Valuing Pitbulls

Pitbulls are the most feared and demonized breed of dog in the U.S. -- and the most euthanized.

As of May 1, 2009, the New York City the Housing Authority banned pitbulls from all government run apartments or public housing projects, and decreased the weight limit from 40 lbs. to 25 lbs, effectively banning all large breeds.

Residents who owned pitbulls before the law went into effect had to register their dogs.

City Councilmember Peter Vallone, who has unsuccessfully lobbied both state and city legislators to ban pitbulls, advocated for the NYCHA ban.

As more communities adopt breed-specific legislation banning or limiting pitbulls, Berkeley, California has embraced the breed, with great success.

Last year, the Berkeley Alliance for Homeless Animals Coalition (BAHAC) won a $474,200 prize from Maddie’s Fund for “saving all of the community’s healthy and treatable dogs and cats” – including pitbulls.

BAHAC, which includes the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society, Berkeley Animal Care Services and Home At Last Rescue, has achieved no-kill status (no healthy, treatable shelter pets are euthanized) every year since 2002.

Like most American cities, Berkeley once had an animal control situation where, on any given day, 70% to 80% of the dogs in their shelters were pitbulls or pitbull mixes.  But BAHAC solved its pitbull problem.

How did Berkeley do it?  BAHAC's 5-step plan is outlined in a recent Maddie’s Fund newsletter. 

Step One is public relations:  dispelling the myths about the breed, educating shelter staff and educating the public about pitbulls.  Only after people's misconceptions about the breed have been dispelled will they consider adopting the dogs.

Meeting the dogs themselves is the best PR for the breed.  Pits are the quintessential dog:  sensitive, lovable and funny.   

Step Two is training.  BAHAC invests a lot of time training and rehabilitating the dogs. Pits that end up in shelters are typically big, young high-energy dogs with no manners -- nobody has trained them.  BAHAC partnered with Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls (BAD RAP), a leader in the rescue and rehabilitation of pit bull breeds, to train the dogs. 

Step Three is to gather activists and experts to the cause.  In addition to BAD RAP, BAHAC also recruited dedicated volunteers, pit bull advocates, dog trainers, and expert dog handlers.  Those who could handle any dog in the shelter trained and mentored the less-experienced volunteers.

Step Four is adoption:  finding the best home for every dog.  BAHAC’s first rule is that the adopter must be over 25 years old, because pitbull guardians need to be mature adults.  In an interview, the person’s lifestyle and expectations are assessed, to find the best match between person and dog.  And finally, the coalition makes a home visit. 

Step Five is follow-up. BAHAC contacts each new pitbull guardian to provide “post-adoption” advice. Adoptive families must take a mandatory training with their new dogs to ensure that they will reinforce what the dogs have learned in the shelter.  The guardian must learn everything the pit has been taught.

By the time families complete the course, they have become ambassadors for the bull breeds.

Reiki in Dyker Heights

Margaret DeAngelis, a Dyker Heights Reiki practitioner, is offering a series of Reiki classes and workshops this spring at her home.

Having taken part in a couple of Margaret's Reiki circles in Bay Ridge, I have found her to be an effective practitioner.

On Friday, March 12 from 7 PM to 9:45 PM, Margaret will teach Part 1 of her Psychic Self-Defense course.  You will learn simple techniques to defend yourself from stress and psychic warfare, including clearing, energizing and strengthening your aura and protecting yourself from your environment, in order to bring balance, harmony, peace and prosperity back to your life.  The fee is $45.00.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 20 and 21 from 11 AM to 6 PM, Margaret will teach a weekend Advanced Reiki Level II Certification class, covering attunement and certification requirements.  You will refine your Reiki practice and learn the sacred symbols for empowerment and obstacle clearing, creating balance and harmony and establishing an open channel of light to enable distance healing.  The fee is $300.00.

On Friday and Saturday, March 26 and 27, Margaret will conduct a Magnified Healing Workshop and Certification course beginning Friday evening from 7 to 10 PM and continuing on Saturday from 11 AM to 6 PM.  Topics include working with Lady Master Kwan Yin;  self-healing, earth healing, and distance healing;  chakra and higher spiritual center alignment; and karma clearing with light and with colors. This course leads to certification as a practitioner and teacher of magnified healing.  The $247.00 fee includes a manual, certificate, practice CD and flower essence.

For more information or to register, contact Margaret at MDeAngel1@aol.com or call 917-562-5082.

Jacobs, Moses and the American City

Anthony Flint will present a slide lecture on his recently-published book, Wrestling with Moses:  How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City, at the New York Public Library's Mid-Manhattan Branch, 40th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan, Tuesday, March 9 at 6:30 PM, on the 6th floor.

Harvard Professor of Urban Design Alex Krieger has called the book "an epic tale filled with nuanced lessons...an indispensable read for anyone interested in the shaping of cities."

For more information about the event, call 212-340-0837.

Paul's Ovington Paints

Not anymore though. It's now a shisha lounge.

Tree Huggers Ball in Bushwick

Looking for for some environmentally-friendly action tonight? How about the Tree Huggers Ball?

Here are the specifics:

Date: Saturday, Feb 27th

Place: 1087 Broadway in Brooklyn (J to Kosciosko Street in Bushwick)

Time: Doors at 9 PM

For: Southern Appalachian anti-mountaintop removal coal mining action group Dragline 14

The event features a DJ dance party, bands -- including The Homewreckers and Agnostic Pray -- and Rev. Billy and the "Mountaintop Gospel Choir" at 10 PM.

For more information about mountaintop removal coal mining, click here.

For more information about Rev. Billy, click here .

Linkage

NY 1 covers the snow in Bay Ridge.

Sledding map of Brooklyn.

Beeman takes a walk in the snow.

Clear your sidewalks, people!

Automated water meters coming.

BRAVO is back in the 911 cue.

The latest Key Food projected opening date.

Sifton knifes Tanoreen.  Foodies react.

Elegante, my favorite local pizzeria, gets props from Slice.

