Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Giant Fart Cloud Building (5 Roebling) Lights Up at Night

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Giant Fart Cloud Building (5 Roebling) Lights Up at Night

We’re very unclear what workers were doing using blow torches at 5 Roebling Street last night from 7:00PM-10:00PM, except that blogger Bad Advice describes it this way:

I can only imagine the thinking that was behind this latest 7pm – 10pm late-night weld-fest . . . “hmmm, if we wait until after dark, nobody can see us because we’ll be invisible!”

There is still a Partial Stop Worker Order on the site, which is partial in the sense that it allows for removal of debris, of which there is much. Also, as of early this morning, we got an email saying: “There are more guys out there today.”

Comments Off on Giant Fart Cloud Building (5 Roebling) Lights Up at NightTags: Construction Issues · Williamsburg

Shot-Up Car Parked at Carroll Gardens Bus Stop for Two Weeks

December 4th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Shot Up Car One

The photos of this SUV were sent to us by a GL reader. We posted one the pics on Curbed yesterday, but a shot-up vehicle parked at Union and Henry in a bus stop for two weeks deserves more photos. Our tipster is a resident upset about a car with bullet holes and a bloody interior (that is police evidence) being left on the street. She writes:

If you take a walk by Mazzolla on Union and Henry you will see parked in the bus stop a silver Audi SUV with a smashed rear window. If you walk around the car you will see that it is riddled with bullet holes on the drivers side, each one labeled and numbered, and inside you will see it is blood spattered!…It is right in front of the bus stop that all the Brooklyn New School kids take and of course Mazzolla is a big magnet for kids. I am really getting my neighborhood ire up about this car. It is clearly some sort of evidence of a crime but it is just so wrong to keep it there. I have called 311 and have also talked to a local cop who says it is not the precinct’s car. So…what should we do?

Logic tells us that the shot up car belongs to the 76th Precinct, which is several hundred feet away on Union Street. The question is: How long will it be parked in the bus stop?

Shot Up Car Closeup

→ 2 CommentsTags: Caroll Gardens

Bedford Avenue Dancer & Friends Dance Do Performance Art

December 4th, 2007 · 2 Comments

Our friend, the Bedford Avenue Dancer, is one of the things that one can count on seeing on Sundays somewhere around N. 7 Street and Bedford Avenue. The performance has morphed, however, and he now has two female partners and is doing performance art.

→ 2 CommentsTags: Williamsburg

Bklink: The Urban Legend of Walter O’Malley

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: The Urban Legend of Walter O’Malley

A lot of people and publications, including the New York Times, think that Walter O’Malley wanted to build new home for the Brooklyn Dodgers on the site proposed for the new Nets arena. Actually, if things had worked out, it would have gone where Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Center Mall now sits. More to follow in the wake of O’Malley’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame–No Land Grab

Comments Off on Bklink: The Urban Legend of Walter O’MalleyTags: Atlantic Yards · Shortlink

If Bruce Ratner Has Supported BUILD, Which Opposes the Mayor on Coney Island….

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on If Bruce Ratner Has Supported BUILD, Which Opposes the Mayor on Coney Island….

Among the many fascinating questions raised by the bit of political theater at the Coney Island Development Corporation’s canceled meeting about Coney Island redevelopment was the provenance of the hundreds of opponents bused in for the meeting. There was the issue of who financed the Kruger-led effort (which could become more clear after the State Senator’s campaign committee “Friends of Carl” files campaign spending reports). There was also the very noticeable presence of James Caldwell and other members of BUILD, a group that supports Atlantic Yards which has received significant funding from developer Bruce Ratner. There is a strong sense that multiple threads trace back from this “opposition” to developer Joe Sitt and Thor Equities who may not quite be on board with the Bloomberg-Doctoroff vision of a Sitt-Free Coney Island amusement district. This school of thought believes that all Mr. Sitt needs to do is stall and hold up the process through the next Mayoral election and, then, plant the seeds for a mayor more in turn with the Thor Vision.

Kinetic Carnival does not mince words about the curious game that is starting to play out in a post about “All the Developer’s Men“:

At last year’s hearings on the Atlantic Yard project Kruger served the same function as BUILD, using his voice as a representative of Brooklyn community’s to try to paint Ratner’s project as a vehicle for helping Brooklyn residents…The Nov. 19th ‘Community Information Session’ on the redevelopment of Coney Island was in many ways identical to the hearing on the Atlantic Yards Development project. We have the same politician and the same sham ‘community group’ trying to portray the plans of millionaire developers as being in the best interest of the very neighborhoods which their development plans seek to destroy.

Is a political debt being paid to the Southern Brooklyn politician that has anointed himself as the chief opponent of the Bloomberg plan? Does BUILD’s lineage mean that a major Brooklyn developer, whose plan depends on deep public subsidies, is roiling the waters for City Hall in another part of the borough? It is all likely to become much, much more interesting.

