If you read GL, you might know that we also post over at Curbed from Monday through Friday. Here is some of this week’s unreplicated Curbed goodness.

• Checking in on Maspeth Condo Alley’s ‘Rectangular’ Olive Park
• ‘Silvery Metallic Megastructure’ Coming to Burg’s Union Ave.
• An Olive Garden Grows Quickly in Brooklyn
• Park Slope Dog Crap Sign Gets Summer Touch
• Another Wet Dream: 80 Met Sales Office Coming to Billyburg

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

[Photo courtesy of Blue Jake]

The red brick Beach Russ Building at 544 Union Ave. in Williamsburg, whose demolition we have followed a bit, and whose replacement we posted about over at Curbed, is gone. As in, nothing left but a pile of bricks. The photo above is from Blue Jake‘s Jake Dobkin. He writes in part:

For the last few weeks, a crew has been demolishing the Beach Russ Building on Union Avenue in Williamsburg. I tried to get in a couple of times, but it was locked up pretty tight, and when I got back to the neighborhood yesterday, the entire thing had vanished…It’s hard to believe such a large building could just disappear so quickly– and contemplating the “luxury” glass condo that’s going up in its place just makes me want to puke. Is this really the New York that anyone wants to live in?

If you haven’t seen the replacement building, it’s underneath the photo of the original building below in all it’s glory. It’s different than what came before it. In an odd way, it reminds us of buildings that we’ve seen in Stuttgart and Berlin.

The Cole Bros. Circus is in Coney Island through tomorrow, August 5. Here’s a look at it from the Wonder Wheel if you wish as we send in the clowns, so to speak.

We were going to make this a “Photo Du Jour,” but it’s way too on-topic not to merit a few extra words. This is the scene on the lot next to the Thor Equities site where the Cole Bothers Circus is set up through tomorrow. This is some of the demolition equipment that has been tooling around on the property since winter. We will simply note that it has not been withdrawn, only relocated to a holding pen of sorts to make room for the circus. There is concern in Coney circles that the Henderson’s Building and Shore Hotel structure will be the next properties to be reduced to vacant lots surrounded by blue fencing after the current season. (Not to mention the premature closing and demolition of Astroland, which still appears to be on track.

Our favorite Williamsburg dating advice/real estate development blogger has struck again with another brilliant find. This time it’s an add for “the modern artist” in the Loom Building on Flushing Avenue. Bad Advice writes:

. . . the Loom Building doesn’t want your tired, Old-Master ass. This leaser of creative spaces is only interested in the modern artist…I doubt any displaced aspiring Pollacks will be able to afford it.

Do head over and check out the post in full. With all the real estate development going on on Union Avenue and Roebling and environs, we’re confident that Bad Advice will be mixing even more development blogging in the with the more human relations-oriented stuff.

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related information and, especially on weekends, images.

Images:

• Beneath the BQE in East Greenpoint [Blue Jake]
• Navy Yard Cranes [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Oasis [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Grand Army Plaza [Park Slope Street Photography]
• McGuinnessmobile [Chicapoquita/flickr]
• Boat Fire [Gerritsen Beach.Net]
• Dance of the Gypsies in Coney Island [Blather From Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn Supreme Courthouse [seriously excited!]

Verbiage:

• City Will Reconsider Anti-Photography Rules [NYT]
• Con Ed Cuts Voltage in Some Brooklyn Neighborhoods [NYP]
• Greening of South Slope Going Nicely [Curbed]
• Red Hook Submarine Incident Enlivens Friday [NYP]
• Bushwick Apartment Roundup [Bushwick BK]
• Manhattan Bridge Bikeway Reopens on Monday [Streets Blog]
• Brooklyn Bridge Deficient, Gowanus Getting Worse Every Day [McBrooklyn]
• 467 Union Street Bites Dust [Brownstoner]
• Belvedere Rising [newyorkshitty]
• 7th Avenue Books Moving Sale [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Here’s 11218 [Kensington Brooklyn]

Coney Island, Brooklyn
[Photo courtesy of Sarah Paradise/flickr]

Every now and then we like to note First Saturday program at the Brooklyn Museum. That’s the night when you can gain free admission to the museum and enjoy both the museums arts and a program of music and other events. First Saturday is tonight and the theme of the entertainment and events is Caribbean. You can check the schedule here. What we can tell you is that it’s a fun night and the price is so very right. First Saturday runs from 5PM-11PM. Check it out.

