A blog about our Brooklyn neighborhood.
Send news, tips, gossip, and rants to ditmasparkblog [at] gmail.com.
February 22nd, 2012 6:07 pm
Congratulations to The Castello Plan, which is celebrating its second anniversary this week. Ben sends this note of thanks to the community, and invites everyone to share a complimentary glass of champagne and snacks this Saturday, February 25 at 10pm.
February 22nd, 2012 4:42 pm
The temperature got above 50 degrees today and flowers have been in bloom for weeks, so it seems almost okay to start choosing iced drinks over hot ones. The Thai iced coffee at the new Am Thai Bistro (1003 Church Ave, between E 10th and Stratford) is as sweet and tasty as it is pretty. It’s available in any weather, but it would make a nice treat after a walk around the neighborhood on a warm day like today.
February 22nd, 2012 2:22 pm
The theft of electronic gadgets has been one of the most prevalent crimes in our area for a while, and aside from being “more aware of your surroundings,” you can do something more to protect your shiny belongings. The Flatbush Shorim Safety Patrol and the 70th Precinct are hosting an electronics etching event this Sunday, February 26 at 12pm at Young Israel of Avenue K, 2818 Avenue K. It will be followed by a lecture on “stranger danger” for children.
When the police etch your electronics, they keep a record of it, so that if your phone (or whatever) is lost or stolen, and they recover it, it’s easier for them to identify you to get it back to you. If you can’t make it to this event, contact the Precinct’s Crime Prevention Unit at 718-851-5504 for info on how to get your electronics etched by the police at another time.
February 22nd, 2012 12:04 pm
Here’s what Community Board 14 has scheduled for the month of March. For complete agendas, please see this link.
Public Hearings (2)
Thursday, March 1, 7pm
CB14 District Office, 810 East 16th Street
A Public Hearing about the City’s Preliminary Budget Statement and Register of Budget Requests for Fiscal year 2013, and one for a special permit application for 3599 Bedford Avenue.
Regular Monthly Meeting
Monday, March 12, 7:30pm
Edward R. Murrow High School, E 17th St and Avenue L
Please note: There will be no public discussion on any matter on which a public hearing was previously held.
Youth Services Committee
Monday, March 19, 7pm
CB14 District Office, 810 East 16th Street
Planning continues for Community Board 14’s Fifth Annual Youth Conference.
Informational Meeting
Wednesday, March 21, 7pm
CB14 District Office, 810 East 16th Street
In advance of Public Hearing to be held on April 4, learn about plans for the conversion of Dorman Square (Elm Ave and E 15th) into a Pedestrian Plaza–the public is welcome to provide input and ideas about the design.
Community Environment Committee
Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 7pm
CB14 District Office, 810 East 16th Street
Info about programs and events at the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Prospect Park Zoo, plus an update on the renovation of Loew’s Kings Theater.
If you would like to speak during any of the public hearings or during the public portion of the board meeting, please call the CB14 District Office at 718-859-6357 to register for time. You may also register to speak on the evening of the meeting.
February 22nd, 2012 9:20 am
Spotted this morning by neighbor Antonio outside of Connecticut Muffin on Cortelyou.
February 21st, 2012 7:17 pm
Tomorrow is the first night of The Castello Plan Beer and Wine Festival, and they’re starting out with naturally fermented wines. Taste four natural wines for $35, 8pm, Wednesday, February 22. Call 718-856-8888 to reserve your spot.
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February 21st, 2012 5:09 pm
Correctly guessed by a Guest, this week’s mystery photo can be seen from Westminster Road, just north of Newkirk Ave. The guitar peeks out of the back of someone’s garage at the end of an alley that’s lined with backyards and other garages.
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February 21st, 2012 2:54 pm
While Council Member Mathieu Eugene often hosts meetings for the community based around a specific topic–like last fall’s forum on safety and crime–tomorrow is your chance to speak up about anything that may be of concern. A Town Hall Meeting and Forum for the Community will be held on Wednesday, February 22 at 6pm in the Community Room at Eugene’s District Office at 123 Linden Blvd.
There’s a possibility of this sort of town hall meeting becoming a regular thing, but whether or not it does, and whether or not you can make tomorrow’s meeting, Jonah Rogoff from the Council Member’s office reminds us that you can call any time with questions and concerns. Reach out at 718-287-8762 or 212-788-7352.
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February 21st, 2012 12:34 pm
Today ArtSpace welcomes back an artist who has previously contemplated her commute on the subway and watched the epic battles on Ocean Parkway.
