City & State Magazine, July 29, 2014 by City & State

A Q&A with

U.S. SENATOR SCHUMER

Building back after

SUPERSTORM SANDY July 29, 2014

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That is why I would like to suggest that the mayor appoint the first ever deputy mayor for Brooklyn. The deputy mayor would be the borough’s dedicated urban planner— its mastermind. She or he would take all the disparate threads spooled out by the city’s many agencies and weave them into a uniquely Brooklyn tapestry. Unlike the borough president, the deputy mayor would be vested with real power—the power of the mayor’s office—and thus would not just be able to advocate for change, but to effectuate it. Moreover, as a non-elected official, the deputy mayor would be free to a much greater degree to formulate policy divorced from the constraints of politics, and the influence of contributors, patrons and special interests. It is only a matter of a generation before downtown Brooklyn becomes a mountain range of skyscrapers rivaling the iconic peaks across the water. The few remaining neighborhoods that now seem off the beaten path will be drawn closer to the city’s nucleus as professionals prospecting for affordable housing keep widening the radius of their search. As more businesses big and small set up shop in the borough, fewer Brooklynites will cram their way onto the subways to commute away from it, and instead work, live and play all in the same place. No longer will the city mean Manhattan and the term outer borough apply to the county of Kings. To keep pace with these inevitabilities, Brooklyn’s infrastructure, its transportation network, its parks, beaches, cultural institutions, all will have to be upgraded on a scale not seen since Robert Moses remade the city. To accomplish this mighty labor, Brooklyn needs a great visionary. I have no doubt that the mayor need look only within its own borders to find someone up to task.

From its completion in 1929 until 2009, the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower was Brooklyn’s tallest building. Soon, it will be eclipsed by many more skyscrapers.

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EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Morgan Pehme mpehme@cityandstateny.com Managing Editor Michael Johnson mjohnson@cityandstateny.com Albany Bureau Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com City Hall Bureau Chief Nick Powell npowell@cityandstateny.com Reporter Ashley Hupfl ahupfl@cityandstateny.com Reporter Azure Gilman agilman@cityandstateny.com Associate Editor Helen Eisenbach Art Director Guillaume Federighi gfederighi@cityandstateny.com Graphic Designer Michelle Yang myang@cityandstateny.com Marketing Graphic Designer Charles Flores, cflores@cityandstateny.com Illustrator Danilo Agutoli Columnists Alexis Grenell, Bruce Gyory, Nicole Gelinas, Michael Benjamin, Seth Barron, Jeff Smith, Jim Heaney, Gerson Borrero, Susan Arbetter Interns Mylique Sutton, Louis Cheslaw, Paulina Tam, Peter Farag

city & state — July 29, 2014

love Brooklyn. While I am a Manhattanite by birth and by upbringing, I am a Brooklynite by choice. For the last 13 years I have called the borough my home, first Carroll Gardens, then Park Slope, then Gowanus, and for the last seven years, Greenpoint, By Morgan Pehme the neighborhood in which Editor-in-Chief my wife was born and we are now raising our daughter. Over that span of time, Brooklyn has transformed at a dizzying pace, growing from a bohemian oasis of cheap rents, enchanting novelty, and old world charm to a booming metropolis and a global brand. Of course the borough’s metamorphosis was underway before I crossed the East River—and I am well aware that the migration of people like myself to its shore hastened its mutation. But just during the window of time I have had to observe it up close, Brooklyn has changed so profoundly that I believe it is imperative that the city and its policy makers now take a step back and evaluate it afresh in order to best chart its future. For good or ill, the battle to preserve Brooklyn as it once was has been lost. The ravenous drive for the city to expand upwards and outwards was simply too great a force to be contained by the nuance of neighborhood identity and nostalgia. While longtime Brooklynites bemoan what has become of their borough, it was always just a matter of time; throughout its history, our city has invariably brushed aside sentimentality as stagnation whenever it has slowed the ascent of capitalism—and though we mourn the landmarks of our memory, it is also this hardheartedness that has kept us on top for over two centuries. The new Brooklyn needs a master plan— one that both internalizes its singular identity and history, and yet one that does not keep it paralyzed in the past. Though the 1898 consolidation relegated Brooklyn to a satellite of Manhattan in the eyes of the world, it never lost its autonomous spirit as a separate city—one that would be the fourth largest in the nation if it ever wound up going solo again. It is unreasonable to believe that Mayor de Blasio, even as a Brooklynite, given the immensity and complexity of his portfolio, can simultaneously plot a course for the city as a whole, while crafting a holistic vision for Brooklyn as its own entity.

CONTENT S

CONTENTS

BROOKLYN Special Issue — July 29, 2014

4 8...... 10..... 12.....

BROOKLYN KINGS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH’S PRESIDENTS

18.....

BROOKLYN’S TOP 10 POLITICAL HANGOUTS

22.....

DIGITAL DOMAIN: TECH BOOMS IN BROOKLYN

By Paulina Tam

16.....

URGENT CARE: REINVENTING BROOKLYN’S HOSPITALS

SUPERSTORM SANDY: BROOKLYN’S RECOVERY 18 MONTHS LATER

46.....

IS THERE ANY WAY TO GROUND BROOKLYN’S SKYROCKETING RENTS?

48.....

By Nick Powell

24.....

VIEWS OF BROOKLYN

Politicians, businesspeople, celebrities and community leaders share their favorite things about the borough.

CULTURAL EROSION: A SNAPSHOT OF FINE ART IN BROOKLYN

By Sarah Schmerler

50.....

THE BROOKLYN BRAND

by Borough President Eric Adams

FROM SHEEPSHEAD TO THE SENATE

A Q & A with U.S. Senator Charles Schumer

city & state — July 29, 2014

By Azure Gilman

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Vice President, Strategic Development and External Affairs Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn

Outstanding Graduate Programs at 13 Colleges in All Five Boroughs For schedule of upcoming Graduate Studies Program Info Sessions, please visit cuny.edu/grad

CHASING THE COOL By NICK POWELL

The author at five years old outside his family’s former residence in Park Slope.

city & state — July 29, 2014

hen did being a native Brooklynite become so uncool? Perhaps it was the umpteenth gourmet pickle shop opening in Williamsburg; or maybe it’s the abominable ode to “Brooklyn Girls” in which the artist, one Catey Shaw, makes it clear that “the whole thing about a Brooklyn girl is you don’t have to be from Brooklyn.” Or maybe it’s news features like this one in The New York Times stamping Oakland, Calif., a unique, interesting city in its own right, with the Brooklyn brand to officially seal its up-and-comer status. It was not always this way. Brooklyn was synonymous with cool. We are the home of Biggie (and birthplace of Tupac!), the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers, the best pizza outside of Italy, a host of actors, filmmakers, musicians and artists of varying degrees of celebrity, and a vibrant, thriving, unparalleled community of immigrants—the true lifeblood of the borough even as the city’s increasingly slanted economy forces them to live on the margins. I used to revel in telling people where I grew up. Being from Brooklyn

gave me extra cachet when I skipped town for my rural summer camp in Bucks County, Pa., or when my family moved to suburban Maryland for five years, or even when I shipped off to college in north Philadelphia. It was the perfect icebreaker; suburban kids were fascinated by someone who had grown up in a major city (even if their perception of Brooklyn was sometimes akin to a modern-day O.K. Corral), while I could immediately relate to fellow city kids who had grown up riding subways and frequenting bodegas for 25-cent bags of Cheez Doodles. But many of the bodegas in Park Slope where I bought those Cheez Doodles have vanished, replaced by gourmet health food stores, cupcake shops, or whatever flavor-of-themoment merchant decides to give it a go in a neighborhood (and city) where the only constant is turnover, as far as local businesses are concerned. The middle to upper-middle class families that populated the neighborhood have slowly been phased out, replaced by overcaffeinated helicopter parents who openly spy on the people they pay to care for their children. Now when people ask where I grew up, I cringe. My family moved to the Slope as the neighborhood was in the midst of a different kind of transformation. Park Slope is now renowned for its idyllic urban residential beauty—elegant brownstones, tree-lined streets, and proximity to the gem that is Prospect Park—but many forget that it once fell victim to the crack epidemic that engulfed the city during the late ’80s and early ’90s. Fifth Avenue, now a bustling commercial corridor with overpriced restaurants, was practically an open heroin marketplace, complete with shooting galleries and dealers posted at corners. Muggings were a regular occurrence; my mother had her purse stolen as she walked out of the subway at Grand Army Plaza—a stone’s throw

from where the weekend farmer’s market now thrives. But then Koch’s and Dinkins’ New York gave way to Giuliani’s New York. Neighborhoods were cleaned up, to be sure, but at the same time the high-end, haughty urbanism previously confined to Manhattan began to emerge. Right before my family’s move to Maryland, a Starbucks set up shop on Seventh Avenue, several blocks away from my elementary school. My parents spoke of this imminent invasion of corporate America in a “there goes the neighborhood” tone— just as they had lamented the closing of the local bookstore (squeezed out by a forthcoming Barnes & Noble). At 7 years old, I was more concerned with the shuttering of childhood staples such as Al’s Toyland (now home to Yogurtland Park Slope) and Comics Plus (now Brooklyn Industries). When we returned to Park Slope in 2001 after our five-year absence, the neighborhood’s metamorphosis from crack haven to yuppie heaven was complete. The stretch of small businesses on Seventh Avenue that remain from my childhood are those lucky enough to be situated in buildings owned by their proprietors—like the Park Slope Barbershop, where I was a longtime customer—and the handful that were able to stay profitable enough to endure the soaring rents. Still, I had found a new haunt to distract from my now-unrecognizable backyard. A couple of blocks away from my high school in downtown Brooklyn was Fulton Mall, at the time one of my favorite shopping districts in the entire city. I often spent my free periods and after-school hours roaming up and down the strip, where cheap jewelry stores abutted exclusive sneaker spots and urban clothing outlets like Dr. Jay’s—many of which were minorityowned businesses—buying namebrand jeans, bootleg CDs, jackets, basketball shoes or what ever other vanity items I deemed essential. But toward the end of my high

school years, a sea change was in the air near the far end of Fulton Mall: The Brooklyn Nets were coming to town, along with a taxpayer-funded arena, and accompanying office and residential buildings. Whatever feelings you hold about New York City’s newest sports team—as a lifelong Knicks fan, I find the sight of hipsters rocking black Nets fitted hats nauseating—there was no question that the accompanying development around the arena would grease the wheels of gentrification not only around Atlantic Yards but in its peripheral neighborhoods. Sure enough, as the clangor and din from the construction of the pod-shaped Barclays Center kept nearby residents up at night, the ripple effects of the building’s presence would confirm the worst fears of the business owners on Fulton Street. With the juice of a major sports franchise mere blocks away, the market value of the commercial sector soared and many small businesses moved elsewhere or closed their doors entirely. Four years after construction on the arena broke ground, a stroll down Fulton Mall is an experience barely discernible from shopping on Broadway in SoHo, give or take a few tourists. Goodbye, Beat Street Records. Hello, H&M. Perhaps this snapshot of my Brooklyn is nothing more than a NIMBYish trip down memory lane from a native nostalgic for a city that no longer exists. Maybe I should just go grab a microbrew in Greenpoint and embrace the borough’s diverse nightlife, burgeoning arts movement and always-solid music scene as positive by-products of this change. But this fabricated “cool,” while at times enjoyable, is largely ephemeral and a poor substitute for the endurance of mixed income neighborhoods, affordability and the ethnic diversity that made Brooklyn cool in the first place. Native Brooklynite Nick Powell is City & State’s City Hall bureau chief. cit yandstateny.com

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BROOKLYN KINGS:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH’S PRESIDENTS By PAULINA TAM

J city & state — July 29, 2014

udging by the title, one would think that a “borough president” is a highly influential position within New York City government. In reality, the borough presidents’ duties have become largely ceremonial since a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision led to a restructuring of the governmental hierarchy in New York City. Still, the Beeps—at least the effective ones— remain integral to promoting the needs, concerns and aspirations of their respective boroughs. In that advocacy role, they submit budget priorities to the mayor and City Council, weigh in on land use issues and appoint community board chairs. They also possess one very real power: Collectively, they allot 5 percent of the city’s capital budget—a figure that comes out to tens of millions of dollars per borough. Since the City of Brooklyn was consolidated into the City of New York in 1898, Brooklyn has had a total of 18 borough presidents—all of whom were or are Democrats, except for one lone Republican, Lewis H. Pounds, who served from mid-1913 until 1917. The following is an introduction to the six men since 1940—a woman has never held the position—who have served as Brooklyn borough president.

