Dear New Yorkers,
Odessa Safety company in Brooklyn offers job safety training courses required for all city construction sites, and the Midwood company’s employees also monitor job sites — including at an East Harlem demolition site last year.
Soon after, the complaints started piling up: Bricks falling on cars. Unsafe scaffolding. No demolition permits. No guardrails on upper floors.
Now, the company and its owner, Alex Kaushanskiy, have been hit with criminal charges for allegedly peddling bogus safety training certificates following an undercover probe by the city’s Department of Investigation.
The charges include three counts of first-degree falsifying business records — the same charge that ex-President Donald Trump is facing 34 counts of in Manhattan.
Read more here.
Some other items of note:- The hulking, 32-foot-tall 5G towers sprouting around the boroughs — as well as the hundred or so that already loom large — are now subject to historic preservation and environmental reviews, thanks to a directive from the Federal Communications Commission. The edict comes after preservationists on the Upper East Side alerted U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, who wrote to the FCC earlier this month that the towers appear “out of context” in historic districts.
- More than 300 graduate student workers at Fordham University’s Arts and Sciences school are on a three-day walkout, forcing hundreds of class cancellations. THE CITY spoke with picketers at the Rose Hill Campus in The Bronx yesterday about their demands for higher wages, support for international students and more.
- What will become of the Harlem home where author Langston Hughes once lived? As legendary as the Harlem Renaissance icon remains — and despite years of struggle over the fate of the historic location — 20 E. 127th St. presently is just someone’s home, with little more than a small plaque outside to tell of its significance. Its owner wants it open to the community — but free from outside control, she told THE CITY.
- Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers of Queens joins the FAQ NYC podcast to discuss some of the council’s street-safety and transportation bills, why “we need to hold the NYPD accountable,” and much more. Listen here.
- On Thursday, May 11, join THE CITY at an Open Newsroom session addressing mental health resources in New York City public schools, and how to get appropriate support for kids. The event will take place at the Central Library in Brooklyn at 6 p.m. in partnership with Chalkbeat, ProPublica and the Brooklyn Public Library. The event is free with an RSVP. If you’d like to ask a question ahead of time and have it answered via email, send it to ask@thecity.nyc with the subject line “Mental Health.”
- It’s spring … which means block party season is just around the corner. 🥳💃🎶 Want to throw a bash with your neighbors this summer? In case you missed it, THE CITY wrote a guide on how to do that.
- See how New York City is doing with our newsroom’s economic recovery tracker.
- For the latest local numbers on COVID-19 hospitalizations, positivity rates and more, check our coronavirus tracker.
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Weather scoop by New York Metro Weather
Wednesday's Weather Rating: 6/10. The day starts out fine, with partly cloudy skies and highs near 60° F. As the afternoon goes on, clouds and scattered showers are likely. Blustery west winds will ramp up, too. The vibes are trending a bit more unsettled today!
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THE KICKER: “I think the solution to what most people want America to become resides here in New York. We can become America’s DNA." — The words of Harry Belafonte, the civil rights icon, singer, actor, and lifelong New Yorker who died yesterday at 96.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Make it a great Wednesday.
Love,
THE CITY |
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P.S. If you liked something about today's newsletter, or didn't, let us know at zshah@thecity.nyc |
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