A plainclothes police
officer was shot while patrolling a brownstone-lined street in Brooklyn
early yesterday, the police said, and the husband of another officer
was charged with attempted murder.Officer Jacqueline Melendez
Rivera, the wife of the accused man, was charged with hindering
prosecution and was suspended from duty. About 4 a.m. at Prospect Place
and Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, the Police Department said, a man
pulled up in a sport utility vehicle alongside a car carrying four
plainclothes officers. He opened fire, hitting the driver, Officer
Andrew Suarez. The officer’s partners shot back.When the
police went looking for the gunman’s car, a white Acura with bullet
holes, they found it a little more than a mile away. Behind the wheel
was Officer Rivera, a law enforcement official said, and she told the
police that she was moving the car because her husband had parked it
illegally. Officer Rivera and her husband live less than two blocks
from the site of the shooting.Officer Rivera, 37, and her
husband, Jose Rivera, 31, were brought in for questioning, although
detectives did not think she had been in the car during the shooting, a
law enforcement official said.Mr. Rivera was accused of
attempted murder, defacing a firearm, criminal possession of marijuana
and other charges, the police said. Besides being charged with
hindering prosecution, Officer Rivera was accused of tampering with
evidence, possession of marijuana and obstructing governmental
administration, the police said.Officer Suarez was in critical
but stable condition, city officials said, and the shooting left a
trail of shattered glass and bullets at Prospect and Sixth.Officer
Suarez and three other members of the department’s anti-crime unit were
patrolling in an unmarked car when they locked eyes with people inside
the Acura, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said.“Initially there was a glance exchanged, but no words were exchanged,” he said.
Mr. Kelly, who with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visited the injured officer at New York Methodist Hospital, gave this account of what happened next:
The
Acura began tailing the unmarked car, and Officer Suarez, a policeman
for three and a half years, pulled over. The Acura then drew alongside
them, and its tinted passenger window slid down.The Acura’s driver leaned across the passenger, and yelled, “You got a beef?”
Then
the driver pulled out a gun and fired twice, just as Officer Suarez
raised his arm in defense. A bullet pierced his underarm, just clearing
his bulletproof vest, and tore across his back before lodging beneath
his neck.Then the Acura sped off, and the other three officers
opened fire on it, firing 13 shots in all. One of the bullets went
through the front and back windows of an unoccupied Subaru Legacy
Outback parked nearby, ricocheted upward and was later found 20 feet up
in a tree, the police said.Bullets also pierced the Acura and shattered several of its windows, but no one inside was hit, the police said.
Officer Suarez’s colleagues then took the wheel of the police car and drove him to Methodist Hospital.
Helicopters
buzzed overhead as dozens of officers descended on the neighborhood,
taping off the site of the shooting and searching the streets for the
Acura. It was spotted at Prospect and Fourth Avenues, with Officer
Rivera driving.Investigators also went to 33 St. Marks Avenue,
where the Acura was registered, a four-story row house near where
Officer Suarez had been shot.Officer Rivera lives there with
her husband and three young boys, neighbors said. Mr. Rivera and
another man were seen being led from the house in handcuffs by the
police shortly before dawn yesterday, neighbors said. The identity of
the second man was not released. And another woman and three small
children were also led out, neighbors said.The police also went
to the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Officer Rivera works,
and took her guns from her locker. Investigators did not believe they
had been used in the shooting, a law enforcement official said.About
5 p.m. yesterday, the police said they found a 9-millimeter Ruger
handgun, with one round in its chamber, in the bushes at the fence line
in the backyard of 33 St. Marks Avenue. The gun had not been issued by
the Police Department, the police said, and it was not yet known
whether it was used in the shooting.Yellow tape and police cars
sealed off access to Officer Rivera’s house and neighboring homes into
the evening yesterday, drawing curious stares from passers-by pushing
strollers.Neighbors were not sure how long the Riveras had
been married but said they met about four years ago, salsa dancing at a
club. Officer Rivera, whose two oldest sons are from a previous
marriage, is pregnant with her fourth child and was recently overjoyed
to find out the baby was a girl, neighbors said.Mr. Rivera is on
parole for first-degree assault, after having served four and a half
years for shooting someone in the leg and the chest after an argument
in Brooklyn, according to records from the State Department of
Correctional Services. More details of that shooting were not
immediately known.Officer Rivera was taken to the 78th
Precinct, and was being questioned there along with the two men
believed to have been in the Acura, one of them her husband, the police
said.Millie Santiago, 58, a longtime neighbor, said Officer
Rivera inherited the row house from her parents and rented out its
upper floors. “She’s a good parent, she’s a good wife,” Ms. Santiago
said. Officer Rivera is a veteran of the Persian Gulf war and has been
with the Police Department for 13 years, the police and neighbors said.Other
neighbors said lately there had been friction on the street because
Officer Rivera parked her car outside the house in front of a fire
hydrant, with her Police Department permit displayed on the dashboard.Officer
Suarez underwent surgery yesterday, and was expected to fully recover,
Mr. Kelly said. It was not clear whether the gunman initially knew he
was firing at an officer, a law enforcement official said. Officer
Suarez was the first New York City police officer to be shot on duty
this year, Mayor Bloomberg said.
NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK: BAY RIDGE JEWISH CENTER
Rabbi Michah Kelber just sent word that the Bay Ridge Jewish Center has an interesting blog. I interviewed Rabbi Kelber for an article in the Brooklyn Paper last year — so I am aware of him and his work. Micah and BRJC blog: Welcome to the Brooklyn Blog Zone.
Here’s an excerpt from interesting post called Where We’re From.
This is a photograph of the grandfather Eliezer Bloshteyn, one of the
members at the Bay Ridge Jewish Center. His name is Ze’ev Shleyfer. He
was called Wolfe in Yiddish, and Vladimir in Russian. He was born
around the year 1870 in the shtetl Ovruch, which is in the center of
the Ukraine, close to the shtetl where Rabbi Nachman was born. In 1941,
their family had left Odessa and moved to Tashkent where he died. In
Odessa, he was a shoemaker and a serious man. In the community, he was
considered to be a very dignified person. Eliezer and his family lived
on the third floor of the building and his grandparents lived in the
basement. His grandparents’ apartment was always clean and light.
Inside of their apartment there was a big storage cabinet with Kosher
plates and forks. They always ate kosher food.He was
religious, but in private, as you were forced to be in the Soviet Union
at the time. In 1937, Stalin had taken a lot of people and put them in
jail, not because they were Jewish, but because they believed in God.
So few people prayed in the synagogues out of fear and eventually they
were closed. The Jewish newspapers and other institutions were closed
down as well. So, Ze’ev would put his siddur on the window ledge, put on his tefillin and davin facing
the light. Eliezer remembers him putting his talis on his shoulders and
making Eliezer say prayers. He remembers distinctly the words “Modeh Ani Lifanecha.” (“I acknowledge that you are before me.”)
SMARTMOM: VALENTINE’S IN THE AIR
Here’s this week’s Smartmom from the Brooklyn Paper:
Something is in the air. Two of Smartmom’s lovelorn friends are finding love again. And that is so inspiring.
These
are friends who’ve been through the emotional mill. Harried Harriet
endured an unpleasant marriage that resulted in an unpleasant divorce.
And Marian Fontana lost her firefighter husband on 9-11. Grief
stricken, she learned how to be a single mom as she struggled to heal
and move forward after that life-changing event.
Harried Harriet
found love on eHarmony. And a really good man who loves her back.
They’re living together and planning to get married soon. When her
divorce comes through, that is.
Marian met her guy on a blind date, sort of. The man she was supposed to meet chickened out and he sent his friend instead.
They
hit it off right a way. When Marian told Smartmom and Divorce Diva
about her blind date over drinks a year ago at Black Pearl she told
them, “He’s the one.”
If raised eyebrows could talk. Divorce Diva
and Smartmom could barely contain their skepticism. Take it slow, they
cautioned. What’s the rush?
“We just don’t want you to get hurt,” Diva said.
To
be honest, there was surely a spray of jealousy in the air. New love
sounded like such fun to long-married Smartmom and the recently
divorced Divorce Diva. It had been a long time since either of them had
been wined and dined at the Rainbow Room.
As time went on,
Marian’s new love affair escalated unabated. A couple of months in,
“the One” told her that he wanted “Ring of Fire” to play at their
wedding.
Now she was telling him to slow down. Besides, she thought it was an odd choice of song. Considering.
Still,
things moved fast as they often do when two decisive people fall head
over heels in love. Plus, her new man was crazy about her son. And
vise-versa.
It was a match made in heaven.
Sure, they had
their ups and downs. Arguments. Heavy talks. Nights spent sleeping on
the couch. It wouldn’t be a real relationship without all that. In
fact, one of the reasons Marian loves “the One” as much as she does is
that he is willing to talk, analyze and talk some more about just about
everything.
In other words, he’s in therapy. And there’s nothing more romantic than a guy in therapy.
So, last week, on the anniversary of their first date, he proposed. And he did everything right.
First, he told her 10-year-old son what he had in mind to make sure he was on board. And boy-oh-boy was Marian’s son excited.
Then, he went to Green-Wood Cemetery to ask for permission from Marian’s late great husband, Dave.
On a cold January day, he waited and waited. It’s not easy to get a thumbs-up from the dead, but “the One” did receive a sign.
Smartmom won’t say how he knew. Marian is a writer and that’s her story to tell.
Last
week, Smartmom, Divorce Diva, Cinderella, and Marian got together at
Santa Fe Grill for a congratulatory glass of champagne (except, they
don’t serve champagne there, so they had to settle for the house
Chardonnay).
Marian remembered last year’s raised eyebrows. “You guys thought I was crazy,” she said.
The group wanted to hear every detail of “the One’s” proposal. And Marian obliged with her usual gusto.
Then she showed off her beautiful new engagement ring that she was wearing on her pinky finger.
“Why is it on your pinky?” Smartmom asked.
