In Like a Lion...

March in my house came in like a lion, and then settled in as the king of the jungle.  Work was insane, with overnight trips, long days, stressful under the microscope-type meetings, and a very unpleasant layoff cloud over the whole scene.  Home was even more insane, as my husband started a new job that required 14 hour days, usually starting at 2 or 3 am.  On Saturdays, if we were lucky, we got to see each other over shared dishwashing and laundry.  It got to the point where the little one would look from me, to my husband, and back again, as if she were amazed that we were both in the same place at the same time.  My laptop computer died, and with it any updates to this blog.  And then, in the last days of this horrid month, while I was hundreds of miles away, my husband broke his hand AND my daughter mysteriously stopped walking.  Fun times.    

April is shaping up to be a much better month, despite the fact that the atmosphere at work won’t be getting any better (more on that later).  About an hour before I left work to take the little one to the doctor, she decided that life was better when you could run and jump- and she was miraculously cured.   I still took her to the doctor, who declared that the little one probably had hurt her leg at some point and then became ultra-cautious about using it again.  The husband will be having hand surgery in the next couple of weeks.  I am grateful that his injury was not more serious and he is embarrassed that he is not as quick and agile as he used to be.  And, I am not sure what I did to deserve this, but he presented me this morning with the Swatch Watch I had in high school!  Such a sweet gift.  No matter what is going on in life, my husband makes me feel special. 

We are also celebrating the little one’s 2^nd birthday this month!  I look at her every day, and marvel at how much she has grown.  She is totally brilliant- she knows her numbers and most of her letters.  She also reacts to Elmo like those love-crazed girls fainting over the Beatles.  What is it about that little red high-pitched voice monster that makes the kiddies go so wild?  Whoever did the market research that produced him is a very rich person.   We are having the birthday at La Table Exquise , which if you didn’t know, rents out their space for events and provides catering for very reasonable prices.  For our family events, this is a life saver, because our 2 bedroom apartment can barely hold ten people. 

Despite the seemingly better attitude of the month of April, one situation that won’t be getting better anytime soon is work.  I work in the public sector, and we are continually being asked to do more with less.  The next few months will be extremely stressful, as we are facing a reduced state budget, as well as a reduction in manpower.  What really stinks is that these budget cuts are affecting both my work and neighborhood.   Many services that our neighborhood has come to rely on will be reduced or cut altogether.  In February, readers of this blog recommended that parents looking for a playgroup could attend a story hour at Macon Library on Mondays.  Unfortunately, it seems that this story hour will be discontinued due to budget cuts.  It seems that unless the City can be convinced otherwise, the Macon Library will be closing on Mondays.  Fellow parents on the yahoo groups Stuyvesant Heights Parents and BedStuy Kids have been discussing how to save the story hour.  There is an online petition that residents can fill out to protest the cuts to library services at http://bpl.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/speakup/. Please fill it out, and let our elected officials know how what may seem to be a small program would affect the quality of life for you and your little ones.  Perhaps we can all work together in April and the coming months to seek out other areas where we can mitigate the effects of these budget cuts in Bed Stuy.  I have a couple of areas in mind….watch for more frequent postings this month as I get back into my groove with the new computer.

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties...Please Stay Tuned

My laptop has officially given up the ghost, gone to a better place, entered the eternal reboot.....died.

I do have an app on my phone that allows me to post to the blog, but it is extremely tedious and annoying to do so.
That means that at least for the next few weeks, I will probably only be able to post on Saturdays :(.  The negotiation for access to my husband's computer should be interesting....

I will have a new post this Saturday...see you then!

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining OR How You Can Overthrow the Supermarket in the name of Community!

Cloud:  Anyone who had lived in any part of New York City that has been called "transitional", or the 'hood understands that there is a definite lack of good food options.  In fact, Bedford Stuyvesant has been labeled a "food desert" by the United Stated Department of Agriculture.  But now it seems lack of options is not the only problem.  People who can least afford it may be being overcharged for the food they can get.
According to an article in the New York Post, grocery stores in Brooklyn have been fined for "a slew of consumer violations, including overcharging, faulty scales and failing to properly mark merchandise".  Unfortunately for the residents of Bedford Stuyvesant, the Fulton Super Foodtown in Restoration Plaza is one of the most fined grocery stores in New York City.  The supermarket ranked twelve on the list of the 25 most fined supermarkets for consumer violations, with $3,850 in fines for the period between June 2009 and June 2010.

