Seems that the C is considered the worst (and dirtiest) train line in NYC. And the Q train? It gets top honors for cleanliness and audible announcements. These are the conclusions of the 2012 State of the Subways Report conducted by the Straphanger’s Campaign released yesterday. So what do subway riders want when it comes to the subway riding experience? Here from the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign: 

They want short waits, trains that arrive regularly, a chance for a seat, a clean car and understandable announcements that tell them what they need to know. That’s what MTA New York City Transit’s own polling of rider satisfaction measures.

My most frequently used train, the F train, ranked 7th out of 19 subway lines.

According to the survey, The Q ranked highest because “it tied for best in the system on announcements — and also performed above average on three measures: delays caused by mechanical breakdowns, seat availability at the most crowded point during rush hour, and subway car cleanliness.”

And for the fourth year in a row, the C was ranked the worst subway line. “The C line performed worst or next to worst in the system on four measures: amount of scheduled service, delays caused by mechanical breakdowns, subway car cleanliness and announcements.”

Once again L Magazine, that free little magazine you see in cafes and shops around the neighborhood, pulls together a great list of the best in music, film, food, retail, art and media in the “hipper” parts of the Borough of Kings. Here were a few of the Park Slope related entries. Actually they were the only Park Slope entries.

1 of 3 Best Bars for a First Date

2. Barbes
Gypsy jazz to get dealbreaking dance moves out in the open early.

Best New Lit Mag

One Teen Story

We love One Story, a magazine that mails out a single short story every three weeks. But we’re especially excited about its soon-to-launch sister One Teen Story, which is roughly the same thing but for YA fiction. And it only publishes during the school year! How cute!

 Best Local Blog

Here’s Park Slope

Editor Dan Meyers tracks local businesses doggedly—and we mean doggedly: every opening, closing, renovation, relocation, or change of signage gets reported, from O’Connor’s to Bar 718. But it’s not just a list of which restaurants are up and which are down; it’s complemented by historical context, interviews with bartenders, and other forms of reportage that together create a fully formed portrait of a neighborhood through its storefronts.

On the Huffington Post today, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, had this to say about the Affordable Care Act, aspects of which begin today.

“Under the Affordable Care Act, for the first time ever, women will now have access to life-saving preventive care, such as mammograms and contraception, without paying any more out of their own pockets.

“Today, we move yet another step closer to giving women control over their health care. In addition to the benefits for women already included in the Affordable Care Act, beginning the first plan year after August 1, 2012, most private health insurance plans will cover additional women’s preventive services without requiring women to pay an extra penny out of their pockets.”

http://youtu.be/pYVuYcfaP5Q

This video made me laugh, so I thought you might enjoy it, too. It’s basically an unpaid ad for a new start-up called Zimride, which provides “non-creepy hitchhiking for New York residents.”

Do you know I once hitchhiked to Binghamton, New York from somewhere in New Jersey. I was utterly terrified but we did get picked up by a nice truck driver. Luckily. I had some wild experiences hitchhiking in England but I will save that story for another time.

Well, with Zimride, you don’t have to stick your thumb out while standing on the side of the road like we used to do on Martha’s Vineyard in the seventies. It’s way too social media savvy for that. They’re billing themselves as the  hipster way to travel and they’re saying it’s the cheapest way to travel directly from Brooklyn to DC and other East Coast cities.

I hope they realize that the word hipster is verboten in Brooklyn now.

Interesting, if you’re a driver, Zimride is a way to make money driving your own car. You can sell seats. What a concept.

Here’s how Zimride works: You pick up rides online or using mobile. The average seat from NY to DC is $25 on Zimride.com, so a driver picking up extra passengers can make $150 on a round trip.

Zimride, which is the largest ridesharing company in the U.S. (how many are there, really?) launches in New York City today. With the launch in New York, it’s the first time this new form of transportation is available for NY and DC residents.

From the video, you can see that Zimride is a fun loving start-up from San Francisco. But they’re serious, too, about this new way of thinking about travel from city to city. What do you think?

 by Anna Sheinman of Stream of Life Yoga

If the first food of your day is a box of sugary cereal, a greasy doughnut, or a bagel, you are doing more harm to your body than good. Instead, eating protein-rich food for your first meal will give you a morning energy boost.

Jump-start your day with this quick-minutes recipes and enjoy the benefits

Quinoa Merry-Berry

¼ cup of Quinoa

Raspberries

1 table spoon of raw almond butter (substitute with any raw nuts)

2 table spoon of raw unsweetened cacao powder

Cinnamon

Spices

Prepare: bring 1 cup of water to boil, then lower the heat and continue simmering over the medium heat for 10 minutes. Mix with cacao powder and berries.

For the other four breakfasts go to Stream of Life Yoga. 

A community group calling itself Green Beans Not Walgreens is organizing a protest on Wednesday as tensions rise because Walgreens will be replacing Windsor Terrace’s just departed Key Food supermarket.

