[Photo courtesy of Catasterist/flickr]

The first lift and dance of the Giglio in Williamsburg took place yesterday. Here are some links to photos and coverage:

Giglio 2007 Photoset (above) [Kevin C. Downs/flickr]
Getting Giglio With It [Lost City]
Giglio Tagged Photos [flickr]
Giglio Festival Kicks Off in Brooklyn [NY1]

Giglio, Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York, 2007, originally uploaded by Kevin C. Downs Photography.

Ah, Greenpoint. We’ve seen windows being blocked by new construction and, now, we bring you air conditioners being rendered useless by new construction. This latest twist on quality of life augmentation, Greenpoint-style, comes to us courtesy of our very, very attentive Greenpoint correspondent. The building doing the covering is 112 Greenpoint Avenue. The overheated victims neighbors live at 110 Greenpoint Avenue. Looks like the windows and AC on the upper floors as living out their last days too, if you can project from the photo below. There goes the summer.

What you are looking at is 224 Wythe Avenue It’s part of a group of properties that includes 157 and 173 Kent Avenue, making up about 2/3 of a Williamsburg block. The building has had two gaping holes punched in it and the entire property has been serving as a locale for photo shoots. The properties were acquired by the Chetrit Group and will no doubt be the site of a very, very large development.

If you’re into weird demolition and building stuff, the site has been offering up great fun all year long as some demolition appears to maybe have been done without any permits being issued or fences going up. Well, a full fence did go up. Then, oddly, it came down, leaving what you see above available as the newest neighborhood hipster playground. A, uh, stop work order was issued in January. The property has been half-surrounded by a fence for a couple of months, since the above mentioned fence went up and came down. One “failure to maintain” violation notes, without any irony whatsoever:

LARGE CONCRETE BLOCK 6′ X 2′ W X 2’D WEIGHING SEVERAL POUNDS IS NOT SECURED AND IS LEANING OUT OF PLUMB, ON EDGE OCCURRING AT VARIOUS AREA ALONG NORTH 4TH ST AND KENT AVE

This would have been written at a time when there was a lot of stuff “out of plumb” on the wide-open site. There is also a pending violation for–duh–work without a permit, which was issued after weeks, if not months of work on the site:

WORK W/O PERMIT. ON INSPECTION EXISTING CONCRETE PLANT HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED APPROX. 3 SILO HAS BEEN DISMANTLED EXISTING BLDG HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED, DEBRIS ON SITE & CUTTING OPERATION IN PROGRESS OF STEEL MEMBERS

Whoever would have expected that a city agency could be such a rich source of irony and humor? And all this time, we thought bureaucracies were without any mirth whatsoever.

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

• Errol Lewis Louis on Eminent Domain Redux [AYR]
• Cobble Hill Cinemas [McBrooklyn]
• Would a Park Slope Charter School Provoke Stroller Frenzy? [Sun]
• Park Slope Breastfeeding, Continued [OTBKB]
• 77 BoaDrum Reviewed [NYT]
• Many Rocked to the Beat of the Drummers [Metro]
• New Bike Racks at Bed-Stuy Y [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Times Profiles F Train Petition [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Pearl Street Sidewalk Update [Dumbo NYC]
• The Mattresses of Greenpoint [newyorkshitty]
• Royal Navy Visits Brooklyn [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Will Charles Barron’s Aide be at Work Today? [NYP]

Here’s a story on Coney Island’s trip and fall boardwalk from WCBS 2 News. There was also a piece on NY 1, which you can check out here.

One of our favorite Brooklyn photobloggers, who’s always doing creative things, has a show from July 19 to August 14 at Design Within Reach in Brooklyn Heights, which is at 76 Montague Street. The show will feature more than a dozen photos, many of them shot in Gowanus, from Dalton Rooney, who runs the blog seriously excited! The opening reception is Thursday, July 19 from 6PM-9PM. That’s one of the Gowanus photos below. Stop by and check it out.

We extend our run of Williamsburg street couches with this beauty, which is actually a Sidewalk Sofa Bed. Note the added decoration. We assume it’s turned to face the fence for the purpose of privacy. Best to catch your z’s gazing at the fence rather than at passersby.

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We’ve been reporting on the deplorable shape of Coney Island’s boardwalk for a long time. Last week, we noted that it had resulted in seven lawsuits against the city in the last two years and that the city had settle nine injury lawsuits. Today, the Post, in an “exclusive” fills in some details. The Post reports:

In 2005 and 2006, seven suits involving injuries on the two-mile-long promenade were filed against the city, according to the Comptroller’s Office. The suits seek millions in damages.

In that same period, the city also shelled out $157,000 to settle nine cases involving boardwalk spills that occurred between 1997 to 2005. The injuries run the gamut from fractured ribs and legs to a broken nose.

Apparently much of the Parks Department’s for boardwalk repair is being spent on a badly damaged section of boardwalk in Brighton Beach. Sounds to us like there needs to be a bigger budget.

