On Vacation

This will be my last post until Tuesday, June 2nd.

Until then, I'll be on vacation out-of-state.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Talk to you soon.

Stanless Steel

The following comes from Julia at Rooftop Films, a summer film series showcasing new independent films and emerging bands in outdoor Brooklyn locations.

On Saturday, May 30th at 8:00 PM, the documentary Strongman will be screened on the roof at Brooklyn Tech, 29 Fort Greene Place.

The film is described as a humorous, heart-wrenching portrait of Stanless Steel, the "Strongest Man in the World".

There will also be live music, an after-party and an open bar.

Tickets are $9 - $25.

For tickets and more information: http://newyork.going.com/event-602716;Rooftop_Films_Strongman

Hold the Ermine

Daily News columnist Errol Louis dismisses as "hype" the assumption that Mayor Bloomberg has this November's election sewn up.

Bloomberg may already have racked up $18.6 million for "flacks, hacks, pollsters and preachers" -- $15 million of it in the past 2 months for TV, radio and direct mail advertising.

He may be spending at a rate double that of his 2005 campaign, which cost a record-breaking $80 million.

He may have been skewered by President Obama at the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner as "a leader who rules over millions with an iron first, owns the airwaves, and uses his power to crush all who would challenge his authority at the ballot box..."

But Louis sees hints that the mayoral race could get much closer by November.

Hint #1: Bloomberg's three-month $15 million advertising blitz hasn't moved key poll numbers.

Hint #2: The electorate is now divided 47% to 48% over whether Bloomberg deserves a third term, with 47% in favor of a third term and 48% against. This is not good news for Bloomberg, who has tried to downplay his city council end-run around the term limits law.

Hint #3: Voters don't support the mayor's stance on education, the issue on which he has staked his political reputation. In what is seen as a rebuke, 60% of registered voters say they want control of the schools removed from city hall and turned over to an advisory panel.

Hint #4: Corporate titans like Bloomberg aren't as popular these days as they were 8 years ago. In these hard times, voters are more drawn to sympathetic leaders who understand what it's like for struggling families.

The mayor's approval rating is still 57% - up 7 points since February - and most New Yorkers think the city is on the right track. Bloomberg's presumptive Democratic opponent, Bill Thompson, despite his 30 years in public service, is still an unknown to many. But it would be cynical, says Louis, to assume that money will trump values this early in the game.

The Daily News column:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/05/24/2009-05-24_why_earths_richest_mayor_wont_coast_to_a_third_term.html

Upcoming Events in the Neighborhood

• Grand opening of CB 10's new office at 8119 5th Avenue between 81 and 82 Streets, Thursday, May 28 from 6-8 PM.

• The Bravo 5K Race, Sunday, May 31 at 10 AM, Shore Road Path at 101 Street.

• The June "Love Wanted" pet adoption event at Salem Church, 450 67 Street (between 4th and 5th Avenues) on Saturday, June 6 at 11:30 AM, rain or shine. There will be a celebrity guest from Animal Planet.
  

• DOT's Brooklyn Bus Rapid Transit Workshops June 9 and 10.
  

Flyers in CB 10's window:

Mortgage counseling services from CAMBA:
718-282-2500

Pickup by Scout Troop 20 of used household appliances and other items:
www.reachinout.org

Tom Paine

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will sponsor a free lecture by NYU history professor J. Ward Regan entitled "Thomas Paine: Foundling Father" at 2 PM on Saturday, June 6 at Jefferson Market Library, 425 Avenue of the Americas.

The event is part of the Paine Year 2009 commemoration.

Professor Regan will explore Paine’s last days in Greenwich Village and his enduring historic significance.

Born and raised in England, Paine became the voice of the patriot cause during the American Revolution, of which he wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls".

Paine died in poverty and obscurity in the Village in June, 1809.

The event is co-sponsored by the Thomas Paine Friends, Inc.

RSVP to: http://us.mc813.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=rsvp@gvshp.org or (212) 475-9585 ext. 35.

"Talk to Me"

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson has criticized Mayor Bloomberg's plan to raise the city sales tax by 8.875%, saying that a tax increase will hammer small businesses and cost thousands of people their jobs.

Instead, Thompson supports a modest tax increase for those who earn $500,000 or more a year.

Thompson points to Mayor Bloomberg's plan to spend $45 million in city money to retrain bankers and traders who lost their Wall Street jobs as evidence that Bloomberg is out of touch with New York City's "Main Street".

Thompson has launched an effort to get feedback from ordinary New Yorkers, asking them to tell him what they think will best help New York's struggling economy.

