Find a Home for Life in Prospect Lefferts GardensEven in Brooklyn, finding a house for around a million or dare you dream? less is a near impossible feat, especially a house near a park that may even have a backyard. But in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and nearby Prospect Lefferts, it’s still a possibility. These still-underestimated and, some would say, undervalued neighborhoods are a treasure trove of houses (and some co-ops) that run the gamut from graciously renovated Georgian townhouses to noble Tudors to sturdy brick two-families needing some love. Some have details like turned banisters and butler’s pantries intact, and nearly all are an easy stroll away from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Museum, and, hence the name, Prospect Park. Homeowners, once bitten, tend to be smitten for life, so there aren’t always that many properties on the market (though this hasn’t prevented Manhattanites from invading the territory, a phenomenon we’ve covered before). For a peek at what life would be like in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, check out the requisite neighborhood blog Planet PLG or, better yet, stop by this weekend and hit the open houses listed after the jump. S. Jhoanna Robledo
Water Taxi Beach Opening With Beer in Long Island CityDumbo: For a divier May 5 celebration than found in our classy Cinco de Mayo roundup, there’s always Pedro’s. [Dumbo NYC]
Clinton Hill: Pillow Cafe’s old space at 372 Myrtle Avenue will be a new restaurant. [Clinton Hill Blog]
Cobble Hill: K & Y Fruit & Vegetables coming to Court Street; neighbors more enthusiastic about the prospect of fresh produce than pondering the store’s unfortunate name. [Brooklyn Record]
East Village: Do not attempt to have sex in bathroom at Cheap Shots. It sounds like a handful of Viagra can’t overcome this smell. [Gawker]
Long Island City: Water Taxi Beach opens this weekend and will dish out beef dogs and beer, weather permitting, until Memorial Day kicks off the full arsenal of daiquiris. [Joey in Astoria]
Prospect-Lefferts-Gardens: Community Supported Agriculture wants you! Sign up for a share of Woodbridge Farm and pick up the produce at the Maple Street School. [Across the Park]
Soho: The Kitchen Club’s incessant reminders that a party could not keep its table after a certain hour symbolizes a despicable trend, which must be stopped. [Eater]
They Paved Paradise
To make good on his PlaNYC promise of putting every New Yorker within a ten-minute walk of a park, Mayor Bloomberg will need to break out some sledgehammers in Brooklyn. A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey tags the borough as the most paved-over place in the United States. Yup, Brooklyn rocks even more blacktop than Manhattan. It achieves the distinction mostly through its sheer size — 70.6 square miles, only 8 percent of which is parkland. One can see the statistic as yet another wistful reminder that we’re islanders living in a finite space — and quickly running out of it. Or, as befits Brooklyn, we can simply shrug: Fuhgeddaboudit, who needs parks, anyway? You can always barbecue on the subway.
Trees? Nah. Blacktop grows in Brooklyn [NYDN]
company town
Hedge-Fund Managers Can’t Get Over AerosmithFINANCE
• At this year’s 2007 Robin Hood benefit, philanthropic hedge funders paid $400,000 to sing a song with Aerosmith, and $1.3 million for dinner with Mario Batali. [NYT]
• Hafiz Naseem, a junior investment banker at Credit Suisse, was charged with insider trading after he tipped off associates in Pakistan about deals, including the TXU buyout, before they were made public. [NYT]
• Google is the No.1 preferred employer for MBA students, with more traditional companies McKinsey and Goldman taking the next two slots. [Fortune via CNNMoney]
