Beverly Road Subway Station cont...

Got this email from a concerned neighbor this afternoon-

Hi Chris,

I just called Councilman Eugene's office to voice a complaint about the Beverley Road train station and the young lady that took the call said that I was the first to call. She was very cordial and said that she would inform both the Councilman and his Chief of Staff. She also suggested that I call 311 which I did. I was then transfered to the MTA by 311 and a Mr. Henry took my complaint as well. The young lady at the Councilman's office asked that I call back with a complaint number but I was told by Mr. Henry that they didn't issue complaint numbers so I informed her of this. We really need to start calling if we want to get something done.

Thanks,

Stacey Bell

District 40 Councilmen contact info once again:

Matthieu Eugene - District Office
123 Linden Boulevard New York 11226
Phone: (718) 287-8762 Fax: (718) 287-8917

Legislative Office Address, City Hall New York 10007
Phone: (212) 788-7352 Fax: (212) 788-8087

Matthieu Eugene [Council Member- District: 40]
Anyone Know a Good Tile Guy [Archives 8/30/07]
Call Councilman Eugene... [Ditmas Park Blog]

-Chris Gallagher
Chris@MaryKayG.com

Beverly Road Subway Station - Anyone Know a Good Tile Guy? - Part 2

10/30/07 4:30pm

So I am walking down the stairs to the Beverly Q stop on the Sunday afternoon heading into Manhattan. I walk down and see a ten man construction crew wearing bright orange Contractor vests. I hear drills and then see ladders with painters repairing the worn ceiling, chipped paint, and rusted pipes. I could not believe it, I thought that the subway station was finally going to be renovated. "The blog works," I said to myself...Holy crap!

I remember seeing the condition of subway stop in the early 90's when I would come down to Brooklyn for the holidays. Graffiti all over the place, trash blowing around not exactly a tourist attraction. I have seen pictures of the subway station in the 80's and I think most people prefer to block it from memory. In my mind the station is in the same shape now as it was back then, in addition to a couple poorly applied patches of paint that are chipping away. For all the work that has been done in the neighborhood over the years the subway station has yet to reflect any of that. I was picturing a new subway station on Beverly Road and was amazed the MTA was finally doing something about it.

Then reality sets in....I live in New York City

After talking to a few of the workers I found out that the only reason they were working on a Sunday was to run two white pipes the length of the station which will hold fiber optic cables for Homeland Security cameras. I thought he was joking. Then told me that they were only going to be there for a couple hours and then move along to Cortelyou, the next station to the south. They were packing up in the next hour or so and were not doing any other repairs to the station, I didn't know what to make of it.

The contractor told me to write my local councilman because he was the only one who could move a station to a higher priority. He said, "These conditions would not happen in Park Slope. Those stations are in much better shape. You need everyone to write letters the old fashion way to get to the councilmen. These paint chips are not safe for kids. This station must be on the list for repair."

So I invite everyone to write (call and/or fax) our new councilmen Matthieu Eugene if they would like the Beverly Road subway station to be renovated. My sources tell me he is aware of the problem and it is on his list on things to do.

Matthieu Eugene - District Office
123 Linden Boulevard New York 11226
Phone: (718) 287-8762 Fax: (718) 287-8917

Legislative Office Address, City Hall New York 10007
Phone: (212) 788-7352 Fax: (212) 788-8087

Matthieu Eugene [Council Member- District: 40]
Anyone Know a Good Tile Guy [Archives 8/30/07]
Call Councilman Eugene... [Ditmas Park Blog]

-Chris Gallagher
Chris@MaryKayG.com

Inaugural Concert at The Victorian Place Cultural Center

Sunday October 21, 2007 3:30pm

featuring
The World Renowned
Harlem Blues and Jazz Band

(photos by Daniel Newman)

Tickets can be purchased at site on day of the event (cash preferred) or send money order to: Victorian Place Cultural Center / Temple Beth Emeth.

