Something's Jus Fishy on Flatbush

The Q's "gone fishing" til mid-August, but reader Steven B. sent me some swell pics of "JUS FISHY," the new eatery at 555 Flatbush near Maple. Check out the menu below. Share your thoughts on the joint here!

Newses

It ain't the Old Gray Lady, but we'll take it: Parkside Prize And a major local firefight may have been the result of lighting. Story here, from the ACTUAL Old Gray Lady. Very glad to see that there were no major injuries, though it was a great reminder of the fickle vengeance of Thor. Force majeure, indeed.

Caledonians for Mindy

While we were busy ignoring Albany politics, the state of NY redrew its districts and many of us near the Q at Parkside will wake up the day after Election Day and find ourselves with new representatives in state government. And your "new" senator might be an incumbent. Huh?

If you haven't already cared to, take a look at the new districts here. Before you say no to clicking on that link, consider that it's an incredibly cool tool to look at both the old and new districts simultaneously. You get to see the REAL act of democracy at work, whereby a small group of jerk-offs gets to decide who represents whom, based on their own agendas about creating majorities for their own parties. In fairness, the new districts look a teensy, weensy bit less "creative" than the old ones. But the whole thing is enough to turn a civic optimist to cynic in just one peek.

And yet, there IS reason for hope. While me and Rudy on Winthrop and CeeLeeDee and Elizabeth C. and Duane and Eagle Eye Mr. S. and MJ McBee and Eggs and all you other Parkside Q's...our Democratic choice is now the very irritable and easily angered Kevin Parker, because we're now in the 21st. BUT, our GOP pick is none other than a pink-loving 22-year-old orthodox lady named Mindy. Many of you may have heard or read of her and said to yourself "she's awesome! but sadly not in my district" will now find that she potentially COULD be your rep in Albany. Ladies and Gentleman, Mindy Meyer:

And this is what she looks like when she's moving and talking:

I for one love her candidacy, though not because I'm trying to be hipster cool or ironic or condescending, but because her candidacy highlights what a farce is our state system that this is the best the Grand Old Party could muster. And she's fairly genuine, you know, if you, like, pay attention to what she's saying. Which I 100% don't agree with but would vociferously defend her right to spew. And she's no dummy...she must just take more votes than any GOP'er before her with her bubbly campaign in these notoriously fickle state-wide contests. It's a weird world, and staring at her name in November will be a real head-shaking experience. As for Kevin Parker? Do a little reading and decide for yourself. Dude has real anger management problems, though who knows maybe it's worth having a bulldog in the country's third most corrupt state Capitol. Just don't beat him by cheating at Scrabble...you'll end up with a Q and a Z up your nostrils.

201 Linden Boulevard - Landlords Without Shame

For those of us who have lived in big old apartment buildings in Brooklyn, far afield from the "pre-war" splendor of choice digs in say Brooklyn Heights, the story will likely sound familiar. Longtime tenants, often of a certain age, get reamed by greedy landlords who favor higher-paying newcomers. This Daily News story on 201 Linden between Rogers and Nostrand, while riddled with embarrassing (for a professional newspaper, not squeeze it in before bedtime blogger) typos, gets it about right. Though it goes a bit far in stating that the "yuppies" get palaces out of the deal. The reno-job might look passable at lease-signing, but rest assured the workmanship is crap and those hoodlums in the lobby aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

The culprit? Well, the landlords of course. But it's also the perverse incentives and disincentives of the rent stabilization laws. Two identical apartments in the same building can fetch wildly different rents, creating a two or three or four tiered hierarchy of desirability from the landlords perspective. And, incidentally, what better way to ensure your longtime profits than to rent to whites, or at least newscaster-English speakers?

