Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: Box Street Park broke ground in Greenpoint, NYC Ferry fares go up on October 19; Jimmy Kimmel taped a week of shows at BAM, the Art of Manga opened at the Brooklyn Museum; City Hall says the World Cup brought in $2 billion; a two-year rent freeze took effect for about a million apartments; and the Liberty became the first No. 8 seed ever to knock out a No. 1. Read on for the latest!
Transit & Streets
The BQE rebuild’s study plan is out, with a decade-long bypass over Furman Street and the Brooklyn Bridge approach
The city’s Department of Transportation released the Draft Scope of Work for the BQE Central project on Friday, the document that says what the environmental study will examine for the 1.5-mile stretch between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street. The headline for Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO is a temporary two-level, four-lane bypass over Furman Street and, north of Columbia Heights, over the existing BQE and the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, in place for more than a decade. Streetsblog reports it would require removing Harry Chapin Playground, to be restored later, and would directly affect Squibb Park, Hillside Dog Park and Anchorage Plaza. Rehabilitation is estimated at $3.5 to $4 billion, with construction expected to begin in 2029 and finish by 2040. Virtual Q&As are on Tuesday, October 6 at 7pm and Thursday, October 22 at 11am; public scoping meetings follow on November 10 (in person) and November 12 (virtual), and comments are due November 23. Our explainer on the rebuild is here.
Biketober: the Brooklyn Bridge bike route gets a protected path from Boerum Hill to DUMBO
DOT opened “Biketober” on Thursday by announcing that the standard bike lane on Adams Street and Boerum Place becomes a two-way protected path from Bergen Street to Johnson Street, part of a redesign that will cover just over one mile from Boerum Hill to DUMBO, with a protected lane on Adams Street from Sands to York Street and an upgraded standard lane on Sands Street. The bridge now averages 5,625 cyclists a day, up 112% from 2,652 in 2021. Work between Atlantic Avenue and Tillary Street starts this year; Bergen to Atlantic follows next year. The month also brings free helmet and light giveaways and learn-to-ride classes, per the DOT release.
NYC Ferry fares go up on October 19
The one-way fare rises from $4.50 to $5 on Monday, October 19; the discounted fare goes from $1.45 to $1.50, a 10-trip pack from $29 to $30, and the $15 two-day pass becomes permanent. The city’s Economic Development Corporation, whose board approved the changes on Wednesday, cites rising operating and fuel costs, per ABC7; Gothamist reports the increases bring in about $2 million a year.
Events & Entertainment
Jimmy Kimmel brought his show to BAM for a week, and Pete Davidson asked the mayor to fix the BQE
For the eighth year, Jimmy Kimmel Live! taped from BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House in Fort Greene, Monday through Friday. Monday brought Pete Davidson, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and TV on the Radio; the week ran through Howard Stern and Amy Schumer, Billy Crystal, Mahershala Ali and De La Soul, John Oliver and Seth Meyers, and closed Friday with Paul McCartney, Senator Bernie Sanders and Goose. Davidson told the mayor “The BQE has been under construction since before I was born”; Mamdani said the work would proceed “over the next 10 years: full safety, no diversion of traffic,” per Yahoo Entertainment.
The Art of Manga opened at the Brooklyn Museum
Art of Manga, the first major exhibition in the Americas to treat Japanese comics as an art form, opened on Saturday, October 3 with more than 600 original drawings, from ONE PIECE and Inuyasha to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and runs through January 31, 2027. Timed tickets, which include the rest of the museum, are $30 for adults, $21 for ages 13–19 and $12 for ages 4–12. Our guide to the show, and what your kids will recognize, is here.
The rooftop roller rink is back at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Empire Skate of Mind reopened on the museum’s rooftop terrace on Thursday for a second season, through April 11: Wednesday to Friday 2–5pm and weekends 10am–5pm, for families with children ages 3 and up. Museum admission is $15 per person; skating is $10 more with rental skates or $8 with your own.
Police Blotter
A man died after his bag caught in the doors of an A train at Utica Avenue
Yaw Boahene, 57, was killed at the Utica Avenue A station in Bed-Stuy at 5:48pm on Monday, September 28, when the plastic shopping bag he was carrying as he got off a Manhattan-bound train caught in the closing doors and he was dragged onto the tracks, police said, per Gothamist. The MTA says the doors were working properly; the conductor and train operator have been held out of service while the MTA and the National Transportation Safety Board investigate.
Two men were shot at the Whitman Houses in Fort Greene
A 62-year-old and a 21-year-old were shot on North Oxford Walk at around 1:08am on Thursday, October 1; both were taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist in stable condition and are expected to survive. The shooter fled north on Myrtle Avenue in a gray Honda Civic; no arrests have been made, per ABC7.
A student was taken into custody with a gun at a Bed-Stuy high school
Police responded to Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology at about 2:07pm on Tuesday, September 29 after a report of a student with a firearm, and a 17-year-old student was taken into custody, the same day as a similar incident at a Bronx high school, per News 12.
City Hall & Housing
City Hall says the World Cup brought in $2 billion
The World Cup produced $2.0 billion in total economic impact for the city, including $1.2 billion in direct visitor spending and $162 million in operational spending, and supported 12,100 jobs, according to an analysis by the city’s Economic Development Corporation with Tourism Economics, released by the mayor’s office on Wednesday; the regional figure for all eight matches at New York New Jersey Stadium is $3.5 billion. NYC Tourism found international Visa card spending up 19% in Brooklyn during the tournament.
