All posts by louise crawford

real estate

Exciting New Feature on OTBKB: Secret Agent

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Secret Agent: Notes from the Trenches of Park Slope Real Estate is an exciting new weekly feature on OTBKB. Here's a little tease about our brand new real estate insider/writer who's identity will remain anonymous.

Who am I?

You sure you want to know? The stories I am about to tell are not for the faint of heart.
  
I’m a Park Slope resident over ten years and I’ve been selling real estate for about four. I’m “in it,” as they say. When I started, it was the hottest of hot markets. That was when being a real estate agent was sexy and the topic was like crack.

No one could get enough of it.
   
I’ve been riding this wave as its gone from a seller's-market to a relatively
even-market to the buyer’s-market we’re in now.

It’s been a wild journey so far and anything but boring.
   
Real estate is still a hot topic. People are skittish, holding their
breath and waiting for the bottom. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
People are looking and transactions are happening. It’s not going at
the frenzied pace that it once was. Now it’s more like molasses…
   
–Stay tuned for more on Monday March 23rd.

Civics and Urban Life

Coming Soon: Breakfast-of-Candidates (39th Edition)

I've had breakfast with 4 out of the 6 democratic candidates for the City Council in the 39th district. It's  Bill deBlasio's seat they're after and he's running for public advocate. The democratic primary is 6 months away and that's THE big day in a primarily democratic district. He (and they're all hes) who wins the primary will more than likely win the general election.

The next milestone for the candidates is getting the necessary number of signatures to get their names on the ballot. The deadline is June. Many of these guys will be going door to door to meet the citizens and to get signatures.

So far, I've met with "front runner" Brad Lander, Craig Hammerman, Bob Zuckerman and Gary Reilly. I've yet to meet with Josh Skaller and John Heyer.

I will also be meeting with David Pechefsky but he's the Green Party's candidate; he won't be in the democratic primary and will be in the general election regardless of the democratic outcome.

I am also starting to meet with candidates in the race for city council in the 33rd district,which is David Yassky's district. In that race there's a female candidate name Joanne Simon. Park Slope is carved up into the 39th and the 33rd district.

More about the way the districts were carved up in a highly political way is forthcoming.

First up: Read all about candidate Gary Reilly on OTBKB next week.

Civics and Urban Life

Coming to the Community Bookstore: Scavengers, Subway Novelists, and Jonathan Lethem

–Tuesday March 24th at 7:30: Low Boy, is the third novel by John Wray, the coolest writer you’ve never heard of takes place almost entirely
underground—specific ally, in the tunnels and trains of the Manhattan
subway system—as William Heller, a sixteen year-old schizophrenic,
attempts to save the world from global warming. Wray will be reading and signing books.

–Wednesday March 25 at 7:30: The Modernist Book Club tackles Some Tame Gazelle, a senstation when
it was originally published, it is a story of two middle aged women,
written by a young Barbara Pym while at Oxford.

–Thursday March 26 at 7:30: The Scavenger's Manifesto, which is about the philosophy, spirituality and practice of "scavenging" —
e.g., any legal means of acquiring stuff that doesn't involve paying
full price, from thrift-shopping to yard-saling to Dumpster-diving to
curb-surfing to coupon-clipping to Freecycling. After two thousand
years of prejudice (hey, it's reviled in Leviticus!), scavenging is
finally beginning to gain respect as a socially conscious, green and
ultimately clean way of life. We see ourselves as nature's cleanup crew. Authors Anneli Rufus and Kristan Lawson will read and sign books.

–Tuesday March 31 at 7 p.m. Jonathan Lethem and LJ Davis will team up to discuss the New York Review of Book’s re-release of Davis’s 1971 novel: a blistering black comedy about the American quest for redemption via real estate and a gritty picture of New York City in collapse. Through the purchase and renovation of a rotting Brownstone mansion in  Brooklyn,  failed   writer (and general flop) Lowell Lake attempts to make good on everything that's gone wrong with his pathetic life, and he will even murder to do it.

The Community Bookstore is located on Seventh Avenue between Garfield and President Streets in Park Slope.

Civics and Urban Life

What? Brooklyn Museum Raises Admissions

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The Brooklyn Museum just sent out an email saying that they are raising the price of admission to $10 for adults and $6 for for older adults and students.

The admission is currently $8
for adults and $4 for seniors and students. Thanks to funds from a major endowment from the Wallace Foundation, Target First Saturdays will continue to be free.

This is obviously a sign that the museum, like everyone else, is suffering in these tough economic times. Even at $10, the museum is, if not a bargain, one of the cheaper admissions in the New York museum world.

