October 21st, 2006 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Saturday Very Visual Edition
Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and, especially on weekends, images. Remember, Walk Don’t Destroy starts with a noon sign up in Prospect Park today.
October 21st, 2006 · Comments Off on Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: Creeped Out or Intrigued?
Time for our weekend favorite Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection, that treasure trove of the funny, the sad and the weird. This week we turn our attention (finally) to the L Train:
I saw you on the L train yesterday around 5 oclock, You were knitting, wich I found to be really cool, My sister teaches all thqt kind of stuff (whole other story). anyways, I was the guy in the ble vest probably creeping you out. But I couldnt stop looking at you….sorry. I wanted to talk to you but I didnt know what to say that wouldn sound like a cheesy pick up line. So im hoping that when and if you respond to this, Ill have something witty ready to roll off the tongue…But I doubt it.
So, a very well-informed tipster in Gowanus emails us with news about the planned Whole Foods at Third Avenue and Third Street. (That is the site that has proven environmentally-challenged and that has sat with little activity other than the deepening water hole seen above for more than a year.) Whole Foods, we are told, is now planning a ground breaking type of press event sometime next month to officially announce their expanded Gowanus project. The previous 42,000 square foot project has been redesigned to be 66,000 square feet (we must assume through the purchase of adjacent properties they have long been said to want). The store will now include 400 parking spaces versus the originally planned 177 space.
Our source says that “There will be no public review of the project as they claim this is all as of right…There are no envirnomental reviews going on here. Gowanus is just expected to absorb all that additional traffic.”
Meanwhile, our very informed source concludes, “Whole Food’s state brownfield application has been in limbo for the past 4 month–a Department of Environmental Conservation public Fact Sheet for the project was to come out in June but has been repeatedly delayed.”
We’re thinking that a new target opening date would now be 2008.
October 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Week in Review: The Brutal Weirdness of Empty Prosperity
Call this the week that insult was compounded by outrage, amplified by the whacka-whacka-whacka of construction equipment and wrapped in the deadly silence of written orders and summonses. To use the crude vernacular: Shit. Shit. And more shit.
How else can you characterize a week in which our two favorite phrases were “brutally weird” and the non-Brooklyn utterance of “empty prosperity” by Patti Smith to describe the demise of CBGB‘s and the continued spread of Affluent Theme Park New York? (We think “empty prosperity” could be the Brooklyn Phrase of the 2000s.) A week in which we learned that bedbugs will be “the pest of the 21st Century” and that they love Brooklyn?
And that, relatively speaking, was the stuff that went down easy.
There is so much to sort through that it’s hard to decide which story made the blood boil more vigorously. Of course, the dagger through the heart was the city giving the boot to the boat–the Empty Vessel Project was finally banished by city bureaucrats from its mooring on First Street. Its future is now in doubt.
If only the government was as concerned about the (likely) Oil Spill-related cancer cluster in Greenpoint, despite the press conference on the banks of Newtown Creek calling for expedited action by the EPA. (Action by the EPA. Now, there’s something to set the mind at ease.) Good thing the plume is unlikely to spread as far as the mouth of the Creek, where a huge affordable housing development is going to be rising on the Queens side and offering excellent Greenpoint views.
Moving back to non-toxic things, the jellyfish design proposal for the Coney Island Aquarium–our least favorite–came out on top in an unscientific Brooklyn Papers poll. (We voted for the whale design.) Too bad Frank Gehry isn’t offering a design like the one he came up with for the Louis Vuitton art museum in Paris.
We could go on and on, but we’ll wrap with Atlantic Yards and the Empire State Development Corporation‘s release of an economic impact statement that said nothing about the cost of mega-project and with Eliot Spitzer‘s unsettling embrace of the “eight percent reduction” as an “appropriate compromise,” which only goes to show that come November, the more things change, the more they will likely stay the same.
Just so you don’t conclude we’re total Big Bummer Party Poopers, we are cheered to note that a floating pool is going to dock at Pier Two and will by NYC’s floating swimming pool next summer.
