The program is expiring but the clout of real estate industry will likely save it. And DeBlasio is torn: disliking the subsidies for luxury housing but thinking the program is important to reach his new housing goals.

The case against | The case for [NYT]

New study says 421-A is exploding in Brooklyn [ANHD]

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BK Stars

Forget Lena Dunham, Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson Is Brooklyn Heights’ coolest resident [Brooklyn Heights Blog]

Northside Festival releases awesome 2015 lineup [Free Williamsburg]

Bushwick to be destroyed in new action thriller [Gothamist]

How the Brooklyn Navy Yard became a major site for Hollywood movies [CNN]

Religion, Brooklyn Style

DeBlasio adds two Muslim holidays to school schedule [Brooklyn Eagle]

In Borough Park some Orthodox Jews celebrated Purim by hanging effigies of Haman that looked far too creepy and modern [Failed Messiah]

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Villains of the Week

Guiliani blames Obama for melee that broke out in Brooklyn McDonalds [Daily News]

“I feel a little uncomfortable with an Asian in the room,” the man yelled at community meeting [Brooklyn Paper]

Host of Boobs of Bushwick party got punched by a mystery woman [Bushwick Daily]

Brooklyn homeless shelter operators allowing horrible conditions [Brownstoner]

Everyone Wants Better Schools But….

Parents protest Cuomo’s plan to toughen teacher evaluations [South Slope News]

Parents protest efforts to shut two underperforming schools [Chalkbeat]

District 20 (Bay Ridge and Borough Park) has seen a surge in overcrowded schools [WNYC]

Map: how overcrowded is your child’s school? [DNA Info]

Unusual Heroes

BK man saves niece from prostitution by posing as a john [Daily News]

Flatbush teacher loses her leg but inspires with her response [Brooklyn Daily]
“Everyone was whispering and crying — they didn’t know how to bring the news to me. To wake up and know that I’m alive was enough for me. I was just so grateful.”

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March 2, 2015March 2, 2015 by sdwaldman

ISIS’s Brooklyn office, DeBlasio caves to the mohels, and key details about the Walter White of Maraschino cherries

February 23 — March 1, 2015

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ISIS’s Brooklyn Office

The very Brooklyn-centric details of the terrorism bust:

Two lived in Midwood, at 1501 East 10th Street [WSJ]
One worked at the Gyro King on Foster Ave and lived in Brighton Beach [NYTimes]
Angry about infidels and “polytheists” [DNA Info]
Tried to buy tickets to join ISIS via local travel agency [DNA Info]

Travel agent Frank Cakir: “I was talking to some kind of potential terrorist face to face just last week. My hands are still shaking.“

Best Details About The Walter White of Maraschino Cherries

The Red Hook factory could grow 1,200 marijuana plants in the basement while producing 400,000 cherries per week on the main floor [Daily News]

Library included books on plant propagation and Encyclopedia of Organized Crime [NY Times]

Cops used Mondello’s dumping of toxic waste into sewers as pretext for search [CBS]

Rep Your Nets, Awesome Hair Edition [The Brooklyn Game]

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If We’re Going to Ban Sharia Law….

DeBlasio cuts deal allowing Brooklyn mohels to clean blood off circumcised infants with their mouths [NYTimes]

Wont release names of mohels who have herpes [Failed Messiah]

Surprises of the Week

One precinct in all of North Brooklyn has had no shootings in 2015: Bed Stuy [DNA Info]

Ft. Greene teen catches 1,058 marlin [Photo and article by Daily News]

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Great Moments in Civic Discourse

Video of activist / civic-vandal Alicia Boyd using noise-horn to disrupt community board meeting [Q at Parkside]

“White people don’t eat the way we do,” says local pol during debate over a supermarket [Brooklyn Paper]

Tragic

Former Marine survives eight years in military but dies in East Flatbush resisting mugging by local teens [Daily News]

A construction worker was crushed to death by a steel beam while helping to make Barclays’ new roof [The Brooklyn Game]

3-year-old fatally whipped for not being able to spell [Daily News]

