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By Tom Allon

Brooklyn Daily

Look up the definition of co-dependant in the dictionary and it indicates an unhealthy relationship between two people that is dysfunctional, leads to abusive behavior, and is just plain-old bad for both parties.

I can’t think of a better word to describe Donald Trump’s budding romance with the media. They really need each other, they make each other act more boorishly, and no matter how much they profess to try, they just can’t quit each other.

I also realize that just by writing this column I am falling into the same trap as the rest of the media. But I believe that by looking at this honestly and exploring its destructive nature, we can come up with ways to stop giving Trump — and other demagogues like Ted Cruz — the attention they need to advance.

In fact, I believe that former CNN anchor Campbell Brown had a good idea recently when she implored her former colleagues to ignore Trump for at least one week. I am certain if that happened, the air would start leaking out of his campaign balloon. But, of course, that seems incredibly unlikely, so we need to understand the problem and how it is wrecking our country.

Sure, there are some pundits on MSNBC or writing for the Daily Beast or the editorial pages of the New York Times who detest The Donald and all he stands for. But they still write about and broadcast him 24-7. This unhealthy relationship is having a pernicious effect on our political discourse.

Chris Matthews, the MSNBC talk show host, loudly admonishes Trump on his show and puts down his supporters. He is so outraged! In fact, he is so mad that one night recently he pre-empted his own show and aired a one-hour documentary with warmed-over stories about the most covered man in media history.

That’ll show him.

I’m just waiting for some cynical cable television mogul to introduce a 24-hour Trump television network. Kind of like what’s happened to VH1 with the Kardashians.

In every dark cloud, though, there is a potential silver lining. As Mark Twain once said of himself, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” And so, too, the death of media — one of those self-destructive solipsistic memes we have heard for more than a decade — has been greatly exaggerated because it has found a savior.

For now.

But like many false messiahs, the short-term ratings gains made by the media in 2016 will come at far too great a cost: a degeneration into the crass, boorish, and sensationalistic. Readers and viewers — many of whom have already fled tabloid newspapers and broadcast media — may wake up in 2017 with such a hangover that they swear never to go near the cable dial again.

You can channel surf all you want on the Sunday morning talk shows, but I guarantee you won’t have a Trump-free five-minute reprieve. He’s catnip for the feline broadcasters who need him. They are preying on a mousy public that keeps on thinking: Will Trump crash and burn this time or will he continue to glide along like a large float in the Thanksgiving Parade that makes him appear larger than life?

I’ve been trying to puzzle over this phenomenon recently and I think I’ve partially figured it out. Politics and policy is generally very predictable stuff. The Dems want more government, more programs to help the needy, more help for the middle class, more equal rights for women, gays, transgenders, and all underdog subgroups of our population.

The Republicans, well, they want the opposite of all the above. As Ted Cruz, Trump’s main GOP rival and a modern-day Joe McCarthy, would say: We want people to have as many guns as they want and we want the government to leave us alone. Except when it come to abortion. Or gay marriage. On those, we want the government to invade your doctor’s office or your bedroom.

I recently heard a great Cruz put-down by one of his former colleagues: “Why is Cruz so immediately disliked by those who meet him? It saves time.”

Well, against Cruz at least, time is on Donald Trump’s side. I think.

As is the media, it seems.

To those who make their living covering the news: don’t fall for this circus trick. You may get a sugar high now, but the ultimate crash and burn will do long-lasting damage.

Tom Allon, the president of City & State, NY, was a candidate for Mayor in 2013. He can be reached at tallon@cityandstateny.com.

Comment on this story.

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Brooklyn Daily

To the editor,

Thanks to your reporter, Dennis Lynch, for his follow up on my letter regarding the Gowanus-Belt merge (“Gowanus Distressway: Signs still wack after promised fix,” online Dec. 14, 2015). It was a serious accident waiting to happen.

He contacted the state Department of Transportation, which I am sure was not easy, and got positive results. The signage is much better.

State officials also said in the article they will be back at a later time to enhance these changes. That makes me wonder, but will hope for the best. Thanks again, Dennis.

Richie Hecht

Bay Ridge

Abruzzo’s avenger

To the editor,

I was taken aback at the obvious pro-Muslim stance of M. Muthana’s letter (“Assault on Abruzzo,” Sound Off to the Editor, Jan. 15), responding to Shavana Abruzzo’s column “Christians make the world a better place” (A Britisher’s View, Dec. 25, 2015). There are all too many inaccuracies, which cry for a response.

The most ignorant of statements were that during World War II Christians killed the six million Jews. My friend, when you truly learn history you’ll see that during the Reich if one were a Christian, they and their families were ostracized from the Nazi Party. The ones who murdered the six million Jews along with millions of Christians (rarely reported) were also put to death by Der Furher’s henchmen. Men who gave up their beliefs to pledge allegiance to a madman! I seriously doubt that Adolph Eichmann went to church after these events.

I visited the death camps in Dachau and saw two large mass graves. One single stone grave marker with the star of David hovers where the “countless number of bodies” of the Jews are buried. The other area contains a simple stone cross where “countless numbers of Christians” are buried.

The Reich couldn’t care if people were Jews, gays, Christian; they were put to death as they were perceived a threat to the party. Stalin and his atheist communist party carried out this same tradition of death. More than 54 million people, Christians and Jews alike, met their fate at the end of a gun.

I invite M. Muthana to venture into the 21st century where his or her brothers, practicing the “religion of peace,” ply the barbaric beheadings, shootings, torture, and maiming of non-believers. Maybe Muthana should take up residence there, amongst the rubble they love to live in, to see first hand how wonderfully accepting and loving these people truly are. No religion is perfect, though in our modern times, to do what is being done in the name of their god, is unforgivable.

The recent visit to the Americas by Pope Francis brought out tens of millions of people of every religion, in peace and brotherhood. A true change of your attitude that Christians are bloodthirsty warmongers is warranted.

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

•••

To the editor,

In “Christians make the world a better place,” Shavana Abruzzo says many things which aren’t totally accurate. She says Christianity has set the “standard for ethics, morality, and freedom of worship.”

During the Inquisition the Catholic Church tortured people, forcing them to convert to Christianity. During the Crusades Christians, sometimes with the pope himself, went to the Holy Land to kill Jews and Muslims, whom they considered infidels. In 1492 Jews were expelled from Spain or had to convert to Christianity. After the Holocaust thousands of survivors were returning to their homes in Poland. Christians had moved into their homes when they were taken away. They didn’t want to give up these houses. When they saw Jewish men, women, and children approaching, they went out with a shovel and bashed in their heads, took off their clothes, and knocked out gold from their teeth. Then they threw the naked bodies into a stream. I learned about this from a documentary on Channel 13.

What about the Magdelene laundries? They were run by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Girls and young women were taken there to repent for sins, such as looking at a man. The church needed people to work in the laundries, so many trivial things were considered sins. They worked very hard with no pay, many worked very hard and died there. They were buried on the grounds of the laundries. These laundries existed for many years. I saw a documentary about this on Channel 13. There was also a movie in theaters about this.

Then there are priests who were sexually molesting young boys for decades. The movie “Spotlight,” which is in theaters now, deals with this. In 2011 the Catholic Church admitted priests in 23 countries have been sexually abusing nuns for years. In return the nuns could be sent to the diocese of their choice. Some after getting pregnant were urged by the priests to get an abortion.

Christians have done good things, but they aren’t unblemished. Shav praises Christianity to the hilt, but she forgets Jesus was a Jew. There were no Christians then. Christianity began many years after his death.Jerome Frank

Coney Island

Life 101

To the editor,

I am still shaking my head in disbelief after reading recent reports about what it takes to be suspended from a city high school.

