Community Magazine January 2012

New york city Municipal schedule *Alternate Side Parking: For snow and other emergencies call 311 to get an update of parking rules for a particular day **Garbage: Residents who are normally scheduled for collection on the day of a holiday should place their trash out at curbside on the holiday evening for collection. Some residents will experience a disruption of on-time household collection service. Recycling: Residents who are normally scheduled for recycling collection on the day of the holiday will not receive service that week. They should place their recyclables out at curbside the following week on their regular day of service. Cell Phone Pictures May Reveal Your Location The automatic geotagging feature on many new camera and GPS enabled smartphones, has recently been flagged as a potential security risk. The GPS function in newer-model cellphones which allows users to operate map programs to tell them where they are and get directions to where they are going, can also be used to embed location information within the image files taken on the cameras of these phones. This geotagging feature enables users to keep track of their travels, but the information can also be used by anyone who sees the picture online. Parents who take pictures of their kids and post them on photo-sharing websites like Picasa or social networking websites like Facebook, are often unaware that they may also be posting the coordinates of the location the picture was taken. For example, a picture taken at home can con- tain information that will show precisely where a child lives, and pictures can also reveal where a child goes to school, or what park he or she plays in. The GPS data embedded in the photos is fairly accurate and so concern is especially high in major cities like New York, where street level images of almost any location are easily accessible using Google or Bing maps. Geotag information can be removed from photos using simple programs and the geotagging function on GPS enabled smartphones can also be disabled so that new pictures don’t include that data. Prosecutors Bring Home the Bacon Criminal and civil actions in Brooklyn in 2011 have netted $75.5 million for federal prosecutors, up almost 47 percent from 2010. The U.S. Attorney’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced that nationwide, federal prosecutors collected $6.5 bil- lion in restitution, criminal fines and felony assessments in the past year, more than three times the budget of the U.S. Attorney’s offices. The total is down slightly from $6.68 billion in 2010, but still an increase over 2008 and 2009. Criminal cases netted $49.4 million in Brooklyn, and civil cases brought in $26.1 million. Brooklyn federal prosecutors also collected $177.9 million in civil and criminal forfeitures in 2011 Brooklyn Navy Yard to Become Admirals Row A new retail and industrial plan was recently approved by City Council officials, involving the redevelopment of the six-acre site at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which will be called Admirals Row. The new development is expected to create 500 permanent jobs in the retail and industrial industries, and will also create hundreds of construction jobs. The site will include a 74,000-square-foot supermarket, with 127,000 square feet of light industrial space above the market. NYC Taps Poetry for Road Safety Poetry is the latest weapon in the city’s campaign to promote road safety. New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan recently announced a new safety campaign called Curbside Haiku. Colorful 8-inch square signs featuring the short form of poetry are being put up near cultural institutions and schools in areas that often have car crashes. The signs will relay traffic safety messages for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists in lyric form. Occasion Day Date Alt Side Garbage Collection Parking Banks & Post Offices New Year’s Sun-Mon January 1-2 Suspended Suspended Holiday Closed MLK Jr. Day Monday January 16 Suspended Suspended Normal Closed Observance Monday January 23 Suspended Normal Normal Open Lincoln’s Birthday Monday February 13 Suspended Suspended Normal Open President’s Day Monday February 20 Suspended Suspended Normal Closed Observance Wednesday February 22 Suspended Normal Normal Open 94 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE