Juan Ardila: The arc of a woke campaign

Whoa, tough words, there! You seem like a rather confident candidate. Great job landing this all important interview with a Bushwick publication which is in a different borough from where you are running. Hey, you gotta start somewhere!

Great form showing up at an "anti-racism" protest outside your opponent's house. That'll show everyone just how seriously woke you are!

Ooooooh womp, womp!

From the NY Post:

“Chinese Americans denounce Juan Ardila for the use of the highly racist ch-nk and n-word, and the flagrant disparagement of Jews, women, gays and lesbians,” said Wai Wah Chin founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York.

“A candidate for elected office showing such blatant sexism, racism and bigotry is despicable and horrifying. It is precisely this kind of hateful speech that leads to hateful action, to horrific attacks against Asians and other groups, such as the vicious attack in East Harlem two days ago that left a 61-year old Asian man in a coma.

“Ardila is absolutely unfit for elected office,” Wah Chin said.

Hey, at least he is an equal opportunity hater! Mental note to future candidates: Delete blatant bigotry from your social media prior to campaign kickoff...

Now where are the statements from the following tweeders?

That's a really impressive list of "like-minded" individuals and groups, there, Juan! Congrats!

Group seeks to preserve historic Elmhurst cemetery

From the Queens Gazette:

Underneath a muddy desolate back lot near 47-11 90th Street in Elmhurst exists a forgotten cemetery. Almost two centuries ago, African-American residents of what was then known as Newtown buried their family and friends in this sacred place of eternal rest.

According to the Elmhurst History & Cemeteries Preservation Society, a total of 310 burials were made in the cemetery. Some burials have been removed but numerous remains are still at the site. The society stated that the African American community in Elmhurst traces backs to the time of slavery in the late 1600s.

In 1828 a parcel of land was donated to former slaves who were members of the United African Society (later known as St. Mark's AME Church) one year after slavery was abolished in New York State. The first African American church, parsonage, school and cemetery were set up at this site. Elmhurst had a free African American community living, working and worshiping in this particular area of Newtown.

In 1914, Booker T. Washington came to speak in Elmhurst to help raise funds for the St. Mark's AME church.

The goal of the society is to make the site a NYC Landmark and for it to be placed under the National Register of Historic Places.

More information, including a petition to save the burial ground, can be viewed here.

Elmhurst fights for its historic African burial ground

From the Times Ledger:

The fight for survival continues for one of the city’s oldest African burial grounds now that a Request for Evaluation was submitted to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The Elmhurst Histories and Cemeteries Preservations Society submitted the request Oct. 1 as a step toward keeping the piece of local and national history from being buried underneath a 55-foot-tall residential building. On Sept. 13, the developing company Song Liu filed permits to develop the five story structure at 47-11 90th St., according to reports from the city Department of Buildings. If construction were to take place, a vital part of American history could be wiped off the map.

In 1828, St. Mark’s American Methodist Episcopal Church was founded — on the site of the proposed building — one year after enslaved people were emancipated in New York City 35 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Newly Freed African-Americans quickly established the congregation which eventually evolved and relocated three times. The church still remains active today as the St. Mark’s A.M.E Church in North Corona, which is still responsible for the 310 bodies still believed to be resting in the lot hugged by highways.

Construction can only take place when there has been an agreement struck between Song Liu and St. Mark’s AME Church of Corona, according to Giampino. In order for Song Liu to touch the earth, the remains must be properly removed and reburied. St. Mark’s AME Church did not respond to request for comment about the matter.

“It’s a very sad story,” said James McMenamin, vice president of the Elmhurst Histories and Cemeteries Preservation Society.

In 1928, after St. Marks AME had to move to new location, the New York City refused to grant the church permission to remove the remains to a new location. The burial ground was then mostly forgotten and even written off of city maps, according to Giampino.

“The Pepsi Cola sign gets landmarked and $1.9 million (is allocated) to save and restore the house next door to Louis Armstrong,” said McMenamin. “In the meantime we have been trying to save this structure in Elmhurst and we have gotten zip.”

Yep, that about sums it up.

Iron Coffin Lady documentary airing this week

From the NY Post:

On the afternoon of Oct. 4, 2011, a backhoe dug into an excavation pit in Elmhurst, Queens, and struck iron. Construction workers assumed they had hit a pipe. But when the claws of the backhoe emerged from the ground, it was dragging a body clothed in a white gown and knee-high socks.

