Star revue christmas 2014

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SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER The Red Hook Star ª Revue CHRISTMAS 2014 FREE ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Merry Christmas Everybody! Tony Sterling’s alleged killers now in custody, by George Fiala B obby Boomer, Red Hook resi- dent and alleged shooter of Tony Sterling last October 5th, was apprehended in Vir- ginia during the first week of December by Detective Ware of the 76th Precinct. Boomer waived extradition and was brought back to Brooklyn where he will face a grand jury this Thursday. Ware was assigned the case in October. Boomer was evidently a suspect from the beginning, but he left town. Ware finally located him and went to Virginia to bring him back to face trial. Boomer was held at the precinct over the week- end where he underwent questioning. Evidently there is surveillance camera evidence tying him and another suspect to Sterling’s death. Sterling, 53, was shot in the leg in his Bush Street building and bled to death. A life-long resident, he was well loved by many in the Red Hook Houses, and his funeral packed Calvary Church. Boomer’s son, also named Bobby, was involved in an incident involving a gun two years ago in Red Hook. As two offi- cers approached him, the police claimed that he ran away firing a shot at them. He was caught hiding under a bed, and the case made citywide headlines as it involved a possible police shooting. It was reported that a crowd gathered afterwards to protest the police action. This was at the height of the controver- sial stop and frisk policies. Boomer Jr. was charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder and illegal possession of a stolen gun. He ended up being found guilty of the gun charge and is currently serving time. More details about the Sterling case will be available after the grand jury hear- ing, and Detective Ware hinted that they would be interest- ing. People who knew Tony Sterling seem to be happy that the alleged perpetrators were caught. Ster- ling left behind a number of family members and many more friends and ac- quaintances in the close knit Red Hook Houses community. CheaButtery Brown, in a Facebook posting wrote: “ Well...if they didn’t close the case they would be scream- ing that the police didn’t do their job... good job, 76th Squad!” Some of the many friends who showed up at the Sterling funeral. Pictured are Thomas Reynolds, Harold Arm- strong, Eliott Ness and Clayton Foster.

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Tony Sterling, Christmas lights, Makers Market, Broolklyn Collective and political gossip! Merry Chistmas!

Transcript of Star revue christmas 2014

Page 1: Star revue christmas 2014

SOUTH BROOKLYN’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

The Red Hook StarªRevue

CHRISTMAS 2014 FREE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Tony Sterling’s alleged killers now in custody, by George Fiala

Bobby Boomer, Red Hook resi-dent and alleged shooter of Tony Sterling last October 5th, was apprehended in Vir-

ginia during the first week of December by Detective Ware of the 76th Precinct. Boomer waived extradition and was brought back to Brooklyn where he will face a grand jury this Thursday.

Ware was assigned the case in October. Boomer was evidently a suspect from the beginning, but he left town. Ware finally located him and went to Virginia to bring him back to face trial. Boomer was held at the precinct over the week-end where he underwent questioning.

Evidently there is surveillance camera evidence tying him and another suspect to Sterling’s death.

Sterling, 53, was shot in the leg in his Bush Street building and bled to death. A life-long resident, he was well loved

by many in the Red Hook Houses, and his funeral packed Calvary Church.

Boomer’s son, also named Bobby, was involved in an incident involving a gun two years ago in Red Hook. As two offi-cers approached him, the police claimed that he ran away firing a shot at them. He was caught hiding under a bed, and the case made citywide headlines as it involved a possible police shooting.

It was reported that a crowd gathered afterwards to protest the police action. This was at the height of the controver-sial stop and frisk policies.

Boomer Jr. was charged with a number of crimes, including attempted murder and illegal possession of a stolen gun. He ended up being found guilty of the gun charge and is currently serving time.

More details about the Sterling case will be available after the grand jury hear-ing, and Detective Ware hinted that

they would be interest-ing.

People who knew Tony Sterling seem to be happy that the alleged perpetrators were caught. Ster-ling left behind a number of family members and many more friends and ac-quaintances in the close knit Red Hook Houses community.

CheaButtery Brown, in a Facebook posting wrote: “ Well...if they didn’t close the case they would be scream-ing that the police didn’t do their job... good job, 76th Squad!”

Some of the many friends who showed up at the Sterling funeral. Pictured are Thomas Reynolds, Harold Arm-strong, Eliott Ness and Clayton Foster.

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Happenings, etc.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17The Red Hook East Tenants Association meets, 6:30 at 167 Bush Street, 1B Carlos Menchaca’s Participatory Budget sessioning meets at 6:30 at the Miccio Center. Show up - you can become a delegate

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19 PS 15 Holiday Fair, 8:30 - 11 in the auditorium

After nearly 18 years as the Assemblywoman representing the 52nd Assembly, next Friday, December 19 will be Joan Millman’s last day in her office at 341 Smith Street. I invite anyone in the district to stop by the office between 10 AM and 5 PM to say goodbye - we’ll have cookies! It’ll also be the last day to donate new, packaged socks for homeless shelter residents. Bring a pack of socks and get a cookie in exchange

RHAPP Christmas party, 6 - 9 at the Realty Collective, 351 Columbia Street. RHAPP Presentation at 7:30. Come and have fun and learn about the Red Hook Arts Project

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 21Come and be part of an annual tradition.....We need your help at the Church Christmas Decorating Party on Sunday 12/21 after the 11:45 Mass. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet your fellow parishioners and have a fun time decorating the most beautiful parish in the Dio-cese!!! Bring the kids!!! There will be food and refreshments!!! All are Welcome. Sacred Hearts & St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church, Hicks and Summit.

ONGOINGStar-Revue Night Music Jams at Rocky Sullivan’s from 8 pm-12 am every Monday. Bring your instrument and jam with local musicians of all skill levels. Or come out and enjoy the show. 34 Van Dyke Street.

The Red Hook StarªRevue

proudly introduces our new website

www.Star-Revue.comFor Editorial, Advertising and Help Wanted Inquiries,

email [email protected], or call 718 624-5568

The Star-Revue is published by Kimberly G. Price & George Fiala

RELIGIOUS SERVICESCATHOLICVisitation Church98 Richards St, (718) 624-1572. Office open Mon-Thursday9 am - 3 pm. Saturday mass 5 pm; Spanish mass at 7 pm. Sunday 10 am English, 12:30 pm Spanish. Community Prayer Tuesday and Thurs-day, 8 pm. Youth Group Meetings on Friday, 4:30 - 6 pm. Baptisms are held every other month. Please call to arranged for baptisms, communions and weddings. We will visit the sick upon notification.

