Dear BK Southie Readers,

After two years and almost 500 stories, we’re signing off. It’s been a lot of fun, but at the end of the day (literally – there have been many times when I’ve been writing until 2am), it’s a bit much for me to manage.

I’ll continue to write elsewhere, where I can write at a comfortable pace and not have to fret about the whole site. If you want more info on that, check back here in a couple of weeks.

UPDATE (June 1, 2011): I’ll be contributing occasionally to the Bensonhurst Bean, the news blog started by Sheepshead Bites publisher Ned Berke.

A huge thanks goes out to the people who have helped write articles here – Peter, Kerry, Rita, Allan, Joanna, Stephanie, Kip, Emma, and of course to Nick and Arturo. Between the ten of them, they’ve written almost 150 of the stories on this site.

The biggest thanks goes to you. Thank you very much to all of you for reading.

-Brian

• UPDATE (June 1, 2011) – Bensonhurst Bean. – the new Bensonhurst news blog that I will be contributing to from time to time.
• Sheepshead Bites. – my favorite South Brooklyn blog.
• Amusing The Zillion and Kinetic Carnival, two great sites carrying the Coney Island banner.
• GerritsenBeach.net is either one of the 25 best blogs in New York, or it’s run by a guy with a teenage hooligan fetish. (I’m in the “Top 25″ camp.)
• Beehive Hairdresser and The Bay Ridge Journal for Bay Ridge and beyond. The Bay Ridge Blog posts very sporadically now, but it’s April Fool’s joke was a hoot. (And sadly, completely plausible.)
• In the political space, newcomer The Brooklyn Politics Blog has been fantastic. If you like hardcore political slants, check out left-leaning Bay Ridge Interpol and right-leaning Atals Shrugs In Brooklyn (fun fact: they both despise Marty Golden).
• ConeyRocks is the blog of MUSCLE13, better known as That Guy On The Coney Island Message Boards That Everyone Hates. I disagree with his analysis a great deal of the time as well, but he’s driven by a deep concern for the welfare of the neighborhood as a whole, which I absolutely respect. And sometimes when everyone really is full of B.S., he’s there to call it.
• It should be worth pointing out that Gothamist – a New York City blog with a five-borough and regional mission – does a far better job of covering South Brooklyn stories than certain blogs and newspapers that supposedly have a Brooklyn-only focus.

It’s time someone combined the two great loves of the Bay Ridge music scene – cover bands and karaoke.

Live band karaoke.

This needs to happen.

Thank you.

To: Brian Hedden

From: (redacted)

Date: Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 5:41 AM

Subject: Can I get you to..

 

make an effort not to put the words taxi or cab in the title of any post? Perhaps remove those words from the titles of existing posts?

I dont get the use of the word Southie in your domain name and I especially don’t get how a page you have about a water taxi is competing on the same page as me but can I get you to stop?

How about with a 212 area code phone number? I have a few I dont need… youc an feel like a real New Yorker..

On my first glance, I took it the wrong way. I thought he was worried that web surfers looking for a South Boston cab company would get confused by my stories about the NYC Water Taxi. But after a second read, I finally realized: he was just annoyed that bksouthie.com was higher in the Google rankings for “southie taxi” than his web site, and felt like I was unfairly “competing” with him. And therefore wanted me to never use the word “taxi” or “cab” in the title of a story again. And remove such offending words from stories already written.

To help his Google rankings.

On the other hand, I had to admit, he had a point. Why did I use the word “Southie” in the domain name of a Brooklyn-themed web site? Not only does it unnecessarily pay homage to a Boston neighborhood – it does so to the place that, more than any other neighborhood, gives Boston its reputation for dumbassery (Exhibit A: see above e-mail).

So, Brooklyn, I’m sorry about that. My bad.

Maple Lanes, the 48-lane bowling center in Bensonhurst, is Brooklyn’s largest, and enjoys a popularity that is partly fed by the closure of other alleys in the surrounding area. But it too may be shut down and razed to make way for residential housing, according to a New York Times report published this past weekend.

The Times reports that while redevelopment is not imminent, an application to rezone the area to residential was submitted three years ago. The prelim plan is for brick apartment buildings and a synagogue, a nod to the growth of the Borough Park community. This would be consistent with an aim stated by City Councilperson David Greenfield during last year’s debate to rezone the industrial areas south of 60th Street for residential housing.

Not your Williamsburg friend’s drunken party hangout

If you want plush seating, waitstaff service, and earsplitting music, by all means shell out the $50 an hour for Williamsburg's "boutique" Brooklyn Bowl. If you just want to actually bowl, go to "less flashy" Maple Lanes.

