Officials Seek Answers After Construction Accident Kills One in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn

Photo by MK Metz

Police, fire and DOB officials gathered at at the site of a hotel going up in Boerum Hill at 61 Bond St. after a construction worker was killed in a work site accident Tuesday afternoon.

A 13-story "lifestyle" hotel is going up at the site, not far from Brooklyn Fare.

 More details here.


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Nude Shakespeare; 'Love Pimpin' Gets Slammed; BBQ'd Eel Thieves; and More Brooklyn Briefs

This morning #Harbor #SCUBA pulled this dog from the waters of Gravesend Bay. If you recognize him, call @NYPD62Pct pic.twitter.com/X149K5XRdJ

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) August 19, 2016

- Female Shakespeare troupe bringing a free, all-nude Tempest to Prospect Park. [Brokelyn]

- Former Thomas Jefferson H.S. basketball star sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting his friend and basketball rival in Sheepshead Bay. [Sheepshead Bites]

- A Brooklyn man known as ‘Love Pimpin’ was sentenced to 30 years Monday for prostituting minors and producing child pornography. [Pix11]

- Man found dead in Bay Parkway home with cuts on neck and arms. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- 108 Wycoff Street isn’t your typical Brooklyn brownstone. It delights people from all over and has become a wall of hope and beauty. [CBS local]

- Three men caught in Brooklyn with $360G worth of -- what else? -- stolen barbecued eels. [Daily News]

- Gross: An X-ray technician was arrested Saturday on suspicion of groping two female patients at Kings County Hospital. [Pix11]

- The “healthy food chain” Honeygrow will be opening its first New York City restaurant on Joralemon St. in Brooklyn Heights. [BHB]

- Jalapa Jar breakfast taco shop opens in the arcade at the St. George Hotel and Clark Street subway 2/3 station Tuesday morning. [Gothamist]


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Atlantic Ave. Sidewalks to Become Pop-Up Apartments and Workshops in NYCxDESIGN

Map data copyright Google.

 The Atlantic Avenue Business Improvement District will host “Design Walk” -- an interactive design experience involving more than 30 businesses -- on Saturday, May 7, from 3 to 8 p.m.

The sidewalks and side streets of Atlantic Avenue will transform into a series of pop-up apartment rooms, workshops and showcases as part of the 4th Annual NYCxDESIGN, New York City’s official celebration of design.

A full list of activities and workshops at “Design Walk” is available here.

Activities include:  Learn home whiskey distilling at the Brazen Head Bar and taste artisanal bourbons and rye from Red Hook distillery Widow Jane; see artists paint delivery trucks at Grumpy Bert; sculpting and painting demonstrations by Clover’s Fine Art Gallery; hear permaculture expert Dwaine Lee at The Commons: bee keeper and green roof expert... and much more.

The action takes place on Atlantic Avenue between Bond and Smith Streets in Boerum Hill. It's free.


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Diane Ravitch Speaks in Brooklyn Heights Tonight, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Grace Chorale will be performing J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio Dec. 18 & 20 in Brooklyn Heights.

- Despite EPA warning him not to, Christopher Swain swam the entire 1.8 mile length of the Gowanus Canal on Saturday. [PMFA]

- Education expert and author Diane Ravitch, 'Reign of Error' author, to speak at Brooklyn Heights Library benefit tonight. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Photos: Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea invade Industry City. [Brownstoner]

- Father of young boy was fatally shot in broad daylight in East New York. [PIX11]

- A man fell between the slats of a subway track up to his chest — and was then struck by an D train on Saturday. [NY Daily News]

- New Boerum Hill townhouse asks $7.5M. [Curbed]

- Spooktacular! Halloween listings for Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Marketing 550 Vanderbilt condos "with deception." [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Mobile food pantry comes to Farragut, Ingersoll and Whitman Houses. [BKReader]

- The history of the "Society to Prevent Disparaging Remarks about Brooklyn." [WNYC]

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Brooklyn Guy's Gun Goes Off at the Waldorf, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Photos: Smallest Penis In Brooklyn contest celebrates micro dongs. [Gothamist]

- Groom’s Brooklyn cousins arrested after one accidentally discharged a gun in his pants pocket at Waldorf Astoria wedding. [Boston News Time]

- "Grass fed tuna salad": A Boerum Hill bodega has created “artisanal prices” for everyday products in response to a steep rent hike that will likely force it to relocate. [BuzzFeed]

- An early morning gunfight on Flatbush Ave. in Prospect Lefferts Gardens Saturday killed Jeffrey Middleton as he sat inside his late-model white Ford Fusion. [Daily News]

