Journalist Looking for Tea Party Members in Brooklyn Heights / Boerum Hill

McBrooklyn received this request from journalist Amy Kraft:

I am a journalist at the New York City News Service working on an article about the Nov. 2 elections. I am looking for members of the Tea Party in the Brooklyn Heights/Boerum Hill neighborhoods to talk about who they will support in the Nov. 2 elections and their efforts to gain further support and spread the word on candidates. I would like to address the question, “Are The Tea Parties Good For New York?” which will be debated at Long Island University on Oct. 28. 

Please respond to Amy Kraft
amy.kraft@journalism.cuny.edu

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Saint Ann's New Head Settling In, Looking for Whitman Walk through Brooklyn

Vince Tompkins, the new headmaster of Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights, is getting nicely settled in, according to the Brooklyn Eagle. Turns out he's a historian, and one of his goals is to take a Walt Whitman walk through Brooklyn with a Whitman expert.

He just missed the Brooklyn Heights Association's Whitman bash in Brooklyn Bridge Park this past summer. Anyone know about any other Whitman tours of Brooklyn? (We found an online Whitman downloadable tour from Rutgers here.)

New Head of Saint Ann's School -- 'A Delight to Discover Brooklyn'  Brooklyn Eagle

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One Brooklyn Mosque Is Opposed While Another One Is Welcomed, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Students at a troubled Bedford-Stuyvesant school still don't have textbooks or after-school programs five weeks into the new academic year.  NY Daily News 

- Comptroller John C. Liu says the fire dept. is failing to monitor HazMat storage areas all around the city. Brooklyn Eagle

- About half of the taxi drivers surveyed turned away Brooklyn-bound passengers to avoid construction-related traffic tie-ups on the Brooklyn Bridge.  NY Post 

- City officials on Friday quietly scrubbed a controversial Sheepshead Bay mosque.  Brooklyn Paper 

- But in Brighton Beach, a new mosque is welcomed.  Brooklyn Eagle 

- Five NYPD officers from Brooklyn's 81st precinct are facing departmental charges of manipulating crime stats.  Gothamist 

- An 83-year-old Brooklyn man walks away from plane crash that killed or critically injured the pilot and two other passengers. NY Daily News 

- Check out Etsy's zany DUMBO office.  NY Observer

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Take the Prospect Park West Bike Lane Survey

As announced by Council Member Brad Lander at the recent Community Board 6 meeting:

Earlier this year, the Department of Transportation (DOT) changed Prospect Park West from three to two lanes of traffic and installed a separated two-way bike lane, with the goals of reducing speeding, improving the borough's cycling network, and increasing pedestrian safety.

The Offices of Council Member Brad Lander, Council Member Stephen Levin and Brooklyn Community Board 6 would like your feedback on these changes.

As stated in a letter from DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan to Council Member Lander, the department is in the process of gathering data on accidents, speeding, vehicle and bicycle volumes, and cycling behavior, which they have committed to present to the public in early 2011.

CB6 thought it was also important for residents of our community to have a chance to weigh in. The surbey takes 3 - 5 minutes. Click here to take the survey.

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TWU's National Grid Protest Jams Jay Street, Downtown Brooklyn - UPDATED

(See UPDATE at bottom of post.)
The rain didn't dampen a noisy, high-spirited TWU (Transit Workers Union) Local 101 protest at rush hour Thursday evening on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The rally was staged right in the street outside of the Brooklyn MetroTech headquarters of National Grid (which used to be called KeySpan, once known as  Brooklyn Union Gas).

Traffic slowed to a crawl as music blared, union workers chanted and blew whistles and sympathetic bus drivers leaned on their horns.

 The signs called National Grid "National Greed." TWU represents roughly 1,600 workers at National Grid, which, according to union workers, is threatening layoffs.

UPDATE: The Brooklyn Eagle has published a statement by National Grid.

Previous posts on National Grid / KeySpan / Brooklyn Union Gas:
- National Grid's Catell Says Buh-Bye to His Million-a-Month Brooklyn Office
- It's Official: KeySpan Is Now National Grid 
- KeySpan Cleanup, and More Brooklyn Thursday News
- KeySpan Workers on Tinderhooks as Merger with National Grid Looms
- KeySpan/ National Grid Merger: Another Snag
- What Does KeySpan/ National Grid Merger Mean for Brooklyn?
- KeySpan, National Grid Merger One Step Closer
- British Co. to Take Over Brooklyn-Based Electric Business
- National Grid Offers Concessions in Pursuit Of Keyspan

 Photos by MK Metz

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Carroll Gardens 'Youth Crime Spree,' Brooklyn Spa Week and More Brooklyn Briefs

 - Youth crime spree hits Carroll Gardens.  Brooklyn Eagle

- Weird buildup of fiber in her heart killed young, athletic Fort Greene jogger. The Local 

- City Council approves dual-flush toilets. (Warning: graphic photo of hot dogs in toilet bowl.)  Gothamist

- Wake up and smell the foreclosure crisis.  NY Magazine 

- $50 facials, massages, etc. at spas across Brooklyn for Spa Week, through Sunday.  Brokelyn

- If you want to see the righteous Carl Paladino's pornographic emails, click here.  Huff Post

- Top 10 payouts on claims against the NYPD. Huff Post

- The iPad is coming to Verizon stores October 28.  Gizmodo

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Gov. Paterson Announced LICH /SUNY Deal in Brooklyn Today- UPDATE 2

See below for latest update.

