This morning  I was at the F train station at Seventh Avenue at around 9AM. The platform was crowded with hundreds of disgruntled commuters waiting for the train. Then I heard an announcement about there being no F train service because of a police investigation at the 15th Street Station at Prospect Park West.

A frustrated parade of commuters marched over to the Fourth Avenue G train station. The crowd was so big, there was a line to get down the stairs. A woman told me that she’d heard the real reason for the police investigation: someone had stabbed his parents and then jumped in front of a train.

It must have been around 9:30am when I heard that. I was on my way to New Paltz via Port Authority to visit my friend Nancy on her birthday.

The R-train was so crowded I got out of the station and took a  car service to Atlantic Avenue, where I got the 2 train into Manhattan.

Indeed, a 31-year old man stabbed both of his parents and then jumped in front of a G train at the 15th Street station.
The man’s mother is dead, his father is in critical condition and the son is in stable condition at Lutheran Hospital. Here’s an excerpt from the Brooklyn Paper story.

Witnesses told police that the violence erupted inside a quaint brick-faced one-family home on Howard Place between Windsor Place and Prospect Avenue at 8:15 am when Ryan Devaney lashed out on his parents, plunging a knife into his 57-year-old mother’s eye and abdomen, killing her, and slashing his 50-year-old father’s throat.

The father stumbled out of the home, holding his blood-soaked neck while his son ran from the home en route to the F and G station in nearby Bartel Pritchard Square.

Horrified commuters watched as he jumped in front of a Queens-bound G train.

You can read the rest at the Brooklyn Paper.

The other day I noticed that there was some great Christmas lights action on 7th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues and on 9th Street between 5th and 3rd Avenues. So you don’t have to go far from Park Slope to see festive electricity.

Carroll Gardens is also a great place to see extravagant front yard and house decorations.

A Child Grows in Brooklyn has the list of where to see it all in Dyker Heights, Bay Ridge and elsewhere. Here’s an excerpt:

If you hear the words “Brooklyn” and “Christmas lights’ in the same sentence, chances are the person is talking about the Dyker Heights holiday lights. The famous holiday tradition has been on national news, TLC and featured in a dedicated PBS documentary. While this is the “grand slam” of holiday lights in Brooklyn, there are a couple of serious competitors that shouldn’t be missed either!

Bert Jansch, legendary British songwriter and guitarist, will be playing at The Bell House on Wednesday night at 9PM (doors open at 8PM).

According to the Bell House blurb: “Bert Jansch began performing his unique synthesis of folk, blues and jazz on the folk club scene of the early 1960s, having hitch-hiked to London from his hometown of Edinburgh. His first album, Bert Jansch (played on a borrowed guitar and recorded on a reel-to-reel tape deck) was legendarily sold to the Transatlantic label for 100 pounds. On its release in April 1965 Bert Jansch caused a sensation for its innovative guitar technique and powerful songs and it has been phenomenally influential to this day, cited by legions of guitar players (famous and otherwise) as a major inspiration.”

This is a rare opportunity to see a legend —right here in Brooklyn. A Bert Jansch show is a guitar playing master class and an impressive catalogue of some of the most haunting songs in the British canon.

Don’t know about you but I will be there.

December 16th is the 50th anniversary of a terrible day. That morning in 1960, 134 people lost their lives when United Airlines Flight 826 and TWA Flight 266 collided over the skies of Staten Island.

The United aircraft crashed in Park Slope, at the intersection of Sterling Place and Seventh Avenue.

On Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010, at 9:45 a.m. — 50 years to the day of the tragic crash — Green-Wood Cemetery will be honoring those who perished, both in the sky and on the ground, by unveiling a new eight-foot memorial. The granite monument will stand sentinel near the gravesite where the unidentified remains of victims have rested for half a century.

This special unveiling ceremony and memorial service, sponsored by Green-Wood Cemetery, is free to the public. Participants should gather at the cemetery’s main entrance at 25th Street and Fifth Avenue at 9:45 a.m. The service will begin promptly at 10 a.m.

