Perhaps a Maypole dance in Gowanus would float your boat? We got an email from Proteus Gowanus about one they’re having on Sunday, May 4 at 3PM. There’s nothing we can add to what we received, so we’ll simply go to the copy and past:

A Dance Around the Maypole: proto-speed-dating and the ancient rite of spring. We enthusiastically welcome your participation in this sculptural performance /performative sculpture, conceived and coordinated by artists Janice Everett & Karolyn Hatton…It is spring, and summer is fast approaching. The blossoms burst their winter bodices; green shoots erupt. A heady fragrance fills the air. Please join us to celebrate this moment of renewal.

A maypole has been erected on the village green at Proteus Gowanus. Music begins. The men and women assemble. Each begins to dress for the occasion, putting on a T-shirt, a waistcoat, or maybe a dress, which extends to the pole at the center, physically and materially connecting him or her to the pole like an elongated umbilical cord. These extensions, rising from the belly or sleeve, will determine how the dancers move round each other, negotiating each encounter to weave their cords together into a central whole. With each revolution they are drawn closer to the center – and to each other. At some point they may stop, turn back, retreat, then re-weave in a new sequence of turns. The resulting sculpture will be placed in the gallery, a trace of these encounters, a totem of their moments together…

Proteus Gowanus is at 543 Union Street. The entrance is on Nevins Street.

A GL reader who’s been following our Spring photo series and caught yesterday’s pic of the fallen Magnolia blossoms on Prospect Park West, sent us this lovely photo from Gravesend along with the reminder that Spring is by no means finished. We agree, except that the Magnolias come and go too fast.

There was a big commotion on Fourth Street in Park Slope between Sixth and Seventh Avenues yesterday with the NYPD, FDNY and Hazmat teams in place. The incident inovlved the death of a 65-year-old man, apparently by cyanide.–Gothamist & Brownstoner

It was parked on N. 6 Street in Williamsburg when we found it. We have no idea.

The sky as observed outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory early this morning is cloudy, but one definitely sees the potential for more sun. The forecast calls for “increasingly amounts of sunshine” and a high of 66 that will feel like 70. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 54. Right now, there are not a lot of April shower in the forecast.

Lost pet situations make us sad, so when we come across them or they’re sent to us, we help out by posting them. If our efforts help reunite one pet and person, we’ll be happy. This one came in yesterday from Williamsburg:

She was found Sunday 4/20 morning running in McCarren Park. If this is your dog, please call 646 522 2022. Hopefully, she will be claimed by her owners very soon because she is a super sweet dog. However, if her owners are not found soon, she will be available for adoption. She is good around people, dogs and cats. Please call the number above for more information.

Look at that face. Here’s hoping for a happy ending.

The Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall, which had been used by residents as a kind of community bulletin board since last year, disappeared last week behind the big blue construction fence for the controversial 360 Smith development. While it’s unclear if the blue fence will end up serving the same purpose or just get plastered with advertising the way that many do, the fence has taken a turn in the direction of love, being decorated with hearts. One resident who noted the shift from confrontation over the project to hearts joked, “I guess someone wants to smother [360 Smith developer] Billy Stein with love.” We particularly enjoyed the juxtaposition between Department of Buildings permits and little red hearts. Love thy developer, always.

It’s been an eventful, if not tumultuous month or two, for the Gowanus Canal and Gowanus. Last week, the Hudson Companies was picked to develop the polluted Public Place site. Earlier, Toll Brothers unveiled their plan for a big Gowanus development and their intention to leapfrog the city planning process. A new gallery opened on Bond Street a couple of weeks ago and the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment unveiled its new headquarters on Seventh Street on Friday. Then, there is the Gowanus Hotel District, fully chronicled and mapped out by Brownstoner. And, there is more in the pipeline, with major properties on the market for tens of millions of dollars.

When we spoke with him last week, Council Member Bill de Blasio said he was confident that some of the big developments on the drawing board–like the Toll Brothers and Gowanus Green projects–could go forward. “The odds are still good for them,” he said. “This particular area is so appealing on so many levels.” He said that Public Place enjoys the “advantage of publicly-owned land” and that it would spark a “cleanup waiting for decades to happen.” As for the Toll Brothers, who seek to circumvent the ongoing zoning process, he said, “the jury is still out on whether they should be able to move forward” ahead of the overall zoning. He said the project had “some good elements” including the level of affordable housing and public space that it offers.

