Related Post:
GL’s Construction Site Du Jour: Green Living on N. 6th

2) Greenhouse Essentials, which bills itself as offering “essential living products” is open at 217 N. 7th Street in Williamsburg (below). The signage (it wasn’t open when we passed by) says it offers skin care products, feng shui textiles, organic facial products including the Eminence line, books, CDs and “MUCH MORE.”It’s across the street from construction site of The Modern, so the feng shui and Zen vibe could come in handy for now.

After all the hoopla – state parks closed the park for the fireworks after supposedly 4000 people were in the park. Just as many were outside, locked out. The police/park rangers were very rude and the crowd very unhappy about the situation. The block it two full city blocks, huge, and there was plenty room inside for more visitors to the PUBLIC park. Even further evidence the state has no idea how to manage public spaces in NYC.

Apparently, the park did not–as we heard some people predict in advance–have enough Rangers and police on hand to handle a larger crowd. Overall, sounds like fun for those that didn’t get there early and were locked outside in the rain.

Calling all Ready New Yorkers! Are you prepared for an emergency? If so, OEM wants to hear your story. Explain how you got through any type of emergency or how you plan to combat any disaster that comes your way. Inspire other New Yorkers to get prepared by sharing your story of preparedness on the OEM website.

We would urge OEM to select a Ready Brooklynite of the Month, a Ready Manhattanite of the Month, a Ready Staten Islander of the Month, etc. Or, if they really want to go local, a Ready Brighton Beacher of the Month, Ready Park Sloper of the Month, etc.

Of course, if you’re like most people and you think a Go Bag is special picnic assortment from Fairway, you can check here to find out what one is. We don’t have one either, but we do have one of those crank-up radios so we can listen to how much trouble we’re in without batteries or electricity. Now, go ahead and insert your “Ready New Yorker of the Month” joke here.

• Barge Pool Open One Day and Breaks [Gothamist]
• Is Barge Pool Breakage Omen of a Long Summer to Come? [Daily Intel]
• Waiting for Godot the Atlantic Yards Ombudsperson [AYR]
• Thor’s Water Slide in Coney Island Doing Belly Flop? [Kinetic Carnival]
• Organic Boom on Cortelyou Road [Brownstoner]
• Great Moments in Greenpoint Siding, Volume VIII [newyorkshitty]
• More Bike Lane Stripes on Ninth Street [Streets Blog]
• Check Out the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Still Flying Show [McBrooklyn]
• Bring the V to Brooklyn [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Drunk Takes Shelter in Park Slope Box [OTBKB]
• Hasidic Hitchike Horror [NYP]

We won’t be around tomorrow, or this would be on our must-see list for the weekend. The Japanese avante-rock band the Boredoms are leading 77 drummers in what is being described as a “once-in-a-lifetime performance” meant to be performed only once, on 07-07-07. The performance, which is sponsored by Jelly NYC and Vice Records, takes place at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park at 4PM. You’re actually supposed to RSVP in order to enter, which you can do by going here. The 77BOADRUM show is free. 77 drummers drumming should definitely sound interesting.

You might recall that debate over the bike lanes stretched out over several months and resulted in a fair amount of shouting and name calling, and several meetings and votes by Community Board 6. The Community Board finally voted to endorse the plan, but by surprisingly narrow margin.

Related Post:
Park Slope 9th Street Bike Lanes Endorsed

The Italian grocery on 3rd avenue and President, that has been family owned and run for 60 yrs, has closed for good as of this past Friday. I spoke to the owner Caroline and she told me that it has just become too much for her to handle and that the business just isn’t what it used to be. She said that most of her business was from the neighborhood factories and a lot of them have closed. I guess it’s just an unforeseen circumstance of gentrification. I’m really going to miss getting my breakfast and coffee there in the morning. Caroline was someone who has seen the area’s ups and downs and had quite a few stories and opinions to share.

On the same note, I understand that the owner of Canal Bar, next door, is interested in setting up a cafe in that space. Mind you, these are fairly solid rumors.

Will the Salumeria space down the street be converted into a boutique next?

PortSide New York invited people to watch the July 4 fireworks from its new headquarters, the wonderful Mary A. Whalen, a former tanker that is being renovated and given a new life. The last time we’d been aboard the Whalen, she was in a graving dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for maintenance and repairs. The Whalen is currently docked at the Brooklyn Container Port operated by American Stevedoring. The view of the fireworks from the pier was spectacular and, of course, the rain stopped about ten minutes before the fireworks started.

