I just got this email with good news about the Park Slope couple evicted from their St. John’s Place apartment.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah,

I have some wonderful news to
report today. Our collective efforts have apparently made a big
difference. The Slope couple Frances and Frank are finally getting the
help they need, and much thanks goes to all the neighbors who made it
possible.

As soon as Frances and Frank are set up in their new
home, I will post again with more information. In the meantime, they
are most grateful to all who expressed concern and offered help.

Thank you,
Jennifer Epelbaum

From friend and neighbor Marlene, of Marlene’s Lost and Found. She creates handcrafted jewelry, objects, and art created from lost images and found objects: She writes: "Hanukkah is almost over. And the display kinda looks "grander" in
person (or at least in the close-ups). But I thought I’d send ’em to
you anyway. Happy Holidays!!! Happy New Year!!"

Here are some photographs of the city of Breukelen, Netherlands photographed by Roy Fidler, `who kindly sent them my way. He grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in Northern California.

He wrote: "In the original Dutch…City hall…The Breukelen Bridge…Brooklyn boy by the Breukelen Bridge…"

According to Wikipedia: Breukelen is a municipality and town in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is situated to the north west of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and close to the Loosdrechtse Plassen, an area of lakes and great natural beauty. It is in an area called the "Vechtstreek". During the 17th century a number of Amsterdam merchant families built opulent mansions along the river near Breukelen.

There is a large Van der Valk (Hotel Breukelen) hotel, the façade of which is in the Chinese style. Universiteit Nyenrode is located in Breukelen.

The borough of Brooklyn in New York City is named after Breukelen (see History of Brooklyn).

I received an email this morning from Jenifer Epelbaum, who has been advocating on behalf of a Park Slope couple recently evicted from their apartment.

Dear Neighbors,

I am writing because you are one of the kind
neighbors who has written to me in the past when I posted concerns
about an old couple on my block who were being evicted.

I have tried very hard to help these neighbors, with much help provided by quite a few of you (thank you).

Today
I sent a detailed letter to an organization which earlier this year was
appointed "guardian for property" for my former neighbor Frances. The
organization is a wonderful one, but I have seen the casework on this
one case, and I am quite certain JASA would not be happy with what I
have seen. I prefer not to share all the sordid details in an email, in
part out of respect for all the other, truly wonderful work done for
others by this same agency.

I made numerous efforts to bring
better treatment for my neighbor Frances Mulligan (who is slightly
mentally impaired). I wrote quite a few emails directly to the
caseworkers on her case, and I even sent a letter to the judge. Those
efforts seem not to have helped at all. The situation is very, very bad
for Frances and I have now shifted my attention to higher officers at
JASA (the organization providing the guardianship for property). In my
letter today (sent to the President, the CEO and the Director of
Services) I told in detail some of the most appalling treatment I have
witnessed towards Frances and her partner.

At
this time, I believe it would be extremely helpful if JASA heard from a
few more concerned neighbors of Frances. You do not (and should not)
accuse them of anything. I witnessed events I could write about (and
did), and I think that is enough of that.

What would be
wonderful would be just a quick email expressing concern for Frances
Mulligan. Tell them you are her neighbor in Brooklyn and you care about
what happens to her, or any other polite comment you care to make on
the subject. I think if even a quarter of those who wrote to me
privately at different times, now sent an email (even a one line
email), it could make a BIG difference for Frances. If you do send an
email, please put FRANCES MULLIGAN in your subject line.

The person you should email is the CEO, Aileen Gitelson, AGitelson(at)jasa(dot)org

Feel free to call me if you would like an update on what is going on with Frances and her partner Frank Monaco.

Thank you very much for your concern for these Park Slope neighbors.
Jennifer Epelbaum
jen_epel(at)yahoo(dot)com

It’s Tuesday night and we’re packing up to go to California to visit Hepcat’s relatives. We will take an early flight on Wednesday morning. I will be packing up this computer in a few minutes.

Hepcat says that No Words Daily Pix will be up on Wednesday. And I’ll post the weather. But that’s it. Right now, I need to get ready to go. You will hear from me on Christmas. From California.

Merry Christmas to all. And Happy Hannukah, too.

Today’s press release from Councilmember Bill de Blasio tells how New Yorkers can help street homeless during this winter’s
coldest days. Temperatures are in the
teens and twenties – with wind chills that will make the temperature feel to be
in the single digits at times. According to the Department for Homeless Services (DHS), street homeless
individuals are at a higher risk for death due to the cold during the harsh
winter months.

