SUITCASES: THE STORY OF OUR BOMB SCARE

They were just suitcases. But so much more. They caused the police to close up streets in Park Slope for six hours on Monday while they investigated the possibility that there were explosives inside.

Those suitcases belonged to a homeless man who goes by the name Mr. G.. He is a familiar site with his white hair and his shopping cart filled with Key Food bags, bottles and cans. Local legend has it that he became homeless many years ago. Prior to that he lived in a rental apartment on Union Street. Then he lost his job and his life took a downward turn: he became homeless. 

An older woman on that block let him keep his belongings in the basement of her brownstone. She was an old friend, someone who knew him in better days. For years his belongings resided in her  basement. More recently, he brought empty suitcases downstairs.

Chloe, the daughter-in-law of that woman, wanted to clean the basement. She noticed that the suitcases were getting mildewed. She left a note on Monday July 3rd for Mr. G. It was something along the lines of: Please take your suitcases out of here by Friday.

Well, he did. He came by on Monday, sometime before 3 p.m., when no one was looking and put some of the suitcases on the street in front of the house where Chloe and her mother-in-law live. He may not have wanted to leave all of them in front of their house, so he carried them in his shopping cart and threw them out in garbage pails along Seventh Avenue.

On Monday afternoon, Chloe did some errands on Seventh Avenue. When she came back, she told her neighbor, Leah, that the police were closing off traffic on Seventh Avenue. There was a bomb scare.

Leah and Chloe watched their sons, who are playmates, play together. They watched as Union Street was closed off, as was 8th Avenue. There were many police officers on the streets.

Chloe took a walk and caught sight of one of the suitcases and a lamp. Those look like the suitcases Mr. G. removed from my basement, she thought to herself, she told Leah.

So Chloe told the police officer who seemed to be in charge. A little while later, more police and the FBI called on Chloe at her home to verify her story.

This happened sometime after 7:00 p.m. on Monday. After that, the police closed the investigation down.

Leah did see Mr. G. on Monday he was pushing a shopping cart and there was still a suitcase in it. She’s not sure if he knows, even now, what he set in motion.

BOMB SCARE SOLVED: THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS SUITCASE

A friend sent me this email: the real story behind the Park Slope bomb scare on Monday.

I live on Union which was corded off for several hours because of the bomb scare — a cop said to me they had found multiple suitcases.  The kids (Cole and Timmy) were having a great time playing on the street.

The Moms  and neighbors hanging out on the stoops. —  joking that the suitcases belonged to the homeless man Mr. G  since he walked by with a suitcase similar to the one on the corner — well that was the case.

Cole’s grandmother helps out Mr. G from time to time and lets him store stuff in their basement.  He left a lot of suitcases there that had gotten moldy so Chloe, Cole’s Mom left him a note to get rid of them.  Well he must have  taken them and left them on the street. 

Several hours into the bomb scare Chloe was walking near President and recognized a lamp and suitcase that Mr. G had dumped. Sure enough when she and Timmy and Cole checked the basement many of the suitcases were gone.  She informed a policeman and soon the FBI, detectives and police  had surrounded her house to confirm the story. 

Meanwhile Mr. G had quietly been walking up and down Union during this whole charade. Timmy and Cole are proudly claiming they solved the story. Chloe and I opened a bottle of red wine.  This morning I passed Mr. G shuffling through the garbage collecting bottles.

Apparently he’s lived on Union over 10 years ago, and lost his job. Cole’s grandmother used him as a handyman and helps him out sometimes.  I wonder if he knows he paralyzed Park Slope for several hours.

NOTE: OTBKB changed the names in this story at my friend’s request.

 

SHAWN DULANEY AT NIGHT AND DAY

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My friend, the very accomplished painter and master printer, SHAWN DULANEY, is having a one night showing at Night and Day. Here’s the info.

You are cordially invited to
Night and Day’s July
ARTISTS SALON
and
the opening of an exhibit of
MONOTYPES
by Shawn Dulaney

MONDAY JULY 10
6-8PM
230 FIFTH AVENUE (AT PRESIDENT)
PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN, NY 11215
718-399-2161
www.nightanddayrestaurant.com

53 HOTDOGS: WORLD RECORD

It’s really gross but I heard from a friend that it’s incredibly fun to watch. Here’s the word from good old New York 1.

For the sixth year in a row, Japan’s Takero Kobayashi is the top dog at Coney Island – but this time it wasn’t easy.

Kobayashi broke his own world record by eating 53 and three
quarters hot dogs Tuesday, beating his record of 53 and a half hot dogs
that he set two years ago.

