Walks Home Retains Vintage Features

The couple that bought the bungalow, built in 1922, decorated it in retro style.

By Joseph Kellard
Glyn and Kelly Jaime were living in their new summer home, a 1922 single-level bungalow, only a month before it was included on the Long Beach Historical & Preservation Society’s annual Heritage House Tours in June 2008.

When the Manhattenites bought the home on October Walk it had been vacant for two years and was filled with cobwebs and sheet-covered furniture, including a vintage 1950s Herman Miller kitchen table and chairs that the Jamies kept, since it fit their retro style.

“We just had time to get it cleaned up and organized for the tour, which was a bit of a challenge, but we loved it,” Glyn recalled.

The bungalow has three small bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom, and it retains many original features: a white stucco exterior, a brick fireplace, a claw-foot cast iron bathtub, beaver-board walls and linseed linoleum floors.

A description of the home in the house tours' booklet reads: “This bungalow truly exemplifies the long-ago and continuing charm of Long Beach as a vacation locale.”

Other original features that drew the Jaimes to the house are its kitchen sink, which Kelly estimates it weighs as much as 800 pounds; windows with wavy panes that look out onto the enclosed front porch; and an outdoor shower at the home’s rear, where the fenceless property mingles with their neighbors’ concrete plots.

While the Jaimes were house-hunting they looked at some 25 Long Beach properties before discovering the Walks, a neighborhood where homes are divided only by a sidewalk and are without street access. The couple was instantly sold on the area and bought a bungalow that was built by a Brooklyn lumber producer, Louis Bossert, after World War I.

Of course, as with any dated home, it needed upgrades. The 1940s toilet had a crack that was not fixable, so they had to change it along with the lead pipes, and they painted the outside, a task that was last performed in 1976.

“This was one of the first things on our to-do list,” Glyn said about the repainting. “We wanted to bring the house back to its original vintage beauty.”

Glyn knows these all these details because the home’s second and last owner, Lydia Leiner, left behind impeccable records of everything she bought. The first owner was a barrister from Brooklyn who bought the house for his wife.

The Jaimes have added their own touches that include a wall adorned with a mid-century street map of the Columbus Circle area, framed black-and-white vintage photos of Manhattan and replicas of the Statue of Liberty (since they were married on Liberty Island).

They have only been to the house from late spring to early fall, so they’ve never had to shovel snow there.

“It’s instant relaxation,” said Kelly about their sojourns to Long Beach from their Manhattan apartment. “It’s like a vacation every weekend we come out here.”

Kelly works in Levittown as vice president of sales for Premier Merchant Processing, a company specializing in credit card processing for businesses, and Glyn owns a packaging design company in Manhattan.

Having a yard is something new for Glyn, who was born and raised in Greenwich Village and has always resided in Manhattan. In the seven years she and Kelly have lived together in their Manhattan apartment building, they’ve never seen any neighbors on their floor. But they know all the families around them on the Walks. One of their young neighbors even waters their flowers and lawn during the week.

“It’s a whole different speed in New York City,” Glyn said. “I look forward to coming to Long Beach all week long.”

Walks Neighborhood Had Military Beginnings

Historic community had mostly year-round residents by the 1970's.

By Joseph Kellard
What residents of the Long Beach’s historic Walks neighborhood lack in asphalt and yard space, they make up for in neighborly intimacy, whether it’s picking up groceries for one another or shoveling snow together to clear the sidewalk that separates their homes to get to surrounding streets.

The 10 blocks of Walks have no direct street access, driveways or garages. The bungalows on each walk face east and west and are sandwiched behind homes facing north and south from West Park Avenue, the neighborhood’s northern border, to West Beech Street to the south. Named for the months of the year, the walks themselves run north-south, from Lindell Avenue, the eastern border, to New York Avenue.

The homes are little more than arm-spans apart, and their “yards” are best described as patches of grass. Homeowners make the most of their small properties, though, lining their front picket or chain-link fences with flowers, while some leave their backyards barrier-free, blurring the property lines.

“I love it because it has so much charm,” said Roberta Fiore, a Long Beach historian who calls the Walks the city’s most distinct neighborhood. “It’s a cute little community with a lot of creativity.”