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PRESENT

Eric Adams

TERM IN OFFICE: 2014–PRESENT

2014

Newly elected in 2013, Eric Adams is Brooklyn’s first African-American borough president. Prior to becoming BP, Adams was a state senator and spent 22 years as an officer in the New York City Police Department, retiring as a captain. As a public official, Adams has been vocal about reforming the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, spoken out against racial profiling, and pushed to strengthen laws and punishments pertaining to the possession of illegal guns. Adams has also proposed a boroughwide financial literacy program to teach Brooklynites basic financing practices, such as maintaining good credit and managing a checking account.

Mart y Markowitz TERM IN OFFICE: 2002–13

2013

Many Brooklynites and politicos have said that Markowitz should be crowned “Borough President Emeritus” for his indefatigable, dogged embrace of the role of borough ambassador. A former state senator, Markowitz used his position as BP to help create “the Brooklyn brand” and make it a major tourist destination. He also stimulated Brooklyn’s economic growth with the revitalization and cleanup of areas like Coney Island, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Newtown Creek. Fiercely loyal to his hometown, Markowitz dreamed of becoming Brooklyn’s borough president since he was a teenager. In office, he created some of the borough’s most famous signs, including “Welcome to Brooklyn—Believe the Hype” and “Leaving Brooklyn—Fuhgeddaboudit!”

Howard Golden

TERM IN OFFICE: 1977–01

2001

A World War II veteran who saw action in the Normandy Invasion, Golden enjoyed the longest reign of any borough president—nearly 25 years. A former councilman from Borough Park, Golden took over as boss of the Kings County Democratic Party in 1983 after the mighty Meade Esposito stepped down. A political powerhouse in his own right, Golden has spawned protégés who include former Rep. Ed Towns and ex–city comptroller Bill Thompson. As BP, Golden helped lay the groundwork for the trendy, modern borough of today. Among his achievements in office were the development of MetroTech Center, the Atlantic Center and the upgrading of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Much to his chagrin, Golden was borough president when the position was largely stripped of its power by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sebastian Leone

TERM IN OFFICE: 1970–76

1976

During his years as borough president, Leone successfully advocated for an allocation of $150,000 in capital budget funds to build the bandshell at Coney Island’s Seaside Park—now Asser Levy Park. He also pushed for the preservation of Sheepshead Bay’s waterfront when it was threatened by the rapid growth of public housing. Another borough president responsible for an emblem that became part of popular culture, Leone is best remembered today for erecting the “Welcome to Brooklyn, 4th Largest City in America” sign featured in the opening credits of the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. In the middle of Leone’s second term Meade Esposito nominated him for a judgeship, and handpicked Golden to replace him. Leone served in the State Supreme Court until his retirement in 2001.

Abe Stark

TERM IN OFFICE: 1962–70

1970

Affectionately known as “Mr. Brooklyn” for his genial personality and affiliation with many Brooklyn charities, including his own—the Abe Stark Hillel Foundation and Abe Stark Philanthropies—Stark was also famous for his clothing store on Pitkin Avenue in East New York that placed the highly-publicized ad in right-center field of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Ebbets Field: “Hit Sign, Win Suit, Abe Stark. Brooklyn’s Leading Clothier.” True to his word, he would award a free suit to any player who managed to hit the sign on the fly, though few did. Capitalizing on his name recognition, Stark was elected City Council president in 1953, a post he held until he moved over to the borough presidency.

John Cashmore

1961

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Prior to serving as borough president, Cashmore had been a member of the state Assembly. He was also a member of the New York State Democratic Committee and the party’s unsuccessful nominee for U.S. Senate in 1952. In 1949, during his tenure as borough president, Cashmore wrote a letter to iconic baseball star Jackie Robinson after reading a story about him in the Brooklyn Eagle. As Beep he was an advocate for the transformation of the borough’s many worn down tenements and lofts within the vicinity of the Brooklyn Bridge, an area where real estate prices have now skyrocketed. Another fun fact: Harry Chapin’s hit 1974 song “The Cats in the Cradle” was based on Cashmore’s relationship with his son, James.

city & state — July 29, 2014

TERM IN OFFICE: 1940–1961

PETER LUGER STEAK HOUSE 178 BROADWAY (WILLIAMSBURG) For decades Peter Luger’s has served New York’s political and business elite what many consider the best steak in the five boroughs. From Ed Koch famously inviting 20 New York Presbyterian doctors and their spouses to dine on delicious steak, to Mayor Michael Bloomberg including 20 lbs of Luger’s porterhouse in a bet with the mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin over Super Bowl XLII–heck, even William Boyland Jr.'s “boozy dinner” at Luger’s popping up in wiretaps used in his corruption trial–this world-renowned establishment is without a doubt at the top of this list. Recommendations: the porterhouse and slab bacon. (Insider tip: Bring cash, though they DO accept debit cards as well. No credit!)

MARRIOTT AT THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE 333 ADAMS STREET (DOWNTOWN) Warning: Not the spot for a private meeting. Out of all the places to go in Brooklyn, you’ll find more legislators, officials, business leaders, lobbyists and the like having breakfast at the Marriott than anywhere else. The food is great, and you can’t beat the location. At all hours, longtime general manager Sam Ibrahim is usually around greeting the regulars and making sure everything is in perfect order. Recommendation: You can’t go wrong with the breakfast buffet, especially the made-to-order omelettes.

QUEEN RESTAURANT

84 COURT STREET (BOERUM HILL) At downtown Brooklyn’s premier power lunch location, the food is to die for! Given its proximity to Brooklyn Borough Hall, the federal and state courthouses and other prominent downtown locales, Queen Restaurant is always a choice meeting places for Brooklyn’s political chattering class. You would be hard-pressed to wander into Queen any day of the week and not bump into electeds, judges, lobbyists and the like. Recommendation: the gnocchi casalinga.

JUNIOR'S 386 FLATBUSH AVENUE EXTENSION (DOWNTOWN) Everyone has heard of Junior’s for their world famous cheesecake, but how about breakfast or lunch? Aside from the daily crowd of politicos and electeds, a notable event at Junior’s is Brooklyn Bar Association President Steve Cohn's annual breakfast the Friday before Election Day. Cohn’s event has played host to Sen. Hillary Clinton, Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Council Speakers Miller and Quinn, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and dozens of other lawmakers. Even President Obama and Candidate de Blasio stopped by Junior's for some dessert last year. Recommendation: Get the cheesecake.

city & state — July 29, 2014

GARGIULO’S RESTAURANT 2911 WEST 15TH STREET (CONEY ISLAND) Another classic Brooklyn establishment. Gargiulo's is an ideal locale for strategy dinners, fundraisers and annual galas. City & State even remembers being there for then mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presentation of ideas for a new Coney Island (there was a blimp dock and a casino!) to a room full of business leaders and media. Superstorm Sandy may have temporarily closed the restaurant down, but it is back in business. Fun fact: Each meal Gargiulo’s asks diners to pick a number between 1 and 100. If you guess correctly your dinner is free!

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BAMONTE’S 32 WITHERS STREET (WILLIAMSBURG) This place made Williamsburg cool before Williamsburg was cool. As New York magazine points out, “Bamonte’s is among the city's oldest surviving restaurants, opening in 1900, before America had seen so much as a pizzeria (Lombardi's, the first one of those, opened in 1905).” All we can say about this favorite of legislators for over 100 years is: Go see it for yourself. Recommendation: the ravioli!

KELLOGGS DINER 514 METROPOLITAN AVENUE (WILLIAMSBURG) With Kelloggs Diner recently celebrating its 40th anniversary, the one-time greasy spoon has proved its ability to weather the decadeplus rise of the "Brooklyn hipster" while maintaining that old-school Brooklyn feel. Right near the Metropolitan / Lorimer G and L subway stop (it rests atop the station) and just off the BQE, it is an ideal meeting place for Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island politicos. Recommendation: eggs, toast and coffee before office hours.

ARCH DINER

hile many of these hangouts will be familiar to Brooklyn political insiders, a handful of these establishments are hidden gems that have spent decades securing their spot on this list. Whether you are in Canarsie, Williamsburg, Sheepshead Bay or downtown be sure to check out some of the following locales–not just for the food and beverages, but for some good old-fashioned politicking as well.

1866 RALPH AVENUE (CANARSIE) Meeting with someone from the powerful Thomas Jefferson political club like Kings County Democratic boss Frank Seddio? There’s a good chance the Arch Diner is the locale, especially for breakfast! Saddling Brooklyn and Queens just off of the Belt Parkway, the Arch Diner is the ideal spot for a quick power meeting or a lazy Friday morning get-together. Stick to the classics: eggs and bacon or grilled cheese.

EL CARIBE 5945 STRICKLAND AVENUE (MILL BASIN) El Caribe is a standby of the Brooklyn political scene known far and wide for hosting annual soirees such as the Kings County Democratic Party reception, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Winter Gala and countless corporate events. It is tough to classify El Caribe as a "political hangout," but since it hosts several of the borough's biggest political gatherings of the year it can't be left off the list. Recommendation: raid the lobster tail area of the buffet.

2929 AVENUE R (SHEEPSHEAD BAY) Michael’s got its beginning as a neighborhood spot to pick up a slice before it launched a full-scale restaurant, a bakery across the street, and a national line of “Michael’s of Brooklyn” sauces. While the main dining room regularly hosts local and citywide officials for tête-à-têtes over lunch and dinner, the eatery is also a major hub for business and labor leaders. And when campaign season heats up, Michael’s private wine cellar event space fills up pretty quickly. Recommendations: a bottle of Villa Antinori with any meal and be sure to grab some Michael’s of Brooklyn sauce to go.

