Brooklyn's dad fighting back after losing his son to gun violence

The gun violence in the Brownsville community is effecting the residents terribly. Some of our residents are scared to come outside in fear being accidental hit by a stray bullet. Read this article wriiten by Erin Durkin of the New York Daily News. Mike Tucker of Bedford Stuyvesant lost his Stephonne Crawford in 2005. He wants to share his story with the world now.

Check this out!

(Courtesy of New York Daily News)

Mike Tucker holds a photo of his son, Stephonne Crawford, who was shot in 2005

Bedford-Stuyvesant dad Mike Tucker's son was fatally shot by police nearly six years ago - and now he's dedicating his life to fighting Brooklyn's plague of gun violence.

Tucker's son, Stephonne Crawford, 21, was accidentally shot in East New York in a 2005 scuffle with cops who were trying to question him about a separate shooting. He was killed instantly when a detective's gun discharged, police said at the time.


"The gun accidentally went off and shot him in the back of the head," said Tucker, 45, adding that Stephonne, who had a 1-year-old son, had fallen in with the wrong crowd but was trying to turn his life around. "I was really shocked and devastated."

Teachers' Union Sues to Stop School Closings

P.S. 332, Charles H. Houston in our neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn is one of the schools in New York City that is on the verge of being closed down. Check out this article on the New York Times website written by Fernanda Santos. Let's Save Our Schools!!!

(Courtesy of George M. Gutierrez for the New York Times)

John F. Kennedy High School in the Bronx, one of the schools that a lawsuit filed Wednesday hopes to keep open.

The United Federation of Teachers filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in an effort to halt two tools the city’s Education Department uses to change the school system: closing schools for poor performance and giving charter schools space in buildings occupied by traditional public schools. 

The litigation, filed in State Supreme Court, escalates the tensions in the fraying relationship between the city and the teachers’ union, whose members have worked without a contract for more than a year and now face the likelihood of 4,100 layoffs, which Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed as a way to balance the budget.

It also threatens to upend the coming school year for the thousands of students who have secured a spot in charter schools whose locations are being challenged and in new high schools that are set to replace closing schools.

Six Miles Wasn't Enough!

On Sunday, May 15th, 2011, Brownsville Partnership Staff, Kyle Mushkin, Michelle Strong, Randy Millard, Shawn Brooks and his lovely Mrs. Brooks and lastly Kristen Woods participated in the 26th Annual AIDS Walk in Central Park.

The atmosphere was great! Brownsville Partnership Staff completed the Six Mile Walk! Despite the mud, the hard rain and bugs, the tough terrain in Central Park did not slow them down at all! 

Check out some of the pictures!

Good Job Guys!

With correction-officer mom by his side, Bed-Stuy's Jaiquwan Jarrett gets ready for the NFL Draft

Mo' Better Jaguars Football league in Brownsville are doing some big things if you didn't know! This Football program has put many of kids in College through the game of Football. Read this article about Jaiquwan Jarrett written by Mitch Abramson talking about his transition from Fort Hamilton High School to Temple University to becoming a Professional Football Player in the NFL coming from Bed-Stuy!

PHILADELPHIA - The big hit took place in South Philadelphia.

In a game against UConn on Sept. 18, Temple's Jaiquawn Jarrett, a 6-foot, 200-pounder, ran toward the sideline and crashed into Husky running back Jordan Todman, lowering his shoulder and blasting Todman several feet backward. It was the type of collision that leaves both players spinning, but Jarrett, a safety from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, rose to his feet quickly and nodded his head in approval, fully enjoying the results of his work. Sitting in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field that day was Jarrett's mother, Audrey Young.

"That's my son!" she likes to belt out to anyone within earshot, in case the No. 5 jersey bearing the words "Jarrett's Mother" on her back doesn't convey the message.

She has always been there for her son, raising him, along with his three siblings, as a single mother, playing the role of caretaker, breadwinner, cheerleader, and when she had to be, law enforcer, keeping her kids in line. That last attribute - the disciplinarian - may have been the easiest role for her to adapt.

