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‘Mother of All D.I.Y. Fairs’ Will Make Winter Stop in Brooklyn This Weekend

BQE Admin on December 6, 2024

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

One of the most influential craft markets in the country is returning to Brooklyn this weekend, drawing over 150 creators from the borough and beyond.

The Renegade Craft fair will be setting up shop in ZeroSpace, a venue that straddles Gowanus and downtown Brooklyn, for December 7 and 8. It will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.

Renegade was founded in 2003 by Susie Daly, an aspiring therapist who began making jewelry after college and created the event’s initial edition in Chicago as a means to sell her work. The first time the market came to Brooklyn, in 2005, it took place in the drained-out pool at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, where customers descended the sloped sides to peer at handmade offerings.

Now in its twenty-first year, and dozens of installments later, Renegade has grown from its humble roots to become an institution — in 2008, Brooklyn Paper was already dubbing it the “preeminent D.I.Y. fair in the world.” And as of this year, casting a historian’s eye on the now-ubiquitous genre of small creators, SFGate described it as “arguably the mother of all contemporary craft fairs.”

A large banner awaited customers at this year’s previous Brooklyn event. Photo: Renegade Craft

Today, Renegade throws events in Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, along with summer and winter bonanzas in both Brooklyn and Manhattan. The company expanded to London and Portland, Oregon, but the former proved too logistical because of the distance and the latter simply didn’t catch on as fervently as it did elsewhere. Austin, Texas and Boston were cut due to the pandemic.

Part of what makes the fair such a draw no matter the locale is the careful vetting process for vendors. Renegade’s art director, Madelon Juliano, and her team combed over 600 applications for the upcoming winter fair at ZeroSpace. She said they juried based on quality alone, and had no hesitation including early-career artists alongside seasoned veterans, like long-time Etsy darling Wren Handmade.

The backgrounds of organizers like Daly — accomplished artists in their own rights, but ones who may have taken winding paths — speak to the grit of the participating vendors, many of whom seemed to have conjured a creative livelihood for themselves out of sheer force of will.

The Monday before the fair, Kelsie McNair spent the morning making stained-glass martini glasses. “[As Brooklynites,] we live in a place where there aren’t as many windows [being commissioned] as there might be in other parts of the country,” she explained, “because we’re mostly renting apartments.” So as an artist working with glass, she’s had to branch out: other items include languidly colorful forks, frames for mirrors, and even album art for the singer Jake Wesley Rogers.

McNair, originally from Virginia, started a vintage store out of college, at age 22. “I learned so much about small business, and about trying to be creative when you’re also trying to pay the bills. How do I find my joyful experience in the vast landscape of all the minutiae that the processing of owning a store brings?” After four years, she closed the shop and embarked on a range of other creative endeavors — photography, a job at a florist — before a friend recommended a glass residency program.

At first, it was “just something to do.” McNair had just wrapped her time as a shop owner, which she felt was “the best thing I was ever going to do,” and was feeling burnt out. But this residency, and the medium of glass, offered a way forward. “It sharpened my understanding of what kind of work I want to always have in my life,” she reflected.

McNair eventually landed a gig as a social media manager for Renegade, and began vending her own pieces in 2021.

The experience has been “wonderful” so far, she said. But she was sober about the acrobatics that creators must perform to remain marketable without compromising their personal style or message.

“We’re all in our own different challenging bubbles,” she said, “because we’re creating a path for ourselves that are uniquely ours. We are all looking for our own objects that work within the dialogue of the buyer or of the consumer or the customer, and we’re also constantly having to work to stay true to ourselves and to our brand.”

Similar themes resonated with illustrator Daili Shang, though her route to Renegade differed from that of McNair.

Shang left China to study physics in a PhD program at UCLA, specializing in cancer treatment — much of her work centered on CAT scans and MRIs, she said. But she’d never thought of herself as a science person, and “didn’t really feel passion for it.”

Attendees examine patterned tote bags earlier this year, at Renegade’s first of two bi-annual markets in Brooklyn. Photo: Renegade Craft

When the pandemic struck, Shang found herself coding all day from home. It was miserable, yet it also offered a chance to reconsider her career. “I was just wondering about what I liked to do before [science],” she said, “what would bring me joy? And drawing is one of those things.”

The only issue? The last time Shang had picked up art supplies was in elementary school. Undeterred, she began to teach herself to draw — in her 30s, she wryly observed — by taking every online class she could find. Despite the difficulty of finding her own style, the pressure was manageable, because she had taken the leap and left physics for a new job, as a store manager for the high-end biking company Specialized.

Her first Renegade market was in Los Angeles in the spring of 2022, while still working at the bike shop. Initially, she focused on selling small stickers, which often incorporated the motifs of cats, bicycles, and self-help adjacent puns. But the margins were too slim when she decided to switch to art full-time, and she also began to have qualms about the stickers’ environmental footprint.

Serendipitously, Shang stumbled across linocut printing, her current medium of choice, though she is beginning to shift again towards acrylic painting. The cats are still there, but they’ve grown more whimsical, and the colors are bolder. And though cancer research, bikes, and illustration may seem impossibly disparate, Shang was adamant that the twists and turns were part of her work’s appeal.

“What I want to offer the public is not just my art,” she said. “I want to offer them my story. Then they can also prioritize happiness and reflect on what they really want in life, and then live a happy life. Not everyone has to live a life they don’t want to be because they’re supposed to live a certain way.”

A vendor from Renegade’s fair at McCarren Park in 2006, its second year in the borough. Photo: Renegade Craft

Juliano emphasized that the chance to form personal connections with the artists is one reason why Renegade has been so successful, enduring for over two decades.

Yet she was also thoughtful about the unavoidable context for the fair: Black Friday. On the one hand, she noted that many of the vendors were relying on the event to make their yearly budgets even out, and was candid about the imperative to sell items. On the other, she viewed the economy of independent creators that Renegade has fostered as an alternative to a more wasteful commercialism.

