Here are some shots we took outside the World Trade Center site during the ceremony this morning. We’ve posted a flickr photoset with about 60 shots or you can go right to the slideshow.

We usually go on at length about things, but not today. Not about this. We made a version of this snapshot on the first anniversary of 9-11. We offer it today with tears, sadness and a sense of shock that it’s already been five years.

• 364 flickr Photos about 9-11 and Brooklyn [flickr]
• 19,185 flickr photos tagged “wtc” [flickr]
• World Trade Center Memorial Album 2001-2006 [rsguskind/Webshots]
• World Trade Center 07-25-01 [maa623/Webshots]
• ‘A vast gray cloud shaped like a Geisha’s fan…moved over Brooklyn’ [Chicago Sun-Times]
• How New York City Fights Terror Now [Christian Science Monitor]
• Last Year at This Time: The 11th Again [OTBKB]
• The View from There [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Schedule of Events [NYPost]
• Special 9/11 Section [NYPost]
• Getting Past the Pain of 9/11 [NYT]
• We Will Never Forget [Selsius Blog]
• 9/11 Memorial from Dumbo [DumboNYC]

GL’s phone rang during dinner last night. A friend? A telemarketer? Close. A recorded message for one of the candidates running in the 11th Congressional District race. You would be hard pressed in certain part of Brooklyn, in fact, to know that there are any other races on the ballot other than our nasty little race in the 11th CD. It was impossible, in fact, to walk down any of the ‘significant strips of commerce–Seventh Avenue or Fifth Avenue in Park Slope or Flatbush Avenue, to name a few–this weekend without being handed leaflets for one of the candidates. (Thankfully, no candidates presented themselves, but we probably just weren’t in the right place at the right time.)

Council Member David Yassky seemed to have the advantage in this department, flooding the streets with volunteers handing out a card and saying, “Endorsed by the New York Times.” Our favorite was the girl of about 12 doing this next to Carroll Park on Saturday afternoon. (We were about to engage her in a chat about the corrosive impact of developer money on the political process, but she was very sweet, so we put on a happy face and simply said, “Have a wonderful afternoon!” Don’t child labor laws govern campaign work?) We thought we saw Council Member Bill DeBlasio personally handing out literature for Yvette Clarke in front of the Barnes & Noble on Seventh Avenue in the Slope, but we weren’t wearing our glasses, and without them we have to be really close before we can I.D. someone with certainty. The photograph above, shot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street around 6PM yesterday, shows the fate of some of the campaign literature being taped up and handed out.

Roundup:

The Gotham Gazette offers a last-minute guide for primary voters, in case you’ve managed to tune all this out until now or remain confused. Atlantic Yards Report is weighing in with another good article on the relationship of developer Bruce Ratner and his cash to Brooklyn campaigns. Today’s Sun weighs in with a look at the statistical dead heat in the above mentioned 11th Congressional District race. And, the Post says the often race-tinged campaign in the 11th CD has only one color: red hot.

Who are the real Park Slope Neighbors? Well, if the names of neighborhood groups mean anything, the real group would be one that has been working in the community on some time on neighborhood quality of life and other issue. So, in the closing days of the heated Democratic primary race (closing days being the traditional time to drop things in the mail so that people can’t respond), Park Slope Neighbors are up-in-arms that Congressional candidate and City Council Member David Yassky has mailed out a flyer from “Park Slope Neighbors for David Yassky” endorsing David Yassky. The email Gowanus Lounge just got from a member of the real Park Slope Neighbors (which has made no such endorsement) says, in part:

I came home from a business trip to find a copy of a letter from “Park Slope Neighbors” endorsing Dave Yassky. As one of the first members of PSN, an organization founded to support good development practices (they were instrumental in the negotiations to change the design of Commerce Bank), I was appalled to see we had endorsed a candidate, because during our charter discussions, we voted to never endorse candidates so that we could enventually achieve non-profit status.

Of course, we hadn’t – someone had simply used the name. Of course, it could be an honest mistake, but we have thousands of people on our e-mail list and the PSN “brand” has definited cache and credibility, as many of our members are also involved in other neighborhood institutions like community boards, block associations and the food co-op.

Apparently, when a member of the real Park Slope Neighbors called the Yassky campaign to complaint that creating a faux Park Slope Neighbors might trick or confuse some neighborhood residents, Mr. Yassky’s Chief of Staff, Evan Thies, said “Don’t waste my time with this,” and hung up on the caller.

Safe to say, then, that the Yassky campaign doesn’t have an issue with a document that might mislead some residents into thinking a neighborhood group has provided an endorsement that it really hasn’t?

