Check out this pix and post on Clinton Hill Chill. The author reminisces about Stevie Wonder’s classic album, Songs in the Key of Life.
I also enjoyed this post, Pop was smooth from his top to his shoes about his dad and this post about his childhood bedroom window.
At this point, I’ve almost given up.
Sixth grade? Who cares. Next year? Never heard of it. Department of Education? Doesn’t ring a bell.
I mean, I’ve been in a state of anticipation for weeks now, checking the mail every day. Today I just feel jaded, frustrated and annoyed. I really have no expectations anymore.
Yesterday I heard they mailed the letters. Do I believe it? Not really. I’ve heard so many rumors about those letters. Those damn letters. Do they really exist?
Of course, they’ve got to mail them eventually. I guess. You’d think they’d have to tell the parents where their kids are going to school next year.
Everyone I talk to is so frustrated.
Vincent Walker, a 44-year-old resident of Park Slope, died last week. A devoted husband, father to two boys, friend of many and a local real estate entrepreneur, news of his death sent waves of shock and grief through the community. Here is an excerpt from a sermon by the Reverend Daniel Meeter of Old First Dutch Reformed Church.
On John 11:1-45, The Raising of Lazarus.
It is a terrible honor and a grievous privilege to preach this funeral sermon for Vincent Walker. This sermon will be in two parts. This first is about Vincent, and the second is about his family and us. Nineteen days ago, at his kitchen table, in the presence of Deborah, he told me a remarkable story, a testimony, actually. I told him he needed eventually to tell it to others as well, so now I must do that for him.
As you know, Vincent was very sick since January, and we still don’t know exactly what his sickness was. Even the tumor on his brain stem left so much unexplained. He was paralyzed on one whole side. He struggled to recuperate, and he finally was able to come home. About a month or so ago he had a sudden total paralysis, but through water and touch and prayer he experienced just as sudden a healing. The doctors can’t explain it, and he was convinced that it was miraculous. I gave him examples from scripture and experience to confirm his conviction, because a miracle is simply a physical event that first, defies our explanation, and second, that leads to wholeness.
Was it healing? Yes. Even though he died so soon thereafter? Yes, because healing is not just physical recuperation, but when you are made whole, morally and spiritually. And that particular experience was the climax of a general process of healing that Vincent had been experiencing through the whole course of his illness. He dared to say to me, in Deborah’s presence, that his illness had been good for him; not that the illness itself was good, but that he had gained from it, and not least in terms of gratitude and spirituality.
In the hospital wards and waiting rooms and even on the sidewalk he had been touched and moved by the prayers and grace of even perfect strangers. And although he had always known of God and believed in God, he now had a whole new level of experience with God. And he felt that his sudden physical healing was the climax of that.
Good news from The Written Nerd, who recently received a PowerUp grant/award for her new business proposal to open a bookstore somewhere in Brooklyn. Looks like she’s thinking about Fort. Green.
Presently, she works in a SoHo bookstore. Someday she hopes to own a bookstore of her own (and it sounds like that’s close to becoming a reality). She loves reading, talking about books, and being where literature hits the streets.
“I think independent bookstores can be a source for culture, community, and social justice,” she writes on her blog.
She lives in I lives in Park Slope. You can reach me here: booknerdnyc at earthlink dot net. Here’s a post from May 24th. I haven’t checked in for a while.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and perhaps my last chance to blog for a little while, so allow me to lay some updates and anticipations on you.
Brooklyn Bookstore
I received my PowerUp! check for $15,000 in the mail sometime last week, so yesterday I visited my new friend Juan at a great local/national bank about 20 minutes away. As he and I had discussed previously, I opened a small business money market account with the prize money, which will also be the depository for other funds raised. And he gave me the paperwork to fill out for a great big (to me) small business loan application. I’m hoping to get that in by mid-June, at the same time as I’m looking for retail spaces.In the meantime, I’ve made some other great business friends: the Retail Committee of the fabulous Fort Greene Association. It turns out that the beautiful, developing neighborhood of Fort Greene wants a bookstore almost as bad as I want to create one, so I’ll be working with them on finding a space, building community support, and doing some more fundraising. I’m so grateful to these folks for what they’ve done already, and you can be sure there will be much more to report as we lay our plans.
