Life Imitates The Jaundiced Eye Of Urban Outfitters Designers

The “Gowanus Canal Conservancy” sounds like an excellent idea for an ironic T-shirt:

One smells like fresh-cut grass and the other like an open sewer, but now Central Park, that breathtaking urban oasis, and the long-polluted Gowanus Canal have something in common — their own conservancies.

Activists in southwest Brooklyn recently announced the creation of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in hopes of ensuring a brighter future for an industrial waterway once dubbed Lavender Lake — for its chemically altered hue.

“Everybody agrees the canal has to be cleaned,” said Thomas Chardavoyne, head of the nonprofit Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp., which formed the conservancy. The group will raise money and seek volunteers to convert the canal — which opened in 1866 and was once hailed as one of the world’s most important waterways — for dual recreational and industrial use.

Well, That’s A Relief!

You could interpret this the way the Post seems to — or you can view it as shocking that 39 percent of New Yorkers actually feel this way:

Most voters don’t think black politicians in a predominately black Brooklyn district should try to keep a white candidate out of the race, according to a poll released yesterday.

The race to fill Rep. Major Owens’ 11th District seat has been overshadowed by efforts by some black leaders to oppose the candidacy of Councilman David Yassky, who is white.

But a Quinnipiac poll of voters across the city shows that 61 percent don’t think Yassky should be discouraged from running just because he is white.

The poll also found that 16 percent of New Yorkers had hypocritical double standards:

And 77 percent of voters say they would oppose a group of white politicians’ trying to prevent a black candidate from running in a white neighborhood.

Senior Prom: One Hop This Time

No one, it seems, wants to grow up:

Not everyone at this senior prom was hip to some of the newer dances, like the cha-cha slide or the modern version of the Cotton-Eyed Joe.
But when it was time to do the waltz, the tango, the Macarena, the mambo, the regular cha-cha or the electric slide, these promgoers hit on the ballroom floor with gusto.

More than 500 dancers above age 62 gave new meaning to the words “senior prom” last week at Micali’s Terrace in Bensonhurst.

“I love to dance,” Alfonso Friscia, 67, a retired security guard, said as he waited for the doors to open at 5:30 p.m.

Friscia had arrived at 3 p.m. to be sure he got a good table for him and his date, Pauline (Babe) Sanfilippo, a grandmother from Park Slope.

. . .

This is the sixth year of the prom, sponsored by St. Rosalia-Regina Pacis Neighborhood Improvement Association through a grant from State Assemblyman Peter Abbate (D-Bensonhurst) and City Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Borough Park).

“These seniors wear me out,” Gentile said after dancing with numerous constituents. The proms have become so popular, the politicians now give two annually. Each draws more than 500 seniors.

“This is a way of giving back to people who have done so much all these years,” Abbate said.

No prom is complete without chaperones and this one was no exception. Students from Intermediate School 281 in Bensonhurst escorted seniors to their tables and later joined them on the dance floor.

Connie Costa, 74, taught Gina Lam, 13, and Evelyn Li, 12, how to do the twist.

“They were delightful,” said Costa, who was attending her first prom. “I was in the hospital the night of my high school prom. Appendicitis.”

The chaperones took over the floor to do an energetic demonstration of the Cotton-Eyed Joe. But for most of the evening, young and old together enjoyed popular American dances, as well as folk dances from Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy and Latin America.

Even when DJ Casper’s “Cha Cha Slide” was played, a few seniors like Julia Goldner, 75, kept right up with the clapping, hopping, sliding and stomping.

Anna Buscemi, 91, of Midwood said she didn’t dare sit down.

“I’m very active,” said Buscemi, who also practices yoga. “If I sit down, I won’t get up again. So I don’t sit.”

Who Is More Brazen Than A Bank Robber? He Who Turns Around And Robs Him!

It seems that by “good Samaritans” they mean “guys who mug bank robbers”:

Sometimes even bank robbers aren’t safe on the streets.

One of them was mugged in Brooklyn by a thief who got away with his loot.

The bizarre chain of events started when Kareem Sims, 31, witnessed a robbery at the Independence Bank on Avenue U in Gravesend July 3.

Several good Samaritans chased and caught alleged thief James Boccanfusso a few blocks away. In the ensuing confusion, Sims sneaked up and grabbed money bags containing $3,000, police said.

The Samaritans were able to provide cops who busted Boccanfusso with a description of Sims, who was spotted near the bank yesterday. He was charged with robbery and possession of stolen property.

Turn On The Bright Lights!

Coney Island’s Parachute Jump has been outfitted with lights:

The 277-foot tower, shaped like a giant blossom at the end of a tapering stalk, dropped its last screaming rider in 1965 and fell silent. For years it rotted, a skeletal symbol of Coney Island’s long decline, narrowly escaping demolition.

Last night, the city turned the lights back on. As an eager crowd jammed the boardwalk, a switch was thrown and the Parachute Jump was bathed in red and purple light, as shivering patterns chased each other across its girders.

There are still no riders, and no parachutes, but the jump is back in the night sky above the boardwalk.

“Not exactly how it was when I was a kid,” said Brooklyn’s borough president, Marty Markowitz, “but it will be a beacon of light for this and future generations, harking and heralding Coney Island as a place where dreams come true.”

The reviews from those assembled were muted. Phyllis Carbo, 70, who rode on the Parachute Jump as a girl, hesitated when asked for her opinion. “I’m running for Assembly on the Republican line, so I have to be very careful,” she said. “I’m impressed.”

Even the evening’s master of ceremonies, Dick Zigun, one of Coney Island’s leading boosters, pronounced the light show “very subtle.”

Others were less restrained.

“Did they light it already? Is this it?” asked Joe Joya, 63.

His wife, Jane, 61, said, “I thought it was going to be a lot brighter. I thought that the lights were going to be more of a Vegas type of thing.”

Her husband added: “You’re not going to see that from Staten Island.”

See also: Parachute Jump.