Please RSVP with Isabella Vlacci at 718-210-3024.

On Saturday I got a Christmas card from Marty and Jamie Markowitz in the mail and I did a double take when I saw it because the card is a pointed joke about the Prospect Park bike lane.

In other words, that card has sharp elbows.

The picture, an illustration by Denis Adler, shows  a crowed street (i.e. Prospect Park West) divided into a bike lane, a sitting lane, a holiday only lane, a car lane and a walking lane.

It’s actually a very “cute” illustration. And I guess it’s not surprise that Marty would politicize his holiday greeting. But IMHO I felt it was in bad taste considering that, according to a recent survey, the public seems to be in favor of the bike lane.

Inside the card were the  following words to the tune of “My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music:

Lanes fit for Fido and lanes make for lovers

Hikers and bikers, significant others

A lane just for Santa, but please don’t complain

These are a few of my favorite lanes

Stroller and schleppers and skaters and joggers

Holiday lanes just for al lthe eggnoggers

Let’s not forget cars – it’s getting insane

Welcome to Brooklyn “The Borough of Lanes.”

When the horn hons, when the dog bites, when the bikers stray

I isimply remember my favorite lanes

And then I just say…Oy Vey!

It’s Brooklyn, folks. And even the Beep’s Christmas card is picking a fight…

Did I say I was going to roll out the Park Slope 100 on Monday? Well, that’s not going to happen because nominations are still coming in and blurbs are still being written and…

Trust me, it’ll be here soon.

Art in a Box Benefit for Children at Risk: Art in Brooklyn

The Last Play by William Schmidt: NY Times

What Merry Christmas Means Now: Brooklynometry

Interview with Jonathan Kesselman: Water Over Rocks

Mary Christmas: Fresh Poetry Daily

Advent 3, promise and fulfillment: Old First Blog

Are we any closer to finding extraterrestrial life?: Self-Absorbed Boomer

Book Mark: The Luna Park Gazette

Against Mixology: Three Penny Review

Norman Oder has harsh words for Marty Markowitz for promoting the Atlantic Yards in China as if there isn’t any opposition. His piece, which he calls the editorial that hasn’t appeared, is now appearing on his website, Atlantic Yards Report. Click on read more to read an excerpt from Oder’s blog.

Continue reading Norman Oder: The Editorial about Markowitz that Hasn’t Yet Appeared →

The addition of a replica of Millenium High School, a selective Manhattan high school, into the John Jay High School complex in Park Slope is inspiring mixed reactions from students, teachers and administrators at the schools already in that building.

In an article in her school newspaper, Cheidy Perez, who is currently a student at the Secondary School for Research (one of the schools in the John Jay High School complex in Park Slope, Brooklyn ) reacts to news that Millenium 2 is going into that building in the Fall of 2011. Click on read more to read an excerpt from her remarkable article.

Poet and Park Slope resident Michele Madigan Somerville didn’t sign a petition to deny Cathy Black a waiver. She writes: “It may be that her lack of credentials is Cathie Black’s best credential for leading the DOE schools out if the darkness.” Somerville is the mother of three adolescent children, who have all attended NYC public schools. Two do so at present. She is a former educator with 14 years of classroom experience. She writes: ” I have no problem with the fact that the new chancellor of schools, Cathie Black, is not an educator.” Click on Read More to read an excerpt from her post featured on the Huffington Post yesterday.

Continue reading Michele Somerville: Cathie Black’s Best Credential →

Jill Bloomberg, principal of the Secondary School for Research (SSR) responds to news that Millenium 2 will be joining the other three schools at the John Jay High School Complex. She refers to news that the arrival of the new school will mean that scanning (i.e. metal detection) may be removed from that building.  Click on read more to read the text of Bloomberg’s article.