"While street homelessness is a
problem many New Yorkers face all year long, it becomes especially dangerous
during the coldest winter months. The combination of well below-freezing temperatures, icy winds, and wet,
wintry weather spells disaster for those homeless individuals not utilizing the
traditional shelter system. If you
see or know of a street homeless person who is in need of shelter, there are a
few steps you can take to help. First, call 311; their operators will contact DHS and send an outreach
team to bring help to the client in need. DHS’s outreach teams will get the client any needed medical care, and
then take them to a shelter, drop-in center, safe haven, or a warming center or
bus. If it appears that the person is in need of medical assistance of any
kind, you should immediately call 911. Finally, if you’re still uncertain of what to do, please call my
district office for assistance, at 718-854-9791," said Councilmember Bill de
Blasio, Chair of the General Welfare Committee.

Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper.

Last week, Smartmom called Best and Oldest to see if she wanted to
meet at Dashing Diva for a pedicure. Decadent and fun, the best and
oldest friends like to do this sort of thing from time to time for the
chance gossip and gab. Plus, they get their toenails cleaned and
polished — a win-win for all involved.

Best and Oldest liked the idea, especially because her daughter Bee
was set to hear whether she got into Brown University (early decision)
that very afternoon. At exactly 5 pm, Brown was going to send out the
acceptance letters by e-mail.

Best and Oldest wanted to be home when Bee checked the computer. But as Tom Petty wrote, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

Best and Oldest was such a jittery wreck that she figured it would be diverting to have her toes done.

So there were B&O and Smartmom, sitting on the high banquettes
at Dashing Diva with their toes in steaming hot water and trying to
talk about anything but Brown. Every time B&O’s cellphone rang (she
still had the “Obama, Obama” ring tone on it), Smartmom jumped.

“No, it’s too early,” B&O explained. Bee and her best friends,
three other high achieving girls, who had also applied to hard-to-get
into colleges on early decision, were going from house to house
checking their mailboxes. Schools like Amherst, Wesleyan and Carlton
still send their letters the old fashioned way: by snail mail.

Finally, B&O did hear from Bee. None of the other girls had
gotten their letters, so they were back at her house waiting for the
verdict. Bee thanked her mom for the homemade brownies that were out on
the kitchen table. (Nice touch, thought Smartmom. Brownies for Brown.)

B&O did a good job of pretending to pay attention to whatever
Smartmom was talking about (she is her best and oldest friend, after
all), but Smartmom could tell that she was extremely distracted.

Who wouldn’t be?

Brown is considered one of the best universities in the world. The
odds of getting in are like, well, astronomical — roughly equivalent to
the odds that Dumb Editor, himself a Brown graduate, will actually put
his Russian Literature and Language degree towards any
useful purpose someday. (Dumb Editor’s note: Since when is Brown one of
the best universities in the world?)

Brown is where Bee wanted to spend the next four years of her life.
Her heart is set on it. And Bee deserves to go to Brown as much as any
other smart, highly motivated, hard-working high school senior. But
it’s a longshot.

The pressure was on, and B&O was stressing — but she did seem to
enjoy her pedicure even if her in-grown toenails hurt when the
pedicurist cut her cuticles. For her part, Smartmom loved having her
feet rubbed and the smell of the orange aromatherapy cream.

The situation brought up a host of issues for Smartmom. Secretly,
she considered choosing bright green nail polish to symbolize the
jealousy she was feeling toward B&O.

Smartmom’s son Teen Spirit has had, shall we say, a completely
different relationship to academia than Bee. While there’s no denying
that he’s a very smart guy, he’s never been quite as gaga about classes
and studying. Music is his thing — it’s his passion and he’s applying
to music schools now and planning to take a gap year before going to
college.

Smartmom tried to imagine what it would be like to have a son or
daughter waiting to hear from Brown. That would be a real mitzvah.
Isn’t it every parent’s dream to have a high-achieving child who
qualifies for the best colleges in the country?

Getting your kid into a top school is certainly one iteration of the
American dream — and it means, on some level, that the parent has done
his or her job, prepared your child for the dog-eat dog world out there
and given him or her a great start in life.

Smartmom nearly choked on the metallic odor of the nail polish. She
decided on a deep red to signify her mix of free-floating anxiety and
excitement.

Sadly, Smartmom felt like her usual B-list self. She has multiple
family members who went to Brown. In fact, her uncle was a football
hero at Brown in the 1930s, and most of her first cousins and their
kids went to the uber-university.

