Around South Blogistan – Jan. 25, 2010

(The totally awesome, valuable, and so naturally slated for demolition Feltman’s Kitchen mural as seen in 2007. Photo credit: Brian Hedden)

Last week, I met up with Ned Berke, editor of Sheepshead Bites and all around cool dude. While talking with him, I mentioned that I think Sheepshead Bites is the best news blog in Brooklyn right now. Which is extremely high praise, considering (a) the sheer number of hyper-local news blogs here – Brooklyn has been determined to have the most bloggers per block or per square mile or per normal person or some damn thing by an actual academic study on the subject – and (b) that a number of those people take citizen-journalism very, very seriously and are running circles around traditional news outlets.

Funny thing about that, though. That’s a reputation earned largely by the North Brooklyn blogforce – yet there are any number of South Brooklyn news blogs I would pick as “best” before looking north, even without Sheepshead Bites. Certainly GerritsenBeach.net deserves extremely high praise as well – not just Dan Cavanagh’s reporting, but his lovable community of commenters. Is that regional bias? Perhaps… but I also think we have a lot of really interesting – and underreported – stories in this corner of the town, and more than a handful of good writers to cover them.

Which explains the length of this week’s wrap!

• The mural pictured above could be worth $250,000. The good news – it’s on a City-owned building. That will be a nice boon for the City treasury! The bad news – it’s actually slated for demolition instead. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Popular history teaches us that access to the upstate watershed was one of the driving factors behind Brooklyn’s decision to approve Consolidation with New York City in 1898. So seriously people – why is THIS even a matter of debate? Pass the damn bill! (Bay Ridge Journal)
• The land grabs at the end of dead-end streets, and the title laws that love like like work against them. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Now that we know are pretty sure who will set up shop on Coney Island this summer, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing one of these. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Some more praise over the Zamperla/Coney Island decision, but refreshingly less than the man-crush we got from Councilman Recchia. (Kinetic Carnival)
• Moviegoers mourn the loss of the Kings Plaza theaters hope Kings Plaza itself can’t be far behind. (Sheepshead Bites, L Magazine)
• My general opinion of the New York State Senate is that Hiram Monserrate should be removed, Pedro Espada and Carl Kruger should resign ASAP, and the other 59 Senators should be defeated at the polls this November. That said, is it my imagination, or does this Marty Golden guy really know his stuff when it comes to constituent services? I mean, a telephone town hall? That’s awesome. (MarnieParker.net)
• The Coney Island-bound Q-train platforms at Avenue U and Neck Road reopened last Monday. The first reported sighting of graffiti was on Saturday. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Tearing down a building without a permit… check. Broken construction fence across the street from an elementary school… check. Corrective enforcement by the DOB… um, well… (Sheepshead Bites)
• A new gourmet supermarket prepares for a late-February opening. Take that, 69th Street Key Food! (Sheepshead Bites)
• An elementary school in Gravesend is getting New York’s first “edible schoolyard.” I guess Brownstone Brooklyn is holding out for a vegan schoolyard. (The Village Voice)