BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

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Students at a Bensonhurst school faced the ultimate scare when a packing error almost forced them to spend July and August in summer school. The New York Post reports that students at I.S. 227 Edward B. Shallow (6500 16th Avenue) received terrifying letters from their school mistakenly informing them they failed the state English exams and that they would be forced to attend summer school as a result.

The 25 students, aged 13 to 14, panicked when they received letters informing them that they had all failed their state English exams. The letters made no mention of administrative errors. As a result, parents and students began contemplating worst-case scenarios.

“My family has summer-vacation plans, and it isn’t right that we might have to change them,” 13-year-old Mindy Tong Told the Post. “I was sure that I did well and that I was going to graduate. Now I’m unsure of everything.”

Luckily, the Department of Education acknowledged their error and found that the answer keys were placed in the wrong box, forcing the tests to be graded as failures when they were mailed to the scoring site.

Department of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes ensured that they had contacted the families affected concerning the errors and that the tests would be properly scored today.

Still, summer school isn’t all that bad is it? Unless Hollywood and Carl Reiner lied to me all these years, summer school is the place where you get to hang out at the beach, play a bunch of practical jokes on your teacher and get involved in a bunch of various sexy adventures. Right?

Source: sincerelyhiten via flickr

Albany lawmakers and Governor Andrew Cuomo have come to an agreement on the size and scale of casino expansion in New York State, announcing a potential rollout of three New York City-area casinos after an initial seven year moratorium.

The news comes after a slew of proposals offered by the governor and lawmakers. Cuomo wanted legislation that pushed for three in unspecified upstate locations, with four more locations to be announced later. He also pushed a moratorium on any New York City casinos for as much as five years. Siting for all casinos would have been determined by an independent panel under Cuomo’s plan.

Lawmakers, though, wanted a say in casino siting, and a handful of proposals emerged with siting locations written into the bill.

The latest proposal is a compromise, with general locations incorporated into the language. Two casinos would be allowed in the Catskills, and one each in the Capital region and Southern Tier, the Albany Times-Union reports. Then the state would accept bids for casinos in the New York City region – which includes Long Island and Westchester – in a second phase of expansion to take place seven years later.

The bill is also a giveaway to Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos, granting up to 1,000 video lottery machines in Suffolk and Nassau counties. The addition would be a clear threat to the racino at Aquaduct, which currently has a stranglehold on video lottery machines in the region.

The proposed legislation will also require 39 percent of slot machine revenues and approximately 10 percent of revenues from table games, as opposed to the 65 percent of video lottery terminal revenue demanded from racinos. Additionally, as opposed to Cuomo’s last proposal, which called for a $50 million upfront licensing fee for any new casinos, the latest proposal does not include a specific upfront fee at all, nor a demand for capital investment or job creation.

In order for a casino expansion to go forward, a change to the state’s constitution is required. To do that, legislators must pass legislation in two consecutive sessions to change the language, and then put it to voters in a referrendum during the November elections. They already passed the first round of legislation during last year’s session. If the latest proposal passes – and it can as early as Friday – it will go to voters this year.

Photo Courtesy Of Justin Brannan

ONLY ON BENSONHURST BEAN: Despite the push by a local coalition urging the return of weekend service on the X28 express bus, the MTA has informed Bensonhurst Bean that service restoration is highly unlikely.

The X28 saw weekend service slashed entirely from the route in June of 2010 due to budget constraints. As we reported on Monday, a coalition of local groups and elected officials – including Councilman Vincent Gentile and Assemblyman William Colton, Bensonhurst West End Community Council, People’s Coalition of Coney Island, and more – are demanding that the MTA restore weekend service to compensate for the year-long closure of the Montague tunnel, which carries the R train into Manhattan and is expected to wreak havoc on commutes to and from western Brooklyn when it takes effect.

But the MTA told Bensonhurst Bean that there’s insufficient demand for the line to justify the expense, especially since a large stretch of the X28 ridership are served by the D line. Towards the western stretch of the route, former X28 weekend passengers are served by an X17 bus stop at 86th Street near the Gowanus Expressway, a stop created specifically to compensate for the loss of X28 service.

“The weekend X28 route had low ridership (760 customers) and duplicated D subway service,” MTA spokesperson Deirdre Parker wrote in an email to Bensonhurst Bean. “Many other former X28 customers have started using the DFNQ subways on weekends, in some cases transferring from local buses.”

Overall, though, the service is just too expensive to restore when riders have other options.

“On a cost per passenger basis, express bus service is far more costly to operate than either local bus service or subway service,” Parker noted.

