Check out OTBKB’S GUIDE TO SUMMER IN BROOKLYN. I am updating all the time and adding interesting things like the Floating Lady Pool on the 4th of July.

There’s an icon on the right hand side of the page…

Should I do August, too?

The City Room reports that Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has ordered the NYPD to step up its antiterrorism activities in New York, after the police
in London announced that they had defused a car bomb and closed down major thoroughfares across the city.

At 10 p.m on Friday night, after seeing Pixar’s "Ratatouille," Hepcat drove to the Fifth Avenue Apple Store and shelled out more money into Steve Job’s pocket for an iPhone. He also bought one for Diaper Diva (who now owes him $599.00).

"If the phone is half asa good as Ratatouille was I’ll be very pleased," Hepcat said as he opened his new iPhone box.

"They’ve got a guy standing out in front and every time someone walks in he says" ‘Oooooh iPhone.’ Then he claps his hands every time a customer leaves the store with a phone."

Hepcat said the store wasn’t very crowded when he got there so he milled around and looked at  accessorries. Then 100 people walked in and he got on line and bought one for himself and DD.

It took Hepcat a long time to drive home to Brooklyn because there were check points on 18th Street and the Battery Tunnel related to increased security around the city because of the  London bomb plot. "Near Tiger Schumlman’s it took ten minutes to go one block," he says.

So far, Hepcat is quite enamoured of the packaging. "Very nice," he says. Now he’s reading the manual. "Do not use iPhone in rain, or near washbasins or others wet locations. Take care not to spill any food or liquid on iPhone. In case iPhone gets wet, unplug all cables…Do not attempt to dry iPhone with an external heat surces, such as a microwave oven or hair dryer."

The camera is very nice on it, Hepcat says. He checked the Internet on one of the phones at the store. "OTBKB has very, very tiny type when you try to look at it on the iPhone. We’ll have to do a special iPhone version for the iPhone I guess." 

Patrick Kwan at Super Vegan says:

Via Gothamist and The Brooklyn Eagle, the word’s been leaked that Trader Joe’s will take over the vacant Independence Savings Bank building at the corner of Court and Atlantic in Downtown Brooklyn – at the juncture of Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, and Cobble Hill.

Info from Brooklyn Bridge Park website:

Grab your towel and shades for swimming, sunning, lounging, picnicing and playing in Brooklyn Bridge Park this summer.

Cost: FREE!

Hours:
Pool – 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Beach – 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.
7 days a week

What’s there to do? Take a dip in the 25 meter, 7 lane Floating Pool Lady,
a floating swimming pool moored in the East River. Run your toes
through the sand on the 40,000 square foot Brooklyn Bridge Park Beach.
Grab a burger, rent an umbrella and enjoy the spectacular views of New
York Harbor. Get your game on for pick-up beach volleyball and sand
soccer or contact MetroSoccer to sign up for leagues and clinics!

Where: In the future Brooklyn Bridge Park! Between
Piers 4 and 5 (Furman and Joralemon Streets), one block north of
Atlantic Avenue. Mapquest: 334 Furman Street.

How do I get there?

OTBKB reader who liked the food at Elementi, the new and rather upscale Italian restaurant in the spot that was Snooky’s.

We just tried Elementi and were pleasantly surprised! price point is
certainly on Par. The veal tenderloin was perfect, excellent ambiance
and mood. i rate a restaurant on whether or not it was good enough to
go back to and i can tell you i will be back here soon.

OTBKB reader who, four months after the fact, is still lamenting Seventh Avenue’s loss:

Snooky’s was what it was – a regular folks bar with serviceable food.

I’ve been reading bad stuff in other blogs about the current restaurant
at that address — Elementi — scheduled to open Tuesday.

Good luck to them. And I hope to God the food is stellar. Guess all the real people stuff is now on 5th Avenue.

The Brooklyn Paper reports that Mayor Bloomberg doesn’t think Ratner needs he massive public subsidy handed to him
by the state Assembly last week. He
called for Gov. Spitzer to block the legislation.

In slamming the Assembly handout — which the mayor estimated would
cost taxpayers $300 million, not the $175 million originally estimated
by government watchdogs — Bloomberg has joined the chorus of advocates,
legislators and Atlantic Yards opponents condemning the amendment that
would give special treatment to the mega-developer.

“[The bill is] going to hurt the very people that everybody talks
about helping and gives some tax breaks to a developer that doesn’t
need them and which we didn’t have to do,” Bloomberg said on his weekly
WABC radio show on Friday morning. READ MORE AT THE BROOKLYN PAPER

No Words_Daily Pix will be weighing in on this story, reported by Gothamist, shortly. For now: go there.

