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Ebbets Field flagpole commemorated at Barclays with Sharon Robinson, daughter of Brooklyn Dodgers great Jackie Robinson, participating

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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Sharon Robinson, daughter of legendary Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson (inset), joined, from left to right, Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark, Brooklyn Nets player Jerry Stackhouse—who wears Jackie Robinson’s #42 on his uniform, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and Barclays Center Majority Owner and Developer Bruce Ratner at a ceremony this week commemorating the new home of the old Ebbets Field flagpole and the unveiling of a plaque at the base of the pole. Credit: Reid B. Kelley.

 

In celebration of the triumphant return of major professional sports to Brooklyn, Barclays Center and the Brooklyn Nets held a ceremony yesterday to commemorate the new home of an Ebbets Field flagpole that now stands proud outside the arena. Center officials also acknowledged the most famous man who ever played at Ebbets Field, Dodgers great Jackie Robinson, upon whose shoulders all athletes, including the Brooklyn Nets, stand.
At the event, the American flag and a Brooklyn Nets flag were raised on the restored flagpole and a plaque signifying the history of the flagpole was unveiled.

Borough President Markowitz said, “There is no better way to honor the Dodgers’ legacy in Brooklyn than by raising the Ebbets Field flagpole with Sharon Robinson, the daughter of Jackie Robinson, a product of Brooklyn and great American hero. Together, this Ebbets Field flagpole and Brooklyn Nets flag are a ‘home run’ and a ‘slam dunk,’ marking the transition from one great tradition of major league sports in Brooklyn to another. Today, we raise a Nets flag on a flagpole from one of the most famous stadiums in baseball history, Ebbets Field; soon, we will raise an NBA championship banner into the rafters of the greatest arena in the country.”
After the Dodgers’ former home, Ebbets Field, was demolished in 1960, the flagpole was later donated to a VFW post on Utica Avenue in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East Flatbush. It stood at that site, which later became the Canarsie Casket Company and then a church, until Bruce Ratner secured the historic flagpole in 2007, with the goal of positioning it at his planned arena in Brooklyn, which opened in September of this year. It was Borough President Markowitz, a Brooklyn history buff, who had alerted Ratner about the availability of the flagpole.

At the event, the American flag and a Brooklyn Nets flag were raised on the restored flagpole and a plaque signifying the history of this sports remnant was unveiled. The significance of the salute to Mr. Robinson was more than symbolic: plans to raise the flag were in progress last fall at around the time of the 40th Anniversary of the athlete’s death, October 1972.

“We are proud that such a historic symbol of Ebbets Field will now stand permanently outside of Barclays Center to connect the borough’s great sports past to its present,” said Bruce Ratner. “The memories of Ebbets Field and the Dodgers, most notably the 1955 World Series Championship, will always be an important part of Brooklyn’s history.”

Ms. Robinson, an author and educational consultant to Major League Baseball, told Our Time Press, “If my father were alive he would be thrilled that Brooklyn – with its national major league spirit — is a thriving, growing village and a wonderful asset to the world. This day promises to be a benchmark for years to come.”
She also told us that the flagpole (“standing tall”) is a reminder of the struggle and work of her father, who broke racial barriers as he pursued his dream. “I am hoping that those young people seeking careers in sports, architecture, business, real estate or any other field take a lesson from the life of my father: find your passion no matter what it is. Once you find it, follow it, you can’t be deterred.”

Learn More:
Sharon Robinson (www.sharonrobinsonink.com) has written several books on her father, including Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By, an anthology of diverse writings illustrating the values that helped her father achieve his goals and Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, a biography that explores how Mr. Robinson broke the color barrier in sports. Her other books include: Safe at Home, Jackie’s Gift: A True Story of Christmas, Hanukkah and Jackie Robinson with illustrator E.B. Lewis; Testing the Ice: A True Story of Jackie Robinson with illustrator Kadir Nelson (Scholastic, 2009)

For more on Jackie Robinson: www.jackierobinson.org. For more on Ebbets Field: www.ballparksofbaseball.com/past/EbbetsField.htm. For more on Brooklyn History: www.brooklynhistory.org. 42: The Story of a True Legend, a feature film on Mr. Robinson, was partly shot last summer on location in Bedford-Stuyvesant where Mr. Robinson resided in the late 1940’s, is scheduled to premiere nationally on April 12, 2013. For Our Time Press’ production coverage story, visit: www.ourtimeathome.com. by Bernice Green Photo Cred: (Reid B. Kelly)

For 32 Brooklyn Kids, Christmas Arrived Early

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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Community leader Charlene Nimmons and Brooklyn Nets defender Josh Childress, joined by corporate partners and local establishments, designed a very special early Christmas last Saturday for 32 young people who live in Brooklyn public housing.

