All posts by louise crawford

Postcard from the Slope

Fri: Mimesis Ensemble at Brookyn Conservatory Concert Hall

I just got this email from a soprano living in Park Slope. She is a faculty member of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and also
a member of the Mimesis Ensemble, a young energetic classical music
ensemble that champions the work of living composers. 

This
Friday, the Mimesis Ensemble is performing at the Brooklyn Conservatory
Concert Hall in Park Slope.  This is not a Conservatory-sponsored
event, but an event being held there. 

The concert will feature the
works of Mohammed Fairouz, a talented young Egyptian-born, London- and
Boston (New England Conservatory) -trained composer (www.mohammedfairouz.com). 

Friday's performance is in support of an important, ground-breaking
opera Mohammed is writing based on the play, "Song of Death" by
celebrated Egyptian playwright, Tawfiq Al-Hakim.  Mohammed's music is
great and the performers are stellar.

One of Mohammed's mentors, Halim El-Dabh (www.halimeldabh.com),
considered the "father of electronic music" and who is Egypt's formost
living composer (at 92 years old!), is Mimesis's composer-in-residence
this season and his works have been and will be also presented at
future concerts this season.  He will be live on WNYU radio tomorrow
between 12 and 2 pm.   www.wnyu.org   ( http://wnyu.org/2009-01-30_electrickahraba (an archive of last week's show)
This
concert is a benefit concert to raise awareness of and support for the
commission and production of a new opera by Mohammed Fairouz.  The
opera, based on a play by Egyptian playwright Tawfiq al-Hakim, will be
premiered by the Mimesis Ensemble in New York City in 2010.  Please
support this exciting project by joining us for this thrilling concert
of piano and vocal works by Mohammed Fairouz!


Civics and Urban Life

Storycorps Wants the Greatest Love Story in Brooklyn

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I just heard from a reasearcher at StoryCorps, the national oral history project,
which records the lives of everyday people across the country. The idea
is that people visit one of SC's recording booths and interview one
another. A copy of the conversation is then archived for future
generations in the Library of Congress and you get a copy to take home
with you. http://storycorps.net

This researcher wrote in to to ask if I had any ideas of people she should record an interview with StoryCorps at their booth in downtown
Manhattan.

That got me thinking. There are so many stories around here. Hmmmmm. Ahhhhh. Ummmmm. Do you have a story you want to share or know of one?

StoryCorps is looking for larger-than-life local institutions,
oldest residents, anyone with a disappearing business or skill, but
above all, real talkers, the kind of people you could happily listen to
for hours.

With Valentine's Day coming up, they're especially interested in
finding the person or persons who have the "greatest love story in
Brooklyn". She'd love to know if anyone in your community or beyond fits that description.

(There's even a possibility that the
story could end up being broadcast on NPR's Morning Edition the week of
Valentine's Day.)

For a little context, here's a story with a Brooklyn couple they recorded a couple of years ago:

http://www.storycorps.net/listen/stories/danny-and-annie-perasa

Civics and Urban Life

A Fragrance Called Brooklyn

This I gotta smell. The fragrance company, Bond No. 9 (their tag line is "Making Scents of New York) has already created fragrances for Harlem, the Upper West Side, Madison Avenue, Little Italy, NoHo and other parts of NYC. But now, finally, they're doing THE outer borough. And I just got the word from the publicist. And you know what I said: send me some. This I gotta smell.

They say it's a scent that captures the vibe of the fresh and ever changing legendary city within a city.

Brooklyn is a unisex scent with
a desirably masculine attitude. It’s romantic, sexy and distinctive with notes
of cardamom, geranium leaves,
and cedarwood. Grapefruit
and juniper leaves
accelerate the scent, while hints of guaiacwood and leather bring in a tender
touch.

And for the first time we’ve decorated directly onto the transparent glass of
the iconic Bond No. 9 flacon, with the words BROOKLYN and BOND NO. 9 spelled
out in a edgy, urban
handwritten script in a vivid array of colors (think street art).

