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Courtesy of Good Shepherd

Monsignor Thomas Brady, the beloved former pastor of Marine Park’s Good Shepherd Roman Catholic Church (1943 Brown Street), passed away Monday evening after more than half a century as a man of the cloth.

Brady lost a long battle with an unspecified form of cancer, said Reverend James Devlin, who succeeded Brady in leading the Good Shepherd parish. Brady passed away at approximately 11:00 p.m. Monday. He was 78 years old, and known to be suffering from lung cancer and had been the victim of several strokes.

“He was very beloved. He served. He was always here for people when they needed him,” Devlin said of Brady. “He was the retired pastor when I arrived and I certainly realized how very much loved he was by the people of the parish.”

Serving at the local church for more than 22 years, Brady was known as a committed member of the community, developing outreach programs and strengthening the ties between the church and the larger Marine Park neighborhood.

“In our interactions he was always very, very nice, very hospitable, and very community-minded,” said Councilman Lew Fidler. “He was always looking out for ways that Good Shepherd’s members could benefit from community involvement, and he always made me feel welcome when I came to Good Shepherd.”

He served as principal of the Good Shepherd School in addition to leading the parish. Brady resigned in June of 2009, suffering from increasing health ailments.

But the final years of Brady’s life did not pass in peace. In addition to wrestling with the effects of chemotherapy and strokes, Brady was put on administrative leave in 2011 after two teenage students from the school alleged the respected pastor had attempted “inappropriate sexual contact.” Members of the community rallied around Brady and expressed their disbelief, and a defiant parish dedicated their annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony to the embattled monsignor amid the controversy.

Ultimately, a grand jury reviewed the complaints and determined them insufficient to merit a criminal complaint.

After returning from administrative leave, Brady remained as a pastor emeritus at the church until his death on Monday. He is survived by nephews and nieces.

A wake for Monsignor Thomas Brady will be held at Marine Park Funeral Home at 3024 Quentin Road on Monday, April 1, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. The funeral home can be reached at (718) 339-8900.

The funeral will be held Tuesday, April 2 at 10:30 a.m. at Good Shepherd. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Little Sisters of the Poor (Queen of Peace Residence). Donations can be made at 10-30 221st Street, Queens Village, NY 11429-2597, or by calling (718) 464-1800.

Correction (March 29, 2013 at 8:10 p.m.): The above article originally stated that Brady had served as the principal of Good Shepherd School. That was inaccurate. He had served as rector-principal of Cathedral Prep Seminary in Elmhurst.

Source: Wikipedia

State Senator Marty Golden will be hosting his Annual Easter Egg Hunt for the children and families of his district, March 23 at 12:00 p.m. in Marine Park, Fillmore Avenue and Madison Place. The Easter Egg Hunt events include games, music, and activities for the whole family, as well as prizes for the children.

“I encourage all children and families to join in this fun event. The challenge is on to find the eggs hidden in the parks for a chance to win prizes. These special events in our parks are what makes our community a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Golden stated.

Golden, who sponsors the event every year, will be hosting another Easter Egg Hunt next week in the Bay Ridge section of his district.

To learn more, call Golden’s District Office at (718) 238-6044.

Photo By Erica Sherman

Departing City Councilman Lew Fidler took journalist and “Inside City Hall” host Errol Louis on a tour of his Southern Brooklyn district, visiting Gerritsen Beach and Marine Park, among other places, in a new report by NY1.

In the video, Fidler shows Louis the destruction wrought by Superstorm Sandy, discusses building projects such as the Marine Park Green Community Center, keeping Public School 114 in Canarsie open, and maintaining funding for children and senior programs.

At the end of the video, Fidler, who is leaving the City Council at the end of his term, remained vague about his future plans. While he said it wasn’t in his plans to run for office at the moment, he added that he was “not riding off into the sunset.”

You can watch the video tour here.

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!

After a decade of construction, numerous stumbles and some lessons learned about environmental infrastructure, the Carmine Carro Community Center is now open to the public. Elected officials and the Carro family snipped the ribbon Friday morning, and park officials gave tours of the facility throughout the afternoon.

“The jewel of this community, Marine Park, now has its crown,” declared Charles D’Alessandro, Carmine Carro’s son-in-law who spoke on behalf of the family.

