 The dangerous driving at the Ocean/Parkside intersection near the entrance to Prospect Park - long a concern of this blog (and apparently always the case, see photo) - may finally be getting the attention that it deserves. After friend-of-Hawthorne-Street Madeline Fix-Hansen's mother was hit by a car crossing the street, Madeline started a petition (sign it, please) to make the intersection safer and people are taking notice.
WPIX covered the problems with the intersection last Thursday and posted the story online. In it, the reporter and Councilman Mathieu Eugene recreated Carrie's perilous trip across the street and - just like Carrie - were nearly run down for their troubles. In fact, WPIX used a clip of Carrie's video, though Carrie was identified as Madeline in the story.
I assume that WPIX was tipped to the story by this article in The Brooklyn Paper, which gives a pretty good recap of the dangers of the intersection and the efforts made by Carrie and Madeline to make it safer including a reference to the calming plan that Carrie (via PLG Public Works) presented to public officials back in 2009.
If you want to join us in letting the city know that you are concerned, Councilman Eugene and Department of Transportation officials are holding a safety forum at Calvary Pentecostal Church (151 Woodruff Ave. at Kenmore Place) on May 3 at 7 pm.
Photo credit: Brooklyn Eagle, 1937 via the Brooklyn Public Library archives.
Hat tip to The Q at Parkside for noticing all the recent activity on the issue.
 On Saturday, September 25th, the PLGNA Housing Committee is hosting Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of the 57th A.D., which covers part of PLG. Jeffries will will be answering questions about housing and providing information about rent regulation legislation and other housing issues. The event will also provide information about tenants' rights and strategies for organizing a tenants' association.
Grace Reformed Church Chapel, 1800 Bedford Ave. (gmap)
Saturday, September 25th
4-6 PM
Free
Thanks, Jan.
Remember how the City used to collect leaves in the fall for its Compost Giveback program? Well, that program has been killed (or at least, temporarily disabled). The PLG Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) blog reports on a new campaign to encourage City Council reps to resume the compost program. Our rep, Mathieu Eugene, sits on the Council Environmental Committee, so there's going to be a “Compost to Council Shout-Out” to urge Eugene to help bring back the program. Up until 2008, the NYC Compost Project included the collection of our city’s fall leaves–roughly 20,000 tons per year–which will increase up to three times with the Million Trees Initiative, for the production of
municipal compost. This compost was given back to NYC residents and the Parks Department to revitalize our gardens and open spaces. However, the NYC Compost Project faced a lack of financial and political support for the Fall Leaf Collection and Giveback Days, and they have been cancelled entirely "until further notice."
It costs the city nearly $100 per ton–close to $2 million per year–to dump the leaves in out-of-state landfills. This is a costly burial for a local resource, and a primary human cause of methane–a
destructive greenhouse gas–in the atmosphere. As an efficient, cost-effective (as we already have fully operational municipal composting facilities), and sustainable alternative, composting fall leaves should be the clear choice for our city.
Want to lend your voice to the effort? You can sign the petition organized by East New York Farms right here.
Today's election show that the influence of Hawthorne Street on city politics is decidedly mixed. While we were able to push de Blasio to a dominating 64-36 win in the Public Advocate race, our endorsement of David Yassky was not nearly enough as Liu won with a comfortable 56% of the vote. Kidding aside, it appears that the Working Families Party endorsement is a quite powerful one, as both WFP candidates won the primary (and will almost certainly win in November). As predicted, it was a low-turnout election - fewer than 10% of eligible Democrats voted - and in that kind fo election, organizations with dedicated get-out-the-vote operations are likely to prevail.
On September 15 none of the candidates for Public Advocate or
Comptroller received the 40% of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff
election, so round two is today.
For Public Advocate, Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio is running
against former Public Advocate Mark Green. Two weeks ago, de Blasio
surprised Green by narrowly winning the primary with 34% of the vote.
He also picked up the endorsement of Eric Gioia, the third place
finisher in the race. Though Hawthorne Street had a split household in
the primary (Carrie supported Norman Seigel), we both support de Blasio
in the runoff.
For Comptroller, Queens Councilman John Liu is running against Brooklyn
Councilman David Yassky. In the primary, John Liu won the primary
comfortably but Yassky has picked up the endorsement of third place
finisher Melinda Katz, so I expect a closer race today. Once again,
Hawthorne Street supports David Yassky.
Turnout for runoff elections is astonishingly low, especially for
important but somewhat obscure offices like Public Advocate and
Comptroller, so every vote counts. Make your voice heard and drag
yourself to the polls tomorrow.
 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.
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.
 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.
The Democratic primary is next Tuesday and the candidates for the 40th Councilmanic District (covering PLG, Wingate, Prospect Park South and more) are scheduled to appear tonight at a Candidates' Forum in PLG. Incumbent Mathieu Eugene and challengers Rock Hackshaw and L. Rickie Tulloch will be taking questions from 7PM to 9PM tonight at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church (337 Hawthorne St., between Nostrand & New York Aves). I'll be attending and will wait until after the event to provide the much coveted, yet oddly unsought, Hawthorne Street endorsement. Thanks, Ed F.
 Election day is finally here, kids. Just so none of us can use the "I didn't know about X" excuse not to vote, here's a guide to the whens, wheres, whos, whats and hows of tomorrow's election.
When: Tuesday 11/4, from 6am to 9pm.
Where: There are a number of polling locations in the Lefferts area. To find your poll site based on your address, click here. Yes, it really varies block by block so don't rely on your neighbor across the street - they may be at a different site.
Who: Most addresses in Prospect-Lefferts (if not all?) are in Representative District 11, State Senate District 20, and State Assembly District 43. You can double check by visiting smartvoter.org and entering your address in the upper right "FIND MY BALLOT" box. Incumbents include Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, State Senator Eric Adams, and State Assemblyman Karim Camara. Want to see how they've voted on the issues? A list of current officials and candidates for 11225 and 11226 can be found here.
What: There is one proposition on the NY ballot for tomorrow, regarding civil service examinations for disabled veterans. You can read it here. For an English translation of the legalese, the League of Women Voters offers an analysis.
How: There may be some unfamiliar voting machines this year, as NYC moves away from the old style lever machines and goes to the new Automark machines (if these things are as clunky to use as they appear to be in the informational video, I'd leave yourself some extra time to wait in line at the polls. And what exactly are those latex gloves for?!).
Happy voting!
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