We post the photo above to ask a question rather than to offer any answers. The wall in front of the structure at 333 Fifth Avenue, we are told by a special correspondent who pays far greater attention to the local streetscape than we, appeared sometime during the summer. We do know that a building permit was issued on July 10 to “renovate the facade” of the building, although we’re not sure the word “renovate” is appropriate to what one can see in the photo even if it will look nicer with matching paint. Before that in early June, there was an old favorite “Work without a permit,” specifically: “…@FRONT WALL OF PREMISES A CBX MASONRY WALL APPROX. 7′ X12′ WITHOUT A PERMIT. REMEDY: STOP ALL WORK OBTAIN PERMIT OR RETURN TO LEGAL CONDITION.” (It would appear they got the permit.) And, finally, we also know that a complaint was phoned into 311 on August 7: “WORK IS TAKING PLACE ON THE FACADE OF THE ABOVE BUILDING, PIECES OF BRICK AND STONE ARE FALLING OFF OF THE BUILING ONTO THE GROUND, CAUSING A HAZARD TO PEDESTRIANS.” When the inspector came the next day, he says he found no work taking place on the facade and nothing falling.” Still, none of this gives us a clue about why the front of the building at street level has become a huge wall. If you know what’s behind the Great Wall of Fifth Avenue, do let us (politely) know. It’s fascinating as architectural, uh, renovations go.

[Photo courtesy of mikebny/GL Flickr Pool]

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

· Woman Survives Fall Down Brownsville Church Elevator Shaft [NYDN]
· Okay, So There’s Grumbling Over New Stadium Ticket Prices [AYR]
· Slain Couple Left Bizarre Wills [NYDN]
· Dowtown’s Dime Savings Bank Exterior Renovation Done [Brownstoner]
· West Quad Building Gets Glassy [Brooklyn Junction]
· Brooklyn Bridge Park with Films [CityRoom]
· The Best of Crappy Bed-Stuy Buildings [Bed-Stuy Blog]
· Rugby Road Street Lamps [Flatbush Vegan]
· 44th St. Then and Now [BVIB]
· Quid Pro Quo on N. 12 St. in the Burg [New York Shitty]
· Five Ways to Conserve Energy in Brooklyn & Elsewhere [Green Brooklyn]
· Dear Expensive House for Sale: I Love You [Clinton Hill Blog]

[Photo courtesy 66 Square Feet]

These are Easter Lillies growing on the grounds of a Brooklyn Heights church. 66 Square Feet blogger Marie Viljoen, who contributed the photo, explains: “These lilies (Lilium formosanum or Formosa Lilies [native to Taiwan, ex Formosa, blablabla], usually known in the States as Easter lilies) are growing in the grounds of the church on Remsen Street at Henry. They struck me as being lilies with needs, and eager to leave…”

[Photo courtesy meghannmarco/GL Flickr Pool]

This is some of the You Go Girl graffiti that has been popping up here and there around Brooklyn. This sample comes from Downtown.

“what is this? stepford slope! Do you people need to monitor and micromanage even the use of words!!!! What a travesty. ps- Have you seen the fountain? It is beautiful and has made more people smile than anything I have ever seen . I live on its block.—pps — get a life. by the way– Language is flexible, creative and artful. let it be. Long live the real brooklyn.”–Brooklyn Fountain Can Be “Adopted,” But Is It Wrong?

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

This is the Concorde at Floyd Bennett Field, which is now an honorary Brooklynite. It lost its distinctive sharp nose cone in an accident when a truck rammed into it in July. The plane is supposed to be repaired. It normally resides on the Intrepid in Manhattan. No word on when the broken nose will be fixed.

The view from the Brooklyn Weather Observatory this morning includes blue sky, clouds and sun. The forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 78. Tonight will be mostly cloudy with a low of 61.–Accuweather

Uh, we know which way they should go, but these signs at N. 7 and Wythe in Williamsburg might leave a driver or two who was looking at which way the cars are parked scratching his or her head.

This gorgeous sunflower is all the more so because it comes from Banker Street in Greenpoint, which can be a pretty desolate place in terms of flora, but here it is.

[Photo courtesy of Katie Lee Rush/Flickr]

For those that didn’t get a chance to say goodbye at the final JellyNYC show on Sunday or who aren’t going to be at the Sonic Youth show on the 30th (which will be a benefit for the Open Space Alliance), there will be a block party/community event at the pool tonight:

Please join us at McCarren Pool on Tuesday, August 26th for a free community Bloc Party hosted by the L Magazine, for the benefit of OSA. Doors open at 5:30pm with a Taste of Williamsburg, where neighborhood restaurants sell snacks, with all proceeds going to improve our parks through OSA. Participating restaurants include Lodge, Urban Rustic, Lokal, Le Barricou, Fanny’s, Brooklyn Label, Taco Chulo, Roebling Tea Room, Marlow & Sons and many more. Our friends from Greenpoint Wines will also be pouring. At 6pm, free performances by Trashed on Fiction and The King Left. And at dusk, a free screening of the film Rushmore, Wes Anderson’s acclaimed dramedy about a young man with an extended extra-curricular resume.