The Kid gets his own corner.

CB 10 comes up with a plan to save 3rd Avenue bus service.

Local mom and pops fight plan to sell wine in food stores.

A calendar of events in Brooklyn.

More Brooklyn events here.

The city's EDC demolishes Coney Island's historic Feltman building.

Jehovah's Witnesses begin their exodus from Brooklyn Heights.

City sinks Rockaway ferry service.

Paterson out of the governor's race.  

Republican Senator from Kentucky Jim Bunning to unemployed Americans:  "Tough shit."

Kitchen Gardens

Kitchen gardens were hip way before Michelle Obama planted one on the White House lawn.  They're a great way to have cheap, better tasting, higher quality food -- without having to shop.

Kitchen gardeners, no matter why they're growing their own, are reducing global warming by eliminating the greenhouse gases that come from shipping and storing food.

Instead of using chemical pesticides and fertilizers on your garden, which only end up contaminating nearby streams and lakes, hurting aquatic life, go organic. It's worth the extra trouble.

And instead of buying starter plants trucked across the country to a big box store, go to your local nursery for seedlings, or start your own. 

For more garden talk, visit the TGL Facebook page.

Snowy Morning

Bluefin Tuna on Verge of Extinction

Among the staples of life we grew up with -- but can no longer take for granted -- is tunafish.

Due to relentless overfishing by big commercial fleets in the last 40 years, the Atlantic bluefin population has crashed, dropping by 80%.

Marine biologists warn that unless the Atlantic bluefin is declared endangered and protected from overfishing, it will be extinct within a few years.

The organization that is supposed to be protecting the bluefin, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT), is controlled by those countries with the biggest fishing fleets, and ignores its own scientists when they tell it to cut back.

One marine biologist has called ICCAT "The International Conspiracy to Catch All Tuna".

ICCAT's scientists have now teamed up with scientists from the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in an effort to get the Atlantic bluefin tuna listed as threatened with extinction, and ban all trade in the species.

CITES will take up their proposal at its meeting on March 13 in Doha, Qatar.

European fishing nations France, Italy and Spain support the ban, and the European Commission is asking all EU member states to do the same.

But Japan, the biggest threat to Atlantic tuna, consuming 80% of the Mediterranean's bluefin catch, has announced that it will ignore any ban.

U.S. support could tip the balance in favor of protection, but the seemingly environmentally-challenged Obama administration hasn't taken a stand.

Representatives Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) and Robert Wittman (R-Va.) have sent a letter, co-signed by a bi-partisan group of 32 House members, to the Department of the Interior, demanding the Obama administration's support.

The future of a species hangs in the balance.

To participate in the campaign to preserve the Atlantic bluefin, click here.

More from Gothamist.

More from the New York Times.

Two Charged in Salty Dog Fight

Two East Flatbush firefighters, 8-year veteran and medal of valor winner Ryan Warnock (middle), and 13-year veteran Michael Reilly (right), accompanied by a third firefighter, Christopher Emmel (left), surrendered to the Brooklyn DA this morning to face charges stemming from the fight at the Salty Dog on January 30.

Warnock and Reilly were picked out from a grainy security video.  Emmel, who couldn't be picked out of a lineup, wasn't charged.

Assigned to Snyder Avenue’s Engine 310 and Ladder 174, Warnock and Reilly face Riot 1 and Third Degree Assault charges.  The possible maximum combined sentence is 5 years in prison.

Off-duty when the fight took place, they have been suspended for 30 days without pay.

The testosterone-fueled melee involved a group of 4 young Albanian cousins that included Staten Island resident Sinan Selmani, who coaches soccer at St. Francis College, and about 12 firefighters.

The young men did not initially press charges, and firefighters involved in the incident maintain that Selmani's group started the fight.

From what I've been reading, it doesn't take much to start a fight at the Salty Dog.

The article from the Daily News.

The article from the Courier.

Murdered Couple Ran Criminal Enterprise

Married attorneys Mark Schwartz and Christina Petrowski-Schwartz were  found murdered, execution-style, in their Marine Park home in 2008.

This week, the Brooklyn DA announced the arrest and indictment of 4 people with whom the murdered couple allegedly operated a million dollar criminal conspiracy, involving money laundering, identity theft, mortgage fraud and larceny.

The prosecution has yet to link the murder and the conspiracy, which was discovered in the course of the murder investigation.

The indictment charges that the Schwartzes, with defendants Robert Delvicario, Lennox Johnson, Shanda Bruce and Thermine Remy, stole and laundered money, some of it from the Schwartzes' clients. They allegedly recruited straw buyers for fraudulent real estate transactions, then laundered the proceeds through forged documents and stolen identities in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Westchester County, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Tiffany Partners, principal in a Carroll Gardens condo development and a client of Mark Schwartz, was among the victims of the conspiracy.  The defendants allegedly drained $270,000 deposited by the corporation in an escrow account.

The defendants include 3 corporations, Adonis Abstract (owned by the Schwartzes), LBW Corp. and Robo Capital Securities, charged with crimes including enterprise corruption, grand larceny and money laundering.

According to the indictment, the conspirators eventually turned on each other.  Three of the defendents, Delvicario, Johnson and Brice, began stealing from the Schwartzes' law firm.

Delvicario is regarded as the prime suspect in the murders.

The article from the New York Law Journal.

Rooftop Solar

To avoid the worst impacts of global warming, the U.S. must stop burning fossil fuels -- now.  We need a 100% renewable electric standard, and it's achievable.

Some of the best sources of clean, renewable energy, like solar and wind, can be land-intensive and can hurt wildlife and habitat.  But solar panels deployed on rooftops have no negative impacts on wildlife or open spaces.

The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that the U.S. has enough roof space to meet 20% of the country's electricity needs just by installing solar panels. And because rooftop solar generates electricity in the cities and towns where it is used, there's no need for long distance power lines.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to expand rooftop solar energy in the U.S. Called the "10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010", it would help fund the installation of solar panels on 10 million American homes and businesses, and install 200,000 solar water heaters.

