Here They Come...Council Wannabes Start Their Engines

The single least engaged, least effective Councilperson in all of NYC. Maybe ever? That's yours folks! Mathieu Eugene. Google him. Try to find his online presence, beyond old youtube videos with computerized voiceovers. If you're not aware of the extraordinary lameness of this do-nothing, you should really do your research. Then, consider the alternatives in the upcoming election.

The "democratic" election for President has come and gone. That means...time to gear up for the City elections for 2017. The Q has already noted the emergence of Brian Cunningham, who grew up not spittin' distance from the Q on Lenox, as a strong contender. Now we can add another soft-announced candidate - Pia Raymond - to the slate. She's the head of the Nostrand Avenue Merchant's Association, and a clear favorite of State Senator Jesse Hamilton, who was a clear favorite of BP Eric Adams. My point is that these folks don't just "appear" out of thin air. They're groomed, they put out their feelers, put in their time. Pia has led her "Creating Legacies" project, and already has about 1000% more goodwill and online presence going for her than the current Councilperson. Still, Cunningham has some deep connections too.

Given that both those candidates seem to be more known in the NE portion of Eugene's district, I'd put my money on a run by current Flatbush District Leader Josue Pierre as well. He's been positioning himself ever since Ed Powell gave up his District Leader JUST IN TIME for Pierre to step in and win it. Calculated, yes. He's more known in the 70th Precinct/CB14 area. It should be noted that all three of these possible candidates sport deep roots, a near necessity around here in order to drum up big support. And don't forget the churches! You can't win without the backing of the Christians around here. Try to make a heathen understand that and you get nowhere. It's like trying to explain why half the country is Pro-Life. Does not compute, does not compute.

The pictures tell the story. These three will be part of your politics for some time, the "next generation" if you will. With Laurie Cumbo, Diana Richardson, Rodneyse Bichotte, Walter Mosley, Jumaane Williams...there's a lot of talented African and Caribbean American candidates in House Flatbush. God knows the Nation needs all of them. And no funny business!

To date, the Q's noted the

A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

(some of you - a very, very small number of you - may recall the name of this post from Donald Kaul in the morning paper.  Like I said, a very, very, very small number of you...name the city the newspaper was from and I'll buy you an ackee patty)

This poster started showing up 'round hear, this one near the Sanitation Garage at Parkside and NY Avenue. Terrific graphics. Did it go up before the election? Eerie.

New York Avenue has turned into a new ground zero for slapdash market rate apartment buildings. Wouldn't have guessed it a dozen years ago. Tons of new construction. The building at Hawthorne is particularly loomy, and is going up breathtakingly fast. And how about the burned out soon-to-be-renovated building at  665 New York Avenue, where a terrible fire broke out four years ago? Lighting literally struck 100 or so families, and not the lucky kind. Some tenants have never given up on moving back in, though it's doubtful any will. Prices will have changed drastically, though there may be some recourse here if previous tenants are willing to engage the system. A broken, overburdened system to be sure. Some, as in the owners, might be more inclined to describe the lightning as the lucky kind.

 

Disc Mart - Wanted To Know Thee

Sorry to see the above shoppe go. It was perhaps the most unique record store around, featuring a deep trove of Africa and Africa Diasporan music anywhere. Though truth be told the owner was downright mean when I first popped in a few years ago. As I started browsing his amazing collection of Islands music, he grunted "you buying? Saw you take a picture. Seems more like stealing." I engaged him in some terse tit-for-tat, then he calmed down when he realized I wasn't a journalist or art photographer. Seems people had been by at some point and used his sign in a book and didn't pay him anything. I browsed a bit, just to piss him off, then walked out tossing a "have a warm and fuzzy day" for kicks. I figured he was one of those guys from the black power generation that didn't much care for my presence. How simplistic and solipsistic was my read on the fellow! Let me explain...

Just yesterday I was talking to a helpful young African-American fellow who works at Kings County Nursery, under the gruff older guy, you know, the uncle-y guy who kinda scares you a little bit? Seems like he coulda been an extra on The Sopranos. I still can't tell if he's actually a sweetie...I should ask Joe. I mean he knows his stuff. But anyway, I'm not talking about him, I'm talking about the young fellow. When I pointed to the Disc Mart shoppe in question he says "oh yeah that old guy was mean, real mean. Nobody ever wanted to go in there. He chased me out once." And I thought it was just me, and/or about race. Turns out, he was a a bit of meanie. And the old guy from Kings County? Still don't know. But ask anyone - I don't scare easy, and, well, he kinda scares me. Poor little Miss Clarkson Flatbed, Jr. I think he reminded her of Burgermeister Meisterburger. She couldn't let go of my leg last time we went.

