“Cops arrested a teenage boy Tuesday in connection with a stabbing in Park Slope Monday, after which a 16-year-old high school student was hospitalized as the result of multiple knife attacks. Tuesday afternoon, police announced the arrest of a 14-year-old connected with the attack. Armed with information from witnesses, detectives apprehended the young suspect at 3:25 p.m. in his home on Sixth Avenue, a block from where the incident occurred. Cops said they are still searching for two accomplices, two male white Hispanics, ages 14 and 16.”–Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Betsey Head Play Center in Brownsville was one of the structures in the city that was landmarked yestrerday. Nine of 11 Robert Moses era pools have now been landmarked and the Red Hook Poll is under consideration. Per CityRoom:

The Betsy Head Play Center is within a 10.5-acre park of the same name that opened in 1914 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Both the park and play center were named for a Long Island widow who left half of her estate to the city to improve or build parks, playgrounds and bath houses. The park is bounded by Dumont and Livonia avenues to the north and south and Strauss Street and Thomas S. Boyland Street (also known as Hopkinson Avenue) to the west and east. The commission said in a statement:

Designed by John Matthews Hatton, who is responsible for the Astoria Play Center and later worked on commercial storefronts and spaces in New York City, the Betsy Head recreation center is noteworthy for the extensive use of recessed glass-block walls and a rooftop observation gallery with parabolic arches that support a cantilevered canopy on the roof. It opened on Aug. 7, 1936, and was the ninth to open that summer, with a 330-foot-by 165-foot pool that could hold as many as 5,500 swimmers.

McCarren Pool was landmarked last year.

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

This pic was taken on the Coney Boardwalk on a compellingly gloomy day. It’s quite the counterpoint to a lot of summer photos.

The John Jay kids are a terror; we avoid 7th Ave. during after-school hours. Last time we tried to shop around 3, my daughter emerged from the fish store at 3rd St. and 7th Aves. into a melee, girls shrieking and rolling in the street, pummelling each other, pulling out hair extensions, and screeching curses like hookers tumbling out of a paddywagon, while their buddies looked on in delight and captured the whole scene on cell phones. The police arrived with a weary air, as if this were a regular occurrence. On ‘good’ days the kids merely curse and push folks off the sidewalks. Gosh, isn’t this the new ‘improved’ John Jay, the one they broke up into new ‘centers of excellence’?–Brookbit: Stabbing on Fifth St. in Park Slope

The Municipal Art Society is sponsoring an absolutely fascinating discussion of Coney Island tonight with some key players in the drama. It’s called Coney Island at the Crossroads. Featured speakers include Kent Barwick, president, Municipal Art Society; Purnima Kapur, director, NYC Department of City Planning, Brooklyn Office; Lynn Kelly, president, Coney Island Development Corporation; Carol Hill Albert, owner, Astroland; Sheryl Robertson, director, South Brooklyn Youth Consortium; Dick Zigun, founder and artistic director of Coney Island USA; and moderator Jonathan Bowles, director, Center for an Urban Future. An email says that “New York City officials will present their Comprehensive Development and Rezoning Plan for Coney Island to rezone the existing amusement area to allow for the construction of new amusements, retail and residential units. The plan includes the mapping of a 9-acre parcel of parkland for open-air amusements, reduced in size from the 16 acre parcel that was announced in November 2007. Following the presentation, a panel with varied perspectives will respond to the city’s proposal. Coney Island at the Crossroads, Wednesday, September 17, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue at E. 51st Street. $15, $12 MAS members/students. Purchase tickets online or call 235 935 2075. For details of other upcoming MAS public programs this fall, visit www.mas.org/programs.

It will be a fun one for the Coney crowd.

[Photo courtesy of Mikkime/GL Flickr Pool]

It wasn’t last night’s sky, but the night before. Love those Brooklyn sunsets.

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory the sun is coming up and we have blue skies. Today’s forecast calls for it to be sunny to partly cloudy with a high of 77. Tonight it will be mainly clear with a low of 60.–Accuweather

This is going to be the new location of Beacon’s Closet. Back in August we originally noted based on a reader tip that it would be vacating its current location near Union Street. It’ll be moving to the corner of Warren Street, at 92 Fifth Avenue, where it will be replacing this gift shop. We had snapped a photo of the “Going Out of Business” signs on the store a couple of weeks ago and wondered what would end up there. The vintage clothing shop will have about double its current space in the new location.

