Monthly Archives: March 2008

Postcard from the Slope

Is PS Coffee Tea and Spices Really Dropping Lunch Business?

Say it isn’t so, Brenda.

I just called Brenda Chan Casimir, owner of the PS Coffee Tea and Spices on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, to get her reaction to Jake Mooney’s article yesterday about her closing down her lunch business.

Today at noon, her lunch service did not sound closed down. In fact, it sounded very hectic in there and she told me to call back later, which I will do in the hopes of getting the real story from Brenda.

Mooney’s story said that Brenda’s shop, PS Coffee Tea and Spices, will no longer be serving lunch to hungry middle schoolers at MS 51. This is a big lunchtime loss to the kids at MS 51, a school that has a small lunch room, where the kids are allowed to go outside for lunch.

But have no fear. The Times’ story was a tad misleading. By the end of the article, Brenda is quoted as saying that she might rethink the whole idea of closing it down.

I certainly hope so as I was hoping that if OSFO goes to MS 51 next year that she’d get her lunch there just like so many kids do.

I remember hearing that Brenda’s lunch business started by accident. One rainy day years ago, she saw some MS 51 kids standing outside in the rain and she invited them in for some soup.

That evolved into a nice weekday business selling soup and a homemade chocolate chip cookie. The kids line up outside of the store. Once inside, they love the smell of the fresh baked cookies.

It’s certainly one of the best and the healthiest lunch options around. There’s also the pizza place across the street, the bodega and the Bagel store all across the street from the school.

But Brenda’s place is awfully special. Sadly, Brenda may have grown tired of being the lunch lady to  the kids from MS 51. At least some of them. From the Times:

"Some rowdier children were mussing up the store and sometimes stealing,
Ms. Casimir explained. She had always liked the students, but she was
feeling stressed. “If I get an inspector who comes in unannounced and
finds half-eaten pizza stuck behind boxes,” she said, “I’m done for.”"

Brenda’s shop is the last of a breed. Filled floor to ceiling with spices, teas, condiments and more, it has a real country store vibe and is a special neighborhood gathering place. A cracker barrel setting, it’s the kind of place where people can leave their keys, have packages dropped off, or just grab some warm conversation.

It is the real thing. One of those places that takes the bite out of the big city and makes Park Slope feel like a small town.

real estate

House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue to Expand?

BRemember when they were going to turn the Booklyn House of Detention into a mall or a condos? That’s old news.

Now they’re talking about adding additional housing for 720 inmates and a new addition. More info is available from the Brooklyn Jail Stakeholders Group.

The Brooklyn HOD Community Stakeholders Group has obtained a copy of an RFP issued
by the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) at a pre-proposal
conference held at the Brooklyn
Detention Center
on March 28, 2008. The community was not notified of the RFP or the conference.

According to the RFP, the city intends to engage a firm by the end of July to
design and execute an expansion of the HOD. In what may prove an empty
exercise, the RFP repeats many of the requirements from a previous RFEI which
garnered only one proposal. The Department of Corrections dismissed that proposal,
Atlantic
Gateway, as unacceptable. The design period for this latest RFP extends 2
years, well beyond the terms of DOC Commissioner Horn or Mayor Bloomberg.

From the RFP (emphasis added):
"The purpose of this project is to create additional housing for 720 inmates in twelve
dormitories of sixty beds each; create space within the new addition and
within the first three floors of the existing structure providing programmatic
support and ancillary accommodations for the increased capacity; improve the
existing structure’s deteriorating facade; create continuous ground floor
retail space within the existing jail space along Atlantic Avenue and relocate
displaced jail functions elsewhere on site; and explore the prospect of
incorporating parking within the confines of the site."

Civics and Urban Life

Simon and Simone: Dinnersteins at the Rainbow Room

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Park Slope’s first family of arts and culture will be appearing at a benefit at the Rainbow Room, one of my favorite New York spots, in a benefit for Healing Bridges, a group that raises money for women and children in Africa. Interestingly, it’s hosted by Robin Quivers from the Howard Stern Show and her group, Girls Night Out.

