Monthly Archives: June 2009

Breakfast of candidates

Breakfast-of-Candidates (33rd Edition): Ken Baer

Note: according to Baer, there are some small mistakes in my retelling of his bio. As I find them out I will change them.

It was like pulling teeth trying to get Ken Baer, candidate for the City Council in the Brooklyn's 33rd district, to talk about his childhood. Not because he has any secrets, it's just that Baer is awfully private for a politician.

Baer faced OTBKB's coffee cup in Cousin John's, a bakery/restaurant in Park Slope, where he ordered a three-egg breakfast and talked sparingly about his mother, who was a German Jewish refugee, his dad, who was a Harvard educated lawyer and almost nothing about growing up in Levittown, Long Island and later Huntington.

He did get a bit more verbal when I asked about his college years at Kent State during the height of the 1960s campus rebellions. In fact, Baer was attending Kent State, when four students were killed by National Guard during an anti-war demonstration in 1970. 

At Kent State, Baer majored in psychology and sociology, lived with "a bunch of vegetarians" and tried to stay out of the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector (CO). It was during college, that Baer became aware of food and environmental issues: "answering questions on the CO form got me to thinking about killing humans and animals… I didn't want to kill animals and became a vegetarian," he told me. He is still a vegetarian.

Baer got a second bachelors degree at Kent state in accounting and economics and later returned to New York to work at the Dime Savings Bank on DeKalb and Flatbush Avenue. I asked where he lived and quickly got the feeling he thought I was being nosy.

"That's what I do. I ask questions," I told Baer.

"I'm not big about talking about myself. I'm a doer," he said.

In 1972, Baer volunteered for George McGovern's presidential campaign. He also got a job as a budget analyst at the City's Agency for Child Development. Sometime later he received a mayor's scholarship available to city employees and went to Baruch College to study computer methodology.

During this time, he joined the Park Slope Food Coop, an organization that he is still a proud member of. "I became a Sunday coordinator; I deal with various strong personalities well," he told me.

In the 1980's Baer went to night school to earn an MBA and worked as an accountant at various firms. In the 1980's he also joined the Sierra Club and ran for a seat on the Executive Committee of the New York City group. He won by one vote in a fractious campaign. "I steer a center path between factions. I don't make enemies," he told me.

His volunteer involvement with the Sierra Club is, I think, the foundation of Baer's political activism. Clearly, Baer is genuinely dedicated to the core values of the largest, and most influential
grassroots environmental group in the United States, and has had various roles within the organization.

At this point in our conversation Baer had to walk over to the Food Coop to meet one of his petitioners and I decided to tag along. Once there, we sat in the busy orientation room and spoke more about Baer's work with the Sierra Club.

He told me that he is proud of his work helping the New York State state and city chapters of the Sierra Club through a very difficult and fractious period in 1999 as the result of a misguided fund-raising effort by the NYC group. Due to this mistake, the NYC group's existence was in question. Mediation, a retreat and careful resolution techniques were required to help the parties heal and realize that they needed to stop fighting and start working together again.  "To bring together a national organization when they're having problems is significant," he said.

Our conversation zig and zagged but Baer did tell me that in 1996 he decided to throw his hat into the 52nd district  Assembly race against Eileen Dugin, who wanted to introduce a bill "to allow more smoking in restaurants." Dugan died before the Democratic primary and Baer ran, unsuccessfully against Joan Millman, who replaced Dugin in that race.

"I am not a typical politico but I love meeting people, I'm out on the sidewalks, I love people and seeing so many infants and toddlers. These young people deserve a quality education."

Baer was an early opponent of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. In 2004, he attended one of the very first meetings organized by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn at a local school and instantly had a bad feeling about the over sized project, which left the community out of the development process.

He continues to be an outspoken opponent of the project and has been endorsed by the highly respected Eric McClure, who runs the group Park Slope Neighbors. For Baer the overarching issue for Brooklyn and NYC are development. He believes that community-based planning must be the basis for all new development in NYC.

Baer and I walked downstairs to wait for one of his petitioners; we sat on the bench out front and I asked him to name his heroes. He thought for a long time and finally said softly, "Ted Williams. He was a great hitter. Because he was a World War II and Korean War pilot he lost five or six seasons in his prime," Baer told me emotionally. "He did it out of patriotism."

When I got home, Baer called me and told me to add Eleanor Roosevelt, JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. to his list of heroes. But I told him I was going to lead with the Red Sox hitter.

"A very domineering man, he wouldn't let anyone pick up a check. But he was a very skilled player and I admire that. A great ballplayer, a very humble, down to earth and approachable person," Baer told me.

Music

Underground Sensualists: Blonde Redhead at Celebrate Brooklyn

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Tonight at Celebrate Brooklyn, Icelandic crooner Ólöf Arnalds opens the show for "the vaunted NYC underground sensualists Blonde Redhead have
shape-shifted from dissonant noise explorations to ethereal, dreamy pop
over the course of their career, always inspiring intense devotion from
their fans. PopMatters says of them, “It is as if they are pressing on
piano keys and each key is a trigger that tugs a wire within the
listener. There are keys for longing, possession, despair, and
ecstasy—and Blonde Redhead travel fast and skillfully over the whole
keyboard.”

Gates open at 6:30 p.m. Enter park at 9th Street and Prospect Park West.

Civics and Urban Life

The Day the 1970’s Died: Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett Dead

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Special_jackson_0625 At 5:45 my daughter and I were on our way to her piano lesson when she looked down at her phone and said, "Michael Jackson had a heart attack." I asked how she knew and she told me that a friend, who's father works in the White House, texted her.

"His dad found out because he works with Obama," she said.

I assumed that Jackson was in a hospital in Los Angeles; that he'd recover and we'd hear more later. I did think how strange that he had a heart attack on the same day of Farrah Fawcett's death. Much of the day I'd thought about the sad death by rectal cancer of Fawcett.

She was a very poignant figure.

Farrah_fawcett_cancer_critical The public loved her in television's Charlie's Angels but she quit after one season to be movie star. But one film after the next was a flop. A sex symbol who wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, she found herself immortalized by a poster image of her toothy grin and her body fetchingly positioned in a red one-piece bathing suit.

Later she proved herself a true actress with roles in The Burning Bed and other portrayals of tragic women. I was moved by her rekindled relationship with Ryan O'Neil, who  stuck by her in the end, helping her through the 3-year illness that would kill her.

After the piano lesson I overheard some men talking on Seventh Avenue: "Your favorite celebrity is dead," he said. "What are you going to do without Michael Jackson?"

Today was the day the 1970's died. In some
weird way, these two iconic figures from the 1970's will be connected for me by the timing of their demise.

