This year, I was able to appropriate funds, along with Councilmember David Yassky, to install historic lighting on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn - our latest burgeoning restaurant and merchant row. With the cooperation and help of Judi Pheiffer and the 5th Avenue Merchants' Association, we secured funding for these antique lights, which accent Fifth Avenue's unique charm for businesses and residents alike.

Many residents have noticed that a brand new Eckerd's drug store opened on Smith Street, two blocks away from my office. I attended the grand opening on Thursday, May 6th, and joined Borough President Marty Markowitz, Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh, Councilmember Bill de Blasio, Bette Stoltz of the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation and several other community residents who worked with Eckerd's to ensure community participation in the building process.

Over the past few years, we worked with local architects, neighborhood residents, and the management of Eckerd's (formerly Genovese) to design the store to fit into our unique brownstone neighborhood. Collectively, we worked to ensure the developers provided housing, that the façade of the building was contextually appropriate, and we encouraged the storeowners to hire locally. What was once an empty parking lot is now a new store, with an open plaza, soon to be lined with trees.

I joined Councilmember Bill de Blasio and members of the "Cobble Hill 12" on the year anniversary of our arrest in protest of the closing of Engine Company 204

Over a year ago, I joined over 200 community residents to protest what we knew was a fatal mistake the mayor was making. I took the extreme measure of getting arrested with the other members of the 'Cobble Hill 12' to try to prevent the closing of the firehouses. I returned one year later to demand the Mayor look at the real facts and reopen our firehouses.

Before the closings, the Fire Department assured the public that the increase in response times due to these closings would be negligible. The recent findings released showed an overall citywide increase of response times by 13 seconds, for both structural and non-structural fires, and medical emergencies. Engine Company 204, located in Cobble Hill Brooklyn, had the highest increase in response times to medical emergencies. I continue to ask: "What is it with our mayor? We hold hearings, we have press conferences, we release reports all saying the same thing: the closed firehouses are endangering lives and property. It is clearly not about the money, so we are here today to ask the Mayor what is this really about?"