Smells like the Stroller Manifesto all over again. Kids and Bars. It seems to arouse a lot of controversy. Over at Daily Heights, they’re having it out about whether kids are taking over Soda Bar, a bar in Prospect Heights.

Why would anyone want to bring your kids to a
bar? wouldn’t the social time be better spent at the park, museum, zoo,
etc. maybe something that is fun for the kid and not just the parents.
bars are dark, kinda dingy with lots of weird strangers who are
drinking. If I were a kid again a bar is the last place I would want to
be. I know you don’t want to give up your social life, but it’s not just about you anymore.

Yesterday a letter came home in the Oh So Fiesty One’s (OSFO) backpack from PS 321’s principal, Liz Phillips. In it, she informed the parents that the New York City Department of Education has developed a new HIV/AIDS curriculum for grades k-12. The curriculum is designed to raise awareness about ways to stay healthy and to help develop empathy for people who are ill. OSFO is already a little nervous about these health classes the teachers are talking about. "What am I going to learn in health class," she asked me yesterday. Today, she asked me if the boys and girls were going to be separated when they talk about it. I told her that I didn’t know.

At PS 321, there will be age appropriate lessons that help children children learn about staying  safe, making good choices and being healthy. In the upper grades, HIV/AIDS will be talked about more explicitly. Children will learn in science how the immune system works and will have classroom based lessons on how to resist negative peer pressure.

They will be teaching these lessons as part of the health education and science curriculum in late April and early May. They will also be sending home a blue pamphlet for parents from the Department of Education on HIV/AIDS education.

The schools are holding meetings for parents about the new curriculum. There’s one at PS 321 on April 4, at 8:40 a.m. in the Auditorium to discuss the rationale for the curriculum and the kinds of lessons they will be teaching each grade.

From New York 1 about the release of transcripts and recordings of WTC 911 calls on 9/11.

Nearly five years after the World Trade Center attacks, some families have received transcripts and recordings of 911 calls their loved ones made from the doomed towers, a day before the audio recordings are released to the public Friday morning.

Due to the sensitive nature of the tapes and to protect the privacy of the families, only censored versions of the tapes will be released to the public. Only operators and dispatchers will be heard, with the callers’ voices muted out.

The recordings are the result of the three-year-long lawsuit involving a group of nine families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

They argue the tapes are an integral part of piecing together what happened on the day of the attacks.

The New York Times requested the names of the callers be audible on the public tapes in those cases where the dispatcher said the name aloud. A judge ruled in favor of the Times on Wednesday, but the city is appealing that decision.

I walked past the site of the old Zuzu’s Petals on Seventh Avenue between Union and Berkeley Place and saw what I think is a new laminated sign (okay it’s been there for six months – I didn’t notice).

There have been signs on that storefront ever since a fire forced Zuzu’s out of their longtime location. Here’s the latest missive from those lovely Zuzu ladies. On top of the note there was a movie still from "It’s a Wonderful Life."

While I was jotting down the words, one of my neighbors, a reader of OTBKB, walked by. We read the note together and she told me about a rose she bought at Zuzu’s that lasted two weeks. TWO WEEKS. I told her about the two dozen roses I got at Key Food that were THORNY and lasted ONE DAY. ONE. Moral of this story: Get your roses at Zuzu’s.

This is the scene from "It’s a Wonderful Life" when George Bailey fixes his daughter’s Zuzu’s damaged fose and tucks the broken petal in her pocket.

Since August 26th 2004, the day of the fire that cost us our home of 33 years, we have focused all our energy on rebuilding and restoring our showp, our business, our lives with the help of so many loving friends.

The morning after the fire, we posted a note here which asked what we learned. There have been many lessons. But these are perhaps the most important:

Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.

The love you take is equal to the love you make.

There is much to be said for the kindness of strangers and the loyalty of old friends.

We count ourselves lucky for being part of the Park Slope community. Because of that, Zuzu’s Petals blooms again. Perhpas better than ever.

