Soon, it will be time for an entire new round of stories about how screwed we will all be when a major hurricane hits New York City. (Yes, we said when, not if.) In the meantime, anyone that wants to read how generally screwed Brooklyn and various parts of the city will be in general in future years, should definitely catch up on their reading. Activists in low-lying parts of the borough like Gowanus can take heart, we suppose, that most new developments like the Toll Brothers project and Whole Foods face a very grim future in the long run.–City Limits via Brownstoner

This very stickered sign comes from Williamsburg on Union Avenue near the BQE. It used to call on drivers to keep the intersection clear.

Today’s Brooklyn weather forecast calls for “clouds yielding to sun” with a high of 49 degrees. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low of 37. The long-range forecast shows a possibility of clouds and perhaps some rain starting on Friday.–Accuweather

It’s nice to be able to report some wonderful news via Eater: the Red Hook Taco Vendors have been awarded a six-year permit to operate at the Red Hook Ballfields. The announcement came this afternoon from the Parks Department. Our friends at Eater have the full text of the press release. Most of last year was overshadowed by the threat to the vendors, and even recently, they have suggested that costs as high as $30,000 for carts could drive many out of business. Of the permit, Parks Commmissioner Adrian Benepe said in a statement: “One of the great New York City pleasures is enjoying tacos, huaraches and other fine Latin American cuisine at Red Hook Park. The Parks Department is happy to keep this longstanding tradition in place by awarding a permit to the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park.” Sen. Charles Schumer, who held a press conference last year calling on the Parks Department to allow the vendors to stay said, “I applaud the Parks Department for recognizing the value they bring both to Brooklyn and the New York culinary scene.”

Vendors Committee Executive Director Cesar Fuentes, with whom we’ve spoken many times over the last year, said that “On behalf of the Red Hook food vendors, we are thrilled to be able to continue our 33-year-old tradition. We have the best intentions to create an even better food market with the assistance of New York City Parks and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. It is a beautiful thing to be able to combine culture, cuisine and recreation together to enhance the park’s experience which is so vital to an urban center. To be able to get in the city what you would get in a rural area, fresh wholesome food, is really fantastic. Thanks to New York City Parks for being proactive in supporting this type of small affair of artisan vendors.”

The season should start in late April or early May.

Seventh Avenue’s Sotte Voce is opening not one, but two, new spinoffs on Fifth Avenue in coming months, per our friends at Brownstoner. “Within the next month they’re going to open a bistro called Aperitivo on the corner of 1st street…One of Sotto’s managers says Aperitivo is going to be open from early morning to late at night and have classic bistro trappings like a marble bar. A block and a half away, meanwhile, Sotto’s owners are opening a much larger ‘family-style’ restaurant called Alta Voce.” If it’s anymore “family-style” than Sotto Voce, where the little ones can sometimes engage in ziti tossing contests, we’ll be impressed.–Brownstoner

Does Brooklyn Bridge Park have more trouble on its hands? Yes, it does. The latest issue, revealed in today’s Post, is objections from the Department of Environmental Conservation to many of the park’s water features. DEC says they could harm aquatic life. Negotiations are underway.–Curbed

Yesterday, we updated the story we first ran on Friday that a reader had sent about the appearance of one-way signs on Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park. As it turned out info was on the MTA/New York City Transit website in the context of the B63 bus being rerouted going northbound. A reader left another comment late last night that is worth highlighting because it provides a glimpse of what’s to come. Major construction work will be happening to Fifth Ave. over the next several years and the next spot to be torn up will be the Sunset Park shopping district. Here is what our reader wrote:

It’s wonderful living in a city that leaves its residents in the dark about things that have been in the planning for 20 years! 5th Avenue from 24th to 34th Street is going to be torn open for the city to inspect and where needed replace the sewer (waste water) and water (supply) pipes. The job is scheduled to last 18 to 24 months with cash incentives to the contractor to finish earlier. This job is part of a much larger job that extends the entire length of 5th avenue. Bay Ridge was done a few years back – the disruption was awful. The heart of the Sunset Park shopping district will be done when the current job is finished. It will be a nightmare for the mom & pop type stores that have a very low profit margin – their loss of business will be devastating. Your observations of the current work and ideas on how the business district can survive the coming construction would be appreciated – call the Sunset Park Business Improvement District at 718 439-7767.