[Photo courtesy of Keylime Steve/flickr]

We knew it was going to be good, and the back story of the submersible device busted near the Queen Mary 2 in Red Hook does not disappoint. A tipster to both Curbed and Gothamist identified the person behind the sub as artist Duke Riley and it turns out that flickr photo and Key Lime Pie Maker Keylime steve had posted a flickr photoset, Adventures with an Egg, on the project. The sub had even had a standoff with the Coast Guard when it was first launched.

Just when you thought a hot day couldn’t get any hotter, comes this bizarre story about three people taken into custody for having a submersible device off Red Hook near the Queen Mary 2. 7Online is reporting that the police say it isn’t terrorism related, but no one is reporting, just yet, what it’s related to. Except that 1010Wins is reporting that the “captain” of the ship is from Greenpoint. We have faith, however, that assuming there is an innocent explanation, that it will be quite interesting. Whatever it is.

From Greenpoint?

Coverage:

• Makeshift Submarine Found in East River [7Online]
• 3 Arrested on Submersible Near Queen Mary 2 in Brooklyn [WNBC]
• Three Pulled from Sub-Like Vessel in NYC River [ABC]
• Yellow Submarine Found in Red Hook [1010Wins]
• Submarine-Like Vessel–and 3 Men–Found in Brooklyn [Gothamist]

UPDATE: Mystery solved. And it’s great. There’s a whole flickr set from Keylime Steve on “The Egg.” We knew it would be interesting.

Don’t look now, but the zoning recommendations for Coney Island will probably be out before the end of August. We don’t know if the date is official, but what we’re hearing is August 24 or August 28. This is in keeping with the word floating around in Coney circles that the zoning recommendations would be out by September, perhaps after Labor Day. (It should be noted that previous dates have slipped.) A long land use review process would follow and any rezoning would ultimately have to be approved by the City Council. We would guess that any zoning changes wouldn’t be finalized until the last half of 2008 or the first half of 2009, which calls into question the strategy of demolishing things at the end of the 2007 summer season and creating a disaster for Coney next summer.

The key Coney battleground is what kinds of uses to permit in the historic Amusement District as well as what densities to allow. There is significant opposition to both condos and to timeshares as well as buildings that would exceed the height of the Parachute Jump. The CIDC is said to still be leaning to allowing hotels west of Stillwell Avenue and to allowing retail, but timeshares are considered the same as residential and there is opposition to this. There is, of course, a school of thought that says that if Mr. Sitt builds say, two or three “hotels,” that it will produce a glut of rooms and that they will fail. Hence, several years down the road, the developer would be looking to convert the hotels to condos. There’s an ongoing discussion of some of the specific zoning issues over at the Coney Island Message Board.

[Photo courtesy of UNO]

We came across this on the blog started by UNO (United Neighbors Organization), which is working to protect tenants from displacement and eviction in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The picture touched our hearts–as it was certainly intended to do. No to be dramatic or emotional, but it simply breaks our hearts that a 90-year-old woman would have to grapple with losing her home of 50 years. Every day, we see something that makes us say that there is something very, very, very wrong with the New York City of the early 21st Century. That “something” generally has to do with deprivation and struggles that we see in a city with so much mindboggling affluence. The other night, it was a group of children on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. They were probably six to twelve years old, and out by themselves. A girl, who was 10 or 12 was “in charge.” They were loud and a little rowdy and were trying to pool together some money for a slice of pizza. It upset us to see children that young out on their own, pretty much scrounging for food in a neighborhood where spoiled and pampered children can be found in abundance.

