The Brooklyn Optimist

Reforming Albany: Why Term Limits Are Worth Fighting For

2010-01-11T16:19:00.007-05:00

After two years of scandals in our state government that have ranged from the embarrasing to the bizarre, I have concluded that the only way to really reform the New York State legislature is to impose term limits on our Assemblymembers and State Senators. That’s why I’m asking you to join me in signing up to the Facebook fan page “Citizens for Term Limits in Albany” and spreading the word about how we as citizens can act to clean up the corruption that has made “dysfunctionalism” synonymous with our state government.

I do not propose this remedy to the great problems New York faces without deep deliberation. Fundamentally, like many of you, I am opposed to term limits. Philosophically, I believe that we should have the right as citizens to elect whoever we want to govern us for as long as we want them to serve.

But what upends my basic opposition to term limits in the case of our Assemblymembers and State Senators, is the fact that our electoral system in New York State demonstrably and egregiously favor incumbents, to the degree that 98% of our legislators get reelected, despite the fact that a significant majority of New Yorkers disapprove of the job they’re doing and don’t think their local legislator deserves to stay in office.

Those who understand the mechanics of Albany rightfully point out that passing term limits is a near impossibility since it would require our State Senators and Assemblymembers to vote against their own self-interest. Certainly, the likelihood of this occurring is slim. As former New York City Parks Commissioner and good government guru Henry Stern puts it, expecting Albany to police itself is like asking Wall Street to draw up the rules that govern the financial industry. The fact is our State legislators have run roughshod over any checks to their power for so long that they wouldn’t know how to change direction even if they magically developed the will to do so.

But just because the road to term limits is uphill, let us not be deterred from walking it. All of the greatest reforms in history seemed improbable at best. How many people in this country believed even three years ago that it was truly possible for the United States to elect an African-American President? How many Americans believed at the dawn of our great civil rights movements, be they on behalf of women, blacks, immigrants, or gays, that they would ever have a chance of succeeding? It is only through the determination of the masses and the collective belief that injustices should never stand that we triumph in making our city, our state, and our country a better place to live.

Perhaps it shocks you that I conflate electoral reform with our proud civil rights movements, but it shouldn’t. Electoral reform was, and is, central to all of our battles for fairness. If the people are denied the fundamental right to elect who we want to represent us and our vote is manipulated so as not to count as it should, then the democracy and the republic that we hold so dear to our hearts as Americans exists only in rhetoric.

In New York, our electoral law was written deliberately to take power out of the hands of the people and place it squarely in the control of our elected officials. Nowhere in the 50 states is it more difficult for a candidate to get on the ballot to oppose an incumbent than in New York. An arcane and deliberately complex system of petitioning derails most would-be reformers from getting on the ballot. The rest get caught up in court challenges, presided over by judges who owe their careers to the incumbents, and financial hurdles that trip up anyone without a Bloomberg size bankroll.

On top of these challenges, our state legislators draw the lines of electoral districts to favor their reelection bids. Our tax dollars pay for our legislators to send out free campaign literature under the guise of newsletters – a particularly insidious practice called “franking”. And our incumbents insure that they have far superior name recognition – often the deciding factor in local races – by plastering their names across our garbage cans, public building projects, and anything else to which they can attach themselves. Add in the advantages of uneven media coverage and the millions of dollars in discretionary funds our state legislators give out to buy the loyalties of local institutions and it becomes clear why the odds of dethroning our Assemblymembers and State Senators is next to nil, even when their girlfriends' faces are slashed, they have journalists beaten up for investigating them, or they plunder the coffers of Little Leagues – all of which our state legislators have done in the past few years alone.

Enough is enough. The recent promise by our State legislators to reform themselves is nothing more than a smokescreen plotted to dull the mounting anger of the people. We cannot let ourselves be fooled by these cynical machinations. Nor can we dupe ourselves into thinking that the gross systemic failures of our government can be fixed in tangential baby steps. We must stand together and insist on bold action.

The internet has given us an extraordinary and unprecedented tool of grassroots organizing and education. Blogs and social networking sites have empowered us with the resource to make our voice heard at a decibel so loud it cannot be silenced, no matter how much the powers that be try. In less than a month, 100,000 New Yorkers have rallied together in a Facebook fan page to oppose the elimination of student fare Metrocards. This may not seem like such a great number in a City of 8 million people, but when you consider that only 125,000 people voted for John Liu in the recent election for New York City Comptroller – the second highest office in the Big Apple! – and only 225,000 overall, you begin to get a sense of how the people can regain their say in government by banding together. If those 100,000 New Yorkers all vote as a bloc and get their loved ones to join them, they will decide virtually every election in the City the way they want.

Above all our State legislators are in power because of the ignorance and apathy of the people. When we don’t vote, they win. That’s why it is the responsibility of all of us proud New Yorkers who love our State and want it to be a model for the rest of the country to follow to share our knowledge of how it can be improved with our friends, family, and anyone else who will listen.

So, please join me right now in logging on to Facebook and joining the “Citizens for Term Limits in Albany” fan page. As members, we will be able to communicate, organize, and empower each other to take back our government and insist that our elected officials represent our interests, instead of their own.

For the Record, Mr. Lopez, I Love the Kings County Democratic Party

2009-06-12T11:29:00.007-04:00

Last night, as he stepped from the dais at the annual Seneca Club Dinner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez leered at me, extended his club of a hand, and said, "So, you're the guy who hates the Kings County Democratic Party."

I must admit that I didn't retort with any pithy zinger, though a slew of them suddenly snapped into my mind. In part, it was because I was caught off-guard that Vito - with whom I had never before exchanged two words - knew who I was without my even introducing myself. Certainly, I was aware that quite a few people read the Brooklyn Optimist and that I have made no secret of my opposition to Mr. Lopez's iron-fisted rule of our borough, but I was surprised to discover that Vito is apparently one of my loyal readers.

What really made me hold my tongue, however, was that I realized in the course of my split-second reflection that Vito's accusation was misplaced. I don't hate the Kings County Democratic Party. In fact, I love it.

Why else would I have spent long hours over the last couple of years exposing in my blog our elected officials' confounding, and often corrupt, machinations? Why else would I have run successfully to represent my swath of Greenpoint as a County Committee Member in the Brooklyn Democratic Party? Why else would I have proudly joined Gerald Esposito in his City Council campaign to purge our party of do-nothing machine candidates like Diana Reyna and Maritza Davila and bring about real change in Brooklyn? Why else would I have spent priceless hours away from my lovely wife and baby to fight to reform Brooklyn politics?

It is because I hold the core belief that dissent in the face of injustice and inequity is the foundation of our democracy. Or as our great Senator Robert Kennedy put it, "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."

From time to time, I get letters from readers questioning how I can call myself an optimist, while at the same time detailing so many causes for cynicism. Invariably, I respond that it is my unwavering conviction that no matter how bleak New York politics may be, that somehow, some way, together, we can fix it and restore integrity to City Hall and Albany that truly makes me an optimist.

It is a sad old game of party bosses to insist that blind fealty to their rule is the only way to pledge allegiance to one's party. But what Vito Lopez calls "hate", I call "hope". By casting light upon our party's darkness, I do not aim to destroy our party, but to demand that our party be better.

Contrary to popular belief, the Kings County Democratic Party doesn't belong to Vito Lopez. It belongs to you and me. It is not just our right to assert our leadership of our party, it is our duty.

Once again, I differ to the eloquence of Senator Robert Kennedy, "We know full well the faults of our democracy - the handicaps of freedom - the inconvenience of dissent. But I know of no American who would not rather be a servant in the imperfect house of Freedom, than be a master of all the empires of tyranny."

Well, perhaps that's not true about Mr. Lopez, but certainly it's true about me.

Obama Power Gives Rise To Recession Fair

2009-06-04T13:54:00.007-04:00

The Optimist is proud to be friends with Ellen Enders, one of Greenpoint's brightest neighborhood activists and a driving force behind The Recession Survival Fair (also one of the funniest people on earth).

Ellen conceived The Recession Survival Fair along with some of her fellow alumni of the Brooklyn for Barack juggernaut, who wanted to do more than just pay lip service to the President's call for service.

The Recession Survival Fair will be a non-partisan community service event to assist Brooklyn and New York City residents in tackling the challenges springing from the economic recession. Attendees will have free access to important information and professional help on a range of relevant topics, including healthcare, food and nutrition, job search, debt and personal finance, and tenants’ rights and foreclosure.

Who doesn't need at least one of those things these days?

Here's your chance to get all of them for FREE!

On top of that, DKMS, the world's largest bone marrow donor center, will also be conducting a drive for potential donor matches. All help will be provided free of charge, although participants will also be invited to offer their own expertise to the community in exchange.

This event gets the Optimist's absolute highest stamp of approval and makes him feel warm and fuzzy all over. This is really bringing change to Brooklyn!

Here's the 4 Ws:

Who: Brooklyn for Barack (718-757-8572) in association with The Stuyvesant Heights Parents Association

What: Recession Survival Fair, to provide professional info and help to Brooklyn and New York City residents hurt by the economic recession

When: Saturday, June 6, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Mount Lebanon Baptist Church, 230 Decatur St. (near Lewis Ave.) in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn

And an H:

How: Subway: A, C to Utica Ave; Bus: B15 to Bainbridge Street; B25, B26 to Lewis Avenue; B43, B46 to MacDonough Street.

The Responsibility of the Blogger

2009-05-29T12:10:00.005-04:00

While America may boast the best paid bloggers, it certainly doesn't have the most important. That distinction goes to bloggers like Hao Wu of China, who was imprisoned for 140 days for writing about “subversive subjects online”, and Omid Reza Mirsayafi, a 29-year-old cultural blogger who died under mysterious circumstances in an Iranian jail after being sentenced to two years for insulting “the Supreme Guide Ayatollah Khomeini”.

These so-called “cyberdissidents” weren’t writing fiery polemics online calling for the overthrow of their country – quite to the contrary, they dared to write the truth about their oppressive governments, usually couched in satire to tone down the sting of their reporting. They knew full well the danger of writing what their newspapers were afraid or forbidden to print, but they understood that it was their responsibility to their country, the international community, and themselves, to use the most powerful mode of communication in the world to expose injustice and call for change.

While we can breathe a sigh of relief that America is not a tyrannical state like China or Iran, we should not be so quick to pat ourselves on the back. According to Reporters Without Borders’ 2008 analysis, the United States ranks a dismal 36th among the world’s nations for freedom of the press and the “efforts made by the authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.” America’s ranking ties it with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, South Africa, Spain, and Taiwan, and sets us behind considerably behind countries like Namibia (tied for #23), Latvia (tied for #7), and Luxembourg (tied for #1).

Some may dismiss this ranking as another shameful legacy of the Bush years, but we are almost certain to once again tumble lower on this list under the Obama Administration as the nation’s newspapers quickly perish and the few surviving news sources fall victim to both devastating newsroom cutbacks and media consolidation.

However, while it may well be too late to save our newspapers, it is not too late to save journalism. That’s where bloggers come in.

At this year’s Brooklyn Blogfest, hundreds of bloggers from New York City came together to discuss “why we blog”. Some bloggers said their motivation was self-expression; others wanted to focus on an interest; and Jake Dobkin, founder of The Gothamist, got the strongest response by offering strategies to make money from blogging.

Unfortunately, all of these reasons are tantamount to teaching a student how to write great poetry, and then telling that student they should use their newfound gift to get a job writing greeting cards.

What is extraordinary about the Blogfest is that it brings together hundreds of passionate, thoughtful, observant, and talented writers and photographers, who are concerned for their communities and the welfare of the people around them. What is a failure of the event is that the bloggers are never told that together we outnumber the reporters at the New York Times and if we were all worked together as citizen journalists we could rival its worldwide influence.

Hao Wu and Omid Reza Mirsayafi understood intuitively the responsibility of blogging. They realized that blogging is a force so powerful that it can even stand up to Big Brother. Information, discussion, investigation – these are the core foundational components of democracy. Blogging is the most extraordinary tool in the history of media because it is the only weapon that truly levels the playing field between the haves and the have-nots and lets independent reporters write on a platform as accessible to the public as the largest television network.

As yesterday article’s “How Politicians and their Publicists Took Over the Press” from the True News blog made clear, the death of newspapers and the shrinking of America’s media has allowed politicians, developers, unscrupulous CEOs, and their ilk “to spin, scheme, and steal with impunity”.

The only recourse the citizens of this country have is to speak out wherever there is silence and ask questions whenever the explanations we are given are inadequate. Blog about the shady building going up on your block, blog about how your local elected official never returns your calls, blog about the sorry state of your child’s school.

Write the stories that are unwritten, and write the stories that have already been written better. If you do so, your fellow bloggers will follow your lead and eventually all of us might have the information we need to really know what’s going on in our world.

Council Candidate Steve Levin: Bored by Nydia, Unenthused by Reform

2009-03-24T12:21:00.004-04:00

Though the Optimist used his post yesterday to sneak over the Pulaski Bridge from his home in Greenpoint and weigh in on Queens politics, rest assured, dear readers, that doesn't mean he has stopped paying attention to the important affairs of his own community.

Quite to the contrary, the Optimist has been keeping careful watch on the Council race to succeed David Yassky. That's why David Michaelson's account of this weekend's Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) Annual Dinner was of particular interest to him.

The following is an excerpt from Michaelson's (a.k.a. Mole333) account of the event, in which he describes Council candidate Steve Levin's reaction to our Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez's speech about the excitment of the new Obama Administration. If you've never heard Levin's name, you may have nonetheless seen him joined at the hip to his boss Vito Lopez. Personally, every time I see Levin, who is in his late 20s, he strikes me as a person who has sacrificed his youth to the cold, calculating cynicism of old age. I'll let you decide for yourself. Here's Mole:

An interesting side note was that Steve Levin, Vito Lopez's candidate for the 33rd City Council district (where I have endorsed Jo Anne Simon) was in attendence. I was across the room from him during Nydia's speech on helping small businesses and on the thrill of being a Democat with Obama as President. I was struck at how bored and unenthusiastic he seemed on these subjects. I had heard that, despite being Vito Lopez's pick for the seat, he was a nice, decent guy. Yet there he was looking like a teenager someone had dragged to a political event, bored and surly. He would pointedly not clap or clap sarcastically while everyone else was enthusiastically applauding Nydia and Obama. What was up with him?

Then I realized. It was the fact that he WAS Vito Lopez's kid, and Vito Lopez HATES Nydia Velazquez. You'd think Levin would prefer, at a reform Democrat event like CBID's dinner, to show he is NOT so intimately linked to the corrupt Vito Lopez, but instead he chose to emphasize that Vito's petty grudges are his petty grudges.

Either that or he just had indigestion. But the impression he made was not a good one at a moment when the rest of the crowd was quite enthusiastic as progressives and as Democrats.

McLaughlin, Monserrate and Seminerio: Where's the Outrage?

2009-03-23T14:30:00.002-04:00

This morning I read a quote in the union newspaper The Chief that made me mad:

"Brian McLaughlin was a colleague and a close friend," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, "and this is a sad day for him, his family, and the labor movement."

For those of you who don't know Brian McLaughlin, he is the former Queens Assemblyman and New York City AFL-CIO Central Labor Council President, who plead guilty on March 7th to federal racketeering charges, so that instead of facing 30+ years in prison, he'll likely only end up with 8 to 10.

McLaughlin's crimes were particularly despicable. He ripped off $2.2 million from union members and City taxpayers to spend on stuff like a luxury house on Long Island, a Mercedes Benz, and country club fees. He even plundered money from a Little League set up for the children of union members. To quote the same Chief article, when McLaughlin learned that one of his corrupt confederates had spent $2,800 on equipment for the kids rather than stealing it all, McLaughlin lashed out: "[A]ll that fucking money he's fucking spending on other stuff, that ain't his money ... that's mine."

Nice guy, huh?

You'd think so from the tone of Randi Weingarten's aforementioned quote in The Chief. Weingarten makes it sound like McLaughlin was a good person who somehow lost his way and carelessly fell into bilking Little Leaguers. I wonder if she would publicly express the same messianic compassion for Bernard Madoff.

Now, the intention of this post is not to criticize Weingarten. She is merely representative of a political power structure that hardly ever breaks rank to criticize its members, even when they are deserving of our utmost scorn and contempt.

How bad does an elected official have to be to provoke criticism from their colleagues? These days it seems like that there's no crime a politician can commit that is so heinous that their party's leaders bother to condemn them.

Take Congressman Joe Crowley, the head of the Queens Democratic Party. Crowley was one of the Congressmen who expressed moral outrage last week at A.I.G. execs for receiving millions in bonuses. Surely, if Crowley could muster so much anger over legal bonuses, he must have blown his top when he learned his longtime friend Brian McLaughlin had admitted to stealing over two million bucks from innocent people.

What was Crowley's comment on McLaughlin's crimes? Over two weeks after McLaughlin's guilty plea, he still hasn't made one. (And why hasn't the press demanded one?)

But then again, neither has any other elected official from Queens. Or any Citywide politician, for that matter. What about the candidates for Mayor, Comptroller, or the ombudsman of the people, Public Advocate? Not a word.

Sadly, this is an all-too-familiar silence. Not one politician stood up to condemn disgraced Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio either when he was arrested last September for allegedly using a dummy consulting firm to take $500,000 in payoffs from people seeking his favor in Albany. According to the indictment, Seminerio, a 30-year incumbent, was caught on tape explaining the rationale for his scheme: “I was doing favors for these sons-of-bitches there, you know, they were—they were making thousands. ‘Screw you, from now on, you know, I’m a consultant.’”

Even State Senator Hiram Monserrate has escaped public reproach from his colleagues. Monserrate, who recently leapt from the City Council to the Senate, made the front page of every paper in the city in December when he was arrested for allegedly slashing his girlfriend with a broken glass during a fight. The incident wasn't the first blow to the beleaguered State Senator from Queens. Monserrate was already embroiled in an investigation into a highly dubious nonprofit he directed $250,000 in City money to called Libre, which was run by Julissa Ferreras, his former chief of staff and successor to his Council seat.

How did Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith punish Monserrate, who was indicted this morning on felony assault charges? By throwing him a fundraiser last week!

What did the Working Families Party do to chastise Ferreras for her role in Libre? They endorsed her bid for City Council.

The fact that our politicians, for one reason or another, have collectively decided that it is either inappropriate or, worse, inexpedient to denounce their colleagues-turned-criminals is morally repugnant. When politicians ignore the profound injury done to society when the public trust is violated, they minimize this most serious of crimes in the eyes of the people and send a tacit message to other corrupt elected officials not to worry because their party will be behind them no matter what.

They also perpetuate an environment where district attorneys feel no pressure to investigate their fellow electeds. The whole system becomes a polite détente, governed by the cynical principle that one hand whitewashes the other.

This system works just fine for party insiders and our elected officials, but it damns the rest of us to endure a government stripped of accountability, transparency, and courage.

Another Great Event: Brooklyn Food Conference 2009

2009-03-23T09:48:00.005-04:00

If you're as concerned about what you and your loved ones eat as your friendly neighborhood (vegetarian) Optimist, you should check out the Brooklyn Food Conference for FREE on May 2nd, 2009 at John Jay High School and PS 231 at 237 7th Avenue in Park Slope.

It sounds like a great event. Here's what the release says:

Food issues hit home for all of Brooklyn–from school lunches or the rise in diabetes, escalating food costs, immigration or farmers markets, local food challenges and delights, food touches us all. Come join us to learn from experts and our neighbors about all the ways our Food System affects us and how you can get involved.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Park Slope Food Coop, World Hunger Year, Brooklyn Rescue Mission, Caribbean Women’s Health Association, and Brooklyn’s Bounty.

Start the day with a New Orleans-style parade featuring massive puppets! Then participate in workshops, food demos, and kids’ activities, and enjoy lunch, dinner, and a dance. The conference will be FREE to all participants.

Meet well-known activists and writers like Dan Barber, executive chef and owner of Blue Hill Restaurant, Anna Lappé, author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen, Raj Patel author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and LaDonna Redmond, head of the Institute of Community Resource Development in Chicago.

Partners include over 50 organizations, including Just Food, CAMBA, Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, Center for the Urban Environment, Children’s Aid Society, Garden of Union, Grassroots Netroots Alliance, New York Coalition Against Hunger, East New York Farms, Restaurant Opportunity Center, United Food and Commercial Workers.

To register for the conference, click here.

