Blake, education associate at Irondale Center, a newly opened theater space on South Oxford
St. in Fort Greene, wrote to let me know that they're creating a new play about Fort Greene.

But here's the deal: they're looking to gather stories and views about Fort Greene from as many who are
willing to participate.

I just read it on the Brookyn Paper but someone wrote to me about it before. I didn't know what it was so like any good journalist I ignored it. DUH.

This is from Ben Muessig's story in the Brooklyn Paper:

Park Slope resident, who with her husband runs a Meserole Avenue
Café Grumpy location and a Manhattan outpost, hopes to launch the new
cafe in storefront that once housed the clothing store Lola in May.

“We’re excited because it’s really close to our apartment,” said
Bell, whose coffee joint is considered a shrine by java junkies
nationwide and is a constant presence on magazine “Best of New York”
lists.

“It’s also our first location on a main street near a subway with lots of foot traffic.”

OTBKB friend and fave, Alison Lowenstein, author of City Baby Brooklyn, is working on a book about bringing up kids in NYC. She asked me to get your input on this. Leave comments or write to Alison directly: alison(at)brooklynbaby(dot)com.

 Jonathan Bowles of the The Center for an Urban Future, a
nonpartisan think tank based in New York City, sent an email on Monday to announce their new study which reveals that Brooklyn
was home to 51 of the 111 subway stations that experienced an increase in
ridership of 50 percent or more between 1998 and 2008.

The report also shows
that bus ridership in Brooklyn increased by 21.9 percent between 1998 and 2008,
much more than in Manhattan
during the same time period.

The Center for an Urban Future report documents the percentage increase in weekday ridership for every subway station
in the system between 1998 and 2008 as well as the growth in daily bus
ridership by borough, highlights just how important the city’s public
transportation system has become for residents living outside of
Manhattan. Now here's what really sucks: this comes at a time when the MTA is planning to cut back dramatically on bus and subway lines outside of
Manhattan and as some outer-borough
legislators are opposing new tolls on the bridges as a way to prevent the
transit cuts.

The Center’s findings include:

    ·       
20 of the 22 stations with the
largest percentage increase in average weekday subway ridership between 1998
and 2008 were either in the outer boroughs or in
Manhattan north of
96^th Street .

  ·       In 2008, 62 stations outside of
Manhattan had an average
weekday ridership of more than 10,000 people, up significantly from 46 stations
in 2003 and 36 in 1998.

  ·        
More than a quarter of all New York
City subway stations—111 out of 425—saw an increase in average
weekday ridership of 50 percent or more between 1998 and 2008. Brooklyn
accounted for nearly half (51) of those stations; there were 28 in
Manhattan , 20 in the Bronx and 12 in Queens .

·        
13 stations on the L line and nine
on the N line were among the 50 fastest growing stations citywide. Other lines with
several stations among the 50 fastest-growing stations in the system between
1998 and 2008 were: the 2 (seven stations), 3 (six stations), F (five
stations), J (five stations) and M (five stations).

 ·        
Overall, 82 percent of the citywide
gain in bus ridership between 1998 and 2008 occurred in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan .

 While average daily bus ridership in
Manhattan increased by just 7.6 percent during the past decade, bus ridership
surged by 28.4 percent in Queens, 28.4 percent in Staten Island, 23.5 percent
in the Bronx and 21.9 percent in Brooklyn. (
Manhattan actually experienced a 6.7 percent
decline in bus ridership between 2003 and 2008, the only borough to see a
decrease during this period.

The Center’s analysis, which is based on data from MTA
New York City Transit, is the latest issue of New York by the Numbers, the Center for an Urban
Future’s monthly economic snapshot of the five boroughs

Last month, the Center published a
major report about the challenges facing New York
City’s middle class which argued that rising
commuting times and overcrowded subways have already become a key quality of
life issue for many residents living in the boroughs outside of
Manhattan . This new data
makes a strong case that these residents should be seeing an improvement in
transit service rather than a dramatic cut—and it suggests that elected
officials representing neighborhoods in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and the
Bronx would be well-served to pay as much or more attention to their transit-riding
constituents as to the relative handful of car drivers into Manhattan.

The new study is available here:

  http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/TransitOverload.pdf

Photo by Travis Ruse

Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn had the pleasure of attending a lunchtime lecture today by Sir Salman
Rushdie at St. Francis College today, as part of its Thomas J. Volpe
Lecture Series on Global Business & Finance. He filed this report on his blog. Here's an excerpt, read more  at DITHOB.