The neighborhood was first developed in 1917 and 1918, when the U.S. military took over the Nassau Hotel and Long Beach became a military settlement like Camp Yaphank in Suffolk County, where pre-fabricated bungalows were built for $2,500. They were shipped to Long Beach and installed barracks-style on property owned by Brooklyn developer and former State Sen. William Reynolds. The uninsulated pre-fabs were meant for summer use, but for $500 more a chimney could be built.

Louis Bossert, a Brooklyn lumber producer, developed the second wave of homes there starting in the late 1920s. By the mid-1950s, tenants started to live in them year-round. “The expression then was, ‘Throw some heat in the bungalows,’” Fiore said.

By the 1970s, half the homes became permanent dwellings, said Jim Hennessy, a former City Council president who was raised on January Walk. Hennessy fondly remembers the closeness not only of the neighborhood, but also in his family’s bungalow: He was one of nine children. He and a younger sister, two older brothers and single mother occupied the standard three bedrooms, and his five other sisters shared the attic-turned-bedroom.

Fun for Hennessy meant running with friends through stretches of then mostly wide-open yards, throwing a football across a few lawns and jumping from one rooftop to the next while playing hide-and-seek.

“There was a house across from ours where two elderly French-Canadian women lived,” Hennessy said in an interview in 2009. “If I had to go to the bathroom and one of my other siblings was in our bathroom, I would just run outside my house and use Jean and Isabella’s bathroom. That’s what it was like. It was really close and a lot of fun.”

One typical and long-time feature of the neighborhood homes are the front porches, many of which are now enclosed but were once open to catch breezes from the ocean a few blocks south.

“The whole design of the Walks,” Fiore said, “was to build houses without street access, but an aside was the terrific breezes.”

Birders Break Out the Binoculars

The South Shore Audubon Society take a nature walk at Point Lookout Town Park.



By Joseph Kellard

Irwin Zuckerman’s devotion to bird watching has its origins in baseball and city life. As a boy growing up in lower Manhattan, he played the outfield so that he could watch seagulls soar along the neighboring East River.

“I always liked being outdoors and I always liked watching birds,” Zuckerman said.

The Port Washington resident recalled his early fascination with birds while on a trek along the beaches of Point Lookout with fellow members of the South Shore Audubon Society on Sunday morning. Like most birders, Zuckerman straps a pair of binoculars around his neck and pockets a field guide. His is a Peterson 1980 edition, complete with illustrations of bird species and nationwide residence maps.

“I’m looking for a Harlequin duck,” he said on Sunday. “It’s a very pretty duck.”

He did spot an Oystercatcher and turned to its illustration in his guide, pointing out its long, orange beak that he said is powerful enough to crack open oyster shells.

While Zuckerman heads out weekly on bird walks, among the nearly two-dozen people at Sunday’s excursion was novice Lillian Baum of Long Beach.

Baum read about the walk in a newspaper and thought it would be good exercise. She followed the experienced birders who stopped about every 30 yards to plant their tripod telescopes in the sand and point them out to sea. Like them, Baum was eager to get outside after a long, cold winter.

“I’m also here to be out in nature,” she said.

While it was sunny and temperatures were expected to climb into the mid-50s, a stiff wind forced Baum and others to wear winter coats and hats. “Just smell that fresh air,” she said while inhaling deeply.

Baum may become one of the South Shore Audubon Society’s 1,500 members. The Freeport-based organization gathers for nature walks (not just bird walks) at many locations. If they’re not meeting at Point Lookout Town Park or Lido Beach Preserve, then they may be found at the Marine Nature Study Area in Oceanside, Mill Pond Park in Seaford-Wantagh or Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and Central Park in New York.

John Gaglione, a board member and event organizer, said that each walk typically attracts between 20 to 35 members, and their monthly meetings up to 60 members.

Gaglione was a Boy Scout leader on a trip with his troop through the woods when he first learned about the Audubon Society's bird walks. They crossed paths with birdwatchers who were members and they handed him a newsletter.

“I always enjoyed communing with nature, and through the seasons you get to see the beautiful landscapes,” said Gaglione, a Bethpage resident. “But I also enjoy the people in the organization, who are of like mind in conservation.”

During Sunday’s walk with Gaglione, Rick Kopitsch, a Massapequa resident, spotted a Common Loon when the group first reached the beach from the parking lot.

“That’s one of the oldest birds chronologically,” said Kopitsch, a 17-year veteran of birding.

