Brooklyn Today May 31: O Whitman! Our Whitman!

May 31, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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THE LEDE: Happy 198th birthday to iconic poet and former Eagle editor Walt Whitman! In today’s briefing, read all about the man who penned the timeless “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Then, after a dry spell, the mermaids are officially returning to Coney Island, and the effects of the impending 15-month L train shutdown will have farther-reaching effects for the borough than anticipated…and the same can be said for Trump’s crackdown on crime. Then, Red Hook has a new working class hero, and the NYPD solicits the public’s help after a Brooklyn Heights jewelry store robbery. Finally, ICYMI, the old Brooklyn Paramount Theatre gets a major makeover, and the selfie snappers are flocking to a new DUMBO location. Eat a slice of cake for Walt today!

IMPRINT: We all want cookies, thanks to the cover of The Gourmand from the UK.

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The Rundown

~O WHITMAN! OUR WHITMAN!: Walt Whitman, a poet, essayist, journalist and one-time editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, was born on this day in 1819 in West Hills, New York. He may not have been born in Brooklyn, but Whitman is inextricably linked to the borough through his essays and poetry, especially his iconic “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” which was written years before the existence of the Brooklyn Bridge. Read up on Whitman’s Brooklyn legacy… After all, he wrote, “I too lived —Brooklyn, of ample hills, was mine.” And we in Brooklyn are proud to say that one of the greatest poets who ever lived was ours. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

~THE MERMAIDS ARE COMING: After narrowly avoiding death by financial drowning, Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade is back on solid ground, thanks to two major private donations and a “Feed the Mermaids” crowdfunding project. The parade will float through Coney Island on June 17…and while you’re there, you can check out the Coney Island Museum’s expanded wing devoted to vintage pinball, and get your daily splash of color at Coney Art Walls mural project, which just opened for the summer and features 33 installations by a range of international artists. (via Bedford + Bowery and Brownstoner)

~WHAT THE L SHUTDOWN MEANS FOR REAL ESTATE: In anticipation of 15 months sans L train, developers are scouting properties along the G, M and J/Z lines. The trend may have been heading in that direction anyway, but developers say the impending L-pocalypse has been drawing buyers’ eyes away from the waterfront quicker than usual. So, get ready, Greenpointers. Chris Cavorti, an associate broker with the Corcoran Group, told the NYT, “Greenpoint has always been standing on its own…The shutdown will just push it over the edge into higher price points.” (via the NYT)

~WHAT TRUMP’S CRIME CRACKDOWN MEANS FOR NYC: A new memo issued by AG Jeff Sessions implores prosecutors to go after “the most serious, readily provable offense,” in sharp opposition to former AG Eric Holder’s instructions to use general discretion in a “Smart on Crime” approach. Under Holder’s memo, many low-level NYC drug dealers avoided what advocates considered excessively stern minimum sentences. But they say Sessions’ policy could result in harsher penalties for those kinds of offenses, and indicate a return to the “tough on crime” days…and sky-high prison populations. (via City Limits)

~RED HOOK’S NEW WORKING CLASS HERO: Real estate investment firm Sitex Group will rent six recently purchased industrial properties in Red Hook to blue-collar businesses. The seller of the properties, high profile developer Est4te Four, was going to tear the buildings down and construct a fancy office complex for techies and creatives…but the sale is promising news for everybody who hopes that blue-collar job-generating businesses won’t be driven out of Red Hook by upscale development. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

~ICYMI//NEW LIFE FOR THE PARAMOUNT: The first theatre in the world designed to show talking movies aims to reclaim its “rightful splendor.” The Brooklyn Paramount Theatre will undergo a $50 million renovation starting in the fall, slated to last just shy of two years. The transformed theatre will hold 3,000 people…a far cry from when the Paramount originally opened in 1928 as a live performance venue. Check out some photos of the theatre then, and renderings of the venue of the future. (via BKLYNER)

