Scandinavian Museum Moves

The Scandinavian East Coast Museum cordially invites you to a reception and open house at Our Savior's Church, 80th Street and Fourth Avenue, on Saturday, May 9th from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.

The reception commemorates the museum's move to Our Savior's.

Relocating the museum's archives and collections will make these cultural resources more accessible to researchers and community groups.

There is no admission fee.

A raffle will be held.

For more information or to RSVP, call Victoria Hofmo at 718-748-5950.

For more information about the Scandinavian East Coast Museum, visit the Website: http://scandinavian-museum.org/

More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?id=28163

Greenmarket Returns on Saturday

Allison Whaley, market manager of the Bay Ridge Farmer's Market, asked me to pass along the following reminder.

The Bay Ridge Farmers Market opens this Saturday, May 2nd at 8:00 AM, providing fresh produce, flowers and plants, lean meats and dairy, wild-caught fish, fresh eggs and baked goods.

There will be free events like cooking demonstrations, raffles and family activities throughout the season.

So come out on Saturday and meet farmers, neighbors and friends and buy some wholesome food.

The market will be located at the former Key Food parking lot, 95th St and 3rd Ave., from 8 AM through 3PM every Saturday through December.

Your EBT/Food Stamps (June/December) and WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition checks will work just fine.

The Farmers Market is provided through Greenmarket, a not-for-profit program of the New York City Council on the Environment that supports regional agriculture by providing local outlets for small agricultural producers.

Local Greenmarkets support the regional economy, help preserve farmland, help keep water and soil clean, and encourage sustainable agriculture. They also enliven neighborhoods by bringing people together.

See you there!

More information at the Greenmarket website.

Stark "Resigns"

“This afternoon I accepted the resignation of Martha E. Stark as New York City’s Finance Commissioner.

On behalf of the nearly 8.4 million New Yorkers, I want to thank Martha for her years of service, and I want to recognize the many reforms that Finance developed and implemented under her leadership.

From our Earned Income Tax Credit mailing project, to the new clear and informative property tax bills, to the $400 rebate checks, Martha made the Finance Department - and our City - a better place.”

(Press release on NYC.Gov.)

So ended the 7-year tenure of Mayor Bloomberg's Finance Commissioner, Martha Stark, an out lesbian who was the first African-American woman to serve as Commissioner of the New York City Finance Department.

The 48-year-old Stark, a tax attorney, earned $189,700 as Finance Commissioner, while holding an outside job at Tarragon Corp., a Manhattan-based real-estate developer, that paid her a total of $90,316 in cash and stock options in 2007.

No other city commissioner or department head is known to have a similar outside job.

According to the New York Post, Stark asserted that, in 2005, the city's Conflicts of Interest Board gave her conditional permission, via a confidential letter, to moonlight for Tarragon. The COIB letter refers to an opinion by the city's Law Department that Stark's work for Tarragon “would not conflict” with the City Charter’s “whole time” rule for commissioners.

The Mayor’s Office, questioned by the Post, said it didn't know about Tarragon.

Under pressure, Stark resigned the Tarragon job.

But then, further revelations: a parking judge married to an assistant commissioner, had been billing Finance for hours he didn't work -- to the tune of $8,645; Dara-Ottley Brown, Stark's former assistant commissioner and a player in the New York Yankees bond-valuation scandal, was discovered to be romantically involved with Stark; Stark's late brother's stepson, her half-brother and her niece were all hired by Finance; and the Tarragon thing "came to light".

The mayor said he'd have the COIB look into it. That investigation resulted in Stark's resignation.

Ottley-Brown had been at Finance for 20 years when Stark was appointed commissioner. Ottley-Brown was making just $65,000 as a mid-level manager in 2003, but was pulling down a salary of $138,000 by the time she left Finance in 2006 to become one of three commissioners on the city Board of Standards and Appeals.

When Ottley-Brown filed for divorce in 2007, Finance hired her ex-husband as a graphic artist at a salary of $78,000 and gave the couple's daughter a job as an intern.

The ex-husband still works there.

More from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04122009/news/regionalnews/family_affair_for_finance_commish_164084.htm
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04282009/news/regionalnews/nyc_finance_commissioner_quits_166650.htm

More from the New York Times:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/citys-finance-commissioner-resigns/?hp

Viking Weekend

Bay Ridge will host its annual celebration of Scandinavian heritage this year on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17.

Viking Fest

On Saturday, May 16, the Scandinavian East Coast Museum will host Viking Fest 2009 at Owl's Head (Bliss) Park at 68th Street and Colonial Road from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Admission is free.

Activities will include two Viking reenactment groups, the Viking ship "Norseman" and crew, rides, and Scandanavian foods and crafts.

Musical entertainment will be provided by a Norwegian band, bagpipers, step dancers, and Turkish drummers.

The event is co-sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate & Greg Ahl.

For more information, contact Victoria Hofmo at 718-748-5950.

Norwegian Constitution Day Parade

The 58th Annual Norwegian Constitution Day Parade will kick off at 1:30 PM on Sunday, May 17 on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge.

This year's parade theme is “Salute to Norse Mythology”.

Approximately 100,000 people are expected to turn out for the parade, which will feature, in addition to many local bands, the Norwegian band Stavanger Musikkorps.

