During a Sunday outing with my 84-year-old mother she took a fall in Bryant Park. I watched it happen as if in slow motion and thought to myself, “Omigod, this is terrible.”

She may not have seen a small step when she fell flat almost on her face. She stopped her fall with her hands but managed not to hurt her hands. In fact, she wasn’t hurt at all. I chalk it up to her modern dance studies with Martha Graham and a lifetime of exercise. She also takes a balance class at the Jewish Community Center on the Upper West Side.

As soon as it happened she popped up gracefully and shouted out: “I’m okay, I’m okay!” with a big smile on her face.

Two friendly NYC police officers ran over and helped her up. They told her to sit down for a few minutes. Just in case. “You don’t know how often this happens,” one of them said.

What a near-miss. She could have broken her hip or her wrist. It could have been so much worse. Indeed, it was a wake up call to check one’s steps, to wear good shoes, to take careful steps and honor the fragility of life.

Learning to fall is, perhaps, the key.

Today, Wednesday, October 27th, President Bill Clinton will be in Brooklyn for a get out the vote rally for Democrats up and down the ballot. He will be joined by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is running for governor of New York.

Where:

New York City College of Technology
Klitgord Center
285 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

When:

Wednesday, October 27th
Doors open: 3:00 p.m.

Joyce Szuflita, who runs NYC School Help, attended a Meet and Greet with Chancellor Klein sponsored by the District 15 Community Education Council on October 26th. Parents asked why students from Brooklyn were no longer being accepted at Millenium High School in Lower Manhattan. Here is an excerpt from her recap of that meeting. You can read the rest on Inside Schools.

Last night, schools chancellor Joel I. Klein participated in a town hall style meeting sponsored by District 15’s Community Education Council. The large crowd of parents, students and teachers that gathered inside Sunset Park Prep Academy’s auditorium grilled the chancellor on a range of topics affecting District 15 families and those citywide.

Klein opened with a brief PowerPoint presentation demonstrating rising test scores and a shrinking achievement gap. His conclusions invited considerable dissent by CEC members over how to interpret the test results. Klein also told the crowd that 2162 new seats were created recently in District 15. Both CEC members and parents questioned why District 2 has small, selective high schools that give priority to District 2 residents (Manhattan has no zoned options for high school), while in other parts of the city there are  few small, screened programs that offer in-district priority.  Some spoke of the heartbreak felt by many Brooklyn students over not being admitted to Millennium High School last year.  In previous years, Millennium, also a District 2 school, routinely accepted Brooklyn students despite its policy of giving top priority to residents of lower Manhattan.

Klein responded that the schools were zoned by the old District 2 School Board long before his tenure and that Millennium was built after 9/11 to support and revitalize the downtown neighborhoods. He voiced his interest in providing schools that are open to students citywide.

Funding was on the minds of teachers who asked where Race to the Top money was being spent, and if “high priced consultants” and charter schools had their budgets slashed as much as DOE schools.

Klein said that most funding cuts happened at central office and administrative levels and that charter programs are funded at a lower level per student than DOE schools…

Here is a semi-comprehensive list of the major events going on this Halloween in Park Slope, Prospect Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park. As the week progresses, as Halloween nears, I will add events as I hear about them. For now, here’s a lot to do. Click on read more…

Continue reading Halloween in Park Slope, Prospect Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park →

Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6, sent me a sad note about the passing of Robert Makla, a familiar face at Community Board 6 meetings.

Always dressed to the nines, with his signature bowtie and suspenders, Robert Makla was a familiar attendee, avid supporter and eager participant at Brooklyn CB6 general meetings.  He often started off by reminding us that he was born at NY Methodist Hospital, and with the exception of serving our country oversees in the armed forces, spent his whole life living in Park Slope.

Bob’s message was often simple, and eloquently delivered.  To paraphrase…Parks are special places, where people of all races, incomes and interests mix.  They reconnect people to nature.  They feed the soul serving as inspiration to artists and dreamers, poets and planners.  They provide a source of jobs, particularly maintenance jobs, which are harder and harder to come by. Jobs, he often said, were the key to restoring a sense of pride and productivity to the least fortunate among us.  And, once park space is gone, it is not so easily replaced.  It is therefore the job of every citizen to defend, preserve and care for the wonderful green and open spaces throughout our City.  Of course, his favorite spot was his beloved Prospect Park, the crown jewel of all of New York City’s parks.

Bob’s presence was electric, his words were stirring, and he will be sorely missed.  I, for one, will especially miss his periodic call to conscience, which always seemed perfectly timed to fit into the Community Board’s 3-minute speaking limit at general meetings.

