The above photo of a woman fishing at the narrows was taken by David Tan on April 25, 2012, using a Konica Autoreflex T3.

To see more of David’s work, please visit his blog at dtan.blogspot.com.

If you have photos you’d like us to publish as part of the Seen In Bay Ridge photo series, please send them to info@bayridgeodyssey.com. Be sure to let us know where the picture was taken and when, and how to credit the photo (i.e. by your real name, pen name, anonymously, etc.).

Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan

On the morning of Monday, May 14, Bryan Dilberian, a triple amputee military veteran and Fort Hamilton High School alumnus, met with students and faculty at Visitation Academy [8902 Ridge Blvd].

This past February, on Valentine’s – a day normally reserved for sweethearts – the Catholic all-girls prep school’s students held a bake sale in order to raise funds for Dilberian to one day build his dream home – one that will make daily life easier for the Afghanistan vet.

The price tag for the so-called “smart home” – which comes complete with an elevator and a custom-built, handicapped-accessible kitchen – is around $1 million, writes Heather J. Chin for the Home Reporter.

Visitation Academy’s students have raised around $4,000 so far. A humble beginning to a noble goal.

“He risked his life for this country and came back to thank us for something small that we did,” said Kristen, one of the students present.

“It’s very inspiring and exciting to meet him. He’s a hero,” called out Samantha, an eighth grader.

Dilberian, age 26, told Home Reporter that, despite his wounds, he doesn’t regret his choice to enlist.

He does make sure to mention his best friend James Waters, who was killed in action in Afghanistan’s Arghandab Valley – a name that may at first seem exotic in its unfamiliarity yet – depending on how it’s pronounced, can also sound very plain and domestic. Less fluid-sounding than the name James Waters, but perhaps more fitting for such an arid place.

Bryan Dilberian will always remember those two names – words that will share an oddly intertwined connection in the minds of friends, family, and after last Monday – the students of Visitation Academy.

You can "Like" the Middle Eastern Halal Food cart on Facebook. No comment from Facebook if they will add an option to "move a park bench in front of" this page.

“Plain and simple: we need to level the playing field.”

That’s what Justin Brannan, press secretary for Councilman Vincent Gentile, said to us when asked to comment on last week’s developments in the conflict between Bay Ridge’s food carts and brick-and-mortar restaurants.

Councilman Gentile has often been reported as opposing food carts in the BID, and made comments on the issue at the Community Board 10 general meeting in April. We reached out to Brannan, wanting to know what specific proposals the Councilman was offering.

“The mobile food vendors of today should be held to the same standards as any brick and mortar restaurant,” Brannan continued. “To that end, Councilman Gentile co-sponsored and strongly supports Councilman Daniel Garodnick’s proposed legislation which would require mobile food vendors to display letter grades similar to the ones posted in restaurants throughout the city.”

Brannan also highlighted the City’s conflicting laws and regulations, something noted in Community Board 10 chairwoman Joanne Seminara’s report to the board.

Seminara reported that the City government placed a ban on street vendors within the 86th Street BID in 1994, but the prohibition did not apply to mobile food vendors. Gentile has sought to restrict food vendors since 2010. Brick-and-mortar stores in the BID are not able to place anything on the sidewalks outside their businesses, such as sandwhich boards, and they are also responsible for sidewalk sanitation. Storefront businesses within the BID pay a premium on top of regular real estate taxes.

In a press release, the lawyer for Sammy Kassen, owner of the Middle Eastern Halal Food cart that operates at 5th Avenue and 86th Street, said that Kassen’s supporters “believe the attacks are motivated by a racist resistance to the growing and largely Arab immigrant population in Bay Ridge.” However, Tony Gentile, the Lonestar bar owner whose wildcat opposition campaign has included attempting to use physical intimidation to keep Kassen from moving into his usual spot, told the NY Daily News in a prior interview that “I am not racist…This is about the color green – money.”

(There is no relation between Vincent Gentile and Tony Gentile.)

The wildcat opposition – which also saw unnamed individuals move benches that had been bolted in another location to the corner where Kassen operates to block his cart – has done much to draw attention to the issue in the past few weeks… as well as tarnish the standing of the movement seeking reform to food cart laws.

Kassen’s attorney has threatened to sue the City if they move to ban mobile food vendors from the 86th Street BID, as reported by the Bay Ridge Courier’s Will Bredderman. The Department of Small Business Services already reviewed the situation in 2010 and declined to take action, stating that it could not offer an efficient or effective means of dealing with street vending concerns, according to Seminara’s report.