An expected 10,000 marchers will begin cueing at 12:30 p.m. on Fifth Avenue at 88th and 89th Streets. The parade will begin promptly at 1:30 p.m. rain or shine, moving north along Fifth Avenue to 67th Street, and turning right up 67th Street, past the grandstand, which will be on the south side of Leif Erikson Park between 6th and 7th Avenues.

There will be a short program at the reviewing stand at around 3:30 PM, at which the guest speaker, Norwegian Consul General Sissel Breie, will formally crown Miss Norway 2009.

The official parade Website: http://www.may17paradeny.com/.

17th of May Church Rally

In the leadup to the parade, on Saturday, May 2 at 6:30 PM, the Church Group of the 17th of May Committee will hold its annual 17th of May Church Rally at the Norwegian Christian Home at 1270 67th Street in Bay Ridge.

Pastor Paul Knudsen, of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, will be guest speaker, and the Nansen Chorus will provide musical selections. Refreshments will be served after.

For more information about the parade and related events, contact Evald Olson at (718) 745-6653 or Victoria Hofmo at (718) 748-5950.

Hosting an Exchange Student

The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) is seeking U.S. host families for high school foreign exchange students.

Students between the ages of 15-18 spend either 5 months or 10 months in the U.S. They pay for their own toiletries, school supplies, clothes, school lunches and entertainment. CIEE provides their insurance coverage.

Host families, with children or without, must be willing to open their hearts and homes to their guests.

There are many exchange students waiting for placement.

Hosting an exchange student is a chance for your family to learn about the student's home country and culture, and to fulfill the student's dreams of coming to the U.S.

For more information, visit the CIEE Website at: http://www.ciee.org/hs/host

Or contact Amy Larison, CIEE Local Coordinator/Team Leader at: amylarison89@yahoo.com

View Amy Larison's slideshow at: http://www.cafemom.com/home/dfwexchange.

No, We Can't

Police seized more than 100,000 items of fake designer goods from 118 rented storage spaces at a warehouse on 63rd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Bay Ridge this week.

Among the "Ralph Lauren" shirts, "Dooney and Burke" wallets, "Fake Religion" designer jeans and "Coach" purses were 17 pairs of "Nike" sneakers bearing the image of President Obama and the words "Yes, we can".

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes called putting the president on a pair of fake Nikes "disrespectful" and "disgraceful".

Six counterfeiters operating out of the warehouse were arrested and goods estimated to be worth $20 million were confiscated.

The investigation was brought in by an undercover working out of Hynes' office, who rented space in the warehouse a year ago posing as counterfeiter. He was eventually able to penetrate the ring.

The counterfeit goods distributed from the warehouse were made in China. Hynes described the warehouse as “a citywide hub” providing bulk merchandise to retailers.

Kai Fong Chen, 39, and Min Min Zheng, 24, were charged with felony second-degree trademark counterfeiting, and 4 others were charged with counterfeiting misdemeanors.

Some of the storage areas, ranging from about 5 X 5 to 10 X 30, were crammed floor-to-ceiling with black plastic trash bags full of counterfeit goods. Others were set up like showrooms, with the merchandise racked and displayed.

Hynes said the investigation, which also involved the State Police and the Waterfront Commission, is continuing, and will expand to include those doing business with the ring.

The article from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/nyregion/25counterfeit.html?ref=nyregion

More from the Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/04/24/2009-04-24_knockoff_obama_sneaker_dealers_busted.html

At Either End

Five days a week, sometimes more, I yo-yo back and forth between Bay Ridge and lower Manhattan on the "R" train.

Warning posted in the window of a Bay Ridge cafe and sculpture on Water Street.

Ron Paul supporter demonstrating in front of the Federal Reserve bank on Nassau Street and red globes on East Broadway.

Taking the sun in Bay Ridge and extemporaneous photography exhibit, 59th Street subway station.

Bloomberg's Tab: $7.5 Million

The New York Times reports that Mayor Bloomberg's media tab is $4.5 million, bringing his total 2009 campaign spending to $7.5 million -- so far.

The mayor's closest rival, New York City Comptroller Bill Thompson, has been outspent by Bloomberg 7-to-1 before he's even left the gate.

Thompson's campaign outlay? A puny $1.3 million.

Bloomberg, who has declined public financing and faces no spending limit, has, with his latest media binge, spent more than Thompson can from now until the Democratic primary in September.

Thompson, a well-regarded two-term comptroller and a pillar of city's Democratic Party, has raised $5.1 million — less than Bloomberg has spent in about two months.

So far, Thompson's ad campaign has consisted of a YouTube spot.

The Bloomberg campaign has spent $4.4 million on television and $121,000 on radio so far. Of that amount, $253,000 and $11,000, respectively, were spent on TV and radio ads targeted to Hispanics.

The ads typically attempt to deflect blame from the incumbent mayor for the city's growing financial woes.

Bloomberg's ads have been running on all the major radio and TV networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC, since early this month. Before Bloomberg, mayoral campaigns did not start running TV ads until August. Even big-spending Bloomberg, in his 2005 campaign, did not run TV commercials until mid-May.

Bloomberg's tab for his last two elections: a total of $150 million. Bloomberg's campaign advisers, countering calls for a more level playing field, say the mayor, who is leading in the polls, has earned the right to flex his financial muscle.

Thompson has some potential advantages: registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5 to 1 in New York City. Bloomberg will run -- this time -- as a Republican.

