Monthly Archives: August 2008

Civics and Urban Life

They Caught The Guy Who’s Been Sewing Off The Heads of Parking Meters

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So it’s just like in the movie Cool Hand Luke. The Paul Newman character did the same thing. That’s what got him in prison (I think). Okay.

But this guy, Maurice Mizrahi, beheaded 87 parking meter heads. Well, we in Park Slope can certainly understand the motivation. Here’s part of the story from the Times:

When Salvo Frisina went to work recently at a pharmacy in Gravesend, Brooklyn, he saw something odd: a parking meter with a sawed-off head

Mr. Frisina said he thought it was part of the transition in the neighborhood from coin-operated parking meters to Muni-Meters, a move that the city is making across New York.

“I thought the city was cutting them off to put the new meters in,” Mr. Frisina said on Saturday, as he worked behind the counter at Harold’s Pharmacy on the corner of Avenue U and McDonald Avenue.

But Mr. Frisina, 20, may have unknowingly seen the handiwork of Maurice Mizrahi, a man who the police said had cut off the heads of several dozen parking meters in the past two years. They recovered 87 meters from the house where he lived in Gravesend, the neighborhood where the police said most of the thefts took place.

The police said that Mr. Mizrahi was arrested on Saturday afternoon on Kings Highway and was expected to be charged with numerous counts of criminal possession of stolen property.

While it is not unusual for coin-fed parking meters and Muni-Meters to be vandalized, city officials and the police said they had never seen anything on the scale of the thefts in which Mr. Mizrahi had been accused.

Postcard from the Slope

Fourth Annual Fort Greene Literary Festival.

Here’s an excerpt from author Richard Grayson’s post on the Literary Festival in Fort Greene on August 23rd. Read the rest on his blog Dumbo Books of Brooklyn.

We arrived right on time at 3 p.m. today at beautiful Fort Greene Park for the Fourth Annual Fort Greene Literary Festival. Having been to last year’s event (you can read our 2007 coverage on Louise Crawford’s Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn) as well as the one in 2006, we knew we were in for a treat. And we weren’t disappointed.

Much credit for the Festival goes to the New York Writers Coalition (NYWC), a neighborhood Fort Greene fixture at 80 Hansen Place, and under the direction of the dynamic Aaron Zimmerman, its founder and executive director, and many others, last year provided more than 1000 creative writing workshop sessions at more than 45 locations throughout New York City. (Thanks to NYWC for photos above and kids’ photos below; you can see more at their website.)

Kudos for their work on the Festival also go to these presenters: chair of the Brooklyn Literary Council and Fort Greene resident Johnny Temple’s indie publishing firm Akashic Books, “dedicated to the reverse gentrification of the literary world”; the Fort Greene Park Conservatory, who’ve done so much good work (those of Brooklyn natives know in what bad shape the place was before they came along); the well-known agency Global Talent Associates; and The Walt Whitman Project – a great Brooklyn organization known for events like tomorrow’s reading, “Walt Whitman in the Neighborhood,” at the Clinton Hill Art Gallery.

Civics and Urban Life

God Bless New Orleans

Here is the Hurricane Gustav Advisory:

000
WTNT32 KNHC 311435
TCPAT2
BULLETIN
HURRICANE GUSTAV ADVISORY NUMBER 28
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072008
1000 AM CDT SUN AUG 31 2008

…GUSTAV CONTINUES NORTHWESTWARD OVER THE CENTRAL GULF OF MEXICO
WITH LITTLE CHANGE IN STRENGTH…

A HURRICANE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTHERN GULF COAST
FROM CAMERON LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA-FLORIDA BORDER…
INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. A
HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO
PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM EAST OF THE
ALABAMA-FLORIDA BORDER TO THE OCHLOCKONEE RIVER….AND FROM WEST OF
CAMERON LOUISIANA TO JUST EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS. A TROPICAL
STORM WARNING MEANS THAT TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED
WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEST OF CAMERON LOUISIANA
TO JUST EAST OF HIGH ISLAND TEXAS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT
HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA…GENERALLY
WITHIN 36 HOURS.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE LOWER FLORIDA
KEYS WEST OF THE SEVEN MILE BRIDGE TO THE DRY TORTUGAS.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA…INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS…PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 1000 AM CDT…1500Z…THE CENTER OF HURRICANE GUSTAV WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 25.3 NORTH…LONGITUDE 86.0 WEST OR ABOUT 325 MILES…
520 KM…SOUTHEAST OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

Civics and Urban Life

A Great Birthday Present: Obama’s Speech

Another great speech on my birthday. There were many great lines and passages in Obama’s speech. Here’s one:

I get it.  I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this
office.  I don’t fit the typical pedigree, and I haven’t spent my
career in the halls of Washington.

