SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: Wally Gobetz via Wikimedia Commons

The Brooklyn Cyclones have announced that they will raising moneyfor various Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts, through a new program dubbed “Meaningful Mondays.”

The way it works is that $3 out of every ticket sold at MCU Park (1904 Surf Avenue) on Mondays will go to several charities involved in the recovery process. This will start in July.

According to the press release, each week the “Meaningful Monday” will focus on a different neighborhood affected by the storm. Here is a schedule the press release provided of which neighborhoods will go with which week:

•           Monday, July 1 –Coney Island Night to benefit ConeyRecovers.org.

•           Monday, July 8 – Gerritsen Beach Night to benefit Gerritsen Cares.

•           Monday, July 22 –Nassau County Night to benefit the Nassau Hurricane Recovery Fund.

•           Monday, July 29 – Red Hook Night to benefit the Red Hook Initiative.

•           Monday, August 19 –Staten Island Night to benefit The Stephen Siller Foundation.

•           Monday, August 26 – Breezy Point / Rockway Night to benefit The Graybeards.

Cyclones General Manager Steve Cohen states in the press release, “We hope that through our Meaningful Monday efforts, we can help the countless people still struggling to recover from the storm, recognize the heroes who were leaders in their communities during their time of need, and provide a night of fun and laughter at the ballpark as we all recover from Hurricane Sandy.”

Source: Facebook

We received this release from the offices of State Senator Martin Golden:

Benjamin M. Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services, announced representatives of the Department of Financial Services will be at locations in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Nassau County and Suffolk County to help homeowners, renters and business owners with insurance-related issues stemming from damage caused by Storm Sandy.

The Department’s representatives will be available to meet with residents inside the agency’s Mobile Command Center, which will be stationed at these locations:

Brooklyn

• Saturday, Jan. 5 – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Jamaica Bay Home Depot, 5700 Avenue U.

Brooklyn

• Tuesday, Jan. 8 – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bergen Beach / Mill Basin Shopping Center, 6620 Avenue U.
• Wednesday, Jan. 9 – 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Coney Island, MCU- Parking Lot, 1904 Surf Ave.

Department representatives will help citizens contact their insurers if they have been unable to do so and answer questions about homeowners’, renters’ and business owners’ insurance coverage.

Citizens unable to go to the Mobile Command Center are encouraged to call the Department’s storm hotline (800) 339-1759 which is staffed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily including weekends. Insurance information is also available on the Department’s website, www.dfs.ny.gov.

Photo by Erica Sherman

The Alliance for Coney Island is a new partnership between the city and the several well-known establishments in Coney Island’s business community. Today marks the official launch of their organization.

Originally, the organization was going to focus on tourism, marketing and other means of maintaining Coney Island’s popularity. Now, after Sandy, they’ve decided to switch gears and focus on recovery efforts in the badly damaged area.

The badly-damaged Shore Hotel sign. Photo by Erica Sherman. Click to enlarge

“Hurricane Sandy has left Coney Island looking like a Cyclone hit it – devastating its seaside amusement district, officials say, with tens of millions of dollars in damage alone,” wrote the New York Post.

“We have a lot of work on our hands,” said Dennis Vourderis, the Alliance chairman and owner of Deno’s Wonderwheel Park.

Formerly, the Coney Island Development Corporation was managing the area. Now, the Alliance will inherit $630,000, which was due to go to the CIDC in the next two years. Business owners in the area will also contribute money to help the organization grow.

A new website has been established for the Alliance at Coneyrecovers.org in order to help direct volunteers, collect donations and help the neighborhood in any other relief efforts.

While the business owners are busy helping others, they know that they will also have to contend with repairing their own damaged Coney Island locations.

According to the Post:

All of Coney Island’s seaside rides need to have their electrical and motor systems overhauled. Deno’s suffered roughly $3 million in damages, while Zamperla USA, which oversees Luna Park and the Scream Zone, faces about $8 million or so in repairs.

MCU Park – home of the Brooklyn Cyclones – was also badly damaged. Its field was covered in water during the storm, and the locker rooms and souvenir shop were badly damaged.

The New York Aquarium also suffered extensive damage. It is trying to partly reopen by Memorial Day.

Neighborhood staples like Nathan’s Famous and Gargiulo’s Restaurant were also among the area businesses hardest hit. Nino Russo, an Alliance board member and Gargiulo’s owner, said his business suffered more than $1 million damages and is “working hard to re-open” by Christmas.

It’s heartwarming to read about neighborhood institutions like the Aquarium and Gargiulo’s taking such care to help the local residents while they have their own repairs to deal with. This is community involvement at its best and we hope that business owners meet their goals of reopening soon and locals benefit from their efforts.

Some of the damage in Sea Gate, at the tip of Coney Island, left by Sandy. Photo by Erica Sherman

A news report is shining a light on Coney Island residents still left in the dark with no power, and in some cases with no heat or hot water. Public housing buildings right by the boardwalk got smashed by Sandy – flooding basements, pouring sand into building lobbies, and totaling cars – leaving elderly residents vulnerable, and causing increasing dismay as each day passes.