His daughter, Stacey, now a wildlife biologist, got him hooked on the hobby. On his first walk with her, he was lucky enough to spot what he called two “vibrant” birds: the Scarlet Tanager and American Redstart.

Like others, Kopitsch's love of birding grew once he got involved with South Shore Audubon Society, citing past president, Elliot Kutner, now in his 80s, as an important influence.

“His enthusiasm for birding was contagious,” he said.

Bridge Renaming Ceremony Attracts Hundreds

They honored Michael Valente, Long Beach's only Medal of Honor recipient, at City Hall on March 25.

By JOSEPH KELLARD


Ralph Madalena wrote one letter last spring and that was all it took.

Madalena requested the renaming of the Nassau County-owned Long Beach Bridge in honor of his grandfather, World War I veteran Michael Valente, and mailed the letter to County Executive Ed Mangano and County Legislator Denise Ford, as well as other government officials and local veterans groups.

On Friday, less than a year later, Long Beach City Hall played host to the official bridge re-naming ceremony, with hundreds of people packed into the sixth-floor chambers, after the County Legislature last July voted unanimously to rename the bridge to Michael Valente Memorial Bridge.

“Many cultures believe that you never die, so long as you are remembered, and people like my grandfather live on,” said Madalena with his wife, Francesca Capitano, a former Long Beach City Council member, and his daughter, Katherine Madalena, by his side.

Private Valente, an infantryman, rescued his regiment from disaster in France on Sept. 29, 1918, and for his heroic acts he became Long Beach's lone recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor — the highest award for valor given to a member of the U.S. Armed Forces for actions against an enemy force. More than 3,440 medals have been awarded since its inception in 1861.

Friday’s ceremony featured several speakers, including former U.S. Senator Alfonse D’Amato, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and Long Beach City Manager Charles Theofan, as well as Joe Sciame, chairman of Conference of Presidents, David Laskin, author of the book The Long Way Home, which features a passage on Valente, and Stella Grillo from the New York State Order Sons of Italy in America. Everyone from local to national veterans groups to Long Beach students to Valente’s family, who travelled from as far as Florida to California, attended the morning event.

The formal ceremony for the renaming was originally planned for Sept. 29, a date the city council designated Michael Valente Day in Long Beach in 2008. It was postponed to March 25, which is designated Medal of Honor Day nationwide. Ford was instrumental in spearheading and organizing the event.

“He put himself in great danger to save so many,” Ford said about Valente in her opening remarks.

The legislator and other speakers, some of who were friends with Valente, remembered and honored a man whose courageous acts came when his regiment, Company D of the 107th Infantry, was suffering heavy casualties during operations against German forces at the Hindenburg line near Ronssoy, France. Alongside a fellow soldier, Valente rushed forward through intense machine gun fire directly on an enemy nest, killing two gunners and capturing five enemy soldiers.

Discovering another machine gun nest nearby that rained heavy fire on American forces, Valente and his companion charged it, killed the gunner, jumped into the enemy trench, killed two more soldiers and captured 21 others. Valente's actions represent the first penetration of the Hindenburg line, Madalena said.

Nearly 11 years later to the day, on Sept. 27, 1929, President Herbert Hoover decorated Valente, then a retired sergeant, with the medal in Washington. "It's the proudest moment of my life," Valente said, according to a New York Times account dated the day after.

On Friday, Sciame, who chairs an Italian organization, said it was not just a proud day for his fellow Americans of Italian heritage, but also for the children of Long Beach.

“Every time they go over that bridge, they’re going to see the name of a man who … came to this country, worked hard, fought in a war, as many of us have done, but he was a hero. And so, I say Michael Valente was a positive role model who we should emulate, refer to and study him, and let’s get his name in the history books.”

From Italy to France to the Long Beach Boardwalk

Valente emigrated from his native Italy to Ogdensburg, N.Y., in 1915, and three years later he entered Company D of the New York National Guard, which was later incorporated into the 27th Division. In May of 1918, he was deployed to France to fight on the front lines.

After the war, Valente married Margareta Marchello and moved to her hometown, Newark, N.J., before the couple settled in Long Beach around 1919, eventually buying a home on West Walnut Street where they raised three children. Valente was a contractor and real estate agent who built houses in Long Beach, but he eventually gave up the business to work as the city marshal at City Hall.

