Quality of Life Court in Red Hook

Beware, brown-bag beer drinkers... This was in the NYT on Aug. 22

Under One Roof, Trial, Penalty and Civics Lesson - Red Hook:

http://tinyurl.com/jvb6g

quotes: "Now six years old, the court in Red Hook is one of a kind, the nation’s first multijurisdictional community court. It combines elements of criminal, family and housing courts not only under the same roof, but also before the same judge, Alex M. Calabrese."

"To sit through a few Tuesdays in the court is not only to see and experience the million little details and moments that make this courthouse unique in New York City, but also to return to a simpler time, to an array of affronts to a collective sensibility. Riding a bicycle on the sidewalk. Playing music too loud. Drinking in public. Urinating in public. Being in a park after-hours."

"Some cases are pleaded down or thrown out. Others bring a fine or a lecture in a “quality-of-life class,” which is just that, a class that seeks to instruct on how to live a better life, a life without alcoholics in parks and urinators in alleys."