An excerpt from Bobby Curza’s NY 1 piece about the F Train petition. Go to Kensington blog for information about the petition and the rally.

They’ve have been lying there unused for decades, almost mocking
subway riders who board the F train on the local tracks just a few feet
away and can then watch the dormant express tracks from their crowded
rush-hour train.
it

They run from church avenue all the way to Bergen Street, at some
point dipping down below the local tracks. So, one man is asking, why
not run an F express train, with the V, which now terminates on the
Lower East Side, extended into Brooklyn as a local.

"You’re talking about saving people out in Brooklyn, further out, about 20 minutes on their commute,” said Reilly.

A few weeks ago, Gary Reilly launched an online petition requesting
the service, a petition that’s already attracted more than 2,600
signatures. On Wednesday, he presented the petition to the MTA Board,
and officials there say they’re considering .

I’ve yet to speak with Suzanne Fiol to learn the ultimate fate of Issue Project Room, which is moving out of its Carroll Street silo while the Gowanus is cleaned.

They are using a space in the American Can Factory, the red building at Third Avenue and Third for the month of July. Also known as XO projects, there seems to be a lot going on there, including Rooftop Films. I have friends with studios in there. I even looked at a studio there once.

The web site says this: "The Old American Can Factory is an industrial complex built around 1885 on the Fourth Street Basin of the Gowanus Canal in Gowanus, Brooklyn – a place where things are still being made. A new place in an old space, it is a haven to a vital community of more than 200 people who conceive, manufacture and distribute a myriad of ideas, experiences and products in the arts and culture industries."

Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens serves up "progressive politics, transit issues, the neighborhood I love, and whatever else strikes my fancy"  plus news about the F-train press conference.

Lumi of No Land Grab writes: The rally was huge and overflowed the designated area allowed for press conferences and demonstrations.  The mainstream media just yawned.  In case you felt like mentioning, here’s the press release and photos:
Press Release is here:
http://dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=838
Photos are here:
http://www.pbase.com/jonathanbarkey/cityhall
and here
http://britinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2007/06/eminent-domain-rally-city-hall.html

The All Souls Bethleham Church, a Unitarian congregation in Kensington Brooklyn is set to celebrate its 100th anniversary this Sunday.

Special 100th Anniversary Service: join us for a music-filled worship service Sunday, July 1st in the afternoon beginning at 4PM. The service will be held at Trinity Lutheran (just a few blocks away from the Parsonage at the intersection of E. 8th Street and 18th Avenue). A potluck meal and informal reception will following the 90 min. worship service. Several of our own musicians (Terris Krueger, Rev. Matthew Fox, Tom Peters, Erika Kulnys and others) will be participating in this special event.

WHO: Council Members Bill de Blasio, Simcha Felder, and Domenic Recchia; Community Activists, ORGANIZATIONS

WHAT: Rally to Support Petition to Restore Express Service on Brooklyn’s F line

WHEN: 2 pm, Thursday, June 28, 2007

WHERE: Church Avenue Station; Church Avenue and McDonald Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn, New York—Council Members Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Kensington), Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park), and Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst) will stand with community activists and representatives of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Transportation Alternatives tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, 2007, to rally in support of the restoration of express service on Brooklyn’s F line.

“To let existing transportation infrastructure go unused is a disservice to the Brooklynites who rely on mass transit every day,” says de Blasio.

An online petition in support of restoration launched by community activist Gary Reilly has generated 2,500 signatures in two weeks. “Investments in transit pay off in increased quality of life for everybody,” says Reilly. “Let’s get this done.”

“A remarkable shift in conscious is happening in New York City, with a renewed commitment to strategic planning for the future,” says Felder. “But let’s not allow our focus on the future to distort our sight of what’s right in front of us. The MTA plans to restore F express by 2012. We think it can happen sooner than that.”

“Our communities have been clamoring for expedited express train service for years, and the time has come to listen and respect the needs of the City’s subway riders, who are average, every-day New Yorkers,” says Recchia.

My mother reports that she was in the Metropolitan Museum and the lights started to flicker. She saw the lights go out in the Egyptian wing. The class she was attending left the building.

Bronx and part of the Upper East Side and Harlem have been affected. Some traffic lights aren’t working. Subway service is seriously affected.

This from the City Room:

An explosion this afternoon at an electrical substation in the Bronx has knocked out power to 136,700 customers in the Bronx and Manhattan and disrupted subway service on several of the city’s busiest subway lines — the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and E and V lines on the East Side and the D line in the Bronx — according to officials with the city government and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Yorkville, on the East Side of Manhattan, and parts of the western Bronx were said to be the most heavily affected areas, officials said.

