Results tagged “prospectparkwest”

Upon the release of Amy Sohn's new book, Prospect Park West, some Park Slope locals lashed out on the author (who also resides there with her family); but then again it isn't all that difficult to get the Brownstone dwellers riled up. Sohn's fictional tale, at points, holds a mirror up to the neighborhood, drawing upon the real life happenings there; from celebrity couples to sexless marriages to swingers to stroller-pushers. Last week she told us a little bit about it all, and confirmed that blow job prowess is indeed a fairly accurate measure of one's self worth.

Amy Sohn's tome on Park Slope parents, titled Prospect Park West, is officially out there causing a stir. Recently her "neighbor" and local blogger Louise Crawford trashed Sohn for fueling the cliches of the Bugaboo culture that thrives there, or maybe because she was jealous she didn't write the book... one of those. Now the NY Times takes a closer look at life in Sohn's portrayal of the neighborhood; any outbursts about that portrayal seems to be grounded in the paradox that Sohn says is “Every mother know[ing] what a Park Slope Mother is, but no one think[ing] she is one." (In fact, Susan Fox, the founder of Park Slope Parents, tells the Gray Lady she's “non-frumpy, non-cargo-wearing mom who actually has a good marriage, unlike PPW would have us believe”).

Aha! The mystery of why actors Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany fled from Brooklyn, leaving a beautiful Prospect Park West mansion to take up residence in a Manhattan penthouse was revealed last Friday night. Connelly was on the Tonight Show and told Conan O'Brien that frankly, the house, as much as she loved it, was spooky, "It was a little big...frankly, it was a little like Scooby-Doo, creepy, you know, like the haunted mountain mansion." Zoinks!

Prospect Park West, Amy Sohn's new novel depicting (and picking apart) the people and places in that neighborhood, has fallen into the hands of Smartmom, Louise Crawford. In an incredibly breathy takedown, Crawford comes off as insulted, and maybe a little jealous of the neighborhood author.

That rumor that Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick were leaving Greenwich Village for Park Slope? Totally a rumor. The NY Times finds out that the person who forked $8.45 million over for the mansion at 17 Prospect Park West is "a wealthy Google engineer and his wife who want to raise their young family away from the hustle and bustle and celebrity of SoHo, where the family now lives." Oh. The engineer, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "I hear people complain about the strollers in Park Slope. But try taking a stroller out in SoHo. SoHo is not exactly family-friendly." As for SJP, her spokeswoman "said that none of the scores of entertainment and real estate Web sites that picked up the story bothered to call to ask about Ms. Parker’s real estate plans." Snap!

Last week Brooklyn's Community Board 6, which includes Park Slope, voted again to approve a proposed two-way bike lane along Prospect Park West, but they want the project revised to separate the lane from traffic by a raised median. The 16-4 vote decided that the painted buffer zone the DOT would use to separate the bike lane is insufficient; board members think the median is necessary to protect cyclists from cars and to protect children who may dash heedlessly from parked cars into the bike lane. Speaking to the Brooklyn Paper, board member and bike lane opponent James Bernard said, "This is a crazy idea that doesn’t make any sense. People want to do something good for bikes, but you are robbing Peter to pay Paul — and Peter in this case is safety of the children." 58 accidents involving motorists, cyclists and pedestrians were reported between 2005 and 2007 on Prospect Park West, where speeding is a constant problem. A DOT spokesperson promised that the agency would review the board's recommendations, and noted any revisions wouldn't delay the bike lane because the DOT isn't planning to install it until September anyway.

Staten Island: Clove Lakes Park, Martling and Slosson Avenues

Democrats Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Dianne Feinstein joined nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and approved the nomination of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to go to the full Senate. The vote was 11-8, the eight opposing votes from the remaining Democrats on the committee. His confirmation is expected next week. Mukasey - and his supporters - has faced criticism after not declaring waterboarding illegal. Schumer has an op-ed in today's NY Times...

READING: Check out today's interviewee, Peter Yarrow, tonight at Barnes and Noble where he'll be performing and signing the recently published Puff, the Magic Dragon book. C'mon, you know you've always wanted to hear that song live!

MOVIES: With another version of Hairspray hitting the big screen this summer, it seems to be a season of decades past and, of course, hair! Movies With a View brings back the musical tale of Central Park hippies, small town boys headed to Vietnam and the '60s as they show the film Hair tonight.

