Yesterday I noticed that my post  Provini Infiltrated by Parents with Kids Crowd got lots of comments and was picked up by Gothamist and Curved. Provini is the lovely new Italian restaurant  across the street from PS 107 on 8th Avenue in Park Slope:

Gothamist asks Are Park Slope Parents Killing Romance?

Mark the date: On September 29th you're gonna be back in the voting both at your local school to make a a choice between Bill DeBlasio and Mark Green for public advocate and David Yassky and John Liu for city comptroller.

Because none of those candidates for those citywide offices received more than
40% of the votes cast, a
special run-off election between the top two contenders is required.

 DeBlasio bested Green with his 113, 291 votes to Green's 107,232. That means that DeBlasio got 32.63% of the vote to Green's 30.89%.

Not enough for victory.

John Liu bested Yassky with 133,945 votes compared to Yassky's 107,421. That's 38% for Liu compared with 34% for Yassky.

Again, not enough for victory.

All of these candidates have two weeks to get the votes they need to push them over the edge. It should be an interesting—and aggressive couple of weeks.

Interestingly, it's Park Slope's City Council members David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio who are running hard in their respective races.

Familiar names around here, both must make their names even better known city-wide in this important run-off to decide who gets to be the city's comptroller and public advocate.

It seems that my story yesterday about Stone Park Cafe moving to a new location on Fifth Avenue was right and wrong.

Clearly, some phone calls need to be made. But according to a comment on the blog, I was right about the fact that the Stone Park team plus a new partner are opening a restaurant in the space formerly occupied by Tempo and Tempo Presto.

Here's what I may have gotten wrong. The Stone Park Cafe will stay open on Third Street. The new venture in the space on Fifth Avenue between Garfield and 1st Street will be a different restaurant with a different name.

Phew. I thought it was strange that Stone Park Cafe right there on Washington/JJ Byrne Park and near its namesake the Old Stone House, would vacate their perfect Park Slope location.

I am interested to hear what direction the Two Josh's and their new partner are going in. What will it be? Italian, Fusion Mediterranean, American cuisine?

Clearly some phone calls need to be made.

Here's the note from David Yassky about the upcoming two person runoff between him and Liu. Bill deBlasion and Mark Green will also be in a two person runoff for the job of public advocate.

Starting in January, Park Slope will have two new councilmen: Brad Lander in the 39th district and Stephen Levin in the 33rd.

Since 2001 it's been The deBlasio/Yassky Show in Park Slope. Both City Council members represented their own large sliver of Park Slope and when it came to Seventh Avenue, Fifth Avenue and other important community spots—they seemed to work together. 

Maybe it was purely symbolic. But deBlasio and Yassky seemed to share Park Slope in a nice, even- handed way. For one thing, they always seemed to be at the same events. For instance, at the graduation ceremonies at PS 321 and MS 51: de Blasio and Yassky would both show up and make speeches.

Same with street fairs, sports parades, school events and other community-wide celebrations. While the line between the 39th and the 33rd is an esoteric piece of urban geography, it's not like either of them seemed religious about enforcing the boundaries (though I'm sure there are times that they did).

So what about the new guys? Will they get along? Do they even know each other? And will they handle Park Slope the same way that deBlasio and Yassky did. Because if you really spell it out, this is who gets what:

Like, who gets PS 321? Lander.

And who gets the Community Bookstore? Levin.

How about Old First Church: Levin

Congregation Beth Elohim: that's Levin, too

What about JJ Byrne Park: Lander

MS 51: Lander

And on and on…

Sure, they each have Brooklyn neighborhoods that are their's alone. Lander has Carroll Gardens, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Boro Park while Levin has Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

But Park Slope is shared.

Soon it will be time for the The Lander/Levin Show to take over deBlasio and Yassky's time slot. It will sure be interesting to see how Lander and Levin divvy things up and if their relationship is as compatible as DiBlasio and Yassky's seemed to be.

The following
Primary Election Results affecting residents of the Brooklyn Community
Board 6 district were reported by New York 1 News.  Certified results
from the Board of Election are pending.

*REMINDER: Special Run-off Election on September 29, 2009, and General Election on November 3, 2009.
Last Day to register to vote in the General Election is October 9, 2009!

> Click here for more information about how to register, or use the following link:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/register.html
(Feel
free to pass this link around.  Plenty of unregistered people out there
who haven't gotten around to it. Encourage the VOTE!)

