“It’s been well documented that Ikea — with its endless living rooms and curtain solutions — has been known to spark screaming matches between normally mild-mannered couples.” So, here are some tips from a clinical psychologist about how to avoid a divorce when looking at the Billy bookcases.–Brooklyn Based

[Photo courtesy of julie wilson world/flickr]

This is the Mermaid Parade in 1991 from super cool set of flickr photos posted by julie wilson world. The pics are from the 1990s and show a place that’s a changed quite a bit in even that short period of time. We found them via Kinetic Carnival.

This building with monster tagging, done by spraying it from a fire extinguisher, comes from Broadway in the Burg.

There’s a new online petition that we found via Kensington Brooklyn, calling for the city to restore 5PM-9PM off-lease hours at the Nethermead in Prospect Park. Here the text:

We urge a return to off-leash hours in Prospect Park’s Neathermead from 5pm to 9pm, Monday through Fiday, excluding holidays. This long-standing privilege was lost during last year’s change in the NYC Off-Leash Law.

The petition can be found here.

[Photo courtesy of Bad Advice]

The building site at 5 Roebling Street in the Burg, which we like to call the Giant Fart Cloud Building site, as it is the former site of a fragrant former cabbage processing plant, has acquired a pile driver. The site itself has been eventful thus far, producing both a scary demolition and Myrtle the Turtle. We got an email from a reader yesterday, saying: “The Giant Fart Cloud is Pile driving today! Shaking the buildings. On top of the loud screaming from the top floor and Sunday working from the workers at Roebling Oil Mews(AKA WarehouseEleven).” In the meantime, blogger Bad Advice, who has a front row seat reports:

The piledriver arrived this morning. We were woken up at 7:41 by this horrible, metallic screeching and I knew. Sure enough, Inky and I looked out the window and there it was. The dreaded piledriver. If you live pretty much anywhere in New York City, you’re familiar with these giant crane-like machines…UPDATE: Much like math tests I’ve taken, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, everything I own is shaking, but the building—so far—isn’t lurching. It’s deafeningly loud and definitely not pleasant, but not as terrifying as I’d predicted. Phew!

More to come as time goes on and a six-story building with ten apartments goes up.

Do take a few minutes to watch this if you want to chuckle as the “protesters” against the Red Hook Ikea are picked off one by one.

Last week, we noted that piles of excavated soil and rubble at the Urban Legend Toxic Lot at the corner of N. 11 Street and Bedford Avenue were not covered by tarps. Such precautions are standards when things are being dug up at properties that have toxic issues. Well, another look this week shows that the stuff is more or less covered. You know, except for those corners here and there where the tarp doesn’t reach. But, 80 percent of the possibly contaminated soil won’t blow around, which is significantly more than last week. A big eight-story Karl Fischer with 180 units is coming to the property.

Mostly covered, but somewhat not.

Oh no. We were led to understand that the “log sawing” that will replace a ribbon cutting at the Red Hook Ikea tomorrow is a Swedish tradition. Now, we learn that it’s not so, per Raquel Ortigueira, who handles cultural and public affairs for the Swedish Consulate General. “This isn’t a Swedish thing, it’s an Ikea thing,” sniffed Ortigueira, who said that just like in the States, Swedish politicians love cutting ribbons, not logs. “I’m sure the founder has a good reason, but it’s not a Swedish thing.” Say it ain’t so.–Brooklyn Diary/NYDN

The city’s Brooklyn House of Detention expansion proposal is having a hard time winning friend in the community. There is already a Stakeholders Group opposed to the facility and, now, a group called Stop BHOD has organized and launched a website. The new groiup, which “strongly” believes “that the City’s plan to expand and open Brooklyn House of Detention (BHOD) represents bad public policy,” has been out leafleting in the neighborhood around the jail site and is planning a press event soon. It says the city shouldn’t spend “$500 million on an obsolete jail that will threaten the remarkable revitalization of Downtown Brookyn.” They cite “inhumane” conditions at the jail, which were the subject of much litigation before it closed, and say the city should sell the site–which is valuable real estate–off for development.

[Photo courtesy of Adrian Kinlock]

Our friends at Racked have someone on scene in the line outside the Red hook Ikea, where things remind us of what would have preceded an anticipated mega-shipment of oranges in East Berlin in 1983. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. The Ikea Brooklyn line is way more orderly and smaller than a Communist East German citrus fruit line and the media wouldn’t have been allowed to cover an orange line in the old DDR. EKTORP, then, does not quite produce the same kind of frenzy as consumer goods behind the Iron Curtain. Racked is keeping up its coverage and Borough President Marty Markowitz will be there this morning to exhort those waiting for Ikea’s big moment.
· All the Racked Ikea Campout Posts

“A cook at Brooklyn’s famed Junior’s Restaurant was charged with larceny yesterday after co-workers caught him with 15 frozen lobster tails stuffed down his pants and into bandages around his legs, cops said. Prep cook Raymundo Flores, 40, was spotted in a walk-in freezer by colleague Adam Marks, allegedly taking lobster tails and stuffing them under the bandages early Sunday afternoon.”–NYP

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In honor of all the media hype and hoopla surrounding the second coming opening of Ikea in Red Hook, we’re offering up a few views of the store from the lot next door. The property, which has a colorful history, including residents living there and being one of the last homes of Red Hook’s wild dogs, is on the market and most likely will have a big box destiny. For now, though, it’s still full of graffiti and wetlands vegetation and make an interesting counterpoint to the Ikea.

