That music, laughing and applause you heard in Cadman Plaza Park Saturday afternoon? It was the nonprofit organization iMentor holding its end-of-year 2009 picnic for mentors.
Music and food, T-shirt making (above), games in the sunshine and superhero cutouts (below) were some of the day's activities.
iMentor connects 1,000 high school kids with volunteer adult mentors every year.
You can probably tell by now that we've been going through our never-ending mail bag this weekend. Here's another one:
Seen at one of the carni trucks at the Lebanese Food Festival in Brooklyn Heights this past weekend.
RSVP to Dori Zofan at 212-983-4800 x140, waabrsvp@gmail.com, or visit We Are All Brooklyn at www.waab.org
Alan Lupiani, a multi-media artist who has been involved with LIVE!! internet talk shows since 2006, will be making a jump to the stage at Galapagos Art Space in Dumbo with his new show “Into the Evening" with Alan Lupiani.
Great food, carnival games and bouncy rides at the Lebanese Food Festival this Saturday and Sunday on Remsen Street between Henry and Clinton in Brooklyn Heights.
- A Brooklyn couple will be the first to be married in zero-gravity. Their rings are made from a meteorite, and her dress was crafted by Japanese designer Eri Matsui specifically for zero-g's. Brooklyn Eagle
There's a reason it's called One Brooklyn Bridge Park -- and that little earth mover on top of the hill of dirt behind the yellow container is constructing the park as we speak.
Three condo units at 17 Bergen Street in Boerum Hill (the former home of the Paramount Print Company) are for sale, and the prices have come down a bit since they went on the market in April, 2008.
Zipcar just announced that they now have a couple of vehicles parked in the garage at One Brooklyn Bridge Park, on the waterfront at Joralemon and Furman Street (the tan colored marker above).
The big sign saying "We're Giving Away Free Housing" certainly caught our eye, and the eye of others passing by 100 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. The sign is in the window of the Educational Housing Service dormitories in the St. George. EHS, which operates seven different buildings throughout New York, has been giving away dorm rooms this summer (including free telephone, Internet, cable and gym) as a promotion.
Fulton Ferry Landing -- near Barge Music, the Ice Cream Factory and the Future Home of Brooklyn Bridge Park -- is rife with tour buses nowadays.
Watch your step walking to the waterfront. The buses swing left at the end of Old Fulton Street, where they park along Furman Street for a while before wending their way onward.
A "Big Buford" -- that's a Grand Opening special advertised in the window at Downtown Brooklyn's soon-to-open Checkers on Court Street (ex-home of the notorious Busy Chef).
The Checkers website defines a Big Buford as "two juicy, all-beef patties and two slices of American cheese on a toasted bun. It’s loaded with mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, onions, crisp lettuce, tomatoes and mustard." It's got 570 calories and 1090 mg of sodium. Yum.
The famous inflated rat, symbol of the scorn that unions heap upon contractors using nonunion workers, was being deflated this morning in front of the Brooklyn Marriott.
This sign hangs in front of a doctor's office on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights.
From time to time, McBrooklyn puts on its Headhunting gear and scouts out a handful of Brooklyn employment opportunities.
A teenager was struck by a motorcycle this morning on Adams Street while trying to cross the street just north of Joralemon.
Why isn't the city taking this carnage seriously? According to statistics compiled by Transportation Alternatives (CrashStat), there were more than 46 crashes with injuries or death at this intersection between 1995 and 2005 and 11 at the adjoining intersection of Adams and Willoughby streets.
A Brooklyn Heights' woman was killed in April, about 15 feet away from today's accident. This is less than a block away from where Judge Bookson was struck and killed, and two blocks away from another deadly intersection, Adams and Tillary Streets. Teacher Ron Mortensen was killed at this intersection in April 2007.-Traffic Changes Saturday at Dangerous Downtown Brooklyn Intersection
- Remembering the Dead at a Dangerous Brooklyn Intersection -- Tillary and Adams Street
- Another Accident at Tillary and Adams Streets
- DOT traffic cam at the intersection of Adams and Tillary streets.