“When I look back at Michael Valente, I remember this giant of a man,” Weisenberg said about the veteran who stood 6 feet tall with blond hair, blue eyes and a barrel chest. “… He was like a John Wayne, only quiet. He was giving. He was loving. He was a model.”

After Valente retired in 1965, he greeted people at La Serenata, a restaurant at the original Long Beach Library, now the site of Sutton Place on West Park Avenue. Among the local veterans groups, Valente was most active in the VFW Post. He was always active, particularly in his garden, and he rode his bike on the boardwalk regularly right up until his final years. Valente died in 1976 at age 80.

The city named one of its senior apartments, on National Boulevard near City Hall, after Valente, as did the Sons of Italy lodge he attended.

City Manager Charles Theofan asked the audience not to lose sight of the symbolism of a bridge.

“A bridge takes us to another place,” he said. “Let us hope that one day mankind will take us to a better place, where peace between nations will rule the day.”

Before this past spring, I hadn't written a sports story in a few years. The newspaper company I worked for had hired a team of sports reporters to cover mainly high school sports. I missed covering that beat because I love sports and always enjoy writing about baseball and especially football.

So when I got the opportunity in April to do some freelance writing for Ultimate Athlete Magazine, a publication that covers high school sports across Long Island, I jumped at it. The following are stories I wrote about two Levittown baseball teams. You can also read them in PDF format online by clicking on the link above. The first story starts on page 52; the other on page 60. And if you go there, you'll see the magazine does a great job with its photography, graphics and layout.


Island Trees: Roller Coasters to Playoffs


By Joseph Kellard


Before this baseball season’s first pitch, Island Trees coaches handed their players custom-made red shirts to wear under their uniforms, which read “Finish It.” The words serve as an inspiring anthem for them to rally around after a narrow, heartbreaking loss to Clarke in last year’s County championships.

“We just have to go out there and put everything on the line,” said senior Bryan Verbitsky when asked what it will take for his team to finish as champions this season. “We have the talent this year to go do it, so hopefully we can.”

The Nassau County Player of the Year in 2009, Verbitsky is among the talented players on a team that has nonetheless navigated something of a roller coaster ride of wins and losses while guaranteed a playoff spot in Conference A-1. But Verbitsky, a pitcher and centerfielder, and his teammates cited their 4-3 comeback over Division on May 5 as a pivotal game, especially after falling to that cross-town rival 15-4 the week before.

“There was a lot of adrenaline going there,” Verbitsky said after he struck out the final two batters with the bases loaded. “Division beat us when I was in 10th grade in the semi finals, and just whipped us pretty bad last week, so this was a big one for us. We needed to go out there and get it done.”

Verbitsky, who smacked a two-run homer in the game, came in for relief after starter Brandon Garcia relinquished four hits and three runs over six innings. “Today was the biggest game all year,” said Garcia, who earned All Conference Player in 2009. “Yesterday, we had a tough game, losing 2-1 to Clarke. But today, after bouncing back from a loss, and how we came out and fought for the lead, we came out awesome today. Best I’ve seen this team all year.”

Against Division, Verbitsky and Garcia were making their return after suffering injuries earlier in the season. Head Coach Joe D’Auria regards their absence, as well as injuries to other players, as a factor playing into their up-and-down season in which they’ve won or lost by two runs or less in eight games.

“There’s been a lot of bumps and bruises, more so than any year I can remember,” said D’Auria, Island Tree’s head coach for the past six years.

Another factor has been ability grouping, in which teams of equal status are pitting against one another throughout their schedules. “We beat the hell out of each other and every game is a grind,” D’Aura said. “They’re all playoff games.”

After winning a county championship in 2007 and coming close to another title last year, Island Trees lost some of its offensive power this season but retained all of their main arms. “The strength of our team is going to be our pitching,” D’Auria said.

Behind Verbitsky and Garcia in the rotation is Dan Bartlett, who also said his team’s defeat of Division was a defining game that could help propel the team back to the county championship series. “This was a big win we just had,” Bartlett said. “After this win, I think we’re going to be alright the rest of the season. We have a lot of momentum going into the rest of the season.”

The game after Division, on May 6, Island Trees defeated South Side 12-6, with Verbitsky batting 3-for-5 with a homer, a double and two RBIs, as winning pitcher Matt Bowen allowed one earned run, to brining their record to 9-5.

