Brooklinks is very,very sad today.

· Bay Ridge Dog Helps Rescue Neighbor [NYDN]
· Eulogy for My Father [OTBKB]
· “Brooklyn South” Offers Up Prospect Heights a Decade Ago [AYR]
· Brooklyn Street Safety Fixes Are Lagging Despite Promises [Streetsblog]
· Another Look at Fischer-Kaufman Sandwich on Burg’s N. 4 St. [Brownstoner]
· Brooklyn Filmmaker’s Movie About Dwindling World Water Supply [NYDN]
· Gowanus Water Station Examined [Brooklynometry]
· Burg’s Recon Outpost is There to Stay [Urbanite]
· Burg Getting a New Butcher Shop [Brooklyn Based]
· Heath Ledger’s Greenpoint Bar Opens Next Week [Williamsburg is Dead]
· Prospect Park Birthday Phantoms [A Year in the Park]
· Going to the City [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Wednesday Food & Drink Roundup [Brownstoner]

Mayor Bloomberg speaking yesterday about Atlantic Yards and the need for $100M more in subsidies: “We desperately need to have development and that’s a very big part of the development in Brooklyn. I don’t know that we have to put government money in, but we certainly will do everything we can to work with [developer Forest City] Ratner to get those buildings going.”–AYR

Apparently, someone is walking around Park Slope flashing people or, at least, flashing a nanny and child. Here’s the sordid story from a Park Slope Parents email:

My nanny was at the park with my son on Monday, and a man came up and exposed himself. His description: 5’8″ to 5’10”, 200pounds, black hair with a ponytail, black shirt and a black shorts. He seems to be white or Hispanic. He also has a big black dog perhaps either Shepard of Doberman. This happened near the 15th street and ParkWest corner entrance around 11:45am on Monday. Along side the tree path extending from the entrance to north, there are several benches in the park facing the green. My nanny was sitting there with my son, and the man approached them with his dog. She called her friend and police right away and although the police promised to call her back in a few, she still hasn’t heard back from them.

We’re going to wager she’ll be hearing from the NYPD soon.

A bicyclist was hit and killed in Park Slope yesterday morning at Eighth Avenue and President Street. The 50-year-old man was hit by a school bus. Per one witness, “He was in very bad shape when the ambulance arrived and sadly did not make it.”–Streetsblog & Park Slope Parents

A lot of people will experience a lot of emotions today from abject grief to raging anger and everything in between. It is hard to believe that it has been seven years and like everyone else reading these words, we remember exactly where we were and what we thought when we heard and saw on that beautiful morning. Every wound heals, and a day will come in a future we won’t be around to see when 9/11 will be an abstract day that people have learned about from photos and videos. Someday, the awful events of that morning seven years ago will cease to lose the power to bring to tears to their eyes or to fill them with rage. But, not now and not yet. We mourn today and we are sad just like everyone else. We are shocked by how much time has already passed and how drastically our lives have changed in the intervening years. A few weeks ago, we were at the Newseum in Washington and were shocked to look up and find the TV tower from the Trade Center on display along with a lot of other artifacts. We felt a sense of depression along with anger. We are tired of feeling like so sad on this day. We are disgusted by the political events that followed 9/11. These are the lights over Gowanus when they were being tested the other night. Tonight, will not be a test. It will be, sadly, quite real. We wish everyone a peaceful day.

There are many events taking place around our Borough to commemorate September 11 and remember those who died. Here are some of them.

The September Concert, which is a global series, will have many concert sites in Brookyn, including Borough Hall at 1PM. Here are some of the other sites: Bar 4 in Park Slope, Goodbye Blue Monday in Bushwick, Kingsborough Community College, the Commons at MetroTech, Matchless Bar in Williamsburg, the Norwegian Christian Home and Health Center in Bay Ridge, Rose Live Music, Target Community Garden, Spread Gallery in East Williamsburg, Xaverian High School and William Alexander Middle School 51. For the full list and details, click here.

The Silver Brown Dance Company is performing a memorial dance in Brooklyn Bridge Park at 7PM. The piece, Oasis V, uses the skyline as its backdrop.

The annual prayer service at the 9/11 Memorial at Conselyea Street and Graham Avenue in Williamsburg takes place at 7PM.

First Presbyterian Church at 124 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights is holding a commemorative service at 6:30 PM.

There will be a candlelight vigil at Paerdegat Park, located at Albany and Foster avenues, in East Flatbush at 7 PM.

There will be a memorial service in Marine Park by the Field House at Fillmore Avenue at 6PM.

In Bay Ridge, there will be a memorial with a 21-gun salute, candle lighting, release of balloons and other tributes at the 69th Street Pier at Bay Ridge Avenue and Shore Road at 8PM.

