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.
Someone Is Spending a Lot of Time Thinking About Stuyvesant TownIt’s Freaky Friday! What better day for a crazy Caribbean lady in Forest Hills, a goat-slaughtering market in St. Albans, and a $200,000 game-show win for a guy from Westerleigh? (That’s on Staten Island, people.)
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The Long Arm of the Law Even Reaches Into Subway BathroomsGetting all colonial in Union Square, watching crabs rut in Marine Park, letting go of fancy F-train plans in the Slope, and busting the gays in Forest Hills. All that and more in our week’s-end boroughs report.
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That Amazing House From ‘Moonstruck’ Is Still Up for Grabs, Only Now It’s Cheaper!Brooklyn Heights: The sale price of the Cranberry Street house where they filmed Moonstruck has dropped from $5 million to $3.95 million since early 2006. That’s still très Cher! [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Coney Island: Astroland opens Sunday … possibly, for the second year in a row now, for its last season before major Coney development begins. [amNY]
East New York: It’s “the new Harlem,” did you know that? So if you’re bitter you didn’t buy uptown twenty years ago, you’ll want to buy here, where cribs are going for up to $300,000. [NYDN]
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Battle Over Randalls Island Playing Fields Wages OnBedford-Stuyvesant: Here’s an arty do-it-yourself interpretation of the glassy standard bus shelter that’s taking over the city. No surprise this is for the bus that goes to Williamsburg, where all those arty DIY kids live! [Bed-Stuy Banana]
East Harlem: Locals are still waging a legal battle against the city’s plan to take $52 million over twenty years from top private schools like Dalton and Spence in exchange for the schools’ use of most of the Randalls Island athletic fields during peak after-school hours. [Newsday]
Forest Hills: Sure, that mini-mall on Austin Street is pretty hideous-looking, but it still has a Thai restaurant, a Greek restaurant, a creperie, a skater shop, and a comic-book emporium, so let’s stop complaining about its ugliness and count our blessings! [Queens Central]
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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]
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‘Heeb’ Parts River, Crosses to DumboBedford-Stuyvesant: On her recent Bed-Stuy cable show, the hood’s buppie doyenne (and former Essence editrix) Monique Greenwood kept calling the Brownstoner blog “Brownstone.” Like that nineties En Vogue ripoff group! [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Dumbo: Heeb magazine moves here from Soho, perhaps launching an influx of snarky hipster Jews into the hood. If they’re not already here. [DumboNYC]
Forest Hills: According to this blogger, the rudest people around here are the white, non-immigrant ones. [Forest Hills 72]
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Okay, Now Who Leaves a Kitten on a Rooftop?Brooklyn Heights: Rumors are burbling that the hood’s symphonically hyped “Subway Cyrano” saga — where a guy reconnected with his subway crush after searching for her via an online vid — is a Lonelygirl-type hoax. Wouldn’t that be sad? [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
East Village: Sure, two low-paid young’uns can share a $3,000 Stuy Town one-bedroom. If they bring along their $1,000 pressurized wall. [Hunt Grunt]
Flatbush: Several cats have been abandoned on a rooftop! And they’re scared and hungry! [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
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Bella the Cat Has a New LifeBrooklyn Heights: Bella the Cat, who charmed passersby on the Brooklyn Bridge footpath in Cadman Plaza Park, is alive and well and living in bourgeois comfort in a home on Pineapple Street. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Residents of the Chelsea Hotel swear they saw blood-sucking ghouls in the lobby last night: the hotel’s new corporate management. [Living with Legends]
Clinton Hill: Pratt has taken over the Kentucky Fried Chicken spot! Less wings, more wingnuts. [Clinton Hill Blog]
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Trader Joe’s Saves Forest Hills From Checkout RageCarroll Gardens: Opponents of overdevelopment here now have their own funky mural, which directs people to this online petition. [Queens Crap]
Dumbo: These Czech marionettes performing Hamlet at Jane’s Carousel through November are seriously creepy. [DumboNYC]
Forest Hills: Customers at the cheery new Trader Joe’s here are grateful not to have to deal with “a rude gum-smacking Key Food cashier eating a bag of barbecue potato chips as she’s taking cell phone calls.” [Forest Hills 72]
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Target! Must You Brand Everything?Bedford-Stuyvesant: It’s nice that Target funded the beautiful redesign of this community garden … but obnoxious that they put all those big red dots up in there. [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Dumbo: Sorry we didn’t notice this the other day, but are they building a little penthouse atop the iconic clock tower of One Main Street? [Brownstoner]
Forest Hills: Did you guys know that the hood apparently has a really cool, retro Adidas sneaker named after it? These are probably sooo what the homies were wearing in the Summer of Sam. [Overstock via Forest Hills 72]
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Architecture Has Gotten Too ‘Fun’ in ChelseaChelsea: When they put that “decorative” rail around that “edgy” new glass box on 18th and Eighth (RIP the restaurant), they probably didn’t expect dozens of hip-hoppy schoolkids to hang on it all afternoon. Hee-hee. [Vanishing New York]
Forest Hills: The hood might be losing newcomers to hipper zones like Fort Greene. And all because the cribs here look like grandma-type places. And not even cool Golden Girls–type grandmas. [Forest Hills 72]
Jamaica: Should the Macy’s turned Colosseum Mall here, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merril in 1947, be considered a mid-century-modern gem? [Brooklyn Rail]
