Monthly Archives: September 2007

Postcard from the Slope

GERSH TAKES ON THE BROOKLYNIAN: YAY

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According to the Brooklyn Paper, things have gotten realy REALLY NASTY on the Brooklynian, a Park Slope community blog and message board. Discussions of the new Seventh Avenue eatery, Elementi, hit new lows (and that’s pretty low) when blog-posters began trashing the restaurant even before it opened. They were just pissed that Snooky’s went out of business and decided to take it out on the people who were opening Elementi.

It’s totally legitimate to be angry when a beloved local institution goes out of business. It’s even legitimate for people to share their pain and loss on the Internet

But is it right to condemn the incoming restaurant even before it opens? Did people on the Brooklyniam message board go beyond the beyond?

Probably. But that’s the nature of message boards.

Gersh Kuntzman, editor of the Brooklyn Paper, looked into the situation and even had dinner at the restaurant, which he enjoyed immensely. But that wasn’t the point. He just wondered if it was fair to take out the closing of Snooky’s on the new owners of Elementi.

I for one avoid the Brooklynian and think of it as a very toxic blog. Snarky and mean spirited, the Brooklynian is not where I want to spend my reading time. But hey, that’s just me.

Full disclosure: People on the Brooklynian love to trash Smartmom. Thick skin. Thick skin. I try not to take this kind of stuff too seriously. But this kind of thing can really ruin a restuarant.

Here’s an excerpt from Gersh’s article.

I asked one of the moderators of the Brooklynian message board
whether it was considered fine by Web standards to slam an eatery
before anyone has actually eaten there, but he wouldn’t really answer.
“That’s kind of like asking the Internet what it thinks about the stuff
that gets posted on it,” he said.

That wasn’t enough for me, so I contacted Caseopele myself. She seemed proud of her handiwork.

“I
have a bit of a problem with people who push older businesses out only
to open another cookie-cutter business in its place,” she wrote via
e-mail.

I reminded her that no one “pushed” Snooky’s out — that
it merely closed for lack of business — but she responded that the
Rutledges “turned a perfectly good restaurant into what they thought
Park Slope needed. They think they know what the neighborhood wants but
they never ask.”

But that that’s what business people do: look
around, make their judgment and let the market — not anonymous yahoos
on Yahoo! — make its ruling (just as the market did to Snooky’s).

And
then I did something that Caseopele never did: I ate at Elementi. Full
disclosure? It was a kick-ass meal, from the pappardelle with oxtail to
the skirt steak.

So as far as I’m concerned, the issue is
settled. Now, can we all get back to using Web forums for important
discussions, like the gender of a toddler’s winter hat?

Postcard from the Slope

ONE LESS STEP IN THE MUTLI-STEP PROCESS OF SHOPPING AT THE FOOD COOP

I am still buzzing from yesterday’s news about debit machines at the Food Coop. The big change is happening on October 1. There will be no shopping at the Coop that day.  God willing, the Coop will reopen at 8 am the next morning ready to take your DEBIT CARD.

There’s been talk about debit machines for years. YEARS. Granted, you can write checks to the Coop — but they don’t make that easy. You have to set up an account and keep a small deposit at the Coop so that you have enough to cover the check…

I don’t know anyone who does this. I am sure that people do. But it feels like one more thing…

I would say that the cash-only policy is one of the things that keeps me from shopping at the Coop even when I want to. Some days I walk by, think of going in but realize I only have 20 bucks.

There’s nothing worse than shopping and discovering at check-out that I am short five, ten dollars. Then I have to leave my cart in the front and walk over to the Citibank or even the Bank of America on the corner of Union and 7th Avenue get cash and come back.

It’s not that big a deal but actually it is. I usually spend about 60 bucks when I go there but sometimes I get carried away and it hits 100 or more. I hate it when I am short just a couple of dollars.

Argh.

