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Candidates for 35th District City Council Seat Speak Their Minds

Stephen Witt
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If nothing else, last week’s spirited candidates forum for the open 35th District city council seat representing Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, and parts of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights showcased that the race remains wide open.

Presenting their views and stating their unique qualifications at the Brown Memorial Church Fellowship Hall to replace Letitia James were, in alphabetical order, Olanike (Ola) Alabi, Laurie Cumbo, Ede Fox, Frank Hurley and Jelani Mashariki.

Alabi is both the former Community Board 2 district manager and female Democratic district leader; Cumbo is the founder and former president of MoCADA (Museum of Contemporary Diasporan Arts); Fox is the former chief of staff for City Councilman Jumaane Williams; Hurley is a longtime local attorney; and Mashariki is the director of the Pamoja House Men’s Shelter in Bed-Stuy.

When asked their views on strengthening education,   Alabi noted that 42 percent of the city’s budget was directed towards education and that she would put more of her district’s discretionary funds toward education as well as strengthen private, religious and community based organization ties with public education.

Cumbo emphasized as head of MoCADA she created nine after school programs. She also said education funds should be distributed more equitably with less emphasis on security and more on creating a positive school environment.

Fox said she opposed the Bloomberg Administration’s policy of school closings and co-locations of charter schools, and that the schools should allow for more local use as a community hub.

Hurley emphasized that the culture around public schools needs changing and that more respect should be given to teachers.

Mashariki advocated for the end of mayoral control of education with more resources redirected to parents, and to open up schools more for services and resources for the parents of the community.

Regarding the high rate of unemployment, Cumbo noted that unemployment, particularly in the NYCHA developments remains as high as 50 percent, and advocated connecting those unemployed with development in Downtown Brooklyn through labor unions.

Fox countered that sometimes unions are friends and sometimes they are not. She advocated for direct negotiations with developers to supply more local jobs, along with making more technology education available including more computer labs in schools.

Hurley said that developers that build in Brooklyn must hire from Brooklyn, including some that live in homeless shelters. He also noted that the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy has sometimes resulted in arrests that make some of those arrested ineligible for construction union work.

Mashariki remarked he doesn’t see as much development as he does unemployment in the community. He advocated funding to increase the skills and opportunities for the unemployed.

Alabi advocated that elected officials should negotiate project labor agreements with developers and more apprentices and job opportunities with unions.

In questions concerning NYCHA developments in the district, Hurley advocated NYCHA residents create a stronger block of voters and expressed concern that the 500 empty apartments being renovated in the Fort Greene Houses do not go to outsiders.

Mashariki said the poor and working class are under attack from the government, and this includes NYCHA, which has a poor record of apartment and building repairs, and of misusing funds. He also advocated the NYCHA board triple the number of members that live in NYCHA developments.

Alabi said the city needs to pitch both the state and federal levels for more funding, as much of the funding comes from these levels. She also called to abolish the current NYCHA board, and that residents should not have to pay more for policing the developments.

Cumbo advocated filing for a class-action lawsuit against NYCHA for mismanagement and lack of funds. She also said housing police should work more on policing and less on attacking those who they are paid to police.

Fox called paying extra money for police services a “double taxation” and called for any NYCHA changes of use to go before the city land use process for approval before any changes are made.

The forum came as all the candidates are in the process of getting petitions with the signatures of 450 registered democratic voters in the district in order to get on the ballot for the September primary. The deadline to hand in the petitions to the Board of Elections is midnight July 11.

