Dumbo has been written up in a few media outlets lately and wanted to compile in this post.

Dumbo was ranked 12 in The L Magazine’s 13 ‘most livable neighborhoods in Brooklyn’. The list included subjective rankings (graded on a scale of 0 to 10) on access, affordability, green space, culture, food, nightlife, and architecture. Since Dumbo is one of the most expensive neighborhood in NYC, affordability is 0. Culture, access, greenspace ranked high. Food is ranked a 5, but we think the food options are getting better. (We’ll post more on Dumbo food news soon.) If you’re wondering, #1 in the rankings is Fort Greene/Clinton Hill. Read about the other neighborhoods on The L Magazine.

(from WSJ)

The Wall Street Journal must love Dumbo, since they’ve published articles on Dumbo’s media agencies and tech companies, real estate vacancy rates, Gran Electrica, photo district status, NY Photo Festival, NYC tech boom, another tech company article, and even Chumbo, the Manhattan side of Dumbo.

The latest article discusses how Dumbo has grown up, sort of:

The charms of Dumbo as a spacious, relatively affordable, convenient, scenic and artsy neighborhood have made it the New York of Hollywood—a destination for wedding shots, music videos, television shows and movies.

But the section of Brooklyn, located mostly between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, is continuing to come into its own with restaurants, businesses and even quirky operating routines reflecting its popularity as an artists’ enclave.

Indeed, Dumbo has taken flight.

“We kind of think of it as what I imagine SoHo was like in the ’70s or ’80s,” said John Watkinson, 36 years old, who co-founded Docracy, a Dumbo company that provides legal documents and legalese workshops, mostly for the neighborhood’s sizable population of freelance web developers, writers and artists. “It is professional with skinny jeans,” he said. “It is for when the kids from Williamsburg get jobs, real jobs.”

They mention Singularity & Co as a business that bridges the professional and artistic community and compare Dumbo to the East Coast version of San Francisco’s Presidio. “And businesses such as Recycle-A-Bicycle, Rabbit Hole Yoga or Possum Paint Studio play into that.”

Time Out New York asked us for a few favorite spots in Dumbo in an article about the best of Brooklyn. I mentioned Zakka, Brooklyn Roasting Company, Shibui, and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Finally The Real Deal published an article in the October 2012 issue on NYC’s neighborhood blogs and how the smart real estate pros read hyperlocal news to keep up with building and neighborhood information. Fellow bloggers Brownstoner, EV Grieve, F’d in Park Slope, Bowery Boogie, Brooklyn Heights Blog, Pardon Me For Asking, West Side Rag, Queen’s Crap, and Ditmas Park Patch were featured (with DumboNYC too).

(Preview of www.codexdynamic.com)

Preparations for this weekend’s Dumbo Arts Fest have begun. For the weekend, Dumbo will be transformed with art on almost every part of the neighborhood. Festival officials are expecting over 225,000 people for the 3 day arts festival. The Festival will showcase installations in stores, lobbies, scaffolding, and alleyways, performances and exhibits on more than 50 stages, and tours of 100 open artist studios.

“The 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival will bring the entire neighborhood to life, transforming its streets, parks, bridges, buildings, waterfront, and even sky into canvasses, stages, exhibition spaces,” said Lisa Kim, Festival Director. “Best of all, it is completely free, enabling everyone to experience extraordinary local, national, and international art at a price that can’t be beat.”

Highlights of the 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival, which is presented by Presenting Sponsor AT&T and Two Trees Management, include:

• Superhero, an interactive projection mapping experience in which festival-goers exhibit superpowers, including flying over the multi-story façade of Empire Stores, shifting their size, throwing light beams, and more. Created by Wildbytes, Superhero is the 2012 AT&T Signature Artwork.
• Codex Dynamic (Leo Kuelbs and John Ensor Parker, curators) is a large-scale video projection exhibition presented on the Manhattan Bridge Anchorage and Archway. Featuring video artworks by internationally renowned video artists, the exhibition is epic-size eye candy that transforms space, time, and our perceived reality.
• Bureau of Apologies 2.0 (Brent Birnbaum): At The Bureau of Apology, participants fill out cards with a series of questions and then drop them in a locked box. Stop by and leave feeling better about yourself.
• Inverted Sky (Erika Harrsch) – Taking place in the sky above Brooklyn Bridge Park, this musical performance will feature kites made of banknotes from different countries transformed into beautiful butterflies
• Tidal Voyage (Nathaniel Lieb) – A floating sculptural garden in the East River featuring large, reflective sculptures including a golden water lily, a disco ball and a satellite
• Bartertown (The Heather Hart Experience) – Participants haggle for something they want their own ideas, services, songs, stories, unwanted goods, handmade art, appliances, or anything they think may hold value.
• Flex is Kings Live – Flex is Kings LIVE is a rare chance to experience the excitement and power of the underground street dance culture of “Flex”. Flex is an East Brooklyn born dance movement made up of many unique styles. This will mark their first public stage performance with Juillard Faculty Jerome Begin and Electro-Cellist Chrissy Lancaster of Tranimal backing them with their quirky eccentric blend of beats bleeps and strings.
• First time this year, the festival is partnering with the Children’s Museum of the Arts to offer a wide-range of family art projects, free-form activities, media workshops, and exhibits themed around the DUMBO Waterfront, including a carousel-making workshop inspired by the beloved local landmark Jane’s Carousel.

The full Festival schedule can be found here. For the latest updates on artists and exhibitors, follow the festival on Facebook and Twitter (@dumboartsfest).