“Because of how long I’ve been working at Renegade, buying from small businesses has become a habit,” Juliano explained. “And I think something so cool about continuing to support things like Renegade and artists that participate in them is that once you keep doing it, you really can’t go back to buying stuff that you know is going right to the landfill, or you know isn’t going to last, or is so trendy that you feel like it’s not going to stick around your closet anymore.”

New Book is a Colorful Who’s Who of Brooklyn Storefronts

BQE Admin on November 28, 2024

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

“Brooklyn is a magical place. World famous. A muse. A wellspring. Even the water is famous!”

Some might take the opening words of Joel Holland’s introduction to his third book, Brooklyn Storefronts, released in September, as pure flattery, but he brings the goods: upwards of 230 minimalistic yet painstakingly drawn renderings of the borough’s most iconic spots. From oldies like Staubitz Market in Cobble Hill (est. 1917) to new entrants such as Frankel’s Delicatessen & Appetizing in Greenpoint (since 2016) and beyond, Holland and collaborator David Dodge — who contributed lovingly researched copy to contextualize each drawing — have tried to make sure there’s something for every Brooklynite in these pages.

The project wasn’t without its challenges. Holland and Dodge had worked together on the former’s first title, a paean to his Manhattan haunts called NYC Storefronts, which hit shelves in 2022. But they acknowledged that doing Brooklyn justice called for a different approach. For one, the older book drew from a personal stash of illustrations Holland had made over the course of years, so they knew which stores would be included from the outset. In tackling a new borough, the scale was daunting: “I was pretty confident that I would know 75% of the stores that came our way,” Dodge said. “It was more like a quarter.”

The economic crisis that has rocked the restaurant business also posed an issue, both for Brooklyn Storefronts and a soon-to-be second edition of the first book.

“It’s been a little depressing, actually,” said Dodge. “We’ve had to go through and list all the different storefronts that have closed, and a lot of them — at the time, we were proud of them for making it through Covid, and there were all these great mutual aid efforts. But the toll of [the pandemic] is still kind of rippling throughout the city. It’s been interesting to go back and dip into the first book and see what’s changed.”

As for Brooklyn? “Having lived out there, I was jazzed,” said Holland, an expat of Greenpoint and Park Slope, who was lettering his next project as we spoke. “Like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be easy!’ And then I started to get really bummed, because I lived out there 10 or 15 years ago, and all the places that I thought of as being so awesome were gone.”

Both Holland and Dodge had been Brooklynites before (Dodge is “constantly in Brooklyn” to this day, he maintained), but as they assembled a preliminary list of storefronts — taking excursions from tip to tail, and taking stock of closures — they decided to recruit more help in order to cast a wider net.

“The way that we solved it was by combining forces between David, [editor] Ali, and myself, as well as all of our contacts with friends and some anonymous crowdsourcing [through social media],” said Holland. “That got me excited, thinking — this is not just for me or for us. We’re doing this for the community.”

And after documenting so many striking facades and improbable backstories, it’s hard not to have favorites.

“[It’s] probably the San Toy Laundry on 7th St,” said Holland. “I just love the look of it. I love the little packages in the window. I know it sounds weird to talk about my own drawing this way — sorry! But I like the texture that I was able to do for the exterior, mimicking a brown stone grit. That’s my favorite spot.”

Dodge was torn, but leaned towards the New York City Transit Museum on Schermerhorn St. in Downtown Brooklyn. The museum only exists, he explained, because a Transit Authority employee named Don Harold, who died in 2023, became obsessed with saving decommissioned trains from the scrapyard by switching their numbers so they wouldn’t be identified. Many of these same trains eventually found a home in today’s museum, which is sited in a subway station that was retired in 1946.

Another quirky discovery for Dodge was Broadway Pigeons & Pet Supplies in Bushwick, run by brothers Joey and Michael Scott. They inherited a flock of the speckle-necked birds when their grandfather passed away, and decided to create a hub for fellow enthusiasts. Though their hearts are with the rock doves, in recent years the Scotts have been forced to turn to traditional pet supplies to survive. People still buy pigeons, Dodge says, but nowadays the store is more likely to sell them for oddball purposes, such as to help train a dog to hunt, than for racing or long-distance messages.

Ultimately, the book strives to be more than eye candy. “Over the past decade,” curator Kimberly Drew writes in the foreword, “I’ve watched so many storefronts come and go. I’ve seen my neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, be invaded. I’ve felt the brunt of rising rents. I’ve watched the horizons change. Witnessing this all firsthand is why I know it is urgent that we seek out these storefronts and support them.” In that sense, Brooklyn Storefronts is much like a pattern book, full of eateries, bars, bookstores, museums, and laundromats whose storied warps and wefts — luring you out of the house — amount to something more than the sum of its (very elegant) parts.

The duo’s next project will be a citywide survey of street vendors, tentatively scheduled for 2026. You can contact David Dodge via his Instagram, @bydaviddodge, with any suggestions or tips about vendors he should profile. Holland’s fourth book, Paris Shopfronts, is due out next spring.

Thin and Thinning Margins: Cap on Delivery App Fees May Be Rolled Back

BQE Admin on November 27, 2024

By Jack Delaney

New York City lawmakers are considering lifting a cap on how much delivery apps can charge restaurants for each order, which was first implemented during the pandemic. Supporters claim the cap was a stopgap measure that no longer makes sense, while detractors say the change would squeeze the margins of small businesses that are already struggling.

Currently, third-party delivery services like Doordash and Grubhub are limited to charging any given restaurant a maximum of 23% per sale — 15% for delivery, 3% for credit card processing, and 5% for other fees. But a new bill, Int 762, would increase this cap to a total of 43% per order, by giving vendors the ability to ‘opt in’ to an additional 20% fee in return for enhanced services such as marketing.

