The newest venue for music in Brooklyn is…the Masonic Temple in Fort Greene. “This 99-year-old hall, a place known for secret society meetings and wedding receptions for Masons and friends of Masons only, is Brooklyn’s new alt music venue, and we have Brice Rosenbloom, of boomBOOMpresents, to thank. The Fort Greene music promoter, who’s booked shows at venues like Mo Pitkins, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Knitting Factory and the new Drom, approached the temple’s staff about hosting concerts there last year, and so far they’ve been game.”–Brooklyn Based

Yesterday, someone who it would be fair to say is not a fan of the city’s decision to reject a proposal that would have radically remade the Brooklyn House of Detention at Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street, emailed the proposal around. The proposal came from a group that included Hamlin Ventures and Time Equities as developers and Rogers Marvel and the Dutch firm MVRDV as architects. The project would have included a condo building, a rental building and a “reentry and rehabilitation center.” In January, the city said that it “did not receive any satisfactory responses to its request for preliminary bids.”

Which is not to say that it didn’t get response. The Hamlin-Time Equities proposal for an Atlantic Gateway at Atlantic and Smith was apparently not quite what the city was looking for in its effort to double the capacity of the jail to about 1,400 beds. Instead, the developers would have replaced the jail beds with a variety of alternative programs and residences for non-violent offenders, including a 165,000 square foot “supportive housing” facility called Liberty House. The existing jail would have been demolished. The project would have included 275 Atlantic, a condo with 65 units, and State House, a 19-story rental building with 260 units, half of them affordable. Retail would have ringed the base at street level. The email that accompanied the 86-page proposal that land in our GL inbox said:

Please find an alternative proposal for the Brooklyn House of Detention site. It was the sole submission to the City’s “Request for Expressions of Interest”. This proposal is a forward looking and thoughtful solution for the HOD site. It includes a detention center, supportive services/transitional housing, 300 units of affordable housing and 190 units of market rate housing. Although, it was the only response to the official RFEI process it was dismissed by Commissioner Horn, without being shared with the Community.

The city is back to pitching a jail that is twice the size of the existing one with retail at street level.

As of 7:50 AM today, the petition calling on the Mayor to allow the 200 residents of 475 Kent Avenue to return to their home had gotten 2,802 signatures.–475 Kent Ave. Petition

The big project that Quadriad Development has underway right up the block from The SteelWorks Lofts that we noted below is making progress. The five-story buildings are the first phase of a project that could include towers up to 24-stories tall, although current zoning limits buildings in this location to six stories. The site has set empty for several years. Part of the property which is not owned by Quadriad is a building that has been a steel skeleton for nearly two year. That property could become a Commerce Bank and buildings with 72 units of housing designed by Henry Radusky.

If you’ve ever gotten really ticked off at 311 or, conversely, if you’ve ever been pleased or okay with it, here’s a chance to offer an opinion. The city is doing a 311 “customer satisfaction survey.” Click here to fill it out. Even if that call about construction work next door going on at 11PM at night didn’t stop the work from being done, you can at least let the city know if the operator that took the call was polite in listening to your pain or told you to go suck an egg because three other people had called and he/she wasn’t taking your complaint. The survey does ask about whether the problem was resolved and allows for comments, so have at it.

The Rat-Squirrel House of Cobble Hill is one of those stories that you know is going to have legs: a decrepit house amidst valuable property with a possible eccentric person living inside with rodents. Come on, you know it’s going to show up on TV and in a couple of papers. The real question is: will anyone credit the blog that brought the story to everyone’s attention?–Lost City

[Photo courtesy of Nathan Kensinger Photography]

Filmmaker and photographer Nate Kensinger takes a look at Deadhorse Bay on his Nathan Kensinger Photography blog this week and the images are riveting. He writes:

Dead Horse Bay lies at the southern edge of Brooklyn. Once a marsh, this area was slowly filled with rubbish. Its name comes from the carcasses from a nearby horse rendering plant that would wash up on its shore. The landfill was capped after the refuse of the 1920’s and 1930’s filled the marsh. In the 1950’s the cap burst, spewing the artifacts of a different era onto the beach. Now glass bottles, shoe leather, plastic toys, old bones and handguns lie revealed along the waters edge.

Check it out by clicking here.

