[Beautiful photo of Lull Water courtesy Frank Lynch/flickr]

Photos:

• Prospect Park in Fall Photos [Frank Lynch/flickr]
• Prospect Park Fall Photos [Jackie Weisberg/flickr]
• Fall in Carroll Gardens on Black Friday [Pardon Me For Asking]
• JC in Park Slope [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Gowanus Cement [Blue Jake]
• Coney in the Rain [Park Slope Street Photography]
• South Garden [Seriously Excited]

Not Photos:

• No Love in Borough Park for Tall Building Proposal [Brownstoner]
• Patient Social Capital Could Make a Difference Here [AYR]
• Electronics Recycling Today in Fort Greene [Easy Being Greene]
• Kensington Crash Pad [Brklynstories]
• Fun Coney Island Vid [Kinetic Carnival]
• Bed-Stuy Real Estate Picks [Bed-Stuy Blog]

This is one of the Boerum Hill “No menus, circulars, advertisments” signs that we posted about a while back. A kind GL reader sent us the photo (as well as some other that have nothing to do with the distribution of menus) to us, noting “NO FLIERS sign in action.” It comes Cobble Hill and seems to exhibit faith that no one will take it. We have seen a lot of the red “No Menus” signs distributed by the Park Slope Civic Council in doors in the Slope. Those were designed to stick to glass from the inside.

The Times ventures into Atlantic Yards land by looking at the issues of whether Brooklyn’s planned area will be vulnerable to terrorist truck bombs. It discovers the arena will be 20 feet from the street in places, the same distances as Newark’s new Prudential Center. In Newark, streets are now closed during events and it’s considered a planning embarrassment. In Brooklyn, 20 feet is considered safe. Sort of. Because everyone is stonewalling on giving answers.–NYT

This upside down beauty is from the corner of N 7 Street and Berry in Williamsburg, across from the development known as 7 Berry, where the condos are pretty high in price. The photo comes courtesy of our Greenpoint Correspondent and the careful observer will note an awful lot of pigeons in the shot. This is because this particular empty lot and the sidewalk in front are a prime spot for Williamsburg pigeons, being one of the neighborhood feeding grounds.

We totally dropped the ball when we got an email about this vid from Trace Crutchfield, but being so late out the starting gate that the race was over days ago, is no obstacle to posting it. (Gothamist featured it earlier this week, so many of you have likely encountered it already.) “This thought provoking Bedford Avenue political street talk is enlightening for all the wrong reasons,” Mr. Crutchfield writes. It does amuse.

This is an old Santa we found in a parking lot in Bushwick a few weeks ago. We don’t know if he had a final Christmas-related destination or if the lot is his permanent resting place. We do know that he could stand some fresher, brighter paint.

We’d been checking the website for Hotel Le Jolie in Williamsburg waiting for it to open, but it turned out the low tech method was better. Passing by on the BQE yesterday, we saw a big “Now Open” banner draped across the top of the first hotel to open in Williamsburg/Greenpoint. Le Jolie is a the sister hotel of Gowanus’ Le Bleu. It’s in an, um, interesting spot on Meeker Avenue, right up against the BQE and next to an abandoned gas station. (On the upside, Bamonte’s is right out the back door.) Room rates are in the $200-$300 range, although the hotel’s website is really still a place holder page right now.

Is Greenpoint’s 143 Huron Street the construction site that most blatantly thumbs its nose at neighbors, almost daring a Department of Buildings visit to find noisy, illegal construction work? (A DOB visit, we might add, that never seems to come.) There are many development sites in Brooklyn that ignore the law and shine a spotlight on ridiculously ineffective regulation, but 143 Huron is clearly in the running. According to New York Shitty, and a subsequent email, they rang in Thanksgiving by working until after 9PM on Wednesday night and workers were back on the job by 9AM on Thanksgiving and still at it at 3:30PM, according to a report from our Greenpoint correspondent. There were complaints filed with DOB on Wednesday night and again on Thanksgiving morning. Neither complaint was investigated. Nor, for that matter, was a complaint filed on October 16 (according to the Department’s own website). Which could help explain why 143 Huron–along with other choice North Brooklyn sites–continues to violate the law with impunity and subject its neighbors to loud construction noise at all hours of the night.