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city & state — July 29, 2014

MICHAEL’S OF BROOKLYN

DIGITAL DOMAIN

TECH IS BOOMING IN BROOKLYN. HERE’S WHY. By PAULINA TAM

Interior shots of the Livestream’s Bushwick headquarters.

city & state — July 29, 2014

ne of the more notable transformations Brooklyn has gone through over the last decade is its newfound status as an incubator for tech startups. For a variety of reasons, Brooklyn provides an optimal environment for these businesses to overcome growing pains and, in some cases, transcend the “startup” label and establish a “brand.” It also does not hurt that rent in Brooklyn is less than in Manhattan, the previous hub for Internet startups. The nexus for digital startups in the borough is the Brooklyn Tech Triangle, which includes the Brooklyn Navy Yard, downtown Brooklyn and DUMBO, home to such startup success stories as Kickstarter and Huge. Because of the area’s proximity to

retail stores and a creative community held together by connoisseurs and thinkers from various backgrounds, the Tech Triangle has become a major draw for entrepreneurs. The 523 Tech Triangle businesses, which canvas approximately 1.7 million square feet of the borough, brought in $3.1 billion to the local economy in 2012, according to a study conducted by Urbanomics for the Triangle. “The Tech Triangle really solidifies Brooklyn’s emergence as a leader in the tech field and on people’s mind,” said Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “It provides a great framework as well as a great launching pad for great opportunities.” Despite the Tech Triangle’s cachet

as Brooklyn’s startup capital, other neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Bushwick are slowly ramping up to compete. Livestream, a live-streaming video platform with global reach, recently moved its Chelsea headquarters across the East River to Bushwick, giving the neighborhood a flagship startup of its own. Livestream offers viewers around the world access to live events run by independent businesses or the Livestream team. The company’s projected revenue for this year is approximately $30 million—$27 million from sales of broadcast services and equipment and the other $3 million from the startup’s own team shooting live events for clients. When the lease for Livestream’s previous headquarters in Chelsea was

set to expire a few years back, CEO Max Haot decided to explore other options. After an extensive search in other Brooklyn neighborhoods, he finally discovered a large industrial complex in Bushwick that was previously occupied by the 3rd Ward artist collective. Livestream moved in this past Memorial Day, making it the first tech company to call Bushwick home. And just like that, Livestream jumped from the cozier confines of its 7,000-square-feet facility to 30,000-square-feet of creative space. “Bushwick is a great creative entrepreneurial community,” Haot said. “There is this energy that is hard to find. Local people here have this energy that is really positive, creative and has a ‘maker’ energy, not just cit yandstateny.com

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consuming but creating.” Beyond the creative capital, there are a number of other upsides to the area. Wireless connectivity is strong and the L train is just a stone’s throw away, keeping the company physically connected to the hip neighborhoods of downtown Manhattan. Not that proximity to Manhattan is as important as it used to be. Rents in Bushwick are considerably lower than in Chelsea, so many of Livestream’s employees can afford to live nearby the new office, and enjoy an easy commute by bicycle to work. There is also significantly less pressure for the company to utilize every square inch of its space, as there was in Manhattan, Haot explained. “For every floor we would have gotten in Manhattan we get an extra cit yandstateny.com

two here, so we have a lot of room for expansion, flexibility and stability, because we have a ten-year lease,” Haot said. Forty-one million unique viewers watch at least one Livestream event a month. Of those 41 million, 30 percent are from the United States and the other 70 percent from abroad. The company’s bigger space in Bushwick allows Livestream to bring in-house the manufacturing element of its business. One of its products is Studio Surface, a modular switching system that is a mixing board of sorts for filmmakers. “That is what livestreaming is all about,” Haot said. “It’s not thinking about it as a TV audience, but thinking of it as a multiplier of a physical event.”

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city & state — July 29, 2014

A snapshot of Kickstarter’s office in the Brooklyn Tech Triangle.

14 Huge, a digital consulting firm (at left), is one of many tech-oriented startups to thrive in Brooklyn in recent years.

GETTING HUGE

city & state — July 29, 2014

uge, a full service agency located in the DUMBO section of the Tech Triangle, provides digital strategy, marketing and design services to some of the world’s biggest and most well-known corporations. The company got its start in 1999 and quickly grew from a small to a medium-sized business, when its first client, IKEA, hired Huge to revamp its websites. “We were founded in Brooklyn because it was the most practical place to grow our kind of business,” Huge’s CEO Aaron Shapiro said. “We never felt the need to be based in Manhattan to pretend to be something other than

who we are.” Huge has since collaborated with a host of notable for-profit ventures and cultural institutions, among them the Museum of Modern Art, Reuters and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, recreating and, at times, constructing from scratch, their websites. In October of last year, Huge teamed up with National Geographic to create Your Shot, the magazine’s now popular virtual photo assignment community. Despite its tremendous growth over the past 15 years, Huge still manages to maintain a startup culture within its headquarters, placing an emphasis on fostering a sense of community. “The key is to always stay hungry and never rest on your laurels,” Shapiro said. “I think one of the hardest but most important components to this is to make change a part of your culture.

Change is hard. It’s exhausting. It can be frustrating. But unless you change you will eventually become obsolete and in our business it’s important to be changing ahead of the market so that we can help our clients manage that change as well.” Shapiro notes that most of the world’s biggest and most profitable companies came into existence and created their business models before the Internet dramatically changed the societal and commercial landscape. As a result, they must now “rebuild themselves internally and externally” to remain viable. “Huge was founded on helping companies not just design websites and software to facilitate those interactions, but also to help companies manage the organizational change that’s necessary to turn a business into one that’s as tech-first as a Google or a Facebook,” Shapiro said. Like Livestream, a significant portion

of HUGE’s employees live in Brooklyn, commuting to work either by bike or by ferry. “We’re excited to be part of the technology industry that has grown up around us over the years and Brooklyn is such a part of our DNA we could never leave,” Shapiro said. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has help nurture tech startups, partnering with NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering to secure a grant to expand incubator space and launching an IT community partnership to address the skills gap at local businesses. “I never liked that quote, ‘Brooklyn is the new Manhattan.’” Scissura said. “Brooklyn is Brooklyn. We’re bigger, bolder, more creative and more innovative. We are where small and big companies thrive and we are no back office or shadow of Manhattan. We are our own borough.” cit yandstateny.com

city & state â&#x20AC;&#x201D; March 24, 2014

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URGENT CARE

$8 BILLION MEDICAID WAIVER DRIVING REINVENTION OF BROOKLYN’S HOSPITALS By AZURE GILMAN

city & state — July 29, 2014

here were protests. There was outrage. The future mayor of New York City was arrested. In 2012 and 2013, the longsimmering problem of cash-strapped Brooklyn hospitals boiled to the surface. Long Island College Hospital was on the brink of closing, and Interfaith Medical Center began bankruptcy proceedings. In the heat of the moment, Bill de Blasio, who as public advocate would call for the creation of a Brooklyn Health Authority to transform the system and bring the borough’s hospitals into the 21st century, was memorably led away in handcuffs from a protest against the proposed shuttering of LICH. Yet as mayor, de Blasio has not taken any steps, at least publicly, toward following through on that proposal, and his office has not indicated whether he will create a health authority for the borough. Moreover, experts say that city has little actual influence to alter the landscape of Brooklyn’s hospitals and healthcare delivery. Still, a major transition is now in progress. There is a move away from inpatient hospital care, and toward comprehensive networks of preventive, primary and urgent care facilities. But rather than policy changes instituted by de Blasio or Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it is New York’s $8 billion Medicaid waiver, which the federal government gave final approval to in April, that will potentially allow Brooklyn’s hospitals to collectivize, reorganize and transform into a more complete and functional healthcare system. In 2011, a state-commissioned report found that Brooklyn is plagued with high rates of preventable hospitalizations and chronic illnesses, gratuitous emergency room visits, the inefficient handling of mental health issues and competition with academic

medical centers in Manhattan. “We don’t have a healthcare system, we’ve got a sick care system which has all the wrong incentives,” said Stephen Berger, the report’s lead author and chairman of Odyssey Investment Partners. Instead of taking action to address these problems, individual hospitals have been preoccupied with their own survival, critics say. Berger described the mindset of hospital boards as “if I can hang on by my fingernails long enough, and the other guys fail, my job is to keep my institution alive.” “It’s not that everybody is wrong,” Berger said, referencing different groups of healthcare players like doctors and unions. “It’s just that

by everyone defending their own interests, it’s almost impossible to change a system that really has to be changed.” Like patients who wait too long to get treatment, hospitals have used all their resources merely to stay alive, and are thus unable to focus on charting a new, long-term strategy. “You need to have an existence that goes beyond sort of just keeping your head above water, worried that you’re going to make payroll this month,” said Dennis Whalen, president of the Healthcare Association of New York State. Enter the Medicaid waiver. The waiver is earmarked to help the state reform its healthcare system by creating the Delivery System

Reform Incentive Payment program, or DSRIP, the goal of which is to help hospitals plan and manage their next incarnation and avoid a series of chaotic closures that will disrupt the lives of thousands. Under DSRIP, hospitals and healthcare providers will submit applications to become Performing Provider Systems, also known as PPSs. Some hospitals will continue operating as they do now, while others, some reformers hope, will turn into a non-hospital part of the healthcare network. Applications for the waiver money are reviewed by the state Department of Health and the process runs through December. Currently, the program is in Year Zero; Year One

The 2011 Berger Commission report found that Brooklyn hospitals were plagued with high rates of preventable hospitalizations that new reforms are designed to address.

cit yandstateny.com

BROOKLYN-RELATED HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS THAT HAVE SUBMITTED APPLICATIONS TO BECOME A PERFORMING PROVIDER SYSTEM (PPS): Amida Care AW Medical Office/Balance Medical PPC Lutheran Medical Center Maimonides Medical Center Mount Sinai Health System HHC SUNY Downstate Medical Center starts on April 1, 2015. In addition, Interim Access Assurance Fund (IAAF) money from the waiver has been given to several hospitals and healthcare networks in dire straits in order to maintain critical services, including $152,401,533 to New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), $20,395,749 to SUNY Downstate and $36,882,960 to Interfaith. One of the goals of the Medicaid

waiver is to reduce inpatient hospital admission by 25 percent over the next five years. Inpatient numbers are already on the decline, but experts feel more needs to be done to control costs. “We know a substantial number of people who are in inpatient beds in these hospitals don’t belong there,” Berger said. The Medicaid waiver comes with a matrix of recommendations and requirements, some of which are easier to follow than others. “The hardest program is the transformation program,” said Whalen, “because it says … you fundamentally are going to be different at the end of this project.” He added, “You may become one of those free-standing emergency departments, you may become a longterm care provider, you may become a clinic, but you’re going to transform yourself from your current state.” If hospitals and other healthcare providers do not use the money the way it is intended, funding will be cut off. “[DOH] told us that, and they are dead serious,” said Berger. The City of New York is primarily involved in shaping Brooklyn’s healthcare landscape through HHC, which runs three hospitals in the

borough: Coney Island Hospital, Kings County Hospital Center, and Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center. The new challenge for HHC will be to branch out beyond its own network, and become part of the local community’s health ecosystem. “Discussions are ongoing as to how the city can most productively support and guide the transformation of the Brooklyn healthcare delivery system into one that is of highest clinical quality, improved accessibility and fiscal sustainability,” said Maibe Ponet,

a spokeswoman for the mayor’s office. Perhaps the most important role that the city can play, however, is to sell the public on the notion that quality healthcare can be provided outside of a brick and mortar hospital setting. “Is having … a bunch of PPSs start up and do this stuff the right answer, or do you need a more… global overarching solution?” mused Whalen. “I think … the political situation at the moment, where everybody is kind of running for re-election … [has] kind of modified the approach.”

If medical facilities don’t use federal Medicaid waiver money for reinvention the state Department of Health will cut off their funding.

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city & state — July 29, 2014

political landscape in New York—all before 7 a.m.

SUPERSTORM SANDY: BROOKLYN’S RECOVERY 18 MONTHS LATER

city & state — July 29, 2014

n a balmy mid-July day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stood on a makeshift black stage on a quiet residential street in Canarsie flanked by a host of legislators and his Hurricane Sandy Recovery team. Behind him several construction workers were in action repairing the roof of a modest brick row home. The building’s owner Tonyelle Jobity, a short African-American woman with closely cropped bleachblond hair was also on the dais. Jobity had lived in the house for over 10 years when Sandy swept through the neighborhood in October 2012, and the surging water from nearby Jamaica Bay rose as high as the hoods of the sedans parked on the street, spilling over into Jobity’s downward sloped driveway and flooding her basement. At the same time, the deluge of rain and sweeping gusts of wind punctured her roof. Jobity emptied her savings account and maxed out her credit cards to pay for as many repairs as she could afford so at least her house would be in livable enough shape for her to stay in it. Meanwhile, she applied for the city’s Build it Back program, the housing recovery initiative instituted by the Bloomberg administration to get Sandy victims back on their feet and restore their damaged property. For Jobity and thousands of other New Yorkers affected by the storm, Build it Back moved at a maddeningly slow pace getting victims the help they needed. Jobity waited months before she saw a single reimbursement check for the work she had paid for, never mind getting the rest of her house fixed. “[Tonyelle] reached out for the help she deserved in rebuilding her home, and she believed that that help would be forthcoming, but it wasn’t,” de Blasio said in his opening remarks. “The efforts that were supposed to be in place to help homeowners certainly weren’t

Many houses ravaged by Superstorm Sandy have been rebuilt by homeowners out of their own pockets, like this one in the Sea Gate section of Brooklyn’s Coney Island peninsula.