Saint Paul and Saint Agnes Parish St. Paul’s Church - Rectory & Church Office 234 Congress Street (718) 624-3425 Hours: M - F 830am-12 St. Agnes Church Office 433 Sackett Street, 718-625-1717 Hours: M-F 1pm-430pm Email:[email protected] St. Agnes: Saturday 5pm Vigil Mass Sunday 9 am (English), 11:30am (Spanish) St. Paul’s: Saturday 5pm Vigil Mass Sunday 8 am & 9:30am (English); 11am (Spanish) Monday & Tuesday 8:30am (St. Paul’s) Wednesday & Thursday 8:30am (St. Agnes) Saturday 8am (St. Paul’s) http://stpaulstagnes.org/

Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary - Saint Stephen Roman Catholic Church125 Summit Street at Hicks Street [email protected] Saturday Vigil Mass 5:30pm Sunday Masses: 10am & 11:45am (Italian/English) Weekdays Masses: Tuesday Through Saturday 8:30am Confessions: Saturdays 4:45pm and by appointment. Baptisms: Every Third Sunday At 1pm. Please call the rectory one month before to make arrangements. Sick Calls: Please call the rectory to arrange for the sacrament of anointing whenever anyone is seriously ill. Marriages: Please call the rectory at least 6 months ahead for an appointment with a priest http://www.sacredhearts-ststephen.com

St. Paul’s Carroll Street 199 Carroll Street Parish Office: 718-625-4126 Sunday Mass at 10 am Weekday Morning Prayer - Mon.-Thurs. at 7:30 am Weekday masses as announced Holy Days as announced (please see the Calendar) Church open for prayer Tues. 6-8pm & Sat. 2-4pm http://stpaulscarrollst.weebly.com/

JewishKane Street Synagogue 236 Kane Street, (near Tompkins Place) 718 875-1550 http://kanestreet.org/ Au-gust 29 - 30, Shabbat Shoftim Candle Lighting 7:14 PM Shabbat ends 8:17 PMFriday night services, 6:00 PM Shabbat morning services, 9:15 AM Sunday Morning Services 9:00 AM

Congregation B’nai Avraham/Chabad of Brooklyn Heights117 Remsen St., 718 596 4840 x18 www.bnaiavraham.com, www.heightschabad.com Morning Services: Sunday: 8:45am Monday - Friday: 7:45am Holidays (during the week): 8:45am Saturday: 9:45am Evening Services: Sunday: Shabbat candle lighting time Monday - Thursday: 9:00pm Friday: Winter: 5 minutes before Shabbat candle lighting time Summer: 7:30pm Saturday: Shabbat candle lighting time

If your religious institution isn’t listed here, let us know by emailing [email protected] Thanks!

Community Telephone Numbers:Red Hook Councilman Carlos Menchaca .............718 439-9012Red Hook Assemblyman Felix Ortiz ....................718-492-6334Red Hook State Senator Velmanette Montgomery .718-643-6140Gowanus Councilman Brad Lander .....................718 499-1090Park Slope Councilman Steve Levin .....................718 875-5200CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman ...........718 643-3027

76th Police Precinct, 191 Union StreetMain phone ....................................................718-834-3211Community Affairs ...........................................718 834-3207Traffic Safety ....................................................718 834-3226

Eileen Dugan Senior Center, 380 Court Street .......718 596-1956Miccio Community Center, 110 East 9th Street ......718 243-1528 Red Hook East Dev. Office, 62 Mill St...................718 852-6771Red Hook West Dev. Office, 55 Dwight St. ...........718 522-3880Brownstone Republicans ..... [email protected]

NYCHA Satellite Police Precinct, 80 Dwight StreetMain Phone ...................................................(718) 265-7300Community Affairs ..........................................(718) 265-7313Domestic Violence ..........................................(718) 265-7310Youth Officer ..................................................(718) 265-7314Auxiliary/Law Enforcement Coordinator .........(718) 265-7378Detective Squad ..............................................(718) 265-7327

Friends of the Red Hook Library

The Red Hook Star-Revue is interested in helping form a friends group for our library at Walcott Street.

A strong neighborhood library needs volunteers willing to put in some time.

If we can find enough interested people we will go ahead with it.

If this interests you, please send an email to George at [email protected]

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Local leaders hold a vigil at the flagpoleby George Fiala

Friday, December 12 was a busy day in the neighborhood. Many were gearing up for a trip to Washington to take part in the

national protests spurred by the recent police shootings of unarmed black men. Others stayed in the city for local pro-tests.

There were two local Christmas tree lightings - one on Columbia and Sackett Streets, and the other in Carroll Park.

McBride showed up and brought can-dles for people to hold. A local preacher came and spoke about the importance of respect and love in these times of questioning about grand juries and jus-tice and loss.

There were two interruptions. The first was a police car who pulled up. They came to start up the flood lights that have been recently installed to provide some protection around the Houses. It turns out that these lamps are pow-ered by a gasoline motor and have to be turned on each evening. The police opened the base and turned the lamps on, and then left.

The second interruption was a small pa-rade of Visitation Church parishioners celebrated the Our Lady of Guadalope holiday. A band played and Father

While the candles didn’t provide much heat in the chilly evening, they did provide warmth and a sense of purpose. (photo by George Fiala)

Father Claudio speaks to the crowd.Claudio made a speech.

After the speeches, the gathering slowly broke up, with some heading over to the Columbia Street tree lighting where toys were given out, others to RHI where a seminar on dealing with police situations, and others simply heading off into the chilly night.

Those in the crowd included Sister Rosanna from Visitation, Henrietta Perkins, Frances Brown, RHI’s Tony Schloss, Wally Bazemore, Robert Ber-rios, Karen Blondel and Pete Morales.

It was a double decker day for Pete, who earlier attended a Senior Center update meeting at the Miccio Center.

Catherine McBride, who has headed the Local Leader program at the Red Hook Initiative, organized a small community vigil at the flagpole outside 450 Colum-bia Street “to remember our fallen.”

People started gathering around 6 pm, forming a quiet and respectful crowd.

Update on Valentino Pier Park bathrooms

by George Fiala

Earlier this fall there was a big local brouhaha as a community request for a bathroom for visitors of the park turned into a $2.4 million dollar comfort sta-tion that nobody ended up wanting.

After a couple of public meetings, Council member Carlos Menchaca told the parks department to not go forward with the comfort station. He could do that because most of the money for the project came from the city council.

