Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Vote for NY Aquarium's New Murals

Mural by Thomas Manco

Now you can vote for the three murals which New York Aquarium will display along the Coney Island Boardwalk.

Judges narrowed down 42 artist submissions to seven finalists.

"We received incredible submissions from artists all around the New York area who want to help transform our Education Hall boardwalk facade and inspire people to protect our waters. Now we need New Yorkers to help to choose the winner,” Jon Forrest Dohlin, director of the New York Aquarium, said.

The three winning designs will be installed and unveiled the week of World Ocean’s Day, June 8.

More on this here, including some very corny puns.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Friday, April 21, 2017

Did Charter School Delete Video Showing Crime? Plus: Asshole Neighbor; The Pigeon In the Kitchen Dilemma; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- Brooklyn charter school deleted video showing students sexually assaulting girl on bus: lawsuit. [Daily News]

- Asshole neighbor painted another Brooklyn brownstone owner's wall black, without her permission. [Daily Mail]

- Report: As homelessness increases, Brooklyn stands to lose thousands of units of affordable housing. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Williamsburg woman comes back from long trip to find a pregnant pigeon in her kitchen, using an orange pasta strainer as a nest. [CBS]

- Parents say Crown Heights school did not disclose abnormally high levels of lead in water supply. [Pix11]

- Sheepshead Bay, old and new: Condos where El Greco Diner stood. [Brooklyn Eagle]

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

BB Gun Shootings; Dine in Brooklyn Kicks Off Monday; Sunset Park Landmarking and More Brooklyn Briefs

Hahaha we just saw this one.

- Three people — including a 13-year-old boy — have been shot with a BB gun in Brooklyn this week, apparently by the same attacker. [Daily News]

- The future of urban farming is in shipping containers. In Brooklyn, of course. [Motherboard]

- Three Brooklyn Web series to watch. [Brownstoner]

- What's next in Sunset Park residents' landmarking quest? [Brooklyn Eagle]

- 37-year-old victim speaks out Wednesday, after he was brutally beaten by four men inside a Brooklyn restaurant after offering them a gesture of kindness. [CBS]

- 2017 Dine In Brooklyn kicks off Monday, and its shaping up to be delicious. [Brooklyn Eagle]

Sorry, Fabolous, you're not getting a Brooklyn street. [Steriogum]

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Another Body Found in Prospect Park Lake; Incurable Disease Hits Brooklyn Oak Trees; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- A search for a missing person ended tragically Monday, when the body of a 19-year-old man was pulled from Prospect Park’s lake. [Daily News]

- Deadly, incurable & fast spreading oak wilt disease detected in Brooklyn trees. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn cheerleaders need help getting to the national championship in Orlando. [abc7]

- Cops are looking for a man who tried to rip off a woman’s pants in an elevator in Ditmas Park. [Daily News]

- The big-money developers who lavished cash on Mayor de Blasio’s nonprofit appear to be behind the planning of the multibillion-dollar Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX) trolley line. [NY Post]

- Brighton Beach is brought to life through the lens of Franck Bohbot in this 'Little Odessa' series. [fubiz]

- Brooklyn to show up in force at post-inauguration protest. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- To kick off the Trump era, the House votes to get rid of the Office of Congressional Ethics. [TPM]

Nicki Minaj performs "Starships", from "The Pinkprint Tour in Brooklyn.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Brooklyn Hospitals Get Terrible Rating from Federal Gov; Laundromat Dog Stealer; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- Unhealthy Brooklyn: Brooklyn hospitals fare abysmally in disputed federal rankings. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Woman shot while playing with grandchildren at Brooklyn playground. [Daily News]

- The Coney Island Circus Sideshow school has opened to train people in the classic art of freaking people out. [Sheepshead Bites]

- Police are searching for a man who stole a dog from a laundromat in Bushwick. [CBSlocal]

- Pictures: Coney Island’s 26th annual sand sculpting competition took the classic beach activity to a new level on Saturday. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- Here's what a million dollars worth of frozen eels looks like. [Brooklyn Eagle]

