Many were affected when the MTA recently cut several bus routes, including Park Slope residents who lost the B71. That’s why NYC has introduced a new program to provide van service along select discontinued bus routes.
This pilot program will help reduce the negative impact of the MTA’s service cuts and allows residents greater accessibility to other buses and subways.

According to the NY Times, Community Transportation Systems and four other companies have been chosen by the Taxi and Limousine Commission (now run by former Park Slope Councilman David Yassky) to participate in Group Ride Vehicle Pilot Program. This company began service on Monday; the four other commuter-van operators, which will run along the former routes of the Q79, B23, B39 and B71, will begin on Sept. 20 and 27.The price to ride the vans will be $2, cash only — no MetroCards, unlike city buses. Riders will be able to request unscheduled stops along the driver’s route. This pilot program is meant to last a year at which point the Commission will determine its success.

When we were in Berkeley, California, the first American city to ban smoking on sidewalks throughout its business districts, I worried that my stepmother might get arrested for smoking outdoors.

And now it looks like she may have trouble in NYC, too.

On September 23rd at 7PM Brooklyn Reading Works presents the second annual Young Writers Night, fiction, poetry and song by New York City teenagers. “In planning this event, I looked for artists with fresh insight, candor and guts.” writes curator Jill Eisenstadt, author of From Rockaway and Kiss Out. Young Writers should be an exciting night and a preview into the next generation of published writers.

Young Writers is an all ages event at the Old Stone House. Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. Suggested donation of $5 includes refreshments.

Readers include Hananh Frishberg, Maria Robis-Somerville, Noah Miller, Banks Harris Lily Konigsberg and Gussie Roc. For their bios click on “read more.”

Hannah Frishberg is a Sophmore at Bard High School Early College.  She loves New York City, and spends a good deal of my time working with kids, on the F train, or making jewelry out of household objects.  This is her second year participating in Young Writers Night at the Old Stone House, and she is excited to be back!

Maria Robins-Somerville is a Sophmore at the Beacon School. She is happyto be participating in the Brooklyn Reading Works for the second year in a row. Other than writing, she enjoys theater, cooking, and spending time with friends.

Noah Miller is a Freshman a Hunter College High School. He is the winner of a Scholastic Young Artists Award and will be published in BEST TEEN WRITING OF 2010

Gussie Roc is a sophomore at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn.  She’s been studying poetry since she was in kindergarten. Her favorite author is Harper Lee . Her dream, to move to Paris and/or make an Academy Award winning film about an issue that really matters to her.

Banks Harris is currently attending the Eugene Lang College the New School for Liberal Arts. She has been published in Best Teen Writing 2008 and has received numerous awards for her short stories.

Lily Konigsberg has been a fixture on the youth music scene in Brooklyn since she was 14.  She has made her name as a singer songwriter on the acoustic circuit and the writer, lead-singer and rhythm guitarist of the band, Macon Dead.  In the past two years, Lily has performed at all ages venues across New York City, including the Cake Shop and the Tank in Manhattan and  Dead Herring and Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn.

The Park Slope Civic Council is sponsoring a design competition for a new Third Street entrance gateway to Prospect Park, to replace the existing New York City standard movable barriers. The new design will address the following criteria…

Continue reading Competition: Design Gate for Entrance to Prospect Park →

You can find a full listing of the results of primary 2010 at NY 1. In case you haven’t heard:

–Eric Schneiderman is the Democratic candidate for New York’s Attorney General.

–Carl Paladino is the Republican candidate for New York Governor.

–Rick Lazio is the Conservative candidate for New York Governor.

–Kristin Gillebrand is the Democratic candidate for US Senator from New York.

See the NY1 returns for all the local races that I haven’t mentioned yet.

In the inner world of Brooklyn Democratic politics, Assemblyman Vito Lopez is a force to be reckoned with. The county boss and local kingmaker, he rouses strong feelings in his opponents and loyalty in his friends.

In his own Democratic Primary race in the 53rd Assembly District he won handily against Esteban Duran. But in the District Leader races, where he was strongly pushing his hand-picked candidates, the results were mixed.

