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Civics and Urban Life

Jail Sign in Bed Stuy Playground Painted Over

Controversy at a Bed-Stuy playground. Should there be a jail in an imaginary play space for Brooklyn kids. Parents say no and they’re offended that the NYC Housing Authority put it there in the first place.

Here is the original post from Black and Brown News, which ran a photograph of a jail sign in a Bed-Stuy playground that has caused much consternation and controversy.The New York City Housing Authority responded quickly to these recent complaints and painted over the sign yesterday.

There is no kind, gentle, diplomatic way to describe the offense against a community by this ‘Jail Playground’ on a New York City Housing Authority property, located at Tompkins Houses (Park Avenue between Tompkins and Throop) in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where Black and Latino children live and play. (Disproportionately, Black and Latinos enter the criminal justice system. Encouraging young Black and Latino children to first play in Jail until they may actually get to jail or prison is playing loosey-goosey with their young, impressionable psyche and something no community should stand for or be subjected to).

Mr. Mayor Bloomberg, whether or not the word “Jail” was painted on after the City erected the apparatus or it came manufactured with “Jail” written on it, this egregious offense still falls on the City to take corrective action immediately.

From the NY Times:

But on Wednesday after the Black and Brown News article was picked up by Brownstoner and other sites, Housing Authority workers arrived to paint over the “Jail.” Later, another worker showed up in painter’s pants and began scouring off the word “Jail” and the fake bars, which appeared stenciled into the play set, with steel wool and paint remover.

The authority, Ms. Stainback said, “painted over the equipment as a temporary solution to replacing this part of the playground.” The authority is also looking into who ordered the equipment.

Civics and Urban Life

8th Graders Have to Wait to Hear About High School

Anyone who has been through the public high school admissions process knows how difficult it is. But this new wrinkle takes the cake. On Wednesday 8th graders were supposed to find out where they will be going next year. But that didn’t happen. See this excerpt from the New York Times.

Eighth-grade students will indeed have to wait at least one more day before they can find out where they will attend high school next fall.

Admissions letters were expected to be handed out to students on Wednesday, but the Department of Education is under a court order not to distribute the decisions. The order stems from a pending lawsuit from the United Federation of Teachers and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People over plans to close several high schools in the city, and a justice in State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled this month that the city should not make the matches.

Civics and Urban Life

Klein Warns of Thousands of Teacher Layoffs

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Here’s an excerpt from NY 1:

Facing severe cuts under Governor David Paterson’s proposed budget, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein told the City Council’s Education Committee Wednesday that 8,500 teachers could soon be laid off.

The chancellor said in a worst-case scenario the department would be forced to lay off 15 percent of math, English, science and social studies teachers.

State law requires the teachers with the least experience get cut first.

According to a Department of Education analysis, no school district would be spared but the two hit the hardest would be District 7 in the South Bronx and District 2 on the Upper East Side, both losing about 20 percent of their teachers.

“These cuts would bring tremendous instability to our schools and students,” Klein said. “We’d be force to let go outstanding teachers, some of whom have been working in our schools for as long as four years.”

“The children of New York City schools are going to pay for the mistakes that adults made with the economy. And we have to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew.

Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Flea to Stay at Williamsburg Savings Bank

The Brooklyn Flea is tweaking their plans for the spring/summer season. While they won’t be doing a flea in Dumbo this season, they’re going to stay at the Wiliamsburg Bank Building and that’s a win win for everyone because it is such a great space to be in. From  Brownstoner:

If you could hang out at a landmark like One Hanson every weekend, wouldn’t you? So would we—that’s why the Flea is staying there (Sundays only) for the rest of the year! When we said “12 Weekends Only!” back in January, we had no idea the 80-year-old landmark bank would be such a perfect fit for the Flea. Now, thousands of awed visitors and hundreds of happy vendors later, it’s obvious. (Even the New York Times is psyched.)

And starting April 10, we’ll finally be back outdoors in Fort Greene every Saturday at our Bishop Loughlin H.S. homebase/flagship, can’t wait. From April 11 on, we’ll be at One Hanson every Sunday.

We love our new friends at Skylight One Hanson—you too can do events at the bank, just contact them!—and thank them for making our extended stay possible.

And we’re truly saddened that the Flea won’t be in Dumbo in 2010. We tried our best to make a market there happen, but it just didn’t work out. We hope to be back by the water again soon.