Continue reading Principal Responds to Millenium 2 →

In an article in her school newspaper, Cheidy Perez, who is currently a student at the Secondary School for Research (one of the schools in the John Jay High School building in Park Slope, Brooklyn ) reacts to news that Millenium 2 is going into the John Jay building in the Fall of 2011. Here is an excerpt from her remarkable article. You can read the rest at Spirit Gazette.

Our teachers heard about the 4th school not even six months ago, and you would think that making a new school takes time, and it does, but this seems like it’s been confirmed long before any information got out to our teachers, students, or parents. Rahsan Williams, an ELA teacher at the Secondary School for Research,was asked how she felt about the changes.. She stated that “the building is in such bad shape and is need of repairs. This should happen without a 4th school coming in.Students here deserve to have those improvements and it is a slap in the face to our current black and brown population if it takes a new school to get these improvements.”

There are many negatives to this so-called “proposal” but some positives. When M2 does arrive, the building will get the repairs it needs. However, the majority of the money will be given to M2 because they are a new school and need that money to start up. This also includes an extra $120,000. That extra money will be used for their purposes only. This also goes deeper than money. Think about the feed back that this school will be getting from this neighborhood. They are obviously going to prefer this “elite high school” (as said in the Daily News) than the schools that have been here for many years with a “checkered reputation”.

The reason that is given as to why our building is chosen to be put into this situation is because our building is currently “under-utilized.” Currently, we have 1477 students enrolled in all 3 schools. The Department of Education lists a target building capacity, or “Footprint,” of 2,104 students. Because we are 627 students short, the DOE decided to put a new school in John Jay Campus.  Even if by fall 2011 we get 627 students enrolled, M2 will still come in.

There might be a better reason or a more accurate reason as to why this is happening in the John Jay building, but it seems to be happening. It’s not the incoming students fault, so let’s not blame them. Let’s show them that we’re not as bad as they make us seem.

Instead of sugar coating it, lets call it what it is: An attack on under-privileged students. Let’s fight back, and prove the DOE wrong.

“This was not judgement day—only morning. Morning: excellent and fair.

From Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Tonight and next Thursday, December 16, 2010: Snowflake Celebration: A “No Sales Tax Xmas” event. Shop on Seventh Avenue for two evenings of merriment, late night shopping & community spirit!

In addition to tax free shopping and discounts, stores will have free food, wine and special treats for shoppers who come in.

I know I’ll be out there. At the Community Bookstore, author Keith Greenberg will be reading from his book, The Day John Lennon Died.

So get on out there: buy some holiday gifts, enjoy discounts, special treats and wine AND support your neighborhood businesses.

You love it. You love to hate it. It’s the 2010 Park Slope 100: 100 stories, 100 ways of looking at the world, 100 inspiring people, places, animals and things. The list is in alphabetical order.

There’s still time to submit a nomination though the list is already too long. But if it’s a good one, someone or something can always be displaced.

Stay tuned…

Cottage furniture in Brooklyn souk: CasaCara

Megan’s new and nifty: Limestone Adventures

Amazing Space: Stylefile NYC

Robot pillows: Swiss Miss

More upcycled stuff: Reclaimed Home

A carriage house reborn: Park Slope Patch

“Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.”

From The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Looks like Emily Lloyd will be taking over for Tupper Thomas, who is retiring from her job as Park Administrator and President of the Prospect Park Alliance.

Talk about big shoes to fill. Thomas is credited with transforming Prospect Park and creating a model for parks conservancies everywhere.

It was announced today by Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Prospect Park Alliance Board Chairman Albert H. Garner that Lloyd would begin the job in January 2011.

Lloyd, a longtime Brooklyn resident, has served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and Commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, as well as an Executive Vice President at Columbia University and most recently Chief Operating Officer at Trinity Real Estate..

“I am honored, and enormously excited, to be joining the Parks Department and the Prospect Park Alliance as part of the team that cares for such an amazing public green space,” Lloyd said today.