Blogfest 2009: On Your Marks, Get Set, Blog!

2009-03-23T09:32:00.005-04:00

Find out why Brooklyn is the bloggiest place in America at the Fourth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest on May 7, 2009 7 p.m. at powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

Brooklyn Blogfest 2009 is an exciting, idea-filled event for bloggers, blog readers and the blog curious where you will find: Insight. Advice. Inspiration. Resources.

Here's your chance to meet your favorite bloggers (like the Optimist!); learn about blogging; be inspired to blog.

"Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?" ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

This year's event will take place on May 7, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the powerHouse Arena in DUMBO.

WHY WE BLOG will be the theme of a high-profile panel discussion. This year Brooklyn Blogfest introduces BLOGS-OF-A-FEATHER, special small-group sessions, where you can connect with other bloggers who share your interests.

Once again, there will a VIDEO TRIBUTE TO BROOKLYN'S PHOTO BLOGGERS and the annual SHOUT-OUT: a chance to share your blog with the world!

Whether you live to blog, blog to live or are just curious about this thing called blogging, you won't want to miss Brooklyn Blogfest 2009: the best Blogfest yet.

For more information and to register online go to brooklynblogfest.com.

To find out about sponsorship opportunities for Brooklyn Blogfest, contact Louise Crawford (e: louise_crawford@yahoo.com, c: 718-288-4290).

The Details:

Fourth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest
May 7, 2009
Doors open at 7 p.m.
powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Admission: $10. ($5 for students and seniors)

Brooklyn Blogfest After-Party
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
(right across the street from powerHouse Arena)
Cash bar and refreshments

Brooklyn Blogfest 2009

Insight. Advice. Inspiration. Resources.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T23:29:00.003-04:00

Although this video has its charms, I actually posted it, so you could appreciate some of the hilarious comments about it on Queens Crap. Enjoy!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Brooklyn's Newest Blog: A Short Story

2009-03-17T22:58:00.004-04:00

In honor of Bob Guskind, who often used The Gowanus Lounge to recognize Brooklyn's newest blogs, I want to take a moment to introduce our borough's newest blogger: Aaron Short.

Aaron's blog, A Short Story, is less than 12 hours old, but he's already been prolific, posting more articles today than some of us get down in a week - or even a month. It's no surprise to the Optimist that Mr. Short is approaching his new media prodigiously. If his name sounds familiar, that's because up until recently, Aaron was one of the star reporters for the Courier-Life chain of newspapers. If you've been to any type of community event in Greenpoint or Williamsburg in the last year, you've seen Aaron and his notepad. The man is ubiquitous.

So, just as Bob once welcomed me to cyberspace, I now extend the same warm greetings to Aaron Short. The Optimist expects many great things from Mr. Short, especially now that he's free from the shackles of print.

Don't Let Our Stimulus Money Go To Atlantic Yards!

2009-03-17T22:29:00.003-04:00

Paying out $165 million in bonuses to those criminals at A.I.G. was enough of a kick in the ass this week. Don't let our tax dollars go to bailing out Bruce Rat-ner too.

Sign this petition to let Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg know that we refuse to give one penny of our stimulus money to Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project:

http://www.petitiononline.com/noaystim/petition.html

INSTANT UPDATE: The Dreary Future of Brooklyn's Newspapers

2009-03-16T13:46:00.004-04:00

Less than 24 hours after the Optimist reported that out of the nine cities in America that still can claim competing newspapers that Seattle, Tucson, and Detroit were barely holding on, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has announced that tomorrow's paper will be its last in print.

According to the Times, the Post-Intelligencer will publish exclusively on the Web in the future, making it "by far" America's largest newspaper to stop its presses and move online. The paper is cutting its staff dramatically from 165 reporters to 20 and will "resemble a local Huffington Post more than a traditional newspaper."

See, I wasn't being alarmist! Newspaper lovers, we're going the way of the dinosaurs. If we don't support Brooklyn's newspapers, they'll all be gone in a matter of years.

They'd already all be dead if it weren't for legal notices.

Greenpoint Newspapers: Don't Take Competition For Granted

2009-03-15T17:09:00.005-04:00

Now that the Greenpoint Courier has gone the way of the New York Sun, the Optimist wanted to take the opportunity to recognize his neighborhood's two remaining newspapers: The Greenpoint Gazette and The Greenpoint Star.

The Optimist is a regular reader of both these papers and even coughs up 35 cents to buy the Star each week at his corner deli, even though getting it for free doesn't require inordinate ingenuity. As a former weekly newspaper editor, I enjoy these local papers, even though by the time they hit the stands, I've generally read all of their stories on blogs like New York Shitty, Greenpointers, and Brooklyn 11211.

The Gazette, which is Greenpoint's only independently owned newspaper, features fine reporting from Juliet Linderman, Khristina Narizhnaya, and Adriane Quinlan and generally makes up for what it lacks in breaking news with sober and thoughtful analysis.

The Greenpoint Star is the neighborhood edition of the Queens Ledger / Brooklyn Star chain of newspapers that cover Brooklyn and Queens. While the Star and Gazette tend to cover a lot of the same stories, the Star's Jeffrey Harmatz and Dan Bush admirably distinguish their paper to the point that I find it worthwhile to read both our neighborhood's weeklies.

I should note that I have not known either of these papers to do much in the way of investigative reporting - which is sad given how ripe the politicians and environmental issues in this neighborhood are for probing - but I attribute this deficiency less to a lack of skill or desire on the part of their reporters, than to the heavy load that their writers and editors must shoulder producing a weekly newspaper with a tiny staff.

The reason I have taken this post to praise my two local newspapers is because I want both of them to exist long into the future, and never go the way of the Courier. In Brooklyn, where we have enjoyed rich competition among our local papers for generations, it is easy to take for granted that there will always be rival papers to educate us.

But that assumption is no longer consistent with the facts. Recently, True News from ChangeNYC.Org published a remarkable post on the end of the newspaper era. With the recent death of Denver's 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News, only nine cities remain in America with competing local papers, and among the remaining cities, papers in Detroit, Seattle, and Tucson are hobbling on life support. There are even rumors afloat that the New York Daily News could end up publishing exclusively online as early as this summer.

What's this mean for Brooklyn? As we saw by last week's purchase of the Brooklyn Paper by News Corp., many of the papers that do survive will likely fall victim to media consolidation. Others will end up solely on the Web, like the venerable Christian Science Monitor.

Fewer newspapers inherently equal a weaker press. That's why I urge my fellow Greenpointers to pick up the Gazette and the Star. The only people who can keep our newspapers alive are us, their readers and their advertisers. To many of you these papers might not seem like much, but just like with the Greenpoint Courier, we're sure to miss them when they're gone.

BREAKING NEWS: Media Consolidation Rocks Brooklyn

2009-03-10T15:46:00.010-04:00

Brooklyn Paper Bought By News Corp & Greenpoint Courier Marked For Death

Just when I thought it was a slow news day in Brooklyn, Rupert Murdoch comes along and turns the borough on its head.

Today, Murdoch, who already owns the Brooklyn Courier-Life chain of newspapers, the New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal, gobbled up The Brooklyn Paper too. In an article posted just over an hour ago on the The New York Observer's website, The Brooklyn Paper's editor Gersh Kuntzman declares, "We're very excited."

Good thing Gersh is happy, because Brooklynites I called for quick comment are deeply disturbed at the total media consolidation of New York City's biggest borough - especially since all the papers will now be under the control of the ultra-conversative FOX News baron. "It's likely to put a stanglehold on independent reporting and on the ability for people to find out what's going on in their community and influence it," said Carroll Gardens resident Glenn Kelly.

And it's not just the residents of Brooklyn that are reeling from the sudden bombshell. There's likely to be a dramatic shake-up in both the Courier-Life and Brooklyn Paper newsrooms as News Corp. eliminates overlap between the two papers.

According to one of the Optimist's inside sources, the ax already fell today on some of the Courier-Life's unfortunate staffers and the Greenpoint Courier has been slated for extinction within the next two weeks. The Williamsburg Courier will survive annihilation for the time being because it's a cash cow for advertising, but other local Courier versions might end up on the chopping block.

Dear readers, have the Brooklyn blogs ever been more important? We're the only source of true, independent news left in the borough.

Council Candidate Craig Hammerman Envisions Park Slope Arts Center to Rival P.S. 1

2009-03-10T14:56:00.004-04:00

Democratic City Council Candidate Craig Hammerman announced today his plan to bring Brooklyn artists and residents together by creating a mixed-use arts and learning center in Park Slope.

Hammerman’s plan envisions revitalizing the St. Thomas Aquinas School at 4th Avenue and 8th Street, which was closed down in June 2005, as the Aquinas Arts Center, much in the same vein that Long Island City’s P.S. 1 was turned into one of Queens’ hottest attractions and best loved museums.

“The future prosperity of our neighborhoods depends in large part upon supporting the cultural soul of our community,” said Hammerman, who in addition to running for Council in the 39th District, is also the longtime district manager of Community Board 6. “This area needs a non-profit contemporary community arts center that pulls together and showcases the finest our neighborhoods have to offer.”

With an emphasis upon showing the work of Brooklyn artists, the Aquinas Arts Center would enable community residents to discover the extraordinary breadth and diversity of talents exhibited by their neighbors. At the same time, it would continue the proud academic tradition of the former St. Thomas Aquinas School by offering a plethora of arts classes to Brooklynites of all ages.

In unveiling his plan, Hammerman recognized the wonderful and eclectic contribution to the community made by Park Slope cultural beacons like the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music, Southpaw, and the Brooklyn Lyceum, and he celebrated local artists for their initiative in banding together to create their successful Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour (AGAST). Hammerman promised that the Aquinas Arts Center would only enhance the area’s growing cultural community by offering a centerpiece around which artists and art lovers could thrive.

“Since P.S. 1 reopened in 1997, it has become more than a world-renowned tourist destination, it has drawn remarkable artists of all media to live and work in Long Island City,” said Hammerman. “The Aquinas Arts Center will bring the artistic excellence of our community to the world, while bringing the finest artists in the world to our community.”

Hammerman promised that finding the funding to build the Aquinas Arts Center would be a priority of his first term in the City Council. Citing a report from the Center for an Urban Future, Hammerman pointed out that the lack of affordable studio space, which the Aquinas Arts Center would provide free to Brooklynites, is the greatest impediment to the growth and success of New York City’s 150,000 artists.

Hammerman countered the suggestion that the Aquinas Arts Center would be an unnecessary expense by asserting that the Aquinas Arts Center would be a boon to the local economy. “Despite all other economic trends, the creative economy is growing in Brooklyn,” explained Hammerman. “City government has foolishly put all its eggs in the Wall Street and real estate baskets. We must diversify our local economy to insulate ourselves from the volatility of the markets. That means supporting the creative economy and doing a better job at supporting our small, locally-owned commercial businesses and manufacturing industries too.”

The Aquinas Arts Center, which Hammerman hopes to begin constructing as early as 2010, would be conveniently located on the cusp of Park Slope and Gowanus and easily accessible by both the F, N, and R subway lines and the B75, B77, B37, and B63 bus lines.

Craig Hammerman is running to represent Brooklyn’s 39th Council District, which encompasses Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Columbia Street, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Kensington, and Boro Park.

Time Running Out For Public School Parents to Run for CEC

2009-03-10T14:52:00.002-04:00

The deadline for public school parents to register to run for NYC’s Community and Citywide Education Councils (CECs) has been extended until March 19th. In response to an increase in parent interest in the elections, the NYC Department of Education, a slew of City nonprofits, and parent groups across the five boroughs are stepping up their vigorous efforts to recruit candidates.

“We’re asking every New Yorker regardless of whether or not they currently have kids in school to pitch in to get the word out about these elections,” said Jeff S. Merritt, Founder and President of Grassroots Initiative, the New York City-based nonprofit organization partnering with the DOE to help to recruit and to assist CEC candidates.

The CECs, which replaced New York City’s School Boards in 2004, are parental advisory boards – one for each of the City’s 32 school districts – that meet with the district superintendent each month and advise the Department of Education on issues like school zoning and instruction.

Parents can sign up online to run for the CEC in a matter of minutes at powertotheparents.org. This year, the application process has been simplified so that both first-time candidates and current CEC members will have no trouble getting their names on the ballot.

For more information about the elections or how to run for the CEC, log on to powertotheparents.org or call 1-877-NYC-VOTE.

In Memoriam: Bob Guskind

2009-03-09T17:39:00.005-04:00

Of all of the events I have missed writing about in the last couple of months, I wanted to make sure I didn't let the sad passing of blogger Bob Guskind go unmentioned.

I only met Bob once in person, but I corresponded with him on occasion by email, including just a few days before he died. It was clear to be by the tone of this last correspondence that he was overwhelmed, but he went out of his way to apologize for any brusqueness I might have misconstrued from the terse response.

I had made no such assumption. Bob was always performing herculean labors of good journalism and I took it as a matter-of course-that he would be too busy for idle chatter. I'm not sure quite when Bob slept, but I presume it was infrequently and when he did, he dreamt in long posts that unraveled the mysteries of Brooklyn for all of us.

When I first considered blogging, I approached Bob and he shared with me many words of advice I have since internalized as second nature. When I did finally make my first post, he praised my early work as "promising and good natured" and shared my blog with his readers.

I am grateful to Bob for his generosity and saddened that Brooklyn will be without his seemingly infinite insights.

Thanks to Chris Kreussling, the Flatbush Gardener, for this wonderful photo of Bob.

Brooklyn's Newest Optimist: Fiona Lucia Pehme

2009-03-09T16:51:00.007-04:00

Before I launch back into blogging, I want to thank all of the kind readers who took the time to encourage me to return to my keyboard and once again spread optimism across Brooklyn. Though I am certainly touched at the concern many of you expressed for my well-being, in truth, my hiatus from blogging wasn't the result of any distress, but great happiness.

On December 18th, my wife, Patricia, and I welcomed our first child, Fiona Lucia Pehme, into the world. Since then, we have tried to keep the strain of our busy lives at bay and concentrate as much of our energy as possible on enjoying our daughter.

But now that my darling Fiona has finally decided to take pity upon her parents and sleep through the night, I have resolved to once again conduct myself like a quasi-normal person. Among my top priorities in returning to this state was to return to blogging. There have been simply too many days that have passed when I read or reflected upon something that I longed to write about, and yet let the window of time pass when it would still be relevant.

I can't promise to be as diligent about posting as I once was in my pre-parental days, but I pledge to make extra sure that whatever I do write will be of greater significance to both you and me.

And please keep emailing me at brooklynoptimist@gmail.com to share your thoughts on all things pertaining to our borough and beyond. Your belief in change and your commitment to truth is the lifeblood of the Brooklyn Optimist.

So, without further ado, I present to you Brooklyn's newest optimist, Fiona Pehme, photographed by her proud daddy on Inauguration Day.

Greenpoint's Black Death and Joe Lentol's Inaction

2008-12-15T14:58:00.006-05:00

For those of you Greenpointers who didn't catch this story in the Times last week, I wanted to share with you this troubling article about the horrific health hazard that lurks unseen in our community. To sum up the article in brief, the big nasty secret no one in Greenpoint wants to talk about is that the air we are breathing is toxic.

And not just a little toxic. Very toxic.

To make things worse, everyone is complicit in keeping this big nasty secret quiet. Why? Well, the majority of us prefer to live with our heads in the sand, muttering the mantra, "Smell no evil, breathe no evil."

But many more in the community have their mouths shut, because they are afraid of their self-interest. Home owners don't want their property values to go down. Business owners don't want to drive away customers. Polluters don't want to acknowledge their mess. And, of course, our politicians want to deny culpability for failing to deal with the genuine environmental crisis on their hands, so they can keep on getting elected.

In the Times article, Councilman David Yassky dodges responsibility by throwing up his hands and lamenting Greenpoint's environmental woes. I find his empathy so comforting. The only problem is my lungs aren't soothed by his rhetoric. Doubtless, if the Times had bothered pressing a politician for more than a trite sound bite for a change, Yassky would have fallen back on something along the lines of that he has been trying his best to clean up the environment, but he's only been in office for seven years and there's only so much one can do in less than a decade.

Fine. So then what is Assemblyman Joe Lentol's excuse? Lentol's been in office since 1972. If he hasn't been able to make significant strides in addressing the environmental calamities torturing his district in three and a half plus decades, well, it seems pretty clear that he's not up to the task. I am certain that I will be challenged on this point by Lentol and Co. and emailed a list of the Assemblyman's environmental accomplishments by his friendly staff, but, quite frankly, their objections won't help me breathe any easier either. If they want to be really helpful, perhaps they can send us a breakdown on comparitive cancer and asthma rates for Northern Greenpoint versus somewhere like Park Slope, and we'll let the facts cough for themselves.

Oh, and let me be clear, I'm not excusing State Senator Martin Malavé Dilan. He just never does anything period, so I figured it wasn't even worth excoriating him for this particular instance of incompetance.

But, Brooklyn Optimist, why are you so mad, you ask? You're not being terribly optimistic.

True.

Allow me to explain. Today, I am writing to you as a Brooklyn County Committeeman elected by his neighbors in Northern Greenpoint to speak up for them when no else has the guts to do so. Today, I am writing to you as a resident of Sutton Street, who is scared shitless that his block is being showcased in The New York Times as Brooklyn's Silent Spring. Today, I am writing you as a husband worried sick about his pregnant wife. Today, I am writing you as a father-to-be, who wonders if he has already been remiss as a parent to let his child be born into a swirling tempest of potential health hazards.

This article isn't about punditry. It's about people.

People who deserve clean air.

Maybe if David Yassky lived in Greenpoint, he'd be more concerned too.

Handmade Holiday Craft Fair

2008-11-26T20:58:00.002-05:00

On December 7th from Noon to 7 pm, 3rd Ward & Brooklyn Based invite you to make an event out of holiday shopping at the Handmade Holiday Craft Fair - Where giving really is better then receiving.

Browse the handmade goods & treats of over 50 local artisans, craft mavens & culinary masters including everything from LED Hula hoops & dog costumes, to custom cut clothes & jewelry, furniture & vintage ware from Brooklyn Kitchen, cookies & chocolates, wrapping paper, pillows & body soaps, custom electronics and Cut Brooklyn knives.

PLUS enjoy FREE gift bags, live music from Sigmund Droid & VJ Clay Franklin, chili & corn bread from Tom Mylan (of Marlow and Sons, Diner & Bonita), FREE Gimme coffee, spiked drinks, a costume photobooth by Deluxa and FREE workshops in textile design, electronics and collage. And while you're in the spirit of giving, drop off a food donation for the Food Bank for New York.

For more information, check out www.3rdward.com.

Congressman Vito?!? (Part II): Senate Majority Leader Dilan?!?

2008-11-19T14:55:00.007-05:00

Since I posted about the possibility of Congressman Vito Lopez a few hours ago, I have gotten bombarded with interesting emails from people with various opinions on the subject (most of whom apparently prefer to comment off the record for fear of retribution).

The most interesting tip I've received concerns a move Vito appears to be orchestrating behind the scenes to clear his path to Nydia Velazquez's Congressional seat. The Optimist's source, who claims to have inside knowledge of the dealings, says that State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, one of the three remaining members of the now infamous Gang of Three, has abandoned his push for State Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. of The Bronx to become Senate Majority Leader and now favors Senator Martin Malavé Dilan of Brooklyn for the job.

While no one seriously thinks right now that Marty Dilan could bypass Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and get elected to the State Senate's top post, the fact that these moves are even being made casts a fascinating light upon Vito's skillful maneuverings. If Dilan became Minority Leader, Vito would be rid of his chief potential rival for Velazquez's seat.

Yes, this is all still speculation, but that doesn't mean it can be simply dismissed as idle chatter. Never underestimate Vito. After Clarence Norman went down, no one ever thought Vito would be able to take over the Brooklyn Democratic Party either. We've all seen how right they were.

Congressman Vito Lopez?!?

2008-11-19T09:23:00.006-05:00

All this talk about Hillary becoming Secretary of State has my head spinning.

If Hillary does take the job, she could single-handedly start a chain reaction that could change a good portion of the political landscape of Brooklyn overnight.