This from New York 1:

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing Tuesday to
discuss whether or not to designate the refinery building at Brooklyn’s
Domino Sugar Plant a landmark.

Community activists and the building’s owner – the Community
Preservation Corporation – want to landmark the refinery building on
the site. Activists, however, want to landmark the entire 11.5 acre
site.

If the commission designates the site a landmark, CPC plans to
develop the building as a residential property under the landmark code.
The corporation says they want to create affordable housing, plus open
park space and waterfront access. They say they need to clear the rest
of site to make their development plans economically feasible.

Preservations say they want the processing plant and several other buildings on the site left alone.

A vote on the matter will take place later this summer.

McBrooklyn knows how to do it.

I got this note from Rebecca Segall, Director of Writopialab, Inc.

Hi there,

I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and am the founder/director of
WritopiaLab, a community of tween and teen writers in NYC that meets on
the upper west side of Manhattan.

The exciting news: Our blog launched yesterday!

If you have time to check out or website (www.WritopiaLab.org) and blog
www.WritopiaLab.Blogspot.com, we would love to be linked to your fabulous
blog.

Thank you for your time!

Rebecca Segall
Director, WritopiaLab, Inc
www.WritopiaLab.org

0

Check out Seeing Green’s convincing arguments for getting on a bike. Just do it.

Smartmom dropped OSFO off for her last day of fourth grade 30 minutes. OSFO was late because she was finishing a sock monkey for a friend in the class.

In addition to much learning and personal growth, OSFO learned how to make sock monkeys in fourth grade and she taught a group of her classmates how to do it. She promised someone she’d finish his.

Looking for a Thank You card to give the Parent Coordinator at Community Bookstore, she ran into a parent she’s seen for years at PS 321. She was looking for a Barbara Kingsolver book.

"This isn’t your last day at PS 321 is it?" Smartmom asked.

"Yes it is," she said.

"I thought you had one more…"

"No, this is it. I get teary just thinking about it," she said.

They hugged.

"Fifteen years," she said.

I met and enjoyed speaking with Anne Pope of Sustainable Flatbush on Sunday at the Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow at Vox Pop.

Not only does she have a great blog but she’s been organizing interesting events in Flatbush like a recent lecture by  Wilton Duckworth and Joan Ewing of Green Phoenix Permaculture.  Afterwards there was a special treat for the late-nighters who stayed to hear Cacau Arcoverde
and Ileana Santamaria perform music and dance from Pernambuco, Brazil!
"We even had a roda de capoeira going for a minute," she writes.

Tune into SF for daily information about urban green living, sustainability, politics, and more.

WNYC.org reports that the Cyclone turns 80 today. Listen to the story over there. I just heard that the first 80 riders get to experience the ride for FREE. What about those who are turning 80?

From WNYC.org: Brooklyn icon turns eighty today. It takes a minute forty five
seconds to ride the Cyclone roller coaster, but takes a bit longer to
recover. One man has been in charge of making sure this famous, wooden
thrill ride runs like it did when it opened. Gerry Menditto has spent
half his life operating and fixing the Cyclone. WNYC’s Kathleen Horan
caught up with him on the platform of the roller coaster.

BROOKLYN COMMUNITY BOARD 6 is seeking a qualified individual for the following position:

OFFICE MANAGER (Community Associate title; Full-time position)

Key Responsibilities:
*General office supervision and management;
*Clerical oversight in support of office administrative functions;
*Scheduling, budgeting, inventory control;
*Assist and report directly to District Manager

Requirements:
*Computer skills including, at a minimum, proficiency in MS Word and MS Excel;
*Excellent organization and communication skills (telephone and writing);
*Supervisory and customer service experience;
*Multilingual skills a plus

Interested persons are advised to mail, fax or email a cover letter and resume with salary history by July 20, 2007 to:

Craig Hammerman, District Manager
Brooklyn Community Board 6
250 Baltic Street
Brooklyn, New York 11201-6401

Brooklyn Community Board 6 is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

A full job posting is available as a download at the following link:
http://www.brooklyncb6.org/announcements/

Part of the fun of the Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow is to see a new nabe. About 20 bloggers, friends and spouses gathered at Vox Pop in Flatbush — some had never been to Cortylou Road before.

The cafe itself was worth the trip. Part bookstore, coffee bar, Sunday BBQ, performance space, instant publishing center, community center, Vox Pop is sort of a live blog, with tons of atmosphere and cultural vitality.