Boy, do I know Shopsin’s. And New York Magazine says that West Village restaurant moving to  Carroll Gardens after 24 years in the Village. That’s what I call Big Brooklyn News. (Picture by nycnosh.)

Not suprisingly, the owner refused to be interviewed for the New York Magazine story and told the reporter: "Why don’t you make something fucking up. That’s what you’re going to do anyway."  I think that’s Kenny Shopsin’s  motto when it came to reporters.

That place is so idiosyncratic and famous there’s even documentary about it called "I Like Killing Flies."

Back in the 1980’s I worked in an  office on Morton Street. At first I didn’t know what to make of this restaurant on the corner of Morton and Bedford that was frequently closed and looked like a vintage luncheonette or grocery store.

But it wasn’t a luncheonette at all. First of all, if you tried to get your morning coffee there they’d look at you funny — they were only open doing prep work for lunch. You could sit and have a cup if you want. "But we don’t bag it or anything,"  Mrs. Shopsin said.

The place was run by a strange, somewhat gregarious, rolypoly man named Kenny Shopsin, who usually wore a grease-stained t-shirt and a white apron (also dirty), and his wife. The menu was many pages long and it featured something like 900 items and about 100 soups. How, I wondered, could they have so many soups (and entrees) every day? It was a mystery. It really was a vast menu and the food was really interesting running the gamut from American comfort, breakfast, dinery-lunchy, to dinner entrees of their own invention.

One thing I remember vividly. Instead of caps on the ketchup bottles, there were plastic dinosaur figurines plugged into the bottles.

Another thing, Kenny didn’t like tourists much. So, if he saw a bunch of tourists approaching the restaurant he’d run over to the door and say, "Sorry, we’re closed." as he put the Closed sign up.

I know the place had a lot of regulars and celebs. People you’d recognize, people you wouldn’t. It was really an institution down there on Morton Street – one of the great streets in the West Village. They moved to Bedford and Carmine Street. I never went – I couldn’t wrap my head around the new, more modern location.

Wonder where they’re moving to in Carroll Gardens? Anyone know? A Brooklyn Life – yoo hoo.

Also here are Ruth Reichl and Eric Asimov on Shopsin’s:

The menu is encyclopedic, the soups are spectacular and the welcome is eccentric. It’s been a Village hangout for years, and the owners, who would just as soon it stayed that way, are wary of strangers. – Ruth Reichl (4/98)

You’re not likely to find a stranger restaurant in New York than Shopsin’s, housed in an old general store. Kenny Shopsin, the chef and owner with his wife, are as likely to yell at you as look at you, especially if they don’t like your attitude. The food is as quirky as the owners, with many of Shopsin’s own pancake and soup inventions. Sometimes they are good, sometimes not so good, but portions are always huge. – Eric Asimov (4/98)
-The New York Times

NOW THE DAILY NEWS HAS THE SHOPSIN’S STORY. IT’S AN ONLY IN NEW YORK KIND OF THING. WEST VILLAGE RESTAURANT MOVES TO BROOKLYN: BIG NEWS

Shopsin’s, the West Village diner made famous for its 900-item menu and odd rules, such as no more than four to a table, could be hauling its celeb-studded digs to Carroll Gardens.

"You’re right – I’m thinking about moving to Brooklyn," owner and chef Kenny Shopsin told the Daily News. "I don’t know what else to tell you."

Shopsin and his wife, Eve, are reportedly considering the move because of skyrocketing rent at their 34-seat Carmine St. digs, where they’ve been serving oddball entrees like the "sausage walnut potato volcano" since 2002.

But when asked about a West Village rent hike, Shopsin insisted his decision wasn’t based on money.

"My landlord is a fair and honest businessperson, and I have a good lease," said Shopsin, 63, who enforces a strict ban on cell phones. "That’s all. That’s it."

When pressed for his reason for considering a move to Brooklyn, Shopsin would only say: "Two of my five children live in Brooklyn and are happy there. When I visit them, I feel pretty good too."

