We tend to avoid reading the local crime reports because we simply don’t want to know, but couldn’t avoid writer and lecturer Douglas Rushkoff’s tale of getting mugged in Park Slope on Christmas Eve. He posted an item on his blog about it:

I got mugged at knifepoint while taking out the garbage Christmas Eve at 9pm.

I negotiated with him for my health insurance card – not only because it has my Social Security number and was really hard to get, but because I knew that such a request would humanize me in the mind of my attacker, and make it harder for him to stab me. Such are the benefits of studying human behavior. All I lost was my phone, cards, and money.

Getting a knife pushed into your ribcage now and again is just part of the price we pay to live in a city, and New York is supposedly one of the safer of the bunch. But I have to admit, it makes me question working two extra gigs (I won’t divulge which ones they are) in order to pay the exorbitant rent this part of Brooklyn – when the streets are less safe than they were in the supposedly bad parts of Manhattan where I used to live.

It may just be the humiliation of not fighting back that’s getting me down, but I fear that Brooklyn may be a crock. And with a two-year-old daughter, I feel a strong urge to spend my effort elsewhere.

Ouch.

• 88 Lafayette Shell Sells for $1.1M [Set Speed]
• The 511 Foot Miss Brooklyn Cut Ruse [No Land Grab]
• We Still Don’t Know What Ratner Will Make From Atlantic Yards [AYR]
• More About Ratner TV [NYPost]
• New MTA Route Planner Maybe Works. Or Not. [Gawker]
• One Week With the National [Gothamist]
• Where to Make Year-End Donations? [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Trying to Fix a Clinton Hill Public School [Sun]
• Divisions Over Possible Plan for Brooklyn Tech [NYDN]
• Politics in Central Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]
• Putting the Abies in Babies [Bag of Coffee]
• The Bay Ridge Federal Credit Union is…Obscure [Bay Ridge Blog]
• Stalking Steve Buscemi on the F and Other Local Celebs [Daily Slope]
• A Very Dumbo Christmas Eve [Boroughed]

Well consider this email to the people at Neighborhoodies, who make custom lettered t-shirts, hoodies and other apparrel and their response.

Hi There,
I just placed a custom order for a zip up sweatshirt. I want Gowanus Brooklyn on the front of the sweatshirt but wanted to make sure that the way the word “gowanus” gets split looks like gowa-zipper-nus rather than having “anus” on one side of the sweatshirt. Hope you can understand my concern! Perhaps the way you will do it will say gowanus on one side of the zipper and brooklyn on the other side. I couldn’t quite tell if the text would be on one line or two lines. In any case, I just want to make sure that wherever the letters break doesn’t cause my boyfriend any undue embarrasment. Thx for caring. Feel free to call me if anything needs to be clarified further!

And the response:

Dearest Olivia,
Thanks kindly for your order. Gow Anus certainly makes quite the statement, but we can understand why your boyfriend may not care to make it. Your order has been modified accordingly to prevent any murmurs and/or sussurations.

With abundant respect,

Hercules Winterbottom
Neighborhoodies

Thanks for caring, Hercules!

Grass plot adjacent to Carroll Street Bridge at Gowanus Canal; tracks and wires bisecting grass plot; portion of bridge at right; street with automobiles, pedestrians, and buildings receeding into right background; piled lumber behind wooden fence at left; pilings in canal in right and left foreground; wooden building with painted sign, “Watson & Pittinger Timber Yard,” beyond grass plot; factory, smokestacks and water tower in background.

The photo below is, naturally, “Carroll Street Bridge After Planting.”

Grass plot adjacent to Carroll Street Bridge at Gowanus Canal; wires, pulleys, and tracks bisecting grass plot, with circular flower beds on either side of tracks; side of bridge at left; wooden fence at right; portion of canal between railing and fence; piled lumber and factory with two smokestacks in right background; street with automobiles, pedestrians, and lampposts receeding into left background; wooden building with sign, “Watson & Pittinger Lumber & Timber” beyond canal.Typed caption on verso: “Carroll Street Bridge — Carroll Street Bridge is one of the oldest bridges in Brooklyn. It was built in 1889. A new motor and brakes were added to it in 1957. This is how it looked in 1912.”