Watch for more interesting things flying about in the next 48 hours as this race goes down to the wire.

These photos were all shot on Saturday evening, outside the U.S. Tennis Center, just before the start of the Final match in which Maria Sharapova claimed her second grand slam title with a straight-sets win over favourite Justine Henin-Hardenne.

Other Words:
It’s Tough Being an Up and Coming Writer in Brooklyn [NYT]
Boyland’s $100 Campaign and State’s Weak Campaign Finance Laws [AYR]
Anatomy of a Fort Greene Fender Bender [Clinton Hill]

Photos:
Coney Island Photos [coneyislandshortcakes]
Fragile Greenpoint Terminal Market [justiNYC]
Prospect [Runs with Scissors/flickr]
No Words_Daily Pix [OTBKB]

We shot this short bit of footage outside the hospitality entrance at the U.S. Open on Saturday evening. It’s not Brooklyn, but it gives a little bit of the flavor of Flushing Meadow Park on a nice September evening. Click on the embed or on this link.

Check out this new and cool vid of Brooklyn called Brooklyn Twilight. The narrator reads some scene-appropriate poetry to a jazz soundtrack and Brooklyn footage. Nicely done and worth a watch. Click on the embed or on this link.

We’ve know we’ve been down this this road before, but this latest take on Red Hook in this week’s L Magazine, called “Blotto in the Hook,” is a good read. The article is about a few of the cool spot in Red Hook like Sunny’s, but the writing about Red Hook and the protection–at least, for now–afforded by its isolation from the rest of Brooklyn is particularly interesting:

Red Hook is, indeed, very far away. Very very far. Like you think once you’ve crossed the BQE you’re nearly there, but you’re not, you’re only halfway there. I know lots of people in this city are weird about buses, but if you’re going to Red Hook, take the bus.

The good news is that unlike other “up and coming” neighborhoods with a “population of artists” (cough Bushwick cough,) Red Hook isn’t just a cheaper, less American Apparel-ified version of the closer-to-Manhattan neighborhood it abuts. Red Hook is actually really really cool. Really! It’s got this weird old-timey industrial vibe, but it also feels homey and neighborhoody. There’s all this cool-ass architecture and cobblestones and little parks that drop directly into the East River, and coffee shops not chock-a-block with strollers and jerks. Best of all, despite all the recent pants-creaming over the place, it doesn’t have that doomed feel that most cool and discovered neighborhoods get, because the transportation is so bad. Ibanker Mcjackoff isn’t going to want to take the bus to the F train at five in the morning to make opening bell. (And c’mon, don’t give me this water taxi shit. Please.)

Great stuff. Especially that last bit, although we don’t know if the writer considered the impact Ikea will have on Red Hook’s feeling of being “homey and neighborhoody.”

Saturday Pics:

• Bodega Nights [A Test of Will]
• Atlantic Avenue [Brit in Brooklyn]
• Houses That Look Like Faces [bluejake]
• Woman in Pink Flowered Dress at Smith-9th [Joe’s NYC]
• Gowanus Canal [Joe’s NYC]
• Emmett is a Real Brooklyn Pig [lesterhead/flickr]
• Gowanus [burntsienna.nu]
• Park Slope Glass and Windows [Englishman in New York]
• Sunset Park Gem [Newington Posted by Sunset Parker]
• Coney Island Cyclones [1000 Bars]

Saturday Reading:

• Hearing Oversight Slammed, ESDC Mostly Shrugs [AYR]
• Dumbo Block Party on Sept. 10 [DumboNYC]
• Funny Money Floods Sunset Park and Bay Ridge [Sunset Parker]
• Beautiful Day for Demolition on Smith Street [Brooklyn Record]
• Will One More Domino Fall in Williamsburg [Brooklyn Rail]
• Dyker? But I Barely Know Her [Brownstoner]
• A Brooklyn Beat: Tea Lounge, Little Miss Sunshine & Half Nelson [A Brooklyn Life]
• In Toronto, Dumbo is Either New Meatpacking Dist. or New P. Slope [DumboNYC]

From time to time we’ll be posting Brookvids, our own Brooklyn videos posted up on youtube, brought about by our desire to include our own videos in addition to still photos. Our Brookvids will probably be a little, um, crude at first. But we do hope to improve production values and quality over time, as soon as we find some editing software that a chimp can master in terms of editing, stitching and adding transitions, text and music. This Ride on the Astro Tower in Coney Island, shot on Labor Day, is our first one. It’s the raw footage, so you may or may not want sound, which is just background chatter. To watch, click on the embed or on this link.