I am a product of the parochial school system from kindergarten through high school in the 1960s and early 1970s. I grew up in Brooklyn and still reside here today. I was never arrested mainly because throughout my 12 years of Catholic school there were consequences for bad behavior. If you were caught breaking the rules while in school, you would be punished (detention, punish lesson, the paddle etc.). That was while you were in school, administered by the teacher, usually at that time a nun or a brother.

You would also get a letter home, but this letter was not to have you discuss the matter with your parents — there was nothing to discuss. Your teacher was never questioned, you were wrong and would get punished again, and it was never staying in your room for a couple of days with no television or no video games because we didn’t even have them to begin with.

If you went home with that letter, first you would be afraid to show it to your parents, very afraid. After your mom read what you did, the look you got from her was like you just disgraced the whole family and family name, forever. Then you would hear, “Wait until your father gets home!” Yes, back then, almost everyone had a father living home with you unless he was dead. That was enough punishment right there, the hours that seemed like days or forever before he finally walked in the door.

Of course the wait wasn’t over yet. You would have to wait until after he ate his dinner before mom would tell him what you did to get this letter home from school. Then whatever you got in school from the teacher you would get again from you father. The point is there was accountability for your small infractions when you were a kid in school and out of school, which in most cases kept kids on the straight and narrow path to become law-abiding citizens, and also have respect for the rules and for the law.

What’s going on these days in and out of the schools is a recipe for disaster. There is a lot of blame to go around from the parent who says “not my child.” Of course not, it’s never your child’s fault, it was probably the teacher who always blames him or her for everything or the cop who always stops and harasses him or her all for no reason at all. Maybe your little Jane or Johnny is no angel (or no devil either at that young age while in school), but those little things that are constantly overlooked get bigger and bigger until they are too big for you to handle, so the law handles it for you, and your little angel is now behind bars if he or she is lucky, or in a gang or dead if he or she is not.

Nip it in the bud before it becomes out of control, and little Jane and Johnny wish they were punished while they were just kids in school for the little infractions that would have taught them right from wrong. Let them learn they are accountable for their actions throughout their lives and the letter you receive is from someone praising them and not from his parole officer.

Ernesto Cavalier

Flatlands

Cruz bruise

To the editor,

The disparaging comments about New York by Ted Cruz in last week’s Republican presidential debate were dissappointing. We must work to create a two-party town by demonstrating to voters the benefits of core Republican principles, like school choice, accountability in government, and policies that promote job growth.

This is the message Ted Cruz should have delivered. We cannot just give up New York to liberalism.

Bob Capano

Bay Ridge

Sean Penn-alty

To the editor,

Sean Penn who was never a stranger to controversy really crossed the line meeting with El Chapo. I’m not a lawyer, but this egomaniac had to break some serious laws interviewing probably the biggest drug kingpin on the world, not to mention the thousands of murders and thousands of families destroyed because of his greed and complete disregard for human life. They don’t get much worse than this monster.

I guess Sean Penn would also have met with Osama bin Laden after he killed thousands of innocent people on 9-11, and promised not tell authorities where he could be found so that he could get the interview and movie deal of his life. I guess fame and fortune is more important to El Chapo and “El Pompous Culo” than life itself.

Maureen Parker

Gravesend

‘Bulldoze’ Brownsville

To the editor,

I’ve been living in Brooklyn in and around the Brownsville section for nearly 35 years. This neighborhood is terrible. I’ve heard stories about how many years ago this was a great place to live with some of the best shopping anywhere. Brownsville was a predominately Jewish neighborhood for many years, made up of hard-working, poor residents.

This neighborhood like most others always had a criminal element, but nothing like it is today. This small area — the birthplace of Murder Inc., — is full of public housing that is also full of gangs, drugs, guns, and crime. Young people in this area don’t have much of a chance of living a peaceful or long life. Either the gangs or the drugs will get you at a young age, and hold onto you until you’re either in jail or six feet under.

I wonder what the heck is going on here. Everyday there are gunfights, rapes, robberies, no respect for anyone, especially not for anyone in authority — not for teachers, not for cops, not for neighbors, not for friends, not for family, not even for themselves.

The only thing to do in this area would be to bulldoze it and make a cemetery out of it, as a reminder to everyone around here that the people who lived here killed a neighborhood and everyone in it.

Shanequa Johnson

Crown Heights

STEM ed

To the editor,

I applaud the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in South Korea for taking the steps to promote S.T.E.M. Education to the students in the Far East District in South Korea (“Sparking Engineering Interest in Kids,” Jan. 15).

As educators we are always looking for ways to empower our youth. I came across a wonderful quote by Michael J. Fox that really gives meaning to the word educate: “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

All students learn differently. You have verbal-linguistic, word-smart learners. These students learn best through reading, writing, listening, and speaking. You have the logical-mathematical learners. These students learn best by classifying, categorizing, and thinking abstractly about patterns and numbers. You have the visual-spatial, picture-smart learners that excel at drawing and visualizing things. You have the auditory-musical students that thrive on singing and listening to music. You have the bodily-kinesthetic learners that do extremely well when they work with their hands. You have the interpersonal learners that learn through relating to others and sharing ideas. You have the intrapersonal- intelligent students that work best alone, setting up their own goals. You have the naturalistic learners that love working with nature. These students excel in the sciences and are very passionate about our environment.

Let’s model the success of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and collaborate with its north Atlantic division at Fort Hamilton to help empower Brooklyn students and map out a plan for STEM education initiatives in our local schools. We need outside resources — such as the Office of Naval Research, and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers — to help explore and discover education leading to successful career opportunities in the army and navy.

Scott Krivitsky

The author is a teacher at PS 188 in Coney island.

English first

To the editor,

Jeez, it is bad enough that whenever I go into stores and into the subway I see all signs in English and Spanish. Now I’m seeing Spanish as first choice for a comic strip’s language, and English is written below the strip in fine print.

Jump Start in the Daily News is the comic I am referring to. What a bummer! Stop this baloney now. Why are you kowtowing to those who refuse to learn English? Do not grovel to non-English speakers, nor be servile to them. Thirty-one states have made English their official language. I’m sorry to say that New York still has not done this.

When I buy an English-language newspaper, and have done so since the 1950s when my dad was a linotype operator at the Daily News, I do not expect — and absolutely object — to seeing a daily cartoon written in Spanish. This upsets me to no end, seeing this as I am eating my breakfast. If this intrusion continues, I will be ending my “lifetime subscription” to New York’s hometown paper. That is a promise. Cross my heart.

The Courier (a weekly and delivered neighborhhood newspaper) suits me fine!

Joan Applepie

Mill Basin

Nuke mook

To the editor,

So now it’s the little fat guy with the bad haircut from North Korea trying to shakedown America by pounding his chest like a gorilla to show his strength so he doesn’t have to fight another gorilla. We used to call this “selling woof tickets” when we were kids growing up in Brooklyn — it was all for show.

Obviously President Obama, who is said to be a poker player, probably isn’t a very good one because he can be bluffed over and over again. I doubt Obama ever read Trumps’ book “Art of the Deal” or Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” a book written more than 2,000 years ago, and still used today by generals and leaders all over the world. Obama telegraphs his intentions to our enemies, telling them when we are sending troops and when we are leaving, complete with date and time. He traded five hardened terrorists for Bowe Bergdahl, a deserter whom he praised and who is now being court marshaled.

Obama made a deal with the devils of Iran, a country whose mantra is “Death to America,” giving them billions of dollars and withdrawing sanctions so they won’t continue making a nuclear bomb. They went back on their word and broke the agreement before the ink was even dry. So now the little fat guy with the bad haircut is going to see what he can get from Obama, like some other tyrants will certainly be doing soon because they only have about another year before he leaves office. They have to work fast, but they also know that if the new president has some cojones, like a Trump for instance, they will be out of luck.

