The Park Slope 100: 100 stories, 100 ways of looking at the world, 100 inspiring people, places and things. The list is in alphabetical order. There are no repeats from last year. There are many serious omissions. Send names for next year.
Yesterday News 12 Brooklyn came out and interviewed a few people on the list. Some of the people on the list don’t even know they’re on it. Some of them don’t use computers and/or blogs. Some people have had trouble finding it on the separate weblog. So here it is.
STATE SENATOR ERIC ADAMS because you traded in your blue uniform for a blue suit when you were elected to the 20th Senatorial District, which includes the neighborhoods of Flatbush, Crown Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Prospect Heights. You developed workshops called, “What To Do When Stopped By The Police,” which have helped thousands of young people throughout New York learn to better interact with the police. You are a supporter of the Buy Local Brooklyn initiative and you asked the right questions: “How do we bring in revenue that Manhattan enjoys? How do we let it spill over into the Slope, Prospect Heights and the rest of Brooklyn?"
ANGELA THE CROSSING GUARD because you keep the kids safe when they cross Second Street and Seventh Avenue.
THE ACCORDION PLAYER OF SEVENTH AVENUE because sitting on your folding stool in front of Chase Bank you add a distinctly Eastern European melancholy to the Avenue.
ANDY THE FRUIT TRUCK GUY because we didn’t know what to do without you when you went away. Get well and much gratitude to your cousin for keeping life fruity on Seventh Avenue.
JUDY ANTELL because as a super involved mother of three, you are the ultimate Park Slope mom, who also happens to be the editor of NY Metro Parents.
NOAH BAUMBACH because you are Slope born and bred and you make honest, funny, risky movies like Margot at the Wedding and the Squid and the Whale.
JAMES BERNARD because you’re a member of Community Board 6 and a executive coordinator of the Project Forum on Race and Democracy, and senior communications fellow at Policy Link. You launched the Source and XXL, two hip-hop magazines, and have written about popular culture for the New York Times, the Village Voice and Entertainment Weekly.
PAULA BERNSTEIN AND ELYSE SCHEIN because after being separated at birth you found each other and wrote a beautiful and honest memoir, Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited , about identity, nature vs. nurture, family, and love.
THE BROMBERG BROTHERS because in 2001 you crossed the East River and created Blue Ribbon Brooklyn, perhaps the best all-around restaurant in the borough. Thanks for giving us all such a special place to go.
THE BROOKLYN BLOGGERS because you sit at your computers and tell us what you see, think, feel, and hear day in and day out. Thanks for the words and pictures. Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn Self-Absorbed Boomer Luna Park Gazette Flatbush Gardener Bed Stuy Blog Callalillie Kensington Blog Clinton Hill Blog Creative Times Brooklyn Hts. Blog Park Slope Street Photography McBrooklyn Sustainable Flatbush Brit in Brooklyn New York Shitty Kinetic Carnival And of course, everyone cited last year: Gowanus Lounge Brownstoner No Land Grab Atlantic Yards Report Dope on the Slope
THE BROOKLYN TORNADO because on August 8th, 2007 you blew our socks off.
DAVID BROOKS because you got everyone mad at you when you wrote “Can we please see the end of those Park Slope Alternative Stepford Moms in their black-on-black maternity tunics who turn their babies into fashion-forward, anti-corporate, indie infants in order to stay one step ahead of the cool police?” in your New York Times Op-Ed column.
THE BROWNSTONE BRIDE because you spent the night in a bridal dress perched on top of the entrance of a brownstone on Fourth Street. As reported by the Brooklyn Paper, you had a Tiffany engagement ring in a bag.Picture by Nate Harpaz.
BUY LOCAL BROOKLYN because the yellow umbrellas were a perfect symbol for a group that brings together local businesses, non-profits, the Park Slope Civic Council and the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce. And now you’ve organized the Snowflake Celebration, a night of holiday shopping and festivity on December 13th. Way to go, team.