Gentile’s office has little concern about the expense required to bring weekend service back, saying the agency has managed to find funds in the past.

“The MTA has a knack for suddenly finding money behind filing cabinets and underneath old mattresses. This year Albany gave the MTA $40 million more than they asked for. It would make sense, first and foremost, to put some of that $40 million towards restoring services that were cut,” said Justin Brannan, Gentile’s director of communications and legislative affairs.

Brannan added that seniors and the disabled in neighborhoods like Bath Beach or Bensonhurst’s West End will continue to suffer as long as the MTA drags its feet. Those neighborhoods, along with Sea Gate and western Coney Island, were once served on weekends by the X28 and now have to take a bus to a subway to get to Manhattan, rather than their one-ride commute.

“For seniors and the disabled, getting to Manhattan on the weekend from Bath Beach, Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights, Sea Gate or Coney Island without the x28 is like running the gauntlet,” Branna said. “The MTA needs to understand that people truly relied on this weekend express bus service to get where they had to go – let’s stop acting like the weekend x28 was a luxury.”

Source: Blue387 via wikimedia commons

A deal has finally been struck between the New York State Senate and Assembly in the effort to bring back lever voting machines. The New York Daily News is reporting that the old machines will be brought back just for the upcoming mayoral primaries.

We’ve previously reported that a series of disagreements between the Senate and Assembly over the best way to bring back the machines had stalled a decision. The Senate wanted to bring back the lever machines for all non-federal elections while the Assembly just wanted the machines only for this year’s upcoming primary and possible runoff election. The new deal brings back the lever machines just for use in the primary and and potential runoff elections, and not for the general in November.

The machines would replace the optical scanning voting machines, after Board of Elections bungling in past elections caused concern that they would be unable to reprogram the machines in time for a runoff.

The legislation also pushed back the date of any special mayoral runoff to three weeks after the primary instead of two. Governor Andrew Cuomo has not yet decided to throw his support behind the measure, despite heavy support from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and bipartisan support in the Senate and Assembly.

Source: Boston Public Library via Flickr

Nearly a century ago, in Coney Island’s halcyon years, when it was trying to compete with Atlantic City for summer tourist dollars, the towers of the Half Moon Hotel stood beautifully over the boardwalk. The history of the hotel, torn down 15 years ago, is remembered in a fantastic article by Brownstoner, which tracks the hotel through the Great Depression, its days as a mobster hot spot and its conversion into various medical facilities over the years.

The Half Moon Hotel was a 14-story structure located on the boardwalk at West 29th Street. It was built in 1927, at the height of prohibition, to challenge the beachfront hotels drawing thousands to the South Jersey shores in Atlantic City. The hotel was named after explorer Henry Hudson’s ship, remembering when it was anchored at Gravesend Bay. At the time, Hudson was haplessly looking for a shortcut to Asia.

While the hotel was very popular in its early years, the disastrous calamity that was the Great Depression nearly sunk the place for good. The building was nearly torn down in 1939 but managed to hang on. It became the scene of one of the most famous mob deaths in city history when FBI informant Abe Reles allegedly died at the hands of mobster syndicate Murder Inc., after falling from a hotel window.

The hotel’s transformation into a medical facility began during World War II when the US Navy took it over to serve as a hospital. The building was renamed as the “US Naval Hospital Sea Gate, NY.” After the war, the building briefly became a hotel again until it became the Harbor Hospital. Brownstoner then described the complicated history of Half Moon’s days as a medical center:

In 1951, the Hebrew Home and Hospital for the Aged bought the hotel and planned to house indigent senior citizens there in a hotel like setting, with private one and a half room suites. The Home would have dining facilities, recreation rooms, and even a synagogue for its residents. They opened for business in 1953. (On a personal note, I sang with an opera company there once, in 1983. I had never been to Coney Island, at the time, and had no idea where the heck I was. It wasn’t until researching this article that I realized I had been in the Half Moon Hotel.)

By the 1990s, the Home was called the Metropolitan Jewish Geriatric Center, and the hotel building itself was known as the Parshelsky Pavilion. MJGC wanted to build a new Shorefront Jewish Geriatric Center, but the old hotel was in the way. It was torn down in 1996. When it was built, the Half Moon had been the tallest building around for miles. By the time it was torn down, its distinctive tower was lost in the towers of all of the high rise housing around it. Today, the name “Half Moon Hotel” is only remembered by mobster buffs and lovers of old Coney Island.

