Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow night, you can check out the “Dear Pin-Up Girls” fundraiser at the Laila Lounge in Williamsburg. It’s the the second annual fundraiser for the New York Foundation for the Arts to benefit s.u.n.Arts shows and help support the emerging artists community in New York City.

The verbiage about it is as follows:

“Dear Pin-Up Girls” will be a subcultural mash-up of vaudeville-style performers with artists’ renderings and interpretations of pin-up girls. As last year, the event will be a showcase of all-female contemporary street artists, painters, and photographers working with the subject of alternative pin-up style. Complimenting the artwork will be burlesque acts live on stage, including Scooter Pie, Tali, and Amber Star + friends.

Joining the burlesque, urban, graffiti, and rock scenes, “Dear Pin-Up Girls” will feature the artists Toofly, Erotica 67, Lady K Fever, Jen One, Lady Eyecon, Muck One, ACET, Esther Sanchez, G Piedmonte, Martina Secondo Russo, Blair Bauer, MadgeOne, Shiro, and Alice Mizrachi. Two DJs, Laura Rebel Angel and Onerios One, will be trading off to spin a diverse and eclectic selection of music between stage acts, while dressed in vintage pin-up attire.

An outdoor grill will be serving up hot (and soy) dogs, and free giveaways will be available throughout the evening.

The event is tomorrow (8/9) from 7PM-Midnight at Laila Lounge, which is at 113 N. 7th Street in Williamsburg. There’s a $5 suggested donation at the door.

If you’ve checked recently, you might have noticed that Williamsburg now has a skyline. It’s not much yet–just very tall building north of the Williamsburg Bridge so far (plus one building south of the bridge)–but there will be more soon enough. In any case, Northside Piers, the Toll Brothers building that’s in the forefront is now fully glassed in. The masonry in front, directly on Kent Avenue, is the affordable housing part of the development known as Palmer’s Dock. Plus, a parking garage, we think.

Williamsburg resident and community activist Phil DePaolo has keeps an eye on development around Williamsburg. So, after a story in yesterday’s NY Post about a “condo crackdown” in Williamsburg that says the Department of Buildings has been issuing more Stop Work Orders–and our own post showing unauthorized Sunday construction work going on at a site that Mr. DePaolo and others have repeatedly complained about without results–he sent out an email titled “Condo Crackdown, Yeah Right!” Mr. DePaolo says the “crackdown” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Based on the miles we log every week checking out Williamsburg developments, we believe that Mr. DePaolo hits the nail on the head. Here’s what he writes:

I have been after DOB to monitor 525 Union Ave. for the last five months. They work after hours they have worked every Sunday since April. They did not work Sunday’s during the [Giglio] feast. But they have worked every Sunday since. The Modern on North 7th was only issued a stop work after damaging the L train Tunnel and drilling into the sewer line. But my months of complaining to DOB that the adjoining property at 203 N 7th was not being shored up and was starting to show cracks in its foundation were claimed to be resolved in June. And the collapsing sidewalk in front of the Modern was also claimed to be repaired in June and a earlier stop work order was lifted. Yet none of the claimed repairs were done. It’s only since last Friday that DOB has again ordered the shoring up of 203 North 7th when this work was supposedly completed in June. Stories like this only feed the illusion that DOB is doing anything. Makes you wonder.

We will simply point out that a few Stop Work Orders do not make up for years of looking the other way or for an inspection team that is not large enough to adequately monitor construction or for the very real complaints of activists like Mr. DePaolo who say that conditions that threaten quality of life (like after-hours and Sunday construction) or that literally threaten safety (like buildings that are undermined by construction) are ignored.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer has signed a measure that will help Community Boards to do planning under the state’s brownfield program. The measure, introduced by Sen. Velmanette Montgomery and Assemblywoman Joan Millman allows Community Boards to apply for certain planning grants from the Brownfield Opportunity Areas program. The measure had previously been vetoed by Gov. Pataki. The revised bill–which allows the boards to compete for the planning money–was passed on July 20.

