Back in October, a fence went up around Grand Ferry Park, a much loved little park at the foot of Grand Street on the East River. Until East River State Park opened last year, in fact, it was the only legitimate park access to the water in Williamsburg. The renovation process was supposed to take six month, which would have ended the work last month or this month. While it looks like a lot of progress has been made on the work, the work isn’t quite finished. While there more work to be done, it looks like a June reopening is not out of the question, meaning that the park will be there again for everyone to enjoy for the summer.

For more pics of the progress in the park, click here.

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

· Atlantic Yards Hearing or Breakfast Update? [AYR]
· Rallying Around the G Train [NYT]
· Prospect Park Gets $10 Million Donation [NYP]
· Check Out the Rat-Squirrel House Backyard [Lost City]
· Pit Bull Puppy Season [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Park Slope Seventh Avenue Storefront Rented [OTBKB]
· Marine Park Civic Association Meeting [GerritsenBeach.Net]
· Pomme de Terre Will Be Ditmas Park Mainstay [Fading Ad Blog]
· “What’s the Hook?” Photo Exhibit [NAFB]

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· Brooklyn Bridge Fireworks Tagged Flickr Photos [flickr]
· Celebrating an Engineering Marvel Born in Tragedy [NYT]
· Brooklyn Bridge Turns 125 Slideshow [NYT]
· Brooklyn Bridge Turns 125 with a Bang [NYDN]
· B’Day Sparkler [NYP]
· Fireworks, Fanfare Mark Birthday [amNY]
· Grucci Brothers Heart the Bridge [BHB]
· Brooklyn Bridge Celebrates with Fireworks [BHB]
· Brooklyn Bridge Fireworks Video [BHB]
· Happy 125th Birthday Brooklyn Bridge [Dumbo NYC]
· Catch the Smiley Face Fireworks on Vid [McBrooklyn]

We found this vid of last night’s Brooklyn Bridge Fireworks originally embedded on the Brooklyn Heights Blog. Cool stuff.

Late yesterday afternoon, our friends at Eater had a photo gallery with pics of this car, which almost turned Red Rose on Smith Street into Carroll Garden’s first drive-thru Italian restaurant (actually, its first drive-thru of any kind). Fortunately, no one was hurt, but there was no immediate explanation of how a car ended up like that on the sidewalk.

There is little one can say about the video that was posted yesterday about the solar-powered composting toilet at the community garden in Fort Greene. We suppose one way to do the story is to fuel up on fibers and coffee and head over with a video camera to record your experience of the special shitter. Not in a graphic way, but in a way that’s pointed enough to be gross and grossly funny. Eco friendly rules.–Brooklyn Paper

There’s a Wildflower Seed Give-Away going on at the Artisan Market at Fort Green Park on Saturday,May 31. Here’s a bit about it:

Plant flowers and help save the bees/Honey Bees are in danger and are disappearing worldwide. They pollinate 30% of plants necessary for our food supply. Haagen-Dazs is providing 2,000 packets of wildflower seeds for plants favored by foraging honey bees. Fort Greene resident and beekeeper, John Howe of Brooklyn Bee Apiary, is coordinating this effort and will be on hand to offer advice and answer any questions you may have about bees and their role as part of our ecosystem. Browse and shop the Artisan Market after you pick up your seeds. Fort Greene Park’s Artisan Market -free and open to the public- Saturdays through June 28 and reappearing again in the Fall.

More info here.

Floppy Hose Wraps

Floppy hose wraps
Rubber, spins
‘Round the living tree, sick and
More since hosting a noose
For the neighborhood,
Feeds the barren development site.

In long sleeping lines the re-bars await
On the shadows of a bottomless pit.
Back hoes sleep
A raindrop
Topples
Onto their apathetic
Windshield.

Coming down from the hill,
From the suburbs, comes the developer
His pocket empty
To the field of dollar signs.
Empty poles on a highway
Attach the back hoe to his sleep.

c. 2008 Graciella Radici

(GL Contributor Graziella Radici resides in the Greater Carroll Gardens/Gowanus Metroplex.)

