Brooklyn Heights Public Library Slated for Redevelopment/Partial Sale

Architect's rendering of the proposed new library with residential rental units above.

I just noticed the news that the Brooklyn Public Library is selling the land of it's current Brooklyn Heights branch for $52 Million to developer Hudson Companies who will build a new library and market rate apartments on that space.

The new library will be physically smaller than the current but the press release says there will be more "usable" space in the new than currently available. Market rate for the area which is across from Cadman Plaza will make the apartments among the most expensive in the borough.

Personally I have no qualm with any of this. I don't know the exact number of people who make use of the library but I worked on a BPL project a few years back and the purpose of that project was their constant need to raise funds. Budgets have been tight at the libraries for decades. If the BPL can raise some much needed funds, without entirely closing a branch, in a neighborhood where I'm guess you'll find on average more private libraries in homes than most neighborhoods have books in their own public library, I don't see a major loss.

The libraries do need to continue finding ways to expand the vital services they provide like internet access and skills training so that they can stay viable and fund their branches in less well off neighborhoods. Selling the branch for apartments isn't going to be a revenue stream going forward.

I could be wrong. Do you have any thoughts to share?

News reports from NY1 http://www.ny1.com/content/news/215639/brooklyn-public-library-votes-to-sell-brooklyn-heights-branch-to-private-developer/

Brooklyn Eagle: http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2014/9/16/breaking-brooklyn-public-library-approves-52-million-sale-brooklyn-heights-branch

And the most comprehensive coverage I found was on the Brooklyn Heights Blog:
http://brooklynheightsblog.com/archives/70276

A Rink Rolls in Brooklyn! BklynBridgePark RollerRink Opens Today!

"Come on everybody get your roller-skates today!" Happening NOW (as of 3pm Friday July 11, 2014) The free opening celebration of the new roller rink at Brooklyn Bridge Park!

(The New Rink with City and River views, Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park)

In addition to today's free event, there are free hours on Fridays, Sundays and throughout the week.

When not free the rink charges $5 on Weekdays and $8 on weekends. I've never mentioned it on here, but I'm a skater so I'm very excited about the Adult only skate session they have scheduled.

For full details on hours and rates for entry and rentals check http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/blog/park-updates/pier-2-roller-rink-opening-celebration

I am a fan of Brooklyn Bridge Park the new green addition that has figurative and literally sprouted up to the south of the Brooklyn Bridge.

(A photo of the park on opening day, 2010 The park's trees were just saplings, and that budding gymnast is probably about to graduate elementary school now.)

I was there on day one of it's opening as covered in a previous post. The park which is still expanding features open fields, a huge pro level set of enclosed basketball courts,Bike paths, photogenic lookouts and nooks, the Smorgasburgh food festival on weekends and music and film screening venues. It exists as an urban oasis in the space formerly occupied by less than inviting looking Port Authority piers. Check any riverside movie from the 70's & 80's and you'll spot them.

The problem with the current debate of all vs new, is that it's often had in very simple terms. For example I complain about many things new and I will say that is because subjectively (and occasionally objectively) many new things suck here in NYC or come with intense consequences for hard working people that for them, suck.

I don't care that there is the Toll Brother's development that we have to thank in part, for the park. I'm not a fan of some of their developments, but somebody was gonna develop this space eventually.

Even as a kid, in the beat down years of trash along the river's edge, I realized how fantastic it is to view Manhattan from riverside I wondered why less people lived there. Developers were going to build like the Toll Brother's corp. is doing and if public citizens get new park land as they do in this case, then I'm for it. Plus there's no chance in hell of anyone developing something in front of Brooklyn Heights that walls off their view they way that is currently being done in Williamsburg thanks to the Bloomberg administrations rezoning of that water front.

Apparently the new development the Toll Brothers corp is building is doing so well, they've raised prices on the units 6 times (according to CurbedNY) and the first apartment isn't even completed.

Seems like everyone wins on this one, and if that's the case, I'm all for it.

Photo Wed 012914: Lonely Soldier on Schermerhorn Edition

With scheduled construction of a hotel to the left of it (from this angle) and the largest tower in Brooklyn slated to go up to it's right, this lonely little building is at more than a few interesting intersections on Schermerhorn Street at Downtown's edge.


In Downtown Brooklyn, Schermerhorn Street is a heat sink, to borrow and adjust the term for a computer part who's principal purpose is to suck all the heat to one location. In computers this is useful because heat sinks sit on or next to fans and vents, that allow the heat to be dispersed. Lonely Livingston Avenue, sitting parallel between the active avenues of Fulton Street and Atlantic hadn't been as useful for decades.

In my life time of several decades it's been home to city offices, like the Board of Education (now moved to midtown in an effort to reign in their ranks) and state service offices like medicaid, unemployment and the bureau of child welfare. Other than that, the back side of a municipal parking garage, occasionally wafting with the fragrance of urine, a small sadly neglected city park, and a few other odds and ends were all I could tell you about Schermerhorn  until about ten years ago when the condo boom erupted in downtown Brooklyn. Since then there are a few tony developments. For example the "Be@Schermerhorn" is complete with an anchor retail tent in the style of a whole-foods-esque, which made me laugh because I remember when a hotdog and a person in need of medical attention was much of what you could reliably find on Schermerhorn, and those days weren't long gone when that particular condo and market went up. Which could account for some of the issues they had filling the vacancies before an angel swooped in and saved them.

I found myself downtown this week. "Found" being a disingenuous term for my guilty pilgrimage to Brooklyn's own ShakeShack, which besides staying delicious, stands as in this era as an appropriate if unofficial greeter to the western edge of Fulton Street and the Downtown Brooklyn shopping area.

