Gentrification is transforming Brooklyn into the “Next Manhattan”, but for many long-time residents the housing boom sparked by urban renewal has become a nightmare.

Produced and Filmed by Michael V’inkin Lee, Sarah Munir, and Vikram Patel.

Brooklyn-based Aereo lets users stream live broadcast channels on iPads, laptops, and iPhones. (Aereo.com)

When Phil Toronto moved into an apartment in the East Village last summer, he tried going without cable television. Eventually, after missing a few Jets games, he caved and ordered a subscription. Then in March Toronto, who is 25 and manages emerging technology at Vayner Media, heard about Aereo, a service that lets New Yorkers watch broadcast television live on some laptops and mobile devices for $12 a month. Toronto knew he had found a great deal.

“I was paying about $80 a month for something I used about twice a week,” he said. “I realized I could spend that money better.”

The entrepreneurs — and the investors — behind Aereo are hoping that the rest of New York realizes that too. Since launching in March, the Brooklyn-based startup lets viewers watch television on a web browser. They only have access, however, to the basic broadcast channels – the same ones they’d get if they owned a television set and a pair of rabbit ear antennas. In other words, no HBO, no Showtime, no AMC. And the potential to grab cord-cutters, like Toronto, is strong. According to the Nielsen Company, the number of families that don’t own a cable subscription in the past year has risen by more than 22 percent.

An array of antennaes that Aereo assigns to users (Aereo.com)

“They don’t have an antennae that they beam out to everyone,” explains John Bergmayer, an attorney who works for Public Knowledge, a group that advocates for digital rights and might write a brief on Aereo’s behalf. “Instead, each individual person essentially gets their own antennae.”

Over pizza and beers at Columbia University last month, executives at the company explained to business students that the device might change the way consumers think about television. As David Cann, the vice president of operations, put it: “They’re not thinking on a park bench in Central Park, I can watch ‘The Master’s’ right now.”

But more Americans are watching television programs later than they air, using DVRs. Almost 106 million did so in the last quarter of 2011, according to the Nielsen Company, up from 7 percent from a year ago. So the company’s main selling point – watch television live, wherever you are – may not be that big of a draw.

“Consumers want their shows on all their devices at any time,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst for Forrester Research. “But not necessarily in real time.”

Aereo obviously hopes that they will. “We saw the wide-scale adoption of internet-connected devices, the growth in bandwidth speed, and the growth in consumer consumption in video,” said Nick Sallon, director of business development. “It was really a massive opportunity.” And they based the company in New York, he added, because New Yorkers often adopt new technology earlier than the rest of the country. Toronto, who works in the media industry, said that ten of his friends have already signed up for a free 90-day trial, which ends soon, though he plans to re-new it.

But not everyone is enthralled with the new idea. In fact, most of the major broadcast networks filed lawsuits against the startup, claiming copyright infringement, after investors announced plans to launch Aereo in March — the most prominent is Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp.

“This case is not about stifling new video distribution technologies, but about stopping a company from violating our copyrights and redistributing our television programming without permission or compensation,” said some of the broadcasters in a statement.

Bergmayer thinks that Aereo should prevail under the law. “They’re not giving people access to anything they don’t have a right to,” he says. “You can already watch all of this stuff, if you have a good enough antennae, for free.”

In the short term, Bergmayer says, Aereo is hardly a threat to the broadcast networks’ bottom line. “If they’re still dependent on ads as their primary revenue stream, then what threat is Aereo at all?” he asks. “All it’s doing is increasing the number of viewers.”

Though the company won’t reveal how many members it has, when asked about its growth Aereo’s Sallon described it as, “prolific,” though he chuckled after. But Ettman, the research analyst, is more skeptical. “The segment of consumers that still watches live television tends to be an older demographic,” she says. “It is not very convenient to have to tune in at a very specific time in consumer’s busy lives.”

But when must-see cable TV airs, — this year on Sunday nights — Aereo members are at a disadvantage since a limited number of channels are offered. When the fifth season of AMC’s “Mad Men” premiered in March, for example, Toronto had to head over to a friend’s house to catch up.

For the most part, “Aereo fit my bill,” he says. But on occasion, he concedes, “It’s a bit of a gamble.”