At the time, he told Red Hookers that he would take that money and hold it in reserve to be used solely for Red Hook parks projects requested and approved by the community. It was unclear whether the funds would be added to the ongoing Participatory Budget pro-cess. Participatory Budgeting involves community planning and voting for lo-cal capital initiatives, such as air condi-tioning for local schools. Last year the PB program funded a garden for the Red Hook library as well as upgrades to PS 15 and other district schools.

We asked the District Office for an update and were told that the $2 mil-lion + was indeed being held aside for parks project and that they were busy working on a process outside of Partici-patory Budgeting which would put to-gether projects on a size and scale that the community wanted. At some point in the future a town meeting would be called to let us know how the office planned to proceed.

We checked with the Brooklyn Park Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey who con-firmed this. In an email to the Star-

Revue, he told us: “Regarding this issue, we can confirm that funding, previously designated for a comfort station at Val-entino Pier, will be redirected for other park related projects in Councilman Menchaca’s district. We look forward to working with the Councilman and the community on future projects in Red Hook.”

Statement from the City Council Speaker regarding the Garner case“This was a terribly disappointing out-come and is not reflective of the events that led to Eric Garner’s death. What makes this even more infuriating is the frequent lack of accountability, which is why I urge the U.S. Department of

Justice to launch its own investigation.

The use of excessive and lethal police force against people of color is a persis-tent problem nationwide and we must recommit ourselves to building a more just city and society where all people, regardless of color, are treated equally by law enforcement. Locally, Com-missioner Bratton must expedite the retraining of NYPD officers – the vast majority of whom serve our communi-ties honorably and bravely – so we can ensure that incidents like the one that led to Eric Garner’s death never occur again.

During this painful time, it is imperative that New Yorkers come together rather than allow frustration and anger to boil

over and divide us. The Garner family has asked that any demonstrations be peaceful and everyone should respect that call. My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Eric Gar-ner. My fellow Council Members and I remain committed to fostering healing in our communities.

CB 6 remembers past head of the 76th Precinct.From the CB 6 newsletter: We extend condolences to the family and friends of Deputy Inspector Joseph T. Cassidy, former Commanding Officer of the 76th Precinct, who passed away on Novem-ber 11, 2014. Thank you for your ser-vice to our community.

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EVERGREEN LIQUOR STORE INC.718 643-0739

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Mon. - Thurs. 11 am - 10:30 pm; Fri & Sat. 11 am - 11:30 pm; Sun. 1 pm - 9 pm

tea and coffee in the am, beer and wine in the pm

517 Court Street, corner West 9th (718) 522-4410www.teaffee.com www.facebook.com/Teaffee

Unfinished Red Hook Hub holds an unveiling

party anywayOn December 5, a ceremony was held at the Red Hook library celebrating the Red Hook Hub.

The Hub is a project initially funded with an $80,000 grant from AIGA, a NYC design association. Red Hook was one of three communities impacted by Sandy that is to benefit from a localized communication system.

While originally meant to coordinate with disaster relief operations, solving problems that became evident during the first few days after Hurricane Sandy, it has evolved into a brightly designed community calendar operation. It con-sists of a website, a ticker in the win-dow of 351 Van Brunt Street, a bulletin board outside the library, and some sort of futuristic bulletin board that will oc-cupy the granite slab out in front of the Miccio Center.

It incorporates the color yellow, which was evident at the library event as yel-low buttons and bright T-Shirts were on display. A HUB coordinator, local writer Dabriah Alston, was hired by the Red Hook Coalition to help put togeth-er the community events listed on the

HUB website.

Attending the function were members of the HUB committee, which has been meeting at the library, including Reg Flowers, Tony Schloss and James An-drews. Carlos Menchaca, who showed up a bit late as he wasn’t feeling well, gave his uplifting speech about the im-portance of community participation in the governing process.

Participating in the ceremonial ribbon cutting are Saundra from the Red Hook library, Tony Schloss from RHI, Reg Flowers, committee member, Carlos Menchaca, James Andrews and a HUB volunteer. (photo by George Fiala)

Eventual location of the third HUB.

Protesting the proposed Gowanus Parole Center

Much controversy surrounds the planned consolidation of Brooklyn Parole Boards into one large building along the Gowa-nus Canal. People are not eager to have upwards of 500 parolees daily walking through the neighborhood to this new cen-ter. We received the following press release from the Brooklyn Preservation Council.

Brooklyn’s borough-wide preservation organization today opposed the State Correction Department’s irresponsible, intentionally misleading and illegal opening of a borough-wide parole su-pervision center at Fifth Street and Sec-ond Avenue adjacent to the residential Gowanus/Park Slope neighborhood.

“It is absolutely outrageous that they did this based on a fundamental misunder-standing of the area,” said BPC chair Buddy Scotto. “They think they’re go-ing into an area of abandoned factories where there are no children and fami-lies. Nothing could be further from the truth. Convicted felons taking the sub-way will traverse streets full of houses and schools where children play on the street.”

sembly members or the Council mem-bers and Borough President. We are left with a fait accompli with a signed lease for an almost complete office building for them.”

Furman added “We can only hope that the pending lawsuit by community members and political pressure will buy some time to make changes to lessen the effects of having hundreds of convicted

criminals on the streets of a neighbor-hood.”

The release ends with the customary contact information, which we reprint below:

For further information contact rob-ert furman at 917-648-4043 or [email protected]

BPC president Robert Furman added: “The Corrections Department acts as if they operate in a vacuum, did every-thing possible to avoid public supervi-sion of their actions, and the Bloomberg Administration conspired with them in this by granting a parking waiver right before they left office without notifying anybody! No elected officials were con-sulted, not the State Senators and As-

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Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014, Page 5

481 Van Brunt Street #8A (across from Fairway) 718 624-5568 [email protected] www.Star-Revue.com

The Red Hook StarªRevue

Come by and say hi!

At least another year until the Red Hook Senior Center gets its new digs

by George Fiala

A busy Friday in Red Hook began with a morning meeting at the Miccio Center to discuss the

progress of the new Senior Center.

The original center, on Walcott Street across from the library, was wiped out by Sandy floodwaters over two years ago. Operated by RAICES, the center of-fers those over 60 a place to have lunch, shoot pool, engage in learning and oth-er activities, and get together with oth-ers in their age range.

The center has been operating out of the Miccio Center while awaiting the renovation of the building next door, which formerly housed a Head Start program. Almost $2 million was grant-ed by council member Sara Gonzalez in May 2013 to transform the building, but until now little was known about what was happening.

The meeting was hosted by new Coun-cil Member Carlos Menchaca. In the audience were representatives of As-semblyman Ortiz and City Comptroller Scott Stringer. Much of the rest of the audience consisted of the actual seniors, who stayed afterwards for their lunch. In fact, cooking began in the kitchen behind the presenters about halfway through the program.

