And the Blogger Will Rock - Oct 24

The Q's band Babe the blue OX plays early enough on a Monday for you to get a good night's sleep, but late enough that you must make it a date night. When was the last time you went to the Lower East Side for dinner and some gender-parity rock-n-roll? Playing with ol' pals from bands Lotion and Dambuilders in their new incarnations.

Big City Bullies

One of the 100 Worst Landlords in NYC, in Kindergarten

It should come as no surprise that more and more landlords are getting aggressive about dumping rent-stabilized tenants from their rent rolls. The latest lawsuit with teeth is hitting Empire Holdings, which owns (among others)

434 Rogers Ave

200 Rogers Ave

229 Rogers Ave

1604 Bedford Ave

1146 President St

Here's what Legal Services is saying:

October 13, 2016, BROOKLYN, N.Y.—Legal Services NYC’s Brooklyn program today filed a lawsuit on behalf of twelve low-income, longtime tenants facing eviction because they cannot afford the exorbitant rent increases that their landlord, Empire Holdings L.P., is illegally demanding from them. The tenants, mostly seniors, are supported by IMPACCT Brooklyn (formerly known as Pratt Area Community Council). 

And Public Advocate Leticia James just came out with her 100 worst landlords list. You can search for you building on her site. I'm going to print all their names below so there's one more place that they might show up on the internet in connection with their miserable loathsomeness.

Rank	Landlord	Buildings	Units	Violations
1	HARRY D SILVERSTEIN	8	575	2082
2	ALLAN GOLDMAN	25	187	1208
3	EFSTATHIOS VALIOTIS	8	237	1141
4	MARTIN KIRZNER	11	280	1059
5	VED PARKASH	4	257	1020
6	MARK SILBER	10	216	1003
7	MICHAEL NIAMONITAKIS	5	225	949
8	FELIX GOMEZ	6	260	942
9	RAWLE ISAACS	4	214	891
10	JOEL KOHN	23	152	856
11	ISKYO ARONOV	16	66	819
12	LARRY HIRSCHFIELD	5	66	798
13	DAVID DAVID	5	272	787
14	BRUCE HALEY	7	153	783
15	ISAAC SCHWARTZ	10	154	778
16	JOSEPH HOFFMAN	1	287	762
17	JONATHAN COHEN	17	144	761
18	JAY MILLER	7	204	739
19	ADAM STRYKER	10	182	724
20	ZEV SALOMON	8	197	717
21	JOEL GOLDSTEIN	11	218	696
22	MARC CHEMTOB	5	169	692
23	MEIR FRIED	19	139	690
24	MARTIN BAUMRIND	12	113	679
25	MARK TRESS	1	20	664
26	YOSEF EMERGI	13	70	652
27	DAVID BARON	4	177	645
28	MOSHE DEUTSCH	15	112	638
29	ELEANOR PATRICK	6	84	635
30	NICK GAZIVODA	5	147	631
31	RICHARD NUSSBAUM	2	116	627
32	NARSINH DESAI	4	202	626
33	RUBIN DUKLER	3	93	584
34	SOLOMON GOTTLIEB	7	145	578
35	AVRAHAM TARSHISH	6	25	576
36	GETZ OBSTFELD	5	163	552
37	NAZILA BARDI	7	42	544
38	SETH A MILLER	2	45	542
39	UZY STEIN	2	49	538
40	RICHARD LIRIANO	3	152	535
41	DOUGLAS ROSENBERG	3	80	533
42	DEODAT LOWTAN	15	85	529
43	THOMAS STEINER	2	145	529
44	JOSEPH TEICHMAN	4	167	526
45	ARI FRIEDMAN	12	62	522
46	STEVEN E BREITMAN	1	72	517
47	JOSEPH COOK	1	24	485
48	ROBERT RAPHAEL	5	134	476
49	JACOB GOLD	4	28	475
50	JASON M GREEN	5	107	475
51	NASIR SASOUNESS	4	60	473
52	ROBERT KASZOVITZ	2	110	462
53	RON NAHUM	6	58	458
54	KAMRAN HAKIM	4	56	455
55	ROBERT VILLATTA	5	148	448
56	ROBERT KAYDANIAN	8	79	444
57	RONALD J SWARTZ	4	120	442
58	CHERYL IGHODARO	12	77	439
59	KOBI ZAMIR	4	165	434
60	BASHKIM CELAJ	3	134	432
61	JAY DEUTCHMAN	2	22	424
62	MORDECHAI G PILLER	6	106	421
63	JOHN K ZI	3	42	418
64	SARUHAN CAPIN	5	41	416
65	JAIR GUTIERREZ	8	64	414
66	ZALMEN WAGSCHAL	9	64	414
67	MOSHE MEHLMAN	2	34	411
68	IRIS NIEVES	1	92	409
69	CHAIM GOLDBERGER	6	41	403
70	ELAINE M GORLECHEN	7	64	402
71	MALINA NEALIS	5	45	400
72	DAVID GREEN	4	107	399
73	HENRY CAMUSO	6	64	396
74	DAVID SIEGEL	3	183	395
75	BARRY HERS	3	144	393
76	JOSEPH JEMAL	6	57	393
77	MICHAEL KHODADADIAN	7	34	393
78	ROBERT FARHADIAN	6	76	388
79	ZAHAVA KADOSH	2	99	388
80	RICHARD LAGANA	5	74	382
81	FELICIA COLON	11	62	381
82	ABE GREEN	7	39	375
83	LAURENCE GLUCK	2	137	375
84	JOEL ROLNITZKY	3	11	370
85	BITA SASSOUNI	7	79	369
86	HILLEL WEINBERGER	7	71	369
87	STEVEN KATZ	6	43	369
88	CHARLES ALPERT	2	79	364
89	ROBERT D GOJCAJ	2	105	364
90	JEAN SAINT-CYR	3	100	360
91	DAVID SUTTON	1	49	359
92	ABE PETERS	3	76	354
93	ALFRED SAYEGH	3	105	353
94	RICH LAUBSCH	1	37	353
95	JASON KORN	3	104	350
96	AMANDA REYES	4	61	346
97	MENDEL GOLD	7	47	344
98	EPHRAIM LANDAU	2	101	339
99	JOSEPH EMILE	3	67	338
100	DAVID BOWEN	8	53	336

