The Atlantic Yards lawsuit was dismissed yesterday. Check out Atlantic Yards Report and No Land Grab for the gory details. Here’s an excerpt from AYR.

In an emphatic yet potentially questionable decision, U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. GaraufisGoldstein v. Pataki,
the federal lawsuit challenging eminent domain that Atlantic Yards
opponents have considered their best hope for stopping the project.

In his decision,
Garaufis ruled that even if public benefits—including new tax revenues,
housing, jobs, and the elimination of blight—are less than promised,
they’re sufficient to overcome allegations that the project is a
sweetheart deal benefiting developer Forest City Ratner.

“Because
Plaintiffs concede that the Project will create large quantities of
housing and office space, as well as a sports arena, in an area that is
mostly blighted, Plaintiffs’ allegations, if proven, would not permit a
reasonable juror to conclude that the ‘sole purpose’ of the Project is
to confer a private benefit,” Garaufis wrote. “Neither would those
allegations permit a reasonable juror to conclude that the purposes
offered in support of the Project are ‘mere pretexts’ for an actual
purpose to confer a private benefit on FCRC.”

Despite the
setback, the plaintiffs, 13 owners and renters whose properties lie in
the southern segment of the 22-acre footprint, outside the longstanding
Atlantic Terminal Renewal Area (ATURA) that encompasses the Vanderbilt Yard, vowed to appeal.

yesterday dismissed

Hepcat and I were saddened to learn that the owner of Seventh Avenue Books in Park Slope is selling the business. We went in and talked to Tom Simon about his very personal reasons for doing so. He plans to run a small reviewer copy book business from his home.

Afterwards, Hepcat and I had some fun thinking about buying the shop. We decided that we’d have a nice section for collectable photography books, and maybe even a photo exhibition space. We’d enlist my mother, who used to run the bookstore at the International Center of Photograpy. She could manage the shop, as she knows all the ins and outs of selling books. For inventory, we could begin with my father’s enormous collection of used books…

The shop is, according to Tom, PRICED TO SELL. I don’t know any more of the details but if you’re interested email Tom: seventhavenuebooks@aol.com

well…

after a very pleasant six years, i have decided, due to family and other issues important to me, to move on, and wish to sell this store, which makes a rather nice profit.

should you or others care to acquire it for a very reasonable price, please let me know.

however…

if i am not able to find a buyer, i plan to close down shop sometime mid to late summer.

yours truly,

thomas george simon, prop.

One of the things that breaks Tom Simon’s heart about the book business, and it’s endemic to most retail businesses, is shoplifting. For fun, Tom, who is the owner of Seventh Avenue books in Park Slope, decided to write A GUIDE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO STEAL OUR BOOKS. It’s funny, it’s sad. But most of all, it’s exasperating.

A guide for those of you
who steal our books…

1a) You don’t so much take our books as you rob
us of our peace of mind. Think about how unfair
it is to take something so valuable from us, day
in, day out.

1b) You know you’re dishonest, and yeah, a thief,
so should you ever while among family or friends
find fault with Bush or Cheney or some other
scoundrel, the cosmos will likely quietly snicker
at your obliviousness.

2) If you have to take something, try to make it an
older, less expensive book. Our markdown area
is a good place to start. If you don’t know where
that, is just ask.

4a) If you take something really neat, try to leave a
note behind so we’ll know it’s gone and won’t
waste time if someone asks us for it.

4b) Take the Michener rather than the Proust. Not
that there’s anything wrong with Michener….

5) While taking books, please try not to enjoy the
music we play, or the cartoons. That would be
gluttony.

6) Recent studies at both Stanford and Yale have
confirmed that shoplifting leads to premature
incontinence, often as early as the mid-thirties,
and Depends are too bulky to conceal in a canvas
bag or under your shirt.

7) Best wishes to you and yours; reciprocation
gratefully accepted.

