We found this bus stop sign, that had clearly had an unpleasant encounter with an automobile, on Flatbush Avenue. What we can say is: we didn’t notice anyone even giving it a second look.

[Photo courtesy of Adrian Kinloch/Brit in Brooklyn]

We were going to run this photo submitted by Brit in Brooklyn blogger and GL Contributing Photographer Adrian Kinloch this morning, but figured the only decent thing to do, given that it’s a picture of the Coney Island collection of brews, was to wait until afternoon. It just wouldn’t have been right at 8:30AM.

We found this item circulating via the Community Board 1 email list titled “Click for Better Bike Parking.” The emails says:

Lack of secure bike-parking options is the number one reason that New Yorkers do not commute to work by bike. Bike Stop NYC, a small start up company, wants to hear from people who commute to work by bike, as well as those who would like to, in order to support their efforts to raise capital necessary to bring better bike parking options to NYC. Take the survey at bikestopnyc.com and pass it on!

If you bike and you need to park it somewhere, take the survey and send the link to someone.

Correspondent E.C. Stephens reports:

The Chocolate Room on 85 5th ave., Park Slope, will host it’s 4th Annual Black Chocolate Stout release party on Wednesday, Oct. 29th at 7pm. A night of beers, giveaways and dessert it will be headlined by brewmaster Garrett Oliver from Brooklyn Brewery.

Hey, it’s hump day. Why not?

Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY ran a tour of Prospect Park this weekend. Scoker3 posted a big photoset on flickr that shows our favorite Brooklyn Park in all its glory, including a number of spots we’ve never seen. If you’re not partial to the slideshow we’ve embedded, you can find the full photoset here.

Brooklyn Bridge Time Lapse from Chris Bair on Vimeo.

There’s a lot of Halloween-related stuff going on at LeNell’s, the Red hook booze institution, but what’s really of interest in her latest email is the gossip at the end, saying she’ll be in place on Van Brunt Street until at least the end of February:I just got out of court with the landlord and signed a written agreement to be out of the current space by February 28, 2008. Current landlord initially had said he wasn’t renewing my lease cuz he wanted the space for his own business. Fair enough. He’s not the landlord I signed the lease with. But in court he says he wants to show the space, and even at one point threw out that he could get $12,000 for this space now in Red Hook. I can’t stop laughing so at least I was somewhat humored through this whole process. Basement seriously floods everytime it rains, methadone clinic around the corner, junk yard next door, building falling down across the street, and don’t even get me started on the shape of this building, but yeah, $12,000 seems to be right on par. Who will ever understand the mind of a landlord? At least we’ll be able to get through the holiday season without moving stress. I am negotiating on two other spaces at the moment, one in Red Hook, one not.

And you’ll never believe, or perhaps you will, but the freaking vultures are out. Folks already trying to figure out how to get my liquor license if I have to shut down so they can open a store in Red Hook, like they can find a decent space more easily than I can. The nerve! I don’t go down that easily…well, in real estate anyway. Uh…hmmmm…Anyway….I’m working at the shop 7 days a week again so I don’t want to hear your whining about how you never see me. Shut up and come see me. While your at it, bring me flowers and maybe a bite to eat. I will love you for it. And we’ll have a good laugh and maybe a sip of whiskey.

That’s the latest from down Red Hook way.

Perhaps a Sexy Jack-O-Lantern Contest would be of interest? If so, your time has arrived. It’s happening from today (October 29) through October 31 at Babeland Brooklyn, which is located at 462 Bergen Street
and is also the crown vibratorjewel of what is coming to be know as Pintchik Row. Per the babes at Babeland:

Have some naughty fun with a Halloween tradition and carve a sexy scene into your pumpkin! Bring your erotic pumpkin to Babeland SoHo to enter it in our 1st annual Sexy Jack-O-lantern contest. First place winner receives a $100 Babeland gift bag. Second and third place winners receive Babeland gift bags worth $50 and $25, respectively. Jack-O-Lanterns are judged on creativity and craftsmanship. Drop off your entry at the SoHo store during business hours Wednesday, October 29th – Friday, October 31st.

That’s a first prize winner called self-pleasure, above.