Bloomberg's campaign touts the mayor as "unbought and beholden only to the people of New York".

If dollars were the only currency in play, that might be true.

The article from the New York Times:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/mayors-campaign-spending-reaches-75-million/?hp

Ridgewood Theatre Designation

On March 24, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission held a designation hearing for the exterior of the ornate 92-year-old Ridgewood Theatre and two Ridgewood districts, 100-year-old Matthews Flats and the St. Matthias Church complex.

The LPC is expected to begin voting on the designations this fall.

According to the LPC, it typically designates around 25 individual landmarks each year.

Queens preservationists who have fought for years to landmark the theatre and the two districts are confident that the LPC will designate all three: making it to a designation hearing is a virtual ticket to landmarking.

The designation hearing for the Ridgewood Theatre came after an advocacy campaign by preservationists and cinema lovers that began in March, 2008 when the theatre – thought to be the longest continually-run movie house in New York and, by many accounts, United States history – suddenly closed.

The landmark campaign, led by 26-year-old Michael Perlman, Founder and Chairman of Friends of the Ridgewood Theatre, mobilized advocates through CinemaTreasures.org and a Myspace page and networked with theater owners and corporations to seek landmark designation and find a preservation-friendly buyer.

At the designation hearing before the 11-member LPC this year, Perlman and representatives from historical societies citywide showed a film highlighting the history of the three-story Classical Revival movie house, a Myrtle Avenue fixture.

Thankfully, Mario Saggese, one of the Ridgewood's current owners, supported the campaign to preserve the theatre's limestone and terra-cotta exterior.

Thomas A. Lamb, great-grandson of Ridgewood architect Thomas W. Lamb, told the LPC that for generations, the Ridgewood has been a cultural center, a place where the entire history of cinema had been viewed.

Paul Kerzner, a fourth-generation Ridgewood resident who has gone to the theatre since he was a kid, reminded the LPC that the ornate Ridgewood was once humbled by its more majestic neighbors, movie houses like the RKO Madison which have now been demolished or converted to other uses.

The battle to designate parts of Ridgewood has been going on since the early 1980s, following the addition of nearly 3,000 of the neighborhood’s yellow brick row houses to the state and national registers of historic places. But, as we in Bay Ridge learned though the loss of the Green Church, the fact that a historic building is listed in the state and national registers provides no protection against the developers and their wrecking crews. Only local designation can do that.

The Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association, which wisely saw the economic advantages of historic preservation, took as its advocacy role model the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

As a result of an ongoing preservation campaign dating from the late 90s, the LPC, as of last year, had designated some 50 buildings on Stockholm Street as the Ridgewood “North Historic District”, bordered by Forest Avenue on the northeast, Woodbine Street on the east, Fairview Avenue on the south and Linden Avenue on the west.

The proposed “South Historic District", encompassed by Woodbine Street to the north, Woodward Avenue to the northeast, Catalpa Avenue to the east and Seneca Avenue to the southwest, has been scheduled for an upcoming hearing.

The districts consist of around 300 buildings, and the LPC is considering looking at the remaining 2,700 buildings on the national registry.

Fortunately, there has been widespread citizen support for landmarking in Ridgewood, including both current and former patrons of the Ridgewood Theatre.

The article from the Queens Courier:
http://www.queenscourier.com/articles/2009/04/24/news/top_stories/doc49f2210a25f42054588831.txt

Preservation Lobby Day

A citywide coalition of preservation and neighborhood advocates will gather on the steps of City Hall, Wednesday, May 6 at 11 AM for the 3rd annual NYC Preservation Lobby Day.

Organizers of the event include the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Citizens Emergency Committee to Preserve Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, Landmark West!, the Municipal Art Society, and the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

The agenda includes a call for increased funding for the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) and support for the following themes:

• “Preservation is Sustainability” -- the city's planning and land use process should incorporate the reuse and rehabilitation of historic buildings and other characteristic neighborhood features.


• “Preservation is Neighborhoods -- preserving neighborhood character is a cornerstone of the city's long-term economic health.


• “Preservation is an Economic Catalyst" -- preservation increases property values, strengthens the city’s tax base and enhances tourism. The city should advocate for federal and state historic preservation tax credits and an enhanced J-51 tax abatement program for landmarked properties.


• “Preservation is Historic Religious Properties” -- a task force should be created to find ways to save these historic structures, which have anchored our neighborhoods and provided essential social services -- as our Green Church once did.


• “Preservation is an effective Landmarks Commission” -- it takes staff to process all of the requests submitted to the LPC. Processing renovation and development applications more quickly stimulates the economy.

Read the full platform HERE.

Lobby Days are credited with increasing funding for the LPC and serve as demonstrations of the size and strength of the city's preservation community.

If your neighborhood group or block association would like to sign on as a co-sponsor of the platform or if you would like to participate in the press conference that takes place at noon on Lobby Day, please contact the GVSHP at: http://www.gvshp.org/.

Greenmarket Returns

The Bay Ridge Greenmarket will re-open on Saturday, May 2 at the former Key Food parking lot at 95th Street and 3rd Avenue.

The season runs from May 2 through November this year. The market will be open on Saturdays from 8 AM to 3 PM.