But I stand before you
tonight because all across America something is stirring.  What the
nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about
me.  It’s been about you.

For eighteen long months, you have
stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past.  You
understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to
try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a
different result.  You have shown what history teaches us – that at
defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from
Washington.  Change comes to Washington.  Change happens because the
American people demand it – because they rise up and insist on new
ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.

America, this is one of those moments.

I
believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming.
Because I’ve seen it.  Because I’ve lived it.  I’ve seen it in
Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more
families from welfare to work.  I’ve seen it in Washington, when we
worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more
accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear
weapons out of terrorist hands.

And I’ve seen it in this
campaign.  In the young people who voted for the first time, and in
those who got involved again after a very long time.  In the
Republicans who never thought they’d pick up a Democratic ballot, but
did.  I’ve seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back
a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who
re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a
stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.

This
country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what
makes us rich.  We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s
not what makes us strong.  Our universities and our culture are the
envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our
shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit – that American
promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that
binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our
eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around
the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance.  It’s a
promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a
promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to
cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to
picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.

Postcard from the Slope

Busted For Drinking A Beer in Park Slope After Joe Biden’s Acceptance Speech

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The woman who wrote this fully supports my posting it on OTBKB. It’s quite a story.

My husband was IMing and having a beer last night on our stoop after
Biden’s speech…NYPD roll up in a patrol car and busted him for an
open container violation for 25 bucks…he was very polite and told
the NYPD he was appreciative of their presence, but asked asked about
the public/private space concept, and he explained that if I was
behind a fence or gate I would be ok. Since we don’t have a gate, the
set-back from the sidewalk didn’t matter.

I was reading a bit about this online today…there is some opinion
that the officer needs to report the actual brand of the alcohol
being consumed or it won’t hold up in court. The cop actually asked
him "What kind of beer are you drinking?" which I thought was odd at
the time, but he didn’t write the brand on the ticket.

Anyhow, the cops were polite and my husband was polite and overall
just a goofy story…we’ll probably just write the check for $25 and
mail it in rather than burning up a bunch of time contesting the
thing… thought you all might like to know that you can get busted
for this sort of thing!  (oh and apparently you’re not supposed to
leave your seat during God Bless America at Yankees games…. but
that’s another story).

Postcard from the Slope

Third Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I went back to the archives and found this post from September 2005, when there were many posts about that terrible, terrible disaster. I often run old posts in color.

New Orleans has always been so vivid in my imagination. it is a place I always wanted to visit.

The birthplace of jazz, it is rife with stories of musical greats
like Buddy Bolden, Bix Biederbecke and Louis Armstrong. As the daughter
of a jazz afficianado, I’ve felt a kinship with that place where jazz
was born, where the music took seed and blossomed lusciously.

To read and see pictures of what is going on in New Orleans hurts. Reading this in the Times caused me to feel despair as well.

Despair, privation and violent lawlessness grew
so extreme in New Orleans on Thursday that the flooded city’s mayor
issued a "desperate S O S" and other local officials, describing the
security situation as horrific, lambasted the federal government as
responding too slowly to the disaster.

How
is it that our government can’t figure out how to help the people of
New Orleans?  It is horrendous that people haven’t been moved out of
the squalor of the convention center and the Superdome. The misery of
the people is almost too much to bear. They need sanitary conditions,
water, food, and safe housing. The so-called rescue effort is an
absolute disgrace. Our government acts so high and mighty fighting
unnecessary wars on foreign lands when we  have a refugee population in
our own country that truly needs help. NOW.

I read somewhere that New Orleans has seen more death
than most other American
cities, perhaps because it predates them, because disease, floods, storms
and war have ravaged
the city since its beginning, in the early 1700s.

But it is also a mythical place of the imagination and American
music and literature would be lost without it. New Orleans is the city
of Stanley and Stella. Of The Glass Menagerie. Of William Faulkner,
Lillian Hellman, Tennessese Williams and so many others.

These new images in the daily newspapers and on the news are such a
stark contrast to the magical ones in my head. So tragic. So hard to
see. Hundreds of thousands of people in dispair, in unhealthy
conditions, homeless now.

