[Photo courtesy of New York Public Library]

This is the Gowanus Canal and Smith-9th Street Station on January 21, 1978 with a bit of snow on the ground.

There’s an odd symmetry between this Missed Connection, which isn’t an MC, per se, and the Manhattan thing, but we found something oddly comical about it that we thought we’d share:

the guy who barfed on me at the “goth” party on 10/25 – w4m – 23
i’m still outraged. and i still don’t know how to go about washing my new-but-now-soiled black jeans without fading them. 🙁

Anyone who knows how to get barf out of black jeans without fading them, leave the advice in the comments section. Or emailed our barfed upon goth via CL, the original listing still has a few days to live. Us, we’d just take it to the cleaners and see what they can do. Can’t be the only time they’ve ever been to de-hurl some jeans without fading them.

Do you know what the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) is and what it does? Well, here’s a chance to learn, via a session called “Navigating the BSA that will take place on Monday, December 1. Per an email:

In New York City, one body has the power to grant exceptions to certain local building laws and regulations on a case-by-case basis: the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA). Once granted, such special permissions, known as variances, provide building owners and developers with legal, alternative approaches to the city’s Zoning Resolution, Building and Fire Codes, and Multiple Dwelling and LaborLaws. The BSA also hears appeals made by property owners, community groups, elected officials and the like who believe that a given commissioner or agency head has issued a ruling that is illegal.

Comprised of five mayoral-appointed commissioners, the BSA is considered to be one of the most obscure but powerful bodies in city government. Yet many neighborhood advocates who have opposed or closely monitored construction projects in their neighborhoods have had to appeal to the BSA at one time or another. BSA Vice-Chair Christopher Collins will explain the basic steps of presenting to the Board, from how to navigate their procedures and requirements to how the most effective approach to formulating arguments.

The Coffee Talk begins at 8:30am and is held at the Neighborhood Preservation Center, 232 East 11th Street, between Second & Third Avenues in Manhattan. All Coffee Talk events are free of charge.
Reservations required. To RSVP, email hdc@hdc.org or call (212) 614-9107.

Go forth and learn a lot.

It is another testament to the growing cultural face of the Gowanus, Cabinet, the quarterly magazine of art and culture, has moved to a 1,900 sq ft event and exhibition space on 300 Nevins St. According to their website, “Programming will include exhibitions, screenings, talks, dinners, symposia, performances, boating expeditions, and more.” The Cabinet event calendar has not been programmed for the upcoming month as of yet, but we look forward to some exciting public programs and readings.
—E.C. Stephens

This bus has been parked all over Gowanus in recent weeks. Yesterday, a special correspondent spied it on Bond Street parked in front of the Robert Scarano-designed Satori Condos. As we know, Satori m means instant enlightment and while we’re leaning toward believing that the enlightenment that is coming here is that people are unwilling to pay $400,000 for studio condo on Bond Street near the Gowanus Canal, perhaps the bus is seeking a special kind of enlightenment. Never know.

The Center for the Urban Environment (CUE) has been a valued contributor to GL over the last year and during that time they moved from Prospect Park to an area close to our own hearts, Gowanus. As they celebrate their 30th anniversary this month, we caught up with Executive Director, Sandi Franklin to ask her a few questions.

Q: Everyone seems to be “going green” these days. What makes CUE unique? 

Franklin: Green has been used by so many in so many ways, that most folks need to constantly redefine what it means to them on a personal basis. That’s where CUE’s role as an agent of education and information is critical in guiding and sorting through the myriad ways that green needs to be part of a healthy and sustainable future.

Q: Where do you see CUE ten years from now?

Franklin: Ten years is a long way out. But in the upcoming decade, we’ll make use of technological advancements in order to reach more urbanities—not just New Yorkers—with our products and services. There are so many great initiatives across the city and country, one of the principal challenges of the next decade will be working to connect all of them meaningfully and practically.

Q: You were recently awarded “Citizen of the Year” by the business community and Executive Council for your leadership in the field and beyond—what was that like?