Last Night's Meetings, In a Nutshell

Nutshell, with Nut Still in Shell, Prior to Shelling

Went to the meeting set up by Parks Without Borders and the Prospect Park Alliance. About 40 people showed...seemed light for turnout, not well promoted. The basic idea is that there's money to fund new entrances and perimeter landscaping and wider sidewalks for the Flatbush Avenue side of the Park. I lobbied for a major entrance just north of the zoo, with a clearer zoo entrance. Everyone wanted bikelanes, though that's DOT's bailiwick. Seems like a MAJOR improvement is afoot. I want a 24-hour newstand at that middle entrance. Safer, and you can ride up and get a copy of the New Yorker at 4am when you can't sleep because you're mulling over your bourgeois problems.

Then it was off (on bike, after a near collision at, you guessed it, Washington/Empire, fuck 'em, y'all, someone's gonna get killed real soon.) to the CB9 ULURP meeting, for a terrific presentation by landuse consultant Paul Graziano. The southside of Fenimore has logged its hours researching its houses, and found that they all have deed restrictions limiting to one-family homes. And while a lawsuit could probably prevent a developer tear-down, you have to pay for it, so the good folks of Fenimore want the extra protection the City zoning can provide. The Block Association wants to downzone the south side, Bed to Rog, and while some on the committee felt it was unfair and unwise to open up zoning conversation with the City, even if it's a private application, good-neighborliness prevailed. Three voted against co-applying with Fenimore. But the majority, Q included, sided with the Fen Block Association, many of whom attended and pleaded their case. They have the goods, and have paid the consultant, and should be allowed to get their downzoning, though the Q and others were understandably envious. The Q was additionally saddened to realize that MTOPP has so thoroughly convinced many of your neighbors that ANY collaboration with the City is not in our interest. It's pure bologna, but hey, some people really, really, really like their Sonic burgers and dilapidated warehouse buildings and storage facilities.

