SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

The National Weather Service issued a sudden Flash Flood Warning shortly before 8:30 a.m. and lasting until 9:15 a.m., as a torrent of rainfall came down on Brooklyn, flooding homes, highways and and streets.

There was major flooding on the Belt Parkway near Cropsey Avenue, and the highway ultimately shut down for short period because of it. Eventually one lane in each direction reopened. Also near Cropsey Avenue, there were reports on the police scanner that cars were submerged on Shore Parkway, and even drifting in the current.

We heard about flooding from Plumb Beach all the way to Dyker Heights. Now that it’s over, we’re still waiting to hear about conditions in certain parts of the neighborhood, like the Plumb Beach bungalow courts and areas around Cropsey Avenue. If you know how it is, please fill us in in the comments!

Readers have kept us updated so far, sending in the following photos.

This one’s from the entrance to the Belt Parkway at Bay Parkway, going west:

Photo by Regina Sorkin.

Things aren’t much better on the Belt Parkway, even now that the rain has stopped. Reader Rachel Tarantul sent us a photo taken just a few minutes after 10:00 a.m. that shows water sitting in two lanes of the highway, and only one lane is open in each direction. She says traffic is terrible.

And this was by the Cropsey bus depot:

Photo by Regina Sorkin.

Along the border of Coney Island and Brighton Beach, this is from the parking lot of 601 Surf Avenue:

Photo by Regina Sorkin.

We’re also hearing about homes and building basements flooding. A reader tweeted to us that a Sheepshead Bay apartment building on Homecrest Avenue near Avenue Z had several inches of water. Our own Elle Spektor is dealing with a flooded basement in her Bensonhurst home. Here’s what it looked like in the streets near her:

And here’s one of a flooded Sheepshead Bay garage, on Avenue W and East 26th Street, from reader Danil Rudoy:

Nearby, on Avenue V between Brigham Street and Brown Street, reader nolastname snapped this. There’s about two inches of water filling up the alleyway.

In Manhattan Beach – an area that has certainly seen more than enough water lately – Albert Hasson sent us this photo of a car trying to get through what appears to be at least a foot of water on Ocean Avenue:

Hopefully now that the rain stopped – and almost exactly at 9:15 a.m., as the National Weather Service predicted – the water is receding and things getting back to normal. Make sure to let us know if there’s any lasting damage or floodwater in your area, and send photos and other information to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com.

Updated (10:49 a.m.) to add the photo from nolastname.

Source: Jhawk/Flickr

Social day care centers, community facilities that cater to the elderly, are being accused of abusing Medicaid, according to a report in the New York Times.

Under a new law enacted by Governor Andrew Cuomo, managed care, the type of service offered at the centers, became mandatory for people receiving home services. The hope was that New York, which has the largest Medicaid budget in the country at $54 billion, could steer the costs away from expensive long-term home care like nursing homes to less expensive and safer community friendly centers.

The centers, which have ballooned from eight programs to 192 in just two years, are supposed to treat patients with severe disabilities and medical problems. The Times described the scenes at centers meant to cater to the frail:

Scores of elderly Russian immigrants played bingo under the chandeliers of a former funeral parlor in Brooklyn on a recent Monday, with a free dinner and door-to-door transportation from anywhere in the city.

Nearby, older people speaking Chinese filled a supermarket-size storefront with vigorous games of table tennis, billiards and mah-jongg, and ordered free lunch from a takeout menu featuring minced pork, beef and salty fish.In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, at the new R & G Social Adult Day Care Center, known locally among elderly immigrants for luring clients with cash and grocery vouchers, most people there for lunch did not stay to eat. Instead, many walked briskly toward the subway carrying bags stuffed with takeout containers, and two elderly men rode away on bicycles with the free food.

If something seems out of whack in this picture it’s because the financial rewards for the centers are huge. These new social day care centers are taking in seemingly healthy, active elderly people because, in New York City, Medicaid reimburses these centers per member to the tune of $3,800 each, per session, compared to the statewide average reimbursement of $93 per member.

Right now, there is little oversight or regulation. As a result, there has been an aggressive push by the centers to recruit elderly members no matter how healthy they might be. The Times described how the centers tempt elderly with financial incentives:

At Mr. [Warren] Chan’s Asian Senior Day Care center on 18th Avenue, around the corner from R & G, Liang Mei King, 77, was one of several clients who said they were offered financial inducements to join R & G.