Scott Warnasch, then a New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner forensic archaeologist, initially viewed the finding as a recent homicide. “It was recorded as a crime scene,” Warnasch, 52, told The Post. “A buried body on an abandoned lot sounds pretty straightforward.”

It turned out to be anything but. The almost perfectly preserved body was actually that of a woman born decades before the Civil War. She had been buried in what was once the grounds of a church founded in 1830 by the first generation of free African-Americans. Now a new documentary, “The Woman in the Iron Coffin,” premiering Wednesday on PBS, provides the woman’s identity.

The Post can reveal that researchers believe her to be Martha Peterson, who worked for a local white man with abolitionist leanings.

Iron Coffin Lady exhibit & funeral this weekend

From NY1:

The woman being buried is now known as the Iron Coffin Lady. Archaeologists determined she is a 30-something African-American who died in the 1850s.

Her mumified body was discovered five years ago when a construction crew accidentally dug up her steel coffin while building apartments at 90-15 Corona Ave.

The site was the original St. Mark Church and African burial ground. It was founded in 1828 by the United African Society of Long Island.

Many church members were not aware of the Elmhurst location.

"Because of her and because of the finding of her, our church has had a renewed fervor in learning more about who we are and who we were," Detherage said. "We lost some of the history throughout the years."

Researchers believe the woman was born in the 1820s and lived in a part of Newtown, which is now called Elmhurst, Queens.

Forensic archaeologist Scott Warnasch says the woman's body was so well-preserved, investigators initially thought she might have been a recent homicide victim. But he knew right away she was not because of her elaborate coffin.

Warnasch and a research team spent years investigating the woman. While they don't know exactly who she was, they know some details about her and how she died.

"She had apparently died of smallpox," Warnasch said.

Fifteen other remains were also found at the site. Detherage and the developer have been negotiatiating a deal to build a memorial there. The city says all construction has been halted there until both sides come to an agreement.

Meanwhile, after a weekend of exhibits and tributes at the church, a funeral will be held on Sunday at 4 p.m. for the Iron Coffin Lady.

Employees say Mark-Viverito demanded discrimination at NYCHA

From the Daily News:

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito pressured the Housing Authority to remove the black manager of a Bronx housing development and replace her with a “Spanish manager,” former and current NYCHA workers told the Daily News.

Officials were so eager to make the Speaker’s wish come true that they turned to the city Department of Investigation to help “find something” on the manager.

Mark-Viverito made her ethnic-specific demand during a July 30, 2015, emergency meeting with several NYCHA officials held in her Bronx office, one of the meeting’s participants told the Daily News.

One of NYCHA’s top executives, Senior Vice President for Operations Brian Clarke, participated in that meeting via speakerphone — and later pressured subordinates to address Mark-Viverito’s demand because of the “cultural sensitivity” of the development’s tenants.

The Speaker began the meeting by asking how NYCHA dealt with Spanish-speaking tenants at the Mill Brook Houses in Mott Haven, according to the participants.

Mark-Viverito then confronted Allison Williams, the black manager of Mill Brook who is not fluent in Spanish, according to Williams and her boss, Sibyl Colon, NYCHA’s then-director of Optimal Property Management Department.

Williams says she told Mark-Viverito that — per NYCHA policy — she would rely on a “language bank” of on-call translators when dealing with non-English-speaking tenants.

Colon and Williams say Mark-Viverito responded with anger.

“She started asking me: ‘What do you do when you have to deal with the Spanish residents?’ I don’t speak Spanish. I said I used the language bank. She said — in her words — ‘That's unacceptable.’ I just sat silent.”

Colon, who was also at the meeting, says Mark-Viverito turned to her and stated, “You’re not hearing me. I want a Spanish manager.”

Underwater homes that have nothing to do with climate change

From DNA Info:

While much of the city has recovered from the 2008 housing crisis, a disproportionate number black homeowners in southeast Queens are still struggling, according to data analyzed by the Center for New York City Neighborhoods.

“Black homeowners in particular are facing a crushing reality: many often owe more on their mortgages than their property is worth,” the report said.

"For home-owners who bought in the early 2000s, white home values have recovered while black home-owners have lost net wealth in that time," said Leo Goldberg, a senior policy analyst at the Center for New York City Neighborhoods.

