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

• Ready for New Construction on Fourth Avenue [Brownstoner]
• Take the G Train, Find Annotated Posters [New York Shitty]
• Upzone or Downzone Flatbush? [Brooklyn Junction]
• “Bench Apartheid” in Fort Greene Park [McBrooklyn]
• Hanukkah Greeting Leads to Hate Crime on Q Train [NYP]
• Alia on N. 6th in Williamsburg Already Shuttered? [INSIJS]
• Urban Rustic Opens on Friday in Burg [Green Brooklyn]
• Return of Scaffolding to Montague and Court [BK 11201]
• Ah, the Dyker Heights Lights [Velvet Sea]
• Best Little Pawn Shop Ever [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Bed-Stuy Renovation with Shaker Architecture [NYDN]

We weren’t able to get to this yesterday, because we already had a Construction Site du Jour post with the Red Hook Ikea’s early invite to the general public to walk through their fence and check things out, not to mention the recurring issues at the Whole Foods site in Gowanus. However, this post about the men atop the pile of rubble on Sunday afternoon by blogger Bad Advice at 5 Roebling, aka the Giant Fart Cloud Building, could explain why a panel on the fence out front appears to have been ripped open. And, yes, there is a new complaint about after-hours construction work phoned in to 311 on December bout Ye Olde Fart Cloud, but no indication that it has been checked out.

This is a time laps shot from a Brooklyn apartment window that is worth a view if you enjoy the genre.

We’ve featured this sign before. It was relocated as part of the process of building the condos called 125 N. 10 at the corner of N. 10th and Berry. We feature it again because it’s gotten a bit tagged up since we last looked.

“A construction fence went up around 185 Ocean Ave. last week, indicating that the house is slowly moving towards its demise. Still, we have received very few details about what will be built in its place – as we’ve said before, it had better not be some ugly piece of shit.”–Across the Park

The Brooklyn Reading Works series continues on Thursday (12/13) at 8PM with “jazz writing, writing jazz. Roy Nathanson will read his jazz/spoken word poetry and author and Jason Weiss reading from his fiction and non fiction. The series takes place at the Old Stone House at JJ Byrne Park, which is at Fifth Avenue and Third Street. The event is at 8PM. Here’s a bit more info:

Roy Nathanson founded the Jazz Passengers and is a renowned jazz artist, spoken word poet and teacher of music at The Institute for Collaborative Education.

Jason Weiss will read from a new novel, “Faces By the Wayside.” He is the author of “Conversations with Steve Lacy” and “Writing At Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers” (University of Iowa Press, 1991).

Check it out.

Kensington, Brooklyn
[Photo courtesy of Flatbush Gardener/flicker]

American Stevedoring always puts up a Christmas display in the corner of Red Hook that the container port occupies. This year, they may have more to celebrate, as moves to evict the port seem to have died. “Perhaps this new ray of hope has encouraged them to bump up the display a bit this year. Instead of being situated on an obscure entry road to the docks, the display is now right near the edge of Van Brunt, where anyone in a car or on the B61 can see it. It also seems taller and more expansive somehow.”–Lost City

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Vandals seem intent on make sure the environmentally-challenged Whole Foods site in Gowanus stays open, as yet another opening has appeared in the fence. This is the third or fourth time the fence has been open at the abandoned site. Interestingly, the Department of Buildings did check up on a complaint logged on October 20. They came by on November 27 and the inspector wrote “no defects observed” in the fence, parts of which seem to be held up with tape and gum. What is especially interesting, however, is that the sign identifying the site as belonging to Whole Foods is also gone. It seems to have vanished sometime in the last couple of weeks. Stolen by vandals? Or taken down by the grocer? Many of the expired buildings permits at the site have also been ripped down. No permits have been issued for the big project, which would place most of the grocery store underground. Such a building is allowable on the site without any special permits. The Department of Buildings has rejected several Whole Foods applications, most recently on September 19. Despite the abandoned look of the site, on which a few parts of car bodies have now appeared, there is no sense that Whole Foods has given up on the project, just that there’s a lack of movement and no one is looking after the property.