Further complicating the issue is a shortage of mobile food vendor permits that encourages permit-holders to squat on their licenses and rent them out – illegally – to legitimate food cart operators at dramatically inflated prices.

In March 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported that many, possibly a majority, of food cart operators obtain their permits on the black market, due to an acute shortage of legitimate permits offered by the City. Operators can pay up to $20,000 to rent a two-year permit that the City sold for $200, with all of the difference going to the middlemen. Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project, told the Wall Street Journal that 60% or more of vendors rent their permits. “There’s no sign that the Department of Health is willing to do anything about this,” he told the WSJ. “This is about economic justice within the vendor community between former vendors and current vendors.”

“Ultimately, the city needs to enact much clearer guidelines when it comes to sharing our streets with mobile food vendors,” Brannan added. “Right now we exist in a legal gray area with a bunch of arcane, labyrinthine laws – some of which plainly contradict other existing laws.  What we need are guidelines that state, in no uncertain terms, the rules and regulations concerning the licensing, regulation and placement of food carts on city streets.”

Artwork in the Enchanted Florist window during last year's Storefront Artists Walk by Dan Porcella. (Photo courtesy Bay Ridge SAW).

The annual Storefront Artists’ Walk (SAW) – an emerging Bay Ridge tradition – is gearing up for its third year on 5th Avenue.

It all starts on Friday, May 18 – which is tomorrow [!], and according to co-founder John Avelluto, it’s looking even better than the two years before.

We had a chance to briefly speak to Avelluto last week, and he tells us that the Bay Ridge SAW had 60 applicants for this year’s edition.

About 20 were chosen to create and showcase works in storefronts down a 17-block stretch of 5th Avenue.

The artists are matched up with a store, and create works with a connection to Bay Ridge and their hosting venue. About one-quarter of the artists are, in fact, from the neighborhood, with the rest coming from other places in Brooklyn.

Source: bayridgesaw.org

Six Point Brewery will be sponsoring the event, which runs through June 17.

Related Article: Home Reporter review of 2011 SAW.

The Storefront Artists Walk begins on May 18 at 5th Avenue locations between 73rd Street and 84th Street, and runs until June 17. For more information, please visit bayridgesaw.org.

Edgar Degas - Sala de ballet de la Ópera de la Rue Peletier

Starting in September, students at Fort Hamilton High School [8301 Shore Road] will have the opportunity to be future Baryshnikovs, Pavlovas, Ashtons and Fonteyns. In short, they’ll have the chance to dance.

And it all stems from a random conversation in a hair salon, reports Mark Morales for the Daily News.

The highly anticipated September opening of the Joffrey Ballet School begins a new chapter for 25 local high school students with artistic aspirations.

It all started when Joffrey Director Gail D’Addario went to get her highlights touched up last summer at the Cutting Den on Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights.

From the News:

D’Addario told salon owner Tom LaMarca she wanted to bring the ballet to a Brooklyn high school – and by the time she left, D’Addario had both her highlights done and an in at the Shore Road high school.

“Tommy told me (Fort Hamilton school officials) were thinking of making the school into a mini Juilliard and that’s how it all began,” said D’Addario, who lives in Bay Ridge and has been LaMarca’s client for 20 years. “If I didn’t have that conversation with him that day, this would never have happened.”

LaMarca’s wife Millie – a finance teacher at the school – had told him Fort Hamilton was desperate for a dance program.

“It’ll be Brooklyn’s own LaGuardia,” said Tom LaMarca. “This will give Brooklyn kids something they could use to fulfill their dreams – and it all came from a Brooklyn Heights barber shop.”

After Fort Hamilton principal  JoAnn Chester was brought into the loop, all it took was a couple of meetings to seal the deal.

“I guess my husband does listen when I tell him about work,” said Millie. “It’s amazing how a simple conversation about how the school wanted to expand its art program got us this.”

Public advocate and mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio weighed in on the 5th Avenue food cart fight during a recent meeting of the Bay Ridge Democrats – stating that the carts are hurting restaurants on the strip and may have to go, writes Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Daily.

“The fact is right now that the weight of regulation falls on our traditional businesses,” de Blasio reportedly told Bredderman as he exited the meeting. “We need to be careful in regards to where we allow food vendors to be placed.”

De Blasio’s disposition on the subject closely matched those of fellow Democrat City Councilman Vincent Gentile, as well as Republican State Senator Marty Golden – both of whom say street vendors have an unfair advantage over storefront restaurants – which have to contend with scrutinizing city health inspectors’ grading systems, not to mention rent.

