GL will be on the Brian Lehrer Show tomorrow morning to talk about one of our favorite neighborhoods, Red Hook. We’ll be covering the state of things and the impact of the coming of Ikea in mid-June. Details to be posted on the BL show’s page on the WNYC site later. Right now, the segment is scheduled for 11AM.

Today, we inaugurate a new feature that we’re very happy about: interviews and reports from the Center for the Urban Environment. This feature is “Living Local Economies,” which will focus on local businesses that are green or focused on sustainability. The subject of the interview is Alexis Miesen Co-Proprietress of Blue Marble Ice Cream on Atlantic Avenue. Before we read it, we only knew that we loved their ice cream.

Q: Where are you from originally? A: Cleveland. [Insert favorite Cleveland joke here.]

Q: What is so funny about Cleveland? A: Oh, Cleveland seems to be the butt of so many jokes. The mistake on the lake, the city whose river caught on fire, the list goes on. Poor Cleveland, always picked on. But a very nice, decent place to grow up.

Q: What lead you to the ice cream business? A: A mix of desperation for a good scoop and recognition of a prime business opportunity. I live in Cobble Hill and had grown fed up with the lack of good ice cream options in the area. Plus, seeing that the neighborhood was teeming with both the conscientious stroller and hipster sets, I realized that not only was there a market for the kind of ice cream I wanted to offer but also the aesthetic and philosophy I had in mind. So I pulled my dear friend – and now business partner – Jennie into the idea and we were off.

Keep reading about Blue Marble Ice Cream

We’re always interested in complaints about and tales of construction work going on at all hours. So it is with 602 Manhattan Avenue in Greepoint. We got this short email from a reader:

On this property at 602 Manhattan Avenue, Greenpoint work goes on until 10:30 PM , as well as Saturdays. There are no permits for these extended hours. The building department has received complaints, and yet nothing is done. Signed, A bothered resident.

We checked and there have been four complaints called in to the Department of Buildings.

Click here to see why the complaints are fascinating.

Today, we formally welcome Nicole Davis, the founder of the superb blog/email Brooklyn Based as a GL contributor. Nicole will be posting…well, whatever she would like from her extensive knowledge base of all things Brooklyn as well as directing readers to some of her wonderful posts on BB. Did we mention we’re very excited about this?

The must-read music blog Ear Farm curated a terrific mix of free, 100% legal-to-download songs by local bands for Brooklyn Based yesterday, which is just in time for Sound Fix’s monthly “Fix Tape Exchange” — a mix tape swap whose next meeting is Sunday May 11 at the Williamsburg record shop. The theme is “Songs to Lose Your Virginity To,” and BB’s readymade mix contains at least one appropriate song (hint: Liz Phair sang the original version). The swap begins at 8 pm, when they begin to accept mixes on CD and, amazingly, cassette. That dying medium is being kept alive by yet another mix tape service in Brooklyn, Cassette from my Ex begun by the co-creator of Found magazine, Jason Bitner. You submit an old mix tape, like the one your old flame made for you in high school or college circa 1991 (so what if you date yourself!) and they digitize the mix, upload the mp3s to the site, and send the cassette back. The one hitch is that you need to write a short story about who made the tape for you and what it meant, or still means, since this a storytelling project above all. You’ll be in good company if you do… Julie Shapiro of the Third Coast Audio Festival and Dave Nadelberg of Mortified fame have stories slated to run soon. If that isn’t enough mix tape action for you, today is the final day to enter Pacific Standard’s mix CD contest — the winners will be awarded free drafts and iTunes certificates. Details here.

—Nicole Davis

Check out the latest episode of Brooklyn Independent Television’s A Walk Around the Blog featuring Ben Nadler of Kinetic Carnival looking at a community garden in Coney Island.

Today is an exciting day for us as we’re formally welcoming not one but two new contributors. Writers from the Center for the Urban Environment (CUE) will be contributing material as The Urban Environmentalist. They kick off their “Local Living Economies” series today with a fascinating interview with the founder Blue Marble ice cream. Nicole Davis, who is the founder of Brooklyn Based, will also be favoring us with her cool Brooklyn stylings. She has her first post this morning too. Finally, we started a new Gowanus Flickr Pool yesterday (please join if you post your Brooklyn photos on flickr) and we’ll be posting pool contributions under the name “In the Pool.” All of which is enough to make us quite content for one morning.