No worries. Everything should be finished by 2020, give or take.

If you live on Boerum Hill and you were waiting for your mail last week, there is a chance that it didn’t show up on several days. We saw a significant number of emails complaining about skipped deliveries, including one who was counting the number of days that her New Yorker was overdue. Here’s the latest:

I have seen several posts over this past week about undelivered mail on several blocks. I have experienced the same on my block of Bergen between Hoyt/Bond,
our (odd number side) only. I just received priority mail yesterday dated 2/27 mailed from downtown Brooklyn. The mail was sporadic for two days this past week. Many neighbors on my block experienced the same. I have filled out the survey on line and have seen the posts for so-called improvement. I was at the Times Plaza PO on Tuesday and I waited for for over 20 minutes for the certified mail to be located and this was with the pink slips. The postal worker couldn’t find one of them. What is our next plan of action as a community?. We have tolerated this for much too long! Things seem to improve for a week and then they worsen to a level that was lower than before action was taken. Patiently awaiting my New Yorker…

And this possible explanation:

When my regular carrier brought 2 days worth of mail yesterday, he told me that there is a new supervisor who is just learning how things work. That may be one of the factors. Nonetheless, non-delivery of mail is unacceptable. So, can the people who have been working with Times Plaza continue the process they have already started? In addition to everyone posting problems here to created a record, what can we all do to help? How quaint the “nor rain, nor snow. . .” postal commitment sounds in this context where our carriers are “stay[ed] . . . from their appointed rounds.”

And, it’s only Monday morning.

It would be tempting to blame the wind for opening up the construction site at 208 N. 10 to public access yesterday, but it would be wrong. In point of fact, we have found the site wide open more times than we have found it closed over the last six months. The only surprise yesterday was that more of the cruddy fence didn’t come down in the breeze. In any case, we’re including a couple of bonus photos below, including the little body of water with an oily sheen that we’ll call Roebling Pond and the heavy equipment that can double as playground equipment for neighborhood kids 6.9 days out of 7.

We have written about 1000 Manhattan Avenue before. Now, there is an entire story attached to it: “Two crossing steel beams—one apparently holding up the other—were placed against the building’s façade and onto the sidewalk. At the end of the beam, which is wrapped in yellow caution tape, there is a mysterious wooden box…At first glance, the structure looked futile, but on closer inspection the beams are preventing the building’s swelling bricks from crashing down onto the pavement. The rain gutter bends along the faÇade’s perilous curve. To get into the G&R Deli on the ground floor, one is forced to duck under the joists or to circle around the structure to enter the store. The whole thing resembles a Mark Di Suvero sculpture carelessly hammered together by a bunch of mentally disabled teenagers. It looks like a dangerous joke.” There is much more to it.–Brooklyn Rail

The Childs Building in Coney Island, which will host a roller rink this summer operated by Lola Staar, is one of the most significant surviving structures from the “old” Coney Island. Taconic Development has a long-term lease on the landmarked building and has pledged to restore it. It was built in 1923 to house a Childs Restaurant at the Boardwalk and W. 21st Street and was described as adding “refinement in the bizarre surroundings of Coney Island.” It was opened for the Mermaid Ball last year and last summer Kinetic Carnival offered a wonderful photo tour of the whole building. Here’s some history, courtesy of the landmarking report on the building:

Constructed in 1923, this restaurant building on the Boardwalk of Coney Island was designed by Dennison & Hirons in a fanciful resort style combining elements of the Spanish Colonial Revival with numerous maritime allusions that refer to its seaside location. This spacious restaurant building originally had a roof-top pergola and continuous arcades on two facades to allow for extensive ocean views. Clad in stucco, the building’s arches, window openings and end piers feature elaborate polychrome terra-cotta ornament in whimsical nautical motifs that include images of fish, seashells, ships, and the ocean god Neptune…