Michael Jackson dead? How is that possible? He's exactly the same age as me. In fact, were born one day apart in 1958 (me: 8/28, he: 8/29). During 6th grade my classmates and I listened to the Jackson Five during breaks in Miss Freston's class. This precocious superstar who never had a childhood spent the rest of his life obsessed with children and juvenile diversions.

In 1982 Thriller thrilled. Who can forget the impact of the best selling album of all time; it permeated popular culture for months and months with its constant presence on the radio and MTV, which was just a few years old. The 14-minute video of the title song was an expertly choreographed, filmic thrill.

Beat It. Thriller. Billie Jean. The album contained one great tune after the next: it did not disappoint from start to finish. And it was such a blast to dance to. 

Talent. Tragedy. Intensity. Weirdness. Maybe it makes sense that this man who never wanted to grow up and lived the life of a lost boy in his self-created Neverland complete with ferris wheels and chimpanzees died before he reached the age of 51.

And this woman who wanted to be remembered as more than a bathing beauty died bravely of rectal cancer just weeks after she "suffered in front of the camera, playing out her battle
with disease, and even her decline – and, by doing so, outing her
serious illness," writes internist/blogger Doc Gurley

Both will live on. She through that poster, the TV show, the film roles she was proud of and her brave documentary. And he with his bestselling music from the Jackson Five's ABC to to Thriller, We are the World and beyond: all petrified and ageless like Jackson wanted to be.

EDUCATION

Change in Public School Calendar: School Starts September 9th

I just heard from a member of the United Federation of Teachers that an
important change to next year's calendar was made late last night. Next year public school starts on Wednesday September 9th not September 8th as originally planned. Here's why

Okay, you may have heard this already, but I just got an email about this
less than an hour ago.
 
The NYC Dept. of Education has just changed the school calendar for next
year – tonight!

I'm a UFT member, and we signed an agreement a few days
ago to change our starting day to the day after Labor day, as opposed to before
Labor Day. This would put it in line with the way it used to be before our last
contract.

But the principal's union objected, because that meant we were coming back
the same day as the kids. So tonight, they signed a NEW agreement changing the
day the KIDS start to the Wednesday after Labor Day. That's one day later than
they originally planned on.
 
Here's a link to the official calendar. You'll notice it says "Revised as
of June 25, 2009".
 

Civics and Urban Life

Luna Park Gazette: Neverland Farewell

I just read Rob Lenihan's post about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon. Here's an excerpt. Read the rest at his blog, Luna Park Gazette.

It didn’t take long, did it?

Michael Jackson was just dead for a few hours this evening when I witnessed a scramble for post-mortem memorabilia.

I stopped by a used book stand on W. 73rd Street and Broadway to see if
I could add even more paperbacks to my already mountainous collection.

As
I approached the stand, the proprietor—I guess that’s what you call
him—a large African-American man, was arguing with a skinny middle-aged
fellow with glasses who was clutching a copy of Jackson’s Thriller LP.

“I don’t want your money,” the bookseller declared forcefully.

“How much do–?” the other man tried to say.

“—I don’t want your money.”

Postcard from the Slope

Vox Pop: Return Lady Liberty No Questions Asked, No Charges Pressed

An undisclosed eyewitness now says that  Brooklyn's Statue of Liberty was stolen from the front yard of Vox Pop Coffee Shot at 4:57 a.m. Monday morning. The shop is located at 1022 Corteylou Road in the Ditmas Park neighborhood.

"We're hoping it's in the neighborhood," said Debi Ryan, who runs Vox Pop a popular cafe, performance space and bookstore. "I just want the statue returned no questions asked.  Just put it back and no charges will be pressed."

Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Paper: Vote for The New Poet Laureate

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Bob Hershon
Boerum Hill
ADVANTAGE: A great supporter and publisher of local poetry.
DISADVANTAGE: He’s too busy to be the poet laureate.

“The Driver Said”
Boerum Hill?
It used to be
Gowanus.
This ain’t no neighborhood.
If ya butcher
Comes to ya funeral
That’s a neighborhood.

Matthew Rohrer
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: Has published six books of poetry and sometimes evokes the Mets in his verse.
DISADVANTAGE: Sometimes evokes the Mets in his verse.

“Morning Glory on the Roof”
You have already noted the girlish beauty
Of the Morning Glory, 
The delicate lavendar panties.
Looking around you, 
As far as you can see,
Plants are imprisoned.
Each morning Morning
Glories open upstairs, 
Out of sight.
Each night the concrete lies
Like a hot compress on the dirt.
Thank you for your brief attention.

Sharon Mesmer
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A funny, vivacious poet who studied under Allen Ginsberg.
DISADVANTAGE: Is liable to mention her sexual history. And she has a poem titled, “Holy Mother of Monkey Poo.”

“Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing In Brooklyn”
She’s a white girl dancing braless in his teenage basement bedroom. 
He’s a doughy-faced guy with his tonsils in a bottle.
She’s planning to seduce him on the Staten Island Ferry.
He’s marrow-close and loaded with his first true kiss.
She thinks, “You’re nobody ’til you remind somebody of their mother.”
He just wants to go to Bombay and be alone.
She just wants a few near-death experiences.
He’s hungry for a passion bitter and damp as a last cigarette.
She first saw him masturbating off the Brooklyn Bridge on Easter.
He first saw her face down on Christmas Day, repeating, “Don’t I know you from the Poconos?”
She imagined him blonde and bovine between the stale sheets of a Times Square Hotel.
He imagined his next confession.
He invited her over for some chicken pot pie.
He lived in his parents’ wood-panelled basement.
A plastic St. Anthony stood on the lawn.
His mother was on the phone with her sister Rosetta.
He had a low IQ, but figured he could hide it.
His parents being cousins was what caused it.
Someone once told him his dull look was sexy.
He thought he’d be smart to talk about religion.
Her cheap cologne was intoxicating.
His slow tongue was shaking in reverse: words frequent and forgettable as waves.
She was imagining a cocktail party diamond-high above Manhattan
He was imagining excitement like a biblical epic.
Her heart was breaking like an Arctic ice floe.
He put on his blond armor.
She felt numb as needles.
He felt like Longinus on the subway.
They went down to his basement and closed the door.
She spotted “Victoria’s Secret” catalogues under back issues of Intellectual American.
He said, “I only buy them for the articles.”
They watched “Star Trek” videos with the sound turned off.
They played old James Taylor records.
He said, “I’d like to explore the erotic aspect of this relationship.”
She said, “Can it wait ’til the commercial?”
He said, “Have you ever read ‘The Waste Land’”?
She said, “My last boyfriend took me to Hoboken for the weekend.”
They drove around on the Belt Parkway.
They parked in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge.
They felt like tourists in a phantom America.
He put his hand inside her blouse.
He smiled and said, “You like that, don’t you?”
She felt hot and monotonous, like a country of no seasons.
She fantasized a bath and baby powder. 
He had the sensation of running hard on a dark suburban street, feeling skinless and full of eyes.
He said, “Be my Ariadne.”
Ten minutes passed big and slow like clouds.
She said, “What’s an Ariadne?”
He recalled a book by Aldous Huxley: “The Genius and the Goddess.”
He began eagerly to anticipate the terror in the morning, the terror in the evening, the terror at suppertime,
An abuse so true he would touch the stars.
Now she’s a white girl dancing braless 
In his teenage basement bedr
oom.
Now he’s a doughy-faced guy flying crosstown towards Canarsie.

