Postcard from the Slope

Brian Lehrer Wins Peabody Award

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This isn’t really a Brooklyn story; it’s a NYC story. Yet, so many from Brooklyn listen to and call into the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC that I had to mention it:

WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show has been recognized with a George Foster Peabody Award for broadcast excellence in 2007.

Here’s what the judges had to say: “Lehrer’s talk show is a wide open yet shrewdly managed forum in which every sort of political, social and cultural issue is considered and where New Yorkers, in all their diversity, can get to know each other.”

How true. I am an avid listening of his show. Why, I listen to his show at least three times a week. And his election coverage has been fantastic, too.

As a blogger, I have also been on Lehrer’s radio show, as well as his CUNY television show. So I’ve met Brian Lehrer!

According to the press release I received from the WNYC publicist, David Bukszpan:

“Segments from the show submitted to the Peabody Committee centered on the theme “Radio That Builds Community Rather Than Divides.” Topics included conversations on gentrification and the black middle class; a recurring series of eye-level reports from Baghdad by Time Baghdad bureau chief, Bobby Ghosh; efforts to find a middle ground in the Middle East; “Democracy’s Living Room,” the show’s listener call-in segments on the politics of citizenship; a debate on branding the Bronx with the tagline, “Yes the Bronx”; and the program’s innovative crowdsourcing initiative, a form of citizen journalism that asks listeners to report on a single issue from their own perspective and then analyzes the overall results

The Brian Lehrer Show airs weekdays from 10am-noon on 93.9 FM and AM 820, and is available for on-demand streaming and downloading at www.wnyc.org.

Civics and Urban Life

Only the Blog Links

Brooklyn a go go (Found in Brooklyn)

Carroll Garden garden gnomes (Pardon Me for Asking)

Fabulous cup cakes (Eat Drink Memory)

Brennan introduces an alternative congestion pricing bill (Streetsblog)

Inserting nature at Ikea (Callalillie)

Brooklyn fire injures 10, including 5 firefighters (NY 1)

Assembly debates congestion pricing (NY 1)

East River waterfalls by Public Art Fund (NY 1)

Hear SAB on the radio (Self-Absorbed Boomer)

Civics and Urban Life

Earth Week in Prospect Park

Eugene Patron, who keeps me up to date on events in Prospect Park, sent me word that April 19 – 27 is Earth Week. And boy there’s a lot of ways that kids and adults can learn what to do to help the environment. The Prospect Park Audubon Center, which is celebrating its sixth birthday, is just one of many locations in the Park with special programs heralding the arrival of spring, and environmental education for the whole family. Interestingly, the festivities are sponsored by Ikea Movers Not Shakers.

Saturday April 19

Prospect Park Youth Council Pre-Earth Day Celebration
Time: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Location: Youth Resource Center at Bowling Green Cottage (Prospect Park Parade Ground).
Details: Get a jump on celebrating Earth Day (April 22) with the Prospect Park Youth Council! Activities include gardening, removing of invasive weeds and plants, and reconstruction of flowerbeds and veggie gardens. Learn about what we can do as individuals and families to reduce waste and conserve energy. And soothe what ails you by learning holistic remedies to common ailments. Free.

Hands on New York
Time: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Location: Meet at the Endale Arch on the north end of the Long Meadow.
Details: In partnership with New York Cares, help shore up walking paths along the Long Meadow and manicure its magnificent trees. Walk-ins are welcome. Call (718) 965-8960 for more information.

Sunday April 19 & 20
Environmental Education Day
Date: Sunday, April 20
Time: 12 – 5 p.m.
Location: Prospect Park Audubon Center
Details: Start off your environmental education week at the Audubon Center with a day of learning about your local ecosystem in Prospect Park. Make crafts with recycled materials, take a Discover Tour, and learn how nature can make you happier! All events free.

