Bedford-Stuyvesant: SpongeBob SquarePants, a Care Bear, a tiny Santa, and various scary baby dollies gathered here recently for an alfresco forum on gentrification and its effect on the area’s creepy marginalized toy population. [Curbed]
Cobble Hill: A rumor’s out there that Trader Joe’s is not coming here after all. Cobblers may have to keep schlepping their little sustainable satchels to Union Square for that red eggplant stuff. [Cobble Hill Blog]
Crown Heights: The Lubavitchers are building more housing here to accommodate all their babies, but some sources say they’re having fewer kids all around, from eight to ten per family to a streamlined, downright Euro-chic six. [Brownstoner]
East Village: Bye-bye Parker, hello Padma! That’s right. Indie icon Parker Posey just sold her East 10th Street place for a $1.35 mil Fifth Avenue pad, but sustenance siren Padma Lakshmi just put down $1.65 for a full-floor loft in Alphabet City. [NYO]
Union Square: The corner of Broadway and 17th Street is the only place in the city where you can do “the Barnes Dance,” which means to cross from all sides while all cars are at a full stop. Look at the white eco-dorks in this video! Doesn’t the city seem full of them these days? [Streetsblog]
Willets Point: Folks opposed to the mayor’s plans to build 1.7 million square feet of retail and residential here have a new argument: With the city facing a deficit, the plans may not make economic sense. [Queens Chronicle via Queens Crap]
Williamsburg: The new look for the McCarren Pool, expected to be completed in 2011, will be revealed at a meeting tonight. But it looks like all the ‘burg’s cute indie muffins will still be able to butter their tops to rock concerts there again this summer. [Curbed]