Last week, when we posted a video of workers bringing an era to an end in Red Hook by digging up the paving stones on Beard Street in advance of the opening of Ikea, we joked that they might make a reappearance in the sprawling parking lot or the waterfront “esplanade.” We had watched a truck driving the paving stones into the lot. Well, it turns out it’s not a joke. Ikea is using the paving stones that the city is ripping from Beard Street somewhere on its property. A short item in the Brooklyn Paper notes the removal of the paving stones saying that it “set off a momentary panic” in Red Hook, but that everyone should relax because an Ikea spokesperson “reminded” that the paving stones will end somewhere in the humongous parking lot. We suspect they’ll end up near the “esplanade” along the parking lot, but speaking of being “reminded” of things, if Ikea has any appreciation for irony perhaps the paving stones can be used as part of the parking lot over the filled-in Graving Dock. Also, is it too late for the store’s eatery to include a mural of the Todd Shipyard so that people can be “reminded” of what Red Hook looked like before it looked like Paramus?

A meeting dealing with the (possibly stalled) Brooklyn Bridge Park that was previously postponed has been rescheduled. The meeting is being held to get input on programming plans for the park, including whether there should be user fees and charges. The press release says in part:

In addition to a general statement of goals and major recommendations, the final Strategic Plan for Programming in Brooklyn Bridge Park will include suggestions for potential partnership arrangements and strategies, recommendations for interim uses during park construction, general recommendations for types of major facilities, infrastructure recommendations, a timeline for implementation of programs and construction of facilities and venues, and a financial plan for self-sustaining programming which carefully balances public and private uses.

The meeting will be held on Monday, November 26, from 6:30-9:00 pm at Congregation Mt Sinai, 250 Cadman Plaza West, in Brooklyn Heights. It is sponsored by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp.

Earlier this week, we had a street couch whose parts were in two different spots in Greenpoint. Today, we have a street couch that someone is moving around on Roebling Street. They are not moving it very far–only across the street. Yet, this couch has been on Roebling for several weeks and someone has taken the time to move it across the street. Our original post on this baby, when it was across the street, ran on November 14.

Yesterday, Kinetic Carnival posted a link to a Coney Island dancing elves thing they had created. Well, you too can create your own Brooklyn Elf flash flash fun. Of course, you can do it with friends and family, but you can also do it with public figures like City Council Members, developers and the like. We await the Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Atlantic Yards and others elves.–Elf Yourself

Here are some upcoming Brooklyn Community Board meetings, from a list compiled by the Daily News:

• Community Board 7 will hold its monthly meeting on Nov. 28 at 6:30 PM at the district office, 4201 Fourth Ave.
• Community Board 9 will have its general meeting on Nov. 27 at 7 PM at Middle School 61, Empire Blvd. between Nostrand and New York Aves.
• Community Board 12 will hold its monthly meeting on Nov. 27 at 7 PM at the AMICO Senior Center, 5901 13th Ave.
• Community Board 13 will have its general meeting on Nov. 28 at 7 PM at the Coney Island Hospital’s, second-floor auditorium, 2601 Ocean Parkway.
• Community Board 16 will hold its monthly meeting on Nov. 27 at 7 PM at 444 Thomas S. Boyland St., between East New York and Pitkin Aves.

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Happy Friday after Thanksgiving.

• Brooklyn Hospital Center Counting on Gentrification [Sun]
• Did Vieve Van Buren Survive a Plunge Into the East River? [PMFA]
• Thanksgiving in Prospect Park [Sustainable Flatbush]
• A Blogged Week [Bay Ridge Rover]
• Attention Park Slope Parents: Cute Stuffed Dog Toy Found in Slope [Velvet Sea]
• Tail Light Jesus [Brooklynometry]
• Weekend Events [Brownstoner]
• Canal Jean Co. Still in Flatbush [Brooklyn Junction]
• Thanksgiving Pastoral at the Astral [New York Shitty]
• Extra Brooklyn Desktop Photos [Brit in Brooklyn]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Bay Ridge’s excellent “stupid + retarded” tenant situation has taken another turn. Now, there is a festive sign in red and green telling tenants to “stop being sissy’s” and demand lights in the hallway go on by 4 PM. It the signs keep going up, will it be long before reporters seeing pics of the funny/nasty signs in blogs swing by for weekly updates?–Right in Bay Ridge