Here are the unofficial election results (thanks to Craig Hammerman for sending them):

The following
Primary Election Results affecting residents of the Brooklyn Community
Board 6 district were reported by New York 1 News.  Certified results
from the Board of Election are pending.

Also, in the
Republican Primary for the City Council – District 39 race, NY1
News reported that candidate Joseph Nardiello was victorious over
candidate George Smith, roughly 69% to 30% respectively.

39th
Brad Lander: 5129
Josh Skaller: 3180
John Heyer: 2753
Bob Zuckerman: 930
Gary Reilly: 472

33rd
Stephen Levin: 5199
Jo Anne Simon: 3109
Issac Abraham: 1937
Even Thies: 1915
Ken Diamondstone: 1324
Doug Biviano: 1127
Ken Baer: 811

People predicted this might happen. Somehow I didn't believe it. But never underestimate the power of the Democratic machine and a candidate who is smart and likable but beholden to his political mentor, Assemblyman and political power broker Vito Lopez.

I haven't been secretive about my take on Levin: he's too young and too inexperienced for the job. He's not even very charismatic. Sure, he no dummy and he has a nice personality. But all he's done is graduate from Brown University (with a major in classics), run an anti-predatory lending program in
Bushwick, and been Chief-of-Staff for Vito Lopez (in the 53rd assembly district) since 2006.

C'est tout!

But working for Lopez was Levin's smartest move. Clearly, Lopez sussed out that this was a kid with a political future.

Factor in the fact that Levin father's cousin is 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 and you've got a hot prospect here. A hot one!

So this Levin guy has political DNA that's for sure. And with Lopez's power and the endorsement of Senator Chuck Schumer…

It was a strategy-driven fait accompli, I guess.

This is exactly what all the other candidates in the race were afraid of. From the get-go they were convinced that Vito's kid was going to win. The trouble was they managed to split the progressive, anti-machine vote into so many pieces that there wasn't a chance for any of them: Simon, Thies, Diamondstone, Baer or Biviano to beat Levin.

And then throw Issac Abraham into the mix.

He was bound to get a lot—but not all—of Williamsburg's Hasidic votes. While quite a few of those went to Levin, Abraham managed to get a considerable number of votes and come in third place. That's pretty impressive considering he barely made appearances in Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope. 

But Stephen Levin worked his butt off in the months and weeks leading up to the race. I ran into him numerous times in Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights. He's a hard-working guy, there's no doubt about that—and he has basically good values. But is he strong enough to stand up to political interests, the speaker of the City Council, and moneyed developers who want to control the real estate landscape in this borough?

That remains to be seen.  At the forums and in our Breakfast-of-Candidates interview, he seemed pretty tone deaf about the kind of politician that Vito Lopez really is. He seemed stubborn in his refusal to take off his rose colored glasses about the man, who has been his mentor since 2004.

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."

People have been saying it all day. I was the only voter in the John Jay auditorium when I went to vote at 10:30 am.

I just got a group email from James Katz, field director of David Yassky's campaign for City Comptroller. He says that their operation is reporting
low turnout across the city.

A tipster told me what's going into the space that used to be Tempo (and before that Cucina):

Stone Park Cafe.

That's right. Someone in the know has just told me that the elegant and delicious Stone Park Cafe, currenly located on Third Street and Fifth Avenue, is relocating to the old Tempo/Cucina space on Fifth Avenue between Garfield and 1st Street.

And it gets even more interesting. The Stone Park Cafe folks have a new partner. She is none other than the youngest daughter of the man who used to own Cucina. Indeed, the Cucina family still owns the building where the new Stone Park Cafe will be.

And that Tempo/Cucina space is a big space.

As Cucina and then Tempo, the space was frequently rented out for business parties, special occasions, birthdays, weddings and Bar Mitzvahs. According to the Tempo website, the entire restaurant can serve 120 persons and the main dining room can serve 80 persons for a special event. 

But more importantly, it makes for a spacious dining room and bar that will give Stone Park Cafe some much needed elbow room.

Stone Park Cafe, which serves a sophisticated American cuisine with many local ingredients has been lauded by many reviewers including two stars from Frank Bruni in the New York Times and an award Best NYC restaurant 2006 from the AOL CityGuide.

Bruni wrote the following in the original 2005 NY Times review . It's the review famously titled "Where To Take Thoreau and Dr. Atkins," really put the restaurant on the map:

Opening a restaurant was a long time dream of owners Josh Foster
and Josh Grinker, (the Two Josh's as they are fondly called in these parts). Childhood friends who grew up together in Park Slope, they, along with Tracy Young of Philadelphia, turned a Fifth Avenue bodega into an extremely attractive restaurant with a full bar and a sidewalk patio. 

