In Bed-Stuy News This Week

The weekend is here: Time to kick back, relax and catch up on all the news highlights you may have missed throughout the week. To follow is a quick review of what made the headlines on Bed-Stuy Patch. Even if you recognize some of the stories, feel free to review and share your feedback.

1. A plan to bring retail to the Brooklyn Municipal Building was announced on Monday by city officials and Borough President Marty Markowitz. Transforming parts of city buildings into commercial space is part of an ongoing citywide project to renovate office space and turn it into usable space. The proposed retail space is currently home to city offices, and it has not been decided yet which offices will be consolidated and which city employees will be moved. But what retail business would you like to see come to Brooklyn? Read the full story and leave your suggestions.
2. The Department of Education announced this past Monday and Tuesday they would be closing a total of 26 schools across New York City. Tensions were high around the announcement, because Boys and Girls High School—Brooklyn's oldest high school—was on the master list. However, on the second day of the announcement, a DOE spokesman confirmed that BGHS would not be closed, but a turnaround model would be implemented to carefully monitor their progress over the next few years. Read and to learn the full story, as reported by Patch.
3. Certainly, every Bed-Stuy resident has heard it at some point:  "Allah u Akbar, Allah u Akbar" (Allah is Great).  It is the Adhan--the Muslim call to prayer. And five times a day, Bed-Stuy residents can hear it booming over the loudspeakers along the Fulton/Bedford corridor. Some in the neighborhood find the sound alarming, while many others find it calming, beautiful and a perfunctory religious practice. "The churches have bells. Jews have horns. And we have call to prayer," said an assistant Imam. Read the full story .
4. Fernando Mateo, the president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, came under fire on Wednesday when he made controversial remarks encouraging taxi drivers to avoid picking up suspicious-looking blacks and Latinos. His remarks followed the recent shooting of another taxi cab driver during an attempted robbery. Many were outraged by his comments, saying that he was encouraging racial profiling. But Mateo asserts that, because he is black and Hispanic, his statements were not racially motivated, but were in fact addressing a real problem within his own community. Bed-Stuy residents weighed in on whether they felt Mateo simply was speaking honestly about an ongoing problem, or reinforcing a negative stereotype of blacks and Hispanics. Read for the community's response.
5. Almost two weeks after her waiver was approved, Cathie Black continues to be the target of NYC parents and teachers. They are angry about her appointment as the new chancellor of New York City public schools, and they are not taking the decision lying down. This past Wednesday, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, with twelve other parents filed a lawsuit to overturn Black's appointment, stating that she lacks the necessary qualifications to lead the post, as required by state law. Read , and for the full story.