If you’re big on Celebrate Brooklyn and all the good shows running all summer long in Prospect Park, you might be interested in this widget for Mac desktops that a GL reader created and emailed us about it. The website for the Celebrate Brooklyn Widget says:

One of the longest-running free outdoor performing arts festivals in the nation, Celebrate Brooklyn features music, dance, theater, and film at the Prospect Park Bandshell each summer. The Celebrate Brooklyn Widget will keep you informed by displaying the details of the next upcoming event as well as a list of all remaining events for the current season. Mac OS X 10.4.3 or above and an internet connection are required. Both the widget and the events are free and this widget will make sure you never miss the shows you’ve been waiting for! Increase the odds of enjoying your summer tremendously, download it now!

For the PC People, it looks like it’s Mac only. Get the Celebrate Brooklyn Widget by clicking here. Tonight’s show is Joan Osborn with Jazz Passengers opening. It starts at 7:30.

Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn

We’re not sure what to make of all this, except that sidewalks with dog byproduct are bad enough, but coming outside to find, um, human waste, is even worse. Hey, it’s New York City and it’s Brooklyn and all that, but we still noticed this series of emails from residents in Boerum Hill. We’d seen some earlier about car windows being smashed, but these really caught our eye:

Last night somebody pooped inside our street level gate. We have a hedge so they were somewhat shielded from sight. We plan to increase the wattage of our outdoor light and leave it on all night. We are on Bergen between Hoyt and Bond, closer to Bond. Although a disgusting nuisance, it doesn’t compare to recent muggings and window-smashings on the block. Still, I wanted to give neighbors a heads-up.

To which came this response:

The same thing happened to me a couple of days ago. Yes it is a smaller nuisance but still a problem. I am located on Pacific close to Nevins. I have a light and it is on all night, so it was not a deterrent. I suppose the perpetrator was looking for a little privacy afforded in some our front yards.

And this:

Happened to us a couple of years ago…they did it in our basement apartment alcove. Add it to the list of annoyances like having garbage cans stolen, Compact Fluorescent bulbs stolen from our outdoor lights (got the next door neighbors’ too), and having the hot dog cart guys dump their garbage in front of our house, a couple of days ago someone dumped a load of old clothing in front of our house. Human dumps are definitely the grossest though.

And this:

Add us to the human poop club. We’re on Kane off of Thompkins, and someone did it in the same place. The bigger shock was that it happened about 3pm. It wasn’t there when I left to pick the kids up at school. Half an hour later or so – surprise! Knock wood we haven’t had the other annoyances, except from the “frat house” next door to us.

There you have it.

Tonight (6/16) is the season’s first Rooftop Films event of the season in Gowanus. The screenings take place at the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus. It’s located at 232 Third Street at Third Avenue. The screening is Industriance Shorts: Disaster Management, The Space Age goes terribly wrong. They’re described as “Short, funny, bizarre films.” Door open at 8PM. There’s live music by Zeke Healey at 8:30 and the movies start at 9:00. From 11PM-1AM there’s a wine reception in the courtyard. Tickets are $8 at the door or $5 online here with code: RFJUNE.

The Renegade Craft Fair is back in Brooklyn this weekend and it’s taking place at McCarren Pool this year. (In past years it’s been in McCarren Park itself.) In any case, the event includes more than 200 booths with vendors from all over the country. It takes place today (6/16) and tomorrow (6/17) from 11AM-6PM at McCarren Pool. (That’s on Lorimer Street between Driggs and Bayard, if you haven’t been.) You can check out their website here. Our experience from past years is that there’s some pretty cool stuff available.

Of all the bigger buildings plopped into a block of smaller ones, the one at 308 Eckford in Greenpoint seems to stand out from its neighbors. This pic, sent along by our Greenpoint correspondent, shows an actual human neighbor looking decidedly unhappy in the lower right hand corner. The photo below shows the view from the other side.

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]

Photos:

• Stoop Sale [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Banksy Climbover Girl 2 [I’m Just Sayin’/flickr]
• Red Greenspan [A Test of Will]
• 63 Coney Island Photos [Lawrence L/flickr]
• Auto Service Ltd. [Bluejake]
• On the Water [Key Lime Steve/flickr]
• Brooklyn Storm Double Strike [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Dancers [annulla/flickr]
• Sackett Street, Third and Fourth [seriously excited!]

