Of course, everyone makes mistakes, and the list, overall, is right on target. But the Dutch Mustard Boo Boo gets at the Brooklyn reality that developers are faster with the wrecking ball than advocates are able to save things. The list of historic Brooklyn structures to fall or be altered beyond recognition before help arrived is as long as it is sad. We didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or scream when we saw Old Dutch–whose loss we still mourn every time we look at the vile blue fence surrounding the empty land–on this “wish list.”

We think that it’s worth mentioning that our fellow blogger and friend Lumi Rolley is being honored by Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes as one of “Brooklyn’s Extraordinary Women” and that tomorrow (3/25) is “Lumi Rolley Day” on the calendar. Mr. Hynes is honoring 31 women in Brooklyn for their contributions to the community and each gets a designated day. Lumi is the force behind No Land Grab, is a co-founder of Park Slope Neighbors, has been one of the leading voices in the Atlantic Yards Debate and is involved in a large number of civic and neighborhood causes. She’s also a very cool and very nice person. GL salutes Lumi Rolley and Lumi Rolley Day.
[Photo courtesy of Jonathan Barkey/pbase]

Images:

• St. Agnes Hoyt Street [seriously excited!]
• Lexington Near Grand [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Boots in the Air [Velvet Sea]
• Ward Bakery Desktop [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn [Joe’s NYC]
• New York Avenue, Midwood [seriously excited!]
• Two Towers [Lex’s Folly]

Not Images:

• Park Slope One-Way Traffic Plan “Is Not Moving Forward” [AYR]
• The Richest Architecture in Brooklyn [Sun]
• Greenpoint Love [newyorkshitty]
• Kensington Post Office–Worst in NYC? [Gothamist]
• Deuce Seven Does the Williamsburg Bridge [All City]
• Myrtle Avenue Rising [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• Coney Island Crime [Coney Island Reporter]
• Smart Mom Says Hepcat Needs a Job. Got One? [OTBKB]

We’ve had this Coney video on our list of things to post forever. Weekends are made for items like this, so click on the embed to watch.

It seems that the underground oil spill may extend far into Williamsburg. I have always spoken of the smell that comes from as far away as Meeker and North 7th st. when it rains. I hope all this stuff that the numerous sites throughout Williamsburg are putting in the air is not harming all of us.

Yesterday, he added:

I am really worried about what is being put in the air in a community with very high asthma rates and many children and seniors. I don’t know what is coming out of the ground. We have had many noxious sites in our community over the last 100 years and that may be the issue but my fear is lack of oversight. The fumes that are polluting our air cannot be healthy for us and with two children I am VERY concerned.

The approximate area of concern is shaded in blue above, with the site of the Roebling Oil Field in red. There are some big development sites nearby, one of which is currently being excavated at N. 8th and Roebling. They should be interesting indicators of whether there is a wider problem (with oil) than the small area around N. 11th Street and Roebling. As for other toxic contamination issues, it would be useful to have a thorough and proactive governmental program to test former industrial sites being converted to residential use. While a building may have been used to warehouse clothing from 1960-1990, the industrial history of Williamsburg and Greenpoint is such that it may have been used to manufacture some toxic from 1920-1959. One would think such protection of Brooklyn residents would be a public policy priority for Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and that it would, in fact, be a political bonanza for them with the public.

As we noted yesterday, no testing has ever been done to determine the full reach of the horrific underground Greenpoint Oil Spill. One of the noted “boundaries” of the spill is Meeker Avenue and Mr. DePaolo notes that firefighters used to pour water into the sewers along Meeker Ave., significantly south of the known spill to try to cut the smell of oil.

Related Posts:
Roebling Oil Field Update: Everything is Under Control
Oil Still Oozing into Williamsburg Condo Site

Is it “The Worst Post Office in America“? His report on the recent community meeting held about the wretched state of affairs at the post office is as follows:

At a community meeting in the packed Immaculate Heart of Mary auditorium last Thursday night, Kensington resident Ethan Rosenblatt stepped out of an angry crowd and asked a reasonable question.

“Why is it so hard to contact a supervisor at the Kensington Post Office?” Rosenblatt asked. “You can’t find a phone number. You can’t find an email address. You can’t even find out where to send a letter of complain.”

