Brooklyn blogs may be reporting on the ongoing petition drive to convince Whole Foods to build a more environmentally-sensitive store in Gowanus (see examples here, here, here and here), but the big retailer has apparently already said no to the petition being circulated in the community. Ariella Cohen writes in the Brooklyn Paper:

Whole Foods’ corporate machine beat back a neighborhood green dream team this week, denying a petition from a civic group to shrink its parking lots and put an earth-friendly solar roof on its super-store, now under construction on Third Avenue at Third Street.

While the grocer hasn’t responded to the Park Slope Neighbors petition, it apparently told Ms. Cohen it isn’t interested in reducing parking on the site or including a green roof:

“We are confident that our parking plan, as currently designed, features the appropriate number of spaces,” said spokesman Fred Shank.

He noted that the company considered topping the Third Avenue store with a green roof, a feature it used on other locations, but eventually determined that it “simply would not be feasible.”

The positions re-state what corporate representatives told the Park Slope Civic Council in January when they rejected the same suggestions. Those rejections led the Park Slope Neighbors group to start the petition drive. The Whole Foods plan has also been questioned because of the site’s environmental issues, including carcinogenic benzene, and because most of it would be below street level in a floodplain.

Related Posts:
Park Slope to Whole Foods: Be a Good (Green) Neighbor
Thumbs Down to Green Roof

We hate to keep harping on this, but the latest explanation by a Brooklyn Public Library official about why some works were excluded from their “Footprints” show deserves attention. Maybe you remember that it was said in Sunday’s New York Times that some of the art was excluded because it was “hagiographic”? Not so. The Library’s Director of Programs and Exhibitions wrote a letter to the Brooklyn Paper:

The Brooklyn Public Library is not an art museum or a private gallery. Our exhibitions feature art that is accessible to our diverse audience and either documents Brooklyn or is related to books. As a publicly funded institution that serves the entire community, we do not offer platforms for one-sided advocacy on controversial political issues…

Our “Footprints” documentation of a current neighborhood was never intended to be the previous advocacy exhibition that was displayed in Prospect Heights. The works in our exhibition were selected because they are compatible with BPL’s documentary mission and its artistic standards. The few works in the previous show that were not included were either too large, required video installation, failed to meet artistic standards or were political cartoons.

The Library has been consistent in citing its public funding as one reason for the decisions that were made and that it avoided works that were “advocacy.” However, the one size offered does not fit all. We’re assuming that Sarah Sagarin‘s portrait of Atlantic Yards activist Daniel Goldstein (seen here) was deemed “too large”? Because it certainly meets our artistic standards and she produces beautiful work. Which brings us to the other point in the letter:

Instead of reading blogs written by artists who exploit the very institution that brings their art to BPL’s diverse audience, I encourage your readers to judge our exhibition with their own eyes.

For the record, we can’t draw a stick figure. Also, to follow the information food chain, the story was first reported in The Real Estate, which is not a blog “written by artists.” Ah, but now, we’re nitpicking.

Related Posts:
GL on the BPL in the NYT
The Art the Brooklyn Public Library Doesn’t Want You to See

A building on 16th Street at whose appearance we have marveled more than once, and not in a good way, is now on the market. The “on sale” status was reported yesterday by Brownstoner. The photo above is one we shot of the unfinished building, but it was certainly finished enough to give an idea of what it looks like. The architect is the ubiquitous Karl Fischer, who is behind the stretch of Bayard Street that we dubbed Karl Fischer Row because it has so many building he designed. In any case, here’s what the website for Suite Sixteen says:

Timeless and enduring. Karl Fischer Architects were inspired by the chateau’s of France with interior Design by Andres Escobar. Limestone façade and 18’ Oriel Bay windows provide seamless elegance. Italian Wenge kitchens with Calacatta marble, JennAire appliances, Master bath with marron marble, wet style sinks, polished porcelain walls. 2nd bath with soaking tub, artic white stone & sea salt glass 4” Maple flooring, solid core 8’ custom doors…

Reaction from one member of the community in an email:

Seems the “Suite Sixteen” Karl Fisher styled “beam me up Scotty” building on 16th St. is on-line and up for sale. We love the “chateau” reference. Pukey!

We’ve got a feeling this is one building in which it’s nicer to be inside, looking out than outside, looking at it.

