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arts and culture

OTBKB Music: Choices for Tuesday, Both in The Slope

There are two great choices before your for your entertainment tomorrow night and both are located right here in Park Slope.  The first, is Still Bill, the movie about Bill Withers, with a discussion about the movie with Bill Withers participating in person to follow.  That’s happening at The Pavilion.

The other is the pairing of Robbie Fulks and Jenny Scheinman at Barbes. Last year, when Robbie was temporarily living over in Windsor Terrace, this was a common event.  Not so now.

And don’t forget that tonight, Monday, is the last of the four of the Haitian Benefit Concerts at City Winery.

Details for all these events are over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

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Wasn’t There Going To Be A Bike Lane on Prospect Park West?

Just the other day I was wondering what happened to the Prospect Park bike lane that was supposed to run from Bartel Prichard Square to Grand Army Plaza. I went to a Community Board 6 transportation committee meeting sometime last spring, where the DOT presented their plan to remove one lane of traffic, moved the lane of parked cars off the curb, and put a two-way bike lane where the parked cars used to be.

The plan solved multiple problems: it would help reduce the speed of automobiles on a street where speeding is rampant and it would facilitate biking. At the time, it seemed like it had community support. CB6 ultimately approved the plan and it seemed like it was good to go.

But it’s January 2010 and there ain’t no bike lane. What happened? According to the Brooklyn Paper, Marty Markowitz put the kibosh on the plan just as it was about to go ahead. Here’s an excerpt from the BP story:

But just as the city was about to start building, Markowitz wrote to the city’s top transportation official that called the Prospect Park West lane an “ill-advised proposal that would cause incredible congestion and reduce the number of available parking spaces in Park Slope.”

The Beep’s letter also argued that the bike lane would be especially problematic during the summer surge in foot traffic, when park-goers are barbecuing, attending concerts and participating in many other activities.

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Still No Egg Drop Scoop

About the egg bombs at the Washington Park Dog Run:

Still no word about who’s responsible.

The dog run people are mad as hell and they’re not going to take any more egg dropping! They say it’s an angry Novo 343 resident who’s responsible for the egg torpedoes.

The NY Daily News interviewed OTBKB fave, Kimberly Maier, the executive director of the Old Stone House, and she had this to say: “It’s not a group of people doing it. It’s probably one person,” Maier said. “[The eggs] seem to come from the same trajectory.”

According to Maier, the condominium board notified the local police precinct and put up flyers about the incidents.

So still no egg drop scoop. Sorry, folks.

arts and culture, Civics and Urban Life

Now It’s a Book: Reinventing Grand Army Plaza

Urban Omnibus just celebrated their first year online. It’s also been a year since they produced a multi-part video and audio piece that chronicled the Reinventing Grand Army Plaza design competition organized by the Design Trust for Public Space and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition.

The feature included audio interviews with six of the competition jurors, a video that explored the site, some competition entries and public reactions to them in the context of the exhibition that took place in the Plaza in the fall of 2008.

Now the Design Trust has made available a beautiful book about the competition for anyone who loves Grand Army Plaza, who loves Brooklyn, who obsesses over design competitions. Go to: Design Trust’s site to order a hard copy or download the pdf for free.

arts and culture

The Kids are All Right: $650 Raised for Haiti at All-Ages Show

Five bands including Spencer Breslin and The Wise Children, The Passing Bells, Ray, Bad Teeth and Mother Courage, performed Saturday night and raised $650 for Haiti at an all-ages benefit concert at The Old Stone House in Park Slope.

The show, organized by a lovely young woman named Julia (last name to come), was well attended by high school kids, who seemed eager to donate their money.

A young Haitian-American woman reminded the crowd that many kids just like them “with plans to do interesting things in their lives” died during the earthquake. “Don’t forget us,” she told the crowd. The organizers plan to give the money to Doctors Without Borders.

Civics and Urban Life

Follow Up on Film Industry Effort on Behalf of Haiti

Vendors, suppliers, and members of the NYC film community have pulled together for the relief effort in Jacmel, Haiti.

Lighting equipment including generators in the 6,500 watt range were loaded at Eastern Effects on DeGraw Street in Brooklyn and will be shipped in a container for arrival in the port of Jacmel on Feb 2.

