Social Registry Four Year Label Anniversary

Two Day Outdoor Festival

Mean Red sent us this cool graphic:

To celebrate their 4th anniversary, on August 11th and 12th (Saturday and Sunday) they're hosting a two-day outdoor festival. This will feature a whole host of bands including Gang Gang Dance, Psychic Ills, Artanker Convoy, Samara Lubelski, TK Webb and Electroputas. Many new signings to The Social Registry will be performing such as Growing, UK-based Sian Alice Group (playing their first ever US show), Mike Bones, Christy & Emily and Douglas Armour (his East Coast debut). Special surprise -- a reunion show from Ghost Exits, their first live performance in about three years.

Venue: The Yard
Address: 400 Carroll Street btwn. Bond and Nevins
Directions: F or G train to Carroll Street / N or R train to Union Street
Price per day: $15
Price for both days: $25
Hours: 1pm-9:30pm

Advance tickets are available through TicketWeb: www.ticketweb.com

Hard copy tickets are available at Other Music and Eat Records.

Mermaids Beat Thor Out of Coney Building, and More

- In two weeks, the nonprofit that runs the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Museum, and the Circus Sideshow will close a deal to buy the building it now leases. Coney Island USA founder Dick Zigun says that with the city’s backing, it will purchase the 1917 structure at a price of $3.6 million — beating out Thor for the deal. New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer

- Craigslist is holding a "boot camp" for non-profits and social entrepreneurs at BAM.

- The Kensington blog is compiling a list of trees blown away by the tornado. Respond before the city moves on to the next crisis.

- Closings are moving quickly and new residents have moved in to the J Condo. DumboNYC

- How to help out the Bay Ridge tornado victims. OTBKB

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament at KeySpan Park

You know that there's at least one sport you can do: Rock, Paper, Scissors.

On Saturday, September 1st, the Brooklyn Cyclones will hold a "Rock, Paper, Scissors" tournament, with a grand prize of two 2008 Cyclones' season tickets and two round-trip JetBlue domestic airline tickets. The Rock, Paper, Scissors tourney will take place on the field at KeySpan Park, with four finalists advancing to the Cyclones' RPS Final Four, to be held during that night's game against the Staten Island Yankees.

More here.

Photo by Everyskyline, Creative Commons license

Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap

In the end, it wasn't the raging anti-Arab mobs that brought an end to the budding career of the Khalil Gibran school's founder Debbie Almontaser, nor was it the inept site search by the Department of Education.

It was some T-shirts printed by an Arabic women's group with the words "Intifada NYC" that ended the tenure of the first principal of the first Arabic-themed school in NYC, which will open in Boerum Hill in September, reports the New York Post and the Brooklyn Eagle.

Though the T-shirts had nothing to do with Ms. Almontaser or the school, the group operated out of the same offices used by an organization Almontaser works with. Ms. Almontaser initially defended the women's use of the word "intifada." Though she later reconsidered, that (as they say) was that.

Post story here.
Eagle story here.

- Arabic-themed school finds a home here.
- DOE to 'cram' Arabic-themed school into Park Slope elementary school here.

All That's Left of 182 Atlantic Avenue

On July 23, we posted "Say Goodbye to 182 Atlantic Avenue." The site (on Atlantic near Court Street, behind the old Independence Bank building) was recently the home to the highly commendable Independence Community Foundation (the small picture on the left), but it passed into the hands of Two Trees Management on July 25.

Well, we were busy and forgot to check in during the intervening two weeks. But we weren't surprised Thursday afternoon to find that 182 was kaput, because a source had told us that Two Trees was champing at the bit to knock the sucker down.

Independence Community Foundation has moved to 45 Main Street, a Two Trees property experiencing a bit of trouble recently.

Now that 182 Atlantic is torn down, construction will begin on the 37-unit, six story apartment building (photo here) that Two Trees is putting up behind the bank building -- which, by the way, is the future home to Trader Joe's.

Back to McBrooklyn HOME

How Much Is That Doggie in the Planter?

