Photo of a Central Park raccoon from ñ's flickr Human intruders aren't the only worry amongst New Yorkers--now wildlife is encroaching upon residences throughout the city, especially in Brooklyn. Many blogs have been reporting neighborhood sightings, and now the NY Times jumps in with a look at raccoons paying visits to human neighbors. One Midwood family who found raccoons in their attic laughed it off while they called in a wildlife trapper, cut down......

The beloved Manhattan Special was featured in the NY Times yesterday as siblings Aurora and Louis Passaro are experiencing a new resurgence in popularity in the coffee soda specialty. The drink, which has been made in a Brooklyn factory since 1895, is now available online, but it's not always easy to find locally. It has been spotted in Inwood, at Manganaro's Hero Boy, Bruno's King of Ravioli, the Associated Supermarket on 14th Street and First......

Authorities believe 5-year-old Jay "Tito" Morales set fire to his grandmother's apartment in an act of revenge, because she wouldn't let him go to the park. Now the child is in critical condition after suffering third-degree burns over 70-90% of his body. Morales' grandmother Nancy Herrera often baby-sat him in her Bushwick home on Knickerbocker Avenue. Described as strict, Herrera apparently punished Jay after a stunt where he called 911 and said she had died--only......

Even though around 200 people attended the Brooklyn barbecue where one person was killed and four people were injured in gun fire, the Post reports there has been little or no cooperation from witnesses. More chillingly, it's suggested that the fatality, 21-year-old college student Zeanie White, may have been used as a "human shield" by another shooting victim who may have been the real target. Police are offering $12,000 for information leading to an arrest......

Earlier, Brownstoner pointed towards a Benches for Barack Craigslist ad that offers up handmade benches built from Douglas Fir wood. From the $40 price tag, $25 goes to the cost of building the bench, while $15 is donated to the Obama campaign. Brownstoner's post noted that the twosome behind the benches are "neighborhood kids, 18-year-old high school grads Harry Fishbein and Emma Dillon," and that they work out of Harry's basement in Cobble Hill. The......

It didn't even take one month for the public to put an end to the wooden girl in Greenpoint. To recap: a street artist put up the piece as a birthday present for his girlfriend, who had moved to Connecticut and was pining for her old neighborhood. Friends and strangers alike were encouraged to pose with the painted lady; the photo project can be found here. By late June, however, she was painted grey......

Photos via avishaiweiss's flickr and NYC Aviation. The supersonic Concorde jet that spent 30 years flying fiercely through the skies went unharmed until retiring in Brooklyn, where the president of the foundation that operates the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Bill White, was charged with overseeing its care. After just two years in the borough, The NY Times reports it got it's signature needle-shaped nose taken off by a truck.A Concorde that is......

Yesterday, friends, family, and others gathered for the funeral of 49-year-old Esmin Green, whose death in a Kings County Hospital emergency room was captured on surveillance video. Green, who had been waiting for almost 24 hours for medical attention, had collapsed onto the floor; though many staffers saw her on the floor, nothing was done until a nurse (who kicked her gently) realized she was unconscious an hour later. Green was described as a loving,......

A July 4th weekend barbecue turned tragic when a group reportedly "crashed the party and unleashed a barrage of gunfire." A 21-year-old woman was killed and four others were taken to the hospitals. A party was being held behind 969 Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant--which is just down the street from the 81st Precinct. Around 1 a.m. yesterday, the shooting began. One witness told the Sun, "It was a rapid succession of shots. After that, the......

Photograph from Clinton Hill Blog The NY Times looks at the recent crimes that have rattled the under-transition neighborhood of Clinton Hill:Pratt's director of security (Pratt recently warned students about muggings near but not on campus) said "someone put a garbage can over a woman’s head and then robbed her" in April. A Pratt junior headed to a baby-sitting job was beaten up after she didn't take three girls' request for money seriously: "They......

After serving tours in the Middle East, it was a Brooklyn backyard barbecue that proved deadly for Sergeant Kidson George. The 26-year-old man was gunned down on the porch of a Crown Heights home where he was celebrating the 4th of July with his girlfriend and others. George was shot twice in the chest by his girlfriend's former boyfriend, sending children screaming and dashing for cover. An unidentified 27-year-old woman was hit by a stray......

Police suspect that a strange van filled with mysterious explosives found in Sunset Park may be linked to a landlord with a history of bomb-making activities. On Thursday, a career criminal broke into the van, intending to rob it but decided to tip off the police after moving it to a more desolate location. The NYPD's anti-terror task force responded, as did Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the FBI, to the scene. WABC 7 reported......

Yesterday's Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest had a lot to live up to after last year's heavily-hyped and record-breaking victory that saw Joey Chestnut bring the Mustard Belt back to America by snapping the six-year victory streak of legend Takeru Kobayashi. How did they manage to top it? Overtime! After the two giants of competitive eating ended regulation in a dead heat at 59 franks a piece, Nathan's officials scrambled and decided to hold......

A three-year-old boy was seriously injured when a pit bull, unleashed by his mother's boyfriend, attacked him. Kamar Reynolds underwent surgery to reattach his ear and remains in serious condition; his aunt said, "His ear was torn off. His face was swollen. Half of his face was open. His mouth was bleeding blood. We put a sheet over his mouth so it could hold in the ear and the blood." Authorities say Reynolds' mother was......

Authorities have arrested a 62-year-old bus driver after a bus matron allegedly saw him fondling a mentally challenged student. The matron had left the bus to take another student into P.S. 226 in Bensonhurst, and when she returned, she apparently saw Efrim Bondarev's hand down the 14-year-old girl's shirt. Bondarev works for a private bus company contracted by the Department of Education.......