Travel home by chilly bike (I'm a blogger remember) I came across many freshly vacant lots, (which I've learned from Brownstowner are owned by Steiner Development and slated to be discount hotels) some already deep in the throws of new residential construction. There wasn't much time for me to take in the flurry of new before I can across this lonely outpost.

I also found this sate-photo I've highlighted to be pretty hilarious as you can see where the lonely soldier stands in regard to the development.

This gritty little building shares the block with the mega development "The Hub" as reported on Gothamist (seen below) which as shown in this rendering will not only be a major real estate development but the new largest tower in Brooklyn (It'll be 52 stories) will push the borough's vertical profile further to the stratosphere.

That of course means it'll become a commercial destination. With BAM, "The Theater for a New Audience" on Rockwell as well as the high-rise residential tower 66 Rockwell all one block away it's guaranteed to be a hot spot. And that doesn't even include the Two-Trees mega BAM tower slated to go up across the northern nub of 3rd Avenue and Flatbush, which would add another cultural center, replacement library (there's debate about whether it's a replacement library or not) and residential tower. This area now has potential to be a consistently vibrant and enriching center in the way it hasnt been since the 50's when it was just around the corner from rows of Brooklyn's theater district. All of this development no doubt benefiting from tax exemptions, and the market cultivated by buildings like "Be" and the Barclay Center just (technically) three blocks away.

Personally I'm curious to know how all all this will embrace the African Street Fair that has been part of BAM's spring Dance Africa event for over a decade. Since the Two-Tree's project is aimed at the footprint of the street festival, it would make sense to me that some sort of connective supporting relationship be made.

Other than concern for Dance Africa and the annual street festival, I got no gripes about all this mind you. I don't want massive condos towering over and killing classic city and neighborhood sight-lines in Prospect or Crown Heights and the like, but this is Downtown, it's were massive projects should be. Hopefully since so many are residential the city has plans in the works to address the reality of the thousands new people who will be using nearly century old infrastructure in that area, and new school with all those some of the cash from all those new tax payers would be good too.

Vaguely I recall seeing a few residents on Schermerhorn and my guess (+mischieveous hope) is at some point in the down and out 70's or 80's a resident bought this building, thus ensuring a place in the glistening tomorrows to come. Of course it could be that some speculator came along at the right moment and there's nothing romantic about this building, but eh, in a life less ordinary, I'll vote for the romance.

So maybe it's good if there's a hold out relic from the past sticking up like a thumb against the new. Judging from the generic glass-rectangle-rific architectural design of many of these new projects it might be the easiest way for new comers to see what character looks like.

Whole Foods opens in Brooklyn

The lonnng awaited and debated Brooklyn Whole Foods opened in Gowanus, eight years after it was first proposed.  The open was a few hours ago and according to third hand reporting, it's awash in hipsters clambering for vinyl records and all that's organic, twee, trend and probably more expensive than Trader Joe's and Fairway. 

Gothamist and NY Times' Vivian Yee (@VivianHYee) has more deets.

Wonder if this will ease crowding at the other two? 

And does this switch Gowanus off the local track to full on gentrification and express renewal?

Photo Wednesday 112713 : New Prospect & Produce on Bedford Av Edition

(Above produce and cheese(!) among other rarified items)

There's a new market selling what seems to be the same type of upscale and higher quality produce and goods gentrifying neighborhoods have come to expect. It opened yesterday but as I was passing Monday night, peering through the mint condition glass windows, the manager invited me in for a chat and look around. More on that later. First, a little from Spike Lee.

Among people I know, one of many famous lines we are prone to recite form the 1991 Malcolm X film is, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock, landed, on us!" The line a turning point in the character Malcolm X's orator ability to speak to the disenfranchised African-Americans of that moment, spoken by Denzel Washington with his characteristic and halting fire delivery.

The initiation of development in neighborhoods like Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, usually by developers and land owners who'd ignored the neighborhood or provided minimal service obviously brought in folks and trends, which we all messily blanket with the title gentrification. So much of that gentrification being so culturally, economically and visibly different from what had been in those and other areas of New York City, I personally think of that movie line often.

Sometimes gentrification's not so bad. Having something seem to come from out of the blue, and land, or pop up, in your neighborhood space, something the neighborhood was lacking, for example commercial variety, lifestyle options and the neighborhood self-sufficiency it had, can be the upside. Like everything there's trade offs, but despite the fact that we (myself loudly at times complain about it's ills) gentrification can often give as much as it takes. That's a vague paragraph (and I left it grey in my first draft) but I'll add this distinction. Who gentrification gives to is often where the problems spike.

As I've mentioned all over this blog, I was born in Crown Heights, (until I was born in Prospect Heights, which many seem to only recently realize is in fact still Crown Heights) except that real estate dictates, as well as two decades and landmark preservation have more sharply defined what Prospect Heights is. Anyway, I've seen a lot. For example, my father learned in business school the value of reading the New York Times each Sunday. He was the only person in the family who did this. My Grandfather to name one, was more than happy with the New York Post, but hey, he voted Republican. My dad on the other hand was one of the few, if not only people on Prospect Place between Vanderbilt and Underhill to read the Times at all. This was partially because of how hard it was to get the Times. No one sold it anywhere east of Flatbush Avenue, okay maybe a rare few bodegas had less than ten copies but it was never consistent which ones had it. My father would take me out on Sunday to walk over to Park Slope's cornered edge, Grand Army Plaza and Flatbush Av where the newsstand had nearly a bunker made of stacked New York Times bundles. I've lived the same story of walking a distance sometimes long, sometimes shorter, for reliable meats, produce, cheese, and hardware supplies (despite Mayday being very well stocked) to name a few needs and no it doesnt make my life instantly better to have fresher hamburger, munster, fine grit sandpaper and the sunday classifies, but it helps.

