Missed it Monday : Brooklyn Art Bounty

Art is making it's presence know in New York in many ways that go beyond Banksy's current October "New York Residency" although few give and get the attention as easily Banksy's. I'll get more into Banksy in a piece to be posted soon.


This past weekend in Brooklyn was a great example of the abundance of art to be found.

The Brooklyn Museum has been in deliciously demonstrative form recently opening an exhibition of Wangechi Mutu's work appropriately entitled, "A Fantastic Journey". 

The works are to be seen, not described. But you should know Wangechi's work is as layered in thought as they are in process and equally balanced between beauty and filth in a way that to my eyes is perfect and enlightening. All the aspects of Wangechi's work I saw are like that. Including a video of filmed and animated elements featuring the equally dynamic and surprising recording artist Santigold (who like Wangechi makes her home in Brooklyn).

On Thursday the museum threw a party not only around Wangechi's work but inclusive of the larger tribe of creative Brooklynites including the fierce singer-songwriter and dynamic performer Wunmi, the deceptively powerful DJ Reborn supplying seductive and demanding dance music from half way around the globe and back. As they worked the dance space the 3rd floor had become, opposite the stage were an array of fashions, essentially wearable art being sold by Ngozi Odita of HAE Harriet's Alter-Ego fame), and AFRIKA21. The common thread between all these creative peoples is that travel similar physical and conceptual paths as Wangechi and each of these artists have made Brooklyn their homebase.

Wangechi Mutu's "A Fantastic Journey" is open now through March 9th, but see it soon because when you look at her work thinking you know what you're looking at, prepared to give credit for it's ingenuity, you'll likely find more subtle detail of thought and action to make freeze you in place with wonder. So yeh, you'll need to see it more than once.

Also collaborating with the Brooklyn Museum as well as Creative Time is artist Suzanne Lacy, whom I confess I've never heard of in my life, not even in my art life.

Suzanne's work became physically apparent as I was on the way to the opening of Wangechi's show at the Brooklyn Museum. The side steps of the Museum (one of the genius touches of the museums facade renovation nine years ago) have become a stoop in every way that is Brooklyn. On these steps you'll find families together enjoy the frolicking of their young while parents sit and catch their breathe, a few feet away a couple is likely meeting on their first date.

Suzanne's work in this space was to dress the front facing side of the steps in bands her signature process yellow color with text that asked questions related to gender issues.

Unfortunately for me this didn't inspire me to investigate and I nearly missed the broader work of Ms. Lacy that the stoop dressing was meant to direct viewers to, a full street of stoop conversations near by in Prospect Heights. As the universe would have it, a few days later friend told me she was participating in an art event nearby and when I came to see, it was in fact the entire block of Park Place between Underhill and Vanderbilt that was full with people sharing and trading personal reflections on issues of gender, sexuality, race and society in general.

It was a great time. Art aside the event reminded me of how far Brooklyn has come not simply in terms of cool factor, or gentrification (although those things have lifted Brooklyn's appeal with outsiders and new comers that increases the success of events like these) but in the overall willingness of residents, many new, some long-term who have now allow Brooklyn's public spaces to be party to these types of events. To put that succinctly, I couldn't help but think of all the resident's who gave up their parking spaces that day for the street to be shutdown, which any New Yorker knows is tantamount to giving your baby to a stranger.

I'll post video of the crowds on at Suzanne Lacy's event on Park Place later today.

Photo Wednesday 062613 : Boysen Berry Late Edition

I'm sick. argh. Either too much airconditioning and 90 degree days or a little too close to a old flemish gent but either way I'm at about %50 potency.

But it is Wednesday and I have a Photographic mission.

This weeks Photos for Wednesdays are of a subject I've wanted to write about for a while now.
The Boysenberry. Each year, late into Spring, after trees have sprouted leaves and sweaters all but disappeared a curious berry appears dotting certain Brooklyn streetscapes. Equally curious is how the berry buds suddenly appear first leaf green then red and finally a mixture of color spanning the blackberry to raspberry spectrum.


That's appropriate but more on that later. As with most things on this blog I have a personal remembrance on the subject. Each school year my child mind full of the impending ever important summer vacation, I'd be startled from my distraction by the berry sight of trees with low hanging fruit. So much fruit in fact that the tree branches would bend generously toward the street below, graciously offer a sweet flavorful break in the day.