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

• “No Comments” on Forest City Ratner Contributions to Dem. “Slush Fund” [AYR]
• East New York Principal Says School Cuts Will Cause Kids to Join Gangs [NYDN]
• Trader Joe’s Gets Thumbs Up from LPC [Brownstoner]
• Rally to Save Bay Ridge Green Church on Saturday [Bay Ridge Blog]
• “Ninth Ring of Hell” on Franklin Street [New York Shitty]
• Franklin Street Field Trip! [TONY]
• Pratt Documentary [Clinton Hill Blog]
• CB1 Approves All 42 Liquor License Applications Before It! [Eater]
• Inside the Carroll Park “Play House” [PMFA]
• How Many Calls to 311 to Fix a Skating Rink Street? [Brooklyn Paper]
• 433-435 Third Avenue Development Watch [Brownstoner]
• Gorgeous Sky on Fourth Avenue [Velvet Sea]

Jonathan Bowles of the Center for an Urban Future sent us an email about an interesting panel the group will be co-sponsoring with the Brooklyn Economic Development Corp. at the Brooklyn Public Library on Wednesday, March 5. It’s called “Harnessing Brooklyn’s Creative Capital: The Impact of Self-Employed Creative Professionals on the Borough’s Economy.” It will take place from 8:30AM to 10:30AM in the Dweck Auditorium at the Library on Grand Army Plaza. Here’s a bit from the material about it:

Brooklyn has become a magnet for self-employed writers, photographers, jewelry designers, film makers and other creative entrepreneurs. This cluster of self-employed creative freelancers is having an increasingly powerful impact on the economy of the borough and the city, and it holds enormous potential for the future. Yet this part of the economy remains largely under the radar of policy makers and economic development officials. And its continued growth is by no means certain. This forum will examine the size and scope of this new growth sector in Brooklyn, discuss the unique challenges and obstacles facing self-employed creative professionals and explore public and private sector strategies for supporting this part of the borough’s economy.

Panelists include Scott Adkins, Playwright and Founder, Brooklyn Writers Space, Pauline Barfield, President of Barfield Public Relations, Heather Chaplin, Journalist and Author of Smart Bomb, Sara Horowitz, Founder and Executive Director of the Freelancers Union and Michael Kelly, an Adjunct Professor at Pratt. Mr. Bowles in the moderator. Email cuf (at) nycfuture (dot) org or call 212-479-3341 to reserve a free seat.

Space in the “Venice Springs Industrial Park” might be suitable for any number of things from edgy restaurant to artist studio and scrap processing to bakery. Oh, and canal boat tour operator. Well, it’s an interesting way to get people to pay attention to the ad for the commercial space that one is leasing on the banks of the Gowanus.–Craigslist

Local filmmaker and poet Stepanie Gray is doing a reading poems from her book Heart Stoner Bingo at Vox Pop in Ditmas Park on Saturday (2/16) at 7PM. She emailed us to say that several of the poems she’ll be reading “are specifically about NYC and neighborhood themes/gentrification like Park Slope, East Village and Wburg/Bushwick.” Here’s a bit more:

Stephanie’s poems and prose poems in her debut collection deal with the city, queerness, gentrification, class, labor, working, pop culture, feminist heroines, real heavy metal, her hearing loss, and the vanishing parts of authentic New York, but not always in that order or at the same time. Often colloquial, experimental or a mix of language poetry and spoken word, Stephanie’s works can be humorous, philosophical and her readings are usually quite performative. Just some of the icons, fictional or real, mentioned in her book include the flaming Norma Rae, the folk signer Melanie, Johnny Weir, St. Joan of Arc, Van Halen, Madonna, Metallica, Eileen Myles, as well as the ‘hoods East Vilage, Red Hook and Williamsburg, among many others. A number of the prose poems in the book are also texts to experimental super 8 city films, of which Stephanie will show a few. Join us for a short reading, short film screening of actual super 8 films, and book signing.

Vox Pop, which is a great spot, is located at 1022 Cortelyou Rd bet Coney Island Ave & Stratford Rd. Take the Q to Cortelyou Road. More about the book here and more about Vox Pop here.