“I went once to see,” she said through an interpreter, interrupting her mah-jongg game. “If you get someone else, they give you $50. And each week, there’s a certain amount of money. One day there’s $5, a $10 grocery coupon, or an unlimited MetroCard. If you don’t want the MetroCard, they offer $125 in cash.”

Mr. Chan said other centers were resorting to the same tactics, and elderly immigrants who did not know better accused him of pocketing benefits himself.

While the redesign of the state’s Medicaid system was enacted to curb costs, the loopholes have costs spinning out of control. Part of the problem is that Medicaid is not overseeing the centers, and instead leaves oversight to the managed care plans that pay out to the centers. That, however, is a shoddy system, since there’s little incentive for managed care plans to crack down on centers, since the managed care plan gets a cut of the payment.

Valerie Bogart, a lawyer for the New York Legal Assistance Group explained the problem to the Times:

“The whole thing is going to end up costing the state much more money. It’s really up to the managed care plans to be the watchdogs now, and it’s like the fox watching the chicken coop, because they have an incentive to make money from these centers, too,” Bogart said.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

If you live on the far end of a New York City borough and have the distinct pleasure of sitting through a 45-50 minute commute into Manhattan every day, you gain a unique experience. The trip highlights the diversity of races, cultures and economic classes as the train rumbles from your more modest home towards Fancytown. While it’s easy to notice the types of people you see on the train – homeless, hipsters, lawyers, mothers and tourists – it’s harder to guess their socioeconomic status, even if you have a rough idea. Thanks to the New Yorker, you can now know exactly how much people are making through their handy interactive graph which charts the median household incomes via subway stops.

The results will probably depress you, especially if you are a normal schmo from Bensonhurst, Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach or practically anywhere outside of the confines of Manhattan. The luckiest New Yorkers live off the 2 and 3 lines by Park Place and Chambers Street. If those people are even using the subway, they are on average earning more than $200,000 a year.

Riders near the 18th Avenue D stop in Bensonhurst clock an average of $39,524. Borough Park riders near 55th street also earn about $39,000. Further south by the Sheepshead Bay Q station, riders earn an average of $33,616. Brighton Beach riders are even less affluent, with the median being set at $28,398. If Q train riders from Southern Brooklyn want to see some fancy people living off their line, all they have to do is drop $2.50 and ride up to 5th Avenue in Manhattan where the median  household income is set at a breezy $171,000.

It’s a fascinating graph filled with huge spikes that tower over the lowly millions in far more precarious economic situations. Sigh…

As we reported on Sheepshead Bites last month, the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s “Brighton Beach Series” — which will not be taking place in Brighton Beach — will feature the family workshop, “A Bad Workman Blames His Tools” at the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, 7802 Bay Parkway, March 3 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.

A description of the event from organizers:

Russian folk music was born in a rich peasant culture, centuries ago and 5,000 miles away, by artists who created music using whatever resources were at their disposal, from wood blocks to washboards to tablespoons. Lack of proper tools held no sway over creativity of the human spirit! The remarkable and distinctive folk music they created had an enormous impact beginning with orchestral music of the 19th century and expanding on into the music of today. The public is invited to join charismatic teaching artists and Brooklyn Phil musicians in a hands-on discovery of these creative traditions.

The event is free of charge, and you can RSVP by going here. For further information, call (718) 488-5700, email info@bphil.org or go to www.bphil.org.

Source: NYPD via Daily News

The NYPD released surveillance camera photos of an alleged rapist they have been hunting since September, according to a report by the New York Daily News.

The alleged sleazeball is described as a 5’8 muscular man with a shaved bald head. He spoke with a Russian accent.

According to the NYPD, he lured a woman to Bensonhurst’s Harbor Motor Inn (1730 Shore Parkway) on September 2, 2012, with the promise of a job interview. After paying for the room, he attacked and raped the victim, a 39-year-old woman.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is urged to contact Crime Stoppers. All callers to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous. Crime Stoppers can be reached at 1-800-577-TIPS, via the website, or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.