The result would be the generation of about 30,000 new megawatts of power, equal to the output of about 30 nuclear power plants, which would put the U.S. on the path to a green energy economy.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is co-sponsoring the legislation. If you want to thank her for her advocacy, you can contact her by e-mail through her website.

Public vs. Charter Schools

The Bloomberg and the Obama administrations want more charter schools, and parents, politicians and teachers want to make the public schools better.

Guess who's winning?

Charter schools came to New York in 1998, when then-Governor George Pataki, a charter schools proponent, tied the issue to a pay raise for the legislature.

New York City now has 99 charter schools educating 32,000 children, most of them in grades K through 6.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein want to double the number of charters to 200, upping enrollment to more than 100,000 kids.

Charters must be approved either by the State University of New York, the state Department of Regents or the city Department of Education.  While their students have to take standardized state tests, charters set their own curricula and have the power to hire and fire teachers (typically non-union).

In addition to getting the same per-pupil allocation of government funds public schools get, many charters raise outside funds, spending much more per pupil than public schools.  Outside funding and exemption from many DOE requirements allow charters to offer smaller class sizes and longer school days.

Because State law does not fund the construction of new charter schools, Klein and Bloomberg have been moving charters into public school buildings.  By one estimate, two-thirds of the city's charter schools are co-located with public schools in DOE buildings.

On Wednesday, Feb. 24, the city's Panel for Educational Policy is set to approve about a dozen more move-ins by charter schools, including putting Lefferts Gardens Charter School in PS 92 in Brooklyn.

What DOE sees as "underutilized" space for charter schools is the same space parents and teachers want to keep for public school use:  charter schools' gain is public schools' loss.

Charter schools actively recruit public school students and their parents. Many see charter schools as a more desirable alternative for their children, and blame the teacher's union for the pushback against charters in the public schools.

The battle over space within public schools is echoed in the battle over school closings.  Ignoring the objections of parents, students and teachers, the DOE decided to close 19 city schools last month in what opponents see as part of the DOE's attempt to push out the city's neediest, most at-risk students and move in more charters.

Earlier this year, Governor David Paterson tried to take advantage of the federal government's Race to the Top Fund to raise the cap on charter schools. The State Legislature responded by setting conditions, including community approval, before a charter is inserted into a public school building  -- a proposal Mayor Bloomberg called a "poison pill."

In the end nothing got passed, and the cap is still 200.

While only a small percentage of city kids go to charter schools, some communities, notably Harlem, have the highest concentration of charters.  Of 29 Manhattan charter schools, 24 are north of 96th Street.

The concentration of charters in black and Latino areas of the city has been called a "separate and unequal" system.  But many Harlem parents find charters more attractive than public schools.

Statistics show that charter schools do better, probably because charters have wealthy patrons who donate millions to their schools, meaning smaller class size and more resources than public schools.

The United Federation of Teachers says charters do not represent a true cross section of New York City, neglecting children who speak English as a second language, are homeless or in need of special education. The UFT's recent study, Separate and Unequal, found that of the city's 14.2% ESL students, only 3.8% were in charter schools.

To many, there is something fundamentally wrong with privatizing public schools. Traditionally, public schools have to take all kids.  Charters do not.

And charter schools are not immune to political hanky-panky.  One critic warns that charter schools may outdo the old community school boards in the graft department.

The article from Gotham Gazette.

P/T Communications Associate Position

Neighborhood Cats and the NYC Feral Cat Initiative are looking for a part-time communications associate to retrieve voice mail and return calls, reply to e-mails, and assist the TNR Director as needed.

Applicants must be TNR certified with a minimum of two years of hands-on TNR experience, and  know current ASPCA mobile clinic protocol (booking clinic appointments).

Must be organized and courteous, with a professional phone manner and a positive attitude, and detail-oriented, with good problem-solving skills and the ability to convey information concisely.

Microsoft Word and Excel and internet access required.

Flexible hours, approximately 15 hours per week, with some weekends/evenings.

To apply, please forward a cover letter and resume to Meredith.

Have You Seen Marion McCleneghan?

OTBKB reports that Park Slope resident Marion McCleneghan disappeared on February 6th. Her relatives have posted fliers on lamp posts all over Park Slope, and both they and the police are working to locate her.

Marion was last seen at a party on 14th Street in the South Slope. She had been drinking, and had a fight with her boyfriend. She made the statement to someone that “You won’t be seeing me anymore.”

Her journals and her computer have disappeared too. 

If  you have seen or have information about Marion, please contact the 78th Detective Squad at 718-636-6483, Case #109, Complaint #445, and speak to Detective Gibbons.

More from OTBKB.

More from the Brooklyn Paper.

More from the New York Post.

More from Project Jason

Presbyterians Fight Landmarking

Last month's highly unusual decision by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate Manhattan's West-Park Presbyterian Church a local landmark -- over the opposition of its congregation -- has resulted in push-back.

It's about money. 

The iconic red sandstone building at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side needs an estimated $5+ million in repairs, and the congregation doesn't have the cash. 

Church leaders have lashed out at preservationists and local councilwoman Gale Brewer for blocking their plan to sell part of their property to a developer to generate funds.

The congregation, with the help of the city's broader Presbyterian community, is lobbying the City Council to overturn the LPC's decision to designate the church.

On the Presbytery of New York City's website is posted a set of talking points on the issue, including a form letter from a pastor to a council member that says: 

"If you and your fellow City Council members approve the LPC's action, every church, synagogue, mosque, temple and religious institution across the city will not be safe from the actions of marauding preservationists... The LPC's recommendation solely benefits a handful of neighborhood preservation groups who are not members of West-Park's congregation. Brewer is mining the LPC's action for her own personal political gain, calling it 'a victory for the Westside.'" 

Marauding preservationists? Word.

West-Park pastor Robert Brashear, echoing Robert Emerick's rhetoric of two years ago in Bay Ridge, huffed that "the government has no right to take away the life of a church to save a building."