“YOU’RE GONNA LOSE THE COMMUNITY,” HE SAYS WITH CERTAINTY. “WE GET ANOTHER [HURRICANE] IRENE—FORGET SANDY—YOU’RE GONNA LOSE EVERYTHING.” working at that point.” The press conference took place the day before de Blasio was scheduled to leave for his vacation in Italy, and it was designed to be a last hurrah before his trip. The occasion marked “significant” progress on the Sandy housing recovery effort: Rebuilding had begun on 132 houses, the repairs on 30 homes were complete, and 397 reimbursement checks had been handed out, totaling

roughly $6.37 million. The occasion also served as a preliminary victory lap of sorts for de Blasio before Labor Day, when the mayor hopes to celebrate the fulfillment of his pledge to have 500 housing repair projects underway and 500 reimbursement checks distributed to Sandy victims. Measuring “progress,” as far as storm recovery is concerned, is an inexact science. Through these carefully

choreographed events, the de Blasio administration has evidently redefined the success of the recovery effort as its ability to meet the arbitrary numerical goals it has set as benchmarks. However, in highlighting the numbers it rolled out on the day of the press conference as evidence of how the recovery has turned around under the new mayor’s leadership, the administration has also diverted attention from the fact that the number of people covered by those cheery statistics represent a little over a mere 1 percent of Build it Back applicants. By finally receiving a check from the city and using it to finish the repairs to her home, Jobity has been lucky, comparatively, her experience belying that of the vast majority of the more than 20,000 New Yorkers who have applied for the recovery program since its inception in 2012. While de Blasio’s goal for Sept. 1 is to have 500 reconstruction projects under way, roughly 15,000 homes require some sort of rebuilding. In some impacted neighborhoods, damaged houses sat idle for so long that mold collected, resulting in the homes being condemned before their owners got the chance to save them. Critical infrastructure such as roads and sewers remain in dire need of repair, and so many of the storm resiliency measures that experts have said in the wake of Sandy are necessary to protect against the next big storm have yet to be put in place. Without question, de Blasio has accelerated the pace of the recovery since taking office in January, cutting some of the federal red tape, and restructuring the recovery team and the delegation of its responsibilities. City legislators have lauded the responsiveness of the team de Blasio has appointed—a stark contrast, they say, to the previous administration. But along with this praise invariably comes the caveat that there is still much work left to be done. cit yandstateny.com

Photos: AZURE GILMAN

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THE FRONT LINE

A concrete bulkhead at Norton Point, the westernmost tip of Coney Island, was destroyed by Sandy leaving nothing behind to protect the peninsula from a future storm surge.

city & state — July 29, 2014

ity Councilman Mark Treyger, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Recovery and Resiliency, was among the elected officials in attendance at de Blasio’s press conference. A firstyear councilman, Treyger represents one of the districts in Brooklyn hardest hit by the storm, an area that encompasses most of Brooklyn’s Coney Island peninsula, including parts of Brighton Beach. Treyger, a former schoolteacher, won the seat in part because of his vow to make sure that every one of the impacted communities and individuals in his district are made whole again. “Last year there was a complete breakdown, I don’t even think the city was talking to each other last year,” Treyger said. “This year at least now we have people we can work with. I will say for the record that I’ve found [Director of the Housing Recovery Office] Amy Peterson to be very responsive to me, and to other members who represent impacted districts, but we’re still frustrated with the pace.” Several days after the press conference, Treyger stands inside the gutted former police headquarters of Sea Gate, a gated community on the westernmost tip of the Coney Island peninsula. One of the largest of the city’s private communities, it was once a more exclusive enclave and home to political luminaries such as Al Smith, and even, for a time, “Boss” Tweed, who hid out here after being ousted from Tammany Hall and before he fled the country. Now the neighborhood is firmly working class, with an average median income of $37,800, according to

the most recent available census data. Inside the building, the dank musk of mold and rot is escapable. The walls have been stripped to a bare skeleton. Cables and wires droop from the ceiling like jungle vines. Debris is scattered across the linoleum floor. “Where you’re standing right now, the water was about up to your chest,” said David Wynn, the 55-year-old president of the Sea Gate Civic Association. “These buildings all got washed out, I’ve been out of this building for three years. Still waiting for FEMA and whatever aid we can get, still jumping hurdles for that.” Treyger stands plaintively as Wynn, the gregarious, barrel-chested “mayor of Sea Gate” rattles off an unofficial rundown of the community’s devastation: Of the 850 homes in the neighborhood, he estimates 825 were flooded; 18 homes were in such disrepair that they were torn down completely; 450 homeowners have applied for Build it Back—not a single new home has broken ground in the 21 months since Sandy. Many displaced residents are now, in Wynn’s words, “trailer trash,” living in makeshift housing while they await repairs. Wynn’s SUV rattles and bumps its way through the development en route to the western coastline of the peninsula. The neighborhood’s streets are a patchwork mosaic of tar, minisinkholes and cracks—scar tissue from Sandy, and a glaring reminder that the recovery effort, in Sea Gate and elsewhere, extends beyond rebuilding homes. During Sandy, Sea Gate was hit by a convergence of storm surges from

three bodies of water: the Atlantic Ocean, Gravesend Bay and Coney Island Creek. The water carried sand that packed into the sewers, cracking pipes and causing sewage to seep into the streets and sometimes into homes. The sand underneath the pavement has also made the roads unstable. However, because Sea Gate is a gated community, the city claims that the residents are responsible for sewer damage, passing the buck to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the state, by default, to handle any repairs to critical infrastructure in the area. “I’ve raised this issue before with the administration that if you rebuild a home but don’t fix the sewers, you’re not making the communities whole again,” Treyger said. “Sea Gate has its own complexities because it’s a gated community, but my position has been, and always will be, that these people here pay city, state, and federal taxes, they pay water fees, sewer fees, and we know they’re not cheap. We are not going to abandon families in this neighborhood.” The stunning panoramic vistas from Norton Point on the westernmost tip of Sea Gate underscore the area’s need for resiliency improvements. Before Sandy, a 1,500-foot-long, 18-inchthick concrete bulkhead at Norton was all that stood between rising tides and the flooding of not only Sea Gate but the entire Coney Island peninsula. Now, all that remains of the bulkhead are several large slabs of concrete that would barely block a large wave, let alone a surge of ocean water. Standing on the expanse of sand that fills the space once occupied by the bulkhead, Wynn contemplates what would happen if another Sandy hit this year. “You’re gonna lose the community,” he says with certainty. “We get another [Hurricane] Irene—forget Sandy—

you’re gonna lose everything.” Back in his truck, Wynn points out houses on a street abutting the Atlantic coastline that are either newly rebuilt by homeowners who paid out of pocket or have been abandoned. Stopping in front of a fenced-off property, Treyger explains that its owner waited so long for a response from Build it Back that eventually the building was condemned. Asked whether the fact that so many Sea Gate homeowners had been left to their own devices in the wake of Sandy means that the city had failed them, Treyger considers his words carefully, as he always seems to do before saying something that might be perceived as critical or harsh. He clearly understands the value of maintaining a solid working relationship with the de Blasio administration, even as he becomes increasingly frustrated by the city’s inertia in addressing the needs of his constituents. “I really have not seen Build it Back getting any [housing] completions done here,” Treyger said. “They are getting some completions done, I heard, in the Rockaways and Canarsie.” Treyger pauses to collect his thoughts before adding: “Listen, I’m happy that work is being done, period, but we have to make sure the work is being done across all the neighborhoods, and they are committed to that, but I would like to see some of this work expedited, cut through red tape, cut through bureaucracy and to give all communities signs of progress. [The city has] said, ‘Mark, we’re absolutely committed to that,’ but we want to see it. I told Amy [Peterson] I want to see a nice event here as well and to show a completed home here in Sea Gate or in Coney Island, and they said they will. I will keep fighting until those days happen, until the very last victim gets help.”

City Councilman Mark Treyger surveys the damage Superstorm Sandy inflicted to the Sea Gate police headquarters in his district.

cit yandstateny.com

he Sandy recovery effort has three key components— housing, infrastructure, and resiliency—but there is a fourth that Treyger wants to ensure is not being overlooked: quality of life. On that front, few populations of New Yorkers have dealt with more hardship in trying to get back on their feet than public housing residents. NYU’s Furman Center estimates that 402 New York City Housing Authority buildings were damaged by Sandy. Between them these buildings encompass over 35,000 housing units—20 percent of the total number of NYCHA units across the five boroughs. Nearly 80,000 residents were left without heat or electricity as flooding damaged boilers and electrical systems in the basements of these buildings. NYCHA was already dealing with a ballooning capital deficit, and Sandy only exacerbated this problem. Many of the buildings, some of which are over 30 years old, have long required major upgrades to the roofing, heat and electrical systems, to say nothing of the massive backlog of repairs to individual housing units. Surfside Gardens in Coney Island is a classic NYCHA development: two drab brown brick high-rises with a courtyard and a deteriorating, pockmarked basketball court. As a group of kids play a game of “21,” they dodge dangerous cracks and crevasses in the pavement. One hoop is missing completely, swept away in the flooding, while the other hoop is devoid of a backboard save for a sliver of plexiglass in the bottom left hand corner of the frame. Very little about the city’s public housing system is pleasing to the eye; it harks back to a time when city planners, in an effort to modernize the city, were worried more about relocating the city’s working poor and maximizing its precious land than architectural aesthetics. The appearance of public housing buildings does not sit well with Treyger—“These things bother me so much,” he says at one point—and while listening to the grievances of a group of Surfside residents in the courtyard, his frustration is evident. One of the

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underpasses is still completely flooded, says one woman, talking over another, who describes how the poor air quality in the apartment aggravates her myriad medical issues, which include cancer and asthma. Behind the basketball court, what looks like a long white trailer sits outside the Surfside building. These are the temporary boilers the Federal Emergency Management Agency put in place, Treyger explains. When the building’s main boilers broke down, the federal government stepped in with the temporary equipment to provide heat and hot water for the residents. However, as some residents later discovered, even as a stopgap, these boilers came with their own set of problems. “A resident leader went down during the winter time when [one of the temporary boilers] wasn’t working and found a sticker on it that read it shouldn’t operate below 40 degrees,” Treyger recalls. “It was zero degrees outside, freezing cold, snowstorms and these things broke down, and families across Coney Island, even into Red Hook, the Rockaways, Lower Manhattan, had no heat, no hot water, some for many days. FEMA’s argument

Both councilmen, whose joint public hearing at the Carey Gardens Community Center in February helped shine a light on the postSandy conditions of public housing developments, are hopeful that a recent block grant of $1.8 billion from the federal government earmarked for NYCHA repairs will help remedy some of these issues. But so far the money has been slow to come in, and every day that passes, residents get more restless. Treyger notes that some NYCHA developments have still not seen repairs to their community centers, depriving residents of an outlet to keep children off the streets and out of trouble. He mentions the killing of a 27-year-old man several weeks ago at the Gravesend Houses in his district as a possible by-product of the poor conditions of the development. Still, Menchaca remains hopeful that Council members can be the mouthpiece for these residents, communicating their needs to an administration that, if nothing else, has indicated it is more than willing to listen. “[This City Council] has only been in power for six months, building our offices from the ground up, in the middle of trying to redesign the budget process, redesign the legislative process, and so much of this first six months we’ve been building while going,” Menchaca said. “We’re starting to see a shift [in priorities]. Are we where we need to be? Absolutely not. Will we get there? I believe that we [will].”