Still, the increase comes at a bad time and it sure isn't great publicity for a museum that purports to be interested in diverse attendance. Understandably, the museum is facing tough financial decisions. But why should the Brooklyn public, who deserve access to the world-class collection and innovateive shows at their local museum have to provide the shortfall? Dr. Arnold
Lehman, director of the Museum had this to say.


"We truly regret that the challenges created
by the economic downturn have made it
necessary to modestly increase the admissions
fee at the Brooklyn Museum. We are grateful
to the Department of Cultural Affairs for its
support as we move forward with this
suggested admissions increase. However, the
Brooklyn Museum and our colleague cultural
institutions throughout New York City still
represent extraordinary enriching value for
all visitors, particularly in this difficult
and distressing time."
Election

David Pechefsky is the Green Party’s Candidate for City Council District 39

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A big field of good candidates (all white guys) to fill Bill de Blasio's City Council seat in the 39th District just got bigger.

David Pechefsky, the Green Party Candidate for City
Council District 39 (and one of the Park Slope 100) just invited me, you and anybody to a kick-off
party for his campaign with suggested donation prices of $25-$175 at
Barbes on Friday, March 27th from 6 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. That's 376
Ninth Street near Sixth Avenue.

In today's email blast, he opens with: "Interested in a greener, more equitable, more democratic city?"

I'm not sure if you have to make a donation to take a look-see at the candidate. Donation is suggested not mandatory. If you want to RSVP for the event, email Jonathan@pechefskyforcitycouncil.com

Civics and Urban Life

Snowglobe Snow

It's snowing in Brooklyn on the first day of spring and everyone's saying that. At Ozzie's the barista suggested that we think of the snow as blossoms falling from the sky.

A woman standing on line said, "I like the snow. It's snowglobe snow."  I liked the image and for a moment saw all of us inside a plastic bubble, a big hand shaking us to and fro.

But I wasn't feeling nearly as upbeat as the woman on line at Ozzie's. The gloppy, wet snow put me in a bad mood as I stepped out of my building this morning. But she persisted. "I heard birds singing in my backyard," she said.

And then I remembered: I saw a sparrow dining on a snowflake on Third Street. Spring is coming.

Civics and Urban Life

Today in Brooklyn: Final Hearing On Mayoral Control of Schools

Should there be mayoral control of the schools?

During the 2002 and 2003 Legislative sessions, the Legislature approved
the most comprehensive governance changes to the New York City School
District in over three decades.

This meant that the mayor was given control of the
management of the City's schools through the ability to appoint the
Chancellor of the City District and a majority of the members of the
City Board of Education.

This also gave the mayor control over educational standards,
curriculum requirements and mandatory educational objectives and much more.

The public is invited to express their point of view today in Brooklyn.

The Where and When

Friday, March 20, 2009
10:00 a.m.
New York City Technical College
Klitgord Auditorium
285 Jay Street
Brooklyn, NY

Food and Drink

Sunday at 4 p.m. Save Vox Pop Town Hall Meeting

Yesterday I got an email from Debi Ryan, a member of the Vox Pop Collective, that there's going to be a Save Vox Pop Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, March 22nd at 4:00 pm at the Vox Pop Café, 1022 Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn.

For those who don't know the phenomenon that is Vox Pop: it is a cafe, performance space, and community  hang-out with a decidedly progressive political vibe in the Ditmas Park/Flatbush neighborhood. I've been there numerous times and it's a great place for a cup of coffee and a chance to read some of the self-published books they carry over there.

Save Vox Pop? I didn't know they were in trouble. I guess I'm just not up to speed about what's been going on over there. I think I heard out of the corner of my ear that there was trouble but I'm not really sure if it's economic or otherwise. Here's the email from Debi:

Thanks so much for giving us the opportunity to share
our vision going forward. Our goal is to rebuild, using the foundation
that is already in place to foster an even stronger sense of

community.
Vox Pop is a coffee house/bookstore/art gallery/music venue located on Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park/Flatbush, Brooklyn. Our vision is to
stand for democracy, equality and peace in the way we treat each
other, our employees and the community. We want to be a true community

center where all members of the neighborhood feel welcome and comfortable, and all points of view are respected.

Vox Pop is a collective. There is no one owner of Vox Pop. There are over 50 shareholders, most members of the community we serve, but some
living as far away as California. Under our new model, there is no
majority shareholder. Our hope is that everyone who loves Vox Pop becomes a part of Vox Pop. If the entire community owns the place, it
will surely be a staple of the Cortelyou Road scene for many, many
years.

Food and Drink

Obamas to Plant Organic Vegetable Garden at the White House

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The New York Times reports that the Obamas are planting an organic garden on the White House lawn. Well, they're not doing it themselves, but members of the kitchen staff are.

