Red Hook Star-Revue, February 2023

STAR REVUE

Yes Virginia, there is (still) a Community Board

There are many things that set New York City apart—its spirit, grit, bustle… and community boards. Only a city with such dense neighborhoods and opinionated residents could possibly give rise to so many hyper-local, active resident groups. And unlike in most cities, NYC residents have a unique opportunity to weigh in regularly on their neighborhood’s actions and developments, thanks to community boards.

Brooklyn is currently accepting applications for new community board members, so what better way to note the opportunity than by spreading the news about what these local entities do? Today we’re covering everything from what a community board is, to what Brooklyn Community Board 6 discussed at their last Executive Board meeting on January 11, 2023, along with information about how to get more involved.

Mid century launch

The precursor to community boards started in 1951 with the formation of Community Planning Councils

by Katherine Rivard

in Manhattan. The role and name morphed over the years until, in 1989, the city landed on the community board system that we have today. Board members in 59 community boards across the five boroughs (18 of which are in Brooklyn) meet monthly to discuss topics like land use and liquor licenses, and subcommittees meet further to discuss specific topics like transportation/public safety and the city’s budget. Residents, even if they aren’t board members themselves, are welcome to attend meetings and participate, something they often take advantage of to air grievances and spread awareness about local happenings.

Each board has up to 50 volunteer members appointed by the Borough President, half of which also have nominations from the City Council. Every 2 years, half the board is replaced (hence the applications that are currently open for community boards across Brooklyn). While community boards serve in a purely advisory capacity and have no authority to

make or enforce laws, local officials usually take their recommendations seriously when deciding how their office will weigh in on an issue.

Community Board 6 covers Red

The Mayor has a plan

Last month, Mayor Adams stunned the Red Hook community by unilaterally announcing that the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal will be housing asylum seekers, more specifically, 1000 men, many of them relocated from a Manhattan hotel.

Red Hook Mutual Aid (RHMA) jumped into action to try and help the new population. RHMA is a

by Brian Abate

group of volunteers who up until now have mostly helped those in need via telephone banking. Now they are in the midst of collecting clothing to give to the migrants. Local reaction is mixed, with some on Facebook voicing enmity, and many others wanting to be supportive of our new neighbors. We spoke to a few locals to get some observations. Frankie from

F&M Cafe on Van Brunt told us “I haven’t actually seen new people in the neighborhood so far. I see them all the time in the news but so far that’s all. The last I heard was a lot of people were protesting because they want to stay in Manhattan.”

Nisha Howard, who works at Food Bazaar, told us that she has seen some of the migrants who are new (continued on next page)

Hook, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Gowanus, Cobble Hill, and Columbia Street Waterfront District. At this time, the board has 47 members (three vacancies) that, according to the NYC Department of City Planning’s interactive tool (a link is available on the Board’s website), represent a district with approximately 131,500 residents. While some boards opt to customize the look of their websites, Community Board 6 sticks with the pre-made colors and formatting. Meeting minutes have not been uploaded since 2019, which Mike Racioppo, District Manager — a paid position he has held for almost 5 years, explained is because he and the board do not control the website. Instead, he must send materials to a generic City email, at which point the materials are supposed to be uploaded to the website. Nonetheless, the website does feature a list of board members, information about each of the committees, and a link to sign up for the board’s email newsletter. The email is filled with community updates and event listings from local groups. Community members can also stop by the board’s Baltic Street office by reaching out to Racioppo. There are still no regular public hours but you can make an appointment with Racioppo by calling (718) 643-3027

The meeting for Community Board 6 in January was held virtually, as were all community board meetings across the city, due to a recent uptick in COVID cases. Having previously attended in-person meetings, I can attest to the different atmosphere of Zoom. While the virtual meetings make it (continued on page 13)

Community Board 6 met in person last September at the Van Alen Institute, 303 Bond Street, where they will be making a return appearance on February 8. (photo by Fiala)

Eric Adams shows off the gaming facilities at Red Hook's new shelter. (photo courtesy of NYC Immigrant Affairs)

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REFUGEES AT THE CRUISE TERMINAL

(continued from page 1)

to the neighborhood come into the supermarket to find out about job opportunities. One worker from Big Dawg Party Rentals, located nearby, said “What’s going on at the Cruise Terminal will definitely affect business but we’re just not sure in which way yet. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Carolina Salguera from PortSide NY mentioned this in some of her Facebook postings: “One group of six  Venezuelans left after going inside the (Cruise Terminal facility) saying ‘we’ve been working and have things… we are trying to improve our lives and going from the Watson to this is not… so we’re going to the subway.’  Some of those six said they were already working and ‘how am I going to get to work from this place.’ Time will tell if many men coming from ‘the Watson’ will feel the same way. Men being moved here directly from the border may feel differently.”

She was referring to Manhattan's Watson Hotel, which is where many of the refugees were transferred from.

Red Hook's local politicos sent out a press release saying:

“Last night, dozens of asylum seekers destined for the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal relief center slept outside the Watson Hotel where they had been sheltering previously. Asylum seekers reported the center was freezing and had no blankets available."

“We call on this administration to ex-

plore all available solutions, including heeding our call to work with community partners and local elected officials to help identify brick-and-mortar facilities to temporarily house asylum seekers. We are proud of how our communities have been stepping in and stepping up to fill in the gaps and provide the things our newest New Yorkers need. Since the beginning, we have and remain ready to work with the Mayor’s Office to welcome asylum seekers and ensure everyone can access dignified and safe shelter.”

On Jan. 31, James Neimeister, Avilés’ Communications and Organizing Manager added “I think a lot of this confusion could have been addressed if we had been in communication with the [mayor’s] administration before the announcement but now it’s playing out publicly. I understand that they’re responding to a crisis in real time but I think they just assumed everyone would go along with the announcement without working with us ahead of time.

“The real lesson is that this is what happens when you don’t do that work ahead of time. We’re left to figure it out publicly. The city should have a plan that’s rock solid and in order to do that you talk to your organizations and elected officials so you bring people in rather than leaving them boxed out.”

“From day one, our office has been assisting Red Hook Mutual Aid and organizing efforts to support community residents and asylum seekers,” State Senator Andrew Gounardes told us. “Our office has been in constant communication with and physically assisting community organizing efforts

on the ground, as well as coordinating with other local representatives, and we intend to continue being as responsive as we possibly can to the needs of all impacted.”

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Looking at the Cruise Terminal from the outside. The plan is to house refugees until May 1, when ships are due to arrive. (Abate photo)

“I think a lot of this confusion could have been addressed if we had been in communication with the (Adams) administration before the announcement, but now it’s playing out publicly."

Opinion: Words by George

NYC apartments were never really "affordable"

The new beautiful people who love to equate social justice with unconstrained real estate development love to say that everybody could get a great place to live whereever they want if only developers were allowed to build anyplace they wanted to, as tall as they like.

If you don't believe me, go to the website of the supposed non-profit, Open New York (opennewyork.city). They proudly state: "For too long, residents in the wealthiest neighborhoods have abused zoning laws to prevent new construction."

If you look at their Wikipedia page, you will find out that the initial impetus for this group, which was brought to NY to promote the new fad of Yimbyism back in 2016, was the closing of Long Island College Hospital.

If you remember, Cobble Hill had a hospital for 150 years until the Cuomo administration, in a brief alliance with mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, plotted its downfall. After a small battle, the LICH real estate was given to a favored real estate developer, Fortis, who immediately came before a stunned Cobble Hill Association meeting with a plan to build many large residential skyscrapers on and around the property in exchange for a few grandiose parks. You can actually read what I wrote about that in 2015 by going online here https://www.star-revue.com/cobblehill-to-change-forever-as-lich-becomesskyscrapers-by-george-fiala/

Anyway, Cobble Hill decided not to give in to the Fortis blackmail and did not allow their neighborhood to be rezoned, so Fortis was forced to build according to the existing zoning regulations,

by George Fiala

wringing every last inch of buildable space by doing what every developer does, finding every possible loophole.

The Open New York Yimby movement has succeeded in turning real estate developer's dreamy wishlists into what is now considered established scientific fact, that the more towers are built, the cheaper apartments will become.

Well, I hate to break the news, but I've been around now for almost 70 years, and for pretty much all that time building here has proceeded at breakneck pace, with the net result of ever increasing rents. The only exceptions have been during times of high crime and heavy disease. In my opinion, the whole stop and frisk movement of our police force was driven by the demand of the real estate industry to sterilize the city in order to create a better condo selling atmosphere.

You can start even before my long ago birth by looking at our own Red Hook Houses, one of the first NYCHA projects. Before 1906 there were no building regulations in NYC. Combined with immigration, this led to the construction of tenement buildings that had no indoor bathrooms and were firetraps. Every year brought increasing deaths due to apartments burning up.

By the 1920's, a big social movement was afoot to create safe apartments for the less well off. The problem was that poor people could only afford about $12 a month rent, and the apartments in the safer buildings rented for $50. Mayor LaGuardia was a good friend of FDR, and he convinced FDR, using the Depression as a way to get the public to approve it, to put into place Louis Heaton Pink's 1925 plan for lower and mid-

dle income subsidized housing.

When the Red Hook Houses opened in 1939, thousands were happy to leave their tenement slums and moved in.

Fast forward to my first NYC apartment, in 1978. I had gotten a job making $75 a week at the Villager newspaper, with offices in the West Village. The closest I could afford to live from work was on St. Marks Place near the park, where I split a $175 railroad flat with a college friend. I could have saved some rent by taking a back apartment with the bathroom in the hall, buy my friend Harry said to go for the "lux."

My plan was to move to the West Village the next year, when I'd get a raise. But the rent increases always outpaced my raises, and I refused to go corporate just to live in a fancier place.

So I stayed in the East Village, rent going up just a little each year, because this was a rent stabilized apartment. Which is why it was affordable. The regulation is only for buildings built before 1973, and most of the apartments that remain are held off the market because the building owners are hoping the law will change. Open New York is only interesting in building new towers, so they have no position on this.

My next move was to a somewhat fancier Boerum Hill co-op, which was only possible because my mom gave me $10,000 after my dad died. I had somehow gotten married and had a kid, but I also developed deep debt and eventually my wife told me to leave. I left her the apartment, which she sold for 10 times what I first paid for it about 25 years later.

Because I not only stayed away from the typical corporate life, where you could

kind of afford to live nicely in NY, but started my own business, where I got paid last, I continued living in apartments commensurate with what I could afford, in places such as Windsor Terrace, Boerum Hill and Bay Ridge.

In Boerum Hill, I had a duplex in a brownstone, but the staircase hung precariously and the plumbing barely worked. There was plenty of heat because the landlord lived downstairs. But he died of AIDS which sent me first to a rented room across from Prospect Park and then to Windsor Terrace. I didn't really live alone during these years, I cohabited with large numbers of cockroaches. Windsor Terrace winters were spent sleeping with my coat on, because there was often no heat. In my Bay Ridge basement apartment, floodwaters from the upstairs sewage system occasionally visited.