In front of him, Brooklyn Postmaster Joseph Chiossone and newly appointed Kensington Station Manager Raymond Schweikle stared into their notes. Finally, the meeting’s organizer and moderator, Assemblyman Jim Brennan, addressed Rosenblatt’s question.

“I used to list those numbers in my monthly newsletter,” Brennan said. “But the post office kept changing the numbers as soon as I listed them.”

A chorus of boos ensued, until finally Postmaster Chiossone promised that supervisor’s phone numbers would be displayed in the Kensington Station within a week.

Such was the mood Thursday, as Kensington residents swapped war stories about what one person called “The Worst Post Office in America.”

Complaints from the feisty crowd of over 200 – many of them senior citizens – included allegations of identity theft by postal employees, and descriptions of lines running out of the Kensington Station and onto MacDonald Avenue. Many recounted instances of rudeness on the part of employees, others described missing packages, two month delivery delays, and chronic understaffing.

“I’m from Vietnam,” one speaker told the assemblage, “And I can tell you that the post office in Saigon works better than this one.”

For his part, Postmaster Chiossone sounded like a man who had taken the first step towards recovery by admitting there was a problem.

“We can’t do anything about the past except admit to our mistakes” he told the crowd repeatedly. “We can only try to move forward.” Chiossone cited new policies that would help mitigate service problems in Kensington, including increased lobby monitoring, retraining staff members, longer service hours, and a “zero tolerance policy” for staff rudeness. But he was careful not to promise too much, noting that there were three post offices in Park Slope’s 11215 zip code, while Kensington’s 11218 code, with a larger population, was served only by the MacDonald Avenue office – a condition over which, Chiossone said, he had no control.

And as of Wednesday, the walls of the Kensington Post Office were still unblemished by supervisor’s phone numbers.
–Chris Curen

So, is the Kensingston Station the Stephen King Novel of Post Offices? Or is it just a somewhat more extreme version of the average depressing Brooklyn postal adventure?

[Photo of boxes stacked at the Kensington Station courtesy of Chris Curen]

Related Post:
Crazed at the Kensington Post Office

[Photo courtesy of Miss Heather AKA The Dog Shit Queen of Greenpoint]

• Development Consulting Firm Is Interim Atlantic Yards Environmental Monitor [AYR]
• Forest City Embraces Historic Preservation, But Not in Brooklyn [AYR]
• Weird Brooklyn Bridge Park “Cat Walk” Design [Brownstoner]
• That’s One-Way to Do It [Brooklyn Downtown Star]
• View from the J Condo’s 32nd Floor [Dumbo NYC]
• Hamptons Jitney Adds Park Slope & Downtown Brooklyn Stops [Sun]
• Crown Heights Matzoh Scandal [Brooklyn Record]
• Sunset Park Student Mural Sparks Controversy [Metro]
• A Rash of Clinton Hill Break Ins? [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Hello Living Update [Set Speed]
• The Battle for Coney Island [Taste for Travel]
• PLG Author Book Signing [Across the Park]
• Historic Kensington [Kensington Brooklyn]
• Brooklyn Serial Bank Robber Strikes Again [Sun]

Just when we thought the Atlantic Yards Well of Irony had run dry, along comes the attempt to spin the impending demolition of the old Ward’s Bakery in Prospect Heights that preservationists have been trying to spare from the wrecking ball. The building sits in the Atlantic Yards footprint. Yesterday, Forest City announced that it was going to start demolition on Monday. Its Press Release boasted that “Over 75% of Building to be Recycled as Part of LEED Certification.” It said:

Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC), the developer of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, today announced that abatement and demolition of 800 Pacific Street (also known as the Ward Bread Bakery building) will begin on Monday, March 26, 2007. As part of its sustainability efforts and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification process, at least 75% of the demolition debris is expected to be recycled.

“Obtaining LEED certification for Atlantic Yards is one of the highest ‘green’ standards we can achieve,” said Bruce Ratner, President and CEO of FCRC. “Whether it is recycling building materials, using low emission vehicles or reducing storm water overflows into the Gowanus Canal by more than 2 million gallons per year, we are seeking out every possible way to make Atlantic Yards as eco-friendly and environmentally responsible as possible.”