In the 52nd AD, Lopez’s choices, Hope Reichbach and Steven Williamson, lost to Jo Anne Simon and Chris Owens. In the 53rd AD,  the race has not yet been determined. Lincoln Restler, of New Kings Democrats, was the clear winner beating out Lopez-backed Warren Cohn and Warren Cohn are fighting it out in the recount of this extremely close election.

Kate Zidar who ran with Lincoln Restler for the female District Leader post seems to have lost. She was also backed by New Kings Democrats, a reformist group intent on bringing new faces into the Brooklyn Democratic party.

Restler’s win really puts New Kings Democrats, “a progressive, grassroots political organization committed to trans­parency, accountability, and inclusionary democracy to the Kings County Democratic Party,” on the map. Formed by vets of the Obama campaign, they are seeking to “Transform local politics.”

Restler told the New York Daily News recently:

Assemblywoman Joan Millman, the incumbent in the 52nd AD beat out her challenger, Doug Biviano in the Democratic nomination. According to NY1, Millman has 6,828 votes, or 73.59% of the total, to Biviano’s 2,450, or 26.41%.

It was the primary race to watch even if District Leader is a fairly obscure position. Unpaid and part-time, it is a powerful job nonetheless. David Friedlander of Politicker NY writes:

There were a series of heated contest in obscure district leader races in much of Brooklyn this year that pitted a group of reformers against those loyal to county boss Vito Lopez, and according to sources with some very early numbers, it appears as if the reformers won out.

Joann Simon and Chris Owens, who were endorsed by OTBKB, were the primary winners in the 52nd AD.

Lincoln Restler won and Warren Cohn are still fighting it out in a recount in their incredibly close race for District Leader in North Brooklyn. I know Kate Zidar did not win but I’m not sure who won for the female spot.

At 4PM I went to my usual voting place, the auditorium of John Jay High School, on Park Slope’s 7th Avenue, to vote in the primary. First change: the voting is no longer in the auditorium, it’s now in the cafeteria.

Once in the cafeteria, there were no lines and I quickly got a paper ballot from an elderly woman, who found my name in the registry and filled out a little green card with my name and a number.

She directed me to a standing desk where I filled out the ballot, which looked like a standardized test. The type was small but still it was easy to read and easy to fill in the little bubbles.

I then went over to the scanner and a man explained to me how to use it. It was like feeding a piece of paper into a fax machine. It takes about 20 seconds for the ballot to scan and I watched the screen while I waited. When it was done an American flag appeared on the screen.

Voila. My first electronic vote was counted.

Done.

Today after Mayor Bloomberg swore-in the City’s second-ever class of the NYC Civic Corps—a specially trained group of AmeriCorps members who work at nonprofit organizations across the city—had this to say about reported malfunctions at polling sites today.

“Today unfortunately, we are hearing disturbing reports that some polling sites have been very disturbing.We’ve been told of some polling sites that opened two to four hours late. That is a royal screw-up – and it’s completely unacceptable.

It means some voters waited for hours – and other voters may not have a chance to cast their ballots at all.

We’ve also gotten reports of broken and missing scanners, emergency ballots, and poor customer service.

Other counties have also experienced problems, but I’m not sure any of them have been as severe as we’ve seen in our five boroughs. Over the past five years, the City has provided the Board of Elections with more than $77 million to make the transition to the new machines – and that doesn’t include the $85 million in federal funds used to purchase the new machines.

But there is a total absence of accountability for how the Board performed on Election Day – because the Board is a remnant of the days when Tammany Hall ran New York.

New Yorkers deserve better than this – and the time has come to fix it.

We owe that to all of you – and to every voter.

No democracy is perfect, but the more people participate in civic life, the stronger that the democracy is.

And that’s why voting is so important – and that’s why the commitment we’re making today is so important – and I just want to thank all of you here and wish you all the best of luck. I wish our Board of Elections had performed as well as all of you guys are going to do.

Now I’m sad.

I just read on Here is New York that Slope Sports is closing. More later.

It’s always a pleasure to see Rick Kadlub, who runs A Tour Grows in Brooklyn, educational and historical walking tours around Park Slope and Prospect Park. I saw him at the bagel place on Union Street and 4th Avenue and he was getting ready to meet some tourists from Austria.

“I’ll take them to Al Capone’s house on Garfield, I’ll show them the Williamsburg Bank, we’ll have lunch at Pino’s.” Rick told me.

