Image courtesy of The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Paper’s weekly crime summary highlights another shooting at Grand & Putnam in Clinton Hill. The same corner has been notorious as of late.
While Ed Towns refuses to debate Kevin Powell, he did make himself available for an interview with The Brooklyn Paper. I must say I do feel a little better about him although I don’t think he’s doing as much as he can in office. Kevin Powell is inexperienced in public service and has a very questionable personal history… This is going to be a tough decision. I’m beginning to be of the opinion we may want to wait until there is a better alternative. Towns is 74 and I can’t imagine he’ll be running again (although he says he’ll run again). He should recognize it’s time to groom a real heir. I’ll wait to hear what Powell has to say in his interview before making a final decision.
A few highlights…
Affordable housing – He feels one of his primary contributions to the district is his focus on affordable housing.
On supporting Obama – “My word is my bond” He gave Clinton his word before he knew Obama was running and simply kept his word.
On Kevin Powell – He feels he should run for local office and build a track record in public service before getting on the national stage. His excuse for not debating… “What would we talk about. What has he done?”
Seniority – He chairs the Government Management, Organization, and Procurement Committee and has chaired the Congressional Black Caucus.
On not being “invisible” – He says he’s not one to “jump in front of cameras”. Towns feels he is one who works hard and doesn’t “toot his own horn”.
Page Six Magazine decided to begin a brunch restaurant review section and sent a couple of new neighborhood residents to iCi for a meal. Here’s their review. Here’s my old post reviewing neighborhood brunch spots. Overall I think their assessment is accurate. Although service is sometimes a little spotty and they can take forever to bring the check (in the French tradition), I’ve generally had positive dining experiences at iCi.
Representative Ed Towns seems to be scared to debate Kevin Powell. He hasn’t even acknowledged his requests for five debates, was a no- show at at NY1 debate and will not participate in The Brooklyn Paper debate. I’ve commented on Towns lackluster record as well as Powell’s unnecessarily vitriolic criticism. Now I’m beginning to understand why Powell is so angry. If Towns can keep this election under the radar he won’t have to defend his record. He’s hoping to win on name recognition and voter loyalty. Personally I don’t know if Powell is an ideal candidate due to his personal history but I can’t support a politician who hides from his constituents so right now Powell’s got my vote.
Image courtesy of The Brooklyn Paper
Image courtesy of The Brooklyn Paper
For those of you wondering about the reason why you have to walk in the street and dodge workmen in hard hats there’s more information on what’s happening at 80 Dekalb from The Brooklyn Paper. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, the pace of construction has increased over the past few weeks. The reason? Bruce Ratner has secured financing, the bulk of which is coming from the state goverment (i.e. you & me) via tax exempt bonds. This will be a 34 floor building with 365 units (20% of which are set aside as affordable housing). I wish smaller investors could get special financing to purchase brownstones with rent controlled or rent stabilized apartments… You’d see less dirty tactics from landlords. Seems only the really rich get this kind of special treatment.
I was out of town and missed this over the weekend but I’m sad to report there was a shooting in front of Sputnik over the weekend resulting in the death of Barnabe Rivera. See this article from the NY Daily News…
For the record I refuse to use the term “Greene Hill” unless it is part of an official name (ex. The Greene Hill School). As you may know terms like “The Flea” or “New Brooklyn Cuisine (NBC)” annoy me to no end.
It seems that “Greene Hill” is going to be the new generic name for the combined neighborhood. Just as Clinton Hill used to be Bed Stuy, it is now being slowly annexed into Fort Greene as more parts of Bed Stuy mysteriously become Clinton Hill but again I digress…
The new food coop has voted to require labor from each of its members in order to bring a sense of community to the organization. Basically they want to copy the Park Slope Coop. I prefer the Harvard/MIT Coop model where everyone can shop but only members get discounts and a rebate check at the end of the year. Anyway, for more information on the group check out their website.
For those of us who have visited The Brooklyn Hospital on Dekalb, there is hope for the future. I walked in to get my appendix removed a few years ago. Luckily a friend of mine is a doctor there and I got a little more attention than the standard walk-in. Otherwise I’m not sure I’d be typing this right now…
Anyway, the hospital has emerged from bankruptcy and embarked on an ambitious $40 million capital campaign and recently announced its new $2 million Cardiac Catheterization Suite. This cutting edge technology should help to reduce patient recovery time. As the neighborhood changes you can expect this hospital to improve. There are positive and negative aspects of gentrification. This one is a definitely plus.
A fairly amusing day in the life feature from NY Magazine that chronicles the life of a 24 year old Fort Greene resident.
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