Tonight! Round One Of PLGNA vs. MTOPP

Why, you ask, does the Q continue to attend these meetings and care about the Planning Study that he helped ask for in spring of 2014, but that has since been buried by the unconscionable tactics of MTOPP, with no small help from "Concerned Citizens" I might add, who've helped spread misinformation and make bogus claims about 25 story towers and massive displacement?

Why do I care? Because they're screwing the neighborhood. Royally. Just look at the stupid market-rate cheap-ass buildings going up all over the area, adding to the very density they so despise. They've stopped neither gentrification nor development. They've sacrificed real people's Quality of Life for their own. They're selfish, they're misinformed, and their attitude towards elected officials suggests they want absolutely no help from the City now or in the future, to address the severe shortage of housing for regular working Joe's and Jane's. They claim to care about the diversity of the neighborhood, but I ask you...what have they DONE to prevent its loss? They've pitted neighbor against neighbor, black against white against Jew, owner against renter, activist against activist, City against Citizens. And very, very few seem willing to try to stop them. Just last night I spoke to a Councilmember (one I respect btw) who said they'd never seen such a total disaster at a Community Board, of such complete dysfunction, with no clear way forward.

That's what MTOPP brought y'all. Our potential friends have been reduced to throwing their hands in the air, and basically writing off our neighborhood as hopeless. Unless we come together and push back.

And now they want to slow the process of a Planning Study even further. It's too late for 19 Clarkson, next to my neighbors at 17 and 21 who've lived their forever. The demolition of the attached limestone rowhouse between them is emblematic of the very development that we at CB9 sought to prevent - and WOULD HAVE, had the measure been allowed to stand. We were on our way to limiting height all over the neighborhood and downzoning where it made sense, which was basically anywhere that the current build-out was dense and tall enough. We've been swindled, hoodwinked, dissed, smeared, and forced to endure yet another attack on a decent and well-meaning group trying to take an even-handed approach to working with the City.

I get it. You don't want to come. You don't need the spike in blood pressure or the verbal abuse. I keep wondering where my limit is. I feel like I'm on the rack in civic dungeon being stretched inch by inch. Actually, some time in a dungeon like that might help me lose weight and lessen back pain. Screw CB9. I'm off to the castle!

Alicia Boyd Calls BP Eric Adams "The Biggest Uncle Tom In Brooklyn"

Whoa! Emboldened, the Q guesses, by her "show" at The Brooklyn Museum, Ms. Boyd has taken her insults to the big stage...the tiny anti-gentrification rally staged by the aptly named Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network, whose co-founder Imani Henry used clandestine means to grow his anti-Q efforts to scar yours truly as anti-black-and-brown. A bonafide racist, out to expel every black or brown person from Flatbush, so they say! Drat. they're on to me! The conversation stopper of calling a white guy racist is not
altogether different from calling a fellow POC an "Uncle Tom."

Beware, good people of Lefferts, black-brown-white or colorless Jew! You too could be labeled a racist if you dare question a) her efforts to shut-down meaningful dialogue about Planning or b) her efforts to prevent residential buildings in, quite literally, her own backyard or c) any efforts to downzone parts of the neighborhood to prevent the rampant random development that we're now seeing everywhere. She will lie, smear, sue, chastise, boo, and otherwise drag you through the mud if you so much as question her tactics or views. And now, in a stunning display of topsy-turvy, she wants CB's to have MORE power, even enough to veto City policies. This would mean, of course, an entire rewriting of the City's Charter, its Constitution. No small feat. Giving CB's real power would spell a disaster for the sorts of City-wide initiatives that lead to real and meaningful progress. Imagine each CB, its own little fiefdom, some "dry" and some "wet," some open to immigrants and some not, some business friendly some not, some white-friendly some black-friendly, some accepting safety improvements, some not. You'd have your Alabama's and your California's, right here in NYC!