Almost more fun than plucking grape sized fruit and popping them direct to my mouth, was the horrified looks I'd get from passersby, 3rd and 4th generation urban dwellers who were likely without the benefit of a weird year spent on a farm as I'd had, or random trips to the Caribbean as were often orchestrated by family, or maybe the people which with terror and my berry red lips just had no expectation that anything nourishing could come from a Brooklyn street.

Since then, I've looked forward (and up) to the trees impending blossoms. This year is the latest bloom I can recall, I blame climate change, and the berries don't disappoint.

You'd think with all the locally sourced fervor taking over Brooklyn in the last few years there'd be no end to the appearances and usages of Boysenberries on tony tables but nope all that hype is saved for rhubarb and ramps. (Ramps? really?)

A few years ago I brought up the berry topic with a friend and fellow native brooklynite. I called them Mulberries. He insisted they were Boysenberries. A wiki search proved him correct, much to my dismay. The same wiki page informed me not only that these Berries were Boysen, but that there were white variations of the same.

Of course a week or two later, the moon lighting my bike path home, I came across two men on the sidewalk, standing the dark shade of a broad tree. They were in a curious discussion and I slowed. Surrounding them on the concrete ground was a familiar stipple pattern of small dark stains. Weary, it is still Bk after all I got within earshot and just as I overheard them they noticed me, one motioning me over saying, "you know what these are?" "They're berries. Not just any berries, the mythic white ones I'd recently learned of. "You can EAT them." the night stranger offered. The Alice Carrol-esque element of his enthusiastic suggestion aside I joined them, not in the eating, too soon and too late to be eating from trees with strangers. But we chatted as they chewed and before I was on my way.


Speaking of that tell-tale pattern of berry stains on the ground; I'd always presumed it was the result of fallen fruit from the wind blowing or perhaps the juicy fruit was simply too heavy for it's spindly stem but as I was taking the photos featured here, I got my answer. Fruit was falling like late August rain, in uneven in large and small droplets all while I took photos. Finally I felt the urge to look up to where many berries were falling from and I came eye to eye with this guy, the culprit.


That squirrel seems to be enamored with his territory and I don't blame him, it's not on every block that you find Boysen. I have a memorized few streets where the easily accessible fruit treats can be reliably found. One is the corner of Eastern Parkway and Washington. Another is in front of the church (St. Teresa's) on Classon near Sterling Place. And there's a few more in people's yards but I'm keeping those on the hush.

I've since learned the Boysenberry is in fact a hybrid man made fruit. A combination of such fruits as Raspberries, Blackberries and currants. Made by one Rudolph Boysen, who started the work before it eventually became the concern of the same Walter Knott for whom Knott's Berry Farm is named.

The fruit was cultivated in the 1920's which may explain why it's so plentiful in brooklyn front yards as a large number of homeowners especially brownstone owners were planting fruit trees of various climate friendly varieties.

For years I've meant to do a full on harvest ending in a juice or a pie but this year the fruit came on later than expected and I'm a little slow today so get a start on next year and grab them while you can. Hurry the squirrels and pigeons have ganged up!

Bedtime for Brooklyn Bars?

Last Call? (probably not the last time that's used in the relation to this story, let's make it a drinking game!)

No one likes a drunk, except other drunks trying to score with the drunk. Bartenders don't even like drunks, they're often literally more trouble than their worth. So if forcing bars to close at midnight on weekdays as Community Boards in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights (same thing) Williamsburg & Bushwich are reported (by Gothamist and DNAinfo) to be trying to do, would reduce the disruptive drunk population in our streets, then by all means Community Boards, save us from this scourge.

Community Boards in my opinion are trying to have a say in what has been a fairly one way action of new businesses, many of them bars in communities that were without new and especially outside the community businesses.  The bars understandably want to and say they need to stay open on otherwise slow week day nights to be in business. Bar owners also cite the fact that throughout the city bars are open until 2-4am. Speaking as usual for myself, hasn't Freddy's (one of the bars cited in the Gothamist article) suffered enough already after having their decades old bar demolished to become a bike parking lot for the Barclays Center?

Seems like community board push back to me. Most if not all of the bars mentioned in the articles are on commercial streets that have a level of noise and business that comes from traffic, 24hr stores and other shops, are the bars that big a problem? Are bars infringing on Brooklyn's bedroom communities?

What do you think?

Take a bite out of gentrification! Some Spring Weekend Events in Brooklyn

The first big weekend of Spring 2013 begins!

