut.
“We see what these parks look like day to day and how much worse they are when they’re not invested in,” La Cherra said.
Under the K Bridge will host six events scheduled from Sept 1 to Oct 12.
A micro-distribution center may come to Greenpoint as part of a pilot program for the city.
The center, known as a microhub, is a small distribution center for e-commerce companies such as Amazon. The program follows Local Law 166, which went into effect in Dec 2021 and mandates the city seek feedback on a possible microhub network, request interest from relevant businesses, and, in 2023, establish a pilot program to support these centers. .
The City Department of Transportation will open some areas for businesses to use as microhubs. One of the potential locations is under the BQE between Kingsland Ave and Sutton St. in Greenpoint, which is currently a low-demand parking lot. The pilot program allows this in a few areas before the DOT expands the program to other parts of the city.
According to a presentation about the program, similar microhub networks exist in Paris, Washington DC, and Seattle. The hubs are a solution to increased truck traffic and pollution due to the recent increase in e-commerce users since 2020. Freight Planner Katherine Ponte from the DOT estimates that four trucks per company would make trips to the microhub daily, which means 8-16 trucks total.
Courtesy of NYC Department of Transportation
As the owner of a microhub, a company would have to limit truck usage within the city. Companies would have the option to use cargo bikes, hand carts, or electric vehicles.
At a meeting on July 31, community members met on Zoom to give public comments to the DOT, and ask questions. Many residents are supportive of the idea but want strict regulations to minimize traffic in the immediate area and noise.
Ponte touted the program as a way to prevent injuries for e-commerce delivery people, who frequently have to sort packages on sidewalks or even on the street. Microhubs give workers room to sort packages within those neighborhoods, which would minimize the number of delivery trucks that block traffic lanes.
Bronwyn Breitner, a street safety advocate who lives near the potential site, is thrilled about the potential microhubs program but wants to ensure that the areas do not bring more congestion to the area, which already has a lot of traffic. Breitner is also worried about cyclist and pedestrian safety since she is waiting for bike lane improvements in the area.
Kevin La Cherra, another Greenpoint resident, wanted to know how the microhub would affect truck traffic in the immediate area.
Ponte noted the residents’ concerns and said that the DOT will soon conduct a cargo bike survey. The DOT authorized the use of E-cargo bikes in March 2024. Ponte said that the DOT can use the survey and feedback from the pilot program to find areas of improvement for bike-friendly infrastructure.
La Cherra also commented that current laws meant to decrease pollution are already not being enforced, such as idling laws, and that members of the community have been advocating for street safety improvements for years with no action from the DOT. La Cherra pointed to the proposed improvements to slow traffic at McGuinness Blvd, which the mayor famously rejected in 2023, and similar proposed changes to Kingsland Ave.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler decided to speak after Breitner and La Cherra’s comments, saying that while their frustration is valid, it is important to look at the “big picture”
“I don’t think that we should confuse what is a promising and exciting pilot project that I’m happy is happening in our neighborhood with some of the other initiatives that have not moved forward,” Restler said.
Restler clarified that he wants the program to be implemented in a way that benefits the community and appreciates the public input.
The DOT issued a Request for Expressions of Interest from businesses that wish to take part in the program. Ponte said that one of the conditions for businesses to set up a microhub will be that they adhere to policies that keep the area clean and minimize noise.
The DOT is currently working to finalize what businesses will take part in the pilot program, but cannot reveal names yet.
The People’s Firehouse, Inc. of Greenpoint and Williamsburg has been advocating for their community for nearly 50 years. When New York City faced a massive budget crisis in the 1970s, firehouses in all five boroughs were vulnerable to sweeping cuts. The People’s Firehouse was one of many organizations that fought back.
Now a non-profit focused on restoring and helping the community of Greenpoint-Williamsburg, The People’s Firehouse performs a myriad of services. A pillar of the organization focuses on anti-arson work and fire prevention education in hopes of reducing the number of fires in the area; the dangers associated with e-bikes and their highly flammable batteries are the newest opponent to fire safety, having caused deaths and injuries throughout the city. In addition to the more traditional firehouse services, The People’s Firehouse participates in building restoration and the tenant rights movement. By owning and restoring buildings in the area, the organization provides affordable housing to vulnerable individuals such as seniors. Tenants and smaller landlords can come to The People’s Firehouse if they are in need of help, and there is always an ear open to them there.
Originally called Engine 212, The People’s Firehouse was always a staple of its community. The three-story structure gave neighborhood residents a much-needed sense of safety during a time when house fire deaths were dramatically on the rise in New York City. Despite this gruesome trend, the decision was made to make cuts to fire protection all over the city. Engine 212 was officially chosen for closure in the fall of 1975, although rumors of firehouse budget cuts had been circulating for months. The community in which the firehouse resided was caught unaware when the day finally came, perhaps due to the logistics of the city’s plan. While residents of the neighborhood enjoyed Thanksgiving weekend with their families, the city was scheduled to seize Engine 212’s fire truck and shutter the building early that Saturday morning.
Within hours of receiving the news, the neighborhood came out in droves to protest the closing of their beloved firehouse. Hundreds of people rushed to the building, assisted by community leaders and advocates who worked quickly to organize the demonstration as best they could. With the city expected to arrive the next morning, many residents decided to bunk within the firehouse, creating a physical barrier between the fire truck and those who sought to seize it.
