Safety Forum - Next Thursday September 27

Come join Karim & Co. and talk turkey on safety, crime etc. A lot of people are upset, so why not be upset together? The Q expects to hear a lot of the same call and response we heard last week at the Clarkson Ave Block Ass mtg, except this time there will be professional moderators (I did the best I could, I swear, but I'm not cut out for telling people to keep it civil!) This one come from the Lefferts Manor Association, Nostrand Ave Merchants, and FEPMA, and the Assemblyman.

Councilman Addresses Traffic...on Cortelyou

Now that the frenzied traffic on Flatbush has tamed once and for all, Councilman Eugene has rightly turned his attention to a much more serious problem:

In fairness, things have been pretty chaotic on Coney Island Avenue (as frequently noted in the ever informative and peppy ditmas park corner.) But somehow CIA isn't even noted on the flyer.

Let's get one of these pronto, though frankly I'd prefer to have DOT just do that traffic study already, since they've promised!

Saltfish 101

 

Even after years of passing these display tables of large open fillets of dried fish, I still do a double-take every time I see them at local markets. Especially with names like "Gaspe" or "Hake," fishes I know nothing about as opposed to most fish, which I know NEXT to nothing about. I understand the basic process involved - drying meat by salt is an ancient way to preserve it. The freezer makes the point moot for most modern cooking, but still dried saltfish is prized for its unique, um, salty, properties. (Hake is apparently a less expensive cod. I haven't a clue about gaspe...please do fill us in y'all.) Of course you have to soak the fish to regain its moisture (usually overnight), but enough of the salt typically remains to give it a very unique flavor. From the extraordinary human achievement known as the Wikipedia:

Ackee and saltfish is a traditional Jamaican dish, internationally known as Jamaica's national dish. It spread to other countries with the Jamaican diaspora.
The ackee fruit was imported to Jamaica from West Africa (probably on a slave ship) before 1778. It is also known as Blighia sapida. The scientific name honours Captain William Bligh who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and introduced it to science. Because parts of the fruit are toxic, there are shipping restrictions when being imported.

To prepare the dish, salt cod (packet salt fish may need to be boiled down and should be free of 'pink' mould) is sautéed with boiled ackee, onions, Scotch Bonnet peppers (optional), tomatoes, and spices, such as black pepper and pimiento. It can be garnished with crisp bacon and fresh tomatoes, and is usually served as breakfast or dinner alongside breadfruit, hard dough bread, dumplings, fried plantain, or boiled green bananas.

In the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, "ackee and saltfish" is eaten widely, although canned ackee is more often used than fresh in some foreign countries. However, people from countries where the fruit is indigenous prefer to eat fresh ackee from the pod as opposed to ackee from a tin. Fresh ackee, if prepared improperly, can be dangerous.

This dish is usually eaten on Sundays in Jamaica, but it can be eaten on any day of the week.

The phrase "with provision" used to trip me up (you see it in many shops around here) but don't let it fool you. It's yams, my friend. The provisions of the earth. Sweet, delicious yammy yams. If you live here and don't try Ackee and Saltfish at least once, and you don't have a note from Planet Vegan, we may have to revoke your Caledonian visa. Happy eating, and remember FRESH ackee fruit, when prepared improperly, can be dangerous!

Parksidez Corner Deli - Tack On the Extra Z For Zavings

It's bright, it's clean, it's a helluva better 24/7 presence at the corner of Parkside(z) and Flatbush than the old Mansoobs. Some of you may recognize one of the proprietors from his days working at "Parkside Deli" (no Z) next to the Pioneer. Yet another amiable Yemeni run deli to consider when hunting and gathering your wee hours kibbles, though don't count on being able to order half the stuff pictured on the signs. The garbage at that corner became a huge problem this summer, as a fragrant Fresh Kills buffet greeted commuters each morning for weeks on end. Let's hope this place plays by the rules and helps keep the boisterous Parkside-Winthrop gauntlet a bit less raucous. Though with that shooting gallery just up the block (tell me you haven't seen that stunningly skinny woman nodding off on the steps of 691?) and a liquor store to the stars (surely you know our most notorious Otis Campbell, who likes to drop trou from time to time in front of "First Class Liquors"), it's gonna be tough to make this stretch gramma friendly. Welcome, Parksidez!