The LPC's decision to designate West-Park has astonished preservationists, particularly those, like the Committee to Save the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, that have lost nearly-identical battles with the LPC.  

As in the case of the Green Church, the LPC usually refuses to even calendar buildings for designation hearing over owner opposition, and the city's churches and synagogues are deeply opposed to any restrictions on their right to sell off their property and destroy their historic buildings in order to generate cash.

So what made West-Park special?   For one thing, its congregation made the tactical error of allowing it to remain standing for 20 years, giving preservationists time to build an advocacy campaign broad and deep enough to get the handsome Romanesque Revival building landmarked.

Most recently, the cash-strapped congregation had invited developers Related Companies, then Richman Housing, to knock down all or part of the church to build an apartment tower that would have generated $15 million.

West-Park has now been closed, and its congregation has moved temporarily into a neighboring church.

The Presbytery, numbering just 17,000, probably lacks the political juice to undo the LPC's decision in the City Council, which usually defers to the local member on land-use decisions.  And Gail Brewer has for years supported landmarking the church.

The Presbytery's next move, assuming the City Council upholds the LPC, would be to invoke the "hardship" process for cash-strapped charitable organizations, as St. Vincent's in Greenwich Village did last year so it could demolish the modernist O'Toole building.

The article from the Observer.

More from DNA.

From DNA, West Park has been put up for sale.

CSA Conference at Columbia

Belong to a CSA?

On Sunday, February 28, JustFood.org  is holding its 10th annual CSA conference, open to all CSA members, at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Workshops at the event will cover issues such as local CSA trends, food policy and much more.

You will have the opportunity to sit on a panel with local CSA farmers and ask all the questions you've wanted to get answered.

At the CSA EXPO after the conference, you will have the chance to meet CSA organizers, farmers and other CSA enthusiasts from across the city, over wine and cheese.

For more information, go to www.justfood.org.

To register for the conference, click here.

Mutt Show at Brooklyn Lyceum

The Brooklyn Lyceum will host a Mutt Show on Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14 from 11AM to 7PM.

Admission is free.

A loving alternative to the snooty Westminster Dog Show, mutt shows, held around the U.S., celebrate "Everydog".

Dogs will compete for prizes and treats in such categories as "sloppiest kisser", "most resembles owner", "best beard", "best 70+ pound lapdog", "best costume" and more.

Comic book artist and famed toy designer Ami Bogin will be among the judges.

Enter your dog in as many categories as you want -- at $10 per category.

There will be doggie retail goods, face painting, and lunch at the Lyceum Cafe, with more activities in the pipeline.

As the plight of homeless animals worsens due to the recession, mutt shows highlight the charm and desirability of mixed-breed dogs while supporting and increasing the visibility of local animal shelters.

A percentage of all proceeds of the event will go straight to the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC), a Williamsburg no-kill shelter.

Come out and support BARC -- and have fun with Fido.

For more information, and to register your dog, visit the Mutt Show website: brooklynmuttshow.com

The Brooklyn Lyceum is at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope (R stop at Union Street).

The number is 718-857-4816

Street Map.

Other Upcoming Events at the Lyceum:

Brooklyn Chess Championship

Phantasmicon

Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market

Linkage

Southern Comfort at the Lief.

Where to shop in "fabulous" Bay Ridge.

The Hutch on Third Avenue is closing.

Membership in the Bay Ridge Food Co-op tops 300.  The Co-op will hold an informational meeting on February 20.

Easter egg hunts and other family fun in Bay Ridge.

Dyker Heights gets a traffic study.

What's that smell in Dyker Heights?

Brooklyn's Concert for Haiti.

BK gets props from Speaker Quinn.

Monster Rat down for the count.

Straphangers Fight Back

NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign, which is organizing opposition to the MTA's proposed cuts to subway and bus service, Access-A-Ride and student MetroCards, is asking MTA riders to take part in the following 3 campaigns:

• Sign the City Council/Straphangers Campaign petition at http://bit.ly/transitpetition.
• Tell the MTA what you think about the cuts at www.straphangers.org/testify
• Forward this information to a friend.

But that's not all you can do.  You can also tell the MTA in person what you think.

The MTA will hold public hearings in all 5 boroughs during the first week of March.

There will be a hearing in Brooklyn on Wednesday, March 3 at the Cantor Auditorium at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway.

The complete hearing schedule can be found here: http://bit.ly/hearingschedule.

All hearings start at 6pm.

You can get help preparing your testimony here:  www.straphangers.org/testify.

If you want to speak, sign up right away (there is no penalty if you sign up but can’t make it).

There are three ways to register to testify at a hearing:

• Online (best): http://bit.ly/hearingregistration (The form is confusing, so make sure to fill it out completely, including the borough/location of the hearing, date you are registering for, time – 6pm is 18:00 in military time – and then the hearing location again.)
• Phone (easiest): call Douglas Sussman, Director, MTA Community Affairs at (212) 878-7483.
• Snail mail (not recommended): Douglas Sussman, Director, MTA Community Affairs, 347 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10017.

For details regarding the proposed MTA service cuts, go to: www.straphangers.org/servicecuts.

You can find student MetroCard information at:  www.straphangers.org/studentpasses. 

For more information, visit the Straphangers website: http://www.straphangers.org or visit their Facebook page.

The campaign in Bay Ridge to save the 3rd Avenue bus.

The Return of Luna Park

Sigmund Freud said, after a trip here in 1909, that "The only thing about America that interests me is Coney Island."

Coney Island beach, first accessed by shell path, then steamer and subway, has always been a summer destination.

By 1909, Coney Island had about 20 million summer visitors.

There on its two-mile stretch,  you could find everything: legitimate small businesses, bathing pavilions and snack bars; gangsters, pimps, prostitutes and gamblers; boxers fighting illegal matches; con men and petty thieves.

Coney became the place where you could experience the fantastic:  take a ride in a dirigible, see a premature baby, visit a sideshow, see a fortune teller.