I have a label for posts called, "Gentrification I Can Believe In" for that reason.

There are certain basic things that neighborhoods have, that Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant had which were lost, in some cases, referring specific to shopping needs, replaced for a generation with owner apathy and bare shelves.

I always wanted my neighborhood to come back. I was too young to know about how great Brooklyn was in the 40's & 50's, how much neighborhoods then were solvent and self-sufficient, but the little good I had know from my elementary school days, that little bit that had dried up and flaked off by the cracked out late 80's and early 90's, I wanted at least that much back.

I always knew it could come back, and little things like the rebuilt park on Prospect and Underhill, or the rebuilt Franklin Shuttle and it's stations, or the rebuilt Brooklyn Museum facade, always seemed to suggest a rebirth was moments away. After all, there's a thousand reasons why Crown Heights, and frankly all longstanding neighborhoods in Brooklyn should be thriving. Central of those reasons in my mind is the fact that the basic infrastructure for those neighborhoods, water, power, transportation, roads are here and have been, though they may require extreme upkeep in some situations. Frequently the other key elements; schools, decent residences, (structurally at least) are existing too. So I always knew a thriving Brooklyn could and I believed would come back. What I an afro-caribbean-latino Crown Heights born Brooklynite never expected is that "we", the people in my life, on my block, in my family wouldn't be the stars of the spectacular comeback I knew was coming. Today, frequently, to look at bars, town halls, l'artisanal food markets and (Ha!) New York Times articles about the neighborhood, we're not.

But we all still need provisions.


On the corner of Prospect Place and Bedford avenue there was an auto supply shop, from what I recall it was the kind of place you'd find cans of motor oil, heavy plastic formed jugs of anti-freeze and racks of fan belts plus more. My guess is the store was a hold over from the day when Bedford Ave was all about cars, their showrooms and that industry. After moving back to Crown Heights from Clinton Hill I noticed this retail spot was a bodega in the classically depressing urban sense of the word. Wide isles, bare shelves and low nutritional values seemed to be their stock and trade. Along with loosies and what else I could only speculate. 

My long frequent walks pass this store headed for greener produce inspired me to write a long post about it, other retail spaces on Bedford and Franklin that I felt could use some of that damn gentrifying. But you know, the good ones. Life and the fact that nothing offers less return on my investment than this blog kept that long series of "Gentrification I Can Believe In" posts from being written, and then Franklin, frankly, exploded with gentry. Okay it hasn't gotten pass Prospect place going north and something that I think is unseen and goes beyond simple explanation is keeping gentrification's appetites for rare cheese from flowing south on Franklin from Eastern Parkway. However on a certain highly publicized stretch of Franklin Avenue, there is more pomp and cheese then anyone could have guessed at and there's more on the way.

Meanwhile Bedford one block away, hadn't seen much commercial development until early last year when a bodega on Sterling started getting a make over. Till now the biggest thing to happen on Bedford commercially was the opening of Catfish, between Park Place and Prospect Place, the Creole themed bar and restaurant which full disclosure I am a huge fan of. Yes, there is Brooklyn Exposure a lovingly inviting spot that seems to have the market cornered on every form of respectable nightlife from dinning to comedy shows to full on musical performances. Brooklyn Exposure seems to be powered by love as much as anything, I've been once and the people so great I imagined them to all be family. But Catfish is still the biggest point of interest from Atlantic to Empire Blvd.

The issue for Bedford is partially it's a very wide two-way street. I have a theory that you need a higher density of thriving businesses for streets larger than one lane one-ways. Which in my mind is part of why Williamsburg's end of Bedford Av flourished so easily. Brooklyn Exposure is just a block away from Catfish but it feels like a trek at night. Catfish's great food and drinking selections plus a warm wide inviting space have kept it humming with people since last year, but their red neon sign might as well say "City Limits" for it's solitary standing on Bedford Av. I'll grant Cafe Rux Dix opened on the corner of Park Place this year, a fine french inspired cafe, but it's subdued lighting and vibe don't light up the corner it's on, probably by design. Beyond these three outposts, there are also many condos and recently built or rebuilt apartments on Bedford, two at the intersection of Bedford and Prospect, one more up the block on the lots that had been home to a community garden that was found to be unofficial but dense with trees. Despite that there still hasn't been much else in the way of commercial action on Bedford. Until yesterday.

I was almost face to glass, trying to make out the brands on the densly packed market shelves when the manager came toward me. I admit I wasn't in the mood to be waved off, they'd been constructing whatever this business was, I thought, "...for months and I'm sure they're not finished". I made it a few feet from the entrance when the same manger came out and invited me back in. 

The new market on Bedford and Prospect place is not large enough to be a supermarket, but it is in-line scale-wise with "Bob & Betty's" that well lit, well stocked, often organic market on Franklin and Lincoln. The manager of this new market on Bedford and Prospect, Reuben, told me the building owner (who somehow got all of their tenants out and remodeled the corner apartment building above, with raised rents and all new occupants less than a year ago) contacted him because he manages another market in Williamsburg where the building owner lives. Reuben looks and sounds like a Brooklynite to me and he claimed he was.