It was explained by Dawn Sanders, a NYCHA rebuilding contractor, that no work as of yet has been done on the vacant building. What has been com-pleted are the plans, and some of the architects stood behind the presenters, listening quietly. Sanders went through a slide presentation explaining how the one story building was to be turned into a senior center.

The presentation was translated from English into both Spanish and Chinese, adding some time to the presentation.

The largest room will be the dining room, which the audience was told would seat 80 people comfortably. Karen Broughton, representing Felix Ortiz, was concerned that more than 80 seniors often attended the program. One of the architects pointed out that the room was actually bigger than the lunchroom at the Miccio, meaning that at least 100 could actually fit.

There will be a pantry, where food will be prepared, an exercise room, a com-

puter room, and a billiards room. The lunchoom is also called a multipurpose room, and it was suggested that salsa lessons could be given. Menchaca said that he would take a lesson once the place was open.

The building will receive new mechani-cals (plumbing, heating, etc), and cracks on the outside wall will be repaired.

Miss Sanders said that contractors would be hired during the next three to six months and (upon questioning) said she expects the center to be open a year from now.

She said that NYCHA is very eager to hire qualified locals to work on the job - meaning that they would try and get the contractors to hire qualified NYCHA residents. Positions would include not only plumbers and sheetrockers, but se-curity and administrative help as well.

She said that anyone wishing to be con-sidered for a job must visit NYCHA of-fices at 787 Atlantic Avenue to be en-tered into the database. A flyer gave out the phone number 347-566-9242, and also included her email: [email protected]. A company called REES is doing some hiring - their num-ber is 718 289-8100.

Pete Morales asked about parking. Mo-rales, who lives above the old senior center, and walks with a cane, com-plained of having trouble finding park-ing around the Miccio. He and others often park in the front, but those are not legal spots and are occasionally ticketed. Of course, parking is not part of the rebuilding plan, but Menchaca said he might contact DOT.

The large backyard, which has been the scene of barbecues and had been the Head Star playground, was brought

up. As of now there are no plans for the playground, although some thought it might solve the parking problem.

Josh Levin, who is with the Comptrol-lers office, mentioned that the 30% local hiring rule is not often followed. Palmer said that she would do her best, and Menchaca said he would follow up on that as well.

The meeting broke up at around 11:30, and the seniors stayed for a lunch that was starting to smell pretty good.

Dawn Sanders, speaking for NYCHA, asking the audience for questions.

Pete Morales, sitting in the front row next to a stylish Karen Broughton, wants to know about parking on West 9th Street. (photos by Fiala)

The future senior citizen center today.

Local entrepreneur mixer held at new Shared Brooklyn spaceby George Fiala

Local movers and shakers got to see the new Shared Brooklyn above Steve’s Key Lime pie on Monday night as it was the scene of a businessperson mixer, hosted by Reg Flowers.The get-together, which include vittles, was an opportunity to put together busi-ness owners with providers of business services. The event was organized by the Car-roll Gardens Association, SBIDC, and Kaluk Services Cooperative - a new organization formed to help local busi-nesses. Robert Piechota from the Brook-lyn Small Business Development Center was also there explaining their services.

Reg Flowers was an entertaining host. He helped people meet each other and ran a fun raffle.

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Tree Lighting and Concert at PS 15

PS 15 held their annual tree lighting on December 1 this year. It was different this year as the Brooklyn Youth Cho-rus gave a beautiful concert in the au-ditorium before the tree lighting in the courtyard.

The Chorus includes PS 15 students as well as some from other schools. Songs they sung included Let It Snow, Jingle Bells, Rudolph, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Deck the Halls, Feliz Navi-dad and Frosty the Snowman.

Refreshments were served courtesy of the PTA.

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The Red Hook Lions Club annual toy giveaway

The Lions Club, celebrating their 22nd year of service in Red Hook, held their annual toy giveaway at the

Miccio Center on Saturday, December 13.

The event was advertised throughout the neighbor-hood through flyers and word of mouth, and a large

crowd of children with their parents came for presents and were treated to a home cooked holiday meal as

well.

The afternoon was hosted by Lion dignitaries Jay and Andrea McKnight, with help from the whole club and

volunteers.

Yasmin Rehman, Rebecca Fishburne and Alicia Hairston did all the cooking except for the turkey, which was prepared by hostess Andrea McKnight.That’s Jay McKnight helping the kids get their toys.

Anissa Hayes, and BFF Nikayla Richardson with sister Kasyrah Richardson enjoying the good food. Anissa and Nikayla are students at PAVE Academy

Laureal White checks out her new My Little Pony as mother Lauren Logan looks on. (all photos by George Fiala)

Red Hook East Tenant leaders Hal and Frances Brown as well as NYCHA Board Member Bea Byrd stopped by.

Red Hook West tenant meeting presents a wide range of informative speakersby George Fiala

Red Hook West TA President Lil-lie Marshall presented her De-cember meeting on December 9,

the second Tuesday of the month as usu-al. It ended with a home cooked meal, also as usual. And, as usual, a diverse array of speakers updated NYCHA resi-dents on a number of important topics.

The meeting began with a short pre-sentation from the Success Academy. Success is a NYC Charter School. They have what’s called a Field Organizer, whose job it seems is to recruit students. She said that if PAVE is full, parents should apply to Success.

Next, a Miss Holman, Assistant Build-ing Supervisor, answered questions re-garding building repairs. She was aware of some shoddy repair work done on some of the roofs, which are still leak-ing. She said that she would call the contractors to come and fix their job.

She passed out complaint forms where people good let her know of other prob-lems. Someone complained that the new temporary boilers, which were sup-posed to be better than the old tempo-rary boilers that were hastily installed following the hurricane, were still prob-lematic. Someone didn’t have hot water for three days. Another complained that water drained from the boilers was icing up and causing safety problems.

Miss Marshall agreed, saying that there must be a better way to dispose of the drained water.

There were other complaints about whole banks of lights being out in some of the buildings some of the time. Holman explained that there were some major wiring mistakes that would be correct-ed. Someone mentioned problems they were having with the intercoms. Hol-man said that some problems were be-

cause there were not e n o u g h m a i n t e -nance peo-ple current-ly on staff. Other prob-lems includ-ed low toi-let flushing power and lobbies and e l e v a t o r s

that were not cleaned

Miss Holman said that nobody deserved unclean lobbies and elevators - that pre-sentation of the buildings was impor-tant. - and also it was not a tenant’s duty to maintain the lobbies.