Growing Pains

On 29 record-breaking days in 2014, the NYC Subways had more than six million passengers and far more delays [NY Post]

Rents outpaced inflation for last 3 years, says Census Bureau [NY Times]

Good explanation of how the intense push for more housing has endangered some community gardens [BK Independent Media]

On the other hand,

Jason Sudekis and Olivia Wilde saved $2 million by moving to Clinton Hill from Manhattan [Brokelyn]

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Quotes of the Week

“It’s not that people who love Bensonhurst are leaving, it’s that Bensonhurst doesn’t want us anymore.”
–Comedian Rocco Deserto [Bensonhurst Bean]

“The next day I woke up, to the shock of all of my doctors — something they can’t explain to this day.”
–Brooklyn author Seth Kushner, on mysterious remission from terminal cancer

“It’s not a topless party. But it will definitely be more than likely that some boobs will be out, if not wandering about then maybe for a fleeting moment.”
–Kate Chiplinsky, organizer of Boobs of Bushwick party [DNA Info]

“Take care of my kids.”
–Cherry/Pot Mogul Arthur Mondella, to his sister, before shooting himself [Daily News]

Politics

Dems settle on S.I. Council Member Vincent Gentile to challenge the non-prosecutor of Eric Garner for Congressional seat, Daniel Donovan [Capital NY]

Police complain they’re being abused by BK District Attorney, who has been prosecuting police abuse [NY Post]

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Quotes of the Week — Bill Bratton Edition

From an extraordinary speech the Police Commissioner gave on race and justice:

“Slavery, our country’s original sin, sat on a foundation codified by laws enforced by police, by slave-catchers.

Since then, the stories of police and black citizens have intertwined again and again.

The unequal nature of that relationship cannot and must not be denied.” [Huffington Post]

“[When officers see] the same young men in the same neighborhoods committing almost all of this city’s violence, [it] carries a risk of turning into bias. We need to fight against that.”

“We’re often abrupt, sometimes rude, and that’s unacceptable. But our critics need to face the hard truth that they misrepresent us sometimes.”

“I do not deny that it [police abuse] exists. But it is not systemic in the sense that we do not condone it. It is a matter of the actions of the few, and the few that we need to seek to find and get rid of.” [NY Times]

By Sbowserpa via Instagram

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February 21, 2015February 21, 2015 by sdwaldman

Larry David & Malia Obama rep BK, the “secondary” snow streets, best Chinese food

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February 15-22, 2015

VISION ZERO: DeBlasio targets traffic fatalities in these 49 BK streets and 91 intersections (in red) [Daily News]

GIULIANI TO OBAMA THIS WEEK: You could learn a few things from my awesome approach to ethnic conflict in Brooklyn.

A flaw in the analogy [The Rude Pundit]
Flashback: when Rudy smeared a BK victim of police violence and fomented racial tension [Rob Polner]

MALIA OBAMA REPPING BK: The First Daughter secretly sporting t-shirt for a Brooklyn hip-hop collective, Pro Era, Pro [Gawker]

Background on Pro Era founder’s Flatbush roots [Q at Parkside]

THE REAL REASON THERE ARE DARK ICE MOUNTAINS ON YOUR BLOCK: This map shows which BK streets have “secondary” priority for snow ploughing [NYC]

THE BEST BASKETBALL TEAM IN BROOKLYN IS…: St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights! On the verge of making March Madness [Brooklyn Daily]

IT SURVIVED THE CIVIL WAR, BUT NOT THE BK RENAISSANCE: This Bed-Stuy church, built around the 1840s, is being torn down to make apartments [DNA Info][Photo by Brownstoner]

TAX SOME BRIDGES, BUILD SOME SUBWAYS:

Proposal to add tolls to Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges [Brooklyn Eagle]
Proposal for a new subway line — the X — through BK [Capital NY]

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Quotes of the Week

“Brooklyn is the edgy, kind of complicated bad boy of the boroughs. Everyone wants to date a bad boy at least once.”
–Dating expert Melani Robinson, explaining a new survey showing Manhattanites want to date Brooklynites

