This photograph by Tom Martinez shows a Coney Island Street Performer making huge bubbles astonishing a newlywed bride (bottom right).

Yikes.

The Brooklyn Paper has the story. Here’s an excerpt from the BP article about plans to build a mall next door to IKEA. And you thought it was just going to be a BJ’s.

The BJ’s Wholesale Club destined for the Red Hook waterfront might
be part of a six-level shopping plaza with several other stores and
even some residential units, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.

Documents obtained by The Paper reveal that developer Joe Sitt wants
to renovate a historic warehouse on the former Revere sugar refinery;
erect several new buildings for shopping, parking and housing; and
create a 40-feet-wide public esplanade by 2011 along the water’s edge
of the Beard Street property next door to the recently opened Ikea.

Sitt’s company Thor Equities would not comment about the “request
for proposals” that Sitt issued in July, but if the plans are still
current and the city approves a zoning change to allow commercial and
residential development, the project would catapult Red Hook into the
borough’s major big box retail destination.

The documents, which were part of a package to solicit bids from
architects to build the shopping plaza, sought proposals “to maximize
commercial retail square-footage” of at least 400,000 square feet —
larger than Red Hook’s Ikea.

Just wondering. I think I missed the big opening ceremony. May try to pop over there this morning. See ya.

In these photographs by Tom Martinez, artist Ron English stands next to a series of images he created  morphing the facial features of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln.   

English has produced a number of these images and has displayed them across the US. 

The images pictured here are at the 
corner of Stratford and Cortelyou Road in Kensington (across the street from the Vox Pop coffee shop).

Deep Joanna had more to share about the new Trader Joe’s at 130 Court Street.

According to our source, changes to the double brass door on Atlantic Avenue side of the old bank needed to be modified for receiving Trader Joe’s deliveries proved troublesome.

Naturally it required approval from the landmark commision, as the building has landmark status. landmark
status and that always takes time. The original door was just a huge
single door. The slight revision was for an expanded double door. They finally did get the approval required to make the changs.

 The building, a former bank, is officially the property of Two Trees Management As reported in the New York Observer, Trader Joe’s signed a lease 14,500 square feet
in the building. Retail space like that can go for more than $100 per square foot for the year.

Deep Joanna did the math: "Therefore
potentially within five years Two Trees Management will have 130 Court Street paid off in full. Afterrwards, it’s just pure profit for them. i’m sure
TJ’s has at least a 10 or 15 year lease although I don’t know for sure…"

Thanks Deep Joanna for info from the new Trader Joe’s.

Government leaders, including Governor David Paterson and Borough President Marty Markowitz were at the New York Army National Guard Armory on Bedford   Avenue in Crown Heights yesterday to call on the public to donate desperately-needed supplies for hurricane relief efforts in Haiti.

Recent hurricanes have left hundreds of residents dead, tens of thousands homeless, and many areas ravaged by hunger, dehydration, destroyed roadways and crumbling infrastructure.

Governor Paterson has directed the opening of the New York Army National Guard Armory in Brooklyn to allow for the collection of donated relief supplies. The facility at 1579 Bedford Avenue at Union Street will be open through September 29th from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Soldiers from the New York National Guard are on hand to receive, sort and prepare for shipment donated items for the citizens of Haiti. In addition, the state is accepting donated items at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office building at 163 West 125th Street at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. in Harlem . Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The most-needed items include:

  •           Bottled water (packed in cases or six packs at a minimum). Single bottles are inappropriate donations since they will have to be repackaged

•           Rice (dried in bags)

•           Beans (dried only and cans)

•           Sterno canisters

•           Tarpaulin – of any size, preferably 10×10 or larger. It is used for both roofing and flooring

•           Nylon cord (100’ rolls)

•           Hygiene items limited to toothbrushes, toothpaste, mild soaps

•           New underclothes – children sizes

•           New hand towels

  For more information, please email relief@chamber.state.ny.us or call (212) 681-4010.

A new public charter school is opening in September 2009 to Community School District 15 students.  For fifth grade families in our district, they will be hosting several Student/Family information sessions throughout the district over the next several months.

Brooklyn Prospect Charter School, a new public school opening to sixth grade students in School District 15 in September, 2009 will begin hosting information sessions for current fifth grade students and their families.

