Monthly Archives: April 2010
April 15: Simone Dinnerstein Presents Face the Music Teen Orchestra
The PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts Series, directed by acclaimed Park Slope pianist and Sony Classical recording artist Simone Dinnerstein, is a fantastic, cultural win-win for the children and adults in this neighborhood.
The shows are short — just one hour—which is perfect for kids but they’re also very interesting for adults and a great introduction to classical music for all. Even if your kids don’t go to PS 321 or you don’t have kids at all you might want to check out this enjoyable Thursday night music series.
This Thursday Dinnerstein, whose son is a student at PS 321 and who’s husband is a teacher, presents Face the Music, “Beating Down the Doors,” featuring the world premiere of Liquid Timepieces, by PS 321 Faculty Member Joseph C. Phillips, Jr.
Did I mention that Dinnerstein’s mother used to teach at PS 321, too?
Clearly this is Dinnerstein’s way of giving back to her neighborhood elementary school and a marvelous way to teach children — and adults — to develop a passion for classical music.
Thursday, April 15th, 7:00 pm
PS 321 Auditorium, 180 7th Ave., Park Slope
Tickets are $15 and are available on www.ps321.org
Face the Music is an ensemble of astonishingly talented teenagers performing works by today’s most compelling and creative composers. In residence at the Kaufman Center, Face the Music breaks the boundaries of classical music education and performance. “Beating Down the Doors” brings Face the Music’s youthful energy to works by five living composers. The centerpiece of the concert will be the world premiere of Liquid Timepieces by composer and PS 321 faculty member Joseph C. Philllips, Jr. commissioned for Face the Music by Simone Dinnerstein and PS 321 Neighborhood Concerts.
Face the Music’s young players will talk to the audience between pieces and take questions at the end of the hour-long concert, making this an excellent opportunity for families with children.
Pollen Levels Very High Today
I can attest to that. My eyes are swollen and watery and I’m sneezing a lot. Achoo.
Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Too Small to Bail
Too Small to Bail
White collar, blue collar, no collar
Make up the unemployed;
Don’t tell Republicans,
They’d only be annoyed.
http://open.salon.com/blog/leon_freilich
May 1: Brooklyn PTA 5K Run/Walk for Public Schools
Saturday, May 1st, from 10 am to 1 PM, run for your neighborhood school with the Brooklyn PTA 5K Run/Walk for Public Schools in Prospect Park (Bartel Pritchard entrance, Prospect Park West & 16th Street).
BrooklynPTA.org and City Councilmember Brad Lander are co-sponsoring the third annual PTA 5K Run for the Schools. Budget cuts in Albany threaten not only after-school enrichment activities but the core programs our children so rely upon in their schools. While it is unfortunate that parents are forced into the role of trying to make up for these shortfalls, this fundraiser is a great way for us to all come together to take action in support of local schools—and it’s good for your health, too!
Participants pay a registration fee ($15/person, or $25/family) and can also raise money through sponsorships. The proceeds are split among the participating schools. You can run as part of a school team, or sign up as an individual and we will assign you to a group.
Last year there were more than 300 participants, with school teams from PS 10, 29, 39, 107, 146, 130, and 261. We hope to have even more this year. We’ll have awards by age group, and for the fastest teacher and principal!
More information & registration is available at http://brooklynpta.org/.
April 14: Young Dads at Bar 4 in Park Slope
The Young Dads, a very talented, funny duo, have a great schtick. To give you an idea here’s a list of their songs (with comments by the Young Dads):
ooh!: this song features our sexy/grossed-out pop vocal, a pop vocal that we think originally was an amusing satire of late-90s boy-band vocals but has since evolved into a thing that does not occur in nature. the groove on this song is tight.
existential crisis: young uncle david shapiro makes a cameo in this rollicking barbershop meditation on the nightmare of being.
making the pitch: you will be seduced by our hot dance moves and questionable wardrobe choices, unless you are a dude, in which case you will feel threatened in ways that you may not fully understand.
satan wants you to do bad things: thank goodness for that eighteen-month face-training course we took at the sorbonne! in all seriousness, the faces we are making during this song are even more difficult than they look. you’re all like: jesse and micah, that’s not even possible. but it is! anything is possible. go celtics.
pop accountants: this video is an early frontrunner for the “Most Under-Rated Video” award of the 2010 Videos Made By The Young Dads In A Public-Access Studio Awards (the VMBTYDIAPASAs). warning: dangerously sick groove.
i could never eat that: a freshman going to junior prom?! a freshman going to junior prom. please.
