Beyond Pathetic

With all the craziness going on in the world. With all the fear and dislocation going on among his constituents. With all the economic and tenant issues, and transportation and legal and just showing up in the neighborhood to hear what constituents want and need, this is Council Person Mathieu Eugene's latest.

Laughable, if it weren't so galling. What the eff does this have to do with his district? No disrespect to Yeon Hwan Park of course.

COUNCIL MEMBER MATHIEU EUGENE AND SPEAKER COREY JOHNSON TO HONOR GRANDMASTER YEON HWAN PARK FOR HIS ACHIEVEMENTS IN TAEKWONDO

(New York, NY) - Council Member Mathieu Eugene, in collaboration with New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, will present a proclamation to Taekwondo Grandmaster Yeon Hwan Park at the City Council Stated Meeting.

Council Member Eugene, himself a master of martial arts, will honor Grandmaster Yeon Hwan Park for his extraordinary achievements in Taekwondo as a coach, teacher, and mentor, and for his leadership as the President of the U.S Taekwondo Leaders Union.  

After moving to the United States in the 1980s, Grandmaster Park became the head coach of the U.S Olympic team. In 1988, he led his team to the Olympics in Seoul, where, competing as a demonstration sport, they won four gold medals, two silver medals and three bronze medals, and shocked the Korean athletes who had dominated the sport for decades.

In more recent years, Grandmaster Park has served as president of the New York State Taekwondo Association, secretary-general of the U.S. Taekwondo Union, vice president of the U.S. Taekwondo Union, and the author or coauthor of more than a dozen books on the martial art. He is currently president of the U.S. Taekwondo Leaders Union (USTLU) and an Overseas Advisory Committee member of the Kukkiwon World Taekwondo Headquarters

Mr. Park will be accept the proclamation surrounded by 22 of his students and instructors from his training school

“Today, we are honoring a man who is one of the greatest authorities on Taekwondo in the world,” said Council Member Eugene. “Grandmaster Park is a ninth-degree black belt who was the undefeated Korean national champion from 1971 to 1975. He led the United States Olympic Team to nine medals – including four gold medals – in the 1988 Games in Seoul not long after having moved to the United States, ending a decades-long dominance by the Koreans in the sport. It was primarily through Grand Master Park’s persuasion that the International Olympic Committee decided Taekwondo should become fully recognized as an Olympic sport. Grand Master Park embodies the power of Taekwondo to positively transform the lives of people. He has mentored thousands of people through his education and instruction and has proven that Taekwondo is much more than a sport that teaches people a discipline of hand-to-hand combat. It is an honor to join Speaker Corey Johnson to present him with a proclamation today as the New York City Council recognizes his great achievements.”  

                                                                        ###  

WHO:       Council Member Mathieu Eugene, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Taekwondo Grandmaster Yeon Hwan Park

WHAT:    Honoring Taekwondo Grandmaster Yeon Hwan Park

WHERE:  Stated Meeting

                  New York City Council Chambers  

                  City Hall

WHEN:    Thursday, February 28, 2019

                  1pm    

Wanna Make Some Noise About the Spice Factory Skyscraper?

The Q's been getting an unusual number of requests on what to do about the alarmingly tall project being proposed for the Franklin Ave Spice Factory site, one of many super big projects going up north of Empire (and soon ON Empire). This surprises me a bit, since I've been opining on this stuff for literally years now. But if this is what it takes to get people motivated, well then here we go.

The most recent info about how you, dear citizen, can get involved came in from CB9's office just a minute ago. There are a few things you can do.

• Reach out the Botanic Garden's president Scott Medbury and tell him how you feel about towers next to the garden. Call 718-623-7200. No, you won't get through to him. Just ask for his office and leave a polite but firm message. Enough people do that, he'll know he has public support for shorter buildings.
• Go to the ULURP meeting on the topic - Wednesday March 6 2019 - at 1185 Carroll Street (see below)
• Prepare a statement for the Scoping Hearing (see below)
• Send me a note that you'd like to be part of a CONSTRUCTIVE conversation with your neighborhood organization PLGNA. Hopefully we can set up a meeting soon to discuss ways to combat overdevelopment.
• Don't use MTOPP or FLAC or any other Boyd related orgs to register your complaints, lest you associate your opinions with those most despised by the council person, other elected officials, the Garden and anyone with a sense of decency. We need constructive dialogue.



But here on National Michael Cohen Day, I just wanna say again...the train left the station a long time ago, and we'll be playing catch-up for years. Especially if we don't find a way to work WITH the City, not just saying no-no-no and screaming and yelling all the time. No partner likes to be treated that way. Dig?

Let this email serve as notice that the ULURP Committee Meeting, Public Hearing re: 960 Franklin Avenue Rezoning has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 06, 2019, at 7PM, to be located at Crown Gardens Community Room - 1185 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11225, directly across from the Brooklyn CB9 office; please standby for an agenda.

