Brooklyn blogger CasaCara covers real estate, architecture, historic preservation and interior design from Brooklyn to Philadelphia, the Hudson Valley, the North Fork and beyond.

Today she talks about some lovely buildings close to home:

Never, unless you’re on the north side of Atlantic Avenue between Third and Fourth Avenues in Boerum Hill,
where a long, uninterrupted row of 1880s buildings with original
storefronts, no two alike, defied the odds. (The block is NOT even part
of the Boerum Hill Historic District.)

First developed in the 1970s by Bill Harris of Renaissance Properties
and called Atlantic Gardens, the original six buildings plus two
adjoining ones were purchased in 2006 by developer Barbara Koz Paley
and partners, and restored inside and out with the help of Taylor & Miller Architecture in Greenpoint.

Here is a
snapshot of the sustainability issues that faced the borough and City this past January. The links were compiled
by Rebeccah Welch, Senior Associate Director of Communications at the Center
for the Urban Environment (CUE). To learn more about CUE, click  www.thecue.org.

  What's
Happened to the Plant in the Park [Gotham Gazette]

 Brooklyn
Businesses Hit Hard by Recession [Crain's]

  Recession-addled
Bronx Stores Forced to Close [Daily News]

  "Defend
Gowanus" Petition Signers Leave Some Insightful Comments [PMFA]

 Community
Board Approves City Proposals on Staten Island Waterfront
[Staten Island Advance]

 Urban
Environmentalist NYC – Eco Lens [OTBKB] *

 Atlantic
Yards Looks to Slash Transit Upgrade [NY Post]

 Proposed
Budget Shuts Out Zoos, Aquariums and Gardens [NY Times]

 Can
Obama Help Save New York [Gotham Gazette]

 Aqueduct
Plans Revealed [Queens Courier]

 Bloomberg
Says Plan Would Create 400,000 Jobs [Newsday]

Exciting
Youth Program for Holiday Break: CUE Labs [Green
Brooklyn] *

Storage
for Bicycles Sought [NY Post]

 Lost
City’s Guide to Carroll Gardens [Lost City]

 Sunday
Snaps: Drawn to Greenpoint [Greenpointers]

 Rejuggling
of Plans for Red Hook Waterfront [Brownstoner]

 A New Name for Our Premier Waterway  [Gotham Gazette]

 Cutbacks
Coming for Botanic Garden, Aquarium [Brooklyn Eagle]

 Air
Cleaner in Lower Manhattan in 2008, Report Says [Downtown
Express]

 The
Gas Rush [Gotham Gazette]

Neighborhood
Electricity Substations [Report-Manhattan Institute]

Bloomberg's proposed budget cuts, which may eliminate funding for zoos, aquariums, and gardens have the heads of Brooklyn's beloved—and essential— institutions extremely concerned.

On Thursday, February 5, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Scot Medbury of the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden ,
John Cavelli of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for the Urban
Environment and elected officials are gathering to denounce the elimination of state funding
for zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens.

This is happening at 11 am Steinhardt Auditorium at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Entrance is at 1000 Washinton Avenue between Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard.

Show your support.

(
I wrote this quite a few years ago. I run it every February 3rd.)

Today is the day Groovy Grandpa and Manhattan Granny got married in 1957.

February 3rd. The date
is etched in Smartmom's mind. She and her sister would go to the same gift
shop on West 86th Street year after year to buy an anniversary gift for them. West Town
House smelled of bath soap and sachet. It was just a block and a half
from their Riverside Drive apartment. They'd browse for an hour or more.
And with only four dollars, they'd find something to buy: a stone paper
weight or a letter opener, which the owner would gift wrap in green
paper and a black ribbon bow.

Smartom's parents aren't married anymore. They've been apart since 1976. But February 3rd still stops her short. And while they've
been separated for longer than they were together, February 3rd means
only one thing: the beginning of something that later came to an end.