To get an even better idea have a look at the videos of them performing the above songs: http://www.youtube.com/theyoungdads
They’ll be at bar 4 tomorrow night at 9PM. 444 Seventh Avenue at 13th Street.
No Left Turns on Flatbush Starting April 15th
There will be no left turns from Park and Sterling Place onto Flatbush Avenue starting April 15th, part of a traffic calming effort on the street where a young woman, Erinn Phelan was seriously injured in a hit and run accident.
This no left turn policy would not have saved Phelan’s life. Still, it may slow things down on that dangerous thoroughfare and make things a little bit safer.
Bklyn Bloggage: neighborhoods
Surprises on NY Mag’s list of livable neighborhoods: NY Times
We’re #5: NY Shitty
Antony Weiner says Green Street money exists: Gerritsen Beach
Report on Daniel Squadron’s 2nd Community Convention: Pardon Me for Asking
James Cameron to preach green in Ft. Greene: The Local
Grrr. Ditmas Park & Kensington not on NY Mag list: Ditmas Park Blog
Borough Hall’s fancy water fountain returns: McBrooklyn
Lowest census rate in all of NYC: Free Williamsburg
Current Weather in Park Slope
Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.
Efrain Gonzalez: First Bugs of Spring
Undomesticated Brooklyn: Whirling Dervish of Domesticity
There are days when I slack off on my domestic duties and can’t even bear to make the effort to toast a slice of bread or make my bed. Other days, I frantically scrub, bake, and neaten. On those days, I’m a whirling dervish of domesticity. Friday was one of those days.
Here is a rundown of all of the useful things I did:
1. Washed and folded two loads of laundry
2. Went shopping at the Park Slope Food Co-Op (and lugged the groceries home)
3. Loaded the dishwasher (and unloaded it once it was done)
4. Cleaned the bathrooms
5. Made the beds and generally tidied up
6. Baked uber-hearty banana muffins (using honey, canola oil and whole wheat flour)
7. Cooked up a big batch of carrot ginger soup.
In hindsight, I realize I made the soup simply so I could have an excuse to finally bought a hand blender. The kids were intrigued by the new toy, but I knew Avo would roll his eyes as yet another kitchen gadget crowding the pantry.
I was just finishing up with the soup when Avo walked in the door. I shoved a spoonful of the soup in his mouth and pretty much begged for praise. Before he could swallow the soup (or compliment the soup), I hurried out the door — on my way to Manhattan to celebrate my friend Becky’s 40th birthday. As I ran down the hallway, I called back to Avo, “eat the soup and then freeze the rest!”
“So how was it?” I asked the next morning before he even had a chance to drink his coffee.
“Not gingery enough for me. And I don’t think you pureed it enough. I got some big chunks of carrot,” he said.
Oh well. I guess I need to practice some more with the hand blender.
Luckily, I liked the soup just fine and will surely make use of the frozen leftovers. Here’s the recipe for that soup:
Continue reading Undomesticated Brooklyn: Whirling Dervish of Domesticity
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
What Ever Happened to the PPW Bike Lane?
The following is an urgent call from Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors to implement a protected bike lane on Prospect Park West without delay as a way to stem dangerous speeding along that street.
One year after the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) announced plans to combat chronic speeding on Prospect Park West by narrowing the roadway from three travel lanes to two – replacing one travel lane with a protected bi-directional bike lane – work has yet to commence on the critical safety improvements, which had originally been planned for implementation beginning in September, 2009. Meanwhile, cars continue to hurtle down Prospect Park West at breakneck speed, in clear defiance of the legal speed limit.
Volunteers from Park Slope Neighbors on the first weekend of Spring followed up NYC DOT’s March 2009 field survey, with similar – and potentially even more dangerous – results. Last year’s DOT survey clocked 70% of cars exceeding the 30 mph speed limit, with 15% traveling 40 mph or faster. The PSN survey – conducted on March 20th and 21st, a weekend during which thousands of people on foot and on bicycles flocked to Prospect Park to take advantage of unseasonably warm weather – found 85% of cars exceeding the speed limit, with a startling 30% averaging 40 mph or more.
“What was true a year ago is even more true today,” said Eric McClure, campaign coordinator for Park Slope Neighbors. “Speeding poses a significant danger on Prospect Park West, something that NYC DOT has clearly recognized. On the occasion of tonight’s Prospect Park West Traffic Calming and Protected Bicycle Path Open House, we urge the city to begin implementing this critically needed project immediately.”