New York has long been a unique market for delivery apps because of its transportation profile. Unlike other major cities such as Los Angeles, NYC is extremely dense and micromobility — encompassing scooters, mopeds, and e-bikes — is far more common than cars, which dominate elsewhere. As a result, the city’s regulatory framework for deliveries has evolved in ways that have diverged from the rest of the country.

While it was the first city to implement a delivery fee cap in March of 2020, it is also now one of the last municipalities — down from a peak total of more than 100 — that has kept the policy in the wake of the pandemic. The bill’s proponents say there is little to justify what they view as a burdensome legal holdover.

Bowing to a Monopoly, or Restoring a ‘Free Market’?

App companies have been proactive in expressing their discontent over local regulations, of which the fee cap is only one component. Last year, Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub sued the city over a law establishing minimum wage for food delivery workers, arguing that it used faulty data to determine how much the contractors should earn. The companies had been beset by claims of wage theft, triggering scrutiny from the City Council. And this September, the apps were handed a favorable ruling when a judge found that a consumer data-sharing requirement, implemented by the city in 2021, was unconstitutional.

Now, the tug-of-war between restaurants, delivery workers, and third-party services is shifting to the fee cap. “The Fair Competition for Restaurants Act is a compromise solution that gives New York’s small, independent restaurants more options on our platform while keeping important safeguards in place,” a representative for GrubHub said. “It allows them flexibility to market themselves, grow their customer base, and compete with the big chains.”

But Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, opposed the bill during a hearing in June, decrying what he called “monopolistic behavior.” He was echoed by Chris Lauber, Director of Operations at LT Hospitality Management, who held that “for an industry with thin profit margins of 5 to 10 percent, increasing these fees could mean the difference between staying open and closing.”

However, at the June hearing, Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. pushed Rigie and Lauber on why these price controls are necessary, given that the extra charge would be voluntary on the part of restaurants.

In response, Lauber said that the cap helps to prevent an exponential ‘race to the bottom,’ driven by what he described as the app companies’ high degree of leverage over their clients. Specifically, both he and Rigie highlighted the role of search engines.

At the current 23% rate, Lauber claimed, the ease with which a restaurant is found depends mostly on proximity to the customer or the type of food they’re searching for. By comparison, he worried that the language around search priority in the new bill was vague, allowing apps to bury businesses who don’t opt into higher premiums.

“If our restaurants had been next to each other and they had two different marketing strategies inside,” he said, “we would then have one exponentially higher than the other, which is ultimately what they’re arguing is the point. However, the margins are so thin going into restaurants to begin with that it creates kind of an effective rat race that would be exponentially playing one off of the other to get higher and higher in the fee cap, until eventually it’s exhausted.”

Disputed Protections

Delivery apps have pointed to the fact that many restaurants appear to support the bill as evidence that it will maintain an even playing field.

“Despite claims made by industry lobbyists for large restaurant chains, support for this amendment is led by New York’s small and independent restaurants, including the NY Latino Restaurant & Bar Association and multiple community organizations,” Grubhub’s spokesperson said. They noted that the bill enshrines additional protections for restaurants, which include “the rights to be listed and discoverable, to include their own marketing materials in deliveries, to set their own in-app menu prices, and to prohibit delivery platforms purchasing their restaurant’s name for advertising.” Regular compliance assessments would also be required.

Yet Lauber was skeptical that these protections would be enough to shield smaller vendors. “Recently, I even had to argue with multiple platforms just to abide by the current regulations in place and not overcharge us when onboarding our restaurants,” he said. “So removing the fee cap would disproportionately affect smaller independent restaurants and bring bargaining power to larger restaurants, further creating an uneven playing field that favors larger chains.”

There is no set date for when the bill will be brought before the council again, but advocates on both sides predict it will be a matter of weeks, and are kicking into high gear to persuade council members before a vote.

Christmas at the Danish Seamen’s Church

BQE Admin on November 27, 2024

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

The Danish Seamen’s Church threw its yearly Christmas Fair last weekend, on November 23rd and 24th, drawing a crowd of expat Danes, second-gen Scandinavians, and Nordophiles alike to the church’s brownstone in Brooklyn Heights.

Julie Sløk, pastor since 2006, said that the market is the church’s major fundraiser of the year. The tradition has been carried on for over forty years, and the church itself has existed since the late 19th century, counting photographer Jacob Riis among its congregants.

In the backyard, volunteers Anne Wallen and Carsten Holm doled out ample helpings of pancake balls called aebleskiver, paired with strawberry jam and powdered sugar, to a stream of customers. And even as the event wound down on its final day, a dozen market goers sat conversing in animated Danish along two rows of long wooden tables.

“It’s a wonderful community,” Carsten said. “For Danes in North America, this is a unique place. The confirmation classes have people coming from all over the U.S.” (and even Canada, Anne added.)

There are only about 10,000 such Danes currently living in the tri-state area, said Marianne Beresford, co-owner of the popular supplier Scandinavian Butik in Norwalk, CT, as well as a board member of the church and the event’s joint organizer with Sløk. But the meager numbers belie, or perhaps contribute to, a tight-knit camaraderie.

“Every Dane should go abroad for at least two years,” she said. After a beat she explained, half-joking: “So they know how good they have it.”

The market’s large turnout this year is also a testament to the resiliency of both the church’s leadership and its community. Like many other houses of worship, the Seamen’s Church, or Sjomanden Kirke in Danish, shut down all of its in-person operations when the pandemic broke out. Yet with typical good cheer, Sløk and her team shifted to virtual offerings, and sought for upsides.

Despite all this, the board’s annual report read, 2020 was a good year for the Seamen’s Church. We have found out how much we mean to each other and to the Danes here. It must follow the motto that nothing is so bad that it is not good for something.

City of ‘Yes, But’: Landmark Housing Deal Squeezes Through to Full Vote, with Caveats

BQE Admin on November 26, 2024

A map depicting the new plan for parking mandates: red zones will see them rolled back completely, while residents in the yellow and blue areas will experience partial reductions to the requirements. (Credit: New York City Council)

By Jack Delaney

New York City’s most sweeping housing plan in decades cleared a crucial hurdle this week, as the City Council pushed forward changes to zoning laws and other regulations so that 80,000 new units can be built across the city.

