• State Judge Boots Renters’ Atlantic Yards Suit [AYR]
• Atlantic Yards Suit Filed in Wrong Court [NYT]
• It Came from the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• Pedestrians Fight Over Park Slope Scraps [Streets Blog]
• We’ll See About “Fantastic Fourth Avenue” [Brownstoner]
• Hoping for Restoration on Avenue C [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn Community Events, Including Brooklyn Matters Screenings [Daily Gotham]
• Brooklyn Historical Society Symposium: Who Owns Brooklyn? [BHB]
• Clinton Hill Going Italian [Clinton Hill Blog]
• BARC is Totally Cool [newyorkshitty]
• A Tour of Bushwick [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]
• Lowes Coming to Avenue U & Not All Mill Basin Residents Love It [GeritsenBeach.Net]
• Guest Post: The Man from B.R.O.O.K.L.Y.N. [Flatbush Gardener]
• 898 Bedford Avenue: Then, Now and Tomorrow [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Meet a Modern Tenement [Brooklyn 11211]
• The Kent Avenue Pile Driver That Came in the Night [INSIJS]
• Sheepshead Bay Man Shot by Fake Cops [NYP]
• More Mayhem: Brownsville and Crown Heights Shootings [NYP]
• Segways Roll into Coney Island [Brooklyn Record]
• Horace Bullard’s Scaffolding Will Stay Up Around Shore Theater [Kinetic Carnival]
• Brooklyn Rules Reviewed [Sun]

There is another important community meeting tonight about the surprisingly contentious plan to put bike lanes and other traffic calming measures on Ninth Street in Park Slope. You might remember that the Department of Transportation has a plan to redo Ninth Street with bike lanes in both directions and by installing turning lanes for cars. Community Board 6’s Transportation Committee is meeting again tonight to take up the issue. The Committee had voted to support the Department of Transportation Plan, but it was sent back by the full Community Board for further consideration. Advocates of the plan are urging bicyclists and supporters to turn out and show their support for the plan. DOT doesn’t need approval to go forward, but a vocal opposition could still derail the plan. The meeting takes place tonight at Old First Church in Park Slope at 6:30PM. The church at at Carroll Street and Seventh Avenue. Streets Blog offers an interesting item recounting how the plan came to be in the first place, with demands by residents to make the intersection of Eighth Avenue and Ninth Street safer after a car drove into the front of Dizzy’s.

Related Post:
Community Board Six Punts on Ninth Street Bike Lanes

The Crest, at 302 Second St. (at Fourth Avenue), opened its sales office this past weekend and eight units were spoken for in just one day. The 68 units – one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms – start at $354,000 and go up to $751,000.

Within the next 18 months, there will be a slew of others: Park Slope Court, at 110 Fourth Ave., near Warren Street, with 49 units consisting of studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms; 255 Fourth Ave., a 41-unit boutique Scarano Architects and Developers Group project at Carroll Street; The Argyle, 410 Fourth Ave., at Seventh Street, a 12-story, 54-unit condo; and 500 Fourth Ave., at 12th Street, a 137-unit, 12-story luxury building. There are even more developments in the works, farther south along Fourth.

Those who know Fourth will likely be shaking their heads right now.

That’s Crest, above. More to come.

Related Post:
Meet Another Fourth Avenue Tower

Sooooo, was it art or just a bunch of guys dressed like dorks digging holes? We’re talking about the group of Austrian performance artists that spent nearly a week digging and filling holes on the beach in Coney Island. We just came across the flickr set of photos they posted, one of which appears above. You can check out the full flickr set here and their own web page here. The name of the group is Gelitin. We won’t get into the name of the project itself.

Related Post:
Is Digging a Coney Island Hole Art or Development?

A Couple of Bites:

• Wednesday Food and Drink Roundup [Brooklyn Record]
• Donna Da Vine Patio Open on Atlantic Ave. [Eater]
• Finally, a Sit Down Kensington Restaurant: Thai Tony’s [Gothamist]
• Back to the Red Hook Ball Fields: Vaquero Elotes [Pork Chop Express]
• Outdoor Dining in Brighton Beach & Sheepshead Bay [Chowhound]

A Bunch of Reads:

• The White Wonder of Prospect Park [Englishman in New York]
• Why Does Park Slope Stink Today? [OTBKB]
• Talking About Eminent Domain [AYR]
• Brooklyn’s 2007 Judicial Races [Daily Gotham]
• DOB’s New Interesting in Waging War on Mosquitoes [Brownstoner]
• When Park Slopers Demanded a Safer Ninth Street [Streets Blog]
• 110 Livington Street, the Development [Sun]
• Thoughts About Kensington Gentrification [Lornagrl]
• Clinton Hill Celebrity News [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Hate to Say It, but Bed-Stuy is Dirty [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Initial Siren Fest Lineup [Brooklyn Vegan]
• Springtime in Coney Island, Circa 1944 [Kinetic Carnival]
• Stoopendous Coming to a Stoop Near You in June [Dope on the Slope]
• More on the Hamptons Jitney Brooklyn Stops [NYP]

GL welcomes your informational tips, your images and your contributions in all shapes and forms. If you’ve got something for us, email us at thegowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.