Downtown Developer’s WMBE contracts top $35 million mark

Stephen Witt
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Even beneath a sizzling summer sun and wearing a hardhat and heavy construction clothes and boots, Titus Paul remained upbeat and cool in describing how he found work on the massive City Point project now under construction in Downtown Brooklyn.
“I saw work going on and asked somebody about the job, and then I came in myself and got put on the job,” said Paul, a carpenter with a wife and two kids who lives in Crown Heights. “I’ve been looking to be on a site like this. This is an open shop site and while I’d like to be in the union it is what it is. There’s a lot of protocol to join the union and then you have to wait your turn. I’m surviving trying to put food on table and I’m happy with that.”
The City Point project, located on the former Albee Mall Site and bounded by the Fulton Mall, Gold Street, Willoughby Street and Flatbush Avenue, is currently in the second phase of construction. The first phase was recently completed with the opening of Armani Exchange.
The second phase currently underway will have 1.3 million square-feet broken down into 680,000 square feet of retail space and 680 units of housing including 125 units of affordable housing for moderate and low-income residents. The retail end will ultimately include anchors such as New York City based retailer Century 21 and the seven-screen Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.
Just as importantly, City Point developer Albee Development LLC continues to show a commitment to maximize local and minority contracting and employment.
“The total number of WMBE (Women and Minority-owned Business Enterprise) contacting for phase one and two together is $35 million,” said Albee Development Spokesperson Tom Montvel-Cohen. “This figure is not words. This is $35 million of real commitment to minority and women owned business in our community. Right now 85 percent of the people working on the job today are either people of color, women or Brooklyn residents.”
Among the black-owned contractors that recently won a bid for some of the work on the project includes C&D Iron Works, 194 Sackman Street, in East New York.
“We’re doing a couple of the floors,” said C&D Iron Works owner Derrick Roopchan, who has 10 workers on the job including the off-site fabrication. “It’s very important that they hire locally. There’s a lot of people looking for jobs and the people we hire come from the neighborhood or are recommended from workers we currently have.”
Ricardo Quammie, who lives in Crown Heights, and whose business, RMQ Service Corp, is in Flatbush, says he has three workers plus himself on the site. The company signed a two-year minimum contact for work at the site to mainly do clean-up related construction work.
“All my workers are local from Brooklyn,” said Quammie, noting he is not against construction unions, but there are discrepancies in their hiring practices such as the union policy of banning any person with a criminal record from joining the union.
“An open shop gives more local people a job on the site at very livable wages. In fact everyone on the site got a substantial raise not that long ago.”

Chanel Petro Nixon: Gone But Not Forgotten

Mary Alice Miller
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Nixon Family: Mrs. Lucinda Nixon has Chanel’s brother Marcus on her right and her father Garvin.

On a bright, sunny Father’s Day afternoon in 2006, Chanel Petro Nixon left her home to apply for a job at Applebee’s Restaurant in Restoration Plaza. Though it was a short distance from her home to the restaurant, along an always-populated Fulton Street, the 16-year-old honor student never made it home that day. When Chanel’s parents reported her absence to the police, officers implied she ran away. Days later, Chanel was found in a garbage bag in front of 212 Kingston Avenue, the former home of The Greater New Harvest Church of Christ and directly across the street from the Historic First Church of God in Christ.
Chanel had been strangled. Her case remains an unsolved homicide.

For the past several years (except last year), Chanel’s family has joined President of the Central Brooklyn Anti-Violence Coalition Taharka Robinson and members of the community on marches from the family home and rallies at the Kingston Avenue location where Chanel’s body was found. The pain still takes an emotional toll on the Nixon family.

“It’s been seven years ago tomorrow that I buried my daughter Chanel. It still feels as if it was yesterday,” Mrs. Nixon stated at the rally. “I don’t care where I have to go, who I have to go to, what I have to do. I want justice for my daughter and I want to put my daughter’s killer away.”

“Chanel Petro Nixon was murdered in a very heinous capacity,” said Robinson. “Had this child been from anybody else’s community, the city would not have hesitated in conducting the search and investigation for her.”

Robinson added, “Had we not raised this issue there would not have been awareness put on it.
An investigation would not have been conducted to the magnitude that it has been.”

Chanel Petro Nixon was the best and brightest that any parent could want for their child. She was an honor student. She did everything she was supposed to do which makes it even more painful for Chanel to be taken from them in such a violent manner.

“Mrs. Nixon is still in shock. They are very upset. They are very hurt,” said Robinson. “They know in order to make sure that they get justice not only for their daughter but for their family and find a solution to this, they have to continue to remain proactive.”

Acknowledging that in January there will be a new city government, Robinson wants to make sure that we put Chanel on their agenda. “This is not something that is going to disappear. They need to be making sure that they do something about it when the city changes over,” said Robinson. “Whoever takes City Hall and becomes the new council member (for Bedford-Stuyvesant/Crown Heights), this needs to be a priority.”

Robinson believes “We owe it to Chanel Petro Nixon and the Nixon family and the community to bring forth justice for them. They have suffered greatly and we want them to stop suffering.

When something like this transpires in our community and we are not outraged and constantly trying to make them the focus, then we have become apathetic.”
“We have an obligation to protect our children,” said Robinson. “We have an obligation to respect our parents, to respect our neighbors and work together in the community.

Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District Announces Michael Lambert as New Executive Director

Editor, Our Time Press
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Michael Lambert

Effective, May 20, 2013, the Board of Directors of the Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (BID) is pleased to announce the hiring of Michael Lambert as its Executive Director. As Executive Director, Michael is responsible for overall BID program management, including planning, project management and economic development for the Fulton–Nostrand commercial corridor. His daily activities will support the BID’s mission to enhance sanitation, safety and promote the Bed-Stuy Gateway BID as a destination to live, shop, work and enjoy entertainment. Michael will serve as the BID’s liaison to all NYC agencies including the New York City Department of Small Business Services, and will represent the BID with local community organizations in Bed-Stuy.

Michael brings many years of diverse managerial experience which include directing a key New York Citywide community health care program of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, and most recently as Executive Director of the Jerome-Gun Hill BID and the Deputy Director of the Mosholu Preservation Corporation which manages several community and economic development programs throughout the northwest Bronx.

Michael holds a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Polytechnic University (now NYU Poly) and an MBA in Health Care Administration from Baruch College-Zicklin School of Business/Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is also a graduate of the NYC Department of Small Business Services – CORO Neighborhood Leadership Program.

Joyce Turner, Chairperson of the Bed-Stuy Gateway BID Board of Directors reflected, “We conducted a long and thorough search for a new executive and are just thrilled that Michael is as excited about joining the Bed-Stuy Gateway BID as we are about him. We expect that his prior BID and community experience along with his commitment will propel the BID to new levels of excellence. Michael’s first day was spent walking through the BID and meeting BID members as well as meeting “Cleaning Ambassadors” from the BID’s supplemental sanitation services team. We encourage all of our merchants, businesses and residents to welcome Michael to the neighborhood and to support the BID’s goals for enhanced commerce, cleanliness, beautification and safety.”

“As the Executive Director of the Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District, I am very excited to return to Brooklyn where I once lived and went to school. As I’ve walked through the district, I have had the opportunity to meet and learn from many of those who built the BID through their years of hard work and dedication to this community. I look forward to engaging the BID’s many members and learning how the BID can best serve their needs. It gives me great pride to be a part of this dynamic Bedford-Stuyvesant community which I feel has endless opportunities.”
Michael, his wife of 20 years, and their two children reside in Queens.

The Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District (The BID) is located in central Brooklyn, New York. On March 30, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed legislation establishing the Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District as the City’s 64th BID (67 BIDs in NYC as of June 2013).

The BID stretches 29 blocks (1.5 miles) west, along Fulton Street from Troy Avenue to Classon Avenue and South, across Nostrand Avenue from Halsey Street to Atlantic Avenue. The business district is easily accessible to Manhattan via the “A and C Trains” and to Long Island via the Long Island Railroad (LIRR). The Bed-Stuy Gateway BID is home to 443 properties and 373 businesses with an annual operating budget of $675k, primarily funding supplemental sanitation, streetscape improvements and district programming.

BROOKLYN SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION PARADE CELEBRATES 185th YEAR

David Mark Greaves
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The 185th celebration of the Brooklyn Sunday School Union Anniversary Day Parade held on June 5th 2013, a non attendance day for all public school children in Brooklyn and Queens, is now a tradition in transition. Some traditions withstand the test of time. Those which survive usually undergo a series of challenges; a period of highs and lows, and their survival is attributed to the solid foundation on which they are built.

The committed faithful continue to march through the hustling and bustling Brooklyn streets, year after year. The parade route is now shorter and the spectators are fewer, but many constants still remain. These are the NYPD escorts, marching Bands , Drummers, Banners and church folks from prominent Historical churches such as, The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, Bridge Street AME Church, Bethany Baptist Church, Brown Memorial and Cornerstone Baptist Church, all paving the way with salutations. Many church leaders lament the dwindling number of participants in the parade but there is still an overwhelming sense of Purpose, Praise and Perseverance.

Bryan Kearse, President of the Brooklyn Sunday School Union believes that the decrease in attendance is due to the “ changing of the guards at other churches”. He says that the Union must create new recruitment efforts. Wayne Vaughan, Superintendent of the Concord Baptist Church Sunday School, believes that teacher training and joint fellowships among churches will help improve membership, but he also stresses the social connection which must be addressed though tackling the social issues in the communities and even a Rights of Passage for youths, as a pathway to recruiting new Sunday school members. Although some congregations are not as supportive as they should be, Reverend Dr. Payton, Assistant Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church, says that he will continue to do his part to increase participation. He does not see a crisis he sees opportunity.

The Great Historian Frederick Douglas said that without struggle there is no progress, and although the Brooklyn Sunday School Union is now struggling all agree that this tradition of churches celebrating Anniversary Day must be passed on from generation to generation. Brooklyn is known as the Borough of churches, the implementation of new concepts should bear fruit. Attendance at next year’s parade will be the proof.

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