This is a new store that will be opening on what we’ve called the Death Block on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope between Second and Third Streets because of there were four empty storefronts at one point this winter. The new addition will be Carmen’s Exclusives for Children. One’s point of view on this development will clearly be colored by one’s perspective on Slope kid’s culture and whether the neighborhood needs another pricey children’s store. The space housed a bookstore and most recently has been known for the art that the landlord has been placing in the window.

The City Planning Commission is holding a hearing on the Carroll Gardens Zoning Text Amendment on Wednesday (June 4). The measure, which would redefine the neighborhood’s narrow streets from “wide” to being “narrow” for zoning purposes, limiting the density of new buildings and size of additions to buildings, has won strong support at every step of the process. There has been some neighborhood opposition and we are told there have been fliers circulation on some blocks (by opponents) calling for an “emergency meeting” at Scottos Funeral Home (Second Place and Court Street) tonight. The Planning Commission hearing will be on Wednesday at 10AM in Spector Hall at 22 Reade Street. The issue even caught the eye of the City Section of the Times on Sunday, which quoted Maria Pagano of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association saying: ““You have developers who are doing things that are really opportunistic and speculative, and we have to live with it. We want to acknowledge that our streets are not capable of handling these buildings.”

The film “Brooklyn’s Finest” is shooting today in Fort Green on Dekalb Avenue near Adelphi Street. The film’s plot is described by IMDB as “Three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location after enduring vastly different career paths.” Among the stars: Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barken. It’s due out in 2009.

Bob Dylan is playing Celebrate Brooklyn on August 12. Presale tix have gone on sale with the password TILDEN. Uh, probably won’t last long. Regular sale starts June 13. The performance is after the end of the regular Celebrate Brooklyn schedule–Brooklyn Vegan

We’re very tempted to call this Department of Environmental Protection boat, the Jamaica Bay, which was docked at the Carroll Street Bridge yesterday as part of the Gowanus Goes Green event, the Turd Boat. That, however, would be wrong, as it is intended to pick up far more than crap from the surface of the bodies of water that it traverses. A “skimmer boat” is one of the solutions that’s been put forward for keeping the canal clean, since the problem of “floatables” as they’re called in the business, will continue as long as there are Combined Sewage Outflow events in the canal. (There will like be more and not less as time goes on given planned new development and the increasing severity of storm episodes.) In plain English, the sewers flow directly into the canal when it rains hard enough, dumping both trash and crap into it. The skimmer boat captures what’s floating on top. As the photo shows, there are some issues with the method, given what is skimmed and what isn’t.

Another shot of The Skimmed and The Scum, ahead.

Here’s what the writer calls “A Tale of Park Slope LOVE” about a wallet dropped on the sidewalk and returned to the owner in Park Slope. We’re not sure its any more indicative of neighborhood virtue than stories of unfortunate things happening say something about a neighborhood’s depravity, but we think it’s interesting enough to share, and thank the GL reader that share it with us:

We have heard so many messages about the muggings and theft in the Slope that I just wanted to tell a tale of Park Slope love! On Saturday, I was walking home from work with my month’s paycheck when I noticed my bag was open and my wallet-gone. I had paid for something at a pharmacy @ 10 blocks back and remembered putting my wallet back in my bag. I retraced my steps and nothing so I called the police, completely assuming I had been pick-pocketed and it had been stolen. I was getting frantic because I am supposed to go to California on Friday and all my ID was in my wallet (not to mention everything else). My cell phone rings and it is the Park Slope food coop (which we don’t belong to anymore but apparently I still had the card in my wallet). A man and his wife found the wallet on the ground and as that card was the only one with a phone number on it–they called the co-op who called me. Long story short, my wallet had fallen out of my bag and was actually returned to me WITH EVERYTHING IN IT, thanks to an honest Park Slope couple. I feel very lucky to live here and be a part of this community- and it really reminded me of the character of so many families here–the reason I wanted to raise my kids here. Thank you to all who look out for one another–I promise to keep trying to do my part as well.

Love Thy Slope.