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

• Who Thinks Space on the Streets is Useless Space? [Brooklyn Views]
• Grassroots Media Conference [No Land Grab]
• Brooklyn Public Library Should Have Renamed the ‘Footprints’ Show [AYR]
• Where Does Park Slope End? [Daily Intel]
• Fun with Real Estate on Tiffany Place [A Brooklyn Life]
• Workers of Brooklyn & Queens Unite! [Brooklyn Downtown Star]
• Park Slopers Petition for a Greener Whole Foods [Brooklyn Record]
• Fulton Market? [Clinton Hill Blog]
• New Council Member Eugene Looking for Place to Live in His District [Gothamist]
• Council Member Swearing-In Postponed [NYT]
• QM2 to Dock in Red Hook in May for $1M NYC Opera/BAM Fundraiser [Bloomberg]
• Kingsborough Community College Starts a Tourism Class [NYDN]
• Question of the Day: Where Does Black Crud on Snow Go? [Velvet Sea]
• Inaugural Show at Red Hook’s Lucky Gallery [OTBKB]
• New Photog Exhibit, ENFANCES, to Open at Dumbo Gallery [Dumbo NYC]
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden Celebrity Path [Flatbush Gardener]

Get ready for more free shows at McCarren Pool this summer. Brooklyn Vegan has reported that Jelly NYC, which produced last summer’s free shows at McCarren is doing another series of nine shows this summer. They’ll also have a benefit for the Open Space Alliance, which is said to be taking over management of the pool space next year with the ultimate goal of turning it into a pool again.

Pool Aid has pronounced itself happy with the free shows, but whether neighborhood groups–some of which had asked the Parks Department for quieter programming this summer–are enthusiastic remains to be seen. The Parks Department has conducted its planning process for summer programming quietly and privately, and officials have said they only had the power to react to proposals for programming. So, other summer programming isn’t known yet. Last year’s choice of Live Nation to produce concerts was especially controversial.

With most everything between the Cyclone, Surf Avenue and Stillwell Avenue likely to succumb to the Thor Equities wrecking crews in the next 18 months, give or take, the loss of the advertecture that is unique to Coney Island is very real. Will the signage end up for sale on eBay or simply tossed in a dumpster and trucked off by a certain demolition company that does a great deal of work around Brooklyn? Is there a way to, at least, save some of the signage for a museum? Is some entity already at work on it? Are they going to end up on a wall in the food court in developer Joe Sitt’s shopping mall or in frames in the lobby of a hotel? While we wouldn’t compare what is in Coney now to the treasures that were lost 40 and 50 or more years ago, there is still much that is unique and worth saving. We’ve included a few samples here from our photo collection. There are hundreds of such images around in Coney Island from a school of American seaside-boardwalk advertecture that is slowly starting to disappear.

We’d be seriously remiss if we didn’t mention the story in amNY today about Gowanus that declares “a renaissance” in the works for our namesake neighborhood. The article declares:

Then again, a deep breath and a glance down at the ducks paddling on the slightly rainbow-colored water below also clues one in that this is no “lavender lake” or “perfume creek” anymore either.
The Gowanus Canal, the 1.5-mile long 19th-century link between Red Hook and Brooklyn’s interior, has made a remarkable rebound since a long dormant flushing mechanism was repaired in 1999. And although the area’s industrial glory days are long past, a renaissance is in the works.

Housing interests are pressing in from all sides as Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill residents are claiming the houses and apartments scattered amid the chop shops, bus lots, scrap yards, warehouses and oil depots that ring the canal.

The blocks around the canal that don’t have houses are better known as canvases for graffiti artists, but that is sure to change.

A planned Whole Foods on Third Avenue is inching along toward completion, renovated houses on Bond Street are fetching seven figures and a spirited fight is on to convince the city Planning Department to rezone industrial tracts along the water for housing.

One real estate person predicts that “since the neighborhood is largely free of landmarks, developers see a rare opportunity to try radical, Museum of Modern Art-esque designs.” The article also notes that there is likely to be pressure to allow taller buildings near the Canal. We’re going to take an educated guess and say the ask could be for a dozen stories or more. The critical planning and zoning discussions will be going on in coming months.

The windowless wall of the building on Bond Street that we’ve taken to calling Der Bunker because it reminds us of a World War II something or other, at least in its cinder block form, is coming along, albeit very slowly. It has added another window-less floor on the Carroll Street side since we last paid it any attention in December. You can check out our earlier post about Der Bunker here. All we’ll say right now is that installing the windows shouldn’t take long. Oh, and what the hell are those little rectangular holes in the wall?

