Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory it appears that it will be a day to keep those umbrellas handy, as they say. The forecast calls for “sun and clouds with a shower or thunderstorm around; breezy.” The high will be 75. Tonight will feature periods of rain and a low of 56.–Accuweather

If you take photos of Brooklyn and you post them on flickr, we’d love to have them in our new Gowanus Lounge Flickr Pool. Pay it a visit and tag them “gowanuslounge.”
[Photo courtesy of Dalton Rooney/flickr]
This is the placid Gowanus as it looks from the Union Street Bridge along with the pretty reflections of the oil facility on its shores.

[Photo courtesy Robot Operator/flickr]

This handwritten sign comes from the Carroll Street Bridge over the Gowanus Canal and was placed in our Gowanus Lounge Photo Pool. As it says, “I dislike drinking oil.” For the record, oil is seeping into the canal near the Union Street Bridge and is partly responsible for the oily sheen floating on the surface sometimes.

[Photo courtesy of F. Jasmin Adams for GL]

In case anyone has seen this rising tower of metal on the Brooklyn Heights waterfront, as our Carroll Gardens Correspondent did, it’s the framework for one of Olafur Elliason’s waterfalls, the cool public art project that will be on display this summer. This one will be located between Piers 4 and 5. There’s another Brooklyn waterfall beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. There’s also one at Governor’s Island and one at Pier 35 on the Manhattan side of the East River.

See a rendering of how that waterfall will look by clicking here.

[Photo courtesy of Deborah Matlack/Matlack Photography]

You think your block has a big pothole? It’s safe to say that your hole has nothing on this one in Bay Ridge, which opened up yesterday afternoon. GL Photo Contributor Deborah Matlack sent along photos of this monster along with the following description: “Here are two shots of a giant pothole which opened up on 76th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues this afternoon. I heard from people on the block that a car had partially fallen in but was pulled out, and was driven away, driver unharmed.” Actually, compared to this Bay Ridge pot hole/sink hole that opened up a couple of years ago, this one is minor.

For a slightly different angle on the Big Hole of 76th Street, click here.

There’s nothing especially new about this, in the sense that Ghenet on Fourth Avenue in Park Slope has been open for about a week-and-a-half, but we stopped in an enjoyed dinner there and felt like showing the interior. Ghenet is a sibling to the original on Mulberry Street near Houston in Manhattan. The new Ghenet has a similar menu. The official address is 348 Douglass (at the corner of Fourth Avenue).

Since the Center for the Urban Environment relocated to our new headquarters at 168 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues this spring, we’ve had a chance to take a closer look at the urban geography of Park Slope’s Western edge. American Legion Post 1636 at 193-95 9th Street across the street from the bus stop (and the newly opened Bar Tano) is just one among the many intriguing and unusual buildings in the neighborhood (on the right in the photo). We suspected that it might have had a hidden ecclesiastical history. Its Gothic Arch entryway, the peaked roof-top edifice, and the long, vertical green-shingled roof extension peaking out over the “Enterprise” building on 3rd Avenue at 9th Street—were just a few of the details that lead us in that direction.

To learn about what the building had been, click here.

We posted about all of tonight’s Carroll Gardens and Gowanus meetings a bit earlier, but we do want to focus a little on the one dealing with the site of the former Manufactured Gas Plant on Third Avenue under Thomas Greene Park and nearby blocks. It’s one of several toxic sites in Gowanus/Carroll Gardens that need to be cleaned up by National Grid/Keyspan. Per an information sheet from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the plant that was on the site “made combustible gas from coal and operated from approximately 1886 until 1933. The gas was provided to homes, businesses and industries in much the same way natural gas is used today.”