While many communities rallied around the firehouses that were slated to close in the mid-70s, none were as stalwart and dedicated as those in Greenpoint-Williamsburg. Protests of the city’s fire protection budget cuts were common, but they often died down or were snuffed out. The Engine 212 protests were different; the firefighters employed there actively assisted locals in their mission, and even participated as willing hostages within the building. Despite the city’s continued efforts to end the occupation of the firehouse, the neighborhood remained there for sixteen months.
In addition to residing within the building to prevent its seizure, community members and those who supported them held organized demonstrations and marches. During one of these marches, the group managed to briefly shut down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway as a form of protest. It was here that “The People’s Firehouse” was born; the neighborhood considered the firehouse to be a part of their community, belonging not to the city, but to the people.
In 1977, after sixteen long months of activism from the community, the city finally agreed to allow Engine 212 to re-open at full capacity. Forty-seven years after their monumental victory, The People’s Firehouse is still fighting for their neighborhood. Although they have faced setbacks and burdens throughout the years, people remain at the heart of the organization.
Politicians and tenant’s rights groups met with residents of Greenpoint for a town hall about the new “Good Cause” Evictions law, which went into effect in April 2024.
Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and State Senator Julia Salazar, who introduced the Good Cause law, hosted the event. Dominique Hood from the Metropolitan Council on Housing and Lino Diaz from Communities Resist gave presentations on what residents need to know about the Good Cause laws. Councilmember Lincoln Restler was also in attendance. Housing experts joined attendants in the El Puente Community Center to answer additional questions.
The Good Cause laws protect tenants in market-rate homes from unreasonable rent hikes and unjust evictions. It also allows tenants to challenge rent increases in court.
Are You Eligible?
It’s important to note that only certain homes are eligible for Good Cause protections. Only market-rate homes are protected, meaning they are not classified as Section Eight, NYCHA, Rent Controlled or Rent Stabilized units. Homes must also be built before 2009 and rent must be less than 245% of the market rate per month. Co-op homes and condos are not eligible for Good Cause protections.
Landlords have to notify tenants if their homes are covered under Good Cause for leases, renewals, rent hikes and evictions starting after Aug. 18. Your landlord must state why or why not you are protected under Good Cause.
Lastly, a Good Cause only applies to landlords who own more than 10 units. You can find out how many apartments your landlord owns by searching on whoownswhat.justfix.org
Can my rent increase if it is under Good Cause protections?
Landlords can reasonably raise rent if the apartment is under Good Cause protections. However, the increase cannot be more than 5-10% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Landlords have to provide advanced notice to tenants. Notices must be 30 days in advance for residents who have stayed in a unit for less than a year, 60 days for one or two-year stays, and 90 days for residents staying two or more years in a unit.
To increase the rent beyond 10%, landlords have to prove that a rent hike is necessary for the upkeep of the property.
Can I get evicted from my apartment?
In New York City, a landlord has to evict a tenant through a court proceeding. In a Good Cause unit, landlords have to have a good reason to evict you. The reasons include rent nonpayment, violating a substantial obligation of your lease, being a nuisance, or failure to provide the landlord adequate access to your unit, according to the Legal Aid Society.
How can I exercise my rights as a tenant in a Good Cause unit?
There are two different types of cases where the defense could be based on the Good Cause law: nonpayment and holdover cases. In a nonpayment case, the landlord’s goal is for the tenant to pay the missing rent. The case is closed once that rent is paid, according to Diaz. In a holdover case, the goal for the landlord is to get the tenant out of the unit whether rent is paid or not. If a landlord takes a tenant to court then the tenant can provide a defense or “answer.”
If you believe your rent was raised unjustly, you can use Good Cause as a defense for nonpayment in a rent trial. One example of a defense is the Warranty of Habitability, which means the landlord knew of certain conditions in the unit and did not fix them. Therefore, rent should be reduced.
For a nonpayment case, answers must be filed within 10 business days of receiving the petition. The form is available at the court clerk’s office. After filing, a court date is set. In a holdover, you must serve an answer before your first court date. The housing court may provide a form, or you can find it online.
Most importantly, tenants do have the right to have an attorney to represent them. NYC tenants are entitled to an adjournment at their first court appearance to find counsel. Tenants can also use the Right to Counsel program at their courthouse, which is access to free representation through nonprofit organizations.
Who can I contact if I have questions?
Many organizations advocate for tenants and provide legal services for free, such as the Legal Aid Society, Communities Resist, the Metropolitan Council on Housing, and Brooklyn Legal Services. Communities Resist has an intake hotline at (646)974-8761.
Natural light comes streaming in through the ceiling windows by day at 34 Norman Avenue. The newly minted commercial space was once a zipper factory, more recently a warehouse for a private owner’s hoards of scraps and refuse. When Caitlin Maestrini, whose Scandinavian furniture showroom opened to the public there on Friday, first took over the lease on the space it had dirt floors.
These have been paved over with smooth, gray cement now, to give a stable setting for the feet of the sofas and coffee tables and storage shelves that populate the 4,000 square feet of store and cafe within 34 Norman Avenue’s walls, the realization of a personal dream for Maestrini.
Now the space beneath the address’s vaulted ceilings is full of soft light and soft furniture, objects that are easy on the eyes and which sit gently in a visitor’s hands. A space as such doesn’t naturally suggest the descriptor cozy, but that is the feeling, more than any other, that Maestrini has achieved there.
