Arthur Borko’s on a roll today. He spotted this at the Avenue P subway overpass (B/Q). This happens all the time. Do we need bigger clearance signs?
Arthur Borko sent in this photo of FDNY crews on the scene at 1900 Avenue W (corner of East 19th Street). Borko said that smoke or steam is pouring out of the ground directly in front of the building. Could be a burst steam pipe or water main underneath sidewalk, or perhaps worse. We’ll let you know as we find out more information.
This year’s Grillin On The Bay and Brooklyn Chili Smackdown was the largest yet, with more than 1,000 visitors converging in Sheepshead Bay to attend the city’s only grilling competition (and Brooklyn’s largest BBQ event).
The 5th year of the annual event drew 27 teams and 36 judges from places as far-flung as Massachusetts and Virginia. For the chili competition – a people’s choice event - attendees drowned in 30 pots of chili (just about all of it was gone hours before the school closed up shop).
And it paid off, too. Proceeds broke every previous record by the organizers, racking in nearly $5,000 for St. Mark Elementary School (East 18th Street and Avenue Z).
As for me, I had a wild time. The first few hours were split between judging the BBQ competition then running out to meet readers who stopped by our table. I easily met a couple dozen people who read the site – so to those people, thanks for stopping by! For those who came by while I was behind the scenes, thank you too! We’ll just have to meet at the next event.
And of course, a big thank you goes out to Robert Fernandez, the Sheepshead Bay resident who organizes the event every year.
After the judging, I had the pleasure of hanging out with all those readers who lingered – and, of course, Sheepshead Bites’ fantastic staff of volunteers and supporters – and quaffed down a couple of discounted beers (note for next year: beer prices tumble as it gets later in the game).
Read on after the jump to see the results of the competition and two galleries of photos (one of photos throughout the day, the other of the awards ceremony).
Courtesy of Paypaul via Flickr
Kingsborough Community College decided last week to roll back a decision banning a student from distributing a pro-life magazine on campus after the intervention of a religious speech advocacy group.
Back in September, the school ordered student Joseph Hayon to stop distributing copies of Live Action’s national pro-life magazine, The Advocate. Urged on by Live Action, a new media anti-abortion venture, Hayon contacted the Alliance Defense Fund. The ADF provides legal assistance and training for a host of causes on the religious right.
On March 11, the ADF sent a letter to Kingsborough officials requesting the decision be overturned in respect of the First Amendment.
“KCC simply cannot silence speech because some people find it offensive,” they wrote.
Kinsborough Community College agreed, and swiftly reversed its ban, saying they would respect Hayon’s right to distribute The Advocate.
[via Live Action]
Courtesy of Daily News
Police raided a Gravesend home on Friday night, arresting four people and seizing 30 guns, nine knives, and a stash of drugs.
Husband and wife Thomas Siano and Kathleen Siano, along with their 29-year-old son Vincent Siano and family friend Michael Poole, were charged with criminal possession of weapons.
Their home on West Street near Avenue X was packed with 10 handguns, nine shotguns, nine rifles, two assault rifles and a large quantity of ammunition, police said. Officers also recovered a collection of unusual blades, including an umbrella with a knife hidden in the handle. But the stockpile is suspected to be the illegal collection of an enthusiast, not an armory for a violent venture, police said.
Dozens of pills were also seized, but officials do not believe the family was selling them.
By Sunday, charges were dropped against Poole. He later appeared in court to defend his family friends and landlord, saying that the guns were heirlooms given by Thomas Siano’s grandfather and uncle, and stored in the attic. He also said the drugs – Prozac, Paxil, and Xanax – were all legally required.
Neighbors said other than a few loud fights at the home that required police to break it up, the Sianos and Poole were good neighbors.
“They were really nice people,” neighbor Rosemarie Parascando told the Daily News. “Harmless. Strange but harmless.”
I had a very long, intense weekend. A lot of bouncing back and forth.
