This week’s pet is from the wonderful Sean Casey Animal Rescue shelter in Kensington. They do wonderful work and have an abundance of great animals that need loving homes:

Here’s Big Boy’s story:

Big Boy is a one and a half year old Presa Canario. He is a real gentle giant, excellent with kids and other dogs. His regal sweetness is something we haven’t seen in a long time. Big Boy is epileptic and will need to take medicine once a day for the rest of his life. The cost of his meds is approximately $50-$60 per year.

Sean Casey Animal Rescue is located at 155 East 3rd Street in Kensington. Their number is 718.436.5163. Check them out.

There was a press conference yesterday held by Councilmember Bill de Blasio, the Legal Aid Society, and Russian community leaders to announce a new hotline providing legal assistance to victims of housing discrimination. Mr. de Blasio, who is a candidate for Brooklyn Borough President, sponsored anti-discrimination legislation (Intro 61a) that prohibits landlords from refusing to accept Section 8 vouchers and other lawful sources of income. In a statement that was emailed, Mr. de Blasio is quoted as saying “Landlords who refuse tenants based on their source of income are breaking the law, and we must do everything possible to combat this blatant discrimination.” Per the emailed press release:

Immediately after the legislation passed, Councilmember de Blasio’s office was flooded with calls from tenants who were being told they could not use Section 8 vouchers or other lawful sources of income, like Social Security, to rent apartments. In response, Councilmember de Blasio teamed up with Legal Aid, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and AARSA (American Association of Russian Speaking Attorneys) to form a hotline that people can call if they believe they have been discriminated against. The hotline number is 212-577-3639.

Given the huge numbers of people in New York City that receive rental assistance, the issue of discrimination against them is a significant one. More than 300,000 New York City tenants rely on Section 8 to pay their rent – the largest number of Section 8 tenants in any city in the country.

2008 Giglio Festival — Night Lift from rsguskind on Vimeo.

We had word last Friday of the return of the Red Hook vendors, courtesy of an email from Cesar Fuentes who is their spokesperson, but today is the official day and even the Parks Department–which began the drama last year by placing them in a bidding process for the space at the Red Hook Ball Fields–sent out a press release a couple of days ago hailing their return. We have no idea what the new scene will look like. The vendors have been forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars each to buy new equipment to comply with Department of Health regulations, but there should be a flood of pics around by this time tomorrow. Now, go get some pupusas and tacos.

No, not this pool. We’ll talking about the full list of Brooklyn pools and beaches that we published yesterday morning and that could come in handy if you want to get wet. (South Brooklyn choices include the Red Hook Pool, Sunset Park Pool and Douglas Pool in Gowanus.) In any case, the GL List has got info about all of them, broken out into outdoor pools and indoor ones, along with the beaches thrown in for good measure. Of course, you can always head over to the Parks Department website for the full NYC list, in case you’re headed up to Orchard Beach or something and need details.–GL

If you like the Hold Steady or you enjoy watching stuff on VBS, then you might enjoy a short segment featuring the band and some VBS people drinking at the Levee in Williamsburg (once known as a different bar), playing darts and shooting pool.

It’s looking like the story about Real World setting up in a building on Pier 41 in Red Hook is most likely way more than a rumor. A tipster dropped the info on Curbed earlier this week and, now, there are strong indications that MTV is putting the cast in the building for filming.–Curbed

[Photo courtesy of woodendesigner/GL Flickr Photo Pool]

Anyone who knows the Gowanus Canal has seen this sort of thing before. In this case, we’ll let Woodendesigner, the photographer who contributed this to our GL Flickr Pool, explain: “So I was walking back home from Park Slope the other day and saw this stuff floating in the Gowanus canal as I walked over the Carroll street bridge. Every now and then you can see this stuff floating in the canal. I’m not sure what kind of pollution it is but it is definitely pollution. It makes me kind of ill knowing that it is in there and that I live a mere block and a half away but at the same time there is some beauty in it. The sun was out and the colors coming off this garbage was really amazing. I’m guessing that this stuff is part of the reason Whole Foods is not open yet on 3rd street…… but that is more than I want to get into right now.”

