10 AWP August 3 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 0–September 5, 2019
Activist dies at 62
Alan Fleishman helped build LGBTQ
political power in borough, citywide
Now on
FROM THE PAGES OF BROWNSTONER.COM
The single-family home at 1062 Union St. was originally built in 1915 and
has been owned by the same family since 1966.
‘Artistic’ Crown Heights
rowhouse asks $1.495M
The Corcoran Group
Stephen Zacks
Brownstoner
A well-preserved row house in Crown
Heights owned by the same family since
at least 1966 has recently been put on the
market. It’s on a row of adorable two-story
homes with decorative toppers.
The facade of 1062 Union St. has an
attractive English Arts and Crafts feel,
with tan brick accented by a small columned
front porch. A second story bay
window is topped by a gable with decorative
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half-timbering.
The single-family house looks to be
move-in ready, although there may be
room for improvements in the parts not
pictured. The living room has decorative
wood beams, a window seat in a niche,
and parquet with inlaid borders.
The fireplace features a original mantel
of period tile with a hammered copper
hood. Though the photos suggest an awkward
layout to the living area, there appears
to be plenty of room for reorienting the
furniture around the fireplace (and fitting
in an entertainment center as well).
The parquet continues in the dining
room, which has a decorative plate rail
culminating in a bracketed shelf. Beyond,
the kitchen in the rear addition
has wood floors and an attractive builtin
dish cupboard as well as a matching
overhead cupboard that both appear to
be original. Beige wall tile and a run of
cupboards with a dishwasher, sink and
stone counter appear to be later additions.
It all seems to be in very good
condition, though some gentle updating
(such as white subway tile) might enhance
it even more.
Upstairs are three bedrooms, all but
one with closets. The master has two,
plus parquet floors, all its original moldings
and a wide bay window.
Above the kitchen, there’s a sleeping
porch/sunroom that has unfortunately
been altered and lost a little period charm
but is still a nice bonus room that could
be used as an office, playroom or guest
room. The bathroom is not shown, but
has a tub and skylight.
In the below-grade cellar is laundry,
mechanicals and a bathroom with
a shower, the floor plan shows. The
grassy garden is longer than average at
55 feet deep.
1062 Union Street was built in 1915, one
in a row of houses by builder Charles A.
Chase. Similar rows of “artistic” houses,
often advertised as “easy housekeeping
homes,” were popping up throughout
what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle referred
to as “the new Eastern Parkway
section.” Chase advertised his as New
American Basement Houses with roof
gardens and sleeping porches.
The location is excellent, only 1.5
blocks from Brooklyn Museum and Prospect
Park and close to Franklin; it’s also
around the corner from under-development
Bedford Union Armory. Asking
$1.495 million, the house is represented by
agents Josiane Lysius and Joseph Dima of
Corcoran. How will it do at that price?
BY Duncan Osborne
for Brooklyn Paper
Following a five-year battle
with cancer, Alan Fleishman,
a political organizer and
Democrat who was central to
building the LGBTQ community’s
political power in New
York City, passed away on
August 27. He was 62.
“He is my good friend, my
lifelong friend,” said Scott
Klein, who worked in Brooklyn
Democratic politics for decades
with Fleishman. “We
worked together on so many
different campaigns… I really
can’t imagine what my life will
be like without him.”
Born and raised in Brooklyn’s
Canarsie neighborhood,
Fleishman was a DJ for many
years before he engaged in politics
and eventually went to
work in the city comptroller’s
office, where he served
from 1990 until he retired in
2013.
Klein and Fleishman were
involved in Gay Friends
& Neighbors, a group in
Brooklyn that met for dinners,
watching videos, and
similar events.
“It was social group, but
Alan became very political
through that group,” Klein
said. “At its peak, there were
300 people meeting every
Monday night.”
Fleishman, who for many
years lived in Park Slope, was
the president of the Lambda
Independent Democrats (LID),
a Brooklyn LGBTQ political
club founded in 1978, from
1988 to 1990. He was a delegate
at the Democratic Party’s
conventions in 1996 and
2000. In 2002, he became the
first out gay Democratic district
leader elected in Brooklyn
and he held that position
until 2010.
“At the time when many
Brooklyn elected officials
remained opposed to LGBT
rights, his steadfast leadership
drove LID’s mission to
elect allies to office,” LID said
in a statement. “His legendary
work shows today, as
very few Brooklyn elected
officials remain opposed to
LGBT rights.”
In a 2018 column in Gay
City News, Allen Roskoff,
president of the Jim Owles
Liberal Democratic Club,
an LGBTQ political group,
called Fleishman the “smartest
political gay in Brooklyn”
and “dogged and well
informed.”
Fleishman’s political organizing
in Brooklyn was
important in passing legislation
in the City Council in
1986 that added sexual orientation
to New York City’s
human rights law. First introduced
in the City Council in
1971, the legislation was kept
from a vote by Thomas Cuite,
that body’s majority leader and
a conservative Democrat who
represented Windsor Terrace
and Park Slope among several
Brooklyn neighborhoods.
In 1982, after city elections
were delayed by a year due to
a lawsuit that sought to overturn
the structure of city government,
Steve DiBrienza, a
lawyer, challenged Cuite in a
district that was transforming
from one that was predominantly
conservative Irish and
Italian to one that was more
liberal with a sizable LGBTQ
voting bloc.
While DiBrienza lost in
1982, Cuite — who died in
1987 — saw the writing on
the wall and retired in 1985.
DiBrienza won the seat that
year.
“One of the big events in
Brooklyn certainly was the
election of Steve DiBrienza,”
said Klein who also headed LID
for a time. “When Steve was
elected, it was the beginning of
the old guard leaving.”