Today’s Sun visits the neighborhood the streets south of Park Slope that have gained the name Greenwood Heights in recent years, but that is still considered part of Sunset Park by neighborhood traditionalists. Whatever one chooses to label it, the Sun recounts the story of a booming neighborhood and delves into some of the backlash against rapid development in the neighborhood:

But with a half-dozen buildings billing themselves as “luxury” condominiums opening soon, and even more under construction, this longtime no-man’s-land south of Park Slope won’t be out of the way for long. Some brokers and restaurant owners sell it as “South Slope,” or the more realistic “South South Slope.” But most have galvanized behind the Greenwood Heights name, an allusion to the slumbering giant nearby, Green-Wood Cemetery…

The rezoning hasn’t stopped all of the construction fights: The neighborhood gets a lot of attention in real estate circles for homemade videos that capture construction permit violations by developers, often posted in protest online.

“You had a lot of folks who all of a sudden had to be very fluent in building and zoning codes,” a cofounder of the advocacy group Concerned Citizens for Greenwood Heights, Aaron Brashear, said.

Within five months of moving into his home on 23rd Street in 2003, Mr. Brashear said, four homes on his block were sold. Homeowners who spent $300,000 on their houses five years ago were suddenly fetching $800,000 for them, spurring a rush of construction by developers eager to recoup on their investments, he said.

“It was a war zone,” Mr. Brashear recalled.

Definitely check out the entire story.

[Photo courtesy of slice/flickr]

We are about 90 minutes behind the curve in passing this on from the tipster who sent word, but filming of Baby Mama moved to Fifth Avenue in Park Slope today (from Seventh Avenue yesterday) and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were seen shooting a scene around 1:30. Or, as our tipster noted, they are “filming a movie at Tempo on 5th Avenue right this very second.” No pics yet from today’s action–which was the second tip we got since 10:30AM about a Park Slope shoot today–but the shot above, of the facilities from yesterday’s Seventh Avenue festivities, is amusing.

Remember that building with the long list of building code violations in Greenpoint that is being held up with steel beams? Well, we heard from a former tenant of the building. Among the highlights are that the fines haven’t been paid (excellent enforcement mechanism) and that construction workers have been afraid of a collapse. In any case, here’s some of the color:

I lived in the buttressed building featured on your blog for approximately 8 months before escaping. A couple of those violations were from my complaints, but the landlord didn’t do anything, and was never forced to pay the fines. I was most alarmed when she rented the place out to the restaurant on the first floor. One day when I arrived home from work, the first construction crew working on the job was packing up all their stuff. They told me that after following the plans given to them they were sure that the building would collapse and refused to do any more work on the building. After this, I tried several avenues for help, including the local community board, dept. of buildings, etc. etc. After all this failed I got really pissed off and pawned the place off on someone else (if you’re reading this, sorry about that), recovering my security deposit and avoiding any more rent.

No dull moments in Brooklyn real estate.

Related Post:
Fun With Buildings & Sidewalks: Manhattan Avenue Edition

We begin with the building that created this Light Bulb Moment, as it were. It’s 152 Beard Street in Red Hook, a building so atrocious that it made us stop and wonder why we hadn’t photographed and published the pic before, and why, in fact, we weren’t featuring some of the awful structures that pass for Brooklyn architecture. It’s hard to know where to begin with good old 152: The hideous front door? The monstrous balconies? The inexplicably offensive setback? Or those screamingly bad metal garage doors?

Eh. The garage doors as definitely the most striking thing. Is it a condo and auto repair garage?

What were they thinking?

The fight over the future of two closed Brooklyn firehouses went to the City Council’s Land Use Committee yesterday and some community leaders are content while others are fuming about the outcome. There are two different outcomes, actually, with Cobble Hill’s Engine 204 to be leased for ten years for a community use and Williamsburg’s Engine 212 to be sold for community purposes.

The City Council “failed to live up to the vow to reopen the closed Brooklyn Engine Companies,” says Williamsburg’s Phil DePaolo who was one of the leaders of the fight to prevent closure of Engine 212. “Borough President Marty Markowitz has also failed to deliver on his vow to restore the Brooklyn Engine Companies.”

The lease arrangement gives the city the ability to reopen Engine 204, whereas Engine 212 seems to have been dealt a more permanent solution.

“It seems that E204 has received a deal that will consider future restoration as an active Engine Company while E212 has no such deal,” Mr. DePaolo said. “I remain steadfast in my belief that Engine 212 and Engine 204 should be returned to service returned to the communities as needed Firehouses.”

Related Post:
Fight Over Closed Fire Stations Rages

Looks like the South Slope Mosquito Plague might be averted. The Department of Buildings is working with a building to drain a big lake at 230 16th Street. South Slope community leaders, in fact, say they got an email from a Department official noting a “pro-active DOB.” The Department says it was aware of the South Slope Lake and that pumping was scheduled before any emails from the community. A South Sloper writes: “Kudos to the DOB for stepping up the inspections and turning up the heat on some of our local developers/contractors to be ‘better neighbors’ as
they work in our ‘nabes.'” Of course, what is emptied today can fill back up tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how the Department handles and monitors the local mosquito breeding facilities. As for residents, at least one says he is “pleasantly surprised as of late” with the Department’s actions in the neighborhood.

