BK Reader

Three left-leaning Democratic candidates vying for a chance to run for New York’s 7th Congressional District sought to highlight their progressive credentials during a debate Wednesday on Spectrum News NY1, but struggled to clearly distinguish themselves from one another.

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This year’s race will not have an incumbent vying for the district, which covers parts of Brooklyn and Queens, including Bushwick, Williamsburg and East New York. U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez, who was the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress where she served for over two decades, is not seeking reelection.

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In the hour-long debate, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, state Assemblywoman Claire Valdez and Queens City Council Member Julie Won discussed immigration, public transportation and housing and all had similar positions on each issue.

Plans to re-imagine Broadway Junction are underway, and the recently approved redevelopment project is expected to bring brand new offices, retail, housing, and public outdoor space to the major transit hub over the next decade.

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The New York City Council approved the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) in December 2025, five years after the Herkimer-Williams Project began taking shape. Broadway Junction is one of Brooklyn’s major transit centers, sitting at the intersection of five subway lines, six bus routes, and the Long Island Rail Road. It is also the meeting point of six largely residential neighborhoods: Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, Cypress Hills, East New York, and Ocean Hill.

This year, President Donald Trump has taken several decisive military actions overseas, most recently in Iran.

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed late February in a major attack by Israel and the United States, throwing the future of the republic and the entire Middle East in doubt.

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Many Brooklyn residents said they were not surprised by the coordinated attack, especially after the U.S. captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following military strikes in Caracas in January. That said, some felt anxiety over possible retaliation on U.S. soil, while others were critical of Washington’s focus on foreign policy when U.S. citizens were facing an affordability crisis, among many other issues.

The first Rental Ripoff Hearing kicked off in Brooklyn on Thursday, where over 200 tenants got a chance to speak with city officials about sky-high rent, utility costs, ongoing pest infestations, and other housing complaints that have gone unanswered.

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Kelly Cook, a 31-year-old Crown Heights resident, said she was at the hearing because building management fails to listen to tenant complaints. “It’s just a completely unfair system,” she said. “Anytime you try to bring this up with management, it’s a complete stonewalling situation.”

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Cook, who has lived in her two-bedroom apartment since 2023, said the management company hiked up rent when she moved into the apartment and prevented tenants from maintaining their rent-stabilized status.

Fantasy bookstore Love & Legends Books opened its doors to Brooklyn readers in November, welcoming a line of customers that wrapped around the block on opening day.

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Owned by married duo Savanna Sturkie and Jack Peeples, this pop-up-turned-storefront, at 667 Washington Ave., is New York City’s first-ever fantasy-focused bookstore, catering to lovers of fantasy, romance, sci-fi and even tabletop role-playing games.

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“We hope to be a third space for Brooklynites to enjoy fantasy, to enjoy sci-fi, to explore new worlds and enjoy events all around,” Sturkie said.

Less than two months before election day, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani joined his political hero Senator Bernie Sanders at an energetic town hall at Brooklyn College on Saturday, as the senator chided what he sees as the rising threat of oligarchy in the United States.

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Sanders, who was raised in Midwood and attended Brooklyn College for a year, has been hosting his Fighting Oligarchy tours across the nation where he has been supporting and recruiting progressive candidates to run for office. 

As state officials unveiled their plan to clean up a contaminated site in Gowanus, residents agreed on one thing – the state is currently ill-prepared to properly decontaminate the land. 

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Representatives from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of Health appeared at a public meeting Tuesday to discuss the cleanup of 459 Smith St., a lot that housed a fertilizer and manufactured gas plants. The lot must be remediated before it can be redeveloped to build commercial and residential buildings.