The folks over at Willie's Dawgs are calling it Shorts-4-Dogs and it's a benefit screening for the dog run in Washington Park.

Cool.

On Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m. get yourself over to the Old Stone House
for a screening of lovable, award-winning short films. A benefit for
Washington Park Dog Run, the price of admission is $20. That's twenty
bucks.

And for that you get plump, juicy and delicious hot
dogs grilled any way you like them and reverently tucked into our hand
rolled homemade buns,  traditional, natural or veggie dogs on challah,
mulitgrain or rye rolls. You get a ton of different homemade toppings
piled high plus all the necessary stuff like fresh hand cut potatoes
and our own
buttermilk onion rings fried in peanut oil by our precision staff.

And a movie, beer and popcorn. And good karma!

The Where and When

Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m.
Shorts-4-Dogs
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
Tix are $20, which includes hot dogs (veggie, too) beer, and popcorn.

That means Lesley and Conor: Your names are on the list and you get two tix each. The show is at 9 p.m. at Jalopy. Check Jalopy website for  'tails.

Email me: louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com to confirm that you want them.

Giveaway contest is officially OVER.

The answer was Washington County. That's the name of a great Arlo Guthrie album (see left). And the name of a county upstate near Saratoga and the Vermont border.

My dad has a gorgeous property up there which happens to be for sale. 40 acres of gorgeousness, a lake and a colonial era house with a massive kitchen/great room in Shaker style that was added on, a stream and some barns. Let me know if you want to see pix.

And of course, Arlo is Sarah Lee's dad.

Three OTBKB readers came in with the answer. I already told the first winner that he's got the two tickets to the Jalopy show. But for the two  runners-ups: I am checking with SL&JI's manager to see if they can spare more tix. (Update: Runner-ups get tickets,too).

Other than that: the contest is over unless I get more tickets.

About Jalopy: it's an old-timey performance space  with an awesome, cool cool line-up of performers. It's a music school. It's a vintage instruments store: the place where I got the banjo and then had to return. They were so gracious about it.

Marisa Palma Muller, the pharmacist and owner—with her husband Peter Muller—of Palma Chemists, at the corner of Garfield Place and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, died on Saturday, March 7. She had a heart attack.

Palma Chemists was founded by Marisa's father, Dominick Palma in 1962. He died in 1999.

Frank Calandriello, who has worked in the shop for many years, told me that there will be a wake tomorrow at Smith's Funeral Home in Windsor Terrace. 248 Prospect Park West. From 2 pm – 5 pm and 7 pm – 9 pm. A private funeral will be held upstate where Marisa lived with her husband.

There is a sign in the front window of the shop. Frank will notify me if there is a charity where the family would like donations sent in lieu of flowers.

My condolences to Peter, Marisa's family and all the staff at Palma Chemists.

This caught my eye this morning on Park Slope Parents. Leave a comment if you've seen Baby.

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion will celebrate the release of their new HD DVD Folksong at the Jalopy Theatre in Red Hook on Thursday, March 12, 2009!

Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion are releasing two new projects in 2009 including Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family's Go Waggalo and Folksong,
a live HD DVD capturing their unforgettable Valentine's Day 2008 show
at Tales From The Tavern at The Maverick Saloon in Santa Ynez, CA.

Folksong
is a 2 disc set featuring a HD DVD film of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny
Irion's Valentine's Day set at the Maverick Saloon and an accompanying
audio-only CD of the 13 songs performed that special evening. Folksong
includes four new compositions and highlights Sarah Lee and Johnny's
caressing harmonies, high-lonesome folk melodies and unadorned American
roots music. Folksong is currently available at http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com .

The Where and When

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Jalopy Theatre
315 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY
Tickets: $10 Ticket Info: 718.395.3214, http://www.jalopy.biz
Showtime: 9 pm

Once again, another great post from learning specialist, Rosemarie Hester. The first Monday of each month she will be at the Community Bookstore for a Q&A about learning issues. According to Hester: “April 6 is the
next one.  We canceled last Monday because of the snow.”

Hester wants to encourage
parents and kids to think of these hours as drop-in sessions, as well
as Q & A’s. She sends a welcoming invitation to all. “If a child wants a free problem-solving tutoring
session, we can use the time that way,” she writes.