That should be like organic music to the ears of local gardeners and locavores in Brooklyn and elsewhere.The last time there was a garden at the White House was in the 1930's when Eleanor Roosevelt planted a victory garden.

The Obamas are heeding the call of many, including Alice Waters, Michael Pollan and thousands on Facebook who joined an online group in support of this idea, to plant a garden on the White house lawn to provide food for the family and formal dinners.

The planting of this garden sends out a strong message to the nation and the world about the importance of healthy and locally grown food. It will also be an important educational tool for school children and those who get a chance to visit the White House.

The New York Times reports that the Obama's will be planting 55 varieties of vegetable on the 1,100-square-foot plot of lawn. There will also be a large assortment of lettuce, including red
romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic; spinach, chard, collards and black kale; fruits and a patch of berries.

“My hope is that
through children, they will begin to educate their families and that
will, in turn, begin to educate our communities," Michele Obama told a New York Times interviewer.

Current Affairs

Big Cuts to City’s Public Hospitals

This is bad news for Brooklyn neighborhoods where people depend on the public hospitals for health care and mental health services. Here's an excerpt from the article in the NY Times today:

New York City’s publi hospital system announced  Thursday that it
was cutting 400 jobs and closing some children’s mental-health
programs, pharmacies and community clinics that serve more than 11,000 patients.

Alan D. Aviles, president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, blamed reductions in state reimbursement, a sharp increase in uninsured patients and the rising cost of labor, drugs and medical supplies for the cuts.

He warned that he would probably announce further job and service cuts in a month or two. The hospitals face a looming $316 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal
year, which begins in July, and the current plan would save $105
million.

Postcard from the Slope

Brooklyn Creative League

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Brooklyn Creative League offers works space to  freelancers and small business people (work space and community for independent professionals). On the top floor of a building on Carroll Street in the Gowanus/Park Slope neighborhood, it looks quite nice in photos. Here's what the founders have to say about what they're doing:

"We founded Brooklyn Creative League because we
wanted to give independent professionals, small-shop companies, and
nonprofits the tools they need to get their work done: affordable,
green, shared workspace and a community of professional colleagues.

"Before our daughter, Leigh, was born, we assumed that we’d found
professional and familial nirvana: working from home while the baby
played happily in the next room with a loving babysitter. But we soon
realized the downsides: The constant interruptions and distractions of
being at home. The aggravation of spilling spaghetti sauce on your
keyboard because your desk is in the kitchen. The hours lost because
the Internet goes down. The interminable line at the post office. And
the plain old boredom and isolation of the same four walls — day in,
day out.

"That’s why we created Brooklyn Creative League.  Simply put, we wanted a cool, productive space to work in — someplace where we could meet with clients, host a conference call, and make a pitch. And we wanted to work around fun, interesting people who shared our passion for creativity, hard work, new ideas, and a good cup of coffee in the morning."

Food and Drink

Kappa Sake House: Tokyo Style Food and A Huge Selection of Sake and Beer

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A Park Sloper who invested in the new Kappa Sake House wrote to tell me his reasons for wanting to invest money in a small restaurant on Fifth Avenue. Obviously he isn't objective about the food and sake over there but it's interesting to hear his take on things and his obvious passion for the place.

Chef/Owner Fumiko Akiyama, originally from Tokyo, has lived and raised her daughter in Park
Slope over the last 15 years, is the owner of Kappa Sake House. 

I live
and own a business in Park Slope and was a customer who fell so in love with the food, and people that I became an investor.  The place
used to be Sakura Cafe and is now Kappa Sake House with a great friendly
staff, all from Tokyo.

I have spent time in Tokyo and enjoyed this
kind of delicious food. The restaurant is serving great Tokyo style cooked food, most of which are Fumiko's recipes, as well as sushi from the talented Ikeda-san, and a large and
great array of sakes and
interesting Japanese beers that you don't usually see.  We hope to have
some Japanese wine soon. 

Try the amazing spicy miso soup, great
homemade gyoza dumplings, perfectly cooked saba shio and much much
more.  All the dishes on the menu are paired with sake or beer.  Kappa
carry's a wide range of sakes from all regions in Japan while the beers, all of which are fantastic, are from small speciality Japanese
breweries.  There is Sapporo draft on tap, although technically its
from Canada but still a good inexpensive beer. 

The range of sake is
similiar to wine with dry, fruity, flowery, smooth etc., It is sold by the
glass, or by small, medium and large bottle sizes.  There's even aged
sake, which is much like port wine and very good with dessert. Fumiko carries an amazing aged eight-year-old sake which you must try. 

You
can even buy the enormously large bottle of sake, and they will keep it
for you until you return, if you're  unable to finish drinking it.

