Interesting news, yesterday’s City Hall News ranks Crown Heights Councilmember Al Vann (District 36) and Crown Heights Councilmember Letitia James (District 35) amongst the top most powerful city council members.  Vann was ranked #8.   Tish James rounds out the top ten with the #10 seat.  There are 51 council seats in total.  And of course, Vann and James are not exclusive to Crown Heights, but that’s some nice bragging rights, no?  You can check out the City Hall News article for more details about how they ranked the council members.

For those fed up with the shootings in the neighborhood,  Crown Heights Community Mediation Center (the same group that commissioned the powerful anti-gun violence mural last year) is spearheading an anti-gun violence initiative in the neighborhood called S.O.S. – Save Our Streets.

They held a meeting last week regarding the recent shooting on Eastern Parkway and Schenectady, and there will be a meeting on July 28th about the recent shooting that happened on Franklin Ave and Park Place.

By way of background, S.O.S. is a neighborhood based movement to end shootings and killings.  Working with the community, highly trained workers:

• Provide immediate interventions whenever a shooting occurs.
• Reach out to the victims, friends and family members.
• Work to ensure that retaliatory shootings do not take place.
• Create a community network of residents, clergy and business owners.

So I just finished mailing my letter to Commissioner Kelly this morning to remind him of the importance of maintaining the impact zone on Nostrand Avenue, only to end up smack in the middle of a drug bust (at least that was the word on the street) on Nostrand as I walked home this evening…

I couldn’t tell what place(s) got raided, but from what folks on the street were telling me, it seemed to be somewhere between Park and Sterling … maybe the cops busted the rastas in the Black Lady Theater after the report in the NY Post the other day?

Some good new is that, according to the Crow Hill Community Association, the Impact Zone will remain on Franklin Avenue.  We called the Community Board and the Precinct to determine the fate of the impact zone on Nostrand, but no one with information was available.  Stay tuned.

Book Review: A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott

By Courtney Elizabeth Mauk

Zetta Elliott’s young adult novel A Wish After Midnight is a coming of age story with an historical twist.  In present day Crown Heights, fifteen year old Genna feels as if she does not belong at home, at school, or in her neighborhood.  Quiet and studious, she finds solace at the public library, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and with Judah, a classmate and recent Jamaican immigrant who shares Genna’s love for words and teaches her to embrace her uniqueness.  But these escapes are not enough, and after Genna’s brother is arrested and tensions boil over at home, she runs away late one night.  She seeks refuge in the botanic garden, where she tosses a coin into the fountain and makes a desperate wish for a different life.  At once her wish is granted, but not in the way she intended.  She is transported back in time to 1863, in the months preceding the New York draft riots, where she wakes in the body of a runaway slave.

A Wish After Midnight is a thought-provoking book that prompts the reader to reexamine his or her experience and worldviews.  Genna is a strong, spirited narrator whose struggles for love, acceptance, and self-awareness are relatable and would have special appeal to teenagers.  As she confronts the race and class conflicts of Brooklyn during the Civil War, she comes to realizations about race and class in America today and makes difficult decisions that redefine who she is.  Elliott shows us that no clear-cut answers exist, especially when dealing with questions of human nature.  A study guide is given at the end of the book, with discussion questions that could be used in a classroom or book club or by the reader on his or her own.

Zetta Elliot has a PhD in American Studies from New York University and has lived in Brooklyn for fifteen years.  She is an accomplished playwright and poet, and her picture book, Bird, won a 2009 ALA Notable Children’s Book award.  More information can be found on her website, http://www.zettaelliott.com.

Courtney Elizabeth Mauk’s work has appeared in The Literary Review, Forge Journal, PANK,Word Riot, Joyland, BrooklynTheBorough, and the anthology Gravity Fiction, which was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award for independently published books.

There have been a disturbing number of shootings on Franklin Avenue in the past few months.  The most recently, last week as chronicled on the Brooklynian message board.   In response, we recently received the following notice from the Crow Hill Community Association (CHCA), which is organizing folks to start a letter writing campaign to stop Commissioner Kelly from pulling the Impact Zone from Franklin and Nostrand Avenues.  Please join in!!  We have adapted CHCA’s letter so that it is relevant to both Franklin Avenue and Nostrand Avenue.

—–

Hello All,

By this time, you probably know a young man was shot in the leg on Franklin Avenue, Saturday afternoon at about 2:30 [p.m.].  What you might not know is that Commissioner Kelly is planning to pull the Impact Zone from Franklin and Nostrand Avenues at the end of the month.