NYC DOT’s plan for Prospect Park West was endorsed by Brooklyn Community Board 6’s Transportation Committee last April, and approved by the full board in May. More than 1,300 people have signed a Park Slope Neighbors petition supporting implementation of a two-way, protected Class I bike lane. And 39th District City Council Member Brad Lander, whose district encompasses a long stretch of Prospect Park West, has been an outspoken proponent of the plan.
“It’s clear that the speeding problem on Prospect Park West isn’t going to improve without a complete redesign of the street,” said McClure. “And a two-way physically separated bike lane will provide an important and necessary link in the city’s bicycle network. We shouldn’t let the summer go by without implementing these important changes.”
The Prospect Park West Open House is being held tonight, Monday, April 12th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at Temple Beth Elohim at 274 Garfield Place, between 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West. It’s being billed as an opportunity to learn about the proposed safety improvements, view design plans, and provide input to and discuss the plans with the project team. The Open House is being sponsored by NYC DOT, Community Board 6, and Council Members Lander and Steve Levin.
About the speed survey: the speed survey was conducted with an accurately calibrated hand-held radar gun at Prospect Park West and Garfield Place, on March 20th and 21st, 2010, in mid-afternoon, with a random sample of 251 vehicles. The median speed among the vehicles was 37 mph; the mean was 36.2 mph. Thirty percent of vehicles were timed at 40 mph or higher, and the top speed recorded was 53 mph. The posted speed limit on Prospect Park West is 30 mph.
Nate Silver on Neighborhood Rankings
Here’s an excerpt from Nate Silver’s blog, Five Thirty Eight, from his neighborhood survey that was used as a source in the New York Magaizne article, The Best Place to Live in NY.
The results of my project with New York magazine to rate New York City’s neighborhoods along a number of objective statistical dimensions are now live. This was a fairly grueling and exhaustive project; people are rightly proud of their neighborhoods, and I don’t think you dare to do something like this without being pretty careful about it. With that said, there’s a lot of reasonably high-quality data available on New York and its neighborhoods, so I hope we were at least able to get a little closer toward the truth.
If you want to look at a static set of rankings, Brooklyn’s Park Slope ranked first, followed by Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Queens’s Sunnyside. But that’s not really where the utility of this project is. The coolest part, rather, is an interactive applet that allows you to determine for yourself the relative importance you attach to 12 different categories of data (housing cost, housing quality, transit/proximity, crime, schools, green space, food/restaurants, health and wellness, shopping and services, diversity, “creative capital” and nightlife). If you play around with the applet for long enough, you’ll find that it’s fairly easy to slot any of 15 or so neighborhoods into the top position, and any of 40 or so of the 60 that we evaluated into the top ten.
Park Slope is Tops
Park Slope tops the list in New York Magazine’s cover story, The Best Place to Live in New York.
Big surprise.
The list was compiled by blogger and statistics maven, Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com.
According to the Daily News, “Silver used a complicated statistical formula that factors in everything from diversity to safety to nightlife, giving housing affordability more weight than any other category>”
Second place: The Lower East Side, which got points for its plethora of bars and restaurants.
Third place: Sunnyside, Queen which Silver found to be affordable
Fourth Place: Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill
Fifth Place: Greenpoint
Current Weather in Park Slope
Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.
OTBKB Music: A Busy Week Ahead
There’s so much going on this week, which includes April 15th, the last day for you to file your tax returns, that I think the best thing to do is to take a look at what’s happening in advance. Starting Tuesday, there are 10 good shows over five days, including the opening of the new Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2. And there’s also the last day to file your tax returns on Thursday, April 15. Check the listings over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.
–Eliot Wagner
Four & Twenty Blackbirds: Bakery on Third Avenue in Gowanus Area
Last Wednesday, I was walking on Fifth Avenue when I ran into a Park Slope mover and shaker and she told me about Four & Twenty Blackbirds, a new pie shop on Third Avenue near 8th Street. She’d just walked over and it wasn’t open yet.
“My daughter is visiting Vietnam but she emailed me about it?” this PS mover and shaker told me.
“She must be reading Brooklyn blogs in Vietnam,” I said.
We agreed that we’d have pie together when the shop opens. She thought the name was especially great. So do I.