If you are black, the term "Uncle Tom" is right up there with calling white's "racist," in the sense that it's like firing a stun-gun, a Taser if you will. How do you respond effectively? Most would say...don't. That's been Adams' response, and of course, I would be well-advised to do the same. And while I don't always agree with Adams, I do often enough, and know his policies well enough, to know that he is an engaged and ardent supporter of all people of Brooklyn, but never without consideration of the needs of the black community. For someone who wants desperately to lead a movement, Boyd callously disregards the possibility of ever working with anyone with any credibility or power.

This is not an unusual tactic for someone on the fringes, fighting for their vision of justice. But folks, she is not at all on the fringes - she's basically running the show around here, while we sit back (apparently) helplessly. Your CB9 has caved to her demands again and again, and as she's gained power she only reaches for more. She got a CB9 chair canned, and drove away other strong members. She canned a progressive Transportation Chair, she got CB9 to rescind its own Planning initiatives, she shut down a second attempt at Planning by constant attacks on the Board. She got the District Manager Pearl Miles fired, leaving a gaping hole and leading to yet another power struggle. She's working hard to get a sensible re-design of Empire Blvd shut down, and given her track record, she might well succeed.

Hilarious bit: the way Boyd constantly calls people out for their behavior at CB9. If you've been to as many meetings as I have, that have been shut down by her outrageous attacks and childish stomping about, that's rich. Rich indeed, though perhaps not quite as rich as the people she says will be moving to our neighborhood in droves if we don't "Keep Empire Shitty" thereby screwing your neighbors and kowtowing to the neighborhood bully.

Public Service Announcement: Yuks

Public Service Announcement: Housing

Veg Out With the PLG CSA

Ideally, I suppose, we would all be growing our own produce to share with one another. I'll give you cucumbers to your kumquats. (Never written kumquat before. It's quite satisfying, actually.)  But you could also grab a coffee at ToTT and stumble over to the Maple Street School and grab a box of green goodies PLUS meats from Herondale and the comradery of your fellow Bernie Sanders supporters (I'm keeeeding, don't get so defensive! Good Lord so many liberals with bunched panties these days!)

SIGN UP now or forever hold your peas!

All shares will be delivered to Maple Street School at 21 Lincoln Road, right next to the Prospect Park stop on the Q train (map). Pickup is on Saturday morning, roughly from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
We offer:
Single and Double Vegetable Shares from the Farm at Millers CrossingSingle and Double Fruit Shares from Samascott OrchardsDozen and Half Dozen Egg Shares from McMurry Sunset Farms.
We also offer:
Herondale Farm Beef, Lamb, Pork and Chicken Sharescoffee. a la cart from Dean’s Beans

WNYC & The Nation Highlight the G-word

The gap between renter and owner is enormous. We're not living the same experience, and those who claim we're all in the same boat are higher than The Flatbush Zombies. More on that later...the boat, not the Zombies.

WNYC and The Nation. Two peas in a pod? For now, I guess. A somewhat illuminating set of pieces on Gentrification are being peddled as the "There Goes the Neighborhood" series. It's worth noting that the phrase TGtN has been used countless times before, as has their supposedly "refreshing" look at a tired topic. And yet, there are interesting stories here worth hearing. I've been listening as I fall asleep, and that's had the effect of leaving some of the thoughts and stories resonating through the next day.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/there-goes-neighborhood-brooklyn-gentrification/

Neighbor Kai Wright of The Nation

Of course, the Q wouldn't be the Q if he didn't have problems with parts of this venture. First off, the condescending conversational tone of NPR is particularly egregious this time around, given the subject matter. The NPR set ARE the gentrifiers, so it's kinda like a bank auditing itself. (I know, it takes one to know one, right? But at least I'm not talking at you out loud. You're free to give me whatever nasality you like, in our head, when reading these words on the screen.) The guy doing the yakking on the WNYC is a local - Kai Wright - who's written extensively on race and inequality. He does a fair job and I can't complain about the Ira Glass generation's sense of what works on the radio. It's proven incredibly popular. Maybe it's just that I hear the ironic sensibility of my own generation in the mix. There's a sense of rising above it all that seems like the trap of the entitled class, regardless of color.