In casting his wide net, Coney blogger Kinetic Carnival found some very interesting renderings of a new pedestrian bridge that would run from the West Eighth Street subway station across Surf Avenue in Coney Island. The design comes from weisz + yoes architecture, which was also one of the finalists in the radical (and desperately needed) resdesign of the New York Aquarium. The firm’s website says:

Our bridge design, which has received committee-level preliminary approval from the Art Commission, is based on the idea that the Aquarium is the critical anchor for one end of the world-famous Coney Island entertainment district. We therefore designed a new parabolic bridge that launches itself across Surf Avenue – connecting the new West 8/Aquarium BMT station to the Aquarium but also providing a formal and iconic marker for the presence of the Aquarium and one end of Coney Island.

The firm is also the designer of the proposed Sea Life Carousel in the Battery, which is an interesting project and oddly connected to Coney because Castle Clinton was the original home of the New York Aquarium before Robert Moses had it removed and eventually relocated to Coney Island as part of a plan to demolish the historic fort.

Related Post:
Coney Island Aquarium Renovation is Cause for Celebration
More Aquarium Renderings

[Photo courtesy of scaredy_kat/flickr]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images. On Thursday, we focus on food.

Food:

• Sahara’s Coney Island (above) Vs. Yemen Cafe on Atlantic [Chowhound]
• Alchemy Comes to Park Slope [NYT]
• New Jerk (Chicken) in Town [Across the Park]
• Pillow Cafe is Open [Clinton Hill Blog]
• a*bistro is Superb [Chowhound]
• Checking Out Willie’s Dawgs in Park Slope [Gothamist]
• Banned Chowhound Post About Monte’s Venetian Room [Eater]
• Lundys in Sheepshead Bay to Return to Life as Legal Seafoods? [Chowhound]
• Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brooklyn Record]

Not Food:

• Forest City Ratner Establishes Community Liaison Office [Brooklyn Speaks]
• First Photo & Photoshop of the Community Liaison Office [No Land Grab]
• Breaking Ground at Atlantic Yards [Brit in Brooklyn]
• AY Landscape Architect Laurie Olin Says Americans Afraid of Density [NYO]
• Olin Expects Atlantic Yards to Take 20 Years [AYR]
• Atlantic Yards: Denser Than the Landscape Architect Says [AYR]
• Rent Hike Protest in Williamsburg [NYDN]
• Where to Put Your Guests in Brooklyn [Clinton Hill Blog]
• High Hopes for First Haitian on City Council [Sun]
• Aspiring Young Brooklyn Chefs Shadow Established Ones [NYDN]
• The Physics of Hurling at Various Speeds in Greenpoint [newyorkshitty]
• They Fart Like ’69 Buick Skylarks in Sheepshead Bay [Erica’s Blog]
• What Not to Do When Taking a Cab to Brooklyn [Revoltingly Delicious]

Could Be Food:

• Brooklyn Invasion of Yuppie Chickens [Brooklyn Record]

More than 500 people have signed petition being circulated on paper and online by Park Slope Neighbors to ask Whole Foods to tweak its plans for the huge store it is planning at Third Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus. We wrote about the petition campaign when it was launched early this month, but the details are worth repeating. The petition asks Whole Foods to adopt a transportation-management plan that would cut traffic and to include a green roof or solar panels on the the building instead of a rooftop parking deck. It also asks for a reduction of parking by at least 100 spaces. The group is asking for a jitney service to shuttle shoppers to the subway, for “ample” bike parking and for pedicabs. It also “cites the energy and environmental benefits of green and solar roofs – especially important for the ecologically fragile Gowanus Basin,” in the words of a new Park Slope Neighbors press release.

Says the group’s Eric McCLure: “We think a Whole Foods Market would be a great addition to the neighborhood, but it’s disappointing that they appear intent on implementing a suburban-style plan. Since only about 40% of households in this area own cars, we’d like to work with Whole Foods to de-emphasize vehicle traffic in favor of other modes of transportation to and from the store. We also think Brooklyn deserves environmentally friendly measures like green or solar roofs, which Whole Foods has implemented or planned for in other markets.”

Actual petitioning signing on paper has been slowed by the frigid weather of the last few weeks, so there should be a lot more signed petitions headed over to Whole Foods once volunteers start collecting signatures in the neighborhood.