“In my years in city government and the private sector, I have visited almost every nook and cranny of New York City.  Each time I visit Prospect Park I’m always delighted to see how much people love being out in the Park.  I look forward to working with the Department of Parks & Recreation, the Alliance board, staff, volunteers and the community to make sure Prospect Park has the resources it needs.”

On December 16, 1960, 134 people tragically lost their lives when United Airlines flight 826 and TWA flight 266 collided over the skies of Staten Island.  The United aircraft crashed in Park Slope, at the intersection of Sterling Place and Seventh Avenue.

On December 16, 2010, Green-Wood Cemetery will honor these individuals who perished, both in the sky and on the ground in Park Slope, by unveiling a new eight-foot memorial on December 16, 2010, fifty years to the day of the tragic crash.  The granite monument will stand sentinel near the gravesite where the unidentified remains of victims have rested for half a century.

This special unveiling ceremony and memorial service is sponsored by  Green-wood Cemetery and are free to the public.  Please R.S.V.P. with Isabella Vlacci at 718-210-3024.

In the next few days I will be publishing the 2010 Park Slope 100. Please send your nominations in as soon as possible. You can just send the name and a little bit about the person, place, animal,  thing, or event that you think belongs on the PS 100. Feel free to write the blurb. I LOVE when people do that.

In case you don’t know about the PS 100:

The Park Slope IS 100 people, places and things that make Park Slope Park Slope. 100 Stories, 100 ways of looking at the world. This is the fifth year of the Park Slope 100 so if you combine all the lists there will be 500 people on this ongoing list, which is, in a sense, a micro-history of Park Slope from 2006-2010.

A huge space in the municipal building in downtown Brooklyn is for sale and Borough President Marty Markowitz has made it clear that he wants Steve Jobs to buy it for an Apple Store.

An Apple Store in Brooklyn? Sounds like an excellent idea for Apple. Surely it would be hugely popular in a borough that has many Apple users and a huge pool of potential customers.

Downtown Brooklyn is filling up with many high profile national stores like Barney’s Co-op and Trader Joe’s. Panera Bread, H&M, Aeropostale, Filene’s Basement, and Danny Meyer’s  Shake Shack will all be Brooklyn-bound soon.

So what is the rent on the space in the Municipal Building? Something to the tune of $20 million says the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (in the Brooklyn Paper).

Neither Steve Jobs or anyone at Apple has gotten back to the Borough President who bought an iPad and instantly sent Jobs a message about an Apple Store in Brooklyn (that was a few months ago).

A dis or does Jobs have too much on his mind to bother with Brooklyn? Maybe he doesn’t get what’s going on in this borough. Maybe he doesn’t care. Your guess is as good as mine.

MTA deploys vintage buses, trains for holidays: Sheepshead Bites

Marine Park community says no to high school plan: Gerritsen Beach

Shadowplay: NY Shitty

Remembering Henington Press: Here’s Park Slope

Weekly culture picks: Bushwick BK

Dumbo links week of 28 Nov: Dumbo NYC

Holiday inflatables: Pardon Me for Asking

New spin cycle studio to open in Slope: Effed in Park Slope

Is your rent too damned high?: The Local

Illegal dumping reaching epic proportions: Hawthorne Street

Ditmas Park Craft Fair on Dec 12: Ditmas Park Blog

Talk about a silver lining.

Robin Rogers, a Greenpoint, Brooklyn resident, and her fiancee called off their engagement. They had a lovely wedding reception planned at Dressler Restaurant in Williamsburg. Instead of calling off the party, the couple decided to turn the reception into a fundraiser for the Greenpoint Reformed Church’s Food Pantry.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Rogers, who is 40-years-old and the mother of two, called off the wedding a few months ago. The break up was devastating and expensive as she had paid more than $9,000. in non-refundable deposits for the restaurant, a dress and invites. That’s when Rogers decided to turn the event into a public service.