The closure of Windsor Terrace’s Key Food leaves the neighborhood without a single full service grocery store.

Windsor Terrace is generally a quiet place. A neighborhood known for its civil servants, police and firefighters, in the last decade has gentrified to include Park Slope type families (whatever I mean by that).

Clearly, this issue has radicalized locals and three hundred residents filled a local church for an anti-Walgreens meeting.  Support your Windsor Terrace neighbors with their great slogan: Green Beans Not Walgreens. A bunch of local pols will be in attendance, including Assemblyman James Brennan, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Brad Lander, and Windsor Terrace Alliance.

Gotta love it.

Who: Green Beans Not Walgreens (community group), Assemblyman James Brennan, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Brad Lander, and Windsor Terrace Alliance.

When: Wednesday, August 1, 2012 at 10 am.

Where: Site of soon-to-open Walgreens, 589 Prospect Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11218

I just heard from Lenore Skenazy, an old friend of Smartmom and OTBKB. She’s the Free Range Mom, who made news when she let her son ride the subway when he was only 11-years-old. I wrote an article for Newsweek.com (now The Daily Beast) about it and Skenazy wrote a book and started a blog called, Free Range Kids: Giving our Kids the Freedom we Had Without Going Nuts with Worry.

Well, today she told me about a great place to vacation with free range kids. It’s called Rosmarins Cottages and it’s a bungalow colony. There are no Park Slopers there at the moment but hey, you can be the first. Skenazy says it’s a wonderful, hidden treasure.

One of the most important aspects is that your child can go to camp, run free in the sprawling grounds, all the while the adults have their own version of summer camp– they can relax and kick back, safe in the knowledge that their child is having the summer of their lives, whilst they fire up the grill for their friends and bungalow neighbors.

And the location of Rosmarins couldn’t be more ideal: It’s only an hour outside of New York, which makes it easy to commute back and forth if need be.

If you are interested, you can spend the day with your family at Rosmarins on Saturday, August 4th or 5th (that’s this weekend) or the following weekend August 11th or 12th.

Alternatively, if you would like to speak to Scott Rosmarin about what the bungalow experience entails and the history of this bungalow colony you can email melmyers6(at)gmail(dot)com.

• I’m so jazzed up after seeing the Opening Ceremonies last night that I wanted to check in on Park Slope’s Race Imboden. I found these stats on Race at the US Fencing website.Home: Brooklyn, N.Y.Birth Year: 1993

  Event: Foil

  Height: 6′ 1″

  Weight: 155 lbs.

  Birthplace: Tampa, Fla.

  Current Residence: Brooklyn, N.Y.

  Club: Empire United Fencing

  Coach: Jed Dupree

  Most People Don’t Know That… I used to be a BMX racing champion.

  Current U.S. Ranking: #1 (Junior), #1 (Senior)

  Current World Ranking: #13 (Junior), #5 (Senior)

  Olympic Teams: 2012

  Senior World Championship Teams: 2011 (Eighth)

  Junior World Championship Teams: 2012 (Gold – Team), 2011 (Gold – Team)

  Cadet World Championship Teams: 2010 (Bronze)

  Personal: Imboden took up fencing when, as a child, a stranger saw him playing with swords in a park and suggested he take up fencing. By 16, Imboden had qualified for his first major international team and had earned a bronze medal at the Cadet World Championships in 2010. On the junior level, Imboden won back-to-back gold medals in the team event at the Junior World Championships. Imboden says his coach, 2004 Olympian Jed Dupree, opened his eyes to the mental aspects of fencing which have allowed him to acheive the success he has had in recent years, but he still says one of his biggest challenges is controlling his emotions on the strip.

  The above was found on the US Fencing website. You can read more about Race, his teammates and Olympic fencing there.

I just got this statement from the Borough President’s Office about the passing of Richard Schwartz, a longtime Cobble Hill resident and assistant to New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman OTBKB sends its condolences to the family.

“All of Brooklyn is deeply saddened over the passing of Cobble Hill resident Richard Schwartz, who was struck by falling debris at Christ Church during last night’s storms, just a short distance from his home. His passing is an unfortunate reminder about the destructive force of nature and the need for all of us to always be prepared and vigilant. Mr. Schwartz admirably served New York State for more than 25 years as an assistant attorney general in the AG’s office, and I know New Yorkers, his colleagues and the law community will greatly miss his expertise and dedication. Most of all, our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends during this very difficult time.”

File under: Our City Council Members in action.

This morning, City Council Members David Greenfield, Letitia James, Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Peter Vallone, and James Vacca announced on the steps of City Hall that they want to establish a 15-member group charged with analyzing the NYPD’s definition of “serious injury” in motor vehicle accidents. Currently, officers do not investigate accidents unless they think the hurt party is dead or likely to die.

Lander, Levin, and Council Member Jessica Lapin have also proposed a law that would require the NYPD to publish crash info online.