C IS FOR CUPID because as the new dating service for people whose lives have been affected by cancer you are giving people hope, love, and even some fun.
CHRISTIE’S JAMAICAN PATTIES because you’re a Flatbush Avenue institution. Your soup! Your chicken! Your chicken curry patties!
MARIA COLON, ANNIE CICCONI and HOMARYA FLORES, because on Fourth and Third Avenues, you keep the kids safe on a really wide street with fast moving cars.
CLAIREWARE because your colorful ceramics with polka dots and swirls make me happy.
CLUB LOCO because you are presenting bands like Sister Helen, Fiasco, Dulaney Banks, Cool and Unusual Punishment, Francesca Perlov, Window Sign Language Tetsuwan Fireball, Jet Lag, Banzai, and many others at Old First Church and giving teenagers a cool place to be one Saturday night a month.
BRYAN COLLIER because your illustrations in Martin’s Big Words are just wonderful, and a big fave at PS 321.
DEENA DAVIS because you’re one of the most politically connected people in Park Slope, dating from your days as PTA president of PS 321. Now you’re program director of the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, and back for a second term on the CEC for District 15, as the borough president’s appointee and treasurer.
RUDOLPH DELSON because you gave everyone their say in your sprawling tale of post-9/11 love in New York City and got a veritable rave from the New York Times.
THE DOE FUND GUYS because you’re Ready, Willing and Able to change your lives and do what needs to be done while improving the quality of life around here. We thank you.
SUZANNE DONALDSON because not only are you the most gorgeously put together fashion plate in the Slope but you beat leukemia and raised TONS of money to help others fight it doing the Chicago Marathon. You’re also a talented photo director at Glamour and just an all around great person.
THE ERHU PLAYER WHO SITS IN FRONT OF CITIBANK because your two-stringed fiddle brings a Chinese melody to the streets of Park Slope.
EIDOLON because you were pioneers on the new Fifth Avenue with beautiful clothing, jewelry, accessories, and knit wares.
MARCIA ELY and MELISSA BENSON because in addition to everything else you do, you run the Brooklyn Heights Homeless Shelter, a volunteer-run shelter that has hosted 10 women Monday through Thursday during the winter months for 25 years.
DANIEL EPPELBAUM because you actually sat down and wrote a letter to the borough president about the aggravating idiosyncrasies of the B-67 bus and got an answer.
JOE FERRIS because in the Assembly and out you have devoted your life to preserving jobs, homes and the history of Brooklyn, your hometown. Most recently you led the effort to save the vista at the Green-wood Cemetery. And all without a computer…
RYAN FLECK AND ANNA BORDEN because your movie Half Nelson with Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps wowed me with its dark and powerful portrayal of a very believable New York City school teacher and the Red Hook students that he hopes to inspire.
ZELDA FOSTER because you were a social worker and an early and tireless advocate of hospice care. In memoriam.
TONY GIORDANO because you, along with the Fifth Avenue Merchants Association, donated countless hours of your time to move Fifth Avenue forward in the formation of the fifth avenue BID.
DR. AMY GLASER because you compiled and published the first complete listing of summer activities for teens in New York City, which includes 125 fascinating programs for every interest and pocketbook SUMMER IN THE CITY FOR TEENS, the Zagat of summer programs, is a welcome resource and it was screened and tested by young adults and their parents.
GOOD FORM DESIGN because your posters, websites, and logos for Brooklyn Reading Works, the Park Slope 100, the Brooklyn Blogfest, Stoopendous, the Old Stone House, Brooklyn Mama, and Seeing Green spread the word with a perfect balance of color, composition, and fun.
CRYSTAL GRANDERSON-REID and JANA NELSON because you created Brownstone Buddys, eight characters, with distinct cultural identities and interests. Among them are an African-American girl who adores math, a Chinese-American sports buff and a book-loving girl of Hispanic heritage.
