Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory right now, another hot and muggy day is taking shape. Today’s forecast looks like a repeat of yesterday. The high will be 87, but the humidity will make it feel like 97. There’s also a chance of thunderstorms, “some severe.” Tonight, we’re looking at “showers and a heavier thunderstorm this evening followed by a shower or thunderstorm around late.”–Accuweather

We’ve gotten several emails in the last week or so about the “toxic” parking lot at Bedford Avenue and N. 11 Street in Williamsburg. Construction work is now going on at the site, which is slated to become a Karl Fischer building with 180 apartments. The property was once a paint factory and is listed as an “e” site, meaning that it requires a cleanup before anything can be built. A few weeks ago, we noticed that piles of (possibly contaminated) soil at the site were not being covered by tarps. Neighbors are also concerned about whether protocols are being followed and–more to the point–want to know exactly what toxins are on the site and what the risks are. Hundreds of people live across the street from the property, many with windows facing it. One person writes: “Who knows what kind of insane particles we are all breathing here in toxicburg so a little more probably wont hurt, just seems to me this should at least be looked into.” He reports: “The front end loader is taking dirt from each pile and then dumping in the truck (which is actually a container not a dumptruck?) My paranoid take? They are mixing the toxic foundation with regular dirt taking it away and dumping it somewhere. Seriously something very odd is going on.” The formal address of the site is 105 Bedford Avenue.

This reminds us of the roach in the Kung Pao Shrimp in a long closed restaurant we were once treated to, but it concerns a sandwich order from Fuel on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope that is said to have had a bit more fuel than the customer had bargained for. It raises the question: Does a 1.5″ roach in a sandwich entitle you to a refund or a “bite me” from the restaurant? Does the size of the thing even matter? Here is the D-Isgusting story from Brooklynian:

My boyfriend and I have ordered from Fuel on 5th ave a bunch of times with no problems. I just went to eat a leftover half of a wrap (from yesterday) when something felt weird in the bite…i spit it out and there was an entire NON-FOOD critter in there. A WHOLE ONE ALL MASHED UP BECAUSE I WAS CHEWING IT. After i got done dry heaving, flossing, brushing my teeth 100 times I called Fuel and they told me they would send me another one but couldn’t refund me. I don’t know aht I wanted, but the dude totally sounded like he didn’t believe me. I offered to bring the half-chewed bite with the evidence and he said that he still couldn’t refund me (I even have my delivery receipt from yesterday.) So yeah. NO WORDS. I’m going to go puke now.

Yes, we know. This is New York and shit happens. Still, the restaurant being said to not care is the icing on the nauseating cake.

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:

The cutie above is named Annie. Here’s some info about here:

Annie is a sweet gem of a Boston Terrier. Cuddly and smart, she was found after being hit and dragged by a car. She was a perfect
patient through her many treatments, and is now looking for her forever home. Great with kids and other animals, she is truly adorable. Petfiner #4746769

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

These are what one might call the Fourth Avenue Friends, looking at each other across Carroll Street. The one on the left is something we called The Shaft when it was rising without windows. It has gained them, but the tall, skinny building generally draws curious looks because it is so, dare we say, Finger-like. (Brownstoner calls it a phallus.) It comes from Bricolage Designs. The building on the right has a more colorful history. It’s 455 Fourth Avenue, which started life as a Robert Scarano building. Mr. Scarano was subsequently replaced by Armand Quadrini, who has followed the controversial architects on other projects too. The building will have 41 units and be 12 stories. The developerr is also doing buildings in Williamsburg designed by Mr. Quadrini.

The body of water in the photo is the Gowanus Canal. The graceful creature is an egret. It was at the foot of Second Street at the boat launch used by the Gowanus Dredgers.

Here’s the schedule for music, film and theater at JJ Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope for next month. The Tuesday dates are music. The Wednesday dates are film. Everything is free. All activities take place outside, of course:
July 1: Opera on Tap, 6 PM & 8 PM
July 2: 1776, 8:45 PM
July 8: Astrograss, 6 PM
July 9: Reelworks Film Festival, 7:30 PM
July 15: Opera on Tap, 6 pm & 8 pm
July 16: The Manchurian Candidate, 8:30 PM (1962 version, image above)
July 22: Buzz Universe, 6 PM
July 23: The Mouse that Roared 8:30 PM
July 29: The Plush Interior, 6 PM
July 30: The Candidate w/ Robert Redford 8:30 PM

Also, the Piper Theatre performs Midsummer Night’s Dream with a Coney Island Theme on July 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19 at 8 PM. The Silver Brown Dance Company performs on July 20 at 4 PM.

