A green door with the words "Unlock Me" and "Find the Green Box" has 
It was last seen running towards the bust of William Jay Gaynor. No one was hurt.
The nation's Roman Catholic bishops are urging the GOP-led House to remember how Christian they all said they were back when they were running for office.“Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress,” the Catholic leaders charged. “The fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.”
Actual religious people, as opposed to the politically religious, take issue with the 2012 budget proposal that would cut Maternal and Child Health grants, the Women and Infants and Children Nutrition program, food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare.
Boehner said, “I believe the actions that I’ve taken in my years in Congress uphold the values of my faith.”
Photo by Brainware 3000, Creative Commons license
Proposed Admiral's Row Plaza project, Brooklyn Navy Yard
The second item concerns a zoning amendment of the 4th Avenue Enhanced Commercial District. This would facilitate ground floor retail use along Fourth Avenue for new developments. (More details here.)
Brooklyn Heights residents are going into serious Chinese food withdrawal as the locally-popular Fortune House Chinese restaurant stays mysteriously closed. McBrooklyn first reported on Fortune House's closing -- and legal troubles -- Monday.
Thursday, July 28 is the New York Premiere of Robert Greene’s Fake It So Real at Rooftop Films. The movie will be followed by a live "wrestling battle royale" featuring wrestlers from the film.
Basquiat by Julian Schnabel [rated R] is the featured film at this Thursday's "Syfy Movies With A View" at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Basquiat tells the story of the "meteoric" rise of youthful artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. (More at IMDb.)
Interested in getting a time slot on BCAT TV Network? Want free access to professional studio and field production equipment? Or, are you looking for a course to take this summer that will add to your skill set?
There were cheers, tears and double doses of happiness as BP Marty Markowitz opened Brooklyn Borough Hall for Sunday's first day of legal gay marriages -- and even threw in champagne and wedding cake.
Stacey Minondo and Barbara Tremblay were the first to exchange vows in a moving ceremony inside Borough Hall.
A small but enthusiastic crowd cheered every time a couple came from the Municipal Building clutching a marriage license.
Council Speak Christine Quinn arrived to hugs and applause.
Some couples came out holding their marriage certificates triumphantly, others snuck out shyly. Some came by themselves and others brought bands of supporters wearing matching T-shirts. But everyone was smiling and good vibes were in the air.
Con Edison crews pressed on today through the third day of the heat wave, restoring approximately 58,200 customers out of 68,000 who had lost electric service since Thursday. As of 5 p.m. today, crews were working to restore approximately 9,800 customers (each customer = one meter, which could be a house or an entire apartment building) without power.
Thousands of Brooklynites are in the dark and without air conditioning Friday night/ Saturday morning as power outages spread across Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. In the Con Edison map above from 1 a.m. Saturday, the clustered triangles represent multiple power outages.
An underground high-voltage electrical feeder exploded at roughly 7:15 p.m. last night, in front of 60 Henry Street just off Cranberry Street in Brooklyn Heights. There was a huge blast witnesses said, and smoke shot up through a grate in the street.
FDNY responded immediately (the firehouse is one block away) and blocked the grate off with caution tape.
Bits of black stuff had blown out of the grate, which remained smoking.
Firemen went into the surrounding businesses and asked them about their wiring.
Con Ed showed up after about 20 minutes and took over the situation. A crew worked on the problem through the night.
Because of the fire at the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant Wednesday, untreated wastewater (raw sewage) is being directly discharged into the Hudson River -- roughly 100 million gallons a day.
Looks pretty, almost like grass, but it will literally burn your skin off.
You might think that this map shows the location of every ginkgo tree or Starbucks in the city, but sadly, this is in reality a map of registered sex offenders in our area. (The little white boxes with crosses are parks and playgrounds, the colored boxes are sex offenders.)
An East Williamsburg residence was search by the FBI yesterday as part of a nationwide search for suspected members of the hacker group Anonymous, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.
The moon often appears to be orange when close to the horizon, but last night the moon was bright orange when it was fairly high in the sky.
McBrooklyn joined the thousands of New Yorkers who got out on the water Saturday for the City of Water Day to remember our maritime roots. Our first stop was the Waterfront Museum (aboard the 1914 Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 shown above, left) and the 1907 Tugboat Pegasus, which were docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 6.
The barge is quirky and there's an art show (Creatures of the Deep), so make sure you go on board and ask lots of questions. A family lives in the museum, down in the hold, and though they don't have windows down there they do have wi-fi.
Check out the kinetic sculpture by George Rhoades in front of the painted stage. You have to stare at it for a couple of minutes to see what happens to the balls after they crank up to the top.
Then jump aboard the Pegasus. You can wander all over this old tug. Look at the beautiful old wood interior and engine room.
We would kill for this stove.
There were projects and activities at Pier 6 Saturday for kids and adults. One of the projects was constructing your own fishing gear from recycled bottles. There was a lady who cut up something fishy which went on your hook, then over the side it went. We were terribly afraid we would catch something.
From there we decided to take the ferry to Governors Island, where the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance and its partners were throwing a giant maritime festival.
There were exhibits and activities all over the island. The Army Corps of Engineers set up tanks filled with living creatures that swim in the ocean right off Brooklyn.
These included rays (left) and horseshoe crabs (right), which you might accidentally step on while swimming at Coney Island.
Among the advocacy groups was the Stop Fracking Now organization. Do you know that New York City's drinking water may soon be polluted with toxic chemicals used to squeeze natural gas out of rocks underground?
There were lots of kids activities. Disney gave away toys and books.
There were games for older people too. This one was called "hunter-gatherers."
After a day of wandering around the island we were tired and happy to hop back on the ferry to Pier 6 and home. It was a fun and education day -- and it was all free, including the ferry rides.
They go to Williamsburg, of course.
Who says opera is dead? The beautiful singing at last night's Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital was appreciated by hundreds (thousands?) at Brooklyn Bridge Park (and also folks who gathered along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, some with opera glasses). Tenor Dimitri Pittas completed his set before the rain began.
As Angela Meade, soprano, and Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano, began a lovely duet (with Bradley Moore on piano), drops started to fall and umbrellas opened.
The singers finished a number in spite of the wind which was starting to whip their hair, umbrellas and ground coverings.
The skies opened up and some of the audience started to head for the hills. Production crew speaking into their walkie-talkies: "Turn off the power." "No, leave the power on."
But wait! After just a few minutes the rain tapered off -- and a rainbow stretched across the sky, from the Watchtower to the Hotel St. George.
Most of the audience, soaking wet, wrung out their clothes and came back. The performers reassembled and the show went on.
