Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

New: G Train from Park Slope to Williamsburg, Greenpoint and LI City

Here's the word from OTBKB fave Richard Grayson author of I Hate All of You On This L Train.

This morning I was able to get from Williamsburg to Park Slope with only the G train.  Previously I could do that only on weekends when the F service was disrupted, but they put up the "To Church Ave." signs here, replacing the "To Smith/9th St" signs this week, and starting today, people in Park Slope can take one train to Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Long Island City.

 

On Friday night coming home, I saw the G train signs next to the F train ones on the platform on Seventh Avenue.

 

For some of us who travel between the neighborhoods a lot, this is a big deal and a real pleasure.

Chestnut Defeats Kobayashi at Coney Island Hot Dog Contest

OTBKB turns to the Brooklyn Paper for its stellar coverage of yesterday's hot dog-eating contest at Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island. Here's an excerpt. Go here for more.

America continued its dominance at that most-American of sporting events — the world hot dog-eating contest at Nathan’s Famous in Coney Island — as defending two-time champ Joey “Jaws” Chestnut stunned the world by defeating former champ Takeru Kobayashi by a huge margin today.

When all the hot dogs, buns and dog/bun detritus was counted at the end of the 10-minute contest, Chestnut had eaten an all-time record 68 HDBs to Kobayashi’s 64-1/2 HDBs.

The champion was his humble self.

“I have to credit my mom,” he said. “She helped me every night as I was training.”

Tom Martinez, Witness: Erie Cranes

 

First Father's Day Without Monte

Smartmom’s first Father’s Day without her dad wasn’t easy. They always did something special on that night. Usually, her dad — aka Groovy Grandpa — and Mima Cat would came over for dinner. While Hepcat cooked risotto or lamb, she and her dad would stand in the kitchen, and he’d tell tales of his college days at U.C. Berkeley, or working at Papert, Koenig and Lois, that 1960s advertising firm where he wrote ads for Robert Kennedy’s Senate campaign, Quisp and Quake Cereals and the New York Herald Tribune.

Groovy Grandpa would gingerly sip from Hepcat’s collection of Scotch (some Oban, Balvenie or Laphraiog) and compare them, like the connoisseur he was. He always gave Hepcat a bottle for his birthday.

Smartmom loved those evenings with her dad at the apartment, especially when her father would sit down at the Casio piano and play his free-form jazz. He had no formal training and couldn’t read music, but somehow he managed to bang out tinkly renditions of some of his favorite Cole Porter songs.

For a Father’s Day gift, Smartmom would usually go to the Community Bookstore and buy him a book on one of his favorite topics like philosophy, jazz, bird watching, or horse racing.

He’d immediately start reading it and confirm that it was a very good choice.

“How’d you know I’ve been wanting to read this?” he would ask.

A couple of years ago, Groovy Grandpa told Smartmom that he wasn’t a big fan of the Father’s Day holiday, but he appreciated the fact that she and Diaper Diva made such a big deal about it. Now Smartmom wonders why he wasn’t a big fan. Or maybe he was just kidding.

Last year, Smartmom didn’t write a column about her dad for Father’s Day because when he first got sick, he asked her not to mention his illness in her column. She thought a Father’s Day column would be too maudlin, sad and elegiac.

About a week later, Groovy Grandpa said, “I thought you’d write a ‘Smartmom’ about me for Father’s Day.”

Smartmom was startled and stricken. There was something so poignant about hearing him say that. So this Father’s Day, she kept flashing on that conversation and feeling guilty and sad.

Truth is, she never wanted to admit to him that she knew he was dying. Now Smartmom feels bad about all the conversations they didn’t have. And terrible that she didn’t write about him last Father’s Day.

Not a day goes by when Smartmom doesn’t think of her dad. There’s so much she never got around to saying. That’s life (or death).

But it still doesn’t make her feel any better.

Smartmom found herself feeling low energy on Father’s Day. In the quiet of Sunday morning, while Hepcat and the kids were asleep, Smartmom went through a box of old letters that her lovable and funny dad wrote to his parents just weeks prior to the birth of Smartmom and Diaper Diva in 1958:

Dear Folks,

Birth is expected in a couple of weeks, and I am pretty nervous about it. Up until now, the idea of a baby (babies) has been pretty much taking them to their first ballgame, dressing them in Eton suits and listening to their first gurgles of gratitude.

But now, the day-by-day reality becomes clearer, and I wonder how we’ll handle such things as squalling nights, plastic ducks all over the bathroom and shelves full of those terrible picture books. To say nothing of colic, uninhibited bowel habits and stubborn refusal to eat. In addition, the idea of pacing the hospital waiting room for hours, without knowing what’s happening to Edna, doesn’t strike me as better than going to the movies.

Oh, well, it will all be over soon and the joy of having them will, I suppose, put the doubts away. Did you like me at first, or did it take a few years?

Smartmom wonders how long it took her dad to like her and her sister. From the black-and-white photos of him, it looks like he was quite fond of his twin newborns quite early on. But who knows?

There is so much children don’t know about the inner lives of their parents. When you’re young, you can’t even imagine them having a life before you were born. Finding letters, notebooks, and journals is such a powerful way to learn more about the parents you think you know.

The night of Smartmom’s first Father’s Day without her dad, there was no standing in the kitchen hearing vintage stories. There was no jazzy tinkling of the plastic Casio keys. There was no tasting of Hepcat’s special Scotch.

But there were memories. Plenty of them. And the letters. They're no substitute for the man but they offer a coveted insight into what was going on in his head.

Starts July 4th: Fifth Avenue Art and Photo Walk

I was involved in an early planning meeting about this and I'm just really impressed that this group pulled it off so quickly.

The 5th Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) has teamed up with artists from across the borough to sponsor the first annual Art and Photo Walk in Park Slope.

As part of the walk, art installations will be exhibited along Fifth Avenue from Dean to 18th Street and feature a variety of artists. “With computer art, oil paintings, mixed media, ceramic tile, and photography,” explained participating photographer and BID Board Member Erika Clark, “the walk offers a range of artists an opportunity to exhibit their work in non-traditional settings while bringing more people to neighborhood to support the local economy.”

There are over 70 participating merchants, 40 artists and approximately 200 pieces. Artists include Third Street photographer Stanley Cohen, Bernette Rudolph, and Jonathan Blum among many, many others.

 The walk will officially launch on the 4th of July and last until Labor Day. With art as dynamic as the Avenue itself, the public installation promises to bring unique energy to an Avenue long accustomed to setting new trends.

For a map a detailed map of the Artwalk, click here (please note, some details are subject to change).

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

The Current Weather in Park Slope

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

The Third Street Playground Awaits

Are Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick Moving to Park Slope?

