Dumbo NYC

  Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge from above, Photo courtesy of eight double
  (Click for larger version)

Have a happy Thanksgiving,
DumboNYC.com

  Sweeney Building, 30 Main Street, Dumbo Brooklyn, Photo courtesy of Linus Gelber
  (Click for larger version)

[DumboNYC.com is on vacation for Thanksgiving. In the meantime, take a look at some of the best photos of Dumbo. Have a great weekend!]

A look back at National Geographic’s guide to New York, including Brooklyn visit spots:

The New Thing: Brooklyn

“A borough reborn, Brooklyn bustles with a new energy. Once the country’s fourth-largest city, Brooklyn ceded its independence when New York City annexed it in 1898. It then played back-up singer to glitzy superstar Manhattan throughout the 20th century. Now, after two decades of steady renewal, the hometown of Barry Manilow, Rudy Giuliani, and Neil Simon is ready to rock on its own. Families are moving to the communities of Park Slope and Cobble Hill, drawn by the convenient commutes as much as by the graceful brownstone town houses. Meanwhile the young flock to Williamsburg for its clubs and galleries.”

“Visit the Brooklyn Tourism & Visitors Center (Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon St.; +1 718 802 3846), where volunteers give information in Brooklyn-ese, the quintessential New Yawk accent.”

“Walk along the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights to take in its “hello gorgeous” views of lower Manhattan. Just below the Heights: a gentrified neighborhood called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). The hood with the whimsical name is filled with old warehouses, retail outlets, and great views.”

“Hungry? Visit Bubby’s (1 Main St.; +1 718 222 0666). It’s a good place to fuel up on homemade pie, and if you’re here before 7 p.m., visit Jacques Torres Chocolate (66 Water St.; +1 718 875 9772) for some chocolate-covered cornflakes. Saunter down Atlantic Avenue, a 100-year-old Middle Eastern commercial area, to sample the spinach and meat pies and baklava at Damascus Breads and Pastry (195 Atlantic Ave; +1 718 625 7070). Buy spices, teas, and nuts at Sahadi’s (187-189 Atlantic Ave; +1 718 624 4550).”

{Insider’s New York, National Geographic}

[DumboNYC.com is on vacation for Thanksgiving. In the meantime, take a look at this past article from National Geographic. Have a great weekend!]

Gowanus Lounge reports the starting of a New York Water Taxi service leaving Fulton Ferry Landing between Dumbo and Wall Street (Pier 11) and Midtown (East 34th Street) starting on November 27, 2006.

{ New York Water Taxi Starting Dumbo Commuter Service, Gowanus Lounge}
{nywatertaxi.com}

  Photo from New York Daily Photo

New York Daily Photo, always entertaining and interesting, takes a great shot of Eagle Warehouse. He does his research on the building:

The Eagle Warehouse stands at 28 Old Fulton Street in the Fulton Ferry Landing area of Brooklyn (between Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO). The photo shows the Romanesque Revival arched entrance. This massive medieval structure was built in 1893 (as the Eagle Warehouse and Storage Company) by architect Frank Freeman on the site of the old Brooklyn Eagle building (in its construction, the old three-story Brooklyn Eagle pressroom building was kept.)
…
The Eagle Warehouse was converted to condominium lofts in 1980. There is a large clock at the top of the building - its glass face is the window of one of the lofts.

{Eagle Warehouse, newyorkdailyphoto.blogspot.com, 11/16/06}

  Brooklyn Bridge Space Invaders, Photo courtesy of insky
  (Click for larger version)

“Kenneth Hayes, 45, may spend the next 13 years in jail on multiple burglary and larceny charges thanks to the blood-stained tissue — saturated with his DNA — that he dropped when he broke into a film and video production company on Washington Street between Front and Water streets in 2004. He was arraigned on Nov. 2 on multiple counts of burglarly, larceny and criminal tresspass, according to the Brooklyn DA’s office.”

“Bio-Track began as a pilot program in Queens, in 2003. For years, DNA evidence has been used to solve murders, rapes and serious assaults — but not for burglaries.”

“The next natural step was to apply this amazing crime-solving tool to other crimes,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown wrote in his October 2006.

“Brooklyn precincts can now collect the DNA evidence and compare it against a state database.”

“Ferreria found the DNA link while investigating the theft of more than $15,700 in high-end computers and cameras from a film and video-production company with a suite of offices on the second floor of the DUMBO building.”

{CSI: DUMBO - DNA fingers suspect in ’04 burgles, Brooklyn Papers, 11/18/06}

From Brooklyn Papers: “David Walentas controls close to 75 percent of this former industrial neighborhood that he started buying up piece-by-piece decades ago - but he doesn’t own the new condo building that rented its ground floor to the caffiend from Seattle.”

“I hate that Starbucks,” Walentas told me just the other day, even though the joint has been open for more than a year.

“We already have the DUMBO General Store [which sells a similarly expensive, but far-superior, brew, in a quirky, uncorporate way] and the Coffee Box [another caffeine dealer two blocks away],” Walentas said of his tenants. “We don’t need that Starbucks.”

And that’s why he’s inviting - begging, actually” a suitably entrepreneurial Mom-and-Pop to come to DUMBO and open a pharmacy. Despite DUMBO’s nearly 10,000 residents and workers, the closest place to get a prescription filled is in Brooklyn Heights.

“Duane Reade would love to come in here, but we won’t have them,” Walentas said. “They’d pay whatever we ask, but we don’t need another place that sells Cokes and chips. We need a real pharmacy where they know you.”

{In land of Walentas, Mom & Pop are still king , BrooklynPapers.com, 11/18/2006}
Previously, Where’s the Dumbo Pharmacy?, DumboNYC.com
Photo from tizzie

NY1 visits the Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters in Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo. The Watchtower Society has maintained its headquarters in the Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo area since 1909. I’m not a JW myself, but I must admit that I find their practice of being self sufficient interesting: They generate their own electricity, they grow their own food in Walkill NY, travel in their own shuttles (look for their nondescript white mini-buses around Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo), and walk through tunnels and walkways between their buildings. The following is the NY1 article:

They set up their headquarters in Brooklyn nearly a century ago, but few New Yorkers have been inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses massive operation.

Thirty-three buildings located in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO make up the Watchtower Society’s complex. Most are residences for their 3,000 members, who receive apartments and meals in exchange for their services.

Jehovah’s Witnesses volunteer their skills including cooking, cleaning, engineering and producing Bible literature. They eat together and use bridges and underground tunnels to travel between their buildings.

“The purpose of the tunnels is to benefit us,” said Robert Alexander of the Watchtower Society. “It helps us to move the individuals, the volunteers who are part of the headquarters staff, through the tunnels in all types of weather as well as various commodities that we need to keep the buildings in good maintenance and good repair. Also we also find it’s a great benefit to our neighbors living in Brooklyn Heights because then it leaves more of the sidewalks and streets free and clear for them to use.”

The Watchtower Society also generates its own electricity. The headquarters attracts about 60,000 visitors a year.

{NY1 Gets Rare Glimpse Inside Jehovah’s Witness Headquarters, NY1, 11/15/2006}
{www.watchtower.org}
{Watchtower New York Brooklyn Bethel, by: ierke5}
{A sect grows in Brooklyn, and old but interesting article from The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 2, 1990}