For us the big draw is Simon, a wonderful painter and Simone, a world-class pianist with a top selling CD of the Goldberg Variations out now. Here’s the blurb from the invite. The price is a little steep but hey, it’s for a great cause.

Howard Stern Show radio personality Robin Quivers and her
charity-focused dinner committee Girls Night Out will host A NIGHT OF
MUSIC AND ART WITH THE DINNERSTEINS, which takes place on April 17th at
the Rainbow Room in New York City. The dinner will benefit Healing
Bridges, a non-profit organization that creates jobs in Africa for
women to support themselves and their families and help fund their new
business ventures. For more information on Healing Bridges go to www.Healingbridges.org.

The evening will feature the music of Simone Dinnerstein, the acclaimed
American concert pianist who the New York Times called an artist
“poised for a breakthrough,” and whose recent recording of Bach’s
Goldberg Variations earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical
Chart in its first week.
The night will also feature the art of her father, the celebrated
painter Simon Dinnerstein of Brooklyn, NY whose work has been featured
around the world.

Cocktails begin at 6pm,
followed by dinner and the performance. Special celebrity seating will
soon be available on www.charityfolks.com.  VIP tickets are $1000 and
all other seats are $350. Information on purchasing tickets can be
obtained via email to HealingBridgesEvent@gmail.com or by telephone at
646-435-1548.

Postcard from the Slope

Admissions Interview at a Middle School in Brooklyn

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For those who don’t know, fifth graders have to apply to public middle school in New York City. There are no zoned middle schools so kids must go on tours, fill out applications, do interviews, auditions and more. You heard me right, fifth graders. That’s 10 to 11 years old.

Kinda crazy, right?

You don’t expect to get a good impression of a school on the day when hundreds of stressed-out parents and kids show up for their admissions interview at a hot public middle school.

But we did.

On Saturday morning, everything went very smoothly at New Voices on 18th Street near Seventh Avenue. The principal, staff and PTA parents were incredibly welcoming and friendly.

A PTA bake sale with coffee and hot chocolate was a really good idea.

Hepcat, OSFO and I got to the school at 9 a.m. and after waiting a few minutes the principal called the kids to follow him to the auditorium.

OSFO and her friend went nervously but by the time we saw them a half hour or later they were already feeling very comfortable in the school. OSFO had “auditioned” for music by playing her piano recital piece. Later she “auditioned” for art, wrote a writing sample and was interviewed by a very nice teacher, who asked OSFO what her teacher would say about her.

OSFO came up with a good answer but she could have said more. “But that would have been bragging, Mom,” OSFO said.

That’s the point, I guess.

The New Voices audition isn’t really an audition. I’m told that they just want to make sure that the kids really do like the arts and want to be in an arts-oriented middle school. The arts are very important at New Voices and in 6th grade the kids are required to take drama, studio art, graphic design, dance, and music.

OSFO was actually really excited and optimistic after her morning at New Voices. Wow. That makes a parent feel good.

OSFO has two more interviews to go. Then she’ll be a pro at interviewing for middle school.

EDUCATION

Red Hook Parents Upset: DOE to Put New Charter School In PS 15

The mother of a student at PS 15 in Red Hook wrote to say that the Department of Education has decided to place a new
charter school in their building starting next fall.

Many of the parents
connected with the school – and other members of the community – are
quite upset by this.

PS 15 has received high grades, and excels in
serving its existing student population – and has small classes and a
"family" feel that really supports the students in many positive ways.

This mom is wondering if anyone out there has ideas about how to block having a second school placed arbitrarily on their premises:

As part of the effort to protest this decision, I’ve set up a blog that
provides substantial background on the issue, and I’d like to ask you
to take a look at  your convenience, and if you have any suggestions or
feedback on how we can block having a second school
arbitrarily placed on our premises, we’d be glad to hear from you.

 
And just for the sake of democratic argument, if you have an
interesting argument pro-charter schools, feel free to speak up on that
as well.
 