Just got this email from my pal, Verse Responder Leon Freilich:

If, as the Post says, Sarah Jessica Parker (SJP) and family move into the limestone mansion on Prospect Park West; and if her HBO series is brought back with new episodes, will it be called Sex and Park Slope?

Then I read in Curbed that Jennifer Gould Kalin in the New York Post speculates that Sarah and Matthew Broderick may be the "mystery buyers" of Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany's limestone on Prospect Park West and Carroll Street. That house sold for $8.45 million but nobody has moved in yet.

But look out for the moving trucks and get out the welcome wagons. Sounds like they should be home soon. I happen to know that SJP has been working on a film with Hugh Grant in NYC and on location in New Mexico. And she and her hubby have been waiting for a surrogate to give birth to their twins.

And there's more: Omigod: Curbed also reports that Parker's production company optioned Amy Sohn's book, Prospect Park West, which is a fictional treatment of the celebrity life in Park Slope.

Truth. Fiction. The lines are getting mighty blurred these days.

;

Back By Popular Demand: The Peacock Dress From Dalaga

Dalaga, a 2-year-old boutique on an interesting stretch of Greenpoint's Franklin Avenue, is owned by designer Michelle Mangiliman. The shop features an affordable selection of designer women's and men's clothing, shoes and accessories.

Back by popular demand is the peacock dress, which is $65 and available in black, white and turqoise. They also have pretty floral dresses, black linen shorts and coin medallion necklaces.

The shop is located on 150 Franklin Street in Greenpoint (718-389-4049). And it's open on the fourth of July.

You Gotta See The Wrestler

We rented Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler from Netflix: I didn't expect a movie about wrestling  (and pole dancing)  to be so poetic and lyrical. Mickey Rourke, who looks like he's bionic, plays an unexpectedly gentle (and sad) character named Randy the Ram.

A loser on so many levels, Rourke is a "one trick pony," who needs to figure out how to survive once he retires from the sport. He tries to resuscitate his relationship with his grown daughter played by Rachel Evan Rachel Wood, who hates him for being a consistent no-show. The scenes with Wood are powerful and poignant.  A scene where they dance in an abandoned Jersey Shore ballroom bordered on the corny but managed to be anything but.

Marisa Tomei plays an unexpectedly complex stripper/pole dancer who wants to make something more of her life for herself and her son.

The wrestling scenes are graphic and brutal. Hard to take at times, they are also incredibly interesting.

Subtextually, the movie also tells Mickey Rourke's own life story of a guy who screwed up big time and wants to come back is fascinating and definitely blurs the line between fiction and life.

Tom Martinez, Witness: Erie Basin Park

This  walkway, part of the newly developed waterfront area behind IKEA, runs along the water, out onto a dock so that you can go beneath two towering cranes to the Water Taxi landing.

Photo by Tom Martinez

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Continue reading "The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America"

Tom Martinez, Witness: Our Flag Was Still There

New Yorkers preparing for the immigration rally on May 1st (Union Square, NYC).      

Photo: Tom Martinez

The 4th of July in Brooklyn

Loads of cool cultural things to do in Brooklyn this 4th of July Weekend:

 1. Let's start with BAM, that bastion of culture in Ft. Greene:

--BAMcinematek Repertory is presenting a festival of films by Spike Lee, in honor of the 20th anniversary of Do the Right Thing.

--In the first run department: BAM Rose Cinema is showing:  Away We Go, Food Inc. and the new Woody Allen: Whatever Works.Check their website for times.

--The AfroPunk Festival is a-happening at BAM on July 4-6 and it is described thus: "Power to the people! BAMcinématek and Afro-Punk celebrate five years of rejoicing in the revolutionary spirit of July 4th with six days of film, music, and other events that feature themes of Black power, rebellion, and equality."  There's also a skate park: the parking lot by BAM will be transformed into a killer skate park, complete with live music, skating and biking demonstrations, and more. For full details on the Afro-Punk skate park, the Nike SB skate clinic, and the URBANX Battle for the Streets BMX/skate competitions.

2. Now for a little culture on Eastern Parkway: Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum on the 4th of July:

Alex Battles and the Whisky Rebellion perform a roof-shaking, joyful medley of country, jump blues, and rock ‘n’ roll. Rain Plan: Rubin Glass Pavilion, 1st Floor. The legendary Mandingo Ambassadors play authentic Guinean music, using their rich melodies and funky moves to get you dancing. Rain Plan: Rubin Glass Pavilion, 1st Floor. Stitch together your own patchwork quilt with fabrics and designs inspired by the diverse cultures of Brooklyn. Free timed tickets (380) are available at the Visitor Center at 5:30 p.m., The Namesake (Mira Nair, 2007, 122 min., PG-13) follows one family as they adjust to life in North America. Gogol, the American-born son of Bengali parents, struggles to find balance between his family’s traditions and his own path. Free tickets (340) are available at the Visitor Center at 5 p.m, Samba Nation takes the musical energy up a notch with its Latin grooves. Rain Plan: Rubin Glass Pavilion, 1st Floor. Cristina Garza, a Student Guide, gives a Sign Language–interpreted talk on Yinka Shonibare MBE.
And there's a dance party, too: Brooklyn-based indie rockers The Shondes keep the evening hot with high-energy, politically savvy rock’n’roll with Yiddish and classical influences. Rain Plan: Rubin Glass Pavilion, 1st Floor.

3. Think Swimming. Think Pools.  About Brooklyn has a nice list of Brooklyn's public pools:

Swimming pools in Brooklyn are open from late June through September 1 (with a few open year-round). Hours are generally from 11am to 7pm, and swimming is free.

4. And what would the 4th of July be without Coney Island's 94th annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest? You can watch this crazy, only in Brooklyn event. But get there early because there's always a big crowd. Festivities start at noon on the corner of Surf Avenue and Stillwell Avenue.

5. Vox Pop on Corteylou Road in the Ditmas/Flatbush neighborhood is having an all day Fourth of July Bash, a full day of music and mayhem. Beginning at 3 pm with younger, up and coming musicians, the event will continue through the evening with some wonderful, explosive music. Line up will include Paul Decosta, Syndey and Mack Price, Jake G and Friends, In One Wind, Eric Godoi and the Templates and many more.

6. Music and dancing is the name of the game on July 5th at the BKLYN Yard on the banks of the Gowanus: "From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Justin Carter will return as resident DJs. Each weekend, they are joined by incredible guests while we get busy eating huaraches, drinking sangria, and dancing it all off.