A two-year rent freeze took effect for about a million rent-stabilized apartments
The Rent Guidelines Board’s 0% increase on one- and two-year leases took effect on Thursday, October 1. Landlords are suing, arguing the mayor improperly influenced the board, and a Staten Island judge has ordered the city to hand over communications between the mayor’s office and board personnel from January 1 to June 25, NY1 reports.
Bay Ridge is one of 12 districts on the mayor’s affordable-housing fast track
From January 1, qualifying affordable-housing proposals in Brooklyn Community Districts 10, 12 and 18 (Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights; Borough Park and Kensington; Canarsie and Flatlands) get a roughly 90-day review with the City Planning Commission making the final call, instead of the full land-use process, per amNY. The 12 districts citywide produced 724 affordable units in five years, 1% of the total. Council Member Kayla Santosuosso told The City: “If we have to build somewhere in the neighborhood, this is where we could stand to build.”
Schools & Childcare
The mayor said the school system “failed” Nikole Hannah-Jones’s daughter at PS 307
A week after the journalist’s essay revisiting her 2016 decision to enroll her daughter at PS 307, Mayor Mamdani said on WNYC on Tuesday that her account was “an articulation … of the systemic … way that the public school system in our city failed her child,” per Education Week. Hannah-Jones has asked when the city will present a plan to dismantle school segregation.
A seven-acre outdoor high school campus is coming to Floyd Bennett Field
The education nonprofit Runway Green has won a 60-year lease for a sustainability-focused campus for city public high schoolers at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn Paper reports. The first phase is a three-acre urban farm with The Campaign Against Hunger; a CUNY dual-credit pilot launches this winter, and groundbreaking is expected in 2027.
Real Estate & Development
Box Street Park broke ground in Greenpoint
Mayor Mamdani, Parks Commissioner Tricia Shimamura and the Economic Development Corporation’s Anthony Shorris announced the start of construction on Thursday on the $40 million, 2.5-acre park on a former MTA site along Newtown Creek, promised to the neighborhood in the 2005 waterfront rezoning, as Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez and Council Member Lincoln Restler both noted. Plans call for an elevated esplanade, terraced granite seating, gardens, a lawn, a basketball court, a picnic area, separate dog runs and a public restroom; construction is expected to finish by the end of summer 2028.
A 257-unit rental tower finished construction at 880 Atlantic Avenue
Eight80 BK, EMP Capital Group’s 19-story building by Issac & Stern Architects in Prospect Heights, has completed construction with 257 studio-to-two-bedroom rentals, 65 of them affordable at 130% of area median income for households earning $38,538 to $227,500, plus ground-floor retail and a children’s playroom, per New York YIMBY.
Food & Drink
Smør Bakery opened in Carroll Gardens
Smør, the Nordic-inspired bakery with shops in the East Village and Williamsburg, opened its Carroll Gardens location on Thursday, October 1 at 361 Court Street, at the corner of President Street, with pastries, coffee, breakfast and lunch, plus a to-go window.
Mythily opened in Williamsburg
Top Chef alum Rasika Venkatesa opened Mythily, her Tamil and South Indian restaurant named after her grandmother, on Wednesday, September 30 at 129 Havemeyer Street, between South First and Grand Streets.
Aokō Matcha opened in Park Slope
Aokō Matcha, the matcha gelato café that serves its gelato in five intensities, opened its newest location at 155 Fifth Avenue on Monday, September 28, per Eater NY. Gelato, soft serve, parfaits and matcha and hojicha drinks: an easy after-school stop.
Chip City closed its three Brooklyn shops, and OddFellows left Domino Park
Chip City closed all 24 of its cookie shops on Thursday, October 1, Brooklyn’s included, citing “significant macro-economic headwinds,” per amNY. OddFellows closed its Domino Park ice cream shop at 40 River Street on Sunday, September 27; its DUMBO and Chelsea shops continue. And Wayward Fare, the wood-fired Mediterranean restaurant in Prospect Heights, closed on Friday, October 2, per Eater NY.
Sports
On the Court
The Liberty swept top-seeded Minnesota out of the playoffs: 91-75 in Minneapolis on Sunday, with 34 points and 12 rebounds from Breanna Stewart, then 87-71 at Barclays Center on Tuesday, making them the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 in the league’s 30-year history. The best-of-five semifinal against Atlanta starts Sunday, October 4 at 2pm on ABC, with Game 3 at Barclays on Friday, October 9 at 7:30pm. The Nets held Media Day on Monday and opened training camp on Tuesday; the preseason starts Tuesday, October 6 at Charlotte, with the home opener against Philadelphia at Barclays on Thursday, October 8.
On the Pitch
Brooklyn FC’s men lost 3-1 to Detroit City at Maimonides Park on Wednesday, a McNamara penalty their only goal, and are out of playoff contention. The women beat Fort Lauderdale United 1-0 on Friday on a 76th-minute goal from Carlee Giammona, their first clean sheet of the season; they host Dallas Trinity on Saturday, October 10 at 4pm.
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