Brooklyn Ramblings

City Reliquary Celebrates Brooklyn Bridge's 125th

2008-05-25T11:04:00.016-05:00

In honor of the Brooklyn Bridge's 125th birthday, the City Reliquary hosted a ride Saturday to the Brooklyn Bridge with birthday cake and song atop the bridge. Here, City Reliquary president Dave Herman gives a thumbs-up before cutting the birthday cake.


The group prepares to depart the City Reliquary.  
Birthday cupcakes for the birthday bridge!
Bikes lines the bridge. 
 NYC tour guide and City Reliquary events
coordinator Matt Levy gives a rousing history
of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Finally, Goodbye to Zimbabwe's Mugabe?

2008-04-02T17:30:00.001-05:00

Results of Saturday's presidential election in Zimbabwe are still undisclosed. However, it appears possible that the 28-year reign of President Mugabe, a former independence hero who has since thoroughly destroyed his nation's economy, may finally be over. But, a new leader is in no way a foregone conclusion. It's widely believed that he rigged the election results in the last presidential election, and many fear he will find a way to do the same this year.

Martin Weaver at the UK's Guardian Unlimited has been live-blogging the developing situation over the last few days. He posts this very funny spoof call to the Zimbabwean embassy:

Other useful sites:
Sokwanele's blog This is Zimbabwe
Blog Kubatana
Blog Cry Beloved Zimbabwe
Blog Comrade Fatso
Official Zimbabwean paper The Herald

The Grand Union Square Pillow Fight, 2008 Edition

2008-03-22T18:04:00.003-05:00

Bike Racks for a New City

2008-03-18T09:10:00.003-05:00

On Friday the NYC Department of Transportation and the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum announced an international design competition for bike parking in New York City. The design competition's website explains that although U-racks, the current model, are functional in many ways, the current design "does not fulfill the potential to be an icon for New York City cycling."

They are soliciting a new design that will become the standard for sidewalk bike racks and racks inside buildings and garages. The City plans to add at least 500 bike racks per year to the existing stock of approximately 4,000 bike racks. Your design could be the new model. The international competition will be juried by a panel of experts from the worlds of industrial design, art and transportation.

Find out more and register at City Racks Design Competition.

It's Spring, Let's Play!

2008-03-15T09:02:00.002-05:00

I may be getting a wee bit ahead of the season but I saw my first Mr. Softee truck last night. It's spring!

Hearing Today on Proposed Gowanus Development

2008-03-13T09:10:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Eric McClure over at Park Slope Neighbor for this heads up on a hearing that's happening today about proposed development along the Gowanus Canal.

1) City Planning Scoping Hearing for Proposed Toll Brothers Gowanus Project, Thursday

Just wanted to remind everyone that the Department of City Planning will be holding a public scoping hearing tomorrow pertaining to the large housing project being proposed by Toll Brothers for a site along the western bank of the Gowanus Canal. A scoping hearing is the first step in the City's land-use review process. The final scoping document sets the "scope," or the parameters for what will be studied in the Environmental Impact Statement.

Toll Brothers Gowanus Scoping Hearing

Thursday, March 13th

2:00 to 5:45 p.m. and 6:00 to 8:45 p.m.

Department of City Planning

Spector Hall

22 Reade Street

Manhattan

[Map]

Toll Brothers only recently revealed details about its plans to build a 577-unit mixed-income project (130 of the units would be below market rate) on a three-acre site along the Gowanus, bordered by Bond, 2nd and Carroll Streets. The development would include buildings ranging from four to 12 stories in height, with the tallest building, at about 125 feet, adjacent to the canal. The project would include a small amount of retail and "community" space, and 260 off-street parking spots.

The developer is seeking a special "spot rezoning" of the parcel in advance of a likely overall rezoning of the Gowanus by City Planning. The Gowanus Lounge has renderings and a map of the project.

More information, including downloads of the Draft Scoping document and scoping meeting protocol, and contact information, is available at the Department of City Planning website. Written comments regarding the draft scope can be submitted through March 24th.

If you're interested in the future of the Gowanus Canal, you might want to attend the hearing or submit comments. The City's willingness to consider a special rezoning for one site seems backward; some critics believe that a multi-agency Master Plan for the entire Gowanus should be put into place before any rezoning is undertaken. Count us among them.

More at The Gowanus Lounge and the Department of City Planning.

Opening Screening of 'A Hole in a Fence'

2008-03-13T07:16:00.002-05:00

I had the pleasure last night of attending the opening screening of A Hole in a Fence, a documentary by Brooklyn-based filmmaker D.W. Young. A Hole in a Fence visits a hidden corner of Red Hook where a massive boat repair yard used to be. By interviewing neighbors, homeless residents, graffiti artists, photographers (full disclosure - me), businesses and non-profits, Young captures varying visions of and perspectives on a quickly changing site. It was exciting to see the final cut, and a lot of fun to meet some of the other interviewees.

For anyone who's enjoyed a summer afternoon eating tacos at the Red Hook Ball Fields and wondered what else Red Hook is about, here's your answer.

Vote or Die

2008-03-03T20:43:00.003-05:00

Seen on Crosby St, just south of Houston. But I'm not sure what Laser Guided Democracy means.

Photoblogging Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T09:03:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Jeff over at Urban Velo for blogging a photo of mine today for Valentine's Day. Be sure to check out Urban Velo for more hot bike pics.

Bronx Courthouse Finally Opens

2008-01-28T22:58:00.000-05:00

Three years late and $100 million over-budget, the new Bronx courthouse finally opened today. Many structual and design problems still exist - for example, a mere handful of elevators and defendant interview rooms were built - and are unlikely to be remedied.
Meanwhile, the block-long line continues unabated outside Bronx Criminal court.

Opposite the courthouse on 161st street, New York parents protest the court house opening.

More: New York Times, NY1.

Rural Massachusetts Through the Viewfinder

2007-12-28T16:41:00.000-05:00

While home with my family over the holidays, I spent some time playing around with "TTV" - a technique known as Through the Viewfinder, where you shoot through the viewfinder of a 1950s era camera with another camera, using the older camera solely as a lens. In trying this out, I was inspired by the flickr group Through the Viewfinder. This technique produces a slightly distorted effect, softens the colors, and allows you to capture the crackles and scratches on the older lens.

Though not without its difficulties - I found myself wishing I had a third hand to help juggle two cameras while also keeping my image framed, in focus, and out of the sun's glare - I like the new way it lets me see the world.

Flashback to 1979: Military Ads

2007-12-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

Since America ended the draft, the military has had to recruit. Like any good advertiser, they've learned how to couch their message in the style and medium of teen culture. Today, they produce video games where you can fly combat aircraft. In 1979, their target audience wore bell bottoms and rode Harleys. And in that more innocent time, the selling point could still be the path to an affordable college education that the Army could provide.

Army National Guard ad, November 1979, from Currents Events magazine

Army ad, December 1979, from Scholastic Search magazine

Dyker Heights Christmas Lights Extravanza

2007-12-16T19:32:00.000-05:00

To those of you who, like me, have an odd soft spot in your heart for suburban homes dedecked with over the top Christmas decorations (yet have no car), look no further. Let me point you to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dyker Heights.

Dyker Heights sits between Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, and Gravesend Bay, with a lovely view of the Verrazano Bridge. Its residents go to town at Christmas time, festooning their homes and yards (yes, Virginia, they have yards) with lights, moving reindeer, and plastic blow-up Santa dolls. I wouldn't want to pay anyone's light bill, but it's quite a spectacle.
In the early days, I'm sure each family was responsible for their own decorating, and a few clearly still do the work themselves. But many call in the professionals. B&R Floral Decorators, for example, take some time out from their usual work providing floral arrangements for funerals to decorate some of the most elaborate houses.

If you plan to visit, the epicenter is 84th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues. And, if you don't have a friend with a car and are too lazy or cold to brave the walk from the subway, you can watch Conan O'Brian's trip in 2000 from the comfort of your warm living room.

Lost in Red Hook

2007-12-01T17:26:00.000-05:00

Seen on the streets of Red Hook - someone lost their cat.

Despite the cat's technical difficulties ("does not meow properly"), mediocrity ("not worth very much") and "general scruffiness and bad behavior," the owner does sorta love kitty and wouldn't mind having him back, if just for the whoa-dude trippiness of its two different colored eyes.

Mini Concerts in Back Alleys

2007-12-01T12:40:00.000-05:00

Totally last minute but this looks cool. Enjoy before we're all confined to our mini-apartment muffled worlds by tomorrow's snow. Here's the 411 on today's performance, presented by Lower East Side gallery Smith-Stewart and local nonprofit Creative Time, just back from a nationally-acclaimed performance in New Orleans of Waiting for Godot:

Though your mother may have warned you not to go into the back alleys, this certainly won’t be the first time you ignore her, and this time for good reason. Creative Council Member Carlton DeWoody, with Jen DeNike and Smith-Stewart Gallery, invite you to a one-day rock out in Lower East Side.

Mini Concerts in Back Alleys
Saturday, December 1, 2007
2:00 – 11:30 PM
locations throughout the Lower East Side (see schedule below or click for more info)

Mini Concerts will make various interventions on sites chosen by each artist throughout the Lower East Side. Be it on a mews or median, in an alley or cellar, each site specific location marries the audience to the performance, which collectively can only be described as shiny moments in dusty corners. All performances are between 5 and 15 minutes long, and are only performed once, serving to expose the drama of time. In a land where ‘before’ and ‘after’ are as significant as the ‘during’, the planned meets the impromptu and the important meets the forgotten.

Here’s the musical line up featuring Creative Time curator Mark Beasley.
Schedule:
2:03 pm Rachel Mason Hamilton Fish Park- Pitt btw Houston and Stanton
3:11 pm Mind Castle Freeman Alley- Rivington btw Bowery and Chrystie
3:41 pm Dirt Mound Rivington btw Chrystie and Forsyth
4:29 pm Artic Circle Hester btw Chrystie and Forsyth
5:43.21 pm Y.O.U. 1st btw 1st and A
6:27 pm Mads Lynnerup 227 Bowery btw Rivington and Stanton
9:03 pm Georgia Sagri Delancy and Allen
9:36 pm Caroline Breton 162 Eldridge btw Delancy and Rivington
10:16 pm Brian Bellot 71 Hestor btw Orchard and Ludlow
11:01 pm Mark Beasley and Rose Kallal 35 Orchard btw Hester and Canal

Most Depressing Thanksgiving Article

2007-11-22T11:14:00.001-05:00

NYU undergrads say that for the right price, they would sell their vote. Two thirds would give up their vote for a free ride to NYU. And half said that for $1 million, they'd give up their vote forever.