April 21 – 27

Earth Week and Exhibition at the Audubon Center
Time: 12 – 5 p.m. every day
Location: Prospect Park Audubon Center
Details: Earth Week at the Prospect Park Audubon Center will have a different theme each day, with programming for environmentalists of all ages. Learn how to do your part through lectures, tours, activities, film screenings, workshops, recyclable crafts, and a daily exhibit. View works and an installation by artist Jessica Baker, who prints geometric designs on leaves found in Prospect Park and other parts of Brooklyn. Visit ww.prospectpark.org for a full listing of activities and events — all free.

Special Events Saturday, April 26 at the Prospect Park Audubon Center:
B’EarthDay Bash, 1 – 4 p.m. Celebrate the birthdays of John James Audubon, Frederick Law Olmsted and James Stranahan. At 2 p.m. Lloyd Miller of the Deedle Deedle Dees and friends will perform a special, musical birthday celebration. There will also be arts and crafts, plus birthday cake. Artist’s reception, 5 – 8 p.m. Enjoy a public reception with live music for artist Jessica Baker’s Leaf & Circle exhibit at the Audubon Center. Free.

Civics and Urban Life

Aristocrats Pushing Out Yuppies in The Onion’s Park Slope

ReportnationsjumprAs reported on Gowanus Lounge, The Onion pokes a bit of fun with some cool photoshopping at Park Slope in its current issue. I happen to know that a local dad writes for the humor magazine from time to time and is a very funny guy in his own right. Maybe he had something to do with this.

Many of those affected by the ostentatious reshaping of their once purely upmarket neighborhoods said that they often wish for a return back to the privileged communities they helped to overdevelop just a few years ago. Among the first to feel the effects of the encroaching aristocracy have been local business owners like Fort Greene, Brooklyn resident Neil Getz.

“Around here, you used to be able to get a Fair-Trade latte and a chocolate-chip croissant for only eight bucks,” said Getz, who is planning to move back in with his parents after being forced out of the lease on his organic grocery store by a harpsichord purveyor. “Now it’s all tearooms and private salon gatherings catered with champagne and suckling pig. Who can afford that?”

Incoming aristocrats are easily spotted by their distinctive dress and taste for chamber music.

“It’s just a terrible shame,” Getz continued. “There was this great little shop right across the street from my duplex apartment where I bought my baby daughter a Ramones onesie a couple of years ago, just after she was born. That whole block is an opera house now.”

The aristocracy has adamantly dismissed claims that the sweeping changes are detrimental to the merely wealthy who have been displaced, and many persons of noble blood have pointed to aristocratization’s benefits. These include lower crime rates attributed to new punishments, such as public floggings and the pillory, which are primarily meted out for maintaining direct eye contact with members of the highest class.”

Civics and Urban Life

Councilmembers Yassky and de Blasio To Unveil State-of-the-Art Computer Lab at MS 447

This school, also knows as The Math and Science Exploratory School, is a small, innovative middle school that is already very HOT. But now with this new computer lab…

The unveiling is tomorrow.

Councilmembers de Blasio and David Yassky provided funding for the technology lab. The grants were awarded to the school upon learning that the school would be moving from one location to another. The total cost of the technology lab which includes complete reconstruction, wiring, furniture and technological equipment was $335,000.00.

The new lab will have a total of 15 Apple desktops and 16 wireless laptops networked with the most current operating system, and application software. The lab also has an interactive Smartboard for whole class lesson presentation. MS 447 (The Math & Exploratory School) has grades 6 to 8 with a total of 457 students.

When: 11AM –Thursday, April 3, 2008

Where: MS 447, 345 Dean Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY

Postcard from the Slope

Yesterday Was Sweet Melissa’s 10th Anniversary

She started the shop in Cobble Hill ten years ago yesterday. And tonight she’s having a book launch party, and that if anyone has a book they’d like me to sign, or wants to stop by for a glass of Champagne…

The book looks fantastic, complete with her recipe for her magnificent bread pudding. And there will probably be Sweet Melissa sweets at the party.

