We cringe whenever we mention events in September, because it reminds us that the end of summer is drawing closer and closer. Nonetheless, that would be a bad reason not to mention the Ninth Annual Community Board Seven Waterfront Festival in Sunset Park on September 29. It will take place on the 58th Street Pier (off First Avenue) from Noon-6PM. According to the email:

Experience the many cultures of our community through a day of music, art, performances, including food/refreshments from around the world. Activities include free boat rides, petting zoo, live music, dancing, informational sessions, free health and dental screening and displays from local social services. Bring your family and friends. Have a picnic and hang out with your community. Over 3,000 people came to the waterfront last year.

For more information, you can check CB7’s web page for the festival. Is it really almost September already?

[Photo courtesy of Community Board 7]

• Times’ Deceptive 421-a Developer Tax Break Coverage [AYR]
• Greenpoint’s Favorite Landlord, Josh Guttman, Unscathed by Fines, Penalties [NYP]
• F Train Express Gets Local Council Support [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Coney Island Rockabilly Fest Pics, Part I [Coney Island Reporter]
• Coney Island Rockabilly Fest Pics, Part II [Coney Island Reporter]
• Coney Island Lager at the Rockabilly Fest [Kinetic Carnival]
• Stems and Seeds at the BBG [Dope on the Slope]
• Ditmas Park Links [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• More Gentrification Talk [Bushwick BK]
• Brooklyn Kennels Plagued by Canine Illness [NYP]

Self-Absorbed Boomer comes from Claude Scales. Its name is a reference to the noted self-absorbtion of some members of the Baby Boom Generation. Mr. Scales is actually an attorney, although you wouldn’t guess it from his blog, except for the occasional reference to Lawrence Tribe.

One recent post compares an Austin-Healy 3000 to a Triumph TR6, both of which the blogger found parked in Brooklyn Heights. Of the aesthetics of the cars, Mr. Scales wrote, “I prefer the voluptuous curviness of the Healey and the MG to the angularity of the TR. As to whether I prefer the Healey or the MG, I’m still coming down on the side of the latter, largely out of agreement with Mies van der Rohe’s esthetic principle: ‘Less is more.'”

Check out Mr. Scales blog.

From our Sunday Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connections Guest Poster, Miss Heather, comes the following charmer, which we believe is our first Missed Connection requiring bail to hook up…

Most people are unable— or more likely unwilling— to understand that some things are simply not meant to be. This is especially true when it comes to missed connections; hence why I never trifled with them. In the clarity that is 20/20 hindsight, I can state with 100% certainty that the one thing most people need protection from above anything else is their own questionable judgment. Like the poster of this week’s “Missed Connection”. Thankfully, the N.Y.P.D. lent her a helping hand(cuff):

Cute boy with glasses at Death By Audio Saturday – w4m

You smiled at me at death by audio this Saturday, it looked like you wanted to talk to me. I was bar tending and couldn’t get away to introduce myself. You were talking with my Guy friend Alison when I was handing out free sparks. You had a cute smile and glasses. I would have talked to you when I was done but i got arrested instead.

In May of 2002 I went on a date that will live in infamy. My suitor was less than spectacular, but on the subway ride home I thought it over and decided I would give him a second chance. That’s when fate decided to intervene and I ended up at a police station in Briarwood, Queens.

The particulars of my situation are too complex to go into here. Suffice it to say that I was the plaintiff. After trying to negotiate the new paperwork the District Attorney’s office had provided them and wrangling a chap who tried to set a token booth on fire with a Mr. Bubble bottle filled with lighter fluid, the police called it a night and I was driven home. After 24 hours of no sleep whatsoever, I finally dozed off at 8:30 a.m.

Thirty minutes later I was awakened by my telephone ringing. Thinking it was the D.A.’s office I picked up the receiver. It was my mother. After assessing my disheveled state she proceeded to chew me out for being lazy, sleeping late and not looking for work.

