We found this little white Smart Car in Park Slope on Fifth Avenue. Perhaps doing some grocery shopping at the Key Foods. If it was smart, though, wouldn’t it use the parking lot?

The Avalon Fort Greene, across Myrtle Avenue from Toren is going up like gangbusters. For those of you who like construction porn, we’ve got a small gallery to get the juices flowing. The building–a rental–will ultimately be a 42-story, 650-unit rental development at 159 Myrtle Avenue. Will it rent, given the other units going up and some condos likely to go rental? Stay tuned.

From 5:30-8pm on Thursday (2/19), the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is collaborating with Brooklyn Industries for an in-store “garden party” to celebrate the coming art-inspired spring line, modeled and shot in… you guessed it, the BBG. All BI stores are participating with this event, and are providing complimentary “green refreshments” (whatever that means?) and are raffling free memberships to the BBG, plans, gardening books and more. For more information or store locations check out the BI website.
—Vaduzuvunt

We awoke this morning and thought we were still dreaming. Charles Bagli of the New York Times has finally focused on Coney Island. Of course, to close Coney watchers it’s the once-over lightly and fails to capture the truly ugly nature of the ongoing battle for Coney Island. The story is exceptionally kind to developer Joe Sitt and fails to fully note his deliberate tactic of either literally or tacitly threatening to level parts of Coney’s sadly diminished amusement area to pressure city officials. It skips over the ugly public catfight between the developer and the city. Yet, it does manage to lay out for the average readers some of the sharply differing visions in the various concepts of what should happen in Coney.

The story notes the city “recently introduced” a plan for a 9.4 acre amusement district (it introduced a plan for a 16 acre one in November 2007 and trimmed it to 9.4 acres nearly a year ago). We suppose this qualifies as “recently,” given that the city’s most important publication has acted as though Coney Island is in Moldova. We digress. Here’s a small sample of the story:

In the latest in a long line of efforts to revamp or revive the onetime resort, the Bloomberg administration recently introduced its plan to develop a year-round amusement and entertainment destination, with a special 9.4-acre amusement district, as well as new housing, shops and parks. And in keeping with the waterfront’s contentious history, a prominent civic organization and a developer, who has spent over $100 million buying up property in the area, have put forward competing visions of how to best preserve the soul and mythology of Coney Island. The civic group, the Municipal Art Society, contends that the Bloomberg administration’s plan must be bigger and bolder to be successful, with three times as much land dedicated solely to outlandish amusements and an “eye-popping” attraction akin to the London Eye, a 443-foot high Ferris wheel.

Again, the story fails to note that the MAS (which we deeply respect) is a very late comer to a struggle that has been going on for more than three years. They are akin to a team that has walked on to the playing field in the Fourth Quarter with 2:00 left on the clock. (And, yes, we realize it is the good people at the MAS that finally got the Times to realize that Coney Island is actually in Brookyn, not a former Soviet republic.) The story quotes developer Joe Sitt as calling the city and MSA proposals as “seriously flawed” and doomed. Mr. Sitt, as always, still insists that Coney needs time-share hotels and large retail shops.

Oh, we have more to say.

· Brookynites Work to Help Former Haitian School [NYT]
· Bedbug Complaints Up 34 Percent [NYDN]
· Decoding “Shovel Ready” & Atlantic Yards [AYR]
· Norah Jones Buys in Cobble Hill [Brownstoner]
· Ah, the Raccuglia Funeral Home of Carroll Gardens [NYDN]
· 181 York St. Update [Dumbo NYC]
· The People of My Neighorhood [New York Shitty]
· Daptone Records Robbed Blind [BushwickBK]
· Is Ambrosia Finito? [Kensington Brooklyn]

It feels good to report when people in the community band together and do something positive with what could have been a fiasco. Many may remember the furor over the wealthy and elite Berkeley-Carroll School’s decision to close its child care center and, in particular, the shoddy way in which they treated longtime employees. Well, that’s old news about an institution that may embody the worst of Park Slope elitism. The good news is that the faciity will become the Park Slope Schoolhouse. News comes via a Park Slope Parents email:

A few months ago, many of you heard of the decision by the Berkeley Carroll School to close its Child Care Center…Since then, a group of current and former Child Care Center parents have been working to secure the future of this wonderful program, which has operated in our neighborhood for over 30 years. Today, we are thrilled to announce the formation of The Park Slope Schoolhouse, a child development program for 1 – 4 year olds. We will operate the program formerly known as The Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center through a newly formed non-profit entity and we have been accepted to the Fund for the City of New York’s incubator program for start-up non-profits.

More info on this wonderful community action, ahead.