Is the Carroll Gardens Democracy Wall where residents have been posting murals and news articles about development news in their community in danger? It could be. There’s a sense among residents that both the police and local politicians may try to put an end to what has become a community fixture over the last six months. Apparently, Council Member Bill de Blasio, who was the intended recipient of one recent message has called it “graffiti.” A number of posters and murals were torn down this weekend (see before and after photos, above and below), although some of the material has been torn down in the past too.

After yesterday’s story about a deal between architect Robert Scarano and the Department of Buildings, might a borough-wide development moratorium be in order until the system is reformed? “Why not ask for a moratorium on all building here in Brooklyn until the Department of Buildings is re-organized, made functional and more importantly made less corrupt?”–Pardon Me For Asking

The Red Hook Ikea, which is a hub of activity as it rushes toward an opening next year, has a bit of an issue with its fence. Given that we’re always game to point out a construction or demolition site that’s open to the public, we’d be remiss in not pointing out that the fence above allows easy public access to the Ikea site and that the fence below was clearly the victim of some sort of accident. One wonders, given all the problems that Ikea has had with theft at the site from time to time, if one of the problems has been that it invites people to do some late night shopping.

Ikea Bonus: Jotham Sederstrom offers some details in today’s Daily News about Ikea’s job training program for Red Hook residents. The retailer is offering a $500,000 program overseen by Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow. So far, 188 students have taken part in the program. It is unclear how many will actually be hired at the store. Top management positions have been filled by Ikea employees from as far away as California, Canada and Sweden. (Warning: The NYDN story kept crashing our Firefox browser, but seems okay in IE.)

One of Brooklyn’s best new blogs of 2007 offers up the Windsor Terrace 11, a list of local blogs. “Happy holidays, my stalwart Brooklyn blogging compatriots. You do the community a great service by continuing to chronicle our neighborhoods in your own words, through your own eyes, calling ’em like you see ’em. I take great pride in being in your company.”–Icky in Brooklyn

Is Vera Cruz on Bedford Avenue open again? Last time there was any news about the eatery it was when a seizure notice was taped to the front grate. There has been a for sale out front for months. Yet, there is now a big “Restaurant is Open” banner out front. The signs taped in the window say “Grand Opening Vera Cruz Mexican Restaurant is Open.” Yet, on the Vera Cruz sign itself, the restaurant’s name is taped over. The refried Vera Cruz wasn’t open around mid-afternoon yesterday, but the grate was up and curious passersby, possibly harboring memories of margaritas and burritos of bygone days, were peering in the windows.

Has it really been four years since Bruce Ratner changed the discussion about Brooklyn’s future and the political firmament itself? Yes, it has. On December 10, 2003, Mr. Ratner officially unveiled the Atlantic Yards proposal. He was joined at Borough Hall by Borough President Markowitz, Senator Charles Schumer, Mayor Micheal Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki. They said the project’s arena would be open in 2006. Things have worked out somewhat differently.–DDDB

We thought we’d pass along a report from the Boerum Hill Yahoo group of a depression/sink hole that’s been opening up on Pacific Street between Bond and Nevins. Specifically:

It collapsed this morning and there was a two foot depression that wrecked someone’s wheels. It keeps collapsing. My guess is that the vault that runs along the city sewer main has collapsed. If this is the case then it will just keep collapsing…311 calls will get DOT to come and lay some surface stuff, but unless the underlying problem (no pun intended) is fixed it will just keep happening…My advice: don’t park your car anywhere near this sinkhole, as people tend to slam on the brakes and swerve when they hit it. Someone hit my car after hitting the depression last week. Any car within probably 40 or 50 feet is fair game.

Updates if the thing swallows anything up.