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy has a new deputy director. She is Lauren Elvers Collins of Windsor Terrace and an active member in both communities. Among the group’s ideas is that for Sponge Park. Ms. Elvers Collins has been working with group on public affairs and other efforts. Per an email from the Conservancy:

Collins will work closely with the executive director and board on a strategic plan and fundraising, will direct/create membership and volunteer programs, and will increase the organization’s community outreach. Since joining the Conservancy, Collins organized the group’s first green festival, Gowanus Goes Green, and has been very involved in the Conservancy’s Sponge Park design, a plan to create park land along the Gowanus Canal which would not only be beautiful but would also help filter and decrease the amount of polluted water flowing into the canal. While her work will concentrate on advancing the goals of the Conservancy, Collins will also spend a portion of her time with the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation focusing on the $275,000 Brownfield Opportunity Grant that the organization was awarded earlier this year (jointly with Friends of Community Board 6) to identify and redevelop contaminated land in the Gowanus area.

Ms. Elvers Collins is co-founder of the Windsor Terrace Alliance. She is a magna cum laude graduate of CUNY and holds a law degree from Fordham.

[Photo courtesy of triborough/flickr]

This is the Reinventing Grand Army Plaza competition entries exhibition that is now up around the Arch. It runs through October 13. The design competition attracted 30 entries from around the world. Finalist from the group were announced last week. The two winning entries, Canopy, created by a group from Nantes, France, and Please Wake Me Up! from a Parisian duo are below. They are tied for First Place. Curbed had a full gallery of the entries last week and Streetsblog has a rundown on the winners. There’s a big Flickr set of the Grand Army Plaza exhibition.

Canopy.

Please Wake Me Up.

This lost bunch ‘o stuff comes our way via the Park Slope Parents email list:

Somewhere between Harmony (9th St.) playground this morning and lunchtime, we lost our daughter’s favorite baby doll (along with a baby blanket and our daughter’s sunhat). We think we left them by the “big kid” swings. The doll is a Corolle baby wearing blue and white striped pajamas. She answers to the name of “Floppy Lucy Baby”, and http://tinyurl.com/5ml62p”>she looks like this. The blanket has a light blue car and sailboat pattern on it. The sunhat is a standard white cotton bucket hat.

Find ’em?

This is 268 Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, which is going up at the corner of Wythe and Metropolitan in Williamsburg. It comes from MDIM Architects. The building will be seven stories tall and have 17 condos. It shouldn’t be long before we’ll be able to tell whether the exterior will actually match the rendering (below).

[Photo courtesy of ethersong/GL Flickr Pool]

Here’s another beautiful black and white shot for this Tuesday morning. This one comes from Gowanus where, you know, parking is available.

Earlier this year, one of the better 99 Cent stores on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope closed its gates for good, another victim of rising rents on the southern end of the avenue. Now, we know what’s going into the space, which is next to the Washington Mutual branch on the block. A poster on Brooklynian reports that it will be a GameStop, marking the continued march of chains and bank branches on that stretch of Fifth Avenue. Earlier this year, a 7-Eleven opened across the street.

A Special GL Correspondent has gotten a first look at the new food store getting ready to open on Court Street. There is major progress to report at gourmetfresh between Third Place and Fourth Place. The shelves are being stocked, which is certainly a sign of an impending opening. Residents on that end of Court are awaiting the coming of this one.

As we’ve noted the 4th Annual Green Brooklyn…Green City Conference is taking place at Borough Hall on Thursday, September 18. Coordinated by the Center for the Urban Environment, it’s billed as “New York City’s largest showcase of green and sustainability issues, programs, and products…Green Brooklyn…Green City 2008 will feature workshops and discussions led by several of the city’s preeminent leaders in sustainable design, green manufacturing, transportation alternatives, energy efficiency, environmental education, and sustainable food.” The event starts at 11:30AM and runs through 5PM. Of course, it’s free and open to the public. There’s more about the event here. CUE sent us the full workshop list, which is published in full after the jump. (You can also click on the image here to make it larger.)

See the full schedule by clicking here.

We got an email from the people at the TKTS Booth in Downtown Brooklyn about the email blast they send out every day. The daily email is called TKTS Today and goes out around 11AM, which is around the time the booth opens. The booth itself is located at 1 Metrotech Center at the corner of Jay and Myrtle. Click here to go to the sign-up for the daily email.

