[Cool Gowanus photo courtesy of jpchan/flickr]

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

Very Visual:

• Admiral’s Row in Winter [Blue Jake]
• Backyard in Snow [A Brooklyn Life]
• Regular [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Jogger [Atomische]
• Snowy Dumbo [Dumbo NYC]
• Sheepshead Bay No. 8 [seriously excited!]
• Leffert’s Homestead [Dope on the Slope]
• Space Invader [A Test of Will]

Somewhat Less Visual:

• Racial Quotas Lifted at Brooklyn School [NYT]
• Shooting at Sunset Park Restaurant [NYDN]
• Everybody Loves the Crazy Bay Ridge Super Story [Right in Bay Ridge]
• Soviet Nostalgia in Greenpoint [New York Shitty]
• More About the Boerum Hill Toxic School [McBrooklyn]
• The Food Pantry and Soup Kitchen at the Greenpoint Reformed Church [CityRoom]
• Firefights Grab Thief in Gravesend [NYP]
• Why No Editorial Criticism of Ratner? [AYR]
• Catching Up on the Bedford Ave. Building Boom [Brownstoner]
• Appreciating the Prospect Park Station [A Year in the Park]
• Bed-Stuy Real Estate Picks [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Frankie’s New Carroll Gardens Space [Eater]

The first significant snow of the season had a lot of people outside yesterday recording the images with their cameras. There are 609 photos on flickr tagged “Brooklyn Snow” since yesterday. We’ve selected a handful and could have devoted pages of shots to the cool photos. Enjoy.

Coney Island, courtesy of BlueGoa../flickr

Crown Heights, courtesy of emiliewilliams/flickr

Dumbo, courtesy Dumbo NYC/flickr

Clinton Hill, courtesy of brewpez/flickr

Carroll Gardens, courtesy of JolieNY/flickr

Greenpoint, courtesy of ccontil/flickr

Bushwick, courtesy of Ickybrain/flickr

Gravesend, courtesy of geminicollisionworks/flickr

Support for saving the Brooklyn Heights lobster sign is growing. A candidate for the State Senate even suppors preserving it, telling “BHB exclusively that the sign for Armando’s Restaurant, a fixture on the block since 1936, should be saved. Squadron tells BHB exclusively via Facebook, “I urge the next tenant or a neighboring establishment to save the lobster. And if the next tenant doesn’t add to the character of the Heights, we’ll all be very crabby.”–Brooklyn Heights Blog

[Photo courtesy of Mirabelle Studios]

This gorgeous snow shot from Prospect Park comes to us from the camera of sculptor, artist and photographer Gary Mirabelle who is a regular GL photo contributor and whose work we love to feature. Check out a couple of other shots he sent us recently here and here.

“Does this sweet pup look familiar? She was found in Greenpoint and has a collar. If you know who owns her, please email this guy and let him know so she can go home.”–Bad Advice

These signs at Beard and Dwight Street in Red Hook, across the street from the big Ikea site, looks like they’ve taken it on the chin from construction in the last couple of months. If one were into cheesy humor, one might say they were bent out of shape about their big blue-and-yellow friend.

Some people are up in arms about honey mustard colored awning added to the Park Slope McDonalds on Ninth Street. The interesting question is, is it any worse than the Avon 9th Street, “a small neighborhood movie house which stood on 9th Street between 4th and 5th Avenues in Park Slope. It ran double features for some time until it went XXX, which it served up for years.” McDonald’s bought the site in the ’70s and tore down the theater, which was a block away from another one–the RKO Prospect.–Brooklynian via Brownstoner.

Snow adds an element of beauty and meaning to everything, including street furniture. This is the “Huron Street Comfy Chair.” It was captured by our Greenpoint Correspondent while she was out photographing Greenpoint blanketed in snow yesterday. Even the hanging sneakers look nicer.

A wintry mix likely this morning. An upper level disturbance will impact the area through this morning. Acting upon abundant low level moisture already in place. This result will be a mixture of light snow and sleet showers and patchy freezing drizzle across the tri-state through the morning hours until surface temperatures finally rise above freezing.–Accuweather

[Photo courtesy of Mirabelle Studios]

Our regular photo contributor Gary Mirabelle has been out in the snow today too and sends this image and some others we will feature later.

The snow is an excuse for some pretty photos of Park Slope around Prospect Park and the Park itself. In the meantime, Eugene Patron who informs about all things related to Prospect Park has sent out emails inviting everyone to bring their sleds to the park and have fun.

Mark this building at 169 N. 10 Street as toast. It’s had a “development site for sale” sign up for a long time and it changed hands for more than $2 million. Demolition permits were issued recently, and the rat poison is out. It’s unclear what will go up there as no plans have been filed, but its immediate neighbor to the west is a Gene Kaufman building called the Decora. Behind it to the north is another Kaufman, the Lucent. We think this block could use a Karl Fischer as it doesn’t have one yet.

No, you don’t need us to tell you it’s actually snowing, but our Carroll Gardens Correspondent filed these pics bright and early this morning. They certainly capture a snowy Brooklyn Friday morning:

This is the Gowanus Whole Foods site. We took advantage of its always open to the public status to shoot a bunch of photos. Some are below for viewing on this snowy Friday.