- A Brooklyn street was named in honor of slain Detective Wenjian Liu. [CBS]


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3-Year-Old Falls Out 3rd-Story Window; God Proves His Existence; and More Brooklyn Briefs

She let the door hit her on the way out. http://t.co/4gXKQJ4kK9 Accused shoplifter busts face during escape attempt. pic.twitter.com/WoHVBH7Ttg

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 29, 2015

- A 3-year-old girl fell out the window of third-story apartment in Fort Hamilton Wednesday evening. [NBC]

- A last-ditch effort is underway to save a neighborhood institution, Jesse's Deli in Boerum Hill. [NY1]

- A man named God proved his existence in Brooklyn court after Equifax threatened to deny him credit over his divine name. [Daily News]

- Lindsay Lohan finished her Brooklyn community service after working 125 hours. [amNY]

- Brooklyn Heights' Promenade Gardens will be partially displaced for WiFi equipment. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The New York City Zombie Crawl will stagger through McCarren Park on Sunday evening. [Brooklyn Paper]

- Brooklyn mom makes jewelry out of baby teeth. [DNAinfo]

- Bill and Chelsea Clinton’s first appearances on the campaign trail will come at Hillary Clinton’s first formal rally on June 13. [Politico]

- Tracy Morgan settled his lawsuit against Walmart on Wednesday, following fatal car crash that left the actor seriously injured and an associate dead. [Slate]

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Four Indicted for Kidnapping 13-Year-Olds; Brooklyn Is Totally Unaffordable; and More Briefs

- Four people have been named in a 32-count indictment in connection with the 2014 kidnapping of two 13-year-old girls in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Groups from oppressive countries and authoritarian regimes are among the candidates looking to acquire the Brooklyn Nets from a Russian oligarch.  [Sports Illustrated]

- Emotions ran high at a town hall meeting on illegal home conversions, a growing crisis in Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- This map shows you how unaffordable it is to live in NYC. Brooklyn is the worst, of course. [Curbed]

- Pacific Park/Atlantic Yards’ first condo building, 550 Vanderbilt Avenue, will launch sales this summer. Prices will start roughly in the range of $550,000 and go all the way up to around $5,500,000. [Brownstoner]

- Boerum Hill resident Ethan Hawke’s movie “Maggie’s Plan” will be shooting on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights tomorrow and Wednesday, screwing up parking as usual. [BHB]

 - Friggin' inspirational Brooklyn guy. [WYDNKBYANM]

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Court/Smith Street BID, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Photo: MK Metz

 - Court and Smith Street BID in the works; another meeting planned. [PMFA]

- Brooklyn non-profit to convert 285 Schermerhorn St. into a 14-story tower. [WSJ]

- Comptroller Stringer in Brooklyn calls for more interpreters, language help in Housing Courts. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- $2,000 reward for info leading to arrest of gunpoint robbery suspect in Homecrest. [Sheepshead Bites]

- Man found shot to death in Canarsie. [NY Daily News]

- Bill O'Reilly threatens NY Times reporter. [Politico]


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Tolls on East River Bridges, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Invertebrates, St. Ann's School students. Photo: MK Metz

- Barclay's Center is about 63% behind its profit goals. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Move NY plan to charge tolls on East River bridges gets airing in Boerum Hill. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Nothing official, but word is that Brooklyn City Council Member Vincent Gentile is the most likely to get the nod as the Dem candidate in the special election to replace Michael Grimm. [Gotham Gazette]

- Juice Press is coming to Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]

- Billboard in ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood angers many of the locals. [Failed Messiah]

- Brooklyn Heights Association Annual Meeting on Tuesday features music & architecture critic Justin Davidson. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn BP Adams launches Access-Friendly NYC, promoting more accessibility in public buildings across the city. [NY Daily News]

- The NYPD is searching for a woman accused of “handle surfing” cases in Staten Island and Brooklyn. [CBSlocal]

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New Law Will Address Overcrowding in NYC Schools; and a Fun Drinking Game....

Crowd tries to stick to pedestrian lane on Brooklyn Bridge, but there are way too many people to fit.  Photo by MK Metz

- Noise complaints at P.S. 261 in Boerum Hill, and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand visits thee summer camps there. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- MTA cleaner finds bedbugs at her Brooklyn home, 2 days before locker room at her subway station were fumigated for bedbugs. [NY Daily News]

- "The Princess Bride" Drinking Game. Live actors perform cult classics for the audience, who drink when a phrase is mentioned. [Union Hall]

- New law to alleviate school overcrowding in NYC. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- A March for Palestine over the Brooklyn Bridge on Aug. 20, meet in Cadman Plaza Park at 5 p.m. [March]

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The French Storm Brooklyn's Smith Street for Bastille Day 2014

Photos ©2014 MK Metz

Thousands gathered on Smith Street in Brooklyn on Sunday for the 13th annual Bastille Day celebration -- the biggest Bastille celebration in the U.S.