RICHARD GRAYSON because you explored Brooklyn by bus and wrote about it with style, humor, and oodles of personal history. And to quote the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Grayson is a funny guy from Canarsie, Brooklyn… his kind of metafiction, mixing his memories (numerous main characters are named Richie Grayson) with his inventions about pansexual borough dwellers dealing with minor and major crises, read like stand-up comedy routines.”
GREENJEANS (Amy Shaw and Jae Kim) because you are committed to high-quality craft and crafters/artisans in addition to sustainability and conscientious living. You were also pioneers, opening one of the first shops on that southern section Seventh Avenue and Bloggers.
MAGGIE GYLLENHALL because you’re the real deal: a talented actor with great taste in movies, who wants to give back to the community: “Now that my daughter is older and I have more free time, I want to spend as much of it as possible helping people who don’t have all the advantages I have,” you told the Brooklyn Paper at a public school fund raising event.
CRAIG HAMMERMAN because you are a tireless public servant who works hard as District Manager of Community Board 6 (which serves Park Slope as well as Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Red Hook). You personally see that all questions to CB 6 are addressed, and you know the city agencies so well that you can often get an answer quickly! You are fair, calm and you always listen.
BRIAN HALWEIL because your magazine, Edible Brooklyn, is manna for Brooklyn’s passionate foodies.
BETH HARPAZ because you’re a working journalist who wrote a book about your experiences reporting on Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign, The Girls in the Van, and a true story about your mom, Finding Annie Farrell: A Family Memoir . And you’re a great local tipster (we loved the Brownstone Bride pix taken by your son).
BETH HASSRICK because you were a beautiful and loving mother; a Gestalt psychoanalyst with a doctorate in contemporary philosophy; and an attentive neighbor and friend to many. You never passed without a warm hello and a smile. We miss you.
HELLGATE HARMONIE because you are bringing opera to these them hills.
ISABEL HILL because you got it all on film and made everyone see how much the future of Brooklyn matters.
THE HOMELESS MEN OF OLD FIRST because you (Robert Royster, Will Franklin, and Frank) inadvertently started a conversation in Park Slope that led to the formation of the Park Slope Coalition for the Homeless. You inspired Pastor Daniel Meeter t o write, “They cause me a great deal of trouble, and lots of anger from our neighbors, and I do wish they would go away, but, whatever else, they remain human beings, images of God, and they need to be treated with respect.”
EMILY ISSACS because at the Trois Pommes Bakery you’re bringing your years of experience at Union Square Café and giving us something very special.
ANDREA JACOBS and CHERRY and everyone else at Little Things because you’re always helpful and you keep your cool during the tantrums, the meltdowns, and all the parent/child mayhem that goes on at Little Things. Thanks for the purple wrapping. Thanks for the toys.
CAPATHIA JENKINS because you are a bright, shining star. Whether you’re performing with Martin Short in Fame Becomes Me on Broadway, or in Caroline or Change at the Public Theater or singing beside Louis Rosen in a benefit for the Old Stone House you enthrall and inspire with your vocal virtuosity, your musicality and your warmth.
HEATHER JOHNSTON because you lead with a quiet strength and can be depended upon to get things done. And your food is DELICIOUS.
Your video blog, So Good (Sogood.tv) is a helpful and fun resource for the home cook and consumer with video demos, recipes and wine suggestions.
STEVEN BERLIN JOHNSON because you started Outside.in, which you describe as an attempt to “collectively build the geographic web, neighborhood by neighborhood.” And look at the books you’ve written: Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software (2001), Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter (2005), The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World (2006).
DIERDRE JONES because as a smart first-time restaurateur with a fabulous sense of design and an adorable giggle, you knew that Fifth Avenue needed a child-friendly restaurant/cafe with good, healthy food. But Perch is far more than that: It’s a way of life. From morning to night, the restaurant moves through multiple identities from kid’s music destination, cool bar, brunch spot, place to meet friends, play card games, listen to adult music, poetry. You name it, it probably happens at Perch.
