A press release from Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group for bicyclists in New York City, reacts to three crashes in one week and the death of two cyclist.s:

In the past week there were three serious bike crashes in New York
City, two of them resulting in the deaths of individual cyclists, Dr.
Carl Nacht and Derek Lake.

On Monday June 19, a taxicab driver opened his door and knocked a
cyclist into the path of a passing bus on 10 th Avenue in Manhattan. On
Thursday June 22, an NYPD tow truck driver crossing the Hudson River
Greenway hit Dr. Nacht as he was riding with his wife northbound on the
bike path. Dr. Nacht died Monday, June 26. On Monday June 26, Mr. Lake
was killed by a truck when his bike slid out of control and he fell
beneath the truck on Houston Street at LaGuardia Place.

All three crashes were caused by dangerous conditions that are
commonplace on New York City streets but should not be: drivers and
passengers opening car doors into the path of cyclists; drivers failing to yield to cyclists and hazardous street conditions that can send bikes out of control.

Like the Mayors of London, Paris, Chicago and other world
class cities that have recently unveiled comprehensive plans to make
bicycling safe and widespread, Mayor Bloomberg must get serious about
making New York City a safe place to bike. The City’s ‘Bicycle
Master Plan’ is ten years old and only 15% complete. It is devoid of
targets, timetables and design standards that cities like London and
Chicago are using to make cycling safe enough for all to enjoy.

To prevent future tragedies, City Hall must modernize New York
City’s bike plan to include targets, timetables, design standards and
other modern tools for making cycling a safe and viable mode of
transportation, including:

• A new updated "New York City Bicycle Master Plan"
• A timetable to implement this bike safety/encouragement plan
• Specific targets to increase the rate of bike riding and reduce the number of bicycle crashes
• Modern street design standards for the safest types of on- and off-street bike paths
• Heightened enforcement of laws against drivers who endanger cyclists
• Specific targets to put every New Yorker within a half-mile of a bike lane or path
• Increased street hazard inspection on heavily-cycled streets by bike-borne DOT inspectors
• Proactive safety measures like "anti-dooring" stickers in taxicabs to
  remind drivers and passengers to look for cyclists before opening their
  doors
• Adequate outdoor bike parking and bike access to buildings
• The reinstatement of a public bicycle advisory committee

Helmets reduce the risk of serious head injuries, but are only part
of the safety equation. T.A.’s Deputy Director of Advocacy, Noah
Budnick says, "Everyone should wear helmets, but helmets don’t prevent
crashes. Safety is better served by safe streets that encourage more
cycling because studies show that the more cyclists there are, the more
motorists notice us and the safer it is to ride."

Tonight, a really, really big show (as Ed Sullivan used to say). I haven’t checked the weather prediction for this evening, but if it doesn’t rain and pour, a much talked about band called TV on the Radio will be there (pictured left).   

6:30 PM: Prospect Park bandshell, at Prospect Park West and Ninth Street.  Park Slope.

Some friends from Park Slope moved to Easton, PA last summer. The city is on the Delaware River. They were parents at PS 321 with two boys. I saw this picture of the flooding in Easton, PA and gasped. I wonder how our friends are doing.

Concerts aren’t the only thing people do in pools in Brooklyn. They can also go swimming. This from NY1.

Today is opening day for the city’s 51 public pools. 

Eager swimmers were lined up at one pool in Brooklyn to be the
first ones to take a dip. Kids and parents who talked to NY1 agreed the
pools opened up just in time.

"It’s hot, so I gotta cool off," said one swimmer.

"Yeah first day home from school, I can’t have them in the house, they drive me crazy!" said one parent.

"I come to bring the kids,” added another parent. “They just got
out of school and they say they want to come here and have some fun."

"It’s so fun, you just play and you see all your friends," said another swimmer.

"It’s close to our house and my daughter met her friends and this
is their first day after school and so they’re going to swim and it’s
great,” said another parent. “I think they city has done a great job
with the upkeep of the pools and it is for everybody."

The dozens of outdoor pools across the five boroughs are free and
open to the public between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. most days through Labor
Day.

To find out where the nearest pool is and what it has to offer, call 311.

This story stinks on so many levels. More fuel for the ‘keep cell phone outta the schools’ debate AND why would these kids cheat anyway? Pressure to succeed? Lack of moral fiber? Wrong headed education system? Because they could?  From NY 1.