“So what is the reason for its descent from glorious burger haven to rundown, just-about-to-be-closed burger shack (besides reported loss of lease)? Well, I think raising the prices was a mistake. Or at least it was a mistake when patrons have to put up with generally incompetent service, unsurprising moments like flat draft root beer ($3.50 each), and an overall feeling that no one has cared about what condition the dining room is in, in quite some time…There are rumors that it will relaunch in a new location, and I hope if and when it does, a few lessons are learned.” [A Brooklyn Life]

In addition to only being placed about four feet of the ground and suffering a variety of indignities, this sign just got tagged up. It’s not remarkable compared to some, but there’s something we like about it because it’s somewhat diminutive.

The Toll Brothers have revealed plans for their unnamed development on the banks of the Gowanus Canal. The plans are in a “scoping” document filed with the Department of City Planning. The developers are looking to rezone a three-acre property between the Canal, Bond Street, Carroll Street and Second Street as a “special mixed use district” in advance of an overall Gowanus rezoning. The plan includes buildings ranging from 4-12 stories in height, with the tallest structure (125 feet) being near the canal. There would be 577 units of housing, 447 of them market rate and 130 of them affordable. The overall project would total 605,380 square feet and include 260 underground parking spaces. There would be 2,000 square feet of “community space” and 2,000 square feet of retail. It includes 3 acres. .6 acres of publicly accessbile waterfront. The very end of First Street where it dead ends at the canal would be “demapped” to allow for a continuous “waterfront esplanade.” The scoping document lays out plans for an environmental impact study and other things necessary for public review.

According to the document:

The western end of the project site, along Bond Street, would have the lower six-story component (up to approximately 60 feet). The midblock portions of the buildings would consist of four-story (43-foot-high), townhouse-style housing…

In order to ensure that project structures are not impacted by flooding, the elevation of the project site would be raised, including along First Street and the proposed esplanade. In addition, to reduce the potential for flood damage or impacts on residential structures, the lowest occupied floor elevation would be constructed above the 100-year base flood elevation…

A public scoping meeting will take place on Thursday, March 13, 2008 from 2:00 to 5:45 PM and from 6:00 to 8:45 PM at the Department of City Planning, Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street. The Toll Brothers say the project would be complete in 2011.

If you know Greenpoint, then you know that this building seems to have been under construction forever. It has been. The original application for a permit was filed in 2001, although work hasn’t been underway quite that long. It’s been hit with a variety of Stop Work Orders (most recently for lacking at standpipe, which is a big issue in post-Deutsche Bank demolition fire) and other obstacles along the way, however. It’s 308 Eckford Street in Greenpoint, a seven-story building with 42 units. It has not been popular with neighbors, with 26 complaints being filed with the Department of Buildings.

Related Post:
Checking In on Greenpoint’s 308 Eckford

It looks like the petition that is a letter to Mayor Micheal Bloomberg about 475 Kent is drawing from a wide base of support. As of 8:00 AM today, there were 2,359 signatures. The petition only went up online on Monday. It says, in part, “in the spirit of the cultural tradition that has long prevailed in this great city, I urge you to do everything you can to help those who work and live at 475 Kent Avenue to return to their studios immediately and to foster our common creative capital.” The petition can be read and signed by clicking here. The 475 Kent Blog, meanwhile, is here.

[Photo courtesy of aldella/flickr]

“Yesterday evening’s public scoping meeting at Lincoln High School was a fairly orderly and tame affair. This wasn’t too surprising- considering that the meeting was devoted to specific responses to a specific document (the Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS)– but was still a departure from the emotion and boisterousness of other meetings that the Coney Island Development Corporation has held over the past several months.” Read all the details about the meeting.–Kinetic Carnival

Leni Schwendinger, who designed the lighting scheme for the Coney Island Parachute Jump that Borough President Marty Markowitz announced it’s being done again as a “Phase II,” is speaking out and is not entirely pleased. The city has issued a 178-page RFP for the “lighting enhancement.” (Mr. Markowitz originally called the redone stucture “a beacon of light for this and future generations, harking and heralding Coney Island as a place where dreams come true.” Last week, he said it needed “more bling.”) In any case, Schwendinger had a small op-ed in the Post yesterday. Here’s what it said:

The Coney Island Parachute Jump illumination is an internationally recognized symbol of Coney Island and Brooklyn – created in close collaboration with NYC’s Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Brooklyn Borough President’s office and the respected engineering firm STV…For over two years, this design – depicting seasons, moods and the Coney-by-the-Sea carnival tradition – has appealed to audiences, young and old and from every walk of life.