So yes, I have been able to afford living in the City all these years, but if you are not wealthy you had to make sacrifices that today's college-educated youth will not abide. No German marble kitchen counter tops, Building residential skyscrapers in all the boroughs will not bring social justice to the poor or working class people What they will bring are nice places to live for the children of the wealthy who are just starting out in life, investment vehicles for the super-wealthy, and a steady profit stream for developers.

Cartoon Section with Marc and Sophie

SHORT SHORTS:

Garbage cans for all.

You can adopt a garbage bin by going to the Adopt a Litter Basket page on 311’s website and following the directions there. You can also call 311 and speak to a representative directly about any questions.

“Individuals or groups may sponsor City litter baskets to prevent trash overflow in high-traffic areas. The sponsor must monitor the basket and change the liner when the basket is full. The Department of Sanitation (DSNY) provides liner bags and a collection schedule.”

Cory at Wet Whistle Wines brought this to our attention, as he figured out how to replace the garbage cans that would go mysteriously missing from his Van Brunt corner. He said that after calling, Sanitation came the next day with new trashcans!

Our new congressman gets going quickly in Washington

Congressman Dan Goldman was announced as a Vice Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force for the 118th Congress by Chair of the Task Force Congressman Mike Thompson.  “Combating gun violence and holding gun manufacturers accountable was a centerpiece of my campaign and will be a top priority of mine in Congress,” Goldman said. “Gun violence is an inexcusable scourge on our nation and I am looking forward to getting to work with Rep. Mike Thompson and members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to save lives and protect our communities.”

The House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force is a bipartisan group of lawmakers working to find common-sense solutions to reduce gun

violence in the United States. The Task Force was formed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and has been instrumental in passing a number of gun violence prevention measures. The Task Force numbered over 180 members of Congress in the 117th Congress.

The Gun Violence Prevention Task Force played a leadership role in securing the most significant gun violence prevention legislation in 30 years with the passage of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, higher funding to run the background checks program and research gun violence, and programs to break the cycle of violence.

Thompson said, “Gun violence must be a top priority for the next Congress, and essential to this effort is the involvement of the new leaders in Congress. I am thrilled to have Congressman Dan Goldman join the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force as a Vice Chair. Dan has been a passionate and consistent advocate for gun violence prevention and he will be a great addition to the Task Force.”

Congressman Dan Goldman served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. He took on some of the office’s biggest and most consequential cases: prosecuting gun trafficking and violent gangs, mafia bosses and Russian organized crime, and landmark insider trading and major corporate fraud cases. In 2019, Dan Goldman served as lead counsel for the impeachment investigation of President Donald J. Trump for abusing his office for his personal interest regarding Ukraine. In that role, Goldman led depositions and questioned witnesses in public hearings, and testified before the House Judiciary Committee.

Red Hook jazz Hicks and Union is the spot

A few years ago, Mike Cobb wrote about Nick Green in the Star-Revue. Nick runs the music portion of the Flying Lobster bar.

"As to his vision for the venue, Green explains, “I wanted to take charge here because they’re fewer and fewer places to play in NYC. My goal is to have a space where the many musicians with whom I’m in touch can

LETTERS

On George's column

Very interesting opinion that may have worked in the 1990s. However, we’ll never know since the idea was never entertained/implemented by President Clinton’s administration.

My opinion is that because of the deep seeded mistrust of Americans by Russians society at large, its practically impossible for your theory to work. Americans were considered as liberators at the end of WW2 and welcomed with open hands all over devasted Europe. Exact opposite will be the case if Ukraine wins. Secondly, America no longer has the supreme economic power it possesses at the end of the WW2 to re-

create, explore, and develop their voices.“

“After I graduated college, my father was looking for somebody to take over the wine bar. He said, ‘I’m fed up with this; nobody’s taking it seriously. I’m gonna find somebody else to run it.’ I told him to give me a shot, because I saw that we have something special here,” says Green.

With the help of his uncle Ben, who runs Jolie Cantina on Smith Street, Green was able to create an intimate setting that has a classic Brooklyn feel, as if it had always been there. “He gave me ideas on how to make it cozy,” adds Green. He also met his girlfriend Lindy at the bar five years ago. “There’s magic and romance there.”

Magic and romance were on display the last two Saturday nights in January, as Nick brought in two sets of musicians, and played the kind of music you would pay big money to hear at places like Smoke and the Village Vanguard in Manhattan. He will be back every Saturday night in February, with two or three sets of music starting at 7 pm. The food is good too, coming from the kitchen of Le Petite Crevette next door. Lobster are delicious, as is the onion soup or chowder, and the small entrees including chicken nachos.

Don't forget to tip the band on your way out!

build Russia. And lastly, for Ukraine to win, you and I must entertain the possibility that we won’t be around to talk/see what happens next, NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON.—Olufemi Falebita, Boerum Hill

On Lauterbach's Very cool. Squirrels From Hell are playing on Han 21st at Pete's Candy Store. 9 PM.- Doug

To the reader

We could use a few more letters. You can email them directly to the publisher, gbrook@pipeline.com, or write them on our website, www. star-revue.com.

Thanks!

The intimate setting at the Flying Lobster. Red Hook's Nick Green on sax.

Part 2 in our series: Breathing diseases in the neighborhood

After studying “Asthma Alley” in the Bronx last month, this month the focus is on Red Hook, specifically whether it has higher asthma rates than the rest of the city, and if so why?

NYU Langone's Dr. Lorna Thorpe is a professor in the Department of Population Health who conducts research on health equity and the impacts of policies. For the last five years, she has studied New York City’s smokefree housing policy. The rule went into effect on July 30, 2018, and required that all public housing authorities be smoke-free on their premises. This meant people could no longer smoke inside their own apartments or in hallways.

Mold and vermin are known to exacerbate asthma and of course smoking is another big factor that leads to respiratory illnesses.

“We measured nicotine concentration in the air and also air particles” said Thorpe. “We monitored the health impacts and we monitored how well the policy rolled out. We selected 10 high-rise public housing buildings and 11 comparison buildings which were similar but privately managed."

“We did a survey before the policy went into effect and learned that about 15 percent of people smoked in both types of buildings. We made sure they were similar demographically in terms of how many people were Black and Hispanic, and also that they were similar in terms of how many children were living there. One thing we learned before the policy went into effect is more NYCHA residents reported smelling smoke coming into their apartments from outside.”

by Brian Abate

in secondhand smoke and nicotine levels, especially in the hallways.”

The next aspect of the study was examining health outcomes. To do so, they needed a bigger sample size so they looked at all of NYCHA as well as Census Block Groups that have no NYCHA buildings, but are similar in terms of building footprints and demographics.

Though there weren’t any big differences between the two groups in the early stages, Thorpe “doesn’t believe that tells the full story, because it takes time. Part of the challenge is that a lot of the databases have long data lives so we’re still waiting for 2021 data even though it’s 2023.”

Based on the 2020 data, the study did find that children in NYCHA developments experienced an average of 2.8 additional asthma-associated outpatient visits and 1.7 additional asthmaassociated emergency department visits per 1,000 children each month, relative to children in the comparison group.”

Could be anything

There are a variety of factors that contribute to respiratory illnesses (many of which are common in the Red Hook Houses) but it can be difficult to determine which factors play the biggest roles.

“We know indoor air quality includes a lot of factors such as mold and vermin,” Thorpe said. “Then we also know outdoor pollution plays a role as well. I don’t think there’s been a study on what is contributing more between indoor vs outdoor in NYCHA specifically but we do know that some neighborhoods persistently have worse air quality than others.”

Dr. Miriam Vega of the Joseph P. Addabbo Family Health Center also spoke about outdoor pollution.

“It’s tough to tell how much of a factor that truck pollution plays but I live in the area and at times walking down Van Brunt St., it’s backed up with trucks,” Vega said. We definitely feel that the quality of air is getting worse here.

“There were a lot of patients in Red Hook coming in with COVID who also had asthma. Unfortunately, there were a lot of very sick patients. One of the things I’m happy about is the vaccination rate in Red Hook is very good compared to some of our other locations.”

NYU Langone's Dr. Paolo Pina is embarking on a new asthma initiative with the goal of helping control children’s asthma. Though the initiative isn’t only for Red Hook, a lot of the patients are from the neighborhood.

that and in this case, one of the issues was mold in the bathroom. I wrote a letter to the landlord for the mother highlighting how important it was to get the repairs done and they got the work done. I now haven’t seen them in three months so I think it made a big difference.”

Columbia University did an asthma study on more than 700 pregnant women and babies in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx 10 years ago and came up with a few important takeaways.

“Exposure shortly after birth to ambient metals (like nickel, vanadium, and carbon) is associated with wheezing and coughing in children aged two and younger…High cockroach and mouse allergen levels are significantly associated with asthma prevalence among children and adults… Exposure to secondhand smoke, combined with levels of air pollution found in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx, increases children’s risk of developing asthma.”

The team conducting the study then put air filters in the apartments every six months to measure the air quality using 200 apartments in the NYCHA buildings and 200 apartments in the comparison buildings as well as hallways.

“The data showed higher levels of nicotine in the NYCHA buildings before the policy went into effect,” Thorpe said. “We know it took a long time for the policies to be enforced given there wasn’t federal funding for NYCHA to enforce it. However, over time we did start to see more enforcement and there are programs helping smokers to quit.

“In the first year after the policy went into effect, there was no change in the air quality in the NYCHA buildings. We kept monitoring though and we have now seen a sustained reduction

“We do believe that kids from the Red Hook Houses have higher rates of asthma than kids in other areas. We know that housing projects always have high rates of asthma and the Red Hook Houses are the largest in Brooklyn. You combine that with all of the trucks and traffic and you know it’s not going to be good.”

According to Vega, asthma diagnoses make up 54 percent of all respiratory illness diagnoses at the Addabbo Center in Red Hook, while bronchitis and pharyngitis make up another 30 percent. There has been an increase in the total number of all three respiratory ailments.

Vega also said that there aren’t many other medical offices in the area, and talked about what it was like at the Addabbo Center during the worst of the pandemic.

“It was very tough because asthma is one of the pre-existing conditions that makes it more likely for someone to get very sick from COVID,” Vega said.

“We’ve partnered with the American Lung Association and the New York State Department of Health to implement this program called ‘Project Breathe,’” Pina said. “We’re in the initial phases of it right now so our project coordinators are going to each of our sites to train staff on the basics of asthma management. We’re going to be providing education and we’ll also be tracking how many times children have to go to the emergency room and keeping track of how often they’re using medication, and then working to make sure their asthma is under control. We’re also looking at mold, stress, vermin, and working on dealing with those factors as well so it’s very comprehensive.”

A 2018 Red Hook Community Health Needs and Assets Assessment (CHNAA) was conducted with more than 600 participants. It found that 45 percent of survey participants rated asthma as one of the most important health issues in Red Hook. Additionally, 23 percent of residents in the Red Hook Houses surveyed by the Red Hook Initiative in 2016 had at least one family member with asthma.

