August 2010 - St. Nicks Alliance

Vo l u m e X X X V I I I N u m b e r V I I I Au g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 Es t. 1974
NUMBERS GRIM FOR AREA GYMS
More than half of local elementary public schools lack gyms
School Settlement Association steps into the breach
By Karl Benson
Remember gym class? The sounds of
children playing, sneakers squeaking, basketballs bouncing on the ground, dodgeballs bouncing off people… Whether you
loved it or hated it, you knew it was good
for you, and you knew it was an American
rite of passage.
Except in places like North Brooklyn,
where the majority of public elementary
schools do not even have gyms. According
to a Greenline survey, only seven of the 15
public elementary schools in Williamsburg
have dedicated indoor gyms that were used
this past school year in gym class. (The survey looked at only those District 14 schools
north of Flushing Avenue, the border of
Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. It
defined gym as an expansive indoor space
with basketball hoops that was not a cafeteria or an auditorium.)
This means that for many days during the
winter months, children have no access to
large spaces in which they can run around.
Amidst the growing epidemic of childhood
obesity, this is alarming. According to the
Center for Disease Control, which defines
America’s obesity problem as an epidemic,
over 16 percent of American children are
obese. The obesity rate has tripled for children 6 to 11 years old in the past three decontinued on page 5
INSIDE
3 Advocates rally for
»
banking regs
7 ‘Hats’ off to BBC Client
11 Milgo Bufkin,
Greenpoint Staple
GREENPOINT HOSPITAL: NEW LIFE AS ARTS@RENAISSANCE
By Karl Benson
A vibrant community arts space now resides in a long dormant portion of the old
Greenpoint Hospital, thanks to a St. Nicks
Alliance initiative.
The gallery space – dubbed Arts@
Renaissance, at 2 Kingsland Avenue – officially opened on July 9th in the defunct hospital’s former outpatient clinic. Managed
by St. Nicks Alliance, the new space will
house community arts events and cultural
and historical exhibitions. Its goal is to
use the arts to build community and to
creatively advocate for the neighborhood’s
continued vitality and sustainability.
The existence of Arts@Renaissance is
a testament to the work of the Greenpoint
Renaissance
Enterprise
Corporation
(GREC), a diverse community coalition
that has argued for productive use of the
sight since the original closing of the hospital in 1982. Arts@Renaissance takes
its name from the coalition. At the July
9 opening of the space, Tish and Guido
Cianciotta, co-presidents of the Concerned
Citizens of Withers Street, were recognized
for their decades of struggle to make sure
that the hospital site stays in the hands of
the community.
The
inaugural
exhibition
of
Arts@Renaissance,
dubbed
NORTHBROOKLYN, is a visual representation of the community around the
hospital campus. The exhibit showcases
the work of 32 visual artists who reside in
Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick.
The exhibition is curated by Elise Glick,
a sculptor living in East Williamsburg,
and will be on display through August 22.
During its opening weekend, more than 20
area musicians, dancers, and performance
artists participated in a performance series curated by local musician Eric Beach
(of the Greenpoint band So Percussion).
An installation view of Carlos Carrillo’s piece Atlantic Meadow, on view at ARTS@RENAISSANCE as part of the exhibit NORTHBROOKLYN.
More than 250 North Brooklyn residents
and arts supporters came to the July 9
opening of the space.
“It was great to be part of a grassroots
effort to open a new space for local artists,” said Glick. Glick said that because
the space is envisioned as a neighborhood
melting pot, she “took a democratic approach to this exhibition. There wasn’t a
particular theme that was solicited. I just
opened the floor to all local artists.”
The 5,000 feet of gallery space in Arts@
Renaissance will be made available to the
whole community, from professional artists to high school students to afterschool
continued on page 8
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PG . 2 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
CARMINE’S, A “SLICE” OF THE BRONX IN BROOKLYN
Pizzeria doubles as a Yankees museum
By Greg Hanlon
Carmine Gangone, who owns a celebrated pizzeria on Graham Avenue and
recently opened another restaurant on
Union, wants to get one thing straight:
He’s not a “post-96er.”
No, his allegiance to Yankees predates
the 1996 World Series championship and
the team’s subsequent run of excellence.
Rather, Carmine got hooked as an 8-year
old during the 1981 World Series watching
the Bronx Bombers lose to the Los Angeles
Dodgers. Things only got worse from
there, as the Yankee struggled through a
decade of futility and watched the Mets
become the toast of the town.
That’s why this lifelong Williamsburg
resident is so proud of his fandom – so
proud, in fact, that he displays it over
the walls of his restaurant. Walk into
Carmine’s and it’s a toss-up between what
you’ll notice first: Some will see the display
case filled with specialty pizzas. But others
will see the mural on the left wall featuring generations of Yankee stars from Babe
Ruth to Bernie Williams hovering like angels over the original Yankee Stadium.
Every other inch of wall space is covered with Carmine’s Yankees memorabilia
collection, which is as impressive as any
this side of Cooperstown. It encompasses
around 350 autographed baseballs, 550
total autographs, and an assortment of
bats, jerseys, hats, and helmets. All told,
Carmine estimates he has spent $200,000
on his collection, which is still growing. In
the coming years, he hopes to add a World
Series ring and trophy.