Park Slope: Just when you thought the Slope’s collective ego couldn’t get any bigger, one of its own — painter Joan Snyder — has to go and win the half-mil MacArthur Genius Award. Great. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Roosevelt Island: The marriage of real estate and money has become a permanent fixture here … the sculpture exhibit, that is! [Roosevelt Islander]
Upper East Side: New evidence finds that if you are a (presumably straight) guy walking around this hood with a popped pink Izod collar, you are very likely a douche bag. [78thand2nd]
Upper West Side: Does Queens council member (and dulcet-toned sometime vocalist) Melinda Katz care more about preserving the UWS’ character and scale than hoods in her own borough? [Queens Crap]
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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]
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The Gays Have Found Forest Hills — or Maybe NotBoerum Hill: Prudential Douglas Elliman is pissed at bloggers who write about how their Brooklyn properties won’t sell. Good, because we’re pissed at all brokers for taking our money and only showing us “studios with a nook.” [Brownstoner]
Chelsea: All that construction at the General Theological Seminary on Tenth Avenue is for a “Geothermic Well Field.” Great Scott! [Blog Chelsea]
Forest Hills: Gays in the Hills! “Or maybe more straight guys are wearing Abcrombie [sic] andFitch t-shirts and walking tiny dogs with their male friends.” [Forest Hills 72]
Lower Manhattan: Curbed has hot pics (literally) of the destruction of a T.G.I. Friday’s downtown, to make way for the Fulton Street Transit Center. TGIF indeed! [Curbed]
Union Square: If you need $100 a month, why not let this Internet wunderkind hang out in your apartment sometimes? [Zach Klein]
West Village: Gothamist gathers all the info on one of our New York real-estate obsessions, the Northern Dispensary Building. [Gothamist]
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‘If These Walls Could Talk, They’d Probably Be Screaming’Bronx: A city inspector went to the basement of 1912 Holland Avenue to check on a hot-water heater, but he ended up contacting the police because he found a crazy laboratory, complete with vials of acid, and preserved bones and organs. As one resident said, “If these walls could talk, they’d probably be screaming.” [Gothamist]
Cobble Hill: A planned new building next to the incoming Brooklyn Trader Joe’s has caused a kerfuffle – developers want to build higher than zoning permits, but Borough president Marty Markowitz doesn’t want to set a bad precedent. Mm. We’re not sure “kerfuffle” is the word he’d use. [Brownstoner]
Downtown Brooklyn: The city has decided to use its powers of eminent domain to seize 21 downtown Brooklyn lots that are said to have been a part of the Underground Railroad. Oh, and the city is also about to spend $2 million to commemorate abolitionist activity in the area. [McBrooklyn]
Forest Hills: A planned shopping center in the hood hasn’t received approval, despite signage to the contrary. The suspicious civic association, naturally, have their caftans in a twist. [Forest Hills 72]
Soho: A giant, boxers-clad poster of Michelangelo’s David dominates Lafayette, trying to get you to donate sperm. Because, you know, Lafayette has the best daddies. [Copyranter]
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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]
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Queens Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry for Being a YuppieAstoria: Locals find it odd (and oddly brave) that Queens wannabes aren’t afraid to call themselves yuppies. [Astorians]
Brooklyn Heights: Look for a new floating swimming pool to show up between Piers 4 and 5 near Joralemon and Furman Streets over July 4 weekend. [NewYorkology]
Bushwick: The Bodega Wars: coming to a Brooklyn neighborhood near you. [BushwickBK]
Downtown Brooklyn: Plans to reopen, supersize, and add retail space to a shuttered detention house are getting slammed. [Brooklyn Eagle via McBrooklyn]
Forest Hills: Who’d have thought that this un-hip hood’s simply getting a Trader Joe’s would be enough to elicit sour grapes from Brooklynites? [Forest Hills 72]
Fort Greene: Thanks to pressure from a neighborhood Website, Zipcar is finally here! [Clinton Hill Blog ]
Harlem: Up here, you can buy the bootleg version of everything premium … including Magnum condoms. [Uptown Flavor]
Upper East Side: An elegant dinner party right in the cracker aisle in the city’s classiest Korean market. [Upper East Side Informer]
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Standing Up for Double-Parking Rights in the SlopeBoerum Hill: Neglected Thomas Green Park could become a $4 million skate park. [Brooklyn Paper]
Forest Hills: There’s a stop-work order on the demolition of a historic 72nd Avenue townhouse, but will the developer behind the demo honor it? [Forest Hills 72]
Harlem: A cute black and white Chihuahua named Bugzy has gone missing. Have you seen the adorable uptown critter? [Harlem Fur]
Park Slope: The 9th Street bike-lane opponents fear they’ll lose their ability to double park. [I’m Seeing Green]
Times Square: Even with guns, drugs, and hookers freely traded there, the Aladdin Hotel is still not the worst-ranked inn in the city. [NewYorkology]
Williamsburg: It came in the night. The long-dreaded pile driver for massive Billyburg condo devo the Edge, that is, heralding a massive project that will deprive locals of their waterfront view. [i’m not sayin’, i’m just saying’]
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Hey Ho, Let’s Go … to Forest Hills This 853-square-foot co-op on 67th Road in Forest Hills (hometown of the Ramones) used to be listed for $20,000 more. But after only a few weeks on the market, the asking price has been hacked down to $259,000, according to Streeteasy.com. It sounds like the owners are motivated, which could mean even more wiggle room for you. All the crucial renovations kitchen and bath have been taken care of, and the unit comes with storage that rents for just $47 a month. (There’s parking, but you’ll have to get on a wait list to nab a spot.) At $410, the monthly maintenance is low, too. S. Jhoanna Robledo