Talk about having a Brown complex. Smartmom was more of a state
university kind of gal. She went to SUNY-Binghamton, which one of her
friend’s calls the Schmatta League. These days, Smartmom satisfies
herself with the fact that the school is really hard to get into
nowadays (but it ain’t Ivy, the other part of her brain reminds her).

The Ivies. Now that’s cool. But it just wasn’t meant to be for Smartmom’s boho, intellectual, Tom Dylan Bob Waits wannabe son.

Talk about pushing Smartmom’s buttons. Or toenails. Yeah, sure, she
wanted Bee to get into Brown. But she wasn’t without some residual
jealousy that her kid just wasn’t going down that privileged road.

OK, OK. Smartmom wouldn’t be Smartmom if she didn’t have mixed
feelings about the whole thing. What would there be to write about?

At 4:45, B&O ran off. “I’ll call you as soon as I know,” she said as she scurried down Seventh Avenue on the rainy night.

Smartmom felt her heart race. Even if she did feel slightly envious
of B&O, she hoped with all her heart that Bee did indeed get in.

And guess what dear reader? She did.

Shoulda gone with the green nail polish!

Photograph by Rodolph Vernaz-Colas

Local politicians urge Little Room (Brooklyn Heights Montessori) Board of Trustees to consider hiring a consultant to help them find a way to relocate program.

The feeling seems to be that this well-regarded program for children with language processing issues is just too good to disappear. Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, State Assemblywoman Joan L. Millman, State Senator-Elect Daniel Squadron and Council Members de Blasio and Yassky had this to say:

"While we are thankful that The Little Room has a home through the end
of 2010, we are concerned about the November 2009 deadline imposed by
the Board to shut the program down if a viable alternative location is
not found.  This is not a sufficient amount of time to identify,
secure, and raise the necessary funds to renovate a new location,
especially since a full-time director is still needed.  We are asking
the Board of Trustees to extend its self-imposed deadline to August of
2011 and to explore hiring a consultant to aid in rapid relocation of
the program.

Here’s the press release with the Bill de Blasio spin:

Today, the City Council passed a bill which will suspend alternate
side parking rules during snowstorms, when the Department of Sanitation
(DOS) has to suspend its street sweeping activities. Councilmember Bill
de Blasio released the following statement on the bill’s passage:

 

"We all know how hard it is to find a parking spot in the City, and in inclement weather it can be nearly impossible.  Once there is a lot of snow on the ground, we can’t expect residents to be able to move their snowed-in cars to a new spot. Fining them for not doing so when alternate side parking rules are in effect is completely unfair. Suspending
alternate-side parking rules when there is enough snow to require
plowing of City streets is a common sense measure that will benefit
thousands of New Yorkers this winter, and I am proud to have supported
it today," said Councilmember Bill de Blasio.

Framed by thousands of empty frames, an employee of a frame shop on  Seventh Avenue lights up and juggles.

photo by Tom Martinez

Announced today in the NY Times:

W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most
famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95
and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif.

W. Mark Felt, left, with reporters in Washington in 1980. Mr. Felt and
Edward S. Miller, right, were fined $8,500 for approving illegal
break-ins.

His death was confirmed by Rob Jones, his grandson.

In 2005, Mr. Felt revealed that he was the one who had secretly supplied Bob Woodwares of The Washington Post with crucial leads in the Watergate affair in
the early 1970s. His decision to unmask himself, in an article in
Vanity Fair, ended a guessing game that had gone on for more than 30
years.

Today Evan Thies, who is running for David Yassky’s City Council seat, has an op-ed in the Daily News written with David Yassky, who is running for NYC Comptroller, about opposite side of the street parking. Thies is currently the Sanitation and Environment Chair of Community Board 1 in Brooklyn.

They make an interesting point. The streets may not to need to be cleaned as often as they are.

According to Thies and Yassky, the Department of Sanitation could save New
Yorkers time, money and stress by cleaning New York’s dirty
streets—not its clean ones.

Reduce the number of times a week we’d have to move the car? Is that possible? It certainly would be an amazing quality of life improvement. Here’s the editorial from the Daily News. See what you think:

The ritual is as much a part of being a New Yorker as loud noises and high prices.  Once, twice, or four times a week, most of us with cars do the opposite side of the street parking dance; moving our car from one side of the street to the other to avoid the street cleaner and a big ticket.  It’s annoying.  But it’s necessary to keep the streets clean, right?

