Another Brooklyn Food Miracle: Whole Foods to Open in Dumbo

A little while ago, Curbed reported (well, Gowanus Lounge wearing our Curbed mask) that Whole Foods is planning to open a big store in Dumbo. Still our hearts! You can almost envision a time, a few long years from now, when the formerly desperate Brooklynite stands by the fridge wondering if he or she should go to the Dumbo Whole Foods or the one in Gowanus or to the Fairway in Red Hook or to (who knows) the Trader Joe's in Williamsburg.

What we know is this: An inside source at the big food retailer let slip that a Dumbo store is in the works. We don't know an opening date or a location, but process of elimination on the latter leads us to cast an eye in the direction of 20 Jay Street. That is the 40,000 square foot space formerly occupied by ABC Carpet Warehouse. (Another potential space, the Empire Stores, the wonderful Civil War era warehouse is supposed to be a Leviev Boymelgreen retail complex. Unless the J Condo has a vast interior retail space.)

Whole Foods' interest in Dumbo isn't new. The retailer is said to have been looking at the nabe for years, but had previously dismissed the idea because Dumbo was too remote and presented logistical issues. (Not that any of the logistical issue--truck access, parking--will be much easier now.)

Who knows? It could be that Whole Foods is feeling the heat from the new Fairway in Red Hook (remote, but has parking) or that someone counted how big a captive audience will soon exist in Dumbo and Vinegar Hill as big new residential buildings open.

In any case, a Dumbo store would be the second Brooklyn location for Whole Foods, which is also waiting for the toxic muck and ooze to be removed from their site in Gowanus. (Sometime in 2008 or thereabout.) The Dumbo Whole Foods was mentioned in the context of "several" new stores in Brooklyn, so others might also be in the mix. GL's money is on a significant Williamsburg outpost too in a few years, given that all those waterfront towers starting to rise will include hundreds of thousands of square feet of space for retail.

Food shopping! We're going to have more food shopping in Brooklyn.

Park Slope Mommy Rage Hops the Pond to the UK

Don't look now, but the Cult of Momma Bean, the raging Park Slope mommy who tossed a can of beans and cracked the back windshield of a car that turned in front of her, is making news across the Atlantic in the UK. So, now, a whole lot of people who've never heard of the hills above Gowanus know that the territory is inhabited by some very angry moms. (We would expect that this weekend's story about the 12-year-old Prospect Park mommy and stroller baby muggers will also make their way to Europe as an emblematic urban tale.) The UK story, which appeared in the Sunday Times, headlined "Angry Moms Tell the World," calls our Bean Tossing Mommy "an unlikely new superhero."

Here goes:

An unlikely new superhero is stalking the streets of New York. She does not wear a costume, unless you count the pushchair she wheels from the supermarket to her Brooklyn home. And although she possesses no superhuman powers, she is deadly accurate with her weapon of choice — a tin of beans from her grocery bag.

The mothers of New York were last week agog at the reported exploits of a housewife who succumbed to a bout of “mommy rage”, an incendiary moment when the pains and pressures of motherhood erupt in a torrent of grief, frustration and flying tins of beans.

According to witness accounts that have ignited an internet frenzy this month, the Brooklyn mother in question was wheeling her toddler across a road in the trendy Park Slope neighbourhood when a car shot past her, narrowly missing the pushchair as it braked for traffic lights at the end of the road.

The mother reached into her bag and hurled a tin of beans at the car. When it missed, she threw another, and earned cheers and applause from passers-by when it struck the car’s back window, causing a thick crack.

The incident has sparked angry exchanges on the internet, with many mothers rallying to the bean-thrower’s cause in a discussion entitled “Park Slope Pedestrian Mommy Rage”.

Reaction also surfaced on a website that is attracting international attention for its insights into the lives of mothers who feel trapped by their husbands, their children and their working or stay-at-home lives. There is a lot of mommy rage at UrbanBaby.com....

The story goes on to deal with the subject of mommy rage in general and also deals with the Stay at Home Mom (SAHM) issue.

Glad to know Brooklyn bloggers are having an impact on our cousins across the way.

Happy 70th Birthday McCarren Pool

Today is the 70th anniversary of the dedication of McCarren Pool on July 31, 1936. McCarren Pool, which ceased operating as a pool in 1984, was the eighth of eleven giant pools built by Robert Moses and the Works Progress Administration that opened during the summer of 1936, which in and of itself is hard to imagine after generations of public disinvestment in amenities like parks and public swimming pools.

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia cut the ribbon at McCarren pool on July 31, saying "no pool anywhere has been as much appreciated as this one." It was built to handle 6,800 swimmers--by 1930s standards, in any case--and cost $1 million to build. The Mayor and Moses opened one city pool a week during the summer of 1936, an interesting factoid in and of itself, given that it would never happen today without a major corporation footing the bill, because city and state government don't invest in facilities like these--or in parks, for that matter, unless they have a "funding mechanism"-- anymore.)

The Parks Department website says "the pool served as the summertime social hub for Greenpoint and Williamsburg" and that "the building's vast scale and dramatic arches, designed by Aymar Embury II, typify the generous and heroic spirit of New Deal architecture."

The sad fate of McCarren pool--all the years of abandonment and rot--are another matter. A 2003 article in Free Williamsburg provides a look at the hows and whys of McCarren Pool's closure in the first place:

In 1979, the city approved $100 million to restore the entire network of pools (many of which had fallen into a state of disrepair and neglect due to the fiscal crisis of the 70's that had forced major cutbacks in upkeep and security) so they would all be ready for the 50th anniversary celebration in 1986.

The pool was closed in 1983 to begin repairs and then the community said no. A blockade of residents protested fixing the pool up, citing the petty crime and undesirables it attracted. (I was sitting in The Charleston one afternoon at happy hour last year, talking to a long-time resident who was near me at the bar. The pool came up in conversation and he claimed [proudly] he was part of the effort to close it down back then "one way or the other, to keep the coloreds out." Officials and other people I talked with for the article admitted times were different back then.)

Enter politics. A task force was set up to determine how to overcome the community divide. A recommendation was issued to shrink the size of the pool and demolish the bathhouses that issued out of the sides of the arch.

"That was a stupid idea. The archway and the bathhouses are world-renowned pieces of architecture. The highness of the arch to the long, low-slung bathhouses creates a unique silhouette. Besides, it was illegal to tear it down if there were no plans for its future," explained Phyllis Yampolsky, head of the McCarren Park Conservancy, a private advocacy group.

There were no plans for its future. The demolition was put on hold, and Yampolsky began her fight to restore the arch and renovate the property. Community Board 1 had other ideas, and division ruled again.

Of the subsequent decay, Francis Morrone wrote that it was New York's "most poignant ruin" and "a monument to shame." The pool was finally revived last year and is hosting a full summer of programming this year, some of it not without controversy.

While McCarren Pool escaped the wrecking ball and being filled in, it's fate is still in the balance. Returning it to use as a pool will cost tens of millions of dollars, money the Parks Department insists it doesn't have. Unless, of course, a corporate angel wants to step up and return one of the grandest of the New Deal era NYC swimming pools to public use as a pool for Brooklynites.

Brooklinks: Monday Hey, It's a New Week Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog entries and images, like the one above, of tourists stalking the sunset at the Fulton Ferry Landing.

• Brooklyn is a Destination for Tourists [AP/Newsday]
• Heat is on Con Ed [NYPost]
• Sunset Park Street Eats [NYDN]
• Best Pizza Contender: DiFara's [A Brooklyn Life]
• Fire Causes Problems at Astroland in Coney [NYT]
• Yassky Un-Endorsement: Extortion Coverup? [NYPost]
• How Big "Miss Bklyn"? Look Across the River [AYR]
• City Comptroller Thompson Backs Atlantic Yards [No Land Grab]
• Luxe Housing Rising in East New York [NYPost]
• Clinton Hill Hooker Hotel to Return as Legit Hotel [NYDN]
• New Brooklyn anti-AIDS Campaign [NYDN]

Weird Visions of Red Hook's Future

Red Hook is being "reinvented" by Yale School of Architecture students, and all we can say is, well, they are only conceptual drawings. Very, very conceptual. So, we present them for those that enjoy flights of fancy, a few of which are pictured above. Otherwise, here's a little sampling of the vision:

A naturalistic recreation park with camping, an animal preserve, a golf course, a grand canal, water sports and fishing, to selling off park space and promoting large-scale private development. One radical view unveils a "CarPark" that provides Red Hook with some additional 31,021 parking spaces and doubles as a large regional public park. Perhaps less radical, another project contemplates an "Historic Red Hook", side-by-side with a "Street Car Suburb", public housing, beach, entertainment and a farm. And what about those big box stores? Controversy is not avoided here. One model advocates that big box stores and the like should be not be resisted but viewed as assets with the aim of dispersing them throughout Red Hook as "smart growth."

"Controversy is not avoided here?" Really? As if a student suggesting parking for 31,021 cars will be embraced warmly? Or a golf course? What's a Wal-Mart compared to those? Thank God these are only conceptual drawings and plans prepared by grad students.

Should you wish to sample the drawings and models for yourself, you can catch them at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist's Coalition Summer Show at the Beard Street Pier. On your way over, you could always stop at the Red Hook soccer fields for some papusas, assuming no one's turned them into a parking lot.

Bloc Party Rules at McCarren Pool, but the Big Concerts Bite

A couple of songs into Bloc Party's set at McCarren Pool on Saturday night lead singer Kele Okereke looked around the vastness of the pool-turned-concert venue and proclaimed, "So, I guess this is a pool party."

Not quite.

The "pool parties," those would be the community-spirited free events on Sunday afternoons. The Bloc Party concert, well, that would be the corporate-produced concert that a faction within the community bitterly opposes.

In any case, Okereke could be forgiven for not knowing anything about the history of the cool space in which the band was playing, except that he was clearly amused to be playing a former swimming pool.

Bloc Party was wonderful, tearing through a set built around their debut album, that also included some new material from their forthcoming release. (Check out some flickr photos here.) The real issue with the show, however, was the way in which it underscored what an inappropriate venue McCarren Pool is for big-ticket concerts. Five thousand tickets were sold for Saturday night's show and while McCarren can hold that many people, it's way too big a crowd for a general admission show with minimal security--with the wrong band and the wrong crowd it's a recipe for serious nastiness, in fact. (By the way, we're not advocating for meddlesome event security, just making a point about 5,000 people in a general admission setting.) Second, there's the assault on quality of life in the surrounding community--5,000 people coming into the neighborhod and a sound system loud enough to be heard a quarter mile away. GL has always loved our outdoor summer shows, but we also recognize that they do have an impact on those around them who might not want to spend the night, say, feeling their apartment thump to Bloc Party or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

(Here's our guess: We can huff and we can puff but what will blow the house down is that there's a wall of million dollar condos going up along McCarren Park that are close enough to vibrate from the bass riffs at live shows at the pool. Ironically, there's a story in today's NY Times about all the people buying McCarren Park condos. We suspect McCarren Pool's life as a mega-concert venue will be short lived, no matter how many skids corporate promoters manage to grease and how much the Parks Department wants to shrug and say it's broke when the subject of turning the pool back into a pool comes up. Oh, and are the buyers really that dumb and oblivious?)

Of course, the other unsavory part to all of this is that the Parks Department has turned over a revenue generating machine like McCarren Pool to a private operator without trying to recapture any of the money for the pool itself. Live Nation, which is producing six shows, stands to gross more than $1 million (not counting service fees) from these shows. (Even after expenses, they're going to make a significant profit from a public space.) Vendors like the Brooklyn Brewery stand to make tens of thousands more getting concert goers drunk. Is there a McCarren Park Trust to recapture some of this money for taxpayers? No. Profits from shows and sales at this public facility are going to line private pockets.

Brooklinks: Sunday Very Hot Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related articles, blog entries and images. The photo above was taken on February 12, when it wasn't quite so hot as it is now.

Not Brooklyn, but Worthwhile Reading:

• A Rough Week for Preservationists [Gothamist]
• Into Our Town the NYPD Came [Streets Blog]
• 90 Years Ago, NY Harbor Blew Up [NYDN]
  

Brooklyn:

• Welcome to Luxury Condoville (aka Greenpoint/Williamsburg) [NYT]
• Honey, I Blew Up the Cond Market [justiNYC]
• $1M for Al Capone's House on Garfield Place [NYT]
• Red Hook Jumps on Outdoor Movie Train [A Brooklyn Life]
• Batwatching III [Dope on the Slope]
• Selling Shortcakes in the Rain in Coney [Coney Island Shortcakes]
  
• The Little Green Building that Could [Across the Park]

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour Part Deux: No Parking with Blue, Gray & Yellow

Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Yellow Building on Kent

Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Video for a Blazing Summer Day: Sledding in Prospect Park During '06 Blizzard

It's hot, so keeping with our theme of cool images today, heres a video that recalls winter, specifically sledding in Prospect Park. Click on the video below or on this link.

12-Year-Olds Rob Stroller Mom in Prospect Park

Just when we had almost forgotten about the "teen wolfpacks" menacing people in and around Prospect Park, we check out today's Post and find that two 12-year-old boys mugged a jogging Park Slope mom pushing a stroller in broad daylight yesterday. (Hold the jogging stroller wisecracks for a minute.) Yes, this sort of nasty stuff is part of Life in the Big City, but some things cross the line. This is one of the incidents that does.

Let's start with the age of criminals: twelve. Then, consider the victim: a mom with a baby. And, finally, the time of day: around 1:00 with other people around.

All Gowanus Lounge can say is: Wow. There's never a bean tossing Park Slope Psycho Mom around when you need her.

We understand that statistically robbery is down in the 78th Precinct, and that iPods attract every idiot under the sun that wants to take something. However, we also understand that Prospect Park and environs remains a magnet for groups of young people, some of whom are clearly up to no good. We see them, especially after dark. We also have a very strong sense that--other than a couple of week after the initial press about the "wolf packs" when you could see more cops along Prospect Park West--there are no more police than usual around. Let's put it this way, if there's a "task force" out there, they are so low-key and invisible that you don't know they are there.

We're thinking this will be one of those little stories that has some legs, both because of the nature of the victim(s) and the age of the criminals. Maybe it's time to revive a suggestion from the time of the wolf packs: Roving gangs of real estate agents (call them the "Property Value Guardian Angels") out looking for Park Slope Tween Criminals, because moms with infants getting mugged easily trim 10-20 percent from an asking price. You'll be able to spot candidates for the PVGA easily--they'll be the ones going from newsstand to newsstand today buying up all the copies of the Post.

Brooklinks: Saturday Sights and Sounds (with Chill) Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog entries and images. (The photo above, as you swelter today, was taken on February 12. Remember?):

Interesting Brooklyn Video/Sonic Action:

• ABL: Radio-Funky Junky-Mixed by DJ Jason Schell [A Brooklyn Life]
• Maspeth Gas Holders Imploded in Greenpoint (circa 2001) [You Tube]
• Canarsie Sunset [You Tube]
• Dancing in Coney Island [You Tube]

Cool Brooklyn Still Image Action:

• Vermin are Back! [onNYTurf]
• Old Man and Lost Shoe on Havemeyer [bluejake]
• Sunset Park [Joe's NYC]
• Accordian [Lex's Folly]
• 17th Street in the Slope, Looking West [e-liz/flickr]
• Gowanus [Lex's Folly]

Worthy Brooklyn Verbal Action:

• Twelve-Year-Olds Rob Stroller Mom in Prospect Park [NYPost]
• Canarsie: Home by the Sea [Brooklyn Record]
• Biggest Bklyn Gripes: Parking, "Idle Youth," and Trash [P. Slope Courier]
• City Views from on High [NYTimes]
• Times Lauds View from Sunset Park [Sunset Parker]

Gowanus Lounge Saturday Curbed Wrap Up

We spend a fair of time each week churning out items for Curbed, most of which don't appear here. So, if you're curious and haven't seen them, here's a sampling from this week.

McCarren Pool Update: No Swim, Only Noise
Coney Island Update: More Luxe Housing, More Heat
Meet the New Williamsburg Waterfront
Collateral South Slope Damage
Peevish Williamsburg Graffiti #2
Peevish Wiilamsburg Graffiti #1
Before Ikea: Bricks and Rubble

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour Part Deux: Googly Call Box

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: The End

Remains of Todd Shipyard Buildings, Red Hook, Brooklyn

Spitzer to Empire State Development Corp.: Hold on a Minute

Democratic Gubernatorial frontrunner and state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who has avoided the subject of Atlantic Yards like a truck full of toxic waste for most of the campaign, has come down on the side of project opponents on at least one front: he wants more time for public comment and hearings. Norman Oder reported this afternoon in his Atlantic Yards Report that Spitzer has sent a letter to Empire State Development Corp. Chair Charles Gargano asking that the public hearing scheduled for August 23 be delayed for at least 30 days. That would allow 90 days for community organizations and others to digest the 1,400 page Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement. A wide variety of local officials have also requested a delay.

AYR quotes the letter as saying:

While I strongly support development at the Atlantic Yards site, I believe it is vital that there be adequate opportunity for public review of this project. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was released on July 18, 2006, is approximately 1400 pages long and deserves the careful review that is essential for a project of this magnitude. In addition, the three community boards that represent the immediate neighborhood of the project are in recess until September. For these reasons, I believe it is appropriate that the public hearing associated with the DEIS, that is now scheduled for August 23, 2006, be postponed for at least 30 days, leaving a total of not less than 90 days for review.

A cynical analyst might say that it is calculated move on Spitzer's part to throw a bone to the South Brooklyn voters that are against Atlantic Yards in its current form, without taking any stand on the project itself. (It is after all hard to ignore forever a major public project driven by state government when you're running for governor.) From Spitzer's point of view there is no political cost in asking for another 30 days of public comment and for a public hearing after summer vacation is over.

The less cynical observer might conclude that he's genuinely offended by the rush job of the hearings and the image problem created by scheduling a major hearing when all the concerned community boards are not in session. Whatever the motivation, the fact is that Brooklynites and Community Boards desperately need as much time as possible to honesty assess Atlantic Yards' impact, and the community needs a healthy debate, both pro and con.

It doesn't take a political or planning genius to understand why Mr. Gargano and Company are so anxious to take a page from the playbook of the man they should make their Patron Saint--recently departed Newark Mayor Sharpe James--and get Atlantic Yards done ASAP. Mr. James, who was one of the more wiley public officials to hold local office in recent decades, worked hard to ensure that his downtown sports arena for the New Jersey Devils was rising from the ground before he even thought about leaving office. As long as construction crews aren't digging holes, pouring foundation and covering up the rail yards on the day Gov. Pataki leaves office, there's always the chance that the deal could come undone. If the Governor had attended to World Trade Center redevelopment with the same sense of urgency and can-do spirit, we'd be looking at more than a hole in the ground today.

Public debate can upset even the best laid plans. It can slow things down and introduce uncertainty. It can allow for the airing of uncomfortable questions, and give a public forum to those with other ideas.

Mr. Gargano's inner Robert Moses must have grimmaced when Mr. Spitzer's letter arrived.

The War for Brooklyn: A User's Guide

This week's Time Out New York has a cover story near and dear to our hearts. Titled "The War for Brooklyn," the package of stories takes a close look at the fight over the futures of several neighborhoods and at several projects: Brooklyn Bridge Park, Gowanus, Downtown, Bed-Stuy, the Williamsburg-Greenpoint Waterfront, Red Hook and, of course, Atlantic Yards. (The links will take you to the individual sections without having to login.)

