I asked Brad Lander about his first week in the City Council.

Thanks so much for asking about my first week in the City Council.  It was really great!   Our new staff team helped our first (official) constituents, got our office heat turned on (after a cold two-and-a-half days), and started meeting with community groups throughout the district.  On Wednesday, I attended my first City Council meeting.  It has been both exciting and inspiring.

“Our district office is open and ready to start serving constituents. We are located at 456 5^th Ave in Park Slope (on the 3^rd floor, above Neergaard Pharmacy), one block from the 4th Ave and 9th Street F and R subway stop.  I hope you’ll take the opportunity to come by and see us.  You can also call us at (718) 499-1090, fax us at (718) 499-1997 (if you still have a fax!), or email me at blander@council.nyc.gov.
Here’s the great staff team we have in place:

— Rachel Goodman, Chief-of-Staff, rgoodman@council.nyc.gov

— Michael Freedman-Schnapp, Policy Director, mfreedman-schnapp@council.nyc.gov

— Jessica Turner, Community Liaison (Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park), jturner@council.nyc.gov

— Michael Curtin, Community Liaison (Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope), mcurtin@council.nyc.gov

— Jonah Blumstein, Scheduler/Office Manager, blumstein@council.nyc.gov

“Rachel, Michael, Jessica, Michael, Jonah and I got right to work on the first day, as there were already a number of constituents reaching out to us for our help. And I have to say, I am even more sympathetic now to all the people calling our office, as I spent too much of my first two days as a Councilman trying to get the heat activated in our new office! It certainly reminded me of how important it is to have someone advocating for you when you are in need of service assistance. I hope to be that kind of advocate for all my constituents.  We had our first constituent service success story on Friday, getting assistance from the Parks Department’s Department of Forestry.

“Other highlights from the first week include my first meeting of the whole City Council, where my colleagues and I took our oath of office for the new term; meetings I attended with the 76th Precinct Community Council, the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association and Community Board 12; and a ribbon cutting ceremony that I took part in at the new Atlantic Terminal MTA hub (which is really magnificent on the inside, if you can get past the ugly security barriers).

“This weekend was full of a great set of events:  inaugural events for my new colleagues Jimmy Van Bramer and Danny Dromm (both from Queens) and for our new Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, a wonderful event celebrating Assemblyman Jim Brennan’s 25 years of public service, the Independent Neighborhood Democrats post-holiday party, and the baptism of the new daughter of John and Maria Heyer.  And I still managed to coach my son Marek’s basketball game (the team got blown out this week, but they showed a lot of poise).

“Finally, I want to share with you two recent media appearances:

“On the inaugural show of “Intersect,” a program, on Brooklyn Independent TV/BCAT, I debate (my friend, even though we don’t agree on this issue) Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and small business owner Gil Sygler on a bill before the City Council that would require all employers to provide paid sick days to their employees … something that I believe is long overdue.

“On Wednesday, I did a radio interview with Jonathan Hicks from the Dubois Bunche Center at Medgar Evers College.  In the interview, I discuss an essay that I co-authored in a new book From Disaster to Diversity: What’s Next for New York City’s Economy? which was published recently by the Drum Major Institute.  In my essay I discuss recommendations for how economic development should be undertaken – in order to preserve and strengthen neighborhoods, and create real opportunities and broadly shared prosperity.

All in all it was a great first week as the 39^th district’s City Councilman, the first of many over the next four years I am sure. Please don’t hesitate to contact me, or my office, if there is ever anything you need from us, and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.”

Brad

People want to know. Why did the mayor approve Superfund status for the Newtown Creek and not the famously toxic Gowanus Canal? In December Mayor Bloomberg announed that he supported the Superfund designation for Newtown but he continues to oppose it for the Gowanus because the city wants to do the clean up itself (much to the chagrin of Superfund suporters in the neighborhoods around teh Gowanus.

From Courier Life:

“They are different situations and we evaluate each one independently,” explained Marc La Vorgna, a spokesperson for the mayor. “Each situation is not the same.” For the Gowanus, the city has proposed an alternative plan that uses the power of persuasion to bring potentially responsible polluters to the bargaining table, as opposed to a courtroom. Under the Superfund program, polluters are compelled to clean up the mess they created, or face stiff fines or legal action.The city’s plan replies on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which allows the Army Corps of Engineers to perform environmental restoration in a navigable channel, which the fetid canal is considered.Up to 65 percent of that work could be funded by taxpayers, and that cash could lower the tab for a responsible party, incentivizing participation in the city’s plan. “In Newtown, none of those factors exist — the Army Corps is not there and we don’t have a similar and willing group of potentially responsible parties,” La Vorgna noted. “We do believe that the way the situation exists now is that Superfund might be the best route.”

On his final day in office Comptroller Bill Thompson approved a contract that will make possible the controversial expansion and reopening of the Brooklyn House of Detention in Boerum Hill.

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Before then, Thompson had thrice refused to register the $32-million contract for the renovation of the prison at Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street, citing the increasing cost of the project. Mayor Bloomberg returned fire by suing the comptroller’s office, alleging that Thompson shirked his civic duty by ignoring a mandate to give the $440-million plan the green light.But now that Thompson has rubber-stamped the renovation contract, the mayor’s office has withdrawn its suit But don’t open up the double-locked cellblocks just yet. Before the city can make good on its plan to turn the long-shuttered House of Detention into a 769-bed prison, city officials say they will reach a settlement with community groups.