More thoughts on stoops from a Park Slope parent:
Growing up in the Slope we considered stoops our playground on the days
our parents didn’t take us to the park, and after
school. Especially during big snowstorms, when we
jumped off the top into neighbors pile of snow for
hours.And just about any day after homework was done.
My parents brownstone stoop had L shaped stairs, with
a stone “bench” partially blocking our ground floor
entrance. Many people young and old sat for a rest
through the years, or played outside, and we were
always OK with that. It was our way of life.
It’s a different day and place now, and we’ve moved,
but a real Brooklyn thing, and I really miss our
stoop.I totally agree that any behavior on anyones stoop
that affects their quality of life, or is in any way
obtrusive to stoop owners in a negative way, is not
OK.We now have a fence and I agree that inside the fence, sitting on our steps
would be off limits on our new block. No one has
ever done that, yet. We do offer our porch at times to
anyone caught in a sudden storm, as we are in a high
foot traffic park area, and a few houses down from a
bus stop. Nobody has ever said no, and thanked us for
our gesture. It’s our new way of not having a stoop.
On both sides of the fence here, and pun totally
intended
Well, that makes sense. It’s a high-end sex toys for women shop in Park Slope and lots of women around here have babies. You do the math.
Today, the Daily News has a story on Babeland, the new upscale sex toys for women shop in Park Slope, set to open on Thursday. Owner Claire Cavanah has been doing loads of press around town and really getting the word out about her shop.
As you know, I got a gift bag from Babeland at the Edgy Mother’s Day event, which included a couple of vibrators, lubricant and other items. I also got a cute gift box from them sent to my home with a silver egg-shaped vibrator with a controller that looks like a dimmer switch, and a Mojito/peppermint massage candle.
This business is no slouch. They’ve got promotional materials a go go, shopping bags, nice packaging, an extensive e-commerce site and more. This is a well-run and seemingly thriving business with branches in Manhattan, Seattle and elsewhere.
Claire Cavanah and Rachel Venning opened the first Babeland store in 1993 in response to the lack of women-friendly sex shops in Seattle.
The store offered top quality products, a pleasant place to shop, and most of all information and encouragement to women who wanted to explore their sexuality. The store’s popularity with both women and men eventually led to two more stores in New York and one in Los Angeles, as well as a thriving website.
And now Park Slope.
BABELAND BONUS
Vibrators have their toothy uses,
Something that’s not widely known–
Used to brush your pearly whites,
They stimulate the oral zone.
Twice a day you’re guaranteed,
Sure as strollerlock and taxes,
Teeth and tongue that sizzle up
In dazzling multiple
climaxes..
It’s not the letters but the guidance counselor and the parent coordinator at PS 321 (and maybe other District 15 schools) have the information. That’s right, they know what school has accepted your fifth grader for 6th grade.
This is the news we’ve been waiting for. Now I’m scared. Nervous, nervous. Should I call…
I won’t put any phone numbers up here. But call PS 321 and ask for the parent coordinator or the guidance counselor.
After I got the aforementioned email that the guidance counselor and the parent coordinator at PS 321 had the master list of all the middle school acceptances, I called the Parent Coordinator. She checked and said: “She’s not on the list.”
WHAT?
“She not on the list.”
I felt faint. The parent coordinator assured me that she would look into it.
Less than an hour later I walked into the guidance counselor’s office and she took one look at me and said, “I know. She’s not on the list.”
I felt doubly faint.
Well, it turns out that OSFO really isn’t on the list (which should name all of PS 321’s fifth graders). Nowhere. Nothing. Some kind of computer glitch; a technical mistake? She probably got into a school somewhere but she’s not on the master list from the Department of Education. The guidance counselor is going to call some of the schools that OSFO listed on her application to see if she go in. Somewhere.
Chances are she did or she will. That would be nice.