Please note the charities listed in the New York Times death notice below.

MAKLA–Robert M., of Brooklyn, NY passed away on October 14, 2010. Bob was beloved by his sisters Grace and Alice and his nieces and nephew. A tireless and inspiring advocate for the city’s parks, Bob founded several park conservation organizations to provide tree care and maintenance to the park’s natural treasures. He was known for introducing cyclists to the wonders of the city through his middle-of-the-night bike tours. Bob served in WWII and the Korean War, graduated from Princeton and Yale Law, and was an active and devoted partner at the law firm of D’Amato & Lynch. Contributions may be made to the Prospect Park Alliance, Development Office, 95 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NY 11215 (designate “tree care”) or to The Tree Trust, Central Park Conservancy, 14 E. 60th St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

Did you know that term limits will be decided on Election Day? FYI: the term limits question is on the back of this year’s ballot, which you will see next Tuesday, November 2nd, WHEN YOU VOTE.

You’re voting, right?

An email from Public Advocate Bill de Blasio informs me that he has has launched an informational campaign encouraging voters to turn over their ballots and vote on term limits.

Of course you’re voting and when you do: Turn Over Your Ballot and Vote on Term Limits.

“Voters have waited two years to have their voices heard on term limits. With one week until Election Day, no one cannot take this outcome for granted,” writes Public Advocate Bill de Blasio in the press release he sent today.

You are voting, right?

I think de Blasio is doing a good thing. People might not notice that this important question is on the back of the ballot. For that reason, dozens of volunteers and staff from de Blasio’s office passed out flyers and held large-format ballots showing voters where to find the term limits question on Election Day.

“My office took to the streets this morning to make sure every voter knows to turn over their ballot and make their voice heard on term limits,” he writes.

You’re gonna vote, right?

Fourth Avenue is changing by the day. All you have to do is take a walk on that wide Avenue to see that it is undergoing a major evolution that will have a major impact on life in all the surrounding neighborhoods.

That’s why on Saturday, November 6th, the Park Slope Civic Council is organizing a Walkabout on Fourth Avenue as a way to inform neighbors about these prospective changes, and get input from the community.

On November 6th at 9:30 AM meet at Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street, under the east underpass of the subway station
(Rain date: Sunday, November 7, 2:30 PM)…

Continue reading Nov 6: Walkabout on Fourth Avenue →

Softball fuels Kingsborough programs: Sheepshead Bites

A forest grows: Gerritsen Beach

Bushwick weekly culture picks: Bushwick BK

Dumbo links: Dumbo NYC

Significant increases in robberies in 76th pct: Pardon Me for Asking

Pre-Halloween stroll around Heights: McBrooklyn

New espresso bar on Fifth Avenue: Here’s Park Slope

Some locals who want to scare you: The Local (Ft. Greene)

Marisa Catalina of Starting Artists: Cobble Hill Blog

Bagel market quickie review: Effed in Park Slope

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

This week, OSFO, Hepcat and I will attend the open house at Bard High School Early College in Queens. We will once again take the G train as we did last week to get to Frank Sinatra School of the Arts to the Queens campus of Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), which is located on the lower east side. Both schools offer students two years of high school education in the 9th and 10th grades. During the final two years at BHSEC, students are enrolled in an early college program rather than in 11th or 12th grade.

According fto the BHSEC website:

BHSEC students take college courses and are offered intellectual challenges equivalent to those found on college campuses across the country—be it a First Year Seminar course in the humanities or a course in Organic Chemistry. The unique partnership between Bard College and the New York City Department of Education allows us to offer this kind of education at no cost to eligible students who are enrolled in the New York City public school system.

Graduates of BHSEC leave after four years with a high school Regents diploma and an Associates degree from Bard College. Nearly all BHSEC graduates transfer to a four-year college to complete a Bachelor’s degree. The BHSEC Queens campus opened in 2008, and we will be proud to graduate our first class of students in June 2010.

In the meantime you can read about our tours of Brooklyn Latin, Edward R. Murrow High School, Midwood High School, the NYC iSchool, Frank Sinatra High School for the Arts and an article about the  specialized schools test.

Tina Chang, poet laureate of Brooklyn and author of Half-Lit Houses (Four Way Books, 2004), was one of four poets who participated in the Brooklyn for Peace sponsored event, “Poets Against War.”  Sapphire, whose novel Push was made into the Oscar-winning movie Precious, also read, along with Donald Lev and Dayl Wise.  The event was co-hosted by the Social Justice Committee of the Park Slope Methodist Church, where the reading took place.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.