Ask many younger Yankee fans who their
favorite all-time Yankee is and they’ll tell
you Derek Jeter. Middle-aged fans might
say Reggie Jackson, and older generations
might say Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, or
even Joe DiMaggio. But Carmine, 37, a
child of the ‘80s, lists Don Mattingly as his
all time favorite (Dave Winfield is second
and Jeter is third.) Mattingly is honored
at Carmine’s with his own special shrine in
the back left corner.
While Carmine was being interviewed
for this article at a table in his restaurant,
there was a framed letter from George
Steinbrenner, the late Yankees owner, on
the wall behind his left shoulder. The letter recognized Carmine’s participation
in Yankees fantasy camp in Tampa, Fla.
where fans play alongside Yankees legends. One year, Carmine’s coach at fantasy camp was Darryl Strawberry (Mets fans
might shutter at the characterization of the
Strawberry as a Yankee legend). Carmine
has a subtle sense of humor and the ap-
proachable, good-guy demeanor that any
pizza man should have. Strawberry took
a liking to him, and the pair became close
friends who kept in touch after camp with
regular phone conversations.
He has developed relationships with
several other Yankees legends through his
“Evenings with Baseball Legends” charity
dinner series, which he hosts in the party
room upstairs from the Graham Avenue
restaurant. Past guests include Mickey
Rivers, Tommy John, Goose Gossage,
Chris Chambliss, Darryl Strawberry, and
Dwight Gooden (Mets fans grit their teeth
again).
Carmine’s passion for the Yankees took
shape during evenings spent listening to
Business took off almost immediately.
He estimates that he rings up around 400
orders per day. All of the tomato sauce
is homemade on the premises using San
Martino tomatoes from California, which
Carmine describes as “The MercedesBenz” of tomatoes. The ingredients are
all fresh – Carmine’s is the rare pizza place
that doesn’t use even canned mushrooms.
Now Carmine is expanding his business a half-mile to the west, where he has
opened a new location at Union Avenue
off Metropolitan. If the Graham Avenue
location is a tribute to the Yankees, the
Carmine Gangone makes 17 specialty pizzas.
announcers Phil Rizzuto and Bill White
on the WPIX network. Now, he has a
bat Rizzuto used during his Yankee playing days in a glass case. Even though the
Mets were more popular in Brooklyn during Carmine’s formative years, there was
something about the Yankee tradition that
grabbed this son of Italian immigrants. “It
was the pinstripes and the tradition. I love
things that have a tradition.”
Carmine estimates he has 550 autographs in his Yankee memorabilia collection.
17 specialty pizza pies. He also installed a
large glass case to display the items in their
colorful glory.
new business – dubbed Carmine’s II – is a
tribute to Carmine’s Italian heritage. Its
décor is charmingly Old World, right down
to the spacious back yard’s grape vine
canopy. Carmine plans to open a small
liquor and espresso bar in the restaurant,
the better to serve customers getting to and
from the heavily-trafficked Lorimer StreetMetropolitan Avenue L and G stations.
For Williamsburg residents, dinner at
Carmine’s has become a tradition of its
own. It was actually Carmine’s father,
Gaetano, who founded the business in
1979. He called it Ray’s Pizza – a popular
name for pizzerias at the time – and ran the
business after working an overnight shift
at a local bakery.
All in all, Carmine has made quite a
name for himself. Now, the man who
has photos and mementos of his favorite
Yankees is starting to realize the perils of
celebrity himself. “I’ll be sitting in front
of the house with my wife and kids, and a
customer will come up to me and complain
about the coffee or something,” he joked.
“Having this business and living in the
neighborhood too? Now that’s pressure.”
Carmine started working at the pizzeria at 14, and in 1994, he took over most
of the management duties. He renamed
the place Carmine’s and made a handful of other changes designed to make the
old-fashioned pizzeria more attractive to
the neighborhood’s changing population.
He diversified the menu – try the French
bread sandwich some time – and created
**
The original Carmine’s is located at 358
Graham Avenue, and can be reached at
718-782-9659. Carmine’s II is located at
436 Union Avenue, and can be reached at
718-218-8770. For more information, go to
www.Carminespizzeria.com.
GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 3
AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVOCATES DEMAND BANKING REGS
Seek stricter standards for bank practices impacting working people
In 2008, New York City banks got more
money in deposits than they did the year
before. Despite this gain, they decreased
their community development lending
by $560 million, cut their multi-family
lending by $1.3 billion, and reduced the
percentage of branches in low-income
neighborhoods.
Such were the findings of the “State
of Bank Reinvestment in NYC: 2009”
report, issued by the Association of
Neighborhood Housing and Development
(ANHD), a non-profit organization that
works on behalf of community non-profits like St. Nicks Alliance.
ANHD spearheaded a City Hall press
conference to urge the City Council to
pass a “Responsible Banking” ordinance
urging that would strengthen standards
and oversight of bank practices that
impact low-income people and communities. St. Nicks Alliance, United
Neighbors Organization (UNO), and
many other affordable housing organizations joined ANHD at the press conference. Advocates were pleased that
Council Speakerr Christine Quinn seems
receptive to considering pursuing the
legislation.
Since 1977, banks have been required
to assist some low- and moderate-income
residents and neighborhoods by the
Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a
1977 federal law. Over the past 20 years,
Affordable Housing advocacy groups demanded a responsible banking law that would strengthen standards and oversight of banking practices that impact
low-income people and communities.
more than 294,000 units of low- and moderate- income housing units have been developed using a combination of public subsides
and monies from the CRA. But the recent
practices of the bank industry show that
these gains are now at risk.
