One Year Later Rocket Still Pedaling Women Home Safely

Brooklyn Bike Patrol Celebrates One Year of Helping Women Get Home Safely

Believe it or not, one year has already passed since Jay “Rocket” Ruiz was first inspired to start his grassroots security organization, “Brooklyn Bike Patrol.” Back in September 2011 Brooklyn women were fearful after at least 20 sexual assaults had been perpetrated during a six-month period beginning in March from Bay Ridge to Park Slope. Finally Ruiz felt he needed to act to protect women and help them arrive home safely, so he hopped on his bicycle and rode to the subway station at Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street and held up a sign that said: “Brooklyn Bike Patrol” with his name, phone number and e-mail address.

After a short time Ruiz had a crew of 11 volunteers escorting women from 11 subway stations so they could arrive home in peace.

One year later “Brooklyn Bike Patrol” still has only 11 volunteers, but they manage to cover 50 subway stations in 16 Brooklyn neighborhoods including Prospect Heights, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Sunset Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace and Carroll Gardens, Borough Park, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bushwick and Williamsburg.

To celebrate this milestone Ruiz and his crew plan on riding down Fifth Avenue in Park Slope handing out flyers offering their free service. “Brooklyn Bike Patrol” would like to acquire cameras for each of the volunteers to wear on their helmets. Ruiz believes this piece of equipment will make the escort even safer. Each camera costs $269, but he says when traveling through some of the rougher neighborhoods having a camera recording every walk will make it safer just in case something happens along the way.

“We are grateful for all the love and communities we cover,” he said, explaining that BBP now has 117 clients. “I wanted to do this for one year, but now there are so many people calling us and we need to keep doing it. People still need us, so I want to see where we are at in five years.”

Ruiz said he feels like he is “on top of the world” to be able to celebrate one year protecting women.
But, he is humble:

“We are not the heroes, the heroes are the women who call us and trust us to walk them home,” Ruiz said.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio Creates Fan Club to Save Kensington G-Train Service

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio

Mayoral hopeful and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio joined the grass-roots call to maintain the service of the G-train to the Kensington neighborhood in Brooklyn.

De Blasio announced the creation of a new organization to fight for the subway service, called “5 Stop Fan Club,” referring to the five train stops which the MTA is threatening to shut down. This new group joins an on-line petition submitted by the Working Families Party demanding that the present G-train service be maintained.

“These extra five stops are a lifeline that Brooklyn residents and small businesses have come to depend on,” said de Blasio. “Ending this service will have a profound effect on the community and the mom and pop stores along these five stops. I encourage every New Yorker who wants to see the G train service preserved to join the 5 Stop Fan Club and let your voices be heard.”

The five train stops in question were only added to the G-train’s route by the MTZ in 2009 to help deal with the disruptions caused by the repair of the Culver Aqueduct, a bridge over the Gowanus Canal.

Since the work on the aqueduct is almost finished, the MTA is planning on closing down the extension, which was only put in place to allow commuters from Greenpoint to travel all the way to Kensington without being forced to change trains.

Last Friday the Working Families Party inaugurated their petition on the internet, which will eventually be submitted to the MTA, hopefully dissuaded them from cancelling the train service. De Blasio is affiliated closely with the Working Families Party, which helped get him elected to his present office of public advocate.

De Blasio’s “Fan Club” has a website with several elected officials joining the movement, including Representative Nydia Velazquez, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, State Senators Eric Adams and Dan Squadron, Assemblymen James Brennan and Hakeem Jeffries, and City Councilmembers Brad Lander, Sara Gonzalez, Stephen Levin and Letitia James.

Antique Row Pride of Kensington

Picture Credit  Lisa Tuvalo

If you live in Kensington then you know how proud the residents are of Antique Row, a stretch of shops along Howard Avenue which specialize in antique furniture, rugs, vintage toys, used books and other nostalgic objects from days gone by.

In one of those shops, The Antique Market, at 3776 Howard Avenue you can find a really fun collectible from baseball history. Wouldn’t you love to have a cover from the magazine ‘Our World’ featuring a photograph of the first African-American major league baseball player in American history, Jackie Robinson. In 1947 Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, and one year later Roy Campenella became the second black man to play for the Dodgers. The magazine cover was shot in 1948 with Robinson, Campenella, and Dodger’s manager Leo Durocher standing between them.

