This from Eliot, an OTBKB reader:

A number of things are making this a bad week for parking in the
neighborhood.  Tomorrow the City will be repaving 5th Street from 6th
Avenue to Prospect Park West starting at 6 AM (might go further west
than that but I didn’t feel like walking around in the rain to check it
out). 

If that’s not bad enough, Ugly Betty will be doing a shoot on
7th Avenue from 1st Street to Union Street which will eliminate parking
on both sides of that stretch of 7th Avenue starting at 7 PM on
Thursday through Friday.  The signs just say "all day" Friday, so I
can’t tell if the shoot ends at 6 PM or at Midnight.  President Street
has been dug up as well, so it could also be in for some repaving this
week.  If your car isn’t garaged, it might just be the right time to
start that cross country trip you’ve always thought about.

The new blog, Fucked in Park Slope, features Blog Nigger today. Whoa. Here’s an excerpt from latest post: Do Stay At Home Really Work That Hard? As always, he manages to insult and offend everyone, including himself.

Fantastic question! Sorry I let it rot in my inbox
for 5 months, but such is the prerogative of a mostly-black male living
under the Obama Administration-Elect: I can do WHATEVER I WANT all the
time with zero accountability. Hopefully you’re not already divorced,
and I’ve still got a shot at helping you out here.

The answer to
your question is that it depends on a bunch of factors- For example, as
far as net difficulty of daily tasks is concerned, there’s a huge
difference between:

• an upper-east-side mink jewess who stays at home with her full-time nanny and takes breaks from her craigslist casual-encounters surfing to teach her kid which president’s face appear on which dollar bills.

-AND-

• some
  poor jewish woman with 10 kids in crown heights who is gonna get
  face-slapped if Moishe gets home and one of the male children hasn’t
  finished his chicken-liver or has accidentally touched a female human.

I just heard from the folks at BKLYN Designs and they want OTBKB readers to know that they’ve extended the exhibitor application deadline to December 12th. Here’s more info about the event:

BKLYN DESIGNS 2009 is taking shape with a hot panel of celebrity jurors eager to select the crème-de-la crème of the borough’s emerging and established talent to showcase at this annual event presented by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The 2009 show will take place May 8 – 10, 2009.

Producers are concentrating the show in one select location to create a rich mélange of designers at St. Ann’s Warehouse in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The group of 40 winners that will be chosen by the celebrity panel of jurors will make up this edition of the show which is already rumored to be a can’t miss event for the spring.

In addition, the BKLYN DESIGNS celebrity jury will return to further study the work of the show’s artisans and choose up to five finalists to represent "The Best of BKLYN DESIGNS 2009" at the world-renowned International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) one week later. These finalists head to ICFF as representatives of the BKLYN DESIGNS scene and put their pieces on the world stage with exhibitors from around the globe, including Denmark, Italy, Thailand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The 2009 celebrity jury panel includes: Wendy Goodman, New York Magazine is interior design editor, as well as the contributing style editor of Departures magazine, and a contributing editor at Elle Décor.

Arnold Lehman, Brooklyn Museum, is director of Brooklyn Museum, the second largest museum in New York City.

Stephen Treffinger, The New York Times, is currently a writer for the Times, a contributing editor for Domino Magazine and Lucky Magazine, and a freelance journalist for Home and Abroad.

Grace Bonney, Design Sponge, editor, and freelances for House and Garden, New York Home, Food and Wine, Better Homes and Gardens, CITY Magazine, Time Out New York Kids, Architect, The New York Post, Everyday with Rachel Ray and others.

Peter Barna, Pratt Institute, Provost, is also the principal of Light and Space, a New York City lighting design firm with a client list that has included AT&T, Xerox Corp., Marriott Corp., Guggenheim Museum, NBC, GE, Samsung, IDSA, and PE.

David Aldahaff, The Future Perfect, owner, contemporary furnishing stores in Williamsburg and Los Angeles.

Karen Singh, Interior Design Magazine, market editor.

Christopher Coleman, Interior Design Specialist, based in DUMBO, Brooklyn who combines substantial practical experience with imagination and energy.

