Homer Fink – Brooklyn Bugle

Tuesday May 29: Cobble Hill Association 2012 Spring Meeting

May 28, 2012

The Cobble Hill Association will hold its Spring 2012 General Meeting and Reception on Tuesday May 29. A reception will precede the meeting at 6 p.m., with the meeting beginning at 7 p.m. The place: Christ Church at the corner of Clinton and Kane Streets.

A new slate of officers for the CHA’s executive board will be installed and keynote speaker Christabel Gough will discuss “Can Cobble Hill Avoid Manhattanization?” All are invited.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7242

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

East River Ferry Service Increases Capacity; Opens New Brooklyn Bridge Park Slip

May 28, 2012

To meet demand for the East River Ferry’s pilot service, the city is adding a new fleet with more than twice the capacity on weekends. The new boats will hold 399 passengers, instead of the current 149.

In addition, The New York Times reported Friday that the city opened a new ferry slip at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park last week designed to speed loading and unloading of passengers and reduce delays. The new floating dock is 100 yards south of the old slip at the Fulton Ferry pier, which, according to Paul Goodman, chief executive of BillyBey Ferry Co., was too small to accommodate the bigger boats and too narrow for the herds of passengers boarding and disembarking there.

The East River service, which connects ferries at East 34th Street, Long Island City, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Wall Street (as well as Governor’s Island on weekends), is nearly a year into a three-year subsidized $9 million pilot program.

As well, the schedule is being accelerated throughout summer weekends, beginning Memorial Day. Ferries will run 6:45 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. on weekdays, every 20 minutes during rush hour and every 30 minutes off-peak. On Saturdays and Sundays, the larger boats will run every 45 minutes from 9:35 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The ferry costs $4 for a one-way ticket, $12 for an all-day pass and $140 for an unlimited monthly pass.

In its first 10 months, the East Ferry service had 714,000 paying passengers. Last fall, Goodman proposed adding boats, but that would have required more money from the city.

Meanwhile, boats sell coffee from Brooklyn Roasters, and recently added other drinks and snacks with a local flavor, including egg creams made with U-bet chocolate syrup.

See the full New York Times story here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41225

From the Web

Police Blotter

Buyer Beware: Rash Of Thefts Reported At Atlantic Ave. Trader Joe’s

May 28, 2012

Trader Joe’s on Atlantic Avenue at the border of Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill has reported five thefts over the past several months from unattended shopping carts.

Capt. Jeffrey Schiff, who commands the 76th Precinct, recently informed the community council that the store has no surveillance cameras installed in the crowded grocery, despite pleading with Trader Joe’s several times to install them. So far, the store has declined to cooperate with the recommended policy.

Read the full story at The Cobble Hill Blog here.

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41221

From the Web

Police Blotter

Buyer Beware: Rash Of Thefts Reported At Atlantic Avenue Trader Joe’s

May 28, 2012

Trader Joe’s on Atlantic Avenue at the border of Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights has reported five thefts over the past several months from unattended shopping carts. Capt. Jeffrey Schiff, who commands the 76th Precinct, recently informed the community council that the store has no surveillance cameras installed in the crowded grocery, despite pleading with Trader Joe’s several times to install them.

DNAinfo.com New York reports that thefts include cash from a bag deliberately set up in a police sting, as well as a cell phone from a woman’s purse, according to sources and court documents.

So far, the store has declined to cooperate with the recommended policy. “Trader Joe’s, since they’ve opened, haven’t seem too concerned with what’s going on inside the store,” a police source told DNA. “They seem to have the attitude of whatever happens, happens.”

To combat the rash of larcenies, the precinct has increased foot patrol in front of the store and implemented a series of sting operations. A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s confirmed that the store does not have surveillance cameras within the facility, according to DNA.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7238

From the Web

Watch Your Pedal! Cops Keeping Watch For Hicks Street Speeding

May 28, 2012

Police have amped up speed enforcement on Hicks Street in Cobble Hill following complaints from residents about chronic speeding and too many accidents. As of May 16, officers put a new radar gun in service, handing out eight tickets in one day, according to DNAinfo.com.

A police source comments that many folks use Hicks Street “as a service road when the BQE gets backed up.” The Department of Transportation also installed a “Speed Limit: 30 mph” sign, with accompanying radar to deter speeders. Police officers will sporadically visit the area to enforce speeding on that street, DNA says.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7234

From the Web

Events, Landmark Preservation

Cobble Hill Association Honors Two For Community Service

May 28, 2012

The Cobble Hill Association will honor two historians at its annual spring meeting on Tuesday May 29. Local historian Francis Marrone and dedicated preservationist Christabel Gough will be receiving CHA’s annual “Cobble Hill Hero Awards.”

Park Slope resident Marrone (pictured) has offered numerous tours over the years, while working to develop a “History Wiki” for Cobble Hill. He teaches history at New York University and will be guiding another tour of Cobble Hill on June 9. Roy Sloane, president of the Cobble Hill Association, notes: “He is considered one of New York City’s best tour guides.”

Gough is an officer for the Society for the Architecture of the City, covering landmark hearings for the West Village. At the meeting, Gough will be speaking on the topic of “Can Cobble Hill avoid Manhattanization?” Sloane adds, “She was the first person I was introduced to when I joined the Cobble Hill Association. She has been one of the landmark lions of the West Village.”

