Brooklyn’s biggest stories this week: Hollywood comes to Brooklyn Heights as Lindsay Lohan, Kit Harington and Shailene Woodley film a Hulu thriller on Orange Street; both suspects are indicted in the killing of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore; a deadly Easter Sunday shooting in Cypress Hills; Mamdani marks his first 100 days with potholes, prisons and a “mom-and-pop czar”; Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz sell their Cobble Hill townhouse for $11.8 million; pink birds take flight over Prospect Park; Coney Island’s baby penguin gets a name; and the Nets upset the Bucks. Read on for the latest.
Real Estate & Development
Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz Sell Cobble Hill Townhouse for $11.8 Million
After nearly a decade in Cobble Hill, Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz have officially closed on their landmarked townhouse at 22 Strong Place, selling for approximately $11.8 million in a deal that became public this week. The four-story, 6,600-square-foot brownstone — sold off-market through Compass agent Pamela D’Arc — nearly doubled the $6.75 million the couple paid in 2017, when they bought it from author Martin Amis and his wife Isabel Fonseca following a New Year’s Eve fire that damaged the top floor. The home sits on a notably deep lot with a west-facing backyard anchored by a mature mulberry tree. This is the second Strong Place property the couple has parted with in just over a year — they sold the adjacent 20 Strong Place for $4.05 million in February 2025 — raising questions about whether their Brooklyn chapter has come to an end. Craig and Weisz still keep homes in London’s Primrose Hill and on a 124-acre property in Ulster County.
Events And Entertainment
Hollywood Comes to Brooklyn
Brooklyn Heights got a dose of star power this week as filming continued for the new Hulu limited series Count My Lies, with Lindsay Lohan, Kit Harington and Shailene Woodley spotted on Orange Street and around Plymouth Church. The production has transformed the historic church (founded in 1847) into the fictional “Mockingbird School,” while a residential building on Orange Street was dressed up as a hospital, complete with extras in white coats and scrubs. Based on Sophie Stava’s 2025 suspense novel, the series follows Sloane Caraway (Woodley), a compulsive liar who fibs her way into a nanny job for a wealthy and charismatic couple played by Lohan and Harington. Both Lohan and Woodley are also executive producing, and the project marks Lohan’s long-awaited return to scripted television. The shoot, directed by Antonio Campos and led by This Is Us showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, is scheduled to run through July 9 across Brooklyn and Queens, so don’t be surprised if you spot a few more film trucks around the neighborhood in the coming months.
BAM Celebrates 90 Years of Hoyt-Schermerhorn with Film Series
Happy birthday to Brooklyn’s most cinematic subway station. BAM is marking the 90th anniversary of the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop with “Stand Clear of the Closing Doors,” a weeklong film series (April 9–16) featuring movies shot in and around the iconic Downtown Brooklyn station. The lineup includes The Warriors, Coming to America, The Wiz, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Taking of Pelham 123 — all of which used Hoyt-Schermerhorn’s decommissioned platform as a stand-in for other locations across the city. The series kicked off today, April 9, the station’s actual birthday. Tickets and showtimes at bam.org.
Police Blotter
Two Men Indicted in Killing of 7-Month-Old Kaori Patterson-Moore
A Brooklyn grand jury on Tuesday indicted 21-year-old Amuri Greene and 18-year-old Matthew Rodriguez on second-degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was killed by a stray bullet while in her stroller in East Williamsburg on April 1. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said prosecutors would pursue the case against Rodriguez, the alleged moped driver, under an “acting in concert” theory, holding him accountable alongside the alleged shooter. Greene faces three counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, first-degree reckless endangerment, three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and several weapons charges. Rodriguez, who fled to Pennsylvania after the shooting and was apprehended there last week, has waived extradition and is expected to be arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court within the week. Gonzalez also cast some doubt on the earlier theory that the baby’s father was the intended target, saying he was not yet prepared to confirm that publicly.
Deadly Easter Sunday Shooting in Cypress Hills
A 24-year-old Brooklyn man, Michael Mendoza Cardona, was charged on Monday with murder, attempted murder and weapons possession in connection with a brazen Easter Sunday shooting in Cypress Hills that left one man dead and another in critical condition. According to police, Mendoza Cardona allegedly walked up to a group outside a deli at 2961 Fulton Street just before 6pm on April 5 following an argument and opened fire at close range, continuing to shoot after the victims fell to the sidewalk. The 30-year-old victim, Jose Urena Moran, was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital; the 50-year-old man remained in critical condition at last report. The incident was caught on surveillance video.
City Hall
Mamdani’s First 100 Days
Mayor Mamdani marked the approach of his 100th day in office this week with a flurry of announcements aimed at showcasing what his administration calls a “no problem too big or too small” approach to city governance. Here’s the rundown.
