Here’s an interesting vid that was just posted on YouTube that we found thanks to Kinetic Carnival. The person that posted it writes: “Using a silent home movie camera in 1978 I filmed scenes around Norman Kaufman’s Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. I had worked on the Go-Kart ride (which is why that ride is shown more often than others.) You will see the Jumbo Jet, the Cortina Bob, the Bumber Car ride, and A LOT OF FACES.” It’s long but worth a view of the images from a different era.

[Holga photo courtesy of semarr/flickr]

Visual:

• Gowanus Buff [Blue Jake]
• Gowanus [Joe’s NYC]
• Neighbor [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Dumbo Scaffold [Frank Lynch/flickr]
• The Famous Burg Con Men Sign [Fading Ad Blog]
• Greenpoint Santa & Sombrero [New York Shitty]
• Hotel St. George [Josh Derr/flickr via Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Remainders [Lex’s Folly]
• Very Red Parachute Jump, Very Blue Sky [MalNino/flickr]

Verbal:

• Ratner Pays $100K in Day Care Center Eviction Case [AYR]
• Shortage of Federal Money Could Kill 3,000 Affordable Downtown Apts. [BP]
• Assem. Jefferies “Stands with Westchester” on Congestion Pricing [Streets Blog]
• Better Days Ahead for Downtown Office Space? [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• The First “Fedders Friday” [New York Shitty]
• Sub-Prime Mortgages as Crack [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• “Storefront Catacombs” at Fourth Avenue Station [Brooklynometry]
• Call for Coney Island Film Fest Entries [Kinetic Carnival]
• Park Slope Books Will Be Missed [OTBKB]
• …But the New Brooklyn Industries Space is Cool [OTBKB]
• Check Out the Colorful Dumbo Mural [Dumbo NYC]
• New Ditmas Park Bistro Almost There [Gothamist]

The dispute between the buyer of a loft at the Toy Factory Lofts and the developers is an interesting. A buyer is suing because he claims the building leaks water and he’ll be losing his view to an Avalon Bay tower. The developer had offered to buy the unit back at cost, plus expenses, but the buyer declined. Also, the issue with the windows and the possible building was spelled out in the offering documents. Stay tuned.–Brooklyn Daily Eagle

It’s not a Street Sofa, but a street chair and this image from Miss Heather presents quite a number of interesting elements. Our particular favorite is the bottle of Zywiec beer beside it.

Haven’t read a nice, long feature story on the Exxon-Mobil Oil Spill in Greenpoint recently? Want a refresher on the “55-acre plume of oil floating on top of groundwater 30-40 feet underground” and how people “have been living with the spill for more than 50 years, enduring vapors seeping into some basements and wafting through the streets from nearby Newtown Creek, which the petroleum trickles into”? Well, then here is some weekend reading.–Plenty

[Image courtesy of Deborah Matlack/Matlack Photography]

There’s still the chance of a shower today, with a mix of sun and clouds. It could also be breezy, with some strong gusts possible. The high will be 45, but it will feel like 35. Tonight will be partly cloudy and chilly, with a low of 29 that will feel like 15. Tomorrow is looking great: sunny with a high of 40.–Accuweather

The job of managing the massive Ikea in Red Hook has gone to a Canadian who has worked for the multinational retailer for 14 years, according to a press release issued yesterday, which notes that the massive store will open this summer (August has always been mentioned as the most likely date). Ikea is hiring 500 people to join its “Swedish family” at the store although it’s not clear how many will be Red Hook residents or Brooklynites. Many of the management jobs are expected to go to non-Brooklynites. The new top person is named Mike Baker and started with Ikea in North York, Ontario. A big part of Ikea’s public relations strategy was promising large numbers of jobs for Red Hook and Brooklyn residents. It gave Red Hook residents a two-week head start in applying for jobs, although it’s not clear how many applied and how many will be hired. If the news is good, there will no doubt be many press releases; if it is not, expect that the breakdown will be hard to get.

If you are averse to stories about mounds of crap or if you are eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, stop reading and move on to the next item. If, like us, you find such tales of shitty misfortune compelling in a weird sort of way, read on. This comes from the Park Slope Forum on Brooklynian, where it was labeled a “horrifying, gross story.” Here goes:

This morning, I stepped in a huge pile of SH*T on the subway platform at the Bergen Street station. MAN! I was so freaked out. The worst thing is there was no way to clean it off my foot! I left the station and found a puddle but it wasn’t sufficient, trust me.

