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WIN Dinner or Brunch for 2 at Greenhouse Cafe.

Go and vist Greenhouse Cafe web site and enter your FREE box for Super Bowl 49. You might just win a free meal for 2 people. Click on the link below this story and a new window will open. Look on the left side for Super Bowl and get your box. When it's full, the numbers will be drawn. We won't know the teams until after next weekend, but hey, it's FREE. Good luck. Please onle ONE box per household and GOOD LUCK.

GreenhouseCafe.com

Old pics of 86th and 5th Ave

Got these off the web over time. These are from oldnycphotos.com. Check them out they have tons of them. Near the top of the page, you can choose to see 4 small photos across or two bigger ones on each page. Click on the two squares for the bigger pics.

I have some others and will try to find them.

Big renovation job

I've been watching them work on this home for a while now. Unlike that home on Naroows that was knocked down and rebuilt, they rebuilt this one around the new one, at least in the front. It's a lot bigger now.

It's close to four stories if you compare it to apartment house next door at 9935 3rd Avenue. Can't wait to see how it looks when it's completed.

The old

The new

Another one bites the dust

Nordic Delicacies will close at the end of Jan. They've been there almost 30 years. The owners, Arlene Rutelo and her mother Helene Bakke said they are closing because of a lack of business. There are very few Scandinavians left in Bay Ridge, which means fewer customers.

Rutelo has been active in many community organizations and will remain so. She heads the Norwegian day Parade as one of her many projects. Below are a couple of pics for those who don't know the store. You still have a couple of weeks to shop there. It's on 3rd Avenue between 69th Street and Ovington Avenue. You might want to pick up a souvenir or two to remember them by.

Read story in the Brooklyn Paper. Link is HERE.

More car dealers in Bay Ridge

Bay Ridge is getting more and more Car Dealers. It's starting to look like Northern Blvd in Queens. Cranberrys, on 9st street and 4th Ave is gone and it looks like they're putting up a showroom. They also have the rest of the block from 90th street to 91st street. Old pics are from Google Maps.

The old

The new

Probably the parking lot

New mansion being built on Narrows Ave and 82nd street

They knocked down a perfectly fine home to rebuild it. I don't see what's wrong with the old one. It was a nice brick house and they demolished it. It looks like it will be a little bigger than the old one, so maybe that's why. It must be nice to have that kind of money. Here're a few pics of new framework, a drawing of the new one and a couple of pics of the house across the street from it, called the Gingerbread House.

The old one

The new one

Gingerbread House across street

Seven story building next to St Patricks Church?

There are plans to build a seven story apartment house next to St Patrick's church on 95th street and 5th Avenue where the convent used to be. The convent has nbeen demolished now and is just a vacant lot (see 1st pic below). Plans call for there to be 22 apartments in the building. Seven stories would make it the tallest building in the area, with a few other apartment buildings nearby being six stories. The zoning laws allow for a building that size but residents are mumbling already.

The plans filed by the developer include the first floor to be used for commercial use, probably stores or something similar. I have posted a few pictures below from Google maps including the FOR LEASE sign. I'm not sure who exactly owns the property, but it's listed as J&J Property Management Group LLC.

Oh yeah. I don't see any place for parking there. There are already many other apartment houses close by, so 22 more families without parking sure won't help.

Bay Ridge getting Express train to Wall Street

Starting Feb 22nd, 2015, Bay Ridge will be getting an Express train to Wall Street. It will be the first express since 1996. I don't have any details right now, but I will see if I can get more info on it. There was an article in New York Magazine in the Real Estate section. Link is below.

Link to NYMag

Bay Ridge: The new Park Slope?

"Within the closed circuits of rock & roll fashion, it is assumed that New York means Manhattan. If the other boroughs exist at all, it is merely as a camp joke - Bronx-Brooklyn-Queens, monstrous urban limbo, filled with everyone who is no one. In reality, however, almost the reverse is true." So begins the most famous thing ever written about Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

It's the opening paragraph of "Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night," by Nik Cohn, published in this magazine in 1976. The article, which became the movie Saturday Night Fever, was almost entirely made up. Cohn did travel all the way out to Bay Ridge - a car trip from Manhattan, he wrote later, that took "many hours" and deposited him in "a dead land."

