East Flatbush Shooting; 250 lbs. of Magic Mushrooms; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Sunshine Laundromat knows what's up. #Greenpoint #brooklyn pic.twitter.com/bXK8WBTVAd

— Zora O'Neill (@zora) December 19, 2016

Meanwhile, at the Sunshine Laundromat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn...

- A 19-year-old man was fatally shot in the back just down the block from his East Flatbush home Sunday afternoon. [Daily News]

- Some Dyker Heights residents say the Christmas lights and crowds are getting to be a bit much.  [SF Chronicle]

- Video has surfaced of two good Samaritans saving a woman who was being attacked in Midwood Sunday evening. [PIX11]

- Authorities seized more than 250 pounds of psychedelic mushrooms during a raid on two homes in Sheepshead Bay. [NY1]

- BMW’s ReachNow service suspended in Brooklyn shortly after launching. [Geekwire]

- Donald Trump appeared poised to sew up his victory Monday despite opposition groups’ efforts to sway the Electoral College. [WSJ]

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Parking Solution for Over-the-Top Christmas Lights in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn?

Annual Dyker Heights light displays bring holiday cheer: https://t.co/RjmvToDiOS pic.twitter.com/VpUmBK0t9l

— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) December 3, 2016

It's holiday season again in Dyker Heights. The annual Christmas display, which gets more elaborate every year, is said to draw more than 100,000 visitors to Brooklyn from across the country.

This charming event draws so many tour buses, however, that police recently revoked parking privileges for locals along 86th Street between 11th and 13th Avenues from 5 p.m. to midnight. This drew quite an outcry from residents.

Now, according to Bensonhurst Bean, NYPD Brooklyn South Chief Steven Powers has decided to revise the controversial plan, and reserve only three bus lengths along 86th Street for buses.

A reasonable solution?

Dyker Heights Christmas Lights 🎄#christmaslights @yourtake @NYCDailyPics @nycfeelings @nyc pic.twitter.com/9Ocz68ze25

— Mickey (@MickmickNYC) December 2, 2016

How to get to Dyker Heights and tips for your trip.

Sam the Greek's house, nicknamed the "Las Vegas of Brooklyn," is one of the highlights of @BKNYbus_tours Dyker Heights tour! #inbrooklyn pic.twitter.com/CB2mbflflM

— NYC & Company (@nycgo_press) December 2, 2016

The creativity is amazing.

#dykerheights #christmaslights #dykerlights pic.twitter.com/oYvBZcADYN

— Josie (@juzifin29) December 4, 2016

Ground zero for Christmas lights in Dyker Heights is between 81st and 83rd streets and 11 and 13 avenues. Commenters on Yelp say try to walk it if you can for the best experience.

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Pier 6 Developer Tries to Pressure State; DUMBO Apocalypse; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Here's your chance to stroll around DUMBO armed to the teeth, in the middle of an apocalypse. [DumboNYC]

- How de Blasio sold out to an affordable housing trade group, why their business is booming and why many of the units of the "low income" housing the City Council just voted for will be too expensive for current residents of rezoned neighborhoods. [Gothamist]

- Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 6 developer says financing could fall through if state doesn’t OK plan soon. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- A Brooklyn traffic agent is accused of posing as a police officer to force prostitutes into providing free sexual services. [Patch]

- Bring your own containers: Prospect Heights resident Sarah Metz has set out to start an eco-friendly supermarket, to be known as The Fillery. [Brownstoner]

-  The insurance agent who admitted to ripping off seniors at his Dyker Heights office jumped off the 69th Street Pier. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- Brooklyn Heights author Helen Simonson discusses her long-awaited second novel, “The Summer Before the War.”  [Brooklyn Eagle]

- 'Saucy' DUMBO moving company ads rile religious Jews in Brooklyn. [Jewish Voice]

- Comedian Joe Pera talks you to sleep in this thoroughly weird bedtime comedy video. [Brokelyn]

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Brooklyn Heights Library Decision LIkely Thursday; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Polls are open in #SunsetPark pic.twitter.com/AXd9Nnj5ND

— Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) December 9, 2015

- Eyes on Levin: After months of drama, the New York City Council is expected to vote on the controversial proposal to sell and redevelop the Brooklyn Heights Library on Thursday. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Fishing wire booby trap in Dyker Heights park sliced a finger, choked a dog. [Gothamist]

- Warning: Santa Con is hitting north Brooklyn this Saturday. [Brownstoner]