Furthermore, a public scoping hearing for 960 Franklin Avenue has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 12th at 1:00 PM at the NYCDCP, City Planning Commission Hearing Room, 120 Broadway, Concourse Level, New York, NY.

Draft Scope of Work, Environmental Assessment Statement and scoping notice can be viewed and downloaded here: https://nycdcp.box.com/s/6thn5t6bqsqluou1qkxwwood7613q2me

The scoping notice and materials can also be found on the Dept of City Planning's website here: https://www1.nyc.gov/…/pl…/applicants/scoping-documents.page

Please contact our office should you have further inquiries. Thank you.

Unella Rhone-Perry
ULURP/Land Use Committee Chair
Brooklyn Community Board 9

Snow Got You Thinking Summer Camp?

For those not in-the-know, Trailblazers is a kickin' summer camp that's been around about 1000 years and does programs throughout the seasons. This looks like a good one, right in the neighborhood, as is the headquarters. Click for more info and to register.

Have you ever wished you could have summer camp all year long? Get one step closer to your dreams through the Prospect-Lefferts Garden Neighborhood Association's day of summer camp fun!

Produced in collaboration with Trail Blazer Camps, this event will help warm up your winter with some of your favorite summer camp activities.

Our winter camp will include camp songs, parachute games, team-building activities, an obstacle course, nature themed art projects, and more! We will also have nut-free trail mix and hot cocoa for all attendees.

For questions about this event, please contact registration@trailblazers.org or check out our Facebook invite here. We look forward to seeing you there!

Here It Comes - The Spice Factory Rises

So unnecessary. So predictable.

Months and years of combat against the City by local citizens led by AB (MTOPP in particular) has yielded nothing in the way of protections against outsized development. The Community Board has taken the stance of "No Negotiating With Terrorists," as if City Planners and "more housing" advocates didn't have a leg to stand on. They do. In fact, the City IS the leg. And Boyd and company have misplayed their hand so horribly as to leave us with projects like the new Spice Factory development that, barring unforeseen economic catastrophe, will look something like this:

Read all about it

Roughly in line height-wise with Tivoli towers and some of the other new developments being planned, this part of southern Crown Heights is quickly being transformed into a massive new rental neighborhood. Which, of course, it always WAS going to be. Once these buildings are built (and despite what you'll hear to the contrary, they will pretty much sail through with promises of hundreds of units of new means-tested i.e. "affordable" housing), new precedents will have been set for the area.

And then, as they always do, Empire(s) will fall. (Activists Get Nothing)

And to think, when the Q first started looking at the issue, Eric Adams and co. were hoping to work with City Planning to cap buildings at 10-12 stories. Now, by alienating the City and allowing "spot rezonings" to go through one-by-one, I'd say the neighborhood that was won't be anymore.

Is it the end of the world? Of course not. Was it an enormous missed opportunity to partner with the City in deciding how and where this stuff should go? Hell yeah.

Slammin' Tacos on Parkside?

Normally the Q doesn't put much stock in online reviews. Except when they're overwhelmingly exceptionally glowing. And this new place on Parkside next to my buddy Abdo's Apple repair shop is looking pretty damn okay. El Jeffe it's called, and it seems as if it's a unique twist on Mexican food. We know what it'll be like from its other location in Bed Stuy, about which is said:

4.6

346 reviews

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Oleida E. Rangel

8 reviews

2 months ago

I’d give this place 10 stars if I could! Tacos were unbelievable specially their shrimp tacos. Staff was super friendly and really worked together as a team to make sure orders were taken care of promptly. Place was packed when we came in …More

seena1617

Local Guide · 22 reviews · 3 photos

12 hours ago

Had their shrimp taco and shrimp boss nacho. Best I've ever had, period! They give great size portions, and never skimp on food. Its pure perfection.Take my money lol!

Rich Prince

1 review

2 weeks ago

This place was great. Cleanliness, service, ambiance, music, all of the above is great. The food was perfect!

Demisha Nesbitt

Local Guide · 62 reviews · 14 photos

a month ago

Fresh and very tasty! Good prices. The frozen sangria is good as well.

Unique Life

4 reviews

3 months ago

The food is great especially the shrimp and fish taco. Had the patron margarita and its delicious. Customer service is wonderful. I love the ambiance and music

Tamara Castro

Local Guide · 19 reviews · 16 photos

4 months ago

The jerk pork rice bowls are amazing. Nice kick of jerk spices. If you get it with pineapple, it's at the bottom of the rice, black beans, then topped with jerk pork, lettuce, and a drizzle of a creamy sauce. On the sides are diced tomatoes …More

Colin Teague

8 reviews · 11 photos

a month ago

Don't expect super authentic Mexican food, but this is an amazing hole in the wall spot for tacos, nachos, frozen drinks, etc. Fun atmosphere with hip hop music, friendly staff and some board games. Definitely one of the best places to grab a bite/drink in Bed Stuy

renee mason

3 reviews · 5 photos

a month ago

Food is great, drinks is excellent, hospitality and customer service is exceptional. Whenever I'm in Bed Stuy I stop in and have fried shrimp tacos and fish tacos and a margarita. They are sooooo good.

Melanie Harris

2 reviews

4 months ago

Great food. Had the rice bowl with veggies and the jerk pork. Veggies were perfectly crisp and colorful. Pork was flavorful; perfectly seasoned. Highly recommend.

Cherishe Cumma

Local Guide · 232 reviews · 2,901 photos

3 minutes ago

I ordered from this restaurant using Uber eats yesterday . I got the pork tacos and the pork bowl with pico de Gallo and chips . Everything in my order was fresh and felt like I was eating healthy . I would definitely order from this …More

marcella riley

Local Guide · 45 reviews · 20 photos

a month ago-

I had the jerk pork burrito it was very good, the meat was juicy and the burrito was very filling. The lemonade was too sweet to my liking but overall great service

So Long Flatbush Caton Market

One day they will look at us like we're crazy. Oh yes, we'll say, there used to be this enormous brightly hued blue and yellow warehousey corrugated shed without windows that used to house burgeoning  businesses. An incubator for street vendors to help them transition to storefronts.

"Sure. Right. No windows? Did anyone ever shop there?" they'll ask.

Not so much. It was designed poorly and cheaply, meant to shield the lively street vendors from the elements. Instead it became a bit of a tomb, and residents mostly passed without entering.

Here's to a fixture of the neighborhood that has now been razed, for a large new all-affordable (means tested) building (inset) that will radically change how we experience this corner. Particularly when they tear down the old bank building kitty-korner from this. (Catty-Corner?) Actually, it was originally Caddy Corner, from the word for four. You know, like quatro and quatre. A great thing to know! As well as Vermont, for (ready?) Green Mountains. (remember your French?)

Gulp and Splatter

Tonight! Tix still available. Sip and Paint. At Brooklyn Commons a/k/a Phat Alberts. 

Rapid Realty Runs Across the Street

There's a new Marshal in town and he seems to have plenty of deputies. Did you know that City Marshals are not actually employees of the City? Seems more like Repo Man to me (see below).

So another business gets the "Seized" treatment, this time Rapid Realty busted for a "fictitious name." Really what this means is that the landlord felt he/she/they weren't getting the dough they deserved, or perhaps were deserted in the middle of the lease, and told the marshal to grab anything and everything of value as collateral. My hunch is that the fictitious name bit is a bit of malarkey to allow the Marshals to do their business.

To be clear: I don't know the backstory and I'm not assigning blame. The Q got in trouble for merely pointing out the shuttered doors in the past. This space is now available for rent.

Perhaps you should stop by Rapid Realty's other location on the Flabenue to inquire about renting it?

Classic scene from Repo Man. A story of guns, love, mutli-culturalism, the American Dream and get-rich-quick class mobility:

February 26 You Can Vote For A True Leader

Long story short: Election Feb 26 and it's a no brainer. Jumaane Williams for Public Advocate.

Been following Jumaane with a lump in my throat since he first showed remarkable leadership and courage the night Kimani Gray was shot in East Flatbush. That was the night the Q woke up. I'm not saying I'm woke; I'd get torn a new arsehole for that. I'm saying I, Clarkson FlatBed, woke up to the facts - the reality that the completely innocent young men of color all around me were living day-in and day-out. I'm not going to say that the police hadn't been helpful in shutting down some real-life drug and gang violence in the neighborhood. It's complicated that way - the police helped make me feel safer. I've never trusted cops out-of- hand; but when an innocent mom gets shot down in front of her young son across the street from your house, you'll take what you can get. And many of us were grateful when they nabbed the guy.

So, Kimani Gray was shot and killed in May of 2013. Trayvon Martin's killer was acquitted that summer. #BlackLivesMatter was born. Martin held Skittles; Gray was said to have held a gun. Bullshit. A year and half later and the 67th precinct was shown to have a sick history of gun planting.

The question remains; is a de facto police state, over-incarceration and daily humiliation worth the occasional crime prevented by the abuse of authority, all in the name of keeping "the nice people" safe? That depends on whether you belief "Black Lives Matter." We learned, that year in particular, that not enough cops and citizens believe that they do. And three years later, those same deplorables helped elect the most cynical, self-serving racist this country has seen since...oy, it's a lot of self-serving racists when you think about it.

Having risen through the ranks as both a Democrat councilperson AND an activist, Williams has shown time and again that he puts principles before expedience. I read every missive from Williams start to finish. Either he's a hell of a writer or he has some very, very good people working with him. I suspect both.

Vote for Jumaane on the 26th, and any other time you see his name on the ballot. His actions and rhetoric rise to the level of some of the best civil rights leaders. His curiosity and intellectual appetite can win over the most sceptical snob. His bonafides ensure that he doesn't speak "over" those he speaks "for," Tourette's Syndrome be damned. Do the right thing, indeed.