And dang if that hulk of a Hudson project at Nostrand and Clarkson ain't almost done. Remember that cute movie theater that used to was there? Hadn't been a movie theater in ages, but I always thought it could make a sweet community center or something. Shows how naive I was. Am.

 

Lastly I just want to kvetch a bit about these damn buttons at crosswalks. Look at this one at Lincoln Road and Ocean. That light is interminable. But look at this button. "Department of Traffic." What the hell is that?  Something dreamed up by the Board of Estimate? And there's the sign that tells you push it, put there by the more contemporary Dept of Transportation, but you KNOW in your head that it does nothing to push it, you can't help but push it anyway, because you never know, you know? Then you push it again, for good measure, hoping nobody sees your act of quite desperation. Why don't they remove the sign? Or change the button? Or stop torturing us? If I were the Chair of Transportation at the Community Board well I oughta...

Local Meeting of KKK Taking Place At This Kar Klubhouse

It always sux to be vandalized. And when the key-ed graffiti on your car reads KKK, it probably doesn't stand for Kit-Kat-Klub. This was awaiting a reader on his car this week.

I'm sure you too have noticed the uptick of anti-Caucasian graffiti. But take heart...as with the hate speech that seems to be growing against all groups, it's not a movement. Isolated, and kind of pathetic. A lot of people feel angry and fearful these days. Some feel emboldened. Should heighten our resolve to keep our lovin' gloves on, not the boxing sort.

Classy Trashy

Not long ago I found an empty tin of sardines next to a newspaper on the seats for the inbound Q. It never occurred to me to grab the salty fish at the start of my day, down a few minnows and hop on the rail to work. I made a mental note of it, and was reminded on Election morning by a similarly surprising

It wasn't a trash day, and there were no litter bags nearby, opened or otherwise. The offending item had not been there the previously evening. (The Q has been self-appointed the Sidewalk Litter Sheriff for my quarter of a block.) Yet, nestled against the ivy, was this item, seemingly tossed in the manner of so many fast food wrappers:

Could it be that some pedestrian was mixing a Kale Caesar Salad right at my front gate? Was someone eating the Organic Valley Parmesan Cheese directly from the package? Did the top flip off of a health conscious shoppers cheese en route to a pasta dinner?

I'll never know for sure. But my eyes are now peeled for any more signs of this strangely selfish grass-fed litterbug.

If That Classy Guy In the White House Can Show A Brave Face...

Okay, so that didn't turn out so well. 

My words of optimism:

Welcome back to the Resistance, everyone. We've been here before, we'll probably be here again. 

Half the country was not happy...now they have their chance to make mistakes, look foolish, drown in emails, get slammed by politicians and special committees and investigations. They have their chance to show what they have lined up that's so brilliant for health care. They get to show us how much "safer" we are with bluster, how much wiser we are with rights-hostile judges.

In other words, time to get off our duffs and sparkle up our spurs...don't cede an inch!

I became politically aware during the first term of a a "charismatic" B-grade star of screen selling snake oil to the Rust Belt, and lived to tell the tale. Some weird shit went down though. Some of you probably came aware during Tricky Dick Nixon. That's who we got for dancing in the mud with flowers in our hair. (the "our" is metaphorical of course...I was three during Woodstock.)

My first impulse, upon disbelief, was to blame. Blame the Bernie Bros. Blame sexism and racism. Blame the media. Blame young people for turning their backs on a chance to make history. Blame Hillary for not campaigning harder in WI and MI. Etc, etc, etc...I came in to the office and a super young guy tells me Bernie would have blown him away. We'll never know.

The words that Trump has uttered will haunt him. His behavior will come back at him, and keep coming back. Now he'll get to see ALL of us in our battered glory, not just his rabid and twisted and rowdy campaign crowds.

Those who believe in love and tolerance and civil rights will have to show their might at every step of the way. Show 'em with your example, Leffertsonians!

We're more important than ever, each and every one of us.

Onwards Flatbush Soldiers!

