Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Entries from November 2007

Brooklinks: Thursday Whole Lotta Yards Edition

November 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Thursday Whole Lotta Yards Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Atlantic Yards: More Detail on the New Atlantic Yards Ombusdperson [NYDN] MAS’s Kent Barwick on Atlantic Yards and Related Matters [No Land Grab] Dolly’s Follies [DDDB] Three Years After Complaint, Dolly Goes with $4K Fine [AYR] Not Atlantic Yards: MAS’s Kent Barwick on Coney Island […]

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Tags: Brooklinks

Bedford Ave. Dancer Makes TONY

November 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bedford Ave. Dancer Makes TONY

Matthew Silver, aka The Bedford Avenue Dancer, who has been featured a great deal on both GL and Curbed, makes the jump to print in this week’s Time Out New York: The man in the gigantic striped pants wrestling a rubber snake on Bedford Avenue isn’t crazy—he just wants to spread the love. Specifically, the […]

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Tags: Williamsburg

Bklink: DIY Gift Guide

November 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: DIY Gift Guide

Here’s an ultimate list to craft fairs and other Brooklyn handcrafted goodies that you will absolutely want to check out. Seriously. If you’re into buying Brooklyn created things locally this is a must-read list. Also check out the Brooklyn Sampler they’ve put together.–Brooklyn Based

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Tags: Holidays · Shortlink

Check Out Icky’s Holiday Guide to Brooklyn Handcrafted Gifts

November 29th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Blogger Icky in Brooklyn over in Windsor Terrace has put together an excellent list of handcrafted holiday gifts that are totally worth checking out. He’ll be adding to and updating the list in coming weeks, but some of the offerings so far include knitted goods from adknits, cool holiday cards from Alex Richman, tumblers vases […]

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Tags: Holidays

Say What–Sprinklered Again

November 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Say What–Sprinklered Again

We don’t focus much on altered signs on private property, but some of them are too hard to pass up. Like this sprinkler sign on a desolate street on the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border. Nice.

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Tags: Greenpoint · Signs Under Siege

Bklink: Navy Yard by Night

November 29th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Navy Yard by Night

Photographer and photoblogger Nathan Kensinger visited by Brooklyn Navy Yard the other night for a cool reading put on by writer Gabriel Cohen at PortSide New York’s Mary A. Whalen which is now at the GMD Shipyard. The pics he has posted are very cool.–Nathan Kensinger Photography

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Tags: Brooklyn Navy Yard · Shortlink

Memory Lane: Remembering the Roebling Oil Field

November 29th, 2007 · 2 Comments

With the Roebling Oil Building coming to market as Warehouse 11 in “North Williamsburg,” we’re feeling nostalgic for all the time we spent at the site shooting photos of oil oozing up through the ground as the clean up process was underway. All traces of the oil were gone by late spring as a “protective […]

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Tags: Roebling Oil Field

Atlantic Yards Gets an Ombudsperson

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Atlantic Yards Gets an Ombudsperson

The wait is over. The Empire State Development Corporation has finally hired an ombudsperson to oversee the Atlantic Yards project. Atlantic Yards watchers point out (see image from No Land Grab) that it took 203 days from promise to announcement to get the ombudsperson on the job. The ombudsperson is Forrest Taylor. The ESDC’s press […]

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Tags: Atlantic Yards

Return to Manhattan Beach: Mudslinging Time

November 28th, 2007 · 2 Comments

[Image courtesy of the Brooklyn View] When last we paid attention to Manhattan Beach, the neighborhood chitchat was about privatizing the beach to keep out “thugs.” Well, the Manhattan Beach Community Group, from whence the controversy came, is electing a president. (Bear us out on this, it gets quite interesting.) GerritsenBeach.Net, which does a superb […]

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Tags: Manhattan Beach

Bklink: One Commissioner Fined & One Appointed

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: One Commissioner Fined & One Appointed

Outgoing City Planning Commission member Dolly Williams was fined $4,000 by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board on Tuesday for voting to support Atlantic Yards while she was an investor in the project. Borough President Marty Markowitz, who appointed Ms. Williams, named Community Board 2 Chair Shirley McRae as Williams’ as her prospective replacement to […]

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Tags: Shortlink

Weekend Construction Makes Friends in Burg

November 28th, 2007 · 1 Comment

These signs have been pasted up outside the former site of the Manhattan Chocolate building at 580 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, which is in the process of becoming a condo. The firm that tore down the old building is the same one involved in the tear down of 5 Roebling, aka the Giant Fart Cloud […]

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Tags: Construction Issues · Williamsburg

Rough Going Ahead for Zoning Proposal?