We spent some time at the Gowanus Goes Green festival sponsored by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy on the shores of the beautiful Gowanus. The fest took place on Carroll Street, where a variety of groups and businesses had tables and booths set up, and on the grounds of The Yard. (Said grounds are really nice this time of year as there’s a little forest of trees providing excellent shade under which to lounge and soak up the Gowanus Canal atmosphere.) There was a performance by the Defibulators, demonstrations of the opening and closing of the Carroll Street Bridge and there was a DEP “Skimmer Boat” on hang, about which we’ll have more in a bit. We also chatted about local development issues a bit with Daniel Squadron, a young and interesting candidate who is running for State Senate and has a great deal to say about local development, and with Devin Cohen, a Community Board 6 Member who is running for Civil Court Judge.

It’s official, MTV’s Real World has picked a big apartment at BellTel Lofts in Downtown Brooklyn as the location for their Brooklyn shoot. To all those that had wagered money on other neighborhoods, our condolences are due. As recently as late last week, there was info floating around that BellTel lofts was out of the running because the space was too small. In any case, the location will be a two-story, $6M penthouse and we’re certain that people trying to buff the images of Downtown Brooklyn are pleased.–NYDN

There is little that we see in the wild world of Williamsburg construction that surprises us. But the gaping void beyond the fence at 40 Berry Street (aka 34 Berry Street) managed to take our breath away. Right behind a gate, there is a two-story drop into a mud pit. The sidewalk is cracked from construction work and there is dirt is crumbling into the void below. We didn’t want to step to hard on the soil because we were afraid enough would give way to cause serious injury. Even thought we couldn’t see it, we have no reason to believe the Berry Street side isn’t shored up like the N. 12 Street side of the excavation, yet the fact that a flimsy, one-quarter open gate has been left in front of deep pit and that such an incredible hazard to safety has been left on a busy sidewalk is remarkable. The site will eventually house a 96,000 square foot rental building designed by Perkin Eastman. Lehman Brothers and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System are among the investors behind the Berry Street Mud Pit of Death new luxury rental building.

GL Analysis:
This conditions on Berry Street are pretty horrifying even by shoddy Williamsburg standards. If there’s anyone at the Department of Buildings who isn’t too occupied trying to explain why cranes keep falling over and smashing into buildings and slaughtering people, they might want to send an inspector over to check on the mess at N. 12 and Berry Street. Falling cranes aren’t the only things that can kill people; it would seem a two-story fall into a mud pit could do the job effectively too. Perhaps things on Wall Street are worse than we thought, if Lehman Brothers and one of the biggest public employee retirement pension funds in the country can’t get rid of a gate that opens to a big hole, put up a real fence and barricade a hazard.

See a short vid of Lehman Brother’s Big Hole.

“The owners of Starrett City, a 34-year-old housing complex on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, have reached an agreement with federal, state and city officials on the sale of the 140-acre enclave under guidelines that would ensure that it remains a haven of housing affordable to working and middle-class families. A sale of Starrett City failed last year amid fears that residents would be removed in favor of market-rate tenants. The agreement would…end a bitter battle that pitted the longtime owners of the complex against residents, tenant advocates and many elected officials. The sale will start this week, and the owners hope to sign a contract by Sept. 1, although it is unclear how high the bidding will go given the slowing economy.” Many groups are already interested.–NYT

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

· Aerial Photos Show Context of Atlantic Yards [AYR]
· Man Shot Dead in Brownsville [NYDN]
· Brooklyn Dude Eats 15 Slices in Pizza Eating Contest [amNY]
· First Green Storage Facility is in Brooklyn [Green Brooklyn]
· The Keeper of Banneker Playground [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Ideas for Your Mermaid Parade Costume [About Brooklyn]
· Joy in Greenpoint Over New Duane Reade [11222]
· Community Meeting About Proposed Sunset Park Power Plant [Best View in Brooklyn]
· Sporadic Sunset Park Blog is Folding [Sunset Park Autonomous Zone]
· Sheepshead Bay Meeting Will Hit Many Development Issues [Sheepshead Bites]

[Photo courtesy of F. Jasmin Adams]

Our Carroll Gardens Correspondent checked in on the rain-delayed Carroll Park Flea Market and found, a Mr. T head thing among other things, at the well attended neighborhood event. Having dodged Saturday’s noontime monsoon-like downpour, the annual event took place on a gorgeous day instead.

