There’s a very cool craft fair in McCarren Park this weekend called the Renegade Craft Fair, but we liked the way this sidewalk sale at Bedford Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg fit together so nicely. The doorway in which it was located had been a graffiti magnet, then was cleaned up. We’re glad to see that’s it has again gained some flavor. We call this, “Billburg Sidewalk Sale in Front of Closed Storefront Church.”

It will take you some time to plow through the new report from the Furman Center at NYU that quantifies what every New Yorker knows: It is getting hard to find a place to live that you can afford. Should you want to tackle it–and its full of fascinating data–be warned that the PDF is 3.6 megabytes.

Now that you’ve all muttered, “No kidding, genius” (or worse), the report will provide you with all sorts of statistical backup with which to make your case over dinner at your favorite dining establishment tonight. To make a long story short, the number of apartments affordable to households earning about $32,000 a year, or 80 percent of the NYC median household income, has dropped by 205,000 in just three years. The median sale price of a condo went up 12 percent from 2002-04 to $430,000.

The Brooklyn picture mirrors that in the city at large–being worse than average in some neighborhoods and about average in others. From 2002-2004, the median price of a single family home in Brooklyn shot up from $288,758 to $397,000. The median monthly rent in Brooklyn went from $779 in 2002 to $850 in 2005. Carroll Gardens-Park Slope boasts a median monthly rent of $1,090. The rental vacancy rate is significantly less than 2 percent in many neighborhoods.

Happy weekend reading.

Behold the artist at work on the shores of the Big G. Reader Tony Gatto of Gattomedia sent us these photos and a note that said, “Just in case you doubted whether Gowanus was actually becoming an artists’ colony…” While we have seen paintings of the Gowanus and know of the dozens of studios in the nabe, we have never seen a real artist actually at work along the canal, but the photos give us hope that someday we will. Meantime, if you’re interested in more about the arts and artists in Gowanus, you should definitely check out Gowanus Artists and might want to look at Gowanus Lounge’s own listing of some of the cool offerings in the area. We want one of those paintings for our living room.

The Municipal Arts Society, which is a significant presence in the world of New York City architecture and design, is criticizing plans for the Atlantic Yards development. Its critique was presented at a meeting last night in Fort Greene. The group, in effect, agreed with opponents who say the project will dwarf adjacent Brooklyn neighborhoods and swamp them with traffic. Specifically, it notes:

While the Atlantic Yards site is right for development, the Forest City Ratner plan threatens Brooklyn’s special qualities. It would overwhelm surrounding neighborhoods with enormous towers. It would eliminate streets to create deadening superblocks that don’t work anywhere in New York City. It would create a private-feeling enclave of a park on what is now public land. And it would add 40,000 new vehicular trips every day with no plan to avoid gridlock.

Does this change anything? Who knows. When known project opponents say you stink, however, you can always accuse them of being biased against your cologne. When the Municipal Arts Society says you smell like a skunk, it’s time to take a serious whiff of yourself and see if you have a stripe running down your back. As the plans currently stand, Forest City Ratner would bring 8.7 million square feet of residential, office and arena space to the parcel at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues.

“Does this project work for Brooklyn?” asked Kent Barwick, the society’s president. “As it currently stands, we don’t think it does.” The MAS presented “five principles” for improving the plan. They include avoiding the elimination of streets and making park space more available.

As always, there is extensive coverage of the meeting and the MAS critique at Atlantic Yards Report.

While scouting Brooklyn rentals for a Curbed item today about how the Brooklyn rental market for tourists looking for NYC hotel alternatives is doing quite well, we came across a vacation opportunity in Seagate. For those of you that have never been, Seagate is a gated community at the end of what is otherwise known as Coney Island. It will probably wash out to see in a bad hurricane, but that’s also a digression and could be said of most East Coast beach places.

In any case, the Craigslist “vacation rental” ad is headlined “2br – OCEANFRONT TERRACE – HAMPTONS STYLE VACATION @BROOKLYN PRICE.” It promises a “Large terrace facing private beach, 2 bedrooms, gym equipment, safe parking, DVD, CD, DSL internet. Half hour to one hour (with traffic) car ride to Manhattan. Subway between one and one and a half hour trip to midtown.” The cost of this Brooklyn “Hamptons style” getaway pad is $2,200 for a month, starting July 6.

Last week, we wrote about people taking vacations in Brighton Beach. Now, this. We know there must be opportunities in Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, the Rockaways, Belle Harbor and Breezy Point too.