The Q brings the story to your attention only to highlight one of the many (in my view) uncomfortable issues plaguing our neighborhood during its current in-fluxness. Fast, very-very fast, prices have come up. In the houses, yes, but that's not where the vast majority of NE Flatbushers live. Landlords are routinely grabbing north of $1,500 for two bedrooms, $2,000 is not unusual even on less-desirable blocks, and a little math will tell you that annual household income must be, say, pre-tax, at least $50,000 to hit the rent sweet spot of spending just half one's take-home pay for housing. H.I. of $50K is way higher than the mean income around here, meaning that most current residents can't afford to stay here if they're forced to move apartments. Duh, right?

I know you can file all this in the drawer of common knowledge. And yet, how exactly does a neighborhood stay "wonderfully diverse" as someone recently beamed, when only middle income people can afford to rent here? And trust me, if the rest of Brooklyn is any harbinger, it won't be "middle" income for long. No need for the newcomer renter who recently found a "bargain" to feel too smug - the next great-leap-forward might be sooner than you think.

The insult to injury part is that there are some absurd rules on the books that actually make it advantageous for some landlords to pack their buildings with homeless or transient recipients of social-services over locals desperate to stay put. See my post on 60 Clarkson, and trust me, there are plenty of 60 Clarksons in the neighborhood. In fact, it was recently revealed to me that the same adorable scumbag who owns 60 also owns other buildings around here that also have big contracts with CAMBA, the not-always-how-shall-we-say-thorough government contractor, or the Haliburton for the Homeless as I prefer to call them.

PLGNA, the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood Association, was once known as an agent for keeping the redliners and blockbusters at bay. Just 40 years ago folks were working to prevent the outflow of capital...it's quite unlikely that a similar outrage will erupt over abrupt inflows. If the building on Parkside - 123 on the Park - is a hit, and if trends continue in the bigger rental and condo buildings near the Park's "Lakeside" corner, we may begin to wonder where some of our neighbors have gone. Granted, the few trouble-making knuckleheads won't be missed. But here's a dark thought - maybe some of those very same displaced neighbors will come back as homeless residents as part of a CAMBA program. Think it's far-fetched? That's the exact story I was told by one current resident of 60 Clarkson - she used to live on Ocean nearby, one thing led to another, and...

As if there weren't enough poetry in her tale, here's some ACTUAL poetry written about 201 Linden Boulevard in 1955.

Missing Person Alert

The 71st Precinct has sent out a missing person emergency for the below. Please contact them immediately if you see Natoya Stephens. (718) 735-0501

The Parkside Prize Goes For the Gold

In case you hadn't been paying attention to the Q's endless braying, here's the backstory: a diverse collective of neighbors calling themselves The Parkside Project have been clocking countless hours to try to turn the stretch of avenue from the Park to Flatbush into something more than an eyesore to be endured. Springing from the metaphorical loins of local author Rudy Delson, the idea to hold a contest to redesign the block resulted in an inspired winning proposal from local architects who, serendipitously and unbeknownst to the jurors, happen to live and work here in the area. In Cho of ChoShields Studio created a plan for the subway station plaza that is particularly sweet:

The folks at the Parkside Prize, in a bid to turn fantasy to reality, applied for funding from NYC's Department of Transportation's Public Plaza program. You've probably noticed plazas sprouting up all over town, so why not here? The Q received permission from the good folks at PLGNA to reprint some of the application's key narrative points here. (PLGNA is the official author of the proposal, since the Parkside Project is acting as a committee of PLGNA in order to leverage PLGNA's non-profit status and history of good works in the neighborhood). I urge you to read the app and comment away. This really is a plan for the people, so if you happen to be a people, let your voice be heard. Excerpts below:

...Parkside Avenue itself is predominantly commercial. The street is anchored by four large merchants (McDonalds, Duane Reade, Popeye's and Pioneer Supermarket), with a variety of hardy small businesses in between: take-out restaurants, dry cleaners, bodegas, 99-cent stores. And these businesses need to be hardy, because this is a terribly neglected block:

• There are no trees within fifty yards of Ocean Avenue.
• The few trees at the Flatbush Avenue end of the block are sickly, with sheets of plastic tangled in their crowns.
• Potholes plague both gutters.
• Thick scabs of paint peel from the entrance to the subway station at Parkside, and ailanthus trees colonize the subway roof.
• The traffic at Ocean and Parkside is constant and deadly, so that while Prospect Park is across the street, it might as well be miles away.
• Towering over the center of the block is 205 Parkside, which for years was occupied by squatters, and now sits vacant.
• Next door, the sidewalk has been commandeered by a squadron of bottle and glass recyclers.

