Lefty has the dish on this weekend’s latest Save the Green Church Rally.

Despite the fact the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church has cleared every legal and administrative hurdle – Victoria Hofmo and Kathy Walker will stage yet another rally at the corner of Ovington and 4th avenues, this Saturday from 12-2pm.

According to the flyer which starts off: ‘WAKE UP, Bay Ridge!’

[which, incidentally, is a fantastic name for a BCAT morning show, 'WAKE UP, BAY RIDGE: mornings with Chuck Otey and Larry Morrish!]

They ask you to come out and:

• Stop the demolition of the green church.
• Preserve Bay Ridge History and the memory of its founders
• Learn the ‘truth’ behind the condo developer
• Stop the planning and over congestion of the neighborhood
• Help your neighbors who live next door
• Get involved in your community’s fight to keep bay ridge beautiful

It remains to be seen if this week’s social activity will also involve laps around the church grounds, or just light calisthenics.

update: Left in Bay Ridge with the ‘suck-sessful Green Church Rally‘

Sometime last evening the Bay Ridge Rover turned 30,ooo…

That’s 30,ooo unique users who have chosen to visit our ‘king of the dung-heap blog’ since it’s launch, last July.

Among Blogcounter’s Top 100, we rank an impressive 31, beating out such blogcounter’d sites as ‘tokyo-teens,’ ‘boobs-pics,’ and ‘get-up-and-boogie.’

However, sadly, we still trail behind such sites as ‘celeb-dump,’ ‘porno-girls’ and ‘celebrity-fashion-photos.’

Emi, first reported for sale back in December by Right in Bay Ridge, now appears slated to reopen as Bay Ridge’s own – John’s Famous Deli.

‘John’s Famous’ is a no frills Bensonhurst haunt, known for their daily hot specials, but mostly their fresh cold cut hero sandwiches – which some contend are among the best in Brooklyn.

Their Bensonhurst flagship spot, a ‘joint’ in every sense of the word, is the kind of place someone might place an order for roast beef with melted mozzarella one minute, and find themselves walking out with a pair of Yankee tickets, a VHS of ‘Faces of Death,’ or an variety of ‘grown-up’ souvenirs available for purchase, the next.

Locals predict brisk interest in John’s Famous, but remain cautiously optimistic as to just how well their patent gruff, sweat-off the brow customer service attitude, on which their brand’s built, will co-exist with the more subdued sensibilities of their 3rd avenue cupcake and latte going neighbors just up the street at places like the more delicate, Little Cupcake Bakeshop.

Much to the surprise of blogophiles this morning, two of the most interesting Brooklyn based bloggers to come on the scene in the past year have apparently turned in their passwords – at least for the time being.

Right in Bay Ridge, after hitting their proverbial dinger (celebrating their 20,000th hit just last week) has chosen to hang up its cleats.

Described by one reader as a ‘warm glass of milk before bed,’ Right in Bay Ridge was part postcard, part treatise – a veritable menagerie of everything Bay Ridge pastoral, bureaucratic and even bucolic.

And if Righty was, in fact, your warm glass of milk, Gotham City Insider was a cup of cart-coffee right after your morning rush-hour commute.

A discographical junkie and pop-culture encyclopedia, whose frequency of blogging was only surpassed by his range, GCI didn’t just blog – he carved up the blogosphere.

- been nice bloggin’ with ya, fellas.

Less than 24 hours after the body of 52-yr-old local businessman and accountant, Paul Mento, was found by housekeeping in Bay Ridge’s Best Western Hotel, the size of Mento’s gambling habit seemed to eclipse the rather strange and unusual method by which Mento chose to end his own life.

Investigators, who describe the hotel scene as undisturbed, with no signs of struggle, a body with no trauma or anything out of the ordinary – with only the notable exception of a man who apparently closed himself in his hotel bathroom, wrapped himself up with duct tape until he expired – will likely accept the findings of the ME and close this investigation, according to police sources close to this investigation.

The Post today, also citing ‘police sources,’ is reporting the same story that’s been in circulation since yesterday afternoon, echoing the ME’s findings – describing Mento as a man who fell under the weight of his addiction to gambling, asphyxiating himself ‘due to obstruction of the nose and mouth,’ with duct tape.

For Bay Ridgites however, not since John Rossi’s death of February 3rd, have locals heard of a ’suicide’ so ridiculous.

Some, sarcastically equating the ME’s recent findings to the Gregory’s previous hospitality fatality, by referring to the death of David Diaze as ‘death by excessive ventilation.’