Tomorrow my eyes and ears will be fixed on the Brooklyn Museum & Targét's 1st Saturday!

There was a moment back in the Fall when it seemed some sort of local grinchery had conspired to end the 1st Saturday's citing too much foot traffic. Ironic since a major goal of 1st Saturdays when they were started was to draw foot traffic to the Museum. Anywhoo. It seems smarter heads prevailed.
Film Screening, Music, Dance Party, Curator Talks (not necessarily in that order) will be going.
Check Brooklyn Museum for details.

Also tomorrow Smorgasburg is back! 

I confess I spent most of last year missing it and rueing the delicious stories I heard from friends and the bloggie-verse. But I plans to rectify that tomorrow. And you should too if you like food and acting out Portlandia skits. Sat in Williamsburg, Sun in D.U.M.B.O. 11a-6p Details at http://www.smorgasburg.com

Throw your arms around foodie-ism and artisanl everything! Take a bite out of gentrification!

This is by no means a complete list of what's happening this weekend. If you have an event you'd like to post here, feel free to leave a comment or email me direct at umbrooklynborn @ gmail.

Have a great weekend.

Photo Wednesday 07/06/11: Vanderbilt Rail edition

I noticed these rails being unearthed during construction of new (and necessary traffic / sidewalk islands) at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, I wonder if these rails are old Trolley tracks (which are buried nearly everywhere in northern Brooklyn) or if they could in fact be from the nearly 150 year old Vanderbilt rail line?

What looks to me like wooden rail ties are visible in the shot above.



This seems like a lot of rails to be just the trolley, in my opinion of course.



Anybody know?

Atlantic Yards Update: Photo Wednesday 02/02/11

Oh yeah the Hot Bird Building has come down



In lieu of the Atlantic Yards boondoggle more of the properties in it's clutches are going the way of the opposition. I was headed down Vanderbilt when I saw this building in mid-destruction and I don't think its over the top to say it looked ripped open and violated.



And at the actual construction site,


the stakes are in the heart, struts are in the ground for the Nets' soon to be arena. If you listen closely you can already hear the sound of losing...

photo Wednesday: Danger overhead

(above: a view of Park bordered by Atlantic, Washington, Underhill and Dean Street, nearly destroyed Ny last week's Tornado and lightning storm)

As I took these photos of damaged trees at this small park, two men sat on a bench inside the yellow caution taped off area. The photo below shows a large limb that is severed and laying on other branches but essentially unsecured. two men sat
on a bench nearby.



I actually mean to sound like an alarmist when I say I hope no one is killed this week by a tree from last week's storm.

Several large tree limbs are severed or nearly severed and are essentially hang over people's heads. I witnessed and took photos of several trees who's branches seemed far from secure (as of Monday 9/20) and I wonder if anything is being done about the danger posed.

The photo above is from Lafayette and Classon avenues and it shows a large limb dozens of feet above the sidewalk with a frayed twisted connection. Look at the closeup below and ask yourself,"would
I feel comfortable walking under that tree?"


(note the twisted bare part of the branch that is the only thing preventing it from falling)

I listened to the local news talk about the clean up of the debris from last weeks storm but throuhout Prospect and Crown Heights, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant I still see several trees and heavy limbs dangling like Damocles. Every day since last week I become more concerned about the possibility of inadvertent death resulting from inaction.


(the hanging branches in this photo are
from a tree on Classon btw Lefferts and Atlantic near the church in the next photo)


I was shocked so many trees came down, Brooklyn before four years ago never got a tornado in my life and I expect most people were similarly shocked. So it seems reasonably outside most new yorkers are not thinking that under a clear blue sky like today's a hunk of damaged tree might still fall with enough weight to kill. That reality probably sinks deeper into the backs
of most new yorker's minds with each passing day.

Many of the damaged trees are in parks and near schools, it's unlikely that children are going to have enough awareness to consider falling tree limbs a danger. Most trees I saw had little more than some yellow
"caution" tape to keep people out of harm's way.

(The large branch hanging from that tree is in a small park connecting to the middle school on Sterling Pl. between Washington And Classon Avenues)


(a wider view of the photo above where a middle school playground is)

So, rather than wait for the city to announce that it has mapped all the precariously hanging trees and that it has a plan to keep passersby away until the damaged trees can be cleared. I'm writing this to urge concerned people to call 311 or local precient or politician and keep further tragedy from happening.