The cover is for sale for $185. If you would like to make inquiries about the cover, or anything else having to do with The Antique Market, call Judy Sanders at 301-942-4440.

Facebook Styled Website Matches Sabbath Guests with Hosts

Looking for a nice place to have a meal on the Jewish Sabbath? Try Shabbat.com, which has a user base of about 25,000 members, 6,000 of whom are ready to play the host to strangers whose acquaintance they have only just met on the internet.

Benzion Klatzko is the founder of Shabbat.com.

“Why not show the world that we are a welcoming people? “I want to highlight the openness that we have,” he states.

Although the guests can range in religious observance from completely non-observent to “very orthodox,” there is a careful screening process which takes place before anyone is allowed to join the website.

Klatzko and a group of volunteers searches the for the prospective member on Facebook and Google before allowing anyone to join, and if everything checks out, that person can become a member, either as a host or as a guest, or even as both.

The majority of members come from Brooklyn, a city with a large concentration of Jews among its residents. Flatbush, Midwood, Kensington and other Brooklyn neighborhoods are the most popular destinations for sharing Sabbath meals.

“It’s made life a lot more interesting,” said Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein, who, with his wife Feige, have served dozens of strangers during the past year in his home in Kensington.

 “Our kids started moving out; the house was getting emptier and emptier. Shabbos is supposed to be fun. We started looking around for people,” said Goldstein, who has shared his Sabbath table with visitors from as far away as France.

Some hosts prefer to only have fellow Jews for guests, but there are people from other religions also on the site.
Klatzko said that there are even Catholic priests and other non-Jews who are religion-friendly on the site.

“Our site is open to every denomination: religious, not religious, single, not single,” Klatzko said.

Recently married Mordy and Zina Genut owe their marriage to Shabbat.com. Both were recently divorced, and each one had two small children. One Sabbath they were both just looking for a meal and not necessarily a new spouse. But they met at the Sabbath meal that they both found through Sabbath.com, and were engaged two months later. They now live in Marine Park.

This is a great social scene,” said Mordy Genut, 28. “People give you food. A complete stranger. You don’t see that in the world. Most people say, ‘Get out of my house. Or I will shoot you.’ ”

Disguised Thieves Rob Elderly Women in their Homes in Brooklyn

Pretending to be utility workers, two thieves were able to gain entrance into an elderly woman’s Borough Park home, stealing jewelry and cash.

Joe Rushford is the son of 90 year-old Gloria, who was at work on Tuesday while he mother was at home by herself.

“I’d like to wring their neck. I’d like to invite them out in the street here, me and them. Have some fun. You know you pick on a 90-year-old lady,” he told CBS 2′s Kristin Thorne.

“They watch the house and they prey on elderly people and it’s not going to happen again,” he added.

Robbery Suspect /Photo Credit NYPD

The police said that surveillance cameras captured a video of a man in uniform coming up to the Rushford home, with a woman joining him several minutes later. They were able to enter her house by claiming that they were there to carry out some work, but once inside they robbed her of cash, jewelry and some sensitive documents.

The pair of thieves then went to another home of 89-year-old Rose in Kensington.

Rose says that she was sitting on her front porch when what she thought was a worker for Con Edison came up to her. The man told Gloria that he was there to do some work in her house. Soon after a woman joined them; and while the woman distracted Rose, the man entered her house and robbed her.

“Oh God, I can’t take this. I didn’t sleep all night. I’m afraid,” she said. “They took all my money, took all my jewelry. Everything.”

The police have reason to believe that the suspects escaped in a four-door sedan, color green. The female suspect is about five-foot-five and weighs about 140 pounds and she has dark brown hair. The man is estimated to be about six-feet tall and has blue eyes and light brown hair.

Anyone with information should call police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.

Kensington Composting and Native Plants Garden Transforms Vacant Lot

When Louise Bruce moved into Kensington last spring, she saw an ugly vacant lot strewn with garbage at the corner of East 8th Street and Newkirk Avenue. Not one to let things lie, Bruce asked permission to develop the lot, which ultimately proved to be a wonderful way to help her neighbors and herself.

Today the lot has been transformed into an oasis of beauty and environmental awareness as a home to a garden of native plants and a compost center.