For more than two decades, diners have poured into Shopsin’s as much for the spinach walnut pancakes as for notables like Lizzie Grubman, Drew Barrymore and her rocker boyfriend Fabrizio Moretti.

But if Shopsin decides to leave Manhattan, he won’t have to do it at the expense of his celebrity clientele. Besides Barrymore, who told New York magazine she would follow Shopsin, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams have been spotted dining out near their Dean St. home.

"We’ve got plenty of them living around here," said South Brooklyn Local Development Corp. President Bette Stoltz of the notable names in the neighborhood. "Between the movie stars and the literati, we’re doing okay."

The move wouldn’t be Shopsin’s first. Four years ago, he moved to his current digs after a rent hike at his original spot around the corner on Morton St. But on Smith St., where fine dining is the norm, the soup-and-sandwich joint might not make the cut, one local predicted.

Shopsin’s "used to be a legend when it had this perfect little corner spot," sniffed Saul Bolton, owner of Smith St. eatery Saul. "It’s a grimy, moldy, musty place where they make food out of a can. I wouldn’t be interested in going there now. Even if it was my neighbor."

Right now, Shopsin’s only immediate connection to Brooklyn seemed to be a beef gumbo and poached egg combination on the menu named for writer Truman Capote, who lived in Brooklyn Heights.

According to New York 1, 50,000 people are expected to make their way over
the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday as part of a nationwide rally over
proposed changes to the nation’s immigration policies.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are weighing three proposals, including
one that would make illegal immigrants eligible for work. Another
proposal focuses on border security.

Already there are major differences of opinion as the debate rages
both inside the Senate and beyond. A version of the bill has been
passed by the House.

Here’s a picture of Capathia Jenkins from Sunday night’s fundraiser at the Old Stone House. It makes me happy to look at it because it was such a great night of music. For those who missed it, they will return. We are hoping to present them again in 2007. So stay tuned.

On June 18th, Capathia and Louis Rosen will be performing at the Great Hall of Cooper. OTBKB will provide details as soon as she has them.

This incredible picture was taken by Tom Martinez, Pastor of All Souls Bethlehem Church in Kensington. He is also an avid photographer with a web site on digital railroad. I saw him taking pictures in the back of the room on Sunday night and I had a feeling they would be good. I was right.

There was a relief around here when we learned that the R train was back in service and Teen Spirit’s high school was open. Good news all around. Although Teen Spirit was holding out for another day off.

The R train was back in service in time for the Tuesday morning rush
following a nasty water main break in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Monday.

Rushing water from the break forced the line to be shut down
between 95th and 36th Streets Monday. Mud and debris reached two feet
above the roadbed and covered approximately 300 feet of track.

Crews worked through the day and night to get service restored in time for the Tuesday morning rush.

Above ground, the news is not as good. Fourth Avenue between 72nd
and 77th Streets is still closed to street traffic thanks to a giant
sinkhole caused by the break that swallowed an SUV.

Water and gas service was turned off for a time while crews lifted the SUV, but was restored shortly afterwards.

I am grappling with the issues raised by the recent events on Third Street, I am…listening, reading and trying to take in what I am hearing from neighbors, friends and commenters on OTBKB.

I am hearing that neighbors on Third Street are joining together to aid the man accused of child molestation. He will NEED money for his defense – someone said $10,000. I am wondering if anyone is COLLECTING MONEY ON HIS BEHALF?

Ironically, the over-exposure of this situation could result in his getting the money for the lawyer he needs. Is there a defense fund for him. If not, there should be. He has no money and he needs help.

Everyone deserves good legal counsel.

Quite a few people I’ve spoken to say that the mother was wrong putting the man’s name on the infamous flyer. And I agree. Even putting her own name up there violated her daughter’s privacy. Now the local news will not reveal the name of the mother to protect the girl. But the man, his name is smeared all over the city.