Flatbush at Caton Has It All

Cops and Residents Share Thoughts & Tactics on Clarkson

Last night about 80 people crowded into the basement community room at 40 Clarkson Avenue to talk turkey on safety. The Q invited folks from the 71st AND 70th Precincts, and though they left me hanging til the last minute, they showed up in large numbers and with the patience to listen to our complaints and questions. The one thing they couldn't promise, except for perhaps the next few weeks, was more regular patrols of the neighborhood. The familiar refrain is tough to hear, no matter how often you hear it: "we're stretched thing," "there's only so much we can do," "we know who they are but we need your help catching them doing the serious crimes." Calls for curfews or better enforcement of loitering laws, we were reminded, run up against a little thing called the Constitution, so even basic crowd control stuff is difficult. Deputy Inspector Lewis reminded us that if even one member of a crowd lives in the building, there is little way to stop folks from hanging out. (The Q wrote about that just recently.)

Residents both newtime and longtime were visibly upset about what went down in front of the very building in which we were sitting. Many of us have been complaining about the exact same group of guys who were the target of the August 30th shooting. I and others have personally called them out as best we could, to anyone who would listen, but I honestly feel like I failed to sound the warning loud enough. Those guys shouldn't have been allowed to hang out in front of 49 or 35 or 40, or in their Escalade drug-mobile, night after night after night, doing their business and scaring off law-abiding folk. It was a tragedy that took place in slow motion over months, and in its final moments it accelerated to the speed of bullets, from a kid on a bicycle of all get-away vehicles, a kid from outside the neighborhood, a kid who couldn't shoot to save his life, and frankly he didn't, because his life is basically over now, like the victim he later called to apologize for killing. You can't make this stuff up.

Among the mourners was the victim's grandmother, who explained her long battle with dealers over in Brownsville and how she believed the only way for a block to kick 'em out was to confront them personally. She was clearly angry and grieving, but she was honest in saying her efforts had made her a target in her own neighborhood. "They put a hit out on me," she said. Going it alone did not seem to the crowd like a good way to combat hoodlums, after hearing her story. But other residents threw out good ideas on ways to work together. Like:

• Calling 911 EVERY time you see something criminal or suspicious. While one neighbor worried about the block becoming a "police state," the majority seemed to feel that it might take regular visits by cops to make Clarkson and neighboring streets and corners safe. 
• Lt. Ferber at the 70th said that with residents' help he was prepared to do regular sweeps of buildings and to follow up on leads from the community. (By the way, I have both Ferbers and Lewis' personal cell phone #s, so if you have anything to say that you want them to hear, by all means send me an email. and I'll pass it along, anonymously if you like.)
• Meeting once a month on Thursdays and sharing our experiences, intel, and encouraging regular attendance from the cops to share updates. 
• Going to the Community Council meetings of the 70th and 71st precincts.
• The monthly meeting could be followed by a walk up and down the block in solidarity, letting troublemakers know we are united against trouble.
• Get the C.O.P. program up and running, and consider Bob Thomason's proven neighborhood watch idea where different citizens take an hour each to walk up and down with an eagle eye.
• Bring landlords into the mix, and demand better lighting and breaking up of ruckussy parties and gang hangs.
• Keeping up the pressure on elected officials and precincts to provide every ounce of support they can muster.
• Putting up official NYPD "buy-back" signs and tips-line signs, not just to get responses but to let people know we mean business. Sometimes the NYPD logo is enough to strike fear.
• Meet with the D.A. to ask for the maximum pressure from ALL the borough's patrols, including narcotics and gang divisions, to put the bad guys behind bars.
• While Clarkson is a vibrant and heavily trafficked street, we need to stay engaged and unafraid. Retreating into our homes actually makes us less safe, and gives the toughs more space to do their thing. There's actually evidence on this, but evidence may be tough to swallow if you're feeling scared.

