Sometimes, hitting someone on a bicycle with a pickup truck can have unexpected benefits. As evidence we present our Brooklyn Sunday Craigslist Missed Connection:

Car accident with cyclist on smith st. – m4w – 27 (Brooklyn)

You got were in accident…your car with a bicyclist. You are a defense attorney and me a cop. We chatted and traded jabs. You left park slope because it’s full of stroller moms…lol. Wanted to ask you out for coffee but it was hard to read you. You had Ford rental pickup truck..etc. If you see write me back…i may need your services.

Missed connections can happen in many different ways.

[Photo courtesy of catmarlson/flickr]

The Brooklyn Half Marathon took place yesterday on a course that ran from Coney Island to Prospect Park. There’s a cool photo set of the event posted on flickr by catmarlson should you wish to check it out.

Here are our adoptable pets of the week from the Brooklyn Animal Rescource Coalition (BARC) shelter in Williamsburg.

We say “pets” (plural) because these two come as a pair. Here is some basic information abou them from BARC:

They were abandoned here together and we suspect that Cindy was abused. She is not as playful as Kali but will let you pet her and often enjoys the attention. Other times she’ll lash out with a paw to fend you off, but not in a hostile way–she’s just afraid. She must be adopted with her sister and needs an experienced, patient owner who understands that she might hide and needs time to gain your trust. All the BARC Cat Loft cats (well, most of them anyway!) love to have visitors, so come by Tuesday-Saturday from Noon to 5.

For info on BARC click here.

For another pic of Cindy & Kali click here. They are beyond cute.

Every week, we like to highlight a few of the comments we get during the previous seven days. Here are this week’s choices:

Fun Times at Windsor Liquors. “I used to live around the corner, and these guys are harmless. They’ve been in the neighborhood for at least the past 10 years and it hasn’t resulted in a greater number of homeless in the neighborhood. Sure, it’s rough seeing homeless people on a daily basis, but that’s the world we live in. If they were threatening, it’d be a different matter, but they’re really not.” [Dee]

Park Slope Library Issues, Continued: Strollergate?:
“It’s really simple: don’t bring the stroller. Let your child walk or carry him. If he’s too cranky or unruly to handle that, he probably doesn’t belong in the library anyway. The stroller is a completely optional accessory, and the library is under no obligation to accommodate it. With all of the budget cuts the NYPL is facing, they don’t actually expect the library to spend precious money–that could be used buying books or longer library hours–on welcoming their strollers?!” [You Must be Kidding]

“This rankles. I try and keep an open mind about moms in a tizzy, but trash-talking the librarians is petty. If you have an issue with a librarian, take it up with their supervisor, don’t impugn the reputations of the whole staff. I would LOVE to see some of the complaining patrons try that job for a day.” [Bjane]

New Threat in Carroll Gardens Parks: Nanny Poaching:
“Bogus crap is what I say. So your nanny got approached by another mother? It is NOT the same as your husband being approached by another woman. It’s a free market, lady, and you do not own your nanny. Gosh people, get over yourselves. Why create drama where there is none? (Oh, I forgot, New Yorkers are like that.)” [AS]

“I love how each generation of moms indignantly rediscovers stuff older moms already know.
Nannies will leave you and work FOR SOMEONE ELSE if you don’t pay enough!” [6th Grader’s Mom]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn information and images:
· Ratner Still Says Atlantic Yards Will be Done by 2018 [AYR]
· At the Cherry Blossom Festival [Blue Jake]
· Brooklyn Parrot Safari [Ditmas Park Blog]
· Bed-Stuy Dog Day Afternoon [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
· Faux Wheatpaste Ads, Myrtle Ave 2004 [Fading Ad Blog]
· Weatherman [Lex’s Folly]
· Hungry March Band in the Park [A Year in the Park]

Have you joined our Gowanus Lounge Flickr Pool yet? We hope you will or, at least, tag Brooklyn pics that you’d like us to see “gowanuslounge.”