• Two 45 minute sets with intermission

• Adults $25 - Seniors $20 - Children $15

• Not for profit event dedicated to bringing the arts to Flatbush
  

Brought to you by Marjorie Belson and Wendy Weller Jones at The Victorian Place Cultural Center. For more information call 917-846-7386. Tickets can be picked up prior to event or held at ticket office. Wheelchair Accessible.

The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band
Temple Beth Emeth v"Ohr Progressive Shaari Zedek
Victorian Place Cultural Center [Ditmas Park Blog]
Do You Want to see a Performing Arts Center in Victorian Flatbush? [LIVF Archives 1/4/07]

Send local Ditmas Park event news to admin@livinginvictorianflatbush.com

New York Times - On The Market: 1306 Albemarle Road Prospect Park South

Photo: Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

VICTORIAN MANSION - $2,595,000

BROOKLYN: 1306 Albemarle Road (corner of Argyle Road)

An eight-bedroom, five-bath 1905 house with six fireplaces, a wraparound porch and a five-room office suite with separate entrance. Mary Kay Gallagher (718) 282-3141; www.marykayg.com

TAXES: $5,203 a year

PROS: In the heart of Prospect Park South, the house has a turreted facade, a triple parlor, a family room and a sunroom. Its original details include Tiffany windows, coved ceilings, built-in cabinets and mahogany beams.

CONS: The kitchen needs updating and is small for a house this size.

On The Market - Victorian Mansion [The New York Times]
A Magnificent 15 Room Grand Colonial Revival [Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate]
House of the Day: 1306 Albemarle Road [Brownstoner]
1306 Albemarle Road [Living In Victorian Flatbush]

View Larger Map

Urban Farming: 30 Day Survival "Brooklyn-style subsistence farming" in Prospect Park South

The “locavore” movement says we should only eat what is grown within a few miles of where we live. How about a few feet? An experiment in Brooklyn-style subsistence farming, starring smelly chickens, an angry rabbit, a freak tornado, a vegetable garden to die for, two psyched kids, and a marriage in the weeds.

Manny Howard a writer for New York Magazine and a former Mary Kay Gallagher customer in 2003, is planning on living solely on what he can grow and raise in his backyard for 30 days in his "Victorian Mansion" in Prospect Park South.

Update 9/14/07: Manny is welcome to visitors look for the big green house on Westminster

ONE MAN-MONTH OF FOOD CRAMMED INTO 800 SQUARE FEET.
A Four vegetable planters: cucumbers, cantaloupes, peppers, and heirloom tomatoes.
B The garage, a.k.a. “the Barn”: tool storage, rabbit feed, chicken feed, six rabbit hutches, a slaughter station, a refrigerator, and four egg-laying coops.
C The field, in four beds: 1 Tomatoes, beets, celery, yellow squash, purple eggplant, and a fig tree. 2 Collard greens, cucumbers, and callaloo. 3 Cabbage, Japanese eggplant, white eggplant, rhubarb, leeks, garlic, onions, fennel, rosemary, thyme, and mint. 4 Corn, broad beans, basil, bok choy, and parsley.
D The duck run: a duck coop, a duck pond, and two wayward rabbit hutches.
E The chicken run: a high-rise high-capacity chicken coop and a livestock holding pen (on the porch).
F The potato crop: a raised bed technically known as a “drill.” (Photo: Clockwise from right, courtesy of Manny Howard; Amy Eckert [2]. Illustration by Jason Lee)

My Dirt Empire [New York Magazine]
"My Empire of Dirt" [ChowHound]
The Farm on... Westminster [Ditmas Park Blog]
A Flatbush Urban Farm [Flatbush Gardener]

Finding the Culinary Logic in Going Local [Palm Beach Post]
Annals of Agriculture: New York Local- 9/3/07 [The New Yorker]
A look at the tiny Brooklyn locavore farm hit by a tornado [Greener Daily]
Eating Locally: Tested in Brooklyn [3rBlogging]
My Empire of Dirt [ColdAntlerFarm]
Information Superhighway to Nowhere [HASTAC]
Novella Carpenter [City Farmer]
NYC Farming [Gothamist]
New Yorker pushes limits of the "locavore" life [Reuters]
Urban farm lands in New York [MSN UK]
Digest - Features: Stunt farming, farmers market prices, Seattle goats [The Ethicurean]

