The Brooklyn Nets meet the Chicago Bulls in Game 5 of their playoff series. It’s do or die for Brooklyn and here’s the Tale of the Tweets:
Celebrity Residents
Report: Palmetto Playground To Be Renamed Adam Yauch Park On Friday
April 28, 2013 
BHB sources claim that the Palmetto Playground will officially be renamed the Adam Yauch Playground this week. A ceremony to usher in the new name will reportedly be held this Friday May 3.
Yauch, who grew up in Brooklyn Heights before achieving fame as a member of the Beastie Boys died on May 4, 2012 of cancer. Yauch played at Palmetto while growing up in the neighborhood.
Last year BHB pal/King of All Rock Journos Who Went to St. Ann’s Sasha Frere-Jones remembered Yauch in a New Yorker piece:
New Yorker: I first met Adam Yauch in 1982, in Brooklyn, when I was fifteen. I was sitting on the red steps in the lobby of St. Ann’s, where I was a sophomore in high school. His bandmate, Michael Diamond, was a grade ahead of me. Occasionally Mike and I would talk about records and argue. We talked about doing a newsletter, but that was also just talk. His hardcore band, the Beastie Boys, was getting bigger in the very small pond of downtown Manhattan. (In the nineteen-eighties, folks didn’t play rock music in Brooklyn. You had to go to “The City” for that.) The Beasties had managed to open for the Bad Brains, which was about the best thing that could happen to a young punk in 1982. People sometimes made fun of the Beasties for not being real or hard enough or some other imaginary variable. I only heard Mike complain once, about their name being spelled as Beasty Boys, because it sounded like a pet food store.
DEVELOPING…
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/58060
From the Web
Brooklyn Heights
SUNY Withdraws Application To Close LICH; Will Seek “Sustainability Plan”
April 26, 2013 
After mounting community pressure and a unanimous vote from the NYC Council this week to support its existence, SUNY Downstate has officially withdrawn its application the the State Department of Health to close Long Island College Hospital. According to SUNY Downstate’s press release, forwarded to us by City Councilman Stephen Levin:
“The financial conditions at LICH remain unchanged. LICH’s continued financial losses still threaten the viability of Downstate Medical and our world-renowned medical school. We are withdrawing the closure plan so we can work with the State and other stakeholders on a sustainability plan for Brooklyn’s only medical school and to ensure quality medical care throughout the borough. The current legal proceedings prohibit this dialogue,” said Downstate President Dr. John F. Williams, Jr.
We will keep you advised of developments.
And this statement from our man in the NYS Senate Daniel Squadron:
It’s good news that SUNY is withdrawing its closure plan for LICH. Now there’s a real opportunity for a collaborative process that engages the community and local leaders on LICH’s future.
We’ve been making our voices heard loud and clear: LICH is vital to Brooklyn. And it’s clear we’re being heard.
As nearly the entire Brooklyn delegation wrote last week, it’s critical that any decision on LICH’s future includes community and legislative input. I continue to urge the state to form a working group to ensure those voices are a key part of the process.
This is a positive step on SUNY’s part and I urge the state and SUNY to continue to work with us to ensure that the needs of our community and all of Brooklyn are met.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/57954
From the Web
Another robbery at Macy’s, another sleeping straphanger loses his iPod, and Planet Fitness is now 0-4. It’s this week’s blotter.
On Thursday outside Perla Grocery at 429 Warren St., a 48-year-old man was assaulted and robbed of $19.14. A 47-year-old was later arrested for stealing the loot.
A 25-year-old asleep on the D train on April 11th at 3 a.m. awoke to find his backpack gone, which contained a MacBook, iPod and $500.
A week later, a 54-year-old woman received a surprisingly legitimate email from a real bank—though that wasn’t good news. Apparently, someone changed her account password and stole $7,550.
An 18-year-old looking for a new pair of shoes instead found herself filing a police report on April 19th. According to this report, while she was trying on shoes, someone sat next to her, distracted her, and stole her wallet. I had just seen something like this on a show called Brain Games on Nat Geo the other night. (No advertising intended, even though it sounds like it. Incidentally, have I mentioned I’m job hunting?) At any rate, they showed how easy it is to distract someone, since the brain isn’t wired to handle multiple stimuli. (I’m sure I’m phrasing this wrong, but you get the idea.) I’ve seen this in previous police reports, where the perp will ask his mark, “What time is it?” before striking. So if someone stops you on the street asking for the time, my advice is to run screaming into the night.