October 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on City, Landlords and Even the Coast Guard Helping to Sink Gowanus’ Empty Vessel Project
Yesterday, the Empty Vessel Project–the World War II rescue boat moored on the Gowanus Canal and used as a community performance space–got some much deserved publicity in the New York Times and the good people at the Brooklyn Record updated us on the boat. Unfortunately, none of what the Times related about the boat was good. To summarize: A neighbor called the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard inspected and found “fire hazards” like a gas grill and evidence that people hang out on the boat. (Shocking.) They didn’t do anything, but forwarded a report to the city, which had been threatening to give the boat the heave-ho for months, as we’ve reported. And the city gave Das Boot the boot.
Now, the Empty Vessel Project is tempoarily moored along private property with no public access. And soon, it could be gone.
In our Gowanus universe, that kind of news is like finding a roach doing the backstroke in your morning latte.
In the EVP’s own words:
Thank you all for sharing your time, love and energy with us over the past year. Sadly, we have been forced to move EV from her public berth at the end of 1st Street onto a nearby private property. There is no public access at this new site, so EV cannot accept visitors. As a result, all public events are suspended until we find her a new home.
For the month of October, we are partnering with Free Dimensional to host Bara Diokhane, a painter from Senegal, aboard EV. He will be using the vessel as a studio, working on a project that makes connections to the ‘boat people’ who leave Senegal for economic opportunities in Spain. We are looking forward to a reception and show of his work at the beginning of November.
The future of EV as a publicly accessible space hinges on a berthing location where the public is welcome.
Can you help us find a place to put her? Do you know anyone with waterfront property on the Gowanus or in Red Hook? Are you connected to other waterfront projects who already have access in New York and would welcome another vessel/venue? Do you have a crane and an empty lot? We are open to suggestions and collaborations. We are willing to re-envision and re-imagine. We would like to bring EV back to the public. She is lonely without you.
Email pz [at] emptyvesselproject [dot] org with any and all ideas. We will even hand the project over in service of another good idea.
The loss of the Empty Vessel Project will be a loss to the entire Gowanus community. Bollocks to all that would have a hand in the EVP’s demise or its removal from the Big G.
October 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Are Bed Bugs the New Brooklyn Scourge?
We’ve been reading way too much about bedbugs lately. Way, way too much. This weekend, a neighbor sent a breathless email noting on Saturday that she had the Sunday Times and had already read the story on bedbugs. In the detailed article, an entomologist predicts that bedbugs “will be the pest of the 21st century — no question about it.” (The online version of the story includes a creepy video report.) Take precautions neighbors, she wrote. Don’t bring bedgbugs home.
There is something unspeakable and gross about Cimex lectularius, blood sucking bugs that come out in the dark and bite you. Especially because they are very, very hard to kill. Roaches are bad enough, as are our monstrous Brooklyn “water bugs.” But, now, infestations of blood suckers that feast on you while you sleep?
In any case, there’s a good post over at Daily Slope on the topic, with the headline, “My Boyfriend Gave Me Bedbugs” that has some good Park Slope angles on the bedbug problem:
Are bedbugs becoming the “communicable disease” of this decade? Infestations have been rampant throughout New York over the past year or two, and there are few other parasitic “infections” that are so persistent.
Crabs?? Come on… A quick shave and some 1% permethrin shampoo will take care of that. Nothing says “forever” like a Cimex lectularius colony setting down roots in your brand-new Tempur-Pedic pillowtop bed set. Oh… and those critters feast on human blood. You knew that, right?
The latest evidence on the Park Slope Message Board suggests that bedbugs are becoming the bedroom plague that yields to no prophylactic. idealist writes:
“My boyfriend had bedbugs at his apartment in Prospect Heights and I think he’s brought them over to my apartment. It could just be paranoia, but I am analyzing every black/brown piece of dust, etc. on my bed.”
“I stayed at his place before he realized he had bedbugs, and I got bitten really badly. 3-4 big welts that hurt for days. Yesterday I woke up with a tiny welt on my arm, and freaked out….”
“My boyfriend’s exterminator said that there had been a lot of bed bug incidents on 8th ave…”
We’ll leave you with a quote from an exterminator that we remembered and just fetched from a story posted on the Bay Ridge Conservative in July . “This year it is out of control. Brooklyn is under siege,” said Brooklyn President of Ecology Exterminating Services Jeffrey Dworkin. “In my thirty years of business we have never seen anything like this.”
Nifty.
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October 20th, 2006 · Comments Off on Another Busy Brooklyn Weekend
There are so many events going on in Brooklyn this weekend, especially on Saturday, that it would be helpful if one had the ability to be in two or three places at one time. We already posted about the tenth annual Gowanus Artist’s Studio tour, so we’ll focus on several events that we haven’t had time to mention.