I will get back to you just as soon as I get me a sample of Brooklyn.

Civics and Urban Life

Valentine’s Day All Week on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope

2auntsuzies
Irene LeRoe, who owns Aunt Suzie's, the beloved Italian restaurant on Fifth
Avenue, sent word that the Fifth Avenue BID is celebrating Valentine's Day all
week and offering promotions, prix fixes, and coupons for Valentine's week.
Here's her fun pitch:

–BARS AND RESTAURANTS AND ROMANTIC PLACES FOR
LONGING GAZES AND SOFT WHISPERS

–JEWELERY &  GIFTS ON 5TH
AVE.  TO INSPIRE TENDER KISSES

–CAREFULLY SELECTED SOPHISTICATED
SPIRITS INVITING AMOUROUS KISSES

–.FLOWERS AS TOKENS OF LOVE AND JOY TO
PLEASE THAT VERY SPECIAL GIRL OR BOY

CHOCOLATES *DESSERTS *MUSIC*
CLOTHING*SEXY LINGERIE*SPAS

SO MANY DELIGHTS….IF ONLY YOU’D BE MY VALENTINE
TONIGHT ON 5TH AVENUE, PARK SLOPE!!!

Dozens of participating merchants,
restaurants, bars, cafes and specialty shops will be offering  discounts,
promotions, prix fix dinners and more all  during Valentines Week.
JOIN
THE ROMANCE AND FUN ON 5TH.

Civics and Urban Life

Zuzu’s: A Recession State of Mind for Valentine’s Day

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Zuzulamp
 zuzus is in a recession
state of mind.

we are discounting some of
your favorite things

and have added our Drapevine
Lamps to the list.

15% off singles or
doubles.

These lamps cast  the
most romantic glow.

On a dimmer,

from cozy reading lamp to
mood altering candlelight.

a very special gift for your
significant other.

Or just call to order that
zuzulove collection of

Valentine
Flowers.

Big Zu 718
638-0918

Little Zu 718
636-2022

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Top bank execs and their Daschle-type perks.

This from Leon Freilch, OTBKB's invaluable verse responder:

Is it likely Tom Daschl is unique?  Did no high-flying bank executive
follow his "careless" example and fail to pay taxes not only on
Daschl's limo-&-chauffeur perk but also on, as today's Times story "Goodbye, Goodies?" mentions,
country club dues, gym memberships, home security systems, parking and
private jet service?

There's a good chance that a pool of millions upon billions of unpaid
taxes awaits unearthing.  And with unemployed accountants aplenty,
hiring them as IRS  investigators could pay enormous civic dividends–while
exposing fatcat chiselers from coast to coast and boast to boast.

I'm mad as hell.  Who among us isn't?
Postcard from the Slope

Brooklyn in the Catskills?

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Kingston
My good friend Nancy O. Graham, who runs Oswegatchie and Alternative Films for Kids, sent this about marketing Kingston, a small upstate city, as a tech hub. She found it on a blog called Kingston Citizens.

Mark Greene, Kingston’s own Emmy winner and founder of Pecos Design,
just submitted a proposal to the mayor that essentially rebrands the
city as a tech hub, a sort of “Brooklyn of the Catskills” where hip,
smart and small-biz savvy folks can relocate and thrive in an urban
setting — yet be strikingly close to assets such as the Catskills, the
Gunks and the Hudson.

“The city has a brand, but it is dormant,” Green said. “It needs to be brought back to life, and this is one way to do it.”

To see his entire proposal, read on…

Marketing Kingston, New York:
Creating A New Digital Tech-Friendly Brand

PART ONE: The Challenge for Kingston

Kingston’s Existing Marketing Brand: Kingston has typically been
branded as an arts city with historic tourist attractions. This
existing brand offers no point of difference from any other town in the
Hudson Valley (or the Northeastern United States) and provides no clear
incentives for potential incoming businesses or residents to choose
Kingston. Furthermore, this brand is inert and vague.

