Friday, July 11, 2014

All Hands Fire in Queens Friday Night

A & S Window, Queens, may be on fire. Google Maps 2014

At roughly 11:30 p.m. FDNY was called to 76 Avenue at 88 Street in Queens, to fight a fire in a window factory.

The fire was called "all hands" by the dispatcher.

FDNY reports the fire is on the first floor. At 11:36 p.m., two lines were stretched.

UPDAATE: It's possible the fire is at A & S Window, located a half block from the intersection.

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DUMBO Goats Survive; Bossert Delayed; Goodbye to Cars with Pink Mustaches

Welcome to Brooklyn! Still fixing our falling bridges... MK Metz
- The DUMBO goats live! [Gothamist]

- The re-opening of the Hotel Bossert — once known as Brooklyn's Waldorf — has been delayed again, this time until 2015. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- A Brooklyn building super named Unk is trying to solve his building's rat program with cat power, but tenants aren't satisfied. [NY Post]

- The city is searching for engineers to study the feasibility of tidal barriers for the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek. [TRD]

- Hang on: Crumbs' giant cupcakes could be saved. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Well, so much for Lyft, and it's pink-mustachioed cars. [Gothamist]


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Body Parts Found in Long Island May Belong to Brooklyn Woman

Courtesy Google Maps 2014
A body part turned up in Hempstead Thursday evening, about a quarter-mile from where an arm was found Wednesday.

Pix 11 reports that a Brooklyn woman's husband has been told the arm, which bears a tattoo, likely belongs to his wife.

A woman's torso was found 20 miles away in Bayshore.

Full story here.


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Everybody Wants the Comptroller and NYS A.G. to Investigate SUNY's Sale of LICH to Fortis

Brooklyn officials, community groups, church leaders, and even the NAACP are clammoring for the state Attorney General and Comptroller to investigate SUNY’s sale of Long Island College Hospital (LICH) to Fortis Property Group.

If the A.G. and Comptroller (who must sign off on the sale, which stinks to high heaven) ignore the stench coming from Brooklyn / Albany, God help the state.

Even Baptists from Buffalo weighed in:

Brooklyn Eagle: "Church leaders also sent letters to the Governor, A.G. and Comptroller, “asking them to hold off on the signing [approving the sale of LICH to Fortis] until a thorough investigation is conducted."


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Bastille Day in Brooklyn this Sunday: Petanque AND the Final World Cup Game on Smith Street

Bastille Day will be celebrated in Brooklyn on Sunday, July 13 (the day before the "real" Bastille Day) on Smith Street in its usual fabulous manner. The north end of the street will be closed off and covered in sand for the annual petanque tournament, near Bar Tabac (128 Smith St. at Dean Street).

Bar Tabac will also have live music, great French food, and will be screening the final World Cup game on the jumbo outdoor screen at 3 pm. Other French eateries on Smith Street are partying too: Provence en Boite, Cafe Luluc, and bakery Bien Cuit.

Can you think of anything better?

UPDATE: Here's how it turned out!


Past Bastille Day Brooklyn posts:

- 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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Thursday, July 10, 2014

Did You Hear Fireworks in Queens (or Brooklyn) on July 10, 2014?

MK Metz, McBrooklyn
Those fireworks you may have heard tonight in were shot off in Cunningham Park Field in Queens as part of a performance by the New York Philharmonic's free Concerts  in the Park.

The program included works by Strauss, Smetana, and Tchaikovsky.

You can hear some of the music here.

Yesterday, on July 9, the New York Philharmonic played in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow Ballfields in Brooklyn -- and also lit up the sky with fireworks.


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One-Time Performance: 'Ai Weiwei: The Seed' at Brooklyn Museum July 24

Ai weiwei-
By Duyanpili (Photo © Gao Yuan 高远, 2009) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Spoken word artist Kelly Tsai is putting together a one-time multimedia performance depicting Ai Weiwei at the Brooklyn Museum on July 24.

"Ai Weiwei: The Seed" is a live music, video, dance and spoken word piece exploring the roots of Ai Weiwei's political consciousness and emergence as one of the world's foremost artists and thinkers.

Chinese artist, political activist (and top tier professional blackjack player) Ai Weiwei was secretly detained by the Chinese government for 81 days in 2011.

From Asian American Writers Workshop:

The performance tracks the artist's life from his childhood in exile with his political poet father Ai Qing to his formative decade in NYC (1981-1993) as a street artist in Williamsburg and the East Village, where he also befriended poet Allen Ginsberg.

Performed as a contemporary mash-up of found text from Ai Weiwei's social media, poetry from Ai Qing and Ginsberg, and new spoken word by Tsai, Tsai says, "This piece is my homage to an artist whose story is not only Chinese, but American; an artist who is not only visual, but informed by the word and political poetry; an artist who understands his role not only as a creator, but as an 'obsessed citizen' as he says, 'forever questioning and asking for accountability."

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Little 81-Year-Old Lady Is Missing in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Midnight Wednesday

From the Brooklyn scanner:

A little (4'11'') Asian lady went missing in the vicinity of Nostrand and Lefferts avenues in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn around midnight on Wednesday.

The 81-year-old weights 102 lbs., is wearing a blue floral blouse and a black arm brace on her left arm. She is said to suffer from dementia.

She was last seen walking south on Nostrand towards Midwood.

If you see her. please call 9-1-1 immediately.

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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Mom Buried in Trash; New Pot Policy; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Remember when de Blasio used to say, "We need hospitals, not condos"  and "Save LICH?" That was before we elected him Mayor. Photo: MK Metz
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- Police digging through 3 feet of garbage in a Brooklyn kitchen discovered the bones of a woman buried under the trash, and her emotionally-distrubed daughter in the kitchen. [NY Daily News]

- The Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced on Tuesday that it would stop prosecuting most low-level marijuana cases. Just don't try to smoke around kids.  [NYT]

- Fifth Avenue Record and Tape Center in Park Slope is closing after 42 years in business. [Racked] The shop had almost closed in 2009.

- Joey "Jaws" Chestnut may have won the Conry Island hot dog eating contest, but in South Dakota, a 47-year-old man choked to death during a similar competition. [CBC]

- U.S. Attorneys offices in Brooklyn and Colorado have been investigating Citibank, and the bank may have to pay a $7 billion fine for defrauding investors. [IBTimes]

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'The Epic Ride': 40-mile Brooklyn-Queens Bike Ride July 27

 Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and its partners are inviting folks to join "The Epic Ride," a 40-mile bike ride along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfronts.

Starting in Greenpoint and finishing at Rockaway Beach, the route showcases the potential of the not-yet-completed Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway combined with the Jamaica Bay Greenway.

Over 500 cyclists and thousands of spectators are expected. Volunteers are also needed.

Following the ride is an after-party at the beach with food from the Rockaway food vendors and a swim in the ocean. Participants will be making their own way back independently via the A train, ferry or by bicycle.

Alternate starts are available at Owls Head Park (26-mile ride) and Floyd Bennett Field (14-mile ride).

$30 BGI & TA members, $40 others

By participating in The Epic Ride, you are supporting Brooklyn Greenway, a 14-mile landscaped route for pedestrians and cyclists will connect neighborhood parks and open spaces from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge.

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