SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

The Oceana. Source: Google Maps

Residents of the Oceana condominium complex (50 Oceana Drive West) took to the streets to protest the  city construction of a public bathroom that they claim obstructs their million dollar view of the ocean, according to a report by The New York Times.

Last week, we reported on how the city’s late night repairs to the boardwalk and beach had been driving residents crazy by keeping them up late at night. Oceana residents were less concerned with the noise and more annoyed at the planned public restrooms being installed right in front of their fancy condominium.

“People pay this much money because they want some luxury,” Irina Nesterenko, 43, told the Times. “What kind of luxury will we have if we have this monster-sized bathroom?”

Oceana residents want the bathroom station moved to a busier part of the boardwalk, fearing that the facility will bring the homeless and rambunctious teenagers to a spot where their children normally play. Other residents expressed fears of public nudity and people washing their unmentionables in plain sight of their normally stunning ocean view.

“I personally don’t want to see people washing themselves nude, washing their underwear,” Eileen Trotta told the Times.

Source: Igor Khodzinskiy via Daily News

As the city rushes to repair the beach and boardwalk after Superstorm Sandy in time for Memorial Day, Brighton Beach and Coney Island residents are getting fired up over late night construction, and now they’re planning a protest.

The city is making repairs to the boardwalk and beach, as well as improvements like three new public restrooms and lifeguard stations. But residents say that work, including thunderous pile driving, is being done as late as 3:00 a.m.

Daily News reports:

“It’s this constant banging deep into the ground. It’s like a boom sound,” said Marian Rosenfarb, 79, who lives a block away from the beach. “With this noise I don’t know if I’ll reach 80.”

Rosenfarb says the vibrations from the construction causes her building to shake. the noise is impossible to drown out, she added.

… Three new buildings are being constructed along the boardwalk, at West 2nd St, Brighton 2nd St. and New Brighton St.

The modern modular structures – which are also being added in Queens and Staten Island – will replace old lifeguard stations and public bathrooms that were destroyed during Hurricane Sandy.

All three stations will be wheel chair accessible, designed with green features like solar power and skylights, and constructed above flood levels.

Pile driving into the sand is expected to last until next week and the new structures should be completed by the start of beach season.

“Work is going on 24 hours a day in order to finish the project as quickly as possible,” said spokeswoman Meghan Lalor.

“While we acknowledge that this may present an inconvenience, we ask for the community’s patience while this important restoration work is being done.”

Residents, though, are not happy with mere acknowledgement. They want the city to cut out the late night work, and the noise it generates.

Neighbors in the Oceana condominium complex (50 Oceana Drive West) are organizing a rally this Sunday, April 7, at noon on the boardwalk at Coney Island Avenue. The rally isn’t just against the construction; the residents of the posh complex are hoping to kill plans to install a new public bathroom in what they claim is their yard.

“No one ever gave a thought that there is no need to build yet another filthy anti-sanitary condition in our front yards. In the past this bathroom attracted many strangers and caused much destruction to the neighborhood,” resident Ella Rabinovich wrote to Sheepshead Bites.

Residents have also organized a petition, which they’ve sent to the Parks Department. Assemblyman Steven Cymbrowitz also sent a letter to the Parks Department in opposition to placing the bathrooms by Oceana.

Sheepshead Bay High School students protesting the city’s closure attempts in the last school year. (Photo: Robert Fernandez)

The third time’s the charm? New York City’s school administrators seem to hope so.

For the third time in three years, the Department of Education has again set its sights on closing Sheepshead Bay High School (3000 Avenue X), including it in a list of 24 high schools slated for closure as early as the end of this school year.

The “early engagement” list, reported on yesterday by Gotham Schools, is comprised of schools that the Department of Education says comes up short on student test results, attendance rates, graduate rates and college preparedness. In addition to high schools, it contains 36 elementary and middle schools.

Sheepshead Bay High School is one of seven high schools on the list that the city tried to close last year using the “turnaround” plan, which mandates closing the school, firing the staff, reopening under a new name and hiring a maximum of 50 percent of the teachers from the previous administration. Courts threw the brakes on the plan, though, after the teachers’ and principals’ unions successfully sued, claiming that it violated their collective bargaining agreement with the city.