St. Francis Xavier’s Action Youth Center a non-sectarian community based program in Park Slope, Brooklyn dedicated to supporting the positive growth and development of children and youth seeks a Program Director to manage the effective delivery of programs. Responsible for daily operations, fiscal oversight, fundraising and staff supervision the ideal candidate will have a deep commitment to and interest in supporting children, youth and their families. Candidates should have a Bachelors Degree and preferably a Masters Degree in some form of Human Services or a related field. Experience developing and implementing programs in a youth serving organization desired. Full time position/ part-time will be considered for the right candidate. Please send your resume/cover letter to SFXYP Search, Community Resource Exchange, 42 Broadway, NY, NY 10004. Fax: 212-616-4994. E-mail: sfxypsearch@crenyc.org.

Ben Greenman, a writer and editor at The New Yorker, sent me this nice note today. He’s reading at Community Bookstore tomorrow and he wants to get the word out to readers of OTBKB. In other words: come see him read at 7 pm.

And here’s the clincher: he’s giving away FREE BALLOONS. That’s right, you’d heard me. FREE BALLOONS.

“I’m a local author and a regular reader of your blog. I have a reading tomorrow night at Community
Bookstore. Should be funny, or sad, depending on what I read. It would be great if you could list it, but even if you can’t, you should come. Bring people. I’ll keep the actual reading part short.”

Here’s a blurb about the book:

From the author of Superbad and Superworse, a new collection of stories about giving, wanting, and the wonders of love.

A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both is a collection of stories about love, the most elusive and problematic of all phenomena. With a mix of traditional, literary prose and bold — some might even say irresponsible — experimentation, Ben Greenman explores the ins and outs of modern romance. Expect tears, nudity, and recrimination.

Both familiar in their humanness and wholly original, these imaginative stories take us all over the map in time, place, and circumstance. From the halfhearted summer affair between a part-time bartender and a married doctor in a Miami hotel to the cryptic pseudo-erotic love letters to a friend who is “more than a friend,” we experience the love of pop songs, the love of cohabitation in Chicago, and love that is so transporting it takes us to the moon—literally.

Here’s a blurb about the author:

Ben Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker. His short fiction has appeared in the Paris Review, Zoetrope: All Story, McSweeney’s, Opium Magazine, the Mississippi Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn.”

Just got this in the old in-box.

Washington, DC—U.S. Representative Yvette D. Clarke (NY-11) has signed on to the House Resolution 333, calling for impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President for high crimes and misdemeanors. The resolution sets forth the articles of impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney that if passed, will begin the process for impeachment.
“This Administration has continued to erode the trust of the American people and enough is simply enough,” stated Rep. Clarke.
H.Res. 333 was introduced to the House of Representatives by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio on April 24, 2007, and asserts that the vice president manipulated intelligence to make the case for going to war with Iraq, falsified a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and has threatened aggression against Iran.
“When the American people voted on November 7th, they asked for a change in direction by electing the Democratic party in the House and Senate. I have heard the loud cries of my constituents, and they want accountability. My support of HRes 333 reflects the voices of the residents of central Brooklyn.”

THIS FRIDAY NIGHT AT BARNES & NOBLE

Come hear PS 321’s kids read their own poetry or a favorite poem by a favorite poet. Buy books and support PS 321.

From 5:30 – 6:30 P.M, the first ever P.S. 321 Open Mike Night at Barnes and Noble (downstairs by the cookbooks).

There will be a real M.C., chairs for an audience, and a MICROPHONE. There will be summer reading book lists available. Bring a voucher for 10% off your purchases Friday, Saturday and Sunday (June 8, 9, 10). Vouchers will be handed out at Brooklyn Night tonight and they are available in the Parent Center. Sign up to read at the open mike hour in the Parent Center, or just show up! A percentage of net sales for these three days will be donated to the P.S. 321 P.T.A.

The Brooklyn Eagle reports:

As one potential residential development site in Park Slope changes
hands, another goes on the market. This one, a 5,464-square-foot vacant
lot at 225 Fourth Ave., between Union and President streets, has an
asking price of $7.6 million, according to Ken Freeman of Massey Knakal
Realty Services of Brooklyn, who is representing the seller.

“The owner has decided he doesn’t want to build on the lot himself,
which is why he is selling it,” said Freeman, who added that there are
tentative plans drawn up for the seller for a 12-story building
designed by Joseph P. Trivisonno, a Staten Island architect.

