We at BK Southie have been running at half-speed this week. Personally, I am gearing up for a very busy weekend with no Internet access. I know we’re missing some noteworthy stories this week… I promise I will get caught up on some of these stories early next week.
That didn’t take long – the ink was barely dry on my story about the naming rights on the Cyclones stadium, and the team totally ignored my suggestions and sold the naming rights to a credit union. Not a bank, a credit union. The Chases and the Future Chases of the world are reported to be “disappointed.”
The Municipal Credit Union – the City’s largest credit union – will be picking up the tab that Keyspan Energy/National Grid is leaving behind, and the stadium will become MCU Park. The Brooklyn Paper reports:
“MCU and the Cyclones are a great fit,” said Cyclones General Manager Steve Cohen. “All of their members are workers like firefighters and cops — and that really matches our fan base.”
Later, he added, “Hey, at least we’re not selling out to TARPBank like the parent club, right?” (No, I’m kidding, he didn’t really say that.)
The special election to replace Simcha Felder – the outgoing Council Member from the 44th District – will be Tuesday, March 23. The Jewish Press will hold a debate between the four candidates – David Greenfield, Joseph Lazar, Jonathan Judge, and Nachman Caller – on February 24 at the Borough Park YMHA. Greenfield and Lazar are already piling on their celebrity endorsements from the likes of Ed Koch (Greenfield) and Bill de Blasio (Lazar).
Candidates previously considered to have an interest in running are Ezra Friedlander, Moishe Oiring, Pinny Ringel, and Brooklyn Civil Court judge Noach Dear.
Greenfield and Judge were both spotted pressing the flesh at the 18th Avenue N-train station in the past eight days.
Last week in this space, I waxed poetic on the awesome neighborhood blogs here in South Brooklyn. The Village Voice has decided to step into the circle and present GerritsenBeach.net the honor of being one of their 18 really super cool New York blogs. Way to go, Dan!
Brooklyn Union Gas Stadium is no more: last week, the Brooklyn Cyclones and Brooklyn Union Gas Keyspan Energy National Grid announced last week that the two parties would bring their stadium naming rights partnership to an end. The Keyspan name has stayed up on the stadium, even after UK-based National Grid bought out the Brooklyn HQ’d gas utility.
I don’t know about you, but I’m a little weary of all of these stadiums changing their names every time the economy twitches a little. Like this year’s Super Bowl being played in Joe Robbie Stadium Pro Player Stadium I don’t even remember what they’re calling it now.
So to help the Cyclones come up with a new stadium name that will stand the test of time, I have submitted these five suggestions.
5. Chase Bank Field – Since any bank that buys the naming rights will eventually be bought up by Chase anyway, lets just save ourselves the merger baby steps and skip right to the endgame. Chase Bank Field will also be the name of the baseball stadium built across the street.
4. The House That Rudy Built – Technically, this could also be the name of the Staten Island Yankees stadium. But Richmond County Bank currently holds the naming rights there – see #5.
3. Ebbets Field – Because I’m a 32-year-old Brooklyn baseball fan and I’m still living 53 years in the past. I’m looking forward to explaining to my son the purpose of Burn Walter O’Malley In Effigy Night.
2. The Tidy Bowl – As opposed to the other bowls on the Rabbit’s Isle, which are most decidedly NOT tidy.
1. Brooklyn Shore – Where Mets orange body paint is a good tan and “The Situation” is code for cleaning up after Sandy The Seagull.
Attention, D-train riders: the first of the R160s (fancy term for ‘brand new train’) have been spotted on your line.
(The train in the photo says ‘D’ – just trust me on this one.)
There’s been a lot of news lately about the spate of traffic accidents involving pedestrians in Bay Ridge. A recent sad story caught the media’s attention when local legend, Joe Rollino, age 104, was struck and killed while crossing Bay Ridge Parkway at 13th Avenue.
Unfortunately, he was just one of many. Around the same time, there were reports that an elderly woman and child were struck on 92nd and Third Avenue. Last month, the Daily News reported that a local dentist was struck and killed on 4th Avenue and 79th Street by a hit and run driver who later turned herself in. Another news report told of an elderly man killed by a hit and run driver on Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Fourth Avenue was recently named one of the most dangerous thoroughfares for pedestrians in the tri-state area in a study issued by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.
One of the worst incidents I’ve heard about was recounted by Allison Robicelli, (owner of Robicelli’s Gourmet Market, 8511 Third Avenue). Her mother-in law-was struck and nearly killed by a hit and run driver on the corner of 75th Street & Ridge Boulevard. She ended up in critical condition at Lutheran Hospital with severe head injuries. Fortunately, she recovered, but they never found the driver.
