Infant mortality fell dramatically in two borough neighborhoods where rates have been historically high for years, says new city Health Department statistics. In Fort Greene, infant mortality fell from 7.3 deaths per 1000 births in 2006 to 0.8 deaths in 2007. In Crown Heights North, the rate fell from 9.8 to 4.6. In both neighborhoods, [...]

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Here’s a short documentary just posted to the YouTube about a women’s shelter in Fort Greene. (Warning: it starts with a test pattern and a loud tone of about four seconds.)

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It seems like a statement of incredible optimism these days that a neighborhood would be working to get an indie bookstore–given the attrition rate of existing ones all over NYC–yet that’s exactly what Fort Greene is doing. There’s even a kickoff event for the Fort Greene Indie Bookstore Initiative on September 16. Per an email [...]

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It rarely gets better than this: Frank Gehry has been booted from the job of designing the Theater for a New Audience in the BAM Cultural District in Fort Greene, but found out about it via a call from a New York Times reporter. The theater’s director, on the other hand, says the de-Frankification of [...]

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The Fourth Annual Fort Greene Park Literary Festival takes place on August 23 and will feature poet Amiri Baraka. Here’s a bit from the email we got:
The 4th annual Fort Greene Park Summer Literary Festival will present a free outdoor reading on August 23rd at 3:00 PM featuring young writers aged seven to eighteen reading [...]

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Folks who live in a rent-stabilized building owned by one of the most high-profile developers in Brooklyn are finding a hot shower hard to come by nowadays, according to a press release sent out last night by Councilmember Letitia James’s office. Tenants in 25 Lafayette Avenue, in the BAM Cultural District, say that the gas [...]

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Some neighborhood unhappiness with the successful Brooklyn Flea operated by our friends at Brownstoner has become very public this week. Much of the opposition stems from Queen of All Saints, a church across the street from the large space where the Flea takes place every Sunday in Fort Greene. The church feels the Flea has [...]

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[Photo courtesy of nine6sevenfour/flickr]
This incredible looking scene was captured in Fort Greene by nine6sevenfour and put into our GL Photo Pool. It’s most definitely a moment in time.

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The film “Brooklyn’s Finest” is shooting today in Fort Green on Dekalb Avenue near Adelphi Street. The film’s plot is described by IMDB as “Three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location after enduring vastly different career paths.” Among the stars: Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barken. [...]

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There are an estimated 7000 languages spoken world-wide (174 of which are spoken in New York City, according to the Department of City Planning), and half of them are slowly disappearing. The Linguists, one of the documentaries being shown as part of the Sundance Institute at BAM — which began last night — follows Dr. [...]

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There is little one can say about the video that was posted yesterday about the solar-powered composting toilet at the community garden in Fort Greene. We suppose one way to do the story is to fuel up on fibers and coffee and head over with a video camera to record your experience of the special [...]

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There’s a Wildflower Seed Give-Away going on at the Artisan Market at Fort Green Park on Saturday,May 31. Here’s a bit about it:
Plant flowers and help save the bees/Honey Bees are in danger and are disappearing worldwide. They pollinate 30% of plants necessary for our food supply. Haagen-Dazs is providing 2,000 packets of wildflower [...]

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The G Train may have problems, but it does have some friends and people that really want to see service improvements. We got an email from Assem. Hakeem Jeffries office about a rally he is organizing next week to call for service improvements on the G. It says in part:
In partnership with a number [...]

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The SONYA Studio Stroll (South of the Navy Yard) is today (5/17) and tomorrow (5/18) from 12 Noon to 6PM. The map of the studios is above, included to show the general area. The tour’s website has a PDF of the brochure and full info. Here’s a bit:
SONYA presents the 9th Annual SONYA Studio Stroll [...]

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The “coolest small apartment” this year, per Apartment Therapy, is a 460 square foot rental studio in Fort Greene. Note the fact that one gets to sleep atop the entertainment system, which pretty much rule out watching TV while in bed, among other things.

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Here’s a brand new Fort Greene blog from an anonymous blogger called The Real Fort Greene. It’s all of about four or five days old and here’s what the blogger has to say about starting it: “After years of reading the various Brooklyn blogs I became frustrated with the lack of consistent coverage on Fort [...]

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Kif, a Middle Eastern restaurant, recently opened in the space that was occupied by Liquor at 219 DeKalb Avenue. “Finally! After so much positive reader feedback, I was able to hit up Kif on Friday evening. I know many people loved Liquors, but to be honest, I was never really that into their food or [...]

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Many of the city’s new bus shelters, part of the street furniture franchise that has also brought new newsstands and a few bike shelters and pay toilets to the city, are doing better than one might have expected. They don’t seem to have been victimized by as much widespread vandalism as one might expect to [...]

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Here’s one vision of what the retail space inside the landmark One Hanson Place, aka Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, might look like after it’s leased out. Racked had the rendering yesterday amidst reports that the asking price for the 30,000 square foot space is $3 million a year. Border’s was mentioned early on as a [...]

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Vanderbilt Avenue, Fort Greene

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Brooklyn Flea, the big Fort Greene Sunday production from our friends at Brownstoner, had a great second weekend despite weather that was, once again, somewhat less than ideal. When we stopped in around 4PM there were still people flowing into the Bishop Loughlin HS schoolyard, although clearly crowds had thinned somewhat from peak times. We [...]

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“Looks like the neighborhood dog population is increasing - so much so that the dogs are turning on each other during off-leash hours. One resident reports that her dog was left with serious wounds after a pit bull attack this morning. The President of the park’s pets society sent an email to members saying that [...]

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[Photo Courtesy of GL Correspondent Anna Lewis]
We call this photo, from Atlantic Avenue outside the Atlantic Terminal Mall, Sabrett’s Secret, although we suppose it could also be Victoria’s Sabrett. It comes to us via our valued correspondent, Anna Lewis.

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Toren, the big condo rising on Flatbush Avenue, may have one of the most aggressive marketing campaigns for a Brooklyn property ever. A lot of Brooklyn residents have lent their to the effort and they’re showing up everywhere.–Curbed

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The second Oro tower isn’t going to include a condo-hotel and about 100,000 square feet will be trimmed from the size of the building. The original plan was for a 38-story, 344,992-square-foot tower with a hotel. Hilton was said to have been interested in Brooklyn’s first condo-hotel.–Brownstoner

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