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.
Topeka Kansas’ traveling circus of hate, The Westboro Baptist Church, had big plans for today. They wanted to demonstrate at two different South Brooklyn yeshivas. However, the group changed their minds and turned tail after failing to attract any publicity. According to The , the hate group showed up for their first protest today at 12 noon outside Yeshiva Bais Hatalmud on 82nd Street near Bay Parkway in Bensonhurst. Unlike previous protests last October, no media showed up and neither Yeshiva faculty nor students acknowledged the hate group’s presence. Uniformed police who had been notified of the event were on hand. The rally ended after only thirty minutes.
The second planned protest, at the Mirrer Yeshiva on Ocean Parkway and Avenue R in Midwood, never even happened according to website The Flatbush Scoop. The lack of excitable locals at the first location was likely a factor in The Westboro Baptist Church’s decision to get out of Dodge without a second rally.
Yeshiva World News pointed out the attention aroused by a counter protest at a previous Westboro demonstration on October 11, 2010, during which New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind jumped a police barricade and tore away a sign from a “church” member’s hands. This might explain why the hate group came back to Brooklyn so soon; they were probably expecting a similar reaction. They left disappointed.
AM New York, Cablevision’s free daily newspaper has a profile of Midwood in it’s latest issue. It’s titled ‘Travel Back in Time in Midwood.” While their hearts were in the right place, their geography could use some fact checking.
First, the article describes Midwood as being “wedged between Flatbush and Coney Island.” The Flatbush part is correct (unfortunately, I credit the film Sophie’s Choice more than the reporter for that) but in an act of main stream journalism-as-usual, deeper, arguably lesser known South Brooklyn neighborhoods like Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay are grafted onto Coney Island like some sort of Frankenstein experiment gone horribly wrong.
At the end of the article, there is a roundup of neighborhood businesses. Included in the list is Jomart Chocolates at 2917 Avenue R. Having grown up not far from there, I’ll admit that Avenue R and Nostrand Avenue is in a sort of gray area between two neighborhoods. Unfortunately, those two neighborhoods are Marine Park and Madison.
I wonder what would happen if we told AM New York, whose parent company Cablevision is based out of Bethpage in Nassau County, that Brooklyn is geographically part of Long Island? It might blow their minds.
A nearly 2 million dollar tax break for Moisha’s Kosher Discount Supermarket on Avenue M in middle class Midwood, part of an initiative to bring supermarkets to poor, underserved neighborhoods has Councilman Charles Baron (D- East New York) calling foul, reports the Daily News. The tax break comes as part of the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health, whose goal is supposed to be increased access to fresh fruit and vegetables for neighborhoods in Central Brooklyn, Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx. Moisha’s is located outside of the main target zone of the project. Councilman Baron called it “an abuse of the program.” According to the Daily News, owners of the kosher grocer Moisha and Barry Binik have contributed over $41,000 to local politicians in the last ten years.
The Venetian: 431 Ave P @ East 2nd St
This past Sunday the Daily News reported that Sitt Asset Management, the company behind the Venetian, a luxury condo on Avenue P in Midwood was approached by a Gambino crime family associate in 2007. According to prosecutors, mob associate Thomas Frangiapane used construction firm Duramax to extort $120,000 from the condo developer. Prosecutors are implicating Duramex as a result of January’s record-breaking citywide raids on organized crime targets. Frangiapane’s lawyer reportedly told the Daily News that his client “never extorted anyone.”
Crowds on the Ave N Platform of the F Train waiting for service to resume about 730AM this morning
This pic was taken from the stairs that lead up to the Manhattan Bound platform from Avenue M. I really like the cornice on this house. The flags help me visualize being on a beach in PR instead of fighting the snow, rain and ice in NY. Puerto Rico, ho!
Our Place, an Avenue M center for at-risk Jewish teens, is in jeopardy of shutting it’s doors due to drastically reduced funding and mounting debt, as reported by The Jewish Week.
Now 17, he came to Brooklyn seven months ago from the Midwest, where he was failing at school and fighting at home. Here, he says, he lived with a member of his family, but was still lost, “chilling on the streets, doing drugs.”
That changed a few months ago, Motti (not his real name) says, when “a friend,” someone he’d hang out with wasting time, told him about Our Place, a drop-in center for teens, many from Orthodox backgrounds.
He came one night, one of the more than 5,000 troubled teens helped by the center in the last dozen years. And he kept coming back.
The 12-year-old Our Place, like many non-profits, is facing a serious budget crunch brought on by the Great Recession and the resulting elimination of government funding and cutback in philanthropic support. It has run up $250,000 in debt, and the center’s supporters are scrambling to raise the funds needed to keep the center open.
According to the director, Chaim Glancz, a minimum budget of $400,000 annual needs to be in place by January. Three years ago, before the onset of the recession, the budget was $1.2 million.
Now, Glancz says, Our Place is on life support, depending not on the kindness of strangers but on the chesed of people who believe in its mission. No one’s been paid since July, not vendors (they bring the kosher meals that keep a refrigerator stocked and provide nightly free meals for the kids) or the seven professional therapists on staff (they’re supplemented by a score of volunteers, mostly businessmen from the Orthodox community) or the landlord (“He hasn’t asked for the rent.”)
Read more about the Our Place drop-in center at The Jewish Week.
A couple of nights ago, I commented on a Facebook thread started by Sheepshead Bites, regarding media coverage of the guns bust in Gravesend over the weekend:
You know which hawt lesbian schoolteachers I mean. James Madison High School (Midwood, Brooklyn) teachers Alini Brito and Cindy Mauro, accused of getting it on in an empty classroom while the schoolkids were in an assembly.
Alini Brito (left) and Cindy Mauro (right). Photo: NY Daily News
Who doesn’t remember these two? Indeed, this is what was going through my mind at the time.
Dayum. Now why didn’t any of MY schoolteachers look like that?
Seriously. My son is only in second grade, and he’s already had three more attractive teachers than I had through twelve. I’m seriously jealous.
One of the beautiful things about New York is, if you don’t like the news, wait ten minutes.
‘Horndog High’ teachers Alini Brito, Cindy Mauro to be charged for alleged lesbian tryst (NY Daily News)
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!
Hey guys, Peter over at situatedlaundry here.
To my surprise, Midwood High School (one of two Brooklyn high schools with prestige and a high academic aptitude when I was a Bensonhurst teen) has made a lot of improvements since my departure. For starters, the most noticeable change is the overpass that connects the main building on the south side of Bedford Avenue and Campus Road to the new(er?) annex building across the street on the north. It’s actually quite impressive how this new “gateway” shapes the school into a more campus-like environment. Also, I’m sure the overcrowded classrooms problems I faced when I was a student here nearly a decade ago were relieved from this new addition.
Once I was inside to retrieve my high school transcript for some leisure classes at the neighboring Brooklyn College, a quick flashback of a teenage version of myself with a wornout Jansport backpack filled my head. Seeing the familiar wall decor only added to this nostalgia. I managed to walk pass a plaque from my personal High School Musical days when the senior class won the annual musical competition- fun times.
Midwood High School Musical- Class of 2000: Senior Year
After getting my transcript and seeing what an average student I was (an 80.7 average), I realized it was not a dreaded visit as I thought it was going to be, I was actually quite glad I got to see my old stomping grounds. Perhaps my my fear stemmed from the same fear you get when you’re about to see an ex…
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