From a Benefit Concert for the Stop The War Coalition (StWC) was filmed & recorded at The Astoria in London on November 27th, 2005. Cool stuff.

The moon comes up over Fourth Avenue and Union Street.

Watch this superb vid. From the description: “Famed New York amusement park Coney Island faces an uncertain future due to commercial and residential development in its surrounding area. This video won Best Documentary short at this year’s Webby Awards.”

[Image courtesy of Josh Derr/GL Flickr Pool]

Per our photographer, “The entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge as framed by a skybridge.”

Elton’s story particularly touches our hearts:

Elton is a 3 year old Pekingese. Elton is blind but that doesn’t change the fact that he has a lot of love to give. It’s very confusing for him at the shelter…he needs the comfort of knowing his surroundings and what to expect. We hope someone special will come to meet Elton and fall in love…won’t you give him a chance? Although Elton is blind, his sense of smell has compensated, and his nose is now like his eye. He is neutered, dewormed, treated with Revolution to prevent fleas, ticks, ear mites and heartworm and is up to date with vaccinations. His adoption fee is $200.00 and he’ll get one free exam at our vet’s office, one free month of pet health insurance and a microchip. If you’re interested in adopting Elton please email us at nyanimalrescue@yahoo.com for an adoption application. We are conveniently located close to the F train in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn and we’re open daily from 11am to 7pm. Elton can’t wait to meet you! Our organization offers 24PetWatch microchips, which include free registration into the 24PetWatch pet recovery service. For more information visit www.24petwatch.com or call 1-866-597-2424. This pet also is eligible for 30 days of pre-paid ShelterCare pet health insurance. For more information please visit www.sheltercare.com or call 1-866-375-PETS.

Open you heart, earn major good karma and give Elton a home.

Here are more versions of Love Will Tear Us Part, the Joy Division classic, than you will ever need. But, hey, it’s Valentine’s Day. There are some cool surprises in here and probably some annoyances too.

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like “Let’s Do It” in the Craigslist Casual Encounters section. This is the selection through last night. We’re confident today’s will be even more, uh, special and, er, tender:
Feb 13 – anyone else tired of all the vday crap? lets just get drunk and hookup – m4w – 26 – (east williamsburg)
Feb 13 – generous M looking for fellow Valentine’s day cynic – m4w – 34 –
Feb 13 – Day before Valentine’s Day… – m4w – 28 – (Sheepshead Bay)
Feb 13 – Black Sucka for Black on Valentine’s Day Weekend… – 31 – (BROOKLYN)
Feb 13 – who want to be my balentanday – m4w – 24 – (brooklin) pic
Feb 13 – HEY YOU DONT HAVE A VALENTINE GIRL GET AT ME – m4w – (BROOKLYN)
Feb 13 – Afternoon quickie? – m4w – 31 – (N. Bklyn)

Oh, there’s a few more ahead. Spanking, anyone?

Described as “star crossed lovers traveling in opposite directions.”

[Brooklyn Pin Up Monica courtesy of nine6sevenfour/GL Flickr Pool]

It’s Official: D’Amato Lobbied Feds for AY Stimulus Funds [AYR]
Father of Two Risks Life to Save Stranger’s Hat [Bed Stuy Banana]
Sexual Assault in Greenwood Heights [Best View in Brooklyn]
Only in Brooklyn: Guard Dogs on Rooftops [Big Sky Brooklyn]
Creature Feature: Transportation Alternatives [Brit in Brooklyn]
Neglected House Terrorizes Columbia Heights [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Streetlevel: Catbird Closing Metropolitan Avenue Location [Brownstoner]
The Government Needs Well-Dressed People [McBrooklyn]
Southside Photo du Jour: A Novel Approach [New York Shitty]
–Compiled by Lauren Fairbanks

We loved this graffiti near the Carroll Street Bridge and were sad when it was painted over recently. Fortunately, it lives on through the miracle of photography. We have two versions of the scene. Pick you favorite. Ours is the bottom one.

The creator of this vid writes: “Tme lapse video in Brooklyn from my third story apartment. One picture every thirty seconds. Starts around 2 am and goes until sometime the next day. Music is Pop a Top by Jim Ed Brown. All those cars clearing one side of the street is because of street cleaning.” Located by coresspondent E.C. Stephens

[Photo courtesy of Rubys Host/GL Flickr Pool]

It just takes on a special feeling in black and white.

This is either awful or cool, depending on one’s point of view. There will be a long playlist of vids later.

