Here’s that infectious tune, Save Coney Island, as sung at Thursday’s boardwalk protest by Amos Wengler.

[Photo courtesy of Adrian Kinloch]

Here’s another photo of Coney Island Creek, which is sort of like the Gowanus Canal or Newtown Creek of Coney, which is to say that it faces a lot of environmental challenges, but is also amazingly resilient. (This is a gorgeous natural contrast to the ruins in our In the Pool post.) It also offers some very interesting photo ops, like this one from photographer, blogger and GL photo contributor Adrian Kinloch.

Here are some of today’s events related to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration :

Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: The Brooklyn Bridge was once called the East River Bridge. This and other tidbits of info are in Brooklyn Bridge documentary directed by Ken Burns. The film will be shown at BAM (limited seating) and begins at 4:30pm; tickets available starting at 1:30pm. Free. (30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn)

Movie Under the Bridge: How about the musical It Happened in Brooklyn (1947), starring Frank Sinatra as a Brooklynite returning home from the war? The feature will be preceded by two short historic films—Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) and Manhattam (1921). DJs playing music at 6pm; film starts at 8:30pm. Free. It’s at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, enter at Main Street.

Lecture Series: The Brooklyn Historical Society is hosting a weekend of lectures and readings at their headquarters (128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, 718-222-4111) each hour from 1–4pm. Additional lectures will be held at Surrogates Court (31 Chambers Street, Room 209, Manhattan) from 1–3pm. Seating is limited at all readings. For a complete schedule, visit the Official Guide to the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Birthday Celebration. Free.

Brooklyn Icons Mini-Golf: This mini-golf course features some of Brooklyn’s most famous sites, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Cyclones’ baseball stadium, KeySpan Park. Golf clubs and balls are provided on-site. This event will be held Saturday and Sunday, 1–5pm. Free in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

· 163 Washington is Back in Business [Brownstoner]
· Maimonides Hospital Employees Had Part-Time Identity Theft Work [NYP]
· Two More Things the Times Got Wrong [AYR]
· How to Define Development [Bay Ridge Journal]
· Would Pitchforks & Torches Greet Real World in Carroll Gardens? [Curbed]
· McGolrick Dog Run Fundraiser Coming Up [New York Shitty]
· Candy [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Flatbush Community Garden Meeting Next Week [Sustainable Flatbush]

This building on the South Side of Williamsburg is another one of those nailed by taggers bearing fire extinguishers, although the origin appears to be different than some of the “Curtis” and “Moral” work showing up on other structures.

So, if the beach or a barbecue isn’t your thing on Memorial Day, how about a free concert in Green-Wood Cemetery? It’s green and peaceful and historic. The 10th Annual Concert takes place on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, at 2:30PM on what promises to be a gorgeous day. Here are some details:

Our annual concert will showcase the music of the ISO Symphonic Band, directed by Brian Wordsdale, conductor, featuring select compositions by Green-Wood Cemetery’s permanent residents Leonard Bernstein, Fred Ebb, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and other famous composers. Bring a folding chair, a blanket and a picnic lunch. Cookout food, snacks and drinks, as well as books and souvenirs relating to the history of the Cemetery, will be for sale—and you can join the Green-Wood Historic Fund. Our main entrance is located at 500 25th Street (on 5th Avenue). Via subway, take the R to the 25th Street station.

All kidding aside, Green-Wood Cemetery is a lovely place and worth a visit if you’ve never been, and it hosts a variety of events all year long.

Here’s a clip from the YouTube of Rev. Billy speaking at the Coney Island demonstration on Thursday. Remember, “Strippers, Not Strip Malls.”

“Over the five months I’ve spent living in Prospect Heights, the neighborhood (including its border area with Crown Heights) has slowly revealed itself to me. Young professionals populate the areas closest to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum. Further in, neo-hippie and hipster types might sell marijuana to get by on rent. During the day elderly people roll their shopping carts slowly up Washington Avenue. During after-school hours, packs of roving teenagers annex sidewalks to giggle, yell and shove.”–The Real Estate

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]

This is the visually interesting Coney Island Creek with its collection of rotting ship and boat carcasses against the Coney Island skyline. It comes to our GL Photo Pool via the prolific lornagrl, who has posted a full photoset of excellent pics of the Creek. Check ’em out.

