Fonda of Zuzu’s Petals wrote to say that they found a new member of the Zuzu team. Sounds like they got someone great. Here’s the note from Fonda.

Danielle  has been training at The Big for the last few weeks. She is an ace at flower prep and makes handheld bouquets with great attention to color and combo.

Her working knowledge of plants comes from a passion for growing things and years of tending both a Community Garden patch and  Orchid collection at home.

All you regulars, stop by to give her the warm zuzushopper welcome.

And here’s news of what’s in the shop this week:

We made a score with some crimson threadleaf Japanese Maples. 3 sizes from $120-$450.
All our late flowering shrubs and perennials are fat and full….Beauty Berry…both gold leaf and green, Chartreuse Hypericum,Variegated Caryopteris, Pink Flowering Abelia, Dwarf Crepe Myrtle.
Lots of Annuals that will bloom all Summer…Angelonia, Abutilon, Fuschia, Torenia, Moon Vine, Passion Flower, Oxalis in 3 colors, Bidens, Rose Impatiens.

In the Edibles, we still are giving away our Tomato starts for free. Our 4" Everbearing Strawberries are covered with flowers and fruit (which we snack on while watering)
In Herbs we have some gorgeous Thyme, Rosemary, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Mint and Sage.
Enough?

We are hoping Friday will prove to be a better Beach Day than the Weatherpersons predict. Little Zu will be closed this weekend as i said before.

Big Zu will be closed Friday so Lorraine can go to the beach and open again Saturday and Sunday. There are a mass of heat tolerant Fresh Cut Flowers inshop…pictured below: Giant Green Centered Sunflowers, Alstroemeria, Gerber Daisies and lots of interesting foliage.
And Roses Roses Roses

Definite Visible Data

You want to borrow a DVD?
It isn’t friendship I lack
But you may know as some folks do
Nobody gives them back.

So no, I just can’t lend you one
Despite your likely groans–
The DVDs that you see here
I acquired by loans.

Justice Robert J. Miller of State Supreme Court, ordered that a Red Hook Fence that separates the Red Hook Recreation Area from the Henry Street Basin be removed within 90 days. Here’s what the Judge said, as reported by the New York Times:

“the fence significantly and unreasonably restricts the common use of the waterfront and does not serve the public good.”

Adrian Benepe, commissioner of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, told this to the Times:

“Red Hook Park is a popular neighborhood destination which offers both active recreational opportunities including handball, basketball, soccer, and fitness, and passive recreation including strolling along the park grounds, communing with friends, and relaxing on a park bench. The removal of the fence opens up Brooklyn’s picturesque waterfront and gives Brooklyn residents and New Yorkers another reason to visit this fabled community park.”

Transportation Alternatives is offering a $6000 prize for the best design of a “post-automobile street” for the intersection of Fourth Avenue and 9th Street.

Transportation Alternatives announces the launch of “Designing the 21st Century Street,” an open design competition that will challenge New Yorkers to safely accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, transit, trucks and cars on the same “complete street” – something that still eludes New York City street design. Those interested in entering must register by July 18th and submit their entries by August 18th.

“Cities in the 21st Century are competing to be the greenest, most livable, most sustainable places possible, and we can’t do that until we have better streets,” says Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. “This design competition is about unleashing the talent of New Yorkers and developing those streets today.”

The competition focuses on the intersection of 4th Avenue and 9th Street in Brooklyn, a dangerous crossing that divides surrounding neighborhoods and inhibits street life. Competitors must re-imagine this intersection as a healthy, safe and sustainable street that serves pedestrians and bicyclists first, while functioning as a transit hub and truck route.

The jury includes artists, architects, City commissioners and local residents with a fierce interest in seeing their neighborhood streets become safer and more vital. In particular, the expertise of Danish planner, Jan Gehl, and former NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz will ensure the viability of finalists as a potential template for New York City’s unique street.

Someone on Park Slope Parents thinks she’s being scammed but wanted to check with PSP first. It’s a strange story. Is this a typical scam?

Has anyone on this list been a victim of an apt scam? We found a “too
good to be true” apt that is vacant, the owner is in London and needs
to rent it out asap, but she has the keys with her and will mail them
to us, etc.

Since we have friends who have been scammed before, I am
extremely skeptical. And we cant afford the monetary lose. Is there
anyone willing to share their experience with me and any red flags I
should be looking for? I am refusing to hand over any money until I
have the keys but I wonder if somehow she has the keys to this apt but
isnt the real owner, is that possible?

Thanks for any and all help!

You won’t want to miss this event at the Community Bookstore on July 8th at 7 p.m.

