NorthJersey.com (free registration required) is reporting that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) "has told the New Jersey Nets to take a seat on the bench … The MTA is too busy trying to work out a complicated deal with the New York Jets for a football stadium atop its rail yards in Manhattan to deal with the basketball team."

PETER KALIKOW (MTA Chairman), speaking at a public
hearing about the Jets stadium late last week: "The Nets deal is absolutely on hold until this finishes." KATHERINE LAPP (MTA Executive Director): "We’ve had no discussions directly with (Bruce Ratner/Forest City Ratner) about the value [of the air rights], what they would purchase, etc."

The article says that "The air-rights value determined for the Jets’ site may serve as a model for the Nets’ project, known as Atlantic Yards."

If you can recommend a decent dentist in Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Crown Heights, etc. (or would like to find a dentist) then please go here.

Someone we know only as "Gordon" sent out an e-mail announcing a survey of New York City parents: "Our goal is to pool
information from local families to help all of us make better, more
informed decisions about which elementary and pre-schools are best for
our children."

"The survey is short: Less than 5 minutes … All participant identities will remain strictly confidential.
By completing this survey, you are giving us permission to share your
anonymous responses with others …  We’ll email a summary of survey results to each participant who
completes the survey…" Take the survey here.

Marie Carter in the Brooklyn Rail: "On a Wednesday night at the Lava studio in Prospect Heights (524 Bergen Street, 718-399-3161), three
students work on various techniques, including what’s known in the
trapeze world as the bird’s nest, the plonge, and the gazelle, while
others wait their turn, keeping warm doing handstands against the wall,
crunches, splits, or handwalking on the mat."

"The 1,200-foot studio is
on the ground floor and has a sprung wood floor, rigging pipes for the
trapeze, and 12-foot ceilings. One side of the wall is exposed brick … Johnson has lived in the upstairs apartment of the Prospect Heights
building for twelve years, since it was a raw warehouse space, and had
always envisioned a studio on the first floor … Recently
she had the opportunity to buy and renovate the building."

"Trapeze class is taught by Gagnee and Greiner
… Their acrobatic classes are divided into beginners and advanced … In addition to classes in tumbling and Iyengar yoga, there is a pay-what-you-can open workout for adults, kids, and teens separately and a family class …"

Develop Don’t Destroy sent around an e-mail with a rather grim assessment of FRC’s Atlantic Yards Project, calling it "stalled" because "18 months after he planned to
break ground, Ratner still doesn’t have the LAND, the FUNDING or the
public SUPPORT to make this plan work. He’s tied to it New York City’s
laughable 2012 Olympics bid. And this June, the Supreme Court may well
rule that for states to take private property for ‘economic
development’ (as Ratner wants New York State to do for him) is illegal."

From the "State vs. Church" Dept.: Architect Laura Evans, a Prospect Heights resident, attended church last Sunday in a public high school in Park Slope (John Jay High School). The New York Times quotes her: "It’s different from what I grew up with - the suburban church with a
steeple and a chapel … it’s not the type of building, but it’s the people who
make a church."

Turns out that Bloomberg has issues with churches that rent space from schools: "The churches - often desperate
for space - say the arrangement is only fair. But the practice,
generally accepted across the country, has run into opposition from
some parents in New York City, and the Bloomberg administration is
planning to challenge the court ruling."

The church Laura attends, Park Slope Presbyterian Church, is one of the religious organizations that now meet in New
York City public schools. In 2002, a federal court said the
city "had to provide space in school buildings to religious institutions
just as it did for other community groups," according to the New York Times. "The churches typically rent
on Sundays, when students are not present, and reimburse the city for
the cost of custodial services."

LISA GRUMET (senior lawyer in the city’s corporation counsel’s office) told the New York Times that the city thinks this practice violates the separation of church and state: "’We are concerned about having public schools used by religious
congregations as houses of worship … The diversity of this city is one of its greatest strengths … and this is why we are concerned about having the neighborhood
school, the public school, identified with a particular religious
congregation."

Robert Latham has two young children and lives down the street from John Jay High School, where Park Slope Presbyterian meets. According to the New York Times, he thinks that arrangement "blurs the lines between church and state": "There’s always
notices and secondary communications that spill over … It doesn’t give parents and children choices."