Home Blog Page 820

Love and Soccer

David Mark Greaves
-
25
Love and Soccer

By Eddie Castro

There is a new core in Brooklyn, a core that may open some eyes throughout our borough and perhaps the city when it comes to the women’s soccer team of Grand Street Campus. To ultimately build a core, chemistry is key, and that’s exactly what they have been working on. Before they started their drills upon their practice, the team held a party for their head coach Andre Lamy’s birthday and the players made sure to celebrate. With this bonding the team has installed within themselves, they hope it can continue towards the soccer field this coming fall. When asked about the girl’s bond with him and one another coach Lamy said, “The bond is terrific. I’ve known these girls from back when they were in junior high. They really respect me and the vision. It’s terrific to see. It’s a great atmosphere”.

Although this current roster does not consist of senior leadership, that does not mean this team lacks experience with one another. This Grand Street soccer team is returning 12 players and a strong junior class, a class that averaged an impressive six goals a game last season. One player to watch out for is forward Elizabeth Zahuantitla, who has kicked in 22 goals, and is one of the few players that will be a key factor into the team’s chase towards a city title. Teammate Stacy Guaman is also expected to be a key contributor this season.

This team is not new to success, having won a few Brooklyn titles a few seasons back. This season, the girls are looking to be hoisting a different type of trophy this year. The only way they know how to make the chase a reality is to keep the chemistry together, and stick together.

Sports Notes: (Football) The New York Giants started their season off pretty well with a nail-biting 20-19 victory. Wide receiver Victor Cruz made his long-awaited return to the football field and scored the go-ahead touchdown for the G-men to seal the win. The team will play the New Orleans Saints next Sunday. The Jets lost a heartbreaker to the Bengals as they failed to capitalize on opportunities during the game. Gang Green will have to have a short-term memory as the team heads to Buffalo to play the rival Bills on Thursday night.

 

 

WGO by Victoria Horsford

Victoria Horsford
-
41

ELECTIONS 2016 

Three down and one to go. Tuesday, September 13 was New Yorkers third outing to the polls this year and we are suffering from voter fatigue. The 2016 voter turnout in New York hit record lows. Hopefully, our interest was revived and we voted for some good progressive Democrats and African-Americans, whose numbers are diminishing in NY electoral politics. Hope that voter fatigue malaise evaporates before the November 8 general election, when we have to elect Hillary Clinton as our new president.

 

NYC/NYS

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Brunch Bill into law which makes it legal for New Yorkers to have a Bloody Mary at 10 am on Sundays. Effective on 9/11, restaurants and bars can serve drinks at 10, which is an overhaul of the Blue Law.

 

Sean Combs

HARLEM:   One-man conglomerate, Corporate America master of Branding e also

Sean (Diddy) Combs recently opened his highly publicized Capital Preparatory Harlem School, which serves a predominantly Black and Latino 6th– and 7th-grade student population. The school occupies one floor at the Museo Del Barrio in East Harlem. The Capital Prep school system was founded by Steve Perry, Ph.D., a frequent critic of teachers’ unions. Combs has turned his attention to politics recently when he told Rev. Al, “We got shortchanged by President Obama”.

Another Harlem church bites the dust. Brooklyn landlord Haim Nortman bought the LaGree Baptist Church, an 11,890-square-feet building located at 362 West 125th Street, for $28.5 million.   LaGree purchased the property in 1975.  Nortman’s other Harlem properties include a residential building at 220 West 149th Street and a mixed-use building located at 2546 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard.

 

BROOKLYN: According to the Real Deal Internet News, Brooklyn heads the TOP 10 NYC real estate list for filings in August. The Auker Companies, a leader in affordable housing development, filed plans to erect two buildings in East New York: one at 911 Erskine Street, which will be a 9-story mixed-use property, and one at 11629 Seaview Avenue, which will be a 6-story apartment property.

