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When Cugines Were the Hipsters of Brooklyn

When Cugines Were the Hipsters of Brooklyn published on 1 Comment on When Cugines Were the Hipsters of Brooklyn

Grabbed this video from a friend’s Facebook link. It’s totally cugine, but I recognized some south Brooklyn places from my childhood.

What’s a cugine, you ask? If you lived in Brooklyn in the 70’s, you know full well. Saturday Night Fever and Jersey Shore types. They were the hipsters of that decade, meaning Brooklyn was crawling with them and people loved to hate them. You couldn’t get away from them.

My Dubliner husband thinks that whole “I hate disco” thing over here was a racist attitude towards blacks because they were mostly creating the music. I say it was a backlash against the cugines. Italian racism? Nah. Maybe the Italians started the ball rolling, but there were cugines of all backgrounds. They were breeding.

Brooklyn has evolved since the 70’s. Cugines still exist deep in the heart of areas like Bensonhurst. Now I look upon them with a smile. They keep it real and they ARE Brooklyn.

Maybe one day in the future, I’ll look back on transplant hipsters with a smile. Ya never know. Stranger things have happened.

The Morning After

The Morning After published on 3 Comments on The Morning After

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Tree down in Bed Stuy.

Hurricane Irene hit parts of the East Coast pretty hard and it caused some damage to the outskirts of the city. At least 21 deaths have been reported as a direct cause of the storm although some were caused by camping and surfing during a hurricane.  Still, for the most part, borough New Yorkers were disappointed in themselves for believing the hype.

Here we all were home on a Saturday night with nowhere to go, tweeting and facebooking about the damn hurricane. “Oh, tornado watch!” What’s with that? We woke up to some leaves on the ground and maybe wet basements, yet the media was still telling us to stay indoors. Urban dwellers called the hurricane boring and lame while everyone else in it’s path was relieved their power was only out for one day.

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On Sunday morning, we went to Coney Island to walk the dogs, thinking it was safer than the park because there are no trees on the beach. Coney was pretty tame. There were plenty of downed trees along the way and many that are now leaning in dangerous positions which will need to be seen to. So be careful out there. I’ll bet there is still some danger.

One thing is for sure, many people on the East Coast put on a few extra pounds this weekend after staying home eating and drinking. Wonder if the shops are taking returns on all the batteries and candles that won’t be needed?

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New York City vs. Lady Irene

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Ready for downed trees in Prospect Park.

After all this fuss, it looks as if Irene will be a tropical storm by the time it hits New York. Not that it’s going to be pleasant. And not that I’m complaining. Still too soon to say, but perhaps people are freaking out over nothing more than wet basements.

The real problem here in the boroughs is that we’ll be without our precious amenities for most of the weekend. This will cause New Yorkers to become cranky, but at least we’ll be stuck in our homes only to take it out on our families and roommates.

Right now it’s raining. Public transit is shut down and many stores are closing shop early today. Outdoor activities have been canceled as well as some indoor events.

In Prospect Park this morning the doggie circle stayed until the rain started because we know our dogs may not have the option to go outside tomorrow. Make sure to give them a nice walk tomorrow morning. Speaking of pets, please do something nice for the strays in your neighborhood!

A Facebook friend posted that he experienced the longest line ever at his local Manhattan bagel shop this morning and the only bagels left were plain. What will New York become without the everything bagel?


Prospect Heights. Yeah, that’s gonna help. Have fun removing that duct tape from your car.

Brokelyn has an ongoing list of what’s opened and closed. You can send updates to them.

Just a last minute list of tips from Reclaimed Home….

If the power goes out, that means ATM’s are down. Get your cash out today as any shops that are open may not have credit card machines.

Got your alcohol? What better excuse than a hurricane to get drunk in the middle of the day?

Got birth control? What better excuse…..

Take in your garbage bins, outdoor plants and other stuff that can fly away.

You may not have to board your windows, but you probably don’t want to leave them wide open.

Move non-water-proof items out of the way on ground floors if flooding can occur. Not only the flood zones. There will be a lot of rain. Expect to get flooded everywhere.

Don’t forget to have extra water around. Fill pots and maybe the tub. If there’s a power outage, the water pumps and water heaters may not work…especially pumps in highrise buildings.

Do a laundry and your dishes today.

Charge your cell phones and laptops. God forbid we should be without Facebook and Twitter for a day!

Matches, candles, batteries, flashlight, blah, blah, blah.

Anything I forgot? What’s going on in your neighborhood? Add it to the comments.

Have fun and stay safe!