Comments 9/24/07 [NY Mag] via OTBKB

The rubuttles:
Look! A Real Farm in a Brooklyn Back Yard [Apartment Therapy]
When A Fool Makes A Garden, It Does Not Follow That Gardening is Foolish [Garden Rant]
Another one bites the Dirt [NotEatingOutInNewYork]
Home Farm Experiment [Everyday Disasters]
Local Yokle? [Serious Eats]

Brownstoner - House of the Day: 1306 Albemarle Road

One word: Droolworthy! This house at 1306 Albemarle Road in Prospect Park South is the perfect poster-child for Victorian Flatbush. The 15-room mansion last changed hands twelve years ago; the previous owner lived there for decades. This place has it all: original woodwork, flooring, Tiffany windows, columns, etc. There's even a five-room office with a separate entrance. Enough talking—just check out the photos. The asking price of $2,595,000 is up there but seems perfectly achievable to us given the infrequency that something like this becomes available. Agree?

1306 Albemarle Road [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
Posted by Brownstoner at 1:२१ PM ९/11/07 | Comments (113) | TrackBacks (0)

2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour

Just Sold in Victorian Flatbush

Classic Restoration with Vintage Charm - 108 year old Tudor

An Enchanted Home in the Heart of
Prospect Park South

Asking Price: $1,699,000Selling Price: $1,750,000
1 Week on Market -- Multiple Bids
First Showing June 17th. Closed 9/7/07.

135 Westminister Road [MKG Real Estate]
Brownstoner - House of The Day 6/13/07
PropertyShark
StreetEasy
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour

Anyone Know a Good Tile Guy?

Here is a question for all of our local readers. Why is the Beverly Road/East 16th Street Q subway stop in such worse shape and disrepair than all the other subway stops in the area? The Church Avenue and Newkirk Q/B stops are in considerably better condition than Beverly Road along with the Cortelyou Road stop, which is only a couple hundred feet away.

With all the hubbub people made fighting to get F train extended, maybe someone from The MTA or Community Board 14 will read this and take some action.

The picture above shows all the peeling paint and patch jobs that have been done to maintain the station so far. My first guess would be that the local graffiti punks have given little reason for the MTA to clean it up, but this station is well overdue for a renovation. How about some subway titles...like every other subway station. The inside waiting area of the station is fine along with recent train service, of course after everyone has permanently deleted the hellish day of commuting post tornado, along with the MTA strike and the 80's.

Feel free to leave all your Ditmas Park and Brooklyn subway gripes and non-gripes in the comments and we encourage everyone who agrees to file a complaint here through Straphangers.

Update: The Beverly Road Station Manager is Patricia A. Bassett (718) 694-3025 and can be also contacted by mail at NYC Transit - Division of Operations, Room 150 at 130 Livingston Street in Brooklyn 11201.

Check out the comments over at Ditmas Park Blog under What's up with Beverly

Capital Construction [MTA]
Complaints and Compliments [Straphangers]
What We Can Learn From a Subway Report Card [NY Mag]

Just Sold in Victorian Flatbush

735 Westminster Road - $1,200,000 - West Midwood

7 bedrooms, 3 full baths, closed August 7th, 2007. A 1910 clapboard house, legal 2 family with renovated owners duplex, 3 gas fire places, new kitchen and baths, new windows, original wood detail, with driveway and garage.
Broker - Mary Kay Gallagher

Recent Sales [Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate]

1403 Ditmas Avenue - $1,550,000 - Ditmas Park West

BIG. BRIGHT. BEAUTIFUL.

