Lara Wechsler’s website

You are warned: Use public transportation if you’re going into Manhattan. He was at the United Nations and will be at Park East synagogue this evening. I hear much of the Upper East Side is a mess.

Continue reading Pope Causing Traffic Nightmares in Manhattan →

According to Newsweek.com, Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope is number 10 in a list of 25 of the top pulpit rabbis in the United. States.

Mazel Tov to Andy and to Congregation Beth Elohim, which hired him just over a year ago to be their main main.

Bachman brought with him a large number of new congregants to Beth Elohim, many of whom were members of Brooklyn Jews, a community of Jews in Brooklyn he founded dedicated to social programming, Shabbat celebration, social action projects, and Jewish learning.

The following criteria was used by Newsweek.com to make their list of the top US rabbis.  

• Ability to inspire congregation through scholarship and oratory
• Success in growing and expanding congregation
• Community leadership and innovation
• Ability to meet spiritual and personal needs and goals of his/her congregation
• Leadership within denominational movement

Maria Barrett, the 11-year-old girl, who disappeared on Monday night, was found Thursday afternoon. At 7 p.m, a member of the Park Slope Methodist Church sent me an email. The church was
actively involved in the effort to locate Maria. Members of the church plastered the neighborhood with missing signs.

Today, a Park Slope elementary school will be taking a walk in Prospect Park. 

It’s the second annual PS 321 GoGreen Walkathon. Beginning at 8:50 am, the entire school and some parents will walk up 3rd Street to
Prospect Park. 

They will then walk  a 2 mile inner loop
in Prospect Park.  We are hoping that many parents will join us for
this event.  Last year, it was an incredibly moving sight to see  1500
people  all walking around the park to raise money to help make our
environment healthier!

It’s a fundraising event, too, for good environmental causes like
Brooklyn’s Added Value and the Red Hook Farmers Markets, NYC’s
Transportation Alternatives, and efforts to save the Amazon rain forest
(see below).

Last year, staff and parents
participated in deciding which of the many worthy environmental
organizations the school should support and identified organizations doing
important work that is understandable to our students.  After  much
discussion, the school decided to give the money they raise to three nonprofit
organizations.

PS 321’s School Leadership Team decided to make a three-year
commitment to these organizations:

•    Added Value (www.added-value.org)
operates two Farmers Markets in Red Hook.  The organization has a Youth
Leadership focus,  and the Farmers Markets are run by teenagers trained
by Added Value.  The organization has transformed an old asphalt area
into an urban farm.  In addition to selling fresh, locally grown
produce, it donates food to those in need.   

•    Amazon Watch  (www.amazonwatch.org)
is dedicated to the protection of the Amazon Rainforest–the lungs of
the earth–and its indigenous people.  Amazon Watch supports Escuela
Senen Soi, a program that trains indigenous Amazonian leaders to
protect their environment.    

•    Transportation Alternatives (www.transalt.org)
is a New York City organization working on changing transportation
priorities to reduce cars , encourage safe biking, and improve  public
transportation options.  One of the projects that is particularly
accessible to our students is Safe Routes to School. 
 

Today every class at Park Slope’s PS 321 will participate in the GoGreen Walkathon in Prospect Park, a 2-mile walk around Longs Meadow in support of environmental issues in the city and around the world.

Last night, the 5th graders were given homework about organizations that are fighting to save the Amazon rain forest, Transportation Alternatives, Added Value, the organic farm in Red Hook and the Red Hook Farmer’s Market. The walk is also a fundraiser for these organizations.

Started in 2006, PS 321’s GoGreen is
a group of parents dedicated to promoting earth-friendly behaviors in children and raising the environmental awareness of all members of
the school community.

In that capacity, GoGreen is a source of support for teachers in
bringing environmental issues to the classroom, a source of information
for parents on topics related to green living, and an advocate for
reducing whereever possible the carbon footprint of the school
facility.

Last night at 11:29 p.m. a member of Park Slope United Methodist Church on 6th Avenue and 8th Street sent me a jpeg of the flyer that’s all over Park Slope.

Maria Barrett and her family are members of the church. He told me that members of the church have been blanketing the neighborhood with the flyers.

Maria, age 11, has been missing since Monday night. She was last seen on 2nd Street between 6th and 5th Avenues.

If you have any information call Maria’s mother, Jane Barrett at 718-237-3400. Detective Gibbons is with the 78th precinct. His number is 718-636-6483

This is from Eugene Patron, the man who spreads the word about all things Prospect Park. There’s loads to do next week, which is a school vacation.

