Closing Bell: Brooklyn Celebrates National Night Out
Residents, public officials and members of the law enforcement community celebrated the National Night Out Against Crime last night with street-party celebrations (like this one in Windsor Terrace) all over the borough. (Too bad anti-crime had to be combined with pro-cholesterol-and-sugar though. Don’t kids get enough of that from their school cafeterias?) We stopped by…
Residents, public officials and members of the law enforcement community celebrated the National Night Out Against Crime last night with street-party celebrations (like this one in Windsor Terrace) all over the borough. (Too bad anti-crime had to be combined with pro-cholesterol-and-sugar though. Don’t kids get enough of that from their school cafeterias?) We stopped by the Fort Greene event at the corner of Dekalb and Washington Park. How was the Night Out in your nabe?
Photo by Krista Fogle
Biff, it’s a very differet culture here in Bed Stuy than in Brookyn Heights (shocked, I know). There are SERIOUS block parties here, and they vary in nature depending on which block it’s on. I’ve seen people having a great time with BBQ, kits, music, beer, etc at theirs, while others have ended in tragedy with gun fire and death (Gates Ave block party, I believe, this summer). I’ll be a bit of an oddball at mine this summer, I’m sure, when I serve Mimosa’s on my front yard while playing Jazz vinyl’s at mine. But it’s my neighborhood too, damn it and I can play Coltrane if I want to! Regarding burgers at RibCage vs. Diner, I have eaten them at both. I was really impressed with the burger I had last night (it had a nice smokey flavor with a hint of BBQ sauce integrated into the meat). But I do so enjoy how Diner’s burgers dribble down my chin. There’s no reason we can’t have a bonafide burger taste-off with 5 or more burgers before the end of the summer, unless Chowhound already beat us to it.
A tad! It’s quintessential trailer park.
altervoce, that’s very funny. I don’t think it’s odd when tweens and above want to do it to themselves, but always wonder what’s the deal when adults do it to their 3 and 4 year-olds. I mean, do they even know what a mohawk is at that age? Are the parents just trying to instill some hipster vibe during their kids’ formative years? The rat-tail thing on children is also bizarre to me and seems a tad trailer park trash-ish even though it seems to me it’s the mid- to upper class mommies and daddies in New York who do this.
MacD, sounds like you had a reasonably productive evening. Glad to hear it. I hope you can stick with it and it pays dividends.
As for mohawks, gave myself one kind of unintentionally before going home for Christmas. I think it was 1980. My regular barber had closed his shop for the holiday and gone hunting and my own skills were, hm, not up to the task. When I got back to campus, the barber stopped me on the street and asked me to make it clear to people that he wasn’t responsible.
the day cops stop knocking kids off bikes during critical mass is the day I support them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwkVMT6m7zg
MacD, interesting insight, but it begs the question: how did the RibCage hamburgers compare to Diner in Williamsburg? Perhaps it should be the next Restaurant of the Day? Hamburgers, “stake-holders”, “agreed to meet”, you’re making me hungry even though I ate at Wolfgang’s a mere four hours ago.
Seriously, are there that many block parties in your hood? I haven’t seen any in Brooklyn Heights, probably because 85% of the residents are out of town or in bed by 8pm.
Kids have worn mohawks since the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. I had one when I was 12 in 1987. I’m sure that kids’ parents either had one back in the day, or wished they did and now they’ve approved of junior getting one.
Well, last night I did connect with the Captain on the 81st pct., the president of my block association, and a recent crime victim from the area as we ate hamburgers compliments of RibCage. We discussed how to get stake-holders from the area more involved in anti-crime activities and agreed to meet to discuss it at the next block assocation meeting. I’m wondering what models have worked in other areas like this one? This is new to me, so if there are any ideas or information to share, I’d like to hear from you. One simple thing that came up was how stopping block parties a 8PM and keeping the corners clear would cut down crime. Frankly that alone would have stopped 25% of the crime from happening here.
i’m gonna get some mullets on my kids next week now that everyone has mohawks.