123 On the PARK

After many, many years of sitting fallow, the once rugged Caledonian Hospital is set to return from the dead like a great Scottish Lion. That is to say, rather than having to become ill or heavy with child to take up room at the Great Inn of Caledonia you can now rent a studio, one, two or even three bedroom apartment for (probably) anywhere from 2 to 3 thousand Simoleons, who knows maybe more. And while literally thousands of Brooklynites breathed their first sweet breath in the building now dubbed 123 on the Park, it was never a beautiful building. But it what it does have in spades is an abundance of front lawn. That lawn, divided from the Castle by a two-way moat named Parkside Avenue, is known to locals as the Park of Prospect, and in the following video from the newly operational website 123onthepark.com, you can see that it is the SOLE reason at this point to consider buying a condo therein. Take a look:

Nary a word about the building, the laundry room, the price, the size, no floor plans or ceiling plans, nor even closet sizes nor whether there's on-site parking. Just pictures of the front lawn in all its warm weather glory. Makes you wonder if they're renting apartments or campsites.

But I did capture the rendering, poorly, one night a couple months ago, so we do know that the end product will look something thusly, though probably less blurry and reflecty:

Unless the development has been led by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, wrapping the building in, say, Saran wrap, it will likely NOT have a shiny transparent plastic veneer as above. It IS however an 80/20 building in the sense that 80% of the residents will be skinny tall white women (pictured) and the remaining 20% will be set aside for "other." Overweight humans need not apply, but there will be a certain set-aside for fat pets.

There's still room for more building (I haven't investigated what's happening with that - last I heard there was trouble getting permission to build a new second structure), but no politician or power-broker ever expressed any interest in engaging the buyer Chetrit in any way. Where the mere mention of an out-of-context dormer might cause ear-shattering gasps on the Slope side of the park, you could hear the sucking sound as you exit the air lock into outer space as the world basically said "really? they're going to do what with that? are you serious? who? why? okay, whatever" and moved on to talking about the latest culinary "find" along Vanderbilt or Dekalb or Franklin or somewhere in Bed-Stuy. Despite it being one of the most major projects along the second greatest urban park* in the world in decades, 123 has flown pretty much under the radar. This to me a sign of what has long been Flatbush's backwater status, that the building would go from hospital to poorly run medical arts center to abandoned property to luxury apartment building without so much as a whimper from pols or outcry from block associations or community boards or anyone getting up in arms about the trash and graffiti over the last many years. I mean am I overstating it? It's really, really odd.  In a certain way, this building has been a stand-in narrative of what was and is and will be of Brooklyn herself. From its old-world beginnings as an outgrowth of the post-turn-of-last century's gentry's concern for the health of their poor countrymen (the Scots), to its new post-turn-of-this century's concern for the health of the new gentry (the Hips), Caledonian has lived a century of change.

In fairness, this is about as good a turn of events as one could hope in the current environment of, ho hum, laissez faire blah and blah. Roughly 100 years ago folks of means were scrounging together coin to create a hospital for mostly indigent immigrants (check out this wild page from The Caledonian) to build the hospital below, the first structure of which was basically a converted house and eventually the building to be luxury condos as we know her today:

Early in my Brooklyn years a friend was rushed to the E.R. here. Ah, the memories!



*guess which is first...you might be wrong!

Earthquake? Frost Quake? What WAS That Anyway?

Last Thursday and Friday many residents in the vicinity of the 626 Flatbush demolition were freaked the eff out by what felt like a seismic event. I've heard from a number of people near the site that they experienced a crazy rattling of their houses that scared the bejesus out of them. From a neighbor all the way on the other side of Flatbush:

It actually happened on Thursday and Friday. The worst was on Thursday, the 6th. Just before noon there were loud booms sounds that shook the house. They sounded like they were coming from my roof. I would liken it to the sound of very close-by pile-driving. Or as if someone was banging (hard) against the side of the house. Literally, the roof was shaking and vibrating, the cabinet doors to my closet were rattling as did the windows. This went on repeatedly for at least an hour to an hour and a half. I thought that our roof joists were in structural failure and that I should perhaps evacuate my house. I did actually back up the important files I was working on, just in case.

These subsided for the rest of the afternoon until around 5pm when they started again for about a ½ hour. It was during this time that I was talking to my mother-in law who had just read a story it that day’s paper about these strange frost quakes that have been happening in various places around the Midwest and Ontario. It was an AP story that was picked up by many news organizations. The descriptions and weirdness seem to jive as well as the fact that they happen after a rapid dip in temperature. These booms happened again on Friday about 11:45 for about 15 minutes and around 2 pm for a few minutes. My next door neighbor was home on Friday and she felt them also.