Brooklyn Native Plant Garden

Composting is a wonderful way to reduce trash output, but also to create a highly usable soil-like substance which is like a magic fertilizer for plants. People in the neighborhood bring their organic trash, like banana peels, coffee grounds and  potato skins, to a pile in the lot. There the trash is transformed through natural processes into "compost" to be used to grow plants.

"In essence, it becomes really rich plant food," said garden volunteer Kate Grace-Mitchell. "New York City pays something like one million dollars a day to truck out garbage, a large percentage of which can be composted right here in our backyards."

Grace-Mitchell explained the importance of having a garden with native plants.

"If we don't have native plant gardens providing habitats for native insects, which pollinate our plants, our food gardens are useless. We'd love to educate the community about the importance of these less obvious things," said Grace-Mitchell. "And of course, create a nice aesthetic too."

Compost can be brought to the garden on Sundays and Thrusdays from 3pm to 6pm, and the residents are thrilled to have it.

"I've been looking for a place to compost forever," said resident Laura Helton, beaming as she dumped three large freezer bags full of compost material into a large, not-too-smelly bin. "I've been dragging my frozen kitchen scraps to Union Square for three years now."

Kensington Man Found Slain in Pennsylvania

Cafe Owner Joshua Rubin from Kensington

Joshua Rubin, the 30-year-old owner of The Whisk Bakery Café in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, was found on November 1st in a woods right outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. It took until this past week to identify the remains as that of Rubin.

His body had been burned after being shot and killed by a bullet wound to the head.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Mikhail Plotkin, 56, a salesman at an electronics store on the same block as the cafe.

“He was a little strange, but otherwise, he was a nice kid. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

Rubin was last seen leaving his home on October 31st, and his credit card was used just a few days later at the Woodbury Commons mall in Orange County, New York.

Friends and loved ones put up flyers to help locate their friend, but there efforts did not lead to any clues or further information about what happened.

Bikers Bearing Gifts Ride from Kensington to Coney Island

For the twenty-third time in its history, Bikers for Brooklyn hosted a toy giveaway in the holiday spirit of helping the less fortunate.

The ride took place on November 19 and began in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn. They biked to their final destination, the Coney Island community Day Care center on West 27th Street, where the over 100 participants handed out gifts to the children there.

George Barker, the president of the biker’s club, explained that they hold this special event on the eve of the holidays to help give something back to kids in under-served New York City communities.

The 100 riders, including several dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, made an imposing site riding down the streets of Brooklyn on their way to deliver board games, sports equipment, stuffed animals and more.
The enthusiastic Coney Island residents were appreciative of the kind gesture.

“My son’s very happy,” said Shieshia Taylor, whose 4 year old was pleased with his new toy truck — and the chance to sit on Santa’s lap. “I didn’t know [bike clubs] did things like that.”

Brooklyn Bike Patrol Gearing Up for Beefed Up Service

Jay "Rocket" Ruiz of BPP

As the Southbound F and G subway line service interruption in Kensington begins, extra patrolling by the volunteer Brooklyn Bike Patrol is getting into gear.

As was mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, (MTA) will be suspending service of its southbound F and G trains at the 15th Street-Prospect Park and the Forth Hamilton stations. Service was curtailed on November 14th, and will continue until May of next year.

The closing down of service at these stations means that people will have to get off the train either before or after the closed stations, lengthening their travel time above ground, where several attacks on women have  taken place, spreading fear in the neighborhood.

Augmenting the increase in police patrols in the neighborhood is the Brooklyn Bike Patrol, whose president Jay “Rocket” Ruiz has stated that his volunteer organization will be at the F/G Seventh Avenue Station beginning last Monday night to make sure women will get home safe.

Before the suspension of service began Ruiz stated, “We are going to be out here tonight, we will be out here all week,” Ruiz said on Monday, explaining that BBP will be paying close attention to the F/G suspension.

“We will actually be out here all year long, until service is resumed at these stations.”

Beginning at 8pm each evening, Ruiz and 11 additional volunteers will be there on their bikes to escort women safely home.  Women can call for an escort or they can contact BPP using e-mail, Facebook or Twitter and get volunteer to accompany her home from any of 25 different subway stations in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Park Slope, Kensington, Sunset Park, Carroll Gardens, Prospect Heights, and now, Fort Greene-Clinton Hill.