It hummed with capitalist chutzpah. 

Steeplechase, its first big amusement park -- named for the gravity-powered roller coaster that was one of its main attractions -- opened in 1897, with the diabolical ‘Funny Face’, suspended over the Park’s entrance gates, as its symbol.

When the Park burned to the ground in 1907, its owner posted a sign at the entrance: ‘Admission to the burning ruins, 10c’.

Luna Park, an insane Orientalist fantasy lit by 200,000 electric bulbs, opened in 1903, featuring a tunnel of love, a Japanese tea garden, acrobats, dancing bears and trained elephants, including the tragic Topsy.

The park's financial success spurred the opening in 1904 of Dreamland, a shameless Luna Park knockoff lit by a million electric lights, with a Lilliputian village staffed by midgets, chariot races and an ‘Alpine Scenic Railway’.

But Dreamland burned down in 1911, and was never rebuilt.

Steeplechase burned in 1936 and 1939, finally closing in the early Sixties, and Luna Park burned in 1944.

Although the crowds kept coming to the beach – 46 million in the summer of 1943 – Coney's heyday was over.  Cars, TV and movies, and the crime and racial violence that arrived with public housing projects, ended the dream of Coney Island.

But now, the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and Nathan’s hot dog stand are getting company.

This week, the city announced plans to reopen Luna Park on Memorial Day, on the Boardwalk where Astroland once was.  The new Luna Park will open with 19 rides, under the management of Central Amusement International and Italian ride giant Zamperla.

Next summer, a second new park, called Scream Zone, will open with two new steel roller coasters, go-karts and a human slingshot.

The Astro Tower may even be reopened.

CAI and Zamperla will lease the park for 10 years at $100,000 a year and invest $30 million to build Luna Park and Scream Zone.

The city, as part of its Coney Island development plan, wants to make Coney a year-round ride, entertainment and retail destination.

The article from the Daily News.

Ned Kaufman at Neighborhood Preservation Center

The Neighborhood Preservation Center, at 232 East 11th Street in Manhattan, will host a discussion with author Ned Kaufman about his new book, Place, Race, and Story, on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 6:30 PM.

Kaufman, a professor at the Pratt University graduate program in Historic Preservation and a director of research and training at Rafael Viñoly Architects, has written on a range of topics, from Victorian Gothic to public lands and historic sites management.

Place, Race and Story deals with the way the struggle between historic preservation and development in this country has grown out of the central themes of the American experience, like race and diversity.

Ranging from the eighteenth-century roots of historic preservation to the development battles being waged in New York City's neighborhoods today, Kaufman's essays outline a re-energized, progressive 21st century preservation practice.

Admission is free, but space is limited. RSVP required: info@neighborhoodpreservationcenter.org or 212-228-278.

The Historic Districts Council and Neighborhood Preservation Center co-sponsor the event.

New Kings Democrats

While Ralph Perfetto and Kevin Carroll wrestle for "Male District Leader" in Bay Ridge, "Female District Leader" and CB 10 Chair Joanne Seminara has been helping the North Brooklyn-based New Kings Democrats learn the basics of district politics.

In December, NKD sponsored a forum at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church called “The Most Important Elected Official You’ve Never Heard Of".

Seminara was one of 2 district leaders invited there to educate NKD members and political activists about the role of Democratic district leaders and county committee members.

She advised those interested in running for office to get involved with churches, community boards, school groups and civic organizations as a way to meet registered voters.

Each state assembly district usually has 2 district leaders who serve 2-year terms, hiring poll workers and election inspectors, going to party meetings, and electing the party’s county leader, among other duties.

Since the 2008 presidential primary, NKD has been grooming its members to run for county committee -- winning more than 50 such seats in 2008 and causing a ram jam at the county committee meeting that September -- and is looking to district leaders to help elect more of its members to the the county committee in 2010.

NKD's primary target is, of course, State Assemblymember and Democratic Party boss Vito Lopez, who runs Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens' Council.

Lopez outraged the NKD by putting crony Pamela Fisher on the ballot for Civil Court judge last year, despite the fact that, in the 20 years since Fisher graduated law school, she had held a single law job:  a one-year stint as an $85,000 court attorney to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Mark Partlow in the run-up to the election.

Supposedly, judicial candidates are screened by a panel appointed by the district, but Fisher didn't even give the panel a copy of her resume or file any of the pre-election paperwork showing where her campaign funds came from.

The unapposed Fisher won a 10-year term and is now pulling an annual salary of $125,000.

Little wonder Lopez is accused of turning Brooklyn's courts into a "patronage mill".

The NKD looks to grab the reins of Brooklyn's lumbering, factionalized Democratic county organization, the biggest in the state, from Lopez.

Read more here and here.
 
The New Kings Democrats meet the first Wednesday of every month.  Their next monthly meeting will take place on Wed, March 3 from 7 PM to 9 PM at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 334 S. 5th St. (between Keap & Rodney), Brooklyn, NY (map). 

The goal of NKD is to foster inclusionary and participatory democracy by recruiting and enabling people to run for Kings County Democratic Committee, in hopes of creating a new group of Brooklyn Democratic leaders.

Piranha Brothers at the Lief

Popular local cover band the The Piranha Brothers will be joined by Frankie Marra and his Band at the Lief Ericson Pub, 6725 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, on Saturday, March 13 at 9 PM.

For more information, call 718-745-950.

You can now find The Piranha Brothers on Facebook and I-Tunes.

Linkage

Free mammograms in Bay Ridge.

New York Brit hates on fat airline passengers.

An Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn poll finds that Marty Golden is basically a Democrat?

Golden launches an X-bus survey.

Brooklyn bulldog-basset mix kidnapped, held for ransom.

NYPD arrests MBA candidate for turnstile jumping at Atlantic Avenue station.

City Comptroller Liu:  the city's new computerized timekeeping system, City Time,  is overbudget -- times 10.

Update on vampire Forest City Ratner's ongoing AY swagathon.

