On a sunny Saturday in Williamsburg, as cranes were crashing down in Manhattan, workers were busy at all the big developments. “At 80 Metropolitan…North 1st Street was blocked as workers loaded material. No flagman was present. Urban Green was pumping concrete on North 5th Street…Again, no flagman (but at least traffic could pass). Workers were also banging away at 154 Berry Street, as well as at a host of other smaller projects. Of course, I have no idea if any of these projects had a variance for weekend work. By wading through the payment history for 5 different permits at Urban Green, we can say conclusively that they probably had a variance…”–Brooklyn 11211

[Photo courtesy of susiejulie/flickr]

Broolinks are a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

• Paterson Will Continue Support for Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• Man Struck & Killed by Police Car on Coney Island Ave. [NYP]
• Dianna Carlin Talks About Her New Coney Roller Rink [Metro]
• Suspect in Hideous Bronx Rape Arrested in Brooklyn [amNY]
• Happy St. Paddy’s Day from Greenpoint [New York Shitty]
• Arcade Fun [Brooklynometry]
• God in the House [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Hepcat Would Never Do What Spitzer Did… [OTBKB]
• Old Fire Hydrant in the Middle of Prospect Park? [Velvet Sea]
• Prospect Park’s Fallen Trees [A Year in the Park]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Anti-War Protests in Brooklyn [Bay Ridge Blog]

Our Carroll Gardens correspondent ventured to the far off corner of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge over the weekend and found that spring is even more far advanced there than it is in Carroll Gardens or Park Slope or environs. Excellent.

The top clown in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus grew up on First Street and Montgomery Place in Park Slope and misses the pizza from Pino’s on Seventh Avenue when he’s on teh road. He’s the circus’ first featured clown from NYC, but who care about that when he’s the Clown from Park Slope?–NYDN

St. Patrick’s Day will be sunny with some wind and a high of 48 degrees. The wind will make it feel like 38, though. Tonight will be partly cloudy and chilly with a low of 38.–Accuweather

We have said it before and we have said it again: the entire building inspection and construction regulation system in New York City needs a top to bottom overhaul. It is a critically dysfunctional governmental system that threatens public safety and does violence to quality of life on a daily basis. While the horrendous accident on the Upper East Side is a dramatic event with awful consequences, one can find dozens of sites in Brooklyn every day where the safety of workers and residents is put at risk. There are hundreds more that ruin people’s quality of life by ignoring regulations with impunity. The situation is nothing short of a vile scandal. The Department of Buildings needs more inspectors and an entirely new ethic that is responsive to public concerns and works to safeguard residents everywhere in the city in all ways whether it’s stopping illegal work or greatly curtailing the abused system of self-certification or making honest inspections of sites or making sure that solid fences are erected so that children aren’t exposed to two-story deep construction pits. Fines need to made large enough to make them sting. Permits need to be revoked for persistent offenses. Developers and contractors need to be part of a system where inspections are real and penalties are severe.

If the city doesn’t act to crack down on developers and contractors and to fundamentally overhaul the Department of Buildings. The issue is not limited to high rise construction safety, even if the problems can have very dramatic consequences. It is everywhere, and it’s not going too far to point out that fixing this broken system is a matter of life and death.

So I got the scoop. I was walking down 7th and I peaked in and asked what was coming… The owner was there and he was as nice as can be. He said the restaurant is going to be called Barrio. He gave me his business card, showed me around… They seem to have only done cosmetic work (new tiles, some decorative woodwork, etc.). It looks like it’s going to be a very cool place. Could 7th Ave finally be getting hip?? The chef is from Mexico and he said the food will be super authentic. Yum!

So, that’s the Exclusive Big Scoop.

It’s Sunday, which means it’s time for our weekly Brooklyn Missed Connection. We don’t the guy that posted today’s selection is actually seeking the female in question, but one never knows what can come of such situations:

Peeing on the street S 1st and Kent – m4w – 30

As I turned into S1 and Kent on Thursday night, I saw you with a friend urinating on the street it was a very awkward situation and didn’t know how to react I am sure you and your friend were extremely uncomfortable, I am sorry about the way I reacted for I’m sure you had no choice and I was totally lost.