It has been celebrated in publications worldwide, and it has received awards from professional engineering, construction, lighting and landmark associations.

When a politician flies in the face of all this goodwill to divisively demand more “bling” and less “art,” New Yorkers should ask themselves: What’s wrong with this picture?

By the way, if anyone recalls the amount that was spent on the original lighting project, please let us know. We’ve looked all over the place and can only find the aggregate amount spent on rehabbing the entire structure ($5 million). The new project, including rehabbing the base of the structure would cost $1.5 million.

If finding a place to live in Brooklyn isn’t dramatic enough for you, perhaps you will enjoy it as a drama. There’s a play called “Open House” that’s all about, well, real estate and open houses. “Now through March 16, The Foundry Theatre is making it possible for you to enter private living rooms in all five boroughs to see “Open House,” by Prospect-Lefferts Gardens playwright Aaron Landsman. Already the play has been staged in the West Village, Astoria, Cobble Hill, and a schoolhouse-turned-loft in Bushwick…”–Brooklyn Based

[Photo courtesy of Tracy Collins/flickr]

Ward Bakery is almost toast. Photographer Tracy Collins got some shots of demolition equipment moving in on the buildings, which many had sought to save. Atlantic Yards plans show the site will probably be used as a parking lot for nearly a decade before anything is built there. Mr. Collins has a huge set of Ward Bakery photos here.

The video below, meanwhile, was featured in a post yesterday on Gothamist, which probably means that most of you saw it already. It comes from Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn and shows work on Flatbush Avenue going on at 4:14 in the morning.

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

• See ‘Ya Jason Kidds, Salesperson for Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• City Council Passes Electronics Recycling Bill [Sun]
• Hudson Companies Doing 13 Stories on Emerson Place [Brownstoner]
• Slain Principal’s Widow Against Red Hook PS 15 Charter School [NYDN]
• Checking Out Grove Street [New York Shitty]
• Valentine’s Day Tag! [PMFA]
• Another Look at the Snow in Prospect Park [A Year in the Park]
• Info About Greening Flatbush [Sustainable Flatbush]
• Brooklyn Council Members Peeved at Quinn Pick [NYP]
• Brooklyn Spiritual Technology & Iconography [DITHOB]
• Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brownstoner]
• Pies ‘N Thighs New Burg Digs [Eater]
• Inside Green Planet [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Williamsburg Bookstore Options Kind of Suck [ABL]

Are you waiting until the last minute? Could today turn into a love disaster? Fear not. Here are some last-minute tips that will enable anyone to look like a hero or heroine of love when all is said and done.–OTBKB

We’ve posted about this before, but the day of free admission at the Wollman Rink in Prospect Park is taking place on Friday (2/15) from 8:30AM-9PM. Admission is free all day and skate rentals are $6. From the email:

Wollman Rink offers fun for all seasons, providing 26,600 square feet of ice for skaters in the winter and pedal boats on the Lake in the summer. Although not a part of the original plan for Prospect Park, the Rink, built in 1960, has added a big dose of winter fun for thousands of ice skaters, in addition to serving as home turf for the Brooklyn Blades amateur men’s and women’s ice hockey teams.

Located between the Lake and the Concert Grove, Wollman is on the site of what used to be the Music Island, a small islet with a stage facing the audiences in the Concert Grove. Kate’s Corner, the Wollman Rink snack bar, is open year-round during public skating or boating hours.

The plan, of course, is to build a new rink and to restore Music Island. Believe it or not, there’s only another month left in ice skating season. The rink is open through March 16.

The attempt to put a Green Street into Gerritsen Beach is dead in the face of community opposition. “Green Streets died tonight. It is now a dead issue. The community really came out if force against this proposal. P.S. 277 auditorium was packed to the point that it was standing room only…Then after a resident went up and went toe to toe with the DOT arguing about street widths, Marty Golden the killed Green Streets 35 minutes after the meeting had started. If there were any people in the meeting that were for Green Streets they didn’t say anything or make their case for it.”–GerritsenBeach.Net

Just in from our Greenpoint Correspondent and in time for the day of love: A Valentine’s Loveseat from Kent Street in Greenpoint.