It all starts with the open U.S. Senate seat. As Liz Benjamin reported last week in The Daily News, Governor Paterson would likely appoint Brooklyn/Manhattan Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez to replace Clinton. The rationale behind the move makes sense. Paterson is under fire by a duo of rogue Democratic State Senators from the Bronx for the dearth of Latinos in leadership positions - a sharp thorn in Paterson's side given that the two State Senators are threatening to keep the State Senate in Republican hands if the Democrats don't make concessions. Elevating Velazquez to the Senate seat could go a long way to diffusing this criticism, while at the same time scoring points for Paterson with women voters.

Here's where things get crazy. If New York suddenly has Senator Velazquez, who is most likely to run for her Congressional seat?

(drum roll)

Vito Lopez!

Would any elected official in Brooklyn dare oppose him? I doubt it. And why wouldn't Vito want to be Congressman? Being a Congressman means way more money and power - the two things Vito loves most. What better promotion could he hope for?

And he could eat his cake too! Rep. Joe Crowley in Queens is both a Congressman and chair of the Queens Democratic Party. There's no reason why Vito couldn't keep his iron hold on Brooklyn's Democratic Party - and then some. Especially now that Mayor Bloomberg owes Vito big time for lining up Brooklyn's Council Members to hand Hizzoner another term.

Congressman Vito Lopez? I think I already hear Vito salivating. It finally seems appropriate that Vito left all of the Hillary for President signs up in the window of his office for weeks after Obama won the Democratic nomination. Could anyone be pulling harder for Secretary of State Clinton than Vito?

Oh, and who would run for Vito's Assembly seat if it became available? Diana Reyna? Erik Dilan? Then, would that mean more open Council seats in Brooklyn? Start your speculations now. If everything plays out according to Vito's wildest dreams, a lot of politicians' plans could be changing in the very near future.

How to Apply for a Job in the Obama Administration

2008-11-06T22:46:00.002-05:00

Check this out!

http://www.change.gov/

This might be the most awesome website ever.

Yes We Did!

2008-11-05T01:53:00.004-05:00

OPTIMISM PREVAILS!

Even Busted Ballot Can't Burst My Bubble

2008-11-04T08:52:00.012-05:00

As I made my way with Mrs. Optimist and our soon-to-be-born baby in tow to the polling place on Monitor and Driggs, I readied myself to pull the lever of history. After two years of waiting, hoping, praying, and screaming for change, the time had come at last.

The line at 7 a.m. this morning in Greenpoint was shorter than we had anticipated, but still sizable enough to augur the massive turnout that is certain to sweep the country today. On line before me stood 30 of my fellow Brooklynites, and by the time we reach the booth another 50 or so huddled behind us anxious to vote.

It took all the self-control I could muster not to cry out "OBAMA!" and give everyone on line a big hug.

I beamed.

And then I wilted.

Just for a second, of course. Nothing can deprive me of the great hope and excitement and pride I feel today to be an American - save for a staggering surprise this evening (knock on every piece of wood in existence). But, I was denied a tiny bit of the catharsis that has been two years in the making.

As I took the final breezy steps to the front of the line, I realized that the voting machine for the 50th AD, 93rd ED (and from what I could tell, also the 92nd ED) was busted.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

A paper ballot!?! What? No level to pull, no curtain to close, no soothing mechanical tick?

You mean I have to fill in ovals!?! For a moment, the euphoria of voting was drowned out by a phantasmagoria of a long ago lifetime of standardized test-taking. I felt drawn by an evil force to vote for McCain, just because choice "A" was never the right answer of the SATs.

Who the hell is "C"? Ralph Nader?

Can't think... Can't breathe...

I channeled all my strength and stared into the ballot. Instinctively, my eyes fell upon the Obama/Biden block and my vision again came into focus. In this rare moment of complete clarity, I remembered why I had come.

I had come to change a nation that has lost its way. I had to come to restore respect to America in the eyes of the world. I had come so that the uninsured, like me, could one day have health care. I had come to save our economy, to preserve our environment, to inspire innovation, to fight for peace, to restore the principles our Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution.

And, above all, I had come for my unborn daughter. I had come to vote for Barack Obama, so that she would be born into a country of possibility and optimism - a country many of us have never known, and the rest of us had nearly forgotten.

Before I knew it, the ovals had filled themselves and I had bounded back into the light beside my beloved.

This has already been a great day and as each hour passes it's only going to get better.

For the first time in eight years, I can't wait for tomorrow.

Dick Cheney's Sex Slave Massacre

2008-10-31T11:06:00.007-04:00

Before we don't have Dick to kick around any more, I thought I'd seize the opportunity to share with you one of my all-time favorite YouTube videos: Dick Cheney's Sex Slave Massacre (Episode II).

The name says it all. It's a classic.

And for those of you wondering, "Is there actually an Episode I in this magnicient franchise?" I present to you the following for your viewing pleasure.

This part is more cerebral, but still great.

Convicted Criminal Ted Stevens Endorses Palin

2008-10-28T14:58:00.004-04:00

Sarah Palin pretends to be a reformer, but here is a TV commercial from her 2006 campaign for governor in which newly-convicted (hooray!) Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens heaps praise upon the folk(sy) hero.

10 Questions for State Senate Candidate John Chromczak

2008-10-28T09:47:00.006-04:00

As a preview of tonight's State Senate debate at St. Francis College between Democratic nominee Dan Squadron and his Republican challenger John Chromczak, The Optimist presents the following interview. While some may perceive the fact that I have only interviewed one of the candidates as bias on my part, to be accurate, this interview stemmed from an earlier blog posting in which I had stated that it was a foregone conclusion that Squadron would win this race after besting longtime Democratic incumbent Marty Connor in the primary.

It was then that I received an email from Chromczak's spokesman, reminding me that Squadron had a Republican opponent and that it would be both unfair and undemocratic to simply count him out of the race. I agreed with this reasoning. Despite the overwhelming statistical odds of a Republican winning in Brownstone Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, particularly in a year that is shaping up to be so profoundly anti-Republican, it is always in the best interest of the people for us to understand all our options in the voting booth, so we can make the most educated decision possible.

Hence, the following interview. For my part, I am happy to have conducted it. Chromczak, an unconventional candidate in many ways, gave frank answers to all of my tough questions, which ranged from the recent extension of term limits to how Chromczak can reconcile being openly gay with being a Republican. Give Chromczak's answers a read. I think you might be surprised with what he has to say.

The Optimist: One of your most prominent campaign promises entails fighting for term limits in Albany. Does this mean that you are appalled by Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council's move to extend their time in office for another four years?

John Chromczak: Appalled isn’t the word, it’s more like disgusted. I personally believe that nothing is more sacred in a secular society than the right of a person, in the privacy of a voting booth, to have their voices heard and their vote count. The mayor and the City Council have disrespected the people of New York by ignoring their decision on this issue. I believe it undermines the democratic process. If they wanted to extend their terms they should have put it before the voters and let us make the decision.

The Optimist: Why do you think of your opponent Daniel Squadron and why do you believe you'll be a better State Senator than him?

Chromczak: I have meet Dan a few times and also debated him once. [Chromczak and Squadron will meet for another debate at St. Francis College tonight at 8 p.m. – Ed.] He seems to be a nice person but I believe he’s running for office for all the wrong reasons. I’m running because I’m tired of all the political pandering, the selling out to special interests, and the abysmal economic policies promoted by both parties. I don’t come from a political family or class; I haven’t sought the endorsements of any unions – including my own 1199/UFCW and AFM – or other groups because I want to run a clean campaign. I want to be free of any undue influence that truly doesn’t help the community, the city, or the state. Unlike my opponent, nearly all of my volunteers come from people within the community.

I would be a better State Senator because I will bring real world experience, as opposed to bureaucratic experience, to Albany. I live the blue-collar middle class life. I see how failed policies affect me, my family, and my neighbors. I also have the benefit of having lived in different parts of the state, so I have a better understanding of how the different regional socioeconomic realities are intertwined with one another. That’s a perspective that is sorely needed in Albany.

The Optimist: You only moved to New York City three years ago. What makes you think that you know the City well enough to represent it in government?

Chromczak: Like millions of others, I moved to NYC to create a better life for myself and to explore all the possibilities that the city could provide. I live in one of the fastest growing residential communities in the U.S. I want to help shape what it is going to become in the future. I’ve meet thousands of people from very different neighborhoods across the Senate district and I’ve listened to what their concerns are; some are the same (education, housing, transportation), while others are different (views on congestion pricing). My opponent has said that once he’s elected, “He’s going to go across the district to hear what people’s concerns are.” Isn’t that something he should have been doing already? My point is, I’ve lived hear for nearly four years, I’m a native New Yorker, I understand the issues because I’ve talked to voters, I’ve studied the issues, and I’ve tried to develop policies that find solutions to our problems. I believe that is what makes a strong leader, someone who has the will to make a difference.

The Optimist: The majority of the issues and videos on your website focus either on citywide concerns or the Manhattan portion of your district. What specifically would you do for Brooklyn?

Chromczak: Since I’m running for state office I have tried to emphasize those areas that a State Senator could have influence over. Some of the issues that would specifically affect Brooklyn are:

1) Removing the cap on the number of charter schools. The fact is charter schools have show to be highly effective, especially in minority communities.

2) Fighting for stronger legislation that imposes stronger prison terms on sex offenders. According to a study performed by Rep. Weiner’s office last year, there are nearly 2200 registered L2 and L3 sex offenders in NYC, over 700 of those live within Kings County, and over 200 of those offenders live within five hundred feet of a school. This is highly disturbing to me. There is nothing more precious or important in a society than the safety of our children, yet Albany has not had the courage to deal with this issue more effectively.

3) Congestion Pricing. I have no doubt that this issue will come up again in the future. I don’t support it because I haven’t seen one published economic impact study for the residents that would be affected by such a fee. It also isn’t going to decreases the amount of traffic on the BQE, which, according to some studies, is a cause of high asthma rates in certain areas of Brooklyn.

4) I would pressure City Hall to stop the opening of the Brooklyn HOD. This is a perfect example of government not keeping up with the changing demographics of local communities. The area surround the HOD has become increasingly more residential with more retail businesses opening up. I believe reopening the prison is going to detrimental to the growing Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill community.

The Optimist: Ground Zero is within your Senate district and you say in one of your YouTube videos that you will make sure that Lower Manhattan is rebuilt properly if you are elected. Who do you think is to blame for the fact that seven years after 9/11 so little reconstruction has been accomplished?

Chromczak: The mayor, the governor (Pataki and Spitzer), Speaker Silver, State Senator Connor. All of these elected officials had numerous opportunities to ensure that the construction and development of the WTC site (and the Fulton Street Subway Station) was done within specific budget outlines and within a certain time frame. Instead, all we had was talk, talk, talk. The right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing. Everyone wanted to go to ribbon cuttings, but nobody wanted to take any responsibility for what was happening at the site. The LMDC has been a complete and total waste of taxpayers’ money with nearly no oversight by the elected officials, who represent the community. The bottom line is the development of the WTC has been mismanaged by both the city and state governments. I’ve supported Gov. Paterson in his leadership to move the project along and I’m looking forward to learning more about PA Director Ward’s reports on defining the problems and subsequent solutions to the WTC development.

The Optimist: Statistically, registered Democrats in Brooklyn and, to a lesser extent, Manhattan overwhelmingly outnumber Republicans. The majority is so great that it is widely believed that, with the exception of the Bay Ridge area and the Mayoralty, whoever wins the Democratic Primary is the de facto winner of the General Election. With the numbers so staggeringly against you, why bother running as a Republican?

Chromczak: I’m a Republican because I believe in certain ideals and values that the Republican Party has always supported: fiscal responsibility, strong public safety policies, supporting small businesses, and individual freedoms. There are roughly 200,000 registered voters in the 25^th SD, yet only 30 to 40% have come out to vote in any given election for State Senator. That means the majority of voters really don’t identify with the candidates on the ballot, so they don’t come out to vote. Also, I think the Democratic Party has disenfranchised some of their own voters in the district, so there is an opportunity to get some crossover support for a Republican candidate.

There are also an increasingly large number of registered blank (independents) who may not necessarily support a Democratic agenda, yet have no choice in who they would vote for. There hasn’t been a serious Republican candidate in the 25^th Senate District in over 30 years. I’ve changed that. I’ve given people a choice. I’ve put forward issues that are important to me and to many people across Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

The Optimist: In recent years, the New York State Republican Party has suffered a series of devastating blows. Democrats regained the governorship, the lone New York City Republican in Congress was brought down by scandal, and now the GOP is in real danger of losing control of the State Senate for the first time in decades. What does the State Republican Party have to do to revitalize itself and stay relevant?

Chromczak: Fred U. Dicker wrote in a column in the New York Post a while back that the Republicans have become “doppelgangers” of the Democratic Party. In many respects, that is true. Voters across the state don’t see a difference between one or the other, so their votes are based on personality over policy differences. I’m working to change that.

The governorship has always flipped back and forth between Republican and Democrat so chances are there will be another Republican governor at some point. As for the Senate, I think in many areas the party has lost touch not only with our base, but also with the voters. Until we come back to our roots and show the people of NY that there are significant differences between our two parties Republicans are going to continue to lose elections across the state.

The Optimist: As a Republican, did you feel betrayed by Mayor Bloomberg's decision to leave your party?

Chromczak: Mike wasn’t a Republican until he decided to run for mayor. After he won a second election he had no use for the Republican brand, so he dumped it. I don’t feel betrayed, but I am disappointed. But, what can I say, money has a lot of influence in politics.

The Optimist: Although groups like the Log Cabin Republicans exist, the national platform of your party has been consistently intolerant of homosexuality. How do you reconcile being gay and being a Republican?

Chromczak: There isn’t anything to reconcile. I’m a Republican, because of my views on the function and purpose of government, on taxes, on public safety, on the role of the courts, etc. Like any family, we, Republicans, have some family disputes or disagreements. But I’m not going to abandon my party over one or two specific issues. I’m going to work from within to change those attitudes in my own party.

Who supports continuing the cycle of shame and staying “in the closet” by supporting the federal policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? The Democrats. Is that inclusive? Who voted for and signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act? Senator Schumer and President Clinton. I don’t know of one legislative body controlled by Democrats (Massachusetts, for example) who have written, passed, and signed into law a gay marriage equality bill. They’ve abdicated their legislative responsibility and given it to the courts in hopes that they won’t have to deal with the issue. That’s not standing up for the gay community.

At least I’m not afraid to fight for my own community on this issue. I’m not saying one thing and doing another.

The Optimist: Like many Republicans, you call yourself a fiscal conservative, yet under the stewardship of the Bush Administration; America has run up record deficits and fallen into its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Do you think that the Republican Party still represents fiscal conservatism?

Chromczak: The President and Congress are both equally responsible for the current economic crisis that we’re experiencing. Congress got lax on their oversight of Fannie and Freddie and the President let government spending on pork barrel projects get completely out of control.

As for Republicans living up to their mantra of fiscal conservatism and responsibility? They’ve let much to be desired and it’s shown in losses at the voting booth.

Good Riddance, Betsy Gotbaum!

2008-10-27T10:13:00.005-04:00

Not that public statements mean anything any more (like Mayor Bloomberg calling the extension of term limits a "disgrace"), but if Betsy Gotbaum holds true to her word that she won't seek reelection as Public Advocate in 2009, it's good news for New Yorkers.

It means we might finally get a Public Advocate, who, well, advocates for the public. The Public Advocate position, created originally to give Mark Green something to do, theoretically is supposed to be a check to the Mayor's power. The Advocate is the City's watchdog, the person who makes a ruckus for the people when they are being railroaded by their elected officials.

Where was Betsy last week when our City's government was stolen away from the people? Sitting docilely in the presiding officer's chair of Council chambers, urging our Council Members to be polite as they subverted the system.

Of course, for anyone following Gotbaum's horrendous seven year tenure, this was no surprise. Our City's ferocious "watchdog" curled up on the Mayor's lap on day one of the Bloomberg Administration and hasn't moved since. Can anyone come up with a single instance where Gotbaum even so much as whimpered token opposition to the Mayor? Even her own website can't come up with anything to boast except vague platitudes.

We need a real Public Advocate now more than ever. As impotent as the position has been to date, one of the only chances our City has to protect itself from its incumbents at this point might be the Public Advocate.

Fortunately, we already seem to have two promising candidates, who would make something of the job if elected. The first is Norman Siegel, a lawyer who has made his career crusading of behalf of the downtrodden and disenfranchised.

The second is Queens Councilman Eric Gioia. Gioia is a young, fiercely ambitious politician, who understands how to command the media's attention. He was on the right side of the term limits battle and has generally shown himself to be a populist. He might not have the track record of taking on "The Man" that Siegel can rightfully claim, but I could see him zealously amassing political points while beating down injustice in the way Eliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo have wielded the State Attorney General job.

Whoever the people's ultimate choice may be, New York can't afford another Betsy Gotbaum. We need a fighter, not a lover.

Throw The Bums Out!

2008-10-24T09:20:00.011-04:00

To say that I am appalled at yesterday's Council vote is to grossly understate my reaction. Last night, I was indignant. This morning, I woke up quivering with rage.

After sitting through the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting last month, I felt certain that farce would be the most ridiculous political theater of the year. But, leave it to the New York City Council to come storming back a mere month later with a production so well-orchestrated and rehearsed that it deserved Broadway's most ostentatious marquee.

At least, the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee meeting had no pretension. All of our electeds, except Charles Barron, dutifully read through the script in a homogenous monotone that laid plain the emptiness of our faux democracy. To his credit, the evening's chair Marty Connor practically admitted that our attendance was all just for show.

Contrast Connor's candor with Betsy Gotbaum, our absentee Public Advocate (talk about a term that has become Orwellian!), who only shows up when it's time to the Mayor's bidding. Rather than raging on behalf of the people, as is her job, Gotbaum dutifully presided over yesterday's sham votes, piping up only to cut our Council Members' hollow rhetoric short with the gentle admonition: "Please, Council Member, everyone else has been so good at following the rules."

Gotbaum wasted her shallow breath in chastising her kin. Practically eveyone in the chamber was playing by the rules so obediently that they all deserved a gold star for good behavior. This was an event so thoroughly scripted that I read in the Queens Crap blog in advance of the vote precisely how Anthony Como and Jessica Lappin had horse-traded their "no" votes on the amendment calling for public referendum, so they could vote a safe "no" on extending term limits legislatively.

And with whom did they collude? David Yassky, Alan Gerson, and Gail Brewer, of course. In exchange for voting down Yassky's face-saving, bogus amendment, which allowed Yassky, Gerson, and Brewer to pretend they were populists, Como gets to boast about a "no" vote to his constituents when they go to the poll in two weeks, and Lappin got to feign reformer for Upper Eastsiders, while remaining safely in the Mayor's lap.

Don't believe me? Just rewind to yesterday's press conference before the vote and see Christine Quinn hardly suppressing her glee, announcing her certainty that the amendment would fail and the term limits extension would pass. How did she know? It was all a foregone conclusion. And not just in the past couple of days. I wrote on September 25th that City Hall insiders were already sure the term limits extension was a fait accompli.

Is this to what our government has been reduced? Silly shows for the media to deceive the public? And for what? So our incompetant elected officials can further infect our City with their incompetance?

Queens Councilman Tony Avella, who has impressively distinguished himself as one of the last true warriors for the public good in this City, precisely encapsulated yesterday's travesty in the remarks he gave explaining his "no" vote:

"The people of New York know the fix was in from the beginning and I apologize to my colleagues, but you should all be voted out of office for supporting this."

From Tony's lips to the voter's ears.

ChangeNYC.Org Unveils New Term Limits Ad

2008-10-21T18:03:00.002-04:00

ChangeNYC.Org, a new grassroots nonprofit organization fighting for good government in New York City, is inaugurating its progressive agenda for change with an internet ad challenging Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council’s proposed legislative change to the City’s term limits law.

The ad, featuring real New Yorkers, asks the question: “What if George W. Bush wanted a third term?”

On the website it launched today, www.changenyc.org, the nascent organization promises that it will be “growing quickly and showing you plenty of ways you can keep the energy of change thriving throughout the five boroughs and beyond.”

Join Forces With The Optimist Tomorrow for a City Hall Press Conference

2008-10-20T17:10:00.005-04:00

Come join the Brooklyn Optimist tomorrow at City Hall and speak out against changing our term limits laws. For those of you who didn't get a chance to testify during the public hearings, now is your chance.

Here's the 411:

WHAT: Elected Members of the Kings County Democratic County Committee and their constituents will be joined by Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James to voice their outrage over the Mayor and City Council's proposed legislative change to New York City's term limits law.