This is one of the old warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront that is slated to become Brooklyn Bridge Park as seen from the water side. This is one of the ones that will remain standing and be converted to recreational use.

Here’s a deleted scene from the Warriors posted to the YouTube. It’s interesting, if anything, for the very different Coney scenery that it shows than what’s there now.

“Even with Independence Day and then Election Day fast approaching, the most presidential place in New York City at the moment just might be an unexpected one: the work space of the design and fabrication company StudioEIS on the fourth floor of an anonymous-looking building in Dumbo, Brooklyn. There, in one corner, is a nearly completed new sculpture of Abraham Lincoln standing with a horse. In another, a Thomas Jefferson statue bound for Monticello. And down a hallway, an early version of a sitting James Madison that will one day join a statue of his wife, Dolley Madison, and take up residence outside their historic home at Montpelier.”–CityRoom

There are many alternate side parking signs being replaced in Park Slope. So many, in fact, that alternate side rules have been famously suspended until further notice, leading to complaints by some residents that it’s harder to park and that the streets are dirtier. We haven’t noticed either to particularly be the case, but we can say that this is a sign that needs to be changed.

There is major heat and humidity coming today and we can already see it outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory. Today’s forecast says: “Very hot and humid with times of clouds and sun; a thunderstorm in the afternoon.” The high will be 90, but it will fell like 100. Tonight will be warm and humid with some thunderstorms and a low of 72.–Accuweather

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

Bats in Brooklyn! Friday, June 27, 7:45- 9 pm – with Paul Keim. Naturalist Paul Keim of the Brooklyn Bird Club leads a Prospect Park adventure in search of the fascinating bats that live behind the fences of the Ravine. Join us for this rare opportunity to enter Prospect Park at night in search of the nocturnal animals that call the park home. Paul will bring his eco-locator to help us find them. Bring your flashlights! Meet at the Ninth Street and Prospect Park West entrance to Prospect Park. Take the F train to Seventh Avenue Station (Exit at Eighth Avenue) and walk up one block to Park.

Tours of Weeksville and The Eastern District, ahead.

[Photo courtesy of Tracy Collins/flickr]

Ward Bakery in Prospect Heights has been coming down in advance of the Atlantic Yards development (given its location it could be said to be coming down well, well, well in advance of anything being built on the property). We offer this photo that was dropped into our GL Photo Pool by Tracy Collins for the absurdity of the black chair sitting there in the rubble. Mr. Collins’ body of work is a must for anyone interested in the neighborhood where the big project may rise.

Check out some pics of Greening the Ridge, including bonus shots of fishing on the pier and the dude that caught a 41″ bass. “The buzz was great and it was the kind of event that as you got closer to the pier, you could feel the positive energy. It was a great vibe, and it has the potential to become a bigger and bigger annual green event in Brooklyn.”–Green Brooklyn

Herewith a sampling of some concerts taking place between today and Sunday:

Friday 6/27/08
Barbes: Stephane Wrembel (French Virtuoso Guitarist) $10, 9:00pm

Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell: Cold War Kids, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Sam Champion (Indie Rock) – Free!!, 7:00pm

Saturday 6/28/08
The Yard: Benevento/Russo Duo (Indie/Jam)- $15 advance/ $20 Day of Show, 4:00pm

Sunday 6/29/08
Pool Party, McCarren Park Pool: The Hold Steady, The Loved Ones, J Roddy & The Business (Indie Rock)- Free!!, 2:00pm

The Yard: Sunday Best: Rick Wilhite, Jerome Derradji (DJ’s)- $8, 3:00pm

—Dan Bennis

We got an email yesterday evening from the proprietors of a new Brooklyn photoblog called Shooting Brooklyn. The blog only has a handful of photos posted right, but we like what we saw and hope the bloggers are serious about posting at least one photo a day. One can never have too many daily sources of Brooklyn images. The image above, which they simply call “construction” is of the Robert Scarano-designed 125 N10 development in Williamsburg as seen through the site of a soon-to-be Gene Kaufman hotel and condo project. Much more to come, we hope.

