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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Just as we got some news from our callers in that segment from particular blocks in District 40 in Brooklyn, we're going to expand on that thought and invite anybody to call in with news from your block. It doesn't have to be even within New York City, your block, anywhere you're listening to us right now, give us a news headline from your block. Let's go hyperlocal, 212-433-WNYC, to finish out the show today. 212-433-9692.

In fact, we're going to do back-to-back call-ins today in this slot and tomorrow in this slot. We're going to go hyperlocal right now. We're going to go hyperglobal tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll do one of our occasional call-ins inviting you to tell us the news that you're following from your country of origin if you're an immigrant to the United States. Tomorrow, hyperglobal. Right now, hyperlocal. Give us a news headline from your block because it's easy to get caught up in far-away sensational stories that may not directly touch our lives and we take some time periodically to reconnect with our neighborhoods.

We're always connecting, like our Council Member series, with our neighborhoods but to go even more hyperlocal and invite you to give us a story from your block. 212-433-WNYC. We see a few that I'll throw out here as examples. This is not to talk about these stories, but these are just the kinds of things that come up right now on people's blocks. 126-year-old Lutheran Church on Sixth Avenue and Second Street in Park Slope. If you're in the area, you know this church. It's the big red one on the corner there with white detailing, and according to demolition permits, the lot was purchased by a luxury developer with goals of splitting the land into fourths and building up that corner.

There's some news from Sixth Avenue and Second Street in Park Slope. A neighborhood playground came up in one of the calls to the council member, and apparently, pickleball is another source of conflict over playground space. Kids want to play basketball and tag at the William F. Passannante Ballfield, but now pickleball rules the courts. This is in the village in Manhattan, and parents in the West Village "have compared the players to invaders, the human version of Blank Street Coffee", which is a local reference if you get that, in complaints reported by our colleagues at Gothamist.

Another one for an example from the Northwest side of the Tappan Zee Bridge reported by LoHud up there, a community refrigerator was installed outside the Nyack Center last Friday only to have moved indoors the following Tuesday. The relocation occurred due to a fire safety inspection deeming the fridge unsafe. Its placement indoors makes the fridge less accessible to those in need of free fresh food, which is its intended purpose.

Those working on the project are aiming to get the community fridge back outdoors where it can be accessed at any time by anyone. There are three examples of news from individual blocks in Brooklyn and Manhattan and Nyack. Tell us what's going on on your block. 212-433-WNYC. The headline and maybe a few gritty details. 212-433-9692. We'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to news from your block. We're going to start with Deborah in Jersey City. Deborah, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Deborah: Hey, how are you, Brian? The news from my block is I live in The Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, and what's happening is a lot of people, they're selling their property and their one and two-family houses. They sell it to someone who wants to tear it down and put these multi-story, multi-unit buildings up and maybe even add parking garages where there is none. A group of us are getting together and attending a zoning meeting tomorrow to try to stop one that's actually happening right across the street from where I live. We're not against developing-

Brian Lehrer: All development.

Deborah: -but we want to be part of development. If you have to [unintelligible 00:05:01] a bunch of variances and it doesn't fit on the lot, then you need to build something that's appropriate. Then they want to add a driveway garage where there is none. The block is very small. At this point, we've just had enough because this is what's happening. They're coming in and they just-- On any empty lot or any lot that gets sold, whether it's appropriate or not, the zoning board is just giving approval. All of this is springing up, and this is just not right. It's not, so we're fighting it.

Brian Lehrer: You're fighting it at the community level and at the zoning board level. Deborah, thank you very much. This won't surprise you, folks, but so many that are coming in are development-oriented news from people's blocks. Let's take one more of those, then we'll do some other kinds of calls coming in. Meryl in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Meryl.

Meryl: Hi. Thank you so much. I really feel what that woman just said. Our block is a small block on Schermerhorn, super narrow between [unintelligible 00:06:02] and Boerum. They have taken down a 30-foot-wide brownstone. They have the right to build a 27 to 30-story splinter building there. It was going to be a hotel. Our community was able to get it, but now we think it's going to be residential. Our wonderful council member, Lincoln Restler, can't even figure out who owns the property now because they sold it. It's like just another way that community can have no effect on development, and it is really bad. Really bad. I feel what that woman was saying. It's not appropriate. Why can't we have appropriate development?