Not necessarily.

Last year, Community Board 6 became the first area of the City to beat back parking regulations that they believed to be overly onerous.  They argued effectively that if the streets in their neighborhood were well above the cleanliness standard on a two-day-a-week cleaning schedule per side, then a once-a-week schedule should be enough to get the job done.  The City agreed, and new parking signs went up all over Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Red Hook.

After that victory we took a look at North Brooklyn and found that the neighborhoods of Community Board 1 also met the City’s standard for CB6 of three straight years of 90% “acceptable clean streets”.  Surely, we thought, the same rules would apply, and opposite side parking would be reduced.  But now it turns out there is a different, harder-to-reach standard.  The Department of Sanitation has divided community board districts into smaller individual sections, and is requiring that every single one stay above 90% for the parking to be changed community board-wide.

Last year, the City’s annual clean streets average was an immaculate 94.3%—the highest mark ever achieved, and a number which continues to be pushed higher.  Clean streets are important, and all New Yorkers appreciate the tireless work of our Sanitation Department.  But there still must be a mechanism in place for neighborhoods to limit the frequency of opposite side parking so that New Yorkers aren’t burdened needlessly, and money isn’t spent pointlessly.

We propose that, once a year, when the City reports the cleanliness ratings for each sanitation section, those sections which have reached a rating of 90% clean or above for three consecutive years should be brought up for review.  Local community boards and City Council members could then make recommendations, and the Department of Sanitation could make changes based on their suggestions.  This would free up resources for problem areas with low ratings and reduce the overall resources the City now uses.

If this system were in place this year, 184 of the 234 sanitation sections across the City would be up for review, and thousands of car owners could be saved the wasted time and gas they spend moving from one side of the street to the other.  This would prevent needless pollution that triggers asthma attacks. It would also mitigate the traffic risks to pedestrians and bicyclists that double parking can create.

Perhaps most importantly, reducing the amount of street cleaning in low-need areas would save taxpayers money.  At a time when all New Yorkers are tightening their belts to ride out the recession, and the Sanitation Department is already cutting back on essential services such as trash pick-up, a more efficient street cleaning program could net millions of dollars a year in critical savings to plug the deficit or pay for cleaning in the neighborhoods that really need it.

Of course, reducing opposite side parking is not a cure-all.  A recent study by Transportation Alternatives showed that charging more for curbside parking helps businesses, and that residential parking permits can help reduce traffic. Reducing the amount of time when there is no parking for street cleaning from the typical 90 minutes to a more reasonable 30 minutes would also be a step forward.  We should consider taking these steps as well toward making New York a more livable city for New Yorkers.

The Department of Sanitation should implement our proposal to save New Yorkers time, money and stress.  Let’s clean New York’s dirty streets—not its clean ones.

.

DECEMBER 18 at 8 pm: FEAST, Savory Syllables on Sustenance. Writers on Food

Brooklyn Reading Works presents Feast, Savory Syllables on Sustenance. Writers on Food.   Curated by Michele Madigan Somerville. With Tom Rayfiel, Ame Gilbert, Nava Renek, Sharon Mesmer, Sohpia Romero, Michele Madigan Somerville and Louise Crawford.

A
benefit for the Helping Hands Food Pantry. Suggested donation: $5 (but
pay what you wish). Includes drinks and snacks.

The Where and When:

Feast: Writers on Food
Thursday, December 18, at 8 p.m.
The Old Stone House
in Park Slope’s Washington Park (formerly JJ Byrne Park). Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets
718-768-3195 or 718-288-4290.

Here’s an update from Jenifer Epelbaum, the Slope resident who has been advocating on behalf of Frances and Frank, a local couple recently evicted from a St. John’s Place apartment building and offered a $40,000 settlement (which in a special needs trust).  The woman is mentally disabled and the man is elderly.

Epelbaum’s note contains sad news. The couple, who were refused housing by the city’s "Eligibility Investigation Office" yesterday, now have nowhere to live. They spent the night riding the subway to stay out of the rain.

The elderly man and woman I wrote to you about were transported by car
today to the homeless intake facility in Manhattan. They were taken
there by the guardian for the woman (a social worker representing the
legal guardian to be precise). I was permitted to come along as well,
since the couple wanted me there for comfort and assistance.

The
staff at the intake facility were exceptionally kind and helpful.
However, after about an hour of waiting, the couple and the woman’s guardian were called into the "Homeless Diversion Unit."