[Photo courtesy Adrian Kinloch]

This pot hole/sink hole is on Pacific Street near Vanderbilt. It was sent to us by GL Contributor and Brit in Brooklyn blogger Adrian Kinloch. Depending on which side of Vanderbilt it is located, one might call it Bruce Ratner’s big hole. To do so, however, would be wrong.

There’s another press conference coming today to call on Mayor Bloomberg to avoid projected cuts of $539 million in the education budget. The budget is probably coming on Thursday, so this morning City Council Member Bill de Blasio (who is running for Brooklyn Borough President) along with Council Member Robert Jackson and other elected officials, UFT President Randi Weingarten, and a host of others will be having a press conference at 11AM at City Hall. Per an email:

De Blasio and Jackson have introduced a resolution (Res No. 1302), with 45 co-sponsors, formally calling on Mayor Bloomberg to submit an Executive Budget that restores the education cuts. The resolution was presented last month at a City Hall rally of over 10,000 parents, teachers and community members. In addition, over 60 PTAs and SLTs have passed resolutions opposing the cuts that will be delivered to the Mayor.

Mr. de Blasio has been agitating against the proposed cuts for some time.

Chalk up another car-related business formally gone from Fourth Avenue. We say “formally” because Parkside Auto Repair closed last year, having sold its property for $3.75 million. Since then, signs have offered the property for up to 20,000 of retail space. The demolition equipment came for the garage, which is now gone. There are no building permits filed, only the demolition permit that dispatched Parkside to the Big Garage in the Sky. The owner once wondered if his property would be a good spot for a Red Lobster and had turned down offers to sell when the Staples went up behind it. We will go out on a limb and guess that he got significantly more money for the land.

May 7 will be a very busy day in Carroll Gardens with three different meetings from which to choose:

1). KeySpan/National Grid is holding the first public meetings to “discuss the remedial investigation of a former manufactured gas site located at DeGraw near the Gowanus Canal.” This is the beginning KeySpan’s participation in the public discussion on cleaning up the Gowanus gas sites. There are a total of 17 sites. Meetings on Public Place are to follow. Meeting site: PS 32 (317 Hoyt St at Union).Times: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM and 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

For two more May 7 Meetings, Click Here.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brookyn-related information and images:
· Renters Facing Huge Rent Hikes This Year [NYP]
· Agreement Allows Ratner to Build 44% Smaller Phase I [AYR]
· Chain Drugstore to Replace Key Foods in Bay Ridge [NYDN]
· Mayor vs. Teachers, Round II [Sun]
· Jeweler Shot in West Brighton [NYP]
· Two Burg Condos Ready to Sell [Curbed]
· Confession of Shame [Brooklynometry]
· Greenpoint Auto Parts [Fading Ad Blog]
· Greenpoint Library: Not Just for Reading [New York Shitty]
· Fifth Avenue Cafe Gate Falls on Child [OTBKB]

“We’ve got some bad news for L-train riding espresso drinkers. The tiny Williamsburg outpost of mini-chain Gimme! Coffee at 495 Lorimer Street has been temporarily shuttered by the Department of Health.” Reopening soon, though, apparently.–Racked

Have a flickr photo you’d like GL and our readers to see? Drop it in our brand new Gowanus Lounge Flickr Pool and tag it “gowanuslounge“!

[Image courtesy of threecee/flickr]

Tracey Collins has been working hard to build a visual record of the Atlantic Yards footprint. This is a photo taken a few days ago. The original on flickr has a lot of notes about the buildings at which one is looking here.

From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden a fun vid of the cherry blossoms in time lapse. Very cool.

See the current blossom map by clicking here

“Single-game tickets for the Brooklyn Cyclones go on sale this Sunday, May 4 at 9am. Tickets are $7-$15 a seat. I want to be first in line for opening day tickets. Who wants to camp out overnight with me? Nathan’s is just down the street, and its open 24/7! We could take turns holding a place in line while the other makes a hot dog run at 3am.”–Brian of Brooklyn

Have a flickr photo you’d like GL and our readers to see? Drop it in our brand new Gowanus Lounge Flickr Pool and tag it “gowanuslounge“!

