Lopez was first elected to the State Assembly in 1984 (representing Bushwick and Williamsburg) and since 2006 has served as the Chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party.

Last summer he announced that he would not seek re-election as Kings County Chairman due to allegations that he sexual harassed two of his female staff members and he was stripped of his committee chairmanship.

This week the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics issued a report outlining the sexual harassment of multiple women on his staff by Lopez. It sounds like there was a system of sexual harassment in his office. On Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and many others recommended that Lopez be expelled from the Assembly.

On Friday, finally, Lopez, said he would resign his seat in the Assembly in five weeks. Five weeks? He should go immediately. But in an even more exasperating move, he announced that he plans to run for a City Council seat.

This guy is just unbelievable.

Steve Levin, a Park Slope City Councilman, issued a  statement today renouncing his former mentor. While I am a fan of Levin’s I always wondered why he never spoke out against Vito before. I think he’s either very naive or very beholden to the man who helped him get elected.

“I was shocked and saddened to read the findings in the JCOPE report on Assemblyman Lopez.  The findings detail behavior that is disturbing, indefensible, and constitutes a breach of the public trust. During my time in his office there were never any incidents or allegations of sexual harassment. If there had been I would have contacted the authorities immediately. Sexual harassment is unacceptable under all circumstances and I do not tolerate it. Due to the circumstances, I believe it is the best thing for everyone concerned that he voluntarily step down.”

Lopez should leave the Assembly immediately and never run for another office. Systemic sexual harassment is not acceptable in our government, in our military, anywhere. Out with the bad. Time to go Vito. Someone show him the door.

 There will be free  appetizers and wine from 7-8PM.

Novelist and South African emigré Neville Frankel reads from his newly-published literary thriller of the apartheid era, Bloodlines, called “fierce and thrilling” by Kirkus Indie Review. In this harrowing story of a family fractured by apartheid and a son who struggles to piece everything together, Frankel “explores the bloody truths of apartheid in a sweeping narrative that covers five decades,” writes Jan Gardner in The Boston Globe.

Together with South African music performed by Nedelka Prescod and Earth Tones, the evening will provide a moving and deeply personal perspective on a country that has suffered great turmoil in its quest for social justice and equality.

Email me if you’d like to reserve a spot or a table: louise_crawford@yahoo.com. Madiba Restaurant, 195 Dekalb Avenue, in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn. The Event is free.

The illustration is from ”What You See Is What You Get,” a semi-autobio comic by Dean Haspiel featured in this month’s Bklnr.

Here’s the pitch from Bklynr, which costs $2 a month or $20 a year.

It’s harder than it should be to find quality journalism about Brooklyn. Certain aspects and areas of the borough are covered to death (you know which ones), while the rest of Brooklyn gets limited attention. We want to help change that. BKLYNR strives to produce thoughtful, compelling journalism that explores new narratives rather than retreading tired tropes.

Twice a month, we publish in-depth stories about the political, economic, and cultural life of Brooklyn. Each issue contains three pieces.

To read BKLYNR, subscribe. You can choose either a recurring monthly subscription, which is $2, or a one-time annual subscription, which is $20.

Thanks to all for Edgy Moms 2013. It was a great night with Sophia Romero, Karen Ritter, Lori Topoll, Susan Hodara, Vicki Addesso, Chris Nelson, Cathy Brown and Nicole Calihan.

I think we delivered on our promise of funny, poignant, frank and fresh writing about motherhood and mothers. It was truly a great night.

In collaboration with Edgy Moms, Brooklyn’s favorite alternative Mother’s Day event, Babeland invites you to ditch sippy cups for sex toys and let loose. Enjoy readings about sex and motherhood by authors Karen Ritter, Louise Crawford, Alex Beers, Caitlin McDonnel and Babeland Bubbly. We’ll raffle great prizes and the first fifteen moms to arrive will receive gift bags filled with items to hide from the kids. Dads welcome.

Forget breakfast in bed and a bouquet: some moms will celebrate Mother’s Day this year by sharing wine-fueled true confessions about the maternal experience.

The annual “Edgy Moms” reading at Park Slope’s Old Stone House on Thursday night will feature writers regaling the audience with “funny, poignant, shocking” and “very, very frank” stories about motherhood, organizer Louise Crawford said.

Read more here.

