Calling all dance buffs, real estate obsessed, historic brownstone types and fans of site specific artworks.

I just heard from someone at the Tze Chun Dance Company’s about their site-specific series called Parlour Games. They’ve been performing all across Brooklyn, and will continue to present the free event in historic Brooklyn spaces again this weekend and in June.

They passed along a short video trailer of the piece, filmed in one of our 12 historic Brooklyn locations- 105 St. Marks Ave (currently listed for $2.5M with Corcoran).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMp7g_zlzV4

The Local (the NY Times’ Ft. Greene blog also made a video article about the series:
http://fort-greene.thelocal.nytimes.com/tag/tze-chun-dance-company/

There will be a show this Saturday in Lefferts Gardens and Sunday in Stuyvesnt-Heights.  We are also still looking for locations for our June 20th finale show.  More information, videos, and photos can be found at www.TzeChunDance.com.

They’re hoping that OTBKB readers and other  Brooklyn enthusiasts come out to these FREE shows.

Saturday, May 1st, from 10 am to 1 PM, run for your neighborhood school with the Brooklyn PTA 5K Run/Walk for Public Schools in Prospect Park (Bartel Pritchard entrance, Prospect Park West & 16th Street). Pictured above is a group of runners from PS 139 in last year’s race.

BrooklynPTA.org and City Councilmember Brad Lander are co-sponsoring the third annual PTA 5K Run for the Schools. Budget cuts in Albany threaten not only after-school enrichment activities but the core programs our children so rely upon in their schools. While it is unfortunate that parents are forced into the role of trying to make up for these shortfalls, this fundraiser is a great way for us to all come together to take action in support of local schools—and it’s good for your health, too!

Participants pay a registration fee ($15/person, or $25/family) and can also raise money through sponsorships.  The proceeds are split among the participating schools. You can run as part of a school team, or sign up as an individual and we will assign you to a group.

Last year there were more than 300 participants, with school teams from PS 10, 29, 39, 107, 146, 130, and 261.  We hope to have even more this year.  We’ll have awards by age group, and for the fastest teacher and principal!

More information & registration is available at http://brooklynpta.org/.

From the Brooklyn Paper:

The city is shuttering two much-needed after-school programs in Park Slope and a summer program in Fort Greene because the neighborhoods aren’t poor enough to justify their existence.

As a result, several hundred students who use the Out of School Time programs at PS 295 and PS 282 in Park Slope, along with the summer program at IS 113 in Fort Greene will be left to fend for themselves this summer and in the 2010-11 school year.

“Taking this program away is dangerous,” said Traci Tucker as she picked up her 6-year-old son, Ryan, from PS 282 on Sixth Avenue. “This is for single parents, or families where both parents work, like ours.”

But Park Slope and Fort Greene aren’t poor enough, according to Department of Youth and Development spokesman Ryan Dodge, who said that the programs can continue only in the most-needed neighborhoods due to budget cuts.

“[We} examined our entire portfolio and sought to preserve programs that serve the needs of working parents … in high-need areas,” he said.

As a result, the city will cut 33 after-school programs, with nine in Brooklyn getting the axe. Additionally, 31 summer programs will be cut citywide, including 11 in Brooklyn.

In all, the savings will be $7.5 million.

OTBKB is a proud sponsor of this weekend’s Spring Food & Craft Market at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Over the last few weeks I’ve been picking vendors of the week and that’s been fun. This weekend you get to meet the vendors in person. The cool Kentile floors t-shirt pictured above is from Live Poultry Industrial Clothing. They will be at the show this weekend.

On May 1 and 2, the Market will feature all manner of “Handmade” to mean both Crafts and Edibles, as well as fun workshops for all ages. There will be crafters from  Maine to D.C., to ensure a fresh array of products, some represented in NYC for the first time.

