The $3 bagel-and-sausage sandwiches (coffee included) at Dale Bagels are not only good, are not only a good bargain, but they also heal people. Last Wednesday was shaping up to be a sick day for me – I had a sore throat, congestion, and slept in the neighborhood of a whole hour the night before. Yet after one of the aforementioned sandwiches (sans coffee) I felt not-sick and well-rested.
…was sadly rejected by the President.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Here’s the long-overdue, day-early Friday wrap:
(All photos: Brian Hedden)
Thanks to shorter days and the time change, I don’t get to see my neighborhood in the daylight much anymore. The main commercial strip does have a cool look to it, though, in the early evening.
Silver Rod is a mere independent pharmacy on a street lined with CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreen’s. But they’re pretty much guaranteed to have EVERY item on your child’s back-to-school classroom supplies shopping list, so suck it, CVS. The pharmacy storefront used to be bigger, but a couple of years ago, they “gave up” the corner to make way for a 24-hour deli. Yes! In times of need I have walked out here from my apartment at 3am. Though the more likely scenario has me making a 3am drunken pit-stop on my way from a Manhattan rock club.
This Sovereign Bank started out in life as a South Brooklyn Savings Bank. Even at night, you can tell they need to get the front exterior a good washdown. But forget that for a moment – check out those lamps. Says Forgotten NY:
Like many metropolitan-area banks, the SBSB had the peculiar tradition of erecting its own light posts in front (especially if the bank was on a corner). Many of the posts still remain, like these, and some still illuminate.
And these illuminate as well. Sweet.
(photo credit: Brian Hedden)
This was Gravesend Park on Veterans’ Day. (Yeah – I’m a little lazy in getting this posted. Sue me.) I was surprised at how empty the playground and ballfield was, considering it was a school and bank holiday. Granted, I got here at 11am, but still. I would have expected it to be teeming with kids. Guess they were all still in their pajamas watching SpongeBob reruns on Nickelodeon?
Gravesend Park is not in Gravesend. The City Parks Department takes a shot at explaining away this inconsistency.
The City of Brooklyn first acquired this parcel in 1896 for construction of a disciplinary training school. The school closed in 1916 and parks acquired the property in 1917. Only 23 years had passed since Gravesend was its own town. McDonald Avenue, which lies a few blocks to the east, was still known as Gravesend Avenue, and parks were often named for nearby, major streets. While it is difficult to say absolutely, it seems likely that this park was named to honor Gravesend.
(photo credit: Brian Hedden)
I’m a cute kitty. Now worship me, insignificant human!
Preferably behind the ears. It itches back there.
Does anyone use Yahoo Maps? I’ve been using Google for my online mapping needs for the past few years*. So I didn’t know about an interesting feature that Yahoo had added last year – at the second and third closest zoom levels, they have color shading for different city neighborhoods. Pretty cool, yes?
Cool idea, anyway. I find their accuracy somewhat lacking. As in, not accurate.
8th Avenue Chinatown is in Borough Park - Rlly? Is this a ploy by Hasidic real estate agents to make Sunset Park more appealing to their prospects? Well, Sunset Park should be used to it, considering how many “Bay Ridge” apartments I used to be able to find in the 40s and 50s.
Little Odessa is a nickname, kids - The name of the neighborhood that Yahoo thinks is Little Odessa is actually called “Brighton Beach.” And we all know what they say about Russophones from Brighton Beach.
A bad end for Gravesend – Yahoo gives this member of the Original Six the double middle finger and maps the whole thing to Bensonhurst. All the history of the only English settlement in the Dutch colonies, flushed away into Gravesend Bensonhurst Bay.
Such a dim understanding of Brooklyn neighborhoods. I’m guessing some Yahoo from Manhattan drew this map.
* P.S. It needs to be said that I use Streetwise for my exclusive walking-around map. I love me some Streetwise. The preceding statement is totally true, and no one paid me or gave me any free maps to say that, though I wouldn’t mind a Good Boyfriend point or two.
(Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28198273@N05/ / CC BY-ND 2.0)
1. Splitting Coney Island’s central district in two – a City portion and a Sitt portion – is good for you and me. One of the problems I see with Atlantic Yards – a Bloomberg “Legacy” project with no accomplishments to date – is that a corporate developer has oversight over both his boondogle and the affordable housing which was billed as a benefit to the City. Well, now that the economy has tanked, guess which part of his plan is on indefinite hold, and guess how much public assistance he has to forfeit. If Sitt had been left in charge of the whole of Coney Island, I have no doubt that the social benefit (in this case, a new, quality amusement park) would have been tossed by the wayside in favor of a never-ending run of rent-a-carnivals and fleas-by-the-sea. Now he can focus on combing his patch of sand for every last penny and wooden nickel, and the Bloomberg Administration can concentrate on actually following through on one of their Legacy projects.
2. The Bloomberg Administration’s record with Legacy projects is a bit on the dim side (Olympics, West Side Stadium, Tolls For Transit Take 1, etc), yet I’m oddly optimistic that they’re going to get the job done at Coney Island. Here’s something from the RFP fact sheet I found particularity telling – they’re not looking for a rent-a-carnival to bide time until the big guns move in. They want someone to move in by next summer, and continue to improve their amusement park with phased development. If they can get contractual guarantees – something they apparently failed to do with the affordable housing attached to the Atlantic Yards project – they’ll be in excellent shape to get their first win since the Million Trees.
3. The City is out to prove the Doesn’t Matter side of the Size debate. Count me among those, like the activist group Save Coney Island, who believe there should be more carnival/amusement park space than the 12.5 acres that the City has proposed. But this land sale has sealed it – they’re clearly letting Sitt run with his plans on his side of the demarcation line. If Sitt fails, there may be another chance to review this in the future, but the lines are set for the foreseeable future.
Did you hear that they sold Coney Island yesterday?
Here’s the (very) short of what is happening: Thor Equities, land development and speculation arm of Joe Sitt, is selling two-thirds of its land holdings on Coney Island to the City of New York. Sitt had previously wanted to build “Vegas-style” amusements on Coney Island, whatever the frak that means, but succeeded only in running afoul of the Administration of Mayor Oligarch.
Watching this drama unfold over the past few years has made me feel a little like I did when watching Super Bowl XXX between the Cowboys and the Steelers. It was a match between my two favorite NFL teams: the team playing the Steelers, and the team playing the Cowboys.
The Vox Pop coffeehouse on Cortelyou Road celebrated it’s fifth birthday last Saturday, same day I was in Flatbush for the art studio open house. Too bad I wasn’t able to stay for it (studio tour ended at 4pm, birthday bash didn’t get underway until 8pm), but I did stop in that afternoon.
You see, I’ve been in there a couple of times before, and haven’t been all that excited by it. But it’s the kind of place its many fans rave about, and I wanted to give it another try. Who knows, maybe the stars were just lined up the wrong way when I’ve visited in the past. Besides – I know there were issues with a temporary closing and reopening under new management since I was there last. Time for another visit.
Final verdict: I like this place.
In addition to enjoying the art studio open house last Saturday, I also spent a great deal of that afternoon crushing on the neighborhood of Flatbush. A few of my favorite pics are below.
Brooklyn has considerably more tree-lined streets than it gets credit for – certainly by outsiders who took A Tree Grows In Brooklyn to mean the only tree. But I was extremely impressed with the kinds of trees that were lining a couple of the blocks. It’s as if they combine the majesty of trees with the majesty of stone pillars, and come out with majestic-squared.
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