Everybody loves a bike lane, right? Wrong. Anyone naive enough to think that bike lanes would be embraced in Park Slope–home of a food coop where green is an ideology, not a color–would have been quickly disabused of the notion within moments of walking into the room at Methodist Hospital on Seventh Avenue where the […]

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The newest lodging to grace the Gowanus Hotel District is making significant progress toward opening. We headed over to Butler Street to check on the new Comfort Inn and found the fencing down, curtains in the windows and signs that it will be open soon. The new hotel is on Butler Street, between Nevins and […]

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We’ve featured this site before, when a pile driver showed up and started banging away and noted that Williamsburg No. 1 architect, Karl Fischer, is designing the new building. (Along with what seems like half the buildings in the neighborhood, with the other half coming from the offices of Robert Scarano. Just kidding. But not […]

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[Photo courtesy of Jonathan Barkey/PBase] Atlantic Yards: Lawsuit Would Force Another Look [AYR] Ratner Gets a New Suit [Metro] The New Atlantic Yards Lawsuit [NYT] Atlantic Yards Project Targeted by New Lawsuit [WCBS] Here’s Your Lawsuit Summary [No Land Grab] …And All of the Details on DDDB et. al. v. ESDC et. al. [DDDB] Not […]

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A few food and retail rumblings to report in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens: 1) Cafe Eleven, on Seventh Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets is now up and running. We passed by there yesterday to get the photo you see above and can report that it looks like a nice space. A writer on […]

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Red Hook’s Chris Curen sent us this photo of his neighborhood as viewed from a great vantage point. While we’ve featured some shots of Red Hook and its waterfront before, this photo shows the expanse of the Red Hook Houses, which cover a significant amount of land in the neighborhood. This photo gives a sense […]

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All City, one of the Village Voice blogs, found and posted this gem. They call the star, who walks around asking people on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, “Why people do hang shoes on electric wires?” the Borat of Billyburg. Riveting.

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Our recent photo encounter with the Brooklyn Monk Parrots at Green-Wood Cemetery naturally raised the question of the status of the poaching situation that was widely reported last year. (Dozens, if not hundreds, of parrots were snatched from their nests, wiping out several colonies.) So, we asked Steve Baldwin, of Brooklyn Parrots, who is the […]

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This interesting juxtaposition of images comes to us from our Greenpoint correspondent, who knows a good street scene when she sees one. The interestingly angled Porta-Potty for the adventurous worker that needs to go, no matter what the angle, is located at 164 Norman Avenue, which has been the location of some working condition-related issues […]

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Another expected Atlantic Yards lawsuit–this one challenging the validity of the Environmental Impact Statement process and the approval of the project–is being filed tomorrow. The suit seeks to block the project. Twenty-seven co-petitioners, including Develop Don’t Destroy, are part of the suit against the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), Public […]

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[Photo courtesy of tud5000/flickr] Is Food: DiFara’s (above) is Back [Serious Eats via Curbed] Spumoni Garden or Tottonno’s? [Chowhound] Hibino in Cobble Hill ‘Poised to Become a Destination’ [Brooklyn Record] Chavella’s on Classon Has the ‘Best Mexican in All of NYC’ [Eating Clinton Hill] How is a Park Slope Seder Different? [Daily Intel] Lomzynianka is […]

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Some local officials are turning their attention to the traffic mess that the Atlantic Yards development would create at the already traffic-clogged intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues if the project goes forward. Jotham Sederstrom outlines some of the possibilities including “a Grand Army Plaza-style circle near the site” in a piece that we are […]

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The YouTube clip below is a trailer for a documentary being made about Coney Island by four NYU film students. It was produced in the last couple of days, because it includes footage from last Friday’s “Save Coney Island” rally at City Hall. They write, “this film will document what might be the last season […]

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Remember the No Baby Gap Building in on Fifth Avenue in the South Slope? Well, the site of the old Salvation Army Store has a very new look. It’s now the Five One Five Condo as photographer and photoblogger Sam Horine (aka f.trainer) noted. The website promotes it as “Juicy Real Estate, Brooklyn-Style” and the […]

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Here’s a cartoon in this week’s Village Voice that captures last week’s Save Coney Island demonstration. As of now, it isn’t posted on the Voice’s cartoon page, so this is from a scan that is making the round in Coney Island circles.

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There is a certain fatalism that many North Brooklyn residents express when it comes to the health effects of the Greenpoint Oil Spill and other toxic problems. After all, these are communities where a half-century after some 30 million gallons of oil were spilled along the banks of Newtown Creek, and much of it is […]

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Check out this specimen. You’re looking at 141 Dupont Street. It was sent in by our Greenpoint correspondent and actually displaced another site in Williamsburg we were going to feature today. Why? Our correspondent writes: This is very dangerous. A lot of small children live on this block; children small enough to get through the […]

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As anyone who’s been following the Thor Equities Coney Island saga or the earlier Forest City Ratner buyout of property owners in the Atlantic Yards footprint, confidentiality clauses are the latest fashion accessory in development deals. The new issue of the Real Deal offers a nice picture of the trend: Thor offered its tenants in […]

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Brooklinks is a daily selection of information and images. ESDC Closes Atlantic Mall Office After Time Runs Out on Slush Fund [AYR] Return of the Big House to Atlantic Avenue Raises Hope and Fears [NYT] Return of Di Fara’s Raises Appetites [NYP] Pedestrian and Bike Improvements Coming to Grand Army Plaza [Streets Blog] Clinton Hill […]

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Maybe you remember the guy who went a little nuts in the head at the Kensington Post Office and became a YouTube star? (If you didn’t catch it, here’s another easy opportunity, to the right.) Well, Jotham Sederstrom wrote about him this week after he “outed himself” to the Daily News. We’re reposting the article […]

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We think it’s fun, and it only takes 14 seconds to watch. So, click the embed.

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We checked in on the Roebling Oil Field–the site at N. 11th Street and Roebling in Williamsburg where oil has oozed from the ground–on Sunday and found that despite the fact that the building is now rising above street level, a slight scent of oil can still be detected on the western side of the […]

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Is Enrique Norten the Brooklyn starchitect of choice? Well, Atlantic Yards has Frank Gehry, but Mr. Norten and his firm TEN Arquitectos could be closing fast. Mr. Norten will apparently be designing new buildings on Thor Equities property in Red Hook where the Revere Dome stood until recently. A neighborhood source says that Mr. Norten’s […]

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It’s been a while since we wrote about those cool Brooklyn Monk Parrots, but we were reminded of them in a big way when we visited Green-Wood Cemetery this weekend. As we were leaving, we heard their unique squawking. It’s a sound unlike any other bird you’ll hear in New York City. We looked down […]

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Looks like developer Joe Sitt may be feeling some heat from all of the protests and concerns about his plan to close Astroland at the end of the 2007 season, possibly one-two years before any replacement project is approved. Mr. Sitt tells the New York Post that he is “‘willing to keep Astroland open’ – […]

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