It's a ruff world out there for a big dog owner! Cabbies won't stop for you and your best friend, everyone makes the same plus-size dog wisecrack, and most New York apartments aren't equipped with stables. Kidding! But to get through it all, a group of Brooklyn big dog owners have joined together in solidarity. Their pets may be big, but that doesn't mean they should be treated like animals. Here's the manifesto from their website: more ›

Rappers in the outer boroughs will soon have a new area code to rhyme stuff with. According to a press release, “929” will join “718” and the much-maligned “347” in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. That’s because all the existing phone numbers will be tapped out by 2012, reports Neustar. Wow, those went quick. more ›

In his State of the Borough address tonight, Borough President Marty Markowitz will lobby to turn two Brooklyn armories into recreation centers with gym facilities. Currently the huge old buildings—located on Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights and on Sumner Avenue in Bed-Stuy—house homeless shelters, and, like the recently-opened Park Slope Armory YMCA, they may continue to do so. "The [YMCA] in Park Slope is just beginning, but I have a hunch in a few short months it's going to be jam-packed," Markowitz said. "Bedford Stuyvesant deserves it as much as Park Slope, and so does northern Crown Heights." more ›

Like No Impact Man before him, Brooklyn resident Scott Ballum embarked last month on a year long mission to radically examine his own patterns of consumption. He’s calling it the Consume®econnection Project, and his plan sounds simple yet exhausting:

The Mission: A year-long effort to meet the laborers and craftsmen who build what I buy – and put a human face on consumption. For every transaction, there must be a personal connection with someone along the production chain.