More than 3,000 undergrads were surveyed for the study, conducted by an NYU journalism class. The study found that "sixty percent of the students who said they'd give up their vote for tuition also described their families' income as upper middle or high."

Not everyone can be bought, though - one undergrad responded that "anyone who'd sell his lifelong right to vote should be deported."

[Src: Most say their vote has a price, Lily Quateman, Washington Square News]
Media Credit: Illustration by Dana Laventure/WSN

A Hole in a Fence

2007-11-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

Last summer I was interviewed by D.W. Young, a documentary filmmaker, who was shooting a film about an abandoned lot in Red Hook. This chameleon of a site has been, variously, a graffiti spot, a homeless encampment, a formerly industrial truck loading zone, a magically-invisible overlooked and forgotten lot, contested urban space, a possible Ikea parking lot, and a reed-filled shallow pond. D.W. Young tracked me down because I had shot a series of photos of the site (you can see my set, Red Hook Marshland, on flickr).

The film, A Hole in a Fence, has just come out and is pretty damn cool. Young interviews a range of people about the site, from local teen graffiti artists who use the site as an artist wall, to a Yale Architecture School student interested in sustainable building, who used materials found on-site to build a shelter and live there for a week. And you can see yours truly opining about the site, and catch some of my photos.

Watch the trailer on YouTube.
Or go to the website for the film.

Veterans Day in Chinatown

2007-11-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

Members of the American Legion post in Chinatown -- Lt. B.R Kimlau Chinese Memorial Post 1291 -- gathered yesterday at the Kim Lau Memorial Arch in Chatham Square, Chinatown, to commemorate Veterans Day and honor their service.

The Kimlau American Legion Post was formed in 1944 by a group of Chinese-American veterans of World War II.

The post is the largest in New York City, promoting numerous patriotic programs and community service initiatives within Chinatown.

The Post is named after Lt. Kimlau, who was an American of Chinese descent who served as an Air Force bomber pilot in World War II. While assigned to the Southwest Pacific theater, he was killed in action during air battles over the New Guinea Islands.
[Src: History of Kimlau Post, NYC Parks Department]

Bronx 9/11 Graffiti Memorial

2007-09-11T07:07:00.000-05:00

170th & Jerome, The Bronx.

Rock Camp for Girls Rocks

2007-08-11T15:00:00.000-05:00

School of Rock isn't just a movie.

The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls played a noon show today at the Highline Ballroom. The show was the culmination of a week-long crash course in every aspect of rock - picking an instrument, getting a band together, silk-screening band t-shirts, and more. One volunteer teacher estimated that only about a quarter of the girls, who ranged from 8 to 18, had any experience on their instruments before getting to camp Monday morning. By the show today, they were poised, confident, and ready to rock.

If you missed today's show, there's no need to wait until next year. You can catch the second session's show on August 25th at the Highline Ballroom.

Mermaid Parade Characters

2007-06-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

This year at the Mermaid Parade, some political commentary against the anticipated destruction I mean development of Coney Island, and a green creature from the Gowanus Canal crawled all the way down to Coney to join the party.

NYC Dyke March

2007-06-24T18:58:00.000-05:00

My favorite photo from yesterday's Dyke March shows two spectacularly turned out groups - New York's own Vixxxens, in the pink sequins, and a hotter version of the Village People that I happened to run across last year as well.
More photos here.

Spectators & Spectacle: Photos from the Dyke March

2007-06-12T09:37:00.001-05:00

I'll be showing photos from the NYC Dyke March on Wednesday June 13th (tomorrow!) at Sincerely, an incredible new afterwork dyke party at Dirty Disco on 14th Street.

The photo series is called Spectators & Spectacle: Photos from the Dyke March. At the last few dykes marches, I've turned the camera back on the spectators and taken pictures of those observing. And of course there are lots of fabulous photos of eye-candy paraders in the dyke march.

The Show:
Wednesday June 13, 5-10pm
Sincerely at Dirty Disco
248 W. 14th St
RSVP required to sincerely@dirtydisco.com

June Begins

2007-05-31T07:20:00.001-05:00

FRI. JUNE 1

Sitelines
An annual site-specific dance festival, part of River to River. The first performance is a Martha Graham dance originally from 1936 that was created to protest the killings of the Spanish Civil War by Franco and the fascists. It's the first outdoor street performance the Graham Company has done, and is an interesting anti-war commentary.
Intersection of Wall and Broad streets, outside the NY Stock Exchange, Manhattan
12:30p; free. Also on June 2nd and 3rd at the same time. 18 minutes long.

Arts in Bushwick presents: Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival
The festival kicks off Friday night with Hotbox, a night of dance,theater, sex, and magic. The evening features performance and theater followed by music by the Dive, Pass Kontrol, and Ways. Festival continues through the weekend. Check website for complete listings.
Bushwick Starr 207 Starr Street, no. 4, Brooklyn
L train to Jefferson station, 7-11p; free
Festival continues through Sunday

SAT. JUNE 2
Rooftop Films summer kick-off
Black + White = Grey
Rooftop Films' Summer Series sneak preview. Quirky comedies, startling dramas, and powerful political documentaries about racial misunderstandings, subtle deceptions, and flat-out lies.
8 PM: Music by Noble Society
9 PM: Short Films Begin
On the lawn at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn. Free.
Directions: G train to Fulton; A or C to Lafayette; 2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins; R, Q, B, M to Dekalb. Enter at the Myrtle Avenue Side of the park and you will see the big screen at the bottom of the hill.

Jonathan Monk presents Five Ballerinas in Manhattan
Jonathan Monk will restage Daniel Buren’s key performance work, Seven Ballets in Manhattan, on its 32nd anniversary. This enigmatic work in its original presentation prompted questions regarding the status of art in the public realm and how such confrontations are defined in its initial presentation. For example, audiences in SoHo, then the center of the commercial gallery scene in New York, accepted the work as art, but audiences on Wall Street interpreted the parade of placards as a potential unidentifiable threat.
Friday, June 1, 2-3pm: CENTRAL PARK beginning near Rockefeller Center
Saturday, June 2, 12-2pm: WALL STREET beginning near Greenwich and Fulton Street

Vixxxen
My friends and I are kicking off a new monthly dyke party. Come before 11 for 2x1 drink specials.
**go-go dancers ** pool table ** drink specials ** dj **
Saturday June 2nd 9pm
40C (40 Ave. C btwnn 3rd & 4th St), Manhattan

SUN. JUNE 3
3rd Annual Tour de Brooklyn
This year’s 18 mile tour features Brooklyn’s southern neighborhoods along the waterfront like Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst and loops towards the heart of Brooklyn, Kensington and Prospect Park South to end at the Carousel. Family friendly ride.
Check-in: 8 am; Line-up: 9 am; Ride: 9:30 am

Manhattan Chili Takedown
A chili contest from unholy hell. The Village Voice raved: "the fieriest concoctions this side of Texas."Competitors are invited to come down and go head to head against other amateur chefs for the much-coveted Judged ($100 prize) and People’s Choice Award ($200 prize). Hosted by NYC comedian and chili producer Matt Timms. This event has grown from its humble beginnings in Williamsburg to its chili monster status in the Lower East Side. We bring in real chefs, food writers,and experts to judge the proceedings.
Mo Pitkin’s, 34 Avenue A, between 2nd and 3rd streets, Manhattan.
4-8:30p; $15 to enter, bring down two gallons of your best recipe, or $8 buys all you can eat plus the opportunity to vote for your favorite.

The US ZipScribble Map

2007-05-29T20:14:00.001-05:00

From Robert Kosara at Eager Eyes comes the US Zipscribble map. He says "What would happen if you were to connect all the ZIP codes in the US in ascending order? Is there a system behind the assignment of ZIP codes? Are they organized in a grid? The result is surprising and much more interesting than expected."

Very few of the zip codes connections cross state lines. As a result, you can clearly see the state lines even in the monochrome black and white version. Even fewer of the actual zip codes themselves cross state lines - but a few do.

Interest piqued? More at Wikipedia. Geek away.

Memorial Day Graffiti

2007-05-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Williamsburgh, May 2007.

Which Famous Photographer Are You?

2007-05-22T18:38:00.000-05:00

Thomas Hawk's blog pointed me to this entertaining quiz over at YouThink. It has seven sort of random questions, but evidently my answers matched me with Cartier-Bresson. I'll take that company!

Which famous photographer are you?

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Known for street photography and photojournalism

"We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually. Our only moment of creation is that 1/125th of a second when the shutter clicks, the signal is given, and motion is stopped..."

Click Here to Take This Quiz
Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

It's Bike Month, Yo

2007-05-16T17:54:00.000-05:00

May is Bike Month!

The Bicycle Film Festival kicks off tonight and runs through the weekend. The line up looks excellent and as always, one of the non-movie highlights should be the street festival on Saturday afternoon.

Some other highlights:

Thursday 17th - Bike night at the Brooklyn Brewery, proceeds to benefit the HIV/AIDS services of the Center
Friday 18th - National Bike to Work Day. Join the crowd.
Saturday 19th - Bike lessons for kids in each borough (also on the 26th)
Saturday 19th - New York Adventure Racing Association's Urban Bike-O scavenger hunt. Sorta like an alleycat, it seems.
Sunday 20th - Street art and graffiti tour. Last year's was great, I highly recommend this.
Thursday 24th - Bike lane liberation with the Bicycle Clown Brigade.
Friday 25th - Single-speed showdown and of course, it's the last friday of the month, Critical Mass
Saturday 26th - Bicycle Fetish Day in, duh, Williamsburg
Tuesday 29th - Drawing the Bicycle with Taliah Lempert

There are so many other great things going on, definitely check out the entire calendar. This list should just whet your appetite!

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-12T18:16:00.000-05:00

Frogs in His Bed

2007-04-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

My brother, circa 1984, tells a unique version of the Passover story, in rhyme.

Homelessness Hits Record High in NYC

2007-03-13T20:38:00.000-05:00

And yet...

Source: Coalition for the Homeless' eighth annual State of the Homeless report [pdf]

Fallen Fruit

2007-02-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

Now this is an LA export that we'd be happy to have. Fallen Fruit is all about mapping fruit trees on public property so you can get your grub on. Oh yeah, and they also want to encourage the creation of community gardens and smart planning of public space. Beginning in the Silver Lake neighborhood of LA, Fallen Fruit later branched out and created fruit maps of neighborhoods in Seattle, Portland and Santa Fe. They also do some crazy shit like night fruit walks and communal jam-making. Above: what you can find in Griffith Park.