"Like New" Home on Rugby Road
Special Features include:
-Cherry hard wood floors throughout
-Cable & Internet ready
-2 zone heating and A/C
-3 wood burning fireplaces
-2 driveways and a 2 car garage
-Great office space

Broker - Mary Kay Gallagher

Recent Sales [Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate]

169 West Minister Road- 1,175,000 - Prospect Park South

6 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 2 half bath, closed August 2nd, 2007. A 1899 historic landmark home with an enclosed front porch with private entrance for a 2 room office with half bath. Formal living room and family room, formal dining room with original wood panels and mantel. Large kitchen with separate eating area, elevator to 2nd floor, private driveway and garage with a lovely private rear yard.
Broker - Mary Kay Gallagher

Recent Sales [Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate]

1409 Albermarle Road - $300,000 - Prospect Park South

1 bedroom Co-op, full bath, closed July 31st, 2007. Most desirable location on Albermarle road with an eat in kitchen, great view, and 95% ownership 1000 sqft.
Broker - Mary Kay Gallagher

Recent Sales [Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate]

The Day After - More Brooklyn Tornado News

The Big Hitters:
That Wind That Left Part of Brooklyn Upside Down? It Was a Tornado, All Right [NY Times]
Brooklyn Storm is Considered a Tornado [NY Times City Room]
Storms kill one, disrupt travel around New York City [CNN]
Rare Tornado Hits New York City [AOL]
NWS: Tornadoes Slam Brooklyn, Staten Island [WCBS]
It's Hard Out Here for a Mascot [Daily Intel]
A Mighty Wind in Brooklyn [Village Voice]
BROOKLYN CYCLONE FREAK TORNADO RIPS UP HOUSES & TREES AS DEADLY FLOODING ADDS TO CITY WOE [NY POST]

Video: 25million

Local Knowledge:
Wednesday PM Storm Linkage: Brooklyn Laid Waste [Curbed]
Brooklinks: Special Brooklyn Tornado Edition [Gowanus Lounge]
A CRAZY MORNING IN BROOKLYN [OTBKB]
Storm Video [Ditmas Park Blog]
Our Brooklyn tornado, one block away [Crazy Stable]
Storm Damage in Prospect Park South, Caton Park and Beverley Square West [Flatbush Gardener]
A tornado in Brooklyn?!? [CaroLINES]
A tornado in Brooklyn? [Park Soap]

Overnight Storms Hit Victorian Flatbush Hard!

Overnight storms hit the area hard overnight. Here is a preliminary list of impact to the neighborhood:

- B/Q Train service suspended due to a downed tree between Beverley and Church Avenue Stations.
- F Train service stopped at 9am due to congestion. (I managed to get on this train at 8am and got to 42nd street at 10am).
- Trees reported down on houses, cars, streets, and train tracks in pretty much every neighborhood.

Here are some pictures of the damage as seen walking up Rugby Road from Newkirk Ave. to Church Ave. It appears that the 100 year old trees in the neighborhood got the worst of it and whatever they hit on the ground, Car, House, or the entire Street.


If you have any pictures from the other parts of Victorian Flatbush, please e-mail them to:
jreddish70 at yahoo dot com.

Kensington Blog has some pictures posted of the damage in their neighborhood, here.

Victorian Flatbush House Tour

With over 330 tickets sold the 2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour was another successful event.

The Flatbush Gardener has a recap and photos from the 12 homes on the tour this year.

Many thanks go to the Flatbush Development Corp. the volunteers, and the sponsors who were responsible putting together this year's tour.

Victorian Flatbush House Tour [FDC]
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour [Flatbush Gardener]
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour [Flickr]
2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour: The Day After [Brownstoner]
135 Westminster Road [MKG Real Estate]

Time Out New York Kids: If you want a tight-knit community, try…Ditmas Park

Ditmas Park is featured in May's issue of Time Out New York Kids this month with our very own Alexandra Reddish touting the family friendly aspects of Victorian Flatbush.

“People originally from other parts of the country like this area because it reminds them of home,” says Alexandra Reddish, mother of three and an agent with Mary Kay Gallagher Real Estate (Mary Kay is her grandmother, and a longtime Ditmas resident). The spacious landmarked Victorian houses and relative quiet of Ditmas Park—and its neighbors, including Prospect Park South and Midwood—just might have something to do with that. And get this, frustrated car-owners: On a recent walk around the nabe (on an alternate-side-of-the-street-parking day, no less), we noticed a whopping eight available spots.