Christina Yang, Guggenheim Museum, senior manager of public programs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Jill Fehrenbacher, Inhabitat, founder of Inhabitat.com, as well as a freelance designer and green design consultant based in New York City

BKLYN DESIGNS 2009 is sponsored by Pratt Institute, Two Trees Management, Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, Benjamin Moore & Co., Con Edison, AIA, ASID and IIDA. This year’s official media partners are Interior Design Magazine and New York Magazine. BKLYN DESIGNS(TM) receives support from Speaker Sheldon Silver and the Brooklyn Delegation to the NYS Assembly, Speaker Christine Quinn and the Brooklyn Delegation to the NYC Council and the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

For more information about BKLYN DESIGNS, "The Best of BKLYN DESIGNS" or for an application visit www.bklyndesigns.com. Interested companies can contact auster*events at 718-243-1414

Here’s the press release from Bill and Marty. They were on 9th Street and Fifth Avenue this morning at a B75 bus stop, one of the routes the MTA is proposing to cut service on. Like we really need fewer buses in Brooklyn. Come on. They’re already too few and far between as anyone who has ever waited for the Seventh and Fifth Avenue buses knows!

Councilmember Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Marty
Markowitz and community members held a rally to protest the MTA’s
recent proposal to eliminate numerous subway and bus lines serving
Brooklyn. The rally was held at the B75 bus stop on Fifth
Avenue and Ninth Street in Park Slope – one of the routes for which the
authority is proposing to cut weekday and weekend service. Elected
leaders also called on the Ravitch Commission to recommend reinstating
the commuter tax, rather than placing tolls on the East River bridges. 

 

"The
solution to the MTA’s financial crisis is not nickel and diming the
working families who depend on the subway and bus system to get to work
everyday. We must look toward creative solutions, like
reinstating the Commuter Tax, that will not disproportionately burden
outer borough New Yorkers, as fare hikes, service cuts, and placing
tolls on the East River bridges undoubtedly will," said Councilmember
Bill de Blasio.

On WNYC radio now (10:54 am)

At a news conference in Chicago, Barack Obama announced his new national security team:  Hillary Clinton for secretary of state; Robert M. Gates, the current defense secretary, who will remain in that
job; Gen. James L. Jones, the former NATO commander, will be national
security adviser; Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona will be homeland
security chief; Eric Holder will be attorney general; and Susan Rice,
ambassador to the United Nations.

 “The team that we have assembled here today share my pragmatism about the use of
power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the
world," Obama told the audience.

Announcing his nomination of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, Obama said,  “I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton is the right
person to lead our State Department.

Hillary thanked President-elect Barack Obama for the chance to serve her country and thanked her fellow New Yorkers for 8 years of a job she loves. "You’ve prepared me well. New Yorkers aren’t afraid to speak their minds and they do so in every language."

–Monday, December 1 at 7 pm: World AIDS Day Candlelight Service and
Memorial Ribbon Project organized by the Gay and Lesbian Ministry of
Saint Augustine Roman Catholic Church at 7:00 pm at Park Slope’s St.
Augustine Roman Catholic Church, 116 Sixth Avenue,
between Park and Sterling Places.

—Wednesday, December 3 at 11:30 am: Ribbon Cutting and Dedication in Washington Park (aka JJ Byrne Park) Fifth Avenue and Third Street.

—Thursday, December 4 at 7 pm until 10 pm: Snowflake Celebration sponsored by the Buy in Brooklyn initiative. Local merchants throw open their doors to stay open late and
create a holiday atmosphere, enabling you, the people of Park Slope, to
do your holiday shopping . . . here!

Each participating business will stay open until 10pm, and offer some special promotion—could
be a sale, could be a giveaway, raffle, carolers, snow machine (it’s
been done!), mulled wine, special hors d’oeuvres, etc. etc. The
listings of participants grows daily!!!

—Saturday, December 6 at 5 pm: Park Slope’s BID First Annual Tree and
Menorah Lighting Ceremony. At 7 p.m. a reading of The Christmas Carol
at the Old Stone House.

Who knew Barrio was going to become a mini-empire in Park Slope? Turns out they’re the folk behind the new restaurant Playa, which is on President Street and Fifth Avenue, the site that used to be Night and Day, Biscuit and something else. It was fast looking like a doomed restaurant spot to me. Maybe the Barrio/Playa folks can break the spell.

Now it’s got a very cheerful, summery vibe (love those paper lanterns and the yellow paint). The folks over at Fucked in Park Slope, a new Park Slope blog, are giving it a big fat thumbs up. And just like Barrio, Playa is offering a 15% discount to all during their first weeks.

Here’s an excerpt from the FIPS eview:

Greg
and I checked out Playa, Barrio’s new younger, flirtier Latin American
sister space, on Sat night, and it totally rocked. I give it a (mostly)
big, fat, thumbs up.

Spencer Rothschild and partner/chef Adrian Leon are the boys slash brains behind Park Slope fave Barrio on Seventh Ave, and Playa (along with the adjoining Cabana Bar) seem to round out their Latin lovin BK empire handily.

Best of all, while the restaurant is in "previews," everyone enjoys a 15% discount that’s automatically applied to your bill!