At the shop in Park Slope on 7th Avenue near 1st Street.

real estate

US Supreme Court Asked to Hear AY Eminent Domain Case

From the Develop Don’t Destroy press release:

BROOKLYN, NY— Eleven property owners and tenants have filed a petition asking the Supreme Court of the United States to hear their eminent domain appeal, which was dismissed on February 1 by the Second Circuit Court. The petition provides the Court with an important opportunity to address the appropriate constitutional limits on the government’s power to seize private homes for the benefit of powerful real estate developers like Bruce Ratner.

In 2003 developer Forest City Ratner’s (FCR) CEO Bruce Ratner targeted the plaintiffs’ homes and businesses (and many others) for acquisition and then convinced then Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg to agree to seize the properties and transfer them to Ratner so he could build his proposed 16-skyscraper-and-arena complex known as Atlantic Yards in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Given the mammoth scale and footprint of the project, Atlantic Yards is dependent on the use of eminent domain; it cannot be built unless Ratner succeeds in wresting the properties from the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs filed their original complaint in October 2006. Their suit, Goldstein et al v. Pataki et al, named former Governor Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg, the Empire State Development Corporation, Bruce Ratner and others as defendants. The plaintiffs argued that the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards project violates the United States Constitution because the taking of their property is not primarily for the public’s benefit. While Ratner claims that the project is justified as a public benefit, in fact Ratner is the only who stands to gain and handsomely so from the seizure of plaintiffs’ homes and businesses…

Read more here.

BROOKLYN READING WORKS

Fiction x Three at Brooklyn Reading Works: April 10th

Sheila_2This should be a great reading at Brooklyn Reading Works. Renowned author Sheila Kohler will read from her novel of the French Revolution, Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness.

A radiant and artful novel based on the life of Lucy Dillon, an 18th-century French aristocrat. Her intelligence, beauty, and lack of pretension made Lucy a favorite of luminaries like Talleyrand and Germaine de Staël — and equipped her to survive the “Terror” that swept France in the wake of the Revolution. Possessed of considerable wit and practicality, Lucy manages to keep her beloved husband and small children safe while all her former circle, including King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, are guillotined.

Barbara Ensor will read excerpts from her funny, modern twists on fairy tales, including Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Story), Thumbalina; Tiny Runaway Bride, and Little Red Riding Hood.

Martin Kleinman will read from his new fiction.

Brooklyn Reading Works
The Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope
info; 718-288-4290
louisecrawford(at)gmail (dot)com

Civics and Urban Life

Pretty Agnes and Handsome Floyd: Cats Need A Home

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A woman needs to find a home for her two beloved cats:

Due to family circumstances, i must find a new home for my lovely cats. Please pass this along to ANYONE you can think of. I need all the help I can get! I am also attaching a word document flyer if you work some where that might be a good spot for posting it, and have the time to do so, i would really appreciate it. I am also listing it on a few websites. THANKS!

Img_1021Lovely Agnes is a gorgeous pale orange tabby. She is an amazing feline that is as sweet as she is pretty! Agnes is a very affectionate cat that loves to be loved. She is smart and will definitely be your best buddy! Agnes will quickly turn your gloomy day into sunshine with all of the warmth and love that she has to offer.

Agnes is 8 years young and is trained as an indoor cat. She does enjoy exploring the outdoors too. Agnes is spayed, current on vaccines … and very healthy! We keep her claws neat and trimmed and just doesn’t mind nail trims one bit.

Dsc_0312Meet Floyd … this dashing black/white tuxedo is simply the best cat ever! He is a beautiful and sleek cat that enjoys human (and feline!) companionship. Floyd is smart, curious, and an all around great cat. This cat will quickly melt your heart! He loves to cuddle and is gentle with everyone he meets.

Floyd is 8 years young and is trained as an indoor cat. Floyd is neutered, current on vaccines … and very healthy! We keep his claws neat and trimmed and doesn’t mind nail trims one bit!

If you are interested in inviting two cats into your life, they certainly make a lovely duo but they can be adopted out separately. Both beauties are neutered and up to date on all vet exams and shots. Asking adoption fee, for safety reasons.