Last Thursday, the Council’s Land Use Committee voted 8 to 2 in favor of a revised version of ‘City of Yes,’ a slate of modifications to citywide rules that has been a key part of Mayor Eric Adams’ agenda and that is intended to alleviate the city’s acute housing shortage. The original plan aimed to create 109,000 units in the next 15 years, but it was amended after backlash among some electeds over hot-button issues such as the abolition of parking mandates.

There haven’t been major changes to the city’s zoning laws since 1961, and pressure for reforms has mounted in recent years as the housing crisis has worsened. A particularly dire indicator is that as of 2024, the rental vacancy rate had dropped to an abysmal 1.4%, the lowest on record since 1968 and a marked decrease from a pandemic-era level of 4.5% in 2021. “The data is clear,” said Mayor Adams in February. “The demand to live in our city is far outpacing our ability to build housing.”

Down to the wire

As of the morning of the vote, it remained unclear whether a deal would be struck. If the council had declined to vote, the plan would have passed without amendments. The vote itself was delayed by over five hours, as council members hashed out a workable compromise. In the end, it took an unexpected injection of $1 billion from Governor Kathy Hochul to ensure that the amended proposal would be approved.

Since City of Yes was first announced in June 2022, Mayor Adams and his allies have characterized it as “a little more housing in every neighborhood.” Though the Council’s amendments still pave the way for a substantial amount of housing, they represent a more Balkanized tack, in which some neighborhoods will bear a greater share of development thanks to regulations that vary based on borough and distance from transit hubs.

The two most contentious facets of the original plan — parking mandates and ADUs, or accessory dwelling units — were accordingly the focal points for the compromise deal.

Rather than discarding the minimums completely, the deal creates a three-tiered system based on geography. In almost all of Manhattan, and much of western Queens and Brooklyn — dubbed Tier 1 — Parking mandates would be eliminated entirely. For Tier 2, which covers swaths of Brooklyn and the Bronx, mandates would be lowered substantially, cutting the number of required parking units by three-quarters across the zone. And in Tier 3, largely contained to Queens, minimums for standard projects would remain in place, but would be lifted for ADUs), transit-oriented districts, and town centers as long as new construction contains fewer than 75 units.

The agreement also ratcheted up regulations on ADUs, a key component of the City of Yes plan, as well as small apartments in backyards, garages, and other spaces on existing properties. The compromise would prohibit ground-floor and basement ADUs in coastal and inland flood-prone areas, while disallowing backyard ADUs in historic districts and certain areas designated for single-family homes.

Too Much, Not Enough

Council Member Bob Holden, who has been part of a vocal opposition, called the deal “a terrible plan” and said that his constituents “reject the idea of giving real estate developers a blank check to overdevelop our city.” He and other Republican lawmakers had expressed concerns about potential overcrowding, strain on infrastructure, and the impact of large-scale developments on ‘neighborhood character.’

For their part, progressives like State Senator Zellnor Myrie criticized the proposal for not going far enough. “With today’s carveouts, an already modest step forward has slowed to an even more hesitant pace,” Myrie said. “Every housing unit cut from this proposal represents another family that will have to leave New York City.” He added that he hoped the full Council would approve the changes without further amendments during its stated meeting next month.

Even so, many housing advocates have reacted positively to the amended plan. Some argued that critics who initially focused on concessions were losing the forest for the trees, and praised what they saw as a paradigm shift. “Essentially, this is fantastic,” said one representative, who asked to remain anonymous. “City of Yes was never going to be the fix to our housing crisis. But what this does, which has never been done before in New York City, is to recognize that a zoning change is essential to providing affordable housing.”

The plan will now return to the City Planning Commission for review before proceeding to a final vote by the full City Council in December.

Juice, Judo, and a Runway: Brownsville Orgs Show Out for Food Equity

BQE Admin on November 21, 2024

Clarissa Sims demos an easy-to-make yet nutritious juice for attendees. Photo: Jack Delaney

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

“We the undersigned,” the petition begins, “are tired of living in a neighborhood that is systemically deprived of healthy choices.”

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the Brownsville Heritage House played host to an array of community leaders and entrepreneurs who showed up in support of a bid for $200,000 in state grants to create a new hub for fresh, nutritious food in the neighborhood.

The petition, launched by nonprofit Seeds in the Middle, would combine an affordable farmers market with a community cafe, all run by Brownsville residents. Customers using SNAP benefits at the market would get double value up to $20 per day, and the cafe would serve as a one-stop shop for nourishing meals, juices, and snacks, as well as items made by local creatives.

Seeds in the Middle founder Nancie Katz says the state money would help address a problem that’s currently acute. Brownsville has been called a ‘food desert,’ though recently the term has given way among experts to ‘food swamp’ — an area that is flooded by access to unhealthy food, without a convenient or cheap means of buying alternatives. This lacuna has knock-on effects: 41% of adults in Brownsville are obese, per Foodscape data, which is nearly 20% higher than the city average and much worse than the 32% the neighborhood recorded in 2011. Residents also face rates of diabetes and infant mortality, the risk of which is tied to chronic health conditions, that are among the highest in the city.

At first, a sparse group of about ten attendees sat scattered on folding chairs throughout the room, reticent. But dozens more began to stream in around 3 p.m., and before long the space was buzzing.

The event kicked off with a tour of the recently renovated Brownsville Heritage House by Miriam Robertson, its Executive Director. The 40-year old community center and museum, located on the second floor of the Stone Avenue Library, was started by legendary historian and trailblazer Mother Gaston out of her own living room.

Next was a crash course in self defense taught by Gabriel Eugene, owner of the Lucian Dojo on Maple Street. His good-natured volunteer, Divine Pollard, threw mock blows and patiently weathered a variety of headlocks as Eugene walked the crowd through the optimal ways to defend against punches, baseball bats, and knives.