PETER JOSEPH because you are the board chairman of the Old Stone House, a cellist, cartographer who developed a great new map on the OSH website and an overall thoughtful community member.
SU KRAMER because your film, Gray Matters, with Heather Graham is a sexy and stylish screwball comedy about a brother and a sister who fall in love with the same woman.
NICA LALLI because you wrote a book about nothing and it’s really something. What it’s like to grow up without religion is the subject of your fascinating memoir, Nothing, Something to Believe In.
PATTY AND BOB LENARTZ because as owners of Slope Cellars you are always ready to give back and are generous and kind. Experts at the "cheap and tasty" category, you are never pretentious and always dog friendly
BRAD LANDER because you direct the Pratt Center for Community Development, which works to make this city a just, equitable, and sustainable place for all by empowering communities to plan and realize their futures.
PETER LOFFREDO because you’re a holistic psychotherapist (and blogger) with strong opinions who is on a mission to convince parents that they deserve to have a life full of love, sex, and fun apart from their children.
ROBERTO LORENZUTTI because you are the car listener, a former race car driver, and host (at your car repair shop on Douglas Street) of one of Brooklyn’s most unusual salons (nominated by Hugh Crawford).
LORETTA OF THIRD STREET because your kitschy bust of Elvis graced your Third Street window for more than 15 year. Alas, Elvis has left the building and you’ve moved somewhere new. We wish you well.
DIONNE MACK-HARVIN because they hired you from within to run one of the biggest public library systems in the country and you’re doing it with lots of skill, style and aplomb.
CHARLOTTE MAIER because as head of PS 321’s parent-run Scholastic Book Sale, which raises money for the PTA, you put the kibosh on selling furry pencils, sequined journals and cutesy stuff so that the kids would actually buy books and not toys. This year you performed on Broadway with Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy in Inherit the Wind. You were also in the film Music and Lyrics with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. But to the kids in Park Slope you will always be known for your hilarious turn as the dialect instructor opposite Steve Martin’s Inspector Clouseau in the 2006 remake of The Pink Panther
ELLIE MASSIAS because you started the Jewish Music Café at 401 9th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) and created a place in the Slope to get an ice cold bottle of He’ brew Beer, a slice of Mrs. Selter’s famous Cheese cake, a Kosher Cappuccino and enjoy great bands playing Klezmer, Sephardic, Avant Garde jazz, Hassidic rap and Israeli trance in the heart of one of NY’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood.
KEVIN McPARTLAND because your novel, Brownstone Dreams, tells it like it was in tough Irish Park Slope in the 1960’s. Think Pete Hamill, Frank McCourt with a little Scorsese mixed in. And if you want to see the manuscript, just let me know.
MET FOOD because you are open from 6 am until midnight every day and always have exactly what we need and more. Last summer, a car crashed into your store and knocked down your fruit stands and awning. But you dealt with it. You are resilient, pleasant to talk to and a great lover of cats, Ebony and Ivory.
JOSH MILLSTEIN because you run the Community Bookstore’s reading groups, including the Jewish Philosophy Book Club, the Under-appreciated Book Club and the Modern Literature Book Club. “We love new faces,” is your motto.
MARTY MODINA because you brought the California burrito to Park Slope at Rachel’s Taqueria on Fifth Avenue and The California Taqueria on 7th Avenue. We love the murals, we love the prices, and we love your vintage red pick up truck parked outside.
MOIM RESTAURANT /SAERI YOO PARK because you are introducing Park Slopers to the unfamiliar and delicious cuisine of Korea, including your mother’s recipe for Dol Sot Bi Bim Bop, vegetables, meat and rice served in a steaming hot stone rice bowl. You got close to a rave in the Times and were compared to Al Di La and Franny’s. Not bad.