The Pre-Civil-War Buildings of Brooklyn Heights

2007-02-25T16:44:00.000-05:00

(source: Brooklyn Geneology)

Brooklyn Streets That Are No More

2007-02-25T16:29:00.001-05:00

When I bike out to Coney Island along Ocean Parkway, judging how close I'm getting by where I am in the alphabet of street names that starts at Avenue D and ends at Avenue X, I often wonder what happened to the missing letters. There's no A, B, or C, or for that matter, no E, F or G. (I must note, though, that except for E, each of these streets starts with the appropriate letter (Ablemarle, Beverly, Clarendon, Farragut, Glenwood)). And, in fact, both Farragut and Glenwood used to be the more simple Avenues F and G.

If you want to see other Brooklyn streets that used to be known by another name, check out Steve Morse's list, which compiled by poring over old maps and city directories.

Some streets haven't just changed names - they've disappeared altogether. For those, the master is Kevin at Forgotten NY. Many of the Brooklyn streets that he catalogues were destroyed by construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Cadman Plaza, city and government buildings, or by Robert Moses' construction of the BQE.

Travel-Time Maps

2007-02-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

Travel-time Maps, originally uploaded by NIXON*NOW.

From Nixon*Now comes this color-coded map showing how long it takes to get from one area of London to another. He says:

"These are much more complicated questions than those about individual journeys, but one thing they all have in common is transport: can I get to and from the places I'm considering quickly and easily?"

The maps on this page show one way of answering that question. Using colours and contour lines they show how long it takes to travel between one particular place and every other place in the area, using public transport. They also show the areas from which no such journey is possible, because the services are not good enough."

Basically, this answers the question of "how early do I have to get up to work on time?" Now if only someone would make this map for the New York subway system. More at mySociety.

Photo Tour of Borough Park

2007-02-12T14:50:00.000-05:00

Borough Park is home to a large community of Orthodox Jews. While the Satmar Hasids are based in Williamsburg, the Hasidim in Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park) primarily belong to the Bobov community.

Giving a taste of the neighborhood, a community blog suggested possible neighborhood slogans, among them "Boro Park- my Rebbe is bigger than your Rebbe"; "Boro Park- nu, so where else are you going to live? Flatbush? Why don't you just put on a knitted kipa, you freier. Feh"; "Boro Park- otherwise you'd have to go to Yerushalayim to see Chasidim riot"; "Boro Park: The World's Competitive Eating Capital!"; "Boro Park- come on, Bobov can't fight forever"; "Boro Park- just leave your car anywhere"; "Boro Park- the nicest frum neighborhood on Earth, more or less," and last but not least, "Boro Park-The Melting Cholent Pot."

13th Avenue is the main shopping strip in Borough Park, a lively thoroughfare lined with kosher meat markets, bakeries, clothing stores and more. It evokes an earlier era, as the lettering and graphics of many storefronts have not changed since the 1950s or earlier. Here's an assortment of sights from the strip:

Clothing Stores

Freund's F&F Family Shop
Domonick's Shoe Repair
Yeedl's Juvenile Shop
sells furniture for children's rooms.
Brach's outfits
the well-groomed gentleman.

Food Shops

Shem Tov restaurant and catering	Paskesz kosher candies. They say they marketed the first kosher chewing gum.
The New Thirteen Avenue Bagel Corp	another 13th Ave bagel shop
Tuv Taam Fish Market & Appetizing	Ossie's Fish Market
Appetizing Plus	Meal Mart
Deli D'Lite	Herbst Mehadrin Meats

Wig stores

Many Hasidic women wear wigs (sheitels) as part of tzeniut (modesty) standards.
Halacha (Jewish law) requires married women to cover their hair.

Books & Judaica

Flohr's Judaica
Tiv Tov Book Bindery

Getting around


Yeshiva Beth Hillel school bus
Zion Car Service
For another cool photo tour of Borough Park, check out Bridge & Tunnel Club.

What Was Hot in the State of the Union Address

2007-02-11T16:58:00.000-05:00

I meant to upload this a while ago and am finally getting around to it. If you parse Bush's annual State of the Union address, despite all the bluster you can discern which issues he is turning his attention to and which have fallen by the wayside. This shows how many times each year Bush used the phrases below.

Unsurprisingly, Iraq is bigger than ever this year, while he continues to have amnesia when it comes to Afghanistran. And he's finally starting to talk about oil.
(src: New York Times)

Mid-Century Telephone Numbers

2007-01-29T22:57:00.000-05:00

Early readers of Brooklyn Ramblings may remember my post about old telephone numbers from the 1910s to the 1970s that used two letters and five numbers instead of the seven numbers we're familiar with today. Legacies of the old 2L-5N system are still here, mostly in neighborhoods of the outer boroughs that haven't undergone many changes in the last few generations.

First we go to Bath Beach. At 1707 Bath Ave is Sta-Brite Decorators. If you're looking to get your furniture re-upholstered, this is the place. If it was 1950, you'd have dialed the operator and asked for CLarkson 9-0868.

In nearby Dyker Heights, we find Terrace Meats, at 7317 13th Ave and 74th St. You would have reached your local butcher by dialing BE-2-2003. BE probably stood for Bensonhurst, but possibly Beachview.
Next up, Golden Gate Fancy Fruits and Vegetables, at ES-7-2581. This one-story produce mart is out on Flatbush, in an outer Brooklyn neighborhood called Flatlands. Rounding out our survey of outer Brooklyn retro-gasm is the Avenue U Seafood Market, at DEcatur 2-6363. Built around 1930, maybe those were the days that you could actually eat the fish you caught off the Brooklyn piers?

Migrant Farmworkers, 1956

2007-01-29T22:16:00.000-05:00

from Across the Tracks: Mexican-Americans in a Texas City, by Arthur J. Rubel (1968). Rubel was a medical anthropologist who was captivated throughout his life by the interconnections between culture, behavior, health and illness.

According to this study, farmworkers earned about $4.59 per day. Adjusting for inflation, that would be about $35 per day now. Figuring conservatively that they worked 10 hours per day (when you've got to get everything planted or picked during a short amount of time, you work long hours), that would be about $3.50 an hour in today's wages. That's a hell of a lot less than minimum wage!

What Not to Rent

2007-01-24T22:43:00.000-05:00

Renting from the worst, nabe groups tap scammers & rogues as New York's 11 lousiest landlords
By Peter Kadushin, Rich Schapiro, and William Sherman of The Daily News

"The city's worst landlords got their own awards ceremony yesterday - and a Brooklyn condo developer took the dubious top prize.

Adam Mermelstein, principal partner of 188 S. Third St. Investors and TreeTop Development, Brooklyn, was unofficially named the city's worst landlord by a consortium of neighborhood groups. Residents of 188 S. Third St. said he has been trying to empty the 41-unit building and that only 18 apartments are now occupied.

Jacquelyn Hernandez, a tenant for 15 years, said, "I was verbally and physically harassed by a phony inspector with a fake ID who said I hadn't paid the rent and gave me fake eviction papers." Hernandez said her small, two-bedroom apartment is "without hot water and is badly in need of repairs."

Neither Mermelstein nor any of the other landlords was present. When reached by phone later, Mermelstein denied trying to force tenants out.

"That's all false. Our practice is specifically not to do that. We have no interest in buyouts or harassment ... Tenants can stay for as long as they like for whatever rent they're paying. That's not our game. "The building is in very good shape. But any repairs or problems that do come up we do try to take care of them as long as tenants give us access," he said.

In all, 11 landlords were considered in a rowdy 11 a.m. ceremony sponsored by a neighborhood associations and community activists at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square.

The main criteria were art and variety in harassing and intimidating rent-regulated tenants to get them to move out so the landlords could jack up rents, according to the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development.

Fake eviction papers, turning off gas, heat and hot water, changing locks, threatening naive immigrants, filing frivolous lawsuits, illegally raising rents and failing to make repairs were among the tactics used by the landlords, according to the event organizers.

More than 250 people attended the ceremony - none of them laughing - and they voted by shouting and using noisemakers as the landlords' names and properties were announced. The "winners" were selected based on crowd noise.

Other landlords cited were: Jacob Finkelstein, owner of 1356 Walton Ave., the Bronx; John Tsevelos, president of G-way Management and owner of 851 Franklin Ave., Brooklyn; Jay Podolsky, owner of 330 W. 95th St., 315 W. 94th St., and 316 W. 95th St., Manhattan; Nathan Schuchat, who owns properties on the lower East Side, including 141 Ridge St.; George Subraj, who owns homes divided into apartments in Jamaica, Queens; David Melendez, who owns buildings in Bushwick, Brooklyn, including 198 Knickerbocker Ave.; Doug Peterson, who owns 974 Sheridan Ave., the Bronx; Benjamin Shaoul, who owns 332 Mott St. and 166 Elizabeth St. in Chinatown, and Julia and Carlos Guzman, who own 268 Dean St. in Brooklyn.

Another recipient was Joel Weiner, head of the Pinnacle Group, which issued thousands of eviction notices to tenants in their many buildings as disclosed by a Daily News investigation."

Renting From the Worst [Daily News]
The Biggest Award Ceremony of the Year [Metadish]
Adam Mermelstein is Having a Bad Day [Curbed]

Taxonomy of Tramps

2007-01-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

from You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads, by James P. Spradley

Spradley spent time with skid row men in Seattle in the 1960s and produced this definitive anthropological work documenting how they saw themselves and their world. Here's his taxonomy of the different kinds of tramps. So, for example, while working stiffs ride the rails from job to job, box car tramps just ride the rails because that's what they do.

Brooklyn Hospitals Under Fire

2007-01-22T20:16:00.000-05:00

Health Care That Works has merged race and income demographic data from the census with data on New York hospital closures and downsizing. Their research shows that recent hospital closures have had a disproportionate impact on communities of color - six of the eight hospitals that closed between 1995 and 2005 were located in or near communities of color. Their website links to a plethora of reports and other resources.

Martin Luther King Jr.

2007-01-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

, originally uploaded by whileseated.

Welcome to 2007

2007-01-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year

Bush at the top of the polls, for once

2007-01-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Poor Bushie - he just can't catch a break. According to an MSNBC poll, he's more of a villain than the leaders of the Axis of Evil or even Satan. From crooksandliars.com.

From 4 to 300 Million

2006-12-30T17:19:00.000-05:00

Happy almost new years. As part of my year-end wrap-up, here's third in a series from Time mag looking at the state of the nation. Today: population growth. We've grown from 4 to 300 million in a little over 200 years, and are projected to hit 400 million by the year 2050. India and China still have more people than us, though.