We must do everything we can to alleviate the suffering of our
neighbors in New Orleans. MoveOn.org just announced that it has set up
a Web-based hurricane housing service to
match people who have space to spare with Katrina survivors in need of
housing.

Civics and Urban Life

September At The Community Bookstore: Lots of Events

So much to do at the Community Bookstore this September. Here’s a selection of highlights. The full schedule is probably at their website (but I’m not sure).

Wednesday, September 3rd @ 7:00 p.m.
Community Bookstore Knit Night
After a short hiatus during the long, too-hot-to-knit summer, the Community Bookstore Knitters unite again on Wednesday, September 3rd at 7:00 p.m. Join us for an evening of socializing and crafty creativity. Beginners are welcome, we love to help! Crocheters too! Bring a skein of yarn to swap or a pair of needles to share, or perhaps even a baked good to pass around. Regulars take note: we have switched from the second Wednesday of the month to the first Wednesday of the month. See you then!

Tuesday, September 9th @ 7:30 p.m.

Joshua Henkin reads from Matrimony
"Elicits a passionate investment in the fate of its characters – truly an up-all-night read."

                        – The Washington Post

Wednesday, September 10th @ 7:30 p.m.
(a.k.a. the 2nd Wednesday of the month)
Books Without Borders Book Group meets to discuss Senselessness by Horacio Castellanos Moya.

The first of exiled Honduran novelist Moya’s eight fictions to be translated in the U.S., this crushing satire has at its center a feisty young unnamed writer in penurious political exile from an unnamed Latin American country.

Thursday, September 11th @ 7:00 p.m.
Documentary Movie Night

When the Mountains Tremble
The revolutionary tour-de-force and Sundance Film Festival winner that shook audiences and critics alike upon its original theatrical release, this updated edition chronicles the astonishing story of one woman who stood up for her people and helped wage a rebellion in the wake of seemingly unconquerable oppression

Tuesday, September 16th @ 7:30 p.m.

Josh Barkan reads from Blind Speed
Not since Don DeLillo and George Saunders has a writer caught the humor and irreverent seriousness of our time like Barkan has through his protagonist Paul Berger, a flawed hero whose so-called fate drives him toward enlightenment just as surely as it propels him to destruction. Berger is stunned when he receives an ominous palm reading from a savvy guru at a health retreat in Iowa, of all places.

Wednesday, September 17th @ 7:00 p.m.
Community Forum Night

Meets to Discuss:

–How Does New York City Government Work, and
–How the Heck Do You Get Things Done (hint: It’s easier than you think!)?

How many times have you wished you could "Just do something about . . . ." or "Just find out how . . . ."  Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman is graciously joining us to moderate a quick trot through the wonderland of NYC Government.  Come armed with concerns, issues, questions and wishlists.  We can help steer you to solutions and resources, and we’re also hoping to generate a list of future Community Forum topics.

Craig Hammerman has been the District Manager of Brooklyn Community Board 6 since February 1993. His district includes the "Brownstone Brooklyn" neighborhoods of Carroll Gardens/South Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Columbia Street District, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook; some of the most vibrant and sought-after destinations in the City of New York.

About the New Community Forum Nights

Forthwith, the third Wednesday of every month is declared Community Forum Night.  What’s that, you ask?  Each month we will host a meeting to allow the community to come together and explore some question or issue pertinent to our shared life in the neighborhood.  The topic of each meeting will be announced ahead of time, and we will try to find someone particularly knowledgeable (about said topic) to "chair" the meeting, beginning with a brief (10 minute?) summary of the issue and then being available to answer questions, serve as a font of information, and generally steer the discussion.  We welcome your suggestions and requests for topics you’d like to discuss!  Email cat_bohne(at)yahoo(dot)com with any ideas!

Tuesday, September 23rd @ 7:30 p.m.

Mark Lilla reads from The Stillborn God
Religious passions are again driving world politics. The quest to bring political life under God’s authority has been revived, confounding expectations of a secular future. In this major book, Mark Lilla reveals the sources of this age-old quest—and its surprising role in shaping Western thought.

Wednesday, September 24th @ 7:30 p.m.
(a.k.a. the 4th Wednesday of the month)
Modernist Book Club meets to discuss Robert Musil’s
Confusions of the Young Torless

Please mark this down right now, and hesitate not as you saunter over to our best friends at the Community Bookstore to pick up your copy of Robert Musil’s Confusions of the Young Torless. We will read from the Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics edition, 2001. As always, it will be at the front desk for your perusal and purchase.

Thursday, September 25th @ 7:00 p.m.

