Zombie Librarians Converge at City Hall

Wondering how the Zombie Librarian walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall on Halloween to protest possible budget cuts went? I figured since I received comments in a recent blog post about the state of the libraries like the following, some of you might be interested.

F.I.B reader Ben Franklin said,
"Props to the Brooklyn Collection for making do as they can but BPL is already being treated shamefully-- I won't even get into the highly variable state of the branches-- but everyone should be ashamed, and furious, the situation has gotten so bad."

These photos and review of the day are from the group Save NYC Libraries .
" Over 50 zombies converged at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn to moan about new cuts to library budgets in NYC. “More Libraries, More Brains!” they grumbled, shambling across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall in support of maintaining library funding at it’s current level for the remainder of the fiscal year. The local zombie community has been under threat of a severe brain shortage following recent cuts to library services, and they fear starvation if new cuts are allowed to go through.

Midyear budget adjustments are projected to cut a further 5.4% from local library budgets, resulting in continuing cuts in service hours on weekends, materials budgets, and more layoffs.

If even the undead community supports library services, we must be doing something right. let’s prevail upon our elected officials to make sure that libraries remain fully funded so we can continue to provide the essential services and community that New Yorkers have come to rely on."

Go to their website for more information on the budget cuts and more photos of the zombie march.

Bill DeBlasio - Don't Believe the Hype!

I'm sorry I am going to rant a little here, after listening and reading about Bill DeBlasio's Public Advocate speech where he is sounding like such a great man of the people, a man who is there for the community, like a god d@mn Kennedy - I just have to blow off a little steam!

From the Daily News

"(W)e no longer have to make a false choice between a government that serves the people efficiently, or a government that intently listens to them. We can and must have both," De Blasio said.

"My office will be a place where the voice of the people speaks loudly. A place that helps organize communities to play a more meaningful role in our city government. A place that unlocks the mystery of government and refuses to stand by when a New Yorker could have been helped, but wasn't."
"And, in the instances where government fails, my office will be the place that demands accountability and change."

Oh just gag me right now!!!

I just want to remind people that this is the man who was rarely to be seen when his own constituents needed him in Carroll Gardens and the Gowanus. He would rarely show at community board meetings and when he did it was pretty much a drive by. This man actually sided with the smarmy Toll Brothers in the name of 'affordable housing" even though it is barely affordable and the project was going to be build on the shores of the toxic Gowanus with NO cleanup by the city of New York. It took the EPA nominating it as a Superfund site after the special spot-zoning of the Gowanus was granted which gave a go ahead to Toll to build.

This man also has left a legacy in Carroll Gardens by reneging on a promise to change the glitch in zoning laws which would allow developers to build tall buildings on historic narrow Carroll Gardens brownstone streets by factoring in the sidewalks and front yard as street space!

He is also all for the construction of the Atlantic Yards. A project which has forced long time residents to move and relocate, who certainly did not make the income which DeBlasio considers to be one of a low income family, which is....drum roll please..$100,000 a year!!!!

All I can say is, despite him coming on as a saviour to Bloomberg haters, he is not my public advocate and was not much of one as for the 39th district when he was a councilman! Beware of his sneaky ways!

Read details over about DeBlasio "sticking it to Carroll Gardeners on his way out" at Pardon Me For Asking.

EPA Reveals that the City of New York is a Gowanus Polluter!

The Gowanus was particularly foul smelling last night and as I was crossing over the Carroll Street bridge I mused over the battle of the Superfund. The whole ongoing brouhaha over the City's plan vs. the Feds, pitting developer against community and whatnot. How the City only got interested when there was potential for development to be stalled while the canal got the environmental clean up it so needed. How DESPICABLE it was that the city OK'd bringing large new condos and thousands of new residents into a place that is an aquatic brownfield.