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:

World Cup, Summer Streets overlap in Prospect Heights

ESPN announced recently they'll be shutting their signature sports restaurants across the country, but they are game for Prospect Heights!
Today Saturday the 12 they'll be World Cup Soccer viewing and ESPN zone activities along a to-be closed stretch of Vanderbilt Ave between Bergen and Dean Streets.

It's really a kick-off to the city's Summer Streets program when neighborhood roads are made car scarce in order that pedestrians and especially kids can take to the streets and enjoy communal activities. It doesn't get much more communal than the World Cup and I'm sure world soccer themed bar Woodwork on the corner of Dean and Vanderbilt doesnt mind.

Details from their release (thanks for the post ilovefranklin blog)

ESPN to screen World Cup games outdoors
at Summer Streets on Vanderbilt

The kick-off for Summer Streets on Vanderbilt begins this Saturday, June 12 with a World Cup celebration including a screening of the World Cup matches outdoors on Vanderbilt Avenue. ESPN will be sponsoring an open-air viewing of the games on a large high-definition projection cube that will be set-up in the middle of Vanderbilt Avenue between Dean and Bergen Streets. ESPN will also be sponsoring the ESPN Interactive Zone, which will include lots of games and give-aways. Outdoor screening of matches begins at 10 am with the Argentina-Nigeria match and continues at 2:30 pm when the USA faces England.

This Saturday, June 12th, and on Sundays June 20th and 27th from 12 pm to 5:00 pm, Vanderbilt Avenue between Dean Street and Park Place will trade cars for pedestrians, and honking horns for dancing beats. Four blocks of the avenue will be closed to traffic and transformed into a pedestrian plaza for the second annual Summer Streets on Vanderbilt. In addition to the World Cup events, there will be inflatable bouncy castles, face painting and hula hoop contests, capoiera and fashion shows. Local bands will take center stage and restaurants will flood into the street with outdoor dining.

Presented by the Vanderbilt Avenue Merchants District (VAMD) and the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC), 2010 will mark the second annual Summer Streets on Vanderbilt.

* More information about the event can be found at www.vanderbiltave.com.
* Press inquiries please contact Bianca Sultana PR at biancasultanaPR.com.
* To volunteer, contact danaeo@optonline.net or 718-772-3074.

Saturday: Prospect Hts Flea, & Habana Block Party in Fort Greene

Sunny Saturday in the city. After days of September weather I hope you're ready to soak up the 70° sun.

For activities I recommend these two:



World Akcent's Artisan Marketplace Prospect Heights Flea. A long name to be sure. But it's all to describe a very casual flea market with over 40 vendors in the cool shade atop Eastern Parkway at little Dr. Ronald McNair Park(which is the patch of green space on the other side of the Brooklyn Museum, across Washington Avenue).





I found the market two weeks back and it will be occurring every two weeks through the summer. It was great for a simple stroll even. I passed through amid happy shoppers, cool merchants all in a very friendly space with live music and an easy attitude. Among some great wares on sale there were fashions from Society HAE (as in the shop Harriet's Alter Ego) (Shout out to Ngozi!!)

Dr. Ronald McNair Park is located on Eastern Parkway btw Classon and Washington Aves. You can take the subway to the Eastern Parkway or Franklin Avenue stations to get there. Check MTA.info to avoid their weekend construction madness.

My next recommendation is Habana Outpost's Block Party(below).

The party's events will be going on today from 12-4 with kid friendly activities, a designers market featuring hand-made crafts for sale and musical performances all afternoon from diverse talents whose music stylings range from Salsa, to London Soul, to HipHop from Sierra Leone courtesy of Bajah and the Dry Eye Crew.

Also I have it on good authority that there will be a very special guest performing after B-DEC's set, so don't be the one who missed....

You can get to Habana Outpost directly by the Lafayette C train station but except it to be impossible to exit during the late afternoon from the South Portland exit which is almost center of the block party activities. Try exiting at Greene Avenue and walking down Fulton Street. Same as above check MTA.info for less travel headaches.

Photo Wednesday 04/7/10 : Spring Blossoming Edition

Do yourself a favor and find some flora!



Spring is blooming as we speak, and today's forecast of 85° is only going to bring blossoms faster(and make the 50° weather this weekend a real downer).