Superstorm Sandy defaced this basketball court in the New York City Housing Authority’s Surfside Gardens development in Coney Island.

city & state — July 29, 2014

THE NYCHA PROBLEM

was that if we give you money we don’t want you to replace [the boilers] in the basement, because that’s where it flooded, we want them to be more resilient—which is understandable— but it shouldn’t take 15, 16 months to figure this stuff out.” Treyger adds that these boilers are not environmentally friendly, as they burn oil, and the fumes they emit are not healthy for residents to breathe. City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, who represents several impacted NYCHA buildings in Red Hook, another waterfront community flooded by Sandy, says that the city hopes to remove all of the oil-burning boilers and replace them with more efficient natural gas-burning boilers. Menchaca notes that repairing the roofs for these NYCHA buildings is also crucial to the everyday quality of life of the residents, especially given the city’s plans to place all backup generators for the buildings as high up within them as possible. “The maintenance stuff that they’re doing at the lower apartments gets undone because water keeps on trickling down,” Menchaca explained. “What’s interesting about that, as it connects to Sandy, is the overall sense of the resiliency of these buildings— people really don’t believe that these buildings are holding up after hurricanes. NYCHA needs to tell us, are these repaired? Because we’re not just talking about hurricanes, we’re talking about climate change bringing torrential rains that we really haven’t seen [before].”

UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING MAYOR DE BLASIO AIMS TO BRING SKYROCKETING RENTS BACK TO EARTH By NICK POWELL

ED REED / MAYOR’S OFFICE

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s housing plan includes a commitment to require permanent affordable housing units in any buildings that benefit from zoning changes.

city & state — July 29, 2014

an Bill de Blasio rein in the Brooklyn housing market? That question has had borough residents and housing experts alike on edge since the mayor, who made the ambitious campaign promise to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing over ten years, took office in January. Now, three months after de Blasio announced to great fanfare his plan to make good on his bold pledge, many uncertainties remain about whether the progressive approach the administration plans to employ to

achieve its aim—namely, mandatory inclusionary zoning—can be effective in preserving affordability in an increasingly unaffordable housing market. Rolling out his housing blueprint as “historic”—a favorite word of the mayor’s to describe his initiatives—he used the site of his announcement, 250 Ashland Place in downtown Brooklyn, to illustrate his plan. There, the Gotham Organization development company is building a residential project that represents a marked shift in approach from the Bloomberg

administration’s methodology of incentivizing the creation of affordable housing. The building would keep 282 of the 52-story tower’s 586 units permanently affordable for low- and middle-income families—a ratio that breaks down to 50 percent market-rate apartments, 30 percent for moderateincome families, and 20 percent for low-income families—a distinct difference from the popular 80/20 model (80 percent market, 20 percent affordable), which qualifies developers to receive tax-exempt financing from the New York State Housing Finance

Agency (HFA). “When we open up a site for greater development, we want to get the most back for the people we can,” de Blasio said of the 50/30/20 model employed at 250 Ashland. “If we make any kind of public investment, we want to get the most back for the people we can. We think there’s more that can be achieved than was achieved in the past, which is why we’re upping the ante.” Achieving more and greater affordability is the primary driving force behind mandatory inclusionary zoning. The basic thrust behind the

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concept is that in exchange for the government granting zoning variances and density bonuses, which allow buildings to be taller and bigger, developers agree that in return they will create a certain percentage of permanently affordable units. While specific details of how the policy will be carried out—such as what percentage of buildings the city will mandate to be affordable and what the city means by allowing on- and off-site housing to fulfill the affordable requirements of these developments— the mayor’s plan notes that one of Brooklyn’s poorest neighborhoods, East New York, will serve as a litmus test of sorts for his approach. Housing experts, however, are skeptical that the method will have its desired effect. “Mandatory inclusionary, it’s saying to a developer in East New York, ‘Oh, we’ll let you build higher,’ but that does nothing for you,” said a former city housing official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to offend the current administration. “If you build 20 stories, you’re still going to have to subsidize every unit in that property. It’s not like you’re

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cross-subsidizing units because you’re going to get rents at higher levels in some units in Brownsville and East New York than in others. There are swaths of the neighborhood, low- and moderate-income communities, where you’re required to have low-income units in these developments, but that’s the market anyway. It’s going to be helpful in some neighborhoods, but meaningless in others.” An analysis of the policy by the Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development offers a rebuttal to this view. ANHD found that up to 32,000 affordable apartments can be created by mandatory inclusionary alone, but only if the city applies it citywide, “regardless of past, present, or future rezonings or land use actions.” Using Brownsville, a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood adjacent to East New York, as an example, ANHD Executive Director Benjamin Dulchin makes the case that the policy allows the city the flexibility to apply capital and subsidy where necessary, with the caveat that the administration is targeting mixed-

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income neighborhoods instead of exclusively low-income areas. “The mayor understands that the additional market rate housing that is being built cross-subsidizes the affordable housing that’s being demanded,” Dulchin said. “That then frees up city subsidy, and city programs and city capital to buy the additional affordability where and when it needs. It may well include Brownsville, it may well be if you want to build housing that is genuinely stabilizing to the residents of Brownsville, you need to have essentially one part inclusionary and two parts additional subsidy and incentive. Having inclusionary across the city gets you affordable housing built in other places and frees up the capital and the subsidy where it is most needed.” The administration has also been careful to point out that instituting mandatory inclusionary across the city does not necessarily mean changing the face of neighborhoods from low-rise communities to skyscraper incubators. City Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod said as much in recent comments before the City Council, affirming that affordability would be

required in new developments regardless of regardless of whether the city offers the builder incentives. Moreover, one of the primary benefits of mandatory inclusionary is that it allows the city to play the long game in ensuring that neighborhoods stay affordable. One developer, who has played ball with the city in providing affordable housing, makes the point that even if mandatory inclusionary does not generate cross-subsidy possibilities in the short term, “It assures that if the neighborhood changes over time that the government won’t have to buy affordability later.” The developer added, however, that mandatory inclusionary can be an imperfect model, specifically when neighborhood housing markets reach the point where they no longer need city subsidy to provide affordable housing. “If you have some point in the middle where the market could, without subsidies, support new construction in that middle-income range, [the city would] want to say at that point either we’re going to subsidize every project or development stops. That would be a reason not to do it.”

We are experiencing more and more extreme weather, and Brooklyn Bridge Park is in a very vulnerable location. Hurricane Sandy flooded the park. Now there are plans to build another luxury high-rise on the water's edge in Brooklyn Bridge Park using an Environmental Impact Study from 2005. Too much has changed. Waterfront development must be built to withstand extreme weather, including hurricane winds, floods and rising sea levels. Why won't they require a new Environmental Impact Study? www.buildupnyc.org/bbp

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city & state — July 29, 2014

Build like it's 2005? Not after Sandy.

ry asking any Brooklynite to name their favorite thing about the borough, and inevitably the

city & state — July 29, 2014

response is: “Only one?” City & State posed this question to a handful of notable Brooklyn residents, from city and state legislators and government officials to entrepreneurs and CEOs of businesses big and small. The responses we received reflect Brooklyn’s wealth of diverse, popular destinations, such as Coney Island or Prospect Park, while others are unique in their intimacy, like a backyard in Bensonhurst or a local pizzeria. Therein lies the beauty of Brooklyn: There is truly something for everbody.

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JON JACKSON

LEALA ABBOTT

Executive Creative Director, Huge

Content Strategy Lead, Huge

Brooklyn is both a thing and a place. It’s my home, it’s where I’ve had defining moments in my life and some not so much. It’s fallable, yet majestic. Like us. Whenever I need to clear my head, I like to grab a rock on the waterfront in DUMBO. It’s an inspiring platform from which you can spread out and see the sprawl of the city and envision its many faces. Their struggles and triumphs, their comings and goings. It makes any burden you may be carrying managable, if they can survive and go on, so can I.

city & state — July 29, 2014

Since I am sure beards and mustaches have already been spoken for, my favorite part of Brooklyn is the sky. Living and working in Brooklyn allows you to get natural light all day long; there are no tall buildings casting their long, heavy shadows across most of the borough.

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SHANNON HEUER

I grew up in Brooklyn, and my mother has an Italian restaurant in Williamsburg that is 113 years old, called Bamonte’s. Brooklyn is very dear to my heart.

GINA PELUSO Manager, Grimaldi’s Pizzeria

city & state — July 29, 2014

Account Director, Big Spaceship

My favorite place in Brooklyn is on a dingy corner in Bushwick. I first learned about Bossa Nova Civic Club last summer, and it’s been my go-to for late night dancing and great house music ever since. I know a couple of the bartenders, the bouncers and one of the owners, and there tends to be a lot of regular patrons like me who I run into from time to time. It’s kind of like my modern-day Cheers! What I love about Bossa Nova is that they welcome anyone who loves music and dancing and somehow avoid the more “sceney” crowd. Plus, I met Drake there once on a slow Sunday night.

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THE ENGINEERS REPORT A Civil Service Merry-Go-Round Without a Brass Ring

David McCredo, C.P.C.A.,

President and Business Manager Allied Building Inspectors Local 211 IUOE Walk through any neighborhood in Manhattan, or across the East River to Brooklyn and Queens and we see a new skyline in the making. Clearly the current boom in construction stretches well beyond the soaring brick, steel and glass towers of Manhattan.

BINTA VANN-JOSEPH Director of Mareting and Communications, BRIC

The Restoration is a building on Fulton Street between Brooklyn and New York Avenues. Within it is a dance company, the Noel Pointer Foundation, which teaches violin and guitar to students. When I was growing up they used its courtyard for ice skating in the winter and now they use it for any sort of fair or festival. They have tons of community rooms and local businesses in there so if you are celebrating, say, a sweet-16 you could as a member of the community rent space out and have parties. There’s a couple banking institutions there, a pharmacy, anything you could possibly want. We call it the Restoration Plaza because you can sit outside, there are tons of places to sit, and they recently had an upgrade to some of their facade and added more storefronts. It was sort of like the place you’d go while mom was in the coffee shop. You could play as a kid and be free, and it’s just surprising that 40 years later it’s still there! It is still serving a very similar purpose. It still houses a lot of cultural organisations, small business; it’s great.

New construction and building alterations can be seen in every neighborhood in every borough. It falls on the 618 members of IUOE Local 211 working in the Department of Buildings, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the New York City Housing Authority to inspect and ensure that work is performed safely and up to code. Virtually unnoticed by the general public, these dedicated civil servants inspect, and must ensure that tower cranes are set up properly, that plumbing works and elevators are up to code; apartments are free of lead paint and have working smoke alarms; they even ensure that amusement rides from the Cyclone in Coney Island to the kiddie carousel at the local street fair are safe. These men and women are as busy as they are anonymous. According to the most recent Department of Buildings annual report, inspectors conducted nearly 447,000 inspections; found nearly 50,000 violations; and issued more than 5,100 stop work orders in 2012. That doesn’t include our members in the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the NYC Housing Authority inspections of occupied multiple dwellings for lead paint, window guards, lack of heat, hot water, and other complaints.

And, not unlike nearly all other city agencies, our members in the DOB, HPD and NYCHA did so under the Bloomberg administration mantra of “do more with less.” And, just as we need to have more police on our streets, we need more inspectors to ensure our safety during this construction boom. We can bring in those new inspectors through the agency’s apprentice program. Long dormant and nearly forgotten, this program not only provides opportunity, there is no substitute for the first-hand on-the-job experience the apprentices receive. Of even greater importance for those who’ve been on the job is the opportunity to advance. For too long our members have been denied that opportunity. Just this past March, the Department of Citywide Administrative Services once again cancelled the promotion exam for Inspector to Associate I. It’s now been four years since this exam was offered. Worse yet, it has been 12 years since HPD has offered the Associate I exam!

Along with their vital work, many of our members put in additional time studying, obtaining new licenses, and keeping up with new technologies. But frustrated by their situation and with nowhere to advance, our most experienced and talented people are forced to take their knowledge and talents elsewhere. David McCredo, C.P.C.A., is President and Business Manager Allied Business Inspectors Local 211 International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents some 600 New York City Building Inspectors within the Department of Buildings, Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York City Housing Authority.