The New York Times piece makes an observation about the Brooklyn bowling landscape that I find partly misleading, and completely depressing:

Beyond this familiar pattern of Brooklyn’s progress lies a truth about the state of bowling in the area: boutique alleys with bars and bands in popular locations are popping up, and the less flashy centers that feel like suburban oases are being phased out.

For clarity, the “boutique” alleys the Times refers to are The Gutter and Brooklyn Bowl – a pair of Hipster joints located around the corner from each other in Northside Williamsburg. Compared to these two new boutique centers, the “less flashy” alleys that have been closed number more than 15 by the article’s own admission.

I’ve been to Brooklyn Bowl a couple of times. I would describe it as a concert hall that also happens to have bowling, not a bowling alley that happens to have music. I had a good time listening to the bands, but I would never go there to bowl. For starters, am I the only one who thinks $50 an hour is a little steep? To say nothing of the venue cover charge, if a band is playing that night (which is often).

Brooklyn Bowl caters to the gentrified Williamsburg Hipster crowd of presumed adults that aren’t ready to grow up yet (on several occasions, I’ve referred to the neighborhood as the world’s largest concentration of seventh-year seniors). I’d compare the drunken party atmosphere inside to a college frat house, but that would be insulting to frat houses.

Sharp contrast to the Maple Lanes old-timers interviewed for The New York Times story – people who take part in the leagues year after year, people who’ve been bowling at “less flashy” alleys for decades. Sharp contrast to the melting pot I see every time I visit Maple Lanes – from Jewish families to Muslim teens, from drinking buddies on a Friday night to parents on an afternoon after school.

Glow-in-the-dark "Cosmic Bowling" at Maple Lanes.

Maple Lanes answer to the Hipster clubs’ music programming, as if a 50-year-old alley has to answer to the two-year-old upstart, is “Cosmic Bowling” on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s pretty cheesy. They have a DJ who plays some ’60s and ’70s songs off from a Macbook, and bring out some bowling balls that look kinda cool under a blacklight. I’m not gonna lie to you: it could use a little more polish to be taken seriously. But y’know – if I’m going out to bowl, I’ll take the glow-in-the-dark bowling balls and songs from the actual Bee Gees over some middle-aged dudes who have made a night-job career out of covering the Bee Gees.

Source: Facebook

Sunday April 17, Brooklyn Police were on another murder scene. Larisa Prikhodko, 27, and her mother Tatyana Prikhodko, 56, suffered multiple stab wounds at 2299 East 13th Street. Nikolai Rakossi, a day laborer described by investigators as Tatyana’s live-in boyfriend, is sought after for the murders, but it is believed that he has already fled to Russia. (For more information, see continuing coverage on the case from Sheepshead Bites.)

This needless tragedy comes a little more than two months after Yelena Bulchenko (20), her mother, Anna (56), and Aleksandr Kuznetsov (54), were fatally stabbed in Sheepshead Bay by Max Gelman, who also stabbed five other people and fatally drove over a man in his getaway attempt.

Both songs are part of an EP that was rush-produced specifically for their fans, and is currently flying off the shelves. The new collection is a mix of traditional rock, acoustic rock, alternative and electronic music that is sure to please their loyal followers.

Some of the locals have been cast as extras. However, the film is not set for release until May 2012.

The Grashorn Building, which has been sitting unattended, is expected to be rented out afterward.

What seemed to infuriate biked lane proponents most of all was what Recchia had to say on his blog about the matter:

I’m proud to announce that a controversial set of bike lanes proposed to run through Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst will not be moving forward.

The bike lanes, running up and down Bay Ridge Parkway, would have created a dangerous situation for pedestrians, motorists, truck drivers, buses and bike riders. It’s a narrow street with a high volume of traffic, congestion and reported accidents. Bike lanes have a place in New York City, but not on Bay Ridge Parkway. People would have been fighting to get around each other, and it would only be a matter of time before somebody got hurt.

Why is all this venom being spewed at Recchia? In the statement above the city councilman doesn’t even say he’s against bike lanes, only that the placement of one on this street wouldn’t be safe. Instead of trying to counter his argument, bike lane proponents are simply attacking him using incendiary language. This in turn alienates the very people bike lane activists should be trying to win over.  Personally, I hate having to defend The Post but it’s the attitude found in much of the current pro-bike lane rhetoric that compels me to. The bike lane crowd should stop being so obtuse. Immature tactics like name-calling are counterproductive and only serve to turn off moderates who might otherwise rally to their cause.

What Totonno’s lacks in basil (and kindness) they make up for in pure pizza goodness