Big news: Hester’s website is up and running. Learn more about what she does there.

Guess what? You lost an hour last night. It happened while you were sleeping. But that's okay: it's only daylight saving time. Nothing to be too worried about. But don't forget to turn your clocks one hour ahead. 

Whatever time it says on your stove clock, your alarm clock, your watch, that obscure clock on the high shelf: it's actually one hour later.

Chances are the time on your computer is correct. Those contraptions seem to always know the correct time. You friends on Facebook will probably be posting about this all day. 

Still, if you're not careful you may find yourself running a little behind schedule. You might even show up an hour late for brunch at Rosewater—or wherever you do brunch around here.

Daylight Saving Factoid from the Edmonton Sun: Daylight saving time, which requires participating regions to turn
their clocks one hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the
fall, was introduced by the U.S. as an energy-saver in 2005. The idea
was, shifting an hour of daylight from early morning to late evening
would be more in sync with waking time and reduce residential energy
use.

You're going to lose an hour. But that's okay: it's daylight savings time. Don't forget to turn your clocks one hour ahead at 2 a.m. tomorrow for daylight saving time.

It'll feel like 2 a.m. but it'll be 3 a.m.

DST Factoid from the Edmonton Sun: Daylight saving time, which requires participating regions to turn
their clocks one hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the
fall, was introduced by the U.S. as an energy-saver in 2005. The idea
was, shifting an hour of daylight from early morning to late evening
would be more in sync with waking time and reduce residential energy
use.

Winter. And everyone is so bundled up in their cold weather outerwear, you barely recognize them. No one stops to say hello because they're rushing to do whatever they're rushing to do. 

And then comes a spring day and it's time for stoop sitting. I saw the people who live in the building next door sitting on their stoop for the first time in ages. One woman, who I speak to often in good weather (I guess you'd call her a fair weather friend) got a new dog, a Maltese; she calls him Maximus. 

Back at home,  I heard music wafting up from our front yard. 

On the first springy day just five days after "the biggest snowstorm of the season" everyone is in such a good mood in the Slope. Barrio opened their French doors and are letting the fresh air in. Lisa Polansky has tables of shoes and boots out in front of her store. 

"You know I buy used records." he said. 

This story brought tears to my eyes. Maybe it's my mood. But this kind of thing is so lovely. A family is having a birthday party for their son. In lieu of presents, they are asking for donations to a charity called A Hundred for a Home for two Brooklyn children who are suffering from Sanfilippo Syndrome.

Great time to be cutting services to the homeless. This just makes no sense. I know wer're in an economic nightmare. But what are people to do if services dry up? Below is the PR blurbage I just got from CAMBA and it really makes me MAD. Here's an excerpt and a link to CAMBA.

Governor Patterson has proposed to
eliminate the $5 million Homelessness Prevention Program (HPP), of
which $1.3 million of would be cut from CAMBA, a Brooklyn-based
nonprofit organization that has kept more than 30,000 families in their homes in Brooklyn since 1991.

Patterson’s cuts follow the New
York City’s Department of Homeless Services report that the city has
recorded the highest number of homeless people since 1982- 9,720.   At
a time when the government is trying hard to keep people in their homes
while maintaining if not providing jobs and when the need for
homelessness prevention is spiking, the New York State proposed budget
eliminates the Homelessness Prevention Program and leaves families
vulnerable with no place to turn.

These vital programs, run by 5
community based organizations, including CAMBA, are the only way that
the majority of families at risk of eviction can apply for the Family
Eviction Prevention Supplement (FEPS), the rental subsidy program that
replaced Jiggetts.  Last year the citywide HPP prevented 6,680 families
from losing their homes and
CAMBA’s HPP prevented more than 2,000 evictions.  Should these
programs be cut, CAMBA projects that 2,000 families will be affected
and the organization would lose 27 positions.  The projected citywide
job loss would be 90 positions.

A friend just wrote in to say: "Dog’s
owners lost home and can't afford to move on with the dogs. They are
heartbroken and are looking for a home for these two beautiful Labs."

Email me if you are interested in one or both of these adorable puppies. Don't show OSFO. She's desperate for a puppy and we're not allowed to have one in our building.

Louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

It's strange. You're walking down Seventh Avenue and you see out of the corner of your eye someone you've "friended" on Facebook. And they're not a great friend or anything but a good acquaintance. You might know them from you kid's school or through a mutual friend.