Barbara Ensor, director of the The Little School of Moving Pictures, is offering August workshops for kids: CLAY ANIMATION CLASSES FOR AGES 6 – 16.

Historically, there’s not much for kids to do in August in Park Slope. Barbara Ensor is here to remedy that situation in her wonderfully animated, wildly creative and utterly inspiring way!!

It’s a win win for you kids who get to make MOVIES at the Old Stone House. Find out more: littleschoolofmovingpictures.com

Club Loco, Old First Church’s monthly music night will continue next year. And that’s good news for Park Slope.

The whole thing has been great experience for the kids who volunteered and/or attended events. The organizers (a committed group of teenagers and adults) met for a meeting the other night to strategize how to get the word out for next year and how to make the shows even better.

In a phrase: OPEN MIC.

Next year’s music shows will be preceded by an open mic for all kinds of acts — poets, jugglers, singer/songwriters, dancers, actors. There will be a sign up and a 10 minute time limit. The rest is up to the talented kids…

There’s also going to be a Club Loco benefit in September. Look for a Club Loco table at Seventh Heaven on July 17th for information about events and getting involved.

Also at Seventh Heaven: Club Loco will present bands who’ve performed at CL, including Cool and Unusual, Banzai, Play, and Tola. It’s all in front of Old First. On the 17th. All day. So stop by.

Owners of the Cocoa Bar are trying their sucessful dessert/cafe formula—chocolate, chocolate, andm ore chocolate—on the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

They’ve opened their second store on Clinton Street. Anyone been there?

Someone over at Starbucks must have located the radio station or found the CD. Because at 8 p.m. they were playing Paul.

I’m not sure what time they started. The store was required to play Paul’s new album, Memory Almost Full, all day. But in the morning, they weren’t doing it.

In other Paul news, the New Yorker has a profile of Paul.

An OTBKB reader wrote to be about the Brooklyn Food Group, a roving supper club that launched earlier this year. Their next event is June 9th and there are still a couple of seats left. Here’s here note:

I’ve been an OTBKB reader since I moved to the borough just over a year ago — I especially liked reading about your experiences in the last week with the Extremely Cute Kitty. In fact, my boyfriend and I were inspired to get our own cat from the Animal Rescue Network!  (Maybe it’s the same one?)
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know about the Brooklyn Food Group, a roving supper club that launched earlier this year (I’m in charge of logistics). Our next big event is coming up this weekend (June 9) and we still have a couple of seats left, which can be reserved by visiting our website, brooklynfoodgroup.blogspot.com. We are a down-to-earth crew serving delicious food (ingredients purchased as much as possible at local greenmarkets) and we work hard to ensure our events are a blast for all who come to them.
This next event is going to be in Cobble Hill and costs $40.  I thought your readers might be interested as I think OTBKB and the BFG appeal to the same kind of people: unpretentious folks who love to enjoy fine things, and to enjoy them with their neighbors. We’re also looking for people who’d be willing to host BFG events in the future, but right now we’re mostly looking forward to Saturday night and hope a few more interesting people who like good food will choose to join us. 

If you’re into Paul, you may want to stop into the Seventh Avenue Starbucks. But if you’re not a fan: AVOID STARBUCKS AT ALL COSTS.
They’ll be playing his new CD, Memory Almost Full, out on Starbuck’s Hear Music label, all DAY long.

UPDATE: As of 10 am this morning, the crew at Starbucks was unable to find the song on their corporate radio station. A barista there said they tried and tried. They were also supposed to get a CD of one song they were supposed to play over and over. Maybe this guy was misinformed because that sounds like such a lousy idea. The same song, all day? He said they couldn’t find that either.

Lord have mercy.

I’ll stop in there around 4 pm to see what’s playing.

Ten million gallons of toxic gunk is trapped in the Brooklyn aquifer says reporter, Daphine Eviatar, in this week’s New York Magazine.

On a foggy October day in 2002, Basil Seggos first saw the sheen on the surface of the water. He and his colleagues had launched an old wooden-hulled oyster boat from the Dyckman marina in Inwood, and headed south, down the Harlem and East rivers. They were on a mission to document fishing and crabbing spots on the riverfront so that local anglers could be warned not to eat their catch.