Here’s the link to the blog: http://charter-free-ps15.blogspot.com/
Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Fudge

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12055903607561947013194The woman who runs Brooklyn Fudge got in touch with me after she read about the Brooklyn bloggers video shoot with Blue Barn Pictures. She wanted to know if she should drop off some fudge for the bloggers. Like 50 to 75 pieces.

I said, sure, why not, what a nice idea.

When I got to the shoot there was already a big basket of Brooklyn Fudge and bloggers ate from that basket all day.

The fudge was very rich and delicious. Favorite flavors included, Dark Wasabi Pecan (a BIG hit) and Dark Cinnamon Almond.

On the F-train home from the shoot, I saw the Fudge Lady with the basket. She had a lovely southern accent and looked delighted that all the fudge had been consumed by a bunch of bloggers.

Thank you so much Brooklyn Fudge. 

Only the Blog News Links

Only the Blog Links

Is there a Park Slope in Charlotte, NC? (Gowanus Lounge)

City Council vote on congestion pricing today (NY1)

Out among the Brooklyn bloggers (Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn)

Earth Hour 2008 (Pardon Me For Asking)

Flatbush Americana (Found in Brooklyn)

Pastor emergency van (Bed Stuy Banana)

The day 85,000 NYC 8th graders find out where they’re going for high school (My Sidewalk Chalk)

What spirituality means to me (Old First Blog)

Crowing roosters (Brooklynometry)

Dogs park for free in South Slope (Brooklynometry)

Universoul circus in Prospect Park (A Year in the Park)

Civics and Urban Life

Smartmom: No Tears Yet

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Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper.

Smartmom hasn’t cried yet. And she’s worried that maybe there’s something wrong with her. In about two months, she and Hepcat will be attending the Oh So Feisty One’s fifth-grade graduation from PS 321.

And she hasn’t shed even one tear.

Maybe it’s because Smartmom has been through it before. When Teen Spirit was in fifth grade, Smartmom found herself getting misty just about every day.

One day she couldn’t contain herself when Teen Spirit’s class sang “In My Life” to the parents during Parents as Reading Partners one Friday morning.

The sobs just erupted and wouldn’t stop.

Later, at the dearly departed Mojo Café, she tried to tell a friend about it and she burst into tears, again.

“I’m sorry,” she weeped into her cappuccino. Her friend, who had a pre-schooler, didn’t have a clue why she was so emotional.

Smartmom cried because it was hard to face the fact that her firstborn was growing up.

She cried because the middle school application process was frustrating and dispiriting.

She cried because she had no idea how or when she’d gotten so old.

Smartmom went to Teen Spirit’s fifth-grade graduation fully expecting to cry her eyes out. She didn’t realize that the graduation ceremony would be a marathon of speech making by local politicians, like health nut Marty Markowitz, who made the kids do jumping jacks.

On an excruciatingly hot day in June, the graduation ceremony lasted almost three hours and Smartmom found herself getting a little antsy. But the tears did come during the slide show.

Later, the tears came like the fountain in front of the Brooklyn Museum, when, at the end of the ceremony the kids turned around in their seats and sang that famous song from “Rent”: “Five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six-hundred minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. Five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six-hundred minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?”

Waaaaaaaaaaaa.

Yet here it is, March of OSFO’s fifth grade and Smartmom’s eyes are as dry as the Sinai. What is wrong with her? To make it worse, she’s seen more than one friend get emotional.

Smartmom’s friend, the co-president of the PTA, let it rain at a yearbook meeting at Sweet Melissa’s. She cried again going through old photographs for the book’s “The Way We Were” section.

But still no tears for Smartmom.

Smartmom knows it’s partly because she’s been through it before. Sure, but that’s no reason to get nostalgic about an important milestone in OSFO’s life.

Smartmom may just have to face that she’s ready to leave PS 321. For Buddha’s sake, she lives right around the corner from the school and Diaper Diva’s daughter will be starting kindergarten there in 2009.