Let’s not forget Iran held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration. Jimmy Carter — a good, decent and very intelligent man, but a poor president in many ways — wasn’t respected at all by the Ayatollah of Iran at the time. Yet only hours after Ronald Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released. Any guess why?

Maybe Trump is pounding his chest with his fists like the others who have been shaking Obama down, and maybe he isn’t, but either way I really don’t think those who bully Obama will try their crap on a Trump.

Peter G. Orsi

Marine Park

Reader-to-reader

To the editor,

In response to J.J. Lauria (“Elliott Kibosh,” Sound Off to the Editor,” Dec. 18, 2015), I proposed sodium pentothal (truth serum) for terrorists and other violent criminals and suspects because I regard America to be very hypocritical in trying to preach and teach justice abroad when we can’t practice it at home.

Are not the members of the Ku Klux Klan — whose ranks included late President Harry Truman, late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W-Va.), and late Supreme Court Judge Hugo Black — and the American Nazi and Communist parties terrorists? Yet the First Amendment guarantees them the right to speak freely within the confines of reason.

Supreme Court Judge Abe Fortas, who served from 1965 until 1969, was a member of the Community Party, and even his most vocal critics — Sen. Howard Baker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) — did not even bother to bring this issue up during his nomination because he was a hawk on the Vietnam War.

I would also like to point out to J.J. Lauria that if we engage in waterboarding what will our enemies do to our imprisoned soldiers? Remember, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Elliott Abosh

Brighton Beach

Get a grip

To the editor,

There is always an excuse for outrageous behavior. As the years have gone by, the new one is that the perpetrator was off their medication. In a recent case, several women were slashed by someone in and out of hospitals for mental illness. Why was he always released after each episode, only to cause additional mayhem? Same thing in school. Any teacher can tell you which of their students will go on to commit crimes. No one bothers to listen to them as children, when they are literally crying out by acting out for help. Instead, we either play their friend or just pass them on.

Since the family of the slasher knew what he was capable of, it was their responsibility that this individual be looked after. That is what families are all about. Don’t throw your problems on society and expect them to clean up the mess.

I just love when they say that the recalcitrant was in the process of getting his or life together. It is time for individual initiative and responsibility for one’s actions to rest on the individual and family members. Sure, many of these recalcitrant people and family receive welfare benefits and therefore they feel that everything is coming to them.

Ed Greenspan

Sheesphead Bay

****LARRY PENNER****

Off-track Andy

To the editor,

There is more to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority- New York City Transit will increase rehabilitation for subway stations to a state of good repair by 10-percent to 50-percent from originally 20 planned in the proposed 2015-2019 capital plan. The original $34 billion plan announced in Oct. 2014 proposed $448 million for bringing 20 subway stations to a state of good repair. The plan was cut by $6 billion to $28 billion. The MTA Board approved this revision. That was prior to Cuomo’s declaration about increasing the number of stations (or dollars) for New York City Transit’s renewal program. This plan still needs approval by the State Capital Program Review Board. It also requires the State Legislature to find $8 Billion promised by Gov. Cuomo. The City Council must also come up with $2.5 billion to meet commitments made by Mayor Bill DeBlasio to fully fund the capital plan..

If you increase the number of stations, the overall station renewal program would grow by $224 million to $672 million. Just what other transit capital projects and programs would have to be cut to support finding $224 million? Cuomo was silent on this key question.

According to a New York City Citizens Budget Commission report released several months ago, it will take 52 years or until 2067 for all 468 city subway stations to reach a state of good repair. Cuomo’s math just doesn’t add up. He reminds me of the cartoon character Wimpy who famously said, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” When the bills become due, taxpayers will end up paying Cuomo’s bill.

Larry Penner

Great Neck. N.Y.

Tarnished Silver

To the editor,

The legacy of former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the area of transportation leaves much to be desired. Consider the schedule, budget, and the cost for four major transportation projects that he took great pride in promoting.

Washington paid twice with your tax dollars for building the new South Ferry subway station. First, for almost $600 million in 9-11 funding, a second time with more than $300 million in Hurricane Sandy funding to rebuild what was damaged. The downtown Manhattan Fulton Street Transit Center was first paid for with 9-11 funding. Cost overruns of several hundred million were covered by American Recovery Reinvestment Act funding.

Fourteen years after 9-11, the Cortland Street World Trade Center subway station is still several years away from being back in service. If there are no new delays, perhaps the station will reopen by December 2018. Transit officials fought for years over budget, funding sources, scope, and schedule. Construction for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority portion of the project just started a few months ago.

There is no funding in the agency’s propose 2015-2019 capital program to initiate construction for the second segment of the Second Avenue subway, north from 96th Street to 125th Street. It will take several decades and $20 billion more for completion of the next three segments of the Second Avenue subway, north to 125th Street and south to Hanover Square downtown in the financial district. The project was originally proposed in 1929!

Silver claimed to be a friend of both commuters and the 99 percent. In reality, he lived the life style of the one percenters. He frequently traveled around town with a personal driver at taxpayers’ expense. I doubt if he ever purchased a MetroCard or rode the subway, like several million New Yorkers do daily.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

Two-fare drone

To the editor,

The proposal by state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge) to offer two free transfers for those who have to ride two buses before boarding a subway is wishful thinking. People who moved to Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach and Gravesend — areas represented by Golden — knew full well that they would be living in a two-fare (bus to subway) and sometimes three-fare (bus to bus to subway) zone with longer commutes to and from work.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority services continue to be one of the best bargains in town. Since the 1950s, the average cost of riding either the bus, subway or commuter rail has gone up at a lower rate than either the consumer price index or inflation. The MetroCard, introduced in 1996, affords a free transfer between bus and subway. Prior to this, riders had to pay two full fares. Purchasing either a weekly or monthly pass further reduces the cost per ride. Many employers offer transit checks, which pay even more of the costs.

For years, local politicians would stir the pot on this issue. Now the latest cause is the cost for those handful of people out of several million daily riders who have to pay two fares versus one. An overwhelming majority can afford and already purchase either a weekly or monthly unlimited MetroCard, which makes the “double fare” issue moot.

Residents, taxpayers, and commuters in Golden’s district would be better off if he worried more about how the State Legislature will find the $8 billion Gov. Cuomo promised to bridge the $8.3 billion shortfall in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority-proposed $28 billion, five-year capital plan when they reconvene in January.

It all comes down to the availability of increased funding for additional transportation service to serve residents of two fare zones in the outer boroughs. Operating subsidies are required to increase the level of service and reduce the amount of time one waits for a bus on existing routes. Same for adding more off-peak, late night and weekend service.

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

MTA delay

To the editor,

No one should be surprised by the recent news from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that the Second Avenue Subway won’t be open by next December. The agency reminds me of Capt. Renault from “Casablanca” when he said, “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on!”

Riders who have been waiting since construction restarted in 2007 with an original service date of 2013 may not be able to pick up their “winnings” until 2017 or 2018. The project was originally proposed in 1929!

Larry Penner

Great Neck, N.Y.

****ROBERT LOBENSTEIN*****

Crooked pols

To the editor,

First Shelly, then Skelos, then others. So our dear New York State democratic leader, Shelly Silver, has been convicted on all counts of bribery and other misdeeds of directing clients’ money to his own pockets. Shelly lamented in his defense that it is standard practice by all legislators in Albany to do what he did.

A few months ago the State Senate refused to fund an expansion of jails. It was sad to hear that, as the good citizens of New York are eagerly waiting to hear about the next round of indictments and convictions of crooked politicians who infest Albany. Their next stop should be a few years in this fine state’s overcrowded jails.

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

Hill-n-Donald

To the editor,

Hillary Clinton was complaining that the Muslim terrorist groups were using Donald Trump for video recruitment purposes. That lie was quickly exposed and Hillary wound up with egg on her face. Then a video surfaced where Muslim terrorists actually were using footage from Trump’s campaign to recruit new terrorists. I wonder how much Hillary paid them to do this?