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city & state — July 29, 2014

As Civil Service Merit Council Director Robert Croghan has often argued, “When you have a system which circumvents civil service testing for merit and fitness, an entire career can be based on the whims and wishes of your supervisor. It opens the door to favoritism, destroys morale and defeats the purpose of the system.”

city & state — July 29, 2014

As my retirement approaches in June 2015, I have spent more time lately reflecting on the evolution of Brooklyn and BAM over the last three decades. Last week, I stood in front of our Peter Jay Sharp Building on Lafayette Avenue as 2000 people rushed in to see Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe perform Robert Wilson’s “The Old Woman” in the Howard Gilman Opera House. Theater For A New Audience across the street was similarly packed, and simultaneously young people were running in and out of both our BAM Fisher Building and the Mark Morris Studios across the street. At the BAM Harvey Theater on Fulton Street, the red carpet was in full swing for the opening of BAMcinemaFest with 800 people in attendance. And nearby, six cranes stood waiting for morning so they could resume construction on the new apartment buildings and cultural spaces that will complete the Brooklyn Cultural District. As I took in the scene on June 18, 2014, my mind wandered back to a day in July 1979 when I first came to BAM for a job interview. At that time, I had very little knowledge of New York City and zero of Brooklyn. On the day of my job interview, which would determine the course of my life for the next 36 years (I have worked at BAM all that time, serving as president since 1999), I took the subway to Dekalb Avenue and began the morning at Junior’s Restaurant with my mentor and former finance

KAREN BROOKS HOPKINS President, BAM

“old New York.” Around 9:30, I left Stanley and took the subway from Dekalb to Atlantic Avenue. That station felt like a foreign country—crowds, noise, graffiti, subways squeaking and rumbling. I thought I was in hell. Somehow, I found my way to the street and entered BAM for my interview with then President Harvey Lichtenstein, who (while it wasn’t fully known at the time) was beginning to lay the groundwork through culture and the arts for the revitalized, hip, creative borough we know today. I shook his hand. He looked me in the eye and said (in his raspy, softly Brooklyn-accented Harvey voice), “I need someone—tough—who can work like hell.” I returned the look and said, “Harvey, you’ve found her. I can work like hell.” And that was it. He found a worker and in Brooklyn I found my spiritual home. Historical footnote: When Junior’s burned to the ground in 1981, a crowd of Brooklynites gathered in the middle of the night on Flatbush near the blazing building, chanting “Save the cheesecake!” It was rebuilt exactly the same, down to the napkins.

committee chair, the late Stanley Kriegel. He was Brooklyn through and through. Stanley made it clear that if I got hired, I would have a trial period to see if I could cut it in the Big City. Thirty years later, he would announce that I was no longer

on trial and that he thought I could handle the job! Junior’s in July was a madhouse: Brooklyn power breakfasts, thousands of cheesecakes being sold, an endless wave of people in and out, politicians, salesmen, panhandlers on the street in front. It felt so cit yandstateny.com

STEVE HINDY

DENNIS AND STEVE VOUDOURIS Co-Owners, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, Coney Island

One of our “favorite Brooklyn things” is on the Boardwalk in Coney Island: Deno’s Wonder Wheel. A generation ago, our dad refurbished and landmarked the wheel, so that it would symbolize a giant wedding ring gift from him to our mom. And now, what makes Deno’s Wonder Wheel a great thing is the way thousands of people from artists to visitors, dreamers, photographers and writers all can have fun from viewing or riding on Deno’s WONDER WHEEL. It’s perfectly named to tell you the truth, because it’s a wonderful honor to keep it turning and ready for all to enjoy every summer. Like they say, “They don’t build them like this anymore.”

city & state — July 29, 2014

CEO & Co-Founder, Brooklyn Brewery

The first time I came to New York City was 1957. I was 8 and living in Ohio. I came with my mother and grandmother for the Billy Graham Crusades at Madison Square Garden. Mom and Grandma got saved seven nights in a row; I fell asleep every night. The best part of the trip was attending the last Brooklyn Dodgers game at Ebbets Field. I fell in love with New York City. Years later, I told that story to my kids when Mom was visiting. “Grandma, did you ever imagine Steve would own a brewery in New York?” asked my daughter Lily. “You know, that trip kind of backfired on me,” said my mother.

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What I like best about Brooklyn is the sense you get of being in a small town inside a big city. Brooklyn is made up of many distinct, diverse and vibrant neighborhoods. These neighborhoods give us the feeling of escaping the “big city,” even for a short time, to enjoy the serenity and familiarity of residential streets.

VINCENT GENTILE

ROBERT CORNEGY

City Councilman, 43rd District

City Councilman, 36th District

I love Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza, which sits on the border of BedfordStuyvesant and Crown Heights, the two vibrant communities I serve. It’s the civic and cultural heart of Central Brooklyn, always bustling with young people, adults pursuing education, and beautiful events on the plaza in the Billie Holiday Theater and the Skylight Gallery.

city & state — July 29, 2014

My favorite place in Brooklyn is 211 Ainslie St. in Williamsburg. It’s an ordinary building, but it has been a resource since the 1970s, as home to Small World Daycare, Swinging 60s Senior Center, and Brooklyn Community Board 1. It brings together my community’s past, present, and future.

ANTONIO REYNOSO City Councilman, 34th District cit yandstateny.com

CARLOS MENCHACA

city & state â&#x20AC;&#x201D; July 29, 2014

City Councilman, 38th District

The waterfront for me is one of those things thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to, in a lot of ways, inform how we move forward on so many different issues. If we get it right, we can really change the way the city moves forward by bringing in jobs, by protecting our residents, by bringing in more open space. The waterfront has never been in the conversation, so for me this is changing the way I think about policy.

cit yandstateny.com

ALAN MAISEL

STEVE LEVIN City Councilman, 33rd District

There is so much to love about Brooklyn, including its culture, diversity and history. Having just finished David McCullough’s 1776, I am very excited about all the sites from the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, including the 33rd District’s own Fulton Ferry Landing.

city & state — July 29, 2014

City Councilman, 46th District

One of my favorite things about Brooklyn is the great mix of people and cultures throughout the borough. I have always enjoyed the wide variety of restaurants and neighborhoods that make Brooklyn a very interesting place in which to live.

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Support local business, fair business practice, and consumer choice. cit yandstateny.com

city & state — March 24, 2014

EXCLUSIVITY BLOCKS A CONSUMER’S RIGHT NYC benefits from more car sharing TO CHOOSE options in parking garages!

DANIEL SQUADRON

LAURIE CUMBO City Councilwoman, 35th District

city & state — July 29, 2014

State Senator, 26th District

Playground hopping with my kids, scooting at PS 29, climbing at LICH, the balloon man at Carroll Park, the pop-up pool at Brooklyn Bridge Park, chase the ball at DiMattina, the chickens at Mother Cabrini... We’re fortunate to have so many great options in the area!

My favorite place in Brooklyn is the Brooklyn Moon Café, which has been in business for over twenty years. The most beautiful, creative, talented and longtime Brooklynites support Mike’s establishment, because they are the real deal! Right across the street are my two favorite fashion designers: Brenda Brunson Bey of Tribal Truths and Moshood of MOSHOOD. They are both legendary designers and my two favorite people in Brooklyn. My favorite thing about Brooklyn is the community spirit, which we must preserve to keep it alive and well!

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MARK TREYGER

PASCAL JATTEAUX

City Councilman, 47th District

Owner, Fada

VELMANETTE MONTGOMERY

State Senator, 25th District

Bernard Gassaway, the principal and chief child’s advocate of Boys & Girls High School in Bed-Stuy, has created a vibrant community education campus at BGHS. Under his leadership the school has brought in a number of supportive programs and academies, including an Early Scholars Program, a school-based health clinic, and most recently the new Nelson Mandela Academy.

city & state — July 29, 2014

My favorite thing to do in Brooklyn is to stop at L&B Spumoni Gardens for a nice square pizza before heading to the Coney Island boardwalk to burn off some calories and take in the spectacular fireworks show each Friday night during the summer. There’s nothing like enjoying a breathtaking display above the beach and boardwalk in this iconic neighborhood with family, friends and New Yorkers from around the city. I urge everyone to take in a great show in a unique setting and enjoy all of Coney Island’s great attractions before the summer is over.

My favorite thing about Brooklyn is the feel that you are part of a real community. I was getting ready to open my restaurant in Williamsburg in the fall of 2001. Williamsburg was a much different place then of course. We all saw tragedy on September 11th of that year, right before Fada was set to open. No one could believe what happened. We decided to delay the opening until people got their lives together. After things settled you had the birth of “freedom fries” and people boycotting French wine all over the country. We opened anyway and the outpouring of support from the Brooklyn community was incredible. Now, 13 years later, we are still going strong with many of the same regulars. I truly believe Brooklyn is the soul of New York City.

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JOAN MILLMAN

JAMES BRENNAN Assemblyman, 44th District

My favorite person is the woman I just married last year, Joan Bartolomeo, and our favorite places are Prospect Park and Green-Wood Cemetery, where we love to stroll through Brooklyn’s history.

city & state — July 29, 2014

Assemblywoman, 52nd District

My favorite place in Brooklyn is Brooklyn Bridge Park. This 85-acre waterfront park features breathtaking views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. Ride your bike, take a ferry to Governor’s Island, see an outdoor movie, play some ball, swim in the pool or pick a bench and people-watch. You can now forget you’re in New York City’s most populous borough.

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SIMCHA FELDER State Senator, 17th District

My favorite place in Brooklyn is Amnon’s Kosher Pizza, located in the heart of Borough Park, on 13th Avenue. I have frequented Amnon’s for more than three decades. Over the years, Amnon’s has become something of a tourist attraction, with visitors from the world over stopping in for a slice or a falafel. I believe Amnon’s represents the very best of Brooklyn, with its many flavors, terrific energy and lively characters.

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city & state — July 29, 2014

• 5 biggest City and State agencies with percentage of contracts that are being fulfilled by MWBEs • Diversity Divide: Nearly 3 years after Governor Cuomo implemented 20% MWBE aspirational goals for state agencies, City & State looks into how this breaks down geographically and by industry. • A Rundown of the Key Players • Facts & Figures about MWBEs in NY

PETER ABBATE

NICK PERRY

Easy access to delicious jerk chicken and the full variety of Caribbean food, produce and culture make it feel almost like back home to me ... almost. Other than Jamaica, Brooklyn, to me, is the best place to live.

Assemblyman, 58th District

city & state â&#x20AC;&#x201D; July 29, 2014

Assemblyman, 49th District

My favorite place growing up in Brooklyn was Coney Island. I remember the great times, my dad taking me and my brother on Sunday mornings while my mother had some relaxation. He would take us down on the rides over there, and there was a great Italian bakery where we used to buy bread, which as a kid was my favorite place. Now my favorite place is sitting in a backyard here in Bensonhurst relaxing in a nice calm area, either at my house or a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house in the area.

cit yandstateny.com

KEVIN PARKER

FRANKIE ACOSTA Store Manager, RIME

I’d have to say the museum, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). The events they hold there, the atmosphere, they usually do “First Saturdays” and there’s always a nice event with a great band or artist, and you can rely on there always being a cool atmosphere, and they have a theatre, too.

city & state — July 29, 2014

State Senator, 21st District

Prospect Park, the epicenter of my diverse district, is one of my favorite places in Brooklyn. It is a great place where I run while taking a break from work and personal responsibilities. A landmark location with something for everyone, Prospect Park houses a zoo, a skating rink, Brooklyn’s only lake, a bandshell, a picnic house, a boathouse and several sporting fields. Moreover, it is Brooklyn’s stage of choice for local artists and international superstars. Prospect Park has it all!

cit yandstateny.com

FELIX ORTIZ

POLLY TROTTENBERG Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation

My favorite walk in historic brownstone Brooklyn: start in Carroll Gardens and head to Brooklyn Heights. Be sure to find sustenance along the way on Court Street—gelato from Monteleone’s or Blue Marble ice cream should do! View Manhattan and New York Harbor from the Promenade and then walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. What more could you want?

city & state — July 29, 2014

Assemblyman, 51st District

There are so many Brooklyn “things” to list! I am proud of my family and the accomplishments of my children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. I have a strong faith in our communities who stood strong and united, helping to rebuild after Superstorm Sandy. I am proud of our students who work so hard to learn and graduate. The families who support our children and neighborhoods deserve credit and give us pride. Our waterfront growth and economic development is a result of working together and making Brooklyn stronger. Brooklyn is simply the greatest!