But since every team in their conference makes the playoffs, what counts is not so much your record but rather how you play each game, particularly at the end of the season.

“You have [to] take it game by game and you have to forget about what happens in your losses and look ahead,” said Mike Manganiello, a junior third baseman and pitcher.

Manganiello watched as his brother [helped] Island Trees to their country championship in 2007, and he got a taste of what it’s like to play in title series last year.

“Unfortunately we lost but it’s beautiful, being in that atmosphere and being involved is good,” Manganiello said. “Some guys say when they look back that you want to win the counties, but you have to realize what you have done and what you can do and look toward the future.”

Verbitsky knows what winning a county championship taste like and he savors another taste.

“It was incredible that year, it was one of the best years of my life,” Verbitsky said about winning the counties. “This year’s getting there though. We’re just trying to get on a roll … Hopefully this one will get us back on a roll like we had in 2007.”





MacArthur: Pitching Powerhouse

By Joseph Kellard


For a perennial baseball powerhouse, finding defining distinctions between each team from one season to the next can be a tall task. Once again, MacArthur entered the season a top-seed that fields talented, hard-working players who are expected to earn a playoff berth.

But Coach Steve Costello is quick to note that the strength of this season’s squad is the quality and depth of its arms. Through its first 11 games, MacArthur went 9-2 with pitchers throwing four shutouts and in three other victories surrendering a mere four runs.

“Maybe our pitching is a little deeper,” Costello said when asked what distinguishes his team. “We’ve always had good pitching, but we have a lot of guys that throw really well.”

Leading the rotation are seniors Frankie Vanderka and Josh Barry. The All-County League MVP and an All-State player last year, Vanderka started the season with a 3-0 record, allowing just one run over three games.

“After the first two starts, I know I didn’t have my all today,” Vanderka said after his third win, 8-0 against Freeport on April 28. “I went out, trying to hit spots. They’re a good-hitting team. Can’t take anything away from them. The other pitcher, Alejandro Marine, threw great. But I just had to go out there and keep battling.”

Also at 3-0 through the end of April, Barry tossed a 12-stikeout complete game shutout over Baldwin, winning 5-0 on April 15, struck out 10 over six innings in an 11-3 rout in Oceanside on April 29, and has been solid in relief. “He’s pitched really, really well for us,” Costello said.

But when asked to pick a highlight this season, Barry cited his team’s 10-inning battle against Bellmore-JFK on April 12, when Vanderka dueled with pitcher Kevin Archibold, whom Barry called possibly the two best pitchers in the state.

In a 1-1 tie, Vanderka went nine innings, struck out 10 batters while allowing three hits and two walks. “We stuck it out, we got a big win,” Barry said about the 5-1 victory. “It’s games like that, which go into late innings, that can turn a season, and instead of a loss it’s a momentum booster.”

While Vanderka and Barry, who have accepted scholarships to play at Stony Brook next season, have been standouts, other key MacArthur players are shortstop Nick McQuail, who batted 3-for-3 with two runs in the Oceanside game, centerfielder Mike Scrow, and third baseman Sal Sanquini, who has pitched well at the back of the rotation.
“A lot of guys have been contributing,” said Costello, who has coached [in] MacArthur’s baseball program since 1993 and earned two Nassau County and Long Island championships and one state title.

Last year, MacArthur showed all signs that they could cruise to another championship, going 19-0-2 on the regular season, but come playoff time the team was thrown an unexpected curveball. Their high school was closed for a week due to a swine flu scare, but the playoffs continued without them.

“We just got backlogged, had to make it up and we just got caught,” Costello explained. “Our bats slowed up and we got knocked off in the semifinal round. It was a huge disappointment.”

Although several seniors departed last year, MacArthur remains a senior-heavy squad, and perhaps the discouragement over letting a possible undefeated season and championship slip away is what ultimately distinguishes this team.

“We just have a desire, you know,” Barry said when asked to compare the two teams. “We’re always top ranked, and we want it a lot this year. A lot of the seniors have gone on, but we still have a pretty filled senior lineup this year, and we really want it this year.”

Barry said that one important lesson he and his teammates have learned is to enjoy themselves more while they’re out on the diamond casing down balls and running the bases. “We just don’t want to be tense, we want to stay relaxed and have a good mentality when we’re out there,” he said. “Think, but also don’t think at the same time. You want to be loose and you want to love the game. If you have a bad at bat, you wanna come back and say ‘I’ll get ‘em next time.”

