Civics and Urban Life

Thursday: Richie Havens at Metrotech at Noon

I’ve always loved Richie Havens, who was the opening act at Woodstock in 1969. According to Park Slope’s Ben Greenman in the New Yorker, he has a great new album just out called Nobody Left to Crown.

“Nobody Left to Crown” (Verve Forecast), Havens’s first recording in four years, opens with a pair of originals, “The Key” and “Say It Isn’t So,” which manage to address spiritual themes without sounding overly earnest, a trick that sometimes eluded the artist in his younger years. The centerpiece of the album is a majestic cover of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Over his trademark open-tuned strumming, Havens delivers a commanding vocal performance that fully restores the revolutionary impulse of The Who’s original; he somehow gets blood from a song that has been ossified for years. Nothing else quite rises to that level, though there’s an urgent version of Jackson Browne’s “Lives in the Balance” and several strong tracks in which Haven applies Eastern-style enlightenment to Realpolitik—including the quietly furious title song, which slyly quotes “Home on the Range.”

And he’s a Brooklyn boy to boot. Born in Bed-Stuy. Here will be performing on August 7 at noon. Marcus Carl Franklin, the incredible kid who played one of the Bob Dylan’s in “Im Not There” WILL BE THERE. Note to self: Don’t miss this.

Postcard from the Slope

Annual Night Out at Grand Army Plaza

Mayor_and_78_precinct_2I saw flyers about the 28th Annual National Night Out. I’d never heard of it. Turns out it’s a public crime prevention event. Thankfully, Eugene Patron from Prospect Park sent out this press release and some pictures.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly joined the 78th Precinct at the Grand Army Plaza entrance to Prospect Park to mark the “25th Annual National Night Out,” a public crime prevention event (organized in cooperation with the National Association of Town Watch: http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/about.html).
Also attending the event were Congressman Anthony Weiner, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, NY State Senator Velmentta Montgomery, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, and representatives from the offices of Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, and NY State Assemblywoman Joan Millman (who presented a proclamation from New York State Governor David Patterson)

.
In the Prospect Park Alliance photo: (L to R): Mayor Michael Bloomberg with President of the 78th Precinct Community Council Pauline Blake, and 78th Precinct Commanding Officer Deputy Inspector John Argenziano.

Civics and Urban Life

The Blog That Must Not Be Named on Cuil

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TheBlogThatMustNotBeNamed.com does not like Cuil, the new search engine developed by ex-Google employees. He, like so many others, was all set to embrace a viable alternative to Google.

My point in telling you all this is that I really
wanted to love Cuil – I would LOVE for Google’s demise to be made
hyper-imminent by a bunch of whiny ex-employees disgruntled because
Sergey stopped givin’ em free daycare. No dice – Cuil sucks the sweat off a dead man’s balls and is set to become iconic of failure like the twenty-first century boo.com.

Everyone wanted to like it. And a boatload of venture capitalists invest in it. The problem is this: it’s pretty bad. The Blog Must Not Be Named addresses a lot of the problems. But one thing really ticked him off:

5) The ultimate crime: Cuil can’t find blognigger, even when you search for it directly.
This is emblematic of the whole problem – when you search for
something, Cuil returns wacky shit based on searching MORE webpages,
instead of looking for what real people want. They couldn’t take my
search term, add ".com" to it and send it back? FAILS!

Postcard from the Slope

Galapagos Art Space In DUMBO is Open

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Galapagos Art Space, which started as a fascinatingly designed space complete with a waterfall in hipster Williamsburg, is now open at 15 Main Street in DUMBO. The space is the first certified LEED green cultural venue in New York City. Now that’s a distinction.

The new space is sure to have an interesting design. And interesting programming. I was told about (but forgot to post about) the DUMBO Kite Flying Society, a monthly event for kids. The first one was last weekend at Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Based has an interesting interview with Robert Elmes, the director of Galapagos Art Space. Aside from interesting programming, the space has an interesting mission:

The most basic function of the arts is to be relevant in   the advancement of society.
 

Galapagos does not accept government grants or public funding of any
kind. We believe that if the work we present is strong, communicative,
and effective, we will survive.
 

If we don’t produce strong, communicative and effective work then we
won’t survive – we’re not feeding the hungry: we make art. If we can’t
be grown-up about that  and stand up on our own, then we don’t think
we’d have anything interesting to tell you anyway.
 