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]

There may have been a ribbon cutting in the winter, but the renovated Park Slope Armory won’t be ready for action until 2009. “The formal agreement between the city and the YMCA that’ll result in the Y running programs at the Park Slope Armory for five years has almost been reached…The new $16 million, 600-seat athletic center will primarily be used for track-and-field events, though a portion of it will be set aside for other sports, like soccer and basketball…The Y is unlikely to start overseeing the center completely before ’09 because it needs to hire staff and move into offices that still need to be built below the women’s homeless shelter on the 8th avenue side of the building.”–Brownstoner

The Gala II

The children are all nestled in their beds
in the poorest quarters of Brooklyn, but
a few, special Brooklynites continue to celebrate
their triumphant creation,
their gift to the needier folks:
Affordable Housing
Yes, it is a well known fact
that the ability to generate affordable housing
can reduce human pain and suffering
by considerable amounts,
make poverty meaningful,
and maybe even raise a reading score or two.
Even when situated on a brownfield,
Even when fueled by dizzying mathematics,
Affordable housing can make a difference!
And the low income children of Brooklyn thank them
for doing such a great job,
for making their suffering all so worthwhile.
Isn’t this obvious tonight
over toast points and lemon wedges, and
nicely trimmed tomato slices,
affordable housing drawings
draping over the table and walls,
where the the art of these children also stands,
as a tribute to that kind of generosity,
and the continuing success of their organization?
c. 2008 Graziella Radici

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

There is a chill in the air outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory this morning as the sun starts warming things up. Today’s forecast calls for partly sunny conditions with a high of 58. Tonight, there will be some patchy clouds and a low of 44.–Accuweather

A GL reader in Williamsburg emails about this lost cat: “I lost my Grey Tiger, 4 yrs old, about 15 lbs. neutered male. Went missing early AM sunday April 27 at 390 Hooper st in Williamsburg between s. 1st and s. 2nd streets. Please call if you have him at your home/shelter! I am so worried about him. Lolly. 646-620-5702″

Here’s a little something we came across via the Bococa Parents Group email list that talks about a nasty little experience at the Vincent Dimattina Playground, which is on the far end of Carroll Gardens near an entrance ramp to the BQE. It alleges a racial/ethnic confrontation in the playground. Here it is:

I just wanted to warn you of a racist incident at the playground at the corner of Hicks Street and Rapelye Street, just behind PS 146. It’s called the Vincent Dimattina Playground. Beware, some people there just don’t welcome other people who are different from them. Yesterday afternoon around 5pm I was at that playground with my daughter. I saw a couple of boys (around 10-11 years old) running up and down the flower beds plucking flowers and thrashing at the plants. I asked them not to pick the flowers. A woman charged at me immediately and shouted: “Don’t you tell my children what to do! You watch your kid and I’m watching mine!”I explained I was just asking the boys not to hurt the plants. She then shouted: “I planted the flowers myself. My kids can do whatever they want. They can even urinate on them!” At this time, her older boy came up right in front of me, jumped up and down, and shouted: “Shoosh, shoosh!” I said: “It’s a public park, no one should hurt the plants.”

Quickly an older woman (in her 50s) came up and shouted: “How dare you say that? We planted the flowers here and we can do whatever we want here. Which country are you from? You don’t even speak English properly!”

There’s a lot more if you click here.

“When I wanted to head south toward Coney or Marine Park, I’d use avenues like Bedford or the Ocean Parkway bike path, which seemed infinitely more interesting than Ocean Avenue (which paled beside its parkway cousin). It just seemed so boring in comparison, mostly lined with uninteresting apartment houses…now I can discern highlights where there were once piles of bricks.”–Forgotten New York

While Park Slope’s Union Hall is very popular with customers, it is not so loved by neighbors, many of whom call it a “public nuisance.” Now the bar is facing a hearing before Community Board 6, which recently handled another liquor license hot potato with the Jim Mamary oyster bar on Hoyt Street in Carroll Gardens. In this case, an unusual public hearing is going to be taking place at 6PM on Thursday, May 8, at the CB6 headquarters at 250 Baltic Street. The Union Street Block Association sent out an email blast yesterday to publicize the hearing and residents’ complaints including complaints that noise and rowdy behavior have made neighboring apartments “unlivable.” Eater picks up the narrative here and Gothamist offers a rundown on the dispute here.

Click Here to Keep Reading About Union Hall