The public was invited to this swanky benefit where there was delicious food and drink. Five local do-gooders, who have helped the soup kitchen throughout the past year were honored:  Rami Metal, Greenpoint/Williamsburg Liaison for Councilman Steven Levin; Taylor Erkkinen and Harry Rosenblum, The Brooklyn Kitchen; and Christine Onorati, WORD Bookstore

The church’s pastors were, understandably,  thrilled. Quite a few politicians showed up for the festivities. A good time was had by all and money was raised for an exceptionally good cause. The bride was glowing. “I guess I’m married to Greenpoint,” she said during her toast.” Cheers.

Photos top down:

The bride, Robin Rogers, being interviewed by a TV reporter.

Pastor Ann Kansfield

Lincoln Restler (District Leader)

The bride making a toast

City Councilman Steve Levin (33rd District) talking with Pastor Ann Kansfield

Speaker coach, keynote speaker and speechwriter Jezra Kaye writes on her blog about chancellor-to-be Cathie Black’s first speech to parents on Monday. Here’s an excerpt from Kaye’s blog:

This morning, the local news is playing a clip of  “Chancellor-in-Waiting” Cathie Black’s comment about housing small charter schools in the same buildings as large, “underutilized” (read: poor, since no middle class school in NYC has extra space; and isn’t it great that we have a two-class public school system?) school buildings.  This policy saves the system money, but has concerned many parents, who’ve spoken up.

Black’s comment was (get ready), “Most of that screaming and yelling is staged.  But some of it is just fear of the unknown.”

Oh, yeah, she’s gonna connect real well with an audience of New York City public school parents!

No wonder Bloomberg wouldn’t let her talk.

Over the last few days I have walked  three main shopping arteries – Seventh Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Smith Street – for various gift guides that I am working on and I can tell you that there’s just about everything you need on your shopping list right here in Brooklyn.

Truly, it is amazing how much gorgeous stuff there is around here. For one thing, there’s plenty that’s made and designed in Brooklyn. But there’s also an excellent selection of the best of the best from elsewhere in jewelry, accessories, home design, toys, food items and more for  your holiday gifting.

For me it was fun to check out Smith Street. I haven’t been there in a few years. It was very nostalgic for me to go into Refinery, which opened 14 years ago, and was surely one of the first of the new shops in the “groovy reinvention” of Smith Street that slightly preceded the “groovy reinvention” of Fifth Avenue.

Refinery was the first shop  to design and carry 718 t-shirts. She also was one of the first to do beautiful handmade purses carryalls, pouches, etc. out of gorgeous fabrics (see photograph above). Refinery’s bags were definitely THE Brooklyn bag for many years, well-designed, attractive, sturdy (great for city life). I know it was MY bag for a few years.

It was great to see that the shop is still alive and well and filled with great stuff including colorful clogs, lithograph pendant necklaces, loads of bags, beaded bracelets and toys.

We have a winner. The Park Slope Civic Council has selected a winning design from their competition for the entrance to Prospect Park at Third Street (now closed to traffic).

Jordan Yamada and Peter Zahatros of Manhattan came up with the top pick, Stone Garden, which consists of a variety of stones set on a pair of bronze roller bearings that can be repositioned for emergency vehicle passage.

It’s kinda hard to describe but the illustration is a big help. The city will have to approve the design before construction begins. You can see the other designs that were considered on the PSCC website.

Happy Sunday. After my Weight Watchers Meeting, I’m heading to Claireware’s annual Holiday Craft Show (with hand-painted fabrics by Susan Steinbrock (see below). Don’t forget about PS 29’s Eat Pie and Shop benefit all day today. At 4:40 PM trek on over to hear Honor Moore and Rosemary Moore read at the 440 Gallery. Tonight at 6PM there’s the opening of art show called Serious Whimsey: A Collection of Inevitable Objects opens at Littlefield.  The artists in the show are:  Gail Rothschild, Justin Gignac, Kit Warren, Lisanne McTernan, Mark DiBattista, Stephanie Homa, and Sztuka Fabryka.

Click on read more to see the whole list with all the details you really need like time and links and more.

Continue reading OTBKB Weekend List: It’s Sunday! →