Park Slope, Brooklyn
The New York City Department of Transportation is planning some major traffic changes to Park Slope streets. According to Community Board 6’s website, the changes include:
Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn and Curbed are reporting that the former Cinematheque space on Seventh between Union and President is morphing into a new Chock Full o’Nuts store. To those of us who grew up in the Florida suburbs (and have been longing for a branch of Gorilla Coffee on Seventh), Chock Full o’Nuts is just cheap-looking coffee gathering dust on the grocery store shelf.
Is the new store a good thing? Bad? Discuss on the message boards.
Police are on the scene near the intersection of Montgomery and 8th Ave. Many bomb squad vehicles have been up and down 8th Ave over the past several hours, police have been seen wearing oxygen tanks, and helicopters are now buzzing overhead. The streets have been closed between 7th and PPW between Garfield and Union, although at approximately 6pm the police seem to have adjusted the boundaries of the closed area to include more of 7th Avenue. More details on the Park Slope Message Board.
UPDATE: turgg reports that the commotion was the result of a grisly skydiving accident.
UPDATE 2: Other blogs as well as your intrepid correspondent report that the cause was actually a suspicious package.
UPDATE 3: Flexichick managed to unearth info on the biggest non-news event of the summer. Looks like it was numerous suspicious briefcases, duffel bags, and suitcases scattered all over North Slope. The Daily News has the scoop.
Everyone at Curbed.com is all agog over the new models of the Atlantic Yards project. There seems to be an equal amount of hatin’ and lovin’ in their comments.
Before you drop $950,000 for that handyman’s special in Gowanus/G-Slope/BoCoCa East, you might want to consider the likelihood that Brooklyn’s hottest nabe may soon end up at the bottom of the Gowanus canal.
Alex Tingle’s GoogleMaps-flood data mashup lets you set different global warming sea levels and watch as New York City — and Gowanus in particular — sinks beneath the waves.
Pictured at right: the new Gowanus Bay after a 9m sea level rise.
Coming on the heels of an active discussion on the Park Slope Message Board regarding the safety of Propsect Park, a man was found stabbed to death in the park last weekend. 
61-year old William Oliver was found dead on a wooded trail in the infamous Vale of Cashmere section of Prospect Park.
The Vale of Cashmere (satellite image), long a gay cruising ground, has been the site of anti-gay violence in the past, most recently in 2005. While it’s not known if Mr Oliver was gay, the NYPD is currently looking into the possibility of a hate crime.
Read the New York Times story on the murder
Great advancements
are coming out of forensic science colleges; crimes like this are being
solved much more rapidly these days.
Distaster strikes the Slope. Our embedded correspondents report that the famed Costas statue (featured below) was removed – or stolen – last night. We’re led to believe it was theft by the rather unceremonious, gaping hole left in the ground . Photos of the scene to follow…
UPDATE
Time Out New York‘s Darren D’Addario proves to be a more intrepid journalist than your correspondent. He goes straight to the source, property owner Barbara Capozzi, who says “A man named Costas did work on my building and he left it there as a gift. I was surprised to see it there myself.” Asked if the bust will remain, she replies “I’ll probably move it out to a house I have on Long Island. But it’s a delicate situation, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
We’ll miss ya, Costas.
A new addition to the Eighth Avenue streetscape popped up over the past month or so. 
The building, located at Eighth and Union, recently had a brownstone rehab… is this what happens to the leftover concrete?
Does anyone have any idea who this “Costas” person is? The property records show the owner of the lot as Barbara Capozzi.
Frank Bruni, restaurant destroyer for the New York Times, weighs in on a topic that’s been burning up the Daily Slope message board: is new(ish) Seventh Ave restaurant Sette worth your while?
Overall, Bruni seems to have a gentler hand than our Daily Slope posters.
Compare Bruni:
An appetizer of roasted asparagus was distinguished by the Parmesan fondue on which the spears rested. It was satisfyingly rich without being heavy, and scattered here and there were crisp bits of pancetta, needed and appreciated less for their salt than for their crunch. The contrasting texture lifted the dish a notch.
With an anonymous and savage Daily Slope poster:
I had an asparagus appetizer that came with a tepid, watery cheese slurry. It congealed somewhat into a more edible consistency, but it was pretty icky.
Read Bruni’s review at the New York Times
Read “Sette on 7th – Ick” in the Park Slope Message Boards
Image credit: Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