The Brooklyn Paper reports on an odd incident involving a bride in Park Slope. On Fourth Street (between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West) this past Sunday residents awoke to a woman in a wedding gown sleeping on a ledge of a brownstone.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Davidson Ave. in the Bronx, an armed robbery on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn, and a shooting at 40th Ave. and 10th St. in Queens.
• Bye-bye, birdie: Ziggy, the 6-week old red-tail hawk who fell and was saved in Midtown last week, was released into Central Park today.
• “When voters get confused, they vote no.” That almost seems like a sensible tack to take if you overlook just abstaining while in a voting booth. Abstaining is exactly what residents of an upstate community will be doing soon, because they were voting on a resolution regarding whether or not beer should be allowed to be sold in their town. Now it’s a dry town.
• Come on Down Rosie O’Donnell! She may be the next host of game show “The Price Is Right” now that Bob Barker has retired.
• Streetsblog notes a new street feature: the bike box. It’s a designated space at intersections reserved for cyclists so they’re the first moving at a green light. Seems like a good idea, but will probably just add another meaning to the traffic term “blocking the box.”
• Eater reports that restaurateur Keith McNally is again calling out The New York Times’ restaurant critic Frank Bruni, accusing him of favoritism and shilling for friends.
• Pete Hamill reviewed “TAXI! A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver” in The Times’ Sunday Book Review.
• WNBC’s Gabe Pressman muses on the question: “Do Public Authorities Really Care About the Public?”

Anyone who has attempted to walk or bike from one side of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza to another knows that it can be a difficult journey, through which a constantly swiveling head is required to keep an eye on traffic coming from seemingly every direction. The above overhead image shows just a portion of the plaza where five different roads converge in an inner traffic loop, including Eastern Parkway and Prospect Park West, and the entire site is bisected by Flatbush Ave. It's also a destination for pedestrians and cyclists. Aside from the plaza's Memorial Arch and Bailey Fountain, Grand Army Plaza is the northwest entrance to Prospect Park, hosts a weekend greenmarket, and is the location of the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

Tomorrow night, Brooklyn's Community Board 6 will discuss the future of 9th Street between Third Avenue and Prospect Park West for a while. The Department of Transportation has proposed a plan that would improve pedestrian safety and create bike lanes along 9th Street; you can see the plan here. Streetsblog says it's "a great plan" "from a Livable Streets perspective," but notes opposition from residents who are worried they won't be able to double park their cars.

Untitled, by Raymond. Tag yours "gothamist" on Flickr if you want us to use them.

ART: John Finneran’s Bad Nights, Vandals is at Rivington Arms for the rest of the week. The quirky art displays faces in unlikely places: a rearranged face on a brick wall in one piece and a giddy star in another. - Stephanie Nikolopoulos

this way, and sporting those Buddy Holly-esque free plastic glasses during a matinee was a blast.

ART OPENING: The Martinez Gallery presents an exhibition that "puts the artists behind the graffiti movement on display, challenging stereotypes about both the form and its practitioners. This collective self-portrait, which includes the work of twelve contemporary graffiti writers, exposes a history that the institutional art world and politicians, ignore and even censor." Featuring CASE 2, COCO 144, GIZ, JA, KEZ 5, LES, NATO, NOXER, RATE, SKUF, TRACY 168 and VFR. - Jason Laning

May 24: Two attacks, exact locations unclearFor the crimes where the location was clear, those are generally popular areas, especially if you're outside the park or on the path. We're curious what time these crimes took place (afternoon? evening?), but we're sure the police are eager to stop this. If not the police, then we'd guess a consortium of real estate agencies will start to do a neighborhood patrol.

- Rescue Me will begin its third season on May 30 - and they were just filming in Harlem!

Yuck! New Year's Eve is only two weeks away, and that means everyone you know will soon be asking about your plans. Normally we stay indoors on December 31, better to avoid being vomitted on by drunken tourists streaming towards Times Square. The Ask.Mefites seem to have similar feelings-- you won't be seeing them anywhere near 42nd Street. Upcoming.org has a growing list of NYE activities-- but nothing seems all that appetizing. If you really must go out, here's our top five suggestions right now:

If Caroline Kennedy moves to Park Slope, what does that do to the neighborhood? Do you think she'd join the Food Co-Op? Here's the Corcoran guide to Park Slope (a Corcoran broker called "Prospect Park West" Brooklyn's "Central Park West"). NY Magazine's Park Slope profile.