So many chances to ring out the old.

We bring back our Construction Site Du Jour feature today to handout a Lifetime Achievement Award for Endangering Public Safety to 208 N. 10 Street, which is a huge site between Driggs and Robeling & N. 9 and N. 10 Street in Williamsburg that has provided a rainbow of safety issues over the course of more than a year. In the past, we called the site “a poster child for everything that is wrong with the building monitoring system concerning low-level violations…the lack of solid fencing at construction sites in communities like Williamsburg, which have them on every block, represents a nasty breakdown of the system.” To its credit, the gate has been closed lately. Alas, we found it open again decided it was time to note the dangerous conditions on the site, where work has been mysteriously slow or non-existent almost all year. (Yes, that’s a guy doing God knows what on the property in the picture.) For a long time, there was a water-filled pit on the site that had an oily sheen (the site is across the street from the Roebling Oil property.) And, for months, there have been about a half-dozen test wells on the property that are used to check up on what may be floating around underground. The site originally started out as a very scary demolition before become just a big empty, and often open, lot. One can refresh the memory here and here and here and here. It would be hard to know where to stop.

Oftentimes, we feature bikes that have been stripped down to their essence while chained to a pole or sign. But, there’s nothing in life like multi-tasking, so we’re always fascinated by bikes that are parked and have baskets attached that end up being used as trash receptacles. On the one hand, it’s not cool. On the other, it does speak to the considerate nature of those who chose to dump their crap in the bike’s basket rather than on the street. Maybe a few extra trashcans around here and there wouldn’t hurt. This comes from Union Avenue in Williamsburg near the BQE.

1) Work on the former Cocotte, which is slated to become an Italian restaurant, is well underway (above). The sign that was in the window proclaiming it an Italian place, however, is gone.

2) Slightly up the block, a new wine store will be opening up. Our strong powers of deduction told us this based on the sign (below).

3) Bagel World, which is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifth Street is closed for a couple of weeks for renovations. Again, the information is related by a sign.

4) 200 Fifth, part of which was closed for renovations for a few weeks, has reopened in its entirety. We looked inside and noticed no obvious changes, so perhaps it was kitchen work?

This item, which appeared on the Prospect Heights Forum on Brooklynian, is interesting to us because it’s from someone who got an inexplicably large gas bill from National Grid. Subsequent posters complained of similar problems. We know someone who also got a monster gas bill from National Grid that made no sense for an apartment that only has a gas stove and a hot water heater. Here’s the post:

wtf!?!? so, i’ve been hearing from different friends for a few weeks now about ridiculously high National Grid bills (the first ones after the merger/buyout with Keyspan became in full effect). we just got ours. for $300+ dollars. is anyone else on the boards having this problem? and if so, what is National Grid saying to you about it? one friend of mine was told that her bill had been ‘estimated’ for the past year and that they were just ‘adjusting/catching up’ and that the next bill should be closer to normal. i don’t buy it, though….

We’re curious if others have gotten unusually large bills since the Keyspan takeover. One or two complaints is a fluke. Dozens would seem to indicate a major problem. Our friend’s gas, by the way, was turned off until the monstrous bill was paid.

The “Summer of Hope,” the label attached by Thor Equities to its summer activities in Coney Island, has boiled down to a few inflatable attractions at the corner of the big lot on Stillwell Avenue on which the developer demolished attractions nearly two year ago. Rides were on the property for part of the summer and had been promised for the full season, but were pretty much gone by early August. (Part of the property is being used for school bus parking and as a paid lot for cars.) In any case, we found three rides inflated and one a little less so. That one is above whereas a blown up version is below. We didn’t catch much enthusiasm for them or many kids using them when we passed by.

It’s worth reminding everyone that there’s a meeting coming up about the controversial 360 Smith Street project on Thursday, August 28, given the unfortunate late August timing of the Community Board 6 Land Use Committee hearing. The meeting is being held to consider developer Billy Stein’s application to the obscure, yet powerful, Board of Standards and Appeals for an exemption from a new height restriction created by the recent “narrow streets” Zoning Text Amendment. (It takes place the same night that Democrat Barack Obama will be making his historic acceptance speech in Denver.) In any case, the CORD group, which coalesced around the 360 Smith issue, writes:

The developer of 360 Smith Street (aka 131 2nd Place) has filed an application with the Board of Standards and Appeals for permission to continue to build to the fully proposed 70 ‘ height and bulk. Many Carroll Gardens residents vigorously pursued our newly passed zoning text amendment to specifically prohibit this very type of oversized development. NOW IS THE TIME TO TELL OUR COMMUNITY BOARD, “NO”!

The meeting will take on Thursday, 8/28, at 6PM at PS 32, which is located at 317 Hoyt Street (between Union & President Streets).

For those otherwise occupied, residents are circulating a letter.