If interested in finding out more about this fabulous felines,
please contact Jenny: jenny(at)jennyladen(dot)com

Civics and Urban Life

Brooklyn Councilmembers 9-7 Against Congestion Pricing

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Thanks Brownstoner for the Brooklyn breakdown of who did and who didn’t vote for congestion pricing in Brooklyn:

For Congestion Pricing: 

Simcha Felder, Sara M. Gonzalez, Letitia James, Domenic M. Recchia, Kendall Stewart, Albert Vann, and David Yassky—voted for the plan. 

Against Congestion Pricing: 

Diana Reyna, Charles Barron, Bill de Blasio, Erik Martin Dilan, Mathieu Eugene, Lewis A. Fidler, Vincent J. Gentile, Darlene Mealy, and Michael C. Nelson

Note – the headlines were backwards for a while this morning , thanks to Kim for pointing out the error

Postcard from the Slope

Are You Having Trouble With Your Yahoo Mail?

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I was having trouble last night, too. Hepcat was on an on-line discussion group and found out that other Yahoo users were also having trouble. Here’s a solution for now:

If you are getting an error message that says: “Your requested url was not found.” You will also see this in the address bar: mg2.mail.yahoo.com

add: us.
so that it reads: us.mg2.mail.yahoo.com

and you should get yahoo mail.

Civics and Urban Life

Paul Simon’s Monthlong Residency at BAM Begins Today

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Love in Hard Times, The Music of Paul Simon, is produced by my high school friend, Chris Wangro. Go Chris.

This unprecedented month-long residency at BAM begins with Songs From Cape Man from April 1-6.

This month, Paul Simon collaborates with an extraordinary range of artists to offer three musical constellations from the career of one of America’s greatest songwriters.

Latin beats and 50s doo-wop fill New York City’s nights with Songs from The Capeman. In Under African Skies, Simon rekindles a love affair with the sounds of South Africa and Brazil which began with his masterpieces Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints. Finally, Simon revisits the quiet railway stations, urban rhythms, and immigrant dreams of his greatest American Tunes.

For tickets go here.

VERSE RESPONDER: LEON FREILICH

The Oh So Prolific One: Leon Freilich, Verse Responder

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Racklock! When’s the last time you didn’t bash into a snarl of newsracks on Seventh Avenue? And snarkers gripe about Slope strollers. The situation’s even worse in the borough across the river, leading the Municipal Art Society to create a short documentary it calls “Outrage.” It’s now a YouTuber:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=OUTRAGE%21+Nasty+Newsracks+Movie&search_type=

And it starts–in hard-to-read white writing–with this:

RACKS & RUINS

I think that I shall never see

A corner that is clutter-free,

Especially now that newspaper boxes

Proliferate on all our blockses.

Postcard from the Slope

Open Letter to the Brooklyn Museum About Honoring Bruce Ratner

A member of the Brooklyn Museum is angry that the museum’s Board of Trustees is honoring developer Bruce Ratner at their annual Brooklyn Ball. He wrote a letter to the board of trustees that was sent to me yesterday and is posted on the Develop Don’t Destroy Website:

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052

Re: Inappropriateness of the Brooklyn Museum’s “Honoring” Bruce Ratner

Dear Brooklyn Museum Board of Trustees:

I write this as an open letter to the Brooklyn Museum.

My wife and I came home on Wednesday, March 12th, opened our mail from the Brooklyn Museum, an institution important to us, and were dumbfounded and aghast to discover that we were being invited to a Brooklyn Museum Ball “honoring Bruce Ratner.”

It is uncomfortable to step up and point out why it is inappropriate for the Museum to be “honoring” Ratner, but it is crucial. If it helps that I am not only a longtime Museum supporter but also a lawyer, an urban planner and have had a long career in government with the State Finance authorities, then it is probably all the more incumbent upon me to speak.

I do not believe it is appropriate for a respected public institution like the Brooklyn Museum to be honoring Bruce Ratner. To many of us this is obvious but I will explain the many reasons why.

A museum should be a good neighbor to its community. You cannot be a good neighbor by promoting the activities of someone who is a bad neighbor, and worse, to the community.