These farmers/vendors will be on hand every Saturday:

• Bufala di Vermont (buffalo cheese, yogurt and meat)
• New York Beef (grass-fed beef)
• Bread Alone (bread and baked goods)
• American Seafood (fresh, wild-caught fish and shellfish)
• Caral Farm (vegetables)
• Alex’s Farm (vegetables, fruit, plants and cut/potted flowers)

Walgreens, which will replace Key Food, plans a July opening.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=27824

Local Craft Bargains

Don't stop shopping altogether. Support Brooklyn artisans by shopping at the Anti-Depression Session at the Brooklyn Lyceum on May 2 and 3 from 11 AM to 6 PM.

Admission is free.

The market is designed for those of us -- and that would be most of us, I bet -- who can't spend like we once could. All handmade crafts are priced at $30 and under.

Think Mother's Day.

Food? Mos def: DUB Pies and more food vendors TBA.

The official Website:
http://www.bkcraftcentral.com/

Earth Day Tips: Living Greener

Six things you can do to be more earth-friendly:

• Drink from a reusable water bottle.

New York City consumes 856 million bottles of water a year and 86% of those water bottles end up in landfills, where it takes 1,000 years for them to break down.

The solution? Drink New York tap water in a refillable bottle. Luckily, New York has some of the best tap water in the country.

• Take your name off junk mail lists.

The unwanted catalogs and brochures aren't your fault, but it's your responsibility to stop them. Paper catalogs consume 50 million trees and 60 billion gallons of wastewater every year.

The solution? Take your name off the mailing lists. Companies like CatalogChoice.org let you select the catalogs you don’t want and cancels those mailings to you.

• Take your bike or the subway to work.

New York’s per capita greenhouse gas emission levels are only 7 metric tons per person compared to the national average of nearly 25 metric tons, because we have one of the fastest and most efficient mass transit systems in the nation. But people still drive into the city -- even on weekdays -- when they don't have to.

The solution? Walk, bike, take a bus or the subway — anything but your car.

• Get an AC with a timer this summer.

Don't blast the air conditioner -- especially when you’re not home. More than 80% of homes in New York have at least one AC, and residential buildings put out 40% of the city's carbon emissions.

The solution? Use a timer or programmable thermostat if you have central AC, and set it at reasonable times and temperatures. Leaving the AC on all day contributes to brownouts and power outages, and causes the backup diesel generators to kick in, spewing greenhouse gases that dity the air.

• Recycle

Surprisingly, New Yorkers only recycle about 17% of their total waste — half of what they could, and should, be recycling.

The solution? Teach yourself how to recycle — and stick with the program. It cost us, the taxpayers, almost $300 million last year to haul our garbage out of town. Recycling is a lot cheaper than the landfill. Just separate out the glass, metal and plastic and put everything else in the trash.

• Buy local produce from a greenmarket.

Shipping produce from out of state and from overseas leaves a huge carbon imprint. Buying only non-local foods at grocery stores takes money away from farmers in a state that boasts some of the most fertile farmland in the country.

The solution? Take your bike, a bus or the subway to the nearest greenmarket. By buying local produce from the greenmarket every week, you're preserving farmland and shrinking your carbon footprint.

• Take your clothes to an eco-friendly dry cleaner.

More than 80% of New York dry cleaners still use perchloroethylene, or “perc,” on clothes.

The solution? Choose a cleaner that uses alternative, eco-friendly methods such as “wet” cleaning or CO2 cleaning, like Green Apple Cleaners.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2009/04/22/2009-04-22_seven_green_sins_of_the_city_what_new_yorkers_could_be_doing_to_help_the_earth.html

Scorched Earth

Michael Bloomberg, who has racked up the Republican and Independence Party lines, is out to preempt Bill Thompson's run on the Democratic line -- one way or another.

The mayor, who has defended Tim Geithner, attacked President Obama's critics, endorsed the president's health care plan and co-opted presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett for his new volunteer initiative, was introduced at a bill signing today by President Obama as "the outstanding mayor of New York."

Poor Bill Thompson. The Bloomberg campaign, with practically unlimited resources and a team of crack political operatives, is positioning Bloomberg as a virtual Democrat.

Bay Ridge Council Member Vincent Gentile characterized Bloomberg's tactics as “smothering everybody else and taking everything on the table"

"That’s the way he plays, said Gentile. "He's creating a situation where there's nothing left for Democrats."

Bloomberg has recently scored endorsements from Newark mayor Cory Booker and Brooklyn New Era Democrats and an appearance with Bill Clinton. Team Bloomberg is also picking off once-reliably-Democratic constituencies like unions, black, Latino and Jewish clergy, black and Latino elected officials, and progressive civic groups.

"We work everybody" said a Bloomberg op. Rumor has it Team Bloomberg tried hard to grab the Democratic party line, but, although one or more district leaders were down with the plan, the magic number of three was, although affordable, apparently unreachable.

The mayor's default goal is to realign Democrats in his favor and make those obligatory endorsements that Thompson will get, late in the game, from Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand and David Paterson, not count.

Bloomberg's cooption of the Democratic party follows his wholesale harvest of the city's top Democratic political talent -- who just couldn't resist the money.

Think Kevin Sheekey, Bill Cunningham, Josh Isay, Doug Schoen, Stu Loeser, Bradley Tusk, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Maura Keaney, Basil Smilke, Karen Persichilli Keogh and Hank Scheinkopf.