Next up for MacArthur are games against Oceanside, Massapequa, East Meadow and Mepham, some of the best teams in the county, a schedule that is a consequence of ability grouping, in which similarly-talented teams are pitting against one another.

“It’s like the old Doors’ lyrics, “no one hear gets out alive,” Costello said about the remaining schedule. “You don’t highlight any one game because you highlight them all. Any team can beat you because they’ve set it up that the good teams beat the hell out of each other. We have Oceanside, East Meadow, Mepham and Massapequa and they’re all good. They’re no gimmes on the schedule. That’s the way it’s designed.”

Four New Books I’m reading

By Joseph Kellard

On Saturday, I stopped by Barnes & Noble and bought three books: “Neoconservatism” by C. Bradley Thompson, “The Logical Leap” by David Harriman and “The Sea Wolf” by Jack London.

A few week ago I ordered “Nomad” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali from Amazon.com, but I only read the first chapter or two before I had to put it down to invest much more time and effort writing a 6,200-word essay on the fundamental cause of the Catholic Church’s sex scandals and complete it before deadline. Before this stage, I had kept my book reading to a minimum (I finished reading both Andrew Bernstein’s “Capitalism Unbounded” and John David Lewis’s “Nothing Less Than Victory”), and now that I’m finished with the essay I want to return to reading more often, especially as I prepare to start writing at my new job with Patch.com, a new news division of America Online.

So what motivated me to pick up these four books? Let’s start with “Nomad.” I bought it because I loved Ali’s biography “Infidel,” which is about Ali’s strict Muslim upbringing in Africa and the Middle East, and her break from her religious family after he father arranged her to marry a man she had never met. I’ve written about an interesting aspect of that book -- how reading Western novels and romance books in particular helped sustain the spirit she needed in order to run away from her family. In “Nomad,” Ali writes about her time living in what she calls her last and final home, America, and about Muslims living in the West. If this book is anything like “Infidel,” I expect to be more enlightened and happy with my purchase.

And that purpose, to be more enlightened, is the purpose of buying any book, isn’t it? That is definitely what drove my interest in “The Logical Leap” by David Harriman. Sure, I’m buying the book, in part, because Mr. Harriman is an Objectivist, but I’ve not been motivated to read every book written by my philosophical brethren. I need to be particularly interested in the subject. Well, this book is on physics, a field I actually know little about but would love to learn much more. But more specifically this book is about methodology in thinking, about applying Ayn Rand’s theory of concepts to physics, and, more fundamentally, about inductive reasoning. I know that after I had read Tom Bowden’s excellent book “The Enemies of Columbus,” as well as hearing him talk about this book on a radio show, I learned not only about the history behind the heroic explorer and how multiculturalists have distorted the objectivity of his life and accomplishments, but also how to think about historical subjects and events in general, based on the objective methodology that Bowden employed in this book. I eagerly expect the same results from reading “The Logical Leap,” in that I hope to learn to be able to think more effectively about scientific issues in general.

The full title of C. Bradley Thompson’s new book is “Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea,” and based on the table of contents it looks like it explores both the historical and, mainly, the philosophical right-wing political movement. Dr. Yaron Brook, the president of the Ayn Rand Institute, is a co-author, and if this book is anything like the excellent essay that Mr. Thompson wrote about conservatism a few years ago for The Objective Standard, I expect to learn much more about the political right. I’ve always had a strong interest in politics, and it’s exciting to o see an Objectivist write a new book on the subject, just as exciting as when I read Thompson’s excellent book on John Adams's political thought “John Adams and The Spirit of Liberty.”

Lastly, I decided to pick up a fiction book, which I read little of last year. I’d like to return to reading novels on a more regular basis, and so I bought “The Sea Wolf” by Jack London at the recommendation of Objectivist Diana Hsieh.

I’ve come across her praises of London’s novels at her NoodleFood website, and it interested me enough to give this short book a shot. About “The Sea Wolf,” Hsieh wrote: “My favorite Jack London is The Sea Wolf. It's the Nietzchean ubermensch versus the civilized Christian. It's phenomenal. Ever since reading that, I've been reading Jack London regularly. I definitely like some works more than others, but overall, I'm entranced.”

