Celebrating Community
Here’s a thought: I could die at work. Although the internet assures me school shootings are statistically rare, if you follow the news, they don’t feel rare. I’ve been in a classroom since 2017, and as time goes by, Columbine feels less like history and more like a recurring weekly nightmare. Although my logical brain knows I’m more likely to […]
Recycling has long been touted as an easy way to cut down on waste and to create a more sustainable city. In practice, about 18% of trash from homes in NYC is diverted to recycling, according to NYC’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY), and it is likely that a much smaller portion is actually recycled. In 2022, Greenpeace published a report […]
The largest Public Housing Project in Brooklyn. I moved here in 2001. I was 46. Oh, I’m a white guy. My first Saturday night there, I got home around midnight. There’s a bunch of young guys in front of the building. Alright, I cant show any fear. And I don’t. I just take a deep breath….. And slip around to […]
For my book club, I suggested we read Cormac McCarthy’s newest novel, The Passenger. I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, what you’d call a McCarthy expert. Over the years I’ve taught The Road to great success in high school creative writing classes, and it remains the first and only McCarthy novel I’ve read. I am, however, very aware […]
Destiny Mirabel was working in one of the greenhouses when I walked up to the Columbia Street farm one afternoon in late May. I had imagined the farm’s Distribution Manager clad in overalls, perhaps wearing a pair of knee high rubber boots and wiping a moist brow on their shirt sleeve as they walked up to introduce themselves. Instead, I […]
Iwas invited by a friend to attend, on the evening of May 19th, a banquet to honor the work of German artist Gregor Wiest at The Wall Gallery located at 41 Seabring Street in Red Hook. The Wall Gallery is two years old and has had 5 exhibitions. It was established by myself and Franz Landspersky, two compatible Red Hook […]
Brooklyn’s Regina Opera, known in recent years for some heavy lifting in productions such as Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and dramatic turns such as Puccini’s Il Tabarro, has ventured into the light side with their production of Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince. Romberg was a prolific tunesmith in the early days of Broadway, but he is best known for the three […]
In mid-May, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that $7.6 million would be awarded to 21 animal shelters and humane societies across the state—through the New York State Companion Animal Capital Projects Fund—for capital projects that “will enhance animal care and health and help ensure adoptions for New York’s dogs and cats.” One of the recipients in this fifth round of the […]
As Dawn Casale, Smith Street Alliance co-chair, briefly opened the meeting, she welcomed everyone who had come out to learn about the Smith Street Business Improvement District (BID) formation process. For nine years, she has been advocating for a BID in the Court/Smith Street area, alongside a small group of other residents and local business owners. So by April 19, […]
In the early 1990s, I was living in what I considered a boring neighborhood, on East 19th Street and Avenue O near Kings Highway. There were few other single people living nearby on their own, and I found little to interest me other than Highway Bagels and Adelman’s Deli. But one summer, I saw a flyer attached to a telephone […]