[Photo courtesy of galvarez51/GL Flickr Pool]

It’s cloudy outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory right now. Today’s forecast calls for low clouds followed by sun and a high of 74. Tonight will be clear to partly cloudy with a low of 62.–Accuweather

With all the bad and indifferent news about Coney Island, here’s one to induce a bit of a chuckle. There’s a new play called Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady that will be having its world premiere soon as part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. It’s playing, starting September 23, at the TBG Theater. We first saw it posted on Brooklynometry, as it’s written by resident of Windsor Terrace. Here’s something from the NYMTF website about it:

Sally Kaplan’s hit comic book “Cyclone” is set in the glamorous, seedy Coney Island of the 1920’s, where Cyclone, a sultry gypsy heartbreaker, and her freakish twin sister, the Pig-Faced Lady, always save the day. But in the real world, there are no superheroes, and Sally must find a way to become the hero of her own story.

Sort of sounds like a metaphor for the modern day Coney Island too. If Cyclone doesn’t appeal, there’s always a play called Bedbugs!!!, that seems strangely compelling, and plenty of others for that matter.

This comes from the Metropolitan Avenue stop on the G Train, where many, many altered ads can be found. In fact, someone wrote on this one asking why no one had done anything with it yet. Someone did.

And now, another installment of GL Lost & Found, in which we try and reunite people with their property. Today’s time is a set of car keys found in Boerum Hill that we found in a Boerum Hill Group email:

I meant to do this two nights ago. I found a set of CAR KEYS on the sidewalk [in the 100s on] Dean Street. Since I do now live right there, I gave them to someone who did –to be “guardian” of the keys. They said they’d put up a sign, perhaps on the big London Plain tree. Instead, later I saw a little hand-written note stuck on the iron fence. I don’t know if it was really visible. So if you lost keys, and get back to me, ID make of car, and I’ll point you in the right direction. Of course, you could also put up sign for LOST key (now that you know where they were dropped), and I’m sure said guardians will come forward!

We’ll get back to lost diaper bags tomorrow.

Michael Hurwitz is the Director of Greenmarket, a Program of the Council on the Environment of NYC (CENYC). Hurwitz will be speaking on the subject of “Food Miles: An Inside Look at Food from Farm (or Factory) to Table” at Green Brooklyn.. Green City on September 18th. For more information on this full day event, visit www.greenbrooklyn.org.

CUE: Maybe a good way to begin is with the borough itself—are any of your farms located in Brooklyn?

Hurwitz: While no one at Greenmarket currently offers food grown in Brooklyn fields, Greener Pastures sells wheatgrass and other sprouts grown in a warehouse along the Gowanus, while David Graves of Berkshire Berries keeps beehives NYC rooftops, including some in Brooklyn, and sells the sweet harvest at our markets. Not far from Brooklyn, a working farm on Staten Island rears city-grown produce as part of our New Farmer Development Program; look for the morning’s picking at our market on Staten Island. (Greenmarket looks forward to welcoming the Queens County Farm, Added Value and other urban farmers in the near future.)

Read more of the CUE interview with Michael Hurwitz, ahead.

Are you part of GL’s excellent Flickr pool? If not, we hope you’ll consider joining and/or tagging your photos “gowanuslounge.”

[Photo courtesy of threecee/GL Flickr Pool]

Here’s one from the Vanderbilt Rail Yards from Tracey Collins, a stalwart GL Flickr Pool contributor and chronicler of Atlantic Yards, who’s been busy creating an invaluable photographic record of the neighborhood and preparation for the development.

We have called 208 N. 10 Street in Williamsburg (aka 199-211 N. 9 Street) a great many things. From the day the fence went up and demolition started it has been such a nasty threat to public safety that it’s an absolute miracle that no one has been killed or injured in the rubble, test pits or twisted metal and other debris. The fence around this hazard has been open more than it’s been closed. The Department of Buildings has written a few violations on the property, but could have been issuing one a week if an inspector drove by and looked. The reason we keep harping on it is not that it’s the kind of clear and present danger that falling construction cranes represent, but because it’s one of those low-great safety threats and violations of neighborhood quality of life that are the real indictments of the system’s impotence. Someday, a child or challenged adult will be gravely injured or die at one of these poorly maintained, non-policed construction sites, which are all over this part of Williamsburg. We digress, however. We’ll simply conclude by saying that there were sharp, rusty nails sticking up from the wood on the sidewalk and that the site itself is full of dangerous debris. We did notice that the test well–which would have been checking for underground oil and other goodies–have been removed, so perhaps there will be more work on the site soon.

They may be selling $750,000 condos on Fourth Avenue, but it’s still Fourth Ave. This altered movie ad comes from the vicinity of President Street.

