The neighborhood of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill is many, many things, but it doesn’t matter how you describe it; the area is a blooming hybrid of everything we love about Brooklyn. The only thing that matters is how fast you can get there.
July 16, 2010 Food, Restaurants, Things to DoIn his third edition of a speech almost unheard of on a district level, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries took on the federal government, the banking and real estate industries and the criminal justice system.
February 2, 2010 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic, Multi/Media, Real Estate, State Politics, VideoIt can be said that the latest culture war between North Brooklyn’s Hipster and Hasidim factions has gotten a bit out of hand, this time in person. Read more about this meeting of the minds, after the jump.
January 25, 2010 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic, Environment, Multi/Media, The People, VideoMark Winston Griffith, 45, a native New Yorker and long time resident of Bedford Stuyvesant, ran against Councilman Al Vann along with seven democratic party challengers during the primary season, and since losing sought the endorsement of the union-backed Working Families Party and will appear on the ballot on November 3. His third party candidacy has built momentum in a race that has historically been settled on primary day.
October 27, 2009 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic
What are the cops in your neighborhood up to? In the past 30 days, there have been 21 homicides in New York City – 29 less than the same period last year. Twelve of the homicides in the past 30 days took place in Brooklyn. Specifically Brownsville, East New York, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill – and it’s clear that more officers are on the streets of Crown Heights these days after a summer punctuated by the sound of gunshots.
September 28, 2009 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic, The Locals, The People
Residents, elected officials and family members gathered at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in Fort Greene this week to remember Shem Walker’s life – an innocent Clinton Hill resident fatally shot by an undercover police officer – and discuss the implications, policy and the prevention of tragedies like this one.
September 24, 2009 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic, State Politics
In light of the increasing number of newly painted bike lanes, and the cars who like to defile them, we’ve created a list of new road rules for everyone to help prevent catastrophic crashes between bikes and cars.
September 15, 2009 Classic, Culture, Environment, The Locals, The People
‘Tis the season for city elections, so in advance of the September 15 primary, Brooklyn The Borough has compiled a list of incumbents and challengers in this year’s contested City Council elections for Brooklyn. There are many challengers this year, and open seats in the 33rd and 39th districts have made for heated races. Issues surrounding sustainable development have driven many candidates out of the woodwork. The pro-development Brooklyn political machine is still alive but questions remain about whether candidates supported by the county’s party boss, Assemblyman Vito Lopez, will sustain themselves despite criticism for their ties to a machine that makes the money flow from Brooklyn based business interests. The term limits extension has also sparked a renewed political engagement in the borough. Many candidates who had planned on running for seats that would have been open before term limits were extended have chosen to challenge incumbents that voted for the extension. We’ve compiled detailed information on each race as well as fundraising totals as the candidates head into the final weekend of the campaign.
September 10, 2009 City Politics, The Locals
A tipster sends in an email, with pictures, regarding the 35th City Council district race, where incumbent Letitia James is being challenged by Delia Hunley-Adossa. Ms. Hunley Adossa is in favor of the Atlantic Yards project and it’s been speculated that her campaign is funded by developers who want to challenge Ms. James’ opposition to the controversial project. The full email after the jump.
September 4, 2009 City Politics, Real Estate, The Locals
The Red Hook Community Justice Center is housed in an old parochial school at 88 Visitation Place and at its core, is a courthouse with Judge Alex Calabrese presiding over cases involving civil, criminal and family law issues. It offers a holistic approach to criminal justice by attempting to redress the underlying cause of the crime and prevent recidivism through social services such as education workshops and mental health counseling. After ten years, why are the Justice Center’s successes still unique in the Borough?
August 18, 2009 Boroughing, City Politics, Classic, Culture, State Politics, The Locals, The People
In fiscal year 2009, 311 records indicate Brooklyn had 4,042 complaints of bed bugs and 1,729 violations. These numbers place Brooklyn first among all boroughs in number of complaints, with over 50% more complaints than the next closest borough, Manhattan. Dr. Louis Sorkin, a bed bug expert and entomologist at the American Museum of Natural History, thinks the City should offer its residents more education on preventing the spread of these tiny terrors. Here’s the scoop on what to do if you find yourself with these unwanted house guests.
August 9, 2009 Boroughing, City Politics, Culture, Real Estate, The Locals, The PeopleThe Empire State Development Corporation recently held a public hearing on the Atlantic Yards project in a New York City College of Technology auditorium on Jay Street Downtown. Both supporters and opponents of the program made strong showings, although the pro-Yards contingent — a varied collection of Union workers along with members of ACORN or BUILD — vastly outnumbered opponents of the plan, including many members of Develop, Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. After six long years of public hearings and court fights, both camps had plenty to say about each other: supporters of the project tarring opponents as effete elites and opponents claiming supporters were either paid for their participation or naïve. Hear from both sides after the jump.
August 9, 2009 City Politics, Real Estate, The LocalsIn spite of the menial attention garnered by Brooklyn’s violent and pervasive drug trade in the local news media, borough residents are making sure you’ve heard about their loved one, or even strangers, senselessly gunned down – but they’re not snitching.
July 13, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Culture, The Locals, The PeopleJune 11, 2009 Culture, Real Estate, The Locals, The People
Chanequa Campbell, 21, grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant. The now-infamous Harvard senior, linked to a drug-related homicide on campus, is back in Brooklyn, awaiting the arrival of her possessions.
Whether Ms. Campbell’s involvement in the murder was criminal or not – the main story line in the coverage of this tragic event and subsequent charges of racism on Harvard’s part – is somewhat beside the point.
June 5, 2009 Classic, Culture, The Locals, The PeopleIf the young hedonists of Brooklyn could have a cheerleader – one that works his mysticism in the form of a Marty Markowitz – it’s Mike Edison.
May 28, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles“The frank depiction of anti-Semitism on the part of ostensibly sympathetic characters can make watching it an unsettling experience for modern audiences. Here the play’s religious overtones are almost entirely obliterated,” New York Times Theater critic Charles Isherwood wrote of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, which runs at the Brooklyn Academy of Music through Sunday.
May 15, 2009 Classic, Culture, Night/Life, The Locals, Theater
Don’t call Theophilus London a rapper. He’s a pop artist.
May 13, 2009 Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Music Profiles
At WNYC’s new Jerome L. Greene Performance Space today, on the ground level of their new headquarters on Varick Street, Rosie Perez moderated a panel called The Places that Bind: Examining Preservation and Culture in a Changing City.
May 7, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Real EstateFort Greene-based author Rakesh Satyal’s debut novel, Blue Boy, is the book the young author and HarperCollins editor says he always wanted to read as a child.
April 29, 2009 Read FeaturesAround lunch time last Friday, 18-year-old Chad Wilkens was standing in China City, on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Dean Street in Crown Heights, when he was shot. An ambulance arrived and took Mr. Wilkens to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The media was nowhere to be found.
April 22, 2009 City Politics, Classic, Culture, The Locals, The People
A toast from one bar to the other. St. John’s Place neighbors Franklin Park and the Manhattans bury the hachet and talk about the area’s expanding nightlife options.
April 21, 2009 Bars, Classic, Culture
It isn’t often that New Yorkers get an intimate peek behind their neighbors’ closed doors. Even more unusual is a peek inside the intimate life of our state’s chief executive. But I digress.
As a child growing up in a 25-story filing cabinet for families and young professionals on West 53rd Street, I lived in apartment 10E. When trick-or-treating or selling my annual Christmas raffle tickets for school, I would get an intimate window into how my neighbors lived. We all have our domains, and regardless of how small they might be, they are ours. But what are we all doing behind those doors?
March 14, 2008 Boroughing, Brooklyn Beats, Classic, Culture, Music Profiles, The Locals, The People
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