Duringh Happy Hour: Sapporo draft is $3.  On Tuesday nights:  DJ Tako spins vintage
Japanese/world music.  Nightly Japanese movies, and live performance
Thursday night.

Kappa Sake House, 388 5th ave, btw 5th&6th tel: 718 832 2970 email: www.facebook.com (kappa sake house)

Civics and Urban Life

BAX: Workshops and Classes for the Curious, Creative Adult

Workshops and Classes for the Curious, Creative Adult, is a cool new workshop series at BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange on 421 Fifth Avenue and 8th Street).

Hey, I'm in it. I'm doing a blogging workshop. It's called How To Blog.

Learn how to blog with blogger Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, a
hands-on workshop for anyone interested in becoming a blogger and those
who already blog but need to know more. Learn from a pro the do's and
don'ts of blogging.

Session 1: Introduction to Blogging. This session will cover the basics and history of blogging.
Session 2: A hands-on, make-your-own blog session.
Session 3: Next Steps. To include a gentle critique of the blogs created and discussion of next steps.

Three sessions: Wednesdays: 7 – 8:30 p.m. April 29, May 6, 13. And it costs $45 for the whole workshop. Sign up at BAX.

There are other great workshops, too. Playwright Rosemary Moore is teaching Process and Playwriting;  Marian Fontana is doing a memoir workshop called, Your Stories; poet Michele Madigan Somerville is teaching Conceiving a Collection; Victoria Libetrore is teaching burlesque and there's Acting with Michael Wiggins and Yoga for the Non-Profit Community with  Ani Weinstein.

For info and to sign up go to the BAX website.

Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan's

Greetings from Scott Turner: What a Frakkin’ Show!

Once again a wild and crazy missive from our friend writer/designer Scott Turner who runs the pub quiz at Rocky Sullivan's every Thursday night (there's one tonight!).

Greetings, Pub Quiz Superlucky Charmers…

Happy day after St. Patrick's Day. 
This e-mail is late — could be the week's worth of St. Pat's revelry. 
It might be beyond my purview to divulge the exact reasons for this Quizmail's tardyness.

BONUS POINTS FLASH QUIZ:  If your team can answer this at tomorrow evening's Quiz, you earn five (5) points at the outset:

What city did this St. Patrick's Day decidedly lack-of-celebration take place in yesterday?

Now, wordiness…

It's not often one can predict a death in the family, but there's one coming up this Friday evening.

…and no, it's not another sad observance of Shea Stadium's
demise — which, unbelievably, keeps demising.  Earlier this week, the
littlest and last remaining Shea — the model that's sat in the Queens Museum of Art — was taken away. [The Queens Museum, by the way, resides in the former New York City Pavilion from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs — a building that also housed the UN in its early days.]

Nestled right where it was in real life, the little Shea could be spotted from the balconies that overlook the New York City Panorama, a scale model of every building, park, road and contour in the five boroughs.

Dave Howard, Exec. VP, Business Operations for the NY Mets takes back Shea Stadium and hands Claudia Ma the new Citi Field that she designed and built.
space-age, schmace-age — contrivance is the new adventurousness

Much like census takings, the Panorama updates itself after lengthy intervals.  It's a big job, one can imagine.  The Giuliani/Bloomberg
orgy of big-developer steamrolling will only make this a tougher task
in the years to come.  That the Queens Museum of Art is selling naming
rights to each of these little models and even littler components
makesthe tough task sadder.  [How little can you buy naming rights
for?  According to the Daily News, for $50 you can name an apartment (!).  $250 gets you a single-family home, and for the moneybag set,  $10,000 lands you a landmarks.]

But the Museum wasted no time in removing little Shea.  You can hear Jeff Wilpon, the Mets'
owner's intemperate mercurial brattish son, berating his minions to
remove all vestiges of Shea from the city's consciousness.  To that
end, Mets officials were on hand for little Shea's removal.

But NO, this missive is not about Shea.

This death in the family comes this Friday evening, 9pm, on the Sci-Fi Channel.  (Which is renaming itself the SyFy Channel in a branding strategy known as the Treat Viewers Like Idiots Paradigm.)

Battlestar Galactica's last-ever episode.

What a frakkin' show.  Based only tangentially on the schlock-fi series from the '70s, BSG
revolutionized television, even if television doesn't know it yet. 
This has been a series filled with human frailty, the constant battle
of humanity vs. technology and the uneasy allliances we all make with
machines, the reaches both short and long of theology, and every
hot-button topic America's dealt with since the early '00s.

http://blog.dailycal.org/arts/files/2009/01/battlestar_galactica.jpg
more popular than Jesus?  No…but it's a better story.

