Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: The BQE is getting a $4 billion, 10-year rebuild, three Brighton Beach teenagers died in a crash on the Belt Parkway; Spike Lee brought his Michael Jackson block party back to Fort Greene Park; more than a thousand 3-K and pre-K programs headed into September without their city money; the mayor broke ground on a $36 million rebuild of the Eastern Parkway Library; Landmarks votes Tuesday on 61 apartments inside the Hotel Bossert; a Carroll Gardens coffee shop that turns into a wine bar opened on Court Street; most of Coney Island’s beach is closed to swimming; and the Liberty clinched a playoff spot for the sixth year running. Read on for the latest!
Police Blotter
Three teenagers are killed in a Belt Parkway crash
Five teenagers were in a Cadillac Escalade that braked in the center lane of the eastbound Belt Parkway near 65th Street late Tuesday night and was rear-ended, sending the SUV into the guardrail. Three of them died: Huzayfah Makharesh, 18, Konstantin Gerantidi, 17, and Abdul Rehman, 16, all from Brighton Beach and all living within about a mile of one another. Police said the three who were ejected were not wearing seat belts, and that the investigation into the Escalade’s speed was continuing. No arrests had been made. Gothamist spoke to the families.
Events & Entertainment
Spike Lee brings BK Loves MJ back to Fort Greene Park
Spike Lee’s free Michael Jackson block party returned to Fort Greene Park on Saturday, noon to 7pm, with DJ Spinna on the music. The date is not an accident: August 29 was Jackson’s birthday, and he would have turned 68. Lee has been throwing the party since 2009.
Childcare & Schools
3-K and pre-K programs went into the last stretch of August without city money
More than a thousand of the community organizations that run the city’s free 3-K and pre-K seats had not received the advance payment the Education Department normally sends in August, because their contracts have not been registered. Directors described covering payroll from savings and credit lines two weeks out from opening day. One Brooklyn operator, Little Scholars, said it was carrying roughly $600,000 a month in unpaid city receivables. City Hall said it was working to register the contracts or provide interest-free loans. City & State broke the story.
School does not start until September 10, and parents are still covering the gap
New York City is the only one of the twenty largest school districts in the country that waits until September, which leaves families roughly eleven weeks to fill. Summer Rising ended August 14; the camps still running charge accordingly. If you are still looking for camps until school starts, we rounded up the Brooklyn camps running right up to the first day.
City Hall
The BQE is getting a $4 billion, 10-year rebuild — what it means for Brooklyn families
On Monday, August 24, Mayor Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn announced a plan to rehabilitate BQE Central — the roughly 1.5-mile, City-owned stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street. It includes the 0.4-mile triple cantilever that carries the highway beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Here is what the City is planning to do, and what it means for the streets, parks and playgrounds your family uses.
The Eastern Parkway Library is getting a $36 million rebuild
The mayor, the Department of Design and Construction and Brooklyn Public Library broke ground Thursday on a renovation of the Crown Heights branch that expands its public space by more than half, adds accessible entrances and an enlarged Adult Learning Center, and puts in outdoor seating. What has not been announced is whether the branch closes during construction, which is the part parents will want. Branch hours are here.
Real Estate & Development
Landmarks votes Tuesday on 61 apartments inside the Hotel Bossert
Revised plans for the 1909 hotel at 98 Montague Street went back to the Landmarks Preservation Commission this week, with the two new top floors pulled further back from the historic parapet and darker cladding proposed. The conversion would create 61 condominiums aimed largely at three- and four-bedroom buyers, plus a 3,200-square-foot restaurant from Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group. It sits on the September 1 calendar as a public meeting item, which means testimony has closed and Tuesday is the vote.
311 affordable apartments near Cooper Park are close to done
The facade is nearly finished at 89 Maspeth Avenue in East Williamsburg, an 18-story, entirely affordable building with 311 apartments due in spring 2027. It is one phase of a four-part redevelopment of the old Greenpoint Hospital site that is meant to deliver 557 affordable homes, with a children’s playroom in every phase. New York YIMBY has the progress photos.
Openings & Amenities
A coffee shop that becomes a wine bar opened on Court Street
Light Switch opened Tuesday at 333 Court Street in Carroll Gardens, in the old Brooklyn Strategist space: coffee in the daytime, wine at night. It is built out of reclaimed Coney Island boardwalk planks and cedar from city water towers, staffs through the refugee culinary program Emma’s Torch, and takes a third off if you bring your own cup. Details here.
Ugly Baby came back, twice the size, in Williamsburg
The Thai restaurant that closed in Carroll Gardens at the end of 2024 reopened Thursday at 364 Grand Street with about seventy seats over two floors and a full liquor licence. Chef Sirichai Sreparplarn is still cooking it as hot as he always did. Ugly Baby.
Lincoln Market opened its ninth store in Williamsburg
The Greenpoint-founded grocer opened on Thursday at Kent Avenue and South 6th Street. Lincoln Market.
Ashbox Cafe closed after eighteen years in Greenpoint
Yoko Kubo announced last Friday that the Manhattan Avenue cafe she opened in February 2008 was closing, citing worsening arthritis. A farewell inventory sale ran this week. Ashbox Cafe.
A Vietnamese bakery Brooklyn families missed is coming back in November
Bạn Bè, the first Vietnamese American bakery in the city, closed its Carroll Gardens window when its five-year lease ended. Doris Hồ-Kane and business partner Anna Lai are reopening a few blocks away in the Columbia Street Waterfront District in November, in a bigger space that keeps the to-go window and adds indoor seating for the first time. The bánh bò nướng, bánh kẹp, chè, bánh mì, Vietnamese butter cookies and cà phê sữa đá are all coming back, with new pandan desserts, lunch options and pantry goods. A Kickstarter covering equipment, hiring and the build-out closes September 22; no street address has been announced yet. Bạn Bè.
Parks & Beaches
Most of Coney Island is closed to swimming
Only three stretches of Coney Island and Brighton Beach are open for swimming right now — Corbin Place to Brighton 6th Street, West 10th to West 17th Street, and West 32nd to West 37th Street. Everything else is closed while the boardwalk reconstruction runs. Worth checking before you carry the beach bag to West 22nd. NYC Parks posts the open sections here.
The pools have one weekend left
Parks says the city’s free outdoor pools are open “now through Labor Day weekend” and has not published a closing date beyond that. The beaches run longer: lifeguards stay on through Sunday, September 13, 10am to 6pm. Find a pool.
Sports
On the Court
The Liberty clinched a playoff berth on Monday, their sixth in a row, and then had a rough Thursday at Barclays Center, losing 79-60 to the Golden State Valkyries on 30 percent shooting. Jonquel Jones led with 18 points. They closed the home stand on Saturday afternoon against the Chicago Sky, a 1pm tip on CBS billed as West Indian Night — and then do not play again until September 18. Schedule.
On the Diamond
The Cyclones spent the week on the road at Hudson Valley, losing Tuesday and then taking Wednesday with a seven-run tenth inning and Thursday behind a multi-hit night from shortstop Elian Peña. They are home at Maimonides Park for six against Frederick starting September 1. Cyclones.
On the Pitch
Brooklyn FC’s men hosted Sporting Club Jacksonville at Maimonides Park on Saturday night, with dogs invited for the club’s Paws to the Pitch promotion. Midfielder Juan Carlos Obregon Jr. was recognised this week for reaching 100 USL Championship appearances. The women were away at Fort Lauderdale United on Friday; their next home match is Sunday, September 13. Fixtures.
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