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory a beautiful Memorial Day Weekend is starting. It will be partly sunny today with a high of 70. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 52.–Accuweather

Here’s another piece of art work that has appeared and been bolted to a street sign post in Williamsburg. This one is one N. 5 Street near Wythe. We don’t know who the artist is.

Oh, the singular joy of the deconstructed bicycle. We do love them. This one is from Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg on the South Side and it has clearly been reduced to its essence. We’re not sure how an actual tire and wheel have survived the onslaught, but they have.

There are many activities planned to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. If you are tempted to take a pass, remember that the next big event won’t be until 2033 when it turns 150. So, possibly, it’s best to check this round of festivities:

Thursday, May 22
Celebration Kick-off: There will be a concert featuring the Brooklyn Philharmonic and special guest performances including Marvin Hamlisch and a Grucci Fireworks extravaganza. There will be a lighting ceremony and the bridge will be lit up from 9pm–11pm through Memorial Day. Doors open at 6PM tonight and the concert starts at 7:45PM. (Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, enter at Main Street, Brooklyn)

The Telectroscope: Today is the first day the Telectroscope, which is “A Window Through the World” from artist Paul St. George that “allows viewers in Brooklyn to see all the way to London. Through June 15. Free. (On Old Fulton Street at Fulton Ferry Landing, Brooklyn)

We’ve never seen as much parking in Park Slope as there is in this photo. Seriously, though, this is Eighth Street, which has been torn up forever for a sewer project and which has been a horror for drivers for months. It looks as though, with work having drawn to a close, the city is actually geting ready to repave the street. Unless it is going to pave a hump in the middle.

The Rabbithole Bakery & Bistro is slowly making progress on Bedford Avenue, generally drawing people who look through the grate outside to try to get a look inside. It’s definitely made progress since our last look. Rabbithole, which is located at 352 Bedford, is the new venture from the owners of the departed Read Cafe and, in fact, some of the equipment inside says “Read.” In the meantime, the place looks like it will be quite nice when its finished (it was supposed to be open in April, but you know how those things can go), although there are a lot of finishing touches to go.

Have a look inside. There was a very cute dog in there.

Here’s an interesting question that someone sent to us from the Park Slope Parents list that indicates some interesting things may be going on in Park Slope backyards:

Hi – we are considering raising chickens in our small outdoor space (we have room for about 2-3). If anyone on the listserve has chickens, we would love to learn from your experience and would appreciate the chance to take a look at your setup!

We haven’t seen any responses, but do wonder how many Park Slopers have joined the backyard chicken craze.

A geographer has found that New York City is 304.8 square miles, which 17 square miles smaller than previously thought. Brooklyn “lost” the most area, going from 82 to 72 miles, meaning that it’s largely responsible for the city’s shrinkage issue. The differences are attributed to better measuring techniques.–NY1

We bring back our old Brooklyn Back in the Day series for this cool, cool photo of the Coney Island Boardwalk and Childs Restaurant a long time ago. The full size photo is worth looking at and it was uploaded to flickr by blackoutny. It’s especially fascinating to see some of the buildings that once stood on what is now vacant land. The photo was the work of Irving Underhill.

Here’s one reaction to the rumor that super model Agyness Deyn has bought a loft in Williamsburg: “Is this a rumour? Like how every two years I hear the Salvation Army on Bedford is turning into a McDonalds? Or the one about Gwyneth Paltrow moving into the Edge? Or any of the countless other unfounded nonsensical things I hear every week about my neighborhood? We have no shortage of stickbug-skinny, boney-butt, gorgeous model types running around so I have to think she’ll blend in quite seamlessly.”–Bad Advice

For those that are just tuning in, we’ve recruited a special correspondent to photographically keep tabs on the Great Park Slope Alternate Side Parking Experiment to see if cars are in fact cemented in place as some have suggested. On the second day of keeping track, it turns out the same “magic parking space” has turned over again. The other cars are, in fact, in the same place, as is the garbage next to the front tire of the car at the right of the photo. Actually, the weekend pictures should offer dramatic movement of movement or lack thereof.