It may be (let's hope) that the problem goes into "remission" on Clarkson, and maybe that's a good thing psychologically. However I can't stress enough that what happened here can happen anywhere. Until this went down, I was always able to keep the reality of shootings and violence at arm's length. Denial? Most definitely. I've spoken to plenty of people who would rather not know what's going down, where and by whom. But truth be told, there are so many things that can happen, no matter how remote the possibility, that frankly,we would live in constant fear if we let it get to us. It's the stuff we CAN control, like vigilance, information flow, better traffic calming, holding leader's feet to the fire, calling landlords out on bad behavior...these things make a difference. You can start by calling 911 whenever you see, as the Lieutenant put it, people hanging out doing things that would make you cringe were your grandmother with you. (Um, that assumes that your grandmother is familiar with urban life and not, say, a full-on racist, but I think we got the point!)

Most people on my block, and I'm sure on many blocks around here, know that things are much better than they were. I myself remember life on Vanderbilt and Lincoln Place at Underhill in Prospect Heights in the 90's as tough to say the least, riddled with drugs and sporadic gunplay, though as a young man I never gave it much thought other than "hey, its NYC, what do you expect?" Things HAVE gotten better, the police have gotten smarter and less corrupt, people ARE better at talking to one another. And yes, there's a mixing of peoples like never before in neighborhoods that many pundits gave up for dead. But what if that was our strength?

Thanks to everyone who turned out. It was gratifying to see Skei, and PLGNA founder Bob Thomason and current president Martin Ruiz and Bob Marvin and many others from nearby blocks. The room was a true rainbow coalition, and even the anger seemed to come from a place of unity. To all of you, your support means a lot, and I look forward to working with you all moving forward. Peace, literally. - tim

NYPD Writes Back to PLG

If you may recall, neighborhood groups joined forces after 2011's spike in shootings and assaults to send a letter to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. The Nostrand Avenue Merchant's Association, PLGNA, 300 Midwood and 300 Rutland Block Asociations, St Gabriel's Episcopal and many others worked on or approved the draft. In sum, we asked for more "positive" police presence and cameras to combat what we felt was a growing sense that we were ceding ground to the criminal element, in particular gangs and drugs. Felony assaults were up in the 71st Precinct, and longtime residents as well as newcomers felt that police were nowhere to be found.The letter that resulted, which was devised by consensus, looked like this. Months later, the Q hadn't heard a reply, so after fishing around we found a copy of the response. Here it is:

To my mind, it is essentially a form letter saying blah blah blah, with one major exception. The claim is made that in 2011, the 71st absorbed 80 rookies from the Police Academy as part of an Impact Zone. Say what? Where? I haven't seen them. Is this this part of the anti-terrorism thing I hear that happens over in the Lubavitcher-heavy portion of the neighborhood? I'm scratching my head and looking for more than dandruff on that one...

Join Us Tomorrow, Thursday, at 8PM

If you've expressed interest in being part of a fledgling effort to address the issue of violence in our neighborhood, please join your neighbors tomorrow, Thursday 9/13, 8PM, at 40 Clarkson in the basement's community room. We'll try to have a greeter there to show you where we are. CONFIRMED: We're on for 40 Clarkson at 8. Please meet us there.

A more formal plan will likely emerge eventually. Right now there are a lot of people who have expressed a desire to create some sort of multi-block approach that includes some of the ideas expressed by Eric Adams' Take Back Our Community plan, the C.O.P. program, the D.A.'s office, and more coordination with the 70th, 71st and even 67th precincts. Oh heck, I don't actually know what to do exactly. That's why we should meet, and keep meeting. At the very least, known spots of drug-dealing should be shut down by hook or by crook. Or as we say in Caledonian Flatbush, Crooke.