Eleven years is a long time. Maybe she is ready to have two kids finished with elementary school. No more choice times, parents as reading partners, writing celebrations, drop offs, pick ups, working on the school’s annual poetry magazine, hanging out with mom friends at Sweet Melissa’s, pot luck dinners, parent/teacher conferences…

Omigod, they’re coming. A tear just dripped onto the keyboard of Smartmom’s MacBook.

Smartmom hopes they keep on coming at OSFO’s big ceremony in June. She knows there’s going to be a slide show. She hopes they use a tearjerker by the Beatles as the soundtrack. And when the kids sing, she hopes it’s a really smaltzy song like “Seasons of Love.”

Maybe just looking at OSFO all dressed up on that day, on the precipice of this big change in her life, will be enough to instigate Smartmom’s big cry.

Uh oh, here they come. Quick, where’s the Kleenex?

Postcard from the Slope

Toll Brothers Gowanus Proposal: Scary

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2367944537_9ff63e85b5_o_2You better be sitting down when you see what the Toll Brothers, a huge real estate development firm, have in mind. Last week at a Community Board 6 meeting in Carroll Gardens, they revealed the full scope of their plans to condo-ize a large swath of the Gowanus area.

This is not my Gowanus.

Those of us who love the historic, industrial quality of the Gowanus always hoped that the factory buildings might be preserved and renovated for reuse as housing, artist space and retail. We hoped that the Gowanus would be cleaned for canoeing and other waterfront activities. That the whole thing be approached in much the same preservationist spirit as the Highline.

This is New York history and we want to keep it this way.

Ask Hepcat. He’s not kidding when he talks about the light in the Gowanus being like Venice.

The Gowanus is a special New York place that ought to be preserved very carefully so that people can enjoy the history in our midst: the Carroll Street Bridge, the old factory buildings, even the smelly Gowanus Canal.

There’s history in them there hills and I don’t want the Toll Brothers to mess with it.

Postcard from the Slope

Yowza: Toll Brothers Gowanus Plans Revealed For All to See

2265095166_88524da445_oLast week there was a community board meeting where the plans were revealed and local residents were asked to submit their comments. Those who love the historic, industrial quality of the Gowanus area are up in arms. They don’t want to see the condo-ization of that area for a variety of reasons. As reported on Curbed (where the pictures are also from):

The project would include 577 units of housing, 2,000 square feet of retail and 2,000 square feet of community space on three acres, among other things. The property between the Canal, Bond Street, Carroll Street and Second Street. Buildings would be 4-12 stories in height, with the tallest structure (125 feet) being near the canal. The project would total 605,380 square feet and include 260 underground parking spaces. There would be .6 acres of “publicly accessible waterfront” and 130 of the units of housing would be affordable.

Pardon Me for Asking had this report:

David Von Spreckelsen, of the Toll Brothers came to the C.B. 6 Land Use/Landmark Committee last night to present the plans for the 450 Unit development the company has planned for the shores of the Gowanus Canal. Mr. Von Spreckelsen brought along his crew of professionals to back him up: attorneys, engineers, an environmental consultant, an architect and a landscape architect, to name just a few.

Listening to them speak enthusiastically about this project and looking at their pretty pictures, it becomes clear that these people are good, very good, indeed, at the hard sell. Oh, it all looks so good and sounds so wonderful. The architect used phrases such as ” the flow of the canal,” “the feel of the street,” and ” the rhythm of the townhouses.”

How can we resist? Why wouldn’t we beg the Toll Brothers to build this development? Please, please…

And then, the landscape architect presented his drawings of “Canal Park” and talked about Bond Street being treated with “grace” and “celebrates the history of the place” at which point my husband turned to me and said: “This guy is so full of s–t, it’s unbelievable,” and I am thrown back into reality.

Yes, these guys are good. They have done these presentations before. They have dealt with skeptical Community Boards before. They have faced hostile residents. And they know how to gloss over minor details like where will all that flood water by the canal go and how much the 130 affordable apartments will rent for.

Gowanus Lounge has more pictures of what the Toll Brothers are talking about.

Brownstoner also has great coverage.

