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What Do you have an initiative to do?

Many residents of new-eyed possible gentrifable neighborhoods have never been faced with developer dealings. They have lived their entire lives in their communities; gone to their grocers and watched their kids grow up and never thought twice about leaving or watching their neighborhood change.

In some New York City neighborhoods – the residents stepped into those streets from other countries and haven’t left; these neighborhoods represent a home away from home and their cultural identity lives on there.

In the corner of gentrification – you have tons of supporters. Those who want to invest, those who want the sense of community already ingrained and realistically those who want to make money out of the interest in a community. But how to you make sure the residents who made those neighborhoods desirable aren’t being taken advantage of?

 

You need to make sure they have a voice.

 

That’s what we do. We make sure their voice is heard.

 

The voice would need to come from the community – lawyers, real estate agents, accounts, neighborhood business owners and local dedicated residents would all need to come together to form a collaboration for a fair market. This would be a non-for-profit to make sure our neighborhoods stayed neighborhoods; and no residents who have made a life there had to leave or sell without understanding all their fiscal and legal rights.

We petition a variety of local & non-local lawyers, real estate agents and accounts to appraise housing on pro-bono basis; non-local so that we can have an accurate research and idea of the net worth.

We hold a series of fundraisers just to advertise and raise awareness and attract professionals to help our cause. We would first petition local Historical Organizations such as the Brooklyn Museum or the Brooklyn Historical Society to hold our events and then see if we could get sponsorships from new Brooklyn based companies to sponsor us.

It would probably take about two years to really get us moving. We would take to Social Media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; follow many of our local Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan counterparts. An easy fiscal approach.

Then is getting the first investor, we would look to patrons of other Brooklyn charities; then move on the NYC museum patrons. The first six-months would be exclusively net-working, generating attention to our cause in any way we see fit; and helping philanthropists understand the importance. Possibly asking local print shops to print and donate literature.

We would hopefully after two years generate enough of a backing to create a bank of professionals.

We want to help Brooklyn.

Pizza? Pizza. 5 Steps!

How to pick your perfect pizza place in South Brooklyn in 5 easy steps:

A. Know your neighborhood. What are your options? Make a check a list of each place and its various attributes:

How old is the pizzeria?

 -Is it brand new with a gourmet style pizza chef de cuisine?
-Has it been family owned and has a secret sauce you would need to marry into to find out the ingredients? (Think Sam’s, in Cobble Hill)
-Or are willing to try the neither “highly” reputable nor old place but has a several different options.
-Or is Dominos an acceptable choice? – No judgment, but you are at the end of my checklist.

 Does it deliver?

-Is it cold out? Will they come to you?
-Can you get a seat in the restaurant if you are trapped in a polar vortex?
-How long are you ready to wait for a table or conversely wait for it to be delivered?
-What is the risk of take out in terrible weather related conditions if the situation is that you have to leave to get your order?

Knowing the various styles and types you can find in Brooklyn is important. You have your pick of the litter here; knowing your brand is the only way to begin. You always have to know yourself, what are you willingly to do to get the pizza? Otherwise you’re opening yourself to a wormhole in which you will not be able to escape and end up eating Ramen for dinner.

B.  Know what you like. This one is very important, and may seem like style/type but is actually drastically different. Once you have made a choice from the four variables above, you then will have a multitude of options in which to choose. Here they are!:

    1. Are you a sauce person?
    2. Are you a cheese person?
    3. Are you a toppings person?
    4. Are you a bread person?

Now granted some of these categories overlap, I’m leaving it up to you to prioritize.  Personally I hate cheese, white pizza is never on the table for me, I know many of you will think I’m crazy for this; but I can only change so much about myself. Lets move on.

C.  Crust. You can never have too many crust varieties, but your choice can change everything. What sort of cheese you put on, or how much sauce there is -your options:

1. Thin – generally more calorie friendly. This choice lends itself to a sub-choice:

– Thin and crispy, more often than not using a coal oven in Brooklyn; you need to think about if you like burnt edge
-Thin and chewy

Both respectable but both have different sauce and cheese distribution.