Frost quakes? Y'all know what the heck happened? Did you experience this too? Was it related to demolition? And why is there now a Stop Work Order at 626? Please share any and all!

I Lurp, ULURP, We All Lurp For Islip

Folks have been asking what went down at the ULURP (Universal Land Use Review Process) committee mtg this past Wednesday, and well, let's just say it got a bit convoluted and confusing by the end, so much so that I spent some time on Thursday and Friday tracking down folks from the meeting to double-check I got things right, and that the notes to the meeting were logged properly. Now that the dust is settled, I think it's all pretty clear, at least in my mind. It should have been clear to begin with, but the problem is...let me explain as simply and concisely as I can manage, since I'm by no means an expert and have had to ask experts at many steps along the way. And as always Pearl Miles is there to help guide the process along.

As I've been "reporting" here over the past few months, the building at 626 Flatbush has galvanized a sizable portion of Leffertsonians to confront what they see as an unwelcome (literal) development. The 23-story luxury tower (okay, 20% go to affordable housing due to public financing) on a previously six-story only stretch (okay, Patio Gardens being an exception) from Empire on down has struck many as out of context. It mirrors a previous star-crossed development that folks fought a few years back, a similarly-sized glass tower to go on Lincoln Road where the current more modest development is rising next to the Prospect Park Station. The economy killed that one, though the opponents specifically asked City Planning to rezone the area to prevent such future buildings. They said no, they're broke. Okay, we've got all that straight, right?

The reason 626 can build 23 stories is that the zoning, dating from WAY back, allows it. R7-1 they call it. The developer Hudson maxed out its legal ("as of right") options and built as tall as it could on the plot of land that they bought. And what could be wrong with that? Technically nothing. Accept for the fact that they received public financing which required an "environmental review" which should have included a detailed study of the effect of their building on the surrounding area. They clearly didn't do that. AND it's been brought to my attention that they didn't pay attention to other not so minor details, though it may just be technicalities unworthy of lawsuit. Folks are looking into that. Oh, and there IS a lawsuit.

So FAR so good. (that's a little zoning joke by the way, and if you got it, you're ready to slurp up some ULURP baby!)

Now comes the meeting on Wednesday. The group PPEN and others were there to demand immediate change to the zoning. Downzoning in fact, from R7-1 to something more contextual. That process, we learned through Richard Bearak of the Borough President's office, takes time. A good deal of time. And study. And money allocated by the City and affected council members. Enter ULURP process and blah blah blah. So, concurrent with this request, the group is asking (pretty please) for a moratorium on NEW construction that is not contextual. The committee figures the only way that can happen is by Mayoral decree, SO we all figured if you want something from the Mayor you might want to ask the new Borough President Eric Adams to go to bat, since (no offense sir) our council person don't know shit from shinola and certainly doesn't know how to lead on this kind of stuff (where was he, or at least a representative?) nor does he have any clout with anyone in City Hall anyway. (For more fun on him there's this from today. The bit about him is halfway through the column.) Given the fact that PPEN had written a letter asking Adams for the moratorium, and given the fact that he had vociferously voiced dismay at the tower, I figured I'd send him a note asking for a meeting and he politely agreed. A bunch of us are meeting with him sometime next week. Who knows what will come of it, but at least we'll make some noise and ask for attention and maybe even some kind of sanity to the building process. And it'll be nice to see our old friend Eric in his new digs!

Now here's where it gets kinda weird. At this very same meeting came a plea from the head of the Jewish Community Council of Crown Heights, Eli Cohen I believe, representing 60(!) synagogues in the NE quadrant of our Community Board 9 that is known as the international home of Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidim, since that's where its beloved rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson led the sect out of 770 Eastern Parkway. (To those who go or are thinking of going to PS770 The New American Academy, the number was chosen by founder Shimon Waronker for that very reason. Hey, and the DoE gave it to him! What baitsim on that guy!).