This is dedicated to all the loves I have had and lost and have yet to lose in my life.

Yes, Obama said what we all already knew: There’s little doubt we’re in a recession. A really big one. Well that’s just great! So… now what? You prepared for one? Well, next Saturday (2/21) from 9:30am-3pm the Community Empowerment Expo will be at the First AME Zion Church (54 MacDonough St at Tompkins Ave) in Bed-Stuy throwing a free event where you can speak 1-on-1 with professionals and learn more on managing your debt and finances, avoid foreclosure, improve your credit and savings, and reduce your energy use. David Ushery, Co-Anchor of News 4 New York, will be a featured guest and refreshments on hand. Everyone loves refreshments. For more information, or to join the Pratt Area Community Council, call 718.522.2613 ext 22.
—Vaduzuvunt

See the full flyer by clicking here.

[Photo courtesy New York Public Library]

This is a photo of the coffee warehouse (aka the Empire Stores) on Water Street in Dumbo, which is currently being allowed to rot and deteriorate. It was taken by Berenice Abbott on May 22, 1936. Per notes from the NYPL: “Four-story brick warehouse with arched windows and doors, some of which are open, partially hiding the Yuban Coffee advertisement painted on it.”

We lost track of how many years the MTA was doing a big dig at Flatbush Avenue, Lafayette Avenue and Rockwell Place, but the Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden that will sitt on top of it all is almost done. Well, at least it should look a heck of a lot more inviting by April or so when things are planted and the place is green. In any case, it is one million percent better than the construction site that has been in that spot for years.

There’s some bad news from two of Brooklyn’s top-of-the-line developments, Williamsburg’s Edge and Flatbush Avenue’s Toren: they haven’t sold any units since September. The news comes right from the developers speaking at a real estate roundtable. “Two of the speakers yesterday, Jeffrey Levine of Douglaston Development and Levine Builders, and Don Capoccia of BFC Partners, produced the bad news of the day, saying that they have not sold any units at their developments since September. Levine, developer of The Edge, a four-building, 575-unit complex on the waterfront in Williamsburg, said, ‘I take solace in the fact that people are still looking. We did 30 tours this past weekend. I find that very promising,’ he said….Capoccia, developer of Toren, a mixed-use residential tower at Myrtle Avenue and Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn, said that like Levine there has been minimal sales activity since September but that Toren had 20 potential buyers come through last weekend.” [Brooklyn Eagle]

Poor Grimshaw Architects. They design an ampitheater for Asser-Levy Park on the Coney Island-Brighton Beach Board and people start calling the world famous firm’s work a “potato chip.” Welcome to Brooklyn, Grimshaw friends. The new Bay Currents, which is unfortunately not available online except in PDF form, starts to detail some of the neighborhood opposition growing to the scheme. Much of it centers around the $64 million cost when the city is facing an horrendous budget crisis and the noise and crowds the ampitheater will bring to Coney. Some wonder why KeySpan Park, which is not used a lot of days during the summer season and has functioned well in the past as a concert venue couldn’t host more big-ticket shows by the sea. “It’ll be a disaster,” says one former member of Community Board 13. “It’s in the wrong place.” NY City Park Advocates have taken a lead role in opposing it, because it would eat up much of Asser-Levy Park, which is much used in the community. The group’s president says “They’re spending the money like drunken sailors.” The Borough President’s office says the ampitheater will be a huge asset to Coney. There are also some within the Coney amusement community that support the plan and we’ve heard some whispering that some are reluctant to oppose it because they don’t want to anger Markowitz, who could be helpful in other respects to the amusement district.

A copy of the Bay Currents article if you click here.

Given that tomorrow is that great exercise in love-oriented commercialism called Valentine’s Day, we thought it would be fun to post this Craigslist Missed Connection dug up by our Chief Correspondent E.C. Stephens:

Milk and cookies at the corner store – m4w (Park Slope)

Around 10pm on Friday night, you made your way to the corner store for milk and Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies. I was taking out the trash on my way to the store when you passed by. We both crossed the street from opposite sides and met again at the door, which I opened for you. You proceeded to the milk, I the beer. We met finally at the register before you stole back into the night. When I returned to my place, I had a beer and a cookie, watched Dr. Strangelove and thought about you and nuclear war.

Love and nuclear war. Perfect together.

