I.M. Pei to Appear in ChinatownThe reclusive architect will show up at the reopening of the Museum of Chinese in America, the ‘pop-up park’ gets another month in Brooklyn Heights, and a pretty new footpath uptown on the High Bridge doesn’t mean you still can’t find drugs in the park! All in today’s boroughs report.
ByTim Murphy
neighborhood watch
Winona Ryder Is Dating Tom Green?!?Also, apparently there’s an amusement park in Bensonhurst. There’s so much to learn in today’s boroughs report!
Okay, Really, There Will Be Life on the Gowanus?Even more development on the canal, a grocery store saved, and a new American Apparel parody. What would you do without your daily Neighborhood Watch?
early and often
McCain He IsThe presidential candidate confuses Brooklyn residents by choosing an unlikely location in which to announce his new economic plan.
neighborhood watch
Even Store That Sold CBGB Items Will Be ShutteredJust because it’s April 1 is no reason to doubt reports that a Trump luxury tower is coming to Bay Ridge, right? That and more, in our daily roundup of borough news.
The ‘Crazy Super’ Has a Dog Named Pretty GirlBay Ridge: Richard Martin, the “crazy super” who posts homicidally threatening signs about trash disposal, says of his tenants “They’re Arab; they don’t give a f*ck”; has a cute Pekinese named Pretty Girl; and worships Jeanine Pirro. Feast on his cranky, strangely lovable weirdness. [NYP]
Chelsea: Facing lawsuits from folks who say it’s too loud and polluting to be there, the 30th St. pier heliport floats a plan to move itself onto two barges offshore. And Curbed is right… this homespun sketch of the plan indeed features the quaintest, gentlest West Side Highway we’ve ever seen. [Villager via Curbed]
Ditmas Park: Folks in these gentrifying, pretty parts know that the hatred currently directed at Park Slope will soon be visited upon them. And they’re probably right. [Ditmas Park Blog]
neighborhood watch
Feral Cats Displaced in Favor of Waterfront FunBay Ridge: Gotta love this “crazy super,” whose psychotic signs routinely threaten to kill tenants who don’t take out their trash properly. [Right in Bay Ridge]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Elation erupts upon news of an imminent Duane Reade: “No longer will we have to drink Tropical Fantasy ginger ale. We’ll be able to step it up a notch with the effervescence of Schweppes.” [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Greenpoint: A colony of feral cats will have to be displaced as part of plans for a concrete waterfront park here, which will include a twelve-foot view-blocking fence. [Newyorkshitty]
neighborhood watch
The High Line Blogs!Bay Ridge: Hey, who’s dumping the huge piles of plastic spoons in Owl’s Head Park? Will huge piles of Pinkberry follow? [Right in Bay Ridge]
Chelsea: The High Line is blogging and social networking! And it already has 47 fans! [Facebook and High Line Blog]
Gramercy: That big new condo on 23rd Street and Third Avenue won’t be sold chockablock to rich Irish folks after all … looks like it’s gonna be a big fat NYU dorm! [Villager]
neighborhood watch
It’s Raining Cristal! Oh, WaitBay Ridge: The congregation of a pretty 108-year-old stone church here wants it torn down to make room for condos and a smaller house of faith, but preservationists and bloggers are trying to stop them. [RightInBayRidge]
East Village: There’s a super-deluxe penthouse atop the Bowery Hotel for rent for $30,000 a month. And whoever wrote this e-mail pitch apparently thinks it’s okay for would-be renters to “piss Cristal off the balcony.” [Curbed]
Forest Hills: If you want nice local businesses like Laytner’s to survive over skeevy stores, you have to shop local, instead of paying slightly less at the big chains. And here’s the receipt to prove it. [Forest Hills 72]
neighborhood watch
A Cappella, Applebee’s Change the Face of AstoriaAstoria: This blogger doesn’t know which new arrival to the neighborhood is worse: the Broadway chorus-boy gays or the Applebee’s. [Manhattan Offender]