There's also an accompanying item about "The Embeds," some of the blogs and bloggers covering the various fights over the borough's future. Specifically "intrepid bloggers" that "send continual dispatches from the front lines." (We covered the war in the Balkans for a short spell, long before anyone coined the phrase embeds. Brooklyn's a way more low-key gig. We haven't been shot at yet, only asked to stop taking photos.) Gowanus Lounge is one of the Brooklyn embeds mentioned as are B61 Productions, the Brooklyn Record, Brownstoner, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn, Planet PLG and Set Speed. (There are some embeds doing excellent work that were missed: Atlantic Yards Report, No Land Grab, Dope on the Slope and Sunset Parker to name a few--and we know we're leaving some good ones out too. That's the problem with our little Brooklyn Blogade--we're already pretty large in number.)

Of GL, Time Out says: "A smart, open-minded and far-ranging blog, equally comfortable with old-school pleasures like the Dance of the Giglio and analysis of development and gentrification issues." Shucks.

The War for Brooklyn is a great package about a whole lot of the issues and places that collectively speak to the future of Brooklyn.

Before the Storm: Huge Crowd Watches Glass, Kronos & Dracula

Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet were brilliant last night at Celebrate Brooklyn, performing their original score for Dracula as a huge audience shifted its focus back and forth from the legendary musicians to Bela Lugosi on the screen. Brilliant, that is, until a raging thunderstorm loomed and cut the performance short about 25 minutes into the show, just as Dracula and Renfield were arriving in London. The lights went up, and Kronos and Glass took a bow to very loud applause. At that point, thousands of people made for the exits as lightening bolts snaked impressively from the sky. Gowanus Lounge personally witnessed one of the most impressive bolts of lightening ever hit somewhere near Eighth Avenue and Eighth Street, a block away. Which is when the downpour began.

All fitting, somehow, for a performance of Dracula, a lot less so for the superb musical performance that was cut short. Perhaps, another time.

Red Hook Soccer Field Weekend Food Fiesta, Part II

All of the restaurants that set up shop at the Red Hook soccer fields have gotten an avalanche of good press in the last couple of weeks. The spot was even named in New York's "Best Cheap Eats" roundup and ranked Number 9 on a list of 101 with four stars.

This is New York's take:

Nowhere else in the city will you find food as cheap and delicious and in such titillating profusion as at this glorious outdoor feedlot. The portable kitchens that materialize around the soccer and baseball fields weekends from late spring through early fall, marked by their blue tarps and billowing plumes of charcoal smoke, all purvey food from Central and South America at the average going rate of $2.50 a plate. There are tacos galore, and great greasy quesadillas. There is seviche from Ecuador and pupusas from El Salvador. Factor in the cost relative to the remarkable quality and freshness of the food, and the makeshift market—a triumph of ingenuity and flavor over remote locale and vending-permits red tape—easily achieves four-star status.

The outdoor restaurants are located on Bay Street, between Clinton and Court, by the soccer fields. They offer one of the most different dining experiences in all of New York City and you should make it part of any weekend trip to The Hook. Our purpose here, though, was to share some of the cool colors we captured.

Brooklinks: All Hail Friday Edition

Number One Recommended Blog Read of the Day:

• 72nd Precinct Cops Harassing Sunset Park Residents and Businesses [Sunset Parker]

Other Quite Valuable News:

• Mayor Marty Markowitz? [Brooklyn Papers]
• Atlantic Yards to be Surrounded by Ocean of Temporary Parking [AYR]
• South Brooklyn Hotel Boom [Brooklyn Papers]
• G Train is Gross [Metro]
• Soccer Club Punished for Fixing Park [Brooklyn Record]
• Campaign Against Bicyclists on Bklyn Bridge [Bay Ridge Conservative via Sunset Parker]
• It Came from the Blogosphere [No Land Grab]
• Den Mother Moi [OTBKB]

Fun Friday Time Waster: F Train, A Five Boro Film

In our constant trawling for material, we came across this video posted this week, called "F Train, A Five Boro Film (Anime Version)." Check it out. Where else can you see a kung fu vid set on the F Train with Eno doing Baby's on Fire in the background? Click the vid below or on the link here.

A Little Williamsburg Before and After Action

Gowanus Lounge always makes a point of wandering down Kent Avenue in Williamsburg to see how things are going in the total makeover the waterfront is starting to get. One point of interest is the new East River State Park, slated to open soon. In any case, the "before" shot was taken on July 3 of a street art mural that had been on the wall forever. The "after" shot was taken on July 23, after workers had been through painting all the walls. There's already one new stencil on the painted wall, and we have full faith that Williamsburg's graffiti and street art crew will soon fire the next shots.

Brooklyn Double Speak of the Week: "Friendly Condemnation"

Can someone who speaks English, rather than Double Speak, please tell us this: What in the name of God is a "friendly condemnation"? Is it like "friendly fire," which even though it's a big, bad boo-boo, still leaves the recipient as dead as he who is on the recieving end of old-fashioned unfriendly fire? Or is it like what your significant other does when he or she is breaking up with you but still wants to be friends, berating you terribly--but in a very nice way--so that after 12 or so months of weekly therapy sessions you can still be friends?

We imagine a "friendly condemnation" goes something like, "You know, I really hate to do this...I can't tell you how sorry I am that this team of heavily armed officers here is going to have to arrest you, but, they're making me take everything you own. Sorry. Can we still be friends?"

Among all the things that Atlantic Yards has given us recently--a 60-story building called Miss Brooklyn, public hearings scheduled at the height of summer vacation season, development company officials wisecracking that they worked with their architect to produce a shadow-free skyscraper, a PR spin that insists on calling the mega-development an arena project, a non-impact environmental impact that will result in more, but less, sewerage at the same time--one of our favorites is the concept of "friendly condemnation." Call us nuts, but all we can see is a figure wearing a Happy Face bubble head, carrying an AK-47. Being friendly and homicidal at the same time.

For a serious analysis of "friendly condemnation," of course, see Atlantic Yards Report, where Norman Oder holds forth on this curious phenomenon, deconstructing it as only he can.

Us, we prefer to rant and be less scientific.

The friendly situation, as we understand it, is this: The Empire State Development Corporation would acquire nearly all the property in the Atlantic Yards site via eminent domain, including city streets and the 90 percent owned by Forest City Ratner. It's apparently standard practice, but it is also the pre-requisite for some quite unfriendly activity such as evicting tenants living in rent-stablized apartments and avoiding protracted bureaucratic and legal requirements. It is likely also part of the legal strategy to try to get a positive ruling on very unfriendly eminent domain condemnations of property owned by people that don't want to sell.

How you feel about all this depends not only on your view of Atlantic Yards, but how you feel about the government's power to come in and take your property if it decides that a higher purpose is served.

While Forest City Ratner owns the majority of property in the Atlantic Yards footprint, there are a significant number of properties that it doesn't own and whose owners aren't inclined to sell. They're the ones that are going to get a visit from very unfriendly (ie. hostile, inhospitable, antagonistic and, perhaps, even surly or poopyhead-like) government takers of property. (There will be many Eyewitness News Moments the day this unfriendly activity occurs.) Those who might face the Churlish and Unhappy Face of Atlantic Yards could include owners of four rental buildings, 13 commercial buildings and five individual owner-occupied units. They will also include the dozens of tenants living in units that will be taken by ESDC while wearing its Happy Face. (Can you say, "You're evicted!" in a friendly tone of voice? Maybe, "You're evicted, please, if you'd be so kind as to get out." Perhaps, it would help to have people speaking upper class British accents do the evicting? It would sound more...friendly.)

Anyway you cut it, there will be a whole lot of good, old fashioned unfriendly condemnation going on if the project goes forward, and some of these takings of property will become the subject of the litigation that could ultimately determine the project's fate. Daniel Goldstein, who is the most outspoken of the Atlantic Yards opponents whose property would be taken in a most unfriendly way, is deeply convinced that the eminent domain will be the soft underbelly that kills the project.

That litigation will begin the moment ESDC stops trying to pretend to be Mr. Rogers and saying, "Oh, won't you be my neighbor," and the unfriendliness starts.

Gowanus Eco Cruise on Saturday in a "Human Powered Boat"

Yes, it's supposed to be hot as hell on Saturday, but how many chances do you to get out on the Gowanus Canal, especially if you don't want to do the South Brooklyn Seine via canoe or kayak? The latest opportunity comes courtesy of the Urban Divers on Saturday (7/29) from 1PM to 3PM. The boat leaves from the foot of Second Street on the Big G. The Divers say:

Experience a unique educational & adventure eco-cruise with the entire family, friends, neighbors and visitors, aboard our 32ft human powered vessel; a type of shipping canoe widely used by local Native Americans, as well by other river farers and coastal traders of the 17th century, who thrived on the natural resources of the once vital estuary during a time when Oysters from the Gowan Creek estuarine waterway that flows in the neighborhood. The tours are guided by our experienced and enthusiastic environmental educators & environmental justice advocates, who engage participants in fun and hands-on environmental investigation & discovery activities to assess environmental quality as well as to investigate the current cost and effect of human impact. The vessel will accommodate 20 paddlers at a time...Plus a Raffle of 6 copies of the latest award winning documentary- "Coming Clean- Reclaiming the Gowanus Canal".

Well, it's sort of a canoe, but a very big one. You have to register in advance and there is a charge for the cruise. Call 718-802-9874 to get out on the Big G on Saturday.

Brooklinks: Thursday "Got Food?" Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images.

Brooklyn Food and Booze:
Yassky on Black and White (Cookies) [Edible Brooklyn via Brooklyn Record]
New Fort Greene Booze Spots [setspeed]
Trout is Pleasant [A Brooklyn Life]
The Dope on Chickory Brooklyn [NYT]
Bocce and Beercheese at Union Hall [NYPress]
New Restaurant Alert: Bocca Lupo [A Brooklyn Life]
Mighty Good Gumbo [Dope on the Slope]
Is Bay Ridge's Tanoreen Really Brooklyn's Best? [Brooklyn Record]
Strawberry Shortcake Customers Vid [Coney Island Shortcakes]

Nothing to Do with Either Eating or Drinking:
HOMEPLATE, UFUKD and Sweetheart Deals [Dope on the Slope]
Miss Brooklyn: Three X's the Square Footage of Williamsburgh Bank Bldg [AYR]
Brooklynites Ticked About Timing of Aug. 23 Atlantic Yards Hearing [NYPost]
Coney Island Real Estate Boom [NYPost]
Vacating the Construction-Damaged South Slope Building [IMBY]
Colored Lighting on Brooklyn Bridge? [Brooklyn Record]
Kiteboarding in Brooklyn [Sail Brooklyn]
Collateral South Slope Damage [Curbed]

The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal AKA "The Edge"

The striking photograph above comes courtesy of a new blog called imnotsayin imjustsayin produced by Williamsburg resident James Striebich, who has a keen eye for and interest in the waterfront along Kent Avenue. The photo is of the ruins of the former Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, which is set to become Douglaston Development's "The Edge," a pair of 40-story luxury residential towers made possible by last year's waterfront rezoning. (Construction crews are onsite starting basic foundation work as we speak, Jim reports in an email.) We'll let imjustsayin relate some of the history of the Eastern District Terminal--some of the railbeds of which are still visible:

The BEDT was originated in 1875 as the East River Terminal by the Havemeyer & Elder Sugar Co. (later Domino Sugar) as a railyard that accepted freight cars delivered by float barges from terminals in New Jersey (remember, this predates all East River bridge and tunnel connections). The sugar refining, as well as hundreds of other manufacturing businesses in and around Williamsburg and Greenpoint - not to mention the Brooklyn Navy Yard - needed an efficient way to receive raw materials and ship out finished goods. With the bulk of domestic freight being moved by train in those days, there was a natural efficiency in moving loaded railcars by barge, rather than unloading them onto ships and standard freight barges.

The East River waterfront from North 3rd (including the recently landmarked, then un-landmarked Austin Nichols Warehouse) to North 10th was a bustling railyard from 1875 until August, 1983, when the decades-long decline in rail transportation (due primarily to the boom in interstate trucking) finally led the BEDT to cease operations.

We look forward to many illuminating and informative posts, knowing from the photos and information that James has shared with us for GL and Curbed that his blog will be required reading. You can see the flickr photoset of his waterfront photos here.

New York's Best Cheap Eats: The Brooklyn Edition

New York has published it's always-fun "cheap eats" story, so Gowanus Lounge is doing our borough duty and listing the Brooklyn entries. The magazine defines "cheap" as most of the entrees on the menu being under $20. One can quibble about what's "cheap" and what isn't, but we do know that a bunch of the places below have good eats. Carroll Gardens and Red Hook are the neighborhood winners in terms of the most mentions. All of the Brooklyn entries appear under their "star" rankings, with links to a basic review, plus address and phone.

Five Stars

• Tanoreen. 7704 Third Ave., Bay Ridge, 718-748-5600
• Franny's. 295 Flatbush Ave., Prospect Heights, 718-230-0221

Four Stars

• Frankie's Spuntino. 457 Court St., Carroll Gardens, 718-403-0033
• Red Hook Soccer Fields. Bay St. bet. Clinton St. and Court St., Red Hook.
• Di Fara Pizza. 1424 Ave. J, Midwood, 718-258-1367
• Al di Là. 248 Fifth Ave., Park Slope, 718-783-4565

Three Stars

• iCi. 246 DeKalb Ave., Fort Greene, 718-789-2778
• Totonno's. 1524 Neptune Ave., Coney Island, 718-372-8606
• Chestnut. 271 Smith St., Carroll Gardens, 718-243-0049
• The Queen's Hideaway. 222 Franklin St., Greenpoint, 718-383-2355
• 360. 360 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, 718-246-0360
• Bouillabaisse. 126 Union St., Carroll Gardens, 718-855-4405
• Schnäck. 122 Union St., Carroll Gardens, 718-855-2879
• Egg. (AKA Sparky's) 135 N. 5th St., Williamsburg, 718-302-5151

Two Stars

• Marlow & Sons. 81 Broadway, Williamsburg, 718-384-1441
• Beast. 638 Bergen St., Prospect Heights, 718-399-6855
• The Good Fork. 391 Van Brunt St., Red Hook, 718-643-6636

"New Life for the Gowanus"

Today's New York Sun has a lengthy and very upbeat article on our namesake, the Big G, that continues the excellent press our once scorned South Brooklyn Seine and environs has been getting in recent months. The Sun notes the upcoming opening of the Gowanus Holiday Inn Express (which we learn, to our disappointment, does not have canal views), notes that developer Shaya Boymelgreen is still cooking up plans for Gowanus Village and updates the status of planning and zoning efforts that will determine Gowanus' actual future. It devotes a great deal of space to the work of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, which recently released an updated comprehensive plan for the neighborhood.

Here's our favorite part of the article:

The Gowanus, like the canals in Chartres, Venice, Gdansk, and Georgetown, has an intimate scale and calm waters. Gowanus is rich in history; as a creek it was one of the first Dutch settlements; the site of the Battle of Brooklyn ("Good God, what brave men must I lose this day!" said Washington of the 400 Marylanders); the landscape industrialized by real estate developer Edwin Litchfield, who petitioned the legislature to allow the building of the canal (his Italianate Brooklyn Improvement Co. building still stands at Third Avenue and Third Street, and was recently landmarked). The canal has water, scale, ecology and history — and it smells better than Venice!

In point of fact, Gowanus Lounge has logged months of time in Venice over the years, and we can attest to the fact that in the last several years, at least, we have rarely noticed the Gowanus smelling as ripe as many of the canals of our favorite city in all the world can smell on the wrong day.

In Red Hook: What a Difference 60 Days Make

In case you just dropped in from someplace that is not Brooklyn or New York City, the photo above is Beard Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The red brick buildings in the top photo belonged to the Todd Shipyard, property now owned by Ikea. They are separated by almost exactly two months.

Design Collective Show Redux: It's About the Designers, Stupid

On Monday, we wrote an item about Saturday's wonderful Indie Designers Market show in Park Slope that focused on some background noise created by the Old Stone House, which hosted the show. Several of the designers (very appropriately) noted that we overlooked their hard work. That was not our intent.

The show featured two impressive floors worth of local designers offering excellent fashions and accessories, and showcasing their wonderful creativity. (The beautiful work to the right belongs to Elaine Perlov.) We passed through between rainstorms and weren't taking notes or we would name our two particular favorites: a designer on the second floor offering some of the coolest custom-designed clothing for children and toddlers that we've ever seen anywhere (the t-shirts with the handpainted cars were genius) and one with wonderful hand-crafted colorful leather accessories and little bags in which to carry things around.

Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn highlights the designers themselves, which was the entire point of the show. We'll borrow from OTBKB's excellent summary for the one or two readers that haven't already seen it there:

On Saturday, I went to the Design Collective Market, the brainchild of clothing designer Kathy Malone, at the Old Stone House.

And this is what I got: a quilted blue skirt with a red floral patterned lining by Fofolle for 2-year old Ducky.

There were two floors of Brooklyn's hot, new, design stars who were selling their indie handbags, jewelry, children's clothing, accessories, and paper and lifestyle goods.

Lot and Lots of cool things to buy. Here were some of my faves:

Beautiful skirts in beautiful fabrics and great t's and tanks with appliques by Fofolle. Loved Elaine Perlov's clothing and her obie belts. She was featured on Daily Candy and Lucky Magazine's Pick of the Day. Pretty, pretty necklaces with glass beads and baubles by Kristin Eno. Cool name and cool stuff from Slope Suds. Beautiful hand-screened goods by Foxy & Winston.

So much more -- I don't remember all the names. Special, hand-made things. A great way to support local, indie talent and own something beautiful and unique in the process.

The Design Collective has a large membership and Kathy Malone has many more shows planned for this eclectic group of artisans and designers. Stay tuned for more shows.

We will say it here LOUD AND CLEAR: We were excited in the first place that this show was taking place locally, we salute the hard work of the organizers and designers and we look forward to more shows from this excellent group of talented Brooklynites. Next time, we promise a focus exclusively on your wonderful work!!!

Brooklinks: Wednesday Looking for Blight Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images.

So Blighted You Need a Freaking Gas Mask:

• Subway Smells Mapping Project [Gawker]

Blighted:

• About Blight and Crime at Atlantic Yards Site [AYR]
• Looking for Blight in Prospect Heights (and Not Finding Any) [Gothamist]
• Heath and Michelle Staying in Bklyn, Blight and All [No Land Grab]
• Heath and Michelle are Not Moving [OTBKB]
• Homeowners are Pesky Blighters [Dope on the Slope]
• Eminent Domain Planned for Most of Atlantic Yards Site [AYR]

Non-Blighted:

• Big Brother Watching You in Bushwick [Brooklyn Record]
• Residential Real Estate Squeezing Industrial Neighborhoods [Brownstoner]
• Williamsburg Bike Parking Woes [streetsblog]
• Bay Ridge-Sunset Park Rail Yard Investigation [NYDN]
• City Board Votes to Stop South Slope Development [OTBKB]

Red Hook Graving Dock Future: Ikea Parking Lot?

As we noted in an update on Ikea's Red Hook demolition progress over at Curbed on Monday, people are still hoping to save the Graving Dock on the Todd Shipyard property where the Swedish retailer intends to build its big blue box on New York Harbor. (The Graving Dock is a huge dry dock where ships are repaired.) Our own look at the Ikea property on Saturday reminded us that the dock is about the only thing left to save, as demolition is so advanced that the only things left on the site are a small portion of the red brick powerhouse on Beard Street and three cranes. The rest of the site--via a feverish demolition effort--has been reduced to emptiness and hills of crushed rubble.

Last week, when we were talking with the Kenter Gallery's Florence Neal, she noted a brainstorming session on saving the Graving Dock would take place Thursday from 6-8 PM at the Waterfront Museum Barge. (It is located next to the Waterfront Museum Barge, which is located next to the Red Hook Fairway.) The meeting is sponsored by the Save the Graving Dock Committee.

