As a Brooklyn blogger, you don’t often get the chance to toss up an image of Dick Nixon or to even write about Old Tricky. (For the record, we did a post about Nixon’s old boat in December.) So, we want to make it perfectly clear that we’re jumping on the opportunity this Memorial Day to share this image of this Faile poster of Richard M. Nixon that was recently wheat pasted up on N. 6th Street in Williamsburg.

In April, Community Board 6 voted to ask the Department of Buildings to withhold the Certificate of Occupancy for Boymelgreen Developers’ Novo Park Slope building because the developer hadn’t followed through on making, or paying for, nearly $1.6 million in repairs to J.J. Byrne Park on Fifth Avenue. The repairs were needed because the developer used part of the park during the construction of the luxury condo on Fourth Avenue. Now, a spokesperson for the developer says the improvements are coming very soon. The Park Slope Courier reports:

At neighboring J.J. Byrne Memorial Park, a handball court has been laid to ruin, and local residents have been wondering what Boymelgreen Developers, the company behind the 12-story building at 343 4th Avenue, is going to do about it…“Boymelgreen is committed to the renovation of the park,” said Shannon Lynch, a spokesperson for the developer, who is partnered with the Katan Group on the project.

The start of the $1.6 million renovations are “just a few weeks away,” Lynch promised.

“Working with the Parks Department, we’ve created a plan for the renovation of the park,” she added.

“We are looking forward to the park being a vital feature of the community,” she said.

Phil Abramson, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation, said improvements will include eight new handball courts, two basketball courts, a skate park and a dog run.

There is apparently no signed agreement, but the work which the developer had promised to do should begin shortly. There is no indication of whether the Building Department will abide by the Community Board’s request to withhold the Certificate of Occupancy if the repairs don’t take place.

Here’s a sampling of some of the comments left by GL readers over the last week:

Coney Island Looking Like Sitt for Memorial Day. “It is absolutely fantastic to see that the negotiations are not in the papers anymore and Coney development is being negotiated between the city and Thor. Its ridiculous for Thor to negotiate in the press and the net when you have total anti-development NIMBY blogs such as yours covering this.” [Muscle13]

Smith Street Could Get Very, Very Shiny. “It is an awful design for that corner, and there’s no way it’s happening without a knock-down drag-out brawl. My sleeves are rolled up.” [Gary]

Finally: East River State Park Opens This Weekend. “I though I read here or maybe in one of the other BK blogs that the Park site on Kent in Williamsburg is a brownfield underneath…so how was it that the City was able to put a Park there? When did they do the clean up? Anyone in the neighborhood have the history on the Park site. Its nice to have green grass by the river but NOT if kids are gonna have risk of getting sick.” [Anonymous]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. Enjoy your Memorial Day!

Photos/Comix:

• Memorial Day Graffiti [Brooklyn Ramblings]
• Pirate Marty Makes CB6 Walk the Plank [No Land Grab]
• Sunset on Pacific Street [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Bicycle [Chicapoquita/flickr]
• Ball Playin [Atomische]
• Delicatessen, Clinton Street [seriously excited!]
• Sideshow School Photos–Breathing Fire [Coney Island Reporter]
• Coney Island Boys [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Vines and Walls [Big Sky Brooklyn]

Fun Post of the Day:

• A Bike Ride to Coney Island on Ocean Avenue [Built Environment Blog]

Other Items of the Day:

• Crown Heights Hospital Will Not be Home of Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing [AYR]
• Bio Diesel Plant May Come to Greenpoint on Newtown Creek [NYT]
• Dumbo Links of the Week [Dumbo NYC]
• Capacity Crowd Brews Up Plans for Greenpoint/Williamsburg Greenway [INSIJS]
• East River State Park Day One Update [INSIJS]
• Soldier Serving in Iraq Emerges as Proponent of Spurned Brooklyn Arabic School [NYP]
• Zipcars Come to Kensington [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Opening Day at Gerritsen Kiddie Beach with Parade [GerritsenBeach.Net]
• Upgrade the Outdated Returnable Bottle Bill [I’m Seeing Green]

This short film won “Best Made in Coney Island” Film at the Coney Island Film Festival 2006. It stars Amanda Jencsik, Karlee Gabrielle Hoffer and Chris DePierro. Check it out.