“Other than the people who declared war on me because of this site. No one, who knew how, has ever attempted a Denial of Service attack(DoS). If you were on the site at all today you might of noticed that the site was either not working or it was very slow. This was the result of the DoS.” The attack targeted a post about developer Stephen Jemal and a legal dispute with an investor. “The post has a PDF document of complaint regarding the Stephen Jemal court case. A specific IP has been making up to 50 requests a second for the PDF that I am hosting of the court complaint regarding the case. The attack brought down my server, which hosts over 120 domains, for a few hours. It was brought back up by denying access to that IP.”–GerritsenBeach.Net

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

This was the pretty scene at the Brian Wilson concert in Coney Island as the sun set on Thursday night. It comes courtesy of Rubys Host via our GL Flickr Pool.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory this Saturday morning there is sun and some pretty thick air. Today’s forecast calls for it to be mostly sunny, hot and humid. It will be 93, but feel like 102. There might be some thunderstorms tonight and it will otherwise be hot and humid with a low of 72. The National Weather Service has issued another heat advisory that is in effect until 8PM. If you’re headed out to the Siren Festival in Coney Island, do remember to hydrate.–Accuweather

Here’s our regular weekly post from the Center for the Urban Environment about the great tours they run:

Jamaica Bay Fringe Bike Tour. Saturday, July 19 – 1-4 pm – with Adam Schwartz. More a “two wheeled historical tour” than a group bike ride, this is just the best way to reach this rarely accessed corner of the city. Highlights of this tour: Fort Tilden, Jacob Riis Park, the glass strewn shores Barren Island on Dead Horse Bay, and NYC’s largest community garden at historic Floyd Bennett Field. From there we’ll be riding along Jamaica Bay to the Q train at Sheepshead Bay. We’ll keep a casual pace, just right for all levels of riders. Bring a spare, just in case. We’ll have bike helpers along. Meet near the Rockaway Park station, at the NW corner of Rockaway Beach Blvd. and Beach 116 St. Take the A Train for Far Rockaway (not Lefferts Blvd.). Transfer to the S Train at Broad Channel. Take the S Train to the end of the line at Rockaway Park. There is easy bike access at this station.

Do Carroll Gardens on Sunday with Francis Morrone, ahead.

Herewith, a selection of shows in Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday:

Saturday 7/19/08
Barbes: Polka Freak Out (Polka/Gypsy)-$10, 10:00pm

Siren Music festival: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Broken Social Scene, Islands, Ra Ra Riot, The Helio Sequence, Beach House, Times New Viking, Jaguar Love, The Dodos (Indie/Alternative/Folk)-Free!!!,

Sunday 7/20/08
McCarren Park Pool: Liars, F**K Buttons, Team Robespierre (Indie)-Free!!, 2:00pm

The Yard: Sunday Best: Move D (DJ)- $8, 3:00pm

—Dan Bennis

It was shot at the Atlantic Avenue station and posted up to Flickr. Amusing.

Tomorrow is the first day of Williamsburg Walks, the pedestrian-only Saturdays on a stretch of Bedford Avenue. The Days for Williamsburg Walks are July 19th, July 26th, August 2nd, and August 9th. It runs from Noon-7PM. The people-only zone goes from Metropolitan Avenue to N. 9 Street. A similar experiment on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has met with mixed results and we’ve held out high hopes for the Bedford Avenue version, but it faces two big challenges: 1. The first one is the same day as the Siren Festival, which may be neither here nor there, but 2. Tomorrow is not going to be the kind of afternoon that encourages large numbers of people to walk around in heat that feels like 100 degrees. Oh well. Many pedestrian-only Saturdays to come.

It’s going to be hot as hell. So, for what it’s worth, here’s a re-run of a guide to the location of city pools in Brooklyn that we put together during a heatwave a couple of years ago.

While the Astoria Pool in Queens in probably the Gold Standard New York City pool, several of the Brooklyn pools, including the one in Red Hook and the one in Sunset Park are absolutely huge and very well run.

The entire guide (which also includes wading pools and “mini-pools,” of course, is available at the Parks Department site:

Outdoor Pools

• Betsy Head–Boyland, Livonia and Dumont Avenues. (718) 965-6581. 330′ x 165′ x 4.25 (Olympic)
• Bushwick Houses–Flushing Avenue and Humboldt Street. (718) 452-2116. 75′ x 60′ x 3′
• Commodore Barry–Flushing and Park Avenues, Navy and North Elliot Streets. (718)243-2593. 75′ x 60′ x 3′
• Douglas and DeGraw–Third Avenue and Nevins Street.(718) 625-3268. 75′ x 60′ x 3′
• Howard–Glenmore and Mother Gaston Blvd., East New York Avenue. (718) 385-1023. 75′ x 60′ x 3′
• Kosciusko–Kosciusko between Marcy and Dekalb Avenues. (718) 622-5271. 230′ x 100′ x 4′ (Olympic)
• Red Hook–Bay and Henry Streets. (718) 722-3211. 330′ x 130′ x 4′ (Olympic)
• Sunset Park–Seventh Avenue between 41st and 44th Streets. (718) 965-6578. 259′ x 162′ x 3.5′ (Olympic)

A list of indoor pools and beaches, ahead.