Summary of Current Economic Development Challenges: Kingston is
pursuing a traditional economic development strategy. With limited
success, Kingston is attempting to attract small to medium
manufacturing. Kingston is also also trying to attract national retail
chains to shore up the city’s depleted retail tax base. To this end,
the city of Kingston has undertaken an effort to shift the tax burden
from businesses to home owners assuming that it is the retail tax
burden that is causing small start up retail to often fail.

But this is not the key issue for the lack of healthy retail in Kingston.

Although high taxes do not help struggling Kingston retail
businesses, the primary issue is that a large percentage of the
residents of Kingston are low/fixed income and do not have the
disposable income necessary to drive local retail. When they do spend
money, they buy almost exclusively based on lowest price, which means
they shop at big box discount retailers like WalMart. This makes
creating robust retail activity in Kingston a challenging prospect.

Part Two: The Opportunity for Kingston

The solution: Recruit a new class of resident with a higher income
level and a community minded interest in supporting local businesses.

Proposal:
Kingston should make a concerted effort to attract New York City and
New York State wide web/digital entrepreneurs to relocate and set up
shop in Kingston by branding itself as the upstate digital
tech-friendly city.

Web entrepreneurs will find Kingston attractive due to the price
point of real estate and the slightly more urban quality Kingston
offers.

The benefits of attracting web/digital entrepreneurs to Kingston include the following:
* They have disposable income to fuel retail.
* Their income does not rely on the state or local tax base. (They are
not teachers, city employees, or the product of a city or state funded
jobs initiative.)
* Because they have a range of clients both nation wide and by business
category , they function as “economic shock absorbers” for Kingston
during times of regional or business category specific economic
downturns.
* They purchase property, thereby taking real estate off of the rental roles and potentially eliminating “absentee landlords”.
* They hire local businesses/contractors to renovate property, improving Kingston’s economic outlook and housing stock
* They skew more progressive politically, thereby being mindful of
shopping locally and supporting local retail businesses. (They tend to
shop based on value not just on price.)
* They tend to be more active politically and in terms of their community.

Civics and Urban Life

African American Celebration at Brooklyn Friends

Brooklyn Friends' 14th annual African American Celebration
will take place on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. in the school. This year's
theme, "Crossroads of History: The Improbable Journey," celebrates the
historic election of Barack Obama as our nation's 44th president.
Equally important, the school is paying homage to the legions of
community activists and orators that paved the well-worn path that made
Obama's election possible.

In that spirit, the program will
focus on words — speeches, stories, songs — that have inspired citizens
to create change. The evening begins with a buffet supper in the cafeteria, and continues with a performance in the meeting house.

New
this year is a special program for preschool and younger lower school
children in the lower gym with artists and a professional storyteller.
A guest gospel choir will take part in the performance. Brooklyn
Friends School is located at 375 Pearl St., one block from Borough Hall
in Downtown Brooklyn, just around the corner from the Marriott Hotel.
For more information, visit www.brooklynfriends.org/aac.

375 Pearl St., Brooklyn, NY, 11201 google map | yahoo map

Civics and Urban Life

New Book from Jonathan Baumbach

Squid_and_the_whale
 The following are two events featuring Jonathan Baumbach (www.jonathanbaumbach.com), author of YOU or The Invention of Memory, praised by The Los Angeles Times as "beguiling… like any gesture of love, deserves your regard."

Jonathan Baumbach is the uber- Park Slope novelist/dad of Noah Baumbach, uber-Park Slope director of the uber-Park Slope film, The Squid and the Whale. A professor at Brooklyn College, the character of the dad/professor/writer in TSATW was openly based on Jonathan. None of the above still live in Park Slope but they're still Park Slope tropes.  