Californian Joey Chestnut gave him a run for the money, finishing
with 52, and it looked for a while like he might pull off the upset. He
opened up a two-dog lead over the defending champ four minutes into the
12-minute contest, but couldn’t hold on for the win.

WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such
has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Continue reading WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

SOME BOMB SCARE QUESTIONS

1. What constitutes a suspicious package? People in my building were joking that there’s all kinds of weird stuff (old trunks, computers, boxes, furniture) on the streets of Park Slope that in the garbage, on the street abandoned after a stoop sale. How does the NYPD define it?

2. Why was there no coverage of this incident yesterday afternoon. The incident began at 3 p.m. and I was checking on-line all afternoon. NY1, NY Daily News, etc.

Reader Zorki writes: "The NYPD is probably supressing news coverage out of embarrassment.
Nothing on NY1, NYTIMEs.com and the Brooklyn news channel (number 12
something) – and this in the land that celebrates its freedom today. So
I came to Only… thinking there must be something about that bomb
threat on the blog. Still, it’s a good thing people are becoming more vigilant about packages etc. like in London."

Reader Mig had this to say: Even Prospect Park West was blocked off when we walked by. Police only
said that "suspicious packages" had been found. They weren’t evacuating
homes, just not allowing people back to their block, a somewhat curious
mixed message."

BOMB SCARE IN PARK SLOPE

Exp0000410:25 a.m. Tuesday: The Daily News Reports: "Cops are investigating whether a slew of
unattended bags found around Brooklyn yesterday afternoon was a hoax,
police sources said.

About 3 p.m., police started spotting suspicious briefcases, luggage
and duffel bags in Park Slope. A grid search of the area turned up bags
on Eighth Ave. and Carroll St. as well as spots on Union St.,
Montgomery Place and Berkeley Place. About nine bags had been found as
of last night. "The more we’re investigating them, the more we are
seeing them," a police source said.

The bags were all empty or, in at least one case, contained another
empty bag inside of it, sources said. So far, none of the bags
contained anything hazardous."

7:00 p.m. Monday

Exp00003
Standing in front Haggen Dazs on Seventh Avenue and President, I could see that Seventh Avenue from President to Berkeley was closed off. There was a rumor that more suitcases were found on Seventh Avenue or Union Street.

The bomb squad checked out the suitcases on Eighth Avenue and found nothing. They started open the streets but then more suitcases were found.

The whole thing was probably a hoax. Still, the police treated it very seriously and people on Carroll Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue were not allowed on their street or into their buildings.

Anyone know more.  Not much in the way of news coverae at the moment.


6:30 p.m. Monday

A suspicious suitcase was found on Eighth Avenue near Carroll
Street. The police have closed off many streets between Seventh and
Eighth Avenues. Dozens of police are in the neighborhood. Helicopters
flying overhead. Traffic has been congested on Seventh Avenue for
hours.

 

ATLANTIC YARDS: LITMUS TEST FOR BROWNSTONE BROOKLYN

An article in Tuesday’s New York Times asserts that the Atlantic Yards will be a major political issue in borough elections. This from the New York Times:

It will be months, if not years, before a single brick of the
Atlantic Yards project is laid near Downtown Brooklyn. But as the fall
election season draws near, the unbuilt, unapproved,
multibillion-dollar development is shaping up as a major political
issue in this corner of the borough.

"This is a litmus
test for brownstone Brooklyn," said City Councilwoman Letitia James,
whose district includes most of the Atlantic Yards site and who is
perhaps the elected official most outspokenly opposed to the project.
"But the issue is nonetheless important for all Brooklynites, whether
or not you’re a brownstoner, someone who lives in public housing, or
you live in a condo."

   

Over the last two and a half years, the
project’s gravity has warped the political space nearby, as if a black
hole had settled at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. It has
bolstered some candidacies and bedeviled others here, where mostly
white, affluent neighborhoods like Park Slope shade into the more
diverse yet rapidly gentrifying confines of Fort Greene and Prospect
Heights.

UNION HALL

Just heard from an OTBKB reader that Union Hall will be opening on July 9th. 
It's the new place on Union Street just up from Fifth Avenue. I peeked inside and it
looks quite elaborate in there -- like an old library or something. Lots of books,
shelves, etc.

I think there's going to be music there as well.

BOB MARLEY BOULEVARD

A Brooklyn street now bears the name of a Reggae legend.

Hundreds turned out in East Flatbush Saturday for the renaming of Church Avenue between Remsen Avenue and East 98th Street as Bob Marley Boulevard.

Local lawmakers, Marley fans and even the musician’s children all agreed it was a fitting tribute.