Ben Edwards led a discussion of Parkside Ave, Flat to Bed, and their application to Landmark the houses there. Richard Walkes, who wants to landmark a whole swath of the nabe that's NOT currently included in the Historic District (South PLG if you will), felt that it was more practical for the neighborhood to go in together, and he's even created a non-profit to do just that. The CB tabled the vote on whether to support the Parkside application, citing, among other things, the need to hear from the residents themselves, none of whom showed for the meeting.

Two things you may or may not know. Landmarking does not apply to houses only; rent stabilized big apartment buildings can be just as historically significant, often built by noted architects. And it needn't be contiguous old-time buildings - a single modern building does not a landmark neighborhood negate. so if you think you're unworthy of landmarking, take heart. It's not just about how purdy a building is; it's about history and the worthiness of protecting that history going forward. Paul nailed it though - Landmarking and the agency itself, are notoriously capricious. Who knows who will succeed and who will fail? Only time, and a lot of tears, will tell.

Touch a Truck, Not a Stranger

On the plus side, Trump won't be there to grope the trucks. On the other plus side, you'll be helping support a great local school right here in the ol' 17th District.

Some Neighbors Actively Promoting Development and Teardowns

As the Q has tried (in vain) to point out, not all Development = bad Development. Sometimes it's good to build housing, especially in a tight and overpriced market. That's how prices come down. And given the Mayor's priorities and tactics, that's also how you get new affordable, rent-stabilized housing. Except on City-owned property, like the Bedford-Union Armory, your options are somewhat limited, given the law's basic assumptions of the right to build on privately owned land. Givens? Givens,

Just saying you're against change doesn't mean that change stops. And many benefit from upward rent and development pressure. Actually, anyone who owns land or sells land or builds or does commerce, and let's face it, that's a lot a lot a lot of people who have financial incentive to gentrify and grow.

Take real estate brokers. Now, I have nothing but respect for the real estate broker in question and her  wonderful home up in the Manor. They're lifers, a lot of these agents, full of love for the nabe and its inhabitants. But I was surprised at the enthusiasm she shows for tearing down buildings, talking up the oversized and disruptive 626 Flatbush and overzoned R7 distinction for much of the neighborhood (R7 led to 626 and is helping create elephantine structure all over Flatbush). Developers probably don't need much hyping. I'd frankly have left the house and lot sell themselves, to whomever. But then it IS the seller's choice and right to exact whatever they can from their property. A developer will probably pay twice what a single homeowner would. This is, we must resign ourselves, the age in which we live. And there's nothing that the CB's or your elected leaders seem interested in doing about it.

Perhaps what bugs me the most is that folks in Historic Districts should really be content to enjoy the benefits of their low density housing, rather than promoting the destruction of buildings nearby.

Fall Is a Time For Stuff. Lotsa Stuff.

Do you like going to meetings? No? What about meetings where you are stung by a thousand bees, like this?

Oh shush, I'm just joshing. CB9 ULURP meetings are informative and powerfully invigorating. And there's one tomorrow night! Besides the usual updates, knick-knacks and paddy whacks, there will be some very titilating presentations by two local block associations in Lefferts who are the first off the blocks to submit applications to protect their blocks from unwanted development. The south side of Fenimore is applying to downzone, and Parkside Ave (Flat-Bed) is looking to Landmark. Will the City take up their causes? Stay close to your landline to find out! Ultimately, if they succeed, there's no reason to suspect a dozen more wouldn't follow. But is City Planning to work on these issues piecemeal? My spies say no, but maybe with the right finesse and backhand...

Now don't tell me you haven't seen the scaffolding for the facade change at the Duane Reade at Flatbush and Parkside. That's all it is, according to sources who name sources named Seth Kaplan, he of the neighborhood Facebook page. According to the many well-wishers and congratulators, his letter to Walgreens headquarters (they own DR now) was received favorably and it apparently played no small role in the middle managers' decision to give our very own "deLish" and "Nice!" headquarters a makeover. (remember their mysterious "Apt 5" brand that crept on and off the scene awhile back?) The Q tries hard not to shop the DR - most things he and his family need are available at Ma & Pa's, but sometimes the bright fluorescents and reliable air conditioning just suck you in off the street. Every once or twice a week, one just has to bite the bullet, and then leave the DR with a sense that one's helped America feed its corporate coffers. And all is right in the world.

