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

· Dumbo Launches 125th Birthday for Brooklyn Bridge [Dumbo NYC]
· Getting Ready for the Brooklyn Bridge Bash [McBrooklyn]
· Celebrating the Brooklyn Bridge in Sunset Park [Best View in Brooklyn]
· Debuting the Brooklyn Bridge Signs/Lights [CityRoom]
· Boater Looks for Many Who Saved Him Off Coney Island [NYDN]
· High School Teen Had “Columbine-Like” Plan [NYDN]
· Atlantic Yards as Example of Neighborhood Planning Struggle [AYR]
· Closing Bell: On the Waterfront [Brownstoner]
· Everybody Knows Defonte’s [Lost City]
· Bay Ridge Buddies [Blather from Brooklyn]
· Tip Sheet, May 21-27 [Brooklyn Based]
· The House of Many Colors [Bed-Stuy Banana]

We had a photo yesterday of the new lighting at the Brooklyn Bridge that was put in our GL Photo Pool and yesterday there was a media event/photo op to showcase the new signage and lighting. The signs were created by Emphasis Design and the “public art lighting installation” was done by Tillett Lighting Design and KT3D entitled “This Way.” The new designs are meant to improve “foreboding entrances” and a notorious lack of signs that often leave tourists scratching their head. The release from the Borough President’s office, from whence the photo above came, says “For many years, the Brooklyn pedestrian entrance has been in need of an upgrade to complement the Bridge’s pedestrian-friendly Manhattan side, whose small greenway and opening into City Hall Park provides an attractive and welcoming beacon for visitors entering Lower Manhattan. This project addresses the elements of poor lighting, uninviting entrances, and insufficient signage that do little to alert the pedestrian traffic to the wide variety of Brooklyn assets at the foot of the Bridge that are an integral part of the borough’s unique identity. These simple, yet significant, improvements to the Walkway provide a fitting and necessary enhancement to one of America’s most cherished urban icons.” Dubmo NYC has a full flickr set of the event and the lighting.

A photo and a rendering, ahead.

“Built in 1889, the Alhambra—on Nostrand Avenue between Halsey and Macon—is a Romanesque Revival beauty: five stories, several turrets, a pointed roof, and 30 apartments (eight room each!). It was designed by Brooklyn’s own Montrose Morris, a starchitect in his day.”–Ephemeral New York via Brownstoner

Here are next week’s Community Board meetings in Brooklyn, taken from the weekly list compiled by the Daily News:

Community Board 5 (East New York, Cypress Hills, Highland Park, New Lots, City Line and Starrett City) will hold its next board meeting at 6:30 p.m. May 28 at the board office, 127 Pennsylvania Ave.

Community Board 15 (Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Kings Bay, Gerritsen Beach, Kings Highway, East Gravesend, Madison, Homecrest, Plum Beach) will meet for its next board meeting at 7 p.m. May 27 at Kingsborough College, 2001 Oriental Blvd. Faculty Dining Room.

Community Board 16 (Brownsville, Ocean Hill) will hold its monthly board meeting at 7 p.m. May 27 at the Brownsville Multi-Service Center, 444 Thomas S. Boyland St.

It’s hard to know what to makes of these flowers and the metal fortress that surrounds them on Bedford Avenue. Both the flora and the steel are recent additions. Rather than being an aesthetic choice (although aesthetics may play a role), we’re assuming it’s what’s required to allow flowers planted around a tree on Bedford a chance of surviving.

Check out an up to date photo gallery of the development goings on on Fourth Avenue between Park Slope and Gowanus. There are many buildings making progress.–Brownstoner

Rather than being universally embraced, Brooklyn Bridge Park has sparked deep controversy in some quarters in Brooklyn, primarily because high rise condo development will be used to finance the park. The Sierra Club, which opposes the way the park is being developed, is sponsoring a presentation called “The Selling of Brooklyn Bridge Park” on Friday, May 30 at 6:30PM. It will take place at Judson Memorial Church, Washington Sq. Park South in Manhattan (enter at 235 Thompson St.). The speakers will be Judi Francis, President of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund and civic activist Roy Sloane. Here’s a bit from the email:

Urban parks are becoming our newest endangered species. The 20-year effort to secure a park in an 85-acre strip along 1.5 miles of Brooklyn’s East River waterfront is a prime example of how the seemingly good intention of creating “parks that pay for themselves” is leading to the actual demise of public parks. The prospect of increasing commercialization of NYC parks, as well as efforts to mobilize public support for a genuine Brooklyn Bridge Park, will be discussed by Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, and Roy Sloane, who has led public outreach efforts as a board member of the BB Park Local Development Corp.