Four & Twenty Blackbirds is owned by sisters Emily and Melissa Elsen, who make sweet and savory pies by the slice or by custom orders. They’ll also have rotating daily special breakfast pastries, quiches, and sandwiches.
In other words it’s a place for breakfast, lunch or a snack as well as a bakery.
Look at what they’ve got: Lavender-blueberry and apple-pear with rosewater pies, Irving Farm organic coffee roasted upstate. The shop just opened this past Friday. So it’s brand new. Let’s show our love.
Tues.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat., 9 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
Where: 439 Third Ave., at 8th St. (718-499-2917).
Here is their spring and summer list of pies to look forward to:
SPRING
Sour Cream Lemon Tart with Cornmeal Crust
Apple & Pear with Rosewater Pie
Lizzie’s Lemon Cream Pie
Pear Ginger Pie
Pear Frangipane Tart
Mixed Berry Tart
Farmer’s Cheese Tart
For the Love of Lemon Tart
SUMMER
Apple Pie
Cherry Pie
Peach Pie
Apricot Pie
Blueberry Pie
Rhubarb Pie
Pear Pie
Peach Berry Pie
Lavender Blueberry Pie
Honeyed Apricot & Lavender Tart
Fresh Fig Tart
Plum with Almond Créme Tart
Blood Orange & Rhubarb Pie
Fig & Rhubarb Tart
Statement From Staff of Park Slope’s Gorilla Coffee About Walk-Out
Indeed, the shop was closed for the second day in a row and the owners say they won’t be reopening anytime soon. The owners told the New York Times that the total staff resignation came as a surprise. Darleen Scherer, one of the owners said over the phone. “They made an unreasonable request, and then they didn’t have any way to go but out.”
Here is the statement from the Gorilla Coffee staff about their recent walk-out. They make it clear that it is not a strike. They have quit and have no intention of returning.
We the workers would have preferred to keep this between the people involved, thus our silence towards the press. However, we do feel it is important to clarify the situation for the friends and patrons of Gorilla Coffee.
The issues brought up with the owners of Gorilla Coffee yesterday are issues that they have been aware of for some time. These issues which have repeatedly been brushed aside and ignored have created a perpetually malicious, hostile, and demeaning work environment that was not only unhealthy, but also, as our actions have clearly shown, unworkable.
Several staff left not only recently, but also in the past few years due to these issues. The staff was recently told that the business partner to whom these issues have been repeatedly attributed was no longer affiliated with the business, and the environment was going to change. For 6 weeks nothing was seen nor heard of this business partner. This separation changed the dynamic of the business so drastically one of the departed staff quit their other job to return with the understanding these changes were permanent, and those who had tendered their resignation, or were drafting it, decided to stay. When the business partner returned without explanation, staff approached the owner hoping to find out the reason for this sudden and unannounced return. Work environment and workplace issues aside, the workers collectively felt deceived and that they had been shown a lack of mutual respect. This only served to highlight and reemphasize the previously expressed concerns. As the staff was well aware, both through experience and through conversation with past employees, Gorilla Coffee has a history of this pattern repeating itself.
It should be emphasized that the intent of the meeting was above all to find a solution to this unhealthy situation, a solution which involved the maintenance of these improvements to the work environment, and that would prevent any future returns to the previous unhealthy dynamic. Above all the attitude of the staff involved in the meeting (who were representing the rest of the staff) was one of respect and positivity. A collective instant resignation was an agreed upon last resort and not a bargaining chip. It was simply that without change, we all felt unwilling to undergo another day in that environment. Hence, out of a collective feeling of self respect and job insecurity, the staff decided it would be in their best interest to find employment elsewhere.
This isn’t political and it isn’t a strike. The staff quit and the matter will not be resolved. It’s a matter of business, and a personal matter for each of the staff. Everyone at Gorilla Coffee, including the owners and the staff, are skilled, passionate, and hard working. It is unfortunate for everyone involved. The workers are grateful to the many wonderful patrons over the years, and we apologize that it was necessary to inconvenience them in this way. All we can say is “thank you for the support and all the best.”
Sincerely, The workers of Gorilla Coffee
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/gorilla-coffee-workers-arent-coming-back/
Brooklyn-Born Traveler Seeks Suggestions
A friend sent this request my way:
Brooklyn-Born traveler seeks suggestions for day outing that connects to to his roots. His own thoughts for visit on Wednesday, May 26 include trolley tour at Green-Wood Cemetery and meanders around Brooklyn Bridge and DUMBO.