Well, thank God for all that. We’d been a little worried, but it turns out that our fears were misplaced. Ward’s is being recycled and the Gowanus will be cleaner. Of course, we’re a little tongue in cheek here. The Gowanus Canal “more people equals less pollution” argument, for instance, was refuted (but ignored) during the Draft Environmental Impact Statement process. It was pointed out, for instance, that the “reduction” estimate was based on 1988 conditions that don’t reflect the current climate and that the development will, in fact, lead to significant additional pollution of the canal. You can read an earlier post here, if you’re interested in a refresher on the crappy nature of Atlantic Yards’ Impact on the Gowanus.

Related Posts:
Online Petition to Prevent Demolition of Ward’s Bakery
Beware the Gowanus Canal Shit Storm

[Photo courtesy of benben/flickr]

[Photo courtesy of Chris and Youn/flickr]
We were a little unfocused yesterday and didn’t get to our Thursday Focus on Food, so we’re presenting it now as a small special linkage edition. Sorry about all the bad news about DiFara’s.

• New Mouse Pizza: The DiFara Health Dept. Report [Gawker]
• DiFara’s Issues with DOH, Mouse Droppings, Mice, Etc. [Eater]
• Chowhound Censoring DiFara-Department of Health Posts [Eater]
• An “Amazing Meal” at Dressler [Jaunted]
• OTBKB’s Brooklyn Dining Out Picks [OTBKB]
• Lunch in Park Slope [Park Slope Gastronome]
• All-Star Caroll Gardens Chow Finds [Chowhound]
• From Nobu to Greenpoint’s Krolewskie Jadlo [Gothamist]
• Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brooklyn Record]
• Williamsburg’s Kiosco Piaxtla [Eating for Brooklyn]

The matter at hand is that CM Avella wrote the Department of Environmental Conservation, and they sent a letter back that seems to imply that the only thing people are worried about is are “nuisance odors” that have come from the site and that the clean up is under control. They say that “excavation and removal of contaminated soil and residual oil is proceeding as per the Redmediation Work plan.” They add that during inspections on Feb. 28 and March 5 “the Department did not notice any petroleum odors” along the borders of the site. One might suggest they send people that aren’t facing severe olfactory challenges, as we’ve been sniffing the borders of the site too and can assure the Department that, while the stink is diminished, it is not entirely gone. (If you believe the critical issue is the smell, which it isn’t.) We recently got an email suggesting that the department’s oversight of the Roebling Oil Field has been–shall we say–significantly less than zealous. In fact, our correspondent suggested that the oversight, well, stinks.

This begs the point, however. Environmental maps show a ruptured oil tank was under a building on a site now occupied by the N. 11th Roebling development. Community activist Phil DePaolo, who is a veteran of many Williamsburg battles, argues that there is a broader oil contamination issue in Williamsburg and cites the smell of oil coming from Meeker Avenue (under the BQE) and the strong odor of oil when it rains. (This is the same phenomenon reported by residents that live atop the Greenpoint oil spill.) Almost no environmental testing has been done to determine the extent of contamination in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, while this part of Williamsburg is a great distance from the notorious Greenpoint Oil Spill, no one is certain how far the 17-30 million gallons of underground Exxon/Mobil oil has spread. In theory, the water table could have carried it a great distance in the half century or so it has been sloshing under North Brooklyn. (Amazingly, the spill’s full spread has never been mapped.) Or, the issue could be more localized spills dating back to more than a century of industrial use of many properties now being converted to residential use. In either case, one could certainly make the case for very rigorous public sector oversight and intensive testing to determine the true nature of the toxic threat to both longtime residents and new arrivals.

1) There’s a new restaurant opening at 43 Franklin (pictured above). No details available. The only record we found was a new restaurant-wine license that was granted to Isabella Beach LLC. There’s an Isabella Beach in Puerto Rico, but we have no idea if that’s an indication of where the place is heading.

2) 91 Greenpoint Avenue, meanwhile, is in the throes of becoming a new restaurant or as our correspondent puts it, possibly a “bar/grill.”

3) Word Books is open at 126 Franklin Street and its appearance drives the Dog Shit Queen of Greenpoint to express great happiness that her beloved neighborhood finally has a cool English-language bookstore. She gives them “two enthusiastic thumbs up.” When you’ve got Miss Heather saying things like that, you know you’ve done something right.