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Irate workers rallied in front of Hi-Tek Car Wash in Brighton Beach on Thursday afternoon, claiming management cut their  work hours and reduced pay after employees, former employees, and union activists began targeting the local business.

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The proposed placement of new natural gas pipelines from Williams and National Grid. (Source: Williams)

It’s no secret that many locals are riled up about the plan to allow National Grid and the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (TRANSCO) to install a natural gas pipeline beneath the nation’s oldest – and one of its largest – urban national parks.

In a one-month period, the project racked up 60 comments to the federal agency tasked with approving the project – all opposed. And, as soon as the plans became public, neighbors were outraged at local congressional leaders pushing the plan, as well as the National Parks Service for failing to seek community input.

The plan is to connect a primary natural gas artery in the Atlantic, just off the coast of the Rockaways, to a National Grid hub in Brooklyn. The pipe will go under the Rockaways, across the Rockaway inlet and underneath Floyd Bennett Field. There, Transco Williams will install a gas metering station in the two currently-unused hangars off Flatbush Avenue, which will be monitored remotely from their Texas headquarters. The line will then continue up Flatbush Avenue and into National Grid’s main system.

Though it appears the companies and government have been developing the project clandestinely for years, the public revelation of the proposal is spurring on activists who want to see it stopped for environmental and safety reasons – and also because it flies in the face of a new management agreement between the federal government and New York City meant to revitalize the park, capitalize on its resources and increase access to the public.

Those opponents have scheduled a rally on Saturday at Jacob Riis Park, slated to coincide with the city and fed’s open house session about the new General Management Plan for Jamaica Bay’s overhaul.

Activist Karen Orlando, who is also a gardener at Floyd Bennett Gardens Association and blogger at Outside Now, wrote to us about the protest:

It’s the beginning of a movement to stop the pipeline through Gateway and sale of our park to the Natural Gas Industry. NYC Audubon has put up a petition and a call for citizens to come down to Jacob Riis this weekend to participate in Gateway’s General Management Plan information sessions. We are a few years into the process and the GMP will be the guiding document for the park’s future.

http://www.nps.gov/gate/parkmgmt/index.htm

There is a coalition that has just formed. It has come out of one of the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee’s Environmental Impact Statement meetings. Anti-frackers/pipeliners are joining forces with a motley crew of others (me included). We are looking to get people down on the beach this weekend to participate/protest.

We want a lot of people to come down to the beach to let their voices carry about NPS testifying for the bill that will put a pipeline and industrial facilities in this park.

NYC Audubon is also calling for people to come on down. They have a petition on their site. (Also a pretty good writeup about the GMP and their appeal for NPS to prioritize wildlife).

Don’t know how many people will show up. But there will definitely be a few. And we have a sign.

http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/

The rally will be held at Jacob Riis Park, Queens, on August 4, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Source: Google Maps

Disgruntled workers, bolstered in number by union-backed activists, will hit the pavement this evening in front of Hi-Tek Car Wash in Brighton Beach to protest what they say is unfair employment practices.

Hi-Tek (2981 Coney Island Avenue) is currently being sued by 17 of its workers who claim they were not paid minimum wage or properly compensated for overtime.

In observance of July 24 as a national day of worker’s rights and fair wages, Low-Wage Workers, members of “New York Communities for Change,” and those affiliated with “Make the Road New York,” will rally this evening in support of workers advocating for higher pay, better conditions, and additional rights.

Groups will first gather together at Union Square and East 16th Street for a large demonstration at 5 p.m. Buses will then depart at 6:30 p.m. to Hi Tek, a Brooklyn supermarket, and a Queens car wash business, where demonstrations will continue.

The three establishments at which the rallies will take place are:

• Golden Farm Supermarket: 329 Church Avenue
• Hi-Tek Car Wash: 2981 Coney Island Avenue
• LMC Car Wash and Lube: 36-21 21st Street, Queens

Workers at all three of these businesses have stated that they receive very low wages, and reported instances of wage theft.

After deciding last month to shutter Sheepshead Bay High School, as well as 23 other high schools, the Department of Education chose a name this week for the new school in the old building: Academy of Career Exploration of Sheepshead Bay.

John Dewey High School – also slated for closure – will be renamed Shorefront High School of Arts and Sciences at John Dewey Campus.

