Amazing Pics of Decommissioned Russian Submarine

Decommissioned Russian Victor Class nuclear sub en rte to the scrap yard.  via Business Insider.

I love picture sets like this.  Clearly this thing was parked, rotting away in shallow water for a long time.  Reminds me of an old Star Blazers cartoon I saw on a UHF channel thirty years ago, back when this thing was still probably cruising the ocean with a cargo of nuclear missiles targeted at the US.

Participatory Budgeting Is Upon Us!

Building on the success of Participatory Budgeting over the last few years, Council Member Brad Lander's office is tweaking the process a little bit this season.  For one, the assemblies are going to focus on certain issues.  And two, the pot is getting juiced up to $1.5M from previous allocations of $1M.

Sounds good!  The first assembly (this coming Tuesday) is going to focus on transportation issues, and following assemblies will address a host of other key areas.  The details:

Streets and Transit: 

Tuesday, October 14 at the NYC Transit Museum (Boerum Pl & Schermerhorn St)

Kensington Neighborhood Assembly:

Thursday, October 16 at PS230 (1 Albemarle Rd)

Parks and Environment:

Monday, October 20 at the Picnic House in Prospect Park (95 Prospect Park West)

Arts, Community and Culture:

Wednesday, October 22 at ReelWorks (540 President Street, #2F in Gowanus)

Public Education:

Monday, October 27 at PS 154 (1625 11th Ave in Windsor Terrace)

All the events will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  As in past years, attendees will have the opportunity to give their ideas about how to spend PBNYC dollars. But this year, we will also break into smaller, issue-related groups for in-depth discussions that go beyond participatory budgeting. We hope this format will provide a forum for people to discuss needs and concerns … even if they can’t be solved with capital dollars spent on a physical project.

A great opportunity to get involved in the community.  A lot of great ideas have been put forth and paid for over the last few years.  RSVP HERE.

CM Brad Lander, BP Eric Adams, AM Joan Millman and DL Jo Anne Simon Question Logic, Process of Gowanus Parole Center Siting

Councilman Brad Lander has a petition up for those concerned about the process followed and the general advisability of consolidating Brooklyn parole operations into a remote location on the Gowanus.

The planning process for this facility has fallen far short of what any community deserves from their government. Over several months, not one single written word about the facility has been provided by DOCCS to the community or its elected officials. DOCCS has failed to articulate a coherent rationale for choosing to site a borough-wide facility in the heart of an industrial business zone close to a vibrant residential community. DOCCS has not shared the criteria it uses to site facilities, the solicitation, RFP, or process through which this site was chosen.

This single facility would replace three facilities that were originally in Downtown Brooklyn location, which were convenient to transit, and located in a commercial district with substantial foot-traffic. This new location would concentrate 300 to 400 parolees visits per day in a single site, which is close to many schools, parks and residential areas and inconvenient to transit. If the goal is to provide community-based locations, then there should be several around Brooklyn, convenient to residents from many neighborhoods, in areas with services. Perhaps this location could be one such facility; however, the state cannot claim that siting one facility in this location to serve the entire borough is part of a community-based strategy.

Downtown is the logical site, with excellent access to transit, courts and other government offices.  It's a mystery as to why the state thought this would be a good idea. Borough President (and former police officer) Eric Adams has also weighed in to question the wisdom of the plan:

The new headquarters for state parole operations should be downtown, not in Gowanus, according to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. The proposed location at 15 2nd Avenue is too difficult for parolees to reach.

“When you’re on parole, cab fare can be the difference between violating and not violating,” he told The Brooklyn Paper. “We shouldn’t make it more challenging.”

 Assemblywoman Joan Millman and her presumptive successor, District Leader JoAnne Simon have also questioned the logic of siting the office in such a remote location.

The Latest On LICH

From Dan Goldberg at Capital New York:

SUNY has finalized a deal to sell Long Island College Hospital to a Brooklyn developer, ending a two-year battle to shed the money-losing hospital.

Fortis Property Group will purchase the campus for $240 million, and N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center will run the remaining health care on the site, along with Lutheran Medical Center. 

N.Y.U. has committed to building a $175 million, four-story medical facility that will eventually have a staff of 400, including about 70 physicians. The amount of square-footage devoted to medical care is double what was originally proposed in the Fortis bid, "in recognition of the need for greater services in the community," SUNY chair Carl McCall said in a statement. McCall said SUNY negotiated for increased health care on the site, in response to the needs of the surrounding communities.

And

The deal must still be approved by the state attorney general and state comptroller. Once that approval is complete, N.Y.U. can take over operations of the emergency department, which is all that remains of the Cobble Hill hospital. 

N.Y.U. can then ask the city fire department to resume ambulance service to LICH. N.Y.U. officials expect to see between 35 and 50 patients per day once the ambulances resume.

Of course, this story has had more twists and turns, head fakes and surprises than just about any local issue I can remember.  So this is where we stand, for now.

The Worst Person In The World

Bob Friedrich.

I usually reserve this topic for nationally recognized figures, but seriously, what a jackass.

We're Evolving

xkcd comic via The Big Picture

 . . . and that's a great thing.  But I don't think most young people appreciate just how bad things were, just how recently, in America.  And by young people I don't even mean that young.  Mid-forties on down.

I'm forty myself, and while I certainly remember a strong social stigma against interracial relationships in the environment I grew up in, I was still stunned to learn that they were illegal in half the country in the 1960s.  A big part of that is the fact that our education system and media organs work hard to gloss that over and focus on the happy talk of American Exceptionalism.

My own views on race, gender, and LGBT-related issues have evolved fairly dramatically over the last 25 years . . . or more accurately, over the period from say 1992 to 2003.  And not all at the same pace, necessarily.  But I was an early newspaper reader, and a twelve-to-fifteen year old kid reading garbage from the likes of Cal Thomas and Tony Snow is going to form some ass-backwards opinions about things in the absence of other information.  A lot of retrograde attitudes in this country especially on race are sustained by ignorance, often willful ignorance, of how bad things were and how bad things still are.

We have a duty to make sure that our schools are presenting our history to kids warts and all.  Thankfully, kids today have things I didn't: Twitter, blogs, the internet in general, the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, John Oliver.  But we also need to stand up against the Pam Mazanec's of the world who would fill our kids heads with sweet lies.

We need to evolve on a lot more things.  But I am encouraged by of this trend.

Almost Halloween!

1st Place between Henry and Clinton

I've always enjoyed this season, but having a Halloween-obsessed three year old really brings it to another level.  It's awesome.  Thank you, neighbors, for delighting the kids.