- Yaso Tangbao (translation: Uncle’s Soup Dumplings) are still getting the love in Downtown Brooklyn. [BK Magazine]

- Signature Bank at 26 Court St. reported burgled at 2 a.m. [Scanner]

-  A young man is wanted in a string of robberies of older people in East New York. [NY1]

- A Colorado man who has been homeless for the last six years won $500,000 in the state lottery on Friday. [Daily News]


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Brooklyn: Harris First African-American to Represent Majority White District; Persaud in Canarsie

Congrats 2 Assemblymember Pamela Harris. 1st #nonWhite 2 rep majority #White district ever in #NYS @MarkTreyger718 pic.twitter.com/0QRAIFSynm

— Jumaane (@JumaaneWilliams) November 4, 2015

Democrat Pam Harris enjoyed a "bigger than expected victory" in the race to succeed former Assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

It had been expected to be a close race. But instead, Harris easily defeated Republican Lucretia Regina-Potter, 63 percent to 37 percent.

The 46th AD includes parts of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Coney Island.

Harris is the only African-American to represent a majority white district in New York City, the Observer says.

In another Brooklyn race, Democratic Assemblymember Roxanne Persaud won a landslide victory in the special election in the 19th state Senate District (Canarsie-Crown Heights-East Flatbush).

Persaud will take the seat formerly held by Democrat John Sampson, convicted.



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Sympathy for Teen Who Killed Father; Poly Prep Trouble; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Mothers of #TrayvonMartin, #TamirRice, #MikeBrown & #EricGarner at vigil in Brooklyn earlier today. #StillCantBreathe pic.twitter.com/ebKu6gR9Xy

— Keegan Stephan (@KeeganNYC) July 19, 2015

- In Kensington, there is great sympathy for the 19-year-old son now charged with stabbing his father to death. [PIX11]

- A man fell off the roof of a Crown Heights townhouse while filming a rap music video. [Gothamist]

- Poly Prep accused of sending a goon to intimidate is a lawsuit. [Brooklyn Paper]

- Dramatic spike in hospital visits prompts Cuomo to push for tougher synthetic pot regulations. [Brooklyn Eagle]

-  A Brooklyn church is about to vanish. [WSJ]

- Don't want to park your own car? Zirx is offering valet parking service in DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Vinegar Hill and Downtown. [Technical.ly]




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Latest Trouble at Brooklyn's Poly Prep: Students Plied with Booze, Cigars and a Hooker on School-Financed Trip to Cuba

Two seniors from Poly Prep Country Day School in Dyker Heights "shared a hooker, booze and cigars on a school-financed Cuban getaway hosted by a top school official," according to the Daily News.

A lawsuit filed last week alleges the dirty doings in Cuba were covered up by the school “to protect a ‘high profile’ celebrity parent of a student who attended the Cuba trip.”

According to the New York Post, social-media photos appear to show Jesse Bongiovi (Jon Bon Jovi's son) and his best friend from Poly Prep "puffing away on stogies and soaking up the rays from rooftop patios overlooking the Caribbean — a trip in which the teens were plied with booze, cigars and a hooker on the Brooklyn school’s dime."

Two trustees worth millions/billions have pulled their support from the preppy private school.

In December 2012, Poly Prep settled a lawsuit claiming football coach Phil Foglietta sexually abused hundreds of boys over a 25-year period, while school officials covering up the abuse.

Photo: "Polyclock." Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons


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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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Brooklyn Public Library Wants to Seize Dyker Branch Bld, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Old and new, Manhattan. MK Metz

- Di Fara Pizza faces $1,600 fine for having too many seats, vows fight. [Sheepshead Bites]

- Brooklyn Public Library wants to seize Dyker branch building. [Brooklyn Daily]

- Missing 11-year-old boy says he rode the subway for five days. [NBC]

- Karl Junkerfeld's video tribute to Brian McGorry, "Mayor" of Cranberry Streeet. [BHB]

- Video: Carl Sagan recalls how Bensonhurst upbringing sparked love of cosmos. [Bensonhurst Bean]

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Brooklyn Mom Has Uncanny Ability to Talk People Into Giving Money to Charities

Photo: Tommy Irrera

“I’m very good at fundraising. I can go into a store and ask for a donation of something to auction. I can convince people to come to a charity dinner. Everyone has something they’re good at," Sandy Irrera told the Brooklyn Eagle.

Lucky for us, Irrera, a resident of Dyker Heights, uses her almost supernatural powers for good: to raise money for Ronald McDonald House, the Mapleton Kiwanis Club, American Cancer Society, No More Tears, the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and other charities.

