[Photo courtesy of Nate Kensinger]

This is Gowanus in the rain on Saturday night as seen from the Old American Can Factory at Third Avenue and Third Street. The photo comes from GL Contributor Nate Kensinger. What is particularly fascinating about it is that it offers a nice view of the Gowanus Whole Foods site, which encompasses everything from street to canal. Note how green the site is in summer and the extent to which vegetation has reclaimed the site. No work has been done on it in more than a year. The less green land is also part of the site. The building on the lower right is the landmarked Coignet Stone Company Building, which Brownstoner recently noted has been deteriorating as time has gone on.

As we noted yesterday, five of the Red Hook vendors made an appearance at Coffey Park on Saturday, serving up food to those who knew about the block party and some people that wandered over to the Ball Fields and saw the fliers that had been posted. In the meantime, the ball fields themselves are quite busy for sports but devoid of vendors. Their return is promised any week now, and they’ll have food trucks mandated by the city that cost $30,000-$40,000 each. The Coffey Park scene, however, was refreshingly like the old days at the Ball Fields.

Is Chocolate Girl, the South Slope chocolate and candy shop on Seventh Avenue, done? Well, generally a seizure notice on the front door is not a good sign. A post on Brooklynian says: “There’s a sign on the door saying something about it being seized by Marshals….. can’t remember exactly. Sad, but not surprising given the high prices and limited opening hours. Maybe Big Nose Full Body can open an even bigger wine bar now???”

[Photo courtesy of 66 Square Feet]

People might or might not have been alarmed or perplexed to see people descending into a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue at Court Street yesterday. This shot was sent to us by the blogger who does 66 Square Feet in Cobble Hill. The reason for the activity was another tour of the Atlantic Avenue tunnel, an 1840s vintage tunnel under the street that carried trains for a short time, was sealed in 1861 and rediscovered by Bob Diamond, who conducts the tours, in the early 1980s. More info about the tunnel here.

The radical makeover of the formerly cramped and blah Associated Supermarket on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope is complete. The expanded store is now open, although it’s not fully stocked and the new deli and other sections await food. The grocery took over space occupied by the Donuts Coffee Shop (whose demise was widely mourned) and Beso (whose disappearance caused fewer tears to be shed by some). The new store represents a major upscaling. Now, if they could only remove outdated products from the made over shelves, things would be humming along smoothly.

A few more shots of the reborn grocery.

The annual Seventh Avenue Fair took place yesterday under cloudy skies, rain and, finally, sunshine. We were there for the cloudy, then rainy, part. An early afternoon downpour sent everyone reached for their umbrellas. A photo gallery below.

When we were picturing the Ikea Shuttle, we were thinking of mini-bus type vehicles. The buses now cruising the streets of Park Slope, Gowanus and Red Hook, however, are a little bigger than that. Here’s one of the shuttles outside of Ikea on Saturday parked outside of “Ikea Plaza,” aka Beard Street. Today’s times has a story about how Red Hook is bracing for the onslaught of cars, estimated to be up to 14,000-17,000 on weekend days.

All roads lead to Ikea Plaza, according to the signs.

[Photo courtesy of Deborah Matlack]

· Recalling the Drug Gangs at Bed-Stuy’s Lafayette Gardens [NYDN]
· Interesting Profile of Teen African-American Crown Heights Jew [NYT]
· All of the OTB Parlors Have Been Saved [NYP]
· Officials Want More Atlantic Yards Oversight [Sun]
· Dime Savings Bank [Fading Ad Blog]
· U Love Coney Videos [Kinetic Carnival]
· Help Catalog Kensington Graffiti to Have It Removed [Kensington Brooklyn]
· Windows Brooklyn [ABL]
· Smoke Forces Evacuation of 66 Montague [Brooklyn Heights Blog]

The Campaign to Reform Atlantic Yards, which proposes an “Atlantic Yards Trust” to oversee the project as well as other reforms, is launching this morning at 10AM at City Hall. Among the local officials back it are Assembly Members Hakeem Jeffries and James Brennan and City Council Members Letitia James and David Yassky. Here’s a bit about it:

The Campaign to Reform the Governance of Atlantic Yards will focus on passing the Atlantic Yards Governance Act (A11395), a bill that would create the “Atlantic Yards Trust” to oversee the project with a board of State and City appointed officials and a “Stakeholders Council” comprised of local residents appointed by local elected officials that would advise the Trust and provide an opportunity for meaningful community involvement. Atlantic Yards is the only State project without a structure like this – and no mechanism for community involvement in its decision-making. And like Battery Park City, Queens West and other large-scale projects, the proposal is likely to change substantially in its lifespan. In fact, market conditions and litigation have made the project’s future more uncertain than ever, making the need for public oversight and involvement in the project even greater.

More detail later.

The political version of pork is always interesting to watch. “The Department of Housing Preservation and Development put aside $2 million to counsel and protect tenants, and said it would hire local groups to do the work. A coalition of seven nonprofits from the neighborhood applied as one in a bid to handle the whole project. The city liked them well enough to give them $1.3 million and more than half of the area as their territory. Who got the rest? Some went to United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, an Orthodox group that politicians like to court. It asked to serve the Orthodox parts of Williamsburg that it knows better than any other group, and got $216,570 to do it. But how to explain the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council? That group – synonymous with its founder, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, the powerful head of the Assembly Housing Committee – applied for areas it wanted. The city agreed and gave it $475,265.–NYDN

[Photo courtesy of Nate Kensinger]

Rootop Films 2008 Gowanus premiere, with a series of shorts on the always interesting topic of eminent domain, was a washout in roofop terms on Saturday night. Yet, it still managed to look cool indoors with the rain coming down outside and a bunch of lightning strikes out the window.