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]
Here’s some fruit in Brighton Beach courtesy of lornagrl and the GL Photo Pool.

There’s a meeting about Brooklyn Bridge Park tomorrow (May 5). Per an email from the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund:

There is an important meeting 5/5 regarding Brooklyn Bridge Park’s inclusion of Pier 6 in the plan for the new park. Pier 6 was not part of the original plan and therefore did not receive the benefit of community input. It is extremely important that we register our desires regarding the uses of this portion of the park…Under the sponsorship of Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association (AABA), in collaboration with the Sierra Club, the Cobble Hill Association, the Willowtown Association, Brooklyn Vision and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, Fred Kent, Kathy Madden and Ethan Kent of the world renowned public planning firm, Project for Public Spaces, will present the findings from the February Pier 6 Planning Meeting. Included will be ideas for an eco-friendly ferry terminal and many activities long-sought by local residents…We encourage everyone to attend to show your support for a real park and an active waterfront – and not the private residential enclave it is destined to become! Refreshments will be served and baby sitting provided, free of charge.

The meeting is at 7PM at Long Island College Hospital. (Atlantic Ave. at Hicks Street, Public meeting rooms B & C.)

This is the current display playing on Eighth Avenue in Park Slope on a block that still had many blossoms and flowers in bloom.

Sometimes, “spring cleaning” is a euphemism for demolition, or simply disinformation from a Con Edison spokesperson to try to throw people off the trail. For instance, in the case of the power plant at 500 Kent Avenue. When the blog INSIJS broke the story of its pending demolition Con Ed said work on the building was “spring cleaning.” Not exactly.–NYT

After the blossoms, comes the carpet of blossoms on the ground. This particularly bit of pink ground is from Park Slope.

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While the early morning conditions outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory were not promising, the forecast calls for improving conditions with a warmer day and clouds that eventually allow some sun. The high will be 71. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 52.–Accuweather

[Photo courtesy of F. Jasmin Adams]

This photo comes from our Carroll Gardens Correspondent from Court Street: “Here is the old Polly-O parrot logo poking out from the Triufenel Deli sign on Court and President. They took over the old Pastosa pasta store which then morphed into Fratelli across the street. Fratelli has since closed that location.”

About 300 opponents of the troubled Atlantic Yards development turned out this afternoon to hear a variety of speakers, including City Council Members Letitia James and Tony Avella, request that Gov. David Paterson call a “time out” on Atlantic Yards demolitions while the project is reexamined and, perhaps, rethought. A noisy and larger crowd of union members of about 400-500 people (many of whom may have been paid to attend) were kept a block away by the police and met by a line of officers when they tried to advance on the anti-Yard rally. Several bloggers, including Brit in Brooklyn‘s Adrian Kinloch, and Atlantic Yards Report‘s Norman Oder reported being prevented from taking photos outside the Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal Malls where Atlantic Yards supporters were gathering.

“I am looking forward to time and financial crisis being on our side,” Sen. Montgomery told the crowd, adding that she and others had been meeting with the Governor’s staff trying to convince them that it was time to have the Empire State Development Corp. “back away” from the project.

We will have more detail on the rally tomorrow.

Click here to see more photos.

This was the scene about an hour into the “Time Out” rally about Atlantic Yards on Pacific Street today as police formed a small line to dissuade some supporters of the project from advancing on opponents. There were no clashes or confrontations.

The Carroll Gardens Park Nanny Poaching Incident we posted about yesterday continues to reverberate in BoCoCa Parents email circles. There were many comments on our original post, of course, but there are also multiple emails with react. Most that we’ve seen point out that in a free market, nannies are pretty much free agents. Or not:

But would it be appropriate for an employer or headhunter to walk straight into their competitor’s office to lure their best employees while they are on the job? I don’t pretend to think that the childcare field is sheltered from market forces but I would like to believe that we live in a civilized and supportive community that respects the unique & important role that our nannies play in our lives. We have so much to worry about when we entrust someone to care for our children that it’s sad to realize that we also have to be concerned with losing them to our neighbor.