Manhattan Granny showed OSFO her wedding album a few weeks ago. A
large, white, leather-bound book, there are black and white photographs of Smartmom's parents on their ceremonial day. In a simple and
elegant, calf-length gown, Manhattan Granny looks like Audrey Hepburn;
her hair is close-cropped like Hepburn's too.

Groovy Grandpa, with no trace of the beard that would later define
him, looks pleased with himself and his bride. Their parents gather
around them – mythical parents, they are all dead now. They look happy
for this union, for this coming together.

Later, OSFO said, "Manhattan Granny doesn't look like herself," Maybe she
didn't recognize her 78-year old grandmother as a beautiful young
bride. Maybe she was surprised to see her grandparents together; she's never seen them that way. It probably seemed strange; a little out of
whack.

The separation came as a surprise, dramatic as it was. The rupture
was sudden: black garbage bags filled with men's
clothing tossed in the garbage. All traces of him were banished from the apartment;
an anguished wife's ill-fated attempt at an exorcism.

Smartmom was only seventeen, a senior in high school, on the cusp
of going away. It was awful to see her family bifurcated. She was in
the throes of first love, first sex, her future. Now this?

Like an ostrich, Smartmom buried her head in her own sandy concerns
while her mother grieved and her father sublet a studio on the other
side of town.

And when her first love decided he didn't love her after all, she
bifurcated too. “Don't leave me,” she cried pathetically for days. She listened to Laura Nryo and Labelle over and over on the turntable in the living room.  "It's gonna take a miracle to make me love someone new cause I'm crazy
for you."

But he left anyway.

February 3rd is just another day. But for someone whose family
doesn't exist anymore, Smartmom will always honor the beginning of
something that later came to an end.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the day Buddy Holly died.

He died on February 3, 1959, alongside
fellow musicians J.P “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens, when
their four-seater plane crashed in Iowa, a few minutes after take-off.

In the song "American Pie," singer/songwriter Don Maclean referred to that day as the day the music died.

At 10 am he's live on WNYC public radio from the Crain's NY conference on the Future of NYC.

The show will feature interviews with business and policy leaders, including:
Mitchell Moss, professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU; Kevin Burke, CEO, chairman of the board, and president of Consolidated Edison; Sara Horowitz, executive director of Working Today Freelancers Union; Kevin Ryan, chief executive of Alley Corp; and Jonathan Tisch, chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels.

Monday: New York Writers Coalition Red and Black Party to Celebrate Love's Two Faced Heart and raise money for NYWC at Galapagos in DUMBO. General admission tickets are $25. Support a great group.

Tuesday: Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue.

Wednesday: Special events, coupons and restaurant prix fixes on Fifth Avenue.

Thursday: Brooklyn Reading Works presents: Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love the Old Stone House curated by Marian Fontana. With Elissa Schappell
author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls; novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writers Magazine, Susan Karwoska; poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein
and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her
upcoming book.

Friday: Joy Askew  and Pulse present Songs from the Hudson River.
Pulse is a New York-based composers' federation dedicated to music that
bursts through categories, unconstrained by convention. Their latest
project is a song cycle in honor of the Hudson River Quadricentennial
Celebration going on throughout 2009, Songs from the Hudson River
features singer Joy Askew with a 6-person Pulse chamber ensemble in a
dynamic melding of singer-songwriter and classical chamber music
sensibilities. Each original song is inspired by historical, fictional,
and contemporary life and communities on and around the Hudson River.
Joy Askew is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has performed with
Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Joe Jackson, Jack Bruce and others, and
also leads her own band.

Saturday: Valentine's Day

Irene LeRoe, who owns Aunt Suzie's, the beloved Italian restaurant on Fifth Avenue, sent word that the Fifth Avenue BID is celebrating Valentine''s Day all week and offering promotions, prix fixes, and coupons for Valentine's week. Here's her fun pitch:

This morning, the editors of Newgeography.com sent an email alerting me to Joel Kotkin's recently-posted article "New York Should End Its Obsession With Manhattan".

