So, the slowing real estate market is now making rezoning property–say, from manufacturing to residential–more attractive to developers. “In the height of the market, a lot of developers just wanted to buy it, develop it and get out,” on real estate lawyer says. “A rezoning can take two to three years. Now is a good time to be doing that.” In every cloud, a silver lining.–NYT

[Photo courtesy of This Week in New York: twi-ny.com/flickr]

Bob Dylan played the Bandshell in Prospect Park last night, the fourth date on a tour that runs through September. There’s a full, good photoset from the show here. Here is last night’s set list: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, Lay, Lady, Lay, Lonesome Day Blues, Girl From The North Country, The Levee’s Gonna Break, Spirit On The Water, Honest With Me, John Brown, Highway 61 Revisited, Beyond The Horizon, It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding), Nettie Moore, Summer Days, Masters Of War, Like A Rolling Stone, Thunder On The Mountain and Blowin’ In The Wind. DITHOB had some reflections on the show here. Meanwhile, a huge crowd turned out to listen and some people were unhappy with the huge fence that’s put up in the park to prevent non-ticket holders from seeing ticketed shows. It’s erected so that no one even has a chance of catching a glimpse of what’s going on inside. One reader wrote us: “Anyone know why there was a massive fence preventing any non-ticket holder from seeing the concert tonight [8/12]? Was this Dylan’s idea or Celebrate Brooklyn’s? All I can say is it sucked!!” All we can say is that it’s Standard Operating Procedure at such shows at the Bandshell.

[Photo courtesy of This Week in New York: twi-ny.com/flickr]

Click for a vid of Dylan doing Like a Rolling Stone

[Photo courtesy of Eater]

Our friends at Eater have all the riveting details about the prep work on Brooklyn Bowl on Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg. There is a full photogallery of the ongoing interior construction work as well as details on what is to come. A short sample of some of the rich detail:

The Bowling: 16 lanes of high tech bowling. Huge projection screens will tower above the lanes (and also above the bar, restaurant, and exit) displaying the performance in progress, previous concerts, or any old music-related media the owners choose to throw up there. Waitresses will be on hand at all times with hand-helds that shoot your orders to the bar or kitchen, and busboys will run out your orders. Instead of the usual bowling seating, here you’ve got leather old Chesterfield couches and iron coffee tables.

Do head over because it’s totally worth a look at the pics and a read.

On Monday, we noted some events commemorating the Battle of Brooklyn at Green-Wood Cemetery. Today, we’ll note, per an email we got from the folks at the Old Stone House, that they have a full schedule of events. For instance, on Saturday (8/16) there will be a Battle Days Opening Reception at the Old Stone House, which is located in JJ Byrne Park at Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. It starts at Noon and American & British Reenactors will be on hand to discuss the Battle of Brooklyn. On Friday, August 22, there will be a Battle of Brooklyn Neighborhood Walking Tour starting at the Grand Army Plaza Arch at 6PM. It will end at the Old Stone House at 8PM. The cost is $12 and $10 for Old Stone House members. The full schedule is over at the Old Stone House website.

The owner of a fruit cart who drew the ire of the Brooklyn Heights Association has won. “It looks like the fruit and vegetable cart on the historic Brooklyn Heights streetcorner is here to stay, even after the Brooklyn Heights Association filed a complaint with the city. ‘I’m going to be here forever,’ one of the cart’s owners, Onur Benirbaz, told the Daily News. ‘Of course I do have a permit.’ The cart’s sudden appearance on the corner of Henry and Clark Sts. two weeks ago spurred a small controversy in the tony neighborhood. ‘He’s parked near a deli and a store that sells fruit,’ said Judy Stanton, head of the Brooklyn Heights Association…Stanton’s office filed the complaint about the cart, thinking vendors weren’t allowed on Henry St. That is not the case, according to the Health Department.–NYDN

[Photo courtesy of Josh Derr/GL Flickr Pool]

Per the photographer: “Sunset reflecting off the glass skin of the J Condo building in DUMBO. Midtown Manhattan is visible just beyond.”

We have the makings of a very nice day with a forecast calling for partly sunny skies and a high of 84. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low of 68.–Accuweather

This message is part of a wall mural in Greenpoint. Don’t Get Gentrified, indeed.