7. Yes, the Brooklyn Flea is open on July 4th in Ft. Greene and on July 5th in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

8. The Park Slope Farmers Market (Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets) presents a live jazz trio from noon until 2 p.m on July 5th. Little Triumph is a virtuosic Brooklyn based trio that specializes in improvisational Americana music with undertones of jazz and country. The band features Kirk Schoenherr on guitar, Nick Anderson on drums/percussion and Spencer Zahn on acoustic bass.

9. Barbes is chock full of great music programming on July 4th and 5th, including on the 4th at 8 pm: Lucia Puludo A Colombian singer who specializes in a Pan-Latin-American repertoire and classic songs of "broken love": tangos, waltzes and boleros. And on the 4th at 10 pm: The Stagger Back Brass Band presents one hundred and thirty eight years after the Commune, and twenty years after Tiannamen square, come see how a brass band arrangement of l'internationals sounds on Independence day - and then dance to the Coceks, cumbias, waltzes and circus oddities. And on the 5th: French virtuoso Guitarist Stephane Wrembel channels the technique and the fire of Django Reinhardt. He studied for years with the manouche (the French Gypsies) but has also gotten deep into American vernacular musical styles. His weekly sets will mix up the traditional Django repertoire along gypsy swing re-interpretations of standards.

10. 38th Annual International African Arts Festival is all weekend in Commodore Barry Park Navy St, between Flushing and Park Aves, Brooklyn: Hundreds of performers, artists and vendors gather for this weekend-long festival celebrating African art and culture.

11. And here's something in Manhattan: On the 4th in Battery Park (State St, at Battery Place), the River-to-River Festival presents Conor Oberst with Jenny Lewis as his opener. This event is not ticketed, but space is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The show starts at 3:30. 

Tell me this isn't the awesomist list of stuff to do?

Photo by Brit in Brooklyn

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Palin Sets Her Sights

Sarah Palin's announced she's resigning as governor.  --just in.

Palin Sets Her Sights
 
Sarah Palin's grown too big for Alaska;

If you doubt it, go ahead and ask her.

Glamorous and conservative is she,

Mistress of two-faced hypocrisy.

Next, the international arena--

Hook-up with Mark Sanford in Argentina?

Richard Grayson's New Book: I Hate All of You On This L Train

The Brooklyn-based indie publisher Canarsie House has announced the publication of a new book of selected stories by OTBKB fave Richard Grayson, I Hate All of You on This L Train. It features some of the best stories from five previously published Richard Grayson books from the '70s, '80s, '90s and 21st century. This 94-page collection of selected stories is available online for $7.00 plus shipping and handling. Or, for those who don't want to carry it on the subway, the book is available for free downloads and online reading at Scribd.

Park Slope's Fifth Avenue on the Fourth of July

On All About Fifth, the new Fifth Avenue blog produced by the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District, there's a list of things to do on Fifth:

Fifth Avenue is not just home to amazing restaurants, clothing boutiques, jewelry stores, toy stores, and so much more, but it is a burgeoning location for exciting events, like live music, public readings, and community building activities. Naturally, everyone is excited about celebrating the Fourth of July in style with a little barbecue with the family, but don't forget about the exciting list of events that are taking place Thursday and Friday nights. And, definitely be sure to keep visiting the businesses along the avenue that are participating in the 1st ever Fifth Avenue Art Walk. What other avenue in New York would turn businesses into one-long art gallery?

The New Yorker: Issue Project Room and Make Music New York

In The New Yorker this week, music critic Alex Ross visits Issue Project Room in the American Can Factory on Third Street and Third Avenue in the Park Slope/Gowanus area.

Two Sundays before Make Music New York, the Brooklyn-based venue Issue Project Room, an indispensable site of offbeat programming, organized its own sonic jamboree. Twenty-one musicians led groups on “soundwalks” around Brooklyn and other boroughs, treating the city either as an audio source or as a stage for their work. (The term “soundwalk” was popularized by the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, who, in the spirit of Ives and John Cage, has long blurred distinctions between composed music and ambient sounds.) Two dozen people signed up for a soundwalk with Betsey Biggs, a young Princeton-trained composer and interdisciplinary artist who often creates site-specific performances. Beforehand, Biggs directed participants to a Web site where they could download “Detox Project,” an electronic piece that she had assembled for the occasion. It consisted largely of sounds recorded in and around the murky old Gowanus Canal, in Brooklyn: machine noises, trucks backing up, the bell of a rising drawbridge, sirens, pedestrian chatter, and, for a long while, a voice softly humming a childlike, three-note melody.

Late in the afternoon, we met at a boarded-up house at the corner of Third Street and Third Avenue and began following Biggs’s lead, listening to “Detox Project” on earphones. The streets were deserted, except for a few hipsters pushing strollers. It was unsettling to hear loud sounds without seeing their source. Conversely, certain noises that seemed to emanate from the soundtrack actually came from real life: I was surprised to see live birds in a dead tree. The experience proved to be psychologically complex, exposing how we orient ourselves with our ears. And, as Biggs notes in her Princeton dissertation, this kind of work plays off Internet-era listening habits—the use of manicured playlists to create what she calls a “cinematic lull,” a “solitary dream state.” When the walk curled through the quiet streets of Carroll Gardens, the collage of noises subsided and the human voice took over. Biggs began banging on a tin drum that she’d brought along, and a friend played an accordion. An electronically mediated experience veered toward old-time music-making. At the end, we stood on the Third Street drawbridge and applauded the composer, who smiled bashfully, nodding toward the strangely beautiful ruined landscape behind her.

I Missed the Working Families Mayoral Forum

Since I wasn't able to make it to the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum yesterday I have to read about it like everyone else in the New York Times, and hear about it on WNYC.

According to all reports something like 400 people packed into the Hotel Trades Association. All three of the major candidates attended but they were interviewed separately.

Bloomberg, who is running as a Republican and an Independent surprised many by his willingness to particpate in the forum of the progressive Working Families Party.

Apparently, he got booed and hissed quite a bit by the audience.

According to the New York Times, Bloomberg poo-pooed the idea that ginormous campaign spending was undemocratic. “You can’t buy an election. The public is much smarter than that," he said.  That remark, according to WNYC "drew boos and hisses" from the crowd.

Also reported by WNYC,  both of the Democrats running for mayor, Comptroller Bill Thompson and Councilman Tony Avella, were cheered several times by the largely progressive Working Families crowd "when they pledged to raise taxes on wealthier New Yorkers and push for more affordable housing."

City Councilmember Bill de Blasio, who is running for Public Advocate sent out a press release about Bloomberg's statement that more people are choosing to stay in homeless shelters because they have become more attractive during his time in office. "It is insulting to the almost 35,000 people who spent last night in a shelter to say that they were there out of choice, not out of necessity," de Blasio said.

