Snow Day!

Unfortunately you are not in school anymore. See you at work tomorrow.

Calling Mieszko...

The following is CB 1 Public Safety Chair Mieszko Kalita's voicemail message. Verbatim. I feel like you need to know these things:

Hi. This is Luke Skywalker's voice mail. I'm etiher leading the forces of the Republic against the dark force... or I'm busy... with the princess. Leave a message.. and may the force be with you...

Gothamist adds more

The Brooklyn Paper's Sabrina Jaszi joined fellow Brooklyn Paper ex-pat Ben Muessig at Gothamist recently, adding a post about Governor David Paterson for good measure. Congratulations Ms. Jaszi.

Sugarland! A CB1 Preview

Units pictured above will be available at 60 percent AMI

I will let others speculate on our Governor's future, but meanwhile the New Domino plan will be presented at tonight's Community Board 1 public session. Community members will have the opportunity to speak on the plan and the Environmental Impact Statement, which was certified by the City Planning Commission on January 3. If you want more details on the proposed plan, renderings, and more links than you could possibly sort through on a work day, visit Brownstoner.

Churches United's Rob Solano is anticipating a large crowd of Williamsburg South Side residents signing up to speak in support of the plan (correction! Father Jim O'Shea is not coming tonight). Neighbors Allied for Good Growth members strategized late last night how to best address the shortcomings of the Sugarland plan. While both Assemblymembers Vito Lopez and Joe Lentol will be sending statements in opposition to the current plan's density, it appears that New Domino enjoys widespread support among South Side groups and community board members.

NAG's best strategy may be to stress tinerking with different aspects of the plan (upland density, reducing square footage for commercial space, tower height, lower AMIs, etc.) rather than advocating a sugar meltdown. Anyway, there will be lots of questions tonight before the storm. Will supporters overpowery any opposition that northsiders might bring? Where is Steve Levin on this project? At what time in the meeting will we see the Ward Dennis face? Will NAG be successful at advocating for something more from CPC Resources?

Albany's the place to be...

Because something odd is going on in the Governor's office this morning, according to the New York Post. Apparently, it's about this. Howard Koplowitz from TimesLedger has the details from the local point of view. And New York Magazine is saying hold your horses.

Let's add the David Paterson must-read New York Magazine profile on here too.

Congratulations Saints

Monday Morning Links

The State of the Borough, make that the Park Slope Armory was the place to be last week. Everyone is weighing in on the Beep's speech, which touched on the renovation of Loew's Kings (Helen Klein The Courier), the future of Fourth Avenue, turning more armories into rec centers, the new poet laureate, and Atlantic Yards, briefly.

WG News and Arts has a new issue out, and while they don't have Reid Pillifant anymore, they've got two interesting pieces by Lisette Johnson about Duane Reade moving in on Kings Pharmacy's turf, Shannon Manning on the vitality of North 3rd Street, and a post by Anne Szustek about gilttery fashion along the G.

On the topic of locavores, NBC New York visits Delmonicos, the Brooklyn paper dines at Anella's in Greenpoint, while I speak with Ben Sargent whose Chowdahouse is blowing up. Really (the daily news has it too). Just watch out for the DEC.


A tree sweater in South Slope has gone missing. Someone call the 78th Precinct!

Finally, NKD's Lincoln Restler better watch his karaokee ass when he belts out versions of Frank Sinatra in Fillipino karaoke bars. It won't end well.

The Short List: Doppelganger Edition

People make mistakes. Like this entire album.
In honor of doppelganger week I am posting about a topic that I have been ruthlessly annoyed by for at least half a decade. I would have been cool if this fake imposter Aaron Short were a decent if slightly undersized shooting guard in a high school in Reno, NV, or even a dude susptected in a string of convenience store robberies outside Pittsburgh, but an awful John Mayer-wannabe British folk musician who is selling out shows in Chicago and has his own myspace page? And what the Hell is a bluejack? Is that like blackjack but for men with no balls? Let's take a look at an interview excerpt from his homepage, you guessed it, www.aaronshort.com:

“I’ve always been into the lyrical and the gutsy, the artists who aren’t afraid to be deep,” he says.
Moving to London at the age of 21, Short began to play anywhere he could, continually refining his songs. “When I first began songwriting, I wrote just to write,” he remembers. “But I soon began working to put my own experience in my songs, and I found ways to make my personal experience strike a chord with the audience.”