The environment is key

“One of the frustrating things is medication alone isn’t enough to treat asthma if someone is going to continue to get exposed to these factors that can exacerbate their asthma,” Pina said. “We have to address their living environment in order to make a big dent in asthma care for children, like so many living in the Red Hook Houses.

“I also had one family who was coming in regularly with a cough and we were doing medications but it wasn’t controlled. One of the things we do often is partner with community organizations to do a home visit. We did

The New York State Department of Health also published statistics on asthma (after collecting data from 2017-2019) including looking at emergency department visits by ZIP Code for children 17 years of age and under. For 11231, which includes Red Hook, the rate of emergency visits was 148.3 per 10,000 which is significantly higher than in any of the four other ZIP Codes that surround 11231. Directly next to 11231 is 11215, which includes Park Slope, and the rate of emergency visits there was just 50.2 per 10,000. The results were similar for those aged 18-64 and those aged 65 and older. Studies do show that Red Hook has higher asthma rates than most other neighborhoods In New York City, although there are even higher asthma rates in some neighborhoods in the South Bronx. Data also shows that there are higher asthma rates in the Red Hook houses than in the rest of the neighborhood. However, it is unclear which of the factors that trigger asthma (smoking, mold, vermin, truck pollution, stress) plays the biggest role in the high rates.

The biggest takeaway from the doctors who have treated patients with asthma here is they want to eliminate as many of those factors as they can when treating their patients, rather than just providing medication.

“We know indoor air quality includes a lot of factors such as mold and vermin,” Thorpe said.

“Then we also know outdoor pollution plays a role as well."

Dr. Miriam Vega, CEO of the Addabbo Health Center says they treat many asthma cases in Red Hook.

Dr. Lorna Thorpe is a research professor at NYU Langone who has studied the effects of smoking rules at NYCHA.

Hamilton Avenue footbridge gets an upgrade

After advocacy from PS 676 students started three years ago, the new and improved Hamilton Avenue footbridge opened with a ribbon cutting on a rainy day in January.

Ten students, along with Council member Alexa Aviles and Principal Priscilla Figueroa celebrated the completion of the renovation with a ribbon cutting. The bridge is now safer, more inviting to cross and is cleaner as well.

In 2019, the footbridge renovation idea started to come to fruition when the PS 676 fifth graders got an assignment to find a problem in their community and think of ways they could advocate to improve it.

According to Parent Coordinator Marie Hueston, they walked around the neighborhood looking for ideas. During their walk, they crossed the footbridge and noticed trash, poor lighting and holes in the pavement where you could see the highway below.

Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz in 2019 encouraged the fifth graders to write to Governor Cuomo, so that is what they did. They also wrote to the Commissioner of the NY State Department of Transportation. The push was rewarded with $3 million in state funding.

DOT Officials came to look at the

by Nathan Weiser

bridge in November 2019 and the students led the tour.

The renovation plan included upgrading the bridge’s lighting and fencing, fixing the holes, adding directional signs and putting bike corrals in place at each end of the bridge to discourage bikes from speeding. Handrails along the path were installed.

Zelda DeZayas, who is in the sixth grade, thinks that the bridge is much better than before and likes the increased features. She takes the bridge to get to and from school.

“I was here when they first started renovating it and it was really weird and kind of bad,” DeZayas said. “The other part was not accessible and people would have to stop for each other. But now there are higher fences and there is so much space.”

“I think it is way better than before because it is safer than before,” Amiya Baez, another sixth grader, said.

The students were asked if the improved footbridge makes them want to find out what is in the other neighborhood and DeZayas confidently said yes.

“Who would not want to look into a piece of another community when the entrance is so accessible and available,” Zelda said.

Heather Pacheco, who is in sixth grade like the other students who spoke, has taken the footbridge often growing up. She liked that the fifth graders pushed to get the bridge fixed.

“I really like that you guys chose to do that, and when I was younger me and my dad came this way and the bridge was messed up,” Pacheco said. “It looked bad but now that it is new it looks way better than it used to. I like that it is accessible for everyone.”

The kids were asked what lesson they would want to share with other students and the rest of the community based on their advocacy and achievement.

“No matter what age you are, you can do anything,” Baez said, which was followed by cheers.

“If you see something that needs to be changed in your community, no matter your age, don’t be afraid to speak up and do it,” DeZayas said.

The renovation officially began in 2021. Over the summer of 2021, Monica Morales from Monica Makes it Happen on PIX 11 News did a piece highlighting the renovation and the advocacy of the students, and she returned the day of the ribbon cutting.

Right next to the renovated footbridge

on the Red Hook side there is an area that used to be a parking lot. Their next project is to turn it into a park. Aviles, who is the representative for Red Hook and Sunset Park, said she heard stories about the students getting together and making this happen. “If you stay committed you can materialize the community that you want,” Aviles told the students. “Remember that everything is possible and we deserve the best. We deserve a beautiful bridge with dignity and a beautiful community with dignity.”

“On behalf of New York City Council District 38, I want to say thank you for being active community members and fighting for our community,” Aviles said. “I look forward to partnering with you on our next project.

The ribbon cutting. The Council Member is in the red cap. (photo by Weiser)

“We Miss the B71”: CB6 Residents Call for Bus Line Restoration, Sound Off on MTA’s Proposed New Bus Network in Brooklyn

Bus riders in Community Board 6 (CB6) had a lot to get off their chests when it came to commenting on the draft plan for the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Their feedback, along with Assembly Members Robert Carroll’s and Jo Anne Simon’s input, was collected at a public community workshop specifically geared toward CB6 on January 26, one of the 18 virtual workshops scheduled for each community district in Brooklyn between January and March.

Released in December 2022, the draft plan is part of a long-term citywide redesign of the bus network and outlines both minor and major adjustments to the current Brooklyn bus network. Such adjustments include adding nine new routes, straightening routes, enhancing interborough service, improving service frequencies on 24 lines, and right-sizing the distance between bus stops.

Two new routes being proposed in Red Hook specifically are the B81 (a 7.1-mile-long route that will run between Red Hook and Midwood) and the B27 (a 3.4-mile-long route will connect Red Hook to Vinegar Hill/ Brooklyn Navy Yard, replacing existing B57 service).

Assembly Member Carroll voiced concerns on proposed service cuts to the B103 (a “very popular bus that a lot of people rely on”); the remov-

by Erin DeGregorio

al of the stop in front of P.S. 889/M.S. 890 that was requested by the school; the removal of stops along 5th Avenue on the B63 route “that may create burdensome distance for seniors to walk”; termination of the B69 for Windsor Terrace and Kensington; and eliminated service near K280 and Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School on the B61 line.

“This is a critical busline for students,” Assembly Member Carroll noted on the later issue. “I really want to make sure we’re really careful about this line. Again, it says the B81 is going to serve this route, but we must make sure this service is as good as the B61.”

“Any Plans to Bring Back the B71 on Union?”

After MTA officials reviewed the massive proposal, the Zoom room was divided into two breakout rooms to discuss local route proposals serving the community district. Some attendees argued that families with children would get shortchanged with the relocation of routes and elimination of stops. “Please leave the B61 as is,” said Nicole, a local mother who has a middle schooler. “If you change it, it will become a timely matter. The children that attend schools along the route will have issues in their schedules.”

Many also passionately pleaded for the return of the B71. Said local Marc Korashan, “Please restore the bus on Union Street as Smith Street and Court Street are both shopping and

dining destinations.”

“I agree [with] the need for the B71 to relieve rush hour, single occupancy vehicle traffic congestion along local streets in Park Slope,” added local Gregory Homatas.

“We need bus service back on Union Street,” said local Eric Kochhar who noted the impending Gowanus rezoning, which will bring more people to the area. “There is just no good alternative without it.”

“There seems to be no outreach done in the neighborhood of Red Hook,” commented Emmitt Mendoza-Gaspar, Chief of Staff for Assemblymember Marcela Mitaynes.

Hello, Manhattan?

Dave Lutz, author of the “Citywide Greenways Plan,” noted that the stated purpose of the new bus plan is to speed buses and move passengers more directly to their destinations.

“But, after seeing the new bus plan, you have to ask, ‘Is Red Hook included in those goals?’” he pondered.

Lutz believes the proposed bus route changes in Red Hook “offer a one-time opportunity to accomplish an agenda item that has been a priority here for more than 25 years—a direct local bus through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to Manhattan.” Red Hook and Columbia Waterfront residents, he says, have been requesting this even before the Union Street bus was eliminated in 2010 due to budget cuts and low ridership.

“For B61 passengers, things have gotten worse over the years,” Lutz told RHSR on Jan. 9 ahead of the Jan. 26 meeting. “Since the recent BQE lane closure, Columbia Street has been added to existing traffic jams on Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street before we transfer to the subway. Expected growth of warehouse, cruise ship, and container port business and a new large pre-k school being built here will further clog our narrow streets, making a direct route to Manhattan even more imperative.”

Because the new proposed B81 bus route would follow the same B61 travel path from the Red Hook ferry terminal to Prospect Park as well as follow the B69 travel path on McDonald Avenue, Lutz believes this could serve as the perfect opportunity to allow bus service from downtown Brooklyn to Red Hook Houses and then to Lower Manhattan. “The B81 would cover the rest of the present B61 route to the park and beyond,” Lutz explained. “The connection to Manhattan could save locals up to a half hour of travel time. This change would eliminate duplicate service, and improve service to riders with or without a short extension of B81 service to Union Street.”

Next Steps

Nicholas Roloson, assistant director of government community relations at MTA, reiterated multiple times that (continued on next page)

THE STAR-REVUE HAS TWO OPENINGS:

1 - DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALESPERSON. The job involves meeting neighborhood store-owners and educate them about the wonderful goodwill they will get by advertising in the local newspaper. Another aspect is to talk to bigger corporations such as hospitals and schools to tell them that this is the perfect place to get their messages across to the people they are serving. You get paid with a percentage of what you sell, which is called a commission. This is a part-time job to supplement your income - you decide on the hours.

2 - WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO LIVES IN NYC PUBLIC HOUSING, preferably Red Hook or Gowanus, to write about things going on where you live. You do not need any experience. As long as you can put on paper interesting stories that our readers will want to read, you are our person. You don't have to be a great writer to start - see how we edit your stuff and learn from it. This is a free-lance position, meaning part-time.

For both positions call George at 917 652-9128 or email me at gbrook@pipeline.com

Revel to recharge in Red Hook

In 2024, Red Hook will have a new facility that will be a charging hub for Revel and help the environment.

It was recently announced that Revel received a $7 million New York Clean Transportation Prize award, and through this award the Revel Red Hook Superhub, or Red Hook Recharge Zone, will be built.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), awarded this grant in a competition. NYSERDA works with the Department of Public Service and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We have identified a couple of locations but they are pending analysis from ConEd,” Revel's spokesperson Rubinson said. “Con Ed has to do an analysis of the ability to bring power to a given site. These are the processes that can affect the timeline.”

“Any kind of power upgrades, we have to understand what is entailed,” Rubinson continued. “The good thing is we have been talking to ConEd since even before we won the project, so the work is well on its way.”