But now you know way more about them than you used to. You've read their 25 Random Things About Me and their favorite words and you have a running sense of their daily status.

Maybe you see them on the way to the subway and you kind of know where they're going because they posted about that; or you run into them at Sweet Melissa's or 'Snice and you're curious how something or other turned out.

But it's not really appropriate to say anything. Or is it? Is it rude not to? What's the etiquette here, now, Emily Post?

It's the strangest thing. I'm wondering if this brand of "social networking" will lead to a tighter sense of community or a community of people who nervously avoid each other when they're out on the street because, like, you've seen high school pictures and you know how they wore their hair back in 1982. You've seen their wedding outfits and pictures of them as babies…

When you're on Facebook it's one thing. Over there it's like a high school party, where you're free to check  everybody out. You see your friends, your friend's friends, the teachers, the parents.

Everybody is at the party.

You can explore their information and find out their favorite books and movies. You're glad they shared their favorite panini recipe after you posted about your new panini press; or that they offered their favorite cold remedies and hope you feel better because you posted about being sick.

But running into them on the street is different. You're not sure if you need to say "hi." It's like you know them in your secret life, the one on your computer. And yet, you know them for real, too.

On Seventh Avenue on a cold March day. Hey, Emily Post, a little help here, please.

The folks over at Willie's Dawgs are calling it Shorts-4-Dogs and it's a benefit screening for the dog run in Washington Park.

Cool.

On Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m. get yourself over to the Old Stone House for a screening of lovable, award-winning short films. A benefit for Washington Park Dog Run, the price of admission is $20. That's twenty bucks.

And for that you get plump, juicy and delicious hot dogs grilled any way you like them and reverently tucked into our hand rolled homemade buns,  traditional, natural or veggie dogs on challah, mulitgrain or rye rolls. You get a ton of different homemade toppings piled high plus all the necessary stuff like fresh hand cut potatoes and our own
buttermilk onion rings fried in peanut oil by our precision staff.

And a movie, beer and popcorn. And good karma!

The Where and When

Saturday March 21st at 7 p.m.
Shorts-4-Dogs
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street
Tix are $20, which includes hot dogs (veggie, too) beer, and popcorn.

Andy Newman, editor/reporter/blogger for  The Local, a new Brooklyn Blog run by the New York Times in Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Maplewood, New Jersey wrote this by way of an introduction to The Local

Welcome to our big little experiment.

Greetings, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. This is your Local speaking. Soon, we hope, you will talk back to it.

Starting today, The Local is an online news site for these
communities. But if we build it right together, The Local will be
something much more: a glorious if cacophonous chorus of your voices
singing the song of life itself in these astoundingly varied and
vibrant neighborhoods.

With your input, The Local will tell stories that matter: crime and
politics and culture and civic life and everything else. Some stories
will be snapshots, mere moments. Others will unfold over days or weeks
or marking periods — the birth pangs of a food coop or a high school
newspaper, the aftermath of a crime, and, as the unstoppable wave of
local gentrification crashes into the unstoppable wave of global
economic meltdown, an ever-growing tale of loss and struggle.

There's a new CSA in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn: Flatbush Farm Share. The
mission of Flatbush Farm Share is to make fresh, organic, produce
available to any Brooklyn resident, regardless of economic status.

There are 100 shares available for all income levels, and a generous
subsidy program for low-income members.

So what is a CSA? It is an opportunity for a group of people to form a direct
relationship with a local farmer. Members of a CSA directly benefit by
paying less for their produce – 20% savings in an average year – and by
getting a weekly delivery of organic produce fresh from the earth. In
exchange, CSA members make a financial commitment to a local farm by
purchasing a share of its crops before the start of a season. This
investment supports farm operating costs, and guarantees a buyer for
their harvest. A CSA is great for you, for your community, for the
local economy, and for the environment.

FLATBUSH FARM SHARE
Distribution site: Flatbush Reformed Church
(at Flatbush Ave and Church St)
Share Pick-up: Wednesdays, June 3 – October 28,
from 5-8pm
Parking lot on site, blocks from Church Ave Q & B train, and the 41 and 35 bus route

www.flatbushfarmshare.com

Bar Reis in the snow. Photo by Moira Meltzer-Cohen of Bar Reis, a cozy local bar on Fifth Avenue near 6th Street.