Quick Hits - 65 Hour Workweek Edition

Posting has been light due to many hours in the salt mines of legal work.

A few interesting bits:

- The MTA informs us that the closing of Carroll Street subway station main entrance has been delayed indefinitely, until developer Billy Stein is ready to do the work that requires closure. That's good! But 90% of the plaza including the news stand is still closed. That's bad.

- The wide streets text amendment sailed through the City Council this week, passed unanimously. Great work CGNA, CORD, Bill deBlasio and everyone else. Thank yous as well to Marty Markowitz, CB6, Marty Connors office, Joan Millman's office, and the countless individuals who fought for this. Maria Pagano, Glenn & Katia Kelly, John Hatheway, Rita Miller, Lucy deCarlo, Triada Samaras, Vince Favorito, Maryann Young, the list goes on and on. But this was the easy part! Downzoning and landmarking are going to be longer, tougher fights, but we CAN make it happen.

- From the Inbox:
"a local site called stoopsales.com . (www.stoopsales.com) It's a place where people can list and find stoopsales all over Brooklyn. The site features:
- mapping
- Browsing sales by neighborhood
- Advanced searching
- RSS feeds
- Email alerts for neighborhood sales
- Sale "bookmarking"
- and more..."

No postings for Carroll Gardens yet . . . but this looks like a great neighborhood tool. My cousin Dave will love it.

Heat Wave Relief

We don't use an air conditioner at home, so last night we upgraded our fan power. For $75 we bought a floor fan from Lowe's that pushes 6000 cubic feet of air per minute. Put that sucker on the windowsill and let 'er rip. It gets the job done.

For those for whom that might not be a viable option, Assemblywoman Joan Millman's office has the word on neighborhood cooling centers:

Due to the heat wave this weekend, I would like to let everyone know of
additional weekend hours during which our local senior centers will be
open as cooling centers. I encourage you to pass this information on to
elderly family members, friends and neighbors

Eileen Dugan Senior Center
380 Court Street
Saturday 7/19 and Sunday 7/20 from 11 AM to 3 PM
Lunch will be served

St. Charles Jubilee Senior Center
55 Pierrepont Street
Saturday 7/19 and Sunday 7/20 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Lunch will be served

Raices
420 Baltic Street
Saturday 7/19 and Sunday 7/20 from 10 AM to 2:00 PM

This heat is no joke for the elderly. I doubt I have many octogenarian readers, so please spread the word.

Carroll Street Station Closure

Bad news for Carroll Gardeners - construction of the Oliver House condos, previously known as 360 Smith, will shut the station as of July 28th . . . for 6-8 months.
(I took this picture with my phone on Monday . . . the sidewalk shed has expanded greatly since then, and looks like it will cover the entire courtyard.)

Full statement:
This is to inform you that MTA NYC Transit will be closing the Carroll
Street F station's plaza entrance at 2nd Place and Smith Street on
Monday, July 28, 2008 due to the construction development which is
currently being performed by Oliver Developments at 360 Smith Street
(a.k.a. 131 2nd Place). Because the safety of our customers is of
utmost concern, this closure will be in effect on a 24-hour, 7 days per
week basis for 6-8 months (subject to the progress of the construction
project).

Please note this is only an entrance closure, and the station will be
open for business at all times. Customers will be asked to use the two
other station entrances at 2nd Street and President Street. We have
installed two additional high-wheel entrances/exits for customer usage
at 2nd Street, and a station agent will be on duty at all times at the
2nd Street entrance. We will be posting signs at the station in short
time which will notify our customers about the entrance closure and
alternate entrances.

NYC Transit will have an engineer on site at all times during this
construction project in order to ensure the structural integrity of the
station and the safety of our customers. We will be happy to provide
you with periodic updates on the station-entrance reopening schedule as
more information becomes available. In the meantime, you can always
contact me via e-mail or by calling me if you have any questions or
concerns regarding his project.

Devin Cohen For Civil Court, 1st District

It is hard to find a more committed public servant than Devin Cohen. Anyone who has seen Devin in action at Community Board 6 or responding to a crisis as an EMT knows that Devin is compassionate, dedicated and truly cares about the community. An attorney, a long-time community activist and solid Democrat, Devin is running for Civil Court Judge and we would be fortunate to have his service.

Devin can't ask for money, but I'm happy to do so for him. There's a fundraiser for Devin tomorrow night - details are below. I hope to see you there.

Wednesday July 9th
Fundraiser for Devin Cohen for Civil Court Judge
at the home of Harley Diamond and Jonathan Lovett
363 Washington Ave, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
6:30-8:30 pm

City Council Campaign Event

For those of you following the campaign, the Brooklyn Paper covered our fundraising event on Monday June 30th. I owe a debt of gratitude to Hilary Meyer and David Caress for signing in guests and allowing me to spend all of my time talking and listening to constituents. Thanks also to our friends Lou and Dave at Layla Jones for hosting us in their space.

We raised nearly $2,000 that night, which will yield an additional $10,000 in matching funds from the Campaign Finance Board. While I wouldn't wish the paperwork on anyone, the campaign finance system allows the average citizen an opportunity to compete with the candidates who raise tens of thousands from developers, and that is a great thing.

We recently added to Team Reilly: Bart Robbett will be working with us throughout the campaign on media and mailing. Ben Schaffer's Media Mezcla will be putting together a top notch website for the campaign. We'll be rolling that out in a couple of weeks.

It's going to be a great campaign. I'm looking forward to hearing from as many people as I can about the issues affecting the workers and families and transit riders of Brooklyn.