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• Hannah Springer, a Bay Ridge resident that was the subject of a recent Brooklyn Paper article about raw milk consumption, is really really NOT happy with that paper’s coverage. (The Healthy Family Chronicles)
• Acid doesn’t hurt people. Delusional psychopathic dog-haters who walk around with jars of acid hurt people. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Stillwell Avenue, pre-Joe Sitt. It still annoys me that the first things he tore down were the spots I was most looking forward to visiting in 2007 during my post-Connecticut-exile return to Brooklyn. (Amusing The Zillion)
• At first, I didn’t believe it. But if Key Food went through the trouble of publicizing their stocked shelves through the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, then I suppose they really mean to open the 69th Street and Third Avenue location. This Week. (Bay Ridge Blog, Brooklyn Daily Eagle)
• I had no idea that the reigning Miss Brooklyn lives in Manhattan Beach and loves thrift stores. I do remember the Brooklyn Paper complaining that the 2008 winner lived in Manhattan (without the Beach). I don’t remember them plugging 2009 winner Keelie Sheridan at all. Maybe they’re not sure where Manhattan Beach is? Or maybe they know exactly where it is, which is probably outside their distribution area. (Sheepshead Bites)
• This 1924 aerial view of Gerritsen Beach looks like Google Maps in some sort of Hot Tub Time Machine. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Lola Star is officially back in her Boardwalk cribs. On a related note, her blog makes me extremely confused as to whether I should be spelling her name with one ‘r’ or two. (Lola Star’s Diary)
• The volunteer Gerritsen Beach Fire Department is looking for additional support from the community, at least more than 25% of it. I’ll fess up, I had no idea that GB even had a volunteer fire department. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• A large condo development on Avenue Z is on the fast track to nowhere. (Sheepshead Bites)

Did you hear the one about the major cable TV and Internet news outlet that got punked by those crazy carnies on Coney Island? CNN, the Darth Vader network, picked up a News 12 Brooklyn video about the unearthing of a 140-year-old hot dog at the demolition site of Feltman’s Kitchen. Too bad the story was so ridiculously ridiculous that an autistic five-year-old could have called bullshit on it.

I really can’t describe the depths of my antipathy towards CNN – the English language simply lacks the words for that kind of bile. I quit them cold turkey after Balloon Boy – another fine example of their abandonment of all principles relating to the topic of “journalism.” They’re a major player in media coverage of the American political process – an industry filled with men and women hired for their ability to lie on camera – but they get taken for a ride just by walking past the Seashore Sideshow. (NY Post via Gothamist. Video on YouTube, until CNN gets it yanked.)

• A Brighton Beach-based variant of the Jersey Shore theme puts out a casting call. Any cable TV deal will be contingent on the casting, so folks – WE NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. Lean on the Russian-American stereotype in your own life to audition for a part! (Sheepshead Bites)
• After the Brooklyn DA was rumored to be considering gang-assault charges against firefighters involved in a bar brawl at the Salty Dog in Bay Ridge, police have arrested three people… and only two of them were charged and arraigned. (Bay Ridge Journal)
• CB15 throws its weight behind a Plumb Beach memorial for LGBT hate-crime victim Michael Sandy. (Sheepshead Bites)
• I’m not sure if this WABC investigative piece really shows State Senator Carl Kruger skirting campaign finance laws, or if it shows such laws don’t exist. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Russian eatery Chinar Restaurant is moving from Avenue U/Gerritsen Avenue to Coney Island Avenue (Sheepshead Bites, GerritsenBeach.net)
• Sunset Park resident realizes she moved to Dowisetrepla. (Sunset Parkour)

(8th Avenue before the 2010 Chinese New Year parade. Photo: Brian Hedden)

Reminder: you, too, can be a BK Southie blogger! Looking for writers from all neighborhoods across our half of the borough! Read all about the details here.

• The Brooklyn DA is rumored to be considering gang-assault charges against the firefighters involved in the drunken January 29 brawl at the Salty Dog that left four civilians pummeled. Meanwhile, Law & Order and Rescue Me are in a race to see who can rip this story from the headlines first. (Gothamist)
• The United Federation of Teachers has filed a lawsuit to stop the closure of 19 public schools like Sheepshead Bay High School. (Sheepshead Bites)
• How to handle the Belt Parkway entrance ramp closure at Coney Island Avenue and Guider Avenue (other than, you know, to avoid). (Sheepshead Bites)
• Raining on the Coney Island parade. The concern is that the long-term plan for the amusement park will be decided 10 years from now, presumably by the Mayor’s successor. Hey, a few more changes to the term limit laws ought to fix that. (Brooklyn Paper)
• Mapping the Walgreens-Duane Reade overlap in the Sheepshead Bay area in the wake of the drug store mega-buyout. (Sheepshead Bites)

Happy Presidents’ Day everyone! Hopefully you’re able to stay at home from work today. Not just because off-days are fun, but because the MTA is catching up from weekend service work that was canceled in advance of last week’s storm by working through the entire three-day weekend.