Fresh from their sold-out engagement at Joe’s Pub, vocalist Capathia Jenkins, songwriter/performer Louis Rosen and writer Nikki Giovanni will make a special appearance at the Community Bookstore in Brooklyn to celebrate their acclaimed new PS Classics CD, “One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs.”
One Ounce of Truth was hailed by The New York Times as “earthy, tuneful songs…a continually shifting musical patchwork of blues, folk, jazz and pop…sly, playful observations that take an off-center, positive view of life and love.”
The CD combines the sultry and soaring voice of Capathia Jenkins with the inspired melodies and arrangements of composer Louis Rosen into a fresh and enthralling thirteen-song mix of jazz, blues, soul, classic pop and American roots music. Jenkins’ powerful and sensitive performances blend with Rosen’s music – alternately delicate and exultant, and always highly melodic – in exploring those most universal of human experiences: friendship, lust, love and loss. It’s a lush and memorable collection based on the vivid words of Nikki Giovanni, the renowned American writer and poet recently chosen as one of Oprah Winfrey’s “Living Legends.”

Bloomberg News wrote, “In the poet Nikki Giovanni…the blissful collaboration of composer Louis Rosen and singer Capathia Jenkins has found a kindred spirit, and the combination has charm and beauty to spare….The performers are as good company as you could wish for.”

“Giovanni writes in a style that is both direct and sophisticated, with a point of view that is thoughtful, soulful and always surprising,” says Rosen. “Equally important, her words sound right sung in a popular style with a strong rhythmic groove as the foundation. My goal while writing and arranging the songs was to make the music and words play so naturally together that the listener assumes they were written together as music and lyrics.”

Pastor Daniel Meeter shares his wonder with the natural world in Prospect Park. He’s got pictures, too.

There’s an orange tree in Prospect Park. Pastor Daniel Meeter of Old First Church, has pictures of it and some information about it.

Well, not an orange tree exactly. But Prospect Park has an Osage Orange tree.

They are native to the American West.

This one stands at the waymeet just down from the Nethermead Arches.

This one is a good size. The species is not typically towering tall, not compared to other trees, including the ones around it. But this one is doing very well, and looks very healthy.

The young osage oranges are just beginning to grow on it. I wonder if they are edible?

Here’s a statement from City Councilmember Bill De Blasio about the deat of Emin Elizabeth Green, who died in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital. She was ignored by hospital workers until after her death.

City Hall— Councilmember Bill de Blasio released the following statement on news of the conditions surrounding the death of Esmin Elizabeth Green in the psychiatric emergency room of Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn on June 19, 2008:

“I am deeply troubled by the lack of attention and care that Esmin Elizabeth Green received in the hours leading up to her tragic death. It is unconscionable to leave patients waiting almost twenty-four hours without providing adequate care, and inhumane for hospital employees to ignore obvious signs that a patient is in need of immediate medial attention.

“The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation’s decision to reduce wait times and institute required fifteen minute checks on all patients in the Kings County psychiatric emergency room is a step in the right direction. However, we cannot wait for another tragedy before making important policy changes.

“We must ensure that similarly unacceptable conditions and patient care policies are not in place at any other hospital in the City, and that hospitals have adequate staff to provide the necessary level of patient care. I am committed to working with my fellow Councilmembers and relevant City agencies to identify the extent of inadequate staffing in City hospitals, and to develop potentially life-saving solutions.”

Eugene Patron of Prospect Park also sent word of this marvelously fishy event that begins on July 16th:

Young anglers will cheer as NYC Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Brooklyn Cyclones mascot Sandy the Seagull release a largemouth bass dubbed R.H. Macy into the water. Whoever catches R.H. Macy will win a great fishing trip for the whole family on a boat ride from Sheepshead Bay!
The contest is sponsored by Macy’s Foundation
The contest runs from July 16 – July 20. Daily contest hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are no rain dates. The competition is open to children 15 years and younger. Individuals can sign-up at the contest. Groups of 10 or more must call (718) 287-3400 x114 to register. Admission is free and equipment and instruction is provided.
Prizes will be awarded daily to those who haul in the big catches from Brooklyn’s only freshwater lake. Before casting their lines, all participants attend a free, fun and educational workshop led by Prospect Park Audubon Center educators and the Urban Park Rangers.
Directions: News vehicles can enter the park at any entrance and follow the Park Drive to the Audubon Center. To reach the Prospect Park Audubon Center on foot, enter the Park at Lincoln Road & Ocean Ave, or Flatbush Ave. & Empire Blvd. (Willink entrance) and follow the directional signs. By train: Q, S, or B to Prospect Park Station

Gowanus Lounge calls him the Oracle of Prospect Park. But for me, Eugene Patron is simply the last word on everything that goes on in that great park like this concert by the Philharmonic Orchestra on July 14th at 8 p.m. and these fun sounding events at the Lefferts Historic House.