Our Oh My Rockness weekly email concert update brought Gowanus Lounge’s attention to a very cool series of free shows that will be happening at McCarren Pool in Williamsburg/Greenpoint this summer. You probably know that Live Nation (a Clear Channel Communications company) is putting on a series of ten shows at the former pool this summer, including Bloc Party (now sold out, according to our favorite source of music information, Brooklyn Vegan), the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sonic Youth, Iron & Wine and others. You might also know that there is some bitterness about this with both with people who dislike Clear Channel for being a big corporate presence and community people who want to see the pool either restored as a pool or fully dedicated to community use.

Well, JellyNYC will be putting on free concerts at McCarren–which will hold up to 5,000 people for a show–all summer on Sunday afternoons from July 9-September 3. The Pool Parties are billed as “a celebration” of summer and “of the community itself.” Brooklyn Vegan quotes from a JellyNYC release that promises “amazing bands, DJs, food, drinks, and even slip ‘n slides for a day that is sure to make the most jaded hipster smile.”

Announced shows include:

• Les Savy Fav on July 9.
• Of Montreal and Enon on July 30
• Deerhoof, Beirut, Apollo Sunshine and The Harlem Shakes on August 13
• The Walkmen, Dr. Dog, Elvis Perkins and Human Television on August 27
• Spank Rock and Gang Gang Dance on September 3.

Other free shows will be announced soon. (JellyNYC’s website is currently in process, but we’re sure it’ll be up in no time.) So, you see, piles of manure sometimes lead to a pony.

Property Shark has a new map mash-up courtesy of publicist Kelly Kreth that plots the concentration of single men throughout New York City (and their incomes too). We’ve taken the liberty of reproducing some of the Brooklyn version covering Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and parts of Red Hook, Sunset Park and other nabes. The basic color coding is: the darker the better in terms of the number of single men. The maroon color–for instance, in parts of Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Dumbo, means that one of every three men is single. The really dark maroon (sadly, Brooklyn ladies, only in part of Brooklyn Heights–is “meat market,” with more than one of every three men single. We note with regret that Gowanus is not a good place to snag a single guy. (But give it a few years.) Also, the only nabe with single guys with incomes more than $100,000 is Dumbo.

There is so much more to this map and what it means than we can possibly get into. So, go on over to Property Shark and click away. When you tire of looking for guys with money, you can always check on toxic sites or flood zones, which Brooklyn also has in great abundance.

You can click here for the map.

City Council Member David Yassky is trailing Council Member Yvette Clarke and several other candidates by a wide margin in the 11th Congressional District race according to poll results published in the Daily News’ Daily Politics column, which came to our attention via The Politicker column in the New York Observer via the Brooklyn Record. (Such is the convoluted flow of information sometimes.) Clarke leads with 29%, followed by Carl Andrews with 17%, Chris Owens with 14% and Yassky with 9%. Nick Perry, who had 8%, dropped out. The poll also shows huge room for movement, with 21% undecided. (The poll is said to have been paid for by Perry.) Yassky reportedly has especially weak support among African-Americans. There are also neighborhood pockets of opposition against Yassky based on his stands on hot button development issues such as Atlantic Yards (Yards opponents say he’s done multiple flipflops) and the de-landmarking of 184 Kent in Williamsburg (he did not support landmarking the historic building). Councilman Al Vann recently wrote that, “We are in peril of losing a ‘Voting Rights’ district, the 11th Congressional District, as a result of the well financed candidacy of Council Member David Yassky, a white individual.” Yassky has also been attacked by Al Sharpton.

While Yassky is likely more popular than the 9% figure indicates, organized opposition can sometimes be corrossive. Yassky is, after all, the only candidate in the race that has generated a “stop him/her” movement.

Interestingly, though, when we checked in on stopyassky.com–a site that went live about a month ago–it was devoid of content. The site only offers the words “Stop Yassky.Com.” Hmm.