These stories and others led to a spirited discussion on the Bay Ridge Parents Yahoo Group of which I am a member. Nearly everyone had a story of a near miss or an actual accident. There were the oft-cited complaints of drivers ignoring four-way stops, running red lights, speeding, texting and talking on cell phones as well as acknowledgment that pedestrians share the blame by crossing in the middle of the street, ignoring traffic lights and committing other bone-headed moves.
In a commendable effort to try to do something about the problem, the group formed a Facebook page, organized a petition, and testified at the January Community Board 10. As reported in the New York Post, they suggested better enforcement of traffic laws and particular attention to certain high accident areas, including Fourth Avenue.
I hope that these efforts pay off, but I wonder if there is something else going on that makes Bay Ridge a more dangerous place to walk and drive than other parts of the city. Here are my theories:
- A suburban car culture in an densely-populated urban neighborhood. I sometimes think of Bay Ridge as populated by suburban wannabes who for some reason don’t want to leave Brooklyn. We have lots of private homes and multi-car families. The cars tend to be of the super-sized SUV variety. We drive when we could walk. No wonder the streets become wildly congested. Just try squeezing past a Lincoln Navigator on a small side street. Witness the daily traffic jam in front of Visitation Academy on Ridge Blvd between 89th and 91st Streets where cars are double parked dropping kids off for school. It’s no better down the block at PS 185 on 86th Street and Ridge Blvd. Marcie, the crossing guard, wears her voice out shouting at the cars that won’t let the kids cross the street or that block the intersections.
- Lack of public parking. It’s a war out there when it comes to getting a legal parking spot. Most of the illegal u-turns I see (and do) are an effort to snag a meter that just became available.
- The Gowanus Expressway (there’s an oxymoron for you!). There’s nothing “express” about it. It’s as lousy as the smelly canal it’s named after. It’s such a bottleneck that Fourth Avenue becomes the surrogate expressway.
- Frustration. All of the above leads to tremendous frustration trying to drive around the neighborhood. You’ll be tailgated while looking for a parking spot. You’ll be honked at while letting a little old lady cross in front of you. The parking spot you’ve been patiently waiting for will be stolen out from under you. You’ll be bested at the four way stop when others barely pause before driving through. You’ll be ticketed by the parking vultures (ahem: traffic agents) if you double-park even just to let someone out of your car.
- Aggression…and maybe all of that frustration makes us a little keyed up, quick to anger, easily provoked, less likely to yield the right-of-way. I know it’s not a good sign when I hear my six year old in the backseat say “Mommy, you just said a bad word again!” I always think it’s the other guy’s fault, but sometimes it’s my fault too.
What to do about it? Maybe just acknowledging that we’re all part of the problem can go a long way. Let’s take a deep breath before getting in the car and consciously try to take it easy out there. Don’t honk your horn at the briefest delay. Let the other guy go first. Realize it probably won’t make a difference in your day if you miss the green light on Fourth Avenue. Hey – maybe even try walking a block or two? It’d be good for the environment, your waistline, and your mental health (if you’re not hit by a car, that is).
A New York rainstorm is to umbrellas
What a light dusting of snow in Maryland is to cars
(The totally awesome, valuable, and so naturally slated for demolition Feltman’s Kitchen mural as seen in 2007. Photo credit: Brian Hedden)
Last week, I met up with Ned Berke, editor of Sheepshead Bites and all around cool dude. While talking with him, I mentioned that I think Sheepshead Bites is the best news blog in Brooklyn right now. Which is extremely high praise, considering (a) the sheer number of hyper-local news blogs here – Brooklyn has been determined to have the most bloggers per block or per square mile or per normal person or some damn thing by an actual academic study on the subject – and (b) that a number of those people take citizen-journalism very, very seriously and are running circles around traditional news outlets.
Funny thing about that, though. That’s a reputation earned largely by the North Brooklyn blogforce – yet there are any number of South Brooklyn news blogs I would pick as “best” before looking north, even without Sheepshead Bites. Certainly GerritsenBeach.net deserves extremely high praise as well – not just Dan Cavanagh’s reporting, but his lovable community of commenters. Is that regional bias? Perhaps… but I also think we have a lot of really interesting – and underreported – stories in this corner of the town, and more than a handful of good writers to cover them.
Which explains the length of this week’s wrap!
On Friday morning, I published a story detailing the transit service cuts, based on the plan the MTA adopted last month. On Friday afternoon, the MTA released a revised plan. Oops. If I knew that was going to happen, I would have waited a day or two before publishing.
Go back to the original story – I have made all of the appropriate updates. The biggest changes are the number of shortened routes (i.e. no more B4 in Sheepshead Bay). I was a little shocked – the last month’s tweaking and fine tuning was supposed to make things slightly better. But with all of the shortened and shifted routes, I actually think South Brooklyn got hosed.