America by the Numbers: Religion

2006-12-29T23:20:00.000-05:00

As part of my year end wrap-up, I'm uploading graphics from a Time magazine article called America at 300 million.

Today: religion. Over three-quarters of all Americans are either Roman Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, or Mainline Protestant. Below - where each group lives.

Where We All Live

2006-12-28T14:50:00.000-05:00

As part of my year end wrap-up, over the next few days I'm going to be uploading an interesting recent cover story by Time Magazine on America at 300 million. It does an elegant job graphically describing who we are.

Today: where we all live. The top five most densely populated areas are New York, LA, Chicago, Philly, and Dallas-Fort Worth. Go New York! New Jersey is the most densely populated state. You might ask why. I have no answers. On the other side of the spectrum, Alaska has only one person per square mile, and Loving County, Texas is the most sparsely populated state in the contiguous US.

Click to see the map larger.

Santacon - Bringing Santas Together Since 1996

2006-12-22T22:06:00.000-05:00

From Missed Connections, the aftermath of many many Santas drunkenly lusting after each other. Do you think any of them will ever find each other?

"I met you at the bar when we lost our respective santas. We watched the bad strippers; you commented on the downside of drinking white russians. You took off with your friend who'd lost her purse. I wish I'd asked you for your number; I'd love to hang out again." santacon at splash - m4w - 35

"I was so drunk and I never bothered to remember your name. Sorry, I'm a prick. I was the guy in the santa outfit." m4w - 26

And from the SF site: "I still have my Santa suit from last weekend's Santacon. Wondering if there's a little girl out there who wants to "persuade" Santa that she deserves everything on her Christmas list. Have you been naughty or nice?" Santa's horny - m4w - 29 (SOMA / south beach)

Santacon; Or, How I Learned to Stop Kvetching and Love Christmas

2006-12-18T18:07:00.000-05:00

In fifteen years there's going to be an influx of kids from the midwest coming to New York for college, hoping to recreate that magical Christmas when Santas swarmed the streets. They probably think we do this every day.

Curious neighborhood girls on Delancey Street watch the Santas gear up.

Emerging from the subway at Bryant Park, one Santa shows his punk rock roots.

An ... um ... elf humping raindeer dance. Yep.

Anti-colonial protesters take a break. Sign reads "USA out of North Pole."

Santas on the bar at the Irish Rogue in Times Square.

Hannukah Harry takes a hit.

Taking a spin on the Central Park carousel.

Shots from 11 Spring

2006-12-17T18:48:00.000-05:00

An amazing, overwhelming show. Props to the new owners for doing this. More photos here.

Cool Shit This Weekend

2006-12-15T18:05:00.000-05:00

SantaCon Saturday, originally uploaded by Shield.

Santacon
You must dress like Santa, you should ho-ho-ho like Santa, you ought to give out gifts like Santa, and (of course) ya gotta drink like Santa. Get creative: be a Secret Santa, a Santasaurus, Candy-cane, a Reindeer, a Chanukah Chicken, a goddamn latke. Just don't wear your fucking jeans.
It's a long day, so be prepared. Bring a Metrocard. Stay with the group. Try not to drunkenly wander off, though. How hard is it to lose 500 Santas? Pay your own damn bar tab.
Check website for meet-up location in Manhattan, 10:10am Saturday

Wooster Collective at 11 Spring
It's time to say farewell to 11 Spring Street, which has been a gathering point for graffiti by New York, national and international graffiti artists over the past twenty years. Now, 11 Spring has been sold and will be turned into condos. The new buyers are cognizant of the important part this building has played in New York graffiti life, and want to honor it through a final hurrah.
Over the past two months, graffiti artists have covered the entire inside of the building, five stories in all, with their work. The building will be open to the public Friday through Sunday, 11 to 5. Monday morning, they'll start sealing the art up behind drywall as they transform the building into condos: a full-building time capsule.
Artists include Shepard Fairey, WK, Jace, Swoon, David Ellis, FAILE, Cycle, Lady Pink, London Police, Prune, JR, Speto, D*Face, JMR, Blek Le Rat, John Fekner, Bo and Microbo, Above, BAST, Momo, Howard Goldkrand, Borf, Gaetane Michaux, Skewville, Michael DeFeo, Will Barras, Kelly Burns, Abe Lincoln, Jr, Thubdercut, Judith Supine, Rekal, Maya Hayuk, Anthony Lister, Stikman, You Are Beautiful, Gore-B, Elboe-Toe, MCA, Jasmine Zimmerman, Plasma Slugs, Diego, RIPO, The Graffiti Research Lab, Txtual Healing, Mark Jenkins, Dan Witz, Iminendisaster, Rene Gagnon, and others.
11 Spring, 11am-5pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Erotic Arts Show at Williamsburg White Room
Open bar from 7- 8 pm, with complimentary snacks to enjoy while you view the many beautiful, affordable works for sale ( last minute present idea anyone??). DJ Fatsakz will be spinning funk, soul, and R-N-B from 7 – 10 pm, and then they’ll have several musical performances including a Janis Joplin cover set, some load raucous rock-n-roll from local NY band Wrong, and DJ Lucas spinning a variety of hits to take us into the late night.
208 S. 3rd St, Williamsburg, Saturday 7 pm to late

Billionaires for Bush present The Billionaire Follies in Dick Cheney's Holiday Spectacular
It's Christmas Eve. A beleaguered last-minute shopper is desperate to find the hottest toy of the season at All-Mart when a holiday shopping brawl knocks her unconscious and catapults her into Dick Cheney's Holiday Spectacular 2006. It a macabre, hilarious world of bling, billionaires, and season's greed-ings featuring all of Dick's favorite carols. Highlights include: We Three Kings of Petroleum Are, Toys for the World (Are Made by Kids), and The Halliburton Chorus. This twisted holiday revue also features the 24-Carat Rockettes, a special girls night with Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney, and a reenactment of Dick's favorite film, It's a Wonderful Presidency.
Ace of Clubs, 9 Great Jones, 8pm Sunday; $15

RIP 11 Spring

2006-12-13T22:33:00.000-05:00

It's time to say farewell to 11 Spring Street, which has been a gathering point for graffiti by New York, national and international graffiti artists over the past twenty years. Now, 11 Spring has been sold and will be turned into condos. The new buyers are cognizant of the important part this building has played in New York graffiti life, and want to honor it through a final hurrah.

Over the past two months, graffiti artists have covered the entire inside of the building, five stories in all, with their work. The building will be open to the public Friday through Sunday, 11 to 5. Monday morning, they'll start sealing the art up behind drywall as they transform the building into condos: a full-building time capsule.

Full story [NY Times]

Most Americans Think They're Not As Racist As Others Are: Social Psychologists Explain

2006-12-13T22:19:00.000-05:00

A new CNN poll found that most Americans think that racism is still a problem, but that other people are racist, not them.

Social psychology may provide an explanation. There's a body of research that explores why people tend to hold overly optimistic views about themselves. Among other things, people tend to selectively recall their past behavior, remembering the good and forgetting the bad; and they evaluate themselves in an overly positive manner - the "above-average effect."

In one fascinating article, Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own. Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments, Justin Kruger and David Dunning tried to figure out how this could be. In four tests, they evaluated participants' humor, logical reasoning, and grammar, and also asked participants for a self-evaluation in these areas. They found that those who got the lowest scores in the objective evaluations scored among the highest in the self-evaluation.

Kruger and Dunning concluded that those with limited knowledge ("unconscious incompetents," in management-speak) not only don't know, they don't know that they don't know. David Rakoff of the NY Times cautions us not to intepret this to mean simply that "it's the idiots who are always most certain they're right." Rather, he suggests, "what's most telling is the very ease with which the study lends itself to carping zingers about everyone else's stupidity. It speaks directly to our anxious desire to distance ourselves, as loudly as possible, from incompetent people -- as if incompetence were subject to that same you-are-or-you-aren't dichotomy as pregnancy."

But, he concludes "of course, you can be a little bit incompetent. All of us are." Just like we're all a little bit racist. We just don't want to admit it.

The Nietzsche Family Circus

2006-12-11T23:08:00.000-05:00

The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. Eternal truths, those.

How to Be a New Yorker: 1964 Edition

2006-12-05T20:01:00.000-05:00

how to be a new yorker, originally uploaded by Shield.

File under: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I found How to Be a New Yorker at the Strand. This book by Joan & Leslie Rich is from 1964, but a lot of the markers of New York City life appear to be immutable. Among them: don't bother moving for the door until the subway stops; jay-walk; grunt when you're buying things.

An modern list of how to be a New Yorker, from an Australian expat:

Dress in black, despise most men (if you're female), cancel lunches, have a therapist and if you are single, have a listing on one of the many personals columns. As far as the lingo's concerned, you can get by even with an accent, if you sprinkle your conversation with a few "Puhleeze"s and "Fuhgedaboudit"s. If you want to be a really polished New Yorker, you could add in the dog or cat and make sure you have a socially cool New York type job - Wall street, freelancing something or other in the arts or acting.

The same. But different.

Classic Restaurant Rivalries (or: Food Feuds)

2006-12-03T10:49:00.002-05:00

Italian Heros
Manganaro's Hero Boy versus Manganaro's Food & Restaurant

The New York Times calls it "one of the city's longest and messiest food fights." Salvatore Manganaro, 74, and his youngest brother, James, 66, own Italian sandwich stores next to each other on Hell's Kitchen's Ninth Avenue. The family has been running these businesses for 100 years, and the two brothers have been giving each other the silent treatment for the past 25 years over who has the right to use their family's name and who can claim to have invented the 6-foot hero sandwich. As one young reviewer said, "this feud has been going on for far longer than I’ve been alive, and I’d bet for long after I’m dead."

Pizza
Lombardi’s vs. Totonno’s vs. John’s vs. Patsy’s vs. Grimaldi’s

If you were to draw a family tree of New York pizza, Lombardi's, started in 1905, would be the grandpapi of the clan. Pizzamakers trained at Lombardi's went on to open Totonno's in Coney Island (Anthony Totonno Pero in 1917), John's Pizza in the Village (John Sasso in 1929), and Patsy's in East Harlem (Patsy Lancieri in 1933). In the third generation of pizzarias spawned from Lombardi's, Patsy Lancieri's nephew Patsy Grimaldi, who had worked at Patsy's since he was 10 years old, opened Grimaldi's in Brooklyn Heights in 1990.