Revel is partnering with Green City Force and Empire Clean Cities who will provide training at the site to local residents. The Superhub will have 20 ultrafast charging stalls and a multi-

by Nathan Weiser

use community center where the job training will take place.

Besides Green City Force and Empire Clean Cities, Revel has been working with the Red Hook Initiative who will do community engagement (although most probably not in conjunction with this paper, unfortunately.)

Residents of Red Hook will be prioritized for the on site jobs at the Red Hook Recharge Zone. The training that will be done on site will help local residents be prepared for other Revel sites or with other EV companies.

In addition to the green job training programs that their partner Green City Force will be leading, they will also help hire local full-time EV rideshare drivers as well as people who will run and maintain the Red Hook Superhub.

The main feature of the Recharge Zone is that there will be 20 fast charging stalls, which means that an electric car can be fully charged in 10-20 minutes. However, there is an added benefit that will help Red Hook if the grid is down.

“They are all going to be vehicle to grid enabled, so that allows people to get their charge, but it also allows the vehicle to discharge energy back into the grid in high demand,” Rubinson said.

They are exploring grid scale battery storage, which can help in the sum-

The Best Slice in Red Hook

mer. “Similar to the vehicle-to-grid enabled charger, this battery storage would be able to collect energy, store it and then release when people need power the most, particularly on hot summer days when the grid is particularly strained,” Rubinson added.

Additionally, the Recharge Zone will have solar power. They are installing solar canopies over the 20 charging stalls, which will allow the site to act as a microgrid, connecting solar, battery and bidirectional vehicle-to-grid chargers.

New York State has a goal of increasing the number of EV charging sta-

tions in NY to 50,000 in order to get 850,000 zero emission vehicles on the road by 2025.

The Recharge Zone is Revel coming full circle. Their first facility, the electric Moped share program, still exists on Bowne Street. Revel thinks Red Hook is great and wants to make a difference in the neighborhood.

Revel chose Red Hook for the Recharge Zone since the neighborhood lacks reliable access to electric vehicle charging and it experiences higher-than-average levels of air pollution compared to the rest of Brooklyn and the city overall.

GETTING THE BUSES ROLLING

(continued from previous page)

the agency will sift through the publics’ feedback, which will inform and shape the Proposed Final Plan. Expected to be released sometime later this year, the Proposed Final Plan will be followed by another round of public outreach.

“I encourage the public to review the draft plan and participate in the engagement process so that the MTA can fulfill its goal of a better bus network for Brooklyn,” said Assembly Member Simon.

If you missed attending the CB6-specific outreach event last month and would like to have a say on the proposed plan, submit your feedback at contact.mta.info/s/forms/bus-network-redesign or via the web-based interactive mapping tool, “Remix,” on MTA’s website (which allows customers to view proposed bus routes and stops in detail, and directly comment on specific routes).

Public Place battle tamped down by EPA scientist

Public Place battle tamped down by EPA scientist

After the revelation last month about a provocative letter sent by some Gowanus Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) to EPA heads, some thought that the next monthly meeting would be filled with fireworks (see our last issue). However, Chief Engineer Christos Tsiamis, who has been providing updates to the project almost every month for the past dozen years, diffused all thoughts of conflict between the members who wished to develop housing on Public Place (city-owned land near Public Place), and those who demanded a more rigorous cleanup of the longstanding pollution there.

Christos began with a whole lot of good news, mostly about relations with the City of NY, who has never really been in favor of the whole Superfund business, as politicians would often rather favor developers over environment, although they would never actually say that. Not all politicians.

JoAnne Simon and Nydia Velazquez have been long-time supporters of the cleanup. However, it should be noted that they are not NYC politicians - Simon is in the State Assembly, and Velazquez in the US Congress. It's possible that Lincoln Restler, who has taken over from the somewhat wishywashy Steve Levin, would favor the environment, although he has yet to appear at an actual meeting, although to be be fair, there haven't really been any actual meetings since he won his election - they have and continue to be broadcast on computers and smart phones only.

The City had been stalling on the issue of retention tanks, which EPA de-

by George Fiala

mands to prevent re-pollution of the Canal. The tanks would fill with raw sewage during heavy rainfalls which overload the sewer system. When the storm passes, the sewage is then sent on its way to treatment facilities.

The way it's done now is that the sewage is sent right into the Canal. Feces and such is one of the major contaminants of the Canal water.

Tsiamis related that dealings with the EPA have become almost collaborative, with the new administration people looking to get the tanks in as fast as they can—a refreshing change from the previous administration's delay strategy, hoping the whole issue might go away.

Then the topic got to Public Place, where Tsiamis became animated.

"The other thing I would like to talk about is Public Place. That is a site which is of concern to the EPA. I have to report that not much progress has happened. To recap, EPA sent a letter to the State in February 2022 and that letter repeated the assessments that I have made about the site, which were also confirmed by our consultant. To date, National Grid, under NY State’s oversight has undertaken a groundwater study in that site which to me is not clear about how it is connected to the recommendations that we have made. To date, the State has not provided any answers to the recommendations we made almost a year ago. So that’s where we are.

The concerns that I expressed in December 2020 remain. In order to ensure the safety of those that would populate the buildings on that site, including a

school and buildings with low-income people, the tar and the groundwater contamination would have to be contained. We are not talking about going and pulling tar 100 feet deep. We are talking about the shallow and intermediate zones. I will not stop repeating this because I think it’s my scientific responsibility and my responsibility as a manager for the Superfund site.

One of the reasons I feel that this is important is that National Grid, under the State DEC, is not being required to go deep enough to properly ensure the public’s safety. And because of that we wrote an order that require them to go deep. There are things that have to be done at Public Place, political and other interests set aside, these things have to be addressed. And so I am repeating that here personally, I have made the assessment, our consultant Jacobs made an independent assessment, and these assessments were sent by our Director to the State. I am disappointed that no progress has occurred.

It's a good time to make a clarification once and for all, because I have made this many times in the past.

The clarification is that the EPA’s Superfund activities are not, NOT contained just between the bulkheads. Those of you that are not hearing this – hear it again - not contained just between the bulkheads. Only the EPA decides the physical extent of the site. And I believe that the Record of Decision, not what I believe, what is a fact –the Record of Decision, which is a legal document, signed in 2013, gives us the jurisdiction to act on heavily contaminated sites that affect the site that we are dealing with.

It is our responsibility as public servants to really be truthful to the mission of the agency and to whatever the law requires us to do. And the law requires us to attend to sources of contamination that can affect the cleanup.

And so, we have the jurisdiction—the jurisdiction to step in if no one else steps in. I would say it’s just not right to put people on top of contamination. And I’m not asking anyone to go down 100 feet. I’m not impractical but at the same time we have a responsibility to… I don’t know those people who are going to live there—but we would be amiss if we did not take the measures that have to be taken.

I have nothing else to say, so – Happy New Year!

Harbor School talent showcase

by Nathan Weiser

Following the ribbon cutting for the new footbridge, the Harbor School held an after school spectacular showcase in their auditorium. All of the after school clubs put on an exciting live performance for parents and teachers.

There was a “Blue Carpet” set up approaching the auditorium that the kids walked down as they entered. At the entrance there were snacks and raffle tickets available for purchase.

The fourth, fifth and sixth grade harbor news crew hosted the showcase and introduced each performance. The event started off with another ribbon cutting by Alexa Aviles since this was the first production in the new auditorium after it had been closed for a few years.

Some of the money for the renovation came from the Councilmember.

The first two performances were the upper grade hip hop dance team and the lower grade jazz dance team.

The third performance was the fifth and sixth grade Tae-kwon-do group that received instructions from their

instructor. The martial arts and harbor clubs then had video presentations.

The Theater Clubs then did an improv performance responding to teacher prompts. One was about being in Puerto Rico and the other about being in Texas.

At intermission everyone had a

chance to get raffle tickets. The winners took home an Amazon toy basket, a movie basket, a lotto basket and Harbor School gear.

After the break there was a performance from the upper grade Jazz Team and then lower grade Hip Hop. That was followed by a video presentation from the third and fourth grade Content Creators club.

There were two more upper and lower grade dance performances (both Afro beat), which was followed by a final dance performance that included all the grades.

The last after-school club on stage was a video presentation from the photography club. The concession stand treats came from the sixth grade cooking club.

"The clarification is that the EPA’s Superfund activities are not, NOT contained just between the bulkheads. Only the EPA decides the physical extent of the site."—Christos Tsiamis

Christos Tsiamis

From wine to why not - a business is born

American Tributaries was founded by Cobble Hill’s Michael Whidden last year. It consists of a Podcast that can be found on Buzzsprout as well as trips within the United States for high school students.

“My daughter Miranda goes to Beacon and during her freshman year there weren’t any school trips because of the pandemic,” Whidden said. “Her sophomore year, the school offered opportunities to travel and they were all to places overseas. It was insightful to see that there wasn’t an emphasis put on encouraging students to learn about the different states and regions within our own country.

“That gave me this idea that was bouncing around in my head for a while and I couldn’t shake it. After a few months, I decided I had to dedicate myself to making it come to fruition. I quit my job in March of 2022 and started learning about educational travel.”

Whidden was working for a wine importer at the time which actually helped prepare him for what he’s doing now.

“To try to do wine sales correctly, you have to try to find an interesting story behind the region and put it in the best light,” Whidden said. “I decided that I wanted to take that skill which I had been developing by selling wines from different esoteric regions and translate it to selling different parts of the country to New Yorkers.

“The transition has been a little scary since one source of household income disappeared when I left my job but it’s also felt more natural than I was expecting. I was used to doing some traveling to visit wineries in Italy

by Brian Abate

and France. I also taught wine classes and my objective wasn’t to get people to memorize a bunch of facts but to spark curiosity. I think that’s the same mindset I have here.”

Whidden organized a pilot trip to South Carolina in August which included stops in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville.

“Gabriel’s favorite part of the trip was going to Fort Jackson [an Army base,] hands down,” said Juliette Posner, whose son Gabriel was one of the students on the pilot trip. “It’s not something we’re used to here in New York City but he was mesmerized by the experience.”

“I think the way Michael set up the trip down to South Carolina was very interesting too,” said Fabian De Jesus, Gabriel’s father. “They took Amtrak instead of hopping on a plane and it was this 12-hour or so trip where they were able to watch all of the scenery change around them along the way.”

Some of the other highlights of the trip included meeting other high school students who live in South Carolina, visiting McLeod Plantation Historic Site, learning from farmers, going to a stock car race, and much more.

“I think we often hear people say ‘take a week off and travel abroad to open your mind,’” De Jesus said. “Usually people say ‘I want to go to Paris, I want to go London, I want to go to Milan…’ This was South Carolina but it was just as effective, just as powerful, and just as eye-opening as traveling to another country. It was a completely different culture that they were immersed in. I think that it’s powerful to know you can get the same cultur-

Attention Red Hook

al experience that many people talk about from going abroad right here in the United States.”

Miranda Whidden, who went on the pilot trip had some eye-opening experiences, including “Eating with a few older couples who lived in Charleston for over 50 years. I learned so much just from talking to them about their experiences. One of the places we ate in used to be a church and two of them had gotten married there when they were younger. It was just really different from what I’m used to here in New York.