Bay Ridge: They’re gonna move the ugly-ass Gowanus Expressway onto a sleek cable suspension roadway and fill in the old area with emerald parkland! Well, wouldn’t it be pretty to think so. [NYDN
Cobble Hill: A developer wants to build townhouses on the empty land surrounding the pretty old Lamm Building on Amity Street, but locals object because the new houses wouldn’t face the street and leave room for backyards like all the other houses. Tense. [Brownstoner]
neighborhood watch
Multicultural Caroling in Ditmas Park: It’s the New Trick-or-TreatingBay Ridge: With its unsolved crimes and rampant development, is the Ridge what L.A. was like back in the noir-y, true-crime forties and fifties? Seems a little grandiose for us. [Bay Ridge Rover]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Okay, okay, it’s not the richest hood, but couldn’t they put up some holiday decorations? [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Ditmas Park: If you want to carol at the tree-lighting next weekend, you’d better know your Christmas and Hanukkah songs, but you’ll get extra credit if you can bring the Kwanzaa and solstice beats, too. [Ditmas Park Blog]
neighborhood watch
How About Some Gargoyles for Your Halloween?Bay Ridge: If you see lots of nooses tonight, don’t bug out and call Rev. Al. It’s Halloween, people — the night when nooses are exempt from Jim Crow overtones. [Bay Ridge Rover]
Harlem: Did you know that the gargoyles on this old building tell a story about chicken soup? Check them out, ‘cause they’re plenty creepy-lookin’ for the holiday. [The Weblicist]
Hell’s Kitchen: Does the forbidding of a sax player from practicing in his apartment signal the morphing of Manhattan Plaza from an artists’ enclave to a yuppie one? [NYDN]
neighborhood watch
Car Elevators? What Is This, Shanghai?Bay Ridge: If you don’t want a Fedders nightmare going up next to your expensively preserved Victorian around here, you better be careful where in the hood you buy. [Bay Ridge Rover]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Former Essence honcho turned local Victorian innkeeper Monique Greenwood — a.k.a. the doyenne of the “new” Bed-Stuy — was on the Montel show yesterday. Reprazent! [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Chelsea: According to this promo video, couples who move into an upcoming Eleventh Avenue luxury condo will be able to drive their cars in an elevator up to their own garage. But they will not have to be affectionate with each other. [Vanishing New York]
Cobble Hill: Dumbo developer-king Dave Walentas is seeking to crack historic-district rules here with a super-tall building that he claims, uh, will enhance the hood’s historic quality. [Cobble Hill]
East Village: So cranky blogger Chris thinks nohib.com readers are skinflints because none have given to his E.V.-schools drive, eh? A whopping seven people from your own site have given, Chris. You ain’t exactly Sally Struthers on the fund-raising front yourself. [East Village Idiot]
Roosevelt Island: What does the local Toastmaster’s Club toast to? Life on an isle filled with charmless seventies architecture? [Roosevelt Island]
Upper East Side: At $30,000 a month, rentals in the refurbished Plaza may actually be more expensive than booking a room there for four weeks. What the helloise? [Curbed]
neighborhood watch
Trader Joe’s Wants You … to Vaseline Your TeethBay Ridge: They’re saying that Representative. Fossella hasn’t come through on promises to help save a beautiful Methodist church from being razed for condo development. [Queens Crap]
Coney Island: We are increasingly intrigued by Rose, the compellingly coiffed lady who delivers terse morning weather reports on this blog from a tower high atop Coney. Let’s hear more about Rose! [OTBKB]
Dumbo: Looks like yuppies and Farragut Houses residents alike will be rubbing shoulders over toothpaste and T.P. at the “New Pharmacy Coming Soon!” to Gold Street. [Brownstoner]