There we met
with a very nice woman who asked to see the papers documenting the
homelessness. After reading the "Notice of Settlement" and other legal
papers the guardian provided, she told the couple and the guardian that
she did not believe the couple would be found eligible for shelter. She
pointed at the $40,000 settlement and asked why that money could not be
used now to shelter the woman. She also asked about the woman’s
government support checks (also apparently now controlled by the
guardian).

I
had to leave after about four and a half hours of waiting, before the
couple and the guardian were seen by the next person, whom I was told
would be from the "Eligibility Investigation Office."

During the
long wait, I asked the guardian’s representative why the couple was not being housed temporarily in a hotel with money from the settlement.
He replied that he appreciated my advocacy on their behalf, but he
preferred to wait and argue the case of their eligibility for a
homeless shelter. I was sorry I had to leave before the matter could be
resolved, but I had to return to Brooklyn to pick up my youngest child
from school.

I was busy this evening with another of my
children, and returned home late to very sad news. The couple did not
receive housing from the city. The woman (who is mentally impaired) I
am told stormed out in frustration after much waiting. The message I
received is that they are riding the subway tonight, for shelter from
the rain.

They
are out of their home, and Frances does not control her government
support checks nor the settlement, which was due to be paid into a
special needs trust (the $40,000 agreed to if she left her home by
12/15). Frank has tried valiantly to assist Frances in meeting the
terms of the settlement, since she stood to lose much of the settlement
if they failed to leave by 12/15.

Frank is 74. He is a native
New Yorker, born on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan. He is a kind and
intelligent person who is devoted to Frances. Frank served our country
as a member of our armed forces, and he performed his duties honorably
and bravely at that time. He serves honorably and bravely again, this
time assisting his companion Frances, who appears to have been forsaken
by everyone else, including our legal system.

Jennifer Epelbaum

I support Caroline Kennedy for senator mostly because I think she has what it takes to be a great New York politician: brains, dignity, determination, and ethics.

So I’m curious about what this woman born one year before me would do with the job. I suspect she would fill it with grace and maybe even brilliance.

Yes, I am an admirer. We’re practically relatives. Well, not really.

But in a symbolic way: we grew up together. My sister’s name is Caroline after all. And we both wear our hair straight with a side part.

I vividly remember the images of Caroline and John John in the White House. I feel like I was aware of them as a young kid.

Of course I remember when her father was killed. Who can forget those days when my parents were tuned non-stop to those awful images of Jack and Jackie in the car, the solemn images of the funeral, LBJ being sworn in and little John John’s unbearably poignant wave at the funeral.

It was the first "television event" in my life. And I felt the tragedy in a small way even though I was only five-years-old.

So I am sort of a Caroline groupie. I’ve always admired the fact that she seemed like a serious and wonky member of the family; she doesn’t go in for all the personal dysfunction that some of the Kennedy’s seem to display.

It was cool when she married Edwin Scholossberg, her big, Jewish intellectual, who was geeky with an interest in creating interactive media and art installations. 

Then she wrote two scholarly books with Ellen Alderman called  In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action and The Right of Privacy.

I felt for her as she grieved her brother. They were very close and she looked ruptured for years after.

And more recently she worked to raise money for NYC public schools and was an early and influential supporter of Barack Obama. The following is from an op-ed column she wrote for the New York Times called "A President Like My Father .

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public
schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a
generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and
imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and
disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children
to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future.
Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with
that sense of possibility.

I like that she would be the first Kennedy women to actually hold an elected office.

I like that she isn’t a fashion plate like her mom but that she has nice, classic style. And she hires cool architects to design her houses. She’s low  key and private and she lives the kind of life I’d like to live if I was rich and famous.

In other words, she seems to have values, dignity and  honesty (and loads of money). My guess is that like so many she’s inspired by Obama and wants to be part of public life—and that’s why she wants to be the first female Kennedy to join the family business. She writes:

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me
that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have
found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a
new generation of Americans.

In my gut I trust Caroline Kennedy and feel strongly that her intelligence, her powers of reason and her restraint would make her a great senator for New York City.

And it’s not just because we grew up together.

This joint letter Christine Quinn, Marty Markowitz, Daniel Squadron, Joan Millman, David Yassky
and Bill de Blasio went to the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Montessori School.

December 15, 2008

Helene Banks
President, Board of Trustees
Brooklyn Heights Montessori School
185 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Dear Ms. Banks:

We are writing with serious concern regarding the fate of the Little Room program. As
described in Sunday’s New York Times, and as we have heard from parents and members of our
community, the Little Room is a high-quality, award-winning special education program for pre-
school children.  We want to underscore the importance of preserving such a vital service for
Brooklyn residents.

