Tag Archives: Rant

Vote! (Again!)

Posted on by
Reply

I voted on my way to work this morning. If you’re a registered voter in Brooklyn’s 40th City Council District, please vote today for your next City Councilperson.

Una-Gene made their first appearance in my neighborhood this morning. Both Mathieu Eugene and Una Clarke were on the sidewalk of P.S. 139, my polling place, in Beverley Square West.

RANT

Eugene looked scared. He seemed genuinely baffled as to why people in my neighborhood were angry with him for wasting our votes and hundreds of thousands of dollars by refusing to prove he was eligible to take the seat for which he was elected and calling for a second special election. Like Senator Charles Palatine in the film Taxi Driver, throughout both campaigns Eugene has vapidly parroted the words “the people.” He should not be so surprised that not all “the people” are grateful to him for mentioning us.

Not to mention the questions surrounding funding for his community organization. Or the validity of calling himself a “Doctor,” clearly something he learned from Yvette Clarke.

Of course, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place if Yvette Clarke hadn’t thought she could do more damage make more money as a U.S. Congresswoman.

They can’t respond to a written questionnaire. They can’t show up at a local candidate’s forum; even Sharpe – whom Eugene had removed from the ballot at the time but was just last week reinstated by a judge – showed up for that.

But they can show up to intimidate voters hobnob with their fellow wizards at the steps of the polling place. That’s where Una and her cronies were this morning: on the sidewalk in front of the entrance to the polls. I’ll post the photographic evidence when I get home late tonight.

They seem to believe that residency laws don’t apply to them. Maybe electioneering laws don’t apply to them, either.

Or maybe the only reason they showed up this morning is to create yet another election crisis to manipulate in their favor. Electioneering and voter intimidation at the polls … might that be enough to invalidate the election altogether, or at least the results from a polling place where votes are likely to go largely against them?

Masters of Chaos they are, Thing One and Thing Two.

/RANT

Related posts:

Another reason to loathe real estate brokers …

Posted on by
2

Trying to locate their recent report on sales figures, I idly browsed the Corcoran (“Live Who You Are”! Be All That You Can Be!) Web site for my neighborhood. I don’t expect to find Beverley Square West. I would hope to find Victorian Flatbush. They’d don’t even list Flatbush. I found what I expected:

Ditmas Park: Runs from Parkside Avenue to the north, Ditmas Avenue to the south, Ocean Avenue to the east and Coney Island Avenue to the west.
– Corcoran Neighborhood Guide to Ditmas Park

Lest one quibble “Oh, it’s just a real estate name,” they continue in the second paragraph:

… This landmarked district …

WRONG! The landmarked Ditmas Park Historic District lies only within the boundaries of Dorchester and Newkirk Avenues, and Ocean Avenue and the B/Q line. The only other landmarked area within the boundaries they describe is Prospect Park South. The rest of their “Ditmas Park” is not landmarked.

It’s worse than that. They have no idea where they are.

Their descriptions conflate several neighborhoods – some landmarked, most not – and get basic information wrong. They provide the wrong school number for P.S. 139. There’s this:

These homes were originally built for the likes of the Guggenheims and films stars like Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.

Again, not in Ditmas Park. The Guggenheim Honeymoon Cottage is in Beverley Square West, my neighborhood. The Pickford/Fairbanks House is in Ditmas Park West.

And there’s this:

Many have porches and garages and sit on wide tree-lined streets with English sounding names like Argyle and Rugby.

Only the streets between Coney Island Avenue and the B/Q lines – half the area they claim to describe – carry these names, borrowed from the status of Prospect Park South. Four different neighborhoods span those streets from Parkside to Ditmas, and none of them are Ditmas Park.

The boundaries they give describe only part of greater Victorian Flatbush; they omit half the neighborhoods. Extending the southern boundary from Ditmas Avenue to Avenue H, between Coney Island Avenue Ocean Avenue lie West Midwood, Midwood Park, and Fiske Terrace. The latter two are proposed Historic Districts and are on track to become landmarked. Extending the eastern boundary to Flatbush Avenue, the Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces Historic District lies east of Prospect Park South, between Ocean and Flatbush Avenues, and South Midwood lies between Ocean and Bedford Avenues, and Foster Avenue south to Brooklyn College.

I’ve never had any dealings with Corcoran. We tried working with them when we were shopping for our home three years ago. They had yet to “discover” this area, and so had nothing to show us. Their reach had only extended to Windsor Terrace at that point, and we went to one open house there.

And, don’t bother trying to find a house a house on their Web site. You won’t find any. They only have “townhouses” …