“The
One” had grabbed a ring from her jewelry box so he’d know her finger
size. Problem was, he snatched a pinky ring. The new ring needs to be
resized.
Staring at Marian’s pinky-sized engagement ring,
Smartmom realized that along with happiness, her friend was also
experiencing just a smidgen of pain. It can’t be easy getting engaged
when you’re still someone else’s wife.
Like the ring, this engagement would take a while to really fit.
While Marian will never stop loving Dave, the father of her adorable child, she can still create a great life with someone new.
Her love for her late husband and her love for “the One” are not mutually exclusive. And that’s something “the One” understands.
And
that’s why he is “the One.” It won’t always be easy, but the openness
these two share will go a long way toward making this a wonderful and
lasting marriage.
TWO YEARS AGO ON OTBKB: SAY CHEESE
Hepcat’s camera is broken so we won’t be able to do this again. But we did it in 2005. And the pictures are wonderful.
A soggy night didn’t keep friends and neighbors from the Be Your Own Valentine
event at Mary Warren’s shop, Fou Le Chakra. Photographer Hugh Crawford
set up a small photo studio in the front of the store with his nifty
strobe light and the old gray backdrop that he’s been using for years;
it’s practically his signature.Party guests enjoyed sparkling wine, assorted hor doeuvres and sweets
while taking turns getting their picture taken with or without kids,
with or without significant others.For some it was like going to the dentist – "Oh, is it my turn?" For
others it was pure bliss: "I’m ready for my close up, Mr. C."A former house photographer at Fiorucci and the nightclub, Xenon,
Crawford has plenty of experience taking portraits at special events.
After a ten year stint in the computer biz, he’s returned to
photography full time concentrating on editorial and fine art
portraiture, Times Square street photography and a series of pictures
called Earth. Water. Fire. Air. His photographs of Park Slope appear
daily on Only the Blog knows Brooklyn (see No Words_Daily Pix).Crawford managed to keep his cool as a band of wild children, fueled
by chocolate chip cookies and too little supper, ran in and out of the
pictures unable to resist the cool photo studio in their midst. My
daughter was disappointed that her photographer-dad wouldn’t let her
help as much as she wanted to.
A DAY WITHOUT OTBKB
I was gone for twenty-four hours. Exactly. Took the 5 p.m. bus on Saturday to Kingston. Returned on the 5 p.m. from Woodstock on Sunday.
I attended a writer’s workshop led by Regina McBride called Inner Lives: Developing Characters. She’s the author of four novels, including "The Nature of Water and Air" and "The Marriage Bed."
The workshop was in a beautiful, rustic house outside of Woodstock, where we sat by a fireplace and did Regina’s writing exercises.
If you’re interested in future workshops in NYC or Woodstock let me know. It’s actually a two day intensive workshop but I had to miss Saturday. She teaches a fascinating approach to fiction writing.
A day without OTBKB.
IKEA BEGINS CONSTRUCTION: GOWANUS LOUNGE HAS THE PIX
Gowanus Lounge has the picture: Ikea began building on its construction site on the Brooklyn waterfront last week. In GL’s pix you can see the beginnings of the big blue-and-yellow box that the Swedish multinational is known for.
HEPCAT: RESTAURANTS SUITABLE FOR VALENTINE’S DAY
1. Home. Not the restaurant on Cornelia Street but the one on Third Street (suggested by OSFO)
3. Nathan’s Hot Dogs in Coney Island
4. Al Di La
5. The Rainbow Room (where Hepcat and Smartmom had their pre-wedding rehearsal dinner).
6. Great Jones Cafe (where Hepcat had his very own seat at the bar before and after he met Smartmom in 1986).
7. Fanelli’s (where Smartmom and Hepcat went the night they met in 1986).
8. 48th Street Howard Johnson’s except its been torn down
9. One of those Indain places on 6th Street (big night out for Hepcat and Smartmom back in the day).
10. Restaurant Florent (site of many a late night meal when Smartmom was pregnant with Teen Spirit — Hey don’t you dare take a bite of my Evelyn’s goat cheese salad!).
11. Snack bar of the Staten Island Ferry (that would be romantic, wouldn’t it?)
Nathan’s pix on Flickr by ain’t no joke.
A VALENTINE’S IMPOSSIBLE TO FORGET
Two yeas ago on OTBKB. This is the story of our great Valentine’s Day. Hepcat will never be able to top it.