Menchaca’s new community outreach person, Julian Mo-rales spoke next. He reminded everyone of the December 12th meeting about the senior center, and a participatory budgeting meeting on the 17th - both at the Miccio.

Bryan Solomon-Puertas from NYCHA’s Sandy Rebuilding project gave a hint of what they hope to accomplish. This includes backup rooftop generators, ad-dressing the blackout problem after the storm. Sump pumps will be installed in all the basements. Sewer backup prob-lems will be addressed. These things should be made possible as a FEMA deal bringing $200 million to the Red Hook Houses is expected to be announced in January.

Solomon said that qualified NYCHA residents would be given preference in hiring to do some of these things. He advised everyone to tell those looking for work to go the the Rees office at 787

Atlantic Avenue and have their qualifi-cations entered in the database.

Peterson Napolean from Felix Ortiz’s office reiterated the importance of at-tending the upcoming meeting about the senior center plans.

Miss Marshall announced that her an-nual toy giveaway would take place in her office, 428 Columbia Street, 1C, on December 20th. She complained that donations were light this year, so it wouldn’t be like last year. She did get some furry toys from IKEA and an-other donation from Mr. Lopes of H & R Enterprises, developers of the BASIS School.

The meeting ended with dinner, and a walk outside, which is much nicer since the scaffolding was finally removed.

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The Red Hook StarªRevue

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Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014, Page 9

The Red Hook StarªRevue

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Page 10 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014

EDITORIAL:

Outsourcing doesn’t just mean to China

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

(send yours to [email protected])

George, I’m sorry , this is NOT a de-veloping story……. Haddads is NOT the only tenant… There have been construction trucks buses dump trucks cement trucks etc etc… I don’t get it, it doesn’t bother you that Haddads has been parking at the end of Wolcott for almost 10 years?? Who are the people complaining about this? I honestly feel like you are making a story out of noth-ing… All heavy duty diesel trucks un-dergo emissions testing just like your car…The amount of traffic in and out of that lot is negligible compared to the hundreds of diesel powered school buses that come and go from the neighbor-hood sometimes twice a day, speeding down the block, double parking etc.. Pretty soon when all of the industry is pushed from red hook by the deep cof-fered developers and uber wealthy new-

ly anchored homeowners very few of us will be able to live here. This is RED HOOK, not Williamsburg (not yet at least)……. Maybe Joe Sitt should have built that BJ’s or whatever big box nightmare he wanted there, at least you would have something valid to write about.. Well, when our waterfront is only accessible by the people living in the glass towers, hotels and boutiques that are inevitably going to be built I will look forward to reading what you think.. Just my humble opinion - Tim in Red Hook

You are right. Nobody seems to care. I thought that since there was such a hue and cry when the BASIS school went ahead – lots of words about how a school was better than a smoky bus parking lot, people might think that a lot on such a much larger scale might be of concern to those same people. But I haven’t heard a thing. Thanks for the comment! I don’t disagree, although just as I wrote during the BASIS controversy, industrial or lux-

I just got off the phone with a friend who works at PS 15. She called us upset about an incident having to do with the discovery of moldy hamburger packages in the lunchroom.

In trying to find out where blame, if any, was to be laid, I discovered that the PS 15 lunchroom, and by extension prob-ably public school lunchroom services throughout the city, are outsourced to a private company.

Just last week I attended a meeting at the Miccio Center discussing the status of the new Senior Center. There was much discussion at the meeting about how at least 30% of the jobs having to do with the renovation could go to NYCHA tenants.

Upon questioning, I found out that Ms. Sanders and her team will encourage contractors to hire locally, in case there are any NYCHA residents who make the trip to 787 Atlantic Avenue and apply. In other words, NYCHA has no power themselves to hire locally on this project, since the project is outsourced.

In fact, the people who led the presen-tation, including Dawn Sanders, were not NYCHA employees at all.

The whole NYCHA Sandy Recovery team is an outsourced. Ms. Sanders is an employee of the CSA Group, a private company that in addition to managing NYCHA’s disaster recover response. CSA is involved in projects through-out the United States and around the world, including Puerto Rico, Miami and Panama.

The money trail starts with public mon-ey - the billions allocated by congress for Sandy Recovery. In the old days, that money would directly to Sandy recovery. These days, it filters through layers of private bureaucracy, dispersing private profits, in many cases to com-panies that are generous when it comes

time to make political donations.

Cooking school lunches and making NYCHA repairs used to be done by public school and NYCHA employees. Many readers of the paper will remem-ber growing up with hot lunches cooked by school staffers wearing aprons, and NYCHA repairs made by local NYCHA employees, such as Ike the plasterer, who I understand is still doing plaster-ing in the houses.

I remember that a complaint right af-ter Sandy was that on the occasions that repairs were being taken care of in a timely way, workers were not English speaking making communication dif-ficult. That was because the work was done by contracted services, who prob-ably hired non-union laborers happy to get the work at whatever pay. The in-centive to the private companies was in making a profit. Part of making a profit is keeping expenses down, making the contractor’s incentive to pay workers as little as they can get away with.

City workers are paid with tax mon-ey. City workers are often unionized, meaning that they work under negoti-ated contracts that often provide for living wages as well as health, pension and other benefits. At one time, it was thought that pensions and health ben-efits were a normal part of the Ameri-can workforce, and labor unions were celebrated for bringing so many workers into the middle class.

For 25 years after World War 2, the United States enjoyed a glorious period of economic growth. This was mostly because much of our economic com-petition in the world was decimated by having their industries bombed. An American banker, JP Morgan partner Thomas Lamont, was an important booster of the Marshall Plan. He knew that America’s economic future was tied to the buying power of Europe.

Those first decades following the war saw unprecedented growth in both cor-porate profits and worker income. Labor unions easily won gains as workers as there was so much money to be made that companies found it cheaper to pay more than to incur strikes.

During the 1970’s, both Germany and Japan gave the US competition. Faced with less orders, as well as opportunities for cheaper overseas labor, most corpo-rations made the decision to squeeze the working man rather than their profits.

What followed was Reaganomics, an economic shift using the principles of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is just a fancy way to say less government, less regulation, more freedom for business-es to operate exactly how they please. There ought to be no such thing as sub-sidies - prices and costs should all be determined in the marketplace. A level playing field was not important - it’s a dog-eat-dog world and the losers fall by the wayside.

Uber is a current example of this form of economics. They do not feel that regulations apply to them. They charge what the market will bear, meaning that they charge less during slow times and much more when everyone needs a ride (such as during a rainstorm). Neo-liberalism treats everything as a business transaction. It is the business world’s way to combat social ideas that might take away from their profit. It comes disguised as bringing better outcomes for the general public - such as an app that can call a cab.

