(Photo courtesy of NY Times)

An article in the NY Post yesterday reported a brutal barfight between party promoters a few weeks ago in Dumbo. A follow up Daily Mail article grabbed photos of the promoters. This is a throwback to the old Dumbo, except with pretty girls. For those who have been around Dumbo for a few decades, this NY Times article earlier this year is more of the old old Dumbo, when people were left in bags or on the shores of Dumbo. Ah, the good ole days of Dumbo.

(Photo above is on Plymouth Street in 1990. Here’s a Google image of the same place today.)

{dailymail.co.uk Article}
{NY Post Article on bar fight}

File this under, random street art or ‘only in Dumbo Brooklyn’.

(Photo from DUMBO Improvement District)

The DUMBO Improvement District announced today that 30 new “Hoop” racks have been installed in Dumbo this week. The DUMBO Improvement District applied to NYCDOT’s Cityracks program for the new racks last fall.

From DUMBO Improvement District:

The Hoop design was developed for NYC Cityracks by Danish designers Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve (Bettlelab) after the duo won a bike rack design competition (judged by DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Sarah Coffin & Matilda McQuaid from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and even well known cyclist and Talking Head, David Byrne.) Hoop is a round rack and horizontal crossbar that DOT says evokes an abstracted bicycle tire.

Alexandria Sica, Executive Director of the DUMBO BID and avid bike commuter, said of the new racks, “Biking is a major mode of transportation for so many of us and a key part of the DUMBO culture. Our racks have been overflowing for some time, so we’re thrilled DOT worked with us to bring more to the neighborhood. And, they look great to match your Surly.”

More detail: DUMBO Improvement District

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.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, “Chumbo” is the newest ‘remote’ and ‘cool’ neighborhood. Notwithstanding that the area is already called Two Bridges, Chumbo is the “Dumbo of Chinatown”, near the base of the Manhattan Bridge on the Manhattan side. Of course it’s not real (and probably a tongue and cheek article), but it’s sad/funny to see how people are using name of Dumbo to convey another creative, gritty, and cool area. Of course the name Dumbo was meant to be a hideous name (as told by the artists who coined the neighborhood name) to keep gentrifiers from moving in.

From the WSJ article:
“Some now call the neighborhood Chumbo, combining the names of Chinatown and its high-brow Brooklyn neighbor across the Manhattan Bridge, Dumbo.”

“The rent is cheap—about $2,900 a month for the average three-bedroom, said Sofia Song, a senior researcher at StreetEasy.com, compared to almost $7,000 a month for a comparable unit in Dumbo. And the area is reclaiming some of the edgy cool that Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Williamsburg and Bushwick have stolen from Manhattan over the past two decades.”

{Cool Arrives in a Slice of Chinatown, 01Dec2011, WSJ}
{Behold New York’s Coolest Neighborhood: ‘Chumbo’, 01Dec2011, the Atlantic}

One of the employees of PetWeb Express on 61 Pearl Street in Dumbo found a beagle wandering around the neighborhood on the morning of August 9th near Adams/Pearl Streets with no collar or tags. He’s been asking around, but unable to find the owner; though she could have been abandoned. He took her to the vet for a check up and shots. He found out she is 2 years old. If you are the owner or if you know who the owner is, please contact David at the PetWeb Express pet store on Pearl Street. His number is 718-643-3046. Please find the owner or have the dog adopted. A photo is shown above.

A few months back, I was looking to create a DumboNYC logo. Naturally, I asked around the neighborhood given the many creative directors and designers in Dumbo. There’s a lot of talent in the area. So I got in touch with Jason Carreiro, who has lived in Dumbo for over a dozen years and runs his own design studio. He designed the new logo banner inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge, which borders the east side of Dumbo. The logo is simple, bold, and timeless, like the two bridges that cross over Dumbo. For those interested in learning more about Jason’s design studio, Loop Design, here’s a short description:

Loop Design is an independent, Brooklyn-based design studio run by Designerd and Art Director, Jason Carreiro. Loop Design collaborates with clients (big and small) in developing brand identities, websites and advertising solutions. Prior to starting Loop Design, Jason was the Design Director at the New York office of Delirium Corp. He has over fifteen years of professional experience, designing projects for the likes of Walt Disney, Planet Hollywood, The Rockwell Group, The Boston Bruins, Condé Nast and Ann Taylor.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Jason’s work, go to loopdesigngroup.com. Thanks Jason!

Brownstoner and Brooklyn Heights Blog have ‘open threads’, and since some of you asked for one here, we’ll have one each week starting today. Let’s talk about anything, but please keep it as polite as possible.

True, Brooklyn is the place to be right now, but who would want a necklace with our neighborhood name? That’s probably why Annie’s Blue Ribbon General Store doesn’t have one for “Dumbo”. That was the point behind the naming of Dumbo which was just the “right kind of Dadaist anti-marketing positioning to protect our turf from commercialism and developers.” [Ed: well at least at that time.]

From: Curbed NY: Do You Love Brownstone Brooklyn? Put it on A Necklace!

A few items for today:
1)



Half Off Southern Fare and Drinks at Water Street

We posted about the new Southern menu at Water Street Restaurant a few weeks ago. If you still have not tried it yet, Groupon is offering a special deal (today only) for $8 for $16 toward “Southern lunch fare and drinks” (or $15 for $30 toward dinner).

2)

Wall Sreet Journal Article: Dumbo: Not Bad for Being Under an Overpass

Many of you have sent this link in, so I’ll post it here. WSJ.com posted a national article about Dumbo. We all know Dumbo has been highlighted a lot in National publications. One of the reasons for the DumboNYC.com site was because no one knew what Dumbo was. Now many people know what it is. However, we noticed that WSJ doesn’t have the Dumbo boundaries correct. The map of Dumbo is incorrect. Per the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission report, Dumbo includes Bridge Street to the West, Main Stret to the East, parts of York Street to the South and the waterfront to the North.

3) 84 Precinct Council Meeting

There is a Community Council Meeting tonight at 7pm at 55 Washington Street, Suite 512. Call community affairs (718-875-6850) for further information. The 84th Precinct covers these residential areas: Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Boerum Hill, Vinegar Hill and the Farragut Residences. Someone may want to bring up the incident with the stranger from yesterday.