When Seggos’s boat reached the mouth of Newtown Creek, the finger of water that separates Brooklyn from Queens, they decided to sail into the creek to check out its unnatural landscape—miles of waste-processing plants, gasoline-storage facilities, and abandoned refineries. The boat passed floating auto parts, crumbling bulkheads, and rusting pipes spewing filthy-looking water. Then, about a mile in, Seggos saw it: oil coating the surface of the water from shore to shore and extending upstream for another half-mile or so. “It was everywhere, all over the shoreline.” Officially, Seggos was running an outreach program for Riverkeeper, RFK Jr.’s environmental organization, and the organization’s protocol in situations like these is to stop and call the state Department of Environmental Conservation hotline. The call is supposed to provoke an immediate reaction, but no one showed up. The next day, Seggos called again. “We’d never even heard of a spill there before,” says Seggos. “But they told me they already had an open case on it and they were handling it.”

What Seggos discovered—or rediscovered—wasn’t an oil spill, exactly. Rather, it was a mix of gasoline, solvents, and associated poisons bubbling up from the very ground: a thin dribble that betrays the presence of a supertanker’s worth of the stuff submerged in the age-old geology of Greenpoint. It’s actually more than a century’s worth of spills, leaks, and waste dumped by oil companies that has pooled into a vast underground lake, more than 55 acres wide and up to 25 feet thick. First discovered by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1978, the Greenpoint spill has been estimated at anywhere between 17 million and 30 million gallons—three times more oil than the Exxon Valdez spill. That makes it the largest known oil spill in American history

.

Read more at New York Magazine

Seeing Green walked the walk at the Atlantic Yards Footprint and came back with this report.

Much as I have seen the footprint, checked out out the written word and examined the photographs of this much-discussed project, there’s nothing like walking the walk to bring home the reality of this monster development and its attendant inequities. A picture may be worth a thousand words; this walk was worth at least several dozen pictures.

I think if only more people were to familiarize themselves with some on-ground knowledge, there surely would be more opposition to this project.

Read more at Seeing Green

The New York Times’ reports that New York Senator and Park Slope resident, Charles Schumer, wants to create national energy-saving standards and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

“Senator Charles E. Schumer said yesterday that he was introducing a measure that would require cities and states to increase energy efficiency in new buildings by 30 percent in the next five years and by 50 percent before 2022. Under the measure, to be introduced next week as an amendment to the Senate energy bill, cities and states would face penalties unless they adopted a standard nationwide code or their own codes requiring energy-efficient systems and designs. Cities that met the standards would be exempt from the penalties even if their states failed to do so, Mr. Schumer said. The amendment, he said, is meant to bring the country in line with the standards in California and New York City, which recently overhauled its building code to require so-called green-building practices.”

You won’t want to miss the following events in June: For more info: Louise_crawford@yahoo.com

June 11: 10th Anniversary Reading of 808 Union Writing Group, which may be the longest running writer’s group in Park Slope with Marian Fontana, Louise Crawford, Wendy Ponte, Rosemary Moore, Mary Crowley, Barbara Ensor and Kevin McPartland at the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

June 16: Southside Stories by Louis Rosen performed by Capathia Jenkins and Louis Rosen. Also, songs on Nikki Giovanni poems at The Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

June 21: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Writers Who Write While Sleeping. Poets Michael Ruby and Nancy Graham do this and much more. You won’t want to miss this show, which will be anything but sleepy. the Old Stone House on Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.

June 23: Stoopendous, a Celebration of the Summer Solstice on the streets and sidewalks of Park Slope. For information and how to do it: stoopendous.org.

June 24: First Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow at Vox Pop in Ditmas Park. http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/2007/05/event-june-24-brooklyn-blogade-roadshow.html

My friend, Karen Zukowski, sent me this missive about a not-to-be-missed benefit for DDDB.  Fun Fact: her book, Creating the Artful Home: The Aesthetic Movement, is the party favor. Unfortunately it’s at the same time as the First Blogade Roadshow at Vox Pop. Hmmmm.

