Get out the welcome wagon and visit Deborah Matlack's new blog, Brooklyn Rocks. She's a photographer, who was a contributor to Gowanus Lounge. I saw her speak briefly at the Memorial yesterday. Now that Gowanus Lounge is gone, I get the sense that she wants her blog to, in some way, photographically echo the concerns of Gowanus Lounge. In this post she expresses her fondness for Red Hook:

Inspired by yesterday's Bob Guskind Memorial and all the talk about the preservation of Coney Island, I checked out the Coney Island Message Board and found this information. I don't think anyone will be offended i I share it here:

A Searching Mind

I'm always hunting for ideas,

The fate of any worder,

And get the very best while parking–

Ideas that focus on murder

Saturday's Bob Guskind Memorial at the Brooklyn Lyceum was a deeply moving event. In attendance were nearly 100 people, including many Brooklyn bloggers, Gowanus Lounge contributors, readers and friends.

Tomorrow I will write more extensively about the event, which was a celebration of Bob Guskind and his influential and much-missed blog, Gowanus Lounge. But for now, gratitude and congrats to the organizers, a large dedicated group which included Aaron Brashear (Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights), Sam Coker, Nicole Davis (Brooklyn Based), Phil DePaolo (New York Community Council) Jake Dobkin (Gothamist), Susan Fox (Park Slope Parents),  Ann Kansfield (Greenpoint Reformed Church), Katia Kelly (Pardon Me for Asking), Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener), Heather Letzkus (NY Shitty), Norman Oder (Atlantic Yards Report), and E Cherilin Stephens (Gowanus Lounge).

Quite a few people who spoke movingly at the event had never met Bob in person. He was cited as a cheerleader and a mentor over and over again. It's amazing how one man managed to connect so many people, have an impact on so many neighborhoods and civic activists, and produce such a huge output of skilled urban reporting.

City Council member Vilmanette Montgomery spoke briefly as did a representative from the office of State Senator Daniel Squadron, who presented Resolution 1131 to honor the life and work of Bob, which passed in both houses last Tuesday.

The event ran a full four hours. There was a video, a line-up of scheduled speakers, as well as a shout-out at the end for those who felt moved to speak. And after that food and beverages were provided courtesy of Rafael Soler of Bob's beloved Food Vendors of Red Hook Park, who supplied the pupusas and Juventino Avila, chief/owner of Get Fresh Table and Market. Chris Kreussling baked a huge number of chocolate chip and pignoli nut and almond macaroons.

It was a wonderful celebration of a man, whose reputation continues to grow even, sadly, as many mourn his death.

How does it happen that a 30-year-old organization like the respected Center for the Urban Environment, a non-profit, closes its doors suddenly and lays off its staff without any warning to the public it serves?

It sure brings up a lot of questions.

30-years ago, the Center for the Urban Environment was founded by John Muir as the Prospect
Park Environmental
Center. Until just over a year ago it was located in the Tennis House in the park. Last year the group renovated and moved into a LEED-Gold eligible building in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

Last week they closed their doors and let their staff go. Very suddenly. In a press release they sent out the day after, the organization's board claims that the closure was due to funding delays and short falls.

I can well understand that an expensive renovation and move into a new building and the current economic climate, which has affected funding and philanthropy,  could create fiscal problems for a non-profit but why was there no attempt to reach out to the community to save CUE?

Were local politicians and city officials notified about the impending loss of a valuable local resource?

Was there anything city or state government could have done to help this organization survive its economic travails?

Were their problems so deep that no one could help them? And what were these problems? 

Through the years CUE provided  programs for school children in the environmental sciences and urban and natural
environments. There were also programs for charter high schools and special programs related to environmental education issues and practical training.

For the community, the group sponsored weekend tours of neighborhoods and historic sites, organized kayaking trips in the Gowanus, and public events like
GreenBrooklyn. The Sustainable Business Alliance – a growing network in support of local businesses — was also an important project of the CUE.

Interestingly, Bob Guskind on Gowanus Lounge interviewed Sandi Franklin, who ran CUE since 2001, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary last November. Ironically, he asked her: "Where do you see CUE ten years from now?"

Franklin: Ten years is a long way out. But in the upcoming
decade, we’ll make use of technological advancements in order to reach
more urbanities—not just New Yorkers—with our products and services.
There are so many great initiatives across the city and country, one of
the principal challenges of the next decade will be working to connect
all of them meaningfully and practically.

Go to Gowanus Lounge to see the rest of the interview.

April 23rd: Brooklyn Reading Works presents Fiction in a Blender curated by Raina Washington at the Old Stone House. Another great event at Brooklyn Reading Works. Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street. 8 p.m. Five bucks includes wine and refreshments.

April 28th: Gala opening of Essence and Accident. Photographs by Hugh Crawford at the Old Stone House. 6-8 p.m.  Fifth Avenue and 3rd Street in Park Slope. Come see this exhibit of photographs by OTBKB's No Words Daily Pix photographer. All photos are for sale. The show runs from April 1 – June 30th, 2009. Wine and refreshments.Note: the gallery is open on weekends from 11-4 p.m.  Hugh will be at the gallery Friday afternoons from 5-7 p.m. and by appointment. Contact hugh(at)hughcrawford(dot)com

As no place is immune to the reality of random mass murder, the fact that Binghamton, New York is the latest city to become identified with this phenomenon doesn't surprise me but it makes me deeply sad as  I was a resident of that town when I was a college student at SUNY-Binghamton in the late 1970's.

Now Binghamton will be remembered as a place where a man murdered 14 people in an American citizenship class. As I watched the images on television of the American Civic Association on Front Street, memories flooded back of that upstate city that was my playground during and after my college days.

