Larsen and Berra Embrace After Perfect Game

Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history for the Yankees back in 1956, and now he plans on cashing in on that historic moment by auctioning the jersey he was wearing.

It was October 8, the fifth game of the Series and the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers were tied two games each. The over 64,000 fans in Yankee Stadium watched as Don Larsen, then 27 years old, went to the only “ball three” count of the game, in the first inning, against Dodger Pee Wee Reese. After that the strikes kept coming until Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history, a record that has lasted into the 21st century. The only run the Yankees scored was a low line drive hit by Mickey Mantle that sailed straight into the right field seats.

The amazing game ended when Larsen got a called third strike on pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell. The crowd went wild, and Yogi Berra, Larsen’s catcher jumped high into Larsen’s arms to create one of baseball’s most photogenic moments.

Ticket stubs from this incredible game have been sold for $2,000 each as valuable sports memorabilia.  Larsen himself has already sold several items from that day including the baseball he threw for the game’s final out and the cap, glove and shoes he wore that day, for $120,750 back in 2002.

When asked what he thinks his jersey is might be valued at today Larsen answered, "I really don’t know what it’s worth.”

“But what I do know is that in terms of historic importance, my uniform is part of one of the greatest moments in the history of sports. I have thought about that perfect game more than once a day, every day of my life since the day I threw it.”

To get a bit of an estimate about what the jersey might be worth it can be noted that Berra sold his own jersey from that day for $565,000.

The jersey that Babe Ruth wore for road games back in 1920 recently became the most expensive bit of sports memorabilia ever sold at a cool $4.4 million.

The first day of the auction will take place on October 8, 2012, the 56th anniversary of that spectacular game, and ends on December 2nd. The auction is being sponsored by Steiner Sports Marketing.
 

San Francisco by Jennifer Maravillas

The project is called 71 Square Miles and it is her goal to make maps and illustrations inspired by the collection of paper that she finds along her way in Brooklyn.

On her website, she invites all those interested to come along with her on her quest. She explains her strategy by saying, “Strategies of collection will meander amongst: walking straight lines and sharp turns waterfront to waterfront, exploring entire neighborhoods at a time, and days with no plan at all.”

She hopes that, once her project is complete, “the viewer will literally read Brooklyn.”

Learn more about this fascinating artist and the adventures that she is having around New York!

Bike Share Hub

Residents of Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg voiced their concerns over the placing of rental bike hubs as part of the launching of the bike-share program, saying that the plan to remove dozens of parking spaces to make room for the bikes will seriously inconvenience motorists and residents of their communities.

Concerned citizens expressed their worry at community board meetings last week, saying that the loss of two dozen parking places in Brooklyn Heights and Downtown, and another twelve in North Brooklyn will make an already serious parking shortage problem even worse.

“Parking is so scarce in Brooklyn Heights, anytime parking has been taken away it causes big concerns,” said Brooklyn Heights Association director Judy Stanton.

Residents are urging the city to reconsider the placement of the rental bike hubs away from parking spots and instead installing them in parks, squares on simply on sidewalks. Stanton’s concrete suggestion was to move the Henry street bike dock off of the street between Joralemon and Middagh and put them on the wide sidewalk at Cadman Plaza on the south side of Tillary Street.

“We’ve always been pro-bike, but this is not the same thing as being pro-bike,” Stanton said. “Hopefully they will consider alternatives to some of these locations.”

Wilfredo Florentino, a civic leader in North Brooklyn is also pressuring the transit planners to relocate the bike share docks so they do not force the removal of necessary parking spaces. There is one bike hub now slotted to be installed near a senior housing development and another to be placed in front of the Swinging Sixties Senior Center on Manhattan Avenue, the location of the meetings of Community Board 1.

“We are concerned with the potential elimination of parking spaces in areas of the district where parking is limited,” said Florentino. “We expect the map they present at the full board reflects those suggestions, and if not, we will be prepared to voice our objection in writing.”

Advocates of the bike-share plan say that residents will actually gain parking when the bike-rental program goes into effect, since each parking spot represents a dozen bikes.

“You’re gaining parking in this way,” said Transportation Alternatives director of bicycle advocacy Caroline Samponaro. “Where you once had one person’s car stored, you’re providing space for 12 people to come and go.”

Cyclists believe the trade-off is worth it.

“We have to give some of the spaces to bikers because bikers are people, too,” said Community Board 1 member and cyclist Ryan Kuonen. “They take up less space than cars. C’mon, man!”

The innovative and ambitious bike-rental transit system is scheduled to be launched this coming July. The extensive locations around Brooklyn include Greenpoint, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene, and Downtown. There will be 148 bike share stations throughout these neighborhoods, and in 2013 the program will be extended to more locations south of Atlantic Avenue.

A spokesman for the city said that transportation officials are still reviewing comments from the local community boards. The final maps of the bike-share locations will be released in the coming weeks.
 