ST. NICKS LENDS HAND IN GULF
Environmental Remediation Technicians help clean oil spill
Proof of the value of St. Nicks’s Workforce
Development unit: Workers from the unit’s
Environmental Remediation Technician
program were dispatched to help clean up
the Gulf Coast oil spill, the country’s most
pressing domestic crisis.
Since early May, around 25 workers
trained by St. Nicks have gone down to
the gulf. They have performed an array of
tasks, ranging from installing oil containment booms to cleaning oil-soaked birds,
thus enabling them to survive.
The ERT program was launched nearly a
decade ago at St. Nicks. It seemed a natural fit for a North Brooklyn neighborhood
surrounded by Newtown Creek and the
Gowanus Canal, two of the nation’s most
polluted waterways. Last November,
the program received a $500,000 allocation from the federal Environmental
Protection
Agency
through
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. Some
of this money went toward the training of
St. Nicks’s Gulf Coast workers.
“The Gulf Coast oil spill shows the need
for the environmental remediation training that we do. It’s a vital skill in today’s
world,” said Tania Beaubrun, Deputy
Director for Skills Programs at St. Nicks
Workforce Development. “We’re proud
that St. Nicks can help out in this time of
national crisis.”
An Environmental Remediation Technician graduate at St. Nicks Workforce Development Center
10x13
T RI M
PG . 4 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
What’s your EQ?
Are you an energy champ, an energy guzzler or an energy
snoozer? To find out, take the Con Edison Energy Quotient Quiz
at conEd.com/EQ or at facebook.com/powerofgreen
The Smart Grid will help all New Yorkers
become energy champs because it will:
Chargers for cell phones, MP3 players and
PDAs use energy:
A. allow us to charge
electric cars
A. only when charging
B. incorporate wind and
solar energy sources
C. turn your appliances
on and off when you’re
away from home
B. even when the devices
are not connected to
the chargers
C. even when they’re not
plugged into the wall
D. all of the above
answer: D
answer:: B
B
answer
How much more efficient are
compact fluorescent bulbs than
regular incandescent bulbs?
What should you do if you smell gas?
A. leave the area immediately,
then call Con Edison at
A. they last twice as long
and use half as much
energy
B. they last five times as
long and use 60%
less energy
1-800-75-CONED
B. do not use electrical
devices, including
flashlights
C. all of the above
answer : C
©2010 Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. Ad: Arnell
C. they last ten times as
long and use 75%
less energy
answer: C
T RI M
95452_0v3
TR
GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 5
NUMBERS GRIM FOR AREA GYMS
continued from front page
cades. Currently, 9 million children over 6
years old are obese.
“Literally, kids are told in gym class,
‘You’re not allowed to run,” said Angela
Corcoran, a local physiologist who is
an active board member at the School
Settlement Association. “The sad part
about all this is that there’s overwhelming
data stating that the level of physical activity a child gets is directly related to academic performance.”
Corcoran explained that physical activity is tied to development of the prefrontal
cortex of the brain, the part of the brain
that houses the decision-making and emotional processes. “People who participate
in enough physical activity seem to have
a greater development of that part of the
brain,” she said.
don’t have a place to exercise and burn the
calories.”
open gym program. Next year, SSA officials hope to open it from 9 am to 9 pm.
tee held a fundraiser that has brought in
$25,000 as of press time.
Aguila added that the CEC will lobby
for a study to be done on the fitness of area
children.
In its present condition, the gym could
not accommodate an increase in use. Its
floor is made up of uneven concrete covered by worn rubber mats. Its lights are
dim, and it needs new wall padding and a
paint job.
As part of this pitch for community involvement, advocates are trying to show
how essential this gym would be for the
area’s elementary school students. Many
schools have schoolyards, but these
schoolyards are unusable during inclement weather that hit New York for much
of this past winter. When the weather gets
bad, schools often have gym class in the
auditorium. But because the floors aren’t
properly outfitted, running is prohibited in
auditoriums.
To address the shortage of gyms in the
area, the School Settlement Association
(SSA) – a strategic partner of St. Nicks
Alliance – plans to step into the breach left
by the public school system. By September,
SSA and St. Nicks want to fully renovate
the gym at SSA’s 120 Jackson Street building and open it up for use for local public
schools for their gym periods. Currently,
the gym is open from 3 pm to 8 pm for the
SSA afterschool program and for a teen
“Our goal is to make it a space that’s
utilized constantly. But in the shape
it’s in, that’s really impossible,” said
Pene McCourty, the Community Center
Director at SSA. McCourty and other
local advocates have formed a steering
committee to raise money to make the necessary repairs. Last month, this commit-
The health habits of Williamsburg
and Bushwick are worse than average.
According to the most recent Community
Health Profi le published by the city’s
Department of Health, 56 percent of
Williamsburg and Bushwick residents
do not exercise, compared to 43 percent
citywide.
“It’s defi nitely a problem,” said
Mario Aguila, President of District 14’s
Community Education Council. “You can
actually notice – the kids from schools with
no gym tend to weigh more. You can see
there’s a difference. And it’s because they
Percentage of people who don’t exercise at all. Source: American Community Survey
Maximina Garden Passes Away at 97
Mother of El Puente’s Luis Garden Acosta
The North Brooklyn community
mourns the loss of Maximina Garden,
a pioneer of Brooklyn’s Puerto Rican
community and the mother Luis Garden
Acosta, founder and President of the
venerable community organization, El
Puente. “Nina,” as she was known to
those close to her, died on July 9. She
was 97.