Vegetarian Brooklyn: The Grocery

Vegetarian Brooklyn: The Grocery published on

Brooklyn has it’s fair share of vegetarian restaurants, but when it comes to better dining options, the menus tend to be more carnivorous. If we want a nice meal at a place where we can choose from more than one option, we usually head into the city.

Well, that all changed this week. We tried  The Grocery on Smith Street. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are Green Plate Special nights. A four course vegetarian meal for 40 bucks. We ordered one tasting menu (which was actually vegan, not just veg) and shared an appetizer and entree from the menu. We started off with complimentary chilled corn soup and potato croquettes followed by tomato based mango gazpacho, bulgar and cucumber salad, barbeque tofu with succotash and fancy schmancy onion rings and then yummy peach cobbler for dessert. That was just the tasting menu. Our main menu starter was a cold noodle salad and entree of choice was a crispy farro cake minus the bacon.

Now, you know how sometimes you’re blown away by the appetizer at a restaurant and then the main course doesn’t hold up? Not the case here! Every. course. was. perfect. For reals.

When I called for reservations earlier in the day, I spoke to chef Charles who informed me that he and his staff would be happy to accommodate any vegetarian requests I might have. They did as he promised. So, no worries going back there on a weekend when the menu offers more flesh.

The atmosphere is totally laid back and the service impeccable. And I don’t often use words like “impeccable”. In fact, never. Ew, I’m kind of hating myself right now.

Reservations are suggested for indoors, but the garden seating is on a first come basis.

Brooklyn Daily

Brooklyn Daily published on

The local Brooklyn Courier Life newspapers have finally met up with 21st Century and they are now online as “Brooklyn Daily“.

Brooklyn Courier ain’t no NY Times, but it will be a nice addition to The Internets. With such stories as “Man Stabbed in the Face” what’s not to love? The papers break down into different neighborhoods, covering the entirety of the borough, which is nice that old school deep South Brooklyn is celebrated.

I’ve always found their classifieds to be a thing of beauty.

Growing Up Flatbush. Part II

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Yesterday I posted some movie theaters I frequented as a kid growing up in East Flatbush. Here’s the rest of the places we re-discovered.

962 Utica Avenue. The apartment where we lived when I was born. My parents kept this place until I was about 11 years old, even after getting a rental upstate where I attended school for about five years. We went back and forth until we moved back to Brooklyn full time. The apartment was $69 and we had to leave because new owners wanted it for themselves. We ended up in Midwood.

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The playground around the corner from our apartment. It’s in much better shape now than it was when I was a youngin’. One day when I was there alone, I was pushing my imaginary friend on the swing when it came back and the metal corner hit me on the head. I walked home alone, crying with blood pouring down my face. The 60’s were so laid back, man. If that happened now, I’d be taken away from my parents.

Me on swings. Did I rock that outfit or what? I’d totally wear that now!

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They only have baby swings now. Guess they changed them out after that little girl got brain damage from the big girl swings.

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“The Silhouette” hall where my brother got barmitzvahed is now a Baptist church.

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Ziggy’s Deli stood where the Utica Food Market is today. For some reason, I remember that restaurant’s decor, food and even the waiter.

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The senior center where my grandparents lived during their final years. I was about 20 when my grandfather died, but this is the only residence I remember them being in. It’s still senior housing.

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“Buddy’s” kiddy amusement park was located near Kings Plaza, but we came here from East Flatbush. Now a Petco and Burger King sit on the site.

Some cool things we checked out from before I was born….

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The great grandfather I was named after helped build this synagogue. Didn’t know he was such a big macha, but it was never any benefit to me. My grandfather was once escorted out of this shul on Yom Kipur for taking a drink of water. That’s the fasting holiday, so water was a no-no.

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Dad’s elementary school: PS 91 on Maple Street.

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And the beautiful Erasmus High School where my father also attended. So I guess I’m third generation Flatbush.

Old Flatbush Movie Theaters

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My mother is visiting for two weeks, so you may be seeing some odd “Brooklyn From Memory” posts. On Saturday we drove around East Flatbush and Flatbush were I spent my early childhood. The movie theaters were most recognizable because some still had marquees, but also…movie houses tend to stick in one’s mind, don’t they?

The Loew’s Kings Theater was is the only one we found that was still intact as a theater, as run down as it was. Upon further research, we found out that restoration is in progress and the plan is to re-open as a performing arts center by 2014. A happy ending for this one!

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The Albemarle on Albemarle Road near Flatbush. Closed in 1984 after fire.

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The Brook Theater on Flatlands just off of Flatbush is now an office building.