Before opening Stone Park, Foster, Grinker and Young worked at the Tribeca Grill, River Café
and Le Bec Fin,

Work has already begun on the new Stone Park Cafe. Apparently the restaurant will be vacating its old space on Third Street.

The Zagat-rated Tempo Restaurant had a more difficult history. They opened in 2005 with a decent review in the Times. Later they opened Tempo Presto on 3rd Street and 7th Avenue which was a misfire. A sandwich shop without coffee, a lunch and after-school spot for moms and kids without ice cream (though I believe that problem was rectified), an atmosphere that felt more fast food that Park Slope.

But Slopers liked the fancier Fifth Avenue restaurant and even if it was a tad expensive, they had many fans. Bruni wrote in the Times' review:

A decade ago, maybe even five years ago, Tempo would have been awash in
buzz, heralded as a relatively rare example of Manhattan-style
sophistication and Manhattan-caliber aspirations on Brooklyn's spotty
restaurant landscape. The fact that Tempo opened quietly in September
speaks loudly about the evolution of Brooklyn's dining scene, because
this restaurant, which serves Italian and other Mediterranean fare, is
worth a bit of talk. Entrees tend to disappoint, but most of the pasta
dishes, especially bucatini with a pignoli-pistachio pesto, are
winners, as are starters like the lentil soup and the porchetta. The
gelato is housemade, the wine list creative, the ambience lovely and
the service polished. — Frank Bruni

The Two Josh's at Stone Park Cafe obviously have big plans in store for their new venture. Judging from what they've already accomplished at the original SPC—great food, an elegant, inviting atmosphere and a great wine and beer list, expectations will probably run sky high. 

Now don't breathe a word of this to anyone. It's top secret, hush hush…

Anne Pope, who I ran into last week in front of the Farm at Adderly in Flatbush/Ditmas Park, is once again organizing Park(ing) Day, which poses the question: Ever wonder what our community could do with 120 square feet of outdoor space?

And so the 3rd annual Park(ing) Day event is this Friday, September 18th, from 9am until 6pm.

From Anne's blog, Sustainable Flatbush:

"To raise awareness of how public space is allocated in our
neighborhood, we will transform an unremarkable parking spot into
“Cortelyou Road Park”: an urban oasis with grass, lawn chairs, music,
art supplies, games, and good conversation for all to enjoy, at the
corner of Cortelyou and Argyle Roads, in front of the Public Library.

"Two sustainable craft businesses based in the NYC area – Garbage of Eden Design and RePlayGround
– will teach free creative workshops on fashioning fun stuff out of
garbage. We invite you to bring your favorite empty cereal box or
designed scrap paper to personalize your crafts. Jewelry made from
plastic bags and yogurt containers as well as kits to make projects
from scrap will be on display. You could even win a food gift basket
from the Flatbush Food Coop,
which is also graciously providing free snacks throughout the day! Join
us for this international event at the level of our local neighborhood.
Meet your neighbors and those working within our community who strive
to make it a more livable place.

This is adapted from the email Gary Reilly sent this morning: All of the candidates, in all of the races, sent out similar emails. But I liked the simplicity of Gary's.

I emailed John Heyer a bunch of questions and this was his response:

Lessons Learned? 

Stick
to your guns. Say what you believe, speak about what you think is
important, and let those who feel the same way find you. Of course, if
we lose, I will try to unlearn these things.

Highlights? 

Seeing my posters all up and down Court Street and 13th Avenue is pretty cool.

Regrets? Mistakes? Gaffes? 

Things
got nasty between supporters of mine and supporters of Brad's in Boro
Park. We're friendly, and neither of us should have allowed things to
escalate to that degree. It's a disservice to the community, whoever
wins.

Did you get your message across? 

I
think so. My message all along was constituent services – it's what I
think this job is about, and it's what the voters all want to talk to
me about as I go door-to-door. For the Brooklyn Paper to endorse me as
the nuts-and-bolts guy in this race, after everything that's happened
in the campaign, I think is an indication that my point got across.

Your takeaway from all this? 

I'll follow Brad's lead and say it's a bit too early for that level of reflection.

What you know now that you didn't know then about the district? 

People stay up really late in Boro Park. It is a different time zone.

What you know now that you didn't know before about politics?

Again, we'll see on Wednesday morning.