Bedford Stuyvesant residents literally cannot afford supermarkets that have such a disregard for their community.  Based on my own experiences with supermarkets in the Bronx and now in Brooklyn, I believe that supermarkets in poor or working class neighborhoods sell customers produce that spoils quicker.  My husband and I decided while living in the Bronx that we would only buy dry goods that were on sale in the local supermarket, and we traveled outside the neighborhood for meat and produce.  But now it seems that these supermarkets are taking advantage of people who cannot travel outside the neighborhood and comparison shop, like senior citizens or people on fixed incomes.  Disgusting.

Silver Lining:  The supermarket chains may not care, but our residents do!  One of the most exciting parts about living in Brooklyn is the current vibe centered on local food source development.  We have options beyond the supermarkets that are healthier and less expensive:

• Bed Stuy Farm Share  From their website: "The Bed-Stuy Farm Share delivers fresh vegetables, fruit, and eggs from local farmers straight to Bed-Stuy once a week for 22 weeks out of the year, starting in June".
• Greene Hill Food Coop  From their website: "We are a food co-operative based in the vicinity of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed Stuy and Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Our mission is to provide fresh, nutritious food at affordable prices. We are a 100% working co-op – all members contribute several hours of work each month. In return, we build a strong sense of community, and enjoy prices which are significantly lower than for-profit grocery stores".
• Hattie Carthan Community Market  From their website:  "The Hattie Carthan Community Farmers Market is a volunteer based and led community revitalization project in Central Brooklyn NYC . Within the last six years alone, our garden has expanded its food security/environmental justice programming in order to advance community resilience to the issues of food insecurity and health disparities evident in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood by adding nutrition awareness and food security workshops, wellbeing workshops, intergenerational community councils, an international food and film festival which attracted well over three hundred community residents last year and cooking demonstrations with youth and senior populations". 

I am really excited about these options!  The husband and I are going to save our gas money and get involved with these wonderful organizations.  The best part is, I will feel confident that I am paying the right price for great food.

Do you have any great neighborhood food resources?  Leave a comment, and we can build a list.

Park Your Car 15 feet from the hydrant OR pay $300 to the City of New York!

I plan to post again today, but in the interest of providing a community service:  Make sure that you park your car 15 feet away from the hydrant!

This is damn near impossible to do in our neighborhood, but you need to make the effort.  My husband and I have been routinely parking between 7 and 15 feet away from the hydrant on our block for the six months, with no issues.  Yesterday, we woke up and no car.....it had been towed!  Four hours and $300 later, we have our car back.

Obviously, rules are rules....I am not posting this to argue whether 15 feet is necessary.  Fire trucks need access, end of story.  I just want to make sure no one gets caught like us.

Things that keep me up at night: The Slippery Slopes of Parenting

Can't sleep?  It could be as a result of the double espresso you downed at 5pm to get energy for playing with the little one after a long day at work.   OR it could be that as an aware Brooklyn parent, there are a lot of things on your mind.  About once a week, I am going to write about things that keep me up at night as a working parent in Bedford Stuyvesant.  Why not share the insomnia?  Here is my first post in the "Things that Keep Me up at Night" series.

The Slippery Slopes of Parenting

The list of things to worry about as a parent is ever-expanding.  For example, take the issue of preschool.  How can you make sure your tot is getting socialized in time for preschool?  How can you make sure that you choose the best preschool?  How are you going to afford the high cost of preschool? How can you make sure that your little one even has a space in any preschool, since you poo-pooed the idea of starting the process before she was even born? 

Welcome to a Slippery Slope of parenting.  No one told me about the Slippery Slope phenomena when they were giving me new parent advice.  The term "slippery slope" is most commonly used to refer to things like losses in personal freedom, or an increase in military size.  The idea being that once you give a little on either of these things, you will have in fact started your fast descent into Really Bad Stuff. 