The Market hopes to highlight the full expansive array of fantastic, artisanal goods available all throughout the Northeast, and get them into the homes, shops, mouths and consciousness of the thousands of discerning NYC patrons who will enter the Lyceum this Spring weekend, and exit with a healthy armload of gorgeous products they can feel good about. Clothing, clocks, art, gifts, jams, chocolates, cheeses, craft beer.

A burglar arrested: Ditmas Park Blog

Fixing a hole: NY Shitty

Fatal shooting on East 37th Street and Quentin Road: Gerritsen Road

The Magic Fountain is no more: Pardon Me for Asking

Pols rally – Saving firehouse means life or death: Bushwick BK

Bill Murray on L Train: Free Williamsburg

NYPD can now lock up all bikes locked to signposts: Free Williamsburg

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope.

by Paula Bernstein

Everybody knows that it takes a village to raise a child. But does it take a village to prepare dinner?

In our house, dinner is often a collaborative affair. For years, my husband, Avo, bore the full responsibility of meal preparation — shopping, cooking, and cleaning (well, I’d occasionally chip in). But then when he landed a new job with later hours, I rose to the occasion and took over these household duties on weekdays while he ruled the kitchen on weekends. Now that I’m suddenly busy with work, he’s happy to chip in (what a mensch!).

On Friday night, we pieced together a meal — I roasted asparagus with olive oil and salt and pepper (always a safe, yummy bet) and he grilled buffalo burgers (the ones at Trader Joe’s are the cheapest and the best). It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was as satisfying as a gourmet meal at Chanterelle.

Friends have suggested that we form a dinner co-operative so we can all take turns preparing meals. The idea appeals to me, but the logistics overwhelm me. Just coordinating a play date seems tough enough these days since everybody is so overbooked.

In college, I lived in a co-operative where we all traded off on meal duties. Since I didn’t know how to cook, I made the same thing every week — falafel from a prepared mix. Now that I’m a bit more domesticated, I bet I could even try making falafel from scratch. And then Avo can make some tabbouleh to go with it. I’m ready for the kids to learn how to cook so they can pitch in too!

Rosalie Woodside, Director of the Rivendell School, and artist Juan Carlos Pinto standing in front of the mosaic he created on the rooftop of the school with students. They hold a frame created by the kids for Juan Carlos as a token of their appreciation for the mosaic and the fun they had with him.

The green area was intentionally left unfinished so the kids could draw on it with chalk. “I want kids to know that art is something you can touch and feel and play with, not just something to hang on walls behind glass,” Juan Carlos explained.

Across the street at the Crooked Tail Cafe on Third Avenue (near President) where more of Juan Carlos’ art was on display. The owner of the Cafe is looking for more artists who would like to show their work in a room specifically created for that purpose.

Statement by Daniel Goldstein about Atlantic Yards settlement: Develop Don’t Destroy

Parsing the NY Times misleading summary of AY settlement: Atlantic Yards Report

Why did Forest City Ratner settle with Daniel Goldstein?: Atlantic Yards Report

1500 protest plan to close 16 NYC day care centers: City Limits

Rents everywhere too high for low wage: City Limits

Swipe it, swipe it good: Wall Street Journal

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope.

In an effort to snare some of the New York Times’ local advertising, the Wall Street Journal is adding a  “Greater New York” section, a mix of local New York politics, real estate, crime, society and sports coverage, that will run six times a week and range from eight to 12 pages.

It remains to be seen what kind of borough coverage this new section will offer. Newscorp (owned by Rupert Murdoch), also owns the New York Post and has been buying up local NYC newspapers like the Brooklyn Paper. and Courier Life.

Today’s Greater New York sections leads with a story about rats on the Upper East Side, an article on the Brooklyn Ball and “watching the fashionable crowd tackle nine legs of beef, 16 turkeys, two whole pigs and 150 rabbits in the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux-Arts Court” and a story about the high-security storage site designed to hold millions of dollars’ worth of art in Dumbo owned by a subsidiary of Christie’s

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their weather tower in Park Slope.