A major part of that achievement is in the lighting, and the natural bits of it that spill in through the skylights and broad windows are supported by lamps set up in exhibition about the store, essential to Scandinavian interior decor as they are.
Before she was a furniture store owner Maestrini was a product specialist and education manager with an Italian designer lighting company, and traveled the US teaching sales representatives about the installations they sold. Before that, Maestrini was an educator who taught high school students about the fine arts and expression. In each of these varied stations there seems to have been something central in common: Ms. Maestrini wants to help people better understand how to use design to enhance their lives.
* * *
The Danish concept called hygge (hooe-gah) had its moment of popularity in the US in the 2010’s, and a fair amount of ink had been spilled and a fair number of marketing campaigns mounted, with hygge their focus, long before anyone had uttered the words covid and nineteen together.
The pandemic changed the situation some. Hygge is all about creating cozy spaces and cozy moments, burrowing in with the ones that you love and a glass of wine or hot cocoa under the flicker of candlelight while darkness and terrorizing storms haunt the world outside.
After March, 2020 that sounded just about right. People started investing more in their homes as they increasingly confined in them and many spent the contents of their stimulus checks on carefully selected objects that they hoped would brighten their lives inside and under quarantine.
It was a couple of years before all of this that Maestrini had traveled the constellation of Scandinavian countries north of Europe where she was studying a part of her master’s program in interior design. Her base was London, but she became fixed on the design principles and styles she began to discover further north, – later she would also discover Scandinavian ancestry in her family – and when she made her return to the US the images of Mid-Century Modern furniture and fixtures made it with her.
She founded Teak in 2021, to begin with, in order to bring Scandinavian home furnishings to the US that she hadn’t been able to find here since her return.
* * *
On the afternoon of the day before Teak would first welcome visitors inside its new location the sound of pneumatic drills pierced the interior air. There was the smell of fresh paint and a frenzy of activity as Maestrini and the ten employees who make up her team and a host of others sought to finish stocking shelves and straightening wall hangings and all of the other big and small details that go into making a new place feel like a new home.
She made her way to a quiet corner and put her phone face down on a coffee table, empty otherwise save for a simple vase with a buoyant bouquet of flowers, and sat on the sofa beside it, one among the models recognizable from the company’s website.
Once a pop-up shop, she’d moved the business to a little storefront space in Greenpoint about a year ago and now in the new, expanded space, – which will include a cafe and Scandinavian-styled deli run by her friend and collaborator Leah Flannigan – Maestrini felt Teak could finally set down and realize its real purpose.
“There are two main missions:” she explained, looking out into the room heaped with imported domestic products, “Educate people on hygge and Scandinavian lifestyle, and inspire them to create a beautiful space at home.”
“This place, New York, is chaotic,” she went on, “we’re always in a rush, we’re always in chaos – when I come home I just want a place to decompress.”
It was a notion not incongruous with the New Yorker mentality, Maestrini argued, even if the focus on minimalist, utilitarian living often called for in hygge seems to be at odds with New York’s striving, competitive, race-to-the-top attitude.
“When you’re trying to survive in this city you still need a place to land at the end of the day.”
Her project, she would allow, does in any case present some quietly transgressive ideas. To begin with, it is a physical showroom in the digital age, a brick and mortar store to which people are invited to come to touch and spend time with the things they might otherwise click on and have delivered.
Also, the products Maestrini and her team sell are meant to last, nothing of the turn-and-burn of conspicuous consumption of goods Americans generally use in their households and otherwise.
“In Scandy countries you would save for the pieces that you knew that you wanted to have in your home,” finally buying them with purpose and treating them with care. “You would have people passing down furniture to you, and you would also be buying your chairs and your tables and things to ultimately pass down to someone else as well.”
Maestrini’s is a woman-owned and led business focused on equitable pay and direct-sourcing from other small business manufacturers and artisans. The furniture and products her shop sells in turn are far from cheap, but they’re meant to be used a great deal and to last and each has a story to tell.
More important than anything, she explained, is the importance of changing peoples’ perspective on domestic life. Hygge encourages simple comforts and physical togetherness which are often missing in the age of increased isolation and virtual narcissism and vicarious living through screens and headsets. A home shouldn’t be just for crashing, a home shouldn’t be a lonely place, according to the hygge principles.
Ever the educator, Maestrini returned the meandering conversation to its origin question, objective: “I’m here to talk to New Yorkers about small space solutions, to talk to New Yorkers about Hygge. I want people to create a home that they’re happy with, where they feel cozy, where they feel calm.”
We might yet see our domestic space in a different light.
ExxonMobil Corporation and environmental consulting company Roux held its second public hearing on the consolidation of its groundwater treatment plant plans on July 18, and most of the public comments were directed at the future use of the land.
Community advocates, some who have commented multiple times on the plans, grilled ExxonMobil employees on the use of the potential old plant sites.
ExxonMobil has two groundwater treatment plants, but the oil company wants to consolidate the plants into one, according to a fact sheet from Roux. Public liaisons for the company said in a presentation that the treatment plants would be able to run more efficiently and that the project would include adding updated equipment that would last throughout the entire remediation process. The two plants are at 400 Kingsland Avenue and 5 Bridgewater St. The new plant will be at 38 Varick St.
