Bensonhurst Town Hall Meeting Erupts in Anger

The 200 people who came to a Marty Golden town hall meeting at St. Finbar's in Bensonhurst this week barraged city flack-catchers with angry complaints about MTA service cuts.

But no one from the MTA was there, nor was Golden.

Golden, who recently joined City Council Member Vinnnie Gentile in a lawsuit against the MTA based on the disparate impact of the cuts on seniors and the disabled, was in Albany.

Golden’s MTA Financial Authorization Bill would require an independent review of MTA financial records.

John Quaglione, Golden’s press secretary and district manager, said his office had gotten 37 e-mails complaining about the service cuts.

One man who attended the meeting complained that the B64 Bath Avenue bus no longer goes to Coney Island at a time when the mayor is hyping Coney Island for its new rides and development.  The B64, which used to go between Bay Ridge and Coney Island, now turns around at 25th Avenue and returns to Bay Ridge.

One lifelong Brooklyn resident said the MTA hadn't been clear with riders about the changes.

(While there may not yet be new paper maps, the bus changes are posted on the MTA website, along with the subway changes.)

Other neighborhood complaints focused on the usual suspects:  undesirables hanging out in the local parks, uninsured illegal immigrants crowding into firetrap conversions, uncollected trash, curb cuts, and illegal parking pads.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Fast Trains Slow to Arrive in the Northeast Corridor

I have fantasized for a long time about taking a bullet train from New York City to Albany. No doubt so have the politicians, lobbyists, reporters and business people now spending 2 1/2 hours on Amtrak, who could get to work in an hour.

High speed rail has no apparent downside:  it would create thousands of jobs, it would be environmentally-friendly, and it would connect a fragmented state.

Both Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith and Gov. David Paterson want to find a way to fund high speed rail in New York, and creating a state-wide high speed rail system has been on Albany's agenda for decades.  But, like so many other items, it has gone nowhere.

This year, however, high-speed rail got a bump-up from the Obama administration in the form of an offer of $8 billion in grants to states that choose to update their rail systems. When the grants were handed out, though, New York got a paltry $151 million of the $4 billion it applied for.

California, with a well-crafted high speed rail plan, got more than $2 billion.  Florida and Illinois qualified for around $1 billion, Wisconsin $822 million, and Washington $590 million.

Officials say New York is working on a new application, due this summer, for an additional $2.5 billion in federal rail funding.

$90 million of the funds New York has been awarded will be spent laying a second track from Rensselaer to Schenectady.  $58 million will be spent to build an 11-mile high speed test strip in upstate New York.

Why was New York short-changed during the first round of federal funding? Rail experts say the state's plan was non-responsive:  it didn't meet the terms of the available grants, didn't designate a lead agency for the project, and lacked an agreement with CSX, which owns the rails where the high speed tracks would be laid.

The state also failed to include an environmental impact statement, and its timelines didn't work.

New York and CSX have now agreed to an environmental impact study and to running high speed rail along the CSX routes, which CSX had not previously agreed to.

High speed trains would initially run around 110 mph, with speeds increasing as the system is developed. Eventually, a high speed corridor would run from Buffalo to New York City and through the Northeast Corridor, cutting hours off trips from New York to Boston and Washington.

Malcolm Smith has suggested that imitating California could help New York get more federal funding.  California has a complete plan, and a separate entity running its high speed rail project.

The Empire State Passenger Association supports creating an independent board, separate from the State Department of Transportation, to oversee high speed rail.  The Empire State Development Corporation disagrees.

The federal government is not the only possible source of funding for high speed rail. China may be interested in investing in projects in New York State. And if the state creates a high speed rail authority, the authority could issue bonds to fund high speed rail development.

Right now, though, Gov. Paterson's budget contains only $50 million in funding for all rail projects over the next two years.

According to the Empire State Development Corp., high speed rail would benefit employers around the state who manufacture rail equipment. Bombardier, which has a New York presence, has shrunk from 1,000 to 200 employees over the last 10 years. That workforce could grow again if high speed rail is funded.

If New York and surrounding states, now working more closely than in the past, can establish a high speed corridor, it would ease overcrowding in the state transit system by eliminating the New York City bottleneck. And being able to get to Washington in an hour is going to benefit downtown Manhattan.

According to a recent report, a nationwide high speed rail network could create 150,000 new jobs and $19 billion in new businesses by 2035, as upstate New York regions get hooked into New York City's economic web by fast trains and faster commerce.

Ironically, the Northeast Corridor, with the best potential for high speed rail in the nation, is the furthest from being built.

Frankly, I'm not sure I understand why.

The article from Gotham Gazette.

More from Streetsblog.

Albany Passes on Dirty Oil

A new law passed by the New York State Senate on June 17 and likely to be signed by Governor Paterson would eliminate 99.4% of the sulfur generated by No. 2 heating oil, used in the vast majority of homes and buildings statewide, by restricting sulfur emissions to 15 parts per million by July 1st, 2012.

Current state law allows sulfur emissions of up to 15,000 parts per million for No. 2 heating oil.

But the bill only covers No. 2 heating oil, which means that the nearly 9,000 big residential, commercial and institutional buildings in New York City that burn No. 4 or No. 6 oils for heat are exempt from the new law.

No. 4 and No. 6 oils, known as "residual" or "dirty" oils, are basically unrefined sludge. Burning dirty oil -- some 1,000 tons of it a year in the city -- creates that black rain of soot, so familiar to New Yorkers, that causes asthma, ups cancer risk, worsens respiratory diseases, and can cause premature death.

A question for your state senator:  how could the state legislature have failed to address the problem of dirty oil, which is responsible for 86% of New York City's heating oil soot pollution?

The article from City Limits.

Brownstone Brownout

With temperatures in the 90s, Con Edison issued an appeal this week to approximately 123,000 Brooklyn customers in the area bounded by Newtown Creek (N), Graham and Throop Avenues (S), Fulton and Pacific Streets (S) and the East River (W), as well as a section of 5th Avenue, to turn off "non-essential electrical appliances and equipment to reduce demand.