The acting has been stellar, from old hands Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell
to unknowns that are now firmly known.  The photography is cinematic, a
rare descriptive for a television show.  And the show has never fallen
off the razor's edge between making us watch uncomfortable things and
entertaining us.

The show's creator, Ronald D. Moore, has led us to humanity's cracks and fissures before — Deep Space Nine, Roswell and the extraordinary Depression-era carnival-troupe good vs.evil epic Carnivale.  BSG tops them all.

Rarer still is a multi-season
show ending right when it should.  Friday night we find out where the
last 39,000 humans came from, whether they can survive, and what it
really, really means to be human.

The
vast majority of television is junk, a somnambulant we willingly ingest
time and again.  But every so often in TV land, inexplicably, a fertile
field appears, planted with sustenance that challenges us and shakes
us.  It's a rare and good thing.

Over the past five years, Battlestar Galactica has left
viewers breathless.  That's alright.  It means we're breathing, a basic
physiology television overlords would prefer we forget forever.

What a frakkin' show…

Brooklyn Blogfest

Spread the Word: Brooklyn Blogfest 2009 on May 7th

BLOGFEST_LOGO_RGB(2)
Find
out why Brooklyn is the bloggiest place in America at the Fourth Annual
Brooklyn Blogfest on May 7, 2009 at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

Brooklyn Blogfest 2009, an exciting, idea-filled
event for bloggers, blog readers and the blog curious is where you'll
find: Insight. Advice. Inspiration. Resources.

Here's your chance meet your favorite bloggers; learn about blogging; be inspired to blog.

"Where
better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers,
thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?" ~ Sewell Chan, The
New York Times

This year's event will take place on May 7, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

The Details

Fourth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
May 7, 2009
Doors open at 7 p.m.
powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Admission: $10

Brooklyn Blogfest after-party
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(right across the street from powerHouse Arena)
Cash Bar and refreshments


Brownstone Voyeur

Brownstone Voyeur: The Unexpected

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Brownstone Voyeur is a joint project of casaCARA and Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn. This is a regular Thursday series walking you through brownstones, brick row houses, pre-war apartments, Victorians, carriage houses, lofts, and other Brooklyn abodes to see the colorful, creative, clever, cost-conscious ways people really live in New York City’s hippest borough.
Go to CasaCARA for more pictures and text.

TODAY we’re peeking into the c.1904 bowfront brownstone French-born interior designer Caroline Beaupere shares with her husband, photographer Matt Arnold, in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

They bought the house in 2005, added a new kitchen and two new bathrooms, and brought all the original woodwork (of which there is plenty) back to life by stripping off dozens of coats of old stain.

Caroline
worked with designer Philippe Starck on the avant garde Hudson Hotel in
the Manhattan’s West 50s, and has just finished decorating the
Presidential suite at the New York Grand Hyatt, but the bulk of her
studio’s work is residential.

Caroline’s style is eclectic, a bit exotic, and most UNexpected, but grounded in the classics. There’s a free flow between modern and traditional. Colors are rich and deep. Accessories tend toward the ethnic. Bold ceiling fixtures dominate each room.

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Kitchen
Dining

Postcard from the Slope

Brooklyn House of Detention: Back in Business

The Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue and Boerum Place is back in business. The business of being a jail, that is.

The New York Times reports that Justice Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, a Brooklyn judge ruled that the city should resume sending
inmates to the Brooklyn House of Detention, which stopped housing them
overnight in 2003.

But there's more. Judge Hinds-Radix also ruled that the city's effort to double the size of the jail will require environmental and land-use
reviews.

That's a win for neighborhood groups who opposed the expansion. Read the NYT article here.

Food and Drink

Delicious on the Slope: Looking for An Angel

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The current economic climate is especially tough for small restaurants that are under-capitalized and in less than optimum locations with low foot traffic. Blogger Mary Warren of Eat, Drink, Memory, reveals that Delicious on the Slope, a restaurant on President Street between Fifth and Fourth Avenues, is in trouble. She's reaching out to members of the community to see if anyone can offer some help or business advice to the owner. Here is her post, which she asked me to feature on OTBKB.

 In December, I blogged about Delicious on the Slope. I didn't know,
Luis Garcia well, but he struck me as a gracious, ambitious and
self-confident man who dreamed as so many of us do of turning his
passion into a business. 

Garcia chose a tough crowd –
restaurateurs – to join.  Although he had years of experience managing
restaurants, among them The Cub Room in Manhattan, he had never owned
his own place. He had huge plans and a partner who was his chef.

A few weeks ago his partner walked out. Garcia has been struggling to keep his doors open for the last couple of months. Truthfully,
he wasn't fully prepared for an industry that is fickle and savage at
the best of times. Restaurants open and shutter at an astronomical rate
in the City.