“Stealing a scene from a hit movie, two Brooklyn cops used their patrol car to ‘do doughnuts’ in a Bay Ridge park, a woman who witnessed the crazy stunt said Monday. The cigar-chomping officers tore through a baseball field at Shore Road Park in Bay Ridge, spinning the car wildly in circles and almost hitting a pair of kids on tricycles, said January Hagan, 31. ‘I was shocked – it was startling,’ Hagan said. ‘The police car came within inches of killing two little children.'” A witness who reported the cops doing donuts said the 68th Precinct wasn’t interested in dealing with it.–NYDN

So, is Monte’s Venetian Room on Carroll Street in Gowanus closed for renovations? Well, it is. If you look at the front door. A special GL Correspondent reveals, however, that there is more to it that than, particularly if one approaches from a different direction:

On the face of it, Monte’s Venetian Room is telling customers it’s closed until Tuesday because of renovations. On the side door to the restaurant, however, a notice says the institution, which claims to be the oldest Italian restaurant in the city, was shuttered for “operating without a license.” We like the positive spin Monte’s has put on the situation.

Renovations. Lack of license. Same difference, right?

This is 53 Java Street. Followers of architect Robert Scarano might recall the odd bit of drama last September when a truck back into a neighboring house and did a bit of damage to it while apparently working in violation of a Stop Work Order. Back then we had the following report:

…As the fine chaps at 53 Java Street were violating a stop work order today (pouring cement), the truck turned overturned and bruised up the front right-hand corner of its neighbor, 51 Java Street. As of 6:42 this evening they were still busy extracting it. Per the owner of 51 Java (who I spoke to this evening), this is the second time they have hit his property. This time he fears there might be structural damage.

Well, bygones would appear to be bygones. (Except for a complaint and a short lived Stop Work Order back in June.) We found 53 Java well on its way and 51 Java with some major exterior improvements including new siding and a new door.

After much urging, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is going to test some site along Newtwon Creek to see if they should be included in the Superfund program. The designation would theoretically speed some clean-ups along the creek which is both the site of the Exxon-Mobil Oil Spill and has a number of terribly polluted properties, such as the former site of a Phelps Dodge copper smelting plant. “If the tests turn up a significant level of chemicals and other hazardous waste, the site could be eligible for millions of dollars in federal assistance. A Superfund designation would also allow the agency to go after the companies responsible for the contamination.”–NYT

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

· More on the Coney Island Craigslist Hookup Slaying [NYP]
· Slope Grandfather of 12 Hit and Killed on Fourth Ave. [NYDN]
· Meet the Animal Rescuer Behind SNIP [NYP]
· Markowitz Backs Changes to Term Limits [CityLimits]
· LPC Postponing Riverside Apartments Decision [Brownstoner]
· Green Church Bulletin [Bay Ridge Journal]
· Summer is Coming to a Close [Best View in Brooklyn]
· A Grand Entrance to Prospect Park [A Year in the Park]
· Coney Walking Tour on September 7 [Kinetic Carnival]
· I Don’t Exactly Get the David Byrne Bike Racks Either [Brooklyn 11211]
· Looking Into the Third Street Magic Touch Mystery [Lost City]
· A Mysterious Botanica [Bed-Stuy Banana]

[Photo courtesy of Lost in Brooklyn/Flickr]

The annual reenactment of the Battle of Brooklyn took place at Green-Wood Cemetery this weekend, as part of a series of events commemorating that bloody bit of local history. (In case you missed it, yesterday, Ruth Edebohls from CUE posted a fascinating item about the location of a burial ground in Park Slope and Gowanus where more than 250 American soldiers might be buried.) There’s a full set of pics from the Green-Wood Cemetery reenactment that can be found here. Aaron Brashear, who posted the photos, wrote in an email: “A beautiful day in Green-Wood yesterday. Perfect for their Battle of Brooklyn Commemoration. While we missed the cannon squad, the reanactors were great, wonderful turn out from visitors and the press and another great event in Green-Wood…and remember the Battle which actually took place August 27, 1776!”

“…apparently there is a new kid working in the Shoot the Freak pit called the ‘zone’ dodging paint balls. At one point when a customer had finished playing and put his gun down – the customer’s child grabbed the gun and shot the unsuspecting kid working as the ‘freak’ and nailed him in the eye and was rushed to Coney Island Hospital. No word yet on his condition.”–Kinetic Carnival

[Photo courtesy of Erinmelina/GL Flickr Pool]

Here’s another cool pic of Sheepshead Bay around dusk placed in our GL Flickr Pool by Erinmelina. Fishing boat, orange clouds and water, a perfect Southern Brooklyn scene. The boat sails at 7AM.

A reader reports: “I’m having dinner this evening al fresco at Tutt Café, and there’s a huge cat crossing the street. But it’s not a cat, it’s clearly a raccoon walking on the west side of Hicks Street, crossing Middagh and heading downhill towards Poplar. I got a good look at it. Stripe across the eyes, stripes on the tail, walking like a raccoon.” A number of Brooklyn raccoon vids are posted too.–Brooklyn Heights Blog