Celebrate Earth Week at the Prospect Park Audubon Center! This year’s Earth Week will have a different theme each day, with programming for environmentalists of all ages.

April 21 – 27 at the Audubon Center

Learn how to do your part through lectures, tours, activities, film screenings, workshops, recyclable crafts, and a daily exhibit. See the schedule below for a full list of what’s going on.

Monday, April 21  Earth Week Crafts, 1 – 3 p.m.
Connect with nature in a whole new way by making all-natural and recycled crafts! Drop in and create a take-home craft.

Discover Tour: Natural Revival, 3 p.m.
Audubon naturalists explain what can be done to protect nature in Prospect Park, the history and philosophy behind its restoration, and the future of the park. Binoculars provided.

Earth Day: Tuesday, April 22  Earth Day Pledge, 1 – 4 p.m.
Learn about what you can do to help the environment by reducing waste, conserving energy, recycling, saving water, and protecting our natural resources. Make an Earth Day pledge that will be posted at the Boathouse.

Advocacy Station Craft,  2 – 4 p.m.
Speak out! Design and make an advocacy button that displays your most passionate environmental issue opinion. Supplies and button maker provided.

Wednesday, April 23  Film Screening: the BBC’s "Planet Earth: Seasonal Forests", 4 p.m.
Watch this Emmy Award-winning BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough. This episode surveys the coniferous and deciduous seasonal woodland habitats—the most extensive forests on Earth. Appropriate for all ages. 44 min.

Thursday, April 24  Earth Week Crafts, 1 – 3 p.m.
See April 21.

Discover Tour: Natural Revival, 3 p.m.
See April 21.

Friday, April 25  Arbor Day Celebration: Children’s Story Time, 2 – 3 p.m.
Story readings from some of the most famous children’s books that have trees as their subjects.

Tree Walk, 3 – 4 p.m.
Learn what magnificent and famous specimens call Prospect Park home on a tree walk with a Naturalist.

Saturday, April 26 
B’EarthDay Bash
Celebrate the birthdays of John James Audubon, Frederick Law Olmsted, and James T. Stranahan, along with the sixth anniversary of the Prospect Park Audubon Center. Expect a fun-filled day of special guided walks, craft workshops, and more.

Children’s Craft: Nature Journals, 1 – 3 p.m.
Like all great naturalists, John James Audubon was famous for his nature journals. Keep his spirit alive by creating your own out of recycled materials, then take your journal out on the nature walk at 3 p.m. and record your first observations.

John James Audubon-inspired Nature Walk, 3 – 4 p.m.
Join our Senior Naturalist on a nature walk influenced by the spirit of John James Audubon. Tour Prospect Park’s most interesting natural areas while gaining an understanding of Audubon’s passion for the natural world. Binoculars provided.

Artist’s Reception: Leaf and Circle, 5 – 8 p.m.
Join this reception for artist Jessica Baker’s unique exhibit.

Sunday, April 27
Bicycle Tune-Up Center, 1 – 4 p.m.
Riding a bicycle instead of driving a car is a simple way to help the environment. Bring your bike to the Audubon Center and get help tuning it up for spring. Also, learn quick lessons for maintaining your bike and improving its performance.

Think Locally! 2 – 3 p.m.
Ever wonder what it really takes to get everyday goods and resources such as groceries or electricity into your home? Join us for a presentation on the topic of bioregionalism—learn what it is, how you can practice it, and what working examples exist in Brooklyn today.

Discover Tour: Get Inspired! Get Motivated! 3 p.m.
Inspiration leads to motivation, and motivation results in action! Take a tour of the beautifully restored Midwood forest and lend a hand to help clean up the area. Learn about the Midwood’s ecological history and what is being done to restore it. Binoculars provided.

I arrived late for coffee at Ozzie’s with Evan Thies but he didn’t seem to mind. He is hoping to replace David Yassky as City Councilmember in the 33rd District 33rd, which includes Park
Slope, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, DUMBO, Cobble
Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Boerum Hill.

He lives in the Northside of Williamsburg and worked with Hillary Clinton, and David Yassky as a senior advisor for five years, where he worked on a wide
range of local issues in the Council, as well as citywide issues.

He’s a very down-to-earth, wonky, policy-oriented guy, who loves to talk about government reform and affordable housing

We immediately started talking about a wide range of topics including blogging and the role that Brooklyn blogging has assumed in the media and political information landscape of Brooklyn.