Elizabeth Royte reads and discusses her new book, Bottlemania

To be held at and co-hosted by Old First Reformed Churchon the corner of 7th Avenue and Carroll Street

"Bottlemania is eye-opening and informative; you will never look at water–either ‘designer’ or tap–in quite the same way. Royte demonstrates how everything is, in the end, truly connected."
– Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe

Tuesday, September 30th @ 7:30 p.m.
Poet Dennis Nurkse reads from The Border Kingdom

In a collection of urgent and intimate poems, D. Nurkse explores the biblical past and the terrifying politics of the present with which it resonates, the legacy of fathers and the flawed kingdoms they leave their sons.

In "Ben Adan," a stunning poem in the opening sequence of the collection, we witness the stirring drama between a captor and the prisoner commanded to dig his own grave ("perhaps in a moment / he will lift me up / and hold me trembling, / more scared than I / and more relieved"). "After a Bombing" examines children’s drawings as deep symbolic reactions to 9/11. The subtly majestic "Lament for the Makers of Brooklyn" builds the poignant case for a lost world: "Where is Policastro the locksmith now?" the poet asks. "Half-blind, he wore two pairs of glasses / held together by duct tape, / . . . / afterward the key turned / for you but not for me."

Civics and Urban Life

Bright Spots on A Difficult Birthday

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As some of you know, my father’s condition has worsened a great deal in the last few days. So I’ve been at Mt. Sinai Hospital almost constantly all week.

That said, my birthday had unexpected bright spots. My father rallied for about an
hour when an old friend, an advertising legend like my dad, came by and they talked about horse racing at Saratoga, Belmont and elsewhere, advertising back in the day (the 1960’s), Times
Square, Coney Island and books.

My father even came up with a great Save Coney Island slogan. All
Money, No Coney. Actually I don’t know how he’s want to punctuate it. He’s been sleeping most of the day. If he rallies again, I’ll ask him.

It was a gift to hear him converse with this old friend/colleague from advertising days. They also share a great love of horse racing. This man’s race horse, Thou Swell, is running in a Saratoga race this Sunday.

We’ll be rooting for that horse. We’ll be rooting for Thou Swell with all our hearts. If my father were awake I’d ask if we should put some money on it.

Another bright spot. Getting into the subway on 96th Street, my wonderful high school friend Opera Diva jumped off the crosstown bus screaming, "Happy Birthday!!!" We hugged like the oldest and dearest of friends that we are. I could not believe my great fortune in seeing her at such a perfect  moment.

I tried to get her to come to Brooklyn where our mutual friend, Best and Oldest, was waiting with my sister, Hepcat, OSFO, Divorce Diva and Warm and Funny with champagne and a huge, delicious selection of sushi.

Unfortunately, Opera Diva’s son was having a sleepover guest and she had to get home. Well, she missed a generous amount of wine, sushi, an unusually delicious chocolate cake made by Best and Oldest’s daughter and much great friendship and conversation.

She probably didn’t miss Obama’s speech, which was a wonderful end to a difficult day that was brightened by the brightest of bright spots.

Civics and Urban Life

Urban Environmentalist NYC – Sustainability Beat

Here is a snapshot of the sustainability issues that faced the borough and city this past August.
The links were complied by Rebeccah Welch, Associate Director of Public
Affairs, at the Center for the Urban Environment (CUE). To learn more
about CUE, visit  www.thecue.org.

Going Green to Save Green [AM New York]

The Social Functions of NIMBYism [Planetizen via Brownstoner]

Brooklyn Children’s Museum First LEED Silver Museum in NYC [Interior Design]

Connor Opponent Contests Plan for Condos in Brooklyn Bridge Park [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Hall Street Storage Making (Green) Waves [Green Brooklyn]

Environmental Concerns Raised About Brooklyn Con Ed Project [NY Sun]

Bloomberg Looks to Wind Power [NY Times]

What Is the Future of Suburbia? [Freakonomics Blog via Brownstoner]

In Slow Times, Rezoning Appeals to Developers [NY Times]

Can City’s Infrastructure Handle Floods, Intense Heat? [Associated Press]

Urban Environmentalist NYC: Brother Islands’ History Revealed [GL]

Two Friends Investigate the Urban Food Chain [City Limits]

Fighting the Asian Long-Horned Beetle [Gotham Gazette]

As Bat Population Falls, the Questions Multiply [NY Times]

Will Car-Free ‘Summer Streets’ Work? [NY Times]

Urban Environmentalist NYC – Ask the Expert [OTBKB]

