Kevin Rosenberg’s new venture, Gear to Go Outfitters, offers high-quality outdoor gear (clothing for men, women and children; – for sale or rental. And if you’re local – free delivery:
That’s not all – they’ve also got experienced people leading guided trips – and if that weren’t enough – they’ve got a reputation for food “gourmet backcountry meals” on the trail that you’d want to eat even without the preceding and intervening hikes.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is “It’s a Wonderful 10th.” this year, as Rich Timperio, drag racer become art impresario, celebrates the tenth anniversary of his New Year’s Extravaganza at Sideshow Gallery, the spiritual nexus of the New York City art world. It’s a multi-media show of hundreds of artists, living and dead, veterans and rookies, warriors and adepts, but all hard hitters with great aim and the lightest touch. Timperio chooses the artists based on the seriousness of the endeavor, not on any fixed approach. He asks each one to bring a work that characterizes a unique vision, then orchestrates the whole into a singing symphony. Ken Butler’s musical instruments as works of art and the birds that evolve into cutouts flying free of the paintings of the ex-war correspondent Henrietta Mantooth might stand as emblems for the whole, uncaged, but beautifully composed production. The visual music and spirit of camaraderie among artists and art lovers gathering to celebrate the birth of a year that art does make new will sweep you up the instant you pass through the doorway in the graffiti covered wall.
Here’s our list of the Best of the City 2009: Hardware Stores and Appliances. Not all of have websites – so they’re linked when available, but that’s not a sign of anything. These establishments were selected on the basis of repeated dealings with them, the criteria being honesty, reliability expertise and pricing – not necessarily on the selection of goods, which varies by neighborhood and market. We’ve excluded large chains because the quality of service varies radically, and apparently randomly, depending on which employee you encounter.
Weinstein and Holtzman
Weinstein & Holtzman is the apparently tiny storefront hidden, at 29 Park Row, in the middle of all of the various storefronts of J&R Music World.
We’ve been customers of Brooke’s Appliances for years. Open Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays, for anyone having trouble working that through), they don’t sell anything they wouldn’t recommend, and we’ve been happy with everything we’ve bought from them. Big companies and big distributors tend to discriminate against small neighborhood retailers – so their stock doesn’t include every brand. But everything they do sell is reliable. They’re located at 387 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215, tel. (718) 832-0055. Charlie Lucchese, one of the twins who run the store, tells me that they currently have Sodastream seltzer-water-makers on sale – just in time for New Year’s Eve.
A Brooklyn social worker described as “the picture of health” was slain at his neighborhood gym in a feud over exercise equipment.
Douglas Smith, 50, was knifed and clobbered with a hammer by a pair of muscleheads who attacked him as he worked out at his East Flatbush health club.
Smith died Sunday morning at Kings County Hospital, a day after he was jumped inside the Church Avenue Fitness Club, cops said yesterday.”He was a gentle giant,” Smith’s heartbroken father, Castello Smith, 77, said last night.
The father said he learned of his son’s death from police yesterday afternoon. “I wish I could have been with him [at the hospital]. At least he would have been able to hear my voice. I would have said, ‘Dougie, this is your daddy,’” the elder Smith said.
An argument between Smith, a bodybuilding buff standing more than 6 feet tall, and a younger, scrawnier club member preceded the fatal attack, witnesses said.
Clubgoers said the dispute was over who claimed first dibs on a Nautilus elliptical machine. The club member quarreling with Smith summoned two pals to the gym for backup, witnesses said.
“They came from outside and attacked him with a hammer and a knife,” Pat St. Charles, 37, a trainer at the club, told the Daily News.
Witnesses said Smith was exercising on the elliptical machine when the duo ambushed him from behind, stabbing him three times in the back and walloping him in the head with a hammer.
The following suggests, alas, that long-standing NYPD habits in handling crime scenes haven’t changed:
The only signs remaining of the attack yesterday were Smith’s workout gloves and Gatorade bottle – left on the machine he had been using.
We’ll try to get NYPD and Kings County District Attorney comment for an update.
Twice in the last two months, Mike’s Tech Shop has brought back to life comatose or apparently dead Macs for our household and for our dear friend and neighbor, the film editor David Lee.
My wife’s Mac – written off as dead by another well-known and reputable (and usually pretty good) Apple repair place – working like new. David’s tower – the same. So – if you have an ailing Apple – Mike’s seems the place to go.
They’re located at 120 West 20th Street between 6th & 7th Avenue in Manhattan.
Not local, but he’s from Cleveland Heights, which is a neighborhood like ours, except it’s in Ohio.This is a working LEGO brick, with a removable threaded eye hook for the keychain.
Bram Lambrecht’s LEGO keychain – and some other cool stuff – can be seen at BLDesign.org
I wrote this letter to Mayor Bloomberg on August 12th. As of this writing (October 19, 2009) there’s been no response.
August 12, 2009
Hon. Michael Bloomberg
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Dear Mayor Bloomberg,
A child living on my block, the block of Stratford Road, Brooklyn between Caton and Church Avenues – lost his leg earlier this year when a car hit the line of parked cars, which then hit the 9-year-old boy – and propelled him through two sets of locked doors into his own building lobby.