Glass artist tags Brooklyn Heights with colorful pigeons. [BHB]  And this is the guy who makes the beautiful glass mosaics on lampposts in the East Village. [Open Culture]

- Venus and Jupiter are converging for a spectacular conjunction in the sunset sky on August 27th. [NASA]


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Inside Hillary's HQ in Brooklyn; Alamo Drafthouse; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- Video: A New York Times reporter captured a slice of life from Hillary Clinton’s headquarters in Brooklyn. [NYT]

- Movie theater-plus-restaurant chain Alamo Drafthouse will be serving its first screen-side beers in Downtown Brooklyn this summer. [Eater]

- A farm deep inside a Brooklyn warehouse may transform large-scale urban agriculture. [Crains]

- Resorts World Casino now operating shuttle bus from Barclays plaza to casino. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Brooklyn has got a landmarked tree. [Brownstoner]

- Protests outside a Jewish wedding in Boro Park because protesters say wife did not get proper divorce. [Twitter]



Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Robot Shop in Williamsburg; Community Gardens to Developers; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- A 15-year-old Brooklyn girl was charged Monday with murdering her mom and her mom’s boyfriend in Sheepshead Bay. [Daily News]

- Two robbers who viciously beat a 60-year-old man in an attack in Midwood last week are under arrest, but police are still looking for the getaway driver. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- New Williamsburg pop-up shop Geek Forest is a one-stop shop for robots. [Fox]

- There's a lot of opposition to the Bushwick 200 project. [Bedford and Bowery]

- At least 9 community gardens in Brooklyn and Manhattan will be turned over to developers. [City Limits]

- You're probably entitled to commuter benefits now that could save you up to $1,000 a year. [Brooklyn Eagle]


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Recycle your Christmas Tree at MulchFest in Brooklyn This Weekend

Help the environment and recycle your Christmas tree:

On Saturday, January 9, or Sunday, January 10, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., bring your tree to the Third Street entrance of Prospect Park or the Park Circle entrance at Parkside Avenue and Prospect Park Southwest, and it will be turned into environment-friendly ground cover. You can take home free mulch for your own garden.

While you wait for your mulch, you can enjoy hot chocolate, served by the Park Slope Civic Council or become a Civic Council member.

Can't make it? If you live in the area bounded by Union Street, Sixth Avenue, 15th Street, and Prospect Park West, you can leave your tree at either end of your block before 11 a.m. on Saturday and volunteers will pick it up and bring it to the 3rd Street entrance of the Park.

To volunteer, e-mail the Civic Council's Sustainability Committee, sustainability@parkslopeciviccouncil.org or come to the Third Street entrance of the Park.

MulchFest is co-sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council in partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, with special help from 1-800 Mr. Rubbish and U-Haul.
_____________

Update: To check out other parks holding their own Mulchfest events, visit: nycgovparks.org/highlights/festivals/mulchfest
_____________

Update 2: If you can't make it to MulchFest, the Department of Sanitation will begin its annual Christmas tree curbside collection program from Monday, January 4 through Friday, January 15.
Clean, non-bagged Christmas trees left on the curb will be chipped, mixed with leaves, and recycled into rich compost for the city’s parks, institutions, and community gardens.  


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Man Kills Wife with SUV; 62 More Citi Bike Stations; and More Brooklyn Briefs

What's with all these naked (or almost naked) guys performing in Union Square, anyway? Photo: MK Metz
- A 26-year-old woman was killed outside her Brooklyn home by her husband backing an SUV out of the driveway. (An unconfirmed comment raises many questions.) [Gothamist]

- Citi Bike expansion bringing 62 new stations to Brooklyn. [Curbed]

- A wetland grows in Brooklyn: Filthy NYC tributary turned back to nature in $455M project. [AP]

- Some things you may not know about the Gowanus Canal. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- A Brooklyn-based group is arguing that gentrification is a human rights violation. [The Atlantic]

- Massive police presence at Thursday’s anti-police violence rally and march in Downtown Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Overcrowded Schools in Cobble Hill, Booze in Brooklyn Bridge Park, and More Briefs

- Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill parents will be holding a discussion about overcrowding in the area’s public elementary schools on Oct. 21. [PMFA]