Comments Off on If Bruce Ratner Has Supported BUILD, Which Opposes the Mayor on Coney Island….Tags: coney island

Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink Open: Free Admission Next Friday

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink Open: Free Admission Next Friday

It’s finally time to skate in Brooklyn. After some delays the Wollman Rink in Prospect Park is open for the season, which makes us happy because it was kind of sad seeing it still closed right after Thanksgiving. An email from Eugene Patron, the Oracle of Prospect Park says:

To celebrate the beginning of ice skating season, come skate for free all day on Friday, December 14 at Wollman Rink in Prospect Park! Admission to the rink will be free, with ice skate rentals available for $6. This season the Park has 150 new pairs of ice skates available for rental.

The Wollman Rink is open daily through March 16, 2008. Here are the hours:

Monday 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Tuesday 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Wednesday 8:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday 8:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Friday 8:30 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., 2 – 6 p.m., 7 – 10 p.m.
Sunday 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., 2 – 6 p.m.

Enjoy.

Comments Off on Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink Open: Free Admission Next FridayTags: Prospect Park

Brooklinks: Tuesday Morning Wind Edition

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Tuesday Morning Wind Edition

Williamsburg Dome-Trees

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

Comments Off on Brooklinks: Tuesday Morning Wind EditionTags: Brooklinks

A Story of Williamsburg: 6 Sick Hipsters

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on A Story of Williamsburg: 6 Sick Hipsters

Yes, the YouTube vid below is basically a commercial for an upcoming novel, but it’s a bizarre and amusing-sounding murder set in Williamsburg dealing with someone that is doing away with hipsters in a bloody way. (The website for the book is here.) We found a post about Rayo Casablanca’s new book on Gothamist, and the description from the press release:

Lately someone has been laying waste to Brooklyn’s uber-hipsters, dispatching them in gruesome fashion. Before the week is over, they’ll be up to their skinny-jean waists in mayhem, manipulation, contract killers, raw sewage, and murderous monkeys. Something is rotten in the state of Billyburg, and the last hipsters standing will discover just how rotten it really is.

Murderous monkeys in Williamsburg? Put us down for a copy.

Comments Off on A Story of Williamsburg: 6 Sick HipstersTags: Williamsburg

Bklink: Return of the Greenpoint Ten

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Return of the Greenpoint Ten

It’s been a couple of weeks, but the Greenpoint Ten is back. Number Four has red toenails, wears a turtleneck argyle sweater and tends to dress like her best friend.–New York Shitty

Comments Off on Bklink: Return of the Greenpoint TenTags: Greenpoint · Shortlink

Brooklyule #3: Subway Entrance

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyule #3: Subway Entrance

Gowanus Yacht Club Xmas
Smith Street, Carroll Gardens

Comments Off on Brooklyule #3: Subway EntranceTags: Brookyule · Carroll Gardens · Holidays

Bklink: Coney Aquarium Beluga Whale Dead in Atlanta

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Coney Aquarium Beluga Whale Dead in Atlanta

We’re behind the curve on this, yet, want to note this information: “A beluga whale that once delighted visitors to Brooklyn’s Coney Island died early Saturday at an aquarium in Georgia. The female whale, named Marina, died about 2 a.m. at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, said Jeff Swanagan, the aquarium’s president and executive director. She had recently fallen ill. ‘She was showing increased disorientation in her swimming behavior. Then she stopped swimming and stopped breathing,’ he said.–AP/Newsday via Envirolink

Comments Off on Bklink: Coney Aquarium Beluga Whale Dead in AtlantaTags: Animals · Shortlink

Brooklyule #2: Christmas Lights

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyule #2: Christmas Lights


[Photo courtesy of Bettytron/flickr]

Comments Off on Brooklyule #2: Christmas LightsTags: Brookyule · Holidays

Bklink: Shangri-La by Sealed Bid

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Shangri-La by Sealed Bid

It’s too late now to make a bid on one of the condos at Shangri-La on Sixth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets, but one wonders how many developers of marginal Brooklyn buildings will eventually resort to desperation tactics. Fluke or harbinger of things to come?–Brownstoner

Comments Off on Bklink: Shangri-La by Sealed BidTags: Greenwood Heights · Shortlink

Brookyule #1: The Cadillac of Trees

December 4th, 2007 · Comments Off on Brookyule #1: The Cadillac of Trees


[Photo courtesy of i’mjustsayin/flickr & INSIJS]