I wish I had more missed connections like this woman’s. I would gladly accept having a rap sheet if the long-distance drubbing I got that morning was for my own criminal behavior and not someone else’s. As my fellow (T)ex-pat Gibby Haynes sagely opined:

…the funny thing about regret is that it’s better to regret something you have done than to regret something that you haven’t done…

—Miss Heather

There is no more dramatic way to see the Gowanus Canal than to get in a canoe and start paddling. You get to see the canal from sea level and (hopefully) emerge (unscathed) known that you have challenged all of the damage done to our favorite canal by man. If you want to get out on the Gowanus, then you definitely need to check out the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club. You can join the group–which does wonderful work to promote a cleaner canal–for as little as $25, but you don’t have to be a member to participate in their activities or to go out in a canoe. The full calendar of days you can take out a canoe (Thursday evenings sound especially nice to us) is here.

Here’s a little bit about the Dredgers in their own words:

The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club is a volunteer organization dedicated to providing waterfront access and education related to the estuary and bordering shoreline neighborhoods. The organization was founded in 1999 and is based on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. Activities are conducted on the canal as well as in neighboring waterfront communities of Red Hook, Sunset Park and Brooklyn Heights.

The Dredgers encourage an understanding of the NY-NJ harbor as a resource for recreation and education as well as a waterway for commuters, tourists and goods. During the 2003 season, over 1,000 individuals, including more than 200 youths, participated in our programs. We logged over 2,000 trips on the Gowanus Canal! As people experience and enjoy the waterfront they become advocates for its revitalization. These efforts are proving to be fruitful as recent legislation has provided funding primarily due to the rise in popularity of paddling on the Gowanus Canal.

All of the Gowanus Dredgers facilities, equipment and funding are used to provide safe access to the waterfront and to educate the community about the estuary. The organization runs an array of events throughout the year including paddling on the waterway, leading tours, conducting lectures at schools and public forums and participating in waterfront festivals. Volunteers in our programs monitor the health of oysters and sea grass that naturally clean the water. the Dredgers have adopted an apple tree that is growing on the shoreline. All Dredgers’ activities and workshops are free and membership in the organization is not required to participate in any activity. In addition, our facilities and services are available to the public to launch canoes, rowboats and kayaks.

Check them out.

Every week, we like to highlight a few comments left by GL readers during the previous week. Here are a few from the last seven days:

Circus Says It Love Coney Island. Really. Honest. “Maybe attendance was ‘down’ because nobody wanted to spend money going to a rinky dink no-name circus in the middle of August?” [Anonymous]

Brooklyn Developers Play Affordable Housing Advocacy Group Game. “So what happens when the continuing bust in housing market continues to unravel as Brooklyn developers rush to dev 7,000 + units most targeted to be luxury $500K +?? The blow up in housing mkt and fin markets hits Wall Street right here! They are going to be laying off lots of bankers and traders and shrinking bonuses- think 2001,2002 size.. That till stop dead in its tracks the flow of lux condo buyers! Will the developers then renege on their committed number of “affordable housing units”?? You bet…so North Brooklyn will be screwed yet again by the developers….” [Anonymous]

Were Circus Fans Afraid of Coney? “Develop Coney BIG TIME! Hotels amusements, retail, restaurants. Everybody stop living in the past and get Coney into Brooklyn’s future. Will Coney be the only neighborhood thats left behind in Brooklyn? It could be if you internet guys get your way.” [Muscle13]

• Department of Health Descends on Red Hook Vendors [Lost City]
• Spitzer Slammed for Back Room Developer Tax Break Deal [AYR]
• Coney Development, Planning and the Cost of Delay [AYR]
• Java Street Jackasses [newyorkshitty]
• In Williamsburg and Greenpoint Today [Brooklyn 11211]
• The Waterfront That Sugar Built [WPA]
• Atlantic Yards Demolition Update [Brit in Brooklyn]
• See Ya’ Socrates [11222]

…the Gowanus re-zoning won’t stop at the middle of Bond Street. City Planning doesn’t like to draw zoning lines down the middle of a street; this is a basic principle to keep a street balanced. The zoning change is typically drawn 100 feet into a block. We should expect that any up-zoning for the Gowanus will come at least 100 feet up towards Hoyt…we should expect a chunk of our current residential zoned area to get the same up-zoning they hope to apply to the Gowanus.