Each year, the New York Philharmonic returns to Prospect Park’s Long Meadow Ballfields for an amazing free concert under the stars. This year’s program will include Mozart’s Divertimento in D major, K.125a; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4; and Sibelius’ Finlandia. Alan Gilbert will conduct; Sheryl Staples and Michelle Kim will be featured on violin.

A fireworks display rounds out the evening. The concert space features a state-of-the-art sound system with a wireless broadcast network and 24 15-foot speaker towers. Park concessions will be on hand, selling hot dogs, ice cream, and other great summertime refreshments.

Enter the Long Meadow at 9th Street and Prospect Park West or Bartel Pritchard Circle/15th St.

For Alliance Members at the Arborist Level and above, we offer V.I.P. seating with complimentary soft drinks and more. Call (718) 965-8965 for information about VIP seating.

For all other information, including weather-related concerns, call the New York Philharmonic concert information hotline at (212) 875-5709

He also sent word about an interesting sounding event in the Park on July 4th an 5th at the Lefferts Historic House. Interestingly, in the 19th century, July 5th was a day to celebrate the end of slavery.

The spirit of independence fills Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. For many years in the 19th century, July 5 was a day to celebrate emancipation with parades and festive dinners. Saturday, July 5 at the Lefferts Historic House there will be a special celebration to mark the anniversary of the end of slavery in New York State.

2:00pm – Illustrated talk by historian Dr. Sherrill D. Wilson, who will explore the experience of Black New Yorkers of the 1820s and 30s.

3:00 pm – Musical Performance: Heritage Organic Percussion uses instruments from Africa to play traditional, dynamic rhythms.

4:00 pm – Parade: Join a noisy and proud march recalling the days of the first generations of free African- Americans in New York. Lead by master storyteller Tammy Hall.

All afternoon, from 1pm to 4 pm enjoy crafts on the lawn: gourd shaker workshop, make your own rice rattles, bead necklaces, paper hats and enjoy ice treats

.

Again, thanks to Verse Responder, Leon Freilich, who sent this along.

Not only is “1776” the best musical drama ever made, it’s the only one Richard Nixon had a role in. He screened the completed movie in the White House before its distribution in 1972 and loved it. Except for the song “Cool, Cool Considerate Men” in which Deep South conservatives urge the need to go “Always to the right, always to the right.”

Nixon took his unhappiness to Jack Warner, the producer, who obligingly cut it from the film. And that was Nixon’s always-to-the-right part. In the DVD, though, the song’s restored–and that’s probably what’ll be shown tonight at Byrne…

Read the op-ed in yesterday’s Daily News by Evan Thies, candidate for David Yassky’s City Council seat. A former aide to Yassky, Thies is a member of Community Board 1. Thies is appalled; the city is slashing $300 million from the Department of Education, which will mean overcrowding and a dearth of much needed resources. At the same time, there are no planned cuts to the DOE’s Office of Assessment and Accountability, the love child of Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomberg.

The budget passed Sunday for the new fiscal year will slash the Department of Education by $300 million, largely by taking money directly out of schools. Yet, the same budget includes an untouched allocation of $8 million for staff at the department’s Office of Assessment and Accountability – the mayor’s pet project to monitor students and schools – and another $23 million for operating expenses such as tests.

Although the status quo in our city’s schools needed – and still needs – to be changed, and I applaud the mayor especially for his previous dedication to improving our school system, as well as Speaker Christine Quinn for her valiant try in this budget to restore funding, it is alarming that the mayor’s nonessential and expensive accountability experiment won out over less-crowded classrooms and desperately needed resources for students.

If cuts had to be made to the education budget, as the administration says that it did – though I disagree that they must – certainly we should start with suspending or reorganizing parts of, or the entire, unnecessary accountability and monitoring programs while we work to restore the department’s budget to full funding.

The mayor, unfortunately, seems to disagree. These cuts were to be even deeper in the mayor’s original proposed budget, but the City Council managed to restore a third of the funding. And though the operating budget for the Office of Assessment Accountability would be cut modestly next year, it is unclear exactly how or where this money would be spent.

Monitoring and testing at schools has so far had mixed results. The aggregate scores of city schoolchildren on federal tests have been flat or have declined during these first years of the assessment experiment. Scores from state-administered tests have improved, but that could be merely the result of the degree of difficulty of the tests varying from year to year…

The video showing a woman dying in a waiting room at Kings County Hospital is very disturbing. The fallout continues. Here’s an excerpt from NY1:

Several employees at Kings County Hospital have been fired after a disturbing videotape surfaced showing a woman dying in a waiting room, while workers did nothing.

The New York Civil Liberties Union released the video, which was taken two weeks ago. It shows 49-year-old Esmin Green slumping out of her chair and going into convulsions as workers and fellow patients walk by her. She had been in the hospital’s psychiatric ward waiting area for more than 24 hours. She was later pronounced dead.