Tired of working at home? Need a place where you can really concentrate?

Share an office with OTBKB. It's a lovely room painted a soft green; a great place to work, to focus and really get things done!

The office is in the basement of the Montauk Club, where there's a cluster of rooms for small businesses. The rent includes use of a small kitchen, bathrooms, and a shared conference room. It is located on 8th Avenue and Lincoln Place right around the corner from the Grand Army Plaza 2/3 train.

Very convenient.

I've been here for 6 years and I love it. Email me if you are interested. The price is reasonable. You will have the office to yourself at night and on the weekends.

Perfect for a writer, a graphic designer, or someone in business for themselves. Also possible if you want to use it after-school for tutoring.

Let me know: louise_crawford(at)yahoo(dot)com

Brooklyn Reading Works
presents Cupid's Arrow: Writers on Love curated by Marian Fontana.
Another one of the great themed readings at Brooklyn Reading Works
curated by interesting writers.

Marian  Fontana,
author of The Widow's Walk; A Memoir of 9/11 and the upcoming,  The Middle of the Bed, has gathered together some
wonderful writers, including  Elissa Schappell
author of Use Me and the upcoming Blueprints for Better Girls;
Novelist, poet and editor of Teachers and Writer Magazine, Susan Karwoska; and Poets Ellen Ferguson and Ira Goldstein
and memoirist, Mila Drumke. Marian will be reading an excerpt from her
upcoming book.

As Marian writes: Join us two nights before Valentines as six talented authors tackle the profound, challenging and even funny topic of love.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." — Shakespeare

It should, as always, be a great night. These
themed group readings are fascinating as you see the subject matter
shift, the approach, and the language shift from author to author.

Alison, the owner of Paper Love, the
new card and stationery shop on Lincoln Place, is thinking of selling
letter press Valentine's cards at the show. She happens to be a fiction
writer and was very excited to be part of this event.

The Where and When:

February 12th at 8 p.m.
Brooklyn Reading Works at the Old Stone House
Fifth Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets (in Washington Park)
A $5 suggested donation includes light refreshments and wine.
There will probably be candy hearts and chocolates.

As I said last week I am paying attention to the City Council race for Bill de Blasio's seat. Nine months until the primary, it's interesting to hear that this crowded race is already being called a two-man race by the Brooklyn Paper, when most citizens are barely aware of the candidates at all.

So what gives? Well, according to the BP, it's all about the money –who's got it and how much. Alright. So who are the two candidates with the most money?

Brad Lander, director of the Pratt Center for Community Development, has, according to recently released campaign finance documents, raised $105,548.

Josh Skaller, president of Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats for the past two years, and an executive member of Democracy for New York City, has raised $75,788. 

But what about the other candidates?  Hammerman just rolled out his campaign last week and hasn't turned in  his campaign finance forms yet.

And what about the others who have thrown their hats in to fill Bill de Blasio's big shoes. Hats and shoes this is getting weird. Let me start again: who's running and how much money have they raised?

–Bob Zuckerman — executive director of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy — has raised: $43,098.

–John Heyer — community liaison for Borough President Markowitz — has raised — $18,080.

— Gary Reilly, lawyer and subway advocate  — has raised — $14,865.

–Craig Hammerman, district manager of Community Board 6, has not yet filed campaign finance documents.

–Steve DiBrenza has just announced. 

It's time for the citizens of this district to start paying attention before the media tells us who's winning when we barely know who's who. It's a crowded race and a respectable list of candidates for deBlasio's seat. But it's up to each citizen to do the homework, meet the candidate, learn about the candidates and even contribute money if they are are so moved.

Don't let this race happen without your input. Even nine months ahead of the primary.

Catch Simone Dinnerstein's ONLY New York recital of the season at The Metropolitan
Museum in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Get your tickets early!  Simone's last two concerts at The Metropolitan Museum (in 2006 and 2007) were sold out. Tickets: $45 available by calling 212-570-3949 or online at www.metmuseum.org/tickets

www.thirteen.org/sundayarts

It's never too early to think about what your kids are doing this summer.