1. Justinyc offers hints for that touch-and-go Brooklyn apartment hunt. The Brooklyn Record version of the post contains a list of helpful links to rental listings. On justinyc, he notes that while “you do not need to speak Polish or Yiddish to find a place in Brooklyn…it might help your chances if you do” and provides some translation links. One of his readers offers the following apartment-finding tip: “Get a realtor’s license. Seriously. It only takes 40 hours, 2 tests (that a trained monkey could pass) and about $200. Get a broker to ‘hire’ you (believe me, they’ll hire anyone) and voila – access to millions of apt. listings. Then quit and let your license expire.” Glad to know a “trained monkey” can pass the realtor’s license test, although we had assumed it wasn’t like passing the Bar Exam given some of the billboards we’ve seen from the BQE about getting your license in, like, 48 hours. (The photo above is from blorman on flickr.) In the meantime, “I would like to rent this apartment” translates into Polish, according to poltran, as “Chciałby wynajmować mieszkanie.” As for pronunciation, who knows?

2. The Real Estate relates an anecdote about an Orthodox gentleman who has been walking on Van Brunt Street in (red hot) Red Hook, asking residents, “Do you know if any property is for sale? If you hear of anything, will you give me a call?” He then hands out his card. Quothe The Real Estate: “It’s a shitstorm, people. Better start looking in Bushwick.”

3. The Board of Standards and Appeals has again called a timeout rather than deciding the fate of the contentious 11-story building being developed by Isaac Katan on 15th Street in the South Slope. It’s one of several buildings impacted by last November’s downzoning and the legal question is whether enough of its foundation was in place before the rezoning in order to grandfather the building under the old zoning. Opponents have ample video and photos that they say show workbeing done after the fact. The new decision date is July 25.

The Atlantic Yards news and notes never stop flowing.

For starters, the Municipal Arts Society weighs in this evening with an assessment of Forest City Ratner’s development plan and some altnerate visions for the site. There’s a presentation for the media at 5:30 and a public meeting from 6:30 to 8:30 at Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church, which is located at 144 Saint Felix St. in Brooklyn. Event sponsors include State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery, State Assembly Members Joan Millman and James Brennan, and City Council Member Letitia James. Among the sponsoring groups: the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, the Boerum Hill Association, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Fort Greene Association, the Society for Clinton Hill, the Park Slope Civic Council and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council.

Second, living near the project is apparently already not so peachy. The Atlantic Yards Report lovingly details Forest City Ratner demolition work that is apparently getting started very early in the morning. Specifically:

Last Wednesday, Leigh Anderson, a tenant for eight years at 624 Pacific Street, was rudely awakened at 6:15 a.m. when contractors demolishing the adjacent 622 Pacific Street used a backhoe that sent vibrations through the wall of her building. “We thought the building was coming down,” Anderson said, referring to herself and boyfriend David Gochfeld. “The building shook, and it felt like a wrecking ball was going through the side of the building.”

Don’t know about you, but it sounds like a great way to wake up get an extra-early start and get to the office promptly to GL.

Third, the Buildings Department cited Forest City Ratner yesterday for failing to obey an order to stop the demolition work on the Pacific Street buildings. It was issued after inspectors came around to inspect and found some violations. The violations were corrected, but a reinspection wasn’t requested and the demolition work resumed without the stop work order being lifted. The fine for such a transgression runs from zero to $2,500.

Finally, Forest City Ratner says 20,000 people have sent back a response card that was included in its last mailer. The developer says “the vast majority” said that affordable housing is the most important part of the development. (We’ll bet a lot of money the cards said a lot of other things too.) The release quotes New York ACORN Executive Director Bertha Lewis saying that “The number of responses is a clear indication that this type of innovative development is needed in Brooklyn and throughout the City.” The project would have 6,860 units of housing and 2,250 of the rental apartments will be for low- and moderate-income renters. They would be distributed by lottery. Atlantic Yards supporters emphasize the affordable housing the project would produce; opponents stress the density and number of apartments that will be built.

Our item yesterday about nasty bicyclists calling moms in Prospect Park pushing strollers “asshole” reminded us that we have had this photo of a bicycle that lives on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg for many days. We believe that the first time we saw it, many months ago, it was in better condition. Now, it’s not. We call this one, “Bicycle Reduced to Bare Essence.” Also, we really hope that its owner never cussed out a mother and her child. Or, perhaps the owner did, which is why this bike would appear to have such a heavy karmic load to bear.

All credit to the Brooklyn Record for bringing our attention to today’s Daily News story (motivated, we presume, by a story in the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier, which we hadn’t checked in on this week) about the crackdown on the, um, sidewalk planters in Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill.

One would think that New Yorkers without backyard gardens or front yards or even flower boxes would be entitled to get their green thumb on by putting some flowers in planters. Hell, one would think the city would give out merit citations for bringing a bit more color to the urban streetscape. But, no. Department of Transportation inspectors are ordering the removal of some sidewalk planters on Clinton Street and threatening $1,000 fines.

Yes, it’s only a few planters, and the inspectors say someone called 311 to complain. Yes, GL has been upset with 311 ever since calling to ask about having a dead rat the size of a Yorkie removed from the sidewalk out front and being politely told that sidewalk rat removal was our civic responsibility, even if the thing was big enough to scare Cujo. (Speaking of which, a resident told the Courier, “Someone ratted us out.”) Somehow this little item says a little something about how stupid bureaucracies can be.

Says Brooklyn Record:

If crowded sidewalks are the issue, what’s next? The removal of elderly Italians parked in lawn chairs? In this neighborhood, the transportation department better watch their step.

The next time GL heads to Court Street for an Italian Ice at the Court Street Pastry Shop, as per A Brooklyn Life’s suggestion (we’ve never tried one), we will attempt to seek out the offending flower planters and photograph them.

Unless they’ve already been whacked by DOT.

You could see and feel the change on the streets of Red Hook within days of the Fairway opening: hundreds of extra cars and increased pedestrian activity. While Gowanus Lounge knows that Red Hook could not remain frozen in a time warp of abandonment and wild dogs roaming the waterfront, the change still comes as a system shock. The commotion is almost enough to make you turn around and leave, except for that pesky supermarket beckoning with all of its goodies.

Now, come stories about mounting traffic issues in Red Hook and residents’ concerns. Cops in the local precinct are predicting accidents; residents are complaining that the NYC Department of Transportation is moving slowly. The co-chair of the Red Hook Civic Association told the Carroll Gardens Courier that “The DOT has been as helpful to Red Hook as FEMA has been to New Orleans.” Then, he added, “It’s a disgrace.”

In this week’s Brooklyn Papers, Ariella Cohen reports that the DOT will do a traffic analysis in the fall. (Perhaps faster, we think, if someone is pancaked by a car.) And to think, not so long ago, Gowanus Lounge went to the Red Hook waterfront to catch a lonely and deserted vibe. (If you leave the immediate area of the Fairway, there are still plenty of peaceful spots in the Hook and, failing that, the Sunset Park waterfront beckons.)

Mlik.org offers another take on the problem–that of the bicyclist:

I find Red Hook a nice quick bicycle ride from Carroll Gardens, and hope that the traffic doesn’t ruin that. What I don’t like is having to park my bike across the street and down the block, because Fairway hasn’t taken it’s non-driving customers into account when building their store. Maybe they just didn’t think of it: everyone walks or takes a cab in Manhattan, and drives to grocery stores in the suburbs. But Brooklyn is flat and spread out, and perfectly suited to bike riding. There were at least 15 other cyclists there that day, and everyone was finding weird spots to lock their bike, like the completely inconvenient fence around the parking lot, or, like me, to street signs on the other side of the street. I sent Fairway an email requesting that they build a bike rack. The email address is info@fairwaymarket.com, and I hope a few others do the same.

We won’t get into how Brooklyn Papers Editor Gersh Kuntzman was almost swallowed up by a monster Red Hook pothole when he bicycled over to cover the Fairway opening.

Of course, last week’s reports of the mind blowing extent of the Red Hook drug trade and the 1,000,000 transactions a year were enough to conjure visions of drug dealers directing traffic in the streets around the Red Hook Houses. (“Yo, you got to move it. Cop and move, man. Cop and move. You got your rock, now jet. No double parking!) The lessening of traffic that the NYPD giveth, the Fairway, the new cruise ship terminal and just-plain-increased-interest in the nabe after a lot of publicity taketh away.

Wait until Ikea adds thousands of cars to Red Hook’s streets every day when it opens in 2008. Traffic must have been one of the things Mayor Bloomberg was talking about, when he said, “I happen to be a supporter of it. But I think if I lived there, I don’t know whether I would be, quite honestly.”

We conclude this ramble with our transportation solution of choice: Ease public access to Red Hook with a trolley line and, in the meantime, significantly improve bus service.

