Throwdown: Bobby Flay Comes to Court Street

Tune into the Food Network on January 13th at 9 pm, to see Bobby Flay "Throwdown" at Fish Tales on Court Street. From the Food Network:

"John Addis, owner and chef of Fish Tales, is a self-proclaimed fish fanatic. He thinks his Manhattan Fish Chowder has earned him a spot on a Food Network special called "Hooked on Chowder." What he does not know is Iron Chef Flay will be showing up to serve him with a Throwdown challenge. Stay tuned to see who sinks or swims on this tasty chowder battle."

Hannah Senesh: Give Them Some Rope, They Want To Be Cowboys?

Hannah Senesh may have overstepped their bounds. After an uneasy couple of years with traffic tie ups on Smith Street and a brand new color palette forced on us, they fired a huge first shot in what will surely be a war by attacking the Gardens of Carroll Gardens. Now, it seems that the attention brought on them by their land grab has backfired, as people have taken notice of the fact that they are illegally using their garden as a parking lot (as the district office did before them). From Courier-Life:

"The courtyard area is city owned, and the Department of Buildings has enforcement over any zoning violations seen on the property. Carly Sullivan, an agency spokesperson, said inspectors were dispatched to the site on Dec. 30 — during a vacation week for the school— and did not observe any cars in the courtyard. “In the future, if residents see parked cars there, they should call 311,” she said, saying the agency will be keeping its eye on the courtyard. Meanwhile, she added, the agency has received no complaints about the matter since July 2008.

Amy Glosser, vice president of the school’s board of directors,said the school simply inherited a parking lot. “As far as we know, it has been that way a long time, and we don’t have plans to change the use of the space at this time.”

The property was formerly home to the headquarters of School District 15, whose employees also parked their cars in the courtyard.

Maria Pagano, president of the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association, said she’s been hearing complaints about the use of this courtyard for the past 20 years. “When the district office used it they said it was just temporary, and that it would be converted back to a garden,” she recalled. “You have to understand, there are people fighting for the restoration of the original gardens who see this every day.”"

In my opinion, this parking situation is on par with how egregious their land grab is. Could you imagine if a homeowner paved over their yard and installed a curb cut and parked cars on a Place Block?

The BQE Going Green???

The good folks over at Curbed have continuing coverage of the madness that surrounds the New York City Economic Development Corporation's solicitation of ideas for the "trenched" section of the BQE. From more ambitious ideas based around housing, flooding, the EDC has selected dlandstudio for it's "less-than-abitious" plan to green up the trenched BQE section in Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill.

"Now, two years after Brooklyn architecture firm dlandstudio wowed us with some renderings of a green BQE, that concept appears to be the winner. Why? Because it's the cheapest. The Brooklyn Paper calls it a "less-than-ambitious" proposal, but when other ideas include turning the ditch into the Nile, what realistic alternative isn't a disappointment?"

For those who don't realize, in the footprint of the current trenched section of the BQE were numerous buildings, churches and parks prior to the BQE's construction. Caputo's Bake Shop's original building was demolished to make room for the open wound that severed the Columbia Waterfront District from the rest of Carroll Gardens, as was the original Sacred Heart's parish building.

Another big problem with the BQE is that the Carroll Gardens community is cut off from the waterfront. There used to be legions of workers who would come walking up the hill from the docks after work. Now, we have two different neighborhoods, neither quite whole.