The NYCLU also says hospital workers fudged the time scale of the incident on Green’s medical records.

Now the group says the hospital, which is run by the city, will give patients in the waiting room a checkup every 15 minutes, and limit the number of patients to 25 at a time.

A member of the list-serve, Park Slope Parents wrote in to say that the fundamentalist christian groups are back for the season proselytizing to children without parents consent in our playgrounds. The writer added that she is not against fundamentalist Christians, just any form of religious proselytizing in a public playground

Last year the Child Evangelism Fellowship (http://www.cefonline.com/content/category/8/31/75) handed out candy and coloring books but asked the kids first if they accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

This national para-church comes to urban playgrounds through local church sponsorship with the sole purpose of converting children. It is actually very difficult to discern if the
proselyters are CEF because they seem to hide behind their local
sponsorship.

If this practice is offensive to you, I advise you to call the parks department, ask the proseltyzers for their permits and then call the parks officers (they rarely have a permit and they
should not be handing out things to children).

PSST!

I’ll tell you this just once

And then I have to beat it–

I took a solemn vow

And promised not to repeat it.

Movies Al Fresco in JJ Byrne Park: Brooklyn Film Works returns with Democracy in Action, a series of political films on Wednesday nights in July. The show starts at dusk. There will be a short before the feature.

First up: 1776.

Running time: 2 hrs 56 mins

Synopsis: This acclaimed film version of Peter Stone’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, which was one of the last big-budget studio musicals, stars William Daniels (TV’s Saint Elsewhere) as John Adams and Howard Da Silva as Ben Franklin. A rollicking, anachronistic treatment of the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Perfect for the week of the 4th of July.

Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Starring: William Daniels, David Ford, Howard Da Silva, Donald Madden, Emory Bass
Director: Peter H. Hunt
Story: Peter Stone, Sherman Edwards
Screenwriter: Peter Stone
Composer: Sherman Edwards

Thanks to Leon Freilich who just sent this over. From the Daily News: There’s also a story in the Brooklyn Paper.

By Ayala Falk Daily News
Monday, June 30th 2008, 9:09 PM

Bad news for Park Slope.

Good news for a few other Brooklyn neighborhoods.

The Department of Transportation said Monday a two-month break for motorists in Park Slope will end July 14 when it resumes alternate side parking.

Department officials said it will have successfully posted 2,800 new parking signs on neighborhood streets. Alternate side parking will be reduced from three-hour intervals to 90 minutes and from twice-a-week cleanings to once a week.

It means Park Slope motorists who got comfy leaving their cars parked in one spot will have to move them at least once a week.

Reaction in Park Slope was quick.

“Damn it, it’s going to get me,” said musician Mike Eber, 26, worried about a ticket blitz. “Now I can leave a car for a week and go out of town. I’m the one everyone hates.”

Meanwhile, DOT announced alternate side parking regulations will be temporarily suspended for six to eight weeks, beginning Monday, in parts of Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Gowanus in Community Board 6. The department plans to post 2,100 signs.

The changes do not affect 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. parking rules, meters or other parking rules that are not street cleaning regulations.

Dean Street’s Bar Tabac and other New York area hot spots will host the 6th annual Bastille Day Petanque Tournament and celebrate France ’s Independence Day in style.

On Sunday July 13, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. through 8:00 p.m., Bar Tabac and Robin des Bois take over Brooklyn’s popular Smith and Dean Street intersection and surrounding blocks to celebrate France ’s Bastille Day with the countries largest Pétanque tournament. Over 7,000 people and 80 Pétanque teams are expected to participate in the French fête, with all dues donated to the local Brooklyn Community Board. Throughout the day, guests will enjoy French cocktails, including the Classique and Elixir from Ricard, the world’s number one selling pastis, an anise-flavored beverage. Special guests are invited to relax at the Ricard hospitality tent at Bar Tabac where delicious food provided by Cercle Rouge chef and refreshing Ricard cocktails including the Cocorico, French Kiss and French Mojito will be served. Live jazz / swing music by The Baby Blue Orchids will keep the day festive, and Bar Tabac will prepare mouthwatering dishes inspired by South of France, including beef and merguez sandwiches.

Bastille Day (July 14th) celebrates French independence, and the day French citizens stormed the Bastille (a prison) in 1789, starting the French Revolution and bringing an end to the French monarchy. In honor of this holiday, Francophiles in New York play Pétanque (pronounced “pay-tonk”), a game similar to lawn bowling that originated in Provence in the early 1900s and is one of Europe ’s most popular outdoor activities. This year makes the 101st anniversary of the game. Players take turns rolling small steel balls (called boules) as close as possible to a small wooden aim ball (called a but or cochonnet). Brooklyn ’s Smith Street will provide the sanded arena for the competition.