Franklin: The dynamism between the for-profit and nonprofit fields is such an exciting engine of innovation. Our launch of the Sustainable Business Network NYC (SBNYC) promotes that same vital sprit of partnership by making investments in the community that are focused on creating green collar jobs, strengthening the city’s aging infrastruc­ture and empowering local markets. Whether you come at them as a business leader or head of a nonprofit, these spaces of collaboration are vital to the city’s future.

Every day, the Greenpoint Reformed Church does amazing help to help the less fortunate in Greenpoint and in North Brooklyln generally. Contrary to popular impression many of those that are helped are the working poor and senior citizens who simply can’t afford food. Miss Heather from New York Shitty passed along an appeal from the Greenpoint Church Soup Kitchen and Pantry. Please read it and thinking about giving. There are a lot of people out there that are a lot less fortunate than we are and even a few dozen small contributions can add up to something. Here is the letter:

Each day there’s a new story about how the decline in our economy is leading to an increase in demand for food pantries and soup kitchens. We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of people coming through the doors of the Greenpoint Reformed Church’s soup kitchen and food pantry. As you might guess, the funds needed to help feed so many hungry people haven’t kept pace with the demand. In fact, our city funding got cut this summer. Our pantry is empty right now, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing to you.

We need your help, and we’re asking you to do two things. Please make a Thanksgiving donation to Greenpoint’s pantry and kitchen. No gift is too small – we can do a lot with just $5 or $10. We’re able to buy food at a reduced cost from the NY Food Bank, so we leverage every dollar donated to us. Second, please help spread the word and forward this message to five friends asking them to donate a few bucks. If everyone gives a little, we can do so much. We’re aren’t a large non-profit. We don’t have a fancy building or shiny equipment. You can be assured that your donation goes directly to help people who would otherwise fall through the cracks of our society. Along with helping people, you also have the benfit of your donation being tax-deductable. You can donate online by going to the bottom of this page and clicking the DONATE button, or send a check to: Greenpoint Church Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry; 136 Milton St.; Brooklyn, NY 11222. Thank you so much for your help! Feel free to email me (ann@greenpointchurch.org) or call (718-383-5941) if you have any thoughts or questions. Happy Thanksgiving, Ann Kansfield

Please help if you can. The need this year has skyrocketed while resources have been running thin. If helping an elderly woman in Greenpoint have a Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t bring some joy to your soul, we don’t know what will.

· Cupboards Bare at Coney Island Food Pantry [NYDN]
· Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Case Might Actually Be Heard in January [AYR]
· Portraits from the Soup Kitchen [New York Shitty]
· Northside Piers from Above [Brownstoner]
· Sunset Park Wants a Community Garden [BVIB]
· New Parking Regs on Front St. in Dumbo [Dumbo NYC]
· Do Not Wait in this Laundromat for Your Bus [PMFA]
· Living on Top of Each Other [Pistols & Popcorn]

What’s amazing about this photo isn’t what’s there. It’s what’s not there: the roadwork that’s been going on on Third Avenue at the site of a bridge over the Gowanus for about two years. Yes, the work is actually finished, the bridge has been rebuilt and all the barriers have been removed. That was fast.

Remember that oyster bar that restaurant entrepreneur Jim Mamary wanted to open on Hoyt Street and that neighbors bitterly protested? Community Board 6 approved the application for the liquor license, as part of a fight that became exceptionally bitter and personal. The Hoyt Street Alliance kept fighting the decision. Work started on the bar, but the Department of Buildings stepped in and slapped a Stop Work Order on the site finally deciding that it violated zoning. (At one point, the owners suggested they’d use the building to house chickens if things didn’t go their way.) Things have stood this way for a while, and yesterday, local blogger PMFA walked by and determined the oyster bar is finished. The property is back on the market. She writes:

I am happy to report that no chickens were sighted as of yesterday, but the space is now being marketed for rent by the Carroll Gardens Realty. If the zoning is Use Group 4, only Community Facility usage is allowed. This would include educational, recreational, religious, health or other essential services for the community it serves. No bars, no restaurants….

And so goes the Hoyt Street Oyster Bar Dream.