The jury is still out on the West Indian Day Parade’s satellite celebration, J’Ouvert and its shelf life, considering the fatalities which attended the merriment. Brooklyn is the city’s most violent borough, notable for daily shootings and murders, J’Ouvert notwithstanding. While Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that J’Ouvert is here to stay, the situation is multilayered. The marriage of Labor Day merriment and violence needs to be addressed by all borough stakeholders like residents along the J’Ouvert route, the NYPD, the Brooklyn Caribbean community, NYS and NYC legislators, and the business and faith communities. I had no idea that J’Ouvert attracts a crowd of more than 250,000, partying under the cover of darkness along a path that winds through a number of Brooklyn Council, Assembly and Senate districts. It also meanders through some of Brooklyn’s most dangerous neighborhoods where gangs, not interested in bacchanal, hold forth.

 

CULTURE STOPS

The Essie Green Galleries 2016 Fall Exhibit, ARTISTS AND STYLE, features works by Alexis Peskine, Charles Alston, Romare Bearden and Frank Stewart that runs from September 17 to October 22. The gallery is located at 419A Convent Avenue in Harlem. (212.368.9635)

The Brooklyn Book Festival runs from September 12–18. It is the largest free literary event in NYC and one of the premier book fairs nationally. More than 300 literary lions will participate on 9/18, which will include Margo Jefferson, Chester Brown, Edwidge Danticat, Terry McMillan, John Williams, Okey Ndibe and Kaylie Jones. The festival sites cast a wide net from all over Brooklyn and across the river to Manhattan’s Revolution book store on Lenox Avenue. (Visit brooklynbookfestival.org)

NEWSMAKERS

 

Joy Ann Reid

There is a movement afoot to press MSNBC-TV Uber journalist Joy-Ann Reid to co-moderate with Fox News’ Chris Wallace the third and last Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debate. Wallace has already said that he is not going to fact-check candidates’ remarks. He really needs a brainy analyst like Reid as a counterpoint.

 

Ed Gordon, veteran broadcast journalist, whose credits include 60 Minutes II, BET, MSNBC and NPR, returns to TV on 9/13 with “The Ed Gordon Show”, a quarterly newsmagazine which airs on BOUNCE with programming targeted to African-Americans. Gordon was the first American journalist to interview O.J. Simpson following the highly notorious trial.

 

Reverend Dennis Dillon adds another feather to his busy professional cap. He hosts “The Dennis Dillon Show”, a TV variety reality show which is taped at the Brooklyn Christian Center and which airs on the RNN Channel on Sunday and Thursday in NY, NJ and Connecticut.

RIP: Stanley Nelson, 100, passed on September 9.   A renaissance man, Nelson was a father, grandfather, dentist, a member of Kappa Alpha Psi and was engaged in the civil rights movement. He and his family loved New York City and Martha’s Vineyard, where they summered. A pioneer in reconstructive dental surgery, he founded the American Institute for Progressive Dentistry. Dr. Nelson is the father of filmmaker Stanley Nelson and writer Jill Nelson.

 

FALL PREVIEW 

The Harlem Business Alliance will host a “Disrupt Harlem Business Innovation Summit 2016” on September 27 at the Mural Pavilion at Harlem Hospital, 506 Malcolm X Boulevard. Enter the Disrupt Harlem Pitch Tank Competition for a chance to win a grand prize of $1000 and a 6-month membership to Creative Workshop space. Application deadline for the competition is 9/19. E-mail pboateng@hbany.org.   Good luck!

The 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly begins at its NY headquarters on September 13. Delegations, usually led by heads of states from 193 countries, are expected to take part in the GA opener.

 

The Park River Independent Democrats hosts its 57th Anniversary Celebration Fundraiser on September 15 at Arte Café, located at 106 West 73rd Street, honoring Geoffrey Eaton, President of the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NAACP; Ruth Messinger, former Manhattan Boro Prexy; and Senator Brad Hoylman.

 

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe

The NY-based December 12th Movement and Friends of Zimbabwe are organizing a Pan-Africanism Lives March and Rally on Saturday, September 17th at 12 noon. The rally flyers, with Robert Mugabe’s image, reads Our Land! Our Flag! Our Fight! Marchers will assemble at Lexington at 53rd Street. Rally will be held at UN Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in Manhattan. For more info call 718.398.1766.