There’s a Friends of Williamsburg Waterfront Park Meeting coming up on Thursday, May 29, at 7PM at the People’s Fire House, which is located at 113 Berry Street. “On the agenda will be an update about the plans for the Bushwick Inlet and an opportunity to explore ideas on how to organize the Friends Group.” RSVP to abby097@aol.com.

This tidbit about boredom comes from Union Avenue in Williamsburg at the stairs to the L & G Train Stop.

There is one word for what we are seeing at the Brooklyn Weather Observatory: spectacular. Today’s forecast calls for it to be sunny to partly cloudy and breezy with a high of 71. Tonight will be clear with a low of 52. All in all, brace for one of the nicest Memorial Day Weekends weather-wise that could be.–Accuweather

When the Center for the Urban Environment (CUE) began our Gowanus Cruises in 1997, we were initially surprised to learn that we were following in a long tradition of pleasure cruising on the Gowanus Canal! Indeed, during the 19th century, the Gowanus Bay was an extremely popular site for sailing and enjoyment well before it became industrialized. A dramatic image of this can be seen in the accompanying illustration (included here) from a Harper’s Illustrated Weekly article dated June 9, 1877 entitled, “Yacht Rendezvous, Gowanus Bay, Brooklyn – Preparing for the Yachting Season.” The caption that accompanies the sketch underscores the “great activity” that the yachting season caused among owners and participants alike—as they rendezvoused in preparation for “cruising over the summer.” “No yacht clubs in this country are more efficiently organized or possessed of better yachts of the various classes than those of Brooklyn,” claims the author, “whose regattas are regarded as among the most noteworthy and pleasurable incidents of the season.”

Yacht clubs on Gowanus Bay, ahead!

We will never be able to get enough street art images of The Tricky One. He’s around in the Burg and each one seems to have a different flavor, depending on placement and how he’s been altered. This Tricky is found on N. 8 Street between Driggs and Roebling. He’s been gone a long time now, but he’s clearly not entirely forgotten.

The small outdoor space on Grand Street in Williamsburg just off Bedford Avenue, that we thought would see no action this summer, appears to be getting set to open as Mercado Libre. It’s gone through several incarnations the last couple of summers, starting with Bauplatz in 2006 (our personal favorite in a Prenzlauerberg kind of way). We know this because of the tables being set up inside and the fact that it says Mercado Libre on the outside wall.

UPDATE: On Sunday, Mercado Libre was open and was set up as a small outdoor shop.

And so, we come to our fourth day of Park Slope Parking Watch and find that two cars have moved, making for a total of five car movements on the side of the street that our Special Correspondent has been monitoring. Curiously, one space has accounted for four of the five movements. In other news, the bag of garbage that was sitting by the front wheel of the car on the right hand side is gone.

We saw the news on Brookynian last night before we saw the that the Tea Lounge on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope is closing. It is reportedly being killed by a massive rent increase. Says on commenter on Brooklynian:

It makes me sad. I heard (from one of the people who work there) that apparently the landlord wants a restaurant to open there (or she wants to open it, not sure) so she raised the rent beyond what they can afford. I know Tea Lounge falls into the category of “Places We Love to Hate” here on the board, but it makes me angry that yet another long(ish) time place is being closed out by rising rents. I also really like their chai and it is so convenient for me. Not to mention that between that and Red Hot not being there, it pretty much kills that corner.

During the winter, Red Hot, the Chinese restaurant across the street closed.

It’s the death of Park Slope.

Here are today’s Brooklyn Bridge Anniversary Celebration Events:

Brooklyn Bridge Film Series: How about a picnic dinner, sunset, DJ tunes and a movie at the foot of the Bridge tonight? It’s an open-air showing of Walt Disney Pictures’ Enchanted (2007; rated PG), “a modern-day fairy tale set in Manhattan.” It will be preceded by two short historic films—Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903) and Manhattan (1921). Music at 6 PM and movies at 8:30 PM. This event is free. It’s in Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, enter at Main Street.

Brooklyn Bridge Information Tents: The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Roebling Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology will offer guided tours of the Bridge through Sunday, 10am–5pm. Free. (Brooklyn Bridge by Manhattan and Brooklyn-side arches)

The “narrow streets” zoning text amendment for Carroll Gardens, which was approved by Community Board 6 last week has been approved by Borough President Marty Markowitz. The amendment, which has attracted some opposition in the neighborhood, but even stronger support, would change an old definition in city zoning documents that considers very narrow streets to be “wide” for zoning purposes because of the yards (the “gardens” in Carroll Gardens) in front of homes. This, in turn, allows greater density for new buildings or additions. The change must still be approved by the City Planning Commission and the City Council.