Check out this very cool 20-minute documentary produced in 1952 about “A Day in Coney Island.” We found this through the wonderful blog Kinetic Carnival, which covers Coney Island. The video was posted on youtube by cifilmman, who has also posted a lot of other interesting things. This is one of the more interesting old-time Coney vids we’ve seen (the Ken Burns documentary aside), and it’s worth a view. Click on the embed or on this link and don’t forget to check out Kinetic Carnival if you haven’t been there.

• Secret Plan to Shrink Atlantic Yards More?
• Citigroup Center and NYC Skyline Go Pink
• Get Your Feng Shui On in the Beacon Tower Garden
• Boerum Hill Building Starts Demolishing Itself
• “Why Astoria Will Never Be Cool”
• Toll Brothers Establish Bedford Avenue Beachhead

Developers bought the Domino site in 2004, but the site was not included in the waterfront rezoning that permits highrises up to 40 stories. So, a rezoning is still pending. If you want a vision of the possible future without landmarking, check out Leah Kreger’s excellent and very detailed article in the current Brooklyn Rail. The story contains a wealth of information about the proposed development–which could include four towers up to 40 stories each–and, most interesting, a photo of the Rafael Vinoly preliminary plan for the site, which we are reproducing here.

The Preservation League of New York State and the Municipal Art Society are among the groups supporting Domino landmarking.

As the heated Brooklyn Democratic primary campaigns head into the crucial final weekend of electioneering there is, of course, news to report.

The candidacy of 57th Assembly District candidate and Community Board 8 member Bill Batson has clearly been picking up steam. This week’s Brooklyn Papers endorses Batson, saying that opponent Hakeem Jeffries‘ “inability to take a clear position” on the Atlantic Yards project is “problematic” and praising Batson for being “a strong opponent” of the plan and for being a “strong voice” in the fight against arsonist landlords. The paper’s nod in the State Senate, 18th District goes to Velmanette Montgomery. The Brooklyn Papers has also endorsed David Yassky in the 10th Congressional District and Rep. Eudolphus Towns in the 11th.

Still trying to figure out who’s who? Check out the The Brooklyn Papers handy guide to the “primary election smackdown.” It links to articles on all the key local races.

No Land Grab also offers up its endorsements–dividing candidates into “the good, the bad and the ugly”–and informational guides. Check them out here. NLG prefers Chris Owens in CD10, Charles Barron in CD11, in addition to Batson in the Assembly race and Montgomery in the State Senate contest.

The Daily News is reporting that polling shows the CD11 race is a dead heat, with Yvette Clarke and David Yassky polling 20 percent, and Carl Andrews and Chris Owens at 19 percent. Twenty-two percent are still reporting that they are undecided, which means that last-minute campaigning and get-out-the-vote efforts will determine the outcome.

Results are in from the Brooklyn Record online poll. Notable results: Bill Batson polled 27.3 percent in the Assembly District 57 race, but more than 50 percent report they are still undecided. In the hot CD11 race, David Yassky led the pack with 28.8 percent, but Chris Owens finished a strong second with 26.6 percent; 33 percent are undecided. In the CD10 contest, Charles Barron led with 15.5 percent, with 66 percent undecided.

The Brooklyn Downtown Star concludes that 11th Congressional District candidate David Yassky “now has the implicit endorsement of Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” but notes the notorious Wyckoff Gardens heckling and chocolate-covered donut throwing incident during the press conference about the $600K worth of security cameras at the housing complex. The article quotes residents saying Yassky has been MIA on public housing issues. The Brooklyn Papers, though, says the doughnut was, in fact, thrown at Yassky, not at Hizzoner, as the Manhattan-based press reported.

Planet PLG‘s unscientific poll of the 11th CD race (see their graphic, above) was won by Chris Owens with 36.1 percent, followed closely by David Yassky with 33.4 percent. Carl Andrews drew 20.2 percent and Yvette Clarke trailed far behind with 10.3 percent. All meaningless, but still interesting. The Broooklyn Record/Brownstoner poll results should be out soon.

With large Orthodox communities in both the 11th and 10th Congressional District, The Jewish Week reports that Israel is a major issue and that supporters of candidates David Yassky in CD11 and Rep. Eudolphus Towns in CD10 in particular “have launched a massive campaign.”

Reverberations from the “raucous” August 23 Atlantic Yards public hearing in Brooklyn continue, so we’re taking in a moment to fill in a bit the rich detail provided by the complaint just filed by the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods. Clearly, the hearing was not something you’d want to show children in a civics class, unless you wanted to show them what a crude business governance can be.