What was ironic was that they were asking for UPzoning in their neck of the woods, from R2 and R4 to R6. A lengthy conversation ensued on precisely what this meant, and I've since come to understand that Jewish families living in mostly single and two-family dwellings along blocks like Carroll and Union east of New York Avenue have been trying desperately to add on to existing structures to accommodate bigger and bigger families, but they've not been allowed to do so by strict building enforcement. Mike Cetera, the ULURP committee chair "running" the meeting, explained that all sorts of creative means to maximize livable square footage have been employed, and it's to the point where many houses are practically R6 now by default. I don't know from R6, but I can certainly see the JCC's point. Though it's pretty much the OPPOSITE concern that you hear expressed by landmark districts! The JCC wants to build all manner of up and out to the classy old townhouses, and landmark folk want to keep them as is. It's a funny mixed up world. But like Rodgers and Hammerstein said, the Farmer and the Cowman can be friends. Or the Hassid and the Brownstoner can be friends. O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A Oklahoma. Yow! Or Crown Heights-Lefferts. Oy!

Folks from an area called Dodgertown (SE quadrant, like Winthrop out toward Utica Ave) want to downzone to preserve their cute houses (check 'em out some time) because ugly tall buildings have started to crowd in and they're worried about developers buying up two or three of their houses and putting them up right in the middle of their nifty development. Nostrand Avenue could soon look like a mini-4th Avenue in Park Slope without a downzone. In this hot market, anything is possible, and now, not later, is the time to get this process moving.

If you come to this month's full Community Board meeting, we'll be voting on whether to formally request the moratorium on new construction along Flatbush, and whether to add the JCC's recommendation and PPEN's recommendation to our proposed areas to be studied by the City Planning Commission. Other areas that need to be looked at, now's the time to do it. I'll try to post the newly developed zoning map as soon as possible so you can see where your area stands. But dag nabbit it'll only be for CB9. I wish I had three brains and six legs so I could do CB14 too, but I'm sure Ditmas Park Blog will keep us up to date on all that.

Tired.

So Long 111 Clarkson

Before it gets torn down to make way for a new apartment building, the Q would like to pay his respects with this lovely photo, sent to me by neighbor Brent. Addio amore mio, sniff sniff...

And for good measure, the interior, circa 1978:

The Q's School Tool: Part 9: PS770 New American Academy

What can the Q say? Parents and kids love this school. The teachers get universal raves from parents I've gotten to know from the playground. The principal, Jessica Saranovsky, was one of the first "master teachers" at Shimon Waronker's brave experiment in team-taught 60-kid giant classrooms, and by all accounts she's smart, hands-on, and super-accessible. If you're considering the school for pre-K or kindergarten next year, it's time to get on the ball and go check it out. Just three more open houses before the February 13 public school kindergarten online sign-up deadline. Here are the dates and times at PS 770, otherwise known as The New American Academy:

February 6 at 5:30 pm
February 11 at 10 am
February 13 at 10 am


View Larger Map

If the day's decent, it's a half hour walk, or a 10 minute bike ride from Tugboat, due east. Or take an Empire bus, or the B-12 along Clarkson, or an IRT to Utica and walk down along Lincoln Terrace Park. Think this is too far east for you, in that way that east means trouble? Just wait a couple years. With Utica the next express stop on the 3 and 4 trains, you can already see this is the next area to "pop." I'm told speculators are already buying up buildings, and yes you already see young college grads moving in out there. Lordy lordy, who would've thunk.

If you want to email Principal Saratovsky, here you go.

I've discussed the NAA a bunch in the past, so I kinda feel like I'm treading on old linoleum, but the fact is I've done a fair amount of follow-up with parents to see whether the good news of an actually strong school in District 17 (I know, quite a shock) was actually true. The Q spent a good deal of time talking to founder Waronker, whose Harvard PhD studies led him to the conclusion that the "Prussian Model" of education is too rigid and conformist and that a new "flow" needs to be cultivated. Frankly, he may be stretching the extent of New American's breaking of new ground, but he's clearly a thinker and puts nearly all the emphasis on instruction and supporting it. He's got four teachers in each grade, working together, with the master teacher making a decenter living that your average DOE teacher, via a special arrangement with the union. The team teacher deal is that rather than teaching in isolation, the four get together every morning to plan and assess and divide and conquer (well, divide and facilitate would probably be a better phrase). The school is economically diverse (yes, that's a PLUS silly) and despite being practically to Brownsville the neighborhood is not unlike Flatbush so no need to invest in a suit of armor. School buses are provided for those in district and more than 1/2 mile away.

