Results tagged “prospectpark”

Fighting families, aggressive, territorial behavior... yep, sounds like Park Slope! CityRoom reports that a pair of swans living in Prospect Park Lake have recently waged war on each other after they both started families.

Despite fare hikes, the MTA has cut those maroon-vested station agents from 17 Brooklyn subway stations, effective yesterday. The affected stations include the Prospect Park B/Q station, where cops allegedly sodomized a man back in October 2008. Abandoned subway entrances will have intercoms patched into the 24-hour booth, but residents are uneasy, and one commuter at the Utica Avenue station in Bed Stuy tells the Daily News, "So I'll have to phone someone at the other end of the station to let them know I'm being mugged? That makes no sense."

This just crossing our desktop: Prospect Park has its Hawk Weekend today and tomorrow. Red-tailed Hawks (the most common species in the city) eat squirrels and pigeons and generally get lots of press, including from us. If you go, please send us pictures of the "hawk puppet crafts"!

                     

Yesterday, Michael Jackson fans gathered in Prospect Park to celebrate Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, in a celebration thrown by Spike Lee. The party, moved from Fort Greene Park to the much larger Prospect Park, attracted thousands of people who braved the initially dreary weather for a day of music and fun and writer-director Lee told them, "I'm like everybody else - somebody who loved his talent. We're here to celebrate Michael Jackson."

The King of Pop's posthumous birthday celebration will go on as planned tomorrow in Prospect Park (after being moved from Fort Greene). We talked to the Parks Department and they're currently putting up some fencing for the event, which will run from noon to 5 p.m. They say on top of deejays, a jumbotron and Marty Markowitz declaring it Michael Jackson Day in the borough, organizer Spike Lee will be overseeing the day. According to Bloomberg News, around 10,000 people are expected, and Lee put down $11,000 for a permit. And as for the weather, "it's rain or shine—though if there was severe weather, like heavy winds and constant lightning—then the Parks Dept. and/or NYPD could cancel or postpone the event." If you make it over there, be sure to send us your pics or tag them "gothamist" on Flickr! Elsewhere in town there will be a Michael Jackson Tribute show by Rent musical performers at Sullivan Hall, which will take place at 7:30 p.m.; and as pointed out in our newsletter, there will be another birthday bash at (Le) Poisson Rouge at 10 p.m.

Fire up the grill, America, it's still summer out there. That pastime is a bit of a tricky one here in New York, however, as Central Park doesn't allow grilling at all, and Prospect Park allows it in only nine designated locations. (For a list of all the designated locations, just in time for the last two weekends of summer, go here.) Now, the Daily News reports that citizens are chafing under the limitations and grilling wherever the hell they want to, and "Illegal grills are firing up all over Prospect Park."

The Michael Jackson birthday celebration in Brooklyn that was accused on the New York Times blogs as being "Spike and Marty’s big ego trip" just got bigger—eighteen times bigger. The event in honor of what would have been the singer's 51st birthday is being thrown next weekend by filmmaker Spike Lee and was originally set to be a block party taking place at Fort Greene Park. But now it has been moved to the much roomier Prospect Park after the city became involved when concerns arose over the celebration's growing publicity. The event that the Post uncomfortably refers to as "JACKOFEST" will now take place next Saturday at noon in Nethermead at the center of Prospect Park, with organizers saying they expect a crowd that could reach over 10,000. A Parks official succinctly told the Brooklyn Paper, “There were concerns about the size of the event.” This month also marks the fifteenth anniversary of the HIStory teaser video being shot in Budapest—maybe it's time for an update to Prospect's James S.T. Stranahan Statue.

According to a poster on the Brooklynian message board, around 7 a.m. today, "during the off leash dog hours, a music group was doing a photo shoot in the Long Meadow of Prospect Park. A golden retriever puppy, being naturally curious, wandered over and interrupted their photo shoot. One of the band members grabbed the puppy by its collar and kicked it." While there's no photographic evidence of the vague incident on the board, if this is true, it is our duty to find out who this band, and photographer, are. Anyone know anyone who wears vests and goes four buttons deep unbuttoning their shirt?

Those pushovers at the Parks Department have accepted the apology of MIHventures, who trashed Prospect Park during their annual illegal Heatwave BBQ. The Brooklyn Paper notes that everyone is getting along, and the Parks folk say they "will also ensure that they [MIH] fully comply with our rules and regulations when considering any future events at Prospect Park or any other park."

The litterbugs are speaking up. Following their annual Heatwave BBQ that left Prospect Park looking more like a landfill than a public oasis, hosts of the event, MIHventures has released the following "explanation":

As we know, the 4th of July left a huge mess in the city's public spaces, particularly Prospect Park. Nothing says independence like the freedom to trash your neighborhood! At the time, the Prospect Park Alliance had noted the challenge of cleaning after holidays, but the Brooklyn Paper reports that this Sunday the park was left in even worse shape. Allegedly a company called MIH Ventures held their annual Heatwave BBQ there, leaving behind hundreds of pounds of trash.

Uh oh, seems both dogs and horses are marking their territory in Brooklyn... but only one animal's owners are obligated by law to pick up their pet's mess. The Brooklyn Paper reports that a common sight in Kensington and Park Slope is that of horse waste. Yuck. The paper note that "the decades-old city law mandating pet owners to remove excrement from sidewalks applies to dogs and dogs alone, according to the Sanitation Department." Do the main culprits at the Kensington Stables feel any pangs of guilt for not cleaning up after their horses? Apparently it falls on the city, but they do say, “Generally, the barn hands pick up around the neighborhood. I have made it a general policy to handle this. We don’t make a stink out of it.” Time is off the essence, however, and reportedly it takes hours or more for a volunteer to come and scoop the poop—one resident told the paper, “It smells like a toilet" in Prospect Park.

     

Visitors to Prospect Park this past Sunday may have noticed how their fellow park-goers chose to celebrate American independence—by trashing a few acres of park grounds. Raphael Brion was one of those visitors, and he snapped a few photos of the post-Fourth carnage to share with us on Flickr.

Right now is crunch time for the city's Landmark Preservation Committee with proposals of a dozen new districts potentially coming up for a vote by the end of the month. The Post talks to preservation experts who say that the recent building boom helped spur demand for landmarks. Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, tells them, "Communities woke up to losing what they really valued and said we want to become a landmark." Included in the upcoming proposal include a stretch of an entire thirty-seven blocks along West End Avenue between 70th and 107th an area of Prospect Heights that includes 860 buildings, the largest potential preservation area in the last twenty years. But will all of this preservation turn the city into "a mausoleum?" One lawyer who has fought against landmark status before told the paper, "The more those things grow, the less dynamic of a city you have. You want to have a city where development is possible; otherwise you get stagnation."

Over the years more and more outdoor venues have sprung up out of the lush park land and the not-so-lush concrete spaces of New York. From Central Park Summerstage to the Seaport to McCarren Pool (RIP), there's no shortage of outdoor music venues during the summer months. But now the NY Post is pitting them against each other! They say that while Summerstage used to be "a magnet for denizens of the five boroughs, as well as hordes of tourists," its reign may be challenged as people are beginning to voice complaints of it "being too hot, too crowded, too greedy."

Changes intended to control motor vehicle traffic in Prospect Park have infuriated some members of Brooklyn's Community Board 7, which includes the neighborhood of Windsor Terrace, bordering the south end of the park. The DOT is planning to close the entrance and exit to the park at Third Street in Park Slope, and also eliminate the exit-only roadway at 16th Street. For years now, locals have been divided over the issue, with some pushing for a completely car-free park, and others predicting a traffic nightmare should vehicles be pushed out into the surrounding neighborhoods. CB7 District Manager Jeremy Laufer is particularly peeved because, he says, the board was not consulted in this recent decision to reduce motor vehicle access. Laufer tells the Brooklyn Paper, "No one was contacted on this before it was a done deal." A DOT spokesperson declined to address the planning process, but says, "The changes to Prospect Park will reduce conflict between motor vehicles and neighborhood residents crossing to and from the park." As it stands now, traffic is only permitted in Prospect Park on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

This should be interesting. As previously mentioned, the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock is upon us, and there's been talk of bringing the concert to New York City. It seems one of the original organizers (and Bensonhurst native), Michael Lang, wants Prospect Park's Long Meadow to be the Brooklyn substitute for Max Yasgur's 600-acre farm when the anniversary concert takes place later this year. The Daily News reports that he's currently looking for enough sponsor support, and he told the paper, "It's big, it's convenient. There's public transportation - and Brooklyn's cool. I'd love to do it. But it's been a very tough year." The show would be free, and he would need around $10 million to make it happen.

Hundreds of friends and family members gathered at Cobble Hill Chapels yesterday to mourn the death of 17-year-old Sharif Abdallah, as police continued to investigate whether they will bring homicide charges against three teenagers and one father arrested in conjunction with the fight that led to the boy's death. As of right now, 42-year-old Angelo Bracco, along with his sons Eric and Christian and their friend Dominic Barbera, have been charged with gang assault.

The Cobble Hill teenager who collapsed and died over the weekend while fleeing a fight at a party in Prospect Park had allegedly been struck by a middle-aged man, the father of another teen involved in the melee. A friend of the late Sharif Abdallah told the Times, “They ambushed two of our friends. They came out of nowhere. They were beating on them. The father was doing most of the fighting.” Yesterday police brought in the man who says "they have it all wrong." No charges have been filed yet. The fight broke out at a going way party for a high school friend, when Abdallah was part of a group who stood up for a friend's girlfriend who another group of teens said looked like "Ugly Betty." Sharif's friends had initially claimed that he had a heart condition that may have led to his sudden death, but his family has denied that. An autopsy will be performed today.

A teenager in Prospect Park dropped dead while fleeing the scene of a fight where a gang of teens had upped the ante of a scuffle by showing up with a man twice their age who then got involved. The Daily News reports that 18-year Sharif Abdallah confronted a group of teenagers after they called a female friend of his fat and ugly. A minor confrontation escalated when the gang of mocking teens returned to the park with a man in his 30s or 40s, who put one of Abdallah's friend in a headlock and engaged in what police called "fisticuffs, but nothing serious." As Abdallah ran away from the altercation, he collapsed at the 15th Street exit of the park from what friends believed to be a heart murmur. He was rushed by paramedics to Methodist Hospital, but pronounced dead soon after. Police are still investigating the incident that led to the death of the senior at Xaverian High School. A friend told the News, "He was the funniest kid in the world. He was an artist; he could draw anything in his mind."

The Daily News reports that a 30-year-old man committed suicide—"A jogger discovered the body of Paul Zolezzi, 30, about 7 a.m., police said"— (apparently near the Brooklyn Museum in Mount Prospect Park, not Prospect Park) and left a suicide note on his Facebook status. His message read, left last night, reads, "Was born in San Francisco, became a shooting star over everywhere, and ended his life in Brooklyn......And couldn't have asked for more." His mother told the News that her son, an aspiring model and actor with a heroin addiction, was depressed after a broken engagement. She also blamed the drugs, "I would say that people get so lonely, so delusional that all they want to do is be remembered... He probably wanted to be remembered in a big way, to do it dramatically - that's what drugs will do to people."

A compromise may be in sight between those who would rid Prospect Park of cars and community groups who say such a change would clog their streets. The Brooklyn Paper reports that at a Community Board 7 meeting in Brooklyn last night, Transportation Alternatives revised its call for an immediate ban, instead proposing narrowing the park to one car lane. About 600 motorists pass through every hour, and the thought of a full ban had board member Cynthia Gonzalez asking, "They want us to redirect 1,200 cars [each morning and evening] onto our streets, for how many bike riders?" Wiley Norvell at Transportation Alternatives tells us, "Our single-biggest issue with cars in Prospect Park is the danger they pose to park users. Speeding and reckless driving are rampant, and a 'road diet' would go a long way to improving the situation, without bumping up against the traffic concerns that have been raised south of the park."