The hardest hit area of all is southeast Queens, particularly Jamaica.

“Jamaica is one of the only parts of the city where home values are lower than they were before the recession,” Goldberg said.

The data focuses on areas of the city where the majority of homeowners are black and where more than 10 percent of homes with a mortgage are underwater, meaning value of the loan exceeds the market value of the house. Large swaths of the Bronx and Queens, as well as parts of Staten Island are highlighted.

BDB losing support among black community

From the NY Times:

Dozens of black ministers, justice reform advocates and civil rights activists and four black members of Congress gathered last Monday at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem to discuss a delicate matter: What to do about Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Over the course of the morning meeting, attendees voiced a series of concerns: Mr. de Blasio, some complained, seems to have lost his appetite for criminal justice reform. The mayor, they said, has been too slow to take action against the police officer whose use of a chokehold on Eric Garner, an unarmed black man on Staten Island, led to Mr. Garner’s death. Other participants grumbled that Mr. de Blasio and his staff have simply not done enough to communicate with black community leaders on issues like affordable housing.

The unusual congregation of community influencers, convened by the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, was part gripe session, part strategic huddle, revealing the first hints of frustration with a mayor who won 96 percent of the black vote when he was elected in 2013.

Black voters have been an essential base of support for the mayor, remaining largely enthusiastic about him even as his support has wilted with other groups in the city. The bonds were forged in Mr. de Blasio’s early criticism of stop-and-frisk policing, and reinforced by politically resonant images of his biracial family broadcast during the 2013 campaign.

Yet the perception that Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, has eased up on his commitment to police reform has plainly begun to rankle some: At a weekend gathering this month at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat, publicly lamented that “broken windows policing,” the aggressive enforcement of minor violations, was still policy across the city.

Mr. Jeffries, who also attended the gathering at Abyssinian, said in an interview that there was “growing disenchantment with the administration in the black community.”

“The disenchantment relates to policing issues, the mayor’s support of broken windows, his lack of support for banning
chokeholds and his willingness to support making resisting arrest a felony,” Mr. Jeffries said, adding: “We’re very early in the mayor’s first term, and there’s a lot of room for progress.”

Middle class blacks are leaving

From the Daily News:

The city's black middle-class population is receding, according to a study.

The report, prepared by the nonprofit Citizens Housing and Planning Council, showed that the black middle class declined 18%, as the black population dropped across the city by 5%.

Once solidly middle-class strongholds in Hollis and Jamaica, Queens; East Flatbush, Brooklyn; and Woodlawn, the Bronx, had significantly fewer middle- and upper-income black families in 2010 than they did in 2000, and significantly more low-income families, the study reported.

In Hollis, longtime residents said they had felt the change.

“All of our neighbors have left,” said Peyton Smith, 81, who’s lived on 205th St. since he bought the corner house at 109th Ave. in 1965 for $23,000.

Smith said his neighbors have largely have packed up and left town in the past 10 years, pushed out by rising property tax rates.

Most have headed back to the South, Smith said, where many like himself hail from originally.

“We’ve had brand-new neighbors for the last 10 years,” he said.

Other residents said that after the foreclosure crisis, real estate agents and speculators descended on the community, buying up houses and splitting single-family homes into two or three units.

We’ve had brand-new neighbors for the last 10 years.

“Every day, you see people stopping you, or putting things in your mailbox, wanting to buy your house,” said Winston Byndloss, 73, who moved up the block from Smith in 1978.

“How they cut them down nobody knows. I would love to see what size the bedrooms are.”

Tweeding simply explained!

"These are the people who make sure we get nothing but then turn around and have us to vote for them again."

Why Jamaica is the way it is

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

With a primary coming soon, September 9th, it is a really good time to start exposing the Jamaica leaders for who they really are and why our community is never improving. There will be more to come in the passing days.

Some things never change, no matter how bad or corrupt, especially with Jamaica/South East Queens majorly dirty politics and the residents of Jamaica who are being played by these snake oil salesman who have been entrenched in this dirty system that to this day plagues Jamaica, like all the garbage everywhere, and serves only the players and the hell with the community and the residents.