~THE NYPD WANTS YOUR HELP: The NYPD is asking for the public’s help in identifying four men who carried out a violent robbery at a jewelry store on Court Street in Brooklyn Heights last week. The men, who were decked out in construction gear, hurled over the turnstiles at the Borough Hall subway station and hopped on a train. Here are the details. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

~PHOTOS OF THE DAY: The selfie-snappers are migrating. Sure, the iconic view in DUMBO on the corner of Washington and Water streets will likely live on in the Selfie Hall of Fame, but the newly opened rooftop public space atop Empire Stores is drawing droves of selfie snappers (and sunbathers) for its eye-popping views. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

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Staff Picks

CULTURE: Happy birthday to our main man, Walt Whitman! Tonight at 6:30pm, St. Francis College will sponsor a free reception and walking tour to celebrate his life, including a stop at the shop where “Leaves of Grass” was first printed. (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

LISTEN: Can’t get enough Whitman? Jon Hamm brings to life the great poet’s long-lost novel “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle” in a new audiobook. (via WaPo)

READ + LOOK: From the food trucks of New York to the fancy, in-house canteens of Berlin to the lightening-quick delivery of Shanghai, this is how the working world eats lunch. (via the WSJ)

INTERVIEW: Elena Ferrante (belatedly) pipes up about the HBO adaptation of “My Brilliant Friend.” (via the NYT)

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: In a continuation of some 2016 trends, “Black Voters Aren’t Turning Out For the Post-Obama Democratic Party”…The classic box of Crayola will soon feature the first newly-created blue pigment in 200 years, which was accidentally discovered in a chemistry lab at Oregon State University…”You’re Not Imagining It: Your Allergies Really Are Worse This Year,” largely thanks to a very fickle end to winter…And how much of a difference does one year of “academic-oriented preschool” make? A big one, according to a new national study. (via FiveThirtyEight, Hyperallergic, WNYC and the NYT)

FOREIGN FLASH: A truck bombing during the morning rush hour in Kabul leaves at least 80 dead and hundreds wounded…Often deemed the “world’s nicest prisons,” can we learn a thing or two from the way Norway puts people behind bars?…POTUS must decide this week whether to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Accord on climate change, and some warn that his decision could spark a domino effect into a climate “danger zone”. (via the NYT, The Economist and Bloomberg)

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ROYAL WATCH: You can now rock The Middleton dress, for the royal sum of £2,150. (via Grazia Daily)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT

6:00pm – Entrepreneurship Course: Business Plan Writing at Co-Lab Factory. Details.

6:00pm – Bellevue Literary Review Spring Issue Reading at Bellevue Hospital. Details.

6:00pm – Brooklyn Uncorked at Industry City. Details.

6:30pm – Eat, Drink & Be Literary at BAMCafe Live. Details.

7:00pm – Gowanus: The Past and Future of Brooklyn’s Curious Canal at Prospect Heights Brainery. Details.

7:00pm – World Science Festival: The House of Tomorrow: Buckminster Fuller and the Science of Sustainable Design with Ellen Burstyn at the Museum of the Moving Image. Details.

7:00pm – Book Launch: “Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America” with Michael Ruhlman in conversation with Michael Moss at PowerHouse Arena. Details.

7:30pm – Guerrilla Lit Reading Series at Dixon Place. Details.

7:30pm – Selected Shorts: Shaken and Stirred with Amy Stewart at Symphony Space. Details.

8:00pm – Drunk Science Presents: Tuberculosis at Littlefield. Details.

8:00pm – Aunty Donna at The Bell House. Details.

8:00pm – Kevin Barnes at Union Pool. Details.

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ON THE PITCH: The Cosmos did everything right on Saturday, except put the ball in the back of the net. The statistics showed that New York was the better team, but the score said it was even as the Cosmos tied the San Francisco Deltas 0-0 in their return to Coney Island. “We always want to get three points, but more important than that is the fact that we are getting closer to our true identity,” said Cosmos head coach Giovanni Savarese. “That gives us a good feeling about the future.” (via the Brooklyn Daily Eagle)