The good people at Across the Park emailed us about ArtMart the other day and also posted it, and we think it’s a very cool thing to highlight. Here’s what ATP had to say:
Be sure to check out ArtMart 11225 this Saturday. About 30 vendors or so will be setting up shop on the sidewalks of Lincoln Rd. This will also be your first chance to check out Enduro, which is having a soft opening on the same day and will be serving beer (some of the proceeds will benefit PLUS and PLGArts).
From what we’ve heard ArtMart 11225 is going to be a great event thanks to the hard work of PLUS and PLGArts. Make it worth their while – check out the artists and (dare we say) buy something!
The Brooklyn Indie Market, which held a show at the Old Stone House in Park Slope this summer, is holding an event on October 21 (Saturday) at Cobble Hill Park, which is that wonderful little gem of a neighborhood park at Congress and Clinton Streets.
The event will take place from 10AM-5PM, and the rain date is Saturday, Oct. 28 (which certainly doesn’t seem like it will be needed, as tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and breezy, with highs in the upper fifties). It will offer “chic selections from the next crop of on the rise designers in apparel, handbags, jewelry, children¹s apparel, menswear, home goods and more.”
The Brooklyn Indie Market is a collective of local fashion and product designers. Designers include Daisyhead Designs, which makes cool stuff for tots, among other things, Pixie petals jewelry and Nattyoma, which makes hand painted glassware. Check it out. There’s only, you know, a couple of months until the holidays.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Red Hook Harvest Fest, an affair that promises a lot of food, plus things like pumpkin carving, a cider press, tours of the Red Hook Community Farm, farm animals and more. It takes place from 9AM-5PM on the Community Farm, which is located at Columbia and Beard Street. More information over at the Added Value website.
Doesn’t look like anyone’s come up with an instant cloning device, though.
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October 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Brooklynites Under Seige (By Cacophonous Construction)
Life in Brooklyn can go from reasonably peaceful to hellish in the span of a construction permit. The astounding video to the right, which painfully conveys what it’s like to live next to a construction site (in this case on 15th Street in the South Slope), was posted yesterday by Brownstoner. It was produced by the same person that posted the Crack Tour related to the same construction showing how the building is splitting apart as a result. Click on “Welcome to My Nightmare” and, then, imagine having this outside your window.
We came across the post below on My Brooklyn Year. It’s from a different neighborhood (Greenpoint) and it’s about sidewalk and street work, but sometimes words can paint a nice picture too of what life can turn into:
The work crews are still at it, ripping up the sidewalks along Franklin Street on the north end of Greenpoint. And they’re taking their sweet time, too; it’s been about a month since the orange metal gates first appeared outside my door. First the east side of Franklin, now the west. Since then, I’ve literally been shaken awake not once but twice as the construction team uses a backhoe to mash the concrete into chunks before loading it up and carting it off below my window.
Who needs an alarm clock when you’re awakened by jackhammers, truck engines revving, metal beams clanging and the endless WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! of concrete being pulverized? The fun won’t stop once they lay the new sidewalk, either. Road crews are right behind, tearing up Franklin Street right down to the soil in preparation for laying a new road. Meanwhile, because the non-existant sidewalk is where our building’s trash cans lived, they’ve had to be relocated. To our lobby.
Life in Brooklyn, the construction site.
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We haven’t really written about the awfulness that has surrounded Broken Angel since that fire drew attention to it and the city started trying to get the owners out. The story has been well covered by Brownstoner and others. Today, though, we’re simply going to reproduce a bit about the Broken Angel Standoff that took place yesterday as reported by Denise Romano and Jotham Sederstrom in the Daily News:
FOLLOWING A STANDOFF with police, the owner of the soaring Broken Angel building was carted away from his Clinton Hill home in handcuffs yesterday after he defied an order to leave.
With streets blocked off, neighbors watched as artist Arthur Wood was led away with his wife, Cynthia, and their dog, Jack, after police took him from his 4Downing St. home.
“It’s like a Clinton Hill Waco,” said neighborhood activist Shellie Hagan, who witnessed the arrest. “Waco wasn’t necessary, and this wasn’t necessary either.”
