Free Rent

Re-posted from New York Shitty:

Calling All Disgruntled North Brooklyn Renters!
May 28th, 2009

Rental Hell
Your golden silver parachute has come!

Jenny wrote: I’m trying to forward you a cool email that I got from the Working Families party about a video contest to tell stories of “renters’ hell,” but it keeps being labeled “spam.” Any workaround?

We worked it out and here’s the deal. Per the Working Families Party website:

We’re holding our first ever video contest, where you have a chance to win a month’s free rent just by telling your rental hell story on camera. You’ll also be raising awareness about an important issue that affects millions of New Yorkers: the need for stronger rent laws.

Everyone who has ever rented has a story: rent increases, broken heating and cold showers, new owners trying to break your lease, that one bedroom next door rented to four budget conscious students, or waking up to discover that you(r) building is turning into an illegal hotel.

We know it was awful, and we’re sorry. But guess what? There could be a silver-lining! The Working Families Party is teaming up with millions of renters across New York City for the first ever video contest highlighting Rental Hell.

Entering the contest is easy:

1. Tell your story on camera.
2. Upload it to Youtube and tag it with “Rental Hell”.
3. Fill out our entry form.

What’s more, you can win one month’s free rent up to $1,999— or whatever your monthly rent is! Be advised your video must be between 30 seconds and five minutes. You can peruse the complete rules and regulations for this contest by clicking here. The deadline is June 6th— so start grousing!

To close on a distinctly Greenpoint note, I would strongly advise anyone who resided at 156 India Street (or resided at 95 Clay Street for that matter) to enter this contest.

Miss Heather

Gentle readers, I received the same e-mail from the Working Families party in my inbox, as well. And, while I thought about entering (a month's rent sure would help out the unemployed MatchGirl), I'm just not sure. And, to be honest, as lame as my landlady may be, I know there are a lot of people in the area, North Brooklyn to be sure, who are a lot worse off than me. Sure, I've only seen my landlord three times in five years. Sure, every time it rains I have to put three buckets down to catch the water. Sure, it took me 8 months to get the moldy ceiling tiles replaced. Sure, I lose hot water every month or so for a couple of days because my landlady doesn't pay the bills. And, all that said, I know that there are a ton of people who have it so much worse.

Pony Up

What better way to raise a little money for charity than by betting on the ponies?

Check out Brooklyn Based for all the information about this fun fundraiser, with money going to Just Food.

Sexy Pasta

Everyone loves a good plate of pasta. And it's one of the indulgences in which we poor, unemployed people can still partake. Pasta is cheap. You can put anything on it. It's really hard to mess it up.

Many years ago, a lifetime really, a former roommate of MatchGirl found a recipe for a post-coital pasta sauce in Cosmo and passed it along. To the best of my recollection (it was a lifetime ago to be fair), it involved a salsa-like mix of ingredients and a splash of vodka - a cream-less, cook-less vodka sauce.

Arriving home from what turned out to be an amazing weekend on Sunday night, I was starving - craving real sustenance. It was also about 80 degrees once the sun went down, so I wasn't really feeling like cooking. After a careful inspection of the cupboards and after thinking about this Cosmo pasta from long long ago, I decided to try my hand at it. I Googled, but found nothing but that thick and creamy Vodka sauce that is so very all-American and so very not what I wanted on a hot night in May.

So I made it up as I went along (which is half the fun of cooking, anyway!).

Here's what I came up with:
1 can of diced tomatoes (use fresh if you have them, halved grape tomatoes would be super tasty in this)
1 very small red onion, diced small
3 cloves garlic (use less if you do not <3 garlic as I do)
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
a little fresh basil
scant 1/4 cup vodka
1/2 box of ridged ziti (or other pasta that takes a hearty sauce well), cooked

Make the salsa-y sauce in a big bowl, make the pasta and toss it all together
So simple
So filling
SO CHEAP

And while I ate this particular batch by myself, it certainly would be simple and yummy as post-coital summertime meal on one of those long, lazy afternoons ...

Volunteer Brooklyn

This info came to my from my college friend Miriam today:

Hi Y'all,
Thought you might be interested in this.
Love,
Miriam

WHO: YOU! We are sounding the call for volunteers!

WHAT: Brooklyn Food Summer ’09: Empower Brooklyn residents by supporting them in overcoming challenges to food access and affordability!

WHEN: Ongoing, beginning June 1

WHERE: Brooklyn neighborhoods where residents lack access to healthy food.

WHY: Brooklyn faces a health crisis of rising obesity and diabetes among children and adults. These diet-related diseases disproportionately affect certain neighborhoods where residents lack access to healthy food. Though there is sufficient healthy, culturally appropriate food available to serve all Brooklyn residents, this food in not getting onto the tables and into the bellies of many Brooklynites.

HOW: Sign up to volunteer at
http://www.brooklynhealthyfoodcampaign.org/fs_volunteerrls.html
or read on for more details…


A BIT ABOUT WHO WE ARE

Brooklyn Food Summer ‘09 is an all-volunteer initiative of the Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign (BHFC). The BHFC is a partnership of City and State governments, citywide service providers, grassroots organizations, and concerned citizens. We are committed to improving community health and food security, and to supporting neighborhood economies through locally spent food dollars, in the Borough of Brooklyn. This summer, these groups are joining forces to apply technical expertise, agency resources, and grassroots community organizing to make strides towards this vision.

