or, SHAWN CARTER is the boss of me.
After years of hating on the proposed development over the Atlantic Avenue railyards in Brooklyn I have come around to seeing it built. Not because the developer has agreed to set aside any additional units for local minority residents and not even because the developer has agreed to include minority owned businesses in the contract bidding process. BRUCE RATNER will never agree to either of those stipulations. My single reason for warming up to this inevitable project is the proposal that will create a bigger and better Brooklyn Technical High School.
B.T.H.S. is where I learned the principals of drafting, which they called technical drawing. Tech drawing is the foundation for speaking the language of engineering. When you start to understand the principals of engineering you begin to comprehend the inner workings of the machine world and how parts work together like gears and cogs. In a very real yet rudimentary way you learn that in order to be productive you have to work together. I also learned how to draft on AutoCAD which has carried me through my professional career some twenty years later. Without a college degree and without a BTHS diploma I was still able to form a semblance of a life when I wasn’t busy trying to fuck it up. Whoever says that public high schools don’t prepare kids for life has never been to Brooklyn Tech.
I created a drawing in one of my AutoCAD classes of a futuristic concert hall. I imagined that the facade would have large glass openings that gave the building an image of inclusivity. It was quite different from how I felt about the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s architecture, which was too old and stuffy. Thanks to the Old Jew, another Brooklyn expatriot, who hired this high school dropout I would come to refine my AutoCAD skills under the tutelage of a master architect, and I would understand to appreciate classic architecture like the B.A.M. building. Being a master architect requires much engineering knowledge and the Old Jew further taught me how all the parts fit together. We’ll talk about him one of these days.
One day I showed the Old Jew my elevation drawings of the future concert hall with the huge curtan glass windows and the rooftop gardens that held fruit bearing trees. The younger graduate architects that worked in his office ridiculed the drawings for their relative simplicity and illogical premise. The Old Jew looked at the drawings and told me that it was all possible. I can remember to this day how that single sentence from him has empowered me ever since I was seventeen years old.
When I first saw the images rendered of the architectural model for the new arena slated to be constructed in the Atlantic Yards development I immediately thought about the words of the Old Jew. He never once told me a lie. There was my design being manifested after all these years. The Old Jew returned back home to Brooklyn and he sent me a message. A tree still grows in Brooklyn.
If BRUCE RATNER and JAY-Z will create another building that teaches children the fundamentals of engineering and gives them a place to dream of what might be then I should support them wholeheartedly.
DALLASPENN Dot Com is for the children.
I too have much love for the NY institution at 29 Fort Greene Place. Challenged me enough in HS so that I didn’t get my ass completely kicked at the college level like some of my friends that were racking up higher grades at the neighborhood high school.
we’re in the same industry, and have roughly equivalent education levels, but have managed to excel in said industries despite the limititations of our educational levels. so i can relate.
Yet another technite (Civil) checking in. Man, ya’ll are everywhere.
I live 15 minutes from Atlantic Avenue and I do not want to stare at this monstrosity.
http://www.slate.com/id/2143835/
And the Atlantic Yards report says the Brooklyn Tech building might be turned into apartments nobody can afford. Go Ratner. http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2007/01/does-ratner-want-brooklyn-tech.html
technite in the house, and tech didnt prepare me for life @ all. i breezed through everything i actually did. asian kids on the 7th floor in the guidance councellors office studying on their lunch… hell i had 4 lunch breaks, and still managed to get 90+ on tests i never preped for. big shouts 2 mr weinstein, ms hall, MS FLOYD (BEST GC EVAR… like a surrogate mom 2 me i might be dead if not for her…) we dont need a bigger tech, we need less kids in tech. to many lames. encourage actual smart kids 2 be smart.
maaaan i didn’t know you could draw…post some shit up!
I like the Idea of having the Nets in New York but I don’t like the fact that the Bloomberg and the local govt has not made a genuine attempt to increase affordable housing in the city.
on another sad brooklyn note i saw mark breland on myrle avenue last night and homeboy is definitely on some shit (heavy drugs) dusty clothe s and all.
damn damn damn
You’re my hero. Now DP stands for two good things in my life.
Much love from DrewBreez and SmokingSection.net.
BROOOKLYNNNNN!
I most def relate on the education vs. skill and knowledge tip. Even when I think about going to get (or finish) the first degree, I realize that my age knowledge and experience will keep me in this field for a while.
^ Now Frank Lee just took me waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back! I remember when Mark Breland was THE B.K. representer and dude was like every effin where. If dude’s smoked out, that’s a cot-damed shame. Btw, anyone remember the LeGrand family from Sterling and Brooklyn?
Technites are everywhere. Although I think BTHS’s current building is beautiful, it will be nice for them to have a more modern facility.
Tech is a great school. The learning environment, being surrounded by the best minds in the City, and teachers (with the exception of a few) that really cared about the kids….I will always have fond memories.
Shouts out to the class of 87! See you at the reunion in April.
You Techites know Londell McMillan?
I have mixed feelings about Tech…even though I barely went to class, I still managed to graduate. I think because of it’s ‘hood’ location, many of us who actually lived in the ‘hood’ found too many distractions in the fort to concentrate on classes. If I wasn’t in the lunch room playing spades or gambling, I was in FT. Greene park etherin’ a 40. I mean I still learned way more than I would have learned locally, and the biggest learning experience was the diversity.
When ever I go back to ,my birth ‘hood'(East NY STAND UP!), those same dudes I grew up with are still on the front porch holding their ball-sack acting tough, at FORTY!!! If i hadn’t went to tech I’d probably still be there with them. Bu t once I got on that subway and took it to downtown Brooklyn, it was like going to a different world. And all the ethnic diversity really opened my eyes.
I found it easier to relate to, understand, and work with so many different cultures because of Tech. and thats my remembrance of Tech.
Class of ’85, STAND UP!!
techies ya’ll remember lamont jones comrad mcrae of course and keith who was running the decepts ?
and real bk heads know who the mayo family is….
Frank lee….I used to tutor Conrad in English. He was a nice guy.
Sorry to see him go.
I do remember that our very own Dallas Penn was always laced with the best gear…..
^Candice, you saw me on some of my best days
aiight aiight but do ya’ll cats remember the 5% having parliament in fort greene park. now thats brooklyn right thurr.
eff them 5%’ers from FT.Greene…them bitch-made mother-effers only wanted to eff with the freshman, the Asians and anyone else they could outnumber. Now them 5% at the Albee Square I was cool with….
Red hook Stand Up, Gowanis Stand Up!
my dad went to tech, class of ’59. he just went back for his somethingsomething reunion and was telling me all about his days then with a twinkle in his eye. it was nice. i think he genuinely appreciate the experience of going to tech as opposed to whatever bullshit school his sister went to in bensonhurst. tech was the place, he said, that got him interested in science and on the road to a PhD. so all right.
many years i wound up living in bedstuy near classon, and i took him on a walk down to the school. he was smiling like a kid the whole time. heh.
I went to Midwood HS, back in the day….
Brooklyn represent!!!
Brooklyn!
I lived in Canarsie around the corner from South Shore HS from birth until college.
Went to junior high and high school in manhattan though.
Am I interrupting……
I must admit i’m a bit torn by the whole Atlantic Yards proposal. But I cant lie, im feening for the progress. I dont want to move to Manhattan but i want the skyscrapers and all.