Toren, the big condo rising on Flatbush Avenue, may have one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns for a Brooklyn property ever. A lot of Brooklyn residents have lent their to the effort and they’re showing up everywhere.–Curbed

Fortunately, no one was injured but residents have had many complaints about this street, from speeding cars and motorcycles to excessive truck noise. Something must be done to rethink and find solutions for the traffic patterns on this street.

In an email, the Alliance’s Lauren Collins added: “It’s a wide street and is treated like a speedway by some drivers.” Similar problems exist on Prospect Park West and there have been proposals to add bike lanes and return it to being a two-way street. Prospect Park SW, however, is already a two-way thoroughfare.

• Forest City Ratner Has Second-Largest Lobbying Contract in State [AYR]
• McCain & Bloomberg Go to Bay Ridge [NYDN]
• McCain in the Ridge [Left in Bay Ridge]
• Canarsie Day Care Center Doubles as Disgusting Mushroom Farm [NYDN]
• Details of Awful Bensonhurst Murder Recalled [NYP]
• Added Detail on Williamsburg-Greenpoint Greenway Approval [Streets Blog]
• Car Culture [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Brooklyn Modern [OTBKB]
• Microsoft Courts Moms on Montague [BHB]
• Second-Hand Report on Paul Simon at BAM [DITHOB]
• Bedford Playground Equipment Installed [Brooklyn Junction]
• Botanic Garden Has Deal With L’Occitane en Provence [Newyorkology]
• Music Vids Shot Locally [Clinton Hill Chill Blog]
• Room Design at RePop [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Almondine Offering “Room Service” in Dumbo on Mother’s Day [Dumbo NYC]

Few New York City schools have gotten the volume of bad press and controversy as the Khalil Gibran School. It has been booted from Park Slope, embroiled in an ugly principal controversy and not embraced in Fort Greene, where it will go next year. Now, it’s current location in Boerum Hill is being slammed, per today’s Daily News:

It’s a school that has had controversy swirling around it from the start – and Brooklyn’s controversial Arabic school has had other problems, too. Faced with inadequate space, the Khalil Gibran school has also suffered from discipline problems, charged teachers union representatives and parents.

“The space there is totally unacceptable,” said teachers union district representative Bob Zuckerberg. “[It’s] something the Department of Education should never have allowed.”

Classrooms at the Dean St. building in Boerum Hill are separated by walls that do not reach the ceiling, Education Department officials confirmed. “The noise level is kind of high,” Zuckerberg added. “Because of the space issues, it has led to discipline and safety issues.”

We are certain the drama will continue.

Of course, yesterday was the first real day of spring. You know, the one where you could take off your coat while walking around. GL Correspondent Anna Lewis shot this photo in Gowanus, where we can verify that people had shed their coats and were out enjoying that Canal-area goodness.

The issue of turning the “wide streets” of Carroll Gardens back into narrow ones for zoning purposes will come before the Land Use and Landmarks Committee of Community Board 6 on Thursday, April 24. The meeting will take place at 6PM. Here a bit from CB6 about it:

Presentation and review of proposed Zoning Resolution Text Amendment (#N080345ZRK), known as the Carroll Gardens Places Text Amendment, submitted by the Department of City Planning that would define 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place and 4th Place between Henry Street and Smith Street; and 2nd Street, Carroll Street and President Street between Smith Street and Hoyt Street, in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn Community Board 6 as ‘Narrow Streets” for
zoning calculation purposes.

Should anyone wish to partake of this discussion, it will take place at the CB6 office, which is located at 250 Baltic Street, between Court & Clinton Streets.

Related Posts:

• Wide Streets of Carroll Gardens To Get Narrow

We saw fliers for this a couple of weeks ago and didn’t get a photo. Here’s an email that’s gone out about the fence painting at Carroll Park in Carroll Gardens this weekend:

Tom Sawyer Fence Painting Day At Carroll Park: This Saturday, April 12th, come out to show one of Brooklyn’s oldest parks some love! Give a little back to your community. Come out to help paint the fence at Carroll Park.

It takes place on Saturday (4/12) from 9:30AM to 3 PM and is sponsored by the Committee to Improve Carroll Park, NYC Parks And Recreation and New York Cares.

We’re definitely seeing gray skies early this morning at the Brooklyn Weather Observatory, possibly bearing out the accuracy of today’s forecast: Mostly cloudy and cooler with a shower. The high will be 61. Tonight will be overcast and mild with showers and thunderstorms. Meanwhile, Weatherunderground is showing the chance of showers or thunderstorms through Monday. Keep the umbrella handy, as they say.–Accuweather

Several weeks ago, we carried the exclusive news that a new coalition of South Brooklyn neighborhood groups (particularly ones concentrated in the Carroll Gardens and Gowanus area) was forming to try to increase their clout on controversial community issues and to try to organize politically for the 2009 local elections. The neighborhoods are facing a large number of controversial development projects that would, together, add thousands of new residents over the next 3-5 years if approved. The group was set to announce itself at the community meeting held in Carroll Gardens last week about the Clarett Group’s development at 340 Court Street, but the developer said it would back out of the meeting if the other items were added to the agenda. In any case, GL has learned that the name of the group is the South Brooklyn Neighborhood Alliance. Groups that have been involved in meetings and discussions include the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association (one of the most established neighborhood groups), CORD (which was founded over the issue of 360 Smith Street), the Union-Sackett Block Association (founded around the 340 Court Street development), Friends Of Bond (active in many Gowanus issues, including the Toll Brothers proposal), FROGG (a longtime group of Gowanus activists active in rezoning, the Whole Foods project, the Toll Brothers development and the issue of cleaning up the Gowanus Canal) and the Baltic Warren Neighbors Group. Other groups have been involved in discussions too and a formal announcement of the new group is pending, GL has learned.

