In a move that could mark a turning point for the residents on Duffield Street in Downtown Brooklyn, Yvette Clarke has written a letter of support for the preservation of their homes. The properties, purportedly part of the historic Underground Railroad movement of the Civil War era, are threatened with seizure by the New York Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The EDC wants to build in their place an underground parking lot and access road for a hotel.

Yvette Clarke was recently elected to Congress, beating out three other candidates in a grueling contest. This move suggests a growing sense of leadership for Clarke. In the wake of Clarke's letter, David Yassky and Congressman Ed Towns have expressed their intention of standing up in favor of the Abolitionist homes. The Brooklyn Papers published Clarke: Save Duffield Houses in this week's edition.

As Speaker Quinn, and the Attorney General decide if Dr. Eugene is worthy of his seat "Team Clarke" as put the word out as shown in the letter that follows she is sending out:

Rally for Justice and Democracy
Thursday, March 8th, 2007

Greetings:

The Supporters of Dr. Mathieu Eugene, the Progressive Democrats Political Association, as well as a broad support of community leadership is organizing for a show of strength to demonstrate our firm and passionate demands for fair representation at City Hall. We support and ask for the prompt swearing in of Dr. Mathieu Eugene, the undisputed winner, immediately upon the certification of the election results.
Thursday, March 8th, at 12 noon, at City Hall
Your participation is crucial. Democracy and justice do not come to you. History has taught us that we must actively seek, demand, and fight for it. Always.

Share this with 5 of your friends and ask them to share with their 5 conscious friends who support this just cause for the representation of our district in the on- going business of our city government.

Representation delayed is Representation denied!
This is an un-precedented situation, and we believe that there is no reason to deny the immediate seating of our elected representative.

Coming off the Special Election in Central Brooklyn my ideas about voting slightly changed. Matthieu Eugene winning the 40 City Council on the ticket of first Haitian City Council person to galvanize turnout made me wonder about voting on a national level.

We talk about picking the best candidate yet when asking people why the voted for Eugene or another candiate some state "I am Haitian and I will vote for Eugene" or "He is Jamaican and I am Jamaican too" There is nothing wrong for voting for someone who can relate to you on that level but does that guarantee the best candidate for the community at large.

Obama now running for President sends the same signals in my opinion. Most people will be supporting Obama because he is black. The idea of the First African American President ever does get people excitied. However is he the best qualified candidate?

The question I pose here I guess would be do we vote more with our hearts and emotions than our minds and good judgement?

P.S. Congrats to Matthieu Eugene on his victory.

The increasingly acrimonious debate over the proposal, recently announced, to name a stadium within the Atlantic Yards complex after the British bank Barclay's is turning shrill, with cries of race war emanating from Room Eight. To condense these cries somewhat, thereby avoiding the necessity of quoting at length, the author (who enjoys the distinction of being the sole individual ever to have his account at this site terminated because of unacceptable behavior) argues that African-Americans shouldn't take offense at Barclay's history, because to do so would unnecessarily reopen old wounds. And besides, 'playing the race card' opens the possibility of a 'race war'.

This is by no means a new argument; it should be hauntingly familiar to anyone who followed last year's primary in the 11th District.

And truth be told, I'm not even entirely sure how I feel about the outrage; but then again, I'm of British descent, an Anglophile, and my ancestors didn't come here as slaves. That does provide a difference in perspective. I certainly don't feel qualified to dictate an authoritative frame of reference to anyone else on the matter.

Sexism and racism are getting talked about quite a bit on our companion site Culture Kitchen. And they are getting A LOT of readers. Though my favorite discussion of race on the site right now isn't getting much attention. But I do recommend Margaret's diary down memory lane.

To me, any discussion of race or gender has to start from the realization that America was FOUNDED with racism and sexism included in its foundation. Too often excuses are made that ignore this: things like "slavery wasn't so bad," or "the Civil War wasn't about slavery," or "that is all in the past, things are equal now."

As long as people ask questions like "are we ready for a woman president" or "are we ready for a [fill in your favorite ethnic, religious or racial minority] president" we still have a long way to go. I like to point out that if we are still asking if we are ready for a woman president this long after Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, etc. have ALREADY had women presidents/prime ministers, we should be embarrassed.

About 10 years ago I was living in a great place in the Hollywood Hills. We had a dinner guest one night who identified himself as a "libertarian." Now I have known some pretty smart and well meaning libertarians. But this guy was basically a fool who used libertarianism as a way of blaming society for his own shortcomings.

Jesse Hamilton, currently a contender in the race to fill Yvette Clarke's seat, is reaching out to the blogs. That's all good.