Rick is Brooklyn born and bred and he knows the ins and out of this neighborhood like no other. In addition to the history and urban folklore, he’s a fan of its many restaurants, including Two Toms, the legendary no-frills Italian eatery on Third Avenue near Union.

“It’s hard to get in there in November and December because the Fire Department, Police, Sanitation. They all have their Christmas parties there,” he told me.

People from all over the world have enjoyed walks with “Big Rick” as he’s called. That’s because he’s got a high ranking in Trip Advisor—40 rave reviews—and he’s a fun and interesting guy to walk the nabe with. Here’s one of those reviews from a woman named Mary Ellen Dickson.

My husband & I took A Tour Grows in Brooklyn today with Big Rick and it was one of the better tours (and we go on a lot!) that we have taken in NYC. Rick, a dyed in the wool Brooklynite, loves his neighborhood and it shows in his boundless enthusiam and extensive knowledge. He really made Park Slope come alive for us by sharing his personal family stories and was very generous in pointing out interesting places to shop and eat along the tour route. We can highly recommend this tour and Rick proved to be a wonderful ambassador for Brooklyn. Rick helped us realize that there really is more to NYC than just Manhattan! We’ll defintely be back to visit and getting better acquainted with a very interesting historical area.

It’s Tuesday and that means it’s time to check in with our friends all around the borough:

Ever been to DUGABO?: NY Shitty

Wife stabs husband over porn: BushwickBK

Ricky’s Pop Shop comes to Park Slope: Effed in Park Slope

Big movies for little kids at the Toren: Pardon Me for Asking

Crowds at Book Fest: McBrooklyn

Help honor a vet: Sheepshead Bites

Most expensive condo on the market in Dumbo: DumboNYC

Fresh air, new faces, time for change: that’s what’s needed in Albany. Even the New York Times recommends voting against the incumbents in Assembly primary races.

In the Assembly, there are not enough real contests. And in New York, that means one thing: the Democratic Party has given some of Albany’s worst legislators a free ride. Here’s the only solution: vote against the incumbents.

I interviewed Doug Biviano last year when he was running for City Council in the 33rd District. At the time, he was endorsed by none other than Dennis Kucinich.

Biviano impressed me then and he still impresses me with his energy, his independence, his reform-minded attitude and his smarts.

I think he’s a good man. God, I hope so. He’s intelligent, articulate, progressive and a big audacious. I think he deserves a chance.

Who Ya Gonna vote for Millman or Biviano for Assembly in the 52nd AD?

Because I was away for much of the summer I haven’t been following the campaign for assembly in the 52nd AD. However, I interviewed Doug Biviano when he ran for City Council in 2009 and you can see that interview below.

Biviano has been running a “throw the bums out” kind of campaign. He has also accused Joan Millman of “double dipping” i.e. collecting her pension as a retired NYC teacher and receiving a $79,000 (plus $12,000 lulu) salary for the Assembly job.

She’s freely admits that what she’s been doing and claims that she had no choice. On video Biviano asks: “Where’s the leadership in that?. You guys make the rules, maybe you should change the rules…”

Truth be told, I don’t know much about Millman, except that she’s a respected politician in these parts.

But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that we need some fresh energy and outlooks in Albany. Could be Biviano is the man for the job, even though he has no experience in public office.

That could be a good thing.

Even the New York Times recommends voting against the incumbents in Assembly races:

In the Assembly, there are not enough real contests. And in New York, that means one thing: the Democratic Party has given some of Albany’s worst legislators a free ride. Here’s the only solution: vote against the incumbents.