Approximately $40,000 worth of copper plating was stolen from the basement of my dream building, the Sweeney Building, back on March 22nd. There was no sign of a break-in, and multiple people have access.
Be on the lookout for a gray Ford Taurus, license plate # DSX6601. It’s hot!
A Queens woman heading to a doctor’s appointment was mugged on April 10th at 9:30 a.m. on Joralemon St.
A 12-year-old was arrested for felony robbery on April 10th. It’s hard for me to believe that someone born in 2001 is now old enough to commit a felony, but I guess time flies. He stole the Metro PCS Coolpad from a 12-year-old schoolmate and then threatened him, saying, “If you bring the cops to my house again, I’ll kill you.” The victim originally reported that the incident took place at the Atlantic St. subway hub, but once he was with his mother, he admitted it actually took place at a park nearby at Schermerhorn St park. He had lied to avoid getting in trouble, as apparently he was not supposed to be there.
Finally, on April 19th at 10:30 p.m., a cabbie picked up a fare with a female at Court and Montague. According to the report, the fare said he wanted to be dropped off at Coney Island Avenue and Cortelyou Road, and the cabbie refused. At this point I can empathize with the fare, as I can’t tell you how many half-wit lies and sneers I get when I ask to go to Brooklyn Heights, never mind Coney Island. But the fare took it one step further, punching the driver and then stealing $310.
Oh, and I’ve been covering the blotter again for a month and all quiet from Planet Fitness. And that’s this week’s blotter.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/57817
From the Web
On Monday evening, May 6, the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Park Slope Civic Council, and several other neighborhood civic groups, are co-sponsoring a Mayoral Candidates’ Forum to be held at Congregation Beth Elohim, 274 Garfield Place (at Eighth Avenue), from 7:00 to 9:00. All interested voters are invited, and no RSVP is necessary. You may submit questions for the candidates to Google Moderator. All mayoral candidates announced to date–Sal Albanese, Adolfo Carrion, John Catsimatidis, Bill de Blasio, Joe Lhota, John Liu, George McDonald, Christine Quinn, and Bill Thompson–have been invited.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/57793
From the Web
Arts and Entertainment, Podcast
Tell The Bartender Episode 7: I Didn’t Know I Was Nugent
April 22, 2013Listen to Episode 7: I Didn’t Know I Was Nugent
In This Episode:
Brooklyn based restaurateur Ted Mann always knew growing up that he was adopted. Recently he found out that his birth father wanted to meet him. Then he found out that his birth father is Ted Nugent. He shares the story of his incredible family reunion.
PLUS Katharine shares a drink recipe with a mixer by the nice people at Cocktail Crate, we play the new game, “Casting Notice or Craigslist Ad” with the help of Matty Blake from The Actors Grind Podcast, and listener shout-outs!
Ted Mann is a restaurateur and bar owner with eleven establishments. They are, in no particular order, Cebu Bar & Bistro, Apt 138, Bar 4, Matchless, Public Assembly, Lone Wolf, No Name Bar, Cubana Social, Camp, Greenwood Park and the soon to be opened Park Luncheonette. Katharine has frequented many of them over the last ten years and they are all amazing. Seriously, you need to eat/drink at his establishments if you find yourself in Brooklyn.
Ted and Ted:
The day they met:
Music Credits:
“Setting Sun” by Chris Powers
“Painted Sevens” by Petula 62
“Father’s Child” by Petula 62
“Bottled in Cork” by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Source: Tell The Bartender
http://tellthebartender.com/2013/04/11/tell-the-bartender-episode-7-i-didnt-know-i-was-nugent/
From the Web
Around Brooklyn
Cobble Hill’s Linden Tree Preschool Looking For Assistance In Relocating Facility
April 22, 2013 
Susan Kuhlmann, the Principal of Linden Tree Preschool in Cobble Hill, informs CHB that the facility it has used for the past nine years, Christ Church at 180 Kane Street, is being closed permanently after the building was struck by lightning and severely damaged last July.
At that time, Kuhlmann says, for safety reasons, the school had to immediately vacate, “being told by Christ Church we’d be back within weeks.” Since, it has been operating out of St. Stephen’s Church in Carroll Gardens. But now, “weeks and months have gone by and in January (2013), we were informed by Christ Church that they are closing Linden Tree Preschool as of June 30, sending families clamoring for alternate preschools and leaving nine dedicated staff members unemployed.”