There were local problems with electrical cables.

Although residents in the area covered by the appeal, including Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy, Park Slope, and Windsor Terrace, were asked to turn off washers, dryers, air conditioners (!) and other juice-hogs until the problem was solved, a brownout couldn't be prevented. 

Coverage from Gothamist.

Linkage

Bay Ridge Blog chronicles the last B37 bus.

Vinnie Gentile and Marty Golden have joined in a lawsuit against the MTA over the service cuts.

Marty Golden smacked over his non-stance on microstamping [L Magazine.]

No water fountains on the Shore Road bike path [Brooklyn Paper].

New Facebook page calls out Bay Ridge employers who hire undocumented and illegal immigrants [L Magazine].

As MTA budget cuts hit Brooklyn, bus driver beaten, MTA employees laid off [Daily News].

Sam Sifton tries to make nice with Rawia Bishara [NYT].

Marty Golden accuses Governor Paterson of being -- what else -- soft on criminals [Sheepshead Bites].

Upcoming MAS tours of Sunset Park and Bushwick [MAS].

Dyker Heights spawns a hate-blogger! [Curbed.]

How to beat a Brooklyn incumbent [CNG].

Tax credits for historic preservation threatened [MAS].

Mayor Bloomberg and friends launch a new initiative, called "Partnership for a New American Economy", to speed up the immigration process -- so big corporations can be free to hire globally. 

The Mayor and the City Council agree on a budget laced with painful cuts [NYT].

Time to put up or shut up on the environment, Mr. President [Worldwatch].

Vuvuzelas for the Gulf Oil cleanup [Village Voice].  At least its for a good cause.

Wind Farm Off Rockaway?

There have been two monumental disasters in the energy industry since April of this year:  on April 5, an accident at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia killed 29 miners;  on April 20, 11 workers died when the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, causing the biggest oil spill in the history of the U.S.

Both the Upper Big Branch and the Deepwater Horizon disasters provide terrible reminders of the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels. If we needed a wake-up call to look for a clean energy future, it's time to pick up the phone.

The one hopeful bit of environmental news to come out of a tragic April was the announcement by the U.S. Department of Interior that it has approved the first-ever utility-scale offshore wind energy project -- Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound -- after a 9-year federal review process aimed at ensuring the protection of marine habitat.

Wind power, contrasted with West Virginia coal and Gulf oil, is a renewable resource that can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.  Wind farms, unlike coal-fire power plants or oil-powered engines, do not emit particulate soot, nitrogen oxides and other toxic pollution that triggers asthma, cancer, heart attacks and premature deaths.

Best of all, wind power does not degrade the environment.

New York is emerging as one of the nation's leading wind power states. At the end of 2009, existing projects contributed 1,274 megawatts of capacity to the state's power grid, ranking New York No. 8 in the nation in existing wind energy capacity.

Roughly 850 of those megawatts have come online in the last 2 years.

Upstate wind projects, ranging from 20-126 megawatts, are dwarfed by Cape Wind or a typical coal-burning power plant.  Cape Wind will generate 420 megawatts, and the typical coal plant generates 667 megawatts. If New York's wind industry is going to replace fossil fuel, the industry must build utility-scale projects like Cape Wind and other similar projects proposed along the east coast.

A utility-scale offshore wind facility would tap a stronger, more consistent wind than smaller, land-based upstate wind farms, and would be sited closer to consumers on Long Island and New York City, meaning lower transmission costs. Unlike land-based wind power, which can drop during midday in summer, ocean-based wind power coincides with peak electricity demand downstate.

Community concerns about the visibility of the turbines from shore, new or reconfigured transmission lines, and potential impacts on birds and marine life must be addressed, of course, and any significant environmental impacts must be identified and mitigated.

As a result of Gov. David A. Paterson’s Renewable Energy Task Force, a utility-scale wind development, to be located roughly 13 nautical miles off the Rockaway Peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean, is currently being explored by a coalition of power companies led by Con Edison and the city's Economic Development Corporation.

The group is considering a project that would initially generate up to 350 megawatts of power, building to 700 megawatts, which would make it the biggest offshore wind project in the U.S.

Operating at 30%, a 700 megawatt project would generate enough energy to power 500,000 homes.

At this scale, the project would result in a carbon dioxide deficit equivalent to taking 68,000 cars off the roads every year.

The sponsors of the project are now preparing an RFP, to be released soon.

Wind power will not, by itself, replace fossil fuels, but combined with cleaner, more efficient power plants, energy-efficient buildings, appliances and vehicles, and other renewable sources like solar and advanced biofuels, it can be a significant part of a long-term climate and energy solution.

The article from Gotham Gazette.

DeNapoli Sues BP

Last week, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli announced that he would seek lead plaintiff status for the state of New York in a class action lawsuit against British petroleum giant BP in the wake of the Gulf Oil Disaster.

The lawsuit, DiNapoli said, is based on misleading statements the company made to investors about the safety of its drilling operations on the doomed Deepwater Horizon platform, and the absence of a contingency plan in the event of a blowout.

"We're going to hold it accountable," said DiNapoli.

The law firm of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC is representing the state pension fund in the action.

The state's $132.6 billion pension fund owned about 19 million shares of BP on April 20, the day of the explosion. It now owns about 15 million shares.

The stock is held by numerous fund managers as part of an international equities portfolio.

BP, in the wake of a steep sell-off of its stock after the Deepwater Horizon blowout, recently suspended dividends for this year.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the state pension fund lost an estimated $30 million in the BP price drop.

As of last week, BP was trading at about $496.60 per share. The price was about $975.60 before the spill.

There are 4 lawsuits currently pending against BP,which are likely be consolidated into a single lawsuit to be tried in Louisiana, near the source of the spill.

Lead-plaintiff status would give the fund an additional measure of control over the proceedings.

The article from the Albany Times-Union.

Spiff Goes Missing in Greenpoint

Spiff is a small (7-8 lbs) spayed female tabby cat with a white chin and one white toe on her right front paw.

She is 14 years old.