Task for the week: Draw inspiration from a neighborhood material.
Artist: Emma Assin
How does living in Ditmas Park feed/inspire/affect your work?
I feel at home in Ditmas Park. It’s green enough, quiet enough, and, best of all, brimming with young families like my own. My drawings totally come from the things and faces and attitudes I see around me, and if I walk around here enough, I always return home with an idea. I feel like everyone I meet here is an artist of some description–there’s a lot of creative energy flowing in this pocket of Brooklyn!
Tell us about the material you chose–where you saw it, what drew you to it, etc.
I chose the back wall of Cafe Madeline (is it still called that??). I painted a family portrait using this wall as a backdrop. Cafe Madeline, for a long time, was our home away from home on the weekends. I enjoy the playful decor–specially this one wall of fussy wallpaper, juxtaposed with the unfinished walls around it. We’d been wanting to have a family photograph taken in front of this wall for a loooong time–and we’ve never gotten round to it–so I decided to paint/draw one instead (it’s acrylic, pen, and pencil). Hopefully anyone who knows us would recognize our family from the picture–our 2-year-old amazed me by doing so!
About Emma
Born London 1981; transplanted to NY 2008. Interactive developer; frustrated artist. Delicate flower; Legend of Zelda fangirl. Lover of all things animal. Married to a sweet, sweet guy and mother to an even sweeter one.
If you’d like to contact Emma about her work, she can be reached at bitty-blog.tumblr.com.
More info on ArtSpace:
ArtSpace #27: Kasia Nikhamina tomorrow.
February 21st, 2012 11:04 am
Last week a neighbor noticed flyers plastered all around Ditmas Ave from about East 18th to East 16th Streets, and was particularly disturbed by how they’d been stapled into our decades-old trees. While posting flyers to trees (and many other places) is illegal, it’s also damaging, as Matthew Wells, Director of Tree Preservation at the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, explained to me.
“It’s definitely going to damage the trees, particularly thin-barked trees like beech, cherry, London plane,” said Wells. “And while a tree like an elm isn’t going to be too bothered by a couple of small staples going into it, ultimately for all trees I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Read on for why making a hole in a tree’s bark is like making a hole in your skin…
February 21st, 2012 9:38 am
Want to make a piece of jewelry you’ll actually wear? Want to have a cocktail while you’re making it? Then you should sign up Craft Night at Sycamore on Thursday, February 23 at 7:30pm. For The Makers, a DIY boutique jewelry tutorial company based in New York, will show you how to make an agate necklace (materials included) while you enjoy a signature cocktail. Tickets are $15 and are available online here.
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February 20th, 2012 2:59 pm
Welcome to the third week of February and a new ArtSpace series!
For this round, we asked artists to select a material from around the neighborhood to draw inspiration from. They didn’t have to actually use the material in the work, just had to be inspired by it. So it could be brick from an apartment building, bark from a tree, iron from a metal grate, a section of aluminum siding on a house, a porch’s wood slats, etc.
We’re starting the week off with a bang–introducing a new ArtSpace participant, who managed to incorporate painting and song into his piece. Enjoy!
Task for the week: Draw inspiration from a neighborhood material.
Artist: John Munnelly
How does living in Ditmas Park feed/inspire/affect your work?
I am primarily a songwriter aka LAUGHJOHNLAUGH! and have been supported and encouraged here. The first place I really played “out” in NYC was the Chris-Punxsatawny open mic at the old Cornerstone bar (aka Solo) on Cortelyou and also later at Vox Pop. I record music at Newkirk Studios right in the heart of Ditmas Park. I was selected to play as the guest performer in the Flatbush-Tompkins Church Spring Concert which was really a tremendous honor and was blessed to have a full choir singing my song “Peace,” and that experience validated my songwriter ambitions. I love the architecture of the Victorian houses; the wooded streets and avenues brings a little of the forest and nature to the concrete city.
Tell us about the material you chose–where you saw it, what drew you to it, etc.
The original inspiration for the song was Avi’s/ArtSpace very first and original theme [which was ultimately scrapped for another idea—Ed.] which was about “autumn beginning in the middle of summer”—the leaves dropping prematurely in august. The artwork on view in the video was inspired by the real fall leaves. Every day I would take a morning walk and revel in the diversity of color and shape of the leaves in the neighborhood which I tried to reproduce in the artworks. A bit like the diversity of the neighborhood itself.
Summary: The music-video is thematically leaves and is a combination of the song inspired by the very first ArtSapce/Avi invitation and later by the neighborhood foliage.