Outside of the school building at pick-up, friends looked at me expectantly. “So where did she get in?” When I told them my sad tale they looked aghast.
“Okay, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn,” one said. “You go girl and take the DOE down.”
Word traveled fast. I got an email from a friend that the Daily News wants to talk. Another friend gave my number to Elissa Gootman at the New York Times.
I keep telling OSFO not to worry, that this will all work out, that it has absolutely NOTHING to do with her, that everything is okay.
She seems totally fine, by the way. She’s a solid kid; a real rock.
And then she heard me talking on the phone to the New York Times. She doesn’t know who I was talking to but she can tell that I am agitated, annoyed, on edge, shakey, not happy and so on.
I made a few calls. The parent coordinator at one of the schools said, “Why don’t you let your guidance counselor do the footwork.”
I guess that’s a good idea. In the meantime, wonder if we’ll ever get those letters?
A friend, worried that she did not receive the middle school admissions letter on Monday, called a parent coordinator at one of the local public schools. “The letters have NOT been mailed,” she was told.
I was shocked. Hey, I’m the one who spread the rumor that the letters were mailed on Friday. I was told by a reliable source that the Education Department sent an email telling school officials that the letters would be sent out last Friday.
So much for waiting impatiently for the mail to arrive on Saturday and Monday.
Yesterday, Inside Schools reported that some letters went out and some will go out this week. Now they’re saying that if you don’t receive by June 9th to called the Department of Education.
Somebody’s playing with my head.
Here’s an excerpt from today’s Associated Press story about the parking vacation in Park Slope. With all these headlines about our parking situation, Slopers are afraid that parkers from everywhere will be coming to the Slope this summer.
And what about the moratorium on street cleaning? What’s that about. Isn’t summer the stinkiest time of the year when it comes to garbage.
NEW YORK (AP) — In this densely populated city, residents compete for jobs, apartments, subway seats, taxicabs, even treadmills in the gym.
So when the city announced it was suspending parking regulations in one of its most crowded districts, it inspired something close to pandemonium.
“Park Slopers rejoice!” blared a headline in the Brooklyn Paper about the lifting of restrictions on alternate-side parking in the borough’s trendy Park Slope neighborhood.
New York’s alternate-side parking rules require drivers to move their cars several times a week, as posted on a sign, so streets can be cleaned. The rules are suspended for 34 legal and religious holidays.
For car owners in New York, the ritual of moving one’s vehicle for street sweepers is as much a way of marking the days as the work week, and scofflaws are ticketed.
Until recently in most areas, curbs had to be clear for three hours, but the city is moving to reduce the length of time during which parking is prohibited to just 90 minutes — which means replacing thousands of street signs.
While the city switches Park Slope — so named for the gentle rise in land toward Brooklyn’s Prospect Park — to the 90-minute schedule, it is removing the old signs and suspending the rules until the new signs are in place.
During that period, which began May 19 and will run for several months, drivers can park anywhere alternate-side parking used to be in effect, for as long as they want.
Karen Cani, a 51-year-old carpet store employee who drives to work in Park Slope, could hardly believe the news when she heard it. She confirmed it from the city’s information hot line, then parked, with great excitement, in a previously forbidden zone.
Problem was, she miscalculated and was one block out of the territory where rules were suspended. “I come out, and I’ve got a ticket,” she said.
A reading by Elizabeth Royte is definitely something to make time for. That’s because she’s Park Slope’s super smart, award-winning author of Garbageland and now Bottlemania: How Water Went On Sale and Why We Bought It.
She did a fantastic reading at Brooklyn Reading Works when Garbageland first came out reading excerpts with interesting introductions and asides. It makes for a fascinating hour or so—and a very educational and informational one.
I just got this nice email from her. She wants to spread the word. I like the way she sends a mass email by specifying why you are receiving it. That’s probably something I should do.