“Cold, no water, can’t flush my commode, I have to come downstairs and bring water up, ice, my refrigerator is not working because I have no electric. We need help,” told a Coney Island tenant to NY1.

As Sheepshead Bites’ own Laura Vladimirova previously reported, the situation on Coney Island is dire, and the area is in desperate need of supplies and volunteers like her and Bensonhurst Bean’s David Cohen, who both graciously offered their time to help out. If you are looking to donate, Laura recommends the following items: water, matches, candles, flashlights, canned goods, blankets, and clothing.

The Red Cross, FEMA, and the National Guard have set up emergency services in the area to help residents in the area with food and supplies. If you are a Coney Island resident in need of relief services, you can head to Brighton Beach Avenue and Coney Island Avenue until 4:00 p.m. Services are also being offered at West 25th Street and Surf Avenue until 4:00 p.m., and FEMA will be at the MCU Ballpark until 5 p.m.

More information can also be found on the Twitter pages of local pols, including Councilman Domenic M. Recchia, and Assemblymen Alec Brook-Krasny, both of whom are supplying up to the minute status reports and updates from Coney Island in an effort bring the area back from the abyss.

There will soon be less trash scattered around Plumb Beach and Gerritsen Beach, as New York City and the Environmental Protection Agency launch the “Clean Streets = Clean Beaches 2012″ program, bringing volunteer cleanups to our shores.

Find out how to get involved, and more about Clean Streets = Clean Beaches.

Source: Newyorkbob via Wikimedia Commons

The Brooklyn Cyclones play their season opener tonight. They’re squaring off against the Staten Island Yankees at MCU Park at 1904 Surf Avenue.

This year’s team is one of the youngest in franchise history with eight teenagers on the roster.

One of the young players joining the team is 19-year-old Brandon Nimmo. He was the New York Mets’ first round selection in the 2011 MLB Draft. Nimmo hails from Cheyenne East High School in Wyoming.

On top of new team members, there are a lot of other changes the franchise has made for the 2012 season. Things to look forward to include the Brooklyn Baseball Gallery now featuring skee ball and alcohol, a chance to meet players from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. during every game, brand new flagship radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU broadcasting the games, and a social media scoreboard showcasing tweets about the game.

Good luck to the Cyclones this year, we’ll be rooting for you. 

My girlfriend moved to a new apartment yesterday. She hired a Williamsburg-based moving company she found online. Three lanky hipsters turned up to her apartment; they were band mates who make their money moving other people’s stuff until they get an offer for a big record deal that they can then turn down because it’s too mainstream, then declare they’ve “made it” in the big N-Y-C, and move back to Pennsyltuckyville and leave inflated rents behind for the rest of us.

In the course of conversation, they asked about her boyfriend, me.

“Oh he lives in Sheepshead Bay,” she answered.

“Whoa, that’s, like, real-life Brooklyn,” one responded.

Always game, she shot back, “Like, ya, it’s all like real life, man.”

And now the Brooklyn Cyclones in Coney Island are in on the joke, too. At least we hope it’s a joke. The franchise is extending an open invitation to beardos of the flannel stripe, throwing a “Williamsburg Night” on Thursday, June 5.

The festivities include “special vouchers” for “any bearded fans” and a post-game run on the bases for those in “skinny jeans.” Oh, and let’s not forget the “Williamsburg music and art,” which we assume means a lot of vintage-filtered cell phone photos of kewl-looking people who have their faces turned away from the camera. There’s also a skeeball contest, because baseball just ain’t hip enough.

I can’t help but wonder if this is a serious offer or a joke meant to appeal to the hipster’s predictable – and exhausted – sense of irony. Or maybe it’s genuine, and the folks at the Cyclones actually think that hipsters like being described as hipsters, as if these kazoo-voiced, twig-shaped social dregs would say, “Like, yah, I’ve got skinny jeans and a beard and I totally love skeeball.”

Of course, we all know the first sign of a hipster is denial. “I’m not a hipster. I’m from Brooklyn. I moved here seven months ago and a homeless guy stole the iPad (the one my daddy bought me) when I was taking Instagram photos of graffiti in dark alleys in Williamspoint-Stuy, so I’m, like, def real Brooklyn.”

The whole thing is giving the folks over at DieHipster a kenipshit… and an idea:

Even the people who run the Cyclones are betting on a bunch of fully grown adult toddlers from Wiscofornia to show up in ball crushing, filthy, sweaty tight jeans and beards in the middle of the summer. What normal person wears such uncomfortable clothes in 80-90 degree weather? It’s all about the “look at me” factor. It always is.