  • KGB Sunday Night Fiction on February 15 at KGB Bar in the East Village. 7PM, FREE.
  • Brooklyn College on Wednesday, February 18, in the Barker Room (2315 Boylan Hall). 6PM, FREE.

The latest buzz:

Civics and Urban Life

Tonight: Beth Harpaz at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble

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Smallcover-198x300
I will be introducing Beth Harpaz tonight at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble for her reading of her new book, 13 is the New 18 … and other things my children taught
me while I was having a nervous breakdown being their mother (Crown,
2009) appeared on Wednesday's Good Morning America Now.

In addition,
Harpaz was quoted in Wednesday's  USA Today
article on tweens. I’ve included links to both below:

http://abcnews.go.com/ABCNewsNow/GMANow/
(scroll down to “Highlights from the Latest Show”)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-03-tweens-behavior_N.htm

Civics and Urban Life

Anybody Home? Quick Update from Blognigger

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A quick note from Blognigger first thing this morning. Here it is:

Anybody home? Quick update from my side:

1) I haven't taken any
of my legal drugs since 12/30/08 – one day at a time, yaknow, but I
don't want to be one of those AA fags who are obsessed with the program
and lose their sense of humor.

2) My wife is less pissed off now that I've proven to us all that I
could give up the blog for a month and therefore can't REALLY be
addicted.

3) My help/hate mail has all but evaporated.

4)
I'm experimenting with doing one or two posts, and trying to keep it
mellow. It's chill, yaknow – like my good friend who was addicted to
shooting heroin, but now he just uses casually. It's working out great
for him and I'm sure I'll be fine as well…

Anyway, I'd be honored if any of you oldschoolers would drop by from time to time and give me a piece of your mind.

Music

Songs from the Hudson River: Joy Askew and Pulse at Barbes on 2/13

Kindred_spiritst
 One set at 8:00pm:

Joy Askew and Pulse present Songs from the Hudson River. Pulse is a New
York-based composers' federation dedicated to music that bursts through
categories, unconstrained by convention.

Members Joseph C Phillips,
Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider and Yumiko
Sunami have chosen as their latest project a song cycle in honor of the
Hudson River Quadricentennial Celebration going on throughout 2009.

Songs from the Hudson River features singer Joy Askew with a 6-person
Pulse chamber ensemble in a dynamic melding of singer-songwriter and
classical chamber music sensibilities. Each original song is inspired
by historical, fictional, and contemporary life and communities on and
around the Hudson River. Joy Askew is an accomplished singer-songwriter
who has performed with Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Joe Jackson,
Jack Bruce and others, and also leads her own band.

For more information please visit pulsecomposers.typepad.com

Barbes
9th Street and 6th Avenue in Brooklyn
(F train to 7th Ave)
www.barbesbrooklyn.com

Center for the Urban Environment

Feb 19: Change Your Fuel, Change the World

Fuel
CUE Third Thursdays:
Special Screening of
"Fuel
Join CUE's Third Thursday and catch "Fuel" –
the Sundance Film Festival's Best Documentary 2008.


Thursday Feb. 19, 2009

6pm – 8pm

Center for the Urban Environment
168 7th Street, Brooklyn

(No sitter? No problem! Bring your little ones along for a screening of Wall-E,
the 2008 animated hit where a robot inadvertently stumbles upon the key to the
planet's future.)

$10 suggested for members and friends. Free popcorn!

POST-SCREENING DISCUSSION with Brent Baker, CEO of Tri State Biodiesel.

ABOUT THE FILM: FUEL is an insightful portrait of America’s addiction to
oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy solutions.
Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to
track the rising domination of the petrochemical industry—from
Rockefeller’s strategy to halt Ford’s first ethanol cars to Vice
President Cheney's petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation —
and reveals a gamut of available solutions to "repower America"
—from vertical farms that occupy skyscrapers to algae facilities that
turn wastewater into fuel. Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists,
policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America’s
complicated, often ignominious energy past and illuminate a hopeful, achievable
future, where decentralized, sustainable living is not only possible,
it’s imperative. http://thefuelfilm.com/

To RSVP email rwelch[at]bcue.org by Wednesday, February 18th

 

Postcard from the Slope

Help Pay for Their New Boiler: Buy A Commemorative Plate From Old First Church

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You can help Old First pay for their new boiler.