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Truth & Money on Tax Day: Please Come!!
Brooklyn Reading Works presents Truth and Money, a reading and discussion about a subject we all hold dear: MONEY on Thursday, April 15th at 8PM at the Old Stone House.
Tax Day. What better day to come to terms with this subject we obsess over and avoid?
To quote that great song from Cabaret: Money Makes the World Go Round.
Ain’t it the truth.
The truth is that money is often a divisive influence in our lives. We keep our bank balances secret because we worry that being candid about our finances will expose us to judgment or ridicule—or worse, to accusations of greed or immorality. And this worry is not unfounded.
Jenny Offill and Elissa Schappell, Money Changes Everything (New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. xi
On April 15, 2010, the Brooklyn Reading Works will present its monthly writers’ program on “tax day.” This happy accident, observed last summer in a casual conversation over coffee with the brilliant John Guidry of the great blog, Truth and Rocket Science, resulted in the idea for a panel called “The Truth and Money,” a reading and Q & A with three authors whose work has taken on money in some significant way.
Our three panelists are:
Elissa Schappell, a Park Slope writer, the editor of “Hot Type” (the books column) for Vanity Fair, and Editor-at-large of the literary magazine Tin House. With Jenny Offill, Schappell edited Money Changes Everything, in which twenty-two writers reflect on the troublesome and joyful things that go along with acquiring, having, spending, and lacking money.
Jennifer Michael Hecht, a best-selling writer and poet whose work crosses fields of history, philosophy, and religious studies. In The Happiness Myth, she looks at what’s not making us happy today, why we thought it would, and what these things really do for us instead. Money—like so many things, it turns out—solves one problem only to beget others, to the extent that we spend a great deal of money today trying to replace the things that, in Hecht’s formulation, “money stole from us.”
Jason Kersten, a Park Slope writer who lives 200 feet from our venue and whose award-winning journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, and Maxim. In The Art of Making Money, Kersten traces the riveting, rollicking, roller coaster journey of a young man from Chicago who escaped poverty, for a while at least, after being apprenticed into counterfeiting by an Old World Master.
Please join us for the event at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 15, 2010, at the Old Stone House in Washington Park, which is located on 5th Avenue in Park Slope, between 3rd and 4th Streets, behind the playground.
The Sisterhood of the Stationary Coffee
Smartmom and her sister Diaper Diva love talking to each other about their kids. Whenever they get together for coffee on Seventh Avenue, at ConnMuffCo or Sweet Melissa, it’s a non-stop debriefing session about the latest, breaking news on Teen Spirit, the Oh So Feisty One and Ducky.
Without a doubt, it’s what they talk about more than anything else.
More than their husbands. And they talk about them plenty.
More than their parents. And they talk about them plenty.
More than their friends. And they talk about them plenty.
More than their careers. And they talk about that plenty.
So what do they talk about when they talk about their kids? In a word: everything. No detail is too small, no subject is too big. They both seem to be intensely interested in each other’s children. And that’s a good thing because otherwise they’d be bored to death.
Over skim lattes, Diaper Diva fills in Smartmom on the minutiae of 5-year-old Ducky’s day. What time she woke up, how she jumped into her parent’s bed for a big snuggle, the cereal she ate for breakfast, what she’ll have for lunch.
Diaper Diva tells Smartmom how Ducky insisted on wearing her red tutu to school and her multi-colored Mary Jane sneakers; that “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” is her current favorite video, that “The Magic Schoolbus” is her favorite book series, and Magenta is still her most cherished stuffed animal.
Lately, they’ve been talking about how to get Ducky to stop sucking her thumb. Smartmom was a thumb-sucker until she was 10-years-old, so she knows how hard it is to quit. When she was in fifth grade, her mother offered her $10 to stop sucking and that’s when she finally “joined the unhooked generation.”
“Ducky says, ‘My thumb is so delicious,’ ” DD tells Smartmom.
“I remember how good it tasted,” Smartmom says sticking her thumb in her mouth for old time’s sake.
“But I want her to stop,” Diaper Diva tells Smartmom.
“Don’t worry, she’ll stop eventually. I did,” says Smartmom pulling her thumb out of her mouth.
In an informal way, they both get equal kid-talk time. When Diaper Diva finishes with Ducky’s morning, Smartmom starts on OSFO.