Now, it's OK to work for the man Bloomberg communications strategist Howard Wolfson once called "an out-of-touch-billionaire".

Bill Cunningham, Bloomberg’s former communications director, explained it this way: Democratic ops are not going to beat their heads against a brick wall knowing that they can't dislodge Bloomberg -- and can't avoid him if he wins.

So much for party loyalty.

The post from Politicker NY.

Guess babies on the campaign trail and babies in utero are two different things:  ore than 80 women have now joined the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against Bloomberg LLP.

State's Economic Outlook Grim?

According to new study published by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, New York State has the worst economic outlook in the country.

According to ALEC, New York State's economic performance ranks 43rd out of 50.

The rankings are based on a variety of factors, including tax burden, per capita income and the minimum wage.

ALEC, which weights such factors as "right-to-work" laws as positives, predictably sees things from an employer's perspective.

You can read a copy of the report here:
http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/tax/09RSPS/states/09newy.pdf

Earth Day NYC

New York City will celebrate Earth Day this year with a fair at Grand Central, a picnic in Central Park, and a "Green Ball" drop in Times Square.

On April 24 and 25, the New York City Earth Fair will be hosted by the not-for-profit organization Earth Day New York at Vanderbilt Hall, Grand Central Terminal. The event will feature dozens of exhibits and free live music for kids and adults, provided by local bands. Exhibitors will include Clean Air New York, Farm Sanctuary, and the Rainforest Alliance.

On Sunday, April 26, from 12:00 to 4:00 PM, Earth Day in Central Park will offer live performances, planting and mulching projects, tree care and composting demonstrations, environmental education, and crafts with recycled materials. All events are free and open to the public. Information at 212-360-1461.

At noon on Earth Day, April 22, you join a new tradition by watching the "Green Ball" drop at noon as part of the Times Square Earth Day Celebration. Earth Day co-founder Denis Hayes and actor/activist Matt Modine will be there for the ball drop and the launch of a year-long "Green Generation" campaign.

Earth Day events in Brooklyn will include recycled arts workshops at noon on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26 at the Brooklyn Children's Museum, 145 Brooklyn Avenue; and a celebration at the Brooklyn Brewery on April 23 from 6:00 - 9:00 PM featuring locally-brewed beer and a chance to learn more about the Rainforest Alliance and network with other environmentally-conscious folks.

Majora Carter's Earth Day Special on WNYC:
http://www.thepromisedland.org/

City Spends Record Sums for Bad Policing

According to a recently-released report from New York City Comptroller William Thompson, the cost of bad policing, including excessive force and false arrest, rose 40% in 2008.

The city paid $35.2 million last year to settle charges of improper police action.

The number of claims filed against the NYPD has climbed 22% in the past 10 years, hitting a historic high of 6,274 last year.

The numbers are so troubling that civil libertarians are questioning whether the NYPD is "out of control".

Some blame agressive stop-and-frisk practices for the increase, but according to a police source, a lot of claims are for property damage.

The city's NYPD payouts outpaced all other city agencies last year.

Neither the NYPD nor the city's Law Department have commented on the striking increase in both claims and payouts.

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03/12/2009-03-12_police_behaving_badly_cost_city_a_stagge-2.html

As reported earlier on Gothamist:
http://gothamist.com/2009/03/12/nypd_paid_35_million_to_settle_laws.php

Markowitz Sound-Bombs Synagogues

Borough President Marty Markowitz, as part of a complete overhaul of Asser-Levy Park on Surf Avenue at Coney Island, plans to build a $64 million 8,000- seat ampitheater -- across from 2 synagogues.

City law bans amplified sound during religious services. (Of course, as we know, some of those outlaw amps are in the churches themselves.)

In any case, Markowitz' new ampitheater may be barred from hosting concerts on Friday and Saturday, the two biggest moneymaking nights. The NYPD, according to the City's Parks Department, does not issue sound permits in the park on Friday and Saturday nights because of religious services.

Markowitz is in a facedown with Sea Breeze Jewish Center and Temple Beth Abraham, which are trying to stop the ampitheater. They say it is too big and would ruin the park.

I think the existing bandshell, which is much smaller, ruins the park. I would hate the noise if I lived in one of the surrounding apartment buildings.

Free Thursday night concerts in the bandshell have been part of Markowitz' schtick for nearly 20 years.

Markowitz, on the hunt for "shovel-ready" projects of late, touted the new ampitheater as a "world-class" concert venue and a key part of the Coney Island redevelopment plan.

Work is expected to begin in August.

Markowitz called the project the "gateway to Coney Island."

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/19/2009-04-19_markowitzs_plan_to_build_64_million_coney_island_amphitheater_comes_under_fire.html

More from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/05/17/2009-05-17_coney_island_synagogue_to_use_city_noise_law_to_foil_boro_prezs_concert_hall.html

More from Queens Crap:
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2009/06/martys-64m-potato-chip-hearing-gets.html

Byrne at Prospect Park Bandshell

Ineffable former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne will perform on Monday, June 8 at 6:30 PM. at the Prospect Park Bandshell, 9th Street and Prospect Park West.

Byrne will be performing material from his album 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today', his second collaboration with the divinely creepy Brian Eno.

Byrne and Eno will also perform material from their first album, 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts', and material they collaborated on in the Talking Heads days.

The suggested donation is $3.