A source told the Wall Street Journal that Gov. David Paterson is  expected to announce today that SUNY Downstate Medical Center will take over the financially ailing Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn, aided by $40 million in state grants.

On Tuesday, a source close to the situation told the Brooklyn Eagle that what will be announced will be “a step closer on the road to regulatory approval, but not the final step.”

UPDATE: A source told McBrooklyn this morning that Gov. Patterson will definitely be at LICH this afternoon.

UPDATE 2:  It's official! Long Island College Hospital will become SUNY Downstate’s “second campus.” Additionally, Gov. David Paterson announced that a $40 million grant will fund Downstate’s merger with the hospital. More at the Brooklyn Eagle

- Insurance Trouble at Brooklyn's LICH 
- Petition to Save LICH 
- Sucking Long Island Collage Hospital Dry? 
- Long Island College Hospital In Big Trouble

Photo copyright MK Metz

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Barneys Opens, Brooklyn Rabi Spurns Paladino, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Controversial Korean religious leader Pastor Ock Soo Park is holding a Bible Crusade this week in Brooklyn Heights. BHB

- The new Barneys Co-op on Atlantic Avenue opens today. Brooklyn Eagle 

- The building where the facade fell off and the tenants were evacuated? Commenters say building was a dump.  Brownstoner

- The Brooklyn rabbi who wrote Carl Paladino's anti-homosexual remarks now has dumped the Republican candidate for governor, claiming Mr. Paladino “folded like a cheap camera.”  NY Times

- Not only has Paladino enraged both gays and Jews -- now he's in hot water with pornographers.  Salon

- Brooklynites go to Comic Con, get weird.  Brooklyn Eagle

- How to block unwanted callers to your cell phone.  Gizmodo

- Walmart mini-stores coming?  Reuters

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'Prince of Darkness,' Michelangelo, Filene's Basement and More Brooklyn Briefs

- The kids knocked the old painting off the wall with a tennis ball, so the parents wrapped it up and shoved it behind the couch. Until they found out it was painted by Michelangelo. Daily Mail

- The satanic “Prince of Darkness” claims he killed newsman George Weber in self-defense. Brooklyn Eagle

- Norman Oder plans to keep up the Atlantic Yards fight.  Observer 

- Filene's Basement/ Syms will open its first Brooklyn store at 490 Fulton Street.  NY Post

- A Bushwick senior center that gets taxpayer dollars is renting out its first floor to Assemblyman Vito Lopez’s political clubhouse.  Brooklyn Paper 

- A meeting will be held Thursday at Borough Hall to update community members about merger negotiations between Long Island College Hospital (LICH) and SUNY Downstate. Brooklyn Eagle

- The October 11 hail storm shredded palm leaves at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Flickr

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A Show in a Truck -- 'Truck Project' -- Coming to Brooklyn in November

The Truck Project Kickstarter Video from Jean Ann Douglass on Vimeo.

The Truck Project will be presenting a pair of performance installations in the back of a 24’ Budget rental truck, parked in a different Brooklyn neighborhood each night November 4-9. (Assuming they can get a parking space!)

For each work (Not Winehouse by Eric Meyer and The Backroad Homeshow by Jean Ann Douglass) a completely different audience set-up and interior is created in the truck -- a miniature vaudeville theater for one; a drug rehab meeting room for the other.

Audience members climb up a ramp and enter the truck to watch the show(s).

Douglass, the artistic director of The Truck Project, has put the project on Kickstarter to raise funds. So far, they have 26 backers. They need to raise $1,500 more in the next 15 days to successfully launch this four-city tour (Brooklyn, Spartanburg, New Orleans, and Austin). To kick in a few bucks, visit Kickstarter (and earn rewards!). To buy tickets to a Brooklyn show, click here.

Venues: Nov 4 (Bushwick); Nov 6 (Williamsburg); Nov 7 (Long Island City); Nov 8 (DUMBO); Nov 9 (Fort Greene), 7 p.m.

The Truck Project will be featured in the New Orleans Fringe Festival and then will be parked at The Off Center, the home venue of the Rude Mechanicals in Austen, Texas.

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