Goals and Activities

The 8-week Brooklyn Food Summer ‘09 campaign will help Brooklyn residents overcome challenges to food access and affordability, and empower them to speak with both their voices and dollars to demand healthy food options in their neighborhoods. "

HOW YOU CAN HELP - VOLUNTEER POSITIONS

Community Food Ambassadors

The Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign seeks volunteers to participate in its Community Food Ambassadors Training Program. The Community Food Ambassador Program trains community volunteers to talk with their neighbors about the overall connections between our local food system and the health of our communities; how to help our neighbors get public benefits through programs that support employment, boost the City’s economy, and improve food and economic security; and how we can work together to increase access borough-wide to fresh, affordable nutrient-dense food.



Commitment:
Complete 1.5 hours of outreach and education training.
Attend 3 to 5 events in targeted communities between the months of July and August (Approximate time commitment is 15-20 hours.).
Conduct surveys to measure knowledge of healthy food options in targeted communities.
Be responsible for maintaining and reproducing neighborhood specific educational outreach materials.
Maintain contact information of community members interested in working with the campaign.


Food Stamps/Food Cards Benefits Pre-Screening Specialists

The Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign seeks volunteers to participate in its Food Stamps/Food Card (EBT) Benefits Pre-Screening Specialists Training Program. Currently somewhere between 300,000 to 600,000 Brooklyn residents are eligible to receive Food Stamp/Food Card (EBT) benefits, but are not yet enrolled. The Food Stamp/Food Card (EBT) Benefits Pre-Screening Specialists Training Program will train 60 community volunteers to support and increase the capacity of 10 sites actively conducting pre-screenings in Brooklyn in an effort to raise enrollment rates of eligible neighbors and improve their access to fresh, affordable nutrient-dense food.

Commitment:

- Complete a 1- Day training in conducting pre-screenings for enrollment to receive Food Stamps/Food Card (EBT) Benefits. Choose from the following dates: June 8, 9 or 10
- Volunteer 1 to 2 days a week at one of the 10 pre-screening sites from July through August.

Food Summer Behind the Scenes Support

For volunteers excited to be a part of the Brooklyn Food Summer Campaign, who are unable to make the commitment to being a Community Food Ambassador or a Pre-Screening Specialist, we invite you to join our Behind the Scenes Support team. We are looking for folks with a wide range of skills and interest to support the campaign from researchers, writers, editors, graphic and website designers, photographers to you fill-in-the-blank. Let us know how you would like to help and we’ll find a role for you.

Commitment:

- Attend monthly planning meetings
- Serve as a member of a sub-committee
- Minimum of 10-15 hours

Apply online now at: http://www.brooklynhealthyfoodcampaign.org/fs_volunteerapp.html

Cheap Stuff

Everyone is all about the "recession" specials.
I myself, being an unemployed girl, have been keeping a close eye on all of these deals.
Today, in MatchGirl's inbox, gentle readers, Daily Candy had a few prime deals. Below are those specific to New York, but if you check out their website, there are deals everywhere.

NEW YORK | May 22, 2009

Ten-der Is the Night
Good Stuff Under Ten Bucks


Hear ye, gather round the old town crier
Village idiots, antics, and sages.
Unwaged locals, bankers under fire
Ye may be broke, but ’tis not Dark Ages.

See ye not where ten golden coins suffice?
Recession’s lease hath all too short a date
Petraske’s perfect cocktails over ice.
Thou art now seven bucks and temperate.¹

Here are the treasures of thy lusty days
Bring round with you fun party elements
Kiosk’s yo-yo balloons earn thrifty praise
Staches to go for seven hundred cents.²

Sit prince-like on the rooftops of Fort Greene
Nine-dollar docs under the starry sky
On Sundays, half past six, you’re free to screen
Surf flicks at Tribeca Grand come July.³

Fine feasting doth come cheap on city streets
Tight gourmands chase the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck
Hark! Messenger birds update via Tweets
Feed thine own self on dumplings for nine bucks.

Music, culture, art go on a diet
So once again you can be filled with life
New Museum’s Button Retard Riot
Costs two bucks — not bad if thou hath strife.

¹ Recession Cocktail Hour, daily, 6-9 p.m., at White Star (21 Essex Street; 212-995-5464); daily, 7-10 p.m., at East Side Company Bar (49 Essex Street; 212-614-7408).
² Facial hair is more fun with friends at Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store (365 State Street; 718-522-9848).
³ Popcorn included for all complimentary Sunday-night screenings at Tribeca Grand (2 Sixth Avenue; 212-519-6600).

People always talk about how expensive New York is ... and it is. But suddenly everything costs less. Due to the economic downturn, everyone says, even the most luxury of brands has to fight for the consumer. Even the wealthy are tightening purse strings. But, New York still has one of the greatest disparities amongst the classes. While these deals are great for the formerly comfortable and the formerly well-to-do, who are now a little less than comfortable (MatchGirl, herself is in the less than comfortable category, as she was barely comfortable to begin with) and still well-to-do but pulling the kiddies out of Brearley, let's all remember to take a step back an remember that New York, especially the outer burroughs, has a lot of people living below the poverty line. Or barely scraping by.

I'm not saying I am against consumerism. I'm not. I worked high end retail for most of my adult life and I love beautiful things. There is no denying that. But I am entirely against spending above and beyond one's means. Who one is is not about what they own.

Real status is in who you are. Not what you can buy.
(And maybe if people remembered that, we wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place).

Sign Of The Times

Apts and Lofts (dot) Com Real Estate Office
Bedford Avenue, between N 8 and 9 (I think), Williamsburg

It's for rent - you could probably get a great deal on it

Recession Stories

Some journalism students at Columbia have put together a website about how the recession (ahem, depression) is affecting a variety of New Yorkers. Interesting interview on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Their website, video interviews with lots of affected New Yorkers, here.