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Be the first to know. www.cityandstateny.com/subscribe for more information. cit yandstateny.com

city & state — July 29, 2014

The Must-Read Afternoon Roundup of New York Politics and Government

DAVID EHRENBERG

Comedian

city & state — July 29, 2014

President & CEO, Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation

Maybe a bit self-serving, but my favorite place is the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Where else can you tour a factory, visit a rooftop farm, explore landmarks, and take in some history? A close second is the Prospect Park ball fields where I played 30 years ago and now take my son to play.

JAMIE ROBERTS

As a Brooklyn native born to West Indian parents, my favorite place has to be Eastern Parkway for the Annual West Indian Day Parade. The preparation and excitement of the parade itself starts months in advance and on the first Monday of September, everyone comes to celebrate each other’s culture. My favorite part of Eastern Parkway is the costumes, or maybe the food. Oh, I can’t forget about the energy in the streets from the parade itself. Eastern Parkway is transformed into its very own island for the weekend and it’s an experience I encourage everyone to partake in, especially if you’re in New York.

cit yandstateny.com

In my southern Brooklyn district you have Russian, Turkish, Greek, Italian and Asian restaurants all on the same block. You don’t need a passport to travel the world. The best part is that our diversity is no longer a novelty. It’s simply who we are.

I love spending a Saturday afternoon taking advantage of all the great food and drink in Red Hook ... food trucks, Fairway, Steve’s Key Lime Pies, Hope and Anchor, and Dry Dock Wine and Spirits.

KYLE KIMBALL

STEVEN CYMBROWITZ

President, New York City Economic Development Corporation

Director of External Affairs, Durst Organization cit yandstateny.com

Assemblyman, 45th District

Brooklyn is dynamic. Our renaissance is bringing the best and brightest here from across the globe to realize their dreams. This energy has pushed Brooklyn to the forefront of the nation’s culture. It is the epicenter of American literature, art, dance and food, and to live here now is to be part of a surging creative and intellectual tide. It is truly the place to be. city & state — July 29, 2014

JORDAN BAROWITZ

city & state — July 29, 2014

It’s been 49 years since I received my medical degree from the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and left the borough where I grew up. Since then, I’ve been a medical resident at Duke, an officer in the USPHS at the National Institutes of Health, a physician-scientist at Duke School of Medicine, a senior vice president at Genentech, and finally, Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of its Health System. People frequently ask me where I’m from. Despite having spent far more time in North Carolina than Brooklyn, my initial thought is always, “I’m from Brooklyn!” I was born in 1940 at Israel Zion Hospital, now known as Maimonides Medical Center, and grew up in the mixed Jewish/ Italian neighborhood of Bensonhurst. Other than a sojourn to a small liberal arts college in Maryland, all of my education occurred in the Brooklyn public schools. My parents were refugees from the pogroms in the Ukraine and following a brief stay in Philadelphia, set up home and shop in Brooklyn in about 1930. My father started his business with a push cart, and then Morris’ department store on 18th Avenue and 66th Street. For the first 25 years of my life, Brooklyn was the world to me. I recall my eighth grade civics teacher at Edward B. Shallow Junior High School mentioning that the United States was a Protestant country. I looked at my teacher in disbelief as our entire school had only one known Protestant—a Norwegian kid from Bay Ridge. Everyone else was either Italian or Jewish. Growing up in a one-bedroom

RALPH SNYDERMAN Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University

apartment in Brooklyn was hard but I learned self-reliance, persistence, toughness, speaking my mind, and at times being brutally honest. I have wonderful

grandstand at Ebbets Field. Fireworks near the parachute jump could be seen every Tuesday night from our top floor apartment on 67th Street. As a kid, we had Saturday matinees at the local theater on 64th Street, dinner on Sunday afternoons at Lundy’s in Sheepshead Bay, and rock and roll concerts in the Brooklyn Paramount. I learned the ethic of hard work in my father’s store, the Benson bagel bakery, and by blowing up balloons for dart throwers in Coney Island. I fondly recall the 25-cent rides on the Cyclone, seeing 18th Avenue decked out for Christmas, and neighbors hanging out the windows yelling at us kids, “I’m going to tell your mother on you” while we played punch ball, stoop ball, or stickball on narrow 67th Street. These are all part of the memories I have of Brooklyn when Brooklyn really was the world for many like me who were blessed to have been tempered in that caldron. I’ve had a wonderful career in medicine and biotechnology and credit growing up in Brooklyn as being a major foundation for everything that followed. Everything I’ve seen, done, or experienced emanates from the depth and breadth of my Brooklyn roots.

memories of summers in Coney Island and Brighton Beach with hot dogs and fries at Nathan’s, fun days at the Steeplechase, Washington Baths, and occasionally the cit yandstateny.com

Deborah Meier • Jennifer Jones Austin • Baratunde Thurston • Joseph Salvo Join us this fall for thought-provoking conversations, enlightening exhibitions, and engaging civic dialogues.

Program Highlights An Urban Education in Three Acts (Wed, Sept. 17th) | A discussion led by Deborah

Meier about the extreme challenges faced by low-income students in NYC public schools with a rap performance by former students.

Black Churches and the Civil Rights Movement (Thu, Sept. 18th) | Join Jennifer Jones

Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Organizations and daughter of the late Rev. William A. Jones, for a look at the significant legacy of Brooklyn pastors who dedicated their careers to civil rights.

45 A Discussion Gathering in the Great Hall Image Courtesy of Willie Davis

Program Participants in the BHS Library Image Courtesy of Willie Davis

Exploring Brooklyn’s Shifting Demographics (Thu, Oct. 2nd) | Discover the demographic forces that make Brooklyn so dynamic with Joseph

Salvo and Peter Lobo of the Population Division of the New York City Department of City Planning.

A Conversation About Conversations About Race (Wed, Nov. 19th) | Baratunde Thurston and Tanner Colby take a

thought-provoking and humorous look at the difficulties and importance of talking about race.

Exhibitions at BHS Brooklyn Abolitionists/In Pursuit of Freedom

She said, She said featured art by Lucille Fornasieri Gold (top), and Nell Painter (bottom)

Unlocking Two Revolutionary War Maps: 1770’s Ratzer Maps, Side-by-Side (Opening in August) We The People: The Citizens of NYCHA In Pictures + Words (Opening in September)

Brooklyn Abolitionists Image Courtesy ofJohn Halpern

Brooklyn Historical Society • 128 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 • 718-222-4111 • www.brooklynhistory.org cit yandstateny.com

city & state — March 24, 2014

She said, She said: Art and Inspiration in the Work of Nell Painter and Lucille Fornasieri Gold

CULTURAL EROSION: A SNAPSHOT OF FINE ART IN BROOKLYN

city & state — July 29, 2014

t’s Sunday afternoon, and Mo Kong, a 24-year-old Chinese MFA student at the Rhode Island School of Design, and I are sitting inside OUTLET Fine Art looking out the windows at passersby. Located on a remote stretch of Wilson Avenue, the gallery is one of the best in Bushwick. A kid comes out of the Dominican barbershop next door (which is doing brisk business); a homeless man pushes a grocery cart lined with a hefty bag; the French-speaking proprietor of the coffee shop next door jumps quickly on his moped to make a delivery and scoots away, ignoring two lanes of traffic. No one today has stopped to visit our exhibition, a mix of abstract painting and sculpture by four emerging and mid-career artists I curated, and hung five days before (its opening night replete with the usual sidewalk spillage and fanfare). Yet the passersby all take a moment to give a long, incredulous look at us sitting here, inside this fluorescent-lit, whitewashed, glass-fronted space, like we’re a couple of tropical fish in a bowl. And I imagine they are all forming the same question on their lips: What sort of exotic life do you lead?’ Well, here are our stats: Mo pays $1,000 a month to share an apartment in Bed-Stuy with three other guys; he is here on an F1 Visa, so he interns at OUTLET for free. I am 50, and after I leave OUTLET I will stop by another gallery in a ‘better,’ more gentrified section of Brooklyn to write a review of its show for a major art

what I wanted to do, and I’ve paid the price in personal comfort—the old “bohemian” formula. Yet over the last decade, something intrinsic to what makes life bearable—and more importantly, meaningful—for creative people like myself has disappeared. Mayor de Blasio had it spot-on in his “Tale of Two Cities” campaign message. There is a terrible divide between the elite and the day-to-day real people of this city, between the people who have hope and the people who don’t. But, to be honest, I am a part of the elite, and I don’t belong here, either. My problem is harder to parse out, its subtleties more refined. My tale is of Two Cultural Cities: one for the people who are comfortable trafficking in irony, and one full of people who are not. How would Albany even begin to understand this dilemma? It should. Brooklyn is the cultural capitol of New York—if not the world—and its infrastructure of artistic meaning and relevance to itself (something that is too hard for legislators to infiltrate and too complicated for grant-driven, non-profit organizations to fund) is eroding. Opening night of the “Frozen Karaoke” exhibit at OUTLET Fine Art in Bushwick. publication; later, I will return home to the one-bedroom apartment I share with my husband and 12-year-old son. The magazine will pay me $125 for my review—three months from now, if I bug them enough. And, if any of the works in our exhibition sell, I will

receive 10 percent. But I don’t expect that to happen. Our lives may seem exotic, but they are very, very real. I have been a Brooklyn-based art critic, curator, and artist for 20 years, championing this borough long before Mo ever heard of it. I have done

WHEN DID THE IRONIES BEGIN? Probably in the winter of 2000. Things were easier in the mid-1990s when I started covering what was then the burgeoning Brooklyn DIY art gallery scene for Time Out New York. Back then, editors were skeptical, and I’d have to verbally arm wrestle them cit yandstateny.com

OUTLET FINE ART

By SARAH SCHMERLER

cit yandstateny.com

their lofts and galleries, then decamp when local developers price them out. And to what end? $40 dinners sold on Wythe Avenue (where previously the “original gangsters” artists in the 1980s had to walk each other home in groups to stay safe). $14 cocktails on Flushing Avenue, the closest stop on the B57 bus to Regina Rex, today’s coolest gallery in the vast, warren-like building of 1717 Troutman Street where the consortium Yale-ies who run it put on shows of conceptual photography (Is it a photo or a painting?) that regularly get reviewed in the Times. Gentrification is such a given at this point, that frankly, the debates I have with fellow artists and curators aren’t so much about being priced out, as they are about purpose. We all know that we can’t afford to live here, but on a deeper level: What meaning does showing in Brooklyn still hold? THE INTERNET: COMMUNITY KILLER OR HELPER? Recently, I was on the phone with a well-respected dealer of 20th-century and contemporary photography, who opened up Arizona’s only full-time art gallery 34 years ago and has managed to hang on quite successfully. He said that he had just gotten off the phone with a collector in Minneapolis. “It’s 101 degrees outside on the sidewalk, but what does he care?” The Internet, he said, changed a great deal of how he did business, and allowed him to stay were he was. “Place is becoming irrelevant,” he told me. Things in Brooklyn are more complicated, and I’d wager that today making a go of it in Tucson is easier than my trying to sell a work on Wilson Avenue. Before the Internet, Brooklyn wasn’t so accessible, and that, frankly, was good. Now overprivileged white kids roam the same streets I pounded as a girl reporter, looking for “out of the way” places they know they will find with confidence to locations heretofore deemed inaccessible, mapped by subway stop, finding shows that have been prereviewed for their consumption with just that right amount of “edge.” The uncertainty has been taken out of art going, and in the contemporary arts, a certain amount of uncertainty is good. Google has taken it a step further. Researchers tell us that our keyword searches are memorized by Google and “optimized” so that we are assured, in future searches, of finding the sorts of results we’d most like to get. Ulti-