Where I come from in government, garnering public subsidy via influence and sidestepping a proper bid process can wind up with the perpetrators going to prison. Using influence and sidestepping a proper bid process is exactly the way that Bruce Ratner is proposing to develop the Atlantic Yards megadevelopment. As a lawyer, I could almost certainly make a distinction between what Mr. Ratner is doing and what sends people to jail but it would be so technical I am not sure most people would understand or regard it as important. And I am not sure if there would be an accompanying moral distinction. Nor could I assure you that, if the facts were fully known about Mr. Ratner’s influence and access, that there would be a legal distinction. I leave it for the people who want a special distinct status to set Bruce Ratner apart to explain what and why that should be. I will point out the main appreciable difference: Ratner’s proposed no-bid subsidy grabbing is on a sheer magnitude of scale that is incomparable. The proposed no-bid subsidies Ratner intends to collect from the public are easily in excess of $2-2.5 billion. That far exceeds anything I am familiar with in other analogous situations.

You can read the rest of this long, detailed letter here.

Postcard from the Slope

Plan Approved to Charge Drivers to Enter Manhattan Below 60th Street

Last night, the City Council approved the plan to charge most drivers $8 to enter a zone below 60th Street by a vote of 20-30, with no abstentions and one absence.

Next the vote goes to Albany. According to the Times’ Governor Paterson and Joseph Bruno are supporters but Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hasn’t stated his preference.

City Council President, Christine Quinn, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that this vote would send a message to the Legislature that “the people who were elected to represent the New Yorkers who live in our five boroughs are sick and tired of our streets being clogged with traffic, we’re sick and tired of the children who live in our city literally having to fight to be able to breathe, and that we see congestion pricing as a solution to this problem.”

Streetsblog has a list of the roll call.

Postcard from the Slope

Stroller Bar to Open in Park Slope

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A stroller bar is set to open in Park Slope this summer. The Boo Bar named for the infamous Bugaboo stroller, will serve food and drink for adults in a kid-friendly environment with all-organic kiddie cocktails, indoor and outdoor play areas, and, most importantly, an employee in charge of stroller parking.

“It’s a project we’ve have been working on for awhile, and the recent stroller ban at the Union Bar really just confirmed what we found in our research. Parents in Park Slope want a family-friendly watering hole,” says the owner who asked that her name not be used at this point.

Parents will be able to find anything they would at a normal bar plus all the little things that make life easier like sippy cups and a full children’s menu. There will be a special changing room with a diaper vending machine, as well.

Thursday thru Saturday nights after 10 p.m. there will be a weekend cabaret for adults. “We haven’t booked any acts, yet,” says the owner. “But I can say there will definitely be music and performance.”

The owner was reluctant to divulge the location of the Boo Bar but I am guessing it will be on Fourth Avenue.

Postcard from the Slope

Is PS Coffee Tea and Spices Really Dropping Lunch Business?

Say it isn’t so, Brenda.

I just called Brenda Chan Casimir, owner of the PS Coffee Tea and Spices on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, to get her reaction to Jake Mooney’s article yesterday about her closing down her lunch business.

Today at noon, her lunch service did not sound closed down. In fact, it sounded very hectic in there and she told me to call back later, which I will do in the hopes of getting the real story from Brenda.

Mooney’s story said that Brenda’s shop, PS Coffee Tea and Spices, will no longer be serving lunch to hungry middle schoolers at MS 51. This is a big lunchtime loss to the kids at MS 51, a school that has a small lunch room, where the kids are allowed to go outside for lunch.

But have no fear. The Times’ story was a tad misleading. By the end of the article, Brenda is quoted as saying that she might rethink the whole idea of closing it down.

I certainly hope so as I was hoping that if OSFO goes to MS 51 next year that she’d get her lunch there just like so many kids do.

I remember hearing that Brenda’s lunch business started by accident. One rainy day years ago, she saw some MS 51 kids standing outside in the rain and she invited them in for some soup.

That evolved into a nice weekday business selling soup and a homemade chocolate chip cookie. The kids line up outside of the store. Once inside, they love the smell of the fresh baked cookies.