What would an event–any event–be without some protesters? The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest attracted a few non-hot dog eaters yesterday, as you can see in some of these pics posted to flickr, above and below.

The total development would be 2,860,000 square feet, with 2,640,000 square feet dedicated to residential use, 120,000 square feet for retail/commercial use and 100,000 square feet for “community facility” use. About 2,400 condos and apartments are planned for the site. Two buildings would be 300 feet tall and two buildings would be 400 feet tall.

The Department of City Planning will hold a public hearing on the proposed rezoning on July 31, 2007 from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM and from 6:00 PM to 8:45 PM. Officially, it’s a “public scoping meeting on the Draft Scope of Work for an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be prepared for the proposed Domino Sugar Rezoning. Comments on the Draft Scope of Work will be accepted at the meeting and for ten days following the meeting.” The meeting will take place at the City of New York Department of City Planning, Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street.

The drama of Boerum Hill continues. (For those of you joining the story in progress, you can check in window smashings & tire slashings, chalk marks on trees and, our favorite, the Mad Crapper.) In any case, here’s a bit of the latest, from emails:

On Monday night I was getting a drink of water in my kitchen at about 12:30 when I heard, what I think, were gun shots. I’m hoping that I was wrong, and maybe they were fireworks, since we’re so close to the holiday. The sound came from the vicinity of Bergen and Bond or Dean. Did anyone else hear this as well? My first thought was “what is going on here?” Between all the recent car vandalism, and poopy people roaming in the neighborhood it made me rather uneasy.

There is also concern about good old fashioned noise:

I totally agree that addressing criminal activity in the neighborhood is a priority and many of us take action on this issue on an ongoing basis. However, crime is an entirely separate issue from noise control and addressing one does not preclude addressing the other. And these days noise has progressed to more than a mere annoyance – hence the new legislation. No one is out to get any good neighbors and no one is questioning whether they are good neighbors, I am sure they are and that’s not the issue at hand.

We just need to seek ways to reduce the increasing noise whether that is addressing excessive honking, illegal bike parts, trucks, boom cars, etc. These days on many streets in the neighborhood it is difficult to carry on a conversation on one’s stoop because there is a constant din of noise. There must be ways to address this and improve the neighborhood. I am just interested in figuring out what are those ways to make our environment a bit more pleasant.

And, of course, more breaking car windows:

Last week I heard a widow pop. I went outside to see a man crawling into the car through the broken window. I shouted “what are you doing?” He came out of the car saying that he did not break the window. He was either white or latino, stocky, light colored hair with a gold earing in his right ear. He was carrying a cardboard box about 12″x12″x3″. That’s the best I can do on description. I’m not good at that. I went inside to call the police. They put the description over the air (I heard the operator do that). A car came quickly. They had spotted someone who fit the description. We drove to where he was, but it was not him. Curiously enough the car owner later told my wife that nothing was missing from his car, except the window of course. I unfortunately, or fortunately do not have a cell phone, or I would have followed him while I called the police.

More, no doubt, very soon.

Related Post:
Boerum Hill #2: Slashed Tires and Smashed Windows

Fourth of July:

• Joey Chestnut Wins Nathan’s Contest, Live Blogged [Gothamist]
• Chestnut Wins [Kinetic Carnival]
• Chestnut Prevails with 66 Hot Dogs [NYT]
• False Alarm Drowning at Coney on the Fourth [lornagrl]
• …And Someone Shoots Himself in the Neck on the Boardwalk at W. 26th [Sun]
• Zero Hour for Summer [Luna Park Gazette]
• Happy Fourth [Kensington Brooklyn]

Barge Pool:

• A Quiet Day at Barge Pool Beach [BK 11201]
• BH Beach is Open [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Floating Swimming Pool and Brooklyn Beach Officially Open [McBrooklyn]
• Rejoicing in a “Pool with a View” [NYT]

Everything Else:

• Would City & State Have to Pay to Use Barclays Center for Community Events? [AYR]
• It Came from the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• Guess Who’s Working in Brooklyn for a Couple of Weeks? [Sun]
• Kinetic Carnival Turns One!!! [Kinetic Carnival]
• Free Concert Schedule in Von King Park [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Neighborhood Porn Shop Morphs into Latin Restaurant [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Violinist Gets His Instrument Back from MTA Lost and Found [NYP]

There’s a “Capo Parade” at 9AM on “Giglio Sunday” (7/8) with the Dancing of the Giglio and a smaller Boat starting at 1PM. On Wednesday (7/11), there’s a Night Dance of the Giglio starting at 8PM. Sunday (7/15) has a Capo Parade at 1PM and Dancing of the Giglio at 2PM.

