This from Rebeccah Welch at the Center for the Urban Environment

Urban Environmentalist NYC – Ask the Expert

Jeffrey Chernick, CEO and Co-Founder of rideamigos.com, launched the ridesharing service with his partner and childhood best friend Evan Meyer in September 2007 (pictured here, left to right).  They have since taken the site from a NYC-based taxi-sharing service to a global ridesharing solutions company. Chernick will be speaking on the subject of “Navigating NYC: From Pedicabs to Green Car Services” at Green Brooklyn.. Green City on September 18th. For more information visit www.greenbrooklyn.org.

CUE: What is Ride Amigos, where did this idea come from—and, most importantly, how does it work?

Chernick: rideamigos.com is a free online tool that matches people going the same way at the same time so that they can share a taxi or fill a carpool anywhere, anytime on planet Earth.  Using is easy: simply enter where you are going and what time you want to arrive, and then whether it’s a one time ride (i.e. airport) or recurring ride (i.e. commute).  Where did the idea come from?  To be honest, my own annoying NYC subway commute.  Instead of taking the 50 minute "V" train, I wanted to share a 10 minute taxi right up First Avenue.  I found another rider, Abigail, who wanted to save time and money and boom, I had a rideamiga the first day we launched.

CUE: What do you think are the biggest challenges facing urban residents in terms of transportation—and does Brooklyn have any distinguishing features in this regard?

Chernick: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spends eighteen cents of every dollar earned on transportation – that makes our cars the second largest expense behind housing.  That amount plus expensive parking makes transportation a Brooklyn budget nightmare.  So take public transit, some would exclaim!  Unfortunately, not everyone lives near a convenient subway or bus line.  And it’s not always a financial question.  The stress of waiting on a bus line or for a crowded subway can be hellish.

CUE: From a transportation perspective, what are the top 3 things an average city resident can do to reduce the carbon footprint of New York City?

Chernick: 1)  Ride a bike or walk – healthy for your body, healthy for our Earth; 2)  Take public transportation -the more people taking mass transit, the lighter the New York City carbon footprint; 3)  Rideshare!  If you are going to drive or take a taxi, use rideamigos.com or a service like it and find a commute partner.  You never know who you might meet while cutting cost and resource use in half!

CUE: What are the statistics on cab use in NYC? Has that changed over time—and what accounts for that change?

Chernick: According to the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), 600,000 Yellow Taxi rides are taken daily with an average of 1.4  passengers per ride, with an average ride costing $10.95.  What’s more, there is an average of 13,237 yellow taxis on the road at any given time.  These numbers continue to rise, mainly because gas prices dissuade drivers from taking their own cars and demand for rapid transport is higher than ever.

CUE: This is a little bit of a lead question… but is there a social and civic mission to ride sharing, a goal of bringing isolated city residents together through shared transportation alternatives?

Chernick: Absolutely!  Ride sharing is all about meeting new people, forming relationships, and interacting with other humans.  Finding a ride share partner fortifies existing community relationships and encourages neighbors to interact and connect.  The more local residents participating, the more tight-knit the entire New York City community will be.

Interview conducted by Rebeccah Welch—Associate Director of Public Affairs at the Center for the Urban Environment. As a guide to a more sustainable New York City, the Center is dedicated to educating individuals about the built and natural environments. For more about our work visit www.thecue.org.

Rebeccah Welch, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Public Affairs
Center for the Urban Environment
718.788.8500 x263
rwelch@bcue.org
www.bcue.org

Green Brooklyn…Green City!  On September 18th, join us at the largest green event in the borough: www.greenbrooklyn.org

I saw the article in the New York Times last week but with everything that’s been going on I didn’t really take  the time to process it, to take it in.

A confession last week by Morton Sobell, a co-defendant and classmate of Julius Rosenberg, revealed that he and Rosenberg did indeed pass information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets.

There is no real reason not to believe Morton Sobell’s confession.

This certainly doesn’t mean that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg deserved to be executed. Goodness, no. But it does solve one of the most painful mysteries of Cold War America.

Ah, the Rosenbergs.

