Brooklyn in Brief: Are We Having Fun Yet?

- A fun photo essay of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Bridge Park. 1000 Bars
- A fun article on the serious suggestion to place a middle school inside the Brooklyn House of Detention. Brooklyn Paper
- A fun photo from the Gowanus Lounge's ever-amusing series, "What's That Thing on Top?" The Gowanus Lounge
- No fun: Consuming too much sorbitol, a sweetener widely used in "sugar-free" chewing gum and sweets, can cause serious bowel problems. Reuters
- Not even funny: Phone companies repeatably cut off FBI wiretaps because of unpaid bills. Washington Post

Goodbye Supersized, Butt Ugly Brooklyn House of Detention Condos, Hello Bigger Jail

Back in May, Martin F. Horn, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Correction was personally offended with the Brooklyn Eagle's description of the proposed expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention as “dispiriting and … ugly.”

The plans included a 165,000 "ground square feet expansion" for 720 inmate beds; and -- here's the weird part -- up to two huge towers of residential or commercial space wrapped around the jail -- arranged so neither the inmates nor their luxury neighbors could actually see one another. (Though they might be able to visit by drilling their way through with a sharpened toothbrush.)

Alas, the whole supersized jail-aganza is over, reports the Eagle. Only one developer expressed interest in the proposal. So now the city Department of Correction is dropping the condo-wrapped-around-a-jail part and they're just going to make the jail bigger.

So there, concerned neighbors!

Brooklyn Jail Expansion Moves Forward, Sans Residential Towers Brooklyn Eagle

Past posts on the Brooklyn House of detention here.

Photo by MK Metz

Mother Nature Fooled on Montague Street

Warm weather has fooled this tree into bringing forth hundreds of velvety buds. The tree (is it a magnolia?) graces the corner of Montague and Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights -- that's St. Ann's Church in the background. Unfortunately, when a freeze hits (and a freeze always hits) those buds are screwed.

The bottom picture is how it looked last April. Click on the photo to see the flowers close up. Pretty darn glorious.

Photos by MK Metz

Sucking Long Island College Hospital Dry?

There are many fine doctors and professionals affiliated with Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. It used to be an exceptional hospital.

But mismanagement by Continuum Health Partners is crippling the place.

One family member needed an emergency tetanus shot after 6 p.m. Emergency room wait time: 9 hours. Cost of shot: more than $1000. Another needed a broken bone X-rayed and set. We were advised (by a LICH-affiliated doctor) to bypass LICH altogether and go to another hospital in Manhattan. A relative of ours was told by the urology department after a five-minute consultation that -- I kid you not -- he couldn't possibly be the father of his own three children! (Hmm, they look like him...)

Adding to LICH's financial troubles, some patients have been told by their insurance companies that LICH's billing procedures are chaotic.

Doctors told the Brooklyn Eagle that ever since Continuum Health Partners and Beth Israel Hospital of Manhattan took over, they've been sucking the hospital dry.

Donald Othmer, a Brooklyn Heights chemical engineer who worked at Polytechnic University -- and an old friend of Warren Buffet’s -- left $140 million to the hospital in 1995. Soon after, Continuum bought LICH. And ever since then, says LICH, it has diverted money away from the hospital, and refused to disclose to LICH the details of how the $140 million bequest was appropriated.

Now LICH wants a divorce. But is it too late? More at the Eagle.

Photo by RM, Creative Commons license

Still Life With Hot Peppers and Kale

In Brooklyn Heights.

Photo by MK Metz

'Toxic' Boerum Hill Preschool to Reopen, Director Says

The director of Brooklyn's "toxic" preschool -- the Brooklyn Children’s Preschool Academy on Dean Street in Boerum Hill -- told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Monday that he plans to reopen the school -- at a future date yet to be decided. (Oddly, the sign hanging on their door, seen left, pinpoints the re-opening date as the "2008-2010" school year...)

Executive Director Andy Lewis also swears that he will refund the thousands of dollars in deposits owed to parents and teachers -- one of these days.

Last month the Eagle reported about the unsafe conditions parents found at the school (no heat, exposed wires, unpainted walls and noxious fumes emanating from newly installed carpeting).

Story UPDATED here.

- 'Toxic' Brooklyn School to Reopen? Brooklyn Eagle
- More Trouble at 'Toxic' Preschool in Boerum Hill McBrooklyn
- 'Toxic' Preschool Parents Wonder: Where's the Money? Brooklyn Eagle
- Toxic Preschool in Brooklyn? Brooklyn Eagle
- 'Toxic' Preschool in Boerum Hill? McBrooklyn

Photo by MK Metz

Flatbush Firefighter Remembered

It started when a six-year-old put wrapping paper on a lit stove.

Where's the Beef at Court and State? Downtown Brooklyn Food Retailer Still Under Wraps

Brownstoner reported in November that the 5,000 square feet of retail space at 117/119 Court Street (at State, shown above) was rented for a record-high $125 a foot after "long and protracted" negotiations.

Massey Knakal senior partner Tim King dropped the hint that the space has been let to a company that's been in the food production biz "for the last hundred years."

A month later, no clue as to the identity of the venerable incoming tenant has yet to appear. The folks at Chowhound seem to be leaning towards a grocery store or upscale food merchant, but a restaurant might better fit the two-story space -- which will be quite near the incoming Trader Joe's at Court and Atlantic.

Anyone have any news?

Photo by MK Metz

Great Seats. Court Street, Brooklyn

First come, first served.

Photo by MK Metz

McBrooklyn's on Vacation

McBrooklyn's heading south till January 6, 2008. Have a great New Year!

Dunk Island photo by Melalouise, Creative Commons license