Learn To Raise Chickens; Neapolitan Pizza in DUMBO; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Free urban farming lessons -- including chicken raising -- this Sunday in Brooklyn. Brokelyn
In related news, chicken haven Bushwick City Farms is planning a third site. Brownstoner

- NYPD ballistics tests have determined that a Brooklyn shootout suspect did not kill a bystander near the West Indian Day Parade. So who did? Brooklyn Eagle

- Wild Rise, a new Neapolitan pizza place has just opened in DUMBO. DumboNYC  Don't know what Neapolitan pizza is? Get the all-important facts here. Serious Eats

- Charlie Sahadi is getting an award at Roulette, a new performing arts space.  Brooklyn Eagle 

- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has “specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information” as the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nears. Bloomberg and Gawker

- Brooklyn underground play to be performed at Green-Wood Cemetery. Get it? Brooklyn Eagle

- Rats are biting people on the subway now. NY Magazine

- Millionaire's son wins $107 million lottery. Gawker
 
- Secret police documents show that IKEA used political prisoners as slave laborers in East Germany in the 1970s. SMH via Curbed

- Why the CEO of PIMCO liked President Obama's jobs speech last night.  Huff Post

- Why an expert in urban redevelopment did not like President Obama's jobs speech last night. Huff Post

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Ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock in Brooklyn September 11

Glen Matlock & The Philistines, with Pioneers of Seduction, Highteen Boogie, Sewage NYC and Cementhead are playing at Europa on September 11, 7:30 p.m.

Matlock was bass guitarist from the original line-up of the punk rock band Sex Pistols, one of the "most influential acts in the history of popular music."(Wikipedia)

Drummer Paul Cook has said that Matlock came up with much of the music for the band's songs and most of the lyrics, while lead singer Johnny Rotten made some adjustments. Matlock is credited as a co-author on 10 of the 12 songs on Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. -Wiki

Europa, 98 Meserole Ave., Brooklyn, 11222 / 718-383-2322

Tickets: $13/$15
Discount: $10, use discount code "Vacant."

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Tracking Tropical Storm Maria

Tropical storm Maria is presently racing across the tropical Atlantic towards Puerto Rico.

The graceful hydra, above, from Wunderground shows the tracks of all the September tropical storms from 1851 to 2010 located within two degrees of where tropical storm Maria is now.

Oddly, of more than two dozen storms that started roughly where Maria did, some traveled west of Brooklyn, and many traveled east -- but not one hit Brooklyn.

That pattern may not mean a thing this far in advance, however. This long-term forecast discussion puts Maria traveling west or west-northwest rapidly for the next day or two before turning north.

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Brooklyn: 5 Neighborhoods with Highest Murder Rate in City, and Climbing

DNAinfo has released an interactive Crime & Safety Report ranking the safety of every neighborhood in the five boroughs. This analysis of data from the NYPD and U.S. Census Bureau reveals an increase in murder, rape, and robbery rates for the first time in decades.

No surprise: Brooklyn contains the five neighborhoods with the highest number of murders per-capita for all of New York City. These are: East New York, Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights and East Flatbush. Glaringly, East New York has seen a 94 percent increase in murders since 2008.

This actually surprised us: Fort Greene has one of the highest robbery, burglary and murder rates per capita in the city!

Another surprise: Brooklyn is home to two of the safest neighborhoods in the city.

See DNAinfo for the whole report.

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Clean Up Coney Island Beach, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and More During This Year's Coastal Cleanup

Saturday, September 17 and Sunday, September 18 should be beautiful days on the beach. So come on out and help clean up debris that poses problems for wildlife and fish.

There are 15 sites in Brooklyn where the American Littoral Society’s (ALS) annual September International Coastal Cleanup takes place.

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium (above) will help make Coney Island’s shoreline a little cleaner on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Don't live near Coney? Brooklyn Bridge Park's shore cleanup takes place on Saturday. There will be a cleanup at six sections of Gateway National recreation Area, and one at Plumb Beach.

Last year alone, ALS documented more than 150,000 pounds of debris along 397.5 miles of New York State’s shoreline. Check ALS for more times and locations.