Coney Island, Brooklyn

Are you ready for the third annual Transportation Alternatives Tour de Brooklyn? The bike tour of Brooklyn neighborhoods, parks and the waterfront takes place on Sunday, June 3 and starts and finishes at Grand Army Plaza. It’s an 8AM start and the event takes place rain or shine. You need to register online, which you can do at the Tour de Brooklyn website. The tour is described as follows:

This year’s tour gets underway at Grand Army Plaza, a National Historic Landmark at Prospect Park. This year’s 18 mile tour will feature Brooklyn’s southern neighborhoods along the waterfront like Sunset, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst and loops towards the heart of Brooklyn, Kensington and Prospect Park South to end at the Carousel.

If this is your first time to Brooklyn by bike don’t worry you can join our feeder ride, leaving from Cadman Plaza near Brooklyn Bridge. Ride will depart promptly at 7:45 am, arriving at Prospect Park 8:05 am. Safety Marshals will be provided to guide you to the GAP.

This is a family friendly ride at a leisurely pace, escorted by the police and safety marshals. There will be one rest stop along the way where you can take a break, stretch your legs and snack on some food.

It’s a great chance to bicycle all over Brooklyn.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The new state park in Williamsburg opened yesterday. We stopped in yesterday evening, about fifteen minutes before the staff closed the gates a little after 7:30, and we’ve got to say that although it’s a bit rustic as parks go, it is absolutely wonderful to finally have that kind of legitimate waterfront access in Williamsburg. The park’s supervisor explained that once staff is added, the park will be open from 8AM until dusk, although it’s unclear when that will happen and whether it will be a seven-day-a-week schedule. He said that staffers had been working long hours to get the park ready for its debut. For now, the park is open from 10AM-8PM. To judge by the turnout and happy vibe among visitors, it will be a very popular place. For more info on the opening check out Williamsburg blogger INSIJS, who was there at the opening bell. Oh, and the park supervisor said that barbecuing is allowed on the concrete parts of the park. The park will be open on Memorial Day.

Of all the Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connections we have seen, this is one of the longest. But, it is ooooooh sooooooo worth the read:

You Gave Me Your Cart at Target – w4m – 27

I was having a really bad day, I hate my job, I have to live with my mother right now, my cat just went in for surgery, and my hair is being combative. Target always makes me want to strangle someone. I should know better than to even go there in this condition, but goddammit I needed razors.

And kitty litter. Also a new life, but for now improvising with munchy snax because I am going to smoke a big fattie tonight.

So there I was struggling with the last two carts in the designated cart abandonment zone, the one Target provides because they (wisely) don’t trust the clientele with their carts out the front door. The one there never seem to be any carts in because all the Target drones are busy wandering the store in packs, bein’ all stylin’ and jerking off instead of actually working. I know they make $7 an hour but I wish I got paid for an hour of what they actually do.

Anyway I couldn’t get the carts apart and I was actually about to cry, not about the carts lest you think I’m a drippy doofus, but about the rest, when you glided up with your Red Basket of Chilvary.

“Here,” you said. “Take mine.”

Heaven.

I looked up and you had a smile to melt a bitch and piercing, really stabbing, eviscerating blue eyes. I sort of said “Gaaaaa” to which you riposted “I tried to get those carts apart when I came in, too.” See!! Something in common already!!!

I was busy formulating an “Urrrrrgggg” when you reached into the cart and pulled out what looked like the heaviest tool bag I have ever seen, slung it over your shoulder, and with an extra hitch-up and smile, stepped away. Just an honest working man stoppin’ by Target on the way home.

Fucking HOT.

Also? I totally checked out your butt as you walked away.

If you’d like to hear me say “gaaaa” and “urrrggg” sometime when I’m a little more together, perhaps we can arrange for a cup of coffee? After all, there’s a Starbucks right in the goddamn Target. We could go to Chuck E. Cheese later, if the feeling is mutual.

