Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn

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The Argyle at Seventh Street and Fourth Avenue is setting up a sales office on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope as was noted yesterday over at Brownstoner and on Curbed and at Bklynking, even though it isn’t located on a block that we’d personally define as being in the Slope. (For starters, it’s on the […]

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We happened upon the block of buildings at 150-158 Fourth Avenue between Butler and Douglass over the weekend as workers were climbing around putting up the scaffolding they’ll be using during the demolition. Our friends at Brownstoner recently noted that the demolition has a green light. A twelve-story building is said to be slated for […]

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Gowanus, Brooklyn

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Boy, do we like putting “Gowanus” and “parrot” in the same phrase. Yesterday, after we posted an item about the parrots in Thomas Greene Park, a number of readers left comments that fill in some valuable blanks. As it turns out, parrots have been seen in and around Gowanus for a while. There is also […]

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It brings us pleasure to report that Brooklyn parrots now appear to be living in Thomas Greene Park in Gowanus. We’ve never noticed them there (and the parrots are very noticeable based on their distinctive squawking) and don’t recall seeing reports of a colony there–although parrots have been reported in Park Slope, possibly drawn by […]

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Gowanus in Unity, a program that operates out of the Gowanus Community Center at the Gowanus Houses, needs volunteer tutors. Here’s the email that went out: Gowanus In Unity Tutoring provides one on one tutoring to students at the Gowanus Community Center, 420 Baltic St. in Gowanus Houses. We have been doing this for over […]

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There’s going to be a “Party for the People” in Gowanus on Saturday, October 6, from 1PM-9PM at the very active and much promoted Yard on the Gowanus Canal. We got an email from the organizers in the wee hours of the morning about “A monumental Brooklyn-centric event is taking place IN GOWANUS on October […]

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[Photo courtesy of mrthespy/flickr] It can’t be, can it? Hotel Chatter reported that Le Bleu, the Gowanus hotel on Fourth Avenue with the white-and-blue themed interiors, glass showers and industrial neighborhood views, would be open around October 1. It described the vistas as follows: As for those views, half the rooms do have a glimpse […]

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Here’s a little before & after action at the corner of Bond and Union Streets in Gowanus. The building is still on the market, we believe, for $12 million, but it’s currently occupied by the Iyyun Center for Jewish Enrichment, which accounts for the makeover. Very striking shade green they selected. Ariella Cohen had a […]

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If you want to get the lowdown on what’s going on in Gowanus and find out what some very involved residents are thinking about it, then we recommend the monthly meeting of Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, aka FROGG. FROGG’s having its monthly get together on Tuesday, 9/18. It takes place at the restaurant […]

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There’s a bit of news to report on the Gowanus Whole Foods front. The headline, of course, was deep inside a story in the Sun: the company says the big store at Third Avenue and Third Street won’t open until 2009. Anyone who has viewed the site would have been hard pressed to imagine how […]

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That big, empty green warehouse building at Union and Bond Street in Gowanus is now home to the Ayyun Center for Jewish Enrichment. We can report this much: the building, which has been empty for years and is on the market for $12 million, was hosting some sort of event last night. A reader had […]

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We did a double take when we saw the subject line of an email that said, “The Gowanus Harvest Festival,” but that’s what the people producing events at The Yard on the Gowanus are calling it. The Harvest Fest takes place on Sunday (9/14) (10/14) from 3PM-9PM. It will feature local beer tasting, live music, […]

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We found an e-mail from a group called the Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective, which is located at Douglass Street and Fourth Avenue that needs some basic items donated. The group works with–you guessed it–young mothers and provides reproductive health education, legal information, educational support and more. The organization’s managing director writes: We are seeking donations […]

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Have you heard about the BAG Fund? As many times as we’ve noted events at the Brooklyn Artists Gym in Gowanus, we’d never noticed the program, which supports artists who are single parents. Here are some details about it: The BAG Fund, the non-profit arm of Brooklyn Artists Gym, is seeking nominations and applications to […]

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It’s been a while since we noted any of the goings on at Proteus Gowanus, the “interdisciplinary reading room and gallery” on the Gowanus, so we’re happy to note the opening reception on Friday (9/14) from 6PM-9PM for a year-long exhibit called “Play.” Proteus emails: It is with great excitement that we launch our 2007/2008 […]

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We almost hesitate to post this photo because it’s so freaking foul. It and some others were sent to us by a GL reader who submitted it in order to share the situation on Ninth Street between Second and Third Avenue in Gowanus that it depicted. Call it Garbage Porn. Of the trash company whose […]

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The rendering upon which you are gazing? It’s a building designed by the prolific Karl Fischer Architect. We came across it in the course of checking out yesterday’s Brownstoner post about Mr. Fischer’s design for a new hotel at 237 Duffield Street. While plans are currently in a state of rejection at the Department of […]

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Last week, Brownstoner’s Gabby Warshawer offered a look at the demolition activity underway at the environmentally-challenged Whole Foods site in Gowanus, noting that a promised Spring 2008 opening seems a bit optimistic at this point. When we strolled over to have a look for ourselves, we found the entire building that adjoins the little body […]

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A few tidbits of information about the big planned Public Place development on that highly toxic site along the Gowanus Canal that was home to a manufactured gas plant surfaced during that Carroll Gardens “Town Hall” meeting on Thursday night. Among the groups interested in submitting RFPs are non-profits such as the Fifth Avenue Committee, […]

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has a very nice item on the aftermath of the great deluge of August 8 in one of our favorite flood zones, Gowanus. To wit: Anecdotal reports from shopkeepers on Court Street described friends’ basements in Gowanus in which feces and dead rats were found floating in the water in their […]

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With part of Gowanus likely to be rezoned to allow buildings of 10-12 stories–and many residents of neighboring residential streets likely to be very upset about it–the question about where the boundary is drawn is not an academic one or a mere planning exercise. Buildings on the west side of Bond Street are generally only […]

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You knew this was going to be interesting, right? In addition to the discussion about what to build at the toxic Public Place site in Gowanus, part of the spectator sport-level entertainment is going to involve who builds it. To that end, the Brooklyn Graphic reports that one of the groups will be a very […]

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We’re posting this because (a). the graphics for this performance amused us in an odd way and (b). it amused us even more because the venue is “The Yard,” the performance space on the Gowanus that until recently housed the Issue Project Room and now is home to show being put on by Mean Red […]

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