I think it’s important to note that the child was on the sidewalk when the incident occurred – not running out into traffic or otherwise contributing to the outcome.
What we need – if only as a stopgap measure until the greater systemic traffic problems can be addressed – are two speed bumps – at the beginning and end of the streets, and corresponding retroreflective signage warning drivers of upcoming speed barriers.
I’m optimistic that in the long run, your current traffic system modifications will reduce vehicle-pedestrian morbidity and mortality. In the short run, however, two speed bumps and accompanying signage may save lives – at relatively low cost.
I’m writing to you directly because it seemed the most expedient course. I’m an attorney; neighbors have asked me how to proceed; there’s a sense that this will be a long, drawn-out process from which we’re unlikely to receive a favorable outcome.
My hope is that – as a mayor who’s done more to streamline municipal management than, perhaps, any other (viz the 311 system), which ever of your staff is responsible for responding to this letter will, in that spirit, make things move quickly.
The loss of one child’s leg may have been preventable. Given that that loss has already occurred, there’s no question that further injuries are death are foreseeable absent a change in the local traffic system.
Please help us reduce or eliminate this risk as soon as is possible.
Yours truly,
Jonathan Soroko
I expected at least a nominal response, because Mayor Bloomberg’s virtues clearly include exceptional organization and concern about government responsiveness. Particularly in an election year. I was wrong.
It seems fair to say, then, that a single letter from a constituent isn’t likely to be sufficient to warrant a response, and almost certainly not enough to generate action.
If you agree that vehicle-child accidents are unacceptable – even if rare – please write to the Mayor, and e-mail me a copy. I’ll publish all of them, assuming that I can. I’m hoping that there will be too many for me to publish each as a separate post. Please make sure to indicate whether you want your name or address deleted for publication purposes.
Perhaps letters to the Mayor won’t be enough; but in a city with a notoriously sprawling bureaucracy, the Mayor is the only person of whom we can be certain that a single order will result in action measured in hours, rather than months or years.
Speed bumps may not be the ideal solution. But they’re inexpensive, can be installed in a matter of hours, are long-lasting – and they work immediately. And require little maintenance.
I don’t see this as a matter of controversy; if there are counter-arguments, I’m happy to hear them, and publish them. But if you agree that this is an important issue, please write a letter, send me a copy, and pass this post on to your neighbors.
If, as a community, we want this done, it should happen. If we don’t have the political will, that says something about us. If we have the political will, and we can’t make it happen, it says something very disturbing about politics and values in New YorkCity.
As public radio goes through its intermittent hat-in-hand cycle, we thought it worth remembering that in some places possession of a radio device – even just a receiver – is criminal.
Please consider donating to your local public radio station. Ours is WNYC.
It’s hard to write headlines without fawning. But here’s a blog written by and about a very cool couple in San Francisco – Lifetinker. Thoughtful, funny, out-of- the-box posts; from which I’ve tentatively concocted the following hypotheses:
We’ve already determined that we need high-speed rail and pneumatic tube package and mail delivery across the country, and [...]
For those unfamiliar with Manhattan geography, Manhattan is much longer on its roughly North-South axis than it is on its East-West axis, although the island is narrower at its southern edge. (And it turns out to be harder to quickly locate a map showing the entire island than one would think).
The current (and possibly next, [...]
The Disaster Accountability Project needs your votes – which in this case means just following the link below and then adding a comment (any comment will do – and if you’re so inclined, you can use the mark #poplog so we can see how many Popular Logistics readers participated).Here’s the rest of the information you [...]
Local Deanna Zandt is conducting some research for her upcoming book, Share This!:
For Share This!, I’m trying to cover and answer some of the most common hesitant feelings when it comes to people getting fully on board with the social networking movement. If you’re not active already, what are the questions you need answered, or [...]
Greg Clary of LoHud.com (Lower Hudson News) reports that
More than 10 percent of the 172 emergency sirens within 10 miles of Indian Point failed to work properly during a quarterly test of the alert system?this morning, according to emergency and plant officials.
A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear, which owns and runs Indian Point, said it appears [...]
Tom Robbins of the Village Voice reports in Back to School for Bus Hoods that
a pair of brothers who served as top officials of the union representing city school bus drivers pleaded guilty today to extortion charges in Manhattan federal court.Nick and Paul Maddalone became, respectively, the fourth and fifth high-ranking [...]
An acceptable number of child-vehicle accidents? The answer is – however many there are, in our community, that number, certainly, is acceptable. Not that it should be acceptable – but, collectively, we acquiesce by not protesting. I don’t exclude myself. I’ve made paltry efforts to remedy the situation, at least as of this writing.
City Council [...]
The Rock Hackshaw campaign needs volunteers immediately to help with mass mailings. They need to get about 64,000 pieces into the mail by Thursday evening so that they can be received by voters before election day.
They’re also going to need volunteers on Election Day for get-out-the-vote (GOTV) operations.
In other words – they’re going to [...]
