Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

The Q hates himself sometimes for always looking North. There's so much going on south and west of me it's easy to forget I started this blog thing to circumscribe the train station the Q at Parkside. In fact, quite a bit is happening in the microhood I call Caledonia, due to the decades long stint of the Caledonian Hospital on Parkside, now known to the world as 123 on the Park. Those 123-ers have now gone public with the brand new building they're building just next door:

With an entrance on Parkside, it'll function very differently than 123 and change the often quiet and dark stretch a great deal. But once again, like SO many renderings before it, do you notice something about the people drawn in the rendering? Look close:

Yep. You noticed too? Every single one of them is fit as a fiddle and lean as can be. Not a chunker among them. No flab on these cats. The inherent size-ism* is clear as a bell. I mean, what are the chances that six New Yorkers and one kid are going to be trim and fit? I mean, outside Chelsea. For shame.

If I've heard the old saying once I've heard a hundred times: "as East 21st goes, so goes Caledonia." It's a fascinating street, especially "our" section from Woodruff to Caton. I particularly love that one limestone house holding on for dear life, alone and proud. There are two fairly big vacant lots with new projects going up, and one looks like this:

 I'm no architect, but that seems like a whole lot of studios to me. The ones that say "kitchenette," that's like a dead giveaway yes? Or is this an SRO building? Methinks the former. The other site has no rendering, but appears to be developed by a company called Brookland. Here's a ton of projects they're working on all over the borough. Lots and lots of them are in Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, so they clearly have Central Brooklyn on the brain in their wallet.

Those projects alone match all the new development the Q witnessed around here in his first dozen years. As I've mentioned many times, my home road of Clarkson is hosting a steady stream of new projects, many on my own block. I was particularly saddened to learn that this house next to the Haitian Pentecostal church known as Mount of Olives will be torn down by the end of summer:

I remember being told when I first moved here that these two houses were "kind of sketchy." When you hear that word, always be skeptical. The house on the left is essentially the rectory for the church next door. And while they're not the best landscapers, they're about as sketchy as a hipster taking a painting class. Then the house on the right, the one that just sold, is home to an extended family of people so sweet and friendly hardly a day goes by I don't exchange pleasantries with them. They loved hanging on their porch. I learned yesterday that they're decamping for the south. That is, Ditmas Park. Don't cry for them, Argentina. The purchase price was probably well beyond their wildest dreams when they purchased the place decades ago for a song and a small pile of Susan B. Anthony's. But geez Louise I'll miss this little stretch. The brick town houses are apparently being bought too, amassing enough land to make a tear-down scenario likely. Would be a shame, since each is essentially a three family house right now. Three family house with 4-6 mailboxes that is.

*to those who haven't caught on, including the people who regularly email me that all the folks in these pictures are white, I'll let you in on a little secret. My talking about their weight is actually sarcasm, and yeah, I'm noting that they're white. But I don't really want to get into a whole thing about that, because it tends to get defensive and ugly. So shhhhh, don't tell anybody.

More Art - Flatbush Becomes Gallery

This time the artist's name is simply "Elle," and the Q shot a pic as she decorated the corner of Lincoln Road and Flatbush, or technically Washington. Once again, mom & Patio Gardens resident Jenny Ulloa is the curator (she does other things too by the way). As if in stark relief from the much-maligned (on this blog and the Facebook page anyway) "Don't Shoot" mural, this one speaks peace love and flora. Thoughts?

Meet the New Bedford Ave

A number of projects will be coming to Bedford Avenue in the next couple years. This is a bit of a sneak peak. The corner of Winthrop and Bedford has been vacant for many years following a tragic fire. This rendering shows a very "Crown Heights" use of a thin lot. Expect lots more. Number of means-tested units priced significantly below market? Zero. That's okay though. Because we're the sort of neighborhood that's prepared to take years reaching a consensus that will likely never emerge to decide what sort of hopes we have for the future. After returning from your summer vacation at your delightful Upstate fixer-upper, perhaps then will be a good opportunity to sit down over a chai latte and discuss whether we want to build affordable housing around here.

Nice Heat For the Little Lady

Just got this pic w/the below marketing advice in my inbox. I have no idea how I got on this list. But it did remind me of some pretty static statistics that have resonated with me for years. More on that after the pitch that came with that image.

Whether he – or she – is concerned about personal protection and home safety or simply wants to take up shooting as a hobby, most new gun owners (and potential owners) share similar concerns about making that important first purchase. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), more than half of first time gun buyers purchase because they enjoy shooting activities; the next largest group of buyers is women concerned about self-defense.

