Each neighborhood I visit has its own “type” of street couch. Bed-Stuy’s are the most stylish, Williamsburg lists between circa 1970-80 hand-me-downs and modernist chic. When it comes to royally fucked up couches, however, Greenpoint holds the title. But Bushwick is a close second.

Street Couchology–or shall we say Sofalogy–is born.

Everyone is buzzing today about the new Union Hall which will be opening on Seventh Street between Second and Third Avenues, and both Brooklyn Vegan and Gothamist had details as well as a statement from Union Hall’s owner. The Food of the Future blog first reported news of the new venue nearly two months ago, noting that “given the problems that i’ve heard about with their current location – i.e. noise complaints, it makes sense to open something in a location where noise is not an issue.” Apparently, Union Hall is planning to keep music programming at the Union Street venue too, however. The new Union Hall-operated venue is in the same area as the Brooklyn Artists Gym and the brand new Gowanus Studio Space. Combine this will all the activity that Gabby Warshawer of Brownstoner lists out today in the Third Street Corridor, which looks quite impressive when placed on a map, and one senses much action starting to happen in this once desolate area.

A guy with three crazy dogs used to live there, and moved out last month. The property is up for sale, but all the doors are wide open. My roomate and I wondered around there taking photos because it was so crazy…there are lots of cats…and smells HORRIBLE.

We might add that it looks pretty creepy too. Is that a burned out car in the backyard? A sale is listed last summer for $1.25 million to Flushing Avenue Realty which, in turn, got a permit on Monday from the Department of Buildings for permits to remove the existing windows, seal them and install new doors. Brownstoner wrote about the property last year, noting that it would likely be a development site. We found it listed on Craigslist for $2.5 million as a “great investment/development site.”

Schnäck, the eatery on Union Street in Red Hook, is going belly up. The end has been in the works for a long time, we guess, but it still makes us sad to lose one of our favorite stops for veggie burgers and a basket of artery clogging fries and onion rings. Not to mention the mac and cheese. “Co-owner Harry Hawk tells us that the end is nigh, but he will not give an expiration date. We hear through the grapevine that the proximate cause of the closing is a lost lease, but having seen ever-thinning crowds over the past year, we are more likely to believe that the poor location and awful service softened the victim up for the final blow. Schnäck is a resilient entity, however, and it would not surprise us to see it pop up somewhere else…”–Grub Street via Brownstoner

If your building is a floor shorter than your neighbors, what can you do? Well, on Dean Street, near Smith, the owners decided to add a new floor. Not only did they make the building taller, they did up the exterior with “shiny new metal” and “three small square windows.” The effect is quite impressive.–PMFA

GOWANUS BONUS: Some “available” signs have been spotted on Gowanus properties that are slated to the future home of the Toll Brothers big Gowanus development. The buildings are not on the market, however. The developers are looking to rent some of the space to tenants on a month-to-month basis, we’re told.

• Advertising High School Coming to Canarsie [NYDN]
• Slope-Heights Mugging Map! [Brownstoner]
• Doubts About Atlantic Yards Parking Study [AYR]
• Tow Cop’s Cars at Atlantic Terminal Mall & Get Hassled by Cops [NYDN]
• L Train Will Be Screwed Up Again This Weekend [amNY]
• Revisiting the High School Cafeteria [Brooklynometry]
• Good Times Will Roll at Brooklyn Morton’s [McBrooklyn]
• Credit Union Branch Coming to Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Heartwarming: Blind and Going to Dialysis? You Still Get a Ticket [NYDN]
• Brooklyn “Toxic School” Update [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• Horrendous Brooklyn Fake Car Service Rape Story [NYP]
• Perfect Memorial in Gowanus [Fading Ad Blog]
• Bad News at 475 Kent [Brownstoner]
• Ellis Bar in the South Slope [OTBKB]
• Putting the Nails in the Coffin of Griswolds Pub [Bay Ridge Rover]

Here are some upcoming Brooklyn community board meetings, taken from a list compiled by the New York Daily News:

Community Board 1 (Greenpoint, Williamsburg) will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at 211 Ainslie St.

Community Board 2 (Fort Greene, Fulton Mall, Boerum Hill, Clinton Hill, downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn Heights, Fulton Ferry, Dumbo) will hold its next meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at the Great Room at the Alliance of Resident Theaters, 138 S. Oxford St.

Community Board 6 (Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus) will hold its regular monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Old First Reformed Church, Seventh Ave. and Carroll St.

Community Board 8 (Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Weeksville) will convene at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 14, at the Marcus Garvey Nursing Home, 810 St. Marks Ave.

Community Board 11 (Bath Beach, Gravesend, Mapleton, Bensonhurst) will hold its next regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 13, at Holy Family Home, 1740 84th St.

Community Board 14 (Flatbush, Midwood, Kensington, Ocean Parkway) will hold its regular monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 11, at Public School 249, Caton Ave. and Marlborough Road.

