[Photo courtesy of Meg Groome]

These are pigeons huddling against the winter cold on the subway overpass over Ocean Parkway in Brighton Beach, just before the road turns right as it reaches the boardwalk and the ocean. And, to all, a good evening.

[Photo courtesy of vaduzuvunt/GL Flickr Pool]

If this is not street couch perfection, we don’t know what is.

[Photo courtesy of New York Public Library]

This is Carroll Street at Bond Street looking toward the Gowanus Canal. The building with the smokestacks is the power plant that is still standing today. This photo is from 1930.

[Photo courtesy of E.C. Stephens]

This is a little scene near Union Street on the Park Slope side of Fourth Avenue. It’s been there like that for a while, but Correspondent E.C. Stephens managed to capture the essence of the healthy bike versus the solitary tire.

A sunset behind the Brooklyn Bridge from Garen Barsegian on Vimeo.

This is the sad little “shrine” that’s appeared at the boardwalk gate to Astroland in Coney Island, which is in the process of being dismantled. The destruction of this little amusement park at this point in time is pointless, counterproductive and disgusting. All those responsible–and there are many–should hang their heads in shame at what they are doing to Coney Island.

This is 218 N. 9 Street in Williamsburg, where demolition started months ago and then stopped abruptly. Since then, the fence has been more open than closed, allowing for all sorts of sordid activity not to mention being a threat to public safety. That shredded thing above is a city violation and we’re running this to show just how effective and frightening to developers the DOB’s enforcement system is. Someone will eventually die in one of these sites in Williamsburg, which is why we keep running these posts–to create a public record of the bureaucratic ineptitude that is allowing dangerous conditions to flourish. And, it is going to get worse as more and more sites are abandoned as project financing dries up. Oh, we’ve written about this one before, calling it a great spot for a shag al fresco.

A couple of more pics ahead

We finally managed to wander past the Metropolitan Cinema and Condos at 136 Metropolitan Avenue between Berry & Wythe this weekend and got some nice shots of the new facade. The building was designed by Caliper Studio and that’s a zinc exterior with glass discs that will be illuminated from behind at night by LED lights. The ground floor remnants of the original building will house the 168-seat indie Casandra Cinema. It’s supposed to open in Spring ‘09 and they’re looking like they are on schedule.

· Development Delays in Boerum Hill North [Brownstoner]
· Atlantic Yards Arena 2013? [AYR]
· Rendering vs. Reality: Scarano’s Fourth Avenue Monster [Curbed]
· Brooklyn Lamp Posts That Will Light Up Your Life. Zzzzt. [McBrooklyn]
· Two-Car Inferno on Troutman [Bushwick BK]
· Ghost Bikers Gather [BVIB]
· Casa Mon Amour is Toast [New York Shitty]
· Reginella Set to Open on Atlantic This Week [Cobble Hill Blog]

Anyone who goes to Coney Island knows this dog and his companion. They guard some of the kiddie rides on the Bowery. This one didn’t really seem to have his heart in barking at us on the day we went to play with him.

Our dear friends at Park Slope Parents raise an interesting issue in a series of emails about whether the little ones can play in the hallways of the condo and what to do if a mean neighbor or (gasp) the all-powerful condo board isn’t into it. Here’s the illuminating email:

I’ve lived in a Brooklyn condo for about 2 years, and during that time my son went from a crawling baby to a high energy 3 y.o. We live in a building with 56 units, and there are currently 35 kids and counting. We have the odd misfortune of being the only parents on our particular floor. All the floors with kids have some playtime in the hallway. Everyone I know tries to respect neighbors by having 15-20 minutes of play b/w 10 am and 7 pm. One couple on our floor finds it abhorrent that we would use the hallway for play, at anytime or on any day. They claim it’s extremely tacky and disruptive to their “luxury living”, that they’re sorry we “couldn’t afford a bigger apartment” so we wouldn’t “use the hallway as an extension” of our place. While we’re in the hallway a few times a week, it’s never for long, and if my kids get too loud, I bring them back inside.

Are there any laws concerning children playing for short intervals in condominium hallways? Or should neighbors just work it out? I’m actually on my condo board, and I’m not aware of any rule/law about this, even in our own bylaws. Our neighbor is claiming that he has the right to peace and quiet by law, and that our children should only be in the hallway when walking to and from the elevator.

Some more thoughts on the subject ahead.

It feels like we’ve been covering the contentious issue of the reopening and expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue forever. Well, tomorrow (1/6) at 9am there’s to be a rally in front of the Brooklyn Courthouse to protest and there will be another court hearing. The Stop BHOD Coalition, elected officials and community groups are urging community members to come out and show for keeping the jail closed and disposing of the property or reusing it.

A press release about this fetid mess ahead.

East River State Park may be closed for the winter unless things change before April 1, but the long delayed N. 5 Street Pier is now open to the public. These were some of the pics we were shooting yesterday before we were accosted by a twentysomething woman who thought she could tell people not to shoot photos because her colleagues were making some kind of amateur artsy video. If we remember correctly, we referred to them as “asshole artists” yesterday. Check out our little photo crypto-fascist female friend here if you missed the post. Her colleague likes to shoot pics of people passed out on the subway. Artsy fartsy self-entitled irony, anyone?