Students at two prestigious Brooklyn high schools have been busted for
allegedly using their cell phones and an e-mail device to cheat on
their Regents exams.

One student attends Midwood High School, and five others go to the Leon M. Goldstein High School. 

A proctor uncovered the scheme last Thursday during the Regents
physics exam at Goldstein after noticing a male student text messaging
on his Sidekick device.

The bust comes as the mayor and the Department of Education continue their efforts to ban cell phones in schools.

"It’s a sad example,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “I suppose you
could have a smile on your face and say ‘I told you so,’ but I wish we
didn’t have that. You wish the kids hadn’t resorted to cheating and
we’re not going to tolerate it."

DOE officials say cheating is one of their major concerns when it
comes to cell phones in school. But many students say the ban would
compromise their safety.

The editor of The Brooklynite, a quarterly magazine of urban affairs and culture that made its debut in March 2005, was at the Brooklyn Blogfest. He told attendees that the magazine was folding because he just couldn’t make it work financially.

Needless to say, he looked very sad about the whole thing. And I am too. I liked the magazine a lot and cannot understand why a Brooklyn-specific magazine of this quality can’t seem to make it around here. I think you can get the last issue at Community Books. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Covering life, culture, and politics in the borough, the magazine
provides a lively, independent venue for top-notch journalism on the
issues facing Brooklynites of all stripes.

Already, the magazine has amassed a roster of contributors that
includes a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, a noted former
congresswoman, a Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee champion, several
published authors, and reporters for New York’s leading daily
newspapers.

This incredible picture and the story of the workers who were excavating the foundation for a warehouse in Brooklyn, who nearly an hour yesterday trapped beneath tons of debris from the New York Times.

Emergency workers scrambled to free Manuel Vergara, 33. He and his brother were shaken but not seriously hurt. The company in charge of the project, in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, received three violations.

In a heart-thumping scene that drew nearly 100 rescue workers and scores of curious onlookers, the men were painstakingly extricated with help from a powerful vacuum, but largely by men like Neil Malone, a firefighter and paramedic who used his bare hands to keep dirt and rocks away from the face of one of the men.

The buried men, who are brothers, were shaken and coated in dust but not seriously hurt, the authorities said. Five firefighters also received minor injuries during the rescue effort, they said. The two men, Manuel Vergara, 33, and Herberto Vergara, 27, of Sunset Park, were working at the bottom of an eight-foot-deep trench on 11th Street in the Gowanus section when it suddenly caved in around 10:30 a.m., witnesses and fire officials said.

When John Connolly, the construction site supervisor, got to the scene a few minutes later, he said Herberto was buried up to his chin and Manuel was completely covered by debris.

The first rescue workers used garden tools to clear space around Manuel’s face. Later, a powerful vacuum used by Con Edison sucked out rocks and dirt. A crane lifted portions of a collapsed chimney and paramedics hooked up intravenous drips while the men were still partly buried.

They’re showing trash at the Atlantic Gallery in Manhattan. Trash, I tell you. I got this in my email about the show that might be of interest to some of you.

I’d like to invite you to a group show titled TRASH: What We Value
and What we Throw Away, which will be opening at the Atlantic
Gallery tomorrow – Tuesday, June 27th.  The exhibit explores different
perspectives of trash – the normal disgusting nature of garbage, but
also its adaptive reuse, as any New Yorker who has picked up a chair or
bookcase on the street can tell you.  There is even a wedding dress completely made out of discarded sheet
music.  I hope you can attend this exhibit.  Additionally there will be
a panel of speakers on July 11th, called TALKING TRASH.  I’ve attached
a press release and flyer with more info.

 

Please
forward this to anyone who might be interested.  The reception is from
6-8 pm, at the Atlantic Gallery, 40 Wooster St., 4th Floor.  Hope to
see you there!

Please visit the Atlantic Gallery website for more details: http://www.atlanticgallery.org/futureshowing.html

 

You can also view my write-up here:  http://www.nybrainterrain.blogspot.com/

Here’s something you didn’t know. And there’s a lot more you don’t know about Sunset Park. So check in at Sunset Parker and you’re sure to learn a lot. It looks like he’s going tobe posting open house up there, too. But this news about adult-only pool hours at the neighborhood pool is really great.  It’s supposed to be a great pool.

Now
that summer’s officially here, just a reminder: the neighborhood is
named after a park. And in the park is a gigantic outdoor pool. Perhaps
you’ve avoided it because you thought of all those noisy kids and the
splashing and the pee-pee.

Well, nix that!

The Sunset
Park pool (towards the west side of the park) offers adults-only Early
Bird and Night Bird lap hours from 7am-8:30am and 7pm-8:30pm.

It’s free.  It’s everyday.  It’s better than an open fire hydrant.

Go at night and catch the sunset behind the Statue of Liberty from the Park’s Observation deck…

Nevermindspace organized the Bubble Battle at Astor Place on June 16th. Macronia47, the photographer who took the Mermaid Parade picture, took a lot of pictures at the event. I’ve been scouring through his photos because Teen Spirit and his best friend went to the bubble event and I’d love to see a picture of them caught in the act of blowing bubbles.  I haven’t found a picture of them yet…still looking.

Continue reading BUBBLE BATTLE AT ASTOR PLACE →

Check this out:  Brookyn Papers has a brand new web site. It looks great. It works well. And Smartmom lives there. So does Brooklyn Angle and Go-Brooklyn.

It’s good. It’s good. With Gersh Kuntzman at the helm, it’s gonna be great. Finally. Finally. Brooklyn Papers has a new web site — it will now be the first place I check for breaking Brooklyn news.

I nearly missed this. Thank you Curbed for bringing it to my attention. It’s from Slate.com

Dear Frank Gehry,

We’ve
never met, but last month I sent you a letter. You didn’t answer, so
I’m trying again. I’m a novelist who grew up in the Boerum Hill
neighborhood of Brooklyn, and who lives there now (I’ve also lived in
Oakland, Toronto, and in rural Maine, in case you find my perspective
suspiciously parochial). The subject of my letter is the ill-conceived
and out-of-scale flotilla of skyscrapers you propose to build on a
series of sites between Atlantic Avenue and Dean Street in Brooklyn, in
your partnership with a developer named Bruce Ratner and his firm,
Forest City Ratner Companies.

Most
people, if they’ve heard of this proposal at all, believe you’ve been
hired to design a sports arena, to house the New Jersey Nets, a team
owned by Mr. Ratner. Anyone who’s glimpsed the drawings and models,
however, knows that other, larger plans have overtaken the notion of a
mere arena. The proposal currently on the table is a gang of 16 towers
that would be the biggest project ever built by a single developer in
the history of New York City. In fact, the proposed arena, like the
surrounding neighborhoods, stands to be utterly dwarfed by these
ponderous skyscrapers and superblocks. It’s a nightmare for Brooklyn,
one that, if built, would cause irreparable damage to the quality of
our lives and, I’d think, to your legacy. Your reputation, in this
case, is the Trojan horse in a war to bring a commercially ambitious,
but aesthetically—and socially—disastrous new development to Brooklyn.
Your presence is intended to appease cultural tastemakers who might
otherwise, correctly, recognize this atrocious plan for what it is,
just as the notion of a basketball arena itself is a Trojan horse for
the real plan: building a skyline suitable to some Sunbelt boomtown.
I’ve been struggling to understand how someone of your sensibilities
can have drifted into such an unfortunate alliance, with such
potentially disastrous results. And so, I’d like to address you as one
artist to another. Really, as one citizen to another. Here are some
things I’d hope you’ll consider before this project advances any
further.

Continue reading DEAR FRANK GEHRY FROM JONATHAN LETHEM →

Sweet Melissa’s the lovely and very civilized tea room/bakery on Court Street in Cobble Hill is coming to the Seventh Avenue storefront that used to house the Microchip Cafe and before that a stationary store. It will be across the street from PS 321.

Very good news.

Speaking of Slope restaurants, it’s time to put in a good word for Black Pearl. We had a very impromptu birthday party for Hepcat there a few weeks ago (very impromptu). Black Pearl was incredibly accomodating. They cheerfully created a huge table for our party of 15 or so. The service was great and so was the food.

My writer’s group has been going there for drinks and sometimes food after writer’s group for about six months now. I’ve been very impressed with the service, the food, and the cocktails. It’s a fairly quiet place; a good place for conversation.

The other night after writer’s group, a group of us went in and I asked the Maitre’ D if he remembered me. "Of course. We call you guys the Rosenblums because your party drank ten bottles of Rosenblum’s California Zinfindel," he said.

That’s a lot of wine. I didnt’ realize we drank so much. Hey, it was a nice party.

So there was something in Curbed.com about me and Brooklyn Record on June 12th. Hepcat told me about it today – practically a full week later. COMMUNICATION. Hellw? There were also a  bunch of not altogether pleasant comments about me but you can check those out for yourself. 

Brooklyn continues as a hotbed of hot blogging action with today’s launch of Brooklyn Record,
a new Gothamist sort of site for the old borough. Published by
Brownstoner, its mission is to "cover Arts, Restaurants, Events,
Politics, etc." We will, of course, be reading, even as we await the
inevitable deathmatch with OTBKB.
· Brooklyn Record [BrooklynRecord.com]

I saw one of the old Mojo employees with a Tempo Presto t-shirt on. He was inside the old Mojo on Third Street – I think Tempo had a booth in front of the store during Seventh Heaven. I asked him if he was going to be working at Tempo Presto when it opens and he said he wasn’t sure: he likes working at Tempo Presto on Fifth Avenue.  Oh, so he works at Tempo Presto already. He said the shop would be opening in Fall 2006. "They’re going to be doing a lot of construction." he added.

So a Fall opening for Tempo Presto. It’s got me wondering what’s happened to our Third Street friend Corey. Will he be working at Tempo Presto, too?

The City section did a piece on that old timey fruit and vegetable shop on Court Street in Boerum/Cobble Hill. I think there’s a connection between that shop and the fruit truck on President Street. I think they used to be in business together but they had a falling out. Maybe I made that up. But I don’t think so.

CARMINE CINCOTTA, 53, was in his usual position at the back of Jim
and Andy’s, a narrow slip of a produce store on Court Street along the
Boerum Hill-Cobble Hill fault line. A folded copy of a newspaper rested
on a box of kiwis in front of him, open to the crossword.

"Fielding novel?" he grunted,
eyes peering over the tops of his black spectacles like a college
professor. "Anyone know any Fielding?" The question was addressed to
the store’s handful of customers.

"Tom Jones?" suggested the man next to him.

Mr. Cincotta turned and gazed at him with infinite weariness. "That’s the only one you know, isn’t it?" he said.

The
customer laughed; an old friend of Carmine’s, he knew and appreciated
these rules of engagement. At the far end of the store, magnificently
detached from his son’s daily performance, stood Mr. Cincotta’s father,
Jimmy, 80, gazing serenely out of the window at the passing parade, as
though the two of them inhabited different stores entirely. Short and
round, the older Mr. Cincotta is the physical opposite of his tall,
lean son, as though they were related not by blood but by their years
together on this small stage.

Since 1970, when Jimmy Cincotta
moved permanently into the place on Court Street that he and a partner
had been renting as a storage area, Jim and Andy’s has been a fixture
on Court Street. Through subsequent decades, bars have become bodegas,
which in turn have become restaurants and real estate offices. But the
store, with its brown sign and simple facade of fruit and vegetables
piled on crates — no Dean & DeLuca styling here — has remained a
constant. The interior consists of cracked black-and-white linoleum
tiling, peeling walls and, if you venture far enough back, a glimpse of
a tiny "office" piled with papers, into which Carmine Cincotta is apt
to retreat when business is slow or he feels the need for a little
privacy.

The older Mr. Cincotta has been in the fruit and
vegetable business since he was 13, back in 1939. He began by helping
his father, whom he unashamedly calls a "peddler," using a horse and
cart to travel around the neighborhood.

"On Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays I’d work that side of Court Street," he said,
indicating what is now called Boerum Hill, "and on Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays I’d work this side" — he stabbed in the direction of
Cobble Hill. Neither nomenclature existed back then; both areas were
still part of the vast sweep of "South Brooklyn."

It was hard
work. He would be up at 3 or 4 in the morning to head to the old
produce market on West Street in Manhattan, then catch a few hours’
sleep before hitting the streets until 6 or 7 p.m. He would remain
outside in all weather, unless the temperature dropped below 30
degrees, when he would take the horse back to the stables. If it was
hot, there was no respite.

"I remember my favorite horse,
Dolly," he said. "She was strong, unbelievable. You get some days in
July or August and that tar is really soft, and she was pulling twice
her weight. The wheels would go right in."

By 1970, when Mr.
Cincotta gave up his last horse, the network of stables and blacksmiths
and feed merchants required to sustain them was disappearing. "That’s
when everybody started getting really fussy," he said. Residents began
objecting to the smell of horse manure, the last stables were being
gobbled up for parking lots or residential developments, and finding a
blacksmith became almost impossible.

"I remember when we used
to put four shoes on a horse for $6," he recalled. "The last horse was
$50, and the guy had to come in from out of town."

Mr. Cincotta
had not planned for any of his children to enter the business; he
worked so hard in large part to put Carmine and his brother, Philip,
and sister, Nancy, through college so they might go on to better
things.

Carmine Cincotta had no plans to join his father
either, though he also had no plans of any other description. "I was
totally clueless," he said. "I’m the only person who got a history
degree from Baruch when it was almost 100 percent a business college…

There was a story in the Daily News by Jergo Armstrong about my friend Wendy (pictured below) who opened a Bed and Breakfast (without breakfast so it’s a B without B) a few months ago.

She remodeled the garden apartment in her brownstone and now rents it out with three day minimum stay.  Formerly a set designer, Wendy has an incredible eye for interior design and the garden "hotel" she created is gorgeous, airy, and filled with beautiful things. Just the kind of place you want to stay in when you’re visiting beautiful Brooklyn. She’s had guests from all over the world. And the word is getting out about her spacious and comfortable alternative to a hotel in Park Slope.     
       
      

Wendy Ponte hugs daughter Adelaide Ponte Upton, 10, in the basement room she rents to tourists.

Tourists visiting New York are leaving behind Manhattan’s bustling hotels for the charm of Brooklyn’s brownstones.

Homeowners from Park Slope to Bay Ridge are renting their apartments to
visitors on a short-term basis, taking advantage of a growing number of
tourists lured to Brooklyn by its slower pace and cheaper lodging.

"A lot of people vacationing to New York are beginning to realize that
Brooklyn is a viable, cheaper alternative to Manhattan … and it’s a
growing market for people like me," said Wendy Ponte, a freelance
writer who rents a one-bedroom apartment out of her Park Slope
brownstone.

"People more are wanting to stay in Brooklyn rather than the city. A
lot of them have kids and would rather stay in an apartment setting
within a community than in Manhattan."

Ponte, who started renting out her apartment last February, lists her
apartments on Web sites like Craigslist and Cyberrentals.com – and the
response has been overwhelming.

Others report similar results. "Every week I’m booked. I’ve been booked
up 100% since I started this two years ago," said Margo Lewis, 41, an
event producer who rents out a Fort Greene apartment.

"I’ve had people come from Australia, Germany, England, Japan and other
parts of the United States, just wanting to stay in Brooklyn. They view
Brooklyn as a way of life, an icon of the United States."

Both Lewis and Ponte use the rentals as secondary income – and have benefited handsomely.

"I can earn up to $3,500 a month based on my weekly rental," said
Lewis, who has a three-night minimum stay of $250; $850 for a week, and
a maximum of $2,500 for a month.

Jason Nagy, the director of marketing for FindRentals.com, said the
industry for vacation alternatives to hotels is getting bigger and
bigger. "This is definitely a growing trend because people want better
deals than hotels"

I’ve been observing the transformation of what was Good Footing on the corner of Union Street and Seventh Avenue into what is obviously a small new bank/ATM station.

I wonder what bank it will be. Commerce. Washington Mutual?

It was interesting to see the metal insides of the ATM machines going in. The windows are obviously very thick. The tell-tale clue that it’s an ATM bank: the cutouts in the walls just above waist level.

Other news: What was the Korean market on the north corner of Garfield is going to be a real estate office, I forget which one.  ANOTHER REAL ESTATE OFFICE.

BREAKING NEWS FROM Hepcat on location in Prospect Park.

THERE WAS A BIG SURPRISE AT TONIGHT’S CELEBRATE BROOKLYN CONCERT AND HIS NAME IS PRINCE (the artist formerly and currently known as Prince).

MACEO PARKER, considered one of the architects of funk music, played gritty saxophone (he’s played with James Brown,
Parliament-Funkadelic, Bootsy Collins, and Prince) and rocked out with his band. The crowd loved it.

Now, according to Hepcat, they are shouting for an ENCORE (I can even hear it over the phone). OMIGOD: IT’S PRINCE. IN BROOKLYN. I can barely hear Hepcat on the phone. He’s very excited. What a great night at Celebrate Brooklyn…sorry I missed it.

More: "He was wearing a white zoot suit kind of thing," says Hepcat. He doesn’t know what song he was singing but it was great. Hepcat didn’t have his camera but took some shots with his cell phone. We don’t know how to download those.

Back story: Hepcat was at the Park Slope Food Coop earlier in the evening and over the PA system someone said: "I have it from a reliable source that Prince is playing at Prospect Park!" Wide spread murmuring. He told me when he got home. Then he went to the park. You know the rest.

Check out Dumb Editor’s story in the Brooklyn Papers. This news stopped me short. And it’s big news for those of us who detest Chuck E. Cheese.

Chuck E. Cheese has a cute mouse for a mascot — and lots of dirty mice in the kitchen.

The fast-food restaurant and arcade, housed on the third-floor of Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Terminal Mall, was shut down last week by the city’s Department of Health after inspectors found — oh, the irony — mouse droppings throughout the kitchen.

Make that a lot of mouse droppings.

“Approximately 30 mice droppings on paper goods storage shelf near kitchen entrance,” read the June 8 inspection report, a copy of which was obtained by The Brooklyn Papers.

“Approximately 10-20 mice droppings on shelf floor of rear exit. Evidence of mice or live mouse present in facility’s food and non-food areas … Approximately 60-70 mouse droppings on floor in electrical closet in kitchen.”

READ MORE AT BROOKLYNPAPERS.COM

Kudos to Jack Walsh, the Producer and Director of Celebrate Brooklyn and the man responsible for last night’s Prince appearance at the opening event of the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series. 

Prince only appeared for seven minutes singing the closing track ("Get on the Boat") on his new CD. “To have somebody like Prince show up
just makes it all the more special for everyone involved," Walsh told the New York Times.

“I sent an email to
a friend in the concert business,” he said, “and it got forwarded to
the right person. It was on a whim, but the response was immediate.
Somehow it just worked out.”

From the New York Times:

The song’s James Brown groove suited the occasion, and gave Mr.
Parker the chance to recreate his horn arrangement from the album.
Prince sang some upbeat lyrics extolling racial harmony, and took a
fleeting solo on guitar. Then he struck a dramatic pose, tossed his
guitar pick and a white towel into the audience, and strutted off.

The Times article said that Prince’s appearance was a surprise to Maceo Parker, the show’s headliner.  But it seems that someone at the Park Slope Food Coop knew about it before everyone else. Hepcat reports that someone announced over the Park Slope PA system at around 8 p.m. Thursday night: "I have it from a reliable source that Prince is performing at Celebrate Brooklyn tonight."

LITTLE FUGITIVE, a film directed by Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin in 1953 about a boy who runs away to Coney Island opens Brooklyn Film Works: Movies Al Fresco in J.J. Byrne Park.  June 27 at 8:30 p.m.  Lawn chairs, blankets, and picnics encouraged.

Curated by Louise Crawford. Concession by Stone Park Cafe. This series is brought to you by the generous in-kind and financial support of Scharf Weissberg,  Showman Fabricators, Rosebrand, and Methodist Hospital.

"Between neorealism and the nouvelle vague stand Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, whose independent feature Little Fugitive (1953) has been credited — by Francois Truffaut,
who ought to know — with providing both spiritual imprimatur and
nuts-and-bolts strategies for the French New Wave. Engel and Orkin were
both still photographers, with Engel particularly distinguished as a
colleague of Paul Strand and a pioneer photojournalist with magazines
like PM, Fortune, Collier’s. Orkin also had ties to Hollywood and cinema in general — she had worked for MGM,
her mother was a silent star, and she had edited some experimental
shorts, an experience that would be crucial in the pair’s future
collaborations. Engel and Orkin provided a production template for
future independent filmmakers by doing double and triple duty on their
films. For their first feature, Engel, Orkin, and Ray Ashley are
credited with direction, Engel and Ashley with production, Ashley with
screenplay, Orkin and Lester Troob with editing, and Engel with
photography."

Adam Dougherty shows off tree house for rent.

From the Daily News:

People are going out on a limb for housing in Brooklyn.

Williamsburg sculptor Adam Dougherty put his South Fifth St. backyard
tree house up for rent as a gag – but learned that in Brooklyn’s
sky-high real estate market, it was no joke.

Since last Saturday, the Craigslist.com posting
has drawn more than 30 prospective buyers, renters and vacationers –
even though Dougherty never had any intention of branching out into
property transactions.

"I thought people would immediately take this as a joke, that it would
get flagged," said Dougherty, 29. "But the sincerity of some of these
people!"

"I can’t blame ’em," he added. "I mean, $150 for a place to stay in New York? That sounds like a dream."

It was no dream to Gabriel, a "young artist currently sleeping in my van."

"I’d be up for a summer of sleeping outdoors," he e-mailed Dougherty.

Then there was Ryan, who figured out there probably wasn’t any running
water in the tree house and typed this question: "If I need to, can I
shower at your house?"

Although the ad said only "$150 – Tree House," most who responded
assumed the dollar figure was either for a weekend stay or the actual
sale price, Dougherty said.

The year-old pinewood triangular house hovers 23 feet over Brooklyn, and fits up to 17 people at once, he said.

The 12-by-12-by-10-foot shelter is empty, except for a light hooked up
to a 23-foot extension cord that runs down to his apartment.

Tree houses are "sort of nostalgic," said Dougherty, who occasionally
takes his girlfriend up for a rendezvous. "They’re to escape your
parents, or for your friends to talk about dirty things. This is my way
to escape and sort of return to my childhood."

Aptsandlofts.com President David Maundrell said Williamsburg real
estate continues to go through the roof – so cheaper alternatives
aren’t such a bad idea.

"It’s summer so you don’t need to be inside. There’s no utilities to
worry about, and since its high up it’s like a penthouse," Maundrell
said. "That’s not bad at all."

The owner of Prints Charming wants everybody to know that she is
closing up shop on July 31st. She is still accepting new business and
is selling out all of her merchandise. Please pick up any items you
may have left with her.

Prints Charming
150 Sterling Place
between Flatbush + 7th Ave.

Most days 12-7
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Sundays 11-5

Here’s this week’s column from the Brooklyn Papers. Check out the big Smartmom (It’s red, white, and blue) on the top, right-hand side of OTBKB. That’ll get you to an archive of my column at the Brooklyn Papers.

Smartmom bought her first pair of Jimmy Choo’s on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. She doesn’t know what got into her. She doesn’t even remember exactly how it happened. It’s all sort of a blur.

She found the teal patent-leather sandals, reduced from $600 to $150, in a fancy mall near the Radisson Hotel where she and her extended family were staying for her rich cousin’s eldest daughter’s wedding.

Alone and dangerous, she was in a strange mood when she tried on those three-inch stiletto heels. She felt like Cinderella after her fairy godmother turned her rags into something a bit more suitable for a ball.

Smartmom knew those Jimmy Choo’s would look great with the black dress she bought. They might even make the outfit. And she knew that she would fit right in with that wealthy Baltimore crowd accustomed to spending $600 on sandals.

What was Smartmom doing? She had packed a brand new pair of budget gold dress shoes from Aerosoles on Seventh Avenue. And she’d already spent a month’s earnings for gas, food, lodging, the gift, tux rentals and new dresses for this wedding. But before she could stop herself, her MasterCard was on the counter and her Jimmy Choo’s were being bagged.

Blame it on Baltimore, where Smartmom was exposed to a level of opulence and wealth completely out of proportion to the way she and her family live in their apartment on Third Street.

In one of the homes they visited, there was a closet the size of Smartmom’s living room, dining room and kitchen combined. Hepcat said it was the first closet he’d ever been in with an island. That house made Jennifer Connolly’s limestone mansion on Prospect Park West look like a tool shed.

Back in her hotel room, Smartmom slipped on her Jimmy Choo’s and kvelled over the sexy way they made her feet look. But she also found herself feeling anxious, even skittish, about what she’d just done.

What would she tell Hepcat when he saw how much she had spent on those shoes? After all, they were just getting back on their feet after three years of self-employment (or was it unemployment?).

And who was she kidding? Owning a pair of Jimmy Choo’s wouldn’t make Smartmom a part of this upscale crowd any more than a Brooklyn Industries hoodie would make these Baltimoreans fit into Park Slope. They’d look pretty out of place loading organic lacinato kale at the Food Coop.

At the garden wedding the next day, a string quartet played The Pachelbel Canon, as the bridesmaids walked, with difficulty in the grass, in gold stilettos.

With endless champagne and delicious sushi and caviar, the reception was decidedly “Sex & the City,” with twentysomethings, in gorgeous dresses and, you guessed it, Jimmy Choo’s. (Youth ain’t wasted on these pretty young things.)

It was a breathtaking affair. The voluptuous white rose arrangements at every table cost more than what Smartmom spent on her high-heel sandals.

Despite the cash register sound in her ears most of the day, Smartmom felt that joy she always feels at weddings as she watched the radiant bride, in her Vera Wang strapless gown, dancing like Isadora Duncan and felt an openhearted wish for the couple’s happiness.

She knew that no amount of money could protect them from the sometimes rocky first years of marriage. While an abundant checking account might limit those late-night money worries, it wouldn’t make the marriage any more loving or stable.

Five of the 10 people seated at Smartmom’s table were divorced. Some had remarried, some had not. When the conversation turned to divorce statistics, Smartmom’s aunt said smiling, “They shouldn’t let divorced people into weddings.”

Smartmom wore her Jimmy Choo’s all night. She didn’t even take them off when she danced an ecstatic hora and helped to lift the bride, a lawyer, and the groom, a young doctor, up in chairs. She even wore them when the lead singer, a Tina Turner sound-alike, invited all the women onto the stage to dance to “Proud Mary.”

At 11 pm, Teen Spirit, looking mighty dapper in his Men’s Warehouse special, started canvassing for a return to the hotel. “It was fun if you like 1980s funk music,” he said dismissively. The Oh So Feisty One, who danced the night away, was exhausted. And Hepcat, who spent most of the evening photographing the festivities, was also ready to vamoose.

In the room, Smartmom finally took off those sandals and noticed some grass, mud and a tiny nick on the stiletto heel. Somehow that seemed appropriate. Jimmy Choo’s are not an amulet against the reality that life dishes out, even if they do offer a momentary respite from it all. She washed the dirt off the expensive patent-leather and put them back in the box.

Sleepily, Smartmom surveyed their hotel room: Teen Spirit’s tux was in a heap on the carpet; OSFO was already asleep in her pretty pink dress; and Hepcat, after tee many martoonis, was a little loopier than usual.

But Smartmom realized she had everything she wanted. And it doesn’t come in teal patent leather.

Brooklyn Film Works: Movies Al Fresco in JJ Byrne Park presents
Coney Island
Directed by Ric Burns
JULY 7 at 8:30 p.m.

An ‘Electric Eden’ — ‘fabulous beyond conceiving’ — ‘ineffably beautiful’ — ‘Sodom by the Sea.’ To the millions who poured into the mesmerizing seaside amusement empire as the twentieth century dawned, Coney Island was all this and more. The birthplace of the hot dog and the roller coaster – an the most dazzling laboratory of mass culture the world has ever seen – Coney Island and its three extraordinary amusement parks, Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland, delighted visitors with the largest herd of show elephants in the world, a spectacular trip to the moon, an infant incubator, and Lilliputina, a miniature town inhabited by 300 midgets. This elegant and absorbing documentary film chronicles the greatest amusement empire the world has ever seen from its emergence in the mid-1800’s through its demise after World War II.

Released 1991; 68 min
(Produced by Steeplechase Films; presented by American Experience)

Brooklyn Film Works: Movies Al Fresco in JJ Byrne Park
Curated by Louise Crawford
Concession by Stone Park Cafe
This series is made possible thanks to the generous support of Scharff Weissberg, Showman Fabricators, and Methodist Hospital

We’re all on tenter hooks waiting to hear what’s in store for Coney Island. Brooklyn Record ran this from the Post-Gazette an Ohio newspaper (hello?) about a $1 billion renovation in store. Beautiful Smile (our babysitterandsomuchmore) is all for it. She and family have been waiting years for Coney to be on the up and up. They love their boardwalk and amusement park but they’re happy for the improvements big time.

A three-block-long section along Coney Island’s boardwalk is
awaiting a $1 billion renovation. Residents express concern about
losing some local color in the process, but the man behind the project
is Brooklyn native Joe Sitt, who hopes to preserve the neighborhood’s
character while turning Coney Island into a year-round attraction.

"The developer hopes for a final plan by July 1, with a variety of
projects including a high-end hotel (perhaps shaped like a roller
coaster), a water park, retail outlets and residential property,"
writes Larry McShane of The Associated Press. "Some things will remain
untouched. The Cyclone, the Wonder Wheel and what’s left of the
Parachute Jump are all designated landmarks."

Read more at Brooklyn Record.