DW Gibson - researcher, writer

Another beef: I find the whole "hey, East New York is a real place too!" bit of Episode 2 incredibly patronizing. Anyone who's lived in NYC longer than a few minutes knows that every neighborhood is crammed with people living full and fascinating lives. Communities are communities, wherever you go - people raising families, struggling, high-fiving and fist-bumping, going to church, shopping for groceries. (Speaking of which the whole bit about how groceries are now two and three times as expensive in the gentrifier shops seems overstated. It's not like bodegas were known for their bargains, and to date they haven't disappeared. They just aren't ubiquitous. And yes, they've added a bit of buckage to their products, though often to keep pace with rents.) The notion that we somehow need to be told that poor black & latino communities are real neighborhoods, neighborhoods that are as worthy of preservation as any other, seems a bit like an anthropologist telling us that the Pygmies are people too - just look at how sophisticated they are! Though truth be told I always love hearing people talk about their lives in the first person, so it's not all for naught. Just so haughty. Especially when you just know the creators of this show are for the most gentrifiers themselves who congratulate each other on the excellent job of defending the underclass by drinking wine in upscale Bed-Stuy bistros. That's DW Gibson in the picture, a co-host. And I actually have no idea what he drinks. Maybe MadDog 20/20 for all I know. Though I doubt it.

Your neighbor Janine Nicholson

But Episode 4 is where, for me, I found some real meat. Because conversations about Gentrification often lack the financial savvy to explain the angles, the many ways that turning neighborhoods from poor to middle-class+ can be profitable. Also in Ep4 the notion of "camouflage gentrifier" gets a nod. Upper income or higher-educated POCs (people of color) are noted for how they often get a pass in the game of Gentrifier Tag. (Can you go plural with POC by adding an "s," since you don't know whether it's People or Person of color? Not sure. Apostrophe? PsOC? PplOC?) Speaking of which, when an educated white person joins the Anti-Gentrification movement do they lose the label? Your neighbor and MTOPP chum Janine Nicholson seems to think so. She's even got a blog called Whitey on Whitey, if you care to see how hard she's trying to be "down." She's also gummed up the works at CB9 and loves calling people out for their perceived misdeeds. A real piece of work, that one. Claims on her blog she's moving to Mexico because the whites are moving into our neighborhood. I shit you not. Gonna go gentrify down there now, then get pissy when the gringos find out about it...

Ultimately, the story of neighborhood change in Urban America comes down to a very different scenario for Renters and Owners (what's new?) Renters have relatively few advantages, though they do have some rights here in NYC; owners get the lion's share of advantages AND rights. Owners can tear down a building and then build something bigger (that's kinda been on my mind lately). In buildings with fewer than 6 units, and buildings built after a certain year, they can charge whatever they like and jack it up however much at the very next lease. Capitalism in a nutshell, ever since we "introduced" the concept to the Indians, whose land, by the way, was NOT rent stabilized. Sometimes, the price goes down too (I benefited from this after the recession of the late '80s). As long as a neighborhood's NY TIMES Desirability Rating wasn't too high. rents remained within reach of lower income New Yorkers. Provided, of course, that they were willing to move around when screwed or unstabilized. I never once rented a stabilized place in NYC, btw. Hardly knew about it frankly. I always heard about these wacky rent controlled places renting for, like, $6.50 a month, and wondered who you had to blow to get one. Speaking of the NY Times, do you recall how hard it was to get a copy in this neighborhood back in the early '00s? They didn't really sell it anywhere. Once you started seeing those blue condoms that protect the Old Gray Lady on people's stoop steps, you knew (didn't you?) that it was just a matter of time.