MELISSA MURPHY of Sweet Melissa because you’ve created a cozy, homey place for comfort food and world-class pastries. It feels like you’ve been here forever. (photo from the Brooklyn Paper )
ROY NATHANSON because you bring music, poetry and inspiration to everything you do, including teaching music at the Institute for Collaborative Education, a NYC public middle and high school. You inspire as a saxophonist, composer, bandleader and principal composer of the Jazz Passengers, a six-piece group that you founded with Curtis Fowlkes in 1987.
JENNIFER NELSON because you lead the children in song. And they are SINGING every Tuesday at Old First Church.
OTTO because your quirky mix of clothing, lingerie and home décor has been a go-to shopping destination for years. Finally, you moved to bigger and more visible digs on Seventh Avenue.
ADRIENNE ONOFRI author of Walking Brooklyn, because you had a great idea, pitched it to a publisher, and you walked the walk.
TOBY PANNONE because you are an amazing little boy living with a terrible disease. Not long ago you were a Park Slope preschooler living the Park Slope toddler life. Then life dealt you a low blow. But you and your parents continue to rise to the occasion. Despite the many painful days and nights, you are still a joyful child, the love and light of your parent’s lives. Read Mooki and Stephen’s blog to learn more about Neuroblastoma and what you can do to help Toby.
NICHOLAS PEKARO, an auxiliary cop, he was murdered at 19 on the streets of the West Village. A writer, Nicholas worked at Crawford Doyle Booksellers on Madison Avenue and lived in Park Slope. In memoriam.
PIZZA PLUS and ROZ because after a fire destroyed your South Slope pizza restaurant, you rose from the ashes and created something even more wonderful. Roz, you are a fabulous community minded person and hard working merchant of the mom and pop variety.
THE RED HEADED WAITRESS AT BROOKLYN FISH CAMP because you’ve been serving us some of our favorite restaurant food with humor and fun for years now. First at Two Boots and now at the delightful Fish Camp. Thanks!
TOM RAYFIEL because you completed your ambitious trilogy of novels all about Eve. In Parallel Play you channeled a believable and likable Park Slope mom warts, humor, and all.
MEGAN DONIS, INGRID ROJAS, KUYE HARRIS, AND KECIA COLE and everyone at BCAT because you scour the borough for the great stories that are out there for your shows, Brooklyn Review and Brooklyn Beat.
IRENE LO RE because as the owner of Aunt Suzy’s, you’ve been the doyenne of Fifth Avenue for nearly 30 year. Thanks for you leadership and effort on behalf of the 5th Avenue Business Improvement District.
JAVIER ROSARIO because you run Saint Francis Youth Sports and you’re a wonderful volunteer who help the youth from all over Park Slope by providing excellent team sports, Baseball, Softball, Soccer, Golf and Flag Football. You are a leader who recruits and supports dozens of volunteer coaches throughout the year.
LOUIS ROSEN because your songs make us swoon, laugh and cry. In multiple idioms—jazz, pop, bossa nova, folk and musical theater—and with surprising leaps of melody and harmony, you bring the poetry of Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and YOU to life
RIGOBERTO SALAZAR because as custodian at Our Lady of Peace you bring order and calm to those hallowed halls.
SCAREDY KAT because the two of you were anything but scaredy kats when you dared to open your cool shop before any one thought Fifth Avenue was cool.
TOM SIMON because you know the used books business like nobody else and you knew when it was time to call it quits on Seventh Avenue. Your Lessons for Shoplifters sign, which you posted on the window of your shop, Seventh Avenue Books, was a masterpiece of retail poetry: "You know you’re dishonest, and yeah, a thief, so should you ever while among family or friends find fault with Bush or Cheney or some other scoundrel, the cosmos will likely quietly snicker at your obliviousness."
THE SKIRT LADY because you sit in the window at Starbucks in your beautiful self-designed clothing and quietly create amazing necklaces out of dried fruit and berries from Prospect Park.