We hear a lot about the New Brooklyn these days, about the great swaths of the borough that are enjoying the fruits of gentrification. We love that Brooklyn. But in this special package we focus on stubborn problems that are not so new and receive little attention, on quiet human dramas in less economically vibrant parts of the borough. A woman trying to reconnect with her children after prison; another brave woman’s battle with a form of breast cancer that disproportionately affects African-Americans; a blue-collar day care center struggling to keep the doors open; an employer sweating bullets about whether or not to hire; homeowners wasting endless days and years in foreclosure hearings; cops and citizens wresting with a plague of guns. Welcome to Brooklyn Under the Radar.

Source: New York Police
Department

The Guns of Brooklyn

by Frank Runyeon, May 4

Law enforcement recovered 1,469 guns in Brooklyn, a number that is proportionally higher than in any other borough, in 2011, according to the New York Police Department…

Read more »

Source: Women in Prison
Project

Resurrection: A Mother in Prison, and Out

by Khadijah Carter, May 4

There were almost 80,000 children with a parent in New York prisons, including 5,240 with an incarcerated mother, in 2009, according to reports by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York…

Read more »

Source: Realty Trac

The Three-Year Wait: Surviving Foreclosure in Brooklyn

by Gillian Mohney, May 4

The timeline for a New York foreclosure case opened in the fourth quarter of 2011 is an estimated 1,019 days, according to Realty Trac…

Read more »

Source: New York State
Department of Health

A Positive Woman With Triple Negative Cancer

by Cristabelle Tumola, May 4

The average annual breast cancer rate for African-American women living in Brooklyn was 28.5 per 1,000, higher than any other borough, from 2004 to 2008…

Read more »

Source: Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

A Job Grows in Brooklyn: How One Employer Decided to Hire

by Vikram Patel, May 4

Brooklyn added more than 50,000 jobs, including more than 9,300 in the food service industry, between 2000 and 2010, according to a report from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce…

Read more »

Source: National Association
of Child Care Resource
and Referral Agencies

Day Care: A Tale of Two Neighborhoods

by Rebecca Ellis, May 4

New York is the second most expensive state in the nation for childcare, where full-time child care can cost more than $10,847, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) 2010 statistics…

Read more »

Bernard Mc Clain, Stay at home dad, unemployed

In a brownstone building in Brooklyn Lafayette, former dancer Bernard McClain, remote in hand, sways back in forth to a faded 20-year-old recording of himself. With one final twirl, the tape is over and the 54-year old is back in his living room, his ballet shoes replaced by his worn out slippers.

McClain, a former ballet dancer, stopped performing when he was 33, sidelined by an injury and achy joints. . “Eventually your knees, and you body starts to tell you that its time to stop,” he says. “Your body says, “I can’t do this no more.”  To make a living, he became a caterer for Radio City Music Hall, the United Nations and finally, Madison Square Garden, but in 2007 he lost his job in a series of cutbacks. He’s been unemployed ever since and now spends his time caring for his two children, relying on his wife, an obstetrician, for income. It hasn’t been easy for the family, his marriage—or his ego.

McClain’s struggle is a saga experienced by many in this post recession. And according to the latest figures, it’s likely to be experienced by many more. In April, for the first time since 2009, the unemployment rate has risen to 16.62 percent, affecting over 26 million Americans.  Throughout the recession, over 60 percent of jobs lost were male, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

“Everyone is frightened now,” admits. McClain, “As a man I feel the duty of bringing home some of the money, obviously I want to be a father too, but I feel like a failure, having to rely on my wife. Having to wait for her to come home so I can ask for money,” he adds. “Sometimes she will pick up my wallet and put $100 inside so that I can actually do something. I hate it.”

The Mc Clain family

Indeed, with wages at a standstill and child care costs skyrocketing, many families have inverted the original parenting roles, with the father staying at home, like McClain and the wife supporting the family instead of caring for the children.

According to the Census Bureau, 32 percent of fathers whose wives are in the workforce take care of their children one day a week, up from 26 percent in 2002.  The reversal of roles—and the effects of underemployment— sometimes wreaks havoc on families.