This is New York City. One of the greatest cultural cities to have ever
risen; perhaps the greatest. We’re not sitting around dreaming of the
grant we applied for.
 

          We have our whole lives to live and that is   terribly important.
 

          Culture should reflect that   clearly.

The following is an excerpt from their website as to why they had to leave Williamsburg. Hint: They may be the first cultural institution that was priced out of Williambsurg and got a better deal in DUMBO (thanks to Two Trees and David Walentas).

We love Williamsburg, we were born here in 1995, but we simply can’t afford to remain in Williamsburg and produce the work that we feel is our most valuable contribution to the cultural ecosystem of New York City.

In December 2005 our rent went up by $10,000.00 a month.

Now, in order to extend our lease past November, our landlord requires a 30%
increase in rent.

As a venue, our core responsibility is to create audiences for the artists we present and help expand the cultural environment for the benefit of the community we live in.

In DUMBO we’ll be able to present the theater, dance, performance art, music, cinema, lectures / literary events, and the non profit fundraising that we believe is our core mission and the most important contribution we can make to our community.

It must be said that our landlords are lovely people who, way back in 1995, gave us an opportunity that no one else was willing to offer. The rent increases they’ve offered us are, incredibly, still below the market rate.

We’ll be working with them to make sure that 70 North 6 Street remains a venue of cultural significance and doesn’t become the North 6 Street’s next American Apparel or, god forbid, a Starbucks.

Postcard from the Slope

Yassky on Abaondoned And Decaying Barges

On Monday Citycouncilmember David Yassky and state assemblyman Eric Gioia spoke to the press about somthing that is not right in New York harbor: abandoned barges. And they pointed the finger of blame at the Pile Foundation Construction which has been allowing its barges to sink or decay. They’ve been cited in the past for violations. The following is an excerpt from the New York Times article.

On Monday, two City Council members and a state assemblyman announced their disgust with what they called a growing problem: abandoned construction barges and other vessels left to rust, buckle,
leak and eventually sink to the bottom of remote corners of rivers and
tributaries feeding Jamaica Bay.

In January, the National Parks
Service estimated that about 190 abandoned vessels — many of them small
boats, apparently privately owned — had been left to rot in the 25,000
acres that make up Jamaica Bay. Since then, about 40 vessels have been
removed, said Brian Feeney, a Parks Service spokesman.

In a news conference held by the East River in Manhattan on Monday, City Councilmen David Yassky and Eric Gioia said that abandoned industrial barges had become a threat to the health of city estuaries.

“For too long, it’s been the Wild West in New York Harbor,” Mr. Yassky said.

Since
2006, the officials said, one company in particular has repeatedly
tugged barges into Newtown Creek, in Brooklyn, and other New York
rivers and bays, to let them rot. Mr. Yassky said the company, Pile
Foundation Construction Co., of Hicksville, N.Y., was pursuing what he
called an intentional “abandon-and-sink strategy” within the city, and
must be stopped.

Civics and Urban Life

A Melodrama about Anna Nicole Smith

The following is a note from Tara Schuster, OTBKB reader and the playwright of  Be Brave, Anna! , which is playing in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival

Bringing together 20 artists from the gutter to tell the story of Anna
Nicole Smith, Be Brave, Anna! is a 19th century French melodrama of the life and
times of Anna Nicole Smith. Discover American virtue: trash, glitter,
ambition, and your own series on E! In a world of reality television,
YouTube confessionals, and celebrity worship, what’s a girl from Texas
to do?

According to Schuster, the show is definitely a comedy "but it is written out of love for Anna and all the blond bombshells before her," she wrote in an email.

The show has a website and is playing 8/15 at 6:45; 8/17 2:45; 8/21 9:45; 8/22 3:00; 8/23 3:30 at Venue 12 (115 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village). In the playwright’s own words:

The play began as my own investigation into
the significance of reality television and celebrity worship in
contemporary America. At the bequest of my playwriting professor at
Brown, Paula Vogel, I took off for Paris- I needed exile, I needed
language barriers, I needed to be alone. I was going to Paris to write-
but with no particular project in mind.