The much-needed and quite impressive renovation of the New York Aquarium in Coney Island is being “watered down because of soaring costs,” according to Jotham Sederstrom in today’s Daily News. Earlier this week, Sarah Ryley of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle broke the story that the renovation had been put on the back burner because of cost and competition for funds with a new shark exhibit. Mr. Sederstrom reports that cost estimates have “swelled from $125 million to $200 million.” Here’s a bit of his detail:

Nearly a year after Philadelphia-based firm Wallace, Roberts and Todd was chosen to redesign the 51-year-old aquarium in Coney Island, officials said a shrinking budget may only allow for a new shark exhibit. “The best way to say it is, in terms of priority, the shark exhibit comes first,” said a source close to the project. “As for the rest, we don’t know what that’s going to cost, and that’s what’s holding up the shark exhibit.”

More to come, we suspect.

We wrote this on Wednesday night, then posted some of it on Curbed at lunchtime. It was on Gawker later in the afternoon, which added a poll about whether people would live in Park Slope. (67 percent of the votes so far are for moving to Park Slope and 37 percent are for moving to Hoboken.) What started the latest “Park Slope Hating Discussion” was a journalist’s posted question on the Park Slope Forum on Brooklynian:

I’m the writer who wrote the Time Out New York Kids article last spring about why people hate Park Slope. (I wrote the penultimate draft of the article, anyway; it got edited rather beyond recognition — without my OK — and wound up snarky, which was not my goal.) Anyway, humbly/-ed, I’m back, now writing a similar, but more in-depth article on the same topic for New York Magazine (interesting, as they’ve fueled some of the hate themselves). The difference will be that this one will focus not just on WHAT people say they hate about PS, but also WHY the hate seems to have become a meme of its own. Why PS and not other gentrified, Bugaboozled parts of Manhattan? Why has Park Slope become shorthand for all that is evil and twee? Why is the hate so virulent — WHERE (beyond anonymous blog posts) is it coming from? Envy? Rage against the suburbanization of all of NYC, with PS as ground zero? Simple cooler-than-thou-ness? Something else?

We left it alone for 24 hours to allow the discussion to ripen, if not marinate. And now it it is ready. Here are a few choice samples, with the first one being a brilliant summary of things that would definitely seem to be pressing some hot buttons:

Off the top of my head, people hate park slope because of stroller wielding nazi-moms that clip your ankles and baby talk their children about how rude you are to be in their way. People hate on park slope because they will go on for DAYS, nay, WEEKS about a boys hat. Well, how _do_ you know it is a BOY’S hat, you misogynist pig? People hate on park slope because they post stupid questions about why they should have to pay for their nanny’s ticket to Europe, after all, she would never be able to go to Europe without them, shouldn’t she be chipping in? People hate on park slope because the guys wear stupid pants. People hate on park slope because they go on for days about whether they should be allowed to bring their strollers into bars, nevermind the foregone conclusion of the children. People hate on park slope because there is a MINORITY there that seem to have lost touch with reality, and they do stupid things as a result. Think Tom Cruise. Everyone loves a car wreck.

Although, we also like this analysis:

In my long-term view, Park Slope was at its ideal before 1980 when it really was laid back and diverse when other parts of the country really weren’t: bus drivers, legal aid lawyers, librarians, artists, teachers and bankers all hung out on stoops and talked to neighbors passing by. But, there were only a few restaurants back then too. People would sit around saying, What we need is a good bookstore/bakery/chinese restaurant…and soon one would open. A smart friend once told me that Park Slope was described by Marge Piercy, the writer, as a place where old radicals from the 60s went. (btw, I’ve looked for but never found the quote, so it could be bogus). It certainly felt true.

Once people – Wall St types – starting moving in, primarily because they could get better rents/real estate deals than in Manhattan, things started getting sharper, more ugly. I still love Park Slope in all its expanding borders (a woman couldn’t go safely south of 3rd St or west of 7th Avenue back then and there were frequent gang dust-ups at Union and 5th) but hate what money has done to it. Nothing except realtors and banks are left on 7th Ave. I am so sick of hedge fund scum moving in and immediately gutting their new “investments.” Every summer my quality of life is ruined by some nearby construction project only inches from my outdoor space, kicking up noise and toxic fumes…Finally, as much as I dislike what the Slope has become, I still love living here among the beautiful architecture, near the great cultural institutions and the park, and, yes, even the smarty-pants people.

And we must say we also enjoy this comment:

What people are really talking about when they say, “I hate park slope” is that they don’t like a few people they know who live there, or met there, or had a bad experience there. Hell, I was hit by a motorcycle in Naples, and I can’t stand the place because it’s indelibly linked to a bad memory. Doesn’t mean Naples is a horrible place. The bottom line is, Park Slope has an enduring, eclectic population and an incredible conglomeration of personalities.

The entire thread now extends over five pages, not counting the commentary on Curbed, Gawker, et. al. We know that more will follow.

