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                                    W ritP Q n* R o rlro lo v SUnrlonia T o ll It T ilro Tt 7c Tn* %u00bb %u2022 ' %u00bb ' V - %u00bb %u2022 W l > V y A%u00bb -%u00bb %u2014 %u2022 %u00bb< %u2022 V w A . * , A W ailAs part of its 100th anniversary year activities, students at Park Slope%u2019s Berkeley Carroll Street School participated in a %u201cWrite-In%u201d , telling youngsters who will be at Berkeley Carroll St. a hundred years from now about their life and their work. Following are three of the letters:Life In 1986Dear Future Students,Hello, my name is Kate Rubin. This year is the school%u2019s 100th birthday. Growing up in Brooklyn and going to Berkeley Carroll St. School (B.C.S.S.) is not that bad at all. My mom went there, my brother went here, so I guess you can say I%u2019m the second generation in my family. I really hope the school is around in 2086.Right now, people either have short, short hair or shoulder length hair. Do you have atches called Swatches? Do you have a )bot for a teacher?When you read this, my class and I will be nistory, so I want to tell you how scary it was when Libyan leader Ghadafi was, at one point bombing TWA planes. Crack was, and still is, the worst drug. People can%u2019t get off the dumb drug.Did you have any wars? If you did, how many? %u2014 Kate Rubin, Grade Five.We%u2019re Lucky Ones**Dear People Of The Year 2086,Times are becoming more tense throughout the world in 1986, and it can be feltin Brooklyn and in the Berkeley Carroll St. School.We, though, are some who are especially lucky despite the worsening state of worldly affairs.We got to a school that is geared towards educating its students to a superior degree, compared to most schools. Growing up is hard, but I am sure it is worse for the present day victims of famine, terrorism, totalitariasm, technology, etc. We all have to a greater or lesser degree homes to be sheltered in, clothes to wear, loved ones to laugh and cry with (and to be honest with), beds to sleep in, food to fill our stomachs.There are obvious signs, of stress throughout our society: violence, confusion, greed, drug abuse, a disillusioned and nihlistic youth, but I am biased in thinking that times will be even worse for you. It doesn%u2019t seem as though the population will decrease or level out, and as resources become scarce, so will human kindness.I am sure there will be new threats for you as well. This is just conjecture though, and only you, the reader of this letter, the spirit of the future, will truly know if my prophecy is becoming a reality, it may come even 100 years after your lives. There might be yet another path mankind can tread to avoid the perils of diminishing resources, a growing population, nuclear warfare, totalitarian governments, etc.The answers as well as the questions seem all to generate from ever advancing technology. It is as possible that you, the future generation will lead better lives than we are living now than it is that you will beliving in a grim world of dying humanity.I am 16 years old now and have two brothers and two sisters. My aunt is 99 and her past was tremendously different from my present as your present will tremendously different from our present, I, and most of the poeple I know, will be dead before you read this, but the human beings that we were essentially will be the beings that you now are in biology, psychology, and sociology. SoRight now people either haveshort, short hair or shoulderlength hair. Do you have watches called Swatches? Do youhave a robot for a teacher?the warnings we have now, stand for you as well. Man is capable of going many directions, and you are ultimately responsible for determining that direction. %u2014Jimmy Parker, Grade 11.Brooklyn In 1986Brooklyn. A borough in New York City and the place which has been my home ever since I was bom.Brooklyn today I find very different from the world Betty Greene perceived it several decades ago. No longer is it a small, quiet outcast place in New York City, but it is constantly growing and thriving into a new and competitive atmosphere.rin v - ' * V fk/U ^ V /v /v / cc n f m mIn the last 20 years, the small town which I live in, Park Slope, has prospered and developed into a very ritzy area. Now we have a Benetton on 7th Avenue and we barely ever go into %u201cthe City%u201d to get something our stores don%u2019t have.The time I appreciate Brooklyn the most is when I come back from the Village after a day of shopping with my friends. Brooklyn then is the most quiet and lovely place in the world. Life seems to have a much slower pace and no longer must I push through crowds to cross the street. And trees suddenly surround me instead of being sparsely spread out.However .other times I feel as if I live in a %u201cclaustrophobic bubble of the Earth.