New York we love you, but you're bringing us down. Only here would locals actively complain about a $40 million dollar gift that will bring them a year-round recreational facility with all its expenses paid for a decade. Yup, it appears that a bunch of Brooklyn Heights locals are not looking forward to the 115,000-square-foot Fieldhouse which it was recently announced will be underwritten by philanthropist Joshua Rechnitz. Why? The traffic, of course. more ›

Whether or not you're out enjoying this fine spring afternoon or in your bedroom praying for sleep may depend on how close you live to "INSANE night drilling" at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. A tipster who lives on Cadman Plaza West tells us that despite their soundproof windows, the jackhammering that begins at midnight and lasts until at least 3 a.m. remains a form of "noise torture" that prevents them from sleeping. What's worse is that the DOT can't start drilling until 11 p.m. at night, when their permit kicks in, and that all noise ordinances are being obeyed. more ›

Sarah Jessica Parker's possible real estate moves are always fodder for gossip, so after rumors about her and her brood moving to the Upper West Side or elsewhere in the West Village, why not Brooklyn next? more ›

The Federal style columned veranda that Truman Capote used to sit upon while penning prose now officially belongs to Dan Houser, the co-founder of Rockstar Games (what would Peter Vallone, Jr. say?). The Brooklyn Heights home was on the market until recently, when Houser scooped it up for $12.5 million—the most expensive real estate deal in Brooklyn history, according to the Observer, who likens Houser to Herman Melville and Grand Theft Auto to Moby Dick. more ›

Last night, an 18-year-old male jumped from a high Brooklyn tower's roof and "crashed through a skylight in an adjacent building while the occupants of the apartment were home, police said," the Daily News reports. more ›

It's hard to believe, but Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer's children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth is turning 50 this year. Millions of children (and adults, too—check out Adam Gopnik reminiscing in a recent New Yorker article) have been enchanted by the surreal tale of Milo and his trip to the Kingdom of Wisdom, but not everyone knows that Juster and Feiffer wrote the book while living in the same building in Brooklyn Heights. more ›

A hedge fund manager who bought Norman Mailer's Brooklyn Heights home is trying to pull out of the $2.08 million deal inked in July because a a tri-level crow's nest that Mailer built in the '60s isn't up to code. According to the Times, Mailer's family said they'll go back on the deal over their dead (and naked) bodies, so the hedge-fund manager is going to have to muster his Armies of the Night to…okay we'll stop. more ›

In an agreement the city hopes will help plug the $11 million hole it left in the Brooklyn Bridge Park budget last month and finance the $16 million a year it will take to keep the park running, limited private housing will be built around the park near John Street and by Pier 6. The John Street high-rise will be 40,000 square feet smaller, and the Pier 6 buildings may also be shrunk or eliminated altogether. What's the catch? The Times reports that State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblywoman Joan Millman lose their veto power over the developments. more ›

Former Brooklyn Heights resident Truman Capote once famously said, "I live in Brooklyn. By Choice." The quote is now being used on 78 directional signs in the borough to help tourists navigate Downtown Brooklyn, and some residents are taking it as a slap in the face! According to the NY Post, at least. more ›

Remember when Brooklyn was a fetid nightmare of hookers and woe? Mildred Furiya does, because when she bought her four-story townhouse on State Street near Brooklyn Heights in 1967 for $16K "the block was a hangout for vagrants and a boarding house across the street was home to a group of prostitutes." Now it's home to a slew of coffeeshops, parents pushing fancy strollers and the all-important seal of gentrification: Dallas BBQ. Now, the 89-year-old Furiya is getting out of dodge and selling their home for a cool $1.895 million. As the Post reports, that's an 11,744 percent profit! Goodbye, residents-who-keep-neighborhoods-interesting! more ›

We thought we had it bad in DC, when the president's personal chauffeurs flew over us every 15 minutes, but Brooklyn pols are painting a noisier picture of their borough in a renewed push to ban all tourist helicopters. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn Heights senator Daniel Squadron told a crowd on Sunday that "Enough is enough! We need to stop the endless parade of tourist helicopter flights over our neighborhoods." Another Heights resident called the neighborhood a "war zone," with Vietnam vet Duncan McGonagle echoing the sentiment: "I'm having flashbacks because it sounds exactly like being back in Vietnam again." more ›

Check out this sweet pedestrian bridge that will someday connect Brooklyn Bridge Park to the somewhat-recently renovated sunken Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights! It may cost city taxpayers upwards of $5 million, but as you can see, it's worth it—as Popular Mechanics reports, the 120-foot bridge will artfully bypass the buildings between the two parks, zigzagging "gracefully through a clutch of tall oaks... and over a street, descending 30 feet in elevation from its starting point to its endpoint in Brooklyn Bridge Park." They should sell tickets to this thing! But one question looms: will it have a bike path? more ›

It's a dark day for Brooklyn Heights, where the idyllic brownstone utopia is being forced to acknowledge that there are disreputable blackguards in this world with less than noble intentions. There have been five broad daylight burglaries in the Heights in the past four days, and each robbery shares a common theme: the thieves targeted residences where the front door or window was left unlocked. Anytown, USA just lost its innocence. more ›

Aviation authorities are attempting to give the whole city the peace and quiet Brooklyn argued for last year, cracking down on helicopter pilots who flout regulations on where helicopters can fly and how long they can hover there. And Sen. Daniel Squadron couldn't be happier. "This is a big deal," he told the Post. "Residents can’t continue to suffer from the scourge of helicopters." more ›