Read This:

• Diagnosis… [lornangrl]

Read These Too:

• Markowitz on Development and the Navy Yard [AYR]
• Domino and McCarren Pool Landmarking Update [Brownstoner]
• A Growing Sense of Dredge [INSIJS]
• The Battle of the Ugly Smith Street Cement Thing [Lost City]
• Sexual Assault in Prospect Park [Gothamist]
• In Defense of the G Train…Sort Of [11222]
• Checking Out the “Other” Fifth Avenue [Gridskipper]
• Neville Brothers Rock Brooklyn [Velvet Sea]

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

The New York Aquarium is celebrating 50 years in Coney Island (there’s a long story to the move) this weekend with a series of special activities. The program goes on both today (6/16) and tomorrow (6/17). The Aquarium website says:

Sock hop, hula hoop contests, Elvis impersonators! Join us for a special ’50s-theme weekend event honoring the Aquarium’s golden anniversary in Coney Island. Rock around the clock with live music by ’50s DJ Mike C., show us you’re hip in our hula hoop contest, and enjoy special ’50s sea lion demonstrations, stilt walkers, games, crafts, a vintage car show, and more.

Free admission on Fridays through August 31 if you turn fifty this year and show them your ID. Us, we’re hoping that they mark their 50th Anniversary by moving forward with the badly needed redesign and upgrade of the facility. Check out more detail over at Kinetic Carnival and at the Aquarium website.

Representatives of the Red Hook food vendors and City Council Member Sara Gonzalez met with Park Department this afternoon about the future of the vendors whose plight has drawn citywide attention. Red Hook Vendors Committee head Cesar Fuentes told GL that although “there is still no answer to our plight, we have good hope that there will be a positive outcome.” He described the meeting as “positive” and “good.”

The meeting was attended by First Depty Commissioner Liam Kavanagh, Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel, Council Member Gonzalez. Mr. Fuentes was joined by another Vendor’s Committee member and a representative of the Urban Justice Center, which runs the Street Vendor Project. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe did not attend.

Mr. Fuentes said Parks Department officials are keenly aware of the strong public reaction to the possibility the vendors, who have been in Red Hook for nearly three decades, will be displaced. “This has become an issue larger than just some food,” Mr. Fuentes said. “This is about a cultural heritage. It’s about preserving something that’s been there for decades.”

The Department, however, apparently indicated that it is required to put the permits out for competitive bid and would have difficulty making an exception solely for the Red Hook vendors. “They they do understand the importance of the vendors,” Mr. Fuentes said. “They understand the people have spoken and they’re willing to work out something.

Mr. Fuentes said that he is confident that “something is going to happen.”

The Department did not set a timetable for reaching a decision. The vendors were originally told their temporary use permits would not be extended beyond September 8, although their “season” runs through late October. Mr. Fuentes said they want to remain in the park for the full season as well as finding a long-term solution with the Parks Department.

Mr. Fuentes was upbeat, however, about coming to an agreement that will save the vendors and said that all of the people that make food on the weekends have been touched by the outpouring of community support. “To everyone who supported us and sent emails and petitions–it worked,” he said. “They received it and they’re very aware. Without the bloggers support I don’t think we would have gotten a chance to get this type of attention.”

Council Member Gonzalez is said to be pressing for a speedy resolution.

The Roebling Oil Field Building at Roebling and N. 11th Streets in Williamsburg may be one of the only condos in New York City to come with a pump that will have an oil separator. GL has learned that the building, which is on a site on which significant quantities of oil were found during excavation, will include a water pump with a device that removes oil from water. This is because of “free product” that may still be floating on the groundwater table and because part of the foundation of the building will be below the water table. (Traces of benzene have also been found in the groundwater, but at very low levels.) If the city grants permission, the waste water will be dumped into the city sewer system. In theory, water dumped into the sewers will have had pollutants removed, but a similar system being used by Exxon/Mobil to address the massive oil spill along Newtown Creek was found to be releasing pollutants into the creek and is now the subject of litigation.

GL has also been told that the reason no information has been released about results from the many test well drilled around N. 11th and Roebling Streets is that none are available. The wells were drilled to try to determine the source of oil that has flowed into the Roebling Oil Field and its possible spread in the neighborhood. Results, so far, are incomplete. The source of oil has not been determined, although it is strongly believed to be coming from an off-site source to the north or east of the building known as McCarren Park Mews. What experts call “free product” (underground oil pollution to you and me, not a few gratis drops of the stuff that is going for $3.50 a gallon) is still believed to be in the area. Litigation is brewing about “free product” that was not previously cleaned up under Department of Environmental Conservation supervision at an adjoining development.

In the meantime, contaminated soil was removed during excavation and protective barriers were put in place in the McCarren Park Mews development in accordance with currently accepted remediation standards The practice of removing soil and then sealing the foundation of a building is increasingly being questioned in terms of its longterm safety, but it is the most common cleanup procedure nationwide.