However, attendees at the last public meeting with ExxonMobil discussed the use of the proposed empty land more than the SPDES permit. Advocates for Greenpoint’s environment expressed concerns about the future use of the land. Project Liaison, Kevin Thompson said that ExxonMobil does not disclose business dealings and that he could only hear suggestions about future land use. Thompson mentioned that the land is currently zoned for industrial use and that some new uses would require rezoning.
Willis Elkins from the Newtown Creek Alliance spoke to the ExxonMobil and Roux representatives about the importance of using the land to better the community. Elkins is not concerned about the consolidation plan but suggests the industrial land be a site for green energy production.
“I get ads all the time whenever I listen to WNYC and other podcasts and constantly bombarded by Exxon greenwashing ads about all the great stuff they’re doing to benefit the planet. This would be an ideal place to put that into practice.”
Elkins said that because the oil spill site has caused detrimental effects to the Greenpoint community, then ExxonMobil should use the site to positively impact the environment and community. His biggest concern, he said, was that the site would become a “last mile” distribution center, which the city council is working to limit. These centers act as quick distribution warehouses for e-commerce companies. Newtown Creek Alliance is a partner of the Last Mile Coalition, which advocates against such facilities.
“There’s a significant opportunity to integrate things like environmental restoration, habitat restoration that will not just benefit ecologically, but will also benefit the community as well.”
Elkins added that the company now has a chance to move the state towards green energy use, which is part of New York state’s new law to reach 70% clean energy use by 2030.
Kim Fraczek, director of the Sane Energy Project and a meeting attendant, agreed with Elkins and other Newtown Creek Alliance members that the land should become a green energy hub.
About the Greenpoint Oil Spill
After the Greenpoint oil spill was discovered in 1978, multiple oil companies, the city, and the state have made efforts to clean up the site, according to the Newtown Creek Alliance.. . The oil spill was discovered in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard after 140 years of spillage. Oil giants BP, ExxonMobil, and Chevron/Texaco would acquire the spill site through years of acquisitions since the breakup of Standard Oil. ExxonMobil says that over 13.5 million gallons of oil have been removed from the spill site
A settlement between ExxonMobil and then-Mayor Andrew Cuomo, advocacy group Riverkeeper and the Greenpoint community ruled that the oil company must clean up the oil. Previous efforts to clean up the site did not take care of the problem. The state of New York Department of Energy Conservation oversees the current cleanup efforts.
For information on the project, ExxonMobil has a document repository on Rouxinc.com.
Pioneering his own unique blend of South Asian fusion, Brooklyn-based musician and activist Sonny Singh is continuing a decades-long mission of bringing people together.
Singh was raised in Sikhism, a religion originating in the Punjab region of India that preaches meditation and equality of all people. Born of two Indian immigrants in North Carolina, Singh embraced his Sikh background as a way to cope with rising racial and ethnic tension in America.
“When times were tough, I found myself gravitating towards some of the [Sikh] devotional songs I learned as a kid,” Singh said.
Noting that the demographics of Charlotte in the 1980s was mostly white and Black people, Singh and his brother were the only children in their school who wore turbans. He described this as causing a deep feeling of isolation and otherness.
“Kids on the playground would ask me, ‘are you white or black?’ and I wouldn’t know how to answer,” he said.
Despite being part of a small minority in the American South, Singh found a way to feel he was a part of something. Exploring his heritage, and specifically the music of his ancestors, provided Singh an outlet to feel connection and peace within his community. Though there were not any gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in their area growing up, Singh was able to find meaning through playing music at small events, usually at community members’ houses.
After making his career in music, which he calls becoming “a musician with a capital ‘M,’” Singh found success in trying out many different genres. Participating in bands that played mixes of ska, reggae, punk rock, and other fused genres, he has only recently returned to his roots in Sikh-inspired compositions. After the release of his first solo album, Chardi Kala, in 2022, Singh fully embraced the style of music that comforted him in childhood while putting his own flair in every song.
Sonny Singh performing music from his debut solo album “Chardi Kala”
Singh’s second solo album, Sage Warrior, will be released on September 6th. While his recent work harkens back to the religious music of Sikhism, which he calls “sacred poetry,” Singh is not simply performing renditions of the spiritual hymns of his faith. His music combines different genres, languages and instruments to reflect the unique identity Singh has formed over decades of playing music.
While classical renditions of Sikh music usually contain the Punjabi language and instruments such as the harmonium and tabla (a type of South Asian drum), Singh expands on this. He can be heard singing in Punjabi, Spanish, English and Hindi; in addition, Singh’s skill as a trumpet player is utilized often, creating a distinctive new sound. While Singh notes that some more traditional Sikhs may disagree with his interpretation of their religion’s music and teachings, he is sure that his work is having positive effects for their community.
“It’s a constant evolution… I’m making music that makes sense to me and my own heart,” he said.
A facet of Singh’s work that is especially important to him is its foundation in social justice and activism. Since becoming involved in social causes as a teenager, Singh has continually worked to help others not only through his music, but through activism work as well. A major tenant of Sikhism is the notion that all people are equal: providing justice to everyone is paramount.
“This sacred poetry of our tradition, there is so much wisdom in it that’s applicable today… Sikh wisdom has always inspired me, has inspired my activism,” he said.