The easiest way to describe the zeal with which he should me around the market, would be proud father. The market is open but still being stocked he boasted through an excited smile that never left his face. "We're getting all local produce in this section, most of our produce will be locally sourced" Reuben exclaimed through un-checked excitement.

Reuben told me he'd submitted a business plan for the space, and couldn't understand what the previous store manager did in the previous desperate space. Now the shelves are lined with a variety of items you'd find easily in Park Slope or Fairway. Fine crackers and cheesy selections (which I do enjoy by the way, love them crackers and the cheese that goes with) along with virgin olive oils, imported pastas, hummus, sarabeth jams and… you get the idea.

There will be custom coffee selections and fine meats in the weeks to come, between all Reuben described, what I'd seen of the new layout, new floors, fixures and food, I think this space is going to light up a lot more of the neighborhood.

 
The new well stocked food market on 1426 Bedford Av at the corner of Prospect Pl. is called "Brooklyn Born Mini Market". It was written on a flyer Reuben handed to me as I was leaving. I had nothing to do with it. But I like it and it seems about time.

I'll check in on the market, reporting what I see on this blog, because I'm curious and well I'm tired of having to walk away from my neighborhood.

UPDATE:
As of Dec 15th the store seems much more stocked than on day one, however the juice bar and coffee isn't set up yet. This hasn't stopped me from shopping there three times, and giving back minutes and miles for not having to walk to franklin for basic provisions. 

UPDATE 2:
I continue shopping happily at Brooklyn Born Mini-Market into 2014 and I've noticed more and more people each time, though not yet any crowds. I still think it's all great except I wish the lights weren't such cold fluorescents but hey it was dark and suspect for year on Bedford so little steps. One other thing I've noticed since the market opened is voiced displeasure from people I presume to be new-comers to the neighborhood. In one case a couple discussed as they walked pass and I was exiting. I heard the male say,"what do you mean bougie?" His female friend replied with a sneering exhalation of  what I guess was disgust. "It's, It's not REAL" she said, as I watched them walk away.

Photo Wednesday 4/3/13 Affordable Housing Edition

I tend to rail against condo developments for their usually high prices relative to local incomes so in the name of balance here's a large residential building nearly complete on Putnam near Classon Av (old Bedford-Stuyvestant-new Clinton Hill). It's called, appropriately, "Putnam Court"

According to the information on posted at the construction site, there are (or at one time were) 24 studio apartments as part of the development available for people who make under $28k annually.

The development on Rockwell Pl. (Near the Downtown McDonald's on Fulton) also a similar affordable housing allocation.

How many people who could really benefit from these deals, do you think know about them?I'll do some more research and see how this information becomes available to the public and publicized.

I very much like the design of the building and its attempts to match the surrounding architecture in a modern way. Frankly I'd love a lot more of the new and recently new Brooklyn condos and rentals if they blended as nicely as Putnam Court.

The project was built by Dunn Developers and details are also on the NY Times local CH/FG blog. 

In addition to providing housing to an a lot that previously was dilapidated and under used, part of the building sits on what had been a vacant lot there for decades) the development is a block away from the Clinton Hill Food Co-op, also on Putnam Ave.

So I just did some quick googling for more info about this project, and boy Brownstowner and I are really in sync lately, they just posted an article about this yesterday. From their article I find that the low rent for the studios translates to $618 per month income dependent.

Additionally I found this page on nyc.gov about affordable housing lotteries. www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/apartment/lotteries.shtml Try your luck!

Board in Brooklyn, new on Franklin : Photo Wednesday 03/09/11

So, Board over the Bridge on the Subway, originally uploaded by b'klynborn.

there've been a lot of good images pass my eyes lately so this week it's three photos for Wednesday. 2 showing the interest boarding is enjoying in Brooklyn these days...

the photo below has nothing to do with boards (except maybe the boards on te windows) but it does speak to new goings on Franklin Av. I've been too busy to research beyond staring at construction workers and for all I know the "ilovefranklinave" blog probably covered this already. Anybody know what it is?

alls I knows is if it services and enhanced the hood, I'm with it.

Great Park Proposal for Williamsburg near Broadway

Brownstoner has the word on this park proposal which would be built on some of the currently open space over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

 

As Brownstoner points out,

"the plan is to create a park network that would serve local kids, according to a story in Architect's Newspaper. The plan is the five-years-in-the-making brainchild of Councilwoman Diana Reyna, who hopes to improve the quality of life.

I for one didn't know that noise levels from the BQE in that area are 10 times louder than traffic noise from Park Avenue in the City.

I hope it goes ahead. That part of Williamsburg is not the one Manhattanites(and others) project their hipster musings on, and the residents of that immediate area really could use some urban renewal with them in mind.

link here: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2011/01/plan_for_parks.php

Soon Come: new bar on Fulton from some Bklyn veterans

I'm mining Brownstoner heavy today, they have word on attempts by the Pratt Area Council to bring business to another short under-utilized strip of Fulton Street, near the Clinton-Washington subway station. According to the article their efforts have reached fruition, a new bar is on the way, to be called "Hanson Dry" (after the dry cleaner of the same name that used to occupy that spot, I remember people leaving church at St. Luke and St. Matthew around the corner and picking up their drying at Hanson, ah change, maybe now traffic will flow the other way)

And the crew that's bring Clinton Hill, this new watering hole, the some of the same folks who brought us SouthPaw, Soda, and Franklin Park. I'm down, when's Sean bartending?

More details at Brownstoner: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/06/prohi_vets_brin.php

Greene Hill Food Co-op Gets Putnam Home!