What's vaguely troubling is the message he's sending. Take for example this from Room 8:

We should not seek to build housing which only benefits single people or childless couples. Giving tax breaks to developers who bring to market studios and one bedrooms as affordable housing units sends the wrong message about who we are trying to encourage to stay and prosper in NYC. Affordable, multiple bedroom housing should be the goal of any changes in the 421 A and also 421 B laws seeking to create new housing.

What, singles can move elsewhere?

It's worth pointing out that per the U.S. Census, in the 11th Congressional District, which wholly covers the 40th City Council District, only 34.1% of females and 44.0% of males are married (the U.S. average is 52.1% and 56.7% respectively). Concurrently, however, average household and family sizes in the 11th are slightly above the U.S. average, at 2.71 people per household and 3.38 per family. So there is most certainly room for debate about more multi-bedroom apartments; but that debate could be held positively, not by talking about right and wrong kinds of people, and should also include the question of cost. It's not a zero-sum game in any sense of the word.

I have often bemoaned the influence of big money in NYC politics, seeing as even more of a factor here, where the media markets are so expensive, than nationally. But this year's rather expensive and contentious CD-11 race seems to indicate I am wrong, at least in some cases.

At Chris Owens' New Brooklyn Leadership kick off party, Chris mentioned some interesting figures. If you look at what the four candidates in the Democratic Primary for CD-11, you see an interesting breakdown. Yvette Clarke and Chris Owens, the winner and the last place candidates, each spent just under $40 per vote they received, if I heard correctly. For Broolyn that sounds like a real bargain! It speaks well of these two candidates and, for Yvette, the power of union suppot, and, for Chris, the power of the Brooklyn grassroots when it can get itself going. Carl Andrews, third place candidate, endorsed by Eliot Spitzer and backed by Brooklyn's corrupt Democratic Clarence Norman/Vito Lopez machine, spent around $50 per vote received. You'd think with the backing of Spitzer and the machine Carl could have done better.

The NY State and the local Brooklyn Democratic Parties have been facing difficulties for some time. Lack of vision, strong arm tactics, and, at worst, outright corruption have plagued NY State and Brooklyn Democrats. This has led to the rise of a reform Democrat movement which I have highlighted from time to time. Reform Democrats and Progressive Democrats overlap a great deal ideologically, though they also sometimes fall prey to the usual infighting that Democrats are prone to.

Today I want to urgently ask Democrats living in Brooklyn to help strengthen one of these reform Democratic organizations that ALSO holds progressive views. The Central Brooklyn Independent Democratic club (CBID) is an organization with deep roots both as reformers and progressives. Here is what they say in their "Who we are" section:

As a neighborhood Democratic Club, CBID has fought for reform and progressive causes since its founding in 1968 by reform Democrats, and anti-war and neighborhood activists. Based in Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, and Kensington, we have been instrumental in the election of many public officials.

Staunchly opposed to political corruption, and committed to JUDICIAL REFORM, we are proud of our independence and progressive politics.

The New York Times has a three-page bio of Eliot Spitzer, covering the years before he became Attorney General.

Also in the Times, Foley fallout for Deborah Pryce, BushBot of Ohio.

David S. Broder in The Washington Post tells voters to pull the trigger on the disaster that is the current governing party.

Another article in the Post on Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at North Koreans.

On Room Eight, and for all those who just can't let go of CD-11, Gatemouth analyzes the numbers and comes to some debatable conclusions.

Kos tells the voting-machine crazies to gain some perspective. Finally.

Race matters to the RNC – especially if you're a Muslim stupid enough to give them money. Oh, and they lost contributors' data – stupid stupid stupid.

And The New York Sun is noticeably disappointed that Corey Lidle can't be classified as a terrorist.

My wife and I went clubbing in Brooklyn last night. No...not those places with house music and single-letter-named drugs. I mean the monthly meetings of the Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND) and Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID). (Full disclosure: my wife is on the Exec. Board of CBID.)

I wrote about these clubs before and was quite critical of IND for awhile. I want to emphasize that both these clubs are reform clubs fighting against the corrupt Vito Lopez machine and so deserve support. I was very curious to see how these two clubs would come out of the CD-11 primary, a very bruising primary in which these two clubs endorsed rival candidates, neither of whom won. I have been with IND since 2004 and am very new to CBID. IND seemed quite stable and unified in 2004, while I have been told that CBID is frequently plagued with that endemic disease of the left, infighting. During this year's primary season, though, that seemed reversed. IND was torn apart with fighting over endorsements and, though they put in an excellent showing during petitioning season (delivering some 3500 signitures), they were almost completely silent as a club during the final weeks of the primary. I saw not one IND palm card in all my campaigning. By contrast, CBID seemed quite active and unified during the primary season. So, now that both clubs lost the hotly contested CD-11 but won various other races (e.g. Dena Douglas for civil court, Eric Adams and Velmanette Montgomery for state senate, etc.), I was curious to see how the clubs faced the primary hangover.