Through music and activism, Singh notes he was able to avoid falling into “despair and assimilation,” and keep his culture alive. During his live concerts, he gives context and history to the audience, most of whom are not Sikh themselves.
Singh describes his current musical journey as “Coming back to my past, coming back to ancestral wisdom.”
Sonny Singh’s new album Sage Warrior can be pre-ordered before release on September 6th at https://sonnysingh.com/.
The New York City Comptroller Brad Lander is suing the Planned Companies divisions for over $72,000 in unpaid wages to custodial staff, doorpeople, and security guards. The company provides services to The Williams apartment building.
The petition alleges that Planned Lifestyle Services and Planned Building Services failed to pay wages and benefits to staff members who worked at 282 S. 5th Street in Williamsburg. The company provides services to another building in Manhattan. Sam Spilkes LLC owns both buildings and the comptroller alleges that the company owes over $140,000 total in unpaid wages.
This lawsuit comes after a 2020 case of the same nature. Spilkes and the Comptroller’s office agreed to a settlement in which Spilkes agreed to pay $450,000 in lost wages, the Comptroller reports. The case was based on the same Williamsburg building.
“We cannot stand by while workers continue to be cheated out of their hard-earned wages,” said Claudia Henriquez, Director of Workers’ Rights at the Comptroller’s Bureau of Labor Law. “This is about ensuring fairness and accountability for all employees employed by Planned.”
Planned Companies did not respond to a request for comment.
Under the Real Property Tax 421a law, development companies can receive a tax credit for building multiple dwellings. In exchange, some apartments are subject to rent stabilization. One of the terms of receiving the benefits is that the company pays prevailing wage to workers. The prevailing wage is what workers for public works projects receive. The comptroller alleges that Planned companies violated the 421a eligibility requirements.
421a expired in 2022, but a “placeholder” law, 485-x, was enacted in April 2024. It provides similar benefits including prevailing wage requirements.
32BJ SEIU is a union that represents several workers at Planned Companies and helped with getting workers in touch with the comptroller about lost wages. President Manny Pastreich said that the company has repeatedly hurt hard-working staff members and thanked the Comptroller for his help.
“The union’s going to do its part to defend that, but the comptroller is doing his part,” Pastreich said. “We really appreciate it. We’ve fought very hard to win and defend these standards, and together with the Comptroller, will ensure that these workers get what they deserve.”
Pastreich clarified that this case is an exception and that most companies his union represents pay employees fairly. Pastreich emphasized that real estate companies should only support contractors that pay workers fairly.
The RealDeal reports that the comptroller’s office has resolved nine wage suits related to 421a buildings since 2022. The cases have involved construction workers rather than building service workers.
Jenn Miles grew up in the foster care system. She aged out at the age of 21 after years of cycling in and out of the hospital and various foster homes since the age of two. Now, at 30, Miles holds her six-month-old son on her chest in her own apartment in Crown Heights. Her goal is to be a better mother than her own and raise her son to achieve anything.
“I’m in a better stage, a better mindset,” Miles said. “I’m a different and better person from where I was before.”
It hasn’t been easy for Miles. She’s had to learn how to work through anger management problems and depressive episodes. She is working to maintain her wellness, and her son, Lucas, motivates her to do so.
“Aging Out”
In the system, Miles explained that she felt like an item rather than a person. She said she was abused in one foster home, and the case manager did nothing to resolve the situation. Miles said case workers rarely believe children in abusive foster homes.
“When I see kids in the system, I see nothing but sadness and anger,” Miles said.
Miles carried some of the same sadness and learned to be independent at a young age, like many foster kids. She wanted to be a social worker but decided not to pursue the career knowing the realities of the system.
Miles met Sharon Sorrentino, vice president of Child, Family, and Young Adult Services at the Institute of Community Living, while staying at a hospital. She was put into another ICL house for young adults who aged out of the foster care system. The first crucial item Miles received was support.
The ICL is a network of housing that provides supportive care to New Yorkers with behavioral health challenges. The organization provides supportive housing, healthcare, and recovery services to those in need.
An Administration for Children’s Services report from 2022 says 17 percent of 3,020 children in foster care “age out,” meaning children reach the age of 21 without being adopted or reunited with their parents or guardians. Foster children can technically exit the system at 18, but Miles did not recommend doing that because she saw many people who aged out at 18 become homeless. For young adults who choose to remain in care until their 21st birthday, the ACS will help them find housing in NYCHA or Section Eight.
Miles is able to take care of herself and her son through support of Emerson. Credit: Jean Brannum
Finding Support
Miles was excited to find out she was pregnant, but her behavioral challenges put her at risk of losing custody of her child. She also lost her supportive housing due to her pregnancy. She entered the Emerson house, another ICL establishment, to receive housing, behavioral, and case management support.
Emerson caters to single parents who are at risk of losing custody of their children or working to reunite with children in foster care due to behavioral health problems. Sorrentino explained that ICL works with courts and parents to avoid involvement from Child Protective Services by giving parents the necessary resources to care for their children. For parents working to reunify with their children, Emerson staff will help them by ensuring parents attend court sessions and maintain regular visits. Parents will then receive assistance with reestablishing a bond with their children after reunification.
