{"id":164482,"date":"2026-03-15T23:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164482\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:03:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T23:03:35","slug":"bha-annual-meeting-features-rep-velazquez-awards-and-local-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164482\/","title":{"rendered":"BHA Annual Meeting Features Rep. Velazquez, Awards, and Local Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The photo (courtesy of\u00a0and \u00a9 Andrew Porter) shows, from left to right,\u00a0Brooklyn Heights Association<\/a>\u00a0President Jeremy Lechtzin, BHA Executive Director Lara Birnback, and City C0uncilmember\u00a0Lincoln Restler<\/a>. As Mr. Lechtzin noted in his remarks, this was the Association\u2019s 116th annual meeting. The BHA is, he said, the oldest neighborhood civic association in the U.S., having been established in 1910. The meeting was held at the First Unitarian Congregational Society.<\/p>\n

As reported by\u00a0Mary Frost in the Eagle<\/a>, the meeting featured several awards for community service and covered many issues of concern to Brooklyn Heights residents, including: the BQE; the future of the Bossert; the prevalence of sidewalk bridges and scaffolding; school crowding because of efforts to reduce the number of students per classroom and increased population because of the pending conversion of former Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses buildings on lower Columbia Heights from commercial to residential; and the threat of increases in property taxes. Councilmember Restler noted that property taxes are governed by state law, and that the last time Albany dealt with this issue it took ten years to amend the statute. Mr. Lechtzin said there had been concerns about parking and truck loading and unloading following \u201cthe recent Montague Street redesign, which included curb extensions, new street furniture and planters.\u201d He said there is as much truck loading and unloading space on Montague as there was before the redesign was implemented. However, I have noticed that large tractor-trailer rigs making deliveries to Key Food Montague turn and park on Hicks Street, and often leave their trailers blocking the pedestrian crosswalk.<\/p>\n

One piece of very good news is that a home has been found for the\u00a0Community Fridge<\/a>. It is now in front of the\u00a0Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/a>, at 125 Henry Street, across the street from its former location.<\/p>\n

Some coming BHA sponsored events were announced. Spring Into Service, a day of volunteer work on community projects, will be on Saturday, April 25. To participate, email lsullivan@thebha.org\u00a0 The annual egg hunt at the Harry Chapin and Pierrepont playgrounds will be on Saturday, March 18, starting at 10:30 AM. For details about other future events, see the\u00a0BHA website events page.<\/a><\/p>\n

A highlight of the evening was a speech by U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez (photo below, C. Scales for BHB) who represented Brooklyn Heights\u00a0 from 1997, when it was added to her district, until 2022, when her district lines were changed again. After 33 years of service in the House of Representatives she decided not to run for re-election \u201cto make room for the next generation.\u201d She praised Brooklyn Heights, and the BHA in particular, saying the neighborhood \u201cshaped much of my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we were fighting to protect the Promenade, investing in the waterfront, establishing the Greenway, pushing back on Washington D.C. or making sure businesses on Montague Street had a fighting chance \u2014 the people of Brooklyn Heights were always in the room. You picked up the phone, you wrote the letters, you packed the town halls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rep.<\/a><\/p>\n

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