Comments Off on Brookyule #1: The Cadillac of TreesTags: Brookyule · Holidays

Smith Street’s Saga of the Carniceria Sign

December 3rd, 2007 · 5 Comments

Carniceria Sign

Did that sign at Carniceria, the defunct restaurant on Smith Street that sprang up in place of the also defunct Porchetta which took the place of the dead Banania, look familiar to you? Indeed, it should have. A special GL correspondent in Carroll Gardens sent us these photos along with an email entitled “The Rape of Smith Street.” Here is what she wrote:

Just a small observation. The nice old Carniceria on Smith Street sells its sign to new owner of the space that once housed Banania. Banania closed to become Porcetta. While Banania was a Smith Street favorite, tasteful inside and out, Porcetta and Carniceria both tanked. I only mention this due to the opportunistic nature of the last owner, buying the 50 year old sign from an original Smith Street business and gluing it to the facade of his new cafe to cash in on what? Ye Old Smith Street? Using the Old to attract the new?…Where is that wonderful old sign??? Don’t think it’s going back where it came from…

To a new restaurant trying to create faux old, perhaps?

Carniceria Sign Gone Again

→ 5 CommentsTags: Smith Street

Brooklyn’s First Snow: McCarren Park Edition

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklyn’s First Snow: McCarren Park Edition

Here are a few shots of McCarren Park yesterday. It was very quiet. No soccer games or runners or much of anyone else. Just a flag football game in the snow, a few people walking dogs, three joggers and a family making a snowman.

McCarren Park Snowman

McCarren Park Pool Snow

McCarren Tree Snow

Snow Dome

Comments Off on Brooklyn’s First Snow: McCarren Park EditionTags: Williamsburg

Menacing N. 10th Street Demolition Site Still Wide Open

December 3rd, 2007 · 3 Comments

Open Again

We have posted and posted and posted and posted and posted and posted about the wide open demolition site that takes up about 2/3 of the block between N. 9th and N. 10th Streets and Driggs and Roebling Avenues in Williamsburg. We are posting it again as we found it open again yesterday, although the site certainly would have offered some excellent sledding opportunities had there been just a bit more snow. The site is known by several addresss including 208 N. 10th Street, 199-211 N. 9th Street and 489 Driggs.

GL Analysis:
While there has been some enforcement at this construction site related to a shed going up without a permit, we fail to understand the Department of Building’s ailure to deal with the lack of a secure fence since demolition started in August. While we understand that more blatant safety threats are a higher priority, surely someone at DOB understands that eventually someone will be killed or injured while wandering around one of these sites. (If you look closely at the bottom photo, in fact, you can see footsteps in the snow.) These sites are a tragedy waiting to happen, and the hazards at this site, in particular, have been allowed to persist for nearly half a year. By walking through the holes in this fence, anyone can walk into a building that is being demolished, gain access to heavy equipment and climb on rubble. A Stop Work Order would certainly get the attention of those that have allowed these conditions to exist. Is it a small thing? In the scheme of things, it is. Is it the kind of situation that speaks to much large problems in a critical public agency? Absolutely.

Mound with Footsteps Two

→ 3 CommentsTags: Construction Issues · Williamsburg

Brooklyn Nibbles: Williamsburg Openings Edition

December 3rd, 2007 · 2 Comments

Urban Rustic

There are a couple of openings or almost openings to report in Williamsburg:

1). The Urban Rustic Grocery & Cafe (“Farm to Market”) is edging towards an opening on N. 12th Street, at least, to judge by the new sign that has gone up. Urban Rustic is located at 236 N. 12th Street between Driggs and Roebling, across the street from McCarren Park and should be well positioned to offer those “farm to market” treats to people using the park as well as to everyone moving into the new condos on Karl Fischer Row, which is also nearly across the street. The focus is food and products grown or produced within 100 miles.

2). A “French Rotisserie” that calls itself Peter’s Since 1969 is now open on Bedford Avenue. Peter’s, however, has existed since November, 2007. The signboard outside says “Peter’s has arrived. French rotisserie.” There was a significant crowd inside when we passed by yesterday around 2:30 PM.

3). We probably don’t need to mention that Radegast Hall & Biergarten is open as its coming has been noted far and wide, but we’ll include it anyway for the three people that haven’t heard.

Peters Since 1969

→ 2 CommentsTags: Brooklyn Nibbles · Williamsburg

Gravity Thwarted on Grand Street?

December 3rd, 2007 · 1 Comment

Grand Street Crack Three

Never mind that the building on Grand Street that is being demolished and almost self-demolished is now very braced. You still get an unsettling feeling looking up at the wall that started to crack away recently and appears to have come very close to making some building collapse headlines. Brooklyn 11211 first noted the Crack Problem on Grand Street on Friday. We stopped by over the weekend and found it quite impressive, and also found a News 12 car parked outside. The building dates to the mid-19th Century and apparently started to succumb to vibrations from demolition or simply decided to end it all on its own terms. The project also earned a Stop Work Order, but for expired permit rather than the crack problem. A 14-story Karl Fischer “Monster Tower” will be flipping major bird to the neighborhood rising here and iving Grand Street a bold new look.