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

Pie in the $ky

To the editor,

Our dear Gov. Cuomo has been on a media blitz unveiling grandiose building schemes — rebuilding the old Pennsylvania Station to an almost former glory, expanding the Javits Center to house the world’s largest ballroom and exhibit center, and other fantastic municipal works endeavors.

One thing that was silently spoken about, off camera, was the way the multi-billion-dollar projects will be paid for. Yes, it will be you and I, and our children and future grandchildren, who will be paying off his follies for decades to come. To build any project on time and within budget is a pipe dream, knowing the ineptness of state and city governments. After these clowns leave office, we all will be saddled for years with the debt load created by their schemes.

Maybe most of these plans should be voted down until Albany straightens up its own corrupt financial mess though, as these politicians are busy picking our pockets, I doubt it.

Robert W. Lobenstein

Marine Park

*****ED GREENSPAN****

Classroom sham

To the editor,

Politicians have conveniently ignored the problem of discipline in our schools. The lack of discipline is the major cause for teachers leaving the public school system within five years of starting to teach, or retiring as soon as they are eligible to do so.

No matter how good a teacher you are, you can’t teach without effective discipline and everyone knows that. Discipline problems start as early as kindergarten and with nothing done, the child goes from year to year in elementary school and will only cause havoc. If a parent doesn’t sign for special education placement, the child remains in a regular classroom and the disorder continues. As important as class size is, all you need is for one child to be continuously disruptive and little to no learning results. Years ago the 600- school concept for disruptive children was done away with. At least hard core troublemakers were kept out and sent to alternative settings.

When a disruptive child enters intermediate school (grades 6-8) the situation worsens because the child now has the added freedom of roaming the halls during change of periods. The problem is exacerbated now by principals who never taught a day, but are now rating teachers. If these principals taught they would see directly what is going on and change their attitudes about blaming teachers for everything. No matter how much money you pump into the school system, without discipline, the results will be the same, year after year.

The mayor and schools chancellor should be ashamed for weakening disciplinary codes. Lord only knows what else is covered up on a daily basis. Our deteriorating schools have become schools for scandal. Where is the union? It’s so happy to be out of the classroom that it couldn’t care less. Union officials get in overwhelmingly each time they come up for reelection, and the hierarchy within the union collects double pensions.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Mitt’s a hit

To the editor,

Given the current crop of Republican presidential candidates for 2016, a new “three Rs” should be in vogue — “Run, Romney, Run.” Millions of voters now realize the mistake that was made in 2012, and many will cross party lines and vote for him. Why not? Richard Nixon came back from defeat in 1960 to win the presidency in 1968.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Teaching trenches

To the editor,

As Warner Wolfe used to say, “Let’s Go to the Videotape,” when he would want something investigated further. Similarly let’s go to the school records of violent criminals, or better yet, do something with them in their formative years so that they don’t resort to such violence. If you opened the school records, you would see evidence of cutting class, constantly disrupting the class, roaming through the hallways, cursing, screaming, fighting, and causing all sorts of mayhem.

The city’s school system has failed these students and others by their complete refusal to deal with disruptive youth. As a result, the latter become more emboldened with each passing year, and their deviant behavior worsens until an innocent life is lost.

We keep such students in regular classes if the parent refuses to sign for special placement. As a result, chaos results as teachers desperately try to keep order with burgeoning class sizes. When are we going to face this problem head on and not keep sweeping it under the rug? This is not a racist problem. Disruptive pupils come in all races, religions and all backgrounds.

Empty out the regional and district offices and get teachers back in the classroom. We need more psychologists and psychiatrists in the schools. Less suspensions will not solve anything.

So-called staff development is a complete joke and everyone knows it. Let all the militants, ultra liberals and critics of teachers get themselves teacher licenses and get a taste of what it is like in the trenches.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

‘Demagogue’ Donald

To the editor,

It has become apparent to me that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would be absolutely perfect in still another remake of the great film, “All the King’s Men.” After all, as demagogue Willie Stark, Broderick Crawford received a well-deserved, best-actor Oscar. Trump could easily pass that, if not do even better in the part. He gives new meaning to the term demagoguery. Hollywood should definitely take notice.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Pledge allegiance

To the editor,

Of course the Pledge of Allegiance should be recited in schools. As a student of public schools in the 1950s, I remember “the lord is my shepherd” being recited from the Bible in the auditorium until someone finally realized that this was a violation of separation of church and state.

Religion does not belong in our public schools. This means that all symbols representing a religion should not be in the school either. After all, by doing this, we are doing a disservice to those students not of a particular religion, as well as students who are atheists.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

Bernie Panders

To the editor,

Bernie Sanders, what’s so bad about living in a rent-controlled building? You bemoaned that fact about living in such a building in Brooklyn at the last debate.

The rent-controlled buildings on Kings Highway were, and are still, lovely buildings with affordable rents. Ditto for rent stabilization. You’ve been away so long that you probably don’t know that since 1970, if a rent controlled apartment is vacated, it becomes rent stabilized. May the Lord bless rent control and rent stabilization.

At the first sign of any change, you and so many other phony liberals are the first to move out of neighborhoods. Your remark about rent control shows that you’re a landlord’s man. Without rent control or rent stabilization, rents would be over the roof and this would lead to more homeless.

Apparently in Vermont, where you fled to, no such problems of homelessness exist to the degree we’re facing in New York.

Ed Greenspan

Sheepshead Bay

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By Max Jaeger

Brooklyn Daily

The closure of Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses riled riders in Red Hook, who had to hoof it in and out of the subway-starved neighborhood as Winter Storm Jonas blasted them with snow and bitter off-harbor wind on Saturday.

Gov. Cuomo announced that morning that buses would stop rolling at noon, but authorities should have given working Brooklynites more notice, one stranded B61 rider said.

“I live Downtown — I don’t know how I’m gonna get home,” said Jack McConnell, a mechanic who got off of work from a Van Brunt Street tour bus depot at noon. “They know people are coming out this morning — you’d think they’d have a backup plan.”

Another rider forced to trudge took the inconvenience in stride.

“I better start walking,” Ramon Castillo said with a sigh at the corner of Van Brunt and Van Dyke streets upon finding out buses had been halted for the last 20 minutes.

The closure forced a tourist wading up Van Brunt Street to visit a friend on Pacific Street to brave the cold so she could give her host and host’s kids a little space, she said.

“I had to let her do her own thing,” said a woman who identified herself as Angela.

The governor issued a State of Emergency early Jan. 23, later barring driving after 2:30 pm and ordering elevated train lines shut at 4 pm.

Many Red Hookers have to walk more than a mile to the nearest subway station, Smith–Ninth Street, but Bergen Street in Cobble Hill is their local station after the 4 pm elevated service suspension, according to information from the authority.

McConnell was miffed he was left out in the cold, but he stayed hopeful he’d catch one last bus home, he said.

“I’m gonna stick it out here a bit longer,” he said, gripping a coffee at the half-buried bus stop between Dikeman and Wolcott streets.

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By Max Jaeger

Brooklyn Daily

The “mayor” of this Columbia Waterfront District block may not be able to keep the buses running during a blizzard, but he can keep the streets clear for them.

Woodhull Street resident Louie Formisano and his family plowed waterfront district streets from Rapelye to Sackett in a tricked-out Jeep and a squad of plow-clad four-wheelers for free during the massive blizzard bearing down on the borough. Most Brooklynites were huddled up inside as three inches of snow per hour blanketed Kings County on Saturday morning, but Formisano couldn’t wait to get to work.

“These are my toys,” he said, sitting in a Jeep Wrangler outfitted with a 6-foot plow, flood lights, and storage racks.