French folk and those who love them crowded the street to drink Pastis, watch the famous petanque tournament, stick their heads in the guillotine, eat French food and party at Bar Tabac, a major sponsor.

French hats and sunglasses are a must!

Just ask this guy . . .

Viva the French! (and sponsor French apéritif co. Ricard)

Smith Street was covered with sand by John Quadrozzi's cement company for the petanque tournament. In petanque, competitors throw metal balls (boules), trying to get close to a little ball called a "pig" (cochonnet).

This year was extra special as a large video screen was set up for spectators to watch the finals of the World Cup between Germany and Argentina.  In extra time, victory for Germany. What a game!

All photos ©2014 MK Metz

 Brooklyn's Bastille Day event was founded 10 years ago by Bette Stoltz along with restaurants Bar Tabac and Robin des Bois (now shuttered), and is sponsored by French apéritif company Ricard.

The actual holiday, which commemorates the storming of the Bastill in 1789, taks place on July 14 but in Brooklyn, it always takes place on Sunday.

Previous posts on this topic:

- Bastille Day in Brooklyn this Sunday: Petanque AND the Final World Cup Game 2014
- The French Get Their Party On in Brooklyn for Bastille Day 2013
- Good Times at Brooklyn's Bastille Day 2012
- 2012 Bastille Day Coming Up
- Bastille Day 2011
- 2011 Bastille Day Coming Up
- Brooklyn's Bastille Day, 2010
- Brooklyn's 2010 Bastille Day Celebration Looking Big 
- Brooklyn Bastille Day 2009 -- Great Day, Big Crowds
- Bastille Day 2009 in Brooklyn  
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn: The French Conquer Smith Street
- Brooklyn's Bastille Day: Smith Street, Sunday 
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn -- La Rue de Smith Sautait!



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Boerum Hill House Tour on Sunday

Photo: BHA

Tickets for the June 1st Boerum Hill House Tour are on sale at these three locations:

- EXIT 9, 127 Smith Street
- STERLING PLACE, 363 Atlantic Avenue
- GUMBO, 493 Atlantic Avenue

The tour of six wonderful homes and two beautiful gardens begins and ends at the Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen Street (near the F train station).

Tours hours are 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm with a reception at the Invisible Dog from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

For more information call 718-625-4073. All funds raised support the work of the BHA.

Tickets are $20 when purchased in advance, $25 on the day of the tour.

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Long Island College Hospital - LICH - Community Forum on Tuesday, March 25 in Brooklyn

 Hear about what has been proposed by six nine different teams bidding to buy Long Island College Hospital (LICH). Four bidders are proposing to operate LICH as a full service hospital.

Summaries of the nine proposals are here.

The forum takes place on Tuesday, March 25 from 6 - 8 p.m. at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights.

The proposals will be scored based on how well they obey the guidelines set down in SUNY's revised RFP. This RFP gives extra points for a full-service hospital, with ER, ICU, affiliation with a teaching hospital, and quick transition, among other things.

The RFP panels -- SUNY's and the people's representatives -- are both turning in their decisions on Wednesday.

Listen to the proposals and see which one you think should be your new hospital operator.

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Woodworking for 30 Years, on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue

Photo: MK Metz

While taking a walk down Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn Monday, we couldn't help but admire the artistry of the piles of handcrafted wooden stuff in the window of Lorenzo Woodworks, 337 Atlantic Ave.

This woodworking shop has been on Atlantic Avenue for 30 years.

When we got home, we remembered that back in 2008, we wrote about one of the most beautiful wooden garbage bins we'd ever seen.  Looking back at that post, we were reminded that commenters told us it was made by Sal, of Lorenzo Woodworks.

If you get a chance, check out the woodcrafts in the shop window.

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Esquire's Wundrich Explains Brooklyn

Smith Street. Photo by MK Metz © 2007

David Wundrich -- Esquire's longtime drinks writer -- captures the essence of the new Brooklyn from the point of view of the Boerum Hill old-timer in his essay, "Regarding This 'Brooklyn' Everyone Keeps Talking About."

In the old days, Wundrich writes, "The pizzeria was run by Albanians, and the Chinese takeout joint on the corner was Muslim and didn't serve pork — in fact its name was No Pork."

