If anyone’s looking for Valentine’s Day related things in Brooklyn, they might want to check this little list for something like a horseback ride through Propsect Park or death via chocolate at the Chocolate Room in Park Slope. And if these activities aren’t one’s cup of tea, then perhaps a ride with the “Cupid Cabbie” […]

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“Today at 6:30 p.m. G.W.A.P.P. will be conducting a general information session at the Pencil Factory regarding the park slated for the western terminus of India Street. Stephanie Thayer of the Open Space Alliance will give a general overview of the project (among other things, I have heard affordable housing is a component)…” The meeting […]

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The scourge of the BQE, the Kosciuszko Bridge, may not be replaced after all. “The long-awaited project to replace the deteriorating and traffic-choked Kosciuszko Bridge has hit a roadblock because a state agency believes the aging span could be worth saving. The state Historic Preservation Office has refused to approve final designs that call for […]

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A building on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge succumbed to the deadly combination of high winds and an unsupported cinder block wall built on the building’s roof. The building was once the site of the Leading Edge Radiation Oncology Services Center, and some residents wondered “about spillage of radioactive material following the collapse.”–Right in Bay […]

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The future of the embattled Moore Street Market in Williamsburg is almost here. “After winning a one-year reprieve from their landlord — the City of New York — the market’s 13 merchants may find themselves forced out by June if the city moves forward with a plan to demolish the building and replace it with […]

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Here’s a detailed and photo-filled look at 18th Avenue and Bensonhurst that includes a walk on Christmas Eve. “A source of endless fascination to me has been the depiction of animals wearing crowns, chef hats, or similar anthropomorphism. At 61st Street, the Bari pig, captioned ‘King of the Sausage’ on other signs in Brooklyn, holds […]

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“At the hight of the wind, firefighters checked out the scaffolding built around 20 Henry Street — the Peaks Mason Mints building (also called the Candy Factory). Urban Realty Partners paid $19.6 million for the site last year.” Photo of firefighters walking on the scaffold included.–McBrooklyn

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Always count on high winds to cause some sort of construction-related issue. For instance, in Midwood, where a scaffold collapsed yesterday, “leaving a big mess on a nearby sidewalk but causing no injuries, firefighters said. The collapse happened at a site near East 12th Street and Avenue O in the Midwood section.A witness said the […]

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Community Board 1 will be making a decision about whether to support the Brooklyn Greenway along Kent Avenue and West Street. Because the waterfront esplanades that aren’t wide enough, the bikeway would have to go on the street and, as a result, some parking would have to be eliminated. A letter from the Brooklyn Greenway […]

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There’s an “x-ray billboard” on the Dumbo side of the Manhattan Bridge. Well, a couple of the images have been tweaked a little, but some haven’t and it does look strange.–Fading Ad Blog

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“Stories like these rarely end well for artists. Dozens of residents were ousted from lofts in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn after the city found violations in 2000. The tenants fought bitterly with their landlord, Joshua Guttman, accusing him in a lawsuit of harassment and trashing their homes, which he denied. They eventually settled, but […]

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“I took a few minutes during my travels in the past few days to both shoot some photos with my cell phone, and send some of the old ones that have been there for months to my email. Here’s a little slice of Brooklyn for the lot of youse who’ve never been here.” Definite slice […]

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“Affordable-housing activists in Brooklyn, N.Y., are proposing eminent domain be used to seize a prime piece of New York real estate from Pfizer Inc. Pfizer is the same company that inspired economic-development plans in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London after the pharmaceutical giant started building its Global Research & Development headquarters there nearly […]

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Icky in Brooklyn, who so brilliantly chronicled things in Windsor Terrace and weighed in on issues elsewhere that inspired him, is back. We’re noting this because we miss Icky’s voice. He writes: This blog was in effect, retired last month. But sometimes sometimes a story so appealing happens along, well … ya know.” The issue […]

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“What had once been the site of the Hollywood-connected Bay Ridge Funeral Home is now nearly a half-block long hole in the ground, easily providing passersby a glimpse into their neighbors’ side-street backyards from the rare vantage point of Fourth Avenue – for now.” It will become a seven-story condo. Earlier excavation unearthed a time […]

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Robert Rodriguez, a 10-year Ridgewood resident by way of Bushwick, says hipsters have begun to penetrate the southern reaches of Ridgewood from neighboring DeKalb and Jefferson avenues in Bushwick “little by little.” With their arrival, the neighborhood has improved. “They’re definitely coming in and cleaning things up around here… They’ve even made it to Wyckoff. […]

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Maybe it’s a little premature to say that Third Avenue is about to become the new Fourth Avenue (or something like that), but there is clearly a lot of activity on and around this forlorn Gowanus boulevard. All you need to do is put everything together on a map and the picture crystallizes. In short, […]

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The Burg is getting a green building at 439 Metropolitan Avenue. It will have a mix of apartments and office space from Helder Design. It’s NYC’s first LEED Platinum rating for a mixed-use buildings and one of several green buildings going up in Brooklyn, including the Greenbelt, another Williamsburg structure. The bad news is it’s […]

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Schnäck, the eatery on Union Street in Red Hook, is going belly up. The end has been in the works for a long time, we guess, but it still makes us sad to lose one of our favorite stops for veggie burgers and a basket of artery clogging fries and onion rings. Not to mention […]

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If your building is a floor shorter than your neighbors, what can you do? Well, on Dean Street, near Smith, the owners decided to add a new floor. Not only did they make the building taller, they did up the exterior with “shiny new metal” and “three small square windows.” The effect is quite impressive.–PMFA

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Brooklyn writer Gabriel Cohen has published three books in three different genres within the last year. The first was “Boombox,” published last May by Academy Chicago Publishers. The second was “The Graving Dock,” a sequel to his crime novel Red Hook, that Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur published in November. The third, due on March […]

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Yes, it’s almost here. So, for some last minute options–because some places are already booked solid–you might want to check this excellent list for options like Farm on Adderly, Dressler’s, Palo Santo, Dumont and others. Also some suggestions on where to get treats. And, if you are anti-Valentine, well, there are regular things to do […]

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Here’s a thought piece on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue that has a lot of an analysis of the issues plaguing what Borough President Marty Markowitz calls “a grand boulevard of the 21st Century.” Does the Novo Park Slope “looms fortress-like over the playground next door”? Does the Crest greet “passersby with man-sized industrial vents”? Does Hotel […]

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Red Hook may be a little less isolated by fall with the proposed extension of the B77 and B71 buses to South Ferry in Manhattan via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The changes could make life easier for some people hit by the planned closing of the Smith-9th Street station. The B77 bus runs from Park […]

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Here’s how you “bastardize” a townhouse: First, start with a developer and an architect. Then, you need greed and a real estate agent to peddle it. Also, you can’t have any consideration from the neighbors. Make it stand out from everything else in the historic neighborhood, hopefully by adding something to the roof that can […]

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