The first Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow was hosted by Flatbush Gardener, who did a great job organizing and promoting the event. There was an open mic and from 2-3 pm bloggers got up and talked about their blogs.

Hepcat and I arrived at 3 p.m. and we were the last to speak. We missed the shout-out completely and I’m sorry about that but we did get a chance to meet just about everyone in the room. Interesting conversations abounded and it really was a lot of blog talk. There was some disappointment that no non-bloggers came because part of this exercise is to bring new people into the fold.

Many of the bloggers at Vox Pop had never seen the gracious Victorian wood houses in that neighborhood. Flatbush Gardener told some of us the interesting history of his house and the nabe as well. I’ve been to that nabe numerous times and even  wrote a story for BKLYN Magazine about the landmarking effort in Beverley Square West. But yesterday I really got a deeper sense of the nabe just being in Vox Pop.

Next month’s road show will be in Greenpoint, hosted by New York Shitty. Bloggers and non-bloggers welcome.

Here are the names of the bloggers I wrote down, there were others, too. Please leave a comment if you were there and I didn’t write you down (links to come): New York Shitty, Bed Stuy Blog, Gowanus Lounge, Creative Times, Self-Absorbed Boomer, Sustainable Flatbush, Brit in Brooklyn, the Luna Park Gazette, Dope ont the Slope,

I just heard: Two Little Red Hens is now Ladybird Bakery. Anyone know the story. Do tell.

Gowanus Lounge has the answer as well as excellent coverage of the Mermaid Parade. For the Flickr numbers, go to today’s Brooklinks (the Mermaid Parade edition).

It’s 2:05 and Hepcat and I are on our way to Vox Pop for the first Brooklyn Blogade Roadshow hosted by Flatbush Gardener.

Looking forward to meeting with a bunch of Brooklyn bloggers (and those who are curious, interested, and or thinking about blogging) at a place I’ve been meaning to visit. Should be fun. See you there.

Vox Pop is located:
                                  1022 Cortelyou Road
                                  Brooklyn, NY 11218

10th Street reports: About 40 oldtimers and newtimers joined in as well as five guests from
other parts of NYC, Nelly and her hubby, Susan and her daughter, and
one TV station reporter!

BYOB and BYO children went well. We had three tables covered with white
sheets: one was for kazoos, kid activities (chalk and bubbles),
solstice books, and STOOPendous postcards; one for yellow cups and
drinks (lemonde with lemon slices and stonger stuff); and one for
food–folks brought finger food and desserts. Ladybird Bakery’s sun
cookies all disappeared. Bananas to slice and dip in melted milk
chocolate were a hit. Yellow and red pepper slices with dips were
popular.

Participants loved the shout-out. Kazoos were used by all. A neighbor
led the drum-and-tamborine countdown, and when we hit the sundown
moment folks readily sang You are my Sunshine and On the Sunny Side of
the Street.

Michael the STOOPendous Monkey (a large stuffed animal in my
STOOPendous shirt) presided over the scene.Three sunflowers in a vase
were beautiful.

All in all, eveyone agreed, a success!

Dope on the Slope reports:

There was a small, but extremely EXUBERANT noisemaking contingent on my block. I recorded the clamor – it was pretty loud!

Some
young girls whizzed by a few moments later in a bike rickshaw. We
twirled our ratchets and blew our whistles as they passed, and they
said

"Oh yeah, tonite was KAZOO NIGHT! We were supposed to blow kazoos
at 8:31. I can’t believe we forgot!"

Read his blog for the rest of his report and his recording.

Elementi, the new restaurant between Garfield and Carroll, removed the wood that was blocking the new front window and unveiled a pretty new room in the space that was once Snooky’s.

Surprise: The owner is the husband of the lovely owner of MYR, the tiny make-up shop next to ConnMuffCo. I had suspected that she was involved as I’d seen her going in and out of the space over the last few months.

The MYR lady saw me peering in the window and came out to talk.

She said the renovation was quick: it only took four months ("we had a great crew"). It’s her husband’s first solo restuarant effort but I thnk he’s been in partnerships before. The chef, whose name I forget, worked at Esta. The food is "blended Italian," which means a blending of various regional cuisines in Italy.

The prices are on par with Stone Park and other upscale Fifth Avenue eateries. It actually looks very nice.

