MORE UPDATES on Apr 11: Murder on Hawthorne - ARREST MADE

From the 71st Precinct:

 Today at approximately 1230 PM a male black was shot multiple times as he sat in his van in front of 265 Hawthorne Street. The victim attempted to drive away hitting several parked cars and collapsing in the drivers seat. The victim was pronounced DOA at the scene. Anyone with information please call the 71 Precinct Detective at-735-0501. 

That's Hawthorne between Rogers and Nostrand. Details as they emerge.

As of April 10th, 4PM, from the 71st:

 Today at approximately 4 PM the 71 Precinct Detective Unit arrested four individuals who are responsible  for the homicide yesterday on Hawthorne Street.

As of April 10th, 5PM from Vinnie at 71st via text:

Turns out three of the guys lived on the block. One was from Rockway. 

As of April 10th, 6PM

I walked down that block of Hawthorne. I'd forgotten how bleak it was on the east end towards Nostrand - vacant lots and all. The building where the murder took place still had a few roughs hanging out. Cops were marching up and down Nostrand. And the cherry picker "tower" that the NYPD brings out when it really wants a hot spot to cool down? They were just setting it up:

And now this article from DNA suggests...oh well, you can read it yourself. It all seems like insanity to me.

The Q's School Tool: Part 3: PS249 - The Caton School

In the past couple years of being a dude with a tot, the Q has heard a lot of talk about a lot of schools. I’ve heard such Brooklyn and NYC insider school shorthand as “Community Roots,” “Blue School,” “BNS,” PS10,” “St. Anns,” “Packer” "107," "School of Inquiry," "Friends," "Free School," "Greene Hill," "Coop School," "9," "11," "New American Academy," mentioned literally dozens if not hundreds of times. But, and this is a really big but, in all that time I’ve heard almost ZERO talk about PS249, the super cute looking school known as The Caton that’s tucked into the fabric of The Parade Ground along Caton at Marlborough Road. And what's nuts about that is that it's actually in District 17, the very district that "The Q at Parkside" is located within. There had to be a story here. Haunted? Restricted for those south of Caton only? Reserved for people who don't play at the Lincoln Road Playground? I mean, there must be a reason for the dearth of info, right?

As a crow flies, as a bike rides, or as a ball rolls, the school is definitely closer than any public schools to me, save PS92/LGCS and Explore Charter School.. And it gets a pretty darn impressive 9 out of 9 on the “satisfaction" index on School Book, the helpful but limited NYTimes schools blog and data machine. In fact, of all the data on that blog, I find myself drawn to that satisfaction number more often than any other. I find it hard to read a lot of the data provide by DoE and other sources in general, and if you look closely you'll notice that some schools that parents have practically drooled over don't score particularly high in various metrics. In fact, teachers whom I trust don't have a lot of faith in a lot of testing metrics either. (Interestingly, on our eventual school tour, Mrs. Q and I did have an awesome encounter with an enthusiastic first year science teacher at The Caton, whom I'll bet the kids adore, named Mr. Gonazales, who said the following: "the kids take the test at the end of the third grade year and it's awesome. All year long we're learning stuff that they're going to be tested on, but they don't need to know that. That's MY job. The common core is AWESOME. I wish I had it when I was coming through." Refreshing, given all the negativity about testing you hear. One man's opinion of course, but refreshing nonetheless.

But yeah, back to that "Satisfaction Index," which is truly remarkably high at PS249. I mean a 9 is higher than almost all the schools you'll see on the site! And after all is said and done, don’t you want to go to a place where parents and kids and teachers and administrators are happy, more than anything else? Food for thought...as in maybe I’m naïve, but I’m pretty sure my daughter is going to learn anywhere she goes. She seems super curious already (oy vey, is she curious) and like DYING to learn stuff every day. Every night this week she wants to play this "game" which is basically a test, these cards that ask all these questions, and she wants to get them all right, and I can barely keep up in fact, so I’m mostly just hoping that she will be happy to go to school every day, that she will make friends, that the teacher will be warm and encouraging and not hold her back or make her feel bad, that her friends will come from many different backgrounds, that she will have interests both in and out of school, that she will have friends both in and out of school, that she will begin to show us what are the things that she is most interested in so that we can help her find the right teachers and classes and extracurriculars, be it tennis or cello or dance or soccer or poetry or existentialist Dadaist deconstructionist jello sculpture.

