The Sky Is Not Falling (in Carroll Gardens, at Least)Bedford-Stuyvesant: Who’s this mysterious “Michael,” whose handwritten notes left on doorsteps offer to pay for Brooklyn homes in cash? [Brownstoner]
Carroll Gardens: Is the sky falling? Nah, it’s just corrugated steel from a condo conversion crashing down near neighbors’ windows. [Brownstoner]
Chelsea: On the 23rd Street strip that once hosted New York’s flagship Krispy Kreme, the newish Burgers & Cupcakes – complete with giant, spinning cupcake – draws mixed nabe reviews. [Chelsea.ClickYourBlock via BlogChelsea]
Chelsea: Will landmark 1971 Knox Martin mural “Venus” be eclipsed by sleek new Jean Nouvel condo tower? [Curbed]
Clinton Hill: Is Pratt planning to destroy these beautiful, boarded-up townhouses on Willoughby Street? [Clinton Hill Blog]
Prospect Heights: With stakes raised by Sunday Times coverage, the backlash against the street art–defacing “Splasher” intensifies. [Englishman in New York]
Red Hook: There are good places to eat in a nabe that’s “not just for crackheads anymore.” [Chow via Brooklyn Record]
neighborhood watch
Chelsea Hotel Basement Gets SnobbierChelsea: Serena’s out and Star Lounge is in underneath the Chelsea Hotel. Owner Charles Ferri promises a more “elitist crowd.” Sounds fun! [NYP]
Fort Greene: Liquors restaurant isn’t reopening in the spring, or ever. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Midtown East: On a date but haven’t sealed the deal? Wow her with a late-night trip to the Empire State Building. [NewYorkology]
Prospect Heights: Warm weather rouses mosquitoes. Do they spray for West Nile Virus in January? [Brooklynian via DailyHeights]
Soho: Donald Trump will love the new Department of Sanitation garage on Spring Street and West Street. [Curbed]
Williamsburg: The new, unnamed space on North 6th Street and Wythe will have a media lounge in the storefront and a performance space out back. [Brooklyn Record]
neighborhood watch
Are the Writers Leaving Brooklyn?The Bronx: It’s about time for a Web video series about bodegas. [The Daily Reel via Gothamist]
Carroll Gardens: Renaissance Pharmacy closed over the weekend, leaving you with few options that don’t rhyme with CVS. [Brooklyn Record]
Fort Greene: Take your Christmas tree to Fort Greene Park this week and go home with a bag of mulch. (BYO bag.) [Clinton Hill Blog]
Gowanus: Wannabe scared off by a few toxic fumes. Bah! [Gowanus Lounge]
Park Slope: The Rushkoffs are leaving? Will the Jonathans flee the neighborhood next? [A Girl Grows in Brooklyn via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Prospect Heights: What’s the best way to get home from JFK? It might just be the Air Train. [Brooklynian via Daily Heights]
neighborhood watch
Act Like a Third-Grader in Prospect Heights, on UESLong Island City: Use this photo map to see what the area looks like without actually having to ride the 7 Train. [LICNYC via Gothamist]
Manhattan: Appeal to your inner agoraphobic in 2007 and observe the city with these 50 Webcams. [NewYorkology]
Park Slope: We’re the fourth-best eco-neighborhood in the country. Take that, Chicago. [Natural Home magazine via Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Prospect Heights: Brooklyn Heights can have bocce. After all, we have dioramas! [Brooklyn Record]
Upper East Side: Prospect Heights isn’t regressing far enough. We’ve upped the stakes with dodgeball. [Upper East Side Informer]
Williamsburg: Celebrate the new year by falling into a sinkhole on North 11th Street. [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
Toxic Plume Gets Uppity, Moves to Park SlopeBrooklyn Heights: Within a year, there will be clear signage for the Brooklyn Bridge footpath. [Brooklyn Papers]
Clinton Hill: Does actor Daniel London actually live here, or are we just spreading rumors? [Clinton Hill Blog]
Fort Greene: Neighborhood caroling tonight! [Brooklyn Record]
Gowanus: The toxic plume that started here is now gentrifying Park Slope. [Brooklyn Papers]
Prospect Heights: Bruce Ratner is watching you with 29 CCTV cameras. [Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn]
neighborhood watch
What to Tip in Prospect HeightsBrooklyn Heights: A pedestrian was killed this morning on Henry Street near Montague. [Brooklyn Record]
Clinton Hill: This holiday season, help Todd Lester save an endangered artist. [ClintonHillBlog]
Greenpoint: If you start thanking government officials for efficient service, Marty Markowitz may call your house. So be careful. [New York Shitty]
Prospect Heights: Tip your cabbie at least $3 if coming home from Manhattan. [Daily Heights]
Prospect Lefferts Garden: According to CompStat, this place isn’t nearly as deadly as Brooklyn blog readers seem to think it is. [Across the Park]
Upper East Side: What’s the best sports bar for the football novice? [The Upper East Side Scene]
neighborhood watch
NYU Tuition Funds Mice InfestationDumbo: Biking across the bridge is like pedaling through a field of wildflowers. With ice at the bottom. [Razor Apple]
Clinton Hill: Brand new townhouses ditch stoops for Rocky steps. [Brownstoner]
Prospect Heights: Is the neighborhood so hot that houses are suddenly appearing on the market without the owner’s knowledge? [Daily Heights via Brooklynian]
Staten Island: A walk through Richmond Terrace, from the ferry to the bar. [Forgotten-NY]
West Village: NYU students learn to live like real New Yorkers, with mice. [Washington Square News]
neighborhood watch
Relaxing, Fighting Fires in the South Bronx• Brooklyn Heights: Other community theaters do Fiddler on the Roof; this one gets all uppity with Into the Woods. [A Brooklyn Life]