Today’s sad story (and it’s still so very early) is that of Marie Tinghitella. Here it is from the UNO blog:

Her name is Marie Tinghitella a 90 year old resident of Williamsburg. She just received a Marshals Notice of Eviction to vacate the apartment that she called home for the past 50 years.

With the Support of UNO, Saint Nicholas and Legal Aid for the Aging she was able to vacate the eviction notice for a couple months while she can find an affordable and decent place to leave, and hopefully in the community that she call home: Williamsburg.

According to our records, at least one Senior Citizen a month is displaced or is facing harassment from their landlord.

If you want to get more information on tenant’s rights or know a senior that is facing harassment please call us at 718-388-5454 xt. 123 or xt 107.

When we look at that face, we see a thousand grandmothers, including our own. It is so, so, so wrong.

We haven’t done a Coney Island Death Watch item in a long time because the active demolition and evictions by Thor Equities took a hiatus for a bit. We take no pleasure in bringing it back. However, now that plywood has gone up on the Henderson’s Building, we got word that plywood is also going into the windows of the old Shore Hotel on Surf Avenue and Henderson Walk. The very knowledgeable Coney source that brought it to our attention notes that “My guess is that it’s the first step on the road to demolition.” The photo above was shot on Tuesday night, so we’re guessing the application is either very recent or out of range of the lens. Nonetheless, the point is that it indicates that Thor Equities is moving ahead with plans for massive demolition in Coney Island long in advance of any new construction. Even in a best case scenario, construction would be at least 18-24 months down the road, so we must ask again: What is the sense of deliberately creating more blight in Coney Island long in advance of redevelopment? We have our own theories and none of them speak to good will or to the good motivations of the developer.

Something tells us the city may not be following its own rules when it comes to repair work on a sewer line in Park Slope. A GL reader emailed at a very late hour to say:

For the last three weeks, the city has been working on a sewer repair project in Park Slope, almost right outside my window. The noisy, earth shaking work goes on during normal hours for construction. Equipment for the project, however, is picked up and dropped off several times a week, like it’s being taken to other sites when it’s not needed outside. The contractors always do their pick ups and drop offs between 11PM and Midnight. Tonight, they were outside dropping off a backhoe at 12:30 AM. It’s gotten so that I can tell when they’ve arrived by the sound of the huge truck beneath my window. Then, for the next 15 minutes or so, I get to listen to clanking and banging as the equipment is unloaded from the trailer it came on. Is this legal?

Interesting question and we’re fairly certain there’s an appropriate bureaucratic response.

From nyc.gov comes news that the north bikeway of the Manhattan Bridge will reopen on Monday, August 6. The north bikeway has been closed since last October because of “various construction tasks in association with the rehabilitation of the lower roadway of the bridge as well as to ensure and maintain public safety during the rehabilitation.” When the bikeway reopens the south walkway will return to pedestrian use only. Work on the lower roadway, which has been closed since last fall, is scheduled to wrap up in October. The entire Manhattan Bridge project will run through 2013. More info about the project is available here.

[Photo courtesy of Icky in Brooklyn]

We got an email from the creator of the new Windsor Terrace blog, Icky in Brooklyn, (aka Cranky in Windsor Terrace) the other day. Besides being a Windsor Terrace blog, which we applaud, its early entries show tremendous promise. Here’s a sample from a post this week called Hail Windsor Terrace, Full of Grace:

I am neither Irish nor Catholic; but I like Ireland, and I like churches. In some way, this qualifies me to live among and be accepted by the generations of Clarks and O’Somethings that live up and down our shady blocks.