The dock needs all the help it can get, as Ikea is planning to fill it in for parking. Brooklyn Ramblings writes that "Graving dock advocates, however, point out that the number of such facilities in the New York area is declining rapidly, thus putting the shipping industry at a hardship." Several proposals have been floated to keep the graving dock in operation, but Ikea has turned them down. Brooklyn Ramblings also offers a letter from State Comptroller William Thompson to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Daniel Doctoroff that urges preservation of the Graving Dock. (The Preservation League of New York has named the Graving Dock as one of the most endangered historic structures in New York State and put it on its list of "Seven to Save.")

Watch an excellent BCAT segment on the Graving Dock and the Waterfront Museum barge by clicking this link.

It's Official: South Slope Tower Gets Whacked

The Board of Standards & Appeals formally handed opponents of highrises in the South Slope a major victory yesterday by denying developer Isaac Katan's application to build an 11-story tower at 182 15th Street under old zoning regulations that allowed highrises like the one pictured above. Parts of the South Slope, Greenwood Heights and Windsor Terrace were downzoned last year, but developers have been trying ever since to get a number of buildings "vested" under the old zoning. (The legal issue hinges on how complete a building's foundation was at the time the zoning was changed.) The BSA ruling can be appealed to the State Supreme Court, but it doesn't often overturn BSA decisions.

The 15th Street building was the subject of a particularly nasty fight between neighborhood groups and the developer. Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Hts., which has helped lead the fight against the highrises, said residents "are most encouraged that BSA took seriously the community's allegations of illegal and improper practices" at the building site. The agency gave developers the go-ahead in three previous cases.

Three remaining properties--at 614 7th Ave., 1638 Eighth Ave. and 422 Prospect Ave.--are still up for BSA decisions.

Blood Sucking Fun with Phillip Glass/Kronos Quartet at Celebrate Brooklyn

We don't usually list performances at Celebrate Brooklyn, as our favorite neighborhood summer music fest does a great job of promoting its shows. But Thursday night's performance by the world-renowned Phillip Glass and the Kronos Quartet deserves emphasis.

They will be performing an original score to 1931's Dracula (with Bela Lugosi), which Glass and Kronos have been touring around since 2000. Slavic Soul Party is opening with some Balkan anthems and funk. The music and blood sucking fun start at 7:30 at the Prospect Park Bandshell.

If you caught Yo La Tengo performing their score to the sea life documentaries a couple of weeks ago at Celebrate Brooklyn, you'll know why these shows are fun.

Red Hook Movies in the Park Series

Big ups to the blog Z. Madison for promoting the Red Hook Movies in the Park Summer 2006 series. The venues for the series, which runs through September 23, are Coffey Park, Valentino Pier and the Red Hook Community Farm. Hook Productions is presenting short films produced by neighborhood teens before each feature. The schedule includes Dave Chappelle's Block Party on July 29 at the Community Farm, The Wiz on August 5 at Coffey Park, Crooklyn on August 12 at Valentino Pier, The Future of Food on August 19 at the Red Hook Community Farm, E.T. on August 26 at Coffey Park, Madea's Family Reunion on September 2 at Valentino Pier, Wallace and Grommit on September 9, The Italian Job at Coffey Park on September 16 and Pirates of the Carribean at on September 23 at Valentino Pier.

Newsflash: Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams Not Leaving Brooklyn

The rumor mill has been abuzz since news surfaced that Brooklyn's first family, AKA Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, were departing Brooklyn for Hollywood.

Untrue!

No Land Grab is reporting that it's all a misunderstanding and Heath and Michelle are staying in Brooklyn. Specfically:

It's pathetic for NoLandGrab to have to stick our noses into the cauldron of celebrity gossip, but...a source close to the first couple of Boerum Hill has told us that Michelle and Heath bought Ellen DeGeneres's home in Hollywood so that they could have a home base for the family while in town for work. The couple "still consider New York, and specifically Brooklyn, home," and they'll be back again in the fall.

They might be sorry that they'll miss the Empire State Development Corporation's public hearing and forum, but other Brooklynites will show up to represent Boerum Hill.

In the meantime, it's totally lame when an amateurish information portal on Atlantic Yards has the scoop on the professional snarks.

GL welcomes No Land Grab's scoop and denies being a professional snark. Amateur, maybe.

Wallabout Update: Affordable Housing Coming to Brig Site

Remember the "Brig"? Know where the Wallabout section of Brooklyn is? Sure you do. The Brig is the old Naval prison across Flushing Avenue from the Brooklyn Navy Yard that was visible from the BQE until it was demolished last year. It was located on a square block bounded by Flushing Avenue to the north, Park Avenue to the south, Clermont Avenue to the east and Vanderbilt Avenue to the west. Wallabout is the name for the Navy Yard area and part of Fort Greene. (In case you still can't picture it, the handy map, showing the parcel with the prison still standing is below.)

In any case, the city is now requesting proposals for development on the site, which would include 400 new housing units, about two-thirds of which would be affordable housing. There would also be commercial space on the site.

The winning bidder will get the site for $1.

If you've never much thought about Wallabout, which is named after the East River's Wallabout Bay, around which the Navy Yard developed, it has a pretty awful history. The bay was where British prison ships were moored during the American Revolutionary War, from about 1776-1783. More "than 10,000 soldiers and sailors died due to deliberate neglect on these rotting hulks," according a Wikipedia entry, which was more American soldiers than were killed in every Revolutionary War battle combined. It continues:

Though the corpses were buried on the eroding shore in shallow graves, or often just thrown overboard, local women collected remains when they became exposed or washed onshore. The nearby Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park houses remains of the prisoners and overlooks the site of their torment and death.

The bay's name means "bay of the Walloons," referring to the French-speaking settlers of the area from the southern part of Belgium.

(The photo of the cleared site, above comes from Angela on flickr.)

Brooklinks: Tuesday Food, Recreation and Plastic Rats Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and images.

Food:

• Greenmarket Coming to Carroll Gardens [Brooklyn Record]
• Bar Toto's Panino Americano in the Slope [Gothamist]
• Tuk Tuk Gone; Ghang Thai Kitchen Coming [A Brooklyn Life]
• Poor Beautiful Sherbet [423 Smith]
• Red Hook: Best Mexican Food in NYC [Daily Hook]
• Ice Cream Run and Bocce Ball [3 Bikini]

Recreation:

• Pretty Girls do the Pool [Brooklyn Record]
• Fire Island Scenes [A Brooklyn Life]
• Resigned DOT Bicycle Czar Speaks [Sun]

Stoop Sale Rats:

• Tale of the Stoop Sale Rat [OTBKB]

Everything Else:

• Jr. Officer's Error Made Red Hook Ship Go Tilty [NY1]
• Brooklyn Noise Complaint Ends with Police Shooting [NYDN]
• DOB Backs Community Opposition to 15th St. Tower [Brownstoner]
• South Slope Zoning Follies: Highrise Gets Iced [Curbed]
• Man Walking on Borden Avenue [bluejake]
• Free Wrecked Sailboat in Brooklyn [Sail Brooklyn]
• Podcast with No Words, Daily Pix and Joe's NYC [Dope on the Slope]

And, Finally, Why Your Cable Internet is Acting Like Dial-Up:

• Meep Meep, Road Runner Internet Screwed Up [Gothamist]

McCarren Pool Summerscreen Starts Tonight

A new free film and music series called Summerscreen starts at McCarren Pool in Williamsburg tonight. The series is produced by L Magazine and Sens Productions (and sponsored by Volkswagen). Door open at 7PM, with music first and films starting after dark. The series will run every Tuesday night through August 22, with a special finale on Saturday, August 26 with DJ Spooky. Tonight's movie is Do the Right Thing, with Bottle Rocket showing next week (8/1) and the French Connection the week after (8/8). The Swimmer is being screening on August 15. Love Streams is August 22 and Style Wars is August 26. Kick back, hang at the pool, listen to music and watch movies.

Park Slope Tractor Story: From Dope on the Slope to the Times

When we read the story in the New York Times on Sunday about the farm tractor in Park Slope, we had the nagging feeling that we'd seen it before. But, we consume way more information than we can retain so we couldn't put our finger on it. Today, we know. One of our favorite blogs--and one from which we wish we'd hear more every day--posted an item this spring about someone he'd photographed in Park Slope "lovingly maintaining a jim-dandy 1946 Ford Ferguson farm tractor." NYT reporter Jennifer Bleyer e-mailed Dope and tracked down the gentleman, despite the fact that Dope didn't know his name. The morph from blog entry to NYT story says a lot about the interconnectedness of old and new media and the way that more and more stories that first surface in the blogosphere make their way into "traditional" media.

Pretty cool, we think.

When is a "Donation" No Longer a Donation?

Gowanus Lounge attended the Park Slope Designer Market at the Old Stone House in J.J. Byrne Park on Saturday. It presented a nice assortment of clothes and accessories created by local designers. The little scene we witnessed at the front desk, though, has had us scratching our heads ever since. We've hestitated even getting into this, because we like the Old Stone House and its director and admire its role in the community, but we helped promote the show...so, here goes:

We arrived around 4 o'clock and noticed that the person at the desk was requesting a "three dollar suggested donation" for admission. (Which is no doubt standard for the facility.) Interesting, in this case, because the show was specifically promoted as being free. In any case, like we said, we like the Old Stone House and didn't have a problem with the three dollars, even though we were on our way to Sunset Park and to Bay Ridge and were only planning to stay for a few minutes. What's three bucks, right? As we entered, we heard the person at the front desk ask a young woman who was clearly under the age of eighteen to see her student ID when she said "I'm a student," in response to the request for "a donation." The young woman looked surprised, but coughed up her student ID.

We looked around the show, and were on our way out when we heard an ugly exchange between the Old Stone House person and two visitors who said they were surprised they'd have to pay admission. They didn't want to see the museum, they said, only the design show. As they continued to balk, they recieved a stern lecture (this is a kind description of the tone we heard) about how "this is our suggested donation" and how "the donation supports the museum and programming at the Old Stone House."

"But we only want to come to the design show," one of the visitors said.

"It's in the Old Stone House and three dollars is our suggested donation," the worker said.

We didn't want to get into the dispute, so we stayed out of it and didn't point out how the promotional material said the show was free. ("Free show," to us, doesn't mean the show is free, but the venue charges you.) Make a long story short, one of the visitors told the worker she could be nicer about it. The worker said the visitors (who were being quite nice) were being nasty "so we're even."

The two visitors left without ever going in, one of them saying, "I don't want to support this place."

So, here's the point of all this: If a donation is an admission price, why hew to this fiction that it's a donation? We understand that we live in an era in which the public sector shortchanges cultural institutions and that our parks are, almost literally, being sold to the highest bidder and that everyone from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on down does it, but why engage in double speak? If you demand it--and do so stridenly--it is only a donation in the sense that a mugger would call the money you give up a "donation"

More to the point, while the likely villain is probably a miscommunication somewhere along the line, is the few hundred dollars the Old Stone House collected on Saturday worth the ill will it generated among people that might have been badly treated by niceness-challenged person who was at the desk in late afternoon? (There are nice ways to tell people to pay up, and there are less nice ways. We only heard less nice ways.)

Again, we like the Old Stone House. It hosts wonderful community events. So does J.J. Byrne Park. We attended the Brooklyn Blogfest there and it was great. We feel awful just pointing this out. But, we feel even worse that we helped promote the designer's show and that some people were taken by surprise by the "donation" and that those that didn't want to "donate"--for whatever reason...cheapness, lack of cash, lack of civic mindedness, whatever--were turned away or, worse, treated badly by the staff.

Yes, this is a dumb little thing, but it's been irritating us ever since we listened to the exchange. We're sorry to the Old Stone House for pointing it out. We're sorry to the people that worked hard to organize the design show. We're sorry to the people who attended and had issues with the admission price.

Gowanus Lounge Goes to Powerless Queens

Gowanus Lounge was out-of-borough for a while yesterday, and we made a point of passing through blacked-out Astoria, where up to 80,000 people are still without power. The streets are full of Con Ed trucks, NYPD and FDNY vehicles, portable generators and traffic cops directing traffic at intersections where traffic lights are out. We saw hundreds of Con Ed employees working hard to try to get the lights working again and a couple of distribution points where the Red Cross is handing out ice and meals. Here and there on Steinway Street in Astoria, the stench of rotting garbage and food was overpowering. The scope of the outage is a bit staggering--it covers a huge area--but not as stunning as Con Ed's deception and/or stupidity. (IE, underestimating the number of people impacted by 90 percent.) A few more pictures below and in our flickr photoset.

New Look Around BAM (and Other Drawings)

The Arts Build NY website has a fascinating collection of renderings and drawings of ongoing or planned expansions or development by 55 cultural institutions. Gowanus Lounge was especially taken by the drawings of two planned cultural institutions near the Brooklyn Academy of Music--the Visual and Performing Arts Library, which is pictured above, and the Theatre for a New Audience, which is below. The website is connected to a show that opened on Wednesday called City of Culture organized by the Alliance for the Arts and the American Institute of Architects.

Brooklinks: Monday Already Edition

Brooklinks is a Selection of Brooklyn-related articles, blog items and images.

• Ennis Del Mar can't quit Jack Twist but can quit Brooklyn [Sunset Parker]
• Heath: Fair Weather Brooklyn Friend [OTBKB]
• Consequences Sought for Con Ed in Blackout [AP]
• Tragic New Red Hook Trend [NYPost]
• Passengers Board Ship That Tipped [AMNY]
• Atlantic Yards Right for Brooklyn? Markowitz and Shiffman Disagree [AYR]
• Atlantic Yards Opponents Comb Through Study [Courier-Life]
• DOB Backs Critics of South Slope Tower [Park Slope Courier]
• A Perfect Sunday [Dope on the Slope]
• Brooklyn Bed Bug Siege [Bay Ridge Conservative via Sunset Parker]
• Rainy Weekend [Brooklyn Ramblings]

Hang Out News: Tea Lounge Opening on Court Street

Gowanus Lounge was on Court Street and looked up to see evidence that the Tea Lounge is opening a branch on Court. We passed by sort of quickly, and only saw the logo, so we don't know whether this is imminent or not and all the Tea Lounge website says is "Coming Soon: Cobble Hill." The new Tea Lounge will be located at 254 Court Street in the space formerly occupied by Blue Star. That's Court Street between Kane and Butler. Tea Lounge is one of those love it or hate it sort of places, either a mecca for underemployed creative types and moms looking to hang during the daytime with their kids or an irritating place in which people camp out all day where you can never find a place to sit. All said and done, it's a welcome addition to the Cobble Hill-Carroll Gardens cafes at which to hang scene.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour Part Deux: Rope on the Dock

Red Hook, Brooklyn

Brookinks: Sunday We've Got Power Issues Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images (with a news-related detour to Queens today):

Brooklyn Items

• Manhole Blasts Hit Sunset Park [NYDN]
• Brooklyn Bridge Park Housing Debate Rages [NYT]
• Movie in the Hook [Z. Madison]
• Coney Island Early Morning [e-liz/flickr]
• Brighton Beach Boardwalk Promenade, Soviet Style [NYT]
• Kids Perform Shakespeare in JJ Byrne Park [OTBKB]

Medieval in Queens Items

• Dim-Bulb Con Ed Boss to Queens: Duh! [NYPost]
• Bloomberg: Queens 'Inconvenienced' [NYDN]
• Power Failure Lingers and Storm Slows Repairs [NYT]
• Apple's Power Struggle is Here to Stay [NYPost]
• No Ideas, No Light & No End in Sight [NYDN]

Fun Williamsburg Video: Twist of Fate

Here's one way to spend the next three minutes and nineteen seconds of your life: Click on the video below or on this link and watch Twist of Fate. It's a short motion graphics film, with Williamsburg streetscapes, "that deals with the notions of non-linear history, fate, and synchronicity," in the words of its creator. And so, he writes, "the main intention behind my design choice was to combine the idea of freezing pivotal moments in time with the more abstract concept of illustrating the infinite number of life's paths within the randomness of collage." Just click and watch.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Snakes in the Grass

Red Hook, Brooklyn

Idea Floated for Redevelopment of Key Gowanus Property

Hats off to the always intelligent, thoughtful and in-depth Brooklyn Ramblings for finally posting the redevelopment plan that NYU Wagner School students recently offered for a key parcel of land along the Gowanus Canal between Smith and Hoyt Streets and Fifth and Ninth streets. (You can see all the details at the Public Place website the students created, which is loaded with photos and maps and details of the thoughtful proposal.) Part of the deeply polluted site with which the proposal deals was once used by Brooklyn Union Gas (Keyspan's corporate predecessor) and is now vacant and awaiting cleanup and reuse. (The entire site is 6.5 acres.)

The Wagner School grad students--like the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corp.'s comprehensive plan--envision recreational use for part of the parcel. (And would also have the huge cement business on part of the parcel relocating to another site on the canal or elsewhere in order to open public waterfront access on the Big G. It is one of the many use conflicts that will have to be resolved before any Gowanus redevelopment happens.)

We'll quote Brooklyn Ramblings for a bit:

The site, known as Public Place, was the site of a manufactured gas plant operated by Brooklyn Union Gas, the predecessor to KeySpan. Today, the site is highly contaminated, mostly vacant and underutilized. It is, however, in a central location between residential uses to the north and west, and industrial uses to the south and east, and is close to mass transit. It is one of the larger, mostly vacant, city-owned sites remaining in New York City.

Any plan for Gowanus redevelopment faces multiple hurdles, including the fact that city planners in the Bloomberg Administration will draw up the plan that carries the most weight. City Council Members and the Mayor will make any final decisions on zoning and project funding. The students quote an unnamed local official saying, "Gowanus is like the Balkans."

Notably, the NYU planners identified a community preference for open space and recreational use on the parcel as well as community facilities and work space for artists. The scenarios for the space, Brooklyn Ramblings reports, include a 128,100 square feet, a 3-acre park with a waterfront esplanade, and a 23,100-square-foot community facility.

The Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation's plan for the parcel envisions a similar future, once it's cleaned up, a process that could take years.

The image below is from the new proposal, on the Public Place website, as is the aerial photo beneath it. If you're interested, you can download the entire Wagner School report here.

Brooklinks: Saturday Visual and Sonic Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog entries and images:

Images and Sounds for a Saturday:
Russo Realty [bluejake]
Drive [Lex's Folly]
Flatbush Farm Photoset [jscandinaro/flickr]
The Ice Cream Man Cometh [burntsienna]
Brooklyn Bombshells v. Bronx Gridlock [Sunset Parker]
Camera in the Kitchen: Queen's Hideaway in Greenpoint [Gothamist]
Anti-Atlantic Yards Rally: The Videos [No Land Grab]
ABL: Radio - Omni Venerati Mixed by Bethany [A Brooklyn Life]
ABL: Radio - Liberties Mixed by Adam Smith [A Brooklyn Life]
Get 'Yer Paul Westerberg Acoustic Show Downloads [Free Williamsburg]

Why South Brooklyn is Lucky it isn't Northwest Queens:
Blackout Persists, 100K Without Power [NYT]
Crud, Sweat and Tears [NYDN]
Con Ed's Powerless Pinheads Outed in a Big Lie [NYPost]
Land of Rotten Food and Hot Tempers [NYDN]

Riding the Cyclone Backwards

In checking out Brooklyn vids, we discovered this gem, which is especially appropriate on a weekend, even a soupy and, possibly, stormy one. This is an Astroland commercial from 1983 when, apparently, you could ride the famed Cyclone backwards. Who knew? (This experience was called "Back-Fire on the Cyclone.") Click on the vid and see for yourself:



Speaking of the Cyclone, you can click here and check out a night video someone shot of what it's like riding our favorite historic wooden Brooklyn roller coaster.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour Part Deux: Shoot First

184 Kent Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Red Hook Sky

Red Hook, Brooklyn

Thinking of Dining in Red Hook? Take Thee to the Soccer Fields

[Photo of Sosa Fresca from Porkchop Express]

Sure, there are dining options on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook. But for a real Red Hook treat, take thee to the Red Hook soccer fields. Maybe you've heard about the little gathering at the soccer fields at Clinton and Bay streets every weekend? Perhaps you've wandered past or driven by and wondered what all those little tents were about?