“My friends [from New York] and I were also a little scared that we wouldn’t get along well with the kids from Greenville at first but we took this cooking class with them and they were so much more similar to us than we thought they were. We ended up getting along so well that we went to dinner with them at a Cracker Barrel.” That seemed to be one of the main

themes that everyone mentioned about the trip; even in a very different part of the country with a unique culture, there were also a lot of similarities between the students from New York and the people they met in South Carolina.

“It was great for me seeing these kids from New York City breaking bread with kids from South Carolina, getting to know each other, and even bonding over TikTok,” Michael Whidden said.

“As an adult I know we think we’re supposed to rant about how it’s so distracting but that was one of their common frames of reference. Seeing them getting along well was really heartening.”

The pilot trip was a success and there will be a second trip to South Carolina from June 17-25. That trip will be primarily with Poly Prep students but there are still some open seats for other students who are also interested in going. For more information, go to the American Tributaries website (americantributaries.com) and click on ‘Our Trips.’

Michael and his daughter Miranda in a beautiful part of America.

Apotheke is a real Red Hook soap opera

There is a long row of warehouses at the end of Van Brunt St., and among them, on the first floor, is Apotheke’s flagship store.

The industrial zoning there only allows for shops to exist if a certain percentage of the space is devoted to manufacturing. Apotheke's sensual soaps and candles are made right on the other side of the wall of their beautifully appointed showroom.

The address is officially 459 Van Brunt. Walking in, customers are greeted with incredible fragrances and beautiful designs. The store which is big but inviting is the result of years of dedication and hard work from Apotheke’s founder and CEO, Chrissy Fichtl.

“Back in 2010, I was really stressed out because I lost my job and the recession was going on,” Fichtl said. “My friend told me I needed a hobby and so one day I made these six little bars of soap. I gave one to my husband and he said that the soap made his skin feel really nice and I should keep up with this hobby so I just took it as a sign to go for it.”

However, Fichtl had a disappointing experience in the Hamptons in 2011 when she got a booth at a farmers market but her soap didn’t sell. It made her realize the importance of developing a brand so she committed to doing just that, and came up with the name Apotheke. She chose the name because a friend who owns a distillery of essential oils often sent her some of the essential oils and signed it, “to my little Brooklyn apothecary.” Apotheke is German for apothecary and it’s the name that Fichtl trademarked. She also came up with a logo.

“I put in an application at the Brooklyn Flea and thought it was a long shot that they would accept my application but the next day they got back to me and said they were looking for someone to sell beauty products. It worked

by Brian Abate

out perfectly. I went there with my little soap box with about 100 bars of soap and I sold out in four hours. One of the things that I noticed is people really liked the story that I blended the oils myself and made the soap in my own kitchen.”

Outgrowing the kitchen

After a year, Fichtl started making candles at home too after lots of people asked her about them. There’s a science to it but after a while, she found the right formula. From there, she decided to start selling fragrances instead of only soap. Fichtl ended up getting a massive order from West Elm and as Apotheke grew, she had to move to a bigger space instead of continuing to work from home.

“I actually ended up getting a spot in Bed-Stuy from a man and his father who had a big factory making notebooks,” Fichtl said. “It just started with them just saying good morning to me and we got to talking and they ended up renting me a small space. It was about the size of three farmers market tents [about 350 square feet] and I gave them all of what I had left in my savings. I decided it was make or break time and ended up growing the business there for four years. From there, we moved to a bigger factory [about 2,000 square feet] on Coffey St.”

Fichtl also continued doing the Brooklyn Flea for a few more years and that along with her products being sold at West Elm, earned Apotheke more widespread recognition.

“I really believe in independent and Mom and Pop type stores because that’s just where you want to be. I loved hearing from friends that they saw my product in stores in different cities. We also started growing more online during the pandemic and we were outgrowing the other place. We needed something bigger.

Greg O’Connell who was our landlord told us about this location and in 2021 Greg Jr. said, ‘This place is pretty big but I think you can pull it off and make it a retail store.’ As soon as I walked in and saw it, I knew it was the place for us even though it looked like it hadn’t been used for years and years.”

One of the unique aspects of Apotheke is that they do all of their own manufacturing.

“I think that we will always be the manufacturer and we always have been from when I started making soap in my own kitchen until now. We love to be able to control the quality and we also get to have a lot of fun because we are the makers. We can come up with our own creative ideas and put them into action. It’s

also really nice to have more production on demand. For example, if we notice that we’re low on charcoal candles, we can just make them without having to rely on other companies. I also really love that we’re able to employ people and hire in the Red Hook community.”

Despite recent increases in the prices of materials used by Apotheke, the business is doing well and has clearly come a long way. A large part of that success stems from their dedication to the scientific aspect of the business, where products are tested both for the appeal of their fragrances as well as their safety.

“There’s a creative team and we also work with some major perfumers,” Fichtl said. “We get together about 12-18 months prior to a launch and we start talking about what our olfactory chart might be missing. We also look at what a customer might want. After that, we go out in the field, and see what other companies we admire are doing and see what companies we compete with are doing and what’s trending in perfume. For example, if rose perfume is trending, we’ll look at something floral and come up with four or five samples and see which direction to go in. Then we’ll repeat the process since we usually need to

come up with four to six scents for a capsule collection.”

Despite Apotheke’s growth and success, including their creation of the signature scent for J.Crew, community is still at the core of what Fichtl does.

Importance of community

“I love working with Cora Dance, RHAP, and more, and we had a Christmas party here,” Fichtl said. “I want my kids to know about that aspect of business; it isn’t just about the money you make, it’s about who you’re surrounded with and giving back when you’re able to.

“One of my most special moments is when I first started Apotheke I was living paycheck to paycheck and I was broke. My daughter wanted to do ballet but the classes I looked up cost between $900 and $2,000 for a season. I was so bummed out that I couldn’t afford it and someone told me about Cora Dance right here in Red Hook. When I went there, they said ‘Pay what you can’ so I loaded them up with candles and soap and she was able to go there. After so many years, I had finally figured out what community was. It’s about giving what you can back to the community and the community giving back to you.”

Chrissy Fichtl loves working at her own company.

Inside the Apotheke showroom

In a humorous vein: Now Hear This

On January 23rd, Mayor Eric Adams, frustrated by news outlets refusing to install his cronies as City Hall reporters, announced that from now on, gosh darn it, he is going to deliver the news directly to the people with all the technology he can muster.

“It’s just not fair,” the Mayor explained, wandering off-script at a press conference called to announce the appointment of Emily Hernandez, who sat next to the Mayor in third grade, as the new Deputy Under Assistant Director for the Chief of Staff of the Mayor’s Office of Redundancy Elimination for Sunsetting Redundant Offices.

“I mean, I referred Jesse Gigantica to the Times City Desk. Jesse had four solid years of experience at the Midwood Argus, covering the Midwood high school community he was attending, and then transferred those skills to a better position at the Brooklyn College Vanguard. Not only that, he had a number of brilliant letters published in the New York Post. Yet the sanctimonious New York Times rejected him outright, without so much as an interview. Imagine if I conducted myself like that? Heck, all my friends would be out of jobs!”

When asked how this new form of communication will take place, Adams deferred to his IT staff in atten-

by Joe Enright

what exactly the innovative approach will be, Executive Director Salomons replied, “We’ll be sending emails.” “That’s it? Emails?” one of the reporters asked amidst the usual chorus of titters, chortles and smirks from his brethren.

Chief Fraser quickly jumped in. “The emails will contain links to press releases written by cronies and, to entice people to sign up for the emails in a dozen different categories, we will send you a color photo of the Mayor doing the Bola Wrap thing back when he was lobbying for rope as an alternative to handcuffs or whatever the fuck that was.”

dance. The Mayor’s well-known fascination with cutting edge cyber-y stuff like crypto and AI led some reporters to speculate about holograms and chatbots, particularly after Jonathan Salomons, Adams’ Executive Director of Innovation and Emerging Markets declared, “We’ll use every tool not yet invented to get New Yorkers the info they need, by gum!” Not to be outdone, the Chief Technology Of-

ficer at the Office of Technology and Innovation, Matthew Fraser, weighed in with: “We’re more innovative than that other Innovation guy. I mean we do INNOVATION and TECHNOLOGY, while he does Emerging Markets and Innovation. Bor-ing. It’s clear emerging markets can only be a distraction here and sends the wrong message.”

Asked by increasingly agitated scribes

Is there a backstory to the mob arrest in Italy?

by Dario Pio Muccilli, from the Star-Revue foreign desk

Italian history has a new day to remember forever. Last January 16th the most wanted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was arrested after 30 years on the run.

A prominent member of Sicilian mob Cosa Nostra, Messina Denaro has been responsible for several kidnappings, brutal murders and terrorist attacks all across the country, especially in the late 80s and early 90s, when the Sicilian Mafia prompted a war against the Italian State which pursuing a terror strategy.

Those years are still a mystery in Italian public consciousness, many journalists and judges believe that there was actually an on-going negotiation between the Mafia and the State with the bombings and crimes being just a source of leverage for the former in order to free their inmates and to abolish the strictest imprisonment conditions. Italy's most famous judges,  Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, both killed in 1992, expressed concern more than once for the obscure links between organized criminality, politics and business. Most of the information is still vague, as Borsellino’s secret diary with all the details of his investigations was mysteriously stolen soon after he was killed. So Matteo Messina Denaro comes in this scenar-

io as a living depository of the secrets that have taunted Italy for decades. Yet no one thinks he will actually talk and some details of his arrest help explain why. He was caught in a private hospital in Palermo, the capital city of Sicily, right in the middle of Mafia’s historical zone of influence. There’s even a selfie portraying him with a cherished nurse.

Moreover, three of his bunkers were soon found in Campobello di Mazara, in his territory, one town away from where he was born and he has ruled for decades. Witnesses have revealed how he didn’t put so much effort into hiding himself—he went to the supermarket, greeted people, and lived a few meters close to a bar where some of his men were arrested last September. It’s like he never left home and it’s simply impossible to believe no one who could have acted knew.

Staggeringly, on November 5th 2022 Salvatore Baiardo, known for having been a close collaborator to the Graviano Mafia family, released a television interview stating “Maybe, who knows, that a little present comes (to the new Italian government, ed). That maybe, let’s assume, that Matteo Messina Denaro is very sick and makes a deal to turn himself in, creating a sensational arrest. And so by arresting

him maybe someone comes out who has a hostile life sentence without any hype. That would be a feather in the government’s cap, a nice little gift.”

He even predicted the day, close to the 15th of January, when another bloody Mafia boss, Totò Riina, Messina Denaro’s mentor, was arrested in 1993. Moreover, he knew the boss was sick and indeed it was discovered that he has advanced cancer.

Such revelations, read after the arrest, sparked doubts about the official narration of the events and has aroused distrust towards the public authorities for the alleged negotiation, while the government soon attempted to take the credit for the arrest. Even though institutions started to celebrate, anyone questioned “who covered him for so long to the extent that he didn’t have to live abroad?”