• 91-year-old community activist Mary Powell passed away last Friday. (Sheepshead Bites)
• The Mill Basin and Marine Park Civic Associations take their complaints about a surge in crime to the 63rd Precinct. I continue to be floored by 17-year-olds committing armed robberies. (MarineParker.net)
• A 16-year old graffiti artist vandal lost his leg while trying to tag vandalize the N-line near the Kings Highway station. I’m sorry if I sound unsympathetic, but I think I have made my opinion of those that paint on property they do not own abundantly clear on these pages. (NY Times via Gothamist).
• Speaking of vandals, why are fake animals being stolen from Brooklyn schools? Last week, Seth Low middle school in Bensonhurst was robbed of its fiberglass cow, and a 5-foot tall stuffed giraffe was taken from the Brooklyn Blue Feather elementary school in Gerritsen Beach. (WCBS TV, GerritsenBeach.net)
• Halikarnas Restaurant feels like they’ve been had by the Department of Health. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Anyone hoping that Coney Island mania would spread to the properties still owned by Joe Sitt (like me – I was hoping for that) may now lower their expectations well in advance of the 2010 season. (Amusing The Zillion)
• The Lola Starr boutique will finally be able to move into the Stillwell Avenue subway terminal. (Lola Starr’s Diary)
• The NYPD’s answer to double-parking in front of schools at dismissal? Triple-parking. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Brennan & Carr wants a piece of Roll-N-Roaster. (Sheepshead Bites)

(photo credit: Brian Hedden)

It’s the day-late edition of the blogwrap! It’s going to be another busy week for me on the homefront. I’m already behind schedule. Damn it, these rooms aren’t painting themselves!

• Councilmember Lew Fidler wants the police to crack down on Seba Avenue Park vandals by arresting them. Can I suggest a warning shot past the right ear? (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Nah, just skip to the headshot for the ringleader of this crew. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Loehmann’s and Totonno’s are finally reopening. Yay for good pizza! (Wait, this is Brooklyn – do we have any other kind of pizza?) (Sheepshead Bites)
• What about the Bay Ridge Key Food? (Bay Ridge Blog)

Informed sources say that the new projected opening date for the 69th St Key Food is Sunday Feb 28.

They didn’t say which year

• Movie theaters in the news: Coney Island’s Shore Theater (pictured above, as seen in 2003) will go through the first step in the landmarking process today, while Marty Markowitz hearts the Loew’s Kings Theater in his State of the Borough address. (Amusing The Zillion, Flatbush Gardener)
• The squabbles between residents and management at this coop make a single-family dwelling look really appealing right now. (Sheepshead Bites)
• Yogalates! At the Marine Park Salt Marsh Center, TODAY! (MarineParker.net)
• Nice tats. (Sheepshead Bites)

Last week in this space, I waxed poetic on the awesome neighborhood blogs here in South Brooklyn. The Village Voice has decided to step into the circle and present GerritsenBeach.net the honor of being one of their 18 really super cool New York blogs. Way to go, Dan!

• Supporters and opponents of the planned mosque in Sheepshead Bay gathered at the Community Board 15 meeting at Kingsborough College. The story is complete with 15 minutes of video coverage! (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Brooklyn schools on the DOE hit list: Sheepshead Bay, FDR, John Dewey, and Grady High Schools. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• The Army Corps of Engineers will begin wetlands restoration at the Gerritsen and Mill Creeks. The project is expected to take one year to complete. (MarinePaker.net)
• Coney Island RFP-winner-in-waiting Alberto Zamperla told his hometown newspaper that the new park will be called Luna Park, named after one of Coney’s original great parks. (Amusing The Zillion – which totally scooped the entire New York press on this, by the way)
• In other Coney Island news, Joe Sitt will be putting some of his property to use after all – the John Strong freak museum will return this summer. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Yesterday, I walked past the fenced-off Leif Ericson Park on my way to meet some friends. I did not realize the significance of this until I read that a temporary classroom left here by the Bay Ridge High School years ago was finally removed. (Bay Ridge Blog)
• Brand Z on Avenue U is closing up shop. (Sheepshead Bites)

(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)

Happy Martin Luther King III Day! Hopefully you’re lucky enough to be celebrating the way Chris Rock wants you to celebrate – by reading Ebony Magazine by watching Soul Train by not working. If so, enjoy this week’s blogwrap! If not… Hey! Why are you reading blogs at work???