Just as Social Security, public housing, the TVA and other government pro-grams were allowed to form because of the public’s desperation during the Great Depression, Neoliberalism came into the mainstream as a result of the the despair that accompanied the reces-sions of the 1970’s.

Reagan told the country that govern-

ment was the problem, and began a process that has ended up taking the lo-cal chefs out of our public schools, and the handyman out of public housing, as these jobs have been outsourced to pri-vate companies with the idea that they can do it better.

One result is that fresh meat is no lon-ger delivered to PS 15 to be cooked and served at lunchtime. Instead, hamburg-ers come pre-made in a factory, wrapped in cellophane, and microwaved by a non-skilled and low paid worker. And of course there is a strong incentive to not throw away the whole batch, as the public good is sacrificed for private gain

The police and the PBAHere at the Star-Revue, we very much ap-preciated the mayor’s statement about how he explained to his son Dante the impor-tance of being very careful when dealing with the police. He was merely expressing something that many parents know about still remaining prejudices in our culture. We were very upset to read the statements of the police union president Pat Lynch, in reference to barring the Mayor from fu-nerals of officers who become unfortunate victims of crime themselves. We happen to be big fans of the 76th Precinct since Cap-tain Lenz took the reigns over there, and are not shy about saying that over and over again. So we were not sure what to write. As we went to press, we got a tremendous press release from our Borough President Eric Adams, who echoes our thoughts in a very positive way, and are reprinting it as a guest editorial. What follows are the words of Eric Adams:

“It has come to my attention that PBA President Pat Lynch, a former colleague of mine during my service in the NYPD, has voiced concerns over my decisions to make a statement during tonight’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza in peace-ful solidarity with those calling for po-licing reform across America. Specifi-

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Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014, Page 11

That Crazy World of Politicsby George Fiala

Mark’s Corner

BY MARK SHAMES

De Blasio Report Card

The de Blasio administration has been in office for nearly a year. It is an appropriate time to give a progress report. I plead guilty to being an early and passionate supporter of the overall goals of the administration. I make this dis-

closure up front but I make no apology. The administration’s ambi-tions for a broadly progressive program were and remain great and with such ambitions come the high expectations that are nearly impossible to meet. The accomplishments of the administration are inadequately appreciated while a largely hostile press hypersen-sitive to a disgruntled establishment has magnified its shortcom-ings. Oh, there were complaints right from the get-go. The snow was not removed on the upper east side of Manhattan before it hit the ground as had been past practice. Snow removal, however, was handled professionally and just a little bit more equitably. Listen-ing to the criticism reminded me of the outrage of billionaire bank-ers facing criticism over the banking crisis. First and foremost in the accomplishment column is the fact that there are now over fifty thousand children in full time pre-k pro-grams. This is likely to be of lasting benefit to the kids and of equal benefit is the ability it has given to parents to maintain full time employment. We will no doubt find that not all those programs are well run and the programs will need continuing scrutiny but that should never be allowed to overshadow the enormity of this accomplishment.Then how about paid sick leave? This has very little relevance to most of the people I know but this is a major improvement for people at the lower end of the wage scale. I was out at a subway station with other volunteers doing outreach for this program. The gratitude of those who could benefit from this program made it a pleasure to volunteer.Municipal labor contracts that had been expired for years were fi-nally negotiated and approved by the unions. The contracts are generally acknowledged to be fiscally responsible. Contracts for the various uniformed employees unions remain to be worked out and those negotiations are likely to be the hardest to conclude.Wasn’t there a show down between the Mayor and the Governor over charter schools? And didn’t the Governor get what he want-ed in that exchange? Yes, however, the Mayor was standing by the position that he had advocated throughout his election campaign. Another promise kept. He ought not be criticized for keeping his word particularly when it remains to be seen whether the insinua-tion of for profit corporate interests into education will ultimately benefit the common good. I suspect it will ultimately hurt public education. Speaking of campaign promises, although I am no fan of the implementation of “vision zero” or of the proposed horse car-riage ban, these are items upon which the Mayor campaigned and it should be no surprise that he is following through on his agenda.As long as there are racial and class tensions (and these are likely to remain into the foreseeable future) there will be disputes over proper policing. The Mayor ran on a critique of past stop and frisk tactics and a further enhancement of community policing. Poli-cy has changed, retraining has started, a pilot project using body cameras has begun, and a policy of decriminalization with regard to possession of small amounts of marijuana has been instituted. Significant funding is being allocated over the next four years for additional diversion programs, with emphasis on the mentally ill, as an alternative to incarceration. This is all in line with what had been promised. Meanwhile crime is still trending down. There is reason to hope that public safety won’t suffer while police com-munity relations start to improve. The Mayor has hired an experi-enced Police Commissioner who is sensitive to statistical changes in patterns of crime and who will still mold policy to maintain pub-

cally, he has asked that following the darkening of the lights and the beating of a drum eleven times to symbolize the eleven times that Eric Garner repeated, “I can’t breathe,” before he lost con-sciousness, the lights stay dark and the drum get beat 80 more times in memory of the police officers who have died in service to this city since 1999.

“Leaders in this city must talk with each other, not at each other, especially on issues as fundamental as public safety and the critical relationship between

Editorials (continued from the previous page)

police and communities. As such, I am asking PBA President Lynch to person-ally join me tonight so that we may stand together for the beating of the drum on both of these matters, marking our solemn remembrance of all of our fallen, and our shared commitment to every New Yorker, whether they wear a blue uniform or blue jeans. The re-sounding beat of that drum, with both of us present, would be the loudest and clearest statement to date.

“I have personally reached out to PBA President Lynch and asked him to at-tend tonight, and it is my hope, on be-half of all Brooklynites, that he accepts.”

PaybackThe woman on the right is Red Hook resident June Clarke. The image is a scan of a campaign postcard sent out by the Carlos Menchaca campaign during his successful campaign for City Council last year. Clarke is quoted maligning the incumbent Sara Gonzalez, saying that during the hurricane “Sara Gonzalez was nowhere.” Whether true or not, that phrase put Menchaca into office. I still hear it today.

Elections for the Red Hook East TA Presi-dents were held . For many years Dorothy Shields held that position, with Frances Brown working closely with her. After her retirement, Frances became the interim president.

Frances and her husband Hal are well known to many Red Hookers. She heads the group Mothers Against Gangs. A few weeks ago, flyers went up promoting June Clarke for Red Hook East TA president. The election took place the first week of December with Brown winning easily, get-ting 82 votes to Clarke’s 24.