Some friends are on the board of the Greene Hill Food Co-op (representing Fort Greene and Clinton Hill (same thing...)) and I was excited when I first learned of it. That was two years ago. I've moved a bit so my FG/CH radar isn't as sharp as it used to be but here's the big news. Not only has their board unanimously agreed on a location for the new food co-op, it's on a patch of Putnam Avenue (right between Downing and Grand, near Fulton) that has needed something to anchor and propel the area to prosperity.

Specifically I am referring to the short streets between Putnam and Fulton, that since I was a kid three decades ago have been home to at best some dubious activities.

Which is a shame for many reason not the least of which is that in most away from that two block area you have good homes nice blocks and great people. Plus around the corner on Fulton is that great little bakery that opened a year and a half back "Desserts By Michael Allen"

Brownstoner reports the Food Co-op details here: http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2010/06/1824_putnam_ave.php.

HOT BIRD returns?! (same as it never was)

"Nostalgia" is in fact named for a mental disorder in which one seeks to find something that doesn't exist anymore.

The "Ace" song "How Long...Has This Been Going On?" was stuck in my head as I rolled through the Fort Greene night. (to really enjoy this post, jump to the bottom and hit play, then read on...)

As for the song in my head, there was nothing romantic or broken to inspired it, it simply was there, bouncing off the rubber walls in my mind. And then I came down Clinton Av, spotted a giant arrow illuminated by marquee light bulbs and the song became real apropos.


Apparently "HOT BIRD" is back.

Where it never was.

Right there on the corner of Atlantic and Clinton, it's open for business and respectable filled with patrons. The corner was enclosed last year and I heard about the desire to open the spot up, but when exactly did all that happen?

And is this as weird to anyone else as it is to me?


Back Story

When I was a kid growing up nearby there were several attempts to jumpstart businesses on Vanderbilt Av. Few lasted long, (with the exception of Bob Law's Seafood Cafe) One of my favorites from that time mid 80's was Ice Cream Park, but that's another story. One of the last I remember toward the end of the 80's was "Hot Bird".

There was some local chatter about it being tasty fried chicken, and that's all I know. What long out lasted the chicken spot were the painted signs. Unavoidable, like magnets to the eye, with their giant screaming yet somehow modest black letters on baby chick yellow walls. The largest on the side of a building at Clinton and Atlantic Aves.

(Photo source: Threecee on Flickr, all rights reserved)

Having been here and always associated the signs garishness with the failed chicken spot, I clearly lack the vision that a newcomer gets of that sign. I've heard people talk about it like it was a stone tablet from deities, taunting overhead, never leaving the mountain top. I've seen hundreds of photos of the sign. (which is why I never take a photo of it) I felt it reached the zenith when pictures of the old yellow and black evocative description made it into a show at the Brooklyn Museum. All I could do was shake my head. For me, a life long resident of the area, it was no different than walking out one day and seeing all the teenagers wearing something ridiculous, in unison, in the name of their own sense of fashion.

I just don't get it.


As mentioned, last year I heard tell of a group opening up a business to be called "Hot Bird" and I think I heard some newcomers mention the people who started it "had come back" which I highly doubt. I just don't imagine the folks I jonesing to bring the bird back.



I image this is a newcomer operation, I could be wrong, it's happened. But as I've often written about, I'm not the biggest fan of sprawling recontextualizations, especially when a Newcomer stripes all that was, save the sign above the door which with its loss of context becomes interesting simply because of irony and disconnect.


But there are other Newcomers too, the ones I cherish for helping rebuild aspects of my Brooklyn. Ah... my valued Newcomers, one day I will sing the praises of your intrepid and die-hard devotion to anything new (and at least mildly interesting)

Which is I guess what interests me about HOTBIRD's rebirth. Understand, that for me HOT BIRD means as much as a manhole cover. Even though I've gone on at length about all manner of things destroyed and discarded, even the DKNY sign with the NY Skyline that used to be on Houston in the Soho, ironically.

But I never pined for HOT BIRD even when it was open. I mean despite visible claim on its sign of having been "The Best Bar-B-Q in New York" I don't remember anyone else thinking that back in the day. I mean yeah the chicken was tasty, but shit it was the 80's! At that time the second best "Bar-B-Q" probably came out of a Heinz bottle.

The twist here, what gives this situation interest to me is that it's an elevation this time.

So HOT BIRD is back, though it almost never was. Something from near nothing. That I like. That valuable quality of taking what is no longer in use, and finding it significant, even if it wasn't really all that significant to many in the first place, and then investing, projecting value into it. On the macro and micro scale, that's the incubator NYC reliably generally provides to new and old.

Once there was a HOT BIRD, now there is a HOT BIRD, as always the city is a fertile wardrobe waiting to be tried on and turned out.

BTW fans of "Ace", this one's for you. Link and video below:

Spring ahead, (bike) map your route now...

Bike lanes work for me. I'm a fan. That the city even bothered to read my thoughts and paint them everywhere was cool enough for me. That the city went further and created a map of the bike paths almost makes me believe I live in a useful functioning democracy.

Here's the map www.nycbikemaps.com/maps/brooklyn-bike-map/

oh the places you'll go

Photo Wednesday 02/24/10 : Burger & Shaun White-less Edition

To paraphrase Bizarro,"the internet am so funny!" I'm talking about what I assume is a surge in Olympics inspired internet searches, that can be the only reason why this photo I took last spring:

suddenly received a burst of new views last week, after laying around for months unnoticed.

Despite the title, "Park Delicatessen 2009 edition - Shaun White stunt double" the young man featured in the photo is of course, not Shaun White. Although I didn't ask him... and anyway that didn't stop many web searchers from sniffing it out.