4) When we reported last week that Area Kids was opening in the Mini-Mall on Bedford Avenue, we neglected to mention the obvious: Sam & Seb, the children’s store that’s been on Bedford is now closed. A reader pointed this out, writing “I think you may have to subtract one children’s store from the list. Sam & Seb on Bedford closed shop just a couple of weeks before Area Kids opened in the Mini Mall.” Both that storefront and an adjacent one are now encased in plywood, and it’s not like we haven’t stared at them since the closure.

So, first the relatively new blog, Found in Brooklyn wrote this at the end of a post on development on Bond Street, which is home to the building we call The Bunker and is where the Toll Brothers would build their big Gowanus development:

I’d rather live with the famous Bond Street wild dog packs than people who can spend a million on an apartment.

Then, Ariella Cohen wrote in one of her excellent newspaper columns:

The unleashed mutts that once roamed free and fierce on Bond Street are a species extinct, their habitat overtaken by strollers and Heath Ledger on a skateboard. And while the demise of the so-called wild dogs is one that has been amply noted by pundits and politicians as a sign of progress, some who live in the area aren’t so sure that their disappearance is a good thing…It’s an odd time in a neighborhood’s development when seemingly sane people believe they would be better off living next to mongrels with sharp incisors and a habit of defecating in the street than stock traders who probably aren’t even home much.

Then, the Found in Brooklyn posted the pic you see here of a dog figure on Third Street in a post titled Wild Dogs vs. Fashionista Dogs and brought the discussion back to what’s going on in Gowanus, writing:

I feel that unfortunately change is inevitable. Land is valuable, even polluted land, the best that we can do is be aware about what is going on and hopefully remind the developers that they can build but they have to be aware of the dischord that they may be creating.

All of which brings us back to wondering about the wild dogs that once roamed Gowanus and, much more famously, Red Hook, and about development.

Bond Street Dogs vs. the Toll Brothers? Revere Sugar Dogs vs. Thor Equities?

Hmm.

To us, the ironic preference for wild dogs that once roamed gets at–here comes the pop psychology–deeply conficted feelings about the development pressure that is on Gowanus and Red Hook.

Take Gowanus, where developers are going to push for fairly dense residential development that would allow buildings significantly taller than existing structures in a neighborhood where the infrastructure is already so inadequate that rainstorms result in geyers of sewage in the streets. Not to mention very real environmental concerns.

Or, take Red Hook’s Revere Sugar site, which was the home of the Revere Sugar Dogs. Thor Equities original visions for the site, quickly being reduced to a flat and vacant space, included a BJ’s Wholesale Club. If anything, it raises questions about the best use for spectacular waterfront property is in Brooklyn. Us, we would prefer low- to mid-rise residential development that creates pleasant waterfront open space and preserves historic and industrial structures. We would also suggest preserving a working waterfront and giving preference to important maritime use where conflicts exist. The Red Hook waterfront could have been one of the most spectacular jewels in New York City and, instead, it’s becoming a cheesy suburban big box shopping center, a symbol of planning failure and design awfulness.

You can foam at the mouth and say that we’re anti-progress or reflexively anti-development, but it’s enough to make one, well, a tiny bit whistful for the loss of the wild dogs’ habitat if not the dogs themselves. If the only choice one has is between the dogs and acres of parking with Ikea flags flapping in the breeze, industrial cranes preserved as symbols of the past and a big blue box store with yellow letters, well, one is tempted to bark and wag one’s tail.

[Photo courtesy of Found in Brooklyn]

Yesterday Jotham Sederstrom at the Daily News wrote about a YouTube video showing a customer going (verbally) berserk at the post office in Kensington. We didn’t see it because the News’ “new and improved” website seems to have developed a delay in posting “Boroughs” articles and the new format makes it hard to find things. In any case, Ben Smith blogged about it and sent out an email. He writes:

There’s really nowhere, with the possible exception of the INS offices, where civil servants treat you worse than the miserable Kensington Post Office.

It’s actually been a simmering political issue in Brooklyn for years, and Jotham Sederstrom turned up this classic video of a guy going nuts. Yes, he appears to be insane…but honestly I’ve been on the brink of that condition in that post office.

