New York Big City of Dreams...

...around here cats be doing plenty of things.

At least I think that's how it goes. Another BK link, this one from Brownstoner:

http://brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2006/11/what_if.html#comments

They ask:

What if you were a wealthy philanthropist who could write a $100 million check to fund any infrastructure or public project in Brooklyn? What would it be? A selective high school to rival Stuyvesant in Manhattan? Hundreds more patrol officers on the police force? A monorail above Atlantic Avenue? Let your imagination run wild.

I answer:

"Mass transit in southeastern Brooklyn = Saving brownstone Brooklyn" True.

Resume L service to Canarsie Pier. There used to be a trolley that ran from Rockaway Parkway to the water, but as trolleys tend to do...

But here's the kicker - ha - build a soccer stadium and training complex for a Brooklyn soccer team. Something small and as far away from Gehry as possible.

Once I finish this piece I'm working on, I'm going to see if these blogs I'm starting to link would consider linking mine. Expand my audience past the number of fingers with which I type, perhaps?

"Coney Island Scale-o-Matic" from gowanuslounge.blogspot.com

This is what's going to happen to Coney Island - except there will be four of the skyscrapers.

Atlantic Yards type developments are taking over the borough. I'd like to see GL do a graphic on Frank Gehry's Miss Brooklyn vs. the Williamsburgh Savings Bank.

Angel on the Block

Remember that crazy couple Dave Chapelle had in his movie? The one with the incredible (and apparently dangerous) house, the Broken Angel? Well, they've been forcibly evicted. A link:

http://gowanuslounge.blogspot.com/2006/10/broken-angel-standoff-clinton-hill.html

Let's hope Bruce Ratner doesn't try to build a stadium after they tear down the building...

Stuck in the Blogosphere

At my internship, looking for blogs that could be useful in promotion for the magazine, I found this one:

"The Only Thing I'm Going to Say About 9/11

Sep. 12th, 2006 at 10:31 AM

Is about art.

Julian Laverdier's Towers of Light was hailed by a lot of people as a gorgeous memorial, ethereal, and beautiful.

I went to school with him. He was a graduate student at Yale when I was undergrad. He is very intereested in historical monutments and architecture -- in particular the architects of the fascists.

He said in an interview in Art in America, that the Towers were inspired by Albrecht Speer, aka "Hitler's Architect", and a project he did for the 3rd Reich, a gathering space where rallys were held. He sought to create a "Cathedral of Light", it was the site of the 1936 Neuremberg Rally.

When I consider how our government has co-opted the tradgedy of what happened 5 years ago, when I consider the moves that our government has made - secret torture chambers, prisons, oil wars, and the fact that the trains are running on time -- I think about Julian and his Towers.

I think about them, and I think they memorialize something else: Not the tradgedy that happened in 2001 -- but the one that is happening now."

The blog, Welcome to Spazzville, is at nex0s.livejournal.com.

“Democracy? Dem All Crazy.” – Fela Kuti

Yay, we won. Break out the ’92 Cabernet, set up the fondue set. Time to party.

But I’m already late – the party’s over, Rumsfeld resigned, and all that’s left is to wait for the action-packed first hundred hours of the 110th Congress. There’s a six-point plan (http://www.democrats.org/agenda.html) that includes the electorate-pleasing minimum wage hike alongside some a few serious new ideas, things like healthcare for all, renewable energy, and open and honest government. Imagine that, health, energy, open and honest government. It’d almost be like living in a functional, or at least sane, democracy.

Though Foley’s folly has given the open and honest idea new meaning, I’d like to see the Democrats maintain the high road they took during the scandal and pursue corporate profiteers over closeted pedophiles. To be clear, I don’t like pedophiles. But when KBR and Halliburton, Cheney’s old crew, make millions for keeping oil tankers parked and unused in Kuwait, and when Enron crashes, the people responsible for bringing California rolling blackouts taking with them the livelihood of thousands, all I’m saying is that Jeff Skilling deserves what he gets. They should even send his dog to dog jail.

As for Halliburton, Cheney isn’t the only one connected. We didn’t need Jack Abramoff to tell us how big the trough is. The parties are like twin balls of lint – in the same pockets.

And as for Iraq, just because this election was a referendum of sorts does not mean we should expect a major change. Talk today of a six-month phased (fazed?) withdrawal will be met by a lot of resistance, chiefly from the President and his attack dogs. I expect Cheney on the television shortly, followed by another hunting accident. I can only imagine.

There are also two other aspects of reality with which the Democrats must contend. One is the reelection of Senator Joe Lieberman. His victory over Ned Lamont, after losing to him in the Democratic primary and running as an independent, signals that not all Democratic voters are ready to abandon the effort. The other is that the victorious Democrats were, in many cases, closet Republicans. Pro-gun and anti-abortion, I don’t expect them to risk their new constituencies by going along with any withdrawal plan with as short a span as six months.

So I have a hard time imagining open and honest government, and an equally hard time imagining a successful and succinct end to our involvement with Iraq. But I once read a Margaret Atwood novel, a post-apocalyptic type tale of female subjugation, and I can imagine that. Fundamentalism, of the Born Again Christian variety, is taking hold. On the Daily Show, Howard Dean brags about winning one third of their vote, but doesn’t really recognize what impact they’ll have on policy.

Organized and experienced, the Christian Right makes the fundamentally voters believe in fundamentally crazy ideas. The current standard-bearers of the movement – Pat Robertson types, the President, the newest Democrats – apply their religion to government in ways that literally defy rationality. But if they’re talking to God they’re not talking to me. And they have no business talking about laws.

Mishuggah.