At the Gateway Wildlife Refuge, a red-winged blackbird flying out over the marsh (the trail leads
through dense undergrowth and then opens up to an expansive vista).

Photo by Tom Martinez

According to the Postal Service, there is only one post office (probably that means in Brooklyn but it's not completely clear) that is currently being considered for closing but no decision has yet been made.  If a decision is made to close a post office, elected officials will be advised and a public forum will be held before the closing is final.  The post office is being considered for closing is probably not in the 11th Congressional District (that's Congresswoman Clarke's district), which includes the 7th Avenue Post Office. 

All this information comes from correspondence between Rami Metal, Community Liason of Council Member David Yassky's office, who contacted the office of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke in response to an inquiry from RK Dillion, a constituent, about the possible closing of the Post Office on 7th Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.  Deanna Bitteti of Congresswoman Clarke's staff passed along Congresswoman Clarke's response.  That chain of correspondence is below:

[From Rami Metal]: Hello Mr. Dillon.  Thank you
for writing to us regarding the potential closure of the post office on 7th Ave.  As the post office is a federal thing I
reached out to Congresswoman Yvette Clarke's office for some
clarification.  Deanna Bitteti forwarded her response to me and I've
attached it here for you:

Please let constituents know that our
office has been in touch with USPS and they are conducting a feasibility study
to determine if any post offices should be closed (based upon revenue streams,
foot traffic and other criteria) but USPS has told me that the number is grossly
overstated and that as of now they are looking at only ONE post office for
closure (but would not release the name as the decision has not been finalized,
however they do not believe it is located in the 11th Congressional
district).  Also, once a decision is made they will notify electeds and the
public and a public forum must occur to garner feedback from the community
before anything is done or any closure takes place.

I have asked that as soon as any
decision is made for USPS to call me and fax over the decision letter and I will
keep in touch with them on this issue. I know I have received calls regarding
Newkirk Station and I have received calls regarding Prospect Park West Retail
station and have made inquiries but been told the same thing by usps on several
occasions. The Letter Carrier Union is publicizing this to local news media and
constituents and asking them to call their Congress Members, and we are aware of
these concerns and are watching this with great
attention.
Please feel free to pass along my email
and contact if people would like to reach out to me to discuss this further. I
know the member will do all she can to prevent this from occurring for our
constituents and the letter carriers that could potentially lose their jobs if
this occurs.

Best,

Deanna

If you have any further question
please feel free to reach out to either myself or Deanna.  She can be
reached at Deanna.Bitetti@mail.house.gov.

From:  RK Dillon
Sent: Fri 7/31/2009 5:15 PM
To: Yassky, David

Can  you make noise about the
proposed closing of the post office on 7th Av. between 2nd & 3rd St.s? 
I can't believe it's not a profit center: the queue is out the door almost every
time I go & there can't be many employees since so few windows (often only
one) stay open.  The little storefront gets traffic from both 11217 &
11215 & it's a long trek to either Plaza Station or Van Brunt just to mail
parcels or buy stamps if you don't have parcels to pick
up.

Thanks,
R. K. Dillion

Here's this week's Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:

When the Oh So Feisty One told Smartmom that she didn’t want to go
to sleepaway camp this summer, Smartmom wasn’t all that surprised.

OSFO had already endured two sleepaway summers — and lived to tell
the tale. The first camp was, Smartmom now admits, a tad too rustic. It
was the kind of place that Smartmom might have liked as a girl, so she
thought it would be a life changing experience for OSFO.

Transformational.

It was an all-girls camp in Vermont with wilderness training and
bunks that were basically lean-tos (no windows, no doors). Suffice it
to say, they told parents to pack mosquito netting.

Mosquito netting. Get the picture?

Oh, and it was a politically progressive, feminist camp with a daily
Quaker meeting. Smartmom was excited for the spiritual enlightenment
that would arise out of a summer like this.

During those two weeks, Smartmom got not one letter from her child.
She worried. She stressed. She wondered if she had been killed by a
band of mosquitoes.

When OSFO got off the bus in Manhattan after two rainy, mildewy
weeks at camp, Smartmom could tell that her experience was less than
stellar.

“We’ll talk about it later,” OSFO whispered as they got into a car service to take them back to Brooklyn.

In the days that followed, Smartmom heard more and more about this
special camp. According to OSFO, the food was “delicious,” the lefty
folk songs were “fun to sing” (Mom, did you ever hear of Kumbaya?) and
the backpacking adventure on the Appalachian trail was “a highlight.”

So what was wrong with the place?

