Moynihan Station: Now Only $1 Billion Short!Carroll Gardens: Increasingly unpopular architect Robert Scarano is off yet another job, this time at controversial 360 Smith, which now features a more contextual, though still towering, façade. [Brownstoner]
Clinton: Adding to a string of crimps in big plans for the West Side, the redo of neoclassical Farley Post Office into a train station/moved Madison Square Garden is $1 billion short. Egad. [NYS]
Greenwich Village: Should NYU’s I.M. Pei–designed Silver Towers be landmarked…or are they just, well, ugly? [Gothamist]
neighborhood watch
Dumbo Makes Its MarkCarroll Gardens: Some people feel that the paltry number of holiday lights strung up on Court Street is really shameful. And they ain’t too proud to blog about it. [Lost City]
Dumbo: It just became the city’s 90th landmark district! Those hulking industrial piles turned boutique lofts will be preserved into perpetuity! Huzzah! [NYS]
East Harlem: Don Imus is kicking in a quarter-mil for an ecofriendly health center up here, saying it’s shameful that such a small hood has such high asthma rates. [Newsday via Uptown Flavor]
neighborhood watch
Preschool in Brooklyn Just Got More ToxicBoerum Hill: Parents who shelled out $1,200 for a preschool found that it was full of toxic hazards, running without a license and bouncing teachers’ checks since last summer. That’s so not the New Brownstone Brooklyn! [Brooklyn Eagle]
Bushwick: In which a bored cop mistakes a narcissistic gay Russian taking pictures of himself for a terrorist. Sounds like the start of a porn vid. [BushwickBK]
Harlem: Will a possible rezoning of 125th Street into towers of luxury condos and chain stores be a good thing for Harlem, or “Katrina-fication done by the swipe of a pen”? [VV]
neighborhood watch
Just What You Always Wanted: A Philippe Starck Bike RackClinton Hill: Tonight, the Pratt design gang unveils new street-furniture ideas for the hood. Eames chairs in the bus shelter, anyone? [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Side: Bloomberg will ban schoolkid field trips to the U.N. if its myriad fire-safety violations aren’t fixed by March. They won’t be, if the kids are lucky. But what about the pope?! [Newyorkology]
Elmhurst: Hey, Asians, don’t think that just because the cops served Chinese food at the last community meeting in an effort to reach out to you that it’ll happen again. At least not this month. [Junction Boulevard]
neighborhood watch
Car Canoeing in Queens!Brooklyn Heights: So the Coen brothers think they can disrupt the whole neighborhood for a month with their George Clooney film shoot and then make it up by donating to some community groups? We all know what the locals really wanted were backrubs from George. [Brooklyn Eagle]
Chelsea: Twenty-nine years ago today, Nancy Spungeon was bludgeoned (by Sid Vicious?) in the Chelsea Hotel’s Room 100 … an anniversary the inn’s new corporate management likely won’t be fêting. [Living With Legends]
Cobble Hill: We hope the new owner of that building who tried to evict those two elderly sisters is happy now. Tragically, one’s dead, and, more tragically, the other moved to Jersey. [Curbed]
Corona: There’s a lot of Dominican families here named Corona, but that’s just a coincidence … as is anyone here getting wasted on Corona beer. [Junction Blvd]
Greenpoint: Locals learn the hard way that if they want to instantly stop noisy after-hours construction, it’s better to call the cops than the DEP. Uh … duh? [Newyorkshitty]
Maspeth: Manhattanites won’t complain about a few curbside puddles when they see these videos of cars swimming through the streets of Queens yesterday. Eau-trageous! [Queens Crap]
Upper East Side: Unless those raccoons blocking your path as you run around the Central Park reservoir are foaming at the mouth, the Parks Department doesn’t want to hear about it. [UES Informer]
neighborhood watch
iPods at Stoop Sale!Bedford-Stuyvesant: Get your cut-rate iPods at Saturday’s Quincy St. stoop sale! [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Chelsea: What was that suspicious parcel outside the Hotel Chelsea that prompted cops to cordon off the street yesterday? Sid Vicious’s care package from the beyond? [Blog Chelsea]
Little Italy: Judging from the look of this wiseguy as he’s caught cleaning up San Gennaro’s street filth with eco-hostile bleach, the photog may want to contact Witness Protection. [Curbed]
Maspeth: New housing here is taking a curious (and, well, tacky) turn for the maritime. [Queens Crap]
Midtown: In which two ever-metastasizing juggernauts converge: East 42nd St. will soon house the first bank-Starbucks combo. Talk about caffeine withdrawal. [NYP]
West Village: Though a gaggle of protesters are no match for Trump’s ever-rising SoHo spire, they’re pissing all over plans for One Jackson Square at the corner of Eighth and Greenwich. Literally. [Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York]
