Work on Main Street Park in DUMBO Kicks Off Despite Snow

Work has kicked off on the expanded Main Street Park at the north end of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The section seen in the top photo is roughly the area shown in the rendering above. To the right is the DEP building, which is being renovated to include an interpretive nature center, restrooms and a park maintenance facility, including a garbage compactor. North of that will be a bouldering wall.

Other projects being planned for Brooklyn Bridge Park this year can be seen here.

Top photo by MK Metz
Rendering courtesy of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. and Architecture Research Office

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Get Ready for Snow, Black Ice in NYC on Thursday

Photo: MK Metz

Here we go again! The city is expected to get  4 to 7 inches of snow on Thursday.

Because of refreezing, expect black ice, forecasters say.  Temperatures Thursday are expected to be in the 20s. 

NOAA says: "...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THURSDAY..."

"SNOW MAY BE HEAVY AT TIMES LATE TONIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING...BEFORE TAPERING OFF LATE THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND INTO THURSDAY EVENING."

According to NBC, New York City has issued more than 10,000 tickets to property owners for failing to clear snow and ice from sidewalks this winter.

NOAA says:

"IMPACTS...HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS DUE TO REDUCED VISIBILITIES...ICY ROADS AND SIGNIFICANT SNOW ACCUMULATIONS."

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Free Pizza on Subway: NYers Suspect It's a Trap

Improv Everywhere boarded a packed E train to hand out free pizza slices, PIX 11 reports.

"A group of men wearing uniforms from New York Pizza Suprema in Manhattan handed out slices of pizza to commuters," PIX 11 says.

Roxanne Robles, who supplied the video to PIX 11, said that “none of the New Yorkers” accepted the slices, but “all of the tourists did.”

Poor fools.

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NYC Schools to Close on Muslim Holidays; Farina Gives a Shout Out to Debbie Almontaser

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina (2nd from left). Photo by Demetrius Freeman, Mayoral Photo Office

NYC's Muslim kids so longer have to feel left out during major holidays:

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced on Wednesday that city schools will close for Eid al-Adha next September. (Summer school will also close for Eid-al-Fitr in 2016.)

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Fariña told reporters that the city has had “unbelievable support from the Muslim community and I want to particularly single out Debbie Almontaser and her family.”

It's nice to see Ms. Almontaser finally get some respect from New York City, after the shameful way she was treated in 2007 by then-Mayor Bloomberg, who caved into extremist right-wing demands and removed her from the school she founded.

Eid al-Adha meaning "Festival of the sacrifice." According to Wikipedia, Eid al-Adha honors the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his promised son, Ishmael (Ismail)a, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened.

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Previous mentions of Almontaser

- Almontaser Gets Her Story
- Brooklyn's Arabic School to Hit the Road Again?
- Judge Rules Against Ex-Principal of Brooklyn Arabic School 
- Arabic School, Taxi Strike, and Other Brooklyn News in Brief
- Brooklyn in Brief -- Weekend Edition
- Rally in Support of Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal
- Brilliant or Crazy? Jewish Principal Appointed for Brooklyn's Arabic School
- Brooklyn's Arabic School Principal Resigns in 'I-Word' Flap
- Arabic-Themed School Finds a Home
- Brooklyn in Brief, Monday P.M.
- DOE to 'Cram' Arab-Themed School into Slope Elementary School


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Four Weird Things About Abid Naseer, the Alleged Brooklyn Terrorist

Naseer allegedly planned to attack the NYC subway system. Photo: MK Metz

A jury in Brooklyn is deliberating the case of 28-year-old Abid Naseer, accused of plotting to help Al Qaeda bomb a shopping mall and planning to attack the New York City subway syste.

Naseer, a graduate of Flushing High School in Queens, was arrested in the United Kingdom .

He plans to argue that he was only trying to find a wife on the Internet, not collaborators.

It soon becomes obvious, however, that something is "off" about Naseer.

1: Naseer (who is representing himself) constantly refers to himself in the third person .

2: He was tracked throughout his communication with at least nine different email accounts: "All owned by men posing as women," New York magazine reports.

3: He used a code in which women’s names substituted for bomb materials.

4:  During the trial, MI5 officers gave evidence "while wearing wigs and makeup to hide their identities."