Don’t miss Develop Don’t Destroy
Brooklyn’s benefit on June 24.   It is being held on June 24, 3-6 pm at
the home of Clem Labine, a famous Brooklyn brownstoner.  This benefit
is being called the "It’s not a Done Deal" benefit, because the legal
case DDB to making against Forest City Ratner Companies may prove that
the Atlantic Yards megaproject is NOT a done deal.   The afternoon’s
events including hanging out in Clem’s house and garden, meeting
preservation pioneers like Everett Ortner and current preservationists
hard at work with DDDB, and meeting Karen Zukowski, who wrote Creating the Artful Home: The Aesthetic Movement,
which describes Victorian houses.  (The book is a party favor).
Tickets are $60 ($75 at the door). Because it’s a private home, space
is limited and pre-registration is strongly advised.  To attend, call
718-636-819.   

The newish Diana Kane shop on Seventh Avenue is a beautiful variation on her Fifth Avenue store. But with a big difference: instead of lingerie there’s clothing and lots of it. And the selection is beautiful. Lovely fabrics, prints, styles. I’d call it delicate, Boho and feminine. And she’s got sizes — Small, medium, and large.

Enuf of those hipster stores that only have tiny sizes.

Dianna Kane also has her original jewelry, great bags, towels, clogs, candles, and her signature lingerie (of course).

Location: Seventh Avenue on the corner of Berkeley Place in Park Place. The space that used to house Kiwi.

The Second Street Cafe, a popular restaurant in Park Slope, has a brand new look. After ten years, they closed for a month and really went to town. And everything inside, including the layout, the kitchen, the floor, the furniture, the bar is NEW!!

The result: a decidedly more upscale look. And it looks roomier. More elegant and quite lovely.

The menu is the same but the entrance is now on Second Street, not Seventh Avenue (yes, the Second Street Cafe…).

A huge, beautiful vase of flowers caught my eye.

I haven’t eaten there yet but plan to soon. Mazel Tov to the owners. One of them told me he’s just thrilled.
“Everything is brand new,” he said. He also said that everything is in but the art work.

That reminds me:

OSFO and I were wondering what they did with all the paper tablecloth art? Are they going to incorporate it in some way into the new place — maybe framed versions of some of them? Or were they destroyed. I can’t imagine how they would have saved the ceiling art.

Did they?

1010 Wins reports that Tropical Rainstorm Barry is moving up the East Coast Monday morning and delivering a ton of rain to the New York City region. Watch for flooded roadways

Get your tix for a great show at The Old Stone House.

Last year it was songs based on Maya Angelou. This year, Louis and Capathia will perform Rosen’s song cycle about growing up on the South Side of Chicago during the 1970’s when the neighborhood was experiencing upheaval. This piece deals with love, family, religion and race. And it is AWESOME (I’ve heard it twice at Joe’s Pub and I own the album). Here’s a note from Louis about the show.

DEAR BROOKLYN FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS:

I wanted to let you know that my splendid collaborator, Capathia Jenkins (a 2007 Drama Desk Award nominee), and I are scheduled to perform our second benefit concert on behalf of The Old Stone House on Saturday night, June 16th. The proceeds will go to supporting The Old Stone House’s rapidly growing arts programming, including this summer’s Piper Theatre at OSH’s production of Macbeth, Brooklyn Film Works and the excellent Brooklyn Reading Works.

The performance will mark the Brooklyn concert premiere of the songs from our recently released and highly acclaimed debut recording, South Side Stories, songs of youth, coming of age and experience, inspired by the Chicago neighborhood where I grew up. We’ll also be offering a “sneak preview” of a excerpts from my newest work for Capathia, Giovanni Songs, on words by the renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. Capathia and I will be joined by two splendid musicians, the pianist Kimberly Grigsby, and Dave Phillips on acoustic and electric bass.

The evening is being billed as a “Champagne Cabaret,” which means champagne and dessert will be served at 8 pm, and the concert will begin at 8:30. Last year’s benefit sold out—the room only holds 90 people—so we hope that you make the scene.

The Old Stone House is at J. J. Byrne Park at 3rd Street and 5th Avenue.
Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door.
Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.nycharities.org, or you can RSVP by calling 718 768 3915.