Greetings,

Thank you to everyone who reached out in response to Monday’s newsletter. By virtue of your reading this, I think it's clear I’ve sent another, one which highlights some things that have happened, are happening, and should happen.

On Monday night, the CB6 Business Affairs and Licensing Committee, chaired by Mandi Spishak-Thomas, approved three liquor license applications, which will now proceed to a vote at our Wednesday, November 12, Full Board Meeting. As previewed in Monday’s newsletter, Tuesday night saw the first of three scheduled Brooklyn Marine Terminal(BMT) scoping hearings take place. The second will take place virtually later today, Thursday, October 30, at 4 PM. You can register on EDC’s site, and all comments are due by Thursday, December 11. Event details, links, and materials can be found on our calendar and Brooklyn Marine Terminal meetings page.

I’d also like to thank our Land Use staffer Rebecca Kobert for representing us (CB6) at the Forth on Fourth Avenue (FOFA) meeting, and SJ Avery and Grace Freedman for their ongoing work that truly puts the “Forth” in FOFA, which for more than a decade has pushed for a safer, greener, and more resilient Fourth Avenue.

That’s the very same Fourth Avenue that will see the New York City Marathon run through this Sunday, November 2nd. Fourth Avenue and streets across the city will be closed to vehicular traffic from morning until afternoon. We have information available on the CB6 website, but for the most up-to-date details, please visit nyrr.org/tcsnycmarathon. If you’re heading out to watch or traveling across the city, it’s best to do so via public transportation. Check mta.info or the MTA app for any race-day service changes.

But it’s not Sunday yet, so there’s still plenty to do between now and then: vote, take and share our District Needs Survey, and embrace CB6’s spooky side at Halloween parades in Park Slope and Cobble Hill. There’s even more, spooky and otherwise, listed below my contact information, so I suggest scrolling and reading the rest of this email to find out what I’m talking about. But before that, I want to touch on something that reminds and reinforces how much of what we experience in life is the result of policy choices.

What I’m referring to is that, unfortunately, this Saturday, because of decisions made by our federal government’s executive branch, millions across the country, including 1.8 million of our fellow New Yorkers, may lose the SNAP benefits they rely on to buy food. Food pantries are helping, and the state is undertaking emergency measures, but they can’t do it all. This is an avoidable crisis caused by choices made by the executive branch, the same branch that has chosen to bail out Argentina’s libertarian government, and not due to any lack of food supply. While too much damage has already been done to our most vulnerable, I mention this because choices can change, and therefore, this crisis remains both avoidable and solvable.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you read the rest, but regardless, I wish you the best.