Community Magazine January 2009

100 Community magazine Life in the Big City Store Pulls Anti-Semitic Sunflowers Achain of Brooklyn stores is in hot water after they were discov- ered to be stocking and selling packages of roasted sunflower seeds featuring a caricature of a greedy-and-sinister-looking Jew on the label. Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) and New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson denounced the company selling the seeds. The seed label reads, “Shalom, from Israel” and includes a slang phrase meaning “spit them out everywhere,” alluding to “dirty Jews.” Hikind accused the store of being a complicit partner in the dissemination of hatred against Jews. At three of the four Brooklyn locations, consumers who spent $50 or more were given the package of seeds as a promotional gift. The seeds are produced in Russia by Kremlin Kitchen. The store announced that all packages have been pulled from the shelves in all four stores. – CORRESPONDENT DAVE GORDON MTA Launches Text Messaging & Email Alert System The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has launched an email and text messaging system that will notify registered customers of planned and unplanned service changes at any of the MTA’s transportation agencies. The system is a direct response to a key recommendation in the MTA’s report on the storm of August 8, 2007, which raised awareness of the need for increased com- munication during large-scale service disruptions. Using the MTA’s website, customers can register to receive, at their frequency of choice, alerts about any combination of subway lines, bus routes, rail lines, bridges or tunnels. This initiative builds upon years of experience of Metro-North Railroad and the Long Island Railroad in sending email messages notifying customers about service disruptions, and New York City Transit’s experience in providing weekly email updates about service changes caused by track work. – CM STAFF Job Placement Services Grow Workforce1 Career Centers, which provide job placement services to NYC residents, is set to match last year’s record of over 17,000 job placements, which marked a dramatic increase from the annual average of 600 placements before the creation of these centers. In response to the current economic crisis, plans are in place to increase availability of services by extending evening and weekend hours. The Centers offer job placement, personalized career counsel- ing, advice on how to interview for a job, assistance in creating resumes, help preparing for a job, and GED and ESL classes. The Centers’ expansion is one of 18 initiatives launched by Mayor Bloomberg to help New Yorkers during this period of financial hardship. Call 311 for more information. – CORRESPONDENT DAVE GORDON NYC’s Lowest Gas Prices? Brooklyn Brooklyn isn’t paying what other New Yorkers are for gas, according to www.GasBuddy.com, a website that monitors fuel costs nationwide. On average, Brooklyn’s prices from mid- October through mid-November beat out other boroughs by an average of $0.05-$0.15 cents, though there were times when they were the same. The lower prices in Brooklyn are due to the large number of gas stations in the borough, which results in heavy competition. Gas stations in less-affluent neighborhoods tend to have the cheapest prices. Some of the lowest-priced pumps in Brooklyn include a Hess station in Bushwick and an Emporium station in East New York. – CORRESPONDENT DAVE GORDON Mayor Signs Felder’s Meter Bill A new law, set to take effect March 1, will allow motorists to park at a broken meter for the full length of time otherwise allowed in the parking zone. Currently, drivers can park at a miss- ing parking meter up to the amount of time normally allowed at that parking zone, but only for one hour at a broken meter. Nearly 40,000 tickets were given last year for parking for more than one hour at a broken parking meter. “Most people have no idea that they are only allowed to park at a broken meter for an hour, and that results in confusion, unfair parking tickets, and anger,” said Councilman Simcha Felder(D- Brooklyn). “Anything we can do to cut down on the number of unfair parking tickets issued by the City is a step in the right direction.” – CM STAFF  ” 