Which leads me to my next and more current photo. Whereas this pic shows off Park Delicatessen (featured in this blog last spring) which is run by very cool people with a just as cool mix of Skate gear and home gardening wares. As a new biz in the Prospect becomes Crown Heights neighborhood I thought Park Delicatessen so cool I felt inspired to write about my long history with an earlier incarnation of the store and locale, and I summarized by saying despite my issues with the dreaded beast, gentrification, Park Delicatessen is the kind of gentrification I can believe in. I'm always down for new people with good ideas in under utilized spaces.

Along those lines I was all ready to add this newcomer to that list:


Dutch Boy Burgers, which takes it's name from the fact that it was once housed a Dutch Boy franchise paint store. In fact when the current renovations to the space revealed that the very cool and original Dutch Boy Paint sign was still present under a newer sign, the finding garnered excited blogger responses about the significance and rarity of the sign so much that you'd a thought Noah's ark had been found sitting pristine on Franklin Av near the corner of St. Johns where Dutch Boy is located. And for those in the know it's said to soon be connected to Franklin Park the bar around the corner.

For the record, that Dutch Boy Sign was a beauty,(great pics on I Love Franklin Ave's Blog) and did date back to at least the 1940's but... it was visible in the 'hood for years, at least into the early 80's if not later. A fact many excited newcomers would have known if they weren't...well, so new.

Anyway despite that intro, and the uber original naming scheme (fine why not) I've been waiting for the burger joint to open because I love burgers and frankly, Franklin Ave has a lot of useful spaces and not a enough useful businesses (although there are these good folks) and let me say for the record, Franklin Ave which was rough edged in a bad way when my parents were young, has been blossoming but could still use a little more gentry in my mind.

However lo and behold, before I could continue my bourgeois burger dream (with Root Beer Floats! no less) I couldn't help but notice this notice:

Considering the stop work order extends to, "the ENTIRE site" Dayum! It seems Dutch Boy Burgers is gonna need more time in the pan before we can dig in. Well I'll think happy thoughts or keep hope alive or whatever cliché will get this place open faster, cause Brooklyn, she needs good burgers.

Park Delicatessen: Skate, Hoe!Grinding & Gardening a new path in Crown Heights

I'm kick, pushing and cutting myself with the type of angst that can only be escaped by skateboard. Why because I came across an interesting story a month ago and didn't post it, better late than not at all; here's my account of Crown Height's new (and gotta be only) Skateboard/Flower/Dry Goods Shop.


255 Park Place near the corner of Classon Ave, in Crown Heights B'Klyn

As I was making the move from CH to CH (literally pushing a shopping cart with my things, how's that for green) I came across a cleared lot where once a funeral parlor had stood on Park Place near the corner of Classon Av. Before I could ponder where they buried the funeral parlor, I noticed something completely different, the birth of a new biz. Park Delicatessen.

Except that I already knew Park Delicatessen. Over thirty years back it was a place near and dear to my heart in the same location, same name, with a more intact version of the same sign.



I went to P.S. 316 right across the street on the corner of Classon and Park. My grandmother lived across the street and worked at the nearby Brooklyn Jewish (Hospital, now rental units).

During the day I would literally drool at the thought of the thick full roast beef sandwiches my grandmother would buy from Park Delicatessen and the kindly lady who ran the place. When I had permission I would tear down Classon backpack flapping to Prospect Pl., run through the crowded hospital hall, take the elevator up to and wait for my grandmother to go to a lunch she delayed so she could buy me a sandwich from the Deli (as we simply knew referred to it).

It wasn't an everyday thing, on Classon Av there existed the same corner stores 30 years ago as now. The one on the corner of Prospect was most frequented by lunching hospital workers followed closely by the store on the corner of Park. Both stores' sandwiches were cheaper.

My grandmother and her coworkers would come to Park Delicatessen specifically if they wanted the choice cuts of meat, and more gourmet level of quality to their meals which weren't limited to sandwiches. The higher quality came at a higher price which their salaries as nurses, secretaries and the like couldn't afford on a daily basis. I do recall seeing the doctors making their rounds at Park Delicatessen without fail.

So with all that in my mind imagine my surprise at seeing the door open to the old place for the first time in years. There had been a West Indian restaurant in the space back in the 90's but they didn't last long. This particular space was a bit enigmatic because there seemed to be few attempts to rent it ( I don't recall any window signs) and I couldn't tell you when the Deli I knew and the woman who ran it closed shop because her hours of business simply became shorter and shorter until the store just didn't open anymore.



I looked into what had become of the space and the first thing I noticed besides the Shawn White stunt double sitting outside, were the orange walls which were like tropical punch bubblegum, day-glo-ing in the afternoon sun in a smack in the face way that said clearly this is not my nostalgic deli. So I entered and got, well confused, because in addition to tricked out, glossed up hyper designed skateboards on the walls, there were all these plants and planters all around. The interior was a mix of antique and ultra-antique. The counter as I recall seemed from another era as well and in back, holy shit in the back were the original giant fridges! (or an amazing facsimile there of).



The stored seemed to be still setting up (this was over a month ago) and I took in the scene like a blog troll; a baseball capped dude talking up a customer a young mother with baby in tow, kids interested in browsing boards while flawlessly looking bored.



In instant contrast I thought about the old Black woman who ran the deli I had known. (yeh it weirds me out too, when Black people make a point to describe people in anecdotes as being "black" but that woman was like a kindly old character out of Toni Morrison's fiction as I recall her) Meanwhile, back in the shop, I looked around at the re-contextualization I was in the middle of and I thought.., how f*cking cool is this!!