Grand Street Crack Two

→ 1 CommentTags: Construction Issues · Williamsburg

Sitt Fences Falling in Coney Island

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Sitt Fences Falling in Coney Island


Looks like a certain major Coney Island landowner is having an upkeep problem on his properties. This photo shows some problems with developer Joe Sitt’s fences in Coney Island that appear to have developed in that long, harsh Coney Island off-season. It comes from the very active poster known as Captain Nemo (aka Bruce) on the Coney Island Message Board. From the number of panels on the ground, it puts any problem that Whole Foods has had in Gowanus or other persistent offenders in Williamsburg have to shame. Well, to Thor’s credit the land isn’t toxic and there aren’t mounds of rubble and possible collapsing structures on the property.

Comments Off on Sitt Fences Falling in Coney IslandTags: coney island · Thor Equities

Brooklinks: Monday Post-Snow Edition

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Monday Post-Snow Edition

Gowanus in Snow

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

Not Snow:
Will Atlantic Yards Be This Generation’s Penn Station? [AYR]
Helping the Brooklyn Homeless [NYT]
Old Time Map of Flatbush [Flatbush Gardener]
Newish Store Alert: Go Fish [A Brooklyn Life]
Bay Ridge Smells Like Crap, City Tries Lysol [NYDN]
Monthly Sustainable Flatbush Meeting Tonight [Sustainable Flatbush]
Southern Brooklyn Station to Be Demolished and Rebuilt [GerritsenBeach.Net]

Snow:
Scenes from This Morning’s Snow [BK11201]
Dumbo Snow Scenes [McBrooklyn]
Bay Ridge in Snow [Bay Ridge Rover]
Brooklyn Snowscapes [A Brooklyn Life]
Early December Snow [Pardon Me for Asking]
First Snow [Ditmas Park Blog]

Comments Off on Brooklinks: Monday Post-Snow EditionTags: Brooklinks

Upcoming: Gowanus Water Quality & Issues Meeting

December 3rd, 2007 · 1 Comment

That big forum about water quality and other issues concerning the Gowanus Canal is coming up this week. It will be held on Thursday (12/6). Called “The Future of the Gowanus Canal: A Community Forum on Environmental Quality,” it will include New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis. Representatives from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers and a variety of Gowanus Canal advocates. The meeting will take place from 6PM-8PM at the Belorusian Chruch at Atlantic Avenue and Bond Street. Sponsoring organizations include Community Board 6, the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, FROGG, the Urban Divers and many others. Mr. Grannis will apparently get a boat tour of the canal before the meeting.

→ 1 CommentTags: Events · Gowanus Canal

Bklink: Gowanus Rezoning

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Gowanus Rezoning

Ah, yes, the ongoing Gowanus rezoning. “Many developers aren’t waiting for rezoning. Potential buyers are taking options on sites. Landlords are signing only short-term leases or insisting on ‘demolition clauses’ letting them evict tenants with six months’ notice if a property is sold. A handful of hotels, which don’t require rezoning, have gone up in the past 15 months. And one apartment developer, impatient with the Planning Department, is said to be exploring alternatives that could include office buildings, also allowable under current zoning.”–Crain’s

Comments Off on Bklink: Gowanus RezoningTags: Gowanus · Shortlink

1000 Manhattan Ave. By Night: Duck

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on 1000 Manhattan Ave. By Night: Duck

1000 Manhattan Avenue Night

Our Greenpoint correspondent filed this photo of 1000 Manhattan Avenue, which is engaged in a brave fight with the forces of gravity, by night. The bracing that is helping to hold the building facade up has a certain something after dark. We do wonder how many people have discovered its presence the hard way, however.

Comments Off on 1000 Manhattan Ave. By Night: DuckTags: Construction Issues · Greenpoint

Bklink: Not Feeling the Fischer

December 3rd, 2007 · Comments Off on Bklink: Not Feeling the Fischer

Not everyone loves 20 Bayard Street on Karl Fischer Row. “I mean M. C. Escher couldn’t find his way into this building. There’s a central stair leading to two sweeping stairs up to the second level, what looks like a secret portal between the two “columns” straight ahead, and two flanking stairs that look they’re townhouse entries. How the hell do you get into this place? Better yet, how do you get in if you’re wheelchair bound?? If the answer is a chair lift, Karl Fisher deserves to lose his license to practice architecture in polite society – chair lifts should be a last resort in rehab projects.”–Brooklyn 11211

Comments Off on Bklink: Not Feeling the FischerTags: Shortlink · Williamsburg