Starting at 8PM with a choice between Orthodox, Traditional Egalitarian, Reform, and Meditation Services, the night will transition into a festive party and then to a host of creative classes going through the night culminating in a sunrise service at 5AM.

The night includes opportunities to learn with some of the best teachers, musicians, artists, and cooks in New York Jewish life.

Highlights include:

Jeremiah Lockwood – acclaimed musician and leader of the band Sway Machinery

Ron Lieber – New York Times Columnist who will join with Rabbi Shira Epstein to teach about money and ethics

Rabbi Jeff Salkin – Acclaimed author of Putting God On The Guest List: How To Reclaim The Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and The Gods Are Broken! The Hidden Legacy of Abraham

Jeff Yoskowitz – founder of the Gefilteria and appearing on the Forward 50 list who will teach a worship on pickling

David Deblinger – the co-founder of internationally renowned Labyrinth Theater Company and the Founder of Ensemble Force Inc.

For a full list of presenters go to:  www.cbebk.org/shavuot.

The night is sponsored by:

Altshul, Brooklyn Jews, Congregation Beth Elohim, Congregation Mount Sinai, Flatbush Jewish Center, Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Israelis in Brooklyn, Jewish Meditation Center of Brooklyn, Kolot Chayeinu, LABA, Locally Grown Shabbat, Mishkan Minyan, Moishe House, Park Slope Jewish Center, Prospect Heights Shul, Shir HaMaalot, and Union Temple

EDGY MOMS 2007

Susan Gregory Thomas, author of Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Mothers and Harms Children

Louise Crawford, aka Smartmom

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Sophia Romero author of Always Hiding

Mary Warren, blogger

Jennifer Block, author of Pushed

Judy Lichtblau, writer of short stories

Alison Lowenstein, author of City Baby Brooklyn

Michele Somerville Madigan, author of Wisegal and Black Irish

Tom Rayfiel, author of Parallel Play and Eve in the City

 EDGY MOMS 2008

Christen Clifford, playwright of Babylove

Amy Benfer, editor and staff writer at Salon, Paper and Metro

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of Wisegal and Black Irish

Louise Crawford, Smartmom

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Louise Sloan

Lenore Skenazy, author of Free Range Kids

 EDGY MOMS 2009

Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and Kiss Out

Beth Harpaz, author of 13 is the New 18 and other things my children taught me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother

Mary Morris, author of Revenge, Vanishing Animals, The Bus of Dreams, and The Lifeguard Stories

Jenny Offill, author of Last Things and editor of Money Changes Everything

Sophia Romero, blogger, The Shiksa from Manila and author of Always Hiding

Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West and Motherland

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of WISEGAL and Black Irish

Diana Son, playwright of Stop Kiss and Satellites

 EDGY MOMS 2010

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Michele Madigan Somerville, author of WISEGAL and Black Irish

Wendy Ponte, journalist

Marian Fontana, author of Widow’s Walk

Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of A Wedding in Great Neck

Martha Southgate, author of The Taste of Salt, Third Girl from the Left

Allison Pennell, blogger

Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway

Rosemary Moore, playwright of Side Street, The Pain of Pink Evenings

 EDGY MOMS 2011

Paola Corso, author of Catina’s Haircut

Jennifer Hayden author and illustrator of Underwire

Nancy McDermott, blogger, The Brown House

Judy Anteil, blogger,

Barbara Ensor, author of Cinderella (as if you didn’t already know the story) and Thumbalina

 EDGY MOMS 2012

Elizabeth Laura Nelson, blogger, Midnight Cowgirls

Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, children’s book author

Nicole Callihan, poet

Karen Ritter, novelist and essayist

Jezra Kaye, author of Crooked Heart

Andrea Bernstein, WNYC radio journalist

 EDGY MOMS 2013

Lori Toppel, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Vicki Addesso, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Susan Hodara, memoirist, Still Here Thinking of You

Chris Nelson, playwright

Nicole Callihan, poet

Sophia Romero, author of Always Hiding, The Shiksa from Manila

Cathy Gigante Brown, author of The El

Karen Ritter, novelist and essayist

Started in 2007, Edgy Moms is an annual reading of funny, poignant, shocking, and fresh writing about mothers and motherhood at The Old Stone House in Park Slope (presented by Brooklyn Reading Works). This year it’s on May 9 at 8PM. The Edgy Moms Manifesto, which I wrote, is read at the beginning of  each year’s event:

Manifesto:

Seven years ago I created Edgy Mother’s Day. I had sort of a vague sense of what that meant but it’s always been hard to articulate when people ask for, y’know, the quick elevator speech.

