Brooklyn in Brief -- Weekend Edition

- Debbie Almontaser -- who helped found New York City’s first Arabic-themed school in Brooklyn but later resigned amid controversy -- will not be rehired, a spokesman for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said Thursday. Brooklyn Eagle

- The canvas Toms shoe has defeated the Floating Barge Pool—the "greatest thing to ever happen in the history of Brooklyn Heights"—for the Cooper-Hewitt People's Design Award. The Brooklyn Bridge came in 197th. Curbed

- Two cyclists died in Brooklyn in terrible accidents Thursday. Streetsblog

- The city is "sifting through several proposals from ferry operators to shuttle commuters between Manhattan and at least three stops in Williamsburg and Greenpoint," says the Brooklyn Paper. And Bay Ridge Ferry service may be restored as well. Brooklyn Eagle

- Some 15 glamorous grandmothers -- and one old man in drag -- nearly all from Brooklyn's close-knit Russian immigrant community of Brighton Beach, sang, danced and vamped across the stage at a local nightspot as they competed in the sixth annual Your Highness Grandmother Beauty contest. Reuters

- Sunday is the last day for the beloved vendors at the Red Hook Ball Fields to serve up food this season -- and maybe forever. Gowanus Lounge

- Scientists: at least one bumblebee species in the U.S., Franklin's Bumblebee, may have gone extinct. And it's not looking good for the rest of them. Bumblebees pollinate more than 15 percent of our nation's food crops. Huffington Post

30 Manholes Undergoing Asbestos Abatement in Brooklyn Heights -- What Rhymes With Meso-the-lio-ma?

The Brooklyn Eagle's Sam Howe reports that two pieces of paper were taped to the lampposts on Clark Street in Brooklyn Heights Friday announcing "Public Notice: Asbestos Abatement." The work areas list more than 30 manholes and the amount is “264 linear feet or 165 square-feet.”

To be removed: cable insulation, duct seal, duct sleeve, transite (sic), and the all-purpose “debris.”

In a neighborhood "teeming with strollers, moms-to-be, elderly folks, and lawyers (!), we are pressed to wonder, if anything, what this means," writes Howe. Until the paper digs up more information, he says he is trying to "come up with words that rhyme with meso-the-lio-ma."

Photo by Jef Poskanzer, Creative Commons license

'Brooklyn Bests' in Villiage Voice's Best of NYC Guide

The Village Voice just came out with their annual Best of NYC 2007 guide.

Along with many things Brooklyn, the neighborhood of Dumbo made the list -- it was named “Best Manhattan Neighborhood In Brooklyn - DUMBO”. (Thanks to Dumbo NYC)

Other Brooklyn Bests, according to the Voice:

- Best Noble Failure - It's Still Not a Done Deal (Atlantic Yards)
- Best Martha Stewart's Last Meal - Old Poland Bakery and Restaurant

- Best Brooklyn Assemblyman Who Never Quits - Jim Brennan
- Best Way To Enjoy The Brooklyn Promenade - Blue Pig
- Best Bridge Anywhere - Brooklyn Bridge
- Best Place To Get Murdered, Raped, Or Robbed In The City - East New York, Brooklyn.

More here.

Greenstreets No Match for Livingston and Flatbush

Greenstreets is a citywide program to convert paved traffic islands and medians into green spaces filled with shade trees, shrubs and groundcover.

But Greenstreets seems to have met its match at the junction of Livingston and Flatbush in Downtown Brooklyn. Here, the little bushes planted by the Parks Department are dwarfed by the relentless urban streetscape.

Photo by MK Metz

'Brooklyn Junction' Breaks Flatbush Junction News

McBrooklyn welcomes new blogger Brooklyn Junction to the blogosphere. BJ writes: "I'm way down here in the belly of Brooklyn, blogging about the area in Flatbush known as the Junction--right near Brooklyn College.

"Please visit me at brooklynjunction.blogspot.com. I think I've got a good first story--a residential dorm in the works at Brooklyn College."

Indeed -- and many subsequent stories as well, which we'll cover in future posts. Anyone interested in the Junction should visit Brooklyn Junction.

Mockingbird, Thursday, Brooklyn Bridge Park

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do but one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

From To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

Photo by MK Metz

Will Trader Joe's Be Haunted by the Spirits of Bankers Past?

There are stories -- perhaps tongue-in-cheek -- of a spirit that inhabits the underground vault of what was once the palatial Independence Community Bank building, on Atlantic Avenue at Court Street.

According to an old story in the Brooklyn Eagle, "Some say the phantasm is one of the tortured souls who perished on the site when it held a fort during the Revolutionary war. Others claim it is the demented spirit of the sister of a bank teller who was executed more than a century ago for forgery..."

The dark doorway, seen on the back wall, left, of the photo above, leads down several flights of stairs to chambers far below the ground, where the air is cold and there's no one to hear you.

When Trader Joe's finally arrives, will "frantic banging sounds" still be heard from deep inside the walk-in-vault?

Happy Halloween...

Previous Trader Joe's posts here.
Photo by MK Metz

And Then It Just Keeled Over and Died

This MCI Worldcom phone booth was found laying dead on the sidewalk in Downtown Brooklyn.

According to Wikipedia, MCI Communications was a company that was instrumental in the breakup of the AT&T monopoly, and ushered in the competitive long distance telephone industry.

It grew to be the second largest long-distance provider in the U.S. In 1998 it became MCI WorldCom, then WorldCom. WorldCom's "financial scandals and bankruptcy" led that company to change its name in 2003 to MCI. The MCI name disappeared in January 2006 after the company was bought by Verizon.

Bottles on Trees in MetroTech -- Okay, We're Stumped

We give up guys -- what is it: Art? Science? Homemade barometers? A recycling project? An example of PolyThinking?

Bottles tied together with white string (click on photo to enlarge), filled with either brightly colored or clear liquid, festooned several trees on MetroTech Commons in Downtown Brooklyn.

There's no sign to enlighten us that this is a public art project funded by our tax dollars, yet the uniformity of the bottles makes us think that this was actually planned, not the result of some poor alcoholic flinging his carefully scrounged bottled up in the air.

Anybody?

Photos by MK Metz

All That Remains of Schrafft's in Downtown Brooklyn

There was a time when everybody ate at Schrafft's.

Schrafft's was known for wholesome, all-American fare, served by fresh-faced Irish waitresses. Mothers and children ate there; so did movie stars. Schrafft's restaurants were located in high-end shopping districts, like Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn.

But times changed, Fulton Street changed, and Schrafft's did, too. By 1968 they seemed quaint, almost dowdy. They hired Andy Warhol, of all people, to give them a snazzy new with-it image, and remodeled to emphasize their bars to snag the younger clientèle.

Here's all that remains of the Schrafft's in Downtown Brooklyn, on Smith at Fulton Street.

Photo by MK Metz