[All photos for GL courtesy of Nathan Kensinger Photgraphy]

Boy, we’ve been writing a lot about the warehouse on the Public Place site in the last week. But the hell with writing, GL Contributing photographer Nathan Kensinger, along with a couple of other famed Brooklyn photographic adventurers, got into the site over the weekend. Mr. Kensinger dropped some of the hottest demo porn we’ve seen in a long time into our inbox and we had to seriously restrain ourselves from running it yesterday because so many people weren’t online reading blogs. The hysterical thing about this is that a week ago, we ran an item about an email from Council Member Bill de Blasio’s office about how demolition would be “starting soon.” Starting soon? It looks like either they’ve got the fastest demolition crew on God’s earth short of bombs working in there or the demo started quite a long time ago and pubic information has once again–how to put this?–been miscommunicated. (We’d say people are deliberately trying to keep neighbors in the dark and that this is one of the most obscene threats to public safety we’ve seen in a long time, but we know that doesn’t happen in Brooklyn. Ever. Because everything in every development procress is transparent, open and honest. The Founding Fathers deemed it so.) To put it crudely, the only freaking thing left of the f’ing building are the exterior walls. In any case, the so-called Abadi Warehouse is not part of the Gowanus Green development. The fate of the land underneath it, once some of the toxins are removed (and the plan is to only remove some toxins because a total cleanup is almost impossible…it’s that toxic), will be part of an independent proposal. Enjoy the demo porn. It’s blazing hot. Mr. Kensinger writes: “From the street, it looks like the warehouse is still standing, but inside its like a moonscape, stripped bare of all defining details and covered in white dust. There was a stop work order posted on one of the doors, dated 2-12-09. [We believe it is for unsafe demolition.] However, there is not much left to stop work on. The entire factory is almost gone, to be replaced by more housing… and the industrial jobs have been moved to New Jersey.” All that aside, how work like this could be done without measures taken to protect the public (like scaffolding) is mindboggling. This thing has wall collapse written all over it.

GL Analysis:
DO NOT GO NEAR THIS THING. If you’ve got a spare moment, drop some of our public officials a note about why the public notice was clearly shoddy and why they’ve allowed a situation that could kill people walking on Smith or Huntington Street to occur. Thank you Nate, for documenting what it truly an outrage.

Deep, deep inside, ahead.

Just in case you can’t get enough GL here, we’ve started up our Twitter feed. Please follow us. Our posts are there and as time goes on there going to be more off-the-cuff and personal stuff. In other words, we’re going to be using it to communicate with you off the blog. We’re very, very excited. Tweet. Tweet.

Ha. Ha. It could be a trick question or it might not. What is this building? Where is it? Is it in Eastern Berlin, say in the wilds of Prenzlauerberg? Or is it in our very own borough, and if so where?

Interested in knowing whether it’s Berlin or Brooklyn? Click here.

Do you care about public art in North Brooklyn? No? Well, skip this item. If the answer is “yes,” then read on, friends. This dropped into our inbox from Council Member David Yassky and the Open Space Alliance which are going to be presenting something called Public Art Opportunities: Inaugural Meeting of the North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition. It’ll be happening at the Brooklyn Brewery at 79 N. 11 Street in Williamsburg (between Wythe and Berry) at 6:30PM on Wednesday, February 25. There’s some serious stuff on the agenda like the creation of a North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition and the creation of a block-long wall mural on India Street in Greenpoint. So, if you want a say in the art you’re going to be looking at or want to advocate for it or, even, if you want to tell them to stick their because there should be no such thing as public art (you don’t feel that way do you?), go and speak up.

The actual email is ahead with all the details.

This is a fucking classic we tripped across and had never seen. Check out Brian Eno with the glam look and hair. This is the stuff from which all else of any value evolved through the 70s, punk included. Sorry if some of the people watching this weren’t even born when this performance was recorded.

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

We do love the photos that Rubys Host is kind enough to drop into our Flickr pool because they are always magnficent and evocative like this Brighton Beach scene.

Want to check out a new voting machine? We have learned via email that “the Board of Elections is holding presentations on two poll site voting systems which are being evaluated for use beginning in the fall of 2009. The Brooklyn session, including demonstrations (with hands-on experience) is on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 from 6:00-8:30 PM at Brooklyn College, Student Center, Gold Room, 6th Floor, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210 (on Campus Road between East 27th St. and Amersfort Pl.) There are sessions being held in each county. For more information and locations, click here. Hope to see you there!” So, if you don’t like what you end up with it’s because you didn’t speak up. Also, Thank God, tomorrow will be a regular news day.