Civics and Urban Life

Blue Barn Pictures: A Brooklyn-based Video Production Company to Know About

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Yesterday I spent the entire day in the lobby of the cool loft/office building in DUMBO that houses Blue Barn Pictures, an International Multimedia Production Company, owned by Jim Baker, David Castillo and Stephen J. Duke. Highly experienced and professional, Blue Barn produces a wide variety of media, including commercials for Canon and other companies. From their website:

At the heart of Blue Barn is a production staff of creative professionals dedicated to delivering your concept with the style and intelligence your vision deserves.

Blue Barn has traveled around the world, from Miami to London, San Francisco to Barcelona, to produce commercial and independent projects.

Blue Barn Pictures is producing a short video about Brooklyn Blogging for the Blogfest. Yesterday was the big, marathon interview day and boy did they do a great job making all of us Brooklyn bloggers look and sound great.

For that I am grateful.

I became aware of Blue Barn when Castillo showed up at the Blogade brunch in Kensington and showed this interesting profile of a Spanish actor. Shot in black and white, the piece was stylish, smart, well-edited and fun.

I asked Castillo then and there if he’d be interested in working on this video. Hey, I used to be a filmmaker and a video producer, I know quality when I see it.

Did I mention that Blue Barn Pictures also has a blog?

From 11 am until 7:30, bloggers filed into the incredibly comfortable lobby on Jay Street and waited for their close-ups. It was a funny scene.

Why did we have to bring two shirts? some asked.

David had sent out a very detailed list of what not to wear at a video shoot:

1.White clothing
2. Shirts with logos (Mickey Mouse, Rolling Stones, Nike, I love Dick Cheney or anyone who will sue). If you have a shirt with your blog’s name on it, please wear it.
3. No clothing with tight striped lines ( New Yorkers remember Crazy Eddie, we don’t want you looking like his blazer)
4. Please bring a spare shirt.
5. If you wear makeup, please do not apply it until you arrive, HD does not like make up. You can apply some make up here.

The make-up thing had some of the women bloggers quite distressed. One blogger said playfully, “I am almost 50 years old and I won’t go on without make up!”

Joe’s NYC, I’m Seeing Green, Creative Times, Habeus Brulee and Luna Park were the first to arrive.

As the day progressed, Brit in Brooklyn, Midnight Cowgirls, My Sidewalk Chalk, Reclaimed Home, New York Shitty, Old First Blog, Mrs. Cleavage, Gowanus Lounge, No Words Daily Pix, The Henrys in New York, Bed Stuy Banana, Sogood.tv, Self-Absorbed Boomer, Bad Girl Blog, Pardon Me for Asking, Found in Brooklyn, Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn, Brooklynometry, No Land Grab and I all passed before Blue Barn Picture’s HD lens. Google these bloggers as I am too lazy and tired from yesterday to link to all of them right now.

No wonder I’m tired. It was a steady stream of bloggers all day long. What a fun group to hang out with. These are my people. The Henrys in New York has a fun report on the event on her blog.

And you can see the video by Blue Barn Pictures at the Blogfest on May 8th at 8 p.m. at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Open to all bloggers and non-bloggers alike.

Brooklyn Blogfest 08
May 8th at 8 p.m.
@ the Brooklyn Lyceum
227 Fourth Avenue at President Street
$10 suggested donation
Open to one and all

New York Times

San Franbrooklyn: The Connection Between the Two Cities

In Saturday’s Style section of the New York Times, there’s an article about the creative connection between San Francisco and Brooklyn. The Times coined the phrase San Franbrooklyn and commissioned a really cool illustration. According to the Times, there is there is “a young, earnest population that is beating a path between artsy, gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn and their counterparts in the Bay Area.”

Richard Florida, the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” which argues that urban renewal is sparked by high concentrations of high-tech workers, artists, gay men and lesbians, ranked San Francisco No. 1 on his “creativity index” and New York City No. 9. Although Mr. Florida did not break out data for Brooklyn, “anecdotally it has a large concentration of creative people who have moved from Manhattan and elsewhere,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “I am confident if such data existed, Brooklyn would do very well.”

