Lolitas at Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Body in Sunset Park; Magic in Cobble Hill; and More Brooklyn Briefs

JACOB PRIESTLEY KICKING OFF THE FIRST EVER BROOKLYN NORTH CHARITY 5K! @NYPDnews @ABC7NY @News12BK pic.twitter.com/SMAEOEZ4Ku

— NYPDBrooklynNorth (@NYPDBklynNorth) April 29, 2017

- Fans of the Japanese style known as Lolita fashion flocked to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for the BBG Parasol Society Fashion Show. [Yahoo]

- Brooklyn connections run deep for Kentucky Derby favorite. [NY Post]

- Body washes up on Brooklyn shore in Sunset Park — perhaps belonging to a woman who jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge. [Daily News]

- Cobble Hill’s magical independent bookstore opens today. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Sooo Brooklyn: to lie naked in a giant bird nest. [Pix11]

- The state Health Department “flagged” 52 hospitals for patient-infection rates that greatly exceeded the state average — and 15 of them are in New York City. [NY Post]

- Have you ever wished you could make internet trolls eat their words? Now you can, thanks to the new Brooklyn bakery Troll Cakes. [Refinery29]

- Pier 6 settlement talks fall through; back to court for Brooklyn Bridge Park and Brooklyn Heights Association. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- A very wonky look at a Brooklyn-Queens Con-Ed energy management program that seems to not be nearly as economical or efficient as the state, experts and Con-Ed say it is. [Greentechmedia]

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Brooklyn Dental Scam; Another Pervy Brooklyn Tech Teacher; Bogus No Parking Signs In Cobble Hill; Domino Park; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Endless flowers. By MK Metz

- Brooklyn Tech teacher busted asking student for ‘workout’ pics. [NY Post]

- Brooklyn dentist indicted for hiring unlicensed men to perform procedures on Medicaid patients. [Daily News]

- Some of the first votes in French presidential election were cast in an old church building near the Gowanus Canal on Saturday morning. [Slate]

- Bogus No Parking signs at LICH site piss off Cobble Hill residents. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- New York Rep. Yvette Clarke told a town hall meeting in Brooklyn that taxpayers “cannot continue to pay” for President Donald Trump’s family’s business and travel arrangements. [Roll Call]

-The Brooklyn Broadway Islamic Center was destroyed in a fire on Saturday. Now a LaunchGood campaign is crowd-sourcing funds to rebuild. [LaunchGood]

- The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has told prosecutors to avoid, when possible, the deportation or detention of immigrants charged with certain misdemeanors or nonviolent crimes. [NY Times]

- Developer releases big plans for Domino Park in Williamsburg. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn Bridge Park announced the full lineup for its 18th annual outdoor screening series, "Movies with a View." Schedule here. [TimeOut]

- NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating Trump’s possible ties to organized crime, which could involve RICO charges. [Bipartisan Report]

#Great Job #NYPD Harbor's Brooklyn Bridge launch #317 when they rescued a jet skier who fell into the East River in the vicinity of Wall St. pic.twitter.com/SX3FQs7bFG

— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) April 24, 2017

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Trash Bugs in Cobble Hill

 These bags were piled up on Court Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, in front of a private school on Thursday.

Upon closer inspection, we saw they were labeled, "Trash bugs do not open."

So many thoughts. About the shape of the bags, what was in them, what kind of bugs, how many ...

We did not open the bags. We took the photos and then walked quickly away.

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Park Slope, Brooklyn is as Big as Monaco

Map data copyright Google

 Once in a while we play with Wolframalpha.com, the computational knowledge engine, to figure out something pointless.

Today's useless exercise was computing the area of different Brooklyn neighborhoods.

We started with Brooklyn Heights. Wolfram Alpha quickly figured out the neighborhood's area is 180 acres, or .28 square miles.

What's nice is W/A then goes on to give us comparisons:

- The area of Brooklyn Heights is, for example, equal to 1.2 times the total floor area of the Pentagon.

- It's also 1.7 times the total area of Vatican City.

- It is also 13 times the area of the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Nice to know!

Plugging in different Brooklyn neighborhoods, we found that Cobble Hill's area is smaller than Brooklyn Heights, at 89 acres.

