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Michael Rakowitz unsealed the 10 boxes of palm dates from Iraq and stared.
He had waited five long months for this moment, after battling bureaucracy in what began as a politically charged art project and ended as a labor of love. So would he taste one of these dates, a sweet memory of his childhood as an Iraqi Jew in New York and a bitter symbol of his family’s war-torn homeland?
No, he said, as he fought tears, “They’re not for me.”
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Assemblyman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) really knows how to bring home the bacon.
Lentol, the influential chairman of the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Codes and leader of the chamber’s Brooklyn delegation, secured a total $11.2 million in controversial funding allotments known among lawmakers as “member items,” according to data released by the Assembly.
Not even Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) can top that. Silver — one of state’s most powerful politicians and the man responsible for doling out the funds to Assembly members — roped in $8.7 million. More »
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They are the ghosts of East Harlem: Amid the construction of luxury condominiums and renovation of tenements are makeshift memorials to two murder victims slain on the same block. Candles and fresh flowers accompany photos. Messages on paper or on walls bid farewell. Alejandro Almonte became the latest victim Dec. 1 when a junkie slashed his throat after the hard-working porter refused to give him money, authorities said.
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Andrew GreinerNYCity News Service
ICE DREAMS: Plans are afoot to use the long-dry McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn for winter skating. Lasker Pool in Central Park already has a seasonal rink (pictured).
It looks like the first water to fill McCarren Park Pool in decades will be of the frozen variety: The City Council has ponied up $300,000 to help turn the Greenpoint swimming hole into a part-time skating rink.
WEDDED MISS: The departure of Brooklyn wedding dress emporium Kleinfeld has hurt other bridal businesses on Fifth Ave.
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The Atlantic Yards development will cast shadows over a longtime community garden, a state report has found, confirming fears of local residents concerned their oasis will lose sunlight. “It will change forever how we are able to garden here,” said Jon Crow, coordinator of the Brooklyn Bears Pacific Street Community Garden since 1985, and an opponent to the development. Read more
Almond croissants, black and white pudding, huevos rancheros, halwah poori and sweet bean curd.Welcome to breakfast along the No. 7 train line. More »
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The city is withholding $90,000 from a Business Improvement District (BID) in the heart of the surging South Bronx, arguing the group did not follow proper procedure in choosing its executive director. Local merchants counter that the city is trying to control the BID, located in the shadows of three major development projects: the new $1 billion Yankee Stadium, the planned $500 million Gateway Center retail complex and the new $400 million Bronx criminal courthouse. More »
 AUDIO REPORT: Tango, the Argentinean dance, has found an unlikely home in a Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village, attracting a multi-cultural, multi-generational crowd. Ana Toro reports on this only-in-New-York scene.
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On Friday nights, tango moves out of its Argentinean confines and into a comfy little Ukrainian restaurant in the East Village, aptly named The East Village Ukrainian Restaurant.
There, a group gathers off to the side of the restaurant to dance and listen to the music. These milongas, as the tango parties are called, attract a variety of folks.
One cold February night, there was a former New York Knicks dancer, Rebecca, with her Wall Street-type boyfriend, Steve; couples from France who could speak very little English but were eager to talk about their love for tango; another couple, Ivan and Sara, who met dancing tango, as well as first-timers from the former Yugoslavia and long-time tango lovers from Argentina and Ecuador.
They all have their own reasons for gathering at the milonga. Some want to make new friends and do something out of the ordinary; others just want to dance the night away.
Listen to the sounds of tango and the voices of the dancers as they tell the story of how they ended up in an East Village Ukrainian restaurant dancing to Argentinean music surrounded by people from all over the world.
