In 2001 Hepcat’s sister and brother-in-law, who live in San Francisco, came east for Thanksgiving. After the feast, they wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to see Ground Zero, which was still burning. Up until that day, Smartmom had been emotionally unable to visit Ground Zero. But on that first Thanksgiving after the 11th, she felt ready to join her S.F. relatives on their journey across the river.

Smartmom was nervous about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, as the bridge and other New York City landmarks had been cited many times as major Al Queda targets. Everytime she took a subway, rode across a bridge or was in a tunnel she felt imperiled. It was a strange time, New Yorkers felt under attack in a very personal way.

But Smartmom didn’t mention her own fears—not a word. She stiff-upper-lipped it and braved the walk like the ever-reliable New York booster and tour guide that she is. Her relatives seemed to have no fear of walking across the bridge. Smartmom, on the other hand, felt the familiar flutter of anxiety that had been a constant since the 11th. She remembers thinking: how ironic if we’re blown up on Thanksgiving night wanting to pay our respects to the dead at Ground Zero. Death was never far from her thoughts back then.

Continue reading Thanksgiving 2001 →

Here’s Park Slope, an excellent hyper-local blog in Park Slope, has been in existence since 2009. Dan Meyers, who runs the blog, has been doing some real shoe leather reporting about restaurants, stores, architecture, and Park Slope history. He posts frequently and has an impressive weekly editorial schedule:

Tuesday: Business of the Week
Thursday: Then & Now
Know Your Bartender
Friday: Foodporn
Every Day: News and Observations

Here he is on Aunt Suzies, today’s restaurant of the week:

When Brooklyn native Irene LoRe decided to open up a restaurant on Fifth Avenue in the late 1980s, gentrification was still years off. Bodegas and dollar stores dominated the avenue, and if you wanted a decent meal your best bet was to head up to Seventh. Enter Irene: named after her mother, Aunt Suzie’s was the family friendly, inexpensive local place that neighborhood folks had been waiting for…

Here he is on one of my favorite houses in the South Slope.

As you venture further south in Park Slope, the uniform brownstones of the North Slope side streets give way to a hodgepodge of brick townhouses and vinyl- and wood-sided buildings. The latter houses vary between run-of-the-mill and completely outlandish, and stumbling upon one of the crazier ones can make you stop dead in your tracks…

The blog’s name, I assume, is an homage to E.B. White’s great book, Here is New York, a tribute to New York City in all its wonder, chaos and complexity.

At Here’s Park Slope, Meyers brings Park Slope to life and seems to be an all seeing, all knowing member of the community, who takes the time to tell us what he sees. Thanks, Dan.

According to the New York Times, the panel selected to advise New York State’s education commissioner, David M. Steiner, has voted to deny a waiver to the publishing executive her appointment as NYC Schools Chancellor unless—and this is a big unless—an educator is selected to assist her.

Interesting lists at It’s a Free Country of those who oppose, those who support and those who are concerned about her nomination.

I’ve been hearing this all day and I’m finally getting around to telling you about it!

According to a poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, a majority of New York City voters believe Cathie Black, the publishing executive selected by Mayor Bloomberg to be NYC School Chancellor, is the wrong person for the job because she lacks educational experience needed to run US’s biggest school system.

Conflict of interest you say? What’s going to happen next?

Rainbow Bandshell, beloved venue: Sheepshead Bites

Save Sheepshead Bay High School: Gerritsen Beach

Tionna Smalls looking to open Bed-Stuy store: Bed-Stuy Blog

East Williamsburg Photo Du Jour: NY Shitty

Sunday afternoon talk with State Senator Daniel Squadron: Pardon Me for Asking

PS Bklyn coming to Union Street: Here is Park Slope

Midnight arsonist in Park Slope: Effed in Park Slope

Woman raped on Central Avenue: Bushwick BK

New record for Bishop Laughlin’s can drive: The Local

Will a pop-up cafe come to Prospect Lefferts: Hawthorne Street

In a collaboration between the Paul Robeson Theater and The Imagine Project, there will be a celebration of the life of a real Brooklyn heroine, Dr. Josephine English, one of the first African American women to practice OB/GYN in New York State.

An advocate for the health care of men and women of color, Dr. English was granted a license from the New York State Department of Health to develop a free-standing ambulatory surgical center in Bed-Stuy. She is also responsible for a senior citizen center in that neighborhood.

“Community is the answer to helping the children and each other. It is community development that is going to change the world. We have to change it for ourselves. We have to make the community work for us and we have to work for the community,” Dr. English said.

Reserve ahead for tickets to this celebration, on December 18, at 6PM at the Paul Robeson Theater (40 Greene Avenue), which will honor Dr English’s contribution to the women and children of Brooklyn. There live performance of new songs and special holiday material by young actors from NYC Homeless Shelters, many of whom created the original material they will be performing.

