A visit to the Holiday Inn Express website reveals that the long-awaited Holiday Inn Express on Union Street, between Fourth and Third Avenues, is now taking reservations for arrivals after July 15. Amusingly, since Gowanus and/or G-Slope seem to lack that certain cachet, the hotel is alternately described as the Brooklyn Holiday Inn Express or […]

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Gowanus Lounge’s Monday post on the weekend demolition derby at the Ikea site was wrong. We predicted all the Todd Shipyard buildings would be gone in a week or so. By the look of things, they could be toast before we fire up the $5.99 hibachi from the Red Hook Fairway for Memorial Day. Gothamist […]

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Pick up today’s New York Post and you will find Mary Huhn’s take on Gowanus: It’s hip. It’s now. It’s happening. Huhn, calls Gowanus “the next hipster haunt,” and even quotes Gowanus Lounge a bit. Going to the copy and paste, Huhn writes: Though it sounds ripe for a joke (and smells ripe, too), the […]

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Burn Baby Burn: A Brief History of Fire in New York City is the title of an article in the new issue of L Magazine that follows up on the Greenpoint conflagration with a nicely researched discussion of–what else?–fire (of both accidental and deliberate causes) in NYC. An excerpt: The Greenpoint Terminal Market fire is […]

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Many developments in the city vie for Gowanus Lounge’s attention in the “Most Outrageous” category, particularly in Brooklyn, where in some neighborhoods you can hardly turn a corner without your blood pressure spiking. Yet, Williamsburgh Square–the project that a group of well-connected developers would like to build on Bedford Avenue at North Third and North […]

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First, there was a suggestion to put retail in a re-opened Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue between Smith Street and Boerum Place. Now, Dumbo developer Jed Walentas is proposing knocking down the closed 760-bed Big House and replacing it with a luxury building and a new jail, according to the Brooklyn Paper. Meanwhile, […]

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The Brooklyn College MFA thesis exhibition that was shut down by the Brooklyn Borough Parks Commissioner and then damaged by school employees is reopening tomorrow at 70 Washington in Dumbo in space donated by developer David Walentas. The show is now called “Plan B Prevails,” and will run from May 24-June 16. The student exhibition–which […]

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Just when Gowanus Lounge was bemoaning the lack of alarm about the chance that a hurricane will render the Gowanus Canal an extension of New York Harbor, come the latest predictions of 2006 hurricane activity and word that this is Hurricane Preparedness Week. “Did you know that one in four New Yorkers lives in a […]

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Evidence abounds of the spread of retail gentrification south on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, particularly between Ninth and Fifteenth Streets. Discount retailer Dee & Dee closed down last year and is being replaced by a Bank of America branch (pictured to the right), which is ready to do battle with the Washington Mutual branch […]

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empty vessel panorama, originally uploaded by e-liz. This panorama which of the Empty Vesel Project boat on the Gowanus comes from a cool set of photos taken on Sunday and posted by Elizabeth Weinberg, aka e-liz, on flickr. The shot is from the foot of First Street at the Canal, where the boat is docked. […]

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As noted earlier, Gowanus Lounge hit Red Hook this weekend, and shopping at the new Fairway wasn’t the only thing on the agenda. We had intended to get a look at the state of the ongoing Ikea demolition and were surprised to find it going full swing, even on traditional days of rest. The Brooklyn […]

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Not to bang the Atlantic Yards drum too loudly today (see posting below), but the images below posted on the Brooklyn Views blog in an item headlined “It’s the Scale, Stupid” are too compelling to pass up. They show the view down Fifth Avenue in Park Slope as it currently is and as it would […]

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Gowanus Lounge loves irony, so we were amused by news of an itsy-bitsy (ironic) problem today at the Atlantic Yards site. As Forest City Ratner-Atlantic Yards watchers are well aware, demolition is underway on buildings that FCRC argued in court were “unsafe.” (For non-Atlantic Yards addicts, all you need to know is that–in keeping with […]

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Gowanus Lounge did what a lot of curious Brooklyn shoppers did this weekend: We went to Red Hook to check out the new Fairway. (And within 90 seconds on the property were set upon by store security asking us to not take photos because the Fairway has a “no pictures policy.” More about that in […]

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Flowers and Pilings in Gowanus Canal, originally uploaded by rsguskind. Gowanus Lounge was so shocked to happen upon this wonderful juxtaposition of nature and Gowanus that we probably shot a hundred frames of these babies. The flowers are located at the Union Street Bridge, and they speak to the ability of nature to triumph over […]

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Central Park may have its coyote (did not survive) and the Bronx its deer (again, did not survive). And, Williamsburg may have its hipsters (who may not survive either, once thousands of luxury condo units go up). Gowanus Lounge is happy to note, however, that South Brooklyn–and particularly Park Slope–has raccoons. So many raccoons, in […]

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You have to wonder how something like this passes muster. Comes news via Curbed of an 11-story building at 100 Luquer Street in Cobble Hill-Carroll Gardens now under construction. (Luquer Street last made news thanks to the rat infestation reported in the Daily News connected to construction of the building.) The reader that brought this […]

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McCarren Pool Before the Clean Up, originally uploaded by rsguskind. Since tickets for the July 29 Bloc Party show at McCarren Pool are on sale today, Gowanus Lounge thought this a good time to flash back in time (by a year). We’re not saying that McCarren Pool was better around this time last year when […]

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The Fifth Avenue Fair is on Sunday, and even though Gowanus Lounge tires of street fairs by June–and especially of their, um, sameness–we dig this one. That’s because it is one of the fairs that retains some local flavor, with dozens of businesses from the nabe and Brooklyn setting up tables and stands. (If you […]

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It’s been quite the week for Brooklyn Bridge Park, so Gowanus Lounge thought it appropriate to do a bit of a round-up. First, there was news that starchitect Robert A.M. Stern (master planner of Disney’s Celebration, Florida) has signed on as a consultant on park plans. Then, there was the lawsuit filed by the Sierra […]

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Looked around once forsaken Fourth Avenue between Atlantic Avenue and Ninth Street lately? Gowanus Lounge highly recommends it as a way of getting a sense of what an avenue in transition looks like. A walk down this stretch, which was once reserved for tire shops, warehouses, cab company offices, auto repair places and the like, […]

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You know the tune: Ba-dink-da-dinkity-dink-da-dink. Ba-dink-da-dinkity-dink-da-dink. Ba-dink-da-dinkity-dink-da-dink. Ba-dink-da-dinkity-dink-da-dink. Etc. Etc. Etc. (Ultimate Brooklyn Revenge Suggestion Number One: Bribe Mr. Softee to park for a minimum of two hours in front of the abode of someone you wish to make insane, say, a psychologically teetering colleague. Ba-dink-da-dinkity dink-da-dink.) But, GL digresses. Our point was simply to […]

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Want to see New York’s working waterfront from the water? Saturday is your chance, with tours presented by the Working Harbor Committee for Working Harbor Day. The boat tours start at 10:30 and depart from Pier 63 Maritime, which is at West 23rd Street in Chelsea. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children. […]

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It ain’t hot until someone officially deems it so, preferrably on paper. If that’s the case, Red Hook is smoking. First, there was last month’s Washington Post article that was distributed nationally. Today, the New York Post declares, “Red Hook is no longer the land of waterfront toughs and gunshots; there’s a different kind of […]

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Ah yes, now, thanks to the New York Observer, we have a “Brooklyn Civil War: It’s North vs. South, Ratner Against Ledger.” Among the nuggets is this: “Brooklyn isn’t a united front. The North Brooklyn of do-it-yourself fashion and vinyl siding (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick) just feels separate from brownstone South Brooklyn (from Fort Greene to […]

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