GerritsenBeach.net

Blog Rumors Are Not True? Really?

Just to let everyone know, there are TWO sites in our part of Brooklyn where people can go and get news, GerritsenBeach.net and Sheepshead Bay Civics site and forum at SBPCivic.org.

If you have been following, Councilman Mike Nelson’s former deputy chief of staff Robert Varley recently went public with that Nelson told him to post things on the two area sites.

It was recently picked up by the Brooklyn View. Who ran the story with the title “blog rumors are not true”. What blog are they talking about? SBPBCivic.org in their own article is called a forum, oh that’s right, this is the only “blog” they can be talking about, but let’s not credit this site properly. Let’s continue to STEAL images off the web and now stories. Then lets overuse the word “blog” until it sounds like you don’t know what your talking about. You know what fine, I burnt that bridge by calling you out for stealing images.

The article continues to say that Mike Nelson doesn’t read local blogs(why plural?), WHICH COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Why did he have his people get in touch with me to stop the comments on the original Manhattan Beach post that was bashing him? But I forgot he doesn’t read them because they have zero accountability. Apparently the post had enough credibility for him to want it to stop.

The article continued to say that they tried to contact Varley by email and he did not respond. He didn’t respond? He seemed like a responsive guy when I LOOKED HIM UP AND SPOKE WITH HIM. Nice reporting Brooklyn View. Boy did I learn a lot speaking with him. All of which will come later.

The Brooklyn View then got a MAJOR fact wrong. The user “City Insider” never attacked Nelson or his family. In fact nowhere on the SBPBCivic.org site does anyone ever attack Nelson. There were anonymous comments on GerritsenBeach.net directed at nelson and his wife, but that’s ok lets not credit anyone or get the facts straight.

Hey, Brooklyn View, can I talk to you over here for a second? If you could not get in touch with Robert Varley why even post RUMORS from blogs “with zero accountability”?

Mike Nelson, you apparently you still can’t count, you said “…I’m not surprised they hide in blogs seen by 30 of their friends”. That is so funny and clever! However, On my site alone I average 725 unique hits a day, some of which are from CITY HALL. That is alot more than your 30 guess. SBPBCivic.org forum is also very popular.

Ugh.

In the latest issue of the Brooklyn View there is a photo in one of the articles of the El Greco diner in Sheepshead Bay. I instantly recognized this picture as a picture from Flickr, a photo sharing website. Flickr allows authors to post their photos, share with friends and family, and even allow commercial use of their photos if the author allows it. In this case, the author does not allow commercial use. There are two types of licenses on Flickr: “All Rights Reserved” and “Creative Commons”, which has about 6 variants.

The photo that they used has a very specific “All Rights Reserved” license which means that the author of the photo owns the photo and controls how its used. The Brooklyn View decided to ignore copyright law, bypass the authors rights and to make matters worse they didn’t even credit the author properly only using “Photo: Flickr” not a link to the picture, not the authors user name, and certainly not the authors real name.

This subject of copyright is a very touchy subject with me. It may not be a touchy subject with you however I am in a business where I have to pay for images that I use in Web or Print marketing. They aren’t cheap either they go from a few dollars to a few thousand. I absolutely hate when people steal photos, especially mine (**cough** GBFD ** cough**). If you ask who knows I might say yes.

• The Article that steals
  
• Photo in Question (flickr)
• The Paper (Warning PDF Link)
• What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content
• Basic Copyright Law

The old “Field House of Horrors” as the Brooklyn View put it in September is going to be rebuilt. Rebuilt as a senior center and multi purpose space.

The problem with this project has been money, Its always money. Our elected officials raised 5.5 Million dollars but the city changed its building codes for all new buildings have to be built “Green”. All green buildings have to get 5% of its energy from solar, have geothermal heating and cooling, all energy saver lights, and be made with recycled materials. The 5.5 million was not enough and as the Brooklyn view reported all of the bids came back way too high, around 7 million, and the project was stalled.

Senator Golden somehow cut a deal with the mayor for the rest of the money. Congrats.

Here is his press release:

State Senator Martin Golden, the Chairman of the New York State Senate Aging Committee, today is announcing that a contract has been awarded by the City of New York to build a new senior center in Marine Park and that ground will be broken on the construction this Spring.

Senator Marty Golden stated, “This is a great day for all the seniors in Marine Park who are on the brink of seeing the newest senior center in our City constructed right here in our own backyard. The seniors of Marine Park deserve the chance to have a better quality of life and to age with dignity. For many, senior centers become like second homes, so they deserve to be the very best.”

Golden continued, “I commend Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his administration for their commitment to this project and to our seniors. Working alongside former Councilman Herb Berman in the City Council, I saw his determination to build this center and today, this dream has been realized. I thank Councilman Fidler, Assemblyman Maisel, and others, for it is through our efforts that we will make Brooklyn an even better place to grow old.”

The funding for this project is a combination of New York State and New York City funding secured by the elected officials. Senator Golden, Councilman Fidler and Assemblyman Maisel demonstrated their strong commitment to this project by obtaining significant levels of funding to build a new, state of the art senior center in Marine Park.

Looks like the Brooklyn View picked up on our story. GerritsenBeach.net made the newspapers! We were mention and they even used my pictures, with permission of course. My plan to take over the world is slowly coming along.

Its a very Interesting read.

If you cant pick up a copy here is the article:

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Via the Brooklyn View(PDF Link)

By Edmund DeMarche

Three beaches that are prone to sewage runoff after torrential rain, similar to the storm Brooklyn endured last Wednesday, include Gerritsen Kiddie Beach, Manhattan Beach and the beach off Kingsborough Community College because of their locations, said a spokeswoman from the New York City Health Department.

Two sewage-processing plants that have this runoff include the one on Knapp Street in Sheepshead Bay and another in Bensonhurst, near Spumoni Gardens pizzeria.

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Remember Dr. Ron Biondo? He is the president of Manhattan Beach Civic association, that called beach goers “thugs” in an email. Now he is in some new hot water, this time with the DOB.

Dr. Ron Biondo and Judy Baron, members of the Manhattan Beach Civic Group, both live on Exeter Street in separate homes. Both homes have complaints that were issued on May 7, 2007.

Biondo had another complaint on June 12 and received a violation three days later. The work done did not conform to approved plans. The work dealt with a rear extension on his porch. Biondo needs to comply by August 1, or he will be issued a fine, according to the Department of Buildings. Biondo, however, intends to fight the matter in court.

No action was taken for either by the Department of Buildings.

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