With a few friendly jibes about the long delays, D’Alessandro and the numerous elected officials who spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony lauded the Parks Department for completing the first city building certified as LEED – an ambitious environmental standard.

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Author Paul Moses. Source: Random House, Inc.

As part of the Turkish Cultural Center Brooklyn’s (TCC Brooklyn) “Media Talks” series, the Amity School will host Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Marine Park resident Paul Moses, who will discuss “How to Build a Career in Media,” Monday, February 4 at 3:00 p.m. The discussion will be held inside the Amity School, 3867 Shore Parkway between Brigham Street and Knapp Street, right off the Belt Parkway.

If Moses’ name rings a bell, that’s because, in the days following Superstorm Sandy, the teacher of journalism at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism submitted to us his first local reporting piece in decades, about hard-hit Gerritsen Beach being virtually ignored both in their recovery efforts and by much of the mainstream media.

To learn more about Moses and the event, click here. RSVP by emailing rsvp@tccbrooklyn.org.

A staffer for Councilman Lew Fidler sent us the following note yesterday.

Today, Council Member Lew Fidler was informed that vandal(s) broke into the portable trailers, which have been used as a comfort station in Marine Park (near Fillmore Avenue), and caused damage.

The Parks Department is aware of the problem and Council Member Fidler has asked Parks to work as quickly as possible to make the necessary repairs. However, there will be no restroom facilities at this location for the next few days.

In the meantime, park goers can feel free to utilize the restroom facilities located at the Marine Park Environmental Center on Avenue U.

In lieu (Lew? [or, for a certain reporter who can't spell, Lou]) of a photo, please see the accompanying illustration.

UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): Turns out ninjas had nothing to do with it. This just in from Councilman Fidler’s office:

Councilman Fidler received an update today that the damage to the temporary comfort station in Marine Park was not the work of humans, as originally believed, but of animals. Further inspection today revealed that insulation was torn off and the heating element, used to prevent the pipes from freezing, was damaged. Without proper heat, the pipes to the station froze. Crews are working to repair the heating system and defrost the pipes. The current cold weather makes repairs more difficult but we have been told that a Parks Dept. crew is working to restore service.

I have long said we need to get the animals out of the parks. We look forward to Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal banning wildlife from using Parks Department land. All squirrels found in violation will receive a fine for 125 acorns, though observers already believe there will be lax enforcement due to a shortage of Parks Enforcement agents.

Via Facebook

For those watching the Presidential Inauguration yesterday it was hard not to notice the soaring and powerful solo delivered by a member of the incredible Brooklyn Tabernacle Chorus. It turns out that the young woman belting out her stunning section of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was Marine Park’s Alicia Olatuja, according to a report in the New York Daily News.

The 30-year-old from Marine Park soared above the escalating refrains of the expert choir, mixing elements of classical, jazz, gospel and pop into her fluid lilts.

“It was just so surreal,” Olatuja said. “It was such a privilege to be a part of that event, with all the members of the choir. At many moments I had to ask myself, ‘Is this really happening?’ ”

… Olatuja’s solo turn hardly ranks as her first. After graduating from music school at the University of Missouri in 2005, the St. Louis-born singer came straight to New York to plow a career.

After getting her master’s degree, she began playing city clubs from Joe’s Pub to the 92nd Street Y. Along the way, she has performed at venues as prestigious as Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Olatuja also plays in an Afro-jazz band called The Olatuja Project with her husband, Michael.

Source: Google Maps

After years of delays and millions of dollars over budget, Marine Park residents are still without a much-anticipated community center. And the project is now one of the most notable in the city as an example of the Parks Department’s waste and inefficiency.

The community center, located at the northern end of Marine Park at Fillmore Avenue was touted in a new report by New York City Comptroller John Liu that blasted the Parks Department for “not carrying out and overseeing capital construction projects in a timely and cost effective manner.”

According to  the report, which audited Parks projects conducted in fiscal year 2010-2011, the agency was late on delivering 47 percent of the 315 capital construction projects completed. On average, the projects were 218 days late, nearly double the estimated time for completion.

And it’s not just a matter of delays keeping parks closed from the public. They’re racking up a price tag. Thirty projects combined to run up a tab of $10 million in cost overruns. And bungling by consultants and designers cost the city an additional $4 million to correct, an amount the agency failed to recoup despite clauses in contracts that require contractors to return the money to taxpayers.