Brought to you by The Feldman Family from their Park Slope weather tower.

From the Brooklyn Paper:

Daniel Goldstein is now the $3-million man.After nearly seven years of steadfast opposition to Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards — a personal and political protest that made him the last resident of the project footprint — Goldstein accepted the lucrative offer on Wednesday and will leave the project’s footprint by May 7.

The move comes after he was left with no other options once the state condemned his Pacific Street property via eminent domain last month.

Goldstein paid $590,000 for the three-bedroom unit in 2003 — months before Ratner presented his 16-skyscraper residential, commercial and basketball arena plan that called on the state to evict residents through its condemnation power.

After a long holdout — which left his name as the only one on the buzzer of his six-story building — Goldstein was offered just $510,000 by the state.

But now Goldstein will receive a check for that amount tomorrow — plus the remaining $2,490,000 from Ratner when he, his wife and small child move out.

He said he was relieved, but still personally affronted by the $4-billion mega-project — the subject of years of protest and more than a dozen lawsuits.

“If I’m going to be forced out of my home in quick measure, I’m going to be paid for it,” he said. “Of course, I would rather the neighborhood be restored.”

Here’s the statement from Marty Markowitz, Borough President:

“From the restoration of the Coney Island boardwalk to the overhaul of McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Julius Spiegel understands better than anyone that our borough’s parks and open spaces define the character of Brooklyn . Who else would have the foresight to open the city’s first dedicated cricket field, at Gateway Mall, knowing how important the sport is to many of Brooklyn ’s communities? Who else would have seen so much potential in a vacant lot in East New York that has become Robert Venable Park? He may hail from Montreal and favor smoked meat, while I’m a Brooklyn boy who prefers pastrami, but I can tell you that everyone in Brooklyn agrees that because of Julius Spiegel, our parks make the rest of America ‘green’ with envy.”

Brought to you by The Feldman Family from their Park Slope weather tower.

Vox Pop has once again been seized by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance for back taxes accrued in 2006 and 2007 while under the stewardship of Sander Hicks. Here is an email from Debi Ryan, who runs the popular cafe, bookstore and performance space on Cortelyou Road in Ditmas Park.

As I am sure you all remember, Vox Pop was seized just a few days before Christmas for the same reason.  At that time, we raised and made a payment of $10,000 towards the 2006 and 2007 unpaid taxes in the amount of $56,000 as a down payment and were in the process of negotiating a repayment plan that Vox Pop could realistically pay.  Unfortunately, the Supervisor we were working with has left the State agency, and his replacement will not be available until tomorrow.  We have paid, and continue to pay our current taxes.

At this point in time we are waiting to speak with the State to determine what the appropriate next steps are.  The midlevel representative from the State who chose to seize our assets today stated we must pay the complete newly assessed tax debt of $66,000 prior to reopening, but we are hoping to renegotiate with the new Supervisor.

On a more positive note, Vox Pop is proud to say that it has almost completely paid off the legacy debt to vendors, former employees and the landlord over the past year and we are optimistic that the warming weather will increse our revenue and allow us to accelerate our payments even further.  Ironically, we were poised to launch our new outdoor patio cafe with table service and anticipate being able to do so as soon as we are reopened.

Thanks so much for your continued interest and support and I will fill you in on further details as soon as they are available.

Debi Ryan
Vox Pop Inc

From the NY Times:

The owners of more than 3,200 apartment buildings in New York City reached an agreement on a new labor contract with the union that represents about 30,000 doormen, porters, janitors and building superintendents, averting a strike that was due to begin at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

The talks went right up to the midnight strike deadline, as they often have in the past, with the union resisting the owners’ demands for cuts in health care and other benefits. In the end, the owners agreed to a new four-year contract that includes a total pay increase of nearly 10 percent and no significant cuts in benefits for the workers, an official with the union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, said.