Mr. Sederstrom’s article is worth reading and the vid is priceless, if disturbing. There’s no indication what set the guy off, and he’s clearly a little on the crazed, if not insane, side. He keeps screaming “I’m the customer” and becomes very verbally abusive. The vid ends with the cops showing up. We’re especially interested given that we posted a couple of items that drew a number of comments last week about postal service in Boerum Hill and because the Kensington branch has drawn ire in the past. In any case, if you watch it, be warned that the guy gets kind of foul.

• Rezoning Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill [Sun]
• Get Ready for a Lot of Urban Room at Flatbush and Atlantic [AYR]
• Montague Street Bank Robbery Spree [Metro]
• Hamptons Jitney to Schedule Trustafarian Pick Up in Williamsburg [Jossip]
• Does NYC Have the Will for Congestion Pricing? [Streets Blog]
• Last Roller Rink [ABL]
• Checking in on 133 Water Street [Brownstoner]
• Brooklyn’s Other Museum of Brooklyn [Clinton Hill Blog]
• When Williamsburg Residents Say They’re From Greenpoint [newyorkshitty]
• Verizon FiOS Coming to Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]
• Frank Gehry’s Brooklyn Adventure [No Land Grab]
• The Second Annual Brooklyn Blogfest is Coming, May 10 [OTBKB]
• Historic Kensington [Kensington Brooklyn]

1) Thor Equities continues to say that an amusement park alone will lose money. The company is producing a plan based on 1.4 million visitors coming to a $250 million park that would replace Astroland, which currently draws 350,000 annual visitors. Mr. Sitt wants to build 975 residential units in the amusement zone in four towers along Stillwell Avenue. The tallest tower, which would be on the boardwalk, would be 50 stories tall.

2) The owners of Astroland say they sold to Thor because they concluded that being surrounded by construction for up to five years would kill their business and there was no interest on the part of the city in working with them to develop their property as a “year-round” attraction.

3) The purchase of Astroland came as a surprise to city officials, who weren’t counting on Mr. Sitt buying an operating amusement.

4) The Coney Island Development Corporation has, so far, rejected a proposal to move some of Astroland’s rides to a temporary site on W. 10th Street which could add life to Coney during the possibly long period before redevelopment.

5) Entrepreneur Diana Carlin, AKA Lola Staar, who was evicted by Mr. Sitt from her boardwalk store after refusing to sign a confidentiality clause, is the person behind the new Save Coney Island group.

6) Thor likes to hand out copies of Charles Denson‘s Coney Island: Lost and Found to investors. In a Ratnerian touch of irony (shades of the anti-Atlantic Yards actress featured in a Ratner flyer), Mr. Denson is against Mr. Sitt’s project, calling it, among other things “generic and ugly.” He continues: “This is the greatest danger that Coney has ever been in. To have one owner [in the amusement district] is the worst possible scenario. It could be the end of everything.”

7) Horace Bullard, who had grand plans for Coney Island but never built anything (and still holds undeveloped property), says he believes that Mr. Sitt is “the Second Bullard.” He predicts that Mr. Sitt will leave Coney Island with vast new parcels of empty land and become frustrated that he can’t build anything.

8) The Coney Island Development Corp is concerned about stories that Coney will be left a dark and empty place and that the city’s own plans to anchor development with Steeplechase Plaza on one end and a redone Coney Island Aquarium on the other could be sabotaged. In the meantime, the Eagle Reports, the “breakdown in the negotiations between Thor Equities and the city became public. People started to get scared when reports came out that Sitt would scrap the whole thing if he couldn’t build condos in the amusement district, and that city officials weren’t budging.”

Related Posts:
City Takes Another Crack at Coney Amusements
Sitt Frustrated with Opposition to Coney Plan

So, this is from a baseball blog, of all things, and came to our attention via a post in the Belltel Lofts blog. What caught our eye was the verbiage there about a Manhattanite moving to Brooklyn. The original post from the Futility Infielder is interesting, a couple of paragraphs of which we copy and past here:

After 12 years of living in the East Village, I’m Brooklyn-bound. On Thursday, my wife and I signed a contract and put down a deposit on a 1,250-square foot apartment in downtown Brooklyn, one that will allow me to have a dedicated home office AND keep a room in reserve for a Jaffe To Be Named Later, not that we’re “expecting” yet. The unit is still under construction and we won’t close for at least a couple of months, but it’s a very exciting development even if it does take us out of Manhattan. Most of our friends have long since moved to Brooklyn, and we desperately need the space, as we’re coming up on four years in a 450-square foot apartment that requires us to go outside to change our minds. The downtown Brooklyn area is a bit raw at the moment (which is what made our space so affordable), but with a ton of civic planning in the pipeline, it’s set to undergo a major facelift over the next few years.