“Now the landlord’s trying to fire all the workers, sell the chandelier, and melt down all the gold-encrusted workout equipment, so that the building owner can recoup some of his losses and sell the complex to someone else. Nets basketball!
–Devin Kharpertian with an elaborate and Brooklyn-friendly metaphor explaining the Brooklyn Nets’ demise [The Brooklyn Game]

“No.”
–Bed-Stuy Community Board chair Juanita Lewis, rejecting a liquor license amidst growing resistance to hipster infiltration [Village Voice]

“The closing of the Dumbo Arts Festival is like a canary in a coal mine. We risk the corporatization of Dumbo.”
–Justin Hendrix of of the NYC Media Lab in downtown Brooklyn on why Dumbo is losing its reputation as the BK center of gravity for technology [Technical.ly Brooklyn]

Quotes of the Week (Special Larry David Edition)

Larry David returned recently to Sheepshead Bay, where he grew up. The New Yorker took him to the Kouros Bay Diner, where he marvalled at the size of the menu. [New Yorker]

“This is the biggest menu I’ve ever seen in my life!”

The waitress came by. “Do you have fresh grapefruit juice?” David inquired. She shook her head.

“O.K., I’ll have a Pellegrino.”

Her pencil didn’t move.

“A sparkling water?”

“Seltzer,” she said.

“Seltzer! There you go,” he said. “I’ve been away too long.”

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Culture

Kind of hysterical video of fashion show staged on the L train by a Bushwick designer [Bushwick Daily]
“They fuse hyper modern tech fabrics with organic natural fibers and draping techniques”

Foodies, Glorious Foodies

The Foodie Awards [BK Mag]

Best Chinese restaurants in Brooklyn [Brooklyn Based]

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Creative Businessing

Brooklyn Winery pounding out 9,000 cases of wine in Williamsburg, including Merlot made with L.I. grapes [Edible Brooklyn]

Amazon two-hour delivery hits Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights [ReCode]

Brooklyn Navy Yard business building micro-apartments: 260 feet for $2,000 [NY Times]

Why homelessness is growing in BK [Brooklyn Independent Media]

Obits

Leslie Gore, 68. Born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, she had her first hit — Its My Party (And I’ll Cry of I Want To) at age 16.[NPR]

Vince O’Connor, 85. The Park Slope native coached the St. Francis Prep football team for an astounding 62 seasons. [Brooklyn Daily]

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February 16, 2015 by sdwaldman

Flatgush and Flushwick, eviction corruption, the $695 Nets hat and 67 years of marriage

Week In Review

February 9-15, 2015

CORRUPT EVICTIONS: To cash in on gentrification, some BK landlords bribed city inspectors to force out tenants [Brooklyn Paper]

Role of Satmar Hassidim in massive scandal [Failed Messiah]
Halt evictions, says N. BK Assemblyman Lentol [Brooklyn Eagle]

MURALITY TALE: The fascinating story of the man who spawned beautiful Bushwick murals and another man who wants to destroy them [Bushwick Daily]

HELL FREEZES OVER: Local landlord rejects lucrative offer from Starbucks [Q at Parkside]

FIRST THE DNC REJECTS BK, THEN THIS: Miley Cyrus pulls out of Bushwick Porn Festival [Brokelyn]

EXPLAINING THE COP INDICTMENTS: Why the Staten Island cop who killed Eric Garner was not indicted but rookie Officer Peter Liang who killed Akai Gurley was [NY Times]

WHEN THE OCEANS RISE, HEAD TO PARK SLOPE: New map renames the under-water parts of BK: Flushwick, Bed-Sea, Flatgush, Port Greene, Coral Gardens, Captain Hook [Spatialities]

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The Two Brooklyns

Entourage’s Adrian Grenier buys Clinton Hill brownstone for $2 million

BK Families missed meals 88 million times in 2012, the most in NYC
Hunger worst in CB 18 (Canarsie, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach), CB3 (Bed-Stuy, Ocean Hiill), CB5 (ENY, New Lots, Cypress Hills), CB16 (Brownsville), and CB17 (E Flatbush, Ditmas). [Brooklyn Eagle]

