Emily F. Keller: Journalist

Tenants of Tivoli Towers Safe At Home Until 2024

    The State Supreme Court in Manhattan has ruled that the landlord of the 320-unit Tivoli Towers housing development in Crown Heights must maintain the development's Mitchell-Lama status through 2024. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Special Cheer For Hard-Pressed Kids

    Dozens of children with formerly or currently incarcerated parents celebrated Christmas early at the Church of Gethsemane in Park Slope. A church deacon played Santa Claus, and members of the Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue Presbyterian churches in Manhattan donated about 200 gifts, including one toy and one piece of clothing for each child. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Umoja Founder Visits Brooklyn

    Rebecca Lolosoli of Samburu, Kenya visited the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture to talk about how she created a village for women raped by British soldiers and rejected by their families. The event was organized by the international women’s rights organization MADRE. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Taking Back the Streets: Activists Mobilize Against Crime

     Activists and members of the the 79th Precinct Community Council in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn (pictured) discussed anti-violence outreach in the neighborhood following a summer marked by a spike in violence.

    This article was published in the Bedford-Stuyvesant edition of Courier-Life Publications in October 2006.

Read page one.

Read page two.

Disappearing Businesses Leave Many Tenants In the Lurch

    Residents of Walt Whitman and Raymond V. Ingersoll Houses are bracing for long walks through the snow this winter following a developer's shutdown of their neighborhood supermarket, ninety-nine-cent store, laundry and cleaning services. The business are being demolished to make way for a new development project on Myrtle Avenue from Flatbush Avenue Extension to Ashland Place, where the only remaining business is a Duane Reade drug store.

    Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story. Read about the supermarket shutdown here.

Myrtle Associated Supermarket Closes Up Shop

    The ice cream and beer sold out first and the carrots and celery were among the last to go during a 50 percent off sale at an Associated Supermarket in Fort Greene that ended August 27 with the store's closure. The shutdown is part of a developer's afford to clear a strip of businesses on Myrtle Avenue to make way for a new development.

    Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

    Read more about the development's impact on the neighborhood here.

Underground Railroad Came Through Here, Duffield Street Advocates Say

    Joy Chatel (right) and other property owners on Duffield Street are asking the city to cancel plans to demolish their homes for a development, saying the buildings were part of the Underground Railroad that African American slaves traversed to freedom.

    The homes could be seized by eminent domain and turned into an underground parking lot and public open space as part of the Downtown Brooklyn redevelopment plan. City Council Members Letitia James (above) and Charles Barron have joined the preservationists fight, along with the activist organization Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE).

    Chatel says sub-basement structures, described in a press release as “several unexplainable architectural abnormalities in the sub-basements” prove that her building, which is between Willoughby and Fulton streets, was part of the Underground Railroad.

    Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story. Read a related story.

Late, Missing, Inadequate and Substandard Bus Service, Many Declare

    The New York City Transit Riders Council received an earful of complaints and few compliments at an annual forum to gather riders’ suggestions about bus routes and service at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

    The ten-member panel of New York City Transit and Metropolitan Transit Authority officials listened to tales of late and missing buses, routes that omit midday and weekend service, and insufficient service to the Gateway Mall, which is adjacent to the Brooklyn Developmental Disabilities Service Office on Fountain Avenue.

    Lyudmila Demikhovskaya (pictured), a disability rights activist and member of Disabled in Action, told the council that she prefers wheelchair entrances that are at the front, rather than in the middle of buses, which she finds very difficult to use.

    Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

    Read another story about the New York City Transit Riders Council here.

 

New York City Transit Keeps Disabled Riders In a Holding Pattern

    Activists are voicing their frustrations with New York City Transit for moving too slowly to make the Kings Highway subway station on the B/Q line accessible to people with disabilities. Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.

Many Question Why Much of MetroTech Is Still Off-Limits

    With the five-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks just three months away, Brooklynites are still waiting for an explanation for the street closures around MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn that followed them.

     The closures, made by the New York Police Department and the Department of Transportation in the interest of security, are marked by jersey barriers and about a half dozen stationary patrol cars staffed 24 hours a day at key intersections around the city’s 911 call center and Fire Department headquarters, located at 9 and 11 MetroTech. 

    Published in Courier-Life Publications. Read the story.