We will note a handful of the outrages highlighted in the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhood’s letter yesterday to Empire State Development Corporation Chair Charles Gargano demanding that no more public meetings are held until ESDC figures out how to run meetings that are fair and don’t become quite so unseemly.

We’re going to quote a bit from their letter, just because it is so rich in detail that it demands to be read by anyone looking for some insight on the nature of the process:

The ESDC’s decision to hold the sole Public Hearing in a hall with a 900-person capacity was certainly not intended to allow the large affected community to be heard appropriately. Literally hundreds of people were left standing outside once the hearing started…We can obtain affidavits from at least two individuals – one an AP reporter, and both who were near the front of the line – attesting that the hall was half-filled when the doors were finally opened at approximately 4:10 p.m.

In addition, the individuals manning the doors…routinely allowed union members, members of BUILD (an organization funded largely by the Developer), and members of other organizations supporting the project to enter through a side entrance designated for press and electeds.

Chaos ensued in the front of the lines outside as well. We have witnesses who can attest that busloads of children were unloaded and ushered to the head of the line.

Check out the CBN letter in its entirety. It’s been posted over at No Land Grab.

Two shows featuring Brooklyn imagery and one that looks at Long Island City before the development rush have opened are are opening soon.

First on the list is a show at the Object Image Gallery in Park Slope that came to our attention via the Park Slope Courier. It showcases a group of mostly Brooklyn painters and photographers who work focuses on a Brooklyn that has already disappeared or that may soon vanish. There is the demolished Thunderbolt rollercoaster in Coney Island, diners, industrial Gowanus and more. The gallery is located at 91 Fifth Avenue in Park Slope and the show runs from from September 15 to October 16. There will be an artists dicussion on September 29.

Brooklyn in 1900 features photos of a Brooklyn full of empty fields and farm houses. Word of tthe show at Underbridge Pictures in the DUMBO gallery collective comes via the blog Polis. The photographer, writes blogger Lisa Chamberlain, “set out to capture the fast disappearing landscape of barns, farmhouses, and open space before Brooklyn completely succumbed to industrialization and residential development.”

(Sounds like a scene 100 years from now when someone will stumble upon a server from a long-expired web enterprise and find the photos of Brooklyn bloggers currently doing something similar.)

The gallery is a 111 Front Street and the show opens Sept. 14 and runs through Nov. 5.

Meanwhile, across Newtown Creek, “The Long Island City Series” continues with a showcase of the paintings and prints Sharon Florin. In the words of Art-O-Mat LIC’s Louise Weinberg, who emailed us, Florins work shows “old Hunters Point back in the ’80s when development was an impossible dream, not the nightmare it is today.” Some of the Long Island City streetscapes and cityscapes documented by Florin are already gone and others will be soon. The opening reception for the show is on Saturday, September 16 at 6PM; it runs through October 22. Art-O-Mat, which is worth a drop by when you are in Long Island City, is open Friday from Fri 12 – 7, Sat 12 – 7 and Sun 12 – 5. It’s located at 46-46 Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City, at the corner of 47ths Rd and Vernon, about four blocks from the 7 Train. It’s easy to find, but if you don’t know LIC, Google map it.

Required Readings of the Day:

• Paying Off Ratner: Public Cost May Soar if Project Shrinks [Brooklyn Papers]
• “Secret” Ratner Atlantic Yards Scaleback Options [AYR]
• Clinton Hill Blog Meets Neighborhood Pig [Clinton Hill Blog]

Excellent Reading:

• Pushing for a 9-11 Memorial on the Brooklyn Promenade [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
• Are You Ready Brooklyn? [Brooklyn Record]
• Race for 11th is All Tied Up [NYDN]
• Brooklyn Housing Prices Still Booming [NYPost]
• The Havoc Caused by Ernesto in Sheepshead Bay [Sail Brooklyn]
• The New Target at Flatbush and Nostrand [seriously excited!]
• Brookyn Artists’ Gym Show [A Brooklyn Life]
• Brooklyn, Lost and Found [Polis]
• Multi-Media Project Opening at Kentler Gallery [B61 Productions]
• Open House New York is Oct. 7 & 8 [Daily Gotham]

We are going way off topic with item, but the product we stumbled upon while creating our first Gowanus Lounge Video on youtube to post here, was so oddly compelling and so scary in terms of its implications that we had to post the vid here. It’s from Phillips, and it’s a promotional video for its new “light emitting textiles.” (Flexible color LEDS embedded in fabric.) We have long awaited the day when you could walk around in a shirt or jacket that showed a video or whatever you chose. And, while this particular product may be to “light emitting textiles” what video Pong was to the video games of today, that day is close. Very close.