You can buy Brooklyn Eau de Parfum at Saks Fifth Avenue for $275 and Nets hat for $695 at Barneys [Brokelyn]

NYC ranked 61 out of 62 cities in providing breakfasts for poor [Daily News]

Price per square foot in BK up 14.1% over last year [Brownstoner]

Coat shortage hits amidst cold spell [City Limits]

BK has lowest office vacancy rate in the country, having added 27 new retail corridors in 2 years [The Real Deal]

Quotes of the Week

“We never really get angry with each other, we just laugh it off. We’ve renewed our vows nine times.”
–Sara Hill and William Douglas who have been together for 67 years, honored at Borough Hall with other long-married couples. [Brooklyn Eagle]

“I think sometimes, ‘Wow, I’m really not gonna walk again.’ But then I think, ‘What the heck? I’m happy anyway.’ ”
–Deleta Crawford, a Flatbush grandmother, who was paralyzed by a stray bullet last year [Daily News]

“Do we want [Sheldon] Silver’s trial coming up around the time of the convention? Corruption was a real issue. God knows who will get indicted next.”
–Anonymous pol on why the Democrats may have passed over BK for their convention [NY Post]

“I’m a bartender and the excessive presence of strollers in your hood makes me uncomfortable.”
–A BK fella, according to Brokelyn’s article, “7 things I’ve learned dating Brooklyn dudes.”

“You can attract a lot of young, talented people and it links you to a new, very highly desirable urbanism. [But] there are also a lot of stereotypes—good and bad—that come with both of those and it’s unclear whether she wants to be associated with those.”
–Seth Pinksy on whether Hillary Clinton should have her HQ in BK

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Comforting

It’s more expensive to rent in Queens than in Brooklyn [DNA Info]

Anti-gentrification group actually tries to unite new residents with old [Kensington BK]

NYC goes almost 2 weeks without a murder [Brokelyn]

Planting farms and wild flowers on rooftops may prevent sewage overflows [Brooklyn Eagle]

Killed on the job in NYC

In 2012, tremendous attention was appropriately given the 4 NYC cops and firemen who died on the job. Less so for the 17 who died on construction sites. [City Limits]

39 of 56 were minorities [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

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Bad Brooklynites

Ft. Greene man beat woman with cane to get a seat in building’s laundry room

A lost, elderly man in Gravesend ask some nice young men for directions. They rob him instead [Brooklyn Daily]

BK firefighter fired for wearing T-shirts ridiculing minority firefighters [Daily News]

Good Brooklynites

Two seniors saved in dramatic Windsor Terrace fire rescue [Brooklyn Paper]

How a 14-year-old, hearing-impaired Nets dancer from Bensonhurst Is changing the way people see disabilities [Bensonhurst Bean]

Cops rescue eight pups [Bensonhurst Bean]

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Obits

Ena Elizabeth Schouburgh, 107. A lifelong vegetarian and career nurse, the “grand dame” of Bed-Stuy came to New York in 1945 from Jamaica [Daily News]

Joseph Grado, 90. Founder of Sunset Park’s high-end audio manufacturer, Grado Laboratories. [BK Mag]
Bill Meier. Famed Williamsburg Pizza Deliveryman Passes Away [Greenpointers]

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February 11, 2015 by sdwaldman

Bubonic plague in PLG, Bud’s attack on our beer, progressive confusion on housing

Week In Review

February 1-8, 2015

MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS: Scientists identify creepy range of bacteria at each subway stop [WSJ]

THE KING AND QUEEN OF BROOKLYN ABDICATE: Jay Z and Beyonce head to LA [The Brooklyn Game]

Who should replace them? (Steve Buscemi and Patrick Stewart?) [Brokelyn]

BUDWEISER’S WAR ON BROOKLYN: Did Bud use Super Bowl ad to attack BK craft beer? [Brokelyn]

Craft brewers overly earnest parody-rebuttal [Grub Street]

DEBLASIO’S HOUSING RIDDLE: Progressives support affordable housing but oppose building it [Truth Out]
“We don’t need or want more people. We don’t need the creation of affordable housing.”

