Results tagged “bedstuy”

This week in the Times, Sam Sifton reviews the newly-opened midtown outpost of French mini-chain Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, which serves just drinks, salad, fries, steak, and dessert. "Women in French maid outfits serve the stuff as if they were characters in an early Preston Sturges film," says Sifton. "And you know what? It’s terrific." Meanwhile, the Times's Oliver Strand is in Williamsburg to rave about the gourmet sandwich shop Saltie, from veterans of Marlow & Sons and Diner: "It’s a lot of talent for one cramped kitchen. So they overachieve." (He also has kind words for Crosby Connection and Barros Luco.)

Take a gander at this new Specter piece that went up on Park Avenue in Bed-Stuy yesterday. Specter tells us that "its basically about the under appreciated workforce that runs the city anyone from some guy collecting bottles and cans to someone who works in a warehouse moving boxes. This series and my latest piece also touch on the idea of disappearing industrial spaces when you see the piece it will drive the concept home."

              

Park(ing) Day always goes by so quickly! One minute you're swimming in a ball pit in SoHo, and the next minute the tyranny of parked cars has returned to our city's streets. Viva la Park(ing) Revolution! Here are some more photos of yesterday's whimsical fun, which transformed over 50 spaces usually occupied by motor vehicles into imaginative urban oases.

As promised, a coalition of Brooklyn community groups filed a lawsuit against the city yesterday over plans to turn a 31-acre area zoned for manufacturing on the border of Williamsburg and Bed-Stuy into 1,895 low-rise apartments—905 of which would charge below-market rate rents. Opponents say the housing complex would be racially and religiously discriminatory because it features too many three- and four-bedroom apartments, which would "disproportionately accommodate the Hasidic community's large families." Critics also want the buildings to be much taller, and accuse the Buildings Department of capping them at eight stories to accommodate Orthodox Jews who can't ride elevators on Shabbos. A lawyer for the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition tells the Daily News, "This process was dramatically racial. It acquiesces to the needs of the Hasidic community." But Councilman David Yassky, a supporter of the development plan, dismisses the allegations, explaining, "I want more housing, but I don't want skyscrapers in the middle of Brooklyn." The City Council will vote on the plan after the City Planning Commission casts their vote, and like other big projects, the use of eminent domain is becoming another heated issue.

Police are still trying to figure out where the shot came from and if it was intended for the police officer it struck in the chest in Bed-Stuy (not Bushwick) yesterday. The 34-year-old unnamed cop was stepping outside the 81st precinct when he heard a gun go off and came back into the station to tell fellow officers, "I think I've been shot." The bullet was easily absorbed by the officer's bulletproof vest and no one else nearby heard the shot go off, leading police to believe that this was a pellet gun or low-level firearm. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, “Metal fragments, or fragments of the projectile, were taken out of the plate of the vest. This is something that did not penetrate the vest.” Police have been searching the area around the station house for any abandoned guns, but did not say that there were any suspects yet.

Legendary former principal Frank Mickens died in his sleep yesterday. The 63-year-old Mickens was famous for turning around Bed-Stuy's Boys and Girls High School, described in the News as "a national symbol of an oversized, out-of-control inner-city high school" when Mickens began his twenty year reign in 1984. Mickens was often controversial for policies like instituting school uniforms and issuing long suspensions. A Brooklyn blog calls him "a no-nonsense disciplinarian..he patrolled the halls with a walkie talkie, often with a bullhorn." NY1 talks to a former student who said, "I honestly haven't met anyone who can hold a candle to him...4,000 students in there, and he knew each and every one of us." A Facebook memorial group already has over 250 members and includes the comment from his granddaughter: "If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I would walk right up to heaven and bring (you) back." Memorial services will be held for Mickens next Friday and Saturday in Bed-Stuy.

