Yesterday, we posted the surprising and sad news that the 2nd Street Cafe on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope had gone out of business. We’re repeating the news today and following up with some additional details in case anyone missed the news that a GL tipster has obtained confirmation that the cafe wasn’t temporarily shuttered, but was, in fact gone for good. The cafe was temporarily closed last year for a top-to-bottom remodel and reopened with a more upscale feel. We are told that employees were given two days notice of the closing. There’s been a lot of sad reaction to the sudden 2nd Street Cafe closure in the Slope. One GL reader commented yesterday that “I. Am. Dumbfounded. I’m so sad. They were always filled- I went for breakfast or lunch during the week practically every day recently!”

The closure makes the third empty storefront in a single block and what will be a fourth when another bookstore closes as scheduled. Add two other vacant storefronts and it makes six within three blocks. Our own tipster terms Seventh Avenue “The Boulevard of Broken Restaurants.”

Of the Seventh Avenue Retail Death March, a poster on Brooklynian notes:

The problem is landlords are getting greedy. I wouldn’t worry though, 7th Ave has been finished as a retail destination for a number of years. Landlords either have brokers (often offices of said owners) as tenants or national credit rated tenants (Starbucks, Citibank, etc). Most tenants who are interested in providing entertainment or a good restaurant will simply move to an area where rents are $60 psf or less. They know people will travel.

The spillover effect has created a vibrant 5th Avenue, and there is nowhere to go but up in places like Prospect Heights. Vanderbilt Avenue still has a ways to go, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t get to be a serious restaurant destination.

Seventh Avenue has actually had quite a bit more retail stability than other neighborhood strips, but that is apparently coming to an end, particularly on this stretch.

Other Seventh Avenue News:
The big space formerly occupied by D’Agostino, which closed in the spring, at Seventh Avenue and Sixth Street, remains empty. It had been rumored for a while as a possible Bank of America branch location. The corner storefront formerly occupied by Gothic Cabinet Craft, which was also vacated, is empty as well. One of the spaces there was said to be the future home of some sort of children’s store.

Let’s say one’s beloved cat dies and that one can’t bear to part with him/her. Perhaps, one might want the cat, uh, stuffed, so it can be there forever. What to do? Call a concierge that will locate a taxidermist, of course, and find a place to freeze him/her until the stuffing can happen.–NYDN

Today, a Sunday, they were at it again at 340 Court. Windows and doors were covered in billowing visquine on the top floor and a loud generator was heard roaring away, all the way down on the street!

In the meantime, demolition is expect to start soon, although permits have not been issued. Department of Buildings records do so, however, that an application for a new building was filed last week by Rogers Marvel Architects. The application is for a permit to build a seven-story building with 106,125 square feet. Residents have complained that the developer–the Clarett Group–has not shown the design to anyone in the community or consulted with them about the plans.

That thing in the distance? Why, it’s the Carroll Gardens Monstrosity, an addition to the neighborhood skylyine that has risen on Luquer Street. The building was planned several years ago before there was any real organized opposition to out-of-context buildings in the neighborhood.–PMFA

A week after tenants were evicted from 475 Kent Avenue by the city, the building was padlocked. The building was locked on Sunday afternoon and tenants held a rally and press event at 4PM to mark the building’s closing. About 50 people turned out for the protest, not counting media. There was local news coverage, of course. Meanwhile, the tenants have organized everything from a Media Relations Committee to a Landlord Relations Committee, according to a long list of posts on the 475 Kent website. The building’s landlord is said to be interested in having the building certified for residential occupancy. In the meantime, Third Ward, which is located at 175 Morgan has offered itself to displaced 475 Kent tenants.

Related Articles/Posts:

• 475 Kent to Be Padlocked at 4PM [Gothamist]
• Factory Building Padlocked in Brooklyn [7Online]
• Hard Times at Kent Lofts [Metro]
• Williamsburg residents living in illegal matzoh factory protest sudden eviction [NYDN]

[Photo courtesy of aldella/flickr]

If you’re a fan of industrial buildings, you might want to check out some specimens from Canarsie and their old signs. There’s Morris Rosenberg Scrap Metal, for instance, and Beckers Aniline & Chemical Works. For good measure, you can always detour to Red Hook for the old H. Kohnstamm dye factory in Red Hook. Maybe, a cigar ad in Park Slope?–Fading Ad Blog

This empty lot at 14 Bayard Street was the site of the Beauty Addiction Building until it came down last year and is the future site of a five-story building that will fill in the last hole on Karl Fischer Row. It was last noted when the demolition left the building next door a little unprotected for a bit. Yesterday, we found the site had a couple of busted gate and openness issues.

