Monthly Archives

May 2012

Subway Service Alerts: Weekend and the Following Week

May 31, 2012

At last, it will be clear tracks in all directions this weekend on lines serving local subway stations. Those using the A/C line for travel to and from Manhattan should know that on Saturday and Sunday Brooklyn bound C trains will not be making their usual local stops between 145th Street and Canal Street. If you’re coming back from the Upper West Side, Midtown West, or Chelsea, you can catch a southbound D train, which will be making the usual C train stops, and take it to 125th, 59th, 42nd, 14th, or West 4th, where you can change to a Brooklyn bound A or C. From Soho, catch the E train at Spring Street and go one stop to Canal, where you can change to the A or C.

The following week, from 12:01 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, there will again be no service on the 4/5 line to or from Brooklyn. As before, the 3 train, which will be running normally during these hours, will have its route extended to New Lots Avenue for the convenience of those traveling into Brooklyn. Also, at the same times, Brooklyn bound A trains will be re-routed to the F line between West 4th and Jay Street-Metro Tech. Consequently, there will be no Brooklyn bound service at High Street (the C doesn’t run during these hours). North Heights residents returning late at night can take and A or F to Jay and change there for a Manhattan bound A to High Street or, more likely, use the 2 or 3 tho Clark Street or N (which replaces the R late at night) to Court Street.

Photo: Storify.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41475

From the Web

History, Real Estate

Karl Catches Beginning of Eagle Demolition; Return of Marty Arno

May 31, 2012

Mr. J. and his cam are on hand for the beginning of the demolition of the unloved Brooklyn Eagle Building, and for the return to the Heights of much loved former video store proprietor Marty Arno. Video after the jump.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41470

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Heights History: 1952, Promenade Open, BQE Still Under Construction

May 31, 2012

Here is a 1952 view of the incomplete Brooklyn Queens Expressway, with people on the newly opened Brooklyn Heights Promenade over the new highway. The BQE just comes to an end at the lower right corner, with the Brooklyn Bridge far in the distance.

See original full-size photo on Flickr here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41256

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment, Events, Kids

Transit Museum shows Antonio Masi watercolors, hosts two family workshops

May 30, 2012

Image via salmagundi.org

The Transit Museum’s summer show is “The Golden Age of Bridges,” and it features Antonio Masi’s dramatic paintings of the nine major bridges of New York City. The show continues through September, 2012, and Masi will be conducting two family workshops this summer. The first will be this Sunday, June 3, at 1:30 pm. (The program will be repeated on Saturday, August 4 at 1:30 pm.) The program is free with museum admission, but you need a reservation. The program is suitable for children aged 6 and up.

Masi’s technique is distinguished by his unusual use of watercolor. Usually considered a light and airy medium, Masi uses watercolor to underscore the thick and heavy steel of the bridges he paints. He combines light washes with much thicker weights to show the heavy, weighted mass of each bridge. “I discovered that watercolor can also be used in a thick manner,” he explains, “and it can express the heaviest subjects imaginable. With watercolor, I contrast the mass, power and delicacy of my subjects.”

Following a 45-minute demonstration, children and their parents will be invited to paint a bridge in themselves.

The New York Transit Museum is located on the corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn Heights.

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment

Film Critic Aaron Hillis Takes Over Cobble Hill’s ‘Video Free Brooklyn’

May 30, 2012

Film critic Aaron Hillis—editor of GreenCine Daily and programmer at indie cinema and gastropub reRun at reBar in DUMBO—is bringing a new spin to a retro business venture: He’s taking over a beloved video store in Cobble Hill.

According to Filmmaker Magazine (and first tipped by McBrooklyn), Hillis’ operation of decade-old “Video Free Brooklyn” at 244 Smith Street, will now be all artisanal and perhaps co-op. “I want to reinvent the video store experience and make it fun again,” he says. Hillis will be at the front counter as of June 1.

Filmmaker muses, “At a time when the independent film world is obsessed with VOD, downloads and streaming, Hillis is time-traveling back to the world of plastic cases, late fees and, on the more positive side, savvy clerks who know you, your tastes and are vocal in their recommendations.”

Hillis tells the magazine:

Video Free Brooklyn (has) been a real staple, an institution in my neighborhood of Cobble Hill for the last decade. The owner, Dan Wu, has lived in Kentucky for a few years and wants to pursue another endeavor. And the store has been sustainable. It’s in a well-trafficked area and caters to a media-savvy (clientele), a community that needs to be served with a well-curated video store.

I’m not scared of things like Netflix, because that’s so impersonal. I’ve got 200 movies in my instant streaming queue and I’m not watching any of them because I click on them and I feel that’s good enough. It’s like a Facebook friend: It doesn’t have the same perceived value. And I’ve had so much interest from people within the film industry—critics, filmmakers, programmers—that it may end up like a co-op, mainly staffed by film-minded people, many of whom will have full-time jobs already and will be working their required monthly shifts. I want to reinvent the video store experience and make it fun again.

