“We love passing the Union St. Holiday Inn and seeing the faces of the visitors as they emerge, blinking, into the grim daylight…the ‘RIP Raul’ mural…the flat-fix shop. We can imagine them saying, “Biff–they said this was in Park Slope!” My husband, who works in museum management, suggested the technique of using ‘human arrows’–people holding signs, which could point towards Fifth Avenue and announce, “JUST ONE BLOCK TO HIP AND TRENDY PARK SLOPE!” As for the Bleu, well–who doesn’t love easy access to taxis and dialysis?”–Will Gowanus Hotels Scare the Crap Out of Tourists

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flicrk Pool]

This is a recent sunset as seen from the roof of one of the buildings on the Boardwalk. It come, of course, from Rubys Host.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory this morning, it’s gloomy. It’s not going to be the nicest of Saturdays. The forecast calls for “showers and thunderstorms, some heavy; clouds and breaks of sun.” The high will be 82. There will more showers and storms around tonight with a low of 70. —Accuweather

This street seating specimen comes from Metropolitan Avenue, pretty much beneath the BQE. The guy walking past with his dog is a nice, extra touch.

Take Reclaimed Home’s fun little Brooklyn Trivia Quiz, which was inspired by one on About New York. Here’s a sample question (Number 5): “Following the death of disco, Saturday Night Fever’s 2001 Odyssey became a: a) Gay strip club, b) Supper club, c) Catering hall, d) Punk rock venue”–Reclaimed Home

We really don’t like talking about September during either July or August as it reminds us that summer is not, in fact, endless, but we’ll note that Brooklyn Fashion Indie Week is coming up early during the month that shall not be mentioned. It’s billed as “A full eight days (this ain’t no weekend) of events, Fashion Indie Week Brooklyn will feature designers, dozens of parties, exclusive in-store events, fashion shows, and the very best fashion the better borough has to offer.” Interestingly, some of the events on the list we’ve seen so far take place in Manhattan. In any case, details here.

Here’s one of our weekly features from the Center for the Urban Environment (CUE). This week’s interiew is with R & E Brooklyn owners Rolf Grimsted and Emily Fisher, who were found through the Sustainable Business Network NYC, a network of businesses dedicated to building a vibrant, diverse and responsible local living economy in New York City. For more information on SBNYC check out www.sbnnyc.org.

Q: Where are you from originally?

Rolf: I grew up in Washington DC.

Emily: I’m a native New Yorker and grew up in Manhattan, as well as stints in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Rome, Italy; and high school and college years in New England.

Q: All of these are major global cites with unique styles—do any of them resonate powerfully in your current design work?

Rolf: They all do in different ways. The trick is to make sure that ideas from far away are looked at through the local lens. What is right for this site, this zoning, this community.

Q: What lead you to sustainable development?

Emily: A sense of conscience.

Rolf: We were trying to approach development for inside our community. We wanted to create an approach that was of benefit to that community based on our experience of living in a nineteenth century brownstone in the urban environment. We wanted to celebrate what was good and be forward thinking about what could be better.

Read more of the interview, right ahead.

Herewith a selection of music coming up on Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday 8/2/08
Celebrate Brooklyn: Father Goose, The Sippy Cups, Sonia Manzano, James McDaniel, Joan Osborne (Kids/Folk/Ecclectic)- Free!! 4:00pm

Sunday 8/3/08
McCarren Park Pool: Black Lips, Deerhunter, King Kahn & His Shrines, Tall Firs (Indie Rock)- Free!!, 2:00pm

Celebrate Brooklyn: African Guitar festival: Oliver Mtukudzi & Black Spirits, Habib Koite & Bamada, Daby Toure, Yossi Fine & Afrikan Bass, Extra Golden-Free!!, 2:00pm

The Yard: Sunday Best: Danny Wang, Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, and Doug Singer (DJ’s)- $8, 3:00pm
—Dan Bennis

Here from Street Films is a tour of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls by bicycle. They write: “The NYC DOT has produced a “Bike the Falls” guide, featuring a map of viewing points and written directions to ensure that seeing the falls by bike is as easy as it is fun. Yesterday, Janette Sadik-Khan lead a “Bike The Falls” ride with New York City cycling advocates along the marked route.”

