River Cafe, Dumbo, from the Water

Buzzy O’Keeffe's River Cafe is on a barge under the Brooklyn Bridge in Dumbo.




You can dock your boat there and use the gangplank to come aboard.

Photo by MK Metz

McBrooklyn home page here.

Danish Amusement Park at Coney Island?

Economic Development Corporation officials flew to Copenhagen last week to speak with representatives of Tivoli Gardens, a 164-year-old amusement park that is considering opening a Coney Island branch, says the Post via the Real Deal.

The Danish-style attraction would build a new Coney Island without the hotels and time-shares developer Thor Equities has planned.

More here.

Photo by Gripso_banana_prune, Creative Commons license.

Brooklyn in Brief, Monday P.M.

- Lenders have started foreclosure actions on 7,000 homes since January, according to the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. Three of the hardest hit neighborhoods are in Brooklyn: Bedford Stuyvesant, Flatbush and East New York. Crain's NY Business

- Remember when the Sun called a proposed Arabic-themed school a "monstrosity"? Now a group calling itself the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition is trying to stop Brooklyn’s planned Khalil Gibran International Academy. Brooklyn Eagle

- A bill passed awaiting Governor Spitzer's approval would make the city's community boards eligible for millions in grant money to study brownfield pollution. The legislation was spearheaded by Brooklyn CB 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, who has been trying to get money to study the polluted Gowanus Canal. NY Daily News via the Real Deal

- Chowhound's Trader Joe's parking discussion rubs someone the wrong way: "Anyone looking for parking in Brooklyn is a menacing turd." Chowhound

Related article:
Arabic-themed School Finds a Home

Smith Street -- Your Tree Solution Is Right Here

Walk down Smith Street in the summer and it's at least 10 degrees hotter than the side streets or Court Street. Why? Apparently, north of Carroll Street, Smith Street has no trees.

Smith Street merchants, help us out here. Restaurant row is broiling!

According to the Parks & Recreation web site, any property owner in the city can request free street trees -- Ginkgos, Honeylocusts, Sweetgums, Tulip Trees, Dawn Redwoods, Oaks, Lindens, etc.

To make it easy for Smith Street property owners, McBrooklyn has linked to the EZ tree form right here. Just click, fill it out, and trees should be on their way.

Photo by MK Metz

McBrooklyn home page here.

Brooklyn in Brief -- Weekend Edition

- The horrid condition of the boardwalk in Coney Island is still in the news, as the lawsuits ratchet upward. Gowanus Lounge

- The Parks Department opens New York's second surfing-only beach in the Rockaways. Gnarly, dude! New York Magazine

- A Brooklyn woman is too traumatized to return to work after steam pipe blast. Brooklyn Eagle

- Out-of-control-car on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. OTBKB

- West Nile virus is back. Here are some steps to take. GerritsenBeach.Net

- A backlash against the Brooklyn building blitz. Canarsie Digest/ Courier Life

Brooklyn's Green Bike Lane Marches South

The greening of Henry Street's bike lane marches relentlessly south, from Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights to, most recently, Amity Street in Cobble Hill.

McBrooklyn spoke to the lane painting crew, who gave their unofficial opinion that the Department of Transportation was going to paint bike lanes "green everywhere." Maybe they read the results of the McBrooklyn Bike Lane Color Poll.

Previous posts on this topic here.

McBrooklyn home page here.

Photos by MK Metz

Size DOES Matter on Second Place

Homeowners on 2nd Place in Carroll Gardens/Gowanus are displaying a certain solidarity about restricting neighborhood building heights to 50 feet. Signs hung up and down the block say "Size Does Matter" and asks viewers to sign a petition (www.carrollgardenspetition.blogspot.com) protesting the potential Scarano-designed building at 360 Smith.

(Photos by MK Metz)

Arborcide in Brooklyn Heights, Again

Remember what a stink there was exactly one year ago when five 40-year-old trees were cut down in front of 75 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights?

Now move west a couple of blocks to the Mansion House at 145 Hicks Street, where the co-op board has decided to chop down an 80-year-old, healthy Elm tree. The reason? A poster in the Brownstoner forum said the board doesn't want to spend the $8,000 to reroute electrical pipes tangled in the huge tree's roots.

Residents of the Mansion House told the Brooklyn Eagle back in April that the endanged tree was "one of the few healthy survivors of the Dutch elm disease that devastated most of these majestic trees in the past century."

Several residents of the building told the Brooklyn Paper that they’ll chain themselves to the tree before they’ll let the board chop it down.

UPDATE: Don't miss the lively comments about this on the Brooklyn Heights Blog.

Another Venue in Brooklyn: Zipcar Spreads Its Mighty Tentacles

Zipcar went all out to promote its latest Brooklyn venue: the Brooklyn Law School dorms on State Street east of Court. The Brooklyn Cyclones-mobile was parked on Atlantic (you can't reserve it though -- a Zipcar rep said it has been taken "off the grid") and a variety of Zipcars were parked near the oddly-shaped Zipcar flags on Court Street.

Meanwhile, the word is that Zipcar is the latest "amenity" (read: Fresh Direct) to be offered at many of the area’s newest developments. Zipcar is partnering with developers across the country, according to the NY Post.

Upcoming developments with on-site Zipcars include "many Brooklyn properties being marketed by the Developer’s Group, including the Aurora in Williamsburg and One Brooklyn Bridge Park," according to the Post.

More here.

Photo by MK Metz

Brooklyn in Brief

- The Brooklyn Eagle's Quarterly Real Estate Roundup is posted on the Eagle home page today. Grab it before it disappears into the Brooklyn Space section.

- Uh, there's a guy who takes his clothes off and has his picture taken in cemeteries. The Brooklyn Paper

- An outpouring of emotion for a disabled pigeon on the Brooklyn Heights Blog.

- Never mind the various controversies over Thor Equities $2 billion plan to redevelop Coney Island. What about Thor's web site -- it's gone all 60s shagadelic! Curbed

- The NY Times follows the judges who are assessing some of the semifinalists on the Greenest Block in Brooklyn contest.