New Brooklyn community center to be named for slain Cuomo aide
A new Brooklyn community center named for Carey Gabay will provide education, social services, athletics, youth mentoring, cultural programming and job training, officials said. Credit: Governors Office
New York State will spend $15 million to build a new community and recreation center in Brooklyn in the memory of an aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who was fatally wounded by a stray bullet three years ago during J'ouvert, the festivities that take place before the West Indian Day Parade.
Cuomo, speaking to the news media before this year's parade, announced plans to transform the Bedford Armory into the Carey Gabay Center.
The 60,000-square-foot facility will provide education, social services, athletics, youth mentoring, cultural programming and job training, officials said. The center will also provide a permanent space for activities related to the annual parade.
"Carey Gabay was a model," Cuomo said. "He grew up in public housing. He went to Harvard from public housing. He was working in public service and he lost his life needlessly. And we have to learn the lesson that the young people out here need alternatives to the street; that we have to provide more training, more recreation, more jobs because too many people have lost their lives."
Gabay, who served as Cuomo's assistant counsel and later as first deputy counsel for the Empire State Development Corporation, was killed in September 2015 after he left his Brooklyn home to attend J'ouvert festivities and a bullet meant for someone else struck him in the head.
Cuomo Monday also announced five winners of the 2018 Carey Gabay scholarship program, which covers the cost of college tuition, room and board, supplies and transportation.
The winners included Daniella Levanti of Massapequa. Levanti, who will be the first in her family to go to college, plans to attend The Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan.
Cuomo, who is seeking a third term, faces a Democratic primary on Sept. 13 against actress and activist Cynthia Nixon, who also attended the parade.
On Monday, Cuomo was endorsed for re-election by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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