Then came a demo by Clarissa Sims of Liquid Vibes, a juice company based out of Staten Island. A year earlier, Sims underwent surgery for breast cancer, a frightening experience which spurred her to place more emphasis on her health. On stage at the event, carrots, oranges, and apples went into a juicer along with a knob of ginger — attendees were enthusiastic about the juice, but did have thoughts on the strength of the last ingredient: “The juice,” said one older man, “is very spicy.”

Sims was unfazed. “Ginger is amazing, amazing, amazing for your body,” she told onlookers, while stressing that it’s more important to add in healthy foods, at least initially, than it is to go scorched earth through dieting. “By embracing healthier habits, I’m not just transforming myself,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m on a mission to impact the lives of my family and community.”

The lack of healthy food in Brownsville isn’t a fluke. Silvia Radulescu, a researcher at the Georgetown University Law Center, explains that “there are racial disparities in food access in Brooklyn; white residents have better access to healthy [meals] than Black and Hispanic residents.” She argues that this gap isn’t only the product of current income inequality, but “result[s] from twentieth-century segregation policies and practices—such as redlining, blockbusting, and predatory lending.” In other words, Brownsville residents have been forced into unhealthy habits over the course of decades, and by design.

“I don’t even know where to say to get it, to get fresh stuff,” said Cynthia Bishop, who was born in Wilmington, NC, and moved to Brownsville when she was five years old.

At the Brownsville Heritage House, organizer Cherokee La Dickens asks questions as Chef Shibumi Jones explains her tips and tricks for a delectable green curry. Photo: Jack Delaney.

Cooking demos followed Sims’ gingery juice. The first was a green curry how-to by veteran chef Shibumi Jones, who runs a locally sourced farm-to-table supper club in the Hudson Valley.

“It’s very important to start with your aromatics,” Jones said. Another tip for maximum flavor? Try deglazing with water, which helps incorporate “all the good stuff that’s stuck on the bottom of the pan” into the dish. And she urged the audience to try using homemade pumpkin puree as a base: “Anything you can put tomatoes in, you can do with pumpkins as well.”

Her final tip was a tactic to cut down on salt, by way of a science lesson. Acidic seasonings do the trick, because “adding acid is the same thing as adding salt, as far as where it hits on your palate.”

After a second demo on how to make the perfect pared-down Mediterranean salad by mother-daughter duo Estelle and Mona Raad, young essayist April Webster read her piece on food justice, to rousing applause.

Also present at the event was Dante Arnwine, District Manager for Brooklyn Community Board 9, who is planning to run for the City Council next year in District 41. He echoed organizer Cherokee La Dickens’ sentiments regarding the need to bridge generational divides to build a movement around adequate nutrition, which affects everyone.

“Unfortunately, people are so busy that they don’t have the time to get fresh produce,” he noted. “You’re worried about just [getting] food on the table. You’re not particularly worried about whether it’s healthy or not. And so being able to bring this to where people are is essential, right? We really need more programming like this.”

Arnwine also pointed to the intersections between issues like housing and nutrition, and saw the mayor’s citywide initiative to increase housing stock as an opportunity to advance other causes, too. “As the city continues to build under ‘City of Yes,’ or whatever that looks like, the conversations have to be had between elected officials and developers: ‘Hey, when you’re moving into communities that are clearly food deserts, they need fresh produce.’”

Models drawn from the audience, including Divine Pollard, Cynthia Bishop, and Chef Shibumi, Jones show off designer John Cheek’s latest collection. Photo: Jack Delaney

For chef Jones and wife Alix, who live in Brownsville, the push for access to healthy food is important not only in the context of a neighborhood that is starved of resources generally — including sluggish response times from city agencies for routine requests like removing abandoned cars, which Alix had experienced firsthand — but also within the broader picture of the country’s food systems.

“You see these companies putting all kinds of crap in the food that they, number one, don’t have to tell us about. And number two, it’s just not good for our health, and it’s just not good for the environment.” So Jones was supportive of any opportunity to “encourage any sort of awareness and just to take a step back and re-examine what we’re eating.”

The evening came to a dramatic close with a fashion show curated by John Cheeks, a local dance instructor, designer, and corrections officer who lost his mother, who had also been his business partner, to Covid during the pandemic.

And as residents filed out of the Brownsville Heritage House with full stomachs, still blinking the runway’s dazzle from their eyes, the limelight returned to expanding local access to high-quality produce.

“We would love to have farm to table experiences here in Brownsville,” said La Dickens. “We want healthy food options too, so we’re right here, right now.”

BK Start-Ups Pitch Next Big Thing in Transportation Tech

BQE Admin on November 14, 2024

Damir Gilyaz, founder of EZGlyd, attempts to woo an accomplished panel of judges at Make It In Brooklyn’s Future of Transportation Pitch Contest. Photo: Jack Delaney

By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com

On Tuesday, a Shark Tank-esque competition pitted fledgling Brooklyn tech companies — hawking drones, battery stations, and scooters — against each other for a shot at a check, and a stamp of approval for molding New York’s future transit systems.

The venue was auspicious. In 1807, seven years after inventing a usable submarine for Napoleon, the engineer Robert Fulton launched the world’s first commercially successful steamboat up the Hudson, putting New York City on the map as a center for innovative transportation. Over two hundred years later, and only one block away from a street bearing Fulton’s name, a handful of start-up founders were hoping to channel some of his magic.

The Future of Transportation Pitch Contest, which took place in the stylish rafters of Hana House in Downtown Brooklyn, had narrowed the field to just four finalists. The event was organized by Make It In Brooklyn, a Dowwwntown Brooklyn Partnership initiative to support the borough’s entrepreneurs that has given out over $120,000 in seed funding to date.