City Council Member Bill de Blasio is among those criticizing Long Island College Hospital for closing its maternity ward. (The hospital is actually selling two buildings that could end up being luxe condos, which is part of the broader real estate development angle to the story.) Just into the inbox: “”I am extremely troubled by LICH’s plan to close its maternity ward. This closing, coupled with the recent termination of the hospital’s rape crisis center, is part of a disturbing pattern of taking important medical services away from Brooklyn families. The possibility of LICH closing is unacceptable. Brooklyn cannot afford to lose the services this hospital provides. LICH must work with the community to create a long-term plan for combating its financial problems, and for serving the needs of the Brooklyn.”–GL Inbox

Here’s an interesting one from the pet board on Brooklynian about someone taking offense at dogs in some water at Brower Park in Crown Heights. Here it is:

I had a strange experience in Brower park today and am wondering if I’m too much of a “Dog Mom” to see the big picture- please tell me what you think:

We have two dogs, both big. Both VERY well trained, calm, and bathed (Johnson’s baby shampoo,) and brushed regularly. They are closer to being our children than pets. Now, as summer progresses, they are getting very hot just like the rest of us and eigher my husband or I will walk them to the park to sit in the shade and cool down in the sprinkler (usually every day). The kids LOVE watching them in the water and the dogs LOVE the attention.

Now today I had a HORRIFIED mom who YELLED at me to get the dogs out of the water that her kids play in. I was taken aback, because the ONLY negative reaction we’ve ever gotten has been from parents afraid of dogs. (p.s. our guys would NEVER EVER releave themselves in the water and would throw themselves into traffic before they’d hurt a kid) I tried to explain to her that my dogs were loved housepets and as clean as any child, and that she had much more to worry about from a human child with feces/urine in his/her diaper than from the dirt on the dogs feet.

She continued to yell.

Planning continues for the Bay Ridge Food Coop: “Are you interested in: Saving significant money in your food budget? Creating food shopping choices in your neighborhood? Eating more fresh food, locally grown? Enjoying more organic fruits & veggies? Working with your friends and neighbors to reach these goals? Contributing your skills to make this happen? Bay Ridge Food Co-op wants YOU! Next meeting of the Bay Ridge Food Coop is Tuesday evening: August 5th, 2008, Bay Ridge Branch Library, Ridge Blvd. & 73rd St, 6:30 PM–Green Brooklyn

The Jim Mamary oyster bar on Hoyt Street that sparked on of the most vitriolic Carroll Gardens fights in recent memory (over a business) is making progress. A special GL Correspondent braved yesterday’s heat and humidity to catch some shots of the work underway at the controversial establishment near Union Street.

We’ve always been amused by the marketing efforts of the Gowanus hotels that have opened so far. The Holiday Inn Express on Union Street says it’s in Park Slope rather than Gowanus. The Comfort Inn on Butler Street markets its proximity to tourist attractions to which it is far from proximate. Hotel Le Bleu on Fourth Avenue casts itself as a futuristic, luxe boutique hotel that rises above the taxi depot and Staples which it adjoins. But will the booming Gowanus Hotel District, which has been chronicled in detail by Brownstoner, actually scare the crap out of the average tourist? What do the Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue corridors look like to someone from another town or country? What will happen if they wander down deserted Nevins Street around Midnight? There’s an email thread on the Park Slope Parents list that started with someone asking local hotel and B&B recommendations for visiting guests that touches on the point, concluding that the hotels are “scary.” In any case, here it is:

I had actually checked out a number of local hotels…but the Comfort Inn on Bergen near Third Avenue was too scarily located for visitors from abroad, ditto the Holiday Inn Express (though at least it’s close to 4th Avenue and a short walk from the Union Ave. subway). And while the rooms at Hotel le Bleu were cool, the place seemed empty and desolate, and apparently the bar/restaurant still isn’t open.

Le Bleu is “empty and desolate”? Nooooooo! We thought the place was packed.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Welcome to August.