He added that the populations drawn to both areas by alternative art and music scenes, and by a tolerance for diversity, were looking for a “messy urbanism, a clash of different styles that Brooklyn still retains, that the East Bay still retains.”

Other communities across the country also fit this bill, but what Brooklyn and the East Bay share is proximity to more cosmopolitan centers — Manhattan and San Francisco — where the “creative class,” many of whom are freelancers, can earn a living.

“You can make money in both cities,” Ms. Levine said. “Can you make money in Portland, Ore.? It’s a cool city, it’s got lots of hipsters, but can you make money?”

Civics and Urban Life

Anti-Hate Crime Conference: We Are All Brooklyn

New York 1 reports that Brooklyn leaders are getting together to do something about hate crimes.

In light of the recent incident at the Fourth Avenue F Train station, where Assistant Rabbi Uria Ohana of the Massachusetts Chabad Center, was a victim, a coalition of religious and community groups gathered in Brooklyn’s Borough Hall.

Calling themselves, “We Are All Brooklyn,” they gathered in Brooklyn’s Borough Hall to show their opposition to hate crimes and to announce an upcoming event on April 9th called “Stand United Against Hate.”

The event will bring together religious and political leaders from across the city to come together to express bias crimes of any kind.

Faiza Ali from the Council on American-Islamic Relations says the crime against Ohana is one of the reasons religious leaders throughout the city are now taking action.

“Promoting cultural and religious sensitivity may lessen the chance that an occurrence like this one will repeat itself,” said Ali. “Through meaningful interactions and honest conversation, we will build a more peaceful community and we will promote an understanding of diverse cultures”

.

Brooklyn Blogfest

Brooklyn Bloggers: Get Ready for Your Close-Up

Today’s the day!

The video shoot for the Brooklyn Bloggers video is TODAY. Here are some video tips for participants from video producer, David Castillo, of Blue Barn Pictures. Call me if you don’t have a time slot for your interview: 718-288-4290

So you’re going to be filmed; there are a few things you will need to know in advance.

The Date: Saturday, March 29th (TODAY!)

Please refrain from wearing:

1.White clothing
2. Shirts with logos (Mickey Mouse, Rolling Stones, Nike, I love Dick Cheney or anyone who will sue). If you have a shirt with your blog’s name on it, please wear it.
3. No clothing with tight striped lines ( New Yorkers remember Crazy Eddie, we don’t want you looking like his blazer)
4. Please bring a spare shirt.
5. If you wear makeup, please do not apply it until you arrive, HD does not like make up. You can apply some make up here.

Directions to Blue Barn Pictures’ studio
F train to York station
Walk one block down Jay st
Make a left on Front St
The first door on your right 147 Front
Walk up one flight of stairs past the coffee shop
There will be someone to greet you at the lobby.

To confirm (if you haven’t already), change, or back out of this amazing project and be hunted down to the Queens border email louise_crawford(at)yahoo.com

Contact on the day of the shoot:
If you get lost, are running late, or just need a soothing voice please contact: Louise G. Crawford
cell: 718-288-4290

We look forward to seeing you all and having a lot of fun.

Postcard from the Slope

Mystery House on Third Street Once Owned by Witches

An OTBKB reader came to the Brooklyn Reading Works reading on Thursday night. Today she wrote me this interesting note. I am hoping to serialize the Park Slope portion of her novel, “The Influence of Absence.”

Who knew, when I was going to William Alexander JH51 in the J.D. era, sneaking cigarettes in the lee of the sunken stone house, that many years hence I’d be attending a literary event there??

It was so generous of you to offer to serialize the Park Slope portion of my second novel, “The Influence of Absence,” whose first few chapters take place in 1950’s Park Slope.

If I had to pitch the book in 25 words or less–It’s a bildingsroman, a prolonged-coming-of-age story wherein the heroine finally finds love in all the right places.

The first chapter is called Third Street, where it all began….

Speaking of Third Street, my mother once told me that the mystery house on the corner was once owned by witches, satanists! A young married couple that befriended her and took her to a Black Mass somewhere downtown (circa 1941).