100,000 Potholes Filled
On Monday, Mamdani picked up a shovel on Olympia Boulevard in Staten Island to ceremonially fill the city’s 100,000th pothole of the year — the highest first-100-days total in more than a decade, according to City Hall. The repair effort followed a brutal winter that left the city’s streets cracked and pockmarked, and was accelerated by three Saturday “pothole blitzes” in March, each of which deployed 80 DOT crews to fill a week’s worth of holes in a single day. “This is pothole politics,” Mamdani told reporters. “We know that New Yorkers are measuring the impact of city government in these ways, and they’re saying that if you want me to believe in the promise of universal child care, you have to show that you can deal with the smallest kind of issues that have often been overlooked.” DOT will now pivot to its seasonal repaving program, with plans to repave 1,150 lane miles of city roads in the coming months.
Bellevue Therapeutic Housing Unit Opens as First Step Toward Closing Rikers
On Tuesday, Mamdani announced the opening of a long-delayed 104-bed Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, designed to transfer some of the most medically vulnerable detainees off Rikers Island and into a hospital setting with closer access to specialty care like oncology, cardiology and neurology. It’s the first of three planned units — with additional sites at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Hospital and the Bronx’s North Central Bronx Hospital still to come — and Mamdani framed it as an early concrete step toward closing Rikers. “Rikers, as we know, is broken,” he said at a press conference at Bellevue. “Today, we are charting a different course.” Patients began moving in on Wednesday. The mayor also acknowledged that the legally mandated 2027 deadline to close Rikers remains “practically impossible” given delays under the previous administration.
Mayor Names City’s First “Mom-and-Pop Czar”
Delivering on a campaign promise, Mamdani also appointed Delia Awusi this week as New York City’s first-ever Mom-and-Pop Czar, a new role dedicated to helping the city’s smallest businesses navigate City Hall. Awusi, who brings more than a decade of experience supporting neighborhood entrepreneurs through the Business Outreach Center Network, will focus on ultra-small businesses, family-run stores and intergenerational shops — the kind of family operations that line so many Brooklyn commercial corridors. Reporting directly to Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su, Awusi will work to cut down the runaround small business owners face on permits, inspections and fines. The appointment is part of Mamdani’s broader push to slash small business fees and fines by 50 percent. “Mom-and-pop businesses give every block, every neighborhood, every borough its unique identity,” Awusi said in a statement.
Community
Pink Birds Take Flight Over Prospect Park
If you happen to be wandering near the Prospect Park Boathouse this spring, look up: a flock of neon pink kinetic birds is now soaring 15 feet above the Lullwater. The installation, called The Journey, is the work of Brooklyn-based artist Risha Gorig, presented through the NYC Parks Art in the Parks program in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, and on view through August 31. Catching the wind in loose formation, the sculptures are meant to evoke migration and the universal search for shelter, food and a place to call home. “Surviving in urban landscapes such as our cities is hard for everybody — animals and humans alike,” Gorig said. A perfect spring break detour for kids who like their public art bright and bird-shaped.
Coney Island’s Baby Penguin Has a Name — And It’s Walter
The critically endangered African penguin chick who debuted at the New York Aquarium in March finally has a name: Walter. The reveal came on Good Morning America on Monday, April 6, in honor of Hans Walter, a longtime aquarium curator and field scientist who helped protect animals and staff during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Walter the penguin hatched on December 4, weighing just 63.2 grams (about two ounces), and is now a healthy 7.5 pounds, fully feathered, swimming, hopping and socializing with the 37 other African penguins at the aquarium’s Sea Cliffs habitat. He’s the 19th African penguin hatched at the New York Aquarium, part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan for the species, whose wild populations have dropped by roughly 75 percent in the past two decades. With fewer than 20,000 adult African penguins left in the wild, Walter is a small but mighty win for conservation — and a very cute reason to head down to Coney Island this spring break.
Sports
On the Court
What a week for the Nets. Brooklyn closed out its home schedule with two big wins to start the week, beating the Washington Wizards 121–115 on Sunday, April 5 and then pulling off a real upset on Tuesday night, knocking off the Milwaukee Bucks 96–90 at Barclays. Rookie forward E.J. Liddell led the way with a career-high 21 points, while guard Ben Saraf added 19 in a strong all-around effort. The win gave the Nets two in a row and three of their last five — a feel-good stretch as the season winds down. Brooklyn closed out the home portion of its 2025–26 schedule on Thursday night against the Indiana Pacers, who were the tougher matchup of the week and ran away with it 123–94. The Nets (20–59) finish on the road this weekend at Milwaukee on Friday and at Toronto on Sunday.
On the Diamond
It’s a tough start for the Brooklyn Cyclones, who are now 0–4 to open the 2026 season after dropping their first two games of a six-game road series against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in Lakewood, N.J. Tuesday night brought a 5–1 loss, and Wednesday’s game ended 10–3 in favor of Jersey Shore. There were bright spots: newly added infielder Kevin Villavicencio launched his first High-A home run on his very first at-bat with the Cyclones on Wednesday, and reliever Irving Cota threw 3.2 scoreless innings on Tuesday. Brooklyn will look to break into the win column as the road series continues through Sunday, before heading home to Maimonides Park for a six-game homestand against the Greensboro Grasshoppers starting April 14. Hang in there, ‘Clones — it’s a long season.
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