Architects Dennison & Hirons usually designed their buildings in either a restrained classical or Art Deco style. At Coney Island, however, they created a building in a style that was quite different from their other work, but appropriate for this setting. The Childs Restaurant on the Boardwalk was designed in a resort style to go along with the existing “unique fairyland environments for dreamers.”21 In an area filled with an eye-popping array of shapes, colors and lights, a building had to be unusual to attract customers. The amusement parks set the tone, with huge plaster figures, large structures with unexpected shapes, and thousands of twinkling lights beckoning patrons. Other businesses sought to create their own sense of uniqueness, adding towers and turrets, colors, and roof gardens. On the Childs Restaurant building, the colorful terra-cotta ornament in unique maritime motifs, as well as its large size and fine design helped it stand out from the many flimsy shacks nearby which accommodated the area’s various entertainments.

Childs maintained it as a restaurant until the early 1950s. After it closed it was maintained as a facility to store books and as a chocolate factory. There’s more info here.

“One corner of Brooklyn likes its hookers – and wants to keep them happy. On the streets of Red Hook Sunday, old-timers and newcomers alike said the FDNY should ease up on Engine 279/Ladder 131, whose firefighters call themselves the Happy Hookers. FDNY brass ordered the station to change its nickname and logo two years ago amid a crackdown on monikers like the Bronx’s 90 Proof and Staten Island’s Southern Comfort.”–NYDN

We’re bored with 33 Roebling, the wide-open Williamsburg site that has become a neighborhood dumping ground. (Was it only a couple of weeks ago that we had an item about the DOB violation it got?) In any case, the wind on Saturday night delivered a death blow to the crapshow of a “fence” around the site. Now, the question is, how long will it stay this way? Also, how did it become a the Mattress Discounters of the Damned?

Bank of America has finally affixed its name to the storefront it is taking over with a new branch bank on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. The corner used to house a Gothic Cabinet Craft store and the space extends into the former D’Agostino’s supermarket space. The wood outside was painted red a couple of weeks ago and was tagged up by local teenagers last week. Presumably, B of A will be closing the little ATM outpost they have near Ninth Street on Seventh Avenue, unless they’re contemplating becoming Bank of the Slope.

Way back when, a building with a laundromat on Court Street in Carroll Gardens that is now up for sale, housed a Dairy Queen and a KFC. Does that mean that Court St. was de-chainified for a time only to have the chains coming back with vengeance now?–PMFA

One would think that developers that can pay $20 million for a property on Union Avenue in Williamsburg can afford a few thousand dollars for a fence that isn’t held together with spit and glue or can, at least, afford to send over a dude with a hammer and some nails to put it back together. Most of the demolished fence in these photos of 568 Union was not taken down by the wind last night, but it did appear the gusts picked up some hunks of the fence and blew them into Union Avenue and other streets. On the bright side, the empty lot continues to attract visitors. Yesterday, someone was shooting photos of Karl Fischer Row from inside the lot with a box camera.

The reviews are coming in for the two spots that opened this weekend in the Slope. Of ‘sNice on Fifth Avenue Slopehead writes, “Simply put, this place is a godsend for anyone with vegetarian inclinations. Evidently there are a lot of people like that in the neighborhood because the place was packed. Food was delicious and fresh, prices reasonable, and atmosphere gave off a cheery boho vibe.” Of Yogo Monster, which managed to sell frozen yogurt despite rain and cold temps, 8thandPrez writes, “yogomonster was pretty busy yesterday (saturday) and the yogurt is good. it’s a bit sweeter and smoother than oko and pinkberry… a bit more american-style fro-yo, but definitely not super sweet soft serve.”–Brookynian

The trash cans at Coney Island will likely be more colorful again this year. There’s going to be a “Trash Barrel Design and Painting Contest” on the boardwalk on April 5. The Coney Island USA website has some brief information about it, calling it “Boardwalk Barrels of Fun!” It will happen on the Boardwalk at W. 10 Street from 10AM-2PM on Saturday, April 5. No word on prizes, but if you want to decorate a trash can that hundreds of thousands of people will see and that will end up in a lot of photos, your moment has arrived.