How about some organic skin care products from a Boerum Hill art historian? If that’s not your thing, perhaps you’ll be interested in the green storage facility in Clinton Hill? It’s not only cheaper than other storage facilities, it uses renewable energy. Now, back to the organic skin care…–Brooklyn Based

Brooklyn Based‘s Nicole Davis files this special post and photos from the London Side of the Telectroscope, the Brooklyn side of which is at Fulton Ferry Landing:

Compared to the fanfare over the Telectroscope in NYC (due in part to enthusiastic fans like myself), Londoners don’t seem nearly as excited about this tunnel-eye view across the pond. Could it be because they’re not excited to see Brooklyn?

Or is it because unlike New York, you actually have to pay money to see who’s on the other side? Visitors here deposit a pound into an old-school, fortune teller booth, and these hands scribble something upon your ticket, which “entitles the Bearer…to see across continents.”

On opening day, the line at 7 pm in London (2 pm EST) was non-existant, and the view to Brooklyn felt amazingly close. (Brooklyn Bridge was in sight, but I’m not sure Brooklyn gets as good a view of Tower Bridge, pictured here.) Many on Fulton Ferry Landing had access to dry erase boards to scribble messages, while over on London’s South Bank there was just one board to go around the many kids clamoring to write things like “We Love Where You Live!” (Awww…) I wrestled the board out of the hands of a little boy and wrote “We Just Moved Here From Brooklyn!!” which the attendant on the other side got a kick out of. “Where?” he wrote back. “Clinton Hill!” I replied. A woman next to him then wrote “I live on the other side of Prospect Park,” which prompted someone here to ask “Why would we care about that?” (Limeys.)

Needless to say, the Telectroscope is probably way more fun when you actually recognize the folks on other side of the lens. But props go to the attendants, who are keeping the mystique of this public art stunt alive, at least on this end. As I was leaving, I heard someone ask if the Telectroscope was powered by satellites. “No,” one of the guards explained, “this is a tunnel that goes beneath the Atlantic.”
—Nicole Davis

For more Telectroscope pics from London click here.

There is already a large memorial to Kyong-Sook Woo, the murdered Windsor Terrace Dry Cleaner, outside her store. Next week, residents are planting a blossoming tree in her memory on the corner outside the store where she worked and died.–NYDN

[Photo courtesy of Silversalty/flickr]

These are some of the temporary carnival rides that have gone up in Coney Island on property owned by developer Joe Sitt. The photographer writes, “It was a little strange to see what looked like a small town carnival being set up in one of the bigger lots in Coney Island.”

[Image courtesy of The Weblicist of Manhattan]

There was an interesting scene on the Coney Boardwalk yesterday, as city officials held the official opening of beach season in weather more suited to early Spring than the coming summer. In the background, about three dozen noisy and colorful demonstrators, including Diana Carlin of the Lola Staar Boutique, Coney Island USA’s Dick Zigun (who is on the board of the Coney Island Development Corp.) and preeminent Coney historian Charles Denson chanted and held signs. They chanted things like: “Thor No More” and “You Suck” (regarding City Council Member Dominic Recchia, who is an ally of Thor Equities developer Joe Sitt). Neil DeMause amusingly recorded the official scene this way:

Rainclouds and bitter winds met this morning’s official ceremonies marking the reopening of the beach for the summer season. “It’s a beautiful sunny day!” Parks Commissioner Adrian Benape taunted a crowd of schoolchildren shivering under a tent on the boardwalk. “Do you want to go swimming?”

He described the protest as “a steady stream of songs, chants, and jeers to call attention to what they charge is the city’s sellout of Coney’s traditional amusement district for a plan that would allow 30-story hotels along Surf Avenue, while shrinking the outdoor amusement district to a tidy nine acres.” The Battle of Coney Island will continue through the summer and fall.

Related Stories:
Save Coney Protesters Rain on City Beach Opening Parade [Runnin Scared]
Protestors: City’s Coney Island Plans No Fun [amNY]
Coney Beach Season Opens with Protesters [Kinetic Carnival]
Save Coney Beach Opening Colorful Protest [Kinetic Carnival]
Save Coney Island Opening Protest [Weblicist of Manhattan]
Jeers Drown Out Tears at Coney Beach Party [TRE]