So what's the downside? Well, for one, it's a young school, and not all the pieces are in place. The PTA is up and running, but money for the extras is tight. I know just how they feel, with my kid doing pre-K at PS705, a school even younger than 770. You really start to realize how much work goes into getting a school to the level of "established." What do you need to do that exactly? Well, you need a great principal, great teachers, a committed parent body, a decent facility, students eager to learn, and at least enough money to keep the ball rolling and retain some talent. Though a lot of times it's the principal who can retain the talent through great leadership and encouragement and support, not just the dough. You need too, in my view, a commitment to the arts and extra-curriculars and after-school, and safety, and a PTA devoted to building community and raising some money. Does 770 have those? You bet. BUT...it's a bit of a hike. Yeah, that matters. No parent who's being honest will deny it's heading the WRONG WAY! Even if it's only psychological, we're all oriented towards Manhattan, or at least downtown Brooklyn, and for years the mental calculus was to fear the east. East New York, Brownsville, even East Flatbush, seemed to be where the negative energy was. And yet, a lot of those stereotypes seem just that once you move to central Brooklyn and actually live among real people instead of watching them on the 10 o'clock news.

Look, I'll level with you. I've done my homework and PS92 and PS375 out and out suck. We need new leadership in both of them and the sooner the better. I've got plenty of info to base that on, and anyone who reads this blog knows that our superintendent for district 17 is a piece of work, and has been under investigation (I even got called for questioning.) I'm not going to lie to you...we've got a lot of work to do over here. But between the lefferts charter school, 770, 705, 249 (don't argue with me, it's a great little school and the parents who go there give it raves, it just might not be a gentrifier school...yet) AND  don't forget that tons of folks go to other schools not too far away in other districts that DIDN'T lie about their addresses, and, well, it's not really so bad as all that. 

For those craving details, here's some more on the methodology of NAA:

 1) Four Person Teaching Team: P.S 770 teacher teams work with the same 60-65 students within a grade-level cohort. In addition to a Master Teacher, each team includes licensed Special Education and English Second Language (ESL) teachers. Research has shown that four or five person teams provide the optimal balance between too many and too few voices. Teams allow for transparency, positive peer-pressure, multiple perspectives, and a diverse range of skill sets. Team-based models are common across a diverse range of sectors from the military to healthcare, and are being used with great success in schools across Victoria, Australia. Education, particularly in urban neighborhoods challenged by low socio-economic status, is a complex task deserving of the same professionalism that is now standard in other sectors.
 
2) Looping Cycles: Looping allows for the development of trust and meaningful relationships between students, parents, and their teaching team, and have been proven to improve student learning both nationally and internationally. The relationships developed encourage greater parent involvement, student-to-student interdependence, and allows for targeted and differentiated teaching. Our students loop with their classmates and teaching team for five years, with a constant of at least one teacher each year. Moreover, looping allows the teacher/s on a team to inform new teacher members of students’ learning profiles so that instruction can begin on the first day of school without having to spend weeks to get to know students and acculturate them into the classroom. Looping also provides a powerful and organic accountability system, as each teacher team will ultimately be directly responsible for their students’ scores in the testing grades.

3) Mastery-based Career Ladder: Research has shown that a quality teacher is the greatest single determinant of student academic success. Unfortunately, teacher ability and development is often not recognized or rewarded. A career ladder provides a continuum for teacher growth that is both supported and incentivized. The TNAA four-step career ladder (apprentice, associate, partner, master) is based on demonstrated ability, culminating with the Master Teacher. P.S 770 teachers receive higher salaries than their DOE counterparts with Master Teachers earning $120,000. This attracts and retain quality teachers and ensure that the most talented teachers can remain in the classroom directly supporting student learning.

4) Multi-dimensional Teacher Evaluation System: Good teaching is complex and nuanced. TNAA teacher evaluation system draws upon a diverse range of indicators, including student testing data, peer review, and Danielson-based classroom observations to create a holistic and accurate measure of teacher performance. Our teacher evaluation will allow us to promote and reward those teachers who are effective and to remove those who are not.

5) Lower Teacher/Student Ratio: Each four-person teacher team works with a group of 60-65 students. A 15:1 teacher student ratio has been shown to increase student achievement .3-.45 standard deviation per year in grades K-210 and allows for more personalized attention for every student. By flattening our organizational structure and by redistributing external resources to the classroom we are able to have four fully licensed teachers per team.

6) Embedded Master Teacher: Each four-person team includes a Master Teacher. Earning $120,000, these highly skilled professionals provide support to all students in their classroom and serve as mentors to the three other members of their team. Master Teachers provide minute-to- minute coaching, support, and feedback and ensure best practice and appropriate rigor. Integral members of each team, they are in the classroom all day, every day. In addition to raising the quality of instruction team-wide, an embedded Master Teacher also ensures that inexperienced teachers are never left alone to “sink or swim” at the expense of student learning.