Source: David Mendl via flavorwire.com

David Mandl, a writer, photographer and Bensonhurst native, completed a gorgeous new photo essay for Flavor Wire. The photo essay explores what Mandl calls “Unknown Brooklyn.” For better or worse, it’s almost exclusively Southern Brooklyn, with photos from Midwood, Sea Gate, Canarsie and Sheepshead Bay. Sure, it’s known to us, but we’re used to being a world away from Flavor Wire’s “culturally connected people.” That’s fine by us.

Source: David Mendl via flavorwire.com

One of my favorite passages describes Mandl’s trip through Sheepshead Bay where he discovered a strip of tiny houses with an interesting history:

Toward the eastern end of Sheepshead Bay and just off the neighborhood’s main drag, Emmons Avenue, there’s a cluster of tiny streets that most people pass by without even noticing them. Created mostly in the ’20s, and “built on sand,” according to one resident I spoke to, they used to be lined with summer cottages used by wealthy patrons of the nearby race track (which was demolished long ago). Those cottages have been replaced with real, heated, year-round houses, albeit very small ones.

I also appreciated Mandl’s exploration of the abandoned Long Island Rail Road line that cuts through Midwood. The creepy abandoned tracks always give a ghostly vibe when I cross the blocked overpasses that give you a limited view of a once busy transit line.

Source: David Mandl via flavorwire.com

We reported yesterday that the Brooklyn Philharmonic would return to Brighton Beach for the second year in a row. However, we found out after it went up that organizers had to cancel with the Brighton Beach venue, instead hosting two events as part of the “Brighton Beach Series” – and neither will be in Brighton Beach.

The news was distressing for those of us who found comfort in knowing that at least one Brooklyn cultural organization gave some thought to the borough’s nether regions, but there is some hope on the horizon. A rep for the Brooklyn Phil could not comment on why the event was canceled, but said that the organization “is still very much attached to Brighton Beach, and has plans to continue its ties there.”

Here’s the information for the two shows in the Brighton Beach Series:

Chamber Concert
VERA PAVLOVA’S ALBUM FOR THE YOUNG
Sunday, February 10, 2013, 4:00 pm
S. Stevan Dweck Center for Contemporary Culture
Brooklyn Public Library Central Library
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Free

Tchaikovsky gets personal as acclaimed poet Vera Pavlova and the Brooklyn Phil Chamber Players take an intimate look at the life of a great Russian artist through original poetry, imagery, and music for strings and piano.  Born in Moscow, Pavlova is a graduate of the Gnessin Academy of music and has published eighteen collections of poetry in her native Russian in addition to authoring five opera libretti and lyrics to three cantatas. Now living in New York, Pavlova recalls her childhood and coming of age in Russia through the lense of Tchaikovsky’s Album for the Young and Piano Trio in A minor.  Texts will be presented in Russian with English translations. This free performance will be followed by a post-concert Q&A.

The Brooklyn Philharmonic is honored to partner with the Brooklyn Public Library to present this performance.

Featuring:
Vera Pavlova, poet
Steven Seymour, translator

Program:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Album for the Young, Op. 39
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 – Mvt. 1. Pezzo elegiac

_____________________________________________

Family Workshop
A BAD WORKMAN BLAMES HIS TOOLS
Sunday, March 3, 2013, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst
7802 Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11214
Free

Russian folk music was born in a rich peasant culture, centuries ago and 5,000 miles away, by artists who created music using whatever resources were at their disposal, from wood blocks to washboards to tablespoons. Lack of proper tools held no sway over creativity of the human spirit! The remarkable and distinctive folk music they created had an enormous impact beginning with orchestral music of the 19th century and expanding on into the music of today. The public is invited to join charismatic teaching artists and Brooklyn Phil musicians in a hands-on discovery of these creative traditions.

City Council analyst John Lisyanskiy officially threw his hat in the ring for Coney Island’s 47th District on December 16 with an e-mail blast to supporters, making him one of two candidates for the district to forego the political hand-wringing over redistricting and jump in the race. Meanwhile, others in what was expected to be a somewhat crowded field for the Democratic nod, are reconsidering their runs – and almost all are urging constituents to turn out to tomorrow’s Districting Committee hearing to oppose the plan.

