Check out a very cool picture I took 3 weeks ago of the change of seasons:
http://community.livejournal.com/urban_nature/185600.html

Today's sign photo, taken near stairs to a C-train station in Brooklyn:

On the front door of the card shop:


Inside:

An unrelated picture, to get today's sign done, since I'll be very busy later:

It might be a direct translation; I'm not certain, but the 2 characters in the upper right corner are the same as the starts of several lines in an Arabic handout I have for a personal hygiene checklist.

( Continuation of the bittersweet saga of the cats out back )

Fortunately, it's been a quiet week in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, and what I have learned is being called Ocean Hill rather than the northern edge of Brownsville. It is still the same neighborhood no matter what they call it.

Monday July 28 -- page 8 2 cops say they will file a federal lawsuit against the NYPD because of racial harassment
This is a Google map of their precinct house.I once had to go there with my boss and his boss to get a police escort to a place in Bushwick that repeatedly failed and then repeatedly refused reinspection. My brother craig732 had gone with me and my boss once before that when I requested and was denied a third person, since the guy and his cronies were a bit intimidating with two of us. The guy eventually went to jail twice for contempt of a court order to close up and clean up before he switched it to his cousin's name and did some renovation.

Tuesday July 29 -- page 8 2 employees at an East New York baking plant say thiey will file a lawsuit against The Cake Man for unpaid overtime
This is a Google map of the Cake Man Raven retail bake shop about 3 blocks from our regional office. This is in the nice zip code that I used to inspect. I once went in there, found out how much they charged for a slice of cake and also found that the attitude there that day was not commensurate with the prices charged, and walked out. The Marquet Patisserie is a block away and suits me just fine.

Wednesday July 30 and Thursday July 31 -- no news is good news

Friday August 1 -- again no crime; first mention is page 49 "What to Do This Weekend" Cosmo Baker, DJ Eleven, DJ Ayres, and DJ Rich Medina perform tonight (Saturday) at 10, also in my nice former zip code, at 125 Fifth Ave

Saturday August 2 -- page 16 In the Annual Demonstration of NYC Breastfeeding Promotion Leadership Committee 2 dozen mothers breastfed on the A train going from Bronx to Brooklyn. I rode the A train into Brooklyn, but am glad I took the 3 and 4 trains coming back. I have enough trouble with the people who ride the train without media attention.

You may have heard that the MTA wants to run trains where 4 out of 10 cars (on those lines with 10-car trains) will have no seats at all during rush hour, so they can pack us in. The seats will be folded up during rush hour and locked that way by staff. This stroke of brilliance to prevent delays by fitting more people into a car and getting people on and off more quickly will be sure to cause more delays as people faint in the cars. All you need is one medical call and miles of train tracks are backed up.

I doubt this will fly very far. People want to sit. In the past week, I have observed people sitting immediately next to:
- at least 2 different people who obviously needed medication adjustment
- at least 2 dozen different people who obviously needed deodorant adjustment
- a toddler that screamed and fought with his mother for over 15 minutes

If people didn't really want to sit down that badly, there would be empty seats around these folks. It takes visible urine or flies circling around a homeless person before people would rather stand. I predict this goes the way of the proposed ban on eating and drinking on the trains.