A long stalled building for the corner of Bedford Avenue and Broadway, south of the Williamsburg Bridge, appears to be getting underway. The first application for the building was filed in 20002 and the building on the lot was demolished several years ago. There is evidence of fresh building activity on a five-story structure with 49 apartments that will be designed by Henry Radusky of Bricoloage Designs. The address of the project is 369 Bedford and it will offer nice views of Broadway and of trains going to and fro over the Williamsburg Bridge. No plans for the building have surfaced, but the architect is noted for plain buildings with a lot of, well, brick.

It’s been a while since we heard news of the Giant Sinkhole of Pacific Street in Boerum Hill, but there are developments. First, the big hole has been filled, (never mind that the problem developed in December) but construction equipment has been left behind, and another sinkhole is opening where other work took place. Per an email via the Boerum Hill group:

OK, it’s been a couple weeks (I think) since they closed up the Giant Hole on Pacific Street, but two huge diggers are still sitting in front of my house. Now they are attracting garbage — there’s a growing pile of it in the scoop of one of them. I want to call 311, but I don’t even know which agency left them here. Can someone tell me who is at fault?

And, then, there’s this:

…to make matters worse some separate company came to connect a gas line for a house across the street and when they left there was another sinkhole, which is getting worse by the day. So after all this we have a sinkhole again, plus two pieces of construction equipment gathering garbage and blocking a hydrant. FYI you do not have to know who left the equipment, that’s the beauty of 311. They will pull permits and figure it out.

Ah, more to come.

Those who follow news of the Williamsburg waterfront will know that the big proposed TransGas power plant on the Bushwick Inlet was dealt a fairly decisive blow in Albany a couple of weeks ago. (TransGas will likely appeal, but has little chance of success, even though delays could interfere with plans to use the property for the 28-acre Bushwick Inlet Park.) In any case, there’s a “Victory Over TransGas Party” or VTP happening at the Brooklyn Brewery on Sunday. Specifically:

Join us in celebrating our astounding victory over TransGas’ bid to build an 1100 mw power plant on the Bushwich Inlet…it’s TIME TO CELEBRATE and say THANK YOU to the community who helped make this long 7 year struggle a success. Beer, food, music, and a sneak peek at the future of the Bushwick Inlet.

It all happens on Sunday (4/13) from 2PM-6PM at the Brooklyn Brewery, which is located at 79 N. 11 Street in Williamsburg. More info over at the Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks & Planning (GWAPP) website.

Do check out the yacht clubs of Brooklyn. For instance: “Let’s say you don’t know anyone with a boat, there are still some low-cost options out there for you. One is the Sebago Canoe Club located on the Paerdegat Basin in Canarsie, Brooklyn. SCC has been around for 75 years and is easily accessible to Jamaica Bay after a short sail/paddle under Belt Parkway. As we can personally attest, Jamaica Bay is a fantastic sailing area, but our friends at SCC tell us that Paerdegat Basin “can be a bit nasty at times – particularly when the sewage goes to the storm drains and empties into the Basin, but once out of the Basin and into the Jamaica Bay it is an amazing place to sail and perfect for small boats and truly beautiful.”–Sail Brooklyn

This will be a contemporary park featuring a playground, a multipurpose field, a site for a future seasonal café, a naturalized waterfront edge and a multiuse bicycle path. The construction of a combination Community space, District Headquarters and Comfort station will service the needs of the newly created Bushwick Inlet Park. This facility will house Parks Department offices and maintenance trucks, in addition to public restrooms and community spaces and multi-purpose rooms.

The full site plan is below.

• Brooklyn DA’s Office Busts Contraband Cigarettes [NYT]
• Paterson Doesn’t Mention Atlantic Yards in Development Speech [AYR]
• Breslin on Kerouac in Brooklyn [Runnin’ Scared]
• The Greening of Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Get Ready for Spring, Brooklyn Heights [BHB]
• Segway on Montague Street [McBrooklyn]
• Smudges of Green in the Woods [A Year in the Park]
• Transmitter Park Meeting Next Week [New York Shitty]
• PictureBox Departmental Store in Gowanus [Brownstoner]
• Brooklyn College Building Coming Along [Brooklyn Junction]
• Scrap Metal in Canarsie, 2002 [Fading Ad Blog]
• Manhattan Beach Meeting Video [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• Friends of Cortelyou Meeting on Saturday [Ditmas Park Blog]

With ongoing demolition and construction at the controversial 340 Court Street building site, the Union-Sackett Block Association is having its regular monthly meeting on Saturday (4/12) at 11:30 AM at the Carroll Gardens Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, which is at the corner of Clinton and Union Streets. Topics include further discussion of the Clarett Group development, downzoning and planning the neighborhood block party. More info about the group and its activities at their blog.

This impressive street couch, which still might have many good years of service ahead of it were it not for the fact that it’s been tossed out on the street, comes from President Street in Carroll Gardens, a neighborhood from which we don’t often get street sofas. It was found near Carroll Park by the blogger who produces Lost City, who was kind enough to photograph it and send it our way.

To say that 143 Huron Street, a new condo in Greenpoint, makes an impression is an understatement. “I’m not too sure what ‘look’ this architect was trying achieve. If I had to take a guess I’d say Imperial Storm Trooper meets Jawa Sandcrawler with a dash of Mondrian thrown in for good measure.”–New York Shitty

Part of a wall of a vacant four-story building in Bed-Stuy collapsed yesterday. There were no injuries and the structure looked like it could come down if someone looked at it the wrong way.–Brownstoner