The Fourth Annual Fort Greene Park Literary Festival takes place on August 23 and will feature poet Amiri Baraka. Here’s a bit from the email we got:

The 4th annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival will present a free outdoor reading on August 23rd at 3:00 PM featuring young writers aged seven to eighteen reading alongside Amiri Baraka (former Poet Laureate of New Jersey) and Quincy Troupe (former State Poet of California). Also on the bill are Poet Laureate of Bed-Stuy Louis Reyes Rivera (Scattered Scripture) and former Poet Laureate of Queens Hal Sirowitz (Mother Said.). Special musical guest will be the Indoda Entsha Percussion Ensemble, and The Master of Ceremonies will be Laurie Cumbo, director of the acclaimed Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA). This exciting event brings several generations of writers together to build on the rich literary traditions of the neighborhoods surrounding beautiful Fort Greene Park. he Festival’s young writers are all participants in a free summer-long series of creative writing workshops taking place outdoors in the park. The groups serve 7-12 year olds and teenagers in separate, dynamic and innovative workshops designed to create a safe space for young writers to find their voices and explore all genres of creative writing.

One of the festival’s organizers is Johnny Temple of Akashic Books.

[Photo courtesy of Adrian Kinloch/Brit in Brooklyn]

Here’s the Williamsburg waterfront from the promenade at Schaefer Landing as captured by Brit in Brooklyn photoblogger and GL contributor Adrian Kinloch.

Hey, it’s “Get on the Water Month” with four days of free canoeing on the Gowanus and four days of free kayaking in Red Hook, among other things. Here are some highlights of an email from the Gowanus Dredgers:

AUGUST 15, Friday 6:00pm-8:00pm. Red Hook Discovery Tour and Shoreline Cleaning. Enjoy a canoe or kayak trip for up to 20 minutes within the protected park pier area, help clean the shoreline, and take in fantastic views of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. There’s plenty to enjoy in the neighborhood before or after – visit www.redhookboaters.org for details.

AUGUST 16, Saturday, 11:30 AM – 3:30 PM. Kayaking + Community Rowing in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Kayaking + Community Rowing in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Join the Village Community Boathouse for some rowing and kayaking in Brooklyn Bridge Park! The first sanctioned event of its kind is a precursor to a park that will embrace our waterfront! Click on Programs / Events at: http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org.

The rest of the schedule by clicking here.

[Image courtesy of oh, poppycock/flickr]

This bus has been making the rounds in Brooklyn, including numerous sightings in Prospect Heights reported over at Brooklynian. It appears to be this bus, which was just purchased from Ben & Jerry’s.

Where to go for a picnic? Here are some suggestions (along with where to get food and drink nearby). Say for instance: “6/15 Green Community Garden, on 6th Ave. between 15th and 16th Sts. in the South Slope. This lush patch’s tables and chairs are open to the public Saturday mornings and Thursday and Sunday evenings (though, sadly, the on-site grill is for members only). If you’re bringing six or more, check beforehand to ensure your gathering doesn’t clash with another’s…Perfect Meal: Fresh mozzarella balls marinated with sun-dried tomatoes, handmade bread, olives, and a pasta salad from Eagle Provisions, a small Polish grocery store on 5th Ave. and 18th St. that’s been serving the South Slope since the Thirties.”–Brooklyn Based

Not much is known about the rather large under-construction development on 4th Avenue between Douglass and Butler streets, and there’s a good chance details about the project will remain obscure for the near future, at least from street level. The site is now fronted by a tall aluminum fence instead of the standard-issue wood construction-site fence. This much is known about the development: The architect is Ismael Leyva and it’s going to be 12 stories high, according to DOB records. Several old tenement buildings on the block were demolished last fall to make way for the new building.

Forgotten New York wanders over to N. 10 Street in Williamsburg this week, a spot that we’ve chronicled every inch of and that we know so well that we know when some graffiti changes. Kevin Walsh writes of this street that still blends the old Burg with the new and is still the epicenter of much construction:

Unlike apparently everyone else in the NYC blogosphere I haven’t paid a lot of attention to Williamsburg the past couple of years — until a couple of weekends ago (writing this August 11, 2008) when a too-long wait for the B61 caused me to ditch my planned visit to Red Hook and walk down Willoughby, through Ft. Greene Park, on Willoughby again, and up Kent to the burg of William. Heading southeast to the train at Bedford and North 7th after about a walk of about five miles, I found myself on North 10th, a couple of blocks that looked particularly interesting because of a vast panoply of building styles; it looked like the nexus of the old Willieburg of middle-to-lower class immigrants and the new Willieburg of the Bloomberg-invited superrich…

Yup, that’s our N. 10 Street.