So what is an Edgy Mom?

She’s feisty and fun and a little bit zany. She whines to her friends and can be a bit of a martyr. She fantasizes about taking long trips without her children,

And getting a room of her own on Block Island with a computer and a view of the sea.

She lets her kids have dessert before dinner,

Reheated pizza for breakfast.

And NEVER remembers to bring Cheeros in a little Tupperware container to the playground

Except when she does and then she feels VICTORIOUS!

Her kids have seen her fight, yell at her mother and curse her sister on the phone.

They’ve watched her cry.

She’s been know to throw away her children’s old toys and art supplies when they’re not around,

And then pretend she doesn’t know where they are when they ask.

But she can’t let go of their artwork, even that sharp pointy wood sculpture her son made at the Children’s House back in 1993.

She loves when they sleep over at a friend house because the apartment is so quiet, so serene and so  terribly lonely.

She looks forward to her late afternoon glass of wine

And lets her kids miss school when she feels like sleeping in.

For years she didn’t own a First Aid Kit or keep children’s Motrin in her bag.

Sometimes she takes a bath when she should be making dinner.

Or reads The New Yorker when she’s supposed to be helping with homework.

She watches shows like Gossip Girl and discusses Blair, Serena, Chuck and Dan with her 15 year old daughter

Even if the show isn’t appropriate for 15 years olds.

She’s not sure what is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Sometimes she feels like the most boring person on earth.

Like someone’s mother and that’s all.

But who could ask for anything more on a good day.

She tries not to tell “my kids are so amazing” stories

Or say to new moms enjoy it, they’re gonna grow up fast

Even if it’s true

She hates to sound like an old fart, an elderstatesmom or a know-it-all.

Even if she is

Or say:  Do you mind if I brag?

Even though there is SO much to brag about.

Do you mind if I brag?

She’s made a lot of mistakes, some she would never ever admit.

To anyone.

She’s afraid she’s ruined her kids somehow. That everything is her fault. If only she’d followed those expert books

Or even read them

And didn’t let her kids get away with murder.

She hates to watch them puke or be in pain or feel sad when they’ve had their feelings hurt. She wants to kill anyone who hurts her child

Sometimes she even wants to kill her child. But just for a teeny tiny fleeting second

On a good day

She tries to make eye contact when they have a very long story to tell (even when there’s so much else she needs and wants to do).

And now that they’re teenagers she practically GROVELS for their attention, for those long stories she used to tire of.

She’s learned that if they hate you, you’ve done your job well and that perhaps the most important thing is to learn to let go.

She  loves her kids with a passion that makes her ache, moan, yell and scream, and feel all  gooey inside.

Oh Patron Saintesses of Edgy Moms: Lucille Ball, Erma Bombeck, Sylvia Plath, Jodie Foster, Josephine Baker, Alice Walker, Melissa Etheridge, Elastagirl, Lisa Belkin, Smartmom, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Eartha Kitt, Morticia Addams, Toni Morrison, Lenore Skenazy, Tina Fey, Shirley MaClaine (in Terms of Endearment), Maya Angelou, Ayalet Waldman, Nina Simone, Cher in Mask, Cher in real life, Josephine Baker, Susan Sarandon, Liv Ullman, Marge Simpson, Claire Dunphy in Modern Family and so many more

Bless this Edgy Mother’s Days and bless tonight’s readers and writers. Edgy moms all: they are gonna sock you and shock you and make you laugh and make you cry and make you  look at motherhood in a whole mother way.

Join us at the Old Stone House in Park Slope (of course) on Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 8PM (336 Third Street between Fourth and Fifth Avenues). F train to Fourth Avenue, R train to Union Street. Sponsored by Babeland and Magdalena Pure. A donation of $5 includes refreshments, wine, goody bags from Babeland and an evening of  writing by women with sharp pens and sharper wits.

The idea was that each candidate, one at a time, would get their fifteen minutes or so to answer questions, some of which were submitted previously by members of the audience.

A fairly simple idea. But politics is always a circus, isn’t it? Apparently there were two other mayoral forums going on elsewhere in the city and the candidates were shuttling from one to the next.

