BENSONHURST'S PREMIER NEWS BLOG

State Senator Marty Golden will be hosting a town hall meeting October 24, 7:00 p.m. at Bay Ridge Preparatory School, 8101 Ridge Boulevard. Golden is inviting residents of the community to attend and discuss quality of life and legislative issues.

Representatives from the New York City Department of Finance, the Department of Buildings, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department and the Department of Sanitation have confirmed their attendance.

“I look forward to leading these conversations with the community so to provide an update on a variety of neighborhood issues and important legislation which I have recently been working on,” Golden stated. “I am glad to join with representatives of key City agencies to work with residents to resolve local problems in an effort to improve our quality of life. I hope you will join me…”

For more information, contact Golden’s office at (718) 238-6044 or email at golden@nysenate.gov.

The next Community Education Council (CEC) 21 meeting will be held September 12, 6:30 p.m., at Intermediate School 303 – Herbert S. Eisenberg, 501 West Avenue.

Public comment is encouraged at this meeting. Guest speakers will include representatives from the Office of Pupil Transportation, who will discuss variances, and Family Solutions of New York, who will talk about services provided for all adults with disabilities.

To learn more, “like” CEC 21 on Facebook, email them at cec21@schools.nyc.gov, visit them online at www.cecd21.org or call (718) 333-3885.

Community Board 11 will hold its next general meeting September 12, 7:30 p.m. at the Bensonhurst Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare,1740 84th Street between Bay16th Street and New Utrecht Avenue.

The meeting is open to the public. To learn more, call (718) 266-8800, email info@brooklyncb11.org, visit them on Facebook, or go to www.brooklyncb11.org.

We’ve been covering this subject for a while now. For more, click here.

The following is a press release from the office of City Councilman David Greenfield:

Brooklyn – Councilman David G. Greenfield was joined by approximately 75 community residents and by representatives from the Participatory Budgeting Project and Community Voices Heard last week to kick off the participatory budgeting initiative in the 44th Council District neighborhoods ofBoroPark, Midwood and Bensonhurst. Under participatory budgeting, which will bring more transparency and openness to how tax dollars are spent locally, district residents will have say over how $1 million in government funding is spent on capital projects right in their own neighborhood. At the information session last Tuesday in Bensonhurst, the residents and activists in attendance learned more about exactly how participatory budgeting will work over the next eight months as the community brainstorms, nominates and eventually votes on which projects they want funded.

“I am very excited about participatory budgeting. Nobody knows their community better than the people who live there, and I am confident residents will put forth ideas that will benefit our local neighborhoods, including many projects that government might not have thought of otherwise. This will give the public a direct say in the budgeting process and allow us to fund some great projects in the community that will be suggested as this process moves forward,” said Greenfield, who brought participatory budgeting to his district as part of his ongoing efforts to fulfill his campaign promise to make the budgeting process more open and transparent.

At the information session, residents from around the district were given an overview of how participatory budgeting works, including the process between now and when the public will vote on the nominated projects this spring. Moving ahead, residents who can commit to attending several meetings each month will be considered as delegates to serve on committees focusing on areas like transportation, recreation and education. As the public suggests projects over the next couple of months, the delegates will help shape these ideas into formal proposals for the final ballot to be presented to the public in March or April. Residents who are not delegates can still attend meetings, suggest projects and take part in the public vote next spring. After the vote to decide which projects are funded – with at least one chosen from each of the three district neighborhoods – the delegates will then work with city officials and agencies next summer to implement the winning ideas.

“It was great to see so many residents and community leaders get involved in this exciting effort and have a direct say in how their taxes are reinvested here inBoroPark, Midwood and Bensonhurst. I am very excited to work with many residents over the next few months on ideas that will directly benefit the neighborhood and improve the quality of life for everyone. This is a great chance to have a voice in how your tax dollars are spent locally, so I urge everyone to get involved. My thanks to those residents who helped get participatory budgeting off to a great start last week,” addedGreenfield.

The next participatory budgeting session is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5 at Greenfield’s district office, located at 4424 16th Avenue, starting at 7 p.m. For more information, contact the district office at (718) 853-2704 or visit pbnyc.org. Every resident who lives in the 44th Council District is invited to attend upcoming participatory budgeting meetings and get involved to make sure their voice is heard. In all, 1.3 million New Yorkers, including nearly 175,000 in Councilman Greenfield’s district, will have the opportunity to take part in participatory budgeting this year, making it the largest such program in the nation.

Bay Ridge rocker Frankie Marra will perform on July 31 at 79th Street and Shore Road. Photo by Erica Sherman

State Senator Martin J. Golden, in conjunction with the South West Brooklyn Parks Task Force, will host a series of concerts and events throughout July and August in local parks throughout Golden’s district.

“This summer, I am proud to host another great line up of concerts and invite music lovers and neighbors to be a part of these great evenings of music. It’s time to grab a beach chair, or a blanket, and head to our local parks on most Tuesday and Wednesday evenings,” said Golden. “The music of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, dance, classic rock, and more will be sure to get you dancing under the stars. Frankie Marra, Carl Thomas, Sound Affair, Plastic Soul and more acts will make our local park[s] alive with the music that we have come to enjoy and love.”