Indonesian

Minangasli versus Padang Raya (RIP)

First, Rahman Imansjah was a customer at Nani Tanzil's warung run out of her kitchen. In June 2004, he bought a restaurant, Padang Raya, and they became business partners. They made it to February of 2005. He fired Tanzil, and six months later she opened Minangasli four doors away on Whitney Avenue. The New York Times explains that "the name of her restaurant, which means 'authentically Minang' and is a reference to a Padang ethnic group, is a not-so-subtle dig at her former partner," who is from Kalimantan Island, a culinarily different area of Indonesia. In April of 2006, Padang Raya became Jakarta Mie, a Javanese noodle warung.

Cupcakes
Magnolia versus Buttercup et cetera.

Magnolia has spawned a cupcake family line of Old Testament proportions, complete with rivalries, hatred, and a creation myth. Jennifer Appel of Magnolia acknowledges she didn't invent cupcakes (see, she's humble!), but lays claim to the specific type of cupcake cafe which she sees replicated around the city, most bitterly at Buttercup, which she started with ~~was started by~~ her former business partner Allysa Torey. Appel's franchising director says “She’s like the cupcake godmother. If you did a family tree of cupcakes in New York, she spawned out the seven families. She’s the Don Corleone of cupcakes.”

Philly Cheesesteak
Pat's versus Geno's (Philadelphia)

Pat Olivieri, who opened Pat's King of Steaks as a hot dog stand near South Philadelphia's Italian Market back in 1930, claims to have invented the Philly Cheesesteak. Geno's opened in 1967, and they've stared each other down across a barren patch of South Philly pavement like Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa ever since. Geno's owner Joe Vento claims that they made the cheesesteak what it is today by being the first to add cheese, although they concede that Pat's is responsible for the later introduction of Cheese Whiz (thus adding the phrase 'whiz wit' to American English). And, of course, they hate each other. Vento explains that the reason people eat at Pat's is that "you can acquire a taste for bad food."

Where are they?

Manganaro's Hero Boy, 492 Ninth Ave., between 37th and 38th Sts; 212 947-7325
Manganaro's Food & Restaurant, 488 Ninth Ave., between 37th and 38th Sts; 212-563-5331
Lombardi’s, 32 Spring Street, New York; 212 941-7994
John’s Pizzeria, 278 Bleecker Street, New York; 212 243-1680
Totonno’s Pizzeria Napolitano, 1524 Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn; 718 372-8606
Grimaldi's, 19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn, 718 858-4300

Minangasli, 86-10 Whitney Avenue at Macnish Street, Elmhurst, Queens; 718 429-8207.
Magnolia Bakery, 401 Bleecker St. @ 11th St.; 212 462-2572
Buttercup Bake Shop, 973 2nd Ave between 51st & 52nd St; 212 350-4144
Pat's King of Steaks, 1237 E Passyunk Ave, Philadelphia; 215 468-1546
Geno's Steaks, 1219 S 9th St, Philadelphia, 215 389-0659

Got a rivalry to suggest? Write me.

Racial Dividing Lines in Brooklyn

2006-12-02T15:22:00.000-05:00

In an article looking at Ratner's Atlantic Yards project through the prism of race, the New York Times produced the above map of racial distributions in central Brooklyn.

Flatbush Ave cleaves black and white Brooklyn, with much of the area to the northeast of Flatbush more than 50% or 75% black, and much of the area to the southwest of Flatbush more than 50% or 75% white. Areas of downtown Brooklyn, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Gowanus are "diverse," meaning neither blacks nor whites make up more than 50% of the population.

I would love to see data comparing changes in neighborhood racial demographics to changes in what neighborhood an area is called. The area considered Park Slope several years ago pushed below 5th Avenue, and is now creeping below 4th Avenue, if not further. The map shows that this corresponds to a diverse area that is becoming more white. Similarly, will the dividing line between Crown Heights and Prospect Heights continue to move west, paralleling the movement by whites into a neighborhood that had been almost exclusively black?

Maps of Imaginary Worlds: My Father's Dragon

2006-12-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

Map from My Father's Dragon, originally uploaded by Shield.

My Father's Dragon was written in 1944 by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett. Fifty years later, the story was made into an anime movie in Japan.

The book is about the main character, Elmer Elevator, running away to Wild Island to rescue a baby dragon. Here's the map of his world.

War Wagon in the South Bronx

2006-11-30T13:42:00.000-05:00

The War Wagon - South Bronx Fire Station, originally uploaded by Shield.

Firehouse 71 in the South Bronx calls itself the War Wagon - perhaps referencing the fires that ravaged the South Bronx in the 70s, or perhaps signaling a 'pull your wagons 'round' seige mentality.

Company 71 has been serving the Morrisania neighborhood since 1899. On the 100th anniversary of the company, the company reminiscenced about the early days of the company:

The work chart for the turn of the century fireman was very simple. He worked a 24-hour tour for five days in a row with one day off. Twice a month he could take a 12-hour leave, which could not be used with his 24-hour leave. He could go home for meals three times a day for an hour each time or he could go home twice a day for an hour and half or once for three hours. Back during this time, the Bronx was a slow area and occasionally a fire run would come in. Most of the time the men would be busy caring for the horses, house watch duties, building and hydrant inspections, messenger duties to the Battalion or Division and being detailed to another fire company for sick or vacation time. Another duty was the theater detail where one man would be assign to a movie house to make sure the theater was not over crowded and the aisles block. This duty was rotated around the men in the company. Some districts had several movie houses while other few or none.

Life's a little different now, but the War Wagon's still there.

For another quirky New York firehouse, check out The Friendly Firehouse of Flatbush Ave.

Thanksgiving and the Blow-Up Dolls Descend on Manhattan

2006-11-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

Jimmy Neutron at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, originally uploaded by holgalicious.

Staten Island Pizza Ride

2006-11-19T00:40:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I set off with biking buddies Anna and Etan to do a Staten Island bike ride to the major Staten Island pizza places. Nunzio's, Denino's, and Nucci's, as the most commonly top-rated SI pizza places, were on the itinerary. Pat & Joe's was a little too far off the route, but I want to hit it next time.

It was a fast seven mile ride along the south shore waterfront from the ferry to our first stop. Nunzio's is on a very busy suburban-esque intersection. There's a sit-down restaurant, and a separate entrance for take-out. At first glance it looked like we were going to have to chow our slices on the sidewalk, but then we saw that there was a long counter inside the take-out entrance. Etan spied on the kitchen and reported back that their cheese method is to cut the cheese into blocks, rather than grating it thinly on top - a method that supposedly keeps the cheese from breaking down as fast at high temperatures. The slice was decent, but the crust was too thick for my taste. If I want Sicilian, I'll order Sicilian. But the hand-grated parm on the counter was a nice touch, and there was a basil leaf baked into each of our slices that was delish.

Back on our bikes. On the way to Denino's, we saw a decrepit brick building covered with graffiti. Of course, we had to explore. We thought it was a state institution called Willowbrook that was shut down in the 80s, but it turned out to be a poorhouse, as in what you read about in Dickens, as in the forerunner to the shelter system. Stay posted for more on this.

By the time we got to Denino's, they were no longer serving slices (when we got there they told us they only serve slices until 3pm). That was a bummer. Denino's been around since 1937, and definitely had the best Island atmosphere of all three places. But all of us had neglected to bring lights for our bikes and it was getting dark, so we hauled ass, courtesy of Etan's GPS gadget, to our third and final stop.

Nucci's was in a small suburban strip mall. The teenagers working there made me flash back to my own suburban childhood, but luckily for all I didn't start crying. The pizza was excellent. Thin crust, good sauce, good proportion of cheese. More hand-grated parm on the counter. Is this a Staten Island thing? Regardless, I like it.

So. Bottom line? Staten Island didn't quite live up to its pizza hype, but it's got a damn fine slice if you happen to be there. And if you can combine it with some urban exploration, even better.

Photo at Nunzio's by Anna Le Mon.

Engineering Public Space

2006-11-14T21:56:00.000-05:00

Since becoming preoccupied with bike lanes, I've been thinking a lot about how the way a public space is designed can subtly control how people use the space. With bike lanes, I've been wondering whether the way that New York bike lanes are designed unintentionally invite drivers to park in them.

Dan Lockton, at the Architectures of Control Blog, writes about features designed into city layouts, buildings, and goods that are intended to influence user behavior. He calls these design features 'forcing functions' or 'techniques of persuasion.' Recently he wrote about a counterintuitive article in New Urban News. The article reported that roads planted with trees cause drivers to slow down, and drive with more awareness and caution.

Eric Dumbaugh, an assistant professor of transportation at Texas A&M ... looked at accident records and found that, on the contrary, wide-open corridors encourage motorists to speed, bringing on more crashes. By contrast, tree-lined roadways cause motorists to slow down and drive more carefully, Dumbaugh says.

Dumbaugh examined crash statistics and found that tree-lined streets experience fewer accidents than do “forgiving roadsides” — those that have been kept free of large, inflexible objects. He points to “a growing body of evidence suggesting that the inclusion of trees and other streetscape features in the roadside environment may actually reduce crashes and injuries on urban roadways”…

Dan Burden, senior urban designer for Glatting Jackson and Walkable Communities Inc. in Orlando, notes that there is research showing that “motorists need and benefit from tall vertical roadside features such as trees or buildings in order to properly gauge their speed.”

How could New York design roads, sidewalks and bike lanes in ways that similarly influence driver behavior in positive ways? And how can we identity and remedy public spaces that are producing unintended behaviors that run counter to intended uses?

Turkey Hunt 06

2006-11-14T20:27:00.000-05:00

This Saturday, November 18th, is the 2nd Annual NYC Turkey Hunt - an all city scavenger hunt. Scavengers meet up at Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, Houston St. between Forsyth & Chrystie St., on the stairs, at 1pm. Come ready to rock with $5.00, a team of 3, a bag, and a digital camera. The earlier version of this flyer on myspace said "You must have fun! No fuckin around...ACT BUCK WILD!"

Get Stoned and Watch This

2006-11-14T00:56:00.000-05:00

The Map of the Known Universe, by Seb Chevrel. I could watch this for hours. It's a 3D projection based on astronomical data that takes the viewer on a journey through the brightest stars in the night sky. Chevrel is an artist, designer and programmer who focuses on interactive media. Click on the image and sit back.

Missed Connections: Williamsburg meets Domino's Brooklyn-Style Pizza

2006-11-10T14:11:00.000-05:00

This Craigslist Missed Connections is very of-the-moment: not only does it have a Williamsburg single-speed riding hipster, it's got Domino's new "Brooklyn-style pizza."

Williamsburg Girl Who Shared a Brooklyn-Style Pizza With Me - m4w - 26
We were at the pizza parlor, ordering sodas, debating the merits of dominos' Brooklyn - style pizza. I was the non-tall dude with the dark hair who rode in on his single speed bike, handing out voter information, and you were the ipod belle with the attitude. We had so much fun together eating that pie that we forgot to exchange telephone numbers or emails or AIM info. But we did exchange knowing glances, the kind that say "yeah, I'm digging you today so much I could dig myself a hole to jump into if you would jump in with me." People around us felt our kewl vibe.

