News in the 'Hood

/

We're the Bloggiest Neighborhood, right?  Let's check out some interesting posts from other neighborhood blogs:

Two Fort Greene Restaurants win 2009 Time Out New York Eat Out Awards!

/

And the winners are... Reader's Choice: Best new neighborhood joint in Brooklyn The General Greene 229 DeKalb Ave at Clermont Ave, Fort Greene (718-222-1510)

Critic's Choice: Best unlikely marriage No. 7 7 Greene Ave between Cumberland and Fulton Sts, Fort Greene, Brooklyn (718-522-6370)

Peaches, in Bed Stuy, was a nominee in the "Best addition to an underserved 'hood" category.

(Thanks to commenter Jeany for the tip.)

The 3/50 Project

/

A friend of mine recently told me about the 3/50 project, aimed at shopping locally and supporting locally-owned businesses.  The project's homepage outlines the following on its homepage: 350proj

Does the 50 in 3/50 mean as a consumer I need to spend $150 total each month? No...well, not unless you want to (which would undoubtedly be fine with independent business owners). The idea is to commit $50 each month to locally owned businesses, total. Maybe that means rethinking where you currently invest your money, opting to pick up that birthday card or pair of jeans in a locally owned business instead of the big box you’ve been going to. Or maybe it means eating out once a month because you realize slamming the breaks on all spending stalls economic recovery. It’s just that simple.

I've added the 3/50 project badge on the right side of CHB to indicate our support.

Which three will you choose?

Pratt Institute Green Week

/

photo by campra This week, Pratt Institute holds its annual Green Week celebration. There will be several free events open to the public, including lectures, informational sessions, and giveaways. Especially of interest to the community may be a few events on Tuesday and Friday of Green Week:

  • Tuesday is going to be a FREE HELMET giveaway from the NYC DOT. This giveaway is intended to not only encourage more sustainable and green modes of transportation such as skateboarding and bicycling, but also to encourage keeping your own safety in mind. As good quality, well-fitted helmets can be expensive, the DOT has agreed to distribute and custom fit helmets free of charge! This may be particularly interesting to parents because children's heads grow so rapidly that it often gets quite expensive to keep buying a new helmet every few years. Pratt will be offering all helmet sizes - including toddler! The giveaway is from 11am-3pm in front of Pratt Studios on the main campus located at 200 Willoughby Avenue. Anyone under the age of 18 must have a parent of guardian present to sign a waiver.
  • Additional events on Tuesday include: a performance by a solar-powered band, Solar Punch. They will be performing from 12-2pm in the same location during a ribbon cutting ceremony for newly-installed, student-made bird feeders and bird houses. Light snacks will be served.
  • On Fridays, both a Free Market and a Green Market hosted on the campus. From 11am-6pm there will be vendors from various local organizations selling green and sustainable foods. Adjacent to that event will be a Free Market co-hosted by In Our Hearts. This event will include free services, entertainment, and lots of clothing, canned goods, art supplies, etc. All participants should feel free to bring items of their own, and expect to find some treasures to take home with them.

For more detailed and comprehensive information about events going on during Pratt's Green Week, you can visit the website at www.sustainablepratt.org/greenweek

Great Loss in the Blogosphere

/

I've just learned that Gowanus Lounge founder Robert Guskind has passed away.  The story is unfolding now, but aparently his blog had stopped working and folks had been trying to reach him. I'd met Bob several times at various blogging events, and he was always a kind, friendly presence.  He was a SuperBlogger, dedicating much of his time to running Gowanus Lounge.  He was definitely an inspiration in me starting this site.

A special thanks to Bob for helping to encourage the growth of blogs in Brooklyn.  We'll miss you.

photo by Dope on the Slope

More information here from Flatbush Gardener, who is putting a list together of all of the coverage.

