Picture Of The Day: Court Street Blooms

Spring blooms for sale on Court Street

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Someone In Carroll Gardens Harbors A Strange Grudge

Who in Carroll Gardens is graffitiing parked cars by writing "Parking Pig" on them with a wax pencil?
Reader Alix took the photos above yesterday evening and wrote the following:

Tonight [Tuesday], walking home on Degraw from Court Street, I saw two cars had been graffitied with the message "Parking Pig" written in some kind of waxy pencil. The message caught my attention because the same words were scrawled on the hood of my car a few months ago. And a month or so later-- another car on my block was also vandalized in this manner. So this is the third time the perpetrator has singled out cars for this attack. (Perhaps there have been more incidents and I missed them.) It's strange since cars park and move so frequently in my neighborhood that it's really not hard to find parking! And annoying because the waxy material is hard to remove. Maybe your readers will have some insight into the nature of this peculiar grudge.

Peculiar indeed. Why would someone do this? And who is this person? 

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PS 58 First Graders Celebrate Carroll Gardens

Sunny Bettles, Age 6, First Grade Class 213

"Fun in PS58th School Yard

Laura DePaolo, Age 6,  First Grade Class 211

"Ice Cream At 16 Handles"

Dylan Scott, Age 7,  First Grade Class 209

"Smith Canteen"

Ulan Velayoyan, Age 7, First Grade Class 213

"Sliding In Carroll Park"

Zayan Adame, First Grade Class 213

"On the swings"

Edith Harrington, Age 6, First Grade Class 213

"Painted Pot"

Dylan Marotta, Age 7, First Grade Class 227

"Skateboarding on my block"

Jacob Sheldon, Age 7, First Grade Class 209

"Spring"

If you happen to walk by Assemblywoman Joan Millman's district office at 341 Smith Street, make sure to take a look at the very sweet drawings made by first grade students of P.S. 58., which are hanging in the window.    The drawings all share one theme: "Celebrating our neighborhood."
A volunteer who helps out in the Assemblywoman's office organized this special art project with PS 58's art teacher. The result is super adorable.  It is also interesting to see what the students love most about Carroll Gardens.  Obviously, Carroll Park plays a big part in the children's lives, but so do the Painted Pot, 16 Handles and Smith Canteen.

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Months After Hurricane Sandy, Giant Trunks Of Carroll Park's Fallen Trees Finally Removed

Trunk of Carroll Park tree that fell across Carroll Street during Hurricane Sandy, as it lay across the fence since the end of October 2012

And photos taken on Friday, March 29, 2013 while it was finally removed.

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Joe Auer)

(photo credit: Loren Sosna)

The site all cleaned up after stump removal

Carroll Park, Brooklyn's third oldest public park, lost quite a few majestic trees during Hurricane Sandy at the end of October, including two very old giants that had probably been planted when the park first opened in the 1800's. One of them, an elm tree, crashed across the fencing on Carroll Street between Court and Smith Streets. Its branches were almost immediately cut into sections after the hurricane to clear the way for traffic. But its gigantic trunk needed to be removed with special equipment, which is not readily available to the Parks Department.
Finally, this past Friday, a crew arrived with a crane and lifted the trunk over the fence and onto a truck

The second tree was a Linden tree, which had stood in a section of the park along President Street. In November, the branches had already been removed in November 2012, but again, the trunk and the roots were just too heavy for removal.

However, rather than to remove the entire trunk on Friday, the crew just cut off the root ball and left the trunk so that the children could climb on it. After all, it is right next to the giant bolder that was brought into the park from a construction site on Clinton Street at the request of  Friends Of Carroll Park.

Judging by the fun the kids had on the rock and the trunk yesterday afternoon, it was a great decision to leave it where it had fallen.

(photo credit: Joe Auer)
The trunk of the linden tree as it had fallen in a border along President Street

Now, it has been repurposed as climbing equipment for the kids.

My thanks to Joe Auer and  Loren Sosna for the use of their photos.