Today has turned out sunny and warm as dry air has finally moved into the city. The dew point plunged by fifteen degrees around noon. That dryness will let today's high approach the upper 80s, and, for the first time in many days, there's no chance of rain! With a warm, dry start tomorrow may heat up to the low 90s. Showers may return as soon as tomorrow night. By Independence Day we'll be back......

After a surveillance video showed hospital staff ignoring a psychiatric patient's last dying hours in the emergency room of Kings County Hospital, city health officials say they will make a series of changes, like checking on patients every 15 minutes. When asked what he thought of the video, Mayor Bloomberg said, "Horrified is much too nice a word. Disgusted, I think, is a better word." The patient, 49-year-old Esmin Green, had been waiting in the......

The Brooklyn Paper talks to a number of people about the inevitability of more national, big box and chain retailers coming to Red Hook. One commercial real estate broker says, "There are a lot of large parcels of land that are owned by single landowners [and] it’s favorably zoned.” So, will the death knell be a Wal-Mart...or an Olive Garden?......

With a recent uptick in gentrification griping in Carroll Gardens, Candy Chang’s interactive art project in the window of a vintage furniture store on Court Street was well-timed. For one week, passersby were invited to share their apartment info and rent costs on Post-it notes. After culling 151 responses, Chang tallied the info and found that:One resident has lived in a studio in Carroll Gardens for 43 years with a current rent of $146.Another......

A distressing video was released showing a 49-year-old psychiatric patient left to die in the waiting room of Kings County Hospital. The video shows the woman, identified as Esmin Green, slump and fall to the ground--and two guards and a doctor look in and ignore her. Finally, a nurse comes to check on her, but not before kicking Green, who was dead at that point. Attorney Robert Cohen told WNBC, "It's an emergency room,......

An early morning two-alarm fire in an apartment building at 1001 Ocean Avenue (near Newkirk) in Brooklyn injured several residents. WABC 7 reports seven members of the same family were seriously injured--two children suffered first- and second-degree burns--and a "pregnant woman and a 56-year-old man" jumped from the second floor. Some firefighters were also injured in the blaze.......

If you’ve ever watched acting so bad it made you want to shove the performer offstage and play the role yourself, Suspicious Package is for you. The creators of this clever little production have spared themselves the headache of dealing with actors by casting the audience and turning them loose on the streets of Williamsburg. It happens for just four people at a time, and when you buy your ticket online you cast yourself in one of the roles, choosing either the producer, the showgirl, the heiress, or the private detective....

When one man's family history pointed towards an association with Walt Whitman, research efforts resulted in a new website archiving the poet's old stomping grounds. Whitman's Brooklyn looks at the borough, where Whitman moved at the age of 4, during the mid to late 1800s. Along with each image on the site is an in-depth history of the area portrayed. In an 1847 engraving of what at the time was called Washington Park, it is......

The Brooklyn community board that covers Bay Ridge is fed up with the food vendors who clog 86th Street – all three of them. “The issue is cleanliness,” asserts the board’s District Manager Josephine Beckmann, whose husband is a police lieutenant. “It would be best to have no vending at all. It just causes problems.” So the board has unanimously urged the city’s Department of Small Business Services to banish them from the block. Sam......

Northeast Kingdom sits on the southwest corner of Wyckoff and Troutman streets in Bushwick, a block from the L train's Jefferson stop and myriad one-story warehouses and industrial spaces. Native Vermonters Paris Smeraldo and his wife, Meg Lipke, have invoked a funky ambiance with taxidermy and vintage wallpaper alongside a bar backed with orange and yellow stained glass. Throw in the flickering candlelight and you've got a place to linger for hours after dark.......

The owners of Union Hall and Floyd, Jim Carden and Andy Templar, along with Union Hall booker Jack McFadden, have been hard at work on their new venue. Earlier this year we got a glimpse of The Bell House while the space was still pretty raw, this week Sam Horine took a look inside to see how things are coming along. Located on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues in Brooklyn, the venue will......

Galapagos officially changed hands earlier this year, with Matt Roff & Co. now at the helm. With the Galapagos name moving to DUMBO and the artspace under new ownership, there was a contest to name the 70 N 6th Street space (after briefly working under the name Natural Selection). Well, they've finally come to a decision (drum roll please): Public Assembly. Roff tells us that they'll also be holding the official after parties for the......

Last week an ex-con attacked a woman in Park Slope, and the news is hitting the papers today. The NY Post reports that 32-year-old Thomas Russo followed 39-year-old Diana Greiner along 6th Avenue in Brooklyn last Tuesday around 11:45 p.m. Somewhere near Lincoln Place, Russo struck Greiner's skull (fracturing it) and slashed her face and body before fleeing on foot into a bodega. He was caught on tape and is currently being charged with attempted......

Three people were shot last night around East 94th Street and Church in Brooklyn. A car is also full of bullets. WABC 7 reports that while the "conditions of the victims are unknown," one victim may have been shot in the head, another was shot in the arm, and a third victim was able to drive to the hospital. Police are investigating.......

Slice's Adam Kuban takes his life into his hands by conducting a taste test of all the slices in his neighborhood, Park Slope. Although Kuban claims to have learned secrets of such intense pizza samplings "like only sampling slices, not entirely consuming them," he still manages to ingest over 15 slices in some way, shape, or form. In the mozzarella-hazed-aftermath, Kuban deems Tomato & Basil (226 Fourth Avenue, 718-596-8855) the "best in the Slope overall.........