This Week In Brooklyn: Tipping Delivery Workers, Pfizer, And Suing The NYPD

This Week In Brooklyn: Tipping Delivery Workers, Pfizer, And Suing The NYPD
If you want to take a break from sledding, build a snowman instead. (Photo: Keira Wingate/Bklyner)

We’re nearing the end of the year, and what a year this has been! We hope you are all staying warm and keeping safe because we are still in a pandemic. The daily number of people admitted to NYC hospitals for suspected COVID 19 in Friday’s report is 158. The hospitalization rate per 100,000 is now 3.1%. The number of new cases is 2,805. And the seven-day rolling average is 6.16%.

  • Five Black Brooklyn community leaders are the first recipients of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation Social Justice Fund, which aims to support social justice and equality initiatives that benefit Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color. The recipients are Brooklynites who have devoted their lives to tackling racial disparities in healthcare, climate policy, education, journalism, and the criminal justice system. We wrote about them this morning!
  • After a punishing virtual meeting that lasted nearly 13 hours and was filled with delays, technical problems, miscounted votes, and accusations of impropriety, the Brooklyn Democratic Party voted early Thursday morning to enact new rules that reformers said would make the party more transparent and accountable. What does that mean? We’ve got you covered!
  • Artist-run cultural space Pioneer Works in Red Hook recently announced its 2021 Visual Arts, Technology, Music, and Narrative Arts residents, a selection of artists whose work spans from paintings that examine the Black American experience, to experimental rap, to a performance project fusing the concepts of technology and witchcraft.
  • Did you go sledding yesterday? A lot of people did, and it looks like it was tons of fun!
  • 60 City Council candidates for 2021 promised to support a free and fully-funded CUNY— it’s about time!
  • With coronavirus cases on the rise again in New York, a state-led plan to consolidate three struggling central Brooklyn hospitals has been put on pause for the second time in a year.
  • The MTA announced Wednesday that the Seventh Avenue/Ninth Street F and G station will be among eight subway stops slated for new elevators in its latest round of accessibility improvements for the city’s subway system, Patch reported.
  • Did you know that Pfizer, which manufactured a COVID-19 vaccine along with German-based BioNTech, got its start in Brooklyn in 1849 and remained a powerhouse in the borough for more than 150 years? Check out this piece by the Brooklyn Paper.
  • A young woman shoved violently to the ground by a Brooklyn cop during police brutality protests in May filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Monday against the officer, his supervisor, the NYPD, and the city, THE CITY reported.
  • The Whole Foods in Gowanus has had 16 cases among employees since Sept. 10 — the most recent one occurring last week —the Daily News reported.
  • Sam Jayne, the founder, singer, and guitarist of Brooklyn indie rock band Love as Laughter, has died at the age of 46, Spin reported. “A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said that Jayne had been found in his car and that a preliminary investigation showed “no signs of criminality.”
  • NY food delivery workers who have been keeping New Yorkers fed during the pandemic, are demanding fair wages, bathroom access, and a place to shelter from the cold. Check out this amazing story by THE CITY and remember to always tip delivery workers (preferably in cash) and to tip generously!