Good job!

Betsy Reid and Nora Killoran are putting together a mission, which, I assume means that film industry folks from here will be going there. They are now talking about a one week commitment between Feb 1 and Feb 8.

This group is working with Partners and Health in order to sponsor and organize their mission. For more information you can email Charlie Libin (clibin(at)luminaria(dot)com

arts and culture

Out in Paperback: 13 is the New 18

“13 is the New 18” by Park Slope’s Beth Harpaz is out in paperback this Tuedsay, January 26. Inspired by her AP story of the same name, the book chronicles a year in the adolescent life of her 13-year-old son, when the author nearly had a nervous breakdown being his mother.

Harpaz takes the reader through the teenage world of  iPods, baggy clothes, lewd song lyrics, new friends,  school and MORE. She writes funny and smart about this difficult phase in the parent/child relationship.

OSFO turns 13 on March 19th. Yikes.

Smartmom

Smartmom’s New Year’s Resolutions

From this week’s Smartmom in the Brooklyn Paper:

Smartmom spent New Year’s Eve with Best & Oldest, but has been a bit tardy with her resolutions, those pesky promises we make to ourselves this time of year. Here’s her list:

• Broccoli: Smartmom plans to serve her brood healthier fare. This year, there’s going to be less Szechuan Delight and more salads, veggies and healthy soups. Smartmom needs to model good eating habits for her family, and it all starts in the family kitchen. Sure, they’re Food Co-op members, but sometimes Smartmom gets lazy and shops at Key Food, where she buys easy-to-prepare foods like pasta, Amy’s pizza and rotisserie chicken. So this year, it’s heart-healthy, low sodium, low fat and no General Tso’s.

• Public Service: Smartmom wants to always remember what a charmed life she and her friends lead in Park Slope. In these times, she wants to stay connected to the realities of the rest of the world and give what she can (in money, in time) to help those near and far who are suffering.

• Sit ups: Smartmom vows to get at least 30 minutes a day of exercise. That means running, walking, hitting the elliptical machine, doing sit ups, push ups, pilates or something else — anything just as long as it’s exercise. Think of the endorphins. Think of the abs. Smartmom is already off to a good start. In November, she joined Crunch Fitness and signed on with a great trainer named Claire Moore, who’s working Smartmom hard with an emphasis on abdominal muscles and upper arms.

This year, Smartmom also wants Hepcat to use that expensive Bianchi bicycle he bought five years ago that was Kryptonite locked for much of those five years because they couldn’t find the key. Duh. Last month, Smartmom carried the bike to the locksmith and had him break the lock. Now, it’s waiting in the basement for Hepcat to take a ride.

• Calm: Smartmom knows that meditation makes her feel happier and calmer. So why did she stop doing it? No good reason except laziness. Now Smartmom plans to get back on track with her Om by meditating at least three times a week. She’s going to get her meditation pillow out of storage, find that Tibetan singing bowl she bought on Bleecker Street and set her watch. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Twenty minutes and she’ll be brand new.

• Pages: Smartmom wants to read as much in the coming year as she did in the last when she consumed books by Henry James, Edith Wharton, George Eliot, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and Flaubert. Now she’s moved on to contemporary Canadian authors like Carol Shields and Margaret Atwood. Having a good book makes her look forward to long subway and bus rides and stealing away to bed early so that she can read before going to sleep. It makes her life feel rich and exciting. It makes her brain work good and hard.

• Nieces: Smartmom wants to shower attention on her adorable niece, Ducky. Since the fall, they’ve been spending more one-on-one time together, and it’s been great fun. Smartmom finds that it’s better to be with Ducky alone. When Ducky is with her mom, the Diaper Diva, she tends to cling like a peach. But when she’s alone with Smartmom, she cuddles and talks and plays with Smartmom.

• Homework: Smartmom will insist that the Oh So Feisty One does her homework earlier in the evening. She is sick and tired of her waiting until after dinner to get out her books. Then she gets sleepy and asks Smartmom to wake her up at 5:30 in the morning so she can finish. Smartmom only recognizes one 5:30 per day and it’s definitely not the one in the friggin’ morning!

• Girls’ getaway: Smartmom wants to spend a few days alone with OSFO so that they can bond. OSFO has been very adolescent of late and she doesn’t confide in her mom the way she used to. That’s why Smartmom wants to take her someplace far away from Internet and cellphones, where they can reconnect and maybe even rediscover each other.

• Writer’s ‘Block’: This summer, Smartmom will definitely return to Block Island, where she has a room of her own to write. This will be her fourth year in a row at the Sea Breeze, which is a pretty wonderful place to get those fingers typing, those words flowing, those books written.

• Deadlines: Smartmom promises to get her columns to the very patient Dumb Editor on time, every time, this year. Who said New Year’s resolutions are meant to be broken?

Civics and Urban Life

Missing: African Gray Parrot

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From the Brooklyn Paper. Anyone with information is asked to call (718) 638-1260.

If you see an African Grey Parrot near Flatbush Avenue in Park Slope over the next few days, don’t just mutter to yourself about the miracle of Mother Nature — call Lora Myers at once!

Myers’s 12-year-old pet — whom she has had since he was a little chick — flew away from her Prospect Place home on Thursday night and has not been seen since. He was last seen heading towards Flatbush Avenue.

“We are frantic,” Myers told us, tearing up. “Anything you can do to help is much appreciated. We’ve had him 12 years. This is my child!”

Myers described Gracie as a “strong flyer” who might not come if called.

“He has a limited vocabulary,” she said. “What he does most often is whistle. He’s almost a composer.”

Civics and Urban Life

Op-Ed by David Pechefsky: Bringing Democracy to New York

David Pechefsky wrote to me last night from Liberia, where he is setting up a budget office for the Liberian Congress. He told me about his Op-Ed in yesterday’s New York Times. He says it was written during the campaign but they didn’t publish until now. Pechefsy, who lives in Park Slope, is a former assistant director of the New York City Council’s finance division. He ran for City Council in the 39th district on the Green Party ticket in 2009.

IN Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s State of the City speech on Wednesday, he spoke of the City Council as if it were an equal partner in government. Indeed, the mayor’s surprisingly close re-election, the unusual defeat of a handful of council members and some spirited races in the general election in a city where winning the Democratic primary is tantamount to victory, might lead one to expect the 51-member body to be imbued with new democratic vigor. However, the council members inaugurated this month have joined a body whose governance structure is hardly more democratic than a high school student council’s — where the principal calls the shots.

Ultimately, all City Council decisions are made by the speaker and the speaker’s staff. The speaker controls which members get to sit on which committees and who heads those committees, what legislation comes up for a vote, the hiring and firing of the 250-plus central staff and the money that members get to dole out to their districts.

Civics and Urban Life

Feb 19-21: American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

It’s at the Brooklyn Heights Marriott and directed by New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz, the American Crossword Tournament is the nation’s oldest and largest crossword competition. Solvers tackle eight original crosswords created and edited specially for this event. Scoring is based on accuracy and speed. Prizes are awarded in more than 20 categories, including a $5,000 grand prize. Evening games, guest speakers, and a wine and cheese reception allow solvers to meet each other in a relaxed and entertaining atmosphere.

Shop Local

Oh the Flea, Oh the Williamburgh Savings Bank Building

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I nearly bought a chair for my living room at the Brooklyn Flea today. Instead I bought a Scottish beret, which reminded me of something I wore as a girl.

While there’s a lot to see at the Brooklyn Flea, the star is, of course, the space itself. Now that’s when banks were banks. What a room. The Williambsurgh Savings Bank building (One Hanson Place) built in 1927 reminds me of the Central Savings Bank on the Upper West Side, where I had my first savings account as a first grader at PS 166. Our teacher took the whole class to the bank to set up accounts.

I think I had $8 dollars in there.

To call it a grand room is a vast understatement. It is the kind of architecture that cities used to be about: on par with Grand Central Station, the old Penn Station, the Central Post Office, the main branch of the New York Public Library.

It’s a friggin awesome space that makes you feel exalted. And what a blast to have the flea there for 8 weeks this winter.

The Flea takes ups so many neat spaces. The food is in the vault downstairs, there are vendors on the mezzanine and the majority of the vendor booths are in the grand bank space with windows that will make you swoon. And at 2 PM or so when the light starts to pour in…

Ahhhhh.

As for the goods: it’s a mixed bag. I found things to consider buying: groovy old valentines (dang I shoulda got them, cool lamps, the chair I considered for the living room from a vendor based in Hudson, NY).

Finally I bought that Scottish beret from a dealer who calls himself, jokingly, Sea Hair. Apparently it’s a construction worker’s obscene joke. The guy stands on a box and plays the guitar while selling his assortment of wares.

So you must go to the Brooklyn Flea. Meet a friend there. Have coffee from the pastry and coffee vendor near the front (or something tasty from the vault downstairs) take in the soaring architecture, browse around, feel exalted for a few hours one of these winter weekend days.

Civics and Urban Life

Dispatches from the Haitian Times: 01/23

Here’s a an excerpt from, “This Time It Was Personal,” a report from Garry Pierre-Pierre in Port-Au-Prince. He is founding editor of the Haitian Times, which is based in Brooklyn.

I have been covering my beloved homeland for about 20 years. The assignments have ranged from coup d’etats to elections to flooding , carnival and festivals.

Those were all assignments that had nothing to do with me or my family. Those who are left in Haiti do not dabble into politics nor the music scene. The floods, for the most part , have occurred in the Artibonite plateau and Central region, my kinfolks hail from the south of Haiti.

For the first time I was personally and deeply affected by the devastation brought on by this earthquake that shook this mountainous nation of roughly nine million people to its core.

No immediate family members died in the calamity, but many friends perished. They are too numerous to mention here, this column would not end. My story is not unique, it is the story of every Haitian. For years to come, Haitians would talk about Tuesday January 12 in the same way they remember January 1, our independence from France, for different reasons obviously.

arts and culture

Feb 11: 4th Annual Memoirathon at the Old Stone House

The Memoirathon: it’s getting to be a tradition and it’s certainly one of my favorite Brooklyn Reading Works events.

For the second year in a row, Branka Ruzak brings together a stellar group of memoirists. This year the theme is: surviving the recession/depression of 2009/2010.

Here’s the list of this year’s memoirists, who will share their woeful and wry tales of survival in these dark economic times. Branka is still accepting submissions if you are interested. Please send to bbranka(at)earthlink(dot)net. 1000 words max.

MARCO ACEVEDO
NELL BOESCHENSTEIN
JANET RAIFFA
NAVA RENEK
BETSY ROBINSON
DEBORAH SIEGEL

Thursday, February 11 at 8 PM. The Old Stone House. Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope. $5 suggested donation includes refreshments.

arts and culture

Jan 26: Tom Martinez Photo Show at The Old Stone House

You’ve seen Tom Martinez’s photos on OTBKB. Now you can see, Beneath the Surface, his photo exhibition at the Old Stone House, which opens on Tuesday, January 26 from 7-9 PM. The show will run through March 1.

There will be music and refreshments at the opening plus a special slide show by Tom.

In his dual career as a minister and photographer, Martinez is drawn to images that reflect the interfaith diversity of New York City and its unexpected natural habitats, In 2003 Martinez became minister of All Souls Bethlehem Church in Brooklyn’s Kensington neighborhood. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 2000 and subsequently completed a three-year stint at Christ Church in Summit, NJ. With the Christian Peacemaker Teams, he spent two weeks in Baghdad in an effort to promote a human connection with the Iraqi people and alternatives to war. He is the author of the book, “Confessions of a Seminarian: Searching for Soul in the Shadow of Empire.” His photographs have been published in the Staten Island Advance, the Brooklyn Paper and, of course, on OTBKB. You can see more of his photography at Tom Martinez Witness Photography.

arts and culture

The Weekend List: The Ant, The Clark Sisters, Coney Island Puppet Show

The Ant by Xavier Roux at the Invisible Dog in Cobble HillFILM: This weekend at BAM: “Soundtrack for a Revolution” tells the story of the American civil rights movement through its powerful music—the freedom songs protesters sang on picket lines, in mass meetings, in paddy wagons, and in jail cells as they fought for justice and equality. The film features new performances of the freedom with performances by: John Legend, Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, and The Roots.

–Also at BAM: A Single Man with Colin Firth and Julianne Moore. Directed by Tom Ford. Based on a short story by Christopher Isherwood.

MUSIC: Chocolate Chip Chamber Music at Old First Church. Kids orchestra performs “The Cats Meow (More Tails from the Opera) at 10 AM and 11:30 AM on January 22 & 24th.

–All Ages Benefit for Haiti at the Old Stone House with Spencer Breslin & The Wild Children, Bad Teeth, Mother Courage, Passing Bells and Ray will perform at on Saturday, January 23 at 6 PM. $5 admission goes toward Haitian relief efforts. Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

The Clark Sisters, one of the top female gospel groups in the country, at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College. Saturday at 8 PM.

READINGS/TALKS: On Sunday: The Dynamic Gastropolis. Jonathan Deutsch leads a panel discussion on the history and culture of food in New York City at the GAP branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at 1:30 PM

THEATER: “Lyrics from Lockdown” is the true story of Brooklyn’s own Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion, Bryonn Bain, is wrongly imprisoned in a New York City jail while studying law at Harvard on Sunday at 3PM at the Kumble Theater at Long Island University.

PUPPET SHOWS: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Snow Queen” presented by Puppetworks. 12:30 and 2:30 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

–On Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 PM at Green-wood Cemetery, Victorian Toy Theater presents a multi-media show that celebrates the history and legends of Coney Island.

ART: Artist Xavier Roux was inspired to create a sixty-foot long sculpture by the poem written by Surrealist Robert Desnos in 1942. This sculpture consists of a giant ant symbolizing the trains transporting Jews and other nazi victims to concentration camps. Opens Saturday, 6-9 PM  at the Invisible Dog in Cobble Hill. See picture above.

arts and culture

OTBKB Music: Franz Nicolay Leaves The Hold Steady

News and notes from around town: Franz Nicolay leaves The Hold Steady, Maura Kennedy will be returning with a band to The Living Room in February, and the latest from The Rockwood Music Hall and The Lakeside Lounge.

Tonight at St. Anne’s Warehouse: a benefit concert for Tuli Kupferberg, a member of The Fugs, a seminal mid-60s Lower East Side group.  The Fugs were there before The Velvet Underground and The Mothers of Invention.

All this over at Now I’ve Heard Everything.

–Eliot Wagner

arts and culture

The Weekend List: Choc Chip Chamber Music & The Dynamic Gastropolis

MUSIC: On Friday at 8 PM: John Pinamonti, Neil deMause and RebelMart at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook.

—Chocolate Chip Chamber Music at Old First Church. Kids orchestra performs “The Cats Meow (More Tails from the Opera) at 10 AM and 11:30 AM on January 22 & 24th.

–All Ages Benefit for Haiti at the Old Stone House with Spencer Breslin & The Wild Children, Bad Teeth, Mother Courage, Passing Bells and Ray will perform at on Saturday, January 23 at 6 PM. $5 admission goes toward Haitian relief efforts. Third Street and Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

The Clark Sisters, one of the top female gospel groups in the country, at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College. Saturday at 8 PM.

READINGS/TALKS: On Friday: Nick Flynn author of “The Ticking is the Bomb” at Book Court at 7 PM

–On Sunday: The Dynamic Gastropolis. Jonathan Deutsch leads a panel discussion on the history and culture of food in New York City at the GAP branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at 1:30 PM

THEATER: “Lyrics from Lockdown” is the true story of Brooklyn’s own Nuyorican Grand Slam Champion, Bryonn Bain, is wrongly imprisoned in a New York City jail while studying law at Harvard at 3PM at the Kumble Theater at Long Island University.

PUPPET SHOWS: “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Snow Queen” presented by Puppetworks. 12:30 and 2:30 PM on Saturday and Sunday.

–On Saturday and Sunday at 1 and 3 PM at Green-wood Cemetery, Victorian Toy Theater presents a multi-media show that celebrates the history and legends of Coney Island.

Uncategorized

Tonight: RebelMart’s Last Show in Brooklyn (for awhile anyway)

RebelMart is picking-up stakes.  This Friday at Rocky Sullivan’s in Red Hook come see a terrific three-way bill with three Brooklyn bards de musica: John Pinamonti, Neil deMause and the last ever NYC performance of RebelMart.

Free admission, but bring extra quid for RebelMart’s two new demo albums, Brooklyn Is Dying and Little Iodine, as well as John Pinamonti’s many incredible discs, including the newest, End of Smith.  Of course, Neil writes as good as he plays geetar and sings — go here and here.

JOHN PINAMONTI (10pm)
REBELMART (9pm)
NEIL DEMAUSE (8pm)
Live on stage at Rocky Sullivan’s
34 Van Dyke Street (corner of Dwight)
Red Hook, Brooklyn
Friday, January 22
8pm
Red Hook, Brooklyn
F/G to Smith/9th Street -or- F/R to 4th Avenue/9th Street Stations
transfer for the B77 Bus to corner of Van Dyke & Dwight Street, Red Hook
free Ikea shuttle buses.  Go here for more info: http://info.ikea-usa.com/brooklyn/
http://www.rockysullivans.com/quiz.html

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Scott Turner is Moving to Seattle

Brooklyn is losing a great one. And so is OTBKB.

Scott Turner, the writer/designer/thinker behind the weekly Greetings from Scott Turner post, is moving to Seattle. The fight against the Atlantic Yards is losing one of its most passionate activists and Rocky Sullivan’s is losing its talented pub quiz host. And OTBKB…

…OTBKB is saddened and bummed because it SUCKS to lose such an excellent contributor. But Scott says that he’s off to  greener pastures: a job offer and a desire to pursue his true love: music—and who can argue with that. I have been honored to publish his posts every week and wish him the very, very best in his Seattle adventure. I even foster hopes that he will continue Greetings from Scott Turner from Seattle (will ya think about it, Scott?).

Tonight, you can hear Scott’s solo band, RebelMart at 9PM at Rocky Sullivan’s. Also on the bill are John Pinamonti and Neil deMause. It’s a  great triple-bill and the last RebelMart show around here for quite sometime. Here is Scott’s farewell missive though he’s still around for another two weeks:

Huh?  Yep…I’m leaving town.  A job offer in Seattle coincided with an awakening that I have to get back to music.  Six years of fighting the Atlantic Yards project and lots else going on here in Brooklyn put a squelcher on the guitar and the singing.  Seattle’s a clean-slate chance to play lots of music and get RebelMart functioning full-throttle.

My last Quiz at Rocky’s is February 4th.  I hired from within for my successor, Sean Crowley, who publishes NerdNY.  Sean’s a regular at the quiz.  He’ll be taking over the Quizmails, too.  I don’t know whether he’ll be issuing scorching screeds at the beginning of each Quizmail, the way I did.

This should explain my failure to send you a photo and a bio for your contributors.  I’d offer to shoot you a weekly rant from Seattle, but it’s not what OTBKB is really about.  Who needs another Brooklynite-out-of-water blog?  Yes, we get it.  They don’t have bagels, yellow cabs and blunt honesty in [name of new city].  OTBKB is about Brooklyn telling Brooklyn what Brooklyn is up to.  As it should be.

Thanks for running my weekly pieces.  I’ve always appreciated the trust you’ve put in me by running them, harshness and jagged edges unimpeded.  It’s certainly helped the Quiz and Rocky’s.  I can’t say thank you enough.  And, per contemporary mores, we’ve never met each other in person.  Yep, it’s the post-Aughts, alright.

Civics and Urban Life

Tonight: The Egg Drop Scoop

I just got off the phone with a trusted source who will be attending a meeting TONIGHT at the Novo Condo on Fourth Avenue about the egg dropper, the as yet unknown person who has been throwing eggs from their condo onto the dog run downstairs.

“An egg came from the sky,” wrote a tipster to Brownstoner last week about the incident. Isn’t that the opening of “Gravity’s Rainbow?” No, Thomas Pynchon’s first sentence is: “A screaming came across the sky…”

So why would someone throw eggs at the dogs in the dog run. Noise? Allergy to dogs? Just plain grumpy?

The Dog Run in Washington Park is open 24 hours a day. The park, however, closes at 10 PM. In other words, people who want to play or hang out have to stop at 10 PM but dogs…

…dogs run free (with their owners) and can use the run whenever they want.

Hopefully my source will have the Egg Drop Scoop later tonight. Stay tuned.

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Councilmember Steve Levin Chair of Planning, Disposition, Concessions Sub Committee

Councilmember Steve Levin, who represents the 33rd District in Brooklyn, which includes parts of Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights , DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, Boerum Hill, Williamsburg , and Greenpoint, has been named the Chair of the Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions Sub Committee, a Land Use Sub Committee. Levin has also been selected to serve as a member on the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment, General Welfare, Economic Development, Education, and Environmental Protection Committees.

“I am thrilled and honored to be chosen to serve as Chair of the Planning, Dispositions, and Concessions Sub Committee, as well as a member of several other committees. I have always made the creation and protection of affordable housing one of my main priorities, and I will continue to do so in my new role as chair of this very important sub committee. In the aftermath of massive development throughout our city, this sub committee will be vital in determining how we move forward to make sure that development can serve those who need it most,” Levin said. “I thank Speaker Quinn and my fellow Council members for putting their faith in me to guide this committee.  Continue reading Councilmember Steve Levin Chair of Planning, Disposition, Concessions Sub Committee →

Civics and Urban Life

Brownstoner to Launch Philadelphia Edition

Brownstoner announced today that in the spring, most likely early April, they’re going to launch a Philadelphia edition of Brownstoner.

Philadelphia’s status as the sixth borough and one of the most historic cities in the country make it an ideal spot for our first geographical expansion; in addition to the architecture, there’s such a strong sense of community and neighborhood allegiance (like in Brooklyn) that make it a great place to launch Brownstoner. What’s more, the city is woefully under-blogged and under-reported in general. We have every confidence that a Brownstoner community can flourish in the city of brotherly love, especially because it will be launched under the experienced watch of Gabby Warshawer, who has been a writer for Brownstoner in Brooklyn for the last 2 1/2 years. There will more details as we approach launch, but we urge you to tell your Philly friends about it and to direct them to this page to sign up to receive a notification when the site launches. We’ll also be looking for a handful of neighborhood “stringers” to report on streetlevel and development news, so feel free to shoot us an email if you’re interested.

Civics and Urban Life, Shop Local

Jan 23: Brooklyn History Lesson at the Brooklyn Flea

Preeminent New York City and Brooklyn historian Prof. Ken Jackson (Columbia Univ.; The Encyclopedia of New York City, ed.; The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn, co-author) will join Prof. Stuart Blumin (Cornell Univ.) at the Brooklyn Flea at One Hanson to provide a freeform public talk on the history of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building and its relationship to Brooklyn as a borough, and formerly as a city unto itself.

The approximately 45-minute talk will take place at the kiosk at the main entryway to the Flea/bank, starting at 3:00pm this Saturday, January 23. The event is free and open to the public. Directions are available at www.brooklynflea.com.

Brooklyn Flea has moved into the beautiful bank space—now managed as an event space by Skylight One Hanson—for 12 weekends, through March 27/28, Saturday and Sunday from 10:00am to 5:00pm, with 100 vendors on three floors: the main-floor bank space, mezzanine, and lower-level vault. The market has attracted nearly 10,000 visitors each of the first two weekends at One Hanson, and the Flea is building on its activation of this public space by highlighting the special significance the landmark skyscraper holds in both Brooklynites’ imaginations and the borough’s compelling history.

Professors Jackson and Blumin will delve into the building’s architectural details—from the giant golden mosaic map of Brooklyn on the bank’s back wall to the wrought-iron depictions of artisans and skilled workers in the stained-glass windows—while linking them to the broad narrative of Brooklyn as a longtime capital of the American working class. They will also answer questions from the public.

arts and culture

New: Vietnamese Sandwich Shop on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope

Banh mi are the thing!

The other day a restaurant opened in the space next door to Willie Dawgs on Fifth Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets in Park Slope. It’s called Home S and they sell banh mi, which are Vietnamese sandwiches (think Hanco’s on Seventh Avenue and 10th Street). Classic sandwiches cost $6 and they’ve got bubble tea for $3.75.

Pix of sandwich is not from Home S.