Feral Caturday: Update

The sweet kitten found on Hawthorne Street has a new home -- and it's not on the streets! Izzy is now comfortably living indoors in Ditmas Park, so she may still be able to vote in the 40th district. After a lot of sleep her first day inside, she has adjusted well to her new surroundings, and is running around, jumping on the furniture, playing with toy mice and living the good life.

Curious new mural on Parkside & Ocean

Over a week ago, a three-sided mural landed on Parkside, just in front of the Q subway station. I found a bit about it on Gothamist. Apparently, the paintings are by a Toronto-based street artist, Specter, who has been working out of Bed Stuy for the past few months (and also brought us this). The Department of Transportation and ISPC NYC sponsored the artwork, which is intended to depict "stories and memories from senior citizens in Flatbush, Brooklyn."

Of course, most senior citizens who grew up in Flatbush aren't still here now, which may be part of the reason the mural is a tad inscrutable to some. The only thing our Jewish relatives who grew up around here ever talk about is the Loew's Kings Theater, which I don't even see here. So who is the guitar player? The young woman with the funky hat? Bohack? Huh? Anyone?

L'Shana Tova, PLG

Rosh Hashana starts tonight, so Happy New Year everyone. We've been tipped to some local Rosh Hashana events, so here you go:

1) Sunday, September, 20th 2009 at noon, Chabad will be blowing the Shofar, and serving traditional holiday food (like apples and honey) at the Maple Street School at 21 Lincoln Road. For more information, write to plgrsvp at gmail.

2) PLG resident Cindy is inviting her neighbors to join her at the free holiday services (a shanda!) at Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive (Reconstructionist?) congregation in Park Slope (1012 8th Avenue at 10th St., inside the Church of the Gethsemane). A full schedule of holiday services is here.

Photos of Lincoln Road Mural Project

In case you've been living under a rock, PLG Arts has organized several local artists and children to paint a series of murals on the construction barriers along Lincoln Road and around the corner on Flatbush. After months of planning, production began last week and most of the murals are by now nearly finished.

Information about the artists and their bios can be found on the PLG Arts site. Also, Bob Marvin has posted a flickr photo set showing the mural project as a work in progress.

It's anyone's guess as to how long the artwork will remain up. The fencing was installed as part the controversial Lincoln Tower project, which ended up a casualty of the failing economy. While there's sure to be a lot of disagreement over whether the return of the development project would be a good thing or not, we can all appreciate PLG Arts' ability to make lemonade in this case.

(Photo: Bob Marvin)

Pics from the puppet show on Saturday

I'm late in getting these up, but I wanted to post about City of Hamburgers, the puppet show at the Hawthorne Street block party last week, because our neighbors did such an awesome job in putting it together. Despite lousy weather, Alphabet Arts did three performances of Hamburgers, and the audiences just ate them up.

The play focuses on a young boy and his German grandmother, who tells bedtime stories about life among the people of Hamburg and Frankfurt. Loaded with bad (good) puns, the story was based on a children's book by Simpsons writer Mike Reiss; the Alphabet team adapted it for the stage, adding a live band. (A few young children at the 2 o'clock show we attended were transfixed by just watching the musicians.")

There are no more shows currently scheduled, but the group is planning to take it on the road to other parts of New York and Connecticut. Wish 'em luck. It's a great show.

Coming Soon: Empty Token Booth

When we first heard about the possibility of losing a clerk at the Prospect Park station we didn't know how certain it was. Now we know: it is a done deal. Starting on Sunday one of the token booths at the Prospect Park station will be unattended until the MTA gets its financial house in order (read: permanently). I don't know whether the clerk will disappear from the Lincoln Road or Empire Boulevard entrance.

Other local stations losing at least one station attendant are the Church Avenue Q/B and the Newkirk and Brooklyn College 2/5 stations. The full list of citywide station closings is here.

LPC vote on Ocean Historic District planned for Tues., October 27

Good news, old house lovers: the Landmarks Preservation Commission has scheduled the designation vote for the proposed Ocean on the Park Historic District for Tuesday, October 27. We can't say for sure what will happen, but the odds are looking pretty damn good that the 10 limestones and 2 brick homes in the row will be given landmark district status, preserving them for the foreseeable future.