Rock Hackshaw (okay, HERMON EMANUEL JEROME HACKSHAW, but we should be permissive about letting people pick their own names – particularly in a race in which the incumbent refers to himself as a physician – but may or may not be one, in fact; and may or may not live in the district). Plus – [...]
JackRabbit sports is sponsoring a fund-raising run for one of its employees, Greg Hamilton, who has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. While his direct medical expenses are covered by Jackrabbit’s employee coverage,
There are all kinds of costs when fighting cancer, and only a few of them are covered by medical insurance. Greg’s parents live in [...]
We understand that early this morning (or late last night) the Gulf Station (which includes the Dunkin’ Donuts) suffered an armed robbery. As of this morning, the entire station was blocked off with crime scene tape.
It’s our understanding that no one was injured; we’ll try to provide further details as we acquire them.
Songs of Peace, Love, and Global Warming. The debut album from our friend, XB Cold Fingers - available on CDBaby.com and coming soon to iTunes and Amazon.
Lately there has been some controversy swirling around the decisions of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein, relative to proposed school closings all over the city. If memory serves me right some players in this brouhaha have even gone to court to stop some (or all) of the proposed closings. I am told that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT […]
Last night our president delivered his first official state of the union address: he was brilliant. Years from now speech instructors will be playing tapes of his speeches for their students; in fact; it’s probably happening already on many college campuses. Years from now books will be written compiling many of his speeches; some given even before he became […]
Government should always try its best to avoid screwing the little man/woman. You know: the everyday people; the ordinary people like you and I. You see, without government we are left alone to the vagaries of greedy capitalists and unscrupulous speculators. Without government protections the strong and the wealthy will have too much power; much more than th […]
Miniposts 0.6.5
NYPD purchases 40 hybrid vehicles Via Inhabitat: the NYPD has purchased 40 Nissan Hybrids – 22 to be used unmarked, 18 as marked blue-and-white “RMPs” (internal terminology for “Radio Motor Patrol [vehicles]). If it takes – it’ll be significant – but we don’t have the numbers at hand. Cross-posted on Popular Logistics. (0)
ToePrint Project: Energy Conservation Teach-In The ToePrint Project is conducting an Energy Conservation Teach-in on June 17th. Details here:An Energy Conservation Teach-In. The noted architect and Toeprint founder Ellen Honigstock and environmental educator Sarah Goodman – founders of Sustainable Kensington/Windsor Terrace have arranged the event, which will be held at Oak and the Iris Café, located at 2826 Fort Hamilton Parkway on the corner of East 4th Street on Wednesday, June 17th from 6:30-8:30PM (0)
We're participating an a public art project called Seeding the City. The project aims to install tiny green roof modules (about 4 square feet each) on a large number of city roofs and mark them with flags so they can be visually linked to one another. These links come from neighbor ... […]
An article in The Brooklyn Paper has more in depth information about the actual process involved with being allowed to bring your bike up to your office. […]
This week is green buildings policy week at the Toeprint Project! Yesterday, the City Council passed the Greener Greater Buildings Plan including 4 new laws requiring Energy Audits and Retrocommissioning for buildings over 50,000 SF, Benchmarking, the creation of a NYC Energy Code and new requirement about lighting upgrades and submetering. More ... […]
Check out the latest version of Green Queen! Click here for a .pdf format. Details are: October 14th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm One Jackson Square 122 Greenwich Avenue, NYC $10 at the door to cover costs. Thanks to our sponsor, Susan Singer, SVP, The Corcoran Group, NYC's first Eco-Broker. www.susansingerspaces.com. Green Queen - Chapter ... […]
Want to make your home more environmentally responsible? Come to a Teach-In on October 14th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at One Jackson Square (122 Greenwich Avenue, NYC) about sustainable strategies you can implement in your home. Our goal is to have New York City be a model in sustainability as well ... […]
On Monday, September 21st at 3:30 Ellen is giving a talk with Matt Bendix, PE entitled "Energy Code Design for Residential Buildings". The event will be hosted by HOK Architects at 620 Avenue of the Americas #6, NYC. This session is part of the NYC Department of Buildings - Hosted Seminars in ... […]
On each House Call I learn something new! On one site visit this week I saw a fantastic bathroom timer switch. You can set it to have the fan stay on for 1 to 60 minutes (The Home Ventilation Institute recommends keeping an exhaust fan on 20 minutes after using a ... […]
This is a follow up post about the Green Team program at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math and Science for Young Women, It was incredible working with these 11 spirited girls. Their presentation showing what they learned about ecology and green building was lively and informative. Look what they did in ... […]
This is a post from Green Architecture Notes published by Feldman Architecture out in San Francisco. It describes an energy-neutral house proposed to be constructed next year. With all the building trends moving towards sustainability here in New York City, it is still SO MUCH more difficult to do a net-zero ... […]
We just heard about the Windsor Terrace Greenway Project. The group's mission is to encourage residents in the Windsor Terrace area to plant butterfly and bird friendly plants to support travel for birds and butterflies between Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery (see map below). We live just outside the greenway but we'll ... […]