“Her alarm went off at 5:30 am, but she didn’t wake up until 7. And then it was rush, rush, rush to get her hair, makeup and outfit together in time to leave by 8,” Smartmom tells Diaper Diva before launching into Teen Spirit’s late-night shenanigans.
“Teen Spirit came in late and stayed up even later watching ‘Breaking Bad’ on Hulu,” she tells her.
DD knows the size of Teen Spirit’s skinny jeans and the lyrics to many of his songs. She knows about his propensity for sleeping late into the day, his college applications and his road trip to Austin, Texas.
Diaper Diva knows the names and faces of OSFO’s friends and all the latest gossip. She knows the brand of OSFO’s favorite eyeliner, her shoe size and that she still likes playing with her American Girl dolls.
Needless to say, she knows about other things, too. Smartmom can brag a blue streak and not worry about sounding cocky around her sister. She told her in excruciating detail about the performance of Teen Spirit’s band Bad Teeth at Vox Pop last October. “He was really great,” she told Diaper Diva. “And I’m not saying that because I’m his mother. “He’s REALLY talented.”
Diaper Diva believed her.
And it’s not just the good stuff that Smartmom tells her sister. She also shares her worries, her insecurities, her deep dark fears. She can say things she would never say to anyone else for fear of judgment or even Child Protective Services. Diaper Diva knows all the really dumb things Smartmom has done and all the near misses (like the time Teen Spirit nearly drowned in the bathtub).
She knows things Smartmom would NEVER EVER write about in her column so just forget it.
Likewise, Smartmom knows about all the times Diaper Diva loses her temper or spends too much money on Ducky or yells too loud or lets her get away with murder. She knows her proudest parenting moments and the stuff she’s embarrassed about.
The sisters like to think that their conversations are judgement-free. But the truth is, they do occasionally act mean and judgemental. They are sisters after all. Smartmom really had a fit when Diaper Diva told her she should have NEVER let OSFO dye her hair blue.
“But she wanted blue,” Smartmom said.
“You don’t have to do everything that she wants,” Diaper Diva spit out.
Ouch.
Oh yeah? Well, Smartmom hates it when Ducky gets time-outs when she’s over.
“I hate to hear her cry in her room,” Smartmom told DD.
Diaper Diva thinks Smartmom should build new closets in Teen Spirit and OSFO’s rooms.
“They have nowhere to put their clothing. It’s such a mess,” she told Smartmom.
It can get ugly — and someone sometimes storms off. It’s pretty embarrassing to be left sitting alone at Sweet Melissa just as the waiter brings DD’s oatmeal.
“Can you wrap that up?” Smartmom tells the waiter with studied nonchalance. “She had to go.”
The sisters usually make up within an hour or so because they know it’s futile to stay mad at each other for too long. Besides, there’s always something new to talk about — and who else are they going to tell?
Al Capone Was a Park Sloper
According to blogger, Save the Slope, a blog dedicated to neighborhood preservation, Al Capone was a Park Sloper and he’s got the details and research to prove it. Here’s an excerpt from his interesting blog post:
Young Al is associated with two addresses in Garfield Place, and with P.S. 133. According to his Wikipedia article, his family first lived at 38 Garfield Place, on the south side of the block between 4th & 5th Avenues:
New York Mag Picks Slope as Best Place to Live
Park Slope tops the list in New York Magazine’s cover story, The Best Place to Live in New York.
Big surprise.
The list was compiled by blogger and statistics maven, Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com.
According to the Daily News, “Silver used a complicated statistical formula that factors in everything from diversity to safety to nightlife, giving housing affordability more weight than any other category>”
Second place: The Lower East Side, which got points for its plethora of bars and restaurants.
Third place: Sunnyside, Queen which Silver found to be affordable
Fourth Place: Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill
Fifth Place: Greenpoint
Gorilla Coffee Employee Walk-Out
Gorilla Coffee, the coffee supplier/cafe on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope has closed. For the time being anyway. Apparently, employees gave written resignation and walked out after the owners refused to meet their demands.
Gorilla Coffee—Park Slope coffee house and bean supplier to indie Brooklyn dripperies—appears to have suffered a total employee walk-out last night. What kind of sweatshop was their “oppressive hipster-in-chief” (a local blog’s designation) running?
And: Who will step up to fill the vacuum in Brooklyn’s locally-roasted coffee mafia wars, now? (coffia? cafia?) Coffee blog Sprudge and neighborhood blog Fucked in Park Slope report from the scene of the insurrection.