Dear Friend Who Lives in Brooklyn,
I will be reading from/talking about my new book, Bottlemania: How Water
Went On Sale and Why We Bought It, on June 13, 7:30 pm, at the Community
Bookstore (143 Seventh Avenue – near Carroll Street). Hope you can make
it, and feel free to share this notice with anyone in the world.All best,
ElizabethRead all about it: www.bottlemania.net
Verse responder Leon Freilich proves that you just can’t say enough about Hillary Clinton and her tenacious bid for the White House. Tonight she concedes or so I hear. But many of us will forever respect her stubborn resolve and her stamina. What a strong message to women everywhere.
Hillary is one amazing woman, who doesn’t back down—she’s one for the history books in so many ways.
F.P. BILL
If Hillary’s our next V.P.,
Wonders a wicked slanderer,
Will Bill still be entitled to
Be called the First Philanderer?
HOLD ON, HILLARY
Conceding prematurely sucks.
No need to be Al Gore redux.
ST. BERRA
Yes, Hillary may be behind
And far from being in clover
But recall Yogi’s good sense—
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
DEM. TWO
Women demand
And will not stop–
Hillary has
To be on top
The question came up today on OTBKB’s fave list-serve, Park Slope Parents. Is it OK to park one’s derriere on a stranger’s stoop? One commenter said she thinks of stoops as public domain.
Someone else said if the building doesn’t have a gate between the sidewalk and the stoop: go for it!
But this commenter, who lives in a first floor apartment in a building with a stoop, begs to differ. In true Slope fashion, the commenter apologizes for her less than “all for one and one for all” viewpoint.
I hate to be a stick in the mud about this, but I actually think a stoop is
not a public domain and that it is wrong to park your self there. I live on
the first floor of a building with a very inviting stoop, and my apartment
overlooks the stoop. While I am sure you and your daughter only want to
enjoy the lovely weather and rest a bit, when people sit and talk on my
stoop, for me its like they are right there in my kitchen. Sometimes they
can talk quite loudly. Some people sit and smoke, eat or drink, and then
leave behind their garbage. One time a guy actually set up his portable
stereo! I try and nicely redirect people–the park is only one block away.
I’m sorry to say, I think stoop sitting is a bit of an intrusion.
I just got word from my fellow blogger, Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn that he got tickets to see Dylan on August 12th.
I got tickets, too. It felt necessary, important, essential even though I’ve seen Dylan many times and his recent performances can be iffy.
I saw him with the Band in the 1970’s at Madison Square Garden, saw him during his Gospel phase, I saw him at Radio City with GE Smith, I saw him with Tom Petty, I saw him with Joni Mitchell.
I also once saw him in Park Slope. He was standing on the corner of Lincoln Place and Eighth Avenue with an older photographer. There was a tiny crowd of people standing around him.
Would you believe, I asked him for an autograph and he obliged.
So, you see, I just had to get tickets. They were pricey but I felt possessed, driven, like I had to get tickets.
I think it was the Brooklyn angle. I mean, to hear Bob in Prospect Park—that sounds cool. I am also on a bit of a Dylan jag. We just watched both parts of No Direction Home and most of I’m Not There, which, surprisingly, I didn’t love: I wanted to and I loved parts of it. But overall, didn’t love it though I think I should rewatch it.
About the tickets: I may not be able to use them. But if Teen Spirit doesn’t want them I may offer them to OTBKB readers. I thought it was cool that Brooklyn Paper and later Brooklyn Vegan gave away the code.
Earlier this year, I think it was in an email to another blogger, I was
speculating on the hypothesis that wouldn’t it be so cool for Bob Dylan
to perform at the Brooklyn Academy of Music? I mean, he plays Sequim
Island, Albany, Dubuque, Lewiston, and all points in between on his
Endless Tour, so why not Brooklyn, USA ? Shortly afterward, BAM
announced that Paul Simon was appearing as a performer in residence, so
I thought, well that’s great, pretty close, (and it turned out Paul
still gives a great show) I guess we will have to be satisfied with
Bob’s usual appearances at his usual venues in Manhattan, NJ and on
Long Island, when he plays the City. Well surprise, surprise.I
was getting ready to get my kids out of the house to school and myself
to work this morning when I heard on the NY1 morning wallpaper that Mr.