It is known that some important politicians helped him, like the currently imprisoned Tonino D’Alì, ex-Senator and under-secretary of the ministry of internal affairs in second and third Berlusconi cabinets (2001-2006). But the web of relations has to be deeper, Messina Denaro could claim links in the US, in Venezuela, Germany, Spain

et cetera. He has infiltrated banks, business, politics and whole towns. The personal health of the boss, close to death due to cancer, suggests besides that his arrest cannot be seen as a win, but rather a voluntary surrender if seen through Baiardo’s declarations.

Of course his imprisonment is important, no one can question that prison is where he belongs, but it’s somehow disappointing to know that probably he set it all up, living calmly in his homeland till he wanted. as if his hands weren’t dirty of blood. That’s evil and there are probably no words to express how harmful it is to see that it has prevailed for so long and that it is still outside, only without Messina Denaro’s face.

"The Mayor’s well-known fascination with cutting edge cyber-y stuff like crypto and AI led some reporters to speculate about holograms and chatbots."

Nabaté Isles Returns with Black Girl Magic

Grammy award winning trumpeter Nabaté Isles is back with a new album, En Motion. His career boasts performances at the White House and collaborations with legends like Mos Def (Yasiin Bey), Jimmy Owens and Jill Scott. And yes, Nabaté is still hungry to create and inspire us all to move.

My interview with the incredibly talented Nabaté Isles below.

Roderick Thomas: Hi Nabaté, how are you?

Nabaté: Doing great, thank you.

RT: Lets, jump right in. When did you discover your musical talents?

Nabaté: To be honest, it was something I worked hard for. The true discovery was when I was twelve years old. I picked up the trumpet and started playing music from one of my idols, Louis Armstrong. I even went to a school named after him.

RT: Did you come from a musical family?

Nabaté: I’d say so, my father worked for WBI radio.

RT: Any memorable musical stories with your dad?

Nabaté: I actually played at a workshop for Jon Faddis and improvised [laughs]. My father made that happen. That was an amazing moment.

RT: Some people say Jazz is dead, but clearly that’s not the case. What is the route for a musician aspiring to be a successful Jazz trumpeter like yourself?

Nabaté: I’d say, have a vision and stick to it. The great thing about music is you grow until you make the transition.

COMMUNITY BOARDS

(continued from page 1)

easier for more people to join, they eliminate the opportunity to congregate at a local community space and mingle. Attendees are relegated to staring at the panel of community board members as they log in from their apartments. While it can be interesting to get a glimpse of the members’ décor, it lends an unprofessional air to the meeting, as though you’re on a call with family members.

New chairperson begins

The meeting started with a nervous, yet thoughtful Eric McClure leading as the board’s chair for the first time. He began with introductions and a moment of acknowledgement for the death of a Carroll Gardens resident earlier in the week, after she was struck by a truck and killed while biking. McClure said that he and Racioppo had already scheduled a meeting

by Roderick Thomas

There isn’t a specific route for a trumpeter, it’s what you make it.

RT: Where do you go for inspiration?

Nabaté: So many places. I’m heavily into film and visual art. I’m very much inspired by cinema.

RT: Who’s your favorite film composer?

Nabaté: Oh that’s tough! Bernard Herman and all the Hitchcock films, of course Quincy Jones, most recently Nicholas Brittell. There are so many really.

RT: I love Nicholas Brittell’s compositions, Moonlight, If Beale Street, just amazing work.

Nabaté: If Beale Street! It was so good to see a James Baldwin story brought to life.

Nabaté: It’s amazing to see Black authors’ work adapted. I remember watching Mo Betta Blues when I was younger and that was a major factor in me wanting to pursue music––watching Denzel play the trumpet.

RT: After all this time, what do you hope to accomplish with music and your new album?

Nabaté: I want to have my music out there and make people feel good.

RT: You’re clearly a cinephile. Should we expect to see film scores from you?

Nabaté: I love films! And Multimedia in general. So of course, I put my music where it makes sense and where it inspires.

RT: Do you listen to today’s popular music?

Nabaté: I love hip-hop which comes from Jazz. It’s natural for me to like different styles of music. I’m inspired by

with NYC’s Department of Transportation for the next day.

Next, Rebecca Kobert, a young real estate agent in Carroll Gardens and chair of the Permits & Licenses Committee, reported on three business applications, all of which were speedily approved. This was followed by a parade of representatives of local politicians including: Assemblyman JoAnne Simon (herself), NYS Senator Andrew Gournardes, US Representative Dan Goldman, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, NYS Senator Zellnor Myrie, Council Member Alexa Avilés, Council Member Shahana Hanif, and Mayor Eric Adams. Board members made a few other announcements about public meetings to weigh in on Brooklyn’s public bus routes and a recent sink hole in Park Slope.

Finally, the floor was opened for public comment. One resident requested that the community board send a message of support on behalf of city retirees who need healthcare. Next

the change and evolution of music. Even If I feel like something may not be for me at the time, music has a way of coming back to you when you need it.

RT: Let’s talk about your album En Motion and the song “Black Girl Magic.” Who was inspiring you?

Nabaté: Black girl magic is influenced by my mother, a Black woman, and my daughter who was born last year, a Black girl. I had to make this song.

RT: What was your process?

Nabaté: I wrote “Black Girl Magic” during the pandemic. It was a festive, party theme.

I talked to Badia Farha and she loved the track, and we wrote about “Black Girl Magic.”

Nabaté: Badia wrote the melody and lyrics and then we connected with the talented singer MuMu Fresh. Then Nikki Grier, who leads Sunday service with Kanye West, came on and did the vocal effects.

RT: What does your daughter think?

Nabaté: Oh my daughter loves the

a nonprofit owner from Queens and a Park Slope resident, each spoke against the expansion of LinkNYC, a program to provide free public WiFi, citing fears of invisible radiation and rat infestation of the kiosks among other concerns.

The next full board meeting for Community Board 6 will be held in person at the Van Alen Institute (303 Bond Street) and via Zoom on February 8 at 6:30 pm. A Community Session at the end of each full board meeting allows guests up to 3 minutes to share their thoughts, questions, or concerns. You can also sign up for the email newsletter via the board’s website, located at https://www.nyc.gov/site/brooklyncb6/index.page.

Anyone interested in applying to join a Brooklyn community board can find the application on Borough President Antonio Reynoso’s website, located at https://www.brooklyn-usa.org/community-boards/. The deadline for applications is February 14, 2023.

song, so mission accomplished!

RT: Let’s talk about the album En Motion. What do you want people to take away from this project?

Nabaté: I just want people to feel good. I wanted to share my reflections that I made during the pandemic and we deserve to dance and be authentically ourselves and happy.

RT: Nabaté, I think you’re accomplishing that goal with En Motion. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me.

Nabaté: Thank you!

Listen to En Motion now on streaming platforms.

Roderick Thomas is a NYC based writer and filmmaker.

Instagram: @Hippiebyaccident | Site: roderickthomas.net

"While it can be interesting to get a glimpse of the members’ décor, it lends an unprofessional air to the meeting, as though you’re on a call with family members."

The 20th Anniversary Idiotarod was held in January. The starting point was Fort Greene Park. (photo by George Fiala)

Ellis Got A Brand New New Year Show

by Carly Quellman

Sitting on the beach, David Craig Ellis took a deep breath. The artist and curator had contracted COVID-19 April 2021. And in turn, long COVID – with symptoms ranging from sleeping problems to problems concentrating and thinking — set in. Ellis flew from New York to Miami in hopes that the sunshine would improve his state of being. While the sun didn’t improve his symptoms, something else affected him — alongside the Miami breeze, a feeling cascaded over him. Something he now considers a calling: A vision of creating a gallery where he could exhibit his’ and his friends’ artwork, a communal gathering of the world he had spent the last 30 years building.

During the 7-hour New Year’s Eve opening reception, Ellis detailed the specificities around his new group art show, titled, The Brand New New Year Show. “It gives me the feeling I would get as a kid after hitting the record store, heading home riding — no hands — on my 10 speed, a new KISS album under my arm.” Looking around the space, it was clear to me that Ellis was incredibly intentional about art and the environment it’s displayed in. From fine art photography, to dramatic paintings and insanely stimulating collages, 46 visual artists’ work scattered the wall, including names like Rick Prol, Ivy Supersonic, Paul Kostabi, Friday Jones, Bingo Sanatra, Anna Gabriel, Karyn Mannix, Mark Kostabi. “When I laid out the show, I put Anna Gabriel’s close up eye photograph [of Annie Lennox] at the front because it’s so perfect when you walk in the door,” Ellis said. “It’s just looking at you.” Walking past the gallery, Prol and Kostabi’s art stretches the length of the gallery’s windows, a design choice of Ellis’ that allowed anybody walking by to feel the essence of the exhibit, even if they didn’t step foot inside.

The artists behind the show are also Ellis’ close friends, collected over the span of his stint in the art world. As I looked around the exhibit, with its buzzing pulse from the 70s-themed Rock and Roll albums playing in the background, clusters of people milling around the space, I recognized how essential connection is –– to each other, to the world, and to expression. A response to the life we’ve lived. For Ellis, that meant both nostalgia for the past and appreciation for the present. “[The Brand New New Year Show] has a real, legitimate rock and roll feel to it.” There’s a similar feeling to the galleries of Soho in the 90s. A lot of the artists were the same,” Ellis said. “In the 90s, we powered through using copious quantities of alcohol and

drugs, but we’ve matured. This gallery was built on massive amounts of caffeine and tuna fish sandwiches on whole wheat. Ellis added, “Everyone showed up and worked together to make it all worthwhile. From the Canucks in Ontario—all the way to Los Angeles, from bad ass New Yorkers, to the hippies in the desert—everyone in this show is equally important.”

While speaking to Ellis, Jackson Pawlick, the painting purebred Boston Terrier, sat perched to Ellis’ side like a trusty sidekick. Or a fellow collaborator. The two found each other shortly after Ellis’ trip to Miami. Ellis specifically recalls his vision including a “photogenic dog,” whom Ellis would connect with over painting. At just 15 months old, the puppy already has a penchant for painting and taking photos. “I was working in the studio and he just gravitated to a blank canvas next to me and began to create,” Ellis said. “He’s similar to me in the way that he’s quite mellow, but also playful and energetic.” The “photogenic dog” Ellis saw in his vision has a piece on display at The Brand New New Year Show and will have his own solo exhibition in the near future.

It wasn’t some special antidote or trip that began to heal Ellis’ — but creating with a purpose was. “I’m lucky to be alive,” Ellis shared. “I’ve had long COVID for almost two

years. I started to feel better once I started putting everything into this gallery. I was happy to be able to bring all these people together in one room.” Whether he realizes it or not, Ellis’ curation at Not Another GALLERY! recreates the energy of Ellis’ childhood. “As a kid, you would stare at the album cover as you listened,” he said. “Read all the liner notes. Look at the pictures inside. [Here, you can] walk around and get lost, staring at the paintings while you’re listening to an album. It’s a full experience.”