It’s certainly one of the best and the healthiest lunch options around. There’s also the pizza place across the street, the bodega and the Bagel store all across the street from the school.

But Brenda’s place is awfully special. Sadly, Brenda may have grown tired of being the lunch lady to  the kids from MS 51. At least some of them. From the Times:

"Some rowdier children were mussing up the store and sometimes stealing,
Ms. Casimir explained. She had always liked the students, but she was
feeling stressed. “If I get an inspector who comes in unannounced and
finds half-eaten pizza stuck behind boxes,” she said, “I’m done for.”"

Brenda’s shop is the last of a breed. Filled floor to ceiling with spices, teas, condiments and more, it has a real country store vibe and is a special neighborhood gathering place. A cracker barrel setting, it’s the kind of place where people can leave their keys, have packages dropped off, or just grab some warm conversation.

It is the real thing. One of those places that takes the bite out of the big city and makes Park Slope feel like a small town.

real estate

House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue to Expand?

BRemember when they were going to turn the Booklyn House of Detention into a mall or a condos? That’s old news.

Now they’re talking about adding additional housing for 720 inmates and a new addition. More info is available from the Brooklyn Jail Stakeholders Group.

The Brooklyn HOD Community Stakeholders Group has obtained a copy of an RFP issued
by the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) at a pre-proposal
conference held at the Brooklyn
Detention Center
on March 28, 2008. The community was not notified of the RFP or the conference.

According to the RFP, the city intends to engage a firm by the end of July to
design and execute an expansion of the HOD. In what may prove an empty
exercise, the RFP repeats many of the requirements from a previous RFEI which
garnered only one proposal. The Department of Corrections dismissed that proposal,
Atlantic
Gateway, as unacceptable. The design period for this latest RFP extends 2
years, well beyond the terms of DOC Commissioner Horn or Mayor Bloomberg.

From the RFP (emphasis added):
"The purpose of this project is to create additional housing for 720 inmates in twelve
dormitories of sixty beds each; create space within the new addition and
within the first three floors of the existing structure providing programmatic
support and ancillary accommodations for the increased capacity; improve the
existing structure’s deteriorating facade; create continuous ground floor
retail space within the existing jail space along Atlantic Avenue and relocate
displaced jail functions elsewhere on site; and explore the prospect of
incorporating parking within the confines of the site."

Civics and Urban Life

Simon and Simone: Dinnersteins at the Rainbow Room

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Park Slope’s first family of arts and culture will be appearing at a benefit at the Rainbow Room, one of my favorite New York spots, in a benefit for Healing Bridges, a group that raises money for women and children in Africa. Interestingly, it’s hosted by Robin Quivers from the Howard Stern Show and her group, Girls Night Out.

For us the big draw is Simon, a wonderful painter and Simone, a world-class pianist with a top selling CD of the Goldberg Variations out now. Here’s the blurb from the invite. The price is a little steep but hey, it’s for a great cause.

Howard Stern Show radio personality Robin Quivers and her
charity-focused dinner committee Girls Night Out will host A NIGHT OF
MUSIC AND ART WITH THE DINNERSTEINS, which takes place on April 17th at
the Rainbow Room in New York City. The dinner will benefit Healing
Bridges, a non-profit organization that creates jobs in Africa for
women to support themselves and their families and help fund their new
business ventures. For more information on Healing Bridges go to www.Healingbridges.org.

The evening will feature the music of Simone Dinnerstein, the acclaimed
American concert pianist who the New York Times called an artist
“poised for a breakthrough,” and whose recent recording of Bach’s
Goldberg Variations earned the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Classical
Chart in its first week.
The night will also feature the art of her father, the celebrated
painter Simon Dinnerstein of Brooklyn, NY whose work has been featured
around the world.

Cocktails begin at 6pm,
followed by dinner and the performance. Special celebrity seating will
soon be available on www.charityfolks.com.  VIP tickets are $1000 and
all other seats are $350. Information on purchasing tickets can be
obtained via email to HealingBridgesEvent@gmail.com or by telephone at
646-435-1548.

Serving Park Slope and Beyond