Today, obviously, is the start of the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration (and will feature our favorite event, fireworks from the Grucci family). Here’s an interesting account of “opening day,” which was officially May 24, 1883:

Fourteen long years of anticipation, observations of daily progress, and spectacles, including mechanic E.F. Farrington’s 1876 trip across the river on a boatswain’s chair attached to a rope, would have secured a considerable crowd for the Brooklyn Bridge’s opening day (McCullough 337-340). However, the New York Bridge Company officially deemed May 24, 1883, “The People’s Day”: the federal courts shut down, businesses closed at noon, and few children made it to school. Shortly before one o’clock Governor Grover Cleveland and New York-born President Chester A. Arthur left Fifth Avenue Hotel in a carriage—the seventh regiment, a band, and police escorts in tow. Near the New York tower, Kingsley met the delegation and escorted them across the span, via the elevated promenade, to the Brooklyn contingent, headed by Mayor Low, waiting to greet them at the opposite tower. The afternoon included a plethora of speeches—from Kingsley, Low, and others—as well as renditions of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” “Yankee Doodle,” and “Hail to the Chief.” One speaker even compared John Roebling to Leonardo da Vinci and showered similar, if not greater, accolades on Washington.

A couple of weeks later, 12 people were trampled to death.

The food and diet issues that predominate in Williamsburg and Bushwick, of course, are not hipster ones. “Kids growing up in Williamsburg and neighboring Bushwick have the highest chance in the city that one of their parents is obese. About 30% of adults are unhealthily overweight, according to data released yesterday by the Citizens’ Committee on Children. Williamsburg and Bushwick also have some of the highest rates of adult diabetes in the city and eat the least fruits and vegetables, with roughly one adult in four reporting having eaten no fruit or vegetables in the past day. “–NYDN

There’s a little street corner memorial service tonight in Windsor Terrace for Kyong-Sook Woo, the woman who was murdered a week ago in her dry cleaning store. It takes place at Tenth Avenue and Windsor Place tonight at 7PM.

For the full flier, click here.

What does the new proposal for 110 Amity Street (the former Amity Street Horror) look like? Few people know as the developer hasn’t released any renderings of the recooked plan. Of course, no developer has an obligation to publicly release renderings. Some gladly do. Others refuse to do so, either preferring to have vague descriptions of their projects in circulation or images shot with cameras at public presentations that are the equivalent of cheap bootleg movies. That having been said, Time Equities, which withdrew its last proposal for 110 Amity Street (dubbed the Amity Street Horror by critics) is back with a new design and new public presentations. So far, though, it hasn’t released images of the new design. (The image here is the original Amity Street Horror proposal.) There is a detailed description of the project at the new Cobble Hill Association blog, which notes some “zinc siding” in the design that wasn’t a crowd pleaser earlier this week. The developer is making a presentation tonight to the Community Board 6 Land Use/Landmarks committee, which will be voting on the plan. It takes place at the PAL Miccio Center, 110 West 9th Street (between Clinton and Henry Streets) at 6PM.

So, why is the developer hiding the design from the general public?

Tensions are mounting in Crown Heights, but is there a genuine threat of repeat of the riots of the 1990s or are some leaders overreacting? In the words of the Times, “The streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, resembled an armed camp on Wednesday…Crown Heights is flaring up again, as it has every so often since the 1991 racial unrest that erupted after a 7-year-old black boy was fatally struck by a Hasidic driver.” On the other hand, some community leaders say people are overreacting. Per the Sun: “As politicians from around the city gather in Crown Heights today to decry rising racial tensions there, some black and Jewish residents there say elected officials are overreacting.” Says one resident: “”It’s simply a crime issue. No one’s about to erupt into rioting.”–NYT & Sun