Forest Hills: If you’re an ambitious, adventurous, values- and people-oriented foodie who smiles easily, then the new Trader Joe’s here wants you! [Forest Hills 72]
Harlem: With HIV infections in the city’s young gay men up a third since 2001, the biggest jump in that group is here and East Harlem. Come on, brothas and papis — and Chelsea boys too, for that matter — rock the cock sock! [NYS]
Long Island City: Sounds like there’s an itty-bitty park planned for that waterfront lot at the end of Vernon Boulevard. Nice. [LICNYC]
Melrose: Who’s going to plunk down $25 mil to buy the fabulously rococo, former Bronx County Courthouse? And what’ll they use it for? [Curbed]
neighborhood watch
They Didn’t Have Google Maps During the Last TornadoBay Ridge: How close were you to the tornado? Check this map to find out. [McBrooklyn]
Coney Island: Astroland rides are off the market, for now. [Bloomberg via Kinetic Carnival]
East Village: St. Mark’s Hotel is still the best one in the city for a cheap quickie. Yikes. [Gridskipper]
Forest Hills: There’s photographic proof that Trader Joe’s is really coming. [Forest Hills 72]
Gowanus: Put down $15 million for a warehouse on Third Avenue now, and just wait for zoning laws to go your way. [Brownstoner]
Riverdale: Will a Starbucks open here, too? [HuntGrunt]
South Slope: The shoddy building at 18-20 Jackson Place finally collapsed! [Gowanus Lounge]
the morning line
Brooklyn Cyclone, Confirmed
• Bay Ridge is cleaning up after, well, a tornado. There’s even a Red Cross shelter set up, with about 30 families in it; more than twenty homes are deemed uninhabitable. [amNY]
in other news
A Brooklyn Cyclone?
To recap: Every subway line was at some point today affected by the rain, and at midday the majority of lines were still in bad shape, according to Sewell Chan at the Times’ City Room blog. Buses were packed, commuters were pissed, and, in a delightful little detail, the MTA’s press office was hugely understaffed because all but one of its employees were stuck trying to get to work. There were major delays at all three airports. Four thousand Con Ed customers lost power. A woman was killed in what the Times is calling a “storm-related car accident” on Staten Island. And, perhaps most fascinating, there may have been a tornado in Bay Ridge. No fun. (But amazing photos.)
Flooding Cripples Subway System [City Room/NYT]
neighborhood watch
Boerum Hill Apartment Papered With WrathBay Ridge: The Duane Reade on Senator Street and Fourth Avenue closed. Please, please replace it with a grocery store. [Bay Ridge Brooklyn]
Boerum Hill: Some new residents on State Street were inundated with love notes from neighbors (or neighbor?) after jackhammering all weekend. [Brownstoner]
Chelsea: In this fairy-tale hood, there aren’t just many wicked queens, but a dragon, too! [BlogChelsea]
Clinton Hill: There’s a giant empty building on Emerson and Park. Apartments in there could be hot. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Gramercy Park: Beware a young new barber who trims beards to the jawline. [Manhattan Offender]
Harlem: It sounds like the bougie intellectual crowd and the pulp-fiction “sista lit” crowds clashed at the book fair this weekend. [HarlemFur]
Lower East Side: Efforts are under way to landmark a big chunk of the neighborhood before tenements are completely supplanted by shiny condos. [SaveTheLowerEastSide]
neighborhood watch
Park Slope Bullies Foreigner Into Changing Business NameBay Ridge: Allowing a Home Depot here will just open a Pandora’s box for other big stores, say opponents. [Brooklyn Eagle via McBrooklyn]
Cobble Hill: Book Court is expanding out back and hopes to bring in booze to attract the young folk. [The Brooklyn Paper]
Dumbo: Unpopular landowner Baruch Singer bought a Bridge Street building and plans to convert it into 53 apartments. [Brownstoner]
Gowanus: When the hard rain falls, move your stuff to high ground. [Gowanus Lounge]