We rest our case.

Here’s a selection of Coney Island vids on the YouTube–including a number of vintage films–in honor of Memorial Day Weekend and the official start of the Summer Season.

Those long promised WiFi hotspots spots are all active (more or less) in city parks, although it’s always a good idea to check on status before you take your laptop out in the hope of sending some emails or doing some live blogging. City park WiFi comes in two forms: that which the city has installed in 17 parks (map and list, above) and that which NYCWireless, a nonprofit, has installed in a number of locations, including an additional 10 parks. (There are other NYCWireless hotspots that users have added, which you find on their map.) The Brooklyn locations are Prospect Park (at the Boat House and at the Picnic House), Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo (the city part of the park) and the Brooklyn Museum. The Prospect Park locations are city-installed. The Dumbo and Brooklyn Museum spots are courtesy of NYC Wireless. Our own experience is that coverage can be a bit spotty and the connections are kind of slow, so don’t plan on a lot of heavy duty uploading and downloading. If you simply need to do some garden variety surfing and emailing, though, they definitely do the trick. (NYCWireless requires you to register to access the hotspot.)

That’s the city map above, which you can find by clicking here. The NYCWireless Map is below, which you can find by clicking here. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn has also thoughtfully posted the NYC city parks hotspot list, which you can find here.

Here’s a chance to eat and support students at P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights. The event is “A Taste of Prospect Heights” and it will be held on Saturday, June 2, on St. Marks Ave between Vanderbilt and Underhill, and in the P.S. 9 school yard. More than a dozen local restaurants–including Christie’s Jamaican Patties, Bob Law Seafood Cafe and Joyce Bakery–are participating. They’ll have tables set with taste-sized food servings. Tickets costs $15 for 3 tastes and $25 for 5 tastes. Extra tastes are $5 each. It will be set up as a street festival and there will be seating in the school yard. There will also be a kids zone (face painting, etc), music and a silent auction. If it rains, the event will be held inside the school.

Yesterday, we ran the YouTube vid of the South Slope dust storm from construction at 15th Street and 8th Avenue. This morning we found this email about the 406-408 15th Street project. It gets at the utter ineffectiveness of Department of Buildings’ orders and points out how they are routinely ignored by developers:

They have a full crew working today. Including jack Locicero the owner. Called the 72nd Precinct. There is a partial stop work order on site. They are in full construction mode. Not just putzing around. Anyone able to call down the wrath of the gods, please make the phone call.

We’re no experts in this sense, but do you think that a bigger inspection and enforcement staff along with genuine penalties for violations of orders (say fines ranging into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and immediate seizure of property for non-payment) might help rectify the situation? Hmmm.

[Photo courtesy of IMBY]

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

• Markowitz & Ratner Try to Make Things Disappear, but They Don’t [AYR]
• If You Wish to Ratner’s Document Labeling WTC Site as Atlantic Yards [No Land Grab]
• Another N. 6th Street Building to Bite Dust? [INSIJS]
• The Debut of a (No Longer Secret) Williamsburg Park [NYT]
• Contextual, and Not, in North Brooklyn [Brooklyn 11211]
• About That Scarano Building on Smith Street… [Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens]
• Artsy Hotels Underway on Duffield Street [McBrooklyn]
• Red Hook Grain Elevator Could Come Back as Concrete Facility [NYT]
• Remembering How Pigeon Crap Kind of Killed a Tourist on the Brooklyn Bridge [BHB]
• Brooklyn Pride is June 9 [About Brooklyn]
• Industrial Haiku #6 [Big Sky Brooklyn]

This short film is described as follows: “Bobby is a professional baseball player. Julie is a professional freak. He goes to work in a ballpark. She goes to work in a circus sideshow. Their worlds are not supposed to coincide. Starring Chance Pinnell & Heather Goldenhersh, this witty short film captures the beauty of love in the bizarre corner of the world known as Coney Island. This cute, little film played the 1st annual Coney Island Film Festival.” Click here if you don’t like the embed.