Be safe. - theQ

Few Sanctions For Reckless Driving

In what I'm sure was a direct response to comments here, a relevant article appeared in the NY Times about the City's anemic response to offensive drivers. In an attempt to blunt finger-pointing comments here, the Q acknowledges that pedestrians and bicyclists are often negligent as well. If we start from that assumption, maybe we can focus on ways to curb reckless driving specifically. As I've noted here, reckless bicycling is being seriously addressed in city parks, so we know it can be done! I've collected at least a half dozen stories of people who've been "pink-ticketed" for riding the wrong way, too fast, or even riding through a crosswalk that "had people in it, though nowhere near my bike," said a workmate.

Would our avenues benefit from a targeted campaign of warnings and tickets for drivers? Perhaps through the Community Board we could request a test-program of a few months of heightened vigilance?

The Q is for Quality of Life

Pink tickets. Cute and thin as tissue paper, these "quality of life" summonses can add up to a hefty headache. The Q regaled y'all with the story of my bicycling-clockwise-in-prospect-park story recently, and it's an example of the sort of silly-but-serious tack the NYPD takes on quality of life offenses. It's a pain to have to show up to civil court for these (and you MUST show up for them or you may actually do jail time), but you usually get off or slapped with a negligible fine. It's all about keeping people in line, and some might argue that it works extremely well. [For instance, public urination is WAY, WAY down since it's height in the late '80s, if that's a measure by which you gauge progress. New Yorkers For Peeless Streets (NYPS) folded years ago, it's board unanimously concluding that the practice had "shriveled" to only a "handful" of cases that could best be described as true emergencies. When they laid off its E.D. in 2002, the outgoing leader was rumored to have said "when you gotta go, you gotta go."]

Which leads us to the incredible true story of Lindsey Riddick of East 21st right here in Flatbush. He asserts, and it's apparently caught on tape, that cops told him he can't loiter in front of his own building, and when the 36-year-old Riddick was deemed uncooperative, he was given a wad of pink for his trouble. The full story here: Improbable Cause. 

Riddick's story is a great reminder of just how tricky it is for the police to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Put yourself in Riddick's shoes for a moment - a father of two, he was required to show the cops he had a key to the apartment building and a key to his own apartment, and despite the fact his kids ran to see their daddy when he unlocked the door, the cops slapped him with citations. Of course, a more mature officer would have apologized and moved on, but let's be frank, not all cops have the wisdom of Solomon, and many are inexperienced or stressed or defensive and even accustomed to harassment for being unwanted in certain places. It may very well be that the cop in question had a bad day or was being harassed by people on the street even as he continued to press the loitering and disorderly conduct charge. BUT, and this is a BIG but, if you can manage to relate to the humiliation Riddick must have felt, in front of his very own family, perhaps you can step into a world where stop-and-frisk isn't just a policy about THEM. It's a policy about us, all of us, and how we want to pursue safety in the midst of cultural, racial and economic difference.

That loitering and other quality of life charges are leveled overwhelmingly at minorities will surprise no one. We are all painfully aware, anecdotally and statistically, that cops come down hard on brown-skinned people in particular, and that therefore majority-black neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by quality-of-life policies. And one must point out that those who decide what IS or ISN'T a quality of life crime are themselves typically whiter than than the general population. So while loitering might be considered disruptive and scary one block, another might call see it as run-of-the-mill, even welcome. And noise that one group might find intolerable, another might find festive and soothing. Excessive anything is probably unwelcome, but it's important I think to remember that one man's front hallway is another man's foyer, you know?