That includes Saturday’s Grillin’ On The Bay event, where we had Sheepshead Bites’ first official meetup. I was thrilled to see so many turned out, and I only got to meet a relatively small bunch of you. Many more came by and spoke to Ray or our volunteers while I was judging the BBQ teams (more on that later). Thanks so much to those who came out (and Ray and the volunteers), and we hope to have another event soon!
How was your weekend? And what’s with this weather – isn’t it Spring?
This weekend is a big one for us Sheepshead Bites’ editors, because from grill to runway, we’re making judgments.
You may have already read that Ned Berke, editor-in-chief of this blog, will be a judge in today’s widely publicized Grillin’ On The Bay BBQ and Chili contest. He’ll be doing his best to stop by the Sheepshead Bites’ table to meet as many of you who visit, but don’t be surprised if he’s too busy chomping on barbecued delicacies to meet all of you.
For those of you who are willing to settle for second Sheepshead Bites’ best, I’ll be at the table. Knowing that the temperature is going to start off freezing, I can’t wait to warm my tummy with some hot chili and not have to worry about figuring out which one is the best. I’ll just save my judging skills for Sunday, March 28, when I will help pick the winner of the Third Annual Miss Brooklyn Scholarship Pageant.
The pageant will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Levenson Theater at Brooklyn College, and as far as I know there are still tickets available($25 each) for the pageant and for the coronation party ($15) for those who would like to attend. You can check the official Miss Brooklyn website for information.
This competition is a preliminary event to the Miss New York pageant, so the ladies need your support in making it to the top. Plus, I’ll need your support, because choosing the best queen to replace our own Keelie Sheridan and to represent Kings from these lovely young women will not be easy... Plus
Anti-graffiti vehicles cleaned up East 19th street, previously a haven for vandalism
Remember a few weeks ago, when we told you how a resident of East 19th Street chided 61st Precinct’s Captain Georgios Mastrokostas? At the time, the resident complained that her concerns about graffiti and drugs had been blown off.
The resident sings a different tune these days.
“They’re totally spoiling the heck out of me,” she said. “I told [Mastrokostas], ‘Lord, I want to hug you.’”
We’ve written about that block – East 19th Street between Avenue W and Avenue X – before, calling it a haven for graffiti and drug dealing due to poor lighting and relatively minimal traffic.
But according to the resident, things are different now. Just a day after the 61st Precinct Community Council meeting on March 10, Mastrokostas and two officers paid her a visit and walked around the area. She pointed out the graffiti and relayed her tales of finding drugs in the street.
This week, anti-graffiti vehicles were on the block scrubbing away the eyesores – some of which has been there for years. Mastrokostas also called the resident this week to tell her personally that they made a pair of narcotic arrests in the area, including one for crack possession in which the perp also had a gun.
“It’s nice that [Mastrokostas is] getting personally involved in all these things,” she said.
Here are a couple of shots of the recently cleaned up block, taken by reader nolastname:
From Courier-Life:
Still fuming from the WABC–Cablevision fiasco of two weeks ago that caused southern Brooklynites to miss Academy Awards’ slam-bang opening number, Fidler said he’s putting forward two City Council resolutions he hopes will change how cable companies haggle with networks in their continuing price war.
Every 10 years, cable companies re-negotiate their contracts with television networks. While the negotiations were supposed to take place in 2008, they were postponed to this year, explained Fidler, who said that the average viewer is the one who misses out when two titans like these clash over pricing.
“Over the last number of months, myself and other viewers have gotten increasingly pissed off with how the cable industry is running,” Fidler said. “They seem to hold viewers in a low regard. We’re being held hostage.”
…
In his resolutions, Fidler calls upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pass a regulation that would ensure that any television company that broadcasts on the airwaves — like WABC or any other network television channel — cannot charge a cable provider any more than the cost of linking the channel up to the cable system.
What do you think? Should the city government be looking out for our entertainment interests? Or is this something that market forces would rectify on their own?
Daily News is reporting (though only in print, apparently) that Kingsborough Community College Psychology professor Juann Watson is the most attractive teacher in the nation. Watson received the highest score for attractiveness from students on review site RateMyProfessors.com. Kingsborough is proudly bandying about the announcement on its blog.
Here’s the article from the Daily News (click for larger version):