Info Sessions will be held:

October 6th and October 27th, 2008
6:00 to 8:00PM,
New York Methodist Hospital’s East Pavilion Auditorium in Park Slope
Come and meet the team and learn about this new school.

space is limited….RSVP is required;
to view an invitation and reserve tickets log on to our website (www.brooklynprospect.org)

Each evening will feature a short presentation about our school and will allow plenty of time for questions. We encourage parent(s) and the prospective student to attend.

There will be at least six information sessions at different locations throughout the district between now and early spring 2009.

Additionally the Brooklyn Prospect Team is happy to visit your elementary school. Speak with your parent coordinator or guidance counselor and contact Brooklyn Prospect Charter School for a visit.
 

Saints Alive!!
Greg Fuchs and Joanna Sit
Come hear these brainy and charmant poets wax rhapsodic!
6:30. Wednesday, October 1, at Ceol

Ceol       
191 Smith Street
(between Baltic and Warren in Cobble Hill) Brooklyn
(2 blocks from the F train stop @ Bergen)

Excerpt from Songs of December
You said once I was your twin…
who knew when we were
separated? Once the eye
blinks, the parting done, nothing
quite the same after. Seems like we’ve had
lifetimes of practice, years of rehearsals,
to offer up ourselves, to be
torn apart, cut away, again
brushed together, two fires
ablaze then die
out in frigid winter,
leaving one body
aglow with some knowledge
of the other. Who else knows
that sting of brevity?
And I don’t know
how to tell it —
And I don’t know
how it happened.
I’m only the magician’s assistant
in crystal bra and harem pants
busy carrying knives, arrows, torches.
The careless prophet who made us
had since gone. Reason too, gone.
What remains: a rusty scalpel,
a handful of tangled wires
and tiny clumps of clay, proof
of amputation. No one remembers
how long ago that was, but we both
know the body has its own memory
of being there. Now,
it’s December in the drifting city.
It’s my birthday, and our origins flash,
disintegrate, a lost pearl glows
like rapture. What am I made for
if not for you? …’
                                                          

-Joanna Sit

Joanna Sit has taught literature and creative writing at Brooklyn College, NYU, the State University of New York and now teaches writing at Medgar Evers College. Her work has appeared recently in The Tonapah Review, The Relief Journal, Natural Bridge, Fickle Muses, and Poem. Her long poem Bitten by an Unusual Fly was included in the anthology Monologues From the Road, published by Heinemann Press in New Hampshire. She has work forthcoming in Seneca Review. She translates Chinese poetry and recently traveled to Hong Kong to study Cantonese Opera.
                              
                                                                       Say Goodbye
                                                                                        For Gianna Chachere & Valerie Massimi

Never ever acted our age
You too can have a secret blog
But to what end, when you are only cat
With cool tiger stripes makes you Beckett faced
The man with muscular calves
Loves men half his age
Even if he didn’t tell him that the bed
Was wet, the girls partied until the bottles empty
The hurricane caused a disturbance in all our minds
Music of angels only temporarily salves
What is lost in the memory
A city forms identity
The city is gone, so what can we be
In the dispersion it is leveled and understood
That the powerful will keep power
At all cost, the cost of any living being
Tender is the night, journey to its end

-Greg Fuchs

Greg Fuchs is a writer and photographer living in New York City. He has published and exhibited his photography widely. Fuchs’ latest book is Metropolitan Transit, a collection of poems, published by Isabel Lettres, a Brooklyn-based small press. He is the author of Bored of Education (Rock Heals, Baltimore, 2007), Came Like It Went (BD Books, Washington, DC 1999), New Orleans Xmas (Range, Eureka, CA 2002), Rolling Papers (Furniture Press, Baltimore, 2005), Temporary (Unarmed, Minneapolis 2004), Pieces of the Sky (Dusie, Switzerland, 2006) and Uma Ternura (Canvas and Companhia, Portugal, 1998). His poetry is included in the following anthologies: An Other South: Experimental Writing in the South (Loyola University Press, New Orleans, 1999) edited by Ralph Adamo and Bill Lavender; DC Poetry Anthology 1999-2000 edited by Alison Cobb and Jennifer Coleman; Thus Spake The Corpse: An Equisite Corpse Reader 1988-1998 (Black Sparrow, Santa Rosa, CA 1999) edited by Andrei Codrescu and Laura Rosenthal. Fuchs has performed at Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles, Small Press Traffic in San Francisco, the Writers House in Philadelphia, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church In-the-Bowery in New York among many other venues.
.