For parents to reunite with their children, family courts require the parents to provide a stable place for them. Most single parents who are homeless will only be eligible for single adult homes, which include living with roommates and do not allow children. A child can also be barred from visitation since the parent lives with other strangers due to safety concerns. This creates a barrier to reunification for many families and can cause familial bonds to diminish.
“Sometimes families who are in the homeless shelter find themselves kind of between a rock and a hard place if they’ve been separated from their children, because they may not qualify for family housing, which then prevents them from being able to reunify with their children,” Sorrentino said.
The ACS report says 54% of foster children in 2022 were reunited with their families. The first goal of foster care is reunification, but as Sorrentino explained, the process can be long and tedious. Miles said she worked hard through her problems to make sure she never lost Lucas to foster care because it would be very difficult to regain full custody.
Emerson helps Miles by providing household and childcare support as well. Miles rattled off names of people who will help her with laundry and cleaning, and look after Lucas when she is due in court. Miles disclosed an incident at her previous job that she regrets. She said continues finding positive ways to express and manage her emotions.
Emerson also offers parenting support and community events. Miles is, by admission, an introvert, but she sometimes attends these events where single parents can bond and receive peer support.
Looking Ahead
Lucas will soon start daycare, and Miles is working to maintain her wellness. She continues to go to therapy and is working on producing music. She wants to teach her son about managing emotions and encourage him to be successful in academics.
“I want him to be successful in life and know that he can do anything he wants to.”
Being a single mom can be difficult, but Miles said that her solution to some of the chaos is kids’ TV show personality, Ms. Rachel.
“I can actually take my shower, I can actually clean or cook,” Miles said. “Most of the time, he wants to be in my arms but once I (turn on Ms. Rachel), I’m invisible, so I work with that.”
Currently, Miles plans to stay at Emerson until she is ready to be independent and move into her own place outside of ICL.
The Emerson program is, unfortunately, one-of-a-kind in the US. There are no similar programs in New York or any other state. The ICL continues to advocate for greater flexibility in the shelter system that will allow single parents to receive housing vouchers in appropriate apartments for their children, including children that parents hope to reunite with.
Courtesy of @AnatheaforNY and https://nyassembly.gov/
Emily Gallagher, a member of the DSA’s eight-person Socialists in Office caucus in Albany, is among the most progressive lawmakers in the state; the LLC Transparency Act and the All-Electric Buildings Act are among her legislative victories. She won her seat in Greenpoint and Williamsburg’s Assembly District 50 in 2020; prior to that, she researched environmental issues relevant to the district, worked at an education nonprofit, and engaged heavily with local activism. Her campaign pulled off a stunning upset by unseating third-generation lawmaker and 48-year incumbent Joe Lentol who outspent her ten to one; Gallagher found success in the increasingly liberal district amidst a larger wave of younger progressive newcomers taking on long-serving establishment representatives.
Now a crowd of local moderate Democrats, along with some powerful corporate donors, are aiming to take the seat back from the progressive wing. Gallagher is facing her first well-resourced challenger as an incumbent in Anathea Simpkins, a former teacher and single mother who currently serves as Associate Vice President of the gun violence prevention organization Sandy Hook Promise. Simpkins has identified herself as a Lentol protégé and benefits from the support of Brooklyn’s politically powerful Broadway Stages company, which has fought against the DOT’s proposed redesign of McGuinness Boulevard. She has her strongest local support among a more moderate crowd that opposes the DSA and is sentimental for Lentol’s reign.
The race is one of several throughout the boroughs that find themselves within a very expensive push to defeat DSA candidates in Democratic state primaries, drawing eyes and dollars from outside the district. Simpkins is one of ten assembly candidates receiving support from Solidarity PAC, a pro-Israel group with significant real estate interests spending against (mostly) DSA picks; nearly half of her funds through May 20 came from the group. Various independent expenditure groups have joined in on the campaign finance drama as well. The pro-charter school group Moving New York Families Forward, funded by Walmart heir Jim Walton and former mayor Mike Bloomberg, has dropped over $100,000 on Simpkins so far.
Simpkins’ campaign centers on an argument that the district is rife with division and that Gallagher is to blame. She frames herself as a mediator and a listener; her campaign motto is “putting the unity back in community.”
“I’m part of a group of moms that have been disheartened with the state of affairs in Greenpoint and Williamsburg for a while now,” Simpkins said in an April interview with the Queens Ledger. “I’ve been here for 17 years, and I’ve seen a lot of concerning trends over the past few years. We’ve never seen so much us-versus-them language, and pitting neighbors against neighbors, and ideologies instead of bringing people together to accomplish shared goals.”
Gallagher has always presented herself as a fighter. She established herself in the district as a local activist and community board member, organizing around issues including environmental justice, bike safety, housing, and sexual assault prevention. In an April interview with the Ledger, Gallagher pushed back against Simpkins’ messaging about political divides and bridge-building.
“What I’ve learned through doing advocacy for so long is that it is impossible to make everyone happy all the time, and there has to be a moral center to what you’re doing. Otherwise, you become a pawn for people with a persuasive interest, and usually that persuasive interest is big business,” Gallagher said. “We can see from what’s happening with the election, and the support that both of us are getting, that being a mediator and a peacemaker between people who have historically had significant power in this community, and people who have never had any power in this community — it gets messy.”
She added, “I’ve shifted the center of power, and that’s what people don’t like. I think that that’s okay. I think people need to learn to compromise, and I think that right now, I’ve been asking people to compromise who traditionally have never had to compromise, and that’s where the conflict comes from.”