Think of of their sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol, who have spent their lives defending their parents and trying to prove them innocent. They attended Elizabeth Irwin High School in the West Village, the same high school my sister attended many years later. Kindred spirits, I guess. We always felt a connection with them

In 1953 they lost both their father and mother, Ethel, and were adopted by Abel and Anne Meeropol. The Times’ today has the an interesting story about the brothers.

Ah, the Rosenbergs.

"We believed they were innocent and we tried to prove them innocent," Michael Meeropol told the New York Times. "But I remember saying to myself in late 1975, maybe a little later, that whatever happesn it doesn’t change me. We really meant it, that the truth is more important than our political position."

Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote a beautiful piece on the editorial page of the New York Times about David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide over the weekend. They were both on the faculty of Pamona College.

He had the very rare gift — something he shared with Seamus Heaney
— of carrying the greatness of his ability intact within him and never
letting it obtrude upon his colleagues. He was just a laborer in the
field along with the rest of us. To his students, he was especially
generous. Many nights I have left my office in Crookshank Hall at
Pomona College and seen Dave, in the office next door, deep in a
Druidical conversation with a 20-year-old who was staggered by the
possibilities of writing. In a sense, Dave and I conversed through our
students. My students taught me how much he had taught them, and I hope
the reverse sometimes happened, too.

His work does not say how
much common sense he had or that there was something tender, as well as
demanding, in his privacy. It suggests that his presence might have
been excoriating, when it was merely attentive and thoughtful. The
roguishness of his author photos turned out — in person — to mean a
fondness for torn T-shirts and no love for shaving his long jaw.

A John Jay student was stabbed. Two students were arrested. Fifth Street was closed off for hours on Monday night. There’s a story in the Brooklyn Eagle about it:

PARK SLOPE – Cops arrested a teenage boy Tuesday in connection with a
stabbing in Park Slope Monday, after which a 16-year-old high school
student was hospitalized as the result of multiple knife attacks.

Tuesday afternoon, police announced the arrest of a 14-year-old
connected with the attack. Armed with information from witnesses,
detectives apprehended the young suspect at 3:25 p.m. in his home on
Sixth Avenue, a block from where the incident occurred.

Cops said they are still searching for two accomplices, two male white Hispanics, ages 14 and 16.

According to eyewitness reports, on Monday afternoon at approximately
2:15 p.m., the victim was standing or walking in front of 460 Fifth St.
when he was approached by a group of other teens. It was not clear what
the dispute was about, and there was no evidence of a robbery attempt,
but cops did say that the victim and the suspect “were not known to
each other.”

When the fight was over, the 16-year-old lay bleeding on the street
with multiple stab wounds. EMTs transported him to Lutheran Medical
Center, where he was treated for his wounds, the most serious of which
was a punctured liver. He is listed in stable condition.

Because of the ages of the victim and the suspect, police did not
release their identities. It is unclear whether the suspect in custody
will be tried as an adult or as a juvenile, but police did say that he
is facing a charge of Assault 1, a major felony, and misdemeanor
Weapons Possession.

Neighborhood blogs Tuesday raised questions about the incident, some
saying the fight was connected to a nearby high school. Police did not
confirm or deny these details.

Game Stop, the enormously successful video and computer game shop, is going in on Fifth Avenue near 12th Street.

Beacon’s Closet will be relocating to the storefront that was a card shop at 92 Fifth Avenue at Warren Street. They old location is Fifth Avenue near President.

There’s a new wine shop at Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Street. The name escapes me just now.

The shop on the corner of 4th Street and Fifth Avenue will be a new Italian restaurant; it used to be Cocotte. That’s all we know.

The Bell House, the new club owned and operated by the folks who brought you Union Hall, is opening this week at 149 7th Street in the Gowanus area. It has 25-foot arched ceilings,
450-square-foot stage, and possibly perfect sightlines and can welcome up
to 350 at a time, with an additional 150 in the bar in front all on one floor.

Eric NYC, the upscale women’s shoe store will be opening soon on Seventh Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets.
 

The Potato Eaters
Susanne Lara Ruppert (foreground, right) studies Vincent Van Gogh’s, 
"The Potator Eaters," one of the paintings on view as part of a MOMA exhibition examining Van Gogh’s relationship to the night.  The exhibit opens to the public on September 21st and runs through 
January 5th at the Museum of Modern Art.

This morning I ran into Sara Bennett Holmes, co-author of the book, The Case Against Homework and operator of the blog, Stop Homework.