Brooklyn writer Gabriel Cohen has published three books in three different genres within the last year. The first was “Boombox,” published last May by Academy Chicago Publishers. The second was “The Graving Dock,” a sequel to his crime novel Red Hook, that Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur published in November. The third, due on March 1, “is the most personal and quietly startling”: “Storms Can’t Hurt the Sky: A Buddhist Path Through Divorce” (DaCapo), an account of the end of his marriage.–NYT

Miss H: That sure is a nice couch.
Man: Yeah.
Miss H: I wouldn’t take that home if I were you, it might have bedbugs.
Man: Really? Can they get in the folds of leather upholstery.
Miss H: You bet, they can get into just about anything. What’s more, there is a very serious bedbug problem here. Don’t take it.
Man: Yeah, one time my friends and I thought we were stealing a couch. We got it home and well…
Miss H: Bedbugs?
Man: Yeah. That’s what you get when you ban DDT.

It has certainly been a while since we thought about DDT.

Yes, it’s almost here. So, for some last minute options–because some places are already booked solid–you might want to check this excellent list for options like Farm on Adderly, Dressler’s, Palo Santo, Dumont and others. Also some suggestions on where to get treats. And, if you are anti-Valentine, well, there are regular things to do like Graceland at BAM and other things.–Brooklyn Based

The Buildings and Construction Subcommittee of Brooklyn Community Board 7 is having a meeting today (2/7) at 6:30PM. It takes place at the Board’s office, which is lcoated at 4201 Fourth Avenue, with the entrance on 43rd Street and Fourth Avenue. The agenda includes review of a draft of a booklet called “Know Your Rights” and discussion of non-renewal of insurance due to flood zone issues. A number of projects will be discussed including review of the plan for 162 16th Street, discussion with residents of 313-314 23rd Street about a new development at 312 23rd Street, violations at 614 Seventh Avenue, updates on a lawsuit against the developer of 18-20 Jackson Place and other issues.

Here’s a thought piece on Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue that has a lot of an analysis of the issues plaguing what Borough President Marty Markowitz calls “a grand boulevard of the 21st Century.” Does the Novo Park Slope “looms fortress-like over the playground next door”? Does the Crest greet “passersby with man-sized industrial vents”? Does Hotel Le Bleu meet “the sidewalk with a parking lot fit for a suburban dentist’s office”?–Streets Blog

The Landmarks Preservation Commission heard testimony about the five-story glass box developers propose to put atop the historic Domino Factory in Williamsburg yesterday, but took no action on the plan. It will hold another session in a few weeks. The Williamsburg-Greenpoint Preservation Alliance’s blog said that the LPC commissioners didn’t seem inclined to support such a big addition to the top of the landmarked structure:

The comments that we did hear from the Commissioners made it clear that none of the Commissioners are ready to stand up and support a five-story rooftop addition on the refinery. Some Commissioners seemed to be comfortable with an addition of two or possibly three stories, assuming that such an addition was more architecturally integrated with the historic refinery and the rest of the new development.

Preservationists delivered the most negative reviews of the alteration. The Municipal Art Society’s Lisa Kersavage called the plan a “missed opportunity to create something that celebrates the history and architecture of these landmarks.” The developers said that the addition is necessary for the project to succeed, while the architect likened it to the Tate Modern in London. Ms. Kersavage and other seemed to take issue with the Tate analogy. “As designed the proposed glass box addition, plunked on top of the landmark, is simply too large and lacks the compositional organization and the arrangement of details that would relate it to the landmark,” Ms. Kersavage said. “The architects referenced the Tate Modern’s addition in their presentation to us, but that low-slung and horizontally oriented building has a completely different spatial volume and composition than the Refinery – and that addition is architecturally a much better fit.”

Meanwhile, Mary Habstritt of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint Preservation Alliance said:

While believe that there are many positive aspects to this proposal, the project does not come together as a cohesive whole. The various components – the rooftop addition, new windows, new window openings, masonry repairs, bay windows and balconies, storefronts and entries – all seem to be unrelated to one another. And in too many cases, they are unrelated to the historic refinery itself. This brand new landmark deserves a more comprehensive preservation approach.

Commissioners were also said to have appeared skeptical about some other modifications to the building, including the design of proposed retail entrances. Landmarks Chair Robert Tierney strongly urged the developers to find a way to preserve the iconic Domino Sugar sign, which is not included in renderings that have been released. His advice about finding a place for the sign: “Look hard.” Since the plant was landmarked last year, the Commission has to approve any changes.

Red Hook may be a little less isolated by fall with the proposed extension of the B77 and B71 buses to South Ferry in Manhattan via the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. The changes could make life easier for some people hit by the planned closing of the Smith-9th Street station. The B77 bus runs from Park Slope to Red Hook and the B71 runs from Crown Heights to Cobble Hill. The plan will be up for financial review in April.–NYDN

In another sign that upscale retailing is creeping south in Park Slope, the Department of Transportation is adding parking meters on Seventh Avenue from 11th Street through 15th Streets. A poster on Brooklynian quotes some information about it from Community Board Six:

The Department of Transportation is under no legal obligation to notify affected property owners, residents, etc. of the installation of parking meters. We did receive a notice from them, which was announced at our last Transportation Committee meeting and last general meeting, but did not seem to get picked up by any local papers for broader attention.