But the area of Bedford-Stuyvesant, at 4.2 square miles (a whopping 2,700 acres), is equal to one eighth the area of Manhattan.

Whereas Park Slope is 639 acres, equal to one square mile or .... the area of an adult male cougar's home range! Or the total area of Monaco!

To research weird factoids or perform calculations yourself, visit Wolfram Alpha and type in an English language query, such as "area williamsburg, brooklyn, nyc."

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Brooklyn's 'Coolest Hotels';15-yr-old Shot in Eye; New BQX Video and More Brooklyn Briefs

Barry Sternlicht gives us all the details on his new hotel, 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge https://t.co/06e436Xgyg pic.twitter.com/nABxoldo0j

— Bloomberg (@business) February 20, 2017

- East Flatbush gunman shoots 15-year-old in eye, 18-year-old in leg. [Daily News]

- City plugs contested Brooklyn-Queens streetcar proposal in new video. [Curbed]

- CNN's take on Brooklyn's coolest hotels and hottest hangouts. [CNN]

- No more early morning demolition at the former Long Island College Hospital (LICH) site. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Two young women have vanished from the same community near Sunset Park, and the NYPD is asking for the public’s assistance in locating them. [Breaking 911]

- Carjacking gang hitting business owners in Brooklyn, makes off with $86G. [Daily News]

- Cops on Saturday morning busted 24 people and seized five handguns during a raid on an afterhours Gowanus motorcycle club. [NY Post]

- Kushner-owned former Jehovah's campus added to DUMBO BID. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The Bachelor is coming to Brooklyn. [Observer]

Song Sparrow, #Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 6. #nyc #birding pic.twitter.com/ckHNhvS3AO

— Heather Wolf (@heatherwolf) February 20, 2017

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Troy Avenue 'All Good;' Cop Snapchats Unfortunate Family; More Fortis Plans for LICH Filed and More Brooklyn Briefs

Brooklyn: Rapper Troy Ave was shot in the arm & grazed in the head while driving Maserati on East 91st St & Linden Blvd. @AllisonPapson pic.twitter.com/2k2RrKiBqR

— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) December 26, 2016

- Troy Avenue 'all good' after getting shot twice in Brooklyn on Christmas. [Rolling Stone]

- A sad Christmas: An NYPD officer was suspended without pay after posting a humiliating photo of a handcuffed Brownsville family to Snapchat. [DNAinfo]

- Fortis files plans for another tower on the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) site in Cobble Hill. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- How an abandoned building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard became a hub for pioneering startups. [WSJ]

- Two gay guys visit friends in Brooklyn, have their picture taken. Now they're on the wall of the new Second Avenue subway line. [Star Tribune]

- Cops are looking for a 50-year-old man who assaulted a 29-year-old man inside a bar in Brighton Beach. [PIX11]

- Ortiz: Don’t dump homeless in Sunset Park hotels. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- No Rockettes will be forced to perform at Trump's inauguration. [Slate]

- The Twitter account of Sony Music falsely tweeted Monday that Britney Spears had died. [USA Today]

Taiwanese, Brooklyn-based artist Min Liu creates GIFs with charming homespun aesthetics that cram each short second with surreal curiosity. pic.twitter.com/gkQcVm6Dnx

— Saatchi Gallery (@saatchi_gallery) December 26, 2016

This GIF is kinda cute!

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LICH Development in Brooklyn Pushes Forward with Plans Filed for Two New Towers

Rendering courtesy of Rendering by FXFOWLE Architects

Fortis Property Group filed plans for two new towers in Cobble Hill at the site of the former Long Island College Hospital (LICH).

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, these include a17-story tower at the site of a seven-story garage at 350 Hicks St. at the corner of Atlantic Avenue, and a 15-story residential building at 347 Henry St., the former LICH the pharmacy/nurse’s residence at the corner of Amity Street.

The Eagle also reports that a building on Pacific Street will be demolished, and provides a map of the planned demolitions.

Fortis files plans to build towers on two sites at former Long Island College Hospital [Brooklyn Eagle]

Fortis Plans 17-Story and 15-Story Buildings on Long Island College Hospital Campus [NY YIMBY]


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Hearing On Placement of Citi Bike Docking Stations in Brownstone Brooklyn

Photo: MK Metz

Do you live in Community Board 6 in Brooklyn? (Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope and Red Hook.)