So says Eric McClure who runs Park Slope Neighbors

The plan for the bike lane includes a four-foot buffer, and there will be an eight-foot wide parking lane between the travel lane nearest the park and the buffer.  So a pedestrian crossing Prospect Park West, with or without his or her dog, will only have to cross two lanes of traffic rather than three, and will have the 12 feet of pedestrian refuge between the travel lanes and the bike lane.  Shorter crossings are safer.

I emailed Jeanine Ramirez, the NY1 reporter, last night, to provide her with some facts to counter the false and misleading information being put forth in the anonymous anti-bike lane flyer.  I never heard back from her.

The claim that a growing number of residents are protesting the Prospect Park West traffic-calming plan is bunk.  Park Slope Neighbors has more than 1300 signatures on a petition supporting traffic calming on PPW, including a two-way protected bike lane.  The project is supported by Council Members Lander and Levin, Community Board Six, and the Park Slope Civic Council.  It was announced more than a year ago.

Traffic calming on Prospect Park West, where cars routinely reach dangerous speeds well above the 30 mph limit, is long overdue.

From NY 1 which also has a video on the topic:

A growing number of residents are protesting the city’s plan to install a bike lane in Park Slope. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

Bicyclists are not supposed to ride on the sidewalks along Prospect Park, but residents say they still do.

“I think absolutely essential that they get the bicyclists off the streets, off the sidewalks,” said Park Slope resident Cecil Bergen.

Cyclist John Cianciotta says he’s guilty of not obeying the rule.

“They hassle you if you ride on the sidewalk, but if you guys built a bike lane, I’d ride in the street,” he said.

Soon, Cianciotta will get his wish. The Department of Transportation plans to install a two-way bicycle lane along the park side of Prospect Park West by June.

While that makes many bikers happy, a growing number of residents oppose the plan.

“New York is a beautiful place and the only way to really enjoy it is on a bike,” said cyclist Shahnti O’Neill.

“They should definitely have a bike lane on Prospect Park West because it’s dangerous with the three lanes and the traffic comes so fast,” said cyclist Tony Reid.

“We’re shocked, we’re disturbed, and we’re worried,” countered resident Denise Walters.

Walters lives on Prospect Park West. She says she just learned about the proposed bicycle lane — and thinks it’s a safety hazard.

“I think pedestrians are going to have a more difficult time crossing the street with their dogs. They’ll have to cross the lane of traffic and then they’ll have to look both ways in the middle the street to make sure one of the bikes isn’t coming from either direction,” she said.

Those who live along Prospect Park West, and those who run the Poly Prep Day School there, say they haven’t been included in the decision making process.

“I live right on the park and didn’t know anything about it,” said resident Suzanna Douglas.

But the DOT says this has been three years in the making – starting with a request from the local community board. Community Board 6 says there’s been plenty of notice about planning meetings.

Continue reading Some Park Slopers Oppose PPW Bike Lane →

Little League opening day parade: Gerritsen Beach

When hipsters meet Russians: Sheephead Bites

A spot for public space in Ditmas Park: Ditmas Park Blog

About the Huron Street kittens: NY Shitty

Ninja vandals in Williambsurg?: Free Williamsburg

Earth Day happenings in Ft. Greene: The Local

Whole Food site hit with stop work order: Pardon Me for Asking

8th Avenue hit and run: Fucked in Park Slope

The baller version of hell: Fucked in Park Slope

Free space this summer in Bed Stuy: Bed Stuy Blog

It’s good bye Prospect Heights for Freddy’s Bar but hello to Fourth Avenue starting this summer. The Victory Party is on April 30th and the new place should be open by summer. I got this press release from the owner of Freddy’s this morning:

Freddy’s Bar is not closing, it’s moving.

We are presently in negotiations with a landlord who is not a billionaire at 4th Ave and Union Street.