As we understand it, the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School Board is planning to meet on
Tuesday to decide the future of the Little Room.  We hope the Board will strongly consider
keeping the program and embracing the Little Room as part of the mission of the school. 

At a minimum, we ask the Board to make a strong, clear commitment to ensuring the long-term
survival of the Little Room.  Because public funding undergirds the program, we feel there is a
strong public interest in ensuring that the Little Room continues to survive and thrive. We
believe this would entail keeping the program at Montessori through the summer of 2011, and
hiring a new director capable of guiding the Little Room through a transition to another location.

We also ask for the opportunity to meet with the Board briefly prior to your discussion on
Tuesday so that we may present our concerns in person.

Mary Cooley of the office of State Senator-elect Daniel Squadron will serve as contact person
for the undersigned as a group.  You can reach her at mary@danielsquadron.org or 646-472-
5712, or you may reach any of us at our offices.

We look forward to working with you, the affected parents and members of the community to
formulate a solution that preserves the Little Room and the essential services it provides for the
children who need them.

Sincerely,
Christine Quinn,
Marty Markowitz,
Daniel Squadron
Joan Millman
David Yassky
Bill de Blasio

It’s #32. Here’s an excerpt from NY Mag:

Wine distributor Mark Snyder is determined to restore the faded
tradition of Brooklyn winemaking—once practiced routinely in kosher
wineries and Italian-American basements—and to utterly transform it.
And he’s doing it in Red Hook, with Long Island grapes. If that’s not
zany enough, consider his co-conspirators: Bob Foley of Robert Foley
Vineyards, maker of cult Napa reds like his signature Claret and
Charbono, and Abe Schoener, whose quirky Scholium Project label claims
East Coast devotees like chef Colin Alevras, who’s been helping out in
Red Hook in his spare time. Even in this year of the urban winery, with
the more commercial City Winery and Bridge Vineyards opening in Soho
and Williamsburg respectively, the prospect of Foley and Schoener
fermenting and blending wines in an unmarked Red Hook storefront might
be the oenological equivalent of Alice Waters opening a little café on
Van Brunt Street. Unexpected, bizarre, and more than a little thrilling.

Read Brooklyn Based today. They’ve got a bunch of gift deals from local stores you might be interested in.

During the downturn, everyone deserves a deal. So Brooklyn Based hooked up with a dozen
plus discounts at local stores and sites so you can save on your last
minute shopping spree, including Fred Flare,  Corduroy Kid, Word Bookstores, Space Craft and the Greene Grape.

Racing to get it done.

From the BAM website:

The
iconic choreographer Pina Bausch has brought her dance-theater works to
sold-out houses at BAM, mesmerizing audiences with sensual dances under
cascading waterfalls and dramatic bouts with towering heaps of flowers.

In her latest piece Bamboo Blues,
Bausch is inspired by the incisive and delicate gestures of Indian
dance. Softness prevails as does fabric, often brilliantly colored,
always billowing. In one memorable sequence, thanks to Bausch’s
unparalleled use of metaphor, humor, and kinetic wit, the dancers
send-up the intricacies of the dothin (a long cotton wrap) to
hypnotizing and affectionate effect.

But finally, it’s
movement that provides the momentum. When a lone woman describes an arc
with her arm, abruptly stops, then launches into a crystalline solo—all
power and light—we are there, transported to the India of our dreams.

The Where and When:
December 16, 17, 19 & 20 at 7:30pm
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Running time: 140min with intermission
Tickets: $25, 55, 75, 85

An OTBKB reader and PS 107 parent wrote in with this information about their movie night last week and the upcoming Yes We Can photo book signing.

Thank you for mentioning the PS 107 movie night in your blog.  It
helped me get more volunteers. I am happy to report that the
movie night was a great success for parents and students alike —
parents of more than 100 children braved the rain to drop off their
kids for a couple of hours during the Snowflake Celebration. 

You might be interested in knowing about an upcoming event at PS 107 on Tuesday, Dec 16, which is open to the public:

PS
107 invites you to an exclusive, first-in-the-nation slideshow,
Q&A, and book signing with Scout Tufankjian, artist and author of
"Yes We Can: Barack Obama’s History-Making Presidential Campaign" 12/16
7-9 PM
 
info at http://www.ps107.
tickets $15 at the door (8th Ave between 13th & 14th Street) or at https://www.nycharities.org/event/event.asp?CE_ID=3326

Who can forget last year’s troubled middle school application process? Parents and kids didn’t find out until mid-June where their children were accepted. Some people found out that their children were on no list, that they’d been zapped from the computer; that there child had not been placed.

Sure, those problems were rectified (some more quickly than others) but still it was a challenging situation and enormously dispiriting for the children who had to wait.

Worse, children with IEPs (Independent Educational Programs) who wanted Collaborative Team Teaching classes, were not placed until the end of June leaving parents and kids feeling like second-class citizens and in a state of suspended animation weeks after their peers learned where they were going. 

It was so bad that a group of parents of students with IEP’s organized a public meeting with Sandy Ferguson, who is the DOE’s point person in charge of admissions, as a way to public ally register their complaints and demand action.

Now I hear there’s a new middle school application. Perhaps the Department of Education (DOE) is trying to correct some of the mistakes of last year. But you know how it is with improvements: things can sometimes backfire, or at least go way wrong.

On Friday, parents received an application in a sealed envelope, which already has the student’s name, address, phone number, parent’s name, school, and other pertinent information typed in.

On the new application, there is also a list of the schools in district that the student is eligible to apply to. For instance, if a  child did not receive a particular test score, the list will not include a school that requires that test score.

On the form, there is also room for teacher’s to answer multiple choice questions about the child’s fifth grade performance. I’m not sure if there’s an area for written notes as well. That was never a teacher evaluation of the middle school application. There was some talk that this time-sensitive element adds to teacher’s already overwhelming work load.

So what happened on Friday when the applications went out:

I heard anecdotally that 35% of the applications had incorrect addresses on them. That can be corrected but it is, as you can imagine, a laborious process, which involves going to the middle school application office in the basement of Brooklyn Tech in Fort Greene.

As you can imagine, parents had mixed reactions to the new applications.  In some cases, lists included schools that the student is really not eligible for. This caused confusion. "Does this mean we should apply there anyway?" one parent asked. Likely that would be wasting a first choice was the reply. There may have even been cases where the child is eligible and their list does not reflect that.

Here are the issues I think the DOE was trying to address with this new application:

–With all the student-specific information automatically entered on the application, the DOE can make sure that they have all students on file with their correct information and scores: Entry mistakes can be caught early.

–If a parent does not receive an application it probably means there’s some kind of computer glitch or other problem that needs to be addressed now.

–By listing the schools a child is eligible for, the DOE is trying to stem the problem of parents putting a school first that will not consider the child due to test scores. Consequently, a child’s first choice is squandered.

I don’t know if there are special applications for the kids with IEPs, who want to be in Collaborative Team Teaching classrooms.

Stay tuned. The envelopes went out on Friday and there’s sure to be mayhem on Monday. Let’s hope it is an improvement that parents and administration will benefit from.

The Brooklyn Heights Montessori school in Cobble Hill Brooklyn runs a much admired program called The Little Room for 3- and 4-year-olds with
speech and language delays

The Little Room started out as a small room in the school’s Bergen Street building in 1970. Now it  enrolls 27 kids and occupies a larger space in the school.

This morning an OTBKB reader directed me to an article in Sunday’s Times about a plan by the administration of Brooklyn Height Montessori to terminate The Little Room, a program that was emblematic of the school’s inclusionary atmosphere.

She has a son enrolled in The Little Room. She writes: "A lot of kids all over Brooklyn are enrolled, as well. I thought this might be of interest
to your readers – it’s going to affect a lot of families around the
borough, and in Manhattan and Queens too."

Behind a red door at the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School, a half-dozen preschoolers who once struggled to talk merrily sang “Jingle Bells” the other morning.

Two parents of Little Room students, Ebony Santos, left, and Matilda
Garrido, with some of the children in the program, which helps 3- and
4-year-olds who have speech and language delays.

They are among 27 special needs children enrolled in the Little Room,
which takes its name from the small room where it started in 1970 and
has become a nationally recognized program for 3- and 4-year-olds with
speech and language delays across Brooklyn and Manhattan. But the fate
of the much-loved program, which one expert said is more difficult to
get into than Harvard,
is unclear, as the school that has long run it, Brooklyn Heights
Montessori, has decided it can no longer keep it in its red-brick
complex at the intersection of Court and Bergen Streets.

On Saturday night at 10, Smartmom got a call from a high school friend with a bad case of parent-of-teen angst.