Blaming the competitor is like blaming the woman if your husband cheats…

One of the Brooklyn waterfront’s landmarks, the Greenpoint Terminal Market burned to the ground two years ago this weekend, in a fire that started on May 2nd and went for several days. There was growing sentiment at the time to landmark the complex. A local man was later said to have started the fire while stealing copper wire. He was sentenced to treatment for alcoholism as part of a plea deal. Many residents still suspect the spectacular blaze, which was so intense that it could have taken out part of Greenpoint if the wind had been blowing in a different direction, was caused by arson. Today, the Terminal Market site is used for storage and other purposes. One building from the complex survives. The rubble and some standing segments of a burned building were finally cleared from the site and it is now used to store cement trucks, among other things. No development plans have materialized. “Greenpoint Terminal Market fire” tagged flickr photos are here.

Click through for a before & after photo gallery of the Terminal Market

The Brit in Brooklyn Blog is now hosting a Ward Bakery Demolition Web Cam, which will provide many treats for those who like to watch buildings come down. Per BIB: “The images below are from the remote camera watching the footprint. The images are taken twice an hour and this slide show cycles through all the recorded shots. Thanks to the Atlantic Yards Camera Club for all their hard work setting this up, and to the host.”

The “Time Out on Atlantic Yards Rally” is taking place today at 2PM at 752 Pacific Street (between Carlton and Vanderbilt Avenues). The intent, per one of the many press releases to hit our inbox, is “to ask Governor Paterson to call ‘Time Out’ on the Atlantic Yards project: suspend demolitions, displacement of residents and businesses, infrastructure disruptions and further subsidies to the project so that changes to the project can be assessed and a plan prepared with community involvement.” It’s sponsored by BrooklynSpeaks, Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and local elected officials. Speakers will include NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery, NYS Assemblywoman Joan Millman, NYS Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, NYC Councilwoman Letitia James, NYC Councilman Bill de Blasio, NYC Councilman David Yassky and NYC Councilman Tony Avella.

So, what’s this Carroll Gardens “narrow streets” zoning text amdendment thing all about? Several groups in Carroll Gardens have prepared the equivalent of an FAQ about the text amendment, which is now moving through the public review process. It’s been posted by the CORD group among others, but we’re also presenting it here.

To learn all there is to know about the issue, click here.

GL contributor Gary Mirabelle of Mirabelle Studios sent us a number of photos that he shot at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which is certainly the spot in Brookyn for springtime flower pics. We put them together using a new gallery tool. To view them, click on one of the thumbnails, then click again to get them at full size.

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This week, we started a new Gowanus Lounge Photo Pool on flickr. If you shoot photos of Brooklyn and post them on flickr, we’d certainly love to see the ones you want to share with us. Drop them in our photo pool and tag them “gowanuslounge.”

[Photo courtesy of Dalton Rooney/flickr]

This is Carroll Street in the Greater Gowanus Metroplex in a lovely photo put in our photo pool by photographer and photoblogger Dalton Rooney. When we checked his blog, we found that he’s selling his work at the Brooklyn Indie Market on Smith Street too. Stop by and check it out.

Greenpoint’s Studio B has opened its rooftop garden. Q: Why is this a miracle? A: Because the work was done despite stop work orders and there may be some aspects to, um, capacity issues that exceed city guidelines. Paging Acting DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri and FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. WTF?–New York Shitty

Circle June 1 on your calendar for a Gowanus Goes Green event from the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, “a fun, family-friendly eco-festival to be held on the banks of the Gowanus Canal and along the historic Carroll Street Bridge. The event will be free to the public and will showcase an assortment of environmentally-conscious products and services from Brooklyn and nearby businesses, great music including the rockabilly/bluegrass band The Defibulators, organic and natural food and beverage, educational workshops, kids’ activities and more for the whole family!” It will happen on Saturday, June 1 from 11AM-6PM along Carroll Street between Bond and Nevins Streets including the Carroll Street Bridge.