 

Do not miss “WHEN SUGAR HILL WAS STILL SWEET: A Centennial Celebration of 409 & 555 Edgecombe Avenue” on Friday, September 16th, 10:30 am to 6:30 pm at Barnard College, Columbia University. It is a day of performances and panel discussions: “Of The Cloth: Theologians, Ministers and Christian Capitalists” with William Seraile, Ph.D., and Rev. LaKeesha Walrond, Ph.D.; “Pride and Harlem History” with Rich Blint, David Hadju and Gordon Thompson; [Film], “Saying Something: Voices of 409 & 555 Edgecombe”, directed by Barbara Montgomery; “The Talented Tenth and the Ninety Percent on Edgecombe Avenue” with Jelani Cobb, David Levering Lewis and Herb Boyd ; “For the Love of Sweet Pea” aka Billy Strayhorn: Event is free and open to the public. E-mail Africana@barnard.edu.

 

Support and attend the Save the Education Clinic – formerly the St. Aloysius Education Clinic – at the Cove Lounge, 325 Lenox Avenue, on September 20 from 6-8 pm. The St. Aloysius Catholic School, a former appendage to the church of the same name on W. 132nd Street in Harlem, opened in the mid-Forties. It closed in June 2016. One of its signature programs was a free reading enrichment program that was open to students of all ages. For more info, call Regina Smith at 212.665.7010.

A Harlem-based writer, Victoria Horsford can be reached at victoria.horsford@gmail.com.

Raccoons Gentrify the Stuy

Editor, Our Time Press
-
0
Raccoons Gentrify the Stuy

By Joanna Goodwin

First the city was plagued by rats, and then came the bedbugs, the mosquitoes, now the raccoons. Again! Raccoons are often thought of as forest-dwelling creatures, but they can reach a very high population in cities. Last year, at least two raccoon families moved onto my block in Bed-Stuy.

On September 8th, my son was anxiously getting ready for his first day of second grade when he saw a raccoon outside our bathroom window. I called Animal Care Centers of NY, formerly Animal Care & Control. The representative told me that they would only trap the raccoons if they were sick or dying. She said they are urban raccoons and this is their natural habitat. I learned that “urban raccoons” have adapted to city life and its normal for them to forage for food during the day.

On Saturday morning while collecting my laundry off the line, I noticed again, one of the raccoons sleeping on the top of a tree in my yard. I made a garlic solution as a deterrent and sprayed it around the yard. The raccoon seemed turned off by the smell and made a quick exit. I noticed it eating cat food in my neighbor’s yard (in photo). I went to warn my neighbor of the uninvited guest in their yard. My neighbors already had traps in place to (humanely) capture them over the weekend.

For all you cat-loving neighbors, your outdoor cat’s food is just downright irresistible to these omnivorous scavengers. If you feed your kitty outside and it attracts raccoons, they’ll keep coming back for more tasty treats. Feeding the animals also causes them to lose their fear of people. This could result with raccoons entering a home through an open door or even biting people or pets. Remember the lady attacked by raccoons in Central Park and the raccoon burglars in Park Slope.

 

Back in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they set up feeding chutes full of the medicinal morsels of the rabies vaccine in Brooklyn’s waterfront from Canarsie to Coney Island, and Prospect Park. So that means the other areas of Brooklyn can only seek help from a professional. I called a few pest control companies. For $100 to $300 per trap—professionals will check traps daily and make unlimited raccoon runs. Most said they released raccoons at least five miles from where they were caught, but in keeping with state law, not across county lines — meaning that most raccoons caught in Brooklyn stay in Brooklyn.