So let's meet, and let's have a pizza in Little Italy, which is where all the real Pizzaria are. I want you to have a taste of a slice of my life, and it comes both with veggies and sausage.

For more on the travesty of Domino's "Brooklyn-style pizza" campaign:
"Does this mean that middle America will soon think Brooklynites like crappy pizza?" [Gothamist]
"Help us, Marty Markowitz!" [Room Eight]
"Brooklyn has been molested, kidnapped, and raped constantly of its identity by marketing hounds." [Metroblogging NYC]
"Why order it at all when live in New York City? To that I answer: For you, dear reader. I eat this stuff so you don't have to." [Slice]

For more CL Missed Connection gems, check out The Gowanus Lounge.

Borat Gets Sued

2006-11-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

I just saw the Borat movie and kept thinking that this movie is sure to get the pants sued off Sasha Baren Cohen. Well, here's the first volley.

Two frats boys from a university in South Carolina have now come to regret their racist musings on how great it would be to still have slaves, and are suing Borat for, among other things, fraud and portraying them in a false light.

According to the lawsuit, Borat got them liquored up first, and told them the movie wouldn't be shown in the United States. That's a big part of why they're angry - they never thought other Americans would see what they have to say, and now their frat brothers are sitting in the theater laughing at them.

Read their lawsuit, courtesy of TMZ.com.

Benefit Gig to Fight East Vill Mass Eviction

2006-11-08T22:13:00.000-05:00

A Columbia University dean has bought a fifteen unit, rent-stabilized building in the East Village and is trying to evict everyone. Why? So they can turn the building into a mansion for their daughter.

The tenants at 47 East 3rd Street managed to get a New York trial court to grant a permanent injunction, so that the new owners, Kathryn and Peter Yatrakis, will have to get approval from the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal in order to refuse to renew the tenants' leases. Rather than seek approval from DHCR, the Yatrakis are appealing the court's decision.

The 47E3rd residents have spent over $170,000 towards legal fees so far. They're throwing a benefit for their legal defense fund this Friday at Tonic. PennyRimbaud, Louise Elliott and Japanther are playing, and there's going to be a screening of Yes Sir, I Will by 80s punk band Crass. They're also raffling off two signed Crass litho prints. [flyer]

Admission $10 @ Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street
Read more on the 47E3rd website.

Peds vs Bikes vs Cars - What to Do?

2006-11-05T21:20:00.000-05:00

Today in the New York Times, Samuel I. Schwartz, transportation columnist for The Daily News and the Department of Transportation’s assistant commissioner under Mayor Ed Koch, lays out the history of bike lanes in the City and proposes what we need to do to create more sensible transportation policy and better relations between pedestrians, bikers and cars.

Schwartz explains that Mayor Koch was first exposed to bike lanes on a trip to Beijing:

Mayor Ed Koch ... buoyed by a visit to Beijing, where he saw bike lanes used by tens of thousands, envisioned a network of physically separated bikeways up and down Manhattan.

In the summer of 1980, the mayor directed the department to install bikeways. From Washington Square Park to Central Park, the curb lanes of Fifth Avenue, Broadway and Seventh Avenue were separated from traffic by asphalt islands, giving bikers a lane of car-free roadway all their own.

The bike lanes were physically separated from car traffic using raised islands. New Yorkers had trouble adjusting to the bike lanes, and complaints poured in.

The department’s investigation found that pedestrians considered the bike lanes to be extensions of the sidewalk; they stood in the lanes waiting for the lights to change, where bikers often yelled at them. Mr. Koch made his own observations and found many bike riders traveling outside the lanes. He had us install traffic signs along the bike lanes in typical Koch-ese — “Use it or Lose it.” But even though the lanes were largely successful — and car traffic didn’t slow nearly as much as people thought — criticism mounted.

Faced with criticism, the mayor directed that the barriers separating bike and car traffic be removed, and that the bike lanes be marked only by painted lines. In hindsight, Schwartz thinks this was the wrong decision.

I think we made a mistake. We succumbed to the emotions of the moment. Had we kept the bigger picture in mind, we could have produced a network of separate bike lanes, a widespread public education program and tough enforcement that would have combined to promote good transportation policy and safety.

Now that New York has had 26 years of experience with bike lanes and bike policy, Schwartz has some thoughtful suggestions for the future. Among them:

we need to establish a clear hierarchy for the use of city streets. Pedestrians come first; we started out as a walking city and it will be our greatest strength going forward. This means bikers must yield to pedestrians — even errant ones. Biking is a superb form of transport we should encourage. Drivers must yield to bike riders — even errant ones.

let’s advance the network of bike lanes citywide. I’d even re-introduce physically separate bike lanes. This program needs to be communicated in a mass campaign explaining rules of the road and each group’s responsibility. For example, drivers need to know they are forbidden to enter a bike lane to turn; bikers need to know that they must not block crosswalks; pedestrians must learn they can’t use bike lanes as sidewalks.

Words of wisdom from someone who's been there.
Full op-ed: Rolling Thunder.

What's On This Weekend

2006-11-04T10:45:00.001-05:00

It's going be crisp but oh-so-sunny this weekend. What to do?

Saturday
Williamsburg White Room Grand Opening
The opening of a new art space featuring 15 local artists. Open bar 8-9, DJs and live music.
S 3rd and Roebling, 7pm to 3am

Brazen Head Cask Ale Festival
22 cask ales from all over. Brooklyn Record describes cask ales as "hand-drawn to perfection and served in pint or half-pint glasses at a civilized temperature."
Brazen Head, 228 Atlantic Ave (between Court and Boerum Place), Saturday and Sunday

Walking Tour of Atlantic Yards
Organized by New York Like a Native walking tours, find out what the Atlantic Yards really looks like and where Ratner's baby is supposed to go. The best way to understand the controversy -- including issues of scale, design, and blight -- is to take a look around the proposed site and the surrounding neighborhood. The tour should run between 2 and 2 1/2 hours.
1:30PM, Williamsburgh Savings Bank, $15.

Sunday
Reverend Billy's Revival
The Brooklyn Lyceum will be the site of some fabulous exorcisms, prayers, shouts, and radical gospel with the Church of Stop Shopping. The Reverend and the choir kick off their All Borough Revival Tour in the Wal-Mart-and-Ratner resistant borough of Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Lyceum, 227 4th Ave at President (R to Union), 4pm, $10

NYC Marathon
Pro women start at 9:35; pro men and the rest of the field at 10:10. A few good places to watch: Mile 14 at 23rd Street in Queens; 4th Avenue in Brooklyn; Mile 15 near Queensboro Plaza; Mile 18 near First Ave and East 86th St in Manhattan; near the finish at 90th and 5th Ave. Where to eat along the marathon route from Zagat's.

The Impeach Bush Jogging Circus
A mobile carnival of jugglers, joggers, clowns, hula hoopers, and a 10-plus piece jogging kazoo band are running the NYC Marathon as a team.
Mile 17, 1st Avenue and 66th Street, Manhattan, noonish; $free

NYC Marathon Elevation Map

2006-11-03T02:19:00.000-05:00

That's a mean hill at the start of the marathon. You get another doozy at mile 15, but the planners saved their most dastardly scheme for the last few killer miles - rolling hills from mile 23 on. Plan your race strategy, or just figure out where you want to watch, using the marathon organizers' official elevation chart. Click for a pdf of the full elevation map.
The marathon is Sunday November 5th.

Vote for Nurse Ratched! - Fictional Campaign Sign Contest

2006-10-31T21:33:00.000-05:00

The Morning News is running a contest inviting you to submit photos of actual campaign signs for fictional candidates. Got that? Real signs, fake candidates. Deadline is this Friday, November 3rd, at midnight. Start painting those placards.

Happy Halloween, Spooky

2006-10-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

Washington Square Park, by Joe's NYC

Where Do All Those Damn Tourists Come From?

2006-10-31T01:25:00.000-05:00

Worldmapper, out of the University of Sheffield, has signed the death warrant for the standard world map that hung in our world history classrooms. Instead, they give us maps where the countries expand or shrink like distended balloons based on variables like income, population, and more. Here you can compare the origins of tourists across the globe with the origins of refugees.

Tourist Origins

Tourists made 665 million trips in 2003. Most were residents of Western Europe, North America and Eastern Europe. From Central Africa, South Eastern Africa and Southern Asia - not so much. While residents of Antigua and Barbuda left their islands 3.66 times per year (lucky bastards!), residents of Angola traveled on average 0.0002 times per year.

Refugee Origins

In 2003 there were 15 million refugees and internally displaced persons internationally. The highest numbers came from (1) Serbia and Bosnia, (2) Iraq, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.

Up Close & Personal with the Gowanus Canal

2006-10-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

gowanus, originally uploaded by f.trainer.

Ghosts of Old Brooklyn Farmhouses

2006-10-29T14:24:00.000-05:00

It's an age-old story. Brooklyn transplant falls in love with his new borough and sets about photographing it voraciously, aware that what he sees through his lens is changing every day and might soon fall victim to the relentless pressures of urbanization and modernization. 2006? No, 1906.

Between 1905 and 1911, Clinton Irving Jones traveled the outer boroughs, using a bellows camera with glass plate negatives to preserve the old farmhouses, barns and mills of neighborhoods like Flatlands, Flatbush and Elmhurst. The negatives were recently rediscovered and were bought through ebay by Dumbo gallery owner David Sokosh. Sokosh is displaying them until next Sunday at his gallery, Underbridge Pictures, at 111 Front Street.

Photo: 1224 Fulton St., between Bedford and Nostrand, under the elevated train [map]
The Last Strains of a Pastoral Song [NY Times]

Phony Demolitions as Brooklyn Eviction Tactic

2006-10-29T13:16:00.000-05:00

Five buildings in Prospect Heights and Park Slope face eviction based on their landlord's claim that he plans to wholly demolish or do a gut rehab of their building. The landlord, Frank Farricker, is currently running for Connecticut State Senate on an affordable housing platform.

Although Farricker insists that he will respect tenants' rent-stabilized leases, which guarantee tenants the right to renew their lease, Farricker's real estate investment firm's application to the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal suggests otherwise. The application asks the agency's approval for Farricker "to refuse renewal of" tenant leases "and/or proceed for eviction."

Bennett Baumer, who works for the Metropolitan Council on Housing, charged that "this is a mass eviction that he's applied for, so his intention is to have everybody out on the street. He says one thing in Connecticut and does another thing in Brooklyn."