We did a pass through the booming little corner of Brooklyn between Withers Street and the BQE around Humboldt this week to check on things. The neighborhood is teeming with new condos, but we will restrict ourselves here to updating the situation of the Monitor Street Sandwich. That would be the house back there that is now beyond a canyon formed by its neighbors on the east and west. Impressive.

Thor Equities has hired a lawyer to represent it in negotiations with the city again a local Council Member’s declaration that the land swap proposed by the Bloomberg Administration “is dead.” The developments were reported this week by Sarah Ryley in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Thor lawyer is Jesse Maysr and a member of the Coney Island Development Corp said that he “is known as the No. 1 obstacle to these types of things.” The CIDC member said that some people see Mr. Maysr’s presence as a sign, in the paper’s words, “that Thor is readying for an epic fight to win, if necessary.” Thor’s spokesperson, Stefan Friedman, said: “We want to work with the city here, we want to do what’s best for the community. To say that we’re out for a long, protracted fight is ridiculous.” Meanwhile, City Councilman Domenic Recchia, who is a supporter of the Thor plan for Coney Island said, “The land swap is dead. It’s never going to happen.” Even if a deal is reached with Thor Equities, trading land near KeySpan Park for developer Joe Sitt’s property in the amusement district would require reviews and state approval. The full text of the story has been posted on the Coney Island Message Board.

“…Winter storm warning remains in effect until 1AM EST Saturday. Moderate to occasionally heavy now will continue through the morning. Snow accumulations of 5 to 7 inches are expected..with the highest amounts to the north and west of NYC. The snow will then change over to a mixture of freezing rain…snow and sleet during the early to mid afternoon…before tapering to a mixture of light snow and showers and patchy freezing drizzle by midnight. This will produce an an addition tenth to a quarter inch of ice on top of the snow.–Accuweather

Someone gone through a lot of trouble to keep this thing, on Greenpoint Avenue between West and Franklin, together. For that we give them an A for effort. It goes without saying that this series of images comes from our Greenpoint correspondent.

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

• Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing Jeopardized by Funding “Crisis” [AYR]
• What’s Up at 588 Union Street? [Brownstoner]
• Meet Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel [NYT]
• Crazy Super Gets Print Coverage After Heavy Blog Exposure [NYDN]
• Have Your “Paml” Read in Bay Ridge [Right in Bay Ridge]
• South Slope Food News [Food of the Future]
• Roses at the Treatment Plant [New York Shitty]
• Lunar Eclipse in Dumbo [Dumbo NYC]
• Urban Gravestones [Bed-Stuy Banana]
• Old Flatbush Pics (Yes, He’s Back) [Brooklyn Junction]
• Magnetic Field is Closing [Brownstoner]

The Federal government is going to try to figure out whether there is unexploded ordinance at the bottom of Gravesend Bay that might cause a very unwanted kind of boom on the Southern Brooklyn waterfront. The issue has come up in the context of plans to dredge the bay so the city can open up a marine garbage transfer station. The latest development is that the Department of Defense is going to try to figure out if live ammunition is still down there more than a half century after a barge with more than 200 tons of live ammunition capsized. Depending on which story one listens to, it was either all recovered or there is a lot still sitting down there. The Brooklyn Paper calls it “a key win for opponents of a city plan to put a garbage transfer station near the possibly explosive site.” There are other objections to the dredging. Besides massive underwater explosions, some are afraid that dredging will stir up a “black mayonnaise” of toxins dumped into the water that have settled on the bottom. There is also a push to have the bay declared a Superfund site because of the toxic dumping thanks to an incinerator that was on the site of the proposed waste transfer station.

[Photo courtesy of gkjarvis/flickr]

“The previously desolate concrete streets—Berry, Wythe, Kent—that I often traversed to catch the L train at Bedford Avenue are now packed with giggling outer-borough and outer-island 20- and 30-somethings on a night out, excited that they can enjoy Manhattan-esque nightlife and park their cars for free. Hip local teenagers roughhoused on a corner. Now the streets are only uninhabited long enough for the occasional public urination or upchuck…So, with its mix of hipster residue and tragically suburban folk, Bedford Avenue finally completed its transformation into the new Avenue A…”–The Real Estate

We have taken photos of this “New York is Dead” message before. Now, however, with the addition of the Kalmon Dolgin property for sale sign, it would seem to take on extra meaning.

So, here’s an interesting sounding weekend “to do”:

Pop Subversion: Food as Art?

Ad Hoc Art Gallery and Wheeler’s Frozen Desserts are hosting an interactive food gala in Brooklyn on Sunday, February 24th at 1:30PM. The menu will include Platinum Patron margarita, Moet-Rose champagne, and Mojito sorbets as well as 5 other surprise flavors of ice cream. Hannah Kaminsky, author of My Sweet Vegan, will provide legendary cakes & cookies to complement the desserts…The gallery is will be showcasing “Pop Subversion” featuring Robert Williams, founder of Juxtapoz magazine, as well as over 30 established and emerging artists.

The location is 49 Bogart Street, Unit 1G, Buzzer #22.