The Green Roof Whole Foods Market blog is working with Park Slope Neighbors to push for the green roof and transportation improvements via the petition. Park Slope Neighbors helped convince Commerce Bank to tone down their branch on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and to eliminate a drive-through window.

You can sign the online petition here.

Related Post:
Residents to Whole Foods, Park Slope Edition: Modify It

OTBKB blogger and Brooklyn Reading Works organizer Louise Crawford sends a reminder about the BRW event tonight (2/22) featuring “Three Writers. Three Interesting Stories.” It takes place at 8PM at the Old Stone House, which is between Fourth and Fifth Avenues between 3rd and 4th Streets. Tonight’s featured writers are Carla Thompson, who’s a freelance writer and filmmaker. She’ll be reading from her first book, a memoir called Bearing Witness: Not So Crazy in Alabama. It’s described thusly: “..the Harlem native meets an itty bitty beauty queen, a redemptive ex-con, and a wheelchair-bound quiz kid among others and discovers that the American South is a complex intersection of race and class filled with people who go about the business of living the best way they can.”

Also reading is Branka Ruzak, a native of northeastern Ohio and the daughter of Croatian and Slovenian immigrants. A bit about Ms. Ruzak: “Always an avid traveler, her essays and poems are journeys to different times and different places. Her essays ‘Hungry Heart’ and ‘Mothballs: A Chemical Memory’ is from a growing collection of writings about family, culture and travel..”

Last but not least is the woman known to readers of Ms. Crawford’s blog and column as Mrs. Cleavage, aka Mary MacRae Warren, who produces a blog called–what else?–Mrs. Cleavage’s Diary. She’s described as “a single mother who lives in a cluttered apartment in East New York. She is saucy, opinionated, creative, and a smarty-pants – not necessarily in that order. Her blog is her story, live and unedited from Brooklyn.”

Check it all out tonight.

We think a lot about what we now know has a clinical term–the Online Disinhibition Effect, known in regular parlance as flaming. Most bloggers or people that are part of online communities where people leave comments know about it. So, it’s a bit off-topic here and the article is a couple of days old, but OTBKB brought it our attention, because the New York Times’ Psychology section is usually outside the long list of things we track every day. It’s worth reading. We related to it, so we’ll excerpt a few lines here and hope it doesn’t attract any, you know, flames:

a problem recognized since the earliest days of the Internet: flaming, or sending a message that is taken as offensive, embarrassing or downright rude…thoughts expressed while sitting alone at the keyboard would be put more diplomatically — or go unmentioned — face to face.

Flaming has a technical name, the “online disinhibition effect,” which psychologists apply to the many ways people behave with less restraint in cyberspace.

Nice summary of the issue.

Why is it we only hear about Dyker Heights in the context of its incredible Christmas displays and some of the issues it has with overzealous ticket writers from the Department of Sanitation. (Not that we don’t doubt that other neighborhoods have the same issues.) In any case, today’s Daily News lays out the latest details:

Some Dyker Heights homeowners are outraged over a Sanitation Department ticketing blitz – and not the short-lived one for failing to dig their cars out of snowbanks.

The most recent spree of at least 15 tickets on 72nd St. is the third to hit the block since Jan. 2, residents said, when a handful of neighbors were slapped with $25 violations – mostly for mixing recyclables.

“This is ridiculous,” said Leonardo Fodera, 65, who got slapped with a $25 ticket last week – his third this year. “Somebody is going crazy to make some money to justify their job. This is a blitz if I ever saw one.”

The ticket, issued by agent Ronald Thornton, claims the violation was the result of “more than five mixed paper mixed in with household waste placed out for collection.”

Like Fodera, most on 72nd St. between 11th and 12th Aves. were fined for mixing recyclables, but others were ticketed for dirty sidewalks.

“The city is getting poor; it needs money,” said Aaron Liu, 28, who received two $25 tickets for mixing recyclables this month. “That’s the only way to describe it.”

More wonderful detail, including a proposed legislative solution, in the full article.

Hi, my name is Sydney and I’m a 30-year-old female who digs pool, poker, x-box, movies, long walks on the street. Musically, I like Led Zep. Movie-wise, I’m into Repo Man, Star Wars and Amelie. I like the Sopranos, CSI Miami and I read the Onion.

Oh, and I’m a building on Pacific Street in Prospect Heights.