The one and only Kevin Walsh, whose Forgotten NY is one of the truly superb New York City websites, visits Dyker Heights, the Brooklyn neighborhood best known for its over-the-top displays of Christmas Lights. The visit is during daylight hours and not during the holidays, so Mr. Walsh shows a different side of the neighborhood than all those Christmas pics. Here’s a sample:

The name “Dyker” presents a bit of a puzzler for Brooklyn lexicologists. In Brooklyn By Name, Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss assert that Dutch farmers who built dikes to drain the area’s wetlands in the colonial era gave it its name. However Van Dyke is a common Dutch name and a family of that name did have a hand in its development in the mid-1700s. Strictly speaking Dyker Heights was more strictly defined when the Gowanus Expressway was completed in 1964, as the neighborhood’s boundaries can be set at 86th Street (and the Dyker Park Golf Course, where Tiger Woods’ father Earl was a pro) the expressway, 65th Street, and 14th Avenue. It’s overwhelmingly residential and the only business streets are Fort Hamilton Parkway, 13th Avenue, and parts of 11th. The neighborhood is best-known and most heavily chronicled during the Christmas season, when many locals construct extravagant Christmas displays, especially along 84th Street between 11th and 12th Avenue.

Check it out here.

There’s a meeting coming up this week “to strategize about stopping the Department of Education (DOE) school budget cuts.” It’s on Thursday (3/13) and we got an email about it from “Friends of Bill de Blasio.” Here’s a bit from the email:

I want to inform you about a meeting we are organizing on March 13th at St. Francis College to bring together members of the community to strategize about stopping the Department Of Education (DOE) school budget cuts.

We will hear from all different groups at the event- including constituents, members of the Community Education Councils (CEC), PTA and other education leaders. This event is an opportunity to for community members to:

1. Hear from teachers, parents, advocates, and union leaders about how these sudden cuts will affect our schools.

2. Learn how to be a leader in your school and district to champion support for resolutions to reverse these cuts NOW.

3. Discuss concerns with Brooklyn Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) and Community Education Councils (CEC) and share ideas about how we can fight to preserve our children’s education and reverse the budget cuts together.

The meeting takes place from 7PM-9PM on Thursday at St. Francis College’s Callahan Center, which is located at 180 Remsen Street, 1st Floor (Between Court and Clinton Streets).

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

• The Miss Brooklyn Switch: Less Density & More Public Revenue? [AYR]
• Some People Missed the Daylight Savings Thing Yesterday [NYDN]
• “A Published Report” Says Group Bidding to Buy Starrett City [NYP]
• “Weasley Response” on Red Hook Vendors from Parks Dept. [Lost City]
• At the Brooklyn “Blogade” [Brookynometry]
• So Nice We’re Linking It Twice: Target Open! [Brooklyn Junction]
• How to Dress Like Brooklyn [Gothamist]
• Urban Outfitters Getting Ready for Thursday on Atlantic [McBrooklyn]
• Portal to Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Activity at Slope’s Third Street Mystery Building [OTBKB]
• Waiting for the Bus on Third Avenue [Velvet Sea]

N. 5th & Berry Streets, with (what else?) a Karl Fischer building in the background.

The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association is having its monthly general meeting tonight (3/10). The meeting will take place at 7:30PM at the St Mary Star of the Sea Residence, which is located on 1st Street between Hoyt and Bond. Among the topics that will be covered is the possible expansion of the Carroll Gardens Landmark District. Paul Graziano, ACRC Principal, will be on hand to talk about the historic district.

This one-way at Roebling and N. 10 in Williamsburg was a victim of high winds, we think. Either that or we finally noticed it because it was making a lot of noise blowing back and forth.