For those who don’t know, Food Coop Shopping is a multi-step process. It may be laborious but it is not entirely without its pleasures. Here is Coop Shopping 101:

1. Make sure you have enough cash. If not: get the cash.

2. Show your membership card to the person at the door. This process IS computerized, mind you. If you left your card home, you can just give the person your number. If you  don’t know the number, you can get it from someone in the office upstairs.  Tired yet? 

3. SHOP. This is the best part. The selection is fantastic and the food and produce is exceedingly fresh. During shopping you may run into someone you know which can also add to the fun.

4. Wait on the regular or the express line for check-out. Shopping on weekday mornings and afternoons is best. I avoid the Coop on evenings and weekends due to the long check-out lines.

5. Check out and gab with the check-out person about what you are buying (You may even get recipe tips). Don’t forget to have your Food Coop card or number handy: you always have to show it to the check-out person. Bag or box your groceries.

6. Wait on line to pay one of the cashiers.

7. Hand your cash over to the cashier. Wait for your receipts.

8. Show your receipts to the Exit person at the door.

9. Walk or car service home OR find an orange vested escort and take the shopping cart with you. The escort may be an Israeli draft evader, a musician who plays with Odetta, a personal coach, or a  performance artist from Berlin.

The walk is always interesting.  The escort can’t push the cart but he/she will take it back to the Coop.

Civics and Urban Life

WHY DO I FOOD COOP?

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Because I love it that’s why. It’s one of my favorite things about living in Park Slope. It’s hard to explain but I’ll try.

My work shift:  The best part: I can listen to Brian Lehrer and Lenny Lopate on the radio while I work.

I love when it’s done. I have to add everything up and it all feels very complete. A task well-done.

Shopping: I love the selection of food and the sense that I am buying products that are better for me and my family at a decent price. The produce is GORGEOUS and such fun to select. The selection inspires me to try new things. I love the linens they sell there, the calendars, candles, and cards.

Check-out: I hate the lines BUT I enjoy conversing with the check-out person about what I’m buying and interesting ways of cooking, say, Bok Choi.

Caveat: Yesterday I worked my shift but ended up shopping at the dreaded Key Food.

Why? I needed to have the food delivered. I felt like a stupid idiot but I had to do it that way.

I got hardly any produce. And no items like Amy’s Pizza, which are twice the price at Key Food and Back to the Land.

Overall: To be part of the most successful member owned and operated Food Coop in the US is pretty cool. The very fact that it works as well as it does, that it is a well-oiled machine, is pretty exciting.

Civics and Urban Life

MAYNARD AND JENNICA: BIG BUZZ

Did you notice all the copies of Maynard and Jennica in the window of Community Books? Author Rudy Delson lives around here. He’s a Food Coop member (HEY RUDY, DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE DEBIT MACHINES AT THE COOP?) and a fabulous novelist, too.

I read the book last spring and LOVED it. A quick read, it’s smart, funny, insightful, deep and fun. Catherine at the Community Bookstore loved it, too. That’s why it’s spread across the front window over there (not far from Hepcat’s muggle photographs).

Rudy will be at Brooklyn Reading Works on September 20th at 8 p.m. It will be a festive reading and party at the Old Stone House that you won’t want to miss. This will be no ordinary reading. Friends and other writers will read selections from the book. There will be wine, food selected by Rudy, interesting people. Maybe even some balloons.

See you on the 20th. Maynard, Jennica and OTBKB together for the first time.

New York 1

THOUSANDS OF TAXI DRIVERS EXPECTED TO STRIKE

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This from New York 1:

Thousands of the city’s taxi drivers were expected to go on strike at 5 a.m. this morning, causing the city to implement a plan increasing taxi cab fares and encouraging group ridership.

Members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance have planned a 48-hour strike against the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s plan to place GPS tracking systems and credit card machines in their 13,000 cabs.

The city and the TLC say the technology will help passengers, but drivers are worried it will be used to monitor their whereabouts.