%u201d I have been going to the same school in Brooklyn, Berkeley Carroll, ever since I started school. Life then becomes tedious and too repetitious. At those moments I wish I cold go into %u201cthe City%u201d and be around tons of people I don%u2019t know and meet some of them.My life in Brooklyn has been very pleasant as most people who live here will tell you. Berkeley Carroll is a small school so I know almost everyone in the upper school and have some very close friends. It also allows you to get to know some of your teachers.Last night, the Mets saved their skin at Shea against the Red Sox. The Mets deserve to win tonight but a lot of people think the Sox are going to win the World Series.Well, what I have to say about life in Brooklyn in 1986 is that it is great and you should have been here. %u2014 Liz Rosan, Grade Nine.Frederick Law Olmsted Under Siege A t Brooklyn%u2019s Prospect ParkBY ROBERT MAKLAYear after year, as the park staffs strive with limited funds and with limited manpower to improve the landscape, the multimillion dollar big construction projects are relentlessly pushed forward. Millions of dollars are spent on buildings, on architecture, on cement and asphalt, all of which has been given first priority during the Koch administration. 'In spite of all the talk about park rehabilitation, no real balance has yet been achieved between concrete and landscape. Professional park maintenance has yet to begin.Prospect Park, saddled under the policy of %u2018put buildings first%u2019, now has the ugliest structure ever built in a New York park, thebandshell with its lighting girders and horrendous electrical tower. Recently, new stables were proposed, although the park still has its 19th century stables which could serve the needs of the Rangers if, indeed, their horses had to be stabled in the park, which is debatable.Ball fields, temporarily installed, have now been made permanent, and increased in number in the park meadow, although Prospect Park is unique, having been designed with 40 acres of specially reserved land on its perimeter for ball playing. Now, the Park Department embarks on a multimillion dollar recementing of the sidewalk around the park. Significantly, it is to start in the area where the bandshell was built.A few urgent projects which should have been undertaken long ago are: restoration of Enaaie Arch, which still is flooded after each rainstorm, as it has been for a decade or two; restoration of Meadow Port Arch, of the Nethermead Arches (all of these are magnificent engineering achievements built over 100 years ago); and of the Reviewing Stand at the Concert Grove (the subject of a painting by William Merritt Chase).Above all, the Wollman Rink which should be relocated to another site if park improvement really enjoyed a priority. Clearly, with the millions of dollars being spent, no one at City Hall can say there is a shortage of funds.There is much to be done, and public andcivic groups would be enthusiastic to see essential work begin. The capital budget process has not yet been brought to bear to create a beautiful park, while special interests and large construction projects still seem to command a priority for their own sakes.This article appeared in the Winter 1986-87 Edition of %u201cA Little News,%u201d the newsletter of the Greensward Foundation, Inc., the parent group of The Friends of Central Park, Prospect Park, et. al. For information on the group, write 94 Park Place, Brooklyn, 11217.p O R t h e R e c o r d new s of m m m m m m .L ocal On E squire R egisterPark Slope Rep. Charles E. Schumer, 35, of Brooklyn%u2019s Tenth Congressional District, has been named to The 1986 Esquire Register, an honor roll of 72 men and women under 40 who are changing America.In the magazine%u2019s December issue, Congressman Schumer, the first U.S. Representative to be included in The Register, is acclaimed for his achievements in the Politics & Law category. The Esquire Register, published annually, salutes achievers in six major categories: Arts & Letters; Business & Industry; Education & Social Service; Entertainment, Sports & Style; Politics & Law; and Science & Technology.Sister C ity H o ld s ForumAfter the Slope/South Brooklyn Community Board Six decided not to hold a forum on a Brooklyn Sister City project with San Juan de Rio Coco, Nicaragua, the organizers of the project decided to do it on their own. Last Friday, a near 70-person audience gathered at the Park Slope Community Center on 7th Street to hear a discussion of the issue.The Sister City Project organizers asked Ted Glick, the chairman of the ATURA Coalition. and Reed Brody, a former assistant New York attorney-general and author of %u201cContra Terror in Nicaragua,%u201d to speak and5cuuuiciiu> appem cu Lu