Related Post:
Lawsuits & Repairs on Coney’s Trip and Fall Boardwalk

[Photo courtesy of Rob Hoey/flickr]

It’s Sunday, so we naturally turn our attention to the Brooklyn Missed Connections on Craigslist. We knew today’s choice would come out on top the moment we saw the headline about the horse near Prospect Park. You simply don’t get that many horse-related missed connections in Brooklyn or in NYC. In any case, here goes:

You were on a horse at the traffic circle by Prospect Park. – m4w – 27

You were waiting for traffic to stop to cross into the circle, black tank, black pants, tattooed right forearm. I was in the truck that came around the circle a little too fast and probably looked like d@#k because of it. Well I just wanted to say you’re beautiful and if you see this I’d like to say it in person.

There you have it.

In honor of today’s Giglio lift and dance in Williamsburg, we bring you some YouTube vids featuring the Williamsburg festival and other Giglios around the world. And, remember, if you go, give the Giglio a wide berth.

Our Street Couch series continues with this wonderful, and comfortable, specimen from that center of hip, N. 6th Street in Williamsburg. Note the way that it juxtaposes living room comfort and urban streetscape. Comfy, yet gritty.

Here’s a selection of some of the comments left by GL readers over the last seven days:

More Boerum Hill Fun: Hookers Beneath the Windows. “I’m not advocating crime here but Bond Street has ALWAYS had prostitutes! lots of dead end streets to take the johns to…it’s an urban enviroment, desolate and near the projects, where, oh my god, DRUGS are sold!why are these people so shocked?” [Lisanne McT]

Sign of the Times: Sixty-Year-Old Gowanus Business Closed. “It’s the loss of factories more than anything else. My mom—rest her soul—worked in a sweat shop on Carroll Street across from the church in the 1980s. I walk over there sometimes and realize that as bad as the area is now, it was worse then. And at least the old school Italian business owners made that little pocket of a neighborhood decent in their own way. Truly the end of an era.” [Preworn]

It’s Time to Get Your 2007 Giglio On. “The festival is a fascinating tradition for sure, but it sucks pretty hard if you live right on Havemeyer in the middle of it, as I do. My bedroom window faces the PA system, through which the MC hollers until midnight, and I have to shoo Italians off my doorstep every time I come in and out of the house. For ten days. I don’t begrudge anyone their traditions, but I sure as hell try to go out of town this time of year.” [Anonymous]

Boeurum Hill #2: Slashed Tired & Smashed Windows. “I’ll add that this is not necessarily all that new . . . my driver side window (parked next to sidewalk) was smashed on 12/31/06 at approximately 10:30 in the morning. NOt New Years revellers . . . this was 10:30 on a Sunday morning. The cops said most likely kids, and that there were at least 3 windows busted within a several block radius.” [Gary]

[Photo courtesy of TomVu/flickr]
Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related information and images.

Drumming:

• 77BOADRUM Flickr Set (above) [TomVu/flickr]
• 77BOADRUM Photoset [The Other Lisa/flickr]
• 77 Drums from Brooklyn Bridge [McBrooklyn]
• Hipsters Really Line Up for 77 Drums [McBrooklyn]
• 304 Boredoms & 77BOADRUM Pics [flickr]

Not Drumming:

• Bloggers Blogging Brooklyn News [NYT]
• Brooklyn Blogging Boom Story Has Some Very Notable Omissions [AYR]
• Brooklyn Blogging Highlighted in the NY Times [Flatbush Gardener]
• Moon Over Williamsburg [A Test of Will]
• Furman Street, Brooklyn Heights [seriously excited!]
• Happy Dog in Brooklyn Bridge Park [BK 11201]
• A Sign in Park Slope [Brit in Brooklyn]

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

As we said below, we’re looking at one building going up slooooowly and one going up so fast you look at it and say, woah. We remember how, not that long ago, the site of Northside Piers on the Williamsburg waterfront was little more than some pile drivers and excavation. Now, the building is almost entirely glassed in and work is going forward on the part of the development closest to Kent Avenue. (The front part will be six stories tall and encased in red brick.) You may like it or you may strongly dislike it, but the Toll Brothers project shows how fast buildings can go up. There was no steel coming out of the ground in October. No word on when the other two buildings in the development will start. (Those buildings will be in front of this one on the water side and, uh, take a bunch of views with them.) We don’t know when Any wagers on move-in dates or when that waterfront promenade will open?

What you are seeing are some plastic and/or ceramic frogs placed and photographed on the Carroll Street Bridge by the creators of the NYC Frog Project blog. They, uh, take frogs of all different shapes, sizes and colors, place them in interesting spots and take photos. The latest entry, of course, is the Big G. It caught our eye because of the headline “The Gowanus Canal (Doesn’t Smell So Bad Nowadays).” This is not to be confused with FROGG, of course, which is Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus. In any case, we’re glad we looked.