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The City Planning Commission has approved the Fifth Avenue Committee’s plan for affordable, supportive housing at 575 5th Avenue. The plan has some opposition in the community, but had also won a large number of supporters. Borough President Marty Markowitz had opposed it and there is some sentiment among observers that it was because the Fifth Avenue Committee has been an opponent of the Atlantic Yards development. The project would include 49 units of affordable, supportive housing for low-income community residents and formerly homeless individuals at 575 5th Avenue in South Park Slope, Brooklyn. The building will include on-site social services, 24 hour front desk security and a garden. The development now faces a hearing before the City Council’s Land Use Committee.

We don’t know who produced them, but the Coney Island boardwalk is sporting some very cool and colorful trashcans for the summer season. That’s one of them above. They’re all painted with different designs and look like they’re the handiwork of a local school. Very, very nice. Now, we can only hope that the city does a better job of picking up the trash than in years past, because most weekend days, the boardwalk trash situation is utterly nauseating. We know he Doe Fund has a contract to provide some cleaning services as it does in other district’s, so here’s hoping this year’s agreement allows for more frequent pickups. It’s needed. On the weekends, every trashcan on the boardwalk is overflows with trash and everything from paper plates and empty plastic bottles to half-eaten slices of pizza and cobs of corn end up everywhere. Yes, we know, picky, picky.

Anything wrong with Borough President Marty Markowitz’s free trip on the Queen Mary? Is it okay for a public official to take a gift from a company that does business with the city and whose cause said official has promoted? One would suppose that it depends on how one chooses to interpret ethics rules. The city’s ethics watchdogs okayed the trip, but to some it might present a somewhat bad smell, say, like milk just as its about to turn, but not when it’s so far gone that you open the container and want to barf all over the kitchen floor.

In any case, the story is interesting enough that it made the Times:

On Thursday, Mr. Markowitz’s own ship came in. He arrived in Brooklyn on the Queen Mary 2 after a free six-day cruise from Southampton, England. Mr. Markowitz was quick to point out that he sailed not just as a passenger, but also as the borough’s official ambassador. Between breakfasts of petit filet mignon and dinners of lobster flambé with cognac and truffles, harp recitals and black-tie soirees, the mostly European passengers were treated to an hourlong talk from Mr. Markowitz on the wonders of Brooklyn. More than 450 people attended it, he said.

“I know it sounds crazy to us,” Mr. Markowitz said yesterday, “but there are many people who don’t know Brooklyn and are curious to know about us.”

Though ethics watchdogs said it was hard to accept a free cruise from a company that does business with the city without creating the appearance of a conflict of interest, Mr. Markowitz’s voyage was approved by the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board.

The board ruled that the gift was legitimate, given that “attracting regional, domestic and international tourism to Brooklyn is a major priority in your administration and that this trip will advance this priority.” Mr. Markowitz’s passage was reported yesterday in The New York Post.

Mr. Markowitz said that he certainly felt he earned his berth in an ocean-facing room on an upper deck, worth somewhere north of $1,500.

“Had they invited me to lounge around in my shorts and to play no role at all, that’s one story,” Mr. Markowitz said. “But I was invited for a specific purpose.”

Well, now we know why Mr. Markowitz had no comment when news broke of the purge of Community Board 6 that he, City Council Member David Yassky and City Council Member Bill de Blasio conducted over Atlantic Yards and, quite possibly, Gowanus rezoning.

New York City’s 14 miles of beaches are open, officially as of today (5/26) and they’ll remain open through Labor Day. Lifeguards are on duty from 10AM-6PM. For more information on city beaches, go here to the Parks Department. City pools open Friday, June 29.