Here is Millman’s bio from her website:

Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman was first elected to the Assembly on February 18, 1997 in a special election. Since then, she has diligently served the 52nd Assembly District, now a unified “brownstone” district, which includes the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Columbia Street Waterfront, and Prospect Heights. A life-long educator, Millman spent over three decades working on behalf of New York City’s children. From 1964 to 1984, she taught elementary school and served as the school librarian at P.S. 10 in Brooklyn. From 1985 to 1996, Millman served as an educational consultant to New York City Council President Carol Bellamy and State Senator Martin Connor and served as a facilitator for Comprehensive School Development and Planning. Millman also served as a member of the Citywide Advisory Committee on Middle School Initiatives from 1995 to 1996, where she assisted middle schools in District 15 in Brooklyn. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College, a Master’s in Library Science from Pratt Institute and a Professional Diploma from Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Since being elected to the Assembly, Millman has authored and sponsored legislation that has saved lives, protected consumers, and improved the quality of life for New Yorkers. Millman has been a leading advocate on senior and education issues and for consumer rights. She was recently appointed Chair of the Commission on Government Administration, where she continues to advocate for budget reform, and for greater oversight of government administered programs. Millman is also a sponsor of legislation to reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the Women’s Health and Wellness Bill and the Safe Weapon Storage Act. Assemblywoman Millman was an early advocate for the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge Park and has worked to revitalize all of Brooklyn’s waterfront. She has been on the forefront of the struggle to clean up the Gowanus Canal and adjacent properties, and leads the fight to re-open Engine Company 204. She has been a strong advocate for our schools and has worked to protect our senior centers. Every year, Assemblywoman Millman sponsors numerous initiatives to bring needed services to her constituents. Assemblywoman Millman is Chair of the Assembly Committee on Election Law. She is a member of the Assembly Standing Committees on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions; Education; Labor; Transportation; and the Assembly Majority Steering Committee.

Here is my Breakfast-of-Candidates interview with Doug Biviano from May of 2009 when he was running for City Council in the 33rd District.

Doug Biviano, a City Council candidate in the 33rd district, met me for breakfast at Theresa’s, a Polish coffee shop on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights.

In 1969, Biviano was born in the Mill Basin neighborhood of Brooklyn. Biviano’s dad was a Transit Authority carpenter and his mom a nursing assistant. The family later moved to Brentwood, Long Island. But his parents separated soon after and Biviano and his brother spent weekends at his father’s apartment in the Ex-Lax building on Atlantic Avenue. Biviano came to love Brooklyn Heights on those trips especially when he and his father would take long walks to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade and the Fulton Ferry Landing.

Biviano attended Cornell University, where he received a B.S. and a masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Math and science always came easy to me. I am a conceptual thinker,” he said.

Clean cut in a blue blazer and a neat button down shirt, Biviano ordered a bowl of fresh fruit and coffee. I ordered a toasted, buttered bagel, which arrived toasted and dry. But my conversation with Biviano was anything but dry.

Unexpected is a word that Biviano likes and I can see why as his life story takes all kinds of unexpected twists and turns. After a post-graduate stint at an engineering firm in Buffalo, NY,  Biviano followed his girlfriend (who later became his wife) to Colorado to live the skier’s life. Seasonally he got work as a soil consultant at Geo Technical and Vail Associates.

“They pay you 20% in the view,” Biviano told me. He enjoyed the work which involved driving to the mountains and doing foundation excavation and track rigging. Later, he got his professional engineer’s license but was frustrated by the low “mountain pay” in an area, where it’s very expensive to live.

Another unexpected turn: Biviano decided to start his own construction business with a friend while his wife cleaned houses. They worked hard and managed to save enough money to embark on another adventure.

The couple bought a sailboat and packed up their belongings and headed for Annapolis, Maryland to pick up their Morgan Outlander and set sail on the Inter-Coastal Highway.

Biviano and his wife knew nothing about sailing.  “I figured I’d learn. You figure it out. Like running for City Council,” he joked. “It’s the journey always the journey,” he added.

For nine months the couple lived “off the grid.” On the sailboat Biviano designed and installed a solar power system with controllers and battery bank, which utilized sun, wind, rain water and a reverse osmosis water maker. He loved the sense of community he found in Freeport where hundreds of sailors dock in the winter.

It was on this sailing adventure that Biviano developed his appreciation for the “goodness of people around the world. The people I’ve met are good, decent and hardworking.”

When the couple realized that they were expecting a child, they sold the sailboat and headed to New York City. A job as a superintendent in a Brooklyn Heights coop provided Biviano with a job and an apartment in the neighborhood he learned to love as a teenager. Biviano is proud of the fact that he works as a laborer and an engineering professional because it gives him a broader perspective on the world.