We have also herd chatter about how the residential area between Hoyt and Bond is so under built–consisting of one and two family homes. It seems Planning doesn’t feel that one and two family homes are appropriate for the community any longer. Those of us who live in this area between Bond and Hoyt NEED to be concerned. When a building doesn’t make full use of it’s allowed building size under zoning, it can be classified as “blighted” regardless of the condition of the building. Given the Mayor’s Office plan to build housing for millions more people by 2030, we all should be aware that our neighborhood looks ripe for the picking…

We know that Bayside has drawn up plans for buildings as tall as 12 stories, the Public Place discussion has been about 10 stories, and the discussion at the City Planning community meetings centers around 10 stories. We should be thinking about buildings this size going up on the west of Bond too. (Have you noted all the sales for property on the west side of Bond? Clearly property holders seem to be aware of something. And could the owners of 333 Carroll be waiting to be included in that change in order to continue with their high-rise?)

If you want to learn more, check out FROGG’s monthly meeting, which is happening on Monday, August 20 at 6:30 PM. It will take place at Smith & Vine, which is located at 268 Smith Street.

A group founded by Assemblymember Vito Lopez, the powerful Brooklyn Democratic Party boss, will be part of a development team looking to win city approval to build on Public Place, a massive Carroll Gardens property, this newspaper has learned.

The Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which Lopez founded in the 1970s, will team up with two groups founded by Carroll Gardens activist Salvatore “Buddy” Scotto—the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation (GCCDC) and the Carroll Gardens Association (CGA).

“It’s a pretty formidable team,” Scotto said…Angela Battaglia, the housing director for the [Ridgewood-Bushwick] not-for-profit organization, also did not return a call for comment.

Battaglia, who serves as a commissioner on the City Planning Commission, is Lopez’s girlfriend, according to several published reports.

“Chairman Lopez is the head of the Housing Committee, and to that end he is in a position to influence projects and their development. He has done a lot of good work but it also puts him in a position to influence a development of the site,” said a political insider, who did not wish to be named.

We are very, very, very confident in predicting that much South Brooklyn Insider Baseball is going to be played in coming months.

A new building with waterfront views will take advantage of its site by providing terraces and angled bay windows. The interior view proves that skyline can be viewed from a floor.

Not sure what that last line means, but we’ll venture to say that in the scheme of some of the awful stuff being tossed up all over Brooklyn these days, (including a very pedestrian structure on N. 7th Street near Roebling by the same firm), 111 Kent looks like it could be architecturally interesting–at least, if the rendering bears any resemblance to reality.

NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer has signed Assembly Bill #7746, which gives the Department of Buildings the authority to refuse to accept plans from architects or engineers “who have been found to have knowingly submitted false or inaccurate plans to the DOB in the past.” The so-called “self-certification” bill “empowers the Department of Buildings (DOB) to crack down on architects and engineers who abuse the professional certification system at the DOB,” according to Assem. Jim Brennan who sponsored the measure as part of a package of legislation. Self-certification by architects has been at the heart of the controversy over the Brooklyn development boom as some architects have submitted false or grossly distorted plans that they have certified as accurate. “This law gives DOB the tools to get tough with professionals who, frequently in league with developers, take advantage of the system and flout the law,” Brennan said in a press release. “It is hoped the new law will act as a powerful deterrent to illegal conduct.” Architect Robert Scarano gave up his ability to self-certify last year.

Someone identifying himself as Cole Bros. Marketing VP Chuck Werner left a comment on GL that we believe is worth highlighting as a full item. You might recall that Mr. Werner is quoted on both Kinetic Carnival and in the Brooklyn View noting that some people might not have come to see the circus in Coney because of fear of crime and lack of parking. Well, Mr. Werner says that someone made up the comments (well, at least the person posting as Mr. Werner does). Here’s the comment:

It is interesting to see all the “comments” I made which did not come from my mouth. Is someone advancing their own agenda? Of the thousands of Circus patrons, I heard one comment about parking (prices) from someone who did not know about the KeySpan parking lot. I heard absolutely no comments from patrons or staff about security concerns although we did arrange one security officer for overnight (as we always do at Marine, Forest, Van Cortlandt, Flushing Meadows and Midland Beach Parks. I think the person who saw the “sea of empty seats” may have been looking at the empty baseball stadium. My eyes and our attendance figures tell me Cole Bros. Circus enjoyed good business and a successful engagement and is anxious to return to Coney Island.

Tomorrow’s update to follow, we figure.

Related Posts:
Circus Says It Loved Coney Island. Really. Honest.
Were Circus Fans Afraid of Coney?