Her ability to raise funds is so remarkable that her sisters, who also volunteer, simply wait in the car while she runs into stores to get donations.

When her daughters were students Irrera became a Class Mom, helping teachers out. “For some reason they always picked me,” she says.

Wonder why?

More here.

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Maybe This year You Should Get to Dyker Heights for the Christmas Lights

Photo: idovermani

Every year thousands of gawkers from across the tri-state area trek to Dyker Heights for the over-the-top Christmas light display.

"We're talking life-size Dickensian carolers, lit-up bear-shaped topiaries and a 14-foot-tall, 800-pound animatronic Santa Claus,"says NYC & Co., New York City's official tourism marketing arm.

Maybe this is the year to take the trip: According to Bensonhurst Bean, Dyker Heights was recently named number one in the top five places in the nation to see Christmas lights.

If you're going this year, the area to visit to see "the best of the best," according to BB, is 11th Avenue to 13th Avenue and from 83rd to 86th Street.

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Madonna's Bra; New Gas Pipeline; Holiday House Decorations; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Court issues restraining order for Carroll Gardens homeless shelter. Brooklyn Eagle

- Coming to the Brooklyn Museum: Madonna’s provocative conical bra that she wore on her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour. NY Daily News

- A new natural gas pipeline is coming to Brooklyn and Queens, after President Barack Obama cleared the way for it to be built on Tuesday. DNAinfo

- Looters stole over $100,000 worth of equipment from schools after Hurricane Sandy. Gothamist

- The 10 best Dyker Heights holiday house decorations. The FW

- Awesome ‘Global Rainbow’ over NYC honors Sandy victims. Brooklyn Eagle  

 - Mock all you want, but if you want to write literary fiction or poetry, "Brooklyn is still the place to be." The Millions 

- A U.N. report says sea levels are rising faster than projected. Reuters

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Spraying in Brooklyn and Queens for West Nile Mosquitoes on Thursday, Sept. 6

Photo: Joaquim A. Gaspar

The New York City Department of Health is going to spray several neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens with pesticide starting this Thursday night, September 6 after 8 p.m. to combat swarms of mosquitoes infected with the potentially deadly West Nile virus.

DOH says that these neighborhoods are being treated due to rising West Nile virus activity with high or increasing mosquito populations:

In Brooklyn: Parts of Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge
In Queens: Parts of Lindenwood, Ozone Park and South Ozone Park

This includes the following Zip codes: parts of 11209, 11214, 11228, 11416, 11417, 11419 and 11420.

While the Health Department says the pesticide is safe when used properly, they urge people to stay indoors if possible during the night of spraying, close your air conditioner vents, remove children's toys and playground equipment (and wash them and anything else sprayed with soap and water including clothing or skin). We would add keep your pets indoors, and don't take your kids to the playground until after a rain.

Also, pick your herbs and vegetables before they spray!

In case of bad weather, application will be delayed until Monday, September 10.

Please drain any standing water on your property and call 311 to report standing water elsewhere. Read how to reduce your exposure to mosquitoes here.

Previous articles:

- Republican Map of NYC Bears Eerie Resemblance to West Nile Virus Mosquito Map of NYC
- Uh Oh: Deadly West Nile Mosquitoes Have Spread to Brooklyn
- Like Swallows to Capistrano, the Mosquitoes Return to Brooklyn

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Uh Oh: Deadly West Nile Mosquitoes Have Spread to Brooklyn

By Joaquim Alves Gaspar

Now might be a good time to take that vacation, especially if you live in Brooklyn -- or Queens or Staten Island.

Potentially deadly West Nile virus has spread to mosquitoes in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Dyker Heights, Greenwood Heights, Starrett City and Windsor Terrace, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

Several of the zip codes border the lake at Prospect Park, called by park activist Anne-Katrin Titze "stagnant lakeside pools of filthy water."

The Department of Health warns people over 50, youngsters and those with compromised immune systems to cover up and use spray, and to dump those stagnant pools of filthy water where mosquitoes can breed. More at the Eagle.