Spiff went missing on Friday June 25 from Green Street near Manhattan Avenue, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

If you have any information about her, please contact Stephanie at 347-581-8596 or 646-425-6433

Co-Working at Brooklyn Lyceum

Co-working is a "workstyle" involving a shared work environment.  Co-workers, although they share a social space, are self-employed.

Co-working is an attractive option for at-home professionals, independent contractors and people who end up working in relative isolation because they are on the road all the time.

Although each works independently, co-workers can take advantage of the synergy that working in the same place with other talented people can create.

The Brooklyn Lyceum, formerly Public Bath No. 7, is a performing arts and cultural center in Park Slope. Opened in 1910 as an indoor bathing facility, it once housed the largest indoor public pool in the country.  Reopened in 1994 as the Brooklyn Lyceum, it now hosts performance events, festivals and cultural activities.

Beginning July 6, the Brooklyn Lyceum, at 227 4th Avenue in Park Slope (steps from the R train station at Union Street), will offer co-working space Monday through Friday from 8AM-3PM.

Prices will be as follows:
$5 per day for members of other co-work spaces.
$5 per day for members of other organizations associated with the Brooklyn Lyceum.
$5 per day with a Brooklyn Lyceum Membership (coming fall 2010).
$10 per day for drop-ins.

The Lyceum café is open to the public daily and offers free wireless access.

More Details online at www.BrooklynLyceum.com or call 718-857-4816.

Day Lilies

George Winner and the Marcellus Shale

If you're looking for a poster child for the campaign to make New York state senators disclose their finances in depth, look no further than powerful Republican State Senator George Winner.

One of Winner’s first actions after he was elected to the State Senate in 2005 was to amend the state's gas drilling laws to incorporate industry-drafted changes.

At the time, Winner was an active partner in an Elmira law firm that represented the state's biggest natural gas producer.

Asked by a reporter whether he saw this as a conflict of interest, Winner replied “Not at all.”

Winner has refused to disclose his client list.

The counties Winner represents are sitting on top of a tremendous and virtually untapped natural gas reserve. Winner's law firm represents both sides of the table in the Marcellus Shale natural gas rush: landowners and energy companies -- taking campaign contributions from both.

Winner’s law firm – Keyser, Maloney and Winner LLP – represented Fortuna Energy Inc., now Talisman Energy USA Inc., during the year that he revised the state's laws on gas drilling.

Between 1999 and 2009, Winner got about $28,000 in donations from the energy sector – including Exxon Mobil Corp., Chesapeake Energy Corp. and the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York.

Former client Fortuna Energy Inc., his biggest donor, gave $8,000.

The article from DC Bureau.

According to Capitol Confidential, Winner will not seek re-election this fall, ending a 32-year political career to return to private practice.

Mission accomplished?

Flea Market at OLPH

There will be a "Supa" Flea Market at OLPH's Notre Dame Hall, 545 60th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Sunset Park, tomorrow, Sunday, June 27 between 7 AM and 5 PM.

The event will feature more than 175 vendors, both inside and outside.

The Knights of Columbus will be grilling food downstairs in the cafeteria.

For more information, call 917-312-9855 or email supafleamarket@aol.com.

City Pitties Clinic and Dog Adoption Event at OLA

Bull-breed rescue organization City Pitties ("Healthy Pups Breed Happy People") will sponsor a Dog Adoption Day event featuring family-friendly dogs and the ASPCA mobile clinic tomorrow, Sunday, June 27, from 8 AM to 2 PM at the OLA Basilica on the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street in Sunset Park.

Adopters can take advantage of a special adoption package, offered by the ASPCA mobile clinic, that includes spay/neuter, vaccination and microchip on a first come, first served basis.

Also featured at the event will be a "Mindful Tails" T-Touch clinic.

Monitoring the Bus Service Cuts

The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign is recruiting volunteers to monitor bus riders' rush hour experiences on Monday morning, June 28, when local commuters will encounter the effects of major cuts in weekday city bus service.  

Click here to volunteer. Click here for a bus survey form you can use to monitor how well the service cuts are explained and how riders are impacted by the cuts. Click here for instructions on filling out and submitting the form.

Straphangers will try to assign you to a bus stop close to you that is impacted by the bus cuts (losing all or some of its bus routes or having new routes stop there).

The survey should take no more than 20 minutes to complete between 7:00 AM and 12:00 Noon.

An online version of the survey will be posted on Monday afternoon at www.straphangers.org/buscuts2010.

Bay Ridge Blog photo.

Portside "BlueBQ Funraiser"

Red Hook not-for-profit Portside will host a family-friendly "BlueBQ FunRaiser" on Saturday, July 3 from 6-8:30 PM at Pier 11, Atlantic Basin, to launch both the holiday weekend and its 8-week summer season.

Tickets are $35 for adults and $10 for kids.

There will be beverages, BBQ, and food from the Good Fork, the Red Hook Lobster Pound and the Tom Cat Bakery, Trader Joe's, Betty Brooklyn, and more.

Entertainment on tap includes Balloon Meister Peter Waldman, South Street Seaport's Jack Putnam channelling Melville, a live auction, kids' wading pool, games, chalk, bubbles 'n balls, music by Smitty, and more TBA.

Guests are invited to linger and watch the sun set over the harbor.

You probably can't go wrong with BBQ and a Red Hook sunset on board a ship.

Click here to buy tickets.

The Fight for the 60th AD: Dem Dist Leader Division

Peak Oil

The Gulf Oil Disaster, like Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy assassination, and 9-11, is a watershed moment in the course of our history.

As the excruciating slow-motion tragedy rolls on, I have been reading about the phenomenon of "Peak Oil", which dwarfs the Gulf Oil Disaster.

Oil, a finite, non-renewable resource, has powered the phenomenal economic and population growth of the past 150 years. It is being extracted and refined at the rate of about 85 million barrels a day, that rate having grown almost every year for the last 100 years.

But oil production cannot continue to increase indefinitely.  Once about half of the world's oil reserves are extracted (the peak) -- and many believe that point has passed -- oil production enters its terminal decline.

