Sunday, February 23, 2014

Ouch! Parks Department to spend $2.6 million on bathroom, sitting area at Brooklyn playground


 bathroom at Bill Brown Playground.
Parks Department to spend $2.6 million on bathroom, sitting area at Brooklyn playground - NY Daily News

The city has budgeted the hefty sum to restore the dilapidated comfort station at the Bedford Ave. park. Parkgoers were relieved to hear about the makeover, but some felt the price tag was too high.

(Excerpt)
"In 2013, the city unveiled plans to build a $1.8 million composting green latrine that will convert human waste to plant fertilizer in tony Prospect Park. The bathroom at Bill Brown Playground has limited hours and — as was the case on Thursday at 4 p.m. — it’s frequently closed."

Effing record

The all-time use of the f-word was 506 times in the 3 hour "The Wolf of Wall Street."

posted from Bloggeroid

Post Title

@NewYorker: Is a good Twitter joke similar to a caption for a cartoon? http://t.co/HhMfBQ6u0R
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posted from Bloggeroid

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Chasing De Blasio

@CBSNewYork: Mayor De Blasio Dodges Traffic Controversy, Heads For Pennsylvania http://cbsloc.al/1hjuLqK Shared via TweetCaster

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Wizard of Oz premier in NYC 1939

New surveillance cameras installed for safety in Brooklyn neighborhood | 7online.com

New surveillance cameras installed for safety in Brooklyn neighborhood | 7online.com

MIDWOOD (WABC) -- Big Brother is watching: in hopes of keeping people safe.

Hundreds of new cameras are being installed in Brooklyn neighborhoods.

It's the legacy of 8-year old Leiby Kletzky, who was kidnapped and murdered two and a half years ago. Surveillance cameras spotted Leiby with his killer.

About a dozen of the cameras are already operational and part of a special pilot program.

With a camera that never blinks, always peering down on the streets of Brooklyn, an extra set of eyes will now help to provide a network of safety.

"If it saves a life or makes a difference in a community in regards to serious crime, we are all going to see the results of this," said Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind.

320 Real Time Next Generation cameras will be at the ready from Midwood to Borough Park in hopes of preventing crime, or in the case of Leiby Kletzky, nearly three years ago, being able to locate someone in danger before it's too late.

"We know the value of cameras and we know the value of getting them to the NYPD fast," said former NYPD detective Desmond Smith, who now heads Securewatch 24, the company that is installing the cameras.

In Leiby Kletzky's case the private cameras that captured the boy were not linked to the NYPD.

"They had to download the video from the cameras. Someone had to go through the video, precious time" said Smith.

Leiby, who was seen following his killer Levi Aron in the startling video, was never seen alive again.

Leiby's father Nachman, in a prepared statement, said: "I feel better knowing that if there's a crime, a knockout attack, or God forbid a missing person, there are security cameras in the community that will help."

The cameras and the pilot program are paid for with $1 million of state funds, and will be fully installed through the spring, with about 10 installed a week.

"This is another tool to help the New York City Police Department, to help our community in terms of dealing with crime," said Hikind.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Waiting forever to get rid of the snow




This is how snow removal should be done:
A bulldozer moves snow  into a dump truck to be carted away.  That's how it's done in Manhattan and why everyone wonders where did the snow go. But in the photo below in south Brooklyn mountains of snow stay on the streets for weeks waiting for the sun to melt these huge mounds that local residents built to clear up parking spaces.
Now it's time to cart them away.
Side street in Sheepshead Bay waits for the trucks to cart the snow away.

Bode Miller Defends NBC Reporter Christin Cooper Who Made Him Cry

20140216 olypod slide k0n2 jumboBode Miller Defends NBC Reporter Christin Cooper Who Made Him Cry | TIME.com

Christin Cooper criticized by fans for questioning Miller about his brother who died last year

NBC Pushes Too Far in Bringing Bode Miller to Tears - but no problem for Bode

NBC Pushes Too Far in Bringing Bode Miller to Tears - NYTimes.com
(Excerpt)
"Emotion is a real and honest element of athletic triumph and defeat. And you don’t want a network to tell its journalists to stick to soft questions when interviewing the winners. But in this instance, Cooper and NBC lacked the sensitivity to know when enough was enough."