Weiner Calls for Clean Up of Jamaica Bay [NY Daily News]

People in Boats on the Gowanus [Brooklynometry]

For Scallops, New Signs of Life in the Peconics [NY Times]

Invasion New York [Gotham Gazette]

Newtown Creek Superfund Investigation Sites Mapped [GL]

Newtown Creek Brownfield Map [NAG]

Exhibit Makes Case for Evergreen Gowanus [City Limits]

Reshaping the City [Gotham Gazette]

Small Businesses Closing in Downtown Brooklyn [Report-Urban Justice Center]

The Value of Street Life [Report-Transportation Alternatives]

Postcard from the Slope

I’m Fifty

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A note from a college friend brought a ray of light to my day.

I completely get your apprehension about turning 50. For me it came
with a recognition that I’m no longer YOUNG. That was no surprise, but
somehow shocking nonetheless.

But flip side is: We are no longer YOUNG. We have accumlulated
experience, history, friends, children and spouses. We’ve made choices
and have lives — full and engaging lives, (although life may not
always seem so great when life deals a bad hand). If we continue to
embrace our lives, (the good and the bad) with mettle and passion we
will not get any YOUNGER, but we will enjoy getting older and maybe
even a bit wiser.

Hope you have a great birthday and many more.

Postcard from the Slope

Countdown to Fifty: One Day To Go

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With one day left, a nice note from a friend sustains me:

Breathe Deeply. Just thinking of you and hoping that you have a wonderful day tomorrow. All the things that you are, that you mean to your friends, the good you’ve
done, and all that you will continue to become for a very long time are so
much more than a number.

As does this message from my cousin:

oh lou,
fifty is total grown up girl power and beauty – if you liked your forties,
you’ll love yr fifties, I promise.

Civics and Urban Life

Countdown to Fifty: Two Days To Go

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With just two days to go…

I feel like screaming: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I liked being 49. Shit, I liked being 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48. The forties were my best decade.

I’ll have to practice saying it: I’m f, I’m fi, I’m fif, I’m fift, I’m fifteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Crazy, crazy talk. How can this be?

Now say it a bunch of times fast: Fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty. fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty, fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty fifty.

If you say it enough times it loses all meaning. Just a sound, two syllables, a word.

Meaningless. It’s meaningless.

To see yesterday’s Countdown to Fifty (which I just posted) go here.

Civics and Urban Life

More Movies With A View: Cabaret and The Shining

What good is sitting alone in your room…You can see The Shining and Cabaret at Movie with a View, a venue I found to be quite lovely for movie viewing and picnicing right there next to the Brooklyn Bridge (with a good view of one of the waterfalls).

Back by popular demand, Brooklyn Bridge Park’s outdoor film series — Movies With A View
— will offer an encore presentation on Thursday, September 4. The
series is produced by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and the New
York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and
presented this year by new sponsor SCI FI Channel. The series takes
place in the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park section of Brooklyn Bridge
Park.
 
Movie-goers can catch Cabaret,
which was cancelled earlier in the season due to inclement weather. The
show will be free, as always. Music will begin at 6:00 pm, and the film
will screen at sunset.
 
The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, along with NY State Parks, launched Movies With A View
nine years ago, and works with a volunteer Film Committee, made up of
members of the local community, to put together an exciting and
eclectic line-up of films each year. With a venue noted for the quality
of its views as well as the quality of its films, the free series has
attracted thousands of people each summer to the waterfront park. Films
this season included Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit, The Shining, Being There, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
 
The remaining film schedule is:

The Shining, Thursday, August 28
Cabaret, Thursday, September 4

Postcard from the Slope

That Was Fast: New Italian Restaurant on 3rd Street

It’s in the space that used to be Pizza on the Park. Right across from the illustrious JJ Byrne Park on Third Street west of Fifth Avenue.  Right around the corner from the Stone Park Cafe and the new Bird.

I don’t know what it’s called. If you do please write me or leave a comment. I saw something about it somewhere…

I guess I could get up off my almost 50-year-old BUTT and walk over there.

Maybe there’s something about it on  Gowanus Lounge

Postcard from the Slope

Ft. Greene Wants An Indie Bookstore And They’re Doing Something About It

The Community Bookstore may have inspired this blossoming of community activism on behalf of another independent bookseller.

In this case, the store doesn’t exist yet but people in Ft. Greene are rallying behind Jessica Stockton Bagnulo (aka The Written Nerd) to help her open a shop soon. They’re even planning this bookstore Kickoff Event on September 16.