Related Post:
Community Board Funding Measure on Governor’s Desk

[Photo entitled “Hellish Queue” courtesy of yanger/flickr]

We’ve seen a number of things over the last week or so, including a blog post yesterday, that indicate people might be getting a little tired of schleping to the Floating Pool in Brooklyn Heights and about waiting in long lines to get in under blazing summer sun. Everyone that gets into the pool, mind you, seems to really like it. The issue, it would appear, is the wait to get in, particularly on weekends. (We wondered aloud before it opened whether it would be overwhelmed with people, and the times we’ve seen the lines, they’ve been very, very long.) The post we’re talking about appeared on Brooklyn Enthusiast. Here’s a sample:

I was all ready to go with my towel and bathing suit but then the reality quickly set in that I wasn’t the only person in Brooklyn with that idea.

I got to the pool and when I saw how long the line was to get a bracelet, we left. There was no way even if we got into line that we would make the next swim time of 5:00 pm and it was only 3:10 at that point.

I love that it’s free and has become an accessible getaway on hot days like today for the many children in the city. It’s such a great idea and I would totally pay to go if there was another less crowded location.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen an unending stream of emails about the pool, like this one that appeared in the Boerum Hill Group:

My husband took the B63 with our two children, aged 6 and 4. It was a longish, ugly, heavily trafficked walk from Atlantic Avenue to the pool. There was a two-hour wait for the pool on a weekday afternoon. They skipped it and went to DUMBO park.

In all fairness, a lot of weekdays are said to be far less crowded.

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

• A Few Thoughts About Brooklyn Blogging [newyorkshitty]
• Kent Avenue is Now Good for Drag Racing Again!!! [Brooklyn 11211]
• Attacks on Women in Williamsburg [Gothamist]
• Smaller One Hanson Units Selling Best [Brownstoner]
• Yassky Opposes New Walentas Dumbo Building [Dumbo NYC]
• Save Dumbo [Brooklyn Enthusiast]
• Red Hook Ikea Construction Porn [Racked]
• Gardens Aren’t Just for Suburbanites [Green Brooklyn]
• Unlocked Gate Draws Rowdy Vandalizing Late Nighters [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tour [Velvet Sea]
• Rats at 541 Washington [Brownstoner]

Green Brooklyn, which covers environmental issues from a Brooklyn perspective, is one of the blogs that we track every day. Coverage ranges from the Exxon-Mobil Oil Spill in Greenpoint to composting drop off spots and the voice is one of concern and constructive suggestion about public policy. With environmental issues looming large all over Brooklyn–not to mention the obvious sustainability and environmental issues–Green Brooklyn is one to keep your RSS feed.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

One of the more interesting Brooklyn traditions is the annual celebration of the Battle of Brooklyn, the Revolutionary War fight that took place in what is now Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery. So, for instance, if your shopping at the Staples on Fourth Avenue at Third Street around mid-August, keep in mind that British and American soldiers were probably killing each other somewhere in the vicinity of the office furniture section 231 years ago. There are, in fact, mass graves still rumored to be here and there around the neighborhood. In any case, the annual Battle Week is coming up from August 18-26. Here’s a sample of the highlights:

“Battle Week” begins at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 18th when the Memorial Remembrance takes place outdoors on the street at Eighth Street and Third Avenue, a location that is believed to be a burial site for some of the fallen heroes of the First Maryland Regiment. The event is sponsored by the Michael A. Rawley Jr. American Legion Post No. 1636, located nearby on 9th Street, and the Brooklyn Irish American Parade Committee.

Following the Memorial Remembrance ceremony, participants and visitors will travel in a procession, led by bagpipers, to the Old Stone House, the 308-year-old building in nearby J.J. Byrne Park that is an interpretative center about Brooklyn’s role in the American Revolution. The Open House will begin at 11:30 a.m. The park is located on Third Street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues.

The Open House program on August 18th at the Old Stone House will include presentations by the organizations and sites that are presenting “Battle Week” activities, as well as a living history program with uniformed re-enactors, and a reading of “By the Sword” a children’s book by Selene Castrovilla.

There are always many events at the Old Stone House in J.J. Byrne Park in Park Slope.