Did the mother have a good reason to take matters into her own hands? He’d been arrested, faced a Grand Jury and is now awaiting trial. What more did she want? Couldn’t she just let the judicial system do what it needs to do?

It think it would have been possibe to spread the word without naming him. She could have written something like: There is an accused sex offender living on this block. He is awaiting trial. In the meantime, do everything you can to assure that your children are well supervised, safe and educated in what to do if such a situation arises.

But you don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.

We all KNOW that there is danger in this city, this country, this world. That’s why we act prudently and cautiously. We protect our children every single day from danger. We oversee their activities, supervise them, stay in touch with them, and NEVER EVER introduce the to situations that might be dangerous. That is the pact we make when we have children. Bottom line: it is our responsibility every day to protect our children and teach them to be smart about imminent danger.

Danger lurks all around. But for the most part, we manage to avoid it by staying alert to the fact that the world is a complicated place and complicated things happen.

The Daily News paraphrased something I said about "stranger danger." Most kids are warned about  strangers when it is actually really nice, familiar people who harm them in this way (I am not suggesting that the man is guilty – I am speaking generally here).

Right from the beginning, I saw parents, understandably, go into "protective parent over-drive." How do I protect my kid, what do I say, how do I even explain what the sign said?

These are just some of the thought rumbling around in my brain. Someone asked me tonight if I think I made a mistake putting the story about finding the sign on my blog. It’s quite possible that I did make a mistake. That it was done without enough thought of what the ramifications might be.

I never imagined that he was someone so many people knew. Once I heard that he was a familiar face on the block, a well-liked person, "a good man," I knew things were going to get very complicated.

And god knows they have.

The word is out. There was a story in this morning’s New York Daily News. And I’m quoted.

How did a blog entry about feeling uncertain and confused when I
read a note posted in the entryway of my building gradually turn into
the fiasco that this has become?

This morning I got calls from Channel 11, and one call from Fox 5: I wouldn’t talk to them. A reporter from CBS rang the intercom and another reporter from Channel 11 called to say that she was on the block. I groaned.

I told the CBS reporter that I didn’t want to be interviewed on camera. He said that was fine but to come down to talk -for background.

I made him wait and when I got downstairs, two cameras were rolling and the CBS reporter AND the Channel 11 reporter were thrusting their microphones in my face.

I thought you weren’t going to interview me.

They were really interested in ONLY ONE THING — where does HE live, where does SHE live. And I didn’t feel right telling them. I didn’t want to set the wolves on them.

The CBS reporter reminded me of Ted Baxter and boy did he want to get some info out of me. First he tried nice and suave, "So where does he live?" he said with a Baxteresque smile.

I told him that I knew but I didn’t want to say. Then Ted Baxter got a little testy: "Come on give me a clue," he said. Again I said no. Then he tried another tact. All sweet and nice again: "Where does SHE live?"

But I wouldn’t give him what he wanted.  "You read the note didn’t you," he said sounding angry again. "Did you forget the name?"

I think I purposely didn’t memorize the name. And for good reason. I certainly don’t think it’s my job to tell these reporters what they want to know. If they want to disrupt a few lives today for this story, they can do the footwork to find out the names and addresses.

Tomorrow they’ll be on to the next story. But they leave such chaos in their wake. And that’s the story that I will tell. Because when the dust settles again, Third Street will have to heal. There may be contention on the block. There have been issues before – within buildings, between neighbors. But we’ve survived them all with good will and openheartedness.

Yet we all have to live side by side in that New York City way. We’ll continue to shop at each other’s yard sales, attend bar-b-cues and building potlucks, watch the 4th of July fireworks from someone’s roof, chit chat on the sidewalk, hang out at the Mojo or the Coco Bar.

It’ll be interesting to see how Third Street gets through this. My sense is that community spirt, mutual repect and open heartedness will prevail.

If this becomes an object lesson rather than a witch hunt, everything will be okay.

But you never know.

The news from Duckyland. Diaper Diva bought Ducky a pair of ultra cool bikini underpants with a green camouflage pattern and pink lace.