A campaign worker for a City Council candidate says someone driving an SUV "adorned" with posters for his boss's rival threatened him at gunpoint yesterday in Brooklyn. 20-year-old James Soyers was collecting signatures for candidate Anthony Herbert in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 4 p.m. yesterday when he says the vehicle hurtled toward him and his co-worker and "scared the pants off" him. The driver allegedly told the men to leave, and when they refused, he brandished a chrome gun with a black handle. Soyers tells the Times, "I was stuck frozen. My feet didn’t agree with my brain. My brain was telling them to run, but my feet just wouldn’t move." Oddly enough, Herbert's rival, Councilwoman Darlene Mealy, was at an event just half a block away. She denies that the gunslinger works for her, but Herbert says other candidates viying for Mealy's seat are "having trouble collecting signatures" to get on the ballot in the Democratic primary. He also adds that Mealy is "not the friendliest person."

A little before 2 p.m., a four-story building on Myrtle Avenue, between Hall and Ryerson Streets, collapsed in the Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy neighborhood. Vesper Bar & Lounge was on the first floor. It's considered a second-alarm "Major Emergency." Apparently the Fire Department has accounted for all people who were inside the building.

The landmarking continues, with the latest designation being a group of row houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant. 1010Wins reports that "a cluster of three dozen 19th-century row houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn has been designated as New York City's latest historic district." The announcement came after the LPC voted on the Alice and Agate Courts, which Commission Chairman Robert Tierney called "charming." A little less quaint, but also approved today were One Chase Manhattan Plaza and the Consolidated Edison Building near Union Square.

A few hours ago, two brothers (either ages 5 and 15 or 4 and 12) were struck by a car that jumped the curb at Marcy Avenue and Quincy Street in Brooklyn. WCBS 2 reports, "The driver of a black Mercedes sedan, fled the scene after the vehicle smashed into a tree on the sidewalk. A witness told CBS 2 the driver suffered a leg injury in the accident." It's unclear why the car ended up on the sidewalk. The children, who were walking home from school, were taken to Woodfull Hospital. Last week, two children were killed when an empty van—left in reverse—jumped a curb and struck them and their day care classmates.

Last week the NY Times took a closer look at the role of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Notorious, the film documenting the life of Christopher Wallace. The movie is also an homage to the neighborhood, and the paper notes that "these very locations, inspired the frank rhymes that made him the Notorious B.I.G." Below is an old clip of Biggie in Bed-Stuy at age 17, allegedly it's from "his first public rap duel."

Earlier this morning, the Fire Department responded to a fire at 474 Greene Avenue in Brooklyn. Brownstoner has some more details, as a neighbor explains many residents have been concerned about the brownstone, "a well known crack house that has been in operation for at least 3 years," even trying to work with the Brooklyn DA's office, NYPD and community leaders "to no avail." The neighbor says there had been a late night party and pointed out the windows of had been covered with sheets, "Clearly we are all in immediate danger when people are living without electricity, using candles and making crack." The fire was put out and the building essentially gutted.

According to witnesses, 17-year-old Jessica Williams got a powerful punch in the mouth after mouthing off to NYPD housing cop Desmond Nichols last Sunday outside the Tompkins Houses in Bed-Stuy. The trouble started when Nichols stopped Williams for riding her bike on the sidewalk and asked to see her I.D. When pressed for her apartment number, she reportedly dismissed Nichols as a "rookie." This struck a nerve with Nichols (who is, in fact, a rookie), and he allegedly punched her in the face, remarking, "I had enough of your smart mouth." Williams's jaw broke in two places, and she's awaiting surgery to insert metal plates. After that, a lawsuit! Nichols is under investigation, but he insists Williams threw the first punch. After the altercation he charged her with resisting arrest and marijuana possession.