Frank Hoier
Bushwick
ADVANTAGE: Singer-songwriter who can reach young people.
DISADVANTAGE: Has only lived in Brooklyn for four years.

“What Do We Do To Love, When We Talk About Love?”
Do we ruin and rip apart what we love best
When we spout little words about it out of our breasts?
As if a sentence could do a moment justice
As if a book could convey a minute of silence
As if a song could even touch on the sound of leaves
Blowing in breezes on high up in trees
As if a joke could remind ya of your natural smile
As if “I Do” will bring out all of the love in you
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we similar to heart surgeons drunk on gin
Cutting love up to repair it again?
To show off our intelligence and skill to our friends
As we sit round a table as the sunset begins
And we all want to leave but nobody will say when
So we sit here in silence growing darkness surrounding
Do we think love is in the bottom of the bottle we are drinking?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we like phony fortune tellers predicting the future
So we can tell our friends, “See I told you so” sooner?
Rubbing a fake crystal ball, a patch over one eye
Saying your view of the world ain’t as clear as mine
Listen and learn whether the world is dark or is light
Are we trying to outshine when we try to shine bright?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?
Are we communicating or just vainly pumping our veins
Full of hot blood when we call out love’s name?
Are we sure we are sharing, are we sure we even know how
To show a sliver of who we are under the shroud?
Are our impassioned speeches just more feed for the cows
To get the attention we were never allowed
We call ourselves artists and sing thru our mouths
But where’s the line between art, preaching, and shouting out loud?
What do we do to love when we talk about love?

 Enlarge this image
The Brooklyn Paper / Mike Short
Leon Freilich
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A parodist with a rapier sword and a witty epee
DISADVANTAGE: His poems are a bit of a joke, truth be told.

“A Cooler 13th”
Steel bars do not a prison make
When it’s bar mitzvah day
And Daddy’s obligated to
Celebrate and pray.
So Tuvia Stern, an inmate at
The fabled New York Tombs,
Transcended lockup etiquette
And ordered party rooms.
He had the gym festooned with bunting
And rocked with festive strains
Provided by an Orthordox group
That blew out everyone’s brains.
Kin and kith and friends galore
All danced and sang out lustily,
Serenading the bar mitzvah boy
Religiously and robustily.
They ate and drank like Rahm Emanuel
Or baseball’s Leo Durocher,
The food having been most carefully catered
To be ultra-strictly kosher.
Sixty guests held forth in the cooler
For fully six-plus hours
While eight correction officers
Kept guard over baskets of flowers.
The guards as well made sure the party
Remained a private affair,
Keeping other prisoners
From infiltrating there.
The only jailbird to be found
Was the influential dad,
Who may be a convicted scammer
But on this day wasn’t bad.

The fraudster’s now upstate and serving
Two-and-a-half to seven
But at least he gave his now-a-man son
A taste of party heaven.
And he’s done the same for his lovely daughter —
Stern showed his jailhouse dash 
Again when he had outsiders in
For her engagement bash.

Richard Bowditch
Lynn Chandhok
Park Slope
ADVANTAGE: A bi-cultural poet who would add diversity to the male-dominated poetic world.
DISADVANTAGE: A bit academic, which could hurt her outreach efforts.

“Confetti, Ticker Tape”
I want to say they’re swallows. In September, 
when we were feeding everyone we could, 
we’d look for them above the tracks on Ninth Street. 
What startled me was how their undersides 
caught the light, flashed silver, how the group 
would swoop and rise like wind itself, the flock 
vanishing every time it changed directions,
how the birds hung on air and clung together
circling above us, silver, like the squares
we thought were bits of fuselage or flakes 
of skyscraper, falling, until they floated 
towards us, lower, landing on our front stoop 
and I picked the papers up, but they were blank —
one after the other, blank, burned at the edges.

C. Taylor Crothers
They Might Be Giants
Williamsburg
ADVANTAGE: Might be the single most-identifiable Brooklyn-based rock band. Ever.
DISADVANTAGE: Let’s be real: it is well documented why Constantinople changed its name to Istanbul.

“Ana Ng”
Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It’s like a whirlpool and it never ends
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you
All alone at the ’64 World’s Fair
Eighty dolls yelling, “Small girl after all”
Who was at the Dupont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?
Or the time when the storm tangled up the wires
To the horn on the pole at the bus depot
And in the back of the edge of hearing
These are the words that the voice was repeating:
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you
When I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:
“I don’t want the world, I just want your half.”
They don’t need me here, and I know you’re there
Where the world goes by like the humid air
And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away
And the truth is, we don’t know anything
Ana Ng and I are getting old
And we still haven’t walked in the glow of each other’s majestic presence
Listen Ana, hear my words
They’re the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

go to Brooklynpaper.com to vote. 
Civics and Urban Life

Kids Need Something To Do? Summer Stage Play at Brooklyn’s Irondale

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Irondale center 1 Register now for this  innovative summer theater program at the Irondale Center in Ft. Greene.

That's right. Irondale is offering performing arts workshops for kids 8-13 this summer. Starting July 13th, there are three fun-filled and affordable programs designed to let your kids experience acting, improvisation and the creation of original  works in a collaborative and supportive environment. 

Sounds cool and fun and creative. And it's right here in Brooklyn. 

To register go to http://www.irondale.org/ssp2009.html and download their summer brochure and registration form. For further information call 718.488.9233. 
Atlantic Yards

Coverage of MTA hearing/Vote on Atlantic Yards, With Video

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The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority met yesterday and voted 10-2 to allow Forest City Ratner to stretch paments for the Atlantic Yards over 22 years. Norman Oder at Atlantic Yards Report has coverage of the hearing and a video. Here's an excerpt:

A warning by veteran Assemblyman Jim Brennan that they were
squandering their assets, a recommendation of caution by the
Straphangers Campaign, and even a request by the Atlantic
Yards-supporting Regional Plan Association that the deal be
renegotiated, the board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority
(MTA) yesterday voted 10-2 to allow Forest City Ratner to stretch payments for the Vanderbilt Yard over 22 years, at a generous interest rate, and
to build a smaller railyard worth $100 million less than originally
promised. A diminished temporary yard could persist  more than twice as long as originally planned.