 Have something to say about the placement or size of CitiBike docking stations? Here's your chance to comment. CB6 sent this notice:

IN THE MATTER OF the expansion of New York City’s bike share program, CitiBike, into the Brooklyn Community Board 6 district, the Community Board’s Transportation/Public Safety Committee will conduct a Public Hearing to gather public comment on the deployment of the bicycle docking stations, and any other aspect of the bike share program, for the primary purpose of reviewing and evaluating the density, location, placement, and size of the district’s docking stations with the Department of Transportation.

DATE: Thursday, October 20, 2016
TIME: 6:30 pm
PLACE: NYPD/78th Police Precinct
65 6th Avenue, 4th floor
(between Dean/Bergen Streets)
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Members of the public will have the opportunity to testify up to 3 minutes. Speakers must sign-in at the meeting to testify. There is no pre-registration. Speakers may not transfer time to other speakers. Written comment may also be emailed to the district office at info@BrooklynCB6.org or mailed to the address below by 5:00pm on October 20th.

250 Baltic Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201-6401


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'Monkey Man' Mobster to Stay Put; Coffee Liquor Drinks; the Creepy Clown Problem; and More Brooklyn Briefs

New NYPD commissioner: Crime down, safest September in years
Also: Nothing to fear from ‘creepy clowns’ https://t.co/fn8qvlCbEA pic.twitter.com/QYzDsdPvPo

— Brooklyn Daily Eagle (@BklynEagle) October 4, 2016

NYC officials address the intensifying creepy clown issue. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn judge rejects ailing mobster 'Monkey Man' Filocomo's release plea, keeps him caged. [Daily News]

- Pro-Trump art show -- #DaddyWillSaveUs -- features "conservative artists and performers" from all over the country. It's coming to Williamsburg. [PaperMag]

- There's a drink called Orange is the New Black, which is coffee layered with Godiva chocolate liqueur, Grand Marnier and intricately patterned foam.You can buy it in DUMBO.  [BK Magazine]

- Police are looking for a man and a woman wanted in an assault and stabbing inside a Brooklyn subway station Sunday morning. [NBC]

- No subway service at Sutter Ave, Rutland Rd. and Junius Street stations in Brownsville for five months.  [Facebook]

- The brat pack: Germans celebrate Oktoberfest in Brooklyn Heights. [Brooklyn Paper]

- The end of an era for a Cobble Hill cornerstone. [Brooklyn Eagle]


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Brooklyn Eagle Posts Massive LICH (Long Island College Hospital) Archive Online

The former emergency department at LICH in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Photo by MK Metz

Do you wish you knew more about the three-year saga during which the state of New York squeezed a Brooklyn hospital -- Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Cobble Hill -- to death and sold it to a developer?

Do you wonder what Mayor Bill de Blasio had to do with the debacle? (He's being investigated now for his role in the closure.)

Did you know there were numerous lawsuits, marches (one involved more than a thousand people with coffins and a New Orleans-style funeral band over the Brooklyn Bridge), and protests in the rain, heat and snow?

And an elected official-led storming of the hospital?

Did you know SUNY hired security guards who went rogue and waved guns around the neo-natal ward?

And if you live anywhere between Red Hook and Williamsburg, did you know your life is at risk in a situation requiring an emergency room?

If you hunger to learn more, the Brooklyn Eagle has just published a massive archive of hundreds of detailed articles they published on the topic of LICH since the battle pitting residents against the state began. (Great source material if you're investigating any of the parties involved, too!)

Read more at:

LICH: Everything you want to know (almost) about the deal to close Long Island College Hospital 


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Adorable Kittens Rescued from Suitcase Death; Goodbye Sunny Balzano; and More Brooklyn Briefs

House on DeGraw Street. Photo by MK Metz

- Brooklyn mom charged with murder after 2-year-old girl drowns in bathtub. [Pix11]

- Lawsuit charges: The owner of a trendy Brooklyn nightclub pressured workers into threesomes, boasted about sleeping with customers and freaked out about black patrons. [Daily News]

- Red Hook bids adieu to Sunny Balzano, legendary owner of Red Hook dive bar. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn Flea coming to DUMBO in April. [Gothamist]