The area is no longer planted. If you’re familiar with this view today, you’ll note the old power plant in the background, part of which is still standing.

(Our thanks to Dan at GerritsenBeach.net who originally brought these photos to our attention.)

Day After:

• Sweet Love in a Brooklyn Cookie Factory [Newsday]
• Djumbo? Like…Misspelled Dumbo? [i don’t do due dates]
• Img: Front and York Streets [Dumbo NYC]
• Cruisin’ Fifth [Sunset Parker]
• Origami on the Trees in Clinton Hill [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Self-Portrait on Third Street [Blue Jake]
• Inner Walls at Seven Berry [A Test of Will]
• Attorney Looks to Eminent Domain Court Fight [AYR]

RIP James Brown:

• James Brown’s Final Moments [NYDN]
• Godfather of Soul Dies at 73 [NYT]
• James Brown, 1933-2006 [Gothamist]
• A Vid of “James Brown Jr.” at Cha Cha’s [Coney Island Shortcakes]
• Farewell JB [Sunny (Brooklyn)]
• Fans Remember a Legend Who Worked Up a Sweat [NYT]

The good people at No Land Grab, who have been chronicling the fight against Atlantic Yards, are keeping up the Ratner-Atlantic Yards watch. They offered up this hysterical image yesterday, which we reproduce here in the spirit of the season, as today is an unofficial extension of the Christmas holiday, judging by the relative quiet outside the windows of our Gowanus Lounge world headquarters this morning.

Here are some links to flickr photostreams of Christmas pics around the world. The photo from the top is from Berlin from camills on flickr. The photo below, courtesy of Fredrik Stromberg on flickr, is from Prague.

• Zurich
• Berlin
• Tokyo
• Vienna
• Rome
• Montreal
• Paris
• Amsterdam
• Barcelona
• Prague

Christmas:

• Holiday Picture Overdose [Snapshot]
• Inflatable Blur [Krispy/flickr]
• What’s Open on Christmas and New Year’s Day [Newyorkology]
• Video of the Day: Christmas in Hollis [Gothamist]
• Yuletide Week TV [Gothamist]
• Dyker Heights Lights on TV Tonight [thirteen.org via Gothamist]
• Thinking About the Holidays [I’m Seeing Green]
• Merry Christmas [Brooklyn Mama]
• A Paul Auster Christmas [OTBKB]

Non-Christmas:

• New York City is the New Baltimore [streetsblog]
• BillyBurg: From Low Rise to High Rise [Renovating on the Cheap]
• Rheingold, An American Classic [Down the Hatch]

Last night, Gowanus Lounge went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping. We were looking for a couple of t-shirts for our nephews and decided to check out the Brooklyn Industries at Union and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. The bit of irony in this is that this particular Brooklyn Industries occupies the site of the former Gowanus Lounge, a bar that died several years ago, and from which we sort of took our name. After Gowanus Lounge closed, someone spraypainted out the “w” on the sign so that for some time it said “Go anus” Lounge.

But we digress. The point is that we were stunned to find that “Brookyn Industries” t-shirts were $35 each. Now, we can dig concert t-shirts at the price. Or some cool fashion stuff. But $35 to walk around with an ad for Brooklyn Industries? Eh, it’s a bit much for our taste, which either makes us unhip or cheapskates or sensible. We’re glad for the owners, however, that Brooklyn is such a happening and cool brand name that it can demand the same price as a Radiohead t-shirt at Madison Square Garden.

Anyway, we found an interesting blog item about Christmas in Brooklyn that struck a cord. The blogger is writing about a salon called Concept Elite that she goes to. It’s in a blog called Every Day is a Winding Road and it’s offers a tast of old Brooklyn flavor:

People from Brooklyn may have their own particular thing going on. They definitely speak differently than you do. They perhaps think differently than you do. They do, however, know one thing for sure; your family and your friends are what come first in this world. Sometimes, particularly in Brooklyn, your friends are your family. Everyone is your family. Brooklyn, more than many other places that I’ve been in this world, is a place where you look out for the guy next to you. Brooklyn teaches you to care. No matter where I go, for the rest of my life, I will carry Brooklyn with me. I will wear it as a badge of honor. I love being from Brooklyn. When I’m around, you’d better believe Brooklyn is in the house.

The folks at Concept Elite have suffered a bit, of late. One of their own has been stricken with cancer. So there are signs up in the salon; if you buy hair products, the proceeds go to this fellow. His name is Tommy, and he has throat cancer. The signs, and the collections, are a good thing. What you perhaps don’t know if you just walk in for a haircut is that every employee agreed to donate part of his or her salary to this guy, for an undetermined amount of time, so that he continues to get a paycheck while he’s sick. Tommy is single, and the people at Concept Elite really are his family. And they demonstrate it every day they come to work. No fuss, mind you, because this is what family does for each other. You just do it, you don’t think about it.

My cousin Tria was talking to her friends recently, about how Brooklyn is perceived as “the city” (as in New York City) and while it’s certainly a part of New York City, it’s also like any other small town you’ve ever seen. It’s very neighborhood-y, and the part of Brooklyn that I come from is perhaps more neighborhood-y than any other part, period. I was damn lucky to be born here, and to have this sense of community instilled in me by my parents and my neighbors.

That’s the kind of thing you can’t buy for any amount of money.

Among the Brooklyn institutions that outdoes itself for Christmas is American Stevedoring. This little scene was captured by aur2899 and posted on flickr, along with some other neat angles. They’re also playing Streisand Christmas tunes. Writes the photog, “Really you have to see it to believe it 😉 And, yup folks, those are containers making up the backdrop.”

Our Sunday featured Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection never rests. Not even on Christmas Eve. What better place to turn on this day before Christmas for a taste of love, comedy and pathos, than the local Barnes & Noble? In this case, that hotbed of ships passing in the night, not to mention moms with SUV stollers, the Park Slope branch.

Park Slope Barnes and Noble – m4w – 27
This is crazy, because you most likely won’t read this. However, I just have to write it. You are the girl with the blonde hair who has been reading in the cafe for the last few days. I’m the guy who is completely knocked off balance by your presence! I come there to study and concentrate yet, all I do is think about how to approach you. You drive me crazy. I’m sure you noticed my “stalking” you. I hope you are ‘into’ me too, and, hope against all odds, that you read this. I finally mustered the courage to approach you but it seemed like you were on the phone..yikes. If you read this, do reply! We might just be for each other! (you are breaking my heart already, and we haven’t even exchanged a word…g-d have mercy)

So, like, was she on the phone to dodge the stalker secret admirer? Or was she really on the phone? Hmm.

Ho, Ho, Ho:

• Doll Head for Christmas [mari.lowery/flickr]
• No Words_Daily Pix: Festive Lights [Hugh Crawford/OTBKB]
• Glowing Brooklyn Snowman [Vibba/flickr]
• Brooklyn Christmas [Abbey Christine/flickr]
• It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas [lightthatbends/flickr]
• 2,486 Brooklyn Christmas Photos [flickr]
• Festive Firehouses [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• A Helping Ho Ho Ho [callalillie]
• Chanukah Lights in Coney Island [AJL]
• Whilst Xmas Shopping Z. Finds a Ten-Spot on Court Street [Z. Madison]
• Happy Holidays from Greenpoint [Maud Newton]
• Last Minute Holiday Crush [Random Brooklyn]
• Beluga Caviar Shortage Rankles Brighton Beach [NYT]
• New Brooklyn Immigrants: Suburban Baby Boomres Coming to Bay Ridge, Etc. [NYT]

Christmas Read:

• The Gift of the Magi [Posted at GRS]

You know what the B74 bus is/You remember when the B74 only cost 75 cents/You remember when dollar cabs were really a dollar/you remember when you could take a dollar cab past the train station for only a dollar/you ever went to ps 188, ps 288, ps 329, our lady of solace or mark twain/your zone school is-was Lincoln HS/if you or you family have ever had a cookout, birthday party, baby shower, bridal shower etc in Kaiser Park/you only walk thru Gravesend if you live there/the only time you’ve been inside sea gate is in a dollar cab, school bus or on Halloween (because the neighbors actually give out candy)and someone had to sneak you in because you didn’t have the key/you’ve ever been to “Bro Day”/you remember when Salt n Pepa and Lil Vicious shot their videos out there/you or someone you knew had a part as an extra in “He Got Game”/you know where the Coconut Building is/you’re actually upset about the plans to tear down the rides in Astroland/you couldn’t believe they were building a baseball field out here/you’ve ever been pissed off from all the traffic it causes in the summer time

Interesting stuff, especially to those who might forget that Coney Island is a community, not just a redevelopment site.

Photos:

• Inside the Revere Dome Flickr Set (above) [mercurialn/flickr]
• Inside the Revere Dome Flickr Set [gowanus/flickr]
• Smoking with Bicycle [Park Slope Street Photography]
• Solstice [Lex’s Folly]
• Relaxing in Red Hook [atomische]
• Mr. Calypso [My Life in Brooklyn]
• Holiday Blues [Brit in Brooklyn]

Not Photos:

• Nets Come to Sunset Park [Sunset Parker]
• DDDB Continuing Atlantic Yards Fight [OTBKB]
• Prospect Park Southwest to Northern Uganda [Planet PLG]
• Holiday Season, Brooklyn Style [Daily Intel]
• Daniel London in Fort Greene [Clinton Hill Blog]
• Happy Holidays from Dumbo NYC [Dumbo NYC]
• New Year’s Eats and Drinks in Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]
• Dyker Heights Driver Shooting, Right Near Lights [NYT]
• Sterling Place Crash Site Building Shaping Up Nicely [Brownstoner]
• Concorde Moves to Temporary Home at Floyd Bennett Field [NYDN]

Developer Bruce Ratner may not have any youtube Christmas Carols, but he has some kick ass CCTV. (He also has Atlantic Yards, pending judicial decisions so, like, who needs youtube vids? Old Media is fine for Mr. R.) Call it Bruce Vision or Ratvision or TeleRaton or whatever you’d like, but Develop Don’t Destroy found 27 Ratner cameras keeping an eye on the goings on in the Atlantic Yards footprint:

We walked the Dean Street and Pacific street blocks bounded by 5th Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue and Flatbush Avenue, to tally up the number of Surveillance City Ratner Eyes in the Sky. We counted 27. Check it out.

Now that we’ve completed this exercise, we’re wondering: It’s not enough for Forest City Ratner to have hung the threat of eminent domain over the footprint for over 3 years, but now they must monitor the inhabitants with surveillance cameras? Why?

So, if you’ve walked in the area and had a funny feeling you were being watched, it wasn’t entirely a feeling about which you should chat with your therapist. You are being watched.

Maybe they can get Frank Gehry to design some cameras, that like, blend with his undulating design? Could be whole new product line, Mr. Gehry. Think about it.

There is some nastiness underfoot in Gowanus. Specifically, the Brooklyn Papers reports an underground ‘toxic plume.’ And, the plume–which contains benzene is under the Gowanus Whole Foods site and moving in the general direction of Park Slope.

The “underground cloud of toxins,” as Ariella Cohen calls it in the Brooklyn Papers, is spreading, according to engineers. It is said to originate from property owned by Verizon next to the old Power Station, which is part of the future site of Gowanus Village. (Should make for some interesting clean-up issues on that project.) Whole Foods says that they should be able to keep their 2008 opening date. Thank God. Benzene has also been found in groundwater moving from the Keyspan site near the Smith-9th Street Station toward Carroll Gardens.