Back in 1968, James Hurley and pilot Joseph Haynes set out to research an old neighborhood, Weeksville, for a Pratt Neighborhood College Workshop. After consulting old maps, they decided to search for signs of the old neighborhood from the air. Flying overhead, they noticed an oddly situated lane with four run-down wooden houses set back from the street and hidden by an overgrown yard. These same streets turned out to be the last remaining residences of 19th Century Weeksville. The lane they spied in the air was part of the old Hunterfly Road, once a main road on the eastern edge of Weeksville.

Weeksville’s history is a long and interesting one. In 1838 (11 years after slavery ended in New York), free African American James Weeks purchased a plot of land from Henry C. Thompson, another freedman. That parcel of land quickly became a safe haven for southern Blacks fleeing slavery and free northern Blacks fleeing racial discrimination and violence in the larger community—including the Civil War Draft Riots in Manhattan, one of the more painful chapters in City history. By 1850, Weeksville became the second largest independent African American community in pre-Civil War America.

Read more about Weeksville’s history, ahead.

Here’s a look at the new Pop-Up Rice outpost in the Pop-Up Brooklyn Bridge Park. We’ve got beer, wine and a limited menu of food. While it looks like the sun might be a little intense during the day unless there are umbrellas we didn’t see, it could be quite the spot in the evening to have a cold one, a taco and watch the sun set. We don’t feel we’re going out on a limb to predict it could become a bit of a scene. The Water Taxi Beach of Brooklyn Bridge Park? We should know shortly.

A few more pics of the Pop-Up Rice, including the menu, ahead.

The Park Slope Alternate Side Parking Hiatus may be coming to an end relatively soon, possibly in as little as three week. Council Member Bill de Blasio sent us the following email:

In light of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) recent suspension of alternate side parking rules, many of my constituents have expressed concern regarding when the rules will go back into effect. Although new signs are up on some streets, including my own, the rules will not go back into effect until all of the new signs are posted. According to DOT, all of the signs should be posted within the next three weeks.

I recognize the confusion and frustration shared by many residents in the area affected by this change. When the rules go back into effect, we will ensure that residents are notified immediately. Until then, residents do not need to worry about receiving tickets for not following alternate parking rules. If any affected residents would like more information, or if you receive a ticket for this violation before the rules go back into effect, please contact my office immediately at 718-854-9791.

There has been some fear expressed by residents that the rules will be reimposed without warning, but it would seem the the city will shout them loud and far before resuming the Old Way, which in many cases, will be the New Way with alternate side days shifted. Up next: people freak out that the rules will be reimposed while they are on vacation.

Brooklyn Independent Television’s wonderful series “A Walk Around the Blog” features Brit in Brooklyn blogger (and GL Contributor) Adrian Kinloch and Tracy Collins of Not Another F*cking Blog, who is creating an invaluable historical record of Prospect Heights in the pre-Atlantic Yards days. They’re great photographers, great bloggers, nice people and it’s a great show. Watch it.

All 54 of the city’s outdoor pools are opening today. They will close for the season on September 1. In the meantime, the general hours of operation are 11AM to 7PM and all of them are listed if you following the link here.–Parks Department

We checked out the new Brooklyn Bridge Pop-Up Park yesterday and concluded that it’s going to be a nice thing to have this summer. Of course, we saw it not long after the gates swung open, before it’s crowded with tourists and bridal parties snapping photos. Nonetheless, it offers a nice vantage on the Olafur Eliasson waterfalls and there are a bunch of picnic tables, not to mention a small outpost of Rice serving beer, burritos and other things. There are also a lot of promotional banners for Brooklyn Bridge Park as a whole. It will be up and running through Labor Day.

We had the pleasure of going up the Gowanus Canal on a New York Water Taxi on a tour sponsored by our friends at the Center for the Urban Environment, whose posts appear on GL every week. Here’s a little vid of the cruise that shows all those drawbridges in action and water views of some familiar scenery. Background song about Dirty Water courtesy of the Jesus & Mary Chain.

“Yesterday, dozens of Brooklyn residents waving ‘Stop the Jail’ signs stood in protest with the local City Council member, David Yassky, the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., and a handful of state legislators. ‘This is a case where the Department of Correction is saying, ‘If it isn’t broke, break it,” Mr. Thompson, an expected mayoral candidate in 2009, said yesterday…They urged Mayor Bloomberg to sell the property and build more jail space on Rikers Island instead…A recently formed citizen action group, StopBHOD, is opposing the development, citing a lack of transparency and adequate research on the effects of reopening.”–Sun