uverwiieiiiiiiigiysupport an official sister city project. Many members of the audience appeared to be particularly angry that CB6 had refused to listen to the issue.The discussions drifted toward tactics withsome people claiming that if the Sister City Project wanted to be endorsed by the community board then they should become board members. %u201cIt seems to me that we have to become part of the system if we expect to ever get something done,%u201d said one person in the audience.Others in the audience felt differently. %u201cI can%u2019t tell you how upset I was that evening,%u201d said another woman, who had attended the CB6 meeting that rejected the Sister City Project%u2019s request for a forum. %u201cI felt they represented the community, but they wouldn%u2019t even listen to what we had to say. I was just very hurt.%u201dCB6 members claim that foreign policy issues are not appropriate issues for a community board to discuss, though privately many board members are sympathetic to the issue. %u2014 R.T.H elp H om eless W eek SetHeights-Downtown City Councilmember Abe Gerges says that his resolution calling upon the City Council of New York to declare November 17 through November 26, 1986 %u201cHelp The Homeless Week%u201d was voted and passed Nov. 10 and has been signed by Mayor Koch.%u201cAs Chairman of the Council%u2019s Select Committee For the Homeless, I realize that so much needs to be done, and that by namingiw\\ \\ T a %u00ab %u00ab a * m U a %u00ab> 1<< a 4 L a C a w a 4 U aM 1 V W V * %u00bb M * V U M J f M U t * 1 V %u00bb V A A A M V A j j U W k W V 4 V 4 V W t Vcelebration of Thanksgiving Day, public awareness of homelessness can be raise,%u201d says Gerges. He began the week with a Press Conference at the Community Church in Manhattan with Peter Smith of the Partnership For The Homeless announcing cosponsorship of a fund raiser to be held on Nov. 24 at Ellen%u2019s Restaurant on Broadway, to raise much-needed dollars.%u201d Also cosponsoring this affair is David Dinkins, Manhattan Boro President and DC#37 AFSCME.Gerges, who is compiling figures from City, State and Federal expense budgets, says that, %u201cthe number of homeless people in the City is expected to reach 70,000 by 1987, many of which are families %u2014 women with dependent children %u2014 and solutions MUST be found.%u201d %u201cThere are so many ways in which caring people can assist,%u201d continues Gerges, %u201cwhether it is by financial donations, or by volunteering some time at a community shelter.%u201dL IU G rad To SpeakH ousing R eport D u e OutThe City Wide Task Force on Housing Court will be releasing a comprehensive study critical of New York%u2019s housing court Nov. 25 at City Hall. The results of the threeyear project are expected to be %u201cstartling,%u201d according to task force members, who say that housing court has %u201cproved to be a major contributor to the increase of homeless families.%u201dThe report is expected to discuss court eviction records that show proceedings that have evicted over 140,000 households in the past five years. Tenants in housing court usually represent the City%u2019s most vulnerable population, say task force members, with 82 percent of the tenants being Black or Hispanic and 67 percent women.The Chair of the National Women%u2019s Political Caucus (NWPC) and alumna of Long Island University, Irene Natividad, will speak to university honors students Nov. 24 at 3pm.Natividad is the first Asian-American chair of the 77,000-member NWPC, which works to help women gain elective office through 43 branches across the country. Bom in the Philippines, Natividad graduated from LIU as class valedictorian and a member of the Brooklyn Campus Honors Program.Her talk is enuiieu Leadership in American Life%u201d and several seats are, available for the general public. The discus-%u2019 sion will be held in Room 116 of the Brooldyn Campus Library Learning Center. Call 403-1015 for more information.Towns S upports ChancellorNorth Brooklyn Rep. Ed Towns is voicing his support of Schools Chancellor Nathan Quinones%u2019 panel on bilingual education recommendations favoring Regents exams being offered in foreign languages.%u201cIt%u2019s simple,%u201d says Towns. %u201cA student does not deserve to be unfairly held back in math or science, just because he or she is learning English.%u201d Towns says that not opening the exams to people who speak other languages isCaOculy uuCruuuiaiOry.%u201cThe doors of this country should be open to all people,%u201d he says. %u201cOne way to do this is to make sure the exams needed for advancement are in a language people can understand.%u201dNovember 20,1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 35
                                
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