Our Time PressThe Local Paper with the Global View

Brooklyn, New York (September 2005) – The Bedford-Stuyvesant Annual House Tour has historically been a draw for thousands of visitors. Now in its 27th year, the Brownstoners will once again showcase a collection of the community’s finest brownstones and limestones. This year’s theme, “Embracing the Spirit of Community,” promises to be a declaration of the vibrant familial ambiance that has traditionally been rooted in Bed-Stuy. The self-guided tour will begin at the historic “Old” Boys High School, located at 832 Marcy Avenue, near the corner of Putnam Avenue, from 11 A.M. – 4 P.M., rain or shine.
Attendees will experience, firsthand, the luxury and sophistication embodied within these brownstones and limestones, some of which date back as far as the 18th century. They will have the opportunity to speak directly with homeowners to learn about restoration, landscaping, general maintenance and many more of the practicalities of owning a brownstone. Displaying both fully renovated homes and works-in-progress, the tour has traditionally proven to be an invaluable experience for homeowners and homebuyers alike. Visitors will receive a Tour Brochure at 11 A.M. sharp. The tour brochure is a handy keepsake and reference tool that documents the unique story behind each home on tour.
Visitors can participate in the Homeownership Workshop from 9:00 to 10:30 A.M. Here, they can learn how to finance the renovation or purchase of a home in Bed-Stuy. There will also be the annual “Bed-Stuy Bazaar,” which will include vendors of homemade arts and crafts, fine artisans and more. The bazaar will take place from 10:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. This year, tourgoers are in for an additional treat as the tour will be part of a premiere, community-wide celebration, “Bed-Stuy Alive.” This event will include art gallery/studio struts and special meals at participating local restaurants.

“Embracing the Spirit of Community,” speaks volumes about the mission of the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which has faithfully served this Brooklyn community for the past 27 years. Dedicated not only to instilling pride in Bed-Stuy residents, this nonprofit, volunteer civic association has performed a variety of community services which spans from literacy programs to their annual Tax Lien Project. In fact, proceeds from the house tour will benefit the McDonald/Glee Memorial Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to college-bound graduates of Boys and Girls High School.
All tickets for the 27th Annual House Tour of Bedford-Stuyvesant are $20 and can be purchased on the day of the tour or in advance at the following locations:
Brownstone Books, 409 Lewis Avenue, (718)-953-7328
Lewis Gallery, 525 Atlantic Avenue, (718)624-8372
Juke Joint Juice Jaffe, 1585 Fulton Street, (718)778-0777
All State Insurance – 499 Atlantic Avenue, (718)422-0700
It is advisable tourgoers arrive early, as recent tours have sold out with over 1,000 guests. Come on Home to Bed-Stuy!

The remarkable, untold story of New York’s deep involvement in the slave trade is the focus of a major multi-media exhibition, Slavery in New York, which opens October 7, 2005 and runs through March 5, 2006 at the New-York Historical Society, at Central Park West and 77th Street in New York City.
The 9,000 square-foot exhibition (the largest in the Society’s 200-year history), incorporates historically detailed video re-enactments, audio narrative and interactive video displays, along with rare, primary source materials (paintings, original documents, artifacts) to detail this remarkable, dark time in America’s history.
Exhibition highlights include: giant billowing sails and voices (speaking a dozen African dialects) suggestive of the harrowing Middle Passage; a multi-media installation portraying a local well where slaves met as they gathered water and (in 1712) fomented a slave rebellion; and wire sculptures, which evoke the toil of the faceless, voiceless peoples whose histories were (nearly) erased. The rarely seen, original hand written draft of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation will be on display from October 7-16.
Bills of sale for the human slave trade; advertisements offering rewards for runaway slaves; original 18th century maps detailing farmland (in what is now Soho) dedicated to freed blacks; letters revealing the details of daily life of slaves and slave holders; and objects such as a silver tea service crafted by slaves from Africa’s Gold Coast, offer a window into another time.
For additional information visit: http://www.nyhistory.org/ . New-York Historical Society170 Central Park West at 77th Streetadmission: Members and Children Under 12: Free Adults: $10 Teachers, Students, Seniors: $5Directions: To get to The New-York Historical Society take B or C trains to 81st Street or M10 bus to 77th Street; M79 to 81st and CPW.