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

In case you were not up and out in time to get into a store at 4AM today, it might be of interest that today is Buy Nothing Day in the U.S. and Canada. (It’s tomorrow elsewhere.) Buy Nothing Day is “an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists.” The real question is: How many people who find crazed Black Friday shopping hordes anathema will participate by default?–Sustainable Flatbush

Like last year, we’ll be running a lot of holiday-related photos between now and December 25 or so. Here is the first, from Bedford Avenue. We think it has a certain holiday & workaday appeal.

Upon careful reflection on this Thanksgiving Day, we’ve opted to forgo Brooklinks, although we have new posts below as well as a number of Bklinks. We wish everyone a very happy and fulfilling Thanksgiving. Here at GL, we’re especially thankful for all our readers and supporters and contributors. We thank you all!

Thanksgiving is not a day for vegetarians (and certainly not for turkeys), so in the interest of information sharing, here are a couple of options. There is the do-it-yourself vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner (with or without Tofurky) option and there are some interesting recipes here.

While there are any number of options in Brooklyn and New York City, there are a few we’ll mention: Red Bamboo in Fort Greene is open for Thanksgiving dinner from 4PM-10PM. The three-course prix fixe menu is $19. The menus is online here (and looks like you can order for carryout too). They advise reservations.

Also, Foodswings, the Williamsburg vegan spot is offering a full Thanksgiving dinner from 5PM-10PM. The cost is $18. While Foodswings is a cool spot, it may not be everyone’s thing on Thanksgiving, so perhaps it would be a good take out option if you call in advance. They’re featuring “New England Turkey,” by the way.

‘Round Manhattan way, Counter on First Avenue in the East Village is offering a Thanksgiving dinner. It’s noted for being insane on holidays, but if you don’t mind a crowd, and reservations are still available, it could be a good option. Also in Manhattan, Candle 79 and Candle Cafe are each offering Thanksgiving dinners. Candle 79’s prix fixe is $65 (PDF menu); Candle Cafe’s is $50 (PDF menu) or you can order a la carte.

And, finally, for those who are interested, we’ll mention the Adopt-A-Turkey Project, from whence the photo, above, of Blossom came. Twenty bucks gets you an adoption.

Super Vegan has a nice, exhuastive list of options, so head over there to find one.

On this holiday, we’re thinking about the bedbug infested neighborhood horror known as the Astral and its new myspace group as well as the good people building 143 Huron Street who were pounding on their building last night until after 9PM in blatant disregard for neighbors and laws. Sadly, the Department of Buildings doesn’t care at all about what may be New York City’s most law-violating construction site.–New York Shitty

All we can say is this Coney Elf Boys creation by the gang at Kinetic Carnival is pure genius. Go there, and it will lead you to Joe Sitt, Marty Markowitz and other dressed as elves and dancing to a Coney song. Click here to visit.

Among the many things we’re thankful for on this tradition American day of Thanksgiving, is that we don’t live next to any developments under construction or any buildings that are about to come down. One of the projects that we’re especially thankful we don’t live next to is Urban Green in Williamsburg. We would not, for instance, want to live in one of the homes that has been subjected to the noise from this running motor, 24-7, for weeks and to the clouds of exhaust fumes wafting from the Third World-looking shack on the site. (Not to mention undermined by excavation early on.) Urban Green wishes to match “urban sophistication with suburban greenery” and there will be an “organic mixed media feature wall” and a “serene bamboo garden.” In the meantime, absorb the zen vrooming of the motor and breath deep, feeling the chi, as the exhaust cloud wafts serenely skyward.

Is there anyone out there that is interesting in taking in a sweet, older cat that is friendly, knows how to use a litter box and was rescued from an empty lot? If so, Mamacita needs a home. Please help.–Bad Advice