When Brooklyn Commenters AttackBoerum Hill: Brownstoner hates a Robert Scarano building, but commenters think the blogger has a grudge. [Brownstoner]
Brooklyn Heights: Costume-makeup-sex-toy emporium Ricky’s is promising nervous locals that, when it opens on staid Montague Street in September, it’ll keep the dildos out of direct view. [Brooklyn Eagle via McBrooklyn]
Dumbo: Transformation of the Pearl Street Triangle has sparked a heated local debate (check the comments) on homeless people in the ever-more-gentrified hood. [DumboNYC]
Maspeth: Might St. Saviour’s Church be saved from demolition on the grounds that the wreckers have broken federal law by cutting down trees harboring migrating birds? [Queens Crap]
South Jamaica: “We’re losing our capes!” No, it’s not a superheroes’ lament. Just locals in this Queens burg mourning the supplanting of cute, small-scale homes with plot-hogging McMansions. [Progressive Southside]
Upper West Side: It’s overpriced camp season again, which means a lot of bad chords coming from your kid’s bedroom. [Copyranter]
in other news
Was Live Earth a Failure?
The conventional wisdom on Live Earth, last Saturday’s Al Gore–wrangled series of eight concerts around the world, is developing: It was a big, fat flop, conservative commentators are saying — and they’re gleeful about that, because, they say, it’s upsetting Gore’s supposed “grand plan” (Oscar win to Live Earth to Nobel Prize to presidency, natch). “The organizers … were hoping to attract 2 billion viewers to their cause but managed a slender 2.7 million,” writes Nicholas Wapshott in today’s Sun. And, yeah, wow, that’s quite a failure. Except that Wapshott’s number is totally wrong. He cites only the U.S. ratings for the Saturday-night broadcast on NBC. Though a relative disappointment in the United States, the concerts were seen in 178 countries on an array of platforms. Bravo, which carried the shows, registered its best-ever Saturday; on BBC1 in the United Kingdom, it snared 4.5 million viewers against Wimbledon. The shows also set records online, including an all-time viewing high on MSN with 30 million streams. Last but not least, there were also eight stadiums’ worth of live viewers. In short, those hoping that Al Gore will “grow another beard,” as Wapshott puts it, and skulk away will have to wait a while longer. Until a voting-machine mix-up in Stockholm County sends his Nobel to Rupert Murdoch.
Cringe-Making Concerts [NYS]
‘Live Earth’ Concerts No Big TV Draw [AP]