If you want a tight-knit community, try…Ditmas Park [TONY Kids]

Save the Date - Historic Districts Council Candidates' Forum on Preservation and Development

New York City 40th District

Canidate Forum on Preservation and Development

Thursday, February 8, 2007

7:00-9:00pm

Sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Preservation Voters in the 40th District

Public School 217

1100 Newkirk Avenue

Brooklyn, NY 11230

This forum is an opportunity for residents, business owners and community members to hear candidates present their perspectives on preservation and development concerns. All questions presented to the candidates will be focusing on these issues, including questions of landmark designation, community rezonings and building codes within the district.

The following candidates have confirmed their participation: Jesse Hamilton, Jennifer James, Zenobia McNally, Harry Schiffman and Leithland Tulloch.

Other candidates invited include Mozell Ducton Albright, Mathieu Eugene, Moe Razvi, Wellington Sharpe, and Joel Toney.

The Coalition of Concerned Preservation Voters in the 40th District is a group of eleven neighborhood and civic organizations that are interested in preserving the unique character of the community. The Coalition believes we must reach out to elected officials and candidates and begin a dialogue about preserving the neighborhoods' cultural, architectural and historical heritage.

Members of the coalition are the Historic Districts Council, Beverly Square West Association, Caton Park Neighborhood Association, Ditmas Park Association, Ditmas Park West Neighborhood Association, Fiske Terrace Association, Flatbush Development Corporation, Lefferts Manor Association, Midwood Park Homeowners Association, Prospect Park South Association and West Midwood Community Association. This coalition is non-partisan and does not endorse a specific candidate for office.

For more information on this forum, please contact the Historic Districts Council
at 212-614-9107 or ftolbert@hdc.org

Historic District Council: District 40 Special Election Voters Guide

Update: The Flatbush Gardener has has full coverage of the event along with photos

Brooklynian.com: Flatbush/Midwood/Ditmas Park/Kensington

For those of you looking for more information about Victorian Flatbush and would like to get your answers from people who live in the area, we would like to direct you to a growing neighborhood forum covering Flatbush, Midwood, Ditmas Park, and Kensington from Brooklynian.com. As with all message boards the more readers the more informed and up to date the messages are.

New York Daily News - Highs and Loew's of Flatbush History

In today's New York Daily News Dan Hamill reviews the book "Brooklyn's Flatbush: From Battlefield to Ebbets Field" written by Brian Merlis and Lee Rosenzweig.

Climb inside the pages of "Brooklyn's Flatbush" for a couple of hours and you will find the Brooklyn that so many Brooklynites love and miss so much, a Brooklyn of the Dodgers, stickball, Jahn's ice cream parlor, Empire Rollerdrome, chow mein joints, United cigar stores, Garfield's Cafeteria, Bond bakery and S.S. Kresge's five-and-dime. Historic photos of 19th century mom-and-pop shops, horse-and-buggies, electric trolleys and roadsters with running boards and the building of the subways and the ritzy apartment buildings and lousy tenements, ornate lampposts, colorful awnings and photos of the great snowstorms of 1947.

We recomend the book for anyone interested in taking a look back through the history of one of Brooklyn's "most beloved neighborhoods".

Highs and Loew's of Flatbush History [NY Daily News - Boroughs]
Brooklyn's Flatbush: From Battlefield to Ebbets Field [BrooklynPix]

Victorian Flatbush Halloween

Victorian Flatbush Halloween Night!!!

With two great parades is the neighborhood, Prospect Park South hosted one on Albemarle Road and West Midwood on Glenwood Road, an exciting and busy night laid ahead for all the children in Victorian Flatbush.

The weather was perfect. No child had to wear a jacket over their costume.

I was at the Albemarle Road parade where my kids were dressed as Spider Man and Yoda. We had snacks and drinks before we joined the rest of the families for a march around the Albemarle Road Mall.

Then off to Trick or Treat. We walked down Marlborough Road where the homes were all done up with skeletons, ghost, lights and smoke machines, the homes were ready for tricks and of course treats.