The church has two boilers to help heat the building.  The old ones were
both oil fueled boilers, and we have replaced one of them with a
gas-fired boiler. 

We did this both to reduce heating costs and our
environmental footprint.  (Little did we know that by the time we
actually started using the new boiler, the price of oil would have
dropped to that of gas!) 

If you've been in the sanctuary, you know
that it's a big room that can take awhile to heat up!!  So our heating
costs can be a significant portion of our budget in any given year. 
Heating not only keeps us warm, but also any community groups that use
our space.  We have a nursery school that uses our space during the
weekdays, and of course the kids need to stay warm.

The image on the plate is a line drawing of
Old First.  We actually also have Christmas ornaments that feature the
same line drawing. 

The plates are $40 apiece and the ornaments are $20
apiece.  All proceeds from sales go in a fund specifically marked for
the boiler.

People who are interested should contact the church office.  718-638-8300. 

Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan's

News From Scott Turner of Rocky Sullivan’s of Red Hook

Every seems to enjoy these posts from Scott Turner of Rocky Sulilvan's in Red Hook. My thanks to Scott for letting me post them here:

Greetings Pub Quiz Winter's End Prognosticators…

By now you've heard the big news.  No, not President Obama's stimulus package and the Republicans' sore-loser obstructionism.  Not the Steelers' big Super Bowl win.  Not even Captain Sully's curing cancer, eliminating war and ushering in the New Golden Age of Peace and Enlightenment.

The big news is this:

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009

Charles G. Hogg, or as he's rechristened once a year, Staten Island Chuck, went after Mayor Bloomberg at yesterday's Groundhog Day event.

New York City has a psychopathic need to one-up everyone else.  To that end, every second day of February the city yanks a groundhog out of a box constructed out of Currier & Ives cozy.  It's not enough to let Punxutawney, PA have the limelight once a year.  Just like New York had to one-up Boston on the marathon thing, Telluride and Cannes on the film festival thing, and New Jersey on the Nets thing — er, maybe not that last one.

Yesterday, there were glitches in the groundhog photo op.  Chuck
wouldn't come out for his closeup.  The mayor resorted to his usual
tactic — shameless bribery — to coerce Chuck into doing what he
wanted by repeatedly dangling a yummy corncob in front of Chuck.

GROUNDHOG

"Christine Quinn always falls for this…"

This was supposed to make Chuck comply with the mayor's agenda.  Hey, it worked on the City Council members who voted for Bloomberg's monarchistic term-limits bill.  How hard could a groundhog be?

Hard,
it turns out.  Chuck kept grabbing the corncob and retreating back into
his prop home.  Finally, Bloomberg's taunting got Chuck got so fed up
he bit the mayor.  But good, too.

http://blog.silive.com/latest_news/2009/02/large_02-02-staten-island-bite2.jpg
Biting the hand that just cut 15% from the Staten Island Zoo's budget

His Highness finally got his paws on Chuck, and disdainfully held
him at arm's length.  Bloomberg looked as comfortable with Chuck as he
does the average New Yorker.


"Don't I own someone who can hold this thing for me?"

Because Bloomberg is an inherently funny man, his remarks on The Bite Heard 'Round Barrett Park ranged from "given the heightened response against terrorism, and clearly in this
case a terrorist rodent who could very well have been trained by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, I'm not at liberty to say any more than that" to "if the district attorney wants to press charges, I leave
it to the Staten Island District Attorney to do so."

Oh…and to further trump Punxutawney Phil,
who emerged to sunny weather, a shadow, and the prognostication of six
more weeks of winter, the mayoral-biting — er, weather-predicting
ceremony on Staten Island insisted that spring will arrive early this
year.