I speak from experience. My fabulous little wine
bar, Monkey Temple, sputtered along for just better than a year. With
some distance, I see the mistakes I made – many of them the same ones
Garcia faces – a lack of capital, no budget or time for adequate
marketing, low foot traffic, and that indefinable quality – buzz.

Delicious
on the Slope is a nice neighborhood place run by a lovely man who has
invested more than simply money and time in the business.  It isn't hip
nor does it have a new-fangled menu with unusual food pairings.  Garcia
inherited a failed concept from the previous owners and he has
struggled to recreate, to make something of his own.

We can all admire his determination and see ourselves in his place, seeking, yearning to create.

Yesterday, I spoke to Garcia by phone. He hadn't been returning my calls because he's deeply saddened. I
didn't have much to offer, a few words which I hoped would give him
courage. The idea, much less the actuality, of failure is painful. Yet,
too often, we give up just at the moment we should push forward
deliberately in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. I hope
Garcia pushes forward.

He is just one of the many dreamers who
live and work in Brooklyn, who make this place we live beautiful and
hopeful.  He is one of us. I wish I had the resources to help him. My wish is that someone who does will give this man some help. Foolishly, perhaps, I believe in angels.

Postcard from the Slope

NYC Store Vacancy Rates High : Brooklyn Hardest Hit

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You only have to walk down various streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn to see that store vacancy rates are high. But it seems that in Brooklyn's vacancy rates are the highest in the city. I'm bracing to see shuttered stores on Fifth and Seventh Avenue in coming months. I just hope that various local businesses can manage to ride out this recession.  Here from Crain's New York.

The recession is taking a heavy toll in shopping districts across
the city with Brooklyn hardest hit to date, according to a new study
revealing vacancy rates in retailing strips in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan.

As of this month, the vacancy rate in Brooklyn stood
at 14.1% among locally-owned stores, well above the city average of
12.1%, according to the study conducted by Rep. Anthony Weiner’s
office. In Queens, where retail corridors in neighborhoods such as
Astoria and Forest Hills still draw good crowds, 12.2% of shop fronts
are vacant. Staten Island and the Bronx are fairing slightly better,
with vacancy rates of 9.7% and 9.1%, respectively.

Postcard from the Slope

Did You Know That The Civic Council Supports East River Tolls?

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Do you?

It's a big issue right now. To toll or not to toll. What will it mean for Brooklynites and other "outer borough" citizens? Also, is our subway system ready for more high volume rush-hour commuters?

For the Civic Council, their support is directly tied into the demand that toll monies go to the MTA for subway and bus improvements. Another tie-in: Residential Permit Parking and more Muni Meters.

Here it is in the Civic Council's own words:

In June 2007 the Park Slope Civic Council voted in favor
of the Mayor's Congestion Pricing initiative, provided it was tied to
Residential Permit Parking, installation of Muni-Meters, and immediate
transit improvements, specifically subway station and signal
improvements, and increased subway and bus service.

In December 2008, the Ravitch Commission issued a set of recommendations
on the long-term funding of the MTA.  Among its recommendations is that
tolls be instituted on the free crossings of the East River and Harlem
River, with the net revenues being dedicated to improved bus service,
including Bus Rapid Transit.  Consistent with our June 2007 resolution,
it is resolved that the Park Slope Civic Council endorses institution
of tolls on the free East River and Harlem River crossings, provided: 
(a) it is tied to Residential Permit Parking and more widespread
installation of Muni-Meters; (b) the tolling structure is re-visited
after a period of time in light of actual experience, to see whether
the toll structure for each crossing needs to be changed; (c) reduced
tolls are investigated for high-occupancy vehicles (3 or more
passengers); (d) safeguards are put into place to prevent toll revenues
from being diverted to the MTA's general revenues, (e) consideration is
given to commuters from Staten Island; (f) variable toll rates, for
example by time of day, are explored.

Civics and Urban Life

Performer in Kasper Hauser Saves Man From Subway Train

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I've been meaning to blog about the Flea Theater production of Kasper Hauser, written by Park Slope's Erin Courtney (co-founder of the Brooklyn Writers Space) and theater legend Elizabeth Swados.

And then the show is in the news. The real news. One of the performers in the play is a subway hero: he jumped into the subway tracks after a man who had fallen in and rescued him from an oncoming subway train.

Actor Chad Lindsay, who is currently performing in Kasper Hauser, is responsible for this heroic deed, which occurred on Monday night.

Read about this incredible rescue here.

I just heard on WNYC that one of the things this actor has to do in the play is carry another actor on his back.

Life imitating art? For more information about the play go to the Flea Theater website.