So, today, despite the gloomy weather, I felt the sun shining on me when I read the news that the EPA is going ahead as planned and ignoring the City's stall tactics. Hey guess what? The City is one of the major polluters! No surprise here. Bloomberg's sudden interest in cleaning the canal was pretty transparent. The other polluters named so far are the U.S. Navy, Con Edison and chemical maker Chemtura. The EPA sent letters letting them know that they're suspected polluters who will have to pay if the canal becomes a Superfund site.

Also a recent article in Architect's Newspaper,entitled,Twice as Smelly it was called to attention that seven years ago in Mayor Bloomberg's first term, Bloomberg pulled a publicity stunt similar to his most recent in October where he announced the investment to a clean waterway. Seven years later, it hasn't happened. I quote from the Architect's Newspaper:

" The 2002 cleanup was to bring the city in compliance with the Clean Water Act, which was being violated during heavy rains that swamped the system and sent sewage into the canal. By 2005, when the improvements still had not been made the state filed a consent order compelling the city to come into compliance. But it was only this October that the mayor finally re-pledged the 150 million originally promised."

Read some of today's coverage on the EPA naming some potentially responsible parties. (PRP's to those who know far too much about this!)

The Daily News

The Gothamist

Don't Forget to VOTE Bloomberg OUT TOMORROW!!

Do NOT forget to vote Bloomberg out of office tomorrow. Voting will be light as the man has beat many down with his bloated self confidence and bank rolled media campaign. POLLS ARE OPEN FROM 6am to 9pm. You have no right to complain about Bloomberg unless you vote!

Enjoy some of his legacy. Thanks to him we have to look at/into the un-curtained windows of glass and steel condos. Many are empty while many are poorly decorated!



Atlantic Yards, Coney Island, Gowanus, Williamsburg, Long Island City, the lower east side, all uglified or on their way to become uglified. Get this man O-U-T!

Gowanus Finally Gets Honest Major Newspaper Coverage!

I am reprinting this article from today's Daily New's because it is so nice to get an honest account about what is going on over the battle between the community & the EPA versus Bloomberg and assorted developers which include suburban home giants and Williamsburg condo blighters, The Toll Brothers.

Bloomberg nor anyone else in the city cared about the Gowanus until developers started snooping around dreaming about building condos like the glass/steel ones on the Bowery in Manhattan. Except these were going to be built on a toxic brownfield on the shores of an aquatic brownfield without a thought to health and environmental risks. I guess waterfront prooperty is waterfront property! For almost 2 years there has been a battle between the developers and environmental activists/historic preservationists concerning a rezoning that would allow over 2,000 new residents into this fragile area which lacks infrastructure (schools?!)and would bring significant traffic into a neighborhood with narrow streets.

Anyway! Surprise surprise, even though 80% of the comments were PRO Superfund on the governments website and there WAS a deadline, Bloomberg is acting like that the city is already the ones who are cleaning it, the pumping station is only PART of the puzzle.....I just don't get it. Condos are empty, constructions projects are abandoned- doesn't it make SENSE to let the EPA come in and clean the canal with money that does not come from us?

Anyway a long lead in to an article, honestly reported.

"Advocates of Superfund cleanup of Gowanus Canal denied entry at city launch of $150M cleanup"

BY Erin Durkin

Gowanus Canal advocates charge they were shut out of Mayor Bloomberg's kickoff of a canal cleanup because they support designating the polluted waterway a Superfund site.

The group of eight was barred by police from entering the Friday event, at which Bloomberg launched a $150 million project to improve water quality.

Some members of the group had hoped to attend as members of the Department of Environmental Protection's Flushing Tunnel Rehabilitation Stakeholders Committee, formed in 2002 to work with the city on plans to rehab the canal's flushing tunnel.

"It was really a private party," said committee member Marlene Donnelly. "They wouldn't let us through the gates. They actually told us we weren't allowed to stand on the sidewalk there because this was a private event."

Bloomberg has lobbied vigorously to stop the federal Environmental Protection Agency from making the canal a Superfund site, saying the city can do its own cleanup faster and without driving away potential development.