In case you got confused, here’s the cheat sheet:
The Flea will be at One Hanson Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next (April 3+4).

Starting April 10, we go back outside in Fort Greene every Saturday (yay!). Starting April 11, we’ll be at One Hanson every Sunday. Both markets will be open 10am to 5pm.

Civics and Urban Life

Cuts to Subway and Buses by the MTA

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Here are the cuts.

Trains

• Reduced Saturday service on the D, F, G, J, M, N, Q and R trains, and reductions on Sunday for the A, D, F, G, N, Q, and R trains.

• The G will rarely run deeper into Queens than Court Square. On the other hand, there will be increased service on all G trains during evening hours.

Buses

• No weekend service on the X27 express from Bay Ridge to Downtown and the B24 from Williamsburg to Greenpoint. The MTA suggests that X27 riders already use the R train on weekends (since the two lines run parallel), and that the B24 has seen a decline in ridership. The MTA notes that users of the weekend B24 — which runs to east Greenpoint, up into Queens and back — could “transfer” to another bus or train, possibly referring to the B43 (which runs north and south on Manhattan Avenue) or the B48 (which runs east and west on Nassau Avenue).

• No more service on the B51 and the B39 due to low ridership. The MTA suggests taking the J or Z trains over the Williamsburg Bridge.

• There will no longer be overnight service on the B67, which goes from Windsor Terrace, through Park Slope, to Downtown; the B64, which goes from Bay Ridge to Coney Island; and the B65, which cuts through Boerum Hill and Prospect Heights on its route between Crown Heights and Downtown.

Cuts that will not be made:

Trains

• Service on all trains will not be reduced from 20 to 30 minutes from 2 am to 5 am.

• Service will not be reduced on the A line on Saturdays.

Buses

• The B25 — which runs from DUMBO to East New York along Fulton Street — plans to cut this were changed after politicians complained because that line will be the only one to service Brooklyn Bridge Park.

• There will be service on the B48 from Prospect Lefferts-Gardens to Greenpoint on nights and weekends.

Civics and Urban Life

Undomesticated Brooklyn: Passover Table

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by Paula Bernstein

When I was growing up and my extended family gathered for holidays, the kids would be seated at a separate “children’s table.” Presumably, there wasn’t enough room at the grown-up table — or maybe they just wanted us kids to be seen and not heard.

As you can imagine, it was a big deal when I finally “graduated” to the grown-up table.

Although that was many years ago and I now have two kids of my own, in a way, I feel as if I’m only now worthy of the grown-up table. Why? Because I can now cook.

Passover is coming up next week (although my family is having an “early bird”  seder on Saturday) and I’m excited. It’s the first year that I’m going to be cooking rather than just bringing wine or macaroons.

My cousin Claudia, who is in charge of delegating cooking responsibilities,  assigned  me the potato kugel. I should just be thankful I wasn’t given the job of making gefilte fish or matzoh ball soup.

The older generation is no longer able to cook, but my cousins and I still rely on their recipes. I plan to use my mom’s treasured potato kugel recipe.

(If you strain, you might be able to hear the melody to “Tradition!” from “Fiddler on the Roof.”)

I’m not too intimidated by the idea of making potato kugel, but when I think of preparing it for 28 people (the number who are expected at the seder), I am terrified. What if it turns out rock solid? What if I burn it? Will they send me back to the children’s table?

The good thing about kugel is that it can be prepared in advance. In fact, now that I think of it, I better start peeling potatoes right away.

arts and culture

Drinking With Divas – Robin Hessman

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Sarah Deming met with filmmaker Robin Hessman at Restaurant Tatiana on the Brighton Beach boardwalk.  Over shots of vodka and tasty snacks, we discussed Robin’s feature documentary My Perestroika,which will debut in NY March 25 and March 28 as part of the film series New Directors/New Films, curated by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

My Perestroika tells the story of five forty-year-old Russians – a married couple teaching history, a single mother, an aging punk rocker, and a successful businessman – tracing their paths from childhoods behind the Iron Curtain to comings-of-age during the collapse of Communism to their disparate fortunes in modern Russia. This beautiful film has the lingering finish of a top-shelf vodka.  Highly recommended!

Sarah: How was Sundance?