… They are coming down and being exposed to Coney Island and normal Brooklyn which will give these ‘urban pioneers’ ideas to ‘help’ us and bring ‘culture’. On the bright side, what’s one thing that is plentiful in a baseball stadium? BATS! Hopefully this is just a trick to get a few hundred of them to show up and once they do the staff locks the gates, hands out bats to the normal Brooklynites and we get to pound on these bearded scumbags.

Whoa, that’s, like, real-life Brooklyn, yo.

Not really. Don’t hurt the hipsters.

A scene from last year's fair. Photo by Erica Sherman

It’s that glorious time of year again, lads ’n lassies, when the Irish and those who love them converge upon the fairgrounds next to MCU Park (1904 Surf Avenue in Coney Island) for the 30th Annual Great Irish Fair of New York, Friday through Sunday, September 16 (6:00 to 10:00 p.m.), 17 (10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.) & 18 (10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.), rain or shine.

The family-friendly event offers food, beer, music, beer, dancing, beer, and an assortment of children’s activities, including rides, face painting, balloonists, and magic shows. And beer. Children’s activities cost $15 for unlimited use. Additionally, a Catholic Mass will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m. inside the Cultural Tent on Saturday and Sunday.

Admission to the fair is $10 for adults (12 years-old and older) on Friday evening, $12 per adult for the full day, Saturday and Sunday, and a special family package price of $30 for two adults and their children. Children under 12 are admitted for free.

You can check out last year’s coverage of the event here. For more, email info@gifnyc.com or visit their Facebook page.

Congratulations Boris Royzen, our relentless reader who campaigned to win the chance to throw the first pitch at MCU Park (Cyclones Stadium) during tomorrow’s Sheepshead Bites Night!

Royzen garnered more than 50 percent of the vote (351 votes) – besting two other candidates for the opportunity of a lifetime. And he did it all by promising to make an ass out of himself.

It was a competition to end all competitions; one that tells us much about the human condition. Readers were presented with three options: a bonafide hero, a loser begging for redemption, or Royzen, a guy who was just willing to embarrass himself the most. And, with the votes tallied, Royzen’s victory shows what our readers care about most: humiliation.

We wouldn’t have it any other way, and neither would Royzen. The former high school swimming star is pulling out his old purple Leon M. Goldstein H.S. speedos and slapping on a Sheepshead Bites sticker, then taking to the mound to throw the first pitch. And he’s got a conscience, too. Moved by the story of fellow contestant Joseph Brodoff, a local hero who, after his wife’s death, created several facilities and programs that assist cancer patients at two city hospitals, Royzen said he’ll be making a contribution to the foundation’s cause.

But, for now, it’s the game he’s looking forward to. Sort of.

“I’m nervous and excited,” said the 27-year-old owner of Gravesend-based B&T Marlboro Pharmacy (2845 86th Street). “I really hope it doesn’t rain.”

Well, we really hope only one ball makes an appearance on the mound…

Sheepshead Bites Night at MCU Park (Cyclones Stadium) is tomorrow, August 19, at 6:30 p.m. Discounted tickets for Sheepshead Bites readers can be bought here with the promo code “BITES.” There will be a pre-game presentation in which Sheepshead Bites promotes the neighborhood with videos on the jumbotron, a performance by students from the Covenant Ballet Theater of Brooklyn’s Dance Academy, a ceremony honoring St. Mark Catholic Church for it’s 150th year honoring the community, and free t-shirts launched into the crowd (shirts will also be for sale on the mezzanine).

Building on our three-year history of breaking news, engaging community and producing special events, Sheepshead Bites takes to the field of Southern Brooklyn’s premiere sports franchise to recognize the spirit that binds us as a community!

MCU Park, home of the Brooklyn Cyclones, is dedicating their Friday, August 19 game against the Jamestown Jammers to Sheepshead Bites readers and the neighborhoods they live in.

(Click here and enter “BITES” to receive discounted field box seats, with a portion of every ticket sale going to support Sheepshead Bites!)

The event includes:

• $12 field box seats (normally $16)
• Pregame performance by a Sheepshead Bay-based group
• A presentation honoring a local hero from Sheepshead Bay
• One lucky reader will be chosen to throw the first pitch
• Videos celebrating Sheepshead Bay will be played on the jumbotron
• Dozens of Sheepshead Bites t-shirts – custom designed for the event – will be shot into the stands (we’ll be selling additional shirts at the event)
• Fireworks after the game!

Support Sheepshead Bites by inviting your friends and family to join us and the Brooklyn Cyclones as we celebrate the greatest neighborhood in New York City: Sheepshead Bay. A portion of ticket sales purchased using our promo code goes to Sheepshead Bites’ freelance writer budget, giving us what we need to produce more original coverage for you to enjoy!

Details:

• Where: MCU Park, Surf Avenue and West 17th Street in Coney Island
• When: August 19 at 7:00 p.m.
• Tickets: $12.00
  • Click here and enter “BITES” to receive a $12 Field Box Seat with a portion of every ticket sale going to support Sheepshead Bites