In Other News: Frontline Workers Receive Nike Sneakers, Missing Neighbors & The BQE

It’s been a crazy few days, hasn’t it? The election seems to be the only thing in everyone’s mind– and for good reason. The ballots are still being counted and the victor has yet to be declared. As for our local elections here in Brooklyn, absentee ballots will be counted next week.

But here’s what’s been happening besides all of that:

• Governor Andrew Cuomo announced earlier today in a call with reporters that the red and yellow zones in Brooklyn will be reduced in size by 50%. The red cluster is now concentrated along the length of Ocean Parkway and in Midwood. The yellow zone now is between New Utrecht and Flatbush Avenues south of Church Avenue and Albemarle Road. Check it out here.
• Marcy Houses just got a new modern community center. Today was its ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was attended by Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as many other elected officials and neighbors.
• “A Brooklyn elementary school student tested positive for the coronavirus 10 days before the school community learned the child’s results, according to two teachers who are now quarantining,” Chalkbeat reported.
• Five Brooklyn neighbors are still missing. Have you seen them?
• Frontline healthcare workers battling at Maimonides Medical Center received 5,500 pairs of new Nike sneakers and 20,000 high-performance socks. The donation came because of a partnership with World of Giving (a local non-profit) and Good360, ABC7 reported.
• Single-family homes sales are surging in Brooklyn and Manhattan, Crain’s NY reported.
• “A mentally-ill and deaf Brooklyn man who went missing from his group home for nearly a week is now safe and sound, thanks to a big-hearted stranger who saw a social media post about his disappearance,” the Daily News reported.”Giancola, who suffers from schizophrenia, remained in the hospital Friday and will soon be returned to his Crown Heights group home where he was last seen on Oct. 30.”
• “A Brooklyn man who has worked in film for more than two decades is working on a project that highlights the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on people’s lives,” News 12 wrote. “The film ‘Yearning to Exhale,’ follows the story of a family of three. The film details a story of a father, who is a writer, and his daughter trying to get a book published but publishers won’t pick it up because the book is too political and focuses too much on the coronavirus.”
• Governor Cuomo announced Friday that he’ll be stepping up National Guard patrols at area airports to enforce new coronavirus restrictions. “The move comes a week after Cuomo said he would require all out-of-state travelers, except for those coming from neighboring states, to show proof that they had received a negative coronavirus test three days prior to their trip,” NY1 wrote.
• “The city wants to completely transform the long-neglected wasteland under Williamsburg’s section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway — by charging you $1.50 an hour to park there!” the Brooklyn Paper reported. “North Brooklynites lambasted a Department of Transportation scheme to turn disused lots along Meeker Avenue into more than 300 metered parking spaces at a heated virtual civic meeting Thursday night, saying locals have been asking the city to make the area a nicer community space for years, not add more car infrastructure.”
• An off-duty NYPD cop was cuffed for drunk driving early Friday following a car crash in Brooklyn, the Daily News reported. “Officer Billy Dubuisson was driving on Farragut Road near E. 92nd St. in Canarsie around 2:15 a.m. when he slammed his vehicle into a parked car, said police.”
• A Brooklyn Heights home from the 1960s is on the market for the first time, Curbed reported. “On a leafy, one-block-long Brooklyn Heights street lined with well-preserved Greek Revival townhouses, a rare bit of mid-century modern history has gone up for sale. Close to — though still set back from — the oft-crowded Brooklyn Heights Promenade, 48 Willow Place is one of three mid-century townhouses designed by local architects Joseph and Mary Merz.”
• Lastly, NYTimes finally discovers the House of Yes.