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

• Curious Hole Filled at 340 Court Street in Carroll Gardens [PMFA]
• Dumbo Press from Japan [Dumbo NYC]
• Mr. Bullard Interested in Selling Coney Island Land [Kinetic Carnival]
• Shooting at Reign Nightclub [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Rocking St. Ann’s Pipe Organ [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Eye Candy: Unloading at the Navy Yard [INSIJS]

Holiday-Related:

• Tis the Season on Franklin Street [New York Shitty]
• Brooklyn Heights Perfect Paws Santa Window [McBrooklyn]
• Old School Bay Ridge Christmas [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Bed-Stuy Holiday Cheer [Bed-Stuy Banana]

[Photo courtesy of Captain Nemo/Coney Island Message Board]

Among the victims of last week’s high winds was one of the “Future of Coney Island” signs put up by developer Joe Sitt this summer. The post known as Captain Nemo at the Coney Island Message Board, who recently posted photos of Thor’s fallen construction fences, photographed this glimpse of the old sign for the batting cages torn down last winter. He writes: “…part of his sign covering up the artwork from the batting cage fell down, or ripped off from the recent wind storm.” It’s going to be a long winter and spring at Thor’s Coney properties.

Like we would forget anyway

Among the many charms of North Brooklyn is the series of condos known as the Belvederes. Each new discovery brings great joy. Take Belvedere XXIV. Somebody, please take Belevedere XXIV and make it go away. Please.–New York Shitty

Kevin Walsh and Forgotten NY have an extensive new page about the Myrtle Avenue El. It has to be one of our absolute favorite Forgotten NY entries in a long while. The new “Last Days of the Myrtle Avenue El” post is s full of info about and photos of the long gone line. Mr. Walsh writes:

In its original incarnation, opening to fares on April 10, 1888 the Myrtle Avenue el ran from Johnson and Adams Streets downtown south and then east along Myrtle Avenue to Grand Avenue, south to Brooklyn’s Lexington Avenue, then east to Brooklyn’s Broadway, joining the Broadway el there. Later that year, on September 1st, the Myrtle was extended west to a Washington Street terminal adjoining the Brooklyn Bridge. Connections to Manhattan were made on June 18th, 1898 when the line crossed the Brooklyn Bridge (along with Brooklyn’s 5th Avenue El line) to a Park Row terminal. The Brooklyn Bridge crossing remained in service until March 5, 1944.

Definitely worth checking out.

Beverly Square West, Flatbush, Brookly
[Photo courtesy of Flatbush Gardener/flickr & Flatbush Gardener]

For a full photoset of the lights of Beverly Square West, click here.

Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
[Photo courtesy of a special GL Correspondent]

Huron Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
[Photo courtesy of Miss Heather]

Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster signed off on some interesting stipulations as part of Brooklyn architect Robert Scarano’s agreement to surrender self-certification privileges last year, according to a story in today’s Daily News. Architects in New York City are able to “self-certify” that their work meets city zoning and building regulations. Controversies arose over Mr. Scarano’s abuse of the program and he ultimately gave up the privilege without admitting wrongdoing. The Daily News has the fascinating news that Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster also agreed not to report any alleged misdeeds by the architect to “any regulatory agency.” Here’s some of the Daily News story:

The top official responsible for enforcing building standards in the city signed secrecy agreements to hide a series of blunders that led to death and building evacuations.

Patricia Lancaster, the $162,800-a-year buildings commissioner, hid the mistakes made by architect Robert Scarano.

Lancaster – also an architect – signed an unusual stipulation promising not to report the alleged misdeeds of Scarano to “any regulatory agency,” including one that could revoke his license.

The charges involve 32 properties, mostly in Brooklyn, and include alleged carelessness that resulted in the death of a construction worker and a screwup that forced a Brooklyn family to evacuate its unsafe home.

Lancaster hid a charge that Scarano signed off on unsafe conditions at a Brooklyn site where construction worker Anthony Duncan Sr. was crushed to death in a March 2006 building collapse…

There is far more detail in the full story.