Meet In CommonNews

Local

NYC adds 10,000 free 2-K seats, including Brooklyn’s Flatbush and East Flatbush

Meet in Common connects news with real conversations. Use ThinkMatch to arrange a Roundtable and meet people to discuss this story.

Source: The Haitian Times

Overview: New York City is adding 10,000 free 2-K seats for 2-year-olds beginning in fall 2027, expanding access to neighborhoods including Flatbush and East Flatbush in Brooklyn. The expansion will reach every school district in the Bronx and all of Staten Island, along with additional districts in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul say the program will help families manage child care costs. The expanded program is expected to offer more than 12,000 seats across 22 of the city’s 32 geographic school districts. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels announced an expansion of the city’s free child care program for 2-year-olds, known as 2-K, bringing the program to every school district in the Bronx and all of Staten Island. Announced Oct. 19, the expansion will add 10,000 seats across all five boroughs and extend 2-K to 17 additional school districts.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.

Read the original at The Haitian Times

Featured places to meet in Brooklyn, NY

Explore these places and arrange a conversation through ThinkMatch.

% Arabica

% Arabica 20 Old Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY, 11201 US

21 Greenpoint

21 Greenpoint 21 Greenpoint Avenue Brooklyn, NY, 11222 US

5ive Spice

5ive Spice 52 5th Avenue Brooklyn, NY, 11217 US

City guide for Brooklyn, NY

Related coverage

City & State New York · Brooklyn, NY

The Brooklyn Democratic Party is at war with itself. Can they flip four seats this November?

By Sahalie Donaldson Campaigns & Elections New York City You might not know it watching the fractious Brooklyn Democratic Party wage war with itself, but the November general election looms just around the corner, bringing with it the opportunity for Democrats to reclaim four state legislative seats in southern Brooklyn. The average voter may not know, care or understand the baffling nature of the county party’s civil war. But it’s all anybody in Brooklyn politics has paid attention to this summer. There was the Brooklyn Dems’ chaotic September meeting in a dimly lit auditorium, where party members’ chants of “shame, shame, shame!” rose like a summer storm. Reformist district leaders and county committee members railed against the dais, where party leaders rammed through votes ratifying controversial new rules crafted by outgoing party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn to help her and allies remain in control of the county machine.

Time Magazine · Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn Apartment Building Collapses, Killing 8: What To Know

Narrated by TIME AI. Eight people, two of whom were children, died after an apartment building in Brooklyn, New York, collapsed on Wednesday. The building, located at 1321 Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, collapsed “into an adjacent construction site,” the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said in a statement on social media. Eighteen people were wounded in the incident, including one person who is in critical condition, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a press conference on Thursday. Here’s what we know about the situation. What happened? The cause of the building collapse is under investigation, city officials have said. FDNY said that crews responded to the site of the incident around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and began a search-and-rescue operation. More than 250 first responders were at the site of the collapse. City officials reported Wednesday evening that two people had died.

PBS · Brooklyn, NY

WATCH: Brooklyn community leaders, residents hold meeting on building collapse

NEW YORK (AP) — One man's pregnant wife was pulled alive from the rubble, while two of his roommates perished. A woman living next door woke from a nap to bright daylight flooding her bedroom because her apartment wall was suddenly gone. Watch the news conference in the video player above. Survivors of the Brooklyn apartment building collapse that killed eight people wept as they recounted their terror and grief during a news conference Friday. WATCH: New York building collapse kills 8, including 2 children New York officials, from building inspectors to prosecutors, say they're investigating what caused the three-story building to come crashing down as workers were digging at an adjacent construction site. Those who lost family, neighbors and their homes demanded answers.

DW.com · Brooklyn, NY

At least 8 people killed after building collapses in the New York borough of Brooklyn

The death toll from a three-story building collapse in New York City's Brooklyn has risen to eight, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday. In a post on X, New York's mayor added that at least 17 have been injured, including three firefighters, as a result of the building collapsing into an adjoining construction site on Wednesday afternoon. "Rescue workers have spent the night searching the site of yesterday's building collapse, working under extremely dangerous conditions to find and save anyone who may still be trapped," Mamdani said, adding that rescue work was ongoing. What do we know about the New York building collapse? The collapse happened at about 4 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) in the Flatbush neighborhood. Fire Department Chief John Esposito said the four-unit apartment building, dating from 1930, fell into a pit where excavation work was underway. The cause is under investigation.

NBC New York · Brooklyn, NY

What was the work being done at construction site next to Brooklyn building collapse?

The excavation site in Brooklyn that was the scene to the tragic deadly collapse of the adjacent building was owned by an LLC seeking to build a 56,000 square-foot mixed-use building, including a grocery store on the ground floor and eight more stories of residential apartments, city records show. The building that collapsed was a three-story building with a business on the ground floor and multiple apartments inside. It was located next to an excavation site where a one-story building had previously stood before being fully demolished in 2025. According to city records, excavation at this site began in September. That work includes blasting rock. Watch NBC 4 free wherever you are It is unclear what exactly caused the building to collapse, whether it was an issue with that building itself or whether work at the excavation site led to the tragedy unfolding.

CBS News · Brooklyn, NY

School bus with 6 autistic students went missing for hours in Brooklyn, report finds

Six nonverbal autistic students were missing for hours before arriving at a Brooklyn school more than four hours late after a substitute bus driver got lost, according to a city investigation. The incident was reported on Dec. 16 of last year involving students enrolled at P.S. 289 in Crown Heights. Students who ride the bus are normally expected to arrive between 8:20 a.m. and 9 a.m., but the six students did not reach the school until 1:25 p.m. School officials had no way of knowing where the bus was for much of the morning, according to a report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, The investigation found that the bus company, Consolidated Transit, was unresponsive as school officials sought information about the missing students. The Department of Education and NYPD were contacted. At 11:45 a.m., a dispatcher told the school the driver was lost and would arrive within about 15 minutes. The bus did not arrive until 1:25 p.m.

Community Poll

Interest-rate decisions should explicitly consider both borrowers and savers.

Share your view, then see how readers voted. No sign-in required. This poll is shared across stories.

Do you agree or disagree?

Choose one answer

Common Quandary

A Common Quandary to discuss

Another conversation to explore, separate from this news story.

You are vegetarian, but the leftover steak is headed for the trash. Do you eat it?

A vegetarian avoids buying meat because of animal welfare concerns. At work events, untouched meat is routinely thrown away, and eating it would neither increase demand nor cause another animal to be harmed.

Should a moral practice be judged by its consequences or its consistency?

Explore this quandary