Dylan was appearing at the Prospect Park Bandshell for Celebrate
Brooklyn’s 30th anniversary of concerts. Dang, I thought, another great
event missed. I even missed out on an attempt to get Dylan tix in
Albany last year. On my way in, I thought, darn, what are the odds that
there would still be any tickets left ?Well, never say never.
Bright and early, after dropping the kids off, and driving downtown
listening to Blind Willie McTell and stuff from Modern Times, with that
vague sense of impending disappointment, this intrepid blogger decided
to mosey on down to planet Dylan.Sure enough, we made it in just under
the wire. And it is an outdoor show, without primo seats, and it may be
hot, or rainy, and Boomer uncomfortable, but come August 12, when Bob
Dylan and his current hot touring band hit the stage, the show will go
on and Mr and Mrs Brooklyn Beat will happily be in attendance…more to
come.Illustration of Bob Dylan by the etchasketchist.
This post from Park Slope Parents was written by a woman who likes to sit on people’s stoops. Although she has never been stopped, she wonders whether there is some kind of unwritten rule about whether it is appropriate to do so. You know me, I just love this kind of thing.
A couple of weekends ago my 4 year old daughter and I were walking
around the neighborhood running errands. We were a good 10 blocks
from home and she was tired, so we found a nice sunny stoop somewhere
in South Slope between 6th and 7th Aves and sat ourselves down to
rest for a few minutes and contemplate life. Since then, whenever we
go out for a stroll or to run errands, she asks me if we can stop and
sit at a stoop for a few minutes. We live in a stoopless apartment,
but it occurred to me that we may be committing a social faux pas to
park ourselves on somebody else’s property.Of course, I understand that there is no black and white here and
while some folks might be fine with some polite neighborhood people
borrowing their stoop for a few minutes, others might feel
differently about it. That said, I’m thinking there is probably a
general unwritten rule about this — absolutely not, it’s totally
uncool to use a stranger’s stoop, or why not? it’s nice to share the
wealth and allow someone to tie their shoes or otherwise take a very
brief load off. So which is it? If we’re violating some common
neighborhood rule, I’ve got some explaining to do to my daughter on
our next jaunt.
What do you think?
So I finally checked the mailbox at 5:30. I wasn’t very hopeful. Earlier in the day I spoke with a friend and she didn’t get The Letter.
I also saw this over at the Inside Schools blog:
“Andy Jacob of the Department of Education says, ‘Some middle school letters went out late last week. The rest should go out today. Parents should receive the letters this week. Parents expecting letters who haven’t received them by [June 9] should contact their child’s guidance counselor. Acceptances are due June 12.’”
So I was super pessimistic when I finally did check the mailbox when I got home from the office. In today’s mail: Being John Malkovich from Netflix and some junk mail. An American Express bill
Still waiting. Still waiting.
Every day more and more people—from all over the world—are discovering the magic of Jamie Livingston’s Photo of-the-Day site. "I am constantly amazed at how much thought people are putting into writing about Jamie Livingston’s work. It’s not the same thing over and over. There are all these different interpretations. Some are similar but they’re not the same," Hugh tells me in a state of over-the-top gratification that Jamie’s work is getting out there and being appreciated by so many people.
Here’s something he found on a site called A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That:
I was intrigued by the title of an article on www.Foxnews.com the other day. The title read “Daily Polaroids Detail Last 18 Years of NYC Man’s Life.” I bet it got your attention too! It was about a man named Jamie Livingston who took at least one photo of his life, every day, for 18 years. It started as a College Project and it continued on til the day he died. Oddly enough, he died at the age of 41 on the same day of his birth. He passed away in 1997, and yes there is a picture taken on the very last day of his life.
I actually spent a lot of time going through them. His friends have always wanted to do this for him, as a memorial and to share his life with others. I think they did an absolutely amazing job. They also put all of the pictures up at Bard College, which is the college where Livingston started the project. It filled a wall 120 feet by 8 feet.
It’s erie to go and look at the pictures. Towards the end you can really see the decline in his health. Apparently he lost his battle with cancer. It’s so sad to think that a man with such a interesting outlook on life, had to die so young.