The Return of the Alewife

The city's Parks Department reports that, for the first time since the 1600s, the alewife has been found in the Bronx River. Several mature alewife were found last week by scientists from Parks' Natural Resources Group (NRG). Parks proclaimed the alewife's return as a sign of the "renaissance" of the Bronx River.

The Bloomberg administration's PlaNYC, which seeks to redevelop the waterfront, includes "restoring ecosystems" to encourage the return of long-absent species.

The NRG has worked since 2006 to re-establish a mature alewife population upstream of the 182nd Street Dam on the Bronx River. The fish seen this year are believed to be the progeny of fish released into the river in 2006. The NRG plans to install fish ladders on the dams so that the fish can swim upriver to spawn.

The alewife is an “anadromous” fish, which is born in freshwater, matures at sea, and returns to spawn in its native stream. The Bronx River has been dammed since colonial times, preventing river herring such as the alewife from returning to their spawning grounds.

Groups monitoring the Bronx River include the Bronx River Alliance, Wildlife Conservation Society, Green Apple Corps, Rocking the Boat, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, Lehman College and Queens College.

The alewife's return is seen as proof that decades-long efforts to restore water quality and habitat are working. Beaver returned to the river two years ago.

The alewife is a source of food for birds, mammals and bigger river fish, and is a part of our Northeastern cultural and economic heritage.

More from the Wildlife Conservation Society.

NYC Parks Website.

Love Wanted

There will be a "Love Wanted" pet adoption event from 11:30 AM to 4:30 PM tomorrow, Saturday, April 25th, at Salem Church, 450 67th Street -- between 4th and 5th Avenues -- in Bay Ridge.

ID and an adoption fee are required.

Adoptable animals are provided courtesy of the city's Animal Care and Control and the North Shore Animal League.

Save a life. Adopt a best friend.

Stone Cold

A tape recorder belonging to hearing impaired, wheelchair-bound reporter Michael Harris got bumped and began playing at a crowded press conference yesterday, interrupting Mayor Bloomberg's speech.

Bloomberg petulantly stopped the conference and stared Harris down on live TV for 1 minute and 36 seconds, while Harris, once he realized what the problem was, struggled to get to the device, a few seats over, to turn it off.

The mayor resisted every effort by the politicians in the room to defuse the situation.

The conference was called for Bloomberg to express his support for Governor Paterson's new gay marriage bill.

Harris said later that he felt embarrassed and singled out by the mayor.

Bloomberg said that it was Harris' responsibility to have prevented the accident.

Harris reports for the Examiner blog.

The article, including an embedded video of the incident, from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/16/2009-04-16_mayor_bloomberg_gets_cranky_on_his_way_to_supporting_gay_marriage_rebukes_report.html

Michael Harris, in this account of the incident on Examiner.com, said he wished the media hadn't focused on his disabilities:
http://www.examiner.com/x-1527-NY-Government-Examiner~y2009m4d18-How-I-went-to-cover-a-news-story-and-quickly-became-the-story

I understand why Harris would not want his disabilities to be the focus, but sometimes -- and this was one of those times -- we need to cut people with disabilities some slack. The fact that the mayor, after being told that the reporter was disabled, continued to berate him, was unkind, and that was the story.

Link Roundup

Coney Island is a circus -- literally.

Sitt spends $2.5 million to spruce up Coney.

There has been a 35% drop in the number of Brooklyn real estate sales.

Unsold Brooklyn condos headed for "affordable housing"?

The Fort Hamilton Citizens' Action Committee joins the BRCC.

Vito does the time.

New York City's schools are overflowing.

It's tough living on unemployment in New York.

Smoke and Mirrors

According to an e-mail blast from Andrew Berman, Executive Director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission has agreed, after more than a year of advocacy, to "consider" the proposed South Village Historic District, west of 6th Avenue, but without calendaring a designation hearing.

Instead, the LPC will present the proposal to property owners in the district on Tuesday, May 12 at 6 pm in the basement of Our Lady of Pompei Church at Carmine and Bleecker Streets.

The LPC has taken no action to prevent developers who own property in the proposed district from securing demolition permits for their buildings after they get notice of the May 12 meeting.

That's why the GVSHP urged the LPC not to hold the meeting until they had calendared the designation hearing, putting demolition on hold.

Anticipatory demolition, as happened with the Green Church, seems to be standard development procedure. You can't landmark a building that no longer exists.

The LPC has not yet agreed to consider the remaining 2/3 of the proposed South Village Historic District, which the GVSHP calls "imminently endangered".

For more information about the proposed South Village Historic District, CLICK HERE.

Bay Ridge Bingo Tour

Member of Congress Michael McMahon and Council Member Vincent Gentile took new U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, on her first visit to Bay Ridge, to a bingo game at the Bay Ridge Center for Community Service at 4th and Ovington Avenues, where Gillibrand told the seniors about her grandmother, Polly Noonan.

The electeds came over from Staten Island to Bay Ridge and then went back to Staten Island for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

During Gillibrand's visit to this side of the Narrows, local pols described Bay Ridge as a "small town" with "small town issues"...like the MTA budget crisis?

Gillibrand, a member of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, assured the seniors that she would work to strengthen Social Security and Medicaid.

Staten Island Council Member Ken Mitchell, McMahon's former chief of staff, and 60th Assembly District Leader Ralph Perfetto (of Green Church disinterment fame), were part of Gillibrand's Democratic entourage.