Civics and Urban Life

Michael Cunningham & Jim Shephard Electrify New Brooklyn Lit Mag

4936_106302961024_652426024_2059762_7800494_a So I ran into Scott Lindenbaum, one of the co-publishers of the newly launched Electric Literature No. 1.  On sale now at the Community Bookstore and elsewhere in Brooklyn and Manhattan, the first issue features fiction by Michael Cunningham and Jim Shepard

Some of you may know Scott because he used to work at the Community Bookstore. He got his MFA from Brooklyn College and is now teaching some interesting course over there.

What's neat about the publishers of Electric Literature is that they're strangely optimistic about literary publishing,

That's because they've got a multi-platform approach. Electric Literature No. 1 is "streamlined for all mediums: you can read it as a DRM-free e-book, wirelessly download for your Kindle, pop open on your iPhone on the way to work, or simply slip into your back pocket as a paperback.

Wow.

And what a line-up of good writing. Electric Literature’s Summer 2009 debut anthology features the
first published excerpt from the forthcoming novel by Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours, Specimen
Days).

The issue also showcases new fiction by some of America's most
innovative and important contemporary writers, including Jim Shepard, T Cooper, Lydia Millet, and Diana Wagman.

Stay tuned for a video blurb about Electric Literature No. 1.

Postcard from the Slope

Paul Auster Inducted Into Brooklyn Botanic Celebrity Path

Do you know the celebrity path in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden?

Since 1985, more than 160 Brooklyn notables, including Walt Whitman,
Jackie Gleason, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand, Norman Mailer and Gil Hodges,
have had their names embedded in an 18-inch by 24-inch concrete paver and
decorated with a stylized leaf outline cast in bronze. Each paver also contains
a bronze medallion of the Brooklyn
Bridge , encircled by the
phrase, “The Greatness of Brooklyn Is Its People.”

I think Paul Auster was pleased: “I've lived in Brooklyn for the
better part of my adult life and it’s nice to know that this paver will
be sitting in the Botanic Garden long after I’m gone,” said Auster.

Moe, Curly and Shemp Howard, also known as The Three Stooges and former borough president Howard Golden were also inducted.

Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Docs at Dweck Center Tonight: Streisand, Librarians, Trinidad

Curator Aziz Rahman, director of the Brooklyn Film and Arts Festival, just called to tell me about his new series called "Brooklyn in Film." Great topic, don't you think? Tonight is the first event at 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Public Library (central branch) in our all time favorite space, the Dweck Center.

This will be an ongoing series presented by the  Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library’s Brooklyn Collection Department. The program is titled “Brooklyn in Film” and all screenings are at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza.

These remarkably compelling films have been selected by Aziz Rahman, director of the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival from the BPL’s own Brooklyn Collection. The Brooklyn documentaries being screened vividly convey Brooklyn’s uniquely complex and vibrant cultural heritage through several decades, ranging from the 1960’s to 1980’s.

When:  Wednesday, June 24th, 2009, at 7:00pm – 8:45 pm.
Where:  Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture Brooklyn Public Library main branch at Grand Army Plaza

Trinidad in Brooklyn   -  (1985)   Experimental film shot by Sol Rubin in a hypnotic style documents the fervor of the Caribbean Day Parade in Crown Heights interspersing joyous celebrants, enthralled observers, local Hasidim and intermingled communities taking in the festivities.

Who Grows in Brooklyn  – (1969) Follows a bookmobile and the dedicated librarians who bring books to the inner city. Shows people of all ages using the bookmobile and becoming knowledgeable about the Brooklyn Public Library system.

Incident on Wilson Street  – (1964)  A special education teacher, Pegi Gorelick at P.S. 16 in Brooklyn and her fifth-grade students face a crisis when one of the students, a girl, assaults another teacher. The girl, who has a cleft palate, is often hurt by cruel remarks by other children. The story involves parents, teachers, and students as they gain an understanding of the causes of the crisis, and work to improve the situation.

 I Remember Barbara -  (1981) Director Kevin Burns  connects with Brooklynites of all stripes as they weigh-in on the legendary Barbra Streisand they once knew. Opinionated hairdressers, former schoolmates, music aficionados, beachgoers, cops, look-alikes, and others analyze and speculate about Barbra, and the influence of her Brooklyn roots on her persona.

Breakfast of candidates

Tidbits: City Council Candidates (Petitions, David, Brad, Doug and Evan)

You've probably seen volunteers all over Brooklyn (and Manhattan) with their brown clip boards and green petitions. 

Green candidate David Pechefsky (in the 39th district) was at Seventh Heaven on Sunday in his new green campaign t-shirt that has a hysterically funny illustration of him on the front. If you want to sign the Pechefsky's petition you'll have to wait for July 1. The Greens have to get a minimum of 2,500 names on their petitions, unlike the Dems and the Repubs who only need 900. If you would like to see Pechefsky's name on the ballot in November, here's what he thinks you should do: "In June when
the Democratic candidates are collecting signatures, DO NOT SIGN their
petition because the rules state that you can only sign the petition of
ONE candidate!

Pechefsky is just back from two weeks doing consulting work
in Nepal and Liberia. His assignment was to help strengthen the
effectiveness of the national legislatures in those countries in their
role in the annual government budget process.

Brad Lander, one of the 39ers, sent word that he is joining with a group of parent leaders from schools in Park Slope, Carroll
Gardens, and Windsor Terrace will join together to highlight their
efforts to make schools more sustainable, healthy places. It's at the Old Stone House on Thursday June 25th at 11 am. The group plans to call ont he DOE to adopt the following polices: Ban Styrofoam in the schools; Dramatically improve recycling; Get the junk food out; Support innovative efforts by students, parents, educators, and staff. The Old Stone House in on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

Doug Biviano, one of the 33's, wants people to help him celebrate the end of the schoo year on  Friday, June 26th from 6:00 – 9:00 PM, at 89 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights (at the corner of Hicks St. and just a couple blocks from the beautiful
Brooklyn Heights Promenade).  For a suggested donation of $10 come have
some wine and hors d'oeuvres.