Following the reception, CHA will be holding its annual election of officers for the executive board. The meeting and reception will take place May 29 at Christ Church, located on the corner of Clinton and Kane streets. The reception begins at 6 p.m. and the meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, see here.

Source: Cobble Hill Blog
http://cobblehillblog.com/archives/7230

From the Web

Quote Of The Day: Brooklyn Heights Is ‘The Most Uninspiring Place To Live’

May 27, 2012

Comedian & actor Reggie Watts, who released Comedy Central special “Reggie Watts: A Live At Central Park,” earlier this month and appears in an IFC talk show this summer, was interviewed Friday by website College Times and had plenty to say about his former residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights.

The uber-hipster, who now resides in Williamsburg, mouths off by describing the neighborhood as “upper-middle class, a few white rich people and their ethnic nannies taking care of their white babies. If you’re an artist, it’s the most uninspiring place to live.”

REGGIE WATTS JOINS THE DISCUSSION: SEE HIS COMMENTS BELOW THE JUMP.

Ready or not…

I use to live in Brooklyn Heights, and it was mainly just brownstones with kind of upper-middle class, a few white rich people and their ethnic nannies taking care of their white babies. There’s a lot of strollers going up and down the street with all these women that are obviously not the mothers of these children just walking around.
And then some kind of boring college students going to whatever university is there. It’s the most uninspiring place to live. If you’re an artist, never live in a family community, unless you draw inspiration from children and nannies. It’s just horrible.

Watts’ current locale of Williamsburg, on the other hand, gets this stream-of-consciousness review:

Even though there are a bunch of partiers, there are really great artists amongst all those people. And it has great stores and shops and restaurants and a cool Promenade. It’s really a fun, happy area. Kind of the best area to live in.
It gets ragged on a lot, though. Yeah, which is good. The good thing is that it makes other people [too] annoyed to live here. The less people move here the better. Now we’re starting to see outside of coffee shops, like, six strollers. It’s either the hipsters that live here are getting older and having kids or the kids are moving to Williamsburg. I like kids, but kids kind of bum me out. It’s fine. I mean, people need to have kids. It’s just, like, you kind of go, ‘Aww, where are the adults having fun?’ Instead they’re running around asking, ‘Do you need some milk now?’ I love that they’re trying to still stay cool, you know. The parents will get their babies CBGB shirts.

Perhaps it’s best that the dude has found his solace outside of the Heights, huh?

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights

Eamonn’s in Brooklyn Heights Closing

May 26, 2012

Emmonn’s In Brooklyn, the Irish pub and restaurant at 174 Montague Street that has served the community for 17 years, will be closing its doors permanently on June 17. A manager on duty told BHB that the owner of the building is converting the space into condos.

The Brooklyn Eagle is also reporting the story Saturday here, which quotes Eamonn’s GM Heloise Traynor confirming that landlord Robar Inc. sold the building and its air rights to a developer, who plans to turn it into condos. Eamonn’s shares the two-story building at 172-174 Montague St., between Clinton and Court streets, with Hallmark.

“It’s the end of an era. We’re very sad for our whole extended family here,” Traynor told the Eagle. “It’s just a shame all the mom-and-pop shops are getting pushed out. It’s impossible to keep up with these rents, absolutely impossible; whoever they get in here is going to be a chain store.”

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41173

From the Web

DUMBO, Food

New York Times Gives Mexican Gran Electrica A Taste Test

May 26, 2012

Gran Electrica, the Mexican restaurant that opened in March at Five Front Street on the DUMBO border, gets the full treatment in a New York Times review. Mind you, our own BHB Karl Junkersfeld has already weighed in. His verdict: “Delicioso.”

The Times’ Robin Finn remarks that the restaurant “is a brick-walled, votive-lighted, tin-ceilinged amalgam of the sustainably local and the whimsically loco. The mescal beverage options promise to knock your Birkenstocks off, as does the back garden, where the Brooklyn Bridge curves overhead like a distant awning.”

See full review here. (Photo: NYT)

Source: Brooklyn Heights Blog
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/41166

From the Web

Brooklyn Heights, Food

Montague Street’s Oh My Pasta! Kaput; Successor Lined Up

May 26, 2012

Oh My Pasta! has gone limp. After opening about nine months ago, on September 3, 2011, the Italian eatery at 142 Montague Street has shuttered. The locally run restaurant was owned & operated by Marco Lasala, a native Italian from Barletta in southern Italy, who had moved to Brooklyn Heights, serving a menu of family recipes assembled from his homeland.

While reviews were generally positive for the locale, there’s something about that second-floor location at 142 Montague that’s had a tough time catching a break. Before Oh My Pasta!, the site held Taze Turkish restaurant, and Turkish Kapadokya previous to that. And let’s not forget there have been two fires in the building, one in September 2008 and another in March 2007. Somehow, Aerosoles in the ground floor space has managed to carry on.

Fortunately(?), a successor is already lined up for the second-floor space. A sign posted in the window has a hearing set for “Sangthongsiri Inc.” to open a restaurant, with a request to serve liquor, wine and beer. (The Community Board 2 hearing is June 6 at 6 p.m. at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, 3rd Floor Conference Room, at 121 DeKalb Avenue.)

A Google search for the biz lists its address as 156 Court Street in Brooklyn, 11201. Good luck… and let’s hope the joint’s name is a little easier on the ears than Sangthongsiri.

(Photos: Pasta!/Chuck Taylor; Taze/Sarah Portlock; Kapadokya/Homer Fink)