What the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs is failing to take into consideration is that these establishments are primarily hair salons and nail salons – locations that inherently differentiate in their services between the sexes. As Ania Siemieniaka, the owner of Freckle Skin and Hair, pointed out, “It’s ridiculous. I have some guys who need to come in every two weeks. If I raise my prices, I’ll lose all my male customers.”

Trying to explain the department’s actions, department commissioner Jonathan Mintz said,

“We wanted to really send a strong message to businesses about this kind of illegal pricing, so we did a very focused sweep over the course of the year. That sweep was largely targeted at salons and barbershops and laundry and dry cleaning.”

Belittling what it means to locations like barber shops, Mr. Mintz continued, “This is a very basic consumer-protection law and it is also a very basic civil-rights law. I think there are completely legitimate reasons to charge different prices for different services and that one should be specific for what those reasons are. Reasons are not chromosomes.”

Interestingly enough, along with salons, which have understandably received the most violations this year, laundry and dry-cleaning services have also been at the brunt of the violations.

The law actually went into effect in 1998, but has only recently been enforced in large measure. Hair and nail salon owners argue that there are major gender differences in the amount of time that certain services require, and in the amount of product necessary to be used. Waxing a man’s back, for instance, is more labor-intensive and produce-intensive than is waxing a woman’s back; cutting a woman’s hair is typically more labor-intensive than is cutting a man’s.

But the Department of Consumer Affairs isn’t listening.

Perhaps Dion Richardson will listen up, as he is suing the city of Brooklyn for millions of dollars. Why?

Because he broke his knee after landing wrong playing basketball at Middle School 51 in Park Slope in 2010.
As he explained,

“I wanted to go to the pros.”

While there is a small, inch-deep, two-by-two inch wide gap in the wooden basketball court at the school, the city says that the mishap didn’t happen close to it. Richardson is claiming, of course, that all of his dreams have now been dashed since he’s had surgery, months in a cast and a second procedure but thinks his leg is still “messed up.”

While arguing that his professional dreams have been dashed, he then admitted that he played in less than a dozen organized games…in his whole life. And he was in eighth grade when the accident occurred during a first-period pickup game.

Is it a shame that the boy was injured? Of course. Should the school be liable for his medical expenses should it be proven that he fell in the whole that they’ve failed to fix? Perhaps. But should they be liable for breaking his dreams of going pro? Definitely not. Move on Dion – make Brooklyn proud by staying in school and finding a profession, rather than ambulance chasing.

Adam Yauch 2007

After a three year battle with cancer Adam Yauch, founding member of the hip-hop music group Beastie Boys died on May 4, 2012, and now his friends and fans would like to do something to honor his memory.

The original idea was to rename Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights for the musician, who was also often referred to as “MCA.” A Facebook page was begun to create momentum for such a move. The Facebook petition called for the renaming of Squibb Park as an appropriate way to remember the rapper since the park is now undergoing renovation to become a skate park as well as being the gateway to Brooklyn Bridge Park.

However, now there is a shift in what Yauch’s fans would like to see happen. Led by Beastie Boys member Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, the present desire is to allow Squibb to keep its name, and give Yauch’s moniker to State Street Park, also in Brooklyn Heights. Horovitz’s wife Kathleen Hanna explained in a note to the Facebook site which is pushing for the park’s renaming why they believe State Street is a preferred site for renaming in Yauch’s memory.

“I just wanted to let you know that Adam “Adrock” Horovitz has already begun working with the Parks Commissioner to fix up and rename State Street Park where Yauch actually played as a kid to Adam Yauch Park. It would be great to get people behind THIS idea as it won’t hurt the Squibb family….Thanks, Kathleen Hanna.”

The Brooklyn Heights community was convinced of the sensibility of this move and has enthusiastically endorsed Kathleen Hanna’s request. The Facebook page is now updated to pursue the renaming of State Street Park to Adam Yauch Park, and Squibb Park will remain as it is now called.
 

Now, Marvel Comics is getting further into the mix. They already have an openly gay member, Northstar from X-Men. Now, he’s going to be proposing to his boyfriend in “Astonishing X-Men #50” which will come to stores today. Wait for the next installment for their wedding, as Central Park will be used as the backdrop for their affair. Northstar came out as gay long ago in 1992, but this is certainly the first gay marriage taking place in the Marvel Comics world.

GLAAD President Herndon Graddick said,

“When a major comic publisher like Marvel not only includes, but publicly celebrates, the legal wedding of two of its gay characters, it reflects how supporting same-sex couples has become the new normal. Readers expect to see their realities portrayed in these fictional worlds and today that includes married gay and lesbian couples.”

Marvel senior vice president and executive editor Tom Brevoort explained that Marvel started considering the idea last year when New York State legalized gay marriage. As he said,

“A lot of our Marvel super heroes live in and around New York City so it just immediately became an issue we started thinking about.”
Certainly, this has become a trend in the comic book world. In 2010, Archie Comics brought an openly gay students to Riverdale High School, which was the first time they had done so in the character’s seven decade history.