Civics and Urban Life

Park Slope Civic Council Gives Back to Community with Annual Small Grants

The Park Slope Civic Council does a really cool thing annually. They take the proceeds from the annual House Tour and give it back to individuals and organizations in Park Slope that are doing good work. These 18 grants total $10,000 and this year they're going to help fund projects at schools, charities, cultural
institutions and other organizations. I see that any non-profit school or group working in Park Slope is welcome to apply for a grant. There guidelines are here and applications for the 2009-2010 cycle will be posted in the fall.

Here are this year’s grantees. It's a great narrative of things that are going on in Park Slope this year.

Chocolate Chip Chamber Music: 2008-2009
Community Concert Series. CCCM delivers music education programming to
young children in our community. The grant will help offset costs of
CCCM’s marketing, outreach and online communication efforts.

Park Slope Food Coop in Cooperation with Caribbean Women’s Health Association, Inc.: Brooklyn
Food Conference: Local Action For Global Change. This one-day
conference, funded in part by this grant, will examine the intersection
of social justice, human and environmental health and sustainability.

P.S. 10 PTA:
Chess Club: After School Enrichment Program. Due to budget cuts, the
school can no longer fund free after-school programs. PSCC funding will
help keep the school’s chess club going, with all its educational and
social benefits.

Spoke the Hub Dancing, Inc.: New
Film Venue and Screening. Our grant will help purchase a digital
projector for monthly screenings of independent films at Spoke the
Hub’s newly renovated Re:Creation Center at 748 Union Street.

Old Stone House:
South Garden. There is a beautiful new dog run in Washington (formerly
J.J. Byrne) Park. The Old Stone House plans to turn the old dog run
(left) into a beautiful garden and outdoor environmental classroom. Our
grant will help facilitate the transition.

The
Urban Memory Project with the Secondary School for Research at John Jay
(SSR), the Park Slope Civic Council, the Old Stone House and the
Brooklyn Historical Society: Preserving Memories of an Evolving
Urban Neighborhood. This fall, SSR students interviewed 17 long-term
Park Slope residents as part of their Brooklyn History class. Our
funding will help pay for the transcription of the interviews.

Good Shepherd Services:
Healthy Youth Relationship Options (HYRO). Funding will provide seed
money for a curriculum informing young adults about healthy
relationships and the prevention of domestic violence. Participants who
attend Good Shepherd’s Young Adult Borough Centers in Brooklyn will be
trained as peer educators in their communities and schools.

The Green-Wood Historic Fund:
Family Day at Green-Wood Cemetery. The Green-Wood Historic Fund, which
maintains Green-Wood Cemetery’s historic monuments and buildings, will
develop a Family Day Scavenger Hunt with an educational and community
theme. The grant will help publicize the event.

Friends of Douglas Greene Park, Inc.:
Community Outreach. The grant will help fund the May 2 Family Day in
the park. The group is working toward major renovations of the
long-neglected public space on 3rd Avenue.

P77K@902:
Green Thumb Hydroponics. Students in the school’s Culinary Arts classes
will learn how to grow herbs, fruits and vegetables without soil, using
a water based system. The grant will help the school develop the
project.

Prospect Hill Senior Services Center:
Community Story Time. Center seniors will read teacher-selected
material to pre-school and elementary-school children. The program will
encourage dialog between the generations, and our funding will help
purchase books and a cabinet to store them in.

Prospect Park Alliance: Replanting
at the Front of the Villa. With help from our grant, the Alliance can
plant more shrubs and bulbs in front of Litchfield Villa — a ongoing
project that has suffered from budget cuts.

P.S. 39 PTA: Spruce
Up Our Old School. The grant will help brighten up the school with
window boxes and a vegetable garden, which will be maintained
year-round by parent volunteers.

P.S. 107 (John W. Kimball Learning Center):
P.S. 107 Edible Garden. Our grant will supplement money raised by the
PTA to create a fruit and vegetable garden to provide students with an
outdoor laboratory for learning about earth sciences, nutrition, and
the environment.

P.S. 321 PTA: Front
Entrance Improvement Project, Phase 2. A PSCC grant helped with Phase
1, when benches and landscaping were added to areas along 7th Avenue.
Our second grant will help with Phase 2, in which benches and landscape
improvements will be added to the areas flanking the main entry stairs.

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking:
Reel Works/DOE Screening at Old Stone House. The Reel Works youth media
program has created a Department of Education-sponsored DVD of films
about Internet safety for distribution to middle and high schools. Our
grant will help fund a screening and discussion this spring targeted to
teens at Middle School 51 and the high schools at John Jay.