Here's hoping I become entranced!

Cash with no questions asked

In wake of shooting, Christian Light hosts second gun buyback program


By Joseph Kellard


Wearing T-shirts with the image of a relative who was shot dead in Long Beach, Lisa Cummings and Deanna Cruse greeted men who passed through the doors of the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church on a recent Saturday. The men entered the house of worship with guns.

The church was hosting its second gun buyback program, after a shooting at nearby East Hudson Street in March, when, police say, Casey Fitzgerald, 20, gunned down fellow Long Beach resident Ernest Cummings, 40, after the men argued over their pit bulls. Cummings and Cruse, Ernest's mother and aunt, were among the church's congregants, alongside the Rev. Isaac R. Melton Jr. and Deacon Cecil Garrett, who helped at the May 15 program, which was dedicated to the murder victim.

"We wanted to do another program before Memorial Day, to make sure nothing like that happens again," said Marcus Tinker, president of the church's Boys to Men Ministry, who organized both events. "That was in honor of Ernest."

The program, a joint effort between the church, the Nassau County district attorney's office and the Long Beach Police Department, invites owners of illegal guns to turn them over in exchange for $200 in cash. The only questions the plainclothes police officers asked were, "How are you doing?" and "How many guns do you have?" In all, 133 firearms were collected, 13 more than were turned in at the first program last September, according to Chris Munzing, a spokesman for the D.A.

While New York City has run gun buyback programs for years, Nassau County kicked off its first program in December 2008, with pickup points in Hempstead, Uniondale and Freeport. To date, the program has gathered 1,609 illegal guns.

"We tweaked it a little bit from the New York City program, using cash rather than vouchers or ATM cards," said Chuck Ribando, the D.A.'s chief investigator, who runs the program.

The cash the police dole out is forfeiture money from people who were arrested for crimes. Using cash is one way to make the program as anonymous and comfortable as possible for those who turn in the guns. "People are more likely to hand the guns in if they get cash," Ribando explained. "They come in, hand in their guns and leave with cash in less than a minute."

Other tactics used to assure the program's anonymity include using places of worship as turn-in points and keeping local police officers away.

"It would be much easier for us not to take our show on the road and have it right here at the D.A.'s office," Ribando explained. "But I think people are more apprehensive about coming to any law enforcement facility to turn in an illegal gun."

Christian Light contacted the district attorney's office about holding the first buyback in Long Beach. To help promote it, Tinker and other church members handed out hundreds of fliers around town, and used Facebook, Twitter and the Herald.

Tinker said that at both events, he noticed that people who turned their guns in were a mix of Long Beach residents and out-of-towners. "Long Beach police know the people in the neighborhood, so to prevent anyone from being scared off, the county people are there, not the local government or police who know the people," Tinker explained. "That's how every community does it."

Tinker had said previously that he wanted to bring the program to Long Beach in part because there is a lot of drug dealing around the neighborhood, in which guns can come into play, he believes the program makes the community safer.

Some critics argue that the gun users can simply use the $200 to buy other guns. "Most people think it's a joke," said one Long Beach resident. "It's like playing musical guns. If it worked, how come they come back every year and find more guns to buy?"

But while the gun-owners can do whatever they want with the $200 they get for each gun, that doesn't necessarily mean they take that money and get a new piece, Ribando said. "If anyone who knows anything about street guns, there's not much you can buy with $200, especially to upgrade," he added. "To say they're going to upgrade with $200 is ludicrous, because you can't even buy one for $200, let alone upgrade."

Others question why police don't use the program as a way to observe the gun-owners coming in and out to see if they fit the descriptions of any wanted criminals and to potentially track down and arrest them. But Ribando said emphatically that this tactic would defeat the purpose of the program.

"No, the whole point of this is to get the illegal guns off the street, not to make an arrest for the gun," he said. "Not that you don't want to make an arrest — you do. But out of the 132 guns we collected, if one of those guns was to be used to shoot someone, then we've done our job."

All serial numbers on the guns are checked, and if any guns is connected to a crime, all police know is that they've gotten that gun off the streets. "We wouldn't try to back search to find out who handed that gun in," Ribando said. "It's totally anonymous."

Tinker said the church is working on organizing other events with the city and the Police Department to make the community safer and to strengthen relationships with elected officials.