WHERE: The steps of City Hall in Manhattan

DATE: Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

TIME: 1 p.m.

Hope to see you there! Come up and introduce yourself, fearless readers.

The Only Councilman Voted Out of Office in 2005

2008-10-20T09:25:00.005-04:00

Several times in the Council's public hearings on term limits, I heard the argument made that a legislative change of the law was fair, because if voters didn't like their elected officials they could still vote them out of office next year.

While this may be true in theory, it doesn't hold water in practice. Incumbents have an arsenal of advantages that unbalance the playing field. Among them are:

1) The ability to send out taxpayer-funded campaign literature under the guise that it is consituent outreach (notice how you never hear from them except in an election year?).

2) Having had years of disbursing "discretionary" funds to buy the praise and allegiance of area nonprofits, community organizations, etc.

3) The unspoken code of elected officials and party leaders not to endorse against one another, so that everyone can keep their jobs and enjoy the status quo.

4) The ignorance of the electorate and the power of name recognition. Since most people pay no attention to local elections, they go into the voting booth and pull the lever for whatever name is most familiar to them. Why do you think our Council Members put their names on our trash cans? (Incidentally, this type of self-serving public advertising should be banned.)

Still don't think incumbents have an unfair advantage? In 2005, 28 of the 34 Council Members up for reelection didn't face a primary opponent, which in a whoppingly Democratic city means they were effectively unchallenged. Of the six who did, four of the incumbents received more than 80% of the vote!

The only incumbent who was defeated was Southeast Queens Councilman Allan Jennings. I had the interesting experience of getting to know Jennings well when I was managing editor of The Queens Courier. I'd have enough material to fill a book if I chronicled all of the insanely bizarre (if not criminal) incidents that characterized Jennings' time in office. And that would be before I even started to interview the legions of Council Members, reporters, and constituents who quickly came to loathe, fear, or ridicule Jennings over his four years in the Council.

Even in Jennings' case, it was no mere challenger who succeeded in getting rid of him. It took Thomas White Jr., the former Councilman who was term-limited out of office in 2001 (clearing the way for Jennings), to come back to reclaim his seat.

By the way, Jennings was not just a local embarrassment. His craziness earned him the spotlight of the national media. Below is Jennings on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart calls this hilarious clip "maybe my favorite thing...ever."

HOPEful Financial Advice from Errol Louis and How to Love Your Job

2008-10-17T13:52:00.022-04:00

Thursday evening, a man stopped Errol Louis outside of St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights and asked The Daily News columnist if he had any investment advice he could offer in these troubled economic times. Louis considered the question for a moment, hesitant to lead the man astray. Then he answered, "Now is the time to invest in yourself."

For the audience at St. Francis College to whom Louis would recount this story a few minutes later, his advice couldn't have made more sense. This wasn't a group of corporate raiders, moguls, and CEOs, recovering from the bankrupt maxim "greed is good". No, this crowd well understood the value of money and a hard day's work: that both are valueless if not wisely invested in the infrastructure of our souls.

Louis had come as the keynote speaker for The HOPE Program's biannual graduation ceremony, which honors the admirable achievements of HOPE's students, teachers, and volunteers. HOPE is one of the City's finest nonprofits, an organization that gives New Yorkers afflicted by life's most devastating challenges the opportunity to regain their sense of self through the empowerment of gainful employment. The students at HOPE are adults of all ages, many of whom have triumphed over homelessness, drug addiction, and tragedy, thanks to the love of HOPE and the unique appreciation for life that comes from having known a life of hopelessness.

National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, another of the evening's speakers, recalled once asking one of the program's students where he would be if it weren't for HOPE. The man responded: "I'd be dead".

This is the magic of HOPE.

It is not just a program that offers exemplary counseling, professional resources, and job training. It promises its students that no matter how solitary and nasty life may seem, as long as they stick with HOPE they will never again be alone.

The program's luminous Executive Director Barbara Edwards Delsman affirmed this promise when it came time to give each of the students awards recognizing their accomplishements. Rather than first acknowledging those who had found jobs through the program, she praised those who had not yet done so. "Your tenacity inspires us," said Delsman with inspiring sincerity.

One of the students still looking for work is Marisol Carambot. Carambot has almost finished an internship at the Legal Aid Society and resonates the confidence of a woman who knows it is only a matter of time until she succeeds in every way she is determined to do so.

Only three years ago, however, Carambot was living under the Madison Avenue Bridge in Manhattan and dealing drugs on 125th Street to support her own habit. A widowed mother of two beautiful young girls, Carambot hit rock bottom when Social Services took away her children. It was then that Carambot vowed to turn around her life and get back her daughters. Fortunately, she found HOPE.

Carambot was composed and compelling while recounting her past, but it was in recognizing the boundless future ahead of her that she turned emotional. With one of her daughter's looking on from the front row of the auditorium, Carambot spoke through her tears. "Our lives have turned around at HOPE, because HOPE changes lives."

Program graduate Victor Serrano echoed Carambot's sentiments in reflecting upon his own transformation. Currently employed as a machinist who makes signs, Serrano remembered that it was an exchange he had in prison with a man sentenced to life that set him on the path to HOPE. "You know what I miss?" the prisoner confessed to Serrano. "Fridays."

Thanks to HOPE, Serrano now savors Fridays. They mean the end of another week spent doing exactly what he wants to do: work.

Serrano smiles. "I'm even looking foward to paying taxes."

My Trip to the Circus: Inside the City Hall Term Limits Hearing

2008-10-17T09:29:00.010-04:00

In the end, it was all just a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing.

As I began to approach my third hour sitting in the audience of yesterday's public hearing at City Hall on the extension of term limits, I decided to give up and go home. I had signed up to testify around 5 p.m. and realized that it would be hours more until I would get my chance to do so, once the committee chair Simcha Felder announced at 8:15 that the slate of speakers called to the microphone had submitted their names just a little past 1.

By that time, I had had my fill. I had even gotten to sit in the front row of the audience, once the first three rows were vacated by the Mayor's supporters. These passionate New Yorkers, who were (allegedly) paid by Bloomberg to crowd out citizens who had actually come to testify, finally decided they had done enough half-sleeping and limply holding up signs to satisfy their terms of employment. From this intimate vantage point, I could see Upper East Side Council Member Jessica Lappin (who had her legs up on the wooden crossbar beneath the dais) doing her best impression of "thoughtful", instead of bored. Coney Island Councilman Dominic Recchia didn't bother feigning contemplation. He wore a sneer of contempt for the public.

Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. became immersed in his laptop after a testy exchange in which he set legendary former Councilman Henry Stern straight on what his daddy, former Speaker Peter Vallone, thought about term limits. Said Junior to the stately septuaganarian: "I respect you, but you gotta get out more."

Manhattan Councilman Robert Jackson had a similarly decorous exchange with a Democratic political consultant named Steve Kramer, who had vowed that if the Council extended term limits "we will come after you." Jackson, taking the general threat very personally, launched into an angry tirade which concluded with some permutation of George Bush's "Bring It On!" I was too stunned to copy it down verbatim, but Jackson barked something like "bring it" or "you can bring it on up here".

Yeah. Classy.

For the opposition crowd, Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James was the star of the night. She openly applauded passionate anti-extension testimony, despite admonitions from Coucilman Felder not to do so, and delivered a compelling speech slamming the Mayor's record on caring for low-income and minority families.

On the Council's side of the table, the only other moment that resonated with me was a point Minority Leader James Oddo (R - Staten Island) brought up to dispell the notion that deciding the issue in a special election refendum wouldn't represent the will of the people. Oddo reminded that he had first been elected in a special election, as had many of his colleagues, including Tish James (who was seated beside him), and, of course, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (who wasn't there). "Is there an asterisk next to my name?" asked Oddo rhetorically.

All in all, the hearing was predictably disappointing. After the marquis testimonies were given (i.e. the ones by big-name politicians), the Council Members demonstrated little interest in asking the real people of New York any questions.

Just like the digital clock on the wall counting down each person's two minutes to testify, Felder and the rest of the Council knew that time would soon run out on the public.

And then they'd be free to stop pretending they care, and just go back to doing whatever they want.

The Optimist's Council Testimony on Term Limits

2008-10-16T15:55:00.007-04:00

So, it's four o'clock and I'm off to testify at City Hall. I hope I get a chance to speak. But, either way, here is the testimony I intend to present this evening. I'm anxious to see how Simcha Felder will react.

Ladies and gentlemen:

My name is Morgan Pehme and I am a proud resident of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. As I am sure that many of my fellow New Yorkers will eloquently express my rationale for opposing this Council’s move to extend term limits for its own benefit, I won’t waste our time in redundancy. If you care to read my reasons, you may do so on my blog: www.brooklynoptimist.com.

What I have come today to say is this: Shame on you, Council Members!

Less than two years ago, this body voted itself a $22,000 pay raise. I want to know if you intend to roll back this raise when you vote yourselves four more years in office? Or, perhaps, you think you should be rewarded for your outrageous and ongoing slush fund scandal?

I almost have more respect for those of you who have publicly admitted that you intend to vote “yes” on the proposed extension, than for those of you who still pretend to be undecided. At least, those of you voting “yes” have the gumption to admit your contempt for we, the people.

As for those of you who are allegedly undecided, what arguments remain for you to hear? Your silence is deafening. What it says it that you lack the courage to lead and that you cower from your convictions.

Your silence has proven you don’t deserve another term in office.

We, New Yorkers, aren’t stupid, though you often treat us as if we were. We know that you are shamelessly calculating your self-interest at this moment, trying to balance whether the backroom deal you have been offered outweighs the political fallout of betraying your constituents.

At this point, it no longer matters how you decide.

We already know where you stand.

Why You Should Not Be Undecided About Term Limits

2008-10-15T15:59:00.010-04:00

Before I lay out exactly why you should be against the City Council's move to extend term limits without your say, let me start by putting two common misconceptions to rest.

The movement against extending term limits is not about whether Mayor Bloomberg has done a good job in office. For the record, I think that he has. And if the City Council puts extending term limits on the ballot, as I believe they must, then you will have still have the opportunity to re-elect our Mayor if the measure passes.

So many New Yorkers are confused that this is an anti-Bloomberg initiative because that is how the Mayor has shrewdly framed the issue. Since the majority of New Yorkers feel pretty positively about him, miscasting the debate as “Bloomberg vs. No Bloomberg” twists the odds in favor of his agenda.

Second, this is not a debate about whether term limits are good. Personally, in an ideal world, I would be opposed to term limits, because the people should have the right to vote for whomever they want, for as long as they want. Unfortunately, this is not an ideal world. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

The real question about extending term limits is whether our City Council should be allowed to run roughshod over the will of the people, just so they can keep their jobs for another four years. When you understand that this is what's at stake, then there is no good reason to support or stay undecided on the Council's backroom deal to extend term limits.

Twice in the past 15 years, the people of New York City have voted for term limits. The 1993 ballot initiative that resulted in term limits was introduced by Ron Lauder as a response to a vast corruption scandal that rocked then-Mayor Koch's Administration. Lauder's thinking was that the power of incumbency was so imbalanced in favor of our elected officials that they felt secure in abusing their positions for personal gain, because they knew it was virtually impossible for them to get voted out of office. In other words, the reason for term limits was to keep our politicians honest.

The last Council election in 2004 once again demonstrated the power of iron-clad incumbency. In the entire city, the only Council Member voted out of office was Allan Jennings of Queens, a guy whose private and public behavior was so bizarre (and allegedly criminal) it verged on insanity. Even then, it took a former Councilman unseated only because of the City's term limit laws - Thomas White Jr. - to beat him.

The current class of City Council Members has done little to convince the public that the Council has reformed its ways since Lauder's 1993 initiative. On the contrary, under Speaker Christine Quinn's leadership, the entire Council has come under investigation from the U.S. Attorney's Office for one of the worst scandals in recent City history. Uncovered earlier this year, the "slush fund scandal" exposed the Council's longstanding practice of funneling millions of dollars of taxpayer money into phantom organizations, so that the funds could later be doled out by the Speaker for political favors. Because the Council's previous bylaws allowed its Members to hide who made the specific requests to pour money into these dummy organizations, we don't know just how many Council Members should be directly implicated in these illegal transactions. Only the Federal investigation currently underway by U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia can tell us. But what we do know about is some of the public fall out, like the fact that two top aides to Brooklyn Councilman Kendall Stewart were indicted for their role in the scandal and that Speaker Quinn has hired a criminal attorney at taxpayer expense to defend herself. The entire Council as a body has also retained Quinn's lawyer.

The reason I bring up the Council is that it is often forgotten that the price for keeping around our popular mayor is another four years for the majority of our Council Members. Many of us like Bloomberg, but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone willing to go to bat for extending term limits just to keep our Council Members in office.

Anyone, that is, except for our Council Members.

Neither myself, nor almost anyone else in opposition to the Council's move to extend term limits is arguing that a third-term for our elected officials would necessarily be bad. What we are advocating for is that the people of New York decide this issue.

It is a fundamental conflict of interest for our Council Members to vote to rewrite our City's laws when they are the sole beneficiaries of that change. And, for those of you who question my characterization of our Council Member's motives, keep in mind that the Mayor has made it abundantly clear that he intends the third-term to be applicable only to the current crop of term-limited elected officials. That's the main reason why the few Council Members who aren't term-limited in 2009 are so incensed. They stand to gain nothing for playing ball with the Mayor and Speaker Quinn.

The Council is moving quickly to vote on extending term limits, so that more New Yorkers don't have a chance to understand what's really going on. They've reduced the entire public discourse on this event to a slim two-week window and arranged for only a single, solitary public hearing on the issue – and only in Manhattan. By comparison, when the City was considering banning horse-drawn carriages, there were nine public hearings on the bill. Imagine how many there would be if we wanted to build a new highway.

In any case, if the Council were willing to put term limits on the ballot for us to decide, this whole debate would be over in an instant.

But the Mayor and Speaker Quinn know that their scheme doesn't stand a chance if the voters get their say. They argue that a ballot referendum would be undemocratic because so few voters participate in special elections that the outcome of a vote just on term limits wouldn't really be representative of public opinion.

This is simply not true.

The real reason is that they don't trust the voters to do their bidding. They know that if we vote their initiative will fail and then they'd be out of a job. Twice in the last 15, New Yorkers have voted in favor of term limits. Recent polls show there is no reason to suspect that the third time would be any different. In fact, what Bloomberg and Quinn secretly understand is that generally only the most passionate and informed voters tend to show up for special elections – precisely the voters they won't be able to dupe with their self-serving propaganda.

A lot of fear has been used to manipulate us. Above all, we've been threatened that only New York City's richest man has the business skills to pull us back from the brink of economic collapse. Maybe. That's why I'm for the Council letting the people decide if we want to keep Bloomberg in office.

But until we get the chance to vote, I ask you to put your personal feelings aside about Mayor Bloomberg. Were you among the legions of New Yorkers outraged when Mayor Giuliani announced after 9/11 he wanted to stick around for another term, because only he could keep us safe? Are you a New Yorker who would have rioted in the streets and stormed the White House if President Bush had insisted on a third term? When we change the rules to benefit a good man, we also benefit those with the worst of intentions.

Share with your friends the real reasons to oppose the Council's attempt to deny us our voice. And make sure to call your Council Members to let them know they work for you, not for themselves.

Atlantic Yards Arena Delayed Yet Another Year

2008-10-15T10:06:00.005-04:00

Bruce Ratner has announced that a recent court ruling would again delay the construction of his massive, community-eviscerating Atlantic Yards project - this time until 2011.

The total projected cost of Forest City Ratner's plans has exploded beyond its original estimates and now, with the economic crisis, Ratner is having a tough time borrowing money to finance his complex. The lucrative naming rights deal with Barclays Capital for the Nets' arena also appears in jeopardy.

Give up, Ratner. Brooklyn won. You lost. Go back to Cleveland.

Queens Councilman Como Joins Brooklyn's Eugene Bringing "No" Vote Total to 19

2008-10-15T09:21:00.009-04:00

Queens Councilman Anthony Como (R - Middle Village, Glendale, Ridgewood) joined Brooklyn Councilman Mathieu Eugene yesterday in officially announcing their opposition to the Mayor and Speaker Quinn's attempt to extend term limits.

This brings the number of "no" votes to 19, "yes" votes to 15, with 17 still undecided. In order for the measure to pass, 26 of 51 Council Members must vote "yes".

Como's vote is as stiking an indication of where the majority of the public stands on this issue as any opinion poll released so far. Como is currently locked in a fierce primary for his seat against Democrat Elizabeth Crowley, who he edged out by only 38 votes in a special election in March of this year. Since he is again squaring off against Crowley this November, it is clear that Como thinks voting "no" on the extension is what he must do to satisfy his constituents and hold his seat.

It is interesting to note that Como's district is traditionally Republican, so the fact that his constituents don't support extending term limits shows how far Mayor Bloomberg's once blue-chip stock has fallen with his former party since he switched his affiliation to Independent in June 2007. Como's decision makes him the second Republican to stray from the Mayor's side, following Staten Island Councilman Vincent Ignizio's vote. The only other Republican in the Council, Staten Island's James Oddo, remains undecided.

Call and email James Oddo and let him know you want your voice heard on term limits. Stay vigilant in lobbying your Council Members. Council Members Como and Eugene's "no" votes prove that your efforts are working!

The Lobbyist Scandal That Could Bring Down Practically EVERYONE at City Hall

2008-10-14T13:56:00.007-04:00

Last Friday, this incredible story from blogger Gary Tilzer on the website Room Eight uncovered a staggering scandal that exposes shocking connections between our City's lobbyists, political consultants, and elected officials.

In his piece, which is written as an open letter to U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, Tilzer calls on Garcia to launch a criminal investigation into the Council for letting lobbyists infiltrate City Hall and dictate the legislative agendas of the Council Members they got elected.

This piece blew the Optimist's mind and so thoroughly crushed the lingering remnants of respect he held for the City Council that it threatened to make the Optimist, well, not optimistic any more about City politics. But I will endure. I remain optimistic, because I know that there is always a possibility (albeit faint) that extending term limits will fail or that we will finally vote these clowns out of office (albeit even fainter).

THIS ARTICLE IS A MUST-READ. It is so important that I held off writing about it until this week, because I didn't want to just let it make a rumbling for a few days and then slip out of the news cycle into oblivion.

I encourage all of my readers to forward it to their friends, write to the mainstream media to pick it up on TV and in the major papers, and call U.S. Attorney Garcia to demand he investigates the thick web of corruption that covers City Hall.

This is no joke. If you aren't outraged, you haven't read this article.

HOPE Graduates and Errol Louis Will Be There

2008-10-14T10:03:00.007-04:00

The Brooklyn Optimist is a big fan of the HOPE Program, one of our City's best nonprofits. For those of you who are unfamiliar with its exemplary work, HOPE is a career development program in downtown Brooklyn that has helped New Yorkers living in poverty find meaningful jobs for the past 25 years.

Tomorrow at St. Francis College, HOPE will honor a number of the distinguished graduates of its program. Many of the graduates will be recognized for having successfully maintained employment for years now, and even gaining promotions to higher-paying positions.

Air America radio host and Daily News columnist Errol Louis will be the keynote speaker at the graduation. Louis, who has distinguished himself as a strong progressive voice for the City, wrote an excellent article in April lauding HOPE as "a splendid charity" and adding that "The [City] Council should spend less time swiping public dollars and more time wisely investing in Hope and programs like it that tackle the city's toughest problems - and succeed."

Louis will be joined by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow, who will present the Valerie Chernow Volunteer Award (named in memory of his wife) to an outstanding HOPE volunteer.

But don't just come to the graduation to see its famous guests. "The most exciting part of this ceremony is seeing how proud our graduates are of their accomplishments," enthuses Barbara Edwards Delsman, Executive Director of HOPE.

The event runs from 6 - 7:30 p.m. St. Francis College is located at 182 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights. For more information, click here to go to HOPE's website.

And don't forget to make a donation to HOPE today. I'm going to!

Tour Artist Studios FREE This Weekend

2008-10-14T09:35:00.005-04:00

The 12th Annual Gowanus Artists Studios Tour (A.G.A.S.T.) runs this weekend from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. This free event is open to the public and presents Brooklynites with an excellent opportunity to peer into the imaginations of their most creative neighbors.

