neighborhood watch

Tompkins Square Park Faces Off Against the Quiet

Carroll Gardens: Locals booed images of the condo planned for 340 Court Street at a meeting with developers last night, saying it looked like a mausoleum, should be brown and not gray, and probably would be even taller than it looked. [Gowanus Lounge]
Downtown Brooklyn: A bomb scare resulting from a black unattended suitcase left outside the building that houses the Secret Service shut down lunch hour here yesterday. A bomb-expert type opened it and found it full of clothes. “Those guys don’t get paid enough,” opined a bystander. You said it, lady … they’re the bo– oh, forget it. [Brooklyn Eagle via McBrooklyn]
East Village: In other park-y news, August 2 and 3 is not only a city-declared “no amplified sound” weekend, it’s also the twenieth anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots, and activists don’t want to unplug the punk bands and speakers they’ve planned. TSP Riot 2.0? [amNY]

Flushing: In one of the city’s biggest knockoff busts ever, police raided a warehouse here full of more than 50,000 pairs of fake Nikes and more than 40,000 fake Chanel bags. Total value was around $4.5 mil, woulda been more like $16 mil if the loot was real. OMG, did we just write that the way Cindy Adams does? [NY1 via Gothamist]
Fort Greene: Atlantic Yards centerpiece tower “Miss Brooklyn” will indeed get built, reassured its architect, Frank Gehry, last night at a fancy Brooklyn Museum benefit. Outside, hundreds protested the museum’s honoring Atlantic Yards kingpin Bruce Ratner. Others just cyber-mooned the project. [Brooklyn Paper]
Union Square: The redo of the park’s north end, which will yield greenery, three times as much playground space, and a (controversial and as-yet-unnamed) restaurant, has finally begun. [A Fine Blog via Curbed]
Woodside: Parishioners at two churches want to know how anyone could steal their big bronze bells. So do we … those big bronze bells weigh hundreds of pounds! [NYDN via Queens Craps]

Tompkins Square Park Faces Off Against the Quiet