“It’s storefront shuffle time in Williamsburg: Not only has light and girly gift-shop Brooklynski moved to Graham Avenue, but Digital Fix, which you could call Brooklynski’s more masculine brother in design, has relocated to the Bedford Avenue Mini-Mall. The store, which sells high-tech and high-design gadgets like Nooka watches, tree-branch shaped thumb drives, and a lamp that turns off when you wave your hand over it, used to be on Grand Street, but the new space, the former home of furniture shop Residence, is bigger and more centrally-located.”–Racked

· Haitian Paramilitary Leader Sentenced for BK Mortgage Fraud [NYT]
· Green Townhouses Coming to Bed-Stuy [Green Brooklyn]
· Slope, Take Note: ‘Nanny 911’ Wants Your Unruly Spawn [DumboNYC]
· Yassky Catches More Shit on His Term-Limits Vote [Daily Gotham]
· Profiles of Some of the City’s Remaining Manufacturing Jobs [Brownstoner]
· People-Only Policy in East Williamsburg Apartment [NY Shitty]
· How the City Justifies Arena Bonds [AY Report]
· More on the Slope’s McCain Supporters [Daily Intel]

Everybody in Brooklyn probably has a love-hate relationship with car services. We use them to get from Point A to Point B, but we’ve probably all been menaced by their drivers as pedestrians. Us, we try to get out of the way. In any case, an email making the rounds via our friends at Park Slope Parents relates this tale of near woe:

Today my husband was taking my 5 year old daughter to school and they were crossing 8th Avenue at 2nd Street. A car from a car service backed up the wrong way on 8th Avenue, going through a red light, and went through the intersection at 8th Ave and 2nd Street, presumably because the driver was trying to get to a specific address without going around the block. Anyway, he almost hit my daughter and husband but luckily my husband was holding her hand and pulled her back.

So, two things: First and obviously – be careful crossing the street with your kids. I feel the need to say this because this past Friday on 7th Avenue and 2nd Street someone was hit by a car, so street crossing safety has been on my mind even before today. Second, my husband got the license plate, car number, and name of the car service and called the police. The police receptionist said they could not do anything because there was no cop on the scene to issue a ticket. This seems wrong to me – my husband was an eyewitness and he got the actual license plate number. Plus there were other
eyewitnesses who also took down the license plate number. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the police to at least investigate this?

Even pregnant women in the Slope aren’t safe…

Brooklyn City Council Member Bill de Blasio, who was a leader in the fight to defeat the extension of term limits and had his sights set on succeeding Marty Markowitz as Brooklyn Borough President, has had a change of plans and will run for Pubic Advocate. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum is not running for re-election in 2009 (even though she, too, could keep her seat) and Mr. de Blasio apparently does not relish run against Mr. Markowitz. So, the Daily News blog The Daily Politics reported yesterday that Mr. de Blasio has been making calls indicating he’s running for Public Advocate. The problem is that, apparently, so is hyper-ambitious Queens Council Member John Liu. There’s even speculation that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will join the crowd. de Blasio could, of course, run for another terms on the Council but one has a hard time seeing what political advantage he would again from doing so. This is only the beginning of the fallout from the vote that helped potentially cement some public officials like Mayor Bloomberg and Borough President Markowitz in place for, at least, another four years. Handled properly, the Advocate’s job is an ideal platform from which to run for Mayor (assuming, well, you know, the incumbent chooses to leave office.)

Also, de Blasio and Tish James are announcing their term limits lawsuit today.

[Click to Enlarge to Its Full Size Glory]

If the scams being run by IDT Energy and other companies in every corner or Brookyn weren’t so disgusting, the following job listing found by Aaron Brashear of Concerned Citizens of Greenwood Heights would be a knee-slapping, pants pissing hoot. Well, it still kind of is, at least to those who’ve been following the people going door-to-door trying to get enough info from people to switch them from one energy company to another. Here’s the ad that’s running on Craigslist:

Energy Company/ Looking to hire ASAP (Midtown)

Midtown Promotions is looking for highly motivated individuals to work with Telecommunication and Energy companies such as Verizon, AT&T and IDT Energy. Entry-Level management, sales and marketing positions are available. We are looking to expand, so advancement and growth opportunities are definitely provided for all candidates. No Experience Necessary. FULL TIME POSOTIONS ONLY! Training is provided to all candidates. $400 to $600/wk. We are conducting interviews Monday through Thursday 12pm to 3pm walk ins are welcome or if you want to schedule an interview for a specific time please call 347-594-2981 and ask for Lissy. Our address is 21West 39th Street Suite 4B (located between 5th and 6th ave) please ask for Derek when you get there.

We have no idea what Verizon and AT&T are doing, but IDT Energy should be setting off alarm bells across Brooklyn, if not all of New York at this point. Buy, hey, times are tough and it’s job and one could make up to $600 a week!!!

[Photo courtesy of Deborah Matlack]

As far as we’re concerned you can never get too many shots of Nathan’s in Coney Island, especially when they’re gorgeous evening fall ones like this one from GL Contributing Photographer Deborah Matlack. What we’re saying, basically, is that this is some very cool stuff.