I
decided not to speak English, to completely immerse myself in my new
home. I was here to study the French melodrama and to write- no
distractions allowed. Well, almost no distractions. While living in my
14th century apartment (not as romantic as it sounds), I discovered the
sacred pages of Perezhilton.com. Whenever I felt lonely, or just wanted
a lifeline back to America I would check the pages, searching for
gossip, for glam, for, spectacle. As fate would have it, on my second
week in Paris, I was shocked to find out that Anna Nicole Smith had
died. In America, truth be told, I had never really thought about her,
or paid attention to her doings, but in Paris, I was transfixed by the
unfolding drama of her life and death. Something about her death-
something about the way it was plastered all over the pages of
PerezHilton.com, something about the spectacle, about the salacious
details, about the true timelessness of the event made me question what
it meant to be American, what it meant to want celebrity above all else.

The
more I researched the life of Anna, and the way her unfolding story was
being told, the more I saw that Anna’s life and death was not a
tragedy, but a melodrama. It seemed that Melodrama, a low-form of
theatre in 19th century was present in the black and white of reality
television. In melodrama as in reality television, the world is black
and white; life is reduced to a series of challenges, villains, and
heroes.

"Be Brave, Anna!" posits Anna as the
ultimate woman of American virtue. Wrongly accused of being a witch,
she ventures out of her native Texas to redeem her good name. Along the
way we meet J. Howard Marshall, the sweet billionaire, Virgie Mae, the
diabolical mother, and of course, Hugh Hefner, friend to the weak and
marginalized. Exploding with glitter, gesture, dance, and magic, "Be
Brave, Anna!" investigates fame and celebrity through the melodramatic
imagination.

 
 
 

Civics and Urban Life

Be A Food Demonstrator at Brooklyn’s First Trader Joe’s

Thanks to McBrooklyn for clueing me in on employment opportunities at Trader Joe’s. For more Brooklyn job opps, check out McB’s blog.

As everyone knows, I need a job and I need it bad (with benefits preferably).

For the Trader Joe’s job you must apply in person this week, Monday to Friday from 10 am until 7 pm. Should I?  

It’s really happening! Brooklyn’s Trader Joe’s is hiring Food Demonstrators and Crew Members. They are looking for:

"… a food-loving people-person who shops in our store and loves to entertain! If you like people, love food, are ambitious and adventuresome, enjoy smiling, and have a strong sense of values, Trader Joe’s is definitely for you. Come be part of the excitement!"

Food Demonstrator Qualifications: "The ideal Food Demonstrator will have a passion for people, be gracious and outgoing, and be a self-starter who’s organized and a team player. We’re looking for someone who can create an exciting, warm, fun and friendly shopping environment. Lots of customer interaction. This is a great job for a real people-person. Familiarity with Trader Joe’s products a plus. High school graduate preferred. Trader Joe’s is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse crew.

Postcard from the Slope

Gowanus Lounge: Bagel Wars on Seventh Avenue

My friend Bob Guskind over at Gowanus Lounge read about it on the  Brooklynian grape vine and now he’s blogging ’bout a bagel war on Seventh Avenue.

According to Bob, a new bagel place may be going into the one un-rented spot where D’Agostino used to be (Seventh Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets). Right there next to Five Guys Burgers and The Bank of America (with the comfy looking seating area).

What’s up with that? Why there’s La bagel Delight on Fifth Street just one block away. Can’t wait to talk to the guys over at La bagel about this rumor/news. They’ll know what’s going on and most likely have loads of attitude about it.

Postcard from the Slope

If It’s Tuesday: Jenny Scheinman at Barbes

Jenny Scheinman will be playing tonight at Barbes, Park Slope’s eclectic music space on 9th Street near Sixth Avenue.

For those who don’t know, she is a violinist/composer, who works with a variety of performers
including Norah Jones, Bill Frisell, Madeleine Peyroux and John Zorn.

She is in residence at Barbes most Tuesdays with an almost infinite variety of
lineup. This week, with steve cardenas (guitar).

Scheinman currently has two new CD releases: Jenny Scheinman (her vocal debut) and Crossing the Field (an instrumental extravaganza).

Later in the evening: Northeastern Brazilian Dance Party is Brooklyn’s first Brazilian brass band, will play the music of
Pernambuco such as Coco, Forro, Ciranada and Maracatu. Sounds fun.

Civics and Urban Life

In Park Slope The Farmer Is Your Friend

There’s an interesting article in New York Magazine about Amy Hepworth, the farmer who supplies the Park Slope Food Coop with 111 varieties of vegetables and 53 types of fruit, including Winesaps aplles, Ginger Golds, swee CandyCrisps, and plums. She’s a real superstar in these parts.