Although Park Slope pushes south like a loud, cranky toddler (and the lone available house on our block just went for $1.2 mil), our elder generation of VFW members and stoop-sitters have largely pushed the stroller brigade back across the front lines. (Sixteenth street.) “I ain’t sellin’. Where would I go anyways?” Nothing I like better that a stubborn ol’ crank. (It’s what I aspire to be.)

The center of our universe is Holy Name, which encompasses the church, the school, the ballfield, the day camp, the boy scouts, the senior center … you get the idea. I sometimes think of it as “the complex.” It is a block long and an avenue deep, and the neighborhood radiates out from it. I’ve never been inside (not being Catholic), so it scares me a little; but bells still toll in Windsor Terrace every hour and that’s good enough for me.

And do read yesterday’s post about Celebrate Brooklyn concert goers getting off the F Train at 15th Street and looking around Windsor Terrace for the show. Icky in Brooklyn lists its favorite blog as newyorkshitty which is (a). very cool with us and (b). indicative of the blogger’s mindset, which we applaud.

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

• A Look at the Condition of NYC Bridges [Gothamist]
• Brooklyn Bridge is One of Three with Poor Rating [City Room]
• Could the Gowanus Expressway Collapse? [BDE]
• Last Day to Oppose The Anti-Photography Regs. Do It. [Blather from Brooklyn]
• Spurned Starrett City Buyer Throws Hail Mary Pass [NYT]
• Stuy Town Park a Harbinger of Atlantic Yards? [AYR]
• Love Lane Garage is No More [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Tossed from Love Lane Garage? Park at 85 Livingston [McBrooklyn]
• Newell Street Art Therapy [newyorkshitty]
• Urban Green is Stalled [Brownstoner]
• Taggers Caught Tagging Via Digital Camera [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Something Brewing Again in Bushwick? [Bushwick BK]
• Fort Greene Rental Market v2 [Set Speed]
• Ditmas Park Local Links [Living in Victorian Flatbush]
• Nobody Buying at Carroll Gardens Atrocity Building [Brownstoner]
• Old Bricks [BK 11201]
• Bed-Stuy Kid Flicks Every Friday [Bed-Stuy Blog]

We’re posting this because (a). the graphics for this performance amused us in an odd way and (b). it amused us even more because the venue is “The Yard,” the performance space on the Gowanus that until recently housed the Issue Project Room and now is home to show being put on by Mean Red Productions. Today’s offering is the Paul Green School of Rock Music, which is the original performance based, interactive music school, founded in Philadelphia. Here’s some verbiage from the email:

The School of Rock All Stars are comprised of the best, brightest, and hardest working students from the various branches, the All-Stars have but one mission: TOTAL ROCK DESTRUCTION.

To date The Paul Green School of Rock students have played over 350 concerts to more than 100,000 people. The All Stars have performed on stage with such name-artists as Peter Frampton, Jon Anderson (from YES), Alice Cooper, Adrian Belew, John Wetton, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, and more.

The Yard is located at 400 Carroll Street, next to the Carroll Street Bridge. Doors open at Noon. Admission is $12 and $8 for students. The Yard, by the way, has a myspace page that you can check out here.

If you want to increase your knowledge of Park Slope history, then try a walking tour coming up tomorrow (8/4) called Park Slope: Beyond Brownstone. It’s described by its sponsors, the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment, as follows:

Most of Park Slope developed after “Brownstone Brooklyn” and was built for the borough’s elite at the turn of the 20th century. Matt Postal will lead a tour that focuses on many of the neighborhood’s most interesting and memorable mansions. In particular, those mansions designed by local architects, including works in the Queen Anne, Romanesque and neo-Georgian styles. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fee: $10 for BCUE members, $13 nonmembers. Meet in front of St. Augustine’s Church, Sixth Ave. near Sterling Place. (718) 788-8500.

You can find the entire BCUE tour schedule here. Meanwhile, we’ll have info about another BCUE tour tomorrow.