There are two types of Slippery Slopes in parenthood.  The first type refers to the seemingly harmless thought that pops into your head regarding some future plan that you have for your little one...that suddenly puts you into a tailspin (see preschool example above) downward towards Stressville.  We'll call this the "Slippery Slope to Parent Paranoia".  The second type refers to an action that you take with your little one, a mostly unconscious decision to allow a certain behavior- and six months later, you are pulling out your hair trying to break a bad habit in your child that you created.  We'll call this the "It's Your Fault that Sweet Baby is Becoming Demon Spawn Slippery Slope".

Probably the worst part of either of these two types of parenting "slopes" is the fact that they require constant vigilance on the part of the parent...and this is very tiresome.  As you may have guessed, I have tangoed with both types of slope this week, and I am not sure where I stand on either at the moment.  On the "Slippery Slope to Parent Paranoia", I have the benefit of real fatigue and lack of time.  It's hard to obsess endlessly when you can't keep your eyes open past 9pm.  And really, who has the time to have a nervous breakdown?  The constant vigilance comes in making sure that I remind myself what really matters.  I know that at the end of the day all my daughter cares about is whether we had fun today, and whether her mommy and daddy give her equal numbers of hugs and kisses.  95% of the time, I can talk myself down from the ledge.  And even the other 5% of the time, I never jump.

The real biatch is the "It's Your Fault that Sweet Baby is Becoming Demon Spawn" Slippery Slope.  This one is the gift that keeps on giving.  Equal parts fatigue, guilt, contradictory parenting advice, and just plain confusion mix to create a lethal cocktail that has you drawing lines in the sand one moment, and throwing rules out the window the next.  And it's about a 50/50 chance that your parenting decisions will either have no consequence, or consequences that are far reaching.  Right now, my sweet baby is a Terrible Two.  Like clockwork, about 20 minutes after I enter the door from work, she throws an enormous temper tantrum- never ever about the same thing.  I have searched the Internet high and low for solutions and talked to my parents and in-laws.  But two facts remain: 1) I don't want her to think this behavior is acceptable, and 2) I am really, really tired after work, and I don't feel like fighting her.  This is where the constant vigilance comes in.  I have to be ready to enforce the ground rules when I come home from work.  95% of the time, I can rise to the occasion.  But the other 5%? 

Hopefully a 95% quality investment yields OK results with both of these slippery slopes.  But as you may have figured out, it is the other 5% that keeps me up at night.

Can't think of anything but those DONUTS!

Good evening!  It's Sunday night, and everything is alright.  I just came from a  friend's baby shower, and once again, I feel like Brooklyn and Bedford Stuyvesant are home to some of the most genuine and welcoming people on earth.  I don't think that is an overstatement either.  And it was great to celebrate a new neighbor :)

On the food front, the New York Times cited Dough as one of a crop of new donut shops around the city.  The pictures in this article make me drool, and the little one looked over my shoulder as I read and said "yummy in my tummy!"- her idea of a ringing endorsement.   They have NUTELLA-FILLED DONUTS!  If you look at the banner on my blog, you will see that my blog is supposed to be about parenting, food and community engagement.  The idea was to take the little one, and get a read on which restaraunts in the neighborhood are kid-friendly AND have great food.  The weather has severely cramped my ability to get out with the little one and start this portion of the blog.  But starting next week, I will start my kid-reviews of the local eateries.  If there are particular restaurants that you would like to know about, please let me know in the comments. 

Sung Bin Park over at Bed Stuy Patch has a great article on the search for daycare.  Ms. Park discusses her process for finding daycare for her child.  She says that although she did a lot of research, her best information came from having conversations with parents at the playground. Could we have a virtual playground here, and chat about Bed Stuy's great daycare options?  Where does your child spend most of his/her day?  How did you come to make those arrangements? 


In other news, I was sad to hear that one of our longest shop owners is calling it quits.  Joe Long, owner of Birdel's Records closed his doors on Friday, according to the New York Times.  Birdel's Records was one of a dwindling number of vinyl record stores in New York City, and had been in operation since 1944.  I wish we could landmark businesses.    Are there any long-closed Bedford Stuyvesant stores that you wish could have been frozen in time?

Finally, let's get interactive people.  I started this blog to spark conversations, and to provide a forum for Bed Stuy parents/residents to share their thoughts.  That is why at the end of each little paragraph, I have asked for your thoughts- give'm to me!

People to see, places to go, not enough time!

