Have you noticed that sad patch of land in front of the children’s
library entrance on Eastern Parkway?

I am a volunteer with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden who is involved with
a garden project to transform this space.

Each year, Greenbridge, the outreach arm of the Botanic Gardens,
trains a small group of volunteers to become Brooklyn Urban Gardeners
(BUGS).

These volunteers (of whom I was one this year) are then assigned
community garden projects in Brooklyn to work on.

My group is working with the BPL at Grand Army Plaza to help develop
the small patch of land that sits in front of the entrance to the
Children’s Library on Eastern Parkway (right next to Mount Prospect
Park).

On 2/11/12 we are holding our second public meeting at the library
where we are inviting members of the public to get involved and
invested in the project and help turn this very sad patch of unused
land into an inspiring entrance for the childrens library.

Let me know if you are able to help (or would like to become involved
yourself!)

Thanks

David Phillips.

Fountain Studios, an artist studio and project space in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn since 2008, houses 11 studios and a gallery. It’s also a performance, project, and community space and. It’s also the location of Fountain Fair, a recurring vintage and handmade goods craft market.

Curated and directed by Troy Hagenbart and Susan Gargulio (husband and wife), Fountain has showcased quite a few Brooklyn locals. What Fountain likes to do is two-person shows, so they can “spin contrasting bodies of work into unexpected dialogue,” says Lost at E Minor, “Drawing parallels between installation, experimental music, photography, painting, and sculpture.”

Upcoming at Fountain studies is the MassArt Alumni Show, taking place from February 4th – March 3rd, with an opening reception on Saturday, February 4th from 7-10 pm. Featured artists include Juan Jose Barboza,  Kevin Buchholz, John Burkett, Bruce Campbell, Stephanie Cardon, Natalie Collins, Stephanie Costello, Alex DeMaria, Hilary Doyle, Kate Goyette, Don Hershey, Janne Holtermann, Phil Jung, Jessica M. Kaufman, Marketa Klicova, Robert Knight, Wilson Lawrence, Sebastien Leclerq, Rob Lomblad, Sarah Lubin, Billie Mandle, Sarah Moran, Matt Murphy, Irina Rosovsky, Owen Rundquist, Erik Schubert, Rebecca Sittler, Catherine Stack, Lou Susi, David Tames, Elizabeth Thach, Joey Tipton, Johanna Warwick, Bahar Yurukoglu, and Michael Zachary.

via 606 R&D is open for dinner! « Brooklynian | Brooklyn Blog and Message Boards.

Photo: Time Out New York.

Brooklyn Chief of Staff Marty Maher is coming to a joint meeting of Friends of Dean Playground and Dean Street Block Association to share plans for improvements to the playground.  A comfort station will be built this year and a little further into the future the seating area will be renovated.

Please join us to learn the details and see the plans!

DATE:  February 6th @ 6 PM

LOCATION:  Iglesia Evangelica Latina, 506 Bergen Street

Photo: Tracy Collins

The state redistricting proposal released yesterday has Prospect Heights’ District 20 drawn up with some interesting new lines. Sen. Eric Adams’ block is gerrymandered out, and–for unknown reasons–there’s a 26-block strip along Fourth Avenue, going down to Sunset Park. Amy Sara Clark writes: “District 20′s neat triangle shape now looks more like an ostrich, or a construction site digger, or, as one Brooklynite envisions it, a motorcycle.”

Read more: Spoof of the Day: Prospect Heights’ Gerrymandered Senate District – Prospect Heights, NY Patch.

Patch reports that a thieves hit 3 Vanderbilt Avenue businesses in less than 24 hours last week:

• Jan 19, 10:15 am: at The Sunburnt Calf, a bag (belonging to the owner) was swiped off a table. Contents: a $2,000 MacBook Pro. Apparently the owner left it unattended for about 5 minutes around 10:15 am in the empty, unlocked restaurant.
• Jan 19, 3 pm: at The Wine Exchange, a woman grabbed a store clerk’s bag and ran. The bag had $300 in cash and $250 in jewelry in it.
• Some time between 11 pm Jan 18 and 1:30 am Jan 19: at Weather Up, an iPad was grabbed from an unattended bag.

More info: String of Thefts on Vanderbilt Avenue – Prospect Heights, NY Patch; photo via Brooklyn Exposed.

This friendly, female cat, about 7-8 years old and missing a front tooth, was found hanging around outside a stoop on Prospect between Grand & Classon. “She’s way too used to people and sweet to be a pure street cat,” Nikonista writes on the Brooklynian message boards. “We think she may be lost (or may have been abandoned, in which case I wish hellfire on those who did it).” If you know anything about this cat, go here:

Found – Lost Cat, Prospect Place between Grand Ave and Classon, Brooklyn » Brooklynian.

Black Hasidic Jews are a minority of a minority of a minority in Crown Heights and elsewhere. In yeshivas, they are sometimes taunted as “monkeys,” according to the New York Times, and  are greeted with blank stares at kosher restaurants and synagogues. In Crown Heights, Black Hasidic Jews tried to form a minyan–a quorum of 10 men required for group prayer–but they had a bit of a setback when Yoseph Robinson, a Jamaican, was killed when would-be robbers stormed the kosher liquor store where he worked, leaving only 9.

This is just one of the groups Oprah will talk to in Hasidic Jews of Brooklyn , which documents her visit back in October to the Hasidic Jewish communities of Borough Park and Crown Heights. She got “unprecedented access” to these tight-knit and “mysterious” cultures. The show will document the daily life in these communities, and their intense spiritual devotion, which means that  (gasp) they raise their kids without most modern media — no TV, movies, internet or video games.

Highlights: Oprah sits down with a family of 12 for a traditional meal; she interviews Hasidic mothers and wives (a “no holds barred” interview, no less); she gets a tour of a Mikvah; and she meets with what they say is “one of the few black Hasidic Jewish families in the country” (and they are pretty much right, it seems).

Tivo it. It will be broadcast in two parts: Sunday, February 12, from 9:00 – 10:00 p.m., and Monday, February 13, from 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. - via Oprah’s Next Chapter Is EXPANDING! | PerezHilton.com. Photo: COLLive.com – Oprah Seen in Crown Heights (from back in October when they were filming).

I told her, ”No thanks, and what you’re doing is a scam.”

Her “manager” came along and things got pretty tense: IDT energy scam « Brooklynian | Brooklyn Blog and Message Boards.

Lizell writes: ”A friend of mine was in the area looking for an apartment. He was mugged at gunpoint for his iPhone at Park Place and Franklin Avenue around 7:30pm. He was waiting for the broker to show and as she called the guy showed up and mugged him.”

“The avenue is busy that time of night – I got home only minute ago. I passed 6 cops on my way from eastern to park place as well. Brazen stuff.”

via Local muggings! Look out! « Brooklynian | Brooklyn Blog and Message Boards.