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Page 4 PHOENIX---*%u00ab*-%u00bb%u25ba JW / A M ^ ->%u25bc/ Jm A \\J Bk. - M l %u25a0 v n i P VM U i l l l l i JKnown as Mr. Carroll Gardens,'Buddy' Scotto's a Civic ConscienceBY CORRINE COLEMANSalvatore %u201c Buddy%u201d Scotto, sometimes known as %u201cMr. Carroll Gardens%u201d , has been perhaps the key figure in the 10 year old movement to combine the best of two possible words%u2014the traditional Italian ambience with the new Brownstoner focus on the urban scene.Growing up in the family oriented South Brooklyn community, with the family institution, Scotto%u2019s Funeral Home, prominent on First Place, Scotto was aware of the absence of civic organizations. The Italian longshoremen related to their union. The professionals, storekeepers and other business people took care of their own affairs. Civic consciousness was not then part of the South Brooklyn Italian-American scene.Since resident%u2019s problems were always considered personal ratherRoyal Company Dug Candide'J a n u a r y 24, 1974lllllllUIIIHIUHIIIUUIIIlUUUIIUIIIUniUllUUIUnilUIIIIIIIIIUlllllinUllllllllllllllllllUIIIIIIIIUIUIIIIIHNIIIHIIIINIIIIIIINIUIIIIlUilllllllUUIIIIIIIIIIIlllllllilllllUIUIIIIIIIIHnillUIIIIIIIIIIIIwhich agrees with the IND on most issues, stands as a potential check and balance, as Scotto explains it.Buddy Scotto took on the Gowanus Canal issue almost single handedly 10 years ago and has seen it finally achieve prominence and some success with construction of its sewer plant slated to begin m om entarily, its dredging operation set to start later this year. Because of progress like this, he is certainly optimistic about the South Brooklyn future.Added com m itm ent is still needed for moving the development of the larger Gowanus area Scotto says and he is determined to enlist the interest of the State Urban Corps. He hopes too, that the new city administration will involve itself in the project, and notes that City Council President, Paul O%u2019Dwyer, with a long past in the neighborhood has offered his assistance.Uncertainties about the area%u2019s eventual destiny remain however. Though zoning changes have been effected in Carroll Gardens, and the gas site along the canal has been boosted for recreational purposes, the Southern part of the area%u2014from 4th Place down%u2014from the Gowanus to Hicks St. can still go either way Scotto admits.However, the past record of %u201cMr. Carroll Gardens%u201d argues well for the neighborhood%u2019s future, and as Scotto says, the com m unity%u2019s young people are %u201ccoming in like gangbusters with the new consciousness.%u201dthan related to the community. When assistance was needed it was given with the expectation of personal loyalty in return. As Scotto says, the organization of regular democrats who covered the area reduced all problems%u2014 community, socially oriented or not%u2014to the personal realm.According to Scotto, things began to change around 1964, with neighborhood stirrings in reaction to the Black and Puerto Rican influx into the surrounding areas of Columbia St., Red Hook and Gowanus. Incidents that threatened racial conflict alerted Scotto and some of his friends and moved them to begin to think beyond the community%u2019s old line ways. He saw the danger of the middle class community with the tree lined streets%u2014some as wide as boulevards%u2014withering away in angry reaction to the newcomers, rather than attempting a conOn Saturday, Jan. 19, the Chelsea Theater Center presented a special %u201c command\performance of %u201c Candide\the members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, who would not have otherwise had an opportunity to see this work. This review is of that performance.What was the judgment of these %u201c traditionalists\contemporary version of the Voltaire story? They %u201c dug it\the words of every single actor we talked with during intermission and after the performance.After the show had ended, the audience wasn%u2019t about to leave, and demanded an additional curtain call from the Chelsea Company, some of whom came back out half-out of costume. Audience reaction through the performance extended its length a good 20 minutes longer than the show normally runs.iimiiimimimiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiimiiiiiiiimiiiiimiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiminiiimimiiiisolidation of old and new.The formation of the Carroll Gardens Association came in 1964 with Buddy and 19 other residents%u2014old locals and ne %u2019 Brownstoners. The new organization began its civic concentration %u201cwith the opening of Father Irish%u2019s church on Carroll and Clinton Sts. to Puerto Rican neighborhood groups,%u201d he said.Modeled after the Cobble Hill Association which was started during the late 1950%u2019s, the Carroll Gardens Association%u2019s beginnings coincided with the coming to the neighborhood of City Human Rights Commissioner Joe Manuscalco, who began to focus on the community%u2019s social questions.Scotto began the concentration (that continues today) on the social and civic issues in the area%u2014the welfare, housing, environmental concerns that kept him and still keep him moving, meeting, working day and night in Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Columbia St. and Gowanus. He becam e a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Board of the South Brooklyn Community Corp. when the agency come upon the scene during %u201865-%u201866. Organizing skills were brought into the neighborhood with the coming of the anti-poverty group, and the community, civic oriented concept was thus furthered.During this time Scotto focused on a major project, the cleaning and dredging of the nearby Gowanus Canal, and the ultimate development of the surrounding area as a residential, recreational and cultural center. Though the project was not immediately aided by the Poverty Organization%u2019s move into the area as Scotto had// ' -,V / _Now Open!... /G A ZEB ONatural Food RestaurantOpen Daily 11 a.m.