The Neville Brothers to the stage in Prospect Park last night to open another season of Celebrate Brooklyn. They put on an excellent show and offered a set list that ran down all of their classics and songs they are known for covering. Last night’s show was the gala opening, which meant a dinner and reception beforehand. It also means that summer is now officially open. Check out the flickr set of the show here if you wish. Otherwise, we’ve got a slide show below.

Sometimes one finds stories at the most unexpected times. Like leaving Celebrate Brooklyn last night, for instance. That’s when we scored the Whole Foods Brooklyn tote bag pictured above. Note that it says “Opening 2008.” The Whole Foods bag promoting the store that is going to be built on the environmentally-questionable lot at Third Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus was given to people that had attended the opening party for Celebrate Brooklyn. The goodie bag also contained a Celebrate Brooklyn t-shirt, organic dog biscuits, a little bottle of Starbucks coffee booze and other items.

No, this isn’t about design issues or about density concerning that controversial proposed building at 360 Smith Street in Carroll Gardens. Nope. It’s about signs allegedly being painted over by the NYPD and, then, quickly replaced by residents. If you’ve walked out of the Second Place exit of the Carroll Street station in recent week, you’ve probably noticed that it’s become a kind of community bulletin board for anti-360 Smith sentiment. Signs have gone up. They’ve been torn down. They’ve been put back up. Etc.

In any case, we got an email from a resident that said:

Mr. Kim at the deli and his employee told me last night that a van with the NYPD loaded with men in it came up to the concrete wall AND PAINTED OVER our signage!

Can you believe it? Is this what the NYPD has time to do? They left a broken down shopping carriage and a wall with ugly graffiti on it (i guess that was “as of right) but they managed to do a SUPERB job on covering all our signage with a nice grey paint.

We don’t know if what Mr. Kim says he saw is what actually happened, but someone clearly painted the wall. And residents clearly replaced their signage (see below). Residents are also asking that the developer make the new design of the 360 Smith Street building, which is the work of architect Robert Scarano, available to them as soon as possible.

The name Robert Scarano has appeared here so many times in the last several weeks and the Brooklyn architect has had a rally called held in opposition to his work. City Council Member Bill de Blasio is singling him out as a “bad actor” and has called for him to be relieved of his professional credentials by the state. Our purpose isn’t to get into all of that, but we figured we’d dip into the GL Hard Drive Photo Archive and dig out some photos of actual Scaranos. This is just a small and selective sampling (the main criteria being that we were able to find them easily), and clearly, many of the buildings are under construction. Nonetheless, we thought this little Brooklyn Tour de Scarano might be enjoyable to readers that haven’t kept up with the coverage. For the record, we don’t mind No. 2 at 88 Conselyea, though this is not a statement about what neighbors might have been subjected to during the construction. We’re only talking about the design. In any case, the buildings above are as follows:

1. Finger Building, Williamsburg.
2. 88 Conselyea, Williamsburg.
3. 66 N. 1st Street, Williamsburg.
4. Carroll Gardens Hell Building, Carroll Street, Carroll Gardens.
5. The Bunker, Bond Street, Carroll Gardens/Gowanus.
6. 231 16th Street, South Slope.

Frankly, we can’t get enough Hotel Le Bleu, probably because it’s a hotel in Gowanus and it’s the first one that isn’t a Holiday Inn or a Comfort Inn. It actually aspires to be, like, a cool boutique hotel. Now, if you know Fourth Avenue, you know that it’s sandwiched between a big taxi depot and a kidney dialysis center sort of in front of a Pep Boys and a Staples. Hey, it’s Fourth Avenue. That is what makes the renditions and verbiage on the Le Bleu website riveting.

We were pretty shocked to find that room rates go as high as $402 for an “Elite King Room with View,” although the discounted rates are lower. Still, there wasn’t much we could spot for less than $290 a night, which says something about the cost of hotels in New York City. You can check out Newyorkology’s post about it here.

As for the descriptions of the hotel, well, they’re flowery. We’ve got “Breathtaking design that oozes sophistication…the stunning, modern lobby with its thoughtful nooks and privates niches is the ideal spot for discreet business tete-a-tete or entertaining associates.”

Then there’s “Not just a hotel, a haven. Of style, elegance and fine living. Welcome to a whole new world of uber chic glamour and luxurious living.”

Uber chic glamor on Fourth Avenue. The world is changing. Rapidly.

In case you’re interested, GL will be on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC this morning around 11:20 AM. We’re going to be talking about some comments that the brilliant writer and columnist Pete Hamill made about blogging versus column writing on Brian’s show earlier this week. We agree with some of what Mr. Hamill said and disagree with some. For some background, check this post on Buzz Machine. It’ll be a short segment–five or ten minutes–but tune in if you’re interested.