The few delis were dirty and poorly stocked. The supermarket smelled strange. The bars were decrepit and forbidding.

But somewhere along the line Alan Harding opened a restaurant, Patois, on Smith Street, and rents started rising. A shabby Chinese takeout joint was made over into Bar Tabac. The hookers and SROs disappeared. The old garage down the block was turned into a showroom for MakerBot.

"Now you can find 'Brooklyn' anyplace in the country — in the world — where a low-rise, run-down old neighborhood has been colonized by the pickle makers and baristas, the craft shoe shiners and the mustachioed young butchers," Wundrich writes.

And while hipster urbanism might be "artificial and even silly," he says, there's something that's a hell of a lot worse:

"You can see it in Manhattan, where over the past twenty years bricks and brownstone have given way to high-rise apartment towers . . . and big-box chain stores have replaced a great number of the quirky businesses that made Manhattan such an interesting place to be."

Read the whole essay here.

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Brooklyn's LICH Is Closing -- UPDATED

Photo: MK Metz

UPDATE: The New York Times, the Post and the Brooklyn Eagle are all reporting that the SUNY Board of Trustees has decided to close Long Island College Hospital -- LICH -- even before Thursday's sham hearing.

Hospital staffers were told late Tuesday.

SUNY's Board of Trustees were scheduled to hold a special hearing on Thursday afternoon regarding the fate of LICH, with a public comment period starting around 3:30 p.m.

The hearing is obviously a sham -- since the decision was made months ago, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association, told the Eagle on Tuesday, “I don’t think anybody’s being fooled,” he said. “It’s a mockery of the public process.”

And that about sums it up.

Past posts:
- Will LICH Be Taken Private? Cuomo's Budget Calls for Brooklyn's First 'For-Profit' Hospital 
- Brooklyn's LICH On the Verge of Closing - Endowment Drained?
- Unexpected: Head of Brooklyn's LICH Stepping Down
- LICH Is Now UHBLICH
- Donald and Mildred: We're Sorry About Losing All Your Money, and the Hospital, Too
- Gov. Paterson Announced LICH /SUNY Deal in Brooklyn Today 
- Insurance Trouble at Brooklyn's LICH 
- Petition to Save LICH
- Sucking Long Island Collage Hospital Dry?
- Long Island College Hospital In Big Trouble

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Buy Southern Brooklyn? BBP Ped Bridge; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- You can pretty much own southern Brooklyn for $124 million. Sheepshead Bites

- Brew-ha-ha over Brooklyn College forum to end Israeli apartheid and the "illegal occupation of Palestine.” Brooklyn Eagle 

- Walkways are installed on the pedestrian bridge to Brooklyn Bridge Park. Brownstoner

- The most expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn is now. . . Boreum Hill!  Brokelyn

- Who voted against Sandy funding? City Limits

- Property taxes too high? Gentile tells you how to beat them back down. Brooklyn Eagle    

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Smith Street at Warren, Then and Now (Brooklyn)

Photo of photo by MK Metz

We saw this photo hanging in the new Potbelly Sandwich Shop at 345 Adams Street in Downtown Brooklyn. This shows Smith Street near Warren Street, looking north. Notice the trolley tracks.

We recognized the old J. Michaels furniture store at 182 Smith on the left. (We used to live on Warren near this corner, back when it was still J. Michaels.)

J. Michaels was founded in 1886, and ended in 1996.

Here's the same view today (courtesy Google Maps). The J. Michaels has been replaced by a Rite Aid. Sadly, the old street lamps have been removed (though they still exist on other blocks on Smith).

Still no trees.

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Standing In the Shadows, on Atlantic Avenue

Mysterious shadowmen seem to emerge from reflected buildings on Atlantic Avenue, at the Bertrand Delacroix Gallery in Brooklyn.

Photo by MK Metz

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Boerum Hill Recreated with LEGOs; Mexican Gangs; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn man stabs mother and brother as 8-year-old sister watches. NY Daily News

- The Walgreens slated to replace the only grocery store in Windsor Terrace says it will dedicate a “significant” amount of space to fresh produce and meat. Brooklyn Paper

- Thank goodness someone finally recreated a scale replica of Boerum Hill using nothing but LEGOs. Apartment Therapy

- Fashion student seeks good Samaritan straphangers who saved her life after she fainted on Brooklyn subway tracks. NY Daily News

- Even more new funky art installed outside BAM yesterday. Brokelyn

- Mexican gangs are on the rise in Brighton Beach. Sheepshead Bites

- Hilarious reviews of a Bic pen apparently designed just for women. Gawker

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