Peak Oil is the catchall term for the end of cheap oil.  As supplies dwindle and sellers gain the advantage, economies leveraged on ever-increasing supplies of cheap oil face dire economic and social consequences.

Deep-water drilling, supposed to hold off the effects of the decline in world oil production that began in 2005 and will continue for the rest of this century, coincided with a Chinese and Indian energy consumption boom.

The global recession has decreased demand for oil and kept prices down, but as oil-consuming economies recover, there will be a historic effect on oil prices, currencies and economies that will vector with the impact on deep water drilling of compliance with more sophisticated safety regulations in the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Disaster.

The inevitable rise in oil prices will have a tax-like effect on our GDP that will strain the economy, causing it to stall and sending us back into recession. And so on.

The faster new energy technologies and conservation come online to lessen our dependence on oil, the better it is for our economy, but it isn't clear that we can transition from oil ahead of a major geopolitical crisis.

The oil war in Iraq, home to the world’s largest under-exploited oil fields, if it results in the meltdown of the entire Middle East, won’t be much help to us.

Bottom line:  at some point in the next 20 years, the oil that lubricates the world's economic engine, even with all current deep water projects running full blast, will run dry.

Buying a hybrid car, or doing without a car, is making more sense all the time, as does cycling and public transportation.

And better take that trip around the country in your motorhome this summer, while you can still afford the gas:  your energy costs could go up by a factor of 10 over the next decade.

The post from Forbes.

Is Kruger Toast?

Federal prosecutors revealed this week that during a 2-year period, an informant, a wire, and lawyer-nightclub owner Michael Levitis were involved in a pay-to-play investigation of Brooklyn State Senator Carl Kruger (D, 27th District).

Levitis is the owner of the infamous South Brooklyn nightclub Rasputin.

Now facing federal charges for refusing to testify against Kruger, Levitis was part of a much bigger federal criminal investigation.

In April, 2009, Levitis was caught on tape telling a federal informant that it would be necessary to pay off a "public official's" staff member to get assistance on an upcoming business inspection.

Levitis said that public official was Kruger.

On video, Levitis, acting as the go-between in the pay-to-play, accepted $3,000 from the informant, $2,000 of which was for Kruger's staff member. Levitis took a $1,000 cut.

Kruger, who had $2.1 million in his campaign account in January, has one of the biggest political war chests in the state.

In 2008, Levitis, a campaign donor, cut $7,300 in campaign checks to Kruger and fronted $3,800 in in-kind contributions for food and catering.

Levitis has also hosted fund-raisers for Kruger.

A Kruger spokesperson countered Levitis' allegations by saying that Kruger had been the "victim of an influence-peddling scam".

The article from the New York Post.

More from Sheepshead Bites.

More from the New York Post.

More from Boro Politics.

IWC Whaling Ban Extended

In what has been called "a huge victory for whales", the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has announced that it will delay action on a proposed deal that would have legalized commercial whaling for the first time in a generation.

Just weeks ago, an end to the whaling ban seemed virtually inevitable.

Secret talks spearheaded by key governments, including the U.S., had been going on for some time.

The proposed deal would have conferred legitimacy on the rogue slaughter of whales by Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have defied the ban for years by killing whales under legal loopholes like “scientific permits.”

The deal would have given moral cover to the idea that killing whales will save them.

Fortunately, a worldwide public outcry helped turn the IWC by shining a spotlight on the secret proceedings and putting pressure on nations, like the U.S., that oppose whaling, to toughen their negotiation stance.

A last minute shift by the Obama Administration at talks in Agadir, Morocco produced a deadlock that prevented the IWC from overturning the whaling ban.

Environmental advocates like Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council mobilized over a million people worldwide in support of their anti-whaling campaign.

The advocates may have succeeded for now in stopping the IWC from lifting the ban, but the loopholes that allow Japan, Iceland, and Norway to continue slaughtering whales have not been closed.

And the IWC has failed to take any new steps to conserve whale populations, now threatened not only by the whaling industry, but by the unprecedented environmental disaster destroying the Gulf of Mexico, which is home to whales and dolphins.

Threats to marine mammals other than oil spills, from entanglement to ship strikes, noise pollution and global warming, are growing daily.

The deal to lift the whaling ban is still on the IWC's agenda and could be revisited in coming days.

The IWC is likely to bring up the issue again next year, but for now, the slaughter of whales for profit will at least remain illegal.

Industry in Secret Net Neutrality Talks with FCC

Net Neutrality advocate Tim Karr reports that the Federal Communications Commission is in closed-door meetings with the telecommunications industry negotiating a deal on Net Neutrality – the rule that lets users determine their own Internet experience.

A small group of industry lobbyists representing providers like AT&T, Verizon, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and Google reportedly met twice this week with the FCC.

Because the industry would profit from gaining complete control over the Internet, Karr expects a consumer-negative outcome.

Karr calls the industry's regulatory capture of the Internet now almost complete, as the FCC, the only agency with the power to regulate the Internet, appears to be letting the industry write the Net Neutrality rules.

Congress, bankrolled by the phone and cable lobby in excess of $100 million, has apparently been cutting its own secret deals with the telecommunications industry.

The Obama administration promised to support Net Neutrality, and Julius Genachowski, Obama's appointee to head the FCC, crafted the administration's pro-Net Neutrality platform in 2008. Now Genachowski is in secret meetings with DC power brokers deciding the fate of the Internet.

The phone and cable companies have been pushing for 10 years for ownership of both the infrastructure and the information flowing across the Internet.  Now, they have cut giant companies like Google and the recording industry into the deal -- and cut the tens of millions of Americans who use the Internet out.

The article from Save The Internet.

BP Starts Risky New Project off Alaska Coast

BP, the company responsible for the Gulf Oil Disaster, has begun a controversial and risky new offshore drilling operation about 3 miles off the Alaskan coast.

The project involves using untested new technology to drill to the never-before-attempted depth of 2 miles beneath the ocean, then 6 to 8 miles horizontally, to reach what is reportedly a 100-million barrel reservoir of oil under U.S. waters.  