“Financially we get by,” he says.  With his wife’s income, luckily, his younger daughter Leila, 8, has been able to participate in tap dancing classes and attend a private prep school across the road while Leo, 9 – a music enthusiast, is learning how to play the guitar. But for McClain, the new reality has been an adjustment to his perception of himself. McClain feels emasculated and powerless by his new position within the family.  “Sometimes my kids will ask me ‘What do you do at home all day?’” – a question that McClain says, he asks himself on a daily basis.

“I spend my days cleaning,” he says. “And when my wife walks home every night, she knows that I will be there and that she doesn’t have to worry about any of that.”

At the same time, however, he feels underappreciated. “She doesn’t miss me,” he says sitting at the kitchen table. “She knows exactly what I do every day, all day, here in the house and she takes me for granted, and that routine is destroying our relationship.”

Indeed, an NPR-Kaiser Family foundation poll of people who had been unemployed or with an insufficient level of work for more than a year, published in November of 2011, concluded that unemployment has highly adverse effects on a marriage. “More than a fifth of all Americans who have been out of work for a year or more report that relationships with intimate partners have changed for the worse,” the study reported. Conversely, divorce rates have slowed down, as couples aren’t capable or willing of supporting the costs of a divorce.

Whether divorce is in the cards or not, McClain cannot say, but his employment situation, he says, has also taken its toll on the couple. “Unemployment is wrecking our marriage,” he concludes. “We are moving around another, instead of moving together. Two tracks in different directions and I have to go back to work for us to find each other again.”

This could prove difficult given that over 21 million jobs would have to be added by 2020 for the economy to return to the 5 percent unemployment rate pre-recession.

McClain’s biggest fear is that this role reversal is permanent,

“It’s complicated because there is a degree of resentment that has also been built-up in me,” McClain says as he polished a bronze figurine of a dancer that sits at the center of the family table.  “I feel like she is the boss, and she is in control of everything. Where do I fit in? Husbands and wives need to have independent lives and come home and talk about their lives together, or what their lives are separately, but together, and we don’t do that anymore.”

With slippers still on his feet, McClain looks, almost wistfully, at the tiny dancer in his hands. “Those days were the happiest of my life,” he says.

Neeno, a 68-year old fishmonger,has been selling fresh fish for a cheap price at the corner of Myrtle Street in Brooklyn for the past 15 years. Even though he loves what he does, his heart yearns to go back to Puerto Rico, from where he originally belongs.

Environmental educators and musicians Nathan Heatherington and Martin Urbach celebrate the Audubon Center’s 10th anniversary– and earth day at the same time — by performing with recycled instruments at the nature center in Prospect Park. 10-20 kids joined with with instruments they made themselves for a performance and a parade after the show. The musicians, who make the Bash the Trash collective, and Audubon Center naturalist Gillian Jackson tells more.

Andre Bellinger, Brownsville resident and longtime friend of Greg "Jocko" Jackson (Khadijah Carter / The Brooklyn Ink)

Greg “Jocko” Jackson, who died of an apparent heart attack earlier this week, was a towering figure in Brownsville and not just because of his stature.   The 6-foot-tall former basketball player, who managed the Brownsville Recreation Center, made such an impact on this community that some considered him the unofficial mayor of Brownsville.

Since 1997, Jackson helped to turn around this once battered low-cost facility into a beacon of light in the midst of one of New York City’s most crime-infested areas.

Jackson, 60, played for the Phoenix Suns and the NY Knicks from 1974-1975, but soon realized that his true passion was to help people back on his home-court in Brownsville. “I actually quit,” he told The Brooklyn Ink last March. “I was built for what I do now, to help.”

Wall of Remembrance for Greg Jackson outside the Brownsville Recreational Center (Khadijah Carter / The Brooklyn Ink)

And from the reaction of the community to his sudden death, it’s clear that he did just that. Mourners throughout the day on Thursday left their condolences and remembrances under a smiling photograph of Jackson on a large sheet of paper that covered one of the center’s brick walls.

“He was just one of the best, pure-hearted human beings I ever met in my life,” said Andre Bellinger, 51, a senior volunteer at the center, who has known Jackson for over 30 years.  He credits Jackson with helping him to become a better person.

“He taught me how to be a professional with everything. He taught me how to get along with people. He taught me how to be family-oriented,” he said, still shaken by the news of his mentor’s death.  He had just seen Jackson the night before, he said, and they’d been laughing and talking.

Since Jackson grew up in Brownsville surrounded by drugs and crime, he understood why its image was so troubled.  But he was determined to use his center as a catalyst for change. He helped to instill pride throughout the center by sprucing up the grim décor with vibrant colored murals painted on the walls and displaying posters of influential figures throughout the facility. And the center soon became a haven for many in the community, because it offered various sports activities, afterschool programs, and a workout facility.

Jackson, was soft-spoken and had a calm demeanor, but he demanded that anyone who attended the center would have to demonstrate respect for themselves and for others.  “All that cursing, all that arguing. In here, you can’t do that stuff,” he told The Brooklyn Ink in March, shaking his head.

The center—and Jackson— became such a positive influence on the community that Jackson became a prominent figure with connections to many of the area’s politicians, including Congressman Ed Towns (D-10^th District).

Jackson often said that he owed his second chance in life to Congressman Towns, his basketball coach when he was in high school. Senator Towns, Jackson told The Brooklyn Ink, was appalled that the school’s guidance counselor advised Jackson to drop out of school in 1967.   The congressman interceded, Jackson said in March, reviewed Jackson’s grades and with the permission of Jackson’s mother sent the teen to live with his parents in Chadburn, North Carolina to finish high school.  Jackson excelled academically and went on to Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. and then was drafted to the NBA in 1974.  In March, Jackson said he owed Towns for saving his life and encouraging him to help others.

Congressman Towns spoke fondly of Jackson and says that he was truly a member of his family.  “My mother adored him,” Towns said in a phone interview.  “His death was a big loss for our family.”

Congressman Towns said that Jackson’s death will create a void in the entire borough of Brooklyn because he helped so many people by inspiring them to go to college and helping them find the resources they needed.  “ He will be greatly missed because of his way of encouraging people,” he said.

Those he helped, like Andre Bellinger, are still in shock and in mourning about the loss of their beloved leader.  But they are determined to continue his legacy.

“Everything is going to go on like he was out there right now. Basically, it’s like he’s on vacation.  We’re still going to carry on,” said Bellinger.

Greg Jackson leaves behind his wife, Carmen, and his nine children.

A public memorial will be held on Monday, May 7 – Tabernacle Baptist Church, 580 Sackman Avenue, 3-8 p.m.; The public funeral will take place on Tuesday, May 8 – Christian Cultural Center, 12020 Flatlands Avenue, 9 a.m. to noon

Another story about Jackson by the Brooklyn Ink: “Jocko” Keeps a Hoops Tradition Going in Brownsville (August 2011)

Walter Johnson, a Vietnam War veteran, and frequent patron of O'Connor's, a bar in Park Slope, holds a photo of himself in uniform. Scott Eidler/The Brooklyn Ink

Toward the back of a Park Slope watering hole, patron Walter Johnson alternates between three drinks: an apple cider, a whiskey and a glass of water, for good measure. He and the bartender reminisce about the old days, just five years ago, when it seemed like a betting parlor stood on every street corner.

“When I go home tonight, I want to see if there’s a place where I can play,” Johnson, 67, said. The Kentucky Derby, the first horse race in the Triple Crown series, is this weekend. “Forget about the websites, with the credit cards.”

Much more than Johnson’s gambling is changing around O’Connor’s, the bar located on 5th Avenue near the Barclays Center, where the Nets will play in September. When the season starts, the arena is expected to draw thousands of sports spectators to Park Slope and alter the dynamic of many of the neighborhood spots.

The pub, now a popular stop for commuters heading home to Long Island and the construction workers who built the arena, is poised to pick up the pre- and postgame crowd come basketball season. And the bar, around since the 1930s, is already preparing for the new business.

Construction workers are building up, developing a second level where patrons can drink outside — “a Taj Mahal,” as Johnson puts it. The contrast between the new and the old is stark. A two-tiered beige terrace, with large glass windows now sits atop a barren, black structure.

