YourNabe.com reports:

Wild possums are destroying Brooklynites’ gardens, threatening small dogs and terrifying teenage girls.

OK. First of all – if a dog can be threatened by a possum, then it was never really a dog to begin with. I’m sure it turned in its Dog Card long before it crossed paths with a possum.

“Last year, while walking around the [Dyker Beach] golf course at dusk, my daughter and I bumped into one. We were so scared. We’re city girls,” said Marnee Elias-Pavia, district manager of Community Board 11, which covers Bensonhurst, Mapleton, Bath Beach and Gravesend.

Elias-Pavia’s 13-year-old daughter was terrified.

“My daughter screamed and I had to grab her from running into the street,” Elias-Pavia recalled.

Secondly, if approached by a wild possum, don’t panic! Calmly hand over your valuables. An iPod can be replaced. Your life cannot.

City Councilmember Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island) claims the city is responsible for the growing possum population.

About 10 years ago, “There was a rat problem in Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach so they brought the possums in to target the rats,” Recchia explained. “These possums weren’t supposed to be able to duplicate, to have babies. It turns out that they had babies. Now, they’re pretty much everywhere and they’re a problem.”

Now it sounds like something straight out of Jurassic Park. That’s funny. I’ve met Recchia once, he didn’t strike me as the Jeff Goldblum type that mumbles things like “Nature found a way!” I wonder how nature found a way?

The creatures reproduce and mature at an incredible rate.

“They have a quick pregnancy,” [Urban Park Ranger Andrew] Marsala said. “It’s almost like a bowel movement.”

Whoa, Mack. Too much information there. Let’s just stick to rabbit analogies next time, OK?

It happened it South Brooklyn this week:

• The landlord of the 86th Street building that was the site of the deadly apartment fire has been sited with three violations for illegal subdividing the third floor of the building – $25,000 per violation. The subdivisions blocked some units from fire escapes, and criminal charges may follow. (NY Daily News)
• The City is seeing its most cases of mumps (900 and counting) in over 30 years. The epidemic is largely centered in the Orthodox Jewish community, and was started in the U.S. at an Upstate Orthodox boys camp from a camper that picked up the disease in England. (NY Daily News)
• Eleven people were arrested in a drug raid on a Bergen Beach home. Police and neighbors have indicated that the home has been a problem – and under scrutiny – for years. (YourNabe.com)
• State Senator Marty Golden is distributing a survey to users of the X27/X37 and X28/X38 bus routes in order to come to the MTA public hearing on March 3 armed with information. The MTA currently plans to consolidate the four routes into two (effectively eliminating non-stop service to Midtown) and will also end weekend service for the express lines. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• The City is bringing in an outside contractor – Webster Environmental Associates – to tackle a sewage odor problem along the southern end of Fort Hamilton Parkway that has alluded City agencies for years. (Brooklyn Paper)

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.

Reminder: the Sanitation Department is collecting Christmas trees for their recycling program from curbside until Friday, January 15. Be sure to remove all ornaments and tinsel, and don’t wrap in plastic.

(photo credit: one of my awesome Facebook Friends™)

And for God’s sake. Don’t do this. Please.

You can also bring your tree to a Mulchfest site in person this weekend – from 10am to 2pm, this Saturday and Sunday – and go home with free mulch! (Bring you own mulch bags.) In southern Brooklyn, you can go to to either Owl’s Head Park in Bay Ridge, or to Marine Park.

(Map courtsey Flatbush Gardener)

View Brooklyn MulchFest 2010 in a larger map

Thanks for reading! You rock. It’s been a lot of fun writing for BK Southie, and I’m glad it’s found an audience.

Also, I have a year-end shout-out for Peter Chan, Kerry Scire, and Rita Jennings for their ‘09 contributions to this site. I hope they have enjoyed writing here as much as I have.

To Peter, Kerry, Rita, and all of the readers here, Happy New Year!

I went out to Flatbush on Saturday for the art studio open house that took place there over the weekend. I have lots and lots of pictures, and lots more, not only of the artists’ studios, but also of the neighborhood in general and a couple from Vox Pop. I have plenty to keep me going through the week. Hope you enjoy!

Ten years and two weeks ago, inside of her Pittsburgh apartment, my then-girlfriend-now-ex-wife popped the question:

:: Do you want to move to New York?

(actual picture of my then-girlfriend-now-ex-wife)

For someone with my background – specifically, an Upstate Republican from Cowtown who grew up loathing the City as a cesspool and a snake pit – it isn’t actually surprising that I only needed a second-and-a-half to answer.

Perhaps more surprising is that I answered yes.

Or maybe not surprising at all – after spending my teen years believing that my destiny lie in Buffalo, I went to Pitt on a whim – the idea planted by a piece of recruiting mail that I might give a try at living in (and please don’t laugh) The Big City of Pittsburgh.

Why it was the Pitt brochure that did it for me, and not the fact that my best friend was going to Chicago, I have no idea.

Anyway. My decision to move to New York:

(1) Poorly-reasoned out.

(2) Has worked out better than any other decision I’ve ever made about anything, ever.