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Page Six, PHOENIXPleasePass TheVegetable StewUnder the banner of the meat boycott, Americans of the most diverse opinion and political persuasion have joined together in a common cause. Rarely in modern American history have so many people agreed on a common course of action to solve a domestic problem.In true Nixonian fashion, the President made efforts at the last minute to emasculate the effort by announcing an upper limit freeze on the price of meat. Clearly, to freeze meat prices at the highest levels in memory is to do nothing. The pointed announcement, reported in the national media, that the presidential entree on Monday evening was roast beef only served to hold the boycotters together.Interviews with local people indicate that the boycott here is effective. One local buying cooperative in Park Slope reports that the entire meat order for the week consisted of one turkey. The Associated Food Store in the Heights has put its money where its principles are and closed its meat department.Less than half the usual number of animals went to slaughter on Monday, which demonstrates that the farmers intend to hold back in an effort to ride out the storm. But it isn't necessary to be Secretary of Agriculture to know that animals ready for market have developed voracious appetites and, at that stage, are expensive to feed. Farmers, even the %u201cagri-corporations\out for long.If the boycott lasts just one week it will have demonstrated that even the long-suffering consumer has a breaking point and when it is reached organized resistance begins. The real test will come next week. If consumers go back to the business-as-usualconsumption of meat the prices will quickly regain any small price drop brought on by the boycott.If, on the other hand, American consumers recognize that they have the ultimate power and abstain from meat one or two days each week, the prices will fall with the demand.PHOENIX urges its readers who joined the boycott to stay with it and enjoy a fish day and a vegetarian day each week. If that happens we will all be able to sit back and enjoy both victory and a cheaper sirloin.Meanwhile, please pass the vegetable stew.Breaking BadPolitical HabitsIt%u2019s hard to know whether to be shocked or pleased at the frank revelations of State Parks Commissioner Alexander Aldrich that hiring for summer jobs in state parks is a strictly political process.On the one hand, you have to admire his candor, for politicians seldom admit what is often obvious and plain as the nose on your face, in the fervent hope that if you don't talk about it, maybe no one will notice. On the other, you have to ask whether something we might tolerate on a local level is worthy and acceptable as state policy.Somehow, it doesn't seem to make much difference when the local district leader passes out jobs as election inspectors, or patronage in the Comptroller's office, or in the highway department. It is petty and we have learned to live with it. The man at the top disowns such acts as a matter of policy and treats them as isolated incidents whenever they are uncovered by some diligent reporter or political opponent.But is this policy any different when its cumulative effect is to provide a thousand more jobs than will be given by Aldrich's legions during the coming summer? We think both methods are equally wrong. That one is a Republican and one a Democratic habit is hard to distinguish. Both are bad political habits, and both are wrong. Neither should be tolerated by the man at the top. Please take note Messrs. Rockefeller and Lindsay.THINGS ARE LOOKING UP DEPARTMENT: From a row of nearly-abandoned buildings to a hole in the ground to this spanking new building, all in the space of 20 months, is the plan for the block bounded by DeKalb Ave., Flatbush, Fulton Streets in the Brooklyn Center Renewal Area in Downperceptible on right in this rendering) was conceived and constructed in less than two years That is the same schedule being set for this new structure that will be leased by the N.Y. Telephone Company from developers George and Stephen Klein, Brooklyn Center of Long Island University is at left. In remarks at the groundbreaking last month, Mayor Lindsay hailed the renewal activity in Downtown Brooklyn as the fastest new construction program of any urban downtown center in the nation.'Don%u2019t Quote Me, ButBY SCORPIORepublican leaders here are delighted with the success of their resistance to Bob Wagner and the decision of John Marchi to make the race for Mayor. They are also chuckling over the possibility that in spite of the Wagner debacle, liberal Democrats may still find themselves crossing over to vote for Republican Marchi because they will feel more comfortable about the reasonable Marchi approach to problems than that of the likely Democratic nominees Biaggi or Beame.'k irk 'k izLocal politicians are surprised at the depth of feeling in some nearby communities for Ruth Lerner, who is battling both Steve Solarz and Sam Leone for Borough President. She seems to have found a hot issue in fighting the day care cutbacks, while both of her opponents are quiet on the subject.Court Street lawyer Abe Gerges became Democratic State Committeeman and District Leader in the 57th A.D. (Fort Greene, Gowanus, Williamsburg) when incumbent Leonard Scholnick moved on to a judgeship at the turn of the year. In only a few short months, Gerges has put life back into the old Seneca Club that it hasn%u2019tseen in decades, and is building a reputation for himself as a man who does his homework on community problems and issues. The 57th A.D. has been targeted as one of the districts most ripe to be taken by Democratic reformers in 1974, but Gerges may be able to turn back the tide. What%u2019s next: club branches in Fort Greene (on Flatbush Extension) and in Boerum Hill (Bergen S t), probably neighborhood headquarters for the City Council race this year.%u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605Say It Isn%u2019t So Department: The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats in the Slope have opted for %u201c Captain%u2019s Choice\Deiro, who is running against Councilman Tom Cuite in the June Primary. This means petition carriers don%u2019t have to carry Deiro petitions if they don%u2019t want to. Wonder if it also means there may be_ some petitioning by CBID members for Cuite?%u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605Liberal Democratic candidates for Mayor are having life-and-death problems raising funds to wage a battle for the City Hall nomination. Badillo and Blumenthal are cutting each other%u2019s throats, and nobody is coughing up campaign mannaRobert Burke Jones, PresidentMichael A. Armstrong, Publisher132 CLINTON ST.,BROOKLYN 11201643-1032because they figure the struggle hopeless. Leona Carney and John Cooper of Brooklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens, respectively, have taken charge of the Badillo fight and are trying to get things moving for the Congressman in Brooklyn. For Blumenthal, West Brooklyn Independent Democrats are petitioning in the Heights and Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats in the Slope, but petition carriers are reporting back a distinct lack of interest in the whole race. Maybe people are trying to shut the inevitable out of their minds.%u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605Hoping to give the impression of waiting through all the scheduled candidates nights, the local United Federation of Teachers group, is refusing to announce that it has made its choice of a District 15 Community School Board slate. We understand the teachers group%u2019s selection of six of the seven incumbents running for reelection became known through the grapevine after the very first forum.When the announcement comes, the choices will include: Phillip Kaplan, Doris Cohen, Mary Treacy, Prudence Cangianoand Darcy, all of whom recently reiterated their twoyear-old stand against the Gowanus High School site. Though the UFT also picked incumbent Emil Giordano who has reversed his position on that explosive question, the Shanker group seems to have some stake in seeing that a school does not go on the Canal.The remaining candidates selected, no champions of the school site either, include William Cordova, William Hunter and ceri Scnuman. Hunter, a teacher in John Jay High School voted a qualified yes on the h.s. issue, while Schuman a public school teacher also says he doesn't know enough about the question. Cordova, a Cobble Hill resident is adamantly against a high school on the Gowanus.