November 28th, 2007 · 1 Comment

It appears those zoning amendments being pushed by the American Institute of Architects that could result in bulkier, taller buildings and that have upset some community activists in Brooklyn could be in for some rough going. The proposals had flown way below the radar–and still is in the sense of broad public recognition, the way […]

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Tags: Rezoning

Bklink: Carroll Gardens Back in the Day

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Carroll Gardens Back in the Day

The corner of Smith and President was fashionable back in 1900. And, honestly, the park house in Carroll Park was looking a bit nicer too. Not to mention the corner of Smith and President where the Rite Aid now stands.–Pardon Me for Asking

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Tags: Shortlink

McCarren Park Street Couch Replaced by Mattress

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on McCarren Park Street Couch Replaced by Mattress

Once upon time, we took pictures of street couches (which is one of our bits of oddness, but we find them strangely compelling). More recently, they seem to move around or have their parts scattred about. Our Greenpoint Correspondent, who is alway on point, hit us off with this mattress, which took the place of […]

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Tags: Williamsburg

Brooklyn Getting a Really Big Piano

November 28th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Anyone that still doubts Brooklyn will be a very different looking (and feeling) place in a few years, might want to take a look at these renderings of the City Tech Tower that Bruce Ratner wants to build at Jay and Tillary Streets. The rendering made the rounds yesterday after it was first posted on […]

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Tags: Downtown Brooklyn

Brooklinks: Wednesday Still Looking Like Fall Edition

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Wednesday Still Looking Like Fall Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images: Apartment Building Stairway Collapses [NYT] 50 Evacuated After Crown Heights Stairwell Collapse [NYDN] Barges Sink Off Red Hook, Being Investigated [1010 Wins] Halal Carts at Brooklyn College [Brooklyn Junction] Haunted Looking Building Gets Landmarked [Flatbush Gardener] Keeping an Eye on 388 Bridge Street [Brownstoner] Once, […]

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Tags: Brooklinks

Tis the Season: The Old Tyme Brooklyn Cakewalk

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Tis the Season: The Old Tyme Brooklyn Cakewalk

[Photo courtesy of I like/flickr] Okay, so it’s not in Brooklyn. It’s a photo from the Christmas Funfair in Glasgow, Scotland, and it’s clearly Brooklyn-related and very amusing.

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Tags: Holidays

Bklink: Brooklyn "Autographica"

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Brooklyn "Autographica"

If one pays attention there is much variety to be found in Brooklyn auto-related signs: collisions shops, mechanics, etc. Have a look at the first batch.–Brit in Brooklyn

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Tags: Shortlink

Tis the Season: More Tree Lightings & Celebrations

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Tis the Season: More Tree Lightings & Celebrations

There are a couple of more holiday events to report: 1) Dumbo Tree Lighting. The DUMBO Improvement District is having the second annual tree lighting in Dumbo on Thursday, November 29, at 6:30 pm. It will take place at the Pearl Street Triangle (the space on Pearl Street between Front and Water streets that has […]

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Tags: Events · Holidays

Upcoming: Brooklyn Artisan Holiday Gift Fair

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Upcoming: Brooklyn Artisan Holiday Gift Fair

There will be a “First Annual” Brooklyn Artisan Holiday Gift Fair on Saturday, December 1 from 11 am – 6 pm at the Fifth Avenue Committee at the FAC Center 621 DeGraw Street, which is located betwen Third and Fourth Avenue. The email for the event says, in part: ENJOY live music by internationally acclaimed […]

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Tags: Events · Holidays

Bklink: Queens Kitten Defects to Greenpoint

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Queens Kitten Defects to Greenpoint

Too. Cute. For. Words. The “Queensboro Kitten” who was found wandering the 59th Street Bridge has been adopted. One look at his picture and there will be no doubt as to why.–New York Shitty

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Tags: Greenpoint · Shortlink

Tis the Season: Flatbush Avenue Edition

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Tis the Season: Flatbush Avenue Edition

[Photo courtesy of luluinnyc/flickr] It’s the Christmas tree stand on Flatbush Avenue, standing this year amidst the emptiness of properties that have been demolished by Forest City Ratner.

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Tags: Atlantic Yards · Holidays

Bklink: Heads Up on Fifth Avenue

November 28th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Heads Up on Fifth Avenue

Good thing parts of this Fifth Avenue Park Slope brownstone near Carroll Street decided to fall off around two in the morning on Monday night rather than during the day on Tuesday. It looks like there would have been a serious ouch factor had the debris come down on someone.–Brownstoner

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Tags: Park Slope · Shortlink

Battle of the Beans: Brooklyn Coffee War Brewing?

November 27th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Yesterday, we posted about the new Brooklyn Bean that is opening at Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street. Brownstoner posted about it too, noting that it is an offshoot of Cuppa Cuppa in the East Village and has nothing to do with Brookyn Bean & Tea Company on Atlantic Avenue. Of course, we had assumed that […]

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Tags: Brooklyn Nibbles

175 Kent Going Up, But 157 Kent is Quiet

November 27th, 2007 · Comments Off on 175 Kent Going Up, But 157 Kent is Quiet

The building above is 175 Kent Avenue, officially known as 53 N. 3rd Street. It will be going on that big site formerly occupied by the concrete plant on Kent Avenue between N. 3 and N. 4 Streets across from 184 Kent. The building will be six stories with 112 units and 166,000 square feet […]

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Tags: Williamsburg