Crown Heights

It is, perhaps, the ultimate sign of entry into the exclusive club of Brooklyn neighborhoods attractive to New York's self-consciously creative class: a neighborhood blog.

Now that Crown Heights' main drag Franklin Avenue has its own blog, the neighborhood, it would seem, has finally arrived. Said blog, at ilovefranklinave.blogspot.com, is the handiwork of University of Chicago and Oxford grad Nick Juravich, 24, who moved to the corner of Dean Street and Franklin Avenue this August.

"It’s mostly a vanity project," Mr. Juravich said. "I was a history and economic and social history major, and I see a lot of stuff walking around."  read more »

The Brooklyn Children's Museum -- the hands-on instititution popular with tykes from Tremont to Poughkeepsie -- is slated to reopen as the first LEED-certified museum in New York City on Sept. 20, according to a spokeswoman for the project and Interior Design.

The Rafael-Vinoly-designed addition to the Crown Heights insititution will, according to the design mag, double the size of the museum to more than 100,000 square feet. The addition, covered in 8.1 million (!!) very, very yellow ceramic tiles, will presumably allow for more exhibition space (and maybe even bigger digs for Fantasia, the 17-foot-long Burmese Python?).

To achieve LEED-silver certification, the addition has "rapidly renewable and recycled materials" like "bamboo and recycled rubber flooring.  read more »

First came the overhaul of the old Jewish Hospital into quasi-luxury rentals. Then came Saje. Chavella's. Bristen's. Two clothing boutiques. The beer garden. Abigail. The gentrification of Crown Heights -- in all of its prickly glory -- continues apace with the impending arrival of Lily & Fig Fine Cakes and Confections on Franklin Avenue and Park Place.

The high-end sweeterie sells its Florette cake (above) -- which is described on the store's Web site as "[f]our layers of chocolate sponge with a raspberry ganache filling, coated with your choice of Belgian dark or white chocolate icing and topped with an exquisite corsage of sugar-paste flowers" -- for $75.  read more »

Beer nerds, rejoice! Crown Heights can now count itself among the select group of neighborhoods to have a true, brew beer garden.

As reported in the Gothamist, Franklin Park, at 618 St. John's Place, officially opened its doors on Friday, tapping kegs of Coney Island Lager, Rare Vos Amber Ale, Hoegaarden, Green Flash IPA, Schneider Weisse, Raddelburger, Six Point Righteous, Blue Point Toasted Lager, Original Sin, Jever, O'hara Irish Stout and Stone Pale Ale.  read more »

If there's anything more symbolic of a neighborhood's gentrification, well, we can' t think of it: Nam's grocery on Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights is going organic, according to Brooklynian.com.  read more »

Barnard students conducted an experiment: They dropped 132 wallets in neighborhoods spanning the Bronx to Brooklyn, and recorded what happened. In which neighborhood were the wallets likeliest to be stolen? Why, the Upper East Side, of course!

In each nabe the students went to--which included Chelsea, Crown Heights, the Upper East Side, Harlem, City Hall and a Bronx college--the Upper East Side was the only place where the wallets were stolen twice. One student reported that a Upper East Side woman holding a bouquet of pink roses "picked up the wallet, did not look around at all, and simply kept on walking."

Other than the Upper East Side being very shady, what's the moral of this story? New Yorkers are good samaritans! In 82 percent of the cases, the wallet was returned; in 13 percent it was simply unseen by passers-by; in 3 percent a person tried to return it, but failed; and a lowly 2 percent of the time someone actually stole it.

So, next time you're headed uptown on the 6 train, remember: hands in both pockets.

- John Koblin

On June 8, a memo was sent to “Black Elected Officials, City, State, and Federal” from C  read more »

On Sept. 19, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will be considering the designation of a Crown Heights North historic district. Tucked between Eastern Parkway on the south and Atlantic Avenue on the north, this neighborhood is smack-dab in the middle of Brooklyn's Caribbean-immigrant enclave. It's also got a rich history, according to the L.P.C.'s monograph on the 'hood:

Originally a rural area tucked inside the village of Bedford, at the eastern reach of the city of Brooklyn, most of the land was owned by the Lefferts family and worked by the family's slaves. The Leffertses started to sell their holdings in the 1850's, and by the 1870's wealthy folks started to move to St. Mark's Avenue.
After the Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883, a large influx of people started to transform the rural area, and large-scale development started in the early to mid-1880's.
Having lived in the area ourselves, we can attest to the beauty of some of the large mansions in the area. We've got no pictures for as of now, but let's see what happens over the weekend.  read more »

-Matthew Grace

In keeping with our ongoing obsession with the up-for-grabs 11th Congressional race, we sent our man John Koblin out into the district to talk to residents about what they hoped for out of their new member of Congress.

Here are a few randomly selected interviews that show, if nothing else, the radically different priorities of voters in different parts of the district.

I'd like to see the the new congressman stop the futility with the war in Iraq. On a more local level, I'd like to see the new congressmen become involved with city and state energy issues and social issues like Healthcare.

-- Brem Hyde, 39, landscape designer, corner of President and 7th Ave, Park Slope  read more »

This flyer was found in mailboxes in parts of the Crown Heights zip code where Easter bonnets were much more prevalent than peyes.

Our real-estate reporter, Matthew Schuerman, received one:

Trouble is, this flyer landed in a building in the western half of Crown Heights, which is full of African-American and Caribbean-American churchgoers.

Well, it's not really a problem, except that it leads one to wonder: should the sixth question this Pesach be: Who exactly are my constituents?  read more »

- Jason Horowitz

Our sister site The Politicker discovers that Bill Batson, an aide to David Paterson and a member of the Prospect/Crown Heights community board, will announce for the 57th Assembly District Sunday, the race for which is shaping up as a test of the community’s feelings towards Atlantic Yards, which would be located in the district's boundaries.

Batson, who The Politicker notes has opposed the project, will be challenging its chief booster in the legislature, incumbent Roger Green (if he runs again) while Hakeem Jeffries, another challenger, has stood on the fence, at least officially.

Batson’s website is here.

-Matthew Schuerman

Shelley Yeffet and Charley Wininger   Met: May 2000 Engaged: July 29, 2005  read more »

Who but Isac would have alerted me to this one: John Sampson, the Brooklyn D.A. challenger, went with a Crown Heights Orthodox supporter, Chanina Sperlin, to the grave of the Grand Rebbe of Lubavitch yesterday to pray for victory.

Will it work? I asked.  read more »

"No," said Isac.

You heard it here first.

Think of this as a memoir of a love affair-of the beginning, anyway, of a long, strange, curious, so  read more »

Think of this as a memoir of a love affair-of the beginning, anyway, of a long, strange, curious, so  read more »