The Gulf Oil spill has now pumped nearly double than that amount into the Gulf of Mexico.

Until this week, when a Reagan-era federal district judge in Louisiana overturned the moratorium, the Obama administration had temporarily halted other new drilling projects in the Arctic, including Shell Oil’s plans to drill 3 wells in the Chukchi Sea and 2 in the Beaufort, in the wake of the Gulf Oil Disaster.  The administration is now back at square one in the struggle to buy time in order to figure out how to protect the world's oceans from further devastation by Big Oil.

The BP project, called "Liberty", was exempted from the moratorium on drilling because the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service had granted "onshore" status to the BP drilling platform, on a 31-acre pile of gravel dumped into about 22 feet of water 3 miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea.

In 2007, the Minerals Management Service, which oversees offshore drilling, allowed BP to write its own environmental review for the Liberty project, as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, rather than conduct its own independent analysis.

One federal scientist, worried about a replay of the Deepwater Horizon disaster off the Alaska coast, called the MMS' Liberty approval process "bizarre".

The Liberty project involves a complicated new drilling method called "extended reach", which, according to experts, is more likely than conventional drilling to create the kind of methane "belch" that blew out the Deepwater Horizon.

Methane belches are not only more frequent, but harder to detect with extended reach drilling.  And because of the depth and the right angles involved, this method requires far more powerful machinery, putting increased pressure on pipes and well casings.

The Liberty field lies about 5 miles from land, under the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea, in an area that provides winter habitat for seals and polar bears.

Bowhead whales migrate through the region in summer.

The article from the New York Times.

Grand Concourse Makes a Comeback

The Grand Concourse was conceived by French civil engineer Louis Risse in 1891 as an elegant boulevard on the order of Paris' Champs-Élysées.

In its heyday from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Concourse was the most coveted address in the Bronx, its handsome apartment buildings attracting Jewish immigrant families seeking to escape the crowded tenement buildings of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

But as the Bronx went into decline in the 1960s, the Concourse sank into a generation-long funk that robbed it of its prestige and many of its distinctive Art Deco details.

Now, with the Concourse enjoying a renaissance, the city is listening to the historic preservation advocates who have pushed for more than a decade to make the Concourse a landmark district and protect its distinctive Art Deco architecture and its unique history.

The proposed historic district would stretch from 153rd Street to 167th Street.

There was almost no opposition to landmarking at the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation hearing this week.  The LPC will issue a final decision in the coming months.

Landlords, who would have to get a permit from the LPC before altering the facades of the roughly 73 buildings in the proposed district, voiced the only opposition to landmarking, asserting that designation would make it harder to maintain and to sell their buildings, and that they would have to pass those costs along to their low-income tenants.

The article from the New York Times.

Gold Gladiators, John Street

Community Board Bike Lane Smackdown

My guess is that nobody reached out to the cycling or the pedestrian lobbies in the run-up to the recent joint traffic safety meeting at the Norwegian Christian Home at which Community Board 10 and the Dyker Heights Civic Association mounted a joint attack on the city Department of Transportation's plan to install a bike lane on Bay Ridge Parkway.

DOT Brooklyn Commissioner Joseph Palmieri was at the meeting to catch the flack.

CB 10 voted, over weak opposition, to oppose the proposed bike lanes on Bay Ridge Parkway and Shore Road, and advocated an outright ban on new bike lanes.

The anti-bike lane argument put forth by the allied groups is, in essence, that bikes shouldn't be allowed to take space away from cars.

Bay Ridge Parkway runs from Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge to Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst.

Bensonhurst's Community Board 11 also opposes the Bay Ridge Parkway bike lane, due to be installed in October as part of the DOT's planned boro-wide bike lane network to provide a link between the Colonial and Shore road lanes in Bay Ridge.

Other bike lanes are in the pipeline for Third Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Bike lanes are intended to protect cyclists and to slow traffic. The city's Bicycle Master Plan calls for 200 miles of new bike lanes across the city in the next 3 years. DOT plans to add to the network each year until 2030, when the network is expected to be completed.

The article from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

More from the Brooklyn Courier.

In related coverage, Canarsie's Community Board 18 has also opposed the DOT's plan to install bike lanes this fall along E. 94th and E. 95th to link the Canarsie Pier to East Flatbush.

The Canarsie bike lane would begin at Avenue D eastbound on E. 95th Street (to the pier). Cyclists would use the E. 94th Street bike lane to return westbound to Ditmas Avenue. At Canarsie Pier, they could connect to the Shore Parkway Greenway, stretching from Queens to Sheepshead Bay.

CB 18 fretted that bike lanes would slow traffic.


District Manager Dorothy Turano called Canarsie a "driving community", huffing that Canarsie was not "Park Slope or Carroll Gardens".  All bike lanes would bring Canarsie, she said, was more business for the local cemetery.

The article from the Courier.

One South Brooklyn cyclist said he didn't want to be confined to bike lanes [Courier].

But cyclists aren’t confined to bike lanes:  they're entitled to go anywhere cars can go.

Having read dozens of comments about this controversy on the local message boards and news outlets, I think it would be a mistake for the DOT to assume that CB 10's position on bike lanes represents this community as a whole.

Related coverage from the Courier.

More from the Courier.

CB 10 in Bay Ridge has now flipped its position on bike lanes -- in a car-centric kindof way, that is.

Hair Clip

Out of gas.  Sorry.  Check back tomorrow.

Pride March

The 41st Annual New York City LGBT Pride March will take place at Noon on Sunday, June 27.

The parade route is from 5th Ave. and 52nd Streets to Christopher and Greenwich Streets.

Pride began as an annual civil rights demonstration the year after the Stonewall Riots in 1970. Over the years, it has broadened to include the fight against AIDS and the remembrance of those lost to illness, violence and neglect.

Pride has evolved into a celebration of gay life and the gay community.

For more information on this year's Pride festivities, go to http://www.hopinc.org/index.html

I admire the in-your-faceness of Pride. It takes real courage to be who you are -- without apologies.