"We give thanks to the people of Brooklyn, the people of New York, the people of America in general, you know; looking forward for this day, long time," said Marley’s son Rohan Marley.

"He paved the way for black people. He helped us to expose our culture and our roots; that we can enter jobs without having to have our hair other than the culture that we are and the roots that we are," said Marley fan Jahmeeka Simeon. "It’s great. It’s an honor. It should have been done."

Born In Jamaica, Bob Marley popularized Reggae music in the 1970’s.

He died in 1981 from cancer at the age of 36.

HUNTER S. THOMPSON DOCUMENTARY AT BARBES

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At Barbes on Monday night, the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series is showing a doc about Hunter S. Thompson. It’s the EAST COAST PREMIERE. Sounds really interesting. 7 p.m.

BROOKLYN INDEPENDENT CINEMA SERIES, Curated by Joe Pacheco.
Every first and third Monday this summer, BICS presents a double feature

* East Coast Premiere *
WHEN I DIE. 60 min • 2005 • US. Hunter S. Thompson stated in a 1978 interview that he wanted a 150 foot obelisk built in his backyard from which his ashes would be shot five hundred feet into the air over his beloved Owl Farm in Woody Creek, Colorado. When I Die documents the construction of the good doctor’s Gonzo Monument and the trials, tribulations & triumphs of his elaborate funeral production. directed by Wayne Ewing.
* New York Premiere *

BILLY CHILDISH IS DEAD. 70 min • 2005 • UK. Billy Childish is reputed to have recorded 100 LP’s, painted over 2,000 paintings and written 30 plus volumes of poetry during his 24-year career. Over three years in the making, Billy Childish Is Dead is the first ever in-depth documentary to explore the extraordinary life of the man behind the myth. directed by Graham Bendel.

FIRE ABOVE OLIVE VINE

There was a fire in an apartment above Olive Vine Restaurant on Seventh Avenue between Lincoln and St. John’s Place.

Does anyone have more details?  There was a fire two years ago that, I think, started in Olive Vine and spread to Zuzu’s Petals, and a large Korean Market.

This fire, I believe, was in the apartment above the restaurant.

COCKTAIL ANGST

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Just got a note from a friend who is in a band called Cocktail Angst. I haven’t heard them but I have a hunch what they sound like. Love the name. You can hear their music on the web site.

On Wednesday, July 5th, I’m back at M Bar for my monthly song festival with Keith Ganz! Also, this is a little heads up for an upcoming Cocktail Angst gig in Williamsburg on Friday, July 14th from 6-7:30pm. We’ll have all the details for you soon, but it’s at this place that is for kids and adults…you know, you are an adult and you bring a kid and you both have stuff to do. You can also come without a kid and act like a kid! Hopefully, this will be like a little Brooklyn Brewery reunion!!

Here’s the details for Wednesday the 5th

M Bar at the Mansfield Hotel (www.mansfieldhotel.com)
12 West 44th St. (between 5th and 6th avenues)
7pm to 10pm

BROOKLYN MISS AMERICA?

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A Brooklyn woman was crowned Miss New York. She could become the next MISS AMERICA. And it’s going to b e a reality TV show.

WATERTOWN, N.Y. Bethlene Pancoast of Brooklyn was crowned Miss New York State 2006 last night in Watertown.

The New York University student will compete in the Miss America Pageant in Las Vegas in January.

After being crowned, Pancoast reminded the crowd that the Miss America pageant will be made into a reality television show this year, and the public will have a chance to vote.

Pancoast won from a field of 22 young women. First runner-up was Stephanie Quimby of Lowville.

DESIGNER STOOP SALE

Index_03Today, July 2nd, on Third Street between 6th and 7th, Fofolle is selling her ever-popular skirs for women and girls.  Here’s what Kathy Malone, Fofolle herself, has to say about her skirts:

This season’s inspiration has been influenced by
"weather" – pun intended. I like to top stitch, repeatedly, across my
fabrics creating designs that resemble a weather map or gulf stream.
Each one is different. I have been applying this technique to my denim
skirts and my velvet " reinvented" jackets. My obsession with
upholstery fabric remains. I am always scouring off-the-beaten-track
upholstery sources; turning would be curtains, love seats, and divans
into really amazing skirts- a guaranteed statement! In rotation, are my
plush, corduroy skirts with the contrasting Hawaiian-inspired, floral
appliqué, and asymmetrical hemlines. Warm but groovy, these skirts come
in every color under the sun.

Others are selling more traditional stoop sale household "stuff they don’t need anymore," including books, clothing, toys, kitchenware, etc. You know the drill.

Popcorn and lemonade is also being featured at this Third Street Extravaganza.