Here are the top 5 signs of a rabid raccoon:

  1. Difficulty walking – fully or partially paralyzed hind legs, or walking in circles.
  2. Looks confused, disoriented, slow. A healthy raccoon will be doing something purposeful, and it’ll look alert.
  3. Makes crazy noises – most healthy raccoons chatter to each other or make a real racket when fighting or mating, but usually when they’re foraging about they aren’t making crazy noises
  4.  Foaming at the mouth – if you’re close enough to see this, get away!
  5. Just plain looks sick – shouldn’t be too hard to tell. Raccoons can contract a variety of diseases, including distemper (raccoons are susceptible to infection by both canine and feline distemper), but in no cases should you risk contact with a raccoon.

Displacement Pushes Eastward in Bed-Stuy

David Mark Greaves
-
1
Displacement Pushes Eastward in Bed-Stuy

By Akosua K. Albritton

Perhaps longtime residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant can identify with Native Americans. Just as the indigenous people of this land were pushed westward across rivers and mountains to make space for the expanding United States territory, “Bed-Stuy homies” are being displaced from their homes. The hardest hit are those that rent.

Take Linda Owens, who lives at 1509 Fulton Street with her young daughter. Owens experiences upheaval in her living conditions since her building was bought by Green Brick, LLC from Mr. Beaty in May 2016.

“My lease with Mr. Beaty expired in April or May 2016. Green Brick, LLC never offered me a new lease. Green Brick, LLC accepted the Section 8 and HRA shelter allowance, but for a few months they stopped accepting my personal payments.” explained Owens.

This was due to the LLC taking legal action to evict her. She received a letter of eviction in the category of holdover. This meant the new owner did not want her as a tenant. Without a lease, Owens had little to stand on. This fact was hard for her to understand and hard to accept. Owens talked by telephone with Brooklyn Legal Services’ Jim McCormick about her upcoming case. After conferring with his supervisor, McCormick called her to tell her his supervisor saw no way to help her.

“I made it known that I didn’t want to move,” affirms Owens. Even when she appeared in Housing Court on August 19, 2016 before Judge John H. Stanley who ruled final judgment for the petitioner Ms. Owens said, “I don’t want to move”! She was made to sign the court stipulation whereby she had to vacate the premises by December 31, 2016. In her incredulous state, she heard Judge Stanley advise her “to look for housing in another state”. Further, Section 8 advised Ms. Owens to “leave 1509 Fulton Street and find another residence”.

While Ms. Owens’ world was coming apart, Green Brick, LLC committed to extensive renovations to the building. 1509 Fulton Street is a four-story building located between Tompkins and Throop Avenues. The ground floor holds the Mbadinga’s Unisex Salon & Hair; the second floor was changed from a three-bedroom apartment to two apartments by the new landowner; the third has one apartment where Linda Owens and her daughter reside; and the fourth floor has one apartment.

“Green Brick, LLC started construction soon after they purchased it. The work can go on through the night. The place got so dusty and made my daughter sick. I called the Health Department about the dust. My daughter was tested for lead. She had some lead but not a high level—I caught it in time.” What Ms. Owens is involved in is the process of selling a building at the end of the lease period; the new landlord buys with no intention of keeping the low-income tenants and renovations are made to rent to higher-income households. Working through the night is done to complete renovations sooner.

Randy Weston: Artist-in-Residence at MEC

David Mark Greaves
-
0
Randy Weston: Artist-in-Residence at MEC

Legendary jazz artist Randy Weston — pianist, composer and lecturer — kicks off his yearlong Artist-in-Residency at Medgar Evers College with a master class from 5-7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 20. Joining him for the master class is Cuban percussionist Candido Camero.

The program, open to the public, will be held in the Founders Auditorium at 1650 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights.

Mr. Weston is the very first artist to serve in a residency program at Medgar Evers College.  A jazz innovator for over six decades, Mr. Weston’s residency is intended to expose students and the public to the importance of jazz and the history of the music. Mr. Weston will conduct five master classes in the 2016-2017 Academic Year: three in the fall and two in the spring, with a sixth and final one at commencement. All the classes are public and Mr. Weston will be joined by a featured artist at each event.

1...819820821...1,292Page 820 of 1,292