If you'd like to respond to the Thompson survey, here's the link:
http://www.thompson2009.com/page/m2/55f6f0dd/685b5ea/3a0f0380/5eaf196/1596990226/VEsC/

St. Vincent de Paul

The story-line is all-too familiar: the preservation group Save St. Vincent de Paul, Inc., fighting to save Chelsea's St. Vincent de Paul Church from being "consolidated" by the cash-strapped Archdiocese of New York, has submitted another request for evaluation (RFE) to the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission.

This is the third RFE they have filed with the LPC since 2006.

This time, the preservationists have retained the Urban Environmental Law Center to submit the RFE.

The 150-year-old Greco-Roman church sits on a valuable block-through parcel on W. 23rd St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves. The Archdiocese says it hasn't decided what to do with the 400-seat church, but that it won't maintain it just for the sake of doing so.

The LPC, citing St. Vincent’s updated façade—altered in 1939 from Romanesque Revival to Greek Revival-- says it still won't calendar the church. According to an LPC spokesperson, the church was "evaluated" and it was determined that it did not "rise to the level of an individual New York City landmark".

Advocates hope that sending copies of the application to the LPC’s individual commissioners, rather than to the staff, will help get the RFE calendared this time.

The church has a rich history. It was the first integrated church and parish school to serve African-American children. It may also be one of the only churches that feature 10 large Tiffany stained glass windows depicting scenes of French religious history.

Manhattan Community Board 4, Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, State Sen. Thomas Duane and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer all support landmarking the church.

According to its spokesperson, the LPC has to be "extremely selective about the churches that we consider for landmark designation".

The article from Chelsea Now:
http://www.chelseanow.com/cn_128/chelseachurch.html

Memorial Day Parade

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." -Thomas Paine

"Brooklyn for Bloomberg"

These posters began appearing this weekend in some storefronts on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge.

For whatever reason, all the businesses seemed to be Chinese-owned.

At the Memorial Day Parade on Monday, Bloomberg campaign workers were leafletting the crowd.

The flyers say that the Bloomberg campaign is opening a Bay Ridge office at 8315 5th Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets in Bay Ridge.

There will be opening receptions on Thursday, May 28 from 5-8 PM and on Saturday, May 30, from noon - 3 PM.

The flyer promises that "elected leaders" will attend.

Link Roundup

Trash joins preservation-hatin', graffiti, home-delivered crack cocaine, parking tickets, cyclones, club kids, homicide hotels and eau de sewage as a signature Bay Ridge issue.

Dyker Heights Animal Health Fair June 6.

Reader John Clements, in a letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Paper, has more to say on the trash issue.

Memorial Day concert in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Nathan Kensinger explores the Williamsburg Savings Bank.

Will streetcars return to Brooklyn?

The Ringling Brothers Circus is hosting a job fair in Coney Island.

Coney Island's Dreamland Roller Rink is open for the summer.

City Council hearing on Two Trees' controversial Dock Street DUMBO project.

More on the Mayor's plan to charge homeless people to live in shelters.

May Roses

Landmark Follies

The 127-year-old Windermere, a Queen Anne-style three-building apartment complex in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, was built in 1881 to accommodate the city's growing middle class.

The complex once attracted "new women", the first American generation of single, self-supporting women -- waitresses, nurses and teachers -- as tenants.

The Windermere is one of the few large apartment houses of its era left in New York City.

By the time city's Landmarks Preservation Commission granted the Windermere landmark status in June, 2005, it was a decaying wreck, a victim of demolition-by-neglect.

Eventually, in March, 2008, the LPC filed a lawsuit to force the Japanese owner, Toa Construction Co., Inc., to stabilize and repair the buildings.

Last week, Toa, after being hit with a record 1.1 million in civil penalties, bailed out.

The new owner, Windermere Properties LLC, has promised the court it will shore and brace the buildings and make other repairs by the end of September.

In a concurrent civil lawsuit, Toa was ordered to pay $2.6 in penalties to 6 former tenants of the Windermere who were evicted in 2007 after the New York City Fire Department found the building uninhabitable.

The article from AM NY:
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/2009/05/windermere_tk.html

More from WNYC:
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/132737

Plutocrats for Bloomberg?

Up for some ironic humor, kids?

According to the New York Post, Mayor Bloomberg's "scorched earth" mayoral campaign has recruited a cadre of rich and powerful Democratic operatives, including billionaire fundraiser Jonathan Tisch, CEO of Loews, and several wealthy African-Americans, for something called "Democrats for Bloomberg".