The born-and-raised local has been battling snowy streets for decades, he said. Neighborhood kids unwrapped the latest high-tech gadgets this past holiday season, but Formisano was hooking a new salt-spreader onto a gas-powered four-wheeler that his kids use to help him plow, he said.

“My daughters got it for me for Christmas,” he said. “They grew up on those things.”

Formisano has fun, but the self-described “trouble-maker of the block” plows pro bono as a way to give back, he said.

“I did well in this neighborhood,” the 61-year-old retired security professional said. “You give back. It ain’t a lot. Plus, do you want me to crack up doin’ nuthin’? Ya keep busy, ya stay in shape — I got an injured leg here. And it makes me happy.”

His cousin plows sidewalks between Hicks and Columbia streets with a snow-blower, and his wife shovels neighbors’ steps. Formisano even crosses into Carroll Gardens to clear streets in front of the 76th Precinct, he said.

Neighbors, who described Formisano as the block’s unofficial “mayor,” understandably appreciate his efforts.

“It’s great, Lou’s always helping everybody — it’s a great sense of community on this block,” said Michael Gidaly, who lives across the street.

But the extra care Formisano takes on his own street makes it a hotbed for post-storm drivers, his wife said.

“We’ll be the cleanest block when the snow stops,” said wife Regina. “And then everybody in the neighborhood wants to park on our block.”

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By Ruth Brown

Brooklyn Daily

Borough Hall station became a winter blunder-land on Saturday, after part of the Flatbush-bound 4 and 5 platform filled up with snow, creating a slippery path that had some straphangers worried.

“This is definitely dangerous, especially for the elderly when they get off,” said Crown Heights resident Kharin Anderson, who works Downtown. “This is insane.”

The powder — which had apparently blown in through grates in the ceiling — accumulated in piles of up to approximately 10 inches on and around one of the wooden benches and melted into puddles near the platform’s edge.

One transit worker, tasked with shoveling the frozen water off the main drag and back towards the wall, said the Borough Hall blizzard is a regular phenomenon.

“It happens every time,” he said.

As of 1 pm, the agency had roped off one of the station’s snow-filled entrances, but the icy platform path remained open to foot traffic — which was fine by one commuter, who said it was just part of life in the big city.

“It’s cool,” said a guy who only identified himself as Luke. “It’s just a New York blizzard. It’s not strange.”

The worker said there were no plans to cordon off the indoor snow field at the time — he would lay down salt and keep shovelling the build-up out of the way.

Gov. Cuomo ordered the transit agency to close all above-ground stations at 4 pm, but underground stops will remain open for now.

The transit authority did not immediately return a request for comment.

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Brooklyn Daily

These kids really played the angles!

A group of Bay Ridge youngsters turned a steep driveway on 92nd Street, between Third and Ridge avenues, into a makeshift snowboard ramp on Saturday, carving up the fresh powder that coated the pavement during the massive snowstorm.

And they weren’t the only Brooklynites braving the blizzard — check out our photo gallery for more!

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By Stanley P. Gershbein

Brooklyn Daily

Lindsay Miller of Massachusetts showed up for her driver’s license photo with a large spaghetti strainer on her head. She was ordered to remove it for the photo, but she refused. She argued before the authorities that it was her First Amendment right to wear it, because she is a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Huh?

After a strenuous presentation, they permitted her to have her license photo taken wearing a colander.

I know that you think that I am kidding about this, but I assure you, I am not. Google it, and you will find that Ms. Miller, a member of this particular church, is also known as a Pastafarian. No! I did not say Rastafarian — I said Pastafarian, and you can Google it as soon as you stop giggling.

• • •

As of this writing, Donald Trump is still leading the national polls. My barber shop is one place where I have always heard some of the best political debates.

“Sure he’s leading,” my barber said. “American voters are the world’s dumbest people.”

“That is absolutely, positively, 100 percent correct,” the guy in his chair said. “They elected Obama twice.”

My thoughts on that: I would never disagree with the man holding sharp scissors and a straight razor while he is giving me a haircut.

• • •

I love saving money. Who doesn’t? The people at American Airlines are repeating a special offer that they had for a limited time more than a year ago. If you take out a Citi Advantage Credit Card and spend $3,000 in three months, the airline will award you 50,000 miles. I did just that, and between my insurance bill, groceries, theater tickets, and restaurants, I found it easy to spend the $3,000.

A short time later, my roommate took one out. We used her card for our expenses, and it didn’t take long for us to spend another $3,000. Now we had 100,000 miles — plus 6,000 miles awarded for the $6,000 we spent between us. You may recall that I wrote about a two-week trip Idaho and Montana last spring. The airline tickets would have been $,1494.40, and we paid for those tickets with 66,000 frequent flier miles which we obtained via the Advantage credit cards. Starting with free airline tickets was a terrific way to go on vacation. Any questions?

• • •

British astronaut Tim Peaks was trying to telephone his family from space but accidently dialed the wrong number. When grandmother Betty Barker answered, she heard Peaks say “Hello. Is this Planet Earth?”

Thinking it was some drunk who was too plastered to dial the correct number, she said “No” and hung up on him. When she found out what happened, she was sorry. She said that it would have been nice to talk to a prestigious person like him. Realizing that we received a wrong number telephone call most of us just say “No!” and hang up. Not me. When a caller asks “Is this (718) 555–1234?,” I am StanGershbein@Bellsouth.net telling you that I politely respond with “No, but hello anyway.”

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

Burlesque is the new black.

The all-black strip-tease show Shades of Burlesque will shimmy its way into Clinton Hill music venue C’mon Everybody on Jan. 27. The risque revue offers hilarity and sensuality of a different flavor than more typical, vanilla burlesque shows, according to the group’s host.

“Whenever all black people sing a song versus all white people, it’s like cooking with bacon versus cooking with vegetables,” said Ashley Brokington. “There’s a certain funky soulfulness and sexiness that you’re not going to see with a room full of white girls. But I may be biased — I’m a black girl and I think black girls are delicious.”

Shades of Burlesque started in 2012, when Bedford-Stuyvesant strip-tease artist Sweet Lorraine noticed a distinct lack of color in the burlesque acts she visited.

“I’ve been performing burlesque off and on since 2009 and, before that, I was going to every single burlesque show I could find and I didn’t see any people or women of color at all on the stage,” said Lorraine.

But when she put Shades of Burlesque together, she was overwhelmed by the support and interest the show got.

“When I decided to do Shades, there was this outpouring of performers, and everybody came out,” said Lorraine.

Lorraine and her girls — and a few guys — found a new crowd excited to witness performers they could relate to.

“The audience showed up, and they hadn’t come before, because they wanted to see themselves on stage,” she said.

Performers with Shades of Burlesque say they are drawn to the art for a number of reasons — first and foremost being the feathers and sequins in the outfits.

“Primarily the costumes, they’re gorgeous,” said strip-tease artist Brown Cocaine Love. “I’m a jazz dancer, Broadway-ish performer, so we were all about the big productions and the beautiful costumes, so that’s what drew me to it.”

The avant-garde burlesque scene also offers freedom of expression and a lovey-dovey kind of inclusiveness, according to Love.

“There’s a freedom to it, and the community is great,” she said. “Everybody wants to be involved in something that they want to believe in.”

Her striking name is also a description of her high-speed, on-stage alter ego, she says

“Brown Cocaine was a name given to me by a roommate, and that’s the name given to my sexuality,” said Brown Cocaine Love. “It’s my alter ego, and when I get on stage, that’s who I am.”

Shades of Burlesque at C’mon Everybody (325 Franklin Ave. between Clinton Place and Greene Avenue in Clinton Hill, www.cmoneverybody.com). Jan. 27 at 8:30 pm. $15 ($25 VIP).

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

Critics say people will die if the Department of Transportation moves on a plan to build bike paths connecting Marine Park and Flatbush Avenue before fixing the avenue itself.

