Prospect Park to go permanently car-free, and 10 other good 2017 Brooklyn news items

The 24-hour news cycle, Trump, and the way things are generally going in America this year often overshadows the small victories won on a local scale, and for good reason. Still though, it’s important to hold the small things close, like heat packets for your soul in the dark, cold winter of politics we are currently in the middle of.

Following a temporary summer ban on cars in Prospect Park’s West Drive, Mayor Bill de Blasio Tweeted this morning that cars will be permanently exiled from the park – both the West and East drives – beginning January 2 of 2018. The forever banishment comes following a petition for car removal, published after the summer exile was lifted, which 1,150 people signed.

In lieu of this good local news, here’s some other good, local news from earlier this year to warm your heart with against the barrage of horrible breaking updates flooding your inbox as you read this:

Since the inclusion of chronic pain as an eligibility for New York State’s medical marijuana program in March, there has been a 70 percent increase in certified patients.
The racist, anti-gay, anti-dancing Cabaret Law is damn close to being repealed, which would be a boon for minority-owned and DIY venues (the spaces historically targeted by the antiquated law) across the city.
We’re getting a Night Mayor!
While women’s rights are successfully forced two, three steps back in other parts of the country, many of our politicians continue to aggressively fight for New York women’s rights to contraception and abortion.
Sunny’s lives. Long live Sunny’s.
Brooklyn rents are, allegedly, maybe going down.
Crime is really low.
NYC has seen a variety of improvements this year with distribution of the opioid antidote and overdose prevention drug Naloxone.
The MTA shortened the span of the L train shutdown.
The new Kosciuszko Bridge opened (yay infrastructural improvements) and, after many delays, the old one got blown up, much to the joy of the public.