Good morning. It\u2019s Friday. We\u2019ll meet the new Brooklyn borough historian. We\u2019ll also find out what Barbra Streisand had to say on Instagram about road signs in Manhattan that say \u201cHello, gorgeous!\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn borough historian found out from a phone call that he was history.<\/p>\n
The historian, Ron Schweiger, said that the caller was a top aide to the borough president, Antonio Reynoso. The aide said that Schweiger, 81, was not being reappointed to the unpaid position he had held for 24 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess I\u2019m going to be replaced,\u201d Schweiger said, adding that he was \u201cOK with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reynoso, 42, said he was appointing Asad Dandia, 33, an ally of Mayor Zohran Mamdani who was a plaintiff in a class-action suit against the Police Department involving surveillance tactics a decade ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that Ron has been absolutely amazing,\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cReally knows his stuff. We\u2019re still going to be working with him. We\u2019re making him\u201d \u2014 he paused for a moment \u2014- \u201cthe historian emeritus.\u201d<\/p>\n Making history \u2018easily consumable\u2019<\/p>\n Reynoso said that Dandia \u201crepresents a way to speak about the history of Brooklyn that is easily consumable by the people of Brooklyn.\u201d Dandia has a social media presence and is \u201clooking to make history something that people want to learn about.\u201d<\/p>\n Also, Reynoso said, Dandia had all but campaigned for the job. \u201cHe was the first person in my entire career who came to me and said, \u2018I love history a ton, I do walking tours about Brooklyn, and I would love to be considered to be the Brooklyn historian,\u2019\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cHe came to me with that more than two years ago \u2014 I want to say maybe three.\u201d<\/p>\n Under state law, each borough is required to have a historian. The new Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, appointed a new one in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schweiger was appointed by Marty Markowitz, the borough president from 2002 to 2013, and was reappointed when Eric Adams succeeded Markowitz. Schweiger said he had met Reynoso once, several weeks into Reynoso\u2019s first term four years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that was that,\u201d Schweiger said. \u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to him since, and he hasn\u2019t called.\u201d<\/p>\n Dandia, who works as a museum educator at the Museum of the City of New York and leads walking tours and lectures on history, described himself as a \u201cpublic historian, so I\u2019m a little different from traditional historians in that I don\u2019t have a doctorate in things I teach about.\u201d He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in social work from New York University and a master\u2019s degree in Islamic studies from Columbia University, and has studied for brief periods at the American University in Cairo, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Middlebury College.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a South Asian Pakistani background, and I just felt like perspectives of the new faces of Brooklyn were not yet being sufficiently highlighted,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s really no better way to do it than in the official capacity as borough historian.\u201d<\/p>\n And the mayor?<\/p>\n \u201cSo, he is a friend of mine,\u201d Dandia said. \u201cI think we both reflect the new faces of the city, and in my case, Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n For a historian, a year of anniversaries<\/p>\n This is shaping up to be a busy year for historians, with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence coming in July and, in August, the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n That skirmish, also known as the Battle of Long Island, is a challenge for a local historian: It was one of the biggest losses of the Revolutionary War \u2014 for the good guys.<\/p>\n That does not trouble Dandia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe takeaway point about the Battle of Brooklyn is that we lost the battle but won the war,\u201d he said, before talking about how often he passes the Trader Joe\u2019s supermarket in a former bank building at Court Street and Atlantic Avenue.<\/p>\n The site was \u201cwhere George Washington stood to observe the British advance coming up from Staten Island,\u201d he said. And the colonials\u2019 defeat was important because \u201cthat battle bought Washington time to be able to recuperate and eventually come back and win\u201d in November 1783, when the British pulled out of Manhattan and Washington led his troops to the Battery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt all worked out in the end,\u201d Dandia said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the New York story, and the Brooklyn story.\u201d<\/p>\n Weather<\/p>\n Today won\u2019t be as hot as yesterday. The temperature will climb to only 78, not the sweaty 80s of yesterday. There\u2019s a chance of showers this afternoon and evening, with a low tonight in the high 50s.<\/p>\n Barbra Streisand has something to say about \u2018Hello, gorgeous!\u2019 road signs<\/p>\n The signs say, \u201cHello, gorgeous!\u201d<\/p>\n Barbra Streisand made those two words famous \u2014 first in \u201cFunny Girl\u201d on Broadway and then in the Oscar-winning film version in 1968. She had 89 more words to say about them, on Instagram<\/a>, now that \u201cHello, gorgeous\u201d is on a sign welcoming people who have just crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.<\/p>\n She talked about how she remembers \u201cthat mile-long ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like a magical journey leading not just into the city, but into my future, a place where dreams could come true,\u201d she says in the post.<\/p>\n The signs were the idea of the Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who said that he had been asked if he wanted to put a message on the 13 signs leading into Manhattan. He suggested \u201cHello, gorgeous,\u201d saying he had long been \u201ccharmed\u201d by Streisand\u2019s performance in \u201cFunny Girl\u201d and her connection with the L.G.B.T.Q. community. He is the city\u2019s first openly gay borough president.<\/p>\n He and the Transportation Department went through several rounds of revisions. \u201cThey left the comma out\u201d in one version, he said. \u201cI had to fight for the exclamation point.\u201d \u201cHello, gorgeous!\u201d was set in large type on the Brooklyn Bridge sign. On the others, it is in somewhat smaller script-like lettering.<\/p>\n Hoylman-Sigal said he had taken inspiration from a former Brooklyn borough president, Marty Markowitz, who had phrases like \u201cHow sweet it is\u201d put on some of the signs in his borough \u2014 and \u201cFuhgeddaboudit\u201d on signs facing drivers as they left. Once the sign was in the works, Hoylman-Sigal called Ken Sunshine, a spokesman for Streisand, who told her about them.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was touched, particularly that it was a sign that greets people coming over the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan, because that\u2019s her journey,\u201d Sunshine said, and decided to record the Instagram post. \u201cShe\u2019s a Brooklyn girl at heart. Brooklyn girls sometimes dream, and sometimes that dream means going into Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n METROPOLITAN diary<\/p>\n That\u2019s one approach<\/p>\n Dear Diary:<\/p>\n I spotted a bright pink, handwritten sign on 47th Street off Ninth Avenue in Manhattan that I keep thinking about.<\/p>\n Taped to a tree, it said: \u201cPlease curve your dog.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Elena Brunn<\/p>\n Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here<\/a> and read more Metropolitan Diary here<\/a>.<\/p>\n