Thies talked passionately about education and the need to advocate for public school education and undo some of the wrong-headed aspects of the Bloomberg administration’s education policy.

Development is Thies sweet spot. He is frustrated by the way huge swaths of Brooklyn have been developed without concern for infrastructure, affordable housing or education.

Today’s conversation was more of a "getting to know you" type of thing. It was early and I wasn’t taking notes but I must say I got a very positive impression of Thies and his desire to be a really practical, community-oriented city councilmember willing to lend his ear to those in the community who wish to share ideas.

At his December campaign kick-off at Union Hall in December Thies shared with the crowd some of his thoughts on development in this city. I found this excerpt at the NY Observer.

If there’s one constant in New York, it’s change—and right now things
are changing faster than ever. Development is our biggest issue today.
It affects everything: where we can afford to live, the quality of our
neighborhoods, and even where the jobs are. In the Northern part of
this council district alone, where I live and my grandmother used to
work, we will add 10,000 new residents in the next few years. Park
Slope, Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn are all growing. But who benefits
from that? If billions are invested in our communities, shouldn’t that
mean that the folks who live here now can still afford to later; that
our schools improve, not slide; that this becomes a nicer place to live
and not a harder one to?

Today over coffee with Evan Thies, who is running for David Yassky’s city council spot, I learned that my old friend from video production days, Dewey Thompson, is a member of Community  Board 1’s Waterfront Committee. It was great to hear his name again. Hey Dewey, how ya doing.

Evan Thies seems like a good guy. A real policy wonk, he cares A LOT about affordable housing, education and a rethinking about the way development is approached in this city. 

Once home, I googled Evan and Dewey. Here’s what I found about Dewy. And it’s in the award-winning Brooklyn Paper from February 2008.

Greenpoint’s noxious Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant will lose its notorious stink, city officials promised last month.

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Emily Lloyd announced on Jan. 23 that the city’s upgrade and expansion of the facility would knock out the smell by adding chlorination tanks and enclosing the open-air treatment basins.

Some residents were open-minded about that promise, but others were skeptical.

“If everything works the way it is supposed to, we should be an odor-free community by the end of the year,” said Christine Holowacz of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee.

Dewey Thompson, a member of Community Board 1’s Waterfront Committee, was less convinced. “I can’t imagine a sewage treatment plant that won’t smell like sewage,” he said. “I’d like to believe what the commissioner said, but my nose says ‘no.’”

Thompson wasn’t the only skeptic. Dubious questions came fast and furious at the meeting, prompting plant superintendent James Pynn to admit that the city does not actually monitor odor at the plant because odor cannot be quantified scientifically. Simply put, only the nose knows.

“Odor is a perceptible nuisance, but it’s not a health hazard,” Pynn said.

Greenpointers have good reason to be skeptical about the city’s promises. In 2005, Mayor Bloomberg pledged to staunch the stench at the Owls Head sewage treatment plant in Bay Ridge — but two years later, residents there are still complaining about the smell.

Thanks to Brooklyn Based for this schedule about Earth Day activities at Habana Outpost in Ft. Green this Saturday. Habana Outpost. 757 Fulton Street (corner of South Portland) Brooklyn, New York

Kid’s Corner-Saturday and Sunday 12-6
Throughout the weekend there will be free arts & crafts, games and entertainment
for children focusing on recycling and nature.

The ABC’s of Bees and Beekeeping – Saturday 2:00pm
Local beekeeper John Howe (the Brooklyn Bee) will explain how honey is made
with a live observation hive and arts and crafts projects.

Finders Keepers!!!! Tossers Weeepers!!!- Saturday 3-4 & Sunday 2-3
Recycling within Your Environment – This hands-on workshop will explore how to reuse what is in your home, community and environment.   On this day, that environment will be Habana Outpost!   Children will be asked to go on a scavenger hunt through the Habana Outpost area and use what they find to create new objects or give old objects new purpose and meaning. Brought to you by the Leadership Learning Lab

Composting With Red Worms – Sunday 1-2
Learn the basics of composting at home with live red wiggler worms! Use kitchen waste to make valuable, all natural plant food…compost.