The Jamie Livingston site continues to attract traffic from around the world. Hugh noticed that there’s been a lot of traffic coming from Brazil. It’s also being picked up in China. Hugh has no idea how many people have been to the site. But at times it is receiving something like 150 hits per second. That means 150 pages or pictures are being requested per second.
That’s an awful lot.
If you’d like a partial list of many blogs that have picked up Jamie’s site go to Ice Rocket for an index.
Thankfully the site is at a hosting company called iphouse that has a lot of bandwidth. Hugh and I would like to take a moment to thank two men in Minneapolis we’ve never met. But they are real behind-the-scenes heroes and we are filled with gratitude.
Vizzini and Bil contacted Hugh after the Jamie site went up on Mental Floss all those days ago.
They reached out in a very generous and kind-hearted way—and offered Hugh much needed bandwidth—and now he’s part of the Jamie story.
Thanks to Bil MacLeslie, CEO of iphouse.com, for bandwidth/collocation and Vizzini Sampere for Servers and System Administration for all that you’ve done.
.
Vizzini and Bil are willing to continue donating the server, disk space, and their time to administrate the server for the site as long as we arrange bandwidth with Bil/iphouse.
"The particular machine I have you on is a online backup and development machine I have just in case one of my other servers dies or a site needs some additional capacity," Vizzini wrote to Hugh in an email.
Vizzini and Bill at iphouse.com: Thank you from all of us.
Photo of the Day by Jamie Livingston of Hugh Crawford on 6-11-88 (Hugh still has that shirt. We call it his Hawaiian Punch shirt.)
I caught the tail-end of a concert by Park Slope’s Accordion Angels, a new accordion quartet, that plays vintage americana, old and new Europeans and what they call, “striking originals.”
They were playing in the Gardens of Union on Union Street near Fourth Avenue, a perfect spot for a Sunday afternoon concert. The show was part of the Local Produce Festival.
I heard their last song, a really classic piece of Americana, very slow, very soothing. I can’t remember the name of it now. I liked they way they sustained its almost other-worldly melodic calm. Amazing how soothing four accordians can be.
After the show, the group talked about changing their name. Apparently some in the group like the current name and others are lobbying for a name change.
The group will be at the Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival on Friday June 6th at 7 pm at Valentino Park and Pier, Coffey and Ferris Street.
On Saturday June 14, they will be at Le Petit Versailles at 346 Houston Street at Avenue C. 7 p.m.
Gawker goes gaga for Blognigger and there are already 33 comments about it—plus quite a few on Blognigger’s site.
They posted it with a very weird stock photo of a black man at a computer. I guess they’re saying he’s blognigger or something.
Today’s post is really intense; it’s about MTV’s decision to shoot Real World in downtown Brooklyn. Here’s an excerpt from today’s post on Gawker:
We stumbled onto the words of an angry, succinct blogger who calls himself Blognigger; he’s black and a software engineer and lives in Park Slope. He’s at the forefront of several wars: he’s black in America, and in a mostly-white neighborhood, which he will soon have to leave: “I make $106,000 a year, and I’m a pauper in Park Slope. No, literally – we have to leave. I have two kids and my rent has just been raised to $3500 a month. I’ve lived here since 1999 (when 5th avenue was still a total shithole), and now I’m going to have to uproot my family and move out of brooklyn… I can’t afford to live here anymore without my wife doing online surveys and shit to supplement our income.”
But what are his thoughts on the Real World decamping to downtown Brooklyn for their upcoming season?
“I absolutely can’t believe that they’re going to put these United Colors of Benetton kids into a high-rise in the middle of downtown brooklyn. Talk about some post-apocalyptic shit. I grew up BLACK in New York, and even I didn’t set foot in Downtown Brooklyn until I was 30…”
Now they got some camera-ready glossy-ass Real Dolls™ living in a rotating health club above where the old Church’s fried chicken used to be.