“Enough is enough,” said one cab driver. “We can’t take any more pressure. We don’t want any GPS.”

As part of the contingency plan, the city is encouraging group rides to and from LaGuardia and JFK airports, where people may be most affected by the strike. The city has also implemented new flat fares to those locations.

The following taxi fare changes were scheduled to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. unless the city deems the plan unnecessary:

Throughout the five boroughs, drivers will be required to pick up any additional passengers who are hailing them. All passengers will be subjected to the same zone charges.

Passengers will be charged $10 per person to take a cab within one zone. Passengers will be charged an additional $5 per each zone travelled through.

The zones are as follows:

Zone A – Manhattan – South of 23rd Street
Zone B – Manhattan – 23rd Street to 60th Street
Zone C – Manhattan – 60th Street to 96th Street
Zone D – Manhattan – North of 96th Street
Zone E – Brooklyn
Zone F – Bronx
Zone G – Queens
Zone H – Staten Island

Flat rate and zone charges include bridge and tunnel tolls.

These modified fares only apply to adults. Children under 12 years old traveling with adults are free.

Postcard from the Slope

SAD GREEN THUMB IN NORTH SLOPE

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An OTBKB reader wrote in to share this unpleasant news:

I returned home from a week’s vacation only to find that one of our potted shrubs outside our apartment building had been stolen. A 3 foot bush in a fairly large terracotta planter. Poof, gone. Nothing left but its own small dirt potprint. This petty theft has me feeling so down and morose. I mean, it takes a lot of effort to steal a 100 lb potted shrub!

A friend tells me that this kind of plant caper happens all the time…Have you heard anything about this? Can you enlighten me and also alert people to keep an eye out for a bargain-priced 3 foot burning bush in a glazed black terracotta pot.

STUFF AND THINGS

OPEN CALL FOR ACTORS IN SPIKE LEE FILM

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Petra over at Bed Stuy blog has the word. There’s an open call for actors to play soldiers in 1940s film Casting (NON-UNION OPEN CALL)

Winsome Sinclair & Associates will be casting FEATURED extra roles
for SPIKE LEE’s new feature length film, Miracle at St. Anna.

There will be an open call for talent held on Friday SEPTEMBER 7 2007 at 75 South Elliot Place, ground floor,  Fort Greene, 11am to 6pm.

Go here for details.

STUFF AND THINGS

BLUEGRASS JAM EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT AT SUNNY’S

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A woman I wave at on 3rd Street had a small stoop sale yesterday. She was putting out LPs like Fiddler on the Roof, Frank Sinatra and some others.

She told me that she’d been to a bluegrass jam the night before at Sunny’s bar in Red Hook. I asked her if she was a musician and she said no but that she does sing along. Sounds like fun and it’s every Saturday night, I guess.

Here’s the blurb from Sunny’s website:

Saturday Night Jam, the sign in the window says Bluegrass, well maybe Bluegrass isn’t quite right, accoustic is more like it. The Jam cover a whole lot more. Put a bunch of guitars, fiddles, a bass, throw in an accordion or two and some more strings (they now have a piano). You are bound to get some interesting and good music

STUFF AND THINGS

YUGOSLAVIAN CINEMA FROM THE 1960’s AT BAM

I’ve never seen WR Mysteries of the Organism but it sounds like one of those films every cineaste needs to see.  

Amos Vogel writes: One of the subversive masterpieces of the 1970s: a
hilarious, highly erotic political comedy which quite seriously
proposes sex as the ideological imperative for revolution.”—Amos Vogel.

There are going to be quite a few other movies, too. Here’s the blurb about the Yugoslavian festival at the BAM Cinematek.

Yugoslavian Black Wave
was one of the most anarchic and politically subversive of all 1960s
cinema movements, frequently running afoul of official Yugoslavian
government policy. Combining artistic, sexual, and ideological freedom
often with a sense of humor, the Black Wave reinvented existing notions
and standards of cinematic realism—mud, blood, tears, bleakness,
destruction of illusions—that for a brief moment produced some of the
most liberating cinema the world has ever seen. When re-introduced to
audiences, Karpo Godina and Zelimir Zilnik, among others, will
certainly join the beloved Dušan Makajevev with the status of great
masters.

