There’s that &*%$*# hydrant again. The same broken fire hydrant you’ve seen for months. Curses are muttered under your breath as you circle the block in vain looking for a parking spot. Maybe the out of order pump is in front of your home or business; maybe it’s outside of your favorite store. “I’m not putting lives in danger, why can’t I just park here?” you ask yourself. If a local city councilman has his way, you may soon be able to do just that.
State Senator Carl Kruger, who faces corruption and conspiracy charges, turned himself in to Federal agents today. Sheepshead Bites’ Ned Berke reports that these are new charges that are “unrelated to an existing FBI probe” against Kruger concerning Rasputin night club owner Michael Levitis and “an alleged influence peddling scheme.” Kruger is the top ranking Democrat on the State Senate Finance Committee. He represents State Senate District 27, which includes Mill Basin, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Midwood, Madison, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, as well as parts of Borough Park and Bensonhurst.
Sheepshead Bites: Kruger To Surrender To Feds On Corruption Charges
UPDATE: Sheepshead Bites has provided a link to the 53 page criminal complaint against Kruger which includes counts of conspiracy, corruption and money laundering as well as accepting over $1 Million in bribes.
Sheepshead Bites: Carl Kruger Charged With Accepting $1 Million In Bribes
Another day, another snow job from the beleaguered Department of Sanitation:
SHEEPSHEAD BITES – When residents demanded that heads roll after the city’s shameful response to the blizzard cleanup, they didn’t mean headstones.
But that’s exactly what happened when Department of Sanitation workers packed load after load of snow and ice against the fence of Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway, between McDonald Avenue and 57th Street. The metal gates buckled under the weight, toppling approximately 30 gravestones over the weekend.
“[Sanitation workers] were continually dumping snow there for several days,” said Washington Cemetery (5400 Bay Parkway) employee Mike Ciamaga, who added that cemetery officials first noticed the broken gravestones on Sunday morning. ”As of this morning they were still dumping there.”
From a Sanitation standpoint, this comes on the heels of a poor response to the Boxing Day blizzard that saw the Mayor’s block scraped dry long before most South Brooklyn streets saw a single plow and video footage of a Sanitation crew wrecking parked cars in a careless attempt to dig out a frontloader. And for the Jewish cemetery, it is only about two weeks after 200+ headstones were damaged or destroyed by vandals, sparking an investigation from the NYPD’s Hate Crimes unit.
Vandalism story from Sheepshead Bites:
Nearly 200 gravestones were smashed or knocked over at Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway over the weekend, including some belonging to Holocaust survivors.
They mayhem occurred Saturday night, officials believe, since Washington Cemetery is usually closed for the sabbath.
Not sure right now if Washington Cemetery was targeted because it was a Jewish cemetery, or because they were ordinary grave vandals. Either way, they suck, and I hate them.
Egbert Benson was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States
Continue Reading at Wandering NYC
Photo courtesy of J. Visconti
A friend of mine had sent this photo several months ago. I’m very sorry to say that I’ve neglected it until now, but I’ve always intended to share it here. This photo is from 16th Avenue and 57th Street – “brings back a lot of memories about the neighborhood,” is what he told me at the time.
“My mom grew up on 56th and 16th…right around the corner from my dad. I was there for about 5 years…but we went back to visit every Sunday until I was around 13 or so.”
John Hathaway (left) and Andrew Aspromonte from the 1st Avenue (Sunset Park) Sanitation garage. Photo by Liz Ligon. Used with permission. The “CHASING SANITATION: Falling In Love With New York’s Strongest” project is raising funds for a fall photo exhibit through Friday – details below the fold.
In the debate last February for Simcha Felder’s open Council seat, eventual winner David Greenfield made a comment in response to a comment about affordable housing regarding the Sanitation garage on 19th Avenue. Greenfield said he wanted to force the City to give up that land so affordable apartments could be built there – because it’s a great piece of property and because “we can store garbage trucks anywhere in New York City, they don’t have to be in Borough Park.” (You can see Greenfield’s comment in video #7 of our debate roundup, starting at the 7:45 mark.)
I’m a little annoyed by that line of thought on two fronts. One, I think its misguided to think our neighborhoods can benefit from the City’s services without sometimes playing host to some of the City’s infrastructure. Yes, please keep picking up our garbage, yes, please keep plowing our streets. No, you can’t stay here.
And second, while the response played well with the YMHA crowd, I don’t think Greenfield asked the people who are actually employed at the 19th Avenue garage how they felt about the proposal to move their jobs elsewhere. (Actually, I did, about a month later.) (You’re welcome.) In both instances, this speaks to the people’s perception that Sanitation is at the bottom of the City’s totem pole.
It’s this poor perception about this critical service – and the men and women who are responsible for it – that I disagree with, and I’m happy to find that there are others who feel the same way. Namely Sunset Park writer Lisa Dowda and photographer Liz Ligon, the creative team behind the photo exhibit “Chasing Sanitation: Falling In Love With New York’s Strongest.”
Mark (left) and Johnny Doz from the 19th Avenue (Borough Park) Sanitation garage. Photo by Liz Ligon. Used with permission. Continue reading »
David Greenfield, the City’s new Councilmember hailing from Borough Park, got into it with Administration for Children’s Services commish John Mattingly yesterday during a Council hearing. Greenfield, who led a Brooklyn delegation last week in condemning the elimination of Priority 7 childcare vouchers and the closure of 16 ACS daycare centers, prefaced his remarks by saying “if this was the cartoon, you would see steam literally coming out of my ears.”
By the end of the hearing, we didn’t have to use our imaginations. After complaining that the cuts are “disproportionately impacting racial and religious minorities,” Greenfield went out firing at the commish with raised voice:
Do you have any idea how many kids in my district are going to be displaced? 1,330 children. That’s more than all these children [affected by the other ACS closures] combined. And so for me, it’s an outrage. And I can’t come to the City Council and have a nice, polite conversation when you’re coming into my district and you’re telling 1,330 children, “Tough Luck, The Economy Is Bad.” That’s simply unacceptable. And so I will reiterate, the obligation is on the agency, the obligation is on the Mayor, the obligation is on the City to do what they can to fund these kids because you cannot tell 1,330 kids in my district, which is a larger number than all other childcare centers in New York combined, go to heck.
The money rant starts at the 9:30 mark. More at Yeshiva World and the NY Daily News.
Sanitation Depot, 19th Avenue. Photo credit: Brian Hedden
This Sanitation garage is part of a complex that straddles both sides of 19th Avenue, between Gravesend Park on one side, and Washington Cemetery and FDR High School on the other. Newly-elected City Councilmember David Greenfield expressed an interest in moving this depot – presumably out of the district – to make way for more (and affordable) residential housing. The Sanitation employee I talked to didn’t seem to mind, assuming another suitable location is found for the complex. I didn’t think to ask him how long it already took him to get into work.
The day is almost here – the special election to fill the City Council seat vacated by Simcha Felder is tomorrow, March 23. Polls are open from 6am to 9pm. The candidates on the official ballot – which keep changing every single time I look – will be David Greenfield (D), Joe Lazar (D), and Ken Rice (R).
Not sure if you live in the 44th District? Check out this hyper-detailed district map. Better yet, you can enter your information using a search form provided by the state Board of Elections (Council Districts are the same thing as “wards” on the voter information page). You can also use the state web site to find your polling place.
I will chime in with my final thoughts on this race tomorrow at 6am – when polls open 2pm. See you then!
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