🍀 Greenpoint Fights Frack + BK Landmarks Honored + Adams Takes The 5

Hi all. It's me, Carlie Houser, your host of the Brooklyn Patch newsletter. Here's all the community news you need to know right now. In this issue, you'll learn about:

• BK climate activists buy 5 more years in fight against National Grid fracking vaporizers.
• Three Brooklyn landmarks recognized in this year's high honors preservation awards.
• The mayor takes the subway into Manhattan with morning commuters, touting crime drop.

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But first, today's weather: 🌧 Rather cloudy with a shower. High: 57 Low: 41.

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Here are the top stories today in Brooklyn:

1. Communities and activists in Northern Brooklyn have won a 3-year fight against National Grid's request to build fracked gas vaporizers in the borough. The utilities company had proposed a plan to raise NYC customer prices in order to pay for the $70 million project. Yesterday, the Public Service Commission voted 'no' on the plan, deciding that the liquefied fracked "natural" gas (LNG) vaporizers located at National Grid's storage facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn are not needed for at least the next 5 years. Among the groups celebrating this victory — or, at least, the delay of this project — were No North Brooklyn Pipeline Alliance, Sane Energy Project, Alliance for a Green Economy, and Earthjustice as well as a slew of community members and activists who spoke out against adding "any more toxic infrastructure [in] our homes and our hoods!" (Earthjustice)

2. Three Brooklyn landmarks have been recognized for the 2023 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards. Lefferts Historic House at 452 Flatbush Ave., The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew at 520 Clinton Ave. and Asia Art Archive in America at 23 Cranberry St. are the Brooklyn properties that will be recognized among others at the annual awards ceremony on April 19 at Saint Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan. The Lucy G. Moses awards are given to those landmarks that demonstrate the highest degree of preservation. The Lefferts house was moved to Prospect Park and plans to welcome some 30,000 visitors a year; the monumental facade of St. Luke's Church has been restored and preserved in its original Italian Romanesque Revival style; and the Asia Art Archive is the first overseas extension of the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong, a place for study, prayer, public meetings, and offices. (Brooklyn Reader)

3. City officials rode the subway with commuters yesterday morning, touting a drop in subway crime city-wide. Mayor Eric Adams, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, and CEO of the MTA Janno Lieber rode the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan during rush hour on Thursday morning in a public effort to showcase transit safety. The trio hopped aboard the Manhattan-bound 5 train at the Barclays Center-Atlantic Avenue station with a mission to hear from straphangers about their riding experiences and highlight the decrease in crime underground. Come the beginning of March, subway crime was down by 19.4 percent from 2022, a drop that both the mayor and police commissioner are heralding as a major victory. (AMNY)

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📆 Today in Brooklyn:

• Coney Island Brewery is hosting a St. Patrick's Day Roast & Live Music (5:00 PM)
• It's Italian Wine-Tasting Night at Speakitaly NYC in Brooklyn (6:30 PM)
• 'Good One' is a "live comedy show about jokes" happening at Union Hall (7:00 PM)
• Check out Chronic Comedy at Positive Vibes Cannabis Club (7:00 PM)
• The Julian Smith Trio are playing at St. Mazie Bar & Supper Club (7:30 PM)

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🐝 Brooklyn Buzz:

• 📚 "A professor of creative writing at Stony Brook University, longtime Brooklyn resident, and author of darkly hilarious novels like 'Kamby Bolongo Mean River,' Lopez explores the nagging discomfort of not being able to speak the Spanish of his progenitors, or having any understanding of their immigration from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn in the 1920s — or was it the '30s? The book's ['Nowhere Man'] official launch took place at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene on Wednesday, March 15, where Lopez read from his memoir and spoke with writer and critic Touré." (Brooklyn Magazine)
• 🗣 "There are only a handful of state parks in New York City. The newest and largest is named after the first Black women elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm, herself a Brooklyn native. As part of Women's History Month, and as part of our conversation about her life, we learn about what it took to make the park a public space and why Leslie Wright, NYC Regional Director New York State Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, says its creation is nothing short of a miracle." (WNYC)
• 🍔 "The East Village's legendary Ukrainian diner Veselka will open two more locations this year. The team is in talks to open a 5,000-square-foot outpost in Williamsburg by the end of the year, the New York Post reports. (The original East Village location is 4,500 square feet.) [...] Once the Williamsburg outpost is up and running, the East Village location of Veselka, which opened in 1954, will temporarily close for renovations that include expanding its kitchen, per the Post." (Eater NY)
• 🥪 "It wasn't until 2021 that Akinya thought about opening his own restaurant, while moonlighting as a deliveryman for DoorDash and UberEats [...] Now, after a yearlong search for a space and a three-month build-out of the Crown Heights storefront, Akinya is putting what he learned at McDonald's to work at his first restaurant, Akara House, nodding to the black-eyed pea fritters that are, as the name suggests, the specialty of the house." (Grub Street)

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• "19 Forms of Ice" 5Rhythms Dance & Movement Class (March 17)
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• Buying Into Brooklyn - March 2023 (March 21)
• Selling In Brooklyn: Everything You Need To Know - March 2023 (March 23)
• The 6th Annual One Liner Madness (March 23)
• HAMPTONS | NORTH WEDDING & EVENT EXPO WEEKEND: 3/25 NoFo & 3/26 Hamptons (March 25)
• Post Nets Game - Live Music at McMahon's (April 7)
• Kids Easter Party Queens NY (April 9)
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That's it for today! See you tomorrow morning for your next update.

— Carlie Houser

About me: I'm a recent grad based in Brooklyn, NY. I love to write, run, read, and find new restaurants and venues around the city.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Brooklyn Patch newsletter? Contact me at brooklyn@patch.com