I may jest, but this is no joke. The soul of our neighborhood is at stake in the subtle distinction between how things change and how things stay the same. The Q regularly agitates for positive change in a neighborhood that sorely needs to recognize its own failings. But in my view, the best way to raise all boats is via a tide of consensus. If we pit own group against another, we fail the test of community and courage. When terrible things happen, like the senseless shooting of a bystander, or the negligent killing of a pedestrian, do we collectively go after the agreed-to cause, or do we blanket the neighborhood with general policies that throw out the baby with the bathwater? (such a gruesome metaphor, I know). For instance, in the case of the recent shooting on Clarkson it would be easy to decry all manner of kids hanging out in front of buildings when it's the thugs and gangs we're after. And it would be easy to fault Dollar Vans generally over criminally reckless driving as the culprit, when bad driving is in fact near-ubiquitous on the avenues and side-streets of our neighborhood. But there is probably a common-ground and common-sense way to deal with these problems. Time is of the essence, of course, but we need to find consensus wherever possible.

I leave you with this, below: the definition of loitering for most of the last century, as it reads in the NY penal code. Courts have struck parts of it down as unenforceable, including the snicker-inducing sections, and the very nature of "deviant" acts has been amended, but before we conduct a crusade to stop loitering generally, as some have suggested to the Q, it might be worth recognizing that we would in fact have to create a law that doesn't exist. It is "disorderly conduct" which most people have in mind when they seek the dispersal of unruly groups of suspected drug dealers and gangbangers. (yes, it's an ugly term, but it's the acknowledged descriptive word for young folks "acting" like, or being part of, actual street gangs.) In other words, to lawfully disperse small groups of people "hanging out," the folks must be engaging in behavior that suggests laws are being or will be broken. Lawful assembly is just that, and it's protected not only under law but expressly protected in the constitution. There is room for interpretation here, of course, and it may be helpful to get specific about how we intend to use the law to our advantage when trying to rid the blocks of unwanted activity. But we must be certain we're talking about the "bad guys," not the Lindsey Riddick's of the world. It's a tall order, BUT, if we start to trust each other as neighbors, and folks start talking and sharing what they know, we might be able to work with the cops and the D.A. as a community, rather than simply demand something be done. Maybe.

Again, here's the legalese for loitering, and I welcome your constructive comments. Any lawyers out there want to clarify?

 NY PENAL LAW: 240.35

A person is guilty of loitering when he:

 1. Loiters, remains or wanders about in a public place for the purpose of begging;  or

 2. Loiters or remains in a public place for the purpose of gambling with cards, dice or other gambling paraphernalia;  or

 3. Loiters or remains in a public place for the purpose of engaging, or soliciting another person to engage, in oral sexual conduct, anal sexual conduct, or other sexual behavior of a deviate nature;  or

 4. Being masked or in any manner disguised by unusual or unnatural attire or facial alteration, loiters, remains or congregates in a public place with other persons so masked or disguised, or knowingly permits or aids persons so masked or disguised to congregate in a public place;  except that such conduct is not unlawful when it occurs in connection with a masquerade party or like entertainment if, when such entertainment is held in a city which has promulgated regulations in connection with such affairs, permission is first obtained from the police or other appropriate authorities;  or

 5. Loiters or remains in or about school grounds, a college or university building or grounds or a children's overnight camp as defined in section one thousand three hundred ninety-two of the public health law or a summer day camp as defined in section one thousand three hundred ninety two of the public health law, or loiters, remains in or enters a school bus as defined in section one hundred forty-two of the vehicle and traffic law, not having any reason or relationship involving custody of or responsibility for a pupil or student, or any other specific, legitimate reason for being there, and not having written permission from anyone authorized to grant the same or loiters or remains in or about such children's overnight camp or summer day camp in violation of conspicuously posted rules or regulations governing entry and use thereof;  or

 6. Loiters or remains in any transportation facility, unless specifically authorized to do so, for the purpose of soliciting or engaging in any business, trade or commercial transactions involving the sale of merchandise or services, or for the purpose of entertaining persons by singing, dancing or playing any musical instrument;  or

 7. Loiters or remains in any transportation facility, or is found sleeping therein, and is unable to give a satisfactory explanation of his presence.

Loitering is a violation.