Unite To Stop White Individuals!

The New York Sun reprints an email sent by a City Councilmember to elected officials of color urging them to unite against David Yassky, “a white individual”:

As one of the planners for the Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention to be held at Concord Baptist Church on Saturday, June 17, 2006, we felt it our duty to address the fact that we are in peril of losing a “Voting Rights” district, the 11th Congressional District, as a result of the well financed candidacy of Council Member David Yassky, a white individual.

Not unexpected, there are currently three Black candidates who also aspire to fill the seat of retiring Congressman Major Owens.

In an attempt to bring awareness and accountability to this critical situation, the convention planners are requesting a meeting, to be followed by a press conference, of members from the Congressional Black Caucus, the New York State Black, Puerto Rican and Latino Caucus, and the Black, Latino, Asian Caucus of the New York City Council.

The press conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday.

Backstory: Nothing Against Your Policies, It’s Just The Color Of Your Skin; Barack Obama: Some Guy They Stuck In There; How Do We Put This? Let’s Just Say Identity Politics Still Exists . . ..

Homeless Polish Of Greenpoint

News that a homeless man was arrested for allegedly starting the Greenpoint Terminal Market fire has turned attention to the plight of Greenpoint’s homeless Polish population:

For decades, Greenpoint has been home to a substantial number of Polish men who live on the streets. The man charged with arson, Leszek Kuczera, a heavy drinker who the police say started the fire while trying to burn the insulation off copper wires that he planned to sell to a scrap yard, was in many ways a typical member of the group, according to his family and friends.

Most of the men are in their 40’s or older, and many are alcoholic. Their drinking choices tend toward beer, $2 pints of fortified wine and vodka, the cheaper the better. Some speak only Polish, and many others have only a limited command of English. Because they are just a small part of Greenpoint’s thriving Polish-American population and they tend to avoid outsiders, they are often overlooked.

Yesterday afternoon, groups of the men dotted a stretch of Manhattan Avenue, blocks from the fire. About 20 of the men could be seen gathering on street corners, beneath shop awnings, and passing the time as the rain fell.

“I’m homeless,” said John Novak, who stood among three other men, one in a wheelchair, at the corner of Manhattan Avenue and Nassau Avenue. “I sleep in the park.” Mr. Novak said he once held a construction job in New Jersey but had to give it up after hurting his leg. He has been on the streets of Greenpoint for 11 years.

It is a hard life, some of the men said, but they make the most of it, living free and sleeping where they please. Some of them sleep in the subway tunnels, like Mr. Kuczera, who was also known to spend the night in an alleyway off Milton Avenue, near the site of the fire. Others, like Mr. Novak, sleep in graveyards or on the benches in McCarren Park.

Money comes from collecting cans or selling scrap metal or just standing on the corner and holding out a hand. There is almost always somebody sympathetic enough to donate a dollar. When one of the men has money, food or drink, they all do.

What’s Next — The Brighton Beach Country Club?

We’ve often joked about this. Now it’s happening for real:

Like many New Yorkers, Brian Coles can’t wait to leave the city for his beach house when summer weekends roll around.

Coles, 35, looks forward to his glass of wine on the beach at sunset, an oceanfront jog and a nice seafood dinner.

But Coles isn’t heading to the Hamptons or the Jersey Shore for his time on the waterfront: He’s Brooklyn beach-bound — Brighton Beach, to be exact.

“I’m totally in love with Brighton Beach,” said Coles, 35, whose two-bedroom Brighton Third St. co-op has seen a 60% increase in value since he paid $185,000 for it in 2004.

“I have a lot of friends with homes in the Hamptons, and they spend six hours getting there,” said Coles, who added it’s usually a breezy half-hour drive from lower Manhattan to his weekend home.

. . .

Coles is one of a growing number who is trading Long Island beach passes and Jersey Shore weekend traffic for a second home in Brooklyn’s waterfront neighborhoods.

Although during the colonial era wealthy Manhattan residents had homes in Brooklyn Heights and elsewhere, the idea that this would happen in an era of modern infrastructure — with planes and automobiles, just to name two such crazy inventions — seems, well, odd. The only thing odder is spending a full month on vacation in the next borough:

Psychologist Michael Mason and his family spend most weekends at their apartment in the Oceana after a one-hour drive from their Briarcliff Manor home.

“The food stores are fabulous. There’s a Russian bazaar with all these delicacies: caviar, sturgeon, bread,” Mason said.

The family plans to spend its July vacation in Brighton Beach.

“When I tell my friends Brighton Beach, they have no conception,” Mason said.

You think?

Fish Smoker To The World

Did you know that Greenpoint’s Acme Smoked Fish is the lox smoker to the world? Edible Brooklyn visits “Greenpoint’s unsung smoker” (.pdf):

Every New York Nova-nosher knows the names of the city’s great smoked fish purveyors: Zabar’s, Russ & Daughters, Barney Greengrass. What many may not know is that one Brooklyn company, Acme Smoked Fish, supplies them all with the bulk of their smoked fish products.

Acme is a fourth-generation family-run business whose waters run deep in the borough. Founded in the 1930s by a Russian immigrant, Harry Brownstein, the company’s first smokehouse was a modest 15-person operation in East New York. Today, Acme employs 160 people at a mammoth 65,000-square-foot facility in Greenpoint, half a block from the East River. (Take the G Train to Nassau Avenue and proceed to 30 Gem Street, off Norman Avenue.)

The factory is the largest single-plant producer of smoked fish and herring in the country, processing 30,000 pounds of seafood per day, which arrives daily from fish farms or fishermen in Chile, Scotland, Canada, Norway, and Alaska. Acme’s products, in turn, are sold throughout the country.

. . .

While tours of the Acme plant are not available to the public, virtually all the company’s products are, every Friday, from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. in a makeshift retail store. Prices are low, samples are provided, and freshness is, obviously, beyond reproach.

Precious Metal Scavenger Arrested In Connection With Greenpoint Terminal Market Fire

Authorities have arrested a homeless man in connection with last month’s Greenpoint Terminal Market fire:

An arrest has been made in connection with that massive fire that destroyed a warehouse complex along the Brooklyn waterfront last month.

Investigators say the man arrested is homeless. Police sources tell NY1 that 59-year old Kuczera Leszek had been burning off insulation to strip copper from the building. He faces a number of charges, including arson and burglary.

The fire broke out on the morning of May 2nd in Greenpoint, eventually growing to 10 alarms. Seven warehouses burned for over 24 hours.

The owner had been working on a deal to develop the land. Others in the community had been looking to give the 19th century structure landmark status.

Although it seems like a pretty big fire for one guy to start, homeless metal scrap hunters are prevalent on the waterfront there, so who knows?

Backstory: That Was Some Fire; That Would Be Suspicious; Deny Everything!; Fuhgeddaboudit!.