The meet-the-farmer mania is characterized by a desire for personal
connection. “In the past, people would call me and ask, ‘Where can I
pick apples? Where can I pick pumpkins?’ ” says Coop produce buyer
Allen Zimmerman. “The thought of a farm being ‘our’ farm is new.” Our
farm. Meet your farmer. I went to hear Hepworth speak at the Coop
because I really had come to consider her my farmer: It was like a
brand preference; I’d buy anything she grew, from a purple cauliflower
to a doughnut peach. I liked the idea that I was buying from an actual
person, from an Amy. “Farming for the most part is a man’s world,” says Zimmerman. At the Coop, “Amy is a legend. People meet her and they swoon.”

"When Hepworth gave the community a shout-out—“I love the Coop so
much!”—I almost expected to hear the audience respond with a whoop,
like when the lead singer says the name of your town. Amy Hepworth
feeds Park Slope, where the children are organically grown, the parents
are locavores, and—as I realized that night—the farmers are rock stars."

Postcard from the Slope

Brooklyn’s Greenest Block: And The Winner Is

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The suspense is killing me: On Wednesday at 10 am the winner of the 14th annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn award will be announced. The ceremony will take place on the winning block. So obviously they cannot reveal where the ceremony is taking place until…

Mum’s the word. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Greenbridge program hasn’t spilled the beans yet. So we’ll all have to wait until Wednesday to find out which block in Brooklyn has the prettiest stoop gardens, the nicest window boxes, the loveliest trees.

Will it be in Park Slope, Bed-Stuy, Ft. Greene, Cobble Hill, Ditmas Park…???

It must be soooo hard to pick. Initially there were over 200 blocks entered in the competition. The most ever. Fourteen years and this contest has become a big deal in Brooklyn.

Now the winner is…

First place winner gets a prize of $300 bucks. Runner’s up get $150-200. Loads of politicians should be on site for the festivities on Wednesday, as well as the judges (horticulturalists, journalists, gardeners, etc.) and the interested public.

See you there wherever THERE is.

Postcard from the Slope

You Can Help Victims of Prospect Lefferts Fire

Here’s a way you can help some victims of the Friday night fire at Prospect Lefferts Gardens.

Our friends lived in the apartment building in
Prospect
Lefferts Garden
where the fire occurred on Friday night and they lost all of their belongings
and their home. We are trying to raise money to get them back on their feet.
We would greatly appreciate it if you could let people know about our site http://csurics.com/helpjj where we are
currently collecting donations.

Postcard from the Slope

Wednesday: Union Hall Curates Music At The Bridge

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Now that I’ve been to an event at Brooklyn Bridge Park I am a real booster for events over there. Last week’s Movies With A View showing of Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole was a fabulous night of cinema and views.

Wedneday night is the last of the Music at the Bridge series. A great concept:  Get some major venues in Brooklyn like Barbes, Zebulon, Issue Project Room, and Union Hall to curate a night of music associated with that venue.

Last week’s Issue Project Room event was a veritable who’s who’s of the New York avant garde music scene. And the Union Hall show not only features a very Union Hall music line-up but will also have The Secret Science Club, a much loved act at Union Hall.

Get there
early to get a seat for what is sure to be a packed show, featuring:

The French Kicks
Headlights
Tiny Masters of Today
The Secret Science Club
hosted by comedian Dave Hill

All shows are in Brooklyn Bridge Park, in the historic Tobacco
Warehouse. Enter at 1 Main St. Doors at 6pm, show starts at 6:30pm.

Postcard from the Slope

New Groundswell Mural on Fourth Avenue And Sackett

Groundswell Community Mural Project is working on five murals around Brooklyn – all created by teens working
with local artists. You may have seen some of this group’s work along Fourth Avenue or on Washington Avenue.

The group is eager to spread the word about two of the new murals: one
in Park Slope, the other on 23rd Street in Sunset Park.

On Fourth Avenue and Sackett Street, teens are hard at work on a monumental mural about the importance of protecting and conserving the water
supply in New York. This group of teens, who are part of Groundswell’s
Summer Leadership Institute, have met with the Department of
Environmental Protection and visited key sites of importance for the delivery of safe, clean drinking water to the city.

Under the auspices of this program, 80 young people, ages 14-21, are right now
working with professional artists to transform walls in Brooklyn with a message
of environmental protection and respect.