Read more about the contamination, the danger and the cleanup

Myrtle the Turtle, the poor creature that was spray painted in Williamsburg, possibly by construction workers at 5 Roebling Street, whose sad story we broke on Monday, made a bit of splash in the press yesterday. She was written up in amNY and Newsday (well, the same story), made 1010 WINS and Channel 2 (with no credit to GL for breaking the story and we even put them in touch with Myrtle’s people). There was interest from NPR and the story was carried on UPI. And, the story made the AP wire this morning. What’s interesting, of course, is that construction-related mess at 5 Roebling elicited nary a yawn of interest in mainstream media and oil pollution issues at the Roebling Oil Field across the street (aka Warehouse 11), didn’t get much traction either. Yet, Myrtle, as we suspected as soon as we got the photos, turned out to be one of those touchstone stories to which a lot of people can relate. Some even called her a symbol of the fallout of Williamsburg development. (Us, we’re still interested in finding out which developer of a building on N. 8 Street is said to have thrown a cat from the roof a few weeks ago.) Here are links to some of the coverage:
NYC residents angry over spray-painting of beloved turtle [AP]
Painted Turtle Angers Bklyn Neighborhood [amNY]
Heartless Pranksters Paint Brooklyn Neighborhood Turtle [1010 WINS]
Orange Turtle Blamed on Workers [UPI]
Painting of Turtles Angers Neighbors [WCBS TV]

This is a very busy night in Carroll Gardens in terms of meetings, with three important ones at once:

1) Borough President Marty Markowitz will hold a public meeting to discuss the pending zoning text amendment in Carroll Gardens proposed by the Department of City Planning. Residents have been working hard to gather support for it and there’s opposition in the community as well. This text amendment will correct the inappropriate “wide street” designation currently applied to the Place blocks; they will be designated as narrow streets, as they were originally defined by law when they were created, and will match the bulk permitted on the other residential blocks of Carroll Gardens. Meeting site: Borough Hall, Community Room. Joralemon St entrance. Time: 5:30 PM

For two of tonight’s meetings on the Gowanus and on a clean up, Click Here.

If you’ve ever wanted to camp out an Ikea store before it opens, your chance is coming next month. The Ikea Red Hook opens on June 18, and Racked and Amy’s New York Notebook lead us to their webpage about the big camp out opportunity:

Customers can begin lining up at IKEA Brooklyn at 9:00 AM on Monday morning, June 16, 2008 – in advance of our June 18, 2008 opening. We are going to be doing something special for everyone on opening morning so you do not have to be the first, second, or third customer in line* in order to share in the fun. Keep checking for updates!

Hey, two nights of sleeping under the stars in beautiful Red Hook. It doesn’t get any better than that. Details here.

Now that we have your attention. There was a seminar in Greenpoint last night about bedbugs with ever possible bit of information anyone could ever want. We will highlight one tidbit: bedbugs have been found on benches in several subway stations, including Hoyt-Schermhorn in Brooklyn. Perhaps, standing is an excellent option.–New York Shitty

The annual blogger get together known as the Brooklyn Blogfest is happening tomorrow night at the Lyceum on Fourth Avenue. There’s a big program together for this year’s event, which is, as always open to the public, and it’s taking place in a venue that can handle a good turnout, so it should be fun. The event starts at 8PM and admission is $10. The Brooklyn Lyceum is located at 227 Fourth Avenue at President Street.

For the full program, click here.

We don’t know how long the famous Pintchik Oracle, one of the more unusual Brooklyn landmarks has been proclaiming its return, but we noticed it for the first time Sunday. (Then, we held the post for a couple of days because we were swamped and woke up to a full story about it in today’s Daily News. Snooze and lose.) The Oracle is known for its ability to answer questions, tell time and, you know, deals on hardware. Located at Flatbush and Bergen, the Oracle has gotten international coverage. “Pintchik Oracle” returns many results on Google. (We apologize for the pool photo quality, but it was taken very quickly from a moving vehicle on Flatbush Avenue.)

