Amy Braunstein

Stories from Amy Braunstein

H.P.'s Nighthawk: an eclectic aerie of ideas & arts
Amy Braunstein
Friday, March 26, 2010
Opening its doors in early 2010, Nighthawk Books is the lastest addition to the borough's main street.

Steven Hart, a veteran newsman, freelance writer, and published author, runs Nighthawk at 212 Raritan Avenue, with the help of his wife Mary Walworth. Facing an uncertain future in print journalism, a field beset with cutbacks and layoffs, Hart struck off on his own in 2009.

RSA's gotta brand new board
Amy Braunstein
Sunday, February 14, 2010

On January 26th at the Rutgers Student and Alumni Federal Credit Union's (RSA FCU) annual public meeting, a new board of directors was elected. The board expanded from five to nine members, with only one returning member from the previous board, Ken Buren, who founded the student & alumni credit union while a student at Rutgers.

Members of political action committee Empower Our Neighborhoods (EON) were elected to four seats, along with RSA FCU administrator Aimee Becker, a university senior.

Romancing the concrete jungle
Amy Braunstein
Saturday, February 6, 2010

The New Brunswick Public Library hosted a talk by local author, CEO and activist Takerra Allen about her first book, Thicker Than Water, published in July 2009.

Allen's novel about four friends, strong young women from Brick City Newark, is loosely informed by real people in the author's life. Dubbed "the Urban Sex in the City" in the publisher's notes, this novel is about the friendships between the main characters, and the romantic relationships with the men in their lives. The story lasts only one summer in the lives of four strong women, but it squeezes in love, lust, deception, and some very bad behavior.

H.P. council appoints Nolan as mayor
Amy Braunstein
Saturday, January 30, 2010

Stephen Nolan was sworn in as Highland Park's interim mayor on January 21, receiving a round of standing applause from more than a hundred onlookers in Borough Hall. He replaced three-term mayor Meryl Frank who resigned her third mayoral term on January 5th for a presidential appointment to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

H.P.'s Freedman honored at King Day celebration
Amy Braunstein
Tuesday, January 19, 2010

January 18th the Highland Park Human Relations Commission presented Lori Freedman with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Human Rights Award, before an assembly of more than 70 packing the borough Senior/Youth Center community room. The event celebrated the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and acknowledged Freedman’s dedication to social justice in the borough.

This year's ceremony theme was 'building a strong community,’ as Acting Mayor Elsie Foster-Dublin presented the King Award to a borough person “who exemplifies the work and teaching" of the late civil rights champion.

Hometown masseuse is ready to lend a hand
Amy Braunstein
Friday, January 15, 2010
Massage Matters owner Rosa Tavares has been a borough merchant for nearly 12 years. Prior to becoming a certified massage therapist Tavares worked as a social worker for four and a half years, just at the time that acupuncture and massage therapies were gaining credence as complements to the traditional medical therapies.

Slipped disk? This doctor makes house calls
Amy Braunstein
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
In September of 2009 Cyber Knight Computers celebrated a Grand Opening at 433 Raritan Avenue. The move followed 11 years at his Easton Avenue location in New Brunswick, but owner Mike Beberman says the borough has already been very receptive.

A hammer, a clamor, a jam: Gamelan!
Amy Braunstein
Monday, November 23, 2009
On November 21, a unique ensemble of modern traditionalists played to a crowd that packed the eclectic White Lotus Gallery space above Raritan Avenue. Over a hundred people, young and old, turned out for an evening meal and musical presentation by the New York City-based Gamelan Son of Lion Orchestra.

 

The newly renovated gallery in downtown Highland Park has a warehouse feel befitting its origins as a 19th century knitting factory. White Lotus Home, a furnishings maker and retailer who rents the building, has decorated the space with local artists’ work on the walls and floor. Use of the space was donated by building owner Eric Weinberg and White Lotus Home for the fundraising concert.

Vigil for Route 18 victim charges lax pedestrian design
Amy Braunstein
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

 

On October 19th George Coleman was hit by a car and killed while walking to the New Brunswick Youth Center with friends. George was 15 years old, a student at the Charter School, with plans for Law School.

Food security named as top NJ challenge
Amy Braunstein
Saturday, November 14, 2009

On November 11th guest speakers from Elijah's Promise took to the podium at Rutgers to outline the problem of hunger in New Jersey.

Organizers told the assembled students that something is "terribly wrong" with the way we feed people in NJ.  We live in one of the ten worst states when it comes to food stamps, school breakfast, and summer food sources for school-aged children, according to the agency's director, Rev. Lisanne Finston.