Keep these numbers handy:

•    Tel: 718-744-7592
•    E-mail: brooklynbikepatrol@gmail.com
•    Facebook: facebook.com/BROOKLYNBIKEPATROL
•    Twitter: @BKbikepatrol
•    Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 8 p.m. to midnight
•    Friday through Saturday, 8 p.m. to 3:30 a.m.

Kensington Man Survives Brighton Beach Building Collapse

Oleksandr Kushch of Kensington described last week how he was knocked unconscious when the steel skeleton of the condo complex he was helping construct collapsed and woke up several moments later under a pile of rubble.

Oleksandr Kushch

Kushch, 26, explained that he was using a buffer to smooth out freshly poured concrete on the fourth floor of the partly constructed building when the accident happened.

“When I woke up, I saw all the metal beams. Everything was on top of me,” he said while recovering at his home in Kensington.

“Oh my god, I was buried,” Kushch continued. “I started digging myself out. I don’t know how I got out. ... I have two small children. I had to get out.”

One floor below two other construction workers were also injured, and one of them, Ivan Lendel, a Ukrainian immigrant, died later from his wounds.

Preliminary investigations by city officials are guessing that the building collapsed because the concrete was poured on the top floors before the bottom floors were completely fortified.

Kushch himself did not notice any problems with the way the construction was being conducted.

“I’ve worked in a lot of places in nine years. This is the way we’ve always done it. It’s easier to bring the machines down than up,” he said.

“The building was all metal, not wood. It should have held. It should have been strong,” he added.

Park Slope Fiend Attacks Again

In what adds up to the eleventh such attack since March, a 29 year-old woman was approached from behind as she left the Prospect Avenue R train station at 9:05pm last Wednesday night. The attacker, who is now known as the Park Slope Sex Fiend, grabbed her breasts from behind and then ran away after she screamed.

Typical of Other Attacks

The police are convinced that this latest attack is indeed the work of the same perpetrator of the other attacks.

“The victim’s description fits with the pattern of attempted assaults,” said a police source. “And it’s typical with the other incidents. She was grabbed from behind by surprise.”

Since March the fiend, or perhaps fiends, since there are different descriptions of what the assailant looks like, has managed to rape one woman and grope ten others, frightening women from South Slope, Bay Ridge, Sunset Park and Park Slope.

Residents Respond

The latest attack comes just one day after the police told a frustrated citizenry that they are doing all they can to nab the criminal. Residents, not satisfied with the police response, have held rallies, placed ‘Wanted’ posters, and organized self-defense classes. The police say they have added patrols as of August, after the fifth attack.

A woman from Kensington said that she called Crime Stoppers after someone who fit the description of the Park Slope Fiend exposed himself to her on the subway. Unfortunately, according to the woman, the officer on the phone hung up on her.

Bike Share Coming to Kensington and Other Parts of Brooklyn

Brooklyn will soon be joining many major cities around the world that have an innovative and clever alternative means of transportation at their disposal; and that is a European style bike sharing program.

The Department of Transportation of New York City announced yesterday that Alta Bicycle Share won the contract to operate the bike system, after an evaluation of several proposals by a number of different companies specializing in creating and running such systems.

Alta Bike Share will not need any taxpayer money to run the program, and any profit they have will be shared with the city as a result of a revenue sharing agreement which is part of the deal.

Brooklynites will be able to use Alta bike share bicycles for a yearly or monthly fee, which will be made available to them at bike stations located at a large number of crucial spots around town. The idea is that riders take a bike from one station, for instance near their homes, and leave the bike at another station, perhaps near a subway stop. 

Alta Bike Share published their preliminary plans for station locations. They are planning on building stations in Brooklyn stretching from Greenpoint, Kensington and Brooklyn Heights to parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant and south to Park Slope.

“Public bike sharing is a great opportunity for the city to continue moving in a greener direction through expanding mobility options for NYC residents; the initiative also promotes a healthy lifestyle,” said Council Member Letitia James (D-Fort Greene/Prospect Heights). “Also, new jobs will be created through the NYC Bike Share program, along with an increase in revenue for the city, which should make bicycle sharing a win-win program all around.”

Kensington Photographer Catches WTC Inside and Out and Through the Years

Kensington resident and photographer Richard Massie’s photos of the World Trade Center will be featured as a special section of the autumn show “Tales of Breukelen,” which will open this month at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition (BWAC.)