Ooooh. And also tomorrow night, don't miss the big community meeting about the Parks Without Borders project, which will inevitably intersect our quality of life in important ways. 6 pm at the Lakeside Center.

Lastly word is in that our McDonalds landlord has chosen to subdivide his plot. With a new building coming? Stay right near that landline, folks. No bathroom breaks.

Local "Activist" Spotted Littering Neighborhood With Posters Touting Herself

Gotta love the gumption!

She writes all the copy herself, in the third person no less. Then she's spotted by locals plastering the neighborhood with her own propaganda. Ms. Alicia Boyd was accused of criminal wrongdoing, assault, but the Q never saw much sense in that lawsuit. Lots of people are pissed at her, but the incident in question was pretty minor as ruckus goes. She did LOOK like she was going to clock someone, and she most certainly did resist arrest, knocking over a table and kicking officers as they tried to escort her out of the meeting room over on Nostrand. In another incident that was excused, she assaulted a BBG worker on Washington. Rage against the machine indeed.

What is truly unreal about her campaign to prevent ANY rezoning in the neighborhood - good, bad or indifferent - is that she's fighting her own neighbors in a manner that prevents even the most basic, civil discourse. There are many reasons the neighborhood, and the City, need to consider ways to increase housing stock and develop more rent stabilized affordable housing. But we'll never get there with her histrionics. I've watched with dismay as one local resident after another tries to calm her down long enough to get to the place where we could actually sit down with the City and plan our future. Trying to appease her is a lost cause. How could it be otherwise? Ms. Boyd is creating a cult of personality around herself. If you read her delusional self-aggrandizing copy, you'll see she's loving every minute of it.

Take a look at the picture of her supporters. Do they think so little of you as a neighbor with intelligence and conscience, that they will go to any length to prevent your opinion from being registered? Apparently so.

It's all fine, really. They have none of the power they think they have to prevent gentrification. That's always been the wedge they use to try to convince us they are on the side of the "little guy," when in fact nearly to a number they're all homeowners who've made a million or so dollars off gentrification, the "racism discount" that allowed them to buy homes in the first place. I should know; I'm one of them.

And then there are the well-meaning other million-dollar home owners who will tell you they are for unbridled landmarking and creating a "human scale city." Hey, I like humans as much as the next guy. You know how I like to treat those humans? Let me give you a quick list.

A) I don't call them Uncle Toms or "fat white fucks" and create petitions calling them racists
B) I don't use the dog whistles of anti-Semitism to appeal to those already seething over perceived Jewish takeover of Crown Heights
C) I allow them to discuss and vote in the spirit of democracy
D) I don't waste their valuable time, especially that of neighbors who volunteer to work towards an equitable future
E)  I don't claim moral high ground in a complex debate on class and race and neighborhood character
F) I don't use my "healing" non-profit to raise money for my political and legal battles
G) I don't call my neighborhood "all black" when it clearly is not (seen the subway platforms lately?)
H) I don't ignore the very real need for new housing among lower income working people

And most importantly perhaps, because I do like a brave "I don't give a fuck" activist, I'd love for MTOPP or Concerned Citizens to hear themselves as they fight ANY new development, even as it's happening all around them at market rates only. A "human scale City" might sound nice. But guess what? Humans need a place to live. And increasingly, "human scale" refers only to those humans who already have a comfortable and massively lucrative home of their own

Jane Jacobs was racist and naive, but she had some great points and fought the excesses of an all-powerful city planner. But Jane Jacobs lived in a very different time, when the primary goal was to keep jobs and manufacturing and yes, middle-class whites, right here in the City as they were pouring out for the suburbs. The exact opposite is true today, except replace the word manufacturing with tech and small business entrepreneurship. Her strongest arguments were about public safety for gods sakes! Wonder how she'd have dealt with the crack wars of the '90s. Or what she'd think of the desolate and mostly vacant Empire Boulevard near the Park.