About John
John has written a lot of songs and came to live in America because he always wanted to and happenstance. Born in Cavan, Ireland, he is engaged to be married to a girl from the neighborhood. He loves color, humor, and guitars. He is a live music performer. He loves to have fun, Antigua, creativity, making music, art, and videos. He wants to release an amazing collection of songs, collaborate with other great creators, and has ambitions to finish an animated video/music project, a children’s music/educational/TV show, and basically create great art. He wants to find other musicians for a superb/amazing/class-act band. He lives on Newkirk and he has been a computer teacher and an IT guru and general factotum at an online retailer. As an actor he features as “Link” in a spoof comedy-action movie titled “Hectic Knife,” to be released in 2012.
John would love more local support for his music, video, and art—please buy, review, or tell people about “The Bum Song” single out now on iTunes.
Blog: laughjohnlaugh.com
Music/Mailing List: Reverbnation
Contact: Sign up to the mailing list or email “add to mail list/Ditmas” to laughjohnlaugh at gmail dot com, come to a show, suggest a local venue where I may play, or consider me for a slot/show at your venue.
More info on ArtSpace:
ArtSpace #26: Emma Assin tomorrow.
February 20th, 2012 1:07 pm
As she mentioned in the comments, Mary Kay Gallagher actually picked 189 Rugby Road as her favorite house in the neighborhood–it’s since been fixed in the Brownstoner post, and we thought you’d like to see that house, so here you go.
February 20th, 2012 9:48 am
Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Whether the MTA is right or not about people not commuting on Presidents’ Day, the city treats today as a holiday. Government offices and courts are closed today, libraries are closed, there’s no mail delivery or trash/recycling pick-up, and alternate side parking regulations are suspended. And of course, parents know that mid-winter school recess beings today.
So, with all that, did you still have to go to work today?
Do you get the day off from work for Presidents' Day?
Total Voters: 66
Loading ...February 19th, 2012 1:35 pm
Neighbor Vonetta emailed last week to express her frustration with the subway system, saying how her commute seems to have, on average, gotten worse recently. A trip that should take her about 40-45 minutes, this was her commute home on Tuesday evening at about 7:30pm, and it’s one that may sound familiar to anyone who rides the subway:
After waiting for 20 minutes for a B train, one finally arrived (several other trains had come and gone in that time). No announcements were made until after we had been waiting a while.
Then, as we approached Brooklyn, we were told the B would stop at Atlantic-Pacific and run on the D line, so everyone had to get off the train to walk to the B/Q platform to continue their trip. There must’ve been 100+ people trying to go up one staircase, which was a very slow and frustrating experience.
All in all, I finally arrived home at 9 pm.
So, while this was an extreme case, the subway service leaves a lot to be desired, especially during the morning commute. The standard excuse that “there is train traffic ahead” is kind of comical given the fact that other trains are obviously running at the same time. Anyway, I’ve learned to build in extra time to make it to work these days. It usually takes 55 minutes door-to-door on a good day. Hopefully things will get better and this won’t happen often but this is not the first time my evening commute took longer than usual.
The NYCT Subway Scoop Twitter account mentioned that there had been “switch trouble” on the D line around that time, but that’s not much consolation when your commute is severely delayed, and when the announcements aren’t clear or helpful. Thing happen, of course, with an old subway system, and if we’re not delayed while repairs are being made, we seem to end up being delayed because those repairs aren’t happening fast enough.
In a recent poll by Transportation Alternatives, 61% of respondents said their commute by NYC subway or bus has gotten worse since 2009. How would you say your commute has been over the last three years–same, worse, or better?
February 18th, 2012 9:12 pm
Here’s your Cortelyou Greenmarket update, from Market Manager Samantha Blatteis:
Cortelyou Greenmarket tomorrow! The Winter Warrior Challenge is halfway over. To keep you motivated, check out the week long recipe guide and an easy cooking demonstration, at the Info tent! Grab the suggested grocery list along with Silver Thread wine, who will be at market tomorrow!
Remember to avoid ticketing and towing by not parking on Cortelyou or Rugby Roads. Visit the Info tent to use your EBT, debit or credit cards, and to check in as a Winter Warrior! For more information, please visit grownyc.org/cortelyougreenmarket or like us on Facebook. See you Sunday, rain, snow or shine, on Cortelyou between Argyle and Rugby Roads!
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February 18th, 2012 3:29 pm
Coming up on Monday, February 20, we’ll begin posting the 6th of our ArtSpace series, in which five local artists will present a piece inspired by some material found in the neighborhood. From brick to bark, there’s plenty to find, but it’s up to them to see the art within.