7) Five Week Summer Training Program: Our five-week summer training program begins with a week-long seminar at Harvard. Created in collaboration with Professors’ Barry Jentz, Katherine Boles and Eileen McGowan of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and Professor Baruch Bush of Hofstra University, this seminar goes beyond standard professional development to focus on in-depth communication, reflection, and listening skills. Critical for any team-based environment, these skills enable our teacher-teams to maximize their collective potential and to avoid the interpersonal pitfalls and misunderstandings that often hamper collaborative efforts. These skills are then practiced throughout the next four weeks as teams create their curriculum maps, management systems, and curricula for the school year. Our five-week summer training program forms the foundation for our professional development program that continues throughout the year. While newly formed teams will participate in the entire five-week program, returning teams participate in two weeks of summer training and in an annual school-wide curriculum planning week that takes place at the end of each school year.

8) Six-Step Hiring Process: Effective hiring and retention is the foundation of organizational well- being. The TNAA six step hiring process includes a written application, phone interview, group unit building activity, panel interview, reference checks, and demo lesson. As candidates progress through this process they are observed and assessed by parents, teachers, and administrators. This ensures that the candidates who are selected have been vetted multiple times and are a good fit for the school community.

9) Reflective Practice: Reflection is the key to improvement. We reflect as a community, as teams, and as individuals to improve our practice. In addition to the daily ninety minutes of conference time each day, every team has one and a half hours each week dedicated to group reflection.

71st Precinct Newsletter

Lend a Farming Family a Hand?

You may know that, come spring, your neighbors are working on bringing a farmer's market to Parkside Plaza, aka the Q station at Parkside and Ocean. The farming family who works with the nonprofit that is coordinating the market needs help, tho. While they are currently serving Brooklyn families at the Brower Park and Metz Park markets in Crown Heights, the Hildebrants haven't been able to fully plant their 45 acres since the death of "Farmer Roy" Hildebrant. They have started a fundraiser to buy seed, plant, and pay off liens incurred from Roy's illness.

The amount may look huge, but unlike with Kickstarter, YouCaring.com fundraisers disburse your pledges immediately. So even the smallest amount will help Michelle Hildebrant, her kids, and their farm. And, eventually, us in PLG too!

Click here to give: You Caring.com

Below's a vid of Farmer Roy turning on folk to the joys of tomatoes at the Crown Heights Farmer's Market:

About Time That Building Came Down, I Wreckin'

626 Flatbush is in full demo-mode. A couple days ago some folks were peeved, saying it reeked that the wrecking wreaked havoc on a Saturday, since usually you can't do big demo on the weekend. I asked the gentlemen rerouting traffic on the sidewalk to show me their permit, and while they knew not they let me view the permit case and sure enough there at the top, recently posted, was a special Saturday demolition permit.

I've often wondered how one attains one of these. I mean, think about it. The rule is meant to protect neighbors from undo noise and dirt-raising. And yet, those same neighbors aren't consulted in order to get a special permit for weekend or night work. Like, who hears the case and decides it's okay? Very odd.

Granted no one's gonna miss the sorry taxpayer that was there before. Still, there's an eerie sense of drama surrounding the coming rise of the Flabenue from a dusty cradle. As one smart aleck put it "Brooklyn is growing up." As another Alec put it (actually Alexander the Great) "Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal." However, the original Alec of Smart Alec(k) was a gentleman named Alexander Hoag who, along with his hooker wife used to rob Johns of their possessions while the deed was being brokered. Which begs the question, since she was Alec's wife: was she actually a hooker or did she just pretend to get the loot? And who is John?

From a neighbor on Ocean and a crane shot from the internets, here's the action in action:

More Development - Hawthorne This Time

Hawthorne street between Rogers and Nostrand to get a little "lift" in the air. The listing certainly leaves no ambiguity:

Brand new DEVELOPMENT LOT in Lefferts Gardens! Be a part of the building boom going on in this most sought after neighborhood. The lot is 40x106 zoned R6 with a Far 2.43 or 10,000 square feet , there is also the possibility of increasing the FAR to seven stories with off street parking or high lot coverage typically allows for more apartments than might be achievable under height factors regulations. Sanborn map 310019, tax map 31601. Call now for this unique opportunity!

Building Boom. Sought-after neighborhood.