…it’s times like this I wish I was a real black guy, a thick darkskinned brotha from east flatbush with a big-ass ‘fro pick, instead of my little software engineering over-educated ass, so that I could summon a crew of like-minded ignorant black gentlemen with nothing to live for such that we could go and beat the FUCK out of these little survivor wanabees and take a dump in their hottub.”
Man acquitted of assault charge for manhandling of gym grunter (NY Times)
Starrett City will stay a rental (NY Times)
Building washer falls to his death on St. Marks Place (NY Times)
RIP: Bo Diddly (Found in Brooklyn)
One of the greatest gifts (Luna Park Gazette)
Win one for the zipper (Luna Park Gazette)
Alice in wine blog land (Self-Absorbed Boomer)
Rising food costs and the global food crisis (So Good)
In the land of crazy (Phatush Diaries)
The Gowanus Canal Conservancy threw a great party on Carroll Street on Sunday. The first annual Gowanus Goes Green Festival included music from The Defibulators, natural food, workshops, kids activities, and green businesses and not-for-profits exhibiting their goods and services, including The Spa, a green wellness center in Bay Ridge, Movers Not Shakers, residential and commercial moving with environmentally sustainable practices, Theo, makers of organic chocolate bars, V-Spot, which served delicious empanadas, and Engage Green, makers of bags, and shoes from recycled materials.
On display were the plans for Sponge Park. Proposed by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, it is a landscaped esplanade that runs the length of the canal that looks beautiful in the renderings. It would also reduce the problem of contaminated water flowing into the canal (hence the sponge).
I really enjoyed myself at GGG. The best part was riding the Carroll Street Bridge. What a blast!
Even better was just hanging out in the Yard, a tree-filled waterfront park on the banks of the Gowanus Canal, drinking beer, listening to music and enjoying the day.
We met him at Gowanus Goes Green and he takes beautiful pictures all over Brooklyn. He doesn’t have a blog but you can see his work at his pbase site.
This is a photograph by Gary Sloman of the Carroll Street Bridge
Brooklyn Film Works will be on Wednesdays not Thursdays as I reported last week. And I’ve got the schedule for real.
Kim Maier, who runs the Old Stone House, tells me that the Piper Theater Production of A Midsummer’s Nights Dream in JJ Byrne Park will have a “fantastic Coney Island theme.”
Now that sounds incredible.
Brooklyn Film Works. Movies Al Fresco in JJ Byrne Park. Fifth Avenue and Third Street. Wednesdays in July.
July 2 – 1776
July 9 – Reelworks Film Festival
July 16 – The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
July 23 – The Mouse that Roared
July 30 – The Candidate with Robert Redford
pix of Brooklyn Film Works in 2006 showing The Little Fugitive by Hugh Crawford
I just got a rather long email from a representative of Park Slope Quality of Life Committee They are trying to organize a productive dialog with the FAA and the NY/NJ Port Authority.
Their aim is, in their words, "to address the persisting noise pollution that’s generated from the low altitude aircrafts as they fly too frequently over Park Slope and other Kings County communities on their final approach into La Guardia airport. We now have a golden opportunity to meet with representatives from both, the FAA and the Port Authority at the upcoming CB6 meeting on June 19."
Here is a summary of issues, that are important to them:
LaGuardia airport opened in 1947 with only 4 runways and was built on 680 acres, a bit larger than our 526 acres Prospect Park. Since it is situated in the midst of dense clusters of residential communities, it was meant to accommodate only small fleets of regional aircrafts with fewer than 50 seats. Until 1998, LGA gradually expanded to handle up to 600 operations a day, however, in September of 2000; the FAA bowed to pressures from the airline industry and lifted previous caps and regulations to allow unrestricted number of regional flights into the smallest of the Tri State airports. This new FAA regulation immediately added 600 flights a day into LGA. Today, LGA airport handles over 1194 flights per one day with up to 88 operations in one hour.
…With the obvious limitations of runway space, the air controllers are under tremendous pressure from the airline industry and the FAA to land this ridiculous volume of traffic as fast as possible in order to limit congestion, delays and negative publicity, as we all remember the cover story article last summer in the NY Magazine that most likely had a direct effect on re-routing the majority of the air traffic over our area to limit the effects of the congestion and delays into LGA.
