And in this case, on N. 9 Street, it seems to have done just that. With that, we conclude our broadcast day.

Court and Montague Streets circa 1927.

Those crazy Carroll Gardens residents are not into forgiving and forgetting. Some are still peeved about last week’s decision by the Board of Standards and Appeals that let the 360 Smith Building rise to 70 feet instead of the 55 feet allowed by current zoning. This came our way from Art Dog, who had a big role in creating what we used to fondly call the Democracy Wall at the 360 site.

Can you feel the joy, friends? Actually, we put this up because of the music, which almost caused us to wet ourselves.

In these trying financial times in a city with exorbitant rent prices that rarely falter, we’re all looking for an easy way out of deciding if we’re going to pay that cell phone bill, rent or get another night of drinking in at the local watering hole. Some of us, however, don’t have the financial woes and are just looking for an easy fantasy to come true instead. Here, for instance, is a Burg CL Casual Encounter that seeks to combine well, real estate and a little bit of master and servant stuff:

Free Rent for a submissive girl in need - m4w - 38 (Williamsburg)

Ok I know what I have to offer isn’t for everyone and for this I am sorry but what I am offering is for a submissive girl who is just tired of paying rent. I have a big loft in Williamsburg and I have a room available. Now I work all the time and am out of town allot so I have no time to find a girlfriend nor do I want one. What I am looking for is a playful submissive that will exchange her generosity for rent. So if you need to catch up, save money, or just tired of paying rent drop me a line.

Sigh. If only I were single and on the hunt for an adult trust fund hipster… and could submit. Also, does the submission stuff involve housework?
–Vaduzuvunt

Look it’s a recession, friends. Why spend more money in Manhattan when you can do it cheaper here right in your very own Park Slope? Huh? Huh?

Frankly, we liked our rides on it better in summer, but there is something evocative and moving about the wheel just turning. Captain Nemo who shot the vid swears there was no one in the park operating the wheel and that the cross that is placed atop it every holiday season is already there.

M&S Meat on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, which is the successor to A&S up the street, which is now closed, is on its way. We stuck our camera inside the other day for a look at the current state of affairs, as well as the huge space the new shop will be occupying.

· Bus Driver Murdered in Bed-Stuy [NYT]
· Suspect in Custody in Murder of Driver [NYDN]
· Times Columnist Says Send the Nets to Newark [AYR]
· 348 Sackett’s Long Dormant Construction Site [PMFA]
· Weird Vermont Market & Pharmacy Now Has Scaffolding [Lost City]
· National Grid Loses a Truck on Atlantic Ave. [McBrookyln]
· Best Subway Announcer. Ever. [New York Shitty]
· Could Someone Please Consider the Horses? [Kensington Brooklyn]
· I Can Has Hipster [Free Williamsburg]

Just don’t tell any of the handball players or skateboarders that have been using the Terrapin Playground, which we call the Boymelpark, for the last couple of weeks that the park doesn’t officially open until tomorrow. (Only the dog owners seem to have been kept out.) But it does. The official ribbon cutting and dedication of the long-delayed restoration work on J.J. Byrne Park’s Terrapin Playground takes place tomorrow (12/3). There’s a skate park, two new basketball courts, six handball courts and a new dog run. Apparently the park will also officially be renamed Washington Park with the playground becoming JJ Byrne Playground. Among the mysteries that remain: how long before condo owners at the Novo Park Slope go apeshit over the noise from the skatepark, handball courts and dog run. Also, will Sanitation Workers be allowed to continue their VERY early morning handball games featuring, shall we say, intense competition and colorful language. Also, how many years will it take to install lights in the new Boymelpark? Yes, some genius designed a park without lights, including a dog run that in winter will be used after dark. Maybe the warm glow of Novo Park Slope condo lights will keep it safe. Or, perhaps, when someone is mugged, beaten, raped or killed or the place starts attracted–shall we say–sordid activity, a decision will be made that having no lights is a boo boo of major proportions. Did someone say too fucking stupid for words? No. That wasn’t us.

The sad premature destruction of Astroland continues. These photos were captured yesterday by Captain Nemo and posted on the Coney Island Message Board. He calls the photo above “Stairway to Nowhere.” It’s not even so much that Astroland is going, it’s that there’s no need for it to go right now that makes the blood boil and that the Mayor’s protestations to the contrary, no one has lifted a finger to stop this.

We at New York Methodist Hospital understand that there has been a recent discussion about the service in the Emergency Department at NYM on the PSP listserv and that several people have posted messages that express significant concern about the care they have received and/or the attitude of the staff. The Hospital has been invited to respond by the PSP Advisory Board and we are grateful for the opportunity. We take community comments very seriously and were especially disturbed that, in many cases, there was a sense that the staff of the Emergency Department did not seem to care about the feelings of the patients or their family members. That is inexcusable and, to the extent that it is the case, we will make every effort to address it.

In the past few years, partially in response to a flurry of postings on the PSP listserv in 2005, we have made many changes in our ED. Chief among these was the renovation and expansion of the entire facility, which opened last year. The new ED has a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Room and a private suite for women with obstetric or gynecological problems and is 50 percent larger than the previous ED.

We also added ED physicians and ED staff in our Patient Relations Department and implemented an ED patient survey, administered and analyzed by an independent market research organization. This has allowed us to focus on specific complaints and to monitor our progress. When letters of complaint come in to me or to the director of patient relations, the chairman of emergency medicine or the senior vice president for nursing, they are shared with all involved and thoroughly discussed before a response (both in the form of an answer to the letter-writer and a possible change in policy, procedures and/or counseling of an individual staff member) is determined.