The bartender, Chris Jones, 57, hopes that the renovations, which are aimed at modernizing the bar, will be completed before the Nets’ season opener. But Johnson, who said he doesn’t go to O’Connor’s that often anymore – “just two to three days a week,” he said – knows what that means. The prices, he suspects, will rise, so he’ll have to find a new neighborhood hangout. Or stay home.

A veteran of the Vietnam War, Johnson wears a commemorative hat, a dog tag around his neck and, just in case anyone doesn’t believe him, he carries his separation papers with him in a tote. Though he lives in public housing in Red Hook, he doesn’t frequent the bars there. He’s lived in that neighborhood for more than 60 years, back when it was crime-ridden and full of “dope heads.” But that’s all changed. Brownstones replaced framed houses, and tenements are now co-ops.

“In the long run, how many people get displaced?” he wonders. “How many people, how many mom-and-pop stores are lost?”

Johnson’s days at O’Connor’s, if prices rise, may be numbered. The same goes for the construction crews, who over the past few years became regulars.
“I’m going to miss my guys who put this place up,” the bartender Jones said, referring to the arena.

But Jones is confident the bar will keep up. “Things evolve,” he said. “That’s all right. I have no control, whatever it is, it is.”

Late in the afternoon on a recent Thursday, two men sat down a few seats away from Johnson. One carried an orange tape measure with him. They were local construction workers. A few baseball games played on television screens in the background.

These are the men Jones fears he’ll lose. “I’m going to miss the working crowd,” he said. “I’ve done the American Express crowd. I like the guy who works real hard all day and has a couple of beers.”

When Johnson walked downstairs to use the bathroom, Jones started to chat with the workers while filling up pitchers of ice, one by one.

After a few minutes, the men got up from their stools. They thanked Jones, paid him, and then added a few extra bucks. “Buy a drink for Walter,” one of the workers said, referring to their drinking buddy Johnson, before heading for the door.

Brooklynite Dan O'Connor, right, discusses his campaign for Congress with Matthew McEnerney, a member of his staff. (Jessica Hartogs/The Brooklyn Ink)

Dan O’Connor of Brooklyn is hoping to win over fellow New Yorkers with his enthusiasm as he campaigns for Congress.

“I think I have a lot of energy as a young guy,” O’Connor, 33, said, at a recent interview in his modest office in the heart of Chinatown.

Standing over six feet tall, he’s vying for the Democratic nomination for the congressional seat representing District 7, which includes Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Boerum Hill, Williamsburg, Park Slope, the Gowanus, Red Hook and Bushwick. It also covers Chinatown in lower Manhattan – and thankfully, O’Connor speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese, languages he picked up while living in China.

“I always wanted to travel and see the world, and I was always very interested in Chinese culture… I guess I always found it mystic, or fascinating, a culture I couldn’t quite grasp, being this far apart from it,” said O’Connor on why he spent six years living in China.

He worked as a consultant for U.S. companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan before returning to New York two-and-a-half years ago right in the middle of the recession.

“I’ve always been a big student of history and of economics, and a student of international relations, but I was not politically active, until recent years when I’ve been really disturbed by out-of-control government, the way corporations dominate our policies in Washington, D.C.,” O’Connor said on why he’s mounted a campaign.

“I think the bailouts were a turning point for me in general,” he explained, referring to the government bailouts of Wall Street.

“I was more of an economist, not a politician,” O’Connor said. In fact, according to his campaign website biography, he predicted the 2008 recession.

So O’Connor, making up in confidence what he lacks in political experience, decided to run for Congress. But campaigning in New York City has not always been easy.

“It’s extremely entrenched as a political system. The establishment tends to help one another. The people who hold office tend to help the people who hold office,” O’Connor said. “They’re scratching each other’s backs a lot, and that definitely makes it more difficult for a non-establishment guy to run.”

Instead, O’Connor’s strategy has been “running around shaking hands with people in the district and talking to them and listening to them,” he said.

The Democratic primary is on June 26, when O’Connor will face off against three other candidates, including the incumbent Nydia Velazquez.

“Not only will I be an outspoken voice,” said O’Connor. “But I think I represent practical solutions to the out-of-control policies in Washington, the lack of accountability.”