While the clothes below only do rudimentary patterns, (and one reviewer call the images “pixelated”) they’re being pitched to advertisers as “a new high-impact medium.” How long do you figure it will be before we see a lit-up “high impact” human billboard walking somewhere in Brooklyn? (You see, there is a Brooklyn connection to this story after all.)

The vid shows the fabric on shirts and upholstery. The day you can park your ass on a video of George Bush’s face, or a secret vid of your boss, may be closer than you think. Battery life is about four hours. About the laundry issues, we don’t know.

Click on the embed or on this link.

The Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods is calling for an investigation into the way the August 23 public hearing on the Atlantic Yards development was conducted and asking for problems to be corrected before more forums are held. The group has sent a letter to Empire State Development Corp. Chair Charles Gargano outlining dozens of problems, including deliberate exclusion of opponents of the project, and asking for a system for fair public hearings before the process goes forward.

According to a press release, “CBN offered to produce affidavits testifying to questionable irregularities in the admission policy and conduct of the raucous Public Hearing.” The group asked the ESDC to investigate the way the hearing was conducted and asked that it “hold a public hearing that complies with the legislative purpose and intent of providing a fair forum.” The group also demanded that no more hearings take place until there is a way to handle the large number of people that want to testify and until there are “appropriate controls for the method of conduct of the hearing.”

It was widely reported that project backers bused in supporters, bought them lunch and helped them pack into the space in which the hearing was held on August 23. (see Atlantic Yards Report for some of the flavor.) The CBN’s letter to Mr. Gargano alleges, among other things, that the auditorium was already half full when the door were open to the public, that doorkeepers favored project supporters, that they let backers sneak in through the press entrance and that even busloads of children were shown to the front of the line.

It is worth noting that the CBN was chosen by the state and city and got a $230,000 grant to coordinate community response to the DEIS, so one can assume that their allegations have some credibility. Even if only a handful are true, they’re still disturbing, and play right into the hands of those that have said the ESDC is not even interested in creating the appearance of fair public hearings.

Earlier this week Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn urged the public to skip the September 12 public meeting in voting in the primary that day.

More later.

City Council Member Letitia James endorsed 57th Assembly District candidate Bill Batson yesterday. The Council Member said that Batson’s platform extends far beyond his opposition to the Atlantic Yards project. “In Albany, Bill will be dedicated to fighting for more affordable housing for this district, for increased subsidies for NYCHA residents, and for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity money so desperately needed by our public schools,” James said. Batson has collected endorsements from Rep. Major Owens, City Council Member Bill DeBlasio, and City Councilman/Congressional Candidate Charles Barron, Congressional Candidate Chris Owens and others.

Speaking of Letitia James, the Clinton Hill Blog is running an item about their conversation with the City Council Member.

Meanwhile, the Batson campaign has just posted a new Batson internet campaign ad. We’ve seen more political ads than any one person should ever have to watch thanks to our coverage of them when we worked in Washington, but Batson’s ad is so grassroots and real that it’s worth 60 seconds of your time. No joke. Whether you agree or disagree with Batson, you have to give him credit for being genuine and for caring, and that’s not something we say lightly about anyone running for public office.

Voting is still open in the Brooklyn Record/Brownstoner Democratic Primary Poll. Brownstoner reports that 300 people have participated so far.

If you missed it, Norman Oder has a fascinating item in his Atlantic Yards Report about the trail of campaign money from developer Bruce Ratner including how the money is bundled and funneled through a variety of relatives. Among the beneficiary of Ratner money is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is a key vote on the Public Authorities Control Board which must approved the Atlantic Yards project. You might recall that Silver was the man who killed the West Side Stadium.

Meanwhile, even though Congressional candidate David Yassky has been piling up endorsements in the 11th District race, some in the community are still taking shots at him. Blogger Sail Brooklyn, who has been reporting on a crumbling building in Boerum Hill, notes that as a City Council Member, Mr. Yassky has been of no help recently. “Numerous calls and e-mail messages have been made to City Council Member David Yassky, who has not returned one,” Sails writes. “We’re assuming that he’s too busy trying to move up the political ladder to take care of his constituents.”

On the endorsement front, today’s Daily News endorses Yvette Clarke in the 11th District race and list her support of Atlantic Yards as one of the reasons.

And, finally, CQPolitics.com, which is produced by the venerable DC-based magazine, interviews State Sen. Carl Andrews, one of the four Democratic candidates vying to replace Major Owens.