#brooklyn news

[spongebobssquarepants]

[thebrainofmae]

My last post on this didn’t get a ton of traction so I’m trying again. The latest budget proposal for NYC includes a $58.3 million cut to public libraries.

Previous cuts forced NYC public libraries to close on Sundays, and this further round of cuts would likely force libraries to end weekend service entirely. Additionally, it would mean further cuts to programming and the indefinite delay of reopening libraries that have been closed for renovation, which would leave entire neighborhoods without a library.

There is a preliminary budget hearing on May 21, and until then libraries are asking people to sign a letter here to urge the mayor’s office and city council to reverse the cuts.

I know things are terrible in a lot of ways right now and people probably feel overwhelmed and burnt out, but signing this letter (or reblogging this post) is a small, quick, concrete way to make a difference.

[akajustmerry]

i'm going to start sitcom superiority discourse for a CAUSE!

WHICH OF THESE USA SITCOMS IS THE MOST INSUFFERABLE TO YOU?

please, share for sample size and to draw attention to Nesma's @nesmamomen GoFundMe! Share or donate and you'll help provide aid to and evacuate 13 members of her family trapped in Gaza. right now, winter is on the way and the tents are flooding. Nesma sent me these pictures yesterday.

At the time of writing Nesma's GoFundMe is around 35K from its goal. We all feel helpless and exhausted. But even sharing this post helps. The best cure for feeling like there's nothing you can do is to do something!

[katseyes]

Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 1

[byseanbrown]

[389]

[trendfilmsetter]

Andre Braugher; best known for portraying Frank Pembleton in HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET and Captain Ray Holt in BROOKLYN NINE-NINE has died at the age of 61.

[slugmorelz]

Brooklyn Army Terminal, NYC

7/12/24

[morsmoon]

there’s something so magical about sitcoms…..they bring me so much comfort….whoever invented sitcoms thank you for your service I literally don’t know what I’d do without them god bless

[notsoattractivearenti]

how i’m feeling today and probably the rest of my life:

RIP Andre Braugher. gone too soon but never forgotten. thank you for bringing Raymond Holt into our lives and beautifully portrayed a queer black man in power. i’ll always cherish you and Captain Holt in my heart 🤍🕊️

[cookinguptales]

You know... I had an experience about two months ago that I didn't talk about publicly, but I've been turning it over and over in my mind lately and I guess I'm finally able to put my unease into words.

So there's a podcast I'd been enjoying and right after I got caught up, they announced that they were planning on doing a live show. It's gonna be near me and on the day before my birthday and I thought -- hey, it's fate.

But... as many of you know, I'm disabled. For me, getting to a show like that has a lot of steps. One of those steps involved emailing the podcasters to ask about accessibility for the venue.

The response I got back was very quick and very brief. Essentially, it told me to contact the venue because they had no idea if it was accessible or not.

It was a bucket of cold water, and I had a hard time articulating at the time quite why it was so disheartening, but... I think I get it a little more now.

This is a podcast that has loudly spoken about inclusivity and diversity and all that jazz, but... I mean, it's easy to say that, isn't it? But just talking the talk without walking the walk isn't enough. That's like saying "sure, we will happily welcome you in our house -- if you can figure out how to unlock the door."

And friends, my lock-picking set is pretty good by this point. I've been scouting out locations for decades. I've had to research every goddamn classroom, field trip, and assigned bookstore that I've ever had in an academic setting. I've had to research every movie theater, theme park, and menu for every outing with friends or dates. I spend a long time painstakingly charting out accessible public transportation and potential places to sit down every time I leave the house.

Because when I was in college, my professors never made sure their lesson plans were accessible. (And I often had to argue with them to get the subpar accommodations I got.) Because my friends don't always know to get movie tickets for the accessible rows. Because my dates sometimes leave me on fucking read when I ask if we can go to a restaurant that doesn't keep its restrooms down a flight of stairs.

I had one professor who ever did research to see if I could do all the coursework she had planned, and who came up with alternate plans when she realized that I could not. Only one. It was a medical history and ethics class, and my professor sounded bewildered as she realized how difficult it is to plan your life when you're disabled.

This woman was straight-up one of the most thoughtful, philosophical, and ethical professors I've ever had, one who was incredibly devoted to diversity and inclusion -- and she'd never thought about it before, that the hospital archives she wanted us to visit were up a flight of stairs. That the medical museum full of disabled bodies she wanted us to visit only had a code-locked back entrance and an old freight elevator for their disabled guests who were still breathing.

And that's the crux of it, isn't it? It's easy to theoretically accept the existence of people who aren't like you. It's a lot harder to actively create a space in which they can exist by your side.

Because here's what I did before I contacted the podcasters. I googled the venue. I researched the neighborhood and contacted a friend who lives in the area to help me figure out if there were any accessible public transportation routes near there. (There aren't.) I planned for over an hour to figure out how close I could get before I had to shell out for an uber for the last leg of the trip.

Then I read through the venue's website. I looked through their main pages, through their FAQs to see if there was any mention of accessibility. No dice. I download their packet for clients and find out that, while the base building is accessible, the way that chairs/tables are set up for individual functions can make it inaccessible. So it's really up to who's hosting the show there.

So then and only then I contacted the podcasters. I asked if the floor plan was accessible. I asked if all the seats were accessible, or only some, and whether it was open seating or not. Would I need to show up early to get an accessible seat, or maybe make a reservation?

And... well, I got the one-sentence reply back that I described above. And that... god, it was really disheartening. I realized that they never even asked if their venues were accessible when they were booking the shows. I realized that they were unwilling to put in the work to learn the answers to questions that disabled attendees might have. I realized that they didn't care to find out if the building was accessible.

They didn't know and they didn't care. That, I think, is what took the wind out of my sails when they emailed me back. It's what made me decide that... yeah, I didn't really want to go through the trouble of finding an accessible route to the venue. I didn't want to have to pay an arm and a leg to hire a car to take me the last part of the journey. I didn't want to make myself frantic trying to figure out if I could do all that and still make the last train home.

If they didn't care, I guess I didn't either.

If they'd apologized and said that the only venue they could get was inaccessible, I actually would have understood. I know that small shows don't always get their pick of venues. I get it. I even would have understood if they'd been like "oh dang, I actually don't know -- but I'll find out."

But to be told that they didn't know and didn't intend to find out... oof. That one stung.

Because.... this is the thing. This is the thing. I may be good at it by now, but I'm so tired of picking locks. I'm tired of doing all the legwork because no one ever thinks to help me. I'm tired of feeling like an afterthought at best, or at worst utterly unwelcome.

If you truly want to be inclusive, you need to stop telling people that you're happy to have them -- if they can manage to unlock the door. You need to fucking open it yourself and welcome them in.

What brought all this back to me now, you may be asking? Well... I guess it's just what I was thinking to myself as I was tidying up my phone.

Today I'm deleting podcasts.

[kafkasapartment]

Painters on Brooklyn Bridge. 1914. Eugene De Salivignac. Silver print.

[eupat]

[byseanbrown]

[pearlprincess02]

new york 🗽

new york city, new york

capricorn sun, aries moon, libra rising with jupiter & juno & vesta in 1st house, capricorn mercury, sagittarius venus, sagittarius mars

element: fire 39% air 31%

dominant planets: jupiter & sun & venus

dominant sign & house: sagittarius / libra & 3rd house

manhattan, new york city

taurus sun, capricorn moon, cancer rising, gemini mercury, taurus venus, cancer mars

element: earth 46%

dominant planets: moon & venus & mercury

dominant sign & house: cancer / taurus & 11th house

brooklyn, new york city

cancer sun, aquarius moon, libra rising with neptune in 1st house, cancer mercury, leo venus, libra mars

element: air 39%

dominant planets: venus & saturn & mars

dominant sign & house: libra & 9th/10th house

the bronx, new york city

leo sun, leo moon, taurus rising with pluto & ceres & pallas in 1st house, cancer mercury, virgo venus, leo mars

element: fire 35%

dominant planets: sun & pluto & mars

dominant sign & house: leo & 4th house

do you share any placements with these boroughs in new york city 🏙🍎 ? check your astrocartography chart to see how you'll do in these cities 🗽🍕🚕

all observations are done by me !!! @pearlprincess02

main masterlist

[i-am-aprl]

Not numbers.. The names of 8,000 children killed in the genocide were displayed on the wall of the Opera House in Brooklyn, New York, in solidarity with Gaza.