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Gowanus Canal Community Advisory Group General Meeting Tonight

The Gowanus Canal Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) will be holding its general meeting tonight, April 2nd, 6:30 pm at Mary Star of the Sea Senior Housing at 41 1st Street.
The CAG will continue its discussion on the EPA Region 2 Proposed Plan for the Superfund clean-up of the Gowanus Canal.

As a reminder, the EPA will accept comments from the community on the Proposed Plan till the end of April.   To read the plan for the Gowanus Canal or for more information on the canal, visit http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfund/npl/gowanus or visit the EPA’s document repositories at the Carroll Gardens Library at 396 Clinton St. in Brooklyn or the Joseph Miccio Community Center, 110 West 9th Street, Brooklyn.

Written comments on the proposed plan should be addressed to:
Christos Tsiamis
Project Manager
Central New York Remediation Section
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
290 Broadway, 20th Floor
New York, New York 10007-1866
e-mail: GowanusCanalComments.Region2@epa.gov

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Good Food On Court Street Is Closing And With It Goes Another Piece Of Carroll Gardens History

Mike Sale in front of the store he has owned with his brother Allegrino for 35 years

Mike Sale, sister Anna Moccia and two of their workers 

The store's original butcher block and sausage grinder

Sad news for Carroll Gardens.  At the end of April, Good Food, the Italian Superette will be closing its doors for the final time.   For 85 years, the storefront at 431 Court Street between 3rd and 4th Place has supplied the neighborhood with fresh  mozzarella, Italian sausages, olives and other Italian delicacies.  Besides the deli counter and meat counter,  Good Food also carried everything from canned goods to cleaning products and everything in between.

The business first belonged to the Bruno brothers, relatives of NY City Office Of Emergency Management Commissioner  Joseph Bruno.  The Brunos ran the business until one of the brothers was attacked while on his way to make a deposit at a local bank.
That's when the Sale Brothers, Mike and Allegrino, bought the supermarket and the building.  Together, they have managed the store for the last 35 years.  They would gladly continued,  but just recently, representatives of Investors Bank have made Mike and Allegrino an offer the brothers could not refuse.  So, the New Jersey-based bank will be opening a branch at this location, and the neighborhood will lose one of the last remaining Italian food stores in the neighborhood.

I stopped by yesterday to speak with Mike and his sister Anna Moccia., who has been working with her brothers at the store for many years.  Mike told me that the store will close at the end of April.  Though he acknowledges that he will now be able to retire, he had tears in his eyes when he told me that he will miss all his customers.  "We have known some of them for a very long time and I know that it will be hard for all the older Italians in the neighborhood. We accepted phone orders and made home deliveries for the seniors who could not come to the store themselves any more.  To illustrate how he and his brother went out of their way to accommodate some of their customers, he told me about a recent call from an elderly Italian lady who wanted one eggplant delivered to her house. "She wanted to buy just one, but she asked if we could send a few, so that she could chose the best one."
Asked if he complied,  Mike smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "What could I do?"

Mike also took me to the back and pointed out a butcher block on which the Italian sausages are made daily.  "This is still the original block from the Bruno brothers.  They left it when we took over the store.  We will give it back to the Bruno family after we close."

Already, the store's shelves are looking empty and the sign above the entrance has been removed.  It will soon be replaced by a bright neon sign of yet another bank.
Good Food and the Sale family will be missed in the neighborhood. With them goes another piece of Carroll Gardens history.   How very sad.

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Best Comment Of The Day: Clearly Incompetent

Psternglass has left a new comment on your post "Incompetence? Construction Crew At Former Sokol Brothers Furniture Store On Columbia Street Strikes Water Main A Second Time":

"This is a very bad situation. This developer is clearly incompetent, and I can't imagine that this will be the only problem, and I doubt that the quality of this place will be very good in the end. I had always hoped that the old Sokol Brothers building would be put to better use, but now I miss it!Something has to go up there eventually, we cannot just have a hole in the ground, but it may not be with these people."

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