After an introduction by Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Regina Myer, the evening was ushered along by emcee Jared Ais, an urban planner with a TikTok following (his handle is @TransitTalks). Filling out the roster were judges Phil Hwang of Dollaride, Judy Chang of the charging infrastructure company Itselectric, Dulcie Canton of CLIP!, NYCDOT veteran Dr. Jannie Gao, and Patrick Knoth, General Manager of Citi Bike.

The first presenter to brave the judges’ questioning was Damir Gilyaz, founder of EZGlyd. He said his product arose from a simple question: “What happens to your cargo scooter when it’s not in use?” The answer came to him while he was waiting for his daughter after her weekend math classes in Manhattan, watching traffic and musing over parking. He decided to design his own scooter, one that could “meet unmet needs for family and small business owners in high density areas,” he said, by using less space. The key features are that the vehicle can be folded vertically, has two removable batteries, and sports strong weather protection.

One judge asked how much the bike would cost to create. About $1,200 for manufacturing, Gilyaz replied, with a retail price starting at $2,400 to factor in other costs. He also fielded a question about his vision for the company’s future, to which he said that he was eager to expand to other cities in the Northeast if the pilot went smoothly in New York.

Avol founder Nate Poon and DBP President Regina Myer pose with the prize-winner’s check. Photo: Jack Delaney

The second challenger to approach the dais was David Hammer, President and co-founder of Popwheels.

“Right now in New York City,” Hammer said, “your pad thai is being schlepped by somebody on an e-bike.” Actually, he went on, that bike is probably one of two models, and they likely comprise one of the largest e-bike fleets in the world — over 100,000 vehicles, potentially. “This shows,” he said, “that electric mobility is not just for bougie Brooklyn dads, and I say this as [one], nor is it just for rich jerks. No, it’s for everybody. It’s for working people to be able to get their jobs done.”

But in Hammer’s telling, e-bike riders have two big problems. They’re plagued by battery fires, and the high cost of owning and operating a bike is also an issue. His company’s fix is to create a citywide battery swapping network, so that e-bikers and specifically delivery workers can recharge their batteries without having to return home.

When his presentation concluded, judges asked whether he was prepared for battery models to change. What if a new type of battery was incompatible with his kiosks? “There aren’t any new chemistries,” he answered, “that are likely to become online in the next five years that are going to radically reshape and increase by an order of magnitude the kind of the needs that meet micro mobility today.”

Third on deck was Nathan Poon, CEO and co-founder of Avol. Tall and lanky, he took a deep breath, then launched into his pitch for drones that can deliver blood, medication, and biopsies between medical centers.

“Medical deliveries are extremely slow,” he said, explaining the need for his invention. “There’s about 44 million of these deliveries every year, but almost all of them are done by car, which means they take a really long time. They’re limited by roads, traffic and weather conditions, and they’re limited by coordinating drivers. This results in about $30 billion worth of losses every year, just because blood, kidneys, and medications aren’t where they need to be when the patients actually need them.”

Drones had already been proposed to solve for this, he noted, but most models are heavily regulated. The trick is to design a drone that is light enough to avoid triggering regulation, yet heavy-weight and sturdy enough to carry the necessary materials over long distances. So that’s what Poon did, based on his PhD research. The result is a novel aircraft that “fits in the same regulatory class as a traditional quadcopter, but has five times the range and twice the payload volume.”

How do you deal with the fact that different municipalities may have different regulations for drones? Poon said that Avol gets around this issue by landing drones a mile or so outside of the target cities, and then paying couriers to ferry the medical supplies the rest of the way.

The fourth techie to take the stage was Victor Oribamise, CEO and co-founder of Kquika.

His company wants to minimize the amount of time that planes are out of commission, which Oribamise says costs airlines $3000 per plane, per hour. To accomplish this, he and his partners have designed an artificial intelligence-powered model that helps predict when a plane will need maintenance, before it actually does. “How does it work?” he asked, rhetorically. “We do real time data processing, and we have six behavior models to be able to predict all of these problems.”

As might be expected for an AI-driven product, a judge asked whether Oribamise’s software would replace human jobs. He replied that there aren’t currently enough maintenance engineers to go around, so his model would simply supplement the missing labor force.

The presentations were finished, and the crowd wandered off to the bar with their free drink tickets. Finally, after fifteen minutes of deliberation by the judges, emcee Ais announced that the winner was… Avol! Poon was swept to the stage, where he posed with a physically enormous (and financially modest) check for $5,000 to support his company’s growth.

It’s unclear if any of these ventures will take off. But if years from now you get a life-saving blood transfusion delivered to your hospital by drone, remember: it may have started here, just off Fulton St.

42 Hotel to host Jazz Night featuring tastes from Celebrity Chef Eric LeVine

John on November 7, 2024

Jazz, wine, and unique tastes from Food Network’s Chef Eric LeVine at 42 Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

by Molly Sword

On Thursday, November 21st, 75 lucky people will experience jazz, wine, and a unique tasting menu of passed hors d’oeuvres from Food Network’s celebrity guest Chef Eric LeVine at 42 Hotel in Williamsburg.

This is a free event, however, it will only be open to the first 75 people who secure their tickets at this link.

LeVine is a restaurateur, caterer, cookbook author, multi-award-winning chef, and food network “Chopped Champion.” As a six-time cancer survivor, LeVine knows hard work and perseverance, and he shares his story to support and inspire others.

The 21st of November will be a glimpse into the creative mind of Chef Eric, as he has carefully curated a unique menu exclusively for the Tasting Event.

LeVine’s successful restaurant, 317 Main Street, has received prestigious awards, such as “Best Long Island Burger”, “Best Restaurant”, and “Best Chef” from various media publications.

“I was born in Brooklyn, so this event at 42 Hotel is a full circle moment for me,” said LeVine, who worked his way from the back of the kitchen to a celebrity chef.

