Learning in East New York

On its fifth anniversary, the non-profit Groundwork Inc. held its inaugural fall benefit in the Time Warner Building on the Upper West Side. “I’ll keep this brief. It’s very dangerous to keep 400 people from an open bar,” said Richard Buery Jr., co-founder and executive director of Groundwork, to laughter from an audience that included Kevin Fraser, a correspondent for the television show Entertainment Tonight, and Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of New York’s governor. Standing in front of a mammoth web of windows, Buery gestured toward the expansive view behind him: Columbus Circle lit by the bright glow of its fountain lights, the still trees of Central Park and the red taillights of cars cruising south on Broadway Street, the silhouette of the city’s skyscrapers against the clear night. Buery remarked on the beauty of Central Park and spoke about the reason why everyone had come together that night: less than 14 miles away was East New York, where 10 percent of the people go to college and the high school graduation rate is 40 percent. The crowd–a diverse group of men and women in suits and dresses that paid $300 or $1000 for a ticket–remained silent. Buery then pointed out Groundwork’s successes. The entire graduating class of the non-profit’s high school program–nine in 2006 and 14 in 2007–walked away with diplomas. Ninety-five percent of those students went to college, getting into such places as Cornell University, New York University, Virginia State University, and Kingsborough Community College. The audience applauded. The event and silent auction would raise over $545,000.

FORTUNE Small Business: With record Sotheby’s sale, art market keeps booming

With record Sotheby’s sale, art market keeps booming

Collectors dropped a historic $362 million at Sotheby’s evening contemporary art auction this week – a sign that for dealers and gallery owners, good times are still rolling.

By Herman Wong

First Published: May 16, 2008: 6:22 PM EDT

(FORTUNE Small Business) — The sky may be falling on the economy, but the art market is flying high.

Sotheby’s spring contemporary art auction on Wednesday evening was the most lucrative auction in the company’s history, blowing past the high end of Sotheby’s estimate with sales totaling $362 million, including a record $86.3 million for a 1976 Francis Bacon triptych that had been expected to sell for about $16 million less.

Such extravagant consumption is an optimistic sign for art dealers.

Fix-Up Fanatic has secret for Valentine’s Day – Washington Square News February 14, 2007

Self-pitying singles beware. This Valentine’s Day, Cupid wears black.

“I hate victims,” said Susan Shapiro, author of a new book, “Secrets of a Fix-Up Fanatic,” about matchmaking and finding a mate. “I just can’t deal with people who are victims, especially if you are an architect of your own misery.”

Profile: Carl Forsman – Queens Chronicle November 9, 2006

Brick Cafe on 33rd Street in Astoria may not have the pedigree of Paris’ famed Café de Flore. But on the right day you can still find yourself next to a critically acclaimed theater director or someone who has chatted with a Pulitzer Prize winning biographer about how to pronounce “Hiroshima.”

Carl Forsman happens to be both.

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Not Another Teen Story: JROTC in Brooklyn

Linda Wu of Brooklyn will likely attend Baruch College in Manhattan this fall, after a high school career where she did a bit of everything. The Fort Hamilton High School senior, 17, has been on the bowling, softball and track teams, is a member of the Asian culture club, and belonged to the now-defunct engineering club, where students built things out of wires and batteries and sometimes straw. Academically, Linda took part in the computer science academy, learning html and how to make Web sites. This year she is taking advanced placement courses for American history, government and literature. She also has a job as an assistant in a small local law firm. Yet in her college personal essay – the one telling prospective colleges who I am and why you should want me – she chronicled her journey through Fort Hamilton’s junior reserve officers training corps program, or JROTC, and explained how it changed her.

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Police Story – Written with Jacqueline Barba

Officer Steve Simone doesn’t romanticize his work at the 68^th Police Precinct in Brooklyn. “I’m just a summons guy. I just give out tickets,” he said.

But it wasn’t always this way.

Simone previously worked the 73^rd Precinct, planted in a district where shootings are common. In 1999 Simone transferred to the precinct of his choice, a reward for several bribery arrests. So he chose the 68^th, which he said serves one of the “nicest” areas of Brooklyn. “This is a very slow house,” he said of the 68^th Precinct. “It’s a ‘C’ house. It goes ‘A,’ ‘B,’ or ‘C,’ and ‘A’ houses are the busiest.”

Simone’s career reflects the tremendous divide between precinct classifications. In the ‘A’ houses, officers face a barrage of violent crime, something Simone suggests weakens the spirit of civic duty.

“When you first become a cop you want to save the world, you want to work in a precinct where a lot of shit goes down,” he said. “But after a couple of years of that, you don’t want to do nothing.”

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