Too bad the stereotype of Bay Ridge as a retirement village keeps getting reinforced. Bay Ridge may be a NORC, but Mayberry, it isn't.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Gillibrand also heard from seniors about the threatened extinction of the B37 Third Avenue bus.

Doomsday Cometh

The state senate, in recess until April 20, has done nothing to rescue us from the MTA's doomsday budget.

The MTA now faces another $200 million shortfall, in addition to an estimated $1.2 billion deficit, and advocates are upping the pressure on those senators who are blocking the rescue plan.

Unless Albany acts by the end of May, the fare increases and service cuts in the MTA's doomsday budget will go into effect.

Said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver:

“The latest news from the MTA underscores yet again the urgent need for all of us in Albany to come together and hammer out a solution that will prevent a massive fare hike and deep service cuts from going into effect.

I’ve put forward a plan that asks everyone who has a stake in the MTA to be part of the solution and provides a stable, long term funding stream for mass transit throughout the region.

As talks continue, I am hopeful that we can reach an agreement in time to reverse the MTA’s doomsday plan.

During the 1970s fiscal crisis, we stopped investing in the MTA. It was a horrible mistake that had a devastating impact on the city, on the suburbs and on the entire economy.

We cannot afford to make that mistake again. Every New Yorker and every company that does business here has a stake in the future of the MTA.

A safe, efficient and dependable mass transit system is critical to the region’s economic health and a major factor in our ability to weather this economic crisis, and attract and retain jobs.”

Silver, Gov. Paterson and the advocates, who earlier focused on Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith's failure to rally Senate Democrats to Silver’s proposed rescue plan, have shifted their attention to Republican senators they see as stakeholders in the MTA's success.

Talks are said to be ongoing.

The post from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/04/14/doomsday-still-on-the-horizon/

The 2009 Livable Neighborhoods Program Training

The Municipal Art Society's Livable Neighborhoods Program helps communities plan for fair and sustainable change.

Through the program, you and your organization can tap into the MAS Planning Center’s 20 years of technical assistance expertise.

You can receive current, city-specific information on topics ranging from community organizing to census data, to environmental impact statements, to economic development, to creating and implementing plans.

If you want to become more involved in your neighborhood, this program is for you.

Launched at Hunter College in 2007, the program is a citywide collaboration between grassroots planners and community advocates that provides in-person training, a take-away community planning toolkit, and access to a web-based forum.

Community board members are a core constituency of the program, but the LNP is free and open to the public, with preference to members of community-based organizations, neighborhood associations, and community groups.

The program grew out of a 2004 summit on community-based planning attended by more than 100 planners, academics, community activists and city government employees who wanted to see better training and resources for community activists.

The average New York City community board district compares in size to Bridgeport, New Haven or Waterbury, cities with hundreds of employees and multi-million dollar budgets.

But, as we know, our community boards are typically staffed by a district manager and two administrative assistants. Additional personnel, like planning professionals, are not provided for.

For 30 years, the city's 59 community boards, their members, and civic activists have made critical planning and other decisions without training and without state-of-the-art technology. Such additional items have to be funded out of a budget of about $200,000.

The Altman Foundation and the Mizuho USA Foundation of the Mizuho Corporate Bank, which fund the Livable Neighborhoods Program, seek to address this need in order to demonstrate that sound planning decisions are exponentially increased when neighborhoods have access to adequate training and technological resources.

The planning “toolkit” that is part of the program covers community organizing and visioning, data collection, zoning, 197-a planning, “brownfield” planning, historic and cultural resources preservation, electronic mapping and budgeting.

The Livable Neighborhoods Program is designed to prepare people to take control of the future of their neighborhoods.

On Saturday, May 16th from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, the Municipal Art Society Planning Center will launch the third annual Livable Neighborhoods Program training at Hunter College. More than one hundred New Yorkers from neighborhoods all over the city will come together to learn how to bring about positive change.

The registration deadline is Friday, May 1, 2009.

Registration is open the public, with community board members and representatives of local civic organizations given preference.

Participation in the program is free.

The training will take place at Hunter, 695 Park Ave (Manhattan), corner of 68th Street and Lexington Ave.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Children are welcome. There will be a supervised children’s activity room available for children school age and older.

A donation is recommended.

Click here for more information.

The article from the MAS Website:
http://mas.org/cpa/lnp/

Older Workers Need Not Apply

The recession has hit those baby boomers who are still in the job market -- hard.

Unemployed boomers who expected to work years longer are confronting the grim fact that, although they may be the last to be fired, they're also the last to get re-hired in this economy.

Workers 45 and over make up a disproportionate share of the long-term unemployed -- those out of work for 6 months or more.

When boomers finally get re-hired, they take bigger pay cuts than younger workers.

In March, the unemployment rate for workers 45 and over was 6.4 percent, the highest since at least 1948.

Older workers who lose their jobs are having a much harder time in this recession than in previous ones getting re-hired. Younger workers have the advantage.

Age discrimination claims filed by unemployed boomers have risen 30% in the 2008 fiscal year.

Older job applicants, according to a recent study, are 40% less likely to get a job interview if they reveal their age in a resume.

Older workers battle stereotypes about their energy levels, their adaptability and the costs of their health care.