[Photo courtesy of nedward.org/GL Photo Pool Flickr]

We’ve run a couple of items this week about the impending closure of the biggest entrance to the Carroll Street subway station in Carroll Gardens so that work can go ahead on the 360 Smith Street project (also known as Oliver House). This is a look at what the former plaza in front of the station, about which there are strongly-held opinions in the neighborhood, looks like now. It is in sort of a mid-stage between being open and being completely closed as of July 28. The photographer writes, “Looks like the 360 Smith luxury condo development is going to shut down my subway entrance, and severely mess up the nice plaza in front… for 6-8 months!”

Here’s the latest from Brooklyn Independent Television’s series featuring local bloggers. This vid features Sheepshead Bites talking about the local Sheepshead Bay fishing fleet.

We went over to Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg last night to catch the Night Dance of the Giglio that’s part of the Giglio Festival at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church. There was a crush of people (the questionable estimate was 28,000), but far less than shows up for the Sunday lifts (the last of which is on closing day, this Sunday). In any case, here are some of the photos.

Once upon a time, neighbors of the construction site we used to call the Roebling Oil Field were worried about the pools of oil that bubbled to the surface as the property was dug up. Then, the oil was cleaned up and the Roebling Oil Building rose (very quickly) on the site. It’s now known as Warehouse 11 and construction work is still going on on the building. This, however, has presented new problems for neighbors, who now say the building is trashing N. 11th Street and that workers are “nasty” and that the site is a Poster Child for why the city should hold developers and builders responsible for violating the quality of life in a neighborhood. Here is an email we received yesterday afternoon from a very angry resident:

On my way home today, walking in front of Warehouse 11(n 11th street), I couldn’t help but notice the state of the street. The workers in the building have trashed the street with litter which you could describe as a third world street dump. The trash has flown across the streets into trees, gutters, running water with now clogged drains and no one seems to care. There are bits of vaccum tubing, empty plastic bottles and cardboard parts everywhere you look There are thousands of bits of styrofoam.

More complaints and more pics of the trashed street, ahead.

“Dan Kaufman, aka Chef Dan, of Busy Chef was arrested…Charges against Kaufman include Grand Larceny, Attempted Grand Larceny, Possession of a Forged Instrument and Criminal Impersonation according to the Brooklyn Criminal Court. He will be arraigned this evening.” Mr. Kaufman is associated with Blue Pig ice cream, Busy Chef, Oven and Wine Bar. He allegedly took about $25,000 via credit card fraud.–Brooklyn Heights Blog & NYP

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

· Decomposing Body Found at McCarren Pool [Sun]
· Hunt on for Killer of Brooklyn Couple [NYDN]
· Another Hotel for Downtown Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
· Local Campaign Fundraising [Brooklyn 11211]
· Tent or Art in Brooklyn Bridge Park? [Dumbo NYC]
· Ballet and Modern Dance for Tots in Sunset Park [BVIB]
· How About Some “Summer Reads”? [Brooklyn Based]
· An Urban Prairie in Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
· Yes, the Manhattan Ave. Bike Lanes are Planning Genius [New York Shitty]
· Blue Men [Brooklynometry]
· Getting Eaten Alive by Mosquitoes [ABL]

[Photo courtesy of Miss Heather]

Here’s an interesting addition to a sign at Bedford Avenue and N. 5 Street in Williamsburg that Miss Heather captured recently. We have no idea how they got there or why, but they’re certainly interesting.

“It’s weird how there is one of these in each neighborhood. When we used to live in Carroll Gardens on Henry Street, the local sign ripper was a mustachioed retiree from one of the social clubs with a vague resemblance to Teddy Roosevelt. I remember staring him down so much that he didn’t rip down ones for ours (not that I’m an intimidating presence), but I always wondered what the motivation was. Some sort of mental compulsion, a political message against those gentrifiers, or what… but it would make for an interesting news piece I guess.”–Slope Stoop Sale Sign Ripper Continues His Work