Given that there has been no official news forthcoming from Whole Foods about its planned Gowanus store, we turn to some promotional items for hints of what might, or might not, be coming. Yesterday, we had a photo that showed just how abandoned quiet the Whole Foods site at Third Street and Third Avenue is. There has been no work on the site for nearly two years, except for the demolition of one structure. At the opening party for Celebrate Brooklyn this year, Whole Foods again provided the bags in which the guests’ schwag was placed. There were two interesting things: 1. Whole Foods both provided bags and took out an ad in the program. 2. In 2007, Whole Foods bag said “coming in 2008.” This year, it was a generic Whole Foods cloth bag that talks about saving the environment from plastic bags. In addition, the Whole Foods program ad only notes its “Tribeca Stores” as coming soon. And so, it may be safe to say that Whole Foods is still coming, but that they are no longer saying exactly when. Given that it is already June, a 2009 opening seems increasingly like a long shot without a herculean construction push starting, like, tomorrow. A tremendous amount of site prep work (a “bathtub” for the underground part of the store”) and environmental remediation (toxins beneath need to be “capped” in place) would need to be done to be done on the site (if necessary permits are obtained). Coming in 2010, then? And, in the meantime, enjoy the bag.

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

· Car-Free Streets for Three Days in August [NYT]
· Summer Streets for NYC [Sustainable Flatbush]
· Brooklyn Couple Indicted for Death of Three Year Old [Sun]
· 110 Livingston Ends Up Going Nondo in Home Stretch [Curbed]
· Windows Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
· More Detail about Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall and Pop-Up Park [NYDN]
· The Mermaid Parade is Coming, of Course [Kinetic Carnival]
· Yo Te Amo Senor [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Summer Fun for Kids [NYDN]
· Read All About the Fishmobile Project [Green Brooklyn]
· Summer Night’s View from Smith-9th [Brooklynometry]
· Dumbo CSA Food Porn [Dumbo NYC]

There are many ways to convey one’s displeasure with an annoying car alarm from leaving notes to smashing windows. Leaving a collection of dog turds on the hood, plus a bunch of notes explaining why all the shit is on the car is another way of communicating.–ABL

There was a press conference at City Hall yesterday under the auspices of BrooklynSpeaks to call for a new Atlantic Yards Development Trust and a community stakeholders group to oversee the project’s development. The change would be an interesting one as the planning and approval process has taken place at the state level. The group, however, would be controlled in Albany: eight of 15 members would be appointed by the governor, two each would be appointed by the Assembly President, Senate President, Mayor and one by the Brooklyn Borough President. A single non-voting member would be appointed by the Stakeholder Council, which would be made up of local residents. Atlantic Yards Report says that it “certainly might channel public input, it would be unlikely to fundamentally change power dynamics.” AYR has full analysis of whether it would represent substantive change or not.

Herewith, a selection of shows coming up in Brooklyn today and tomorrow.

Tuesday 6/17/08
Union Hall: Retribution Gospel Choir, IDA $12, 7:30pm

Barbes: Slavic Soul Party $10, 9:00pm

Wednesday 6/18/08
Barbes: Hilmar Jensson (Solo Guitar) followed by Skuli Sverrisson (Solo Bass) $10 per set, 8:00pm

—Dan Bennis

[Photo courtesy of stellag/flickr]

This image from the New York Aquarium in Coney Island comes via our Gowanus Lounge flickr pool courtesy of staellag.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory today, we’re off to a nice start. The forecast calls for it to be less humid with partial sunshine and a high of 78. Tonight will be “clear and moonlit” with a low of 62.–Accuweather

Beard Street was already buzzing more than usual this weekend as some sort of pre-opening shopping event was going on at the Red Hook Ikea. The Ikea Shuttle was already running and a steady stream of cars was coming down Beard Street and going to the parking lot. Beard Street, at times, still had that deserted look that characterized it for a long time. This look will last less than 48 hour more hours.

The art on top went up recently on Berry Street near N. 11 Street. The puppy on the bottom has been there for well over a year.

Our Carroll Gardens Correspondent filed this updated photo of the street sofa that has graced Coffey Street in Red Hook for some time. It’s, uh, getting a little bit trashy down there.

Actually, this post about the presentation of the Sponge Park Concept to a Community Board 6 committee this week is simply a convenient excuse to run one of the cool renderings of the concept again. In any case, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy will be presenting the design to the Parks Committee of CB 6. The meeting is at 6:30PM on Wednesday (6/18) at PS 15, which is located at 71 Sullivan Street between Richards and Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. The proposal is for a park that would help keep the Gowanus clean and would run on both sides of the canal. There are many logistical issues about the proposal, not the least of which is that it would run through private property, but we think it’s a captivating design. It comes from dlandstudio, whose Brooklyn Bridge Park pop-up park is opening next week.

Karl Fischer’s NV 101 N5 condo, which recently went on sale, is becoming a defining presence at N. 5 and Berry Street in the Burg. The building, which had been grayish in early renderings turns out to be a pale green color. Almost all the exterior has been applied in the last week.

Another shot of the green Hot Karl, ahead.