[Photo of view from Clemente’s courtesy of Project Me!]

• Clemente’s in Sheepshead Bay Makes You Want a Houseboat [Project Me!]
• Schnitzel on Coney [Ditmas Park Blog]
• Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook [423 Smith]
• Korean Barbecue at Dokebi [Brooklyn Nester]
• No Longer a Tontonno’s Virgin [Clinton Hill Gastronome]
• Brook’s Valley in Bed-Stuy Turns One [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brownstoner]
• How Awful is Peter Luger These Days? [Chowhound]
• Nio’s Trinidad Roti Shop! [Porkchop Express]

We received an email along with a group of photos of the original feral dogs of Red Hook & Gowanus from Regina Massaro of the Spay Neuter Intervention Project (SNIP). Ms. Massaro and SNIP helped rescue the dogs. (Several were even pulled from the Gowanus when they were drowning.) We’ve never seen photos of them, although we knew of their existence. Ms. Massaro says that the Revere Sugar Dogs in Red Hook, which have now been rescued, came from the 9th Street Dogs. Here is part of what she wrote:

It is my belief that the Revere Sugar Dogs were the offspring of the Red Hook Dogs on 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. Also, between 20-30 dogs lived on 6th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues. In 2000, several were drowning in the Gowanus and were rescued. Throughout the years, SNIP rescued many. Today, one dog remains, 14 year old “Suzie”. She is a feral dog and was trapped and spayed 7 years ago and then returned to her owner, who is homeless and resides on 10th Street.

At one time, 75 feral dogs lived in the lot on Ninth Street. Ms. Massaro says that while SNIP worked to save the Red Hook and Gowanus dogs, other animal rescue organizations were uninterested in their fate.

Suzie, the dog facing the camera, is the last remaining feral Gowanus-Red Hook dog. She is 14 years old. This photo was taken in 2007.

These are two of the dogs that were rescued.

[All photos courtesy of Regina Massaro/SNIP]

Remember that “crowdsourcing” experiment that the Brian Lehrer Show was doing, recruiting people to count the number of SUVs on their block? Well, the results are in. There were more than 450 submissions. On average, SUVs made up nearly 1/3 of the vehicles parked on an average block. Interestingly, Brooklyn blocks had slightly less SUVs on average than Manhattan ones. The lowest SUV count (as a percentage of parked vehicles) actually came from Kensington; the highest SUV count came from Paterson, NJ. Who knew? On the map above, yellow means that under 25 percent of vehicles were SUVS and green means between 25 and 50 percent. Blue is between 50 and 75 percent SUV and purple is greater than 75 percent. Greater than 75 percent? Woah. More analysis on the show today at 11 and check out the full results and map here on WNYC’s website.

Merde! After an original expected opening in early July, we’ve sat by helplessly as Hotel Le Bleu, the Fourth Avenue boutique hotel sandwiched between the taxi depot and the dialysis clinic, right near the Pep Boys and the Staples, has punted on repeated opening days. And so, the flagship hotel of the Gowanus hotel boom is close, but not there yet.

Now, according to newyorkology, which checked Le Bleu’s website, the new target date is August 13. Indeed, a look at the site confirms: No reservations until that date. We don’t know what happened to those that already had Le Reservation. Room prices are in the mid-$300s per night, although some online rates are $289. So close, yet so very far.

The coming of a McDonald’s isn’t normally headline material, but when the McDonald’s in question is on Smith Street and the rumor has been floating around for a while, it is. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports (we found it via McBrooklyn) that the McDonald’s is coming–to a location that has been previously dismissed:

And guess what this newspaper has learned is also coming — a McDonald’s, of all things. This is expected to take two store fronts across Smith from Starbucks, a realtor and an Army-Navy store.

The writer goes on to say that “Grimaces have already been seen, but this is a smart move by Big Mac — there are two nearby schools and a lot of young families in the neighborhood.”