Now's the time to sign up for Piper Theatre Workshop at the Old Stone House for students entering 3rd through 10th grades.

This July at OSH & MS 51
Theater, Art & Film!
Performances Outdoors in Washington Park/JJ Byrne Playground
Call OSH for more information, (718) 768-3195

Here's a note from Michael Winks, one of the 2008 Park Slope 100, about the upcoming ethanol coop meeting:

This will be an ongoing column from Barry Weinbrom, an environmental educator, interested in helping others become aware of the
importance of promoting conservation and sustainability in their
everyday lives:

I thought  OTBKB
would be a great way  for Brooklyn to splash into the The Yes We Can
Save Water Research Project and start saving water one drop at a time.

Please
email me at baw441(at)aol(dot)com to get the data sheets and instructions for Yes We Can Save WATER and start making a difference in our world today.

I will be introducing Beth Harpaz at her reading on Feb 5 at 7:30 at Barnes and Noble on Seventh Avenue and 6th Street in Park Slope (down in the basement). It should be a fun reading for her new book, 13 is the New 18, which is essential reading for the parents of teens.

This event is a fund raiser for Beacon High School. That's the it-school of the moment for loads of kids in Park Slope. Participating in this event will not help your kid's chances of getting in there so don't even try (that's an attempt at high school admissions humor).

But come anyway. Please mention “Book
Fair” at the cash register and the school will get a percentage of the
yield on any book you buy ANY TIME that day or night, not just “13 Is
the New 18.”

Beth Harpaz figures there’ll be no Generation Gap when her kids become
teenagers. After all, she grew up in the ’60s and ’70s. She’s seen
everything!

But when her son has a bar mitzvah and turns 13, suddenly
her life goes from hosting pizza parties for 12-year-olds to monitoring
the MySpace page where he claims he’s 22 (even though his photo shows
him standing next to Bugs Bunny at Six Flags).

She joins Facebook to
spy on him, but he refuses to friend her. (No matter, she finds
hundreds of friends of her own and ends up addicted to it.) She
remembers being teased about her “highwater” pants as a kid, but she
just can’t accept her son’s argument that without $100 sneakers, he
might be bullied for having uncool shoes.

As she tries to decipher
lyrics to rap songs and text messages with mysterious codes like NM JC,
she starts wondering if she’s failed as a mother, or if all of this is
just a normal part of growing up in the 21st century.

When she finds
some scary secrets in her son’s room and starts getting calls from
school about his behavior, she’s afraid to ask the Perfect Mommies she
knows for advice, so she turns to a variety of unconventional sources:
the Sopranos, Erma Bombeck, and most of all, Google, her guru and
oracle. By the time her son turns 14, he’s grown out of a lot of the
things that worried her – and she’s learned a lot about raising
teenagers.

Finally. Finally. Finally. OTBKB has an advertising director and she is ready to meet with you online or face-to-face to talk about your advertising needs.  Her name is Mary Macrae Warren and she's ready to connect you to OTBKB's large readership!

With
3000-5000 unique page views daily, OTBKB has a committed and well-connected readership not only in Park Slope but
city-wide. Thanks to all of you, the  readership is educated, stylish, well-informed and interesting.

A presence on this site — with a clich-through link to your website, means positive exposure to the people you'd like to know about you.

For samples, rates and sizes for placement on OTBKB, please call Mary at 917-687-4201 or email her at: marymacraewarren(at)yahoo(dot)com.

.

OSFO,
A tween not caught in a fog,

Has lots of gripes & snipes

And deserves her very own blog.

A place to set things straight,

Unburden her teeming heart,

A space that could be called

Appropriately– Kidsmart.

Dumb editor should give OSFO a column. Here she takes issue with this week's Smartmom. on the Brooklyn Paper comment section: