The court case challenging Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s proposed bylaw changes is awaiting a ruling from Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jill Epstein as of Sept. 8. In the June Democratic Primary, the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition, a reform movement aligned with Peña, won 22 of the 42 district-leader seats on the Kings County Democratic Party Executive Committee. Under the existing rules, that number gave the reformers a majority and put them in the position to elect Peña as the next county party chair in September. Bichotte Hermelyn responded with a package of 10 bylaw changes that would substantially alter who gets to vote.

Happy Wednesday in NYC, where we’re finally learning the answer to the long-pondered question: if you read all 1,344 pages of The Power Broker by Robert Caro out loud without stopping, how long would it take you to finish?

The answer is somewhere between 2 and 3 days, at least according to the organizers of a marathon live reading event of the book scheduled for Nov. 12. Hundreds of participants will read 10-minute excerpts back-to-back, around the clock, in front of a live audience until Caro’s classic biography of Robert Moses and the making of modern New York is completed. The event will take place at Judgy Baby, a new venue space in Gowanus.

More than 1,600 people signed up for a chance to participate, but only 400 will make the cut. “Clearly, we’re seeing intense interest in bringing ‘The Power Broker’ to life in this new way,” said Brad Vogel, the event’s organizer, in a release. “I’m floored by the surge of people looking to participate. What connections, what conversations will be spurred by the reading? What will it reveal about New York? I’m excited to find out.”

I think what it reveals is that in a city of waitlists and around-the-block lines, anything can be exclusive, even the privilege of reading 10 pages about zoning to a stranger at 4 a.m.

Squinting through my binoculars, I scanned the dense branches of a black spruce, trying my best to catch a glimpse of the thin legs of a small black, white and yellow songbird. I was on the hunt for a yellow-rumped warbler – a bird affectionately called “butter-butt” by bird-watchers after the distinctive buttery yellow patch of feathers above its tail.

Once I spotted a flash of red on one of the bird’s legs, I knew that this individual was special – in fact, it was one that I already knew well. That’s because I had placed identifying bands on it the previous year as part of my Ph.D. research, and it was carrying a very important piece of new technology.

I played the high pitched “warble” of its song through a speaker placed below a mist net of fine, nearly invisible mesh. Thinking another male had intruded on his territory, the bird quickly descended. My tactic worked – he got caught in the net. As I gently removed him, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the Tic Tac-size device sitting on his back.

Read on to learn more.

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