Jo Anne Simon, also one of the 33's, wants neighbors, who care about children with special needs, to sign COPAA's petition in support of the IDEA Fairness
Restoration Act (H.R. 2740), a bill that would permit parents who prevail
in due process and litigation to recover their expert witness fees. Few
parents can afford the high cost of paying technical, medical, and other
expert witnesses themselves; by contrast, school districts can use
taxpayer dollar to pay for experts or use staff on their payroll. In
2006, the Supreme Court decided that parents could not be reimbursed for
expert witness fees in Arlington Central School District v. Murphy. The
Murphy decision has made the playing field unlevel and unjust for parents
who are forced to pursue due process. H.R. 2740 will override this
decision.

Tonight, Wednesday, June 24 at 7 p.m., Williamsburg residents will be joining together to help campaign, and organize in their neighborhood for Evan Thies, one of the 33's, at 187 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn

Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan's

Greetings from Scott Turner: The Lessness of Senses

3 Comments

Here's the latest from our man in Red Hook, Scott Turner. Did I forget about you last week? Huge apologies to the quizmaster over at Rocky Sullivans. And did I mention, Scott Turner's column is sponsored by Miss Wit, maker of groovy t-shirts.

Greetings Pub Quiz Straphanger Renegotiation Combine…

On the first day of summer, which was also Father's Day this year, Google ran this cruel, taunting, graphic above their search-box:

Happy Father's Day!

No matter your start-date for summer — the societal Memorial Day Weekend or the scientific June 21st — this was supposed to be an oft-repeated tableau by now.

Instead, we've gotten a steady diet of this:

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/2530739.jpg

It's been so bad that they were squeegeeing putting greens at the U.S. Open out on Long Island.

109th US Open on the Bethpage Black Course

I know the faithful at Bethpage Black were stressing something fierce.  Golf with squeegees.  What is  the world coming to?

Well, in Brooklyn it's coming to this: Bruce Ratner is really broke.  Or really arrogant.  I'm going with both.  Normally, you'd beat up a big shot with those two things. 

The MTA?  It's using 'em to beat itself senseless.

The lessness of senses covers the unbelievable sweetheart deal Ratner has conned the MTA's Finance Committee into giving him. For the rail yards Ratner desperately needs to build the Atlantic Yards
project, the MTA now says he can pay taxpayers less, build less, and
take forever on both counts.  This comes at the same time Ratner's
lobbying for more tax breaks, tax-free bonds and direct subsidies.

…for a project that won't provide appreciable, if any, affordable apartments or newly-created jobs.

Ratner:
"Listen, I'm really attracted to your daughter, Brooklyn.  Yes, I have
beaten her, cheated on her, cleaned out her bank account, demolished
her self-image, driven away suitors who truly love and respect her, and
over the past five years lied, cajoled, exaggerated, broken promises,
taunted and abused her."

MTA: "Well, yes son.  You're a fine young man.  Listen, we'll cover
the cost of the wedding.  Run along, now, that pretty little thing's
making a fierce racket."

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/nyregion/25mta-480.jpg
MTA Chair Dale Hermmerdinger (r.), who busied himself with his Blackberry during DDDB's Dan Goldstein's presentation before the MTA board this week.  A real people's man, that Dale…

I'm amused these days thinking about a remark someone made at Rocky's
a couple of months ago.  Things weren't going well for Bruce Ratner. 
Community opposition, the crashing economy and Ratner's own
incompetence had brought the Atlantic Yards project to a halt.  Hadn't
killed it, mind you, but halted it was.

Noticing my Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn badge, a gentleman said "C'mon, man, whattya want?  The project's dead. You want his head on a pike, too?"

Only
if it would end the madness that is the Atlantic Yards project.  Once
and for all.  But Bruce Ratner, the zombie who doesn't know he's dead,
just keeps coming and keeps coming, so selfish and self-absorbed is
he.  And that's why the project's not packing the moving van for
Kaputsville.

Bruce Ratner
Mr. Beg Borrow and Steal himself — life's easier without a sense of shame.

As
it stands, the MTA — the same one always threatening to cut subway and
bus routes, services, repairs and new capital projects — is feeling so
flush and happy that it's letting Bruce Ratner pay $20 million for a
property the MTA had originally valued at $214 million.

For a property that another developer offered $150 million for when Ratner was offering only $50.

For a property that currently has ten tracks and Ratner's design will leave a growing system with only seven.

For a property that Ratner will be allowed to pay off during the next twenty-two years as fare hikes jump and services get cut, so warns the same MTA honchos bending over backwards to accommodate Bruce.

Why do we stand for this?  Why do you?  Why do I?

Seriously.  It's never been legit to say "hey, I don't live
anywhere near where this is being built.  It won't affect me."  An
estimated $2 billion in taxpayer money being handed to Ratner says
otherwise.  So does the MTA's budget gap — or as the MTA's point
person on this mess, Gary Dellaverson calls it, "a mismatch of receipts."

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/nyregion/23lives.span.jpg
Gary Dellaverson — smashing unions or smashing Brooklyn, it's all the same to him.

Other people in the world get super-duper loud when things go badly (see Iran,
elections, ruh-roh!!).  There's no comparing the fight against Atlantic
Yards to the fight for democracy in Iran, so relax, I'm not.

It'd be awfully swell, though, if straphangers just jumped the turnstiles en-masse
and said "you know, MTA, your service hasn't been so good, lately.  I'm
just re-negotiating my subway fare.  Just like Bruce Ratner did with
you.  You understand, right?"

The tireless, smart folks at both NoLandGrab and AtlanticYardsReport
make a good point: Ratner really frakkin' needs that rail yard.  The
MTA doesn't need jack from Ratner.  So how come it's Ratner whose
calling all the shots?

To quote Firefly's disturbed but prescient bounty hunter Jubal Early, "does that seem right to you?"

No…I didn't think so.  Me neither.

http://www.fireflywiki.org/img/jubalearly.jpg
Jubal Early — fictional, but still asking the right questions

It gets better.  According to today's Reuters:

New York's Metropolitan
Transportation Authority proposed selling $600 million of
notes, its first short-term borrowing since the 1990s,
according to agency officials at a Monday finance committee
meeting.

The sale, if approved by the full board, would be
underwritten by Barclays.

The debt would be repaid by some of the state tax revenue
that the mass transit agency, the nation's biggest, shares in.
That money mainly is paid to the MTA in December. The notes
also would be backed by new taxes the state approved for the
MTA, including a tax on the payrolls of local employers.

To
review — the MTA, while letting Ratner screw them, is employing
cash-raising desperation measures not seen in twenty years. These
fast-and-sloppy measures are being funded by Barclays, the same former slave-trade and apartheid enablers who are paying Ratner $400 million to put their name on now-Gehryless Nets arena.  And the MTA would pay off their debt to Barclays by dipping into state tax revenue meant to help the MTA operate.

Barclays helps out an MTA destitute in part because Ratner is
stiffing it though he has plenty of money on the table from…wait for
it…Barclays.