Tonight at 9PM: watch an interview on BCAT with Jennifer Jones Austin, the Park Slope legal activist, wife and mother, who is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant.

I’m a freelance reporter with Brooklyn Independent Television. On December 16th I covered the bone marrow drive being held at the Bed-Stuy YMCA for Jennifer and a week later I got to interview her. A truly inspiring woman. The segment will air Monday, January 11th at 9pm on BCAT: Time Warner channel 56, Cablevision channel 69, RCN channel 84 and in all five boroughs on Verizon 44. It will post to the BIT website later in the week. I urge everyone to attend one of the many bone marrow drives being held in the borough for Jennifer and who knows, you might not just help save her life, but that of someone else who needs a match.

A bone marrow transplant requires a 100% compatible match. Because none of Jennifer’s siblings were a match, her best chance of finding one is through the Be The Match Marrow Registry. That is why we are asking for YOUR help. Be The Match Registry is in need of registered donors.

A simple cheek swab is all that is needed to determine if YOU could be the one to save Jennifer or one of the other thousands of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.

A Bone Marrow donation isn’t such a big deal either: it only requires a blood donation. A surgical procedure is NOT required.

To register to become a possible marrow donor, visit www.bethematch.org or call (888) 638-2870. To learn about upcoming marrow drives for Austin visit www.savejenaustin.com.

From the NY Daily News:

Call it the Avenue of Death. Brooklyn’s Atlantic Ave. is becoming one of city’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians, a new study found. From 2006 to 2008, nine pedestrians were killed along the stretch of Atlantic Ave. from Cypress Hills to Downtwon Brooklyn making it one of the two deadliest strips in the city, a new study by the Tri-Station Transportation Campaign showed. That gave Atlantic Ave. nearly twice as many fatalities as Queen’s Blvd. which has become far safer since its frequent pedestrian deaths got it dubbed the “Boulevard of Death” at the start of the last decade.

From Leon Freilich, Verse Responder:

It happened last weekend and again today.  Probably will tomorrow as well. The subway geniuses printed and posted notices at the Grand Army Plaza station saying there was no Brooklyn-bound service throughout the two weekends. Instead, there’s been no Manhattan-bound service–and there have been 2s & 3s going into Brooklyn, last Saturday & Sunday along with today. What is it with this MTA–misshapen tuchis ailment?

Gary Sloman sent in this story and photos today:

I am writing to you hoping you might post a notice about David’s Laundry (60 5th Avenue).  After  serving  the neighborhood for more than 30 years it was forced to close several months ago.  I am fuzzy on the details but it seems to have been due to a legal dispute among the heirs to the property.   The store’s proprietor, a lively, lovely, warm and energetic older woman was quite devastated, because the store was her raison d’etre.  So I was quite happy and surprised when I recently noticed it was open again.  When I inquired the  proprietor showed me a little slip of paper with many Chinese characters and the single English word “appeal”, from which I gathered that her return related to something that had occurred in court.  In any case, the proprietor is delighted to have been given a new lease on life (and perhaps the store) but who needs to notify her old customer base that she is back. (I am sorry I do not know the proprietor’s name or the other details usually expected from a thorough journalistic piece, but I am not a journalist.  However,  I think the two photos tell part of the story)

From the New York Times:

Two young women died when they were thrown from a car that crashed on the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn early Sunday. The car’s driver, a 29-year-old man, was charged with vehicular manslaughter, driving while impaired by alcohol and other counts, the police said. The car, a 1996 Infiniti, hit a guardrail while traveling east, veered across several lanes of eastbound traffic and hit other cars, the police said. It then swerved back across all the eastbound lanes and struck a median. The two women, who were in the back of the Infiniti, were ejected. The crash occurred on the parkway near 80th Street at about 3:30 a.m. Emergency medical personnel pronounced the women — who were 24 and 33 years old — dead at the scene a few minutes later. Their names had not been released by Sunday evening.

Yesterday a friend of mine filled me in on the continuing urgency of Jennifer Jones Austin’s situation. Most importantly it alerted me to the fact that she desperately needs our help.

This Park Slope resident, legal advocate, wife and mother has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). Her chances of survival are slim unless she undergoes a bone marrow transplant within the next few months.

Members of the Park Slope community are doing everything in their power to find her a match. A bone marrow drive is planned for February 6th at the Berkeley Carroll School, where Austin’s children go to school (more info to come as details are worked out).

“I’m extremely thankful to the people who came to the drive,” Austin told the Daily News recently. “Hopefully we’ll find a match for me, but more importantly we need more African-Americans to register to be marrow donors.”

A bone marrow transplant requires a 100% compatible match. Because none of her siblings were a match, her best chance of finding one is through the Be The Match Marrow Registry. That is why we are asking for YOUR help. Be The Match Registry is in need of registered donors.

A simple cheek swab is all that is needed to determine if YOU could be the one to save Jennifer or one of the other thousands of patients in need of a bone marrow transplant.

A Bone Marrow donation isn’t such a big deal either: A donation only requires a blood donation. A surgical procedure is NOT required.

To register to become a possible marrow donor, visit www.bethematch.org or call (888) 638-2870. To learn about upcoming marrow drives for Austin visit www.savejenaustin.com.