Coney Island, Brooklyn

Remember that building at 525 Union Avenue, whose Sunday work has been tormenting parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Williamsburg? (That’s the church that runs the Giglio Feast every year.) There are active complaints against the building for Sunday work, but nothing has been done to stop the noisy construction work that parishioners have complained interferes with Sunday services. The building had been quiet for a few Sundays. Well, we stopped by yesterday to take some pics of some very impressive tagging on a new wall on the building. Lo and behold, we heard loud banging coming from inside the building, saw workers climbing around the building and, even, a generator truck parked outside with power lines running inside. We don’t know if the work started after mass or was ongoing during mass, because the video we shot that appears here was around 6:00 PM. Ironically, today’s Post suggests that that Department of Buildings is “cracking down” on Williamsburg developments violating city regulations by issuing an increased number of Stop Work Orders.

Talk about sending messages through the press. Yesterday, Jotham Sederstrom scored the Brooklyn scoop of the month so far, writing a story in the Daily News quoting “a high-ranking city official” saying that developer Joe Sitt’s ambitious Coney Island redevelopment is “dead in the water,” among other things. It would seem that such a “high-ranking official” is either New York City Economic Development Corp. director Robert Lieber (who has made some fairly pointed remarks about the plan in the past) or Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff himself (which would truly be the kiss of death). At issue are the usual problems: (A). Thor’s plans for hundreds of time shares (which appear to be seen as the wolf of apartments wearing the sheep’s cloting. (B). The developer’s political and PR strategy, which have managed to alienate just about every key player in the Coney Island process. (C). The need for a $100 million subsidy and (D). Fears that Mr. Sitt will flip the property after the zoning is changed. Here is a sample of the story:

A developer’s $1.5 billion fantasy plan to turn Coney Island into a glitzy seaside resort is “dead in the water,” a high-ranking city official told the Daily News.

It’s the harshest denunciation yet by the Bloomberg administration – and could signal the beginning of the end for Thor Equities’ ambitious proposals. The city has never been thrilled with Thor’s Las Vegas-style vision for the amusement mecca and the gritty neighborhood that abuts it.

Officials are steaming over the developer’s plan for 350 time-shares at the envisioned hotels. The developer came up with the time-share scheme after it vowed to cut a luxury residential component from the blueprint.

Thor’s push for $100 million in city subsidies – and fears that the developer might just turn around and sell the property once the zoning is changed – also irked City Hall. “It was clearly designed merely to try to get a lucrative zoning change and massive city funding without genuine regard to Coney Island’s future,” the city official said. “It’s atrocious.”

The official said Thor must toss its current plan and come up with a more acceptable plan before the city will even meet with the developer. “Thor’s proposal is dead in the water,” the official said.

This war has been fought very publicly before, so we don’t expect that this is the last chapter in any way, shape or form. We expect that the next step will be another public proclamation by the developer that he will leave Coney Island without full public support (with the sub-text being that he will leave Coney Island in ruins.) The real problem, of course, would that if Mr. Sitt’s plan is indeed “dead in the water” it presents a real problem for Coney Island, given the vast amount of prime land that he now owns and his willingness to start bulldozing as a negotiating tactic.

One senses that the real victim of all this will be poor, poor Coney Island.

Here’s an up to date shot of one of the buildings going up at the booming intersection of N. 10th Street and Berry in Williamsburg. The building you are looking at–125 N. 10th Street–is next to our old friend, 55 Berry Street. (In case you’re going to wonder what it’s going to look like and who designed it, click over here for a refresher.) Some of the new residents there, no doubt, have excellent views of the action. It’s also attracted quite a following among the neighbors. The Department of Buildings website shows very recent complaints for inadequate protection of the adjacent building and cement being splashed on first floor windows. Inspectors say there were no problems when they arrived to check out those complaints.

What you’re looking at is the new building at N. 7th and Berry Street in Williamsburg, which has finally lost the scaffolds and netting that has surrounded it since last year. The building has the tentative name “Seven Berry,” and to us, it has always sounded like a breakfast cereal. The building is the work of the Williamsburg Everywhere Guy, Karl Fischer Architect, also known for designing most of the buildings on Bayard Street east of McCarren Park, which we like to call Karl Fischer Row. The building actually looks almost exactly like its rendering.