Here’s a video posted to the YouTube in a the last few days that shows the aftermath of a foiled robbery. The apparent thief is in the road, surrounded by people holding him there until the cops show up. It’s disturbing on many different levels, if very real, and full of epithets, including racist and homophobic ones, some of them uttered by the person shooting the vid. A version of it was posted on the A Fine Blog via a European website called The Observers. Here’s what they have to say about it:

This video catches the moment after a man who attempted to rob somebody with a razor is caught by several members of the public and restrained until the police arrive. Webusers are applauding the gang for their bravery, but our Observer says that by carrying out a citizen arrest, they were taking a huge risk, in more ways than one.

Since it was posted on Monday, the video, apparently shot in Brooklyn, New York, has attracted plenty of congratulatory comments like “we need more people like those citizens”. But despite being permitted largely worldwide, and in all states but one (North Carolina) in the US, the scenario illustrates the enormous legal and safety risks that come with a citizen arrest, not to mention the primitive behaviour that emerges with self defence, even from the person filming…

We’re not clear on where this took place.

Neil DeMause of the Village Voice offers an insightful look at the final days of Astroland and some thoughts about the future: “What comes next, no one knows. Thor has promised to bring in more amusements next summer, but its track record after a similar promise this year was less than stellar: a few battered county fair rides, which closed up shop for lack of interest by August. Conspiracy theorists — and in Coney, there’s no other kind — fear that Thor’s master plan is to bring in an amusement operator that’s set up to fail, and then appear to the city for a hardship variance from the zoning rules, on the grounds this proves that Coney is only fit for condos.”–Runnin’ Scared

The ostensible headline on today’s New York Times story about Atlantic Yards is that developer Bruce Ratner says he will break ground on the Atlantic Yards project by December. The details in the story, however, are far more interesting. For instance, the lawsuits that would allow that to happen won’t be resolved by then. Then, there’s confirmation that the developer is looking for another $100 million in public subsidy for the project because of rising costs and the credit market. And finally, there’s news that the $400 million Barclay’s naming rights deal has a late November deadline, which could at least force some renegotiation in a very different market than the one in which it was signed. Of course, it’s well known that the tax-exempt status of the huge bond issue to finance the Nets arena will hinge on an IRS decision affecting a number of stadium and arena projects. The bottom line, according to the Times is that “it is unclear whether Mr. Ratner will be able to meet his own deadline to start one of the most ambitious projects in Brooklyn in decades, given the softening economy, the crisis in the debt markets, rising costs and a persistent group of opponents who have filed one lawsuit after another.”

[Photo courtesy of INSIJS]

Today, we turn again to our old weekly Brooklyn food linkage special to include some food-related items that have caught our eyes:

· A Cargo Container-Based Restaurant on N. 6 St. in Burg? [INSIJS]
· Turkish Food for My Little India Space [Brownstoner]
· Red Hook’s Cool Bar Botanica Adding Food [Newyorkology]
· New Ridiculousness at South Brooklyn Pizza [Eater]
· Cortelyou Road Getting a Flower Shop/Bar [Flatbush Vegan]
·
· Greenpoint Coffee House to Eventually Close [New York Shitty]
· My Ten Favorite Dishes in Williamsburg [Williamsburg is Dead]
· New Juice Bar on the Plaza? [Ditmas Park Blog]

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images:

· Brooklyn Primary Election Results [NYDN]
· Surprise: Camera Phones are Fighting Crime [NYT]
· Wandering the New Trader Joe’s Like a Zombie [McBrooklyn]
· Resident Shareholders Meet to Fight Sponsor Control [Brownstoner]
· Five Good Places to Write [Brooklyn Based]
· More Bars on Smith Street = More Swearing [NIMBY Brooklyn]
· On the Issue of Racial Identity [Bed-Stuy Banana]
· Celebs in Ditmas Park [Flatbush Vegan]
· CB7 Hearing Tonight on Land Use and Cabaret Licenses [BVIB]
· Brooklyn Preservation Council Meeting 9/16 [Bay Ridge Journal]
· Here’s Rubinstein and Klein Fine Furniture of Boro Park [Fading Ad Blog]

Remember the Long Island College Hospital Playground on Henry Street that people said was filthy and that had dangerous broken equipment? The one LICH said it would take care of and for which it was said to have gotten replacement parts from Finland? Well, a reader says it’s still broken and LICH says it’s been fixed. Per the GL reader who originally wrote us about the problem during the spring:

I went back this weekend and some of the items were still broken (such as the swings near Henry St.). It seemed cleaner, at least this past weekend, but what is LICH doing? The last report was that the parts were coming in from Europe. Surely, that ship has sailed and arrived many times across the pond, either with or without the requisite parts. If the parts haven’t yet shipped, perhaps they’ll use DHL or FedEx with some of the savings based on the closing of the maternity wards.