The Red Hook Vendors sort of came back on Saturday with five of them appearing at a block party at Coffey Park in Red Hook. The pupusa stand was there (minus the insane lines of late last summer and fall) as well as four others.

Park Slope’s “other” Farmer’s Market is now up and running at JJ Byrne Park at Fifth Avenue and Fourth Street on Sundays from 11AM-5PM. It will go through November 23. Per an email about it:

There is something for everyone! Our vendors sell everything from fresh cut flowers, plants, vegetables, fruit, wine, meats, seafood & baked goods- to specialty foods, hand made soaps and even cosmetics! See Our New Vendors at the Park Slope Farmers Market: Benmarl Winery… Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, Tierra Farm.

The big Park Slope Farmer’s Market runs on Saturdays at Grand Army Plaza.

[Photo courtesy of Heather-D/flickr]

This photo is titled “Deep in the Woods of Prospect Park” and it offers a gorgeous view from on of the park’s wooded areas. It comes from frequent GL Photo Pool Contributor Heather-D.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory we’re looking at what would appear to be an unsettled day. The forecast calls for “intervals of clouds and sunshine with a heavy thunderstorm around this afternoon.” The high will be 83. Tonight will feature showers and thunderstorms, with some of them heavy.–Accuweather

Some of the Red Hook Vendors were back yesterday, but not at the Ballfields. Five of the vendors were at a block party in Coffey Park, near the Red Hook Houses. By the time we got there, thunderstorms had come through and the crowd was diminished. Nonetheless, people were on hand getting pupusas (no lines) and other treats. The setup was the traditional “old school” vendors one–tables and tarps over the setup. There was one of the new carts required by the Department of Health that have costs the vendors a fortune and led some to decide not to return. No word on the exact return date of the vendors to the ballfields, but it will be within the next couple of weeks.

More Red Hook Vendor photos ahead.

While not all tales of local crime are worth noting, some definitely are, either because of the way they are recounted, or because of the details. This one just posted on the Prospect Heights Forum over a Brooklynian is one of the ones worth recounting:

Three girls tried to mug me just after 1 am on Eastern Pkwy between Washington and Underhill. I wouldn’t give them my stuff so they proceeded to hit me pretty hard and then they knocked me over. Fortunately, the cops drove by at that moment and they caught them. Apparently of the five or so people they mugged this evening, I’m the only one willing to press charges. Ridiculous…I’m okay – just bruised and shaken with a fat lip and a sore jaw. But I’m really pissed off.

There should be an interesting discussion thread developing on this one.

[Photo courtesy of Adrian Kinloch/Brit in Brooklyn]

It’s Sunday, which means that it’s time to turn our attention to that wonderland known as Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connections. Today’s selection…well, we’ll let it speak for itself:

kabalah sex book in probation office. – m4w – 38 (210 joralemon)
i was shocked to see a woman reading a kabalah book in probation, happy it was a sex book. wanted to say, “hi, i’m kosher and on probation too.” but the opportunity slipped and the environment wasn’t so conducive. if you get this and want to say hi, do so, otherwise, maybe i’ll see you at 210 someday.

Missed Connections are everywhere.

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

· More About the Little Uncivil War in Manhattan Beach [NYT]
· Cheesesteak Place on Flatbush Goes Belly Up Way Before Arena [AYR]
· Desktop Day: Coney Creature [Brit in Brooklyn]
· Bay Ridge Loves Its Railroad Tracks. Not. [NYT]
· Mother, Child & Swoon [Bluejake]
· Friday on the Willie B. [The Stars are Brighter]
· Last Night’s Children’s Night Fireworks [McBrooklyn]
· Weekly Dumbo Links [Dumbo NYC]
· A Whole Lot of Park Stuff [A Year in the Park]

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Here are some vids shot at Celebrate Brooklyn.

For all those who enjoy models of upcoming facilities, we present this the Marine Park Community Center, which had a groundbreaking on Friday. It’s a green building, with solar panels, geo-thermal heating and cooling system and a planted roof, this building is an example of the City’s commitment to an environmentally-friendly 21st century. GerritsenBeachNet has a big set of pics shot during the ceremony, one of which is below.

[Photos courtesy of GerritsenBeach.Net]

Check out some graphic images shot around the Atlantic Yards site by GL contributor Adrian Kinloch. Okay, they’re images of graphics, both signs and other things, along Pacific and Dean Street.–Brit in Brooklyn

Are you a member of our Gowanus Lounge Photo Pool? Please join, because we’d love to see and post your photos. Join the pool and also tag your photos “gowanuslounge.”

[Photo courtesy of nine6sevenfour/flickr]

We ran a photo from this series yesterday, but we’re so taken by them, we were moved to feature another one today. They were shot at the Kili Lounge on Hoyt Street, near Atlantic Avenue.

There are clouds and what looks like the threat of continued rain this morning outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory, but the forecast calls for some improvement over yesterday: “Intervals of clouds and sunshine; areas of fog this morning, then becoming less humid.” The high will be 84. Tonight will be clear with a low of 68.–Accuweather