Mayor Bloomberg usually gets it wrong, be it the disastrous Atlantic Yards,
his teach-for-tests school system or a bullied groundhog's weather
forecast.  His Honor's usual cowardice forces others to get it wrong
for him — yesterday's fall guy was Chuck.

I'm looking out the windows here at Pub Quiz Actual to see what the mayor's early spring looks like, and as usual, Bloomberg's lack of awareness doesn't disappoint:

Rose marie hester

Rosemarie Hester, Learning Specialist: Writing for High Schoolers

Pink jacket+Ben
IF you are the parent of a high school student, you may have concerns about your son or daughter’s writing skills.  This is one of the toughest nuts for a parent to crack. In general, high schoolers do not respond well to support from parents, and, yet, with just a little bit of focused attention, they can improve by leaps and bounds very quickly.

    Writing comes down to a few things. Primarily, it is rooted in a persons’s ability to organize and plan at the beginning of the writing process and the ability to proofread and edit at the end. 

    Organizing and planning may include jotting a word or idea bank and making a web.  I am not a fan of outlines because many students are simultaneous rather than sequential processors.  If a student does not think “in sequence,” an outline can become a serious obstacle. 

    The editing process requires a student to have grammar, punctuation and spelling skills.  Students need to understand and identify the different types of sentences—simple, compound, complex and compound-complex.  It requires them to understand how sentences make paragraphs and how the function of each new paragraph is to add new information.  It requires them to understand the seven uses of the comma!

    Writing, then, requires creative or generative skills in combination with the skills of an analyst or critic. 

Most students are helped by learning to break large tasks down into smaller ones.  Identifying the individual steps in the writing process and becoming proficient in sub-skills will help a high schooler avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed that often accompanies writing.. 

Contact me—rosemariehester@mac.com–if you would like to discuss your high schoolers writing. 

Civics and Urban Life

CasaCara: Painted Ladies of Atlantic Avenue

Brooklyn blogger CasaCara covers real estate, architecture, historic preservation and interior design from Brooklyn to Philadelphia, the Hudson Valley, the North Fork and beyond.

Today she talks about some lovely buildings close to home:

Sometimes in Brooklyn you see an old wooden storefront and, once in
a rare while, a pair that has somehow managed to survive the decades.
But how often do you see EIGHT in a row, freshly painted in vivid retro colors?

Never, unless you’re on the north side of Atlantic Avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues in Boerum Hill,
where a long, uninterrupted row of 1880s buildings with original
storefronts, no two alike, defied the odds. (The block is NOT even part
of the Boerum Hill Historic District.)

First developed in the 1970s by Bill Harris of Renaissance Properties
and called Atlantic Gardens, the original six buildings plus two
adjoining ones were purchased in 2006 by developer Barbara Koz Paley
and partners, and restored inside and out with the help of Taylor & Miller Architecture in Greenpoint.

Civics and Urban Life

Urban Environmentalist – NYC: Sustainability Beat

1 Comment

Here is a
snapshot of the sustainability issues that faced the borough and City this past January. The links were compiled
by Rebeccah Welch, Senior Associate Director of Communications at the Center
for the Urban Environment (CUE). To learn more about CUE, click  www.thecue.org.

  What's
Happened to the Plant in the Park [Gotham Gazette]

 Brooklyn
Businesses Hit Hard by Recession [Crain's]

  Recession-addled
Bronx Stores Forced to Close [Daily News]

  "Defend
Gowanus" Petition Signers Leave Some Insightful Comments [PMFA]

 Community
Board Approves City Proposals on Staten Island Waterfront
[Staten Island Advance]

 Urban
Environmentalist NYC – Eco Lens [OTBKB] *

 Atlantic
Yards Looks to Slash Transit Upgrade [NY Post]

 Proposed
Budget Shuts Out Zoos, Aquariums and Gardens [NY Times]