In other words, we’re now carpet-bagging, gentrification-chasing scum. Ask me how I feel about that when I won’t have to double-stack books on my bookshelves or schlep a good quarter of my stuff into storage. Ask my wife how she’ll feel when she’s able to shut the door to my office and avoid the ever-growing pile of books, magazines, mail, computer cables and assorted whatever that’s practically reached sculpture status during this past offseason. Ask me about the dining room table that will finally enable us to eat like adults on a daily basis, not that we’ll actually do so because when else would we watch the previous night’s Daily Show?

Another Manhattan convert to Brooklyn.

• Brownstoner Finally Reveals Himself! [NYO]
• Markowitz on Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• Neighborhood News: All Transport Edition [110 Livingston]
• Stalled on Franklin [Brownstoner]
• Look Inside 306 Lincoln [Across the Park]
• Affordable Housing in Bed-Stuy [Bed-Stuy Blog]
• What About the Gardens in Carroll Gardens? [Lost City]
• TV Pilot Filming at St. James and Washington [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Walkie Doggie [Brooklyn Record]
• Obey the Giant Sexy Pump in Park Slope [Velvet Sea]
• My Brooklyn is Better Than Yours [Budget Travel Online]
• Coney Hoopla [Kinetic Carnival]

1) Brooklyn Pita, pictured above, appears nearly ready to join the storefront food fray on Seventh Avenue near Ninth Street. Maybe they will even offer a decent falafel.

2) The new Bank of America ATM storefront brings banking to Seventh Avenue near Ninth Street to a stretch where the only ATMs were previously those over-priced ones you find in storefronts. We don’t cheer bank branches and more than we do any other chain retailer, as they speak more to the high cost per square foot of retail space than to the overall health and vitality of a neighborhood retail strip, but this part of Seventh Avenue next to the F Train actually needed a bank. It even appears somewhat better maintained than the notoriously gross and messy Bank of America storefront at Seventh Avenue and Union Street.

3) Delices de Paris, which has an interesting history, has reopened after being shut down by the Health Department, originally for mouse droppings. Then, it became caught in the backwash of the KFC-Taco Bell West Village Rat Olympics and subsequent Health Department rampage. Extra points to those that can keep this Park Slope tale of love, marraige, breakup, pastry and mouse turds straight.

I think this one is hands down the WORST one I have ever seen. Seriously…Note the red crates: some dude was stacking them up against a section of the fence to prop it up. Brilliant!

It’s hard to know where to begin with these photos. Should we point out the fact that all the permits have rotted from the fencing? Or those super nice red crates that workers have stacked against the falling boards to prop them up? Hmmm. Our advice: cross the street, especially on breezy days, because you never know when this baby is coming down.

BONUS QUESTION: If we can find this stuff, why can’t the Department of Buildings? One might accuse us of being super picky, but the sad state of a lot of building sites seems to suggest some, um, shortcomings in a critical city agency. On the other hand, what’s a cruddy fence compared to construction that nearly collapses people’s homes and “stop work orders” that are routinely violated with impunity?

(See something interesting in your neighborhood? GL is all ears and eyes. Hit us off at gowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.)

We love hearing about new Brooklyn blogs. Last week alone, we noted three of them. Turns out there is also a wonderful new blog being produced out of Kensington–called Kensington (Brooklyn)–that is, so far, keeping up a good posting schedule with lots of valuable information about the neighborhood. Some early entries include items about a neighborhood “wish list,” new developments in the area, something a little scary-sounding called the Kensington Action Force and a lot more. The blogger’s first post defines the neighborhood, noting that its definition by real estate agents has become more expansive of late:

Although the brokers as of late have extended the borders of Kensington considerably the true area is as follows…. bordered by Coney Island Ave. to the east, Caton Ave. to the north, McDonald Ave. to the west, and Ditmas Ave. to the south. The ‘hoods that border Kensington are Ditmas Park and Prospect Park South to the east, Windsor Terrace to the north, Borough Park to the west, and Parkville to the south.

We look forward to keeping tabs on Kensington from here on out.