Black enrollment at city's elite public schools plummets under Bloomberg.

More linkage from BK Southie.

Happy Valentine's Day

It wouldn't be Bay Ridge without some stars and stripes.

Shore Theater Calendared

Coney Island’s 1925 Shore Theater, at Surf and Stillwell Avenues, has been calendered by the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission for a designation hearing on March 23.

At the hearing, the LPC will accept testimony from members of the Coney Island community on the merits of landmarking the Theater.

Neighborhood preservation organization Save Coney Island has proposed creating a “historic corridor” along Surf Avenue that would include not only the Shore Theater and the Coney Island USA building, but Nathan’s Famous, the Henderson building and the Grashorn building.

Joe Sitt's Thor Equities, which owns the Henderson Building, opposes landmarking, as does Shore Theater owner Horace Bullard, who said that Coney Island should be an amusement district, not a historic district.

An LPC spokesperson countered by characterizing landmarking as "change management" rather than prohibiting change.

The LPC recently approved permits for the New York City Economic Development Corporation to install security barriers around the Parachute Jump, one of four already-landmarked sites in Coney Island, including the Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and Child’s.

The article from YourNabe.

Endangered Species Condoms

February 14 through 20 is National Condom Week. The Center for Biological Diversity will launch its Valentine's Day endangered species condom give-away tomorrow.

More than 3,000 volunteers from all walks of life will distribute 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms across the 50 states to highlight the unsustainability of human population growth, which is driving other species to extinction at a cataclysmic rate.

The condoms will be handed out at concerts, bars, universities, spiritual groups, local events and farmer’s markets.

The earth's human population is now 6.8 billion, making us the most populous big mammals ever.  And because humans have sucked up 50% of the planet's fresh water and covered 50% of its land mass, other species are running out of places to live.

The Endangered Species Condom series depicts six different species: the polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, American burying beetle, jaguar, and coquí guajón rock frog.

Learn more about the Center’s campaign to address overpopulation, and sign up to win a life supply of free Endangered Species Condoms.

Click here to donate to the condom drive.

More from USA Today.

The Genius of the Beast

Two intellectual heavyweights, reclusive Park Slope polymath Howard Bloom and playwright-philosopher Richard Foreman will go head-to-head on C-Span Book TV on Wednesday February 16 at 7 PM.

The event will be broadcast live from The Strand Bookstore at 828 Broadway in Manhattan's Union Square.

Bloom's new book, The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, sold out its first printing in less than ten weeks and is now in its second printing.

Called a "rascal scholar" by the Village Voice, Bloom is known for his uncanny ability to condense complex scientific ideas into yummy intellectual pop-tarts.

Expect a great rant.

Co-op/Condo Panel Discussion

Thinking about buying a co-op or condo?

There will be a free co-op and condo forum in Room 301 at Baruch College School of Public Affairs, 135 East 22nd Street in Manhattan, on Wednesday, February 17 from 6-8 PM.

Learn about such basics as the role of the co-op board, the role of the management company and shareholders' rights.

Get your questions answered by an expert panel that includes attorney Lucas Ferrara, a partner in the firm Finkelstein Newman Ferrara LLP, attorney Kevin McConnell, a partner in the firm Himmelstein, McConnell, Gribben, Donoghue and  Joseph LLP, and Lisa Wallace, an assistant AG in the Real Estate Finance Bureau.

Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh and State Senator Liz Krueger sponsor the event.

"I'll Have What He's Having."

Open Call: Crafters, Foodmakers

Building on the success of its holiday craft market, the Brooklyn Lyceum will host a Spring Food and Craft Market on Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2, from 11 AM to 7 PM, at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope (R train to Union Street).

The Market will highlight the exceptional variety and quality of the artisanal goods available throughout the Northeast: clothing, clocks, art, gifts, jams, chocolates, cheeses, craft beer -- and much more.

The word "artisanal" describes handcrafted goods made in small batches on a human scale, personalized and brand-free.

By hosting the Market, the Lyceum hopes to support this kind of products -- and the people who make them -- as well as offering conscientious shoppers a broader range of local choices.

By buying products directly from the makers, you both support the local economy and take part in the global movement toward sustainable commerce.

The Market will feature workshops and demos for both adults and children throughout the weekend.

Applications from presenters are now being accepted.  Crafters from Baltimore to New England, some presenting in New York City for the first time, have applied.

To apply, click here.

Still Closed

A would-be patron stares through a temporary plywood inset in the front door of the Fort Hamilton Branch of the New York Public Library, closed for renovation since the spring of 2008.

Inside, a worker appears to be running a sander.

A fall re-opening is projected.

Ed Hirsch at Brooklyn Lyceum

On Sunday, March 7 at 7 PM, award-winning poet Edward Hirsch will read from his newly-published collection The Living Fire (Knopf), as part of the First Sundays monthly writers series at the Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn (R train to Union Street).

Hirsch, who lives in New York City, has published eight collections of poetry and four prose books, including national best seller How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry. He is a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, and is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Hirsch will read, respond to questions and sign books over beer, wine, tea or coffee.

Copies of his book, provided by local Brooklyn booksellers, will be available for purchase and signing.

Admission is $5.00.

The First Sundays series features intimate readings with new and established artists: poets, novelists, journalists, graphic novelists, photojournalists, non-fiction writers and others.  The series is organized by journalist and poet Susan Hartman.

For more information, visit the Lyceum website.

Other upcoming events at the Lyceum:

Brooklyn Chess Championship

Lyceum Mutt Show

Phantasmicon: Sci-Fi Festival

Carroll Challenges Perfetto

For about 50 years, Democratic politics in Bay Ridge have been synonymous with the name Ralph Perfetto.

Perfetto, the sharp-dressed funeral director who supervised the exhumation of the remains from the Green Church vault, has founded and led two Bay Ridge Democratic clubs: the American Heritage Democratic Organization and the United Americans Democratic Organization.  (I couldn't find a website for either organization.)