The radio silence at The Caton was bugging me, so when I found out a friend on my street has a son who attends PS249, and she seems happy with the school, I peppered her with questions over the last year and when she told me there was a big Holiday Show last December I jumped at the chance to bring my family and help them raise some money and see the school on the inside. It was a b-l-a-s-t to see all the kindergarteners on-up dancing and singing and playing Suzuki violin and African drums in the remarkably well-maintained auditorium, and my curiosity was only stoked by the scene. Clearly, the on-site dance instruction is an important part of the school as is the collaborative relationship with outside arts groups from Ifetayo to Juilliard. All good.

But unlike other schools that have entered the (how-do-I-put-this?) middle-class-integration-conversation, PS249 is clearly a school that’s running on all its cylinders, but off the digital-zeitgeist radar, because try as you might you just won't find this school talked about in the Montessori-Maple-Street-Progressive-Nursery-School-Circuit. Period. It's fully subscribed and well-liked, and for whatever reasons or non-reasons it's administration doesn’t consider it a priority to “reach out” to new families in the neighborhood. This is something that middle and upper middle class families may have a hard time understanding. In fact, I know they do. More than one parent I know have been so put off when trying to arrange a conversation with a principal or find out about a tour or open house at non-reaching-out local schools, that they ENTIRELY WRITE OFF A SCHOOL BEFORE THEY EVEN VISIT IT (or in one case a mom wrote off public school all together) because they're not getting the kind of customer service they'd expect from a school that will be serving their kid and family. Now, that might sound really silly to an outside observer, but I can assure you that parental nerves can get pretty frayed, so try not to judge too harshly. My experience with getting a tour at PS249 might speak to why it IS important to keep at it, parents, when trying to find a school nearby that's appropriate for kindergarten. I'm told that once I get into a school I'll be happy and engaged in it and won't want to be bothered sharing all this, so I'm trying to get it all out there NOW when it still seems to matter! So allow me tell you what went down.

After going to the fun Caton School Holiday Spectacular last December, I started calling pretty regularly to find out when there would be an open house to check out their pre-K and  kindergarten. This I determined was the best method to get a tour, since there wasn't a clear sign up on the PS249 website.  Maybe I got a bit lazy, but I really thought I was staying on top of it, calling every couple weeks. Somehow though, I missed the only Open House they had all Spring. Bummer! When I called a couple weeks ago saying I had a girl who was pre-K age and I'd like to put in an application and list it on my top 12 choices, but not having  met any teachers or principals, I felt funny about that. I was informed that all I had to do was "get accepted" and then I could take a tour. Well, I thought, isn't that backwards? Don't you look at the menu first and then put in your order? I mean at this point I'd been on some other tours (at schools in other districts even that I hadn't much of a chance of getting into, but even there it was really easy to sign up for the tour and the process was simple and clear and...well, I figured if I wanted to see PS249 I was going to have to be a bit dogged and just see it through to the end. So, I called the principal's office. And they asked who I was, and I didn't say I was a blogger cause I just wanted to be a parent and see how that would go, and so I ended up getting passed to the Parent Coordinator, and Miss Mackey was nice but gave me the same story as above, and I said I'd really like to talk to the principal, a beloved lady named Miss Brown, and she said if I insisted I'd have to stop by the school and fill out a request slip, and I said really? I have to fill out a paper form? and she said yes that's the procedure, and like I said I was going to see this through to the end, so that's exactly what I did the next day riding over on my bike on the way to work, and the security guard looked at me kinda funny and I asked to see Miss Mackey who came out and seemed sort of surprised to see me, like she couldn't believe I actually followed through, but then I made a joke about how I forgot how to make a cursive Q and pretty soon we were all cracking up, and about 10 minutes after I left I get a call from Miss Mackey asking if I wanted to come back tomorrow with my wife to take a tour of the school.

Bingo. I'm in! It appeared that just like people had told me all along, taking some initiative was paying off.

Mr. Gonzalez from PS249's Website

And the next day at 9am sharp Mrs. Q and I biked over with Little Miss Q's little toddler sister and had an absolutely gay old tour and time of it with Miss Mackey, checking out a bilingual pre-k class and meeting Mr. Gonzalez the popular science teacher and touring the cheerful halls, the delightful auditorium and classic school gym and cafeteria, hearing about how bi-lingual Spanish-English education is a BIG component to the school and probably explains the near 50-50 mix of students with Hispanic and non-Hispanic backgrounds. The school is not entirely "poor," an 85% free school-lunch population is hardly the highest in the neighborhood. The vibe is entirely friendly, and while no one is going to accuse the school of progressivism, neither should anyone from the outside accuse this "A" rated school of being a failed, failing, lagging, loser, unfriendly or troubled school either. You simply must experience it for yourself, and if you live nearby I highly encourage you to consider it. Even the building itself, built in the 1940s by the highly esteemed firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, has many of the features that you may remember as a child, and I suspect that more than a few of you will feel truly nostalgic upon entering. If for that alone, you should take a tour.