We will be having a Victory party on April 30th to celebrate what the little guy has been able to do in fighting a billionaire and the corrupt government agency that he controls. We feel we have dealt fatal blows to Ratner’s organization. The nets will not be sold to an international criminal, because the NBA can’t afford to be associated with organized crime.

Freddy’s Bar is not giving up the fight, we stand in solidarity with Prokhorov’s sanctions-busting victims in Zimbabwe, and with the people of Yonkers who are paying the price for a Ratner bribery scandal. We will continuing to stand against the corruption that has dominated our lives for the last 7 years, and are looking forward to moving out from under this sword of Damocles.

Forest City Ratner will leave Brooklyn a thousand years before Freddy’s Bar does. . . they have missed mortgage payments on their Metrotech Center, and the Yonkers and Zimbabwe sanctions busting scandals are criminal acts. The question is will they run out of money first, or face prosecution first. I am sure that both will happen.

The move is about the employees, and the business. We’re little guys. We can’t run our business into the ground as Ratner has and still survive. We have a lot of mouths to feed and we are not billionaires. The move is strategic. Very soon “Freddy’s Next Bar” will be standing tall, and Ratner will be in rubble, with no stadium, and hopefully with justice and karma finding him. This is a guy who closed a family homeless shelter in the dead of winter.

In order to assure our capacity to keep Freddy’s alive in a another location, and keep people employed… we have to move the contents of the bar in a particular timely fashion to “Lock down’ the next space, and thus we will not be facing an eviction situation in which a protest by chaining ourselves could happen. The Chains (“The Chains of Justice”) have served their purpose…to raise awareness of corruption, and they will move with us, forever installed on that bar as a symbol of a united community and that community’s power for affecting change.

The owner of Freddy’s has had to consider those employed at Freddy’s as well as his own situation, needing employment and food on the table. He made a difficult decision to pull out in such a way as to keep the contents of the bar and move it into another location. If we wait for condemnation we might sacrifice too much. I can’t yet confirm the location since everything is moving very fast, and it is not locked down yet, but the area we are hoping to secure is on 4th Ave near Union Street.

We hope to open this new space as soon as possible, 2 or 3 months hopefully. The email address will not change… nor the web address.

Freddy’s has been the culmination of everything I am and everything I ever wanted in a bar.

I could not be prouder of Freddy’s, it’s community, and it’s accomplishments.

Freddy’s is not an address, it is an idea.

I’ll See you at “FREDDY’S NEXT BAR”…the first one is on me!

Councilman Noach gets promotion and raise: Brooklyn Paper

Is privatizing parks a good idea? Brooklyn Paper

Homeless services commissioner resigns: NY Times

New Yorkers brace for doorman strike: NY Times

Brooklyn’s volcano experts: McBrooklyn

It’s a good problem to have. The Food Coop is making a ton of money — to the tune of $39 million a year, and profits of $500,000. So what should they do with the profits. Lower the prices, start other coops, give it away?

An article in Crains NY reports on this problem. Here’s an excerpt.

The first sign that Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop is unlike any other supermarket in the city are the people milling outside wearing orange-and-yellow vests. Their task is to accompany shoppers on walks home with their groceries—and then return the shopping carts to the Union Street store.

It is a job that reflects the mission of the co-op to cultivate a sense of community, but it also helps solve a growing problem for the organization: finding enough stuff to do for the nearly 16,000 members who must work 2.75 hours for the co-op every four weeks in order to shop there.

Founded in 1973, the Park Slope co-op has grown so dramatically in recent years that it has been forced to limit the number of new members. Its balance sheet is so strong—the co-op paid off its mortgage in January—that general manager and founding member Joe Holtz wonders what to do with more than $500,000 in profits. Last year’s revenues were $39 million.

“If we continue to accumulate cash like this,” he says, “we’ll have to have a meeting and maybe lower our prices again.”