The case for his approach [NYT]
Keeping the artists in NYC [Hyper Allergic]
“Housing is now to Bill de Blasio what policing was to Rudy Giuliani” [City Limits]

REP YOUR NETS: Even when the team struggles, BK fans step up [The Brooklyn Game]

Challenges of City Life

94,000 take exam to be sanitation workers, for 500 slots [Gotham Gazette]

Park Slope man struck in head by flying manhole cover [NYTimes]

Green cabs skip East New York and Red Hook [DNA Info]

Locals angry, worried and conspiratorial about noxious fumes from massive Williamsburg warehouse fire [Greenpointers]

BK Pride

Delightfully grumpy/profane Park Slope blog, F*d in Park Slop, calls it quits [DNA Info]

Flashback: one of her biggest scoops: Dog mugged in Park Slope [FIPS]

The geeky women helping to fuel Brooklyn’s burlesque revival [BKLYNR]

Humans of NY founder raises $1 Million for Brownsville school [Gowanus Lounge]

Quotes of the Week

“We often drink just because all our friends are already drunk.”
–Katarina Hybenova [Bushwick Daily]

“We’ve been told: sorry—there’s nothing you can do about that. You can either have a safe and clean neighborhood—or you can have one you can afford. Not both. Well, as my grandmother might say, that’s ‘una cavolata !’
–Mayor Bill DeBlasio [Gothamist]

“The volume of toxic air emissions is substantial. That is not safe air to breathe.”
–Michael Heimbinder, about the Williamsburg warehouse fire

“Brooklyn is the most diverse community in the U.S…This image of America’s urban future, this is the right image for Democrats to project.” [WSJ]
–Karen Brooks Hopkins of BAM on why the Dems should hold their convention here

Food and Cocktails

The 10 best comfort foods in Brooklyn [BK Mag]

Why Brooklyn doesn’t have its own Cocktail, like the Manhattan [Edible Brooklyn]

BK Nets Dominate Manhattan Knicks

BK Nets defeat Knicks for 3rd time, winning the Battle of the Boroughs 2015 [The Brooklyn Game]

Why have the Nets suddenly improved??? [The Brooklyn Game]

New York’s best pinball players will battle it out in Greenpoint [Brooklyn Daily]

History

How Eleanor Roosevelt helped kill construction of a Brooklyn-Battery Bridge [Brooklyn Historical Society]

February 1, 2015February 1, 2015 by sdwaldman

The disturbing “Uncle Tom” poster, heavy metal yoga, and the best local beer

Week In Review

January 25 – February 1, 2015

The fight over a high rise in Prospect Lefferts Gardens turns noxious [Q at Parkside]
“What does that feel like? To call your neighbors racial epithets, accusing them of ignorance and being house slaves? Does that feel good?”

Some background on the controversy, over whether to allow taller buildings in the area [Brownstoner]

Local beer mavens answer the question: If you could drink 1 local beer in 1 local bar, what it would it be? [BK Magazine]

Police seize famous Gowanus rabbits, who turn out to have bunny syphilis [Brokelyn]

The red hot rubble of East New York [NY Magazine]
“To both investors and public-policy-makers, the decrepitude of these neighborhoods represents a rare, and perhaps perishing, opportunity.”

DeBlasio puts Brooklyn seriously in play for Democratic convention by raising significantly more money than Columbus or Philadelphia [NY Times]. And Norman Oder makes the case against

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Quotes of the Week

“This class would not involve “ohms”. We would not be saluting the sun… but rather opening our hearts to Satan through physical worship.”
–Rossella Laeng about her experience with Heavy Metal Yoga in Bushwick [Brokelyn]

“I believe my dog is provoked by anybody he don’t know.”
–Kaseam Stanley of Brooklyn, pleading unsuccessfully that his dog Disel not be executed. [NY Post]