Transportation honchos are gearing up to create lanes linking the green space to a stretch of Flatbush Avenue between Hendrickson Place and the avenue’s knotted nexus with the Belt Parkway. But authorities made a wrong turn sending neighborhood two-wheelers toward the six-lane speedway, one local leader said.

“We are preparing a path into a pit of danger,” said Marine Park Civic Association president Bob Tracy. “They’re going to come around that bend, and they’re going to die.”

Officials plan to create bike lanes on E. 38th Street, Avenue V, Hendrickson Street, and Hendrickson Place leading to Flatbush Avenue.

Transportation department-issued maps state that the destination section of Flatbush Avenue is a bike path — though there aren’t any actual lanes or markings. The department plans to create some in the future, but it hasn’t released specific designs, and officials first want to build the Marine Park connector, a representative told Community Board 18 on Jan. 20.

Board members fear the agency will put bike lanes directly on Flatbush Avenue, and they tabled a vote whether to support the Marine Park connector until they see a plan for the avenue that doesn’t include bikes on the street, a board employee said.

“We will never, in any way, endorse bike lanes on Flatbush Avenue,” said district manager Dorothy Turano. “They figured they could have gotten phase one voted through, so they could start it, and then they’ll come back to us with phase two in the fall — we’re concerned they’re not going to live up to their word, and [they’ll] put the lanes on Flatbush Avenue.”

The new bike paths are part of a project linking Marine Park to the greater Jamaica Bay Greenway.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

They aren’t kidding around.

The owner of Sunset Park’s landmarked 68th Precinct “castle” wants to open a day care center in a long-disused horse stable next to the burned-out station house, a representative of owner Yosef Streicher said this week.

“He felt that it would be useful to have a day care center in the community and thought it was appropriate for the space, but it is all preliminary right now — nothing is set in stone,” Barry Shisgal said.

Streicher plans to build luxury condos on a lot behind the landmark on the corner of Fourth Avenue and 43rd Street, and a plan for a cafe in the actual station house is percolating, Shisgal said.

The owner was sketching ideas for a museum to showcase local artists or Brooklyn architecture, but he may scrap the idea, because it would not attract regular foot traffic, and Streicher wants the ground floor to attract community members to enjoy the 19th-century building’s unique architecture, Shisgal said.

“People only visit a museum once or twice a year, so we really wanted to keep the bottom floor open for the public to come in often,” he said. “We want to make it a place where community members can be comfortable walking in every day.”

The developer is considering using the station house’s top floor for condo amenities such as a laundromat or a gym, Shisgal said.

Sunset Parkers have suggested a public school annex to ease overcrowding in the district or below-market-rate housing, and others have panned the condo plan, charging the redevelopment would lack a community benefit because units wouldn’t be affordable for the neighborhood’s mostly working-class residents.

But Streicher needs the pricey digs to finance restoring the crumbling station house, which must be fixed using more costly, city-approved materials because it is a landmark, Shisgal said.

“Who has the budget to spend $10–15 million to fix it up before you even start putting in whatever community facility you want to?” he said. “If someone does, that’s great, but so far no one has — that’s why it fell apart for so long.”

The commission regulates exterior work that requires a Department of Buildings permit, but does not regulate a building interior’s use, according to a commission spokeswoman.

It will likely take a year minimum to nail down a plan and to get stamps of approval from the landmarks commission and buildings department, Shisgal said.

Streicher is open to suggestions for what should go in the precinct building, Shisgal said.

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By Joseph Staszewski

Brooklyn Daily

Marquis Nowell’s night mirrored his team’s — a slow start, followed by a explosive finish.

The Bishop Loughlin point guard’s performance helped erase an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit and lead the Loughlin boys’ basketball team to an emotional 89–84 win over St. Raymond in front of a raucous, standing-room only crowd in Fort Greene on Jan. 22. Nowell spent the second quarter on the bench after picking up two fouls, and he struggled in the third before flourishing the fourth. The rocky start threw off Nowell’s game, but he composed himself in the nick of time, a teammate said.

“Marquis, he [usually] starts off hot, but today he picked up the two fouls and it hurt him,” Lions junior Keith Williams said. “He tried to force shot in the second half. All he had to do is just stay composed and the game would come.”

Loughlin (12–3, 8–1) trailed 74–63 after three quarters before out-scoring the Ravens 26–10 in the fourth. Williams (27 points, 12 rebounds) started the rally with consecutive threes, and Nowell took it from there.

“I was just trying to make as many plays as possible for my team to win,” Nowell said. “I made that happen today.”

The sophomore guard, who recently picked up a scholarship offer from Virginia Commonwealth University, scored the next three points after consecutive steals to cut the lead to one. The Ravens’s Sidney Wilson completed a three-point play, but Loughlin didn’t blink.

Nowell tied the score on a jumper, then fed Jordan Thomas (14 points) for a transition layup to put Loughlin ahead, and then and made two free throws to push the Loughlin’s lead to 85–81 with 44.4 seconds left in the game.

St. Raymond’s (10–7, 7–3) Isaiah Washington sunk a three — the team’s only score in the last four minutes — but Nowell responded, finding Idan Tretout for a score, and the Lions never looked back. Williams made two free throws late to put the game away.

It was the squad’s third comeback victory over one of New York’s top teams after rallying past Long Island Lutheran and Christ the King earlier this year.

The match-up was a potential playoff preview — both teams are leaders in their respective diocese. Loughlin needed to win keep pace with Archbishop Molloy in the race for first place in Brooklyn-Queens.

Still, the game’s ups and downs didn’t faze Loughlin — they’ve always been comeback kids, Wiliams said.

“We are a second-half team,” he said. “We can always be down by 10, by big numbers and we always just win.”

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By Gregory Alcala

Brooklyn Daily

They didn’t weather the storm.

While Brooklynites shoveled their walks after Winter Storm Jonas on Jan. 24, Long Island University men’s basketball team was trying to dig itself out of a different hole. The Blackbirds froze up amid a second-half, comeback flurry from St. Francis College and lost the 41st Annual Battle of Brooklyn 64–49 at the Wellness Center on Jan. 24.

The Terriers squad has won its last four match-ups against the Blackbirds, so St. Francis has bigger fish to fry than its long-time foe, one player said.

“It’s always great to beat a rival like LIU Brooklyn, but I just hope we can use this to put a winning streak together so that we can begin to build some momentum,” said forward Amdy Fall (11 points, 13 rebounds).

The Blackbirds (9–10, 3–5) led in the first half, but St. Francis (9–13, 4–4) out-scored its rival 39–19 after the break.

St. Francis College senior forward Chris Hooper led the Terriers’ rebound, coming off the bench to score a team-high 15 points and earn Most Valuable Player honors.

“We were very sluggish at the start, but Chris really kept us in the game until the rest of us were able to pick it up,” Fall said. “He definitely deserved the MVP award.”

The Blackbirds went into the half with a five-point lead behind Jerome Frink (16 points), Martin Hermannsson (11 points), and Joel Hernandez (11 points), but the lead didn’t last long. Hooper converted two straight layups to cap a 10–0 run that tied the score at 35–35 early in the second half.

But the team’s unsung hero was forward Antonio Jenifer — he had just three points in the first half, but he dropped in eight when it counted most. When Hermannsson pulled the Blackbirds to within one point on a floater in the lane, Jenifer (11 points, 11 rebounds) responded by driving to the cup for two and put the Terriers back up 50–47 with 4:24 left to play.

Tyreek Jewell (13 points) and Yunus Hopkinson (nine points) were both in foul trouble in the first half, but they combined to drain 10 free throws in the contest’s final six minutes to seal the win for St. Francis.

The Terriers’ dogged offense proves the team has more depth than people give it credit for, Hooper said.