Ah, the bucolic nature of the friendly green space of Prospect Park (assuming the roaming teen gangs robbing people are under control). But, wait. Daily Slope and its message board are full of tales of the unfriendly competition between walker and biker during car-free times in an entry called “Prospect Park is not the Tour de France.” To wit:

Prospect Park is not the training ground for the next Lance Armstrong. I really think *some* of these over outfitted bicyclists have to get a grip on reality and share the park road. They are one group of people who need to use it and not dominate it. Today I was crossing the road with my stroller. I looked left and right before proceeding–all was clear. When I got to the center a pack of bicyclists came up over the hill (not in the bike lane) and then started cursing me for being in their way. “Watch where the f you’re going.” “GET OUTTA MY WAY asshole.” For God’s sakes it is a public park and I looked both ways and was crossing the friggin road! Ugghh.

Wow. GL is as hard-bitten as the next person, but “Watch where the F you’re going” and “Get outta’ my way asshole” to a mom with a kid in a stroller? Dear God. Not to mention the fact that you might leave the road rage behind when you take the bike into the park. (The photo above of a bike race in Prospect Park, by the way, is from groovylab on flickr.)

And, then, there’s this:

I live a block from the park and have children so I am in the park quite a bit and am familiar with the biker packs. I crossed the road with two children in a stroller. I didn’t meander or stop. But I didn’t sprint across in a frenzy diving for cover on the other side–uhm, the road is closed to traffic. I think they need to share the road with joggers, walkers, dog walkers, children riding bikes, parents, rollerbladers. Many of them think what they are doing is the most important activity on that road and we should all be leaping out of their way. Frankly if they are going to bike so aggressively they don’t belong in a public park. If it happens again, I will make it my business to get their aggressive bicyling curtailed.

And all this time, we thought the park would be a kind, gentler place if the cars were removed. We were wrong. Oh, so wrong.

Okay, so it has nothing to do with Gowanus or Brooklyn, but Gowanus Lounge is driven this morning to say a little something about last night’s Radiohead show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden that we were lucky enough to score a ticket for in the first row of seating behind general admission when they went on sale and disappeared completely in minutes. (Thank you Ticket God.) Although GL would personally have wished for more material from Hail to the Thief, our personal Radiohead favorite, the show’s two-dozen songs were incredible and it was great to hear the six new songs the band performed. (There are some excellent recordings of both the shows and the new material available. Including a soundboard-quality recording of the Amsterdam show in May. You know where to find them.)

Amusingly, every critic to review the show was seated in the row behind GL, so for the entire show, we could glance back and see people scribbling furiously in their notepads. It was like viewing a precision group note taking exercise. (Oooh. Looks like the guy from the Times is writing a lot down during Videotape. Is this good or bad?) Suffice to say that if a beam had fallen on that row, the entire New York City daily and weekly newspaper music writing world would have been obliterated in one fell swoop. (Except for the guy from the Post, who somehow ended up many rows back.) We also heard some interesting gossip about who loves his job and who has a “maniac boss” and how music coverage is being cut back and how editors keep asking the writers to write less, but we won’t name names or publications. It would be wrong.

From opening with You and Whose Army through the superb final encore of How to Disappear Completely and great new material like Arpeggi and Videotape, Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Company put on a very, very good show. Some photos of the gig are available through Gothamist on Jen C’s flickr set–better than what I managed on my cell phone camera. The only disappointment was the lack of Karma Police in last night’s set. This means that if you’re lucky enough to have a ticket to tonight’s show, you will get to see them play it. Radiohead is actually varying their set list every night on this tour (which they are undertaking on their own as they are currently between record labels–we picked up a lot of excellent gossip about this, too, last night.)

GL is certain that this made for a more musically interesting night than the One Hanson opening in Brooklyn, even though we are sorry to have missed ACORN protesting Magic Johnson.

Atlantic Yards opponents are again suggesting a “Coney Island arena solution” as an alternative to the huge Forest City Ratner project at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue. In the latest salvo from Develop-Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Daniel Goldstein says, “Coney Island is a viable location for an arena in Brooklyn that requires a serious and hard look. It was built for crowds and can use the ‘off season’ shot in the arm that a professional basketball arena could bring.”

The New York Games blog recently suggested the Coney Island option and offered a history of the project, noting developer Bruce Ratner‘s original preference for a Coney Island site in 1997. Read a few sentences into the blog, of course, and you will also be reminded that the plan was never to build a stand-alone arena. The Coney Island arena, like the Atlantic Yards one, was a Trojan Horse for a much bigger development project. We can only assume that Thor Equities, the current major player in Coney Island redevelopment, would not send Ratner huge bouquets of roses if he wanted to switch locations at this point. On the other hand, Frank Gehry has proposed seaside towers in Brighton, England that are very similar to Miss Brooklyn, so who knows? A couple of tweaks to the Brighton Maiden and Miss Brooklyn, and Frank O. would be ready to go.