She told me that she’d seen my posts about my dad and that her friend, psychologist Kate McReynolds, died two days before he did at Calvary Hospice.

McReynolds sounds like an incredible person and you can read about her on Sarah’s blog where Sarah quotes McReynolds’ last article, “Children’s Happiness,” published in the Spring 2008 issue of Encounter Magazine: Education for Meaning and Social Justice where she was Associate Editor, she wrote:

If we were to look squarely at the ordinary unhappiness
of just one child—that is, if we pondered it until we had achieved the
deepest understanding of his or her experience—what would happen? I
believe that, like my son’s middle school teacher, we might be brought
to tears. We might recognize that forces behind our own unhappiness,
how we ourselves have suffered from unremitting pressure to make the
grade and the subsequent narrowing of all that was meaningful to us. If
we then let compassion overtake us, we might do something remarkable.
We might, for example, take a leave of absence to give ourselves more
time in the present. We might adopt a more modest lifestyle that
balances work with devotion to our deepest values. We might, in other
words, decide that the happiness children naturally seek is the most
important thing in life–for them and for ourselves as well.

…at this month’s Brooklyn Blogade, a monthly meeting of Brooklyn bloggers. These monthly gatherings, which meet all over Brooklyn, are open to bloggers, blog readers, those interested in blogging, and those thinking about blogging. Here are the ‘tails:

This month’s blogade takes place on Sunday September 21 at 1 p.m. in Williamsburg at Juliette – just
off the L at Bedford (great large roofdeck perfect for margaritas)
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/juliette/

We’ll be gathering on the rooftop (weather permitting) at 1PM and
talking about how to build your personal brand (your blog’s identity)
and how to use social media (like Twitter and Facebook fan pages) to
grow your brand and expand your audience.

Please RSVP: email directly: christine.brodi…@gmail.com.

In the meantime, I’d like to invite you to get started setting up a

few social assets, please open the following accounts and friend/

follow me:

www.facebook.com (start your account and search for Chrissie Brodigan

and send me a friend request – and, if possible set up a Facebook Fan

page for your blog)

www.twitter.com (start your account and give me a follow at chrissieb

– and I will follow you back!)

News item: Former city official suggests selling bridges for needed NYC revenue.

  GOLD IN THEM THAR BRICKS

The Brooklyn Bridge could easily

Put a billion in the treasury;

No reason why motorists should get

A free ride in crossing over the wet

To The City, as Brooklyn natives call it.

And a toll pays big, so
let’s install it.

Of course the private sector does better

Than government, a hopeless debtor,

So it’s incumbent on the mayor

To sell to an experienced purveyor.

Now George Steinbrenner, the Yankees’ owner,

Is known for taking the limpest boner

And turning it
into a solid gain,

No waste, procrastination or pain.

Ole George’d be happy to buy the bridge–

If he had a billion in his fridge.

No problem.  A simple subsidy

(It’s done all the time) is the remedy.

And he’d collect the tolls and split

Them with the
city, as finances permit.

His Yankee Stadium accountants can

Be counted on for a fairness plan

And in gratitude we’d rename the span

To honor this unique great man.

The Steinbrenner Bridge! It has a ring,

Like good old-fashioned Civic
Sting

I have gotten many lovely expressions of sympathy by email; some from people I don’t even know. I am very grateful for all these notes and plan on responding to each and every one; the loving kindness comes through no matter what the format in my opinion.

If you wrote me an email condolence note I would appreciate if you’d send me your snail mail address so that I can send you a card. louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

A friend wrote yesterday:

Louise, I hope I’m not being tacky be emailing my condolences.  I am truly sorry for your loss.

I wrote her back that I didn’t think it was tacky at all. In fact, it’s a quick and thoughtful way to make contact with someone going through a loss. The question is, what is the proper way to respond to these sympathy emails: with emails or, as is customary, with a thank you card?

In my wanderings around the Slope I heard or overheard these reactions to Wall Street’s free fall from a wide variety of local citizens.

"This is scary."

What does this mean?"

"How does this effect me?"

"What will happen to New York real estate?"

"How will this influence the election."

"People are going to want daddy now. Old man McCain."

"It’s good for Obama. McCain is an idiot about the economy."