This is the Public Place site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal that is under going some preliminary site prep work while remediation plans are formulated for the contaminated land. (Public Place was the site of a Manufactured Gas Plant and left over toxins are deep underground and must be cleaned up by National Grid/KeySpan.) An adjacent warehouse will be demolished as part of the cleanup and will likely be added to the Public Place site, as much as doubling the planned amount of housing to nearly 1,500 units. In the last week, crushing machines have been brought on site to break up the big hunks of concrete being unearthed.

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

· Tale of Two High Schools in Bath Beach and Coney Island [NYT]
· Prosecutors Interested in Brooklyn Psych Facility [Sun]
· What happened to the Atlantic Yards Green Roof? [AYR]
· Delivery Man Stabbed in Sheepshead Bay [NYP]
· Price Cut at the Oro [Brownstoner]
· Charred Mess at Brooklyn Heights Gristede’s [Racked]
· Fun with New Building in Sheepshead Bay [GerritsenBeach.Net]
· Antique Refurbishment and Basic Reno [Clinton Hill Blog]
· Cobble Hill Park Fountain Mystery [Lost City]
· Meeting Muppets in the Park [A Year in the Park]
· Bye Chicory [Cobble Hill Blog]
· Capturing the Spirit of Coney Island [Kinetic Carnival]

We’re not sure as to the origin of this stencil or its exact age, but it’s one of a series around Williamsburg.

Our Carroll Gardens Correspondent came across this flier for poor, little lost Bologny, who has flown the coop, so to speak and may be hiding out somewhere in Brooklyn Heights. Bologny is blue and white and can fly high and fast but is also said to be very tame. We’re not sure how one locates and gets a parakeet, but there you are.

To read more about Bologny on the flier, click here.

We found this Fallout Shelter sign–and we do find them compelling in a 1950s & 1960s twisted optimism kind of way–in Williamsburg east of the BQE, in a part of town where we don’t think fallout would have been an issue so much as incineration. Unless, of course, the Soviet Union had decided to drop one on Morristown, NJ.

The Coney Island Museum is closed through May 24 due to renovations. The entire building at 1208 Surf Avenue is getting a major facelift. Look for the Freak Bar, among other things, soon.–Coney Island Message Board

[ad#ad-5-visual-block]

This sign on Keap Street in Williamsburg has come to an inglorious end, although it would appear that automobile or vandals are the culprits rather than the nearby construction.

“Aspiring actors, look now further than the Morgan L stop in Williamsburg for your big break! This flier advertises casting for a little film called: ‘Niki Gets Lost In BushDick.’ The plot is pretty simple: Niki stumbles upon a band whilst wandering around ‘BushDick’ and (to put it mildly) ends up ‘sleeping with’ them, all, at once.” The photo of the flier is superb.–Gothamist

BKLYN Designs is coming up this weekend, the three-day event described as the “hottest exhibition of designers and manufacturers of contemporary furnishings, lighting, and accessories made and/or designed in Brooklyn, all handpicked by a jury of editors from leading design and shelter magazines. Founded in 2003, this not-to-be-missed tradeshow has doubled its attendance in just five years, and has grown to include a diverse array of satellite exhibits and demonstrations, panel discussions, and keynote speakers.” The 2008 hours are: Friday, May 9: 10am-8pm; Saturday, May 10: 10am-7pm; Sunday, May 11: 11am-6pm. Tickets are $15. More info here. Also, Brooklyn Based has a sneak preview of the event.

The Windsor Terrace Alliance is having its next meeting on Tuesday (May 13) at Lonelyville Coffee from 6:30PM-8:30PM. It’s located at 154 Prospect Park Southwest. From the email: “Topics on the agenda for the May meeting include graffiti, local crime concerns, need for neighborhood community center, possible community event(s), and continuing traffic issues. We also hope to be able to offer updates on some of the issues raised at the WTA/Community Board 7 January traffic forum. All members of the community are invited to attend and share their thoughts and concerns about the agenda issues as well as raise any additional concerns relating to Windsor Terrace.”