Similarly, Dan DiDio, the editor in chief of DC Comics has recently mentioned at a London comic convention that one of the DC characters would soon jump out of the closet.

Sheepshead Bay is the Home to a Thriving Chinese American Population

For decades the major concentration of Americans of Chinese descent has been in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. A look at the census of 2010 reveals some interesting data about the way the Chinese community in New York, and particularly in Brooklyn, has developed.

A new Chinese enclave has emerged south of Sunset Park at Avenue U in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn’s District 15.

"What's been happening is that in this area, there's been a tremendous growth of the Chinese population and Chinese seniors," says Richard Kuo of Homecrest Community Services. "Right now, the Chinese population is approximately 12 percent of the total population in Community District 15, and that's approximately 18,000 to 20,000 people of Chinese origin. Of that number, about 10 percent, over 2,000, are seniors over 65. So this represents since the year 2000 a 25-percent increase."

Kuo was a visionary who predicted this demographic situation 15 years ago. He launched the first Asian senior center in the neighborhood to help the community’s aging population. First begun from a Presbyterian church with 200 participants, the Homecrest Community Services Center now has 2,000 seniors benefiting from a large list of services including health care and ESL classes.

"With the culture and the language barriers, it's very difficult for seniors to get access to what they're entitled to and what the services are," says Kuo. "So what we do is we provide that access, a link to government as well as to outside organizations."

The Homecrest Center expanded in 2004 into the Bensonhurst neighborhood as the Chinese community located there also continued to flourish and age, making substantial inroads into what had been one of Brooklyn’s leading Italian areas.

The Chinese population in Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay are made up primarily of homeowners, professionals, and voters who live in extended family households comprised of several generations. Kuo says that funds are needed to help the seniors in these communities.

"I'm hopeful that the Department of Aging will provide multi-year funding for this center very soon," says Kuo.

Kuo added that Asians are Brooklyn’s fastest-growing ethnic group.
 

Joffrey Ballet School Coming to Brooklyn HS

It all began last summer when Joffrey Ballet Director Gail D’Addario visited the Cutting Den hair salon to touch up her highlights. During the treatment D’Addario mentioned to the salon owner Tom LaMarca that she was interested in bringing ballet to a high school in Brooklyn. By the time her highlights were done D’Addario was ready to forge a deal with Fort Hamilton High School.

“Tommy told me (Fort Hamilton school officials) were thinking of making the school into a mini Juilliard and that’s how it all began,” said D’Addario, who lives in Bay Ridge and has been LaMarca’s client for 20 years. “If I didn’t have that conversation with him that day, this would never have happened.”

LaMarca had heard from his wife Millie, a teacher of finance at the Bay Ridge school, that Fort Hamilton High was desperate to create a dance program.

“It’ll be Brooklyn’s own LaGuardia,” said LaMarca. “This will give Brooklyn kids something they could use to fulfill their dreams – and it all came from a Brooklyn Heights barber shop.”

Arranging the deal was surprisingly simple. Millie sent an emaul to JoAnn Chester, the principal at Fort Hamilton, explaining the offer from Joffrey. Within just a few meetings it was agreed and the project was launched.

“I guess my husband does listen when I tell him about work,” said Millie. “It’s amazing how a simple conversation about how the school wanted to expand its art program got us this.”

The Joffrey dance classes are set to begin this coming September. The school has been working hard to prepare a space appropriate to the level of dance instruction the Joffrey will provide. The studio will be in an old shop classroom in the basement after all the old equipment was moved out. The newly renovated room will be equipped with a specially designed $80,000 wooden dance floor, full-length mirrors, balance bars and a sound system. The renovations, which were insisted upon by the Joffrey, cost the school $225,000, but the quality of the instruction will be highly professional.

There are 25 dance majors participating in the program, which will meet every morning at 7am for two periods and will be taught by a Joffrey dance instructor.

Sixteen year old sophomore Iyanni Callender has been dancing since she was five years-old. She is excited about the Joffrey joining the school.

“I’ve heard about them a lot,” said Callender. “To know they’re coming into Fort Hamilton is a great opportunity for us.”
 

Here is a rundown of just a few of the activities taking place in the area.  The full schedule lists all of the others as well.  On Sunday, May 27 there will be the Greenpoint Veterans Memorial Parade in Brooklyn. Ship visitations in Brooklyn will be open May 26^th through 28^th from 8 am to 5 pm for the coalition ships.  There will be air demonstrations, as well, in Brooklyn at 1:30 pm on Thursday, May 24^th.  The aerial demonstration will be followed by a display at Sheepshead High School.  The aerial demonstration is going to include an MH-60S conducting Explosive Ordinance Team Search and Rescue Operations.  After the demonstration, the MH-60S will land for those who want to see it up close. On Tuesday, May 29^th, there will be another similar aerial and static demonstration at 1 pm on Staten Island at the New Dorp High School.

These are just a few of the many events taking place around Brooklyn and the greater New York area.  This is certainly an event not to be missed!