“Would the community be happy to have something other than the jail there? Sure! But would my neighborhood want to trade the jail for a 55-story condo? I don’t think so.”
–Howard Kolins, the president of the Boerum Hill Association, where BK’s jail is. [Daily News]

“One of them was stepping on my neck and my face. The other one was trying to break my leg. Then everything changed.”
–Christopher Graham, who was beaten up by police in Crown Heights until they learned he was a prison chaplain [Daily News]

By Ijulien on Instagram

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Collective Action

“Brownstone parents” attempt to re-shape ailing Boerum Hill school by enrolling en mass [DNA Info]

Orthodox Jews complain that DeBlasio is forcing all-day pre-K on them [Failed Messiah]

BK Heights project that might block view of Empire State building halted after local protests [Daily News]

The Pride of Brooklyn

Video: This week’s Broad City features Abbi running amok in Gowanus Whole Foods [Brokelyn]

Video: BK man teaches his rabbit to bring him beer [BK Mag]

Williamsburg now has the country’s only bar dedicated exclusively to Matcha [Free Williamsburg]

A record-breaking 1.5 million people visited the Coney Island amusement park last year [NY 1]

Neighbors raise $30,000 to fire ravaged bar [Ditmas Park Corner]

Prospect Park rink wins architecture awards [Brooklyn Paper]

Attorney General nominee from Brooklyn picks up GOP support [Brooklyn Eagle]

Lena Dunham to talk at BAM [Brooklyn Paper]

Politics

DA probes if Assemblyman Erik Dilan (Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, ENY) got subsidized apartment despite earning $178,000 [Daily News]

BK’s candidate for Assembly Speaker drops out [Brooklyn Paper]

Gentile is Democratic frontrunner for Grimm’s seat [Daily News]

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By Airzolo on Instagram

Dull But Important

Local lawmakers slam city property tax exemption program, saying It has lined developers’ pockets & paved the way for gentrification [Ditmas Park Corner]

More affordable housing may mean losing some BK community gardens [BK Paper]

Parks dept says new Coney Island boardwalk will be more green because it wont use, you know, wood [Brooklyn Eagle]

More BK prisoners will go to Rikers instead of Boerum Hill jail [Daily News]

Long line and low odds for NY’s subsidized housing lotteries [NY Times]

Obit

Rafael Pujols, 49. Shot while working in a bodega. “He was a beautiful person. He’d give his shirt off his back. Very beautiful person,” said customer Deborah Gomes [NY 1]

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Tales from the blizzard of 1888

Hit with a third snowball, the BK man whipped out a razor blade and slashed his assailant [Brownstone Detectives]

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January 27, 2015January 27, 2015 by sdwaldman

BK Snowpocalypse Captured

By Kwoiee

By Nychotegirl (“true story”)

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By Jeanandmerce

By Manolo718, Bushwick

By Jenitabonita, men at work

By Terracewindsor

By Jhuntingtonnyc

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By Mumbellini

By Ijulien m
Continue reading →

January 25, 2015January 26, 2015 by sdwaldman

SNL’s funny Bushwick parody; Sheldon Silver fallout in BK; and 116% construction growth

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January 18-25, 2015

VIDEO: SNL imagines Bushwick corner drug dealers enjoying the new Brooklyn [Free Williamsburg]

Thumbs down on the parody [Brokelyn]
Artisanal mayo store that was mocked mulls new garlic-truffle flavor in response [DNA Info]

Sheldon Silver fallout for BK:

Martin Golden (Bay Ridge), Dov Hikind (Borough Park) and Maimonides Hospital under suspicion [Daily News]
Possible Silver replacement: Greenpoint assemblyman Joe Lentol [NY State of Politics]

Sunset Park cop challenges PBA President, on a slate consisting of 2 indicted cops [Brooklyn Daily]

Why Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David should buy the Nets [The Brooklyn Game]

116% increase in construction units in BK [NY Yimby]

Excellent NYTimes video captures Bed-Study [NYTimes]

Graffiti artist defacing Bushwick street art [Animal New York]