Between flower boxes on Franklin, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Borough Hall Park and all the rest of the borough the time for nature local color is here. As I mentioned in my last "Missed it Mondays" feature, I meet up with spring at the Botanic Gardens and here's more of what it looked like:






Just another reminder while people are currently enjoying a casual 花見 or "Hanami" which means "cherry blossom viewing", the big BBG festival "Sakura Matsuri" which features music, crafts, snacks (is specific areas) and in the last few years Japanophile teens in costume, is scheduled for May 1-2nd. For specific deets, click here.

Signs ahead: Atlantic Yards ready to steamroll over brooklynites

Several blogs are posting that residents in the way of eminent domain abuse aka "Atlantic Yards" ave been given 30 day eviction notices in the wake of a judge's clearing the project to proceed.

Update: According to DDDB blog which speaks for many of those residents;

"incorrect. no eviction notices have been given.

see: http://dddb.net/php/latestnews_Linked.php?id=2652"

Ratner plans to break Brooklyn hearts and Brooklyn ground with the project next week Friday Thursday, March 12th.

They've already taken the subway sign down in what will become Barclay's Arena Station. A basketball arena that will ironically add more blight to a thriving lucrative area than remove.

Weekend Woodwork

Vanderbilt Av in Prospect Heights is continuing to raise it's culinary game. For years well known neighborhood eats like "The Usual", "Soda" (which makes great burgers in addition to serving brews and spirits) Zaytoons and long term faves like Bob Law's Seafood Cafe have been the block standard. But with the onslaught of "The Beast" and even more recent "The Vanderbilt" (which with it's elegant yet modest decor, looks quite the fancy, though I've yet to indulge) there seems to be an ever higher lever of dining to be had.

I love the new biz on Vanderbilt. It almost makes up for the difficulty the avenue has promoting socializing due to it's width, unlike cozier thin strips like Court Street or Bleeker Street can.

Not to be undone I guess is the new pub I found last week "Woodwork"(pictured below). It's new to me at least, and that means I'm either the first or the last to write about it.

In short "Woodwork" located on the corner of Dean Street and Vanderbilt (follow the bike paths!) is not a restaurant but a bar. And of all things a soccer (excuse, Football) bar. With wide plasma screens of World Football playing in stereo vision, and a long list of beers and pub spirits.

That the tables and bar itself are made from thick slabs of oak rescued from the past (they have a leaflet explaining the history, but I used mine for a coaster, I deferred to the wood so much) adds even more to the cozy feeling of being shipboard with a good gang of soaked mates. The also have a little history of their inspirations written on that leaflet which I found goofily charming (they reference the New York Cosmos N.A.S.L soccer team that Pelé slummed with in the 70's) It's definitely an atmospheric joint.



It's a long way from the days in the late 80's when the Dean Street Cafe (Corner Underhill and Dean) debuted leading people in the neighborhood to openly questioned the logic of starting new businesses in the area, especially a restaurant.

Plus I always say yes to $3 Red Stripes.

That there were crowds fogging up the windows with their human crush surprised me, maybe I am the last to know. Have a look see.

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.

PhotoWednesday 12/16/09 : "Pay Your Fair!" Edition

The M.T.A. is having math problems, you know the kind where things don't add up. If they have their way, thousands of school kids will be in the same position.

The New York Times reports an M.T.A. $400 Million budget shortfall this year. This after they supposedly avoided "doomsday" earlier this year thanks to action from the State.

To deal with this latest revenue crisis, the M.T.A. has decided to take subsidized Metrocards from NYC school children. This supposedly will save $140 million annually.

And here's where the math gets really ridiculous, you'd think taking away school students way of getting to class would be the type of last resort that comes after all other options have been tried and failed. But nope there's at least $90 million the M.T.A. is owed that for some reason they're not even trying to collect on.

The proposed Atlantic Yards proposal is meant to be built on M.T.A. land. That land has essentially been given to developer Bruce Ratner's company for $10 million instead of the $100 he was supposed to pay for it. (the $10 million is one of several payments he will be allowed to make well into the next decade).

(above right: Land claimed by Forest City Ratner for the Atlantic Yards Project )

And the $100 million is less than the appraised value of the land which is around $200 Million.

(above: several buildings have already been demolished for the Atlantic Yards Project, like the lot above where the old Ward Bakery was demolished. Yet the M.T.A. hasn't been paid for it's land)

 My question, to all who support the Atlantic Yards plan as a benefit for New Yorkers, if you want a stadium on M.T.A. land (which personally I am against) fine, how about actually paying for it?