Atlantic Yards

Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Case Filed on Friday

On Friday nine property owners and tenants—with homes and businesses New York State wants to seize for developer Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project—filed a petition with the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court seeking an order rejecting the Empire State Development Corporation’s (ESDC) findings and determination to seize their homes and businesses by eminent domain. The case will probably go to court in January 2009. Here’s the press release from  Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn:

"New York Courts have a proud history of interpreting the New York Constitution as providing greater protections for individual rights than the federal constitution.  This case presents an opportunity to continue that tradition by declaring that the New York Constitution prohibits the government from seizing private homes simply to turn them over to a developer who covets them for a massive luxury condominium project," said lead attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP.  "We are confident that the court will see this for what it is:  government officials bending to the will of Bruce Ratner, allowing him to wield the power of eminent domain for his personal financial benefit."

Facing the seizure of their homes and businesses, the petitioners have alleged five claims against the ESDC— the condemning authority utilized by Forest City Ratner to take the petitioners’ properties and give them to Forest City Ratner. The five claims are that the ESDC’s determination to forcibly seize the properties should be rejected because:

1. It violates the public use clause contained in the Bill of Rights of the New York Constitution.
ESDC’s claims of public benefit are a pretext to justify a private taking.

2. It violates the due process clause contained in the Bill of Rights of the New York Constitution.
The public process was a sham.  The outcome was predetermined in a back room deal between Ratner, Pataki and Bloomberg.

3. It violates the equal protection clause contained in the Bill of Rights of the New York Constitution.
By singling out the petitioners, for unequal, adverse, treatment, and selecting Ratner as the recipient of irrational largess, the ESDC violated the petitioners’ right to equal protection under the law.

4. It violates the low-income and current resident requirements of the New York Constitution.
The New York State Constitution provides that no loan or subsidy shall be made to aid any project unless the project contains a plan for the remediation of blight and the "occupancy of any such project shall be restricted to persons of low income as defined by law and preference shall be given to persons who live or shall have lived in such area or areas."
The Atlantic Yards project is not "restricted to persons of low income" and no preference has been given to "persons who live or shall have lived in such area."

5. It violates the "public use, benefit or purpose" requirement contained in New York’s Eminent Domain Procedure Law (EDPL).

ESDC’s determination that petitioners’ homes and businesses will serve a "public use, benefit or purpose" has no basis in fact or law.

The petition to the Court for the case, Goldstein et al. v. Empire State Development Corporation, can be downloaded at: www.dddb.net/eminentdomain

Postcard from the Slope

Brooklyn’s Greenest Block to Be Announced on August 6th

Fifty-nine semifinalists have been selected in the 2008 Greenest Block
in Brooklyn Contest! Contest winners were selected through a rigorous
process by an expert panel of judges that included professional
horticulturists from Brooklyn Botanic Garden, metro area horticulture
professionals, gardening journalists, and other New York City greening
organizations.

For a list of the semi-finalists go here.

On Wednesday, August 6, 2008 the press conference will be held at 10 a.m. at
the winning block—stay tuned for notification on Tuesday, August 5,
2008.

Remarks will be made by Scot
Medbury, President of Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Marilyn Gelber,
Executive Director of Independence Community Foundation; and Brooklyn
Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Committed to helping improve the urban landscape, Brooklyn
GreenBridge promotes neighborhood gardening programs, classes,
workshops, and events. Working with block associations, community
gardens, businesses, and social service organizations, Brooklyn
GreenBridge extends Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s resources in order to
connect people with plants, and to engage Brooklyn communities and
residents in a unified greening effort.

The Contest is coordinated in cooperation with the Borough President Marty Markowitz and sponsored by the Sovereign Bank Endowment Fund at Independence Community Foundation.


 

Postcard from the Slope

Gross: Rats on the Southwest Side of Prospect Park

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I just got this email about rats in Prospect Park.

I don’t want to start any panics but this might be important especially to parents. The past week or so I have come across three rats in Prospect Park on the Prospect Park Southwest side in the vicinity of the children’s playground off of Vanderbilt. Each encounter was not in the playground but some 25 to 50 yards (as best I could guess) away on the inside path.

I reported this to the parks department via 311 after my last encounter. That was the most chilling as I literally walked into one. I was “speed” walking on the interior walk and it was fairly dark from the shade and I wasn’t looking at the ground. So I don’t know if it was just standing there or if it had run across my feet. But I did see it scramble away . . .

Smartmom

Smartmom: The Empty Nesters of Park Slope

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

Sleepaway camp has really changed since the days Smartmom was a camper at various northeastern summer getaways.