Green Church Bulletin

Linkage

SUNY Downstate opens an "urgent care center" in Bay Ridge [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]. No, that's not an ER.

Bay Ridge Council Member Vinnie Gentile delivers thousands of petitions opposing cuts to city's libraries to City Hall [Vincent Gentile's Blog].

Yet another reminder of the MTA service changes that will take place on June 27 [MTA].

Disabled bus riders in Bay Ridge protest the MTA cuts [Daily News].

Photos from the Mermaid Parade [Daily News].

More Mermaid Parade pics from Gothamist.

Kitty Graves, of Breaking Up with Brooklyn, does the Parade.

Taking the iron steamboat to Coney back in the day [Brooklyn Daily Eagle].

Coney Island synagogues sue Marty Markowitz over giant potato chip in Asser Levy Park [New York Post].

Details on the Brooklyn Irish Music Festival [BK Southie].

State Senate passes Budget Extender #12, raises cigarette tax [Capital Tonight].

Greenwich Village Historic District expanded [Gothamist].

The Straight Up from the Gulf

At 7:30 PM on Thursday, June 24, Iray Nabatoff, Director of the Community Center of St. Bernard in Arabi, Louisiana, will give a talk at the Brecht Forum, at 451 West Street, about the effects of the Gulf Oil Spill on his community.

The Community Center of St Bernard is a grassroots nonprofit organization established in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that works to empower residents to rebuild their lives and communities through direct local access to recovery resources.

Members of this community, still struggling to recover from hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Gustav, now face a massive oil spill seeping into the marshes and wetlands surrounding their homes. Most directly affected are the 3,000 registered fishermen in the area who depend on the Gulf waters for their livelihood.

Fishing is now banned in one-third of the Gulf of Mexico, and there is no way to know how many months or years it may take for these fishing grounds to be reopened -- if they can be.

In a coastal parish like St. Bernard, fishermen are only one of many groups whose livelihoods are threatened as more than 840,000 gallons of oil a day pour into the Gulf. Everything from mom-and-pop restaurants to grocery stores, bait shops, marinas, recreational fishing boat charters and tours, schools, and churches are tied to the Gulf fishing industry.

The growing ripple effect from the oil spill is being felt everywhere in St. Bernard Parish, still reeling from the deadly hurricanes of 2005. Many families hit by this latest crisis have few, if any, reserves to fall back on if they can't earn a living anymore.

Residents of St. Bernard Parish are turning to the Community Center of St. Bernard in record numbers for help with the basic necessities of life.

Mr. Nabatoff's innovative Community Connections Program offers in-house programs such as a food pantry, clothing bank and hot meals, and coordinates services with partner organizations at the Center’s facility, allowing the Center to function as a “one stop shop” where residents can also apply for state benefits and get legal aid and medical care.

Demand for the Community Center's food pantry and clothing bank has increased by more than 20% since April. As more St Bernard residents find their livelihoods threatened by the continuing disaster, these numbers will increase.

On Thursday, Mr. Nabatoff will discuss the current state of the oil spill crisis in St Bernard Parish, and describe his organization’s plans to address the growing need for assistance.

For more information, please see www.ccstb.org or call the Center at 504.281.2512.

During his trip to New York, Mr. Nabatoff will also participate in a panel discussion, “Art, Spirituality and the Transformation of Consciousness into the Ecological Age” at ACA Galleries. 529 West 20th St, 5th floor on Wednesday, June 23 from 6 – 9 PM.

The panel will focus on the moral force behind environmental action.

A reception will follow.

RSVP by e-mail to Info@acagalleries.com or call 212-206-8080.

Hotel Pennsylvania Awaits the Wrecking Ball

The iconic Hotel Pennsylvania -- where Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington once played -- is slated for demolition under a Vornado Realty Trust development plan that would erect a 67-story office tower in the hotel's footprint.

The planned development, called 15 Penn Plaza, would require moving several subway entrances and re-opening a passage under the south side of 33rd Street to connect the Sixth and Seventh Ave. subway lines and PATH trains.

The projected completion date would be 2014.

The local Community Board and Midtown residents who have formed the Save The Hotel Pennsylvania Foundation oppose the Vornado plan.

Borough President Scott Stringer, overruling the Community Board, conditionally approved the project in May, calling the site excellent for high-density commercial growth. 

Vornado acquired the hotel in 1999; this is its second attempt to redevelop the site.

The 22-story, 1700-room Hotel Pennsylvania, designed by McKim, Mead and White, was once believed to be the biggest the world. It opened in 1919, boasting the world's first “high rise” elevators and featuring top entertainers.

The Community Board made a failed attempt in 2007 to landmark the hotel. The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission denied the board's RFE the following February.

The City Planning Commission has approved the plan, subject to review by the City Council.

The article from DNA.

TNR in Bath Beach

Neighborhood Cats is recruiting volunteers for a big TNR project in Bath Beach from Thursday June 24th through Wednesday June 30.

The project involves about 25 cats living near Shore Parkway.

The spay-neuter day will be on Sunday June 27th.

The recovery space will be in Bath Beach.

Volunteers are needed to trap cats and to provide transportation.

Trappers need not have experience, as they will be working with very experienced people.

Drivers with their own vehicles are needed to transport trapped cats from the trapping site to the recovery space to the release point.

For more details and to volunteer, please contact Denise.

The Subway Deli

People on my street are wondering how the Subway Deli, on the corner of 72nd and 5th, stays in business.

The store, which competes with the popular "Mondos" up the block and a couple of similar stores on that stretch of 5th Avenue, has apparently lost its liquor license (gossip:  busted for selling booze to minors); has lost its license to sell cigarettes (gossip:  busted for selling loosies); and has very little stock left on its shelves.

About the only items I can be assured of finding there are a cup of coffee and a paper on my way to work, a bunch of young Arab guys, and the way-gone homeless guy who is a kind of mascot for the place.