A special GL Correspondent took note of the amount of work that’s been going on at the former prayer book factory on Third Street in Gowanus that is being converted into a mixed use project incuding a boutique hotel that could actually become one of the more interesting properties in Brooklyn. The official address is 92 Third Street and permits were issued for some interior work back in March. More recently an application to divide the property into different tax lots was denied. Per Brownstoner back in June, the developer said h e was thinking about a mixed-use project “and his development will probably incorporate office space, art and production studios, and a hotel that overlooks the building’s courtyard.” Amusingly, he said: “We’re talking about building a much more aesthetically engaged hotel than these Sam Chang properties.”

We’ve probably walked past this sign in Gowanus dozens of times without noticing, but this time we did and here it is. No Domping Here. Or Doomping either. Understood?

The holiday lights along Fifth Avenue in Park Slope were already lit up as of last night (Monday), but the Park Slope 5th Avenue BID will be having its official tree lighting ceremony at 5PM on Saturday, Dec. 6 at J.J. Byrne Park (at Third St. and Fifth Ave.). There will be carolers, entertainment, refreshments, Santa Claus and other such things one would expect at such an event. There will also be a reading of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” fromm 7-9PM at the Old Stone House. We’ve already mentioned it, and will do so again, bu the Park Slope Snowflake Festival will be taking place on the first three Thursdays in December–the 4th, 11th and 18th, with shops, restaurants and bars offering specials, sales and discounts. All will be staying open late.

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

Ah, the beach in Coney Island. This is a new pic shot from the fishing pier by devoted GL Flickr Pool contributor and talented photographer Rubys Host.

The Civilians Theater Company in collaboration with Urban Bush Women, Michael Hill’s Blues Mob, neo-soul singer Grace Kalambay, plus many more is coming to the The Brooklyn Lyceum to host several nights of theatre, dance and music taking inspiration from “interviews with the real life players in the story of Brooklyn: residents both old and new, community activists, developers, politicos and others.” It’s showing December 4 – 7 at at the The Brooklyn Lyceum, which is located at 227 4th Avenue
. Shows will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8PM and Saturday and Sunday at 3PM. The cost is “
Pay-What-You-Can.” For ticket info, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/48154″>click here. The website for the event, which includes a blog, is here.
—E.C. Stephens

[Photos courtesy of New York Public Library]

These are photos of what is described as a “squatters colony” in Gowanus in and around our favorite canal taken during the 1920s and 1930s according to the photos. An interesting little bit of local historical background for sure.

And, now, some musical options for the first part of the week:

Monday 11/24/08
The Bell House: Monday Night Vinyl Club (In the Front Lounge). Bring one 33/45/78 rpm record and play one side of it. Free!!! 7:30pm

Barbes: Chicha Libre (Latin/Surf/Psychedelic) $10, 9:30pm

Jalopy: Country Blues Jam: Bring you fiddle, accordion, banjo, washtub, mandolin, guitar, or maybe even spoons and participate in an open jam session. Free!! 9:30pm

Tuesday 11/25/08
Bar 4: pen Mike Night: Hosted by Tanya Buziak. Pre-list @ 6:15pm, Sign up @ 8:00pm, Start @ 8:30pm (mostly Singer-Songwriters) Free!!

Barbes: Slavic Soul Party (Funk/Gypsy-Jazz/Balkan/Soul) $10, 9:00pm

Wednesday 11/26/08
Union Hall: Castanets, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson (Indie/Folk) $8, 7:30pm
—Dan Bennis

We never go into that other borough, but Chief Correspondent E.C. Stephens brought this to our attention and, heck, it’s Thanksgiving Week and everybody’s thinking about traveling and dinner anyway, so into Manhattan we go:

Pied me in Times Square – w4m – 33 (Midtown)
You stopped me at 46th and Broadway and asked me for the time — after I gave it to you, you shoved a cream pie in my face and left while I was wiping my eyes. Would love to meet you again…..

So, here, we suppose the question is, is it physical attraction or, maybe, you know, revenge of some interesting kind?

[Photo courtesy of greenbk/flickr]

We finally did it. We ate a bluefish. Caught off the 69th St pier. The pier next to the “wastewater” treatment plant. The treatment plant that stinks up the neighborhood. It was delicious. And we’re still alive.
–Vanessa Raymond

“It has been super quiet behind the blue construction fence on Court Street between Union and Sackett Streets. After months of constant activity, Clarett’s “Collection On Court” has come to a virtual stand-still. The building driveway ramp and the underground parking garage foundation seem to have been completed, but that is all. Except for a dumpster and a trailer, the lot has been cleared of the usual construction equipment and materials. It now appears that Clarett is closing down the project while they “work out some details.” For how long? That’s anyone’s guess, but it has been suggested that it could be as long as four to five months ( maybe even indefinitely ?) One could imagine that the new economic reality has caught up with Clarrett…Let us hope that Carroll Gardens will not be held hostage by the project. Five months is an awefully long time for the neighborhood to be inconvenienced by the closing of the sidewalks along Union, Court and Sackett and the loss of parking along those blocks.”–PMFA

[Photo for GL courtesy of E.C. Stephens]

As we’ve noted, Playa, a new pan-Latino resturant on the corner of Fifth Avenue and President Street in Park Slope, opened late last week. It’s run by the same team that brought Barrio to Seventh Avenue this year and has a great spot called Cabana Bar in the back. We had dinner there on Friday night and here’s some early react: if they handle it properly they really have a shot at making a go of it on a corner that has seen an incredible succession of restaurants come and go. Our exposure to the menu was limited, but the seafood tapas we tried–the empanadas with blue point oysters and the coquitos (coconut shrimp)–were quite tasty. They also bring out a Columbian bread that is to die for. We didn’t sample any of the “house specialties,” so no feedback there. We had the fish tacos with the tempura tilapia and they were quite good, but we always expect fish tacos like you get in the Baja California and it just doesn’t happen in New York. Our dining companion had the Cubano Perfecto Cuban sandwich and offered that it needed the tweak of having less mustard. Service-wise the place was clearly still working out the kinks, especially in terms of getting people seated and there seemed to be no communication between the hostess in the front seating people and the back room where people were having for drinks while waiting for tables. The menu is excellent and the vibe is nice, so we’re hoping they can make a go of it offering food that veers from the all-too-common Fifth Avenue offerings of Japanese, Italian and French. In addition, they’re offering 15 percent off every tab through Christmas Eve and, finally, owner Spencer Rothschild emails to say the restaurant will be selling gift cards after Thanksgiving to Playa and Barrio at 10 percent off through the holidays, so if you want to treat a special someone to dinner as a gift, there you go.

[Photos for GL courtesy of Gary Mirabelle]

These photos come from local artists and GL Contributor Gary Mirabelle. He reports of these photos of this dog walker in Park Slope: “Nine dogs and she says she been doing it for 10 years or so.” One can only assume that she loves pups and is very good with them.

· Now, City Wants Red Hook to Follow ‘Maritime Roots’ to Revinention [NYT]
· Atlantic Yards Demolition on Dean Street Creating Blight [AYR]
· Neighborhood Reacts to the Reopening of Gristides [BHB]
· What’s Next for Downtown Brookyn After TJ’s & Gristede’s? [McBrooklyn]
· Some Avenue J Eye Candy [INSIJS]
· Anybody Lose a Briefcase Full of Clay? [New York Shitty]
· Bird Fight Paths in Prospect Park [AYITP]

Al di Là’s Anna Klinger and her husband Emiliano Coppa have been serving up some of the best Italian dishes in the borough. Park Slope foodies that have endured the notoriously long waits for dinner can now rejoice. Al di Là is entering into a new phase in its evolution by taking on the lunch time scene. Wednesday through Sunday, 12pm to 3pm, the restaurant will be open and serving the similar dinner options that have made it popular with a few innovations. New to the menu are a few brunch worthy selections including Uova Affogate al Pomodoro (eggs drowned in tomato and fontina cheese) and Trippa all Toscana (tripe stewed in white wine, soffritto and tomato, poached egg is optional.) Have any GL readers had a chance to go for lunch? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments.
—E.C. Stephens

To us, these are very sad and poignant photos and somehow don’t make a lot of sense vis a vis all the conversation about serious negotiations going on between the city and developer Joe Sitt about buying his land and how the city would be dedicated to giving Astroland another year. Unless the plan is to put everything in storage and re-erect it in April, assuming a land sale. All of these photos are courtesy of Captain Nemo who posted them on the Coney Island Message Board.