 Can
Obama Help Save New York [Gotham Gazette]

 Aqueduct
Plans Revealed [Queens Courier]

 Bloomberg
Says Plan Would Create 400,000 Jobs [Newsday]

Exciting
Youth Program for Holiday Break: CUE Labs [Green
Brooklyn] *

Storage
for Bicycles Sought [NY Post]

 Lost
City’s Guide to Carroll Gardens [Lost City]

 Sunday
Snaps: Drawn to Greenpoint [Greenpointers]

 Rejuggling
of Plans for Red Hook Waterfront [Brownstoner]

 A New Name for Our Premier Waterway  [Gotham Gazette]

 Cutbacks
Coming for Botanic Garden, Aquarium [Brooklyn Eagle]

 Air
Cleaner in Lower Manhattan in 2008, Report Says [Downtown
Express]

 The
Gas Rush [Gotham Gazette]

Neighborhood
Electricity Substations [Report-Manhattan Institute]

Civics and Urban Life

Call for Continued Funding of Brooklyn Zoos, Aquariums, Gardens

Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts, which may eliminate funding for zoos, aquariums, and gardens have the heads of Brooklyn's beloved—and essential— institutions extremely concerned.

On Thursday, February 5, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Scot Medbury of the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden ,
John Cavelli of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for the Urban
Environment and elected officials are gathering to denounce the elimination of state funding
for zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens.

This is happening at 11 am Steinhardt Auditorium at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Entrance is at 1000 Washinton Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard.

Show your support.

Civics and Urban Life

Feb 3: The Day My Parents Got Married

Vintage-wedding-dress1(
I wrote this quite a few years ago. I run it every February 3rd.)

Today is the day Groovy Grandpa and Manhattan Granny got married in 1957.

February 3rd. The date
is etched in Smartmom's mind. She and her sister would go to the same gift
shop on West 86th Street year after year to buy an anniversary gift for them. West Town
House smelled of bath soap and sachet. It was just a block and a half
from their Riverside Drive apartment. They'd browse for an hour or more.
And with only four dollars, they'd find something to buy: a stone paper
weight or a letter opener, which the owner would gift wrap in green
paper and a black ribbon bow.

Smartom's parents aren't married anymore. They've been apart since 1976. But February 3rd still stops her short. And while they've
been separated for longer than they were together, February 3rd means
only one thing: the beginning of something that later came to an end.

Manhattan Granny showed OSFO her wedding album a few weeks ago. A
large, white, leather-bound book, there are black and white photographs of Smartmom's parents on their ceremonial day. In a simple and
elegant, calf-length gown, Manhattan Granny looks like Audrey Hepburn;
her hair is close-cropped like Hepburn's too.

Groovy Grandpa, with no trace of the beard that would later define
him, looks pleased with himself and his bride. Their parents gather
around them – mythical parents, they are all dead now. They look happy
for this union, for this coming together.

Later, OSFO said, "Manhattan Granny doesn't look like herself," Maybe she
didn't recognize her 78-year old grandmother as a beautiful young
bride. Maybe she was surprised to see her grandparents together; she's never seen them that way. It probably seemed strange; a little out of
whack.

The separation came as a surprise, dramatic as it was. The rupture
was sudden: black garbage bags filled with men's
clothing tossed in the garbage. All traces of him were banished from the apartment;
an anguished wife's ill-fated attempt at an exorcism.

Smartmom was only seventeen, a senior in high school, on the cusp
of going away. It was awful to see her family bifurcated. She was in
the throes of first love, first sex, her future. Now this?

Like an ostrich, Smartmom buried her head in her own sandy concerns
while her mother grieved and her father sublet a studio on the other
side of town.

And when her first love decided he didn't love her after all, she
bifurcated too. “Don't leave me,” she cried pathetically for days. She listened to Laura Nryo and Labelle over and over on the turntable in the living room.  "It's gonna take a miracle to make me love someone new cause I'm crazy
for you."