And I’m pretty sure it was human sh*t! AARRRRGGGH! I’m assuming it was from some homeless dude. The crap pile was right by the garbage bin, and I was stepping up to it to through out my coffee cup. Someone was squatting there defecating, trying to keep out of view obviously.

This reminded me of the discussion we had about peeing in public, and on the subway platform. Trust me, this is much worse!

Some demands for photographic evidence produced this follow up:How about go to the Bergen Street station, and look next to the garbage can on the Manhattan bound platform, and you’ll see all the evidence you need. . . . a pile of crap with a footprint in the middle . . . wasn’t in the mood to whip out my phone and take a pic. It didn’t occur to me someone would want to see that . . . .

Always look down.

And, now, the last in our special Leap Friday focus on Park Slope retail & restaurants.

Whatever happened to Red Hot Szechuan, the latest restaurant on Seventh Avenue to kick the bucket, appears to have occurred very quickly. (As in, everyone took off running for their lives.) A look inside reveals menus still stacked on the counter and cables where computer equipment was disconnected. The “specials” sign is still in the window as are the Chinese New Year’s decorations. In a related development, Hunan Delight on Union Street has added three delivery people and a satellite kitchen on Seventh Avenue. Just kidding.

“A cop-bashing art exhibit at a taxpayer-funded museum in Brooklyn portrays the city’s Finest as trigger-happy racists who have put bull’s-eyes on the backs of black New Yorkers. Police abuse victims, including African immigrant Amadou Diallo, are depicted as shooting targets in the ‘The Blue Wall of Violence’ exhibit at The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts.”–NYDN

South Slope Middle Eastern Laila closed suddenly a month or so ago. We can now report, based on our keen powers of observation, that it’s going Japanese. The new place appears to be called Ten Japanese. We are certain the appearance of yet another Japanese restaurant in Park Slope–which has its share of them on Fifth and Seventh Avenues–will induce many shrieks of delight in the neighborhood.

The site of the former Beauty Addiction Building, which had been the one lone holdout on Karl Fischer Row in Williamsburg, has been cited by the city for a problem again. We last featured 14 Bayard as a Construction Site du Jour in late January. Since then, the construction fence has been padlocked closed again, yet, the curious missing side of the fence remained. Hence, the Yellow Slip from DOB. As Burg construction sites go, it’s a benign one. For instance, this is only a couple of blocks away and hasn’t been cited recently.

Having trouble with supernatural issues? Got a pesky ghost in your condo or coop or apartment? Need the place blessed? Call Sal at Brooklyn Ghost Investigators. Seriously. —Pardon Me for Asking

A big “for sale” sign is now gracing the window of the defunct 2nd Street Cafe on Seventh Avenue. The space on the market via Brenton Realty, which doesn’t appear to have an online listing up for it. In the meantime, some of the paper has been peeled back, allowing a glimpse into the former Park Slope restaurant.

Photographer Tracy Collins, who is creating an important photographic record of the Atlantic Yards footprint and project, had a bizarre encounter of the finest kind while taking photos of the closed Carlton Avenue Bridge. He calls it another episode of “You Can’t Photograph That.” This time, the photo vigilante wasn’t a police officer, but could well have been an employee of the developer developer or a public agency, although there’s a possibility she was just a private demented person. Here’s a sample from Mr. Collins’ blog, Not Another F*cking Blog:

so, yesterday, while taking my usual (almost) daily stroll around the Atlantic Yards footprint, i notice that the gate to the recently closed Carlton Avenue Bridge has been left partially open. seeing this as an opportunity to snap a few unobstructed photos of the soon-to-be-demolished bridge, i walk to a spot just outside of the gate, being careful to remain outside of the fenced-off area, and begin to shoot. [“soon-to-be-demolished” is subjective. it’s been closed for over a month with no visible signs of demolition] i manage to take about a dozen shots when i hear a shrill woman’s voice yelling:

“You can’t photograph that! It’s private property!!”

There is more and it makes fascinating reading. Mr. Collins’ flickr sets are available here.

[Image courtesy of Tracy Collins]

The temporary wooden front at the former D’Agostino’s/Gothic Cabinet Craft space at Seventh Avenue and Sixth Street has acquired a coat of red paint. As we first noted last April, part of the space is becoming a branch bank. At the time, we were told it would be a Bank of America. The identity of the new bank hasn’t been revealed, but there is only one bank that we know that uses a red color scheme: Bank of America. Unless the red paint is a coincidence or they couldn’t get standard issue construction fence blue because the paint store was out. There is no work going on in the other one-third or so of the space, and a “for rent” sign is still in the window.