Neighbors accuse the Subway of harboring Arab gang-bangers, who they say are buying and selling drugs, fencing stolen goods, concealing weapons, and intimidating residents and business owners on 72nd Street.

In what may be a corroborating development, a neighbor told me that about 6-8 young Arab guys had been arrested in an early morning sweep on or near that corner last week.  Word was that somebody chose the wrong moment to flash a weapon.

Summer Theater Arts Training at Genesis

You can now register for the summer session of the Genesis Repertory Ensemble Theater Arts Training Program on Facebook.

Genesis is located at The Block Institute, 376 Bay 44th Street (off Shore Parkway), in Bensonhurst.

The summer program includes classes for children, day camp, and Sunday acting classes for both adults and children.

To learn more about theater arts training, Genesis' production of Hamlet, the filming of its production of Romeo and Juliet, Alice in Wonderland (its first children's production), and more, visit the website.

Watch a video of the Genesis Repertory Ensemble here.

Absolut Fallout

The rumbling from the Brooklyn Blogfest continued last week with a New York Times article about undisclosed sponsorships.

When Blogfest organizer Louise Crawford, of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, was approached by a marketer from Absolut Vodka, she guessed -- correctly -- that other Brooklyn bloggers would denounce her as a sellout for accepting the deal.

Filmmaker Spike Lee co-sponsored the event.  Absolut offered bloggers gifts, including a bottle of Lee's Absolut Brooklyn vodka and a digital video camera, in exchange for sponsored posts.

Nine bloggers took the vodka and 8 took the cameras. Some, including Crawford herself, failed to mention the sponsorship deal in their Absolut posts, until a marketing memo surfaced outing the stealthy swagsters.

Critics called Crawford's event a “shillfest”.

Unlike print reporters, bloggers are directly exposed to marketers. As blogs increasingly become mainstream, bloggers, struggling to make money while remaining independent, face ethical challenges.

The Federal Trade Commission Act bans deceptive marketing.  The Federal Trade Commission has issued new guidelines and has stepped up enforcement to help ensure that bloggers disclose their paid sponsorships. Any "material connection" [read: taking swag] a blogger has with a sponsor, especially if readers would not expect the connection, must be disclosed.

The FTC, which has so far focused on marketers, has the power to go after bloggers who fail to acknowledge their sponsors.  The FTC fired a shot across the bow this year when it investigated a promo by Ann Taylor Loft offering bloggers a $500 gift per post.

The FTC guidelines have caused marketers to be extra careful  -- and bloggers had better be too.  Luckily, staying straight with the FTC isn't rocket science:  bloggers just need to be completely transparent about their sponsored content.

Another reason to be straight up with readers:  bloggers who hide sponsorship deals risk losing their reputations.

The article from the New York Times.

Half-Fare Student MetroCards Spared

In a move that will ensure that 585,000 New York City students can take mass transit to school this fall, the MTA has agreed to spare free and half-fare student MetroCards.

Leaving hundreds of thousands of families who couldn't afford to pay out-of-pocket for school transportation could have negatively impacted the success of the city's schools. 

In a statement, the MTA acknowledged that funding student transportation to and from school is the responsibility of the state and the city.

As part of the deal, the MTA got the the go-ahead for 2 years of key repair projects, and authority to use cameras to enforce five new bus rapid transit lanes called Select Bus Service.  

The increase to the MTA budget as a result of sparing student transportation will be addressed in its new proposed budget, to be released in July, which will include new cuts.

McMahon Opposes Net Neutrality

Michael McMahon, our congressional representative, joined 73 other House Democrats who signed a letter, backed by powerful, lobbyist-wielding Internet providers like AT and T, Verizon and Comcast, asking the Federal Communications Commission to stop enforcing Net Neutrality, a move that would undercut the FCC's ability to keep the Internet available everywhere -- and to everyone -- in the U.S.

The term "Net Neutrality" means that Internet users, not Internet service providers, control Internet access.  If the FCC enforces Net Neutrality, it can ensure that your Internet service provider doesn't interfere with what you can see:  can't speed up or slow down your connection, and can't block web content based on who created it, who owns it, or where its aimed.

Broadband providers say that there's no need for FCC oversight or enforcement, that they can be trusted to play by the rules. But I think we know that AT and T, Verizon and Comcast are no more likely to protect a free and open Internet than BP is likely to protect the world's oceans -- it's not in their interests to do so.

If the FCC doesn't enforce Net Neutrality, we will have to depend on the big telecoms to give us full, uncensored access to the Internet:  companies like Comcast, which have secretly blocked users' access to popular video, photo and music sharing applications; companies like AT and T, which censored Eddie Vedder's anti-Bush comments during a Pearl Jam concert.

In other words, things could get pretty Orwellian.

Apparently, Mike McMahon is fine with that.

McMahon needs to know that we're paying attention, and will hold him accountable for his industry-friendly position on net neutrality. Click here to sign a petition to McMahon telling him you disagree with his position and want him to stand up for Internet users, rather than providers.

Otherwise, he won't get the message.

Code Pink at Mermaid Parade

Today has been declared a "Boycott BP National Day of Action" by activist organization CODEPINK, which is calling "radical merpeople, merdogs and seahorses" from across the city to the Mermaid Parade at 2 PM in Coney Island for some creative protest.

Sea-themed costumes are required, and because the action is oil spill-related, you must supply your own fake oil or let the organizers dump some on you.

The action is part of CODEPINK's continuing effort to hold BP accountable for their "utter disdain for the safety of their own workers, the health of our shores, and the lives of animals, seacreatures and plants of the gulf".

Registration and line-up for marchers and push-pull floats is now at West 21st Street Between Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk. Look for the oily mermaids.

For more event details visit www.codepinknyc.org

Waiting for the Train

Linkage

"Democratic reform blog" Bay Ridge Interpol is back online [Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn].

Sign Vinnie Gentile's "Save Our Libraries" petition [Vinnie Gentile's blog]. 

Conservative Republican Nicole Malliotakas challenges Janele Hyer-Spencer [Brooklyn Daily Eagle].

Malliotakas wants to reform Albany [Brooklyn Daily Eagle].

