SCOOP DU MONDAY_Weather. News. Stuff to Do.

Secrets_2

BROOKLYN WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?  Check here for Brooklyn weather.

CITY NEWS:  North Bound Henry Hudson Parkway will reopen Monday morning after a retaining wall collapse, which sent tons of rock and concrete onto
the parkway.

City opens design competition for memorial for Rockaway crash of Flight 587 in November of 2001.

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BROOKLYN BEAT: Historic stable in Carroll Gardens demolished. Jesse Wisloski writes in Brooklyn Papers: "It’s the beginning of the
end for a 19th-century stable house in Gowanus, one of the last of its
kind still standing in the wake of rising property values and rapid
residential development in the canal-centered neighborhood, the owner
said this week. Jim Plotkin, the owner of the building and the man
responsible for The Mill, a recent condo renovation on President
Street, said demolition of the four contiguous properties owned by his
company, 340 Bond Street LLC, which includes 340, 346, 350 and 352
Bond, between Carroll and President streets, began to
day. The city
Department of Buildings issued a permit on April 20 allowing the
demolition"

And in Brownstoner Monday evening: "According to a reader who lives next
door, the demolition of the entire Bond Street hay stable is a fait
accompli. Our source claims that this is another project by the poster
child for what many believe is wrong with the Brooklyn development
boom, Scarano & Associates Architects. Scarano apparently already
submitted–and had rejected–a set of plans for low-rise condos on the
site (which until recently was a motorcycle repair shop). But it looks
like the BOD rejection hasn’t slowed their appetite for destruction
down at all. "Just another case of greedy developers with ill-conceived
plans," says our source. So what’s in store for the site now?"

Does everyone know this already? Amy at New Yorkology writes: "The recent stories about all the new hotels under construction in New York City somehow left off an eight-story, 116-room Holiday Inn Express planned for Brooklyn. Possibly because it will feature "expansive views of the Gowanus Canal," according to the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier. Originally approved at five-stories and 76 rooms, the city has approved construction for the higher height and some residents of the semi-industrial neighborhood are complaining. Constuction is already underway at the site, 625 Union Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues. It’s not a very pretty neighborhood, but it will be just half a block from the W/R and M trains and a few blocks below the bustle of Park Slope."

_The newly renovated Stillwell station in Coney Island is about to open in time for the official opening of Coney Island. In the terminal, there’s a 370-foot-long translucent glass mural by artist Robert Wilson and the famous Nathan’s hot dog, bumper cars and carousels have all been captured on laminated glass blocks. During reconstruction, Coney Island merchants lost business. Now that all the lines are running: it should be a crowded summer.

-Ft. Hamilton military base in Brooklyn will not be one of 12 sites closed by the Pentagon.

_There was another mugging on President Street between 8th Avenue
and the Park. A woman followed a woman, who was talking on her cell
phone, up her well-lit stoop, asked her for the time and then pointed a
gun at her head. The victim was shaken up but not harmed.

IT’S MONDAY: BAMCinematek
presents "Paul Robeson Speaks!" Today: "Jericho"
(1937). $10, $7 students, $6 members. 4:30 pm, 6:50 pm and 9:30 pm.
30 Lafayette Ave. (718) 636-4100.

"Los Olvidados"
(1950). 7 pm at Barbes. 376 Ninth St. (718) 965-9177.

Four-week
workshop open to anyone who wants to unblock, learn about themselves
and use creativity for healing. $75. 7 pm to 8:30 pm. Creative Arts
Studio, 310 Atlantic Ave. (917) 208-7067.

Holocaust Studies:
The David Berg Lecture Series, featuring Rabbi Aaron Raskin, presents
a four-week discussion of "diplomats of uncommon courage"
who performed remarkably during the holocaust. 8 pm. Congregation
B’nai Avraham of Brooklyn Heights, 117 Remsen St. (718) 596-4840 ext
18. Free.

Local author Nicole Krauss reads from her "The
History of Love." 7:30 pm. Barnes and Noble. 267 Seventh Ave.
(718) 832-9066. Free.

THIS SOUNDS COOL:
Members
of Community Board 7 along with representatives of several politicians
will be touring Kensington on Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 12:00 Noon,
Community Board 7 is very sensitive to development issues as
are our elected officials; a large turnout will make the point that the
residents of Kensington care what happens to their neighborhood.

A Brooklyn bookstore invites visitors to break free from e-mail at a biweekly letter-writing session. They’ll provide the pens, paper, and envelopes. Stamps are available for purchase on site, so no more toting around that note for weeks until you happen by a post office. Wednesday, 7-9 p.m., Freebird Books & Goods, 123 Columbia St. at Kane Street, Brooklyn, 718-643-8484, free.

Sunday June 5th: Transportation Alternatives presents the 1st Annual
Tour de Brooklyn!
The 15-mile bike ride kicks off from Prospect Park’s
Grand Army Plaza to Coney Island and back again.  A family-friendly
ride at a leisurely pace