In addition to work from four terrific previous ArtSpace artists, we’ve got one new addition who happens to be a musician! So until Monday, please click around and enjoy some of the work they’ve done in the past.
The artists (not necessarily in order of appearance):
Ilya Nikhamin
Kasia Nikhamina
William Bredbeck
John Munnelly
Emma Assin
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February 18th, 2012 10:26 am
Up close, this guitar looks like it might be there temporarily, but it’s been there for quite a while. Have you seen it? Take a guess at its location, and I’ll reveal the answer later.
February 17th, 2012 8:43 pm
February Blossoms, originally uploaded by carryboo.
It should come as no surprise that this month is on track to be the warmest February ever recorded in NYC.
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February 17th, 2012 6:41 pm
Here are this weekend’s brunch specials at Ox Cart Tavern:
Bloody Mary or Mimosa, $4.50
German Pancake, $10.50
Large oven-baked pancake, served with lemon, powdered sugar and strawberriesStrawberry Stuffed French Toast, $10.50
served with whipped cream, butter and Vermont maple syrupEggs Benedict, $11.50
A classic, with Canadian bacon, English muffin, Hollandaise sauce
served with fries and saladCountry Skillet or Veggie Country Skillet, $11.50
2 organic eggs any style, served over a casserole of red potatoes, ham, scallions, red peppers, mushrooms and Swiss cheese (veggie option features tofu instead of ham)Corn Beef Hash with 2 Organic Poached Eggs, $11.50
served with salad (eggs are poached unless otherwise requested)Fruit Salad with Mint, $4
2 Organic Eggs or Thick Cut Bacon or Fresh Breakfast Sausage, $4
Buttermilk Biscuits with Honey Butter and Fruit Jam, $4
Biscuits as above, plus Sausage Gravy, $5
February 17th, 2012 3:29 pm
What’s the favorite house of the woman who’s probably most familiar with every house in Victorian Flatbush? Outside of her own, Mary Kay Gallagher tells Brownstoner in a nice interview that she’s fond of 109 Rugby Road, which she says is “well-done, beautiful inside and out.”
If you were to pick a favorite house in the area, which would it be?
February 17th, 2012 12:21 pm
This fiberglass FiOS pole on Westminster at Foster is about to get a neighbor on Argyle.
If you couldn’t make it to this week’s Community Board 14 regular monthly meeting, let me break it down for you in six concise tidbits:
• Verizon will not install any additional poles in front of houses in landmarked areas as they complete their FiOS roll-out. They’re still waiting on a determination from Landmarks about what to do about any already-installed poles. There are four more fiberglass poles scheduled to go up in CB14, but only one is in our immediate area, on Foster and Argyle.
• You shouldn’t be receiving your mail delivery really late in the day. If you get your mail past 7pm, contact CB14 at 718-859-6357 or info@cb14brooklyn.com.
• The Zone Green Text Amendment that the Department of City Planning is working on has some great ideas to it, but the Community Board feels it needs more clarification before it can support it. Though the amendment aims to encourage environmentally-friendly construction and retrofitting by eliminated some zoning impediments, it’s unclear how the amendment would impact floor-area ratios and distances between houses, among other things. This led to some seriously heated debate–inches and awnings have never been so contentious!
• The Parkside/Ocean intersection plan by the Department of Transportation was endorsed by the the Community Board, with some reservations. Most notably, the CB expressed concern over the Lincoln Road entrance and how long it might take to make the entrance two-way; and how construction vehicles will have to drive much further around the Park Drives to access the Lakeside project, creating more dangerous conditions on the Drives.
• Several people, including Councilmember Jumaane Williams, spoke about the terrible consequences if some Brooklyn medical facilities potentially close–such as Kingsboro Psychiatric, which the state recommended be merged with a center on Staten Island, two-and-a-half hours away by public transportation.
• And let’s end on a happy note: New comfort stations are coming to the Parade Ground. They expect to break ground in April, and have them done by the fall.
That’s the meat of it, but every month the Community Board meetings cover a lot of material, and all of it has some kind of impact on your neighborhood. If you’d like to hear about it firsthand, consider going to the next one on Monday, March 12, 7:30pm at Edward R. Murrow High School.
February 17th, 2012 11:02 am
The Castello Plan is starting up a Wine & Beer Festival next week. There’s a different tasting every Wednesday night at 8pm for the next eight weeks. Each tasting costs $35–call 718-856-8888 for reservations.
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