The couple was questioned by police and issued summonses for failing to comply with a commissioner’s order to vacate, said Arthur Wood.
Wood, 75, bought the former Brooklyn Trolley headquarters building in 1979, and has added fancifully to it for years, creating a towering 10-story neighborhood landmark. He said he hasn’t added anything new since 2002.
With all of the building and construction horrors in Brooklyn (and all of New York City) that go unchecked (see the item above) and the way city regulations are routinely violated, they have to haul off a 75-year-old man and his wife in handcuffs? Wow.
UPDATE: Following the Broken Angel fire, the city cited it for a large number of building code violations and ordered it vacated. Its owner was taken from the premises in handcuffs (see above) and the city subsequently threatened demolition. Everyone is now scrambling to save the building. An architect has volunteered services, but actually bringing the building up to code will be costly. And so, art created by Arthur Woods and photos made by his son, Chris Wood, are now for sale to raise money. The owner has also gone to court to challenge the city’s actions. The threat of demolition–while not as immediate–still hangs over this unique Brooklyn landmark.
October 19th, 2006 · Comments Off on Funny Atlantic Yards Numbers Game (and Spitzer Endorsement)
The Atlantic Yards Front has been a bit quiet the last couple of weeks, as the Empire State Development Corporation moves toward its pro forma endorsement of the project and the behind-the-scenes end game to reduce the scale of the project and put a more responsive public face on the project plays out. There was very interesting news yesterday, though.
First, Democratic gubernatorial candidate pretty much endorsed Atlantic Yards in its current form on the Brian Lehrer show, saying he supports the project and that the recently announced eight percent scaleback (which scales the project back to its orginally announced size) is an “appropriate compromise.” Atlantic Yards Report offers up observations on Mr. Spitzer’s remarks on BL.
In addition, the ESDC finally released some economic impact data on the project, after some significant stink was raised by Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report and others.
The result: Nothing that sheds light on true costs and benefits of the development. There are “benefits” outlined on the basis of some very generous assumptions, but there is not a shred of data laying out the costs and subsidies attached to the project.
We have seen our share of economic impact statements attached to big projects in our day. We are keenly aware that very few are worth the paper they are printed on. (To say that most take liberties with facts is an understatement. There is little in the English language that can accurately describe the way in which economic impact statements created by consultants play games with numbers.)
This Atlantic Yards document–which one presumes was released because the complete stonewall of Freedom of Information Law requests could have presented another issue for lawyers litigating against the project to pursue–sets a new standard for obfuscation.
Can we trust the Empire State Development Corporation’s (ESDC) fiscal impact analysis regarding Atlantic Yards? Nope…It’s deeply unconvincing. Despite the phrase “public contribution” noted above, there’s no reference to public contributions or public costs. In other words, it’s a fiscal benefit analysis, not an impact analysis.
There is much more in the way of thoughtful deconstruction in Mr. Oder’s post. No Land Grab, meanwhile, concluded that there was nothing in the document “that would earn a passing grade on an economics thesis, which leaves us still wondering, where’s the beef?”
If you wish to view the document in its entirety, it has been posted by at No Land Grab. You can click here and the PDF will open.
One can only draw a few conclusions, here, and none of them are good. The first is that the ESDC has a little culture of secrecy or is deliberately thumbing its nose at those that want full disclosure on Atlantic Yards or is trying to make life miserable for those that oppose or raise questions about the mega-project. The other is that the financial data is ugly or potentially controversial in terms of the full public cost and developer profit and there is no way they want it to see the light of day before all the approvals are finalized.
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Remember those “two is a parade” rules the NYPD was pushing this summer, only to retract them for further consideration after a bit of a public uproar? Well, they’re back with very minor revisions. This time, the Police Department wants to require parade permits for groups of 10 or more bicyclists or pedestrians who plan to travel more than two city blocks without complying with traffic laws. According to onNYTurf, which is on top of the story again:
Is that just j-walking? Someone should let the tourist in Times Square know before they get in trouble.
The NYPD will also attempt to enforce permits for groups of 30 or more bicyclists or pedestrians who obey traffic laws. The new rules are expected to be unveiled in a public notice today.
Public hearing is set for Nov. 27.
So, 10 or more of you out there together, and if the police don’t like you and you step off the curb during a red light, the result will be a mass arrest. 30 or more and they don’t even need a j-walking excuse.