The National Park Service (NPS) has announced that the draft Management Recommendations for the African Burial Ground, an important National Historic Landmark located in New York City, will be available for public review and comment beginning on September 28. Release of this plan offers the American public an important opportunity to provide comment on recommendations that one day may guide day- to- day management decisions at the African Burial Ground.
The report will be available online at http://parkplanning.nps.gov through October 28, 2005. Please click on Plans/Documents Open for Comment and go to Management Recommendations for the African Burial Ground. The report can also be viewed on the GSA website: www.africanburialground.gov. Written comments on the report will be accepted through November 4, 2005.
As part of this process, open house public gatherings will be held on Saturday, October 22 at the Brooklyn Public Library (located at Grand Army Plaza) from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and in Manhattan on Monday, October 24 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. NPS staff will be available to discuss the recommendations included in the report. For additional information on these public gatherings, please call 212- 825- 6887 or 215- 597- 1570.

By Feona Sharhran Huff
Do you have a written plan in place that expresses who you want to take care of your kids or how you want to dispose of your worldly possessions should you become incapacitated, terminally ill or die? If you answered “no” to having an estate plan, you’re not alone. According to Gary B. Garland, Esq., of the law firm Garland & Ehling LLC in New York City, that’s not good. “Estate planning is the single most important thing you could do after choice of mate, the number of kids you want to have and buying a home,” he affirms.
Bernard A. Krooks, Esq., of the law firm Littman Krooks, LLP in New York City says when he meets with clients, it’s all about figuring out what’s important to them – in which case, they always say their family is the number one priority. “Then I’ll ask them what have they done to make sure their family gets what they worked so hard for,” Krooks says. “They invariably say they haven’t done anything yet. I tell them they need to do estate planning.”
Both estate planning attorneys agree that there are several basic components to estate planning: A will, a living will, a health care power of attorney (or health care proxy), a durable power of attorney, and a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act).
A will disposes of your assets. In other words, it breaks down how you want to leave your money and possessions to someone. For a single parent, Krooks says this document is especially important because it allows you to appoint a guardian for minor children. If someone isn’t named, there is a guardianship proceeding and the kids may end up going to someone you wouldn’t want to have them. The other important thing to note about a will is that this document is only carried out upon your death.
A living will, however, expresses your wishes in the event that you become incapacitated or terminally ill. “I often tell my clients that a living will is a gift to your family because there is no decision for them to make,” Garland says. “It takes the burden off of the family because there is no discretion.”
A health care power of attorney (or health care proxy) allows you to appoint a person (at least 18 years of age) to make medical decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to express them. This is not to be confused with a living will, says Garland, which address issues such as brain death or terminal illness. He clarifies that this document deals with a situation in which someone has a stroke or is medicated and can’t make a decision at that time.
Garland defines a durable power of attorney as the person who transacts on your behalf for business matters. “A business matter could be signing a check, selling a house, gifting for Medicaid purposes,” he points out. “You don’t have to be disabled to do this.” He gives the example of someone who goes away for a cruise and a pipe bursts in the home. “Your agent could pay your plumber out of your checkbook,” he explains. However, he offers, “if you have named someone on your bank account, you don’t need a durable power of attorney.”
As far as a Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act or HIPAA goes, Garland says it has become very important over the last few years. “You go to the doctor now and ask how your mom is doing, he won’t tell you,” says Garland. However, if you hand the doctor the HIPAA authorization form, only then are you privy to private medical information. “If a medical provider reveals protected information to someone without a HIPAA authorization, they get heavily fined,” he reasons as the rationale behind the protection.
An estate plan is a vital tool to protect your loved ones and all that you’ve worked hard for. Seeking legal consultation to put your wishes down on paper will cost you, too. Garland says lawyers can charge by the hour or a flat rate like him. While this can wind up costing you a couple of hundred dollars or a couple of thousand dollars – this, of course, depending on the complexity of your situation – Krooks says it’s also expensive if you don’t have an estate plan. “If you don’t engage in estate planning and you become incapacitated, you can have the court appoint a legal guardian for you, but that could cost 10s of thousands of dollars in court and lawyers fees,” he warns. “It’s an invasion of privacy, it’s complicated, and it’s time-consuming.”
Garland warns against procrastinating on your estate plan. He believes you’re safer if you start the process earlier. “If someone comes to me in an emergency, I do what I can,” he says. “But if a person comes to me ahead of time, we can generally come out with a much better result.”
Looking for assistance with your estate planning needs? Let the following Web sites be a starting point:
EstatePlanningLawFirms.com
This site is an online directory of estate planning attorneys. Find a lawyer in your area by typing in your zip code.
LegalMatch.com 
The site matches you with lawyers appropriate for your specific situation. You also have the opportunity to review their experience, track record, availability and fee structure. 
Lawyers.com 
This site allows you to find a lawyer, ask questions online, research legal topics and get legal tips.