Brooklyn Beaches:

Brighton Beach & Coney Island and Coney Island Boardwalk
On Atlantic Ocean, from W. 37th Street to Corbin Place. (718) 946-1350

Manhattan Beach
On Atlantic Ocean, Oriental Blvd., from Ocean Avenue to Mackenzie Street. (718) 946-1373

Queens Beaches:

Rockaway Beach and Boardwalk
On Atlantic Ocean, from Beach 1st Street, Far Rockaway, to Beach 149th Street, Neponsit. (718) 318-4000

(Also don’t forget Jacob Riis Park, which is a federal facility)

Bronx Beaches:

Orchard Beach and Promenade. On Long Island Sound in Pelham Bay Park. (718) 885-2275

Staten Island Beaches:

South and Midland Beaches and Franklin D. Roosevelt Boardwalk
On Lower New York Bay, from Fort Wadsworth to Miller Field, Midland Beach
South Beach: (718) 816-6804 (Satellite Office)
Midland Beach: (718) 987-0709 (Main Office)

Wolfe’s Pond Beach
On Raritan Bay and Prince’s Bay, Holton to Cornelia Avenues. (718) 984-8266

For those of you that want a fix of construction fun this Memorial Day weekend, we highly suggest the video above, posted by South Slope blogger IMBY, who has carefully chronicled the quality of life horror that has unfolded at 15th Street and Eighth Avenue as a massive pit has damaged adjacent buildings and seriously attacked the quality of life of neighbors. Much of the initial damage happened with little intervention from the city’s Department of Buildings. IMBY writes of the big South Slope Dust Storm:

That’s one dusty mother fucker…One of many fuckin’ loads o gravel delivered into the 3 story deep pit as they get ready to “construct” the concrete base. What ever happened to that Partial Stop Work Order restricting all work within 25′ of 1504’s backyard? “Twentyfive feet, I couldn’t see twentyfive god damn inches!”

Nice.

We bring back our Brooklyn Back in the Day feature for a look at the old Flatbush Avenue Terminal which used to be the Long Island Railroad Station at Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue that stood where Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Terminal Mall is now located. The view, which is from a website called Arrt’s Arrchives, dedicated to the Long Island Railroad, offers a treasure trove of photos of the terminal and the area. The view above is from 1941. The exterior shot below is from 1978 and the interior shot is from the 1980s.

After being sleeping the sleep of the dead blog for a long time, the Park Slope Food Coop blog seems to have sprung back to life. On and off, it’s had new entries for the last month or so. Why should one look? Information like this, of course, in re the Fourme D’Ambert:

Even self-professed haters of blue fall for this gentle, voluptuous, curdy beauty. Critics call it Saga for Grownups, but the good stuff is miraculous: rich, thick, liberally pocked cylinders of blue beneath a smooth, firm rind smelling of cave. Milky yet complex, leathery and earthy, it has none of the fierce residual pepper of better-known Roquefort. Go light and sweet, with thin slices of pear and a Tawny Port.

Or this information in re the olives:

It’s a sad day in the Olive Case. For the past few weeks, we’ve been carrying a mix of Cornichons, Garlic and Green Olives. Judging by the astronomical sales figures, many PSFC shoppers have been partaking of this mix. This morning, we discovered that the Cornichons, Garlic and Green Olives mix contains MSG. MSG is an additive that the Coop chooses not to carry.

Keep the information coming.

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/flickr]

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

Images:

• Brooklyn Prays [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Lorimer Street Greenpoint [seriously excited!]
• Space Oddities [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Blimp Over Brooklyn [Kensington Brooklyn]
• McCarren Park Scenes [A Test of Will]
• Williamsburg Realty [Bluejake]

Markowitz Cruise & Purge News:

• New Markowitz CB6 Appointee Doesn’t Know Anything About Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• Markowitz Got Free Luxe Cruise in Exchange for Talking to Passengers [NYP]
• Marty “Kicks Back” While Failing to Spin CB6 Purge [No Land Grab]

Other News:

• Grand Ferry Park Erosion [Brooklyn 11211]
• Commerce Bank Rewrites Nabe Name as “Bayridge,” but Fixes It [Bay Ridge Blog]
• PLG Annual House Tour [Across the Park]
• Franklin Street Traffic [11222]
• Yes, No, Maybe is Going to Be Very Cool [BushwickBK]
• Streetscape Issues at Green House Condos [Brownstoner]