We’re going to start a new feature for the next few weeks highlighting some of the great Brooklyn blogs that we like and read. We’re going to mix things up, by topic and by neighborhood. Given that there are so many good blogs in our borough, even if we do one a day for the next month we, we’ll only skim the surface. If anything, we are going to err on the side of featuring blogs that a bit less widely known with apologies in advance to our friends at Brownstoner and other prominent Brooklyn blogs. Like we said, however, we’ll mix it up and, hopefully, when all is said and done, you’ll be left with more “I didn’t know about that one, it’s pretty cool” than “I’ve been reading that every day for two years.”

Our inaugural blog is Brooklynometry, which started up in July and looks like it’s going strong with daily posts. The product is electic, with a lot of posts revolving around doings on Prospect Park Southwest. The entry that appears in the screen cap below, for instance, is about the local cafe Lonelyville:

Like all the bees that are harvesting from the well-tended and gracefully arranged plants which include beebalm, cone flowers, hostas, hibiscus, hydrangea, impatiens…..and many more. Lonelyville, on PPSW near Vanderbilt, faces Prospect Park, and you can sit in front in an Adirondack chair and let your dog drink from the water bowl at your feet. What can I say? It’s a gift to the neighborhood.

Check it out.

We often post about the issue of sewage and the Gowanus, which is one of the things that will doom any cleanup effort of the canal if left unaddressed. Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that –claims in the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement to the contrary–the massive development at Atlantic Avenue and Flatbush Avenue will increase the threat to the Gowanus. How this will all play out with developers that hope to sell million dollar condos in a neighborhood in which a body of water is treated like an open sewer and in which sewage regularly floods the streets is an interesting question. In that context, it’s worth reading the new article on Scienceline called Too Big for Its Britches by Meredith Knight. Here’s a sample:

The thousands of Atlantic Yards residents will produce millions of gallons of sewage. Oozing from their garbage disposals and toilets it will flow down pipes, slither underground through South Brooklyn and–if it’s raining–deposit itself less than half a mile away in a hundred-year-old waterway called the Gowanus canal. The stagnant channel in the shadow of two large public housing projects–described by some as an “underwater junkyard”–is strewn with car parts, crumbling cement and, sometimes, raw sewage.

When there’s heavy rain, sewage from overwhelmed drainage pipes rushes into the canal, flooding nearby homes with bacteria-laden wastewater. Residents have even reported 10-foot geysers of sewage. It’s a foul-smelling symptom of a problem that has long plagued central Brooklyn, where the combined storm water-sewage pipe system built more than a century ago now faces the demands of the hundreds of thousands of people living nearby.

Many of those residents are worried that the massive Atlantic Yards project will worsen the situation, despite the developers’ promise to ease the impact by building water storage tanks and installing low-flush toilets. They say the city is backing down on its commitment to reduce sewage overflows in the neighborhood, and to create runoff-absorbing wetland areas that could serve as buffer zones along the fetid canal, a plan originally developed by the city along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s really a matter of too many pipes going to one place and not enough being done by the [New York City] Department of Environmental Protection,” said Michael Ingui, chairman of Gowanus Community Development Corporation, a neighborhood improvement organization.

There’s a lot more to the article and it’s definitely worth a read.

If you’ve ever wanted to get up close and personal with Newtown Creek, or just hang by the water and read a book, you will soon have your chance. The photo taken by our Greenpoint correspondent and posted on flickr shows the progress of work on the park at the end of Manhattan Avenue. Work has been on there for a long, long time, but it looks like they’re in the home stretch. There is eventually supposed to be a sister park across the water in Long Island City, but we don’t know the exact status of those plans. Personally, we’ve always liked the idea of a retractable pedestrian bridge on this spot to connect the two spots. At one time, there was an actual bridge in this place, but that was a looooong time ago.