This is the first time we've actually seen a car here in Brooklyn getting booted. Technically called a Denver Boot, these wheel clamps are usually installed on cars belonging to ticket scofflaws. This car, parked on Cadman Plaza East just north of Cadman Plaza Park, had Connecticut plates.
The City Council's Land Use hearing on the contentious Dock Street project takes place this Thursday, and those both for and against the idea of a large development (shown above) very near the Brooklyn Bridge are loading their cannons.
Parents at P.S. 255 in Sheepshead Bay want the city to shut down the school because of rampant absences, reports the Brooklyn Eagle.
On April 28, we published an article called Tracking Swine Flu Cases, where we listed several ways of tracking the spread of the H1N1 epidemic, including the Google mashup map shown above. (Pink markers are suspect. Purple markers are confirmed or probable. )
As of Monday, May 18, there were 6095 suspected and confirmed cases in the U.S., with about 53 in Brooklyn. (This doesn't include the hundreds of kids staying home sick in Brooklyn and Queens with a variety of flu-related symptoms.)
People interested in a modern, sustainable version of communal living may be interested in attending tomorrow's meeting about a new project planned by Brooklyn Cohousing. 
The swine flu pandemic is our worry de jour, but in 1887, it was smallpox. The Feb. 25, 1887 New York Times lists recent cases of smallpox deaths, including three members of the family of William Coakley, who lived at 187 State Street in Downtown Brooklyn, shown above.
At one point the Flatbush Hospital -- said to be "filthy," "wretched" and disgraceful" -- was called the Flatbush Smallpox Hospital.
Maybe you came to observe the parking meters wrapped in woolen cozies, but you stayed to admire the rainbow effect created from ladies' blouses at Ann Taylor Loft.
What eerie happenstance! Espied from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, it seems Great Birnam Wood has marched upon the future home of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The New York Photo Festival is back in Dumbo this weekend. Photos are being exhibited all over the neighborhood -- St. Ann's Warehouse, Tobacco Warehouse, Smack Mellon, powerHouse Arena, Dumbo Arts Center, and more (map here).This year, a Portfolio Review at powerHouse is for all levels of "aspiring and professional photographers."
Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.
Perfect weather Saturday for the Paddlewheeler festival at P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights. Spin art, bouncy rides, face painting and cotton candy made the day a hit for the younger generation.
We have to jump on the bandwagon and post a couple of photos of the Montague Street parking meters lovingly covered with hand-knitted cozies.
Some of them don't all get the respect they deserve.
This dog can't come in, but he keeps his eye on his young master at Pierrepont Playground in Brooklyn Heights.
What is it with the The Best Western Gregory Hotel in Bay Ridge?
It's sea monster time again -- specifically, it's that time of year when the bloated, corroded corpse of a "Montauk Monster" comes washing up on shore somewhere in Long Island and we bloggers have a field day speculating on what top secret government lab is producing these creatures from hell.
This new Crystal Gallery has popped up at 395 Atlantic Avenue near Bond Street in Boerum Hill. According to the signs, you can get your cards read, your aura charted, your chakras unplugged or your crystals tuned at the shop. There's a "special reading" for $5.
The new Concord Market in Downtown Brooklyn (on Tillary Street at Jay in Concord Village) sounds like it's going to be a huge improvement over the Associated supermarket that used to occupy the space. (The photo to the left is the old Associated, still hanging around on Google Maps but no longer with us.)
It's a tougher, meaner look for a tougher, meaner world.
While crowds thronged to Bklyn Designs this past weekend, what passes for normal in Dumbo continued outside the boundaries of St. Ann's Warehouse.
Around the corner closer to Front Street, people against the Two Trees Dock Street project ("a super-size development situated too close to the Brooklyn Bridge") engaged in a postcard writing campaign. The final step in the ULURP process for Dock Street DUMBO is upcoming this month with hearings at City Council May 21st, 10 a.m., at City Hall.
The Brooklyn Flea was packed. We never found the hidden three-panel cowhide and leather satchel, which we really wanted, but we did get some great fried bananas at the Red Hook Vendors stand.
These bible guys had a table parked down near the entrance to the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. Their sign asked the question: "Who really rules the world?" The only answers allowed were: A. God; B. Jesus; C. Satan; D. Man.