Photo by Julie Larsen Maher at WCS

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Oh, Hookers. Thanks Goodness, We Thought You Said Hooters

The Brooklyn Eagle quotes a Brownstoner commenter noting "a new type of business was seen on Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street, across from the Barclays Center arena under construction."

The article is entitled "Hookers on Flatbush Ave.?" but weary eyes saw instead "Hooters on Flatbush Ave."

Ho ho, so relieved when we realized it was just hookers.

But wait. Oh oh. 

(Let's keep the baseless but fun rumors going.)

Photo by Noelweather, Creative Commons license

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Fashion, Schools, Strikes, Shootings, Cons and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Some residents want the West Indian American Carnival parade to just go away. WSJ and Brooklynian

- New Yorkers say the schools aren't any better under Bloomberg.  NY Times 

- Mother explains why she starved her son, put his body in a suitcase and moved to Brooklyn. Brooklyn Eagle 

- Bit of a kerfuffle over the Brooklyn Public Library throwing out books. Brooklynian

- CHCA has started a fund for the daughter of the innocent bystander killed in Monday night's shootout. CHCA

- Lots of Brooklyn Fashion Night Out participants this years. Brokelyn 

- Professors at Long Island University in Downtown Brooklyn are going on strike today. WNYC

- Nurses at Brooklyn Hospital vote to strike. Fort Greene Patch

- A con men is selling posters to Brooklyn businesses that are supposed to be available for free. Brooklyn Eagle

- Steiner Studios expansion going up fast at Brooklyn Navy Yard. Brownstoner  

- There's an official 9/11 memorial flag.  NY Times 


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Coolest Statue of Liberty Ever

Tourists at City Hall Park were thrilled to pay $5 to have their Labor Day photos taken with the coolest statue of Liberty in New York.

There were actually two identical statues; both should have won a prize for costume and attitude.

Photos by MK Metz

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Labor Day Mayhem; Gold at Coney Island; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- By late Monday, 46 47 52 people had been shot across the city during Labor Day weekend, including several during the West Indian Day Parade and it's pre-dawn parties. NY Times, NY Post and WSJ  More mayhem Monday night, Franklin and Park Place. Brooklynian

- Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams was arrested at yesterday’s West Indian Day Parade. Brooklyn Politics Blog  And an aide to Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was arrested with him. dnainfo

- Guess what's opening at 1004 4th Ave and 39 Street, between a middle school and an elementary school and next door to Tita and Tito Day Care Center? Brooklynian 

- Controversial black conservative blogger dies in Brooklyn.  Brooklyn Eagle 

- The beach at Coney Island is lined with gold! NY Times

- A Brooklyn landlord who has for nine months locked 70 maintenance workers out of their jobs has been slapped with a federal complaint. Brooklyn Eagle

- The FBI has issued a nationwide alert about terrorists flying private planes loaded with explosives. CBSLocal

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A Bit of Philip Livingston's Garden Wall Still Exists In Brooklyn Heights

We were walking by this house at the corner of State Street and Garden Place yesterday, when we noticed a plaque hanging up on the wall.

It said that Garden Place was originally a walk in the formal gardens behind the mansion of Philip Livingston, delegate from New York and signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Here is a sketch of the mansion, drawn by Mr. Henry Pierrepont, courtesy of the Digital Gallery of the New York Public Library. The estate comprised 40 prime Brooklyn Heights acres overlooking the East River. (It was destroyed by fire in 1811 or 1841, depending on the source.)

According to the plaque, the original retaining wall between the garden and the terraced orchard of the Livingston estate still exists behind numbers 29 - 41.

We were curious to see if the retaining wall could be seen using Google Maps. We found numbers 29 - 41 Garden Place and saw there is a wall visible in the back yards of these buildings.

Here's a section of the 1766 Village of Brooklyn map. We circled the retaining wall of the terraced orchard, above. George Washington no doubt strolled through this garden.

Here you can compare the Google map of Brooklyn Heights today with the 1766 map of Brooklyn Heights, below. The dotted red line shows Fulton Street now and then (part of Fulton has been renamed Cadman Plaza West today but the road is still there). The red circle shows the position of Livingston Mansion

Also see: A History of Garden Place  Brooklyn Eagle

Top two photos by MK Metz

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