From Brooklyn Daily:

City agencies spring surprise inspections on food wagons and traditional restaurants alike, but only the latter is required to post inspection grades in their windows, disgruntled merchants claim.

Gentile proposed legislation in March to grade mobile vendors, and met earlier this month with Department of Small Business Services Deputy Commissioner Andrew Schwartz, demanding that the city turn Fifth Avenue around 86th Street into a food cart-free zone.

De Blasio thinks more regulation for food carts will go a long way in helping to keep better relations between mobile food vendors and restaurateurs.

The “cold war” between Middle Eastern Halal Cart operator Sammy Kassen and Lone Star Bar & Grill proprietor Tony Gentile [no relation to Councilman Vincent Gentile] began to heat up in March, when two benches were mysteriously installed in Kassen’s favorite 5th Avenue spot.

Source: 401K via Flickr

As college tuition continues to climb while student loan debt exceeds one trillion dollars, one local bank has some advice for the parents of small children: Better start saving now.

To further communicate the necessity of squirreling away some salary for your little one’s schooling, Flushing Bank [7102 3rd Ave] held a seminar for parents of the future college-bound at the Bay Ridge Library [7223 Ridge Blvd] on May 11, according to Denise Romano with the Home Reporter.

From Home Reporter:

“We try to be involved in the community as much as possible,” said Amanda Quiñones, branch manager of the Flushing Bank Bay Ridge office. “When it comes to saving for college, the smaller they are, the better.”

Financial consultant Andre Beckles talked to about 26 “future graduates” and their parents about saving options. “You go to the store every day and it seems like the prices keep going up,” he said, noting that tuition increases six to 12 percent each year. “We have to entertain the idea that saving for a college level program is just as important as retirement.”

One subject Beckles brought up was the advantages of a 529 savings plan. He reminded parents that the tax-differed investment vehicle could begin with annual contributions of as little of $25.

Saving for the future is key,” he told Home Reporter, pointing out that 20 million students enter institutions of higher learning every year, with the demand resulting in an increasingly competitive – and expensive – situation. “The better you do making it to college, the better you will be moving forward.”

Beckles also explained how funding for the plan isn’t limited to just a child’s parents.

“Grandparents can open a plan and prefund it by five years. Anyone in the family can put aside money for children,” he said. “When they get money from birthdays, they can put it in that account.”

Niall Connelly will be performing this Sunday at the Irish Haven.

Remember, our events calendar is now up. There is a lot more on it than just the next nine days – you can see the whole thing here. We’ll post a lot of events that come to our attention, but the best way to make sure an event is listed here is to let us know directly – please email us at info@bayridgeodyssey.com. Be sure to include (1) what and where the event is, (2) what day and time it will be, (3) a description of the event, and (4) if there is an admission cost or age restriction. Include a web site and/or RSVP information, if applicable. Events on this calendar will be included in our nine-day event listing that we publish each Wednesday.

FRIDAY

• 5th Avenue Storefront Art Walk begins: SAW gives artists the opportunity to work with merchants to create art that has an aesthetic connection to its surroundings. Storefronts along 5th Avenue will exhibit these works, offering the Bay Ridge community a unique opportunity to engage with the visual arts. Runs through June 17th. (5th Avenue from 68th Street to 85th Street)
• “My Fair Lady” by the Narrows Community Theater: 8pm. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture “Pygmalion.” Admission: $20 for adults / $15 seniors, students under 21, children. St. Patrick’s Auditorium (4th Avenue and 97th Street). See our story for more details.

SATURDAY

• Greenmarket: The Bay Ridge Greenmarket returns to the Walgreens Pharmacy parking lot (3rd Avenue and 95th Street). 8am – 3pm. See our story for more details.
• It’s My Park Day – 9am. Shore Road and Owl’s Head Parks. Volunteers are invited to help with some spring cleaning in Bay Ridge’s beautiful shore-front parks. Activities will include painting, planting, weeding, sweeping, raking, handling sign-in sheets, tools and refreshments. See our story for more details.
• “My Fair Lady” by the Narrows Community Theater: 8pm. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture “Pygmalion.” Admission: $20 for adults / $15 seniors, students under 21, children. St. Patrick’s Auditorium (4th Avenue and 97th Street). See our story for more details.