We emailed LICH to ask what was up with the playground and got a reply a few minutes ago from VP of Operation Diana Sullivan, who says major progress has been made, including on repairs. Here’s the LICH response:

Please ask your readers to be specific in future, so we can know exactly what the complaint is and then take care of it. Here’s an update of some things we’ve done recently: 1). We lifted all the rubber mats and thoroughly cleaned under them. 2). We received all the requested parts for the equipment which needed repairs and carried out those repairs. 3). The largest issue of the summer, the drain, was cleaned and flushed. I would also ask that you remind your readers that we are still looking for voluntary park “stewards.” These stewards will help keep the parks enjoyable for everyone.

Well, apparently not all the equipment has been fixed, like the swings our reader specifically noted. In any case, to volunteer or to report a specific problem, email LICHParks@chpnet.org. They will respond.

Veteran State Sen. Martin Connor was defeated yesterday by challenger Daniel Squadron who had generated a great deal of buzz on Brooklyn blogs among other places. “In the 25th District state Senate race, Mr. Squadron, 28, defeated Mr. Connor by 54% to 46%, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Squadron will replace Mr. Connor in a district representing parts of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights.”–Sun

It is beginning to look like the city is getting involved in trying to keep Astroland open. Yesterday, an unnamed city official was quoted in the Daily News as saying that the city would like to see the amusement park’s lease extended. Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg seems to have expressed the same sentiment. “It would be a great shame if the amusements, which have been around for so many years and defined Coney Island and this city as much as anything,” he is quoted as saying in an AP story. “It would be a shame if we lost those.” Astroland operator Carol Hill Albert was trying to negotiate a two-year lease with developer Joe Sitt but has said that the developer had refused to negotiate or even talk. Last year, the displeasure of both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff with Mr. Sitt was obvious at a news conference in which the city announced plans to acquire Mr. Sitt’s land in the amusement district and dismissed him as incapable of operating a “world class amusement park.” According to AP, the Mayor said yesterday: “What we’re trying to do is to get Astroland to have another one-year extension of their lease so that we can get the rezoning done and then hopefully come to an agreement with Thor.” Ms. Albert did not respond to AP’s request for a comment. Thor spokesperson Stefan Friedman said no negotiations are underway with either the city or Ms. Albert. The Mayor, on the other hand, said that “there are private developers who have their own economic interests and then there’s the public that has a broader interest, and we’re trying to reconcile property values with what’s in the public interest, and hopefully we will come to an agreement.”

GL Analysis
Last week, we wrote that the city was deeply at fault in the Astroland situation by having done nothing to protect it or the rest of Coney Island while the rezoning process is ongoing and before any redevelopment starts. One can argue about the parameters of the rezoning and whether the city’s approach is appropriate or whether it has already made too many compromises to try to gain Mr. Sitt’s support and that of his political allies. On the other hand, it’s painfully clear the city is on the verge of allowing the premature destruction of the handful of assets that Coney Island does possess by failing to plan for an interim 1-5 year period when development is being planned. It is time for the city to get deeply involved in safeguarding Coney Island’s short-term future. Expressions of sadness that things are closing are not enough. It is time for the city to exercise the leverage it has and engage in some good old fashioned hardball negotiations with Mr. Sitt. The last time we checked, the city still held a good hand when it came to cutting a deal with the developer. If it intends to allow him to build the hotels and “entertainment retail” he deserves, one can only assume that the threat of rendering his property useless for such purposes might prove to be a bit of an incentive. Last November, the Mayor engaged in a great deal of bluster about how the city would get Mr. Sitt to see the light.

Well, it’s time to hit the switch, make the room very bright and tell the developer that, with all due respect, it’s time take off the sunglasses and negotiate in good faith about Coney’s short term future. Or else. Of course, nothing has happened in the last 36 months to inspire faith that will be outcome, but hope should always spring eternal.

All it took to draw attention to the wretched condition of elevators in Brooklyn public housing projects was the death of a little boy. Today, the Daily News reports that Brooklyn’s public housing elevators are some of the city’s worst:

They break down constantly, jam between floors and don’t get fixed for days and even weeks. Others are filled with graffiti and the sour stench of dried-up urine. Beaten-down, broken elevators at public housing developments across Brooklyn are among the worst in the city, found a Daily News survey of 36 projects. The Sumner Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Tilden Houses in Brownsville and Walt Whitman Houses in downtown Brooklyn ranked among the worst in the borough, together chalking up a frightening 1,590 elevator outages in fiscal 2008…A News survey of elevators at public housing complexes throughout Brooklyn found that the Sumner Houses was the worst, with 506 outages and a 13.3-hour delay for repairs – but others were nearly as bad, according to the numbers. The notorious Ingersoll Houses in downtown Brooklyn were nearly as bad as other complexes, with 580 outages chalked up among 53 elevators and repair delays of 17.9 hours.

One couple in their 80s, one of whom has had a stroke, reports taking the elevator in the building next door and walking across the roof to get to their apartment.