"I had my Superfund sign with me. I'm not going to deny that," said Linda Mariano, another committee member, noting that local activists who oppose a Superfund designation and representatives of developer Toll Brothers were let in. "It was an extremely sad scenario there on Friday."

Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the event was "for invited guests and the media .... They [those denied entry] were permitted to be just outside the event on the street and make their voices heard."

The city project includes fixing the canal's flushing tunnel, upgrading a pumping station so less sewage will be dumped into the canal, and dredging part of the waterway.

Read the actual article here.

Bloomberg Comes to Gowanus and LOCKS OUT COMMUNITY!

F.I.B's eyewitness news team showed up this afternoon for Bloomberg's celebration of the start of work on the Gowanus Flushing tunnel finally starting (of course it took the threat of halting development to proceed) and said that no one who really lived in the community was allowed to watch or participate in it! The usual suspects were there for this private celebration. You know, Toll Brothers,our former lame-o Councilman Bill DiBlasio, Buddy Scotto and his crew, Borough President Marty Markowitz, assorted politicians and the people who love them and of course the press.

Can't wait to see what slanted articles appear in the Post and the Daily News tomorrow!

Through the Gowanus grapevine I received this irate email from an extremely involved member of the community.


"Eight members of the DEP Flushing Tunnel Rehabilitation Stakeholders Committee were barred from entering and taking part in the celebration that is going on as I type this email at the Flushing Tunnel Station on Douglass Street. These 8 people and others spent many, many hours of their time freely to review documents and provide input into the planning for this effort since DEP convened the group in 2002.

TODAY BLOOMBERG SAW FIT TO LOCK THESE COMMUNITY PARTICIPANTS OUT OF AN EVENT THAT THEIR DONATED TIME HELPED TO BRING ABOUT.

Just wanted all of you to know how concerned citizens who give their time to better their community and all of New York City get treated by the current mayor of NYC."

Is anyone surprised? I wish I was.

Rant! Bloomberg Decimating the Libraries!

I don't know how I missed this but it has just come to my attention that our (un)fair Mayor has now decided to close the libraries on the weekends and only keep them open Monday thru Friday from 1 to 6pm. WTF?!!!

Hello Mayor?! Mr. Mayor who is all about education and culture. Excuse me? Close the libraries?!! Now this is going too far. We all can't buy our books at Barnes & Noble you know. The Public Library is one of the last bastions of democracy and equality. Providing knowledge and information - FREE! FOR ALL! Especially with tuition costs soaring, even for distance learning programs and online courses, the library is a chance for someone who can't get a traditional education to learn something.

Yeah, I know, the Mayor hates "free".

The fab Desk Set has info on this unbelievably sad news and advice on what you can do. I already sent my letter to Bloomie and so should you.

*Get this! 943 employees would be laid off. Many branches would offer no weekend service. Imagine your local branch remaining open for five hours a day, five days a week, if we’re lucky. When can you go there? Unless you work there, you probably can’t. And if you do work there, let’s hope you’re not one of the 943!
Also, City Council must approve budget by June 30

And read here in todays' Daily News a 9 year old Carnarsie girl's outrage!

*Info from the Desk Set.

Seems like we have to fight for everything these days.

Bad News this week in NYC

Would you want to live here? The Toll Brothers project.
Our arrogant Mayor has scored a coup and has followed through on his proclamation that he will continue to be Mayor even though his time is up.

Meanwhile back in Brooklyn, Commmunity Board 6 has been swayed to say yes (money talks) on the spot zoning for the huge condo complex on polluted water and land so that the Toll Brothers (see rant below) can screw up the eco system a bit more.


Click on those links to read full coverage of the Community Board meeting from the Pardon Me for Asking blog and scathing commentary regarding Bloomies dictatorship over at Who Walk in Brooklyn.

O.K I have to go to work now in the school that is in near the Toll Brothers site that has the children learning in trailers in an area that should be their playground. Gotta love the infrastructure they say we have! but we all know that they would never send their kids to THAT school! too many minority children!!!