01/16/13 12:58pm

As President Obama calls for action on guns today, mothers, fathers, children and concerned citizens will join the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens Chapters of One Million Moms For Gun Control (@1MM4GC) in a symbolic march across the Brooklyn Bridge, followed by a rally in City Hall Park, to call for new gun control legislation and a sensible interpretation of the Second Amendment, on Monday, January 21, 2013. The event will begin at 9:15 a.m. at the corner of Middagh Street and Cadman Plaza West with brief remarks and a moment of silence led by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. At 9:35 a.m. the march will begin across the Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway and end at City Hall. The rally on the steps of City Hall will run from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m.

WHEN: January 21, 2013

  • 9:15 a.m. – Group gathers at Cadman Plaza
  • 9:20 a.m. – Moment of Silence
  • 9:35 a.m. – March across Brooklyn Bridge begins
  • 10:30 a.m. – Rally in City Hall Park
  • 11:30 a.m. – Event ends

WHERE: Rally Begins at corner of Middagh and Cadman Plaza West (Brooklyn Heights)
Proceeds across Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway
Ends at City Hall Steps

07/03/12 4:36pm


(Photo by Chuck Taylor for Brooklyn Heights Blog)

From Senator Daniel Squadron’s office:

State Senator Daniel Squadron will join Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) President Regina Myer, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy (BBPC) Executive Director Nancy Webster, Assemblymember Joan Millman, Councilmember Steve Levin, and a representative from Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s office to cut the ribbon on the new Pop-Up Pool at Pier 2, Friday at 9:45AM.

Senator Squadron secured the addition of a pool in BBP for at least five summers as part of the August 2011 agreement to move the park forward, along with Assembymember Joan Millman and with the support of Councilmembers Steve Levin and Brad Lander.

In addition, Senator Squadron secured $400,000 in state funding for construction of the pool area, beach, concessions, and facilities, which will allow greater programming and use.

The pool will operate daily from 10:00AM to 6:00PM beginning this Friday until Labor Day. It will include a sand beach with lounge chairs and picnic tables, concessions, showers, and restrooms. The pool was constructed by Brooklyn Bridge Park and will be operated by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

Along with the water park at Pier 6, the pool is great for the hot summer days.

More around the web:
Brooklyn Bridge Park
Brooklyn Heights Blog
Brownstoner

01/24/12 12:01pm

Are you tired of lugging your laundry to the cleaners, especially during the cold and wet winters and muggy summers? This was the thought that SpotlessCity co-founder Sonny Bajwa had before thinking that there must be an easier way to take care of his laundry errands. So he created SpotlessCity.

SpotlessCity lets people find every dry cleaner and laundromat in their area, and schedule pickups & deliveries from the cleaner of their choice directly through the site. The pickups and deliveries are absolutely free, so customers always pay the same exact amount that they would if they dropped their clothes off at the store themselves. It’s sort of a GrubHub.com or SeamlessWeb.com for your laundry and dry cleaning.

They launched the site a few weeks ago in Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn and planning to expand to more neighborhoods throughout NYC soon. We caught up with Sonny recently:

Q: Why did you decide to start in Dumbo/BK Heights?

A: Our company is based in Downtown Brooklyn and our entire team lives in Brooklyn, so we always knew we wanted to launch the service here first. When it came to choosing neighborhoods to start in, Dumbo and Brooklyn Heights were natural choices. Even aside from being the two residential neighborhoods closest to our office, which made them convenient, a number of reasons make them a great launching pad for SpotlessCity.

Dumbo is a very entrepreneurial neighborhood that is full of professionals, which means that there are many residents who need their dry cleaning and laundry done and who are willing to try out new services online. In fact, it’s not only the residents who are entrepreneurial; we found one of our first partner dry cleaners in Dumbo — a very savvy and forward looking cleaner that was excited about being part of something new.

Brooklyn Heights is another great neighborhood with a large number of professionals, but none of the people living in those beautiful brownstones and townhouses have doormen, so they could definitely use our service.

We’re planning to expand further in these neighborhoods and then throughout NYC.

Q: How did SpotlessCity begin?

A: I came up with the idea for SpotlessCity late last year after my wife and I divided up our errands and I got stuck with taking care of the dry cleaning. I noticed pretty quickly that while I was out lugging laundry down the street in the snow, she was able to handle all of her errands — like getting the groceries and ordering dinner — by curling up with her laptop and placing orders online. Naturally, I tried to trade chores, but when she wouldn’t let me, I just kept thinking, “why can’t I do this errand online too?”

I ran the idea by some friends, started doing research and talking to dry cleaners. Pretty soon, we got a team together and raised some seed money. Now we’re proud to welcome everyone to SpotlessCity!