As per The Port Authority official docs, the increase in aircraft volume created the necessity to use runway 4 and 13 as often as possible for arriving aircrafts. As a result of this practice, 80% of approaching air traffic into LGA now pass over Kings County’s densely populated residential areas as early as 5:30 AM and as late as 1:00 am the following morning. During peak hours they fly as low as 1800 ft altitude and at one minute intervals.
We see very little evidence that the Air Controllers Organization is in compliance with the FAA guidelines to show “sensitivity” to residential areas. As we all experience too often, the air traffic tends to fly over our homes on a single ground tracks for 20 hour flight rotation. We often wonder why it’s not directed over commercial zones as the predominant flight-route. Also, we see no evidence that the air controller’s exercise any sensitivity during curfew hours and instead, direct many flights over predominantly residential communities as late as 2 AM during the summer schedule.
The other issue that exasperates an already unbearable situation is that of the more affluent Westchester Counties seem to receive preferential consideration in flight rotation patterns; whereas, Brooklyn communities such as Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Fort Green and Clinton Hill, the less affluent/ influential and maybe somewhat more tolerant residents are getting screwed. We found Internet documents going back to 2006 that confirm lobbying efforts and meetings between the FAA and Connecticut/ Westchester communities that were represented by lawyers and a hired Aviation engineer from Colorado, arguing to reduce the Ocean approach into runway 22 via the Northern communities. As far as we could tell, they’ve succeeded to reduce the rotations over their communities by half.
When aircrafts cross Brooklyn into runway 4 or 13 they fly at a much lower altitude and pass predominantly residential areas; affecting the well-being of over 4 million people. However, with approach to runway 22 via the northern counties they fly over the Hudson River, cross over Westchester, and fly down a cluster of highways with the final descent occurring over the ocean. This route is by far the least disturbing to residential areas since the low altitude occurs over the water. Nevertheless, the fewer but wealthier northern counties campaigned vigorously against this approach route, and being as well connected and organized as they are, they got what they’ve asked for.
This should be a good incentive for us to have a formal representation and voice our concerns to the FAA and the Port Authority at the upcoming meeting on June 19 2008.
Since August 1, 2007, at the time that the HDR expired, the FAA remains in litigation over the redesign of the NY/NJ/PH airspace and it seems that many of the concerns are related to the proposed congestion pricing and the delays at LGA. It seems obvious to us that no matter how they slice it, congestion will remain a serious issue as long as the volume of traffic remains at present operations. Required by law, the FAA has a site where anyone can submit comments reflecting interest or concern with the future airspace redesign. We will have the link to that site on our website and the deadline to submit comments is June 16, 2008. We should all submit comments about the environmental issues because so far, the majority of the submissions are from the airline industry and related interest groups that only push for policy that will increase the air traffic.
Continue reading Air Traffic Over Park Slope And The Noise Pollution it Produces
So it’s Monday and we hope to get The Letter from the Department of Education. Where or where will my child be going to middle school next year. It’s June and we still don’t know.
Please oh please, I hope the letter comes today.
The DeFibulators are a 6-piece country-swing band with great harmonies, an upright bass, a washboard player, a fiddler, and more. On their MySpace page they describe themselves as Hee Haw on Mescaline.
They were at the Gowanus Go Green Festival today and they put me in a great mood and I fell in love with their sound. The New York Times had this to say:
No yee-haws or any other hoots or yawps were held back a few nights earlier at a show by the Defibulators at the Rodeo Bar on Third Avenue, which styles itself a honky-tonk oasis in Manhattan, with Lone Star beer, peanuts by the basket and free country and rockabilly every night. The Defibulators, from Brooklyn, are quintessential Rodeo Bar. Like a hoedown band from a Warner Brothers cartoon, they played raucous and slightly surreal “whackabilly,” as they describe it, and featured two washboard percussionists, one in crimson long johns, the other in a Viking helme
Check ’em out. They play all over the place.