That said, the readers of this listserv need to be aware that emergency rooms, especially those in a city like New York, do best when the care needed is for a condition that is truly emergent—life threatening. We have had some wonderful letters of thanks from individuals whose lives were saved in our ED. Often, those lives are saved because doctors and nurses divert their attention from other patients, some of who may be extremely uncomfortable, but who are not in life-threatening situations. This kind of decision is often necessary and appropriate in an emergency room. Judging an emergency room by the amount of time that you wait on any particular visit may do it a great injustice.

Sometimes we don’t know whether our symptoms are life threatening. Or, we know that an acutely painful condition is not life threatening, but still go to the ER because no other medical care is available. The ER is there for cases like this as well, but anyone not in an emergent condition needs to understand that, while we try to avoid long waits, they do sometimes occur.

It may also be helpful for you to know that alternative help may be available and accessible—for example, it may be much more expeditious to take a child with a need for stitches on the chin or forehead to a neighborhood plastic surgeon or to take one who may have a broken foot directly to an orthopedic surgeon. However, because of liability issues, once you come to an ED, neither the triage nurse, nor any other staff member can direct you out of that ED to a private doctor.

A physician referral service (accessible by area of specialty) is available at 718 499-CARE or at www.nym.org. In addition, we have a pediatric urgent care center, staffed by a pediatrician, that is available weekday evenings between 6 and 11 p.m., at 263 Seventh Avenue (between Fifth and Sixth Streets).

In the fall of 2005, the Hospital hosted a session for interested parents at which members of the ED staff (in particular, our chief of pediatric emergency medicine) spoke about the NYM Emergency Department, and at which parents had the opportunity to ask questions,voice concerns and tour the ED. Clearly it is time for us to schedule another meeting at which the Hospital and interested community members can come together to listen to each other. We will schedule our “listening session” shortly after the holidays.

In the meantime, I hope that you will feel free to contact me (lhill@nym.org) if there isany way in which I can assist you or if you have any questions you would like to ask.You may also want to contact Joanne Lagnese, Director
of Patient Relations, atjor9006@nyp.org.

Sincerely,

Lyn S. Hill
Vice President of Communication and External Affairs
New York Methodist Hospital
TEL 718/780-3301 FAX 718 780-5226

There you have it. Happy holidays and we’ll have a chat after that (which hopefully will be open to the ENTIRE community.)

One word: genius.

No words necessary other than the title, we think.

–E.C. Stephens

This is 33 Flatbush Avenue on September 8, 1936.

Back in May, we noted that the “mystery of what will end up in the big lot at Metropolitan and Marcy Avenues has been solved by a sign.” The sign announced it would be the future location of a Capital One Bank branch. Nothing has happened on the site since, other than that the weeds had a chance to do nicely during the summer months and the construction fence has been wide open for all wishing to use the lot (which used to be a gas station) for recreational purposes. (Also, the dry cleaning plant next door burned down.) Last time we checked, Capital one was still one of the handful of banks that existed, although we’re not clear how much of a government bailout its gotten. It was signficiant because it would have been the first branch of a big bank on the west side of the BQE in Williamsburg, although it’s still not close enough to Bedford Avenue to pose a serious challenge to bodega ATMs (which have multiplied by a factor of 50 in the interrim). The branch niche was supposed to be filled by a Commerce Bank, although they’re now TD North and the building where it would go has been a skeleton since 2006 and is on-and-off a threat to public safety with open fences off Bedford Ave. leading to one-story drops to the basement. But we digress. What are the odds this puppy will ever be built and what bank will it end up being, other the than the Federal Reserve, which should own ever bank by this time next year.

And, now, a selection of musical happenings between today and Wednesday:

Monday 12/1/08
The Bell House: OUTSMARTED – Music Trivia Night (In the Front Lounge) Hosted by Conrad of Takka Takka & Sara Schaefer. Free!!! 8:00pmpm

Jalopy: Country Blues Jam: Bring you fiddle, accordion, banjo, washtub, mandolin, guitar, or maybe even spoons and participate in an open jam session. Free!! 9:30pm

Tuesday 12/2/08
Bar 4: Open Mike Night: Hosted by Tanya Buziak.
Pre-list @ 6:15pm, Sign up @ 8:00pm, Start @ 8:30pm (mostly Singer-Songwriters) Free!!

Union Hall: Sebastien Grainger & The Mountains, Josh Reichmann (Indie Rock) $10, 7:30pm

Barbes: Slavic Soul Party (Funk/Gypsy-Jazz/Balkan/Soul) $10, 9:00pm

Wednesday 12/3/08
Music Hall of Williamsburg: Boris (Melodic Japanese Experimental Rock) $15, 9:00pm

–E.C. Stephens

We have utterly nothing to add except to point out the rat poison sign on the upper left.

One place that seemed to be drawing the crowds this post-Turkey Day weekend was the brand new DII closeout center occupying a prime piece of commercial space at the corner of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue in the Slope. DII is brought to us by the people at Dee and Dee, which once had a spot further south on Fifth Ave. that begat a Bank of America Branch. The current space meanwhile had been an Eckerd Drugs, but it closed when the chain was purchased by Rite Aid, which itself is already a block away. Brownstoner originally noted the coming of the DII back on November 11. And here we are full of closeouts in time for a very shaky holiday.

There’s very little you can say about pics like this but we do enjoy the “Incorporated 1886″ remaining on the old window of what must have once been a gorgeous building.