Well, every weekend dozens of vendors set up these tents and they constitute a virtual culinary tour of Central America. It may be New York City's most incredible and authentic street food experience, and one that you probably won't find replicated elsewhere. (We say "may be" and "probably" only because we don't know what other treats may lurk somewhere else in Brooklyn or Queens or the Bronx about which we don't know.) Some of the weekend restaurants at the soccer fields have been doing business in the same spot for years.

In any case, the Porkchop Express blog has been posting what now amounts to a superb guide to some of the little restaurants and the food they serve. It's hard to read without laying plans to head to this part of Red Hook.

Porkchop has detailed individual reviews of Hernandez Huaraches, Martinez Huaraches, Perez Tacos and Sosa Fresca. (There is an abundance of information as well as dozens of photos of some of the mouthwatering dining options.) Huaraches, we learn from Porkchop, are:

A tasty treat hailing from South-Central Mexico, this flat, oblong cake of masa (moist cornmeal dough) is rolled, pressed, stuffed with a thin layer of black bean, pressed again, and thrown on a griddle until nice and crisp. You can top them with a bit of salsa picante and grated queso anejo, or go the whole hog and pile on meats, chilies, onions, sour cream, and whatever else lies within reach.

Meanwhile, 423 Smith is also featuring some wonderful photos of the dining scene down at the soccer fields in an excellent photo feature called Spicy Mangos and More.

If you don't know Red Hook, the map below might help a bit in finding this food treasure.

Marty Markowitz's Reply to Atlantic Yards Open Letter

Earlier this week we ran an "open letter" from Steven Hart to Brooklyn Boro Prez Marty Markowitz about, well, how Gowanus would likely drown in crap on many days if Atlantic Yards is built. While the Draft Environmental Impact Statement somehow concludes that there will be less sewerage flowing into Gowanus with Atlantic Yards than without it, we await a definitive and objective analysis.

Meanwhile, the Boro Prez--who has been one of the biggest supporters of Atlantic Yards while expressing concern here and there about its scale--posted a reply to the open letter. Even though it sounds suspiciously boilerplate/form letter-like, since GL quoted the original letter, we quote the Beep's reply:

I assure you that my only goal for the Atlantic Yards project is to ensure that it works for all of Brooklyn and New York City.

Currently, my staff and I are reviewing the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) from the Empire State Development Corporation, which discloses all the impacts associated with the project. I believe that an inclusive and comprehensive DEIS approval process is crucial to the success of Atlantic Yards, so I hope that Brooklynites like yourself will live up to our reputation for thinking out loud by speaking up and participating during the upcoming public-comment period, beginning with the August 23 public hearing.

Taken together or separately, the issues of traffic, parking, public safety, infrastructure, environmental concerns, and others in the EIS will determine if Atlantic Yards is indeed what I have stated since its inception: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new center of life in Downtown Brooklyn that is an economic engine for the entire borough, and city, that includes an affordable housing component that will set the new standard for urban developments across America.

I know that the public and others will contribute innovative, worthy ideas that will make this project even better, and one all Brooklynites can take pride in for generations to come.

Marty

Here's where GL sees this heading: Atlantic Yards is so massive that there is immense wiggle room to hack off ten or twenty percent of the project so that public officials can claim to be responsive to the concern of (very affluent and politically connected neighbors that are stating to hate the thing) while leaving its essence intact for Forest City Ratner. We wouldn't be at all surprise if the plan was pre-written so that some square footage could be cast off at the end of the planning phase so it's backers could claim that they had heard the public and reduced its size.

Just a thought.

Bonkers Bean Tossing Park Slope Mommy Update

So, is it the Park Slope part of the equation that provokes a shitstorm of commentary? Or is it the violent nature of the outburst? To recap: A stroller-pushing Park Slope mom was cut off by two cars while trying to cross the street in the South Slope and retaliated by throwing a can of beans (don't know the brand) at the back window of the car, busting up said auto glass and prompting a confrontation with the beaned driver. We reported this on Curbed via streetsblog a couple of days ago. The item was picked up by Gothamist, Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and others. Dozens of people offered comments.

We offer a few more highlights, or lowlights, depending on your taste for vitriol:

The driver's actions did not justify a physical assault or property damage. You can't break someone's windshield because they've pissed you off. The MOTHER was the one who started the physical assault by damaging the driver's car. She was the aggressor. She is the one who set the bad example for HER child, by instigating a physical confrontation...It's New York. We've all been sideswiped by a cab or a bike or a STROLLER at one point or another. Maybe you shout something rude, maybe you complain, but you don't resort to violence. It's called DEALING WITH LIVING IN A MAJOR CITY.

I think the lady overreacted, but frankly, if this happened somewhere outside of NYC, say in a small city where they actually obey traffic rules, and the driver got out of the car, he would get the shit beat out of him by the lady's husband. Bad driving is not to be defended you morons.

Threatening someone in a crosswalk with a 2000 lb. car: perfectly normal. Getting pissed off about it: "nuts".

Cars often suck but Park Slope moms are arrogant motherf**kers too-- as a cyclist who DOES obey lights/stop signs, I've been cut off in intersections more than once by some blithering yuppief**k & her SUV-stroller who can not be bothered to look OR wait. File under the same jackoffs who double park their real SUVs outside the Co-Op, do k-turns on Union St-- as if you can't drive around the block-- AND that chainstore c**ksucker Uncle Louie G-- traded in his Hummer for an Escalade-- f**k you very much everyone who "has" to buy shit there because your whining little brats insist.

So much anger. So many people ready to throw beans. Those mortgage payments must really be stressing people. A pedestrian crossing with the signal has the right of way by law, but in New York a car does by custom. Most people stop because they don't want to be hit, and then the car goes.

Us, all we can say is: Next time you're tooling through Park Slope and you would just as soon run someone down than stop when you're making a right turn, watch you ass. We're packing beans. And glass bottles of San Pellegrino. Especially the mommies.

Brooklinks: Friday in the House Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and images:

• State big to Brooklyn: You're Manhattan Now [Brooklyn Papers]
• Red Hook Residents Protest for Traffic Safety [Brooklyn Record]
  
• Democratic Space [Brooklyn Views]
• Brooklyn Families to Sue Over Tippy Ship [NYDN]
• Editorial: Manhattanization of Brooklyn Now Official State Policy [Brooklyn Papers]
• Claiming 10K Jobs at Atlantic Yards Was Wrong [AYR]
• City Tries to Find Sewerage Leak on G Line [AMNY]
• Brooklyn Industries Continues March to World Domination [The Real Estate]
• Two Women Talking [bluejake]
• No Bikes in Greenwood Cemetery [Daily Heights]
• Sparky's to Become Sports Bar? [Brooklyn Record]
• Crown Heights North Landmarks [Gothamist]
• Williamsburgh Savings Bank Clock Broken Again [Brooklyn Papers]

Olfactory Collateral Damage: New Gowanus Trash Transfer Station

One of the "marine transfer stations" that will be used to move thousands of tons of trash out of New York City via barge will go on the Gowanus Canal. Yes, it's an outlying part of the Canal, but it's still the Big G. Specifically, the trash will go to the Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station, which is located under the Gowanus Expressway at 18th Street and the Gowanus Canal. The facility was used until 2001 and then decommissioned after Fresh Kills on Staten Island was closed. After Wednesday's City Council approval of the new trash plan, the station will likely be recommissioned again, ensuring that a very ripe and funky smell indeed will waft through parts of Gowanus and up to the people stuck in traffic on the Expressway, depending on the wind.

This ill wind might also blow back into Gowanus, the South Slope, Sunset Park and Red Hook, again depending. Prime victims of oflactory collateral damage could be home improvers, as the Home Depot off Hamilton is nearly next to the new transfer station and the Lowe's is too close for comfort, as the majestic stench of rot and decomposition flies. (If you doubt how gross this will be, inhale deeply when you are stuck in traffic on the Kosciuszko Bridge on the BQE sometime. That profoundly nauseating smell? It's the trash transfer station down near Newtown Creek. Can you say nas-tee? How about Kosh-choosh-koh?) The other Brooklyn transfer station will be located in Gravesend, which is east of Coney Island.

Upside: We'll have a new local sporting event--the half-mile dash down Hamilton Avenue without blowing chunks, AKA the Hamilton Avenue Hurl.

The Cruise Ship That Went All Slippy Slidey Tilty Comes Home

Gowanus Lounge doesn't want to know what it's like when a cruise ship this big tilts 15 degrees to one side or contemplate the gravitational and buoyancy forces that keep it from tilting even more. In any case, the Princess will be making port in Red Hook tomorrow (Saturday) and is supposed to set sail again in the afternoon, assuming no problems are found. (The focus of the investigation is "human error," as in, "Woah, Ted, don't touch the red button. You pushed the red button? Woah!") Passengers that don't have the stomach for it are being offered refunds. (Why are people referring to this as the "Red Hook Cruise Ship" as though the Hook owns it?) On other fronts, Poseidon will be out on DVD on August 22, but the craftier among you moviegoers have already downloaded it bought the bootleg in Chinatown seen it at the cinema. The image above is the Princess as seen from the water, when it was at the Red Hook Cruise Terminal on July 2.

Coney Island of the Mind

Got three minutes and forty-three seconds? Then, click on the video below and watch "Coney Island of the Mind," a little slice of Brooklyn and Coney Island or just click on this link. And, while we're at it, we thank Sunset Parker for introducing us to the wealth of Brooklyn videos at You Tube with his Brooklyn Video of the Day feature.

Red Hookians to Take to the Streets to Protest Traffic

Anger about recent increases in traffic in Red Hook has been rising since the opening of the new Red Hook Cruise Terminal and the Fairway supermarket put more cars on local streets. Two weeks ago, a Sunset Park woman was hit and killed on Van Brunt Street by a driver leaving the Fairway. Residents want traffic signs and traffic lights installed, but the Department of Transportation says it won't even start a study until the fall.

B61 Productions reports that residents will be having a demonstration tonight (July 20) at 6:30 PM at the corner of Van Brunt and Wolcott Streets, where the pedestrian was struck and killed on July 6. Organizers include the Red Hook Civic Association, Red Hook Lions, Groups Against Garbage Sites and Beard St. Associates, which have been pushing for traffic signs at the corner.

The groups report that Van Brunt has the largest stretch of unprotected intersections in the city (15 in 3/4 mile). The group's release says, "The Department of Transportation continues to refuse to install traffic lights or 4-way stop signs or even paint the cross walks across Van Brunt." While local activists have been divided over supporting or opposing new projects like the massive Ikea waterfront development, B61 Productions suggests that "the traffic issue has the potential to galvanize neighborhood organizations the way garbage transfer sites did six years ago." (Neighborhood groups fiercely fought back plans that would have, literally, made Red Hook one of New York City's main trash receptacles.)

Last year, we witnessed Boro Prez Marty Markowitz and DOT officials show up at the intersection of Ninth Street and Eighth Avenue in Park Slope two days after Park Slope residents started signing a petition outside of Dizzy's about dangerous conditions at the intersection. The corner still stinks, but new signs went up shortly thereafter.

So, answer us this: Why do Red Hook residents have to demonstrate and wait until fall for a traffic study before someone paints some crosswalks and puts up Stop signs as a preliminary measure? Please tell us it doesn't have something to do with power and money.

Brooklinks: Thursday Get Your Eat On Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images:

Get Your Eat and Drink On (With Thanks to the Brooklyn Record)

• Weekly Food Roundup [Brooklyn Record]
• La Sorrentina's Bensonhurst Pizza Empire [NYDN]
• Best Deli Sandwich in Brooklyn: Las Americas Deli on Court St. [Brooklyn Record]
• Atlantic Avenue Brew Guide [Brooklyn Record]

Think While Thinking About Getting Your Eat On

• Looking for the New Face of Brooklyn? Take the L Train [NYDN]
• BAP Lab: Electronic Music and Digital Art Fest [A Brooklyn Life]
• BAP Lab Tries to Make Brooklyn Beautiful [NYPress]
• Jews for Jesus Invade Brooklyn [Brooklyn Ramblings]
• The Day After the Great Food Coop Black Out of '06 [OTBKB]
• McCarren Pool Party Photos [Test of Will]
• Arborcide on Eighth Avenue [IMBY]
• Riding the Williamsburg Water Taxi [NYDN]
• Energy Needs in a Blazing Summer Sun [Brownstoner]
• Crown Heights Tour: Banks and Showrooms [Brownstoner]
• Army Recruiting Centers Draw Protests [Brooklyn Downtown Star]
• Frank Gehry Can Do Small [3Bikini]
• Red Hook Cruise Ship Departure on Hold [AMNY]

Brookinks: Thursday Continuing Impact Special Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn new stories, blog items and images. In today's special edition, more links to coverage of the Atlantic Yards battle:

• Nets Planning for Traffic 'Nightmare' [NYPost]
• Headlines You Don't Want to See Above a Photo of Your Block [streetsblog]
• High Crime in the Atlantic Yards Footprint? [AYR]
• FCR's James Stuckey and DDDB's Jeff Baker on Brian Lehrer [WNYC]
• Brooklyn Downtown Star Goes to Town with Atlantic Yards Coverage [nolandgrab]
• How About 'Atlantic Yards for Dummies'? [Dtown Brooklyn Star]
• ESDC Sets 8-23 for Impact Statement Public Hearing [Dtown Brooklyn Star]

Park Slope Designer Market at Old Stone House

A big thank you to Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn for reminding us about the Indie Designer Market at the Old Stone House on Saturday (7/22). We got the release about it so long ago, put it on a list of items to do in July and would have left it between the cracks where it had slipped were it not for OTBKB's excellent coverage of local goings-on and events. (Which means, you don't probably need to hear about it from us.) In any case, Park Slope’s first, indie designer market is called designcollective. It will showcase new Brooklyn designers on Saturday from 10AM-6PM at the Old Stone House in J.J. Byrne Park, which is located on the Fifth Avenue side of the park between 3rd and 4th streets. The market takes place inside the (air-conditioned) building and includes apparel, handbags, jewelry, children’s clothing, accessories, and paper and lifestyle goods.

Flatbush Farm Now Open

Two food rumblings on Flatbush Avenue, prime among them, the opening of Flatbush Farm, whose bar is now open and offering a snack/tapas type of menu. It occupies the space formerly occupied by Bistro St. Marks at 76-78 St. Marks at Flatbush. The full restaurant should be open in two weeks or so. The menu will be local and seasonal, with an emphasis on the organic.

A little lower on the food chain, those looking to add inches to their waistlines and help narrow those arteries need look no further than the new Dunkin Donuts that is occupying the space of the former Charcuterie on the north side of Flatbush. Of Flatbush Farm, a poster on Chowhound writes, "It's quiet and has a nice atmosphere, a little expensive, but they had a good selection of wine by the glass or bottle and lots of different kinds of beer. I didn't try any food, but it was pleasant and they have armchairs to sit in while you have a drink."

Park Slope Mommy Goes Berserk and Beans Car

What's a Park Slope mommy to do? Attack with beans, that's what. Anyone familiar with the Hill Above Gowanus knows that drivers come flying around corners when they are making a right turn regardless of who is in their way--even moms pushing strollers, which the nabe has in abundance. So, the story about Park Slope Mommy Rage that we posted yesterday over at Curbed, for which streetsblog gets the original credit, generated much response. The story was about a mommy who went a little nutso when two cars cut her off as she tried to cross the street:

I saw one woman struggling across the street with multiple bags of groceries hanging off her kid's stroller; when she got cut off, TWICE, she reached into her grocery bags and hauled out a can of beans which she threw at the rear window of the second car, cracking it clear across. Several witnesses clapped and cheered. The jerk driving the car actually had the nerve to pull over and come after her about the window, but fortunately, everyone that had seen what happened backed her up.

One commenter wrote, "The Yankees should sign her up. Alex Rodriguez can take a few 'how to throw more accurately' pointers from her." Someone else opined, "Next time she should throw a box of Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese shells. Very Slopian and far more car friendly...Be safe out there. Be proud. Eat beans." And this: "Back when I had kids that age, real estate prices were lower, so moms were a lot less stressed. Those $900K mortgages would make anyone want to throw beans." As well as this late entry from a non-mommy: I once had 'pedestrian rage' when a car nearly ran me over...I spit on the side of his car. He got out of his car and started CHASING AFTER ME. Luckily I was able to run like hell and hide in a nearby bookstore. Did I learn a lesson? You bet I did."

We don't know what kind of coping mechanisms mommy is teaching her own Little Bean or whether her anger management skills will rub off on young Mr. or Ms. McLaren. Clearly, though, the Saga of the Bean Throwing Park Slope Mom continues.

ESDC to Brooklyn Opponents: Drop Dead

The fix is in and the clock is ticking. With its vote on Atlantic Yards yesterday, release of the 15-inch thick Draft Environmental Impact Statement and scheduling of what is likely to be the only significant public hearing on the plan for August 23, the doggiest of the dog days of summer, the Empire State Development Corporation announced full speed ahead on Atlantic Yards planning.

The public comment period on the plan will run for 60 days and it will be up to lawyers, environmental experts and others to pour through a document that, in effect, says that the biggest development project in Brooklyn history will have not have a significantly overwhelming negative impact on public services or traffic, will not swamp sewage treatment plants, will not put upward pressure on rents and won't significantly degrade quality of life.

Yes, the environmental impact document does admit "significant adverse impacts" on cultural resources, traffic, and noise, as well as construction impacts, but it argues that the provision of housing, improving railroad facilities, and "enhancing the vitality of the Atlantic Terminal area" outweigh the negatives. On WNYC yesterday evening, newscaster Amy Eddings asked reporter Andrea Bernstein, more than once, to explain how a project so massive in scale would, in effect, be a ghost. Forest City Ratner's James Stuckey's response: the impacts are manageable because of all the work to mitigate them.

The most cogent early analysis of the DEIS belongs to Norman Oder, who begins the long process of digging into the massive document today via his article in his Atlantic Yards Report.

What is clear is the cost of Atlantic Yards has now swollen to $4.2 billion from an original estimate of $2.5 billion and that New York State taxpayers will ultimately bear direct and indirect costs of up to $2 billion.

In the end, yesterday was either the day the New York power structure backing the Atlantic Yards project--and its 16 highrises and basketball arena--trotted out the coffin in preparation for closing the lid and nailing it shut (a "slam dunk" as the New York Post calls it) or merely the first round in a historic fight to stop the biggest development project in the borough's history. It will fall to a bright planner or historian who is only in grade school today to write the story a generation from now.

For the time being, it's safe to say that in voting for the Atlantic Yards project and in setting a hearing date of August 23, the Empire State Development Corporation signaled that it is in control of the rules of the game and that it doesn't care much either for public appearances or for an open public debate over the merits of the Atlantic Yards project. (There will be public forum in September too.)

The goal seems simple: To get Atlantic Yards approved before a new governor can come along and change anything. (Call it the Fait Accompli School of Urban Development, with Brooklyn serving as its primary laboratory.) It is no accident that the timetable for the project anticipates completion of Phase I of Atlantic Yards by 2009, which also happens to be year of New York's next municipal election. If, for the sake of argument, the next mayor opposes Atlantic Yards, he or she will have to contend with the same dilemma faced by Corey Booker in Newark, whose predecessor left him with an arena that cannot be stopped without huge public cost.