This has to stop before he becomes more famous than me. This blog is already outpacing google alert searches under (shudder) our name, and all I need is a few bad critical reviews and a cocaine bender or two before Mr. Short is selling his website name to me for pennies on the pound. Make no mistake, before the year is over I will end you Aaron Short. You hear me? I WILL END YOU!

On another note, the Super Bowl is later today featuring two teams that are not the New England Patriots. I could care less who wins. But, in the Puppy Bowl, I am rooting for Royal, the Husky mix, to make a statement and drop a few points in the end zone. And by points, I mean poop. Puppy touchdown!

Life is... Too Short

The day is Too Short (thanks jury duty!) and there's a nor'easter comin' so I am wrapping things up. That means that there will be a special Saturday edition of The Short List, featuring reflections from Idiotarod 2010 and the weekly links of things you may have missed.

One other reminder. Valentine's Day is coming and I want to remind you to send in those nominations for Williamsburg's Most Eligible Bachelor! Get em in before Tuesday or I'll give it to the Chairman Emeritus. I swear I'll do it and you know I'm good for it. Because I'm Too Short tp be a Playa...

On a brighter note... Santo's Party House

Here's one of the more intriguing ideas to come out of East Williamsburg/ Bushwick in a little while. Transforming underutilized Church spaces for artist studios, rehearsal space, and performance venues. Check out BushwickBK.com for more about Father Santo and Most Holy Trinity Church.

P.S. Santo's Party House is the best headline I've thrown up this year.

The Problem With Helpsters

A word about "Helpsters." The New York Press cover story about Helpsters in Williamsburg has been making the rounds the past couple of weeks with mixed reactions in the neighborhood. The piece is already gathering comments from a number of outlets like a tumbleweed, including Ben Muessig at Gothamist, the electric egg cream, and the Huffington Post (uh oh). So far, Gawker hasn't bitten yet. I thought I saw a post from Die Hipster too, but I may have imagined it.

Writing about volunteerism in Brooklyn among the Obama generation is an interesting piece. But when you put a subheader that reads "Formerly self-obsessed interlopers are giving up coke binges for seed bombs. Goodwill goes glam with New York's new breed of sexy do-gooders," you know you're reading a story with an editorial edge, maybe beyond what the reporter who wrote it intended.

So what happened? Interviews featuring Not An Alternative's Beka Economopoulos, Transportation Alternatives' Dan Latorre, NAG co-founder Joe Weisbord are on point, though the reporter Justin Richards doesn't talk to Weisbord or many of the other NAG members that much. When he does, this is the result:

Hanging by the bar, laughing with friends, frowning at my questions, was NAG co-founder Joe Weisbord. He moved to Williamsburg in 1988, when he was 30 years old, to join his artist wife. I asked him if he found it difficult to understand the idea of neighborhood transformers fighting neighborhood transformation.

Weisbord felt that mine was a reductive outlook. He said that NAG comprises as many longtime New Yorkers as it does newcomers. Its acronym once meant Neighbors Against Garbage, since it was founded to combat waste disposal on the north Williamsburg waterfront in the 1990s. The group had a different composition then, and the current challenge for everyone, Weisbord explained, was to make sure those who had made the area livable could still afford to live there.

NAG member Emily Gallagher's quote, “We have a really hard time at NAG to find people who genuinely want to volunteer if there’s not beer involved. Seriously everything has to be like a singles event," is priceless, but other interviews seemed to catch people off guard. Verbal tics were kept in quotes as if to reinforce the frame that "helpsters" don't understand the irony of fighting gentrification after recently moving into the neighborhood.