Brian Lehrer: Meryl, thank you very much. You know what? There's so much on this. I'm going to take yet one more. Becca in Bed-Stuy, you're on WNYC. Hi, Becca.

Becca: Hi, Brian. I'm super happy to be on. It's pretty sad to hear other neighborhoods going through this, but here in Bed-Stuy, a 120-year-old building was demolished unpermitted over the summer, and it blew a lot of dust throughout the community. We've been fighting this developer who has been antagonistic and bullied many of us. It's been really disappointing. The Department of Buildings, the landmarking committee, even the mayor's office, have given us these statements that we're not buying. We're having a rally at 2:00 PM at 441 Willoughby on Saturday to gather and try to figure out how we can still reclaim the space.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for that. While the other ones were fighting the power is giving all these permits, you're saying this demolition happened even without a permit. Thank you for bringing that to more light. EJ in Kew Gardens, you're on WNYC. Hi, EJ.

EJ: Hi, Brian. First time calling, thanks for taking it. Our neighborhood is a very quaint neighborhood. Unfortunately, we have a lot of struggles going on. We have the borough-based jail being built, which we know is not going to solve the problems that are at Rikers, which is going to only add to the congestion here. We have the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge owned by the Long Island Rail Road with deteriorating stores and stores going out of business with empty storefronts. That hasn't been resolved yet either, and we would only--

I have a community group called the We Love Kew Gardens Community Group. We're trying to get holiday street lights for our neighborhood. We weren't able to go through discretionary funding this year, and so we're doing a GoFundMe campaign to try to get the lights going so we can get some commercial lights down our business district to help our local businesses because they are struggling and help the residents feel a little bit of joy and light for the holiday season.

Brian Lehrer: I think I've been on that business strip that you're talking about near the Long Island Rail Road station there. I'm surprised to hear there are no holiday lights on that strip in Kew Gardens.

EJ: We don't have a business improvement district. We don't have a chamber. I am on the community board. I've spoken to our elected officials and I know the channels you need to go through for discretionary funding, but we just decided this year to try to do a grassroots effort on our own. That's what we're trying to do, and we really feel that-- I know that there's a certain process to go through, but with the borough president's office, the council member's offices, the other people, I find it hard to believe that they can't find a small amount of money to help our neighborhood because we seem to be lost in the shuffle.

Brian Lehrer: EJ, thank you for bringing more attention to it. I'll see if we can get two more in here in our remaining time. Lisa, in Queens, standby. Jane in Kingsbridge Heights in the Bronx, you're on WNYC. Hi, Jane.

Jane: Hi. Good morning. I want to report on the Kingsbridge Armory. It's a beautiful building. It's in Kingsbridge Heights in the Bronx. I've lived in this neighborhood for almost 30 years, and since I started living here there has been an empty armory. The headline is that--

Brian Lehrer: There has been a battle for probably the whole 30 years over what to do with the Kingsbridge Armory. Development programs have started and stopped over various people wanting things that other people don't want.

Jane: There was a plan. Actually, the community had input into, believe it or not, a thing to make it into it an ice hockey, an ice youth center, which I thought was a fabulous idea for the Bronx. Very seemingly counterintuitive but could have been a real recreation center and a draw and make it a real city asset. That deal crumbled and now the building remains empty. It's 180,000 square feet of space that's owned by the city, and the city can't figure out how to make it work. We are nervous here in the community that the community voices are going to be ignored.

Brian Lehrer: Jane, thank you very much. We're going to give Lisa in Forest Hills our last 30 seconds or so here. Hi, Lisa. What's going on on your block in Forest Hills?

Lisa: Hi. Thank you. I live in Forest Hills very close to Forest Park, and we've had a skunk in our neighborhood that's been walking up and down our tiny street, freaking everybody out because as much as we love nature, that's a little bit of a scary guy to see. On Sunday, I was driving and I saw what I thought was an umbrella or a hat in the middle of the street. I drove over it, and it was already gone but quickly learned by the fumes that filled my car that it seems the skunk is gone. While we didn't want him around, we did not want him to go like that. That's what--

Brian Lehrer: A skunk story with a sad ending. To end our call-in on the news from your block, tomorrow in the same time slot to end the show, the news, hyperglobal instead of hyperlocal from your country of origin if you're an immigrant.

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