Underfunded city comptroller Bill Thompson, the presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee, who is not a billionaire, could have used some of the gratuitous fundraising help Tisch has thrown to fellow plutocrat Bloomberg.

If Jonathan Tisch, who recently spent $40 million for an apartment on the Upper West Side, is a Democrat, then what am I? But more importantly, what is 30-year party veteran Bill Thompson?

What does it mean, in the aftermath of term limits extension, to be a Democrat in New York City? Can the party survive Bloomberg?

I see the Democratic Party in New York City inevitably splitting into two factions: the rich -- and those willing to live on the crumbs from their tables -- and union-and-civil liberties-oriented working people, who I see being increasingly drawn to parties like Working Families.

The article from the New York Post:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05212009/news/regionalnews/bighot_dems_back_bloomy_170335.htm

Brooklyn Independent Democrats endorse a 27-year old anti-gay marriage "pro-life" candidate for public advocate:
http://www.politickerny.com/3669/how-liberal-democratic-club-endorsed-gay-marriage-opponent

At least the "party loyalty" argument worked for Kirsten Gillibrand:
http://www.politickerny.com/3569/source-israel-will-not-challenge-gillibrand

Kings County Memorial Day Parade

The Kings County Memorial Day Parade (a/k/a the Brooklyn Memorial Day Parade), held every year for the past 142 years, is the oldest in the nation.

Originally held on Eastern Parkway, the parade was moved to Bay Ridge 18 years ago.

The parade steps off at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 25 at 87th Street and 3rd Avenue, and will continue on Marine and Fourth Avenues to John Paul Jones Park on 101st Street, where there will be a ceremony for the honored dead.

Army Spec. Nick Mosby, an Iraqi veteran stationed at Fort Hamilton, will serve as grand marshall.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.


More from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

City Puts a Lid on It

The Brooklyn Paper reports that this summer, the city will install tight-fitting aluminum covers over the holding tanks of near-raw sewage that account for 90% of the stench coming from the Owls Head Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bay Ridge.

The metal covers will replace the temporary wood and steel canopies put up 2 years ago to keep down the smell while the city's Department of Environmental Protection looked for a more permanent solution.

The new metal covers will provide a better seal than the existing wooden ones. The old canopies will be removed and the new covers installed tank-by-tank, to minimize the stink.

The changeover should be complete by September.

The article from the Brooklyn Paper.

It doesn't look like the fix is working yet [Brooklyn Paper.]

Unemployment Benefits Extended 13 Weeks

Gov. David Paterson has signed a bill extending the unemployment benefits of tens of thousands of New Yorkers for an additional 13 weeks.

The bill was rushed through the state senate and assembly because 56,000 New Yorkers would have lost their unemployment benefits by the end of this week.

Because of the legislation, those people, and 64,000 others, will continue receiving uninterrupted benefits.

The extension will not increase employers' costs, since the $645 million for the extended benefits will come out of federal stimulus money.

In March, the state's unemployment rate was 8.1 percent. There are 430,000 state residents now receiving unemployment benefits. The state unemployment fund has been depleted since January, and the state will have to borrow $1.4 billion this year to fund unemployment.

Extra benefits will cost the state and its counties $28 million in administrative and other costs, which will be funded through revenues from higher personal income taxes in this year's state budget.

Unemployment benefits in New York State last 26 weeks. The maximum weekly benefit is $405.

As a result of the federal stimulus, people can now receive unemployment benefits if they leave work because of domestic violence, caring for sick family members or moving with a spouse to a new job location.

The article from Buffalo Business First:
http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2009/05/18/daily38.html

Fifth Annual Brooklyn Pizza Eating Contest

Rocco's Pizzeria, at 78th Street and 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, will sponsor the 5th Annual Brooklyn Pizza Eating Contest on Sunday, May 31st at 3:00 PM.

The contest is the centerpiece of the Fifth Avenue Festival, a street fair that will extend this year from 65th Street to 86th Street.

Fair organizers expect some 300,000 spectators -- if the weather cooperates.

An entire block of 5th Avenue will be allocated to the contest. DJ Borasio of PULSE 87 radio will host the event.

The contest draws some of the most voracious competitive eaters from across the U.S. -- all of them greedy for the $300 grand prize and the coveted Brooklyn title.

This year, two-time champion Sal Carbone will defend his title against pro-eaters William Millander, Joel Podalsky and #1 ranked WLOCE champion Dale Boone.

A percentage of the proceeds of the event will be donated to MercyFirst, a not-for-profit agency that serves more than 4,000 children, teenagers and families annually in Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk.