Greenpoint: Beware the MetroCard machine at the Bedford Avenue L stop. There might be a dead rat blocking up the change chute. [Newyorkshitty]
Greenwich Village: Neighbors fear noisy, lengthy MTA construction of an “emergency ventilation plant.” [Blog Chelsea]
Park Slope: Proprietor changes the name of his store from “A.R.E.N.A. Bagels” to “A.R.E.A. Bagels” so customers won’t think he supports Atlantic Yards. [Brooklyn Paper]
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Horseshoe Crabs Invade Washington HeightsBay Ridge: A community board here enthusiastically green-lighted a new Home Depot at 200-plus housing units. [The Brooklyn Paper]
Chelsea: The don’t-walk signal on Eighth Avenue and 19th Street has mysterious stigmata. [Blog Chelsea]
Cobble Hill: Freebird Books and Goods is up for sale on Craigslist; $45,000 will buy you the store with inventory and liquor license. [Brownstoner]
Maspeth: An ugly confrontation took place yesterday between tree-cutters and protesters at the site of the set-for-demolition St. Saviour’s Church. [Queens Crap]
Washington Heights: How did a dead horseshoe crab come to be on 185th Street? [Copyranter]
West Village: Nothing ruins a birthday cruise for 3-year-olds more than spotting a body in the water. [Gothamist]
Williamsburg: Locals are pissed that the brand-new East River State Park closes before 8 p.m. on beautiful summer evenings. [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
Enjoy Increased Public Space, for a Limited TimeBay Ridge: A construction dispute between two neighbors has escalated into an outer-borough version of the Hatfields and McCoys. [Brooklyn Eagle via McBrooklyn]
Carroll Gardens: Get ready for an eight-story building on Smith Street and 2nd Place. [Curbed]
Dumbo: The gritty Pearl Street Triangle will become a charming, Pratt Institute–conceived public plaza … for the summer at least. [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Courier via Streetsblog]
Greenpoint: It takes more than generic Pine-Sol to make this place smell good. [Newyorkshitty]
Long Island City: A branch of Dumbo-based Recycle a Bicycle has come to 5th Street, and locals approve. [LICNYC]
Park Slope: Movie-shooting season makes parking even scarcer. [Gowanus Lounge]
Stuyvesant Town: The true mark of a city cyclist is getting “doored” for the first time. [Tommy Lane’s Web Log]
neighborhood watch
Jay McInerney’s Bright New PenthouseBay Ridge: Residents are bracing for a two-year traffic nightmare as renovation work begins on 86th Street and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. [Brooklyn Paper]
Gowanus: During yesterday’s storm, raw sewage flowed into the canal, which then overflowed, all but literally sending crap into the streets. Quaint! [Gowanus Lounge]
Greenpoint: Living next door to Magic Johnson’s new Green Street condo building is like living next to something that pokes two-foot-by-two-foot holes in your apartment. [Newyorkshitty]
Greenwich Village: Bright lights, big price tag. Jay McInerney and his heiress wife, Anne Hearst, just picked up an East 9th Street penthouse for $3.2 mil. [Curbed]
Harlem: Sunday’s torrential rain created four waterfalls in the 116th Street C-train station, making it more disgusting than usual. [Harlem Fur]
Park Slope: The hood’s perfectionist moms suffer the painful realization that they no longer dress well. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Upper East Side: Not everybody’s happy about the Star Wars–esque entrances planned for the Second Avenue subway. [2nd Avenue Sagas]
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The Decline of West Village Sex ShopsBay Ridge: Sad to say, news of revived ferry service between the hood and Staten Island was simply an April Fools joke. [Bay Ridge Blog]
Clinton Hill: The city will take a noisy church to court for gathering in a building zoned as an art gallery and irritating neighbors for fifteen years. [The Brooklyn Paper]
Dumbo: A reward will be given to anyone who can identify this greedy mom who hoarded far more than her share of eggs at yesterday’s Brooklyn Bridge Park egg hunt. [Brooklyn Record]