We’ve been aware of the Hello Living campaign for the former Pacific Blue Prospect Heights buildings for a while, but a GL reader brought the MySpace page that each building has to our attention. All of which brings real estate marketing an, um, interesting new level. For instance, Sydney says:

Id like to meet serious thrill seekers. Someone who looks for the entertainment in life. Someone who wants to play, for the sake of winning. A heavy need for quality films and that can play pool. Hey, im not all about after hours entertainment, I also enjoy the rooftop lounge and the fact that I can drive my big ass car into the garage in the basement, drop off my bag upstairs and go somewhere where I can relax, enjoy some scotch and not be anywhere near my roommate!

The buildings all have different personalities. For instance, Sydney is female and straight and she also smokes and drinks. She doesn’t want kids. Hudson, on the other hand, is a married 27-year-old guy with kids.

Madison, however, is Brooklyn’s first officially bi- condo. (We’re sure someone will let us know if there’s been another.) She lists her orientation as “not sure,” her body type as “more to love.” One of Madison’s friends is Jenny BiBabe, who’s on My Space to, you know, do something other than buy real estate. (If somone monitors your web usage at the office, you might want to wait before going over to Jenny BiBabe, lest you have to explain why you were checking her out on MySpace at the office.)

Dakota, is a 35-year-old female who describes herself as a “swinger” and says:

I’d like to meet people who really want more out of life. People you want to raise the quality of their own lives. I want design snobs and trust fund kids. Ok, here’s where my straight laced routine may slip : I like couples and/or singles. Hell, id even dig the idea of families joining in. I want all the hipsters that are too hip for williamsburg. I want all the east villagers to have more space to create in. To be honest, I’d just like to meet you.

Oh, and Dakota also says, “Awe yeah. Im a freaking sex-machine.”

We are not making this up. But someone with a very interesting marketing mind certainly did.

Back when Set Speed first noted the marketing site back in January, he wrote “[I]t looks like Aguayo & Huebener has hired a marketing mind never really seen before in real estate.” The myspace pages definitely confirm it.

You can check out Montana, Sydney, Madison, Hudson, Dakota and Austin. A few more screencaps below.

Oh, and Set Speed notes that they’ve got a flickr set and YouTube vids.

Yeah, we’re suckers for a clever, if not viral, marketing campaign.

The development called McCarren Park Mews on the site we like to call the Roebling Oil Field, because of the Brooklyn Black Gold oozing out of the ground (see photos below), is now sporting a tent. More to the point, however, is the visit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and its spill people. A passerby notes:

I spoke with three engineer looking guys in big rubber boots coming out of the site back to the car. They said that the smell we have all been sniffing for the last few months is actually from 80 year old creasote soaked piles they are removing from the site. “Oh” I said “so the site doesn’t have any oil in it?”. Their response…”no it does, lots but it’s just not what you have been smelling.” They are going to be doing a bunch of test drilling in the street in a couple of weeks, best guess is the VOC’s or Volatile Organic Compounds (aka old oil even though it sounds like a breakfast cereal) have been seeping into the site from an old gas station on the corner of N 11th, Roebling, and Union now the site of those unsalable condos.

Drilling of the “test wells” on N. 11th Street will likely happen in the next two weeks.

Related Post:
Roebling Oil Field Attracting Attention?

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy, which was formed last year to advocate on behalf of cleaning up the canal and promoting recreational and other uses, is holding a series of meetings starting tonight. The introductory session goes from 6:30 to 9:00 PM tonight. There are other meetings on March 6 to examine cause of water quality problems and possible solutions and on March 29 to look at the idea of a Green District in Gowanus. There’s a “Green Gowanus” charette on April 10. All of the sessions take place at 333 Jay Street in the Dibner Library at Polytechnic University, Room LC 400. The Conservancy was formed by the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation. This is one Brooklyn organization to which GL wishes productivity and progress.

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

• First Haitian, Dr. Mathieu Eugene, Elected to Council from 40th District [NYT]
• Prospect Park Rink Details Revealed [Metro]
• Atlantic Yards Starts With a Bulldozer in a Snowy Lot [Daily Intel]
• DDDB, BrooklynSpeaks and Brooklyn Matters [AYR]
• NYC Condoms in the Hood [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Are Those NYC Condoms a Little Smaller Than Average? [Daily Intel]
• Made in Wallabout: Sweet ‘N Low [Myrtle Minutes]
• Try Montauk Clubbing [Brooklyn Record]
• Development Watch: 136 St. Marks Place [Brownstoner]
• Reflections on the Starrett City Social Experiment [NYT]
• Brooklyn Artist’s Gym [OTBKB]
• Ninth Street Bridge Vista [Big Sky Brooklyn]
• Zip Cars [My Life in Brooklyn]