(above: The MTA Vanderbilt Rail Yards, proposed site of Atlantic Yards, has been reduced with permission of the M.T.A. so less trains are able to use the yard, the reduction benefits Ratner's proposed Atlantic Yards and Nets Basketball Stadium, but the M.T.A. hasn't collected full payment)

 For that matter as City Council Member Letitia James points out, why was an offer of $150 million given to the M.T.A. for development of the same land rejected? (see below)

Why hasn't the M.T.A. collected on the over $250 million fee for the renaming of the Atlantic Avenue Station?

If the M.T.A. needs money, has deals unpaid for, and the reason eminent domain was used (to give private land to Ratner for this project) because it will "benefit" New Yorkers, why isn't he being told to pay in full for M.T.A. land?


(above: An unanswered call to Governor Patterson for a "Time Out" on Atlantic Yards from last May)

Before the M.T.A. starts throwing kids under the buses and trains how about collecting Ratner's fare?

---------------------------------------------------------------

*The full release from Councilmember James is here

THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF COUNCIL MEMBER LETITIA JAMES

67 Hanson Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 260-9191
Press Release

**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE** December 15, 2009

Contact: Amyre Loomis at (718) 260-9191

SAVE STUDENT METROCARD PROGRAM, CRUCIAL SERVICE, AND MTA JOBS –
CANCEL THE ATLANTIC YARDS SWEETHEART DEAL FOR FOREST CITY RATNER!

(December 15, 2009) The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s latest doomsday budget cuts include a proposed cut of the student Metrocard program, which provides full and half fare Metrocards to over 550,000 students who commute to school each day. Also, numerous service cuts are proposed on routes where bus and train services are over-crowded, and waiting times are long. Lastly, severe layoffs and salary cuts within the MTA are proposed.

The MTA says these cuts will help alleviate a massive budget deficit and maintains that these proposed service cuts are for underused routes already serviced by other trains and/or buses. But, riders say they will be inconvenienced, especially because of the recent fare increase and reduction in service this year already. Some students have expressed expectations of having to choose between paying the Metrocard fare, or buying a meal for themselves. It is unacceptable that riders, specifically youth, who depend on the student Metrocard program for educational needs be subjected to unsafe walks, and/or possibly not being able to travel for classes at all.

An obvious questions for residents of Downtown Brooklyn then comes up - why is Forest City Ratner, the multi-million dollar developer of the Atlantic Yards project not paying upfront for what he has purchased from the MTA? If Bruce Ratner paid upfront what he owes to the MTA for use of the MTA’s Vanderbilt Yards, then the doomsday budget cuts could be significantly reduced.

“Cancel the sweetheart deal for Forest City Ratner,” said Council Member James. “Forest City Ratner should pay the $100 million owed now for the purchase of the Vanderbilt Yards. I also question why Forest City Ratner is not being made to pay the millions of dollars owed for the naming-rights deal upfront? And, had the MTA accepted a higher bidder, they would have received their funds upfront and their current budgetary gap could have been cut almost in half.”

The MTA’s deal with Forest City Ratner simply does not make sense. Many are questioning why the MTA, who is facing a potential budgetary gap of $615 million next year, and today faces a $343 million massive budgetary gap, is able to accept a $20 million payment towards a $100 million dollar property deal. This purchase and construction of the Atlantic Yards Development by Forest City Ratner was also given the option of spreading the balance of $80 million owed in payments over a 21 year period.

Community advocates suggest that another means of closing the budget gap would be for the MTA to do a new appraisal of the railyards valued at $271.5 million, and open up bids to other developers who would pay more of the cost upfront. Severe cutbacks in service, layoffs and especially cuts to the student Metrocard program appear unconscionable in light of the MTA’s business agreement with Forest City Ratner.

Critics and opponents of Atlantic Yards have continued to argue that rival developer Extell, who submitted a bid that offered $150 million in cash, was a far better plan. For unclear reasons, the MTA board negotiated solely with Forest City Ratner. Extell head Gary Barnett in a December 2007 interview with the Observer said he was shocked that he bid $150 million, and Forest City Chairman Bruce Ratner bid $50 million, yet Ratner was offered the deal.

“Something simply doesn’t sit right with the community about the preferential treatment that Forest City Chairman Bruce Ratner has received from the MTA. Now it appears as though MTA customers and specifically our youth - the future of the City - may pay dearly to support the project of a multi million dollar developer that the community doesn’t want to begin with,” said Council Member James.
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