Garden District Now Online

/

The Brownstone Brooklyn Garden District, the organization that organizes the yearly self-guided garden tour through Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and Prospect Heights, now has a blog!  Check it out here. Upcoming events include:

Stereoscopic Garden Party - March 22, 2009 5:00pm - 7:00pm The Irondale Center 85 South Oxford Street

The 12th Annual Garden Walk - June 14, 2009

A TALE OF FOUR STREETS, A TALE OF FOUR SOLDIERS

/

Part One Four of the major streets in the neighborhood – DeKalb, Lafayette, Greene, and Gates – may not be close together by chance.  As it turns out, the fates of the people they were named after also were linked together.

Johann DeKalb had one of the more colorful stories.  Born to a poor family in Bavaria in 1721, Johann left home to join the French Army when he was 20.  When Johann learned the French army only gave officers’ positions to noblemen, he started claiming to be a Baron.  The French were skeptical at first, but after the young soldier distinguished himself in battle, they chose to let him get away with it, and promoted him to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the Seven Year’s War in the 1750’s.  DeKalb was officially made a Baron in 1763, and retired from military service to raise a family.  But after only a few years, DeKalb became very interested in the whispers of rebellion in the thirteen American colonies.  He came out of retirement and visited the colonies on a covert fact-finding operation for the French in 1768, reporting that he was impressed with the colonists’ “spirit of independence.”   That “spirit of independence” turned into outright Revolution in 1776, and DeKalb was eager to return and join the Continental Army; he came over in 1777, accompanied by a young officer named Lafayette.

Lafayette actually WAS nobility, from a military family who had been fighting for France since the days of Joan of Arc.  He had joined the military when he was only eighteen, where his commanding officer took him on as a protégé.  The two spoke often of affairs in the colonies, and young Lafayette also became eager to join the fight – so much so that he actually paid for the ship that brought he and DeKalb to South Carolina in 1777.

However, they weren’t the only Frenchmen who’d been coming to join the fight – the Continental army was dealing with hundreds of other French “glory-seekers," mercenaries, or other soldiers will little more than just zeal to recommend them.  Congress dragged its feet about assigning DeKalb and Lafayette roles at first.  Lafayette was finally made George Washington’s aide-de-camp in August of 1777.  DeKalb, however, was holding out for a role as Major-General, a position the Continental Army was reluctant to bestow upon a foreign officer.  DeKalb very nearly gave up and returned to France before the Continental Congress made him a Major General that September.

At about this time, another ambitious general was on the rise – but we’ll meet him, and our fourth soldier, next week.

A Note on Surveys and Changes

/

Thanks to all who responded to my reader and business surveys before Thanksgiving!  I will leave the polls open until January 5.  Visit the SURVEYS page on the right nav. (Yes, I know there is a design problem on inside pages, and it will be fixed soon!) Also, if you indicated interest in contributing, I will be in touch soon!

xo-

Lesterhead

WEEK OFF

/

I'm headed out of town tomorrow for the holiday and am taking a much-needed week off from CHB. I'm at a crucial juncture with the site, and am trying to evaluate what needs to be done to make improvements for the readers and to make it easier for me to run!

Please help me out by taking a short survey.

If you are a CHB reader, click here! (SURVEY RE-OPENED AND UPDATED WITH EXTRA QUESTIONS!)

If you are a local business, click here! (to sweeten the pot, one lucky business survey participant will receive a free one-month ad on CHB!)

Thanks, and have a happy Thanksgiving.  (Anyone going to wait on line at Jive Turkey?  Reviews are welcomed!).  See ya on December 1!

NOTE: Thanks for the overwhelming response thus far!

Y-M-C-A!

/

Awhile back, I asked about gyms in the neighborhood(ish).  I had planned on trying out a few and reporting back, but that never actually happened.  Instead, I signed up for the Y on Bedford and Monroe back in July. Overall, I am super pleased!  First of all, you absolutely cannot beat the price.  Join with a family member/friend/significant other and get a family membership -- it ends up being around $30 a month for each member.  The gym just opened in 2007, and has a gorgeous pool, is super clean and new and has a whole list of available classes, from yoga to spinning to swimming.  There are also a ton of cardio machines - treadmills, elypticals, etc - and most of them have built-in TVs so you can watch TV on your own machine.  This makes the time fly by.  Even Equinox downtown didn't have this feature, so I was impressed.