The format of the event was interesting. It was really three interviews: one with each candidate and then closing remarks.

You can imagine how disappointed I am that I wasn't there. But stay tuned: I am doing a Breakfast-of-Candidates interview with Tony Avella on Monday in Park Slope.

The Dinnersteins of Park Slope

The Dinnersteins of Park Slope were cited in 2006 in the very first Park Slope 100:

SIMON, RENEE, AND SIMONE DINNERSTEIN, artist, educator, acclaimed pianist, because they are the first family of Park Slope creativity.

NOw that Simone is making her New York Philharmonic debut on July 7th and 8th the New York newspapers are gaga, too.

Yesterday I ran into Renee on Seventh Avenue and she graciously thanked me for putting something about the Avery Fisher Hall concerts on the blog. She also told me about a nice piece in the New York Post about Simone and her family and their distinctly Park Slope story.

In fact, hers is such a Cinderella tale -- the whole Billboard-topping, Oprah magazine-raving, globe-hopping trip -- that playing with the Phil could seem almost anticlimactic.

Yeah -- as if.

"I never thought I'd play with them!" says Simone (sah-MOAN-ah), who'll play Liszt, not Bach, at Avery Fisher Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"I went there last week to try out the piano on the stage, and I could barely get out the words to the guard to tell him where I was going. This is what I saw, growing up, as completely unattainable."

She grew up where she lives now -- in Park Slope, the daughter and niece, respectively, of painters Simon and Harvey Dinnerstein. (There's a jewelry designer in the family, too.) She fell in love with the piano when she heard Chopin at dance class, but she wasn't given lessons till she was 7, which in these prodigy-ridden times is practically elderly.

Simone's father, Simon Dinnerstein, is wonderful painter, who likes to sketch distinctive Park Slope locals like Thomas Park, a barista at Connecticutt Muffin and Wajih Salem, one of the owners of D'Vine Taste. He was featured in a Brooklyn Paper article by me.

Renee's award-winning talents as a teacher are well known. In fact, when my son was first at PS 321 all the parents prayed that their children would get "the great Renee Dinnerstein" as a kindergarten teacher. I believe that she developed PS 321's Reading Buddies" program, which matches an older and younger student to spend a library period together throughout a school year.

That program is one of the many best things about PS 321. And the Dinnersteins are lovely neighbors to have.

Lost and Found and the Amazing Grace of a Stranger

So the protagonist of this story was on her way to the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum, where she was supposed to "live blog"  the debate between Mayor Bloomberg and Democratic candidates for mayor, City Council Member Tony Avella and Comptroller William Thompson.

This obviously distracted woman entered the Q train station at Seventh Avenue and sat down on the subway bench. Waiting for the Q, she started to read page 600 of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, a book she's been trying to finish for days and then got on the train. When the train got to Atlantic Avenue she realized she didn't have her computer.

"Where is my computer?" she thought nervously. "Where is my computer?" she thought again rapidly reviewing everything that lives on her computer.

So she backtracked; got on the Q back to Seventh Avenue; she checked where she'd been sitting on the train platform. No computer.

As she came out of the subway, the rain was starting and she walked quickly to Chase Bank, where she'd been prior to getting on the train. She was with her son Henry, who was trying to set up a checking account. She called her son's cell phone.

"Do you have my computer," she asked him.

"No, I do not have your computer," he told her.

On the way to Chase she called the personal banker to see if she'd left her computer in his cubicle.

"Nope, it's not here," he said.

Still, she raced to the bank half expecting to find it leaning against an ATM wall but no, no computer. No computer in the personal banker's office. No, no, no.

Her jacket and pants were drenched as was her hair and she turned onto Third Street.

"Come downstairs," she told her husband. "And bring a towel," she told him after telling him about the lost  computer.

When he met her downstairs he told her that he was already starting to change all her computer passwords.

"You never know. Someone could break into all your accounts," he said sounding a note of panic.

Once most of the passwords were changed, she lay on the green leather couch in a bathrobe and wondered how it was possible to lose one of the most important tool/objects in her life. The phone rang.

"It's for you," her husband said.

"I have your computer," a woman's voice sang into the phone. It was music to the protagonist's ears.

"I was hoping a wonderful, honest person would find it and call," she said.

"I'll call you when I get back to the Slope," the opera singer/realtor said.

(Meanwhile a MacBook computer in a sleek black Timbuk2 case was being carried by a lovely young woman, who happens to be an opera singer and real estate agent, through the streets of Chelsea and Union Square in Manhattan. This MacBook computer had been through a lot lately. When her hard drive died two months ago, the drive was sent to Dallas, Texas to attempt retrieval. That was like being without her brain for two weeks. When retrieval failed, she went to the Mac store on West 14th Street, where she lived for many days in a room behind the Genuis Bar and was retrofitted with a new Hard Drive. Later she returned to the Mac store to have her  disk drive replaced. Swinging from the shoulder of this friendly opera singer/realtor, this MacBook was wondering why she was having such a hard time lately.)

"We should still continue to change your passwords," her husband said after the phone call. . "She sounds pretty smart."

"She'd not going to do anything," our protagonist said already smitten with this person who was kind enough to have found her computer and called.

"You never know..."

That night the protagonist of our story met the opera singer/realtor. She greeted her with an enormous bouquet of roses, sunflowers and lily's. The opera singer/realtor was thrilled.

"Thank you. This is so over the top."

Effervescent describes the opera singer/realtor's personality as she told the protagonist how she found her phone number:

"I opened your resume on your desktop. I wasn't being nosy," she said. "I was just looking for a way to contact you."

They had a lovely encounter in the lobby of the opera singer/realtor's building as the protagonist's faith was restored, once again, in the kindness of strangers. 

OTBKB Music: A Few More Music Suggestions for The Fourth (and Fifth)

If yesterday's long list of suggestions of things to do on The Fourth wasn't enough for you, I'll add a few more:

There's been a big show at Battery Park every Fourth for more than a decade at this point.  Although it required tickets recently, this year we are back to first come, first served free admission.  Opening the show this year will be Jenny Lewis, who has two solo albums under he belt in addition to her work as lead singer of Rilo Kiley.  Her last album, Acid Tongue, released last year, was a good effort and included a duet with Elvis Costello.

The main attraction will be Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. Although you might remember Conor from his earlier project, Bright Eyes, you'll find a much less angst ridden Conor these days. This show is part of a tour for Conor and the MVB behind their album Outer South, an alt/country/rock affair on which other band members take some of the vocal turns as well.

This show will be crowded and although it has a start time of 3:30, you'll probably want to get to the park much earlier.

