Author: Lillian Rizzo (Lillian Rizzo)

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Letter From Canarsie: Choosing to Stay

By Lillian Rizzo Three weeks ago John Beneduce had a stroke and his son was faced with a choice: to sell the family business or not. In 1997 the elder Beneduce, who is now 59-years-old, had bought Kenny’s, a Woolworth’s-type store in Canarsie, and renamed it Big John’s Department Store. Although the sign out front...

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If You Could Change One Thing

By Saskia Rothschild and Lillian Rizzo A sea of red invaded Brooklyn Supreme Court one recent Wednesday—50 child welfare caseworkers dressed in red shirts and sweaters. They called themselves the bleeding hearts of child welfare. They had come to court, however, not on behalf of a child, but to show their support for one of...

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VIDEO: The Game

By Bilal Lakhani, Lillian Rizzo and Saskia de Rothschild Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan woke up before dawn on March 30 to watch the Cricket World Cup semifinal between archrivals Pakistan and India.

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Death by Numbers

By Elisabeth Anderson, M. Bilal Lakhani & Lillian Rizzo We know this is not necessarily what you want to be thinking about or talking about.  But we’re going to tell you anyway. Because, well, it comes to us all. Heart disease leads. More Brooklyn residents die of heart disease than any other cause.  It’s followed...

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The Weekend

By Lillian Rizzo Thank God it’s Friday in Brooklyn! Hopefully you are getting over your St. Patrick’s Day hangovers and ready for some activities in Brooklyn this weekend. Here are some events The Ink thinks you should check out. -Put those skates on. The Gotham Girls Roller Derby club will be introducing their rookies at...

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Brooklyn’s Walk of Fame

Before they had fame, fortune and music videos, some of the biggest names in Hollywood, sports and even financial giants were at one point just Brooklyn kids. Some lived in the projects, others went to high schools and walked the same streets we do today.

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My Mom Knew Jay-Z When…

By Lillian Rizzo When Jay-Z lived in the Marcy Housing Projects, home was building 524. He was just Shawn Carter. He attended Eli Whitney High School (now known as Van Arsdale) in Williamsburg. He walked out of his building directly on to Marcy Avenue everyday, just like his neighbors in the Bedford Stuyvesant projects. But...

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Lloyd Blankfein, Who?

By M. Bilal Lakhani This is a vintage Brooklyn rags to riches story, with a twist. It turns out that one of the most powerful men on Wall Street today, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, in the projects. But unlike Jay-Z, Barbara Streisand and Brooklyn’s other storied icons,...

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Brooklyn, You Can Drive My Car

By Lillian Rizzo As a Brooklynite without a car driver’s license, I’ve always wondered whether I was alone. It turns out less than half of Brooklyn’s residents have licenses and about 30 percent actually own a car. Here the Ink breaks down the numbers of who is actually on Brooklyn’s streets, the BQE and the...