Smoking Guns And Smoking People – What’s The Difference To NYCHA?

The year was 2003 and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg – Nanny Mike, or whatever nickname you’d like to give him – banned smoking in public restaurants. You could no longer go to your favorite bar or eatery and even request a seat in the “smoking section” because Bloomy’s Smoke-Free Air Act was in full effect!

I’m not so sure that our city is cleaner or healthier – smoke-related deaths and cancers don’t seem to be decreasing all that much. Just because you can’t smoke in the bar or after your meal doesn’t mean you’re not going to go home or take a long walk for a nice long puff. Let’s get real – you’ve been cooped up in that restaurant for a good hour and you’ve got one hell of a hankerin’ to pollute your lungs!

They'll both kill you but you'll only be fined for using one!

Here’s an even bigger ban coming your way – the ban on smoking in NYCHA buildings and other housing buildings across the nation. The new ban recently made news as the biggest ban in history that would prevent residents and visitors from smoking in public housing common areas, hallways and stairwells.

If you ask me, this ban is being proposed for one of the most deadliest living environments in any state! Housing developments like NYCHA harbor gunmen, drug dealers, gangsters and derelicts who sit outside on park benches waiting to stir trouble. If you doubt my stereotypical sentiments, take a trip to any one of our local housing developments in and around Canarsie. You’re not going to see outstanding residents who care about their living conditions hanging out in the hallways at 2 in the morning. Hey – if this smoking ban goes into effect, that shady guy hanging out in the hallway taking a few puffs of his cigarette will get slapped with a frivolous fine for polluting the air. Did I mention he probably WON’T get stopped and frisked to check if he’s carrying a weapon!!!

Something just isn’t right here when officials are making a big stink about smoking in PUBLIC housing – a habit that will cost them their own lives – but not randomly checking residents who could be carrying a gun that will take SOMEONE ELSE’S life! To be honest, I’d feel a LOT safer around an elderly person smoking a cigarette in a dark Bayview Houses hallway than I would around a punk who’s hiding in the shadows outside – probably concealing a weapon in their waistband!

Putting a smoking ban into effect doesn’t do anything but benefit the city so that they can generate money from fines. Have you seen those grotesque commercials showcasing smokers who are dying – literally – and losing limbs while they cough their brains out? If the rate of smokers has decreased and the city is “healthier than it’s ever been,” why do we need public service announcements scaring the crap out of people who have no problem poisoning their lungs?

Granted, I’ve never smoked ANYTHING and I can’t stand the smell of nicotine, being a second-hand smoker isn’t something I can avoid – although I haven’t been exposed to too many smokers for long periods of time. I STILL don’t think housing officials – in any state – have the right to restrict smoking in PUBLIC buildings.

It’s one thing if you own a private house and don’t want your tenant to smoke. Maybe you just had the walls painted and the floors done – you don’t want the smell permeating into your property.

If you’ve been inside a New York City Housing building, many of them are in such deplorable condition! They’re infested with roaches and mice, and mold is growing from leaks within the walls. Why is NYCHA letting children develop asthma? Why are they allowing elevators to remain broken for days and weeks? How can NYCHA allow tenants to live in apartments where walls are literally falling apart and crumbling?

Instead, they’re worrying about someone smoking OUTSIDE their apartments – spaces they rent which are unhealthy to begin with?? Something’s wrong with this picture!!!

If the big shots want to make conditions healthier for housing residents, they need to look at the fact that they don’t care about the conditions tenants have to endure anyway! When you have to take a shower in a bathroom that looks like something out of the movie “Saw,” you’ve got bigger problems than inhaling cigarette smoke for a few minutes while going inside your building.

Gun-wielding gangsters, torture chambers – I mean bathrooms – and decaying walls are a threat to tenants in housing buildings all over. Those are just some of the quality of life problems no one can truly control – so housing officials should stop controlling their tenants! Put THAT in your pipe and DON’T smoke it – it might turn the walls another mysterious and unhealthy shade of black!

Some Educators Need A Little Tutoring In Public Relations

When Mayor Bill de Blasio came to Canarsie a couple of months ago, his visit was almost a secret. Obviously, it wasn’t too small of a secret because the article in the NY Daily News expressed that the Mayor and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña gathered at the “struggling” Brooklyn Generation School at South Shore for a highly attended meeting. While the Canarsie Courier was unable to attend, it seems that planning a meeting this big should have involved more community outreach – or maybe they didn't want too many people knowing far in advance that Hizzoner would be right here in our community?

Time to tell our educators why there's only bad news published in the media!

I recently made a presentation at a Community Education Council (CEC) meeting where I expressed, as the Associate Editor of the Canarsie Courier, my dismay at the fact that there's LOTS going on in our schools and no one is telling us anything.

Did you know that actor Edward Norton came to an East Flatbush high school to work with students on various art projects? I'd found out – once again through another media outlet – and asked why? More importantly, how difficult is it - REALLY - to put in a call to your local newspaper and spread the word that someone famous is coming to your building?

In addition to the red tape that exists throughout the Department of Education (DOE) when it comes to disseminating information, many schools just don't have the staff or administrators who are willing to make that call a couple of days in advance to let the media know what's going on.

During my presentation to the CEC, I made the last issue of the Canarsie Courier available, along with my business card. I encouraged board members and educators in the audience to keep their community newspaper in mind when things happen in their school. It doesn't have to be a big event – it could be something as simple as a student of the month or principal for a day celebration.

For a long time, schools have had to go through the DOE for permission to submit events to media outlets. I can understand that when it comes to answering a difficult legal question that requires a lot more than one phone call. But how about the GOOD things happening in our schools that make brief headlines or no headlines at all?

At the root of the problem, it seems like there aren't any administrators playing the role of ‘public relations’ or ‘communications’ at our local schools.

Yes, we're grateful that the same five schools have amazing Parent Association representatives who will call our office and tell us when something is happening. We're grateful for the principals who are willing to talk to us and share the success of their schools without having paperwork signed and being interrogated by the DOE, which would take an eternity to process.

However, when one of our writers goes down the list of schools in our district and makes over a dozen phone calls in an hour to ask what events they have coming up in the next couple of weeks, we get barely ANY call backs and we're given names of school officials or representatives who never keep us in the loop. Hey, where does our phone number go after a message is taken?

We DO circulate outside of Canarsie and cover many schools in our neighboring District 22 as well. There are a small number of schools in that community who actually reach out to us to let us know when things are going on. Sometimes when we learn about their going-ons through other outlets, getting through to those schools is literally like pulling teeth.

Let's get real! Public schools are already overwhelmed with testing, programming and dealing with the Common Core debacle. Plus, we hear PLENTY of bad news about kids in gangs and schools closing or teachers being arrested for involvement with their students. The least our schools can do is promote the GOOD and POSITIVE things they have going on – to prove to our community and the city that there are GOOD kids out there who will succeed and not wind up dead in an alleyway or in front of a judge for being in possession of a firearm.

Thankfully, we haven't had too many negative stories in the spotlight on what's going on in our schools. But when it comes to letting your local newspaper know what's going on, we sometimes think it would be easier getting in touch with President Obama than getting an answer about when a school's next dance showcase takes place!

Sometimes I ask what's the worse of two evils – calling a school and never getting a call back when we DID reach out, or simply not being informed at all and finding out through other media that something big happened?

While I understand the purpose of the CEC meetings is for information to be dispersed to our community and for members to be liaisons for schools across the district, we'd like to obtain news about what's going on without having to wait for the board's next meeting. By that time, the event's already happened - we missed out on a photo opportunity and possibly a chance to improve the way the residents view youths in the community.

Did you ever hear residents talking at civic meetings? All they say is that our children need “places to go” and positive things to do...There “aren't enough things in our school to keep them out of trouble.” If you ask me, all a school really needs to do is publicize the fact that their kids DO have programs and events that will keep them out of trouble! It might not convince everyone that the troublemakers aren't out there, but it will promote and confirm the fact that schools are accomplishing a lot in hopes of turning their students into leaders of the future.

As President of the CEC James Dandridge said at the end of my presentation, “The Canarsie Courier is hoping to put school administrators to the ‘test’ and put a ‘fire’ under them so that they realize how critical it is to spread their news to the paper.” Whether my speech worked or not is to be determined.

Big kudos to the administration and principals from schools who already keep us in the loop – it’s thanks to you that we’re able to tell the community about all the great things happening in your building!