As a kid, she went to camp for eight weeks every summer, a nice long
stretch of time to adjust to a change in scenery, a new cast of
characters and a healthy taste of self-reliance.

At the same time, Smartmom’s parents got a major vacation from being
parents. They came to visit on visiting weekend, took her out to lunch
and dinner and that was that. They had eight blissful weeks to
themselves.

Smartmom remembers crying her eyes out on the last day of her
favorite camp. She actually didn’t want to go home and it took a few
days to get back in the swing of things on the Upper West Side.

She never really found out what her parents did while she was away.
But she sort of assumed they weren’t exactly pining for her return.

So it was an even trade. Smartmom loved her time away at camp, and her parents loved their time to be alone.

While plenty of Park Slope kids go to camp for eight weeks, most
go away for two or four. Many parents don’t admit
to needing a vacation from their kids. That would be sacrilege: a form
of child abuse. Not wanting to be around your kids 24/7? Why, that’s a
sign of bad parenting.

But parents do need the break — and need to stop feeling guilty about it.

Since the beginning of July, Smartmom has run into more than a few
summer empty-nesters tooling around the Slope, having romantic dinners,
catching a first-run flick or just holding hands on a nighttime stroll
through the neighborhood (remember those?).

1328821789_22b1707305
t’s not that these parents don’t miss their kids. It’s just that
they enjoy taking a break from being parents. Smartmom likes it
so much that she booked a week at the Sea Breeze on Block Island to
revel in alone time (she takes a break from Hepcat, too).

Smartmom was lucky that Hepcat was willing to stay home to supervise Teen Spirit while she was writing fiction at the beach.

Some parents are clearly enjoying their kid-holiday, but some look
bereft. They miss their kids and can’t wait for their return. In a
sense, summer camp is empty-nest practice, a stage of life that
terrifies many. It’s as hard for some parents to be
away from their children as it is for their kids to be away from them.

But it’s not like you can’t e-mail your kid as many times a day as you want. At the Oh So Feisty One’s camp, parents can e-mail their kids on a password-protected Web site. The kids, however, cannot e-mail back.

Whatever happened to sending a heartfelt letter or postcard? I miss you. Please write. Hope you’re having fun.

The problem with e-mail access is that Smartmom feels remiss if she
doesn’t send OSFO one, two, even three electronic updates a day (after
all, The Brooklyn Paper is now posting news stories every single day!).
Smartmom can just imagine the dining hall debacle. Some kid gets pages
and pages of e-mails. Poor OSFO looks up hopefully. “Nothing for you,
kid. Sorry.”

It just breaks Smartmom’s heart.

And it’s not just e-mail. Nowadays, you can literally obsess over
your child’s experience in camp. Some camps post photos on the camp Web
site. Other camps actually have a video camera in the dining hall.

Smartmom has to admit that she spent way too much of her alone time
on Block Island checking to see if there was a picture of OSFO on her
camp’s Web site. When she couldn’t find something for days, she
considered calling the camp and telling the organizers to put something
there. Or else.

Finally, Smartmom found two photographs of her OSFO
participating in a camp-wide Olympics. From what Smartmom could tell.
OSFO looked very engaged and even (dare she say it?) happy.

It was a huge relief to see that picture. Especially as it came just a day after OSFO’s first letter arrived by snail mail.

“Dear Mom and Dad, I like camp — sometimes. I have to take swim classes and I really hate them. The food is bad!”

OSFO’s white stationery was covered in frowning faces. And in teeny
tiny letters near the bottom of the page it said, “I am kinda homesick.”

Talk about writer’s block on Block Island! Smartmom could barely
type a word after Hepcat read her that letter over the phone. Sure, the
letter was written on the second day of camp (what kid isn’t miserable
on day two?), but it certainly put a damper on Smartmom’s creativity
(insert Smartmom’s creativity joke here!).

When Smartmom got back from Block Island, she found another letter
in the mailbox. It was written a full four days after the last one. In
big block letters, OSFO wrote:

“NEVERMIND. Camp is fine.”

And there were loads of smiley faces.

Relief and happiness coursed through Smartmom’s veins. That night,
she and Hepcat spent their first night of freedom together. They tried
Park Slope’s new Five Guys Burgers and later had margaritas at the
Miracle Grill, where she saw some summer empty-nesters.

“Your kids are in camp?” she asked.

“Yes, but we just got a call that our youngest son is homesick,” the mom said. “We’re about to talk to him.”

