• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on 120th St. and 3rd Ave. in Manhattan, a stabbing on West 31st St. in Brooklyn, and a fall victim at MoMA in Manhattan.
• The New York Yankees took first place in franchise spending, with a total payroll of $218.3 million last year. The World Series-winning Boston Red Sox payroll totalled $155.4 million to finish a distant second.
• The New York Water Taxi is terminating its South Brooklyn service between Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Wall St. at the end of this month.

After questioning the future of Red Hook, we decided to interview someone who can tell us what's really happening in the 'hood. Molly Franklin is the manager of Lido Bar (pictured), and has a thing or two to say about where she spends her days and nights. more ›

If you've never played petanque, head on down to Smith Street for North America's largest petanque tournament -- the two block stretch betweeen Bergen and Pacific will be shut down and covered with sand just for the occasion. While your'e watching the action, enjoy special cocktails from Ricard and other drink specials ($5-6), nibble on grilled merguez and chicken sandwiches ($5) and groove to Jazz band Blue Orchid will provide the entertainment throughout the day. 11:30am - 8pm, free admission, sponsored by Bar Tabac, Robin des Bois, Ricard and the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation. 128 Smith Street at Dean Street, 718-923-0918. more ›

There's a fun NY Times City section article about the Queens Museum of Art's Panorama Challenge. The Queens Museum of Art's panorama is a to-scale model of New York City: One inch equals 100 feet (the Empire State Building is 15 inches tall) and the model was originally designed for the 1964 World's Fair, as a "helicopter" ride over New York City. (And, yes, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses commissioned the panorama in 1964, just as he commissioned the Queens Museum of Art's building, the former New York City Pavilion for the 1939's World Fair.) more ›

With all the craziness going on in South Brooklyn recently -- Jason Neroni leaving Porchetta (law suits, arrests, excitement!), and with recent news that the Brooklyn Inn may be closing (converting into a bistro?) -- it'd be easy to miss the little slip about Vegas. During a short message on the Brooklyn Record, a commentator "confirmed" that the rumors about the Brooklyn Inn were true and then added that "Vegas, on Smith st. is also closing soon." more ›

In the 1830’s, Court Street was brought down to grade and until the early 1840’s, the Brooklyn Eagle states that one could not see more than thirty buildings south of Atlantic Avenue. This quickly changed. In 1848, J.S.T. Stranahan & Carmichael were contracted for what was known as the "Bergen Hill Improvement." The hill, which is said to have been a popular "resort for sport and mischief," was surrounded by woods and required a nearly 130-foot cut to bring it down to the level of Court Street. The land was then used to fill in sections of the Red Hook marshland from Harrison [Kane] Street south to Hamilton Avenue, including Columbia Street. more ›

The Times has a good article about the traffic nightmare that occurs at the intersection of Flatbush, Atlantic, and Fourth Avenues in Brooklyn, and comes up with some great facts: more ›

David clued us in to this great set of pictures of the Kentile sign in Gowanus. Check out the slideshow for a "23 Views of South Brooklyn" experience. Sadly, we could only track down one photo of the Eagle Clothes sign on Flickr-- it gets a lot less attention than the Kentile sign because it is harder to see from the F Train as you come in from Manhattan. And for more Gowanus goodness, check out this very timely article on Forgotten-NY.
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Last year, when everyone else was reading The Fortress of Solitude, we picked up Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem’s previous novel, about a South Brooklyn detective with Tourette’s. Given our general suspicion of It-books and buzzy fiction, we were pleased to find that it was good—really good, in fact, intelligent and true, more entertaining and earnest and linguistically acrobatic than anything we had read in ages. Even more surprising was the way strangers would approach us every time we pulled it out on the subway: Hey, how is that, I’ve heard he’s great or I’m reading The Fortress of Solitude and I can’t wait to go back and read that. It was as if we had joined a secret book club that met on the train (and this even happened on trains other than that favorite of publishing types, the F). more ›

If you're an iPodee, get new headphones. The white pods kinda suck, anyway.
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