Read the rest by clicking here.

It’s going to be another cool-ish day today, before a glorious Memorial Day weekend. Today’s forecast calls for cooler with periods of sunshine and a shower in the afternoon. The low will ber 61. Tonight will be partly cloudy and cool wth a low of 48. Right now, Saturday-Monday is looking magnificent.–Accuweather

We love these flowers, which bloom every year in May at the Union Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal. They are a type of Clematis, which is part of the buttercup family. It’s a Royal Paulownia.

This is 524 Manhattan Avenue, which is located at the edge of what we call the Tahoe Triangle near McCarren Park in Greenpoint. The area has been an epicenter of new development, getting a number of condo projects from Tahoe Development that have gone on the market with names like Manhattan Avenue Condo and Northpoint Tower. 524 is on a triangular block that includes a Robert Scarano building (the wood paneled one on the left) and a condo called Loftology. The new building will be 12 stories tall and have 14 units. It will also presumably block a view here and there from its predecessors on the block.

We’re not clear how long “Curtis” has been painted (via fire extinguisher) on this building on S. 5 Street in Williamsburg. All we know is that it’s there and it’s big and would appear to have been applied from the roof of a neighboring building. It is also significantly larger than this “Curtis.”

There’s a new blog in Sheepshead Bay called Sheepshead Bites. It is billed as “Sheepshead Bay’s community meetings, development issues, local politics, interesting people, happenings and cool new places — these are just some of the beats the Bite will walk. Welcome to Sheepshead Bites. Real Brooklynites. Real teeth.”

“These over-educated trust-fund hipsters have a point.”

We’re starting a new feature today called Park Slope Parking Watch that may be long lived or may be short lived. It’s motivated by the Great Park Slope Alternate Side Parking Suspension Experiment, which will either bring joy to residents that don’t have to move their car or will bring misery to them because people are afraid to move their cars and people from other neighborhoods are leaving their cars in Park Slope. It has been reported to us anecdotally that parking has seemed a bit tighter since the weekend, but the proof will be over the next couple of week. In the meantime, a special GL correspondent has agreed to photograph a couple of spots regularly to see how many cars move and how nasty the streets get. Today’s result: one moved car. The empty space in the shot was filled rather quickly by a large white Cadillac.

The Center for the Urban Environment is having a kind of happy hour and recycling opportunity today from 7PM-9PM. They’ll be accepting a bunch of things for recycling, including: alkaline batteries, Inkjet/laser cartridges, Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (CFLs), hard drives, printer cartridges including toner, pagers, PDAS, cords, cables, boards and chips removed from computers. It’s at 168 7th Street, which is between Second and Third Avenues.–Sustainable Flatbush

Unlike Coney’s real gazebos, one of which collapsed on itself this winter, the ones in Grand Theft Auto IV can withstand anything.

The Windsor Terrace Alliance passes along word of an “emergency meeting” taking place tonight on neighborhood safety issues in Windsor Terrace, which is still in shock over the robbery and murder neighborhood dry cleaner Kyung-Sook Woo. Here’s a bit from the email that is in circulation:

Councilmember Bill de Blasio and Assembly member Jim Brennan with the help of Capt. Simonetti, Special Operations, and the Crime Prevention Unit will host a forum at PS 154 tomorrow night about the recent robberies and murder in Windsor Terrace. On the morning of May 16th, Kyung-Sook Woo, who owned the Eden Dry Cleaners at 10th Avenue and Windsor Place in Windsor Terrace was found dead in her store. Jamal Winter, is being held without bail in connection with the death. He was arraigned on first and second degree murder charges and first degree robbery. In light of recent events, Councilmember de Blasio is organizing a meeting to inform the community of what the New York Police Department (NYPD) is doing to keep our neighborhood one of the safest in the city.

The meeting is happening from 5PM-7PM at PS 154, which is located at 1625 11th Avenue, between Windsor Place and Sherman Avenue.

Yes, the toxic coal tar beneath Thomas Greene Playground in Gowanus is said to be far enough underground that it doesn’t pose a threat to, say, children on slides. Still, it’s unsettling to find a sign about the “remedial investigation” of pollution there. A GL reader sent in this shot, which comes from the Third Avenue side of the park. It is one of several sites in Gowanus that once were the site of Manufactured Gas Plants and that need to be cleaned up.

