Brooklyn Today: ‘We need to talk more, not yell.’

October 7, 2019 Brooklyn Today

Kings Theatre was derelict and abandoned for decades; now it’s in great shape. Eagle photo by Lore Croghan

Kings Theatre. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

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THE LEDE: Happy Monday! Following last month’s contentious town hall on Industry City’s rezoning, residents gathered on Thursday for a “Public Speak Out” to candidly express their opinions on the controversial proposal. Though the room was evenly split between those who supported the plan and those who rejected it, there was a common theme: a call for unity.

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THE RUNDOWN

~ PACIFIC PARK-ATLANTIC YARDS AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS TOO EXPENSIVE, ADVOCATES SAY: As Pacific Park’s 2025 deadline for affordable housing construction looms, local leaders are pushing for changes to the 22-acre mega-project’s development plans.

~ SUNSET PARK RESIDENTS CALL FOR UNITY WITH INDUSTRY CITY EXPANSION PLAN: The night marked a clear shift in the nature of the conversation, as denizens, fed up with yelling, pushed for more civil discussions. “We need to work together to make it a better plan, not just constantly screaming at each other,” said one resident.

~ CONSTRUCTION CARS CAUSING LONGER COMMUTES FOR R TRAIN RIDERS: POLS: Work underway to better the subway is having an inverse effect along the R line in southern Brooklyn, according to some riders and their elected officials.

~ BROOKLYN BUS OVERHAUL HITS SPEED BUMP WITH COMMUNITY OUTRAGE: A recent unveiling of the MTA’s “Fast Forward: Brooklyn Network Redesign” plan was met with immediate concerns as local stakeholders questioned the plan’s outreach efforts — a series of 10 open houses — that community leaders say leave their neighborhoods out of the conversation.

~ GOURMET GROCERY STORE BROOKLYN HARVEST MARKET COMING TO SITE OF OLD WILLIAMSBURG WHITE CASTLE: Brooklyn Harvest Market — a high-end supermarket with three other locations — is coming to 781 Metropolitan Ave. The space will have a butcher, seafood counters and made-in-Brooklyn specialty foods.

~ BROOKLYN MUSEUM DEBUTS MASSIVE EXHIBITION FROM MYSTERIOUS ARTIST JR: “JR: Chronicles,” now on view at the Brooklyn Museum, features work from JR, a French muralist, photographer and filmmaker who’s been pushing the boundaries of street art for more than 15 years while staying largely out of the media spotlight.

~ THE FUTURE OF FARMING: HOW URBAN AGRICULTURE COULD MAKE BIG MONEY: Downtown Brooklyn may seem like an unlikely staging ground for the future of farming — but at Gotham Market Hall in late September, 75 attendees at a “Shark Tank”-style pitch contest bore witness to just that.

~ MALLIOTAKIS FIRES AIDE ARRESTED IN ALLEGED BETTING SCHEME: Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis said she moved swiftly to fire a newly hired aide after the employee was arrested Thursday for allegedly being part of a mob-related scheme on Staten Island involving fixing college basketball games.

MORE BROOKLYN NEWS

~ A man was seen fishing in the Gowanus Canal. (PMFA)

~ Here’s a look inside Brooklyn’s tallest office building. (Curbed)

~ “Package free shop gets $4.5 million to save the world one biodegradable vibrator at a time” (Bedford + Bowery)

STAFF PICKS

~ READ: Take a look at “the full transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s leaked internal Facebook meetings” (The Verge)

~ EAT: Birds of a Feather, a new Sichuan restaurant in Williamsburg, is all the rage. We recommend the pork wontons in chile oil. (NYT)

~ CARTOON: Introducing the first female president. (The Week)

~ SPORTS: Ever wonder how a football is made? It starts on a farm, goes to a factory, and ends on a field. (SI)

WHAT’S HAPPENING

6:00PM – 8:00PM — The BQE in Context: Communities, Infrastructure and Public Space at Center for Architecture. Details.

7:30PM — Robert De Niro in Conversation with Robert Storr: My Father, the Artist at 92nd Street Y. Details.

7:30PM — Black Thought: The Art of News at National Sawdust. Details.

THE WRAP

⌛ ON THIS DAY
In 1941, the Brooklyn Eagle reported, “Groping for an explanation, we advanced a theory today to the Weather Man that perhaps the unseasonable heat had been generated by the World Series. ‘You’ve got something there,’ that baseball fan admitted cautiously.”

📔 IMPRINT
Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne grace the November cover of Vogue U.K.

👑 ROYAL WATCH
“This member of the royal family was thought to be bisexual” (Cosmopolitan)

🏒 SPORTS
Trotz: Offense not a concern for Islanders

BIRTHDAYS

Happy birthday to Yo-Yo Ma, Desmond Tutu, Simon Cowell, Toni Braxton, Matt Bomer, Joy Behar, John Mellencamp, Thomas Keneally, Thom Yorke, Charles Dutoit and Shawn Ashmore!