ROOFTOP FILMS ON THE FOURTH

On the Fouth of July, Rooftop Films presents a fun evening on a Manhattan rooftop.

Political Shorts: Fun with the Founding Fathers
   Cheerful American dissidents and adorable cartoons
   about war-mongers and genocide.
   Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
   
***BUY
   TICKETS
***
| PRESS RELEASE | WATCH a TRAILER!

   Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
   All audience members must be at the venue by 5PM!
   + Live music by The Double and Woodpecker (click for details)
   + + Readings by Patrick Gallagher and Debbie Nathan courtesy of Mr. Bellerís Neighborhood Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood

   + Fantastic fireworks view
   + One hour of fun political films

   On the East River at Solar One (@ 23rd St), just north of Stuyvesant Cove Park, Manhattan | DIRECTIONS
   The show will go on rain or shine, so bring an umbrella.

   Food, soft drinks, and beer will be for sale.

   

 

BROOKLYN TEEN PRESUMED DROWNED

This from the New York Daily News.

A Brooklyn teen was missing and presumed drowned
after he was thrown from his Jet Ski in a Mill Basin collision
yesterday afternoon.
The victim, identified by sources as Paul Zaccaria, 17, of Mill Island,
was riding in the waters off Brooklyn about 4:30 p.m. when he
apparently crashed into another Jet Ski.

Paul catapulted off his craft and went under. An intense search by NYPD
harbor and aviation units, firefighters, park police and the Coast
Guard was suspended at 8:30 p.m. because of darkness.

"There were about six Jet Skis out there," said 13-year-old Nicolas
Grabowski, who was on one himself. "They were fishtailing – driving
real close, driving real fast. None of them had life jackets on."

"He went up in the air, and he went down in the water," said another witness, Tom Jones, 75, of Marine Park.

Nicolas’ mother, 37-year-old Natalie Zalloughi, heard the crash and ran into the water to try to save Paul.

"He vanished. I never saw anything like it," she said. "I just jumped in and swam across with a life jacket and a pole."

She said she was saying to herself, "Please God, let me find him. Let him come up."

The 16-year-old driver of the other watercraft and his 20-year-old
passenger, who were uninjured, ran ashore and called 911. Police were
interviewing them, but said no charges were expected.

The crash occurred in water 15 to 40 feet deep.

"What do you say about a 17-year-old?" said Paul’s uncle, Larry
Guarnieri of California, who is in New York for a family wedding. "He’s
got a lot of friends. He’s got a lot of family, and he has his whole
life ahead of him."

Relatives gathered at Paul’s nearby home to comfort his mother, Joann Zaccaria.

"This was her only son," said a next-door neighbor. "She’s devastated."

NEW AND IMPROVED TENNIS

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

The new Prospect Park Tennis Center is open for the 2006 outdoor season. Tennis players from all over New York are enjoying a new, first-rate facility with a modern clubhouse and pro-shop, viewing areas, locker rooms, air conditioning, the 40-Love Cafe, and much more.

This
year’s outdoor season ushers in a new era of Brooklyn tennis. In
addition to the new facility, we’ve introduced new outdoor night
lighting, landscaping, fencing, and signage; built two new hard courts;
and expanded Junior Development, league, and public programs.
      

      
   

 
How to play

The Prospect Park Tennis Center is open daily, from 7 a.m. – midnight. View our court rates here .

      

Parks Department permits are honored during daylight hours only, during the outdoor season, which runs from late May through the end of October. To obtain a Parks Department permit, click here or call (718) 965-8914.

CONEY ISLAND PIG OUT

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It’s the 4th of July and that means the Nathan’s Coney Island hot dog eating contest. Gross. New York 1 has this report:

No one puts fear into the hearts of hot dogs like Tekeru Kobayashi, who has owned the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest for the past half decade.

“Tekeru Kobayashi came over in 2001, doubled the record, and since them no one has been close," said International Federation of Competitive Eating Chairman George Shea.

But Shea says this could be the year someone steps up and finishes more franks in 12 minutes than the champ. Top challengers include “The Black Widow” Sonja Thomas; Joey Chestnut an up-and-comer who has topped the 50 weiner plateau; Long Islander Ed "Cookie” Jarvis; and No. 7 train conductor Eric "Badlands" Booker, who is confident heading into the big competition.

Last Day Blues

This is the latest Smartmom from the  Brooklyn Papers. Pick up your copy every Friday at Key Food, Conn. Muffin, Haggen Daz, Cousin Johns (to name a few) or visit Brooklyn Papers.com.