O’Connor also strongly supports term limits. He’s pledged to serve only four terms. “I don’t aspire to be a career politician. I think the longer people stay in politics, the more corrupt a lot of them become, and I don’t want that to happen to myself,” he said.

“If I am able to contribute to reviving America and the system in general, I’ll get out of politics,” O’Connor added.

A man shops for Brooklyn Nets merchandise at a Modell's store in Downtown Brooklyn. (Cristabelle Tumola / The Brooklyn Ink)

After the Brooklyn Nets’ logo was officially revealed on April 30, the team’s merchandise went on sale. Everything from t-shirts and jerseys, to hats, basketballs and water bottles are now available on Brooklynnets.com, and the websites and stores of two sports retailers—the NBA Store and Modell’s Sporting Goods.

Though it has only been a few days, basketball and Brooklyn enthusiasts are quickly buying up the team’s items.

Monday, the first day the items went on sale, was the second largest web traffic day at
NBAStore.com since the start of the basketball season on Dec. 25, according to a Brooklyn Nets release. The team’s merchandise accounted for 27 percent of total sales for the day on NBAStore.com and at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue combined.

That same day, Modell’s sold more Brooklyn Nets merchandise in a single day than they’d sold New Jersey Nets items during the last year, said Jason Karorwski, Modell’s manager of sports marketing and PR. Brooklyn Net merchandise is available at about 100 Modell’s stores in the New Jersey and New York metropolitan area, including the chain’s 10 Brooklyn locations.

The team’s merchandise features various designs—all in its black and white colors—some with the logo, some with just the words “Brooklyn.” Many of the items promote borough pride more than sports fanaticism.

At the Modell’s at 360 Fulton St. in Downtown Brooklyn on Thursday afternoon, Mark Allison of Flatbush came for his first close-up look at the new logo. He had only seen the logo before briefly on television. He said that he prefers the more colorful logos of other teams, but said the black and white colors are a favorite look for Brooklynites. Though he did not purchase an item during his visit, he said he might come back to buy something.

Another customer, Brooklyn resident, Jason Andrews of Crown Heights, quickly filled his arms with items—four t-shirts and a hat. He was buying for himself, his brother and 7-year-old son. “I got to support my borough. I love Brooklyn,” he said.

The store’s apparel manager, Denise Neckles, said all of the merchandise was selling well, and she had to restock it often.

Neckles, along with all other Model employees have been wearing T-shirts that have the Net’s logo on them and say “Hello Brooklyn,” the slogan of the team’s campaign, since the store started selling the items on Monday, and will continue to wear them indefinitely, said Neckles.

Brooklyn Nets merchandise was also on display on one side of the store’s front windows. People are walking by, noticing the display and stopping in to check it out the items, said Neckles. They love the design, she added.

Matthew Hadaway, a department manager at the Modell’s at 140 Flatbush Ave. said that the items at his location are also selling well. “We can’t keep it in stock,” he said.

It’s not only locals who will buy the gear, Hadaway predicted. Tourists often come into the store looking for items that say Brooklyn, and now there are all these items they can buy, he said.

A Modell

Hadaway expects sales to increase this weekend and once the Nets season starts. Half of Brooklyn probably doesn’t know the merchandise is available, he said. When the stadium opens, he continued, people are going to stop in here to buy items before games. (This Modell’s location is right down the street from the Brooklyn Nets’ stadium, the Barclays Center.)

Even though the NBA store on Fifth Avenue, between 47th and 48th streets, is about a 30-minute subway ride from the Barclays Center, people there were buying the Brooklyn Nets merchandise on Thursday. T-shirts and hats seemed to be the best sellers.

The team’s items dominated the store. The mannequins in the display windows were all dressed in Nets clothing and the team’s logo and “Hello Brooklyn” decorated the store’s front door. In one 30 minute period around lunchtime, about 15 people browsed through the team’s section; a few of them even bought items.

Walter Robin of Long Island, for example, scooped up a Brooklyn Nets hat for his son who lives in Brooklyn and attends Brooklyn Law School. His son likes basketball, and Robin’s daughter thought it would be good present for her brother’s upcoming birthday. Robin said his son is foremost a Knicks fan, but is planning on going to some Nets games.