Composting Workshops for Adults – Saturday & Sunday 2:00 & 5:00
Brought to you by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Department of Sanitation,
these fun workshops will teach you how to start composting at home.
Electronic Waste Recycling – Saturday & Sunday 10:00 – 4:00pm

Recycled Art Show- Awards ceremony Sunday at 4:00pm
Local high school and elementary students will create art out of trash. The work
will be on display throughout the weekend and the winners will be announced

Sunday at 4:00pm
Umbrella Recycling – Saturday 12:00 – 4:00pm

Umbrella Recycling: A BYOBU (bring your own broken umbrella) Design Project
Bring your own broken umbrella (BYOBU) to recycle, rehabilitate or re imagine. Learn how to craft a reusable (grocery) bag out of a dead umbrella. All other materials provided. Meet up under the solar panels with master tailor and sewing teacher Bonnie Barton.

Shop Green – Saturday & Sunday 12-6
Local vendors and designers will showcase green products and services in an outdoor market
Featuring: Trixe and Radar, Lower East Side Girls Club and Recycle a Bicycle.

Get Involved – Saturday & Sunday 12-6
Meet local eco-minded groups and individuals to find out how you can get involved!Participating Groups: Good Magazine, Green Home NYC, Green Brooklyn, Greenopia, Atomseco, The Society of Clinton Hill, Sunset-Ridge Waterfront Alliance

Films -Sunday at 3:00 pm

The Water Under Ground: In spring of 2006, the Lower East Side Ecology Center partnered with
Center for Urban Pedagogy, City-as-School, and RECYouth to explore the Water Underground-the millions of gallons of water that enters the city, gets used in various ways and discharged to local waterways each day. The Water Underground video is a 25-minute student-led exploration of where water comes from, where it goes and what happens along the way.

Rooftop Bees: A film by Melissa Lohman Wild – John has an unusual hobby for a longtime resident of New York City. He maintains three beehives on his Brooklyn rooftop. This short doc gives a glimpse into the practice of urban beekeeping and shows how John’s bees are helping to pollinate the Big Apple.

Ever wonder what it looks like inside the Park Slope Food Coop? Check out my segment of A Walk Around the Blog.

Watch me interview Joe Holz about the elimination of plastic water bottles at the Coop. You can even see me shopping in the produce area.

It’s a fun piece; well shot and well edited. Watch all the other blogger sements, too. They’ve done Reclaimed Home, owanus Lounge, Sustainable Flatbush and Brooklyn Optimist. More segments are planned. I am too lazy right now to do links.

The Park Slope Civic Council is organizing a civic sweep around the neighborhood this Saturday.

Help us clean and beautify our neighborhood!  Put on your old clothes and come to the Park Slope Civic Council’s Spring Civic Sweep on Saturday, April 19, 10 am to 2 pm.  Meet us in front of the Prospect Park Y on 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

Tools and supplies will be provided to pick up litter, scrape signs and paint graffiti off lampposts, mulch trees and plant daffodils.  Community Service vouchers will be available.

Bring your non-working compact fluorescent light bulbs for recycling.  Bring your working and non-working electronics (computers, fax machines, shredders, scanners – no TV’s, please) for recycling by Per Scholas in partnership with the Council on the Environment of NYC.  Bring your kids to participate in the Center for Urban Environment’s Children’s Composting Workshop from 10 am to noon.

Enjoy traditional bluegrass “with a twist” by Vincent Cross and Good Company.

A Vermont man is researching a book about Brooklyn’s motorcycle history. He sent this request my way. If anyone has information or materials that might be use you might want to get in touch with him. I told him to speak with  Francis Morrone, who knows a great deal about Brooklyn’s history. He’s already in touch with the Brooklyn Historical Society.

I am searching for information on Brooklyn’s history relating to motorcycles…….Brooklyn was the motorcycle mecca in the early 1900’s. Bedford Avenue had many motorcycle shops during 1905-1920. I’m looking for photos,literature,etc for a book project im involved in.

Scott
cycles past co.
cyclespast@vermonteldotnet

There are missing signs up all over Park Slope. The girl’s name is Maria Barrett and she’s 11-years-old born on October 18, 1996.

The sign says that she needs medical attention. She lives at 353 Second Street in Park Slope. I heard the PS 321 crossing guard talking about it. She seemed to know the girl.

Maria was last seen on Monday on Second Street between 6th and 5th Avenues. I am waiting to get a  hold of a picture.

She is 5’3" and 120 lbs with should length brown hair. She was wearing blue jeans, a black t-shirt with short sleeves.

Her mother’s phone number is: 718-237-3400. Detective Gibbons is on the case. His number is 718-636-6483