• Last year’s Coney Island rezoning, in addition to diminishing the allowable amusement park footprint and establishing the area where hotels may be built, will also allow the construction of 5,000 new residential units in 26 high-rise towers both north of and west of KeySpan Park. This was an idea Tricia touched on briefly in the comments here – now she has fleshed out some more of the details, including maps, the likely developer, and the identity of the organization that thinks Coney Island will look like Tron. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Kevin Walsh visits The Big X – the intersection of Borough Park’s diagonal streets, New Utrecht Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway. Um, to be fair, he actually visited this place 2-1/2 years ago, but finally posted it as a “Forgotten Slice” last week. (Forgotten NY)
• The John Strong sideshow is pitching a summer comeback to the winner of the Coney Island Sweepstakes. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Missing no parking signs, and the resultant parking, are playing havoc with garbage pickup at three dead-end streets in Gerritsen Beach. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• What part of DOH’d didn’t this Emmons Avenue restaurant understand? (Sheepshead Bites)
• Two Brooklyn communities lost Joe Rollino, aka “Kid Dundee,” a former Coney Island strongman and 104-year-old Dyker Heights resident. Rollino was struck by a car as he was crossing the street. (Kinetic Carnival, Bay Ridge Journal, Luna Park Gazette) (Can’t promise anything, but there may be a BK Southie follow up to this a little later on.)
• There might also be a BK Southie follow-up to the opposition by some members of the Sheepshead Bay community to a planned mosque in their neighborhood. Just as soon as I stop foaming at the mouth about it. (Sheepshead Bites)

I’m still catching up with some news items following the site redesign. I’ll try to catch up during the course of this week. In the meantime, check out what is going on in these awesome southern Brooklyn blogs.

• A Muslim community group is seeking to build a mosque in Sheepshead Bay. The surrounding community welcomes them with open arms. (NY Daily News via MarineParker.net)
• A Gerritsen Beach family is displaced by a house fire that was compounded by several frozen fire hydrants in the neighborhood. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• One-and-done for the Festival-By-The-Sea flea market – “For Lease” signs have been erected at Thor Equities overhyped public relations vehicle. (Amusing The Zillion)
• Seba Avenue Park – The Parks Department gives a brief on the planned renovation, while the police are set to crack down on vandalism. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Speaking of vandalism, what’s up with Q-line graffiti (one | two)? (Sheepshead Bites)
• A clothing store named Potpourri closes its doors because of the stench from its neighbors. (Sheepshead Bites)
• California police helicopter pilots get to go on highway chases. NYPD helicopter pilots have to settle for chasing down 4-wheelers in Marine Park. (MarineParker.net)
• More Polar Bear swimming goodness. (Amusing The Zillion)

(photo credit: Johnathaneric via Flickr)

That’s right, male Polar Bear swimmers. I went there. While you were showing off your misplaced sense of machismo in 34-degree water, I was enjoying a comfortable, climate-controlled subway-and-ferry ride to Staten Island.

I’m jealous. Really really really really really really jealous.

Because rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and Coney Island beats Staten Island. Always. It’s in the rules. Look ‘em up. (Besides – looks like fun.)

You can read all about the Polar Bear swim at Amusing The Zillion. Or on 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 countless Flickr photosets. Update: Also, Lola Staar’s blog.

I expect I’ll be posting infrequently for the next week or two – in addition to recovering from vacation mode, I’m also hoping to work on some tweaks to the site in my spare time – for now, I present to you the new Monday edition of the formerly-Friday blogwrap.

• Everything you ever wanted to know about the $500 million undertaking by the City DOT to renovate the bridges of the Belt Parkway. (GerritsenBeach.net)
• Word that the body of the Bensonhurst teen found in Greenwood Heights on Christmas eve was dumped the night before, then moved four hours later. (Kudos to Sunset Park Chronicled for mining that from the Spanish-language El Diario de la Prensa)
• The Village Voice interviews Dick Zigun, Coney Island’s All-Everything cheerleader. “I (interviewer Robert Schaffer) asked Zigun what he thinks of the new plans for the old neighborhood. His response was mixed, but leaning toward the optimistic.” Yeah… aren’t we all. (Village Voice)