• A 52 year old man was slashed in the face by a stranger near Maria Hernandez Park on January 18th, per a Patch report. The suspect is still at large. 

• A 65-year old father and his 35-year old son were shot by an assailant during an argument outside of Bushwick Houses, before the pair turned the tables on the gunman by beating him with a baseball bat. All three were arrested. 

• A trio of teenage stick-up artists hit several Bed-Stuy businesses in a single evening before one was apprehended last week, reports Williamsburg 365. It’s around the same corner where the 26 year old Elquan Tillman was murdered. The larger gang seems to be still at large, per a recent post on Reddit.  

• East Bushwick correspondent Aaron Tomey has verified through external sources that a man was stabbed in the “backside” two blocks from his apartment, at the same intersection as alleged coke den Punta Cana (mentioned in last month’s Grime Time).

• Bed-Stuy watering hole Dynaco has a GoFundMe page to help save the bar after damage from a fire left its future uncertain. 

• Retiring Congresswoman Velazquez endorsed Brooklyn Borough Presdient Antonio Reynoso’s bid for her seat, putting her at odds with Mamdani, who has thrown his support behind Assembly Member and fellow DSA-er Claire Valdez. 

• Landlord-ism: Public Advocate Jumaane Williams released the annual list of the city’s 100 worst landlords. The Bronx and Manhattan sweep the list, but Deodat ‘Rupert’ Lowtan, a notorious Bushwick landlord, once again represented the neighborhood, including a variety of local addresses, (Note to Jumaane: make it a map!)

• Avant Gardner and Brooklyn Mirage have been sold to nightlife brand Pacha—or rather FIVE Holdings of Dubai and Axar Capital Management—after a $30 million dollar renovation yielded a club that could somehow neither legally be opened nor demolished. It’s a deal that “an industry source” tells BK Mag will “steamroll independent promoters” and represents “hedge funds entering the electronic music and nightlife landscape.” Sounds like a good time for a basement rave….

• The Music Hall of Williamsburg building has been purchased by Double U Developments, which similarly bought the Polonoise Terrace in Greenpoint, previously home to the excellent Brooklyn Bazaar. Double U, who in 2024 lost a battle with tenants of one of their Williamsburg properties after exposing them to toxic dust, is owned by Michael and Jay Weitzman, the latter of whom is a former tennis partner of one Donald Trump. 

• Another housing fight is taking place at the site of the neglected Bushwick Inlet Park, where residents are pushing back against plans for a luxury building, which they say will cause flooding and other issues. 

• The new owners of the former site of the beloved Crest Hardware store in Williamsburg revealed plans for the building that will replace it and it looks like a huge pile of shit. 

• ICE To See You: The Guatemalan community in Bensonhurst is wary after a deacon and others were taken by ICE during raids in the area earlier this month. City Council member Susan Zhuang spoke out against the arrest in a press conference. Zhuang, a conservative Democrat, is part of City Council’s conservative Common Sense Caucus, although she skipped their meeting with Border Czar/ Bald Asshole Tom Homan last year. (Zhuang also got a slap on the wrist after she bit a cop in the name of protesting a homeless shelter in 2024.)

• On Tuesday evening, 66 were arrested by the NYPD during an anti-ICE protest outside the Tribeca Hilton. 

• The Trump Administration shuffled command of their murderous siege of Minneapolis on Monday after continuing outcry and mass on the ground resistance that included a general strike there last week and another, wider more general strike on Friday. After weeks of gassing protestors and hanging out in parking lots, it seems Greg ‘Little Fascist’ Bovino is being sent packing and has been given the Trump Administration Kiss of Death, aka having his social media turned off. He will be replaced by Homan, which seems to be an idea Trump got from watching Fox & Friends. 

• ICE is expected to ramp up in St. Louis, Missouri and Maine next, where they are following ICE watchers to their houses to intimidate them and claim to be making watchlists of anyone who films them.
• While all of this went down, the White House hunkered down for a sneak preview of Melania, attended by various high profile sex offenders and general scum of the earth. Dancers at Mar-A-Lago partied wearing uncanny-looking dog masks. On the other hand, the We Rate Dogs guy spoke out on ICE and it looks like the man who coined the term “heckin’ pupperino” is through fucking around.

Brian Jones Kraft is a writer who has been living in Bushwick for over a decade and a half. He has previously written extensively about the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, David Dinkins and that mural on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Evergreen.

Top photo taken by Andrew Karpan.