Hold Your Nose and Vote for Mike Bloomberg?

Maybe I should hold my nose and vote for this Mike Bloomberg, but I don't know if I can.

He's a sneak, and I don't like him.

I oppose smoking and don't think that anyone should smoke, but I didn't respect the way that he imposed smoking bans without ever mentioning the possibility when he was running for mayor. He kept his opinions to himself like a sneak, and then rammed home the bans once he was in.

I oppose term limits and voted against them, but the people of NY City voted in term limits. But Bloomberg decided that he himself was indispensible. Instead of having the matter brought before the voters again, he snuck in a term limits exception for himself with the weaklings of our City Council. Don't you ever say that there were quid pro quos.

He's continued the good work initiated by Rudy Giuliani in policing, and has been a good actor as respects public schools

But still. He is supposed to be this hands on genius who gets everything done.

Yet every day I pass by a small public park ( Lief Erikson Park ) that has been marred with a " temporary " building necessitated by construction work at Bay Ridge High School. The major construction at Bay Ridge HS has been finished for well over two years, yet the ugly and abandoned building remains in the park, ruining it.

Everytime I see this mess, I think of Mike Bloomberg.

Bloomberg has a weak joke of an opponent in Bill Thompson, a guy who is not worthy of a keystroke. Yet I don't know if I can pull my nose and vote for the sneak and opponent of democracy that is Mike Bloomberg.

Marty Robbins: " Billy The Kid "

Marty Robbins was a major American singer - songwriter in the fifties and sixties back when there was such a thing as country and western

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The work at the 69th Street Key Food has continued steadily. The wooden fence and scaffolding has been removed, and looking through the door you see some signs, and, along the right hand wall, a row of brand new freezer cases.

One of the guys working there said that they'll open the new supermarket in about four to five weeks.

Message from the Bunker

I've not stopped blogging - things just got insane at work etc. I will write about something soon. If you liked it before, you'll like it again soon. Promise.

Sunday Music ; Skip A Rope, Henson Cargill

Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were still alive in early 1968 when Henson Cargill's " Skip A Rope " became a No. 1 Country hit, which it remained for a number of weeks.

It was his only hit song, but it was important. It stays in the mind.

Mary Travers and Friends : I Shall Be Released

Jim Carroll Joins the People Who Died

I got around to reading yesterday's NY Times only today. A story kicked me in the head near the end of the main section. Jim Carroll, poet, writer and musician had died of a heart attack at 60.

I didn't know he was 60. I don't know how in the hell he got to be 60 with the life that he lived.

Jim Carroll was an Irish-American kid who grew up in Manhattan. He was a tremendous basketball player at Trinity High School. He kept a diary during high school. When he began the diary, he was full of hope. By the end of the diary, he was a heroin addict, " hustling " in the old, horrible Times Square of the Sixties.

He was befriended by Patti Smith, who called him the " best poet of his generation ". She brought him onstage to read poetry while the band played background. He later wrote lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult and Boz Scaggs. Keith Richards helped him get his own deal with Atlantic Records. His most famous song " People Who Died " came from his album Catholic Boy.

Punk wasn't my thing at all, but this guy had something, and I salute you Jim Carroll, a troubled, brilliant soul hopefully now at peace.

For extra credit, his song Catholic Boy


People Who Died
Jim Carroll

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof
Tony thought that his rage was just some goof
But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof
"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"
But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"
But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old
Fell from the roof on East Two-nine
Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug
On 26 reds and a bottle of wine
Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old
He looked like 65 when he died
He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten
So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan
Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head
Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed
They were two more friends of mine
Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room
Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs
Judy jumped in front of a subway train
Eddie got slit in the jugular vein
And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others
And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died
They were all my friends, and they died

September 11, 2009 - Photos

The Towers of Light were up, but you could barely see them through the clouds. I walked down to the entrance of the Battery Tunnel and captured them.



















The FDNY Memorial down at Engine Company Ten is just south of the WTC site. It was hard to photograph Friday night, as it was raining, and there were many visitors, including a group of middle aged and trainee firemen from the Anaheim California Fire Department, and various US military.

There was an FDNY Honor Guard. Here, the senior officer is about to dismiss them.

One small block south, O'Hara's pub did a roaring trade.

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Bay Ridge Avenue Key Food to Open Sometime in Indefinite Future

Spoke to a construction guy down at the Bay Ridge Key Food site. He says that it will be open " in two months ". This project makes the WTC rebuilding look like a model of efficiency. I'm looking forward to doing my Christmas food shopping there. Christmas 2010.

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6805 Third Avenue

Construction crews have been hard at work over the past couple of weeks gutting the place. A construction foreman said that the building might reopen " in eight months "

This would be much better than any of us expected.

Spoke to a neighbor who says that the owner, Bill, is a well respected guy who tried to keep the building in good shape.

Perhaps this building will reopen before the Key Food opens?

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Garage Wanted

One of our readers is returning from Italy at the end of September, and is looking for a private garage in the Bay Ridge / Dyker Heights / Fort Hamilton area. If you know of one, let me know and I will relay it to him. His car is 193 inches long, 71 inches wide, and is 58 inches high.