Here’s Peter’s reaction to Bob Herbert’s editorial in the New York Times on Mayor Bloomberg’s  possible run for the White House:

Bob Herbert, in bemoaning the possible impact of a Bloomberg
candidacy for president, says this: "The mayor would draw votes from
people who want change, who are interested in something different, a
new direction." Isn’t that exactly the voting option people in the
United States are supposed to have? And doesn’t that speak volumes
about what has become of the Democratic Party? Democrats cannot simply claim
the mantle of change; they have to earn it.

Hillary Clinton claims,
just like Al Gore did in 2000, to be an agent of change, while playing
tightly to a presumed vast "middle." Well, if that strategy was worthy,
George W. Bush and Company should not have ridden twice to the
victories that Democrats want to blame on progressive candidates like
Ralph Nader. The claim that Mr. Bloomberg would effectively put a
Republican in the White House, the same claim made about Mr. Nader in
2000, is as spurious now as it was seven years ago. People want a
choice and Democrats have not yet provided them with a clearly
distinguishable one.

Sincerely,

Peter Loffredo

Daniel Kikuji Rubenstein is working hard to bring a new charter middle through high school to Brooklyn called the Brooklyn Prospect Charter School. They need signatures on a petition by June 27th for the state authorizers.

A team of educators, community members and parents have been working on bringing a new grade 6-12 school to the neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Park Slope, Gowanus, Red Hook, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and parts of other neighborhoods. 

We
need to show the state authorizers that there is community support for
this project. Please go to the link and sign the online
petition.  It takes approximately 30 seconds.  Please do this before
Wednesday June 27^th 2007.

The 440 Gallery, Park Slope’s only artist run gallery is having its annual “Small Works Show,” from June 28-July 29. The opening reception will be held on  June 28, 6-9 p.m.

This year’s show is curated by Matthew McCaslin, a well-regarded installation artist, video artist and sculptor has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad since 1982. 

440 Gallery
is open Thursdays and Fridays, 4-7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays,
noon-6 p.m. The gallery is at 440 Sixth Avenue; call 718-499-3844 or
visit www.440gallery.com.

A Bagpiper will play on 10th Street between 7th and 6th Avenues as part of one Stoopendous celebration. Listen for the bagpiper. It should be pretty obvious where the festivities are.

10th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.

The girls are in their prettiest dresses. The boys in suits, dress shirts, ties, and hats. The parents, dressed in their finery, too, have still and video cameras and relatives in tow. They wait outside of the John Jay High School building for the doors to open on the PS 321 Fifth Grade graduation.

"Congratulations to you," Mr. McGarry calls to Smartmom. "This is your second graduation, right?"

Smartmom explains that she’s just getting a preview of OSFO’s graduation next year. But Mr. McGarry’s daughter is graduating this year.

"We still have one to go," he says, his wife Jacqi, also a PS 321 teacher, smiles.

"What are you doing here?" Ciao Bella, a neighbors asks. "Just getting a preview, that’s all."

This morning in OSFO’s fourth grade class, the group sang "Wonderful World," "This Pretty Planet," and "Stand by Me" to the parents.

It was tear city from the get go. The kids had devised their own cute choreography. Afterwards, the teachers showed a a four-song slide montage. It was no casual tribute to the children of class of 4-308. No, no, no. The teachers documented so many of the great things the class did together and the pictures just oozed with a sense of community and camraderie.

Smartmom found that very moving, too.

Next year, Smartmom will be standing on line waiting to get into OSFOs graduation. She remembers Teen Spirit’s one hot day in June in 2002. But OSFO’s will be her last graduation as a parent at PS 321 and it will be especially poignant.

Ducky will graduate from PS 321 in 2014. Wow, now that’ll be the day.

To anyone who went to the graduation: Who was there. Which politicians. Oh, that must be why I saw Bill Di Blasio at Mr. Falafel. Who else was there? Do tell. :

On 10th Street between 8th Avenue and the Park, there’s a stoop social and stoop sales all day. 1st Street between 5th and 6th (or maybe 6th and 7th) is having a block party on Stoopendous Saturday.

Lion in the Sun  Park’s Slope’s well-stocked and tasteful paperie, has graciously donated their space on 4th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue, to the Stoopendous Kid’s Art Show. Sponsored by Park Slope Parents, the show features the work of 40 children, who entered the contest. Stop on by over there all day Saturday June 23rd. Great for kids.

Buzz buzz: Lion in the Sun is opening a new craft shop over there.  Thread. Buttons. Sewing supplies. Yes, yes, yes. GREAT IDEA. They’re moving the Ikea shelving in as we speak.

No Land Grab, that excellent information portal for all Atlantic Yards related news, has the links for Ratner’s sweetheart deal. Read more there.