Among the artists whose works will be on display is my fellow blogger and Brooklyn painter Michael Sorgatz (his work is pictured above). His studio is one of many at the collaborative Brooklyn Artist's Gym (BAG) at 168 7th St. between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

If painting is not your thing, A.G.A.S.T. promises many other artists of all media who will be personally presenting their creations in their intimate work environments. The studios span the Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and Boerum Hill neighborhoods. For a complete tour map and directions, click here.

Psst! In Greenpoint "Hot Kielbasa" Means "Cocaine"

2008-10-13T11:35:00.008-04:00

I guess I'm not down with the neighborhood lingo.

Apparently at the Sikorski Meat Market on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint "hot kielbasa" was a code word for "cocaine". No reports yet on whether anyone mistakenly ordered nose candy from the Polish-Dominican drug ring (you don't read about that cartel every day!) hoping for spicy sausage, but twenty-six suspects are under arrest by the Feds.

Brooklyn Councilman Mathieu Eugene Decides to Side With The People Against Quinn

2008-10-13T10:10:00.010-04:00

How effective was Council Speaker Christine Quinn's announcement that she would be supporting Mayor Bloomberg on extending term limits? Well, after Quinn's announcement yesterday, Brooklyn Councilman Mathieu Eugene (D-Kensington, Prospect-Lefferts, Ditmas Park) decided AGAINST siding with the Speaker's self-serving agenda.

Looks like Quinn's efforts to marshal her troops isn't going as well as planned. Quinn needs 26 votes in the Council to steamroll over the will of the voters, but by her own count there are currently only 15 votes in favor, 17 opposed (make that 18, counting Eugene), and now 18 undecided.

Relying upon shameless cognitive dissonance, Quinn insisted that there has been no “horse-trading or arm-twisting” involved in the massive effort to lobby Council Members for their support. But the public statements of pressured Council Members, clergymen, union leaders, and a host of other influential New Yorkers refute Quinn's fictitious claims.

Though I could not reach Councilman Eugene for comment this morning, I have a sneaking suspicion that the calls that so many of you have been making to Brooklyn Council Members played a part in Eugene's decision.

Congratulations, Optimist readers! And thank you, Councilman Eugene!

Attention Council Members David Yassky, Simcha Felder, Sara Gonzalez, Michael Nelson, and Kendall Stewart, the eyes of Brooklyn are upon you. It's time for you to step up and stand with the people.

Council Speaker Quinn Picks Quiet Sunday to Sell Out Voters on Term Limits

2008-10-12T16:06:00.009-04:00

Anyone paying attention knew how City Council Speaker Christine Quinn stood on the Mayor's scheme to extend term limits long before Bloomberg formally announced his intentions. Today, Quinn used the political cover of a slow Sunday news cycle to make public her embarrassing position.

Surprise, surprise. She's for staying Speaker another four years.

Once upon a time, Quinn would have said "no" to extending term limits. Almost three years ago, she roared into the second most powerful job in the City with all the promise that being both New York City's first female and first LGBT Council Speaker carried with it. She was a darling of the City's progressives - a dynamic figure that would set the City free of the pro-establishment tilt that had long characterized the Council. The day she got into office the buzz that she would be New York's next Mayor began.

Then reality reared its ugly head. Quinn quickly became everything her supporters abhorred. She turned her back on progressives, good government advocates and the LGBT community. Instead, she decided to replace Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum as the Mayor's most obedient ally. As the Times reports, "Jokes about Ms. Quinn being a deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration abound in the Council."

But that was just the beginning of Quinn's fall from grace. Up until several months ago, Quinn still had illusions (or delusions) of becoming New York City's first female Mayor. Then came the slush fund scandal. Under Quinn's leadership, the Council expanded its longtime illegal practice of "squirreling away millions of dollars in the name of made-up organizations". If you don't understand why that's so bad, check out this article.

Quinn tried to blame the scandal on two of her aides, but no one except the most gullible of reporters was buying. The steady stream of big money contributions Quinn was getting in preparation for a Mayoral run quickly started to dry up. Two of Brooklyn Councilman Kendall Stewart's top aides got indicted for their role in the bogus bonanza. Quinn, herself, hired a criminal defense attorney, using City funds to do so.

In short, Quinn's dreams of Gracie Mansion fell apart. She could never run for Mayor now that a major investigation and the word "scandal" hung heavily over her head. The end of her Council term in 2009 was shaping up to be the end of her political career.

Enter Mayor Bloomberg. The Mayor's proposal to save his own job was a godsend for Quinn. Four more years would mean that Quinn could have a chance at redemption - a chance for people to forget. If she could escape the slush fund scandal unscathed (I wonder if Mayor Mike might help her here?), four years from now she might once again be a viable candidate for mayor. Gosh darn it to heck, it worked good enough for John McCain to win his party's nomination for President twenty years after the Keating Five scandal almost sunk him.

Four years from now expect to hear Mayoral candidate Quinn argue that all is forgotten. Whether it will be is up to government investigators and, of course, you to decide.

Councilman Tony Avella Says "YES" to 35 Brooklyn County Committee Members Who Say "NO" to Extending Term Limits

2008-10-12T14:43:00.009-04:00

Queens Councilman Tony Avella is on top of it! Only a few hours after receiving an open letter from 35 Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Members to the City Council opposing the extension of term limits without voter input, Avella wrote back, saying he agrees with us.

Avella, a declared candidate for New York City Mayor, who has pledged to stay in the race no matter how his colleagues decide to vote on term limits, quickly demonstrated a responsiveness to the constituents of Brooklyn that our own Council Members have yet to show.

Though he is perhaps the least known of the Democratic contendors for Mayor, Avella has repeatedly distinguished himself of late as the candidate who is perhaps the most deserving of our party's nomination. He has stood up to Speaker Quinn and the Mayor on many issues where rank-and-file Council Members demured from ruffling feathers, most notably the atrocious slush fund scandal. He has also been a leader on animal rights issues and is a favorite of the League of Humane Voters of New York City, an advocacy organization Mr. and Mrs. Brooklyn Optimist strongly support. He even has the best attendance record of any City Council Member.

But enough about Tony. Here's his letter:

Dear Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Members:

Thank you for your October 10th email indicating your support for term limits. Rest assured, I completely agree with you.

The people of New York City have indicated not once, but twice their firm support for two-four year terms for City officials. Their wishes could not have been clearer.

I believe it is a betrayal of the public trust if the Mayor and the City Council vote to overturn/extend term limits. By campaigning for public office, we made a covenant with the people that we accepted term limits – eight years and out. Any attempt to amend the term limits law breaks that covenant.

I have already publicly stated that even if they succeed, I will not serve a third term – I will not break the covenant with the voters.

Changing the law to allow anyone particular person to stay in office, not matter how popular that person maybe, is simply wrong. That is the day we take a step towards dictatorship.

I will vehemently oppose any attempt to overturn/extend the term limits law.

In order to stop this action, I just introduced in the City Council, Resolution #1640, which basically asks the State Legislature to step in and mandate that a public referendum be conducted to change the term limits law. Attached below is a more complete description/explanation of my bill.

Sincerely,

Tony Avella

Council Member

Reso. 1640/2008 – Term Limits Mandatory Referendum Resolution

Council Member Avella’s resolution calls upon the State legislature to adopt legislation amending the State Municipal Home Rule Law (MHRL) to give the City the authority to provide in its Charter that any change in the City’s term limits law must be subject to voter referendum. Even if the City fails to take action to change the Charter, once the State acts their action governs what the City is required to do – in other words mandate a public referendum.

The State MHRL, Article 3 §23, and the New York City Charter, Chapter 2 §38, both set forth a list of actions that can only be accomplished by voter referendum. This resolution will ask the New York State Legislature to amend the MHRL to add to this list of actions that require mandatory voter referendum any action which amends, in any manner, term limits laws.

Council Member Avella’s Reso. 1640 is phrased to “give the City authority to provide in its Charter that any change in the City’s term limits law must be subject to referendum” but the practical effect of the State’s requested action would be to amend the MHRL which would affect term limits laws from all municipalities throughout the state.

A Resolution to the State is the only way in which the City can effectively change its own Charter provisions on this issue, since the state law preempts local law in this area. Therefore the State must act first before the city can amend its own Charter provision and any local law attempting to change the Charter on this issue would be ineffective before the State gives the City the authority to act.

As a matter of public policy the City Council should not be vested with the sole power to extend the length of its members terms by legislation alone and it is therefore necessary to amend these sections of the Charter in order to preserve a balance between the right of the Council to carry out its legislative functions and the right of voters to have their expressed will carried out by the legislature.

How You Can Fight the Rise of "Tyranny" at City Hall

2008-10-10T09:41:00.008-04:00

The Queens Tribune calls it "tyranny". "Never has the city seemed so nakedly for sale," writes Newsday. The good government group Common Cause wants the Mayor investigated for using "his position in a prohibited manner to obtain personal advantage in a quid pro quo deal with Ronald Lauder." Even the Mayor himself said (back in 2005): "I think it would be an absolute disgrace to go around the public will."

But still the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg are less than two weeks away from pulling off the most shameful power grab in the history of New York. This is the time for all New Yorkers to stand up and save our City from the naked ambition of our elected officials.

Here's what you can do right now that's quick, easy and effective: Call Our Council Members! Below you'll find a list of all of the City's Council Members, their contact information, and where they stand on the issue. If we don't all work together to apply pressure to the Council Members, who are undecided or support the extension of term limits, then NO ONE WILL!

Forward this blog post to all of your friends and urge them to take action! I know that we're all wrapped up with getting Barack Obama elected, but to bring about the change we need in America we all have to do our part in our own community. Spread the word!

COUNCIL MEMBERS WHO ARE UNDECIDED OR THEIR POSITION IS UNKNOWN

Christine Quinn (Council Speaker - Manhattan)
District Phone: (212) 564-7757
District Fax: (212)564-7347
Legislative Office Phone: (212) 788-7210
Legislative Office Fax: (212) 788-7207
E-mail Address: http://council.nyc.gov/d3/html/members/home.shtml

Matthieu Eugene (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-287-8762
District Fax: 718-287-8917
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7352
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8087

Simcha Felder (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-853-2704
District Fax: 718-853-3858
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7357
E-mail Address: felder@council.nyc.ny.us

Sara Gonzalez (Brooklyn)
District Office Phone: 718-439-9012
District Office Fax: 718-439-9042
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7372

Michael Nelson (Brooklyn)
District Office Phone: 718-368-9176
District Office Fax: 718-368-9160
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7360
E-mail Address: nelson@council.nyc.ny.us

Kendall Stewart (Brooklyn)
District Office Phone: 718-951-8177
District Office Fax: 718-951-8191
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6859

David Yassky (Brooklyn)
District Office Phone: 718-875-5200
District Office Fax: 718-643-6620
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7348
E-mail Address: yassky@council.nyc.ny.us

Michael McMahon (Brooklyn/Staten Island)
District Phone: 718-556-7370
District Fax: 718-556-7389
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6972
Legislative Office Fax: 212-341-3045
E-mail Address: mcmahon@council.nyc.ny.us

Anthony Como (Queens)
District Phone: (718) 366-3900
District Fax: (718) 326-3549
Legislative Office Phone: (212) 788-7381
E-mail Address: acomo@council.nyc.gov

Melinda Katz (Queens)
District Phone: 718-544-8800
District Fax: 718-544-4452
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6981
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-7052
E-mail Address: katz@council.nyc.ny.us

James Sanders (Queens)
District Phone: 718-527-4356
District Fax: 718-527-4402
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7216
Legislative Office Fax: 212-227-1210
E-mail Address: sanders@council.nyc.ny.us

Helen Sears (Queens)
District Phone: 718-803-6373
District Fax: 718-803-9832
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7066
E-mail Address: sears@council.nyc.ny.us

Hiram Monserrate (Queens)
District Phone: 718-205-3881
District Fax: 718-205-4145
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6862
Legislative Office Fax: 212-442-2725
E-mail Address: monserrate@council.nyc.ny.us

Peter Vallone Jr. (Queens)
District Phone: 718-274-4500
District Fax: 718-726-0357
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6963
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8957

Thomas White (Queens)
District Phone: 718-843-0792
District Fax: 718-845-0817
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6850
Legislative Office Fax: 212-442-2729
E-mail Address: twhite@council.nyc.gov

Gale Brewer (Manhattan)
District Phone: 212-873-0282
District Fax: 212-873-0279
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6975
Legislative Office Fax: 212-513-7717
E-mail Address: brewer@council.nyc.ny.us

Inez Dickens (Manhattan)
District Phone: 212-678-4505
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7397
Legislative Office Fax: 212-442-2732

Alan Gerson (Manhattan)
District Phone: 212-788-7722
District Fax: 212-788-7727
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7259
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-7727
E-mail Address: gerson@council.nyc.ny.us

Jessica Lappin (Manhattan)
District Phone: 212-980-1808
District OFax: 212-980-1828
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6865
Legislative Office Fax: 212-442-5503
E-mail Address: lappin@council.nyc.ny.us

James Oddo (Staten Island)
District Phone: 718-980-1017
District Fax: 718-980-1051
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7159
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-7232

Helen Foster (Bronx)
District Phone: 718-588-7500
District Fax: 718-588-7790
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6856
E-mail Address: foster@council.nyc.ny.us

COUNCIL MEMBERS FOR IGNORING THE VOTERS
AND EXTENDING THEIR OWN TIME IN OFFICE

Erik Dilan (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-642-8664
District Fax: 718-642-8639
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7284
Legislative Office Fax: 212-227-5636
E-mail Address: emdilan@council.nyc.ny.us

Lewis A. Fidler (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-241-9330
District Fax: 718-241-9316
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7286
Legislative Office Fax: 212-227-3176

Diana Reyna (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-963-3141
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7095
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-7296

Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-373-9673
District Fax: 718-373-0195
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7045
LegislativeOffice Fax: 212-788-7769
E-mail Address: recchia@council.nyc.ny.us

Albert Vann (Brooklyn)
District Phone: 718-919-0740
District Fax: 718-919-0744
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7354
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8951
E-mail Address: vann@council.nyc.ny.us

Leroy Comrie (Queens)
District Phone: 718-776-3700
District Fax: 718-776-3798
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7084
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-7093

Robert Jackson (Manhattan)
District Phone: 212-928-1322
District Fax: 212-928-4177
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7007
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-9190
E-mail Address: jackson@council.nyc.ny.us

Miguel Martinez (Manhattan)
District Office Phone: 917-521-2616/2640
District Office Fax: 917-521-1293
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7053
Legislative Office Fax: 212-227-1215
E-mail Address: martinez@council.nyc.ny.us

Maria del Carmen Arroyo (Bronx)
District Office Phone: 718-402-6130
District Office Fax: 718-402-0539
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7384
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8920
E-mail Address: marroyo@council.nyc.gov

Maria Baez (Bronx)
District Phone: 718-294-3950
District Fax: 718-294-3955
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7074
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8849
E-mail Address: baez@council.nyc.ny.us

G. Oliver Koppell (Bronx)
District Phone: 718-549-7300
District Fax: 718-549-9945
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-7078
E-mail Address: koppell@council.nyc.ny

Joel Rivera (Bronx)
District Office Phone: 718-842-8100
District Office Fax: 718-842-6280
Legislative Office Phone: 212-788-6966
Legislative Office Fax: 212-788-8977
E-mail Address: rivera@council.nyc.ny.us

COUNCIL MEMBERS FOR LETTING THE PEOPLE DECIDE

Joseph Addabbo (Queens)
Tony Avella (Queens)
Charles Barron (Brooklyn)
Bill de Blasio (Brooklyn)
James Gennaro (Queens)
Vincent Gentile (Brooklyn)
Eric N. Gioia (Queens)
Daniel Garodnick (Manhattan)
Vincent Ignizio (Staten Island)
Leticia James (Brooklyn)
John C. Liu (Queens)
Melissa Mark-Viverito (Manhattan)
Darlene Mealy (Brooklyn)
Rosie Mendez (Manhattan)
Anabel Palma (Bronx)
James Vacca (Bronx)

35 Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Members Say NO to Extending Term Limits

2008-10-09T21:44:00.009-04:00

An Open Letter from 35 Members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee to the New York City Council Opposing the Extension of Term Limits

cc: Mayor Mike Bloomberg
Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Ronald Lauder

Dear Council Members:

What if President Bush had decided to amend the Constitution so that he could run for a third term? Surely, since 47 out of 51 of you are Democrats, this notion must be pretty frightening. Yet it is this concern that best sums up why we oppose the proposal before you to extend term limits.

Whether term limits are good for New York City is not an issue we care to argue. In the past 15 years, the voters of our City have twice decided that philosophical debate for themselves. In fact, it is as a result of their decision that most of you owe your current jobs. But now that you are on the verge of having to relinquish your power to a new generation of leaders, many of you are having second thoughts.

Surely, you can’t expect voters to interpret your motivations to extend term limits as anything but a self-serving power grab. Every dictator in world history faced with term limits has argued at the last minute of their reign that the political climate is so serious the people must keep them in power or else fear ruin. Well, New York City didn’t buckle when Mayor Giuliani tried to stay in office after 9/11. Now, we ask you to show the same courage and stand up to Mayor Bloomberg.

The people of New York need your help as City Council Members to protect our vote. The major newspapers, so many of our elected officials, and even Ron Lauder, once the foremost champion of term limits, have all abandoned us or cut backroom deals. You’re the last hope of the little guy. If you really think that New Yorkers want this change, then put Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal back on the ballot for referendum and let us decide.

We 35 members of the Brooklyn Democratic County Committee ran for office to be the voice of our neighbors and our communities. We thought you ran for office for the same reason. Here’s your chance to prove us right.

Sincerely,

Llewellyn Armstrong, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Alice Backer, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Martin J. Bernstein, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Evan Burr, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Vallie Copeland, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Craig Czarnecki, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Christopher Diamond, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Esteban Duran, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Ellen Enders, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Hal Friedman, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Sabrina Gates, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
David Greenson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jen Halbert, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
MacGregor Harp, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jamila Jabulani, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Cyril Joseph, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Steven Juskowicz, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Glenn T. Kelly, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Cheryl Krauss, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Jeff S. Merritt, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
David Michaelson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Gilford T. Monrose, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Ethan Nichtern, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Chris Owens, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Morgan Pehme, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Colin Phillips, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Mireyda Reyes, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Sam Ritchie, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Joy Romanski, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Bill Salzman, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Josh Skaller, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Eva Talmadge, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Kelly L. Thompson, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
Theodore Wright, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member
James Zika, Kings County Democratic County Committee Member

What Wasilla Is Really Like

2008-10-09T14:43:00.005-04:00

Since Wasilla, Alaska leapt onto the national stage six weeks ago alongside its adorable former mayor, I have wondered what this tiny town was like. In my mind's eye, I pictured a friendly, folksy enclave in the midst of a wild, breathtaking expanse of frozen tundra.

Apparently, I was wrong. From the looks of Wasilla, it's just another racist hick stronghold with a fondness for drinking and crystal meth. Judge for yourself:

How Extending City Term Limits Secretly Benefits Our Statewide Politicians

2008-10-08T10:08:00.008-04:00

Despite the recent deluge of articles about Mayor Bloomberg and the Council's scheme to extend term limits, one significant consequence of the proposed change has been carelessly overlooked.

City officials won't be the only ones making out on this backroom deal. Our Statewide politicians will see big dividends too.

Why does Governor Paterson favor doing away with term limits? Let's see. Do you think that it could have anything to do with Mayor Bloomberg being the only candidate who could beat him in 2010?

State Senators and Assembly Members across the five boroughs will breathe a sigh of relief the day the Council extends term limits. Why? Just ask longtime incumbent State Senators Serph Maltese and Frank Padavan from Queens. Both of them are locked in tense general election campaigns, because Council Members Joe Addabbo Jr. and Jim Gennaro thought they had to go looking for new jobs now that their time in the Council was up.

Yes, the issue of the Democrats taking control of the Senate is an indisputable catalyst too, but, if this aim were first and foremost for Addabbo and Gennaro, how come they didn't run for these seats in 2006? The Democrats wanted the Senate then too.

For the past couple of years, our Assembly Members and State Senators have secretly feared the same fate as Maltese and Padavan. And don't think this is just a Democrat vs. Republican thing. Our City Council Members, for the most part, are ambitious men and women, for whom retiring into the private sector (read: obscurity) has little charm. Do you not think that there are plenty of Council Members eyeing up their fellow Democrats' seats?