The Y also offers a Total Fitness program, which allows you to develop a workout plan with trainer over the course of 12 weeks.  You meet every three weeks to reevaluate and add new moves to your workout.  My overall experience with this program thus far has been kind of...meh...but it did motivate me to totally push myself on the cardio machines (in the past, I'd maybe do level 5 out of 25, and now I do level 18!).

My only criticism thus far is the size of the general workout area.  The weight machines are so packed in that you can hardly walk through them, and there aren't a whole lot to begin with.  The machines I want to use are often occupied.  There's a lot of unused space in the facility, like a huge area with tables in the basement that is never being used.  I say use the main floor space for weight machines only, and put the cardio downstairs (or vice versa).  Oh, and one more thing- there is no place to stretch!

For the price and the overall newness of the place, it's worth it.

For those of you who think it'll be a schlep, let me introduce you to the wonder that is the B52!  It stops along Greene until Franklin, when it cuts south to Gates.  It drops you off on Gates just past Bedford, one block north of the gym.  On the reverse, it cuts up Classon, and it seems to run fairly regularly.

Bookstore Promo Event TONIGHT: VENUE CHANGE

/

Due to overwhelming interest in the indie bookstore event, the location has been moved to BAM!

WHEN:

Tuesday September 16, 2008 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

WHERE:

Because of the overwhelming Fort Greene community response to wanting to show their support for a bookstore in the neighborhood, we've decided to change the location to accommodate more people at the event. The party will now take place in the lobby of the BAM Harvey Theater at 651 Fulton Street, between Ashland and Rockland.

WHO:

Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative

The Fort Green Indie Bookstore Initiative (FGIBI) is an all-volunteer non-profit organization that seeks to attract small business owners to Fort Greene to open a bookstore and other stores in response to the community's needs. The group also encourages current retailers to open new businesses locally and seeks to help local residents open their own businesses.

Jessica Stockton Bagnulo

Jessica has worked in New York City independent bookstores for the past eight years, and is currently the events and publicity coordinator at McNally Jackson Books in Manhattan. She is active in numerous book industry organizations and is often called upon to speak and write about independent bookselling. Her business plan for an independent bookstore in Brooklyn won the grand prize in the 2007 Brooklyn Public Library PowerUp! business plan competition in January 2008. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and blogs at www.abookstoreinbrooklyn.blogspot.com.

Hitting a Nerve

/

I obviously hit a BIG nerve yesterday with the post about the Navy Yard Lounge.  Rereading it today, I can see how it may have sent a very different message than the one I intended.  I honestly intended it to come across as a jokey adventure. What surprised me is how personally many people seemed to react to the post, and how deeply they read into what was behind what I wrote.  Commenters have a right to their opinion, but I ask that they be respectful of one another.  One person seemed to think it was a bad thing that not everyone agreed with the sentiment that the post was derogatory and classist.  Just as people have the right to disagree with me, they also have the right to their own interpretation.

I stand by the fact that it's a dive bar and that the vibe made me (personally) uncomfortable, both outside and inside.  And that has nothing to do with pastries and wallpaper.  I'm also not condemning it or suggesting it be replaced by a trendy store offering pastries and wallpaper.

Franklin Garden

/

Bed-Stuy has more community gardens than any other neighborhood I've seen.  Walking past the garden on Franklin and Greene caught my eye a few days ago.

A large hand-painted sign outside invites new members to join:

join!

Inside, the theme is"water."  A gorgeous painted mural decorates the side of the adjacent building.  Community involvement is evident.

They have a large rainwater collection system for watering, and they even have a koi pond!

(I did see fish in the upper corner of this pond, even though they're not in the photo.)

The individual plots are lovely and well-cared for.  Plus, there are gorgeous flowers everywhere!

greene acres

If you live on the eastern edge of the neighborhood and are looking to join a local garden, definitely check this one out!

open!

The garden even has a website, which details history and membership.  The garden is organic and does not use pesticides!

Greene Acres is a NY Restoration Project, funded by Bette Midler to ensure community gardens will be available for years to come.