New blog on the block, Snark in the Park, will be documenting the beauty of Prospect Park each day after a stroll through the outdoor wonderland. The Windsor Terrace resident has made a vow to visit each morning, detailing the sights and sounds, but the first sighting wasn't that of a rare bird or flower--it was the fornication tree. "It's a symbiotic relationship - The Condom Groves only flourish where fertilized by the species that......

Early this morning, police shot a man who had fired at two other people in Bushwick. WNBC reports that when police responded to a call about shots fired, "they arrived to find a man with a gun trying to get inside a building on Central Avenue." The man refused to drop his gun and instead fired at the police, who returned fire. A witness told the Daily News there were two men involved with the......

Rumors of another big box department store following Ikea's footsteps into Red Hook have been all but confirmed by the Brooklyn Paper, which is reporting that BJ’s Wholesale Club is "on the verge of announcing plans to move into the former site of the Revere Sugar factory." That would put the members-only retailer just down the street from Ikea and bring Red Hook residents closer to fulfilling their dream of living in a world class......

A gambling den was held up by three men who posed as cops: WNBC has footage of "men armed with guns and radios rounding up unsuspecting patrons in the Midwood home, lining some against a wall and searching their pockets for cash." The gambling parlor was illegal, but apparently customers have agreed to file complaints. Police have not made any arrests; the suspects are reportedly "male whites in their 30's." Last year, a group of......

A man who owned a video store Lott Avenue was shot to death in the store, The Whole Nine Yards, yesterday morning. El-Hajj Kareem Shabazz, described by the Daily News as someone "known for forgiving customers...if they were a few dollars short," was confronted by two robbers yesterday morning. An employee "walked in as Shabazz collapsed." One teen remember that Shabazz let youngsters look around, which many shop owners didn't allow, and one neighbor told......

Sure, there's a lot of prefab housing on display at MoMA right now, but have you seen any of the modular structures inhabited in New York? Design*Sponge points out a Kithaus in Williamsburg, whose "location required each module to be carried, by hand, through a 3 story brick rowhouse. The builders then added custom decks and wedged it in between warehouses and light industrial buildings to create this compact urban oasis." Prepare to be jealous......

The pigeon keepers of New York have been in the spotlight recently, and now a new JL Aronson documentary, Up on the Roof, looks at the gentrification of Williamsburg through their experiences.Up on the Roof follows several devoted pigeon breeders in one predominantly Latino section of Brooklyn through the rigors and rewards of a quintessential New York tradition. All along the waterfront, and throughout blue collar Brooklyn, pigeon fancying has been an active pastime for......

This week Frank Bruni files two shorter reviews for the Times instead of handing down his usual hefty decision on a single restaurant. He heads east to follow up on Sushi Yashuda on 43rd Street, declaring that from the time it opened "more than eight years ago, when William Grimes awarded it three stars in The New York Times, it has been among the best. And a recent visit suggested that there’s been no slippage,......

Greenpoint ladies, there's a new doctor in town, or at least an old one with a new marketing campaign. Dr. Leon Nitkin has posted ads for his OB/GYN practice on some "of the newly-renovated buildings on the south side of Greenpoint Ave b/t Manhattan and Franklin. Everything about it says 'please don’t let this man touch your privates, even in a medical context.'" Well, not everyone can be as web-savvy as Dr. Parkinson or his......

Cornelius Abson, who admitted to choking and robbing an 85-year-old woman as well as robbing other victims, appeared in court last Friday. However, his arraignment was postponed because his lawyer requested a psychological exam. Lawyer Eric Bannister said, "It's my belief that my client is suffering serious mental health issues," and noted the bruises and bump on his client's head, "I believe my client has a legitimate fear for his safety." Abson, who claimed his......

A Craigslist hookup went tragically wrong for 24-year-old Daniel Brandt late Saturday night. Police say the Brooklyn man showed up at a Coney Island apartment expecting to rendezvous with a woman he met on Craigslist. Instead, he was fatally shot in the head by two men who robbed him and fled the scene. Brandt later died in Coney Island Hospital; his assailants are still on the loose but an NYPD source tells the Post that......

The Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island) was the "largest of the American Revolution" and was fought after the Declaration of Independence on August 27, 1776. For the 232th anniversary, the battle was re-created at Green-Wood Cemetery (the Minerva Statue is on Battle HIll). WNBC reported, "Re-enactors in period costume demonstrated the use of Revolutionary War muskets and other weapons in Green-Wood's Meadow and the surrounding area near the main......

The UTNE Reader takes a look at New York's jazz scene in their latest issue, and more specifically how the epicenter has shifted from Manhattan to Brooklyn. They recall that back in the day "the music especially thrived in areas where crime and abandoned buildings kept the cost of living low for artists like Charlie Parker, who rented an apartment at 151 Avenue B." So where can one find the best live jazz now, without......

The Daily News reports that firefighters found a pot-growing operation in a commercial warehouse on Decatur Street yesterday morning. They had just put out a fire in a building next door when "Somehow the smoke-eaters sniffed out the pot in a three-story building next door and called the cops," who then removed 80 to 100 marijuana plants. The building's super says he was clueless because the "growing area because it was chained off and padlocked."......

The police have arrested a suspect in the brutal attack and robbery of an 85-year-old woman in a Crown Heights elevator last week. According to the Daily News, Cornelius Abson "confessed and then apologized for choking and robbing Lillian France." But a police source adds, "He's sorry he got caught. He wasn't sorry when he was choking the lady." It's suspected that Abson followed France from her bank on Eastern Parkway to the apartment......

After the disturbing footage showing an 85-year-old woman who was followed into an apartment building, choked to unconsciousness in the elevator, and then robbed of her money AND cane, the NYPD is now, per Newsday, "focusing in large part on the area around Flatbush, near Prospect Park." Police suspect the same person is behind that attack as well as 11 others (the other victims are 11 women and one man); they were robbed of money......

Residents at the Wythe-Taylor Houses in South Williamsburg are sad and angry about the death of 5-year-old Jacob Neuman, who fell ten stories down an elevator shaft yesterday morning. Residents at the buildings--which are operated by the city's Housing Authority--had complained about the elevators, which had many problems, numerous times. The Post and Daily News have diagrams of what happened: Jacob and his 8-year-old brother were in the elevator when it stopped between the 10th......

The Municipal Arts Society presented some alternative ideas to the U.S. Army National Guard Bureau about the fate of Admiral's Row. The MAS hopes to show it's possible to "retain the historic buildings on the Admiral’s Row site while also allowing for the construction of a much-needed supermarket and new retail and industrial space." While six plans were presented, here's a look at how stark the visions are, by looking at renderings (created by the......

Michel Gondry may have just moved to Orient Avenue in Brooklyn, but certainly not to #59, which was briefly in the limelight when it appeared as Kate Winslet's apartment in his film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Four years after the cameras stopped rolling, The Brooklyn Paper takes a look at the house in its current state--and it's in no way ready for its next close-up.Squatters, junkies, and prostitutes have turned the vacant building......

Just after Brooklyn's two-headed turtle made it into the papers, The Daily News reports that someone snapped up the rare reptile sometime between 11 a.m. and noon Sunday, right from its window spot in Sean Casey's Hamilton Dog House shop! Casey says it's imperative he "get the turtle back fast because it requires special handling," and he'll take the it back "no questions asked." But just how did someone pull off the mid-day turtlenapping? Casey......

So about that slow news summer...did you hear about the two-headed turtle residing in Brooklyn? The Daily News reports the turtle has been in the front window of the Sean Casey Animal Rescue since earlier this month; "Casey, 27, got the two-headed turtle from a man in Florida who rescued a bunch of eggs after an adult female was killed by a car a year ago." Casey nursed the turtle, who was deteriorating, back to......

Word from Brooklyn's Cranberry Street is that the Moonstruck house (located at #19) has been sold after being on the market for just over two years. In that time it's gone from $5 million to $3.5 million; though there's no word on how much it was actually sold for, that's quite a deal for any Cher fan! Brooklyn Heights Blog notes that "the sellers of the home, architect Edwards Rullman and his wife Francesca, have......

Vintage Irving: Hey everybody, there’s a new wine bar and small plates place opening! Now you have a zillion and one to choose from – except this one’s different, at least a little; it features a cozy private tasting room where the owners plan to host sommeliers and celebrity chefs, starting with Top Chef survivor Sam Talbot, Eater reports. In the meantime, the public is free to enjoy what Strongbuzz describes as the “countryside café”......

A group of social butterflies in Brooklyn – who the Real Deal describes as having careers in "high-paying creative fields" – are banding together to start what would be the city's first "co-housing community." Like co-ops, co-housing communities make group decisions on issues like building maintenance. But here's the twist: while residents live in private homes, they share common areas for dining and cooking. The still-growing group of 25 households is eying a development site......

The third woman suspected in the Brooklyn shooting-robbery of taxi driver Enois Malbranche turned herself in this morning. WABC 7 reports Ivana Pittman, 18, will be arraigned on attempted murder charges tomorrow morning. Last Thursday, 62-year-old Malbranche picked up three women who refused to pay their $9.80 fare and shot him in the eye (with the bullet exiting the other eye). Malbranche, who is in stable condition, also said they attempted to rob him. April......

Crown Heights is up in arms about a Manhattan center for homeless men moving in. The NY Sun reports on the intake center, currently housed at Bellevue and which may move to the Bedford-Atlantic Armory Shelter. At a community board meeting this week, the residents expressed their anger, one stating: "Now that we can walk outside without getting shot, you've decided to throw sand back on our heads." Others fear the neighborhood fall victim to......

Heads up Black Sheep, your neighbors want you to STFU! The Brooklynian message board was abuzz about the Bergen Street bar yesterday when a local said they had to put up with "bad classic rock at full volume" until well after 2:30 a.m. on Monday night. A reasonable complaint – no one deserves to have their dreams invaded by the musical stylings of Foghat – but then the bad advice came rolling in: "While the......

This land is your land, this land is...well, it's The Man's land. One budding entrepreneur in Brooklyn learned that the hard way yesterday as his nearly decade-long scam came to an end. WNBC reports that Darren Miller has been using four acres of city property in East New York as a parking lot which he charged customers $200/month to use. "Hundreds of tractor-trailers and other vehicles were ordered removed Tuesday when police moved in to......

The 19-year-old woman arrested for allegedly shooting a taxi cab driver in the face last week has pleaded not guilty to charging including attempted murder and attempted robbery. April Pierce, being held on $150,000 bail, claims her two other companions shot Enois Malbranche; one of them, Erica Belgrave, surrendered to police on Monday while the cops are still looking for the third suspect. Malbranche, who told the NY Times that the women robbed him before......

Earlier this year Williamsburg resident Misha Calvert found herself being arrested for stealing two 40-oz Colt 45 bottles at a bodega in the neighborhood. Embarrassing! The 25-year-old took it in stride and somehow successfully pitched her own community service idea to the judge: a Mr. and Miss Williamsburg Pageant. No, really. FreeWilliamsburg reports that it'll all go down at Supreme Trading on September 5th, and there's still time to order your Bedford Avenue scarf, iron......