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band and Jenny Lewis, Battery Park, enter on State and Pearl Streets, (4 or 5 to Bowling Green or R to Whitehall Street), 3:30 start, Free

If you are still hanging around in Manhattan after the show and you still want to hear more music, you can head over to The Rockwood Music Hall where James Maddock, previously recommended here, will be playing from 9 to 11.

James Maddock, The Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen Street (from downtown, take the M15 bus to Stanton St.; F Train to Second Avenue, exit via First Avenue), No Cover

Finally, on Sunday you can celebrate the extension of the G Train all the way to Church Avenue by taking it from the Slope to Williamsburg and catch OTBKB Music favorite Sasha Dobson in the backroom (once a trolley car!) of Pete's Candy Store.  If you go early you can partake in Pete's Sunday BBQ.

Sasha Dobson, Pete's Candy Store, 709 Lorimer Street (G Train to Metropolitan Avenue, exit via the L Train Lorimer Street platform to Lorimer Street and walk about five blocks to Pete's), 8:30, No Cover

 --Eliot Wagner

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Tonight: Live Blogging from Working Families Party Mayoral Forum

Mayor Mike Bloomberg, City Council Member Tony Avella and Comptroller William Thompson will be going head to head at the Working Families Party Mayoral Forum.

And I'll be blogging it live. Tonight from 5-8 p.m.

Tidbits: City Council Candidates (Ken Baer Correction, Evan Thies' Trivia Challenge)

I ran into Ken Baer in front of Citibank on Seventh Avenue and he told me that there were numerous factual errors in my Breakfast-of-Candidates profile of him. I asked why he didn't get in touch sooner and he said he was too busy with petitioning "to sit and edit your piece."

Hmmm.

Our conversation spanned more than two hours as we went from Cousin John's to the Park Slope Food Coop and it did have a rambling quality. Later I did have a hard time reconstructing the actual chronology of some of his work experience. 

The biggest mistake: Ken told me that his father did NOT attend Harvard Law School. He was accepted at the school but it was during the Depression and he couldn't go.

Apparently there are other small mistakes as well. I don't think any of them are glaring or misleading. My apologies to Ken. He says that when he has more time he may get in touch and point out the other mistakes.

Evan Thies' campaign is sponsoring a Campaign Trivia Challenge on Wednesday, July 8 at 6:30 pm at Union Hall ( 702 Union St., Brooklyn). 

So what is the Campaign Trivia Challenge? Seven-time Jeopardy champion and Park Slope resident Justin Bernbauch will host. Supporters and volunteers will compete to see who knows the most about Brooklyn, and finalists will have a chance to match wits with Bernbauch.

Mayhem in Albany Means Department of Ed is Now the Board of Ed, Again

Due to the mess in the Assembly Albany, at midnight on July 1 mayoral control of schools ended, which means that the Board of Education is back in business. At some point during the day the newly reconstituted BOE voted to keep Chancellor Klein in command. They elected Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott as president, and called on state senators in Albany to pass the Assembly’s mayoral control bill. 

Here's the story from Inside Schools: 

The newly reconstituted seven-member board will be made up of five members , one appointed by each borough president, and two members appointed by Mayor Bloomberg. Yesterday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., formally announced the appointment of Dr. Delores Fernandez as the Bronx representative. According to The New York Times, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz will appoint  his chief of staff, Carlo Scissura, to the board while Manhattan’s  Scott Stringer will appoint his legal counsel (and former Advocates for Children staff lawyer), Jimmy Yan, on an interim basis. There is no word yet on the appointees from Queens, Staten Island, or the mayor.

Check out GothamSchools’ step-by-step  guide to the post-mayoral control school system for more information about what’s next for the city’s schools.

UPDATE (11:07 a.m.): We have just learned the rest of the appointees to the BOE: for Queens, Deputy Mayor of Education and Community Development Dennis Walcott; for Staten Island, Deputy Borough President Edward Burke; and for Mayor Bloomberg, First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris and Deputy Mayor for Operations Edward Skyler.

Mini Documentary: Superfund and the Gowanus Canal

Sabine Aronowsky and Steve de Sève have produced a mini-documentary called The Superfund and The Gowanus Canal.  It is under 10 minutes in length and covers the Superfund's origins at Love Canal, the city's history with the Gowanus Canal,  increased flooding in the canal area, and just what is in the floodable sediments and sewage. 

It also gives the EPA's address and special docket number you must use if you wish to make your voice heard by the EPA before the comment period on Gowanus Canal Superfund Listing closes on July 8. 

Featuring EPA Director Walter Mugdan, Community Board 6's Richard Bashner, concerned FROGG (Friends and Residence Of Greater Gowanus) members, and some of the most toxic water in the United States.  The filmmakers ask:

Should the Superfund clean the canal that the city has failed to clean for over 30 years . . . or should we let the city chase the EPA money out of town and give Bloomberg yet another crack at it so that nearly 500 new housing units can be built in the flood zone without waiting?  It's real estate vs. local residents, but with a toxic twist. And one or two Coney Island Whitefish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msbgbkzjnKo

 

CORD Supports Superfund for Gowanus

CORD (Coalition for Respectful Development) a group of concerned and active citizens in Carroll Gardens has decided that Superfund is the way to go for the clean up of the Gowanus Canal. I have to agree.

As the end of the public comment period rapidly approaches and all of the meetings have been held and a great deal of information disseminated, CORD is convinced now more than ever, that the nomination of the Gowanus Canal to the National Priorities List as a Superfund site is STILL the best thing that ever happened to our neighborhood.

We do not believe that the City of New York's "alternative" plan affords any tangible benefit to the community in terms of process, result or timeframe.

They also urge everyone to register their opnion because the public comment period ends on July 8th. Here's some info about that:

The City is sending their comments and their suggestions to the EPA. You should send yours. Please join us and proudly tell the EPA, “SUPERFUND ME!”

We all have the right, no, the RESPONSIBILITY, to demand that our environment be as healthy as possible! Superfund designation provides the will, the means ,the tools and the experience to make this a reality.

If you have not already done so, please go to. The comment period has been extended to July 8th. For instructions to submit comments go to http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/pubcom.htm or contact Dennis Munhall, Region 2 NPL Coordinator at (212) 637-4343 or munhall.dennis@epa.gov  Note Docket #EPA-HQ-SFUND-2009-0063

You may have signed the petition at www.superfundgowanus.org , and that’s great….but your comments made directly to the EPA mean so much more! Please go there right now—take a look at some of the things your neighbors are saying--don’t be shy---speak up for our neighborhood ---beg the EPA to put the canal on the National Priorities List as soon as possible!