· Suicide Standoff at Boerum Hill Center [NYP]
· More on the St. Ann’s School vs. Probation Office Fight [NYDN]
· Would the Brooklyn Ratners Resonate? [AYR]
· Perhaps You Wish to Check Out the Lizard Man in Coney? [Kinetic Carnival]
· Sunset Park’s Rainbow Cafe Officially for Sale [Brownstoner]
· Pics of Ol’ Time American Tunes in the Park [BVIB]
· “American Sexpress Card: Don’t jump in bed without it” [NYDN]
· A New Slice on Grand? [Clinton Hill Blog]
· What’s Up at Kane & Hicks? [Lost City]
· Flatbush BID Spruces Things Up [Flatbush Pigeon]
· National Night Out at Greenwood Playground on Aug. 5 [Kensington Brooklyn]
· The Green Staircase [Brooklynometry]
· Laundromat Says: Stay with Your Clothes [Bed-Stuy Banana]

The Studio B issue went before Commmunity Board 1’s Public Safety Committee last night, which voted against the club’s cabaret license application. (It has been operating without in.) The vote was 2-1 with one abstention. (The one vote in favor did so with conditions.) The Chair of the committee, Mieszko Kalita, cast the deciding vote against the club, which has riled many of its neighbors. Miss Heather (who herself testified against the club) described the Chair’s vote as “a resounding and angry NO.”

This is 210 N. 12 Street. It will be going up at the corner of N. 12 Street & Driggs, across the street from McCarren Park. It will be an eight-story, 60,000 square foot building with 34 units and come from MDIM Architects, which is set to make an impression on the neighborhood with a number of major buildings, including these. This building is next to the site of the big former parking lot that has a variety of toxic issues where a large Kar Fisch building will rise.

[Photo courtesy of i’mjustsayin/GL Flickr Pool]

This is N. 4 Street in Williamsburg. The big building on the right is the Austin Nichols Warehouse, aka 184 Kent, which is currently being renovated.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory another hot day is in the making. Today’s forecast calls for sunshine and high patchy clouds. The high will be 89, but it will feel like 97. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 72.–Accuweather

[Photo courtesy of jplpagan/GL Flickr Pool]

These gorgeous flowers come from Carroll Gardens, where there are many, from the roving camera of jplpagan via our Gowanus Lounge Flickr Pool.

A lot of weddings take place at the Picnic House in Prospect Park and some of them, apparently, leave behind wedding favors. For instance, these Carl & Erin wedding frisbees. From a reader email:

My housemate and his brother were walking towards The Long Meadow in Prospect Park when they came upon a sack of discarded frisbees which were apparently wedding favors from 2005. Are Carl and Erin still together?

We hope they are.

These gorgeous photos of one this weekend’s sunset as seen from a Brooklyn rooftop come to us courtesy of the blogger who produces 66 Square Feet, who provides us with many lovely pictures. She writes: “I am a bit obsessed with my own and the neighbouring roofs at sunset. I love the satellite dishes, the vents, chimneys, sometimes the cranes in the background.” Pretty pictures.

This is 208 Varet Steet (aka 198 Varet), which is of interest because it’s just down the street from the “Live Like a Hipster King” loft hostel and commercial condo which has been featured recently. 208 has been under construction for a while and is an 11-story building of 65,000 square feet. Applications to build it were first filed in 2000. So what is it? The location is an odd one for a commercial building and it doesn’t look like a warehouse, although it could end up being a commercial condo, which would give rather desolate Varet Street not one but two such structures. Regardless, the building could end up being quite fragrant as its right next to a parking lot for garbage trucks. Time will tell.

Another shot of 208 Varet ahead.

Desert Island is one of those places that shines in the consumer retail rough. Proprietor Gabriel Fowler openedthe Williamsburg store in February of this year, with nothing more than a bank loan, a small community of artist friends, and a desire to share some of his favorite comics, zines and books. Fowler grew up around indie record and comic shops in Florida, which “were the only exciting places to hang out in a cultural wasteland.” Independent comics and graphic novels make up the bulk of the store’s inventory. The biggies, like Adrian Tomine and R. Crumb, share space with cult favorites Julie Doucet and Michael Kupperman, as well as occasional mainstream hits, like Watchmen. Local New York comics are also featured, including self-published work like “Paping,” whose creator John Mejias is organizing the Brooklyn Heights Soapbox Derby on August 23. The store also stocks a solid collection of foreign artistry, from mainstream titles like “Persepolis” to handmade, silkscreened books imported from overseas; journals like Cabinet and Juxtapoz, handmade zines, art and music books. Screen prints from collectives in Finland, Paris, St. Louis and elsewhere line the walls and are all available for sale. Some of the prints, first created to advertise the store’s many readings, are produced by Mr. Fowler himself, and offer an affordable sample of the artists’ work. This one by Lauren Weinstein, for instance, is available for under $20….Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Avenue at Union in Williamsburg. Open from 12-9, Tuesday through Sunday. Check desertislandbrooklyn.com for more events and recent acquisitions.
—Brooklyn Based