It's been more than a week since my last post, and I have a lot to write about.  Ideally I would have updated my blog at least twice since last Tuesday- but life has a way of intervening to screw up your plans.  Suffice it to say, the working part of the working mom was extremely busy last week.  And at the end of the week, I had to say enough, and retreat.  More on that later.

Last Wednesday, there was a jam-packed Landmark Preservation Commission meeting at Restoration Plaza, with over 400 residents showing interest in the process for landmarking Bed Stuy.  In what may have been the biggest shocker to me, this meeting was just the beginning of an extremely long and involved process for three out of the four proposed landmark districts.  In order to landmark a neighborhood, the LMC needs to at minimum gauge the support of the community for the effort and create a report on the historical features and significance of the proposed area.  Seems simple, but both of these activities take a long time.  The LMC gauges community support by working with the local community board, and holding several meetings with the residents whose homes will be affected by the landmarking.  More surprising to me was the length of time it will take to create the report that will provide the basis for the LMC's final decision.  Prior to the LMC vote, LMC staff photograph and create a narrative for each building within the proposed district.  And Bed Stuy has a whopping 8,000 buildings that are potentially part of the proposed districts.  Check out this map of the four proposed areas. When a resident asked the LMC Executive Director Kate Daly how long it may take for Bedford Corners, Stuyvesant East, and Stuyvesant North to become landmarked, she replied, "under 60 years", with a smile and then an explanation of the workload associated with cataloguing the buildings of Bed Stuy.  The Stuyvesant Heights extension had already been "calendared" by the LMC, and if all goes according to plan, this district will be landmarked in the next year.  So, clearly Bed Stuy residents will be discussing landmarking for quite a while.  For a complete rundown of the meeting particulars, check out this article in Bed Stuy Patch.

I am really glad that I attended the meeting.  But because we needed some unforseen house repairs done, and the husband began a job with crazy hours, and because the little one (being advanced) has hit the terrible twos hard -  I really couldn't afford to take the time and I ended up playing catch up all week.  But as it so often happens when you have a family and a job and personal interests, this is not the exception, its the rule.  What has really been bugging me lately about this negotiation of time between family, job, and personal interests is that you cannot forsee from week to week how the different portions of your life will interact with each other.  You can be the most organized person in the world, and still not be able to do everything you need to do each week--forget what you want to do. By the way, full disclosure- I am far from the most organized person in the world, so you can imagine how messy my life can get.   I try to mentally give myself a pass on certain things that don't get done on weeks like these.  But the compromising sucks.  How do you all deal with it?  I will tell you what I did- I ran home to my mommy :) and took a break.  I am the luckiest girl in the world to be able to live in Bed Stuy, and have family to visit in rural Virginia.

Finally, some good news to report on the playgroup front.  Thanks to a reader/member of the Stuyvesant Heights Parents Group on Yahoo, it looks like we might be able to have a play group meet at La Table Exquise on Saturday mornings.  I have an appointment to talk with Chef Sebastien tomorrow to talk through the logistics.  I will post the details later this week.

Landmarking = Community Power Tool

What influence does the landmark status of a neighborhood have on the gentrification of a neighborhood? Well, any involved restoration project needs a power tool.   And in my opinion, landmark status is the ultimate power tool that Bed Stuy residents can use to manage the effects of gentrification and preserve community history.

Gentrification is a hot button issue in our borough.  Real estate values in previously undesireable areas continue to rise, and longtime residents and businesses are forced to look for homes elsewhere.  At the same time, those who can afford to stay are able to enjoy a revitalized neighborhood, usually with an increase in services that encourage residents to stay, invest, and grow. 

Before the recent economic downturn, Bed Stuy was facing some of the consequences of rapid development and gentrification.  During the spring of 2009, when my husband and I were just beginning to look at apartments in Bed Stuy, one developer wanted $500,000 for a less than 1,000 square foot apartment on Dekalb and Throop.  Seemed like every week, new condos were taking the place of abandoned lots and new cafes were opening faster than you could sample their authentic Brooklyn fare.  And the architecture of these new developments?  Not exactly in keeping with the Beaux Arts tradition of the brownstowns Bed Stuy has always been known for, that is for sure. 

Then the bottom fell out of the market.  Within about two months of when we saw the half a million dollar condo, developers were defaulting on loans and  working with local politicians to fill hundreds of completely empty units at much lower prices.  Now, Bed Stuy has one of the highest foreclosure rates in New York. 