"I can’t get unemployment on the phone, the message says to call back later. I guess it’s the Lehman Brothers thing."

"$85 Billion bailout? That’s like the government buying a Mercedes for every person in San Jose."

"It’s the end of American Capitalism as we know it."

"Thank you, Nostradamus," she said in reply to the above statement.

"You can’t cry over losses in the stock market. It’s not real money. It’s only on paper."

"We’re screwed."

"This will trickle down and affect everybody."

"I haven’t been following the news, the TV, the radio, what’s been going on?"

"Oh just the end of the world."

"I am freaking out."

"It’s like after 9/11."

It’s like 1987, remember 1987?"

"It’s like 1929."

"Yikes."

Last night this news was announced by New York’s Governor David Patterson. Read more at the New York Times and everywhere else.

WASHINGTON — Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve
reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that
would give the government control of the troubled insurance giant American International Group.

The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history.

With time running out after A.I.G. failed to get a bank loan to avoid bankruptcy, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke,
convened a meeting with House and Senate leaders on Capitol Hill about
6:30 p.m. Tuesday to explain the rescue plan. They emerged just after
7:30 p.m. with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke looking grim, but with top
lawmakers initially expressing support for the plan. But the bailout is
likely to prove controversial, because it effectively puts taxpayer
money at risk while protecting bad investments made by A.I.G. and other
institutions it does business with.

Brooklyn Beat of Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn sent this post about the 2008 school report cards that were released yesterday.

Well, despite the hue and cry about grades and tests, whether it is due
to schadenfreude, or disagreement, or satisfaction, we find the results
endlessly fascinating.

So, here are a few of the results from the 2007-2008 Progress report
just posted by the NYC Department of Education. Visit the DOE web page
and enter the school borough and number (K=Brooklyn, R=Richmond,
M=Manhattan, X=Bronx, Q= Queens) in "Find a school"/ Go to the school
website, and select "Statistics" from the left hand column, and go to
"Progress Reports." Then, either gloat or read m and weep.

http://www.schools.nyc.gov

For convenience, a very incomplete list of a few of the grades for schools familiar to readers are as follows:

School 2007-08/2006-07/COMMENT

K008 F/ F :TO BE CONTINUED
K020 C/ B :CLINTON HILL
K029 A/ A
K051 A/ B
K217 A/ B :A STONE’S THROW FROM POMME TERRE
K261 C/ C
K321 B/ B :SAY NO MORE.. the original
K443 A/ A :NEW VOICES

Someone over at the TKTS Booth in Downtown Brooklyn sent this to me:

I wanted you to know that for the TKTS Booth in Downtown Brooklyn there is a daily email blast called TKTS Today that we send around 11am, the time TKTS Downtown Brooklyn opens from Monday – Friday, saying what shows on Broadway, Off Broadway and in Brooklyn are available. 

We offer this to people who live in work in Brooklyn, and you’re blog has really helped me learn a lot about Brooklyn since we opened the booth there (I’m from Queens, so what do I know?)  The TKTS Downtown Brooklyn  booth  is at 1 MetroTech Center at the corner of Jay and Myrtle.

Here is the link to the place for people to sign up.
https://secure2.tdf.org/TKTSToday/

As is the custom in New York, people are leaving Korean market flowers on the lamp post at Carroll Street and 8th Avenue in memoriam for a biker who was killed there last week. The Brooklyn Paper had this report.

Witnesses said Jonathan Millstein, who lived in Boerum Hill with his wife and
two sons, had been wearing a helmet during his crash, which occurred
just after 8 am. There were no children on board the bus that killed
him, and police did not issue a summons or arrest the driver, cops said.

At first I didn’t make the connection. But then I did. Jonathan Millstein, 50, was a friend of a friend of mine at the New Lincoln School, a private high school in Manhattan. He was Johnny; Johnny Millstein. I met him at Westbeth, where my friend lived. .

Then he married another childhood friend. He and his wife, Emily, owned a shop called Design East in the East Village. They were famous for their Regular t-shirt that a lot of people wore in the 1980’s: A nice silkscreen of a Greek coffee shop coffee cup. Underneath it said "Regular."

I loved their shop and their designs.