From Fucked in Park Slope:
We got intel from the dudes at Sprudge that Gorilla Coffee had every employee walk out last night on their oppressive hipster-in-chief. Baristas, roasters — everyone!
I went on a down-n-dirty inFIPStigation this morning, and it’s true: Gorilla is indeed closed. I guess indefinitely (???), since there’s not a note or anything on the door…
No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford
Park Slope Pizza Tour
Jeffrey Tastes, is a food blogger, who records and documents his experiences eating food in Queens, Brooklyn, New York City and Long Island
Recently he came to Park Slope and ate in a lot of the neighborhood’s classic pizza shops. Clearly the man loves to eat and he ate a whole lot of Slope pizza.
I was lucky enough to take nearly a full pie’s worth of people on my Park Slope exploratory pizza tour. I’m not used to it, usually it’s just me and my Schwinn, but I’m happy to have such support on these missions.
Luigi’s is already slated for the tour, but I wanted to explore the many other pizzerias here. We hit the Slope hard.
Jeffrey started his tour at La Villa and went on to Tomato and Basil on Fourth Avenue near Union, Peppinos on Fifth, Lenny’s also on Fifth, Peppe’s and Toby’s Pizza House on 20th Street.
The guy knows how to write about pizza that’s for sure.
April 23: Tree of Life Mosaic On View at Rivendell School
A recently completed mosaic called The Tree of Life created by artist Carlos Juan Pinto will be open to the public on April 23, 2010, on the rooftop playground of the Rivendell Montessori Pre-School, 277 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn at the corner of President Street.
Brooklyn-based artist Pinto, donated his work on the project, integrating designs by the school’s children into the mosaic, which honors the Montessori method of observing and supporting the natural development of children.
The project is a collaboration between the artist, The Rivendell School and Charas, Inc.
Pinto, originally from Guatemala, has lived and worked in New York City for ten years. His art is as expressive as his native and lush, colorful Central American nation and draws the viewer into a world of play, responsibility and seriousness. His legacy, as he sees it, is to be known as an artist who adopts a Green Revolution.
The Rivendell School was formerly known as The Children’s House of Park Slope. For over 25 years, it has provided Montessori education to pre-primary children, encouraging them to gain a sense of their own power and ability as learners, and as social and emotional beings.
Concurrent with the opening at the Rivendell School, there will be an exhibition across the street at The Crooked Trail Café 272 3rd Ave. (also, corner of President St.), featuring more of Juan Carlos Pinto’s work, and photographs by photographer Juan Noguera about the making of the mosaic.
Baseball on Parade
Today kids and parents, who participate in local baseball leagues, will be out in full force on Seventh Avenue for the annual baseball parade, which starts at 10AM at Carroll Street and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. As I remember, the teams meet up on the side streets about an hour earlier than the parade itself.
The parade marks the beginning of the Brooklyn baseball season and it’s quite a site to see Seventh Avenue brimming with kids instead of cars from Carroll Street all the way to Ninth Street.
For many kids it’s their first time in uniform so it’s a pretty exciting day. I especially like to see the little kids — the cute 3,4,5 year olds in their gear.
The parade ends at the band shell in Prospect Park and many local politicians and officials will be on hand to celebrate the day. There will be lots of speeches and loads of cliches about sports, life and the nature of community. The Brooklyn Dodgers will be evoked again and again by some of the older speakers no doubt.
Ah yes, it brings back memories. My son played baseball with the 78th precinct from kindergarten until he was about 11. I’m amazed that he hung in there for so long as he’s not the sportiest guy. The outfield is a great place to dream until a ball comes your way and then it’s high drama.
There were many highs and lows during his baseball career and lots of trophies (because in Park Slope everyone gets a trophy). His kindergarten team was especially cute. The kids didn’t know you were supposed to run after they batted the ball and the parents would all yell “Run, run!”
The parents we met were pretty low key about the whole baseball thing. We didn’t experience the hyper-competitive, cut throat behavior we’d heard about.
It was Park Slope after all.
The parents I knew did a lot of socializing during the practices and games. Every so often they’d take a break from their conversations and ask, “Who’s winning?”
But there was joy in watching the kids improve and really learn the skills of the game. And don’t get me wrong: joy in winning. And when the kids lost a game we watched silently as they shook hands with the other team and tried to take it in stride.
And yeah: when my son hit a base run or a made a good outfield play we were ecstatic.
Ecstatic.