Hepcat once staged the most wonderful Valentine’s surpise. Part
of the surprise was that he even did something at all—usually he’s a Valentine’s Day Scrooge, the guy who gets really put out with the
whole idea of this Hallmark holiday. But that year he really rose above
his own objections to it and planned something big. He told me that
he was taking me somewhere but he wouldn’t say where. Ever curious, I
kept asking. "You’ll ruin the surprise," he said again and again.My expectations rose sky high. Then he told me the location of where
we were going — somewhere downtown on the far west side. Hmmm. I
didn’t have a clue where he had in mind.That night, we drove down the West Side Highway and parked on Varick
Street near Houston. When we turned down a side street, I saw a small
movie marquee in the distance. It said, "Grand Opening on Valentine’s
Day. Now Showing: L’Atalante by Jean Vigo.I thought I was dreaming. This tiny, recently refurbished movie
theater, then called the Soho Cinema, was playing my favorite movie of
all time on their opening night. Made in 1934, this black and white
french movie is the story of Juliette who marries Jean. She comes to
live on his river barge along with a cabin boy and the strange
old second mate Pere Jules. Soon bored by life on the river, she slips
off to see the nightlife when they get to Paris. Angered by this, Jean
sets off, leaving Juliette behind. Overcome by grief and longing for
his wife, Jean falls into a depression and Pere Jules goes and tries to
find Juliette. When he finds her she too is eager to return to the
barge. Back together again, they resume life on the river.It is a simple story told with grace and poetry. It may be one of
the most romantic movies of all time. Jean Vigo had tuberculosis when
he made it, and was dead just
after its release. He was
only 29, and had made only four films. A romantic
until the end.We were the only ones in the theater other than the usher and the
popcorn guy. Sitting in our own private movie palace watching a
treasure of French cinema, it was a Valentine’s Day impossible to
forget.
THE BEST AND THE WORST
The best Valentine’s day: It was a surprise. Hepcat took me to see L’Atalante, this incredibly romantic French film made by Jean Vigo in 1932, at a short-lived tiny repertory movie house called the Van Dam (I think). He knew it was one of my favorite films ever. Still is.
Second best: Drinks at the Tiki Bar at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
The worst: Hepcat woke up with hives barely breathing after we slept on new, unwashed sheets from Ikea.
We spent much of the day at the Methodist Hospital Emergency Room. He still calls it the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The day his wife tried to kill him with sheets.
9-11 WIDOW FINDS LOVE AGAIN
This is my story in this week’s Brooklyn Paper
One of Brooklyn’s highest-profile “9-11 widows,” Marian Fontana of Park Slope, is engaged.
More
than five years after the horrific day that claimed the life of
thousands — including her husband, Lt. David Fontana of Squad 1 —
Fontana got engaged last week to Tom Martinez, a minister at the All
Souls Bethlehem Church, a Unitarian congregation in Kensington.
“What
I love about Tom is that he understands what I have gone through and
the deep love I will always have for Dave, and is okay with all of it,”
Fontana wrote in an email to her friends.
“I am blessed to have so much love in my life.”
Fontana
told friends that she had a hunch that Martinez, a fine arts
photographer and author of “Confessions of a Seminarian: Searching for
a Soul in the Shadow of Empire,” was going to propose because he first
asked Fontana’s 10-year-old son, Aidan, about how he should go about it.
“Tom
asked for Aidan’s permission first, a gesture so sweet and so
indicative of the love they share,” Fontana wrote in that email.
“I was not surprised that he began his proposal with ‘I love Aidan with all my heart.’”
Of course, 10-year-olds aren’t the best at keeping secrets, so Fontana knew the big question was about to be popped.
Though
she now lives in Staten Island, Fontana remains a larger-than-life
figure in Park Slope, thanks to the way she mobilized the neighborhood
after 9-11 to keep Squad 1 open when the city threatened to shut it
down just weeks after the attacks.
The squad, which is housed on Union Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, lost 12 firefighters that day.
— Louise Crawford
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
SWEET MELISSA: PERFECT WINTER HANG-OUT
OSFO and I have become quite the regulars at Sweet Melissa. It’s such a cozy, warm place to hang out on a winter afternoon after school.
Hot chocolate and a pommier, a buttery cookie sometimes called an elephant’s ear, is OSFO’s regular choice. In fact, the other day before we sat down, a nice waitress said, "We don’t have pommiers today."
OSFO ordered a madeleine instead. I usualy get a small latte.
OSFO starts and sometimes finishes her homework while we sit there, which has provided me with ample time to reckon with the place.
First off, they seem to have an enormous daily selection of expertly prepared and delicious cakes, cookies, scones, and pastries. And every day there’s something new: seasonal specialties, holiday treats.
Right now, the shop is chock full of Valentine’s lollipops, candies, heart-shaped cookies and more.
How and where do they do it all? Turns out they have a large kitchen on Bond Street in Carroll Gardens where they do all the baking.
We’ve now got a bright new sunny kitchen with lots of room to create. Melissa is able to oversee the production of all of her recipes on a daily basis, and personally train her pastry assistants on new products. Here we can ensure the quality of baking everyday, and know that our customers are receiving the pastries which meet Sweet Melissa’s high standards. Central also has a take away counter and a few tables outside.
The website doesn’t even mention the new Park Slope shop, which is curious. Clearly, the website needs an update. The Park Slope shop is so above and beyond the original shop in Carroll Gardens. That shop is a tiny, lovely tea room. A special ocassion place — kind of hushed and precious.
The one in Park Slope is lively, cozy, and fun and it attracts a wide variety of Park Slope types:
–After drop-off parents reading the newspaper
–The stroller brigade,
–New moms dining with stroller baby and grandma (I think it is THE place to bring your mother).