Smartmom cried on the Oh So Feisty One’s last day of school this
week. She always does. They were quiet tears: quickly-brushed-away
tears, and tears-that-got-stuck-in-the-middle-of-her-throat tears.

There is something about seeing the teachers coming out of PS 321
with the children they have been teaching for the past year that really
moves her. The teachers look near tears themselves.

On the last day of first grade eight years ago, Teen Spirit’s
teacher was wearing the same floral print dress she wore on the very
first day when she was welcoming the children.

That killed Smartmom. Just slayed her.

On Wednesday, Smartmom observed OSFO, slightly stooped from a
backpack stuffed with the contents of her desk, as she walked away from
her third-grade teachers and classmates — the people who, for a year,
formed an important part of her world.

She and her friends looked a little dazed. They held their
Build-a-Bears and Build-a-Dogs, who had married, divorced, re-married,
and had children during the year in a complex social dance that played
out at recess.

Some of the children cried and hugged (Smartmom couldn’t tell if the
bears were crying). Other kids looked scared and uncertain about the
future. Many were, of course, tremendously excited to begin summer
vacation. Such a mixed blessing: the end of one thing, the beginning of
the next.

After the good-byes, the teacher thank-yous, the hugs, and the “see
you next years,” the parents ripped open the report card envelopes to
see which teacher they (er, their child) would have next year.

“Who’d you get?” was heard all over the schoolyard.

The answer was on the last page of the report card. But to
complicate matters, PS 321 gives the room number, not the teacher’s
name.

“Whose class is 318?”

“Does anyone know the teacher in 327?”

Parents attempted to match a number with a name. There was one savvy
parent walking around with the PS 321 directory, giving out the vital
information. Everyone gathered around that person.

Finding out about next year’s teacher is the de facto moment of
truth. The parents who got a desired teacher had looks of satisfaction
as they put the report card back in its small manila envelope.

But the parents who got an unfamiliar teacher, or Buddha forbid, a name that they didn’t want, offered looks of
disappointment, even anger.

And consider the children: “All my friends are in one class. I’m all alone,” Smartmom overheard one girl say tearfully.

Smartmom experienced a “now what?” feeling. The quest to find
companions for next year was suddenly replaced with the great expanse
of summer vacation.

It was a snap transition from schoolness to no schoolness and it felt a little empty, even lonely.

When they got back to the apartment, Smartmom and OSFO got out the
Pillsbury cookie dough and started baking for the end-of-school party
that OSFO had planned for her friends and their stuffed animals later
in the afternoon.

From the end of the hallway, Smartmom heard Teen Spirit, who has
been out of school for more than a week, stirring in his bedroom.

“It’s 12:30. Time to get up!” Smartmom yelled. At 15, Teen Spirit is
thrilled to be free of the shackles and chains of school life. Now he
just wants to sleep late and watch movies.

The fact that he hasn’t figured out what he’s doing this summer is
making Smartmom increasingly nervous. Initially he considered being a
CIT at his old day camp.

“But I sort of want to be able to sleep late on my summer vacation,” he said.

For the last week he’s been spending most of his time figuring out
chords on his new left-handed acoustic guitar and listening to his iPod
instead of canvassing Seventh Avenue shops for summer employment.

Smartmom emailed friends, trying to drum up a summer job for her nearly 6-foot baby boy.

“He’s handsome, smart, well read, and a fount of world knowledge,” she wrote. “Work experience: None.”

While the cookies were baking, a friend called to see if Teen Spirit
would be willing to feed a guinea pig, a parrot, clean the guinea pig’s
cage, and water plants while she was away on a week’s vacation.

Sure, Smartmom said, he loves that sort of thing. Not. But she knew he needed the work. Make that: Smartmom needed him to work.

Smartmom volunteered Teen Spirit to do something he probably
wouldn’t want to do. There would almost certainly be a fight. Nasty
words would be strewn about. She winced at the thought of the conflict
that was practically a daily fact of life.

Smartmom knocked on Teen Spirit’s door to wake him up and talk to him
about his summer plans. Specifically about his upcoming stint as a
guinea-pig-cage cleaner. Then she decided better of it and went back to
baking cookies. There was plenty of time for conflict. Later.

While OSFO squirted purple frosting on her just-baked cookies,
Smartmom read OSFO’s report card to sustain the connection with what
they’d just left behind: the class trips, the poetry celebrations,
class 320’s arctic museum…

There would be plenty of time to ponder what the summer would hold,
and to prevent Teen Spirit’s descent into slackerdom. But for the
afternoon, it helped to hold onto the report card, the backpack, the
stack of class work, the hard-to-store artwork.

Like a baby’s security blanket, these transitional objects would smooth the way into the next new thing.