So what would young Ellis, who felt the most alive leaving the record store, album in hand, think about his future self –– the gallery owner, artist, and curator, holding 6-week long gallery exhibits in Brooklyn, New York surrounded by collaborators, artists, and friends? According to Ellis, “That kid would be really excited, especially because I’m playing Rock and Roll.” In my opinion, “that kid” would be equally excited to know Ellis is doing what Ellis does best: Responding to life, through art — expression.

The Brand New New Year Show is a free show, open Tuesday–Sunday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Not Another GALLERY!, located at 109 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 11249. Its closing reception is Saturday, February 11, 2023 from 6–9 p.m.

Armbrust + Ellis; Greetings from Walpole Island

Samoa Moriki; Richard Pryor

Elizabeth Kresch; Pink Spill

The Bunker Giorno Foundation

by Blake Sandberg

I was off to The Bunker.

The storied home of William S. Burroughs. Where he lived on The Bowery.

Downstairs from Giorno’s apartment. The Bunker is now home to The Giorno Foundation.

I was running a little late the train from Brooklyn was delayed.

I skated from the train as fast as I could. Avoiding a smashed beer can. Pedestrians. A turning cab. As fast as I cold push up The Bowery.

I had lived at 373 Bowery so I made my way past the old Audio Visual store, the old bank with large concrete lions, now an event space where Grammy and Oscar after parties are held.

Through the evening traffic I pushed up the Bowery to number 222.

I was looking for the door through the iron gate out front.

There was a partially open door and a young strawberry blonde woman.

I said is this the John Giorno Foundation?

“Yes it is she said – push the door”

I did. At first nothing…

Then it slowly opened.

I asked about the film screening. The Giorno foundation was recently opened and hosts events to allow the public into The Bunker, William Burroughs and John Giorno’s home.

I had seen the documentary a number of times it had its moments and great footage of William reading and discussing his life.

But I was here to see the Bunker itself. Curious about the fabled space. Here William wrote, shot pistols for target practice, and entertained guests from Allen Ginsberg, to Patti Smith, Basquiat, and many many more.

The girl and I discussed the SOLD OUT event until an older woman came down the stairs.

“We can hear every word you are saying!” She said angrily.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Then she said “just let him in!”

So I walked up the steps carrying my skateboard.

I waked into the dark room lit by the film screen as the film had already started. She pointed to the second row right in front.

Go sit there – she gestured toward the empty chair.

I made my way carefully through the people and sat on the folding chair. Slid my board under my chair.

I was in!

Soon there was Willam in his characteristic hat and suit on screen.

Later a look in on a surgery by Dr. Benway.

“All in a days work” he says sending a nurse to fill his prescription.

As the film rolls I look about the room. The Bunker — is right.

It’s thick gray slab concrete walls with massive concrete beams over steel reinforcing.

With only a few windows.

After the film I roam the space.

I stand in the bedroom.

There are several painting by Bill. His hat hangs on the wall. His phone sits on a bedside table.

An old blue velvet chaise lounge maybe the only frivolous or fancy thing here.

A small arrangement of objects in the window includes a McDonalds Golden Arches – changed to Marijuana and a statue head from Indonesia, and an embroidered patch with a gun on it.

One of Williams shotgun pieces with collages of Lemurs is framed across the room.

A three panel wooden screen juts out from the corner.

It is covered in collaged newspaper clipping, drawings, and photos.

Out the door I enter the kitchen which is simply made with plywood.

A sink and rangetop and long wood counter and cupboards.

A long dining table with orange vinyl covered wood chairs.

Several Keith Haring works and John Giorno’s “Life’s A Killer” print.

There is also a large Buddhist shrine. Incense burns lightly.

Ticking my nose.

I go to the bathroom.

This basement space was a YMCA or something before.

There are two urinals in the bathroom and two stalls.

I took a stall.

I realize I was pissing in William S. Burroughs toilet.

Then I pulled the chain on the old style toilet.

The water flushed.

All the finest conveniences.

I recall that in the film someone remarked “William would have made a great prisoner.”

Apparently he went out infrequently. Spending much of his time in his own mind. Writing…

I speak with a few people. Take some pictures.

I enjoy a moment there. This is cool. There also is a feeling a presence there.

I felt it immediately after sitting down.

In the film Burroughs acknowledges his friends have noticed a spirit or ghost there.

He says he calls it Tobi.

A woman from Belgium asks me about my skateboard.

Then takes a photo of it. So I ask her to take a photo of me in The Bunker. She does.

Then off into the night on The Bowery. How many times I had passed this place and wondered about it. It was a good visit. A good night.

I skated south through Little Italy’s remnants and Chinatown’s light stringed streets. Down to the subway back to Brooklyn. Or maybe I will stop by a bar for a drink.

Blake Sandberg is a musician, artist and skateboarder who lives in Sunset Park. His band, Aliens, often plays in the area

Islands, mountains and valley girls. LA’s Death Valley Girls have released a couple of singles since 2020’s Under the Spell of Joy, and those songs have found a happy home on Islands in the Sky, the band’s fifth full-length. “When I’m Free” was the flip of Le Butcherettes cover of their “The Universe,” and it was a perfect pairing of songs and bands. Death Valley’s Bonnie Bloomgarden and and Butcherette Teri Gender Bender have similar endearingly thin voices and machine-gun vibrato, Bloomgarden’s mixed with a bit of Grace Slick on helium (in the best possible way). The other single, “It’s All Really Kind of Amazing” is a great piece of wide-eyed psychedelia that closes the album. Those two, along with the opening “California Mountain Shake” are the high points of Islands (out Feb. 24 on CD, LP and download from Suicide Squeeze). It’s great to have them sitting in context with some new ravers (“Magic Powers”) and retro wave existentialism (“What Are the Odds”). There’s definitely a throwback vibe to the album, enhanced by an AM-radio mix, but they’ve got enough oomph to make it current.

Big|Brave gets smaller, braver. When Big|Brave’s A Gaze Among Them came out in 2019, it felt like a bit of a concession to industry standards. The Montreal band’s previous two albums had been monolithic slabs of long, slowly throbbing, one-chord dirges. Gaze had an unthinkable six (six!) tracks, and then 2021’s Vital had nothing over 10 minutes long. Like Marvin Gaye’s best albums, they could be heard as one long song, but even still they felt smaller and maybe a little less brave. I listened to Gaze again before putting on their new nature morte (their first on Thrill Jockey, out Feb. 24, CD, LP, download) and forgave them their trespasses. It stands as a solid set of songs, and the craft is refined on the new one. Singer guitarist Robin Wattie may have honed her songwriting skills when the band paired with the Body for 2021’s Leaving None But Small Birds, but that album lacked B|B’s gravitas. nature morte, as the title suggests, finds life in deathly stillness and amplifies it. The half dozen tracks still stay under the 10-minute mark, but are more individually distinct than on past records. The sound is huge and Wattle’s voice is clearer than ever—the album exudes confidence. It’s easy to mistake infatuation for love and prematurely declare an album “best yet,” but the last couple didn’t lead me to such enthusiastic folly. I’m happy to make the mistake now.

A good day for a revolution. A week after the dawn of the new lunar year, Fucked Up released their new One Day (Merge Records, CD, LP, download), which gives me a chance to talk about two of their records. Before we get to the new once, let’s jet back to 2015 and their Year of the Hare. The Toronto oddball hardcore band’s ongoing Chinese zodiac series represents not just their longest but their most experimental recordings. Year of the Hare is a 22-minute collage of acoustic song, punk stomp and studio noise, and is still available via Bandcamp. It’s worth listening to all year long and gives perspective on the more straight-ahead but equally ambitious new album. Getting away from their more cerebral side, the band members each had 24 hours to learn the songs on One Day and add their tracks before passing it along. The songs hit hard but don’t lack for melody, not at all unlike Hüsker Dü at their best, and the immediacy is invigorating.

But if its immediacy you’re after, London’s Historically Fucked (and it

gives me no small pleasure to compare those bands) turn it out in record time. The Mule Peasants’ Revolt of 12,067 (LP, download, out Feb. 3 from Upset the Rhythm) is a set of eight spontaneously erupted, punk abstractions that fly by in 25 minutes. While everything is improvised, the quartet has a way of boiling down to a unified madness. The layered voices, rambling riffs and fractured rhythms can seem rambling, but purposefully so. It’s wonderfully ludicrous.

Madcaps laugh last. There’s a line to be drawn between Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum and Pink Floyd’s original creative force Syd Barret. Not the one about their mental instabilities, even if their difficulties were part and parcel to their artistic output, and not the one about how much people like to talk about those instabilities. It’s in the music, the insistent acoustic guitar strumming and the strained warble as they slide around melodies. But there’s also the careers cut sadly short, Mangum not

as abruptly or conclusively as Barrett’s, who spent three years with Pink Floyd and released a couple of solo albums before withdrawing from public life for the next three decades. Magnum has continued to make occasional appearances, but the bulk of his recorded output remains the two albums and scattered songs with his band at the end of the ‘90s. Those recordings have been brought together in The Collected Works of Neutral Milk Hotel (Merge Records, vinyl box set out Feb. 24). It includes, of course, the masterwork, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and an expanded doubleLP version of its predecessor On Avery Island, which sits better among the complete works than just being “the other album.” There’s also three 7” discs of Avery demos and a 10” of more stray songs, including the scathing “Home,” which feels like a precursor to the powerful songs Ren has been putting out (find him on YouTube if you haven’t already). The Everything Is EP, now remastered, shows Magnum’s love for punk and metal without committing to the forms. The last piece of the fetish box is the solo set Live at Jittery Joe’s recorded in 1997 and first released in 2001. It’s a raw recording, both acoustically and emotionally. He introduces the fan-favorite, non-LP “Engine” as a children’s song about being heartbroken and depressed but happy for about five minutes, and it’s actually quite touching. Mangum’s had to carry a heavy burden over the years, but maybe the new collection will give him five more minutes of pleasure.

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Table for Two

Review of Lunch with Lizabeth, by Todd Hughes

Review by Michael Quinn

First Course

Second Course

Third Course

Falling in love happens differently for everyone. Cupid picks up his bow and sometimes shoots an arrow where you’d never expect it to land. In the 1980s, gay filmmaker Todd Hughes fell head over heels for a femme fatale. She had him from hello—a sultry one spoken on the silver screen. Humphrey Bogart wasn’t the only one seduced by her waved blond hair, dark eyebrows, and intense gaze. Who was this actress from Hollywood’s golden age? Leaving the theater in a daze, Hughes couldn’t believe he had never heard of her. He was determined to discover everything about her.

Hughes’ memoir Lunch with Lizabeth documents not only his obsession with American actress Lizabeth Scott (1922-2015), but the real-life, decades-long friendship that grew out of it. Drawing from “a copious clipping file,” Hughes uses publicity photos, personal notes, transcripts of conversations, and an analysis of some of Lizabeth’s best roles to create a loving, fascinating, portrait.