The exhibition is in honor of the tenth anniversary of the destruction of the WTC on September 11th 2001, and will display views of the WTC from both inside and out using medium-format photos taken during the mid-‘70s through the ‘80s.

The photos follow the development of the towers from when they were first being built, including rare shots of their interiors while they were still under construction. Massie’s goal was to see and show the beauty of the towers at a time when not everyone viewed them with the same artistic eye.

“At the time they were considered monstrosities — they were hated at the time, and considered a boondoggle with public money,” Massie explained. “I was going to try to turn them into something artistically appreciable.”

Also included in the exhibition will be a “works-on-paper” montage which members of BWAC created to be installed in a ceremony in exactly one week, on Sunday, September 11.

You can come visit the exhibition at the BWAC gallery located in Red Hook at 499 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn.

Last Week’s Record Rainfall Creates Mosquito Breeding Grounds throughout Brooklyn

Kensington, the rest of Brooklyn, and all other boroughs have become a choice breeding ground for mosquitoes this summer, especially in the wake of last week’s record-breaking rainfall in New York.

Added to the unpleasantness and nuisance of buzzing and biting mosquitoes is the fear that West Nile virus is also being carried by the pesky creatures. The health department has been testing for the deadly virus, and has found it in at least 33 city zip codes in every borough excluding Manhattan. In fact, the first such case of the virus was reported last week in a 64-year old woman from Manhattan. She was hospitalized at the beginning of August and is now getting better.

One woman from Kensington, Sharon Levy, revealed that her children were bitten by mosquitoes while visiting her mother in Park Slope. She believes a small kiddie pool was most likely the source of the mosquitoes, which prefer to breed in pools of standing water.

Ask Kensington: Would you like a local Yoga / Kickboxing studio?

So while I'm pretty sure my roundhouse kick could wipe the floor with Jean-Claude Van Damme, I could probably tune up my One-Legged King Pigeon pose. Is anyone else interested in some local classes?

Wilhyn Elizanda asks:

I am asking you all from the community to advise if you would like to see a YOGA/PILATES/KICKBOXING studio on Church Avenue. I drive to Windsor and feel the need for us in Kensington to benefit from a yoga studio right on Church Avenue. Your opinion are valued.

You know the drill, Kensington. Stretch out and speak your mind in the comments area below.

Ask Kensington: Can you recommend a good real estate broker?

It's that time again. A new Kensingtonian is about to join our ranks... but he needs your help.

Jason asks:

I'm looking to move to Kensington next month... I'm wondering if you can recommend one or more good brokers for apartments in the area.

So we're putting this one up knowing full well that we're opening the comments up for lots of shameless self-promotion and possibly some pretty scathing complaints. Please, behave yourselves.

Ask Kensington: Any good gyms in the area?

Here's another question we couldn't answer (and we're feeling pretty guilty about that).

Emily asks:

I'm looking for a good gym in Kensington - I know of Curves on McDonald Avenue and that's pretty good but what else is there in the area? Suggestions, please!

Please, help a neighbor out. Put down your dumbbells and head to the comments section.

Ask Kensington: Which drycleaner won't ruin my clothes?

It's time for another installment of our award winning* Ask Kensington series!

Liam asks:

So after having yet another dress poorly pressed (you could see the marks) and a hem ripped open at our 3rd attempt at a drycleaner... I'm wondering if you could post a recommendation forum of some kind so the good citizens of kenisngton can recommend a good spot?

Thanks very much!

Anyone have a particular drycleaner with which they've had continued success? Let Liam known in the comments!

* Most awards pending and/or completely fabricated

Ask Kensington: How safe is the 18th Ave F stop?

We've been getting some questions in our inbox over the past week or so that we probably aren't the most qualified to answer. We're hoping you can provide some insight to others in the community. So here's looking at you in our first installment of Ask Kensington.

April from Bushwick asks:

I am really struggling with a decision about where to move and am looking for advice on whether living on Ocean Parkway and 18th ave is ok. I live in Bushwick now so don’t expect perfect safety. I’m just wondering what the F train at 18th ave is like during normal times of day on into the evening around 11pm.

Sound off in the comments section and help a fellow Brooklynite out.

Update: April has decided to move to the area. "Thanks for responding! It is so hard moving into a brand new neighborhood, but I like what I see so far."