Brooklyn Assemblywoman Charged in Assault of Her 12-Year-Old Son

Brooklyn Assemblywoman Charged in Assault of Her 12-Year-Old Son: Sources: Diana Richardson

Heartbreaking. On so many levels. Mother and child are inseparable. I'm certain the family will work through it. But this is tough.

Best of luck to Diana and son. May love and patience prevail.

Dreaming Of a Hearse for Barry Hers

God bless journalist Nathan Tempey, for staying on top of the Barry Hers story (he of 60 Clarkson and many others). Read this when you have more than a moment. It's really pretty mind-blowing what's going on all around us. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, be no evil...

It occurs to me that the man is clearly delusional. Perhaps he thinks "this is what you must do to survive in the cutthroat world of NYC real estate." Maybe he has enormous debts. Most likely, he lives in a world of imagination, in which he is somehow a good guy being demonized by poor black tenants who are out to get him and a City bureaucracy that's onerous and anti-Semitic. If only we could find him some therapy and relieve him of his horrible multi-million dollar burdens. Or put him out of his misery, thereby relieving hundreds of others of theirs.

And if you're looking for the thrill of living in subhuman apartment buildings and seeing what depravity and penury look like up close, hell you can get a steal of deal from Senor Hershko. Get 'em while the gettin's good.

PLGNA Needs Your Body

Okay, that sounds kinda creepy, but it's also kinda true. Show up to the annual meeting, find out what they're up to and how to get involved. With CB9 in shambles, groups like the Prosepct Lefferts Garden Neighborhood Association could use your support.

In the effed up files, you can insert the absurdist and cruel mischief of Alicia Boyd as it relates to PLGNA. She's sued them, mostly because she hates them, but ostensibly because they illegally accepted money from elected officials to do a community planning study of their own. Which, of course, they're entitled to do, and it wasn't much money anyway.

Why was AB so pissed? She wanted the money herself, of course. Now, if PLGNA were a big ol' organization it would probably just hire counsel and beat back the dragon. But they have, like, almost no money, and you're required to hire a lawyer to defend a non-profit. Apparently the court date has been postponed, but in December we need to show up in court and show that we won't be bullied by MTOPP or anyone else. Her mission, clearly, is to destroy PLGNA by making the claim that it is corrupt. It's so maddening. So, so, so maddening.

The Creeps Are Out of the Closet

Sorry so off topic, Flatbush.

The Q understands that, like duped natives, we were given a few trinkets in exchange for our privacy. Shiny cell phone with digital calendar and free magazines and circulars and Sears-like catalogs that fit in your pocket!!! For a contact list there, a shopping history, location, interests, hang-ups, dirty laundry, destroyed reputations, porn addictions, keyword searches by government agencies...

The advertising industry - the clever propaganda machine that controls our very beings - still can't believe how easy it's all been. And now they're gloating! A colleague got this in the mail, and if it doesn't creep you out then it's true, the body snatchers already have you in their slimy little pods.

Yes, I know it's a joke. I don't find it so funny.

Public Housing - Why the 40 Is Half Full

A Supreme Court justice grew up in NYCHA. As did half the important hip-hop artists of our time, and poets, and teachers and city workers and any number of people who now make enormous contributions to our culture, City and society. Why would we give up on the idea, and the very buildings themselves? No one is seriously contemplating tearing them down. As you can read for yourself, an effort is being made to add much needed housing on City land, particularly by adding apartments to the projects themselves where land is available, often in the form of parking lots that are often not at capacity, for obvious reasons.

Most people probably don't know that the vast majority of people in NYCHA pay rent - up to 1/3 of income. Now, I know that sounds like a sweet deal these days. But isn't affordable housing supposed to be just that? It used to be 1/4 was considered affordable. 1/3 seems to be the new normal to describe someone who isn't overburdened by rent.

The below is a glossy version of reality. But imagine, if you will, that the real NYCHA lived up to the standards here...and all we had to do was invest more money, money that we and the state and feds HAVE, if we actually admit the money we SAVE from public housing, good, decent public housing. Would any NIMBYist even consider supporting public housing in their neighborhood? Probably not. Because we don't really think big anymore, and frankly, the community boards and local gentry don't care much for big thinking.

When FORCED to deal with the reality of poverty in the City, though, people do. Ask the good folks of Boerum Hill or Red Hook whether their investment in a house was a bad one, and whether a lot of their initial fear was unjustified. It is still, at least for now, New York Fucking City.