These young actors will also perform several pieces from the Off Broadway show “IMAGINE. Time Out New York gave it four starts and wrote: “A must see for youngsters, their families and all who care about the beauty and magic of childhood.”

St. John’s Bread & Life is Brooklyn’s largest soup kitchen. Located at 795 Lexington Avenue (that’s Brooklyn, folks), they expect to serve 2,000 meals on Wednesday, a 12 percent increase from last year. Besides serving more than 2,000 meals daily, Bread and Life also provides numerous social services, including nutrition counseling, housing referral services, medical support, education, support groups, a legal clinic and tax preparation.

So while people say that the economy is rebounding (oh really?)the intensity of the need and the services provided at St. John’s Bread & Life proves that there still is a growing number of New Yorkers, who will need emergency food services by the year’s end.

“As our community continues to struggle with lay-offs and home foreclosures, we’re seeing many new faces at the soup kitchen- including families,” said Anthony Butler, executive director of Bread & Life wrote to me in an email.  “Our Thanksgiving tradition ensures that the spirit of the holiday is shared with those less fortunate. We have volunteers up at the crack of dawn to make sure the homeless are not forgotten.”

Due to the ongoing economic issues and the unemployment rate hovering at 9%, the demand for emergency food services in New York City has surged.”

WHEN: Wednesday, November 24, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: St. John’s Bread and Life Soup Kitchen, 795 Lexington Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11221

Props to Assemblywoman Millman and Fairway Market. T hey partnered to deliver 50 frozen turkeys to seven community organizations today. The following organizations received donated turkeys:

The YMCA at 30 Third Avenue; The Raices Times Plaza Senior Center at 460 Atlantic; The Prospect Park YMCA on 9th Street between 6th and  5th Avenues; The Hope Program of Brooklyn at One Smith Street; The Raices Gowanus Senior Center; CHIPS, Christian Help in Park Slope, located at 200 Fourth Avenue; and the Eileen C. Dugan Senior Center located at 380 Court Street.

If you are unemployed, underemployed and are having difficult finding a job I’d like to talk to you. Email me at louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Jay-Z’s new book Decoded: Atlantic Yards Report

Atlantic Yards drama: Brooklyn Paper

City council to report on NY food industry: NY Times

Bushwick Community Board Live: Bushwick BK

Call for beat cops, school funds at FGA: The Local

Volunteers needed at soup kitchen: Ditmas Park Blog

What they are or aren’t giving thanks for: Brooklyn Paper

Miss Kelly, the friendly and enthusiastic parent coordinator at Williamsburg Preparatory High School, agreed to give us a personal tour of the school because there are no more open houses or tours scheduled.

We met up with her in the office she shares with the Parent Coordinators of Brooklyn Preparatory High School and Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, the other schools that share the old Harry Van Arsdale High School Complex on North 6th Street and Driggs, a large building with an elevator that at one time was a very tough school.

That’s one of the reasons why there are still metal detectors in the lobby. Everyone is required to go through the metal detectors when they enter the school. It’s a noisy and jangling process but one that the students seem to take in stride.  We watched as one student was asked to remove her boots and was told by a policewoman that some kids try to sneak in their cell phones that way.

Once beyond the metal detectors, the school feels very safe. We took the elevator to the 4th floor and stepped out into the spacious, sunny and well-decorated corridors of Williamsburg Prep, a school of approximately 500 students, which takes up one entire floor and uses another floor that is dedicated to science laboratories and classrooms.

Continue reading High School Tour Confidential: Williamsburg Prep →

My mother and I went down to Washington to attend the Petra Foundation awards dinner on Saturday night. The Petra Foundation is best described as an organization that facilitates and supports individuals who work on behalf of “the rights, dignity and autonomy of others.”

Part of what the foundation does is honor (and reward) unsung and under-financed individuals and grass roots organizations, that help the abused, the incarcerated, the marginalized, the underrepresented and the poor in the United States. A group of “Petra fellows”  are selected each year (from a long list of nominees) and honored for the work they do.

But that’s not all. Since its founding in 1988, Petra has created a growing leadership network of fellows that helps to connect them to each other and others involved in the battle for human rights in this country.

In a sense, the Petra Foundation is a nurturing community that helps sustain, renew, connect and mentor those who work tirelessly on behalf of others. They help the helpers and make it possible for them to carry on with resources and support (and access to allies, advocates and policy makers) that might not otherwise be available to them.

Last night Petra honored Brooklyn’s Anuradha Bhagwati who runs the Service Women’s Action Network, a group that addresses the abuses suffered by servicewomen and female veterans; Carrie Ann Lucas, an advocate for the disabled; Maria Jimenz, who is considered “the go-to person for strategic advice before engaging in an immigrants’ rights battle”; and Wahleah Johns of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, which advocates for a “prosperous, green and transparently governed Navajo Nation.”

Continue reading Petra Foundation: Helping Those Who Help the Disenfranchised →