Q: What are the challenges you are or will face in growing SpotlessCity?

A: When trying to launch a lean startup, every day brings new challenges that we have to figure out how to tackle! I’ll share a couple —

First: getting our message across to customers effectively. Explaining our concept has been a little trickier than we thought, perhaps because it’s new. Some people confuse us with “Internet dry cleaners” — companies that have swapped a brick-and-mortar storefront for a website. They’re essentially dry cleaners on the Internet competing with local dry cleaners.

We don’t compete with local dry cleaners, we partner with them. In fact, we don’t actually do any dry cleaning or laundry. We’re more of a SeamlessWeb of dry cleaning and laundry. Our mission is to help local dry cleaners connect with their customers online, and let people choose a dry cleaner and schedule their pickup and delivery online.

Second: communicating with some dry cleaners. Earlier this year, we hit the streets and started talking to dry cleaners to get feedback on our idea and whether it was something they’d be interested in signing up for. We learned pretty quickly that a huge number of New York dry cleaners are originally from Korea and weren’t interested in talking to what they perceived to be door-to-door salesmen (I guess that’s what we looked like!).

After getting the cold shoulder a few times, we stopped and recruited a Korean-American friend to come out with us on our research trip. Before we knew it, he was chatting it up with the dry cleaners in Korean, shaking hands with them, and we got all the feedback we wanted.


Congrats to Sonny and SpotlessCity on their launch. If you want to try out their service, you can get 10% off their dry cleaning and laundry with this code: DumboNYCReaders (valid until 1/31/2012 + pickups & deliveries are ALWAYS free). Also see BrooklynHeightsBlog’s article about them.

01/10/12 2:16pm

30 Henry Street

(30 Henry Street)

(231 Front Street)

The Landmark Preservation Commission reviewed proposed changes for 231 Front Street (Vinegar Hill) and 30 Henry Street (Brooklyn Heights) in today’s meeting. No word yet on the results.

231 Front Street is an Early 20th Century commercial style factory building, designed by William B. Tubby, and built in 1908. The application is to alter the façade, rebuild entrance stairs, and install a canopy. Brownstoner mentioned in October 2011 that the plans for 231 Front Street is to convert the building into office space. (BIS for 231 Front Street)

30 Henry Street aka 28-30 Henry Street is a building reconstructed in 1963 as a factory and store building. The application is to demolish the building and construct a new building. As the Brooklyn Eagle has reported, the proposed new building will be five stories and will contain six residential units with balconies. Additionally, the building will contain underground parking and outdoor space with a waterfall. Currently, the building is home to Brooklyn Daily Eagle.


(Photo from Brownstoner).

12/23/11 12:59pm

 

If you haven’t subscribed to Brooklyn Magazine and you’re a fan of Brooklyn, I recommend it for the articles. In the latest issue (Winter 2011), there’s an article about Brian Leth, Vinegar Hill House’s executive chef since 2009. We love the fresh ingredients in the dishes there, so it makes sense that writer Aleksa Brown follows him one day from the farmer’s market to the restaurant to watch him create one of his signature dishes, day boat hake. Vinegar Hill House is one of our favorite things around Dumbo. Dinners are well known, but they have an excellent brunch on the weekends too.

Brooklyn Magazine also has a “Neighborhood Power Rankings” piece. There are more than 20 neighborhoods in Brooklyn, but they also mean this to be a fun tongue-in-cheek way to show what’s going on in certain neighborhoods. Their disclaimer: “A 100 percent true and scientific analysis based on various and sundry criteria.”

They said this about Dumbo in this issue: “The repaving of Washington Street with new Belgian blocks is finally, finally finishing up, but now Phase II begins: more street work on Front Street near York, and the demapping of Anchorage Place to enlarge the Pearl Street Triangle.”


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Ok, go subscribe at Brooklyn Magazine.

12/05/11 11:38am

Plymouth School in Brooklyn Heights
Entrance through Beecher Garden
Orange Street between Hicks and Henry Streets
Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 5th and 6th, 2011
8:30a-3:30p

Vendors include:

  • One Girl Cookies
  • Joe’s coffee
  • Tata Harper Skincare (will be giving mini facials)
  • Anais&i (girls clothing)
  • Local designers like Odette Williams (makes amazingly cute silkscreened aprons with little mitts)
  • Handblocked baby quilts from Muny design
  • Discounts to PinholePress.com
  • Beautiful things from Erica Tanov
  • Two Organic Tees
  • plush baby blankets and khadi covered Love India guide books (twonewyork.com).
  • Hand dyed silk lavender sachets & makeup bags from Gift Shop Brooklyn
  • Lotta Jansdotter will have totes and home linens in her original designed fabrics.

A percentage of proceeds go towards the scholarship fund at Plymouth School.