Brooklyn’s biggest stories of the week: The City banned AI for students through eighth grade, and announced it in Brooklyn; $43 million moved to keep 3-K and pre-K programs open; Carnival weekend filled the Brooklyn Museum grounds; the protected bike corridor from Sunset Park to DUMBO was finally finished; Landmarks approved 61 apartments inside the Hotel Bossert; a taqueria and coffee shop opened in Bed-Stuy; and the jellyfish arrived at the Rockaways. Read on for the latest!
Schools & Childcare
New York City bans AI for students through eighth grade
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Chancellor Kamar Samuels announced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI from 3-K through eighth grade on Wednesday, at the Brooklyn STEAM Center in the Navy Yard. It covers roughly 600,000 children, two-thirds of the system. Companion chatbots are banned at every grade. The full policy is here.
Screen time now has a number attached to it
The same announcement capped recommended screen time at 30 minutes a day in grades 3 through 5 and 45 minutes in grades 6 through 8, and ended one-to-one devices in second grade and below. Students with disabilities, multilingual learners and career-and-technical students are exempt. Teachers may still use AI to plan.
The city moved $43 million to keep 3-K and pre-K programs open
After early-childhood providers warned they might not open on time, the city announced an overhaul of its payment system on Monday: $43 million, staff reassigned to speed contract registration, and interest-free loans. It answers the funding gap we wrote about last week. Details here.
Public school starts Thursday, September 10
Teachers return Tuesday the 8th for two prep days; the first day for students is Thursday, September 10. Yom Kippur closes schools Monday, September 21, and evening parent-teacher conferences begin September 23.
Events & Entertainment
Robyn plays her first arena tour at Barclays Center
The Swedish pop singer brought the Sexistential Tour to Barclays on Friday night, her first time playing arenas, with Yaeji and Romy opening. A second Brooklyn date follows on the 10th, and a dollar from every ticket goes to LGBTQ+ youth and health organizations. Tickets and details.
Carnival weekend took over the Brooklyn Museum grounds
Blocko Mania ran Thursday and Soca Fest Friday, and Saturday brought the two events families actually plan around: Junior Carnival, which assembles at 9am at St. John’s Place and Kingston Avenue and costumes masqueraders up to age 17, and the Panorama steel band finals, gates at 6pm. The parade itself steps off on Eastern Parkway on Labor Day. The official schedule is here.
Pete Davidson spent the week filming in Bay Ridge and Coney Island
Davidson has been shooting a mob picture around southern Brooklyn for about a month, playing Bonanno-family figure Thomas Pitera opposite Paul Walter Hauser, Camila Mendes and Simon Rex. He graduated from Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge in 2011, so the location scouting more or less picked itself.
City Hall & Transit
The Sunset Park to DUMBO bike corridor is finally finished
The city completed the last block of protected lane on Ashland Place on Tuesday, closing the final gap in a continuous protected route from Sunset Park to DUMBO. The Downtown Brooklyn stretch was nicknamed Crashland; work began in 2022 and sat unfinished for three years. A two-way bike path on the widened south sidewalk of Lafayette Avenue carries riders across Flatbush. The announcement is here.
Three Crown Heights buildings were taken from a negligent owner
The city announced on Thursday that three buildings holding 88 rent-stabilized homes had been transferred away from a landlord who had appeared on the worst-landlord list, with HPD overseeing repairs under the new owner. City Hall press releases are here.
What closed, and what is closing
Every Brooklyn Public Library branch was shut Saturday through Labor Day Monday. Mini pools close after Labor Day, so this was the last full weekend for the toddler pools; the larger outdoor pools and the lifeguarded beaches both run through September 13.
Police Blotter
The NYPD called it the safest summer on record for shootings and murders
Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced on Thursday that major crime citywide fell 6.6% in August, with no shootings, murders or rapes in the subway system all month. Felony assault was the one category that rose. The release breaks out other boroughs but publishes no Brooklyn table. The figures are here.
Police shot and killed a man on the Brooklyn Bridge on Friday morning
A man climbed the bridge cables around 4:15am, said he had a bomb and wanted to die, and after an hour-long standoff came within a few feet of an officer with a knife. Brooklyn-bound lanes closed and reopened by 8:35am. amNewYork has the account.
Police are still looking for a man who assaulted a woman in Park Slope
A man came up behind a 38-year-old woman near 15th Street and Fifth Avenue just after 3am on Saturday the 29th, pushed her down and sexually assaulted her. He was a stranger to her, the attack was captured on camera, and officers spent the week canvassing with fliers. The police appeal is here.
A nurse was killed in a Sunset Park hit-and-run, and officials want Third Avenue redesigned
Jiayi Zheng, 28, an NYU Langone nurse walking home from an overnight shift, was struck at 55th Street and Third Avenue by a driver who fled. It is the eleventh pedestrian or cyclist death on that two-mile stretch under the BQE since 2014, and elected officials spent the week pressing for a redesign. NY1 reported it.
A man was beaten to death on Grattan Street in Bushwick
Police responded early Friday and found the man unconscious; he was pronounced dead at the scene. No arrests had been announced as the week closed.
Real Estate & Development
Landmarks approves 61 apartments inside the Hotel Bossert
The Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0 on Tuesday to approve rooftop and courtyard additions at 98 Montague Street, clearing the way for 61 condominiums aimed at three- and four-bedroom buyers, plus a ground-floor restaurant that would be Danny Meyer’s first full-service Brooklyn room. The revised scheme set the top two floors further back and darkened the cladding. Completion is targeted for 2028. The commission’s agenda records the vote.
A new developer wants four 10-story buildings at the Arrow Linen site
Goose Property Management has replaced Apex at 467 Prospect Avenue and is proposing 396 apartments across four ten-story buildings, against the two buildings and roughly 250 units neighbors negotiated in the approved rezoning. About a quarter would be affordable. Renderings show the massing pressed up against neighboring townhouses.
Curbed asks where the Italians of Carroll Gardens went
Three century-old Italian institutions changed hands or closed inside a year: Sam’s, open since 1930, sold in April; Ferdinando’s Focacceria, 104 years old, sold to Sal Lamboglia of Cafe Spaghetti; and Caputo’s Bake Shop closed this spring after 124 years. Italian ancestry across the surrounding neighborhoods is down about a quarter in 13 years. Curbed has the piece.
Openings & Closings
Peral opened in Bed-Stuy
The taqueria and coffee shop at 105 Saratoga Avenue opened properly on Wednesday after a run of August previews, from the teams behind Olmo in Bed-Stuy and Cicatriz in Mexico City. The cafe runs mornings into mid-afternoon and the taco and bar service Wednesday through Sunday evenings. Hours are on their site.
Kirbee’s fired up Texas barbecue in Greenpoint
The 55 McGuinness Boulevard South barbecue joint soft-opened on Sunday the 30th and went to full service over the holiday weekend. It comes from pitmasters Chuck Charnichart of Barbs B Q in Lockhart and Jonny White of Goldee’s in Fort Worth. Walk-up window ordering, 24 seats. Their Instagram is the place to check hours.
Sam’s returns to Court Street on September 10
The Cobble Hill Italian-American room that opened in 1930 reopens Thursday under Georgia Fulton, who spent 12 years at Long Island Bar, with the red vinyl booths and checkered tablecloths intact. Bookings are already live. Sam’s own site has the details.
Around Brooklyn
Jellyfish swarmed the Rockaways
Mauve stingers that normally stay offshore moved in on the winds, and the Park Service posted warning signs at Riis and Fort Tilden. One Rockaway lifeguard said he had heard more jellyfish complaints in three days than in 25 years on the job. A South Slope lawyer stung on the forearm needed urgent care twice. Vinegar, salt water and a hot compress; not tap water. The City Reporter has the story.
Whale sharks surfaced off a Sheepshead Bay boat
Two whale sharks came up feet from an American Princess pelagic trip out of Sheepshead Bay on Monday, about 100 miles out at the Hudson Canyon. They are endangered filter feeders, harmless to people, and had not been documented in New York waters in decades. CBS New York reported it.
The stained-glass watertower over Brooklyn Bridge Park came down
Tom Fruin and his crew dismantled Watertower 3, the plexiglas-and-steel piece that has sat atop 334 Furman Street since 2014 and is visible from the Promenade and the BQE, on Tuesday in the rain. It is coming back. The building is being renovated and Fruin is repairing a decade of sun and storms; the tower returns in the fall of 2027.
Sports
On the Court
The Liberty are on pause. The WNBA stopped on August 31 for the FIBA World Cup in Berlin, and New York sent seven of its 14 players there, more than any other team. They go into the break 24-16, third in the East, with a playoff spot already clinched and the Commissioner’s Cup already won. Play resumes September 18. Standings here.
The Nets used the quiet week to announce six Era Nights for 2026-27, each with a bobblehead. The best of them is Swamp Dragons Night on January 29, honoring the name change New Jersey had approved, designed and very nearly adopted in 1995 before an owner changed his mind at the vote.
On the Diamond
The Cyclones were eliminated on Tuesday, swept in a doubleheader by Frederick that included the finish of a game suspended back in July. Thursday brought the highlight of the year anyway: Ronald Hernandez went 5-for-5 with two home runs, six RBI and a stolen base in a 12-5 win. The season ends at home in Coney Island on Sunday afternoon. Schedule here.
On the Pitch
Brooklyn FC’s men had the week off after their 4-1 win over Sporting JAX, and travelled to Tampa Bay on Saturday. Peter Mangione made the USL Championship Team of the Week, and forward Markus Anderson was recalled from loan by the Philadelphia Union. The women, still looking for their first win of the fall season, played at Dallas on Saturday night. Club news here.
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