As corporations are currently pouring millions of dollars into Coney Island, betting that it will flourish in a new post-Sandy era, it was fascinating to read about the many transformations the boardwalk and community has already undergone since the early 20th century.

State Senator Marty Golden (Photo By Erica Sherman)

State Senator Marty Golden sponsored a bill that provides huge tax breaks for Manhattan luxury apartment building developers. The New York Daily News is reporting that legislation backed by Golden designates tax breaks for five developments, costing the city tens of millions of dollars as the city wrangles with an already starved budget.

One of the buildings eligible for a tax break includes One57, a massive 75-story luxury apartment development being built near Central Park. Believing that the legislation will help create jobs, Golden otherwise pleaded ignorance when questioned on the breaks.

“These projects were ready to go,” Golden told the Daily News. “I’m not sure where they came from,” Golden said in response to who earmarked the developments for special favor.

The bill’s sponsor in the Assembly, Keith Wright, a Manhattan Democrat, was also unsure for who and why the tax breaks were included.

“These five properties — it was important that they benefit from the piece of legislation probably, and I don’t know why, because some of the folks in the Senate wanted them to be included,” Wright told the Daily News.

The answer as to why the developments got special favors was not surprising. The Daily News discovered that significant campaign contributions were made to various state campaign committees:

The developers of four of the projects, their relatives and affiliated companies gave $1.5 million to various state campaign committees during 2008-12 — including $440,962 last year, records show.

The contributions included $53,000 to the state Senate Republican campaign treasury, $34,000 to the war chest of Assembly Democrats and $150,000 to the campaign of Gov. Cuomo, who signed the bill Jan. 30.

Advocates of campaign finance reform saw this measure as another example of how the system is broken.

“That real estate developers were able to win such a huge giveaway is a reflection of . . . just how broken the current campaign finance system is,” Jaron Benjamin, president of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, told the Daily News. ”The reason Albany lawmakers agreed to spend millions subsidizing luxury housing for the wealthy is clear: Developers who contributed to their campaigns . . . expected to be rewarded.”

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu sent out a press release today blasting the actions of the Senate and Assembly.

“Extending tax breaks to super-luxury apartment buildings in Manhattan is wrongheaded and shows grossly misplaced priorities. It’s sad and outrageous that billionaires get huge subsidies while the Rent Guidelines Board considers significant rent increases for millions of New Yorkers. It’s especially galling that the tax abatement in question, called 421-a, was meant to promote construction of affordable housing,” Liu said in the release.

I’m not the biggest roller coaster fan. I’ve been on a lot of them, but because I am prone to motion sickness I tend to avoid them [Ed. -- Wuss.]. That’s why I appreciate this video of the Thunderbolt, a virtual look at the new coaster headed to Coney Island, because I get all the taste of what the ride offers, without actually having to climb aboard.

The video, which begins with a glimpse of the old Thunderbolt, quickly shoots you to the futuristic new one which will drop paying customers at speeds upwards of 65 mph. The metal coaster is rather unconventional, using an elevator of sorts to bring coaster cars full of patrons up to the top of the ride, dumping them on the tracks, and letting gravity take over – as opposed to the traditional  clacking chain hoisting a car up the tracks as part of a closed loop.

Last week, we reported that the folks at Luna Park were rebuilding the Thunderbolt at a cost of $10 million. The new thrill ride will be adjacent to the Brooklyn Cyclones ballpark and will be operational in the summer of 2014. Until then, press play on the video above and dream about all the cotton candy you are likely to throw up after rocketing around that loop. Wooo!

Photo Courtesy Of Justin Brannan

Nearly 150 people gathered outside P.S. 204, the Vince Lombardi School, to honor the life of Karen Barone, a indefatigable community advocate who spent countless hours fighting to improve schools in the district and raising money to help the less fortunate. In honor of her efforts, Councilman Vincent Gentile renamed 82nd Street and 15th Avenue “Karen Barone Way.”

A proud mother, Barone was a PTA co-president and a member of the PTA President’s Council. She also volunteered as a Continuing Catholic Development teacher at St. Bernadette. She raised over $30,000 for the Lustgarten Foundation to help find a cure for pancreatic cancer and she also found time to raise money to feed the homeless.

“The reason we rename streets in this city is because of people like Karen Barone,” Gentile said. “Because the impact Karen’s life had on the lives of others will live on forever. And what better place in this community to commemorate Karen than right here outside the school Karen dedicated so much of her life to: P.S. 204, the Vince Lombardi School.”

To learn more and help fight pancreatic cancer, you can visit the Lustgarten Foundation by clicking here.