Boys and girls ranging in age from 10 to 15 from Marlboro Houses, Lafayette Gardens, Atlantic Terminal, Wyckoff Gardens and other housing communities were treated to games of bowling, dinner and gift bags of a basketball hat and tee-shirts at the Brooklyn Bowl in Williamsburg by their host Childress (seen above signing autographs). Afterwards, at Modell’s across from the Nets’ Barclays Center home in Downtown Brooklyn, the youngsters experienced the wonderland effect, every kid’s dream: to be let loose in a store of choice.

They were invited to select a pair of sneakers priced up to $100, and they received $50 gift card to purchase NETS apparel, with most choosing the seasonal winter Nets hat, tee-shirts, and name-brand outfits to match the earlier gift of clothing gear. The nine accompanying chaperone volunteers were also given the chance to pick out sports shoes.

“Jordans get valuable with age,” explained one youngster to a television field reporter about his choice of footwear. And Nicholas, 15, said, “This is a good experience,” a comment that was more than pleasing to the ears of Charlene Nimmons, founder and executive director of Public Housing Communities, Inc. (PHC), a signatory to the Community Benefits Agreement. Ms. Nimmons (seen below with Childress) first approached The NETS about doing something special for the young people. “This is more than what I had in mind.

“Everybody had a wonderful time, it was awesome, phenomenal and the top people in this franchise are connecting with the community in some meaningful ways.”

Her non-profit organization has worked at the table with various players on the Community Benefits Agreement for nine years. Ms. Nimmons, almost singlehandedly it has been reported, held ground for residents of public housing. “I wanted to make sure we were part of it,” she said.

Resident associations and community center directors selected the participants in last week’s program, but Ms. Nimmons job was more than chaperone. “Just before the children entered the store, they all handed thank you letters to Josh.”

“We have a project called the Good Neighbor Program. We told Forest City, whatever is built; we had high expectations for their involvement and engagement with the community. We didn’t want to be adopted, we are not orphaned. We wanted them to invest in the community and to be Good Neighbors on all levels.”

Charlene submitted a proposal for a holiday party several weeks ago to Jeff Scott, director of Community Relations, For the NETS. His immediate response: “Josh Childress wants to do something with the community, take the children bowling, have dinner with them, talk to them, take them shopping. We accepted!”

PHC, a consortium of presidents of various resident associations, is responsible for the coordination, management and oversight of the public housing component of the Community Benefits Agreement. She reports that more than 600 public housing residents are employed at Barclays. (And that’s another story soon to be told in Our Time Press.)

“The direct participation of a famous Nets player in making 32 young people happy is an example of the CBA working organically. A chartered bus showed up at Wyckoff to pick up the young people. “There were name tags for every kid and all the chaperones. And there was Mr. Childress.”

Also, a community service advocate, Mr. Childress founded the active Josh Childress Basketball Clinic at his high school in Lakewood, California, several years ago. Ms. Nimmons observed, “Josh was a gracious, attentive and generous host; he gave his undivided attention to every kid and chaperone who talked to him, he posed for pictures, gave autographs upon request and helped fit shoes.” (Bernice Green)

“We must protect P.S./M.S. 138.” An Open Letter From Councilman Al Vann

Editor, Our Time Press
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Dear Neighbors & Friends,
Throughout my career in public service, I have supported and advocated for excellent schools, which uplift individuals and communities. Creating and maintaining excellent schools requires the support and commitment of everyone. Today, I write to enlist your support for P.S./M.S. 138, an excellent school in the 36th Council District that is fighting a difficult battle.

P.S./M.S. 138 is a high performing, K-8, community school in District 17. There is no special application or test to get in. The average class size is 28. Despite these challenges, P.S./M.S. 138 helps its students achieve excellence and in this way, has achieved excellence itself. P.S./M.S. 138 has received an “A” grade from the city’s Department of Education (DOE) five times in the last six years.

P.S./M.S. 138 is the permanent occupant of a beautiful school building with sixty-two full classrooms. Each one of these classrooms contributes to the school’s success. They include computer, science, reading and math labs, 2 English as a Second Language rooms, a music room, an art room, a dance studio and a library. The uses of these spaces are necessities, not a luxury. Our public school students deserve individualized attention and enrichment that contributes to their academic and social development just as much as children in the suburbs.
Unfortunately, the Department of Education does not seem to see things this way.

Rather than celebrate P.S./M.S. 138’s success, it is attempting to squeeze them into inadequate space to make way for a proposed charter school. If this co-location happens, P.S./M.S. 138’s programming will be depleted. The school’s parents, principal and staff have been through a failed charter school co-location before. Based on that experience and their understanding of their school’s needs, they oppose the current proposal to give some of their school’s space to a Success Academy charter school. They are up against powerful opponents and need our support in the fight to hold onto the resources they use so well.