We thought we’d take a look at two opposite ends of the construction speed spectrum on this summer Saturday (skipping the far, far, end, which is completely stalled buildings) and bring you the super fast and the super slow. Compared to the breakneck pace of construction of some projects, like Northside Piers, which you will be able to see in a post above, progress on Williamsburg’s Finger Building has been almost glacial. It’s hard to remember that the crane for the thing showed up two years ago this summer and that, two years later, it’s not exactly close to finished. Just worth noting.

Here’s the second installment in this week’s Street Couch Series. This, too, comes from the sofa-filled sidewalks of Williamsburg. We call this one Sofa with Hanging Bicycle.

Get your tackle out of the closet and head down to Ye Olde Bait Shoppe (find some of your Brooklyn locations here) because it’s time to fish in Prospect Park. Meaning that the 60th Annual Macy’s Fishing Contest will be upon us from July 18-22. The Prospect Park people say:

A rite of passage for Brooklyn kids since 1947, the R. H. Macy’s Fishing Contest uses the fun sport of fishing to teach kids about aquatic ecology. Prizes will be awarded daily to those who haul in the big catches from Brooklyn’s only freshwater lake. Before casting their lines, all participants attend a free, fun and educational workshop led by Prospect Park Audubon Center educators and the Urban Park Rangers.

The kickoff/opening ceremony of the fishing fest is July 18 at 11:30 AM at the Prospect Park Audubon Center at the Boathouse. This will involve Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Brooklyn Cyclones mascot Sandy the Seagull tossing a largemouth bass dubbed R.H. Macy into the water. The lucky angler that hooks R.H. Macy gets a family fishing trip on a boat from Sheepshead Bay! Daily contest hours are 10 AM to 4 PM. There are no rain dates. The competition is open to children 15 years and younger. Individuals can sign-up at the contest. Groups of 10 or more must call (718) 287-3400 x 114 to register. Admission is free and equipment and instruction is provided. For more information, click here.

[Photo courtesy of seriously excited!/Dalton Rooney]

Photo-Oriented:

• Fourth and Bond (above) [seriously excited!]
• Kentile at Dusk [Blue Jake]
• More Gowanus Canal Jellyfish [Lasadh/flickr]
• Coney Island Photo Sunday [michaelspornanimation]
• iPhone Pictures of Astroland [grahambrunk.com]
• Coney Infrared from Wonder Wheel [beckermanphoto.com]
• Hot Bird and Nunez [Dope on the Slope]

Word-Oriented:

• Newtown Creek Cleanup Restart [Greenpoint Star via Brownstoner]
• Pool Barge Open Again [Curbed]
• Butt Ugly Bricolage on Smith Street [Brownstoner]
• Going to Spend a Week on an Island [OTBKB]
• How to Call 311 on Loiterers [163 Ocean]
• Stair Squares at Borough Hall [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Fort Greene Writing Workshops [Myrtle Minutes]
• First Week of July Dumbo Links [Dumbo NYC]
• Pistolera Rocks Celebrate Brooklyn [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Clinton Hill Ice Cream Options [Clinton Hill Blog]

We return to our series on seriously compromised street signs with this example from, of course, Williamsburg. We’d tell you what it says, if we could.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

This is simply a rumor on the Coney Island Message Board. Repeat, this is simply a rumor. Yet, it makes so much sense that it is a compelling one:

I heard from a very good source while having a drink at Ruby’s Bar that Thor is negotiating with the landlord of the Wonder Wheel Park to buy the land where the kiddie park is. I’m told that the brothers only own the land from the Wonder Wheel back to the bowery…What will this mean for the near future if it happens, absolutely no rides for the kids in ’08? And what will it mean if Thor builds in front of the Wonder Wheel? Could they actually block the Wheel’s view of the ocean?

This worries me.

An entity called the Ward Realty Corp. owns the front part of Wonder Wheel Park–basically the boardwalk level where the children’s rides are. The rear portion is owned by Wonder Wheel Inc., although the billing address is shown as Ward Realty. (The Wonder Wheel itself is a landmark.) Given that Wonder Wheel Park is the hole in Thor’s donut, any possible purchase makes total sense.

Since we’ve been reporting so much of the fun goings on in Boerum Hill recently, it only seem appropriate to pass on this latest tidbit from a tipster living in the approximate vicinity of Baltic and Bond Streets. It, uh, concerns the neighborhood sex industry and local sex care workers and a possible customer and/or person acting in an executive or managerial, if not sales, capacity:

There are definitely some strange things afoot here. The other night, a prostitute was crying/talking loudly outside our apartment. She was there with her john and some other dude at like 5:30am. They hung out until my boyfriend yelled “get the fuck out of here” out of the window. Not a pleasant thing to wake up to. I haven’t had any dealings with the crapper yet, thank god.

Of course, we know that it’s not so much that Boerum Hill has more interesting goings on than other neighborhoods so much as the fact that we’re just getting more information about it. Interesting nonetheless.