The time for submitting letters of support and the public hearing has passed but a show of support on the day of the vote may be helpful in solidifying support or swaying some commissioners during the debate. So, for now, save the date and we'll give you the exact time and place in October.

Mathieu Eugene Returns to City Council

As expected, Councilman Mathieu Eugene has won the Democratic primary for the 40th district with a solid 59% of the vote. Also as expected, total voter turnout was low, with only 6500 ballots cast. Rickie Tulloch finished a distant second with 24% and Rock Hackshaw third at 17%. The race isn't technically over, as there is a candidate running on the Libertarian ticket in November but... come on. (The Republican nominee was disqualified.)

Congratulations, Councilman Eugene.

In other election news, Bill Thompson easily won the Democratic nomination and gave a victory speech that I think was supposed to be rousing but was really kind of embarrassing. Nobody goes from Accountant-In-Chief to populist firebrand and he looked silly. I don't know who I'm supporting in November yet but I hope Mr. Thompson finds his inner sane person before then.

The two other races of significance are both going to runoffs because nobody received 40% of the vote. Queens Councilman John Liu (38%) fell around 10,000 votes short of what he needed to avoid a runoff with Brooklyn's David Yassky (30%). For Public Advocate, Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio (32%) upset I-don't-know-what-he's-been-doing-for-the-last-eight-years Mark Green (30%), which I think came as a surprise to both of them. I'm pretty sure Mr. de Blasio was shooting for the runoff and has to feel very confident about his chances.

The run-off elections for Comptroller and Public Advocate will take place in two weeks, on Tuesday, September 29th. Voter turnout in run-off elections like this is shockingly low, making your vote count more than it usually does.

One final note: congratulations also go to my coworker, Cy Vance, who won the Democratic nomination for Manhattan District Attorney. I didn't "endorse" him because I doubt any of HS's 250 daily readers vote in Manhattan, but I was happy to see the result all the same.

Hawthorne Street non-endorsements for City Council

The endorsement post was getting too long but I thought it was unfair to not discuss the other candidates for city council at all. Here, then, are the reasons I am not supporting Mr. Eugene or Mr. Hackshaw.

The incumbent, Mathieu Eugene, was horribly unimpressive two years ago when he ran for Yvette Clarke's open seat. He spoke exclusively in empty platitudes; he was evasive about providing proof of his residency in the district and medical education; Y.E.S. - a not-for-profit youth organization that was his claim to fame - had serious accounting issues, and, because he knew he had the backing of both the Clarke political apparatus and 1199, he seemed almost bothered that he had to run. His first term on the Council was not a particularly distinguished one. He was one of the worst council members at obtaining discretionary funds (read: pork) for his district and he was not an active legislator. He got fined for campaign finance violations and requests he made to direct discretionary funds to Y.E.S. and for the establishment of a Haitian community center were turned down.

All that said, he did show an ability to think more than parochially. Some of his discretionary funds went to help Maimonides improve their breast cancer treatment facility. He rightly believes that a top-flight regional destination for cancer treatment is more important to residents of the 40th district than making sure his discretionary funds are spent literally within the district borders. At the same time, he brought money in to update the ICU monitors at Kings County Hospital. He showed a far better command of the issues facing the city and the district, was the only candidate to unequivocally support same-sex marriage and voted against the extension of term limits. He also gets props for showing up at the Hawthorne Street block party and answering questions. He also should be forgiven for the residency flap; his not-for-profit operated within the district for years, and he has been active in community affairs for a long time. He is growing into his role and I expect that if he is reelected his second term will be better than his first - which is good for the district because he is certain to win again.