I was so overwhelmed standing in the humble store experiencing my past and suddenly present in Park Delicatessen, I decided to ask for the owner Mike, about the place, and it went like this:

BrooklynBornBlog: How'd you find the space?
Park Delicatessen: My Wife and I were looking for a studio to share to make room in our house for the baby. We were looking for something cheap, and with some character, but that we could put our mark on. We live on this block, and saw this little spot just sitting, we asked a few questions and found the owner working nearby.

BrooklynBornBlog: What's been the most challenging part of the start up?
Park Delicatessen: The biggest challenge of starting up was dealing with all the problems of an old building, try to change the sink and the hot water shutoff is busted, Try to patch the ceiling, but the toilet upstairs is broken. Things like that, you have to do 6 things before you can do the thing you originally set out to do.

BrooklynBornBlog: Is this you're first skate shop or store?
Park Delicatessen: This is my first store. Val's parents owned a restaurant in Oakland for 20 years. Both of us had our own Biz before we opened the shop, I have a Creative services company called Dukes Place, and Val, has a woman's clothing company called Valentine.



BrooklynBornBlog: What inspired the skate shop?
Park Delicatessen: I think the amount of skateboards in the neighborhood, and the lack of places to buy flowers. On a few occasions I need some flowers and there was nowhere to get them!

BrooklynBornBlog: What kind of skater were you?
Park Delicatessen: I got my first real board in 7th grade, and skated on and off since then. Graffiti, art school, career etc. took over at different points. But I think my first trip to SF a few years back got me hyped on skating all over again. I Enjoy it more now then ever before, because its all about the feeling I get when I land a trick. I sort of relate it to the guy who plays golf on Sundays with his friends, only I skate.

BrooklynBornBlog: I noticed what looked like refrigerators in back, were they in the space when you got there?
Park Delicatessen: Yes the walk in fridge was there. It can be repaired but I'm going to wait to see if it's necessary. For now it it keeps the Delicatessen theme on track. Even if I wanted to get it out, I would need a bulldozer. They don't make things like that anymore.


BrooklynBornBlog: Any plans on working with the Afro Punk Skate events?
Park Delicatessen: I would love to get involved with all the local skate events. I think because we opened only 1 month or so ago, alot of events were planed already. But we hosted our first event last Sat, and it was a huge success*. We plan on doing one a month till it gets to cold. (*seems to me I recognize skaters who attend Afro Punk last year in pics of Park Deli's skate event this month, link below, you make the call)

BrooklynBornBlog: What's the best selling item?
Park Delicatessen: I think the flowers on the weekend work well for us. Its tough to pin down, because or inventory is constantly changing on both the skateboard end and the antiques side. I think people appreciate our selection of flower pots as well. No matter how many we find, there are usually gone by the end of the week.


(The new) Park Delicatessen (Skateboard/Flower/Dry Goods Shop) owner Mike

BrooklynBornBlog: What's you're history with the neighborhood?
Park Delicatessen: Well, My wife has lived on this block for the last 12 years, me the last 3. We met out in Davis Park Fire Island 4 years ago. and after a year of living at my place in the city, we decided it would be better for us to start a life together in Brooklyn. But I have a older connection to Crown Heights. My dad's father owned a fish store on Kingston (Ave.) and Lincoln (Pl.) for 30somthing years, and my dad was a fireman on St. John's and Utica Av* through the 80's. So even though I never lived here when I was a child I felt connected to the neighborhood when I moved in.

(*that's Engine 234, Ladder 123 - as a kid I loved that it was numbered that way-BBB)



BrooklynBornBlog: Will you do anything to the (nearly destroyed) sign above the store?
Park Delicatessen: No the sign is staying exactly as it is. there's perfection in age.

It was great meeting Mike and I think the shop's great. Why not a skate/flower/dry goods shop? Why not take a space that actually HAS been underutilized, despite what it had been, and make it something entirely new in context while working within the existing space. Re-purposing at it's finest in my opinion.

It doesn't hurt my opinion that on those very streets nearly thirty years ago I got my first skateboard, and besides rattling my teeth on some of the very same sidewalks that were cracked and shattered back then, I also heard other kids calling me white boy and asking why I wanted to ride that big plastic orange thing. And all I could think was, "why not?" who does it hurt?

It's awesome, I have no idea if it will work, but it's awesome. Seriously. I always look at these unused store fronts, especially in areas like Crown Heights, Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant and think why can't we have an shop that isn't the bare minimum in terms of it's offerings? Why not a book shop, or a toy store or a skate shop in these areas. I understand how much these same neighborhoods need supermarkets but your not going to put one in a small space so then what? Why not something imaginative?

Some of you may want to dismiss what I think is a great change in the neighborhood, that's your choice but I think there is greatness in doing something eclectic in business in communities like Crown Heights. As much as the evils of gentrification sicken me, this is not that. This is an example of the goodness in gentrifying. And not simply because I like the offering. I believe many communities need offerings of new ideas that demonstrate respect for the past rather than co-opting nostalgia for street cred, working within existing structures, bonding with the community. And these are not simply my assumptions.

Mike an I chatted about the previous life of Park Delicatessen and he knew of the woman that had owned the earlier shop and then he did me one better dropping the name of the German owner who opened the store originally and sold the place to her. Mike learned the history in part from the landlord. So that covered my need for historical awareness and for community outreach how bout a free skate event? My lateness in posting meant I missed getting this out before the Park Delicatessen Skate Park event they held in the school yard of ol' PS 316 across the street. They built ramps invited kids and were grindin' all day (pics on their blog) As mentioned he hopes to hold Skate events monthly through the summer.

