We love new blogs that get us to stop skimming and actually read. The wonderful new Carroll Gardens Brooklyn History blog. It combines informative posts about neighborhood history with vintage photos and some more current issues. Check out an excerpt from this post about the Carroll Street Bridge, which is one of our top five […]

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This is the scene a little while ago as sent to us by a GL reader in Carroll Gardens. A reader writes that a resident was found dead on in an apartment on Carroll Street near Bond and that police are trying to determine if foul play was involved. Our reader writes: “The site of […]

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A special Carroll Gardens correspondent who’s been keeping an eye on the southern reaches of Court Street for us sent along these photos of the exterior of the space that will be the expansion of Frankies 457. Our friends at Eater had a look inside last month, and it’s unclear what’s up except that it’s […]

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As we noted on Friday, expected work has started on the Public Place site between Smith Street and Gowanus Canal. Workers are clearing shrubbery and brush and Bovis Lend Lease (the same firm involved in the fatal accident at the Trump Soho condo hotel recently) is removing concrete from the site. The prep work is […]

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As promised by officials earlier this week, some preliminary site work has gotten underway at the contaminated Public Place property in Gowanus for which a large mixed-use development has been proposed. This phase of work involves clearing the site of shrubs and trees and removing concrete. The development itself still has to go through a […]

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“Most blocks in South Brooklyn stick to the usual variations of brownstone and red brick buildings. On Summit Street, between Henry and Hicks, however, you’ll find a veritable Easter egg basket of pastel paint jobs. Baby blue, pale yellow, light green, lavender, candy-apple red—they’re all here (along, of course, with plenty of plain red brick). […]

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This downed sign is from Second Street near Smith in Carroll Gardens. It is hard to tell what caused it to have this fate, but it might be safe to venture that it was an unfortunate vehicular interaction.

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It’s Friday, and one some people have off, turning this into a three-day weekend. So, we will dispense with policy discussions of congestion pricing, residential parking permit, bike lanes and all of that for something far more basic: this bicycle, parked for what appears to be a while, on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens.

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This morning, some pieces came off a building at 170 Smith Street causing some issues with subway service and attracting a large contingent of firefighters. We took these photos of the building around 5:45PM on Tuesday and, fortunately, an emergency scaffold was put up around the building yesterday so that whatever did fall came down […]

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This is 126 First Place in Carroll Gardens, which became known as the “Backless Building” among some residents because it’s back was removed and it stayed that way for a while. Well, the back is still on (as can be seen in the photo below). Now, the top is gone, and the some of the […]

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Trusting Cleaners on Court Street is gone for good, the victim of rent increase and an inability of the community to prevail on the landlord to find a way to keep the cleaners open. The Oh family, which ran the shop was much loved in the community as can be seen in this email via […]

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Big changes are coming to the Public Place site between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal as a prelude to a clean up of severe contamination and eventual development. Yesterday, we got an email from Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman noting that work is about to start on concrete removal at the site, […]

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We will avoid discussion of five-year-olds with iPod Shuffles and simply say that if you or someone you know found one in Carroll Park, please return it. How could someone not after seeing this sign?

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Our Carroll Gardens correspondent caught the building of a new outdoor bar at Union Smith Cafe on Friday and by Saturday it was complete and awaiting nice weather. One of the partners in the cafe is Jim Mamary, who is behind a number of eateries and is not universally loved in Carroll Gardens. Our correspondent […]

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This photo of 533 Henry Street (at President) was sent to us by a reader who is alarmed by the cell phone tower that has appeared on the front of the building. He writes: I encountered a dangerous situation today at 553 Henry street. It looks as though they installed some new cell phone antennas […]

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The Clarrett Group got its first Stop Work Order at 340 Court Street on Friday. The development was noted on the Union-Sackett Block Association blog. The blog said, “If you witness work being done on the site before the Stop Work Order is lifted, or that is unrelated to the resolution of the protective netting […]

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What where you thinking handing out your logo stickers? Where did you think they would end up? They are so annoying. They are everywhere on Smith and beyond. On every parking meter pole, on every public telephone, even on traffic signs…Please stop handing them out. And if you placed them around the neighborhood yourself, shame […]

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Will 333 Carroll Street lose the growth that it gained on top, which is visible from a great distance? It’s unclear, but neighborhood blogger Pardon Me For Asking reports that Council Member Bill de Blasio told the monthly Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting last night that the Department of Buildings has found issues with the […]

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One gets the feeling that very little is going to happen at the 360 Smith development that will not be noticed. Over the weekend, we got an email that said “Work went on at 360 without the MTA knowing. The arrangement is that the MTA is ALWAYS supposed to know when work happens at 360.” […]

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Way back when, a building with a laundromat on Court Street in Carroll Gardens that is now up for sale, housed a Dairy Queen and a KFC. Does that mean that Court St. was de-chainified for a time only to have the chains coming back with vengeance now?–PMFA

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The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association is having its monthly general meeting tonight (3/10). The meeting will take place at 7:30PM at the St Mary Star of the Sea Residence, which is located on 1st Street between Hoyt and Bond. Among the topics that will be covered is the possible expansion of the Carroll Gardens Landmark […]

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A Carroll Gardens couple isn’t sleeping together right now because the husband supports Sen. Hillary Clinton and the wife is with Sen. Barack Obama. The wife has told the huband he won’t be getting anything unless he switches sides. We have no idea how the story starting making the rounds.–Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens

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The Union-Sackett Block Association is having it monthly meething this morning (3/8) at 11:30 AM, but the big news from Court Street is a session that will take place in a few weeks. The Clarett Group, which is developing the controversial building on the site of the former International Longshoreman’s Association Building at 340 Court […]

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There is demolition and new building action to report at the far end of Court Street. A GL reader sent us these photos of 517 Court, which is at the corner of Ninth Street, and is clearly coming down. At the same time, demolition permits have been issued for 523, 525 and 527 Court, slightly […]

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This is the Smith Street bar that used to be called Quench. It is coming back to life as “The Jake Walk,” from the owners of Stinky and Smith & Vine. Its transition was noted yesterday by Brownstoner along with the coming Clover Club next to Rocket Ship. Our Carroll Gardens Correspondent came upon the […]

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