Recovery has started in the last six months.  However, developers are not ripping down and building up with same gusto as before.  And now, with the possibility of landmark status, there is a real chance that Bedford Stuyvesant residents will be able to manage the speed and quality of growth in the neighborhood. 

Tomorrow at Restoration Plaza, at 6pm, the New York Landmark Preservation Commission will host a community information meeting on the possible landmarking of four historic districts within Bedford Stuyvesant.  Those four districts are Bedford Corners, The Stuyvesant Heights extension, Stuyvesant East, and Stuyvesant North.  Representatives from the LPC have stated that Bed Stuy resident attendance at this meeting, more than any petition or postcard campaign, will provide evidence of community support of the landmarking effort. 

Life is busy, and this week in particular at our house is a killer.  But I am asking the babysitter to stay late, because Bed Stuy has become my home in the last year as no other placed in NYC has and I want to show the love. I don't want gentrification to be a foregone conclusion, since we are bordered by Park Slope, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, and Williamsburg.  We have a second chance to keep our neighborhood reflective of its storied history, instead of a bunch of soulless brick and mortar boxes.  As active Bed Stuy residents, we can manage the revitalization of our neighborhood, actively ensuring that new and old residents alike can enjoy the benefits of gentrification.   Come join me. 

Show BIG LOVE for Bed Stuy & Bed Stuy Playgroup BONANZA!

Ok, If you haven't already heard it elsewhere (Bed Stuy Blog, Bed Stuy Patch), the 16th, not Valentine's Day is the day you need to show some love for your neighborhood.  The Landmark Commission Meeting is on Wednesday, February 16th, at 6pm, at Restoration Plaza. 

I will be there, will you?  What are you hoping to hear?  What questions do you want answered? Tommorrow, I will give you a few of mine. If you can't be there, make sure to click here for a way you can show your support without attending the meeting.  

Also, I clearly was looking in all the wrong places for play groups in our nabe.  The response to my question was fabulous, and I really started to feel like isolation was not an option with the friendly comments I recieved.  Just to summarize, so newcomers won't have to read through the comments:

• On Tuesday at the Marcy Library (at Dekalb and Nostrand) there is a storytime at 2pm, and parents and kids hang out afterwards and play.
• On Monday,  Macon library has a story hour at 10:30am.
• The Stuyvesant Heights Parents Association organizes play groups.
• Several moms on Putnam want to organize a playgroup! More to come on a later post.  I am going to investigate some meeting places, and let you all know. 

Thanks to all who wrote in!  All those comments in my first week in the blogosphere really made me excited :)

Going out!

We're steppin' out.   My husband and I are going to a romantic Valentine's event at La Table Exquise, and I have been looking forward to it for a few weeks.   I am not going to lie.... most of my excitement comes from the fact that my sweet beautiful child that I love with all my heart will not be in attendance.  And no matter how many experts say that regular time alone with your spouse is crucial to a happy marriage, I still feel guilty being excited about time away from her.

But this post is not about that guilt really.  That subject has been written about...and I suspect that my feelings (both the guilt and the excitement) are shared by many. No, this post is about finding a babysitter.  Because when you get beyond the guilt, you still want to go out.

The little one will for the first time have a babysitter that is not related to her.  This happened by chance, but the idea of having a plan B for when grandparents can't make it has been on my mind for awhile.

I don't know if you've noticed, but the world has changed a lot since we were the kiddies.  When I was a kid, my parents had a steady stream of dependable, if goofy, teenagers to watch the four of us.  Everyone in the neighborhood knew each other, and when you hired the local teenager, you knew the parent was just a phone call away.

My husband's mother, who grew up in NYC had a different but equally simple solution for finding someone to watch the kids.  She just called a family member who lived on the same street.  And when the family member needed to go someplace,  my mother-in-law would watch their kids.

Now life is different, or at least appears different.  We don't have a family member that lives on the block, and we don't know any of the teenagers (or their parents) on our block.  Every week, parents hear stories of bad babysitters.  Even our previously relaxed parents wondered how we could trust a "total stranger" to watch the little one.  So, now to feel like a responsible parent, modern parents feel the need to use a referral service that screens the sitters. 

