Hope you picked up your drop-off (15 lbs @ 60 cents/lb) this afternoon. PICTURED: Around 6:45 PM ET today, BATT CHIEF TRAVERS shines a flashlight down the basement access staircase. Minutes earlier, an FDNY cut open the padlocked grate with a chainsaw, sparks a-flyin’ (watch the video here!). These dramatic measures led gawkers to speculate that somebody was trapped downstairs. In fact, there was nobody to rescue. I think they were just trying to access the breakers so they could shut the power off. We talked to a fireman who said he wasn’t sure whether or not it was a dryer that caught on fire, but whatever it was, it got into the wall and spread to the second floor. Check out all the exciting details in this Flickr photoset.

Our favorite laundromat, at the corner of Underhill and Sterling, just had a 3-truck fire at about 6:30 PM. Full report with photos, and videos with sparks flying, TK. TK! OK? OK.

The Park Slope Courier’s coverage of the Friends of Dean Playground kickoff meeting last month left us a little confused, but one thing’s for certain: ProHo dogs should be on the alert for roving packs of local residents:

"…the meeting got off to a difficult start as a local resident, identifying himself as Paco, got up noting that dogs are not allowed in the park, and that he and his friends would start shooting the dogs."

Hopefully an inside source, who promises us an update on FoDP, can confirm or deny.

NoLandGrab has posted a PDF of the "friends of the court" brief filed in the Supreme Court case of Kelo vs. New London.
Develop Don’t Destroy has this analysis: "While the brief begins by extolling the parties’ strong support for Ratner’s Atlantic Yards proposal, it quickly goes on to claim that the matters under consideration in the Kelo case have no bearing on Ratner’s plan. Why? Well, because the Atlantic Yards project will be built on a ‘blighted site – now largely occupied by railyards, vacant and industrial property…"

Never mind.

Found on Flatbush.

Time to step back and look at the big picture. Staceyjoy pointed out this vision of a snarled urban dystopia: "There will be new office towers and corporate headquarters looming over Brooklyn Heights, a jazzy sports arena at Atlantic Ave., movie studios in the Navy Yard, big box stores and a cruise ship terminal in Red Hook, and huge residential complexes in Dumbo and along 4th Ave. … Planned development is expected to total 45 million square feet, equaling the size of five World Trade Centers … The inescapable corollary … that hundreds of thousands of new travelers will be drawn to the hub—an estimated 500,000 more people per day."

From the "I’m-trying-to-think-of-a-headline-about-development" dept.:

The next person who paraphrases Field of Dreams in reference to Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project is going to get Eminent-Domained. Hard. I could name names, but it would take too long. Still think it would be a good idea? Then read this first.

From the "I’m-trying-to-think-of-a-headline-about-development" dept.:

The next person who paraphrases Field of Dreams in reference to Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project is going to get Eminent-Domained. Hard. I could name names, but it would take too long. Still think it would be a good idea? Then read this first.

From the "I’m-trying-to-think-of-a-headline-about-development" dept.:

The next person who paraphrases Field of Dreams in reference to Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project is going to get Eminent-Domained. Hard. I could name names, but it would take too long. Still think it would be a good idea? Then read this first.

From the "I’m-trying-to-think-of-a-headline-about-development" dept.:

The next person who paraphrases Field of Dreams in reference to Ratner and the Atlantic Yards project is going to get Eminent-Domained. Hard. I could name names, but it would take too long. Still think it would be a good idea? Then read this first.