JOAN SNYDER because you are our neighborhood genius and you’ve got the MacArthur Genius Award to prove it. Your citation said: “In Snyder’s paintings, each brush stroke is like a character in a story, pulsing with emotion and vitality. After abandoning formal grids as the basic structure of her paintings, Snyder’s work became more explicitly gestural and rooted in memory, while at the same time more complex materially.
AMY SOHN because we’ve grown up with you: read your sex column in NY Press and your mating column in New York and your baby column there, too. You pretend to be a bad mom but you’re a good mom in our book. You write it like you see it and we respect that.
MICHELE MADIGAN SOMERVILLE because in addition to your busy life as an epic poet and the mother of three, you organized a great Dante event at St. Augustine Church, as well as the Church Ribbon Project, a memorial for those who died of AIDs.
STEPHEN TALKHOUSE FELLOWS because you are bringing some fresh energy and fun to the lovably faded glory of the Montauk Club.
THE STOOPENDOUS COMMITTEE because you took a great idea and really ran with it organizing in just a few months, A Celebration of the Summer Solstice in Park Slope, a festive way to mark the beginning of summer and connect with neighbors. The idea was generated at an open meeting of the Park Slope CIvic Council. The All-Slope-Solstice-Shout-Out was a gas. (Betsey McGee, Susan Fox, Joyce Jed, Linda Gnat Mullin, Nelly Issacson, Shelia Hanks, Andi Peretz and Elizabeth Reagh and Dave Kenney, Tom Reynolds, Julie Kay, and Tom Fergus).
HARRY TARZIAN because you run a great family hardware store and decided to join Develop Don’t Destroy.
MICHAEL THOMAS because your book, Man Gone Down, is written with a masterful first-person voice that is intense, poetic, angry, vulnerable, real, and full of thoughtful rage about race, class, marriage and love in New York City.
THE TRANSFORMERS because 60 young people came all the way from Gibbsville, Wisconsin to Brooklyn to help fix the chandelier at the Old First Reformed Church and let there be light in that grand sanctuary.
3-R LIVING for your dedication to the community and helping raise the eco-consciousness around here.
JOHN TURTURRO and KATHERINE BOROWITZ because you went to bat for the Community Bookstore, invested $10,000, and become a part owner there. Turturro told the New York Times: “Now as I’m getting older, all these great small bookstores and art house movie theaters, so many things I love, are being swallowed up by a supermarket mentality.”
UNION HALL/JIM CARDEN because not only do we love the scope and ambition of UNION HALL but we love the bocce court, the juke box, and Skippy’s music shows. We also love the stuff that goes on downstairs especially the Spelling and Grammar Bee with David Witt and the Secret Science Club.
CORDULA VOKULING because with a diagnosis of stage 4 brain cancer you decided to quit your job and devote yourself to your painting. "Hey, I got advanced brain cancer – my system kicks me in the butt and screams: Be your authentic self or you are going to die sooner not later. Any questions?"
ZELDA VICTORIA because you reinvigorated Victoriana with a fresh, almost post-modern sense of color, style, pattern and fun. We miss you and your shop.
MARY WARREN because Mrs. Cleavage’s Diary and Eat Drink Memory are just the beginning. You’ve got a book waiting to come out of you (and I’m waiting).
THE WRITTEN NERD because you love reading books, talking about books, and "being where literature hits the streets." Your blog, and especially, your Brooklyn Lit Life interviews are just great.
ALLEN ZIMMERMAN because you’re the person behind all that great tasting organic produce at the Park Slope Food Coop, a real unsung hero. “The way I learned this job was hands-on. You touch the produce, you smell it, you eat it,” says Allen, a lifelong Brooklynite and former union activist.
JUDITH ZUK because you were the Tupper Thomas’ of the Botanic Gardens. In memoriam.