Both schools will close doors in June as part of a federal “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff. The plan has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

The schools will reopen under the new names in September, flooded with as much as $1.5 million each in federal funds to get the schools back on track.

We didn’t think the DOE could make it any more difficult to report on school issues, but, alas, they found a way to nearly double the number of characters to type. That’s city efficiency at its very best!

Regardless, we think it’ll be known colloquially as Sheepshead Bay High School and John Dewey High School for years to come. What do you think?

Sheepshead Bay H.S. students protest the DOE's plans before a March hearing (Photo by Robert Fernandez)

Sheepshead Bay High School and John Dewey High School will close doors in June, a city panel decided last night despite objections from those closest to the schools.

The schools are both targeted for reform using a federal “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff. The plan has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

The Panel for Education Policy made the final decision last night, when they voted to close all 24 high schools on the agenda at the five-hour meeting.

The schools will reopen under new names in September, flooded with as much as $1.5 million each in federal funds to get the schools back on track.

Students protest the DOE's plans before a March hearing (Photo by Robert Fernandez)

The plan to reform Sheepshead Bay High School using a “turnaround model” – which requires firing at least half the staff – has spurred condemnation from parents, teachers and students as we’ve previously reported.

It’s not a matter of whether the school needs work or not – most agree it does – but rather that the school was already enrolled in a reform process and had made great strides. Now the change in direction is wreaking havoc on the progress made, and teachers are losing faith in a system that has already pulled the rug out from under them.

Such undermining of teacher morale is setting any future reforms up for failure, one teacher told Gotham Schools:

Robin Kovat, social studies teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School

What changes have the School Improvement Grants brought to your school so far?

“Well, they instituted [the "restart" reform model], and we started it, and then they threw this wrench into our works, so the morale now is really going down because part of it involves a buy-in for the staff but nobody knows if they’re going to be here next year. I think dividing it into academies would really be wonderful if we keep the people here who can actually make a difference, who have been shown to make a difference, who have already made a difference.”

Gotham Schools has been asking a set of questions of teachers and students at some of the 26 high schools slated for closure. Here’s what another Sheepshead Bay High School teacher had to say about how the additional funds from reform have helped in the past year:

Alona Geller, English teacher and Cheerleading coach at Sheepshead Bay High School

What changes have the School Improvement Grants brought to your school so far?

“I started here when I was 22 years old. And I’ve been teaching for seven [years]. I think a lot of improvements have taken place. Any money granted to us is used for trips and programs and supplies, the kids have everything tha they need, and I know friends of mine in other schools don’t have those things.

This year in particular, we have City Year in the building, the ninth graders have a lot of support, and they’re thriving in away I haven’t seen before. City Year greets the kids at the door, they provide tutoring services, they’re in our classrooms, they follow the kids all day long and see what subjects they’re struggling with. They really keep up the morale for the students and for the teachers.”

Those funds will continue to flow while half the staff that have helped find the most efficient use for them will be dismissed if the turnaround model gets approved, as is widely expected.The Department of Education will decide whether to close the schools on April 26.

A rally to save Sheepshead Bay High School when it faced closure in 2010.

Parents, teachers and students at Sheepshead Bay High School are poised to fight back tonight against the Department of Education’s plans to close the school and fire up to half the teachers, as the school’s supporters organize a rally in front of the building before heading into a public hearing on the matter.

The Department of Education is proposing to reform the Sheepshead Bay High School using the “turnaround” model. This means the city will rename the school and replace the principal and 50 percent of its teachers. The school stands to gain $1.55 million in federal funding from the School Improvement Grant program using this model. William E. Grady High School, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School and John Dewey High School are other local schools slated for turnaround.

The turnaround model has been criticized by opponents as a politically motivated stab at the teacher’s union, after negotiations to implement a new teacher evaluation system stalled. Reforming teacher evaluations was a prerequisite to receive federal Race to the Top grants, and the failure to strike a deal cost the city a chance at hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s not the first time the school has been on the chopping block, most recently protesting in November 2010 to stay open – a battle it won. The school’s principal also vowed to fight for her job.

Today’s rally kicks off at 4:00 p.m. The public hearing begins at 6:00 p.m. at the school (3000 Avenue X). Written comments can be submitted via e-mail to D22Proposals@schools.nyc.gov, and oral comments can be left at 212-374-0208.

The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposal on April 26.