Then the article, when it turns to Economopoulos' and Jeff Hnilicka’s work, changes tone with more straight reporting of their various projects and ends on a more upbeat note than it started. After reading the piece, it is unclear whether helpsters are to be revered or ridiculed and there is barely any mention of young activists of color (such as the ones in Make the Road New York, El Puente, or St. Nicks) who are doing the same quality of life advocacy work but in different circles.

The article's biggest shortcomings are that there are no interviews with anyone who has been gentrified from Williamsburg and Greenpoint (What do they think about "helpsters" and organizations such as NAG and Not An Alternative? Who do they blame for leaving the neighborhood?), and there is little separation of the young activists involved in community organizations and the new residents moving into condominium buildings in the neighborhood that have most directly contributed to gentrification.

Also, there's the question about whether Helpsters as a subset of hipsters actually exist in the first place. To get an expert opinion, I interviewed bloggers Andi Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich at Stuff Hipsters Hate. The full article is here, but here's the question about Helpsters:

Brenna: We thought the word ‘helpster’ was kind of silly. But hipsters aren’t this evil group that doesn’t care about anybody. Also, the word hipster has similar roots to ‘hippie,’ and hippies were driven by social activism. A lot of people sent us e-mails after that story came out saying the age of hipster hate is over, but we feel it’s not, really. I think it’s a fallacy to assume that just because someone is doing good, they can’t be negative in other aspects of their life.

Voir Dire In the Headlights

Just got done with questioning. I've been dismissed from jury duty. Let's see if the case I heard made the blotter...

Team 11th Hour

Andy Campbell joins the 2010 New York Fantasy Politics Draft with an expansion team called "Team 11th Hour". Let's take a look at his lineup and let's welcome David Yassky back to A Short Story!:

QB- Sen. Kevin Parker Center- Michelle Paterson RB- Annette Robinson FB- Rudy Guiliani, Offensive Tackle- Albert Vann Wide Receiver- David Yassky Tight End- Mathieu EugeneKicker- David Yassky Defense- MTA

Gone Juryin'

I'm at 360 Adams Street in Supreme Court for the day. They haven't called my name yet and it's a slow purgatory-like experience. At one point the court clerk called out a series of numbers before a woman in the audience shouted bingo. At least I'm not stuck in night court.

Schumer and Jelly Sandwich

Senator Chuck saw his shadow which means the Jelly Pool Parties are returning to the East River.

By now, you've heard that the pool parties are returning in 2010 which will feature 8 free concerts. Senator Schumer's office sent out a release yesterday where everyone thanked everyone else for saving the concerts.

“Summer in Brooklyn without the free JELLY Pool Parties simply would not have been the same and I am beyond thrilled to see that they will return in 2010,” Schumer said. “I have truly been inspired and energized by the enthusiasm behind these outstanding concerts and am proud to have worked so hard on behalf of concert-goers everywhere to see that they return. I’d like to thank OSA, NYS Parks, NYC Parks, Borough President Marty Markowitz, Assemblyman Joe Lentol, Senator Daniel Squadron and Councilman Stephen Levin for working so hard to see that the Pool Parties return in 2010. I can’t wait to ride my bike this summer to the East River State Park to rock out at these concerts once again.”

A cursory look behind the story has revealed some grumbling between the parties involved, though surprisingly it did not come from an originally reluctant State Parks office, which had not been involved with a project of this scale in Brooklyn before and had concerns about security and liability.
Instead, Jelly and the Open Space Alliance had differences regarding fee structures, liability issues, and other costs, and the delays in negotiating a deal seemed to frustrate OSA's board which wanted to have ticketed shows in the park.
At this point, with a memorandum of understanding in place, the groups are trying to resolve their differences and move forward with what will likely be an exciting concert season and expanded use of the Wiliamsburg waterfront.