This imaginative bit of topiary on Henry Street near Degraw looks like it's ready to jump out of the planter while waggling its little tail.

Photo by MK Metz

NYU Could Expand into Downtown Brooklyn

- Should the proposed merger between Brooklyn's Polytechnic University and New York University go through, the result would be an expansion of NYU to Brooklyn -- not necessarily limited to Polytechnic’s present real-estate, but into other areas of MetroTech and Downtown Brooklyn as well. Brooklyn Eagle

More Thursday links:

- Had the tornado hit Park Slope or Fort Greene rather than blue-collar neighborhoods of Sunset Park and Bay Ridge, we'd no doubt have more fun YouTube footage of flying Bugaboo baby strollers and airborne Labradoodles... Wired Science

- The Brooklyn Speaks coalition and local politicians called for increased community oversight of Bruce Ratner's controversial Atlantic Yards plan. No Land Grab

- DOB: don't bother doing anything about 18-20 Jackson Place. It fell down. The Gowanus Lounge

- Take a look at this spiffy model of Two Trees' ideal Dumbo. Brownstoner

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Tracking the Path of Brooklyn's Tornado

(Are you looking for the Sept. 16, 2010 storm? That's here.)

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Using Google Maps, we tracked the path of the tornado as it cut it's way through Brooklyn. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the twister was believed to have started at 74th Street and Shore Road (green tag) before moving northeast to 68th Street and Fourth Avenue, then to Lief Ericson Park, up Sixth Avenue and 58th before swinging out to Midwood along Caton Avenue (red tag) , where it died down.

The National Weather Service confirmed that Wednesday's storm was an EF2-class tornado, winds up to 135 miles-per-hour, causing serious damage to homes in Bay Ridge and other sections of Brooklyn.

Early estimates by state Sen. Marty Golden’s office put damages possibly in the tens of millions of dollars. According to the Eagle, Lief Ericson Park lost between 30 and 40 percent of its trees. Roughly 400 roofs had been damaged, some ripped clean off.

More here.

UPDATE: Another map from the National Weather Service vis the Brooklyn Eagle here.

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Subways Out, Pedestrans Hoof It Over Brooklyn Bridge -- UPDATE: Transit System in State of Chaos

The steady trickle of business-suited pedestrians over the Brooklyn Bridge continued as of 10:30 this morning as most of the mass-transit options into Manhattan remain flooded following last night's massive storm. Here is the MTA's Service Alert Page.

For a brief time this morning, Brooklyn was under a tornado watch. NY1 reports that tornado-like winds ripped the roofs off several houses in Bay Ridge; Flatbush residents also reported damaged houses and crushed cars along several blocks. (A Kensington reader emailed a downed-tree photo to Gothamist.)

The official dedication of the Pearl Street Triangle in Dumbo has been postponed (DumboNYC).

UPDATE: Travelers report it is taking hours to get from Manhattan to Brooklyn, with the transit system in a state of chaos. One commuter says he started at 81st Street at 9:30 a.m. and had to take a patchword of trains and buses -- including a freelance non-MTA bus where the driver pocketed the $2 -- only to arrive in Brooklyn Heights at 12:45.

UPDATE 2: The Office of Emergency Management has set up a command center in heavily damaged Sunset Park, where the mayor, the governor and the police commissioner held a briefing on the storm’s damage. The Mayor asks people to stay home today if possible, as temperatures are expected to soar into the 90s. Cooling centers are being set up. NY1

Photo by MK Metz

If You Don't Think This is Cute, Then Your Heart is Made of Stone

Ducklings, hens, baby goats, pigs and sheep were some of the attractions that kept kids and their parents oohing and ahhing at the 84th Precinct's Night Out Against Crime last night at Borough Hall.

The Gowanus Wildcats Drill Team, wearing bright red, did their drill thing; 84th Precinct Explorer Scouts handed out brochures; faces were painted and kids got pony rides.

It was a good time!

Photo copyright MK Metz