[Photo courtesy of ethersong/GL Flickr Pool]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brookyn-related information and images. Today we mourn Richard Wright and, of course, David Foster Wallace:

· Looking at Deadly Boerum Place [NYDN]
· School Report Cards Coming Today. Grades Higher Than Last Year? [NYP]
· Taking in the View of Coney from Above [NYDN]
· Jury Selection Starts in Trial of Nixzmary Brown’s Mother [NYT]
· Cafe-ification of Bed-Stuy Continues [Brownstoner]
· Does the Name TriBeGreen Have Any Meaning? [Curbed]
· Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Kind [A Year in the Park]
· Community Board 7 Meeting Tomorrow Night [BVIB]
· Bhutanese Monks Dancing Out Demons at Borough Hall Today [McBrooklyn]
· Satan is My Copilot in Greenpoint [New York Shitty]
· (Prolific Photographer Rubys Host Talks Coney [Kinetic Carnival]
· Court Street Funeral Home Scaffolding Has Staying Power [Lost City]

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz has been engaging in the unethical, if not illegal, practice of funneling city contracts to a non-profit that he controls. Today’s Daily News has the story of how nearly $700,000 in city contracts has gone to Best of Brooklyn Inc., a non-profit he controls. Many of the contracts were written specifically to avoid public scrutiny. Per the Daily News:

From 2004 through June 2008, Markowitz doled out $680,496 in taxpayer dollars to his organization, Best of Brooklyn Inc., without competitive bidding or approval from other city agencies or boards. Among the 18 no-bid contracts were four issued for exactly $24,999 on the same day in 2005. At the time, city law required contracts worth $25,000 or more to be filed and reviewed by the city controller while smaller contracts got largely no scrutiny. That threshold was dropped to $5,000 this year in the wake of a City Council spending scandal. Mr. Markowitz tells the Daily News it would take too much time to put the contracts out for competitive bidding.

City Council Member Bill de Blasio has been involved in the debate over 360 Smith Street since it became a community issue in Carroll Gardens. He has been involved in most public forums over the issue and his office has practically become the official go-between with the community and the developer. Recently, the neigbhborhood group CORD has been challenging him to take a stand against the developer’s effort to build the condo to its full 70 feet rather than 55 feet allowed under altered zoning. A letter from one of CORD’s founders said:

“Where are you Councilman DeBlasio?”, we ask, as residents of Carroll Gardens who fought long and hard along with you to pass the zoning text amendment . This amendment which limits building height to 55 ft. will have no value, non, nada, if we allow even one new development to be absolved from its mandate. The claims of loss at the 360 site which is barely started, are incidental, and we need our Councilman to stand by our side at the BSA hearing to show his support. Our efforts through the past year will be futile if we let this go. You have been a strong force in our arduous endeavor to save our neighborhood and we appreciate all that you have done. It is vital that all our Politicians who were proponents of the amendment show their courage and determination by supporting their constituents at the BSA hearing. Where are you Councilman DeBlasio? Can we count on you to be there?

The Councilman wrote a letter to the powerful board a week ago. In it, he does not recommend either approval or disapproval of the developers applications. He simply asks that the board “take the facts of each individual case and neighborhood preservation” into account in making a decision. The BSA hearing is September 24.

See the full letter, right ahead.

There was a stabbing at Fifth Street and Seventh Avenue yesterday around 3:30PM that is said to have involved students at John Jay High School. Details about the incident are otherwise sketchy.–GL Inbox

There have been random reports here and there that suggest property crime may be spiking in Park Slope. Well, some residents believe more things are happening. The latest from Brookynian:

Is it just my bad luck, or is crime picking up in Park Slope? Tonight I found all my hubcaps stolen off my 6 week old VW Rabbit (parked under a streetlight on 7th St between 6th & 7th Ave)…4 weeks ago, had Iron gate stolen from apartment entrance on 6th St….Uhg… I hate this helpless feeling…

Also, there is this observation from a different post:

Whats going on with all the crime in the neighborhood. last week i saw a group of teens break a dont walk sign and then run into the park. there are broken car windows EVERYWHERE!!!! i know people are after nav systems but i think it is just a bunch of teens with nothing else better to do i thought this was one of the safest places to live. whats going on is it punk teens or is there money to be made by all this?

The NYPD’s latest CompStat report for the 78th Precinct does not show any significant jump in crime. In any case, there are some wheel cover and gate thieves on the loose.

So much for Park Sloper pissed off about the opening of Babeland on Bergen Street. Behold a Park Slope tot standing in the window of the sex toy shop holding a, uh, device. Park Slope adapts quickly.–Brownstoner

Now that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement has been accepted for the big Toll Brothers proposal for rezoning a parcel of Gowanus land they own for a very large residential development, the issue is going to Community Board 6. On Thursday, September 25, the board’s Land Use Committee will be having hearing on the project as part of the ULURP process that it has to go through. The meeting will take place at P.S. 32, which is located at 317 Hoyt Street, in the auditorium. It starts at 6PM. Discussion is likely to be spirited as there are is significant and vocal opposition to the development in the community.

[Photo courtesy of Dalton Rooney/GL Flickr Pool]

This is a very cool shot of Prospect Park shot with a 4×5 pinhole camera. It’s a Palladium print. We think that means this is a decidedly non-digital work.