Yesterday afternoon, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she welcomed the revision calling it a “substantial improvement” over the original plan. Efforts to block the new proposal should start soon.
It cheers us to read that there’s ongoing talk about bringing trolleys back to Brooklyn, and specifically about recreating a network that would link Brooklyn attractions. At least, that’s one proposal being made as part of planning for Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Our old friend the Brooklyn City Streetcar Company, which was formed in 2002 after the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association‘s plan to build a trolley line in Red Hook died, is involved. It recently pitched a proposal, according to the Park Slope Courier, to the Downtown Brooklyn Waterfront Local Development Corporation, which is doing a $1 million transportation study of ways to improve access to Brooklyn Bridge Park:
The Brooklyn City Streetcar Company imagines the restored cars ferrying passengers along a series of interconnected tracks through neighborhoods like Red Hook, DUMBO, and to destinations like Brooklyn Bridge Park, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Borough Hall.
“Trolleys, of all the means of transportation, are the most fuel efficient and pollution free,” said Arthur Melnick, the director of administration for the BCSC, a not-for-profit corporation….“Trolleys are economical in all respects, and this could be done at little cost to the city,” he said, noting that the system could be connected to the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s MetroCard system. Funding for the proposal could come from private, federal and state sources, Melnick said.
“Trolleys make the most sense,” Melnick said.
Trolleys make so much sense in some part of Brooklyn that they are the ultimate no brainer. They are perfect surface transportation, relatively low cost and very cool. (They’re also an important part of Brooklyn’s history.) Using restored, old cars would also create a tourist attraction. They are, in short, the perfect sensible Brooklyn transportation alternative.
The monstrous Greenpoint oil spill is one of those stories that is so horrendous and such a symbol of government’s basic failure and ineptitude, that it’s hard whether to know to laugh, scream or cry. We’re fairly certain that when the full health implications for Greenpoint residents are known in coming generations that it will be considered New York City’s Love Canal or, at the very least, a toxic threat that was ignored for decades.
In any case, it’s turning out to be another week of Greenpoint oil spill stories. First, there is the small cluster of a very rare bone cancer in the neighborhood that could turn out to be spill-related. At least, medical experts say that the cancer in question is so rare that finding several in such a small area demands investigation. (Last month’s revelation was that benzene, a potent carcinogen, is among the vapors coming to the surface from the oil spill.)
Then, on Monday, Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Anthony Weiner and Rep. Nydia Velazquezheld a press conference near Newtown Creek to call for a more aggressive clean up. “There has been a generation of cover-up,” Mr. Weiner said. About 17 million gallons of oil are thought to have spilled under more than 50 acres of Greenpoint and the toxic plume is believed to be moving underground.
Of course, what boggles the mind is that the spill was “discovered” in 1978, itself more than two decades after what was then Standard Oil fouled the environment in Greenpoint. Now, nearly 30 years after the “discovery” of what is the nation’s biggest oil spill, critical studies are just starting, and nothing at all would be happening if Riverkeeper hadn’t pushed the issue with a lawsuit.
October 18th, 2006 · Comments Off on "Save Brooklyn"
We found this posted on myspace and have no idea what it is, other than the obvious rant, but found it compelling in its way. It was posted by an eighteen-year-old named Julisa, who lists her location as “Long Island.” In any case, we dig it, so we’re posting it here:
Before the hipsters leeked out of Manhattan and found themselves in Williamsburg. Before all those original hipsters decided move to Park Slope to rear ‘AB/CD’-tshirt-wearing children. Before the Flatbush Pavilion was converted into an American Apparel, and before the Flatbush Pavilion was anything but some random no-name theatre. Before the socialite’s children of Phillips Academy headed to Bed Stuy for frat parties. Before Triple 5 Soul sold out and before people from outside of the borough could justify donning any item of clothing with the numbers 718. Before you saw anything but hispanics walking along 5th avenue, and before 5th avenue’s bodegas and bagel stores gave way to nice restaurants and boutiques. Before affordable housing was destroyed to make room for modern skyscrapers and a motherfucking basketball stadium. Before anybody who could ever want a motherfucking basketball stadium, let alone their own motherfucking basketball team, lived here. Having said that, before the Dodgers had anything to do with L.A.