What about Bronx Councilman Miguel Martinez? When Martinez announced his bid to run for Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat's seat this past June, the City Room headline in The Times read "Assembly Primary to Match Friends Turned Rivals". In the article, Jonathan Hicks decribes Martinez and Espaillat's former rapport "as a big brother and little brother relationship — or at the very least political mentor and mentee". What changed? The lust for power.

Strong political friendships routinely disintegrate when they are no longer convenient for one of the parties to maintain. How many other City Council Members have their sights set on a seat currently occupied by a "mentor"? We won't find out until 2013 if term limits are extended.

If they are, expect a number of longtime lovefests to start dissolving around 2011. That will give the Council Member just enough time to forge the track record of indignation necessary to justify his or her challenge of a one-time pal.

Our State Senators and Assembly Members aren't stupid, especially when it comes to calculating how they're going to stay in office. They know that the only challenge that could likely topple their otherwise iron-clad incumbencies would come from someone with the name recognition and donor base of a fellow elected official.

As long as our Citywide officals stay put, so too will our Statewide electeds. You can be sure that everyone in Albany has their eyes (and their influence) firmly focused on City Hall.

John McCain Is Not MY Friend

2008-10-08T09:22:00.003-04:00

While Joe Biden and the Clintons have repeatedly subjected us to rapturous proclamations of their love for John McCain, my feelings for the man have evolved from tolerance to begrudging repect, and now, to flat-out disdain. In fact, the more I learn about this guy, the more I don't like him.

The article that really tipped me over the edge was sent to me by my friend, Ellen Enders. This expose in Rolling Stone magazine, entitled Make-Believe Maverick, retells McCain's biography from a (rare) unfiltered persepective, unclouded by the first principle that McCain is an American hero. It casts McCain as an impetuous, angry, and unprincipled brat, who believes that power and, ultimately, the Presidency is his birthright. And it presents a compelling lifelong history of incidents and personal accounts to evidence the point.

Yes, it is a long read and, at times, verges away from conventional journalistic objectivity. But, hey, the truth is often ugly.

The Last Man Doing Well in the Bush Economy

2008-10-07T09:02:00.003-04:00

The most outrageous comedy turns a mirror on the truth. I have been laughing (and crying!) about this bit on The Colbert Report since it first aired back in August. It chronicles the true story of the last man doing well in the Bush economy. And this was before the fiscal crisis exploded!

Enjoy today's daily dose of optimism.

Missing The Gowanus Lounge

2008-10-04T13:02:00.005-04:00

The Brooklyn media has been dealt a sad blow over the last couple of weeks since Bob Guskind indefinitely suspended publication of his blog, The Gowanus Lounge. For those of you who have not been so fortunate to benefit from its daily insights, The Gowanus Lounge was (and is) the foremost resource in understanding real estate in Western Brooklyn. And in a land where real estate is king, losing The Gowanus Lounge is tantamount to suddenly being deprived of sight.

The absence of The Gowanus Lounge is far more serious to Brooklynites than the disappearance of The Sun. Please take the time to write to Bob and encourage him to resume publication or at least to tell him thanks. Writing a blog is an incredibly difficult, draining experience, both professionally and personally, and the only payment we bloggers receive in return is the appreciation of our readers.

I understand well why Bob might not be able to do it any more. As regular Optimist readers know, I have also found it necessary to retreat at times from the infinite expanse of the blogosphere to the warm confines of home. But, time and again, it is your letters and the desire to make my community better that keep bringing me back to my keyboard.

Let's hope that Bob gets back to his soon.

Homer Simpson Votes For Obama!

2008-10-03T13:29:00.004-04:00

Even the stupidest man in America is smart enough to vote for Obama!

My favorite line is when Homer says, "Must...tell...President...McCain." Hilarious!

Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's Democratic District Leaders? (2008)

2008-10-03T09:49:00.004-04:00

As Part V of the Optimist's public service series to his fellow Brooklynites, the following is a current list of Brooklyn's Democratic District Leaders. The majority of these district leaders do not have websites, so I have not added links to their names, except for in the cases where the District Leader holds another elective office in addition to this post.

You will notice that there are two names listed for each Assembly District. That is because each AD has both a male and female representative. For those of you who do not know what a District Leader does, check out this fine explanation from the Room Eight blog.

Some of you may also notice that with this concluding chapter of my five part series that I have neglected to list the Republican and Independence Party's District Leaders. The reason I have done so is twofold: relevance and time. Except for in the Bay Ridge area, Republicans have virtually no impact upon local politics, because the overwhelming majority of voters in Brooklyn are Democrats. The Independence Party is irrelevant everywhere in our borough.

It took quite an effort to compile a list even of the Democratic District Leaders, but since they are significant (though, albeit, largely overlooked) I felt that this was a worthwhile endeavor. Because of the relative unimportance of the Republican and Independence Parties, I decided not to bother tracking down who their District Leaders are. But, however, if someone is willing to send me a complete, up-to-date list for either of these parties, or any I have omitted to mention, I will happily add them to my blog as an addendum to this series.

Now on to the list! If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

Kings County Democratic District Leaders (42 Total):

40th AD: Carol Faison
40th AD: Earl Williams
41st AD: Laurie Garson
41st AD: Lewis Fidler
42nd AD: Mary Hobson
42nd AD: Booker Ingram
43rd AD: Shirley Patterson
43rd AD: Jesse Hamilton
44th AD: Lori Citron Knipel
44th AD: Jacob Gold
45th AD: Pearl Siegelman
45th AD: Michael Geller
46th AD: Dilia Schack
46th AD: Mark Davidovich
47th AD: Jeanette Givant
47th AD: Charles Ragusa
48th AD: Sharon Fuchs
48th AD: Dov Hikind
49th AD: Maryrose Sattie
49th AD: Joseph Bova
50th AD: Linda Minucci
50th AD: Steven Cohn
51st AD: Amanda Bonilla
51st AD: Felix Ortiz
52nd AD: Jo Anne Simon
52nd AD: Alan Fleishman
53rd AD: Diana Reyna
53rd AD: Vito Lopez
54th AD: Jannitza Luna
54th AD: Darryl Towns
55th AD: Kamaria Boyland
55th AD: William Boyland Jr.
56th AD: Annette Robinson
56th AD: Albert Vann
57th AD: Olanike T. Alabi
57th AD: Walter Mosley III
58th AD: Melba Brown
58th AD: Kendall Stewart
59th AD: Roberta Sherman
59th AD: Bernard Catcher
60th AD: Joanne Seminara
60th AD: Ralph Perfetto

Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's New York City Council Members? (2008)

2008-10-02T14:59:00.005-04:00

As Part IV of the Optimist's public service series to his fellow Brooklynites, the following is a current list of Brooklyn's City Council Members. To make the list as helpful as possible, I've linked each name to the elected officials' homepage.

If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS REPRESENTING KINGS COUNTY (16 Total):

District 33: David Yassky
District 34: Diana Reyna
District 35: Letitia James
District 36: Albert Vann
District 37: Eric Martin Dilan
District 38: Sara Gonzalez
District 39: Bill de Blasio
District 40: Mathieu Eugene
District 41: Darlene Mealy
District 42: Charles Barron
District 43: Vincent Gentile
District 44: Simcha Felder
District 45: Kendall Stewart
District 46: Lewis Fidler
District 47: Dominic Recchia
District 48: Michael Nelson

Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's New York State Assembly Members? (2008)

2008-10-02T14:39:00.004-04:00

As Part III of the Optimist's public service series to his fellow Brooklynites, the following is a current list of Brooklyn's Assembly Members. To make the list as helpful as possible, I've linked each name to the elected officials' homepage.

If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

ASSEMBLY MEMBERS REPRESENTING KINGS COUNTY (21 Total):

40th AD: Inez Barron (NOTE: Technically, this seat is currently vacant, as disgraced former Assemblywoman Diane Gordon abruptly resigned from office for bribery [watch the amazing actual tape of her soliciting a bribe here]. However, Inez Barron, the wife of Councilman Charles Barron won this September's Democratic Primary making her a shoo-in to replace Gordon come January 2009.)
41st AD: Helene Weinstein
42nd AD: Rhoda Jacobs
43rd AD: Karim Camara
44th AD: James Brennan
45th AD: Steven Cymbrowitz
46th AD: Alec Brook-Krasny
47th AD: William Colton
48th AD: Dov Hikind
49th AD: Peter Abbate Jr.
50th AD: Joe Lentol
51st AD: Felix Ortiz
52nd AD: Joan Millman
53rd AD: Vito Lopez
54th AD: Darryl Towns
55th AD: William Boyland
56th AD: Annette Robinson
57th AD: Hakeem Jeffries
58th AD: Nick Perry
59th AD: Alan Maisel
60th AD: Janele Hyer-Spencer (also represents Staten Island)

Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's New York State Senators? (2008)

2008-10-02T14:23:00.005-04:00

As Part II of the Optimist's public service series to his fellow Brooklynites, the following is a current list of Brooklyn's State Senators. To make the list as helpful as possible, I've linked each name to the elected officials' homepage.

If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

STATE SENATORS REPRESENTING KINGS COUNTY (9 Total):

17th SD: Martin Malavé Dilan
18th SD: Velmanette Montgomery
19th SD: John Sampson
20th SD: Eric Adams
21st SD: Kevin Parker
22nd SD: Martin Golden
23rd SD: Diane Savino (also represents Staten Island)
25th SD: Martin Connor (NOTE: Connor was defeated in the 2008 Democratic Primary by Daniel Squadron, which will bring an end to his 30-year incumbency in January 2009. Given the fact that Brooklyn is heavily Democratic, Squadron is virtually assured of winning the general election, despite the fact that he has a Republican challenger.)
27th SD: Carl Kruger

Brooklyn Politics: Who are Brooklyn's U.S. Congress Members? (2008)

2008-10-02T13:51:00.008-04:00

A number of the Optimist's readers have reached out to him over the past year asking for a complete list of Brooklyn's elected officials. This is a very good question! As easy as it would seem in the age of the internet to get this kind of basic information, it's actually a lot more difficult than you might think.

So, as a public service to my fellow Brooklynites, I present the following series of posts to make it transparent and easy to track down the names of all your Members of Congress, State Senators, Assembly Members, Council Members, and even the District Leaders for the Democratic Party.

To make the list as helpful as possible, I've linked each name to the elected officials' homepage, except for in the case of the District Leaders, who generally don't have a website. If you want to reach your District Leaders and can't find their number, leave a comment on this page or send me an email at brooklynoptimist@gmail.com and I'll make sure to get you their contact information.

If you don't know in what district you live, you can find out everything you need to know by entering your address into the New York City Board of Elections' website right here.

So, here they are, your Members of Congress:

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REPRESENTING KINGS COUNTY (6 Total)

8th CD: Jerry Nadler (also represents Manhattan)
9th CD: Anthony Weiner (also represents Queens)
10th CD: Edolphus Towns
11th CD: Yvette Clarke
12th CD: Nydia Velázquez (also represents Queens and Manhattan)
13th CD: Vito Fossella (also represents Staten Island - NOTE: Fossella is not seeking re-election because of a host of scandals that have been widely reported by the national news. All political experts would agree that his likely successor following November's general election will be Democratic nominee Mike McMahon.)

NAG for a Better Williamsburg and Greenpoint This Thursday

2008-09-30T00:30:00.009-04:00

The good people of NAG (Neighbors Allied for Good Growth) have put together a town hall meeting at Holy Ghost Hall, 159 N. 5th St (b/w Bedford and Driggs) on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 7 p.m.

The aim of the Town Hall meeting is to bring together both old and new residents to the area to discuss the issues we all care about, like McCarren Park, the waterfront, and overcrowding on the L and G trains. If you care about Williamsburg and Greenpoint, you should definitely attend.

Don't sleep on the future of your 'hood.

The Greatest Catch of All Time

2008-09-30T00:16:00.006-04:00

In other, less psychotic-rampage-inspiring sports news, you have to check out this catch by Edwin Baptiste from a recent Morgan State game. Whether or not you are a football fan (I'm not much of one), it is well worth taking 32 seconds to watch.

The Brooklyn Optimist's In-Depth Analysis of Today's Mets Game

2008-09-28T20:14:00.005-04:00

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Die, Marlins! Die. Die. Die.

Why, Mets? Why?

There's always next year. - The Mets Fans' Mantra

Don't Expect Change at City Hall (Maybe Bush Should Stick Around Too!)

2008-09-25T08:52:00.011-04:00

The Optimist has spent the last couple of weeks talking to City Hall insiders about whether term limits will likely be extended another four years. His conclusion? Mayor Bloomberg and the current City Council class will be sticking around until 2013.

By numerous unofficial counts, there are at least 34 Councilmembers out of a possible 51 in favor of giving themselves another four-year term (a 2/3 majority is necessary to change the current law) and more are likely to cave. It seems that with the economic downturn our fearless Councilmembers think this isn't the best time to go looking for another job.

What does this mean? The hundreds of Council candidates waiting in the wings to swoop into empty seats will be seriously pissed off. Some of them have spent 2, 4, even 8 years diligently going to community meetings, building their lists of contacts, and ingratiating themselves to anyone who would listen. Now the vast majority of them are likely not to run, demoralized by the daunting prospect of facing off against a highly favored incumbent.

And just think about how many consultants, staffmembers, and petitioners will be denied paychecks because of the hotly-contested primaries that now never will occur. Talk about a blow to the local economy!

Of course, a few brave souls will hold fast to their dreams and take aim at toppling an incumbent. I have heard from a few candidates intent upon sticking with it. I wish them the best. Despite the odds, I think they will have a strong case to make to voters that their opponents have demonstrated contempt for the will of the people, who have twice voted in the last decade for term limits.

Is it not the hallmark of tyrants to change laws just so they can keep power? Who among them would have the right to protest if President Bush tried to do the same?

Brooklyn Optimist Wins Election in a Landslide!

2008-09-25T08:25:00.008-04:00

Last week, the Brooklyn Optimist reported in passing the humorous circumstances under which he discovered he had won the Primary to represent his neck of the woods in Greenpoint as its newest Kings County Democratic County Committee Member.

Well, now the outcome is official! The New York City Board of Elections website has certified the results of the September 9th Primary and the numbers are staggering. The Optimist (a.k.a. Morgan Pehme) scored a landslide win over his opponent, Carmine Galeotifiore, taking a whopping 75% of the vote in the local race.

I know, I know. Percentages are impressive. Especially considering that the total vote count was 12-4 in my favor. It kind of reminds me of the final score in a Mets game, in which the team's bullpen has been called upon to save a 4-3 lead.

But, a win is a win and I'm not complaining. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to vote for me. I sincerely appreciate your support. I won't let you down over my next two years in office. No graft or sex scandals, I promise.

Congratulations to all my intrepid friends who also pulled out big wins on Primary Day, like my neighbor James Zika - who won by a single vote despite his excellent campaign - Alex Low, Chris Henderson, and Bushwick City Council hopeful Esteban Duran.

My sympathies to all of my friends who came up short. I know you'll rebound in 2010!

Brooklyn Dem's Judicial Convention is a Much More Serious Sham

2008-09-21T17:46:00.009-04:00

Last week, The Optimist went inside the Kings County Democratic County Committee meeting and exposed it as bad theater. Unfortunately, he didn't know in time about the one-night-only comedy extravaganza that County staged the following evening.

I'm talking, of course, about the Brooklyn Democratic Party's judicial convention, the backroom bonanza where Vito Lopez doles out seats on the bench to his kowtowing cronies. One Optimist reader with intimate knowledge of the event wrote us to say that if only they had had a video camera to record last Tuesday's spectacle then many a Brooklyn jurist would have had to forfeit their seats in shame the next morning when the tape surfaced to the public.

The Daily News wasn't there live, but they did write a damning editorial on Friday, denouncing the event as "a glimpse into the odious nature of how the political bosses make judges in New York". For even more on this sham, check out Oneshirt's post on Room Eight here.

Seriously, people, when is Brooklyn going to get its act together? We have far too many talented artists to keep churning out such drek. Long time Brooklyn reformers had hoped that the U.S. Supreme Court would finally bring an end to this fiasco, but unfortunately the Roberts Court (surprise, surprise) shamelessly sided with corruption as usual. Super scumbag Justice Scalia was brazen in his majority opinion: "Party conventions, with their attendant 'smoke-filled rooms' and domination by party leaders, have long been an accepted manner of selecting party candidates."

Justice Stevens, in a concurring opinion, stated his reasons for upholding Brooklyn's codified cronyism in a slightly less infuriating manner: "I recall my esteemed former colleague, Thurgood Marshall, remarking on numerous occasions: 'The Constitution does not prohibit legislatures from enacting stupid laws.'"

So, that's where we are. I can't fault Vito. The ball is in the court of our State's legislators. As long as they refuse to act on behalf of the people and change our "stupid laws", Brooklynites will continue to suffer injustice.

The Onion Hacks Barack Obama's Email

2008-09-21T17:33:00.004-04:00

By now, you probably have heard the hubbub about Sarah Palin's email being hacked. But now, thanks to the computer geniuses at The Onion, you can look through Barack Obama's inbox too! Click here to laugh.

I didn't realize Jimmy Carter was so down.

Oh, and for those who missed this all-time classic, here is a link to The Onion article "Black Guy Asks Nation for Change".

"Farce": A Review of Last Night's Brooklyn Democratic County Committee Meeting

2008-09-16T10:20:00.009-04:00

Last night, 181 Members of the Kings County Democratic County Committee huddled in an auditorium at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn to participate in the theatre of the absurd.

Move over Samuel Beckett, Vito Lopez in the hizzy.

Despite my unflappable optimism, I can't say I was surprised at how the night went. Though this was the first time I had attended the notorious affair, I had been warned in advance as to how these performances go. Basically, a bunch of elected officials and party loyalists take turns literally reading from a script to dutifully enact whatever agenda Vito Lopez has decided upon, and then call the meeting to a close as quickly as possible, so that its members don't get a headache from too much democracy all in one night.

Except for a few hiccups, that's precisely how last night played out. Taking every opportunity to eschew debate and neutralize dissent, the officials cast by Vito to read the script handed out to them earlier in the day did so as quickly as possible and then exited stage left.

The only people in the chorus who seemed to have missed the director's notes were Councilman Charles Barron, political blogger David Michaelson (a.k.a. mole333) and his wife Joy Romanski (corresponding secretary of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats), and the 50+ newly elected members of the County Committee from the New Kings Democrats political club.

Charles Barron, who incidentally is a far better actor than any of the extras sent by Central Casting to play Vito's goons, began his sparkling performance by challenging the largely ceremonial adoption of the Committee's rules on the grounds that he had not been given a chance to review them in advance. The fact that someone dared to disrupt the show early on palpably unnerved the crowd, which suddenly had to confront the possibility that the airy musical they had come to see had been surreptitiously replaced by the complete works of Ibsen.

Councilman Lewis Fidler, playing a toned-down version of Councilman Lewis Fidler, took it upon himself to calm the crowd, arguing that were the County Committee not to adopt the rules that the meeting would not be officially convened (bad), the Kings County Democratic Party would not be a legally sanctioned body and thus incapable of appointing judges (very bad), and that the globe would go flying off its axis and plunge into the sun (maybe not so bad if McCain gets elected).

A few eventful scenes later, Charles Barron again took the stage and delivered the evening's only noteworthy monologue. Unfortunately, I couldn't scribble it down fast enough in my program, but it began: "This is ridiculous! I've never been to a more scripted meeting in my whole life! This is insulting!" His eloquent soliloquy was saluted with scattered enthusiastic applause and then promptly dismissed as a rant.

The rest of the evening's sound and fury was left to the members of the New Kings Democrats, who tried their best in the role of "Reformers", but were overshadowed by Vito Lopez and the 670 Proxies. Every time the night's Chairman State Senator Marty Connor would call a vote on any proposal not in the script, if the yeas and the nays sounded even (NKD's members made up a vocal third of the audience), Connor would dispense with the pageantry and remind the crowd that there was a superstar with 670 votes to his name waiting in the wings ready to make a surprise cameo at any time. Since this one man was worth over three times the value of those in attendance (despite all the electeds there), Connor's forthright observation always settled the issue conclusively.

Speaking of Connor, this reviewer would be remiss in not acknowledging that he was genuinely moved by the veteran's performance as "Broken Man in Twilight". Now I can't claim to have seen Connor in his heyday, but as last night's Richard III, he brought an unexpected candor to the proceedings. He appeared not as a grand Senator, but as a mere man in need of a horse, beset with the anguish that comes when the realization that he will never again be king.