Most Coney Island hands are happy with the thirty temporary rides going up on property owned by developer Joe Sitt (that will shrink to 13 in mid-June) and not particularly concerned about the competition with Astroland and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. What they’re still worried about, though, is that “they’re still planning a shopping mall and 30-story hotels” in the words of Coney Island USA founder Dick Zigun.–NYDN

Will Lola Staar’s Dreamland Roller Rink, which was open for a very fun night back in March, open its doors for the summer in the historic Childs Building? Yesterday, Diana Carlin, aka Lola, sent out an email noting that she is very close, but is looking for sponsors or members to help give the wonderful project a final push. All of the info is here, and we’re certainly hoping this wonderful venture will brighten the Coney Island summer. (Click here for the membership details; corporate sponsors are also welcome.) The Dreamland website explains the current status:

Lola has been working night and day to reopen the Dreamland Roller Rink. She has overcome many obstacles in the labyrinth of obtaining permits and insurance for the rink. These obstacles have added exorbitant costs to the reopening of Dreamland! Costs that we simply cannot cover with the budget in our business plan. After some generous donations we are very close to being able to reopen…. but we aren’t quite there yet! Hence, we need your help to reopen the fabulous Dreamland Roller Rink.

Here’s hoping that the final money pieces come together and the Childs Building is alive all summer.

A full slideshow of the opening party ahead, by clicking here.

Our wonderful Carroll Gardens Correspondent supplied us with these photos of, uh, changes at the corner of Smith Street and Warren Street at one of the exits to the Bergen Street Station, writing: “First, nice Spring trees and sunny yellow clapboard. Today, brick-red construction fence. Bye Bye clapboard history and fantastic dogwood trees.” The abrupt end of spring is due to the coming a new five-story, 55 foot tall building. Its formal address is 311 Warren Street. The original application was filed four years ago.

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

· Loophole Let Accused Windsor Terrace Killer Go Free [NYDN]
· Gehry’s “Dutiful B1 Charade” [AYR]
· What’s Up at the Gretsch in Williamsburg? [Brownstoner]
· Brunch in Fort Greene [The Real Fort Greene]
· Park Slope/Prospect Heights Meditation [Brooklynometry]
· American Apparel and Other Dirty Laundry [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Meet Your Neighbors, Part 5 [Bed-Stuy Blog]
· Monte’s Pizza Open on Livingston [110 Livingston News]
· Free Brooklyn Bridge Documentary Screening at BAM [About Brooklyn]
· Sunset Park Garden Club Looking for Members [Best View in Brooklyn]
· Liquor Store Open on Jay Street [Dumbo NYC]

[Photo courtesy of Nathan Kensinger]

We love the photography of Nate Dorr, a Park Slope resident who posts on flickr as Mercurialn, so we’re happy to pass along work that his work is showing at the 139th Street Branch Gallery in Harlem for the next five weeks. The shot above is from the opening this past weekend. The show includes images of the Domino Sugar Refinery in Williamsburg and the demolished Revere Sugar Refinery in Red Hook as well as photos of a number of Brooklyn bands. The show is called “New York Sans Temps Morts.” More info by clicking here. It’s apparently open by appointment, so email 139@graphicunionpress.org for more info.

“Brooklyn pigeons have got it good these days. On Kane Street, they’ve found a cozy home under the scaffolding at the Rat-Squirrel House, with no one to kick them them to the curb. Meanwhile, on the corner of Richards and Coffey in Red Hook, some happy birds have made themselves at home in the very wall of an abandoned restaurant that has sat there derelict for decades…”–Lost City

This is a Brooklyn Bridge Pop-Up Park designed by dlandstuio for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy for a temporary viewing area for one of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfalls under the Brooklyn Bridge. Tropolism first published the renderings and info yesterday. It would be designed for viewing of Olafur Eliasson’s waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge. The same firm is behind the Sponge Park concept in Gowanus. There was a full photo gallery of renderings of the pop-up park yesterday on Curbed.

[Photo courtesy of Josh Derr/flickr]

These are some preparations for the Brooklyn Bridge Anniversary celebration. The photographer writes, “The underside of the Brooklyn Bridge gets a luminous make-over in preparation for its 125 anniversary. Overhead light strips should make it very obvious to even the most clueless of tourist where the pedestrian entrance is.” Perhaps.