Up first was City Comptroller (and former City Council Member) John Liu. Fresh on the heels of a conviction by a federal jury of two of his campaign staff on campaign-finance fraud charges, he came across as smart, direct, well-informed and a little defensive.

“I will defend Jenny Hu until the day I die ,” he said referring to the 26-year old staff member. He called the investigation into his campaign “basically a witch hunt.”

I couldn’t help but think he was making the old “I am not a crook” mistake. Let it go, Liu. Let it go and move on.

The Park Slope audience was pleased by his dis of the Barclays Center and disdained the developer’s use of eminent domain and the promise of affordable housing. “We got a stadium and jobs for popcorn vendors,” he told the crowd. “What else have we gotten but promises that were never met?”

He proposed ending all subsidies given to corporations for development,  including tax abatements. “We can develop without tax payer’s money if we’re getting little in return,” he said and many in the audience applauded.

In a moment of levity, he asked that the audience not hold it against him that he’s from Queens. Asked what he didn’t like about Bloomberg he said, “NYC is too much of a Nanny state,” citing the proposed restrictions on beverage drink sizes.

Asked about the Prospect Park Bike Lane, he said there was was “a paucity of outreach” and that many of the bike lanes around the city were eroniously set up as pilot programs that circumvent the community process. (In fact, the Prospect Park Bike Lane was supported by the Community Board process.)

Next up was William Thompson, who was the Democratic candidate in the last election against Mayor Bloomberg. He was also NYC City Comptroller for eight years and the head of the Department of Education for five years. Born in Brooklyn, Thompson has lived in Park Slope and Prospect Heights.

A career politician, he presents with a lot of grace and well-formed answers. While he supported the Barclays Center when it was, he says, the Atlantic Yards Project, he is disappointed that the affordable housing and jobs were a no-show. “When you enter into a agreement with the city, you owe us money if you don’t live up to your promises.”

He cited Battery Park City as a sucessful development because multiple developers were involved and it evolved over time. “It’s probably one of the greenest parts of the city now.”

A proponent of mayoral control of the public schools, he beleves that the Bloomberg administration has closed too many schools “and that should be a last resort. Bring back music, art, and physical education to the schools. Bring value back to local  high schools,” he said. The crowd applauded loudly.

His pitch for his 2013 campaign: “New York is at a crossroads and we need a mayor who cares about all five boroughs,  job creation and affordable housing.”

George McDonald, a garment industry executive is the founder and President of The Doe Fund, an organization that provides paid work opportunities to individuals as a way to transform their lives for the better. His interview reminded me of what’s fun about these early mayoral forums when anyone can throw their hat into the ring.

Indeed, he provided the requisite cringe moments and comic relief.

McDonald, who portrays himself as “a very honest guy,” was unprepared and the opposite of slick. While his Doe Fund is a very successful $50 million non-profit that serves 1,000 individuals each day, he comes across as a concerned citizen with some good—and bad—ideas.

In other words, he’s no politician, not a good interview, and can’t seem to sum up what it is that he would do for the city. It’s more like some guy you might argue with over dinner. Asked if as mayor he would have instituted bike lanes all over the city he answered, “But I’m not the mayor.”

That got a big laugh.

“I know it says in the Politicians Handbook that you should tell everybody yes. But I don’t believe in promising things   you can’t deliver.”

After McDonald there was a lull in the program because there were no more mayoral aspirants in the synagogue. The head of the Park Slope Civic Council made a speech and one of Park Slope’s  City Council Members Brad Lander took his seat at Bernstein’s blue table and talked about the positive traffic changes on Fourth Avenue. He was just biding his time until another candidate made an appearance.

There was excitement when Sal Albanese and his entourage entered the synagogue. But I had to leave and my report on the other candidates is based on the opinions of two friends who were there. A New York City public school teacher for eleven years and a four-term City Council member, Albanese won one friend over by  saying that he wants to get people out of their cars as much as possible.  In 1997, he ran for Mayor and has been working in the private sector ever since.

Christine Quinn followed Albanese. Another friend said she was strong, loud and talked non-stop. The  friend who liked Albanese thought Quinn came across okay. But she didn’t like that Bernstein asked her about her reputation for being mean. “Personality traits didn’t come up in any of the questions to the men,” she emailed me. Park Slope Patch reports that Quinn “basically steamrolled Bernstein.”

Everyone wanted to hear Park Slope’s old City Council Member Bill Di Blasio but he was late, and few were left to hear what he had to say.