On the Issues
When candidates speak in broad strokes about division and compromise in the 50th district, McGuinness Boulevard is often the issue under the surface.
Street safety advocates and local residents catalyzed by traffic-related deaths on the busy road have organized with the group Make McGuinness Safe for street safety improvements, eventually winning a proposed redesign from the DOT in May 2023 which included lane reductions, parking-protected bike lanes and pedestrian islands. An opposing group named Keep McGuinness Moving — organized in large part by the Argento family, which owns Greenpoint’s film production company Broadway Stages and donates generously to Democratic candidates across Brooklyn — campaigned hard against the proposal. Mayor Adams walked back the DOT’s plan for lane reductions in July 2023. The path forward for the project is unclear.
Gallagher has long been outspoken in support of the redesign and has torn into the campaign against it, while Simpkins advocates for coming up with an altered proposal.
“I think there are things that can be done to increase safety that don’t necessarily mean cutting down our only main artery and diverting trucks,” Simpkins said at a town hall campaign event, suggesting more crosswalks, improved arrow signals on traffic lights, and raised medians.
Simpkins has received at least $6,250 from the Argentos and has been enthusiastically endorsed by Keep McGuinness Moving. Gallagher received $5,150 from the family between 2021 and 2022, but said she decided to stop accepting funds from them after they succeeded in getting Adams to walk back the DOT’s plan.
“I could see that there could be a miscommunication there that the money that was being given was meant to influence my decisions,” Gallagher said.
Simpkins maintains that financial and political support from the Argentos has not influenced her own position on the issue.
“For the assumption to be made immediately that, because I’ve taken donations, I am being controlled by a man, is flat-out misogynistic,” Simpkins said in an April interview.
The candidates haveclearly diverging platforms on Housing, a hot button issue in the ultra-gentrified district. Gallagher was one of two architects of the Social Housing Development Authority bill introduced this past February, which calls for a new state agency to build permanently affordable cooperatively-controlled housing with union-only labor; she was also a supporter of the original Good Cause legislation. Simpkins, meanwhile, has mostly stuck to supporting the housing policies that did make it through the state budget in the end: she refrained from supporting Good Cause until its modified final version passed the budget, and has stated her support for the new 485-x affordable housing tax incentive passed to replace the 421a. Simpkins has also emphasized her support of small “mom and pop” landlords in the district.
“We have to stop villainizing landlords. That is something that has become a battle cry of the Democratic Socialists,” Simpkins said at a town hall event in late May.
When asked by the Queens Ledger if she had ideas as to how to keep the district affordable for long-time renters, Simpkins said the issue “goes into so many things that need to be unraveled.”
“This is something that I’m willing to work on and learn more about — again, anybody who comes up here and says they know 100% about anything is lying. So it’s something that I do need to learn about. What I do know is that it needs to be addressed immediately,” Simpkins said.
Gallagher has been fully supportive of Congestion Pricing and outspoken in her disapproval of Hochul’s decision to pause its implementation. Simpkins has been quieter on the issue since that most recent development, but outlined in her transportation policy platform that she would support exemptions for union members and low-income commuters.
Education is an issue Simpkins has put front and center in her campaign. While there are few immediately clear distinctions between Gallagher and Simpkins’ approach to the issue, Simpkins has emphasized her first-hand experience with the school system as a teacher. “I got into this because I wanted to fight for our schools,” Simpkins said in a May interview. “I want to be the education expert in Albany.”
“I have a deep knowledge of education policy, a deep understanding of it, and I understand how education works. We haven’t had any policy come forward that has to do with education. We have our schools suffering,” Simpkins said in an April interview, emphasizing her opposition to funding cuts for 3K, Pre-K, and after school programs. In a May interview, Simpkins alleged that Gallagher had made “no visits” to the district’s schools.
Gallagher’s chief of staff, Andrew Epstein, had different things to report about Gallagher’s interaction with the issue locally and in Albany.
“[Gallagher] was part of the fight that finally fulfilled New York State’s Foundation Aid commitments and fully funded K-12 education for the first time in state history. She’s dedicated hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital funds to making sure schools have the facilities and resources that they need,” Epstein said. “She’s visited every single school in the district, some of them multiple times.”
Gallagher has highlighted Simpkins’ support from big spenders in support of charter schools. Commenting on one mailer from Moving New York Families Forward, Gallagher wrote that the advertisements “never mention the actual issue that’s motivating these billionaires to spend against me: charter schools and the privatization of public K-12 education.”
Simpkins said that her campaign does not coordinate with PACs. “First of all, I don’t know anything about that. We don’t have any participation with the PACs that do marketing on our behalf,” she said in a May interview.
“I think that charter schools which are in existence need to be held to the same requirements, the same oversight as public schools,” Simpkins said. “I think that there should be a cap on charter schools. I think that we should be investing in our public schools and not putting a bandaid on things, because that’s what’s happening.”
Constituent services are another area where Simpkins has levied frequent critiques against Gallagher, alleging that they have “fallen off a cliff” since the incumbent took office. “You need to make sure that you have an active presence, that you provide language access, that your assembly office is visible, that it’s easily accessible by everyone in the district,” Simpkins said in a May interview, adding that she would provide longer hours and a streamlined process to make appointments online.
