Monday Links
Atlantic Armory, Crown Heights. Photo by atomische. Real Estate Developers Raise Stake in Politics [NY Times] Quixotic Quest to Bring Swimming to Wollman [NY Times] The Last Great Deal in Red Hook (in 2001) [NY Times] Bensonhurst Hears Echo of the Old Mob Days [NY Times] Flutter Hits NY Real Estate Over Rates [NY Sun]…
Atlantic Armory, Crown Heights. Photo by atomische.
Real Estate Developers Raise Stake in Politics [NY Times]
Quixotic Quest to Bring Swimming to Wollman [NY Times]
The Last Great Deal in Red Hook (in 2001) [NY Times]
Bensonhurst Hears Echo of the Old Mob Days [NY Times]
Flutter Hits NY Real Estate Over Rates [NY Sun]
Playgrounds To Open to Public Within Weeks [NY Sun]
Union Workers Picket Duffield Sheration Worksite [NY Post]
Vendor Squeeze at Red Hook Ballfields [NY Post]
Lots of Environmental Initiatives for PlaNYC [NY Post]
Barron to Go Ahead with Controversial Street Renaming [Metro]
Remembering the Court Street of Old [Brooklyn Rail]
Brooklyn Lawyers Dodge “Manhattanization” [NY Lawyer]
A Historic Sidewalk Widening in Williamsburg [Streetsblog]
Subletting a Co-op on the Sly [Forum]
Making the Most of a Studio [This Old House]
Lets not kid ourselves about the red hook vendors. the reason they are leaving is because it will be too much competition for ikea’s swedish meatballs. so funny how they marketed themselves as being a boon to the projects and the neighborhood and one the first things they do is try to get rid of a red hook vendors…one of the things i love most about the hook.
As they all do, the Brooklyn Rail writer takes great liberty with what was reality. I too remember well Court St. with the theater, Queen Pizza and Queen Rest (before they relocated to current spot). And the rotiseree chicken. The theater was not torched or arsoned as he suggests – but the whole block was evicted/moved out for the theater/B&N building – but sat vacant for years 1st.
But what annoyed me most was his drivel “Soon an Ikea superstore will rise on the site, and there will be a waterfront esplanade with railings and trimmed trees, and the young of Brooklyn, this peculiar generation of money-heads and ambition-addled professionals, will have a direct supply of their very own furnished line of sameness.”. Again ignoring reality that the IKEA will appeal to the thousands and thousands or working class people and new immigrants – not the “generation of money-heads and ambition-addled professionals” he bemoans.
I’m a bit tired of all this gentrification ruining the soul of NYC and Brooklyn crap. All the revisionist nostalgia for a time and place that really didn’t exist as they somehow envision or remember.
I’ve been here long enough to remember “Rat Park”, which in the spring was incredibly beautiful, with blossoming apple and cherry blossoms. I also remember the boarded up porn theatre, and some of the other seedy establishments on Court. While I believe that preservation should be a viable alternative in most cases, this ain’t one of them. The Barnes & Noble/movie theatre complex may be ugly as they get, but it is a welcome alternative to what was there. The boarded up porn theatre, et al were almost surreal in their movie set-like horribleness, and walking past there at night was always an invitation to get mugged, or more imaginatively, for some Dawn of the Dead like zombie to emerge and take you to a place you’d never be found. The rats from Rat’s Park went to Court Street for vacation, it was really awful.
As for the park, it would have been a good thing to keep, if the city had made cleaning it and maintaining it a priority, as it could have been a very beautiful little park. However, the junkies and the rats truly owned it, and all of the cherry blossoms in the world could not hide that fact. I mourn its loss, but can’t argue with the fact that the Marriot is more valuable to the economic and social life of Brooklyn.
Ah, progress. Sometimes you have to choose your battles. As a side note, it’s amazing the author of the piece made it to adulthood with his DNA and brain intact.
It was a nice article, his facts are skewed however, Pandora’s Box was not spray painted, I remember the quasi erotic images on the window were painted with a brush, and were a full block away from the “Cinart” the adult theater where Barnes and Noble is now. I do remember buying Nickel bags on Myrtle (called nickel bags because they cost five bucks), “tre” bags were three bucks.It reminds me of Lethem’s books, where the subject matter of Brooklyn is cool, but the facts are not all there, no biggie, it was a nice read…Definately cool to know someone other than me remembers “Julios” and the rotisserie Chicken place where Amercan Aparrel is now.
The article from the Brooklyn Rail (Remembering the Court Street of Old) just proves that virtually any experience had in one’s youth, no matter how unhealthy or depraved, can be a source of bittersweet nostalgia. The author is wise enough to know that this is a decadent indulgence, but his associated condemnations of contemporary Brooklyn is fatally narrow-minded. Even as one who frequently gets immersed in Old Brooklyn (my particular interest is the mid-19th Century), I can still appreciate the fact that the early 21st Century will very probably be seen as a golden age for our beloved borough.