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My long term memory must be pretty awesome because this Church Avenue theater became The RKO Keith in the early 70’s, but I remember it as The Kenmore. I was five in 1970.

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We were one building off on Utica Avenue’s Rugby Theater. It was actually the structure to the left of the T-Mobile store.

More from Flatbush.

Blame the Gays

Blame the Gays published on 1 Comment on Blame the Gays

The Christians and Muslims don’t hold the patent on crazy. The Jews have their fair share, even right here in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Rabbi Yehuda Levin is saying that the murder of little Leiby Kletzky was a direct cause of gay marriage being introduced in New York.

Yup. This is the same schmuck who was campaigning with Carl Paladino until Paladino got nervous about being so hateful. He’s a lunatic who’s not even worth talking about.

No, you idiot, of course it’s not the gays! It was a lone sicko who mutilated this child. But it could have been avoided. Permission to speak my mind? This boy was murdered because the Orthodox and Hasidic communities do not keep good enough eyes on their children. There, I’ve said it. Call me an anti-Semite or self-hated Jew. Whatev. I see it alllll the time passing through Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Boro Park. Kids walking and playing on the street, alone. Toddlers. Just the other day, post Kletzky murder, I saw a young girl of about 10 pushing an infant in a stroller with her four other siblings, ranging in age from 2-6, by her side. No adult supervision.

This should be a wake up call. You live in a city, not on a shtetl. Take care of your damn kids!

The gays. For fuck’s sake.

You can contact the good rabbi here.

2011 Building Brooklyn Awards

2011 Building Brooklyn Awards published on

Last night the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce honored 13 construction and renovation projects that “enrich Brooklyn’s neighborhoods and economy”. Since Hubby works on the “Newtown Creek Waste Water Facility” Skanska project that won in the Civic and Institutional category, I got to attend the 2011 Building Brooklyn Awards.

There were two honorees of the evening. Deb Howard, Executive Director of Pratt Area Community Council and Jed Walentas, Principal of Two Trees Management Company were recognized for their achievements.

Winners were rewarded not only for design and building but for completing projects within or under budget and bringing jobs to communities. Architects, Engineers, Developers, Builders and Contractors were all recognized as integral parts of each project.

Some interesting winners:

184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg won for Adaptive Reuse. The 1915 Cass Gilbert building was headquarters of Wild Turkey bourbon manufacturing. The redesign of the 340 unit now-residential building was redesigned by SLCE and SLADE Architects and features an interior courtyard .

The winner of the Education category went to Pratt Institute-Myrtle Hall. This is Brooklyn’s first LEED gold certified academic building.

Erasmus Hall High School won for Historic Preservation. (My dad’s high school: Woot!) This NYC landmark is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Architect Charles B.J. Snyder increased light and air to the interiors of the Gothic structure.

Mixed Use winner was Brooklyn Ecopolis on Warren Street in Cobble Hill. The acceptance speech was most interesting to me because it wasn’t a bunch of industry people standing up there, it was a female nurse. Ecopolis is a family owned, built and operated project. The building houses a sustainable cafe on ground level and a non-profit sustainable resource center on the second floor. The owners live on the residential floors above. This is a LEED Gold project.

If you’re a Brooklynite, you can probably guess the Open Space winner. Brooklyn Bridge Park, of course! Piers 1 & 6 represent 18 acres of the 85 acre East River park. 6,000 to 8,000 people visit on weekdays with up to 12,000 on weekends. When there’s an event, the number rises to something like a gazillion. (author’s guestimate)

The Affordable Housing win went to The Domenech in Brownsville. Common Ground Community developed a 72 unit LEED silver-certified building devoted exclusively to the needs of the chronically homeless and low-income seniors. The complex features a courtyard, natural light and central heating and cooling systems.

Please check out the other wonderful winners and nominees on the Chamber’s website.

My New Favorite Coffee House

My New Favorite Coffee House published on

Daily Press has been open for months now and I finally got a moment to visit even though I live like 2 (avenue) blocks away. It’s not hard to miss this little Bedford Corners (Ok, ok: Bed Stuy!) hideaway as the only signage is on the window.

So, here’s the deal….

Daily Press located on Franklin just north of Fulton,  is a French Press and espresso bar. WTF is French press? It’s that plunger type device you see at your mother in law’s house (or at least MY Old-Country MIL). The coffee they serve is Intelligentsia. Pastries and bread from Balthazar. Terrace bagels. Good stuff, good stuff. My hummus-on-a-heated-croissant sandwich was yummy and the peanut butter cookie I had for dessert was amazing!