–PTA moms making plans
–Friends meeting for serious conversation
–Acquaintances meeting to network
–Solo types with a journal
–Studious types with a book
–Dad and kid afterschool
It is not, by design, a wi fi hangout for people who want to spend the day with their lap top and a coffee.
You can get wi fi in there — but it’s linksys or stolen from a nearby signal and it’s not reliable at all. It’s also not a great spot for cell phone talking.
All good. Sweet Melissa’s has a slightly vintage feeling. An old fashioned place to meet friends and eat sweets. When all is said and done, it’s not inexpensive. That said, you can sit there with a $3.50 latte and enjoy a nice respite from the cold.
Today I discovered that Sweet Melissa has a website, which I now hear needs a SERIOUS UPDATE. Reading it confirms my belief that they are making a big effort to brand themselves and make themselves known to greater New York City and maybe the nation (think Sara Beths and Silver Palatte).
Even before I read the website, I was getting the sense that they are thinking big. BIG. Like maybe they have investors who want to see the shop reach the Sara Beth’s level or bigger. On the site I learned that they also have a shop in SoHo (woo). Here’s a blurb about the SoHo shop but now an OTBKB reader tells me that the SoHo shop closed when the Park Slope opened. WOW. That was fast.
Sweet Melissa SoHo (NOW CLOSED)
located at 75 West Houston Street (corner of West Broadway),is our beautiful new retail location. A lot of attention was put into the design of the store, as we wanted to create a place worthy of showcasing our wonderful pastries, tarts and cakes. Our talented designer and cabinet maker, Mel Jones of Myson Interiors, creatively incorporated our honeybee logo into the woodwork and cabinetry. .
Interesting about the wood work, which is especially nice in Park Slope shop, which is full of clever details like a rolling pin for a door handle and other baking objects incorporated into the cabinetry.
If they continue to expand, the trick will be to sustain the level of quality. Melissa is still on site over-seeing all cake production. That’s a good thing. At this point, quality seems to be their middle name.
THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF SEEING GREEN AT METHODIST HOSPITAL
For starters they didn’t feed him. And he waited three days for an MRI. Here’s an excerpt. Read the rest at Seeing Green.
The third day passed with no signs of the tests I was scheduled to
have, and no amount of inquires seemed to elicit any information.
Considering that they use a computer to keep track of when they
dispense one Motrin, you’d think that they’d have some idea when a MRI
was to be done, but, no. I finally threatened to check out if it didn’t
happen soon, and, hey, it was scheduled in an hour. Maybe they didn’t
want to lose the exorbitant amount charged for the procedure (but it
was worth it, the most fun I had, see here) or maybe, as my resident gave me a thumbs up when I was being wheeled away, the squeaky wheel got the grease after all.I didn’t get fed that day either, not that I was coveting the stuff
that passes for food there, but it would seem that a basic requirement
of a hospital is to keep its inmates nourished. Luckily Elizabeth,
bless her heart, had been feeding me croissants from Sweet Melissa,
(the best) and falafel sandwiches. Seeing as she couldn’t provide
breakfast, I tried to get on the food distribution list. After two
presses of the nurse call (not) button, I padded over the nurse’s
station and asked my RN why I didn’t get any food the previous day.
NEW OWNERS SAY NO PRICE HIKE FOR STARRETT CITY
This from New York 1:
The new owners of Starrett City, the
nation’s largest federally-subsidized rental complex, say they are
committed to keeping the rent under control.Clipper Equity bought the 140-acre site for $1.3 billion yesterday.
The complex, which recently changed its name to Spring Creek
Towers, includes 6,000 apartments for low and middle income families.Tenants fear the huge price tag will cause the new owners to jack up the rent, forcing them to move out.
But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz says that won’t happen.
"Starrett City must always remain affordable it is the most premier
affording housing project in these United States,” said Markowitz. “I’m
happy it’s in Brooklyn and we have every intention that will keep that
way. Period."Council Speaker Christine Quinn has also expressed concern over the
sale and says she’s anxious to see the buyer’s plan. She and city
officials have asked to meet with Clipper Equity to discuss the
company’s plans.
LAST YEAR ON OTBKB: PASSING LIKE SHIPS IN THE NIGHT
Here’s a post from last February 9th and things are still exactly the same. Hepcat has fallen into the rabbit hole of the working life. He’s working really, really hard these days.