Nina left the poverty of Boqueron,
Perto Rico and came to Brooklyn in
the late 1930s. Once there, she met
Luis A. Garden, an immigrant from the
Dominican Republic. Garden served
as a soldier in the U.S. Army and was
also a “hard hat” at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard and Merchant Marine. The pair
married, and lived in the Fort Greene
Houses, which was originally built for
people engaged in the war effort.
Luis died in 1952, and Nina was left
to raise her two children in poverty as a
single, widowed mother. Through it all,
Nina remained a giving person. She was
known for her willingness to respond to
the needs of others, whether it was for
household items or government surplus
food packages. Her sense of social justice drove her to create an ad hoc “underground railroad,” providing temporary room and board and passing off, at
her factory, undocumented Dominican
women as her “Puerto Rican cousins.”
Beach, and enjoyed the unique hobby
of trying to identify the airlines of overhead airplanes.
Even though Nina was deprived of a
formal education, she raised two children who studied at Harvard University.
Her daughter, Lynda Garden-Cameron,
quickly rose to become one of the fi rst
Latina school supervisors in Boston.
Her son, Luis Garden Acosta, became
the youngest organizer/planner for New
York City Mayor John Lindsay’s “War
of Poverty. He went on to found the
Young Lords Party in Massachusetts
and El Puente, the Brooklyn award-winning community and youth development
organization.
Many years after coming to the United
States, Nina revealed why she left her
native Puerto Rico in an emotional moment after seeing Luis in a Young Lords
beret. It turns out Nina left because
her fiancé was gunned down on Palm
Sunday, 1937 while peacefully participating in a Puerto Rican Nationalist
Party march. The violence of that day
would go down in history as the Ponce
Massacre.
Nina was always full of life. She
loved to dance and play Parcheesi and
dominoes. She loved going to Brighton
Maximina Garden Acosta
Angela Corcoran, an SSA board member and
physiologist, has helped spearhead efforts to
refurbish the gym at SSA.
JENNINGS HALL, WILLIAMSBURG COURT
DRASTICALLY REDUCE ENERGY USE
“Green initiative” seeks to make St. Nicks properties
among city’s most efficient LOFT LAW SIGNED BY GOV
Two properties managed by St. Nicks
Alliance saw drastic reductions in energy
usage over the past year. The reductions
represented a resounding validation of St.
Nicks’s efforts to promote energy efficiency in its properties.
From June 2009 to June 2010, Jennings
Hall (260 Powers Street) and Williamsburg
Court (19 Maujer) saw respective energy
reductions of 21 and 40 percent. These reduction rates surpassed the target rates set
forth by New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority (NYSERDA),
the state body that oversaw the project.
Because St. Nicks exceeded its targets,
it will receive funding from NYSERDA
to reimburse some of the cost of the
improvements.
The green improvements at Jennings
were part of a $13 million refi nancing and
renovation project for the 150-unit senior
housing development, which is the oldest
and largest building managed by St. Nicks.
The renovation included overhauling the
building’s lobby, flooring, lighting, and
elevators. Also, each apartment received
new appliances and was made adaptable
for people in need of assisted living.
The improvements at Williamsburg
Court, an affordable 59-unit multi-family
residential building, cost a half million
dollars. The renovation included the replacement of the windows, along with
that of the boiler and lighting systems; the
installation of new refrigerators and individualized thermostat controls; and the
cleaning the building’s ventilation system.
The improvement were part of St. Nicks’s
$3.5 million “Green Initiative” aimed at
making its properties among the most efficient in the city. These improvements help
both the environment and also the wallets
of St. Nicks tenants by significantly lowering their utility bills.
“We’re very happy to have surpassed our
targets. Doing so shows our commitment
to both environmental and fi nancial sustainability,” said Frank Lang, Director of
Housing at St. Nicks. “It’s a win-win for
everybody: St. Nicks, the tenants, and the
environment.”
Jennings Hall saw a 21 percent reduction in energy
usage in the past year.
PG . 6 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
FUN-FILLED DAYS AT MS. J’S
Area studio makes gymnastics and dance fun
By Karl Benson
A former Olympic gymnast team now
teaches the sport to area children.
Wei Jiang, who racked up 55 medals in
international competition and was a member of China’s 1984 Olympic gymnastics
team, is the Program Director of Ms. J’s
Gymnastics and Dance (289 Kent Ave., between S. 1st and S. 2nd). The studio program, which takes children ages 2-11, seeks
to make gymnastics fun and to instill selfesteem in its participants. It accepts everyone regardless of skill-level or body-type.
The emphasis on fun and feeling good is
the polar opposite of the rigidity of Jiang’s
gymnastics career, which began when she
was forced to leave home for the national
training academy at the age of 8.
“I want to do this for the children who
are interested. When I grew up, we didn’t
chose to do it, we were just picked for it,”
she said. “It was like you were training for
their goal, and you never got a chance to
think about what you wanted to do.
Jiang left the China in the wake of the
violence that met the Tiananmen Square
protests of 1989. While taking an insurance class in 1996, she met her future husband, Gerard Irving, who was in the construction business at the time. The couple
married and opened up the gymnastics
and dance studio in 2005. When they
launching their business, they sought out
the help of St. Nicks Alliance’s Brooklyn
Business Center.
bring together disparate parts of the community does as well. He vividly recalls the
sense of belonging he felt when a strong
Puerto Rican baseball team from Whipple
Street welcomed him onto their team more
than a half century ago.