What: The 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival
When: Friday, September 28th to Sunday, September 30th
Time: Friday, September 28th – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, September 29th – 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, September 30th – 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
All outdoor projections are open from 6 p.m. to midnight all three nights.
Cost: Free
Where: Spans the neighborhood of DUMBO, Brooklyn, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, including the waterfront.
Web: www.dumboartsfestival.com

About the video:
Returning this year is “Codex Dynamic,” a massive projection on the Manhattan Bridge as part of the Dumbo Arts Festival. The same artists brought last year’s “Immersive Surfaces.”

Projected on up to 33,000 continuous sq. feet of the Manhattan Bridge Anchorage and Archway in Dumbo, Brooklyn. “Codex Dynamic” is curated by Leo Kuelbs and John Ensor Parker, and will be presented from 8pm-12am during Dumbo Arts Festival, September 28-30.

Filming in Dumbo Brooklyn today (and tomorrow, September 26) is The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, which stars Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, and Robin Williams. The comedy/drama’s storyline: “A guy tries to determine what he will do in the final moments of his life.” Filming is on Washington Street, Plymouth Street, Adams Street, Jay Street.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

Brooklyn Magazine’s Neighborhood Power Rankings are out, and Dumbo moves up two spots to #6. They write, “The rents are still bonkers high, but interesting retail (surfboards!) and restaurants (Governor!) are still opening.”

Our beloved neighbor in Brooklyn Heights moved down a notch to #12 because of hot dog gate. Says Brooklyn Magazine, “When a hot-dog cart set-up on Mongague Street in June, residents responded on a local blog as though homeless junkies had burned down their homes. A hot-dog cart!”

In the latest issue (Fall 2012), articles include the new sci-fi bookshop in Dumbo, Singularity & Co, Brooklyn’s best local coffee roasters, and Brooklyn’s Tastemakers.

 [+] larger

Subscribe at Brooklyn Magazine.

Previously:
{Brooklyn Magazine’s Neighborhood Power Rankings (Winter 2011)}

Filming in Dumbo Brooklyn today on John, Pearl, Front, Washington, Bridge, and York Streets is Golden Boy. Golden Boy is a TV drama “about the making of a man that tracks one cop’s meteoric rise from officer to detective to police commissioner.”

If you have further questions, you can contact their Locations Manager at 347-599-1486.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

The Following, a TV series (thriller) is filming in Dumbo Brooklyn today and tomorrow, September 5-6, 2012 around Adams Street, Water Street, and Front Street.

If you have further questions, you can contact their Locations Manager Chris George at 917-671-5502.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

(Photo courtesy of dumboartsfestival.com)

The 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival will take place from September 28 – 30, 2012. Like the previous Dumbo Arts Fests, the event takes place in the entire neighborhood of Dumbo Brooklyn for three days, transforming its streets, parks, bridges, buildings, loading docks, galleries, and studios into canvasses, stages, exhibition spaces. There will be unexpected installations and interactive social experiments. The lineup for this year’s festival, which will showcase more than 500 artists, 100 studios, and 50 galleries and stages, will be announced in the coming weeks.

The festival organizers are expecting 225,000 visitors over the three days.

From the DAF12 press center:

• First time this year, the festival will partner with the Children’s Museum of the Arts to expand its family programming, offering kids of all ages a variety of art projects, free-form activities, media workshops, and exhibits themed around the DUMBO Waterfront, including a carousel-making workshop inspired by the beloved local landmark Jane’s Carousel.
• Returning for a second year as the Festival’s presenting sponsor, AT&T will once again sponsor a Signature Art Work, which will be announced in the coming weeks. Last year’s piece by artists Luke Skelton and Luke DuBois enabled anyone to text “love” messages, which were then projected across the historic Empire Stores building.

One of our favorite installations last year was Immersive Surfaces, which projected a video onto the Manhattan Bridge and in the Archway:

Festival hours are:

• 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28
• 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29
• 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30.

All outdoor projections are open from 6 p.m. to midnight all three nights. For more information on the Dumbo Arts Festival, go to their website at dumboartsfestival.com.

Related:
{Application for Dumbo Arts Festival 2012}
{Dumbo Arts Festival 2011}

Filming in Dumbo Brooklyn today on Adams Street (between Water and Plymouth Street) by “Paranoia Prod LLC”.

If you have further questions, you can contact their Locations Manager at 917-608-1385.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

Filming for Zero Hour, a TV series starring Jacinda Barrett, Carmen Ejogo, and Anthony Edwards will occur on Water Street between Dock and Main Streets today.

If you have further questions, you can contact their Locations Manager at 646-403-7650.

All filming posts are tagged here: DumboNYC.com/tag/filming

OPEN CALL to participate in “Stop & Think”

Blue Barn Pictures’ Photographer David Castillo is currently working with the local chapter of a global art project, BE THE CHANGE, inspired by Parisian street artist and TED prize winner JR’s INSIDE OUT PROJECT.

The task, as one of the 24+ participating cities around the world, is to take portraits of New Yorkers along with statements of “how they are being the change in the world or their city”.

The Theme for Be The Change NYC is “Stop-and-Think”, a play on the NYPD’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policy. We will ask participants to draw upon their experience with stereotyping and racial profiling to convey the subject matter through their BE THE CHANGE portraits and statements.

If you would like to participate, or just pass by to say hello, Blue Barn Pictures will be shooting right under The Archway in Dumbo. Across from 155 Water Street today, Thursday, July 12th, 2012 from 1pm till 5pm and Friday, July 13th from 10:30am till 5pm.