Robin: Wonderful.  The audiences were incredible.  We had a screening at 8:30 AM on a Monday, and I thought, “Who’s going to come to this?”  But it was packed!  We also had a midnight Q&A session that lasted over an hour and continued on the street in front of the theatre.  It was exciting to hear people say that they’d had no idea what a Soviet childhood was like, and couldn’t even conceive of the idea that people in the USSR could have happy childhoods, but that they could relate to it.  To see people make emotional, personal connections to the characters in the film was very gratifying.

Sarah: I loved the film’s structure.  You managed to tell the story of five individual protagonists, which seems really hard to do, while keeping it unified thematically.

Robin: Editing took a long time.  The struggle was how to make the film about the natural arc of these characters’ lives rather than trying to make their lives serve the history of the country.  If a particular political event didn’t touch them, it’s not in the film, even if it’s important globally. The soundtrack is full of songs that mean a lot to Russians of that generation, and all the archival footage is from their own point of view – lots of home movies, footage from their school.

Sarah: The archival footage is so cool!

Robin: That was one of my favorite parts.  I loved sitting in the archives in Russia, waiting for the reels to arrive, and then watching them.

Sarah: Some of your characters are doing well and some are struggling emotionally.  There’s no clear sense of whether the change in the country has been good or bad.

Robin: That was very conscious.  When I returned from the US after living in Russia for the 1990s, I got the feeling people wanted me to tie everything up in a neat bow for them and tell them what to think about the new, modern Russia. “It went from Communist utopia to porn and mafia land” or “It went from a restrictive, repressive regime to a land of freedom.”  But I can’t do that.  I see the complexities.  I’ve seen friends craving a new pair of leather boots but feeling awful because they grew up thinking that was degenerate.  Or friends who are ethnically Russian but grew up in a republic.  Emotionally, they support independence for the republic, but that means they will need a $100 visa to visit their grandmother’s grave.  And I’ve seen people who used to drop in on each other at all hours and stay up discussing the meaning of life now barely having time to grab a latte.

Sarah: Do you feel like a different person after living in Russia?

Robin:  I do.  I’d love to know who I’d have become if I’d never gone there.  I spent most of my life there between the ages of 18-27, in film school, working for Russian Sesame Street, and then making this film.  At this point it’s who I am.

Sarah: You’re not from a Russian family yourself.  What attracted you to the culture?

Robin: I had a subscription to Soviet Life when I was ten.  My parents didn’t want to let me get it –they were worried I’d be blacklisted or something – but I cried until they gave in.  It came in an unmarked, brown paper wrapper like porn.  Growing up as a kid during the cold war, I was just so curious about this “evil empire” out there.  I didn’t believe that millions of people could all be bad.  It started as pure curiosity.  Then I got hooked on the history and the literature.

Sarah: How is Russian Sesame Street different than the American version?

Robin: There’s a completely different sensibility.  Certain segments that the American producers thought were boring, the Russians production partners called lyrical and sad.  There were three special Russian muppets that our team invented.  Zeliboba was one of them, a blue monster with feathers and leaves.  He wore sneakers, lived in a hollow tree, and had the personality of a six-year-old boy.  He was very sensitive.  He could smell the melody off a record.

VODKA SHOTS

Vodka gets its name from the diminutive form of voda, meaning water.  This “little water” is one of the oldest distilled beverages in the world, dating back to medieval Poland and Russia.  Early vodkas were made through crude heat stills or through leaving the fermented grain or potato mash outside to freeze, concentrating the alcohol.  These spirits would have tasted rough and medicinal, unlike the highly refined vodkas we drink today.  Although allegedly “colorless, odorless, and tasteless,” vodka always offers hints of where it came from, its subtlety inviting the taster to be more sensitive.  Our chilled shots of Russian Standard had gentle notes of anisette, wheat, and snow.

Civics and Urban Life

Tonight: Poets for Haiti at the Old Stone House

Support Haiti in its greatest time of need.

Poets for Haiti is a series of “traveling benefits” organized by Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville.

The first event is tonight, March 22nd at 8PM. Poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street).

Your donation of $10. will go to Doctors Without Borders.