Changes in MTA bus service take effect June 27 [Brooklyn Daily Eagle].

Golden petitioner accused of being a "psycho" [Atlas Shrugs in Brooklyn].

Black 47 at Irish Music Festival at Floyd Bennett Field [Brooklyn Daily Eagle].

South Brooklyn residents denounce proposed bike lane [Daily News].

Looming Environmental and Economic Ruin

Oil, upon which the entire world economy depends, is destroying the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon blew out on April 20, an average of one Exxon Valdez spill has been gushing into the Gulf every 2 to 3 days.

The environmental effects of the oil spill are unprecedented in US history.  Marine species most affected include the endangered North Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, whales, dolphins, pelicans, oysters, shrimp and blue crab.

Bluefin Tuna spawn in the Gulf of from mid-April to mid-June.  Already critically overfished, the species is threatened with extinction by the oil spilling into its hatcheries.

Marine mammals like whales and dolphins not only live in the water, but surface to breathe.  They are therefore doubly at risk: as they surface to breathe fresh air, they inhale toxic oil fumes.

The Brown Pelican, removed from the Endangered Species List in 2009, is again critically endangered. Pelicans also breed in spring, and are now incubating their eggs.

The oysters, shrimp, and crab so vital to the seafood industry are contaminated by toxic hydrocarbons that could remain in the coastal sediment for years to come.  Oil has infiltrated the coastal marshes.

The economic toll of the spill is only beginning to be calculated. An estimated $1 billion of the United States’ GDP comes from the Gulf fishing industry, which produces about 20% of the US oyster crop and 75% of its shrimp output.  The Gulf also produces $13 billion in tourism and $11 billion in oil revenues.

Florida, which has no income tax and is completely reliant on the tourist industry, could be devasted by the loss of tourism revenues, as could the entire Gulf region.

It will likely take decades to clean up the spill.  A portion of the money will have to come from somewhere other than BP, now spending an average of $7 million a day trying to stop the leak and its effects on the Gulf.

The oil spill has been called this country's biggest environmental disaster.  How so?  Here are some estimates, as of June 1:

• 25% of the Gulf's fisheries are affected;
• 491 birds, 227 turtles, and 27 marine mammals have washed up dead on the Gulf Coast;
• 100 miles of Louisiana coastline are coated in oil;
• Because Louisiana is the source of 40% of the seafood supplied in the US, consumer agencies are on the alert for contaminated seafood.

Big oil spills can take up to 9 months to get under control -- if they can be controlled. BP is drilling relief wells, but drilling may be interrupted by the coming hurricane season.

Gulf fisherman hired by BP, supposedly to help contain the spill, have enabled the BP-enforced media clampdown in the Gulf by making it impossible for reporters and photographers to get access to the disaster area.

As long as the oil continues gushing into the ocean, the extent of the devastation and the cost of the cleanup are a moving target -- they will have to be re-calculated daily.

Financial analysts in England are concerned that BP, a major stock in most British retirement funds, is now threatened with bankruptcy as a result of the disaster.

More from Suite 101.

Father's Day Celebration: the Life of Derrick McGinty

Reverend Billy and the Life After Shopping choir will celebrate the life of Derrick McGinty, a member of the choir who passed this week, at their Father's Day celebration on Sunday, June 20 at 3 PM at Grace Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie Street in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Tickets $10, no one turned away.

Public transit: take the PATH train to Grove St. Exit escalator onto Newark Ave. Turn left, proceed to Erie St., then turn right.

Car: Holland Tunnel, left onto Manila Ave. just west of the tunnel exit, then right on 2nd St. and proceed to Erie St.

Car from points west: proceed towards Holland Tunnel, and turn right on Manila Ave. just before the toll booths.

Volunteers Sought for Gulf Cleanup

The following organizations are enlisting volunteers to help oiled wildlife and clean up the Gulf Coast:

• The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana is looking for volunteers to fill a variety of needs. Pre-vet students, vet techs, and anyone with HAZWOPER training (“hazardous waste operations and emergency response standard") are strongly encouraged to register. 
• The Alabama Coastal Foundation is collecting contact information from volunteers for cleanup efforts along the Alabama coast. Call (251) 990-6002 if you can help.
• The Mobile Bay National Estuary Program is looking for volunteers to help reduce the potential impact of the oil spill in Mobile Bay. Call (251) 431-6409 to help.
• The Mobile Baykeeper is collecting contact information for volunteers to respond anywhere along the Gulf Coast. Call (251) 433-4229. 
• Save Our Seabirds is a Florida bird rescue group looking for volunteers and support as its response team prepares to help oiled wildlife. Call (941) 388-3010. 
• The Audubon Society, affiliated with the Louisiana Coastal Initiative, is making its Center for Birds of Prey in Florida available for bird cleansing and rehabilitation and is seeking volunteers. Elsewhere, Audubon is gearing up to mobilize volunteers and provide assistance as the oil reaches land in Louisiana and elsewhere. Find a local office.

More ways to help, from Suite 101.

Festival and Concierto Tipico in Sunset Park

The 2nd annual Festival and Concierto Tipico of Sunset Park will take place on Saturday, June 19 from 12 Noon to 6 PM at Brooklyn Army Terminal Pier 4, 58th Street and 1st Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Performers will include Mexican sensation Grupo Combinacion, El Trio Los Platinos, Manny Mieles, Dominican Salsa star Raulin Rosendo, and local musician Ivan Perez and his children's ensemble.

Grammy winner Willie Colon ("El Malo") will close the show at the end of the afternoon.

PortSide NewYork's nautical home, the Mary A. Whalen, will be part of the festival for the first time this year. Ship tours will be offered in Spanish and English from Noon to 5 PM. Click here for a photo of the ship.

For more information contact Fiesta VIP Entertainment at 718.686.0555 or Councilwoman Sara M. González's office at 718-439-9012.

Additional volunteers are needed for the event. Contact Portside at portsidenewyork@gmail.com.

Brooklyn Bridge Park: A Nanny's Dream