Summer is Coming:

• Hampton’s Jitney New Brooklyn Line [The Beach]
• Hampton’s Jitney to Stop in Dumbo [Brooklyn Enthusiast]
• Brooklyn Hampton’s Jitney Service Starts Friday [Sun]
• Countdown to Celebrate Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]

Non-Seasonal:

• The Atlantic Yards Effect on Property [No Land Grab]
• Parents Raise Concerns About Arabic School [Inside Schools via OTBKB]
• Klein Eases Some Worries About Arabic School [Sun]
• Habitat Homes in Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Atlantic Avenue Jail Plan is “Dispiriting and Ugly” [Brooklyn Eagle]
• Scarano Now Officially Famous [Set Speed]
• 184 Kent Cozying Up to Preservationists [Brownstoner]
• The Big Park Slope House Tour is Sunday [Dope on the Slope]
• Remember New York East? [110 Livingston]
• London Mayor Like NYC Congestion Pricing Idea [Metro]
• New Transportation Commissioner Commutes by Bike [Streets Blog]
• 133 Water Gets Temporary Certificate of Occupancy [Dumbo NYC]
• This is What a Long Closed Famous South Brooklyn Restaurant Looks Like [Lost City]
• Who’s Got the Biggest Rooftop Array? [McBrooklyn]
• Coney Island Event: Aquatic Asia [Kinetic Carnival]
• Pizza Plus Fire Victims, Sam Champion, to Play Bowery Ballroom [OTBKB]
• Backhoe Gulch: The BQE-Gowanus-Prospect Expressway Confluence [Big Sky Brooklyn]

The other day, we watched a family unit trudge out of Prospect Park to their parked car on Prospect Park West. Before packing them all in, mommy said, “Does anybody have to go?”

Clearly, someone did, as dad took one of the children to a nearby tree, where in full view of everyone, the Little One took the requisite bladder emptying whizz on a tree. After they left, we observed the gigantic wet spot on the tree. Little guy had a big bladder.

Other than making us wonder if it might not have more appropriate to have the him go in the privacy of the park rather than on Prospect Park West, it got us to thinking. Public peeing by kids is not an isolated thing in the Brooklyn Kingdom of Kids, Park Slope. Nor is this the first time the issue has come up (though, in fairness, given that the Little Tree Pee Child and siblings were placed into a vehicle and driven into the Park Slope dusk, they were probably not Park Slopians.) We suppose where you come down on this issue depends on whether you have children of tree peeing age. If you do, you’re probably pro-tree peeing. If not, you might be less enthusiastic about the practice. In any case, it’s not just us that wonders about letting one’s child treat a sidewalk tree in the same manner that a German Shepard would. We offer the following narrative from Dope on the Slope of another Park Slope Tree Peeing Incident:

Yesterday was the third time in less than a month that I witnessed a parent jerk down their toddler’s trousers in the middle of a busy sidewalk so that he could avail himself of the opportunity presented by a nearby tree, and heed the call of nature.

What is totally unfathomable to me is that this delightful tableau unfolded a mere two blocks from Barnes & Noble. I understand the impulse to buy your books from a local, but why not stick it to the man and sneak a leak in their bathroom?

Is this some odd Park Slope tradition that I’m unaware of, imported from Europe, perhaps?

I was in Amsterdam on Koninginnedag a few years ago, and was impressed by the high-tech public urinals located at convenient intervals on the street. They came in handy after all the celebratory Heineken, but they still allowed the user to maintain some pretense of modesty (although not much).

Somehow, I doubt that New York City is ready for this solution, especially since it only serves half of the population. Still, can’t we give the trees a break?

Ah, spring is here.

Related Post:
Public Peeing and the Park Slope Mom

We have been in contract since March on the property across the street. Well before we even figured there was a problem. Since then, we have been doing some homework. DEC (not DEP in NYC) has done some testing and has drilled wells on the sidewalks (you’ll notice the little circles with triangle covers). The results of soil samples and other test have not been posted yet. Of course they are trying to find the source of this oil, perhaps a local oil tank is the possibility (under our building??? who knows). But I must say information is incredibly difficult to obtain. We have applied for public information through Toxic Targeting and have called the Health Department which have been seriously interested and good at getting us what little answers exist.

One would think that the Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies would have moved faster to investigate the problem in the first place (the Roebling oil surfaced in October and the test well were drilled in April, and reports of oil in the vicinity under a neighboring development date back years). One would also hope that they would now be moving with alacrity to disseminate the findings so that readers like this one don’t have to guess about very real health and safety issues.

The Roebling Oil Mystery raises very interesting questions about the integrity of the DEC’s oversight in general and a very relevant policy question about whether there should be an up-to-date, user-friendly database that regulators maintain so that existing residents know of any threats that exist and potential buyers can, at least, make informed decisions.

Related Post:
Another Gusher at the Roebling Oil Field