A couple of more photos, ahead.

It seems that our weekly Sunday “Disconnected in Brooklyn” feature has helped spark a creative idea with a local filmmaker who’s now making a Craigslist Missed Connections documentary. Here’s the email we received:

Inspired in part by your ‘Disconnected in Brooklyn’ feature I’ve begun a short documentary on the Missed Connections section of Craigslist…I am an experienced documentary film and television producer, earning my living producer non-fiction television for others – namely various PBS programs. This Missed Connections project is one of my independent endeavors, an art project of sorts that is financed by myself. I’ve already interviewed a number of folks with some great stories. The final piece will consist of the short interviews about the moments of ‘missed connection’ and animation that illustrates these fleeting encounters. I am looking to speak via email, and then perhaps on the phone, with those of you that have posted on Missed Connections, have been posted about, and especially those of you that have ‘connected’ on Missed Connections (be it with the one you intended or another). Interested individuals can email me with a little bit about their Missed Connections experience at mcdocumentary@gmail.com.

The filmmaker is quite legit and it sounds like she’s working on an interesting project. Any connected Missed Connections out there?

Kensington Stables is one of the city’s few remaining urban stables, but the ride in Prospect Park is increasingly rough. Horses “have suffered injuries while trotting on the bridle paths in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, parts of which are badly degraded and look less like a riding path than like a rocky, dried-up creek.”–NYT

The blogger behind 66 Square Feet, who has sent us many wonderful photos and items, dropped this into our inbox last night. She writes: “Happy June. This is a G&T in celebration of the ubiquitous, without which life would not be worth living for the next few months, wall air conditioning unit. My aptly named Iceberg roses had to be pruned away from it or they would fry when it’s turned on. Are my fingers grubby? Yes, they’ve been gardening.” Yes, the Cobble Hill rooftop garden life.

The Jersey Strawberries were back at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket this weekend, plus the asparagus were out there and a lot of other things.–A Year in the Park

Have you joined our GL Photo Pool on flickr yet and started contributing? We hope you will because we’d love to see your pics and to feature them on GL.

[Photo courtesy of itsnotthatfar/flickr]

Here’s a gorgeous shot of dusk in Greenwood Heights that landed in our flickr photo pool courtesy of itsnotthatfar.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory a very, very nice day is shaping up. The only bad thing that one can say about today’s forecast, is that it’s Monday, which means most of us won’t be able to enjoy it all day: sunny and nice with a high of 79. Tonight will be clear with a low of 61.–Accuweather

In honor of today’s start of hurricane season, we present what is becoming an annual tradition here at GL: a look at what might happen to Brooklyn and all of New York City, courtesy of the Office of Emergency Management‘s hurricane evacuation map. Please note exactly how much of Brooklyn will be underwater in the (admittedly unlikely) event of a monster hurricane. Up to one-third of our fair borough could end up as rowboat land. Storm surges could be up to 30 feet in some parts of the borough. That’s about three stories worth of water. You will note on the map that all of Manhattan south of Canal Street in under water.

in the map, orange areas get nailed in any sort of hurricane. Yellow in a Category Two and Green (the really scary stuff) in a Category 3 or 4. If a Category 5 strikes New York, we suppose that we become a part of the history books under Global Warming and that future generations in the desert around Minneapolis will read about what happened to us and shake their heads. Anyone that wants to read a riveting account of what a hurricane would do to New York, you should check out Aaron Naparstek‘s superb article in the New York Press in July 05. The devastation he outlines makes could make the damage to New Orleans look minor, if only because the scope of the flooding in New York will be so much larger.