Life is different now that Hepcat has a big job in Manhattan. Last
night he came home at 10 p.m. He’s back to his old tricks of working
late at the office. Back in the day when he was working for the
uber-computer corporation he’s stay until 3 or 4 in the morning. Just
you and the cleaning staff – I used to say.Three years ago – he was outsourced from the uber-computer
corporation and we had him all to ourselves. First there was severance
– glorious severance. Then unemployment. Then Hepcat worked hard on
his photography career – something he’d wanted to get back to for years
– and was beginning to acrue a list of loyal clients.But he was also around to prepare incredible dinners, pick OSF up from school, become a major role model to Teen Spirit. He was so around I
was happy to have my office out of the apartment so that we weren’t on
top of each other all day. But it was fun to meet for sushi lunch and
do other stuff during the day. Once, we went to the Brooklyn Museum
during the day. That was to see the Basquiat show and it was a treat.But now…He’s distracted the way new jobs distract you. He’s
stressed in that way that new jobs stress you. He’s busy in that way…Fortunately he’s still making time for the photography career. On Saturday he will be selling pictures at the Old Stone House…
The last there years were an experiment in trying to survive without
full time jobs. Both of us had lots of freelance work and were just
about making ends meet. Now we’re back in the race. Thanks to Hepcat’s
new job, we’ve got health insurance (starting in March), benefits,
retirement stuff, stock options and all the rest.Consequently, we’re passing like ships in the night. The family
didn’t eat dinner together yesterday. Husband even missed American
Idol. He came home late just like he used to – all tired and spent.But hey, it’s a living.
THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING
This is the third year in a row that I’ve run this piece. Usually I put it up on February 3rd but I missed the day. Only seven days late. I wrote it in honor of my parent’s anniversary. They’ve been divorced for more than 30 years but February 3rd still feels like their day. I wrote it when a guy in Yugoslavia asked me to be a guest blogger. I liked it and posted it on Third Street as well.
Today is the anniversary of Smartmom’s parents. February 3rd. The date
is etched in her mind. She and her sister would go to the same gift
shop year after year to buy an anniversary gift for them. West Town
House smelled of bath soap and sachet. It was just a block and a half
from the Riverside Drive apartment. They’d browse for an hour or more.
And with only four dollars, they’d find something to buy: a stone paper
weight or a letter opener, which the owner would gift wrap in green
paper and a black ribbon bow.Smartom’s parents aren’t married
anymore. They’ve been separated since 1976. But February 3rd still
stops her short. And while they’ve been separated for longer than they
were together, February 3rd means only one thing: the beginning of
something that later came to an end.Manhattan Granny showed
OSFO her wedding album a few weeks ago. A large, white, leather-bound
book, the black and white photographs present Smartmom’s parents on
their ceremonial day. In a simple and elegant, calf-length gown, Groovy
Grandma looks like Audrey Hepburn; her hair is close-cropped like
Hepburn’s too.Groovy Grandpa, with no trace of the beard that
would later define him, looks pleased with himself and his bride. Their
parents gather around them – mythical parents, they are all dead now.
They look happy for this union, for this coming together.Later,
OSFO said, "Grandma doesn’t look like herself," Maybe she didn’t
recognize her 78-year old grandmother as a beautiful young bride. Maybe
she was surprised to see her grandparents together; she never seen them
that way. It probably seemed strange; a little out of whack.The
separation came as a surprise, dramatic as it was. The rupture was
sudden: suitcases packed; black garbage bags, filled with clothing —
tossed. All traces of him were banished from the apartment;
an anguished wife’s ill-fated attempt at an exorcism.Smartmom
was only seventeen, a senior in high school, on the cusp of going away.
It was awful to see her family bifurcated. She was in the throes of
first love, first sex, high school. Now this?Like an ostrich,
Smartmom buried her head in her own sandy concerns while her mother
grieved and her father sublet a studio on the other side of town.And
when her first love decided he didn’t love her after all, she
bifurcated too. “Don’t leave me,” she cried pathetically for days.
"It’s gonna take a miracle to make me love someone new cause I’m crazy
for you,” Laura Nyro sang, the song played over and over on the record
player in the living room.But he left anyway.
February
3rd is just another day. But for someone whose family doesn’t exist
anymore, Smartmom will always honor the beginning of something that
later came to an end.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
THE SHIKSA IS BACK
The Shiksa from Manila has posted something new. Be the first to see…
NEW BLOG ON THE BLOCK: SAUCYTART
I’m sitting in Cocoa Bar with Mrs. Cleavage. She’s eating white chocolate chocolate cake and telling me about her twin sister’s blog. (Full disclosure: she’s treating to a latte right now).
Her sister’s blog is called Saucytart.typepad.com and it’s so so so saucy as she dishes the dirt on life, work, love, and elementary school.
BE THE FIRST TO CHECK IT OUT.
STOP HONKING THAT HORN
Someone is trapped in their parking space on Third Street and they won’t stop honking. It’s the oldest story in the New York City parking book.
It’s 8:59 a.m.
Shaddup or Would the person who’s blocking this car MOVE THEIR CAR!!!
AT FREDDY’S: Salon des Refusés de las Bibliothèque de Brooklyn
On the Brooklyn Footprints website, there’s a list of all the artists from the original show. You can click on the artist’s name and see their work.
Some of these works will not be included in the Brooklyn Public Library show. There will be a show at Freddy’s of all the artists left out of the library show opening on February 22.
Salon des Refusés de las Bibliothèque de Brooklyn
OPENING THURSDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2007 AT 5:30PM
Freddy’s Bar & Backroom
485 Dean Street (corner 6Ave and Dean)
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 622-7035
THE NEW YORK OBSERVER: BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY STORY
More about charges of censorship at the Brooklyn Public Library. This from the Real Estate Observer Blog.