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Ocean Parkway bicycle parade 1896 draws thousands



On the sunny and cool afternoon of June 17, 1896, a parade was held in Brooklyn celebrating the opening of the Ocean Parkway cycle path. At one p.m. sharp, the inimitable sound of ten thousand approaching bicycles filled the air. Spearheading this procession was the noted rider Charles H. Luscomb of the Thirteenth Regiment, accompanied by a military entourage of three hundred militiamen. They were swiftly followed by the uniformed personnel of more than thirty cycling clubs drawn from across the region, including the Amsterdam Wheelmen and the Ninth Ward Pioneer Corps. Next came the serried ranks of the League of American Wheelmen, the largest cycling organization in the country with more than 100,000 members. Concluding this cavalcade were thousands of “unattached” cyclists ranging from gaily-bedecked children to fashionable couples, whisking their way down the boulevard on their “silent steeds,” past the undeveloped meadows of central Brooklyn until finally reaching the sun, surf and sand of Coney Island.

Walking up Ocean Parkway just as it began snowing



Snow removal for dummies


On Ocean Parkway snowing once, twice thrice.....


Hospital’s Plan to Expand Angers Many in Park Slope

Hospital’s Plan to Expand Angers Many in Park Slope, Brooklyn - NYTimes.com
by Vivian Yee, Feb. 11, 2014

As Brooklyn residents in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Cobble Hill clamor to keep their flailing community hospitals open, a different kind of opposition has arisen in Park Slope, where the financially robust New York Methodist Hospital is embroiled in a battle over its plan to open an outpatient care center next to its main campus in the heart of the neighborhood.

Methodist’s proposed expansion would dwarf the gracious brownstones that surround it with a glassy facade more reminiscent of an office park than a historic district, residents say, adding that it would saddle the surrounding streets with too much traffic. But the controversy is erupting amid a debate over health care in Brooklyn, as Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Long Island College Hospital in Cobble Hill teeter on the verge of shutdowns.


Methodist has the right to build an outpatient center but is seeking a zoning variance from the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals to move forward with a design for the center that would both be more palatable to the neighborhood and better satisfy the hospital’s needs.

Despite protests from residents who questioned the need for the new building, the board’s members seemed sympathetic to the hospital’s plan at a hearing on Tuesday, though they asked the hospital to consider shortening the building from its proposed height of 150 feet. “We’re not going to apologize for the fact that we’ve been very, very successful” despite the challenges that have set back other Brooklyn hospitals, Lauren Yedvab, a senior vice president at the hospital, told the board on Tuesday. The number of people seeking inpatient care at Methodist rose by 99 percent over the past 10 years, she said.

The proposed building would be more than 350,000 square feet and would attract more than 100,000 additional outpatient visits a year. Methodist executives say they are keeping pace with an industrywide shift from inpatient to outpatient services, which require fewer resources. In response to community concerns, the hospital has already shaved a bit of height from the proposed building and shifted some of its bulk toward blocks where its height would be less out of place. But a coalition of residents says the changes are not nearly enough.

“It’s going to loom over our neighborhood one way or the other,” said Daniel Kummer, chairman of the community board. Others were less measured. Stuart Klein, the leader of Preserve Park Slope, called the proposed building “a monstrosity.”

Some residents are asking why Methodist must build in that space — requiring the demolition of 16 buildings, including some brownstones — instead of one more accessible to patients from underserved areas.

“If LICH goes down and Interfaith goes down, then people in those neighborhoods will not gain health care by having Methodist bigger,” said Bennett Kleinberg, who lives by the hospital. “Park Slope over the last decade has become an extremely affluent neighborhood, and Methodist has become one of the biggest beneficiaries of that ascension. Now they’re showing dramatic disrespect for the neighborhood that has brought them to this point.”

But Ms. Yedvab emphasized that Methodist already serves patients from lower-income neighborhoods like Flatbush and Crown Heights, an assertion backed by a representative of a Brooklyn-based social services nonprofit who told the board members that many lower-income patients go to Methodist. Hospital executives say the center’s site next to the main campus would create a more efficient, seamless experience for patients and staff members than if it were in a different neighborhood.