Smartmom isn’t sure. But she wasn’t crazy about her bunkmates and
the girl she met at camp from Cobble Hill was unbearably homesick and
that can be contagious. There was also that bear-sighting that scared
OSFO out of her mind.

All in all, it was not OSFO’s kind of place — and she would not be returning the next summer.

The next year, a friend suggested a well-regarded YMCA camp in Rhode
Island. OSFO checked the pictures on the Web site to make sure the
bunks had windows and doors.

Window and doors: Check.

It wasn’t a feminist place or politically progressive. It didn’t
have a spiritual component like that Quaker meeting thing that gets
Smartmom and other parents so excited.

In short, it was your basic fun camp with your basic fun activities:
swimming, dodgeball, tie dying and archery. And there was other fun
stuff, too like color war, dress up days, jacks and bunk-wide pranks.

Most important, the girls in OSFO’s bunk bonded, and nights were
like an endless slumber party complete with spider sightings, shadow
puppets and sharing someone’s box of Cap’n Crunch.

So why didn’t she want to go back? Smartmom isn’t really sure. A
good camp friend couldn’t go the same weeks as OSFO so that might have
put a damper on it.

The Park Slope buddy who she went to camp with last year chose a different camp this year. Maybe that was the problem.

Or maybe she just forgot how much fun she had last year. Twelve months is a long time.

Whatever the reason, Smartmom wasn’t going to force her little baby to go anywhere she didn’t want to go.

No, no, no.

Except for one huge problem. Smartmom was so eager for OSFO to
return to that camp she’d paid for the camp in full. In December.

Smartmom was stressing. That was $1,200 bucks down the drain — money out the window if she didn’t talk her daughter into camp.

And what about Smartmom’s solo writing week on Block Island, the
week in heaven that was contingent on OSFO being at camp? Surely,
Smartmom couldn’t go away by herself if her daughter was hanging out
with nothing to do in Brooklyn.

Well, Smartmom tried and tried and tried but she couldn’t get her
feisty daughter to change her mind. The more she told her that she was
going to be oh so bored, the more determined OSFO was to prove her
wrong.

So Smartmom did what any smart mom would do. She called the camp and very nicely asked for her money back.

And guess what? She didn’t get it all back. But she did get half
back and the other half is a campership for some kid who really wants
to go to camp, but can’t afford to pay full tuition.

Smartmom thought the camp director was unbelievably nice and reasonable. She thanked him profusely.

So the matter was settled except for one itty bitty problem. What
was OSFO going to do while Smartmom was in Block Island for eight days?

She came along.

And that, dear readers, is the topic of next week’s column.

Eric McCLure, of Park Slope Neighbors, adds to the list of people to get in touch with about the post office closings;

Contact Yvette Clarke and Chuck Schumer.

Clarke: http://clarke.house.gov/contactform_zipcheck.shtml or (718) 287-1142.

Schumer: http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm or (212) 486-4430.

Here are the names I posted yesterday:

Next:
Councilmembers David Yassky and Bill deBlasio, who both represent parts
of Seventh Avenue, should be on the case. They might also want to explain to locals what's going on.

And then: Craig Hammerman, District Manager of Community Board 6, could also be of help.

From there: The Mayor.

Maybe some of the City Council candidates have some BIG IDEAS about how to stop this from happening.

And then there's Bill C. Thompson and Tony Avella, candidates for Mayor.

Hellooooooooo out there. Anyone know how to stop this???? Anyone want to explain what's going on?

Once again Barnes and Noble has upped the ante and added another reason why people should go there rather than indie bookstores.

Complimentary free Wi-Fi.

According to a B&N press release, with complimentary Wi-Fi, the local bookstore is your home away from home. Check your email, have a cup of coffee, and most importantly browse ebooks in their new online bookstore.

Oh I get it.

Questions: Do Community Bookstore, Bookcourt and the upcoming Greenlight Bookstore in Ft. Greene want to be free Wi-Fi destinations? Is that what a bookstore should be?

It can mean people hanging out using their computers. But are they actually buying books? Do the indie booksellers need to copycat what the big giant is doing or can they just keep on keeping on. Maybe people will be happy that there are still traditional bookstores that aren't Wi-Fi media centers.

One of the Park Slope 100 and an OTBKB fave shop, Scaredy Kat , is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with a new location for their store.

Their new, bigger digs is located at 232 5th Avenue in Brooklyn right across the street from their previous location. The new store has almost twice the square footage, which means they have even
more fun cards and gifts. Plus that
new roominess comes with the added bonus of more space to move around
in –

How fab is that?