• Two Men Charged with Separate Brooklyn Hate Crimes [Metro]
• Hate Crime Charges in Graffiti Cases [NYT]
• Hate Crimes on Rise in Crown Heights? [NYDN]
• Neighborhood Closings and the Atlantic Yards Effect [AYR]
• Windsor Terrace Dog-Napping That Broke Online Gets Print Media Coverage [NYDN]
• Needs Unmet at “Chaotic” Arabic School in Brooklyn [NYP]
• Forest City in the News [No Land Grab]
• Buzz-a-Rama Slot Car Racing on Church Avenue [Brooklynometry]
• No More Weaving, Coloring or Brading on Smith [PMFA]
• Interview with Park Slope “Murder Blogger” [Brooklyn Optimist]
• Prospect Park Skating in the Old Days [A Year in the Park]
• Long Island Restaurant Opening Imminent? [Lost City]
• Organic French Moroccan Restaurant Coming to Dekalb [General Greene]
• Slope’s Zuzu’s Petals Will Be Delivering [OTBKB]
• Roommate Flies the Bed-Stuy Coop [Bed-Stuy Banana]

Here is your chance to know what the scholars & scientists think about the pollution and remediation issues. You have heard from potential developers, city planners, government agencies, not for profits, elected officials, et al, about their visions for the future of the Gowanus Area and especially The Public Place. Now hear new voices and up to now missing points of view “that of academic and scientific scholars,” the Professors and students from Columbia University Graduate Schools of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Planning & Preservation who have been studying our Gowanus for over two years have just published a book (147 pages in full color) with their complete research, findings, theories, ideas and recommendations. At this event, they will give a Power Point presentation of the main points of their book and then take pollution and remediation-related questions from the audience. (The event is hosted by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, SBLDC – South Brooklyn Local Development Corp., FROGG – Friends & Residents of Greater Gowanus, CORD – Coalition For Respectful Development.)

It should be an opportunity to gain some extra information about some very complicated environmental issues in the neighborhood.

The Parks Department is talking about offering naming rights to buildings and facilities within city parks. So, think about the possibilities in Prospect Park: the Corcoran Villa or the Starbucks Tennis House, for instance. There’s also the Dunkin Donuts Rustic Shelter, CitiFowl and the biggest opportunity, the Forest City Ratner arch.–A Year in the Park

Related Posts:
Idiotarod ’08 Has Taken Off [Gothamist]
1,186 Idiotarod Tagged Photos So Far [flickr]
NYC Idiotarod 2008 [Brit in Brooklyn]
A Group of Idiots in Search of Idiotarod ’08 [PMFA]

We caught some of the 2008 Idiotarod–that annual small-scale Halloween meets the Mermaid Parade, but with pimped shopping carts and a very long route–in Gowanus and Red Hook. Here’s our video of the race, as it leaves “Checkpoint Two” at The Yard, next to the Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus and at the finish line, Moonshine, on Columbia Street in Red Hook.

I got confirmation today from Two Boots up the block that 2nd Street is out of business. This means that this block of Seventh Avenue is now bound by out of business restaurants – Tempo Presto on the southwest corner and 2nd Street Cafe on the northeast corner. In the middle of the block is the now vacant store that used to house Seventh Avenue Books, with Park Slope Books a few doors away scheduled to close in March. I’ve also attached a photo of the 2nd Street Cafe this afternoon.

The 2nd Street Cafe had undergone renovations this summer. When it reopened, it was a bit more upscale than previously.

Last week, we posted about all the vacant storefronts between Second and Third Streets on Seventh Avenue. Add the empty space that was Maggie Moo’s a few paces to the north of 2nd Street Cafe and the now shutter Inaka Sushi a block and a half away, and one suddenly has a surprising number of empty storefronts on Seventh Avenue. As for the corner of Second Street and Seventh Avenue, we’re certain there will be many laments of this popular spot for moms with kids and just about everyone in the neighborhood. We hope it is not replaced with something horrendous.