Read the full Filmmaker interview with Hillis here.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7269

From the Web

Arts and Entertainment, Events, Music

BHS Beer Gardens Begin Tomorrow

May 30, 2012

The Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont Street (corner of Clinton), begins its series of summer beer gardens on the patio in front of the historic building tomorrow evening (Thursday, May 31) from 6:00 to 8:00, with music by “one of Brooklyn’s hottest folk bands”, The Tres Amigos. (Shouldn’t that be Los Tres Amigos? No; they “embrace the spanglish of their name as artistic vision.”) Beer is by Brooklyn Brewery, and folks from there will be glad to talk beer with you as they pour.. Admission is free; drink tix are five bucks each. More details are here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41461

From the Web

Open Thread: Wednesday May 30, 2012

May 30, 2012

Tomorrow, May 31, is the birthdate of Brooklyn’s hallowed poet & journalist Walt Whitman. He was born in 1819 in Long Island, but his family moved to Brooklyn when he was 4, and he spent much of his professional life in the Borough. In 1846, Whitman became editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, and contributed freelance fiction & poetry. He was fired in 1848, because his political views clashed with the newspaper’s owner’s.

Whitman’s major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855. He used his own money to print 795 copies. The widely distributed work was described as obscene for its overt sexuality. Grass was revised several more times until his death in 1892. The collection was hardly a cash cow, and Whitman returned to journalism in 1857, as editor of Brooklyn’s Daily Times. He oversaw the paper’s contents, contributed book reviews & wrote editorials.

Oh, and speaking of editorials… It’s Open Thread Wednesday. What’s on your mind? (Photo: Chuck Taylor)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41356

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, Real Estate

Rent-Stabilized Residents At 85 Livingston Fuming Over Rent Hike

May 29, 2012

Residents of 85 Livingston Street at the Brooklyn Heights/Downtown Brooklyn border are battling a $60 to $90 a month rent hike for 30 or so rent-stabilized units in the coop building, saying it will “devastate” the mostly elderly folks living in those apartments. While the majority of the building was converted to coops in 1989, developer Mark Teitelbaum—who owns the rental units—insists that improvements to the building warrant the increase.

The New York Daily News reported Tuesday May 29 that Teitelbaum insists the hike is justified because he financed work to caulk and waterproof bricks on the building’s facade that co-op owners in the building decided to do.

The issue in question: Those renovations began in 2004, while Teitelbaum filed with the state Department of Housing and Community Renewal for the rent increase two years after the work was finished. Initially, his application was denied, but he appealed and the agency reversed its decision. On Thursday, DHCR issued an order upholding the rent increase, saying work on the building continued long enough that the application met the deadline.

In addition to the monthly increase of $60-$90 a month, Teitelbaum is demanding $2,500 in retroactive rent from each tenant. He originally owned 75 rental apartments in the building, and has sold them at market value as tenants moved out. Note: The Daily News story evades what seems to be an important detail: What the current monthly rent is for any of those 23-year stabilized units.

Residents insist the DHCR decree to increase rent isn’t valid, since Teitelbaum didn’t file for the hike until 2008. They also claim it will displace the elderly, including 94-year-old Margaret Cafiero, who has lived at 85 Livingston Street for 30+ years: “It’s putting a burden on people to raise the rent so much at one time,” she told the Daily News. “It’s like fighting City Hall; you never win.”

However, Deputy Commissioner Woody Pascal wrote about the Thursday decision, “At their core, the tenants’ primary objections are based on the impact of the increase rather than its supporting factual basis. DHCR must administer the increase in accordance with law.”

Zaida Concepcion, 62, another resident who has lived in the building 35 years, said, “He wants us out. He wants the apartments. He’s licking his chops, waiting for them.”

City Councilman Steve Levin (D-Brooklyn Heights), is siding with residents: “Almost every one of the renters are senior citizens, and many on fixed incomes. If these rent increases go through, some of these seniors may be out on the street.”

Read the Daily News story here.

(Photo: New York Daily News)


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41427

From the Web

Health

Mount Sinai Brooklyn Heights Medical Group Signs 15-Year Lease At One Pierrepont Plaza

May 29, 2012

Mount Sinai Brooklyn Heights Medical Group has signed a lease for 75,060 square feet at One Pierrepont Plaza. The private medical practice will take the 17th and 18th floors in the 19-story tower on Clinton Street (300 Cadman Plaza) in Brooklyn Heights. After renovations, the tenant is scheduled to move in January 2013.

The space was previously used as a data center by investment bank Goldman Sachs, according to The New York Observer. The medical group will use the space for an ambulatory care office, urgent care, cardiology, general surgery, neurology and plastic surgery, among other medical practices.

FOR MASSIVE COMMENTARY ON THIS ISSUE, SEE OPEN THREAD WEDNESDAY, 5/30. IT HAS BEEN CO-OPTED AS THE DAY’S HOT TOPIC THERE.

The two partners—Mount Sinai Medical Center and WESTMED Practice Partners (a Westchester-based physician-owned private medical practice)—have been looking to move into the Brooklyn market.

Read more here.


Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41438

From the Web

Events

Touring the Ships at Piers 7 and 8

May 29, 2012

Yesterday your correspondent went to Piers 7 and 8 to view the ships docked there as part of OpSail 2012 and Fleet Week. Docked abreast at the foot of Pier 8 were the topsail schooners Etoile (left) and La Belle Poule, training ships for the French Navy. Behind them was the Armada de Mexico’s tall ship Cuauhtemoc.

Spain’s handsome four masted schooner Juan Sebastian de Elcano was docked on the north side of Pier 7.

Here is a close view of Elcano’s carved and gilded figurehead.

Docked behind Elcano was the Japan Defense Force destroyer Shirane.

Here is a view inside the wheelhouse of the Canadian destroyer Iroquois.

From Iroquois’ bridge, I could see the crowd lined up on Pier 6 to board the ferry to Governors Island.

Here is a back-lit view of Cuauhtemoc, showing her attractively draped sails.


Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7248

From the Web