See the Declaration of Independence This Weekend

Thursday through Sunday at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street:

Here's your chance to take a look at the Declaration of Independence—handwritten by Thomas Jefferson. Isn't that, like, the most appropriate thing you can imagine doing on the fourth?

Sounds pretty cool to me.

New York Family: Enjoying the 4th of July

New York Family Magazine, the magazine that featured OSFO and me on the cover a few months back has a good guide to what to do on the Fourth of July weekend in and around the city, including:

-- Best places to watch fireworks

--Sailing trips around island

--Fountains that are fun

--Great Hikes

-- City Farms

--Out of the City fun, too

New Principal of Saint Saviour Elementary School: Maura Lorenzen

On Thursday a letter went out to parents and guardians of Saint Saviour Elementary School from Fr. Murphy. Here is a text of the letter, which was emailed to me by one of the school's parents.

Dear Parents and Guardians:

It is with joy that I announce to you that Maura Lorenzen is the new principal of St.
Saviour Elementary School.

Maura is a life long parishioner of St. Saviour. She is a graduate of both our elementary
school and our high school. Currently, Maura is a member of our Parish Council, our
Welcome Team, and our Hospitality Committee as well as being a catechist in our School
of Religion. Maura is also one of the lay leaders representing St. Saviour at the cluster
meetings of our local parishes.

Maura has been an educator since 1982. After graduating from St. Joseph's College she
started her career as a classroom teacher at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School,
teaching 5th and 6th grade children. She then went on to teach at Congregation Elohim's
Early Childhood Center. Her experience in administration began in 1989 when she was
named Lower Day Camp Director at CBE. In 1995 she became a director of the entire
Early Childhood Center, including the nursery school, toddler program and the summer
day camp program.

Gail Harvey, our assistant principal, assures me she will work closely with our new
principal in order to provide a smooth transition.

In the 5 years that I have known her, Maura has consistently demonstrated to me all the
skills and qualities that are essential to lead our school into the future. Please join me in
praying for God's abundant blessings upon Maura Lorenzen as she assumes this
important position.

Enjoy the summer.

God Bless You.

Sincerely,

Fr. Murphy, Pastor

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

So How Was Your Trip, Dr. Metzl? I Was Quarantined in China

He was supposed to lecture at a Chinese medical school but things didn't turn out as planned for Dr. Jonathan Metzel, a psychoanalyst who lives in Kansas City.  This is an excerpt from a post by Metzel for  Midwest Voices, a blog associated with the Kansas City Star.

This morning, Chinese medical observation officers woke me from a deep sleep. I opened my eyes to three figures, draped from head to toe in infection control gowns, goggles, gloves, shoe covers, and face masks, who surrounded my bed in a remote room in a run-down motel in rural China.

Temperature” said the first officer though his mask before placing a thermometer under my arm. “Food ok, yes?” asked the second.

After my temperature read as normal, the third officer handed me a small bouquet of flowers to celebrate the start of my fifth day in H1N1/swine flu quarantine. The hazmat trio left after five minutes, and I was left to ponder yet another day in isolation.

It was not supposed to be this way. Six days ago, I flew from Detroit to Shanghai to lecture at an esteemed Chinese medical school. As a physician, I knew of China’s aggressive public health response to the H1N1 virus. Thus I was not wholly surprised when a team of masked public health officials met our flight and took temperatures from every arriving passenger. The display seemed excessive and somewhat nonsensical (“Have you had contact with pigs?” each passenger was asked), but we were quickly set free. I passed through customs and cabbed to my downtown hote

My Coney Island Walks

I frequently take the F-train to Coney Island to visit my friend Rose who recently had knee replacement surgery.

Currently she's staying in a rehabilitation hospital on 29th Street and Surf Avenue. Her room has a nice view of the ocean, the beach and the boardwalk.

I usually take a $2 cab from the Stillwell Avenue subway station to the hospital. But on my way home I always walk on the Boardwalk back to train.

Yesterday was an utterly blue-sky gorgeous day. Clearly I wasn't the only one who had the idea to walk on the Boardwalk. By 2 p.m. the beach was crowded and the Boardwalk was filled with walkers, bikers, and sunbathers.

There was such a strong summer at the beach vibe—amazing for an urban beach just blocks from City housing and a neighborhood in the midst of a controversial transition.

Up by 29th Street, people make quiet recreational use of the Boardwalk for jogging, walking, biking. Russian couples sit and read newspapers; the elderly take in the sun; young lovers make out; loners like me take slow, meditative steps.

The blue and white RIngling Brothers Circus Tents add a festive feeling to the Upper Boardwalk. I noticed  signs yesterday about a cafe and animal viewing area open every day until 9 p.m. Then there's Keystone Park with signs about upcoming games and the Wilco/Yo Lo Tengo concert coming up on Monday July 13th (doors open at 6 p.m.).

A large swath of the beach has been closed off for a stage and stadium seating for the 2009 Village Voice Siren Festival. This year's concert features Built to Spill, Spank Rock, The Ravonettes, Tiny Masters of Today and many more bands and will happen on Saturday, July 18, 2009 from 12:00 noon - 9:00 p.m.

As I got closer to what's left of the amusement park, the Boardwalk throbs with energy—even on a Tuesday afternoon. Radios balring Michael Jackson, girls parading around fearlessly in skimpy bikinis, boys in low cut surfer shorts, children slathered in suntan lotion.

I strolled into the area that used to be Astroland and was disgusted to see the poor excuse for an amusement park that the City (?) has put in there. There's a freak show thing as well with huge vintage looking circus posters about two headed ladies and babies. One exhibit boasts the world's largest rat. Gross: that one really freaked me out.

The new Flea By the Sea seems to be getting off the ground slowly. I've been there a couple of times and found it hugely disappointing with a scant number of vendors. Pretty pathetic. But an OTBKB had this to say. 

I know this flea market took a long time to pull together and it started off VERY slowly but it is now up and running and this weekend was a huge success...If you already went to the flea market when it was first opened please give it another chance, it is very, very much improved since those first days.  I am not one of the people running the flea market so I have no ulterior motive here but to let everyone know there is a great thing happening in Coney Island.

My walks in Coney Island are always a bouyant and moody mix. I think about Robert Guskind and how he should be still alive to walk around and take pictures.  I think about Rose in the rehab hospital and all the iterations of Coney Island she has witnessed in her 40+ years living there.

I think about my own Brooklyn relatives, living and dead, who surely spent time on the Boardwalk in their youth.

And now I am a regular walker there, too. Visiting my friend Rose and always enjoying my stroll from 29th Street to the Stillwell Avenue train. Taking in the breeze, the sky, the atmosphere on a summery Brooklyn day.