On the topic of the polluted canal itself, which will be the subject of a cleanup effort over the next decade, Mr. de Blasio said he believes “the best way to get the canal clean is to create a residential area around it” and, therefore, a constituency for faster action on a cleanup. Mr. de Blasio, whose support would be crucial for the success of the city’s Gowanus rezoning, said that he is “comfortable with the framework as a starting point for discussion.” The framework calls for buildings up to 10-14 stories tall on the canal as well as for affordable housing and public space requirements. He has called for the upzoning to be linked to a downzoning of Carroll Gardens. The city has refused to commit to a timetable for the latter. “The burden is on City Planning to make them correlate,” he said. “I would be shocked if the whole upzoning would fail because they won’t move a downzoning.” Mr. de Blasio added that “I can’t support a rezoning unless that downzoning is garuanteed.” He did say, however, that the two wouldn’t necessarily have to happen at the same time.

1) Aperitivo, the new Italian offering on Fifth Avenue from the owners of Seventh Avenue’s Sotto Voce, is open. We found it jammed on Friday night and open to the beautiful spring night air. Chalk it up as an instant smash hit.

2) The much publicized Barrio on Seventh Avenue had a teaser opening on Friday night, with colorful lights in the outdoor dining area and a crowd of diners, but that was it for the weekend. On Saturday, the restaurant was sealed tight. We’ll assume there was a invite-only opening on Friday.

3) Another Uncle Louie G’s is opening in Park Slope on Fifth Avenue, near Seventh Street, making it the neighborhood’s third. The other two are on Union Street and on Seventh Avenue. How many Louie G’s can the world handle? We may find out.

4) Thai Tony‘s, an outpost of a Thai restaurant in Kensington has opened on Seventh Avenue between 15th and 16th in place of a Thai restaurant called Nick. Nick, in turn, occupied the spot vacated by Brawta Outpost. And so it goes.

After last last week’s excitement about the selection of the Hudson Companies to develop the toxic Public Place site as Gowanus Green, we swung by to check on the progress of pre-cleanup work there. Concrete is being dug up and removed from the site, leading to neighborhood concerns about what will happen if/when contaminants are disturbed and the kind of monitoring that will occur. Significant digging has been going on at the site to remove huge blocks of concrete left over from its previous incarnation as a manufactured gas plant. The city says that this phase of work on the site doesn’t pose a threat to public health or to nearby residents. One resident told us that residents of streets like Luquer, Huntington and Third and Fourth Place are “breathing in the dust there every day that is being stirred up.” Unconnected to Public Place, a resident told us that soil testing behind some Carroll Gardens homes has found “high amounts of lead and arsenic.” The Public Place cleanup is supposed to involve wetting down soil to keep dust down. Tents will be placed over areas where contaminated soil is being removed. The site is so polluted, however, that only some of the toxins will be removed. The rest will be left in place and covered with a foundation and protective membrane, a process known as “capping.”

The CORD group in Carroll Gardens brought a letter writing effort in support of a proposed zoning text amendment to redefine narrow “wide” streets as narrow ones to the subway plaza at the Carroll Street Station over the weekend. The letter seemed to be getting a good response from passersby as we looked on. It says, in part:

I am a Carroll Gardens resident. I may or may not be able to attend all of the public hearings and meetings in regard to the proposed zoning text amendment referenced in the land use application above, so I wish to go on record by voicing my opinion now.

I am in favor of this zoning text amendment change. I believe that this is a long overdue, much welcomed relief to some of the problems Carroll Gardens has been facing due to the increase in new residential development.

There is a Community Board 6 Land Use Committee meeting about the change on April 24 at 6PM (at 250 Baltic Street).

There was a lot of irony and disagreement this weekend about the role that Exxon (and Forest City Ratner) played as sponsors of the Go Green Greenpoint Earth Day event in McCarren Park. Exxon is responsible for the monstrous oil spill under Greenpoint along Newtown Creek, less than one-third of which has been cleaned up after a half-century. There is a bit of a protest campaign and there was a protest and suggestions that making a fuss about it was inappropriate.

Among the many places that the Brooklyn parrots are establishing themselves is Red Hook. (Perhaps the Gowanus crew, which we understand have flown the coop, has relocated.) The GL reader who sent the image above report:

I saw an odd bird in a tree in the park on [specific location removed to protect the birds]. A freaking parrot! It flew away with a large branch in its beak up to a huge nest atop one of the big ball field flood lights. There are at least four of them up there. They’ve continued work on the nest all week and it has reached absurd proportions (looks like a slovenly osprey nest). You can hear them from a ways off while they’re up there working on it, sqwuaking and screeching up a storm.

If they can wait for a couple of months, they’ll have some excellent options for furnishing the place, right down the street.

Kif, a Middle Eastern restaurant, recently opened in the space that was occupied by Liquor at 219 DeKalb Avenue. “Finally! After so much positive reader feedback, I was able to hit up Kif on Friday evening. I know many people loved Liquors, but to be honest, I was never really that into their food or service. Though it will always have a place in my heart, as it’s the very first place I ate at in the neighborhood several years ago. I’m glad to report that Kif seems to be offering tastier food and friendlier service!”–Clinton Hill Blog

We checked out progress on The Rabbit Hole, the new spot opening at 352 Bedford (between S. 3 and S. 4), and managed a glimpse at the new interior, which we have to say looks pretty damned nice. The new place comes from the owner of Bedford’s departed Read Cafe, Laurence Elliott. It will have a backyard garden and was supposed to be opening up this month, which we suppose is still an outside possibility as the workers on scene yesterday were definitely doing finishing touches-type work rather than basic stuff. It’s definitely not Read, but it has a nice look.

