NYC RFD: Tragedies, Politics, Yankees

Yesterday armed robbers killed El-Hajj Kareem Shabazz in the video store he owned in Brownsville, reports the New York Daily News. Friends and relatives recall him as generous to all, including underfunded customers. "The really stupid thing," said Shabazz' imam, Umar Jordan, "is... if these people just asked for it, he would've given them whatever they wanted."

3-year-old Alexandra Vitale of Brooklyn was drowned when a catamaran occupied by her, two cousins, and a sailing instructor was blown over by the wind on Long Island Sound. Rescuers found her "clinging to the side of the vessel," says the Daily News, but CPR and the attentions of a local hospital could not save her.

Queens Conservative Party chairman Thomas Long insists Joseph Addabbo's State Senate campaign has failed to declare some fund transfers the law requires it to declare, reports the News. The Addabbo campaign says it's a "mistake" and will be fixed.

The preview version of Brooklyn Bridge Park has proven popular with locals, says NY1. The only problem some folks have with it is the "residential development being constructed on its perimeter" as part of the future Park's funding plan. Daniel Squadron, running against State Senator Martin Connor, has said that the neighborhood should have "a real, world-class park with year-round recreation without having our waterfront turned into a de facto backyard for luxury condo towers." Defenders of Connor and "the already-approved Park plan" responded in a letter [via Brooklyn Heights Blog] that "if not for [Connor's] hard work and effective advocacy, this summer we might well be defending against unwanted and largely unregulated private development..."

The Yankees lost to the Red Sox again last night, and Hank Steinbrenner, acting boss of the Steinbrenner family, said of his team's performance, "The bottom line is, they sucked," reports amNY. Later Steinbrenner said the team "stunk" and "There's going to be a lot going on this offseason, I promise you that."