"I heard from the babysitters in my building that the best way to toilet train a baby is to put them in underpants. They won’t want to mess them up."

As DD was paying the cashier at Lolli’s, she caught sight of the colorful Baby Bjorn potties on a high shelf. "Maybe I should get her a potty. They say it’s a good idea to have one around."

Before you can say poop, Diaper Diva is deciding what color potty she wants to buy. "Do you think I’m being crazy," she asked me. "Do ya?"

Everyone is in a rush to toilet train their babies. Changing diapers gets old pretty fast. You can’t blame DD for wanting to move things a long. A little more quickly.

When Diaper Diva got home, she nonchalantly left the bright yellow Bjorn potty in the bathroom. She claims that Ducky actually sat on it. Once. But it did make a great hat. She put it on her head, and did all kinds of tricks with it.

It’s not getting much use right now as a potty – but it’s a terrific toy. As for the stylish bikini panties – I’m not sure if she’s tried those on. Well, my best guess is yes — Ducky has probably tried them on. OSFO got a pair too. They are just so so cool.

Camouflage undies. What will they think of next?

This is a Teen Spirit story. He got to miss school because of this water main break. Woo hoo. We’re standing by to see if there’s school on Tuesday. Please. This from New York 1

The Transit Authority says a water main break that caused major
headaches for commuters along the R train in Brooklyn Monday may not be
repaired in time for the Tuesday morning commute.

Officials hoped to have full R service back up and running by 9
p.m. Monday, but the TA now says crews will work through the night to
fix the problem, with no guarantees service will be back by the morning
rush hour.

Meanwhile, gas and water service has been restored to the area near the water main break following outages.

Fourth Avenue is closed to traffic between 72nd and 79th Streets.  

Transfer, NYC’s blogger of architecture bad, good, and otherwise had a post Monday about the new buildings going up at the corner of Sterling Place and 7th Avenue, where, in 1960, a United DC-8 crashed killing 135 people and destroying a church and a funeral home.

Construction on the new buildings is nearing completion and for the first time in 45 years, there will be buildings in that spot, instead of a vacant lot.

I can’t walk by there without thinking of that crash or the fact that an 11-year old boy by the name of Stephen Baltz survived for one day. He died at Methodist Hospital. There’s a bronze wall plaque near the hospital chapel made from the change that was in his pocket.

Hey, let’s put on a show. That’s been my mantra since I was 12 years old when my sister, Margaret Cohen, and I would lip synch to our favorite musical numbers, move to our own elaborate choreography and entertain our parents who were sitting on the living room couch.

And I’m talking "Mein Heir" from Cabaret, complete with chairs and fishnet stockings, "Flesh Failures" from Hair, and "Take back Your Mink" (Take back your poils)" from Guys and Dolls.

So my desire to put on a show goes way, way back. Years in the film business sort of satisfied that longing. But not really. Later, particpation in director’s workshops at Playwright’s Horizons and Ensemble Studio Theater filled a need.

Years later, my film background and my theater background merged when I worked with Batwin + Robin Productions to design projections for Twilight Los Angeles with Anna Deavere Smith, and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk at the Public Theater and Swinging on a Star on Broadway.  Now that was cool.

Nuff said. I love the theater and always, always will. But these days I am wearing a different hat – a writer’s hat. Still, I do get exercise my producing chops with Brooklyn Reading Works, where I present writers of fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and plays at the Old Stone House.

So last March when I saw Louis Rosen and Capathia Jenkins at the Public Theater (one of my favorite venues in New York) I was so blown away by the songs and the singing that I got to thinkin’: It’s literary – the songs are based on the poetry of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and Louis Rosen – it kinda fits the Brooklyn Reading Works model.

But it was after seeing another performance at Makor on the Upper West Side that I said to myself: I really, really want to bring this show to the Old Stone House.

"You’ll never get a piano into that room. The stairs or too narrow," Hepcat said knowingly. "Oh, I bet we can," I said without a clue.

