Santa Maria!

Actually overheard someone say: "They're carrying...something."

Her name is Mary. Perhaps you've heard of her?

What Exactly is Andrea Peyser Getting At?

Andre Peyser, the sex-obsessed New York Post columnist, recently penned an opinion column on Carroll Gardens and the recent knife fight on Smith Street. I can't say I'm sure what the opinion is, or what the point is, but, have at it, you crazy old coot:

"It was a place where immaculate brownstones came with St. Mary's lawn statues. Kids played stickball in the street to escape un-air-conditioned houses. And grandmas sat on stoops night and day -- gossiping, grumbling and cursing in Italian, while picking specks of trash off well-worn stairs.

You could find a nice clam sauce over macaroni in a diner. But sustainable vegan whole-grain pasta? Fuhgeddaboutit."

Ok. Mainstream stereotypes of Italians, with an apparent lack of knowledge about remaining community? Check.

"Now, it seems the old days never really went away. They just went to sleep.

Earlier this month, in an incident straight out of the Brooklyn of old novels, fancy pizza man Mark Iancono got into a knife fight on Carroll Gardens' posh Smith Street. In broad daylight. With mob-connected ex-con Benny Geritano, whom he's known for decades.  How could this happen in 2011?"

I assume that she is trying to drum up some fears that the mafia is still active in the neighborhood, and that THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN IN EXPENSIVE STROLLERS?

"Others say the beef was over a dame."

Dame? What is this, 1953?

"Unless the knife fighters talk, the stereotypes will continue. And the gossip."

The gossip...that you're starting?

New Round of Whining from Cobble Hill Towers

The conversion going on at the Towers has prompted some fresh cries about...well, I'm not exactly sure. From the Brooklyn Paper:

"Regardless, renters say that the changes would dismantle the mission of utopian builder Alfred T. White, who set out to show that private developers could build decent housing for the working class and still make a profit.

This is the last bastion of diversity in Cobble Hill,” said one 10-year tenant. “And to take these rent-stabilized apartments out of the housing pool is really harsh.”

Former residents agreed.

“The people who live in that building, there’s no way they can buy,” said Carl Rosenstock, who lived in the complex for 13 years."

What the Brooklyn Paper seems to miss (and, to be fair, so did the Times and Patch) is that NOTHING changes for the residents if they don't want it to. If they are subject to rent stabilization and/or rent control, they can stay in their apartments with no changes to their rent other than who they make the check out to (which could change at any time anyway). Their neighbors might change, but that is a factor of their neighbors accepting five or six figure buyouts, not a fault of the new owners.

D'Amico's

Sylvie Morgan Flatow, ne-of the Carroll Gardens Diary, took a look at D'Amicos, over at the Carroll Gardens Patch. Lets look behind some more old doors, as we've done plenty of times before:

"D’Amico Foods is a third generation family business that’s been luring customers in for over 60 years. Frank’s father, Emanuele D’Amico - a Palermitan who jumped ship to Brooklyn around 1925 – was a self-taught man who worked all sorts of jobs.  From longshoreman to laundry delivery, Emanuele searched for stable jobs that could support his family of five. In 1948, with an old-fashioned coffee roaster machine and your standard grocery items lining wood shelves, D’Amico began renting the brownstone storefront at 309 Court Street. That romantic bouquet of coffee we smell today - of beans being ground - likely spilled onto the street as if someone were pushing it out then, too. The whir of the roaster, the clang of the scooper… a pedestrian’s senses couldn’t help but heighten with each passing stroll. "

Van Brunt Waterfront

This is the third in a series of videos created for the Carroll Gardens Diary of the changing streetscape of Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Columbia Street from the 1950's through today. Most of the changes are due to the trench of the BQE, but there have also been huge changes in the port.

Today's is a section of Van Brunt Street that used to extend north to create a street grid with two streets that only have stubs left: Irving and Sedgewick Streets.

My grandmother once told me that she and my grandfather used to go park the car down there.

"Oh, when you couldn't find a parking spot?"

"Yeah, right."

Con Ed Workers Would Rather Park

Apparently never ones to skip irony, workers at Con Edison's location on Third and Third have taken to the papers (and putting fliers under the windshield wipers of area cars) in a bit of a fear/proletariat campaign, casting Con Ed as the bad guy for...putting them in the same situation as everyone else. From the Brooklyn Paper:
photo © 2008 Jason Kuffer | more info (via: Wylio) 
"The energy giant will close the private parking lot inside its superblock complex bounded by Fourth and Third avenues and First and Third streets — sending workers hunting for spots alongside residents in the already spot-challenged area.

“This company don’t give a damn,” said union president Harry Farrell. “All they care about is money.”

Utility workers — many of whom commute from Staten Island, Queens and Long Island — say that closing the lot would flood the streets with suburbanites who are too burnt out to vie for parking."

What the article fails to mention is the specific reason as to why this free parking is being eliminated; it only cites cost savings as a reason. Given the 12% rise in electricity rates just in time for the summer, shouldn't Con Ed be lauded for attempting to keep their costs down, and unintentionally creating smarter transportation and economic policies in the process?

Evidently these members of UWUA Local 1-2 believe that Con Ed should continue to subsidize their personal commuting habits. In their (unintentionally hilarious) flier, they seem to indicate that since they are utility workers, their choice to live in the suburbs should be subsidized by all rate payers, and that, despite their noble careers in public service, they will be left with no choice but to make our lives miserable via lack of parking if this lot is closed.

Weak.