You can't endorse all the candidates. Even former presidential contender Howard Dean looked a tad silly when he made his double endorsement of Josh Skaller and Brad Lander in the 39th district.

Wouldn't it be great if you could mix them all together and make a bionic City Councilman, who would combine the very best qualities of each of these exceptional candidates? 

We could call him: JoJohBoBradary

JoJohBoBradary would have:

–Josh Skaller's forthright progressive views, commitment to community based development and fierce opposition to Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project;

–Bob Zuckerman's integrity and willingness to think creatively;

–Brad Lander's statesman-like demeanor and expertise as a city planner and affordable housing advocate;

–Gary Reilly's idealism, transportation wonkiness and small town honesty;

–John Heyer's personality and ability to connect with the voters;

I know, I know: you can't create a bionic City Councilmember. So here's another idea: 

Wouldn't it great if we could send all of them to the City Council? For that matter, let's send David Pechefsky, too, the Green Party candidate who has thought deeply about reform in a City Council much in need of reform.

The six candiates could share the job. Then we'd have six smart politicians working the district that covers Carroll Gardens, the Gowanus, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensignton and Borough Park.

Actually, this sounds like one of Bob Zuckerman's famous "out-of-the-box" ideas. He's the guy who came up with the  Zuckmoblile, a mobile City Council office and proposed a shuttle bus that goes from one end of the district to the other.

I loved his willingness throughout the race to think creatively.

Any one of these men would make a great City Council member. Even the conservative John Heyer—whose deplorable views on abortion and same sex marriage I passionately disagree with— wouldn't be terrible in the seat (but he won't get my vote. Sorry John).

But a choice must be made. When I walk into the voting booth on Tuesday I have to pick one candidate,  I can't push every tab. That would probably break the voting machine.

And it would be irresponsible. Every vote counts in this race, a race which may well be won by less than 200 votes.

As I see it and this is anecdotal and not scientific: Brad Lander and Josh Skaller are neck in neck with John Heyer or Bob Zuckerman close behind. Gary Reilly is clearly in last place but must be applauded for building a strong base of support in his first ever political campaign. He's smart, likable and ethical and we'll almost certainly be hearing from him again maybe as head of the Department of Transportation one day (Gary, what do you think?).

For me it is a choice between Brad Lander and Josh Skaller much as I respect and admire Bob Zuckerman and Gary Reilly.

So it's time to go with my gut. And my gut hurts trying to make this final decision. But as I said: a choice must be made.

Until a week ago I was pretty much set on Brad Lander. But I must say the Der Blatt brouhaha threw me a bit. It's hard to imagine that Lander didn't know that one of his campaign associates placed an ad with a homophobic message in a Yiddish newspaper popular with voters in Borough Park. It was obviously a mistake and a low point of the campaign.

That said, I am willing to give Brad Lander the benefit of the doubt and hope that he has learned from this mistake.

From early in the race, I have admired Brad's intelligence, his enthusiasm, his ability to speak articulately about community development, affordable housing, education, transportation, quality of life and other issues of concern to the voters.

I think Brad has a statesmen-like quality and great leadership skills that inspire respect and optimism. I think he's a team player and a consensus builder. I know that he loves this district and has devoted practically his entire life to issues of urban planning and affordable housing.

While I admire Skaller's willingness to be forthright and intuitive about issues like Atlantic Yards and Superfund combined with his background in community activism, I think this is Lander's moment to lead. That is why I am endorsing Brad Lander in the 39th.

I wish Lander luck, learning, integrity and a willingness to speak truth to power as he embarks on what will almost certainly be a stellar career in the City Council.

And to the other candidates: you were an incredible group and I thank you for making this such a hard choice.

Coming to the Brooklyn Museum in November and sticking around for two years:

This exhibition uses objects created as
distinct body parts, as well as fragments of
sculpture, to highlight the realistic
portrayal of individual body parts in
canonical Egyptian sculpture. The ancient
Egyptians carefully depicted each part of the
human body, respecting the significance of
every element. When viewed individually these
sculptures and fragments reveal the ancient
notions of body and pose, as well as details
of workmanship frequently unnoticed in more
complete sculptures. To better explain each
of these elements, the exhibition will make
connections to specific objects in the
Museum's Egyptian collection and to Egyptian
hieroglyphs.

Yup. Tomorrow's the big day. Every vote counts, folks. Vote your hearts and minds for the candidates you want to see in the City Council, for Comptroller, Public Advocate and Mayor.