She believed they put a hex on the house, which we called “the jinxed house on the corner” when I was growing up. (She did have an overactive imagination….)

Brooklyn Blogfest

The Story of a Russian Adoption: Letter to My Daughter

Diaper Diva began her blog, Mama in Waiting, when she was waiting to adopt her daughter in Russia. That was in 2004. Her daughter is now a spunky three year old Park Sloper who attends pre-school, loves to dress up in princess costumes, play with her stuffed animals, and put together jigsaw puzzles.

Recently Diaper Diva decided to get back to blogging and is writing about the months leading up to the adoption and the trips she and her husband took to Russia before she forgets all the details. I will be running excerpts from her blog on OTBKB in serial form. Here is an early post from 2004 called, Letter to S, written months before their first meeting. I have decided to use initials instead of real names. DD uses real names on her blog.

Dear S:

I think about you all the time and hope that you are being well cared for, played with, hugged, snuggled and loved. It is very hard for us to know that you are there and we can’t come to meet you. We are saddened by this but know it will be very soon when we get to hold you ourselves.

Your father is very excited to meet you. He took a lot of time and thought in picking out your stroller – it’s quite comfy and we think you’re going to enjoy riding in it.

We also fixed up your room. We bought you a lot of beautiful furniture. A lovely crib that your father says looks like Noah’s ark; an armoire which is already filling up with adorable outfits for you; and a bookcase that is already filled with books from your Aunt and cousins. There are also some very cute stuffed animals, some of which have been given to you by your cousin A. Your grandmother gave you a nice panda bear and he is sitting on the shelf right now, waiting for you.

A enjoys coming over and playing in your room. Yesterday afternoon, she came over and put her stuffed dog Sandy in your crib. She also put a diaper on him and cut a hole for his tail. It was actually quite funny. I know that she loves you already. She gets very anxious when we talk about all the delays and the political issues surrounding the adoption. She says to me: “Stop talking, it’s boring…”.

I think she just wants you to be here already, as we all do.

Your room is so cozy. We hung a very cute paper mobile over your crib. Your grandmother has already knitted you a lovely and soft pink blanket. It’s one of the biggest knitting projects she has ever undertaken. She is almost finished. Perhaps we will bring it to Russia with us.

Until then, we will be thinking about you all the time and love you very much.

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

The Oh So Prolific One: Leon Freilich, Verse Responder

Imagesatlanticyardsgehrysmall
Lots of Ratner News
Atlantic Yards is dead. May it rest in pieces.
But death, alas, won’t end the Ratner fleeces,
For close observers of the giveaway plots
Are warning of the coming of parking lots.
Now these would flood the Flatbush/Atlantic area,
Where demolishments already cause hysteria,
With 20 acres of cars dumped by their drivers
Who’ve quickly turned into new-style contrivers
To grab the nearby subway –so enticing–
And beat the eight-buck cost of congestion pricing.
Why drive into Manhattan for that fee
When riding the train is practically free?
(With vehicle armies marching in and out,
All traffic will be snarled without a doubt.)
Once congestion pricing is adopted,
Miss Brooklyn (recessionary climate stopped it)
Along with Ratner’s office tower and housing
Will be the objects of no one’s carousing;
The only structure likely to go up
Is the basketball court, where rich folks watch and sup.
Surrounding it, the multi-billion fright
Amounting to a field of Brooklyn blight.

Only the Blog News Links

Only the Blog Links

Congestion pricing countdown (Sustainable Flatbush)

Hibernaculum (A Year in the Park)

Toll Brothers team talks up Gowanus Plan (Gowanus Lounge)

Glamour at Rush (Brooklynometry)

Ira Glass, My Ass (Midnight Cowgirls)

Make an impact about Toll Brothers Gowanus project (Found in Brooklyn)

On Bear Mountain (Shelleytown)

Bed-Stuy real estate picks (Bed-Stuy Blog)

Join Earth Hour 2008 (McBrooklyn)

Breaking Chews: local restaurant gossip (Brooklyn Paper)