Friday, September 27, 2013

Thank you to 76th Precinct Captain Schiff

For more than a year, Cobble Hill's safety has been in the hands of NYPD veteran, Deputy Inspector Jeffrey Schiff. Yesterday he passed along word of his reassignment to Queens' 106th precinct and we thank him for his service. Please read his message below in full and also be sure to soon welcome our new head of the precinct, Captain Justin Lenz.
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Dear Friends:

After an extremely productive year and a half as the Commanding Officer of the 76th Precinct, I must inform you all that I have been transferred from the 76th Precinct to the 106th Precinct located in Howard Beach/Ozone Park Queens effective midnight tonight. Being the Commanding Officer of this precinct since April 2012 was a wonderful and exciting experience for me, one that I shall never forget!

I feel privileged and honored to have served with the hard working men and woman of the innovative 76th Precinct. I also feel privileged and honored to have known so many people who obviously care about their community as evidenced by the great number of notable arrests that were affected because of direct community intervention, the number of Auxiliary volunteers that report to the precinct each day to help out with various needs and events of the community, and the number of Youth Explores that volunteer their time working in the community. Through this police-community cooperation, we were often able to arrest those persons who were responsible for burglary patterns, car break-in patterns, and those who committed violent crimes in our community.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

LICH is open for care!

Earlier this week, Judge Baynes issued his decision nullifying the SUNY/Downstate Closure Plan for Long Island College Hospital. Ambulance service has been resumed, the ER is open, and LICH is open for care! This is an important victory that will provide much needed time for find a new operator and re-structuring the hospital.

Much thanks to Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio and all our elected officials for their support over the past seven months. And a special thanks is due to Jim Walden and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP for their vigorous pro bono representation of our community. Much hard work remains to be done, but today we can celebrate a hard won victory.

For more on this milestone, check out some of the local press coverage at the NY Daily News, the