Ever wonder why Jamaica for decades has been kept down in the dumps, all one needs to do is look at past and present players, many who are the same names year after year, decade after decade. It is a game of corrupt musical chairs to keep the same culprits deep in the system. The late great and feisty Jamaica assembly woman, Cynthia Jenkins (1st black woman elected to public office in South East Queens and more about her latter on, READ UP ON HER) who battled the Queens County Democratic machine constantly said of South East Queens politics, “It is “plantation politics”, which to this day still continues in all forms of government, but especially here in Jamaica by the same names from decades ago to the present. Names like Archie Spigner, Leroy Comrie, Helen Marshall, Malcolm Smith, Gregory Meeks, William Scarborough Joan Flowers and Rev. Floyd Flake. Speaking for a long time with Ms. Jenkins' son, Rev. Joe Jenkins, he filled me in on the history of this corrupt system, since this was way before my time here in Jamaica. And boy does he have stories, that our leaders would not like to be brought up in this era of “selective memory”.

Take this quote I came across:

“A plantation. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, we’d all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our soul for a Christmas turkey.”

This is a strategy of keeping blacks poor, angry, uneducated, sheep, victims and voting for Democrats or whomever, who end up never giving a shit about them, just like our Jamaica leaders. They count on this and they do not want smart, intelligent, educated and politically conscience people voting, because they want to bring in their sheep to vote for them, which is exactly what Rev. Flake and some other church leaders do to control the system. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.

DeBlasio planning to destroy something that actually works

From Huffington Post:

Even though nearly 70 percent of New York City's public school students are black or Hispanic, very few will be attending the city's most elite public schools when the doors open next week. According to some alumni of these specialized high schools, that doesn't mean their admissions systems are necessarily unfair.

The chance to attend one of the eight exam-based institutions -- like Stuyvesant High School -- depends on the student's score on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT). These schools are considered among the city's best, and competition to get in can be fierce.

"In my opinion, the test system is purely on the basis of merit. There's no room for discrimination or bias," Larry Cary, president of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation, told The Huffington Post.

Cary is part of the newly formed Coalition of the Specialized High School Alumni Organizations, which represents over 100,000 graduates of those New York City schools. This week, the group announced that it believes the admissions process based on a single exam should remain unchanged.

According to data from the NYC Department of Education, black and Hispanic students last year made up only 12 percent of incoming ninth-graders offered spots at the exam-based high schools. This year, the numbers are basically the same: The share of black and Hispanic students accepted to the prestigious schools adds up to 11.5 percent.

The New York state legislature established the entrance exam system in the early 1970s for Stuyvesant, Bronx High School of Science and Brooklyn Technical High School. As more specialized schools opened, they adopted the same system for the most part. (The city has a ninth specialized school, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, that chooses its students based on a combination of auditions and academics.)

Over the years, there have been attempts to reform the admissions process to ensure that the benefits of attending the best public high schools reach all communities in the city. Just this June, state legislators introduced a bill that would require the specialized high schools to factor multiple measures, such as GPA, into their admission decisions, as opposed to relying only on the SHSAT.

The Coalition of the Specialized High School Alumni Organizations disagrees with that approach. The group argues instead for a new initiative to give underrepresented communities access to better SHSAT test preparation and for a policy of letting students on the cusp of admittance apply again.

There are bright children of all races. The reason why there are fewer Black and Hispanic students accepted into prestigious schools is mainly because they tend to be stuck going to shitty middle schools which don't prepare them adequately for test taking of this caliber. So instead of fixing the middle schools, DeBlasio wants to dumb down the admissions process. Of course, the graduates of these schools are smarter than DeBlasio.

Council Members want foreclosures condemned

From the Observer:

Council members Donovan Richards, Daneek Miller and Mark Levine rallied with activists and academics on the steps of City Hall today to call on the city to use eminent domain to stop home foreclosures.

They discussed a new report by the left-leaning New York Communities for Change (N.Y.C.C.), which revealed that thousands of African-American and Latino homeowners were still at risk of losing their homes due to foreclosures and underwater mortgages.

Mr. Richards, who represents areas like southeast Queens and the Rockaways that were hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis and Hurricane Sandy, went straight to the point.

“I’m here because I think the people need their bailout. Didn’t the banks get their bailout? So why can’t the people get a bailout?” Mr. Richards said. “Today I stand with N.Y.C.C. to call on New York City to use eminent domain to really seize these mortgages and make a difference in the lives of New Yorkers.”

Financial institutions have aggressively opposed the usage of eminent domain in this instance and questioned its legality–it remains unlikely, observers say, that it will be implemented in New York City. Mr. Levine, however, said the tactic could be viable.