FYI: Folk music legend Pete Seeger will be at the Chile Pepper Fiesta this Saturday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Here are the ‘tails:

The  annual Chile Pepper Fiesta is upcoming on Saturday (the 27th) from 10-6 – and we are EXTREMELY excited that this year, folk legend Pete Seeger is performing at our annual Chile Pepper Fiesta in a very rare public appearance. Pete will be performing with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and Guy Davis, a bluesman in his own right who also happens to be the son of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. It’s going to be a very special performance.
The best part is that this is all in addition to the spicy culinary demos and workshops that have become beloved to Chile Pepper Fiesta attendees. And this year we’re psyched to have our magnificent borough represented by:
·         Brooklyn Petro hot sauce company – whose venture was inspired by a trip to the Fiesta a couple of years ago, when they bought their first chile plants;
·         the Sesame Flyers Steel Pan Orchestra – Bklyn teens and youth who lead the West Indian Day parade each year with their incredible steel drumming;
·         the Brooklyn Chili Takedown – a bigger and badder version of this beloved borough-wide event.

I just got this press release from Bill Di Blasio’s Office about his 5-point plan to reduce homelessness in the city. Any responses to this from OTBKB readers?

Families in Shelter

1. Expand Homelessness Prevention Services

Advocates estimate that it costs approximately $33,000 to shelter the average homeless family. In fiscal year 2008, actual spending greatly exceeded this average, with the city budgeting $433 million to cover the cost of 8,848 families in shelter.

In contrast, according to legal services providers, providing anti-eviction legal services for renters in housing court costs approximately $1,785 per case (this is based on the cost of a mid-level attorney with a rigorous case load

While it is not possible to know whether every family that receives anti-eviction legal services would have otherwise entered a homeless shelter, we do know that many families would enter homeless shelters if not for the legal services they received. Providing these services for 5,000 families would cost the City approximately $892,500.  If this measure prevented even 20%, or 1,000, of these assisted families from entering shelter, the City could save a conservative estimate of over $32 million while helping 1,000 families remain in their homes.

2.  Target Federal Housing Aid to the Homeless through Section 8 and NYCHA

In late 2004, Mayor Bloomberg’s administration cut off homeless New Yorkers from longstanding priority for Federal housing programs, including Section 8 vouchers and public housing.

Over the past five years, the City has placed an average of 7,136 persons in housing through Section 8 per year – none of these vouchers were directed toward New Yorkers in shelter.  The City should earmark 10% of future placements for homeless families, which would give at least 300 – 700 families vouchers per year.

In 2008, the City placed 5,220 applicants in public housing through NYCHA.  Ten percent of future NYCHA placements should be earmarked for homeless families, giving approximately 500 families housing each year.

3.  Repair the Flaws in Rental Assistance Programs for the Homeless

The "Work Advantage" program has unrealistic, one-size-fits-all time limits that will cut off rental assistance to struggling families after two years – regardless of a family’s circumstances. This plan was originally offered to 750 families in shelter in the spring of 2007.

In contrast, acclaimed studies by the Vera Institute, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, and academic researchers have found that long-term, flexible housing assistance – like the Federal Section 8 voucher program – helps move families from shelter to their own homes and helps them stay there.

In spring of 2009, the first cohort who entered the Work Advantage program will see their benefits expire.  Not all of these individuals will be prepared at that point to afford their full rents and support their families.  The City should extend subsidies to any families that are still unable to afford their full rent, potentially helping hundreds of families remain in their homes and out of the shelter system.

Individuals in Shelter

4.  Accelerate Construction of Supportive Housing

In 2005, New York City and State signed a ten-year agreement to provide supportive housing for homeless people living with mental illness and other special needs.

However, more than half of the newly constructed supportive housing – 3,276 units of the planned 6,250 new units – will not be built until at least 2011.

City and State officials should accelerate the pace of supportive housing construction. If the city builds approximately 1,000 of these back-loaded units each year, all 3,276 could be available by 2011. 

5.  Halt Referrals of Homeless Adults to Illegal Dwellings:

New York City has referred hundreds of homeless adults – including many living with mental illness – to more than 100 boarding houses that have been identified as unsafe and illegal by advocates.

City inspectors have issued vacate orders to at least 11 illegal boarding houses due to health and fire safety risks – forcing the residents to return to shelters or the streets

City officials should continue to update and monitor the list of these illegal boarding houses, and immediately halt all referrals of homeless adults living with mental illness or other disabilities to them.