City Council Members Bill de Blasio and Letitia James, who have led the fight against extending terms limits, are having a press conference with other city officials on the steps of City Hall today at noon to announce the lawsuit they’re filing against the Council’s action. [GL Inbox]

[Photo courtesy of Erin Melina/GL Flickr Pool]

This is the photo of the Esquire Building in Williamsburg that once said Save Domino. It now says Vote Obama. The pic clearly appears to have been taken from the Williamsburg Bridge.

[Courtesy of the New York Times; Click to Enlarge]

We’ve been featuring CNN’s electoral map since Monday, but we’re changing up today and using the New York Times map, which show Sen. Barack Obama with a slightly larger Electoral Vote lead than CNN. The Times map ranks a couple of more states as “solid” for Obama and “leaning” in his direction. The overall polling numbers nationally, to the extent they mean anything, show the Illinois Senator with a solid lead but with up to 10 percent of the electorate that could possibly change their minds between now and election day. Translation: while New York may be a solid Obama state, every vote counts and complacency would be very, very wrong.

On October 24, we had a photo of flyer that a trusted GL Correspondent found in Park Slope recruiting phone bank workers for Barack Obama at different locations around the Slope including Al di La and the Lyceum. Word about these has been spreading here is some detail about some of them, including the Lyceum Phone Bank we originally mentioned. There’s a phone bank at the Grand Prospect Hall, which is located at 263 Prospect Avenue. The banks are operating from 11 AM until 6 PM daily including Election Day. Another local site is the Brooklyn Lyceum. Those are running from Noon to 3PM. The Lyceum is located at 227 Fourth Avenue. Those phone banks will be opening at 10:30AM on November 3 & 4 and run all day.

[Photo for GL courtesy of Marie Viljoen]

It’s been a while since we featured the trash heap behind the Fairway in Red Hook. We suppose it’s looking better than it used to, since it seems confined to the property now. There was a while is was being stacked at the end of Van Brunt Street. We suppose that where there’s a huge supermarket, there will always be trash.

The pharmacy that is replacing the (loved by some, reviled by others) Second Street Cafe on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, is almost ready. We caught this shot with the new signs lit up last night. Seems like we’re looking at an opening in a week or two.

The Board of Standards and Appeals, which rules on disputes about developments about which there is deep controversy, has postponed making a decision about the troubled 360 Smith Street development in Carroll Gardens. The issue is whether the building should rise to 70 feet under original zoning or be reduced to 55 feet per a zoning change this summer. The next decision date mentioned is November 25. Stay tuned. [GL Inbox]

Hey, nothing like a bit of Live Action Role Playing in Prospect Park, right?

We believe in good dental hygiene as much as anybody, but we have to say that today’s Missed Connection takes love and hygiene to another level. It’s so impressive, in fact, that it cause us to leave Brooklyn for an unheard of venture into…gasp…Manhattan. Check it out:

you told me about bigfoot – m4w

You were at Taco-Bell in line. I over heard you talking about your upcoming trip to Northern Canada to look for Bigfoot. I told you that I know all about the Sasquatch because I used to live in Alberta. I made a joke about an ex-girlfriends mother. You laughed and i noticed that you had no fillings. You take such nice care of your teeth but am worried about you. Will you still be able to brush those pearly whites in Bigfoot country. I told you to check out my site and to email me. Maybe I will join you. drinkingfortwo.net

So, it’s probably a shill for a site. But, here’s what we found when we went over there as the most recent post:

i think it would be fun to have sex with a girl that was dressed up like a gorilla until that moment when you realize that deep down you’re a gorilla fucker. that would be a tough one to swallow. it would follow you every where you go that little voice. one minute you’re buying shampoo at the drug store the next thing you know all you can hear is ‘gorilla fucker, gorilla fucker‘ going through your head. that’s why i say ‘just say no to costumes’….

Sorry to take you there, friends, but that’s where this all leads. Draw your own conclusions.

[Photo courtesy of Miss Heather]

This comes from Meserole and Leonard in East Williamsburg and it definitely demands that someone who wants to rent this space “be creative.” Among the creative uses mentioned on another sign are spa and record store. Surely, someone can do better than that, we hope.

[Photo courtesy Brooklyn Botanic Garden]

This is, per the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s photo archive the “Gowanus Canal Children’s Garden, 1920, supervised by BBG graduate, A. J. Boylan of 1914 class.” We take no credit for locating this. That goes to Brenda Becker, who produces the always engaging and wonderful A Year in the Park blog. The original image can be found here.