If you grew up hanging out on the stoop with your friends, SAVE BROOKLYN. If you spent your youth skating at the monument, SAVE BROOKLYN. If all through high school, if not middle school and college, you went to keggers in the hills of the park…smoked l’s in the park…drank forties in the park…tripped on acid and shrooms in the park…tagged the rocks in the park…SAVE BROOKLYN. If you can recognize Marty Markowitz and his light saber. If you fucking loved Brooklyn/Queens Day. If you lost track of how many bar and bat mitzvahs you went to in the 7th grade. If you attended or know people that attended Murrow or Midwood or Tech, or if you’re Irish, Kearney or Bishop Ford, or if you’re a yuppie, St. Ann’s or Packer. If you ever went to Empire Skating Rink or Brownstone Billiards, and if your parents bugged the fuck out when you told them that you went to Empire or Brownstone because they did the same shit when they were a kid. If you lived in Windsor Terrace or Carroll Gardens and decked your shit the fuck out at Christmas and Halloween. If you did not live in Windsor Terrace or Carroll Gardens and made special trips with your friends at Halloween to egg all the decked out houses. If you were a nice kid and just went trick-o-treating on Halloween but came home with literally pillowcases full of candy. If you ever chilled with the kids in the Irish and Italian gangs on 10th avenue. If you and all your friends went to Frost Valley in the summer. If you ever had mad kids come to your school to fight after the bell rang, and if you ever stayed to watch the fights, and if you ever died laughing when kids’ parents showed up to back up their kids. If you ever walked around and could tell where your friends had been based on the tags you saw on the lampposts and mailboxes, for fuckssake SAVE BROOKLYN.
We call Manhattan “the city”. Although we spend our lives arguing that Brooklyn is as much a part of the city as any other borough, true Brooklynites do not want their home Manhattanized. Keep your sleek glass towers and your high strung citizens. Do not impose your gentrification and impossible housing rates upon the borough that has offered a home to any and everyone.
SAVE BROOKLYN.
Those familiar with Williamsburg might recognize the art work above, which was at the corner of Bedford and N. 4th on the side of an industrial building that’s been slowly being torn down for months. “God Save Brooklyn” only exists in pictures now.
October 18th, 2006 · Comments Off on DDDB Walkathon Week Event Reminder
You can never have too many reminders about Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s Walkathon Week, the series of events leading up to their fundraising Walkathon on Saturday, Oct. 21. There are some way cool events going on this week, including reading by some prominent Brooklyn writers and, on Thursday, the opportunity to eat at number of restaurants that are donating part of the proceeds to DDDB.
So, here’s the schedule for the rest of the week:
10/18: Wednesday Night is Literary Night II: 7:30 pm at Tillies – 248 DeKalb Ave, corner of Vanderbilt. 718-783-6140
Donation suggested.
The authors are Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer Egan, Susan Choi, Sheri Holman and Diana Son.
10/18: Wednesday Night is Movie Night II: 7:30 pm Donation suggested.
Soda Bar – 629 Vanderbilt Ave., between Prospect Place and St Marks Avenue
This Land is Your Land with filmmakers. “A feature length, 82-minute, documentary film THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND is a startling and often hilarious exploration of the overwhelming corporate takeover of American life. Over the course of three years, the filmmakers traveled across the U.S., interviewing award-winning authors, historians, media commentators and ordinary citizens about the wide range of ways individuals and society at large experience this impact.” DJ Motormouth performs after the film.
10/19: Thursday Night is Restaurant Night: Dine at local restaurants who are donating a portion of their proceeds from this night to Develop Don’t Destroy’s legal fund. Participating restaurants include:
Fort Greene/Clinton Hill
Night of the Cookers 767 Fulton street, between So.Oxford and So. Portland Ave 718-797-1197
Chez Oskar 211 DeKalb Avenue, corner of Adelphi 718-852-6250 (Thursday is 30% off on wines)
Olea, Mediterranean Tavern 171 Lafayette Avenue, corner of Adelphi Street 718-643-7003
Maggie Brown 455 Myrtle Avenue, between Washington and Waverly 718-643-7001
Pequena 86 South Portland, between Lafayette Ave and Fulton Street
Grand Dakar 285 Grand Avenue, between Lafayette Avenue and Clifton Place 718-398-8900
Park Slope:
Bogota Latin Bistro 141 Fifth Ave, between St. John’s Place and Lincoln Place
Boerum Hill:
Bacchus 409 Atlantic Ave, near Bond Street 718-852-1572
Cobble Hill:
Sample 152 Smith St. (corner of Bergen) 718-643-6622
Pane y Vino 174 Smith St. (Wyckoff & Warren) 718-501-1010
10/20: Friday Night is Update Night 7 pm Freddy’s Bar and Backroom – Corner of Sixth Avenue and Dean Street. Stop by this community meeting to get the latest on the battle for responsible, democratic development in Brooklyn.