As for the rest of the ensemble, Vito Lopez was captivating, but unbelievable, in the role of "The Gentle Giant" (seriously, that guy is towering).

Assemblywoman Annette Robinson and District Leader Olanike Alabi were disappointing as "The Early Adjourners". For those critics who will allege that the New Kings Democrats didn't accomplish anything last night, I would point to the bit parts read by this duo as the reason NKD didn't get more of a chance to shine. By ushering the show to a close before any new business could be proposed, Robinson and Alabi cheated a good portion of the audience out of the cost of admission. I was particularly dispirited by Alabi's role. Usually, one of the only truly progressive District Leaders, she could have made something of her part, but instead preferred to mail it in. I know she could have done better.

Equally disappointing were "The Electeds". And I mean all of them, except for Charles Barron. Not a single one of them in attendance last night (District Leaders included!), has any chance of being cast in 2009's much-anticipated blockbuster release "Brooklyn's Real Reformers". Of course, their agents and acting coaches will try to convince you otherwise next September, but don't believe the hype.

Last, but not least, The Optimist found himself unexpectedly the central figure in one of the night's only moments of true levity. I attended the meeting not yet knowing of the outcome of the primary race I ran last week to represent my tiny swath of Greenpoint as its Democratic County Committee Member. The good people at NKD took it upon themselves to nominate me for appointment to the committee on their slate of candidates for the 50th Assembly District. When Chairman Connor read the competing slate of candidates, it turned out that in the 93rd Election District Morgan Pehme's opponent on the competing slate was none other than "Morgan Pehme".

I stood up in the meeting, announced that I happened to be "Morgan Pehme", and said that the reason NKD had nominated me was because I did not yet know the outcome of the primary. Chairman Connor smiled and said, "Apparently, you won. Congratulations. Everyone seems to like you." My victory was greeted with perhaps the warmest and only non-controversial round of applause of the night.

I wonder if I'm still going to be as universally well-liked after you read my review of last night's show?

As always, I will remain optimistic.

Shocking News: SNL Makes The Optimist Laugh

2008-09-15T16:48:00.004-04:00

For the first time in a long time, Saturday Night Live actually made me laugh this week! For those of you who missed Tina Fey's spot-on impression of Sarah Palin (who makes me cry!), I encourage you to indulge below.

Poor Hillary! SNL captures just how humiliating it must be for her to be grouped together with a nitwit like Palin.

Attention Luther Elementary School Alumni

2008-09-15T16:44:00.003-04:00

Brooklyn Optimist fan Ray Palermo wrote me today requesting I post the following information about Lutheran Elementary School of Bay Ridge. Who am I to turn down a reader's request?

Attention Lutheran Elementary School Alumni: Send us your name, address, and email so we don’t lose touch. Lutheran Elementary School, 440 Ovington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209, Attn: Alumni Office or LESAlumni@hotmail.com for news and information about your former classmates and teachers. (Hold the Date: Nov. 7 "Night at the Races”)

Brooklyn Politics: The More You Know

2008-09-12T10:06:00.009-04:00

Inspired in part by the efforts of The New Kings Democrats - the young, ambitious political club of which I am proud to call myself a member - many of you have reached out to The Optimist in recent weeks, asking how you can learn more about Brooklyn politics.

Thanks for asking. The reason that the Brooklyn Democratic party and so many of our elected officials are able to act unscrupulously or flat-out unethically is because of the general public's lack of knowledge about local politics.

Matt Cowherd and Rachel Lauter, a pair of truly civic-minded citizens, founded The New Kings Democrats with the laudable intent of educating their fellow voters and bringing transparency to a deplorable system of governance that thrives, like Dick Cheney, by lurking in the shadows.

In an article yesterday in the Gotham Gazette, Assemblymember Vito Lopez, the Brooklyn Democratic Party leader, dismissed The New Kings' efforts, saying “I don’t have time to deal with people who are in constant conflict.”

Ha!

I not quite sure how to address such rubbish, except to tell you that from the very first meeting of NKD that both the group's members and leadership were adamant that they didn't want to be the "anti-Vito club". These concerned citizens - young and old, Black, white and Latino - had come to participate in local government for the first time in their lives because they believed that their leaders would embrace their enthusiasm to make government better and more representative of the people. Most of them had never even heard of Vito Lopez in their lives!

But now we know who Vito is. He is a person who maintains that citizens who want to take an active role in their government are insurgents bent upon "constant conflict". This rhetoric is all too familiar. It reminds New Yorkers of how we were told after 9/11 that to question President Bush's rush to launch illegal wars was "unpatriotic".

America is a country that was founded upon the strength of dissenting voices. Our nation charges us to take the wildly broad diversity of our opinions and to compromise upon a concensus for the common good.

In America we don't call this "constant conflict", we call this "debate".

And the best way to have an intelligent debate is to know all the facts. So, without further introduction, let me give some food for thought to those of you hungry to chew on Brooklyn politics.

If you want to know what's going on, I suggest that you start every day by reading Liz Benjamin's column in The Daily News , as well as Azi Paybarah and Katharine Jose over at The New York Observer's Politicker. The advantage of these blogs is that they are written by journalists, not pundits, which means that the information they provide is generally not clouded by an agenda. I believe strongly in reading all of the posts, not just the ones that pertain to Brooklyn, because borough to borough, city politicians play the same game, and you can catch trends that will help you see the larger picture of New York City politics.

If you still haven't had your fill after these two columns, move on over to blogs like The Daily Gotham and Room Eight. Often you'll find a wealth of information here that is either more controversial or not adequately substantiated to qualify for the daily papers. But, beware, don't believe everything you read! These bloggers may be providing prejudiced, speculative, or just plainly inaccurate information.

How can you tell the difference between fact and fiction?

The more you know, the better you'll learn to question.

That last nugget of advice is for you, Vito.

The Brooklyn Optimist Sounds Off On Eric Gioia

2008-05-28T13:46:00.014-04:00

The Optimist played pundit this week, giving his two cents to Katharine Jose of The New York Observer about all-but-announced candidate for Public Advocate Eric Gioia. I first met Gioia in the early days of his first term as Councilman to Sunnyside, Woodside, and Long Island City when I was managing editor of The Queens Courier, and though I no longer cover Queens I have kept up-to-date about Gioia and his two media savvy terms in the Council.

If you aren't familiar with Gioia, you should certainly read Katharine's fine profile of him in today's Observer. Though I'll likely end up supporting Norman Siegel in his bid for Public Advocate (full disclosure: I've already attended one of his fundraisers), I respect Eric Gioia. Unquestionably, he has been a responsive councilman and an effective representative for his constituents - a rarity in this day and age. At the same time, however, Gioia has made sure to never do anything without being noticed by the media for doing so.

For many, these are the qualities of a model politician. As for me, I don't condemn ambition. Often ambition can be a virtue in politics, for it generally compels the politician to take into account the needs of the people - if for no other reason, but to calculate their own self-interest.

Mediocre politicians tend to be as tiny as their aspirations. They maintain the status quo simply out of convenience. In the Bush era, we've not only come to tolerate widespread mediocrity from our elected officials, we've come to embrace it. At a time when everything our President touches turns to dust, we're just happy if an elected official doesn't make things any worse.

Politicans like Eric Gioia, for good or for bad, at least challenge their colleagues in government to do better.

Brooklyn Poet Lynn Chandhok Reads Her Poem "Confetti, Ticker-tape"

2008-05-19T12:09:00.007-04:00

Park Slope poet Lynn Aarti Chandhok reads "Confetti, Ticker-tape" from her book The View From Zero Bridge. Along with Wislawa Szymborska's "Photograph from September 11", this is, in my personal estimation, the most powerful poem about 9/11.

Thanks again to the Community Bookstore and Catherine Bohne for making this video recitation possible.

Brooklyn Poet Lynn Chandhok Reads Her Poem "Long Meadow"

2008-05-19T11:43:00.004-04:00

Park Slope poet Lynn Aarti Chandhok reads "Long Meadow", a poem set in Prospect Park from her book The View From Zero Bridge. Every parent should feel its gravitational pull. I read it to my fiancée on Valentine's Day.

Thanks again to the Community Bookstore and Catherine Bohne for making this video recitation possible.

The Brooklyn Optimist Interviews Park Slope Poet Lynn Chandhok

2008-05-19T09:00:00.008-04:00

When the New York Observer weighed in with its top 100 Brooklyn writers a few weeks ago, one of its most glaring omissions was Park Slope poet Lynn Aarti Chandhok. Chandhok is not just one of my favorite Brooklyn poets, she ranks among the most gifted poets of contemporary American literature.

Perhaps it is presumptuous to make such a grandiose appraisal of a poet's work with only one book of verse under her belt, The View From Zero Bridge (Anhinga Press), but as is the case with my beloved Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, who has only 250 or so published poems to her credit, it is quality that defines a writer's opus, not quantity.

Despite the Observer's myopia, the quality of Chandhok's poetry has not gone overlooked. The View From Zero Bridge was awarded the 2006 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and, perhaps more impressively in this lyric-less age, it even found a readership, ranking #8 on The New York Times' best-selling, small-press poetry books this past January.

Staged in a noetic realm spanning her ancestral land of Kashmir, India and her home in Park Slope, Chandhok spins lush, tactile tapestries at once traditional and wholly her own. It is her ability to draw us into her silken saffron-hued memories, so carefully observed and imagined, and then to illuminate the universality of her personal reverie that makes Chandhok's poetry justly important. I need only glimpse Zero Bridge for its most vibrant images to reawaken in my mind - fields of marigolds, singed scraps, a leaping magnet - as if they were recollections of times I myself had lived or dreamt.

It is my great pleasure to share this humble interview Lynn was kind enough to grant me. After the video has played, please take a moment to watch the clips above of Chandhok reading her poems "Long Meadow" and "Confetti, Ticker-tape". I requested that she read these two poems, both set in Brooklyn, because I was particularly moved by them. I believe that you will be as well.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank Catherine Bohne profusely for granting me the use of the Park Slope Community Bookstore for this interview. If you have not lost yourself in the cozy confines of the Community Bookstore you have been adrift in Brooklyn.

I'm Running For Office (And So Should You!)

2008-05-16T09:26:00.008-04:00

Today I am announcing my candidacy for county committeeman for the Kings County Democratic Party.

Not impressed? Never heard of the county committee? You're not alone. This obscure position is the lowest level of elected office in our great nation. Roughly two county committee members (one man and one woman) represent every 700 or so Brooklynites, meaning that there are literally thousands of county committee seats for both the Democratic and Republican parties in our borough.

Why would I run for an unpaid job to represent a territory about the size of 3 city blocks? I owe my enthusiasm to Matt Cowherd and Rachel Lauter, the co-founders of the fledgling New Kings Democrats, a political club that grew out of Brooklyn's Obama campaign. These young Democrats were not content merely to shift the course of national politics, they decided to make an impact locally as well.

That's why they've set about recruiting hundreds of political neophytes like you and me to run for county committee. Our aspiration is to have our say in deciding how the Kings County Democratic Party will operate: which candidates the party will endorse or nominate to serve as our public officials, which judges it will select to rule our courts, and many other issues of great significance to all Brooklynites. Right now, under the iron fist of Brooklyn's Democratic boss Vito Lopez the county committee is a joke; a rubber stamp for his tyrannical rule.

We've set out to change the way politics works in Brooklyn. It is our hope that with strength in numbers, we can build a critical mass that will ensure that the people finally have their voice heard in government.

How will we succeed? We need YOU! Email me immediately at brooklynoptimist@gmail.com to find how how you can join us and run to be a county committee member. I'll tell you everything you need to know. It's a lot easier than you think to run and get elected and the time commitment once in office is little. The New Kings Democrats will train you for FREE on how to run your campaign and provide you resources to help you succeed. The only requirements are that you are a Democrat registered in Brooklyn and that you vote.

So, what are you waiting for? As radio host Thom Hartmann says: "Democracy begins with you. Tag - you're it!"

Brooklyn Blogfest 2008: A Hit For Bloggers and Fans Alike

2008-05-09T09:25:00.004-04:00

Congratulations to everyone who participated in last night's gala 2008 Brooklyn Blogfest. The event was an indisputable success, drawing over 250 talented bloggers and their fans to the comfy confines of the Brooklyn Lyceum for a night of presentations, networking, and, of course, libations.

The event's organizer Louise Crawford of Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn deserves the lion's share of the credit for pulling off the largest borough Blogfest ever without a hitch. Special thanks also goes to Louise's stellar team, which included Eleanor Traubman (Creative Times), Adrian Kinloch (Brit in Brooklyn) and Petra Symister (Bed-Stuy Blog), and a host of other talented Brooklynites who donated their services to bring the blogosphere together under one roof.

Despite being given the somewhat harrowing task of handling the evening's video projections (even after I admitted that I am technologically incompetent), I enjoyed myself immensely. Among the individuals I had the pleasure of talking with were local blog giant Bob Guskind (Gowanus Lounge), 2009 City Council candidate and Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens blogger Gary Reilly, the always delightful Katia Kelly of Pardon Me For Asking, Brooklyn Independent TV host Megan Donis, and Brooklyn Paper editor-in-chief Gersh Kuntzman.

Another highlight of Blogfest for me was getting to spend time perusing the work of Brooklyn's wonderfully talented photobloggers. Below is the video I produced for last night's Blogfest entitled "A Photoblog Tribute to Brooklyn". Please feel free to pass it on liberally to help celebrate our borough's prodigious and prolific photographers.

The Mets Go To War

2008-05-01T10:00:00.001-04:00

As a lifelong Mets fan, I could wax on endlessly about the wonders of the Amazins.

But this piece is about a quarrel I have had with my team of late. And I'm not talking about their 14-12 record. That, ya gotta believe, will pass.

My problem is with the Mets TV network's new subway ad campaign. In case you haven't noticed it, the series of ads feature action shots of one of the team's stars accompanied by fighting words: Jose Reyes slides into a bag above the caption "Bases, Reloaded"; David Wright swings to the slogan "Not-So-Secret Secret Weapon"; and new ace hurler Johan Santana's headline threatens "Armed and Ready".

I fully admit that I might very well be blowing my concerns out of proportion, but after passing these ads for a couple weeks, I've come to the conclusion that the campaign's rhetoric is uncalled for, if not flat out inappropriate. After five bloody years lost to quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, it seems to me in poor taste to rile up Mets fans with military-inspired wordplay.

Gone is the tender amiability of "Meet the Mets", the audacious hope of "The Magic is Back", even the fatalistic gravity of "The Team. The Time. The Mets." and "Your Season Has Come". Instead, the Mets holster up this season with an arsenal of aggression aimed oratorically at gunning down their adversaries. Replace Wright and Santana with photos of Ted Nugent and Charlton Heston and you've got perfect publicity for the N.R.A.

Many of you may be confounded, if not appalled, by this conclusion, but as someone who teaches advertising copywriting I understand the potent craft behind headlines and how they are carefully composed to provoke the public. I am not inferring that the Mets have deliberately unleashed a barrage of stealth pro-war propaganda. I understand that the hostility of the campaign's tone was likely conceived to combat the stinging memory of the team's ignominious collapse last season. Nonetheless, words carry great influence, especially with children. The terminology we employ to describe something inevitably plays a part in defining its nature. To some degree, this ad campaign glorifies baseball as a shootout and the Mets as soldiers. For many this might mean nothing, but to me I'd rather keep blood lust out of the ballpark.

I am reminded of George Carlin's classic stand-up bit about the differences between baseball and football. In sum, Carlin characterizes the language of baseball as portraying a genteel game of beauty, while football's delineates a brutal battle to annihilate. Those who feel passionately like I do about baseball know that the sport is far from as innocuous as Carlin jokes, but we also know that what makes baseball special is its humanity. The heroes of baseball aren't famed for meting out the most concussions or firing slap shots past hapless defenders. They are idolized for immortalizing our childhood dreams in a world so otherwise ruthlessly determined to crush them.

America's pastime isn't war. When I go to Shea, I ask nothing more for my price of admission than a few hours of peace. That 50,000 New Yorkers can find this tranquility together 81 times a year is the true miracle of the Mets.

Air America WWRL 1600 Suddenly in Shambles

2008-04-10T17:40:00.005-04:00

What is going on at Air America?

First, Richard Bey leaves the morning show. OK, no biggie.

Then all of a sudden last week, the progressive radio station's New York City affiliate WWRL 1600 inexplicably drops their best host Thom Hartmann from the station (his Friday brunch with Senator Bernie Sanders was reason enough to tune in), as well as The Lionel Show, just when I had finally come around to listening to the latter.

For what superior programming did WWRL bump Thom and Lionel? A daily two-hour infomercial, faux left wing host Ed Schultz, and none other than Al Sharpton.

Just as my ears were still ringing from WWRL's abrupt overhaul, Raw Story announced today that Randi Rhodes has quit Air America in the wake of her temporary suspension for calling Hillary Clinton by an inappropriate epithet (mind you, not on the air). As a longtime listener, I fully admit that Randi can be irksomely repetitive at times, but her audience benefits greatly every day from the depth of her knowledge and insistence upon fact over the Administration's pervasive fictions. New Yorkers are worse off without her.

I expected more from Air America's President Mark Green, but apparently he is determined to run his family's station as competently as his failed bid for Mayor in 2000.

I haven't looked at how these changes have effected WWRL's ratings, but I know for certain the station has lost one loyal listener from Brooklyn. The Optimist will miss left-wing talk, but at least the Mets have 155 more games this season for their fans to listen to and enjoy.

Diane Gordon Goes Down

2008-04-09T09:18:00.004-04:00

Paging Mr. Barron.

The last time The Optimist weighed in on the saga of disgraced Assemblywoman Diane Gordon, I speculated that were Gordon convicted on the litany of charges brought against her that Councilman Charles Barron would abandon the race for Brooklyn Borough President and seek her Assembly seat instead.

Well, yesterday the inevitable finally came to pass. Though Gordon escaped the most serious charge brought against her, the Assemblywoman was convicted on eight other counts, which could add up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing hearing next month. For anyone who has watched the videotape of Gordon soliciting a bribe from developer Ranjan Batheja, the verdict was a foregone conclusion. Caught redhanded violating the public trust to get herself a new house and new doors for her office (!), Gordon's crimes demand severe punishment, if for no other reason than to strike fear into the hearts of politicians with likeminded designs. Clearly, the example made of her convicted former colleagues in the Assembly, Clarence Norman and Roger Green, was inadequate to deter Gordon from following in their shameful footsteps.

So, what's next for the too-often abused residents of East New York, Brownsville, and Canarsie, who are finally rid of Gordon's dubious service? No word yet from Charles Barron. But come September's primary don't be surprised to see the Councilman slip into her seat.

As for Gordon, here's the YouTube video that made her an internet sensation one more time for your viewing displeasure:

Brooklyn For Peace: Protesting Iraq 5 Years Later

2008-03-17T18:16:00.004-04:00

Remember that war everyone used to talk about? There were two of them actually, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan. Well, five years and over 4000 American lives later we're still fighting them and despite some successful recent propoganda from the Bush Administration about last year's surge, they're still not going too well.

Thankfully, the grassroots organization Brooklyn for Peace hasn't succumbed to the fatigue that has lulled our media's coverage of the war to sleep. This Wednesday, March 19th, Brooklyn for Peace is holding two rallies to mark the fifth anniversary of George Bush's "preemptive and unjustified war against Iraq".

The first will be held at 12 Noon at the Brooklyn office of "War-Hawk" Republican Congressman Vito Fossella: 8505 4th Ave. (at the corner of 85th St. and Bay Ridge).

The second event, the "Brooklyn Says No To War" March, will begin at Grand Army Plaza at 6 p.m. and continue on to the U.S. Army Recruiting Station at Flatbush Ave. & Livingston St.

Finally, there is a citywide protest organized for 12 Noon this Saturday, March 22nd. Protesters will aim to form a human chain from the East River to the Hudson River across 14th Street in Manhattan.

For more details on any of these rallies or how you can get involved in the anti-war movement in our borough, call Brooklyn For Peace at 718.624.5921 or go to their website: www.brooklynpeace.org.

March (Midterm) Madness

2008-03-17T17:35:00.003-04:00

As many of you have written me to point out, I have been a bad blogger this past week. This time the culprit was a mountain of midterms and other assorted assignments that demanded my attention. My mind has been so fixed in grading mode that even now I can't help wondering to myself what mark this blog entry deserves. I'm leaning toward a C+.