They were pioneering people. A t-shirt and silkscreen shop in a building on Second Avenue near Houston Street settled by squatters,  where they sold their own designs. A cool and ironic t-shirt that sold well. Early settlers in Brooklyn.

Millstein was also known for helping out troubled teens. An article in the Daily News has a nice tribute.

A beloved Brooklyn
man known for giving struggling young men a second chance was killed
Wednesday when he was hit by a bus while cycling, cops said.

Jonathan Millstein, 50, suffered massive head wounds when slammed by an empty school bus while biking in Park Slope at 8:15a.m., police said.

Millstein, who owns a silkscreen design and printing shop in Manhattan,
apparently rode through a red light at President St. and Eighth Ave.
when the school bus barreled into him, witnesses told police.

"I’m shocked that he died in such a horrible fashion," said Steve Herrick, 47, a friend who knew Millstein from the building where he runs Works In Progress NYC, a company that designs and prints graphics.

Millstein, a father of two who lived with his wife, Emily, in downtown Brooklyn, was known for employing teenagers and young men from programs for troubled youth.

"Jon was a really nice guy," said Selassie Samuel, 22, a former intern at the victim’s shop. "He was a lenient boss as long as you got the job done."

An OTBKB reader wrote to me with this terrible news about the Cocotte mural on the corner of Fourth Street and Fifth Avenue.

"According to the signage, Cocotte—-the much-missed Fifth Avenue French
restaurant-—will reappear as a bistro. But, sadly, La Cocotte-—the
lovely lady in red whose picture graced the restaurant’s Fourth Street
side-—has been painted over with yellow paint. Many of us will miss the
mural that taught us the two definitions of Cocotte—-a small fire-proof
dish, and a lady of the night."

Photo by David Emmett.

A few minutes before a Jewish funeral begins, there’s an interesting Jewish ritual of mouring: the tearing of one’s garment or a special ribbon. Called Kriah, this custom is many centuries old.

In the room next to the funeral chapel at Frank E Campbell, Rabbi Bachman instructed us in what to do and offered an explanation. By ripping the ribbon, we face grief directly. Sometimes men rip their neck ties. He gave each close family member a black ribbon pin to wear for a month.

Before the rip was made, the rabbi said a prayer, the words of Job, “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken, blessed be the Name of the Lord.”

And then we all pulled at the end of our ribbons.

I was going to wear that ribbon for a month but it fell off my lapel the day after the funeral. Today I went into Fiber Notion on Union Street to buy a piece of black grosgrain ribbon.

The owner didn’t have any grosgrain in stock but she did have some black velvet ribbon. As I began to describe what I was doing with it, she artfully tied the ribbon into a a small bow tie bow with two pieces of ribbon dangling below. She cut it with a scissor as I described the ritual of tearing one’s garment or special ribbon.

While she was making the Kriah, the song Lullaby of Broadway came across the radio. I told the woman that this was one of my father’s favorite songs, especially the version by Chris Connor. I don’t know who was singing it but it did have a nice swing to it.

The owner of the shop found a lovely purple safety pin in her drawer. Voila, I have a lovely velvet ribbon Kriah. It’s quite different from the one I lost after the funeral. But hey. It was made with a lot of heart and some music, too.

Have you ever heard two turtle doves
Bill and coo when they love
That’s the kind of magic
Music we make with our lips
When we kiss

And there’s a weepy ol’ willow
He really knows how to cry
That’s how i cry in my pillow
If you should tell me
Farewell and goodbye

Lullaby of Birdland whisper low
kiss me sweet & we’ll go
Fliyin’ high in Birdland
High in the sky up above
All because we’re in love

Check out The Living Room Candidate. Here’s the idea:

“The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.”
-Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, 1956

“Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it.”
-Television producer and Nixon campaign consultant Roger Ailes, 1968

In a media-saturated environment in which news, opinions, and entertainment surround us all day on our television sets, computers, and cell phones, the television commercial remains the one area where presidential candidates have complete control over their images. Television commercials use all the tools of fiction filmmaking, including script, visuals, editing, and performance, to distill a candidate’s major campaign themes into a few powerful images. Ads elicit emotional reactions, inspiring support for a candidate or raising doubts about his opponent. While commercials reflect the styles and techniques of the times in which they were made, the fundamental strategies and messages have tended to remain the same over the years.

The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run

.