Lisyanskiy is one of four Democratic contenders vying to replace term-limited Domenic Recchia that have registered committees with the Campaign Finance Board. Lisyanskiy is joined by activist Todd Dobrin; Michael Treybich, an attorney and deputy legal director for the New York State Young Democrats; and Brian Gotlieb, former chairman of Community Board 13.

Lisyanskiy, who serves as a legislative budget aide in the City Council under Speaker Christine Quinn, jumps in the race with tens of thousands of dollars collected for a 2009 run that ultimately fizzled after term limits were extended. The campaign’s announcement came weeks before the council’s district lines are set to be finalized, a process which could see a campaign’s key constituencies flung into a neighboring district.

But Lisyanskiy said the latest district lines were of little concern in determining whether or not to run.

Continue Reading »

Police officers flooded Sheepshead Bay’s commercial corridors on Sunday, going door-to-door to inform business owners of a murderer believed to be targeting convenience stores in a bloody spree that has already left two dead.

The man they’re looking for, pictured above, is described as a Hispanic male in his 20s, 5-foot-9 and with a medium build.

The suspect’s most recent alleged victim is Isaac Kadare, found brutally killed in his Bensonhurst 99-cent store on August 2. The discovery of Kadare’s body was first reported by Bensonhurst Bean. Media reports later confirmed that two customers found Kadare on the floor of the store at approximately 8:45 p.m., and that Kadare had been stabbed in the throat and shot in the head.

Over the weekend, NYPD ballistics teams linked Kadare’s murder with the July 6 murder of Mohammed Gebeli in his Bay Ridge clothing store, Valentino Fashion. Both men were shot in the head in their shops with what’s believed to be the same .22 caliber gun.

According to the New York Post, police sources are exploring the possibility that the suspect is a serial killer, targeting businesses with the numbers 1, 7 and 8 in their street addresses – Kadare’s store was located at 1877 86th Street, while Gebeli’s was at 7718 5th Avenue. However, they acknowledge that the addresses could be simply be a coincidence, and are looking at other motivations, such as ethnic hatred.

Police are offering a $12,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect. Additionally, Senator Marty Golden is offering $5,000 and Councilman David Greenfield, along with the Sephardic Community Federation, are offering up another $5,000.

Anyone with information regarding this crime is urged to contact Crime Stoppers. All callers to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous. Callers should use the reference number BK-2303 when calling. Crime Stoppers can be reached at 1-800-577-TIPS, via the website, or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577.

One of Berger's 45 cats. (Photo: Katherine Gonzalez)

It was back in March that we first told you about Barbara Berger, a Brighton Beach cat hoarder who faced eviction if she failed to offload more than 40 of her feline friends. At the time, Berger teamed up with the Brooklyn Animal Umbrella to put as many as 20 of the cats up for adoption at a Bensonhurst Petco.

Through that event and others, Berger was able to give up 22 cats, but must lose 12 more by June 5 or be evicted. A friend of hers, and frequent reader of Sheepshead Bites, Andrew Kent sent us the following plea:

A 51 year-old disabled Brooklyn woman, who has been struggling to comply with a Housing Court stipulation allowing her to keep just two cats from her original 45, is down to the wire and due back in court on Tuesday, June 5, at which time an already issued warrant of eviction, stayed pending her compliance with the agreement, may be sent to the City Marshal for execution.

If the warrant is executed, she will become homeless, and any cats left in her apartment will be taken by the City’s Animal Care and Control Shelter (AC&C), where most, if not all, will be euthanized for administrative convenience because they are less adoptable than the cats lucky enough to make it to the shelter’s infamous “Kill List” from which rescue groups select the kittens and cats they deem most deserving of a second chance.

Barbara Berger, 22 of whose cats have already been placed for adoption, with another 8 of the 10 she wants to keep being fostered until she can find and move to a pet-friendly building, says she is eager to surrender the remaining 12 to individuals, rescue groups, sanctuaries, or other refuges willing to accept them and not kill them.

If just a fraction of those reading this plea can each take just one or two of these cats, either by June 4th, to prevent Barbara’s eviction, or before the Marshal comes, to prevent seizure by AC&C, these cats, too, will have a second chance.

If you can help, know someone who can, or have any links, suggestions, or advice, please contact:

Andrew Kent
ASKent@msn.com
(347) 374-3903 home
(718) 791-3628 cell