There is good news and bad news to report at the big Karl Fischer building site at Roebling and N. 9 Streets in the Burg. First, the good news: the Stop Work Order on the project was quickly lifted. Now, the bad: the fence is wide open (again). And, the good, again: on Sunday the site offered an unparalleled opportunity to climb the rubble pile and get great shots juxtaposing the ruins and new construction. We do suggest caution while roaming this wide open and inviting site, however, as the rubble is unsteady. Climb at your own risk and under no circumstances screw with the equipment on the site. We didn’t nickname this little corner of the Burg the Williamsburg Triangle of Death for nothing.

GL Analysis:
After an idiot, drunk, child or vandal dies at one of these sites, there will, perhaps, be fingers of blame and a search for a solution. We already have one: require developers spending millions of dollars on projects to put out an extra few thousand on a metal fence that a vandal wearing blindfolds or a breeze greater than 5MPH can’t rip down. The flimsy crap that the city allows is the perfect metaphor for how the public interest can take a back seat to private profit. Sure, they’re only fences and in a city where construction cranes topple and demolish buildings, who cares? In a neighborhood like Williamsburg, however, where entire quadrants are being turned into construction sites, the lousy fences and the fact that at least one-third of sites are open at any given time and that no one is policing the problem, the cruddy, publicly-sanctioned fences are a major threat to public safety. Three words: metal fences now.

We had actually stopped to take a photo of a development on Bedford Avenue that has finally lost its construction fence after about two years of work when we spotted this message on some plywood in a future window. After the revolution we’ll all have health insurance, which is good to know.

Brooklyn does have another amusement park besides Astroland and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park. It’s not in Coney Island, although there is a big Joe Sitt development nearby. “Adventurers Family Entertainment Center has taken over the park formerly known as Nellie Bly amusement park. The group running this endeavor formerly operated Adventurer’s Inn in Queens. Thankfully the mini-golf course is still there but the bumper car pavilion has been razed…–Jimvid/SmugMug

This poster, which we came across on the G Train platform at the Metropolitan Avenue stop, has more annotations than one can possibly even show or get into. So, we’ll just settle for the big picture commentary. If you’re into this sort of thing–and the G Train seems to have an inordinate amount of it–Miss Heather is always featuring altered underground advertising. For instance, in this post.

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

• Assault on African-American in Crown Heights Raises Concerns [Sun]
• Killing at Crown Heights House Party [NYDN]
• Brooklyn Tech Ranking Drops [NYP]
• So, Now, Ouroussoff Criticizes “Distorted Reality” of Project Renderings [AYR]
• History of the Greenpoint Starbucks [Lost City]
• With Brooklyn Independent Television in the Park [A Year in the Park]
• Greening Things Up [Hawthorne Street]
• Learn How to Sail in Sheepshead Bay [OTBKB]
• Regina Spektor Plays Troubled Sound Fix [Brooklyn Vegan]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Burning of the Bread, Up Close [Fading Ad Blog]
• 84th Precinct is Second Safest in City [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• The Botanic Garden in Bloom [NYDN]
• Kids at PS 321 Walk for Green to Go Green [Green Brooklyn]

Here’s Jackie O, which is pretty new on N. 9 Street in Williamsburg, near Roebling Street. It’s the work of Dain.

[Photo courtesy of Anna Lewis]

This photo of Washington Cemetery, the sprawling burial ground that is traversed by the F Train, McDonald Avenue and Bay Parkway, and the soccer fields beyond comes from GL Correspondent Anna Lewis.

We got an email from the Open Space Alliance of North Brooklyn, which is looking for photos for its website. They write: “OSA would like to showcase your work on our website (which is being substantially improved). We will consider photos relating to any aspect of any park/greenspace/waterfront in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. We welcome recent photos, as well as vintage family photos. Please send submissions to info@OpenSpaceAllianceNB.org as soon as possible.”

This bike on McGuinness Boulevard has clearly seen better days. It is one of the hundreds around Greenpoint and Williamsburg in various states of deconstruction or bending and come from the digital camera of Miss Heather.

Looking out the windows of the Brooklyn Weather Observatory right now, it’s hard to see how clouds are going to give way to sun, yet that is exactly the forecast for today. Maybe things will be more clear by noon. The high will be 62. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 46. The extended forecast says we’re looking at a period of temps ranging from the mid-60 to low 70s and not much rain.–Accuweather