And then 9/11 happened. Biviano watched from the roof of the Brooklyn Heights coop where he is a superintendent and wondered why someone would want to do that.  “Instead of thinking ‘let’s go get ’em’ I found myself wondering why. I wanted a deeper answer.”

“I reject the ‘Axis of evil.’ The people I’ve met where I’ve gone are good and decent. Start there.”

This revelation set Biviano on a path that has led to his candidacy for City Council. It was his subsequent discovery of WBAI on the radio dial and Amy Goodman’s show Democracy Now in particular that helped him refine his humanistic and progressive beliefs.

He also discovered Dennis Kucinich, who is now one of his heroes. “I love his politics. Peace as an organizing principle of society,” Biviano said. In 2004 Biviano made a monetary contribution to Kucinich’s presidential campaign but in 2008, he donated his time and energy becoming Kucinich’s New York State coordinator. From Kucinich he learned “the possibilities of politics” and traveled to many forums where he spoke as Kucinich’s surrogate. In this capacity he discovered an ability to connect with an audience and communicate political ideas in a humanistic way.

“I learned from Kucinich to put a human face on politics. Iranians are beautiful people. They love their children. If you start from there, put a human face on it, it’s different.”

With two kids at PS 8 (and another child too young for school), Biviano is a regular school yard dad. A year ago, he found out that a friend was out of a job and would be paying $1,600 a month for COBRA.

“There are 400,000 people in Brooklyn without health insurance,” he told me incredulously. Biviano advocates a single-payer system supported by a group called Physicians for a Single Payer Health Plan that would cover all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.

When Biviano realized that that City Council Member David Yassky was vacating his Council seat, he decided to throw his hat into the race with a focus on Medicare for all, a livable city that respects its institutions like public schools and big picture ideas like reducing the budget for war as a way to fund cities.

“I’m a dreamer. A little kid,” Biviano told me. And in a way it’s true. It’s his background in engineering that taught him an important maxim: “if you can think about it you can build it.”

We were talking for 90-minutes when I realized I had to leave to see a friend on a panel about search engine optimization at the Brooklyn Business Summit.

“Do you know where Polytechnic Institute is?” I asked Biviano.

He volunteered to walk me over to the school which is in the Metro-Tech complex not far from Theresa’s. This gave us a chance to continue our conversation while we walked speedily in the light rain.

Biviano is running for City Council because he believes that the City legislature is a powerful position on the world stage. “It’s such a powerful platform for a massive Democratic voice.”

At the candidates forums Biviano has been an unexpected and sometimes refreshing presence. He talks about bringing fun to politics. But he’s very serious, too about the ways that war spending takes away from our cities.

“Let’s take a slice of the trillion-dollar war pie and feed investment in our communities,” said Biviano. “There are structural problems at the city, state, and federal levels where there are funding processes that are not connected to community interests. I want to think big,” Biviano told the Brooklyn Star.

Apparently Chuck Schumer had a voting headache this morning, when he went to vote at PS 321 at 5:55 Am . Here from Celeste Katz at the Daily News (thanks to DITHOB for the tip).

Polls are open until 9PM. Get on out and vote and try out NYC’s new voting system. It’s 11Am now and my sister just voted and said things at PS 321 were organized and she voted quickly.

For a great overview of tomorrow’s primary go to WNYC’s new blog, It’s a Free Country. There you will find out all sorts of thing:

–are you registered to vote?

–where and when to vote and what to bring with you.

–What to expect at the polling site.

–And, very importantly, who’s running.

–Plus:  A full list of newspaper endorsements.

So you think you know how to vote. Think again.

NYC has a new electronic voting system and if you want to know what to expect when you get to your polling place, take a look at these tips for using new paper ballots over at WNYC’s new blog, It’s a Free Country. Avoid common mistakes made with these new fangled things.

When you go to vote tomorrow you will encounter New York City’s new electronic voting machine.

According to Vote NY:

“The DS200 Ballot Scanner system is a portable electronic voting system that uses an optical scanner to read marked paper ballots and tally the results. This system allows for paper ballots to be immediately tabulated at your polling site. The DS200 also notifies you of any voting errors. You will be able to immediately correct these errors to ensure that Your Vote Counts!”

I’m going to miss the old voting machines…

Continue reading Learn about the new voting machines →