Epstein said Simpkins’ criticisms were “so wildly inaccurate, it feels like it’s coming from another planet.”
“The first thing that Emily did when she took office in 2021 was to move the district office, which had previously been tucked away in a pretty difficult to access part of the district for most constituents, and put it smack-dab on Manhattan Avenue in the heart of Greenpoint,” Epstein said. “We are there five days a week with a storefront office. We have an incredibly energetic and caring constituent services team that processes dozens of cases every single week. We are on the regular paths of elders in our communities who stop by to check on their cases or just to say hello.”
Party Power
Simpkins is not officially endorsed by the Brooklyn Democratic Party, but her campaign is in alignment with the goals of some of its top leadership. Party boss and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn has been an ally to the Argentos, supporting the Keep McGuinness Moving project. She also doled out an official party endorsement to Averianna Eisenbach and Everton Smith, two district leader candidates running in alliance with Simpkins (Eisenbach is a co-founder of Keep McGuinness Moving). It might be particularly crucial for Bichotte Hermelyn’s security as party chair to usher in as many votes as possible for that slate; her number of allied district leaders shrank from 26 to just 22 out of 40 after the 2022 primaries.
Simpkins has aligned herself closely with Lentol, referring to him as her mentor and working with one of his former staffers on her campaign. The former assemblymember introduced Simpkins to a crowd of supporters at her campaign launch, and he was there at her town hall event in June.
“He was in office for a long time. And I know that a lot of people felt like maybe it was time to hand the torch off, and I understand that,” Simpkins said in an April interview with the Ledger. “[But] he was really well-respected and he was able to act as the adult in the room — and that’s kind of my inspiration here.”
Since leaving office, Lentol has attended multiple Keep McGuinness Moving events; he took $16,900 from Anthony and Gina Argento himself while in his seat.
Lentol’s long tenure in the Assembly made him well-equipped to secure funds for the district. Thanks to an unofficial spoils system in the state legislature which rewards seniority, he was able to take home a large portion of earmarked taxpayer dollars to distribute to projects and programs in the district. His tenure had also enabled longstanding relationships between the representative and local organizations used to receiving a steady supply of those funds. All that was inevitably shaken up when Gallgher won; one progressive organizer in the borough said that those who are peeved to have lost their priority for funding in the transition may be among Simpkins’ backers.
State of the Race
Gallagher started out 2024 with about $68,000 to spare and raised a total of $77,850 since then, securing $148,544 in matching funds. Simpkins, after launching her campaign in late January, racked up funding quickly — she has raised a total of $120,145 since then, pulling in $114,615 in matching funds.
Overall, Simpkins has spent more than twice as much as Gallagher has, reporting $190,667 in expenditures.
Things have only gotten hotter in the final weeks before votes are counted. Simpkins spent about $84,940 in the month of June alone (Gallagher reported spending $23,700 over the same period). Moving Families Forward also made their $100,000 in expenditures for the challenger in late May and throughout June.
A New York Focus analysis found that approximately 45% of Simpkins’ donations up until May 20 came through Solidarity PAC. Since May 20, Simpkins has raised another $33,883.55: $28,900 of that is from just 11 individuals who also donated to the PAC in the same time period.
As spending has climbed, so has online discourse and drama. Simpkins has taken many opportunities to make harsh criticisms of Gallagher via X throughout her campaign — an article from the New York Post about the assemblymember’stickets, a publicly proposeddebate that she did not attend, and ongoing political turmoil regarding Community Education Council 14 have served as sticking points. Gallagher has been hitting back more as the election draws closer, generally focusing on Simpkins’ corporatedonors.
In a Thursday X exchange, Simpkins posted an apparently covertly-recorded video of a union carpenter stating his support for Trump in conversation with a passerby while canvassing for Gallagher. “My opponent has no local labor support, which is why she’s relying on Trump supporters to canvass for her,” Simpkins wrote about the video — prompting a scolding from the union’s political director and response from Politico journalist Jeff Coltin who pointed out that Gallagher has the support of over a dozen local unions. “Labor aligns with DSA when they’re incumbents,” Coltin reminded X users.
On Friday, a truck drove around the district sporting a huge digital screen reading “Anathea Simpkins has been bought and paid for by Real Estate/ Sincerely, The Carpenters Union.”
Gallagher has the advantage of a wealth of endorsements. Aside from blue collar unions and myriad progressive organizations, Gallagher has the backing of Planned Parenthood, Eleanor’s Legacy, the United Federation of Teachers, and the New York State Nurses Association. She added an endorsement from Congresswoman Alexandria Occasio-Cortez to that list on Tuesday — the same day the congresswoman endorsed Larinda Hooks, who is running an increasingly competitive race in Queens.
Simpkins, for her part, recently secured the backing of the National Association of Social Workers’ local chapter. She’s supported by three other unions, including the local Uniformed Fire Officers Association and Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 (largely representing employees of the film industry). Simpkins cross-endorsed Gabi Madden, a fellow Solidarity PAC endorsee challenging a DSA incumbent in the Hudson Valley, in late May.
The contentious primary season in the district will come to a close on Tuesday, June 25. You can find your local polling site here; early voting hours run until 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Editor’s Note: Emily Gallagher formerly worked as a columnist for BQE Media.
Editor’s Note: A different version of this article was published in print on June 20, 2024.