It’s a movement. Not only do Brooklynites organize to protect and support a beloved literary institution but they also organize to make a new one happen!

Last year the Fort Greene Association’s retail committee surveyed 380 locals about their shopping preferences. 75 percent of respondents (281) cited bookstores as a category in which they wanted more choices.

To meet this need, the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative (FGIBI) embarked on a campaign to find an independent bookstore. After months of talking with Brooklyn-based bookstores, the group met Jessica Stockton Bagnulo, a Brooklyn entrepreneur who won the 2007 Brooklyn Public Library PowerUp! Competition for her business plan to open a bookstore in Fort Greene.

To raise community awareness and rally support for Jessica’s independent bookstore, FGIBI is hosting an event in Fort Greene at the Cumberland Greene (237 Cumberland Ave) on September 16, 2008 from 7pm to 9pm. The event will feature local Brooklyn authors. Complimentary beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres from local businesses will also be served. RSVP required; email rsvp_fortgreeneindie@hotmail.com to be added to the guest list.

Postcard from the Slope

First Ever Cobble Hill Bike Ride

Save the date: September 14th, 2008

10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Cobble Hill Park
FREE, to participate simply email your full name and daytime telephone number to CobbleHillBikeRide@gmail.com

The
Cobble Hill Association and Brooklyn Greenway Initiative are hosting a
12 mile casual bike ride that will start at Cobble Hill Park and then
pass through the Columbia Waterfront District, Red Hook, Park Slope,
Prospect Park, Gowanus and loop back to Cobble Hill.

There will be several scenic rest stops as the ride follows mostly
calm streets with some light vehicular traffic. Several Bike Marshals
will travel alongside the group, guiding the ride.  Bike Marshals will
also be prepared to handle any urgent bike repairs needed. Light snacks
and water will be provided but riders should be prepared with sunblock,
plenty of water, and ready for a light pace that will include some
cobblestone streets in Red Hook and the 9th Street hill in Park Slope,
with an option to also ride hill within Prospect Park’s car-free loop.

Civics and Urban Life

Unsolicited (But Welcome) Dining Tips

Got this email from a loyal reader of OTBKB about brunch at Sette.

Sette on Third Street and Seventh Avenue.

Went for first time Sunday. Brunch. It never looked that inviting to me.
Took a long long time (but I think it was because there was a big party of
12 demanding birthday revelers…) Anyway, it turned out to be lovely and I
thought it was a good deal.

Also went to Willie’s Dawgs again. Delightful on a end-of-summer day.

Unsolicited dining tips!

Postcard from the Slope

RIP: Slope Grandad to 12

As reported in the Daily News, a Park Slope grandfather of 12 was mowed down by a car on Fourth Avenue. Here’s an excerpt from the article.

A grandfather of 12 – and a beloved fixture of his Brooklyn neighborhood – was killed Monday while crossing the street near his home.

Antonio Torres, 86, a Park Slope resident since 1960, was crossing Fourth Ave. at about 7:20 a.m. when Hyundai driver Edgar Marrero, 28, slammed into him, police said.

The
impact sent Torres flying into the air before landing underneath a
Dumpster. Medics rushed Torres to Lutheran Medical Center where he died
five hours later, his family said.

His legs were nearly severed. His heart nearly split in two, relatives said.

"It didn’t look like him," said Torres’ eldest son, Jaime Torres, 61, after leaving his father’s deathbed. "The only way I could tell it was him was by his hands. We have identical hands."

It
appeared that Torres jaywalked, witnesses said. But his family insisted
that a delivery van sat doubled park on the street blocking the sight
of traffic from the always cautious Torres, a World War II vet known
for feeding the local homeless and helping sickly seniors with their
groceries.

Postcard from the Slope

Turn Your iPhone Into a Musical Instrument

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Newicon200

My friend, Henry Lowengard, is author of the newly-released SrutiBox, 
an application for the iPhone that simulates an Indian harmonium, used 
as a base tone in Indian music and in droning and chanting. You can 
also use it to tune an instrument. Handy!

If you have an iPhone or have friend(s) with one, I hope you will check 
this out and forward these links in case they are interested in it—a 
steal at $2.99.

The link below takes you Henry’s development blog where   
SrutiBox fans can read further and find out how to buy one.  Also feel free to email him with 
feedback.

New Gadget Madly In Hope blog: http://www.jhhl.net/nucleus/InHope.php

Here’s a direct link into iTunes’ App Store for SrutiBox

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