Additional sponsors include Bill Boshell of Super Roofer, Grande Cheese Company, Oliveri and Sons and Antonio Foods.

The contest is the original, and the largest, event of its kind in Brooklyn -- the undisputed pizza capital of the world.

Five to seven local contestants will be selected through preliminary trials in which they will be judged based on how many slices of Rocco's thin crust pizza they can put away in 12 minutes.

For more information, visit the website.

Sal Carbone successfully defended his title.

Photos of the contest from Bayridgistan.

Charter Schools "Creaming"?

As the Bloomberg administration increasingly relies on publicly-financed, privately-run, non-union charter schools, it has become "an article of faith" that charter schools work. But Vanessa Witenko, in a newly-released analysis from Inside Schools, casts doubt on that assumption.

Witenko's analysis questions the validity of comparative test scores recently released by the state showing that 77% of charter school kids met standards, compared with 69% of regular public school students.

Witenko found that charter schools tend to exclude homeless kids, ESL students, and special education students: special needs kids tend to end up in regular public schools.

For example, only about 111 of the 51,316 homeless kids in the city go to charter schools. Of the 14 - 17 % of city kids who need English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction, only 3% go to charter schools -- some charters won’t even take them. And, according to City Comptroller William Thompson, there are 15 charter schools that have no special education students.

"Excellence", or engineered statistics?

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/05/20/charter-school-students-and-tests/

Related Juan Gonzalez column from the Daily News:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/05/08/2009-05-08_city_test_numbers_too_good_to_be_true_hide_achievement_gap_of_poor_students_some.html

An "Urban Myth"?

State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, with Mayor Bloomberg's control over the city's schools under fire in Albany, has released an audit report finding that Mayor Bloomberg's Department of Education has a no-bid contract habit.

Critics have long railed against the DOB's no-bid contracts. Now, as the state legislature looks at whether the DOE needs more checks and balances, the critics have got fresh ammo.

DiNapoli's audit, requested by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, found that between July 2005 and June 2008, the department let 291 no-bid contracts, each valued at $100,000 or more, worth a total of $342.5 million.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has called the no-bid contract issue“an urban myth".

In testimony earlier this year, City Comptroller and mayoral candidate William Thompson criticized the DOE for going over-budget by at least 25% in about 20% of its contracts. One Xerox contract for copying machines, worth $1 million, ended up costing $68 million.

School officials said the Comptroller's figures were wrong.

A key point of the mayoral control debate is that, even though the Mayor says the DOE is just another city agency, the DOE refuses to run its procurement function under the city's procurement rules, choosing instead to operate under state rules.

According to Thompson, Bloomberg and Klein have exploited a "gray area" in the law that lets the DOE flip between treating itself as a city agency and a state agency -- depending on what is most convenient at the time. And the fact that the DOE refuses to operate under the procurement rules governing all other city agencies makes its process far less transparent and accountable.

Thompson and the City Council Working Group on School Governance would treat the DOE as any other city agency -- in all respects, including procurement.

The article from Gotham Gazette:
http://www.gothamgazette.com/blogs/wonkster/2009/05/19/a-lesson-in-school-contracts/

333 Ovington Sells for $11 Million

Broker Massey Knakal, in a declining market, got $11 million and change -- $121 per square foot -- for the 6-story, 119 unit Spanish Colonial apartment building at 333 Ovington Avenue in Bay Ridge.

The all-cash deal is the biggest apartment building sale in Brooklyn this year.

According to the broker, the property, which had been on the market for a year, could have sold for as much as $13 million in 2006.

The building, owned by the same family for more than 50 years, was described as being "in pristine condition".

The buyer is a "family enterprise" that goes by the name SG & Sons Realty, which owns and operates a number of other apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens. The buyer was represented by Mitchell Shpelfogel of the law firm of Pinczewski & Shpelfogel PC.

The only comparable Brooklyn deal this year was an 80,000 square foot factory/warehouse building space in Greenpoint, which sold in March for $14 million.

Deals this big are unusual in this market, where only properties under $5 million have been trading.

The article from Crain's New York.

Brooklyn Preservation Council Meets

The Brooklyn Preservation Council, now incorporated as a foundation and a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, will meet tomorrow evening, Tuesday May 19th, at 6:30 p.m. in the first flooor conference room at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

For more information, contact Robert Furman at (917) 648-4043 or (212) 751-0038 or e-mail him at bobfurman1@juno.com

Bay Ridge Norwegian Day Parade