But he left anyway.

February 3rd is just another day. But for someone whose family
doesn't exist anymore, Smartmom will always honor the beginning of
something that later came to an end.

Civics and Urban Life

Today on Brian Lehrer: The Future of NYC

At 10 am he's live on WNYC public radio from the Crain's NY conference on the Future of NYC.

The show will feature interviews with business and policy leaders, including:
Mitchell Moss, professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU; Kevin Burke, CEO, chairman of the board, and president of Consolidated Edison; Sara Horowitz, executive director of Working Today Freelancers Union; Kevin Ryan, chief executive of Alley Corp; and Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels.

Civics and Urban Life

So Much to Do Valentine’s Week: I’m Making a List

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Monday: New York Writers Coalition Red and Black Party to Celebrate Love's Two Faced Heart and raise money for NYWC at Galapagos in DUMBO. General admission tickets are $25. Support a great group.

Tuesday: Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue.

Wednesday: Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue.

Thursday: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love the Old Stone House curated by Marian Fontana. With Elissa Schappell
author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls; novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writers Magazine, Susan Karwoska; poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein
and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her
upcoming book.

Friday: Joy Askew  and Pulse present Songs from the Hudson River.
Pulse is a New York-based composers' federation dedicated to music that
bursts through categories, unconstrained by convention. Their latest
project is a song cycle in honor of the Hudson River Quadricentennial
Celebration going on throughout 2009, Songs from the Hudson River
features singer Joy Askew with a 6-person Pulse chamber ensemble in a
dynamic melding of singer-songwriter and classical chamber music
sensibilities. Each original song is inspired by historical, fictional,
and contemporary life and communities on and around the Hudson River.
Joy Askew is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has performed with
Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Joe Jackson, Jack Bruce and others, and
also leads her own band.

Saturday: Valentine's Day

Civics and Urban Life

Feb 9-14: Weeklong Valentine’s Day on Fifth Avenue

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Irene LeRoe, who owns Aunt Suzie's, the beloved Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue, sent word that the Fifth Avenue BID is celebrating Valentine''s Day all week and offering promotions, prix fixes, and coupons for Valentine's week. Here's her fun pitch:

…..BARS AND RESTAURANTS AND ROMANTIC PLACES FOR LONGING GAZES AND SOFT WHISPERS
…..JEWELERY &  GIFTS ON 5TH AVE.  TO INSPIRE TENDER KISSES
…..CAREFULLY SELECTED SOPHISTICATED SPIRITS INVITING AMOUROUS KISSES
…..FLOWERS AS TOKENS OF LOVE AND JOY TO PLEASE THAT VERY SPECIAL GIRL OR BOY

CHOCOLATES *DESSERTS *MUSIC* CLOTHING*SEXY LINGERIE*SPAS
SO MANY DELIGHTS….IF ONLY YOU’D BE MY VALENTINE TONIGHT ON 5TH AVENUE, PARK SLOPE!!!

Dozens of participating merchants, restaurants, bars, cafes and specialty shops will be offering  discounts, promotions, prix fix dinners and more all  during Valentines Week.
JOIN THE ROMANCE AND FUN ON 5TH.

Civics and Urban Life

New Geography: End the Obsession with Manhattan

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This morning, the editors of Newgeography.com sent an email alerting me to Joel Kotkin's recently-posted article "New York Should End Its Obsession With Manhattan".

The article discusses experiences conducting a new study on middle
class neighborhoods in proximity to Manhattan – full of talented people
that can no longer afford to live in the city – and the general
inability for those who are not rich to be involved with the city or
supported by its leaders. Kotkin urges an abandonment of the "luxury
city" strategy of Mayor Bloomberg – as he doubts such a strategy can
retain those seeing fewer returns or bonuses on Wall Street – in favor
of building an economy that would favor small business and better
resist recession.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/00566-new-york-should-end-its-obsession-with-manhattan