Landmarking sought for Elmhurst's African Methodist cemetery

St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church
95-18 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights, New York 11372
E-Mail: stmarkchurch2@verizon.org
Rev. Kimberly L. Detherage, Esq., Pastor

Parties Meet Over 15 Graves

CHURCH REQUESTS HELP FROM LOCAL POLITICIANS
After several postponements, Wednesday, April 2nd Saint Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church and the current owners will meet with the New York City Departments of Landmark Preservation, Buildings and Health to decide the fate of the bodies of former parishioner, including the 15 bodies exhumed a few months ago, in the old cemetery that was formerly a part of the church. Developers of the land planned an above and underground parking structure beside the recently completed structure of condominiums and retail spaces located at what was 90-15 Corona Avenue (Block 1586, Lot 10).

Construction was halted for a brief time on the completed structure and postponed on the parking in 2012 when the mummified remains of a former female parishioner buried in an iron coffin (the Iron Coffin Lady), who was so well preserved that the construction crew mistook her for a recent murder victim and called the authorities. Last December, 15 additional bodies whose grave marking were previously destroyed, were disinterred on the property.

“St. Mark is of course concerned about the fate of the bodies of our past members. We want to find a way to preserve the final resting place of those left of the approximately 300 souls who were buried in the church’s former cemetery,” said St. Mark’s Pastor Kimberly L. Detherage, Esq. The church has contacted its local councilpersons, assemblymen, district leader, state senator, Congressman, Senators and the Mayor in hopes of realizing the three goals it has identified:
• To leave the recently uncovered graves where they are and not to move or cremate the remains
• To have this African American burial site declared a protected landmark
• To hold the current owners/construction company responsible for the storage, memorial and re-burial costs of the Iron Coffin Lady as well as a memorial for the recently uncovered bodies as was initially agreed.

“After reviewing the agenda, we are afraid that now that this meeting is happening, its results will be a foregone conclusion – a rubber stamp on the destruction of for this African American burial ground,” said Rev. Detherage. “We are really hoping that some of our representatives will stand up for the recognition and peaceful rest of these former citizens.”

CONDOS/STORE FRONTS BUILT OVER CHURCH CEMETERY
On December 24, 2013 upon information and belief, 15 graves were unearthed during recent construction on the plot of land that is now 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue but was formerly 90-15 Union Avenue, the address of the Union Avenue African Methodist Episcopal Church and its cemetery, the previous name of the Saint Mark AME Church of 96-18 Northern Boulevard. These graves are directly behind a row of new condominiums and store fronts that were erected despite St. Mark’s concerns and inquiries about this property since the October 2011 disinterment of the mummified remains of an African American woman in an iron casket who was found on this same property during the construction of the condominiums.

Location: The property in question is approximately 1.4 acres previously listed as 90-15 Corona Ave, (Block 1586, Lot 10) in Queens, New York. It is on Corona Avenue between 90th and 91st Streets in front of the right-of-way for the Port Washington branch of the Long Island Railroad and across the street from Newtown High School. The condos are entered at 47-19 and 47-21 91st Street, next door to a residence at 47-07 91st Street, and the block of store fronts extends from 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue and are next door to the Sabor Colombia 2 restaurant at 90-31 Corona Avenue.

Property Owners: Several names have been connected with the ownership, development and construction of this property. While we understand that it is a consortium and suspect that they are all connected, here are the names we know upon information and belief:

Original Owner: AMF Machine Corp. Corona Properties (located at 68-33 Shore Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11220)

Original Construction Company: Denali Construction
Original Construction Company’s Lawyers: Peter G. Geis, Cozen O'Connor,
Owner’s Former Archeologist: Jo-Ann McLean Inc. Archaeological Consultants
Current Owners: Bo Jing Zhu Corp.
Current Construction Company: Dahill Construction (Rahman Perul 718-912-8874).
Current Lawyer: Yi Han of Experta Group, Inc.
Current Archeologist: Michael Audin of Archeology and Historical Research Service
Management Company: Wing Fung Realty (718-699-9000)