The Brooklyn Paper's Police Blotter is always interesting, but there's this standout (or sitdown) item from the Brooklyn Heights-area roundup: "A nutjob stole a lawyer’s toilet and threatened to kill him on Valentine’s Day." more ›

The National Park Service has endorsed the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation's plan to transfer the Civil War-era Brooklyn Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO to performing arts presenter St. Ann's Warehouse, which currently produces some of the best theater in NYC in a big space across the street. You'll recall that in January, the Brooklyn Heights Association filed a lawsuit to stop the transfer, arguing that the National Park Service (NPS) had illegally removed the Tobacco Warehouse from the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park’s map "so that it could be given to a private organization for free and for its sole and permanent use." After reviewing the records, the National Park Service (NPS) said yesterday that the plan could proceed. more ›

Early Sunday morning, a 19-year-old student fell to his death from the St. George Hotel. According to Brooklyn Heights Blog readers, the body of Michael Simmons was found on Henry Street around 2 a.m. And friends of the victim tell the Daily News that Simmons had consumed magic mushrooms earlier in the evening. more ›

You can pretty much kiss bike lanes goodbye in Brooklyn, where a powerful coalition of elderly and religious residents have made it their mission to abolish them. Because while you're busy at your barista job/cuddle party/tattoo parlor/whatever cliched cyclist shorthand you prefer, these elderly bike lane opponents are filling their many empty hours complaining to politicians and getting results. They vote, too! In Park Slope, seniors will rally by the dozens Thursday morning to topple the Prospect Park West bike lane. And over in Brooklyn Heights, worshipers at the First Presbyterian Church have already won their crusade against the infernal Henry Street bike lane, one of the oldest in NYC. more ›

Several manhole explosions occurred this morning near Joralemon Street and Columbia Place in Brooklyn Heights. "We had fire out of two transformer volts. We had fire out of a sewer grate on the corner. And we had a couple blown sewer covers,” Battalion Chief Bill Falkenmayer told WCBS 880. It is the same area where manhole explosions occurred in January of this year, due to a private contractor hitting an electrical line. No injuries have been reported in today's incident; during the previous explosion on Joralemon Street, at least one idealistic intern was the toy of cruel fate, which kicked him to the curb and broke his glasses in a frenzied sacrifice to the Gods of journalism. more ›

Brooklyn Heights blogger Peter Kaufman has triumphantly concluded his long crusade against the congregation of First Presbyterian Church, which for years has been giving parishioners parking placards for their cars when parking in the bike lane on Henry Street. You may recall that Kaufman made a big stink about the Sunday bike lane blockage, posting an epic video showing cars illegally parked in the lane from one end of the block to the other. Last year a cop at the local precinct told us, "For years we have allowed people to park in front of the church while they worship." But now it looks like the grace period has ended. more ›

A man was shot twice in the back outside of his Clark Street apartment in Brooklyn Heights last evening. According to the Daily News, "A 28-year-old man with a troubled past was...ambushed... just after 7 p.m." more ›

This year's Movies With A View series kicked off on July 8th with a screening of Annie Hall, and after last Thursday's screening of Monsters vs. Aliens, Brooklyn Heights residents had enough of the ongoing summer event. more ›

Last month the Brooklyn Heights Key Food got some bad press after the supermarket sold some D’Artagnan chicken that was old and spoiled—the customer who bought it on May 12th said, "The ‘sell by’ date on the label said May 16... But the dopes left the original ‘sell by’ sticker underneath it: May 5. Eleven days earlier." Now the very same Key Food is back in the spotlight over bad labeling once again. And this time it's personal seafood. more ›

A 1.6 acre "destination mega-playground" will open tomorrow at the end of Atlantic Avenue at Pier 6 of Brooklyn Bridge Park. GET EXCITED! (If you have kids.) But even if you're not saddled with the double-decade burden of parenthood, and still find kids cute, you should also GET EXCITED because starting tomorrow there will also be FREE ferry service between Pier 6 and Governors Island. So you can ride your fixie over there, grab a kid to go, and hit up the free Yeasayer show at "The Beach" without spending a dime. more ›

A customer at a Brooklyn Heights Key Food says the supermarket intentionally sold her some D’Artagnan chicken that was old and spoiled, simply by slapping a new expiration sticker on the expired package. "I got it home [on May 12], cut off the wrapping and smelled something wrong immediately," customer Marie Viljoen tells the Brooklyn Paper. "The ‘sell by’ date on the label said May 16. … But the dopes left the original ‘sell by’ sticker underneath it: May 5. Eleven days earlier." The dopes at the Atlantic Avenue Key Food deny this, and say Viljoen is just trying to shake them down. more ›

The 11-bedroom/18-room Brooklyn Heights mansion that Truman Capote called home for ten years (writing Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood there) is now on the market for a record $18 million. The house has only changed hands a few times, and in the 1950s was owned by Broadway art director Oliver Smith. According to the Daily News, "Capote said he got Smith blitzed on martinis to persuade his friend to rent him the house's garden apartment from 1955 to 1965." Once he got his foot in the door, he allegedly bragged about owning the place while throwing parties when Smith was out of town. The current listing includes this quote from Capote: "I live in Brooklyn. By choice." Though not included by Sotheby's, it went on to say, "Those ignorant of its allures are entitled to wonder why." more ›