For more detail on this uniquely Williamsburg tradition that survives in the face of construction and significant neighborhood change, visit the Giglio Feast Website.

• Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest 2007 [Niel’s Eye/flickr]
• Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest 2007 [valjean615/flickr]
• Nathan’s Contest & Coney Island, July 4, 2007 [Gordon Gattsek/flickr]
• Nathan’s 2007 Contest [William Fleitch/flickr]
• Hot Dog Eating Contest July 4, 2007 [misscharo/flickr]
• 2007 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest [shiny red tape/flickr]
• Fourth of July 2007 [michele cat/flickr]
• 1719 Flickr Photos Tagged Nathans & Hot Dog [flickr]
• 1,337 Flickr Coney Tagged Photos Taken July 4 [flickr]

’82 Irwin Citation 31′ – Great Condition – Now For Sale – $22000

I bought this boat just over a year ago and have hardly used it. I love it and don’t want to sell but I just can’t afford it anymore. It’s a 1982 31′ Irwin Citation and it’s called Fat Cat. The sails, lines, deck gear are all in good condition. The interior is also in great shape with teak flooring, double burner stove/ oven/ toilet. The engine is 15hp yanmar and runs but could use a tune up. This boat sleeps five comfortably.

The boat is currently docked in the Gowanus Canal and it’s the only one there. You can see it best from the Union Street Bridge on Union between Bond & Nevins in Carrol Gardens.

It always warms our heart to see the Fat Cat there, especially at the holidays when it sports lights. We’ll miss it.

The truly American festival of awe-inspiring gluttony known as the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest ended with a victory by Joey Chestnut (who downed a world record 66 dogs). Mr. Chestnut’s victory ended the reign of Takeru Kobayashi. Mr. Kobayashi ate a world record 63 dogs, but lost, and hurled at the end. Here’s a little bit of YouTubery some of which include the Kobayashi Hurl.

American Joey Chestnut has defeated Takeru Kobayashi at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Chestnut downed a World Record 66 dogs to Kobayashi’s 63 (also a record) and Mr. Kobayashi apparently heaved at the end. (YouTube vids to come.) Gothamist live blogged the event and Channel 7 has a vid up here.

Looking at the new bus shelters going up quickly all over the city, you knew that some of them would be magnets for vandalism. Well, GerritsenBeach.net offers up the pic above on flickr and blog entries showing what’s happened to at least one of them. First, it was tagged up. Then, the glass was busted up. Then, someone hung a sign on it. Let’s hope it’s the exception rather than the rule.

We return to our Brooklyn Back in the Day series of historic Brooklyn photos with one that is entirely appropriate to July 4. This is a photo from the Coney Island History Project–whose website is worth checking out and whose facility on Surf Avenue under the Cylcone is worth a visit. It shows Coney Island on July 4, 1957, exactly fifty years ago today. Back in the day, of course, Coney could attract up to 1.5 million people on the Fourth. Here’s a recollection fromm the Online Journal An American Dreamland:

When I was just a boy my parents would take me to Coney Island for July 4th. This was 1947, a few years after WW II, when the Cyclone roller coaster roared down from the sky, the Wonder Wheel rose in the hot sun and later the great parachute jump spilled its screaming couples 220 feet down to a jolting halt, a few feet from the sprawling boardwalk, the planked wood stretching from the proletarian Brighton Beach to the elegant gated community of Sea Gate. All this life punctuated by disastrous fires and marvelous restoration, shedding its stars, like Durante, Mae West, Sophie Tucker, Eddie Cantor, into America.

Between them, Nathan’s hot dog stand grew on Surf Avenue to the mother of all fast food joints, with the greatest hot dogs, French fries, fresh fried seafood, roast beef and hot buttered corn you could imagine on working people’s wages, plus a July 4th hot dog eating contest. Is this America or is it just Brooklyn? Or are they one?

Here’s another photo below from the 1940s that shows an even more crowded Fourth of July scene:

It’s July 4, and thoughts turn to fireworks and people stuffing hot dogs down their throats in Coney Island. So, here are some YouTube vids of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest. Last year, 30,000 people showed up to watch and 1.5 million watched on ESPN. We’ll do another as vids of the 2007 edition are posted.