Perfetto's long Democratic career, which has included city government appointments under Mark Green and Betsy Gotbaum and a state government appointment as director of cemeteries, started in Coney Island in the 1960s.

Perfetto is also a developer, founding Astella Development Company in 1975.

For nearly 20 years, Perfetto has been "male leader" of the 60th AD and a state committee member. Newly-elected CB 10 chair Joanne Seminara, a lawyer and former City Council candidate, is the "female leader" of the district, which includes north Bay Ridge, a western strip of Bay Ridge fronting the Narrows, and the east coast of Staten Island.

Six years ago, CB 10 member Kevin Carroll founded Brooklyn Democrats for Change.  Carroll most recently campaigned for David Yassky against Bill DeBlasio in the primary race for city comptroller.

Last week, Carroll announced the formation of the "Friends of Kevin Peter Carroll Committee", and has filed an application to run for Perfetto's post as 60th AD district leader.

Democrats for Change will hold its annual fund-raiser buffet dinner on April 22 at J.T.’s Restaurant on Third Avenue in Bay Ridge. CB 10 member Mary Nolan, a club vice-president, is the event organizer.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Carroll lends a hand to Marty Golden challenger DiSanto.

More from the Courier, and more still from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Link Roundup

Was it a faux blizzard?

Councilmember Recchia has set up a fund for the victims of the Bensonhurst fire.

Snow at Coney Island.

Illegal trailer park in Bushwick?

The late J.D. Salinger fantasized about visiting Williamsburg.

Some interesting stuff is happening in Brooklyn this week.

Things aren't so golden at Brooklyn's Oro.

In Bloomberg's BigBoxNYC, every main drag is starting to look like Bay Ridge's 86th Street.

Former Bloomberg campaign aides subpoenaed by Manhattan D.A.

Bloomberg's billionaire buddy Mort Zuckerman smells weakness.

Are Bloomberg's charter schools stealth privatization?  Well, duh!

Indie Night at the Monk

Indie-loving South Brooklyn native Marina G is bringing the music to Bay Ridge next month.

Marina will DJ the neighborhood's first Indie Night at the Wicked Monk, 8415 5th Avenue (between 84th and 85th Streets), on Sunday, March 14 at 9 PM. 

So please come out and show Marina -- and the music -- some love.

Blizzard

Third Term Enabler Seabrook Indicted

Three-term Bronx City Councilmember Larry Seabrook, whose vote helped overturn term limits, was taken into custody this morning at the offices of the city's Inspector General in lower Manhattan.

Seabrook, a former state assemblyman and state senator, was indicted as a result of a joint city-state probe into City Council discretionary funds channeled to non-profit organizations.

According to the indictment, Seabrook funneled more than $1 million in discretionary funds to non-profits he "controlled and directed."

The pocket-lining schemes detailed in the sealed 66-page, 13-count indictment include shakedowns, favoritism and nepotism.

Seabrook's attorney Murray Richman said his client would enter a "not guilty" plea at arraignment and be released on $500,000 bond pending a March 15 appearance.

Seabrook's enterprise, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, operated like a "corrupt, publicly-funded friends and family plan."

According to the indictment, the married Seabrook slipped more than $500,000 in discretionary funds to his girlfriend and his relatives, parked on the payrolls of shady Bronx non-profits.

Seabrook allegedly shook down a Bronx businessman for $50,000 in a "pay-to-play" for a boiler contract at the new Yankee Stadium -- and used the money to pay parking fines and credit card bills.

The indictment charges that Seabrook even doctored the receipt for a bagel and diet soda he bought for $7 near City Hall to read $177, and collected the funds from the North East Bronx Community Democratic Club.

Seabrook's total take from the club is estimated at $44,000.
 
The article from the Daily News.

Upcoming Local Events

OLPH Flea Market 

On Sunday, February 14 from 7 AM to 6 PM, there will be a "supa" flea market at Notre Dame Hall at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 545 60th Street in Sunset Park.

The ASPCA Mobile Van will be available at the site during the event.

Shop and get your cat spayed, all in one stop!

For more information, call 917-312-9855.

62nd Precinct Council

The 62nd Precinct Council meets on Tuesday, February 16 at 7:30 PM at Bath Avenue and Bay 22nd Street in Bensonhurst.

The community is invited to attend.

For more information, call the 62nd Precinct House.

Rosemaling Society

On Monday, February 22, the Mid-Atlantic Rosemaling Society will meet at 7 PM at 59th Street Church, 749 59th Street in Sunset Park.

There will be a free Rosemaling session.

For more information, call 718-853-1734.

Banana Carrier

Defining "Underperforming"

In a late November speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., Mayor Bloomberg announced his administration's plans to close the lowest performing 10% of city schools within 4 years and reopen them under "new leadership".

In December last year, the city's Department of Education proposed the closure of 20 schools, beginning in the 2010–2011 school year, and the elimination of grades 6–8 at Frederick Douglass III Academy.

As in prior rounds of closures, this round will be phased in over several years by closing schools to new classes.

Brooklyn's  Paul Robeson High School, P.S. 332, the Middle School for Academic and Social Excellence, Metropolitan Corporate Academy, and Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School are on the closure list.

The proposed closures have raised the question whether the schools targeted are in fact in the lowest 10%, by the DOE's own measures.

To answer that question, the city's Independent Budget Office did a comparative review of the characteristics of closing schools with other schools, also in the bottom 10%, that the DOE is keeping open, and found that, while the closing schools were in the bottom 10% on many variables, their performance was not consistently low. In fact, some closing schools are doing better than other schools in the same decile on a number of performance measures.

The IBO also found that closing schools faced greater challenges than non-closing schools. Closing high schools in Brooklyn, for instance, had sharp increases in special needs students, and all closing schools had more low‐income students and homeless students compared to the medians for non‐closing schools in their respective boroughs. Closing high schools also had more students over 18 than non‐closing schools.

The report from the IBO.