Rock Hackshaw was the real disappointment to me. He began his appearance at the candidates' forum by showing up 40 minutes late. The first thing he did was decline an opening statement in lieu of asking the 60 people who showed up to hear him speak to "go to his website" for his platform. The second thing he did was to yell at the timekeeper for not doing a good job of keeping his opponents on time. (For the record, the timekeeper did nothing wrong as far as I could tell.) He declined to answer certain questions, and actually told the crowd, which was getting restless about his antics, that he "didn't have to". He stated, refusing to make eye contact, that he was "undecided" about gay marriage (a change of position; he used to be opposed). His actual proposals ranged from the bad to the actually crazy. For education, he proposed that the Board of Education be broken down to 5 separate borough boards, each under the authority of the Borough Presidents. (How would a first term councilman would go about completely revamping the political structure of both the education system or the authority of borough presidents?) He proposed establishing an education commission to bring forth the best ideas for improving schools and said it would have "subpoena power." (Can you be compelled to tell the city what you think schools should do?) His proposal for transportation improvements was an elevated road over all of Flatbush Avenue to relieve traffic. (More roads instead of better public transportation?) He proposed a "renter's rebate" - a tax credit if housing costs take up to big a percentage of a person's income. (Wouldn't this encourage people to get a more expensive apartment and pass the costs on to the city?)

Hackshaw was rude, combative, defensive and generally unfit for office. I admired his reputation as a blogger and rabble-rouser but there is no way he should be, or would be effective as, a councilman.

Vote!: City Council Election Tomorrow

Tomorrow, a sadly low number of people in the 40th Councilmanic District will go to vote. Technically it is only the Democratic Primary, but if Barack Obama himself ran on the Republican line in November he would still probably lose the district by 14 points. Voters in the 40th will also confront interesting races for Public Advocate and Comptroller, though not Mayor where Bill Thompson is sure to be the nominee.

I attended the Candidate's forum last Thursday night at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, moderated by Carolyn Jones, an adjunct lecturer at Medgar Evers College. I went into the debate sure of two things: (1) Mathieu Eugene was a total empty suit and (2) Rock Hackshaw is the kind of bomb-throwing firebrand our district needs. Much to my surprise, I no longer believe either of these things (and will discuss Mssrs. Eugene and Hackshaw in a later post) AND I find myself endorsing a candidate that I hadn't considered at all prior to Thursday, L. Rickie Tulloch.

Tulloch was the only candidate to arrive on time - or close to it, anyway - and was able to use his time well. His background is in hospital administration, as an auditor and budget director. He also served on CB 17 for 17 years, including 7 as chair of the Land Use committee. He argues that his finance background will help him bring money to the district because he has an expert's understanding of resource allocation. He attacked Eugene specifically for bringing so little money from the city budget back to the district. He wants to change some of the commercial zoning to mixed-use in order to encourage the construction of affordable housing and to raise the ceiling on rents eligible for rent stabilization. He wants to provide funding for a Nostrand Avenue Business Improvement District. He wants to add a multi-purpose community center with activities for both youth and seniors. His goals are modest, realistic and appropriate to the district.

Mr. Tulloch struck me as professional, competent and dedicated to the community and for that reason, Hawthorne Street is endorsing Leithland Rickie Tulloch for City Council.

While we've got your attention, we are also supporting David Yassky in a very tight race for Comptroller and Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate.  While Mark Green is leading the Public Advocate race by a fair margin, if he is held below 40%, the run-off election is likely to be a lot closer.

In the interest of completeness, here are a few issues that were important to us and how the candidates responded. In a later post, I'll write about why we are not endorsing Mr. Eugene or Mr. Hackshaw.

Atlantic Yards: Tulloch was opposed because the affordable housing guarantees appear to have been weakened. Hackshaw believes it should be totally revamped and redesigned on a smaller scale. Eugene gave an incomprehensible answer.

Term Limits: All candidates opposed the term limits extension; Eugene voted against it.

Gay Marriage: Eugene supports gay marriage; Tulloch supports civil unions; Hackshaw is undecided, and used to be opposed to same-sex marriage.

Congestion Pricing: All, sadly, opposed. Eugene voted against it on the council.

Charter Schools: All candidates were somewhat wary about charter schools, afraid that they would pull resources from the schools in the community. That said, Councilman Eugene has agreed to send a letter of support for the Lefferts Gardens Charter School and neither Mssrs. Hackshaw or Tulloch were generally opposed to the idea.

Whoever you are supporting, make your voice heard. Vote tomorrow.