The Red Hook Ikea won’t even be open for another 17 days, but we have our first Ikea Missed Connection to share as our Sunday Brooklyn Missed Connection of the week. It involves lust among the workers setting up the store. Here is is:

We work in the new, big blue and yellow building in Brooklyn. – m4m
I’m an out of town guest and work in the same big blue and yellow building. I’ve noticed you several times thru-out my stay here…at the workplace. You’re in charge of the “building team”. You’re hispanic and have very sexy tattoos on your right arm. I keep staring at you whenever we pass each other….You give me the most charming smile. I’m not sure if you’re gay but you’re very straight acting and hot, man!! I wish I could know you better….maybe?

We look forward to so many more Missed Connection from Ikea.

The Local Produce Festival of the Performing Arts from Spoke the Hub, had to fight off some stormy weather, but this was the scene when students from PS 321 in Park Slope performed. The festival is in its 14th year and continues today with events in some community gardens.

Click here for today’s schedule

The Gowanus Goes Green festival is happening today on the grounds of The Yard, which is on the Gowanus Canal at the Carroll Street Bridge. The day features a peformance by Brooklyn rockabilly band the Defibulators, food and beverages from V-Spot, Union Hall and the Treats Truck, and lots of stuff from local green businesses and other organizations. One highlight is that the Department of Environmental Protection’s “Skimmer Boat,” which can skim what they call “floatables” off the canal will be there for inspection. The event runs from 11AM-6PM

Details about the schedule, ahead.

Every week, we take a look at a few comments left by GL readers during the previous seven days. Here’s this week’s selection:

Ruby Reopens on Boardwalk After “Unfortunate Accident”. “I was the first person to walk in the bathroom at Ruby’s after the floor had collapsed. Imagine my surprise to find this panicked guy sticking his hand out of the big hole asking me to pull him out! At first I thought I was being set up for a Candid Camera moment, but then I remembered that the floor had been there only a half an hour previously. I thank my lucky stars that it wasn’t me in that predicament. I would’ve never lived it down. And the guy was covered in dirt, not shit. Only in Coney Island!!!” [Chuck Parello]

Residents Decry Hoyt Street Oyster Bar Again. “I was there and it was a very emotional defense of a wonderful quiet neighborhood. I also thank the support of the Union Hall neighbors for their warnings and support. In all honesty, I feel that Mamary should cut his losses and and his lease and go somewhere else. Who wants to open a business in the midst of such anger and dread?? 311 and 411 on speed dail. And all due respect to Mr. Mamary, if it was another bar owner wanting to open there, they would get the same revolt.” [Anonymous]

Noisy Mockingbird Season Again. “Hmm, this sounds like gentrificus polyglottos. It’s a bird that migrates from Manhattan to other boroughs and makes a lot of noise on blogs, er, I mean in trees.” [Red Hook]

Park Slope Food Coop Bans Plastic Bags. “I was using the plastic bags I was given at the Whole Foods Market as trash bags in my kitchen trashbin. Now I have to buy plastic trashbags for the same use. I am trying to understand the wisdom in this though I know it must be hidden so well I can’t see it.” [bikeboynyc]

[Photo courtesy of ethersong/flickr]

The acronym CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) many not mean a lot to many people, but it is what happens in the Gowanus whenever it rains hard enough. What it means is that storm sewers and sanitary sewers flow directly into the canal. (In raw terms, garbage and crap go right into the canal.) This is what happened during yesterday’s downpours. This photograph captures a taste of the aftermath, which is never pleasant.

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

· DOB Commissioner Says 1 More & He’s “Shutting the City Down” [NYP]
· With the private Jewish neighborhood patrols [NYT]
· City Failing to Hire Experienced Crane Inspectors [NYP]
· After Questions, Brooklyn Groups Loses $4.2M in City Money [NYDN]
· Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
· Weekly Coney Hoopla [Kinetic Carnival]
· Photographing the Ocean Parkway Streets [Kensington Brooklyn]
· Sale and Samba Today at Capoeira Brooklyn Academy [New York Shitty]
· A Little Bit of Leaky Hydrant [Sheepshead Bites]