A less famous but similarly notable thing was written this year about Bay Ridge. "And this gorgeous, delicious lunch in Bay Ridge Bklyn. Make a date! X sj." It's an Instagram caption from Sarah Jessica Parker, accompanying a photograph of her lunch at Tanoreen. Of course, Brooklyn isn't Nik Cohn's Brooklyn anymore, and Manhattan isn't even Sarah Jessica Parker's Manhattan. The all-eyes-on-Manhattan attitude that defined Saturday Night Fever has been redirected - toward places, improbably, like Bay Ridge. The far-flung neighborhood accounted for 20 percent of new-development sales in Brooklyn in the first quarter of 2014 (a fact largely due to low inventory elsewhere), and unlike some more speciously named "heights" and "slopes," it's actually on the ridge of a bay. Water views abound.

There's a really excellent bike path. Elizabeth Spiers, the O.G. (Original Gawker), moved there. ("We're too young for a Metro North commute," she explained, "so Bay Ridge it is.") Bay Ridge isn't really being gentrified so much as rediscovered: It's the suburbs recast as the suburbs, but with a few familiar New Brooklyn flourishes, like the farm-to-table restaurant Lock Yard joining old-school places like Areo's, a famous red-sauce joint. Bay Ridge is no longer a dead land, which is good news for the entire city. It's a happier New York when all eyes aren't trained on Manhattan. Instead, everyone's looking around at right where they are.

From New York Magazine, 12/14/2014 by Adam Sternbergh. Link to NYMag

Gentile: Don't criminalize chokeholds by NYPD

The City Council introduced a bil to criminalize chokeholds by police officers. Gentile has said he is against this bill, that it would interfere with their ability to do their jobs. Chokeholds have been prohibited by the NYPD since 1993, but there is no law against the practice.

They want to charge a police officer with a Class A misdemeanor that could result in up to a year in jail and a $2500 fine if convicted. This is another case of ridiculous laws being made just because a criminal resisted arrest, a huge criminal in fact. The criminal was Eric Garner, 6 feet 3 inches and 350 pounds.

Garner died while resisting arrest. Some are saying it was because of a chokehold used on him to subdue him. The NYT reported that the autopsy suggested his obesity and health problems caused his fatal heart attack.

Once again, they want to change laws because a criminal resisted arrest. This BS has to stop. If you don't want to be put in a chokehold, simply do not resist arrest. It's not rocket science, people.

VZ Bridge is now 50 years old.

It opened Nov 21, 1964. There was a big celebration for it in 1989 for the 25th anniversary, but not so much for the 50th. I remember walking on the roadway in 1989, they had closed the bridge for the celebration. They wouldn't do it for the 50th, I guess they would lose too much money.

There was a party at the Yellow Hook Grill but none of the politicians for the borough particiapted. They boycotted the event because od recent toll hike announcements.

I can't even guess how much money this bridge takes in. I wonder where the money goes? I'll see if I can find out and update this if I do.

Here's a few facts about the VZ Bridge.
1) It was named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, an explorer in the 16th century. Yes, TWO z's. That is the correct spelling. Verrazano is misspelled all these years and will stay misspelled.
2) It cost 324 million dollars. That's over 2 BILLION of todays dollars.
3) The Queen Mary 2 was designed to fit under the bridge. It has a 13 foot clearance at high tide.
4) The roadway is 12 feet lower in the summertime.
5) There is NO dead body buried in the concrete in the bridge or any other bridge.

DOT reverses traffic direction on 89th street

Between 4th and 5th avenues. It is designed to increase pedestrian safety at the busy intersection. There are two schools near there: PS 104 Annex and PS 264 across the street. Now traffic flows away from the intersection making it much safer for the school children.

Councilman Vincent Gentile worked with Community Board 10 and Department of TGransportation to get these safety improvements done.