 

Coney Island Re-Zoning Hearing in Progress

Going on right now: a City Council re-zoning hearing about Bloomberg's plan to rezone 20 blocks of the Coney Island waterfront for high-rise condo towers, apartments and hotels

A city-owned amusement park in one section is also part of the plan.

And guess what? City officials are reserving the use of eminent domain to acquire the property if necessary.

Luckily, the beach and the boardwalk will stay the same, as will the Cyclone Roller Coaster and Wonder Wheel, which are protected by landmark status.

Phew.

The hearing of the City Council's Zoning and Franchises began at 10 this morning. The council will vote on this matter by August 7th.

Pastor to Announce New Principal for Park Slope Catholic School

Despite the fact that school is out for summer, 50 parents protesting the dismissal of James Flanagan, the school's long-time principal, held another vigil last night in front of Saint Saviour, a Park Slope Catholic elementary school.

"Not bad given the heavy rain at the beginning of it," one parent wrote in an email to OTBKB. "I have it on a great source that a letter is going out either today or tomorrow (unless the Diocese stops him) announcing the new principal."

Rumor has it that the job is going to a friend of Fr. Murphy's, who recently lost her job at Beth Elohim. I assume this person was employed by Beth Elohim Early Childhood Center, a local nursery school/kindergarten program run by Congregation Beth Elohim, a reform Jewish congregation in Park Slope.

But the plot thickens. In an article in today's Daily News, the paper quotes from six pages of complaints against the principal penned by Fr. Murphy:

"As pastor, I should have received a personal invitation with a complimentary ticket," Murphy wrote in six pages of complaints against the principal about the $200 he had to shell out for the March 2007 and October 2008 events.

Murphy also complained he had never received financial reports about the galas, and that Flanagan had spoken publicly about using some of the funds raised as an endowment without consulting him or the school's finance committee.

Murphy denied those issues prompted Flanagan's dismissal, saying that it came down to an "erosion of trust" between them.

"You can't renew the contract of someone who's lost trustworthiness and has shown by his actions some insubordination," Murphy said.

One parent who saw the news article responded in this way: This is despicable, and I knew he had no "vision."  You would think a pastor would be happy that we raised $90,000 for the school - not bad for a fired principal and some "small group" of parents."

Principal Flanagan told the Daily News that the decision not to send Fr. Murphy a personalized invitation was not his. He also said that he told the pastor about the $90,000 raised by the gala that is being used to renovate the school's library.

Mr. Flanagan has asked the Diocese for a mediation but a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Diocese told the Daily News that the matter was "off the table."

Why? Because the pastor has final word on hiring and firing of school principals.

.  

OTBKB Music: The Score at Halftime

I thought I'd take a look at a few of the albums released during the first half of 2009 that I felt were particularly good.  But I will admit that if you've been reading my posts all along, this list will not be all that surprising.  Listed in nifty random order:

The Damnwells - One Last Century: One Last Century is just plain wonderful.  You could call it rock power pop with wonderful songs and great vocals.  If you need a reference point, The Gin Blossoms aren't all that far away from this.  There is no reason not to own this album; it was released as a free download here. Yes, it's legal!

Leslie Mendelson - Swan Feathers:  Adult pop, mostly piano based.  Leslie's lyrics are literate and as many people have noted, playfully sexy.  A couple of the songs on this album have been rearranged from the way Leslie had been doing them live to provide the opportunity for Leslie to step out from behind the piano and onto center stage, including the first single, Hit the Spot. 

Amy Speace - The Killer in Me:  This is a reflective album as the songs in this collection were written during the break up of Amy's marriage.  Instead of the mostly country sounds of her last collection, Songs for Bright Street, this material lends itself to a folk rock treatment for the most part.  And although Amy ruefully decides that "the only thing I've learned is I haven't learned a thing" she does kicks up her heels during a very spirited Would I Lie.

Israel Nash Gripka - New York Town:  Too young to have been around during the classic rock era, Israel reaches back to what was good in the 70s as inspiration for this set.  And yes, it does seem he's channeling John Fogerty in the song Pray for Rain.

Li'l Mo and the Monicats - On the Moon:  After a few years away from the music biz, Li'l Mo returns with a collection that runs from country to blues to rockabilly to 60s pop.  Most of the songs are originals but a cover of the Bill Hailey song Rocking Chair on the Moon gives the album its title.  Standouts include I Really Love (To Really Love You) and The Boy Who Loved the Blues.

Kristin Diable - Extended Play:  Even though she recently left Brooklyn to return to her native Louisiana, I'll still include Kristin's EP.  This is a mix of six studio and three live tracks, a heady mixture of blues, rock and soul held together with Kristin's smooth Louisiana drawl.  You can also find Kristin singing in the background of a recent series of Jeep TV ads.

 --Eliot Wagner

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Marty Endorses Bill deBlasio for Public Advocate

I read it on my Facebook page. But then I saw it on the Brooklyn Paper. Here's an excerpt:

Borough President Markowitz heartily endorsed Councilman Bill DeBlasio for public advocate on Monday — the second time in as many weeks that the borough’s highest elected official has backed a Brooklynite for a citywide office.

Last week, Markowitz journeyed to City Hall to endorse Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights) in his run for comptroller.

A cynic would say — not this cynic, of course, but another cynic who looks like him — that Markowitz, the ultimate Brooklyn booster, didn’t look at resumes, but a map when he selected Yassky over his three Queens rivals John Liu, Melinda Katz and David Weprin; and then DeBlasio over his adversaries, Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens), and Mark Green and Norman Siegel, both of Manhattan.

“I must say that I know all the candidates [in both races] and they’re very good candidates,” Markowitz said at Borough Hall on Monday. “But I just think that David and Bill will do a better job.

“And the fact that they’re both from Brooklyn is just the strawberries on top of Junior’s cheesecake,” he added.

Gotham Gazette: Understanding the Ballot Petitions

The Gotham Gazette (GG) is a good, wonky read especially if you're trying to make sense out of NYC politics. The article excerpted below might even help you understand what all those volunteer petitioners are doing out on the streets of NYC.

Reading GG, I learned a thing or two.

The election laws we now live by were developed in the 19th century to make the process more democratic. Previously the system was controlled by party leaders who had complete control over which names appeared on the ballot.

