Celebrating Community
Rock and Roll Priestess Patti Smith Returns to SummerStage (photo by Marissa Blitz) I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Patti Smith. On the street in the West Village one momentarily thrilling winter afternoon, but besides that, in concert, more than a half dozen times, and most of them outdoors. She gives to New York. The first was at […]
Music has been the sound of humanity’ s oppressions and will since the beginning of times, sharing it’s essence with revolutionary and changing periods. “ Allen A, better known by Suave_A, has been surrounded by instruments since he was a school boy going to church. Coming from a Haitian heritage, and growing up in the Caribbean section of Flatbush, the […]
I actually had my column all written before this. This is the month when the City Council, led by local Councilmember Brad Lander, will most likely allow the transformation of Gowanus from a gritty, funky, artsy/industrial neighborhood, into a modern, affluent community dominated by high rise luxury apartments. It will end up resembling countless high-rise affluent neighborhoods throughout the world. […]
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in our community. Basements were flooded, cars destroyed and power was out for almost a month – mostly at the Red Hook Houses,NYC’s second largest public housing project. That’s when Carlos Menchaca came to the neighborhood, dispatched by Kathleen Quinn, at the time Speaker of the City Council. He made himself familiar at the […]
PS 676, one of two Red Hook public grade schools, with an enrollment of about 100, held a back-to-school supply giveaway in the schoolyard on Friday, September 10. About 40 students came to pick up new supplies, and those who didn’t make it could get them on the first day of school, which was the following Monday. About 200 backpacks […]
The Scherman Fund is a huge non-profit fund with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, including millions invested in hedge funds, some in the Cayman Islands. As Program Director, Alexa Aviles managed a portfolio in the tens of millions. She was given a mission to spread the money around to various progressive groups in New York and around the […]
On Sunday, September 26, at Washington Park in Park Slope, employers and domestic workers joined hands in an effort to improve jobs and conditions in the domestic care economy by urging the passage of Care Forward. Care Forward is a local initiative that aims to raise, enforce and improve domestic worker rights. [slideshow_deploy id=’14102′] This event at Washington Park was […]
One new upgrade is an improved library with additional books, more space to do activities and new computers. This year there is a librarian and can have lunch clubs and expose students to more literature. There are also additional ways that the library will be utilized this school year. “We are going to incorporate a lot of harbor […]
A phrase I have been making use of when talking politics with friends is that I wish there were just two political parties – Democrats and Progressives. I believe in good government, and too many Republicans, reinforced by Ronald Reagan, feel that government is the enemy. Hypocritically, since they spend so much money and energy to be part of what […]