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Brooklyn Daily
Summer arrived — unofficially — in May, and the Courier shined on as a superior read that eclipses others in the borough.
Our award-winning news team (we won a press award recently for our Hurricane Sandy coverage) delivered the reports behind the headlines, including the lowdown on a “hipster Jesus” advertising campaign, the “gritterization” of the Coney Island Boardwalk, and Sandy-ruined rare hardwoods rising as an impressive tree house at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. We were also there for the post-storm grand re-opening of Nathan’s Famous at its flagship location on Surf and Stillwell avenues. The same place where Al Capone and Cary Grant used to nosh on the flavorful footlongs that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt once served to the king and queen of England.
Read on for other remarkable recaps from the past month.
New Age messiah: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn must have channeled Joan Osborne’s 1995 chart-topper, “One of Us” — and its lyrics, “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?” — for its ad campaign “The Original Hipster,” which seeks to attract more beatniks to its pews. The picture of a man in flowing robes and a pair of red, Converse-style sneakers irked some faithful, but the church was just getting its layman’s groove on, according to the diocese.
“We wanted people to be able to see in Christ a reflection of themselves and in themselves a reflection of Christ,” said Msgr. Kieran Harrington.
Coney sandwalk: The People’s Playground’s lived up to its gritty rep, after whipping winds tossed a carpet of sand onto its famed wooden walkway and brought the beach to the Boardwalk. The mutinous particles were due to Gotham’s post-Sandy housecleaning, in which city workers pushed the sand off the legendary lumbers and deposited it in large dunes along the shoreline, said officials. The Parks Department leveled off the offending area to prevent any future drifts.
Arbor-ific digs: Eco-minded sculptor Roderick Romero turned mayhem into a masterpiece when he built a towering tree house exhibit at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden from the ruins of exotic hardwoods ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. Romero named his vibrant and knurly-branched opus “Sandy Remix,” comparing it to a mammoth bird’s nest that a tempest had toppled off its roost.
EZ-Farce?: The mysterious white boxes appearing on traffic lights at heavily-traveled intersections — we spied one at Boerum Place, Brooklyn Bridge Boulevard, and Atlantic Avenue — are EZ-Pass devices to check the speed and volume of passing vehicles, said the city. Civil rights advocates red-lighted the high-tech snooping, saying it was a possible invasion of privacy that could be used in lawsuits because drivers were being recorded without their knowledge — unlike at toll booths where motorists using EZ-Pass know they’re being tracked. The city refused our requests to disclose exactly where the devices were located, and the Department of Transportation’s website states only that it erected 320 cameras on city streets.
Parade fin-draiser: Brooklyn’s kooky set were all shook up that the popular Mermaid Parade on Surf Avenue may be extinct because of Hurricane Sandy. But a tidal wave of donations poured into a Kickstarter campaign to help ice princesses, crusty pirates, scantily clad sirens, and other urban urchins wig out again on June 22 at the nation’s largest art parade, organized by Sideshows by the Seashore.
Gadzooks! Superheroes are Xbox and Hollywood hotties these days. However, a nostalgic South Slope bookstore owner reminded us that Spider-Man, Green Lantern, and Iron Man once captured our imaginations and saved the world from the pages of comic books, their speech balloons emitting exclamations that became household words, like “Shazam” (Captain Marvel), “Great Krypton” (Superman), and “Sufferin’ Sappho!” (Wonder Woman). Brooklyn Comics And More owner Gary Esposito’s “Free Comic Book Day” reintroduced former fans — and engaged new ones — to the swoon-worthy swashbucklers.
Turf-erific stadium: The Brooklyn Cyclones made the switcheroo from grass to artificial turf at MCU Park — overturning a 20-year trend towards natural grass baseball fields. The minor league Mets affiliate claimed synthetic sod at the Coney Island stadium would weather super-storms better and accommodate more off-season events. The team’s hated rival, the Staten Island Yankees — whose stadium on the Rock was also overcome — is sticking with grass.
Al floato dining: The Brooklyn Riviera celebrated its first restaurant on a yacht, with the opening of the remodeled Amberjack V on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay. Locals were delighted about preserving their community’s quaint fishing village appeal. The 120-foot-long sloop was once a member of the Plumb Beach fishing fleet that ferried trapped New Yorkers from Lower Manhattan to the outer boroughs on 9-11. It has re-emerged as a quay-side restaurant, complete with Mediterranean eats and a glorious waterfront view.
Getouttahere!: It’s the spoken fist pump that’s famous around the world, thanks to Bugs Bunny, Vito Corleone, Ralph Kramden, and assorted wiseguys, neurotics, brassy broads, and ordinary Gothamites. Spunky jargon and the unmistakable Noo Yawk twang is explored in Heather Quinlan’s new documentary “If These Knishes Could Talk: The Story of the New York Accent,” featuring interviews with “dialect coach to the stars” Sam Chwat, who claims Noo Yawk accents can trace their roots to the city’s Italians, Jews, and Irish populations more than the five boroughs. Quinlan also channeled her pair of grandfathers — one an actor and speech teacher from Brooklyn, the other a Bronx bare-knuckle boxer who pronounced Pathmark “Pat-mark” — for her film.
Big ticket: The UA Sheepshead Bay Stadium 14 and IMAX on Shore Parkway must think they’re in Monte Carlo instead of Brooklyn, upping ticket prices to a whopping $14 — $6.06 higher than last year’s national average — and making them two of the priciest flick destinations in town. Luckily, the cash-strapped can still catch a viewing on the cheap at Alpine Cinemas in Bay Ridge where tickets go for $9, and the Kent Theater on Coney Island Avenue which charges $8. UA’s through-the-roof tix had us reminiscing about the good ol’ days when Nickelodeon screened motion pictures in converted storefronts for a nickel, hence its name.
Don’t bug out: The impending cicada “swarmaggedon” had the bite taken out of it, when entomologists claimed the harmless creepy crawlies — expected to outnumber humans 600-to-1 — might bypass our neck of the woods, altogether. Brooklyn’s urban jungle of concrete and blacktop apparently isn’t appetizing enough for the ravenous critters after their 17-year sleep. Awww, and we were just getting used to the idea of crunching along on carpets of their shed skins, plucking them out of our hair, and going insane on their incessant, deafening buzz.
No go: There doesn’t seem to be a potty big enough to contain the city’s toilet troubles. Visitors looking to celebrate Memorial Day at Coney Island had to contend with relieving themselves in portable loos, after the city plunged its plans to have the new bathroom on the Boardwalk up and running by the holiday weekend. Oh pooh.