Get yourself some popcorn, because this week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni is taking the hammer to big shot media power-lunch nest Michael's. Turns out dinner there is an overpriced joke: "I thought Michael’s prided itself on produce. Then I had its appetizer of peekytoe crab with spears of white asparagus, which might as well have been spears of white wax for all the flavor they had....[Michael’s] certainly charges like a serious restaurant, levying a tariff of $35 for a lunchtime burger that’s not Kobe and doesn’t ooze foie gras. So it should perform at the level of a serious restaurant. These days, it usually doesn’t." He pauses to lavish some kind words on an omelet, but then it's back to bashing: "Shouldn’t a diner paying $38 for sea scallops get more than two, situated at opposite ends of a long hillock of sautéed snow pea leaves? Maybe that’s enough for a businessperson having a light lunch on a big expense account. For anyone else, it isn’t." Kill the rich! Zero stars!

Eric Davis, the twenty-year-old man who fell through a broken sidewalk subway grate in Bed-Stuy on Friday morning has told his story to the Daily News from the confines of his bed at Kings County Hospital, where he's convalescing after plummeting ten feet into a filthy shaft: "I don't feel like it's bad luck ...because I survived. The one thing I did [was] I made sure I didn't bump my head. The lady paramedic made sure I was 100% comfortable while I was on the way to the hospital. She deserves a raise." Davis declined to say whether he plans to sue the MTA, but if a Daily News reporter can get in to talk with him, you can bet Jackie Chiles has already slipped Davis his card.

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.

The Department of Eduction confirmed that there is a case of tuberculosis at P.S. 25 in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Apparently a paraprofessional (like a teacher's aide) was diagnosed and students are being tested "as a precautionary measure." The school is not being closed.

Neighbors shouted and cursed Lemar Martin and Nymeen Cheatham as they were led from their apartment building in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. Despite the sweltering heat, Cheatham wore a heavy parka, so she could pull the fur-trimmed hood over her head to hide her face. The pair were arrested in connection to the death of three-year-old Kyle Smith, who was declared dead Friday afternoon despite the best efforts of EMS workers. Cheatham was the young boy's godmother, who was ambiguously granted custody of him about a year ago due to his mother's crack addiction (Cheatham showed for the court hearing, but left before the actual proceedings could take place).

Last week a video by rapper Papoose surfaced, showing a Bed-Stuy volunteer ambulance along with volunteer EMTs attending to a dying man on the street. The taxpayer funded B.S.V.A.C. was allocated $135K last year, and not to waste time hanging out on video sets. But it turns out the EMTs were duped into being in the video; The Daily News reports:

"Ambulance" opens with a gunshot and a piercing scream, then shows two paramedics frantically working on a bleeding man in an ambulance.

Continue reading "Rapper Papoose Duped Bed-Stuy EMTs"

Rapper Papoose better not follow in the footsteps of his lady love, Remy Ma, lest he find himself behind bars along with her. The rapper is feuding with another rapper, Uncle Murder, and has visually "brought it" in a new video for his song "Ambulance."

Last month The Brooklyn Eagle had a report on how Brooklyn has been sucking the creative lifeblood right out of Manhattan. In recent years Brooklyn has experienced a 33.2 percent increase in the number of self-employed creatives, while Manhattan’s growth during the same period was a mere 6.5 percent.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Amboy Rd. in Staten Island, another bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Manhattan, and a scaffolding collapse on Grand Concourse and 149th St. in the Bronx.
• A building slated for destruction on Governors Island will become a lab for the FDNY to examine the dynamics of high-rise fires and how best to defeat them. Fire crews from cities around the country will be on hand to observe.
• Someone crunched the numbers and found that The New York Times Fashion Magazine is almost as white as the arctic in February, pre-global warming. The 55% of New Yorkers who aren't white are probably not the targeted demographic the Times Fashion Mag is looking for anyway.
• A New York Presbyterian Hospital official in charge of the Women, Infants, and Children program--which was designed to provide food for impoverished women and children--is accused of siphoning off a few hundred thousand dollars for vacations and comfortable living.
• City Councilman Eric Gioia is running a "carbon neutral" campaign for public advocate, that involves the use of more emails than flyers, the purchase of carbon offsets, and the use of hybrid vehicles.
• The International House of Pancakes downtown Brooklyn location is doing so well that plans are in the works for locations in Bed-Stuy, East New York, and Williamsburg.
• The family of a 25-year-old, who allegedly had his jaw broken by an EMT, is suing the city for $2 million. They accuse the EMT of punching the young man in the face after the patient accidentally drooled on him as he was giving him oxygen.
• Summertime probably seems far off today, but the organizers of the Movies With a View program are looking for submissions of short films to be shown before features in July and August amidst the moonlit shadows of the Brooklyn Bridge.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting at 104th Ave. and Remington St. in Queens, a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. and 45th St. in Manhattan, and a gas main break on Van Siclen Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Midtown Lunch considers why it was left off the positive press clippings wall of the new Goodburger.
• New York Shitty wonders about these Bed-Stuy guard dogs - they only have ten feet of leash and don't seem to have much food.