The Brooklyn Paper, as usual, chock full of interesting news, has a story about plans to fix the big- time traffic problems at Grand Army Plaza. Here’s an excerpt from Chris Cascarano’s story. Go to BP for the rest of the story and a map.

Grand Army Plaza could be transformed from an intimidating,
speeder-friendly highway in the center of Brooklyn to a calmer traffic
circle under a revolutionary plan that continues to gain speed of its
own.

At a meeting last week at the Brooklyn Public Library’s
Central branch, a citizens group presented its most fully drawn plan to
reconfigure the plaza and reconnect the landmark Soldiers’ and Sailors’
arch with the entrance to Prospect Park, creating a safe, car-free
walkway.

Awesome. Amazing variety of films. Talking ’bout a revolution in film, music, and art
united under the banner of black rebellion. This year, BAM’s festival focuses on Black Panthers, with a special art show in the llobby
featuring photographs and work from Pratt and lots of music at the BAM Cafe.

OTBKB’S SUMMER IN BROOKLYN GUIDE will keep you updated on highlights. Start with this today. A good overview. AND: a 21 minute interview with Basquiat!!

Afro-Punk
(2003) 116min

Fri, June 29 at 7pm*
Tue, July 3 at 4:30pm


› Buy Tickets

Directed by James Spooner
The film that started it all, Afro-Punk
explores race identity within the punk scene. Channeling the raw sound
of punk rock rebellion, this documentary tackles hard issues such as
loneliness, exile, interracial dating, and black power.
With Bad Brains Shorts, approx. 29min
Directed by Nicola L.
and A Conversation with Basquiat, 21min
Directed by Tamra Davis
Unseen for years, this portrait features some of the only known video of Basquiat working.
*Q&A with James Spooner

We call it the Fun train. The F, that is. The train we know and love.

The F: it gets us where we need to go. Even if it is slow and always very, very crowded during rush hour.

And what a crush of cultures it is: Hasidim pray ocking as they read their prayer books; junior and high students goof and push; parents and children recite names of the stations like an urban alphabet, twenty-somethings to and fro rom jobs in Manhattan; tired office workers; artists, musicians; the same old subway beggers year in, year out…

An oh the places it goes: Park Slope, of course. Coney Island all the way to the last stop. The elevated platforms at Smith and Ninth for its sweeping panoramic views.

Carroll Gardens, downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO.

Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the East Village, the West Village, SoHo and Chelsea, where I used to work back when I had a job in the city. Up Sixth Avenue to Rockefeller Center. It even stops on the same block as my dentist.

Those are the places I need to be.

Before I moved here, a friend, who lived near Delancey Street, called the F-Train a "mail train" because, she said,  it makes sooooo many stops. And she didn’t even ride it all the way to Brooklyn.

Second Avenue, Delancey Street, East Broadway, York Street, Jay Street, Bergen, Carroll…

After September 11, when I developed subway anxiety, the F was the only train I could ride without heart palpatations. The 2,3 and 4 trains went past the World Trade Center and riding those trains I would brace myself in fear and grief until we were well past Lower Manhattan. I would clench again for Times Square or Grand Central, obvious targets for mass annihilation.

But I could ride on the F without fear. And when it rose above the city at Smith and Ninth and Fourth Avenue, I felt blessed by its symphonic views. Teetering on the elevated tracks, it was my daily roller coaster ride. Sometimes stopping for a breath, waiting for the G train ahead of us. Cell phones ringing — spouses, parents, friends, lovers checking in. Then down under again and home to Seventh Avenue.

The F. It’s taken me where I need to be since 1991 when we grudgingly made Park Slope our home, economic exiles from Manhattan. Over time, we grew to love our new borough and the train that took us there.

The F.  Let’s get an express. It’s a train problem we can do something about.

Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens serves up "progressive politics, transit issues, the neighborhood I love, and whatever else strikes my fancy"  plus news about the F-train press conference.

I’ve yet to speak with Suzanne Fiol to learn the ultimate fate of Issue Project Room, which is moving out of its Carroll Street silo while the Gowanus is cleaned.

They are using a space in the American Can Factory, the red building at Third Avenue and Third for the month of July. Also known as XO projects, there seems to be a lot going on there, including Rooftop Films. I have friends with studios in there. I even looked at a studio there once.

The web site says this: "The Old American Can Factory is an industrial complex built around 1885 on the Fourth Street Basin of the Gowanus Canal in Gowanus, Brooklyn – a place where things are still being made. A new place in an old space, it is a haven to a vital community of more than 200 people who conceive, manufacture and distribute a myriad of ideas, experiences and products in the arts and culture industries."