Lower East Side: Madonna’s hung up on 179 Ludlow, which she may convert into a three-floor Kabbalah center. [NYO]
Park Slope: A falling glass shard from a decrepit brownstone nearly decapitated a prominent Windsor Terrace preservationist last week. [The Brooklyn Paper]
South Bronx: Will the city pay for parking decks at Yankee Stadium, encouraging more cars to visit this asthma-choked area? [Streetsblog]
West Village: Between the Internet and gentrification, it’s rough times for the area’s sex and fetish shops. [Manhattan Offender]
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Long Island City Still ArrivingBay Ridge: Ferry service between here and Staten Island restored? Or only for April fools? [Bay Ridge Blog]
Coney Island: In full party drag, the Mermaid Parade gang stormed City Hall last week to denounce developer Thor Equities’ imminent Coney redo. [Curbed]
East Village: Area playwright Israel Horowitz isn’t the only one lamenting the likely death of the 13th Street Repertory theater, a fixture since 1972. [NYC Blocks]
Harlem: Will a W Hotel open at Frederick Douglas Boulevard and 124th Street? [Harlem Fur]
Long Island City: The area can rest easy knowing that one of the free subway dailies has decided it has finally “arrived.” [amNY]
Park Slope: Outrage unleashed! Neighbor dis R&A Bike Shop for poor customer service. [Daily Slope]
Upper East Side: Three of the biggest real-estate sales in Manhattan since 2005 were on East 78th between Fifth and Madison, including a $45 mil purchase by Mayor Mike. [The Real Deal]
neighborhood watch
What Do the Fortune-Tellers Know About Bay Ridge?Astoria: Got some genius idea for something fun to do in the waterfront park? Don’t hold your breath for a MacArthur … but apply for one of these mini-grants to bring your brainstorm to life. [Joey in Astoria]
Bay Ridge: Looks like knowing the future really confers the business edge: These days, fortune-tellers are the only storefronts hanging in there. [Brooklyn Paper]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: An entrepreneur’s poll of what new businesses are needed has unleashed a flood of pleas for nice groceries and wi-fi–enabled cafés. What new digs would you like to see in Bed-Stuy? [Brownstoner via Brooklyn Record]
Crown Heights: Gentrification chatter! Everybody’s buzzing that Starbucks and Washington Mutual are poised to supplant fried-chicken joints on gritty Eastern Parkway. [Brooklynian]
Dumbo: Not in my light-industrial backyard! Locals pressure city to landmark the area before old brick is dwarfed by shiny new glass towers. [DumboNYC]
Harlem: Hancock Place Apartments are under construction, and 44 rental units will be for households making at or below 60 percent of the area’s median income. So that’s, at most, $37,680 for a family of four. [Uptown Flavor]
Upper East Side: Pauper literati, get your asses over to that used bookstore on Lex between East 89th and 90th Streets. They’re closing, and last night they had tables groaning with free books! [Upper East Side Informer]
neighborhood watch
Chelsea Hotel Opens Doors to the Dull
Bay Ridge: At least someone is happy about Atlantic Yards. [Bay Ridge Blog]
Chelsea: The doors of the Chelsea Hotel (right) are slowly changing into a boring black. [Hotel Chelsea Blog]
Clinton Hill: Chicken and waffles comes to the neighborhood, but the fries aren’t so good. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Dumbo: Reject the Swedes and shop at BoConcept, the Danish furniture store opening at 79 Front Street on Friday. [Dumbo NYC]
Gowanus: The Empty Vessel Project sells the boat for a buck; new owners want “alternative weddings.” [Gowanus Lounge]
Midtown West: In case you’re new, beat out the Amtrak amateurs at Penn Station by looking for your track listing on the monitors downstairs. [Inside Traveler via NewYorkology]
Williamsburg: Rumor has it that Galapagos might close soon, too. [Brooklyn Vegan]