New York 1

THOUSANDS OF TAXI DRIVERS THREATEN TO STRIKE

This from New York 1:

A group that represents cab drivers is calling a strike this week over the city’s plan to make taxis more high-tech.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which claims thousands of
members, is set to announce a two-day strike beginning 5 a.m.
Wednesday.

The drivers are protesting new technology approved by the Taxi and
Limousine Commission, including a GPS tracking system and a television
monitor in the backseat. A credit card reader will also be installed –
which would charge drivers a 5 percent fee for transactions.

Drivers NY1 spoke with appear to be split on the idea of a strike.

"Very few people use the credit card in response to the cash or
credit option. Most people do the cash anyway,” said one driver. “It’s
miniscule, the 5 percent.”

“I’m going on strike because I’m just aggravated with Taxi and
Limousine Commission about this GPS,” said another. “We don’t need that
and it’s not fair."

The TLC says the technology is fair and part of deal made in 2004 when drivers got a 26-percent fare increase.

The city is downplaying the strike threat, and another drivers’
group, the Federation of Taxi Drivers, says its members will remain
behind the wheel.

Community Bookstore

ON PUBLIC SPACE AND COMMUNAL LIVES

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A nice note from Catherine at the Community Bookstore.

Weeeellll . . . guess summer’s kind of getting to be over, so time
to get back to the . . . no no no — NOT the bloody grindstone, but . .
. the fun business of steering this old ship?  Eh, well, whatever.  And
there’s plenty of Indian Summer left, anyhow.
 
Those
of you who saw the City Section piece on the closing of Liberty House
on the Upper West Side (started by Abbie Hoffman and the like to help
finance the civil rights movement in Mississippi) may have been struck,
as I was, by what one patron said:  "It was really sad, because it is
one of the last places that had really expressed the values of the old
West Side, which have literally disappeared store by store."
(italics mine). 

Is it just me, or is it rising to the collective
conscious that "stores" not only define the character of a
neighborhood, but in some weird way serve as the public space in which
people play out a big chunk of the communal part of their lives? 

Or,
another funny anecdote which occurred to me . . . some years ago,
certain stores were asked to put yellow stickers in their windows,
which would indicate to children that if they were in trouble, they
could go into such a store and expect to receive help.  We had one.

What strikes me as funny, now, is the idea that you’d need a sticker —
this place is more often than not positively heaving under a mass of
children, all of whom don’t seem to have a doubt in their mind but that
the place is theirs — part of their home . . . as, indeed, it is. 

And
a last sweet one — today there was a woman wandering around in here,
taking it all in . . . "This place is amazing!"
she said — sort of barked it at me, as if maybe I didn’t know.  Then
she wandered around some more, and as if she couldn’t take it in
anymore, she came back and said again "It’s amazing . . . " and
then with a wail "I wish Manhattan had places like this."  Huh. 

   

Postcard from the Slope

HILLARY AND OBAMA GRAND MARSHALS AT WEST INDIAN PARADE

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Look who’s a grand marshal for the 40th annual West Indian American Day Parade. The parade is tomorrow.