Much of Brooklyn enjoys a renaissance; Parkside stagnates. This dispiriting block is the gauntlet that many thousands of Brooklynites must walk at the end of their commutes home at night. Parkside Avenue has been neglected by many city agencies for many decades, and cries out for attention.

The Parkside Project Committee of PLGNA was formed in the spring of 2011. It works to improve conditions on Parkside Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Flatbush Avenue. In 2011 and 2012, the Committee organized and ran a design competition, with $1000 in prizes, inviting architects and designers to imagine a new Parkside Avenue. The competition received wide publicity; the conceptual drawings submitted with this Public Plaza Grant application are the drawings that won the grand prize. The northeast corner of Parkside and Ocean Avenues is a quarter-acre triangle of concrete. There is nothing on this barren triangle: not one tree, not one bench. Year in and year out, commuters hurry across this plaza, eager to be anywhere else. This barren triangle is the entrance to our neighborhood. (This site is also an entrance to Prospect Park. Residents of Park Slope or Windsor Terrance can enter the park by any of several dozen quiet and leafy streets; residents of Flatbush can only enter by way of the concrete at Parkside. With the refurbishing of the Wollman Rink and the Music Island by the Prospect Park Alliance, many thousands of New Yorkers will visit our corner of Prospect Park for the first time. They, too, will enter by way of the concrete at Parkside.) We believe this quarter acre could be better utilized for two reasons. First, because on a day-to-day basis, the commuters and shoppers and children who live on and around Parkside need something more than barren concrete as the gateway to their neighborhood. Second, because Prospect Park, the jewel of Brooklyn, needs an entrance that extends its canopy and its open spaces into the surrounding streets. Instead of devoting a quarter acre in the heart of Brooklyn to barren concrete, we hope DOT will help us fill the space with trees, water, paving stones—and people.

In the last year, DOT has begun to take steps to improve the safety of the pedestrian crossings at Parkside and Ocean; we hope that DOT will see the advantages of addressing the other half of the problem, the underutilized triangle of concrete at Parkside. (We understand that DOT, in awarding Public Plaza Grants, takes into consideration the proximity of open space to the proposed site. Please see Note 3.) The Parkside Project Committee of PLGNA is devoted to bringing civic improvements to Parkside Avenue. As discussed below, in 2011 PLGNA held a design competition for Parkside Avenue; the winning entry featured the construction of a plaza at Ocean and Parkside. We have attached, as a .pdf file, a design board explaining the winning entry. We have also attached, as .jpgs, photographs of the intersection as it exists today. We think the visual contrast between what could be built at Parkside, and what exists today, says it all.

At present, the triangle at Parkside plays host to a weekly fair in the summer, the Arts & Culture Fest, organized by a 501(c)(3) called The Creative Side. We are friendly with the organizers of the Fest (they have submitted a letter of support for this application), and PLGNA would look to The Creative Side in developing programming in a newly built plaza. This programming would continue to include a weekly fair, with occasional musical performances. We have also discussed the possibility of expanding activities in the plaza to two days a week, with the Fest on Saturdays and a farmer's market on Sundays.

In the spring of 2011, a group of neighbors began meeting in a local coffee house with the aim of building community support for civic improvements to our poor Parkside Avenue: this was the birth of PLGNA's Parkside Project Committee. The original concept was simple. PLGNA would hold a design competition, open both to design professionals and to the general public, to solicit ideas for a new Parkside. State Senator Eric Adams, an early supporter, contributed $1000 toward the prize money. The Parkside Project Committee has a team of about one dozen consistent and energetic volunteers, and since those early meetings in 2011, they have repeatedly been in contact with the many merchants onParkside and with all of the local elected officials. (We believe this broad outreach is reflected by our many letters of support.) PLGNA announced the prize late in the summer of 2011, to wide publicity. Thousands of leaflets were distributed on the sidewalk in front of the Parkside subway station; hundreds of posters were hung in local businesses; nearly a dozen local colleges and universities were contacted; and PLGNA volunteers were interviewed in the local press and by local TV news. In the end, more than a dozen proposals were submitted by amateurs and professionals from across New York City.

In the winter of 2012, PLGNA convened a jury to select a winner. (If PLGNA were to create a Community Advisory Committee regarding a public plaza, it would begin by re-contacting these jurors.) The jurors consisted of four merchants who own businesses on or near Parkside Avenue, representatives from local block associations, an arts group called PLG Arts, and a landscape designer from the Prospect Park Alliance, as well as City Councilman Mathieu Eugene and State Senator Eric Adams. The winning design was submitted by Cho/Shields Studio. A .pdf of their winning design is included with this application. More entries can be seen at the prize website: www.theparksideprize.org. In March of 2012, PLGNA hosted a neighborhood party to show off the design and award the prizes. Again, posters were hung, leaflets were distributed, and all the local blogs advertised the night. Hundreds of neighbors attended the party; the delight and excitement that was expressed was incredibly moving. Later that month, the winning entry was presented to both CB9 and to CB14, where it was received with great enthusiasm. What we have here is a neighborhood in unanimity: Something new is needed. We very much hope that DOT will agree; we are eager to work with DOT to build a better Parkside.

About PLGNA - the Sponsoring Organization Submitting the Grant Proposal

PLGNA was formed in 1969 by residents of Prospect Lefferts Gardens who opposed unfair real estate and bank practices like redlining and wanted to form a working interracial neighborhood. One of its first projects was to document 300 abandoned and 300 deteriorating buildings within the neighborhood. In 1973, PLGNA became involved in a landmark legal battle to combat redlining. Over the years, it has helped tenants to organize unions and blocks to form associations; supported safety programs; transported seniors; developed youth programs; and served as an umbrella organization for other neighborhood groups, including many local block associations.

Eating Along the Q - Prospect Park Station

Glad to see the Daily News segment "Eating Along the Q" has finally pulled into the Prospect Park Station. After yours truly figured way too heavily in the last chapter, I was glad to just read and generally agree with the findings, though of course lots of joints were left out. Mentioned, as they MUST in any food story about the area, were the fantabulous "doubles" at De Hot Pot, and the one-of-a-kind vegan ice cream at Scoops (Tony Fongyit, Scoops' owner pictured below). The Q has indulged Scoops' soy-based icy sweets and can attest to their yum quotient, but it's his hot to-go food that really sparks the stars on the Yelp dot com. And speaking of the Yelp, check out the reviews for De Hot Pot. People LOVE this place, and if you haven't been, well, time's a wastin'.

Bryan Pace took the pic

The addresses for the aforementioned are attached to the links above. The Q is to hot to be bothered...will this global warming never cease? I mean, we gave up burning all that fossil fuel, right? Didn't we? We saw where this little ozone problem was going and we stepped back from the brink, right? Right? Whew. For a second there I had this terrible dream that we stood by and did nothing while the earth burned to a crisp. What a nightmare! Gotta go turn up that A/C, it's boiling in here...

Nostrand and Flatbush Merchants Associations - Upcoming Events

The Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association is holding it important elections and a quarterly meeting on Thursday near Midwood. Lindiwe Kamau of the wonderful Expressions In Ceramics will be glad to see you I'm sure. There's a lot going on on the 'Strand, including the delayed but soon-coming Select Bus Service along the avenue. And don't forget Lindiwe's been in the news about security cameras, story here. Having ridden these SBS buses in Manhattan a few times, I can assure you this is a very, very cool development for those traveling over-the-surface. I totally dig the European style everybody-gets-on-at-the-same-time-through-any-door-honor-system-with-roving-ticket-checkers attitude. Brilliant, and working great on the Island City, so why not here?

And don't forget that FEPMA's doing its annual Street Fair on August 5th. Colorful Circussy poster here:

Parkside Playground Loses Innocence w Shooting

Well, that didn't take long. Not two weeks from its official opening and the Parkside Playground already has its own "rap sheet." The below is from Vinny Martinos of the 71st precinct:

On Saturday July 14th at approximately 9PM a 22 year old male
was shot one time in the hand inside of Parkside Playground located on Winthrop Street between Bedford Avenue and Rogers Avenue. The male is listed in stable condition at Kings County Hospital. The victim has a lengthy arrest history including numerous arrests for marijuana. This case is being investigated by Detective Thomas of the 71 Precinct Detective Squad. Anyone with information should contact Detective Thomas at 718-735-0515. All information will be kept confidential.

It was about that time on Saturday that the usual hoodlum crowd on my block mysteriously dispersed in a mad hurry, causing us to question whether something big was going down. Many residents heard the shots...it's often difficult to tell where gunfire is coming from, but on this occasion the reports were correct. Likely at 9PM the number of young ones was less than during the day.  But as I'm sure we've all noticed, 9PM is no curfew for even toddlers around here, so it's likely there were children present. This is bad, bad, bad news indeed. Cameras, a regular police patrol, and clearing the loungers at the entrance is in order.

The Q has been pondering whether to make a big deal about the grown men hanging out at the park's basketball court entrance, smoking weed and drinking all afternoon and into the night. But after this, I think it's time local officials keep the space off limits to anyone breaking the law in any manner around the perimeter of the playground. It makes no sense to me to create a safe outdoor recreation space for young people, then allow the worst sorts of "modeling" behavior to take place like a gauntlet as you enter the park. Drinking and smoking hooch might necessarily be tolerated to a certain degree on hot summer afternoons and nights, but not around youngsters. This is a school and a playground. The incident on Saturday shows that some neighborhood residents have no respect for the meaning of those public words.


update: I sent Mathieu Eugene the following email today:

Councilman Eugene:

I saw you last Wednesday at the Woodruff Ave Block Association meeting. I mentioned to you that there was a very uncool group hanging out regularly around the Parkside Playground that you so generously helped bring to life. Sadly, a shooting took place ON THE PLAYGROUND just this past Saturday night at 9PM. I'm absolutely certain this shooting could have been prevented, or the dispute would have happened elsewhere, if there were regular clearings and patrols of the park. 


This is playground for children; the basketball courts are for those playing basketball. And if people are congregating there at reasonable hours, that should be fine too. But the number of grown men hanging out, drinking and smoking weed, and the activity that persists after dark, is simply not a smart way to inaugurate a public space. I urge you to use the power of your office to see that the 71st patrol the area every few hours AND clear the entrances of loiterers. A child should be able to enter the playground without being forced to endure unruly and illegal activity.

Thanks as always for your hard work!

best,

tim

update: response from jonah rogoff, asst to Mathieu Eugene

Hi Tim,

The Council Member asked that I respond to your email on his behalf. We’ve been speaking with Officer Martinos and other officers from the 71^st Precinct about increasing the number of patrols in and around the park on a permanent basis. We are really infuriated and troubled by what happened, especially given the fact that this occurred shortly after the opening of the park. The police also mentioned that the park is not being properly closed by the Parks Department so we are trying to see how this can be resolved. Any illegal activities in the park should not be tolerated and we will continue pressing the NYPD to have patrols of the park as much as possible.

I will keep you posted as we get more information from the 71^st Precinct.

Best,

Jonah

Lark - Coffee Joint on Church Opens

Ditmas Park Corner notes that the new nifty coffee hangout "Lark" is now open. Photo below gratefully stolen from their story, linked here. Digging those light fixtures, Lark! Seems a little renaissance is afoot on Church just north of the mammoth Victorian mansions of Prospect Park South. For Caledonians, this is most definitely in walking distance. Open for biz - check 'em out.