Time Line:
• 1828: the United African Society purchased the property in question from local landowner William Hunter and his wife Jane for $75.00 and erected a carpenter shop where they worshipped until they could build a church edifice.
• 1888: the cemetery reportedly contained 310 graves.
• 1902: when a church trustee, Mr. Purcell Harris inquired into the denomination using the property; after a thorough investigation, the property was returned to the church, which applied to the African Methodist Episcopal Church and in 1906 and we renamed ourselves the Union Avenue AME Church.
• 1906: and we renamed ourselves the Union Avenue AME Church.
• 1928: the City of New York, in its effort to widen Union Avenue (now named Corona Ave.) disinterred and transferred 20 bodies from the church cemetery to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens.—Thomas Johnson, Samuel Dualing, Jacob Lip, Jesus Huff, Nicholas Coles, Henry Stephens, Emma Stevens, Emma Lawrence, Elsie Harris, John Johnson, James Peterson, James Peterson, Jr., Sarah Hodges, Rachel Warren, Carolina Johnson, David Watson, Thomas Peterson, George Harris, Sarah Stephens and Katie Johnson (Graves Number 2 and 3 in Section C, Lot 3498; Burial Permit numbers 308-327).
• 1929: the church moves to 95th Street and 32nd Avenue and is renamed Saint Mark AME Church.
• 2005: (revised 2006) A Phase 1a Archeological Investigation study was conducted and a document prepared BY: Jo-Ann McLean Inc. Archaeological Consultants at the request of Peter G. Geis, Cozen O'Connor, attorneys representing Denali Construction and property owners AMF Machines Corp. Corona Properties
• 2011: the mummified remains of a 19th century African American woman, the Iron Coffin Lady, buried in an iron casket are unearthed during the construction of the current condos and store fronts.
• December 24, 2013: 15 graves were unearthed during recent construction on the plot of land that is now 90-05 to 90-19 Corona Avenue but was formerly 90-15 Union Avenue. Wing Fung Realty is the management company whose sign declares they are conducting the sale and Dahill Construction is listed as the current property owners on the NY Department of Transportation notices for sidewalk and bus shelter (Q 19) openings in the lobby and storefront windows

St. Mark’s Goals:
While we feel it is our ecclesiastical duty to return to peaceful rest the remains of our former congregants, we recognize that records show the disinterment of only 21 bodies from our predecessor, the Union Avenue AME Church’s Cemetery, including an African American woman who was so carefully and expensively for the time period, laid to rest in consecrated ground that historical reports claim held at least 310 bodies in 1888. Therefore, we feel that the remaining land, which is separated from the recent construction by a concrete parking lot, be set aside as a memorial:
- that the recently uncovered graves be closed and allowed to remain where they are,
- that the remaining land be designated landmark status and
- that the property owner/construction company pay the cost of re-interment, storage and memorial, as previously agreed, for the Iron Coffin Lady as well as a memorial for the 15 recently uncovered graves.

A guide to pandering

The NY Times has a "tour" of voting blocs throughout the City.

The problems (and the fun) start when those blocs don't vote the way they're "supposed to."

CUNY to destroy mural by famous black artist

From the Daily News:

A sprawling mosaic that has long been a symbol of City Tech in downtown Brooklyn will be destroyed when the Klitgord Auditorium gets torn down sometime this summer.

The massive mural, built on the Jay St. theater in 1962 by famed African-American sculptor Nathaniel Choate, will make way for a $400 million educational complex expected to open in 2016.

School officials said only part of the mural — the school crests flanking the main artwork, but not the six figurines celebrating sports, recreation, health, competition, drama and music — could be salvaged.

“This is a loss of history and contact with the founders of this institution,” said English teacher Mary Nilles, one of several teachers who spoke against destroying the artwork.
Construction on the 400,000-square-foot college building will start as soon as the aging auditorium - including Choate’s 33 foot by 17 foot mosaic - is razed.

Choate’s work is on display at several other locations including Harvard University and the National Academy of Design in New York.


If CUNY doesn't appreciate Mr. Choate's artwork, can't they at least donate it to an institution that will? Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Historical Society, etc.?

It's embarrassing to be a CUNY alumnus these days. Sheesh.

Leroy is County's BP pick

From The Politicker:

The Queens County Democratic Party is expected to endorse Councilman Leroy Comrie for borough president next week, according to four sources plugged into various sides of the race.

The sources–some of whom were disappointed in the decision–told Politicker that Congressman Joe Crowley, the head of the borough’s Democratic organization, will probably endorse Mr. Comrie to balance his leadership position in one of the most demographically diverse counties in the country.