Best of all they are giving away FREE Moon Pies to all who come in to celebrate the opening until August 16th:

Here's the note from the owners Damond and Nora:

The 92YTribeca is celebrating its
first anniversary with a host of special events. A highlight will be a showing of BQE, a a film version of Sufjan Steven’s 40-minute symphonic and cinematic exploration
of New York
’s Brooklyn-Queens Expressway,

Of
course, at 92YTribeca, it’s not just about one element; we’re
making the whole night a Sufjan Stevens-experience. Osso, the string quartet with a modernist
pulse, performs interpretations of
Stevens’ eccentric electronica album, Enjoy
Your Rabbit (which is based on the animals of the Chinese Zodiac).
The group appeared on Stevens’ 2005 Come
On! Feel the Illinoise! and Songs
for Christmas albums, and has collaborated and performed with an array
of artists, including Jay-Z, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, The
New Pornographers, Antony and the Johnsons, The Polyphonic
Spree , The National, Devotchka and Kanye West.

For
more information about the event, visit www.92YTribeca.org

I just heard from my neighbor artist Bernette Rudolph that the Seventh Avenue Post Office is closing.

Questions.
Is it being renovated, relocated or what?

Hey it's not the most efficient P.O. in the world but it's still a P.O.

Speaking of Bernette, her wonderful graphic prints are on display at the new La Bagel Delight on Seventh Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets.

This just in from The Governors
Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC)

This summer, Governors Island is also becoming a
popular place for a wide array of Brooklyn based food and products, artists, and cultural groups. Earlier this
season, Added Value, a non-profit organization based in Red Hook, planted a
three acre sustainable organic farm at Picnic Point. The farm is open to the
public and offers free educational programming for visitors.

Later this summer, Brooklyn’s own Blue Marble Ice Cream will
begin scooping its homemade ice cream out of its eco-friendly trike. In
addition, Water Taxi Beach at Governors Island sells several
products made in the borough, including Park Slope sausages and Six Point Beer.

 “It was great to
get ferry service from Brooklyn going again,” said State Senator Daniel Squadron. “Expanding
service is even better, with more ferries on more days, making Governors Island more accessible for
millions of Brooklynites.  Governors Island has the potential to be the center of a new 21st century harbor park–a Central Park for the center of our
city.  Now even more community members will be able to keep cool in the
harbor this summer and enjoy an afternoon on this spectacular island.”

The Brooklyn Paper reports:

The City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved Mayor
Bloomberg’s plan to redevelop Coney Island, a controversial plan that
the mayor hopes will create a major tourist destination and livable
neighborhood for permanent residents.

Just before the vote, Bloomberg and Joe Sitt, the major landowner in
Coney Island and a longtime opponent of the mayor’s plans, made a
breakthrough in their sometimes-bitter negotiations over a price for
some of Sitt’s large holdings, though a deal was not yet finalized.

The breakthough involves Sitt selling a portion of his valuable
territory to the city, yet retain some for lucrative development of his
own, the New York Times reported.

The Council voted 44–2 on a rezoning package that seeks to transform
Coney Island’s derelict lots into a gleaming city-owned amusement park
surrounded by enclosed attractions like movie theaters, shopping or a
water park for year-round visitors and 4,500 units of housing.

The plan will rezone 19 blocks of Coney Island, much of it currently
limited solely for amusements, though only a few blocks actually have
seasonal amusements on site while vast portions are empty or used for
other purposes due to lax enforcement.

Here is an excerpt from Noticing New York.Testimony to the Empire State Development Corporation:

The Brooklyn Paper had this report:

"Supporters and opponents of the embattled Atlantic Yards project
clashed at two public hearings this Wednesday and an information
session last Wednesday, rehashing familiar arguments over the
controversial mega-project in the wake of a new proposal that would
give developer Bruce Ratner sweeter terms.

"The July 29 hearing at the New York Technical College on Jay Street wasn’t as uproarious as the June 22 session,
where years of built-up frustration erupted from project boosters and
foes who long ago made up their minds on the merits of the basketball
arena and the 16-skyscraper development planned for Prospect Heights.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t without excitement.

More than 50 project opponents as well as a who’s who of politicians
and City Council candidates rallied outside the hearing, demanding the
project be halted in the wake of changes approved last month
that would allow Forest City to build the project at a slower pace, pay
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority less money up front to build
for development rights to a smaller portion of the railyards at the
intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, and to make less-costly
railyard renovations than initially promised.

Loads more at  Atlantic Yards Report and No Land Grab, of course.

My friend Gilly Youner, Develop Don't Destroy board member, does not look happy in the above photo by Ben Muessig.