As students at SUNY-Binghamton, many of us lived off-campus and traveled on a brightly painted school bus from the campus to various sections of that town that are now in the news like Johnson City with its1930's archway that says "The Square Deal Town;" Downtown Binghamton with its churches, American Legion Halls and legendary Salvation Army, where in the early 1980's you could still find vintage clothing from the 1930's; the West Side of Binghamton, where many students lived in Victorian houses on streets named for German composers (Beethoven, Schiller, Mozart). We joked that residents pronounced Beethoven Street: Beeth Oven but now I'm not even sure if that was true or just college kids being patronizing about the townies.

Now because of this tragedy, Binghamton will become iconic in a nation that has seen too many of these mass murders, most recently at  Virgina Tech where 32 college students were killed. Early reports said that the killer, Jiverly Wong, a Vietnamese immigrant, had been laid off from IBM. That resonated with me, too. I had a summer job during college at IBM, which is one of the biggest employers in the area. 

At one time, IBM was the economic engine of Binghamton and its presence was inextricably linked to the city's economic fate. Through much of the 20th century, Binghamton was a manufacturing town. In the 1970's there were many empty red brick factory buildings that evoked an earlier industrial time. One in particular had entrances marked for girls and boys from back before child labor laws I guess.

In my moody walks and bike rides around Binghamton, a town at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers, I explored many of its nooks and crannies. Back then there was the American Dance Asylum, a dance school and performance space run by Bill T Jones and Arnie Zane in an old YMCA. There were antique shops and yard sales galore and its where I developed my interest in old photographs and 3-D stereo-views. There was the Roberson Museum and Science Center and  the Kopernik Observatory, one of the largest public observatories in the world, great dining car diners, and a small arena where it was fun to see the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown and the Ringling Brothers Circus when it came to town.

A great place to wander around with a super-8 movie camera, Binghamton is where I learned to appreciate the charm of a faded lost America that in the 1970's still had one foot in the 19th century and one in the 20th, especially in its mysterious abandoned rail yards and down-on-their luck neighborhoods.

Some people say Binghamton is just depressing town in western New York state. But I know better. It has charming house-proud neighborhoods with gardens and lilac bushes that bloom fragrantly in the spring. The autumn foliage is nonpareil and it has real old diners and funky Irish bars where they sell green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

Like any city it's had it hard times and its boom. This is one of the bad times. My heart goes out to that city of my youth and the families who lost loved ones in this  tragedy.

Read Peter Loffredo's effusive review of a production of "Hair" performed by students ages 5-19 at the Brooklyn Free School on his blog, Full Permission Living.

.”

A tree in front of PS 321 on Seventh Avenue near 2nd Street fell over last night. The school's custodian was on the scene. "It fell in the middle of the night from the wind," he told me as I walked by. By 9am the Fire Department was on the scene moving the tree and clearing the broken branches. A section of the sidewalk is closed to pedestrians.

Readers can vote for the next 5. 

http://brooklynhall.blogspot.com/2009/04/inducted-into-brooklyn-hall-of-fame.html

If that headline grabbed you, you might not want to miss this interesting stoop sale in Prospect Park. Info is here.

The Center fro the Urban Environment, a respected 30-year-old organization dedicated to green education, closed very suddenly this week. It comes less than a year after a move into an expensive LEED-approved building and many in Brooklyn are wondering why? Was it mismanagement of funds or overspending on the new building? Perhaps their closing is just a casualty of dire economic times? Were any efforts made to save the organization by local politicians or philanthropists. The Center for the Urban Environment sent out this press release earlier today, which provides few specific answers. 

After
30 years, the Center for the Urban
Environment (CUE; formerly the Brooklyn
Center for the Urban Environment, or BCUE), closed its
doors this week due to funding delays and shortfalls, and began the process of
dissolving the organization.

“We
are very proud of CUE’s 30-year history of leadership, accomplishments and
service to schools and the broader community. CUE has been at the forefront of
public education about environmental responsibility, sustainability and
greenbuilding.  We are deeply saddened
that sustaining CUE as an independent organization is no longer viable.  Funding has declined sharply from public and
private sources.  And we have just
completed a complex capital project,” explained Charlotte Gemmel, Chairperson
of CUE’s Board of Directors.  “While we
had hoped to be able to restructure and maintain CUE at a smaller scale, the
enormity of the challenge before us led to this very difficult decision.”

 “Our
best assets have always been the talented, committed and energetic professional
staff of educators, planners and activists who pioneered such dynamic programs
and taught hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and families about the
urban and natural environments around us, and it is with special regret that we
have lost CUE as the home from which they could operate,” Gemmel added.  “CUE’s board will work diligently to ensure
that its signature programs, curricula and activities find new homes, perhaps
with some of the many wonderful organizations with which we have collaborated
in the environmental education field.”

 CUE
was founded by John Muir as the Prospect
Park Environmental
Center, and for most of its years
operated out of the Tennis House in the park; it recently completed renovation
of a LEED-Gold eligible home in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn.

 Through
the years, CUE’s core programs sent specially-trained teachers into thousands
of classrooms all over Brooklyn and in all other boroughs to provide a wide
range of programs about environmental sciences and the urban and natural
environments for children ranging from pre-K to high school.  It partnered with a number of organizations
on charter high schools and special programs promoting environmental education issues
and practices.  For adults, it operated
weekend tours of neighborhoods and historic sites, organized public events like
GreenBrooklyn, incubated the Sustainable Business Alliance – a growing network
of businesses – and broadened its public programming in its new home.