The Grand Marshals for 2007 are:
 

Ms. Debra D. Carey – CEO, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
 
Ms. Joyce Quamina, former member, WIADCA
 
Ms. Jeanne Sadik-Kahn, Commissioner, NYC Dept of Transportation
 
Mr. Raymond W. Kelly, Commissioner-NY Police Department
 
Mr. Adrian Benepe, Commissioner, NY Parks & Recreation
 
Mr. John J. Doherty, Commissioner, NY Dept of Sanitation

Invited to be Honorary Grand Marshals are:
 
Hon. Eliot Spitzer, Governor, NY State
 
Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor, NY City
 
Hon. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US Senator
 
Hon. Charles B. Rangel, US Congressman
 
Hon. Barack Obama, US Senator
 
Hon. William Thompson, NYC Comptroller

Postcard from the Slope

VEGAN RESTAURANT DEAL DOESN’T GO THROUGH: BOOKSTORE OPEN ANOTHER FEW DAYS

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I got a call on Thursday from Tom Simon, owner of Seventh Avenue Books. Apparently the Vegan restaurant deal did not go through and his landlord told him that the bookstore can stay open through the weekend.

This is great news for bargain used book buyers. According to Tom, there’s an “astonishing” number of excellent books still in the store. “Customers keep bring good stuff to the register.”

Even better: every book in the store is $2 dollars. He is also selling the bookcases. He wants everyone to know that there is a HUGE FISH TANK in the store and he’d like to GIVE IT AWAY to the person or school that can take it away.

That’s right. A huge mansion for your fish. FREE. Just ask Tom Simon at Seventh Avenue Books. The store will stay open through Monday.

So no deal for the Vegan restaurant on Seventh Avenue and the bookstore, located on Seventh Avenue near 3rd Street, gets to stay open a few more days.

Postcard from the Slope

ISRAELI PEACE ACTIVIST AND KNESSET MEMBER TO SPEAK AT BETH ELOHIM

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Congregation Beth Elohim, a Reform Jewish Synagogue in Park Slope, Brooklyn, will present a discussion with Yossi Beilin–leader of the Israeli Meretz Party, Member of the Knesset and initiator of the Geneva Initiative, on Wednesday, September 19th at 8 pm. The talk is part of the Jewish learning series at the synagogue.

Beilin will speak on prospects for peace in the Middle East. This event is sponsored by Congregation Beth Elohim in collaboration with Americans for Peace Now, Meretz USA, and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, and is free of charge.

Congregation Beth Elohim is located at the corner of Garfield Place and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For directions or to find out more information, please visit our website, www.congregationbethelohim.org.

Other Bloggers

NEW LINKS AND WILD CARROTS ON DOPE ON THE SLOPE

I didn’t know Queen’s Anne’s Lace was wild carrot. DOTS has a pix of one as part of his continuing series on the Weeds of Brooklyn. He’s also got some new links to great Brooklyn blogs.

He took this pix near the Vanderbilt yards. Queen Anne’s Lace, the wild carrot, is one of the most familiar weeds in North America. An ancestor of the domestic carrot, this plant is a native of Europe which was introduced to this country by early European settlers.

Civics and Urban Life

BROOKLYN MERCANTILE COMES TO PARK SLOPE

There’s a new store on Fifth Avenue next door to Cocotte, the delightful and popular French restaurant, near 4th Street. It’s called Brooklyn Mercantile. OSFO and I looked in the front window the other night and it looked to me like it might be something along the lines of Cog and Pearl, beautiful items made from found, antique or recycled materials.

The shop, which seems to sell objects for the home, bags, jewelry, quilts, and other items, looks stylish and very attractive. Can’t wait to actually go in.

Brooklyn Mercantile is not replacing another shop. I believe it was a residential storefront prior to it’s new life as a Fifth Avenue shop.

Savvy, savvy Brooklyn Mercantile: I just found their website. So here’s the blurb and info:

Brooklyn Mercantile is located in the heart of Park Slope, Brooklyn.
A specialty home shop featuring home furnishings, vintage collectibles, fabric by the yard, beautiful ribbons, handmade papers and lots of ideas to spark the imagination.

Brooklyn Mercantile
335 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

718-788-1233

Hours: Tuesday-Sunday – 11am-7pm

Postcard from the Slope

AN OTBKB READER’S QUESTION

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A reader had this question. I know of at least 2 people who have done this. It has enabled these elderly to stay in an apartment they know and love.