Now to you, Mr. Gentrifier Renter. Have you not already bought into this notion wholeheartedly when you moved here to NYC? You recognized right off the bat, like millions of other New Yorkers, that certain neighborhoods were NOT for you. They were either too expensive or too poor or too something else. You made the decision based on a whole host of factors, not unlike your brethren at other price points. Maybe you weighed schools and shops and crime and vibe. And maybe, let's be honest, you weighed race. Or it was weighed FOR you, by real estate agents hell-bent on maintaining the status-quo, the one where you get steered here, another there, another outa there. Because you, you awful, terrible soulless miscreant thought that renting in the best, most transportation-friendly neighborhood, most comfortable place you could afford was your American birthright. You entitled fiend. Next time take heed when someone (perhaps Janine Nicholson?) says Whitey Go Home. It's rubbish and we all know it is, but it bears repeating. You've done nothing wrong, but you have an obligation not to be a dick. To be warm to neighbors, grateful to those who are kind and helpful, and helpful yourself, looking out for those less fortunate and humbly thankful of the help you receive from those MORE fortunate. It's all such basic human stuff it's a shame, a deep and abiding shame, that it gets so mortally trampled by racial murk and fear.

And if you rented a non-stabilized place, Mr. Gentrifier Renter, like everyone else who is unstable (hah!) you might have to pick up stakes and move on. And your feelings of guilt about having moved into a neighborhood that wasn't "for you" will fade, and you'll just feel pissed and annoyed that NYC is so heartless even as it grows and prospers. And you'll hope and maybe save your shekels to one day "get in." Or you'll move. You have choices, and that's a good thing if you got 'em. Some, of course, have few to no choices, and our choices ultimately effect them most. We don't do it to be mean, and we didn't set the rules. But there are obligations just the same.

Mr. Non-Gentrifier Renter. You are at the bottom of the food chain, and only the "law" protects you even a bit, though not as much as you'd hope, and not enforced with vigor or certainty. On fate of birth, you were relegated to rent only in certain neighborhoods where you were welcomed, or tolerated, and you made the best of things. You raised families and started businesses and prayed and suffered and rejoiced as is your birthright. And yet, since the cards were stacked against you, you probably always knew that your number would eventually come up, as it always does in this country, and you'd be asked, like the original Natives, to move along quietly, or by warrant and musket if necessary. Maybe you can get a few thousand dollars, forty acres and a mule? Or nothing, Nada, zip. The landlord will eventually figure out how to make your life unpleasant enough, or will catch you at a low enough point, that he will succeed. He nearly always does,

Mr. Gentrifier Owner. You, sir, have benefited WAY beyond your talents and deeds.  NYC real estate being what it is - limited and generally desirable - you are a winner the moment you "get in," as some like to say. Now that you own, it's your responsibility to act responsibly and learn the culture of the neighborhood and not try to dictate. This is the Q. He is both ashamed at his good fortune and cursed by an insatiable curiosity. Lest you think that real estate is not so much a business as a payday, consider just how much money Donald Trump has made despite enormous fiscal ineptitude. You can't go wrong with real estate!

Mr. Non-Gentrifier Owner. At some point, you or your family set down roots and bought a piece of the American Dream. You are to be commending for holding the neighborhood together, along with the non-gentrifier renters. But you will one day reap enormous financial benefits, or your children will, and for this you are likely incredibly grateful, but perhaps wistful, since it wasn't necessarily going to be like this. The City nearly came apart, and nearly destroyed itself many times.

I'm only writing this to sort my thoughts. I have no idea if it's helpful to you, but it was helpful to me, and sure, I'll keep listening to the podcast. I just wish it wasn't so, um, gentrifiery you know? Ah hell, who gives a damn. It's a good effort and we all benefit from hearing what others are going through, and a slice of the economic incentives that make this all happen.

Who Says A Brownstone Can't Stand Alone

Chauncey Gardener's House On New York Avenue - Big Apt Bldgs Going Up On Either Side

Big Fire At the Pasta Factory

Parkside, Rogers to Nostrand. Pretty darn serious.