How much better our education system would run if only teachers and students could switch places for a day! I remember as an undergraduate thinking my professors slackers if they did not promptly return my assignments. It was a recollection that came vividly back to mind this week as my students asked with barely masked contempt if I had their papers yet. Shaking my head, I could not help but whither for a moment beneath the weight of their tacit condemnations.

But those of you who have taught can empathize with my travails of late. Students think only of their own work, embittered at their teachers for their sadistic affinity for doling out homework. If only they took a moment to reason through our arithmetic! With 60 students, every time I assign homework, I brace myself for at least 60 times the amount of work I require of them. Multiply that out to three classes a week and you already get a sense of the deluge. Moreover, I teach writing, which means that I must meticulously edit each paper, or my students will be deprived of the personalized nuance of instruction.

It's almost enough to make you long for standardized tests (which, incidentally, are the cornerstone of the lazy man's curriculum - not an attempt at educational parity as the Board of Ed would like to dupe parents into thinking they are).

But enough about me. There's a lot more important things going on in the world. Let's get to 'em.

Two Missed Morsels in the Spitzer Feeding Frenzy

2008-03-12T09:12:00.010-04:00

Among the deluge of articles about the Spitzer scandal in the last three days, two tasty tidbits have been overlooked.

1. If Spitzer does get his wet dream (er, not that one) of the Democrats at last taking control of the State Senate, but the Dems only do so by a slim margin, then none other than Spitzer's arch-enemy and soon-to-be Lieuntenant Governor Joe Bruno would be the tie-breaker in close votes. Can you imagine? As bad as Spitzer's personal fall must be hitting him, the realization that he is going to be responsible for getting Joe Bruno a promotion must be nearly as despicable.

2. Before David Patterson lucked into the Governor mansion, it was widely speculated that he was the frontrunner for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat if she is elected President. With Hillary's surge and Patterson certain to stay in Albany, all of a sudden there must be a flock of powerful New York Democrats salivating over the job of Junior Senator.

Spitzer Shocker: Another Moralist Bites The Dust

2008-03-11T08:50:00.011-04:00

There's a simple formula for determining which politician will be the next to fall in disgrace. All you have to do is to listen for who is hooting and hollering the most sanctimoniously about immorality. Whether it's Larry Craig on homosexuality, Newt Gingrich on infidelity, or Eliot Spitzer on prostitution, whatever they're railing against in public is likely what they're doing behind closed doors.

Personally, I have nothing against prostitution. It's certainly a scummy thing to get involved in as a married man, but it's by no means inherently evil. In fact, it would be a whole lot more sensible and safer for everyone involved were prostitution legalized. Unfortunately, for Governor Spitzer, however, it hasn't been (nor would he have ever pushed for it to be on his "law and order" watch).

In my eyes, Spitzer's crime - for which he should and will resign - is not solicitation, but hypocrisy. Spitzer framed himself as a moralist in the model of Plato's Euthyphro - a man who would even prosecute his own father in the name of right. He embraced the image of caped crusader, intimating that only he could clean up our wayward Empire State. Well, anyone who has paid attention to Spitzer's brief Administration knows just how poorly he has performed as a crime-fighter in Albany - long before yesterday.

Since taking office, Spitzer has acted like the laws he so zealously trumpets apply to everyone but himself. While condemning the credibility of his allies and enemies alike on the one hand, he has flagrantly abused his power on the other, stooping to such deplorable machinations as illegal wire-tapping and flaunting the campaign finance laws he allegedly held sacrosanct. His embarrassments were so many that only a few months after his landslide victory, Spitzer was already being written off by some as a one-term governor.

With this latest scandal, in one fell stoke Spitzer has humiliated his family, scuttled his reformist political agenda (as well as any else's in New York State for the time being), maligned his party, created negative fodder for the presidential race, and ruined his own career. Oh, and most ironically, even paved the way for his arch-nemesis Joe Bruno to get a promotion. And why? Not because of any sexual indiscretion, but because he thought he thought he was special. He thought that what was good and just was whatever he pronounced it to be, and so he could never do wrong.

Had Spitzer been any less self-righteous, he would have friends coming to his defense. He would have been able to slither away like Senator David Vitter of Louisiana did a few months ago. As it is, now he has no one. But unlike the lone sheriff Gary Cooper played in High Noon, Spitzer can't even take solace in his own virtue. He's just as bad as the outlaws coming for revenge.

Polytechnic University OKs Merger With NYU

2008-03-07T09:33:00.003-05:00

Apparently not satisfied with just gobbling up Lower Manhattan, NYU has set its sights on expanding to Brooklyn. Yesterday, according to the Daily Eagle, the Board of Trustees of downtown Brooklyn's Polytechnic University voted overwhelmingly to approve a merger with NYU.

The Department of Education and New York State Board of Regents still need to sign off on the deal to make it official, but NYU's trustees have already voted in favor of the merger and it seems unlikely that any impediment to its completion will arise. Talk of the merger first surfaced three years ago, but faculty concerns and, more recently, suspicions of conflict of interest between members of the universities' two boards postponed the arrangement. Those obstacles appear to have since been surmounted to the satisfaction of all the parties involved.

On the surface, the merger would seem to benefit both schools, even though NYU is roughly 10 times larger than Polytechnic. Polytechnic will now have access to the vast wealth of resources and facilities held by NYU, while NYU will get to add an engineering school to their academic portfolio.

Colbert Report Slams Six-Year-Old Park Slope "Graffiti Punk"

2008-03-06T11:36:00.005-05:00

Nothing gets by Stephen Colbert. Just look how he takes six-year-old Park Slope resident Natalie Shea to task for writing in chalk on the sidewalk in front of her house.

Brooklyn Losing Power in the U.S. House, but Strong in Senate

2008-03-06T10:31:00.012-05:00

According to Congress.org's recently released 2008 Power Rankings for the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Brooklyn's Congressional delegation doesn't have as much weight to throw around as borough residents might think. Out of the nation's 435 members of the House, only one Brooklyn Congressman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, slips into the top 50 most powerful at #43 on the list. Despite his prominent placement, Towns is still likely disappointed by his Power Ranking. In 2007, he came in at #18 on the list.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, who comes in next at #63, also lost influence from last year according to Congress.org, which ranked him as #43 last year. As did Jerrold Nadler, who went from #128 in 2007 to #162 in 2008. Brooklyn's sole Republican member of the House, Vito Fossella, tumbled precipitously from #116 in the 2005 Power Rankings to #315 this year, though his decline reflects the fact that his party is now in the minority, rather than his performance. Fossella actually bettered his 2007 ranking of #365.

The only other member of the Brooklyn delegation to ascend the list was my congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who leapt to #96 from #180 last year.

Our borough's newest member of Congress, Rep. Yvette Clarke, who won her seat in 2006, almost doesn't register in the rankings. After premiering at #366 on the list last year, Clarke has fallen to #402, giving her the dubious distinction of the 5th LEAST influential Democrat in the House.

Despite our decline in the House, Brooklynites can console ourselves with our seniority in the U.S. Senate. Both New York Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton place in the Top 10 most powerful members, Chuck at #5 and Hillary at #9.

Could Gore Broker Peace...Between Barack and Hillary?

2008-03-06T09:43:00.007-05:00

As we continue to head toward a brokered convention, Clinton and Obama supporters alike are confronting more seriously our worst fear - that the only thing that can beat the Democrats in 2008 is a division in our own party.

Mindful of this chilling scenario, The Post has an interesting editorial this morning arguing that the only person who might be able to find a peaceful resolution to the battle between Barack and Hillary is Al Gore. Now I'm usually hesitant to agree with the Post, but this strikes me as right. Except for a joint ticket, any other resolution to the pending superdelegate crisis will leave the losing candidates' legions of supporters feeling cheated.

But were Al Gore to negotiate a compromise between the two campaigns it would have a sense of legitimacy far more difficult to assail. Gore has become the sole figure in our party respected by all Democrats and no one in the country can accuse him of being insensitive to the nuances of a stolen election.

Explosion Wakes Up Times Square

2008-03-06T09:01:00.006-05:00

Around 3:43 a.m. this morning, a homemade explosive device detonated in the heart of Times Square, right in front of the Armed Forces Career Center. The recruitment office was damaged, but thankfully no one was injured.

According to this breaking story in The New York Times, the police and F.B.I. are investigating whether there is any connection between this latest explosion and two earlier bombings in the City - the 2005 blast outside the British Consulate on Third Avenue and the two dummy grenades that rocked the Mexican Consulate on 39th Street in October 2007.

The government has yet to declare this morning's bombing a terrorist attack - meaning that they can't link it to al-Qaeda - but, given the targets, there is no question that the perpetrator or perpetrators of these attacks had a political agenda. Personally, these bombings seem a lot less to me the work of Muslim extremists than the acts of domestic terrorists - like what Brooklyn Heights resident Ivaylo Ivanov may have had in mind for his arsenal on Remsen Street. Let us not forget that before 9/11 the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil - the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City - was perpetrated by disaffected Americans who deluded themselves into believing they were revolutionaries.

The Optimist Hosts "A Walk Around The Blog" on Brooklyn Independent Television

2008-03-05T12:04:00.007-05:00

Apparently it's been on for a week, but it was only yesterday afternoon that I saw the latest segment of "A Walk Around The Blog" from Brooklyn Independent Television. If you haven't seen the show, it's probably because it's new to Time Warner Cable Channel 56 and Cablevision Channel 69.

Each episode a different borough blogger leads a short stroll through an area of Brooklyn life. I had the honor of being selected as the show's third host, following in the esteemed footsteps of Robert Guskind of The Gowanus Lounge and Robin Lester of Clinton Hill Blog.

For my segment, I chose to focus on the proposed Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a sweeping 14-mile park project that would stretch along the entire length of the East River from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint. In the video I interview Milton Puryear, co-founder of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, the organization spearheading the push for this ambitious, eco-friendly expanse.

With the Greenway borough residents would finally be able to access a waterfront we lost long ago to commercial and industrial interests. In place of powerplants and other eyesores, pedestrians, bicyclists and families would have an ambitious multi-use green space to enjoy much like the series of wonderful parks which now span the West Side of Manhattan. I hope my "Walk Around the Blog" will inspire you to advocate on behalf of the Greenway.

For more information how you can donate your time and money to the not-for-profit Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, check out the organization's website. To tune into "A Walk Around the Blog", check your local cable listings or go to the show's blip.tv site.

Court Orders Husband to Give Wife 124,000 Roses

2008-03-03T09:46:00.006-05:00

Usually any wire story that begins with "An Iranian court..." ends up being horrific news, more often than not about some woman unjustly punished for, well, being a woman. But for once, this morning, I was happy to read a piece via Raw Story about a wife prevailing over her husband - albeit in a very bizarre way.

A woman, identified only by the first name of Hengameh, filed a complaint against her husband to collect her dowry, which, by Iranian law, a wife can claim at any time during the marriage. According to the article, the woman's lawsuit was precipitated by how stingy her husband is - apparently so stingy that he would even refuse to pay for a cup of coffee when they went out together.

Finding in the woman's favor, the court ordered the husband to pay his promised dowry: 124,000 roses. Although the verdict seems like a purely poetic punishment for romantic hyperbole, it is serious stuff. To ensure that the man complies, the court has seized his apartment - worth $64,000 - until he delivers all 124,000 roses.

Not unexpectedly, the man is now crying poverty, claiming that he can't afford to give his wife more than 5 roses a day (roses cost an average $2 a piece in Iran). But he might not have much of a choice but to fork over the 100,000+ long-stemmed apologies. A man who fails to hand over the dowry he pledged at marriage can be sentenced to prison.

On a related note, those interested in learning more about Iran's recent history and the country's treatment of women should watch the Academy Award-nominated film Persepolis, The Brooklyn Optimist's vote for the Best Picture of last year.

Brooklyn Blogade March 2008 Edition

2008-03-03T06:59:00.002-05:00

For all you bloggers out there, don't forget that this Sunday, March 9th is the monthly meet-up of the Brooklyn Blogade. This time our host will be Joyce Hanson of Bad Girl Blog. Joyce has picked the Old Brick Cafe at 507 Church Ave. (between Ocean Pkwy. & East 5th St.) in Kensington for a noon lunch date.

The cost is $15, not counting tip. The company is priceless.

For more information, including the event's tasty menu, check out Bad Girl Blog. And don't forget that The Brooklyn Optimist will be hosting the gala June edition of the Blogade.

A Double Dose of Personal Optimism

2008-03-02T16:20:00.005-05:00

Despite asbestos in Carroll Gardens and swastikas in Brooklyn Heights (read the posts below), I have a plethora of personal reasons to be optimistic today.

My dazzling fiancée Patricia turns 26 today, despite the fact that she's already been claiming she's 26 for the past six months. And my stepbrother-to-be Jesse Zuba and his wife welcomed their first baby, Luke, very early this morning, thankfully making it much easier for everyone in our family to remember both birthdays.

Congratulations to all my loved ones!

Asbestos Unnerves Carroll Gardens

2008-03-02T15:13:00.004-05:00

Is asbestos the real reason that G and F train service has been disrupted this weekend? The Gowanus Lounge has a blistering exposé today about the MTA's sudden (and shoddy) removal of asbestos from the Carroll Street F/G subway stop.

I understand that there are many instances where the City chooses not to unduly unnerve its residents, but deliberately downplaying very real dangers under the pretense of "track work" is indefensible.

Brooklynites are tough. We'd rather hear a hard truth than a whitewashed lie. The MTA should treat us better than former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman did after 9/11.

Brooklyn Heights Violated By Another Swastika

2008-03-02T14:40:00.009-05:00

Why has Brooklyn Heights become a focal point of antisemitism? After Remsen Street resident and alleged aspiring terrorist Ivaylo Ivanov confessed to drawing swastikas in the neighborhood, it appeared that Brooklyn Heights residents could be consoled that the spate of recent antisemitic graffiti they have had to endure could at least all be attributed to a single source.

But last week yet another swastika smeared Remsen Street, this time at number 22. According to the Gothamist, the owners of the multi-unit brick apartment building are Jewish, but none of the tenants are and there is no outward sign of why 22 Remsen should have been targeted in particular by the perpetrator(s) of this hate crime.

At this point, Brooklyn Heights residents are right to be concerned. These swastikas can no longer be written off as an ignorant prank. Most frightening of all is the possibility that Ivanov could have sympathizers in the neighborhood or, even worse, inspired a copycat.

If you have any information about who may have painted this most recent swastika or any other one in Brooklyn Heights, please call the 84th Precinct immediately at (718) 875-6811 and share your tip with an officer.

An Optimistic Interview with Brooklyn's Real-Life Ghostbuster

2008-02-29T10:08:00.014-05:00

Katia at Pardon Me For Asking has a captivating post this morning about an ad she spotted in Carroll Gardens for "the brooklyn ghost investigators". According to the sometimes misspelled ad, which was taped to a traffic light on Smith Street, the investigators can determine whether you have a ghost, and if you do, take steps to remove the phantasm with techniques like "house blessing" and "american indian smudgeing (sic)".

Needless to say, The Optimist was too intrigued by Pardon Me's discovery to resist learning more about the Ghostbuster of Carroll Gardens, so I immediately called the number listed on the ad. After a bit of confusion on the other end of the line, I finally got a hold of Sal Ciccone, the founder and sole member of the Brooklyn Ghost Investigation Team.

Ciccone, 27, explained that he only just recently opened his business and has yet to have any clients respond to the ads he posted around Carroll Gardens. He was inspired to start his investigative service after a personal experience he had with the paranormal in his East New York home. Ciccone claims that one night he awoke at 3 a.m. to see a "figure going to the window." The phantom, a "tall, blurry" man, then turned to approach him, but "right when it was before my face it disappeared."

The visitation, which Ciccone decribed as "a little frightening", possessed him to believe that there must be other Brooklynites grappling with the supernatural. After reading a number of books on the paranormal, Ciccone was convinced he had the skills to help those in need of specter removal. Though he admits to not possessing any psychic or otherworldly powers that might assist him in his newly chosen profession, Ciccone isn't too worried about his safety because he considers ghosts "not really dangerous", though it "depends upon what type of spirit it is."

Ciccone's principal concern is that people who see his ads not misconstrue the Brooklyn Ghost Investigators as a "joke". He charges $20 per consultation and, like his fictitious counterparts from the movie Ghostbusters, is ready to spring into action as soon as you call.

Ciccone, who is otherwise unemployed, hopes that in time his business will grow to the point that he can open an office and create "a ghost hunting team". He is already seeking volunteers to work alongside him, particularly aspiring exorcists with a digital camera, EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recorder, or a car.

Those of you with no background in ghostbusting need not despair. Ciccone's recruitment ad for his team insists "no experience necessary." To hire the Brooklyn Ghost Investigators or become one of them yourself, call Sal's cell at (267) 804-5683 or email him at salvatoccc@aol.com.

Indiana Jones and the Excited Blogger

2008-02-28T14:57:00.003-05:00

It seems like once every year that I swear off Hollywood blockbusters for good, vowing never again to be duped by a seductive trailer and ubiquitous publicity blitz.

But, once again, I have relapsed. This time the alluring culprit is the long salivated over "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Have you seen the trailer? It's good. Not mind-blowing, but good enough for me to pay to have my hopes again crushed by a sub-par sequel.

It's times like these I wish I weren't so optimistic. It's far too easy to convince myself that this time things might be different. Then I have to wait another year to forget that all of the evidence points to more of the same.

See you at the movies!

Starbucks Enters Sinister Phase Two

2008-02-28T14:46:00.004-05:00

When Starbucks closed on Tuesday for three hours allegedly to conduct "training" exercises, I was reminded of this prescient article from a 2001 copy of The Onion. It's scary stuff.

Prepare to pledge allegiance to Starbucks.

Is John McCain Not a REAL American?

2008-02-28T12:41:00.008-05:00

Everyone knows that the Constitution bars Arnold Schwarzenegger (thankfully) from ever becoming our President because he was foreign born. But could uber-American war hero John McCain be disqualified for the same reason?

An article in today's International Herald Tribune points out the little known fact that John McCain was born on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. McCain's campaign says that satisfies the Constitutional criteria that only a "natural-born citizen" can become President, but to date, every President of the United States has been born within the 50 States.

It will be interesting to see if McCain's eligibility does provoke a Constitutional debate. I doubt it will, but it could prove a good strategical distraction for Obama to pursue if he wins the Democratic nomination. It could help him diffuse or, at least, counterbalance McCain's inevitable attack strategy of portraying Barack Hussein Obama as un-American.

Rove Tricked By Free Siegelman Banner

2008-02-27T20:03:00.004-05:00

If you haven't followed the unbelievable travails of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, here's a good place to start reading.

In short, Siegelman dared to challenge the dirty tricks Karl Rove and his Republican opponent used to steal the 2002 gubernatorial election from him, and, as a result, wound up wrongfully accused of crimes like bribery, denied a proper trial, and subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison. Few examples of the Bush Administration's dark machinations smack so strongly of Stalinist Russia.

Amazingly, Siegelman was held incommunicado behind bars for over a year before reporters really started asking questions about the former governor's suspicious sudden fall from grace. Finally, the mainstream media and Congress has started to look into the case thanks to investigative reporting from the blogosphere, but it seems inevitable that Karl Rove will once again ooze his way out of trouble.

Rove will not emerge completing unscathed, however, thanks to a clever guerrilla prank pulled by Alan Breslauer, a guest blogger for The Brad Blog. In the video clip below, Breslauer tricks Rove into unraveling a "Free Don Siegelman" banner. Rove handles it Rovianly, but is clearly not amused. I wouldn't be surprised if Breslauer winds up mysteriously arrested too.

Independents Best In Bed; Republicans Worst

2008-02-26T18:00:00.003-05:00

Contemplating changing your party affiliation? Well, depending upon your libido you might want to consider becoming an independent.

According to a survey in the most recent issue of Playboy, more than 45 percent of respondents said that independent voters were the best at sex. Maybe it has something to do with flexibility?

Democrats need not feel too inadequate. 36 percent of those questioned picked the Dems, while their rivals in the GOP were only appreciated by a frigid 18 percent.

The survey reportedly compiles the opinions of 900 adults between the ages of 18- and 64-years-old. Raw Story has more on Playboy's results.