Andy Humm, who is a contributor
to Gay City News and
was in the leadership of the
Coalition for Lesbian and Gay
Rights, the group that won passage
of the anti-discrimination
legislation in 1986, said
that Fleishman played a central
role in that event.
“He was part of the movement
that was organizing
clubs in Brooklyn,” Humm
said. “Brooklyn produced a
lot of votes and Alan certainly
played a key role in that.”
Fleishman was a consistent
progressive and a reformer.
He was an early endorser of
Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign
for the Democratic nomination
for president and of David
Dinkins in his successful
mayoral race in 1989.
Fleishman was not above
criticizing his fellow Democrats,
sometimes with humor.
In 2010, Harold Ford, a
Democrat who represented
a Memphis district in the
House for five terms beginning
in 1997, had moved to
New York City and was considering
opposing Democrat
Kirsten Gillibrand for her US
Senate seat. Ford’s two votes
ASSEMBLYMEMBER JO ANNE SIMON
Alan Fleishman at the 2015 inauguration of State
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, with whom he
had earlier worked as fellow Democratic district
leaders in Brooklyn.
supporting an amendment to
the US Constitution that would
define marriage as between a
man and a woman made him
decidedly unpopular among
LGBTQ voters.
At a Ford town hall held
at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
& Transgender Community
Center, Fleishman told
Gay City News that he had
never seen Ford at political
events or “the kind of horrible
things candidates have
to do if they want to meet the
loyalists.”
Fleishman could also be
biting in his critiques. In
2005, Brian Ellner, a gay
Democrat, endorsed Republican
Michael Bloomberg in
his re-election campaign for
New York City’s mayor and
went to work for that campaign
and the Bloomberg administration
later.
“It’s dismaying that there’s
no party loyalty left in a Democratic
town like New York,”
Fleishman said then. “I don’t
look favorably on anyone endorsing
Republicans… but
that’s a problem we have in the
party here in the city. There’s
no discipline among Democrats.
I also understand that
people need to work and to
feed themselves, but that’s
no excuse. But clearly they
have plenty of cover from other
Democratic elected officials
and Democrats working for
the mayor.”
Fleishman’s advocacy has
left behind many concrete
achievements and a great
deal of good will.
“He was incredibly brave
and fearless in his support
for the candidates and the
issues he believed in,” said
Jo Anne Simon, a Democrat
who represents several Brooklyn
neighborhoods in the State
Assembly, in the LID statement.
Fleishman is survived
by his mother, Sally, a brother,
Sheldon, his sister, Beth, two
nephews and a niece, and
many friends.
FIT OF RAGE!
Local leaders demand Cuomo shut
down massive development at Yards
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Activists and local leaders
are urging Gov. Andrew
Cuomo to put the
kibosh on a massive underground
athletic facility
in Prospect Heights
— claiming state officials
rubber stamped the
new development without
giving a second thought to
the public good.
“We’re giving benefits
to developers without
proper public comments
and review — at
the expense of taxpayers,”
said Assemblyman
Walter Mosley (D–Prospect
Heights). “This is only
going to benefit the developers.
This is only going
to benefit those who wish
to sell us out.”
The proposed facility
— a 105,000-squarefoot
fitness center and
field house — would be
located primarily underground
on Dean Street
between Vanderbilt and
Underhill avenues, and included
as part of the Pacific
Park mega development
project, which was
formerly known as Atlantic
Yards.
The space had been
originally slated for use as
vehicle parking until developer
TF Cornerstone decided
to scrap the garage
and build a sprawling fitness
facility instead.
The Empire State Development
Corporation,
which is responsible for
overseeing the Pacific Park
development, gave the new
recreational facility their
ESD Corporation
The Empire State Development Corporation voted
to approve a massive new indoor athletic facility in
the Pacific Park development.
stamp of approval on Aug.
15 — ensuring the plan will
go ahead unless Cuomo intervenes.
The plan has angered activists
and local leaders, who
argue that the state is providing
a massive windfall to developers
without extracting
any concessions in the form
of additional affordable housing,
or addressing environmental
concerns.
Councilman Brad Lander
(D–Park Slope) raised concerns
that the developers
are already lagging behind
on their prior commitment
to build 2,250 “affordable”
apartments by 2025, and demanded
they present a concrete
plan to meet their obligations
— before the state
hands over additional building
rights.
“The community fought
long and hard to ensure that
the development of Atlantic
Yards would include a
significant commitment to
affordable housing, but we
have yet to see a real plan to
meet the commitment,” he
said. “Now, the developers are
asking for more commercial
development without making
any additional promises
to provide public benefits or
to follow through on their existing
commitments.”
Assemblywoman Jo Anne
Simon (D–Prospect Heights)
basted the state for failing to
conduct a full environmental
impact study for the proposed
facility.
“We don’t know what kind
of impact it will have, because
it’s never been studied,” she
said. “We’re being asked to
make decisions with no information.”
Jack Sterne, a spokesman
with the Empire State Development
Corporation, said the
concerns were overblown, arguing
that the proposed fitness
facility — equal in size
to roughly two football fields
— constituted a “minor modification”
the original plan for
the building’s basement, and
was not significant enough
to warrant a new, full-scale
review.
Sterne also shrugged off
the affordable housing concerns,
arguing that the state
had previously secured concrete
commitments to ensure
the housing requirements
would be met.
“Pacific Park has already
delivered over 750 affordable
apartments, and we expect
hundreds more to be completed
this year,” he said. “
Gov. Cuomo’s office did
not respond to requests for
comment.
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