The Marine Park Community Center, though, remains particularly galling. Its numbers are not included in the tally above – as Liu’s team only looked at projects completed during the audit period – though it earned some honorable mentions.

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The current and proposed lines for the 48th District of the City Council. The process has sparked controversy, as Russian-Americans gain influence under the new lines, and Orthodox Jews appear to lose influence.

Our open thread yesterday kicked off with a look at the redistricting process, which seems to be pitting local Russian-Americans against local Orthodox Jews for influence in the 48th Councilmanic District, currently represented by Michael Nelson. We very briefly reflected, with a dose of sarcasm, about the role race, ethnicity and religion plays in the process. That post elicited the following e-mail from Councilman Lew Fidler, who represents the neighboring 46th District:

Photo by Erica Sherman

Race and ethnicity, though not religion, are an integral part of redistricting, like it or not. In fact, federal law makes it so.

Kings County is a jurisdiction covered by the Federal Voting Rights Act. Redistricters are compelled to ensure that protected classes of minority voters – such classes are specified in the statute – do not lose maximal representation when district lines are drawn. (We are a Voting Rights County based upon discriminatory voting patterns from long, long ago.)

Southern Brooklyn has been ripped apart in both council redistricting (by the commission) and congressional redistricting (by the federal court) in large part due to the Voting Rights Act as applied to the unique demographics of Brooklyn.

There is no venal intent here… let me explain.

Central Brooklyn, which is the hub of minority (“Voting Rights”) districts, has shrunk in relative population. In order to maintain these districts as minority districts under the law, the non-minority population must be manipulated and integrated into minority districts; not so much as to shift the numbers to make the district non-minority, but enough to get the district up to a full population. Naturally, it is those neighborhoods with non-minority populations that are adjacent to the minority districts that get dragged into them.

For example, that is why the 45th District currently represented by Jumaane Williams, short on minority population, reached south into the non-minority neighborhoods of Flatbush/Midwood for its additional population. In fact, this does do violence to the neighborhood integrity of that community, and for these voters, it is grossly unfair.

But, to be clear, it is not because the redistricting commission had a conscious plan to “screw” Flatbush or any particular religious community. They are straining to find a way to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

A Federal Court Master drew the congressional lines. The same mechanics resulted in Flatbush and Sheepshead Bay being drawn as vestigial parts into the district “represented” by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke.

Similarly with those south of us and in Howard Beach, who were drawn into Congressman Hakeem Jeffries’ district.

My view is that the Voting Rights Act needs to be reformed to reflect modern realities while maintaining its protections against discriminatory practices. There needs to be greater flexibility when a constituency recedes as part of the relative population of a county. For the first time that I am aware of since Kings County became a Voting Rights county, some communities (think Fort Greene) are going from being minority communities to non-minority communities. The law needs to be able to reflect those challenges.

The local argument that Ned has reported on is in fact caused by the application of the Voting Rights Act. Therefore, ethnicity will inevitably and inextricably be a part of the conversation for better or for worse.

- Lew from Brooklyn

P.S. - Of course, Southern Brooklyn was also brutalized by the State Senate lines. That victimization had nothing whatsoever to do with the Voting Rights Act. That was pure political partisan greed on the part of the State Senate Republicans, who carved up our neighborhoods in the most venal redistricting plan most of us have ever seen since the days of Elbridge Gerry.

More than 400 participants shook, danced and jumped away the calories during the Relay For Life of Bergen Beach, Mill Basin & Marine Park’s largest indoor Zumba class ever, hosted at the Aviator Sports Complex, according to Record Setter.

Organized by “Zumba Daddy,” Joseph Gillette, co-chairman of Brooklyn’s annual Relay For Life of Bergen Beach, Mill Basin & Marine Park, the event, which drew 419 participants, was held to raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society.

Zumba, a Colombian fitness program involving dance and aerobic elements, incorporates hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, mambo, martial arts, and some Bollywood and belly dance moves.

The video featured above gives you a look at the scope of the event and the joy of the zumba participants, all working out for a good cause.

“They’re here for zumba, but more importantly, the American Cancer Society,” said Gillette. “Its a successful day, a tremendous day. I couldn’t be happier.”

For more information on the Relay For Life and zumba, you can visit them on Facebook.