- The meteoric price rise of the Brooklyn penthouse. [NY Post]

- Booze in Brooklyn Bridge Park: CB2 approves Pierhouse hotel’s rooftop bar liquor license. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- In case you haven't seen the terrifying Williamsburg rat vs. pigeon video yet.... [Patch]

- How to be a successful billionaire, according to Brooklyn Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov. [GQ]

- Pilot program aims to save Jamaica Bay’s shrinking marshes. [NY Times]

- SAT, AP test scores up for NYC students. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Fall festival and movie night in Kaiser Park Saturday, October 17, hosted by Councilman Mark Treyger. [Sheepshead Bites]

- Costume free-for-all 80s- and 90s-themed Halloween party in Brooklyn on Oct. 30. [Brokelyn]


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

McBrooklyn In the Woods, Contemplating Nature and All that Stuff

Bushkill Falls waterfall, by MK Metz
We at McBrooklyn Enterprises have been hiking around in the woods of Pennsylvania, climbing up cliffs, staring at beautiful waterfalls and in general enjoying nature.

Revelation: The woods of Pennsylvania have billions and billions of daddy long-legs (which look like spiders but are not), and also about half a billion actual spiders. On the other hand, there are almost no mosquitoes . . . unlike Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, spawning ground of herds of horrifyingly mutated Gowanus Mosquitoes.


Rooster at Hallo Berlin. Photos: MK Metz
Traveling north to Conklin, NY, we discovered the Hallo Berlin beer hall, sister to the Hallo Berlin restaurant in Manhattan.

We enjoyed excellent wurst and salads like potato salad, cucumber salad etc.

The old-timey establishment keeps chickens, turkeys and baby pigs in the back. Despite the copious number of sausages sold there, the waitress swears "We don't eat them!"

We'll be back to Brooklyn tomorrow!


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Brooklyn PTA President Steals $14K; Brooklyn's Lost Trolley Glory; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- Bratton: Recruiting black cops is hard because so many have criminal histories. [Time]

- Brooklyn PTA president busted for stealing $14,000 from school account. [Daily News]

- Photos: BP Eric Adams congratulates the refined members of the 75-year-old Brooklyn Heights Garden Club, as they announce their window box contest winners. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- 1930s trolley map shows how cleanly and efficiently connected Brooklyn used to be, but is no more. [Gothamist]

- Brooklyn Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte came under intense criticism from a segment of the Jewish community after she voiced her fierce opposition for Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed education tax credit. [Haitian Times]

- Brooklyn-born rapper Pumpkinhead, an underground hip-hop king, died Tuesday morning in NJ at 39. He attended Park Slope’s PS 282. [Daily News]

- A 31-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the shooting that killed a 29-year-old Russian Jewish man in the Midwood section of Brooklyn three months ago. [JP Updates]

- Photos: A Brooklynite's pilgrimage to the top of the World Trade Center. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Gotham Gazette sums up the main issues on the agenda in the NYS legislature's last 7 days. These include the 421-A tax break for developers, and Mayoral control of public schools. 


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Friday, February 20, 2015

2-Hr. Amazon Deliveries to Brooklyn; Brooklyn Folk Fest Coming to Brooklyn Heights; and More Brooklyn Briefs


- The father and uncle of a Brooklyn boy killed in elevator attack are arrested in Montague St. bank heist. [CBS local]

- Almost-instant gratification: Amazon's 2-hr deliveries now comes to Prime members in Brooklyn. [re/code]

 - Brooklyn folk festival will expand -- and is moving to St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights. [NY Times]

- A troubled Park Slope assisted living facility has agreed to pay $750,000 to the family of Brooklyn's "Kung Fu" judge who died after being locked up there seven years ago. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- It's so freezing out that snowy owls from the Arctic have descended on Brooklyn. [NY Magazine]

- Brooklyn's most dangerous intersection is Eastern Parkway and Utica. [amNY]

- Autistic Brooklyn man with diabetes, 20, is missing since Tuesday. [PIX11]

- A man was shot to death in East New York Thursday night. [CBSlocal]

- TSA found 2 guns in 2 separate ladies' handbags at JFK on Thursday. One belonged to a Brooklyn resident.  [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The leading candidate in the special election to replace Michael Grimm in Congress says it's worth the cost. [NY1]

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

In Brooklyn Dinosaur News....