SUNDAY

• Norwegian Constitution Day Parade: Celebrating the May 17, 1814 declaration of independence from the victors of the Napoleonic Wars. Running up Third Avenue from 86th to 69th Streets, then over to 67th Street and 7th Avenue via Fifth Avenue. See our story for the full route map. Begins 1:30pm.
• “My Fair Lady” by the Narrows Community Theater: 3pm. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture “Pygmalion.” Admission: $20 for adults / $15 seniors, students under 21, children. St. Patrick’s Auditorium (4th Avenue and 97th Street). See our story for more details.
• Niall Connelly at the Irish Haven: “Brooklyn-based Niall Connolly is at the head of a new breed of politically engaged eloquent singer-songwriters emerging from New York’s most populous boroughs with his immensely literate appraisals of the personal and the political.” Also, in a separate e-mail, I’m told this guy “is awesome, though he isn’t an Irish ballad guy,” coming from someone who loves Irish ballad guys. 7pm, 5721 4th Avenue.

MONDAY

• Community Board 10 General Meeting: 7:15pm at the Norwegian Christian Home, 1250 67th Street.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23

• Fleet Week, Parade of Ships: Begins 8am in the New York Harbor. Prime viewing locations are the Belt Parkway Promenade, 69th Street Pier, and Owl’s Head Park. For more details, see our stories on the international and American ships.

Photo source: House.gov / Office of Michael Grimm

Yesterday, Congressman Michael Grimm (R-Staten Island) held a press conference with community members and Iraq War veterans at Fort Hamilton to speak out against a Department of Defense plan to eliminate one of New York State’s two National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD-CST), one of which resides at the Bay Ridge army base.

“At a time when New York City remains the number one terror target in the nation, it is completely nonsensical to cut such an essential asset to our safety and security. The 24th National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team located at Fort Hamilton plays a crucial role in assisting our NYPD, first responders, and other agencies in the event high-risk situations. Shutting down NYC’s only CST would be a tremendous loss and could leave our city more vulnerable to attack,” said Rep. Michael Grimm.

The Obama Administration announced plans eliminate two of the National Guard’s 57 CSTs. New York and Florida – two of the three states with two CSTs – will be losing one team each. The Pentagon has not announced whether they will eliminate the team in Bay Ridge or the team in Albany, but Grimm asserts that the decision has already been made to close down the Fort Hamilton team, as reported by Helen Klein of the Home Reporter.

The 24th CST was established in a 2007 in a defense appropriations bill and became fully certified in 2010. The CST is charged with providing support to U.S. civil authorities – including the NYPD, FDNY, and the City government – in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive incident.  Since 2010, the 24th WMD-CST has executed over 175 missions in support of local, state, and federal first responders’ crisis response, contingency operations preparation, and training exercises.

Source: Shore Road Parks Conservancy

As we mentioned earlier in the month, It’s My Park Day will be this coming Saturday, May 19.

Volunteers are invited to help with some spring cleaning in Bay Ridge’s beautiful shore-front parks. Activities will include painting, planting, weeding, sweeping, raking, handling sign-in sheets, tools and refreshments.

According to a press release put out by the Shore Road Parks Conservancy, there are six different meeting points – as well as corresponding times – for anyone looking to lend their park a helping hand:

• 97th Street Park Entrance (10am to 2pm)
• 90th Street Gazebo (9am to 12pm)
• *New waterfront site meeting* by the Flagpole at Shore Rd & 81st St (9am to 12pm)
• Narrows Botanical Gardens (10am to 1pm)
• The Flagpole at 81st Street (9am to 12pm)
• Owl’s Head Park (11am to 2pm)

The plethora of local groups that are slated participate include Adelphi Academy, Arab American Association of NY (AAANY), Asian Community United Society (ACUS), Bay Ridge Food Coop, Bay Ridge Prep, Boy Scouts – St Anselm, Community Board 10, Cornerstone Church at Bay Ridge, East Coast Kruzers, Egyptian American Community Foundation (EACF), First Church of the Brethren, Fontbonne Hall Academy, Fort Hamilton Army Base, Fort Hamilton HS, JROTC & National Honor Society, Gateway Church, The Guild for Exceptional Children (GEC), Moroccan American House Association (MAHA), NIA Community Services, and NY Army National Guard Joint Task Force-Empire Shield.

Sponsors include the City Parks Foundation, Foodtown, Bay Ridge Manor, and the Partnership for Parks.

If you’re interested in more information, please call (347) 723-2555, e-mail the Shore Road Conservancy at info@shoreroadparks.org, or visit nycgovparks.org and shoreroadparks.org.