This means we will lose the increased foot patrol that has had such a positive effect on our community since January.  We got the first Impact Zone as the result of a very strong letter writing campaign.  We need to do another immeadiately!!!

Even while our neighborhood continues to improve, this is the 3rd shooting on Franklin since the middle of May.  Below (and attached as a word.doc) is a letter to send to Commissioner Kelly.  PLEASE do it today.

You can send the letter the way it is, or even better, personalize it: Say how long you have lived in the community, mention if you are raising a family here or if you have a business in the area.

But the most important thing is to send it!  We would like to have an idea of how many letters go out, so when you send yours, please reply to this email and just say “I did it”. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you at the About Time Kids Day event this coming Saturday on Franklin between Park & Sterling, stop by the Crow Hill table and say hi.

——————————–

July 18, 2010

Raymond Kelly

Commissioner, NYPD

One Police Plaza

New York, NY 10038

Dear Commissioner Kelly:

I am a resident of [the Crow Hill section of] Crown Heights and I understand that at the end of the month Nostrand Avenue and Franklin Avenue will no longer be part of the Impact Zone. Given the escalation of gun violence on Franklin over the last couple of months and the rampant drug trade that was recently uncovered on Nostrand Avenue, I find this alarming; just this past Saturday someone was shot on our crowded summer street at 2:30 in the afternoon. We can not afford to lose this protection!

The Impact Zone officers have had a very positive effect on Nostrand Avenue and Franklin Avenue. The large groups of aggressive young men hanging out on our street corners have diminished and there is less evidence of drug activity, this in turn has led to a more vibrant street life for residents which we both know is an excellent deterrent to crime.  But with summer here, it is critical to keep a strong police presence on our commercial strips.

We must not allow Nostrand Avenue or Franklin Avenue to revert back to more dangerous times.

These shootings MUST stop.  Please keep the Impact Zone on Nostrand Avenue and Franklin Avenue.

Sincerely,

(your name)
(your address)

Those who follow the popular Brooklyn website, Brownstoner, know that one of the best neighborhood historians to grace the blog is a local resident, Suzanne Spellen, who writes under the pen name “Montrose Morris” (a reference to  a prolific Brooklyn architect).  Well we just found that that “Montrose” along with a couple of other great local historians will be offering neighborhood walking tours of Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy.   Check it out!

If you have

I just finished my first volunteer session at the Central Brooklyn CSA. It was a fun two hours working with Maia. Today’s selection included two pounds of zucchini. We had a mixture of the long typical shape, and round zucchini, which most of us had never seen before. It will be interesting to see if there’s a difference in taste. The beet people (I’m not one of them) were in ecstasy when they saw today’s harvest. I traded kale for a second bunch of beets, because Laurie loves them and we’re kind of sick of kale. The lettuce, garlic, onions, spinach and oregano were terrific looking, but the carrots looked SO good. And the eggs, well, the eggs are always incredible. I won’t be able to report on next week’s haul because we’ll miss it, but I look forward to July 14th’s bounty.

On Saturday, June 26 in Crown Heights at St. Gregory’s Church – The Crown Heights Community Mediation Center presents

Eat Healthy/Eat Local Fair!

Along with some of this area’s most prominent food activists and organization, this fair will also include capoeira demonstrations by Resurgent Fitness and free yoga, pilates and Qi Gong classes by Force and Flow Studio, plus lots of other wellness stuff. Also part of the day’s festivities is a barbecue fundraiser for St. Gregory’s Church.

The Eat Healthy/Eat Local Fair! runs from 10am – 4pm on Saturday June 26th.  St Gregory’s is located at 224 Brooklyn Avenue (b/w Sterling & St. Johns).  For more info on Saturday’s event, please contact Rachel at rlevy@crownheights.org or 717-773-6886

Weeksville Heritage Center’s Farmers Market opens this Saturday June 19th and runs through Saturday October 30th.  Every Saturday from 9:00am – 4:00pm area residents are invited to purchase fresh produce from a local farmer.  The Weeksville Farmers Market gladly accepts EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) and FMNP (Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program) senior coupons and Health Bucks.  In addition to tasty food, the Farmers Market will also treat area residents to savory cooking demos sponsored by Just Food, food tastings, container gardening and composting workshops.

The Weeksville Heritage Center is located 1698 Bergen Street (between Buffalo Avenue and Rochester Avenue) Brooklyn, NY 11213 (view map).  For more information on the Farmers Market or other Weeksville events, please call 718.756.5250 or email info@weeksvillesociety.org

As mentioned in yesterday’s piece NY1′s Jeanine Ramirez was on hand for yesterday’s Central Brooklyn CSA opener.  Here’s a link to her report on this event: