Gowanus Lounge: Serving Brooklyn

Entries from September 2008

GL Day Ender: Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady

September 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

With all the bad and indifferent news about Coney Island, here’s one to induce a bit of a chuckle. There’s a new play called Cyclone and the Pig-Faced Lady that will be having its world premiere soon as part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. It’s playing, starting September 23, at the TBG Theater. […]

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Tags: coney island · GL Day Ender

Fun with Advertising #2: Metropolitan Avenue Edition

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Fun with Advertising #2: Metropolitan Avenue Edition

This comes from the Metropolitan Avenue stop on the G Train, where many, many altered ads can be found. In fact, someone wrote on this one asking why no one had done anything with it yet. Someone did.

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Tags: Williamsburg

GL Lost & Found: I Found Your Car Keys in Boerum Hill

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on GL Lost & Found: I Found Your Car Keys in Boerum Hill

And now, another installment of GL Lost & Found, in which we try and reunite people with their property. Today’s time is a set of car keys found in Boerum Hill that we found in a Boerum Hill Group email: I meant to do this two nights ago. I found a set of CAR KEYS […]

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Tags: GL Lost & Found

Urban Environmentalist NYC: Ask the Expert

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Urban Environmentalist NYC: Ask the Expert

Michael Hurwitz is the Director of Greenmarket, a Program of the Council on the Environment of NYC (CENYC). Hurwitz will be speaking on the subject of “Food Miles: An Inside Look at Food from Farm (or Factory) to Table” at Green Brooklyn.. Green City on September 18th. For more information on this full day event, […]

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Tags: CUE · Urban Environmentalist

In the Pool: At the Yards

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on In the Pool: At the Yards

Are you part of GL’s excellent Flickr pool? If not, we hope you’ll consider joining and/or tagging your photos “gowanuslounge.” [Photo courtesy of threecee/GL Flickr Pool] Here’s one from the Vanderbilt Rail Yards from Tracey Collins, a stalwart GL Flickr Pool contributor and chronicler of Atlantic Yards, who’s been busy creating an invaluable photographic record […]

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Tags: Atlantic Yards · In the Pool · Uncategorized

Fun Vid: Rev. Billy on Astroland’s Last Day

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Fun Vid: Rev. Billy on Astroland’s Last Day

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Tags: coney island

Construction Site Du Jour: The N. 10 Street Gift That Keeps Giving

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Construction Site Du Jour: The N. 10 Street Gift That Keeps Giving

We have called 208 N. 10 Street in Williamsburg (aka 199-211 N. 9 Street) a great many things. From the day the fence went up and demolition started it has been such a nasty threat to public safety that it’s an absolute miracle that no one has been killed or injured in the rubble, test […]

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Tags: Williamsburg

Fun with Advertising #1: Fourth Avenue Edition

September 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

They may be selling $750,000 condos on Fourth Avenue, but it’s still Fourth Ave. This altered movie ad comes from the vicinity of President Street.

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Tags: Fourth Avenue · Park Slope

Disturbing Video: “Foiled Robbery in Brooklyn”

September 10th, 2008 · 11 Comments

Here’s a video posted to the YouTube in a the last few days that shows the aftermath of a foiled robbery. The apparent thief is in the road, surrounded by people holding him there until the cops show up. It’s disturbing on many different levels, if very real, and full of epithets, including racist and […]

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Tags: Crime · Video

Bklink: Astroland, 1962-2008

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bklink: Astroland, 1962-2008

Neil DeMause of the Village Voice offers an insightful look at the final days of Astroland and some thoughts about the future: “What comes next, no one knows. Thor has promised to bring in more amusements next summer, but its track record after a similar promise this year was less than stellar: a few battered […]

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Tags: coney island · Shortlink

Atlantic Yards Project Needs $100M More in Public Subsidy, Etc.

September 10th, 2008 · 1 Comment

The ostensible headline on today’s New York Times story about Atlantic Yards is that developer Bruce Ratner says he will break ground on the Atlantic Yards project by December. The details in the story, however, are far more interesting. For instance, the lawsuits that would allow that to happen won’t be resolved by then. Then, […]

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Tags: Atlantic Yards

Brooklinks: Focus on Food Extra

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Focus on Food Extra

[Photo courtesy of INSIJS] Today, we turn again to our old weekly Brooklyn food linkage special to include some food-related items that have caught our eyes: · A Cargo Container-Based Restaurant on N. 6 St. in Burg? [INSIJS] · Turkish Food for My Little India Space [Brownstoner] · Red Hook’s Cool Bar Botanica Adding Food […]

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Tags: Brooklinks

Brooklinks: Wednesday Midweek Edition

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Brooklinks: Wednesday Midweek Edition

Brooklinks is a daily selection of Brooklyn-related information and images: · Brooklyn Primary Election Results [NYDN] · Surprise: Camera Phones are Fighting Crime [NYT] · Wandering the New Trader Joe’s Like a Zombie [McBrooklyn] · Resident Shareholders Meet to Fight Sponsor Control [Brownstoner] · Five Good Places to Write [Brooklyn Based] · More Bars on […]

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Tags: Brooklinks

Repairs at Troubled LICH Playground, But Problems Remain

September 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

Remember the Long Island College Hospital Playground on Henry Street that people said was filthy and that had dangerous broken equipment? The one LICH said it would take care of and for which it was said to have gotten replacement parts from Finland? Well, a reader says it’s still broken and LICH says it’s been […]

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Tags: Cobble Hill

Bklink: Squadron Defeats Connor

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bklink: Squadron Defeats Connor

Veteran State Sen. Martin Connor was defeated yesterday by challenger Daniel Squadron who had generated a great deal of buzz on Brooklyn blogs among other places. “In the 25th District state Senate race, Mr. Squadron, 28, defeated Mr. Connor by 54% to 46%, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Squadron will replace Mr. Connor in a […]

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Tags: Politics · Shortlink

Bloomberg Says He Wants Another Year for Astroland

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bloomberg Says He Wants Another Year for Astroland

It is beginning to look like the city is getting involved in trying to keep Astroland open. Yesterday, an unnamed city official was quoted in the Daily News as saying that the city would like to see the amusement park’s lease extended. Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Bloomberg seems to have expressed the same sentiment. “It would […]

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Tags: coney island · Thor Equities

Brooklyn Public Housing Elevators Are Some of the City’s Worst

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Brooklyn Public Housing Elevators Are Some of the City’s Worst

All it took to draw attention to the wretched condition of elevators in Brooklyn public housing projects was the death of a little boy. Today, the Daily News reports that Brooklyn’s public housing elevators are some of the city’s worst: They break down constantly, jam between floors and don’t get fixed for days and even […]

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Tags: Public Housing

In the Pool: Lounging in Red Hook

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on In the Pool: Lounging in Red Hook

[Photo courtesy of itsnothatfar/GL Flickr Pool] This image of a man lounging against the background of a big brick wall comes to us from Red Hook. He looks very small on that big wall against the large building.

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Tags: In the Pool · Red Hook

Bklink: Burg Toll Tower Two

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bklink: Burg Toll Tower Two

The second Northside Piers tower on the waterfront in Williamsburg is already four stories out of the ground. It’s situated behind the first building, which was the first highrise to go up on Kent Avenue. This one will have 270 units and sales are supposed to start sometime this month.–Curbed

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Tags: Williamsburg

In the Pool: Election Year

September 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments

[Photo courtesy of vaduzuvunt/GL Flickr Pool] Looks like someone has been up on the Culver Viaduct at the Smith-9th Street station tagging up a message. Our Flickr Pool photographer Vaduzuvunt calls this pic “Votin’ time approachin’.”

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Tags: Gowanus · In the Pool

Poetic Development: Election Year To Do List

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Poetic Development: Election Year To Do List

Election Year To Do List ELECTION YEAR TO DO LIST ITEM No. 1: ABOLISH THE BOARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEALS* For many New Yorkers, The BSA is A totally unknown entity. ——-THE BOARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEAL Yet its impact Is felt in every neighborhood In this City. ———–OARD OF STANDARDS AND APPEA A quasi-judicial […]

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Tags: Poetic Development

Bklink: Gorgeous Day

September 10th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bklink: Gorgeous Day

Outside the Brooklyn Weather Observatory we have the makings of the perfect late summer day. The forecast is calling for it to be “breezy and pleasant with sunshine” and a high of 75. Tonight will be clear with a low of 57.–Accuweather

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Tags: Shortlink · Weather

Transportation Tuesday: A Little Trashed

September 9th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Williamsburg remains one of the epicenters of trashed bicycles in Brooklyn. This sad specimen comes from N. 11 Street right near Roebling.

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Tags: Transportation · Williamsburg

Bklink: Bossert Hotel to Be a Dorm

September 9th, 2008 · Comments Off on Bklink: Bossert Hotel to Be a Dorm

Don’t look now, but the landmark Bossert Hotel on Montague Street has sold for $92 million. That’s not the interesting part, however. The hotel, which was called Brooklyn’s Waldorf Astoria, is owned by the Watchtower Society (Jehovah’s Witnesses) and has been on the market since early this year. The fascinating part is that the buyer […]

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Tags: Brooklyn Heights

Signs Under Siege: TV Sticker Head

September 9th, 2008 · Comments Off on Signs Under Siege: TV Sticker Head

[Photo courtesy of The Loopweaver/GL Flickr Pool] This interestingly altered sign comes to us from Park Slope. The photographer writes: “Another sign altered by the clever placement of a sticker…This one says we should keep our eyes peeled for pedestrians with TV’s for heads. “

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Tags: Park Slope · Signs Under Siege