PS249, The Caton School. Another thumbs up from The Q, and I hope you'll share your experiences here.

Other posts in the series:

Part 2: Lefferts Gardens Charter School
Part 1: The Essay on Brooklyn and District 17 Kindergartens

Tip of the Tongue Signs Up

Spring has certainly sprung on the Flabenue and environs. The boys at Tip of the Tongue have finally led us know they're in the game on Lincoln Road near the Park. I've known of their plans for some time, and they live in the 'hood, so all I can say is...

Welcome, good luck, and see you on opening day.

Don't know precisely what they're going to serve, but here's the catering company's website:

LGCS Seeks Community Support This Wednesday

Just three years into its life as a free publicly funded alternative to zoned district schools, local startup the Lefferts Garden Charter School is seeking permanent co-location within the longtime home of PS92 on Parkside between Bedford and Rogers. Local mom and co-founder Renata Gomes has forwarded this request to the greater community.

Dear Supporters of Lefferts Gardens Charter School,

We believe in the mission and vision of Lefferts Gardens Charter School and want to see it thrive in the years to come.  For the past 3 years, we have been co-located in the P.S. 92 School Building at 601 Parkside Avenue.  The co-location with P.S. 92 has been a mutually agreeable and respectful one and we look forward to the opportunity of deepening our ties with this community.  

The NYC Dept of Education is proposing a long-term co-location for LGCS at P.S.92.  This will allow us to remain in a space that has not only served us well but which provides close proximity to our field study program partners (Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Prospect Park Zoo, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Children's Museum and Construction Kids.)  It will also give us an ability to build a long-term partnership with P.S. 92 and work on building initiatives and funding that benefit us both.

There will be a public hearing for community members to share feedback about this proposal.  We are asking friends of the school and neighborhood supporters to attend and speak in our favor with a quick 'I support Lefferts Gardens Charter School Co-locating at PS 92.'  We hope to see you there!

When :  WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 

Time:    5:30 sign up 

            6:15 DOORS CLOSE

Where : LGCS SCHOOL AUDITORIUM 601 Parkside Avenue

Why:     The DOE will count how many for and how many against

Please -   SIGN UP TO SPEAK (everyone is allowed up to 2 minutes)

               SPEAK TO BE COUNTED

               YOU MAY ONLY SIGN UP TO SPEAK BETWEEN 5:30-6 PM

For more about the school please check out these links:

School website:

www.leffertsgardens.org

One could infer by the Q's printing of the letter that he supports the co-location, and one would be inferring correctly. If you read my post on the school a few days back, I noted that LGCS's board has made the wise move this spring to engage an outside search firm to find an experienced school leader to address the issues that have made the first three years perhaps more difficult than they need to be - basically the fact that there has been no one in charge with the kind of lengthy resume to handle all the pitfalls of a charter startup. Such seasoned leadership is clearly critical, particularly because LGCS does not have a national network behind it. The school could also benefit from a larger, broader and deeper board. But those constructive criticisms should not take away from the extraordinary accomplishments that I've noted, like the warmth of the school, it's awesome curriculum and the strengths of many of its teachers. All wrapped in a wonderful school building...

And at the very same time, PS92 itself is about to lose its longtime leader Diane Rahmaan to retirement. Meaning it too is about to undergo serious changes and next year could very likely mean two brand new principals walking the halls,. And so I say...

WHY THE HECK NOT HAVE TWO COOL, BASICALLY NEW SCHOOLS UNDER ONE ROOF?

Sure it's just my opinion, but then, it's my blog, and that's kinda what it's for.

See you Wednesday. If you care about the way kids around here get edumacated, then why not share an hour of your time on hump night? And by all means, share YOUR opinions below.
 

Weird and Weirderer

So I go into Pioneer last night, Saturday. Different manager than usual. So just to keep the game interesting, I walk up to him as I'm leaving with a couple items and I say "hey, you and Associated around the corner on Flatbush have the same owners?" Beat one. Beat two. "No. Who told you that?" "Lotsa people. Seems it's true. Why would say otherwise?" This is not Hector by the way. Another guy. One you see on Hector's night off. He looks up at the money window. Looks back at me. Shrugs. I say "why don't you guys just tell the truth? Why would you deceive your loyal customers? It's not like we care. I for one am not going to stop shopping here because you're owned by the same people. I just don't like being lied to, and it's a matter of public record that you're owned by the same company. Actually, I don't think any of your customers would appreciate being lied to." One of the cashiers is hiding a laugh. Now the manager is turning red. I ask if I can talk to someone upstairs. He says no, they're busy. I look up. I swear to god, the guy is picking his nose, looking the other way, probably not hearing a word we're saying.

