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)

Greg Donaldson's book 'Zebratown' traces transformation of ex-Brownsville thug Kevin Davis

Read this article about Kevin Davis who was featured in a book title "Zebratown" written by Greg Donaldson who also wrote "The Ville". The article is written by Jake Pearson of NY Daily News.
Check it out!!!

Here is the link for the article Greg Donaldson's book "Zebratown" traces transformation of ex-Brownsville thug Kevin Davis

Author Greg Donaldson inadvertently sent a then-wanted Kevin Davis to prison after a photo of the young criminal appeared on the cover of his highly successful 1994 book, "The Ville."


Since then, the former thug from Brownsville and the John Jay College professor have formed an unlikely, decade-long friendship.

The result is "Zebratown," Donaldson's newest book, which chronicles Davis' struggle to stay clear of street life after nearly 10 years in prison.

"Now I look at Greg like family," said Davis, 42, who spent almost a decade in prison for gun, drug and assault convictions. "One thing about this book is it's all real - you just watch a person's life unfold."

For Donaldson, the book was as much about Davis' life as it was for the thousands of Brooklyn men who have crossed paths with the criminal justice system.

Motorcycle, SUV enthusiats help Flatbush, Brooklyn fire victims

Check out the great work done by the all-women Auto Club Outer Order and other SUV and Auto Clubs for the fire victims of Flatbush, Brooklyn. The event was done at the Brownsville Recreation Center yesterday afternoon. The article is written by Simone Weichselbaum of NY Daily News.

(Dozens were left homeless following deadly fire in Flatbush, Brooklyn.)

Dozens of motorcycle and SUV enthusiasts donated a mountain of clothes, toys, books and food Sunday to the homeless families left with nothing after surviving the Flatbush apartment building blaze.

Mounds of secondhand wardrobes were piled up to the ceiling on a stage inside the Brownsville Recreation Center on Linden Blvd. Center doors will stay open all week for the displaced E. 29th St. residents, organizers said.

"Abortion Is Black Genocide" by Rev. Dr. Clenard H. Childress, Jr.

Nationwide (February 24, 2011) -- Writing in "Right to Life News", a beautiful document about our right to life, the Rev. Jesse Jackson asked an amazingly salient question which shouts across the decades:




"What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person, and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually?"



"It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth."

That was January 1977. It is now 34 years later and we emphatically need to examine the profoundness of Jackson's comment, for this is one of the most incredible insights given to America four years after the launch of the systemic eugenics plan--Roe vs. Wade-- in the words of sitting Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, mimicking Planned Parenthood founder, Margaret Sanger, when she said, "Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of." Concern about population growth...? Too many of whom...?

Yes, by design, Abortion was to be seductively proposed to the African-American community to reduce their numbers by ripping children apart within the womb. This plot would not only decimate the African-American community, it would also expedite the depletion of our national conscience. What most America thought then to be radical rhetoric coming from Black America's most popular spokesperson, has in this day become a sociological fact which can be empirically proven. After years of futility, much like Egypt's frustration with Israel in the book of Genesis--the more they afflicted them the more they increased--Abortion has become the "silver bullet" for the imbedded eugenic influence in our nation and the world. Nationally 1,786 African-Americans are killed each day by Abortion, and in New York City, for every 1,000 precious African-Americans born, sadly 1,525 are mutilated to death within the womb.

This Is A Must Read: "Brooklyn teens face reproductive rights challenges" by Mary Alice Miller

This Is A Must Read article written by Mary Alice Miller of the Our Time Press. Please pass this along to our young kids in the community!

Teens living in Brooklyn are giving birth and terminating pregnancies at numbers higher than almost any borough in the city. According to the recently released N.Y.C. Summary of Vital Statistics 2009, 40 Brooklyn teens under age 15 gave birth, the most in the city; 672 teens, ages 15-17, gave birth – second only to the Bronx; 1,808 teens, ages 18-19 gave birth – the highest teen birth numbers in the city. Brooklyn communities with the highest births to teens are Brownsville, East New York and Bushwick.


Brooklyn teens experienced the most spontaneous terminations (miscarriages) in the city. The highest numbers of induced terminations among teens took place in Brooklyn.

One-hundred thirty-three adolescents under age 15 terminated their pregnancies; there were 1,663 induced terminations among 15-17-year-olds; and 2,586 among 18-19-year-olds. In New York City, the proportion of pregnancies ending in an induced termination is highest among younger women, peaking at about 28 percent at age 30. For women under the age of 25, more pregnancies end in induced termination than in a live birth or spontaneous termination. Of all induced terminations in NYC, the vast majority (88 percent) take place in the first 12 weeks.

According to the NYC Department of Health, induced terminations of pregnancies among all age groups in NYC have gone down since 2000. Since that same year, the birth rate among teens has declined by 27 percent. Teen births accounted for 6.2 percent of all births in 2009.



To read the entire article click this link: Brooklyn Teens Face Reproductive Rights Challenges

Thelma Hamilton Campus Defeats Satellite Academy for Alternative "A" Title

Thelma Hamilton Campus defeats Arturo A. Schomburg Satellite Academy for the 2010-2011 Boys PSAL Alternative High School "A" City Championship. The article is written by Joseph Staszewski who covers High School Sports for New York Post.

Confidence is something Kevin Charles never lacks.

“I felt confidence, a lot of confidence in my jump shot -- every time we play I have confidence in my jump shot,” the Thelma Hamilton senior guard said.

Charles connected on four first-quarter 3-pointers. He then went quiet for nearly three periods, but his conviction never wavered. The Jets had defending champion Satellite Academy on the ropes when Charles delivered a dagger trey that helped his team build an eight-point lead with a little more than three minutes left to play.

“I knew I was going to knock it down,” Charles said. “When I have the ball in my hands I don’t feel like I’m going to miss.”

Black History Month Timeline

Black History Month is a month that has more value than the days the month of February contains. Black History Month is a month where the African-American struggle and sacrifice is put into the spotlight. As I was searching through the World Wide Web, I came across some interesting Black History Facts. Let's enlighten ourselves. Here are some:

Timeline of Events in

African American History

1619

August 20. Twenty Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship. They were the first blacks to be forcibly settled as involuntary laborers in the North American British Colonies.

1641

Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery by statute.

1663

September 13. The first documented attempt at a rebellion by slaves took place in Gloucester County, Virginia.

1664

Maryland was the first state to try to discourage by law the marriage of white women to black men.