The 2012 Summer Concerts Complete Schedule:

July 10: Head Over Heels (Bay Ridge party band), 79th Street and Shore Road

July 17: Out Of The Blue (classic rock and dance), 79th Street and Shore Road

July 24: Rave On (Buddy Holly and oldies), Dyker Park, 86th Street and 14th Avenue

July 25: Carl Thomas (Sinatra, Darin, Dean), Avenue U and Van Sicklen Street

July 31: Frankie Marra (classic rock party band), 79th Street and Shore Road

August 14: Risky Business (all your favorite oldies), 79th Street and Shore Road

August 17: City Sounds (oldies, dance and more), Parkville, 65th Street above Eighth Avenue

August 21: On A Good Run Band (classic rock), 79th Street and Shore Road

August 22: Family Day (rides, games, karaoke, etc.), McKinley Park, 75th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway

All the concerts, which begin at 7:00 p.m., are free and open to the public. Golden will also be holding a similar concert series in the Marine Park section of his district. The events are supported by Tracey Real Estate, Flushing Bank, the Bay Ridge Manor, Approved Energy, Northfield Bank, and Lifetime Vending and Amusements.

For further info and for updates on the shows, visit Golden’s website, www.golden.nysenate.gov, or follow him on Twitter @senmartygolden, or on Facebook at Martin J. Golden.

Currently attending the High School for Economics and Finance in Lower Manhattan, Alvaro told The Daily News that he mastered English within a year after working on his grammar and vocabulary with his stepfather for two hours every night.

The hard work eventually paid off:

More than five years later, Blanco held in his hands his first novel “Memoirs of a Revolutionare: Days of War.” The first story in the trilogy is selling on Amazon.com for $15 a copy.

The epic tome follows the adventures of “a soldier fighting against an alien invasion 300 years in the future.”

From the description on Amazon:

The story is all told through the memoirs of Juan Salvador, who is the main character. Juan is the son of a senator and a nurse, and after college he decides to join the army, not knowing that the people of his home planet were going to be attacked by aliens in just a few months. This story is about his journey through the war and his fight to survive a treacherous battle.

Blanco is also getting a little bit of help with sales of “Memoirs of a Revolutionare: Days of War” from his mom, Coney Island Hospital nursing technician Luz Eckmier, who has sold copies of the sci-fi novel to her co-workers.

Eckmier “remembers her son jumping up from the dinner table and racing to his notebook whenever a new idea for his book popped into his head.”

Not bad for someone who “never read much” when he was growing up in Bogota. Blanco says he plans on taking readers on many other sci-fi journeys.

The Cropsey Avenue and Bay 37th Street traffic island, where Terence Tsao lost his life (Source: Google Maps)

A promising young man’s life came to a horrific end Friday night when an allegedly intoxicated driver slammed his van into 17-year-old honor student Terence Tsao, who was standing on a Bath Beach traffic island a block away from his home, the Daily News reports.

According to police sources, the driver of the 2000 Dodge minivan, 46-year-old Vitali Korzavin, was arrested at the scene of the accident and charged with vehicular manslaughter, DWI and speeding.

Tsao, a Stuyvesant High School senior, who worked as a docent at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, was returning home from his school’s Board Game Society when the crash occurred at approximately 9:40 p.m. on Cropsey Avenue at Bay 37th Street.

The hard-working young man, who aspired to study environmental science and, according to the Daily News “had won scholarships to a handful of colleges, including a four-year merit scholarship to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania,” was rushed to Lutheran Medical Center, where he died. Tsao leaves behind his parents and a younger sister.

In a touching gesture by Tsao’s classmates, many have taken to reposting a snapshot of his graduation photo from a yearbook page along with their sentiments on various Tumblr blogs. Said one fellow classmate:

Even though I barely knew him, he was the kindest person I met when I first got into Stuy. HE would just wave hiii all the time all excitedly. During the time when the college’s visited the school, I remember being in the same room with Terrance and he would ask about their Environmental programs. I said hi to him again then thinking dam he’s got this. He was destined for greatness; I just know it. Why did the lightening have to strike someone so young and set fire to the forest… The prospect for the future gone in a flash.

“He especially loved the touch pools [at the Aquarium] with the starfish,” his father told the Daily News. “Children loved the touch pools, and he loved interacting with the public.”

A volunteer serves a resident in need at Reaching Out Community Services (Photo by Carla Astudillo)

Weeks after we published a story on Reaching Out Community Services‘ struggles to keep food stocked on its shelves, The New York Daily News reports that the beleaguered Bensonhurst food pantry at 7708 New Utrecht Avenue has hit yet another brick wall. In a devastating blow to its ability to provide free food to the area’s most indigent residents, Reaching Out was denied a permit by the New York City Parks Department to hold weekly flea market fundraisers at Cadman Plaza in downtown Brooklyn.

In spite of holding one successful flea market last April that brought in $2,000 — which Reaching Out Fundraising Chairman James LaMorte said would cover the facility’s rent if they were able to hold them weekly — officials from Parks told the pantry that “they have a blanket policy against allowing flea markets in Brooklyn parks.”

Reaching Out had to take out a bank loan just to pay the rent, and a significant one-time anonymous donation has carried them through this year, but LaMorte admits that the flea markets would help them enormously.

“If we could do it every week, that would cover our rent,” LaMorte said. “We run nice events and have pictures to prove it and have never received a complaint about any of our events.”

“But that money is now gone,” said Thomas Neve, executive director and founder of the pantry. “We stretched it out as much as possible.”

Nevertheless, Cadman Plaza — a stone’s throw from Borough Hall — “is no stranger to commercial activity, with farmers markets held several times a week,” according to The Daily News.

As we previously reported, because other food distribution organizations such as Food Bank and City Harvest have also seen a decrease in funds, the pantry receives less food, in spite of generous donations from Bensonhurst schools and churches. Pantry officials said they have not kept up with demand, which has skyrocketed from 800 clients to 4,000 in just four years due to the ailing economy, and they’ve had to cut back on their hours of operation to offset the expense.

If the pantry doesn’t receive the help it needs, in the form of funding and food donations, “then the whole program might have to shut down,” Neve confesses.

Should that happen, 4,000 area residents could go hungry.

Make a donation to Reaching Out Community Services.