Fort Greene residents are reporting “an alluring smell of fresh bread near the Clinton/Washington C train.” So, where is it coming from? Some says it’s from a new bakery on Vanderbilt, but other say it’s been around for years. “Whatever the reason, it seems from this thread that realtors would do well to promote this kind of smell to prospective buyers.”–General Greene

This week’s Sunday Brooklyn Missed Connection is more of a lost & found item than a missed connection in the strictest sense, but there’s something about it that appealed to us, typos and all:

throwing stuff off of bridges

i was wondering aroudn NYC. i am a traveling kid that was exporing williamsburg area. and i wondered in between two wharehouses to the water side and found some crazy stuff.
this bundle of jewlery being the only realy interesting thing that is worth questioningl. did you throw me away? it got me currious. why did you throw it away?
i don’t know…i don’t think that you are looking for these. but if you are i found them. if these are yours tell me about them. what made you do it. and do you want them back? most of them are with me in ohio, some of them are in brooklyn with friends. but let me know…

After all the comments people leave here and there about how people “should go back to Ohio,” we finally have someone that actually went back to Ohio.

• 500 Cases Might Be Tossed Because of Brooklyn South Narcotics Scandal [NYDN]
• Ten-Year-Old Handcuffed by Security Was Terrified [NYP]
• State Sen. Marty Connor Has a Challenger [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Thoughts on the Still Endangered Red Hook Vendors [Lost City]
• Heard of Carmelo the Science Fellow? [NYT]
• A Typographer Walks in Brooklyn [Brooklynometry]
• Getting New Windows on Fourth Avenue [Velvet Sea]
• Brooklyn Loading Docks [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Coney Island Images [Kinetic Carnival]
• Bed-Stuy for Obama [Bed-Stuy Banana]

Every week, we highlight a few comments left by GL readers during the previous sevent days. Here are this week’s selections (with a thank you to the GL reader that suggested a tweak to our logo):

Weeks Later, 340 Court Posts an Asbestos Sign. “So far Clarett is off to a shoddy job. The community really wants to work with them to make this development fit the site and community…Developers can work with the community toward a good result. That is what the Carroll Gardens community wants.” [Anonymous]

PM Update: Days of Some Carroll Gardens “Wide Streets” May End. “the width of the street will effect the bulk of the building if the developer ops to use the quality housing program. If he uses height factor zoning, the building height will remain governed by the sky exposure plane, (the neighborhood is zoned R6). to help the neighborhood, it sould be eather be rezoned R6B or made into a special LH (limited height) district like Brooklyn Heights.” [Anonymous]

Mommies & Toddlers Eighty Sixed from Slope’s Union Hall? “OK, so Park Slope is overrun by mommies and babies and dogs and strollers and general upper middle class white horribleness… no surprise there. So why do all these complainers move there? It’s PARK SLOPE, what do you expect?!” [Anonymous]

Dispatches from the Frigid Mass Eviction at 475 Kent in South Williamsburg. “anybody wholesale labelling the residents of 475 as ‘hipsters’ clearly doesn’t know what they are talking about. people in this building lived there when NO ONE wanted to live in williamsburg. they came over for affordable space. they took risks, but so did the people who moved into commercial spaces that predated the loft law. when i heard that 475 was targeted, my first thought was, ‘they’re going after them all now’. 475 was the granddaddy of these buildings in williamsburg. these were not spoiled rich brats living in here, even now. that said i could give FDNY a list of buildings they should have gone after before this one. i agree on the retaliation point, but there had to be some basis in fact or they wouldn’t have charged in on one of the coldest nights of the year.” [Anonymous]

This photo comes from the camera of sculptor, artists and photographer Gary Mirabelle who is a regular GL photo contributor. Check out a couple of other shots he sent recently of Prospect Park’s winter beauty, here and here.

How do you run a Park Slope bar called Beer Table, without beer? You don’t. Instead, you start going a little nuts waiting for the State Liquor Authority to approve your application. “For almost six months, the owners of Beer Table, on Seventh Avenue near 14th Street, have been trapped in liquor license limbo. The local community board endorsed the bar’s application for a liquor license in July, but the application is still awaiting final approval by the State Liquor Authority. Out of desperation, Mr. Philips has considered opening the bar to serve snacks and nonalcoholic drinks. But he can’t bring himself to compromise his original vision.” They may be able to open next Saturday.–NYT

We’ve posted a couple of old Astroland commercials in the past. Here’s one that was just posted to YouTube that haven’t had before.