Soon, Kim Maier, the board of the Old Stone House, and I decided to present Louis and Capathia in a benefit to support their cultural programming this summer.

There were a lot of conversations with Louis and Kim  about scheduling, budget, renting a piano (whatever you do DON’T get a spinnet), and all the other various and sundry details involved with putting on a show.

When we finally decided on the date (coordinating with three busy artists is no piece of cake), postcards designed by Peter Joseph were sent out and…

WE WERE PUTTING ON A SHOW!!!!

Saturday morning (the day before the show)  I walked over to the Old Stone House to watch the piano movers move the piano up the narrow staircase. They seemed to be having no trouble at all – aside from the usual trouble of carrying a piano up a flight of small stairs.

"It’s a spinnet," Kim said. "My husband saw it and said it’s a spinnet."

Ain’t that always the way, I thought. The one thing Louis kept warning us about –  here we were with our spinnet.

Later when Alex, the Russian piano turner and owner of the piano rental shop, was tuning the small upright upstairs I said:

"Too bad it’s spinnet."
"Eeets not a spinnet," he said commandingly
"Oh, I thought it was a spinnet," I said.
"Eeetss a console. Not a spinnet. Eeets a console," he said.

Relieved  I went downstairs and told Kim.
"My husband was pretty convinced it was a spinnet," she said.
"My husband said we’d never get the piano upstairs," I reminded her. "and your husband said it was a spinnet…"
"Why listen to husbands," one or the other of us said.

For more on the show see: Let’s Put On A Show #2

It took a few minutes for me to calm down after handing out programs and directing people to the coat rack, the wine. At 7:10 or so, I flashed the lights and asked everyone to go upstairs.

The room was packed. A few stragglers came in late. The audience was ready. Some had no idea what they were about to see. Some had dragged themselves from their Sunday evening comfort to see what was going on at the Old Stone House. People were even willing to miss "The Sopranos."

For me, it was a few minutes into the show, when I actually sat down and focused on the show.

Capathia started out with a couple of beautiful Langston Hughes songs. There was a palpable sense of relief in the room as the audience seemed to melt into her warm musical embrace. It felt easy: they were in good hands. She was about lead the way on an artistic journey and the audience was game.

Then Louis came on stage. He’s been called gaunt, angsty, and Jewish. My sister said he has a remarkable charisma on stage. We were meeting the man behind the music and hearing him sing, too, a masterful story-song about sleezy hotel in Chicago

Then it was time for "Southside Stories" his song cycle based on his book, "The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood," Rosen’s 1998 exploration of white flight in Chicago’s southside after the neighborhood changed its racial makeup.

The song cycle is very personal but it is also, as Kerry Reid wrote in the Chicago Tribune,  "a somber portrait of heartbreak and survival,joy and its absence,and love that endures even when the objects of that love are long vanished."

The piece has an incredible mood and a very melodic  musical vocabluary that draws on a variety of 1960’s musical style. Different characters, voices and narratives are explored in each song. But they come together to create a wistful, sometimes nostalgic, often painful and ecstatic picture of a time gone by but still held onto fiercely.

In "On the Southside" and "If I Were a Reincarnationist" Rosen shows his skill at creating musical narratives that are like short stories. "Lucky Girl" found Capathia in a joyful, loving mood that was infectious.

From Chicago, we moved to the south of Maya Angelou’s youth. Capathia performed nine songs from the Angelou cycle, that were created expressly for her multi-timbered voice. With her subtle and persuasive sense of drama, Capathia gives life to Angelou’s women and becomes these characters in an instant – her stance, the way she holds her microphone or moves her hand. In tiny theatrical ways, she embodies these phenomenal women and stirs the room with virtuosic blues in a deep alto-to-high soprano range. Her earthy emotionality, full of pain and longing, belies a sophisticated vocal control.