According to the Gerritson Beach blog, Sheepshead Bay High School, FDR High School at 5800 20th Avenue, John Dewey High School at 50 Avenue X, and Grady High School at 25 Brighton Fourth Road, will also be closed this fall, although they do not appear to be in the list on which the IBO report is based.

Union Church Concerts

At this afternoon's performance by the Chiara String Quartet at Union Church, I picked up a flyer for Union's 2009-2010 concert series.

The church has an active music ministry.  

On Sunday, March 21 at 4 PM, Union's gifted minister of music, Vince Peterson, will direct Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, vigorously set in the original Hebrew for voice, harp and organ -- with echos of West Side Story.

On Sunday, May 23 at 4 PM, Vince Peterson, with members of the Union Church Academy and special guests, will perform a selection of sacred and secular music in a range of styles and genres, including Peterson's Second String Quartet in F Major 5.

Admission to both events is $12.

Union Church is at the corner of Ridge Boulevard and 80th Street in Bay Ridge.  The phone is 718-745-0438.  Click here for the church website.

Knocking Down Prospect Plaza

The Times reports that, for the first time in its 75 years, the New York City Housing Authority plans to knock down a whole public housing complex: Brownsville's Prospect Plaza.

After Prospect Plaza was vacated for renovation in 2003, the project got so bogged down in administrative, financial and legal problems that NYCHA apparently now sees demolishing the 35-year-old complex and rebuilding as the only way out.

It would cost NYCHA $481,000 per unit to renovate each of the existing 269 apartments in the complex, which is deteriorated and seen as out-scale;  demolishing the complex and building 361 new units would cost $381,700 per unit.

The new units— a mix of public and private housing -- would likely be low-rise.

Prospect Plaza originally had four towers housing 1,200 people. One tower was demolished in 2005 -- the first NYCHA high-rise to be knocked down.  The plan was to build a new community center, shops and new housing, but the site is now just a vacant lot.

In 2007, NYCHA demolished part of the Markham Gardens complex on Staten Island.

NYCHA has finished the first two phases of the Prospect Plaza redevelopment plan, 37 two-family houses and 150 rental units in four-story town-house-style buildings on nearby city lots.

Former Prospect Plaza tenants and tenant advocacy groups oppose the demolition plan because it looks like the number of public housing units will shrink.

The article from the New York Times.

Twenty Fire Companies Face Closure

The New York Times reports that the Bloomberg administration  is threatening to close as many as 20 fire companies, forcing the New York City Fire Department to reorganize on a scale not seen since the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

Bloomberg also plans to cut the number of firefighters on some 60 engines across the city.

The mayor’s contingency budget, in the event Albany fails to bail out the city, would lay off 1,050 firefighters and close 42 fire companies.

The final budget will be determined by the City Counsel.

The FDNY is looking at the block-by-block, neighborhood-by-neighborhood statistics to decide which companies to close, focusing on data points like where fires strike most often, response times, and the distance from fire houses to locations like schools, housing complexes, hospitals and high-rise offices.

FDNY commissioner Salvatore Cassano said that closures would cut the FDNY's overall capacity to fight fires by 6%, the biggest challenge it has faced in decades.

If the FDNY loses 20 companies, more than 500 out of 8,500 rank-and-file firefighter jobs will be lost through attrition.

According to one commenter in the fire science community, the closings could cause a domino effect, with potentially catastrophic results. Response times could creep up, firefighters would be physically exhausted, and trucks and equipment would wear out faster.

Cassano's universe contains 198 engines and 143 ladders throughout the 5 boros, most of them sharing firehouses.  The FDNY is using a war-games approach and computer modeling to decide which ones to target for closure.

The president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association called it "morally wrong" to cut fire companies, which, he said, are woven together like a fabric, which is weakened if you cut any stitch, any thread.

The article from the New York Times.

Note:  The title of this post has been corrected to substitute the word "companies" for "houses".  My bad.

Anderson Cooper Buys Fire Patrol 2

Since September, when globetrotting CNN newsman Anderson Cooper bought it from the New York Board of Fire Underwriters for $4.3 million, Greenwich Village neighbors have been seeing Cooper at the former Fire Patrol 2, nominated for the National Register of Historic Places.

The centuries-old, insurance industry-backed New York Board of Fire Underwriters operated a private fire patrol out of the building for 100 years, from 1906 to 2006.

The Beaux Arts building still has its original spiral staircases, brass fire poles, overhead beams for drying hoses, historic murals depicting the history of the fire patrol, a two-story stable in the back, and a bust of Mercury, Roman god of speed, over the front door.

Cooper has hired Cary Tamarkin, a Chelsea architect known for residential conversions, and construction crews are now gutting the building.

If the building is listed in the National Register, Cooper will qualify for numerous tax breaks for maintaining its historic façade.

The article from Shelter Pop.

Rev. Billy in Tribeca Tonight

Possessed by the spirit of anti-consumerism, Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir will perform tonight, Saturday February 6, at 8:00 PM at 92Y Tribeca Mainstage, 200 Hudson Street. Doors open at 7.

Take the 1, A, C, or E Trains to Canal Street.

Click here to order tickets

Said the Reverend in an e-mail blast this week: 

"We must now reach something and do things that have no name; that strike fear and very old memories in us; give each other a kind of courage that a half-century of precision marketing has killed in us. Whatever earthy spirit we bring down tonight – that’s the hot gospel!"

Amen. Hallelujah.

Valentine's Day Un-Marriage Ceremony

The Rev. will be at it again at 1 PM at the Bethesda Angel in Central Park (72nd Street entrance) on Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, when he will "un-marry" straight, married supporters of gay marriage in a mass ceremony, in response to the "NO" votes on the issue in New York and New Jersey, the conservative lobby against gay marriage, and the legal effort to overturn California's Proposition 8.

Reverend Billy is an officiant of the rites of marriage in the City of New York.

Organizers of the Valentine's Day event want to send a message to elected officials that gay marriage is not just an issue for gay people, but for all people who care about civil rights and human dignity.