Poster by Good Form Design. Photo by Hugh Crawford

arts and culture

10th National Black Writers Conference at Megar Evers College

Toni Morrison, the author of “Beloved” is coming to Brooklyn for Medgar Evers College’s 10th National Black Writers Conference, a  four-day literary event, which begins on March 25. This year’s theme: And Then We Heard the Thunder: Black Writers Reconstructing Memories and Lighting the Way.

Medgar Evers College’s Center for Black Literature and the conference organizers have put together an impressive roster of events, which include both local authors and writers, agents and publishers from America, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.

A long list of discussions and readings include  “Politics and Satire in the Literature of Black Writers” and “The Impact of Hip Hop and Popular Culture in the Literature of Black Writers.” Also:  “Impact of the Internet: Blogging, Publishing and Writing” and  “Editors, Agents, Writers and Publishers on the Literature of Black Writers.”

Professor Brenda Greene, who runs Medgar Evers College’s Center for Black Literature, says the conference is targeted toward the general public. as well as writers, scholars, editors, agents, faculty, and students of all ages.

Continue reading 10th National Black Writers Conference at Megar Evers College →

Civics and Urban Life

House Passes Health Care Reform

It’s is 2:41AM in the morning and I just got this email from President Barack Obama in my inbox. I reproduce it here on this historic occasion:

Dear Louise:

For the first time in our nation’s history, Congress has passed comprehensive health care reform. America waited a hundred years and fought for decades to reach this moment. Tonight, thanks to you, we are finally here.

Consider the staggering scope of what you have just accomplished:

Because of you, every American will finally be guaranteed high quality, affordable health care coverage.

Every American will be covered under the toughest patient protections in history. Arbitrary premium hikes, insurance cancellations, and discrimination against pre-existing conditions will now be gone forever.

And we’ll finally start reducing the cost of care — creating millions of jobs, preventing families and businesses from plunging into bankruptcy, and removing over a trillion dollars of debt from the backs of our children.

Continue reading House Passes Health Care Reform →

Civics and Urban Life

Today it’s Bklyn’s Turn: St. Patrick’s Day Parade

The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade begins at 1 pm today at 15th Street and 7th Avenue. It goes down to Union Street and turns right ending at Prospect Park and Union.

Here is the schedule for the day:

9AM: Pre-Parade Mass
 at Holy Name Church
245 Prospect Park West (between Windsor Pl & Prospect Ave)

12 Noon: Parade Assembly Point: Prospect Park West & 14th St

12:45PM: “Re-Dedication Ceremony” to the Heroes & Victims of 9/11 – WTC
At Prospect Park West & 15th Street, before Parade “step-off”

1PM: Parade Route
 down 15th St to 7th Ave
Along 7th Ave to Union St
Up Union St to Prospect Park West

Street Closings

Seventh Ave. between 15th and Union Sts. and

Prospect Park West between President and 15th Sts.

Both streets are closed noon to 5 pm Sunday.

arts and culture

All About Park Slope’s Tina Chang, Bklyn’s New Poet Laureate

An excerpt from today’s article in the NY Times about Brooklyn’s new poet laureate, who lives in Park Slope:

AFTER Tina Chang puts her 7-month-old son, Roman, to bed, she pads, barefoot, about three feet over to her office, where a desk cohabits with the changing table. She opens the window to take in the sights and sounds of her neighborhood, Park Slope — men arguing on the street, neighbors sipping wine on fire escapes, apartment lights twinkling. She opens a spiral notebook from the 99-cent store and begins scribbling. One night she started with a recipe for black bean sauce, another with the first line of a rejection letter from a literary journal, another with a to-do list.

“Then something takes over,” said Ms. Chang, 40. Over days, weeks, months, her stream-of-consciousness musings grow into poems like “Birthing a Boy”:

My child was once a thought and he had

no name, locked in the stall of my making.

The child was housed inside me for a long time,

held still in water, his limbs floating on a screen,

fingerprints intricate as aerial maps.

Ms. Chang is no ordinary journal keeper: She is a college teacher, published author and Brooklyn’s new poet laureate, the fourth person — and first woman — to fill the august, if odd, post. But don’t be intimidated. One of her chief goals is to “demystify the role of the poet.”

Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Bridge Park To Open on Monday

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city announced on Thursday that the first phase of Brooklyn Bridge Park — featuring a vast green lawn and a granite front-stoop sitting area located on Pier 1 — will open to the public.