[Photo for GL courtesy of Deborah Matlack]

This is another one of Deborah Matlack’s series of interestingly colored shots of Coney Island. We love the bleakness of the black and white combined with the very faded touches of color.

[Photo courtesy of lornagrl/GL Flickr Pool]

Writes photographer lornagrl, whose pics we dig a lot: “I guess Bart Simpson had a little too much to drink in Brighton Beach on New Years.” Dude. That’s just undignified.

Dear God. We began the day with a post about the disgraceful state of Coney Island and the staggering ineptitude of everyone at every level of the process to ensure that Coney Island remains viable in the short-term. So, if you want to hear the official version you can join the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Real Estate & Development (RED) Committee tomorrow morning (1/6) from 8:30AM to 10:00AM for its panel titled “The Latest in Coney Island’s Development.” RED will hear about the latest developments in one of Brooklyn’s most beloved, historic, and currently ‘developer blighted’ neighborhoods, Coney Island! Panelists will include: Lynn Kelly, President, Coney Island Development Corporation; Purnima Kapur, Director, NYC Department of City Planning – Brooklyn Office; Dennis D. Vourderis, Vice President, Deno’s Wonder Wheel. The cost to Chamber members is free. It’s $25 for non-members. To register contact Lori Raphael at 718-875-1000 ext. 140, or lraphael@brooklynchamber.com. It will take place at Polytechnic University of NYU, Dibner Conference Room - LC400, 5 MetroTech Center. This event is sponsored by Brooklyn Cyclones.
–E.C. Stephens

And now, some musical choices between today and Wednesday:

Monday 1/5/09
Jalopy: Tony Scherr (Folk) $5, 9:00pm

Barbes: Chicha Libre (Latin/Surf/Psychedelic) $10, 9:30pm

Tuesday 1/6/09
Bar 4: Open Mike Night: Hosted by Tanya Buziak.
Pre-list @ 6:15pm, Sign up @ 8:00pm, Start @ 8:30pm (mostly Singer-Songwriters) Free!!

Wednesday 1/7/09
Issue Project Room: Car Commercial, Talibam! (Anat-Garde/Rock) $10, 8:00pm
–Dan Bennis

[Photo for GL courtesy of E.C. Stephens]

This beauty of a street sofa comes from an undisclosed location in Sunset Park and, we think, is one our first Sunset Parkers. It’s a beauty.

Given the number of people about who we’d like to write this using a different variant and appending the word “painfully.” We almost pissed ourselves yesterday when we found this on N. 6 Street in Williamsburg. Eat Fruit & Die, indeed.

If you want to flip a switch in our brain that turns us from a nice and normal person to a ranting one simply tell us in a public place that we can’t take a photo. Yesterday, we were enjoying our first look at the public pier behind Northside Piers and shooting a lot of photos. We noticed some people were shooting video at the end of the pier. We were taking pics for a photo feature on the Pier which offers stunning views of the East River and of the Williamsburg shoreline. Then, a twentysomething female approached us and said, “Please don’t take pictures.” We began to lecture her about how it was a public place and it had just opened and we were excited to shoot pics of it and that we had every right to take photos and pointed out that she and her friends were probably doing a commercial shoot without a permit from the Parks Dept. (She claimed they had one. Not that we give a shit, but, uh, yeah, sure, and we’re Richard Nixon.) Again, she said, “I don’t want you to disturb what they’re doing.” At that point we began a raging lecture about no one had a right to tell photographers not to take photos in public place and that we knew plenty of people who’d been manhandled by the cops and menaced by construction site workers.

The head dude in charge apologized for her. Irony alert: He takes pics of people passed out on the subway.

This is the Dumpling Rickshaw Truck on Seventh Avenue and First Street on Saturday morning. In addition, the Waffles and Dinges truck was only a few blocks away in front of Old First Church. Given the generally horrific nature of Seventh Avenue food. These trucks are a Godsend.

If you weren’t around on New Year’s Eve or weren’t paying attention, you might want to check out our year-end coverage. Here are the links:

· GL’s Top Ten Brooklyn Stories of 2008
· 2009 Will Change Brooklyn’s Development Vocabulary
· GL’s 2009 Brooklyn Deathwatch: Five Rotting Corpses???
· Thanks to Our Readers and Contributors in ‘08

Oh, just a few shots we took here and there of discarded Christmas trees, which are sad and compelling in their own way.

This is Fourth Avenue and Carroll Streets, which we think of as the corner of nightmares for different reasons, but mainly architectural ones. The building on the left is the shaft erected by Bricolage Designs and Henry Radusky. The now Christo-wrapped thing on the right is the building from which Robert Scarano was booted and for which Armand Quadrini was hired. Frankly, we think the Scarano design was much better. Seriously. Oh well.

· Cheyenne Diner’s Trip to Brooklyn Stalled [NYDN]
· A Look Back at Atlantic Yards in 2008 [AYR]
· Learn How To Work With Your Elected Officials [PMFA]
· Star Building [WGPA]
· What You Missed on BHB Over the Holidays [BHB]
· Pubic Hearing for Second Avenue Gentlemen’s Club [BVIB]
· After Skating [Brooklynometry]
· A New Year’s Resolution Worth Keeping [Kensington Stories]