Hughes was born in 1963 in Claremont, California. As a teenager, taken by the glamour of nearby Tinseltown, he stalks Lauren Bacall on location (“Get lost!” she growls). He attends college in New York, but gets his real education at the movies. Legendary film houses such as the Thalia and the Regency Theater introduce him to film noir. The genre’s defining features—dramatic lighting, hard-boiled men, and double-crossing dames— “captivated me from the start. It was so American. So all or nothing, so black and white, so glamorous and dangerous and depraved.”

Once Hughes sees Lizabeth onscreen, it’s over. He’s obsessed. He combs places like Movie Star News on West 18th Street for photos and snippets of information. Born Emma Matzo in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Lizabeth was sometimes dismissed as “a second-rate Lauren Bacall” (they were both former models with deep voices and no-nonsense personas). Lizabeth’s career was unusual in that she wasn’t contracted to a studio but to independent producer Hal. B. Wallis, who made her a rich woman: In the ’40s and ’50s, Lizabeth seduced the likes of Burt Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, and Charlton Heston onscreen. Off-screen, she was rumored to be a lesbian. A $2.5 million libel lawsuit ended in a mistrial and soured her on the business.

After college, Hughes, rejected from film school, moves to Hollywood and waits tables, living in a bungalow plastered with Lizabeth’s photo. He soon discovers that the reclusive actress is alive and well, zipping around town in her green Jaguar. He tracks down her address and writes a long, ardent letter, offering to write her biography. That earnestness pays off: Lizabeth writes back. They meet for lunch at a restaurant of her choosing (“long past its glory”) where, at 75, she can still play the great lady. “Surely you can do better than this,” she tells the maître d’ about the table he escorts them to. Over time, Lizabeth admits to being a control freak and sets strict boundaries for when and how Hughes can contact her, sharing only her “business line” (which turns out to be her home phone with an answering machine). Hughes analyzes the notes she sends for clues about her feelings. First they’re typed, then handwritten. She closes “as ever,” “best,” and finally, “love.” “That was a big word for me to receive from her,” Hughes writes.

He has endless questions but lets Lizabeth set the pace: “I could say where I wanted to go but always let her steer. When she stepped on the gas it was always a wild ride. When she applied the brakes, we came to a stop.” Lunch with Lizabeth traces not only the milestones in Lizabeth’s career, but in Hughes’ enshrining of it: first in AOL chat rooms, then on different websites that he starts building on the still-new internet. Sitting side by side with Lizabeth in “their” booth, Hughes shows her the website he’s made for her on his laptop. “How lucky I am that you chose me,” she says. Yet their friendship is tested when he sends Lizabeth the script to a film he’s written with a part for her in mind. She begs him not to make it, calling it “mediocre”—a huge blow. But Hughes never gives up on the things he loves—or the people.

Lunch with Lizabeth is marked by Hughes’ devotion, tenacity, and optimism. Even if you’ve never heard of Lizabeth Scott (I hadn’t), you’ll get interested in her (I have). Should you find yourself obsessed, you’ll be in good company. Blame it on the business end of Cupid’s arrow.

Jazz by Grella The Space is the Place

Jazz is political. I’m not here to shock or confound anyone, but in contemporary American culture, there’s a pervasive need to point out the obvious when so many people put effort into blocking the evidence of their eyes and ears from reaching their brain.

Jazz is political, all music is political, all creative, cultural endeavors are political. They can’t help but be. Even if the subject of any particular bit of jazz has nothing to say about politics—and most jazz is about making the music itself, putting the notes together— the music is made inside social and economic circumstances shaped by politics. Having the time, space, and money to buy an instrument, learn and practice, rehearse, and to be able to connect with a performance space, all are products of the legal, social, and economic systems of this country.

That’s a restatement of a frequent topic of this column, but the focus is usually on the musicians; who gets the opportunity to become a jazz musician and what kind of jazz gets the institutional support to ever exist. This month’s column, though, is about where the music happens, the places we can go for the essential magic of live jazz, where the musicians get a chance to play and be paid. New York City has the most famous—and one of the greatest—jazz clubs in the world in the Village Vanguard. It also has places like the shiny, international Blue Note, cozy (or tiny, depending on your point of view) basement spaces like Small’s and Mezzrow. There are institutional spaces both small—The Jazz Gallery, The Stone at The New School—and large, meaning Jazz at Lincoln Center, a combination of performance spaces and programming that in some ways stays roughly current (as far as the mainstream goes) and mostly acts as the Metropolitan Museum of Art of jazz, preserving and protecting the past, and bringing small portions of it out for public display.

There are more, of course, including a recent expansion of jazz into bars like Bar Bayeaux in Bed-Stuy, and what seems to be the quasi-installment of the great saxophonist Tim Berne and various small units at Lowlands Bar, on Third Avenue in Gowanus. Every little bit of extra space that hosts live jazz is welcome, because the music is the best and this city has the largest number of great jazz musicians of any location on the planet. With eight million people, there are enough who follow jazz to keep some form of nightlife going, but of course that figure does make one wistful for the day when the music had a great hold on the popular imagination. (Here I would recommend picking up a monthly copy of the free New York City Jazz Record sometime—full disclosure, I write for them as well—because it has the most comprehensive live listings at the back of the magazine.)

This being New York City, the bottom line for a jazz venue (outside of JALC) is paying rent. And even before the recent rent crisis, the city has had a de facto policy of shoving out artists and small, local businesses for more drug store and bank chains. Now under Mayor Swagger, who is also a landlord, prospects are worse. There’s no rent increase he wouldn’t like, and his idea of culture doesn’t extend beyond any night club with bottle service where he gets to hang out with celebrities and people kiss his ass. That’s not good for jazz, which has a nightclub problem of its own. When only a few thousand of the eight million are spending money on live jazz, the math is tough. The complicated equation of jazz + audience + space really hit me during the Winter Jazzfest marathon nights, January 13 and 14, the first in Manhattan the second in Williamsburg. The great thing about the marathons—and it is truly great—is that they are an event, the kind of thing that brings people to the

by George Grella

music who might be no more than casual jazz listeners and who might not otherwise head out for live jazz. With a ticket, you can catch three or more sets of music from different artists at one place, or go from venue to venue. That used to be one of the key features in Manhattan, where the music revolved around the Village and gave you the next best experience to being back on 52nd Street in 1949: see one or two sets, stroll no more than 10 minutes to another place for more, and then again. There was also the social pleasure of walking around knowing that groups of other people you saw were out to dig the music too—it was a community in the streets, and you knew you would see Steve Dalachinksy at some point.

That wasn’t possible this year, except within a tight triangle of (le) poisson rouge, The Bitter End, and Zinc Bar. The extended borders of Nublu in the Easy Village, City Winery near the Hudson, and The Jazz Gallery in lower Midtown were too broad to make it from one of those clubs to any other. Location limited choice, and curtailed the social experience. Things were better in Williamsburg, where everything was in walking distance of everything else—although going from Superior Ingredients on Wythe Avenue to the Williamsburg Opera House on Berry Street was a good 15 block hike—and this was more of a social experience, seeing people on the street who were coming out of one place and heading to another. It was jazz life on the hoof, a few hours when jazz culture dominated a place. And that was sweet. But not all these places that had jazz in them one night were good places for jazz. Superior Ingredients, Brooklyn Bowl, lpr, brought in good crowds, but maybe I’m old fashioned in feeling this but the dance club type nightclub, with concrete floors and people standing in packs, are not good places for jazz. While it was a thrill to see the tremendous Jamaaladeen Tacuma, it mean fighting through the conditions at Superior Ingredients. It’s a dance club, and the sound system meant a cracking bass and snare (Billy Martin was at the drums), but the horns and some apparent electronic effects were paper thin and swallowed up by the mix. Bad sound engineering in places that use PA systems is a common issue across New York City, so pervasive that I’m baffled both how people get these jobs—there’s so few who seem to be able to do them—and how they get hired—there’s so few venue owners who seem to listen or to care.

Another problem in the non-jazz spaces was with

the audiences. I’m glad people were coming out and digging the music, but using a phone to take video at a performance is such a pervasive problem that jazz can’t escape it. Try and do it at Carnegie Hall, and an usher will tell you to put your phone away, they have a stated policy against it, and at the Vanguard, before each set the club tells people to wait and take pictures at the end of the set. Taking video of live performances runs into problems both with intellectual property in general and the artists’ wishes in particular, and from the audience perspective it’s frequently rude, especially in a place where you have to stand and hold your ground on the floor just to be able to see and hear a great musician play. The Winter Jazzfest encourages social media use and tagging, and that’s a useful way to draw people to the music, but it does conflict with and intrude upon the experience of people not taking video.

I’m not sure if there’s a solution to that, but there is an enormous difference in experience when you have to stand compared to when you can sit. And before you think I’m square, the first time I saw Jamaaladeen Tacuma was at the old Carnegie (now Weill) Recital Hall in the mid-1980s, and that was hellaciously funky. Sitting focusses more attention on listening, on the music, and even as places like Zinc Bar and any other place that makes money off drinks have their distractions, they are immeasurably better for the live jazz experience than dance clubs. I’d trade the the old 55 Bar for Superior Ingredients any day, and the fact that 55 closed permanently last year tells you everything about fighting that battle. We go to live jazz with the places we have, not that spaces we want. Sadly, wanting more is likely not going to deliver anything.

This month’s column, though, is about where the music happens, the places we can go for the essential magic of live jazz, where the musicians get a chance to play and be paid.

The Winter Jazzfest Marathon in Williamsburg

Marie's

Turn toilet paper tubes into a cute Valentine’s Day bouquet!

by Marie Hueston

Construction paper and scotch tape are all it takes to transform one of the humblest of our household recyclables into a colorful tabletop decoration in time for Valentine’s Day! Here’s how to make your own!

Make stems for your bouquet. Take a piece of green construction paper and fold it in half. Then fold it into thirds. Open the paper and cut out the resulting six strips. Fold each strip in half, and in half again, then tape at the top, middle and bottom to create thin strips that resemble flower stems.

Tape your hearts to the tops of the stems. Tape one heart on the top of each green stem. If you want to make more than one bouquet, or if you want to add more stems to a single bouquet, make more stems and hearts.

Gather your materials. In addition to the toilet paper tube, you’ll need construction paper in red and green as well as conversation heart colors (pink, yellow, orange, purple, and light blue), scotch tape, scissors, ruler, pencil and a marker or crayon in any color.

Create conversation hearts to top your stems. Draw hearts on the other colors of construction paper. Make the hearts large enough to look like a flower on top of each stem, so about three inches across. On each heart, write a conversation heart message such as BE MINE, HUG ME, or TRUE LOVE. Cut out the hearts.

Measure and cut a strip of red paper to cover the tube. Lay the tube onto a piece of red construction paper and line the ruler up to the top of it. Measure a line across the paper that is the height of the tube. Cut along the line,

Arrange your hearts! Fill your red vase with your conversation heart “flowers.” To keep the stems from falling through when you lift the vase, put a few strips of tape across the bottom to block them. Place your bouquet on a table, desk or windowsill or give it to a friend!

wrap the paper around the tube and tape in place.