2.  Regular, speaks for itself, New York style pizza
3. Deep dish, this Midwestern style pizza is harder to find in New York. Realistically you’ll find it at Dominos or a specialty pizzeria.
4. Sicilian, Grandma or any other such styles demand a completely separate check list and will not be discussed here

D. Know what you want. Is pizza your only choice? This isn’t about picking the perfect pizza; it’s about picking the perfect pizza place. I could even abbreviate that to #PPP.

Do you have any Vegans?
 Some of you may think this a strange thing to consider. But those Vegans don’t want any of your dairy. Not on their pizza, or salad or anywhere else for that matter. It’s your choice of company, but Vegan pizza exists, and it does deliver. That being said this is still number 3 because dairy is more than welcome in my apartment.

Do you want a salad? 

-Will house salad be acceptable with a mild and rather bland dressing? Loosely thrown olives with maybe an awkward cucumber on the top? This is once again is a household based decision.
-My household prefers a rich creamy Cesar that is in no way good for your diet but tastes amazing. If it’s a pretend diet day in my apartment, we like to choose the place with a rich Cesar salad. The more Parmesan cheese the better!

Are any other sides on the table?

Wings? This one is tough because wings can range from unseasoned frozen Purdue chicken nuggets posing as wings to smothered delicious meaty Buffalo wings.

Garlic bread?
-Parmesan Garlic Bread?
-Bruschetta Garlic Bread?
-Truffle oil Garlic Bread?

Pasta dishes? –If you have a family (or group of friends) full of young gentlemen, you may need more and different types of Pizza related foods.

E. Are you the only one ordering? The process I described above is my personal checklist for both my mood and setting. When you involve others, my list can be helpful – but it also takes some thoughtful negotiating. My personal advice for group ordering:

  1. Choose your (one and only) priority [see #2] and stand your ground with it. Don’t ruin the pizza for everyone, and don’t let anyone ruin it for you. Pizza should only be a joyful experience.
  2. Always order more. This nonsense is fine cold or fine after a fast broil in the oven.
  3. Toppings realistically should only be discussed amongst closest friends. Don’t be that guy who comes in strong with the anchovies, unless you know your peers.

Pizza is some of the best stuff we got – go in bite first and just enjoy the ride.

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Purposely played with formatting. Wanted to look at for a bit and see what I liked. As always, let me know your thoughts, suggestions or rationale. It’s all about the experience.

The Devil on your Left Shoulder

What can I really say about Brooklyn?

There is not much that hasn’t already been said, it’s a borough that is and has been filled with aspiring (and inspiring) writers. Writers who grew up with a Brooklyn voice, writers who let Brooklyn flood them with inspiration and writers who knew this borough was where they needed to be. 

But – its also trite, it’s a cliché, and its been done -especially by the Yupster.

What is there to say?

Who am I to say it?

Some of said residents have enough money to not do anything besides write, and I do not mean for work, but for pleasure – as in they receive no monetary gain for their writing. Imagine that voice that comes from pure creativity. Aside from the fact some of these writers can scribble, or type, away all day long – their craft is apart of them. It fills their lives. Their voice is Brooklyn.

I fill my head with thoughts that are far away from Brooklyn. 

I’m detached, not as focused. My voice withering away, if it ever existed. Not to be compared to those who live and breathe talking about #cobbled streets, artisan foods and the new fused specialty place that now sells cupcakes made with booze. I’m a fraud.

Authenticity, how can you tell if you have it? Can you find it? Can you gain it?

Can I really understand the older authentic brownstone laden neighborhoods compared to the new ones created by a culture of shiny fresh high rises? I’ve barely been there a year; some people have never known anything but Brooklyn. Some could tell you that their family stepped into America and right into Brooklyn’s arms and never looked back. Or that their family has been making the same sauce in their restaurant for at least three generations. Authentic. This has never not been their lives, they can talk about it. Can I?