Even though we’re finally thawing out a little, Coney Island was anything but thawed when we shot these photos. Frigid is one word that comes to mind. The closer one got to the water, the stronger the wind got and the colder it felt. All of which gets at the point of why it’s really difficult to turn any spot near open water in the Northeast into a year-round resort. It has something to do with the bitter cold, a problem that will exist for another five or six decades until global warming makes things a bit more temperate in winter–but, by then, Coney Island will be underwater and Prospect Park will be the beach.

We reported last week on Pool Aid’s upgraded website and the upcoming debut of its video. The flyer for the event is below.

Coney Island, Brooklyn

Everyone is reporting that Forest City Ratner is starting prep work today on the Atlantic Yards development, despite the fact that litigation is still ongoing. (Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn calls the reports “misleading” in that the developer does not own all the properties needed to build the project.) A Forest City Ratner “source” is widely quoted saying the developer is taking the “first step” toward the project. It involves decontamination of a bus depot. The land will then be used to relocate the rail yards so that a huge platform can be built for the project. Says Metro:

A temporary rail yard will be set up on the eastern side of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s tracks — where buses are currently stored — to allow Forest City Ratner to build the arena on the western portion of the yards, according to a source familiar with the project. The developer expects “to begin working on the arena in the fall of this year,” said the source.

Despite the MTA’s agreement to sell the yards to Forest City Ratner, no lease has yet been signed.

The Daily News also reports that demolition of a former auto repair shop at 179 Flatbush is slated to begin this week. Develop Don’t Destroy’s Daniel Goldstein, who is one of the plaintiffs in the emiment domain suit calls the work “premature and a scare tactic for the community fighting it.” Mr. Goldstein’s apartment sits on a piece of land without which construction of the Nets Arena can not go forward, and there are other parcels which the developer does not own.

Related Stories:

• Ratner Starts to Build [Metro]
• Developer Gets the Ball Rolling on Nets Arena Construction [NYDN]
• Atlantic Yards Construction to Begin [NYT]
• Wishful Digging [DDDB]

Clearly, demolition crews dispatched by Joe Sitt and Thor Equities made progress before the Valentine’s Day Ice & Snowstorm delayed their Coney Island land clearance work. All was quiet on President’s Day, although there were a number of vehicles parked on the vacant property and it looks like some of the children’s ride on an adjacent parcel are being dismantled. The property in question is targeted for retail development and housing if the developer gets the zoning changes he desires. If not, it could end up as part of Coney Island’s spectacular collection of land left from previous development and redevelopment plans that did not materialize.

Related Post:
Coney Island Death Watch: Early Demolition Porn

After Flatbush Gardener posted about how none of those free NYC Condoms launched with such fanfare last week were available in the the 11218 and 11226 zip codes, we had a look at the city’s condom website and discovered that none are available (gasp) in 11215 (Park Slope) either. There are three spots distributing them in 11231, but they’re all on Columbia Street. And they’re missing from other neighborhoods too.

Here’s what Flatbush Gardener had to say:

If only they were available in my neighborhood.

The NYC Condom Web site includes a link for “Individuals Get Some.” Yes, I are an individual, and yes, I too want to “get some,” as the kids say. The link provides a complete list of all of the locations where DOHMH is distributing these condoms, which can also be filtered by Borough and/or Zip Code. However, there are no locations for either of the Zip Codes – neither 11218 nor 11226 – which service my neighborhood.

Lest you think it’s just the luck of the draw, there are several Zip Codes in Brooklyn with multiple locations. 11211, for example, has 13 locations, every one of which is a bar or a “lounge,” including Pete’s Candy Store, where Jay Bakker‘s Revolution Church NYC meets. (On my wish list for my birthday, one of their “Religion Kills” t-shirts.) Other Brooklyn locations include parlors, hair salons, clothing stores, pizzerias, restaurants, dry cleaners, and, oh yeah, Department of Health offices.

You can have a look at the entire list of distribution spots here, and it can be sorted by borough or by zip code.

If you visit often, you know we’re a little fixated with the Revere Sugar Dome, which is being demolished by Joe Sitt and Thor Equities. So, we’ve got a few photos of the significantly diminished dome as it appears along with snow.