Now thanks to those laws, there are petitioning requirements. According to GG, the purpose of these requirement is "to ensure that only those candidates with huge campaign war chests or party backing have the wherewithal to get on to the ballot -- and stay there. Here's an excerpt from a piece called Understanding the Labyrinth: New York's Ballot Access Laws by DeNora Getachew and Andrea Senteno:

In order to get on the New York City primary election ballot this year, candidates could begin collecting signatures for their designating petitions on June 9 -- 37 days[DMG3] before the last day to turn in designating petitions for the primary election

The law is very specific about how many signatures candidates must collect. They have to get 5 percent of the enrolled voters of the political party in the political unit covered by the office -- council district, borough or the entire city -- or the specific numbers enumerated in the state's Election Law, whichever is less. For a candidate for City Council, that number is 900 signatures, but as a cushion against petition challenges, the rule of thumb is to obtain at least three times the legal minimum.

The candidates also must figure out is who is eligible to sign the petitions and who can collect the signatures. While only registered voters who are members of the candidate's political party and reside in the district in question can sign the petition, any registered voter who is a member of the candidate's political party and lives in New York City can collect signatures. Voters are allowed to sign just one petition per office.

The candidate has approximately five weeks to collect all of the requisite signatures and file his or her designating petitions with the main city Board of Elections office between July 13 and 16, which complies with the state law requirement that designating petitions be filed between the tenth Monday and the ninth Thursday preceding the primary election.

That done, the challenge portion of the petitioning process begins. According to the board's rules, it conducts a prima facie "review [of] each cover sheet and petition to ensure compliance with the New York State Election Law." This marks the first round of challenges to the candidate's petition -- but definitely not the last. The law allows any voter registered who can vote for the candidate to file written objections with the Board of Elections challenging that candidate's designating petitions. Those challenges must be made within three days of the filing of the petitions. [DMG4]

Once challenges are filed, the board holds hearings to assess the validity of the challenges and issues a determination. In order to appeal the board's decision a person must commence an action in state Supreme Court – the lowest level court in New York's court system "within 14 [DMG5]days after the last day to file a petition or within three business days after the board makes a determination regarding the invalidity of such petitions, whichever is later."

If the appeal involves a determination about whether a candidate's name will appear on the ballot or a voting machine, the Supreme Court, if possible, is supposed to issue a final order at least five weeks before the day of the election. Candidates can appeal such decisions.

Tidbits: City Council Candidates: Discretionary Funds, Green Party Petitions, Sponge Parks, Stroll Polls

So far, it's a quiet week on the campaign trail. Not like the last weeks and months which were chock full of fun: petitioning, street fairs, LGBT parades, Howard Dean showing up in Park Slope and endorsing two candiates in the same race, forums, Superfund discussions, and more.

But the petitioning continues and for David Pechefsky, Green Party candidate in the 39th, it is just beginning. He has to wait until July 1 to petition for names to insure his name on the November ballot. If you want to see a Green Party candidate on the ballot, be on the lookout for one of his volunteers. They'll be wearing green t-shirt with a funny caricature of Pechefsky on the front.

Interesting piece in the Gotham Gazette about discretionary funding—who gets it and who doesn't. It cites Brooklyn City Council member Lewis Fidler as "The King of Discretionary Funding." Bill deBlasio is in the top 10.

Bob Zuckerman, a 39er, is very happy about the $300,000 in federal funding that was approved by the House of Representatives for the Sponge Park, which will use greenery to absorb and manage excess surface runoff and help improve the water quality of the Gownaus Canal. As currently planned, the design will include usable public space.  “I am so pleased that the House has approved funding for this innovative project, which simultaneously reduces contamination of the greater Canal area and creates public outdoor recreational space at the same time,” Zuckerman said.

Did I mention that he's been endorsed by the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York (SDCNY) and the Lambda Independent Democrats of Brooklyn (LID)?

And check out Doug Biviano, one of the 33's, who did a "stroll poll" asking pedestrians to write ona chalk board outside of his campaign office on Montague Street. Here's what he found:

1. 37% -- Healthcare   (57 votes)
2. 22% -- Education   (33 votes)
3. 18% -- Affordable Housing   (27 votes)
4. 15% -- Parks & Playgrounds   (23 votes)
5.   8% -- Corruption & Campaign Reform   (12 votes)

Park Slope's Simone Dinnerstein to Make Philharmonic Debut on July 7th

Park Slope's Simone Dinnerstein, who has won numerous awards and honors for her piano playing, will be making her New York Philharmonic debut on July 7th and 8th at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Summertime Classics series.

Be there for the music and to take pride in this native Park Sloper who now lives here with her husband and son. She recently started a music series at PS 321 and next year, I hear, there are going to be four concerts with very top musicians; their performances are donated and all proceeds to P.S. 321.)

Found: Injured Baby Sparrow, Help Needed

I get a lot of emails from the New York Bird Club. But yesterday's moved me to post:

Yesterday,we brought home a baby sparrow that had fallen out of its nest.It was unconscious and barely breathing so we took it home to give it a safe place to pass on.

Surprisingly, it made it through the night and seems to be doing well today. We fed it a few drops of a RX nutritional supplement called Emeraid that we had fed to our cockatiels when they were sick.

Does anyone know what to feed a baby sparrow? How much? How often? We also have some Rx Benebac which is similar to the acidophilus in yogurt. We gave it to one of our birds after a course of antibiotics threw her own healthy bacteria out of whack. Thanks for any information anyone can provide.

To view the thread go to:
http://forums.manhattanbirdclub.com/post?id=3548966

No Words Daily Pix: Photograph by Hugh Crawford

Prospects Heights Landmarking Approved: See The Video

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the 850-building Prospect Heights Historic District, the largest district designated in two decades.

Wow. That is big news.

The Municipal Art Society made a video about the process of creating the historic district. The act of engaging residents in the designation process brought the community together and provided a new sense of neighborhood identity.

 

The video features the following people:

Councilmember Tish James

Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Bob Tierney

Gib Veconi, Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council 

And many local residents

 

The web page can be found here: http://mas.org/prospect-heights-the-making-of-a-historic-district

Leon Freilich, Verse Responder: Madoff

Madoff

Bernie, you're immortal now,
At least for 150 years,
Joining swindler Charlie Ponzi
On the trail--and trial--of tears.

Shall we call you Bernard Hood,
A modern Sherwood Forest elf,
Stealing from the rich (et al.)
And giving all of it to--yourself?

Or shall we make your well-known name
Synonymous with investment trade-off
And call the cur who transmutes others'
Fortunes into his a Madoff?

Bernard Madoff: 150 Years of Solitude

The story is in the headlines:

NY Daily News: Ponzi King Gets the Max

NY Post: Bernie Madoff to Rot in Jail

NY Times: Madoff Gets Maximum Sentence for Huge Ponzi Scheme

Gothamist: Finally: Bernard Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years for Ponzi Scheme

Tuesday: Spike Lee Day in Brooklyn

Marty Markowitz just announced it. My sister heard it on the radio.