Should I just let it go? I mean...what's going on?

From KFC To TD Bank

Man o Mano the News Is Coming Fast and Furious! You know that sad vacant KFC on Bedford across from the Ebbets Apartments? Turns out TD Bank has applied to turn it into one of its branches, complete with suburban style drive-thru.  This from a neighborhood tipster who actually know how to read those DOB applications.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and call this a net gain for the neighborhood. Too many greasy fast food joints, not enough places to stash your cash. Now, I've always made fun of the name of this Canadian banking franchise. Say it fast enough and it sounds like a topless bar.  But, these days, banks are banks. None of them have any character or stick around for very long. So what's to like or not to like? It's a bank!

For those who are interested in such things (I and I for one), TD's home is Toronto in a Mies van der Rohe skyscraper, and it/they became a player here in NYC when it/they bought up Commerce Bank during the near Great Depression of 2007. It became even bigger after buying Chrysler Financial, which while technically not a bank like you or I might think of it, was, since it lent people billions of dollars money to buy its semi-functional cars, which, since having been bought by Fix It Again Tony (FIAT), I'm told, have become quite a bit more functional, though I don't own a car and don't really care one way or tah other. Over the years, TD bought up all kinds of banks, including ones you might have heard of like Peoples and First Vermont. Kinda fascinating, right?

 
 

This Sunday! Come Be Part Of The Parkside Plaza Renaissance!

This Sunday at Play Kids at 5PM the ever-busy committee to retool the plaza at the Q at Parkside will meet to report, discuss and plan the next stages of what will one day look something like the below:

I don't have time to get into it all here, but suffice to say things are moving fast and furious, though some things will take longer (slow and not-so-furious) than expected due to the renovations of the station itself. Please come and be a part of one of the biggest public works projects in the neighborhood since...um, the Parkside Playground? The Missive de la Committee:

Hi, everyone,

This is just a reminder that the committee to bring a plaza to Parkside Avenue is meeting this weekend

  WHEN:  Sunday, April 7, at 5pm

  WHERE:  Play Kids, 676 Flatbush Ave

  WHO:  Everyone!

On the agenda:  Updates on the last month of progress, and news on our plans for a promotional video to launch our KickStarter fundraising campaign.  (We think we are going to need everyone to turn out for the video shoot in May, and this is your chance to learn more.)

We hope to see you there!

A "Sign" Of Things To Come

From neighbor and reader Bruce comes the clearest indication that, yes, the once Papa & Sons at Lincoln and Flatbush will be a "Wholesome" grocery. Whether it becomes your "go to" choice for last second vittles and "upscale" items, the sign is here:

and another view, from another reader:

Crash on Rogers

Big crash between livery car and van (dollar?) on Rogers this morning. Bruce snapped this shot. Anybody know more?

A Tale of Two Supermarkets...Or Is It One?

Nearly three years ago I pondered the supermarkets around here. As a member of the Park Slope Food Coop I shop there whenever I can, often riding my bike home with crap hanging off the kid seat in the back. But even the Q has to pick up essentials every day or two, or gets lazy, and so The Associated and The Pioneer are my locals of choice. Now, over the past couple years I've heard folks say they have the same owner. Seemed like a good story, so I asked Sammy at the Pioneer when he worked there. "Nope." Still the rumor persisted. I asked the manager at The Associated. A very wooden "no sir." After a couple more questions, he shut down completely. Hmmm. Then after a nice conversation, Hector at Pioneer said "no, why would you think that?" I looked him right in the eye, a la Larry David. Something wasn't right.

Since then I've asked three cashiers, when the managers aren't around. And guess what? They all said, casually, without thinking and without a doubt in their minds, oh yeah they're the same owners. So...what the hell is going on?

I mean, I can understand if maybe they want to give the impression that they're competitors, so we the people think we've got a real choice. But to lie, blatantly? I mean, for all they know, I might be some kind of official or inspector. For all they know, I might be the sort of damn fool who might write a blog or something and might want to call attention to their deceit. What do they get from lying? Seriously, now, I'm looking for out and out speculation. If there's something they're hiding, this amateur sleuth wants to know. It's very, very suspicious if you ask me...