Unbelievable. Two more reports of the infamous “Panhandler With the Mother Who Has Wrecked Her Car” have surfaced at set speed. Both were originally reported on the Fort Greene Kids Yahoo! Group. The first was “an attempt was trying to con a parent and his/her wailing toddler out of money for the LIRR train home.” The second victim called 911, and “this resulted in about 10 swarming police cars at Waverly and Gates.” Be sure to read the comments for a remarkable discussion on “gaffling.”

Links:
Con Man Says Supersize Me [set speed]
The Panhandler with the Mother who has wrecked her car [Susan in the Daily Heights Forum]
Reward for Photographic Evidence of the Panhandler [Daily Heights]

Congratulations to Ed Sullivan on Acid and Brooklyn Comedy Company, Prospect Heights’s two regular comedy shows. Both got a decent write-up in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s article, “Kings County of Comedy,” which appears in the April 7-13 edition of Time Out New York.

Elon James White writes: “I don’t think it’s online, but I’m vain enough that I typed up the only part that has something to do with us…”

“As the scene grows, one can’t help but wonder how long it will remain casual. One person upping the ante is Elon James White of the Brooklyn Comedy Company (BcCo) who produces a weekly stand-up show in Prospect Heights and hopes to soon – gasp! – pay his headliners. ‘We’re probably the only independent comedy show holding auditions,’ He says. ‘We’re making it cool to do Brooklyn.’”

BONUS quote from honorary ProHo’er Josh, who hooked up with TONY writer Rachel through the Daily Heights message boards: “Everyone isn’t angling to get on The Late Late Show [with Craig Ferguson], which is nice … I prefer going to places without drink minimums that don’t have autographed pictures of Jerry Seinfeld on the walls.”

[PICTURED: Karith Foster at Brooklyn Comedy Company at last week’s “Ladies First” comedy night]

From the Daily Heights Camphone Patrol:
Lucas writes: Did you see the tall bicyclists yesterday? A group of about 5-6 people riding six-foot-tall bicycles up Vanderbilt. Hilarious. Tried to get a shot, but they were too far away for my wee camphone. I can’t wait until US cell manufacturers start providing multi-megapixel cameras. Sheesh.”

Lucas also spotted these unsavory characters, clearly up to no good (check out the scowl on Rope Guy as he gets camphoned): “Not sure what they’re doing up there, but it looks like they’re cleaning the exterior of the dry cleaning building. Maybe not. They weren’t thrilled to be captured on film. (’On disk’? What will people say now that film is being phased out?)”

From the “Affordable Housing for The People” dept.:
That Grand Army Plaza condo development tentatively known as 1 Prospect Park: exactly how massive will it be? Nearly double the size we thought? Assiduous reader Quig writes in: “From today’s NYT. I almost spit coffee on my laptop.”

Today’s NYT: “Mr. Meier has taken a similar hands-on approach to a residential building he is designing in Brooklyn on Grand Army Plaza overlooking Prospect Park. The 30-story condominium includes 120 units, most of which have balconies with park views.”

Huh. There was some “discussion” of this at a community meeting about a year ago, and a few people were fuming about the long shadow this would cast–not to mention the problems a ginormous condo complex could inflict on St. John’s Place (i.e. sanitation issues and traffic from an underground garage).

The funny thing is, until today, we were under the impression that the condo would be only 16-18 stories in height. From The Real Deal, just a few months ago(Sept.-Oct. 2004): Architect Richard Meier, who designed the celebrity magnet towers at 173-176 Perry Street, is working on a new project in Prospect Heights. The building, on Eastern Parkway, is for developer Mario Procida of Seventeen Development LLC and should be ready in two years. It will be 16 to 18 stories tall, and feature one-, two- and three-bedroom units, but will “not be luxury,” Meier told New York magazine.

By the way, “Not Luxury” will be defined as affordable to the top 1% of Brooklyn families, as opposed to the usual cut-off of 0.5%. It’s a development for The People! (CAUTION: This is humor.)

According to Property Shark, the lot is still owned by the Union Temple; the lot is currently being used for parking. We are in touch with sources close to Union Temple, so stay tuned for updates.

Links:
For Act II, Architect Gets More Hands-On [New York Times]
Ownership of 17 Eastern Parkway [PropertyShark]
New Residential Developments [The Real Deal]