Short notice, yes, but its a lovely day and you should go get your tipico on in Sunset Park. It starts at noon, runs until 6 p.m., and I have full faith that someone will be able to carry the festivities forward. Boriqua festival next week. Stay tuned.

Many of you have written in over the past few months with concerns about the safety (and future safety) of Fourth Avenue. Here is your chance to tell the community what you think needs to happen with one of Sunset Park´s busiest streets:

CB7 announcement below:

COMMUNITY BOARD #7 
 

PUBLIC SPEAKOUT 

ON COMMUNITY ISSUES CONCERNING

4^TH AVENUE 

TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2010 

CB7 OFFICE – 4201 4^TH AVENUE

(ENTRANCE ON 43^RD STREET)

6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

This is an opporunity not only to learn, but also to educate others about what you think is happening with gangs in Sunset Park. Whether you are associated with a community organization, a school, or have faced gang issues yourself, this is a chance to tell the community what you think is important.

See the announcement below from Community Board 7:

The 72nd Precinct, Community Board #7 Brooklyn, Community Based Organization and Churches are working together to combat Gangs in OUR Community

TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A CHANGE

GANG AWARENESS FORUM

GANG VIOLENCE IS DESTROYING LIVES AND

DEVASTATING FAMILIES IN OUR COMMUNITY

THE PURPOSE OF THIS GANG FORUM IS TO:

• REACH OUR KIDS • INFORM THEM OF THE DANGERS OF GANG LIFE • OFFER POSITIVE ALTERNATIVES TO GANGS •

THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2010

6:30PM

OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP CHURCH

545 60TH STREET (GYMNASIUM)

FEATURING:

GANG THEATER PERFORMANCE

COMMUNITY RESOURCE

PERSONAL TESTIMONY FROM FORMER GANG MEMBERS

SPECIAL GIVEAWAYS:

GAMES

RAFFLES

AND MANY OTHER SURPRISES

COME AND JOIN US!

PARENTS WELCOME

We talked a while ago about Borough President Marty Markowitz’s vision for a better, brighter Fourth Avenue. This morning, you can get a preview of what that might look like. The collaboration with students from NYU’s Wagner School show green medians, bike racks and remarkably traffic-free streets. Some of those commenting on Curbed seemed skeptical. Thoughts?

This have been rather neglected around here of late, but I wanted to drop in for a couple of quick reminders about upcoming community board meetings. Both will take place at 6:30pm at the CB7 offices in the old court building at 43rd Street and Fourth Avenue.

*Tonight’s concerns more northward matters: The parks committee will discuss the proposed dog run on 18th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

*Next week on Wednesday, May 12th, there will be a public hearing with the public safety committee on the liquor license renewal application for 2004 Viva Mexico Inc., at 3913 Fifth Avenue. Liquor licenses at this restaurant have been contentious in the past, as you can see in the Best View in Brooklyn archives.

Local News:

*The only man convicted of Malcolm X’s shooting was released from prison this week and went home to Sunset Park, The Brooklyn Eagle reports.

*This blog did a piece about “going green” in low-income communities. Elizabeth Yeampierre of UPROSE spoke about some of the problems that crop up in Sunset Park.

Local Eats:

*Folks at Time Out New York got hungry, and, armed with a dollar, came to Sunset Park to get its fill.

*In other foodie news, a “chowhounder” (yes, I said it) tells us that if you time it right, you can see those dim-sum rice noodles made down on Eighth and 61st.

City News:

*The MTA is looking to make some major cuts, the Daily News reported, cutting about 750 jobs, mostly from the bus division.

*The Bloomberg administration has announced plans to overhaul the city’s special education system. The plan hopes to downscale the number of special education classrooms, shifting from a decades-long approach that separated children with learning disabilities into their own programs.

In a great example of how community journalism can work, I got this note about the goings on at a Community Board 7 meeting on parks. A reader attended, and sent this note back:

Sunset Park will be undergoing some serious changes–$4 million in renovations starting this year. Sara Gonzalez helped acquire the funding, the reader said.

The first is a reworking of the concrete baseball/soccer field (“the big slab”) in the middle of the park. It will be turned into a more legitimate multi-purpose field, faux-grass and all, as the picture above shows. The comfort station (I believe that’s the bathroom) and the area with the chess tables will also get spiffed. The playground, however, will not get reworked…yet. Some of the parents at the meeting were not too happy to hear that, but the playground will apparently top next year’s list.

