Daniel L. Squadron's News items

By Joseph De Avila

A fight over proposed housing in Brooklyn Bridge Park and how to pay for park operations reached a new stage on Tuesday.

The partially built 85-acre park was originally to be funded by adding around 700 units of housing in the park. But locals balked, saying that housing would detract from the park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Corp., the nonprofit overseeing the park, appointed a committee to find alternatives to pay for the park's estimated $16 million in yearly operating costs.

On Tuesday, that committee voted in favor of recommending several revenue options that would fall short of the money needed to pay for the park's annual costs.

With the end of the legislative session approaching, Sen. Daniel Squadron, D-Carroll Gardens, and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, are stepping up efforts to pass legislation they introduced in January (S.1510/A.1986) that would toughen domestic violence laws by creating a new felony charge of "aggravated domestic violence" for repeat offenders who might only face a low-level misdemeanor charge under the existing statutes.

"It's rare that we have an opportunity to vote on something that has as personal and immediate of an impact on our constituents as marriage equality," said Senator Squadron. "Living up to New York's values means providing equal rights for all. That's why I will fight to win over my undecided colleagues and make sure we get this passed this year."

“A solution that doesn’t solve the problem is no solution at all,” said New York State Sen. Daniel Squadron, whose district includes parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, and who was among those who signed the letter to Pinsky. “We’ve worked for a year to solve the problem. For a year after the tourist helicopters left the West Side, we worked closely with the industry and with the City, and they worked closely with us, which I really appreciated. The problem, though, is that you have too great a density of helicopters in too small an area.”

Brooklyn Officials Aren’t Giving Up

By Mary Frost, Brooklyn Eagle

BROOKLYN — Brooklyn officials say they will be soaring ahead in pursuing a complete ban on tourist helicopter flights from the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, regardless of a negative stance from the Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) - Albany is looking to put some teeth into the state’s domestic violence law. Lawmakers want to put repeat offenders behind bars before they cause serious harm to other potential victims.

International Business Times

Thursday, June 2, 2011 4:08 PM EDT

By Jeremy B. White

In March, a Chinatown bound bus returning from a casino careened off the road and was shorn in half, killing 15 people. Two days later, a driver and a passenger perished when a bus traveling from New York to Philadelphia hurtled into an embankment off the side of the New Jersey Turnpike. And on Tuesday, a bus owned by Sky Express rolled over in Virginia, killing four people.

NY Daily News

BY Erin Durkin AND Jake Pearson DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, June 2nd 2011, 4:00 AM

Tourists helicopters won't be grounded despite noise complaints.

The Bloomberg administration Wednesday refused demands from Brooklyn pols to ban noisy helicopter tours over the city.