So, that image above is…from N. 6th Street in Williamsburg? Someplace in Chelsea? Uh, no. If you said Gowanus, you’re right. This is The Vue. It will be the new restaurant on the eighth and ninth floors of Hotel Le Bleu on Fourth Avenue. It is described as “The new haunt of New York’s chic set. From its lofty perch on the 8th & 9th floors, take in the spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline and Statue Of Liberty as you enjoy specialty cocktails and fine inter-continental cuisine amidst inimitable style and elegance.”

The Jetsons have landed.

Yesterday, the Municipal Art Society launched a new website called Save Brooklyn’s Industrial Heritage. The site went live to coincide with the Brooklyn waterfront’s naming to the National Trust for Historic Preservation‘s list of the 11 Most Endangered Places in America. The site has wonderful detail on a number of Brooklyn landmarks as well as an interactive map showing some 50 sites around the Borough, which is a public service in and of itself.

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

• The Synergy and Puffery of Brooklyn Tomorrow [AYR]
• New Atlantic Yards Photo Book [I’m Seeing Green]
• It Came from the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• A New Banksy on N. 6th Street? [INSIJS]
• BAM Cultural District Alive, if Not Kicking [Brownstoner]
• Almost 1,000 Signature on F Train Petition [Brooklyn Streets Carroll Gardens]
• Should Coney Island be an Endangered Place Too? [Kinetic Carnival]
• Meet the Hollenback Compost Toilet [Clinton Hill Blog]
• The Neighborhood is Exceptionally Fragrant This Spring [newyorkshitty]
• Landlord from Hell Offers $3 to Have Rug Cleaned [Esthetic/Aesthetic]
• CB6 Supports 9th Street Park Slope Plan [Streets Blog]
• “Transformers” Create More Light at Park Slope’s Old First [OTBKB]
• Glimpse into Another World on Court Street [McBrooklyn]
• Big Ecstasy Bust in Brooklyn [NYP]
• Brooklyn Teen Accused of Bias Killing [NYT]
• ‘Rogue Street Renaming’ Planned for Sonny Carson Street [Sun]

Events:

• Rooftop Films Saturday Night [Badlit]
• Coney Aquarium Gold Anniversary [Kinetic Carnival]
• Dumbolio Variety Show Saturday [Dumbo NYC]
• Sixth Annual Vinegar Hill Flea Market [Dumbo NYC]
• Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park Sat. & Sun. [ABL]

We have some Park Slope retail news to pass along. Sterling Place, the home decor retailer that has a store on Atlantic Avenue between Hoyt and Bond is making progress on opening a new storefront on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. The store will be located on Seventh Avenue and Tenth Street. It is between the storefront that Otto relocated to and the Tea Lounge. More shopping on Seventh Ave.

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Here, we focus on yesterday’s announcement that the Brooklyn waterfront is now on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the 11 Most Endangered Place in America:

• Brooklyn Waterfront Deemed Endangered [amNY]
• Brooklyn’s Waterfront ‘Endangered’ [Metro]
• National Trust Calls Brooklyn Waterfront Endangered [Gothamist]
• Brooklyn Waterfront Lands on Preservationist “Threatened” List [Bloomberg]
• Too Little, Too Late [Lost City]
• Brooklyn: Now with More Endangerment [Daily Intel]
• MAS’ Boat Ride Along the Brooklyn Waterfront [Brownstoner]
• Waterfront Makes Endangered Sites List [NYDN]
• Historic Brooklyn Waterfront Put on Endangered List [NY1]
• Forty Stories About the Waterfront [Google News Search]

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside, along comes the Treats Truck. OTBKB conveys word of this innovation–a truck packed full of things that will break your diet and cause you to expand–that will be trawling the street of New York City with goodies for you. What’s the Brooklyn angle you say? Well, for starters, Ye Olde Treats Truck is based in Red Hook. In addition, it is making its first Brooklyn appearance today, June 15, when it will be in the Borough Hall/Brooklyn Heights vicinity. The truck is described as a “bakery on wheels.” The only saving grace is that it’s highly unlikely it will be parked beneath your window for very long, as it’s a big city and the truck has a lot of territory to cover. Read more over at OTBKB and, of course, over at the Treats Truck website.

Well, thank God for that. (Not really. Just a point of interest about big chain being gobbled up by bigger chain.) Now, if we could maybe get some of the old neighborhood pharmacies and stores that have been driven out of business back? Or protect the handful that are struggling to hang on?