Another unfortunate budget victim is summer camp:  registration in Sunset Park has been delayed as the is no money in the budget for it. Rumor is it may not happen this year, the reader said.

*There’s been quite a look at Sunset Park schools of late. Yesterday, the New York Times did a story about P.S. 172, the little elementary school that could. Despite challenges that tend to stymie efforts to score high on tests (low-income students, English language learners and kids with learning disabilities) the Fourth Avenue school regularly outperforms its neighbors in Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.

*This follows the recent Daily News story on the long waiting list at P.S. 105.

*Things are happening in Sunset Park proper. The Community Board last week announced plans to revamp the “big slab” that serves as a baseball/soccer field. Stay tuned for a more detailed post this week.

*The Times last week also chronicled one of more than one hundred Latino evangelical Christians who appear to have been scammed by a Red Hook pastor.

*Sarah DiGregorio of the Village Voice has been on the eat again. Check out her piece on the new hand-cut noodle shop in Sunset Park.

*The Daily News reported that P.S. 150 has the longest wait list in the city, due largely to demand from Chinese families who have moved into Sunset Park in recent years.

*Police at the 72^nd Precinct think they may have caught the burglar who has been targeting and stealing from Chinese residents who live the 40s and 50s, and driving up the burglary rate, Inspector Jesus Raul Pintos said last week.

*The lack of Brooklyn-bound toll on the Verrazano has some people worked up, including local owners who have trouble parking in Sunset Park, the Eagle reported.

*The weekly park sweeps at Lets Clean Sunset Park! are back up and running. Want to join in? Check out the website to keep up to date.

*Thanks to the Brooklyn DA, Haitians in need of clothing after the earthquake will soon be sporting a load of designer knockoffs confiscated last year from a Sunset Park storage facility, according to the Post.

*Councilwoman Gonzalez held a leadership summit last week, the Eagle reports. She also brought together a group to talk about the somewhat contentious issue of legislation on vendors along Fifth Avenue. Details on that to come.

*Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn last week announced the New York City Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy (WAVES), “a citywide initiative that will create a new sustainable blueprint for the City’s 578 miles of shoreline.” Sunset Park obviously has a good bit of that waterfront. I haven’t had a chance to look through it carefully, but I’ll report back on the details of the plan.

*Picturing Sunset Park: Check out a kind of unusual shot I stumbled upon here, and good shot of Chinatown here.

*Frank of The Sunset Park Blog noted a couple of new Italian places in the neighborhood, and made a well-deserved plug for staying in (the neighborhood) when going out to eat.

*Things have been cooking, sprouting and…shopping…over at Sunset Parkour. Take a look out how her seedlings are progressing, and her note on Sunset Park’s recent meh ranking in NYMag’s list of “most livable” New York neighborhoods. Eh, they can keep Park Slope.

*Got any other news? Send it along…

*Did you make it to the Department of Transportation’s Brooklyn Greenway meeting on April 8? Streetsblog did, and brought back this report. Everyone agrees that the proposition of a waterfront greenway poses a challenge for the neighborhood, but also a huge boon in an area with little open space. Have opinions on the proposal? Leave a comment!

*The story of Michael Romero, 32, who was shot and killed by plainclothes police after a struggle over a gun, continues. Police now say they identified themselves as NYPD before Romero took out a gun. (He apparently said “You want to see my ID? Here’s my ID!” before taking out his silver .357 Rossi). Romero’s aunt says her nephew was “good” but “sick,” Gothamist reports. Romero was shot in the shoulder, and pronounced dead on arrival Lutheran hospital. Police found a second gun and a large bag of marijuana in the possession of the ex-con, who had 34 arrests on his record.

*The Sunset Park Rec Center has free baseball and softball leagues this summer. You can find more information here.

*State Senator Eric Adams cares about you—and your pants. The former NYPD captain has started a “stop the sag” campaign, advising those who rock their waistbands low to “raise your pants! Raise your image!” Indy Posted seemed like a fan, but kids in Crown Heights, where most of the billboards have gone up, were skeptical. Thoughts?

*Those of you rushing to the theater to see the new Liam Neeson movie After.Life but have an eerie feeling of déjà vu—Green-Wood Cemetery has a cameo in the drama that takes on age old theme of the the-not-quite-dead from the inside of a mortuary.

*The Village Voice’s Sarah DiGregorio chowed down at Wong Wong Noodles.

*Sunset Park Stills made good use of the recent night weather—there are some lovely new shots of the neighborhood on the blog.