Who's outraged by this?  A lot of New Yorkers, actually.  One of 'em is Queens Council member Tony Avella, the guy the Democrats should be uniting behind to run against Mayor Bloomberg this fall.  Avella's campaign released this late today:

AVELLA CALLS FOR ATLANTIC YARDS PROJECT TO BE SCRAPPED

The MTA today announced that Bruce Ratner, the developer of
the controversial Atlantic Yards project, will be allowed to defer $80
million of the $100 million total he has agreed to pay for the site.
The final installments will not be paid until 2031. The MTA board
members who will meet tomorrow to vote on the revised agreement were
given only 48 hours to review the complex documents.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/2463973135_888f459781.jpg

photo by Tracy Collins

“It
only points out how this project should never have been approved in the
first place,” said Council Member and Mayoral candidate Tony Avella.
“It's time to kill this monster once and for all.”

“This project would tear the fabric of Brooklyn for many generations to come,” Avella said. “It must be stopped.”

Time to start talking re-negotiation, fellow straphangers.  Time to start talkin…

Postcard from the Slope

39 Volunteers from Ohio Begin Restoration of Historic Brooklyn Church

5282832 Park Slope's Old First Reformed Church will begin the restoration of its historic sanctuary with the help of 39 volunteer workers, from a sister church near Columbus, Ohio. The volunteers, 30 youth and 9 adults, from New Hope Reformed Church of Powell, Ohio arrived on Saturday, June 20, and will stay at the church for the week, where they will sleep, eat, and work, work, work on the restoration. They will also have some free time to enjoy the neighborhood.

Designed by George L. Morse, the large, gothic revival structure of Old First, was dedicated in 1891. The interior decoration is considered one of the finest examples of arts and craft design in the United States. Currently the renovation plan is to do some interior painting. Pastor Meeter with committee members, worked with local interior designer and church member, Elaine Beery, to select the colors. Ms. Beery researched historical church records, and evolved a plan to restore the walls to their original color and palette of earth related, Florentine tones. Paint hues of these exact colors still exist in historic collections by modern paint manufacturers and an exact matching has been achieved. We thank the group from Ohio for donating their time and donating the paint!

Through the Reformed Church’s Project Samuel, volunteer groups work both on church renovations and in shelters, soup kitchens, and mission projects. The Ohio group's first trip to Old First was in 2005. Two groups from Illinois have helped us, one from Minnesota, one from Ontario, and a group from Wisconsin made two trips, and renovated the church's majestic thirty-foot chandelier last year.

The massive structure is offered back to the community as a spiritual sanctuary for every person, and for hospitality for the arts. The community is invited to stop by the church and watch the renovation in progress this week. Those who have already visited have been amazed at the vaulted ceiling, coffered with intricate flocked stenciling and gold fleur de lis. Among the treasured stained glass windows, are two made by the Tiffany Studios. Come see and say hello to our volunteers.

Breakfast of candidates

Today on Breakfast of Candidates (33rd Edition): Stephen Levin

Today Stephen Levin faces OTBKB's coffee cup. A major in classics at Brown Univeristy, Levin has wonky good looks and a boyish, disarming manner. His father's cousins are Michigan's Senator Carl Levin and Congressman Sander Levin and he's Vito Lopez's chief of staff. Lopez, who is often portrayed as a Darth Vader figure in Brooklyn politics taught the 29-year-old Levin about "knocking on doors, talking to as many people as possible, the
importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for
the people," Levin told me. A pragmatist, Levin believes that for for every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

And in case you missed these from the 33rd:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Doug Biviano. Expect the
unexpected from Biviano. A civil engineer with degrees from Cornell
University,  Biviano works as a superintendent in Brooklyn Heights
apartment building and as New York State Coordinator for
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, whose politics of peace are a
strong influence. Biviano has lived the skiers life in Colorado and
sailed the Inter-Coastal Highway with his wife installing solar panels
on a boat he barely knew how to sail.

Breakfast of Candidates: Jo Anne Simon.  Her career trajectory from teacher of the deaf to disability rights attorney will make you feel like a slacker  and
wonder how she had time to become such a strong voice in her community
and the female Democratic District Leader and State Committeewoman for
the 52nd Assembly District. A proponent of the art of listening, she
believes that there's a place for all viewpoints at the table and that
"someone who is elected to office can work with everyone."

Breakfast-of Candidates; Evan Thies.
A former aide to City Council Member David Yassky, Thies also worked in
Hillary Clinton's upstate senate office and for Andrew Cuomo. Raised in
New Hampshire, public service was the family business and his
grandmother, Mary Mongron, was appointed by NH governor John
Sununu to be New Hampshire's Commissioner of Health and Human
Services. Struck as a child with Fibromatosis, a chronic disease, he
was
homeschooled during the worst of his illness. When he was 11, he and
his mother wrote and passed a bill about his disease. Evan studied his
twin interests, political science and journalism, at Syracuse
University but knew that he was called to public service like his grandmother.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Ken Diamondstone: A lover of diner food, Diamondstone runs an affordable
housing business with an emphasis on "nice spaces for low prices." He
could have made a killing in the real estate biz but instead stuck to
his principles. Affordable housing is clearly Diamondstone's passion
and through his
business he has been able to translate ideals into action. He is
also a member of three local Democratic clubs and an early opponent of
Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project. For Diamondstone, who is
openly gay and lives with his longtime partner, Joe, the rights of the
LGBT commuity is high on his list of
priorities. But so is the environment. As chair of the Brooklyn Solid
Waste Council he was involved with the Zero Waste Coalition and passage
of NYPIRG's Bigger, Better, Bottle Bill.

And here are the 39ers:

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Gary Reilly. At 34 he's not quite the youngest of the candidates (John Heyer beats
him on that score) but he's plenty wet behind the ears and full of
enthusiasm about public transportation and other issues that affect voters.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Bob Zuckerman. A long-time politico, Bob is currently
executive director of the Gowanus Canal Community Development
Corporation and  Gowanus Canal Conservancy.  He remembers the night
Richard Nixon was elected in 1968 (he was 7-years-old) and one of his
heroes is Harvey Milk.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Brad Lander, The intellectual of the group, Brad has two master's degrees and
a BA from the University of Chicago. He made his mark running
community organizations like the Fifth Avenue Committee and Pratt
Center for Community Development, advocating for affordable housing and community sustainablility.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: Josh  Skaller. A former computer music composer at
Harvard, it was Howard Dean's presidential campaign that jumpstarted
his interest in electoral politics. As president of the Central
Brooklyn Independent Democrats, he learned to facilitiate dialogue  and
manage strong personalities. Running on a community empowerment
platform with a strong interest in the environment and smart
development, Josh is proud to be refusing donations from  real estate
developers.

Breakfast of Candidates: John Heyer: An assistant to Borough President Marty Markowitz, Heyer is the only candidate for City Council born in the 39th district. A
fifth-generation Carroll Gardener, his twin passions are politics and
theology. He works as a funeral director at Scotto's Funeral home and
his knowledge of the history of the neighborhood runs deep though he is
only 27 years old.

Breakfast-of-Candidates: David Pechefsky. The Green Candidate, Pechefsky worked for 10 years in the central staff of
the New York City Council. With a master's degree in public policy and
experience advising local governments in Africa, Pechefsky knows how the
City Council works from the inside out and has ideas about how it could
better serve the people of New York City.

Breakfast of candidates

Breakfast-of-Candidates (33rd Edition): Stephen Levin

Stephen Levin faced OTBKB's coffee cup at Ozzie's on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. At 9:15 in the morning, the humidity was already high but Levin arrived good-natured and cheerful after campaigning at the Borough Hall subway stop. By way of an introduction, he handed me a campaign brochure, a button and a campaign pen, which I needed because the pen I brought was out of ink.

We ordered coffee and talked easily for 90 minutes or so.

I had to be honest. I told Levin point-blank that he was being portrayed, disparagingly, as "Assemblyman Vito Lopez's guy." And Assemblyman Lopez is probably one of the most demonized—and powerful Democratic figures in Brooklyn.

"At your first candidates forum I expected you to come in wearing a black cape or something." I told him.

But Levin has something like wonky good looks. Small framed and skinny, he's got a boyish, friendly face and in a blue button down shirt and a tie he has a  disarming, low key manner.

Still, there's no denying that Levin is Lopez's chief of staff. But where some see Lopez as a Darth Vader figure with a sometimes corrupt approach to politics, Levin sees Lopez as "a great teacher and someone who taught him strategy and the value of running an on-the-ground campaign."

Levin has other important mentors, too. His father's cousin is none other than Carl Levin, the Senior United States Senator from Michigan and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

And his father's other cousin (and Carl's brother) is Congressman Sander Levin, Democratic representative from the 12th congressional district in Michigan, where he has served since 1983. In fact, when Levin was first contemplating his run for City Council he called cousin Sander (and his wife) for advice.

"We talked about the district. The issues. He wanted to know my chances of winning and what I've been doing.  After listening for about an hour they said 'Yeah, do it. Sounds like a good idea.'"

Born in 1980 (no, that is not a misprint), Levin grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey. His father is a lawyer, who served in Vietnam as part of the Marine Corps and his mother is an art teacher. At home, Levin and his brother "were encouraged to be curious, open and to follow our interests. My parents encouraged hard work and intellectual curiosity," Levin told me.

History was also a topic that was often discussed at home. "My dad always emphasized the back story, the importance of history and getting the full facts. If we were talking about the Vietnam War, he'd bring up French colonialism. There's always more to the story."

So it's no accident that Levin majored in classics at Brown University. "Classics gives you a perspective. There are many parallels with modern life. History is a great teacher," he told me.

The attacks on September 11th, which occurred when Levin was a junior in college, convinced him that he wanted to be involved in public life. After graduation from Brown Levin came to NYC and searched for a job in politics or the non-profit sector.

That's when he landed a temporary stint working on  Lopez's re-election campaign where he "basically went out for coffee and did clerical work." But over time he learned Lopez's approach to campaigning which involves  "knocking on doors,  talking to as many people as possible, the importance of having a command of the issues, and having empathy for the people," Levin said.

After Lopez's successful run, Levin got a job with a lead safe house program in Bushwick. He looks back very fondly on that experience, where he was an advocate for families whose children's blood tests revealed high and dangerous levels of lead. The law requires that these families move out of their homes immediately until the problem is rectified. The safe house was needed as a temporary refuge for families who faced this temporary dislocation. "I got very involved in people's lives and helped to walk them through the bureaucracy."

Around that time, Levin also ran an anti-predatory lending program in
Bushwick, where, he says, he helped to organize homeowners and teach them about lending practices that were "decimating the
neighborhood with foreclosures."

In 2006, Levin became Lopez's chief of staff. "Vito trusts me and lets me flourish on policy. He's been a tremendous help and a great teacher." Clearly, Levin was expecting the negativity about Lopez going in to his City Council run but he refuses to speak disparagingly of his boss and mentor.

Levin has been canvassing the 33rd district, "from Grand Army Plaza to Newtown Creek" since January and has learned that there are "no short cuts to talking to people and learning what they care about."

When Levin talks about meeting senior citizens, his empathy for people's lives really comes through. "It's heartbreaking. They live on fixed incomes and pensions. There's a long waiting list for Section 8 housing. When a city is run like a business it loses its human face. I want to help people," he says. "I see a lot of people out there in need."

Levin describes himself as a very practical person. "I believe that for every problem there is a solution that is not readily apparent."

Suddenly Levin stands up and walks to a bookshelf across from where we're sitting. He pulls out a book called Breathing for a Living: A Memoir.

"This is my good friend from college," he says of the author of the book, Laura Rothenberg, who died while at Brown of cystic fibrosis. The coincidence of finding this book at Ozzie's provides Levin with an opportunity to talk about what he learned from his friend.

"Life is precious. Time is limited. It really puts thing in perspective. Laura was fearless not shrinking. She had an inner strength."

Clearly, Levin has an inner strength, too. He's smart, well educated and very, very young. But he knows a lot about history and like his father and his relatives Sander and Carl, Levin wants to extend the family legacy of politics and public service. I don't get a very ideological feeling from Levin or the sense of a strong, political agenda. He strikes me as someone who wants to fix things one problem at a time as he believes, pragmatically, that there's a solution to every problem.

At the end of 90-minutes it was time for me to run as I had an interview scheduled with Ken Baer over at Cousin John's on Seventh Avenue…

 

Music

OTBKB Music: Take Your Pick

There are three worthwhile shows tonight, two of them free. I'll look at them in chronological order.

Milton Band50 First up at 6pm at the somewhat unheralded Newsong Series @Bryant Park
After Work is OTBKB Music favorite Milton.  As previously noted Milton
is the name of a band (as well as the band leader) playing well crafted roots
rock/americana.  Expect to hear about former girl friends, stars, piano
players and New Orleans.  Milton's 2008 album, Grand Hotel, was one of
that year's best and you cannot go wrong checking out Milton tonight.

Milton, Bryant Park stage at 42nd St. near 6th Avenue (B, D or F to 42nd Street) 6pm, free.

