Mr. Plow!

In our recent snow storms, private contractors have had to pick up the slack for the city in some areas. Turns out that one of the private contractors is from the neighborhood! From the Post:

"His 12-hour shift started about 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bay Street parks department building in Red Hook. After checking his pickup and plow, he made his way to the sanit garage at 12th Street and Second Avenue and was ordered into position at Nelson and Smith streets in Carroll Gardens.

At 10 p.m. as the snow piled up, the order came down to get plowing.

"Its fun," Levit said in a heavy Russian accent, laughing, as the metal hit the pavement. "There’s nobody on the roadways and everybody is home.""

Strip Club in Red Hook?

Unfortunately, not according to the proprietor. From the Brooklyn Paper:

"Paris Burlesque Club — which has not yet opened at 18 Commerce St. near Columbia Street — is set to replace the grocery store-sized party hall, Hello Brooklyn, where Sunday night crowds once spilled onto sidewalks and management was last year arrested for selling booze without a license.

Neighbors are already lining up to oppose the new owners’ bid for a difficult-to-get cabaret license, saying they prefer a good night’s sleep to a good night on the town.

“Everybody knows the word ‘burlesque’ is used to mask the words ‘strip joint,’” said Bill Sullivan, who has been fighting noise in the neighborhood for two years. “I can’t even tell you what a nightmare it’s been.”"

Why does Sunset Park get to have all the fun?

Review of Carroll Gardens by the Brits

From the Guardian:

"What's going for it? In the canyon of differences between the US and Britain, there is one that stands out and proud: urban America's capacity for ridiculous neighbourhood names. NoLIta, TriBeCa, Dumbo, SoLaTeeDo (I made that last one up). But BoCoCa is stretching it. Newly compiled from three Brooklyn neighbourhoods – Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens – BoCoCa is where you move when you've tired of Williamsburg's twentysomething hepcat shenanigans. Skinny jeans just don't look good crammed with post-childbirth girth (and that's just the dads). You're still, ahem, "with it", just not that "with it". The area has everything a gentrifying couple could want – from leafy brownstones to bespoke cupcake suppliers. Red Hook used to be BoCoCa beyond the pale, a decaying crack den past the Gowanus Expressway. Since Ikea moved in, though, that desolate, post-industrial, miles-from-a-subway-look is so Age of Austerity.

The case against Terribly Bugaboo. Smug and moneyed and not cheap – until you get to Red Hook."

Unfortunately, and sadly, this is quite accurate...