One way to tell that a proposal has problems is when opposing politicians both are fighting it. So it is with the proposed Marine Transfer Station in Gravesend Bay. “Opponents are concerned that construction of the plant requires dredging Gravesend Bay, where they say potentially hazardous pollutants deposited there during the three decades the city’s incinerator operated, might be released into the water and air. Additionally, a barge that removed 219 tons of munitions from the damaged USS Bennington in March 1954 sank in the bay. The Navy recovered about 15,000 shells a year later, but many neighborhood residents are concerned about unexploded ammo that may not have been recovered.”–Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Yes, Dylan is doing his thing at the Bandshell in Prospect Park tonight and the ticket bazaar is in full swing. General admission lawn seats are in the $140-$200 range on Craigslist, with most closer to the $200 end of the scale. Actual seats are upwards of $200. Tix on Stubhub go up to $565 each

[Photo courtesy of June Carter Cash Peep/GL Flickr Pool]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

&#183: More on How the Downtown Rezone is Pushing Out Small Business [NYDN]
· Dancer Hit by Car in Bed-Stuy [NYP]
· Announcement About Gowanus Whole Foods Coming Soon [Brownstoner]
· Still A Lot of Car Break Ins in Dumbo & Vinegar Hill [Dumbo NYC]
· Changes at Kosher Gym Causing Anger [Gothamist]
· Block Party 2 [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Summer Doldrums [New York Shitty]
· Joe & Joe’s Pizza is Done [Kensington Brooklyn]
· Soccer Tavern [gunsetpark]
· BQE Fire Sends Smoke Into Heights [BHB]

A special GL Seventh Avenue Correspondent reports some hot new Seventh Avenue Park Slope retail news. The last empty storefront on what we’d call the Seventh Avenue Block of Death, the strip between Second and Third Streets that at one point had four empty storefronts, is being filled. Our Special Correspondent spoke with very informed sources on the block (aka the guys at the newsstand) who told GL that the former Seventh Ave. Books location will be a women’s clothing store. While our sources were unclear about the name of the shop, they told our correspondent that it will be opening next month. And so, the Block of Death is now occupied by Barrio and Carmen’s Exclusives for Children, with Kids Rx on the way in the Second Street Cafe space, which we were the first to confirm a couple of weeks ago. Close followers of the Park Slope retail scene will also recall the impending Bagel War. Seventh Ave. can be so dull, yet so interesting sometimes.

The Great Park Slope Public Sex Debate continues. First, there was the report of the “Upsetting Incident” at the 15th Street F Station being the recipient of a sex act performed by someone who apparently resides at the Women’s Shelter at the Park Slope Armory. Then, there was a follow-up discussion suggesting that public sex is related to the income level of the people performing the public sex act, and that low-income people are basically the ones doing it outside. There have been many follow ups indicating that a great many people in Park Slope are out there doing it and they are of many income levels and sexual proclivities. Here is some of the newsworthy latest from Park Slope Parents emails, starting with what must a frequent one–sex in the park:

A couple of weeks ago, I was in the park on the hill by the baseball fields and saw a couple having sex just meters away from where I had sat down to have a picnic with my 2.5yr old daughter. I packed up and walked away, but also called 911 right away. A policeman was there within a minute and dealt with the matter. So I would suggest that at the moment of any such upsetting incidents, calling 911 is a good option too in terms of taking care of the matter as it occurs.

Not to mention the Seventh Ave. F Station Masturbator

[Click to expand]

Remember when the Department of Transportation said that alternate side parking regulations might be suspended in Park Slope for much of the summer while signs were changed and the melodrama that ensued? Well, DOT is way ahead of schedule and the process has gone so smoothly in Gowanus and part of Carroll Gardens that few complaints have been heard. Yesterday, DOT announced the next phase of the changes, including the resumption of alternate side parking with new regs in Gowanus on August 25 and the suspension of the regulation in Cobble Hill and the rest of Carroll Gardens starting on August 18.

Read more here.

[Photo courtesy of Curbed; click to expand]

Yesterday, Lockhart Steele, the founder of Curbed who is putting up a whole lot of cool posts over there this week, had this exclusive photographic gem of 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, a building and development that we’ve followed quite closely. When 184 is finished, which is promised for next year, it’s going to be a rental building.

[Photo courtesy of hungrymadchen/GL Flickr Pool]

This image comes from Seventh Avenue and Flatbush Avenue in Prospect Heights and is courtesy of hungrymachen in our GL Flickr Pool.

We are not finished with stormy weather. Today will be partly sunny with a high of 82, but there will be showers and thundstorms “around.” Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 68.–Accuweather

It’s been there on a wall in South Williamsburg for a bit, but we like the way the street art mixes with the summer vegetation.