The Daily News’ iTeam Blog also picked up the Coney Island thread from the New York Games blog. And, Atlantic Yards opponent Norman Oder also offers a long argument in his Atlantic Yards Report in favor of giving to Coney Island what many residents of Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Fort Greene and Boerum Hill don’t want.

The Coney Island arena backers point out that Brooklyn Boro President Marty Markowitz, who supports Atlantic Yards, once favored a seaside arena site. (The property that had once been indentified is adjacent to Keyspan Park, where the depressing Stark sports center currently sits along with some still available vacant property.

The full details are available at the DDDB website.

Earlier today, we noted over at Curbed an apparent split between Brooklyn developer Shaya Boymelgreen and Israeli mulitnational businessman Lev Leviev, the development heavies known as Leviev Boymelgreen. The relationship between the two, according to Globes Online has “soured” and they have “decided to end their collaboration.” Israeli tycoon Nochi Dankner is said to be Boymelgreen’s new partner. (Dankner Boymelgreen? Dankelgreen? Boymeldankner?) Last week, we related a Miami Herald report that Boymelgreen and Leviev had sold their Miami holdings for $89 million, due in no small part to the tanking Miami real estate market.

The state of such things is, of course, of interest to GL, since Leviev Boymelgreen‘s handprints are visible all over Brooklyn, particularly in Gowanus, Park Slope and Boerum Hill. The company has several condo projects on Fourth Avenue and has proposed building Gowanus Village. Interestingly, Boymelgreen may be outsourcing some of his development work, as the new team is said to be big on commercial and residential development in India and Israel.

Gowanus or Goa? Stay tuned.

People heading to the Williamsburg Savings Bank (aka One Hanson) kickoff party tonight may have to navigate protestors from ACORN. They’ll be there to call on Magic Johnson (the star attraction at the party and an investor in the project) “to stop the gentrification and resegregation of downtown Brooklyn.” ACORN, which protests widely to push for affordable housing, wants 30 percent affordable housing at One Hanson. ACORN is also a big supporter of the adjacent Atlantic Yards project and signed the Community Benefits Agreement with developer Forest City Ratner. The group’s local leader, Bertha Lewis, appeared in the last Forest City Ratner brochure promoting Atlantic Yards and was quoted saying the developer “has worked in real partnership” with the community and shown “an unprecedented level of concern” for it. We’re guessing that less warmth will be directed at Magic by ACORN. Us, we’re going to see Radiohead tonight to hear Thom Yorke and friends instead.

Gowanus Lounge checked out the V-Spot, a five-week old vegan dining spot on Fifth Avenue between Douglass and Degraw, for brunch on Sunday. We are happy to report that our limited food sampling yielded good results and that we were content at V-Spot. Best of all, it’s a welcome addition for the vegetarian- and vegan-minded. GL had the Breakfast Wrap–which is tofu scramble, cheese and sausage–with a side of tostones. GL’s sidekick had the tofu scramble. We both liked the tofu scramble, although I found the tostones too dry. The deserts are superb. (In fact, we took a slice of Chocolate Covered Strawberry Shortcake and one of Chocolate Chocolate Cake to go. Now, we don’t have to go all the way to Food Swings on Grand Street in Williamsburg for cake anymore.) Best of all, at least until blazing summer sun renders it hot at midday, the restaurant has a great patio in the back.

Service is friendly and is mostly provided by the owner, who is also a school teacher.

While it needs to iron out some kinks, it’s nice to have a laid back veg place in the hood. We wish the V-Spot well.

In another sign that the pace of development in Gowanus is picking up, a large property at 505 Carroll Street has been purchased by developers. The parcel is between Third and Fourth Avenues on Carroll Street, almost across the street from Our Lady of Peace Church. The site is more than one acre and extends through the block to President Street.

The building has been used for light manufacturing, but that’s a thing of the past. The developers–Second Development Services and Procida Realty & Construction–have teamed up in the past to produce condos marketed to “young, urban professionals with a highly sociable lifestyle.” They’ve already put up an 11-story building at 53 Boerum Place, one of those new residential buildings you see as you’re going toward Atlantic Ave from the Brooklyn Bridge.