Jane Jacobs is dead. We live in different times. And we need different solutions. Instead, we get the Kim Jong Il of Lefferts Gardens. Did I tell you about the time she bullied the Brooklyn Museum into accepting a "settlement" for having the audacity to host a real estate conference, wherein she would be the keynote speaker along with increasingly out-of-touch ex-planner Tom Angotti? Truly, we have spawned a movement. The word "bowel" might appropriately proceed it.

Speaking of which, the other day a person took a dump between two parked cars in front of my house. Somehow human poo just smells worse and is more slippery and long-lasting than the canine variety. Dropping the kids off at the curb, I guess you could say.

Civic Minded and the Bedford Armory

People ask the Q all the time how they can get involved in local goings-on. The Community Board #9, from my perspective, is effectively dead for the moment while it tries once again to regain its composure and dignity in the face of a full-frontal attack by the group calling itself MTOPP. Unless you like your politics mean and dirty, I suggest you align yourself with Assembly person Diana Richardson's "Civic Minded." Granted, the Sour Sally's at MTOPP might come and make trouble there too, but let me tell you Diana don't play. She's got the smart tongue to put AB in her place should she come a-knockin.' Demetrius, god bless him, hadn't the heart to fight fire with fire.

So...the biggest fight on the table, for the lower income good people of Brooklyn, is the fate of what was long a military outpost - The Bedford Union Armory, up on Bedford and, um, Union. While that might seem a decent hop from Lefferts, it really isn't. It's no farther than, say, mid-to-north Park Slope, and the Slope's got an armory with quite a nice YMCA rec center. But the Bedford Union Armory (not to be confused with the Bedford Armory on Atlantic) has become one of the last serious opportunities for the City to develop both affordable housing AND recreation AND community center. The EDC (that brought you Downtown Brooklyn, Hudson Yards, Battery Park City among others) chose a fairly conservative developer, Slate, that was quickly knocked out due to its sneaky-Pete dealings. But think about it - this is on of the largest City-owned properties around. The City could choose not to go with a for-profit model at all, and build ALL affordable housing.

Check out this great article in the Guardian about the valiant efforts of the Crown Heights Tenants Union and others to stick it to the Man. Great reading, this, and lots of background info.

 Folks, this is where the true leanings of Brooklyn's leadership and lefty residents can be either heroes or goats. You hear a lot about how home owners care deeply about their low-income renting neighbors. But do they really? Let's see if they (you?) can put political muscle behind an All-Affordable complex with low-cost rec center. Let's be clear - NOT public housing, but damn close. If you're surviving on minimum wage, you need a place to live. And this, my friends, might be it. Close to trains, the Museum and Garden, schools and amenities. Come out on the 22nd of October and show your support and voice your opinion and meet your neighbors and leaders. It's a good time, y'all.

Another One Bites the Dust At CB9

Don't ever let them tell you that one person can't make a difference!

Alicia Boyd scored yet another knockout. CB9's third duly elected Chair in three years has resigned effective IMMEDIATELY. Admittedly he has a monster job in "real life" and this Chair stuff was taking too much of his mental and emotional energy. But I know Demetrius. He's a good guy, and he didn't deserve the dusting up by MTOPP. One frivolous lawsuit after another. Constant screaming and disruption. Lies, innuendo, name-calling. In the end, there's only so much a humble, generous and decent volunteer can take.

I learned a lot from this guy, about grace under pressure. He gave it his all. I honestly believe the neighborhood owes him a huge thanks for trying to move us forward. To the next chapter! See you round the 'hood bro.

Home for Sex Offenders For Sale

A couple years back there was a lot of chatter about the large number of registered sex offenders inhabiting 1785 Bedford Avenue up between Sterling and Lefferts, across from the Grace Church there. It's a halfway house, a home for those trying to transition from prison to life. As the Q did when this first came to light, I want to remind folks that "sex offender," as awful as that may be, is not the same as "sexual predator" of children. Still, the proximity of so many troubled men has had a lot of people uncomfortable at best, terrified at worst.

It's for sale. So says an Eagle-Eyed Ely.

Story on 1785 from Brooklyn Eagle in 2014