[Photos for GL courtesy of Steven Skollar]

Once again, those Red Hook sunsets prove themselves to be spectacular.

For a totally different kind of view that we dig, click here.

[Photo courtesy of Jennifer Dunne/GL Flickr Pool]

This is the first Windsor Terrace street couch we’ve ever had that we can recall. It is somewhat cropped from the original, and we apologize to the kind contributor for that, but to see the original click here.

This is a building at the corner of Bedford and N. 9 in the Burg that now seems to say Go Go Girls in the window. This is interesting in the sense that this was once actually a topless bar called Belinda’s. Also, this is the spot where some signs were put in the window during the election about teaching Sarah Palin about Zero Population Growth.

This is a watercolor of the Gowanus painted in 1938. It was up for sale on eBay until last night for the sum of $449.99, which was chopped from $499. (This is the seller, he may still have it if you need this in your living room.) Here’s the description: “For sale here is an original watercolor painting from 1938 of the Gowanus Canal East in Brooklyn, New York, and signed by the artist Theo L. Soontup. Masterfully done, this painting is a bit of history as this part of Brooklyn has had many ups and downs over the years. Google the Gowanus canal to read some of the interesting tidbits. This painting measures 16.5″ by 22.5″ inside the matting, glass, and frame. In excellent condition overall, though the matting could use a clean or to be replaced, as is usual with older painting.” We’re not sure which of the poisonous Manufactured Gas Plants in the neighborhood (the big tank) is pictured. It does have a certain charm to it.

[Photo courtesy of Caryn Rose/GL Flickr Pool]

Ah, the L Train on Valentine’s Day.

Just posted to the YouTube, the video maker writes: “I’m not keen on the new luxury towers cropping up in NYC’s low-rise neighborhoods but there they are. I sped this up to make the movement of the elevator and crane more obvious on this construction site. February 2009.”

Check out this Robert Scarano masterpiece with lots of wall on at 1056 Bedford Avenue at Clifton Place. The building has been slow coming along and was hobbled for a time by a partial Stop Work Order. The complaints lodged during construction of the building also make for interesting reading and include “chunks of falling concrete” and debris that was falling and “scaring pedestrians.” (There were a number of complaints about debris falling on pedestrians.) There was also a complaint about the scaffolding being “unstable” and, in another instance, of workers “throwing debris” that was hitting other buildings. Us, we love both the contextual feel and those really imposing walls.

To catch the full wall effect click here.

Check it out.

Given that it’s President’s Day and most of us have the day off and we all know that most people do most of their blog reading at work, we’ll be doing a semi-regular day today that will have more of a weekend feel. There will be some news items, some pics, some vids and probably half the number of posts of an average weekday. What are you doing in front of a computer, anyway? Go out and have some fun or shop or something.

This isn’t strictly a Missed Connection, but it’s topical:

my valentine had a boyfriend I didn’t know about. – m4w – 24 (WB)
Fuck valentines day first of all. I thought I finally had a Valentine this year on Valentines day but she ended up having a boyfriend. What the fuck. Her boyfriend doesn’t even live here but I couldn’t kiss my Valentine last night and now I’m sitting here bummed out writing this to who ever. What should I do? Should I try and convince her that I’m cooler than her boyfriend or should I find another girl? thanks who ever…

Uh, find another girld, dude.

And, for the heck of it, this dude flipped you the bird, but digs you.

We’re not sure if we’ve ever seen more and more problematic service changes on subway lines than this weekend. (Well, we probably have, but whatever…) In a lot of Brooklyn stations, you can spend 10 minutes reading and trying to figure out the changes on the lines you are trying to take. The L Train is a particular pleasure. Trains are running to Manhattan every 16 minutes. As a shuttle. They are running out to Rockaway Parkway every eight minutes, again, as a shuttle. All this leaves hundreds of people milling about the platform WTF is going on. Trains from Rockaway Parkway pull in on what would normally be the side where trains going in that direction stop, and disgorge passengers. Then, they have to wait for a shuttle train from Union Station (running every 16 minutes) to pull in on the other side. Meanwhile, an announcement says “The Manhattan-bound train terminates at Bedford Avenue.” Huh? Well, it does, then it turns around, packed like a sardine can and heads back to Union Square. Where it ends. It entirely skips Third Avenue, but no announcement is ever made. We took the 4 back to Brooklyn and it terminates at Atlantic Avenue where you can catch the 2 or the 3. If you were planning to go elsewhere….best of luck. Read the service changes before you attempt to go anywhere.

We’ve always appreciated the Liquid Love Lounge on Bedford Avenue in Bed-Stuy. We wandered past on Valentine’s Day yesteray and knew what we had to do.