Levin wants to require cops to get motorists’ identifying and insurance info even if the situation doesn’t meet the  “dead or likely to die” criteria and investigate all accidents resulting in serious injury.

The City Council is voting today on the expansion of the Park Slope Historic District into parts of South Slope, making it the largest Historic District in the city.  I will let you know what happens.

July 25 at 2PM is the official launch of Brooklyn Trolley Tours. The event is scheduled to take place at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall followed by a short trolley ride to the NYC Transit Museum for willing participants.

Starting in Manhattan, the BKTT is a 3-hour tour of Brooklyn in a mode of transportation from yesteryear – the Trolley car. Making neighborhood stops rich in history, culture and scenery – including Carroll Gardens, DUMBO, the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Flea and many MORE beautiful and historic borough locales.

BKTT will also feature specialty tours such as a “Taste of Brooklyn Food” (4-hour tour focusing on some of the best food the borough has to offer) or the “BKTT – Coney Island Edition” (5-hour tour of the USA first amusement park).

Remember The Yellow Pages? There’s probably a stack of them on the stoop of your apartment building or brownstone. Millions of them were dropped off recently in the five boroughs.

There are young people who have no idea what The Yellow Pages is and why people would use it.

The Yellow Pages was the “physical Google” for finding local business phone numbers and addresses. For those of us above a certain age, it was our “link” to the services we needed. It was indispensable. Truly.

Not anymore.

They had a great advertising slogan:  Let your fingers do the walking. It’s interesting to remember a time when we used The Yellow Pages and the White Pages constantly. The Yellow Pages is organized by category rather than alphabetically. The name? The books were originally printed on yellow paper. White pages were for non-commercial listings.

There are still uses for The Yellow Pages. Well, it makes a great door stop, a counter weight, scintillating bathroom reading. If  there’s no Internet service, the Yellow Pages would be enormously helpful. I’d keep it around just in case. There are elderly people and those who don’t use computers who still depend on it.

It’s definitely becoming a relic of another time.

This is deja vu all over again. Long Island College Hospital laid off 150 employees on Friday.

The University Hospital of Brooklyn at LICH recently merged with SUNY Downstate Medical Center last year and gave 30 days notice to those who they gave the boot. The layoffs are in departments throughout the hospital.

The hospital is experiencing “serious financial pressure,” a representative told the Brooklyn Paper.

What a week it was for Brookyn bus and subway riders.

Well, it’s practically  old news, but it’s worth repeating that the  MTA has agreed to make the G train 5-stop extension to Church Avenue permanent. The G extension has increased the number of trains running along the Culver line through Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and connecting our neighborhoods to Downtown Brooklyn and North Brooklyn.

But now there’s more news: the B57 bus (which now runs along Smith and Court Street), will be extended into Red Hook (past Smith/9th Street and down to IKEA), and more buses are being added to the route. That means another bus serving Red Hook, which desperately needs a second bus, and much less crowding on the B61 line, which often skips stops because buses are too crowded.

Big News and a big win for Brooklyn subway and bus riders.

Members of the Transport Workers Local 100 representing bus and subway drivers are calling for the restoration of cancelled bus line to Red Hook. The flyer announces a July 23rd 5:30PM rally at 130 Livingston in downtown Brooklyn.

by Anna Sheinman

Practicing yoga outdoors will add a different dimension to your practice.

Yoga trains your mind to be still. When a mind is tame, you can see things clearly. Nature will intensify this experience and heighten your awareness.

By practicing outdoors you can establish your link to the environment. You can feel how inseparable you are from it.

Many yogic postures resemble animals and natural elements. Practicing it outdoors, you can experience this inseparability.

Looking into the vastness of the horizon, observing graceful birds flying in a space of “no walls,” the open space expands into the vastness and you sense the freedom you just can’t replicate indoors.

Spice up your practice with the special effects by inhaling and focusing on the smells of nature, such as mountain winds, ocean tides or grass. Exhale, be grateful and release back into nature. Listen to the music of the trees and the wind of the mountains. When you stop and “smell the outdoors,” it’s as if Mother Nature is telling us to be present and breathe deeply. Here’s a chance to practice Yoga outdoors:

LUNA Free Yoga: Yoga Hike in the Prospect Park

28 July, 2012 at 9.00am

Prospect Park West and 9th Street (map)

We kick off the day with an easy hike in Prospect Park to explore the beauty of the urban wonder with like-minded friends. We will continue to our amazing setting. The class will feature Vinyasa Krama as our main practice followed by breathing and meditation practices. It will consist of pose variations done slowly with great attention to breath steadiness and comfort. Outdoor Yoga Hike offers a stimulating experience for newbies and advanced yogis alike.

Wear: comfortable stretchy clothing Bring: Water sunblock mat or a towel. We’ll meet at the entrance to Prospect Park West on 9th Street (take F to 7th Avenue and walk towards the park) RSVP your spot today: http://www.yogalocal.com/?page_id=13302

See Anna’s bio here.