My son was all excited about the Halloween and had a great time at the parade but was not ready to Trick or Treat. So we just pushed the 2 kids in the wagon and walked around the neighborhood. Every block we went down was filled with children all dressed up.

When we finally got to grandma and grandpa’s house, my son was ready to go with his buddy who was dressed as a race car driver. So off they went, while Yoda and I answered the door. We had a little party on porch with some of the neighbors.

We were quite busy. All the kids who came to the door were dressed up and very polite. By 8pm things quieted down. Victorian Flatbush had another successful and festive Halloween.

The New York Sun - John Petit's Visionary Home Designs

John Petit's Visionary Home Designs
Abroad in New York

By FRANCIS MORRONE
October 20, 2006

Around 1900, the former town of Flatbush, by then part of the borough of Brooklyn, took shape around several subdivisions in which developers laid the infrastructure and hired architects to design houses suited to what the papers called "high-class residence districts." They were of varying grandeur, and today, some are gone. The earliest of the fancy subdivisions was Tennis Court, small in comparison to later developments but in other respects prototypical. Today, Tennis Court is merely the name of a street, half a block south of Church Avenue between Ocean Avenue and East 18th Street. [more]


John Petit's Visionary Home Designs [The NY Sun]
Delicately Oriental, but 'Practical' [NY Times 3/23/97]
John Petit's Vision for Prospect Park South [Brownstoner]

Max Weintraub and Thoroughbred Records Present - "WHEN THE LIGHTS GO ON AGAIN"

A New 1940's Musical with Bill Daugherty, Paul Kropfl, Christina Morrell & Connie Pachl

Musical director: Doyle Newmyer
featuring Jim Conant on guitar
Conceived and directed by Bill Daugherty
Choreographer: Lori Leshner
Make-up/hairstylist: Jimmy Cortes
Sound: Tonya Pierre
Photos by Ben Strothmann

Set during a live WNEW radio broadcast from the ballroom of the Hotel Roosevelt, When The Lights Go On Again follows The Moonlighters - an up and coming singing group trying to land a job with the legendary Glenn Miller band. Told through over 25 hit songs from the 1940's, the musical paints the emotions of a country supporting its combat efforts and the sacrifices that war can bring.

Opens Wednesday, November 1st - 7pm The Triad Theatre 158 West 72nd Street (between Broadway & Columbus Avenue) NY, NY (212) 362-2590 (info only)

Preview - Saturday, October 28th - 2:00pm

Runs for an Limited Engagement:
Saturdays at 2:00pm and Sundays at 7:30pm November 4th through December 17th (no show on November 5th)

Tickets: $20.00 with a required 2 drink minimum (cash only)
Tickets and Reservations: TheaterMania (212)352-3101 (all major credit cards accepted)

Peter Cromarty

When the Lights Go On Again [Thoroughbred Records]

Bill Daugherty lives in Prospect Park South

Robert Longo: The Outward and Visible Signs of an Inward and Invisible Grace

Contemplating the vastness of space, Robert Longo's new drawings of planets and stars continue his exploration of operatic themes through monumentally scaled charcoal drawings. In these intensely drawn black and white images the moon becomes a glowing ball of dust and the earth an abstraction of swirling weather patterns. These, as well as Longo's other recent series' "Monsters"- crashing tsunami waves, "Sickness of Reason"- atomic and nuclear explosions and "The Freud Cycle"- views of Freud's consulting room and apartment share a stunning visual presence and a haunting emotional content.

Longo has had retrospective exhibitions at the Hamburger Kunstverein and Deichtorhallen, the Menil Collection in Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, the Hartford Athenaeum and the Isetan Museum of Art in Tokyo. Group exhibitions include Documenta, the Whitney Biennal, and the Venice Bienale. Work is represented in collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Albertina in Vienna, and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne.


Monticelli Press is preparing a publication of Longo's recent work for Fall 2008.

* This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Zander Vaubel

Robert Longo [Metro Pictures Gallery]

Robert Longo lives in Prospect Park South