- Do you recognize this soon-to-be-demolished Cobble Hill building? [Brownstoner]

- Cops rescue half-dozen adorable kittens stashed in suitcase in Williamsburg. [Daily News]

- Dad arrested after his child was barred from using school bathroom heads to court. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- DOE says PS8 /307 rezoning a success. [Politico]

- Caught on camera: Guy steals a charity box filled with hundreds of dollars meant to send children with cancer to summer camp. [ABC7]

- "Rat Academy" at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn Heights Saturday. [BHB]

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Tonight: Cobble Hill Association Fall General Meeting to Discuss LICH 'Misinformation'

LICH back in the day. Photo: MK Metz

The Cobble Hill Association will hold its Fall General Meeting Wed., November 18th at 7:00 pm, at P.S. 29 at 425 Henry Street between Baltic and Kane Streets. The topic will be LICH "misinformation" being put out by developers.

CHA says:

This will be a very important meeting of the Cobble Hill Association as the community provides feedback on the development proposals for the Long Island College Hospital site.

Incomplete and misleading information is being disseminated in our neighborhood by paid canvassers.

Some points of clarification:

- The rezoning plan is substantially larger than the As of Right plan.

- The NYU-Langone medical facility will be built by NYU regardless of which development path Fortis chooses. Continuous medical care on the site was a condition of the sale and is not a voluntary benefit offered by the developer.

- The park space proposed in the rezoning is a park “mash-up” of the existing sitting park and an existing playground, plus only 4,286 additional square feet.

- The proposed K-5 school has no schoolyard.



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Cute Cobble Hill Kids Do Halloween

Photos by MK Metz

Amazing crowds of parents and kids thronged the streets for the Cobble Hill Halloween Parade, which kicks off trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Neighbors sat on their decorated stoops gamely handing out pounds of goodies.

Swarmed!

Waiting for the next onslaught.

Parents took advantage of the moment to act out their inner fantasies.

These kids are probably in a sugar coma today.

Elvis.

This thing slid up and down the fence on an invisible string.

Joyfully filling up the pumpkin.

Photos by MK Metz

A good time was had by all.

More photos of the Cobble Hill fun can be found here.

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Cobble Hill Association Dissenters Succeed in Forcing Out Leader Roy Sloane

Fortis' plans for the LICH site, center. Williams New York

 Those working to dump Cobble Hill Association's Acting President Roy Sloane got their wish on Wednesday when he submitted his resignation, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

Sloane had been the subject of a campaign by two dozen Cobble Hill Association dissenters who thought he operated CHA as a "closed club," and who disagreed with his strategy of "engaging in dialogue" with Long Island College Hospital's (LICH) probable developer Fortis.

“The issue is about both who will lead the battle to limit development on the LICH site and how it will be conducted,” the dissidents said in a letter last week demanding Sloane’s replacement. 

Sloane said the engagement process wasn't solely his idea, but was "developed by local elected officials and led by Councilmember Brad Lander."

 Nonetheless, in his resignation letter, Sloane said he was stepping aside “to facilitate an orderly change in leadership.”

“It’s a new day for the CHA,” one of the dissenters told the Eagle.

Will fresh blood reinvigorate the fight against LICH's development? Or muddle the process championed by Brad Lander?


Long-time Cobble Hill Association head Roy Sloane resigns amid LICH controversy [Brooklyn Eagle]

Related:
A Coup is Afoot at the Cobble Hill Association [McBrooklyn]


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A Coup is Afoot at the Cobble Hill Asociation

Photo: MK Metz

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that 24 Cobble Hill Association members have called a special meeting to boot long-time leader Roy Sloane from the position of acting president, and to elect new officers to fill other board vacancies.

This comes in the middle of CHA-organized community talks with Fortis Property Group, the developer that won the rigged bid to buy Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn and turn it into out-of-scale condos.

Is the coup part of the death throes of what was once a dynamic community organization -- or a positive infusion of fresh blood in the fight to fight the mega-development of Cobble Hill?

