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.
NEW GROUP: Learn More about PS9
John just started a PS
9 Community e-mail group for people who have an interest in the school. If you’re a current parent (or "prospective" one), a student, a teacher, an administrator or "just a concerned member of the community," you are hereby encouraged to join: "We will discuss the
school’s performance, both how it shines and ways it can be supported and
improved and I hope it will give those with an interest in the school a more
direct pipeline to those who know the school best." To sign up,To request a subscribe to this group, please visit this Google Groups page.
9 Community e-mail group for people who have an interest in the school. If you’re a current parent (or "prospective" one), a student, a teacher, an administrator or "just a concerned member of the community," you are hereby encouraged to join: "We will discuss the
school’s performance, both how it shines and ways it can be supported and
improved and I hope it will give those with an interest in the school a more
direct pipeline to those who know the school best." To sign up,To request a subscribe to this group, please visit this Google Groups page.
Breaking news (for real this time): Fire!
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.
Dean Playground: Will Paco Shoot the Dogs?
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.
"You're Blighted" Part 2: The Friends of the Court
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…"
I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT THE GUM
Never mind.
Found on Flatbush.
Goodbye Idyllic Mayberry Neighborhood
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."
If you _____ it, I will $&^$*^@#
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.
Pub Crawl Starts at Flatlantic Interzone
Christian Lorentzen in the Brooklyn Star: "We begin … at Freddy’s, 6th Avenue and Dean. This outpost lingers in the
Flatlantic interzone … The room is dark, the video selection a sinister
eclectic, an adjoining room allows for bands and billiards, and a can
of PBR costs $2.50. Drink up-you won’t see another one of those for a
half a mile." Read more.
WHATIS: Community Board #8
NEXT MEETING: Thursday, February 10, 2005, 7:00 PM
Brooklyn Children’s Museum 145 Brooklyn Avenue corner St. Marks Avenue
New York City is divided into 59 geographic community district. Each is served by a local representative
body known as a Community Board. Each one is composed of up to 50 unsalaried people. Community Board responsibilities include involvement in land use and zoning issues, participation in the city budget process, and "service delivery" (i.e. housing complaints, potholes, permits for block parties), among others.
Community Board #8; 1291 St. Mark’s Ave.; Brooklyn, NY 11213
718-467-5574 / fax 718-778-2979 / http://www.brooklyncb8.org/
NEIGHBORHOODS: Crown Heights, Weeksville, Prospect Heights
BOUNDARIES: Atlantic
Ave. (N), Ralph Ave. (E), Eastern Parkway (S), Flatbush Ave. (W)
Chairperson: Robert Matthews; District Manager: Doris Alexander
Board Meetings: 2nd Thursday of every month