Sunday, May 13, 2012
Is a 2 a.m. last call too late for the 18,000-seat arena?
At what time should the Barclays Center stop serving alcohol? Last week, Community Board 6 voted to recommend an absolute cut-off time for all alcohol sales at 2 a.m. during all events at the arena. However the recommendation, which will go to the New York State Liquor Authority, came with two conditions that follow the policy already in place for the 40 NBA games: However, BrooklynSpeaks, a coalition of civic organizations surrounding the arena, has a petition that requests all alcoholic beverage sales be cut off at 10 p.m. at the absolute latest in all areas of the arena, reflecting area residents fear of drunk pedestrians and drivers flooding the streets after the 180 non-NBA events expected next year. In addition, there are four clubs…
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Forest City Ratner to slash parking at arena from 1,100 to just under 550 spots. But will that help or hurt area residents?
Last week the head of the Empire State Development Corporation announced that the state had halved the number of required parking spaces at the Barclay’s Center surface lot from 1,100 to just under 550. The move allows developer Forest City Ratner to throw out its plan for the loud and slow “stack-parking," which uses hydraulic lifts to load as many as four cars on vertical structures, which critics say will slow traffic to a crawl when the 18,000-seat arena opens in the fall. Neighborhood activists have been pushing for reduced parking spaces for some time, arguing that fewer parking spaces mean fewer people will drive to the arena. However others argue that fewer spots will only lead to more cars competing for street parking. In related …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
New study highlights what many already know: Being a cop is still a dangerous business.
Despite significant gains in overall crime reduction across the nation, the number of fatal shootings involving police officers again rose in 2011, from 56 in 2010 to 72 last year, according to a recently released study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That number included the latest cop fatally injured on the streets of Brooklyn in the line of duty, Peter Figoski, who was shot on Dec. 12 at a residence in Cypress Hills by a man already wanted in a shooting in North Carolina. Fortunately, the figure for 2012 will not include the four victims of the city's latest officer-related shooting in Sheepshead Bay last Saturday. All of the officers involved in that incident are expected to recover. This spate of shootings involving officers…
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Open seven days a week on Fulton Street.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Residents weigh in on “fuzzy” border between Bed-Stuy and Clinton Hill.
It looks like Classon Avenue is the border between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Clinton Hill. According to our poll in the story “Shout out From Nostrand Avenue in Clinton Hill,” of 371 respondents, a whopping 258 (69 percent) identified the border as Classon Avenue In second place with 61 votes (16 percent, Bedford Avenue was named as Bed-Stuy’s border; another 35 voters (9 percent) believed Bed-Stuy’s border was at Franklin Avenue; and finally, a meager 17 (4 percent), identified Bed-Stuy’s border as beginning at Nostrand Avenue. So to all of the dozens of new businesses that recently have opened up along the eastern side of Classon Avenue, and to all of talented Pratt students residing on Taaffe Place, and to all of the new condo owners along…
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
In wake of Trayvon Martin shooting, debate flares up over popular outerwear.
Geraldo Rivera sparked a debate last week that reverberated from the halls of the Capitol in Albany to the pulpit of Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Clinton Hill. Rivera said on Fox and Friends last Friday that he thought it was Trayvon Martin's hoodie that most likely got him killed on the dark streets of Sanford, Fla. on the night of Feb. 26 at the hands of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Those comments prompted both state Sen. Eric Adams, D-Crown Heights, a former police officer stationed at the 88th Precinct, and Rev. Clinton Miller at Brown Memorial to recently don the popular outerwear in a gesture of solidarity with the young man and his family. Still, with a march called for April 1 against a recent spate of gun …
Monday, March 26, 2012
Tell us where you like to buy your bottles.
Whether you take your vino by the odd-year vintage or just like to keep a box of chilled pinot grigio in the fridge, odds are you already have a "go-to" wine shop. Now it’s time to weigh in. Fort Greene-Clinton Hill Patch is looking for the best wine store in the ‘hood. Readers’ Choice is a weekly feature where we ask you—our readers—to tell us your top picks. Each Monday we list our nominees and ask for your recommendation. Did we leave your go-to spot off the list? Go ahead and add it in comments.
After a premiere at BAM, latest film from British director Terence Davies continues its NY run at two Manhattan moviehouses.
Fresh off a premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this month, the latest film from acclaimed British filmmaker Terence Davies, "The Deep Blue Sea," continues its run in New York this week. The director’s best efforts—"The Long Day Closes" and "Distant Voices, Still Lives"—could be described as elegiac hymns that chronicle its characters' memories of 1940s and 1950s England. But Davies' latest is a mournful dirge. In the film, Rachel Weisz is Hester, the wife of a British judge in 1950s London whose life unravels after having an affair with a cad, Freddie (Tom Hiddleston), who does not return her affections. The movie is equally gorgeous to view—with its lush cinematography and imaginative use of color—and painful to watch. A …
Friday, March 23, 2012
OWS comes to the neighborhood for a Sunday "teach-in." Are you on board?
What a difference six months makes. Since the beginning of the Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park last September, protests across the nation and the world have multiplied into hundreds of groups composed of thousands of people with seemingly a million different agendas. On Sunday, the movement comes to Fort Greene Park as Occupy Town Square IV, with the promise of info tables, training and political discussions drawing 334 attendees on Facebook as of Friday morning. According to organizers, the event "seeks to recreate the spirit of occupation and reclaim our public commons in the fullest possible sense." However, with the actual 24/7 occupation of Zuccotti Park becoming a more and more distant memory, is the Occupy movement still a major …
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Grading two spaces—one proposed, the other in its infancy.
Both Putnam Triangle and Fowler Square are named for wartime generals, occupy roughly the same space and provide vital meeting places for neigborhood residents. And starting in May, the two public areas will be the site of the city Department of Transporation's pedestrian plaza experiment. With warm weather ushering throngs of residents to the recently installed Putnam Pedestrian Plaza, and with the final design of a Fowler Pedestrian Plaza unveiled earlier this week, we'd thought it was a good time to ask residents this question: Which plaza do you think will be the most succesful in terms of use by fellow Fort Greene-Clinton Hillers? Or are both a bad fit for the neighborhood?
Not Bruce Ratner
7:41 am on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
And a lot more "super-bars" planned or opening along Flatbush, this is just the start of the problem. Hate to say I told you so, but... How are all all those great jobs and affordable housing working out for you???? more ›