• Morrisania: A century ago, South Bronx firefighters had it easy. [Brooklyn Ramblings]
• Prospect Heights: City takes steps to prevent tenants from moving into Robert Scarano’s crappy buildings. [Brooklyn Papers]
• Sunset Park: Mom from Park Slope beat neighborhood roosters, no question. [Sunset Parker]
• Upper West Side: What’s the point of living here if you don’t enjoy the CNN-obstructed view? [CitySpecific]
neighborhood watch
Park Slopers Denied Self-Righteous Place in American HistoryEast Village: If real-estate agents can make up neighborhood names like BoCoCa, how about Manwood? [East Village Idiot]
Park Slope: The Atlantic listed the 100 most influential Americans, and not one of them represented the Greater Park Slope Community. Outrageous. [Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn]
Prospect Heights: Residents get antsy about the type of people who will move into Richard Meier’s One Prospect Park Tower now that it’s listed with Corcoran. [Daily Heights]
Red Hook: People stuck in the past want to preserve Civil War history instead of letting Ikea pave a parking lot over it. [The Real Estate/NYO]
Staten Island: Happy 42nd Birthday, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge! You make getting off this island so much easier. [Sunset Parker]
Times Square: There are only a few shopping days left to taunt David Blaine. Hurry. [Gothamist]
neighborhood watch
Gowanus Whole Foods Renders Manhattan Irrelevant• Ellis Island: Creepy photos of busted old hospital make you happy to enter the country through JFK. [NewYorkology]
• Gowanus: Whole Foods broke ground yesterday. As of spring 2008, you’ll never have to go to Manhattan again. [Gowanus Lounge]
• Long Island City: With a $22 million redevelopment infusion, Queens Plaza will be a much more attractive place for strip clubs and recently released Rikers inmates. [Queens Tribune]
• Prospect Heights: In the sixties, rent was less than $150 a month and the smokes were 28 cents a pack. [Brooklynian via Daily Heights]
• Tribeca: 92nd Street Y heads downtown, perhaps backed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. [Downtown Express]
neighborhood watch
Mail, Dates Tough to Get in Brooklyn• East Village: Landlord sues tenants for not letting loud, dust-covered construction workers tromp through his apartment and build an overpriced penthouse. [amNY]
• Fort Greene: We must all sacrifice imported dates in this time of war. [Brooklyn Record]
• Hunts Point: Why go to Rikers when you can go to your neighborhood jail? [NYDN]
• Ozone Park: Plan to make Aqueduct Racetrack even more depressing is deterred by the delay of video slot machines. [amNY]
• Prospect Heights: The substitute mail carrier won’t even ring once. [Brooklynian via Daily Heights]
• Upper East Side: A New York City public high school gets its act together, so it must be time to relocate. [Gotham Gazette]
• Upper East Side: Woody Allen doesn’t have any problems with performances spaces; he’d just prefer that they not be in his neighborhood. [NYS]
neighborhood watch
Williamsburg’s Spawn Indoctrinated EarlyBoerum Hill: For those keeping score at home, that’s 583 car crashes on Atlantic Avenue between Flatbush Avenue and the river since January 2005. [Brooklyn Record]
East Village: East Village blogger Jim returns from Scranton to find his neighbors filching his online style. [Neither More Nor Less]
Prospect Heights: If a 95-year-old bakery can’t get landmark status, none of us can. [Brooklyn Papers]
Soho: Following the close of disreputable bar, the Falls, the space is reincarnated as an Indian restaurant. Better luck to Midnight Cafe II. [Villager]
UWS: Metropolitan Montessori School saves energy by switching over to wind power. No word on whether this will make annual tuition dip to $20,000. [NAW via Metadish]
Williamsburg: Beatles covers for your own little hipster-in-training. Yikes. [Willy Bees]
neighborhood watch
Carroll Gardeners Fight the Good FightCarroll Gardens: Volunteers MoveOn into vacant Carroll Gardens apartment, using it to call voters round the country. [Brooklyn Papers]
Kensington: City drags its feet in building playground, kids sad. [NYDN]
Lower East Side: Cronkite Pizzeria and Wine Bar helps hipsters indulge their inner child and their repressed adult by serving up cotton candy and affordable wine. [Gothamist]
Park Slope: Sharing is caring, and drivers and bikers will soon be splitting Fifth Avenue. [Streets Blog]
Prospect Heights: From ghetto to glorious: New bodega management patches hole in wall and actually stocks what its customers want, which is beer and cigarettes. [Daily Heights]
West Village: Ye Waverly Inn reopens, with better lighting and a new mural but sadly, when these photos were taken, no Graydon. [Eater]
Williamsburg: Breast-feeding has come to the ‘Burg, and the nabe’s okay with it. But not quite as okay as lactating moms would like. [Brooklyn Record]
neighborhood watch
It’s Not Easy Being GreenLower East Side: Developers may mow over the “Children’s Magical Garden” at Norfolk and Stanton Streets. [The Villager]
Park Slope: You can now get ticketed for having a leafy street. [Daily Slope]
Ditmas Park: Lefty java joint Vox Pop to turn chain? [Brooklyn Papers]
Greenwich Village: Why are there so many empty storefronts on Thompson Street? Because the landlord is an ass, naturally. [Curbed]
Prospect Heights: Does a shiny new JCC mark the completion of gentrification? [Brooklynian]
Dyker Heights: By next year, city kids will be teeing off at the first junior golf center in the nation. [NY1]