Brooklyn Today December 5: Should Amazon Pay for the BQX?

The Lede

Happy Wednesday! The cat cafe comes to Brooklyn Heights, a homeless woman is stabbed in Park Slope, and Melinda Katz says Amazon should pay for the BQX. Plus, three people are arrested in a violent brawl in Sunset Park, a court officer training facility is renamed, and Coney Island and Borough Park experience the most floods in the borough. Finally, the Brooklyn Museum holiday market gets panned, Shelsky’s opens a location in Park Slope, and Michelle Obama feels “at home” in Brooklyn.

Imprint

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow sucks on a popsicle on the latest cover of WSJ Magazine.

The Rundown

SHOULD AMAZON PAY FOR THE BQX?

On Monday, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz announced that Amazon — which is receiving roughly $3 billion to set up shop in Long Island City all while bypassing the city’s land use review process — has a duty to invest in its new home. Katz, who has long advocated for the arrival of Amazon, specifically said that Amazon should help fund the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector. “A substantial and meaningful investment by Amazon that helps ensure the feasibility of [the BQX] would be a fair investment into its new home and a welcome opportunity for a good corporate neighbor to directly benefit the existing, impacted communities,” Katz said. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

PRIME MONTAGUE STREET REAL ESTATE BECOMING A CAT CAFE

The adorable Brooklyn Cat Cafe is getting ready for a soft (and fluffy) opening at its new Montague Street home in Brooklyn Heights on Dec. 8. Their former cafe on Atlantic Avenue is shuttered and the kitties are helping to pack for the move to the much bigger space, formerly the Friend of a Farmer restaurant at 76 Montague St. “We’re feeling out the new space,” Rachel Foster, who runs the cat cafe with Executive Director Anne Levin, said. “People come to celebrate, to grieve, on first dates. They bring kids.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)

HOMELESS WOMAN STABBED IN PROSPECT PARK TRAIN STATION

A 36-year-old woman was stabbed and seriously injured in a Park Slope train station early Tuesday morning. The woman, who lives in a homeless shelter, was rushed to Methodist Hospital with a stab wound to the abdomen. Police are seeking three male Hispanics in connection with the stabbing. The attack occurred around 6 a.m. near the 15th Street-Prospect Park station. Police believe the incident occurred inside the station, close to where the new Nitehawk movie theater is under construction. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

THREE ARRESTED IN VIOLENT ENCOUNTER BETWEEN FEDEX DRIVERS, MEMBERS OF LOCAL MOSQUE

Three people were arrested following a brawl that broke out after a funeral in Sunset Park that pitted FedEx drivers against members of a local mosque. Authorities say that on Monday at around 12:42 p.m. a FedEx truck driver traveling northbound at Sixth Avenue and 63rd Street backed up, striking a 46-year-old pedestrian. A large group of people who were leaving a funeral at the Beit El-Maqdis Islamic Center of Bay Ridge, responded by surrounding the FedEx truck. A dispute ensued between the FedEx employees and the mourners. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

NAMING OF LONG-AWAITED COURT OFFICER TRAINING FACILITY REIGNITES ONGOING CONTROVERSY

A training facility for court officers across the state opened in Crown Heights on Monday — a deal that was nine years in the making. The corner of St. John’s Place and Classon Avenue is now home to the 60,000 square feet of classrooms, auditorium and gym of The Captain William H. Thompson, Sergeant Thomas Jurgens and Sergeant Mitchel Wallace Court Officers Academy. The facility was named in honor of the three court officers killed in the line of duty during the terror attacks on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

THESE 2 BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS ARE NOTORIOUS FOR STREET FLOODING

Two Brooklyn neighborhoods are on a list of 10 New York City areas, compiled by localize.city, that generated the most complaints about street flooding in the year leading up to the end of September. As one might guess, most of these are waterfront neighborhoods. The two Brooklyn neighborhoods that are the most flood-prone are Coney Island, which is, close to the Atlantic Ocean; and, surprisingly, land-locked Borough Park. In areas that aren’t near bodies of water such as Borough Park, the city’s infrastructure is more likely to blame. (Curbed via Brooklyn Eagle)

THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM’S HOLIDAY MARKET GETS PANNED

Winterfest in Brooklyn, a new holiday and marketplace attraction in the rear lot of the Brooklyn Museum, has been a disappointment to many visitors, with some people demanding refunds. Visitors were asked to pay as much as $70 for special events, but they sometimes found that these events were either disappointments or didn’t exit. One such disappointment, said CBS, was a tent featuring “powdered hot chocolate and a group of Christmas trees meant to be a maze.” There were also rows of shuttered vendors’ booths. (CBS via Brooklyn Eagle)

SHELSKY’S OPENS BAGEL SHOP IN PARK SLOPE

Bagels are a big part of the food served at Shelsky’s of Brooklyn in Cobble Hill, and now owner Peter Shelsky and business partner Lewis Spada are giving the ubiquitous New York staple the spotlight at the new Shelsky’s Brooklyn Bagels in Park Slope. Shelsky says he has seen a decline in bagels in the New York area in the past 30 years. His new bagel shop will use high-quality ingredients such as eggs rather than “egg shade,” an artificial color; and the sesame bagels will be enhanced with salt. It will also be serving bialys, a lesser-known cousin to the bagel. (Grub Street via Brooklyn Eagle)

MICHELLE OBAMA FEELS ‘AT HOME’ IN BROOKLYN

The crowd that gathered to see former First Lady Michelle Obama at Barclays Center on Saturday night saw another side of her. Joined by poet Elizabeth Alexander, Obama continued her “Becoming” book tour with a conversation about some of the revelations in her book, including her and Barack Obama’s experiences in marriage counseling. In addition to the heavier topics, Michelle Obama talked about some of her happiest White House moments, such as the night she and daughter Malia sneaked out to see the rainbow lights on the day the Supreme Court passed marriage equality. (Vanity Fair via Brooklyn Eagle)

Staff Picks

LONG READ

A Louisiana school captured the nation’s attention for sending underprivileged black kids to Ivy League universities, but it turns out the school actually “cut corners and doctored college applications.” (via NYT)

PROFILE

Ahead of Bruce Springsteen’s special Netflix movie, which features clips from his one-man show on Broadway, Esquire profiles the famed singer. (via Esquire)

EAT

A new wine bar in the former Prime Meats space is opening on Friday inCarroll Gardens. The menu will feature Mediterranean cuisine like roasted red peppers and anchovies, salt cod croquettes and beef carpaccio. (via Eater)

TRAVEL

36 Hours in Rome” (via NYT)

NATIONAL BULLETIN

Einstein’s “God letter” is put up for auction at Christie’s…Quora announces a massive data breach…And Walmart will introduce 360 robot cleaners(via NYT, The Verge and Bloomberg)  

FOREIGN FLASH

There’s an abundance of white truffles in Italy due to large amounts of rain…Japanese train stations use blue LED lighting to discourage suicides…And a Dutch court says a man cannot legally be listed as 20 years younger(via WSJ, CityLab and USA Today)

ROYAL WATCH

The royal family recently unveiled its Christmas decorations. They’re impressive, but the Dyker Heights lights still take the cake. (via Cosmopolitan) 

EAGLE SPORTS

The Brooklyn Nets can’t win for losing. Unless, of course, they keep losing. After suffering their season-high seventh consecutive defeat Monday night against the tanking Cleveland Cavaliers, the Nets find themselves in the hunt for the top overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, meaning they are in serious contention for the services of Duke superstar Zion Williamson(via Brooklyn Eagle)

MILESTONES

Happy birthday to Morgan Brittany, Jose Carreras, Margaret Cho, Joan Didion, Keri Hilson, Jeroen Krabbe, Little Richard, Lauren London, Jim Messina, Chad Mitchell, Art Monk, Frankie Muniz, Paula Patton and Calvin Trillin!