Linden Tree Preschool is now searching for a new permanent home. Kuhlmann notes:
In order to continue to serve our families, staff and greater community by providing a beautiful preschool experience, myself and a colleague, Jennifer DeLuna, have formed our own LLC, Building Bridges. We require a minimum of 3,000 square feet but are willing to exceed that for the right opportunity. We are also willing to sign a long-term lease.
As you know rental space in our community is costly and difficult to come by. We have been searching for months and continue to. If anyone can help us please reach out, we need a home and can provide a nice income stream for a rental space. We appreciate any assistance.
Susan Kuhlmann: susan@lindentreepreschool.com
Jennifer DeLuna: jennifer@lindentreepreschool.com
lindentreepreschool.com
718-687-8141
Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/8426
From the Web
Learn more about the 2013 Mayoral candidates, and where they stand on issues of importance to Brooklynites: Parks, Schools, Transportation, Development. The organizers are encouraging votes to identify issues. Submit your questions online by May 3, 2013. You can also vote on the questions you think are most important.
The forum will be held Monday, May 6, 2013 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, 274 Garfield Place at 8th Avenue, Brooklyn.
The forum is free, no tickets or RSVPs are necessary. More information is available here.
From the Web
Brooklyn Heights, Food, News
New Farmer’s Market Coming To Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6
April 21, 2013 
Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 has gotten greener, with the opening of a new farmer’s market. Down to Earth, based in Ossining, N.Y., and the manager of some 20 markets in and around New York City, will kick off its BBP locale June 2. The new Pier 6 market will feature a minumum of eight vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables primarily from upstate New York, along with meat, cheese, seafood, honey and baked goods.
Down to Earth spokeswoman Frankie Rowland tells DNAInfo.com, “All data pointed to the fact that this would be a great location for a new market offering fresh food. We think people will really welcome this new addition to the park.” It currently hosts markets in Park Slope and McGolrick Park in Brooklyn and in Manhattan’s Morningside Park, among others.
The farmer’s market will sit alongside the dog run, sand volleyball courts and playground of Pier 6.
Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/57727
From the Web
Image via Amazon.com
After his wife is killed in one of the planes on 9/11, Gil Castle finds himself adrift, unmoored by grief and bewildered at the post-attack atmosphere. His grown daughters try to coax him into therapy that he finds vacuous and unhelpful. Instead of staying in Connecticut, he abruptly retires, winds up his affairs on the East Coast, and accepts an invitation to stay with his cousin, Blaine Erskine and Blaine’s wife Monica on their ranch in Arizona, near the Mexican border. It’s so near the border, in fact, that drug runners and undocumented immigrants regularly pass through.
Gil responds to the outdoor life in ways he hadn’t expected. He enjoys the company of his relatives, but mostly spends time with alone with his dog, hunting or just walking the scenic ranch lands. It feels just foreign enough to take Gil out of himself. Except that, in a way, Gil has come home. Gil’s grandfather and his brother started the ranch a century earlier. Gil’s and Blaine’s grandfather, Ben Erskine, was a Westerner who lived on both sides of the law.
Two events bring Gil back into a life that looks beyond the day to day of his own grief. One day, out with his cousin, they find a near-dead drug runner. Gil and Blaine rescue him, and he leads them to his two murdered friends. The problems of the world are not so far away after all. On another hunting trip Gil meets a beautiful neighbor, Tessa. She is also a rancher, and Gil and Blaine occasionally help her out. And as a result Gil is reminded of the world’s joys as well.
Murdered immigrants, drug runners, land grabs, and law enforcement officers of dubious morals lurk on both sides of the border. The border is often an abstraction to those crossing it and even to those charged with enforcing the boundary it ostensibly marks. As the modern story develops Caputo also draws on Erskine family history and lore. Grandfather and grandsons react in similar ways to similar stresses in different times. Those reactions contribute to the eventual outcome in ways that George Santayana would have recognized.
True to Caputo’s form, there are also vivid descriptions of place, carefully drawn characters and storytelling that will keep you up late to find out what happened. Over the course of the book Caputo considers Mexicans’ hunger for work, Americans’ hunger for drugs, and the greed of those who help move people and drugs from one country to another. Along the way he also considers notions of home, and what makes one bit of ground Mexico and another next to it the United States. Caputo needs a lot of characters to tell this complicated story, and some of the Mexicans in particular are more sketched in than fully developed. But in the end it doesn’t matter, as the many threads come together in an explosive but satisfying finish.
Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.
Have a book you want me to know about? Email me at asbowie@gmail.com. I also blog about metrics here.