Isn’t everybody sort of sick of the controversy surrounding Atlantic Yards? Wouldn’t it be nice to just look at some pictures of people and places in and around the footprint and leave out all the anger (or, maybe even joy?) the project has generated?
Well, the Brooklyn Public Library hears you. Its Grand Army Plaza headquarters will next Tuesday re-mount the “Brooklyn Footprints” exhibit that debuted in October at a multi-cultural center in Prospect Heights, but in condensed form. About six works, including Aisha Cousins’s mixed-media piece, above, will be left out, according to Dan Sagarin, the co-curator of the original exhibit. (Cousins instead submited a different, less controversial image, that the library is exhibiting, Sagarin said.)
“I think it’s commendable that they want to address the Atlantic Yards issue, and as a public institution, they did not want to take sides,” Mr. Sagarin told The Real Estate.
He said library officials saw the exhibit when it was up at Grand Space last fall, and decided then not to take the more overtly critical pieces, including one very large portrait his sister, Sarah Sagarin, painted of arch-opponent Daniel Goldstein, as well as other, more abstract work. (For more slides of those included and omitted, see the “Brooklyn Footprints” Web site.)
“We could have said, you can take all of it or nothing, and we didn’t say that.” But, Mr. Sagarin continued, “It hurt me. I would have to tell some of our artists, whom I had begged to do these works in the first place, that they would not be shown at the library.”
The Real Estate left messages with the library on Thursday morning and will report its response. Its blurb for the exhibit goes like this: “Footprints: Over 30 artists present their interpretations of the ‘footprints’ of Bruce Ratner’s proposed redevelopment of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Rail Yards.”
Fortunately, one of the rejected artists, Donald O’Finn, knows some French, and he is mounting a “Salon des Refusés de la Bibliothèque de Brooklyn” at the condemned bar he manages, Freddy’s, with an opening Feb. 22.
“The only piece that I can see the slightest hesitation to exhibit in a public forum where children could experience it is my video piece called ‘The Burrow’,” O’Finn wrote in an e-mail, “because it is rather scathing and does have a moment or two of a cartoon penis becoming erect (from an old sex-education film) that visually pulls up an architectural image of the proposed stadium project from below screen. They also excluded my comical small illustration of the arena as a toilet bowl.”
À ta santé!
– Matthew Schuerman
TRAGIC HIT AND RUN IN SUNSET PARK
A three-year-old boy was killed in an apparent hit-and-run in Brooklyn Thursday afternoon.
Police say Edward Heredia of Massachusetts was run down just after 4:00 p.m. at 55th Street and Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park.
Investigators say he was hit by a red pickup truck which then left the scene. He was taken to Lutheran Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Police are still searching for the truck. It’s described as a four-door, extended cab and may be a new vehicle.
Police say it was being driven by an olive-skinned man who was carrying one female passenger.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
BROOKLYN PARENTS VS. CHANCELLOR KLEIN
This from New York 1:
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein got an earful Wednesday night from parents sounding off on the school bus route controversy and other issues that have come up since the school year began. NY1 Education reporter Michael Meenan filed the following report.
“I think it is a crock. First of all, how can you make a decision about what’s happening with the education of children, and you don’t involve the parents.”
That’s how community activist Denise Taylor of Brooklyn characterized the latest phase in the plan to overhaul the city schools, and at a packed town hall meeting in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn Wednesday night, she wasn’t the only one with questions for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
“There was one kid I just recently helped, who was signed out of school,” said Taylor. “He was a special ed kid. He had not been to school in three years because his mother died of cancer.
“If you ever had a kid like that again e-mail me,” responded Klein.
Klein’s mission was put to rest questions about last week’s school bus route change fiasco and get parents to concentrate on the big changes coming down the pike: redistricting, new funding formulas, outside partners coming into schools to help teach kids. But one woman said she had heard enough.
CHARGES OF CENSORSHIP AT THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY
This story on the web site of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is charging censorship at the Brooklyn Public Library. The story from the Real Estate Observer is also posted.
A web of political fear seems to be widening across Brooklyn.
There is a an exhibition opening at the Brooklyn Public Library on February 13. It is a re-exhibiting of an art show called Footprints: Portrait of a Brooklyn Neighborhood which was on display in Prospect Heights’ Grand Space in November, 2006. According to the original show’s website statement:
The proposed “Atlantic Yards” arena and building complex in Brooklyn is poised to be one of the largest redevelopment projects ever undertaken in New York City. Its targeted 22-acre site is known as the “Footprint.”In the midst of the debate over “Atlantic Yards” and Brooklyn’s future, local artists have banded together in an effort to move beyond the sound bites and take a closer look at this place, its community, and at issues surrounding redevelopment.
Their work may be viewed on this site, and will be exhibited at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Main Branch, on Grand Army Plaza, from Feruary 13 thru April 21, 2007.