Baruch Lebovits (Source: failedmessiah.typepad.com)

Sam Kellner, an Orthodox man and Borough Park resident, was seeking justice on behalf of his sexually abused 16-year-old son. The New York Times reported that in the midst of his ordeal, he was shunned by the local community, damaging his business and social life, but also indicted on charges of attempting to extort the accused abuser for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The complicated and tragic story began five years ago when Kellner accused Baruch Lebovits, a prominent Hasidic cantor, of sexually abusing his 16-year-old son. Kellner began working with investigators in helping them uncover other victims of Lebovits, in turn seriously upsetting the Orthodox establishment. A rabbi at Kellner’s synagogue declared him a traitor and forbade community members from talking to him. As a result, Kellner’s son was barred from all local yeshivas and Kellner’s business was driven to closure. Kellner also became worried that he would be unable to find his son a wife.

According to Kellner, his life was ruined.

“I felt murdered and abandoned. I’m ruined,” Kellner told the Times.

For Kellner, things went from bad to worse in 2011. Prosecutors had successfully tried Lebovits for sexual abuse crimes but then quickly indicted Kellner on charges of extortion. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, led by Charles Hynes, had obtained a secret tape and grand jury testimony from a supporter of Lebovits, both of which provided evidence that Kellner had attempted to extort $400,000 from Lebovits.

The evidence against Kellner subsequently led to the release of Lebovits.

Battle lines between a growing group of embittered Orthodox whistle-blowers who faced similar community harassment, and the powerful Orthodox establishment who fight hard to keep such cases under wraps, are increasing in intensity. The Times described how for whistle-blowers, Kellner’s case is of the utmost importance:

This indictment stunned the small, embattled community of Hasidic whistle-blowers. Mr. Kellner, to their view, took enormous risks in a righteous fight. That he could sit in the dock next month is a message not lost on anyone.

“If he’s convicted, no one will ever come forward again,” said Rabbi Cheskel Gold, a member of a rabbinical court in Monsey, N.Y., that gave Mr. Kellner religious permission to investigate Mr. Lebovits. “No one.”

Alan Dershowitz, an attorney for Levbovits have painted Kellner, and other people who have come forward in sexual abuse cases in Orthodox communities, as nothing more than extortionists.

“We see Kellner as a leader of a major extortion ring. He is not a do-gooder,” Dershowitz told the Times.

The case against Kellner isn’t as cut and dry as Dershowitz would want people to think. The Times describes the audiotape, which allegedly captures Kellner trying to extort Lebovits, as being vague:

[Dershowitz] pointed to the key evidence, a secretly taped, rambling and excited conversation between Mr. Kellner and Meyer Lebovits, the cantor’s son. Mr. Kellner is also accused of paying witnesses to testify against Mr. Lebovits. “When you have an audiotape where Kellner is warning him that he’s going to bring other victims, it speaks for itself,” Mr. Batsidis said.

That explanation sounds better than the tape itself. The transcript reveals a conversation soaked in ambiguity, and rendered in overwrought language. It depicts Mr. Kellner as a tortured father trying to find justice. The younger Mr. Lebovits at times seems to accept that his father committed some acts of abuse.

Kellner has also gained support from Beit Din, a three-member rabbinical court in Monsey, NY, who believe that they have a moral obligation to fight sexual abuse in their community:

They view Mr. Kellner as a brave pioneer. He did not seek out witnesses at random; rather their court, with the help of local leaders in Williamsburg, gave him the name of a victim.

“Lebovits is known to have a long history” of sexual abuse, Rabbi Chaim Flohr said. But Mr. Lebovits has powerful supporters, and people are fearful, he added.

Currently, Kellner is free on a $25,000 bond and is awaiting his day in court.

Photo Courtesy Of John Quaglione

City Council hopeful John Quaglione is disgusted at the sight of graffiti lining the exit ramp of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and is demanding the MTA do something about it.

Quaglione, who is challenging veteran Councilman Vincent Gentile for his seat, railed against the MTA for its unpopular $15 tolls, which he believes is contributing nothing to clean graffiti off the bridge.

The candidate said he was driving around on Monday when he went to enter the Belt Parkway at 4th Avenue and 100th Street and found himself staring at a wall of graffiti on the exit ramp – a “very bad welcome sign to” Brooklyn, Quaglione said.

So he scoffed at the MTA’s inability to wipe its bridge’s bottomside.

“With the Verrazano Narrows Bridge toll now $15 a better maintenance system must be put into place. What are we paying all this money for, if they can’t even keep the Bridge clean?” he said in a press release.