Read more: Greenwich Times, New York Times.
Photo: 217 St. John's Place, one of the buildings Farricker seeks to gut.

Graffitti on the Gowanus

2006-10-26T21:37:00.000-05:00

Graffitti on the Gowanus, originally uploaded by daltonrooney.

Photo of the day from the Gowanus Canal.

Good News From Around the City for Bikes & Pedestrians

2006-10-25T22:03:00.000-05:00

Ever tried to cross from the Central Library at Grand Army Plaza to the farmer's market? Then you know that the timing of the lights will leave you stranded on a tiny traffic island as traffic whizzes by you in both directions. Streets Blog reported today that the Department of Transportation has corrected the timing of the lights, after repeatedly insisting that to do that would have a disruptive ripple effect on neighborhood traffic. DOT is also planning to implement other pedestrian-friendly changes at Grand Army Plaza over roughly the next year. Check out Streets Blog for the full report.

What effect does traffic have on neighborhoods? Besides what you might expect, Transportation Alternatives' new study, Traffic's Human Toll, found that New Yorkers living on streets with high volumes of traffic spend less time outside and are more likely to restrict their
children's outdoor play compared to people who live on "medium" and "low" traffic streets. The study also finds that compared to residents on low traffic streets, residents on high traffic streets are twice as likely to be disrupted by traffic while they are walking, talking, eating, playing with kids and sleeping.

Want to check out the Bronx waterfront? The Department of City planning has just released the Bronx Harlem River Waterfront Bicycle and Pedestrian Study, which proposes to improve pedestrian and bike access to the waterfront by adding off-street paths or striped bike lanes. Click here for the full report.

Photo, an inventive entrance to the bike path in Toronto, by mute*.

This Sunday

2006-10-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Bye sun, originally uploaded by Mazda6.

For Kaija, originally uploaded by pirate johnny.

Gloomy days are upon us.

Maps of Other Lands: Narnia

2006-10-23T16:59:00.000-05:00

First of an occasional series.

Zombies Take Manhattan

2006-10-22T19:04:00.000-05:00

Zombiecon 2006 kicked off on Saturday with a bloody mary brunch on the upper east side. The locals who showed up to watch the game on the telly were, shall we say, a little befuddled to see that so many people who belong below 14th Street had taken over their bar and were busily applying zombie blood and make-up.
After traipsing through the Bloomingdale's perfume floor - we definitely needed something special to cover up that funky grave smell - we hit the subway to head to Times Square.
There's nothing more classic than a subway car full of New Yorkers, who, when zombies crowd into the car, look up briefly from their newspaper, make a snarky comment or two, and go right back to their reading. Does nothing phase you? Nothing?
FAO Schwartz management was not exactly thrilled to see us. Neither was Red Lobster - despite bringing our own bibs and politely asking the maitre de for a "table for 95, please," they kicked us out too. Passers-by were very sympathetic about the zombie discrimination.
Next - zombies gotta eat. Ordering from a waitress who's seen it all at the Times Square Pub.
Revitalized, we hit the street again. Next up: Union Square and a few more bars. Somewhat surprisingly, the tourists were way more playful and into the whole thing than the downtown New Yorkers.

1964 World's Fair Subway Map

2006-10-18T23:51:00.000-05:00

On this date in 1964, the New York World's Fair ended its first six-month run at Flushing Meadows. More than fifty-one million people saw the Fair, which was planned by the infamous Robert Moses and is now best remembered for the "Tent of Tomorrow" and Unisphere.

To mark the occasion, the MTA published a special subway map that explained how to get there - I guess some things don't change, we still need help getting to Queens.

Map courtesy of Ryn

Neckface Kicks

2006-10-18T20:10:00.000-05:00

Graffiti artist Neckface has teamed up with Vans to put out a series of skate shoes emblazoned with his designs. After being based out of NYC for a number of years, Neckface has moved back to his native California. You can still see his prickly arms stretching across NYC walls and rooftops - a great view of a big one is from the F train as it goes above ground at Smith/9th. My personal favorites are his stickers (below), which show his irreverent and self-deprecating sense of humor.

"Die Brooklyn Yuppies"

2006-10-18T17:46:00.000-05:00

IMGP5757, originally uploaded by amg2000.

Found in the men's room at Bonnie's Grill on Park Slope's hipper strip, 5th Ave. The snarky reply to "die Brooklyn yuppies" says "before or after brunch?"

Part II: Halleck Street Ikea

2006-10-16T00:07:00.000-05:00

On a recent trip to the planned Ikea site in Red Hook, I checked in on the former truck loading zone next to where the graving dock used to be. Although the graving dock was destroyed by Ikea in the last month or so, the truck loading zone next door still remains and is virtually unchanged. I believe Ikea plans to turn this area into a parking lot, and I imagine they'll leave it for a while longer while they're building the store. Soon enough, though, another of the few wild and forgotten places hidden in the city will be gone.

inside, graffiti on the concrete walls

jury-rigged fencing

"Do not pick up / girls in this / area thay got / aids"

where truck used to exit the loading zone, viewed from Hallack Street

Last Glimpses of Halleck St Ikea Site

2006-10-15T22:18:00.000-05:00

The bulldozing of the Todd Shipyard in Red Hook appears almost complete, paving the way (no pun intended) for Ikea's planned store. For now, there's still some street art along Halleck Street. Although graffiti and street art is always ephemeral, these are almost guaranteed to disappear when Ikea sanitizes the area.

Dumba at the Under the Bridge Festival

2006-10-14T19:34:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Ramblings checked out the Dumbo artists open studios today. Powerhouse Books presented No Sleep 'til Brooklyn, a hip hop retrospective that runs until November 19, and includes classic shots from the 1980s, some intense series, and current shots from around Brooklyn. Art collective Dumba showed a number of artists, and the collective itself is something to see. These kids have put a lot of work into the building over the years, and it shows. Here are two shots from their place.

Oh Cambodian, Where Might You Be

2006-10-11T17:30:00.000-05:00

The search for Cambodian food in New York City continues. After some short but basically exhaustive internet research on the Cambodian community in New York, I made a guess that if there was Cambodian food to be had, it would be in the Bronx along Fordham Road. You can see my earlier post and the map showing how much time I had on my hands here.

I took a trip up there after work on Tuesday. As I walked along Fordham Road near the D train I quickly saw that the stores were all pretty high-rent places - national chain stores, fast food joints, and local powerhouses like Jimmy Jazz. A mom and pop restaurant isn't likely to be able to pay that rent. On the west side of the Grand Concourse, the stores get a little more local - cell phones stores, pizza joints, and bodegas. But still no Cambodian food. I couldn't find anything but Goya in the bodegas.

I must have looked lost, as I was soon greeted with "hey guy - whatcha lookin' for?" When I said Cambodian, my good samaritan just looked bewildered. But then I started getting some interesting leads. First I stopped in at St. Rita's youth program, which does a lot of work in the Cambodian community. The staff there told me that there was a Cambodian grocery a few blocks away, above the park on University. Very excited, I walked there, but it turned out to be a Vietnamese grocery. The owner pointed me towards Jerome Ave just south of Kingsbridge, where he said there was a larger Asian grocery that was owned by someone who is Cambodian. Once at Phnom Penh Market (2639 Jerome), the owner confirmed that she was Cambodian but said that they didn't sell any Cambodian food, just Thai and Vietnamese. This is the point in my fantasy where I would get invited to their house for some home cooking, but alas, that didn't happen. I also went and peeked into Phung Hung across the street (2614 Jerome), but their food appeared to be just Vietnamese. They were closed, so I couldn't investigate further, but this place might deserve a return trip.

Sadly, it seems that there is no Cambodian food to be had in the five boroughs. It almost (almost) makes me sad that the place in Fort Greene has shut down. It seems that I'm going to have to content myself with driving a few hours to Apsara's in Providence for their nime chow. Translation: heaven.

Gowanus Artists Are Agast

2006-10-10T23:36:00.000-05:00

Coming up October 21st and 22nd is the annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tour (aka AGAST), now in its tenth year. In those ten years, they've grown from 15 artists to over 120.

On a crisp fall day, it's easy to get off at one of the nearby F train stops and amble from studio to studio. As in past years, if you get your "passport" stamped at four of seven locations, you can win prizes donated by local businesses. (Full disclosure: I won a lovely dinner at Aunt Suzie's a few years back - thanks guys.)

The multitude of street graffiti in the Gowanus area are not an official part of the studio tour, but are well worth checking out. Keep your eyes peeled for gems by elbow-toe, TO, cheekz, flower face killah, royce bannon, gore b, inkhead, metal-worker revs, and others.

more: photo tour of Gowanus [Bluejake]

Top CL Missed Connections Locations

2006-10-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

Today on Gawker, where you should go if you want to find yourself on Craigslist's Missed Connections. The list reads like a compendium of how New Yorkers live. A whopping 35% of unredeemed moments occurred (duh) on the subway. And NYU bred more missed connections than Columbia. Is this because: NYU students are hotter? more wimpy than their up-town rivals at asking someone out? or more easily distracted from their books? You be the judge. Also: you've got an equal chance of a missed connection involving a cop, Home Depot, a barber, or a hypnosis show. There must be a link there somewhere.

Elsewhere: Gowanus Lounge on Gawker's line by line subway breakdown.

Open House New York Picks

2006-10-04T19:00:00.008-05:00

My recommendations for Open House New York, which is this Saturday and Sunday. It's the third year of this cool event that lets you get a behind-the-scenes look at many of New York's historic private, government and corporate buildings. My picks here are some of the unusual places that you can't usually get access to.

Floyd Bennett Field
Ryan Visitor Center, Brooklyn
Sat: 9am-5pm; Guided tour Saturday at 10am.
Sun: 9am-5pm
Crowds used to gather at NYC's first airport to cheer pioneer aviators such as Howard Hughes. Take the rare opportunity to visit the site's historic control tower and the underground access tunnel that led to the runways.

Old Croton Aqueduct Walking Tour
Sun: 9:30 am
Reserve a spot by emailing aqueduct@verizon.net. Meet at the SW corner of The Great Lawn, Central Park: benches between the lawn and the Delacorte Theatre
Walk the path of one of America's great early engineering achievements, and NY's first source of plentiful, pure water. Organized by Friends of Old Croton Aqueduct.

Ellis Island's South Side - ~~reservation only~~ Update - reservations are no longer being accepted.
Sat: 9:30, 11 am, 12:30, 2 pm, 3:30 pm to Sun: 9:30, 11 am, 12:30, 2 pm, 3:30 pm
Reservations: 212-363-3206 ext. 580. Meet at the information desk, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Ellis Island
Tour the grounds of the abandoned Ellis Island hospital where 1 million immigrants were treated between 1900-1954. Wear sturdy, closed-toed shoes. No children under age 16 will be permitted.

Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza
Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
Sat: 11am-4pm
Sun: 11am-4pm
NYC's grandest arch, built in the style of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, commemorates the Union forces of the Civil War. Climb up to the roof for views of the surrounding park and skyline.

Grand Central Terminal
East 42nd St & Park Avenue, Meet at Main Concourse Information Booth New York
Sat: 10am-5pm
Sun: 10am-5pm
Tours with renovation architect 10 am & 12 pm, reservations ohny@bbbarch.com.
Tour the Beaux-Arts icon and learn its history and secrets.

Grand Lodge of Masons
71 West 23rd Street, New York
Sat: 10am-4pm
Sun: Closed
View the lavishly decorated rooms of the Freemasons meeting place, which reflect this ancient organization's unique history and mission.

High Line Cell Phone Tour
820 Washington Street, New York
Oct 7, 2006 & Oct 8, 2006, All day/night
Self-guided cell phone tour discusses various stopping points along the High Line, the disused freight rail currenlty undergoing conversion into NYC's first elevated park. Dial the main phone number 888-7-LOOK-UP starting Saturday, Oct 7th. Each stop has its own three-digit extension. Organized by the Friends of the High Line.
Also: High Line Viewing
Sat: 11am-5pm; Sun: 12pm-5pm
Project design presentations, 1-4 pm on the hour.
This disused, elevated rail viaduct is being converted to public open space. View the progress from the platform of a former meatpacking building.

Astoria Pool
19th Street & 23rd Avenue, Astoria
Sat: 10am-1pm
Sun: Closed
Meet at pool entrance at 19th Street and 24th Avenue. Tours at 10 am, 11 am & 12 pm.
Tour this 330-ft Art Deco pool's underground infrastructure with its innovative filtration system, orginal details and spectacular East River views.

Graving Dock Update

2006-10-04T07:31:00.000-05:00

Tipsters reported to B61 Productions that Ikea began filling in the Todd Shipyard graving dock in Red Hook sometime last month. It had been thought that Ikea was waiting for approval from the Army Corps of Engineers before committing to tearing down the historic 19th century graving dock to turn it into a parking lot.

The Gowanus Lounge has a recent update on what Ikea is doing. In speaking to the Carroll Gardens Courier, Ikea's spokesperson pooh-poohed criticisms of the project and tried to make it sound as though the nay-sayers were all from outside New York. Blaming those craaaazy outside agitators is a common way of trying to rebut organizing, but it's an odd tack for Ikea to take when talking to a local Brooklyn paper.

When the question is "should Ikea come to Brooklyn?," there are strong feelings and good reasons on both sides of the issue. That's not the question, though (we're a little past that point). I go to the Gowanus Lounge for his incisive analysis:

We have many things to say about Ikea's offensive brush off of legitimate concerns, but will limit ourselves to a few: First, it's bad PR to broadcast blatant disregard for the community in which you are building. There are legitimate divisions of opinion regarding the Ikea Red Hook. There are strong critics that object to Ikea's location. There are strong supporters who welcome it. There are an awful lot of people in between, who don't think that a few compromises--like saving the graving dock--are so out of line.

We have nothing against Ikea, per se. We have dealt with execs at existing Ikea locations and have found them to be decent and community-minded people. On the whole, we find Ikea's corporate behavior less troubling than, say, Wal-Mart and other huge firms, but we think Ikea's position on the graving dock is wrong and its attitude is nothing short of arrogant. (We'll leave aside its brutish demolition of historic buildings, of which we're not big fans either.)

Hear, hear.

Photo: Inauguration of the Todd Shipyard Graving Dock from the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Long Island City to be Green-Roof Leader

2006-10-03T21:33:00.000-05:00

Silvercup Studios, the home of Tony Soprano, now has another claim to fame. It's the site of the largest green-roof in New York City, and it may soon become the anchor for a neighborhood of green-roofs.

Metropolitan Magazine reports this week that Long Island City is an opportunity waiting to happen. It's not a particularly healthy place to grow up, with a high incidence of asthma and very few parks. But it's loaded with flat roofs that lend themselves to rooftop vegetation. Put enough of these rooftop parks together and they can help lower the heat index, make the air cleaner, and reduce storm-water runoff.

Landscape architect Diana Balmori, the Long Island City Business Development Corporation, and the owners of Silvercup Studios worked together to make the Silvercup green-roof a reality. They planted the roof this summer - right in the middle of the heat wave. Since they included a monitoring station, they'll be able to track the effectiveness of the green-roof. Could be, Long Island City will feel a little bit cooler next summer.

Tourists Are Not Permitted Beyond This Point

2006-10-03T21:26:00.000-05:00

Photo of the Day, courtesy of NewYorkology.

A New Pizza Competitor: Bings

2006-09-30T18:41:00.000-05:00

You can add bings to the category of on-the-go New Yorker-friendly foods. Bings are sesame seed-encrusted discs of dough filled with anything from spicy pork to mustard greens to red beans. My favorite description is from NY Magazine, which says they look "a little like a sesame-seed bagel that got run over by a taxi." Yeah, pretty much.

The owner of Flushing's Unique Pastry, whose well-deserved nickname is "The Flushing Bing Lady," just opened up a new restaurant called Roll and Dough on W.3rd at 6th Ave in the Village. From the reviews, it sounds like quality hasn't suffered at all in the transition from Queens to Manhattan, which is commendable.

I ran across Roll and Dough the other day when I was looking for a post-beer bite for my subway ride back to Brooklyn. It was tough to choose among all the varieties, but I ended up going with the pork and chive bing. It was a little colder than I would have liked (I learned later that they can toast it for you), but the filling was savory and the right proportion of filling to dough. At $1.50 to $1.95, these deserve to be your go-to food when you need a break from pizza. And in a bit of random but interesting information, one Chowhound reader reports that each variety of bing has its own sesame seed pattern. That's a whole new kind of Braille to learn.

Roll and Dough, 135 W. 3rd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-253-2871.
Reviews elsewhere: Gothamist; Ed Levine Eats; Chowhound; NY Times on her Flushing restaurant.
Photo by roboppy.

Finding Diamonds on the Floor

2006-09-27T22:24:00.000-05:00

Evan over at Two Dishes But to One Table is a New York City high school teacher, which brings him into contact with the unexpected, strange and delightful on a daily basis. This week he found notes for entering the underground switching yards of a subway junction on the J, M, Z line of the MTA discarded on the floor of the biology lab (click image to see it larger). The writer is clearly well on his way to star membership in the vast community of train-obsessed New Yorkers.

Which reminds me that over at To-Do List, Sasha Cagen has reams and reams of lists that strangers have found lying on the street, sidewalk, or grocery floor. Or, as Sasha describes: wish lists, work lists, honeymoon ideas, cliches to avoid, boys/girls you have kissed, vocab lists, shit lists... Call it the anonymous poetry of the street.

Getting the Most from Restaurants, from eGullet

2006-09-26T21:28:00.000-05:00

eGullet is one of those great websites that I don't visit as often as I should, and where I always spend way too much time surfing through when I get there. On my last visit I found a posting by Steven Shaw, a James Beard Award-winning food critic, that's chock full of tips about getting the best a restaurant has to offer, starting with those all-important, impossible-to-get reservations. It's an excerpt from his new book, Turning the Tables: The Insider’s Guide to Eating Out.

On reservations: Every night at a popular restaurant is like an overbooked airline flight. . . It's that careful balance between genuine enthusiasm, flattery, and exhaustion that makes extra seats magically open up.

On getting treated like a regular: Although each individual meal at a top restaurant should be excellent, most seasoned veteran diners take the long view. To them, eating a first meal at a restaurant is like a first date: it's a preview that helps you decide if you're going to want a second date.

On ordering: There's no way to become a food or wine expert overnight, or even in a year. But you don't need expertise. All you need is enough confidence to ask questions.

On the wine tasting ritual: The wine service ritual is romantic and entertaining, but it's mostly pragmatic. The main goal is to determine whether or not the wine is "corked." . . . The wine service ritual is not, however, intended for you to see if you like the wine.

On getting good recommendations that aren't just up-selling: the more specific your questions are the more likely you are to take the server off script. "What's good?" is not nearly as effective as "I have X, Y and Z preferences; what's good?"

I think I'll be trying a lot of this advice out soon. Check out the comments too, there's a ton more info and conversation there.

NYC Subway Map Mash-Up

2006-09-25T21:09:00.000-05:00

I just discovered a great NYC map mash-up -- OnNYTurf has overlaid an accurate and hand-drawn map of the NYC subway lines onto Google maps, making it way way way easier to find the closest subway station to wherever you're headed. It even includes the PATH train. (Jersey, don't say NYC never gave you any love.) This site is nuts. They're getting ready to add station outlines so that riders will know where station entrances and exits are.

This is going to be really useful when I'm out trying to get to one of the places in my pocket eats guide (which, for the uninitiated, compiles the best of Chowhound and other food blogs into an interactive map with reviews, for the five boroughs plus Jersey).

Tacks Off the Beaten Track

2006-09-24T20:35:00.000-05:00

In recent weeks, many cyclists have reported flat tires from tacks laid down on the West Side Greenway. The problem appears to center around Riverbank State Park, which is between 137th and 145th Streets, but reports of so-called 'tack attacks' range as far south as 68th Street and as far north as the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street. Transportation Alternatives estimates that as many as 200 cyclists have gotten flats from tacks in this area. There have also been reports of tacks around the downhill on River Road and the nearby Sewage Treatment Plant, as well as in New Jersey's Palisades Park.

What's being done? The Parks Department has requested increased patrols and sweeping of the West Side bike path, and has reported the problem to the Manhattan Parks Commissioner's Office.

Because this is considered 'criminal mischief,' it's appropriate to call 911 if you see or (worse) ride over tacks. You can also call 311. In addition, you should call the appropriate local police precinct. Courtesy of Noah at Transportation Alternatives, here's a list of the west side precincts:

20 Precinct - W.59th to W.86th St: 212 580 6411
24 Precinct - W.86th St to W.110th St: 212 678 1811
26 Precinct - W.110th St to W.135th: 212 678 1311
30 Precinct - W.135th to W.155th: 212 690 8811
33 Precinct - W.155th to W.181st: 212 927 3200
34 Precinct - W.181st to Harlem River: 212 927 9711

More:
The Bicycle Saboteur of Riverbank State Park (NY Mag)
Video report (CBS)

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