Even though the oldest boomers have retired, those still working, whose IRAs are halved in value, are trying to stay employed long enough to recover.

Some unemployed boomers, frustrated by months of fruitless searching, have come to the conclusion that they'll have to turn their backs on once-successful careers and start over at much lower pay -- if they can find a job.

The article from the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/us/13age.html?_r=1&em

Preservation and Sustainability

There will be a panel discussion, "Safeguarding History and the Environment: Commonalities and Conflicts between Preservation and Sustainability", tomorrow, Wednesday, April 15, from 6:30 - 8:00 P.M. at the AIA Center for Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place.

Reservations are required. RSVP to rsvp@gvshp.org or (212) 475-9585 ext. 35. Tickets are $20.

The discussion will be moderated by Erica Avrami, Director of Research and Education at the World Monuments Fund.

The panel will explore the synergy between historic preservation and sustainability through in-depth discussion of East Village tenements and the McCarren Pool.

Preservation and sustainability are big issues in this economy, but they don't always work together. The panel will attempt to find common ground.

Panelists include architect Chris Benedict, a Pratt sustainability expert; Fiona Cousins, a sustainable design expert; architect Scott Demel of Rogers Marvel Architects, a practitioner of sustainable design; and Ned Kaufman, aconservation specialist and founder of the not-for-profit Place Matters.

The event is co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects Historic Buildings Committee and the Neighborhood Preservation Center.

Brooklyn Preservation Council Meets

The Brooklyn Preservation Council will meet on Tuesday, April 28 from 6-9 PM in the 2nd Floor Conference Room at Borough Hall.

Golden Town Hall

Republican State Senator Martin Golden will host a Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights town hall meeting on Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 7:15 PM in the McMahon Auditorium at St. Anselm's School, 365 83rd Street.

The following city agencies have been invited: NYPD/68th Precinct, DOT, DSNY, DEP, MTA, DFTA, DOB and Parks. Con Ed is also expected to attend.

Golden will report on his legislative activities in Albany and on local projects he is involved in.

For more information, contact Golden's office at (718) 238-6044.

Ultimate Politics

Now that Mayor Bloomberg has locked in the Republican and the Independence Party ballot lines, he wants more.

He wants the Working Families Party -- that lobbied Albany to tax the rich and fought Bloomberg's third term bid.

Bloomberg campaign aides have been quietly meeting with WFP leaders and key union officials whose votes Blooomberg needs.

If he can't get the WFP endorsement, Bloomberg wants to at least keep Bill Thompson, Anthony Weiner or another Democrat from running on the WFP line.

One labor leader called Bloomberg's pursuit of union support -- while threatening thousands of city jobs -- "relentless".

Bob Master, a WFP co-chair, describes Bloomberg's people, with all the time and money in the world, as leaving no stone unturned in their quest to eliminate all competitors.

The WFP's endorsement is expected next month or early June.

Bloomberg was turned down for the WFP line in 2005, but managed to block his Democratic opponent Fernando Ferrer from getting the endorsement.

Bill Thompson backed the WFP on term limits and raising taxes on the wealthy, but does the WFP have his?

The article from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/13/2009-04-13_mike_working_key_labor_party.html

Phil Spector Finally Convicted

A Los Angeles jury has found legendary, gun-toting record producer Phil Spector, 69, guilty of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting death of Lana Clarkson, star of Roger Corman's "Barbarian Queen".

The Bronx-born Spector, who showed no emotion, was immediately taken into custody.

A Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, Spector could spend the rest of his life in prison.

In Spector's first trial in 2007, 5 women testified that the reclusive producer had pulled a gun on them. The jury deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction.

Spector is reputed to have pulled a gun on John Lennon and the Ramones, and to have held his ex-wife, Ronnie Spector, of the Ronettes, hostage during their marriage.

The article from EOnline:
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b118428_phil_spector_guilty_of_murder.html?utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

Brooklyn Business Summit

Ecoventions is hosting the Brooklyn Business Summit on May 27th at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.

This business-to-business summit is geared toward small businesses and start-ups, with primary focus on minority and women's business enterprise, marketing, financial literacy and environmental sustainability.

Features include an expo, a triple bottom line business plan competition, one-on-one consulting, keynote luncheon, and breakout sessions on Attainable-Measurable-Sustainable ™ business practices.

The event is free with pre-registration.

For more information, and to register, visit the Website:

http://www.brooklynbusinesssummit.com/

Easter Sunday

Bright sun, brisk wind.

Chop in the Narrows.

Eau de waste treatment wafts over Owl's Head Park.

Neglected shop window.

Delicate blooms.

Lyrical ironwork.

A plump squirrel.

Kids and families.

The departed are remembered.

Safe!

American cargo ship captain Richard Phillips, taken hostage by Somali pirates in a botched highjacking attempt, has been extracted by Navy Seals.

Three of Phillips' pirate captors were killed by sharpshooters stationed on the nearby American warship Bainbridge, and the 4th was captured by the Navy.

Phillips, 53, was unharmed in the raid, which took place on the high seas 5 days after his capture.

Phillips has been taken aboard the Bainbridge.

The article from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/12/hostage-captain-freed-somali-pirates

More from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/12/somalia.pirates/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Further details of the rescue from Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/12/captain-richard-phillips_n_185983.html

The captain returns home to Vermont:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/04/17/2009-04-17_heroic_captain_richard_phillips_.html