[Photo Credit: Tom Callan/Brooklyn Paper] We received news overnight that former State Assemblyman and Carroll Gardens activist Frank Verderame has died. As a private citizen, Mr. Verderame was involved in just about every issues in the community and possessed a history of things and body of knowledge held by no one else. Mr. Verderame knew […]

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Given the hornet’s nest of opposition stirred by a relatively small project like Billy Stein’s 360 Smith Street and the intense hostility directed at the Toll Brothers Gowanus condo rezoning proposal, there has been relatively little discussion about the huge Gowanus Green (Public Place) development between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal. The picked the […]

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This week, Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog, takes us to Buttermilk Channel on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. I got to try out Buttermilk Channel (524 Court St., at Huntington St., 718-852-8490), the newest addition to dining on Court St. A few months ago, owner Doug Crowell set up a tasting table at the […]

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One of the co-founders of CORD, the Carroll Gardens Group that was born around the controversy surrounding the 360 Smith Street Building, has penned a scathing letter about the powerful board to which zoning, DOB and other decisions can be appealed. Among other things, she accused the board of making a recent zoning decision look […]

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The store we’re writing about, which is called Deluxa, has been around a couple of months, but its owner who is a regular GL reader just brought it to our attention and it sounds cool in a major way. Here’s her email to us: I was wanting to share with you and the readers…that I’ve […]

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For all you last minute shoppers. Though they’ll be open every weekend between now and then, the weekend before Xmas (12/20 & 12/21) the collective of fashion and product designers at Brooklyn Indie Market Partners (at Smith & Union Streets) will be donating 15-20% of their proceeds to St. John’s Bread and Life, Brooklyn’s largest […]

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[Photo courtesy of 66squarefeet] Uh oh. Those are icicles. The picture was taken today at the Bergen Street subway station as our correspondent Marie Viljoen was waiting for the F Train. First comes the ice. Then comes the winter. It’s fair to say that summer is officially over. Guess the trip to the Hamptons this […]

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Do you live in a sponsor-controlled coop or condo? If so, there’s a meeting coming up on Wednesday (12/10) at 6:30PM in Carroll Gardens that might interest you. It takes place at MS 142, 610 Henry Street in Carroll Gardens and will be lead by Theresa Racht and Al Taffae, attorneys and partners in Racht […]

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This week, Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog, takes us to Le Petite Cafe on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. The new Buttermilk Channel is closed on Mondays in December, so my boyfriend and I ended up at Le Petit Cafe (502 Court St., between Nelson & Luquer Streets, 718-596-7060) for dinner as we were […]

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It’s just a little thing, but the horrendously noisy and disruptive de-paving of streets like Dean and Carroll in recent weeks to prepare for repaving has exposed some of the original paving stone that existed before pavement did. This is a shot of Carroll Street in between dust clouds raised by passing cars. Some of […]

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Remember that oyster bar that restaurant entrepreneur Jim Mamary wanted to open on Hoyt Street and that neighbors bitterly protested? Community Board 6 approved the application for the liquor license, as part of a fight that became exceptionally bitter and personal. The Hoyt Street Alliance kept fighting the decision. Work started on the bar, but […]

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“It has been super quiet behind the blue construction fence on Court Street between Union and Sackett Streets. After months of constant activity, Clarett’s “Collection On Court” has come to a virtual stand-still. The building driveway ramp and the underground parking garage foundation seem to have been completed, but that is all. Except for a […]

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There was some volunteer cleanup activity along Smith Street in Carroll Gardens on Sunday. A correspondent reports: I saw these volunteers today on smith street (sunday) VOLUNTEERING! to pick up our trash. They told me they were three groups combined–Gomunications “Gomu: means trash in Japanese supposedly) these were the ones i talked to. Shining Big […]

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Ah, it’s not just IDT Energy that is making people insane and/or possibly scamming them. No, companies are giving people gas, so to speak, as well. Per an email on the Carroll Garden Neighborhood Association list with the subject line “Making Me Crazy!” we have this: I have received in person and now, phone solicitations […]

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Having had the NYC Department of Transportation show up outside our window at 7:30AM with one of those infernal machines that scrapes the pavement off streets and causes rows of buildings to shake, we’re especially interested in an ongoing exchange in Carroll Gardens about some Con Ed work that is driving people crazy. First, there […]

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There are many letter being written to Marty Markowitz about the Toll Brothers proposal to build a big condo development on the Gowanus. (There’s a letter writing campaign underway both on this project and about asking for an 8-story height limit in the Gowanus rezoning.) The fact that Carroll Gardens residents are now leading the […]

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Carroll Gardens residents have started a letter writing campaign to Borough President Marty Markowitz asking him to support an eight-story height limit for building along the entire length of the Gowanus Canal rather than the 12 stories in the “MX Waterfront South” District (above) that the current city plan is calling for. Here is the […]

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Planning Commission Chair Amanda Burden visited Gowanus last night to talk about the status of the city’s plans to upzone 25 blocks of Gowanus to allow buildings up to 12 stories tall, but she surprised everyone by announcing that a Carroll Gardens downzoning proposals would be ready by June, 2009. Ms. Burden claimed to want […]

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Today our friends at Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog take a look at Frankie’s 457 Spuntino on Court Street, a place that really needs no introduction. Frankie’s 457 Spuntino is a charming, cozy little place on Court St., deep in the heart of Carroll Gardens. The inside is all brick and warm tones, with […]

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[Photo courtesy of F. Jasmin Adams] It is clearly prime Ginkgo Tree Menace (or soup ingredient) season in Carroll Gardens. Enjoy the smell and/or the soup.

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The headline is only party in jest. We found these fliers for the Brooklyn Indie Designers Market, whcih is held on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens all over the place in Wiliamsburg this weekend. Trying to get some Artists and Fleas customers as the holidays approach? Hmmm?

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[Photo for GL Courtesy of F. Jasmin Adams] After the co-owner of Bagels on The Park in Carroll Gardens died, a kind of Bagel Shrine went up on Smith Street in his honor. It has been up for several weeks, in front of the Gowanus Yacht Club, which the bagel store adjoins.

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Here’s a question we found via a circulating email that raises a compelling question: How do you fire your freaking nanny?: Hi. I am going to let my PT nanny go but was wondering what the practice is with regard to severance. She only works for me on Wednesdays for 7 hours and started less […]

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Forgotten New York checks out one of the more obscure streets in Carroll Gardens this week (obscure to those who don’t know the neighborhood). Here’s a sample: New York City and United States history can be gleaned from the most mundane, unexceptional places. There’s a tiny street on the Cobble Hill-Red Hook border that exists […]

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There was a meeting last week about the future and plans for the horrendously polluted Public Place in Gowanus that is the future location of the planned Gowanus Green development. One of the headlines is that a big warehouse that currently occupies part of the site is being demolished this month. The site was once […]

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