Tag Archives: Brooklyn

A Brooklyn resident has launched a text message and Twitter based system of finding parking spaces in Park Slope, which car-owning locals derisively call “No Park Slope.” It’s no secret. Park Slope is a parking nightmare. But what if you could join a cyber community that allows members to share available parking spot information? Well, now it’s possible with a …

Via Holy Taco, a warning to the women of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I’m reminded of a similar “community warning” flier that I ripped off a telephone pole in the Castro many years ago. “Warning! Do not give money to Danny or any of his friends at XXXX 17th Street! He is a thief and a bad drug dealer!” Almost every gay …

Richard Meier’s trademark all-glass luxury condo building has been ready for occupants for months in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a place more noted for classic brownstones than for Miami Beach-style see-thru boxes. Unsurprisingly, only 25% of the units have sold. I wonder if the building will leak like crazy like the three eyesore Meier towers in the West Village.

Lehigh Valley Barge #79 is the last remaining of the covered wooden barges that used to ship cargo across New York Harbor. Moored in Red Hook, Brooklyn, today it serves as a floating museum of that industry. During summer the barge is towed by a tugboat for classroom tours of the harbor. Barge #79 is on the National Registry of …

On the same day that the Westboro Baptist Church staged an anti-Semitic rally in Brooklyn, a federal appeals court overturned a $5M judgment against them won by the father of a soldier whose funeral they had picketed. The judge ruled that even “distasteful and repugnant” speech is protected by the First Amendment. Last June a lien was placed on Westboro’s …

Derelict remnants of Red Hook’s street rail system are parked behind the Fairway Market on Brooklyn’s waterfront. Mayor Bloomberg recently indicated his support for bringing back light rail service to waterfront neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, starting with Red Hook. A $300K feasibility study by the DOT will begin by the end of the year.

If you’re a stand-up comedian opening for Donna Summer in front of 10,000+ New Yorkers, you probably shouldn’t start with jokes about plane crashes. Seriously. When the guy started in on Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of the “miracle on the Hudson,” things got really (but hilariously), ugly, with Brooklynese chants of “Get off da fuhkin’ stage!” washing across the crowd. …

Last night DC blogger Jimbo, Dr. Jeff and I made the 90-minute haul out to Coney Island to watch Donna Summer’s free concert at Seaside Park. And holy crap, what an enormous crowd. Easily the largest outdoor show I’ve ever been to. We couldn’t get within a half-mile of the stage and watched much of the show from a sidewalk …

Famed as some of the best Latin food in NYC, a fleet of food trucks line one side of Red Hook Park in Brooklyn, where each vendor flies the flag of a different Central American country. So far, I can only vouch for the pictured Salvadoran truck, where whatever is in a #9 was very, very, very good. Sadly, I’ve …

The Soldiers and Sailors Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza serves as the main gate to Prospect Park, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the same team that created Central Park. The arch, meant to evoke Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, was designed by John H. Duncan, who later created Grant’s Tomb. It was formally unveiled by …

Just a reminder that Donna Summer’s free NYC concert is this Thursday in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. The 31st Annual Seaside Summer Concert Series performances are held Thursday nights 7:30 pm at Asser Levy/Seaside Park at West 5th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island/Brighton Beach, across the street from the New York Aquarium. The public is encouraged to bring their …

The derelict Gowanus Building, an old power station in Brooklyn, has been on sale for $27M forever. It gained the above editorial last September during the Wall Street bailout, which hasn’t helped it sell, oddly enough. The building sits on the Gowanus Canal, one of the nation’s most polluted waterways. The EPA has proposed adding the Gowanus to its Superfund …

Well, this has got to be the strangest story of the year. Dwan Prince, 31, has sent an apology to the man whose 2005 attack in Brooklyn left Prince partially paralyzed, telling him that it was Prince’s own flirtatious behavior that brought on the assault and that thanks to the beating, he is no longer gay. Duncan Osborne at Gay …

Instant swimming pool, Brooklyn style. Some New Yorkers stuck in small apartments on a hot summer day have a new option: swimming in huge bins that once held trash. The idea for the unlikely urban club came from David Belt, president of Macro Sea, a Manhattan design firm. A contractor loaned him the three big metal bins and they were …

Donna Summer will play a free show at 7:30pm on Thursday, August 27th during Brooklyn’s Seaside Summer Concert Series at Brighton Beach’s Seaside Park. Other Thursday freebie shows in the series: Gladys Knight, Blondie, Pat Benatar, The Donnas, The O’Jays, Hall & Oates, Frankie Valli, Connie Francis. The first show is next week.

Ugh, ugh, ugh. NYC’s cash-strapped MTA has sold the naming rights to downtown Brooklyn’s massive subway station to Barclays Bank. It will now be known as Atlantic-Pacific-Flatbush-Barclays Station, which even more cumbersome than Atlantic-Pacific-Flatbush. If a $4 million deal is approved on Wednesday, the nexus of subway stops at Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn will …

New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn), a notorious homophobe who routinely attempts to block LGBT rights legislation, is pissed off because homosexuals and other groups persecuted by the Nazis will be represented at a Holocaust memorial in Hikind’s home borough. Hikind said even though 5 million people from other groups — including gays, the disabled and Jehovah’s Witnesses — were …

Over the last seven days… Minnesota: Rev. Donald Dean Budd convicted of two counts of felony sexual misconduct.Utah: Pastor William J. Blanscet charged with exposing himself over a webcam to who he thought was a 13 year-old girl.Pennsylvania: Pastor Guy Carlton Jones sentenced to three years in state prison for attempted sexual conduct with an 8 year-old girl. Bonus: Jones …

David Byrne will perform a free show in Brooklyn at the Prospect Park Bandshell on Monday, June 8th at 6:30pm. In this free concert, David Byrne will perform Music of David Byrne and Brian Eno, featuring material spanning his collaborations with Brian Eno: three Talking Heads albums, 1981’s groundbreaking My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and last year’s Everything …

Another boozy blurry Brooklyn Blowoff. I’m wiped. Two musical highlights: Bob Mould spun an astonishingly great remake of Klaatu’s Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft. (You might know the Carpenters’ cover.) Then towards the end of night Rich Morel spun a remix of some old Faithless song that had me right back on the dance floor at SF’s Universe. Great night, …