There will be new parking regulations that will accompany the meters which will allow the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) to sweep this stretch of 7th Avenue six times a week instead of the current two. DSNY has prepared a comprehensive plan to change our street sweeping for our district and included in those plans are changes to 7th Avenue that will include:

*instead of being swept twice a week, the entire length of 7th Avenue will be swept 6 times a week, and
*two 1/2 hour regulations: Instead of prohibiting parking on both sides of the street from 8-9am, the Eastside will be swept 8:30-9am, and the Westside (Flatbush-9th) will be swept 7:30-8am & Westside (9th-15th) will be swept 8-8:30am.

In addition, on the residential blocks we should expect to see the following changes:
*all 3-hour regulations (8-11am or 11am-2pm) will be condensed to 90-minute regulations
*all blocks in the district will be swept twice a week (the ones below 4th Avenue are currently swept four times a week).

Change.

Here’s how you “bastardize” a townhouse: First, start with a developer and an architect. Then, you need greed and a real estate agent to peddle it. Also, you can’t have any consideration from the neighbors. Make it stand out from everything else in the historic neighborhood, hopefully by adding something to the roof that can be seen for blocks. And, voila, bastardization.–Pardon Me for Asking

The rebuilt McCarren Pool will feature a huge swimming pool in summer and ice skating in winter, although this will be the last year for big concerts at the site. The details of the $50 million renovation were presented to a community meeting in Williamsburg. “I was very impressed at how sensitive they were to the historical aspect of the space,” one person who has been involved in the redesign effort said.

We spent a lot of time yesterday trying to get our hands on renderings of the design put together for McCarren Pool by Rogers Marvel without any success because the Parks Department is declining to release them right now. So, all we can do until a photo of the plan surface or someone passes a rendering along is describe the plan. The new pool will be nearly 70 percent of the size of the old one, with the pool sort of wrapping around a concrete extension in a U-shape. What the architects called “the beach” will be surrounded by water on three sides. The designers apparently wanted to build a pool the same size as the vast one it would replace but were bound by cost constraints. The new pool would accommodate up to 1,700 people at a time. (The original was designed for 6,000 people by 1930s standard, but afforded very little personal space.) The diving pool, which was filled in, would be rebuilt and the long-term hope is that the wading pool would be recreated as well.

The entrance arch and kiosk would be restored. The building to the right of the entrance would be used for community spaces. The building to the left would workout facilities. The Parks Department would contract with an operator who would pay a fee to run an ice rink in winter. New changing facilities and rest rooms would be built. There might also be a cafe on the roof of the arch, if permission could be secured and funding for an elevator for access could be obtained. One thing that is missing from the new plan is a performance space, although the Parks Department indicated the space could be used during spring and fall when the pool and rink weren’t in use.

In the meantime, the Open Space Alliance of North Brooklyn is looking into broadening programming at the pool this summer, including getting funding for a performance by the New York Philharmonic and some opera. The group is also exploring finding long-term space for large concerts elsewhere in Williamsburg. The most logical place would be somewhere on the waterfront, but such a venture would entail a lot of logistical issues. We received one email suggesting that the design “is poor master planning on the architects part” and that it “does not address future needs or purposes and will be obsolete by the time they’re finished.” Most of the early reaction, however, was very positive. “It’s pretty impressive,” one observer said.

There will be another presentation about the plan to Community Board 1 on Wednesday, February 13th at 6:30PM. The meeting will take place at the Swinging Sixties Seniors Center, which is located at 211 Ainslie in Williamsburg.

[Please Note: the image above is not a rendering of the new design; it is something we created on a very hot day in the summer of 2006.]

• Judges Criticize Handling of Arabic School Principal [Sun]
• Federal Appeals Court Questions Lawyers About Almontaser Firing [NYDN]
• “Feds Hit City on Arab School Ax” [NYP]
• Forest City Ratner Admits Inflated Atlantic Yards Revenue Claim [AYR]
• Photographers Have Rights, Even at Atlantic Yards [No Land Grab]
• Unemployed Brooklynite Sued by Christie’s Over Warhol Painting [NYDN]
• Parking Permits Aren’t Just for Downtown [Streets Blog]
• Parking Permit Forum Wrap Up [Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens]
• When Smith and President Streets Had Style [PMFA]
• Misc. Food Items [New York Shitty]
• What’s the Post-Super Tuesday Mood Going to Be on Seventh Avenue? [OTBKB]
• A Political Bar in Fort Greene? [General Greene]
• A Visit to Little Purity on Seventh [Brooklynometry]
• Reinventing Grand Army Plaza on Leonard Lopate Show Today [Streets Blog]
• Inside Rustik Tavern [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Why Change Nathan’s in Coney? [Lost City]
• Going to the Other Side of the Park [A Year in the Park]

The siding at 167 Wyckoff is impressive, indeed. Very impressive, in fact, because there is so much of it. “I have not seen such exquisite use of aluminum siding in a very, very long time. You can always leave it to our friends down in Bushwick to be on the cutting edge of aluminum siding usage. Where are the windows, you ask? Pah— those are for gentrifiers and dilettantes! 167 Wyckoff Avenue doesn’t need no stinking windows.”–New York Shitty