It seems clear to the Q that you can expect all the Victorian and detached homes in the area outside the Historic District to start getting offers. There are a few strings of unprotected rowhouses as well. Clarkson has a set of neglected brick rowhouses that come to mind. Do you have any that seem ripe for the picking?

Community Welcomes Deputy Inspector George Fitzgibbon

pic by Sonja Sharp/DnaInfo

Thursday night at the new community room in the basement of Play Kids, a bunch of us said hello to the newish precinct commander at the 71st, George Fitzgibbon. He was accompanied by longtime community affairs officer Vinnie Martinos. The two kindly offered more than an hour of their time to answer questions and offer perspective on the sorts of issues that have concerned folks around here for...for...well, for a long or short time depending on the issue and your length of residency.

Serious crime, for instance. It's not the "busiest" precinct in the City, but we've got our problems, as the year ending last September will attest. Fitzgibbon was quick to point out his early tenure successes busting a serial robber and stings on drug dealers. He talks a lot about working with detectives and narcotics officers from Brooklyn South and investigators from the D.A.'s office. Questions about gangs or "crews" led to a discussion of graffiti, clearly on the rise 'round here. And while gangs aren't a specialty of the commander's, he's well aware of the threat and presence of crews and we urged him to keep a keen eye on certain hot spots where locals block crews seem to operate. We spoke of specific corners and buildings of concern. It's our hope that they be targeted for increased enforcement. To be clear, we're talking about routine offenders - the folks we ALL know to be trouble, not random folk who happen to be talking to each other or hanging out. So please guys...take the time and get to know who's who! Our little "task force" has been helpful in identifying EXACTLY where those spots are, and we'll try to keep the pressure on. If you'd like to add to the list of hot spots, or reinforce our "database," please comment here! And to be part of the group (we number around 75 on the email list) please write me here.

As for traffic concerns, Fitzgibbon says he takes them seriously. But despite the clear urgency in the tone of a question from concerned resident Alex Ely, it does not appear to the Q that the commander has a firm grasp of just how out of hand the driving can get on the Flabenue. He does claim he'll be cracking down on illegal and irresponsible Dollar Vans (here here!), but his first response to our concerns was to note the recklessness of jaywalkers. Granted, jaywalking is a big safety problem, and folks all over town are starting to get jaywalking tickets as of the beginning of this year (now THAT is newsworthy - whoa - jaywalker getting tickets - in NYC - that's as big news as the first tickets for beers in paper bags back in the 90s) But that's not what we were talking about. Jaywalkers take their lives in their hands, to be sure, and can cause drivers headaches, but rampant speeding, dodging and redlight running is what we were talking about. (You gotta admit it's gotten better since the new traffic patterns.) Hopefully this conversation will lead to a better understanding of the nature of the problem. Look, we're not getting speed cameras (the State won't do it - see chart of U.S. states and their camera laws), and obviously traffic is fairly low on this precinct's list of priorities. (By the way, if you click that chart, note that NY State allows cameras for red light offenses ONLY in cities bigger than 1 million people. If ever there was a law that described the divide between NYC and NY State lawmakers, that's it! But if they can do it for stoplights, why not speed? This is definitely something to bring to State officials attention. Their longtanding answer that "it can't be done" is clearly bull. Like most of what comes out of Albany).

Deputy Inspector Fitzgibbon promised that he has an eye on the Parkside Playground. The day following the Thursday night meeting he texted me that two drug busts had gone down in our area. Hey, this is the guy we got, and he seems to be a straight-shooter, and able to tell us to our face if he is or ain't gonna do something. He's moved a lot of officers around to suit his style of commandeering, and promised to respond to concerns as we make them known. Sir, consider yourself welcome by the gang. That is, the gang that isn't the other kind of gang.

One last thing I noted, and it's not the first time I've heard it or sensed it. Regardless of what you think of the cops, they're human. Which means they respond to positive feedback as well as negative. When they do something well, we need to let them know that too. I'm reminded of just how well the Chabad community does at establishing bonds with the precinct. Members of the "community police" Shomrim were developing that relationship from the moment Fitzgibbon stepped in (see pic from the ever-informative CrownHeights.info). Granted those of us who call Lefferts home aren't tied together by religion (though many of us share the same church - the Q train at Parkside, aligned as we are in a line with our brothers and sisters at Prospect Park or Church Ave, contiguous sects of the denomination known as "Brightonism"). And yet one would hope that on many issues we can speak with one voice, as it were.

Bottom line? This is it. The bottom line of the post. Or rather, now THIS is the bottom line.