For the first time in its history, the co-op is confronting the fact that it can’t grow its physical space any more. It has purchased all of the available buildings in its path. If the weekend checkout lines get much longer, Linewaiters’ Gazette—the co-op’s aptly named newsletter—won’t be enough to keep shoppers amused.

“We’re pushing the capacity of the building,” says Mr. Holtz, who was the co-op’s first paid employee in 1975.

In trying to alleviate the pressure on the Park Slope store, longtime members like Mr. Holtz are now looking beyond Brooklyn to help other communities replicate their success.

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from the Park Slope weather tower.

OTBKB is a proud sponsor of the Lyceum Food and Craft Market on May 1 & 2, which will be a super duper show of artisanal crafts, food and workshops.

I’m looking forward to it myself and in anticipation I’m doing a shout-out of one vendor a week. This week my pick is: Andy Pratt Design. He makes journals, cards and other paper products and his work is fun and bold.

I love his new NYC journal (pictured at top of post) and I also  like his sympathy card (above) because, y’know, a good sympathy card is hard to find — and more and more I need them. The illustration on the card is lovely, I’m pretty sure there’s no weird message on the inside, and I plan to buy a few.

Transportation Alternatives is calling on the city to put a bike lane on Flatbush Avenue after  an 18-year-old cyclist was dragged and killed by a driver there on Wednesday.

“[A Flatbush Avenue bike lane] is definitely something worth serious consideration,” Transportation Alternatives spokesman Wiley Norvell told the Brooklyn Paper. “It’s a dangerous street for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists as well. It would definitely be a design challenge, but that’s what we have traffic engineers for.”

Norvell said a bike lane stretching from the tip of the Manhattan Bridge in Downtown all the way to the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in Marine Park would not only help calm traffic, but “link the borough together” for bicyclists.

“It’s a critical corridor — if it was made safe for cycling, it would be utterly transformative,” he said.

Here is the text of  the actual letter Joe Holtz, Manager of the Park Slope Food Coop, emailed to Brooklyn Paper. He sent it to me this morning with some regrets. He writes” ” I am not happy that they did not run the original letter since it states where we are coming from much better than the story they ran. I should have sent it to you that day.”

Letter to the Editor

April 6, 2010

Re: Your article:

April 1, 2010 / GO Brooklyn  / Carroll Gardens–Cobble Hill / Shopping

Hide the charge cards — Barneys is coming to Cobble Hill!

By Michèle De Meglio

The Brooklyn Paper

To the Editor:

Barney’s planned use of the word “co-op” in the name of their Atlantic Avenue store is a problem for us. We have been in the process of educating Brooklynites for 37 years about the benefits and meaning of the word “coop” as defined by the  NYS Cooperative Corporations Law and the International Principles Of Cooperation(www.ica.coop/coop/principles.html). Barney’s misuse of the word dilutes this effort and effectively undermines our business model and, for lack of a better concept, “brand.” The Park Slope Food Coop is highly recognized in Brooklyn and is inextricably linked to the word and concept of Coop. For Barney’s to use that same term in a manner that appears to be illegal under New York Law and run a business that is not in any fashion reflective of the real meaning of the word harms our cooperatively owned and democratically run business.

The specific reference in the law is: NYS Cooperative Corporations Law, Article 1 Section 3  (J) states “ The term “cooperative,”  “cooperation” or any abbreviation, variation or similitude thereof, shall not be used as or in a name except by a corporation defined in this chapter. Any cooperative corporation may sue for an injunction against such prohibited use of the term. A violation of this prohibition is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars.”

Furthermore, Article 1 Section 2 states “ It is the declared policy of this state, as one means of improving the economic welfare of its people, particularly those who are producers, marketers or consumers of food products, to encourage their effective organization in cooperative associations for the rendering of mutual help and service.”

This doesn’t describe Barney’s business model.

In cooperation,

Joe Holtz

General Manager

Park Slope Food Coop Inc