Ms. J’s Gymnastics and Dance is located
at 289 Kent Avenue, between S. 1st and S.
2nd Streets. Registration for the fall session
is now open to children ages 2-11. Weekly,
hour-long classes begin September 16th and
run for 16 weeks.
“They took me in – and I wasn’t even
especially good – and it made me feel unbelievable,” he remembered. “I like to give
back to the community in that way.”
To register or for more information, go to
www.msjsgym.com, email msj@msjsgym.
com, or call 718-218-7065.
Irving, a Williamsburg native, lived
most of his adult life in New Jersey before
moving back to the house his great-grandfather built in 1865. Now that he is back
in the old neighborhood, Irving wants to
give back, so the gym offers scholarships
for disadvantaged children. Irving works
with St. Nicks Alliance to identify good
matches for the scholarships.
Irving’s commitment to area youth
goals beyond the gym scholarships. He
is also a newly minted board member of
School Settlement Association, which runs
Brooklyn’s oldest remaining Progressive
Era settlement house and is a strategic
partner of St. Nicks Alliance.
If Jiang’s focus on making gymnastics
fun stems from her childhood memories,
Irving’s faith in the power of sports to
The emphasis is on fun and positive body image at Ms. J’s Gym (289 Kent Ave, between S. 1st and S.
2nd).
ST. NICKS’S IVETTE ALERTE RECEIVES
PRESTIGIOUS CERTIFICATION
By Elise Kairys
A high-ranking member of St. Nicks
Alliance’s Property Management division
recently received a prestigious certification
in the real estate management field.
Ivette Alerte, Deputy Director of the
Property Management division, was certified as an Accredited Residential Manager
by the Institute of Real Estate Management
(IREM). The certification recognized the
high ethical standards Alerte has upheld
during 25 years working in real estate.
The Property Management division of
St. Nicks Alliance Housing manages over
1,100 affordable residential units and lowincome co-ops. Tenants in these units include low-income families, formerly homeless people, and people living with HIV/
AIDS.
to accreditation. The process required
her to take more than 80 hours of courses,
send numerous applications and prepare
for interviews. She received three letters
of recommendation noting her achievements in her career. The accreditation was
funded by The National Equity Fund, a St.
Nicks affiliate that supplies low-income
tax credits and works with over 700 developers. She was officially sworn in on May
12, 2010.
“My goal is always to expand and keep
affordable housing in our community,”
said Alerte.
The IREM certification has proven
that she possesses the necessary experience in real estate management. Property
Management for St. Nicks Alliance is in
good hands with Ivette Allerte.
The division supervises the
everyday maintenance of the
buildings, handles their finances, and promotes their
availability to the community
at large. The division currently has a staff of 48 employees
which is overseen by Alerte.
Alerte has worked at St. Nicks
for the past six years. Always
eager to improve her skills, she
jumped at the opportunity to
become accredited by IREM.
In October 2009, Alerte began her professional journey
Ivette Alerte, Deputy Director of St. Nicks’s Property
Management division, was certified as an Accredited Residential
Manager by the Institute or Real Estate Management.
GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 7
‘DIVINE’ HATS OUT OF EAST NEW YORK
Brooklyn Business Center client is best in business
By Mark Mowatt
“It was divine providence.” That’s how
Shellie McDowell, one of America’s foremost makers of church hats for African
American women, describes how her second career began.
When McDowell stepped down from her
job in the Social Security Administration
in 1990 to go into business with her sister, she thought she would sell hats that
other people made, not making them herself. With this in mind, she signed up for a
course at the Fashion Institute Technology
it turned out McDowell had a talent she
never knew about.
or feel the same,” she said of the knockoffs
flooding the market.
“I tried to get my money back, but they
wouldn’t give it to me. So I just took the
course,” she recalled.
She and her staff of four others make
the hats in an East New York apartment
The rest is history. Her abilities
were a complete surprise to her.
And when she took some photos of
her work to show to a prospective
buyer, the buyer’s response – an order for $8,000 worth of hats – surprised her even more. Suddenly,
McDowell was in business. “It was
really baptism by fire,” said the ordained Pentecostal minister who favors religious metaphors. “I had a
lot to learn. But I learned as I grew
and I grew as I learned.”
Since that fateful class, Shellie
McDowell Millinery has been featured in The New York Times,
Crain’s New York Business, and
NBC’s Sunday morning news program, among other outlets. In addition to church hats, she McDowell also
designs and makes bridal, derby, and other
types of hats.
Wearing bright, flamboyant hats to church is a
tradition among African American women. It
traces its origins to the practice of African women
covering their heads in places of worship.
focused on business practices of the hat industry – or so she thought. It turned out
the course focused on hat making. And
The secret of McDowell’s success is twofold: It resides in the materials she uses and
her creativity, which is widely credited with
driving the industry trends. Unlike many
of her imitators, McDowell’s hats are made
of natural fibers so they hold up well over
time and don’t itch the head. And though
they are relatively pricey – they usually
run from $300 to $800 – the consumer of
church hats gets what she pays for, according to McDowell. “They might look similar, but they don’t have the same durability
American women that traces its origins
to the African tradition of women covering their heads in places of worship.
McDowell had always liked church hats,
but hadn’t shown a talent for crafts until the happy accident of the FIT class.