“The mission of the organization is to promote standards and ethical conduct in the real estate industry, and to promote democracy in housing,” Says Richard Flateau, President of the the Bedford-Stuyvesant Real Estate  Board.    The group holds monthly meetings at the Henry Hucles Nursing Home on Herkimer Street between Buffalo and Rochester.  general membership is the 3rd Monday of every month at 6:30pm. 
Flateau says that “during the period of more overt discrimination, the board worked to stop the redlining and discriminatory administration rules that kept people from obtaining mortgages in the community.”  Remembering the late 60’s and early 70’s, Mr. Flateau says it was difficult to get FHA mortgages in central Brooklyn.  “Part of it had to do with the FHA rules which would not insure mortgages on houses that had blind rooms, that is rooms without windows.  “The board fought to eliminate that rule and it was eliminated in the early seventies.”   
Another concern for the organization are predatory lenders who prey on elders and try to strip out the equity from the homes.  Giving them loans they know they can’t afford and charging huge fees.   They plan to hold public forums on the topic in the future.
With a membership mailing of 125 members, the group is an excellent way for brokers to network with others and share information and ideas.  “One of the main benefits for joining the organization is the quality of educational speakers we have addressing the membership, says Flateau.”  The organization takes pride in the quality of the presentations they’ve been able to bring before the group. “We’ve had people from PRATT come and speak about planning in progress for central Brooklyn, title companies have addressed the group on title insurance and architects have spoken about zoning and land-use issues.   A lot of times in a group you can get access to more quality speakers than as an individual.”
Bedford-Stuyvesant has one of the hottest real estate markets in the city.  “Looking at the property prices in Bed- Stuy the last five years we’ve seen they’ve gone up 10-15 % each year.  I don’t think that rate of increase can continue indefinitely,” says Flateau.  “At some point, you will see more condominiums and co-ops in Bedford Stuyvesant so that people just starting out in their careers will have more home-ownership opportunity.” 
Noting that the Bridge Street Development Corporation has just completed a condominium project on Lewis Avenue and reported a tremendous demand for their eight units, Flateau said that “Unfortunately, not too many other condo opportunities exist right now.”
With the house prices in Bedford- Stuyvesant, one thing people might look to do is join together to access this market.  “We’ve seen groupings such as husband, wife and mother coming together or husband, wife and adult child.  They’ve bought 2-3 family houses where they can get additional income is definitely a strategy folks can look to use.”
Speaking of the BSREB, Flateau is going to move forward with a focus on continuing education for both the membership and workshops for the community.
“We’d like to purchase a building and offer more information for the community on topics such as predatory lending, tax lien, sales and other issues related to home ownership.”
The group is also affiliated with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and by being part of the local organization the members are automatically members of the national organization.   This is the oldest national black professional organization.   “We’re a chapter of the national although we actually predate their forming.   We were formed in 1937 and the national was formed in 1947.” 
He encourages people to visit their Web site, www.bsreb.com, for information about meetings, upcoming events, membership application is online.