Author Archives: dailyheights

Local DHer makes the NYT… actually, we all did…

mr.tips_in_NYT.jpgDH fan Jon Keegan, an illustrator living in Prospect Heights, wrote in: “I was interviewed by the New York Times for this Sunday’s paper…They are doing a “Living in…” for Prospect Heights. I made sure to give dailyheights a good plug!”

Thanks, Jon… Looks like NYT writer JEFF VANDAM was pretty impressed with the DH community… we got mentioned twice in the article, and the NYT Prospect Heights slideshow is narrated by Mark McCartney, aka Mr. Tips, a regular on DH’s Prospect Heights Message Boards. Here are some excerpts from the NYT article:

“ON the heavily trafficked Web site www.dailyheights.com, a recent poll asked visitors to vote on new SoHo-style nicknames for Prospect Heights, their beloved Brooklyn neighborhood. While there was some support for ToPoSlo (Too Poor to live in the Slope) and HoSloFugee (Home for Slope Refugees), the biggest winner by far was not a name, but a criticism: ‘This poll is extraordinarily dumb…’ ”

“… ‘There’s a great cultural corridor here,’ said Jon Keegan, an illustrator who moved in 2002 from Park Slope into Newswalk, a Dean Street loft building formerly home to a Daily News printing plant, with his wife, Julie, a painter. ‘There’s this sweet spot of being between BAM and the Brooklyn Museum – Prospect Heights is so perfect for that,’ he said, referring to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.”

“Yet as Mr. Keegan and his fellow users of dailyheights.com are well aware, there is an undercurrent to all of the recent success of Prospect Heights: the plans of the developer Bruce Ratner to build a sizable complex of shopping, offices, housing and a Frank Gehry-designed arena for his New York Nets over the railyards on Atlantic Avenue. Concerns about eminent domain issues and the project’s potential impact on the area’s density are widespread, as is uncertainty over what form it will finally take.

“Still, not everyone is up in arms. Mark McCartney, a computer programmer who rents a one-bedroom apartment on Washington Avenue with his fiancée, Beth Elliott, lives south of the proposed project’s area. ‘We’re so far away it wouldn’t affect us,’ he said. ‘And I don’t like basketball.’ ”

Mr. Tips wonders why they used that quote… and more discussion:
Prospect Heights Message Boards

Rap-Id-Wrap Building Disappears in a Flash. Where's the Permit?

Lucas writes to Daily Heights about the coveted Rap-Id-Wrap building on Bergen St.: “Walked by last night (Dec. 9) and it was gone. I never got to say goodbye. Folks on the forum noticed, too….

Before (photo © 2005 Frank Lynch):

rap-id-wrap_burlap_co.jpg

After (from Lucas):

RapIdWrap2b.jpg

Guest writes: “I saw them tearing it down at about 11 am yesterday morning. I spoke with one of the demolition crew and he said they could tear the whole thing down in just a few hours. It was pretty fantastic to watch this giant machine with a claw tearing into the building as snow was falling.”

The status of the permit was called into question, but Ben writes: “hard to say if there is a permit or not. None shows up on the DOB website, but in a complaint from 12/9 a permit No. is referenced…”

Read more: Prospect Heights Message Boards

Quick Take: Tavern on Dean

tavern on dean brunch-tn.jpg

noisefootprint writes:

“We really liked it. We sat in the back room and they played old R&B and the Beatles the whole time.”

“I don’t recommend the calamari appetizer — rubbery, hard to bite through. He really liked his shell steak, though. I wasn’t crazy about my catfish, but I’d still return to the place because the menu was better than I expected.”

Discuss: Prospect Heights Message Boards

Stroller Survey: Cross "Improved" GAP at Your Own Risk

363-stroller.JPGElizabeth Hays writes in the Daily News: “It’s a jungle out there for frazzled city parents forced to push a stroller along bumpy, treacherous streets, a new (Transportation Alternatives) survey shows.”

Grand Army Plaza was hands down the most notorious Brooklyn spot. The busy traffic circle is near stroller-heavy destinations, such as the Brooklyn Public Library and Prospect Park.”

QUOTES FROM PARENTS who answered the TA survey:

“The corner of Flatbush and Grand Army Plaza in front of the library is a KILLER. Please fix.”

“You feel you are risking your child’s life on a daily basis [at GAP].”

“My son flew out of stroller flat on his face (with a ‘thunk!’) when we hit a bump once.” (This one was actually regarding a treacherous situation in Park Slope proper, not GAP)

Daily News Photo (Bales): Cecilia Varas, of Prospect Heights, uses a pedestrian crossing to wheel 2-month-old son, Aedan, across Grand Army Plaza: “I pray and hold on to my stroller because I’m scared.”

BONUS:Is GAP really that much better?? KAY SARLIN of the Transportation Department claimed that Grand Army Plaza has already been improved, with longer crossing times (huh??), added sidewalk space (you mean the pedestrian island? that’s so far outside of any traffic path that it’s still as pristine as the day it was poured), ramps (about time), and pedestrian barriers (the bollards are a huge improvement, even if the vast majority of them protect that no-mans-land that Sarlin described as a “sidewalk”).

Discuss: Prospect Heights Message Boards

Give Fleece A Chance

That Yarn Guy writes on the Prospect Heights Message Board: “Cold enough fer ya? Warm up at the Knit-In at Freddy’s Bar this weekend. It’s the first Saturday of every month from 5:00 until 8:00 PM or when ever the band kicks us out.”

“This is the second winter for knitting at Freddy’s. The Knit In was featured in Knit.1 Magazine and also on The Jane Pauley Show. It’s not a craft class – it’s a friendly drink-optional depot for stitching, bitching and unwinding.”

“It’s never too late to make a hand-crafted gift for the Holidays like a pot holder or a hat. Or maybe a hat made from holders. So drop off your laundry, pick up some Chinese food, join us this Saturday and finish that scarf! Stick around for the Tom Waits tribute later that evening. Always on hand at the Knit-In are a swift, wool-winder, patterns books and spare needles. Crocheters are welcomed and men are encouraged.”

Get Details: Prospect Heights Message Board