However, for locals, unlike Rossi’s death – a scene which to observers read more as murder to imitate suicide – Mento’s scene reads more like a suicide executed by the deceased as if to imitate foul play.

more from:
White in Bay Ridge on ‘hit counts and body count’
Gawker
Fishbowl NY

State Senator Marty Golden is encouraging Bay Ridge residents to turn out for his inaugural town hall meeting of 2008, taking place tomorrow, Thursday, February 28th at Our Lady of Angels school auditorium – 7:15pm.

On hand will be a variety of city agencies such as 68th Precinct, FDNY, DOT and Sanitation – for what Golden promises to be an important informational session.

related: State Senator Martin J. Golden

According to sources close to the initial investigation of the deceased 52 year old man found bound and gaged with duct tape in the bathtub bathroom of his room at a Bay Ridge Best Western hotel yesterday – the office of city medical examiner, and police investigators are apparently poised to declare declared the death of accountant and local restaurateur, Paul Mento, a suicide.

from the Brooklyn Eagle:

It was determined Tuesday that Mento’s death was a suicide. He was found with duct tape over his mouth, which led to initial suspicions, mostly on local blogs, that the death had been a homicide. The Medical Examiners Office determined that it was in fact a suicide, and that Mento died through asphyxiation caused by the duct tape.Contrary to initial published reports that the body was found in the bathtub, it was in fact discovered on the bathroom floor up against the door, which was closed, according to police, which indicates that Mento must have been alone.

Police found no blood, no trauma, no signs of struggle, no drugs and no alcohol. “Not a piece of furniture was touched,” according to a police source.

Brooklyn Eagle’s full article, here

Newsday

[photo courtesy of Gawker]

more from: Gotham City Insider

According to sources close to the initial investigation of the deceased 52 year old man found bound and gaged with duct tape in the bathtub bathroom of his room at a Bay Ridge Best Western hotel yesterday – the office of city medical examiner, and police investigators are apparently poised to declare declared the death of accountant and local restaurateur, Paul Mento, a suicide.
from the Brooklyn Eagle:

It was determined Tuesday that Mento’s death was a suicide. He was found with duct tape over his mouth, which led to initial suspicions, mostly on local blogs, that the death had been a homicide. The Medical Examiners Office determined that it was in fact a suicide, and that Mento died through asphyxiation caused by the duct tape.Contrary to initial published reports that the body was found in the bathtub, it was in fact discovered on the bathroom floor up against the door, which was closed, according to police, which indicates that Mento must have been alone.

Police found no blood, no trauma, no signs of struggle, no drugs and no alcohol. “Not a piece of furniture was touched,” according to a police source.

Brooklyn Eagle’s full article, here

Newsday

[photo courtesy of Gawker]

more from: Gotham City Insider

Critics of Bay Ridge celeb-super, Richard Martin, are saying today that the eccentric building super ’s disposition may not be the only shitty thing about him.
Martin -who became a one man media event overnight, made famous by colorfully worded signs in his 3rd avenue building calling tenants ’stupid, retarded sissys’ – has himself run afoul of good housekeeping by relieving his animals in front of his neighbors’ homes, then leaving it in the street.

When confronted by the Daily News, Martin had only this to say:

“I may be a hypocrite, but I’m going to be 72 in five months so I just don’t really give a [expletive],” Martin told The News. “See, I guess I’m not the cleanest person, either, but at least I don’t leave cardboard out in the rain like my disgusting tenants.“

Local politicians are maintaining the data used by the Berger commission to justify closing Victory Memorial Hospital is dangerously flawed, according today’s Brooklyn Eagle.
State Senator Marty Golden, Congressman Vito Fossella and local Councilman Vincent Gentile, who are challenging the closure of Victory in a lawsuit with the DOH filed under Article 78 of the state constitution , are asking the NYSDOH to reverse their decision citing FDNY data that contradicts the Berger Commission’s findings that the other three local hospitals (Lutheran and Maimonides) could absorb the impact of Victory’s ER closing.

FDNY data accumulated over a three month period is said to suggest the closest hospital ERs to Victory are operating at, or way beyond capacity; ‘Lutheran was on diversion for almost 700 hours and Maimonides for around 1,100 hours, with other area hospitals also experiencing high diversion numbers,’ the Eagle goes on to report.

Lawmakers are hoping the new impact data will compel the state to revisit its decision.

The hospital facilities are due to be auctioned sometime this summer, with a 40 million dollar bid in the offing by St. Vincent’s Holy Family Home of Bensonhurst.