I have been reading your work and blog for a long time and thought you might be just the person to ask since you seem to know a lot of “random” things (I say that in the best sense of the word).
I heard once about a tradition in France whereby younger people buy the homes or land of people that are older and have no children. the idea is that the younger purchasers allow the elder owner to stay in the home on the property and are cared for until they die. The older person is cared for and the younger person gets the property at less than market rate – a win/ win situation.
I think this is an amazing concept as there are many people who are open enough that they would care for someone that is alone but not well off enough that they can afford to buy a market rate home. So, I think this idea in NYC would be terrific.

Brooklyn seems like the perfect borough to start it and I wondered if a) you had ever heard of anything like this and b) if you would know how one would go about finding elderly home owners.

Yes, as I re-read this, it sounds a tad creepy (why would one not want to care for an elderly apartment dweller) but this is what 18 years in NYC has done to me (made me real estate obsessed!)

But truthfully, if we don’t find some way to maintain a little economic diversity in NY, we are going to lose (we have lost much anyway already) what made NY so unique. Anyway, I thought I would contact you and see if you had any ideas. If this is too off the wall, please just delete.

Postcard from the Slope

NO SALES TAX ON CLOTHING AND SHOES REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE

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Good news for clothing and shoe shoppers. This from New York 1:

Shoppers no longer have to pay city sales tax on clothing or shoes – regardless of the price – after new legislation went into effect Saturday.

Shoppers had been paying city and state taxes on items that cost $110 or more.

A tax-relief measure proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and approved by the state in June, dumped the city’s 4-percent portion.

But even though New Yorkers will save on the city tax, the state tax of 4.375 percent stays in effect

.

Civics and Urban Life

40TH ANNUAL WEST INDIAN PARADE SET FOR LABOR DAY

This from New York 1:

The 40th annual West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade will be stepping down Eastern Parkway this Labor Day.

Musicians from the Pan Tonic Steel Orchestra are practicing their drumming ahead of Monday’s festivities.

Organizers say it’s the city’s biggest parade, with over 3 million participants each year.
Vendors line the three-mile long parade route selling crafts, books, clothing, art, jewelry, and much more.

The event features live music, elaborately designed costumes and floats, and plenty of Caribbean food.

The parade begins at 11 a.m. at the corner of Rochester and Eastern Parkway.

It winds up around 6 p.m. near Grand Army Plaza.

There will also be live performers in front of the viewing stage at the Brooklyn Library.

Postcard from the Slope

POOP CULTURE IN POOP SLOPE

I don’t think I’ll be at this reading but here’s the email I received from the author this morning:

Hi Louise,

I’m the author of the book Poop Culture: How America is Shaped by its
Grossest National Product, published by Feral House. I’m also a Park
Slope resident (kinda — does below 4th Ave count these days?). I
thought you’d like to know that I’m doing a reading/lecture at the
Park Slope Barnes and Noble next Wednesday at 7:30 PM.

Poop Culture is a funny book, of course. Given the subject, how could
it not be? But it’s also a heavily researched analysis of something that
rarely receives serious consideration. Poop Culture’s main focus is the
true origin of the flush toilet: invented not for sanitary reasons, as
conventional wisdom holds, but rather as a tool to help rich Victorians
separate themselves from the upwardly-mobile masses during the
Industrial Revolution. From that basis, Poop Culture explores how the
ideology of waste disposal affects us today in our psychology,
sociology, art, economics, the environment, and more.

I’ll be touching on many of those issues on during my reading. Chances
are I’ll even touch on the sewage issues in the Gowanus during storms
and the reported potential for the Atlantic Yards to overwhelm the
area’s sewage capacity. It’ll be a fun and fascinating (and rated PG)
event.

For more information, check out www.PoopTheBook.com. You can find
links to the review of my book in Publisher’s Weekly and the op-ed I
published a few months ago in The New York Times.

Yours,

Dave Praeger
Poop Culture
www.poopthebook.com