My husband and I have decided this isn't necessary for us.  Before we even started to explore the referral services, we met our new babysitter by chance.  We had a chance to see her act responsibly, we met her mother, and we are friends with the gentleman she works for part time.  The little one loves her...so we are going out, and trusting this young woman. 

How do you all find babysitters? I might be able to share mine...I'll let you know :) 

Identity Crisis

I am having an identity crisis.

But this is ok, because so is everyone else.   Just start reading any article about parenting, politics, or Brooklyn for that matter, and this will become readily apparent.  To paint it in broad strokes, humanity is feeling crappy about not knowing which neat little category it belongs in.  We feel crappy about it, because if we could just put ourselves in one little box, we would be clear about what we should do, everyday.

For example, I have been asking myself  "what kind of mom am I?"  Am I a tiger mom or a mom who is devoted to attachment parenting?  Answering yes to one of these would allow me to feel confident about how I deal with the little one. There is a distinct way I should "be" if I am a tiger mom.  Likewise if I am an attached parent.  If I am a little bit of both....well, you see how life gets confusing.

This sort of angst happens with communities as well.  Bedford Stuyvesant is a perfect example at the moment.  Right now, our community as a whole does not fit into any clear category.  We are all at once a transitional area, a neighborhood threatened by gentrification, and a neighborhood excited by the prospect of landmark status.   Although I was not able to attend the Community Board 3 meeting this week (Thanks Bed Stuy Patch for the great coverage!),  it appears the most controversial portion of the evening was an update on a new pedestrian mall planned for Fulton and Marcy.  Although the mall would "showcase local performances, include some trees and other greenery, a possible statue and an art installation", there were many residents at the meeting who wondered why more wasn't being done to bring commerce into that area, and therefore increasing job opportunities.   Identity crisis.

Although the word "crisis" has negative conotations, the reality is that this sort of "crisis" helps us to gain a better understanding of who we are.  We figure out what we really want, what is important, and use that to create our own unique little category. 

When I started this blog, I wasn't sure what my blog's identity would be... would I focus on parenting and life as a working mom?  Would I use the blog as a platform for raising awareness about Bed Stuy activities, issues and people?  Well, I think I have decided that this blog will focus on...both.  Focusing on one would be easy, but I have stuff to say about both.

So, send me your community events, announcements, whatever you think our fair residents should know about.  I commit to posting them when I get them.  And about once a week, expect an entry about raising a little one in Bed Stuy.  Finally, I love to read....so some entries will be reflections on what I have read this week about parenting or Bed Stuy, and links to all the good stuff.  It's going to be messy, but I think it will be interesting!

Brunch at La Table Exquise

Holy deliciousness Batman!  The little one has already eaten her weight in chocolate croissants :)

Bed Stuy Play Group?

Sometimes, watching Baby Einstein or playing with blocks gets old.  Sometimes, you just wanna do something different, you know... shake it up a bit.  This kind of bleh feelng can only be solved by one thing....a playgroup. 

I used to really revolt against the idea of a playgroup.  It seemed so forced, so planned- the opposite of fun.  Unless you have a group of friends with children who live in your neighborhood,  as a parent you have to go make friends with perfect strangers so your kids can make friends.  Don't get me wrong, its totally worth it, but as an introvert of sorts, its always been a struggle for me to reach out like this.

Anyway, my stance on playgroups has changed.  Big time.  Having an active two year old during one of the snowiest winters in years will change how you view things.  But now that I have become a willing participant, there do not seem to be any groups to participate in!  I have spent the last two days looking for playgroups near us, to no avail.  Sure, there are groups in Ft. Greene or Clinton Hill, and apparently there is a new playgroup at Still Hip on Grand Avenue.  But there do not appear to be any groups for Bed Stuy central.

I must be mistaken.  And if I am not mistaken, why don't we have any play groups in Bed Stuy? 

Set me straight or feel free to answer this question from the perspective of a parent, a community member, or an amateur anthropologist. I just need a place to take the child, and soon.

On Saturday, everything is possible!

I am sure that many working parents can relate to this feeling.  The work week is finished, you and your family have had a nice restorative sleep (hopefully), and its 8am on Saturday morning and the whole weekend is stretching out ahead of you.  Anything is possible at this moment.  You CAN clean the house.  You CAN take your child to the Brooklyn Children's Museum.  You CAN do all of the tasks that you have promised yourself that you would do all week, but never got around to doing.  You CAN write that blog post.  Everything is possible at this moment.

