NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday announced a new recreation center will be opening in Brooklyn as a way to address the uptick in gun violence across the city.
"It's a perfect storm," de Blasio said of the shootings that have occurred, adding that the court system must fully reopen.
"We are all in this together" but "now is the time to overcome that" so we can address violence, the mayor said.
The mayor is again calling for the court system to fully reopen and said he is sending a letter to all city DA's and the Chief Judge asking them to get the court system back up and running again. Only 50 percent of firearms charges have gotten to the indictment process, he said.
In a statement on Monday, a spokesperson for the state's Office of Court Administration, Lucian Chalfen, said the office has been "working to reestablish full court operations, including jury trials."
"While New York City still does not allow indoor dining, the Mayor blithely asks us to call in thousands of people a week citywide for jury duty," Chalfen said. "Clearly he has absolutely no understanding of how the criminal justice process works."
The new recreation center will be located at Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush.
Community engagement for the rec center will begin in the Fall.
NYS Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte announced that the center will be named Shirley Chisholm after the first black woman elected to the United States Congress.
It will feature a state of the art indoor pool, indoor two-lane track, and a kitchen for cooking classes, according to Bichotte.