“I was really proud of my teammates for doing a great job when I was on the bench,” Hooper said. “It’s nice when we can prove people wrong who think that I’m the only one who can score in the post.”

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

He’s sunk.

A Bronx man admitted on Jan. 25 to strangling and dismembering an East New York woman before hurling her body off the Canarsie Pier in 2014, law enforcement sources said. Now prosecutors hope a sentencing judge is as brutal to the murderer as the killer was to his victim, Brooklyn’s top legal eagle said.

“By sadistically killing, cutting up, and dumping the victim’s body in the water, this defendant showed absolutely no mercy towards the victim,” said District Attorney Ken Thompson, whose office prosecuted the case. “With his guilty plea, we will now show no mercy towards him and seek a long prison sentence for this ruthless and cold-blooded killer.”

Charles Wright pleaded guilty to second-degree murder before Supreme Court Justice Michael Gary, who said in court he plans on tossing the Bronx killer into a cage for 18 years to life, according to Thompson.

Wright was arguing with his victim, 32-year-old Shaniqua Davis, inside her Blake Avenue apartment in East New York on July 25 when the dispute turned ugly and he choked the life out of her, according to the district attorney.

The killer quickly busied himself covering up the grim deed, hacking Davis’s fingers from her cold, dead hands, before binding the body, stuffing it into a laundry bag, and tossing it into the seas off of Canarsie Pier, Thompson said.

Wright apparently worked up an appetite hiding the crime — he used Davis’s bank card to withdraw $141 from a grocery store cash machine and also spent her dough at fast-food restaurants, prosecutors said.

The killer’s girlfriend Tamanika Evens pleaded guilty to first-degree hindering prosecution last month for her part in helping Davis dump the body, and Thompson’s office expects the willing accomplice to serve two–six years behind bars, he said.

Wright’s sentencing is set for Feb. 10, officials said.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

A Sunset Parker allegedly killed his neighbor while showing off handgun in their 45th Street apartment building on Jan. 22.

Police responded to the apartment near Eighth Avenue just before 8 pm on Friday night, law enforcement sources said. Officers found Zdzislaw Golabek, 37, with a gunshot wound to the head in an apartment belonging to the 32-year-old man they later arrested, police said. Paramedics pronounced the victim dead on the scene, officials said.

The two lived in separate apartments in the same building, police said.

Initial media reports claimed the victim shot himself during a drunken game of Russian roulette. But the suspect later told officials that he thought the gun was unloaded and pointed it at his neighbor’s head and pulled the trigger as a joke, according to a police spokeswoman.

Police are charging the man with manslaughter, but the investigation remains open, she said.

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Brooklyn Daily

What is a hipster, anyway?

A newly-arrived Bushwick actor questions whether he counts as a member of that reviled group in the new one-man show “Last Hipster in Brooklyn,” opening on Jan. 28. The show comes out of the writer’s confusion at the many different descriptions of the hipster set.

“There’s a lot of talk of course about Brooklyn and hipsters but everyone kind of struggles to pin down what a hipster is,” said Nick E. Finn, who wrote and stars in the show.

Finn began interviewing people about how they defined hipsters, but the descriptions he got agreed on only one thing — hipsters are bad.

“Everyone seemed to agree on the idea that hipsters are bad and no one liked them,” he said.

During the 70-minute show, which combines spoken word poetry, hip-hop and multimedia elements, Finn plays 13 characters, including Brooklyn natives, recent transplants, a police officer, and “the leader of the hipster revolution.” Together the stories reveal how different people view hipsters, and the evolution of Brooklyn neighborhoods.

“I’m trying to explore what is going on by getting different perspectives about the forces that have changed Brooklyn culture today,” said Finn.

Finn came to Brooklyn from Seattle five years ago and fell in love with the borough, but he also saw that his arrival was part of the changes affecting his Bushwick neighborhood.

“I had to bear witness to that and also take my responsibility for that change and own my experience,” he said.

Finn got input on the changes in Brooklyn from his wife, a Brooklyn native (and a character in the play), and from the show’s director, Modesto Flako Jimenez, who is Dominican-born but Bushwick-raised. Jimenez signed on to produce and direct the show once he realized that Finn was willing to confront his own role in gentrifying the area. Having people consider the effect they have on a community is an important step, said Jimenez.

“This is how we can help each other,” he said.

“Last Hipster in Brooklyn” at Jack (505 Waverly Ave. between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue in Clinton Hill, www.jackny.org). Jan. 28 at 8:30 pm, Jan. 29 at 7 pm, and Jan. 30 at 10 pm. $15.

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

They “swiped right” on Sunset Park.

The Sunset Park Business Improvement District created a smartphone app, providing local business contact info, notifying users of community events, and even letting them order food from area restaurants. Nationally popular apps such as crowd-sourced business reviewer Yelp, coupon-hunting aid RetailMeNot, and food-delivery giant Seamless offer similar services, but the Sunset Park app puts the disparate services in the same place with a hyper focus on Fifth Avenue, the business improvement district’s leader said.

“Ours is a community app more than just a way of ordering from a restaurant or business,” said executive director Renee Giordano. “You can get everything through it, like coupons and events notifications. With the other ones, you’ll find things not just in your local neighborhood. This way people can find info about a business while they’re walking around Fifth Avenue.”

Staffer Eduardo Artica designed the free app — available for Apple and Android devices — to include a growing list of more than 500 shops between 38th and 64th streets. The business group has been building a free wifi network in the neighborhood over the last three years — mainly as a public service — but the business group realized it could use the increased connectivity to boost area businesses, Giordano said.

“We thought that once we had it, we needed to use it,” she said.

About 120 people have downloaded the app since the association launched it in November, Giordano said. The business group may offer Mandarin and Spanish versions if the English one does well.

Yelp sells personal data to third parties and food-delivery app GrubHub uses aggregate data for its own marketing endeavors, but the Sunset Park app doesn’t sell users’ personal information — or even ask for it, Giordano said.

“Sometimes the others have to sell their info — that’s how they make their money — whereas we don’t need to do that,” she said.

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

60th Precinct

Coney Island—Brighton Beach—Seagate

Stairhell

Two gun-wielding men raped a woman inside the stairwell of a W. 31st Street apartment building on Dec. 27, police reported.

The victim told police that she was heading out for a smoke from her apartment between Mermaid and Surf avenues at 8:30 pm when the men ambushed her in the stairwell. One of the vile reprobates held a gun to the victim’s head, while his sick accomplice ripped the clothes from her body, cops said.

The degenerates then took turns raping the woman, before leaving together down the stairwell, according to police.

Brotherly love

Cops busted a 35-year-old man who they say groped and attempted to rape his brother’s 20-year-old girlfriend as she slept inside their Haryway Avenue apartment on Jan. 23.

The victim told police that she was asleep with her boyfriend inside the apartment between Bay 44th Street and 27th Avenue at 7:10 am when the guy’s brother snuck into their bedroom and started undressing her.

The suspect had taken off her pants and pulled her panties down when the woman awoke to him trying to force himself on her, police said. That’s when she screamed, at which point her boyfriend woke up, and the brother “retreated to the living room,” according to police.

Geriatric attack

A purse-snatcher robbed an 81-year-old woman inside Asser Levy park on Jan. 18, taking $60 and her Medicaid card.

The victim told police that she was inside the park near Sea Breeze Court at 6 pm when the thief grabbed her handbag, which was hanging from her right arm, and dragged her across the ground as she clung to it.

Eventually, the poor lady was overcome by her younger attacker, and she let go of her purse, along with the valuables it contained, cops said.

Baby teeth

A two merciless punks brutally beat and robbed a 12-year-old girl on Mermaid Avenue on Jan. 18.

The tween girl told police that she was near W. 22nd Street at 7 pm when she started arguing with one of her attackers. The next thing she knew, one of the brutes punched her in the mouth, knocking loose one of her teeth, and sending the poor girl plummeting to the pavement.

