Tag Archives: Williamsburg

Sunday, September 21: Brooklyn Blogade

Posted on by
1

NOTE CHANGE IN DATE

The next Brooklyn Blogade is Sunday, September 21, at 1pm, at Juliette in Willliamsburg. This month’s Blogade is hosted by Christine Brodigan of HuffPo and PlumTV. Topics will include personal branding, social media, and audience-building.

To attend, please RSVP Chrissie at christine dot brodigan at gmail dot com.

And save the date of Sunday, October 12 for the next Blogade after this one, when I’ll be your host at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Related Posts

Blogade

Links

Juliette [GMAP]

[where: Juliette, 135 N. 5th St, Brooklyn, NY 11211]

Times City Room defends its treatment of “South Brooklyn”

Posted on by
2

Several of us bloggers in Flatbush, at least, feel at best bemusement when the Times casts its gimlet eye upon our fair neighborhood. They sometimes seem to view us as some quaint suburban enclave, linking to a post about, say, raccoons, while ignoring local coverage of a rezoning proposal that will shape development for decades to come.

At least one reader of the New York Times City Room seems to feel the same:

Question: … There is no doubt, that when The New York Times writes about Brooklyn, one would think that Brooklyn is Park Slope, the Heights, Cobble Hill, Dumbo, and those environments basically north of Prospect Park. When areas such as Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Bay Ridge, Flatbush, and Sheepshead Bay are ever mentioned in your publication, they are usually treated in a condescending, disparaging, misinformed manner … Why the obvious slant, and why the ignorance from a publication that claims to be a bastion of serious and knowledgeable discourse?
– Answers About City Room, Part 3, Sewell Chan, New York Times, June 19, 2008

The Times responds:

Answer: I’m not sure I agree with your rather harsh assessment. … The Times has devoted a lot of coverage of neighborhoods like Greenpoint and Williamsburg [still north of Prospect Park!], where young college graduates have spurred a housing boom over the last decade, and projects like Atlantic Yards, which has provoked fierce discussion about the future of economic development in Brooklyn and the preservation of small-scale neighborhoods. But I don’t think that coverage has meant that other neighborhoods receive “condescending, disparaging, misinformed” coverage. In recent months, The Times has written about a kosher soup kitchen in Borough Park, the history of Victorian Flatbush and access to the Sheepshead Bay waterfront. We’re always open to suggestions for news and feature stories in the city’s diverse neighborhoods, and The City section, published each Sunday, is filled with local updates on community news.

Related Posts

The Times discovers Kensington, May 24, 2008
Times admits past errors: We are not all Ditmas Park, March 15, 2008
Where is Flatbush, anyway?, December 1, 2007

Flatbush Facts: Brooklyn’s Noisiest ‘Hood

Posted on by
Reply

It makes a body proud. Flatbush is Brooklyn’s noisiest neighborhood, measured by the number of noise complaints to 311.

[In Flatbush] 2,058 noise complaints were made to the city’s 311 hotline from July 1 to Nov. 20. Williamsburg fell just three complaints behind, followed by Bushwick and Brownsville.
– Flatbush tops loudest in Brooklyn, NY Daily news, December 11, 2007

This year, DEP complaints in Brooklyn surged by approximately 23%, from 3,914 to 5,101 calls, officials said. Citywide, there were more than 135,589 complaints in the nearly five-month period – about a 25% hike over the same period in 2006.

Brooklyn’s top noise culprit is construction-related din, which is handled by the DEP and clocked in at 2,300 complaints.

Other pesky rackets plaguing the borough include … barking dogs, which annoyed Brooklynites enough for them to dial 311 1,263 times from July until last week. Ice cream truck jingles drew 261 complaints and loud music spurred 119 calls. Car noises, including honking horns and alarms, also made the top-10 list of complaints for the borough.

Links

Air & Noise, DEP

News: Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance Recommending Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Posted on by
Reply

The Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance (FBNPA), working with local advocates, has come up with a list of 18 buildings and nine potential historic districts in the borough that it would like to see designated by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). …

Among the Brooklyn neighborhoods that FBNPA is recommending for landmark status are Canarsie’s Seaview Village, two Victorian Flatbush enclaves (Ditmas Park West and West Midwood), Prospect Heights, and streets in Williamsburg and Downtown Brooklyn.

– Group touts new ‘landmarks wish list’, March 22, Courier-Life Publications

Ditmas Park West is immediately south of my neighborhood, Beverley Square West, and west (surprise!) of the Ditmas Park Historic District. West Midwood is south of Ditmas Park West and west of Midwood Park and Fiske Terrace, which have already been proposed, but not yet approved, as new Historic Districts.

They are also recommending the expansion of the tiny Carroll Gardens landmark area.

Among the structures on the list are several in Canarsie, Gravesend and Williamsburg, as well as one in Bay Ridge, one in East Flatbush, and one in Bushwick.

I’ve never heard of the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance (FBNPA) before reading this article. I can’t find a Web site or any other contact information for them online. I would provide a link if I had one. If you know of anything, please leave a comment.