However, her mother was a seamstress, so
she had the basic skills to enable her creativity to flower.
The business has come a long way in the
past 20 years, but McDowell isn’t resting
on her laurels. She wants to expand in the
coming years, and she has sought out the
advice of the Brooklyn Business Center
at St. Nicks Alliance to help her do so.
In 2009, she graduated from the 60-hour
CORE FOUR course in business planning. She has kept in touch with the BBC’s
business counselors as she maps out her
growth strategy.
downstairs from McDowell’s own apartment. The business shares a storefront
with a religious bookstore on Saratoga
Avenue, but the vast majority of its sales
are shipped throughout the country. (Her
catalogue can be found online at www.
shelliemcdowell.com.)
Wearing bright, flamboyant hats to
church is a tradition among African
“They’re very helpful, very professional,” McDowell said of Ernie Spears and
Kobla Asamoah, her counselors at the
BBC. “They’ve been a godsend for me as
I try to get loans and financing. The only
way to survive is to grow, so I have to get
help from people who can help take me to
the next level.”
**
To browse the catalogue of Shellie
McDowell Millinery, go to www.shelliemcdowell.com or visit her store at 68 Saratoga
Avenue, in Brooklyn. For more information, call 718-452-5707.
COUR FOUR CORSE OPEN
TO REGISTRATION
Course focuses on indispensable business plan
Calling all aspiring entrepreneurs:
Registration for the Brooklyn Business
Center’s CORE FOUR Business Planning
course is now open.
Aimed at start-ups and businesses under 5-years-old, the 60-hour course takes
place over 20 sessions from September 14th
through mid-November. Its name, CORE
FOUR, derives from the four elements
that any successful business plan must
account for: Personal Success Planning,
Market Planning, Cash Flow Planning,
and Operations Planning.
The class will be facilitated by Kobla
Asamoah, a former small business owner
and MBA who has years of experience advising start-ups and small businesses.
“A strong business plan is essential
to any business, especially new ones,”
Asamoah said. “Particularly in this market, it is imperative that you clearly outline
aspects like a venture’s objectives, strategy,
projections, and overall value to the marketplace. Those are things any investor or
lender to see has to see, and you for that
you need a business plan.”
The course provides the following indepth services to aspiring entrepreneurs:
Counseling on the feasibility of starting
a business; assistance in refining a business concept and developing a business
plan; education in established management principals and practices; counseling
in product development and marketing;
guidance in exporting, contract procurement and licensing; counseling in identifying and accessing capital and credit; access
to business support networks; technical assistance to program graduates.
**
The CORE FOUR Business Planning
Course starts Tuesday, September 14th, and
will run every Tuesday and Thursday from 6
to 9 PM (20 sessions). The course will run
through mid-November.
Fee for the course is $300, but those who
sign up before August 31st will receive a 20
percent discount.
www.klinerealestate.com
PG . 8 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
GREENPOINT HOSPITAL: NEW LIFE AS
ARTS@RENAISSANCE
continued from front page
programs. The inclusiveness of the gallery is consistent with St. Nicks’s mission
of uniting a diverse community.
“We want the community to shape
what we do in this space and make this a
place that the community feels ownership
of,” said Laura McLelland, the Manager
of the Arts & Culture program. “Space
is something that artists of all stripes are
always in need of, and we are excited to
offer people a place to realize their creative projects.”
Christina
deRoos,
Development
Officer of the interdisciplinary arts organization Chez Bushwick, who performed
in an interactive movement piece during
the opening, praised the space as “a fantastic resource for artists.” She said the
space itself “presents so many options for
site-specific work. With its history and
aesthetic, it’s an inspiring place to be.”
Arts@Renaissance hopes to create
its own programs that connect artists
and other community members around
common issues facing North Brooklyn
residents. Said McLelland, “The arts
are a powerful way to bring people together that might otherwise not interact.
North Brooklyn is such a diverse place,
and people from sub-communities don’t
often interact. Our hope is that through
creative projects and programs, Arts@
Renaissance will become a crossroads for
the larger North Brooklyn Community.”
McLelland added, “Residents, including artists, have a shared interest in
maintaining this neighborhood as an affordable, vibrant place to live. We want
to use the arts as a vehicle for community
advocacy and dialogue.”
Local residents and other supporters watch a performance during the opening weekend of St. Nicks Alliance Executive Director Michael Rochford chats
ARTS@RENAISSANCE.
with Eve Krawiec of the Joan Mitchell Foundation.
A still from local artist Laura Chipley’s video Orient Avenue, on display in the old tiled bathrooms of the former Greenpoint Hospital outpatient building,
now transformed into a community arts space.
GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 9
Members of Immersion Dance perform while curator Eric Beach and local musician Matt McBane look on.
Local band Ferals plays as part of the opening weekend of ARTS@RENAISSANCE.
Local dancer and teacher Susan Golub performs a dance piece, using her son’s toy cars, during the
opening reception.
BACK TO SCHOOL RECYCLING
TIPS FROM WM
Some of the most overlooked sources of recycling are schools. With the
start of school around the corner – sorry, it’s true – Waste Management,
Inc. has offered tips for parents on how to “go green” during the 20092010 school year.
--Purchase loose-leaf paper and notebooks made with post-consumer
recycled paper;
--Choose solar powered calculators to save on batteries;
--Pack lunches in washable, reusable bags instead of disposable bags.