Below is the exclusive hors d’oeuvres menu of the night, created by Chef Eric LeVine:

Smoked salmon with daikon radish +,mustard aioli
Seared tuna loin on wasabi spoon
Soba noodle salad with Asian chicken cup
Grilled Chicken Sausage Skewers with grilled scallions
Shredded pickled slaw with olives + roasted garlic aioli cup
White bean, Tomato + Basil Salad cup
Fried dumplings with scallion Asian sauce
Ricotta, Prosciutto Crostini with balsamic tomatoes

The night will not only feature LeVine’s incredible food, but also include a jazz band, unique house wine, and draft beer.

42 Hotel is the result of the diligent work of Nik Patel, who with his partner, Milan Patel, have worked tirelessly to create a luxury environment in the heart of the upcoming South Williamsburg area.

As Nik and Milan grew up without the privilege of wealth or status, they understand the value of hard work and inspire others through their story. The number 42 means a lot to Nik and Milan, as it reflects how their family came from one of the 42 villages in the state of Gujarat in the western part of India.

Tap this link to reserve your free ticket to enjoy LeVine’s culinary genius, exceptional jazz music, and a great choice of wines at 42 Hotel, located at 426 South 5^th St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

NYC Has a Unique Deal with the EPA to Avoid Filtering Its Water. Losing It Could Cost Taxpayers Billions.

Clare Baierl on November 7, 2024

Water spills down the side of the New Croton Dam in Cortlandt, New York, which was built in 1907. Credit: Fifi + Hop.

By JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com

In 1997, a complex tangle of interests that included the EPA, Albany, the City Council, a coalition of upstate towns, and a group of environmental nonprofits came together to see if a special deal could be struck: could New York City avoid filtering its water?

The benefits were clear. Per the 1974 Safe Water Drinking Act, any city that relies on surface waters — basically, reservoirs fed by river streams and precipitation — is required to filter that supply before it reaches residents. But filtration is an expensive process, and that’s especially true when a water system is on the scale of New York City’s, with 1 billion gallons of water drawn daily from three watersheds, covering over 1,000 square miles, that are carried down to the five boroughs via 7,000 miles worth of delivery infrastructure.

So the obscure 1997 agreement, known as a Filtration Avoidance Determination (or FAD), was billed as a way for taxpayers to save billions of dollars. If the reservoirs could pass an array of stringent tests, the EPA would waive the requirement that they be filtered. And for 27 years, satisfied by the New York Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) efforts, it has done just that.

That job is getting much more difficult, as NYC confronts a mounting water crisis. The city is currently undergoing its first drought watch in 20 years, and officials plan to shut down one of its main aqueducts this winter, because a section of tunnel under the Hudson River is ‘massively leaking,’ as reported by NBC, and needs repairs. Separately, flooding continues to plague Southeast Queens, where historical disinvestment has left many households with no answers for overflowing groundwater. Facing a headache-inducing panoply of things to fix, experts are relying on the FAD to keep costs manageable.

But this arrangement is fragile. Only six watersheds in the U.S. have been granted FADs by the EPA, and in June of this year one of those cities, Portland, Oregon, lost it. It’s now embarking on a $2.1 billion project to filter out cryptosporidium, a parasite spread by animal feces, and to protect against the threat of wildfire ash mixing with chlorine.

To many, these concerns might seem remote. Aside from the red skies of last year’s downward-drifting Canadian smoke, which briefly gave New York City the dubious honor of having the worst air quality in the world, wildfires are less of an ever-present reality here, for now.

But at a City Council hearing last Wednesday, the head of the DEP, Rohit Aggarwala, acknowledged that New York’s reservoirs also contain significant levels of cryptosporidium. Luckily, current infrastructure already incorporates a UV treatment that ensures that the germs can’t reproduce, rendering them harmless to humans.

Yet the case of Portland “reinforces the fact that we have to be vigilant,” Aggarwala said, noting that the filtration system they were required to build “is less than 110th the size of the plant we would need,” which officials estimate could cost between $20 and $40 billion.

This is especially true, given NYC’s odd position among the handful of cities that are still holding onto a FAD. Unlike its peers, its watersheds are populated. Consider this: in 2023, the DEP paid $165 billion in local taxes on its upstate properties. It’s the second largest taxpayer in Westchester, and in many counties north of the city its payments prop up entire school systems. When engineers in Seattle want to renovate its water infrastructure, they don’t have to think about giving a parking lot to a nearby town as a concession. Yet that’s exactly what the DEP must do, as it balances the politics of local economic development with its mandate to keep water safe for roughly 10 million people.

The next negotiations over the FAD are slated for 2027, and the hearing served in part as a rehearsal of the many variables that could go wrong before then.

The department operates its own police force to patrol the watershed for illegal contamination, replete with an academy, a detective bureau, an emergency service unit, a canine unit, and an aviation unit. But it has struggled to fill its openings. One sticking point is that DEP officers are technically classified as civil service rather than law enforcement, for pension purposes. This means that they can’t retire until age 63, whereas peers in other bureaus can do so after 25 years of employment.

Workers pose on the tracks of the Rondout pressure tunnel in 1910, showing off its newly-set concrete lining. Credit: New York Public Library.

“We are constantly losing our officers to other forces, in large part because of this massive disparity in the pension,” Aggarwala explained. “We currently have nearly a 20% vacancy rate, despite doing everything we can to recruit and maintain these [employees.]”

Another existential threat? Ducks, geese, and gulls. As DEP Assistant Commissioner David Warne outlined, an area of special concern is Kensico Reservoir, where scat from wildlife threatens to recreate Portland’s disease-fueled bind.

The Westchester Airport poses another risk for pollution, as does runoff from the hundreds of local farms around the reservoirs. Councilmember James Gennaro, Chair of the Committee on Environmental Protection, Resiliency, and Waterfronts, also worried that state government might hypothetically pressure DEC to use these reservoirs for flood control, sacrificing their role as a water supply.

But ultimately, the obstacles for the FAD may be much grander, and more intractable, than staff shortages or errant animals. As climate change hastens the spread of disease and worsens flooding, whether the city can safeguard its money-saving deal with the EPA — at a moment when there’s an acute need for funds to overhaul the city’s aging water infrastructure — remains to be seen.