The acoustics at the Old Stone House are astounding. It’s a wonderful place to hear music. And  there is  something about being in that little house in the middle of Brooklyn. The  incongruity of it makes for a magical time.  I have found that when people enter that room they are willing to really focus and listen. And that was truer than true last night. The audience was cradled by Capathia’s voice and big hearted personality.

A standing ovation was the least we could do to convey our apprecation and high regard for the night of fine music and performance we had just been given.

Crains New York reports that Whole Foods plans to build a bigger Brooklyn store:
by Catherine Tymkiw

Whole Foods Market said its new store in Brooklyn will be larger than previously expected, thanks to a redesign, but won’t require additional land.

The original plan called for a 49,000-square-foot store to be located near the Gowanus Canal on a 2.1-acre site at Third Street and Third Avenue. The retailer has three Manhattan locations: a 60,000-square-foot store at Columbus Circle, a 34,000-square-foot store in Chelsea and a 50,000-square-foot store at Union Square.

Published reports suggested that the Brooklyn expansion would require more land — a claim Whole Foods denies.

“It’s going to stay on that one lot,” said Whole Foods spokesman Fred Shank., adding that it was too soon in the redesign process to know the store’s exact size.

The store redesign and cleanup of the building site have prompted the organic food retailer to push back the grand opening by more than a year. It was originally planned to open this fall but is now expected to debut in early 2008.

The company said the new store would “reflect recent Whole Foods Market design innovations,” declining to provide further details. The retailer expects completion of environmental remediation by this fall, followed by 15 months of construction.

“A large portion of the cleanup work has already been completed,” said Environmental Conservation Department spokeswoman Gabrielle DeMarco. That work included removing contaminated petroleum storage tanks and excavating contaminated soil.

Ms. DeMarco said there’s no timetable for completion of the cleanup because Whole Foods voluntarily entered into the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program, which gives companies tax credits in exchange for cleaning up contaminated sites.

It was just a note on the mirror of my building’s vestibule. Now it seems like a whole lot more.

People’s lives. The man. The girl. The mother. They’re all locked in a  twisted tango. Who is telling the truth? What is the truth?

Reputation. Judgement. Craziness. I am hearing many things. Many. That the man is reputable. That the accusations are groundless. That he doesn’t deserve to have his life ruined this way.

It was just a note on the mirror. But so much more. Ambiguity. A mother’s attempt to warn and protect or a mother’s attempt to indict and ruin a man publically.

What could be her motive? What could be his? And who is telling the truth?

And then there’s my small role in all of this. Did I fan the flames by putting it on OTBKB. But I didn’t know anything – I just saw the note and wanted to share what I was feeling about that note: the fear, the uncertaintly, the sense that these things are complicated.  Wondering if it  true, or is it slander.

I may know Third Street but I didn’t know this man at all. Now I am hearing about him from neighbors and friends who care about him, trust him, want to belive that these accusations are simply not true.

This is my beat. And if I wake up in the morning and there’s news literally on my door step…

There were moments this weekend when I wondered whether I was the reason that note was left there. That the mother knew, somehow, that I would blog about it, that I would spread the word and be complicit in what might be a lie.

I don’t know the truth—only two people know. And the mother, too. How could I possibly know?

A jury will have to sit through a trial – and hear the evidence – and decide whether there is enough proof. I sat on a jury in a sexual harassment trial last July. I know what it is like. You go in with a whole bunch of preconceptions and the trial can really turn you around. It’s all very complicated. And finally when the jury is sequestered and it’s time to reach a verdict, there must be proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

For someone who purports to know Third Street, I guess I don’t know Third Street as well as I thought. We know what we know and who we know — beyond that we don’t know a thing. If I fanned the flames in this incident – I take full responsibility.

There must be an object lesson in all this. About journalistic ethics and blogging. About Brooklyn blocks and what you do and don’t know. About sexual harassment and the muddy  realm of statutory rape, endangering the welfare of a child. About lies, about truth. There must be an object lesson in this.

There must be an object lesson in all of this.

Continue reading JUST A NOTE →