An excerpt from Bobby Curza’s NY 1 piece about the F Train petition. Go to Kensington blog for information about the petition and the rally.

They’ve have been lying there unused for decades, almost mocking
subway riders who board the F train on the local tracks just a few feet
away and can then watch the dormant express tracks from their crowded
rush-hour train.
it

They run from church avenue all the way to Bergen Street, at some
point dipping down below the local tracks. So, one man is asking, why
not run an F express train, with the V, which now terminates on the
Lower East Side, extended into Brooklyn as a local.

"You’re talking about saving people out in Brooklyn, further out, about 20 minutes on their commute,” said Reilly.

A few weeks ago, Gary Reilly launched an online petition requesting
the service, a petition that’s already attracted more than 2,600
signatures. On Wednesday, he presented the petition to the MTA Board,
and officials there say they’re considering .

Lumi of No Land Grab writes: The rally was huge and overflowed the designated area allowed for press conferences and demonstrations.  The mainstream media just yawned.  In case you felt like mentioning, here’s the press release and photos:
Press Release is here:
http://dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=838
Photos are here:
http://www.pbase.com/jonathanbarkey/cityhall
and here
http://britinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2007/06/eminent-domain-rally-city-hall.html

The All Souls Bethleham Church, a Unitarian congregation in Kensington Brooklyn is set to celebrate its 100th anniversary this Sunday.

Special 100th Anniversary Service: join us for a music-filled worship service Sunday, July 1st in the afternoon beginning at 4PM. The service will be held at Trinity Lutheran (just a few blocks away from the Parsonage at the intersection of E. 8th Street and 18th Avenue). A potluck meal and informal reception will following the 90 min. worship service. Several of our own musicians (Terris Krueger, Rev. Matthew Fox, Tom Peters, Erika Kulnys and others) will be participating in this special event.

My mother reports that she was in the Metropolitan Museum and the lights started to flicker. She saw the lights go out in the Egyptian wing. The class she was attending left the building.

Bronx and part of the Upper East Side and Harlem have been affected. Some traffic lights aren’t working. Subway service is seriously affected.

This from the City Room:

An explosion this afternoon at an electrical substation in the Bronx has knocked out power to 136,700 customers in the Bronx and Manhattan and disrupted subway service on several of the city’s busiest subway lines — the Nos. 4, 5 and 6 and E and V lines on the East Side and the D line in the Bronx — according to officials with the city government and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Yorkville, on the East Side of Manhattan, and parts of the western Bronx were said to be the most heavily affected areas, officials said.

WHO: Council Members Bill de Blasio, Simcha Felder, and Domenic Recchia; Community Activists, ORGANIZATIONS

WHAT: Rally to Support Petition to Restore Express Service on Brooklyn’s F line

WHEN: 2 pm, Thursday, June 28, 2007

WHERE: Church Avenue Station; Church Avenue and McDonald Avenue, Brooklyn, NY

Brooklyn, New York—Council Members Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Kensington), Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park), and Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst) will stand with community activists and representatives of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Transportation Alternatives tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, 2007, to rally in support of the restoration of express service on Brooklyn’s F line.

“To let existing transportation infrastructure go unused is a disservice to the Brooklynites who rely on mass transit every day,” says de Blasio.

An online petition in support of restoration launched by community activist Gary Reilly has generated 2,500 signatures in two weeks. “Investments in transit pay off in increased quality of life for everybody,” says Reilly. “Let’s get this done.”

“A remarkable shift in conscious is happening in New York City, with a renewed commitment to strategic planning for the future,” says Felder. “But let’s not allow our focus on the future to distort our sight of what’s right in front of us. The MTA plans to restore F express by 2012. We think it can happen sooner than that.”

“Our communities have been clamoring for expedited express train service for years, and the time has come to listen and respect the needs of the City’s subway riders, who are average, every-day New Yorkers,” says Recchia.

McBrooklyn knows how to do it.

This from New York 1:

The Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing Tuesday to
discuss whether or not to designate the refinery building at Brooklyn’s
Domino Sugar Plant a landmark.

Community activists and the building’s owner – the Community
Preservation Corporation – want to landmark the refinery building on
the site. Activists, however, want to landmark the entire 11.5 acre
site.

If the commission designates the site a landmark, CPC plans to
develop the building as a residential property under the landmark code.
The corporation says they want to create affordable housing, plus open
park space and waterfront access. They say they need to clear the rest
of site to make their development plans economically feasible.

Preservations say they want the processing plant and several other buildings on the site left alone.

A vote on the matter will take place later this summer.