She saw their cellphone on the table, and Smartmom felt a pang in her heart. She remembered that first letter from OSFO.

“Give it a few days,” she told her friends. “He’ll be fine.” And she
meant it. Before they know it, the kids will be back. Summer
empty-nesting season will be over and life as a family will resume.

Until next summer, that is. Might as well enjoy your romantic dinner for two.

Photo by La Tartine Gourmande on Flickr

Civics and Urban Life

E. Williamsburgers Save Their Businesses

The following is by verse responder Leon Freilich. He saw the story in the New York Times.

Brooklyn food sellers win again. First in Red Hook, now in East Williamsburg, where vendors have triumphed over city bureaucrats and saved their business. Inn this case it’s the Moore Street Retail Market.

New York City’s Economic Development Corporation, which controls the early-20th Century public market, had planned to close close vendors’ stalls, displace them and raze replace the building to make way for new housing.

But the vendors collected 25,000 signatures, including those of local bigs Rep. Nydia Velazquez and Assemblyman Vito Lopez, on a petition. Also helping them keep their businesses running in the Latino community was none other than President. Bush.

His contribution was tilting the national economy toward the collapse point, leaving little money for new construction.

Every cloud has a Bush lining. If only.

Civics and Urban Life

Comings and Goings on Seventh Avenue

2 Comments

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A quick walk around Park Slope reveals that summer has wrought some changes on Seventh Avenue.

Applewares is vacating its space at 548 10th St., nr. Seventh Avenue. Not so long ago I announced its opening by running this blurb from New York Magazine:  " lTo
save themselves a trip into Manhattan for every new kitchen gadget,
Applewood’s David and Laura Shea opened a tiny kitchen-supply shop last
week, stocking everything from side towels to “a cheap plastic peeler that really works.”

It was a lovely shop but I think the location—just off Seventh Avenue—probably did them in.

Diana Kane is vacating her Seventh Avenue space near Berkeley Place. I think the location, the limited selection (and sizes) of merchandise, and the price point probably doomed that location. Her very successful shop on Fifth Avenue, will, of course, stay open. There she features a broader selection of jewelry, lingerie, clothing, bags, beauty items and more.

As for shops going in, OSFO noticed that the For Rent sign is no longer on the space that was Seventh Avenue Books. It’s been vacant since last summer, when that used book store went out of business. No sign of what’s going in. Yet.

Kids Rx, as everyone now knows, is going into the Second Street Cafe space on Second Street and Seventh Avenue. Kids Rx has a branch on Hudson Street in Manhattan and will carry all manner of children’s
health items and that’s a broad term. In addition to being a pharmacy,
they carry baby products with an emphasis on organic and natural,
homeopathics, vitamins, skin care, hair care, dental care, household
items, gift baskets, gifts baskets and a baby registry.

Flipsters is a new burger joint at 444 9th Street.  It used to be the Brooklyn Burger Bar so I hear that’s there’s a new owner and a completely new menu, which includes, burgers, sandwiches, and shakes. Would you like fries with that?

Five Guys Burgers is off to a successful start across from Methodist Hospital on Seventh Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets. It’s got a clean, bright red and white look. They give out free peanuts. You get to choose from, like, 20 toppings to put on your burger. The service is fast and the burgers are good. What can I say? I enjoyed myself except that the air conditioning is way too cold. Hepcat says it’s the closest thing on the east coast to In ‘N’ Out Burger, a big Hepcat fave only in California. (Photo above by Slice on Flickr.)

Carmen’s Exclusives for Children has been open for about a month now. That shop, which features slightly old fashioned and expensive looking children’s clothing isn’t hopping with business yet. I’m guessing they have a successful web  business. Remains to be scene whether the nabe will take to their style of clothing—and prices. 

Postcard from the Slope

Urban Environment: NYCSustainability Beat

Here is a snapshot of sustainability issues that faced the borough and the city in the month of July. The links were compiled by Rebecca Welch Associate Director of Public Affairs, at the Center for the Urban Environment. To Learn more about the Center, go here. www.bcue.org

Report:
Small Downtown Brooklyn Retailers Being Forced Out [ Brooklyn
Daily Eagle]

Bike-Friendly
Businesses Honored By Advocates [NY 1]

Report
Rates Orchard Beach City’s Most Polluted [Daily News]

Reading
the River and Its Contents, With an Eye on Its Health [NY Times]

Paterson
Approves Law on Risky Gas Drilling [ Albany
Times Union ]