But what I really loved about the place was the reclaimed materials used in the renovation (Design by Draft Bench). The air conditioning was blasting to my satisfaction on the thousand degree day and I was able to relax on the upcycled furnishings whilst taking advantage of the wifi. There is a lovely backyard, but did I mention it was a thousand degrees?

What I love most about my neighborhood? After hanging in this hipster-yuppy paradise, I get to cross the street and buy an entire bag full of clothes at Goodwill that costs the same price as my lunch (pound of coffee included).

Bed Stuy Blog‘s write up.

Monday Night Fever at Coney!

Monday Night Fever at Coney! published on

Coney Island Flicks on the Beach kicks off tonight with none other than the quintessential Brooklyn movie, Saturday Night Fever.

1970’s Brooklyn was a divided place between the Tony Manero types and the Disco Sucks burn outs. I was a kid who listened to disco but cringed at the “cuisines” who were taking over my borough. So much so, that I refused to see Saturday Night Fever until the mid eighties when it was on TV one night.

Now I love the movie! And I miss old Brooklyn so much that those Jersey Shore kids make me smile.

Anyhoo, the festivities start at 7pm and the film begins at 8:45.

Brooklyn Summer Concert Series!

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I swear, I’ve been going on the seaside concert website almost every day, waiting for them to post the shows. Finally, it’s up!

Here’s what we’ve got. The new location is Surf Ave @ 21st St. because the kvetches at the synagogue across the street complained about the noise. Whatev.

July 14th. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

July 21st: The Monkees! Looks like only Davy, Mickey and Peter. Who cares about you, Mike? You were the uncutest anyway.

July 28th: Mary Wilson of the Supremes and The Spinners.

August 18th: Cheap Trick.

The Wingate Concerts open with Maze featuring Frankie Beverly on July 11th.

August 8th: Jeffrey Osborne/Peabo Bryson/Freddie Jackson for some smooth easy listening.

August 15th: Queen Latifah!

These are just my middle aged music picks. There are more dates and some still say “To Be Announced”, so keep your eyes and ears open for more info!

Bed Stuy. Do or Goodbye

Bed Stuy. Do or Goodbye published on 3 Comments on Bed Stuy. Do or Goodbye

Well, this just sucks. After 4.5 years, Petra (aka The Changeling) has decided to terminate Bed Stuy Blog. Guess she wants to have a life or something.

Bed Stuy Blog launched shortly after I moved into the neighborhood and about six months before I started my own blog. Petra alerted us to retail openings, events and even crime warnings. She feels the blog is no longer necessary because Bed Stuy is being represented by other blogs now in a way that it wasn’t 4.5 years ago.

I disagree, but what what are ya gonna do? Petra and her small team of writers (Where the F is MY team?) put a personal face on the blog. Posts and comments were always friendly and never snarky like you might see on other sites. The blog was a microcosm of the neighborhood. A place where everyone looks out for one another and says good morning.

Guess this site is going to have to get more neighborhoody to pick up some slack.

On a bright note, we still have Bed Stuy Patch and Bed Stuy Gateway.

Foie Gras for the Homeless

Foie Gras for the Homeless published on

The Prospect Park goose serial killers are at it again. Last year, hundreds of geese were rounded up and gassed. There were plenty of protests, not because the geese ended up in a landfill, but because they were killed in the first place.

The DEP has a solution this year. The captured geese (who, BTW, have reproduced since the mass slaughter didn’t quite do the trick) will be shipped to Pennsylvania to feed the poor and hungry. All on the NY taxpayer’s dime.

Goose killing became a favorite pastime since that one goose took down US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia. That’s the plane that ended up floating in The Hudson.

What can be done in lieu of murder?

A few suggestions…

Habitat Management. “Birds shot dead can neither learn nor pass on information.”

Friends of Animals. Habitat Modification.

Via City Room

1970’s Brooklyn

1970’s Brooklyn published on 3 Comments on 1970’s Brooklyn

Dumbo. You wouldn’t really want to walk around there alone back then.

Photographer Danny Lyon is one of the all time great NYC street shooters. Business Insider came across these public domain images from 1974. What I miss most about old New York is everyone being out in the streets interacting with one another. Is it that New York has changed or is it just a sign of times that we no longer “play” outside because of technology? How old do I sound??

Bond Street, Boerum Hill. Burnt out cars and open fire hydrants: the playground of my youth!

Koskiusko Swimming Pool in Bed Stuy. Still there, right near Home Depot. People still line up on hot days.

It doesn’t say where this is, but do ya think that deck is legal??

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