Alioramus*
 A Brooklyn judge ruled on Tuesday that the owner of what was supposed to be fake dinosaur bones must forfeit them because they are actually 65 million-year-old Alioramus bones.

Alioramus -- related to the Tyrannosaurus Rex -- was a dinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous period.

The bones were falsely described as a French replica in January 2014, when they were shipped to the United States by Geofossiles, Inc., a French fossil dealer. Geofossiles charged the buyer a quarter of a million dollars for what was supposed to be a cheap fake.

Judge Brian M. Cogan, in federal court in Brooklyn, agreed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which said the bones were stolen Mongolian property that was smuggled into the United States using false declarations.

The forfeiture was announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and James T. Hayes, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, HSI.

Lynch said, “Lies and forgeries are no match for the vigilance of our partners at CBP and HSI."

Under Mongolian law, fossils like these are national property and cannot be sold to non-Mongolians or permanently exported.

*Photo: By Texas A&M University-Commerce Marketing Communications Photography (14365- dinosaur 4155) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

View of the Brooklyn Bridge, From Squibb Park

Photo: MK Metz
 The always-breathtaking Brooklyn Bridge / East River panorama, as seen from Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Dense Fog Warning for Brooklyn and Surrounding Areas

Photo: MK Metz
 The National Weather Service has issued a "dense fog advisory" for Brooklyn, most of Queens, and all of the other boroughs, from midnight tonight to 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Take care driving: Slow down and use your low beams.

* VISIBILITIES...ONE QUARTER MILE OR LESS AT TIMES.

* TIMING...AFTER MIDNIGHT TONIGHT INTO MID MORNING WEDNESDAY.

* IMPACTS...REDUCED VISIBILITIES...ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND NEAR BODIES OF WATER.


Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Film and Talk: Coney Island Creek After Sandy

On October 29, the second anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the Coney Island History Project presents:  "Coney Island Creek After Sandy: Planning for the Future."

Will the Creek be a community asset or a liability? A talk and film presentation by Charles Denson, director of the Coney Island History Project, will be held at the Coney Island Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at 6pm. The Wednesday evening event is free and open to the public. The Coney Island Library is located at 1901 Mermaid Avenue at the corner of West 19th Street.

Charles Denson, a Coney Island native, has been documenting the Creek for over 40 years and is working on a book and film about the waterway. In 2013 Denson received the Herman Melville Award from the New York State Marine Education Association.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Monday, October 13, 2014

McBrooklyn Is In the North Country. Be Back Monday

Definitely not Brooklyn . . .  (Photo: MK Metz)
McBrooklyn had to run up to northern New York today.

We had a couple hours left for fun, so we detoured to Lackawanna Lake in northeastern Pennsylvania. There are miles of great hiking and mountain biking trails in Lackawanna State Park surrounding the lake. Folks were fishing from docks and boats for trout and other types of fish (it's a stocked lake).

Quite a change from Brooklyn Bridge Park!

We'll be back in Brooklyn Monday.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Mama Pumpkin and Baby Pumpkins

Photo by MK Metz
At Garden of Eden on Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights.

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Community Boos NYU LICH Fail; Dock Street DUMBO Ginormous; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn community groups, nurses, officials slam NYU failure to keep LICH ER promise. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Developer replaces big, unpopular Sheepshead Bay condo plan with plan for bigger condo. [Sheepshead Bites] via [Brokelyn]

- New rendering shows how overwhelming the new Dock Street building in DUMBO is. [DumboNYC]

- Michael Grimm: Foreign policy expert. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Kensington science teacher arrested, accused of sexually abusing five of his students at P.S. 249. [Daily News]

- Two panels on race in Brooklyn. [Brownstoner]

- Crown Heights North 7th Annual House Tour on Oct. 4. [CHN]

- This is what chestnuts look like on a tree. [MatthewWills]

Go to McBrooklyn's HOME PAGE.