Whole thing sounds a little ... odd.


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Four Indicted for Kidnapping 13-Year-Olds; Brooklyn Is Totally Unaffordable; and More Briefs

- Four people have been named in a 32-count indictment in connection with the 2014 kidnapping of two 13-year-old girls in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Groups from oppressive countries and authoritarian regimes are among the candidates looking to acquire the Brooklyn Nets from a Russian oligarch.  [Sports Illustrated]

- Emotions ran high at a town hall meeting on illegal home conversions, a growing crisis in Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- This map shows you how unaffordable it is to live in NYC. Brooklyn is the worst, of course. [Curbed]

- Pacific Park/Atlantic Yards’ first condo building, 550 Vanderbilt Avenue, will launch sales this summer. Prices will start roughly in the range of $550,000 and go all the way up to around $5,500,000. [Brownstoner]

- Boerum Hill resident Ethan Hawke’s movie “Maggie’s Plan” will be shooting on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights tomorrow and Wednesday, screwing up parking as usual. [BHB]

 - Friggin' inspirational Brooklyn guy. [WYDNKBYANM]

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PERSONS OF INTEREST: The Brooklyn - Berlin Connection

Graffiti, street art, and the D.I.Y. scenes of Berlin and Brooklyn are coming together with the show PERSONS OF INTEREST.

 PERSONS OF INTEREST is a portraiture show appearing March 14 - June 15 in the street level windows of the future Urban Nation HQ in Berlin.

The organizors (Urban Nation and Brooklyn Street Art) say the "select group of important Brooklyn street artists ... represent a cross section of styles and techniques seen on walls, in doorways, and everywhere else on the streets of Brooklyn (and NYC) during the last decade and a half."

Full release here.


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Brooklyn Has More Playground Lawsuits than Any Other Borough

Claimstat map by NYC. Red dot = 5+ claims.

 New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a "ClaimStat Alert" on Sunday focusing on the rise in playground-related personal injury claims against the city.

Comptroller Stringer’s analysis found that from FY05-FY14, there were 577 playground-related personal injury claims filed against NYC.

Brooklyn had by far the most claims (seen on the map aabove) filed during this time period -- 209 -- dwarfing Manhattan (123), the Bronx (111), Queens (111), and Staten Island (23).

Stroud and Slope Park Playground in Brooklyn had 6 claims; Sunset Park had 5.

Claims have risen 53 percent over the last ten years, from a 45 claims in FY05 to 69 claims in FY14. The city has paid out a total of $20,644,448 over the ten year period studied.

Stringer wrotee a letter asking the Department of Parks to bring playground surfaces and equipment into a state of good repair.


Common claims include:

- Improper surfacing (including missing or defecting matting), cracked or broken surfaces, holes in the ground, and rubber mats that burn too hot in summer months.

- Insufficient maintenance and defective equipment, such as swings and slides;

- Improper playground design; and

- Protruding nails and/or debris

Full ClaimStat Alert 

Interactive map


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Crown Heights Assembly Race; Brooklyn UFT Charter School Closing; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- 'Gadfly' gets the nomination for Brooklyn Crown Heights Assembly race. [Observer]

- Citi Bike releases map of Williamsburg and Greenpoint expansion -- Nothing in Park Slope for a couple years. [Streetsblog]

- U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch with former Mayor David Dinkins, in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Controversial UFT Charter School in Brooklyn to close elementary and middle grades. [NY1]

- Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl WuDunn to speak at Brooklyn Historical Society Thursday: This Thursday evening, March 5…[ BHB]

- A trustee of Brooklyn Hospital Center has taken over as temporary CEO; Dr. Becker is off to profitable work.  [Brooklyn Eagle]


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NYC OEM: Travel Advisory for Monday's Rush Hour

Photo: MK Metz

The New York City Office of Emergency Management issued a travel advisory for a "wintry mix of snow and freezing rain" through Monday morning, March 2.

The National Weather Service has also issued a Winter Weather Advisory through 7:00 a.m. Monday.

Mayor de Blasio urged everyone to be careful during the commute.  The Department of Sanitation has sent out 500 salt spreaders.

The ice and snow is expected to taper off before Monday's morning commute, but untreated roads and walkways are expected to still be slippery.

For more information see this press release from NYC.


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