Piano Lessons & More @ New Space Garage284

Ah, Leslie Ward. Lovely human, super music teacher. And now she's opened her own storefront - Garage284 - that is warm, funky and fun. And functional. She teaches piano (and steel pans) out of the space, having built a successful business out of her home through the years. You can rent it for small functions too, and she's already hosted jam sessions and recitals. It has a great vibe. And the basement has been fitted for drum lessons (drum teacher to start soon). Is she good? Hell yeah. Ask anyone who's taken with her. She trained classically in the British tradition with enough Trinidadian (and New Wave) flair to ensure you get both the theory and the sass.

Super swell location is at 284 Clarkson just off Nostrand (you know, across from where the gigantic Hudson complex is going up fast and furious). Her rates are great, her outlook sunny, her design sense one-of-a-kind. Call Leslie at 917-697-6850 for lessons (or to see the space for a possible rental).

Please Vote For District $$ By Sunday!

I suggest, if you haven't already made plans to vote, to show up from 11-2 at the opening of Smorgasburg, or whatever they call it, at the Lincoln Road entrance parking lot.

You know, after bothering to add up the requests, I see that it won't cost much more than $1 million to do ALL of these projects. So it's reasonable to expect the Councilman to add them all to his budget, regardless of the voting. Just sayin' ...

Here's the website. I'm going to go easy on the Councilman today, since this is a step in the right direction. But sometime you should check out his actual "website," an embarrassment to say the least. Oh, be sure to note that the latest deadline to submit proposals for his discretionary spending is over...for FY13. What a joke. Oh, but there's a Fax number you can reach him at! And he apparently hosts a cable access show. On a network that no longer exists, and whose videos are not available online.

The items up for support:

• Computer Lab Updates for Local Schools

  $35,000 per project 
  PS 249, PS 245, PS 139, PS 6
  General technology updates at P.S. 249, P.S. 245, P.S. 139, and P.S. 6
• Education

  Technology Updates for M.S. 2 Parkside Academy

  $35,000.00
  655 Parkside Avenue
  Various technological updates at M.S. 2 Parkside Academy
• Education

  Gymnasium Upgrades at Erasmus High School

  $150,000.00
  911 Flatbush Avenue
  Physical upgrades to the gymnasium
• Education

  Smartboards for P.S. 92

  $175,000.00
  601 Parkside Avenue
  Twenty-nine smartboards are needed for PS 92.
• Parks & Recreation

  Kensington Dog Run

  $135,000.00
  Parade Grounds
  An enclosed Dog Run at the Parade Grounds
• Parks & Recreation

  Replacement of 'Lake Mess Monster'

  $140,000.00
  Prospect Park Lake
  A vessel that would grind up duck weed and other contaminants that cause visible pollution in the Prospect Park Lake.
• Parks & Recreation

  Community Barbecue Sites in Prospect Park

  $80,000.00
  Lincoln Rd & E Drive; Parkside Ave & E Drive
  New-style municipal grills, which are similar to those at Brooklyn Bridge Park Picnic Peninsula.
• Transit

  Montessori School Sidewalk Extension

  $200,000 to $300,000
  SE corner of Rogers Ave. and Rutland Rd.
  Sidewalk extension on the South East corner matched by a painted curb extension with flexible post barriers
• Transit

  Real-Time Passenger Information

  $20,000 per sign
  Lincoln Rd Entrance; Church Ave. B35 Stop
  Bus display signs that are visible from a distance and inform riders when their bus will arrive
• Transit

  P.S. 92 Sidewalk Extension

  $100,000 to $300,000
  SW corner of Rogers Ave. and Winthrop St.
  A concrete sidewalk extension, which could be matched by a painted curb extension with flexible post barriers on the North West corner.
• Transit

  Little Red Riding Hood Pre-K Sidewalk Extension

  $100,000-$300,000
  NE corner of Rogers Ave. and Lefferts Ave.
  Sidewalk extensions at this corner paired with heavy-duty bollards