The public and a handful of elected officials — including Mayor Bloomberg, who allocated $55-million in city funds as part of a takeover agreement with the state earlier this month — will enjoy a “Great Lawn” with sweeping views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, while children will take advantage of a small playground.

The newly opened area will be most-easily accessible from Old Fulton Street in DUMBO.

Smartmom

Smartmom is “Crazy Lady”

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Smartmom has a brand new name: Crazy Lady. She gave it to herself because, lately, much of the time she really does feel crazy.

She feels crazy every time the Oh So Feisty One leaves her rock-heavy backpack in the foyer. How many times has Smartmom asked her not to do that? How many times has Smartmom stubbed her toe on that textbook-stuffed thing?

She also feels crazy when OSFO leaves a trail of towels in the hallway after a shower. For Buddha’s sake, how many towels does one girl need? And why can’t she pick them up?

But it’s not just OSFO. Teen Spirit makes her feel crazy every time he forgets his keys and buzzes at 2 am when she and Hepcat are in a deep sleep. Talk about murderously crazy.

And Hepcat makes her feel crazy, too! It’s like she’s speaking in tongues when she asks him to walk his dinner plate to the sink or load the dishwasher.

She might as well be Linda Blair in “The Exorcist” when she suggests that he make the bed or not leave his dirty clothes on the floor next to the hamper, but actually put them in the hamper.

Crazy.

And when she asks him to shop for dinner at the Coop or just to pick up milk and Tropicana at Met Food, it’s like she’s one of the Oompa Loompas in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

Crazy Lady. The name fits because Smartmom feels crazy most of the time. And she’s starting to act that way, too. She’s been known to rant to herself when she does the dishes — and when Hepcat asks her what she’s saying she just pretends that she’s singing along to something on WNYC.

La La La.

Lately, her eye has been ticking and she’s even been stealing sips of the Sailor Jerry’s rum she keeps in the cabinet.

And it’s all because nobody listens to her or takes her needs seriously. She’s sick and tired of the adolescent rolled eyes, the exasperated stares, the walking away from her when she’s in the middle of a sentence; the not being paid attention to.

Don’t they get it? If something doesn’t change soon, she’s going to be Really Crazy Lady.

Unfortunately, the more she yells, the crazier she feels — and the more they ignore her. It’s like she’s a lunatic babbling on the subway and Hepcat and the kids are those passengers who don’t even look up from their iPods.

And if she doesn’t say anything, they just keep on keeping on with their annoying, crazy-making habits. What’s a smart mom to do?

And that’s when Smartmom had a great idea: She would treat Crazy Lady as just another persona. That way it would be Crazy Lady, not Smartmom, who was nagging her family all the time.

Crazy Lady would be the invisible and irascible houseguest who never leaves. She’d hover over the apartment like a ghostly super-ego making sure that everyone was doing his share.

With Crazy Lady around, Smartmom can go back to being the mild-mannered, loving wife and mother she wants to be. Crazy Lady could be the bad cop.

So the other day, Smartmom told Hepcat that Crazy Lady found his dirty laundry next to the hamper and nearly stashed it in the garbage. “The woman is a little crazy,” Smartmom whispered.

Hepcat looked nervous and quickly put his dirties in the hamper.

Later, she told OSFO that the sight of wet towels in the hallway nearly caused Crazy Lady to seizure. “And that’s not a pretty sight,” she added. OSFO immediately picked up most of her wet towels and put them on the rack to dry.

When she told Teen Spirit that if he wakes up Crazy Lady in the middle of the night, she might pummel him with a coat hanger, he searched his room for his long lost keys and vowed never to forget them.

So far so good.

It really is great to have Crazy Lady around and she doesn’t take up any extra room. Crazy Lady will be a good influence on the household because she’s just scary enough to keep everyone on their toes. Already, she seems to have had the desired effect.

And it’s nice to have super cool Smartmom back, too. Hopefully, she can go back to baking cookies and being everyone’s best friend.

Yeah, right.

arts and culture

Poets for Haiti on Monday, March 22 at 8PM

Support Haiti during its greatest time of need.

Poets for Haiti, is a series of “traveling benefits” curated by Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville.

On March 22nd at 8PM, poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street).

Donation $10. for Doctors Without Borders.

Poster by Good Form Design. Photo by Hugh Crawford