“Crowley has a lot pressure, he’s got to deal with African-American district leaders who want him,” said one Queens Democrat familiar with the decision-making process. “It is what it is.”

“It’s about 80 percent they’re going with Leroy,” another Democratic source said. “The black district leaders are strongly behind Leroy. And Joe needs to protect his leadership.”

You can read about the candidates' sources of fundraising here.

In the meantime, let's see what a constituent thinks of Mr. Comrie's effectiveness as a leader...

From Clean Up Jamaica:

This is an excerpt from the Queens Chronicle:

“City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) is taking action in response to complaints from Jamaica residents, led by activist Pamela Hazel, that a handful of eyesores is ruining the quality of life in their neighborhood.

Last week, Comrie sent his community liaison, Jamal Wilkerson, to investigate the locations, which include a dilapidated old playground near the corner of 171st Street and 109th Avenue, a parcel full of wrecked cars next to the home at 170-08 108 Ave. and a pile of debris between the C-Town supermarket at 108-30 Merrick Blvd. and JHS 8. There were also concerns about crushed cars left on 108th Avenue, which is a residential street.

The lawmaker plans to reach out to the owner of C-Town to find out why garbage is piling up near the location. He also vows to be vigilant in continuing to monitoring the conditions of all the troublesome areas.”

Sounds great for Jamaica right……………………………………………WRONG, this article was written October 21, 2010, over two and half years ago and it is not only a handful of eyesores (the only handful is clean areas devoid of trash). Today, we are still dealing with the same issues, (and more) including the troubled spots mentioned in the article, especially the abandoned playground at 171st St/109th Ave. Over two and half years and the garbage problem in Jamaica (and many other parts of Queens) still rages on. If “monitoring the conditions of all the troublesome areas” means looking at them and doing NOTHING, then Councilman Comrie is sticking to his vows.

Sounds like the perfect nominee for Borough President. Continue the apathy.

A little bit of Black history in Douglaston

The former St. Peter's AME Church of Little Neck, which once served a small community of black oystermen that lived along Gabler's Creek in what is now Udall's Cove Park. Address is 40-53 243rd Street. The community became largely displaced by the LIRR and eminent domain.

Non-Asians need not apply?

From the Queens Courier:

An Asian supermarket chain is under fire from a trio of picketers who say the company is not colorblind in its hiring practices.

Jim MacDonald and his two pals, Craig Kinsey and Vincent Middleton, say H-Mart only employs Korean or Chinese cashiers and Hispanic backroom workers at its northeast Queens and Long Island stores. The threesome has been picketing outside the location on Union Street in Flushing since late August.

“It’s unfair to block out other ethnic backgrounds and only hire specific ones,” Kinsey said. “Flushing is a diverse community. If you want to show diversity, put your money where your mouth is. Have some diversity in employment.”

The activists say they’ve toured three H-Mart locations in Flushing and two in Nassau County, only to find a disparity in store workers’ ethnicities.

“We saw no African Americans or white Americans working there,” said Kinsey, who is African-American and lives in Flushing. “It’s not fair because of the consistency of this type of trend in those stores.”

MacDonald, 63, of Flushing — who is white — said H-Mart is considered a standard supermarket and should be held to fair hiring procedures.

It's still bad news on foreclosures

From the NY Times:

To walk 145th Street in South Jamaica, past red-brick homes with metal awnings and chain-link fences, is to find a storm of immense destructive power still raging.

Three years ago, when I wandered this block south of Linden Boulevard in Queens, banks had foreclosed on eight homes. In the years since, banks have filed notice against a half-dozen more owners. Some of those homes sit abandoned, plywood boards nailed across doors and windows, as if to guard against further spread of this plague.

We are accustomed to hearing politicians talk of a halting recovery from the recession. They detect heartbeats in the job market and flickers of life in house sales. New York and New Jersey, our governors proclaim, are on the comeback trail.

Not here.

A dozen miles from Midtown Manhattan, the foreclosure belt stretches across the heart of black homeownership in this city, from Canarsie and East New York in Brooklyn, to Springfield Gardens and St. Albans, Queens, where Fats Waller, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald once owned handsome Tudor-style homes.

Black Americans came late to homeownership for reasons deeply rooted in our tragic racial history. Black New Yorkers making more than $68,000 are nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest mortgages as whites of similar income, and their default rates are much higher. Now a generation watches as its housing wealth is vaporized.