Cast Plaster Pellegrino Boxes by Lucas Moran, an installation at the “Frozen Karaoke” exhibit OUTLET. mately, this sort of cultural profiling results in a Balkanization, a creation of sub-communities of cultural preferences that is devastating to a geographic community at large. Ten years down the road, we may look up from our iPads to find we are living in a borough populated by more consumers than creators. We have become unwitting purveyors of the “Brooklyn Brand.” My suggestion to the Mayor: Reward curatorial integrity more than artistic product People talk a lot about Brooklyn artists, but they ought to be giving more credit to the people organizing the local art. In our postmodern era, display, as much as material, is considered a creative act. What’s more, it’s a vote of confidence. It’s kind of like buying a car from a reputable dealer, or looking for the ILGWU label—only in Kings County it would be a bit more, shall we say, idiosyncratic. Oftentimes these worthy people are, themselves, artists (like Amrhein); sometimes they are art historians (like my favorite former Brooklyn Museum curator, Charlotta Kotik, who has racked up more studio visits in the borough than anyone I know). Sometimes they are simply “independent curators,” like Jason Andrew, who also runs a not-for-profit gallery called Norte Maar out of his home, and “buys in” one artwork from every show he displays—a policy of investment I wish the Brooklyn Museum’s director, Arnold Lehman,

would implement. (Imagine the vote of confidence that would send to the borough! But, alas, he only cedes small areas of his three-block-long museum to living artists who pay taxes in Kings County.) They can be old or young, experienced or straight out of school. But they have to be invested in Brooklyn artists and have a vision, and be willing to be held accountable for what they hang and show. Well, kind of like us. Quitting time. No one’s come. But Mo and I aren’t surprised. We’ve spent our time tweeting and Facebooking the show, hopefully creating FOMO—fear of missing out—among the culturati, who we know will be so jealous of our zip code they will feel like they have to show up. Once outside, I will also make a point to talk to my neighbors, one by one, at the coffee shops, the local businesses, and introduce myself. “I’m a curator and I’m showing some art across the street that’s about ‘taste’ and ‘texture’ and ‘synesthesia’ and, frankly, it’s a little hard to take.” They will look at me incredulously at first and then I know they will smile. I’m a real community operator. “I’ll be there next week. Want to come in and see?” That’s the irony of my Two Cities. Try branding that. Sarah Schmerler is an art critic, curator, and artist based in Brooklyn. She can be found at TheSchmerler.tumblr.com.

city & state — July 29, 2014

SARA RUSSELL DEWEY

for any chance to give the borough ink. I’d walk back and forth under the elevated BQE to the South and North Sides of Williamsburg; I’d dodge dumpsters, climb flights of dimly lit stairs. My search was for professional, artist-run galleries with regular hours, and solid, well-thought-out shows. And I was well rewarded. Flipside, on Withers Street, a scant 80 feet from the highway, run by the husband-and-wife team of Tim Spelios and Caroline Cox, who gave over their personal living space to championing local talent, was one favorite. There, I discovered motorized sculptures by longtime local Ward Shelley that did absurd, yet impressive tasks, like a toaster with a soup-ladle arm” that tried to haul itself up to a shelf—and never quite made it; and the delicate spidery creations of Lynn Mullins made of fishing line filament and clear-plastic rain bonnet wrappers that dangled from the ceiling. Pierogi on North 9th Street (still considered W’burg’s emeritus gallery), run by Joe Amrhein, was another. Amrhein found a way to give more than 500 artists the chance to show in a limited space: flat files, full of works on paper, searchable alphabetically as well as by medium. It was an innovation that allowed fledgling collectors to acquire good art at reasonable prices, and many a gallery in Brooklyn has since started its own stable from those files. At that time, it was as much a risk to write about Brooklyn—if not more—than to show there, and I felt like I was shoulder-to-shoulder with the artists. Then, in February of 2000 Time Out decided to feature Williamsburg on its cover, and I wrote the lead article on my much-beloved galleries. The piece came out on a Thursday, and when Pierogi opened at noon the Saturday after there was a line of people waiting outside the door. New York Magazine and The New York Times ran similar stories soon after. As one longtime local curator Larry Walczak told me, “That was the beginning of the end.” I killed it. I invested in Brooklyn, and I helped to kill it at the same time. Only one of the galleries I mentioned remains—they either became successful and upgraded to Chelsea, or folded, priced out by skyrocketing rents. Brooklyn has had hundreds of galleries come and go over the ensuing 14 years, and we all know the story that’s unfolded in their wake: artists colonize “up-and-coming” areas with

THE BROOKLYN BRAND

By ERIC ADAMS

city & state — July 29, 2014

hat is the Brooklyn “brand”? The word conjures up thoughts of trendsetters in Williamsburg and beatmakers in Bed-Stuy, of brownstoners in Park Slope and Coney Island’s longstanding sideshow. It’s hip, it’s chic, it’s swagger through and through. And right now, it’s never been hotter. From microbrews to artisanal goodies, branding a product as “Brooklyn” is a recipe for financial success. The borough is currently the namesake for two prime-time television comedies and a chart-topping pop single. And would you believe that the most popular girl’s name beginning with “B” in 41 out of the 50 states is Brooklyn? Our notoriety has clearly been valuable to real estate markets as well, as median rents are at or near all-time highs in virtually every neighborhood, presenting challenges and opportunities alike. It’s clear that more than a tree grows in Brooklyn. The “brand” it has blossomed into means something positive and powerful to people across the globe. As incredible as that has been to achieve—especially considering where our borough once was (and was not)—it is only the beginning of the greater mission that now lies ahead of us. How do we take Brooklyn’s popularity and turn that into prosperity for all? How do we reconcile a borough where some communities thrive and others struggle to survive? To me, the answer lies in capitalizing on what has been the basis of our borough’s boom. More specifically, we

need to invest more of our public and private capital into our human capital. Brooklyn’s brand is its people, plain and simple. It is the resilience of residents who have lived through the bad years, the days of high crime and great storms, yet maintained their commitment to their communities. It is the can-do spirit of artists, innovators and entrepreneurs who have made this borough the launching pad for their dreams. It is the diversity that we see from Greenpoint to Gerritsen Beach, where the expression of cultures and creeds is loud and proud, creating a welcome mat for the whole world to find their little corner of home. The better Brooklynites do, the better Brooklyn and its brand will perform. That sounds intuitive, but in fact it is a sea change in approach from the trickle-down method that simply

does not work, whether it’s in regard to the American economy or the advancement of Brooklyn. According to data from the most recent census, our borough, which has long been a haven for the middle class, has the third-greatest income inequality of any county in New York, the most unequal state in the nation; in fact, Brooklyn also ranks third nationally by this measurement among sizable counties, behind only Manhattan and MiamiDade. Despite this “lofty” status, our borough’s median annual household income, as of 2012, is only $45,230, a paltry figure that reflects the struggle of families who can barely survive from paycheck to paycheck. Human capital investment requires connecting the incredible resources our borough possesses with the incredible needs of so many. We have the

workforce development and mentoring programs to tackle unemployment. We have the preventive health tools to meet the systemic challenges to our collective physical and mental wellbeing. We have organizations that address the holistic picture of a child’s education. It’s simply time that we invest basic dollars and cents to ensure that every opportunity for outreach, including public concerts and festivals, is used to get Brooklynites the services they need and deserve. The development of Brooklyn is like a train rolling down the tracks: There’s simply no stopping it now that it has achieved its full head of steam. Yes, there is no question that government, in partnership with everyday Brooklynites, has a key role to play in making sure that future growth is responsible, contextual and embraces all communities. Still, the fact is that we are attracting investment from far and wide, as well as big-name events (even, perhaps, the Democratic National Convention). That train doesn’t need any extra fuel from us, nor should we apply the emergency brake; it simply needs to be steered down the best path by its conductors: Brooklynites who are empowered with the tools they need to achieve their full potential. That is the American dream, a dream that will be one step closer to reality when it comes stamped with the world-famous Brooklyn brand. Adams is the 18th borough president of Brooklyn.

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city & state â&#x20AC;&#x201D; March 24, 2014

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FROM SHEEPSHE A D T O THE SENATE

city & state — July 29, 2014

huck Schumer has been a U.S. Senator since 1999 and New York’s senior Senator since 2001. Over all of his years of success on the national stage, Schumer has never left Brooklyn, the borough in which he was born and raised. A native of the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay, he attended Brooklyn public schools and was the valedictorian at James Madison High School—an institution that has produced an incredible number of prominent Americans, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Schumer’s current colleague, U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont. After graduating from Harvard, Schumer ran at the age of 23 to represent his area of Brooklyn in the New York State Assembly, and won. Since then the senator, now 63, has served continuously as an elected official, never once losing a race. From 1981 through 1998, he represented Brooklyn and Queens in the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, he lives in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope with his wife, Iris Weinshall, a vice chancellor at the City University of New York and former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. For this special issue of City & State, Editor-in-chief Morgan Pehme spoke with Sen. Schumer about—what else—Brooklyn! The following is an edited transcript. City & State: How has the borough changed since you were growing up in Brooklyn? Chuck Schumer: It’s changed dramatically. Its population was declining and people were leaving, mainly because of crime. Now crime is down and people are flocking to the borough—all kinds of people, from all over the world. You can go to Williamsburg and see it gentrified, but you can also go to East New York or Brownsville and see many more stores filled up and many more houses built. When I went to college and said I was from Brooklyn, my classmates said, “Don’t you get mugged all the time?” Thirty years later, when my kids went

C&S: Have those basketball courts changed? CS: Yes, we had to take a broom and get the broken bottles off the court before we played. Now they’re newly paved and they’re in much better shape. C&S: How has the neighborhood where you live now, Park Slope, changed over the years? CS: It’s much more gentrified. There were still fire escapes on a lot of the brownstones when we moved in back in 1983, because they had turned them into SROs [single room occupancy housing]. C&S: What is gone from Brooklyn that you miss most? CS: Ebinger’s, the old Brooklyn bakery that had the best cakes in the world. C&S: On a more serious note, do you think that Brooklyn is prepared to withstand another Superstorm Sandy? CS: It will be better prepared over the next few years with the work we’re doing.

A Q&A WITH

CHUCK SCHUMER to college and said they were from Brooklyn, a lot of their classmates said, “How’d you get to live in such a cool place?” C&S: You grew up in a middle class family in Brooklyn and were able to achieve the American Dream. Do you think working class people now are being frozen out of the borough, and that they might not have the same opportunities from which you benefited? CS: No. It’s just changed. Working class people are moving farther South, into Canarsie and Sheepshead Bay

and places like that. C&S: What are a few things about Brooklyn that you enjoy that some people might not know about? CS: I’ll tell you my two favorite places. One is the statue of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson by Cyclone field. Sometimes I ride my bike down there early on a Saturday morning. You can smell the ocean and it’s right near the parachute jump, which is one of the symbols of Brooklyn. The other place is the Marine Park basketball courts where I learned about life and spent my youth.

C&S: Lastly, do you have any favorite personal anecdotes about Brooklyn? CS: I occasionally speak at Brooklyn high school graduations and I tell the kids I went to Brooklyn public schools—PS 197, Cunningham [Junior High School] and [James] Madison [High School]—and from there I went to Harvard. And when I got into Harvard, I was scared. How was I going to compete with all those kids from the fancy private schools and the rich suburban communities? And when I got there, I found that the education I got in Brooklyn schools kept me in the ballpark. But I found I had something a lot of those people didn’t have: a knowledge of how the world works, a practical knowledge of getting things done with all kinds of people—call it “street smarts” for lack of a better word. And my education was every bit as good as theirs. cit yandstateny.com

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