Williamsburg: Demolition has begun at a former cabbage processing plant on Roebling St. that smells notoriously farty. But with an oil field across the street, will workers strike the oozy stuff when they start to dig? [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
Coen Brothers Un-Brooklyn the HeightsBrooklyn Heights: For a new film, the Coen Brothers repainted and tweaked the façades of some brownstones here to make them look more like D.C.’s Georgetown hood. Now that ain’t right. [Brownstoner]
Chelsea: After disappearing from Seventh and 23rd for a while after the cops (reluctantly) busted him for playing an amped guitar, scruffy Vlad is back … with an even louder steel resonator guitar they can’t nab him for because it’s acoustic. [Blog Chelsea]
Greenpoint: Enviro-crusadress Julia Roberts — uh, Erin Brockovich — may be here again this month to blast Exxon for its subterranean oil spill just revealed to be nearly twice as big as thought. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s has arrived in this scrappy hood. [NYDN]
Long Island City: Did you know that the huge Citibank building here is actually the spire of a giant sundial? Neither did we. And even after reading this, we can’t figure out how this thing works. [OuterB]
Maspeth: Bloomberg’s people will meet with folks here protesting to save a church, even though one of the rabble-rouser’s posters claimed he wanted to hang the mayor. [Queens Crap]
Times Square: An old vaudeville theater turned porn emporium on Eighth and 44th will be torn down. [Postcards from Hell’s Kitchen]
Williamsburg: Uh, maybe somebody should shore up that scaffolding at 70 North 9th Street before it collapses and hurts someone. [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
Someone Is Already Stealing Christmas?Astoria: Someone has stepped up and claimed a family tie to that recently sold “mystery mansion” on 47th Street. Yeah, the one with all the sculptures. [OuterB]
Brooklyn Heights: Jeez, you’d think that after all it took to schlep that floating pool to Brooklyn Bridge Park they could leave it there at least a few weeks longer than this weekend. But no. And the pool goes to the Bronx next summer. [Brooklyn Heights Blog]
Chelsea: Residents in and near the London Terrace apartment block are dwelling on the bright side of long-term scaffolding: They can walk their dogs in the rain without their umbrella … ella … ella. [You Want a Piece of Me?]
Greenpoint: In the city’s Great Bedbug Scare of 2007, it’s come to this: free sidewalk sofas claiming they’re critter-free. Wow, free and uninfested. [Newyorkshitty]
Maspeth: Who hired some guy this past weekend to cut down what serves as the area’s beloved Christmas tree? And, as the mystery cutter said, is a replacement tree really en route? [Queens Crap]
Park Slope: You can almost forgive Slopesters for being so smugly bougie-boho when you see how they rally behind someone like Andy, the local fruit-truck guy who’s temporarily away after having a stroke. Get better, Andy! [OTBKB]
Williamsburg: An e-mail leaked out of a city-council member’s office complains of oil unearthed at a development site across the street from — you guessed it — the famous contaminated Roebling Oil Field! [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
Horseshoe Crabs Invade Washington HeightsBay Ridge: A community board here enthusiastically green-lighted a new Home Depot at 200-plus housing units. [The Brooklyn Paper]
Chelsea: The don’t-walk signal on Eighth Avenue and 19th Street has mysterious stigmata. [Blog Chelsea]
Cobble Hill: Freebird Books and Goods is up for sale on Craigslist; $45,000 will buy you the store with inventory and liquor license. [Brownstoner]
Maspeth: An ugly confrontation took place yesterday between tree-cutters and protesters at the site of the set-for-demolition St. Saviour’s Church. [Queens Crap]
Washington Heights: How did a dead horseshoe crab come to be on 185th Street? [Copyranter]
West Village: Nothing ruins a birthday cruise for 3-year-olds more than spotting a body in the water. [Gothamist]
Williamsburg: Locals are pissed that the brand-new East River State Park closes before 8 p.m. on beautiful summer evenings. [Gowanus Lounge]
neighborhood watch
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]
neighborhood watch
Bloomberg Summers in BrooklynBushwick: The group of students who were mass-arrested en route to a friend’s wake will gather outside the police precinct here this afternoon to protest their treatment. [OnNYTurf]
Downtown Brooklyn: The mayor’s office moves in temporarily, and so do the police and barricades in Cadman Plaza. [McBrooklyn]
Fort Greene: If you don’t clean up your doggy doo around here, someone will kick you and your dog’s ass. [Newyorkshitty]