The word is that Clarke’s candidacy had help from Van Brunt Street resident and local Councilman Menchaca, as a payback for Clarke’s work for Carlos.

Menchaca seems to like to have his own people in nearby positions of power. He supported and campaigned for Carlos Zuniga, and supplied him with campaign workers in Zuniga’s unsuccessful bid to un-seat the popular Assemblyman Felix Ortiz.

Carlos has been doing good work in the district. He will probably even do better. That should be why he would be re-elected If he does well by the tenant associations, both East and West, whoever is in charge will back him. He needn’t worry about put-ting his own person in charge.

More Schumering...We read this item with interest: Sen. Chuck Schumer will not take the ranking member po-sition on the Senate banking committee, opting to cede the post to Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.Does this mean that our Park Slope neigh-bor is not interested in offending the bank-ing industry in a run-up to the 2016 elec-tions by having to take positions unpopular

with the nation’s high rollers? It is true that just the other day Schumer went on record to once again give his full support to Hill-ary Clinton, saying that if she runs “I’ll bet she’ll win by a large majority.” At the same time he hedged his bets saying that Eliza-beth Warren would make a good candidate as well. And a couple of weeks ago he an-noyed some Democrats by criticizing Presi-dent Obama for putting healthcare ahead of help for the middle class back in 2010.

Help for the middle class already looks to be what Hillary plans to run on. Now that Schumer’s a minority party Senator, one might guess by these moves that he’ll be angling for a Vice Presidency.

Note from George - the following item is sub-mitted for this column anonymously...

CB6 Turns the PaigeA sincere congratulations are in order to Gary Reilly our new Brooklyn Commu-nity Board 6 chairman who was elected by a vote of 29-10 over Ben Solotare. Gary’s years of effective service overcame the concerns of some over a certain open letter he wrote about LICH that became a side issue in the recent 52nd Assembly District race. From what we understand Gary did not hire Berlin Rosen to run his campaign.

Chairman Reilly’s landslide is quite a change from his last foray before an electorate. Did kind words about Gary whispered by a local councilman boost his numbers? Does this send a message to newbie District Leader Paige Bellenbaum about injecting herself just as she is beginning to settle in? Did blow back over Paige’s flip flopping in the Assem-bly race, blow up in Solitaire’s face?

Ben, after running a vigorous campaign ended up with but one more vote than the runner up for Vice Chair, Judy Thompson, who ran no campaign and wasn’t able to attend the meeting. (continued on page 14)

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Page 12 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014

The Holiday Season got a little brighter in the Colum-bia Waterfront, thanks to 30 small businesses organizing

the installation of six snowflake sky-line lights across Columbia and Union Streets. The lights are the latest effort from the renewed Columbia Waterfront Merchants Association to enhance the visibility of the neighborhood as a di-verse and dynamic small business cor-ridor.

In previous years, a single strand draped across Union Street - this holiday sea-son members were determined to ex-pand. Paul DiAgostino of the House of Pizza and Calzone and Joe Pernice Jr. of Associated Consulting Group coordi-nated with the Bronx based New York Christmas Lights Corp and helped get neighboring businesses on board to participate. The costs of the lights were shared equally among all participating businesses.

Along with being a source of Holiday cheer, the lights are an example to many business owners and residents of what’s possible when the community comes together for collective projects. Vilma Heramia, Executive Director of the neighborhood based Carroll Gar-dens Association reflected this opti-mism, observing that “it looks like the Columbia Waterfront Merchants Asso-ciation is finally being revived and local businesses are organizing themselves to have meaningful projects for the com-munity.”

Until the Merchants incorporate into their own legal entity, a long term goal of several members, CGA will continue

Columbia Waterfront gets holiday lightsby Ben Fuller-Googins

to provide technical assistance and or-ganizing capacity for local businesses.

While community members enjoy the lights until mid-January, the Merchants Association is already thinking about how to use this unprecedented collabo-ration and momentum for new initia-tives in 2015. Priorities include a print and online neighborhood guide, grow-ing the Merchants Facebook page, and continuing to make deeper relation-ships with the new businesses moving into the community.

The merchants association along with the Columbia Waterfront District helped present the 8th annual tree lighting on Friday, December 12. Com-pass Park, at the corner of Sackett and Columbia Streets was the scene of the festivities, and the lights were lit around 6 pm.

Shortly thereafter, Santa himself, es-corted by the Red Hook Raiders (our firehouse on Richards Street) made an early holiday appearance to give away toys to neighborhood children.

The park was strewn with temporarily abandoned baby strollers as parents held their curious infants up to Santa, played by David Post, a development and con-struction consultant. For this evening he stuck to asking the children whether they had been good.

Local restaurants and businesses came out in full force to donate food and refreshments. Paul DiAgostino of the House of Pizza and Calzone donated the tree. Sx local businesses underwrote theevent: Apple Bank, Capital One Bank, Dog Day Cyclery, Ogo Sport and TD Bank.

Joan Millman came out on a chilly night to greet her constituents.

Dave Post as Santa Clause.

Past glory is hinted at as Columbia Street gets its lights.

Second Annual Red Hook Maker’s Market

grows and thrivesLocal craftspeople were once again invited by the people at Home/made to exhibit and sell their wares at their catering hall located at 63 Com-merce Street. No vendor fees were charged and many sales were made as a stready trickle of shoppers made their way through the colorful tables.

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Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014, Page 13

Brooklyn Collective a place for creative Christmas shoppingby George Fiala

Brooklyn Collective is located a few doors up from Mazzat, on Columbia Street between Union and Sacket. They are

open Thursdays thru Sundays from 1 pm to 8 pm. They may have some ex-panded holiday hours - best to call them at 718-596-6231 to be sure.

The variety of art they have for sale is very diverse, meaning you may just find that special something for the special someone. It’s kind of like shopping in a museum gift shop, actually maybe bet-ter.

Another big reason to stop by is that you’d be supporting local artists.

Brooklyn Collective began ten years ago on Columbia Street. The two founders of the shop, Rachel Goldberg and Tessa Williams met at Union Max, a thrift store located around the corner. Rachel was running the thrift store with her mother and sister. She was a jewelry designer; Tessa was a clothing designer. Both wanted a space to exhibit their work. After meeting at Union Max, they started talking about how to turn their ideas into a reality.

“We would get together and brainstorm

for how we could make something like that work because we were both trying to sell to other shops, which can be very daunting. We wanted to create a space that was a little more open-minded [by] showcasing things that we wanted to make and that we wanted people to see,” said Tessa.