Quotes of the Week

“The night of the wedding, he made it clear that he owned me.”
–Rivky Stein, a Borough Park woman trying to get an Orthodox Jewish divorce [Failed Messiah]

“I didn’t just make the wrong choices; I made the worst choices.” [NY Mag]
–El-Hanafi, a BK man who sent $67,000 to Al Qaeda

“They say with seven matches you go to heaven. I’ve made over 550.”
–Tova Shamsian, an Israeli matchmaker for the disabled, featured in BK Israeli film festival [BK Independent Media]

“Dog rape, which I didn’t even know was a thing.”
–Kim Collins of Second Chance Rescue, describing how Rose was victimized and urging Brooklynites to foster dogs. [BK Independent Media]

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Culture

BK artist paints Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg out of poop [Daily News]

BK-born Anne Hathaway asks “what happens to a city if young artists can no longer afford to live there” [NY Post].

Very sweet video of high school students at Brooklyn Sings audition [BK Independent Media]

Motley Crue to play at Barclays as part of band’s ‘Final Tour’ [Brooklyn Eagle]

David Byrne Is Coming to BAM and Barclays [BK Mag]

Fort Greene-based film “Nasty Baby” — about a gay couple having a baby, with Kristen Wiig — headed to Sundance [Ft. Greene Focus]

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BK Characters

Vinegar Hill man finds solace on a golf course made of trash [NY Times]

Bed-Stuy retired bus driver wins $7 million lottery [NY 1]

Drunk girls putting on makeup: the next BK phenom? [Technical.ly]

The Business of BK

BK won’t be the next Silicon Valley — and that’s a good thing [Technical.ly]

Barclays doing well but with 28% less revenue than last year [Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Report]

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This Week’s Development Wars

Pols step up attacks on AirBNB [Brooklyn Eagle]

Unscientific survey: a tie between “Gentrification is a good thing for the city” and it is “the intended result of the racist/classist combination of government policy and personal choices.” [City Limits]

Sheepshead Bay residents grumpy about 40 story Trump Village tower [Sheepshead Bites]

Tenant activists claim that tax subsidy fuels gentrification; DeBlasio disagrees [Capital NY]

Landmarked Brooklyn Lyceum arts venue will be transformed into condos [DNA Info]

Opposition growing to paving over Coney Island boardwalk [Amuzing the Zillion]

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School Reform

Eric Adams proposes that CUNY students be required to volunteer in the community [BK Independent Media]

Cuomo challenges the teachers unions [NYTimes]

Farina proposes giving superintendents more power [NYPost]

Dull But Important Civic Matters

Taxpayers paying tens of millions for BK DA Hynes’ wrongful convictions [Brooklyn Paper]

Community Board revamps controversial plan to rezone Crown Heights [DNA Info]

Park Slope car washers join union [Daily News]

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Nets

Video tribute to seriously ill player Mirza Teletovic [The Brooklyn Game]

Nets valued at $1.5 billion [The Brooklyn Game]

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January 18, 2015January 18, 2015 by sdwaldman

The hottest new thing in Brooklyn is very old

January 4-11, 2015

The hottest new thing in Brooklyn is very old
Shut for almost four decades, the Kings Theatre opens soon with a bang — Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Crosby Stills (and some younger bands) [KensingtonBK]

Brooklyn’s real estate prices rose in 2014… [Brownstoner]
BUT get this: the median price only rose 3.6% in 2014 — because inventory rose 41% Perhaps the drive to produce more housing is taming the BK housing bubble.

Comedy Central’s acclaimed and hilariously raunchy comedy Broad City is rooted in Brooklyn [EW]

Virulent bacterial infection rampages through orthodox communities in Williamsburg and Borough Park [CBS]

Bankrupt BK hospital paid out $16 million in legal and other professional fees [Daily News]

“The myth of gentrification” [Slate]
“No evidence that poor people moved out of gentrifying neighborhoods at a higher than normal rate.”

WHY have the Nets tanked??? [The Brooklyn Game]

Revisiting Peter Lugers and other BK classics [Brooklyn Based]

Video: Aerial view of Coney Island by drone [Technica.ly]