Who am I?

Brooklyn has a culture of arts and want-to-be artists who all want to talk about their new spaces, their new work – their new everything and anything.

My voice isn’t special. I’m not that interesting. I don’t have that much to contribute.

Where is the voice that is worth paying attention to? Do I even have it is as a writer, or at the very least as a person? My metaphorical voice that is, I am generally very vocal.

Or do I fall into the realm of other persona non grata that has flooded its buildings following the real artists in on their coattails? The shallow, the vain or those looking to pretend they have some to contribute to a vibrant community –the ones who are really just there for a flashy and hip zip code. Not there for the community.  Not there for the spirit, art, culture or dynamic that has shaped Brooklyn for all these years.

Who am I?

 

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This feels a little different than the assignment, but it was a post I was going to do on my own in the upcoming weeks. Or maybe I just freely interpreted the assignment. But I always tend to have both those Angels on my shoulders making me double think my choices. So let me just argue amongst my self doubt. 

Staples in the Neighborhood

A bird chirped in Brooklyn! Yesterday morning I woke up to a bright window and the normal BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) noises and then realized some of the sounds I heard had been a bird. I listened further and sounds of tiny little baby birds! Polar vortex surviving baby birds!

Groundhogs can say what they want about the spring coming, but PVS baby birds sing the rest.

So like I said, I had a whole post planned that just didn’t work out. It should be noted that at some point Port Authority history is coming your way. Now that might not sound particularly interesting – I realize its heavily large ship related; but some gangster stuff, some old school political machine stuff (think Tammany Hall) and some other stuff-stuff might be included. These are all just thoughts until the weather allows me to wander around without fear of slipping on cobbled streets.

So I scrambled for something new to say, did some errands and looked around. I had a photographer friend once tell me, look for the shapes that will form the picture. I figured this post could be similar, let me see the shapes in my writing.

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I live near a number of pretty impressive buildings, one of which are The Cobble Hill Towers. Originally built by Alfred Tredway White, who was a developer and architect that created a number of housing buildings (not projects) for city dwellers in the latter part of the 19th century. These buildings were intended to house workers who were in the shipyard, building unions or a variety of other menial jobs in the metro area.

You have to remember the other choices at this time included Lower East Side (LES, going forward) tenements. It doesn’t really seem like a tough choice when these buildings in Brooklyn included backyards and other open air spaces not as easily found in Manhattan during the 1800s.

These buildings were both an architectural statement and a statement that New York City stood for all of its inhabitants; and that they all deserved a decent place to live and play. It was a game changer for both new immigrants, but also those who had faced the dreary life of the LES. These Towers wanted to show there was a place where the American Dream was possible to all those who wanted to reach for it.

These Towers gave their inhabitants hope, and created a neighborhood along with it. Children were able to play in their inner courtyards, a novel feature in the late 1800s for NYC’s poor citizen; and all tenants could lend a hand. There was also protection for the outside dangers and exposure to violence, drugs or other street professions.

Things change.

The 1970s affected Brooklyn the same as the rest of the city. Long time dwellers of the Towers were secured in their rent-controlled apartments (meaning what they paid for rent did not match the inflation value of their apartment), coupled with the rising cost to heat the buildings because of the gas/oil crisis made it difficult to financially cover the routine maintenance. Apartments were empty, residents were cold, there was no money. Squalor had returned to #cobbled Brooklyn.

But where there is a developer with a dream, there is a possibility.

Next we’ll talk a bit more about Frank Farella, the actual architecture of the buildings and what happened to the towers. Pictures included!

Simply wandering,
bklyntenant

 

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I’m definitely looking for constructive criticism on this post – was it boring? Not informative? Too long? Too short? No direction? No theme? Weird transition? No interest in hearing what happened to these staples? No idea why they were/are important to Brooklyn? (well that one will be more clear in the next post)