That’s when the other delinquint took his turn, and kicked her in the face, before grabbing her phone and fleeing, cops said.

Snathcer

A thieving scoundrel ripped a bag from a lady’s arm on Brighton Fourth Street on Jan. 20.

The victim told police that she was between Neptune and Ocean View avenues at 12:12 pm when the crook hurled her to the floor and snagged her purse, which contained $45 and credit cards.

Gunpoint goons

Two teenage good-for-nothings robbed a 15-year-old boy at gunpoint in broad daylight on Surf Avenue on Jan. 21, taking his cellphone.

The victim told police that he was near W. Eighth Street at 2:10 pm when the crooks waltzed up and demanded his phone. The victim bluffed, and said he didn’t have one, but the miscreants weren’t buying it, and decided to turn out the kid’s pockets, finding his phone and his wallet, cops said.

The billfold was blissfully empty of cash, and the heels kindly returned it, but not before asking the boy for his phone’s password. When the young man hesitated, one of the brutes drew a pistol and shouted, “Unlock it, or I will shoot your brains out,” according to police. After the boy relented and mumbled the code to unlock his phone, the crooks fled, cops said.

— Colin Mixson

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By Dennis Lynch

Brooklyn Daily

61st Precinct

Sheepshead Bay—Homecrest— Manhattan Beach—Gravesend

A buck a piece

A trio of goons beat and robbed a man on Avenue W on Jan. 23, police said.

The victim told cops he was near Nostrand Avenue at 7 pm, on his way home, when the miscreants stopped him. They punched him the face, pushed him to the ground, and kicked him in the face, leaving him with cuts and bruises, stated a police report.

After the beating, one ruffian reached into the victim’s pocket and took a measly $3, said cops.

Hungry holdup

Some pistol-packing lowlife robbed a Chinese food delivery guy of his load on Nostrand Avenue on Jan. 19, according to police.

The victim was making a delivery near Avenue V around 10 pm when a man who he thought was a paying customer came to the door to pick up the food.

Instead, the knave whipped out a handgun and told him to hand over the grub, cops allege. In fear of his life, he did, and both walked away without injury, police reported.

What a tool

A box cutter-wielding weasel robbed a Nostrand Avenue store on Jan. 20, police said.

The thief stuffed some tools in his pockets and tried to sneak out of the store near Kings Highway around 5:30 pm, but an employee noticed and confronted him, according to a police report.

That did not go over well with the perp, who backed the employee off with a wave of the box-cutter, and then ran out with his ill-gotten goods.

Five against one

A group of five men overwhelmed a man on Avenue X and stole a wad of cash from him on Jan. 20, according to a police report.

The man was near Nostrand Avenue at 5:30 pm when the quintet surrounded him. They grabbed his bag and threatened to beat him if he did not comply, police said. They took three wallets he had on him, containing a total of $1,200 in cash and a handful of credit cards, police noted.

Hamburglar

A seemingly well-informed burglar broke into a Nostrand Avenue fast-food joint through a drive-thru window on Jan. 23 and stole a stash of cash.

It was an easy grab for the thief, who hit the place near Avenue V around 4:15 pm — both the drive-thru window and the safe holding $3,200 were unlocked at the time, police said. He went right for the safe, took the loot, and dashed, police reported.

— Dennis Lynch

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By Joanna DelBuono

Brooklyn Daily

What do you get when you throw in a bit of Hogwarts, a smattering of Narnia, a heavy dose of “Alphas,” and just that slight touch of “Charmed?” The Syfy channel’s latest offering — “The Magicians” — based on the book of the same name by Lev Grossman.

The premise is okay. A nerdy 20-something named Quentin Coldwater who doesn’t seem to fit in with the real world lives in the fantasy book land of Fillaroy and must find his true nature and defeat the beast. Ho hum.

Quentin is on the way to a Princeton interview with BFF Julia when he stumbles upon a dead body and a manuscript — the sixth book in a series of books he is obsessed with. Oh my!

He has words with BFF Julia and they each go their separate ways. But lo and behold, both magically find their way to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy and are tested to find out their magic quotient. Sadly Julia washes out. What a surprise.

All in the background is the school’s head master, who looks very much like Professor Dumbledore but without the long beard and robe (instead opting for a more conservative sport-coat-and-slacks look). He meets with a mysterious woman who looks very much like Professor McGonagall (also without a robe and hat) in a park in Manhattan, and they discuss the perils that face and how Quentin figures into the whole equation.

“But are they ready?” they ask.

Julia, on the other hand, is angry about washing out, but she finds someone who wants to tap into her magic. After some gory, magic juju with a dead body, (the inferious curse anyone?) and a hop in a freezer, the mystery man introduces her to a higher-level magician, who I presume on the basis of the episode to be as evil as “He Who Must Not Be Named.” And so it goes.

At Brakebills, Quentin meets a host of other chic, 20-something magicians who help or hinder his way. (I haven’t fully sussed their ulterior motives yet). In either event, (spoiler alert here so look away if you must) the beast comes, the head master has his eyes gouged, (gory scene number two), Quentin faces expulsion, and the plot thickens.

Syfy was kind enough to put the first two episodes back to back to set the stage, and at this point, even though I have no overwhelming desire to view this wanna-be Harry Potter of a series, I am on the fence about setting the digital recorder to Monday night.

Does Quentin beat the beast? Does Julia go to the dark side? Do the trendy hipster magicians that befriend Quentin become his Ron Weasly, Hermonie Granger, and Neville Longbottom? Only 11 more episodes (and the gods of Syfy know) for sure.

Not for Nuthin™, but I wish I had a little magic of my own — then I could let you know which are the best and worst ad spots for Superbowl 50 next week and where the Vince Lombardy trophy will reside. Oh well, I guess you just have to wait and see.

Follow me on Twitter @JDelBuono.

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By Colin Mixson

Brooklyn Daily

62nd Precinct

Bensonhurst—Bath Beach

Bad fare

Four crooks robbed a taxi driver at knifepoint on 65th Street on Jan. 25, taking $400.

The victim told police that he picked up the four goons on Kings Highway at 1:30 pm, before taking the group to their destination near W. Fourth Street. That’s when the knave sitting behind him put a knife to his throat, and growled “give us everything,” according to police.

The knife man’s pals busied themselves ransacking the victim’s car, shouting threats the whole time, before they spotted his cash and fled, cops said.

Driveway duel

Some whacko beat a 71-year-old man after the old fella confronted the assailant for parking his car in front of his 81st Street driveway on Jan. 21.

The victim told police he walked outside his home between 19th and 20th avenues at 1 am to give the bruiser a hard time for parking in front of his driveway.

But the fiend wasn’t one for words, and instead of arguing, just started swinging, and clocked the old man in the face a few times, cops said.

Mole man

A brazen thief looted a W. Sixth Street bodega on Jan. 22 — after cutting his way through the wall.

The crook utilized some kind of power tool to shear his way into the deli between Highlawn Avenue and Avenue S at 12:15 am, cops said. He positioned himself for the job after sneaking into an abandoned building adjacent to the bodega, and started cutting, according to police. It’s unclear what property was taken.

Designer deviant

A burglar ransacked a woman’s 83rd Street home of jewelry and designer handbags on Jan. 22.

The victim told police that someone entered her home between Bay Parkway and 23rd Avenue at 11 am, through a window left unlocked in the rear of the house.

Once inside, the thief nabbed a watch, some cash, a silver bracelet, and a Louis Vuitton handbag and wallet, cops said.

The junker job

A thief drove off with a woman’s 1997 Nissan Altima she’d left parked on 64th Street on Jan. 19.

The victim told police that she left her old junker between 19th and 20th avenues at 7 pm, and returned the next day to find an empty spot.

— Colin Mixson

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