MOVIE: Every national election year reminds us of that part in The Dark Crystal where the hideous Skeksis systematically drain the Gelfling’s “essence” and drink it to increase their power. If you don’t know the scene we’re talking about, you need to go see it on the big screen tonight – a regular-sized TV monitor just doesn’t do Jim Henson’s creepy masterpiece justice. The one-night-only screening will be introduced by one of the film’s puppet makers, Cheryl Henson, daughter of Jim. She’ll be joined by Robbie Barnett, who operated some of the main Skeksis; the pair will sign merch after the screening.

One Bed-Stuy family is making some money by renting out rooms in their house. Not an uncommon practice, but the lady of the house recently recounted the faces that have passed through the revolving door of their cheapest room for rent: the windowless bedroom! This gem (pictured) is generally rented out to the early-20s set. Since Craigslist tends to bring out the crazies, let's take a look at a life of living with some C-list tenants.

Cathy, an activist novice punk rocker in her early 20's, believer in the scotch tape method of decorating, consumer of manic panic neon haircolour by the caseload, cook at an activist bookstore/cafe.

Continue reading "The Windowless Room for Rent in Bed-Stuy"

Over the weekend yet another production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber classic, Cats, closed. This hipster-ized version of the legendary musical used American Apparel styling for their look, and it all went down on Broadway...that's 1100 Broadway in the 11211 zip code. ArtCal points out that because the original Cats "ran parallel with corporate and municipal efforts to 'clean up Broadway' for big business," these hipster cats may be trying to make a point. Though they add they may not know what, exactly, as the troupe operates "in a mode of an ironic traipsing around social issues while remaining politically invested in... something."

A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death inside the Flatiron club Duvet early Friday morning. Shamel McKinsey stumbled outside and collapsed outside on West 21st street, "blood gushing from his wounds, just after 3:30 a.m.," according to the Daily News. McKinsey, who had an arrest record for drug possession with intent to sell, was pronounced dead at St. Vincent's Hospital. Police suspect that McKinsey may have been partying with the rapper Fabolous at Duvet,...

Matthew Houck is the man behind Phosphorescent -- and the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens, Georgia musician just put out his third release, Pride, to many eager ears and much fanfare. Playing every instrument on the atmospherock avant-pop album, he also recruited some friends to help along the way, such as the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth. On the periphery you can hear Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Will Oldham -- but the modern day folkie has a sound all...

In addition, police discovered the body of a woman in her 30s on the floor of her Suffolk St. apartment in Manhattan's Lower East Side last night around 3 a.m. Neighbors called the police complaining of a foul odor coming from the woman's apartment.

Yesterday afternoon, a 13-year-old was shot in the ankle as he walked home from school in Brownsville. A grocery owner told the Post the boy fell in front of his store, crying, "I got shot! I got shot!" and witnesses say that some "older youths had been running down the street - one firing at least four shots at the other."