It is now being reported on the Real Estate Observer blog that particular works in the show’s re-display at the Public Library have been excluded. That’s one word for it. We call it censorship. From the Observer:He [original Footprints show co-organizer Dan Sagarin] said library officials saw the exhibit when it was up at Grand Space last fall, and decided then not to take the more overtly critical pieces, including one very large portrait his sister, Sarah Sagarin, painted of arch-opponent Daniel Goldstein, as well as other, more abstract work….
Two of the several works the library censored (or “refused”) for being “too critical,” include: an exquisite depiction of the proposed arena as a toilet bowl, by artist and manager of Freddy’s Bar and Backroom Donald O’finn; painter Sarah Sagarin’s portrait of DDDB spokesperson and eminent domain plaintiff Daniel Goldstein. Other “rejected” work includes this photo and this photo by photographer Amy Greer.
The Observer follows up its initial story with this statement from the Public Library which seems to attempt to explain themselves by stating it is publicly funded.
But the statement does not answer the question: how are these works “too critical,” and if they are “too critical” why would that prohibit them from inclusion as per the original vision of the exhibit’s coordinators which must have caught the Public Library’s eye. Everyone knows the “Atlantic Yards” project is controversial and has drawn a lot of public interest. We’ll assume that is precisely why the Public Library chose to exhibit the show. But why, then, have they chosen to cherry pick it and run from controversy?
As reported in the Observer story, Freddy’s will exhibit the “refused” art works, in a show opening on February 22nd with a reception on the 23rd. According to the Observer:
…Fortunately, one of the rejected artists, Donald O’Finn, knows some French, and he is mounting a “Salon des Refusés de la Bibliothèque de Brooklyn” at the condemned bar he manages, Freddy’s, with an opening Feb. 22…
LAWSUIT ON EXXON OIL SPILL IN GREENPOINT
This from New York 1 on the Exxon oil spill in Greenpoint.
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a lawsuit Thursday filed against Exxon and several other companies for taking decades to clean up a massive oil spill in Brooklyn.
Although it was first discovered in 1978, the underground spill is believed to have happened decades before.
It is estimated that 17 million gallons were spilled under Greenpoint and so far just nine million gallons have been pumped out. Much of what’s left can be seen in Newton Creek, separating Brooklyn and Queens.
Other companies named in the lawsuit include oil companies Chevron and BP. Energy giant Keyspan and a now-demolished copper smelting plant are also being named for their contamination to the creek.
Cuomo says Exxon bears the most responsibility for the environmental impact to the area. Exxon officials say it is working as fast as possible to clean the area.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
NO WALMART IN ALBEE SQUARE
This from the Working Family Party blog:
Today at 1pm the Albee Square Mall, located in downtown Brooklyn, and
UFCW Local 1500 will announce a deal to respect the wishes of the
community and exclude Wal-Mart from the development. Community
organizations, members of the New York City Council, the Working
Families Party, State Senator Eric Adams, faith-based leaders and other
unions – who all played a part in striking this deal – will also be in
attendance.
DEEP LOCAL
Okay, I’ve coined my own term for what we’re doing in the Brooklyn Blog Zone. Someone called it hyperlocal — don’t know who. And I wanted my very own term, my own jargon. So I’ve made one up. Deep Local. That’s my term. DEEP LOCAL.
It’s very local news. Very micro.
It’s what I see out my window, on my street, on the avenues of my neighborhood.
It’s everything: Mrs. Kravitz giving her kidney to Mr. Kravitz. The dead flowers in a vase that spent months on the window sill of my neighbor, whose husband died. The demonstrators who show up every Tuesday evening to protest the Iraq war at Brooklyn City Hall. The conflict that arose when a mother accused a neighbor of being a child molestor and posted it on trees and lamp posts. The teenager who plays sitar on our stoop.
It’s "Lost Boy’s Hat."
It goes from micro to macro. Sometimes the meaning of the stories ripple outward and touch on significant themes: PS 321 around the corner to THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY. Conversations overheard at Tempo Presto, Sweet Melissa’s, the Cocoa Bar to PEOPLE ARE VERY VERY ANGRY ABOUT IRAQ. The controversial Atlantic Yards development to THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK CITY AND URBAN AREAS EVERYWHERE. The boy who wrote a letter to Marty Markowitz about the B67 bus TO THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL WARMING. Whole Foods in the Gowanus to DO CITIZENS HAVE A SAY ON WHAT GOES ON IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS. My shift at the Food Coop to THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND HEALTHY FOOD. The arts event I thought was cool and smart to WHY CAN’T GOOD CULTURE BE POPULAR CULTURE AND VISA VERSA.
The local is worldy. Especially around here with so many writers, artists, legal aid lawyers, non-profit leaders, educators, political activists, social workers…
The personal is political.
Deep Local means close attention to the substance of my life, your life, my friend’s life. Deep Local is what’s neglected by the local news.
Deep Local is the opposite of generic or stereotypic. It’s specific, detailed, full of contradiction and complexity.
Deep Local. It’s my term now.