I have joined State Senator Eric Adams and other elected officials to insist that the DOE withdraw this flawed co-location proposal. This should be a simple matter, since the proposal violates the DOE’s own practice of locating charters in underutilized buildings with struggling schools. However, thus far, DOE has refused to budge. I ask that you add your voice to this fight.

1. Call, fax or write Chancellor Walcott. Tell him to that P.S./M.S. 138 deserves MORE resources, not less and Success Academy should be located elsewhere.
Mailing Address: Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott Phone: (212) 374-0200
NYC Department of Education Fax: (212) 374-5588
52 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007
2. Attend the public hearing on Thursday, December 13th at 6:00 PM sharp. Because of the renovation of P.S./M.S. 138’s auditorium, it will be held at the Maggie L. Walker Campus, 1224 Park Place at Troy Avenue. Bring signs and come prepared to testify.
3. If you can’t make the hearing, call the DOE comment line and leave a message letting them know you oppose the proposal to push Success Academy charter school into P.S./M.S. 138’s building. The number for Brooklyn proposals is (212) 374-0208.

Please share this letter with neighbors and friends and ask them to join us. The fight for P.S. /M.S. 138 is a fight for fairness, and a fight for our children’s future. That’s a cause we can all support. (Al Vann)

New York State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery Speaks on the New Senate Line

David Mark Greaves
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Senator Velmanette Montgomery has served for 28 years in the New York State Senate and says the recent actions by the Republicans to retain power “is emblematic of how the Republicans have operated for all of the years” she has been in the legislature.

“Anytime we have gotten close to or become the majority they figure out a way to stay in power. This is not the first time this process has taken place. Some way or other they figured out a way to make sure the Democrats never become or remain in the majority.

Essentially, this is a Republican coalition with the Conservative wing of the Democrats. It is unimaginable that we would have (at this point in time) a situation where our colleagues are throwing their weight in with the Republicans.

I understand why they would be so violently insisting that they remain in the majority because the majority controls the resources, the budget process and the agenda. When the Democrats were in the majority, for the first time since elected I had a major capital budget for institutions in my district. All of the Democrats had that ability. I was able to help fund the completion of the Bed-Stuy Family Health Center , provide funding to assist with the PRATT Center work they were doing with church properties, able to fund the rehabilitation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Dance and Arts Studio.

With the Democrats in control, we were able to pass legislation to reform Rockefeller drug laws, as well as programs for juvenile justice. We passed legislation to provide assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure and provided new protection to small businesses and women-owned businesses, and consumers. We passed legislation to improve health care and environmental protection to seniors and were able to reform voting access for victims of domestic violence who need special ballots to keep their addresses out of public view. With the Prison Redistricting Act, we were able to have prisoners counted in their home districts. In short, in a whole number of areas we were able to pass significant bills that had been languishing in the Senate for many years.

They characterized it as dysfunctional only because of who was in charge.

We had such a razor-thin majority, every bill had to be voted on by all the members. The Republicans never voted to pass legislation if we did not have every single Democratic member present and voting.

With this new coalition, if they don’t get one Democratic vote will the Republicans join with them and pass the bills?

The Democratic conference is the most diverse in the state and this action by these Independent Democrats is depriving us of the opportunity to do for a constituency that is far more diverse than the ones the Republicans represent.

We have the majority but we’re not in the majority. We will continue to work on the issues that are central to our constituencies, such as what happens in the Sandy recovery. This is a dark time in the state and we’re waiting to see if the governor is going to be helpful in the policies that come from the executive”.
(Senator Montgomery Represents the 18th Senate District)

Renegade Democrats Side with NY GOP Senate

Mary Alice Miller
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The NY Senate Independent Democrats Conference (IDC) announced they are partnering with Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Senate Republicans to form a new coalition government. The coalition – which includes the four original members who came together in 2010: Jeff Klein, Diane Savino, David Carlucci, and David Valesky, and new member Malcolm Smith – is widely seen as an attempt to keep the duly-elected Democratic majority from taking control of the Senate. NY Senate Democrats waged campaigns on progressive issues and gained at least 5 seats. Democrats now hold 31 seats to Republican 30. Two seats are pending in court.

The IDC and the GOP will split the title of Senate President Pro Tempore, alternating every two weeks. The coalition seeks to make the IDC a permanent, third Senate conference. As leaders of their respective conferences, Skelos and Klein would have equal authority over the daily senate agenda, the senate budget, appointments to state and local boards and leadership and committee assignments for their respective conferences.

Simcha Felder, who was elected as a Democrat representing the new super-Jewish Brooklyn district, promptly announced he would conference with Senate Republicans and joined their unanimous vote this week to re-elect Dean Skelos as head of the GOP conference.