I suppose this is only tangentially related to the Q's neighborhood, but every time a shooting takes place nearby I hear mutters of "maybe I should get a gun." To most liberals, of course, that's anathema. One useful statistic: a gun is 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide attempt than shot in self-defense. Plus the gun is way more likely to be used in homicides and criminal activity than ever shot to deter an intruder, who quite often isn't an intruder at all but rather someone showing up at your house at the deathly wrong moment. Or, as we hear way to often, an accident happens, often involving a kid. That's why the most lethal item in my house is a kitchen knife. You really gotta work hard to kill someone with that. I'm told (er, I read) that it takes serious effort and perhaps a hunter's skills to kill someone with a knife. I can also imagine that pulling a trigger is less jarring to the soul than repeatedly plunging a knife into someone's back or ribcage. These are the things that fill a blogger's mind at night.

But the more ominous statistic to me is one that lies just behind that picture, the loving scene of (presumably) husband and wife enjoying guns together, knowing that both can rest easier with firearms and and gun safety and shooting competence on their side. And yet, women are nearly 3 times as likely to be killed by gun violence if they have a gun in the home than if they don't. Because when the honeymoon goes south, and domestic disputes turn violent, the dude has a lethal weapon at his disposal that will allow him to make a miserable and un-doable choice. These are also the things that fill a blogger's mind at night.

Why am I writing this? I dunno. Cuz I opened the email I guess.

Must Viewing - One Neighor's Fight Against Greedy Landlords

The Q asks that you consider one tenant's fight with the forces of displacement.  Woodruff neighbor Hany articulates, in splendid detail, the realities of living in an "up and coming" neighborhood. Multiply this story times a thousand or more, and you can explain that feeling you get sometimes that there's a disturbance in the Force. Check it out. Can you relate?

Definitive Article on MTOPP and Boyd?

pic RHS - Yes that's yours truly taking a bath in Alicia's spit

Rachel Holliday Smith attempts to describe the last few months of disruption and divisiveness in an objective manner. God bless her. I know I couldn't do it!

From her article today in DNAInfo. Please read it on the DNA site and give her the "clicks" she deserves. Nicely done, Rachel.

CROWN HEIGHTS — Last September, a woman with a booming voice and shock of curly gray hair walked into the middle of a Community Board 9 meeting and slammed down papers serving the executive board and District Manager Pearl Miles with a lawsuit.

“This community board has been hiding behind all kinds of bulls--t!” shouted Alicia Boyd, the head of an activist group of local residents calling themselves Movement to Protect the People, which had recently been formed to protest the board’s effort to begin a study of rezoning parts of its district in Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens.

“We are not playing!”

Since Boyd likes to knock the RWDs, or Rich White Developers (and who doesn't these days? It's as popular as being "for education"), and since she heavily supported Geoffrey Davis in the Assembly election, and since he got less than 5% of the vote, perhaps I should start referring to her as the leader of the Four Percenters, because that's about as much support as she's drawing right now. As she continues to claim she speaks "for the community," she becomes increasingly marginalized by attacking every single person and group that dares cross her in any way. Now - shockingly - she's turned her ire at the Crown Heights Tenants Union for its support of Diana Richardson. Apparently all the idealistic young white people who've joined forces with longtime tenants of color are simply working for the Man and ready to take over when the timing's right. Any natural ally gets trashed. It's truly, truly remarkable to watch this "piece of work" at work. Though I'm trying desperately to watch from a distance, rather than sit in front of her like in the above picture and try to be Zen. I don't do Zen well.

Don't Shoot

The way you read this may say something about where you're coming from. Curious what y'all think. This went up last night:

The Q rode by while the artist (yes, artist) was making this. Also yes, it was commissioned by The Sneaker King folk, landlord approved. Jenny Ulloa, a mother and resident of Patio Gardens, came up with the idea of putting up some art on the metal gate at 556 Flatbush and she used her vast databank of artist friends to curate artist Russel Murphy, seen here doing the do. Nothing Banksy about it; he was quick to tell the Q his name and Jenny chimed right in. But, the story doesn't end there.

Turns out Russell has already flirted with infamy. A picture taken by photographer Moe Gelber went viral, and the artist known as CASH4 became better known for his girlfriend than for his art. Live by the sword, die by the sword - make public art, deal with public art. But I feel for the guy. Cuz he's no one-hit wonder. So I'm posting some of his other work rather than regurgitate his most well-known pic that he didn't even make - though it's ridiculously romantic, and what's not romantic about making art? By the way, his arrest was due to an unapproved use of public property as canvas, and he ultimately plead guilty to sullying our fair City. More to the point, what he DID get was a cute girlfriend, a brush with immortality, and a chance to deliver a killer serve in the zeitgeist dialectic of the PL&G. So...who's first to strike back?