Urban
Environmentalist NYC: Tri-State Biodiesel [Gowanus Lounge] *

Maybe
Beloved Shops Don’t Have To Disappear [City Limits]

Survey
Shows Parks Deteriorating [ Brooklyn
Eagle]

17
Projects Honored by Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce [Brownstoner]
*    

Helping
Building Owners Go Green [CityRoom]

Federal
Help Sought for Newtown Creek [Daily News]

Bike-Share
Coming to NYC? DOT Says It Will Test the Waters [streetsblog]

How
the City Has Reduced Soot [ Gotham
Gazette]

Keeping
City Beaches Safe and Clean [ Gotham
Gazette]

Is
‘Green’ the Place to Look for Job Growth? [City Limits]

A
Locally Grown Diet With Fuss but No Muss [NYT]

IS
‘Green’ The Place to Look For Job Growth? [City Limits]

Bloomberg
Proposes Plan for City to Make Eco-friendly Upgrades [Daily News]

The
Unanticipated Impacts of Rezoning and Development in Downtown Brooklyn [Report-Pratt] 

Green
State Lawmakers. [Report-Environmental Advocates of
New York ]

 

Postcard from the Slope

Not Only Brooklyn Says: Lots To Do On Saturday

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Thanks to Neil Feldman, who writes the Not Only Brooklyn, I  have the following info. I strongly urge you to sign up for his wonderful free newsletter about free cultural events in Brooklyn but not limited to Brooklyn.

Email Neil directly, with the message "Subscribe to NOB" and your first and last name, so it is legal for him to add you to the subscription list. And now, here’s what Neil has planned for you this Saturday.

You may see Neil at one of these events. He gets around on a bike and tries to make it to a lot of the things he’s so passionate about. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Neil’s newsletter.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, Neil says Celebrate Brooklyn is the place to be when they celebrates the life and art of Ezra Jack Keats the prize winning artist and children’s books author and illustrator.

He is considered the first children’s author to place his diverse characters in urban environments, an unknowing pioneer of the multi-culturalism he saw growing up in Brooklyn decades before the concept had a name. He also used collage to illustrate his beautiful books. Performing in his honor are adults who understand children. Jamaican reggae and ska singer Rankin Don, who has come to Brooklyn and become Father Goose is perhaps the only children’s entertainer who uses the Caribbean musics. The Sippy Cups are California parents of pre-schoolers who have learned to entertain from their own children. Brooklyn singer-songwriter star Joan Osborne totally rocked out the Celebrate Brooklyn show she headlined last summer, but today she will read from Keats’s books between music sets, as will actor James McDaniel, probably best known for playing Lt. Arthur Fancy on NYPD Blue. Born in 1916 as Jacob Ezra Katz at 438 Vermont St in East New York, he felt compelled to legally change his name after serving in WW II due to the anti-Semitism he encountered in the publishing industry. FREE, but $3 at the gate keeps it great. Prospect Park Bandshell near 9th St & Prospect Park West.

From 5-11 p.m. follow Neil to the Brooklyn Museum’s Target First Saturday:

This is this month’s edition of the best, most heterogeneous FREE! party in NYC will have a distinct Caribbean accent, in honor of the annual world famous West Indian American Day Carnival on September 1, which will be sponsoring steel pan music, stilt walkers and more outside the Museum beginning at 3. Explore the weblinks for full details of the dance groups, film, author reading, gallery talks, Cuban film Life is to Whistle and outdoor dance party with Reggae Retro and Judah Tribe.

From 7 p.m. until midnight, Neil is off to Coney Island for some roller skating fun:

Dreamland Roller Rink celebrates its opening with a blow out party on wheels, with
DJ Julio, Gotham Girls Roller Derby, skate dancers, burlesque and more! You may recall NOB recommending the June fund raisers to help designer Lola Staar, who had a dream of transforming the former Childs Restaurant in Coney Island into a people’s rock rink. She did it!
$10, skate rentals $5. 3052 W 21st St on the Boardwalk.

And at 8 p.m. groove on over to Rooftop Films with Neil for some Home Movies:

Every year Rooftop hosts a program of Home Movies. Usually unfiltered, these films reveal feelings or fleeting incidents that might otherwise pass without thought, but when recorded can provide insights. This dozen films between one and 29 minutes long in this year’s program are different. They are less about the immediate moment than about the reflected moment—less web cam and more video diary.

Serving Park Slope and Beyond