So let's ride this feeling as long as it lasts (which won't be long), and take a look at all the great things you could do today:

• The Brooklyn Children's Museum (http://www.brooklynkids.org/) has several interesting events this weekend.  Blooming Babies: The Power of Love, explores how different cultures around the world express love.  The museum is also celebrating the Year of the Rabbit with events exploring Chinese New Year.  Admission is $7.50
•  I know you've heard about the State of the Union, but how about the State of the Borough?  Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz put on quite a show this year, while at the same time outlining his strategic plan for our fair borough.  Read the address here: http://www.brooklyn-usa.org/Pages/State_of_the_Borough/stateoftheborough.htm , and see a piece of the action and the reaction here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWENczPbAgg

Finally, since this morning's post is about possiblities, what do you think is possible for Bedford Stuyvesant in 2011?  Share your hopes and dreams for the nabe in the comments below, and let's get this conversation started!

My favorite place: La Table Exquise

Without question, the food that Chef Sebastien makes in his shop, La Table Exquise, is amazing and addictive.  But the real reason I love the shop is that every time I go into the shop, I meet new people with amazing talents.  I have had the pleasure of meeting graphic artists, photographers, poets, academic intellectuals, painters, and musicians...all while picking up my french pastry fix.  And since this shop has really been my home away from home on the weekends (the child cries for the baguettes), I will be promoting them every chance I get.

Are you looking for a delicious and romantic way to begin your Valentine’s Day weekend? La Table Exquise is hosting a sophisticated Valentine Dessert Tasting on Saturday, February 12th, from 7pm to 10pm, at 370 Tompkins Avenue. Seats for this exclusive event are $45 per person, and include champagne and a full menu of sweet desserts. Reservations can be made at La Table Exquise or by calling (347) 663-6066. Seats are limited for this intimate event, and the guest list will be closed on February 12th, so make your reservations now!

Guests attending the Dessert Tasting will not only enjoy delicious food and a fabulous atmosphere, they will be supporting a small business that has experienced a decline in business during the extremely snowy winter.  In January, concerned community members hosted a very successful fundraiser for the shop, raising over $1,000 to help the shop stay open.  The owners of La Table Exquise are hoping that The Valentine Dessert Tasting, as well as an upcoming events to be held at the end of February, will provide the funds needed to keep the shop in operation.   

Since La Table Exquise opened its doors in 2009, Chef Sebastien has been committed to providing the Bed Stuy community with fresh, sugar-free French pastry.   Chef Sebastien chose to open La Table in Bed Stuy in part because he saw the lack of fresh food options available to the community.  Labeled by the United States Department of Agriculture as a “food desert”, and with one of the highest rates of diabetes in the city, Bedford Stuyvesant was greatly in need of a local business with healthy treats as its focus.  Through a special process using only the freshest fruit, Chef Sebastien is able to create sugar-free pastries that satisfy any sweet tooth.  La Table Exquise offers customers authentic French pastries, quiches, savory sandwiches, baguettes, and a wide selection of teas and coffees shipped directly from Paris.

So support your local business, and stop buy the shop to reserve your seat for the Valentine Dessert Tasting!

1st Post

About a year and a half ago, I moved to Bedford Stuyvesant with my husband and young child.  During this time, I have really come to appreciate my new nabe.  Although it must not be news to longtime residents, Bedford Stuyvesant is one of the most interesting neighborhoods in New York City.  Artists, working class people, professionals, students, musicians, new immigrants, old and storied families all live in this huge section of Brooklyn.  As a writer, the gorgeous architecture and history inspires.  As a mother of a young child, the lack of activities and services for children is frustrating.  Finally, as an individual interested in the revitalization of this community, the potential for growth overwhelms me...in a good way.

There are a few blogs that cover Bedford Stuyvesant, and they all do an amazing job.  Bed Stuy Blog is one of my favorites.  My hope is that I can contribute a new perspective- one of a new neighbor, who wants to show off her new nabe, question why certain things are the way they are, and chat about the best and worst of Bed Stuy.  Hope you will join me.