Okay.

Once a week, we highlight a few random comments left by GL readers during the previous week. Here are some from the past seven days:

Toll Brothers Gowanus Development Gets Scoped. “People are raising the toilet problem. Unfortunately, City Planning could care less about that since it doesn’t fall within that agencies purview. The people who should be protesting the loudest are Toll since raw sewage is not exactly a selling point.” [Anonymous]

Atlantic Yards Opponents: “Dear Governor Paterson”. “No Brooklynite I have ever ever met anyhwere has anything but WRATH for Ratner and is ill-conceived MEGA-BOMB project. Let’s pray Paterson will save us from this disaster we will all live to regret in its current format. Let’s GET A ULURP NOW for AY!! That was one of countless unnecessary, human, greedy errors with this over-sized monster from the start…” [Anonymous]

Atlantic Yards Opponents: “Dear Governor Paterson”. “I think the new Gov will have truly important things to deal with and stopping this exciting project should not be one of them. I’ve lived in the AY part of BK for close to 20 years and I am looking forward to this innovative and architecturally stunning renaissance of what has been an ugly hole in the middle of Brooklyn for way too long.” [Annika S.]

More Fun with the Carroll Gardens Hell Building. “It’s a monstrosity. This developer has a ‘history’ with doing this sort of thing. I’m not against development—as long as it’s in keeping with the neighborhood and the neighborhood can sustain the change. But I live a 1/2 block away from this and it’s having an 8+ story high-rise in the middle of brownstone Brooklyn.” [Anonymous]

Just before Christmas, he started transforming the old factory into a sprawling pizza and barbecue restaurant, with nearly 300 seats. Mr. Maropakis’s most recent addition is a brick oven he built, which can cook 1,000 pounds of meat at a time. Not everyone in the neighborhood shares his enthusiasm. In fact, about a month ago, when Mr. Maropakis spray-painted the words “Brick oven bar-be-que” on the plywood covering one of the windows, some people who work in the area thought it was a joke…

In the last couple of years, the high-end boutiques, cafes and restaurants that transformed Fifth Avenue have been spilling onto Fourth Avenue. But few residents expected Third Avenue to start going upscale so quickly, and some are already fearful that Park Slope and Carroll Gardens will merge to form one big brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.

“They’re going to call Gowanus ‘West Park Slope’ or ‘East Carroll Gardens,’ ” Ms. Yurick said with a grimace. “It’s a joke. This is a truck route.”

Well, it’s still a truck route, but not such a joke anymore.

• Crane Collapse Kills at Least Four [NYT]
• With Demolitions, Pacific Street Getting Very Lonely [AYR]
• Updating the F Train Rehab [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Economic Wisdom from a Crown Heights Supermarket [NYT]
• Church Row on Lafayette? [General Greene]
• Help Needed with Kitty’s Lymphosarcoma [Erica’s Blog]
• Jacko Piping and Heating, Flatlands [Fading Ad Blog]
• The Brooklyn Hamptons? [Ditmas Park Blog]
• “The Rides of March” [A Year in the Park]
• Greetings from the Writers at the Beach [OTBKB]
• The Best Artist on the Planet [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Portrait in White Slip [Brooklynometry]

There’s no such thing as too much Coney Island for us, so here are all the Coney vids we’ve made and posted to the YouTube in the last couple of years.

The decision on whether to landmark Victorian Flatbush’s Midwood Park and Fiske Terrace is slated to be announced this week. The outlook is pretty good.–NYT

If you’re into chamber music, here’s an opportunity to catch some today (3/16) when Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music present Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion at the Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity, 157 Montague Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights. It takes place at 4PM. Tickets are $20 at the door. Students tickets are $10, and TDF and High Five accepted. More info by calling 718.855.3053

It’s gloomy at the Brooklyn weather observatory early this morning and if the forecast is right, it’s not going to be the nicest day for things like Coney Island’s first day and the Park Slope St. Patrick’s Parade. The forecast calls for a little morning rain followed by wind and a chilly feeling. The high will be 47, but we’re looking at a 38 degree wind chill. Tonight will be mainly clear, but breezy and chilly with a low of 30. It’s going to feel like 17 though.–Accuweather