Diana Wins Big

9:35: Looking good! with 3/4 of the precincts in she's got 48% of the vote. Shirley's under 30%. Menachem's around 18%. Geoffrey's way back. Kinda surprised by that actually. Didn't he WIN an election for district leader?

9:40: Let's call this thing for Diana and head on over to her party at the church on Hawthorne tween Nostrand and NY Avenue.

My cheap analysis? Weak candidate put up by a King County Democratic Committee that was sleeping on the job. So I hear (I'm no expert) there could have been 200 people on the committee but only 10 were on when Karim Camara stepped down. Embarassing yes. But hardly a loss for the community. As a result of the chaos, we get an actual Assemblywoman we can work with.

Such an odd scene today on Parkside near the PS92 polling place. Eric Adams and Diana Richardson, mere feet apart, but such a psychic distance. C'mon y'all. Kiss and make-up. We're gonna need everyone on the same team to fight our biggest battles.

THEN CAME THE AFTER THE PARTY AT THE CHURCH OVER ON HAWTHORNE (I think it's called St. Gabriel's? After Gabe Kaplan from Welcome Back, Kotter I suspect).

The Q was happy to see so many local union leaders and rank and file whooping it up. The Crown Heights Tenants Union was there and other tenant organizers. A suprisingly broad coalition of elected officials from Scott Stringer and Jumaane Williams to Kevin Parker and Brad Lander to Yvette and Una Clarke were quick to take credit and congratulate their buddy. Conspicuously absent, of course, were longtime Central Brooklyn power couple BP Eric Adams and State Senator Jesse Hamilton, who, in my view, needlessly supported a weaker candidate. Sign of a splinter in the monolithic Democratic power structure? Nah. I spoke to a couple people who feel DR was simply the stronger candidate, and would have made a better choice from the git-go. It's all good, and I suspect after a day of nursing wounds it'll all be hunky dory. If it's not, that would be bad for us all.

What was perhaps most striking of all, however, was the anemic support for Geoffrey Davis. Was yours among the hundreds of cars graced with MTOPP flyers urging you to vote for him? If anything, it seems to have hurt him, as he barely managed more votes than the typical opinion poll's margin of error. See, I think MTOPP, with all of its anger and vengeance for the Community Board, has forgotten that the Community Board is a very minor player that hardly anyone cares about. I'm not being flip; it's really a tiny piece of the puzzle. CB9 is Alicia's neighbors. Corruption only counts when you have any power. Ain't no one on the Community Board getting bought out by developers. Because read my lips...nobody cares. And apparently, no one cares about her endorsement either.

It's all good. Keep an eye on this lady though. Diana's young, and she's an excellent speaker and a strategic thinker. She knows the right people and she can win friends and influence people. May she stay true to her core principles and not fall prey to the temptations of office. Frankly, and this might sound sexist, but I trust a woman in power more than a man. And yes, that's an early endorsement for you know who as well. It's time, and she ain't half bad.

Newcomers: Yes, You're Entitled to Vote

Don't let your recent change of address scare you away. You're entitled to vote in today's special election by affidavit if you live in the 43rd Assembly District. The forms will be there at your polling station. If you want to know where to vote, go here:

http://nyc.pollsitelocator.com/

It's pretty simple. You're probably going to either PS375 on Sullivan & Franklin, PS92 on Parkside tween Bedford and Rogers, or PS249 - the Caton School - just south of the Parade Ground. But look it up to be sure.

Affidavit votes get counted in a close enough election, which this will probably be. So vote, y'all! This is about our future, our present, and whose mug we're going to have to look at for the next, I dunno dozen years or more.

District map:

Send Diana Richardson To the NY State Assembly

 Here's some video of Diana talking to Brooklyn Independent Media, and she's the candidate I wholeheartedly endorse.



For some comparison, here's Diana and Shirley at the PLGNA forum, thx to videographer and neighbor Barnabas Wolf, finally available just in time for perusal:

Shirley Patterson

Diana Richardson

Then the NY1 debate that includes Menachem and Geoffrey.

Look, there's nothing inherently wrong with the other candidates. They are capable people who are leading interesting and thoughtful lives. But Diana wants this gig. She wants to make her mark, and her enthusiasm is fun to be around. Yeah she's gonna butt heads with people. She's edgy. She can be funny and sarcastic. But she's Brooklyn through and through. Don't tell me that personality isn't part of this thing. People dig Diana because she's genuine. Keep your eye on her; she's going places. And I kinda dig that she's not the insider candidate. Always good to mix things up a bit.

In this very, very strange election, we have a rare opportunity to choose the outsider candidate, the one who speaks her mind and (I believe) really IS unbossed.

This is a kinda a big deal folks. People have a tendency to go to the State Capitol and stay there a long, long time. It may be forever before you have a real choice in the matter. Speak up. Send a signal. Vote DR.