Ian Hunter Next at 7pm is Ian Hunter. 
You probably know the name but if you don't you've probably heard the
songs All the Young Dudes, Rock 'n' Roll Queen and All the Way to
Memphis by Ian's original group, Mott the Hoople.  Of course Ian has
been on his own now for a while and has continued writing rock classics
like Once Bitten Twice Shy, Central Park 'n West and Cleveland Rocks. 
Ian has a new album, Man Overboard, coming out in mid-July.  Expect to
rock.

Ian Hunter, River to River Festival at Rockefeller Park (1,2,3,A or C to Chambers Street, walk west to park) 7pm, free.

Camera Obscura Finally at 8pm is Camera Obscura.  The band is from Scotland, as are
many indie bands these days, but CO is in NYC often, so often that I've
missed seeing them three times (not tonight though).  You can call them
chamber pop if you like, and they sort of remind me of the 70s group
Renaissance  just a bit, although Camera Obscura is certainly not as
baroque.  So I look forward to see lead singer Tracyanne Campbell tell
us about My Maudlin Career and hear what else Camera Obscura has up its
selve.

Camera Obscura, Webster Hall, E. 11th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues
(N, Q, R, W, L, 4, 5, 6 to Union Square, walk from station to Webster
Hall), 8pm, $20.

–Eliot Wagner

Civics and Urban Life

Reward Being Offered for Return of Brooklyn’s Statue of Liberty

A just completed poster about the 8 ft. Lady Liberty statue that went missing in the early hours of Monday morning from The Vox Pop Coffee Shop in Ditmas Park states that a reward is being offered for its return.

"Help restore our local beacon of democracy! If you have see her or have any info please call: 718-940-2084."

These posters are being printed and will be papered all over the neighborhoods near the location of the coffee shop. The amount of the reward was not specified.

Atlantic Yards

Ratner Gets New Deal From the MTA

The Brooklyn Paper reports on a MTA finance committee meeting this morning, where the MTA decided give Bruce Ratner a good deal.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will move ahead with a
massive public bailout of the struggling Atlantic Yards project,
changing the project’s financing to save developer Bruce Ratner
hundreds of millions of dollars.

The MTA’s finance committee met this morning to discuss a new deal
for the developer, who had originally promised $100 million for rights
to build over the Vanderbilt railyards in Prospect Heights, but would
now pay just $20 million up front for the prime eight-acres.

The remaining $80 million would be paid out, at 6-1/2 percent
interest, over the next 22 years, said MTA Chief Financial Officer Gary
Dellaverson, who presented the package to the committee.

Ratner had originally gotten the railyard rights for less than its
MTA-appraised value because he also promised $345 million in
infrastructure improvements to the MTA facility.

Under the new deal, which is expected to be rubber-stamped by the
full MTA board on Wednesday, Ratner would make just $147 million in
railyard improvements.

Postcard from the Slope

Who Stole Lady Liberty?

1 Comment

June 19, 2009 84 It's the big mystery of Ditmas Park today. Staff and customers of Vox Pop Coffee Shop are wondering how and why someone would steal their 8 ft tall statue of Lady Liberty.

The statue disappeared during the early morning hours of Monday morning. Debi Ryan, who runs the cafe was shocked, "Everyone was so happy that she was restored,' she said of the recently refurbished statue.

Ryan and others are in the process of creating a flyer and will paper the neighborhood in the days to come. If you know anything about the missing lady liberty please get get in touch with OTBKB (louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Photo Tom Martinez

Postcard from the Slope

Lady Liberty Still Missing from Brooklyn’s Vox Pop Coffee Shop

June 19, 2009 42_2(3) The Lady Liberty statue stolen from the Vox Pop Coffee Shop in the early morning hours of Monday morning is still missing. The police have been notified and staff and customers of the coffee shop are taking matters into their own hands by posting fliers and trying to get the word out far and wide.

The statue in question is an 8 ft replica of the Statue of Liberty, which usually stands outside Vox Pop, the popular local cafe in Ditmas Park.

Lady Liberty has been a fixture in the neighborhood for a long time. It was recently refurbished by a Ditmas Park local, who added a solar powered torch. As reported on OTBKB it was reinstalled as recently as last week.

That's what's so shocking. No one can figure out how or why anyone would take the statue. "Whoever
took it must have planned this out. It was no simple prank because she
was bolted into five foot wooden anchors, and wouldn't have fit into an
ordinary size car or van," said Debi Ryan, who runs Vox Pop.

Photo Tom Martinez


Civics and Urban Life

A Tree Dies in Brooklyn

1 Comment

She was the largest tree on one of the most tree-lined blocks in Brooklyn. Third Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues) in Park Slope, Brooklyn has lost one of its own.

The New York City Department of Parks began the job yesterday and closed the block to cars due to "Emergency Tree Removal." Here are some pictures taken by Eliot Wagner on Monday morning in the midst of that job.

P6220084  

P6220094

P6220078

P6220080

P6220083

P6220097

Civics and Urban Life

Breaking News: The Statue of Liberty Stolen from Brooklyn Cafe

2 Comments

IMG_7703-2 The Vox Pop Coffee Shop in Ditmas Park Brooklyn was vandalized last night and the victim was Liberty. Lady Liberty.

An eight foot replica of the  statue of Liberty stood outside the popular local hangout and had recently been restored by local artist Renie Weinstein.

A stunned Vox Pop owner Debi Ryan had one question this morning as she opened the cafe. Why? "Everyone was so happy that she was restored."

Vox Pop opened four and a half years ago but it was about to go out of business when Ryan  came along and saved it, turning it into a 'for profit neighborhood collective" . That means The Vox Pop is actually owned by the neighborhood residents. 

The statue has been part of the neighborhood for years. But when the need for repairs became obvious, neighborhood resident Weinstein took up the work in his nearby home.

A few days ago, he  delivered a scrubbed up, restored Lady Liberty — equipped with a 21st century solar powered torch– ready for decades of pleasure and patriotism.  Patrons of the cafe were elated.

"Whoever took it must have planned this out. It was no simple prank because she was bolted into five foot wooden anchors, and wouldn't have fit into an ordinary size car or van", said Ms. Ryan as she surveyed the damage. Resident Tom Martinez said, "this is such a window into our little neighborhood. Everyone loved it". Now Martinez, who is a minister at a local church, says he and others are planning to flood the neighborhood with pictures of the missing statue. "looking for lady Liberty in Ditmas Park. Last seen at the Vox Pop Cafe".  The Cafe's sign looks over the empty spot and promises "Books, coffee, democracy".

Picture: NYPD Officer Baez takes the report of the stolen statue from Vox Pop manager, Debi Ryan.       Photo: Tom Martinez