Secondary Schools for Law, Journalism and Research at John Jay:
Records Wall. Our grant will help fund an “Athletics Wall of Fame,”
which will recognize student-athletes for both athletic and academic
excellence. Despite severe budget constraints, the schools fielded
teams this year in boys’ and girls’ varsity basketball, boys’ junior
varsity basketball and girls’ varsity volleyball.

Slope Street Cats: Trap-Neuter-Return
(T-N-R) Certification Workshops in Park Slope. Funding will enable
Slope Street Cats to offer free workshops to Park Slope residents. The
workshops will focus on what T-N-R is, why it’s effective and how to
safely facilitate a project affecting feral cats in our neighborhood.
 
This
year’s Grants Committee included Chairperson Greg Sutton, Nathaniel
Allman, Alexa Halsall, Nelly Isaacson, Robert Levine, Eric McClure,
Lauri Schindler and Gilly Youner.

Food and Drink

Goals of Ambitious Brooklyn Food Conference on May 2nd

Brooklyn-food-conference-logo
It's an ambitious event and buzz is slowly gathering for the  Brooklyn Food Conference planned for May 2nd at John Jay High School and PS 321.

Local action for global change: that's the sub-title for this free conference that will include a parade and workshops for teens and adults, that will address the effects of our food systems on health, the environment, and
labor; improving the nutritional content of school lunches; urban
agriculture; far­mers’ markets; community gardens; and food coops.

There will also be learning activities for kids, teen programs, a dinner and dance honoring local farmers.

The stated goals of the conference on the Brooklyn Food Conference website are:

  1. Bring Brooklyn together to demand and participate in creating a vital, healthy and just food system available to everyone.
  2. Create a Brooklyn legislative food democracy agenda and constituent base.
  3. Organize neighborhood meetings of elected officials—congressional
    reps, state legislators, city council members—to press for a food
    democracy agenda.
  4. Influence public policy by educating elected officials and showing them the depth and diversity of public interest.
  5. Create a useful, cross-referenced directory of attendees.
  6. Help partner organizations grow their constituencies by offering attendees avenues for action.
Civics and Urban Life

May 2: Brooklyn Food Conference

Does everyone know about the free Brooklyn Food Conference, a local event focusing on food issues in Brooklyn, which will take place in Park Slope on May 2nd? Location: John Jay High School and PS 321.

Well, now you know.

From school lunches or the rise in diabetes, escalating food costs,
immigration or farmers markets, local food challenges and delights,
food touches us all. At the Brooklyn Food Conference you'll have the opportunity to learn from experts and neighbors about all the ways that the Food System affects us and how you can
get involved.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Park Slope Food Coop, World Hunger Year, Brooklyn Rescue Mission, Caribbean Women’s Health Association, and Brooklyn’s Bounty.

Here' s what they're planning to do: The day will start with a New Orleans-style parade featuring massive
puppets! This will be followed by speakers, food demos, and kids’
activities; lunch, dinner, and a dance. The conference will
be FREE to all participants.

Meet well-known activists and writers like Dan Barber, executive chef and owner of Blue Hill Restaurant, Anna Lappé,  author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, Raj Patel author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and LaDonna Redmond, head of the Institute of Community Resource Development in Chicago.

Partners
include over 50 organizations, including Just Food, CAMBA, Bed-Stuy
Campaign Against Hunger, Center for the Urban Environment, Children’s
Aid Society, Garden of Union, Grassroots Netroots Alliance, New York
Coalition Against Hunger, East New York Farms, Restaurant Opportunity
Center, United Food and Commercial Workers.

They welcome donations from individuals and funding from foundations and food companies. Interested in volunteering?

–There's a volunteer outreach meeting at Congregation Beth Elohim on March 19th at 7 p.m.

Civics and Urban Life

Today at 11 am: Ace Your Next Job Interview or Pitch with Jezra

You've heard me mention Jezra Kaye. She's a public speaking coach, speech writer and marketing and communications specialist.

She's on the Park Slope 100 and she is awesome.

I know her forever. Well, since 1996 I think. We used to work together.

But I also took one of her public speaking seminars and it was a very valuable 3 hours. Very. As she says: "I help good speakers become great, and excellent speakers become extraordinary."

Now she's doing these seminars by phone. They're called teleseminars. Register for today's here.

It will cost you $15 and it might include information that could get you that job or project you're pitching.

As she says here: "In today's competitive market, your communications skills make all the
difference.   Whether you're interviewing for a staff position or pitching your products or services, you must be able to
convince your listeners that THEY NEED WHAT YOU OFFER! This high-energy teleseminar will show you how

  • Answer the most important question
  • Get the interviewer on your side
  • Handle objections and curve balls
  • Come from a position of authentic strength; Hard times call for clear messages! 
 
For more information, contact Jezra