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Domino Lawsuit; Driver Runs Down Cyclist; End of 'Pink Slime;' and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Lawsuit could hurt Domino development plans. Brooklyn Eagle

- A driver who was fleeing from another accident plowed into a cyclist in Bensonhurst, critically injuring him. NY Daily News

- Developers plan two very tall skyscrapers at City Point in Downtown Brooklyn. Brooklyn Paper

- American Apparel's Dov Charney ‘sex slave’ case booted from Brooklyn court. NY Magazine

- Brooklyn CB 2 called on the state DOT to explain the cancellation of the BQE reconstruction project. TSTC

- Rockstar Games ("Grand Theft Auto") co-founder Dan Houser is the new owner of the Brooklyn Heights mansion at 70 Willow Street, once owned by Truman Capote. Game Politics and Gothamist

- Disgusting "pink slime" meat substance used in ground beef will be phased out of New York City school lunches by next September. Brooklyn Eagle

- A P.E. teacher at a Brooklyn high school was arrested Tuesday after allegedly grabbing the buttocks of a 16-year-old female student. NY Times

- Parents at the Satellite Three middle school in Fort Greene have appealed to the state to prevent the closure of their school. The Local

- Locked out of his apartment, Dyker Heights man tries to climb in through third-floor window and falls to his death. Brooklyn Eagle

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Petition Against Girl-Themed Legos; a Story About Windows; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- A 15-year-old was shot to death in the lobby of his Brooklyn apartment building on Christmas Eve. All Media NY

- The long, strange journey of the new arched windows at 345 Adams Street. Brooklyn Eagle

- A Brooklyn woman started a petition against girl-themed Lego Friends. NY Daily News

- Don't forget to visit the Christmas lights in Dyker Heights. Brooklyn Based

- Pete Hamill at St. Francis College: "Who would want to reach the end of their lives and realize they never read Moby Dick?" Brooklyn Heights Press

- Some people outsourced Christmas. WYDNKBYANM

- New York State is "thrilled" it can start offering online gambling. Gothamist

- You may want to rethink donating your car to Kars-4-Kids. Failed Messiah

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Brooklyn's Own Batman; Walcott Flops; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Just another night for Brooklyn's own Batman. Brooklyn Eagle

- A look at this year's Dyker Heights Christmas lights. Gothamist

- Due to construction, there will be no ice skating in Prospect Park this year. About

- Brokelyn's 25 gifts under $25 is up to number 12, and it's perfect for that single Jewish gal on your gift list. Brokelyn

- The former owner of the Brooklyn Heights Cinema, Norman Adie, pleaded guilty Monday to bilking investors out of $530,000. NY Daily News

- Parents disappointed in Chancellor Walcott and the DOE at big education meeting in Brooklyn. The Local  

- PMFA tells us where to buy one of those trendy Carroll Gardens necklaces. PMFA

- Private schools push for Pier 5 recreation bubble. Brooklyn Paper

- Is SantaCon over? Gothamist

- A database reveals that one of the five most popular words for New York lawmakers is "Brooklyn." NY Daily News

- The best free phone on every carrier. Gizmodo

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Dyker Heights Must-Sees: Where Christmas Goes Over the Top

Gawkers travel from miles around -- even as far as New Jersey -- to see the Christmas decorations and light shows put on by the neighbors in Dyker Heights. This is Brooklyn's own little Disneyworld.

The Brooklyn Paper has compiled a list of their favorites. These include The Polizzottos (1145 84th St.), whose decor includes "mechanized horses weighing a ton each, 29-foot-tall toy soldiers marching in place, and 10-foot-tall lords a’leaping keep the front porch busy — while a two-story Santa waits at the door to collect the mail."

The Gowanus Lounge has put together a YouTube playlist of Dyker Heights Christmas videos. Definitely over the top!

Gothamist provides photos of the epic spectacle and provides a Google map.

And Channel 13 will be broadcasting a program about this outlandish phenomenon on Christmas Eve.

$100 Sanitation Tickets City's Cash Cow?

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reports that residents of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights are getting mighty burnt about $100 tickets being dumped on them by the Sanitation Department. The department brought in $20.3 million the last fiscal year for sanitation and recycling violations, says the Eagle.

“The city is using this as an opportunity to generate funds, but they’re picking on the wrong people,” said Theresa Maresca, 60, a Bay Ridge resident.

Maresca said she picks up litter on her block on a daily basis. But with a 24-hour diner and a school in close proximity, the deluge of litter is impossible to keep up with, especially since the city removed the trash receptacle from her corner last year.

The Eagle reports that Councilman Vincent Gentile’s office gets 15–20 calls a week from residents who have received litter tickets with angry comments like, “We’re not the city’s ATM machine."

See the Eagle story here.

Photo courtesy of William.Ward's Photostream, Creative Commons license