Community Planning Partner Survey #2

Our Community Planning Partners, Karrie Scarboro and Randy Millard along with Jacqueline Kennedy have created Community Planning Partner Survey #2. Our Community Planning Partners are in Phase II of their Community Planning Process for the Brownsville Partnership. Phase II entails that our Community Planning Partners will engage the community in a discussion on more specific views. The Brownsville residents will be asked what parks, buildings, streets and commercial areas they like and dislike, and why.

Here are the questions:

1. Where are areas in the community that are considered unsafe and undesirable?
2. Name locations in the community that are very important to the community but are underutilized and poorly maintained.
3. What do you like/dislike about the local shopping/commercial areas in Brownsville? (i.e. Pitkin Ave, Belmont Ave., Rockaway Ave and Livonia Ave)
4. What are some intersections and streets that can be enhanced or better guarded for pedestrians and children? And How? (i.e. Speed bumps, bike lanes)
5. What parks in Brownsville do you think need the most work?
6. How can we put usage to vacant spaces and abandoned structures in Brownsville?

You can contact Karrie Scarboro via phone (347) 654-0519 (Cell) or E-mail  kscarboro@commonground.org or Randy Millard via phone (347) 314-0306 or E-mail rmillard@commonground.org

#HOPEISINSIDE

New Book: School Resegregation Is Detrimental To Black Students

Another interesting article from BlackNews.com...

Nationwide (March 14, 2011) -- A new book, Schooling Poor Minority Children: New Segregation in the Post-Brown Era, authored by Martha R. Bireda, Ph.D., chronicles the process of desegregation to a return to post-Brown resegregated schools. The author describes this "new" segregation as a "redesign of pre-Brown segregation" and details the devastating impact upon poor minority students.

The return to segregated neighborhood schools, most often populated by poor black and brown students, unequally funded, and labeled "low performing" or "failing" should be taken very by seriously by the black community. The "new" segregation that has evolved in the post-Brown era is even more insidious than that of pre-Brown segregation. The deeply rooted problems that plagued pre-Brown segregated schools persist; while a new set of problems inherent in the "new" segregation have emerged. The "new" post-Brown segregation is creating a class of chronically undereducated students who will be left with only underclass options.

The author examines two crucial school-related factors characteristic of post-Brown segregated, low performing schools serving predominately poor minority populations: first, a school culture that is characterized by low expectations for students and the lack of a collective responsibility for student learning; and secondly, a stigmatizing school climate that focuses on control of students rather than creating rigorous and challenging learning environments. The combination of these factors results in the failure of these students to develop an academic identity, a lack of achievement motivation, the development of low self-expectations, disengagement from the learning process, academic failure, and in far too many instances non-completion.

Reboundsville: New home construction gives Brooklyn's Brownsville a facelift

Check out this article written by Lynne Miller of NY Daily News as she explains and explores the new home construction in our Brownsville Community. The photos are courtesy of Jeff Bachner. To read the article on the NY Daily News website, here is the link Reboundsville: New home construction gives Brooklyn's Brownsville a facelift

Walk around gritty Brownsville, in northeastern Brooklyn, and you see new apartment buildings and other multifamily homes mixed in with older row houses, including some that are nearly 100 years old. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) helped cause this mini-building boom. Since 2003, HPD, working with developers, has financed the construction or rehabilitation of 3,871 units of affordable housing.

Under Mayor Bloomberg’s New Housing Marketplace Plan, more than 110,000 affordable housing units, financed by HPD, have pumped new life into city neighborhoods, including more than 27,000 in Brooklyn.
“You could call us an urban renewal agency,” says Jack Hammer, director of Brooklyn planning for the HPD.

One of the HPD’s newest projects, the $15.2 million River Rock development on Riverdale Ave. in Brownsville, features 54 rental apartments for low-income families, with 11 apartments for formerly homeless people. On the ground floor, 12,000 square feet have been set aside for retail with space for a local agency that provides social services to residents. On the second floor, there’s a laundry, a community room and terrace. There’s also underground parking.

Fillmore’s Lisa James inside a new two-family home on Tapscott St. (Jeff Bachner)