See that's what's up on Park Place, in Crown Heights (Yeh it's a block from the "border" of Prospect Heights but I'll address broader border issues next time).

I wish them success and you should visit when you're near. Park Delicatessen; back in business, choice cuts on board, now with a new flavor.
http://parkdelicatessen.blogspot.com/

Photo Wed: 5/6/09 : Big Gulp! 7-Eleven come to Bed-Stuy!

Now this is gentrification I can believe in:



Bedford-Stuyvesant has joined the ranks of communities nation-wide that can take a short drive to a long list of heart stopping guilt snack attacks.

That's right 7-Eleven has heard from friends that it's not so bad in the 'hood and decided to move in. And it's not one of those wack KFC/BaskinRobbins/7-Eleven Combos, naw, 7-11 was all like,"I feel safe on these streets, I don't need no roommates to walk me from the A train".

I don't know how long it's been there, but um loving it.

Matter a fact, I like the idea of being minutes away from slurpies and homies so much, I've decided to create a new feature of this blog, contrasting my previous "When Gentrification Attacks" feature.

Yep, "Gentrification I Can Believe In" will be a feature that shows I'm neither bitter renter or blissful owner(I'm both). As I've posted I likes my Habana Outpost and never-ending bicycle lanes, but I'm not feeling 50 story glass towers in 4 story neighborhoods and gross appropriations of culture or as is said in Flatbush, "Faking Flags".

And so I raise my Big Gulp and $1 Hotdog, to you 7-Eleven and say ”どもありがとう” (domo arigatou) you great big shadow Japanese company that keeps a never closing light on for us all, even in the 'hood.

For those looking for this all hour high-calorie oasis it's on the corner of Brooklyn Av (natch) and Atlantic Ave on the boarder of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights.

Habana Outpost, that's the ticket

Habana Outpost was packed to overflowing and (real talk) it was hot, weather(beautiful), people(jam packed), food, yes man, the food as delicious and satisfying as I remember. It was great. Sometime when I'm out eating I think of how easily I could create the meal I'm having.

Not so at Habana, they make a simple thing like a burrito, corn and a corona seem damn near gourmet. That's how I feel, what say you?

In addition to the food, the people and the wait (which was back, more on that in a second) There were a host of eco-friendly groups providing info in the form of guides to eco-friendly city living, "Learn to dispose of your electronics without destroying the environment!" as well as some heavy examples of green living like a classic detroit convertable, that runs on veggie oil.

Eco-info and a converted convertable running on veggie oil

As for the wait, yes it was there and yes as I wrote previously, you need only to expect it, and have somebody to talk to while you wait around like a reality show finalist hoping you're name is called, before the suspense (and appetite) kills you.

My waiting moment came and there I stood patiently by the converted mail truck made to look like an authentic Contempo/Mexican food stand straining my eyes upward and hoping that next corn could be mine. I was one of at least seven others, our heads bobbing side to side, occassionally side steping the onslaught of other folks wandering throug the open air space, all of us waiting. One by one everyone around me got their food. I started to feel like that kid in a group who's never picked for sports. When I asked how much longer, the lovely host whose name is a mystery to me, demurely screamed at the cooks; it was the only way she could be heard over the roar of the crowd and sizzle of the corn, chicken, peppers, etc...

She yelled my name and the cooks looked at their tickets, scanning them and then replying "YEH! OKAY!! COMING!".

The host nonchalantly turned back to me and politely said, "very soon, maybe five more minutes". So I figured I'd go back and tend to my other hot commodity, my seat, which was being loosely guarded by a stranger. I waited at my seat, which of course is too far away to hear my name called, and so I came back to check on my food. And sure enough, it still wasn't ready. The considerate host asked again, screaming to the cooks of course, and then again politely she apologized and said "soon". Soon, I had heard "soon" about three more times. I was noticing people who were behind me in line getting their meals, huge tray-fulls of yellow rice, roasted peppers, grilled juicy beef, marinated chicken... can you see how hungry I was? And I noticed something else, something key, have you guessed it? Yeh, my ticket was in my pocket. This means (if you've never been to Habana, or like me, haven't been in a long enough time as to forget) that there is no direction for the cooks to follow to make your order. What were they saying "YEH! OKAY, COMING!" to? Who knows? Who cares, I was the dope who didn't give my ticket in, so I mentioned to the hostess, yeh I think I know what's wrong and she continued her polite streak by giving me a sympathetic look and later, passing me my tray delicious edibles. So of course the less of the day was make your order clear before expecting anything, that's the ticket.
And as for the crowd and the questions I raised in my previous post, the magic of opening day seems to have had the affect of bringing in old and new. I left in the afternoon (so crowded!) came back later in the evening and as soon as I exited the South Portland stairway I walked into a strong pound from Tyren, (those who know, know when you see Tyren you're among family) I also noticed new faces (to me) and it was reunion day from there especially when the bunch of smartly funny folks, who provided my seat turned out to be the same folks I first and last met on the original opening day back in 2006. Even managed to get my boy from Philly to come through and experience Brooklyn's Habana. (Muchos gracias a ti: Sofia, Paola, cool unknown brotha who held my seat down early, the effervescent Darcy and of course, Elvis for the good time! hope to see y'all all summer-long!)

Considering how much I've been thinking about change good and bad, essential and unnecessary, if yesterday is any indication of the summer to come I will be happy to see Habana Outpost remaining the exact same cozy window from which to view all that does and doesn't change in the current Brooklyn evolution.