Subway Surfing’s Fatal Consequences: City Leaders Speak Out Against Rising Trend

Clare Baierl on November 7, 2024

Courtesy NY.GOV

A tragic incident on October 27 claimed the life of 13-year-old Krystel Romero, marking the sixth death from subway surfing in New York City this year.

By MOHAMED FARGHALY

mfarghaly@queensledger.com

A tragic incident on October 27 has brought renewed attention to the perilous trend of subway surfing in New York City. Krystel Romero, a 13-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at the scene after being struck by a train at the 111 Street subway station, marking her as the sixth person to die from this reckless activity this year alone.

The New York Police Department responded to a 911 call regarding the incident, which has added to the growing concern surrounding subway surfing, an act where individuals ride on top of moving trains. This dangerous trend has seen a disturbing increase within the last few years. The current year’s toll underscores an alarming pattern that has caught the attention of city officials and advocates alike.

During a press conference, Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), issued a stark warning.

“Listen, this is not like a video game. You don’t get another chance; you can’t just reboot,” Lieber said. “This is one chance – if you do something stupid, you’re going to lose your life. Please, parents, teachers, other caregivers, make sure kids understand this is not a game. They cannot take chances with their lives.”

In response to the rising incidents of subway surfing, the MTA has been proactive in implementing measures aimed at curbing this behavior. A campaign titled “Subway Surfing Kills – Ride Inside, Stay Alive” was launched to educate young people about the dangers associated with this reckless act. Shanifah Rieara, senior advisor for communications and policy at the MTA, addressed the ongoing efforts during a media roundtable earlier this year.

Rieara noted that the MTA started a campaign a year ago, using digital messages and voice recordings to warn students about the dangers of subway surfing. While the campaign has been effective, they plan to update it with a new version to further strengthen the safety message. Rieara emphasized the importance of ongoing outreach and collaboration with social media companies.

The city’s commitment to safety extends beyond educational campaigns. Mayor Eric Adams, alongside NYPD Interim Commissioner Thomas G. Donlon and NYC Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, has urged New Yorkers to call 911 if they witness subway surfing. The NYPD is employing data from these calls to deploy joint drone and field response teams to areas with the highest reports of subway surfing incidents.

The deployment of drones in the fight against subway surfing has emerged as a critical tool for enhancing public safety in New York City. Utilizing data from 911 calls, the NYPD has implemented drone surveillance to monitor and respond to incidents of subway surfing in real time. This innovative approach allows officers to identify individuals riding on top of moving trains and intervene before potential tragedies occur. To date, this program has proven effective, helping to save the lives of 114 individuals, with ages ranging from nine to 33 years old and an average age of 14. By combining technology with community engagement, the city aims to curb this dangerous trend and protect its youth from the severe risks associated with subway surfing.

“Subway surfing is a deadly trap, one that is endangering more and more young people who see others doing it on social media,” said Mayor Adams. “But those five minutes of online fame could lead to years of regret and pain, or a lifetime of trauma and heartbreak for a family that loses a child. Think about what riding on top of trains really means: the possibility of death and your family, in grief, wondering what more they could have done to protect you. Subway surfing kills — ride inside, stay alive.”

The city’s ongoing campaign, which launched in September 2023, includes a multifaceted approach involving the NYC Department of Education, the NYPD, and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development. The initiative has been designed for and by New York City teenagers, putting their voices front and center in a peer-to-peer effort to deter dangerous behavior. The campaign’s messaging has reached all 1,800 New York City Public Schools, with posters and palm cards distributed to schools near the J, M, Z, and 7 train lines, which experience the most complaints regarding subway surfing.

Courtesy NY.GOV

In response, officials are ramping up safety campaigns and using drone surveillance to combat this dangerous trend, urging parents and young people to recognize the life-threatening risks involved.

As part of this comprehensive effort, various materials, including public service announcements recorded by students, digital signage in subway stations, and social media posts, are being utilized to spread awareness. The campaign’s effectiveness is bolstered by partnerships with major tech companies like Meta and Google, which have made space on their platforms to amplify the messaging. The collaboration aims to counteract the viral nature of subway surfing content that has proliferated on social media.

Amid these initiatives, concerns about the role of social media in promoting dangerous behaviors have prompted further action from the city. In February, Mayor Adams announced a lawsuit against several social media companies for their negative impacts on young people, citing subway surfing as a key example. This lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court, seeks to hold companies operating TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube accountable for their roles in creating the youth mental health crisis in New York City. The lawsuit alleges that these companies intentionally designed their platforms to manipulate and addict children and teens to their applications.

“Views on social media are not worth losing your precious life. Six young people have tragically died from subway surfing in 2024, including a 13-year-old girl on the 7 train earlier this week. The city must invest in more after school programs that give young people an engaging safe space and an outlet to grow their interests outside of the classroom,” said New York City Councilmember Julie Won. “In 2023, five young people died from subway surfing, and these deaths continue to increase every year. Last year I wrote a letter to the MTA New York City Transit urging them to take immediate action to prevent subway surfing, including locking train doors. As a mother of two young kids, I urge the state to revisit this request to protect our children and prevent future fatalities from subway surfing.”

A subway train passes through the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn on Wednesday, October 18 , 2017. Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photography Office.

As the city grapples with this escalating crisis, the loss of young lives continues to serve as a somber reminder of the dangers inherent in subway surfing. With city officials and community leaders rallying to combat this trend, the hope remains that through education, outreach, and active intervention, future tragedies can be prevented, ensuring the safety of New York City’s youth.

“Subway surfing, fueled by social media, has led to innumerable tragedies that have stolen far too many of our young people just entering the prime of their lives,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. “I commend any effort to protect young people by stopping them from engaging in this extraordinarily dangerous trend, and I look forward to working with our partners in education and law enforcement to combat this crisis.”

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