- 11 p.m.142 Seventh Avenuebetween Carroll and Garfield PlacePark SlopePlymouth Steak& Lobster House78 CLARK STREET(Opp. St. George Hotel)Brooklyn Heights%u2019 OnlyFresh Fish RestaurantLobster Flown inDaily from MaineSelect Your OwnFrom Our TankCall MA4-5263for ReservationsEstablished 1933hoped (since the poor were most affected by the deterioration of the waterway and its environs) the gradual building of skills%u2014 sponsored by the agency%u2014helped the later Gowanus push.Though Buddy Scotto%u2019s focus remained non-political for a time, the 1970 reform move against 14 C.D. Congressman John Rooney drew him and other members of the Carroll Gardens Association into the arena. Despite admonitions by fam ily and old friends, Scotto was moving steadily in his new way, and in fact contemplated running the race against Rooney as the reformer with Jies to the Italian Community, with both a world view and a connection with the local people and their problems.Politics, however, rem ains secondary says Scotto, who wound up supporting Peter Eikenberry in the 1970 campaign to oust the incumbent. His vision, he insists remains primarily civic.This refusal to be totally politically identified stayed with him even during his involvement in the formation of the South Brooklyn Independent Neighborhood Democrats, the reform group founded after Rooney%u2019s narrow 1970 victory, Scotto says.Needing, he feels, to establish his separateness from a specific political organizations, Scotto nevertheless became part of the IND%u2019s insurgent force which broke the Regular%u2019s longtime hold with Mike Pesce%u2019s 1972 State Assembly victory. The new reform club was also instrum ental in Carol Bellam y%u2019s winning the State Senate seat during the same year.Wanting to keep the issues (Gowanus redevelopm ent%u2014the move for a local High School up front, ahead of loyalty to the organization for its own sake, Scotto walks a thin line between affiliation and separateness.The still controlling regular Democrats who Scotto believes are totally subm erged in political priorities, %u201ccompromising in order to satiate their power thirst, constantly looking for a safe situation%u201d will lose in the long run, he predicts. As a matter of fact, Scotto believes the Regulars have no more than four years to go. The IND may then take on the establishment role, he believes, and will subject to the seductiveness, the power tripping that the role implies, though at the same time remaining more sensitive to community issues than the regulars have been.Taking no chances with a one party agreement Scotto helped form the local Independent Neighborhood Republicans during 1972. Though powerless still in this traditionally Democratic area, the INR, a relatively liberal groupO i D H ' T f c t T T O T H I S V 6 A * !Then visit MR.. 5-OUVLAKl1 ^ 7 A \\ o W M M / %u00a3 S t .- t i n a t a K o i < 4 I - * * *PhilharmonicSparkling'A unique concert of %u201cMusic for Shakespeare%u201d provided sparkling counterpoint to the %u201c British Season%u201d at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Sunday when the Brooklyn Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra and its Philharmonia Choral Society m ade for a delightful afternoon of music by Debussy, Purcell and Mendelssohn.The music, all written as accompaniment for Shakespeare works, was an unusual departure from normal orchestral programming, and was a popular success by the judgement of the audience in the BAM Music Hall.Philharmonia Music Director Lukas Foss led both orchestra and chorus in a fashion that continues to bring credit on the already growing reputation of the Philharmonia groups as top-notch musicians. The Chorus, making its first concert hall appearance of the season, is enormously superior to that of last year. It is conducted by David Aurelius.The program included the rarely heard Music for %u201cKing Lear%u201d by Debussy, but it was the Henry Purcell music for %u201cThe Tempest%u201d that was the afternoon%u2019s triumph. Soloists Virginia Bitar-Lindle (a Brooklyn Heights resident), soprano, and Harris Poor and Monte Jaffe, bass, were superb, but boy soprano Colin Duffy stole the show. The Purcell work is a pure delight, and unfortunately not played often enough.The final piece was the familiar overture and incidental music to %u201cA Midsummer Night%u2019s Dream%u201d, in which Ms. Bitar-Lindle was joined by Kathy Titakis as soloist and Rohan McCullough brought her British charm as narrator. ~Harry Hopkinsonv y v y w v ia im o n ln lB rMid-Eastern and International CuisineOPEN ] 1:30a.m. to Midnight,7 Days a W eek-Serving Lunch and Dinner 212-624-92675 218 COURT STREET, BROOKLYN, N.Y.L w a w A y w v v ,