Her son, a ninth grader, seems to have jumped into the swimming pool
of adolescence rebellion with great abandon. Her friend is just hoping
he can swim.

To Smartmom it sounded like standard-issue teenage problems: smoking
pot, lying, not getting good grades, and going to parties at
unsupervised apartments.

Who didn’t do all that stuff when he or she was a teenager in the
1970s? And who isn’t freaked out by it when the teenager happens to be
his or her kid in 2008?

Smartmom barely knew what to say. She definitely didn’t have any
easy answers or sure-fire solutions. It’s not like she has a parenting
column in a local newspaper or anything…

Telling her friend to fasten her seat belt and get ready for a long,
bumpy ride probably wouldn’t be the most comforting thing, but Smartmom
ached for her friend, who sounded so scared.

What if he becomes a heroin addict? What if he can’t get into a good college? What if he ruins his life?

Smartmom tried to quell her friend’s hysteria.

“Whoa,” she said. “You’re going from 0-60 like an Audi TT. Get back
in the used Toyota for a second. Stay calm. Take it one day at a time.”

Sure, Smartmom was spewing meaningless cliches and platitudes. But
what else was she going to say — “Yeah, you’re right, he’ll probably be
smoking crack by week’s end”?

Sure, there are plenty of people who would react that way. They’d
quote the experts, give you the name of shrink, suggest NA or AA.

Maybe that’s why her friend called her. She knew she’d get a more
laid-back approach. That’s not to say that Smartmom isn’t realistic:

“One thing’s for sure, you’re going to have to be tough, set limits
and accept that your kid isn’t going to like you very much for the next
few years,” she told her friend.

“He already hates me,” she laughed. “I’m used to that.”

But Smartmom knows that these kind of problems are nothing to laugh
at. Smartmom remembered how scary it was back when Teen Spirit was in
ninth grade. Her fears and anticipatory anxiety ran rampant.

Turns out, she didn’t have too much to worry about. He was in a prep school in Bay Ridge and wasn’t doing anything too terrible.

Still, the anxiety percolated: Is he drinking? Doing drugs? Sex? Running around the city? Will he get hurt?

As Smartmom listened to her friend talk about all the drugs and sex
at various public and private schools, she realized that she really
doesn’t know what’s going on with her very own Teen Spirit.

At 17, he’s a very independent soul. Often, Smartmom has only the vaguest idea where he is.

It’s a terrible feeling. How can she protect him from the problems
if he barely wants to talk, let alone take her advice? And the hardest
part is discerning whether your kid is going through a phase or if he
or she is settling into a life of substance abuse, slackerdom, a career
as an artist, or worse (worse than a career as an artist? Scary!).

Smartmom and her friend talked about the kids they knew in high
school who were big drug users. One guy actually did become a heroin
addict and died a few years ago.

But another guy, who dropped acid hundreds of times in high school
and college, is a lawyer who lives in Westchester with two kids in
college.

So you never know.

Smartmom and Hepcat weren’t druggie teens (a little here, a little
there), so they’ve taken a wait-and-see approach. Frankly, they don’t
know if their son has ever tried the stuff. Maybe they’re in denial,
maybe they’re just dumb.

As they talked on Saturday night, Smartmom heard her friend
negotiating with her son. He had a friend over and they wanted to get
some air. She let him go out, but she told him to stand on the street
where she could watch him from their eighth-floor window.

Control. Or the illusion of control. That’s what it’s all about. You
can ground them, spy on them, and drug test them, but you’re just
putting off the inevitable: the time when you have no control over your
children at all. And that’s the hardest thing of all.

You hope you’ve encouraged them to be smart, cautious and totally in
sync with everything you care about. But who knows if it takes?

Indeed, even as Smartmom was encouraging her friend to keep an eye
on her boy, she herself didn’t have a clue where Teen Spirit was.
Probably some club in Bushwick.

She told her there’s no shame in calling him every half-hour even if she herself hadn’t communicated with Teen Spirit in hours.

Every day that you keep a good eye on your kids, you’re one day
closer to the day when they’ll have more sense and maturity (one
hopes). And one day closer to the day when you’ll have less control.

Smartmom can hardly wait.

With two excellent ensembles from the New York area and
a fine cast of soloists, Mozart’s final masterpiece, as
well as a new work by composer/conductor Jesse Peckham.
      

Mozart: Requiem Mass in d minor, k626 and the Peckham: Mattern Mass

The Where and When

St. Ann + the Holy Trinity Church
157 Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY
$10