That having been said, the real battle--which opponents have long understood--will be the litigation that surrounds the process and the methods used to approve, finance and build the Atlantic Yards project. Their goal will be to slow the project at every turn in the hope of stalling for so long that an anti-Yards public official takes office and kills it. Or that they go before a panel of judges that finally rules against Atlantic Yards on eminent domain or other grounds. In the end, it may not be public outrage that kills the project, it could be a jurist ruling on a legalism that most average people won't even understand.

The battle has now started in earnest.

Brooklinks: Wednesday "What's the Impact?" Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images. Today we offer a selective round-up of Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement coverage:

What's the Impact?

• NY Agency Gives Preliminary Thumbs Up to Ratner Plan [Reuters]
• Yards DEIS Released, Cost Reaches $4.2 Billion [AYR]
• Measuring Project's Shadow and Burden on Bklyn [NYT]
• Yards Impact 'Absurd' Critics Say [NYDN]
• Ratner's Got High Hoops [NYPost]
• State: Ratner Project Won't Raise Rents [Power Plays/V. Voice]
• Atlantic Yards Hearings Set...For When You're Out of Town [streetsblog]
• True Costs Still Unknown, Public Process Unacceptable [DDDB]
• Nothing Like a 15-Inch Thick Stack of Documents for a Rally Hangover [nolandgrab]
• Prisoner of Atlantic Avenue [The Real Estate]

Something Other Than the Stinkin' Impact

• How Not to Pay Rent (in an Illegal Apartment) [Village Voice]
• Scoop Du Jour--Today in Brooklyn [OTBKB]
  
• Disaster on Red Hook Based Cruise Ship [Brooklyn Record]
  
• Community Gardens [Gotham Gazette]
• Jacques Torres Wins Neighborhood Award [Brooklyn Record]

Views of Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach and Mill Basin on the Run

One of our favorite Brooklyn bloggers, Gary Jarvis, who produces the excellent Runs Brooklyn, hasn't let the blistering heat stop him from running, although he used it as an excuse to run the streets of some of Brooklyn's waterfront neighborhoods. (Is Brighton Beach really that much cooler when the heat index is 105?)

What we like about Gary's blog is not that he's blogging about running, but that he's shooting a lot of wonderful photos and making observations about the nabes through which he runs, some of which are a little off the beaten path for Brooklynites who stick to the tried-and-true circuits like Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg and the like. How many Slopians, for instance, especially recent Brooklyn immigrants, actually go and check out Mill Basin or Bergen Beach? Which is only a way of saying that getting around to different parts of Brooklyn can be an avocation in and of itself given the size of the borough.

For the record, Gary has now run 124.50 "unique miles," which leaves him with a mere 1,617.86 miles before he meets his goal of running every street in Brooklyn.

A few more photos from his recent runs are below:

Mill Basin

Brighton Beach

Bergen Beach

Open Letter to Marty: The Crap Will Kill Our Neighborhoods

[The photo is from sailbrooklyn's flickr stream.]

While our reading of the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement's section on the effluent the project will produce indicates that project backers are claiming there will be less flow if the project is built than if not, we will await expert analysis of the claim. Meanwhile, Gowanus Lounge offers an open letter to Boro Prez Marty Markowitz that came our way through a Carroll Gardens neighborhood group. It's worth a read (emphasis added by GL):

Dear BP Markowitz,

The most dangerous aspect of the FCRC Atlantic Yards Project is sewerage and adequate water drainage. They will remain with the area for generations to come. This particular concern is not one that can wait for the building to get underway. It cannot be left to the good will of the developer. It cannot be left to the devices of even public officials without regular, open public scrutiny. Why? Because it is a matter of public health and well being that will last into the next century in Brooklyn.

The current sewer/storm drain system is overloaded to the point of failure. Raw sewage pours out in storm related overflows NOW to such an extent that it is flowing through public waterways, canals, and the drainage system. Ratner has shown no realistic interest in dealing with the daily influx of nearly two million gallons of waste water in a system that is now near collapse.

The alternative is to tear whole sections of Boerum Hill and Gowanus limb from limb to create massive new sewer lines and facilities given that such is the path of least resistance. Thus the value and viability of those areas will be devastated to accommodate an expansion of the Ratner complex that even now does nothing for that community but serve as a wall to hem it off from the rest of Brooklyn.

The scale of this project is totally out of proportion to the economics and the present population of the area. The history of the builder in the area has been consistently disastrous both in terms of retail outlets and the resulting architectural impact on the AY area.

The open and immediate threat to the infrastructure has never been addressed, and cannot be left to be sorted out once the construction is underway.

Why? First and foremost because the waste water that is now out of control damages the area and reduces its value. Potentially it could become a breeding ground for typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and sundry other water born diseases that have been a prominent part of NYC's history. Adding 2 Million Gallons of Sewage to that burdensome danger is without conscience.

Even granting the billions of public dollars already on the block for this project without fiscal oversight, the problems of sewerage have not yet been factored into those numbers. Please envision the financial burden of digging up 50 or more blocks of the city to create enhanced sewer lines and then adding new sewage treatment plants.

On top of all that is the fact that these necessities will reduce a thriving, affluent, rising set of communities into valueless, uninhabitable waste lands.

This catastrophe, Mr. Markowitz, will have your name on it right at the top under Bruce Ratner, and he will have left town long before the problems start bubbling to the surface. There is no hope whatever that they will abate within the lifetime of anyone reading this letter if this project is not scaled down, got under fiscal control, and managed realistically.

Yours with fond regards,

Steven Hart, Ph.D.
Brooklyn

Again, our own reading of Chapter 11 of the DEIS says there is no projected negative impact on the Gowanus and that the Red Hook Treatment Plant has abundant capacity to handle the increase in sewerage. We will leave it to the wasterwater treatment experts to fully digest the contents and report back on the fine print and assumptions used.

Thursday Night Twilight Tours in Prospect Park, Bats Included

From the Prospect Park Alliance comes news of Twilight Tours in Prospect Park on July 27 and August 3 and 10. The tours start at 7 PM. To quote:

Enjoy an evening of strolling and cruising, wine and cheese, and the Park’s mysterious nocturnal fauna. Start out with a ride on the electric boat Independence, followed by guided exploration of the Park’s nature trails and a chance to meet the amazing bats that call Prospect Park home. $25 per person. Tours fill up fast, so make reservations early! (718) 789-2822 Ext. 13.

While GL is not sure about "meeting" any bats, the evening stroll and the boat ride on the lake, sound like a good way to end a summer's day.

BREAKING: Empire State Development Corp. Accepts Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement

The Empire State Development Corp. has announced it has adopted the General Project Plan for the Atlantic Yards project and accepted the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). A public hearing is scheduled in Brooklyn for August 23rd, and another forum is scheduled on September 12. Public comments are being accepted until September 23. In announcing the adoption of the plan ESDC Chair Charles Gargano said Atlantic Yards "will have a lasting impact on the borough."

Atlantic Yards Development Group President Jim Stuckey was quoted in the official release as saying, "While the Draft EIS examines potential impacts that the project may have, we've gone to great lengths to develop innovative programs to mitigate the impact both during construction and after."

The documents contains important details about the project's various impacts which both supporters and opponents have been awaiting. The document, for instance, shows that the total cost of the project has increased from $3.5 billion to $4.2 billion.

The full document is 15 inches thick--the DEIS Executive Summary alone runs to 39 pages--and project opponents immediately jumped on the timetable for public review, hearings and comment. Develop Don't Destroy's Daniel Goldstein called the 60 day review period starting in the dead of summer a "contemptible slap in the face" to Brooklynites.

Both documents (the General Project Plan and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement) are available here. Click here for the PDF of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods greeted the release with the following statement: “While the timing of the release during the summer vacation and while the Community Boards are in recess might strike some as a ‘mid-summer surprise’, CBN and the communities we represent are eager to dig in!" The Council is holding sessions on the document on July 18, 20 and 25.

The release of the DEIS comes two days after a large rally in Grand Army Plaza against the proposed project demonstrated that opponents have gained considerable traction against Atlantic Yards.

Analysis to follow.

If the Lights Go Out, Blame Queens

Okay, so it's blazing hot and power use is near the top of the charts and there are issues in parts of Queens that are leading Con Ed to ask people in neighborhoods like Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside, Hunters Point, and Astoria to turn off "non-essential" appliances like washer and dryers and TV and air conditioners. (Who decided that AC was non-essential with the heat index above 100, we don't know.) There were (now resolved) heat-related service issues on the 1, 2 and 3 trains. And it's still early afternoon.

NY1 reports that nearly 3/4 of us are willing to do our part to conserve, energy. Or not:

Reporter: "Would you turn your AC off when you're not home? Or would you leave it on all day so it's nice and cool?"

Queens Resident: "I leave it on all day. All day. All day."

Park Slope vs. Williamsburg Shade Contest: A Big Time Tree Gap

Gowanus Lounge takes zero credit for coming upon this map, from NYC Oasis. Credit for that goes to Gothamist, which picked up an excellent item produced by IMBY, a very good South Slope blog from which we wish we would hear more frequently. All GL did was generate the map for Park Slope-Carroll Gardens and one for Williamsburg. Still, given the blazing sun and the blistering heat today, why not do a tree and, by definition, shade comparison? The Park Slope-Carroll Gardens and environs map is above. (Green obviously, equals trees.) The Willamsburg area map is below. With the barren exception of (sadly) Gowanus, where folliage is damned sparse in places, you will note the dramatic Tree Gap between these parts of North and South Brooklyn, with the North on the short end of the, um, stick. (The same Tree Gap could be noted in comparing the Lower Manhattan map to green parts of South Brooklyn.) In any case, today will not be a good day to be walking on Kent Avenue.

Brooklyn Groups to Bloomberg: Transportation Policy, Please

[Traffic photo posted by gawillia82 on flickr.]

Twenty-eight Brooklyn neighborhood groups have signed on to a letter to Mayor Bloomberg that is highly critical of the negative impact of what they say is his administration's lack of a coherent transportation policy and its impact on the borough. The letter is shared by streetsblog, which consistently does fine work in reporting progress or lack thereof on critical transportation issues.

The groups say that the Bloomberg Administration has failed to "articulate clear, goal-oriented transportation policies or priorities" and that "worthy city transportation initiatives are few, and many drift along as studies, failing to deliver any public benefit."

Among other things, the letter lambastes the city for a rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn that dealt with transportation "in a superficial fashion." It criticizes the Dept. of Transportation for "unilaterally" discarding a "traffic calming" plan for Downtown and other neighborhoods. And, it slams last year's the Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning for promoting growth and ignoring transportation planning even in the face of already critical subway overcrowding.

While Brooklyn's population is surging, the letter says that the city is continuing its decades-long failure to increase mass transit capacity in the borough. Among other things, the letter calls for a parking permit system in some neighborhoods and quick creation of Bus Rapid Transit lanes (as opposed to more years of study). Groups signing the letter range from the North Brooklyn Alliance and Park Slope Civic Council to the Bay Ridge Community Council and Fort Greene Association. The full text and more details are available at streetsblog.

Brooklinks: Tuesday We're Roasting Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related blog items, news stories and image. The non-Brooklyn, but appropriate, image above is an ices vendor on a beach in Rockaway:

Roasting

• Dog Days: 25 Ways to Beat the Heat [NYDN]
• Gimme Swelter! [NYDN]
• Pools Open Late, Cooling Centers Open [NYC OEM]
• Park's Department City Pools Page [NYC Parks Dept.]
• Brooklyn and Other City Beaches [NYC Parks Dept.]
• Heat Hits Subway Riders [AMNY]

Marinating

• Hey, That's My Story!!! Can You Give Me Some Credit? [OTBKB]
• Daily News Atlantic Yards Reality Warp[AYR]
• Fight for Progressive Development Heats Up [Dope on the Slope]
• Outer Borough Taxi Plan [NYPost]
• 110 Livingston: On Sale Now! [53 Boerum]
• Stray Pride BBQ at Ginger's [Brooklyn Record]
• Mickey Spillane Dies at 88 [AMNY]
• Fort Greene Community Board Turns Down 5-Mile Bike Lane [Brooklyn Papers]
• Suzanne's Crown Heights [Brownstoner]
• Opinionist--Siren Festival 06 [Gothamist]
• Battle for the Stomachs of Brooklynites [Wonkster/Gotham Gazette]
• Williamsburg Water Taxi Sets Sail [Brooklyn Record]
• Wong Foo on Flushing Avenue [bluejake]

Beating the Heat in Brooklyn at City Pools

It's hot as hell. So, for what it's worth, here's a guide to the location of city pools in Brooklyn. While the Astoria Pool in Queens in probably the Gold Standard New York City pool, several of the Brooklyn pools, including the one in Red Hook and the one in Sunset Park are absolutely huge.

All pools were open until 8PM last night and will likely stay open late again tonight.

The entire guide (which also includes wading pools and "mini-pools," of course, is available at the Parks Department site:

Outdoor Pools

• Betsy Head--Boyland, Livonia and Dumont Avenues. (718) 965-6581. 330' x 165' x 4.25 (Olympic)
• Bushwick Houses--Flushing Avenue and Humboldt Street. (718) 452-2116. 75' x 60' x 3'
• Commodore Barry--Flushing and Park Avenues, Navy and North Elliot Streets. (718)243-2593. 75' x 60' x 3'
• Douglas and DeGraw--Third Avenue and Nevins Street.(718) 625-3268. 75' x 60' x 3'
• Howard--Glenmore and Mother Gaston Blvd., East New York Avenue. (718) 385-1023. 75' x 60' x 3'
• Kosciusko--Kosciusko between Marcy and Dekalb Avenues. (718) 622-5271. 230' x 100' x 4' (Olympic)
• Red Hook--Bay and Henry Streets. (718) 722-3211. 330' x 130' x 4' (Olympic)
• Sunset Park--Seventh Avenue between 41st and 44th Streets. (718) 965-6578. 259' x 162' x 3.5' (Olympic)

Indoor Pools

• Brownsville--Linden and Mother Gaston Blvds. and Christopher Avenue. (718) 485-4633. 75' x 30' x 8'
• Metropolitan--Bedford and Metropolitan Avenues. (718) 599-5707. 75' x 30' x 8'
• St. John's--Prospect Place, between Troy and Schenectady Avenues. (718) 771-2787. 75' x 42' x 9'

Paul Giamatti Jokes About the Gowanus Canal

Brooklyn resident Paul Giamatti's new flick The Lady in the Water (opens 7/21) is about a shy building manager who rescues a mysterious woman, who is actually a mythical creature, from his swimming pool. Strangeness ensues. Giamatti was interviewed by the AP and the following exchange took place:

AP: You live in Brooklyn. Do you think any ladies are hiding in the water there?

Giamatti: (laughs) They'd have to be in the Gowanus Canal, unfortunately. So they're probably not alive if they're in there! I mean, I don't know. There's no swimming pools, is there? "Lady in the Toilet in Brooklyn."

We thought it was worth sharing.

A Look Inside East River Park

"east river park", originally uploaded by e-liz.

Here's an interesting look inside East River Park courtesy of local photographer Elizabeth Weinberg, who posts on flickr as e-liz. Her photos, above and below, show the bare bones park on the East River in Williamsburg. (She has also put together a panorama of the park, which is better viewed full size on flickr than here.)

Up the Creek: Gowanus Lounge Does Newtown Creek

We took a fascinating boat ride up Newtown Creek on Sunday morning with the good people from the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment. Newtown, which forms the boundary between Brooklyn and Queens, is the most polluted body of water in New York City (sorry, Mr. Gowanus), presenting a multiplicity of cleanup issues both in terms of the creek and various parcels of land along its shores. Newtown is the scene of the Greenpoint oil spill, one of the nation's largest, and the former home of a Phelps-Dodge copper smelter that left behind a Superfund site.

Newtown's banks are still lined with industry and facilities, including many scrap metal and recycling operations, the sci-fi Greenpoint Sewage Treatment Plant and oil storage facilities. Along the way, GL spoted one person and six Canada Geese, the latter under the BQE's Kosciuzsko Bridge. We failed to identify the source of the nauseating garbage smell that, in summer traffic fills one's car on the bridge, but do note that it's far more pungent on the creek itself.

These vistas are unusual because the only way to see them is by boat. There is virtually no public access at any point along the canal, noted our excellent tour guide Jack Eichenbaum, other than from one of the bridges over the creek or from the end of Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, where a small park is currently under construction.

(There are dozens more photos in our flickr Newtown Creek photoset.)


One of the boats docked along the creek, on the Queens side.


Dead cars on a barge and a "Driving School" tractor trailer in the lot.


Abandoned chemical industry.


One of many, many barges on the creek.


The Epcot Center-like Greenpoint Sewage Treatment Plant.


A bit of the NY Water Taxi that functioned as tour boat.

Anti-Ratner Rally Draws Thousands on a Blazing Hot Sunday

A crowd estimated by organizers at 4,000 turned out in baking heat yesterday for a rally against the Atlantic Yards project sponsored by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. (The NY Times estimated 2,000.) While the crowd was not so large as to indicate a popular uprising againt the massive residential-commercia-arena plan, the turnout (whether 4,000 or 2,000 or in between) did signify that the anti-Yards movement has momentum. The opposition has clearly been attracting new supporters and contributors. (Check Norman Oder's perceptive-as-usual analysis of the rally and what it meant.)

"This is not a done deal," said City Council Member Charles Barron, who has been upfront in opposing the project. He urged the crowd to "mobilize and organize for 2009." Barron was referring to a strategy to try to hobble the project through litigation long enough for new leadership in City Hall and on the City Council.

While the majority in the crowd at the rally was clearly white, most speakers at the rally were African-American, which is significant given that the Atlantic Yards debate has taken on racial overtones in recent months. "This is not about race," said Rev. Clinton Miller. "It's about class and it's about asking the right questions."

Other speakers included Council Member Letitia James, State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (who is being challenged by a pro-Atlantic Yards candidate), Assembly candidate Bill Batson, activist Bob Law and Fort Greene activist Ed Carter.

"This is the beginning of a citywide battle," Council Member Tony Avella, who also said he will run for Mayor in 2009, told the crowd.

DDDB co-founder Daniel Goldstein said, "This deal is coming undone. It's suffering from long-term illness. Let's put it out of its misery." Mr. Goldstein introduced the actress, T. Sahara Meer, that had been used in a Ratner promotional brochure who has since become a active DDDB volunteer. Ms. Meer thanked the developer for getting her very involved in the anti-Atlantic Yards fight.

Entertainer Dan Zanes, actor Steve Buscemi and actress Rosie Perez were among those that also took the stage. Ms. Perez called the plan "an insult to the poor."

"We have a real chance to undo this done deal," Mr. Buscemi said. "It aint done yet."

(More than three dozen photos are posted in my flickr photoset.)


Rosie Perez and Steve Buscemi


City Council Member Charles Barron


DDDB Founder Dan Goldstein and Ratner "Poster Girl" T. Sahara Meer


City Council Member Letitia James


Assembly Candidate Bill Batson


U.S. House Candidate Chris Owens


On the sidelines

Brooklinks: Monday People Baking in the Sun at Rally Against Ratner Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related blog items, news stories and images.

Morning After Coverage

• No Massive Rally Turnout, but Progress [AYR]
• Bklyn stars come out to rip Ratner [NYPost]
• Crowd Gathers to Protest Size of AY Plan [NYT]
• Thousands Gather for Rally at Grand Army Plaza [OTBKB]
• Blogosphere Rally Coverage [No Land Grab]
  
• Rally Attracts Shutterbugs [Dope on the Slope]
• Parasol Power [Dope on the Slope]
• DDDB Rally Photoset [rsguskind/flickr]
• Ratner Rally: Power to the People [doughnut]
  

Not Morning After

• Chowing Down with Red Hook Food Vendors [423 Smith]
• Siren Fest Photos, MP3s and Vids [Gothamist]
• Objects and Interiors on Fifth Avenue [OTBKB]

Gowanus Holiday Inn Delays Opening (Again)

South Brooklynites rushing to book a room for mom and dad at the new Gowanus Holiday Inn Express are going to have to wait a bit longer, according to newyorkology, which is the source for info about our favorite lodging option near the Big G. The hotel was originally taking reservations for a mid-July opening, which slipped to July 24 and has now slipped again to July 31. (Moral of the story: Don't book a hotel for its projected opening date if you want a simple out-of-town trip.) The Holiday Inn Express, which has 115 rooms, is on Union Street between Third and Fourth Avenue.

While we salute Gowanus' first hotel (and any South Brooklyn hotel for that matter), we note with some grumpiness that the Holiday Inn chain is not embracing its Gowanus location and continues to refer to the location as "Park Slope." (In fact, company officials say "It really is" in Park Slope.) Uh, not exactly. If the hotel's location is Park Slope, then the Gowanus is Prospect Park Lake. To repeat some common wisdom: If it's flat ground, it ain't Park Slope. It's the Gowanus Holiday Inn Express. Can't wait for the first vaguely aware tourist to show up, look around and say, "This is Park Slope? But it looked so different in the pictures."

Gowanus. Gowanus. Gowanus. Got it?

Sunday Evening Photo: Anti-Ratner Rally Crowd

The crowd, estimated by organizers as 4,000, at the Grand Army Plaza Rally Against Ratner today sponsored by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn. More photos and information tomorrow morning.

Bklyn Papers Editorial Rips Ratner's "Dog and Pony Show"

We've always loved the expression "dog-and-pony show" and use it whenever possible to describe distasteful and orchestrated displays, so we are very taken with Brooklyn Papers editor Gersh Kuntzman's smack down of the Forest City Ratner affordable housing session held at the Brooklyn Marriott earlier this week in an editorial headlined "A dog-and-pony show." The editor writes (we don't usually copy entire articles, but this merits fully copy and paste treatment):

The timing could not have been more suspect. On the eve of a massive protest rally at Grand Army Plaza this Sunday and weeks before he will release an environmental impact statement, Bruce Ratner and his public-relations minions set up a dog-and-pony show to highlight the lone element of his mammoth $3.5-billion Atlantic Yards mega-development that could arguably be viewed in a positive light: 2,250 “affordable” rental units.

In hopes of drawing a huge crowd to his “affordable housing information meeting,” Ratner even promoted the event in Queens and The Bronx — far from his housing-hungry Brooklyn supporters. (Way to back your allies, Bruce!)

And, indeed, thousands of people, from all over the city, showed up, eager to put in an application for a cheap rental in a Frank Gehry-designed high-rise.

Oh, but wouldn’t you know it: No applications were available — and won’t be for at least three years — because this full-house event was not really about serving apartment hungry New Yorkers, but about using them as props in the Forest City Ratner media campaign.

The company did give plenty of details about its 2,250 “affordable” units, but the Devil was hiding in many of those details: the “affordable” units now comprise 32.8 percent of the entire project — down from an earlier commitment by Ratner of 50 percent.

Yes, some apartments — a mere 225 — will be doled out to families earning less than $28,000 per year, but 900 of them will actually be set aside for families earning more than $70,000.

Forest City Ratner said it worked out the formulas with ACORN, the affordable housing advocacy group the company is paying to support the project, but many people who attended the information session were disappointed that so many units were being set aside for higher-earning families.

Left unsaid, as it often is by Forest City Ratner, is that the developer would be subsidized by the city, state and federal governments to build the affordable units within the larger, lucrative project. He is not doing it out of the goodness of his caring heart, but out of the canniness of his business head.

Those subsidies might be a good public investment when they create truly affordable housing — but the plurality of Ratner’s units would be available only to families making $70,000 or more, and would be built after tearing down existing buildings where people, some of them low-income families, already live.

In the end, rounding up 2,000 people to the Brooklyn Marriott for a photo-op had more to do with public relations than affordable housing.

There are two other articles on the project in this week's edition. One is Ariella Cohen's report on the session headlined "On the cheap" and the other is her preview of the anti-Ratner rally that takes place tomorrow (7/16) at Grand Army Plaza headlined "Zanes leads Sunday Ratner rant."

[Dog-and-pony show photo from silkroadscamels.com]

Brooklinks: Sunday Siren Festival and Ratner Rally Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related blog items, news articles and images. The photo above is from Jen C on flickr of Art Brut at the Siren Festival in Coney yesterday:

Siren Festival Pics [Brooklyn Vegan]
Siren Festival 2006 Photoset [vegan in furs/flickr]
2006 Siren Fest Photos [Jen C/flickr]
Siren Festival Photoset [jnforte 1/flickr]
Siren Fest '06 Pics [dave00327/flickr]
211 flickr Siren Fest Tagged Photos (as of Sun. Morning...tons to come) [flickr]
Zanes leads Ratner rant [Brooklyn Papers]
Brooklyn Eagle Goes Underground [No Land Grab]
Film Focuses on Ratner Holdouts [Carroll Gardens Courier]
Crap Shoot: Residents Vie for Atlantic Yards Spot [Park Slope Courier]
Coney Lifeguard is Lifeline to Bush [NYDN]
Shabby Bag Man Gives Cops Fits [Park Slope Courier]
Dope's Fatso Pesto [Dope on the Slope]

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Drowned Rose on Beach

Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rally Against Atlantic Yards on Sunday

If you are one of those of a mind to oppose the Forest City Ratner Atlantic Yards plan because of its impact on nearby neighborhoods like Prospect Heights, Fort Greene, Park Slope, Gowanus, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens, you might be interested in the rally that opponents are having tomorrow (6/16) at 2 PM in Grand Army Plaza.

Brooklinks: Saturday Things to Look at and Read Edition

Things at Which to Look:

• A Corner in East Gowanus [bluejake]
• Red Hook Outdoor Patio [shield/flickr]
• The Giglio at Night [imjustsayin/flickr]
• Domino Sugar Factory [justiNYC]
• Frightening Clown in Coney Island [Joe's NYC]
• Bklyn Video of the Day: 1980 Astroland Commercial [Sunset Parker]
• Cute Fourth Avenue Park Slope/Gowanus Clown [Quiet Walk Through NYC]
• Sunday in the Park [Lex's Folly]
• Approaching Gowanus at Sea Level [f.trainer/flickr]
• Red Hook Shipyard Demolition [lexo/flickr]
• The Wilds of Red Hook [Brooklyn Ramblings]

Things to Read:

• Brooklyn People: Megan Nicolay [Brooklyn Record]
• On the cheap: Throngs seek out Ratner apts. [Brooklyn Papers]
• More Than 19K New Residents? Another Look at Extreme Density [AYR]
• Ratner Candidate Enters Assembly Race [No Land Grab]
• Underground Railroad or Parking Lot? [Bklyn Downtown Star]
• $4M Fort Greene Park Brownstone [Brownstoner]
• The Monster Roaches of Park Slope [Daily Slope]

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour Part Deux: Grand Army Plaza Produce

Weekly Saturday greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn.

Weekly Gowanus Lounge Curbed Wrap Up

Gowanus Lounge spends time at Curbed posting Brooklyn and other items. Here are some links to some of this week's items. The photo is courtesy of Runs Brooklyn:

• Friday Brooklyn Traffic and Congestion Special [Curbed]
• Before the Bedford Ave. High-Rise, the See-Through Building [Curbed]
• On the Run in Brooklyn with Words and Photos [Curbed]
• Coney Island Shortcakes Interview Series [Curbed]
• Fairway-Food Coop Death Match [Curbed]
• Here Comes Your King-Size Bed in Gowanus. No, Really. [Curbed]
• City Buying More Land for Parks in Williamsburg? [Curbed]
• Grand Army Plaza Starting to Get that Meier Feeling [Curbed]

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Industrial Memory

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? But this one is worth so many more, as it is a view inside of the building at the corner of N. 4th Street and Bedford Avenue that is being demolished to make way for what could be a development of 675,000 square feet called Williamsburgh Square, including buildings as tall as 30 stories.

Hipsters Versus Park Rangers in New State Park?

One of the more genuinely amusing parts of having a state park in Williamsburg is bound to be the inevitable clash between the anal-retentive, rule-heavy New York State Park bureaucratic structure and Williamsburgers. How bad are The Rules? Pretty darn bad. We personally know of brides reduced to tears at Gantry State Park in Long Island City by Park Rangers who order and end to photo sessions and even use vague threats of jail should the photographic excess continue. A photo permit is required for "commercial photography" and, of course, a rule is a rule. (Where would we be if state park rules were not enforced and permit-less brides took pictures on their wedding days with the New York skyline in the background?) You have to call ahead for the permit and cannot buy a permit on the spot. Those are the rules. (Gowanus Lounge believes it would be a nice touch if the Park Rangers were required to recite such rules in German.)

Park Rangers also routinely descend on photographers using tripods, with the reasoning being that since commercial photography is banned in New York State parks, anyone using a tripod is a pro. So, at Gantry Park, anyone trying to take a sunset photo of Manhattan across the river with a tripod who is spoted by the Keepers of the Rules, is told to lose the tripod. We have also personally seen this happen.

On the other hand, it's okay to sunbathe topless in NY State parks. We were treated to a discourse on this subject by a friendly and lonely Park Ranger who expressed his frustration that there was nothing he could do to stop women from ripping off their shirts and catching some rays. Those who tend to enjoy doing so in his park are often European, he noted, except for the girlfriend of a certain baseball player who tormented him with her exposed breasts during the summer of 2005.

So, one can conclude that it's okay if you want to take photos of your topless female friend in the new state park as long as you don't use a tripod. (But, please, please check with one of the friendly Ranger people in the park before doing anything, lest the rules be enforced differently in Williamsburg.)

Won't this make the Williamsburg park more fun?

Yo La Tengo Celebrate Brooklyn with Their Score for Marine Life

Indie music stalwarts Yo La Tengo brought their Sounds of Science film score to Celebrate Brooklyn last night, drawing an exceptionally large crowd. The performance was to set to the old short marine life documentaries of Jean Painleve. Playing front of a large film screen, the three members of Yo La Tengo peformed a compositions that ranged from evocative to edgy to rockish to noisy. The triumph of the set was a gorgeous composition that accompanied a Painleve film about octopus.

McCarren Pool: Choreographer Says City "Selling Our Parks"

Things are far from quiet on the McCarren Pool front, with opponents of expensive concerts at the venue being produced by Live Nation working on ways to turn up the heat on city government. Their next target of opporunity is the local Community Board 1 meeting that takes place on Tuesday (7/18) at 6:30 p.m. at 435 Graham Ave. The meeting will deal with, among other things, future programming at the pool.

Meanwhile, Sens Production founder and choreographer Noémi LaFrance, who created last year's Agora dance performance that revived the pool, is peeved about the way thing are turning out. Ms. LaFrance, who is now putting together Agora II--which will run from September 6-30 and use performers from multiple dance and theater companies--told the Brooklyn Rail that she first approached the Parks Department in 2004 about using the pool for her performances. For a long time, they weren't interested. Eventually, Sens paid $50,000 to clean-up the space for a public performance. Then, Live Nation--the Clear Channel spin off that is producing concerts featuring Bloc Party, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sonic Youth, Neko Case and others at the pool this summer--paid $200,000 pool clean-up fee in 2005 and a $11,700 site fee in 2006, according to the Rail, in exchange for the opportunity to use the pool for a series of concerts this summer. (These are not to be confused with the excellent and community-minded series of free Pool Parties being offered every Sunday through Labor Day from 2-8 PM by JellyNYC.)

(Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel--who we last heard from as he ordered student art removed from the Brooklyn War Memorial because it was "inappropriate" for families--told the Rail the Clear Channel shows are a great idea. "Any community benefits from concerts," he says. "It’s a nice thing for individuals and families to enjoy...There are always a few people who grumble." You mean, like, when you censored the art, Herr Commissioner? Ja?)

But, we digress.

LaFrance says that back in the day when the Parks Department didn't have visions of corporate concert producers dancing in its head, it was interested in giving Sens long-term use of the site. But, now that corporate bucks and connections are part of the picture things are different. Very, very different. "We got spun around," LaFrance tells the Rail. "Clear Channel is stepping on our toes. They are having a show on one of our Saturdays so we have to change our schedule, not they. The Parks Department is selling our parks as real estate to corporate America."

(Photo is courtesy of Santo Subito on flickr.)

Brooklinks: Friday End of the Week Sunset Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog entries and images. The beautiful sunset photo above was shot at the Bushwick Inlet in Williamsburg by Jim Striebich of 11th Hour Productions in Williamsburg:

Get Your Eat On, Drink and Be Merry

• Fake Chicken is Real Good at Stir it Up [Brooklyn Record]
• Punk Icons The Buzzcocks at Warsaw [jonnleather.com]
• Trio Reopens in Sheepshead Bay [NYDN]
  
• Hungry Cabbie Does Belarus II in Brighton Beach [Gothamist]
• Glazed Peaches with Brown Sugar and Ginger [OTBKB]
  
• Siren Festival After Party [freewilliamsburg]
• Bastille Day Brooklyn Bistros [About Brooklyn]
• This Weekend in Brooklyn [Brooklyn Record]
  
• Bushwick: Beer Capital of the Northeast (Circa 1877) [Brooklyn Ramblings]
• Life's a Beach [Gothamist]

Think, Look and Run

• Anti-Atlantic Yards Rally Preview Airing on BCAT [No Land Grab]
• Rally Against Ratner [DDDB]
• Red Hook Accident Victim Dies [Observer]
• Outrage Over Road Death in Red Hook [NYDN]
  
• Old Sunday Parking Signs Remain and Some Brooklynites Still Pay [NYDN]
• Lefferts Hotel Hearing Postponed Til End of Month [Brownstoner]
• Williamsburg, We Hardly Knew Ye [Gothamist]
• Intl Bagel Bakers Union Local 338: The Documentary [Forward]
• Today, the Jerry Building [Runs Brooklyn]
• World Cup in Bensonhurst [OTBKB]

Coney Island Rocks Out: Tomorrow's Siren Festival Schedule

Odds are very good you don't need Gowanus Lounge to tell you that the annual Siren Festival takes place tomorrow in Coney Island, but perhaps the schedule would be helpful? Here it is:

Main Stage (W. 10th Street off Surf)
1:00 PM Deadboy and the Elephant Men
2:00 PM The Rogers Sisters
3:00 PM Celebration
4:00 PM Tapes 'N Tapes
5:00 PM The Stills
6:00 PM She Wants Revenge
7:30 PM Scissor Sisters

Stillwell Stage (Stillwell Avenue off Surf)
1:30 PM Priestess
2:30 PM Man Man
3:30 PM Dirty on Purpose
4:30 PM Serena Maneesh
5:30 PM The Cribs
6:30 PM Art Brut
8:00 PM Stars

(Photo is from Jo Divestar on flickr)

Gowanus Clean Up Funds Earmarked

With sewage erupting from manhole covers and a Gowanus Conservancy forming, Sen. Charles Schumer has stashed $250,000 in the FY 2007 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill to help with Gowanus Canal clean up efforts. The money will go to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study cleaning up and restoring the 1.5-mile South Brooklyn Seine. (As opposed to actually cleaning up the canal, which is going to cost a lot more than that.)

The funding is reported in the Park Slope Courier, which quoted Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who has secured federal funds for Gowanus community planning efforts, as saying she hopes the Big G will be transformed into “a viable source of community and economic development.”

Says the Courier:

The money will go towards an Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study designed to assess the environmental problems and potential solutions in the Gowanus Canal.

Restoration measures will assess the ‘hot spot’ clean-up of off channel contaminated sediments, contaminant reduction measures, creation of wetlands, water quality improvements, and the alteration of ydrogen/hydraulics to improve water movement and quality.

Potential next steps for the Army Corps of Engineers include dredging, capping, and perhaps some remediation of sediments.

The Department of Environmental Protection is working to upgrade the canal’s flushing tunnel, which pulls water from New York Harbor into the canal. The flushing tunnel upgrade, however, won't start until 2008 and will take 3-4 years.

Schumer pointed out that what flows into the canal is an issue for more than just South Brooklyn, because Gowanus water eventually makes its way into Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

Will Williamsburg Choke on Traffic and Overcrowded Trains?

Call traffic and overcrowding the dark underbelly of Williamsburg and Greenpoint development. The MTA's no-brainer of a discovery of how awful the L train has gotten only hints at the problems that will come in the next five-ten years as thousands of new apartments come on line. (The MTA is finally re-introducing old cars to the L to try to increase service, something community advocates have been suggesting for a long time.) Among the most telling statistic offered was that annual ridership on the L shot up from 26,155,806 in 2000 to 30,452,319 last year, and that ridership on the line has practically doubled since 1994.

OnNYTurf presents the compelling case that Williamsburg waterfront development is a planning disaster in the making and that the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the city government:

When the Department of Planning puts together projects like the Williamsburg Waterfront Redevelopment, the policy is to abdicate all responsibility for transportation to the DOT and MTA...Additionally when it comes to alternative transportation, like bicycle use, the DOT and Michael Bloomberg have stonewalled advocates. It is this abdication, indifference, and hostility that have lead to the growing transportation crisis in Williamsburg.

The item has extensive analysis about the city's consistent unwillingness to heed community concerns about density and the impact that new development is having--and will have--on the transportation infrastructure. The city, OnNYTurf argues, is laying the foundations for a transportation and quality-of-life disaster one or two decades down the road. Then again, by the time the consequences become apparent, dealing with the fallout and trying to fix the problem with be someone else's problem.

Former Planning Commissioner Roasts Atlantic Yards

Former City Planning Commissioner Ron Shiffman has joined the Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Advisory Board and has unloaded with a withering critique of the Atlantic Yards plan. "Forest City Ratner (FCR) and, by extension, the City and State of New York, continue to follow a process that is fundamentally flawed in pursuit of a plan that, if implemented, would scar the borough for decades to come," Shiffman writes in an essay posted by DDDB.

He goes on to suggest that density of the project would be so great and the design so "oversized" that the impact on residents would be "inhumane." Mr. Shiffman insists that he is not anti-development and says he even likes the idea of having a basketball team in Brooklyn, but he argues that Atlantic Yards will be a world-class planning disaster.

"I fear Forest City Ratner’s proposal will become the Brooklyn equivalent of Pruitt-Igoe, the notorious St. Louis public housing towers that have since been demolished," he writes. "Quite frankly I do not believe that any of the decision makers from the Borough President to the Governor have a grasp on how overwhelming and out-of-scale this development is."

Pruitt-Igoe is a planner code word for a project that is beyond awful, for something that is so fatally flawed that the only solution is blowing it up and, then, showing the video to an entire generation of planning students as a warning. That's Pruitt-Igoe coming down, of course, in the photo above.