Gowanus Lounge shot this photo on Saturday during a marathon walking and photo session on Fifth Avenue and Fourth Avenue, not to mention Gowanus and Atlantic Avenue. This one, which we call “Fifth Avenue, Ungentrified” is one of our favorites from that day.

We were a little slow in getting to this today, being swamped by the usual Monday tidal wave, but Gowanus Lounge is pleased to join the chorus of voices welcoming the Brooklyn Record, a new Brooklyn undertaking from Brownstoner. It only underscores our conviction that Brooklyn is the place to be, and writing about our favorite borough is the only way to go. The Brooklyn Record promises to cover the arts, restaurants, events, politics, leaving real estate, renovation and architecture to Brownstoner. Let a thousand flowers bloom and spread the Brooklyn flavor.

Okay, so Gowanus Lounge couldn’t help but notice that the Brooklyn Brewery logo was prominent in the ads of the Sonic Youth/Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Iron & Wine and Neko Case shows at McCarren Pool. We have already noted that the Clear Channel Communications (okay, Live Nation) concerts at McCarren are not entirely popular with community members who hoped for a different use of the historic pool site. (IE, pool–the New York Post returns to this theme today). Also, we are aware of Brooklyn Brewery owner Steve Hindy’s support of the Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Project. And of those that have suggested boycotting the Brooklyn Beer.

The Brewery is on North 11th Street in Williamsburg and has been shopping for new space, possibly on the Carroll Gardens-Red Hook waterfront. The irony, of course, is that Brooklyn was once of the country’s brewing capitals, and the industry’s heart was in East Williamsburg/Bushwick in a 12-block stretch between Bushwick Avenue and Lorimer Street that housed nearly a dozen breweries. Overall, North Brooklyn once produced nearly ten percent of the beer consumed in the U.S. including Rheingold and Schaefer. The site of the latter’s brewery is now Schaefer Landing, the luxury condo, in South Williamsburg.

So, does it matter if Brooklyn Brewery suds is the brew that anti-Atlantic Yards, anti-McCarren Pool concerts Brooklynites love to hate? Since the brewery is clearly cutting deals that will help it sell as much beer as possible and since marketing is about raising visibility, does controversy oddly play into Brooklyn Brewery’s hands?

Most likely. Even item is, in its own little way, PR for Brooklyn Brewery.

Among the many, many spots that Gowanus Lounge dropped by over the weekend was the opening of the Leumurplex on Third Avenue between Ninth and Tenth Streets, just north of the F Train overpass. The new 3,000 square foot performance space, gallery and learning center (a “robotic art complex,” if you will) is the new home of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. (If you are looking for furry lemurs, try the Bronx Zoo and Prospect Park Zoo.)

Lemur, which was founded by local artists and tech types in 2000, produces robotic musical instruments and has done installations around the U.S. and internationally. The Lemurplex opening featured a number of its creations including a Guitar Bot and an intricate ceiling drum installation (a detail of which is in the photo above) that starts banging and whacking as you walk through and dance and/or jump around the installation space.

Director Eric Singer plans many, many events in the space and told GL he wants to help organize the arts community in the neighborhood. (The nabe is one of those places whose exact identity is in the eye of the beholder. Is it the South Slope? Is it very southeastern Gowanus? Is it something entirely new, like DUFO–District Under the F Overpass?) We do know that there are many artists’ studios, rehearsal and other spaces in the warehouses and buildings along Ninth Street, west of Third Avenue, and other spaces along Third Avenue. And, we also know that the nabe isn’t generally included when, say, Gowanus studio tours are held. So, there is clearly a niche here that can be filled.

If you’re interested in reading more, Lemur has been written up in the New York Times, Newsweek and other publications. A slew of classes start at Lemurplex in July, including courses on creating robotic musical instruments. To get your music bot on, check out Lemurplex or email info@lemurbots.org or visit 461 Third Avenue. (Check the website for updates on hours.)

Gowanus Lounge was out and about in Gowanus this weekend (among other things, taking a look at 505 Carroll Street, which has been sold for development…more about that later) when we ran across a celebration of the Feast of St. Anthony at Our Lady of Peace. That’s the pretty little church (founded in 1899) that is on Carroll Street between Third and Fourth avenues, if you’ve ever walked down that part of the street after crossing the Carroll Street Bridge. A small group followed a pick up truck around in circle up Carroll, then down Fourth Avenue to Union, down Union to Nevins and back to the church on Carroll. Another photo is below.