Pack water in refillable bottles. If parents are worried about losing refillable bottles, buy one with a cap that can be clipped to a lunch bag;
--Use whole fruits and vegetables as snacks, rather than packaged ones;
Waste Management encouraged schools to visit www.ThinkGreen.
com/classroom, a K-12 resource powered by Discovery Education. The
site includes standards-based lesson plans, videos, interactive activities
and other resources.
What a season it was for the Greenpoint Little League, which has been a neighborhood staple since 1951. In next
month’s Greenlike, look for a season recap. Pictured here is the Seneca Club team, which made the World Series
in the T-shirt division (ages 6-8).
Rachel Amar, community relations manager at Waste Management,
said, “There’s a lot of home-based common sense that can make a big
difference in the environmental footprints of schools. Between home and
school, we have an opportunity to create a generation that sees conservation and recycling as a routine part of every day.”
PG . 10 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
LADY JAY’S
Location: 633 Grand Street, Between Manhattan and Leonard
Hours: Weekdays, 4 P.M. To 4 A.M.; Weekends, 2 P.M. To 4 A.M.
Year Established: June, 2010
A laidback honky-tonk on
Grand Street, Lady Jay’s is the
brainchild of Sam Mason, acclaimed former pastry chef of
Manhattan’s wd-50 and host of
the IFC show “Dinner with the
Band.” Mason, a Jacksonville,
Fla. native, teamed up on Jay’s
with a handful of several other
Southerners.
The result is a
Dixie-meets-Williamsburg ambience replete with 7-foot-wide
longhorn skulls and shuffleboard
courts.
Drink prices trend south of the
Mason-Dixon line. For $6, you
can get two Lion’s Head drafts, a
Pennsylvania pilsner carried exclusively at Lady Jay’s. Shot-andbeer combos start at $6.
There is no shortage of bars
on that part of Grand Street, but
that’s just fine with Mason and
company. “The fact that there are
so many bars around isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It basically
keeps people from going into the
city. People just bounce around
from bar to bar,” he said.
As for the name? Mason says
it’s named after his great-grandmaw. “She was a crazy old lady.
She did snuff and talked real loud,
and lived to be 101 years-old.”
NORTH BROOKLYN GREENIES
By Kimberly Sevilla
North Brooklyn Greenies is a Question
& Answer article, with a focus on gardening with children in urban environments
and teaching children how to grow their
own food.
Please write to lavender@
roseredandlavender.com with any gardening questions you may have.
How can we garden without breaking the
bank?
In the interest of reduce, reuse, recycle,
we like to use things around the house for
plants. There are a lot of materials that are
hanging around that you can repurpose
for planting. With some soil, eco-friendly
packing peanuts, and a lot of imagination,
you can have a great garden and help to
save the planet.
tom of the container or by putting packing
peanuts in the bottom before you add your
soil. Remember that this will be food that
you eat, so always use organic soil.
Want to turn a soda bottle into a selfwatering container (ferns and other houseplants love these)? Cut the bottle in half,
drill a small hole in the bottle cap, then
insert some cotton cording. Place the top
half inside the bottom half with the cap
pointed down. Fill the top half with soil
and a plant, and then water the bottom.
The cord will wick up water from the bottom into the soil at the top so make sure
that it is in the water and in the soil at the
top.
tires. Put one tire on the ground and throw
in a few potatoes that have sprouted. Fill
with a good quality, organic soil (organic is
key here). After the plant grows above the
level of the tire, place another tire on top
and fill with old leaves, yard debris, straw
and soil. When the plant reaches the top
of that tire, add another. You can keep this
up all summer and keep adding tires until
they are about six or seven stacked on top
of each other. At the end of the season in
the fall, remove the tires, gather up your
potatoes and use the rest of the soil in your
garden. The leaves and straw will decompose as the potatoes grow leaving you with
a rich soil – and dinner.
Keep looking around and you will find
lots of things that you can put plants in.
Your kids will have a lot of fun with their
mini gardens and you won’t break the
bank.
Tires also make terrific planters for
plants. Potatoes can be easily grown in
Lots of household items can be used to
start seedlings. The key is to make sure
that you have something to hold the seedstarting soil and something clear to keep
the moisture in while the seeds are sprouting. You can use a number of items, but
my favorite are rigid plastic takeout containers with clear lids. You can also use
egg cartons, soda bottles cut in half, and
lettuce containers to start seeds.
After your seeds are started, you will
want to move them to another container.
Milk cartons, yogurt cups and soda bottles
make great homes for these. You will need
to add drainage by poking holes in the bot-
Lavender Sevilla, daughter of the columnist,
carrying a compost bucket.
A raspberry container can be used to grow lettuce seedlings.
GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 11
MARVELOUS METALWORKS
Milgo Bufkin, a local metal fabricator, is
a neighborhood staple
By Karl Benson
LeBron James might have decided to go
to Miami, but there’s a beautiful stainless
steel sculpture honoring his 2008 Olympic
gold medal waiting for him in New York.
In Brooklyn, specifically. In Greenpoint,
even more specifically.
In its role as the NBA’s official metal fabricator, Milgo presented a different sculpture to James during a game last season
as part of a fundraising drive for prostate
cancer. Milgo gave sculptures to James
and Carmelo Anthony, the co-captains of
The sculpture – a three-dimensional,
mirror-polished representation of his
Olympic jersey number 6 – is the handiwork
of Milgo Bufkin, a venerable Greenpoint
architectural metal fabricator that is now
the officially licensed fabricator of the
NBA. Known for its ability to combine
high technology with old world craftsmanship, Milgo has been a Greenpoint fixture
since 1916.