“The world is now safe from the Rat-Squirrel House. Relatively, anyway.” Some scaffolding has gone up around Cobble Hill’s most compellingly interesting structure. “Imagine the first floor surrounded by a green wooden box of scaffolding on top of blue metal poles and capped with a sprawling plywood bowl the shape of a giant catcher’s mitt—all the better to catch the cornice and air-conditioner when they fall.”–Lost City

This is the former Tempo Presto space at Seventh Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope. What’s not clear from the photo is the cacophony of construction work yesterday afternoon that was going on inside behind the grates that were pulled down and locked up tight. If one had passed by with earplugs on, one wouldn’t have noticed anything at all. But coming from inside was loud hammering and power saws. The fascinating thing to us is that any type of substantive renovation work requires permits from the Department of Buildings and not a scrap of paper has been filed for the address in nine years, when a permit was granted to put up a sign for Mojo. OTBKB has noted that the newsstand person next door says it will be a Mexican restaurant. There is some crazy speculation in Park Slope that it will be Burritoville, but it’s just that–totally crazy speculation that isn’t based on anything. Yet, given the neighborhood rent structure and some early statements about “chains” being interested in the property, it’s not as far fetched a possibility as one would think.

Park Slope Books on Seventh Avenue, which is the second bookstore to shut down on the block between Second and Third Streets, is done. The lights were still on yesterday, but the store had been emptied. It is reopening on Montague Street. The “for rent” sign is still in the window.

Something was going on yesterday at the old Blockbuster location on Court Street in Carroll Gardens. Blogger PMFA photographed a contractor wearing a dust mask going in and out of the building. The building, however, is still listed for sale for $3.8 million and also for rent, presumably whichever comes first. Also, no building permits have been filed. There were early rumors of McDonald’s being interested in the space, but the mystery continues.

The great Seventh Avenue space swap that brought Brooklyn Industries to the corner storefront at Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street and relocated Urban Optical to space that once housed a salon, is now somewhat complete. Brooklyn Industries is now in its new digs. Urban Optical is in its new space. All that remains now is for the former Brooklyn Industries space, which was a bread shop called Uprising for a while.

The first sizable new rental building to be completed in the Burg is going up at N. 8 Street and Driggs. It will be a six-story building with 50 apartment being developed by Kalmon Dolgin. Rents were expected to range from $2,500-$3,850 per month for 1BR and 2BR apartments with the penthouses priced around $5K monthly. The design comes from the Stephen B. Jacobs Group.–Curbed

Don’t expect to see construction equipment soon at the big, polluted site at Third Avenue and Third Street where Whole Foods is planning to build a large grocery. Our friend Gabby Warshawer at Brownstoner has been talking to state officials and found that it could be a while. While the cleanup plan for the toxic-laden site has been approved, she reports that the Department of Environmental Conservation is “still reviewing Whole Foods’ application to build on a wetlands…Whole Foods must prove that the store’s location next to the canal won’t adversely affect the general public and that the supermarket won’t harm the canal by virtue of its existence next to the waterway.” There is so much irony laced throughout the Whole Foods Gowanus proposal from building a store on a floodplain that will be mostly underground to selling organic produce from a site laden with toxins that it’s almost impossible to know where to start. So, which will come first: a full blown recession and a decline in the real estate market or the start of work on the much-delayed store? Remember the tote bags Whole Foods was handing out last summer at Celebrate Brooklyn that said “opening in 2008”?

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

• Call Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing “Delayed” [AYR]
• Brooklyn Condo Market is Driving Miss Brooklyn [AYR]
• Atlantic Yards Reports Shorts [No Land Grab]
• Thoughts on the Revived 421-a Developer Tax Break Debate [Brooklyn 11211]
• “Notorious Brooklyn Punk” Causes Fatal Car Crash [NYP]
• Miss Brooklyn is a Manhattan Resident from Virigina [NYDN]
• Inside Third & Bond, Week 26 [Brownstoner]
• More on Dumbo Rezoning [Dumbo NYC]
• Burg’s Gimme Coffee! Talks About Starbucks [Metro]
• Less Than Two Weeks Until Atlantic Ave. Urban Outfitters [Racked]
• Check Out the Carolina Country Store on Atlantic [Gothamist]
• Appreciating 4th Avenue Burning & Heating [Brooklynometry]
• Prospect Park Pods [A Year in the Park]