“Four years after rejecting the advances of Shaya Boymelgreen and Isaac Katan who were in the process of buying three adjacent properties, the owners of the Jewish Press building have put their headquarters on the market with a $10 million price tag. A lot has changed since then: Boymelgreen and Katan split up and the three properties were put on the market (though they never sold and were pulled off the market). So now the question is, Who is the right buyer for the Jewish Press?” It was originally sought as part of the now-dead Gowanus Village development. Our guess is that, right now, that sucker isn’t selling. [Brownstoner]

em>And, now, we present our weekly restaurant review from our friends at Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog. This week’s feature is Sam’s on Court Street:

Such a strange place Sam’s Restaurant is (238 Court St., at Baltic St., 718-596-3458). A group of my friends decided they wanted to try it as I was the only one who had ever been and they wanted to see for themselves. The old, original signage on the windows beckons, and you have to take a few steps down in order to enter into a place caught in a time warp. It feels like nothing has been changed in decades, from the red and white checkered plastic tablecloths, to the ancient photos on the wall (one was an 8 1/2 x 11 of a cat?). The dining area is one big space that feels like an old rec room, a place where church functions were held and you ran around as a kid with your friends, high on sugar while the adults drank and smoked and laughed three feet above your heads. The lighting is weird – both too bright and a bit dark, but the radio is tuned to the best of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s AND 90’s and surely something will come on that makes you happy (Journey anyone?).

There’s a back room that never seems to be used, and a huge upstairs space that isn’t open either (although you have to go up there to use the ladies room). It seems like it’d be a cool spot to host a party or a reception, although I don’t think it’s available for that. There is a full bar though and lots of old, classic cocktails listed on the menu. But let’s get on to the food, shall we? We started out with a salad – the Combination Salad to be precise. Iceberg lettuce, a few pink wedges of tomato, plus marinated mushrooms, roasted red pepper and a couple of olives from the can. Delicious. A bottle each of red wine vinegar and oil are placed on the table for dressing. Beautiful simplicity. To see the Ricotta & Sausage and Pepperoni Pizzas, click here!

When we screw up, it’s always nice to do so in a big way. So, we were pretty bummed to learn that we’d put some bad information out there the other day regarding the fact that the Gowanus Green project had doubled in size to 1,500 units with the addition of the warehouse that is now being demolished. This is not to say that the warehouse owner might not build his own housing development on the site or that Gowanus Green partners didn’t discuss joining forces last year. Or that the city might not have some plans up its sleeve for the property. But the partnership didn’t happen. We heard from the Gowanus Green partnership via the Fifth Avenue Committee. Their original comment was: “The Abadi site has not been added to the Gowanus Green project. The total number of units at Gowanus Green remains approximately 774 in eight residential buildings, plus the open space, City-owned park, a community facility, and retail spaces.” We asked them a bunch of questions and we’re running their response in order to set the record straight:

As the Brooklyn Paper reported last year, we have had some conversations with Mr. Abadi about potential development on his site. The conversations were early and general, and we discussed various opportunities for partnership or acquisition to align the redevelopment of his site with the redevelopment of Public Place. However, those conversations did not successfully progress and are over.

The Abadi site will never be added to Gowanus Green because we are moving ahead on our City-sponsored rezoning without his site and it is too late to change the size and scope of our project. If Abadi chooses to redevelop his site in the future, either by partnering with a developer or working independently, he would have to seek his own rezoning and related public approvals through an entirely separate and lengthy public process (ULURP). We can’t speak to his intentions in the near, medium, or long term since we haven’t spoken with him in many months.

So, there you have it. The warehouse site is being demolished as part of the cleanup of the full Public Place site but will not be part of Gowanus Green as it now stands. It may very well be developed with hundreds of units of housing, but if there are any current plans, no one knows what they are.

· Bedbug Hearings Coming Up at City Council [McBrooklyn]
· State Senate to Hold Atlantic Yards Oversight Hearing [AYR]
· Revisiting 109 Gold [Brownstoner]
· East Williamsburg Economic Stimulus Plan [New York Shitty]
· Markowitz Wants Shops at Brooklyn Municipal Building [110 Livingston]
· Jack Goes Boating Filming Downtown [McBrooklyn]
· Pfizer Conversion Not Happening Anytime Soon [Brownstoner]
· DARE Books Going Waaaaaay South [General Greene]
· Vox Pop Sort of Re-Opening [Ditmas Park Blog]

This is Jim Prince whose butcher shop on Mermaid Avenue was in a slideshow we just posted. If you take the time to watch one vid today, invest it in this one. What Jimmy has to say, days before he closes his shop forever, is worth hearing. He’s been working in Coney for nearly 60 years.