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Archives for March 2010

Brooklyn Bowl: at Local x Local Series

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On Sunday, the Brooklyn Bowl hosted the German Measles and the Vivian Girls, part of their Local x Local concert series featuring great Brooklyn bands. The concert was like The Clash and The Germs all rolled into one happy little bun. So what were we wearing? My New Jersey-based suitor wondered whether jeans were acceptable attire at the Brooklyn Bowl.

Yes, jeans are more than okay to wear to a bowling alley/indie band venue in Williamsburg.

He  joins a group of Greenpointers and me already seated in the restaurant area wearing jeans, paired with boat shoes and a silk button-down shirt. I’m wearing a pair of Earnest Sewns patched up with detritus fabric thrown and picked up during Williamsburg Fashion Week, and a red SoCo shirt freebie courtesy the Brooklyn Bowl and L Magazine’s Mardi Gras event.

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Fooling the Public with Fantasies of Affordable Housing

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Despite the Mayor’s claim of creating large amounts of affordable housing since he took office, we have more homeless families in our shelter system than ever before with over 16,000 homeless children. (See Coalition for the Homeless charts.) Could the reason be that most displaced families cannot afford the so-called affordable housing that the city claims protects low-income residents?
 

“In Kings County, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,313. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities, without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $4,377 monthly or $52,520 annually. Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, this level of income translates into a Hourly Wage of $25.25. ?In Kings County, a minimum-wage worker earns an hourly wage of $7.15. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage earner must work 141 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, a household must include 3.5 minimum wage earner(s) working 40 hours per week year-round in order to make the two bedroom FMR affordable.?In Kings County, the estimated mean (average) wage for a renter is $15.45 an hour. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment at this wage, a renter must work 65 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, working 40 hours per week year-round, a household must include 1.6 worker(s) earning the mean renter wage in order to make the two-bedroom FMR affordable.”

“Monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for an individual are $761 in Kings County. If SSI represents an individual’s sole source of income, $228 in monthly rent is affordable, while the FMR for a one-bedroom is $1,180.”

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