In response to the announcement, Governor Cuomo penned an op-ed in which he stated, “From 1996 to 2009, the Republican Conference led for 42 years and blocked much progressive legislation, including last year’s efforts to increase the minimum wage, enact campaign finance reform, and end the controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy.” The governor wrote that the Democratic Conference “squandered the opportunity” during their two years in power, and “failed to pass any meaningful reform legislation despite repeated promises.” Cuomo added that his “opinion will be based on how those senators function as a leadership group and perform on the important issues for the people of the state.”

Cuomo could issue an opinion based upon past performance. The governor’s stated agenda includes an increase in minimum wage, but in May the Assembly passed an increase from $7.25 to $8.50 (A9148). Ironically, Klein sponsored the bill in the Senate, where it is blocked under Skelos.

Cuomo had campaigned on promises of an independent redistricting process, but caved when presented with the GOP Senate’s partisan lines.

Term-limited Queens Councilman James Sanders was drawn out of Malcolm Smith’s district, transferring the threat of a Sanders challenge from Smith to Huntley, who Sanders defeated in the primary. Smith first came to office in a special election on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Working Families ballot lines. No stranger to coups, during his first term Smith joined a coup led by then Senator David Paterson against Martin Conner who was Democratic Leader at the time. Smith has expressed interest in running for mayor on the Republican line, but he lacks $100 million of his own to spend as Bloomberg did during the last mayoral race. In a campaign to run for his Senate seat in two years, Smith will have to explain himself to his district’s constituents, who are 75% Democratic, particularly Caribbean.

Sen. Eric Adams issued several suggestions for the new coalition to prove its so-called bipartisan structure. First, said Adams, the new Senate should have an equal number of committee chairmanships for Republicans and Democrats — and those chairs must be allowed to run their committees as they see fit. Second, the Senate’s own budget for staff and offices must be distributed evenly. Typically, the majority party’s senators are in control and award themselves the lion’s share of these critical resources. In a jointly run Senate, neither side should be at a disadvantage when it comes to these basic tools of support for each party’s agenda. And third, the Senate must adjust its rules to allow for fair play. This means that Democratic senators ought to have just as much right to introduce legislation and have it voted on as their colleagues in the new leadership.
“The Democrats may have been out-maneuvered in the Capitol,” said Adams, “but in the real world, they still represent more New Yorkers than Republicans do.”

Jeff Klein claims to “have a full-blown coalition government” that will move progressive issues forward. Dean Skelos says he made no promise of progressive legislation.

Senator John Sampson said, “You can’t have a coalition when you are basically leaving out the majority party – our Democratic Conference.” Furthermore, Sampson questions whether “the Republican Party which supported the policies of Romney, whose members are now in the minority, is going to continue to espouse the policies of Romney, who lost to President Barack Obama.”

Sampson outlining the “phenomenal legislation during our period of time”: repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, securing $700 million for Race to the Top, creating fair labor laws, new reforms with respect to MWBE, Public Authority reforms, No Fault Divorce and dealing with the MTA situation that was created while the Republicans were in control.

“We had the courage to bring marriage equality to a vote, because if we didn’t, even though it failed, we would have never known our actual numbers,” said Sampson.

“I really take exception to the governor saying, ‘We blew our shot.’ We did not blow our shot. When we were in control, the Republicans chose to create a coup which paralyzed us for a month. They chose to not vote with us on the budgets back in 2010 because we had to close budget deficits that were created when they were in control,” said Sampson. “So when people tell the story, they need to tell the whole story. When you talk about dysfunction and chaos, you need to talk about every time the Republicans feel they lose their grip on power and control, they will do anything, and I do mean anything, to regain their power.”

“We have always espoused that coalition is good for us,” said Sampson. “I have never heard a Republican Conference, when is in the majority, ever ask for a coalition with Democrats.”

“My anger is with the Republicans who support the policies of a Mitt Romney campaign, don’t support our president, create every single roadblock, deny progressive agenda and the governor put down his 10 points that he is going to measure the coalition against,” said Sampson. “This coalition contains 30 Republicans who when they were in control didn’t even approach those topics that the governor has talked about.”

Sampson characterized “the temerity of anybody to think that you can take away our majority and we are supposed to sit by while you try to pass progressive legislation and discount us, meaning they figure we are going to vote for it anyway because it is progressive legislation.” They are going to be fooled, he added. “We are not going to accept any watered-down pieces of progressive legislation that the people of the State of New York voted for.”

Explaining that the issue is bigger than him and bigger than the Democratic conference, Sampson said, “I will not allow people to use me as an excuse for not allowing Senate Democrats to be in the majority. I have indicated to everyone (in an appearance) at the National Action Network that I will step aside and will not seek the Majority Leadership chair for the betterment of the party.”

“It is not about power. It is about the progressive agenda that the people of the State of New York voted for,” said Sampson. “The people deserve what they voted for.”

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