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October 17th, 2006 · Comments Off on Gowanus Hotel News, Part II: The Comfort Inn Cometh
Well, we finally made it over to Butler Street to shoot some photos of the new Comfort Inn that is at an advanced stage of construction. It’s on Butler Street, between Nevins and Third Avenue in Gowanus. The new hotel is being developed by McSam Hotel, which also developed the Gowanus Holiday Inn Express on Union Street. (Which is almost identical to this building. Is there a budget hotel template they use?)
The new 106-room Comfort Inn, which is at 279 Butler Street, won’t be for the faint-hearted tourist, as it’s located on a pretty bleak (even to us) industrial block in Gowanus. Its closest neighbors in terms of residential real estate are the Gowanus Houses and Wyckoff Gardens. On the other hand, if you’re looking for gritty Gowanus cool, the Comfort Inn is going to have your name written all over it. We’re going to guess that rooms facing south should offer some nice Gowanus views, as the hotel is very close to the terminus of the canal and the pumping station that keeps “fresh” water flowing into it.
No word on an opening date, but by the look of things, we’re going to guess early 2007?
October 17th, 2006 · Comments Off on Gowanus Hotel News, Part I: More Fourth Ave. Boutique Hotel Details
The Park Slope Courier offers some extra details about the boutique hotel on Fourth Avenue that we keep writing about. The hotel, we’re told, could open as early as January. Designed by Canada-based Andres Escobar & Associates, it will have 48 rooms and a “glass curtain wall.” A number of the rooms will have balconies and in the words of the Courier offer “breath taking views of the Gowanus Canal” and Lower Manhattan. The architect of the new hotel is actually originally from Bensonhurst.
As for the rumored restaurant on top, the Courier reports that the Department of Buildings turned thumbs down to a 120 person restaurant. The building still sports a sign advertising restaurant space for lease.
The hotel is located on Fourth Avenue near Fifth Street. It is next to a large taxi depot and across the street from Leviev Boymelgreen’s Park Slope Tower.
October 17th, 2006 · Comments Off on Park Slope Car Theft Epidemic Slowing?
We’ve been tracking the stories about the little bursts of crime in Park Slope from the “wolf packs” of teens reported earlier this year attacking and robbing people in and around Prospect Park to the more recent spate of robberies at the Seventh Avenue station that led to the much publicized racial profiling issue. And, then, there was epidemic of stolen Honda Civics. Now, the Park Slope Courier is reporting that the thefts in the 78th Precinct have gone from average of eight per week, down to one.
What amuses us, though, is the tale of the one car that was stolen. It was a 1993 Plymouth Van reported taken from the corner of 5th and St. Marks avenues. (What kind of moron steals a ’93 Plymouth van, we don’t know.) Here’s the fun part: “The owner claimed that he parked the car on the spot on September 7. He went back to the car on September 21 to find that someone had helped themselves to it.”
Yes, you read that correctly. Us, we read it about seven times to make sure we weren’t seeing things.
Alternate side of the street parking, anyone? Did the dude hit suspended parking days two weeks running before the van was taken?
So, here are the stats: Between September 17 and 21, six cars were ripped off. The week before, eight were taken, making for a total of 20 in September. But, from September 25 through October 1, only the Miracle Alternate Side Defying Van was stolen.
The precinct says it put out more patrols, but there have been no arrests and they attribute the reduction in part to “luck.”
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NoNo Kitchen opened on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope last week in the space formerly occupied by the reviled India House. It’s a pretty space with a nice looking menu featuring such appetizers as Blue Crab Cake, Jambalaya Won Tons, Crawfish Popcorn, Roasted Alligator Sausage and New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp. Entrees are things like Crawfish Etouffee and Shrimp Creole. We did notice that the menu has prices on the high side, at least by the standards of many Seventh Avenue establishments, so we’re hoping the kitchen creations tastesas good as they sound.