Harlem: What happens to a dream deferred? Just ask new residents in the much-hyped Langston complex, where half-mil units are reportedly less than, uh, perfect. [Uptown Flavor]
Maspeth: Rogue developer Tommy Huang of Queens, you were caught doing an illegal demolition again? Will you ever learn? [QueensCrap]
Park Slope: The blogs are finally finding the courage to say they’re sick of stories about Slope parenting culture. Ring dem bells! [Brownstoner and Gothamist]
Upper East Side: The Second Avenue T line doesn’t exist yet, but that won’t stop Absolut from advertising like it does. [Yorkville Blog via Curbed]
neighborhood watch
Mind Your Bike Manners in WilliamsburgAstoria: They’re taking bets on which store will close next on the area’s Broadway strip. Will it be Broadway Bakery or Radio Shack? [Forest Hills 72]
Bedford-Stuyvesant: Obamaphiles will be gathering at two funky spots to cheer on their man during Thursday night’s Dem-hopeful debates. [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Chelsea: Chelsea Hotel devotees are already devising ways they can drive the new corporate management crazy — and, they hope, away. Sidewalk “greed kills” notes, anyone? [Living with Legends]
Clinton Hill: This creepy thing spotted on Hall Street last week couldn’t be a pile of dirty snow. So what is it? Also: Ew. [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Harlem: There will be a community meeting tonight to discuss the brutal murder in Mount Morris Park last weekend. [Uptown Flavor]
Maspeth: Did you know that Native Americans founded this Queens neighborhood in 1621? Oh, wait, that’s not true, according to a critic of a new guide to the hood. [Queens Crap]
Williamsburg: The many cyclists of Bedford Avenue found a little scolding from the NYPD attached to their bikes recently. [Streetsblog]
Mediavore
A Rescue Plan for Restaurant Workers; No Fatty Crab for the UWSThe Restaurant Responsibility Act, just introduced in City Council, would keep eateries from abusing the help by tying operating permits to labor laws. [Gotham Gazette]
Fatty Crab owner writes in to say that Eater has it all wrong about an Upper West Side location. [Eater]
It’s salmon season in Alaska’s Copper River, and some of the city’s top fish cooks are spawning original dishes to take advantage. [NYDN]
neighborhood watch
H&H Bagels Completes Harlem GentrificationClinton Hill: What the hell is this Legos-meets-Mondrian thing that’s sprouted up on Reuben north of Myrtle? [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Village: Apparently only the “big” L-stations get those train arrival-time signs. So much for Third Avenue. [CitySpecific]
Flatbush: Seems like this ain’t the only Brooklyn hood the city has failed to provide with those free, slickly packaged condoms. [Flatbush Gardener via Gowanus Lounge]
Harlem: If only Bagel in Harlem had stuck it out another month or so. She could have picked up H&H bagels at the Saurin Park Café. [
neighborhood watch
Times Square Streets Don’t Like to ShareDumbo: Vinegar Hill’s new Vista condo seems nearly ready for prime time … and it looks a helluva lot like fellow VH condo newbie the Nexus. [Dumbo NYC]
Fort Greene: Uh, is that soon-to-open business in the old Blimpie’s spot on Lafayette and South Elliott a chain bakery or a … what? [Clinton Hill Blog]
Harlem: The Upper West Side’s Animal General hospital wants to bring its pet-care services into Harlem … but it needs to find 1,700 square feet there to do it. Plus, a new BBQ place comes to 145th Street! [Harlem Fur and Uptown Flavor]
Maspeth: Did the city and state deny St. Saviour’s Church landmark status even when they knew there might be human remains on the site? So claims the hoppin’-mad Juniper Park Civic Association. [Queens Crap]
Times Square: Less than three months after they first appeared, the shared-bike-lane markers (or “sharrows,” as they’re called) on Seventh Avenue are fading away. Bikers, beware! [Streetsblog]
Tribeca: Bikini basketball and naked dudes with puppies are just some of the lifestyle perks you can expect if you move (for $800,000 a studio) into André Balazs’ forthcoming Kubla-condo Beaver House. [Curbed]
neighborhood watch
Have a Global Warmy Christmas in Prospect ParkBrooklyn Heights: A tree may grow here, but apparently grass doesn’t. [Twofones via Brooklyn Heights Blog]
East Village: Cooper Union students respond to impending demolition of the Hewitt building with apropos typeface. [RazorApple]
Kensington: Don’t be jealous of South Slope. There are plenty of permit-less contractors for everyone. [Brownstoner]
Maspeth: It’s not like you forgot about this neighborhood. You had no idea it existed. [Forgotten NY]
Prospect Park: It’s above 60 degrees today, so it must be time to turn on the Christmas lights at Grand Army Plaza. [Brooklyn Record]
West Village: Expect the mother of all beg-a-thons when WNYC moves into new digs. [The Villager]