For those who are behind the times and don’t check if the Canarsie Courier has called you for an update, it would be nice if your administration took the initiative and time (time that we’re willing to take to cover your events) to reach out to us. You can make all kinds of excuses as to why our kids are failing – but some schools get an ‘F’ when it comes to public relations.

As Long As There Are Gun Rings, Bullets Will Keep Flying In Our Ciy

While communities protest and decry gun violence over and over...and over...the root of our problems is constantly being replanted without us having any control over the consequences.

If you didn't already know it, deadly transactions are taking place right in our community – right under your nose – and it's keeping our streets dangerous. These transactions are possibly leading to a murder, injury or massive shooting that will make tomorrow’s news. 

It's EASY to get an Uzi!!!

Where do all these gangster thugs get their firearms? How do all of these criminals really get their hands on these weapons which they’ll use to take someone's life? If you haven’t been paying attention to the news – or reading the Canarsie Courier – you might not know that a gun ring operation was taking place in the Walgreen’s parking lot at Avenue M and Rockway Parkway not too long ago. A money-hungry bad guy had no problem selling firearms in the midst of a residential/shopping area. He had no problem dealing with violent criminals who would hand over a wad of money for a .32 caliber handgun – a weapon that could be used to kill your best friend, family member or even an NYPD officer.

Our community has all types of ideas and initiatives to deter gun violence. Let's create more jobs in crime-riddled areas so the no-good-doers are too busy working to get ahold of a gun to hunt down their enemies. Let's give our teenagers more extracurricular activities so they're not out on the streets endangering their lives.

What a great idea! Not…

Every time there's a march where politicians and civic leaders are screaming, “This needs to stop!” another gun is quietly being sold right here – possibly out of a vehicle with hundreds of firearms waiting to be sold. Minutes, hours, days – maybe even weeks – after they're illegally sold, those weapons will be used to destroy a life. These quiet transactions don't just result in the destruction of one life, it destroys communities and families who want our leaders to “DO SOMETHING!”

Let's get real! How can leaders do anything when guns are being funneled from states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina? Who’s securing the state lines and checking that guns aren’t physically brought to our city?

In the past few months, dozens have been arrested and indicted for their participation in gun rings. Canarsie’s own Michael Bassier reportedly made 12 trips to Georgia and at least six trips to Pittsburg. He then brought the guns to Canarsie and sold them to undercover cops. Out of $130,050 in weapons recovered, how many ADDITIONAL guns were made available to sell on the street? What if your teenager wanted to get their hands on a weapon? Unfortunately, it’s just THAT easy for them to network and scout out where an illegal ring is going down in their community and BAM – it’s only a matter of time before they’re plotting how they can possibly take someone else’s life.

Do you even know what kind of weapons these bad guys smuggling here? We’re talking rifles, uzis and guns so big that you can’t really conceal them while walking the streets. Who in this city needs to buy a machine gun? It doesn’t matter – because as much as “we need to do something about this,” these weapons are still in circulation – right in our backyards!

The cold-hearted criminals are heading down south where no one is controlling what goes on BEFORE these weapons are brought up to our city. You can't take guns off the streets if they're constantly being transported here across state lines – sometimes aboard Greyhound buses that don’t require security or baggage checks. How often do transportation safety officials and security agents rummage through luggage before it’s stored in the overhead compartments or stowaways – especially in states where guns are legally purchased?

Most of the suspects working in conspiracy with these rings are living in the South. They don’t give a damn that your life – here in Brooklyn – is in danger because someone on your block purchased a pistol or semi-automatic. The money they make from these sales in our little community means more than the cost of anyone’s life!

Where did Tyrone Howard, a career criminal, get his hands on the weapon he used to kill Police Officer Randolph Holder in East Harlem a few weeks ago? If and when they track the firearm to its original location, it’s more proof that nothing ANYONE does or says will decrease the number of shootings that take place in our city.

Yes, I extend kudos to all of the undercover cops and the NYPD’s Firearms Investigations Unit for removing hundreds of weapons off our streets. But the dollar signs will continue to flash and more illegal transactions will soon be going down right on your block.

You never know what’s in that duffel bag being carried out of someone’s trunk at three in the afternoon on any given day…and you probably never will.