The company has gained an international reputation for durable and aesthetic craftsmanship. The secret, says Vice
President Scott Kranzler, is the oldest one
in the book: Practice. “We’ve been doing
this for close to 100 years now, so we know
what we’re doing.”
Even during the recession, the number
of Milgo’s employees has consistently remained between 65 and 80. “We’re a pretty
large company, but we’re run like a family business,” said Kranzler, whose wife’s
great-grandfather founded the company.
Originally, Milgo specialized in building truck bodies. In the early 1960s, Bruce
Gitlin, the founder’s grandson, turned the
focus on parts for architectural applications, curtain walls and store fronts, along
with trades like furniture and display
manufacturers.
Tennis, anyone?
For the second straight year, the
Williamsburg Beacon program received
a $1,000 grant to continue its afterschool
tennis program at Grand Street Campus
High Schools.
The grant comes courtesy of the United
States Tennis Association. It was facilitated by Nancy Zapata, the former St. Nicks
Board President and current Second Vice
President who is also a tennis player.
Zapata is a ranked member of the United
States Tennis Association. She started
playing tennis in 1997 and fell in love with
the sport immediately. She is now recovering from knee surgery, but hopes to make
it back to the courts as soon as possible.
The courts at Grand Street Campus
fill a gaping need in the eastern part of
Williamsburg. Currently, the only public courts in the neighborhood are in
McCarren Park. But demand for those
courts is so high that it’s very difficult
to secure playing time on them. Zapata
hopes the Beacon Program will expose
more neighborhood residents to the sport.
Although its three-building, 75,000
square-foot headquarters is tucked away
anonymously in the East Williamsburg
Industrial Park, Milgo’s work shows up in
some of the most visible locations in New
York and beyond.
For instance, many of Robert Indiana’s
iconic “LOVE” sculptures are physically
made by Milgo – the one on 55th and 6th
Avenue and the one in front of the Taipei
101 building in Taipei, Taiwan are but
two examples. In the Kuwaiti Embassy in
Washington DC, it was Milgo who made
the metal ceilings. The panels that hold
computer and television screens at the New
York Stock Exchange? Made by Milgo.
USTA Grant For GSC Tennis Courts
“This is just a small grant, but ultimately, my goal is to make tennis accessible
and affordable to everybody,” she said.
“Once you start playing, it’s a great way to
meet different people. It opens up a lot of
doors.”
Lai-Wan Wong, Director of St. Nicks’s
Youth and Education division, which manages the Williamsburg Beacon program,
said that utilizing the Grand Street tennis
courts is important because of the area’s
paucity of open space. Of the city’s 59
community districts, Community District
1 – which includes Williamsburg and
Greenpoint – ranks 52nd in open space per
square mile, 48th in open space per capita,
and 51st in open space per 1,000 children.
“In an area with a shortage of green and
recreational space, the courts at Grand
Street Campus are a tremendous resource,” she said. “We want to make sure
it gets utilized by our young people. This
small grant will help us make the most of
this tremendous facility.”
Milgo Bufkin, a Greenpoint metal fabricator,
became the officially licensed fabricator for the
NBA. This sculpture honors LeBron James’s
gold medal as co-captian of the 2008 Olympic
team.
the 2008 gold medal winning team, along
with Oscar Robertson and Jerry West, cocaptains of the 1960 gold medal team.
Recently, Milgo’s role as metal fabricator in a new Pratt University building was honored. That building – the
Juliana Curran Terian Pratt Pavilion –
won a Brooklyn Building Award from the
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
Leah Archibald, Executive Director of
the East Williamsburg Valley Industrial
Corporation (EWVIDCO), the area’s industrial business advocacy organization
of which Milgo is a member group, praised
the company. “Milgo Bufklin is a longtime supporter of EWVIDCO and the
industrial community,” Archibald said.
“Their sterling reputation is a result of
their extremely high quality work and their
involvement both in the industrial and architectural community. The accolades
they have received are richly deserved.”
COMMUNITY MOURNS
LOSS OF REBITZEN
North Brooklyn mourns the passing of Rebitzen Pesil Leah Teitelbaum,
wife of the late Satmar Rabbi Moses
Teitelbaum. She passed away in early
July at the age of 85.
LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony (left end and right end) were co-captains of the 2008 Olympic
basketball team. Jerry West and Oscar Robertson (left and right middle) were co-captains of the 1960
Olympic basketball team.
The Rebitzen was born and raised
in Europe and lived through the
Holocaust. During the genocide, her
eventual husband lost his wife at the
time and three children. The Rabbi
and Rebitzen got married and resettled in Romania, like many Jews at the
time. Unfortunately, they faced yet
more persecution there, this time from
the Communist party.
So the Rabbi and Rebitzen left
for Brooklyn.
Soon, they established the Atzei Chaim Sighet Shul in
Williamsburg on 153 Hewes Street.
After the 1979 death of his uncle, the
Rabbi became the lead Rabbi of the
Hasidic Satmar Community.
The Rebitzen is remembered for her
generosity, her humble nature, and her
love for her family and community.
PG . 12 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
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PG . 14 | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | GR E E NL I NE
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GR E E NL I NE | A u g u s t 1 - 31, 2 010 | PG . 15
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