Brooklinks: Thursday Second Battle of Brooklyn Update Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images:

Atlantic Yards:

• Stuckey, Lewis Face Restive, Skeptical Crowd at Yards Session [AYR]
• Summary of Affordable Housing Session Coverage [No Land Grab]
• After "Race" Battle, Dan Goldstein Charges On [NYObserver]
• Former Planning Commissioner on Atlantic Yards [Gotham Gazette]
• Rebranding Atlantic Center Mall [AYR]
  
• Former City Planning Commissioner Speaks Against Ratner [Daily Gotham]
• Atlantic Yards: Staving Off a Scar for Years [DDDB]
• Ratnerville Affordable Housing Roundup [3bikini]

Carroll Gardens/Gowanus:

• Summertime Specialties at Trout [Brooklyn Record]
• Stinky Brooklyn [A Brooklyn Life]
  
• Time Running Out for Undertaker [Brownstoner]

Listen Up, Brooklyn, No Matter Where You Live:

• Sultry Summer Soul Podcast [Dope on the Slope]
• Jukebox Brooklyn--Magic Number Edition [Sunset Parker]
• A Brooklyn Beat: Yo La Tengo, Siren Fest [A Brooklyn Life]
  
• Next Two Free Sunday Shows at McCarren Pool [Bklyn Vegan]
  

DiCaprio at Ferdinando's Focacceria for Scorsese Film

As a big fan of Ferdinando's Focacceria at 151 Union Street in Carroll Gardens/Red Hook, Gowanus Lounge was amused to learn from newyorkology that Leonardo DiCaprio has been onsite shooting Martin Scorsese's The Departed. If you haven't been to Ferdinando's, you should go, because this little Sicilian place is the real deal--a true taste of ungentrified Brooklyn that serves excellent food. The speciality here is the Panelle sandwich--deep-fried chickpea flour served on a house-baked roll with some of the best ricotta in New York City, topped with grated cheese. (If you really want to carb up, there's also a Panelle with potato.) We get Panelle cravings from time to time. They're that good.

Newyorkology quotes Historic Shops & Restaurants of New York about Ferdinando's thusly:

In 1904 Ferdinando's Focacceria opened in a Union Street storefront just three blocks from the waterfront, specializing in the little sandwiches that were sold by street vendors in the open-air markets of Sicily. For decades, the restaurant served up this Sicilian comfort food even as Red Hook began to decline along with the local shipping industry. Despite the intrusion of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the 1950s, a devastating blow to the neighborhood that isolated the shops from their customers, Ferdinando's remained in business.

Today, Frank Buffa, only the fourth owner of the focacceria, tends the place he inherited from his father-in-law. A little old country, a little New York, Ferdinando's is a beautifully preserved gem, with its vintage tile floor, pressed-tin ceiling and marble-topped tables.

Thanks, Leo and Marty, for giving GL a reason to write about Ferdinando's and reminding us that we need our Panelle fix.

(The photo above is from newyorkology.)

Williamsburg's East River Park: Don't Forget the Sunscreen

East River State Park in Williamsburg is moving a bit slowly thanks to all the rain, according to a well-informed source who went to people working on the new park to get the scoop. The mid- to late-July opening target is slipping because the rain has made the new lawns too soft for "the inevitable thousands of Chuck Taylors and platform boots tearing them up."

The source's source says that the state hasn't said much about the park so as not to raise expectations about an opening date. As for the park's barren look, that won't change any time soon. The budget is exhausted and officials want to "preserve a decent amount of the site’s historical character." The area is certainly historic, having served as part of a rail terminal from which Brooklyn's vast industrial output was once shipped, but everything on the site was demolished and covered over long ago. So, it sounds like landscaping Williamsburg's open space is not a priority. We would wager that once the luxury apartments that will soon rise south of the site open, the state will hire some landscape architects to make something more of East River Park.

Don't get us wrong. We're not making light of the need for more open space in Williamsburg and for waterfront access. In this sense, it doesn't matter what the park will look like. It will be great to get to the river without having to crawl through holes in fences. Speaking of which, however, East River Park will be fenced in so that officials can shut it down at dusk. Workers have also been making progress on putting up a nice, black fence around the property.

Meantime, the huge concrete pads at Kent and North 7th will remain on the site, although they may be yanked in the future. As for the skate park that some thought would go there: No go. The State Parks Commissioner--who presides over one of New York's most anal retentive, rule loving bureaucracies, doesn't dig skaters or the anarchic vibe they exude. (We're in shock.)

The interesting part will come when the park does open and Williamsburgers are introduced to New York State Parks culture and its rule-enforcing Park Rangers. Not too long ago, the Daily News wrote about complaints about tough enforcement of rules at NYC state parks like Empire Fulton Ferry Park in Dumbo and Gantry State Park in Long Island City, where offenders are routinely confronted by Park Rangers about their dogs, bikes, cameras and the like. (The rules say: No bikes. No dogs. No bridal pix without a permit. No cameras with tripods. No videotaping. Etc. And so forth.)

To keep all this in perspective, there was a time when the Pataki Administration was working on a deal with NYU to turn the entire property over to the school for sports facilities. So, what's a Park Ranger chasing you down for walking your bike on a path?




(All photos are courtesy of 11th Hour Productions.)

Ratner Meeting Draws a Crowd, Opponents Rally Sunday

Chalk up an early PR victory (moderated as the day goes on by skepticism) in the latest skirmish for the hearts and minds of Brooklynites over Atlantic Yards for Forest City Ratner. The developer can claim that it drew a crowd estimated at 2,500 people to the meeting it held on affordable housing at the Brooklyn Marriott. However, many of the attendees were frustrated at the long odds of snagging an apartment and surprised that "affordable" housing will cost so much.

The high turnout was likely a reflection of the awful housing situation in Brooklyn for low- and moderate-income families. And, probably also the result of a mistaken belief that showing up would somehow give them a leg up on snagging an apartment that won't even exist for 4-10 years, assuming the project is built.

As for the 2,250 rentals proposed for the Atlantic Yards site: 20 percent would be for households that earn $21,270 to $35,450 while 30 percent would be for families making $42,540 to $113,440. The remainder of the 6,860 units--ie. 4,610 of them--would be luxury/market rate. Distribution of apartments--if the project is built--would be lottery.Next up: The Atlantic Yards opponents are holding a rally at Grand Army Plaza, this Sunday, July 16 at 2:00. Will more people turn out to jeer Atlantic Yards than apparently showed at the Marriott last night to hear about affordable housing?

Stay tuned.

Update: This morning, Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) announced it was adding eight new members to its Advisory Board. Included are former New York City Planning Commissioner and Pratt Institute Professor of Planning Ron Shiffman, author Rick Moody, playwright Lynn Nottage, Brooklyn singer Toshi Reagon, author Myla Goldberg, author and editor Philip Gourevitch, artist and architect Chris Doyle, and comedian and actor Michael Showalter.

Update, V.2.0: Check out Norman Oder's thoughtful and comprehensive dissection of the media coverage of the event and his thorough reporting of the session itself. Forest City Ratner let Mr. Oder into this event as opposed to banning him. (He got an automated phone call confirming he was on the list, but then, the crush of people at the door was so great that they gave up on checking names.) As in Presidential debates, the press coverage determines whether you win or lose. And, there seems to be a great deal of spin away from Forest City Ratner, after an initial focus on the big turnout for the company's affordable housing session. A number of articles pointed out that many people that showed up left disappointed, both at the long odds of getting an apartment if they're ever built and at the high cost of what is considered "affordable" in Brooklyn these days. The New York Observer, for instance, wrote "a striking number of individuals in the largely black crowd who showed up at the Brooklyn Marriott were disappointed to find that 'affordable housing' was not that affordable, or accessible." As for Mr. Oder's perceptive take, he writes that "if project planners were looking to generate significant new support, as opponents plan a protest and the state environmental review hits its stride, they might try another tactic. The applause for the project was tepid; the strongest reaction came when people questioned the housing's cost and timetable. A large portion of the crowd walked out after 40 minutes, before the 20-minute Q & A. Why? Perhaps because they had already learned some key facts: applications wouldn’t be available for at least three years, with occupancy a year later, and a lottery will assign two-thirds of the places."

Assemblyman Notes the Great Greenpoint Williamsburg Fire

The Real Estate ran an item yesterday about Assemblyman Jim Brennan, whose district includes Park Slope and who chairs the Assembly Committee on Cities, and his support of the $300 million "Restoring New York's Communities" state program. The program is supposed to "help restore blighted communities by funding the reconstruction of deteriorated real estate," in The Real Estate's words.

So far, so good. Brennan is quoted as saying, "Think of where the fire was in Williamsburg. The city can use this money to knock it down and prepare the land for development." Now, we don't want to be pedantic or picky, but shouldn't an Assemblyman representing part of Brooklyn know the fire was in Greenpoint? As in, Greenpoint Terminal Market? Or is he talking about a different fire in Williamsburg that we don't know about? (We know the neighborhood borders depend on who is defining them in places, but not near the Greenpoint Terminal Market.)

Assem. Brennan told The Real Estate that priority for grants will go to contaminated "brownfield" sites and said that former industrial sites in Red Hook, Gowanus and Williamsburg could benefit. "The city can do a $20 million project that would knock down some vacant industrial structures, acquire the land, clear the site of toxic contamination, and then have a development project," he said.

Affordable housing, for instance, The Real Estate asked.

"Sure," Brennan said. "Or a commercial development. Or a box store."

We are reduced to silence.

Brooklinks: Wednesday Green Thumbs, Greenbacks, Controversy and Food Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related news article, blog items and images. The photo above pictures genuine Brooklyn-grown flowers:

Green Thumbs:

• Serra's Carroll Gardens Rooftop [Apt Therapy via Brownstoner]
• Sandra's Carroll Gardens Stoop [Apt Therapy]
• Brownstoner Garden: Now We Can Eat [Brownstoner]

Greenbacks:

• Video of the Day: Brooklyn Politician's Bribe [Gothamist]
• Gordon and Norman [Daily Politics]

Controversy:

• South Slope/Greenwood Heights Condo Height Protest [NYDN]
• Unwarranted Traffic Chaos in Red Hook [Streetsblog]
• All Atlantic Yards, All the Time [The Real Estate]
• Thousands Attend Atlantic Yards Meeting [NYT]
  
• Water Fight at McCarren Park Pool [Bklyn Rail]

Food and Drink:

• Monday Night at L&B Spumoni Gardens [Bklyn Ramblings]
• Mr. Brownstoner Says Rice is Nice [Bklyn Record]
• Inside the Slope's New Union Hall [Gothamist]
• Williamsburg: Brooklyn's Beer Capital [Bklyn Record]

B-52s Playing Coney Island in August

Gowanus Lounge must have been in a coma to miss this, but upon going through news of Brooklyn events from upcoming.org, we found a concert listing that is as obvious as it is fun: The B-52s will be playing Asser Levy/Seaside Park in Coney Island (at West Fifth Street and Surf Avenue opposite the Aquarium) on Thursday, August 10 as part of the 28th Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series. A free B-52s show in Coney Island? Rock Lobster by the sea? Oh, we will so be there.

Other shows include the Rev. Al Green, tomorrow, July 13 (competing against Yo La Tengo at Celebrate Brooklyn). And, if you're into this kind of thing, Julio Iglesias on July 27 and Liza Minnelli on August 17. Liza Minnelli?

Shine On Syd Barrett: RIP

It has nothing to do with Brooklyn or Gowanus, but it does have to do with our hearts and our musical memory, so it is with sadness that we note the passing of Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. From the BBC:

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes. The guitarist was the band's first creative force and an influential songwriter, penning their early hits. He joined Pink Floyd in 1965 but left three years later after one album. He went on to live as a recluse, with his mental deterioration blamed on drugs.

Born Roger Barrett in Cambridge, he composed songs including See Emily Play and Arnold Layne, both from 1967. He also wrote most of their album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But he struggled to cope with fame and drugs. Dave Gilmour was brought in to the band in February 1968 and Barrett left that April, releasing two solo albums soon after.

The band's biggest-selling releases, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, emerged in the post-Barrett era, with the band selling an estimated 200 million albums worldwide.

GL is sad.

Holy Crap: Sewage Geysers in Gowanus

First off, we're very sorry not to have photos of last week's sewage geysers that Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus emailed us about. (If you do, send 'em along and we'll gladly publish a photo of this phenomenon.)

In any case, you might remember the monsoon-like rainstorm during the morning commute on July 5. Well, it inundated Gowanus. Sewers massively overflowed into the canal (which happens regularly), into streets and into homes (less frequent, but not unheard of). FROGG describes three-to-five-foot geyers of sewage shooting up from the manhole covers on Bond Street. We quote:

Even that wasn't enough to release all the water pressure in the sewage system, as homes, more than a block from the canal, took on combined sewer overflow through house traps, rear-yard drains and ground floor plumbing fixtures, leaving many with several feet of combined sewer water to pump out.

Can you say, gross and disgusting?

FROGG sends this along as a way of pointing out that the effluent the massive Atlantic Yards project will spawn could leave Gowanus (and, clearly, not just the canal) literally swimming in crap every time it rains hard because the Red Hook Sewage treatment plant does not have sufficient treatment capacity to handle the project.

We're no sewage treatment experts, but FROGG points out that "while the Ratner organization is busy patting themselves on the back for a planned rain water holding lot on Pacific Street that would contain 1.8 million gallons per year, homes and buildings in our neighborhood are being used by the DEP to hold that much combined sewage water--and more--during each rain shower...1.8 million gallons per day of waste water will be added into the sewer pipes running through our neighborhood. That will make for a much dirtier mix of combined sewer waste water sitting in the basements of our homes."

A session to prepare residents to respond to the Atlantic Yards draft environmental impact statement is planned for tonight (July 11) at 7:00 at St. Cyril's Belarusian Cathedral at 401 Atlantic Avenue at Bond Street.

(The photo above of Gowanus on a rainy day is courtesy of kirby10011 on flickr.)

Park Slope's Slower Summer from OTBKB

Gowanus Lounge loves the summer vibe in Park Slope, including the overall quieter feeling and the fact that come late night on a Friday or Saturday, there's so much parking around that you could dock an ocean liner on Prospect Park West and other streets. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn's Louise Crawford does a superb job of perfectly capturing that langurous Slope summer feeling in an item she posts today called Slope Summer Slow Down:

Slope summer is in full swing. Or should I say: in slow down mode. There are less people around; it's a little easier to park. Seventh Avenue isn't swarming with parents and kids at 8:30 in the morning, at 3 p.m. The Mr. Softee truck doesn't park outside of PS 321 anymore. The ices guy and the man who sells cotton candy hanging from a stick don't show up either.

Therapists are on vacation. Friends are in Europe, on Long Island. The girl next door went to Barcelona. The kid across the street went to sleep-away. Summer is a time for travel, for transitions....Slow, lazy days. It takes effort just to walk around. There is still much to do and it gets done but more slowly than usual. Over at JJ Byrne Park, the Piper Theater is going full tilt getting ready for their production of Much Ado About Nothing this weekend.

Energy.

On Tuesday night (July 11) we're putting the big screen up and showing a movie; if it doesn't rain, that is. We're showing "Coney Island: The American Experience" the documentary by Ric Burns and Buster Keaton shorts.

Should be a fun night. I don't think it'll rain.

Hats off to Louise for making us smile this morning by so marvelously capturing the flavor of Park Slope come July.

More Things to Worry About: The Brooklyn Live Chicken Map

Gowanus Lounge has long thought that live poultry markets were gross in an olfactory way and possibly troubling in a cruelty to chickens sense. We've seen poultry trucks hauling chickens around in milk crates and we're either overly empathetic or simply weird, but we feel for the birds stuffed into tiny spaces. And, we don't even particularly like chickens as creatures.

In any case, the city's announcement of its Avian Flu Disaster Plan (not to be confused with the newly updated Hurricane Disaster Plan) got us to thinking about the live poultry markets scattered across NYC's five boroughs. Could the markets serve as petri dishes for avian flu? In theory, absolutely. Ironically, as concern about H5N1 and an avian flu pandemic has mounted, the number of poultry markets has increased. (Los Angeles, Miami and New York are among the top US cities for them.) In New York, the number has quadrupled in four years.

Health and saftey standards at the live bird markets are not the highest. The USDA depends on self-regulation in most cases (there's an effective mechanism for you) and New York State inspections are few and far between.

Googling "live poultry brooklyn," produces more than 300 spots in the five boroughs and Northern New Jersey where you can score live chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc. The Brooklyn markets are located on Columbia Street on the waterfront, on Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint, on Humboldt Street in Williamsburg, on 21st Street in Sunset Park and in other spots. The Gowanus Lounge Live Brooklyn Chicken Map, above, with thanks to Google Maps, shows some of the Brooklyn live poultry locations.

Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.

Brooklynite Has "Unlaunch" Party to Say Goodbye

The Brooklynite, the wonderful and thoughtful Brooklyn magazine that was created by Daniel Treiman, but that has ceased publishing, held an "Unlaunch" party at Freddy's Bar and Backroom on Dean Street in Prospect Heights last night. (Itself threatened with being swallowed up by the huge Atlantic Yards project.) While Gowanus Lounge couldn't make it, we wanted to (again) express our dismay at the loss of this intelligent and important voice. The Brooklynite published two issues on paper before a lack of advertising revenue made it impossible to continue. The third and final issue is available online. It includes articles on Brooklyn's Native American history, Mansoura's Middle Eastern Bakery in Gravesend, Gowanus Water Quality and much, much more. The magazine's first two issues are available online too, and include perceptive and well-researched articles, and some great photography.

All of which makes the loss of The Brooklynite harder to take. If it had been some slick and superficial magazine, you could shrug it off. But it wasn't. And, in a borough on the cusp of historic change--much of it bad--the loss of The Brooklynite stings.

We hope that Daniel continues to make his voice heard as part of the ever-growing online community of Brooklyn bloggers.

Brooklinks: Tuesday Around the Borough Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories, blog items and images. The photo is mom and baby captured at the McCarren Pool Party on Sunday in Williamsburg:

• $4.5 Million Makeover for Fulton Street [Brooklyn Record]
• Art for the Birds [Dope on the Slope]
• McCarren Pool Party Photoset [e-liz/flickr]
• Opinionist: Les Savy Fav at McCarren [Gothamist]
• 2006 Giglio Festival Photoset [rsguskind/flickr]
• Giglio: A Williamsburg Tradition [OTBKB]
• Bklyn Legislator Charged in Land Deal Bribe [NYT]
  
• Ungrand on Grand: $2,200 a Month for That? [Brownstoner]
• Atlantic Yards Affordable Housing Session: Why Now? [AYR]
• Walkabout: Dumbo/Heights [3Bikini]
• Jukebox Brooklyn--Jewish Edition [Sunset Parker]
• Daily Hook Weekly Podcast [Daily Hook]
• Drugs and Ho's Bring Down Lefferts Hotel [Brooklyn Record]
• Feds Nix Bklyn Grand Prix at Floyd Bennett [NYDN]
  

The Giglio Dances Again in Williamsburg

The annual "Dance of the Giglio" at the Giglio Feast on Havemeyer Street on Williamsburg's Northside took place on Sunday. The Giglio Feast, now in its 103rd year, is sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and parish priest Fr. Tom Conti called the Giglio Dance, in which dozens of men hoist the three-ton, five-story statue and carry it up and down Havemeyer Street--also turning it and lifting it up and down--"as Brooklyn as it gets." Fr. Conti, the Bishop of Brooklyn and a brass band rode on the platform as it was carried down Havemeyer through a huge crowd. If you're interested, you can check out our full flickr photoset here.

Clear Channel Opponents Plot Next McCarren Pool Moves

Those that attended yesterday's cool free McCarren Pool show might have gotten a flyer on the way out from some people promoting a new group called Pool-Aid. Pool-Aid is having a meeting tonight at Union Pool (484 Union Ave.) at 8PM and the flyer invites interested parties to "Come plot and scheme. Help make some noise this summer." At issue is the pricey concert series being produced by Clear Channel Communications subsidiary Live Nation, which controls a massive share of the live music market and radio in New York and other cities.