Cobble Hill Association torn over leader as LICH development looms [Brooklyn Eagle]


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Man Killed by Car On Atlantic Ave. at Clinton Street, Brooklyn

This was the scene at Atlantic & Clinton about an hour after the pedestrian was fatally struck. pic.twitter.com/8SoSHc7D56

— Laurie A. Duncan (@macsamurai) August 10, 2015

A 66-year-old man was struck and killed on Atlantic Ave. and Clinton Street in Cobble Hill Sunday night.

According to tweeter Laurie A. Duncan, the man pronounced DOA at Brooklyn Hospital. Atlantic Ave. was closed from Henry to Court.

UPDATE: Brownstoner has more details on the man who was killed.

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Save LICH Attorney Jim Walden Hired by Cobble Hill Association

Oops, we seem to have used the wrong photo here.

Jim Walden, the white-shoe attorney who worked tirelessly (pro bono) but failed to save Long Island College Hospital (LICH), has been hired by the Cobble Hill Association (CHA) to advise the community on its legal options as a developer prepares to knock LICH down.

Walden represented six Brooklyn community groups, including the CHA, in the heartbreaking two-year legal battle to prevent the state from closing LICH.

CHA is hosting a public meeting on the redevelopment of the LICH site on Thursday August 6 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the Brooklyn Montessori School at 185 Court Street, at Bergen Street, in Cobble Hill. The meeting will include a brief presentation of the options put forth by Fortis, followed by opportunities for community feedback and discussion.

More on this at the Brooklyn Eagle and Capital NY.


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Get Ready for Brooklyn's 2015 Bastille Day Celebration

 Bastille Day will be celebrated in Brooklyn on Sunday, July 12 on Smith Street in its usual fabulous manner.

Photo: MK Metz

French folk and those who love them will crowd Smith Street to drink Pastis, watch the petanque tournament, stick their heads in the guillotine, eat French food and party at Bar Tabac, a major sponsor.

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).

John Quadrozzi has been donating and spreading the sand with his cement trucks for the past 11 years to create the petanque courts. The food and drink come from Smith Street restaurants and shops. Competitors in the petanque tournament come from all over the world.

Petanque, pronounced "pay-tonk", is related to the Italian bowling game called 'bocce'.Only it's French.

In petanque, competitors throw metal balls (boules), trying to get close to a little ball called a "pig" (cochonnet).

The Brooklyn event is the biggest Bastille celebration in the U.S.  The event was founded by Bette Stoltz along with restaurants Bar Tabac and Robin des Bois (now shuttered), and is sponsored by French apéritif company Ricard.

The actual holiday, which commemorates the storming of the Bastill in 1789, taks place on July 14 but in Brooklyn, it always takes place on Sunday.

Previous posts on this topic:

- The French Storm Brooklyn's Smith Street for Bastille Day 2014
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn this Sunday: Petanque AND the Final World Cup Game 2014
- 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 (2008)
- Brooklyn's Bastille Day: Smith Street, Sunday (coming up 2008)
- Bastille Day in Brooklyn -- La Rue de Smith Sautait! (2007)

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Brooklyn's 'Madison Ave.' and More Brooklyn Briefs

- There goes the neighborhood: The Daily News proclaims: "Court Street is quickly becoming Brooklyn’s own Madison Ave."

- Brooklyn leads the city in disgusting grocery stores. [Brokelyn]

- City’s new budget allots $57M for ‘pork’ spending. And guess which Councilmen chipped in to fund a controversial nonprofit founded by disgraced ex-Assemblyman Vito Lopez? [NY Post]

- Police-chokehold victim Eric Garner’s nephew was shot Thursday afternoon during a robbery attempt in Coney Island. [NY Post]

- Bruce Ratner and David Walentas were the old-timers in the inaugural “Make it in Brooklyn Innovation Summit" yesterday. [CapitalNY]

- Nets acquire 4 new players on draft night. [Brooklyn Nets]


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Cobble Hill Residents Organize to Fight Fortis' LICH Plan

Credit: Williams New York

Cobble Hill residents gathered at a meeting called by the Cobble Hill Association (CHA) Tuesday night to discuss the plans revealed by Fortis Property Group for the Long Island College Hospital (LICH) site.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, residents are organizing to fight the plan.

Committees are being formed to address legal and environmental issues, as well as publicity, including social media and fundraising. See more at the Eagle:

Cobble Hill residents vow to fight Fortis plans for LICH site [Brooklyn Eagle]

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