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

• A Nuanced Take on Gentrification [Atlantic Yards Report]
• Post-Nuptial G Train Fun [newyorkshitty]
• My Failed Trip to the Floating Pool [Brooklyn Enthusiast]
• Judith Supine Takes Over Manhattan Bridge [Gothamist]
• Hanging Neon Green Figure Makes Impression [Sun]
• Local Pizzeria Versus Papajohn’s in Sunset Park [NYT]
• Brooklyn Heights Pizza Statue Murder [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Too Many Downtown Hotel Rooms? [No Land Grab]
• Dumbo Weekly Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Clinton Hill Blog Guest Posting on Curbed This Week! [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Grassroots Community Library [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Coney Ride Malfunction Injures Teen Rider [NYDN]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

We hate to keep harping about the hideous condition of Coney Island’s trip-and-fall boardwalk, but the fact that we were afraid we were going to break through a plank the other night, uh, renewed our interest in it. That and the fact that we shot a nice pic of a hole surrounded by trash cans. The awful thing about the reprehensible level of disrepair into which the Parks Department has let it fall is that part of the delay in fixing it may be due to both other budget priorities and redevelopment plans for Coney Island. In other words, the city may be reluctant to invest money into repairs knowing that rebuilding could result in parts of the boardwalk being torn up. In the meantime, walk very, very carefully. The temporary planks placed over the holes are almost as big a hazard than the problem they are intended to cover up.

Every week, we start looking for our favorite Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection–that one ad that makes us laugh or smile or cringer. And, every week, we worry that we won’t find anything out of the ordinary. Our fears always prove wrong. We had an instant lightbulb moment when we saw the headline on this one, “Blindfolded in Williamsburg“:

My friend was leading me around the streets blindfolded yesterday. Her dog, Fred, was with us. We ran into 2 or 3 girls who were walking another dog; I have no idea what kind of dog or even where we were, though we were walking under young trees. The dogs wanted to play and fight, which was actually kind of scary to listen to and not be able to see, but I heard giggling, so I thought we’d all be alright. As she pulled the dog away and I stumbled along feigning terror, you said, “Should I even ask?” to my friend, which pretty much summed up the scene.

I didn’t see you but you sounded very cute, and well, I’d love to see what you look like, since I’m not actually blind. I could have peeked but that would have been cheating… So, in the off chance you see this, and are curious, get in touch.

We can go on a blind date.

Ba da boom.

Here are some vids shot in Dumbo, including quite a few of the Boredoms 77 Drummers performance in July. Click on the embedded player and enjoy.

Every week, we highlight a few comments left by GL readers during the previous week in our “On the Sofa” feature. Here are some of this week’s featured thoughts:

Meet the Sad Face of Brooklyn Gentrification’s Human Toll. “we’ve been down this road before & will keep on it for a long time to come, i’m afraid. in the plainest language possible, it’s a fucking outrage these jerks can’t wait for old folks– the very people who kept and made neighborhood x/y/z attractive places to ‘speculate’ later– to die… it won’t be THAT long.” [WWIB]

McDonald’s Smith Street Rumor Confirmed? “seems like more speculation to me. “This newpaper has learned” and “expected to” sound like the info was gleaned from blogs. Where’s the source? There’s no more information there than previous rumors have provided.” [deanstreet]

Is Prospect Park Getting the Short End of the (Car-Free) Stick? “What do we have to do to get the existing car-free hours enforced? Every morning, long before 7AM, when cars are permitted, cars are entering at Park Circle and zipping up the big hill to GAP and even to Third Street. Police and Parks vehicles pay them absolutely no mind.” [Janet]

Attack of the Car Alarms on Boerum Hill. “Complaints to 311 about car alarms are forwarded to 911. Technically, it’s an alarm and could indicate a crime in progress. That said, I think vandalizing a car with an over-sensitive alarm is a fine idea. Audible car alarms should be illegal, period.” [Anonymous]

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Today’s photo, however, takes us out-of-borough to Flushing Meadows Park, in case you noticed that we put a Queens photo on Brooklinks.

• It Came from the Yard [The Food of the Future]
• Lessons from Book on the Pulaski Highway for Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• Red Hook Container Port Not Necessarily Going [NYT]
• Active Dean Street Driveway [seriously excited!]
• Joe Sitt Suggesting Reading List [Out & Back]
• What’s the Gowanus Plan? [Lex’s Folly]
• About the Tree the Brooklyn Heights Coop Wants to Murder [NYT]
• Fort Greene Rental Market v3 [Set Speed]
• Big Blue Fence Up at Kings Plaza [Gerritsen Beach.Net]
• Won’t You, uh, Be My Neighbor [Brooklyn Neighbor]
• Got Clams? [Lost City]
• Get Renters Insurance [Esthetic/Aesthetic]
• What to Read to Your Kids [I’m Seeing Green]