The flyer says, "Help Pool-Aid Man save McCarren Pool from the dastardly Clear Channel" and objects to "$52 tickets for shows in a public park."

Since Clear Channel's series at McCarren is a done deal this summer, we're assuming the group is interested in protesting and in trying to find ways to prevent it from becoming a permanent thing because, as noted in onNYTurf, the pool's future is still very much open for discussion.

Pool Aid's website isn't up and running yet, but we await news of the plans.

While Gowanus Lounge thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's free concert at the Pool and the friendly neighborhood vibe, more than once, we felt the strong sun, glanced about the pool and imagined it full of water. (This is not an unnatural reaction when you are standing in a huge, empty pool in July.) We also sat by the old diving pool, filled with dirt, and imagined a time when people jumped off the diving platform. GL thinks the pool's ultimate destiny should be a community recreation venue that includes, well, a pool. Money the Parks Department raises through contracts with corporate heavies like Clear Channel should be dedicated to making McCarren a pool again. In this lifetime.

Les Savy Fav Tear Up McCarren Pool

The free McCarren Pool concert series called Pool Parties got off to a rocking start with a triple bill headlined by Brooklyn stalwarts Les Savy Fav. LSF tore through a blazing set that featured Tim Harrington's frenetic vocals and Seth Jabour's searing guitar. Harrington made good use of the vast McCarren Pool space, venturing into the crowd a half-dozen times and inviting people onto the stage. At one point, he sprinted to the dodge ball court set up in a corner of the former pool and invited the players to throw balls at him. At another point, he balanced atop the railing set up around the empty pool. Harrington opened the show wearing red body paint to simulate a sunburn and closed it by pouring water over himself and covering himself in confetti.

Dragons of Zynth opened the show. They were followed on the stage by Holy Fuck.

While McCarren Pool is an excellent venue on a beautiful summer day, GL kept looking at the vastness of the pool as the sun blazed down and imagined it filled with water. Alas, the only H2O around was the stuff being sold in bottles and the water used to wet down a water slide. There are also some cool photos especially of the dodge ball set-up shot by e-liz at burntsienna.nu.

Overall there was a very cool and friendly vibe at the show. Hats off to JellyNYC for producing a community-friendly series and for being so, well, nice to deal with and having everything decently organized. Something gives us the feeling that the cool nabe vibe of the Pool Parties won't carry over to the Clear Channel-produced corporate concerts that kick off soon.

Brooklinks: Monday Italy Wins Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news stories and blog items:

• Happy Italians [A Brooklyn Life]
• Brooklyn Celebrates Italy's Big Win [Bklyn Record]
  
• Ciao France [z.madison]
• NYC Erupts as Italy Wins Cup [AMNY]
• Bensonhurst Celebrates the Big Win [PlanetPLG]
  
• France-Italy Borders in NY [NYT]
• Teens Sell Panini in Park Slope [NYT]
• Third Street in the City Section [OTBKB]
• Darkness at Busy Red Hook Corner [NYDN]
• Union Street Bridge Over the Gowanus [mlik]
• Brooklyn Summer Park Shows [NYDN]
• Hot Dogs on Fifth and Fifth [OTBKB]

Running, Running, Running in Brooklyn

Gary Jarvis is a very new Brooklyn immigrant who moved here from Iowa City on June 20, but it hasn't taken him long to get people to pay attention. That's because he has a wonderful new blog, Runs Brooklyn, and the ambitious goal of running every street in Brooklyn. He's using the blog to document the runs with words about and photos of the neighborhoods through which he passes. Last week, he was profiled by Jotham Sederstrom in one of his excellent Brooklyn articles in the Daily News. Mr. Sederstrom writes:

Each jog will culminate with Jarvis heading home and mapping his route, which he said will be chosen on a whim each morning when he heads out the door. He'll post the routes and his observations on the Web later in the day...Jarvis has already clocked about 45 miles in parts of Crown Heights, Flatbush, Greenwood Heights, Kensington, Midwood, Park Slope, and Sunset Park. He has also seen some of the borough's best-known landmarks, such as the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, Green-Wood Cemetery and St.Michael's Catholic Church. As for Brooklyn's 4,440 acres of parkland, Jarvis has already circled the perimeter of Prospect Park and plans to duck inside the borough's other pastures along the way.

"As long as pedestrians are allowed, I'm going to do it," said Jarvis, who tends to jog alone. "Obviously, I won't be jogging the BQE, the Gowanus or the Belt, but everything else is fair game."

A sample run was the one Mr. Jarvis called Wave Fences and Jimibeetles. It took in 7.97 miles through Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay in a little more than an hour. Of the scenery, Mr. Jarvis writes:

The run included a nice mix of residential streets (with lots of larger apartment buildings) and small businesses. Still, the sight that struck me most was the fencing around the sewage treatment facility (officially the Coney Island Water Pollution Control Plant) over by Shell Bank Creek -- along part of Knapp the fence curled over above the sidewalk like a breaker, while down the street and around the corner the top was scalloped in an abstract representation of individual waves.

Each of Mr. Jarvis' posts includes photos that he's taken along the way, making his Brooklyn Runs a compelling read indeed.

Gowanus Lounge Goes to Rockaway Beach

Gowanus Lounge went out of borough yesterday and put in some late afternoon time at Rockaway Beach, where we loaded a bunch of Ramones tunes into the MP3 player and sat in the sand, rocked out and reflected on what a beautiful voice Joey had while watching an amazing number of surfers do their thing in the waves. If you haven't been out to Rockaway in a long time, there's been an amazing amount of construction, including hundreds of new units in the Arverne by the Sea development, which will eventually occupy hundreds of long-vacant beachfront acres. (One of New York's more inspiring post-appocalyptic spots, anywhere, complete signs on streets to nowhere where long-demolished bungalows once stood.) There's also an article in today's Daily News about the crappy condition into which our beloved Federal government has allowed the Riis Park facilities to deteriorate. Below are a few more photos of our afternoon at the beach in Queens.

Surfs Up (Well, Not Really) at McCarren Pool: Time to Rock 'n Roll

Last weekend's Billyburg Short Film Fest was the beginning of summer programming at McCarren Pool, the long-closed Williamsburg/Greenpoint WPA-era pool turned ruin that has, for the time being, morphed into an entertainment venue. There will be shows produced by corporate conglomerate Clear Channel Communications this summer as well as more community oriented events.

Well, the free rock programming, which is produced by JellyNYC, starts on Sunday at 2PM with the first Pool Party at McCarren. (There's one every Sunday for the rest of the summer and they're all free). Sunday's fun includes Dragons of Zynth, Proton Proton, Beans with Holy Fuck and the very cool Les Savy Fav.

JellyNYC describes the free Sunday Pool Parties thusly:

You and some of the best bands and DJs from Brooklyn and beyond will sweat together in the city's most spectacular new venue — the 50,000 foot refurbished ruins of a community pool. As at any good pool party, there will be plenty to get you hot and keep you cool: when you're not pogoing, you can try your hand at full-court dodgeball, get a cold cup of Brooklyn's finest, grab a burger from the hut, set up a towel and tan your tatoos, or slide your way down a 27-ft inflatable slip n’ slide.

The schedule of free shows is available here.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Doorbells as Art

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brooklinks: Summer Sunday Edition

Brooklinks is a selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and photos. The photo above is from Havemeyer Street in Williamsburg, scene of the ongoing Giglio Festival:

• Goodnight Brooklynite [Gothamist]
• Fiat [Runs with Scissors/flckr]
• We Go to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory [burntsienna]
• Turn of the Century Bklyn Map [Bklyn Ramblings]
• Prospect Park Lake Attracts Anglers [NYT]
• Brooklyn's Eiffel Tower Gets Light [mlik]
• Parachute Jump Lit Up (Check photostream for more great shots) [Your Pal Matt/flickr]

The Beacon of Brooklyn Shines in Coney Island

The historic Parachute Jump was lit last night in Coney Island, with Boro Prez Marty Markowitz presiding over the ceremony at a private "Marty's Party" he hosted on the Steeplechase soccer field. (Gowanus Lounge didn't have an invite and wasn't in the mood to grovel to get in, so we watched from the beach, which offered a nicer vantage point for the Friday Night Fireworks show that followed.) Late into the night, there were people with laptops under the Jump directing the light show.

All six lighting schemes were featured last night, and we have to say that while we wished the lights were brighter--they are a little dim from a distance--the overall effect is wonderful. Up close, the Jump looks stunning. The flashing LEDs that circle the Jump are definitely the crowd favorite. When all is said and done, it is a magnificent thing to see this Brooklyn landmark--that came so close to demolition so many times--finally restored and now lit up for all the world to see. We wish it many, many decades of lighting up the Brooklyn night sky and serving as the Beacon of Brooklyn and of Coney Island.

Brooklinks: Beautiful Brooklyn Saturday Edition

Brooklinks is our daily selection of Brooklyn-related news articles, blog items and images:

Camera in the Kitchen: L&B Spumoni Gardens [Gothamist]
Coney Star Shines [NYPost]
Flower of a Tower is Relighted [NYT]
Friday Night in Park Slope [OTBKB]
Woman Hit in Red Hook [Bklyn Record]
Weekend with the Gowanus Canal's Empty Vessel [Bklyn Ramblings]
W. Side Railyards vs. Brooklyn Railyards: Double Standard [AYR]
Heard on Third: The Brits are Coming [Brownstoner]
Newsflash: MTA Discovers L Train Sucks [Curbed]
Color Wars in Williamsburg [Transom via Bklyn Record]

Best Transformation of a Waterway into a Romantic Symbol? The Gowanus Canal Wins!

on the walk home, originally uploaded by sixeight.

Gowanus Lounged is biased, but we are not the ones that have named the Gowanus a "romantic symbol," which is a designation with which we wholeheartedly concur. No, the title has been bestowed by the Brooklyn Downtown Star and the Greenpoint Star, which have published a rocking "Best of Brooklyn List." The papers chose to eschew traditional "Best of" lists in favor of "bizarre, peculiar and downright unique outer borough experiences. From the best place to see a truly perverted movie to the most delightful public restroom, to the likeliest place to score a kosher breakfast."

There are excellent entries on the list, like naming the entrance to the private Sea Gate community on Coney Island as "Best Place to Feel Like You're in Berlin, Pre-Fall-of-Communism."

Then, sadly, there is the "Best Transformation of a Waterway Into a Dumping Way." That title goes to Newtown Creek, which is one of the few bodies of water in the world that can make the Big G look like the Alpine source from which Evian gets its H2O. If the South Brooklyn Seine can become a romantic symbol, however, Newtown Creek's image can improve too.

New Look Dumbo

Behold the J Condo in Dumbo, which will top out at 33 stories. It's now around 25 stories and looking a little on the tall side from ground level. That's the Beacon Tower--which briefly held the title of Dumbo's Tallest Building--on the right.

Schiesty Brooklyn Camera Stores: Caveat Emptor

Anybody who shops for cameras online knows that there are an inordinate number based in Brooklyn that advertise impossibly low prices on equipment. The game is that to get the ridiculously low price on, say, the Nikon D70, you have to buy outrageously priced packages of "accessories." Not buying the accessories often means not getting the camera.

Our compliments to the Brooklyn Record for its excellent item--with several links--to help spread the word about one of these operators. The item, headlined, "Buy This Camera or Bite Me," details an operation that totally crosses the line and outright abuses its customers. We go to the copy and paste:

A pushy salesman is one thing, but a salesman who threatens to break your neck is another beast entirely. A camera shop with several online aliases (including WawaDigital.com and StargatePhoto.com) that operates out of a graffiti-stained shop at 295 Avenue O has been generating complaints all over America for their bait and hook schemes and "uncouth and threatening service." Their cameras are listed at rock-bottom prices, but apparently, once you place your order and give your credit card number over the phone, they demand that you add on a pile of expensive accessories — or face a "20% restocking fee," and, perhaps, a knuckle sandwich. They're also known to hang up on customers — and then call back to leave death threats on their customers' answering machines. (You won't want to blast this out of your work computer, but you can listen to a sample threat here.) Tons of bloggers are fighting back by getting the word out about these bad business practices — but what needs to happen to shut down this shady operation?

What, indeed? While these practices are clearly in their own league, many other online camera dealers here and elsewhere play the same game. GL's advice: if the price is impossibly low, there's a catch. Stick to reputable retailers where you will encounter run-of-the-mill maddening problems rather than bait-and-switch, false advertising and worse.

Coney Parachute Jump to Light Up the Brooklyn Night

When the switch is thrown and the Parachute Jump--Brooklyn's Eiffel Tower, if you will--lights up tonight, it will mark another chapter in the long and storied life of a structure that has been through good times and bad. The Parachute Jump was built for the 1939-40 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows and the Fair's guidebook described it like this:

Eleven gaily-colored parachutes operated from the top of a 250-foot tower, enable visitors to experience all the thrills of "bailing out" without the hazard or discomfort. Each parachute has a double seat suspended from it. When two passengers have taken their places beneath the 'chute, a cable pulls it to the summit of the tower. An automatic release starts the drop, and the passengers float gently to the ground. Vertical guide wires prevent swaying, a metal ring keeps the 'chute open at all times, and shock-absorbers eliminate the impact of the landing. One of the most spectacular features of the Amusement Area, this is also a type of parachute jump similar to that which the armies of the world use in early stages of training for actual parachute jumping.

At the end of the Fair, the Jump was purchased by the Tilyou family and moved to Coney Island. It opened in 1941 as part of Steeplechase Park (which was torn down by Donald Trump's father, who is said to have symbolically begun the 1964 demolition by throwing a rock through the glass of the structure that was widely considered one of the world's most beautiful examples of Beaux-arts architecture).

The Parachute Jump ride actually ran until 1968 and, then, dodged multiple demolition bullets. In the end, it survived long enough to be protected by preservationists because it would have cost too much to tear down. It was landmarked in 1977, de-landmarked the same year and re-landmarked in 1989. In 2003, it was taken apart and restored. Last fall, a London-based architects Kevin Carmody, Andrew Groarke, Chris Hardie and Lewis Kinneir won a competition to create a "Parachute Pavilion" next to the iconic tower--a 7,800-square-foot, glass-enclosed structure with an exhibition space, a restaurant, a bar, and a souvenir shop.

The new lighting scheme designed by Leni Schwendinger involves 17 lamps, 150 lighting fixtures and 450 LEDs. There are six different lighting arrangements for seasonal changes, holidays and the lunar cycle. The light show will run from dusk until midnight from May through October and from dusk through 11 PM the rest of the year. Tonight, all of the lighting arrangements will be used. The weekly Friday night beach fireworks show follows the lighting, which is scheduled for 9 PM.

• Parachute Jump History [Amusement Parks.Com]
• A History of the Parachute Jump [BayRidge.Com]
• Thrill of a Lifetime [Preservation Online]
• Parachute Jump [wikipedia]
  

The Empty Vessel Project Turns One: Happy Birthday!!!

The Empty Vessel Project--the revived WWII rescue boat being converted to community use on the Gowanus--celebrates its first birthday on Saturday with a party on the Big G that is certain to rock. The boat is docked on the west side of the canal at the foot of First Street, one block south of Carroll Street Bridge. (Just look for it from the bridge. You can't miss it.)

The Empty Vessel Project provides some birthday background:

8am, July 8, 2005, EV left her previous home on Westchester Creek in the Bronx under her previous moniker, KOKKOMOKO and under the power of one stout grey tug. With no engines to guide her, she was at the mercy of the lines tied taught through her gaping windows and the wits of her bleary-eyes crew.

The tug had the world-weary Francios at its helm. Having just signed away his ownership of the tattered vessel for a dollar, he had made a promise to deliver her safely to her new home on the Gowanus Canal. A fabulous promise and a promising journey with the outbound tide...Our first obstacle was a draw bridge and the mouth of the Westchester Creek. High tide was meant to carry us out, cut down on fuel for the muscle boat and sweep us out to the hudson river with ease. But as we approached the bridge we heard Francios holler, "Are we gonna clear it?" One of our crew scrampled up to the roof of the bridge. "No!"

Lines taught, engine reversed, grinding sound of steel on half-a-century old mohagany. EV and her tug jackknifed in the creek to avoid a collision that would have knocked the bridge off EV's deck. The tug nudged EV sideways to the pilons of the bridge. We tied up and waited. Finally the bridge opened and we were headed south again...Out of the creek, we passed ancient ship wrecks, NYC's floating prison, Roosevelt Island, Manhattan Island, Redhook and finally made it to the mouth of the Gowanus Canal.

July 8, 2005 was a scorcher. 98 in the shade. By the time we arrived at the Gowanus, the temperature had risen past a hundred. The drawbridge operators refused to open the 9th Street bredge for fear that expanded metal would not permit it to close again under such furious temperatures.

We tied up to the Lowe's parking lot and began negotiating. "After the sun goes down?" "Nope - it's gotta cool." "What if we ice it?"

Francios and his crew took off for home as we tried to talk our way up the canal. No luck. EV was doomed to spend her first night in her new incarnation tied up to the Lowe's lot. We slept on her to guard her.

GL wishes the Empty Vessel Project the happiest of birthdays in her new life and in her new home on the Gowanus.

(The photo is from f.trainer, one of our favorite flickr photographers.)

Brooklinks: Loving the Summer Weekend Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related blog entries and news stories. The photo above is a detail of an old street mural in Williamsburg, on North Seventh Street, between Kent Avenue and the East River:

• Light the Parachute [coneyislandshortcakes]
  
• Landmark Parachute Jump to be Lit Up Friday Night [NY1]
• Stars, Art Brut Head Up Siren Fest [CMJ]
• Weekend on the Water [Sail Bklyn]
• Check Out the Transit Museum on the Cheap [Bklyn Record]
• Pedestrian Run Down in Red Hook after Nabe Pleas Ignored [NYObserver]
  
• Heavy Metal in Clinton Hill [Brownstoner]
• Midnight Red Hook Bike Ride [burnsienna]
  
• Breakfast Porn, Puppet Libraries and More [Bklyn Record]
• Not Enough L Trains [NYDN]
  
• $250K Bail Set for Greenpoint Fire Suspect [NYTimes]
• Yassky Thinks Miss Bklyn Should be Halved [AYR]
  
• Hungry Cabbie Eats Culpepper's [Gothamist]
• Red, White and Blueberry [Eating for Bklyn]

August Wireless in Prospect Park and Other Notes

The city's long promised effort to bring wi-fi to city parks is moving in fits and starts. Two of the wireless hotspots promised by the end of August will be in Prospect Park, at the Picnic House and the Boat House, as noted on the map above. All told, there should be 18 operational hotspots in ten parks by the end of summer (nice timing on the contractor's part, huh?). Non-Manhattan spots include Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks and Orchard Beach in the Bronx. What isn't clear is how strong the wireless signals will be and how far one can wander from the hotspot before losing the signal.

If you want to sit in a Brooklyn Park with your laptop and can't wait for Prospect Park to be wired, you can always hit Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park went wi-fi as of the end of May, but the system has experienced some down time and weak signals. The Brooklyn Bridge Park network was created by NYC Wireless, which is a nonprofit that has also set up wi-fi in Union Square Park, Tompkins Square Park and Stuyvesant Cove Park. NYC Wireless has also helped wire other parks in Manhattan, has wired some public housing and maintains a directory of free wireless hotspots.

Bonus Prospect Park Love:

Dig bats? (The flying, Dracula movie kind, not the New York Mets ones). Check out Dope on the Slope's account of his hunt for bats in Prospect Park, which apparently is home to them in great abundance. According to Dope, who knows his nature, the bats he observed were little brown bats with 8-10 inch wingspans, "the most common species in the park." There may also be, Dope writes, big brown bats , which have wingspands of 12 inches or m