The two chose Red Hook because they were locals, although Tessa is originally from New Hampshire. “It’s our neigh-borhood,” said Rachel enthusiastically.

They held a holiday show recently, and these photos were all taken then.

The furniture created by BLK-WD, a new furniture shop on Van Brunt Street, personifies the past, present and future of

Red Hook. Their designs incorporate an industrial aesthetic that blends polished metal with salvaged (and new) wood and would look as perfect in a workshop as in a sleek private apartment.

“We like the industrial look but we wanted to bring something different,” says Arturo Contreras, 28, the co-founder of BLKWD (pronounced black wood). Through polishing the metals and adding accents like wood handles and rustic wood to their pieces, their creations project a clean, streamlined look, he says.

Contreras met his business partner Adam Taylor 3-years ago through their mutual love of creating furniture. Con-treras worked as a display artist for the retail chain Urban Outfitters prior to becoming a woodworker. “I was always handy, good at building things from scratch,” he says. After buying a broken down Vespa scooter, Contreras used his self-taught welding skills to fix the clas-sic two wheeler and now incorporates those skills into BLKWD’s products.

His partner Adam, 32, speaks with a southern drawl, served in the military and originally got into woodworking as a way to make money between jobs. “I always liked to use my hands,” he says. “We compliment each other,” Taylor says. “His metal work versus my wood work goes really good together. We have a really distinctive style.”

And artists, businesses and individuals are taking note. Since opening in Janu-

ary 2014, BLKWD’s work and commis-sions have grown to include Crossfit gyms, real estate offices, The Bowery House (a hip Manhattan hostel) and countless residential clients. They are currently completing the entire interior of The Rebel, a new restaurant on Bow-ery Street whose accents will include a wall divider made of 100-year old facto-ry windows salvaged from the 160 Imlay Street condo development. (A member of Estate4, the company developing 160 Imlay with many real estate and busi-ness interests in Red Hook and a track record for transforming neighborhoods, is an investor in BLKWD.)

“Red Hook is changing,” Arturo says. “We want to be part of that in a posi-tive way.”

Before moving into their current store-front, BLKWD worked out of a ware-house at 78 Sullivan Street now slated for redevelopment into condos. “We were really just looking for a space to work out of,” Taylor says. And it was total luck they found the storefront on Van Brunt Street, he says.

All of the BLKWD’s furniture is named after neighborhood streets and when using reclaimed wood in their projects, they try to know the wood’s providence. “People like to hear the story of the wood,” Arturo says.

The price of BLKWD’s furniture starts at around $350 and up, depending on the item.

BLKWD also works to collaborate with other neighborhood businesses such as their next-door neighbor Tribe Bicycle Company with whom they’ve devel-oped a wall bike hanger.

“We feel like we’ve been wel-comed here,” Arturo says. “You can’t really go anywhere and just be accepted like that. We feel really welcome.”

BLKWD, Inc. 252 Van Brunt Street (between Verona and Commerce Streets) Brooklyn NY 11231 888.973.7901 Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00am – 6:00PM

Another new shop opens on Van Bruntby Micah B. Rubin

Adam Taylor and Arturo Contreras in front of their new furniture store. (photo by Mi-cah B. Rubin). Picture below right illustrates the Visitation stool, photo by BLKWD

Page 14: Star revue christmas 2014

Page 14 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014

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Merry Christmas!

lic order. Yes, they will be criticized from all sides but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing the job well.The administration has done a ma-jor overhaul in homeless practices. The homeless population contin-ues to go up with fewer people be-ing turned away from the shelter system (a good thing in my view) and affordable housing remaining ever more difficult to find. In re-sponse more family shelters have been opened even as problem shel-ters were closed with the prospect of being reformed. The State is permitting a program for financial aid for permanent placement to be reinstituted. The City has cre-ated a “Living in Communities” (LINC) tri-level program that an-ticipates landlord concerns in or-der to encourage private landlords to rent to homeless families. Most importantly an affordable housing initiative is finally underway. Hous-ing programs were easier to devise when there was vacant land and abandoned properties. The con-cepts coming out of the administra-tion are solid, but to my mind there needs to be even greater urgency in implementation.There has been increased invest-ment in our parks as well as in green infrastructure and a continuing em-phasis on sustainability post hurri-cane Sandy. These are areas where the current administration is build-ing on the substantial achievements of the prior administration. As I see

BGI throws Holiday party at new Columbia Street venue

The folks at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative had a busy month as they held both their fall fundraiser gala and Christmas party.

Always a bit ahead of the curve, the party was held at the HopShop, a craft beer bar not yet open on Columbia Street right by Pok Pok. Picture to the right are Hop Shop hosts Ryan Watson and Anneli Fried, along with Greenway founder Brian McCormick.

The Fundraiser was held December 4 at the Liberty Industrial View Plaza, 850 Third Avenue in Sunset Park. Pictured below was the walk from the elevator to the gala.

it these are each major achieve-ments.On the negative side I am still wait-ing to see positive change at the building department. The small and medium size architects and contrac-tors that I talk to complain bitterly about virtually every aspect of the process and small business own-ers still say there is little improve-ment in ticketing practices. Given de Blasio’s emphasis on the need to maintain appropriate health care in the City and particularly in Brook-lyn during his primary campaign , it was very disappointing that he was unable to move the Governor on the LICH closing and even more disappointing that there has not as yet been a broad assessment of health care and hospital needs for the City going forward.All in all there is a record of prom-ises kept up and down the line. I be-lieve that this has overwhelmingly been for the betterment of our City. There is always more to be done in a constantly changing City and I suspect that even our quibbler in chief Comptroller Stringer would acknowledge our positive trajec-tory. The slow pace of fully staffing the administration does not seem to have set back policy planning but if not corrected will set back imple-mentation and the handling of day to day business. When all appoint-ments are finally made and agencies operate at full efficiency those who are hoping for a one term Mayor will likely be disappointed.

Shames continued from page 11

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Pay is negotiable.

email George [email protected]

No job too big or too small

Toilets, Boilers, Heating, Faucets, Hot Water Heaters,

Pool Heaters.

B & D HEATING507 Court Street 718 625-1396

Our friend Jenny, who exhibits locally at the Brooklyn Collective, 212 Columbia Street, sends us this and tells us “This is a drawing of an ornate costume from the Ballet Russes.” Jenny’s website is www.jennybelin.com

Jenny belin’s Art

Page 16: Star revue christmas 2014

Page 16 Red Hook Star-Revue www.star-revue.com Christmas 2014