Brooklyn dog owners have been at a loss about where to bring their furry friends in the borough, and some new signs reminding them they're not welcome in Prospect Park have locals in an uproar. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the new signs, which states "Dogs are permitted only on the paths around the ballfields," have locals thinking "park officials are arbitrarily enforcing regulations and unfairly targeting their four-legged friends." If your pup is found outside of the designated perimeters, or without a leash, it's a $100 fine. One park-goer says it's frustrating that the park cops "strictly enforce dog rules, but they turn a blind eye to everything else that takes place in the park” -- and ticketing is expected to go up now that the signs are in place. Meanwhile, those raccoons are just walking around like they own the place.

Windsor Terrace residents were joined by Park Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan and local community board members at a rally to decry a proposal that would completely bar cars from Prospect Park for three months next summer to study the traffic impact. Last month Transportation Alternatives delivered a petition to Mayor Bloomberg signed by 10,000 people who want the park to be totally car-free.

Though the autopsy isn't in on this little guy, according to this map he met his end in Prospect Park (where his kind has struck before), and according to the orange paint it may have been at the hands of a cable company (probably Time Warner). Whether the company has blood or just orange paint on its hands is undetermined, but shame on them--Fios would never pull this.

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 inhabit these glades of pleasure - the Flatbushicus Boot Bumper and the Park Slopian Backwoods Pecker. Occasionally, one might catch a glimpse of the rare Hassidicus Black-Hooded Peeper, but this species is very shy and flees easily." Wonder if the sighting was in "condom alley"? Glad to see those NYC condoms are getting distributed though. [via Gowanus Lounge]

Since Mayor Bloomberg and the DOT have been showing an interest in making the city's streets more inviting to pedestrians and cyclists, advocacy group Transportation Alternatives has decided it's a perfect time to increase pressure on City Hall to make Brooklyn's Prospect Park completely car-free. As it stands now, the hours when drivers are permitted in the park have been whittled down to two hours in the morning and two hours at night on weekdays, during rush hour.

Bob Dylan will be playing to a sold out crowd at Prospect Park tonight, and while some ticket gouging is going on at various online outlets, you can probably hear the mumbling of the folk legend outside the perimeter of the venue for free. Will Dylan be returning to one of his old stomping grounds? There seems to be some uncertainty about him living in Brooklyn Heights. While he alluded to spending time there (allegedly at "Capulet's, the late-lamented Brooklyn Heights cafe") and even mentioned living there in his song Tangled Up in Blue ("I lived with them on Montague Street/In a basement down the stairs/There was music in the cafes at night/And revolution in the air"), he could have very well just been crashing at a friend's pad. Although, he is listed as a notable resident on the ever-so-reliable Wikipedia. Former resident or not, this is his first concert in New York City in two years.

Joshua Camp, one part of the band One Ring Zero, will be paying tribute to Charles Ives this weekend, 100 years after his ground-breaking piece Central Park In The Dark -- with his own piece honoring Prospect Park. 8 Prospects is a suite for six musicians and "reflects Brooklyn’s most-loved park and a new century of urban sounds." It will be performed the next two Sundays at Brooklyn's Barbès, and hopefully one day in the park it was written for! This week Camp told us about 8 Prospects, its muse, and Charles Ives.

The highly idiosyncratic yet surprisingly catchy experimental rock band Deerhoof has been called "one of the most original rock bands to have come along in the last decade." And that's not coming from some dude's blog, that's the New York Times talking. Yet though they've been around since the early '90s, describing their music is still vexing, so we'll kindly refer you to their website, where YouTube clips abound. It's also in your best interest to attend their free performance this Friday night at the Prospect Park band shell, that is if you like your summer nights spiced up by unpredictable sounds.