Spacecraft lands on Comet

No news about the lying to Americans to get Obamacare passed, but plenty of news about landing a spacecraft on a comet 4 billion miles away.

They're acting like WE did it. No, the Europeans did it. OUR Space program was ended a couple of years ago by our president? Remember he said "You didn't build that, someone else did? He wasn't talking about this then, but it still works. The media is acting like we had something to do with it. I'm not going to give the story, I'm sure you already saw it in the 'news' already, I'm just posting this to show you how the media is spoon feeding you news.

The story about Jonathan Gruber, the mastermind architect of Obamacare, lying to Americans just to get Obamacare passed should be on every news source in the country, but it's not. It is worse than Watergate and not a word in the past few days. Get used to it people, this is the new America where media tells you what they want you to see.

Get your Flu shots

The vaccine is fast and safe and will stop you from the dangers of the flu.

Why Seniors - and Everyone Else - Should Get A Flu Shot

Flu season is here -- again! And with it all the usual rationales for getting or not getting a flu shot. They range from, "I'm so healthy, I never get sick;" "I got one last year, why should I get another;" "I'm allergic to the shot;" "I got the flu anyway." Aand on and on. These are just some of the excuses that people give to rationalize not getting a flu shot. To counter this, here are five reasons why you should get one. Read rest of story HERE.

2014 Cafe Remy Loses Liquor license

Cafe Reme on 3rd Avenue between 71st street and 72nd street, opposite Dunkin Donuts did not get their license renewed. The sign was changed to The Ridge and an attempt to transfer the license to them was blocked due to numerous violations and other issues. Maybe they'll reopen as a restaurant, but I don't know how well that would work unless they got a liquor license. We shall see in the next few months. Stay tuned.

2014 Elections

All Bay Ridge incumbents won reelections. To see list, click 2014 Elections link in menu on left.

Killarney Pub has closed

After almost 18 years, it has closed. Owners said influx of Muslims, who do not drink, has caused business to fall over the years. A local jeweler bought the building and was not sure what he would build there, perhaps a medical building. There a lot of vacant stores in Bay Ridge last few years. Many businesses open but close shortly because of lack of business.

I stopped by one day while Paddy Finn was cleaning out the place and spoke with him for a few minutes. He said he might check around and reopen again, but I think he wants to take a break for a while. Good luck, Paddy, whatever you do.

BJs Wholesale opens in Bensonhurst

It's on Shore Parkway right before the Nellie Bly amusement park. I went there the other day because I got a 'pass' in the mail. I didn't read the small print that says you have to pay an extra 5% unless you get a membership. When you do the 5% comes off. I'm pretty sure you can do that anytime without needing a free one day 'pass.'

It is huge, much bigger than the ones I've been to. It was nice and clean but it was only open a week when I got there. Not crowded at all, plenty of room to walk around. I was going to get a membership but the lines were ridiculous. You would think that being new to the neighorhood, they would have a better system of registering new members. I didn't bother and just paid the extra 5%, because I didn't have that much anyway.

One thing that will definitely keep me away from there during busy hours is the parking lot situation. The geniuses have made the ONLY exit so it goes across the pedestrian crossways. As empty as it was, there was a line to leave the damn place because the pedestrians wouldn't let the cars past. These are the same people who are walking to or from their cars and in a few minutes will be honking for people to get out of their way. Really dumb planning. I can see a huge mess during the holidays when it gets very busy (without me for sure).

I may still join, but will only go there real early in the moroning as soon as they open. Don't know why you can't just join online or at the least print out an application so you can fill it out before going to the store, drop it off and then pick up the membership while you're shopping. They could take your pick when you drop it off.

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New recycling rules in Bay Ridge.

I'm talking about those new little brown containers that were given to residents. They're too small for leaves. I fill at least a couple of those huge bags with leaves, so that won't fit. I keep my household garbage in a triple garbage bag so I don't need it for that. I don't see many of them put out and when the G-Men come by to pick them up, they usually go down my street in just a couple of minutes. I just don't think these are going to take off, people are used to the way they do it now.

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